[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16826-16827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     INVESTIGATION OF SANDY BERGER

  (Mr. HOEKSTRA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton's National Security 
Adviser, Sandy Berger, has admitted to removing highly classified 
terrorism documents from a secure room during preparations for the 
September 11 Commission hearings.
  According to reports, Mr. Berger knowingly, and this is an arrogant, 
total disregard of the law, knowingly removed handwritten notes he had 
made while reading classified documents by sticking them in his jacket 
and pants. He also removed several classified documents. Some of these 
documents were discarded by Mr. Berger and are still missing.
  The missing documents are highly classified reports on the Clinton 
administration's handling of al Qaeda terror threats during the 
December 1999 millennium celebrations. They included critical 
assessments of the U.S. response to terrorist threats, as well as 
identification of vulnerabilities at U.S. airports and seaports.
  Removing highly classified anti-terrorism information from a secure 
area is extremely dangerous, and misplacing such information is 
absolutely inexcusable.
  Mr. Berger has attributed his actions to sloppiness. A person in Mr. 
Berger's position does know better than to do something so 
irresponsible, and he should be well aware of the serious consequences.
  The Justice Department is currently conducting a criminal 
investigation. We should render Mr. Berger the benefit of the doubt, 
but these admitted actions have the potential of undermining U.S. 
national security and damaging the integrity of the September 11 
Commission.

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