Will Justice Indict Berger?

Human Events ^ | Jul 23, 2004 | NA

[GailA]

Will Justice Indict Berger? Posted Jul 23, 2004

If a bank teller walked out of the vault with a few hundred dollars stuffed in his pants, took the money home, and kept it until the authorities came looking for it, would you believe him if he said it was an accident?

Of course not.

Would you be surprised if the authorities discovered the teller no longer had all the money he took--and that he claimed he "accidentally discarded" some of it?

Of course not. That is the sort of far-fetched story you would expect from a thief.

And that is also why Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger could soon face a day in court.

Berger, to be sure, is no bank teller. He was National Security Adviser to President Clinton throughout Clinton's second term. In that position, he was routinely entrusted with this nation's most highly classified national security information, and was expected to use it to devise policies for keeping the United States safe from foreign enemies. But, today, Berger is looking and acting exactly like a desperate thief caught in a desperate act.

[thathamiltonwoman]

Nothing will come of this. I doubt that Berger will do a day in jail.

[Revolting cat!]

This is hypothetical and farfetched, but a drunken RAT could drive an Oldmobile off a bridge and leave the scene while his passenger, say, a young woman aide drowned and nothing would come of it!

[Revolting cat!]

And your evidence for all this wild conjecture? Oh, I see, a goose egg!

[lonestar]

No doubt once he'd given up the index number, the deal was made. He walks.

Berger did all this 30 + years ago because he knew then that W would run for POTUS? What a stretch!

[InterceptPoint]

Nothing will come of this.

Although history is on your side I don't think you are right in this case.

The reason is that a failure to indict Berger after he has admitted to removing "code word" classified material from a Government SCIF would cause immeasurable damage to our classified document control system.

Hundreds of thousands of people working in Government and the U.S. aerospace industry have signed their lives away promising to accept punishment for exactly the crime that Sandy Berger has admitted to. You simply cannot ask the Security Officers charged with the protection of our classified material to explain to these people that there really are two sets of rules - those for you and I and those for Sandy Berger and his like. The damage to the morale of these people would not be repairable in a lifetime. And worse, the current high standards that we have established for the handling of classified material would deteriorate with unknown but certainly bad consequences for the security of the United States of America. No thanks.

Here is a challenge for anyone who is currently cleared for access to classified information: Ask your Security Officer what he or she thinks should happen to Sandy Berger. Be prepared to stand back a few steps for your own protection. In any case, they will confirm what I am telling you.

[muawiyah]

It's hardly wild conjecture. We have a guy who was caught red-handed doing a black-bag job on records maintained by a system in which he is an expert.

Why should any of us believe this was the first time he'd ever done this?

At the same time there's the evidence of "W"'s lost, destroyed and misplaced military records. You can believe it was all accidental, although there's no evidence for that, or you can investigate the situation to see if someone with great knowledge of military personnel records commited sabotage on a major Republican on behalf of Democrat politicians at large.

Interesting that news of Sandy Berger's perfidy with Archive records came the same week that news of "W"'s recovered Air Force records was announced.

I think it is exceedingly improbable that these two events are unrelated.

[muawiyah]

Why would Berger play around with "W"'s records 30 years ago when he had such a good opportunity to do so in 1997?

That's when Air Force was telling "W" that his records had been destroyed.

Please pay attention.

[Bonaparte]

"...John Ashcroft and everybody else will move on."

And, to his voter base, Bush will look like he doesn't care about national security. Most conservatives are already furious that he continues to leave our southern border totally vulnerable. If he permits Berger to get away with stealing highly classified and sensitive national security documents from the NARA, he will look bad with voters like me.

Remember what did his father in? He told us how seriously he took the tax issue. Then he turned around and crossed us. If Bush does the same on these national security issues, it will only prove that he hasn't learned the lesson.

[rolling_stone]

here is a look at what people go throught ot be eligible to view classified docs...and crimes & penalties..

http://www.archives.gov/isoo/security_forms/standard_form_312.html

[Revolting cat!]

On second thought, I think you might have something there. But will we ever know? Will we ever know what explosive evidence Berger took the all too obvious risks to destroy?

Even the possibility of that is now being covered up. The possibility that he destroyed some evidence that would have made the just released 9/11 Commission Report a complete joke. Can't allow that thought. But I digress...

[LibLieSlayer]

"this situation is different though ... justice must prevail or else the whole national security of the US is put at risk by the message any inaction in these regards would convey & portend".

Steven in a sage, and you naysayers would do well to head his wisdom.

bergeroid will burn!

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

head=heed sorry...what a mistake! :-)

[muawiyah]

Here's how we will know. Witnesses to Sandy's presence at an Air Force records center circa 1997 will step foward.

I suspect that's already happened, and someone Sandy roped into helping him has already betrayed him. They'll get an early retirement, of course, but "W" no longer has any incentive to cut Sandy any slack.

He'll have charges brought against him pretty soon ~ probably during Kerry's acceptance speech.

After that NAACP advertisement 4 years ago there's no more Mr. Nice Guy in these campaigns.

[InterceptPoint]

Don't remind me.

Here is an important paragraph from your link that affects anyone who has had every had access to classified information:

Question 18: Why do the obligations to protect classified information under the SF 312 extend beyond the duration of an employee's clearance?

Answer: The terms of the SF 312 specifically state that all obligations imposed on the signer "apply during the time [the signer is] granted access to classified information, and at all times thereafter." This provision recognizes that the duration of the national security sensitivity of classified information rarely has any relationship to the duration of any particular individual's clearance. The injury to the United States that may result from an unauthorized disclosure is not dependent on the current status of the discloser.

When you get married to this system it is forever.

[POA2]

My opinion - nothing comes of the Berger Scandal - The media orders have already went out - This story will not be allowed to get legs -

I'm sure those in the FBI and on the Prosecutor side have already been made aware (by some in the media) they will be the next "Ken Starr" if they look to pursue this any further -

This story is already off every major news networks main sites - (outside of Fox...perhaps)

[Freee-dame]

And worse, the current high standards that we have established for the handling of classified material would deteriorate

If Berger left with documents that the monitors did not realize were missing until later, how is this "high standards?" ....possibly high standards about what should happen with the documents, but lousy procedures to see that the correct things actually happen.

[Antoninus]

A democrat could have a 17-year old boy running a prostitution ring out of his apartment and nothing would come of it.

[mass55th]

Besides Berger being indicted, I want to see some action taken against the archive employees who reportedly letft him alone so he could pilfer these documents. There was a story yesterday about how archive employees left the room several times when Berger said he wanted to make personal calls on his cell phone. If that is true, and this actually occurred, they violated the rules of the archives and contributed to a breach of national security. They should at least lose their jobs, and/or brought up on charges like Berger.

[Revolting cat!]

The question to ask all you optimists predicting that Pantload will be arrested any minute now is why wasn't he arrrested any minute then?! When you're caught shoplifting is the matter investigated for 10+ months before the arrest and indictment. Sure, this ain't as serious an offense as shoplifing, it involves nothing more than national security, but still, time kinda flies, don't it?

Me thinks that in the end, if the indictments don't come or a slap on ther limp wrist is the only consequence, this disclosure will hurt Bush more than Pantload, despite all the diversionary screams this week from the RATS and their media sycophants.

[hoot2]

"Will Justice Indict Berger?"

Will Justice Indict hazel o'leary...

Will Justice Indict janet reno...

Will Justice Indict hillary klinton...

shirley you jest...