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.
Yes, as a result of a negotiated plea deal with an agreed upon sentence.
Who was this deal negotiated with? Why your very own Justice Department headed by none other than our Executive-in-Chief George W. Bush.
Moral of the story: One hand washing the other. Bush and Clinton.
Why this now?
I'm sure "the most ethical congress ever" will want to reconvene the 9/11 comission to find out what he made disappear. [/sarc]
At least he can't be charged for LYING to the investigators. /s
Perhaps Vince Foster??
... and he's not in jail because....?
Who covered his $50,000 fine ? Lippo Bank ?
Because of his Clintonesque ability to parse words--he thought the construction trailer was really a trash can. Easy mistake that anyone could have made.
Just how low can a Rat sink?? This is being reported now and wasn't made public at his conviction? What a 2-bit crook! For this act of malfeasance and possible sedition, he should be re-sentenced to a lifetime prohibition of access to classified docs. Unreal.
Berger, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents, was fined $50,000 $5,000,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service as Pat Robertson's personal servant and was barred from access to classified material forever three years.
ah, much better...
Still, he should have gotten at least 60 years.
"PROMISED never to do it again"!
Hiding papers under a construction trailer? How fitting for Clinton trailer trash.
Willful theft and destruction of such documents should have been considered a crime on the order of espionage or treason.
This was no "accident". No jail time. And on a suspension on his national security clearance. The man should never have HAD any more clearance as he no longer had the job. I don't get keys to MY former offices. I don't work there anymore.
"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."
This story won't be big in MSM either. This AP blurb will be about it.
The question is who took them from the hiding spot under the construction trailer. Who believes he actually took them home and destroyed them?
Because he mistook the construction trailer for a trash can--he thought he was only emptying the trash when he went back to remove them. Easy Clintonesque explanation. Anyone could have made the same mistake.
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