Oh, BTW, that ponderous, knuckleheaded speculation I presented above is, to me, a reason to suspect that this was not a “Save the Legacy” mission that Berger was embarked upon.

Let’s not forget that he was acting, apparently as Clinton’s openly designated agent here; maybe I got the wrong impression from what I’ve read so far, but I specifically recall that the current administration requested the former administration to assign someone to vet documents for release to the commission and Berger was the person appointed by whomever does such things for the former administration.

So Berger and the team that appointed him to “vet documents” might have known full well that while the final version of a particular document might be “safe” the marked up drafts might be “dangerous”. I speculate that Berger knew precisely what he was after and was trying to ensure that no “accidental” discovery of any draft document rather than the final document could possibly find its way to the commission. If this is the case he has actually accomplished his mission although it may have turned out to be a suicide mission, so to speak.

Is there any chance that that the details of whatever was scribbled onto the drafts, and the drafts themselves, would ever become public? The commission report is being released. Whatever was in those documents, even if there are copies, is not part of a different investigation and, quite possibly, safe from the completed investigation.

Somewhat weak on my part, but I think the mission had more immediate urgency than “Saving the Legacy” – it had something very important to do with “the here and now” rather than the “judgement of history”.