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Reports that Samuel R. Berger resigned as a senior adviser to presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign after the disclosure that he had improperly removed classified material on terrorism from a secure government reading room. Criticism of Berger from Republican leaders who accused him of crossing lines of national security in an effort to improve Kerry's campaign; Acknowledgement that Berger removed copies of classified documents related to a failed 1999 terrorist plot to bomb the Los Angeles airport; How Berger did not want his actions to detract from Kerry's candidacy.

Discusses how the hearings of the September 11 commission and its preliminary findings have made clear that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were a threat that was recognized and discussed at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Suggestion by some commission members that the attacks could have been prevented; Political implications of the examination; Focus on previously classified information given to two presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and their senior advisors; Overview of the findings, including missed opportunities amid a stream of warnings; Ways that the attacks might have been prevented; Counterterrorism approaches of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.