"Drag top-secret documents under a construction trailer, you never know who you'll find."
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.
Apparently he went back later and retrieved the 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.
I'm tired of hearing a new thread about Bergular and Caligula that has no teeth.
The New York Sun is reporting on this breaking news of a government report released yesterday. Wonder if the NYT's or any other MSM will give this news appropriate coverage? (or any coverage at all)
It was clear to some of us just WHAT the content of these documents MIGHT be: but since the CLinton Administration was a Scandal Factory for its entire EIGHT years, your guess was as good as mine as to what incriminating evidence could have been deemed bad enough to risk exposure, and yet ANOTHER scandal for the ongoing Political Juggernaut that is the Clinton Blight on America.
Still, though, I felt it MUST be something about 9-11 and what led up to it, and some substantive info on the Clinton Admin's lassitude and negligence at confronting or dealing with terrorism, Al Qaeda and bin Laden.
The WORST thing about this is not that Berger got a small fine and community service and another minor punishment, NOT that no one else really suffered because of it, but that the Press and Media showed NO interest in making him reveal WHAT the documents were he stole, and WHY he stole them. THAT would have revealed "the guilty mind" that the legal profession talks about in certain cases. (One doesn't do these things UNLESS one has something IMPORTANT to hide)/Hell, this might as well have been a question (what was in the documents) Chris Wallace asked Clinton during that interview months ago, to have justifiably worked Clinton into that kind of finger-pointing anger---and that's just the way the Dems do it--knowing that they are still being treated politely and being let off the hook, they attack pre-emptively as if THEY are being attacked, hoping it will all once again come off to the public as justifiable outrage at being victimized by the VWRC.
Most likely some incriminating evidence on Clinton's failure to respond to the Saudi's offer to hand over Bin Laden.
I found this to be rather interesting.
The union bosses told these guys to destroy the tapes and they did.
These guys belong in prison also.
{snip]
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.
1. Hardly a "criminal sentence"
2. Drunk Drivers are handled more harshly
3. No classified material for 3 years? Why would he EVER have access to those documents again?
4. The Clintons obviously still pull a lot of strings in the federal bureaucracy.
Nothing will happen to him. The press will make sure of that. He gets a free pass because he is a liberal.
What I find really curious is why noone left the archive building to retrieve the documents stashed at the trailer. One of the links I read gives a pretty detailed account of Mr. Berger's actions as he approached the trailer. Could it be he was caught on a security camera which was only found after an investigation was started?
I would bet he still has the original/copies of the documents as an insurance policy. A serious prosecution with severe penalties should have shaken those documents back out of his pants. Too many things just don't add up in this whole case.
PING
Sily Sandi belongs in jail. Why is FitzGerald going after Scooter Libby but not this lowlife?
He planted the documents in a "trailer park" - which is fitting since he worked for the Clintons.
Excellent.
There was also something about his "fiddling with his socks" and placing "paper in there". Of course, Sandi claims that, being sloppy Sandi, the elastic was loose or some kind of nonsense like that. The Clinton Mob obviously thinks that everybody is stupid.
Yes, what was that about "going thru trailer parks with $100 bills" and not knowing what would turn up? Now, we know what turns up: Silly Sandy and his secrets.
"Drag top-secret documents under a construction trailer, you never know who you'll find."
Good analysis.
I was one of the few who was convinced that he would serve time.. (I know I was naive.)
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.