Posted on 01/11/2005 11:41:41 PM PST by kattracks
Former Clinton White House Mr. Fix-It Bruce Lindsey emerged tight-lipped yesterday after testifying before a federal grand jury probing whether top-secret documents were illegally removed from the National Archives.The grand jury probe, reported exclusively in The Post Tuesday, is digging into why another former Bill Clinton aide, Sandy Berger, sneaked the national security documents out of the Archives — possibly in his socks.
Lindsey denied any inside knowledge about Berger's sticky fingers.
"All I know is what he [Berger] said. He made a public statement," said Lindsey, Clinton's deputy White House counsel, after testifying under oath yesterday.
Berger admits walking off with 40 to 50 top-secret documents from the archives, but claims it was an "honest mistake" while vetting documents for the 9/11 commission.
Berger has admitted destroying some documents — he says by mistake.
Lindsey declined comment on what he told the grand jury, but denied reports that he met with Berger in New York for crisis control as the scandal erupted last summer.
[snip]
Among the documents Berger lifted were multiple drafts of a report assessing the 2000 millennium threat that is said to conclude that only luck prevented a terrorist attack then.
That conflicts with Berger's sworn testimony to the commission — he claimed "we thwarted" millennium attacks by being vigilant, not lucky.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Clintonistas were able to put the 9/11 Commission to sleep. The Bush Administration could have saved itself some grief if it had announced the Berger investigation when it first began. It would have also spared us the Richard Clarke tap-dance on the witness table.
Will you be able to go back to sleep now?
I remember Bruce Lindsey raising a stink over the Bush administration supposedly withholding Clinton-era docs from the commission.
Predictably, Bruce put out the spin and the media hopped to, reporting his version as if it were carved in stone.
Later it turned out the "1000's" of pages were duplicates and the commission found like 12 pages they kept in addition to the papers they had *previously* received.
It was yet more evidence, to my thinking, that the idea of a commission was crafted as a vehicle for an attack on President Bush in the first place. One of my first pieces of evidence of my case is the leaking of the existance of that August 2001 PDB that was mischaracterized as "Bush Knew" we were about to be attacked with airplanes. That PDB was used to flog the commission into existance. From there, we know the rest and we watched that cast of characters; BenVeniste, Roemer, Kerrey, Gorelick, (and our own "let's be fair and hear all looneytunes crackpot theories so we're not called haters!" Republicans like Kean) in horror.
The reason Berger was at the Archives at all was for this Commission.
LOL! I went back to bed for about an hour. Here I am, back and busy looking things up.
By the way, while I was looking, I came across two articles about intentionally set fires at an archives facility. Interesting stuff!
No other person to testify, but I believe WH counsel had someone there taking notes.
And Hamilton and Kerrey left early!
I vote to take Mr. Lindsey and Sandy(The Burglar)down to Barney's and get them fitted for some striped pyjamas!While we are at it,get some for His Slickness as well!!
Clinton Testifies Before 9/11 Panel
excerpt:
A person familiar with the session said Clinton told the commission he did not order retaliatory military strikes after the bombing of the USS Cole (search) in October 2000 because he could not get "a clear, firm judgment of responsibility" from U.S. intelligence before he left office the following January.
~snip~
I hope there isn't any missing document that would disprove this assertion...
I have linked over the months to an article from July (source: MSNBC website) that mentioned the grand jury.
Your idea that the Bush administration take a bullhorn when the media continues to ignore such news is not a good one. It would have served as ammunition for the partisan media to point to such hype as evidence that Berger was being hounded for partisan reasons.
Oh, I see, you're not referring to the grand jury but the FBI investigation.
Well, again, that might have resulted in missing evidence. It's frustrating, isn't it. Here we had to endure Clark being treated by the media and that commission as some kind of oracle from on high.
gack
Berger was not in government at that time, so why was he allowed access to classified documents???
great post...
It was a mistake...thats all.
You might have something there. Inspired by Miss M, my research on Free Republic came up with this.
Listless Kerry
American Spectator | 8/31/04 | The Prowler
Posted on 08/31/2004 4:02:13 AM PDT by kattracks
WINDLESS
On a Sunday when most national news was focused on New York and the Republican Convention, it could not have been a more perfect day in Massachusetts. There, standing by the shore, about a quarter mile from Sen. John Kerry's Nantucket estate, reporters watched as the Democratic presidential candidate attempted to hit the water and windsurf.
In mid-August, with the exception of the Gallup poll, there was not a national poll that did not have John Kerry leading George W. Bush. But about as fast as you can say Swift Boat Veterans for Transforming a Presidential Election, Kerry and his crew find themselves in disarray.
On Monday in Washington meetings were being held behind closed doors at the Kerry campaign, looking for ways to get its candidate and operation back on message. There were rumors circulating mid-day Monday of "major shakeups" in the campaign, according to a Kerry adviser.
Candidate Kerry, who after flailing about in the tides of Nantucket on Sunday quickly returned to his home, was on the phone for much of Monday attempting to shore up support and encourage surrogate attacks against his opponent on a day that showed support for him crumbling around the edges in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, all states that Kerry led in by as many as seven percentage points just two weeks ago.
--SNIP--
SABOTEURS
Some senior members of the Kerry campaign were aware of the FBI investigation into the possible passage of U.S. documents related to Iran to Israel by a U.S. citizen. "It's not a coincidence that this story dropped on Friday, three days before the Republican convention," says a Kerry adviser in New York. "If the Republicans can do it to Sandy Berger, we can do it to them." No word on where the leak originated.
That the leak may have short-circuited an ongoing investigation seems to matter little to the Kerry campaign, which has recently been declining national security briefings because it can't find the time to build them into Sen. John Kerry's travel schedule. Other briefings have been delayed or canceled over wrangling about how many Kerry staffers would be allowed to participate in the briefings.
I'm skeptical as well. Some expert(?) on Fox about 30 min ago says Sandy won't do time, but will never hold a "high level" gov position again.That's justice?
I'll have to see if I can find out more about it. I don't believe a new archivist has been appointed yet, so that may have something to do with the fact that it isn't in the news much. (Or maybe I imagined the whole thing....)
Bruce! Oh, this one is definitely going on the "To read" list. This is getting to be just like the old Impeachment days...
and somehow very few newspapers will report on this with accuracy
Remember the Rats wanted to politicize the intell to take down Bush. Many classified pieces of info were leaking to the public. I theorize that Berger was told to get in there to remove anything that could ultimately come back to bite Bubba in that scenario. Then, the 9/11 Commission was seated and more speicific *notes* and docs had to be removed to cover a whole bunch of booty.
He is a VERY marked man...may even lead to suicide.
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