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
Hillary’s “vast right wing conspiracy” is to this day, alive and kicking.
I hearya! I’ve been trying to find something nice to say about Jeffrey Dahmer or Idi Amin but I just can’t find anything. Oh well...
As I recall there really wasn't too thorough investigation into this thievery. Was it ever determined precisely which documents were taken and what they pertained to? That could be quite telling.
My mother used to say, “If you can’t say anything nice....”
It occurs to me that Hillary was not using his services as a “consultant”, instead was payng for his service to her future as Presidential candidate. As with others in their circle, he did the dirty work and took the hit. All the wag the dog stuff that was going on is not even remembered. She is free and clear to run for President. Berger is remembered at best, as a thief, and at worst, as a traitor not loyal to our country but to those he served. This helps me understand why they needed those billions that went missing at State.
What were his last words?
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