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 ~~~

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 11:32am
If you look at the facts of the case, anyone with any common sense will know that Berger did not take the documents by accident.

Lets review the facts.

1) People at the archives noticed that Berger appeared to be putting documents into his jacket and his pants. When he turned in the documents that he requested to review, it was noticed that certain documents were missing.

2) The Nat. Archives notified the FBI, who set up a sort of sting operation where if Berger were to return, any documents that he requested would be specially flagged.

3) Berger returned to the Archives and requested several documents again. When he had finished reviewing the documents and returned what he had, more documents were noticed missing.

4) (The important one) All of the documents that Berger took were different versions of the SAME document, which was the Millenium After Action Report, which Richard Clarke himself said portrays the actions of the Clinton administration and the NSC in an extremely poor light.

Draw your own conclusions, but I think Berger was up to no good. Of course the original after action report still exists, but not the copies which Clinton Administration people made their notes on (the ones that Berger took).

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 12:22pm
Guards left Berger alone, sources say
Ex-security adviser reportedly told monitors to violate rules as he took breaks, took files.



By James Gordon Meek
New York Daily News http://www.news-leader.com/today/0722-Guardsleft-138802.html

Washington — Former national security adviser Sandy Berger repeatedly persuaded monitors assigned to watch him review top-secret documents to break the rules and leave him alone, sources said Wednesday.

Berger, accused of smuggling some of the secret files out of the National Archives, got the monitors out of the high-security room by telling them he had to make sensitive phone calls.

Guards were convinced to violate their own rules by stepping out of the secure room as he looked over documents and allegedly stashed some in his clothing, sources said.

"He was supposed to be monitored at all times but kept asking the monitor to leave so he could make private calls," a senior law enforcement source told the Daily News.

Berger also took "lots of bathroom breaks" that aroused some suspicion, the source added. It is standard procedure to constantly monitor anyone with a security clearance who examines the type of code-word classified files stored in the underground archives vault.

The same archives monitors told the FBI Berger was observed stuffing his socks with handwritten notes about files he reviewed that were going to the Sept. 11 panel. It is prohibited to make notes about the secret files and leave with them without special approval.

Berger's attorney, Lanny Breuer, has denied the allegation that Berger hid papers in his socks.

*****************


LOL! They're really outraged about this sock thing!

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 1:20pm
The copies to which you refer are copies of the original after action report, but are the original reports from different members of the Clinton Administration.

Berger apparently was reviewing each of these reports, because each person had made their own notations within the reports in the columns and at the end of the report.

This is possibly why some of the Republicans are claiming that Berger is trying to hide something, as these are the only copies of these documents in existence, and now, they cannot be located.

I dont believe his story that he inadvertantly took the documents, but I don't think that he could successfuly cover up anything.....who knows.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 2:59pm
I’m sure Berger’s attorney, who probably doesn’t even have access to see these documents, is a little upset when he tries to defend his client in the public realm with:

“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.”

And gets harpooned by Clinton admitting:

“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?”

Hmmm, “not a security crisis” or “nation’s most sensitive secrets”? Thanks for the help identifying the security risk Bill.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 3:06pm

5) "Keep in mind, these documents would have special covers on them, usually in red, with bold lettering stating that they are, in this case, top-secret/code-word classified. Each page would be stamped with bold warnings. As a former National Security Advisor, Berger has handled hundreds if not thousands of documents of this kind. Even on a messy desk at home, these documents would be difficult to lose."


http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/04_07_18_corner-archive.asp#036264

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 5:08pm
Sorry Ashley, but there is no defending what Berger did, especially since he is the former National Security Advisor, and should know about the protocols involving classified documents.

If you buy into his explanation, then I am sorry for you.

If he took one or two documents on one occasion, and noticed immediately and returned them, they perhaps I could believe him, but when it happened on two separate occasions, and the documents he took were all versions of the same report, and now they are missing....sorry, but he is lying through his teeth.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 5:09pm
LOL

Forgot about that one.

I guess he needs a new presription for his reading glasses.

Maybe his shoes were loose, and he was hoping that buy putting the documents in his socks, it would make up for the difference and keep his feet from blistering?????

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 5:36pm

<< if this isn't a purely political story, wouldn't the Justice Department have alerted the commission? >>


You're right. They didn't know about the investigation, but they did know the documents they expected to have access to were missing:


From the report:


<<We did not find documentation on the after-action review mentioned by Berger. >> http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2004/07/one_cryptic_ref.html


Someone who knew about the investigation

Renee ~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 9:55pm
It's not "proactive" when you've known about the investigation for nine months and leaked it, not to the commission, but to the press four days before the report was due to come out. It was probably already at the printers by then. That's not proacitve. It's completely unhelpful.

I really have no idea what this footnote is refering to. I've read that Berger supplied the commission with everything they asked for. (But maybe there are things they didn't know to aks for... you might say.) I've also read that they had a copy of the final after action report, and the documents in question in regards to Berger were drafts written along the way to that final document. (Sorry...don't have time to dig this up right now, but I'm sure I've read it in articles posted in this thread.) I gather then, that the footnote refers to the drafts. If, as you claim, Berger's motive was to conceal information containted only in those drafts from the commission, why on earth would he "mention" them in his testimony? It just makes no sense.

Wait a minute....I just re-read the footnote again. They're refering to a different after action report than the one in question this week. The documents Berger took from the archives were the milleniumm after action report. This has to do with a report written after the 1998 bombing of camps in Afghanistan. Are you saying he took that too....and then mentioned it in his testimony?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Fri, 07-23-2004 - 9:12pm
Hype what up?

What Berger did is not only careless, it is highly illegal.

If you buy his story that he took the documents by accident, I have great property for you to buy in Love Canal, NY.

One or two documents taken on one instance could be an accident. 35 to 40 documents, which are all the same document, but different versions taken on two different visits, and then having a good portion of them destroyed "by mistake" is anything but an accident.

Face it. The leftist extremists don't want the truth about these documents and Berger out there.

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