The breaking of national security rules by Sandy Berger is passing strange, including this aspect: if the removal of classified documents was "inadvertent" and merely "sloppy," how then did it happen more than once?
Through his attorney, Lanny Breuer, Berger called his mishandling of documents "sloppy." He said that after reviewing stacks of papers, he had mistakenly placed them in his briefcase.It is illegal to remove classified documents from the Archives.
Three government officials who have been briefed on the investigation said Berger was seen placing some of the material in his clothing. The officials declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
After one of his visits to the Archives last fall, one of the government officials said, Berger was alerted to the missing documents and later returned some of the materials. On subsequent visits by Berger, Archives staffers specially marked documents he reviewed to try to ensure their return. But the government official said some of those materials also went missing, prompting Archives staffers to alert federal authorities.
Berger said that after he was alerted about missing documents last fall, he returned those he could find. FBI agents later searched his home and office; it's unclear whether they found anything. A few documents are still missing, authorities said.
Implausiblity degrades into near impossibility. There's much more to this than meets the eye.
Posted by Alan at July 21, 2004 06:29 AM