Posted on 03/17/2007 12:32:37 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
Sandy Berger sent an email to Michael Barone, responding to Michael's column in U.S. News. As we have written extensively on the Berger affair and have been harshly critical of Berger, it seems only fair to reproduce Berger's email in full, as it constitutes his response to his critics. Here it is:
Michael: I screwed up. There was nothing sinister about it. I was under serious pressure to digest the entire Clinton record on terrorism for eight years so that we could testify fully to the 9-11 commission. I spent several arduous days at the Archives looking through the files. This document was interesting to me because I had commissioned it in 2000a look at what we learned from the millennium terror threats that were avoided. Tired, stressed, I made a very stupid decisionto take the documents home with me so that I could review them in more detail and so that I could compare the apparent differences among versions. Since this document had been widely circulated to all the relevant agencies (State, Defense, CIA, Justice, etc.), I felt certain the commission would get it from one or more of these agencies.I don't buy it. Berger didn't make an impulsive decision--"tired, stressed"--to smuggle documents out of the National Archives. He stole documents on multiple occasions. On one occasion, he sneaked them out of the archives, went to a nearby construction site and hid the documents under a construction trailer, so he could come back later and pick them up. I simply don't believe that Berger engaged in this kind of cloak and dagger behavior just because he found the documents "interesting" and wanted to study them at home.
There were no handwritten markings on the documents (which were copies) or anything else unusual. I took no other documentsoriginals or copiesbesides the ones specified in my plea agreement.
The DOJ has stated unequivocally that there is no evidence that I took other documents and that the commission received everything.
That's the long and short of it. I made a very stupid mistake. I deeply regret it. Top-level career Justice Department prosecutors investigated it aggressively for two years. We reached a plea agreement that they believed was fair. That was two years ago. Now I wish this thing would go away.
Best, Sandy
Why go away? We need these to counter the Libs constant
ratting of our guys...How about Cold Cash Jeffferson of
Louisiana??....we have to pound these people or They will
pound us..look at Schumer, has his ugly puss out there
on every little thing...they are out to murder the
Repubs any and which way they can.. JK
Never did I expect to see a responsible Republican cooperate with Teddy Kennedy on anything. We now have a current President and a Presidential hopeful that have cosponsored legislation with a man who has shamed his family's name.
And I don't cut very much slack for Newt either. He has worked with Hillary to broaden his political base for a possible run. It is time to run the political hacks out of office and replace them with volunteer statesmen, who do not run to have a career, but run to make this a better country.
BTW, "Happy St. Patrick's Day" from the O'FOX family.
Berger is a proven liar. Whatever he says is of zero value.
Happy St. Patty's Day, FoxfanVox!
From the savemcliberty family.
The problem with the old ways in dealing with the Clintons is that they inoculated themselves against legal scrutiny.
The benefit to taking a less aggressive stance by allowing outrage to bubble over includes:
a) the peevish tone that Sandy Berger wants to make this stop
b) the demonstration that Hillary Clinton is a narcissistic control freak
c) the increased commentary that Berger still hasn't complied with his sentence
d) genuine alienation by potential Hillary voters.
Here's the deal. The liberal establishment went nuts in 1968 and went even crazier every year thereafter. After Clinton's presidency, no conservative or Rep can speak ill of a Clinton without the tarnish of the VRWC. It backfired. In spades. (BTW, I just finished the first book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and this is exactly like the Muslim tribes)
By shutting up, the unthinkable happens. Democrats and liberals do the job that really needs to get done and they criticize them.
Why else would Sandy Berger have written an email to the ever fair Michael Barone to try to make this go away?
BTW Regarding cooperation with Senator Ted, clearly you forget Senator Orrin Hatch, who does call him a friend. Senator Hatch, who as I recall, was relentless in his shots to limit the antics in the Judiciary Committee for Justices Roberts and Alito.
If you read Michael Barone's original article on Berger, which is available here
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070311/19barone.htm
you could also ask how a nice guy like Barone could know and like Berger for 30 years. Barone thinks that Berger couldn't have done it except at a command of Clinton. That is the core of the reason why it's so credible that Clintons forced him to write the email.
One more thing, it hurts Kennedy more than Bush for him to call him a good friend.
And as David Brooks says, say what you will about W, but when he believes something is the right thing to do, he is unmoved by polls.
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1060366.html
It's understandable that it wasn't known that he believes that immigration law today is bad law and that he believes that it's wrong to get in the way of someone trying to do what's necessary to take care of his family.
Exactly so. Therein lies the essence of the matter. Nothing proferred by prosecution or defense adequately explains this big fat elephant in the room. I have always maintained that whatever it was that Berger took, it was more than embarrassing, it was radioactive.
I have never bought the characterization of the materials as being solely about the Milennium after-action report. Berger's serial thefts were premeditated, calculated against a risk/benefit ratio. It is illogical to imagine that Berger would have risked so much just to prevent some unflattering stuff about his boss to surface, especially since the purported subject matter was already known. I believe the materials Berger stole included something much, much more damaging--about something that hadn't been known. The millenium after-action reports memos, imho, were cover for what he really went in there for.
I live in a world turned upside down. Sandy Berger steals top secret documents and gets no punishment for a crime that normally carries up to a 5 year sentence. A democrat congressman is caught with 90k in bribes and is STILL in office. Meanwhile Republicans are brought up on fraudulent charges of this and that and even get punishment for committing no crimes.
Ha this is only the begining. The left has hypnotized mainstream America. Talk about being swiftboated. The GOP has sat silently as it has been drug through the political mud. The media are squarely in the liberal camp. Media is the mass hypnosis machine that the liberals are using. Wait until the liberals really start doing bad stuff.
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1799485/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1797735/posts
Nice post potlatch!
The Dancing Burglar
Nam Vet
I have thought this for a long time. The legal definition of evidence requires the acceptance of a document, etc. in to a court of law. You said it so well.
Thank you!
Burgular is squealing
The net must be closing fast on Hillary and Slick Willie
I took no other documentsoriginals or copiesbesides the ones specified in my plea agreement.Oh, okay then. Maybe Sandy can take on a golf buddy, perhaps OJ Simpson.
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