Posted on 04/04/2005 4:50:45 AM PDT by Liz
Sandy Berger, the top Clinton national- security official and erstwhile close adviser to Sen. John Kerry, has finally confessed what he spent nearly a year heatedly denying: that he intentionally smuggled classified documents from the National Archives — and deliberately destroyed them.
In pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count Friday — for which he'll get a slap-on-the-wrist $10,000 fine and lose his security clearance for three years (but probably not his law license) — Berger admits to secreting the documents in his suit jacket.
Then, once he got them home, he cut them to pieces with a pair of scissors.
So much for the "honest mistake" Berger last year maintained he'd committed.
Of particular interest to Berger were drafts of an after-action review by anti-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke of al Qaeda's thwarted attempt to attack America during the turn of the millennium in 1999. The memo reportedly identified national-security weaknesses so "glaring" that only sheer "luck" prevented a 9/11-style attack back then.
Berger had told the 9/11 Commission that the review prompted a strong White House response .....but John Ashcroft, testified that he'd read the memo, and it indicated that no action was taken by the Clintonites.
That Berger, in other words, lied about the Clinton administration's contempt for national security. (One of his CIA directors, John Deutsch, recall, stored 17,000 pages of top-secret documents and wrote classified memos on a home computer that was also used to surf Internet porn sites.)
What now emerges, by his own admission, is that Sandy Berger was engaged in a clumsy, post-9/11 cover-up of his own third-rate burglary.
Even more disturbing is the cavalier attitude of leading Democrats......Bill Clinton .....couldn't stop chuckling over the whole thing.
Who's laughing now, Bill?
Not Sandy Berger.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson
c/o US District Court
US Dept of Justice
Judiciary Center
555 4th Street NW
Washington, DC 20530
PHONE (202) 514-6933
BGRND: Apparently Berger's plea deal is conditioned on Berger's "cooperation." This is what we need to know:
(1) Have all the people who conspired with Berger been named and prosecuted?
(2) Did Berger actually destroy stolen docs--as he said---or are they being secreted (a) for Hillary's campaign in exchange for Berger getting a political appointment, for (b) Berger's financial benefit in his oil consulting business, (c) to coverup 9/11?
(3) Berger admitted to stealing documents the Archives did not list as missing---what did he do with these? Is his plea deal conditioned on Berger returning these as well?
also, America has admitted that stealing CODE level documents is "no big deal".
Come one, come all, and steal from the Archives.
No problem. No jail time.
Corruption IS America's Judiciary which jails whistleblowers
and lets murderers and CODE-level Documents stealers walk away over and over and over.
Perhaps the goal is to have America attacked again.
Perhaps the goal is to encourage theft of CODE LEVEL documents.
Perhaps the goal is that morality just isn't ground in the dirt low enough yet.
Perhaps those at the top work with, for, or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, al Qaeda.
Food for thought:
Sandy Berger-Burglar was a key beneficiary of "Gorelick’s Wall"
TIME, "The Ubiquitous Mr. Fix-It", Adam Cohen
Berger repeatedly rebuffed Sudanese offers to hand Osama bin Laden
to the United States in a deal brokered by a $900,000 contributor to Democrat campaigns.
Source 1 - National Review, "Clinton & Khobar", Rich Lowry
Source 2 - Washington Times, "Miniter Responds", Richard Miniter
Berger stonewalled the Energy Department about Chinese spying in Los Alamos for three years.
Nice research on Pantload Berger.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Link to thread on Berger's sentencing and plea deal. Lots of interesting info.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1376105/posts
Berger is to those stolen national security papers as Nixon is to the 18 minute tape gap. And, like Nixon, Berger will go to his grave with his lips sealed; he'll never, ever tell us what those margin notes said.
What's a little theft of classified info?
Yeah, compared with that heinous villain Martha Stewart who tried to cover up a one time insider trading crime whats a little top secret information theft and destruction?
I'm glad we no longer have a 2 class legal system with one for the rich and one for the rest of us. Now the corrupt politicians get their own. I guess this is compassionate conservatism.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Berger epitomizes the arrogance of the Clinton admin----laws meant nothing to them.
Except that the rule of law is the rockbed of democracy.
These Dumbo creepos exhibit no compunction for dragging our country down to the level of a banana republic.
from everything I've read, all the documents were copies of originals rather than originals. Originals are kept in the National Archives and the Commission also had copies. He should still get a month in the slammer. When will we start punishing crime in Washington?
I've read (somewhere) that the papers he took were the only copies with margin notes scribbled on them. I'll have to double-check that.
The Clintoons copied the FBI files and now have a J.Edgar Hoover insurance policy.
Fat Sandy Burglar cops a plea, takes a hit and lives happily ever after thanks to George Soros & Co.
It's really elementary my dear, Watson.
Next case...
That's the plan, alright. Time will tell if it's operative.
When the incident broke, the documents Berger admitted he took were not the documents the Archives said were missing.
Ergo, Berger took more than docs than anyone knew were missing-----originals or copies.
TREASON!
The traitor should be hung from the neck until dead.
And there is absolutely no sarcasm in that sentence.
We should not ignore this.
I have written my US Senators and my Representative, demanding more of an accounting of the actions of this traitor and demanding all the facts be brought out and shown the light of day.
Nice work. Underline your commendable actions with this initiative:
BGRND: Apparently Berger's plea deal is conditioned on Berger's "cooperation." This is what we need to know: (1) Have all the people who conspired with Berger been named and prosecuted? (2) Did Berger actually destroy stolen docs--as he said---or are they being secreted (a) for Hillary's campaign in exchange for Berger getting a political appointment, for (b) Berger's financial benefit in his oil consulting business, (c) to coverup 9/11? (3) Berger admitted to stealing documents the Archives did not list as missing---what did he do with these? Is his plea deal conditioned on Berger returning these as well?
Here are the details to send our concerns about Berger's plea deal. Caution: phone munber is a prosecutor's personal phone line - keep messages short and civil.
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson
c/o US District Court
US Dept of Justice
Judiciary Center
555 4th Street NW
Washington, DC 20530
PHONE (202) 514-6933
What I keep asking myself is, Why is the WH giving Berger a pass for this?
1. W respects the office of President and is unwilling to prosecute, no matter how corrupt the previous administration. The actual theft, however, happened on his watch, thus the slap on the wrist.
2. The Bush family and the clintons know all about intel shenannigans in Arkansas, and have a tacit agreement to let sleeping spooks lie.
3. Berger was caught red handed, and the signal from the WH to the clintons is, You owe us one big time.
Can somebody please cue up the John Edwards "Two Americas" speech ?
All three of your scenarios are utterly damning to Bush.
Yet, I can't think of any other possibilies.
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