Free Republic

About Moammar Ghadafi, Ronald Reagan once remarked that not only was the Libyan dictator a barbarian, he was also flaky. Regarding the publication yesterday of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "letter" to President Bush, flaky is being kind. In different hands, the Iranian president's letter might have been a diplomatic masterstroke. The Bush Administration has been under mounting pressure to engage in face-to-face talks with the Iranians as a way of dealing with the regime's bid to develop nuclear weapons. As Samuel Berger wrote in these pages Monday, the purpose of such talks would be to settle "all issues of mutual concern: its...

Proving that he’s just as adept at stuffing an election candidate’s coffers as he is at stuffing his own socks, Sandy Berger hosted an "almost secret" Washington fund-raiser for a recently retired three-star vice admiral last night. Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr, as the Village People would say, is "In the Navy". And when you want to take an Able Danger Congressman Curt Weldon down, what better way than to send in the Navy? Berger, dubbed "Sandy Burglar" by radio meister Rush Limbaugh, gained notoriety for trying to stuff classified documents into his socks and other attire. The man, who...

Several members of President Bill Clinton’s national security team are hosting a Washington fund-raiser tonight for retired Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr., the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon in November. Officials at Sestak’s campaign headquarters in Media will not comment on the event, though an invitation sent out to potential donors and obtained by the Daily Times lists Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger as a host. "As a general rule, campaigns don’t comment on fund-raisers or people who hold them," said Sestak’s campaign chairman, Myles Duffy. Berger, who served as Clinton’s second-term national security adviser, pleaded guilty last year...

Sandy Who? Two weeks ago, Republicans were filled with glee, as Democrats fell all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, Samuel Berger, better known as Sandy, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught, and had “accidentally” destroyed the most important ones.) Note that Berger reportedly burgled the Archives on as many...

The American way On the other side of the Atlantic, where juries are revered, UK lawyers’ squeamishness about serving is given short shrift, as everyone over there is expected to do their bit. “Juries are one of the hallmarks of a well-functioning democracy,” says Covington & Burling white collar crime partner Lanny Breuer, who is the lawyer who represented Bill Clinton in his impeachment proceedings. “A citizen can’t be imprisoned or have his or her liberty taken away simply by the act of an official such as a judge, and that’s why we put juries on such a pedestal.” In...

Thu Jun 24, 6:07 PM ET Pamela McClintock, STAFFIn a sweeping apology to TV and print journalists covering Iraq ( - ), a contrite Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday he was wrong in accusing them of sitting in their Baghdad hotels and publishing rumors.   "Just let me say to each of you who have worked so hard and taken such risks to cover this story, I extend a heartfelt apology and hope you will accept it," Wolfowitz wrote in the letter, dispatched via email. "I understand well the enormous dangers that you face, and want to...