Deinonychus antirrhopus

So What About Berger?

Since we can't expect Kevin Drum to go after Berger with the same gusto he has the Plame Affair and Bush's Military Records, we'll have to look for stuff ourselves.

First up is this article from Time with this title, "The Berger Caper: What The 9/11 Report Says". The bad part, for Berger, is this,

The report managed to move Berger's troubles off the front page, but it contained some passages that could surely make him uncomfortable. It describes several instances in which the Clinton adviser was presented with plans of action to hit al-Qaeda in Afghanistan — and balked. In the margin next to a suggestion from Richard Clarke, Berger's counterterrorism czar, to attack al-Qaeda facilities in late 1999, Berger wrote "No." The report also says Berger nixed at least two plans to go after Osama bin Laden in the three years leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The bad part for the rest of us is that it really does look like Berger is a complete idiot when it comes to security.

So how to explain what Berger called an "honest mistake"? He says that in gathering up papers, he must have accidentally taken some Archives documents along with his notes. Those who have worked with him find that plausible. Berger could get wrapped up in his work, they say, and his desk was piled high with documents and notes. "He always kept a lot of paper," says a former assistant.

What a fool. This kind of absent mindedness is not something you want in a National Security Advisor. Berger should never be put in charge of anything more sensitive than a tub of margarine, IMO.

Now, the Time magazing does note that the 9/11 Commission was able to look at all the reports about getting Bin Laden, but Newsmax has an article that claims Berger did manage to destroy most of the existing drafts of the Millennium Plot Review.

Most of the existing drafts of the White House's After-Action Millennium Plot Review were stolen from the National Archives and destroyed by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger at least six months before the Sept. 11 Commission dealt with Millennium issues in interim staff conclusions and public hearings.

[snip]

Those same officials told the Post that they had five or six drafts of the Millennium after-action review in their files, all of which were eventually stolen by Berger. Only two copies were returned, the Post said, noting, "other drafts of the after-action document, [Archives officials] said, were apparently discarded."

I don't know but this sure looks like a cover up to me. Berger inadvertently took the copies home and then he inadvertently destroyed all but two of the drafts. Either Sandy Berger was lobotomized sometime after January 2001 or he is up to something that looks particularly stinky.

And as for Josh Marshall and the idea it was just copies looks more and more suspicious,

While Democrats have argued that the Millennium reports destroyed by Berger were copies, the New York Post reported on Friday, "Officials say it is possible he also got some unique documents directly from the files" - an apparent reference to oringinal handwritten notes made by senior Clinton officials on the draft copies.

Of course, we have this article where the Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, claims the Commission has seen all the relevant documents. It seems an easy way to check that would be to check the records at the National Archives. When did the people from the 9/11 Commission get the documents, and when was Berger stuffing his pants and then going home and cranking up the shredder (or starting the fire, or whatever).

All in all, I'd say it still looks bad, very bad. Of course, who knows everybody will probably just shrug and move on. And some day idiot boy Berger will probably be something like Secretary of State, or in some other position looking at highly classified documents and losing them all over the world.