You are mistaking my point.
I understand that it is the information that we are safeguarding and that copies are just as good as originals in terms of information. I think that it is important that Sandy Berger do jail time for his actions because of the huge negative impact on morale that it would have on the loyal security people who work their butts off in both the Government and Aerospace industries.
What I am looking for is the motive for what Berger did. What counts is what he thought he had in his hands and whether he thought that he could destroy evidence by trashing the documents that he took out of the Reading Room.
My point is that we only have hearsay that these were copies and that the originals were safe. Sandy Berger is no fool. He had a damned good reason for what he did and I don't think we know yet want that reason was. The question of copies and originals goes to this point exactly. You can easily explain everything that Sandy Berger did using the theory that he thought he could destroy incriminating evidence by destroying the documents that he purloined. I want to know if that is what happened or even if Sandy Berger thought it could happen.
Sorry I forgot </sarcasm>