RC Dean—

I have also not seen a definitive account of whether the docs were copies. The whole thing would make more sense if they were originals with handwritten marginalia, since it would explain Berger’s zeal to locate all of the versions and remove them from the archives.

I wonder, however, if the archives staff wouldn’t have been inclined to make an extra copy of the after-action reports after the first couple of document disappearances–unless making copies is verboten.

It would be interesting to know if the documents bore a COPY stamp or a “1 out of 3″ stamp or somesuch that would let Berger know what he was dealing with, or if it was just a massive cataract of unorganized paper. I suspect the former is more likely.

Now that the content piece of the puzzle is taking shape, there are two main questions: (1) Who would be most embarrassed by these documents? (i.e. Whose ass was he covering?); and (2) The big one: Why has this investigation dragged on for so long?