Face it, if this were a Conservative, liberals would be tearing their hair out, blue-staters would be marching en masse, the MSM would be following the story 24/7, the NYT and LATimes would be rife with damning op-eds. If Dr. Condoleezza Rice had been caught stuffing documents down her pantyhose, the story would be a feeding frenzy.
Everybody knows liberals are above the law because they are (sob) “tolerant and compassionate,” and they, and only they, know what's best for America (sniffle). These liberals think the "little people" should be silenced....that we should shut up about Berger breaking the law, that he should be allowed to shove documents down his pants and stroll out of the National Archives as he damn well pleases. After all, onetime CIA Director John Deutsch co-opted national security secrets as well, but Clinton pardoned him. Then again, is there anybody Clinton did not pardon?
Now, since Sandy is a Clinton Dimocrat, he has only to wink at the judge and cop a sweetheart deal. No jail, maybe a ten cent fine, and a loss of clearance for 3 or years, just in time for the 2008 appointments. Has Hillary promised to make Berger Secretary of State?
Berger's sentencing is set for July 8.... and he apparently got a sweet plea deal. Now, you can bet if Berger is not cooperating---- as his plea demands----the deal will be off. These are the main concerns that we should articulate:
(1) Have all the people connected with the Berger theft been prosecuted?
(2) Were the stolen documents actually destroyed, or were they secreted for Mr Berger's later use?
(3) Is the plea deal conditioned on Berger giving up information?
(4) Mr Berger apparently did not act alone. Is naming names part of the plea deal?
FReepers, demand Berger’s crimes be subjected to the fullest extent of the law. Send your concerns about national security, and Berger's outrageous plea deal here:
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson
c/o US District Court
US Dept of Justice
Judiciary Center
555 4th Street NW
Washington, DC 20530
Judge's Chambers phone: (202) 354-3070
Prosecutor's phone (202) 514-6933
Please keep your phone messages short and civil.
It is important that all who believe that justice should work for both sides, that we, the people, should not be left out of the justice equation. It's become apparent that individuals like Berger would set up kangaroo courts ala Third World banana republics, in order to exculpate himself. It's an outrage that the interests of we, the people, are being ignored, and that justice under our Nation's sacrosanct rule of law is being left out of the equation.
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson should be urged not to accept Berger's inane defense----the foolish notion that Berger's going back to steal documents more than once was inadvertent.......Berger's excuse that his thievery was inadvertent could and should be classified as lying to a judge......every lawyer knows this is very serious -----and if Berger filed official documents with the court attesting to this lie, that could be considered foisting a falsehood on the court, and is prosecutable.
It is important to remind the judge that there is probably nothing in the National Archives that could ever have caused Berger any personal or political damage because of his protected status at the time-----acting as a member of the cabinet for a former president. Anything Berger was attempting to do in stealing documents was done to protect someone else and at the behest of someone else. It is hard to say what did, or what might have happened, with the Sandy Burglar deal -- there are so many double standards and complicity in Washington nowadays that one can only wonder. We can conjecture about who Burglar was/is protecting. But it may go beyond that, and that anything Berger was attempting to do in stealing documents was done to protect someone else, and at the behest of someone else.
It could be reasonably postulated that Berger was not covering for the Clintons as is commonly thought, but that the Archives theft was to reinforce Berger's usefulness as candidate John Kerry's national security advisor---to get something to use against GWB. That possibility became more apparent when it was discovered that the US Pentagon traitor Lawrence Franklin gave US national security documents to AIPAC, and that candidate Kerry hired Steve Grossman, a past AIPAC president, as his key campaign advisor. Suspicions arose that candidate Kerry was being coached, and that somebody might have been leaking privileged national security information to Kerry in the effort to defeat President Bush. Berger was serving as Kerry's national security consultant when he pilfered the classified US national security documents from the National Archives. So, the Berger theft may not be as originally suspected (a Clinton cover-up)----but an attempt to compromise the 2004 election to undermine George W Bush's reelection.
Americans ---that is to say the “little people”----need to know the extent of culpability engendered by these activities--- primarily whether our President was harmed ----and whether Sen Kerry and his advisors--- Steve Grossman and Sandy Berger---played any part in undercutting the reelection chances of President Bush through the use of stolen classified documents, and, of course, the degree to which spying impaired President Bush's ability to conduct US foreign policy. One of the most important questions Americans need to know about the connection between the Berger thievery, and the AIPAC-Pentagon treachery, is the degree to which these activities hurt President Bush and the president's 2004 campaign.
We should consider that Berger's thievery served several purposes:
(1) A coordinated attempt to coach Kerry----positioning Berger to get a Cabinet post if Kerry was elected, and if Hillary (gag) is elected.
(2) Covering up for the Clintons' pre-911 negligence.
(3) And finally, even after the Archives burglary, Berger was slithering around Washington involved in profiting from US government business in Iraq.
Berger's Firm to Aid Oil Interests in Iraq
By Judy Sarasohn
Washington Post Thursday, September 16, 2004; Page A29
Stonebridge International, the "global strategy firm" founded by Berger, has taken on an interesting client, Gulfsands Petroleum Ltd., a private Houston-based oil and gas company. Gulfsands, along with its larger partner Devon Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City, has oil and gas exploration and development interests in Syria. And now Gulfsands is looking to Iraq. "Stonebridge is assisting Gulfsands in organizing meetings in Washington with administration officials to discuss the company's business interests in Iraq and U.S. policy toward Syria," Stonebridge Vice Chairman H.P. Goldfield said in an e-mail response to written questions.
Remember, this is the place where Berger cut up the Archives documents.
We should ponder this: when caught with the goods in his skivvies, Sandy Berger admitted to taking top secret documents the National Archives did not even know went missing. ....leading one to conclude, Berger took a lot more than has been wont to reveal, a lot more than even the Archives knew about.
Berger's plea deal is conditioned on Berger's "cooperation." We need to make very certain that we, the people, got something in return for Berger's plea deal. Like for whose benefit the documents were being stolen, when was the order given, who was involved in the conspiracy, and who knew about it.
We demand 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 for Berger's self-serving reasons: (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 cover-up 9/11?
(3) Berger admitted to stealing documents the Archives did not list as missing .
(4) What did he do with them? Is his plea deal conditioned on Berger returning these as well?
(5) Who was in on the cover-up?
In an earlier public statement, Noel Hillman, chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, would not discuss Berger’s motivation, but said the former national security adviser understood the rules governing the handling of classified materials.
Duh---excuse me while I crawl back onto the turnip truck.
So why isn't the public allowed to share the info about Berger's motivation?? Why is Hillman holding this back? These compelling questions should be posed to the proper authorities.
Send your concerns about Berger's plea deal to the judge who will sentence Berger July 8.
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson
c/o US District Court
US Dept of Justice
Judiciary Center
555 4th Street NW
Washington, DC 20530
Judge's Chambers phone: (202) 354-3070
Prosecutor's phone (202) 514-6933
Caution: phone number listed is a prosecutor and the judge's personal phone line - keep messages short and civil.
NB: As of today, July 11, 2005, we, the people, have not been advised as to the adjudication of Berger's outrageous offenses against the USA.
I'm now almost glad this fat-faced creep got away with it.
He'll become a poster child when Hillary runs in 08.
Is the real truth about Washington, that we are having a hard time find a GOOD EGG amongst all the ROTTEN EGGS???? It sure smells that way.
Okay, a woman in West Palm Beach gets SEVEN YEARS for driving without a license, yet someone can STEAL and DESTROY classified and secret documents from the National Archives and gets PROBATION and a paltry $10,000 fine?
THIS is justice?
Great post Liz.
~FYI ping to Alia~
A nation with the slightest chance for survival would hang this fat bastard.
He'll get a small fine that will be paid for him.
Now, I'm sure one of our "investigative journalists" could figure out why he did this. It's because the memo contained his notes in which he advised against trying to kill Osama. It made him, the National Security Advisor, look weak and stupid on the question of terrorism. And it allows the former Clinton Administration to preserve the myth they are carefully cultivating that they were tough on terrorists.
Berger joins the growing list of flunkies who take the fall for the Clintons.
We need to get a case number posted for this--that is the only way the clerks seem to be able to search the records for information.
We shouldn't be SHOCKED! We knew the FIX was IN! Mr. Delay and Rove get raked over coals and this bastards was caught RED HANDED gets a slap on the wrist! NOPE, no shocked here in Texas!!
BTTT
Berger's plea agreement was under the condition he cooperate with investigators. They want the people connected.
Let's hope he just stays alive now.
The switchboard number is 202-514-2000. Upon being transferred to Public Integrity, I got a voicemail recording.
xlnt post
Deafening silence of the MSM.
Where is the FNC story?
Liz seems Clinton got real chummy with Dad Bush after this verdict. Any connection there?? The Elites protect each other..or else the masses would see they are not Greek Gods but mortal men and women..(jamie gurlick comes also to mind). Our republic stands above any one Leader..until the SCOTUS totally destroys the founding documents then its down hill to tyranny
The man intentionally stole and destroyed Top Secret documents - documents intended for the 9/11 committee. He was deliberately trying to hide the truth about a matter of the most serious national importance. He should get the max.
By the way, he did this with the collusion of Clinton's lawyer.
Ping
This is a job for the internet. It's our responsibility to keep this story in the public eye, and try to discover what Berger was doing and why. Neither the media nor the justice system will do anything about it.
Lose his security clearance for three years? If any of us had done this, we'd never get a security clearance in our lives. The Washington political establishment certainly takes care of their own.
FYI