AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos [Sandy Berger is the focus of a criminal investigation]

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[Sub-Driver]

AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos

3 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By JOHN SOLOMON

WASHINGTON - President Clinton (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation after admitting he removed highly classified terrorism documents 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 (news - web sites) agents armed with warrants. 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 are still missing.

Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National 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.

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 (news - web sites). Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission.

The FBI searched Berger's home and office with warrants earlier this year after employees of the National Archives told agents they believed they witnessed Berger put documents into his clothing while reviewing sensitive Clinton administration papers, officials said.

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

[Palladin]

Good catch, montag.

Too bad they can't bring in Lynndie England to give Berger the Abu Graibh treatment. She'd get the whole truth out of him! I'd love to see Berger on a leash. ;)

[onyx]

Right. It is my understanding that Ashcroft has known about this for a while now.

[Peach]

Lindsey is certainly the go to guy when there's trouble in the ex-Clinton administration. SOme things never change.

[Mo1]

i keep laughing my ass off thinking about hillary's initial reaction to this news. this is great, it really reminds people why they're never going to vote another clinton into the WH.

This happened in October and then the search was in January

She had to have known about it

BTW .. how is this story just breaking now??

[Shermy]

Skip the article at the top of this thread. Read this expanded, later version from the same author.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040720/ap_on_re_us/sept__11_berger_probe_6

[txradioguy]

I haven't read how they figured it out. But appearently this investigation has been going on for awhile.

Wonder if the missing doccuments will end up being "found" in the archives at Bill's Readin' Room and massage Parlor in Little Rock?

[Happy2BMe]

Sounds like a bunch of thieves and gypsies relishing over pilfered spoils - JUST LIKE DEMOCRATS!

[McGavin999]

Don't you find it interesting that the media is identifying Berger with the Clinton administration? Like, suddenly they are willing to throw Clinton over the side in order to save Kerry.

[CFC__VRWC]

This is the Clintons looking to rule the world.

With Soap Box Derby plans. These people are so pathetically amateurish - if they didn't have the media going all out to cover for them, they'd be more inept and bumbling than the Three Stooges.

[Wolfstar]

Thanks for the excellent legal info. Was it legal for Berger to make notes from the classified material he reviewed, and then to take those notes with him when he left the archives?

[Howlin]

Guess who was in charge of the investigation of Waco?

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/04-13-04/discussion.cgi.16.html

[faithincowboys]

``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.''

That "we need to know why" line suggests to me that we have hearings on this in our future. Kind of like Memogate--when how they were discovered seemed to trump content-- when the weak-spined GOPers caved even though they had the Rats dead to rites. We grap defeat out of the jaws of victory a lot.

[SandRat]

This may develop into more than a few ARKANCIDES.

[gov_bean_ counter]

If this investigation has been going on for 9 months, then chances are it is about more than just Sandy.

[samantha]

Well it won't be hillary,maybe Dennis Kucinich will be ready to stop campaigning to accept the nomination. LOL!!!!!

[Palladin]

Nothing will save Kerry now.

[VRWCTexan]

In other words, the "wall of separation" constructed by Jamie Gorelick made it virtually impossible for U.S. authorities to stop Ahmed Rassam, the "Millenium Bomber," by design or intention. It was left to blind luck. The NSC's Millennium After Action Review — which, based on Attorney General Ashcroft's testimony, must be devastating in its analysis of not only this event but of the Gorelick policy — remains classified. And, most significantly, it's likely the Review's criticisms and warnings were either ignored or rejected by the Clinton Justice Department.

This is the SAME "GORELICK" that served as a 9/11 commissioner and blasted Bush!!

[Mo1]

BS! He was the freaking National Security Adviser, he knows what is a classified document and which are originals. This is exactly their MO.

REGARDLESS if they are orginals or copies .. THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE ROOM

He knows that

[My2Cents]

Good rundown, Wolfstar. This is going to get interesting. We now have a liar (Wilson) and a felon (Berger) advising the Kerry campaign.

[kcvl]

Sandy Berger is a lying piece of crap...

FBI was not focused as sharply on counterterrorism as the CIA. The overall impression that the Bureau conveyed to us, until the very end of our time in office, was that al Qaeda had a limited capacity to operate in the U.S. and that its presence here was under surveillance. The stream of threat information we received each day pointed repeatedly to attacks on U.S. interests abroad, not at home. And because that was the daily threat picture, that was where we focused most of our attention. Nonetheless, when presented with specific domestic threats - such as during the Millennium period - we protected the homeland.

Finally, you asked about the transition. When the Clinton administration ended, we did our best to alert the incoming team to the terrorist threat in general and the al Qaeda threat specifically. During the transition, Bush administration officials received intensive briefings on terrorism. As the press has reported, I told my successor Condoleezza Rice that she would be spending more time on terrorism and bin Laden than any other issue.