NEW YORK, 23 July 2004 — Samuel “Sandy” Berger, the former national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, took center stage this week in a deeply partisan political drama when it was leaked that he was the target of a nine-month long investigation by the FBI. The leak came days before the release of the final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.
On Tuesday, Berger resigned as an unpaid adviser to Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign following allegations that he mishandled classified documents. It was rumored, if elected, Kerry would have picked Berger as his Secretary of State.
“The notion of one of Washington’s most respected foreign policy figures being subjected to treatment that had at least a faint odor of a sting operation is a strange one. But the peculiarities — and conflicting versions of events and possible motives — ...
this week bucked Berger out of an esteemed position as a leader of the Democratic government-in-waiting that had assembled around presidential nominee John F. Kerry,” said today’s Washington Post.
The resignation, less than one day after the media leak, illustrates how serious Democrats are taking any hint of scandal. But their act of ‘damage control’ did not stop top Republicans on the Hill from attacking Berger and linking his wrongdoings to the November elections.
“I deal with classified documents every single day. We know better, and Sandy Berger knew better,” Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, told reporters.
“And for gosh sakes, Senator Kerry knows better than to utilize those documents in any way. And we think it needs to be called into question as to whether or not they have,” Chamblis said.
Adding to the partisan wrath, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Berger’s actions on Tuesday a “third-rate burglary” and a “gravely, gravely serious” threat to national security.
But David Gergen, a former adviser to President Clinton, told NBC’s Today show this week the situation is “more innocent than it looks.”
Gergen said the investigation of Berger started months ago, and he called it “suspicious” and “questionable” that the story was leaked in the same week that the 9/11 Commission released its report on the events and intelligence leading up to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The 9/11 report presents a direct political threat to the Bush candidacy, since Bush is running on the theme he has exhibited sound leadership in difficult times.
“Somebody is manipulating the process,” Republican strategist Eddie Mahe told CBS News. “I will say that categorically, for some agenda of some kind.”
Democrats argue this is a case of dirty politics. Admitting Berger’s actions were careless, they point out that he did not hinder national security. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, told reporters “the timing speaks for itself.”
After first denying knowledge of the investigation, the White House admitted Wednesday that it knew for months, though it denied leaking the information. The source of the story, first reported by the Associated Press, remains unclear.
“We have attempted to have a serious and open discussion with the Department of Justice for the better part of the year, regarding events a year old,” Berger’s lawyer Lanny A. Breuer said. “And very unfortunately, someone, and I don’t know, decided to leak the existence of this investigation... days before the release of the 9/11 commission report.”
