1.Who is he? - Bill Clinton's national security adviser
2. Why is he on the news? - The FBI has been investigating him since last year for taking copies of some top-secret documents from the National Archive.
Berger, who admits he made an "honest mistake," is guilty of taking copies and handwritten notes (that too is a serious violation of the rules) but not original documents. He's returned most of them to the National Archives but says some are missing or discarded. His conduct is inexcusable. But traitorous?
Many suspect that the White House leaked word of the investigation to reports on Monday to do divert attention from the 9/11 Report.
"President Bush, meanwhile, used the White House bully pulpit yesterday to elevate the Berger controversy to 'a very serious matter,' prompting Democratic outcry that the president was hyping an ongoing criminal inquiry into Berger's actions to deflect attention from an independent commission's report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which is expected to be released today."
This matter is minor compare to the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.
By contrast, the motives for whoever in the administration leaked the Berger investigation appear clear enough. Like the outing of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent, someone is sending up a smoke screen to deflect more serious charges. By creating a brouhaha about Berger's actions, the leaker distracts attention from any criticisms of President Bush and his administration in the independent 9/11 commission report.Posted by rdreyes at July 23, 2004 09:05 AM