To the editor:

Former Clintonite Sandy Berger borrowed secret papers from 9-11 commission files on intelligence bungles. As a worst case, let’s assume Berger gave copies to al-Qaida. We should be outraged, I’d say, in proportion to the damage that causes the United States.

Considering that the United States classifies literally billions of lines of print, only a tiny share of secrets actually matter to America’s enemies — as opposed to enemies of bureaucrats who classify stuff for purposes of bottom-covering and self-importance-inflating. For example, Thursday’s 9/11 report revealed 10 once-secret bungles that enabled 9/11. But let’s assume al-Qaida needed to see source documents.

The FBI started investigating in January. This week, coincidentally just before the Democratic Party convention, Republicans started a congressional investigation and notified the conservative echo chamber. Also coincidentally, a Journal-World editorialist wrote “Where is the outrage?” (July 22). Actually, the outrage is palpable wherever Republican ideologues gather. But let’s assume the editorialist was concerned about an outrage absent among Democrats and Independents. He deserves an answer.

Maybe those folks used up their outrage on a real security leak. In July 2003 a high Bush official leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. That leak really does matter. After CIA agent Richard Welch was outed and murdered in 1975 it became a felony to out them. Coincidentally, Plame’s husband torpedoed a Bushian misstatement about Niger uranium in Iraq. It’s also a felony to retaliate against whistle-blowers. Coincidentally, the administration’s self-investigation of its own leak hasn’t reported any results.

David Burress,

Lawrence