Posted on 01/20/2007 8:29:18 AM PST by Libloather
Damage from Berger's theft understated, Davis says
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 10, 2007
Samuel R. Berger's theft of documents from the National Archives compromised national security "much more than originally disclosed" and resulted in "incomplete and misleading" information being given to the September 11 commission, says the former chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.
"It is now also clear that Mr. Berger was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience," Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican, said yesterday.
"No one ever told the commission Mr. Berger had access to original documents he could have taken without detection."
**SNIP**
Lanny Breuer, Mr. Berger's attorney, said the matter was thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department for more than two years and effectively closed for more than a year. He said the report's conclusions were based on "pure conjecture."
"Not a single fact is offered to support them," Mr. Breuer said.
"Sandy Berger made a mistake. But he has admitted that mistake, fully cooperated with the government's investigation, paid his debt to society, and moved on. It's time for the new congressional minority to do the same."
Mr. Davis described the Justice Department's assertion that Mr. Berger's statements were credible after being caught as "misplaced." He said, "One wouldn't rely on the fox to be truthful after being nabbed in the henhouse. But the Justice Department apparently did."
Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said the department "has no evidence that Sandy Berger's actions deprived the 9/11 commission of documents, and we stand by our investigation of this matter."
**SNIP**
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The Berger fiasco
Winchester Star - Jan 14 9:21 PM
The only good news that can be inferred from the final government report on the pilfering activities of Sandy Berger is that, thankfully, the former Clinton administration national security advisor is no longer working in government.
In my opinion this is a worse crime than Watergate. That just involed the break in of a low rate DNC office. Berger's invovled theft of documents from the national archives. A much more serious crime and from what I have read approved by Billy Boy Clinton.
This is still a mystery why Burglar is not serving a prison sentence. If he had been a Repub, he would already be in the Gray Bar Hotel. Another member of the Clinton criminal team, that walks free, after committing an egregious felony against the people of this country. The political class continues to protect its own.
He's so lucky. By the time Hillary becomes POTUS he will be able to get his security clearance back and have unfettered access to remake history again.
it sure it a worse crime than WATHERGATE. I can't wait until 60 Minutes does their full investigation on it.
Our Bloggers should get on this and keep on it...
Why should Moveon..crap do their thing on all the
Republicans and we can't get something like this to
keep the pressure on?????????? We need an investigative team to bring out more facts..JK
I think it was all about the democratic platform that they used to weaken the Republican platform. He removed evidenced that would have proved that President Bush was right about a lot of things. Had he not removed those documents that more than likely showed the the flaws in the intelligence in fact came from the Clinton administration. If true, the dems could have said nothing about making mistakes.IMO
"Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra ..."
Bravo, Mr. Sierra. Have you ever encountered a more aptly named spokesman for the Justice Department?
Virtually ignored by the mainstream media.
Sandy Burglar made a mistake. Sure. The guy who knew the laws and rules governing the National Security Archives better then anyone else conveniently forgot those rules?
Yes, Sandy Burglar mistakenly shoved national security documents into his socks.
Sandy Burglar then mistakenly shoved even more national security documents into his underwear.
Sandy Burglar then mistakenly concocted a story so he could 'take a break' outside the National Security Archive.
Sandy Burglar then mistaenly hid those same documents underneath a construction trailer to be picked up later.
Sandy Burglar mistakenly came back later and picked up those same documents.
Sandy Burglar mistakenly took those documents home and destroyed them.
Sandy Burglar mistakenly broke the law, mistkenly kept vital national security information from Congressional committees, mistakenly compromised the safety of every single man, woman and child in the USA.
But he has admitted that mistake, fully cooperated with the government's investigation, paid his debt to society, and moved on
Is that all we little peeples have to do to get a slap on the wrist? Admit we were mistaken?
The Sandy Burglar precedent has been set folks.
Yes, we should keep this alive. But, keep in mind the reason Moveon is successful is they have the full cooperation of ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBCLATWAPONYT. That is quite a lot of help.
When is the Main Stream Media (aka MSM or DBM) going to get behind this story????
Texas is frozen over; maybe hell is next.
The only good news that can be inferred from the final government report on the pilfering activities of Sandy Berger is that, thankfully, the former Clinton administration national security advisor is no longer working in government.
Not for two more years. After that, who knows.
It's too damned late now. He should have been investigated and prosecuted years ago, when it was discovered. Instead, he was let off the hook and the whole affair was hushed up. Most people didn't even know it happened. There were a few small paragraphs in the papers, and that was that.
Instead, the Gonzalez Justice Department put a Democrat stooge in charge of Plamegate, in which a crime was admittedly not even committed, and spent three years prosecuting anyone near Bush and Cheney that they could get their hands on, while the press ran enormous headlines for years. Scooter Libby is still being persecuted, basically for nothing, since Wilson and Plame and the reporters they leaked to are the chief culprits, working to undermine the CIA, the administration, and the war effort.
Yes, I agree, we should do everything we can to publicize this case, as a matter of historical accountability. But nothing can be done to repair the inexplicable political and legal lapses. The whole thing has been sheer stupidity.
BTTT!
The Demonrats had a clear and well-planned strategy to shamelessly exploit the 9/11 hearings, packing the commission with partisan hacks like Ben-Veniste, and stealing the critical documents incriminating Clinton. The Bush Administration has done nothing to combat them, not in this instance nor in others like Pardongate. The 'Pubbies nominally ran the executive branch, including the Justice Dept., but they let this happen. We lost the last election and are on the brink of losing our country to the Left, perhaps for good, because Bush and his party do not realize we are at war on the home front, and that this bipartisan crap he practiced in Texas is downright suicidal on the national scene.
it sure it a worse crime than WATHERGATE. I can't wait until 60 Minutes does their full investigation on it.
The MSM would never go after a Dem, but where was/is the Bush administration on this? They seem to be complicit in this mess.
Watergate wasn't really fully investigated until a few years after it happened, correct?
But that's just a temporary restriction on him. He becomes eligible for government employment again in a few years. By then, thanks to the betrayal of conservatives by the GOP, there will likely be a new Democrat administration. I'm sure that Clinton probably paid that $50,000 fine, most likely out of funds donated for his "liberry". People Who Matter are immune.
Berger's Firm to Aid Oil Interests in Iraq
By Judy Sarasohn Washington Post
Thursday, September 16, 2004; Page A29
Stonebridge International, the "global strategy firm" founded by Clinton administration national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, has taken on an interesting client, Gulfsands Petroleum Ltd., a private Houston-based oil and gas company. Gulfsands, along with its larger partner Devon Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City, has oil and gas exploration and development interests in Syria. And now Gulfsands is looking to Iraq.
"Stonebridge is assisting Gulfsands in organizing meetings in Washington with administration officials to discuss the company's business interests in Iraq and U.S. policy toward Syria," Stonebridge Vice Chairman H.P. Goldfield said in an e-mail response to written questions. The lobby registration was filed with Congress by Goldfield and colleague Joy Drucker.
Goldfield, who served in senior jobs in the Reagan administration, said Gulfsands "is conducting business development activities in Iraq" but "is not pursuing any U.S. funded contracts in Iraq." Its discussions with the government of Iraq are confidential for now, Goldfield said. "Our proposed energy project will be privately funded and will have significant economic and environmental benefits to the people of Iraq.
The project would create thousands of jobs for Iraqi citizens and would introduce more environmentally beneficial technologies into Iraq's development of its oil and gas sector," Goldfield said. Berger is not involved with the work for Gulfsands, Goldfield said.
60 minutes full reporting of the berger archive thefts will happen when hell holds the Winter Olympics.
I was being facetious.
Berger stole classified security documents because he knows revelations about his activities as Clinton's National Security Adviser would expose him as a complete incompetent..........or worse.
Berger is apparently covering-up and shredding crucial info that reflects upon US national security failures, and possibly unauthorized transfers of classified info to foreign countries.
It's chilling for patriots to read that Berger was a "workaholic" as Clinton's National Security Adviser----Berger was always seen surrounded with top-secret documents---and he often worked late, when no one was around to see what he was doing.
A study of his Clinton-era phone records and computer emails to see who Berger was talking to should prove interesting. God knows how much info Berger stole then, where he hid it, and where it ended up.
Some tidbits from Berger's Wikipedia bio:
Opposed to the Vietnam War, Berger began working for Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972. While there, he met Bill Clinton, forming a friendship that would last for decades. Berger later urged Clinton to run for president.[2]
"Sandy Berger," Nancy Pelosi said in 1997 prior to becoming Speaker of the House, "was the point person at... Hogan & Hartson... for the trade office of the Chinese government. He was a lawyer-lobbyist."[4]
In November 1997, Berger paid a $23,000 civil penalty to settle conflict of interest allegations stemming from his failure to sell his stock of Amoco Corporation as ordered by the White House....Berger said he had planned to sell the stock, but then forgot.
In 1999, Berger was criticized for failing to promptly inform President Clinton of his knowledge that the People's Republic of China had managed to acquire the designs of a number of U.S. nuclear warheads. Berger was originally briefed of the espionage by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in April 1996, but did not inform the president until July 1997.
Berger must have some really good dirt on the Clintons, for them to keep him around.
'...still a mystery why Burglar is not serving a prison sentence...'
It is truly a disgrace that this man STOLE classified documents and...I suspect, initially, lied to investigators.... is walking free. Yet, Lewis Libby is on trial and may go to prison over a nonsensical issue.
Something is VERY wrong with this picture and if Americans don't wake up, we'll keep sliding downward. God help America.
Not to mention that they shamelessly maniuplate their base through demagoguery.
"The Demonrats had a clear and well-planned strategy to shamelessly exploit the 9/11 hearings, packing the commission with partisan hacks like Ben-Veniste, and stealing the critical documents incriminating Clinton."
Amen, brother. You've caught on. Don't forget Richard Clarke's howler, when he testified as to what a great National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was. Or Clarke's skipping over his eight years as Clinton's terrorism tsar, to talk about what a bad job the Bush Administration had done. There's also Sandy Berger's personal campaign against Curt Weldon, who asked too many questions about Able Danger.
Convenience? No, it was because he was ordered to do so by his former/present boss (Bill Clinton), and his mission was to erase Clinton administration pre-9/11 mistakes from the public record.
"Sandy Berger made a mistake."
Stuffing nationa archive documents down one's trousers/socks and then shredding them with scissors isn't a "mistake."
True, but the main reason they are successful is the help of the liberal media.
I agree and I'm appalled.
"Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the 911 Commission, is on the Board of Directors of Sandy Berger's company - Stonebridge International"
No conflict of interest there.
God help Amercia.
"This is still a mystery why Burglar is not serving a prison sentence."
He is a long-time Washington insider. Lots of friends.
The justice dept is still run by the clintons. hillary fired all the lawyers in the dept immediately after she and her co-president moved into the whitehouse and replaced them with her hand picked lawyers. Before they left the whitehouse in 2001, the clinton appointees were made civil servants, secure from removal or lateral transfering, according to civil servant rules. During the berger investigation, the justice dept, full of clinton replacements did what mamma president said, "protect our backsides, find berger guilty of mistakes, slap his wrist." Problem solved.
Course not (/sarc).
I don't think that berger did what he did, for berger alone. It is painfully obvious that the Clintonistas believed that their legacy was in jeopardy, and Berger became a agent for the Clinton cabal.
I think he would have also killed for his master, is so ordered to do so.
"Sandy Berger made a mistake."
He took four copies of the same document. One copy one day, three copies the next day he was there.
I know, I was agreeing with you.
There is no question about it! This was the most outrageous act by a former administration that has ever been revealed, and I believe it may be the tip of the iceberg
:)
For now, anyway.
"Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said the department "has no evidence that Sandy Berger's actions deprived the 9/11 commission of documents, and we stand by our investigation of this matter." "
"Having no evidence" is completely different from there being no evidence. Bill and Hillary used to spout that line all day.
Harry Reid sells property he doesn't own for a cool million and there is no coverage and no investigation, yet Tom Delay is forced to resign over contrived indictments.
Jefferson and Berger get wrist slaps while CT Gov Rowland gets a year of jail time for a hot tub in his summer cottage.
Foley sends pervy emails to congressional pages and is forced to resign. Creepy but legal. Gerry Studds actually buggered pages and was censured, reelected and greeted by Democrats with a standing ovation.
Ever see Dodd take a hit for the 1996 legislation he brokered the bill that lead to the repeal of the 1993 Glass-Steagall Act, a key New Deal law intended to keep commercial banking separate from investment banking. Its repeal opened the door for insurance companies, banks, and securities firms to combine into giant conglomerates and was seen as a major victory for industry lobbyists.
What do you think led to the Enron/Arthur Anderson debacle? But it was "Bush's fault."
Yet Dodd is rewarded with continued Senate victories and has thrown his hat into the ring for president. Lotsa luck.
Dodd was also was embarrassed in the last weeks of the 1996 presidential campaign when he followed White House orders to "stonewall" on charges that a DNC fundraiser had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions.
Republicans are run out of office for taking vacations with Abramov (while Dem recipients are overlooked), yet Dodd can stonewall federal level corruption and get a pass.
See a trend here?
"No one ever told the commission Mr. Berger had access to original documents he could have taken without detection."
---
Surprise Surprise...
Hanging is too good for this POS.
Dhimmicrats and minorities are never guilty of anything.
Who can take a paper
Stuff it in a shoe
Cover up the caper
With a perjury or two?
The Sandy Man . . .
The Sandy Man can . . .
The Sandy Man can
'Cause he takes it from the file
To make his boss look good.
Who can take a secret
Tape it to his thigh
Walk it out and sneak it
Like an undercover spy?
The Sandy Man . . .
The Sandy Man can . . .
The Sandy Man can
'Cause he takes it from the file
To make his boss look good.
The Sandy Man makes
Every move that takes
Classifying as suspicious
And the line of crap he dishes
You can even call fictitious.
Who can take a memo
Slip it up a sleeve
Hold it near his elbow
And say nothing when he leaves?
The Sandy Man . . .
The Sandy Man can . . .
The Sandy Man can
'Cause he takes it from the file
To make his boss look good.
The Sandy Man makes
Every move that takes
Classifying as suspicious
And the line of crap he dishes
You can even call fictitious.
Who can take a memo
Slip it up a sleeve
Hold it near his elbow
And say nothing when he leaves?
The Sandy Man . . .
The Sandy Man can . . .
The Sandy Man can
'Cause he takes it from the file
To make his boss look good. . . .
.
(SITTIN' WHERE) THE DOCUMENTS LAY
Tune: "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay"
Sittin' in an archive room
I see written who did what about whom
Watchin' for Clinton's role
Got to keep my boss's legacy whole
I'm sittin' where the documents lay
Watchin' the guard walk away
I'll just fit 'em in my socks so they'll stay
Placed inside
I'm liftin' just a portion
Just the ones that would give Clinton grief
If I do a few more contortions
It looks like some will even fit in my briefs
I'm sittin' where the documents lay
Watchin' the guard walk away
I'll just fit 'em in my socks so they'll stay
Placed inside
Looks like nothing seems too strange
Everything still appears the same
But I still got these ten papers here left to do
So I hope my suit stands the strain
Sittin' here looking around
And these documents must weigh fifty pounds
These two thousand files I found
Tend to make my socks fall down
I'm sittin' where the documents lay
Watchin' the guard walk away
I'll just fit 'em in my socks so they'll stay
Placed inside
"IN THE ARCHIVES" (Sandy works for me)
Tune: "In the Garden" (And he walks with me)
As sung by Bill Clinton
He comes to the Archives alone
Pulls a heist right under their noses
'Cause the stuff they have
Would make me look bad
The things that it discloses
Sandy works for me
He does dirt for me
And he knows what files need to go
And the stuff he takes
Showing my mistakes
None other will ever know
He speaks and the sound of his voice
Is so sweet the guards stop their guarding
And the documents
In his socks and pants
He'll soon be out discarding
Sandy works for me
He does dirt for me
And he knows what files need to go
And the stuff he takes
Showing my mistakes
None other will ever know
I'd go to the Archives with him
But that might cause people to murmur
That's the reason why
I can now deny
I ever knew this Berger
Sandy works for me
He does dirt for me
And he knows what files need to go
And the stuff he takes
Showing my mistakes
None other will ever know
.
Excellent. Very clever.
bttt
All bets are off, however, if the media are more evil than the useful idiots I believe them to be.
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