Berger Will Plead Guilty to Taking Classified Paper

Washington Post ^ | 04/01/05 | John F. Harris and Allan Lengel

[conservative in nyc]

Samuel R."Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism.

Berger's plea agreement, which was described yesterday by his advisers and was confirmed by Justice Department officials, will have one of former president Bill Clinton's most influential advisers and one of the Democratic Party's leading foreign policy advisers in a federal court this afternoon.

The deal's terms make clear that Berger spoke falsely last summer in public claims that in 2003 he twice inadvertently walked off with copies of a classified document during visits to the National Archives, then later lost them.

He described the episode last summer as "an honest mistake." Yesterday, a Berger associate who declined to be identified by name but was speaking with Berger's permission said: "He recognizes what he did was wrong... It was not inadvertent."

Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance. These terms must be accepted by a judge before they are final, but Berger's associates said yesterday he believes that closure is near on what has been an embarrassing episode during which he repeatedly misled people about what happened during two visits to the National Archives in September and October 2003.

--Snip--

The terms of Berger's agreement required him to acknowledge to the Justice Department the circumstances of the episode. Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening at the downtown offices of his international consulting business.

[conservative in nyc]

According to the article, Berger actually claims he didn't shove anything down his pants or in his socks:

The Berger associate authorized to speak with reporters described the chronology the former national security chief gave to the Justice Department in his negotiations with the Justice Department. On Sept. 2, 2003, the associate said, Berger put a copy of the Clarke report in his suit jacket. He did not put it in his socks or underwear, as was alleged by some Republicans last summer.

[nopardons]

The move,leave,get out of my country. Take your juvenile emotionalism and go find your UTOPIA.

[Constitution Day]

BTTT

[WorkingClassFilth]

True, true, true.

[liberallarry]

Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance.

They forgot to take away his underwear.

[bagman]

This week abounds in examples of depravity.

[Vision]

Take this as constructive criticism...you're an idiot.

[Revel]

That is the biggest problem. That it has become the country for people like you who keeps your head burried in the sand and pretends to be on an ectasy trip. You might better wake up...look around... And start letting someone know you are unhappy with the crap like this that is going on. Just like the boston tea party...It is not going to change untill a lot of people are unhappy.

[AZLiberty]

Building Clinton's legacy -- by erasing history.

[nopardons]

Take this as constructive criticism...you don't even have 3 working brain cells.

[End_Clintonism_Now]

[Northern Alliance]

...spoke falsely... I guess that is DU speak for lied

[nopardons]

My head is neither in the sand,nor anywhere other than on my neck, whoch is connected to my shoulders.

The BIGGEST problem are people like you,who know almost nothing at all about history, politics, and our government,but who aren't at all afraid to show how very little you know and understand,publicly, by posting banal,childish, DU like replies here.

The men who took part in the Boston Tea Party actually PAID for the goods they threw overboard. DID YOU KNOW THAT?

Unlike you and your ilk, who sit behind your computers and emotionally post deranged twaddle about "revolution" and taking action...I have worked tirelessly and relentlessly to help fix the problems; probably far longer than you have been aware that any problem even existed.

[budwiesest]

Next time I get a ticket for a "U" turn violation (that'd make three) I need a copy of this guys sentence, just to keep things in perspective.

[parisa]

Are we missing the bigger picture?

What classified document DID HE SHRED???

[Revel]

Take this as constructive criticism...


No matter how much you think you have....

You have not fixed a thing.

And you probably never will because all you do is attack your own. Which is why I responded to you in the first place. Because I get sick of seeing you attack those who have the gift of seeing what is going on around them. Since I was a child I have been seeing this decline, and the response I got from many was "well it is better than living in Russia". Well after many years of the populous thinking like that...it is almost not the truth anymore. It is nothing more than an attack against those who seek to point out the truth so that a decline can be prevented. It is through ignorance that we ever went this far off track. And it people like you that thrive to keep people in ignorance. And that is all I need to say.

[PGalt]

A get out of jail free card for Sandy "plea bargain" Burglar. Nice roll Sandy. Well that shouldn't mess his demeanor as he contemplates his next anti-freedom move. The harsh punishment is sending shivers down the spines of terrorists because that is their MOD. On their move they'll take park place, boardwalk and all the people in them. /sarcasm.

[mass55th]

Watch for him on Fox as a political commentator. They seem to hire all the Clinton miscreants.

[budwiesest]

These?

intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism.

Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening

Plus, they were next to his weiner, double-bad.

[nopardons]

I have helped to fix some things, but unlike some here,I neither drop names,nor toot my own horn.

I responded top an idiot, who said in his/her post, that this country DESERVED to fail. That's akin to those who said, after 9/11 that we DESERVED to be attacked like that.

Do you agree with those statements?

Anyone who thinks (and I use that term loosely!) that America is more corrupt and more vile now, than ever before in history, does NOT know or understand history.

There have been several points in the history of our nation, where most people did NOTHING and so things got got worse. There were even times when many people actually EMBRACED the evil and fomented it. I was not a party to it; were you?

You don't like me, fine, but jumping all over me, just because it's me,and NOT what I said, puts you squarely in the crowd that IS the problem, not the solution.