We'll grant that visions of a former National Security Adviser stuffing classified documents down his trousers or socks makes for good copy. But count us more interested in learning what's in the documents themselves than in where on his person Sandy Berger may have put them when he was sneaking them out of the National Archives.
For the evidence suggests that the missing material cuts to the heart of the choice offered in this election: Whether America treats terrorism as a problem of law enforcement or an act of war.
Mr. Berger admits to having deliberately taken handwritten notes he'd made out of the Archives reading room. On the more serious charges involving the removal (and subsequent discarding) of highly classified documents--including drafts of a key, after-action memo Mr. Berger had himself ordered on the U.S. response to al Qaeda threats in the run-up to the Millennium--he maintains he did so "inadvertently."
There's only one way to clear away the political smoke: Release all the drafts of the review Mr. Berger took from the room.
If it's all as innocent as Mr. Berger's friends are saying, there's no reason not to make them public. But there are good reasons for questioning Mr. Berger's dog-ate-my-homework explanation. To begin with, he was not simply preparing for his testimony before the 9/11 Commission. He was the point man for the Clinton Administration, reviewing and selecting the documents to be turned over to the Commission.
Written by Richard Clarke for the NSC, the key document was called the Millennium After-Action Review because it dealt with al Qaeda attacks timed for the eve of the Millennium celebrations. In his own 9/11 testimony, Mr. Berger described these al Qaeda plans as "the most serious threat spike of our time in government." He went on to say that they provoked "sustained attention and rigorous actions" from the Administration that ended up saving lives.
But Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has the advantage of having read the document in question, had a different take. In his own 9/11 testimony in April, Mr. Ashcroft recommended that the Commission "study carefully" the after-action memo. He described it as laying out vulnerabilities and calling for aggressive remedies of the type he and the Bush Administration have been criticized for. Mr. Ashcroft further noted that when he took office, this "highly classified review" was "not among" the items he was briefed on during the transition.
That's a decent theory as to what was in the documents. And, of course, it can be partially cleared up by the release of those documents. What can never be cleared up is the identity and worth of the documents that Berger "lost." Whatever Berger took must have been a lot more damning than the heat Berger would feel if he were caught.
I'm glad that Bill Clinton can laugh it off. If Sandy Berger was the kind of fool who could casually lose top-secret documents then it says a lot about the kind of Administration Clinton ran. It also says a lot about the troubles and perils that George W. Bush inherited from these nuts.
Voters will get a chance in a few months to elect a President that will take us back to the 1990s era of terrorist figthing. It's not ironic that Berger is/was an adviser to John Kerry. The old team is ready to move back in to talk big and do nothing.
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