Hastert: I am profoundly troubled

[Cocoa]

http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_4406.shtml

"I am profoundly troubled by allegations that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger removed highly classified documents from the National Archives regarding the Clinton Administration's handling of terrorist attacks prior to the September 11th attacks.

``What could those documents have said that drove Mr. Berger to remove them without authorization from a secure reading room for classified documents?

``What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation's most sensitive secrets?

"Did these documents detail simple negligence or did they contain something more sinister? Was this a bungled attempt to rewrite history and keep critical information from the 9/11 Commission and potentially put their report under a cloud?

more...

[SaveElmer]

1. What a Dick !!! n/t

[calico1]

2. Well, he definitely looks profoundly troubled!

[burythehatchet]

3. cheney you Denny

and the cheneying horse you rode in on.

[havocmom]

4. didn't Berger take notes he made and not documents

Quick, somebody tell Hastert that Novak outed a CIA NOC agent and blew a big network that was tracking the trafficing in dangerous weapons materials!

[shoelace414]

5. the attempt is ongoing

Was this a bungled attempt to rewrite history and keep critical information from the 9/11 Commission and potentially put their report under a cloud?

Voldemorts minions are trying to put it under a cloud. the cloudy reason (why is this coming out now) finally clears up.

[grytpype]

6. They are really, really scared.

A great big monsterous turd is about to hit the fan for the Repugs. No doubt about it.

But what? Could it be the 9/11 report? Plame indictments? BOTH?

[Catfight]

17. and Videos....Lies, Outings and Torture, the Repugs mantra. This

is the new Republicans agenda.

[Shakespeare]

7. BS. He's profoundly troubled that it might not be enough....

....to get the 9/11 report off the front page. Even the pundits are calling this what it is--a leak meant to serve as a distraction. The investigation was begun MONTHS ago, and is a minor matter at best.

Anybody who begins wringing their hands over this has been successfully manipulated by the Rove league.

[Melinda]

8. I am profoundly troubled by the GOP theft of Dem Senate PC files

What ever happened to THAT investigation, hmmm?

[tom_paine]

27. It ended shortly after the Phony Ricin Scare allowed Bushevik Cleaners

unfettered access to Senate Democratic Files.

Suddenly, as I predicted, the case dried up.

"Lack of evidence" don't you know.

[bluestateguy]

9. This story will be dead by Thursday

Once the report comes out, this moves to section B of the newspaper. That's fine that he's "troubled", but in order for him to be taken seriously the same level of alarm should be sounded when the current Administration fouls up intelligence matters. I make no excuses for what Berger is alleged to have done, but please be consistent.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. What a pants-load. If there had been any violation of ANY major laws...

...this story would have been trotted out so fast everyone's heads would still be spinning.

[lovuian]

11. Hypocrite Hastert is troubled poor Baby!!! Lets arrest & convict

not only Sandy but Cheney Bush & Rice for lying to us about
Iraq....

Lets Blame it all on Clinton is getting really OLD!!!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

12. How about the Bush documents that are missing?

You produce yours, we'll produce ours. In the meantime, FUCK OFF!

[booksenkatz]

13. I'm troubled, too

I feel that it definitely means something sinister. I think that he keeps rewriting history and that this isn't the first time he's tinkered with documents (hiding, destroying, classifying). What's in those records that he doesn't want America to know? I couldn't agree more, Dennis.

Oh, wait, I thought you were talking about Bush's military records. Sorry. Carry on.

[Zorra]

14. I am profoundly troubled that Dennis Hastert authored the IWR.

A total pack of lies.

[UpInArms]

15. so when the Cheney do you become troubled

that we have been lied into an illegal war, Cheney-Head?

You're a partisan hack POS you spittle-blowing piece of bovine refuse!

[jay-3d]

18. We don't have to worry

about Bush notes, he dosn't take any.

[msmcghee]

16. Listening to "Day to Day" a little while ago . . .

. . on NPR Mickey Kaus (of course) failed to mention one important fact. The same fact omitted by Frist. That is, the documents he took with him were copies, not originals. Therefore he could not possibly have done so to keep the information from the committee.

This is according to the AP article:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20040720/ap_on_re_us/sept__11_berger_probe_2&printer=1

Paragraphs 3 and 7 - as Joshua Micah Marshall pointed out in his blog last nite.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[DBoon]

19. Troubled?

If I were him I'd be sweating bullets, and not about Berger either

[LiviaOlivia]

20. Once you see Hastert quoted in the news

you know that the Minister Of Propaganda Karl "Gerbels" Rove sent out orders the day before. Hastert always follows orders.

[Generator]

21. Rewrite history?

That's what the whole 9/11 commission purpose was. Didn't he get the memo?

Our nations most sensitive secrets? oh honey pie those are not where you think they are.

[Pachamama]

22. I'm profoundly worried about the 9/11 Commission Report is what he meant

...and I'm profoundly worried about the missing (oops, I meant destroyed inadvertentely) Bu$h Military records...

What a bunch of pre-emptive hooey....first the talk about "connection between 9/11 and Iran" and now this about Sandy Berger...

They must be really, really worried to go to such lengths...this is good news...

[Davis_X_Machina]

23. I'm curious about the real reason for the flap.

What of substance would Berger -- who presently has no standing other than a witness before the commission -- have gotten his hands on that a sitting senator on the Foreign Relations committee,or his staff, would not have?

And if an independent commission has whatever it is that's so bloody important, and committees in Congress with oversight responsibilities in the area do not have it, who's keeping Congress in the dark, and why?

[JDPriestly]

41. It was just copies.

Berger stated that all documents the Commission requested were produced. This is just an excuse for giving a Democrat a black eye. It also keeps Berger quiet for a while. Remember how the Repubs claimed that O'Neill had taken classified documents. This is a replay. If they haven't interviewed Berger after all these months, this must not be a big priority. It may be just a way to threaten Berger and diminish the Democrats' confidence.

Even if documents showed up at Dem HQ or Kerry HQ, I'd be very suspicious of Repub dirty tricks. They've done it before. What is to stop them from doing it again?

[maggrwaggr]

24. I am deeply troubled by Hastert's complicity with war criminals

so there

[MGKrebs]

25. "Disturbed"? Perhaps his family should get help for him.

Sometimes the drugs just don't work, and when a person is a danger to themselves or society, they must be confined.

[DS1]

26. You have to admit, it was incredibly dumb of Berger to do this.

It's like we're on a team full of masochists, that keep redirecting allied supply drops to the enemy lines :eyes:

[argonne]

29. Right! Kerry could have named him

V.P.

[DS1]

32. No, that's not what I'm talking about at all.

When you're dealing with the biggest attack on U.S. ever, logic would suggest you leave everything in place, no matter how irrelevent you perceive it.

While recognizing this as a clearly timed smear-job (exactly one week before the convention starts) , why would someone that's been surrounded by lawyers so long decide to take documents?

[LuminousX]

28. Why is this getting more news coverage

then Bush's bungling?

[REVOLT823]

30. I heard a good point on this today

That the documents in questions were related to the SUCCESSFUL prevention of the Millenium Terror plots. What could be in these reports that Berger would want to hide, since we actually did something right in relation to terrorism. I agree, Berger was stupid for doing this, but I don't see some darker conspiracy here.

[doctorbombeigh]

39. Agreed. If there's a "conspiracy" here, Berger was probably

trying to prevent it (one hopes). If the documents relate to Clinton's success with anti-terror measures, perhaps Berger was concerned that these original documents would disappear, a la Bush's service records. I dunno, but I expect I'll find out more than I want to know about this in the next few months.

These guys are grasping at straws. Happily, the camel's back already broke, so I don't think it will do them much good. Now then, a new war with another "terrorist" Muslim country... that might help! (and it might not, we'll probably find that out too, before this election's over)

[HarveyBriggs]

31. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

So Sandy is prepping for testimony in front of the Senate. He takes some papers so he's sure he doesn't misrepresent any facts. He does his homework and misplaces some papers. Pretty common.

If he gets his testimony wrong over stuff that happened years ago, then he "lied" and gets hung. Take home some notes, then he gets hung.

Meanwithle Bush folks out a CIA operative and have yet to fix the problem at Los Alamos.

More than ever I hate the Bush folks.

Oh, while we'r at it. A marine in a combat zone gets kidnapped and he's a deserter. A preppie named Bush deserts and he's a "hero?"

Edwards is right. There are two Americas. And it sickens me.

This is a play for the loonies and nothing else.

Harvey Briggs

[aquart]

33. Look over there! At them!

If there really was a god, Hastert would have an apple in his mouth.

[Dover]

34. Break a story that is a big lie and then quietly recant the story

a few days later on page 29. This is a well worn technique of the right wing.

"oops...we forgot to mention that the documents were copies, not the originals. My bad..."

[hansolsen]

35. Hastert: when you say you are 'profoundly troubled" it would help if

you wiped the shit eating grin off your face and stopped giggling long enough to catch your breath. Just a friendly pointer from your friends at DU.

[struggle4progress]

36. Hey, Denny! After eight months, ya ain't got nuthin' yet ...

... but o'course ya never let that stop ya before. Looks like another o' them Repub opportunities fer a noisy long expensive pointless investigations ...


Probe targets Clinton's security adviser
Associated Press
July 20, 2004

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal 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 agents armed with warrants after he voluntarily returned documents to the National Archives. However, 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.
<snip>

"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.
<snip>
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/163810-2202-010.html


Analysis: The odd Berger investigation
By Michael Kirkland
UPI Legal Affairs Correspondent
Published 7/20/2004 2:04 PM

<snip>
Berger and his lawyer said the former national security adviser has been told he is the "subject" of an investigation, not the "target" -- which normally means investigators have not decided whether they even have enough evidence to bring a charge.

The investigation has been "ongoing" for at least eight months, but Berger has yet to be interviewed by the FBI. A Berger lawyer said FBI agents searched the former national security adviser's home and office safe.

And news of the investigation apparently leaked out only days before the commission issues its final report, expected to be highly critical of both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Former Clinton aide David Gergen, who worked with Berger in the White House, was interviewed on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday and said of Berger's actions, "I think it's more innocent than it looks."
<snip>

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040720-122249-1842r

[Snellius]

37. Why would Kerry benefit from documents from 1999?

The documents Berger supposedly took don't even cover the Bush adminstration but only the period in which Berger was involved. Even if true, this is a real stretch to come up with any political intent.

[Arbustosux]

38. I am profoundly troubled that a man without an ounce of integrity

Like Hastert would make a statement like that!!

[JDPriestly]

40. The "missing" documents may be in the Archives.

Granted, Berger admits to inadvertently haven taken documents that he then returned. But, the "missing" documents may well be in the Archives.

I used to work for a court, and often found documents misfiled. It happens everywhere -- even with the best filing systems and clerks. Also, how in the world can they prove Berger removed a document if it is missing. Maybe someone else did it. Wait to draw conclusions. This may be for real, but it may be a Repub dirty trick. They've sure pulled a lot of them in the past. Read up on Karl Rove.

[Arbustosux]

46. noooooooo

I am saying Hastert does not have an ounce of integrity....not Berger

[grasswire]

42. now I'm pissed....

REALLY pissed.

This is the first salvo. It's going to be a monstrous four months.

[mbee]

43. Too bad he isn't troubled by a bunch of election fraud delinquents

who sold the energy policy to the highest bidder (Enron)and started a bogus war where every day people are losing their lives for oil and a military industrial complex. I have no idea what Sandy Burger did, but one thing for sure he couldn't hold a candle to these criminals! He was probably trying to preserve information that they would try to get rid of if the truth be told!

[vetwife]

44. I am really troubled about the outing of a CIA agent !

Dennis Hastert is a what is that Ahnold says a Girly man.....That was inapppropriate too.

[Mike Niendorff]

45. So Dennis finally admits it.

So Dennis finally acknowledges that questions of a 9/11 coverup aren't out of bounds.

Good.

That's a debate I want to have.

Game on.


MDN