WASHINGTON, July 20 (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton`s national security adviser Samuel Berger is under investigation for allegedly removing classified documents from the National Archives before he testified to the September 11 commission in March, USA Today said Tuesday.
Officials familiar with the probe said Berger, 58, was seen stuffing handwritten notes into his clothing after reviewing classified documents in a secure room at the National Archives before his March 24 testimony.
Removing even handwritten notes from secure reading rooms at the National Archives violates security procedures, said the daily.
Berger testified before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, whose final report on how Clinton and current US President George W. Bush handled intelligence reports on terrorism before the September 11 attacks on the United States is to be released on Thursday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, said USA Today, have searched Berger`s home and office, but some of the documents he reviewed are still missing.
In a statement issued late Monday, Berger said he returned all his handwritten notes and some classified documents he had found in his office, but that he could not find two or three copies of an intelligence report surrounding terrorist plots to disrupt millenium celebrations in 1999.
He said he believes he may have accidentally discarded the documents.
"I deeply regret the sloppiness involved but had no intention of withholding documents from the Commission," Berger said.
One of Berger`s lawyers said the former White House official thought he was looking at copies of the classified documents at the National Archives, adding that he also knew that taking handwritten notes out of the room was a violation of procedures.
"I do not believe he acted illegally at all. He acted lawfully but admittedly sloppily," said Lanny Breuer, as quoted by USA Today.
The September 11 commission, comprising five Republicans and five Democrats, has held a series of emotional public hearings into the 2001 attacks that killed 3,000 people and released several interim reports.
Among its key findings were that Iraq`s Saddam Hussein had no cooperative relationship with Osama bin Laden`s al-Qaeda network, contrary to White House claims before the invasion of Iraq.