Turns out there are indeed originals of the documents Berger took, in the boxes of documents waiting for the Clinton Library to be constructed. >>Political Grapevine
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Commentary by Paul M. Weyrich
July 28, 2004
Every now and then I have loosely related matters I think would be useful to tell you, but independently do not warrant an entire commentary. So here are the items for your consideration:
A number of important Members of Congress believe that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger leaked the problem he had about stolen documents on himself. The theory is that he knew he had been caught red handed. It is presumed that he knew the matter was coming to a head and would likely be made public. He reportedly leaked the story so he could retain control of some degree of the spin. If so, he did manage to turn it around and make himself the victim while charging that the Republicans leaked the story in order to deflect attention away from the report from the 9/11 Commission. <font size=4>The problem is that Republicans actually like the report from the 9/11 Commission and some, such as Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, are urging the public to read it.
Congressman Tom Davis, (R-VA) is going to hold a hearing on the Berger issue. Perhaps when everyone is put under oath the truth will emerge. <font color=red>It seems Berger purloined five copies of the same memo, among other things. The problem for Berger is that the originals are also in the material waiting for the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. That project is being managed by the National Archives. When officials of the National Archives saw Berger stuffing documents in his pants, they checked to see what was missing. They called Little Rock and got the memos replaced, only this time they had invisible markings. Berger apparently returned and saw those same documents, so he took them again. The library officials evidently tipped off the FBI who raided Berger's office where the marked documents were found. Republicans speculate that there was something in those documents that Berger didn't want the 9/11 Commission to see. He must have figured that some historians would come across the documents 50 years from now, but by then it won't matter. The objective was to deep-six something in those documents now.
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By the way, former Clinton apologist Lanny Davis has described in his book, Truth To Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education, how to leak stories on yourself in order to frame the issue if the worst is inevitable. Perhaps Sandy has read Lanny's book.
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