Posted on 03/17/2007 12:32:37 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
Sandy Berger sent an email to Michael Barone, responding to Michael's column in U.S. News. As we have written extensively on the Berger affair and have been harshly critical of Berger, it seems only fair to reproduce Berger's email in full, as it constitutes his response to his critics. Here it is:
Michael: I screwed up. There was nothing sinister about it. I was under serious pressure to digest the entire Clinton record on terrorism for eight years so that we could testify fully to the 9-11 commission. I spent several arduous days at the Archives looking through the files. This document was interesting to me because I had commissioned it in 2000–a look at what we learned from the millennium terror threats that were avoided. Tired, stressed, I made a very stupid decision–to take the documents home with me so that I could review them in more detail and so that I could compare the apparent differences among versions. Since this document had been widely circulated to all the relevant agencies (State, Defense, CIA, Justice, etc.), I felt certain the commission would get it from one or more of these agencies.I don't buy it. Berger didn't make an impulsive decision--"tired, stressed"--to smuggle documents out of the National Archives. He stole documents on multiple occasions. On one occasion, he sneaked them out of the archives, went to a nearby construction site and hid the documents under a construction trailer, so he could come back later and pick them up. I simply don't believe that Berger engaged in this kind of cloak and dagger behavior just because he found the documents "interesting" and wanted to study them at home.
There were no handwritten markings on the documents (which were copies) or anything else unusual. I took no other documents–originals or copies–besides the ones specified in my plea agreement.
The DOJ has stated unequivocally that there is no evidence that I took other documents and that the commission received everything.
That's the long and short of it. I made a very stupid mistake. I deeply regret it. Top-level career Justice Department prosecutors investigated it aggressively for two years. We reached a plea agreement that they believed was fair. That was two years ago. Now I wish this thing would go away.
Best, Sandy
"Now I wish this thing would go away."
Heh. There's a 1000 politicos who wish that about their "mistakes".
But the life Berger chose doesn't allow that, and he knew that going in.
Children.
Awww. TO REHAB WITH HIM! And they all lived happily ever after.
Translation: moveondotcom
Part of his plea arrangement was that he submit to a polygraph test.
Two yrs later and still he has yet to take the test. He has no intention of ever taking a polygraph, and since the DOJ is letting him slide, he never will.
We're all being played for chumps.
One thing I do think he's telling the truth about is that he was concerned about the differences between documents, in other words, the notations by various individuals on otherwise identical copies.
I'd be concerned too if I had to reconstruct a series of lies told years ago... so that everyone from the Clinton Admin could get on the same page before going before the 9/11 commission. Perhaps Clinton wanted to rehearse his answers, as in a play, with the borrowed, nay, stolen, script.
One thing that interests me is why there is never any mention of the other individual who, along with Sandy Berger, was cleared for and tasked with the job of gathering Clinton admin documents.
What dates did this individual visit the archives?
Was he or she just as tired as Sandy Berger?
If so, did he or she also suffer from a shoplifting habit like Sandy [and incidently like the Abu Ghraib prison General whose discipline was so lacking, and like many others in the Clinton Admin who were so exhausted from 8 years of laborious civil servitude couldn't help but walk off with furniture, US aircraft carrier towels & bathrobes, busts of American historic figures, FBI files, and the "W" keys on White House typewriters?]
Was this individual checked for missing documents or placed under observation when Sandy turned up looking stuffed like a garage sale jackalope?
And did anyone catch this individual's name?
Being that this was in an e-mail, I will modify that old saw:
How can we tell Berger's lying? His fingers are moving.
This is the stuff that you pick up in the barnyard after you've put the cows in the barn for the night.
You don't want to be hasty with the obligatory lie detector test if he's only obligated to undergo one of them. You have to know what questions to ask and to do that you must have a better idea of what he was involved in.
You mean, compare shenanigans of the Clinton White House, don't you?
"How can we tell Berger's lying? His fingers are moving."
No, his pants and socks rustle when he walks. that's how.
Berger was sent by Clinton to determine if any documents were to be protected by executive privilege. In other words, to keep certain documents from being disseminated because of the sensitive nature of their contents. Even Berger admits that he destroyed at least some of the materials he was entrusted with. Sounds like he did just what he was sent in to do.
And one of the lead investigators from DOJ ends up with a cushy job at Burglar's company. Nothing odd about that!
You know what I would have the GOP demand a congressional inquiry into the matter the email is very implicating in tht he continues to lie about the length at which was willing to go to steal the documents. The first question out of any Prosecuter must be "Mr. Berger in your position as NSA did you realize that stealing classified documents from the Archives is punishable by prison time". Yes, so therefore the risk of having them seen outweighed the consequence. If witnesses state that they saw him on more then one occasion taking documents the lie broadens. Again I submit Sandy Berger has committed the crime of the Century and goes largely unpunished for it. Imagine for one minute that Condi or Rove went back in the Archives and took some documents... Imagine the political storm that the Dems would slam Bush with. There can be no quarter if the GOP are gutless they will remain out of power.
Poor Sandy. Oh yeah, I believe him...
Pressure from whom, Mr. B?
I took no other documents–originals or copies–besides the ones specified in my plea agreement.
Strange wording. I would have said something like "I disclosed everything that I took", not "I didn't take anything they didn't find".
ME TOO!
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