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Berger blocked 4 plans to get bin
Laden
9-11 commission report shows handwritten responses
on documents
Posted: July 23, 2004
2:00 p.m. Eastern
� 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger blocked four separate
plans of action against the al-Qaida terrorist network from 1998 to 2000,
according to the newly released 9-11 commission report.
The report cites a 1998 meeting in which then-director of the Central
Intelligence Agency George Tenet presented a plan to capture Osama bin
Laden, notes the New York Sun.
"In his meeting with Tenet, Berger focused, however, on the question of
what was to be done with Bin Ladin if he were actually captured," the
report says, citing a May 1, 1998, CIA memo. "He worried that the hard
evidence against Bin Ladin was still skimpy and that there was a danger of
snatching him and bringing him to the United States only to see him
acquitted."
Berger, who served in the Clinton administration, is facing
a Justice Department investigation for allegedly smuggling secret
files out of the National Archives prior to the 9-11 commission hearings.
After news of the probe broke Monday, Berger stepped down from his
informal position as security adviser to Democratic Sen. John Kerry's
presidential campaign.
The 9-11 commission report presents three other opportunities given to
Berger to take action against bin Laden:
- June 1999: The potential target was an al-Qaida terrorist camp in
Afghanistan known as Tarnak Farms. But the commission cites Berger's
handwritten notes on the meeting paper, which referred to "the presence
of 7 to 11 families in the Tarnak Farms facility, which could mean 60-65
casualties." The Berger notes said, "if he responds, we're blamed."
- Dec. 4, 1999: National Security Council counterterrorism coordinator
Richard Clarke sent Berger a memo suggesting a strike against al-Qaida
camps in Afghanistan. According to the commission, however, in the
"margin next to Clarke's suggestion to attack Al Qaeda facilities in the
week before January 1, 2000, Berger wrote, 'no.'"
- August 2000: Berger was presented with a plan to attack bin Laden
based on aerial surveillance from a "Predator" drone. "In the memo�s
margin," the commission said, "Berger wrote that before considering
action, 'I will want more than verified location: we will need, at
least, data on pattern of movements to provide some assurance he will
remain in place.'"
The New York paper, in an editorial asks why Berger made these critical
decisions rather than the president. The commission report notes the
decisions "were made by the Clinton administration under extremely
difficult domestic political circumstances. Opponents were seeking the
president's impeachment."
The Sun opines, had Berger "been a little less reluctant to act, a
little more open to taking pre-emptive action, maybe the 2,973 killed in
the September 11, 2001, attacks would be alive today."
Related stories:
Dems'
Berger response from Clinton playbook?
Berger
told monitors to break archive rules
Democrats
target Bush on file theft
Where's
Clinton on Berger affair?
Ashcroft:
Berger doc exposes security lapse
N.Y.
Times buries Berger story
Clinton
aide took home classified 9-11 papers
Berger
friends challenge sock-stuffing charge
Speaker
Hastert 'troubled' by Berger probe
