Clinton & Kerry's Advisor in Cover Up

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Clinton & Kerry's Advisor in Cover Up
83
Mon, 07-19-2004 - 11:39pm

Sandy Berger, Clinton Sec Advisor & Kerry Campaign Advisor Under Investigation


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040720/D83U6TIO0.html


WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a Justice Department investigation after removing highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned.

Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after he voluntarily returned documents to the National Archives. However, still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.

Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had made while reading classified anti-terror documents at the archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said.

"I deeply regret the sloppiness involved, but I had no intention of withholding documents from the commission, and to the contrary, to my knowledge, every document requested by the commission from the Clinton administration was produced," Berger said in a statement to the AP.

Lanny Breuer, one of Berger's attorneys, said his client has offered to cooperate fully with the investigation but had not yet been interviewed by the FBI or prosecutors. Berger has been told he is the subject of the criminal investigation, Breuer said.

Berger served as Clinton's national security adviser for all of the president's second term and most recently has been informally advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission.

The FBI searches of Berger's home and office occurred after National Archives employees told agents they believed they saw Berger place documents in his clothing while reading sensitive Clinton administration papers and that some documents were then noticed missing, officials said.

When asked, Berger said he returned some classified documents that he found in his office and all of the handwritten notes he had taken from the secure room, but could not locate two or three copies of the highly classified millennium terror report.

"In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives," Berger said.

"When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded," he said.

Breuer said Berger believed he was looking at copies of the classified documents, not originals.

Berger was allowed to take handwritten notes but also knew that taking his own notes out of the secure reading room was a "technical violation of Archive procedures, but it is not all clear to us this represents a violation of the law," Breuer said.

Government and congressional officials familiar with the investigation, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the probe involves classified materials, said the investigation remains active and no decision has been made on whether Berger should face criminal charges.

The officials said the missing documents were highly classified, and included critical assessments about the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror threats as well as identification of America's terror vulnerabilities at airports to sea ports.

Berger testified at one of the commission's public hearings about the Clinton administration's approach to fighting terrorism. The former president answered the panel's questions at a private meeting.

The former national security adviser himself had ordered his anti-terror czar Richard Clarke in early 2000 to write the after-action report and has spoken publicly about how the review brought to the forefront the realization that al-Qaida had reached America's shores and required more attention.

Berger testified that during the millennium period, "we thwarted threats and I do believe it was important to bring the principals together on a frequent basis" to consider terror threats more regularly.

The missing documents involve two or three draft versions of the report as it was evolving and being refined by the Clinton administration, officials and lawyers say. The Archives is believed to have copies of some of the missing documents.

In the FBI search of his office, Berger also was found in possession of a small number of classified note cards containing his handwritten notes from the Middle East peace talks during the 1990s, but those are not a focus of the current criminal probe, officials and lawyers said.

Breuer said the Archives staff first raised concerns with Berger during an Oct. 2 review of documents that at least one copy of the post-millennium report he had reviewed earlier was missing. Berger was given a second copy that day, Breuer said.

Officials familiar with the investigation said Archives staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and others disappeared, Archives officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey to report the disappearance.

Berger immediately returned all the notes he had taken, and conducted a search and located two copies of the classified documents on a messy desk in his office, Breuer said. An Archives official came to Berger's home to collect those documents but Berger couldn't locate the other missing copies, the lawyer said.

He retained counsel, and in January the FBI executed search warrants of a safe at Berger's home as well as his business office where he found some of the documents. Agents also failed to locate the missing documents.

Justice Department officials have told the Sept. 11 commission of the Berger incident and the nature of the documents in case commissioners wanted more information, officials said. The commission is expected to release its final report Thursday.

Congressional intelligence committees, however, have not been formally notified.

"The House Intelligence Committee has not been informed on the loss or theft of any classified intelligence information from the Archives, but we will follow up and get the information that is appropriate for the committee to have," the committee said Monday in a statement. "And if it has occurred, we should be informed. If there has been delay in getting the information to the committee we need to know why."

Berger is the second high-level Clinton-era official to face controversy over taking classified information home.

Former CIA Director John Deutch was pardoned by Clinton just hours before Clinton left office in 2001 for taking home classified information and keeping it on unsecured computers at his home during his time at the CIA and Pentagon. Deutch was about to enter into a plea agreement for a misdemeanor charge of mishandling government secrets when the pardon was granted.



Renee ~~~




Edited 7/20/2004 12:22 am ET ET by cl-wrhen

Renee ~~~

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:52am
Jim Engle did a report for Fox News yesterday which detailed how they knew Berger was doing it.

Apparently on his first visit to the archives, a staff member noticed that Berger was putting documents in his jacket pockets and in his pants legs. The staff members then started flagging all of the documents that Berger requested and noticed on subsequent visits that more documents were missing.

Anyone who buys into the "inadvertant" thing by Berger is pretty naive. You can inadvertantly take one or two things once, but more than once, and it is deliberate.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:53am
Also the official 9/11 report is coming out this week. Bush administration wants to somehow make the report seem useless and wrong and hence all this is coming out at this very moment. Call about it being sneaky.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:56am
< Summon up your inner Michael Moore and spin me the conspiracy theory, because short of some new fantabulous yarn, I'm sticking with the age old motives of pride and stupidity.>

I have no idea what his motives are, we may never know since he has conveniently discarded some of the documents he stole, however why not summon up YOUR inner Micheal Moore, and imagine how this would be portrayed if Condoleeza Rice had snuck some classified documents relating to terrorism out of the national archives. Why is it that Democrats continuously excuse illegal behavior with a "it was stupid, but it didn't hurt anyone"? Since when do we get to pick and choose which laws we obey based on our own judgement of whether anyone gets hurt or not? Documents are classified for a reason-that reason is our national security. No one knows that better than a former National Security Advisor. Let's face it, he had SOME motive here, can't imagine he would risk his entire reputation just to avoid having to subject himself to review by some peons. And if it really was "inadvertent" or just plain "stupidity" it's hard to imagine him stuffing things into his clothing. But the apologizing for the blatant "rules don't apply to me" attitude of the Clinton administration continues...

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:59am


Yes, I do.



Me too, as well as the actual eyewitness accounts.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:03pm

And if the story came out at any other time, you'd be claiming that it was to divert attention from Abu Graib or Nick Berg's beheading, or the embarrassing Spanish troop withdrawl, or the failure to find WMD, or troop deaths in Iraq, or a disappointing economics report, or whatever.


As long as we're casting aspersions, think about this. The story came from the same

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:07pm
-- Actually, the subject at hand in this issue is the removal of classified materials from the National Archive by Berger. Fair or foul he has acknowledged that he did it. The other issues you raise are just that, other issues.

Not to mention that being the former National Security Advisor, Berger should have known better, due to the sensitive nature of the documents.

I love how Daschel and Pelosi are screaming...."who leaked this information"...while many of the rest of Capitol Hill are asking "Why did Berger do this, and where are the documents now.".

Who is politicizing this????

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:10pm


And if tir eally was just an innocent mistake, why do they care that it was "leaked"? Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing, right?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:16pm

Welcome maryscots!


I'm sure the Dems are cooking up all kinds of evil plans, as we speak!


I'm of the

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:23pm
This is directed to all. A report on MSNBC.


WASHINGTON - A day after former national security adviser Sandy Berger described his handling of classified terrorism documents as “an honest mistake,” his lawyer blasted Republican critics who suggested the former Clinton administration official sought to hide embarrassing materials.




On Tuesday, after news of the investigation surfaced, Berger quit as an informal adviser to John Kerry’s presidential campaign to limit the political fallout.

Attorney Lanny Breuer told NBC's “Today” show Wednesday that he was “very disappointed” by assertions by Republicans that Berger's removal of copies of classified terrorism documents from the National Archive could represent a national security crisis.

“This matter is a year old. Never once, in all my discussions with the Justice Department has there been any assertion like that,” he said.

The attorney suggested that information about the Berger investigation was leaked to embarrass the Democrats ahead of the publication of a report by the 9/11 commission, set for Thursday.

“All I can tell you is that when this matter started a year ago, I said to the Department of Justice that we were going to deal with this in good faith, that we wouldn’t go to the press and that we wouldn’t make this political .... and then suddenly, days before the 9/11 commission report comes out, this is leaked.” FREE VIDEO

• Berger probe

July 20: Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger is under investigation in connection with the disappearance of classified terrorism documents. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

Nightly News





The Justice Department is investigating whether Berger committed a crime by removing from the National Archives copies of documents about the government’s anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents. Berger was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Berger and his lawyer, Breuer, said the former Clinton adviser knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants and inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio. He returned most of the documents, but some still are missing.

Breuer, in his "Today" show interview, also dismissed allegations that Berger removed some documents by stuffing them in his socks.

On Tuesday, Berger told reporters he was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing.

“Last year, when I was in the Archives reviewing documents, I made an honest mistake. It’s one that I deeply regret,” Berger said. “I dealt with this issue in October 2003 fully and completely. Everything that I have done all along in this process has been for the purpose of aiding and supporting the work of the 9/11 commission, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply, absolutely wrong.”

Disclosure seen as political move

Many Democrats, including former President Clinton himself, suggested that politics were behind disclosure of the probe only days before Thursday’s scheduled release of the Sept. 11 commission report. That report is expected to be highly critical of the government’s response to the growing al-Qaida threat, a potential blow to President Bush’s re-election campaign.

“It’s interesting timing,” Clinton said at a Denver autograph session for his book, “My Life.” Berger served as national security adviser for all of Clinton’s second term.

Republicans say the matter raises questions about whether the former Clinton administration official sought to hide embarrassing materials.

“What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation’s most sensitive secrets?” House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said. “Mr. Berger has a lot of explaining to do.”

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters the case was about theft and questioned a statement by Berger issued Monday attributing the removal of the documents and notes to sloppiness.





“I think it’s gravely, gravely serious what he did, if he did it. It could be a national security crisis,” DeLay said.

The documents involved have been a key point of contention between the Clinton and Bush administrations on the question of who responded more forcefully to the threat of al-Qaida terrorism. Written by former National Security Council aide Richard Clarke, they discuss the 1999 plot to attack U.S. millennium celebrations and offer more than two dozen recommendations for improving the response to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

In his April 13 testimony to the Sept. 11 commission, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the review “warns the prior administration of a substantial al-Qaida network” in the United States. Ashcroft said it also recommends such things as using tougher visa and border controls and prosecutions of immigration violations and minor criminal charges to disrupt terror cells.

FREE VIDEO

July 20: Former presidential advisor David Gergen speaks with "Today's" Katie Couric about the controversy surrounding Sandy Berger.

Today show





“These are the same aggressive, often-criticized law enforcement tactics that we have unleashed for 31 months to stop another al-Qaida attack,” Ashcroft told the panel. He added that he never saw the documents before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Berger said in his March 23 testimony to the commission that Clinton submitted a $300 million supplemental budget to Congress to pay for implementing many of the documents’ recommendations. Berger acknowledged, however, that not all of them were accomplished.

In his initial statement Monday, Berger said that every Clinton administration document requested by the Sept. 11 commission was provided to the panel. Berger also said he returned some classified documents and all his handwritten notes when he was asked about them, except for two or three copies of the millennium report that may have been thrown away.

Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, said the Berger investigation will have no bearing on the panel’s report.

Placing documents in clothing

Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission.

The FBI searches of Berger’s home and office occurred after National Archives employees told agents they believed they witnessed Berger placing documents in his clothing and that some documents were then noticed missing, officials said.

When asked, Berger said he returned some classified documents that he found in his office and all of the handwritten notes he had taken from the secure room but could not find two or three copies of the highly classified millennium terror report.

“In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives,” Berger said.

“When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded,” he said.

Breuer said Berger believed he was looking at copies of the classified documents, not originals.

There are laws strictly governing the handling of classified information, including prohibiting unauthorized removal or release of such information.

NBC News

Panel won’t say whether 9/11 could have been stopped






Government and congressional officials familiar with the investigation, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the probe involves classified materials, said that a grand jury had been convened but that no decision had been made on whether Berger should face criminal charges.

The officials said the missing documents were highly classified and included critical assessments about the Clinton administration’s handling of the millennium terror threats as well as identification of America’s terror vulnerabilities at airports to sea ports.

David Gergen, who was an adviser to Clinton and worked with Berger for a time in the White House, said Tuesday, “I think it’s more innocent than it looks.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, Gergen said: “I have known Sandy Berger for a long time. He would never do anything to compromise the security of the United States.”

Gergen said he thought that “it is suspicious” that word of the investigation of Berger would emerge just as the Sept. 11 commission was about to release its report, because “this investigation started months ago.”

Berger testified publicly at one of the commission’s hearings about the Clinton administration’s approach to fighting terrorism, while the former president met in private with the commission to answer questions.

Berger himself had ordered his anti-terror czar Richard Clarke in early 2000 to write the after-action report and has publicly spoken about how the review brought to the forefront the realization that al-Qaida had reached America’s shores and required more attention.

NBC’s Pete Williams and The Associated Press contributed to this report.




Edited 7/21/2004 12:26 pm ET ET by palak

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:24pm
the previous post is for everyone and not directed at livenew

Pages