Clinton & Kerry's Advisor in Cover Up

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Registered: 06-17-2004
Clinton & Kerry's Advisor in Cover Up
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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 ~~~

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 7:35pm
Metrochick you wrote:

If the documents are so important to the 9/11 Commission findings, then why didn't the Justice Department inform the commission about this a long time ago? They interviewed Berger in March. Their report comes out tomorrow. The news is a bit late, don't you think?"

With more information available it does not appear at this time that the fact that Berger took these documents will impact the commissions findings in anyway. As you said, it's due out tomorrow. It still bothers me though that someone of his intelligence, and someone that held such a high position in the previous administration, this particular position, could even take these documents. From further reports, it sounds like it happened on more than one occassion, I find it hard to believe that Mr Berger could have accidently done this more than once. Also, I understand that he is saying that he only threw away copies, maybe so (I listen to various radio stations news, talk shows, music stations, and it would seem that that fact is still up in the air), anyway. They were 'accidently discarded', which begs the question, where the heck are they? These were classified documents were they not, copies or not. They were not something that should be floating around who know's where. What I'm asking is doesn't this bother those that are trying to dismiss it? Democratic or Republican conspiracy theories aside, the issue is or should be, 'accidently discarded' classified material that never was supposed to leave the building in the first place. What other documents have be fallen this fate and no one has noticed?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 8:48pm
<>

Yes. This whole thing bothers me tremendously, but not as much as the way that it's being politicized and overblown.

I guess my point in bringing up the 9/11 commission is this: if these documents are so crucial, then why didn't the Justice Department (and John Ashcroft) inform that commission that documents were missing? The Republicans can't have it both ways. They can't say that this is a serious breech which speaks to ulterior motives AND they didn't bother to inform the commission, but rather, waited until the prime political hour.

edited to add: thanks for emerging from lurkerdom! Everyone appreciates all the posters here we can get. You don't need to post a manifesto - just your opinion on the topic at hand. To all lurkers: get your feet wet with a simple "ITA" to the post of your choice!


Edited 7/21/2004 11:00 pm ET ET by metrochick

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 9:53pm
The commission has been aware of the on-going investigation.

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 10:43pm
You posted a report to the contrary as the story broke:

"One Sept. 11 commission member reached last night was not aware of the Berger investigation. A senior commission official said the panel has no comment on the probe."

(by "last night" they mean yesterday, this is from your second post of the thread)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62776-2004Jul19.html

Again, if this isn't a purely political story, wouldn't the Justice Department have alerted the commission? Or would that have ruined their P.R. plan for the week of the commission's report? (It's well documented that the Bush administration was less than helpfull with the commission's requests early on.)


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 10:56pm
Please provide us with an example of this. I'm intrigued.

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My bet is you'll find newspapers reporting on...gasp...the news, that Democrats are charging that Republicans are behind the whole thing. Imagine that, newspapers reporting on statements made by the Democratic party, in an election year! Darn that liberal media!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:15pm


It's not the reporting I have a problem with, it's where the emphasis is placed. In any case, the idea that this was all "inadvertent" seems less and less likely...from drudge:



Interesting that he "inadvertently" took all versions of the SAME MEMO...and I'm curious, what exactly about the 9/11 report are Republicans trying to distract people from? The part where it says Bush wasn't to blame? Or the part where it basically agrees with John Ashcroft on the idea that civil liberties concerns hampered our ability to collect intelligence and fight terrorism in this country?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20040721/ap_on_re_us/sept_11_commission_14&printer=1

"9/11 Panel Blames 'Institutional Failings'

Wed Jul 21, 7:14 PM ET

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Sept. 11 commission's final report concludes the hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government" over a long period but does not blame President Bush (news - web sites) or former President Clinton (news - web sites) for the mistakes, according to administration officials familiar with the findings.

The report, being released Thursday, describes the patience and determination of the hijackers and said they explored weaknesses in airline and border procedures, even taking test flights to see when cockpit doors were open.

White House officials and congressional leaders were briefed on the report's findings, and Bush is to receive a copy of the 575-page report on Thursday.

"It does not place blame on particular individuals or particular incidents, but in fact it identifies institutional failings that have grown up over time about the way our government is organized," one official said.

It concludes that Bush and Clinton took the threat of al-Qaida seriously and were "genuinely concerned about the danger posed by al-Qaida," the official said. It finds that neither president was to blame for failing to stop the attacks, which were the culmination of years of planning.

Less than four months before the presidential election, the commission's work already has ignited partisan debate over whether Bush took sufficient steps to deal with terrorism in the first year of his administration.

As expected, the report will call for creating a Cabinet-level national director of intelligence with authority over the CIA (news - web sites), FBI (news - web sites) and other agencies. The White House administration is reserving judgment on that recommendation, and officials doubt it could be approved by Congress this year.

Four administration officials briefed reporters on the content of the report on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly released.

"Rather than finding that there was a failure at the presidential level, what they find though is that there are failings and that there were deep institutional failings within our government," an official said. "And that's what they really examine at some length over a long period of time — that there were a variety of factors spanning many years and many administrations that contributed to a failure to share information amongst agencies for both legal and policy reasons."

In particular, the official said, the commission found the FBI was not set up to collect intelligence domestically, in part because of civil liberties concerns."

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:18pm
<>

I don't know about that. I'm watching Lisa Meyers' MSNBC report on the mistakes made, and I'm getting that same awful 9/11 feeling I had that terrible day, and the weeks after. I can never forget the first time I saw the picture of Atta on the TV. I thought I was going to be sick. But I still told myself "what can we do when these terrorists enter the country under fake names?" Then I learned, later that same week, that the terrorists didn't even have to bother with fake names. The system I had just assumed to be in place, one in which names of known terrorists were cross-checked against passenger lists, never existed. That's why I supported the investigation of the 9/11 commission (which the Bush administraton stonewalled) and why I think it's so important to read their final report, to be released tomorrow.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 12:24am
<>

He was obviously trying to hide the fact that the Millenium Plot was not actually thwarted, but thousands of people were killed even though the governement should have been on high alert. Oh wait...the plot was thwarted. And National Security Advisor Berger still was not satisfied and wanted to know what could have been done even better, and so he asked for this after-action report to be written. I have no idea what he would have been hiding then.

<>

Maybe it's the part where they didn't thwart the plan, and thousands of people were killed. I'm just guessing.

Let me cut to the chase - the Bush campaign is saavy enough to know that a rehashing of the details and causes of the 9/11 attacks - even if it doesn't directly im[plicate the president - is not a good thing for their campaign. Just this evening, I've watched over and over as three 9/11 hijackers breach an airport security checkpoint. A picture is worth a thousand words.




iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 1:26am


"Teague said she was surprised at how relaxed security was, given that airlines had received three warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites). One such warning, issued in June 2001, cited "unconfirmed reports that American interests may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20040722/ap_on_re_us/attacks_surveillance_video

Video Shows 9/11 Hijackers' Security Check



By JOHN SOLOMON and TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - Surveillance video from Washington Dulles International Airport the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, shows four of the five hijackers being pulled aside to undergo additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors but then permitted to board the fateful flight that crashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites).


The video shows an airport screener hand-checking the baggage of one hijacker, Nawaf al-Hazmi, for traces of explosives before letting him continue onto American Airlines Flight 77 with his brother, Salem, a fellow hijacker.


The disclosure of the video comes one day before the release of the final report by the Sept. 11 commission, which is expected to include a detailed accounting of the events that day.


Details in the grainy video are difficult to distinguish. But an earlier report by the commission describing activities at Dulles is consistent with the men's procession through airport security as shown on the video.


No knives or other sharp objects are visible on the surveillance video. Investigators on the commission have said the hijackers at Dulles were believed to be carrying utility knives either personally or in their luggage, which at the time could legally be carried aboard planes if the blades were less than 4 inches and they were not considered "menacing." There is no indication that security screeners questioned the hijackers about any knives.


All 58 passengers — including the hijackers — and six crew members, along with 125 employees at the Pentagon, died when the flight crashed into the Pentagon at 9:39 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.


The video shows hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqed, each dressed conservatively in slacks and collared shirts, setting off metal-detectors as they pass through security. Moqed set off a second alarm, and a screener manually checked him with a handheld metal detector.


The pair were known to travel together previously and had paid cash to purchase their tickets aboard Flight 77 on Sept. 5, 2001, at the American Airlines counter at Baltimore's airport.


Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had been known to be associated with al-Qaida since early 1999 by the National Security Agency, and were put on a terrorism watch list on Aug. 24, 2001.


Only Hani Hanjour, believed to have been the hijacker who piloted Flight 77, did not set off a metal detector as he passed through Dulles security that morning, according to the video.


Moments after Hanjour passed alone through the security checkpoint, wearing dark slacks and a short-sleeved shirt, the final two hijackers, the al-Hazmi brothers, walked through the checkpoint.


Nawaf al-Hazmi, described by investigators as the right-hand accomplice of hijacker-planner Mohammed Atta, set off two metal-detectors, and a screener manually checked him with a handheld device.


Nawaf and his brother, each wearing slacks and Oxford shirts, were directed to a nearby counter, where they appeared to examine their tickets while another screener checked Nawaf's carryon bag with an explosive trace detector. Each was cleared to board Flight 77.


The Associated Press obtained the video from the Motley Rice law firm, which is representing some survivors' families who are suing the airlines and security industry over their actions in the Sept. 11 attacks.


"Even after setting off these alarms, the airlines and security screeners failed to examine the hijackers' baggage, as required by federal regulations and industry mandated standards, or discover the weapons they would use in their attack," lawyer Ron Motley said.


Elaine Teague, one of the family members suing over the death of her 31-year-old daughter, Sandra, said she had previously been shown the footage by the FBI (news - web sites). But the terrorists' faces had been digitally disguised.


Teague said she was surprised at how relaxed security was, given that airlines had received three warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites). One such warning, issued in June 2001, cited "unconfirmed reports that American interests may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups."

___

On the Net:

FBI information about Flight 77: www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/aa77/77.htm

Commission chronology on events at Dulles:

www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing7/staff_statement_3.pdf

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 10:54am
You have to remember 9/11 commission is bi partisan, 5 republican, 5 democrats. So if one democrat wanted the focus on Bush, there are 5 other Republicans to handle it. Don't you think?

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