Thoughts from
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Irresponsible speculation about the Berg(l)er
By Tom Smith
 
Andrew Sullivan wants to know why Sandy "the Sock" Berger took drafts of the post-action report of the Millennium plot from the National Archives. 

Here is a theory.  It might be that the 9/11 commission had a copy of the final report, and perhaps even one or more non-final drafts of the final report (though the latter seems unlikely to me).  But perhaps there were earlier non-final drafts of the report that included even more damning language about the Clinton administration's anti-terror activities than did the final version.  If so, these earlier drafts might be quite embarrassing in themselves to the Clintonistas, and the revisions weaking the language would suggest the White House pressured whoever wrote the report to tone down the language, which happens all the time in our nation's capitol, but still seems sleazy, in part because it is. 

It seems unlikely the 9/11 commission would have requested the Millennium plot post action report and all of its earlier drafts.  It seems quite possible that the only copies of the early drafts in existence might have been in the National Archives.  If Sandy deep-sixed those (as we learned to say in Watergate days) then they would be gone forever.  And, isn't there one document that was "inadvertently" destroyed?  Maybe that was the draft which included a sentence later removed which read "But for that rarity, an unusually alert Border Guard, we would still be digging the bodies out of LAX."  Or maybe not.  Jus' speculatin'.

Before all this gets out of hand, I think we need to remember it is time to move on, that everybody takes highly classified documents and destroys some of them, and occassionally stuffs notes in his or her socks and/or underwear.  What you put in your socks, and especially in your underwear, is a personal matter, and not a matter for a criminal investigation.  When will we ever learn? 
posted by thomas at 7/21/2004 02:02:00 PM