Tim Blair

The Associated Press reports: Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, said Tuesday the Berger investigation will not impact the panel's work in any way. The 10-member bipartisan panel releases its final report on Thursday.

''This is a matter between the government and an individual,'' he said. ''They were not our documents, and we believe we have access to all the materials we need to see to do our report.''

Because, as we all know, the 9/11 panel isn't really all about investigating everybody's intelligence failure, is it?

Associated Press newsbriefs

You crack me up Tim.

And I get the feeling that Karl Rove is in his office, steepling his fingers and sounding like Mr Burns saying "Eeeexcellent!"

Anyone remember Fawn Hall?

Fox's story says he also stuffed papers in his socks.

Perhaps he was practicing for his eventual life on the streets?

Inadvertently placed secret documents in his socks.

Former National Security Advisor.

In his fucking socks.

On CNN:

That allegation drew sharp responses from two of Berger's associates. President Clinton's former spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said Berger "categorically denies that he ever took documents and stuffed them in his socks.

"That is absurd," said Lockhart, who is now advising Berger. "And anyone who says that is interested in something other than the truth."

Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis challenged any unnamed official who accuses Berger of stuffing documents into his socks to come forward and level that charge publicly.

"I suggest that person is lying," he said. "And if that person has the guts, let's see who it is who made the comment that Sandy Berger stuffed something into his socks."

Hmmm. Did Berger or his lawyer deny the sock charges? I note that the Fox attribution isn't a direct quote.

On a related note, here's my stupid pants quiz.

BTW, who could have guessed that one day the sentence "Did Berger or his lawyer deny the sock charges?" would one day be written, and that it would make sense?

Maybe Berger was bringing papers in in his pants, and wanted to weigh the same on the way out. There's an innocent explanation for everything.

He could also be stealing pants, the old wheelbarrow trick.

Now that's just silly, Ron...

Hey, wait a sec... where the hell are my pants....? WTF!?!?.......

These aren't the pants you're looking for.

(via the Star Wars Pants Page.)

Grrrrrr! I'm gonna kick your pants-stealing arse, Berger!.

The mainstream media may be frantically trying to bury Berger's shenanigans (a cat on a tile floor comes to mind), but Leno and Letterman will likely have a field day with it.

So they're _not_ denying he stuffed classified documents into his pants?

In the perverted world of Democrats, "Classified" means stuff into pants. "Top Secret" means stuff into socks. "Inadvertantly" means I meant to steal more but I only had two socks. "Cooperating fully" means Bush made me do it.

Well, I’ll be keenly interested to see whether Fox stands by the socks.

But at the very same time, Sandy Berger has hung up his socks!

Berger Steps Down As Kerry Adviser — AP

How do you accidentally grab a secret document and put it in your pocket and not know it?

The ones we deal with all have a STIFF BRIGHT RED cover. Should be bulky as hell.

"These aren't the pants you're looking for."

OMG - That is spew-worthy!! LMAO!

"No, no, Mr. Berger, I said put a sock in it!"

Clinton’s former spokesman Lockhart & former WH lawyer Lanny Davis deny the socks charge. Silence from Berger himself & his own lawyer.

CNN in the article above with Clinton’s people’s denials:

Law enforcement sources said archive staff told FBI agents they saw Berger placing items in his jacket and pants, and one archive staffer told agents that Berger also placed something in his socks.

That’s what they’re responding to. HOWEVER:

In Fox News’s Sandy Berger Probed Over Terror Memos

Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket, pants and socks, and also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio.

So, now we need to hear from Berger & his lawyer!!!! C'mon Sandy, sock it to us.

I don’t know how that name Nirenstein got into there in that last post on SOCKS. That comment was from me! I didn’t mean to pretend to be that person, I can’t even remember who Nirenstein is. Please Tim or Andrea, put my name there instead!

Well, it’s clear that I was wrong, I read the articles too quickly. Sandy Berger did not inadvertently place secret documents in his socks. If anything, he did it knowingly.

Come on, it could happen to anyone.

You know how it is. You're working, someone comes in and starts talking baseball, you get distracted, and the next thing you know your shorts are full of classified documents.
Happens all the time.

Remember nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee? He was working at Los Alamos, and absent-mindedly waltzed off with some hard drives full of nuclear secrets. Easy mistake. I'm constantly walking out of work with ballpoint pens and other stuff. Thankfully, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was on the case, or else the right wingers would have shot Lee for espionage.

So...

We have a categorical denial that the former National Security Advisor stole classified documents relating to terrorism defenses by stuffing them in his socks.

What planet is this, again? I want to go home.

We also have a categorical resignation of the former NSA from Kerry's team, now.

So that's Wilson.
That's Berger.

How do we leak the story about Theresa and the conflict diamonds? Ok, ok, then how about the mouse in the ketchup bottle?

I just wanted to say "categorically denies that he ever took documents and stuffed them in his socks".

Repeatedly.

I did not have socks with that document!

Oh, and Tim? (Or Andrea.) You server thinks it's in the Tasman Sea somewhere. Or maybe New Caledonia.

That is, your server thinks that.

Maybe someone told him to get all his shit in one sock.

We know tactically what Berger did: Steal classified documents.

What was the strategic purpose? Is he trying to change the historic record?

Here in America, it's a "pant"load, not a "pants"load. As in "That fat pantload in the White House." 1/20/93-1/20/01.

[I originally poste this over at Tim Dunlop's, but it also seems apropos here...]

There's an interesting interview with Berger's attorney Lanny Breuer over on CNN.

Breuer states that the Justice Department is "not concerned" over the removal of hand-written notes from the archives (apparently taking hand-written notes out of the archives is "a violation of Archives procedure" but "not against the law").

Breuer states that Berger "inadvertently" removed a classified document from the archives:

So he has a table. He's working openly. There are Archives people there and there are thousands of documents. And in the course of his review it was clear to everyone he had a leather portfolio. He brought it in openly. The Archives people knew it. And anyone who has works with Sandy knows he always has that leather portfolio and there were lots of business papers that have nothing at all to do with this commission.

And perhaps, Wolf, there was too much informality by Sandy and maybe too much informality by the Archives people. But at some point when he leaves, the memorandum got caught with his business papers and he walked out. It was inadvertent. He admitted the mistake...

But then, an attorney would say that...

It's that sinister Axis of Footwear again:

Ed The Sock

(Next show direct from Guantanamo. Rack that sock!)

Come to think of it, perhaps Mr. Berger's statements are not admissible. After all, we don't know that the archivists didn't torture him.

My lazy blog, with no new posts since Dec. 2003, has received way over a hundred visits since Tim linked to it on his homepage in the post atop this thread.

I’m going to think about posting something new on it. [Thinking, thinking...]. Maybe on a once-a-month basis. Yeah. Sounds like a plan!

God, this is nuts. How does one "inadvertantly" stuff something in one's socks?

"Oh, I was just sorting through these highly classified documents, and they got mixed up with my checkbook register, and, thinking it was my checkbook register, I stuffed them in my socks. See, I always keep my checkbook register in my socks. . .Why? Why would I keep my checkbook register in my socks? Well, because there's no room for it down my pants, of course! That's where I always stuff my American Express statement. Speaking of my American Express statement, funny thing is, I also accidentally stuffed some MORE classified documents in my pants, mistaking them for my American Express statement. I really have to start upping my intake of Gingko Balboa."

I've worked with both compartmented and special access materials. I almost lost my clearance by putting something in the wrong safe, thereby mixing compartments. All notes are to be stored at the level of the material it was taken from.

Not only is this endanging national security; taking something from the National Archives is like destoying historical artifacts.

This freak cannot even account for all the material. He says he MIGHT have thrown it away or destroyed it????? Two authorized people have to witness and document the destruction of such material.

He is taking a fall for someone. He should join Walker in a life sentence.