Clinton adviser in secret documents row accused of cover-up

Republicans yesterday suggested that the former national security adviser Sandy Berger was attempting to cover up embarrassments for the Clinton administration when he improperly removed top secret documents from the National Archives. The charges came on the eve of publication of the independent commission report on the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. Democrats have complained that the whole affair was an attempt to divert attention from the report, which is expected to be critical of the Bush administration.

Republicans yesterday suggested that the former national security adviser Sandy Berger was attempting to cover up embarrassments for the Clinton administration when he improperly removed top secret documents from the National Archives. The charges came on the eve of publication of the independent commission report on the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. Democrats have complained that the whole affair was an attempt to divert attention from the report, which is expected to be critical of the Bush administration.

Mr Berger, who has stepped down as an informal foreign policy adviser to the Democratic Presidential challenger John Kerry, said yesterday he had made "an honest mistake."

A spokesman for the commission said the body had received all the documents it needed from the Clinton administration. But Dennis Hastert, the Republican Speaker of the House, said: "What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation's most sensitive secrets?"

The former president Bill Clinton and other Democrats have suggested that politics explained why news of the Berger probe had only surfaced now, many months after the investigation began. "It's interesting timing," Mr Clinton commented at a book signing on Tuesday.