Media Criticism

“Desperate To Avoid”

Ron Cass asks why the Sandy Burglar story isn’t one of the top political stories of the decade:

We all have a pretty good idea what the money was doing in Representative William Jefferson’s freezer. But the questions about President William Jefferson Clinton’s National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, just keep piling up.

It’s time we got some answers.

I can’t understand why the Republican Congress didn’t demand hearings into the Justice Department decision to let Berger off with a slap of the wrist. I can only surmise that it was because it was a decision of a Republican Justice Department. Now, they might be more curious, particularly with the new revelations, but they no longer control Congress, and I assume that the new majority will want to keep this dirt safely and deeply under the rug.

Space

Three Years On

As Jeff Foust notes, yesterday was the third anniversary of the announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration. Jeff thinks that the next two years are crucial. I agree.

When the president made the speech from NASA HQ, I was staying at a motel in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, looking for a house somewhere in the area (we ended up getting a place in Boca Raton). I live blogged it using the wireless in the motel room on my laptop, and then had some further thoughts. I think they hold up pretty well.

In fact, there were several related posts over those few days. You can check them out by scrolling about halfway down here.

Space

Not So Direct

Clark Lindsey has a little roundup of links relating to the “Direct Launch” concept. Short answer, Doug Stanley believes that it can’t provide the necessary performance. Having read his argument, I have no reasons to disagree, or think him less than sincere.

Of course, it doesn’t matter to me, since I’ve never been a big fan of it anyway. The fundamental problems with NASA’s approach to achieving the president’s Vision for Space Exploration go far beyond critiques of specific vehicle designs.

War Commentary

What Took Them So Long?

As with much of what the president announced this past week, why weren’t we doing things like this months, or years ago?

U.S. officials tell CBS News that American forces have begun an aggressive and mostly secret ground campaign against networks of Iranians that had been operating with virtual impunity inside Iraq.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress on Friday that Iranians are now on the target list.

Is the administration finally waking up from its apparent delusions that we aren’t and haven’t been at war with the mullah-run government of Iran for decades?

Administrative

Windows Bleg

I’m upgrading a hard drive on a Win2K machine. From what I gather doing a little googling, you can’t clone a drive with XCOPY32 for this operating system (as I used to for Win98). Is there some way using available system tools to do it, or do I have to buy something like Norton Ghost?

Political Commentary

Co-Conspirators

Whither Trousergate?

Berger, while reviewing documents, would take frequent bathroom breaks. On one occasion, personnel noticed an unknown white object beneath his pant leg. A witness said Berger “bent down, fiddling with something white, which could have been papers, around his ankle.” No Archives official did or said anything.

As a report by the Archives’ inspector general noted, “He headed toward a construction area… looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DoJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone.” He then slid the papers under the trailer. But he took more breaks than four documents or normal biology required.

The Berger team has maintained that: OK, it looks bad, but all documents had been submitted to the 9/11 Commission, and in any event copies of the documents still existed. OK, then, why cut them up and destroy them? Maybe because Berger wasn’t as interested in the reports themselves but in comments certain recipients may have made on the copies he destroyed.

The 9/11 Commission was naturally curious about how the Clinton administration handled prior terror threats and what it knew, and when, about potential threats. So, it asked Berger to testify. Clinton, we know now, signed a letter authorizing Berger’s access to classified documents in the Archives as preparation for his testimony.

A report by the National Archives and Records Administration says Clinton signed an April 12, 2002, letter designating Berger, and another individual whose name was redacted, as “agents on his behalf to review relevant NSC documents regarding Osama bin Laden/al-Qaida, Sudan and presidential correspondence from or to (Sudanese President) Omar Bashir, contained in the Clinton presidential records.”

According to the NARA report, a subsequent letter from a National Security Council official dated May 14, 2002, said Berger was repeatedly briefed that “he was not allowed to remove any documentation from NARA.” But he did. Now we know that we don’t know how many documents he may actually have taken and what was in or on them.

Another jaw dropper from other reports was that when the National Archive staff realized there was a problem, the first person they called was Bruce Lindsey, long-time Clinton consigliere.

Does anyone seriously think that Bill and Hillary Clinton didn’t know what Sandy Berger was up to, and what was in those documents he destroyed?

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!