Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sandy Berger Invests in Sock Up Company

The ever comedic, degree-less marriage counselor, author of Mr. and Mrs. Happy Pick Up After Yourself, demonstrated on Fox 'n Friends this morning how Sandy Berger is reported to have secretly, but suspiciously, removed classified documents from the National Archives.

Stuffing a folded Fox News memo White House talking points (allegedly from a top Fox News executive) between the bottom of his slacks and his socks, Steve Doocy said this was how Sandy Berger did it...

The mock-demo provided Brian and Gretchen, the other two Fox 'n Friends morning show anchors, with quite a coffee-replacement jolt.

What a moment in Fox 'n Friends growing moments of levity mixed in with the pertinent news of the day, which I mostly follow now just to count how many times before, after, and during weather reports Doocy mentions copies of his book, Mr. and Mrs. Happy Smelly Feet and All Handbook are still available through Amazon and hisw website.

On a more coffee-spilling note, if anyone testified falsely during 9/11 Commission hearings, under oath, why isn't anyone being charged with perjury?

Transcript: Wednesday's 9/11 Commission Hearings FDCH E-Media
Wednesday, March 24, 2004; 7:00 PM


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20349-2004Mar24.html

Net the Truth Online has learned Berger has invested in a start-up company called Sock-Up as a way to pay for his legal advice.

But according to media madders, it just isn't so...

Anatomy of a smear: Sandy Berger "socks" shocker; Lies, blind quotes, and innuendo rampant in Berger coverageFri, Jul 23, 2004 11:28am EST

On July 19, the Associated Press was the first to report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger for allegedly illegally removing classified documents and personal notes from the National Archives last fall during preparations for his appearance before the 9-11 Commission.

This much is known: Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said for the record that: 1) Berger inadvertently put several copies of classified documents into a leather portfolio he was carrying; and 2) that Berger put handwritten notes, which he had made while reviewing the documents, in his jacket and in his pants pockets.

But rumors and confusion abound in media coverage:

Media confuses originals and copies. As the story unfolded between July 20 and July 22, conservative pundits have run with speculation that Berger removed original classified documents, rather than copies, from the archive and then destroyed them as part of a cover-up. But there is no evidence to support this accusation; in fact, according to The Washington Post, "The documents removed were copies; the National Archives retained the originals."

Media propounds rumor that Berger placed documents in his socks and pants. It was reported -- notably by CNN -- that Berger put the classified documents into his pants and/or his socks -- allegations that Breuer has said are "false" and "ridiculous" and for which there is no on-the-record substantiation. This reportage was then amplified by MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, and Pat Buchanan; by the New York Daily News and the New York Post; by Ann Coulter and Kellyanne Conway; by a slew of right-wing columnists like Linda Chavez and Cal Thomas; and by right-wing radio show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage. Worse still, some of these same media outlets and media personalities falsely attributed to Berger and his lawyer the claim that Berger had put the classified documents into his pants and/or socks -- even after Berger and his lawyer said Berger had not done so.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200407230001

Berger Hid Archives Papers Under a Trailer, Probe Shows
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006; Page A07


...What Berger did, and the ham-handed and comical methods by which he did it, are freshly detailed in the National Archives report, which the Associated Press obtained first under a Freedom of Information Act request...

continued

...In September and October, Berger was able to sneak papers -- slight variations of a report titled "Millennium Alert After Action Review," which looked at U.S. vulnerabilities to terrorists, as well as the notes he took from other classified documents -- into his pockets, the report said, because an unnamed senior official left the room while Berger made or took phone calls.

Although one archives official claimed to have seen Berger fiddling with what appeared to be a piece of paper "rolled around his ankle and underneath his pant leg," Berger told investigators he was merely pulling up his socks, which he said "frequently fall down." He said "this story was absurd and embarrassing."

Berger said that after spending hours at the archives on Oct. 2, he took a walk outside past a construction fence to leave four classified copies of the millennium document beneath a trailer. He later explained that he needed to return to the building for several additional hours of work and was worried that guards would see the documents bulging in his suit.

Berger got caught partly because suspicious archives employees secretly numbered the millennium document copies they showed him in October. When an official challenged him by telephone on Oct. 4, he turned over two copies of the millennium document that he said he had accidentally kept
...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001968.html

WHITEWASH-GATE
Ashcroft: Berger doc exposes security lapse
Terror-threat paper at center of criminal probe not shared with incoming Bush administration July 20, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern By Art Moore© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com


In testimony before the 9-11 Commission in April, Attorney General John Ashcroft pointed to a National Security Council document now at the center of the FBI's investigation of former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, urging the panel to ask why its warnings and "blueprint" to thwart al-Qaida's plans to target the U.S. were ignored by the Clinton administration and not shared with the incoming Bush security staff.

Drafts of the sensitive NSC "Millennium After Action Review" on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are reported to be among the documents still missing from classified materials Berger removed from a secure reading room.

Ashcroft said the review – which he was not shown prior to 9-11 – recommends, 17 months before the attacks, "disrupting the al-Qaida network and terrorist presence here using immigration violations, minor criminal infractions and tougher visa and border controls."

Ashcroft told the commission, "It is clear from the review that actions taken in the Millennium Period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government."

The March 2000 review, Ashcroft told the panel, warns the Clinton administration "of a substantial al-Qaida network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the U.S., capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here."

Ashcroft said the "highly-classified" review "was not among the 30 items upon which my predecessor [Janet Reno] briefed me during the transition. It was not advocated as a disruption strategy to me during the [2001] summer threat period by the NSC staff which wrote the review more than a year earlier."

The strategy advocated by the review, Ashcroft said, includes "the same aggressive, often criticized law enforcement tactics we have unleashed for 31 months to stop another al-Qaida attack."...


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39544

Sandy Berger's crime TODAY'S EDITORIAL April 5, 2005

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050404-084700-5791r.htm


Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Editorials on Berger

http://nerepublican.blogspot.com/2004/07/editorials-on-berger.html

"Millennium Alert After Action Review"
9/11 Commission Report/Notes/Part 6


34. NSC memo, "The Millennium Terrorist Alert-Next Steps," undated (attached to NSC draft memo, "Review of Terrorism Alert and Lessons Learned," Jan. 3, 2000). In the original document, the quotation is underlined, not italicized. See also NSC memo,"Principals Meeting: Millennium Terrorism,"undated (likely Dec. 1999); NSC email, Clarke to Berger, roadmap for Small Group, Dec. 22, 1999.

http://www.answers.com/topic/9-11-commission-report-notes-part-6

pdf

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/911comm-notes.pdf

http://www.newsmax.com/hottopics/9!11_Commission.shtml

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/s/stix/2004/stix072304.htm

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