QandO

July 20, 2004

Are those classified documents in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?
Posted by Dale Franks

The things that interests me the most about this whole Sandy Berger deal--like Reason's Tim Cavanaugh is what, exactly, he took out of the archives and got rid of.

Like Cavanaugh, I suspect that rather than being some hideously important national security deal, it was just something that makes Berger look stupid.

Still, even if that's what it was, it doesn't mean that they are entirely tangential to the 9/11 commission's work.

That doesn't mean the missing classified documents—which reportedly include several drafts of an after-action report on anti-terrorism during the millennium celebrations, handwritten notes, index cards treating the Middle East peace talks, and a paper cutout of a turkey made from a tracing of Berger's own hand and marked "To Maddy, Hapy (sic) Thanksgiving, 1997"—will not provide more general embarrassment for the Clinton administration; or that they don't comprise materials necessary for a full rendering of the 9/11 Commission's report; or that they might not give a boost to the embattled Bush White House...

It's important to note that the investigation shows every sign of being a low-wattage affair, and that the timing of the news is as suspicious as Berger's (and Kerry's) supporters claim. Joshua Micah Marshall notes that the question of whether Berger took home original documents (indicating he was seeking to purge the record) or copies (indicating he was merely careless and/or sneaky with homework) has become muddled. Unfortunately, it's muddled in a way that makes Berger look especially shady. According to John Solomon's original AP story, Berger attorney Lanny Breuer, "said Berger believed he was looking at copies of the classified documents, not originals." Translated from the indirect dialect, that means Berger did take home originals, and may or may not have done so innocently.

All in all, though, I prefer to operate by the rule that one shouldn't posit a conspiracy when simple stupidity will suffice for an explanation.

And it does tend to confirm my general impression of Kerry that this buffoon was his top foreign affairs/national security advisor.

Just as it confirmed my worst impressions about Clinton's foreign policy leanings when he hired him originally.

TrackBack