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Clinton's National Security Advisor Stole Terror Memos (in his pants) (pg. 2)
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| ZinG |
| quote: | Originally posted by imokruok
The NY Times, the LA Times, and the Washington Post all buried the story today several pages into its first section. Page A17 in the NYT - a virtual wasteland for news. Wow...it's a good thing the media isn't liberal. :rolleyes: |
CNN.com has it on the headlines, the first picture today is about Berger:P |
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| speedracer_mec |
| quote: | Originally posted by MisterOpus1
The stunner to me is that when caught, this guy actually admits it. Quite a contrast to folks in the Bush Administration.
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LOL of course he will admit it....
he isnt in office:rolleyes: |
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| ResonantDrag |
| quote: | Originally posted by speedracer_mec
LOL of course he will admit it....
he isnt in office:rolleyes: |
i hope that this premise is proved for dubya if he fails to get re-elected in november.
and we thought clinton had skeletons in his closet... |
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| LiquidX |
| quote: | Berger gets fried
John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- We doubt President Bush instructed daughter Jenna to stick her tongue out at news cameras in St. Louis yesterday.
And the order probably didn't come from Laura Bush, whose only advice to her daughters as they hit the campaign trail was to "stand up straight and keep your hair out of your eyes." (Jenna Bush jokes with photographers)
But one thing's for sure: Twinkle, as the Secret Service calls her, didn't do daddy any favors by distracting, if even for only a minute of today's cable TV coverage, from the firestorm brewing at Camp Kerry over Sandy Berger, who quit last night as an unpaid, informal Kerry adviser.
Berger is under criminal investigation over allegations that he took secret documents from the National Archives, and absent a full FBI exoneration, is likely off any short list for senior posts in a Kerry administration. (Berger says he made 'honest mistake')
The timing of the Berger leak may be "interesting," as Bill Clinton and other Democrats are saying. But it's also extremely unfortunate for Kerry and his party, distracting from good fund-raising numbers (Dems are outraising the GOP for the first time since '92), the Kerry roadtrip to Boston that starts Friday, and of course, the release of the 9/11 commission's report tomorrow. (Not to mention the "Larry King Live" interview tonight on CNN at 9 p.m. ET with John and Elizabeth Edwards. More on that below.)
The Kerry campaign wasted little time (well, they don't have much) concocting their official conspiracy theory to explain the timing of the Berger leak, laying it at the feet of two favorite boogeymen, Dick Cheney and Ed Gillespie.
Under the headline, "Cheney Strikes Back???" Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer notes in a memo that "Halliburton Cheney" and "Enron Ed" were spotted Tuesday leaving the Senate GOP luncheon in the Capitol. Following the meeting, Sens. Saxby Chambliss, Gordon Smith and Rick Santorum commented to reporters on the breaking Berger story. Or, as Singer writes, they "launched a scurrilous effort to smear the Kerry campaign by making the absurd argument that Berger gave classified documents to the campaign to use in a port security speech."
"Were they in fact at the lunch? What happened at that lunch? What was it that Cheney and Gillespie said?" Singer asks in a campaign memo e-mailed to reporters last night. "If true, the fact that the White House has Cheney coordinating a political attack at a time when the 9/11 report is coming out with recommendations on how to improve the nation's security speaks volumes about the Bush approach to governing. The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the Commission has to say about strengthening our security."
A Bush-Cheney aide called Camp Kerry's conspiracy theory "pure fantasy."
Bush-Cheney camp in Boston
Today, Bush-Cheney will release its official list of Boston-bound surrogates and lay out plans for the Boston branch of its highly touted war room. Gillespie and campaign manager Ken Mehlman will hold a 10 a.m. ET conference call to discuss the surrogates and their new website, www.demsextrememakeover.com.
Leading the list: America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who's also slotted for a prime-time speaking role at the New York convention next month.
Also on the list: Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, Rep. Henry Bonilla of Texas, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey of Massachusetts, Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and Puerto Rico National Committeeman Luis Fortuño.
Aides say Republicans will set up a "war room" near the FleetCenter to answer "every misstatement" Kerry and friends make during their four-day confab. The GOP also plans to use video compilations of Kerry's past statements to press their flip-flopper charge.
Edwards on CNN
When we're not glued to the Berger story today we'll be watching CNN's "Larry King Live," for Larry's interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards. Larry, of course, interviewed John and Teresa Heinz Kerry two weeks ago after Edwards joined the Democratic ticket.
Now, we know Edwards is getting ready for a big speech in Boston, but we prefer to think he was preparing for Larry's show yesterday, when our sources spotted him running into the downtown office of actor-turned-media coach Michael Sheehan.
Sheehan, of course, coached both Edwards and Bob Graham on speaking well, winning friends and influencing people during the primaries earlier this year. He also worked with Bill Clinton on debate prep and Al Gore on his official entry into the 2000 campaign.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS.../wed/index.html |
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| imokruok |
This just gets more weird - the Republicans said that Kerry may have used stolen memos in a speech on port security. Today, the supposed speech was pulled from the Kerry website, now only available via Google cache.
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cach...kerry.com&hl=en |
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| Ang ' ela_ie |
| quote: | Originally posted by ZinG
CNN.com has it on the headlines, the first picture today is about Berger:P |
LA Times and WPost are both known conservative media outlets.
And my thoughts on the "scandal?" Why didnt they just stop him on the way out? They literally just let him walk out. Dont TELL me you couldnt see stuff stashed in his pants. You know you arent even allowed to take NOTES at the National Archives.
It is ridiculous (this coming from a liberal). |
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| LiquidX |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ang ' ela_ie
You know you arent even allowed to take NOTES at the National Archives.
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Yes you can, just cant take them with you. |
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| imokruok |
Drudge: To appear page A1 in the Washington Post tomorrow:
Archives Employees Suspicious of Berger... devised coding system, marked documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, watched him carefully... employees determined draft and all versions of 'millennium memo' had disappeared from files after Berger viewed them, WASH POST set to report, say sources... Developing...
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Of course, the Wash Post is behind. This all appeared in the National Review today, thanks to their own investigative journalism:
| quote: |
Byron York, NR White House Correspondent
July 21, 2004, 8:37 a.m.
Sandy Berger’s Heavy Lifting
The troubling details of the Archives document removal.
In Washington this morning, government officials are trying to piece together the facts of the Sandy Berger case in an attempt to understand what the former Clinton administration national-security adviser was trying to accomplish when he took highly classified documents from the National Archives.
Berger, who yesterday quit his position as an informal adviser to the Kerry campaign, was appointed by former President Clinton to vet Clinton-administration documents before those documents were turned over to the September 11 investigating commission. Berger claims that as he went through a large number of documents last fall, he inadvertently put a few in his briefcase and took them home. "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 September 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives," Berger said in a written statement. "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."
But it appears that some of the evidence in the case casts doubt on Berger's explanation. First, Berger has reportedly conceded that he knowingly hid his handwritten notes in his jacket and pants in order to sneak them out of the Archives. Any notes made from classified material have to be cleared before they can be removed from the Archives — a common method of safeguarding classified information — and Berger's admission that he hid the notes in his clothing is a clear sign of intent to conceal his actions.
Second, although Berger said he reviewed thousands of pages, he apparently homed in on a single document: the so-called "after-action report" on the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium plot of 1999/2000. Berger is said to have taken multiple copies of the same paper. He is also said to have taken those copies on at least two different days. There have been no reports that he took any other documents, which suggests that his choice of papers was quite specific, and not the result of simple carelessness.
Third, it appears that Berger's "inadvertent" actions clearly aroused the suspicion of the professional staff at the Archives. Staff members there are said to have seen Berger concealing the papers; they became so concerned that they set up what was in effect a small sting operation to catch him. And sure enough, Berger took some more. Those witnesses went to their superiors, who ultimately went to the Justice Department. (There was no surveillance camera in the room in which Berger worked with the documents, meaning there is no videotape record of the incidents.)
The documents Berger took — each copy of the millennium report is said to be in the range of 15 to 30 pages — were highly secret. They were classified at what is known as the "code word" level, which is the government's highest tier of secrecy. Any person who is authorized to remove such documents from a special secure room is required to do so in a locked case that is handcuffed to his or her wrist.
It is not clear why Berger would focus solely on the millennium-plot report. But it is clear that the report has been the object of intense discussions during the September 11 investigation.
The report was the result of a review done by Richard Clarke, then the White House counterterrorism chief, of efforts by the Clinton administration to stop terrorist plots at the turn of the year 2000. At several points in the September 11 commission hearings, Democrats pointed to the millennium case as an example of how a proper counterterrorism program should be run. But sources say the report suggests just the opposite. Clarke apparently concluded that the millennium plot was foiled by luck — a border agent in Washington State who happened to notice a nervous, sweating man who turned out to have explosives in his car — and not by the Clinton administration's savvy anti-terrorism work. The report also contains a number of recommendations to lessen the nation's vulnerability to terrorism, but few were actually implemented.
The after-action review became the topic of public discussion in April when Attorney General John Ashcroft mentioned it in his public testimony before the September 11 commission. "This millennium after-action review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999 and cites luck as playing a major role," Ashcroft testified. "It is clear from the review that actions taken in the millennium period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government."
In May, a government official told National Review Online that the report contains a "scathing indictment of the last administration's actions." The source said the report portrayed the Clinton administration's actions as "exactly how things shouldn't be run." In addition, Clarke was highly critical of the handling of the millennium plot in his book, Against All Enemies.
It is not clear how many copies of the report exist. Nor is it clear why Berger was so focused on the document. If he simply wanted a copy, it seems that taking just one would have been sufficient. But it also seems that Berger should have known that he could not round up all the known copies of the document, since there were apparently other copies in other secure places. Whatever the case, the report was ultimately given to the September 11 Commission.
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| JM |
| quote: | Originally posted by LiquidX
YaY Lets make a BBQ!
Heavent seen the news, and well, Im SURE it will be fired up all over FOX and the rest of the networks. |
Even CNN officials and Ted Turner are rolling their eyes in disbelief!
>JM< |
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| LiquidX |
| quote: | Originally posted by JM
Even CNN officials and Ted Turner are rolling their eyes in disbelief!
>JM< |
:eyespop: :eyespop: |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by imokruok
Drudge: To appear page A1 in the Washington Post tomorrow:
Archives Employees Suspicious of Berger... devised coding system, marked documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, watched him carefully... employees determined draft and all versions of 'millennium memo' had disappeared from files after Berger viewed them, WASH POST set to report, say sources... Developing...
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Of course, the Wash Post is behind. This all appeared in the National Review today, thanks to their own investigative journalism: |
You'll forgive me for keeling over in laughter on your comment of the National Review's "investigative journalism". That's like calling Michael Moore's movie an "unbiased" documentary. Puulease!
As Occ pointed out earlier, the timing of this issue, considering it was investigated back in October, is just a little too eery for me to pass off. Again we have a lovely distraction going on here by the conservatives.
I don't condone what Berger did, and I do hope if there is wrongdoing he gets indicted, but I think this is dirty politics by the conservatives to the core! The DNC chairman has filed a FOIA on any memos/conversations between the White House and Justice Dept. on this issue - if I were the Conservatives I would be a little tense on this. If it is found out that this whole thing is politicized and brought out NOW for distraction, how good does that really make you feel about your party leaders?
BTW, Berger took COPIES of the documents - the originals are still in place, all of them. And he wasn't fired, he RESIGNED. Understand, everyone?
| quote: | More Revelations in Berger Inquiry
Wider Circle in Administration Claims Prior Knowledge of Probe
By Mike Allen and John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 23, 2004; Page A08
For the second day in a row, administration officials said yesterday that more of President Bush's aides knew about an investigation of former Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger than the White House originally acknowledged.
The question is sensitive because Democrats have charged that Republicans leaked word of the investigation to try to taint next week's Democratic National Convention and to distract attention from criticisms of Bush in the report of the commission investigating the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that some National Security Council officials knew Berger -- who has resigned from his position as informal adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry -- was suspected of mishandling National Archives documents that were being sought by the commission.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, meeting reporters to discuss the commission's report, would not say when she was told of the probe.
"Sandy is somebody I've known a long time," Rice said. "And I think he's a good person, and I respect him. This is a criminal investigation. It's a serious matter. I'm just not going to comment about it."
The senior official said that a few NSC staff members who also report to the counsel's office had known about the inquiry.
On Wednesday, a day after saying he learned about the investigation from news reports, White House press secretary Scott McClellan added that "a few individuals" in the White House counsel's office had known about the inquiry. He said that was because the counsel's office was coordinating document production with the Sept. 11 commission.
Former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, who is serving as a spokesman for Berger during the controversy, said the expanding circle of officials who the White House acknowledges knew of the criminal investigation heightens his suspicion about the timing of the disclosure that Berger is under investigation.
"This is the third day in a row that the story has changed," Lockhart said. "Did the political operation know? Did [adviser] Karl Rove know? I think it's time for them to come clean, say what they knew, when they knew it, and what role if anything they had in leaking it."
Berger has acknowledged removing copies of a classified "after-action report" that he had ordered to study the Clinton administration's handling of terrorist threats at the time of the millennium, but he said the removal was unintentional. He returned some copies after being contacted by Archives officials, but some documents are missing and were apparently discarded.
The narrowly averted millennium threat, aimed at Los Angeles International Airport and a Western hotel in Jordan, resulted in White House anti-terrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke's preparation of the after-action review. It recommended building agent capabilities at the CIA and dramatically tightening immigration rules and border protections.
The Sept. 11 commission report said the recommendations generated an internal tug of war over CIA funding, with the agency finally getting a modest supplemental appropriation.
Also yesterday, Bruce R. Lindsey, who serves as former president Bill Clinton's liaison to the Archives, said he was not alerted to concerns about missing documents until two days after Berger's Oct. 2 visit. Berger was notified that day, and he searched his office for the missing papers. A government source claiming knowledge of the investigation said Archives officials alerted Lindsey to concerns after a visit by Berger in September. Lindsey said yesterday this was not the case.
Staff writer Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2004Jul22.html |
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| LiquidX |
| Couldnt have said it better Opus.;) |
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