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 ...
I remember they made fun of him wanting Cheney by his side. And we all noted it was under-reported that Clinton had two aides by his side.
Bush and Cheney did appear together. I was referring to your thinking a third person had also joined them (Bush was made such fun of because in his private testimony to the 9/11 Commission he was attended by Cheney and one other person. Was it Rice?) .
The initial negotiations were for meeting with just Kean and Hamilton but that was opened up to the entire Commission.
Who received a letter stating the following in May of 2001?
"With the concept of jihad, do you think it would be difficult for a determined terrorist to get on a plane and destroy himself and all other passengers?" he warned. "Think what the result would be of a coordinated attack which took down several domestic flights on the same day. With our current screening, this is more than possible. It is almost likely." The toll from such an attack would be economic, as well as human, he predicted with chilling accuracy.
John Kerry did according to Brian Sullivan, retired FAA special agent who "personally warned Kerry that Logan was ripe for a "jihad" suicide operation possibly involving "a coordinated attack."" [snip]
It was said a long time ago:
"Millstones of Justice turn exceedingly slow, but grind exceedingly fine."
- John Bannister Gibson (American jurist born in 1780)
FYI
From here it looks like a slam dunk case against the Sand Burglar:
Fact 1: Berger admitted to removing the TS documents from the National Security Archives (NSA).
Fact 2: Berger admitted to destroying TS documents after he removed them from the NSA.
Fact 3: Berger removed TS documents from the NSA on multiple occasions.
Fact 4: Berger has not returned all the TS documents to the NSA.
Fact 5: Berger was observed hiding TS documents inside his clothes and then departing the NSA.
Fact 6: NSA personnel marked TS documents of interest before Berger's next visit(s) to the NSA, and noted that TS documents disappeared shortly after Berger's departure.
Thanks for adding that huge dot.
It states it right there, doesn't it.
Do we have a date the memo was composed as opposed to the date of news reports revealing its existance?
New York Sun; Date:Jul 23, 2004;
Section:Editorial & Opinion; Page:10
Title: The Boldness of the President
The (911) report cites a 1998 meeting between Mr. Berger and the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, at which Mr. Tenet presented a plan to capture Osama bin Laden.
In June of 1999, another plan for action against Mr. bin Laden was on the table. The potential target was a Qaeda terrorist camp in Afghanistan known as Tarnak Farms. The commission report released yesterday cites Mr. Berger’s “handwritten notes on the meeting paper” referring to “the presence of 7 to 11 families in the Tarnak Farms facility, which could mean 60-65 casualties.”According to the Berger notes, “if he responds, we’re blamed.”
On December 4, 1999, the National Security Council’s counterterrorism coordinator, Richard Clarke, sent Mr. Berger a memo suggesting a strike in the last week of 1999 against Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Reports the commission: “In the margin next to Clarke’s suggestion to attack Al Qaeda facilities in the week before January 1, 2000, Berger wrote, ‘no.’ ”
In August of 2000, Mr. Berger was presented with another possible plan for attacking Mr. bin Laden.This time, the plan would be based on aerial surveillance from a “Predator” drone. Reports the commission: “In the memo’s margin,Berger wrote that before considering action, ‘I will want more than verified location: we will need, at least, data on pattern of movements to provide some assurance he will remain in place.’ ”
In other words, according to the commission report, Mr. Berger was presented with plans to take action against the threat of Al Qaeda four separate times —
Spring 1998, June 1999, December 1999, and August 2000. Each time, Mr. Berger was an obstacle to action. Had he been a little less reluctant to act, a little more open to taking pre-emptive action, maybe the 2,973 killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks would be alive today.
....At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it.....
Let's only hope that the coded memos were photocopied before the Burgler stuffed them under his belt.
"He is a VERY marked man...may even lead to suicide."
Found with 5 shots in the back of the head and listed as probable suicide.
Round up the usual suspects!
He'll never get a security clearance again, but you are right -- it's not nearly enough.
Don't forget .. Sandy Pants took not only they drafts of but also the originals
Makes it kind of hard to release documents that were no longer there
And wasn't it nice of the Dems to blame the Bush Admin for delaying information to the 9/11 panel ... / sarcasm >
Thanks, hm. There should be nothing less for this guy than jail time. Another one who falls on his sword for the Clintons.
Are you sure you are not thinking of Sydney Bluementhal? I know Sid Vicious did this but I don't recall Lindsay getting caught doing this.
Thankfully, enough voters saw through it, even without the MSM's coverup. The Dims want to win, at any cost, even US national security.
If he flips, can we call him the "Berger flipper"?
.... Berger "seemed to work overtime at opposing tough measures against terror",5 advising vetoes of legislation aimed at crippling Iranian terror funding and working to block antiterror sanctions.....
In hindsight, Burgler had to ensure that any thoughts of terrorism, especially on our soil, needed to be swept under the rug, as revelations about any new terrorist activity would ultimately raise further questions about Oklahoma City and TWA center fuel tanks. The bogus spin on those matters would have become unraveled. Legacy unwound!
If I rcall ... didn't Bob Kerrey leave that meeting early because he had other things to do??
OK, a quick google on the timeline mentions July, but it isn't clear to me Archives employees would have known until September (read article):
Archives Staff Was Suspicious of Berger
excerpts:
After Berger's previous visit, in September, Archives officials believed documents were missing. This time, they specially coded the papers to more easily tell whether some disappeared, said government officials and legal sources familiar with the case.
~snip~
Several days later, after he had retained Breuer as counsel, Berger volunteered that he had also taken 40 to 50 pages of notes during three visits to the Archives beginning in July, the lawyer said. Berger turned the notes over to the Archives. He has acknowledged through attorneys that he knowingly did not show these papers to Archives officials for review before leaving -- a violation of Archives rules, but not one that he perceived as a serious security lapse.
~snip~
From this it isn't clear to me if there is a connections between Carlin's resignation and the Berger theft, but it certainly is interesting. Will do more searching of articles in a bit.
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