That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. Sandy Berger, who was President Clinton’s national security adviser, would have us believe that he accidentally took classified documents from the National Archives last year.

If that fiction isn’t enough, he’d have us believe that he left the archives with personal notes stuffed in his pockets, contrary to policy, and that, later, he inadvertently lost some of the classified documents.

Already, Republicans are calling for his head, and Democrats are trying to divert attention from his role in John Kerry’s presidential campaign by claiming that the timing of the leak about the FBI investigation of Berger was suspicious.

Before succumbing to partisan sniping, one thing is certain: Berger’s actions at the National Archives would have been suspect for an average citizen. A former national security adviser who removes terrorism documents in preparation for Sept. 11 commission hearings has a serious lack of judgment or unholy motives. Was Berger trying to hide something? And, if so, why? Democrats should be asking those questions, too.

Baby formula swiped! Raise the terror alert! So, how are we doing in fighting terrorism on American soil? The U.S. Justice Department seems more intent on inflating numbers than allaying fears. For instance, federal prosecutors claim to have built 35 terrorism-related cases in Iowa, but that came as a surprise to U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt, who said, “If there have been terrorism-related cases in Iowa, I haven’t heard about them.”

Federal prosecutors claim that Pratt presided over six of the cases, but the confusion probably lies in the prosecutors’ flexible definition of “terrorism.” A Des Moines Register investigation found that those terrorism-related cases included four American-born airport workers who failed to mention drug convictions, five Mexican citizens who sold stolen baby formula to an Arab and two Pakistani men who entered into sham marriages to avoid deportation.

The above arrests, and more, were sent to the Justice Department, which used them to lobby Congress. For peace of mind, the American people need a more honest accounting.