Posted on 12/20/2006 2:12:49 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday. The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he said it was possible he threw them in his office trash.
The report said that when Archives employees first suspected that Berger _ who had been President Clinton's national security adviser _ was removing classified documents from the Archives in the fall of they failed to notify any law enforcement agency.
Berger, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents, was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.
The report said that when Berger was reviewing the classified documents in the Archives building a few blocks from the Capitol, employees saw him bending down and fiddling with something white, which could have been paper, around his ankle.
However, Archives employees did not feel at the time there was enough information to confront someone of Berger's stature, the report said.
Brachfeld reported that on one visit, Berger took a break to go outside without an escort.
"In total, during this visit, he removed four documents ... .
"Mr. Berger said he placed the documents under a trailer in an accessible construction area outside Archives 1 (the main Archives building)."
Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.
Berger, with the authorization of former President Clinton, was reviewing National Security Council documents on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, Sudan, and related presidential correspondence. The review was to facilitate Berger's impending testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees.
And Libby is spending millions to defend himself from nothing. Along with Tom Delay. I almost want to give up.
Did anyone stop to think the the Washington Post made up this story and now the truth has emerged? So now they will bury it to protect themselves and the rest of the MSM.
I recognize those documents!
That's the Rose law firm/Whitewater billing records before they moved on to fancier digs in the White House living quarters. One really never knows where an inanimate object will project itself, does one.
;)
And those are just the ones we KNOW about!
Heck, I forgot to add Vince Foster's papers that Bernie Nussbaum took before investigators were allowed in Foster's office.
classic ping
I have to laugh everytime I hear a liberal claim that they will gladly hold people on their side of the political aisle responsible for any crimes or ethic violations they may commit, same as they hold Republicans feet to the fire.
I'm still waiting to see that.
I might agree if this news had come out BEFORE Berger got off with only a wristslap. Why is this news now????
I am always amazed at the talent of folks who compose such masterpieces as the one you posted.
LOL. It's a keeper, right up there with the one showing Bill Richardson tending to nuke tech orders at the Los Alamos fast-food-like drive-through for China and any other interested nation making sizeable and illegal campaign donations.
Those FBI files...
A very sore topic for many lawmakers.
Methinks that's why so many have not fought back over the years.
Craig Livingston, a nobody from nowhere with no credentials whatsoever is appointed as Director of White House Personnel Security? Isn't it funny that we now know exactly what that title means!
And I am reminded of all the flak GWB took over Michael Brown/FEMA. What impeccable background did Livingston have? Always double standards...
Conservative do hold the feet of the GOP to the fire with a vengance. When the Foley story broke FReepers immediately started calling for his resignation. In fact I was one of his few defenders (I wanted the facts first) but when they came out, he had to go and he had to go now.
Meanwhile on the democratic side there are people like Alcee Hastings, Barney Frank, etc. Just recently the story about Ted Kennedy passing info to the KGB came to light. I know some democrats who were "outraged" about that too.
Im trying to remember the story of the Whitewater papers that showed up in the trunk of a car after a tornado hit a junk yard in Arkansas
Wow.
I HAD NO IDEA HOW EASY IT MUST BE THEN TO GET A JOB AT THE WHITE HOUSE!!! I HAD NO IDEA AT ALL.
Amazing documents that directly link the failure of the Clinton Administration in getting UBL prior to 911... Amazing and yet when speculation as to the impact of how his impeachment played a role in causing 911 well hush now his legacy is more important then national security...
Most Americans are ignorant and clueless. But Blame Bush seems to have caught on...
And which party was in control of the Attorney Generals office during this investigation? I'm beginning to think we are in real trouble.
1. He committed a crime and then lied about the crime to cover it up i.e., took documents said he discarded them then said he got them back from his office and returned them.
2. He was the NSA to a president hello... he knew the full weight of the treason that he undertook. He knew how it could be perceived and that death was the penalty and yet... knowing all this he did it anyway... are we to believe this is for some pawltry insignificant documents... This is the SMOKING GUN on how and why 911 happened and the MSM is largely playing ignorant on it... But OMG Valerie Plame is costing taxpayers millions to investigate.
Some folks here have speculated that the Clinton mafia made a deal with the Bushies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.