Sandy Berger under Justice Dept. Investigation

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-19 11:58pm

WASHINGTON - President Clinton (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a Justice Department (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) 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.

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

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 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 and seaports.

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 (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites). Deutch was about to enter into a plea agreement for a misdemeanor charge of mishandling government secrets when the pardon was granted.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-20 02:01pm

if he thought they were only copies, then why did he shove them down his pants?

Post by **Cairber** » 2004-07-20 02:04pm

I was watching this story on the news this morning, and it really showed me how liberal some channels were and how conservative others are. Fox made sure to point out that he is a key advisor to Kerry's campaign...CNN convieniently (?) left out that part.

Down his pants? any excuse about why he did that is gonna be a hard one to swallow....errr, no pun intended...

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-07-20 02:12pm

Cairber wrote:I was watching this story on the news this morning, and it really showed me how liberal some channels were and how conservative others are. Fox made sure to point out that he is a key advisor to Kerry's campaign...CNN convieniently (?) left out that part.

Down his pants? any excuse about why he did that is gonna be a hard one to swallow....errr, no pun intended...

I call BS. How much of the news did you watch? The cnn.com site made it clear that he's an advisor to Kerry.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-07-20 02:35pm

They just did a segment on him, and you're right, they didn't mention that he was an advisor to Kerry.

They do mention it on the site, though.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-20 04:35pm

I don't think the guy had any ulterior motives or anything like that, but it was a fucking stupid thing for him to do.

Post by **Cairber** » 2004-07-20 05:24pm

I didnt check the site, i was just watchin CNN around like 9Am this mornin, in half hours time they had the story twice (and not a rerun, it was new info and whatnot) both times they failed to mention his connection to the Kerry campaign. Not that im saying it means anything (yet), but its just kinda made me think about what everyone says about the leanings of Fox and CNN.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-07-20 09:33pm

How does someone so highly placed flippantly dismiss taking papers from the National Archives? Has anyone here ever casually walked out of a library with material on accident?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-20 10:13pm

Well, he's stepped down from the Kerry campaign:

link

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-07-20 11:01pm

This is just odd. Could be the start of a huge scandal or just a wierd footnote for Burger.

At this point, without more info, it just gets catergorized as

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-21 12:04am

Berger has been under investigation since October

And he presumbably never told the Kerry campaign. Kerry must be absolutely furious with Berger. [/url]

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-21 03:39am

This would be an excellent chance for him to play to the middle and absolutely rip the living shit out of Berger in a speech or three.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-21 12:41pm

Howedar wrote:This would be an excellent chance for him to play to the middle and absolutely rip the living shit out of Berger in a speech or three.

I don't know; this scandal is potentially a gift from God for the Bush campaign. Kerry might do better to try and keep it off the radar entirely.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2004-07-21 12:46pm

Joe wrote:
Howedar wrote:This would be an excellent chance for him to play to the middle and absolutely rip the living shit out of Berger in a speech or three.
I don't know; this scandal is potentially a gift from God for the Bush campaign. Kerry might do better to try and keep it off the radar entirely.

I doubt he can. Shrub will take advantage if this regardless of what Kerry tries. Best he can do is just try to make the most of it.

CelesKnight · Post by **CelesKnight** » 2004-07-21 09:12pm

Cairber wrote:I was watching this story on the news this morning, and it really showed me how liberal some channels were and how conservative others are. Fox made sure to point out that he is a key advisor to Kerry's campaign...CNN convieniently (?) left out that part.

It's not just the TV channels, you can see this in all the media. I've heard that the New York Times buried this on page 16, far behind a story on men's tie fashons. One would think that the "paper of record" would take slightly more interest in it--even if this turns out to be accidental, the breach of security is newsworthy.

On the other hand, it's not hard to guess where the NY Post covered it...

Cairber wrote:Down his pants? any excuse about why he did that is gonna be a hard one to swallow....errr, no pun intended...

My thoughts as well. How do you "accidentally" get documents in your pants and/or socks? "Hey! Let's strip down, pour honey on ourselves, roll around in classified documents, then dress blindfolded!"

I -hope- that by "pants" he meant "pockets", and that this is being overblown by rightwing pundits.

CelesKnight · Post by **CelesKnight** » 2004-07-21 09:25pm

Some more info on this event from the NY Post:

Republicans are demanding to know if Berger deliberately removed some top-secret documents from the National Archives last September and October and illegally made notes on others in order to help brief Kerry.

...

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) claimed there is "a curious connection between the removal of these documents and the Kerry press conference on port security," which took place last Dec. 17, the ABC News Web site reported.

The classified documents are "way above top-secret" under a protocol known as "code word," the most highly classified U.S. government program, a U.S. official said. It's illegal even to make and remove mere notes about such documents.

...

The FBI was called in after alert archives staffers saw documents peeking out from under Berger's pants, smelled a rat — and ran a sting operation by marking other documents to prove he was taking them out, a government official said.

Under the pants? Looks like it's not pockets.

BTW, I've learned that the NY Times covered this on page 16 yesterday, but did make it a first page story today.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-21 09:31pm

BTW, I've learned that the NY Times covered this on page 16 yesterday, but did make it a first page story today.

Good for them, but if this was a Republican it would have been on the cover yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow as well.

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2004-07-22 01:08am

Sorry, but who tells us that this unnamed source is telling the truth ?
I have seen too much mud slinging and too much reporting of quotes as is to really trust that the sources are not just simply engaing in character assination.
I will wait what the FBI says and till that when in doubt for the defendent.

@Frank Hipper
Yes I have, after learning twelve hours for math I walked out of the library without checking out a book, I also know three other people who did the same thing, no one had the intent to steal.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-22 01:09am

@Frank Hipper
Yes I have, after learning twelve hours for math I walked out of the library without checking out a book, I also know three other people who did the same thing, no one had the intent to steal.

Really, and I supposed you accidentally shoved them in your pants as well?

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2004-07-22 01:27am

Joe wrote: Really, and I supposed you accidentally shoved them in your pants as well?

Who says that he shoved them up his pants ?
A, right an anonymus source which we don't know the agenda of and which does not have to defend his view.
Sorry, I have seen to many attempts at mud slinging in my life to just believe it.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-22 01:30am

The FBI was called in after alert archives staffers saw documents peeking out from under Berger's pants, smelled a rat — and ran a sting operation by marking other documents to prove he was taking them out, a government official said.

They were able to prove that Berger was sneaking out the documents, and the FBI responded accordingly.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-22 08:23am

link

The documents that Berger has acknowledged taking -- some of which remain missing -- are different drafts of a January 2000 "after-action review" of how the government responded to terrorism plots at the turn of the millennium. The document was written by White House anti-terrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke, at Berger's direction when he was in government

link

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.

it's looking more and more like Berger was deliberately trying to remove documents, help cover up and devlop a spin for his old boss.

BUSTED!

KrauserKrauser · Post by **KrauserKrauser** » 2004-07-22 09:14am

Throw the book at the dumbass. He should have fucking known better than this.

Andras · Post by **Andras** » 2004-07-22 12:23pm

I like how he 'accidently' took every copy of one specific memo.

KrauserKrauser · Post by **KrauserKrauser** » 2004-07-22 02:01pm

Andras wrote:I like how he 'accidently' took every copy of one specific memo.

Oops....but they felt so good against my skin.