Don't Mess With The National Archives!

The mention of the National Archives and Records Admfinistration (NARA) and the Slickster's National Security Advisor—Samuel (Sandy) Berger—brought back memories. In September 1971, I was in Washington, DC to plumb the depths of the National Archives for information about African-Americans in Texas between 1930-1954 (my dissertation topic). One of the first groups of records I requested were those of the National Youth Administration in Texas (forerunner of college work-study programs today). I completed the request and was connected with an archivist (a guy wearing a lab coat or something like it). The archivist in charge of this records group took me down into the bowels of the National Archives. Shelf after shelf of boxes. The boxes for the National Youth Administration in Texas were empty! I looked at the archivist. He said, "The records have been removed from the National Archives." I said, "I thought that nothing was to be removed from the National Archives." The archivist said, "So did I, until the staff from the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin descended upon this records group." The archivist told me that LBJ Library had "borrowed" all of the boxes and boxes of documents to make copies so that the LBJ Library would have everything that ever passed through Lyndon Johnson's hands in an official capacity. Further, the archivist said that if he were in my place—coming halfway across the country to do research in the NYA records (among others)—he would go to the Presidential Libraries office in the National Archives administrative suite (upstairs) and file a complaint about this breach of public law. So, I did just that. I was asked to leave a telephone number and the next day, I received a call from the Office of Presidential Libraries. I was asked to meet with an assistant to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. I appeared at the place and time and was met by an official who sat me—instead of a chair in front of his desk—in one of a pair of armchairs on the other side of the office. I was offered coffee from a sterling silver coffee service. I received an apology for my inconvenience. It seemed that LBJ had convinced the Trickster to approve the temporary removal of the NYA records to Austin. LBJ told the Trickster that he would have his own presidential library (eventually in Loma Linda, CA) and that he could use the precedent to remove records from the National Archives for the Trickster presidential library. That sold the Trickster and the records were hauled away to Austin. (Little did anyone envision the archival nightmare that would surround the Trickster's papers a'la Watergate.) Finally, I was assured that I would have access to the NYA records and I was. Later in the fall, I received a telegram from the NARA. I would have exclusive access to the NYA records at the Fort Worth Federal Records Center. When I arrived in the Fort Worth facility, I was given a royal greeting. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to be had. When I left a few hours later, the staff seemed apprehensive. Perhaps they thought I was going to file another grievance. Sandy Berger should have claimed the presidential library exemption to the non-removal of materials from the National Archives. If this is (fair & balanced) pilfering, so be it.


[x The New York Times]
Clinton Aide Took Classified Material
By MARK GLASSMAN

WASHINGTON, July 19 - President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, removed classified security documents from the National Archives while vetting them in preparation for testimony before the Sept. 11 commission and has become the subject of a criminal investigation, his lawyer said Monday night.

Mr. Berger removed at least two versions of a memorandum assessing how the government handled intelligence and security issues before the millennium celebrations in 1999, his lawyer, Lanny A. Breuer, said. He also removed notes he took about classified documents, the lawyer said.

"In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the 9/11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the archives," Mr. Berger said in a statement.

He said, "I deeply regret the sloppiness involved," and added that he had not intended to keep any document from the commission. The investigation was first reported by The Associated Press.

Mr. Berger returned all of the documents and notes to the archives in October, within a week of his learning they were missing, his lawyers said.

Federal agents investigated Mr. Berger's handling of the materials, a senior government official said this evening. The official said the inquiry's results were being reviewed by a Justice Department prosecutor, who will decide whether any laws were broken.

Copyright © 2004 The New York Times Company