Posted on 12/02/2015 6:51:53 AM PST by TroutStalker
Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who served under President Bill Clinton, has died at the age of 70.
"V sad start to day; just learned Sandy Berger passed away during the night," Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted Wednesday morning. "Good man & friend who served nation well as bill clinton's NSA."
Antony Blinken, the current deputy secretary of state and a Berger acolyte, tweeted, "Mourn the passing of Sandy Berger --- father, husband, mentor, friend, leader and great patriot. RIP SRB."
Berger, a longtime lawyer who founded Stonebridge International, a Washington-based advisory group, after leaving government, had just been awarded World Food Program USA's inaugural Global Humanitarian Award on Tuesday.
“We are honoring one of America’s most devoted and influential humanitarian champions,†Rick Leach, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement. “On behalf of WFP USA, Sandy has been our principal voice in advocating that the U.S. and the world respond effectively to the greatest humanitarian challenge of our generation.â€
Berger served as Clinton's top foreign policy adviser during the 1992 campaign before serving as deputy national security adviser and eventually national security adviser shortly after Clinton began his second term, in March 1997.
As the president's chief foreign policy aide, Berger oversaw the Clinton administration's push to expand free trade in Africa and Asia, as well as its response to the al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, the NATO-led bombing of Kosovo, and the efforts to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. 20151201_mitch_mcconnell_2_GTY_1160.jpg
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Following his time in the Clinton administration, Berger remained an active player in Washington's foreign-policy debates, informally advising Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton, and publishing articles about various international issues. As secretary of state, Clinton consulted Berger on topics from how to handle Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to how to "gain leverage over the Pakistanis" and persuade them to go after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, her emails show.
In an op-ed for POLITICO Magazine in August, Berger warned Congress against rejecting President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, writing that doing so would allow "Iran to move further toward a nuclear weapon, presenting the United States and Israel with terrible choices."
Berger's legacy was marred, however, when he pleaded guilty in 2005 to removing highly classified documents from the National Archives in Washington the previous year. The inspector general of the National Archives said that a staff member had witnessed the former NSA adviser wrapping the classified documents around his socks and under his pants.
He was fined $50,000, sentenced to two years' probation and stripped of his security clearance for three years. Following a Justice Department investigation and subsequent congressional hearings, Berger voluntarily gave up his license to practice law in 2007.
"While I derived great satisfaction from years of practicing law, I have not done so for 15 years and do not envision returning to the profession," Berger said, according to a contemporaneous Associated Press report, "I am very sorry for what I did, and deeply apologize."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/sandy-berger-national-security-adviser-216344#ixzz3tAw7qbhL
Choked on a top secret document?
Wonder if the coroner will shove a copy of the death certificate in his shorts.
Mmmm-kay....
Good riddance.
Berger died?
Oh.
What’s the chance of those stolen documents being returned to the National Archives?
This is the guy caught ON FILM stuffing secret docs down his pants during the Clinton Impeachment trial.
Imagine, STEALING secret documents from the government and not getting a day of jail time and never even brought to trial.
Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who served under President Bill Clinton************************
hmmmm....where was Hillary last night?????
Check his socks.
Good riddance.
He should have died in prison.
Remember the dems' standard response on this? "Oh, that's just Sandy.. he's just sloppy..."
5.56mm
*This is the guy caught ON FILM stuffing secret docs down his pants during the Clinton Impeachment trial.*
No, this is the guy who did that in 2003.
LOL!
Proper response.
+1.
Over the next 20 years, all of these Clintonoids will be meeting their Maker.
Do they really think they can fool Him?
They sold their souls to the grifters from Arkansas.
At least Esau got some porridge.
_
Right. Thanks for the correction.
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