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funny.........just a mistake

passin thru

Well-known member
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2741356
Berger Hid Classifed Documents
By LARRY MARGASAK

WASHINGTON Dec 21, 2006 (AP)— President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday.

The report was issued more than a year after Sandy Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removing the documents.

Berger took the documents in the fall of 2003 while working to prepare himself and Clinton administration witnesses for testimony to the Sept. 11 commission. Berger was authorized as the Clinton administration's representative to make sure the commission got the correct classified materials.

Berger's lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said in a statement that the contents of all the documents exist today and were made available to the commission.

But Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., outgoing chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said he's not convinced that the Archives can account for all the documents taken by Berger. Davis said working papers of National Security Council staff members are not inventoried by the Archives.

"There is absolutely no way to determine if Berger swiped any of these original documents. Consequently, there is no way to ever know if the 9/11 Commission received all required materials," Davis said.

Berger pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. He was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.

Officials told The Associated Press at the time of the thefts that the documents were highly classified and included critical assessments about the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror threats as well as identification of America's terror vulnerabilities at airports and seaports.

Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that National Archives employees spotted Berger bending down and fiddling with something white around his ankles.

The employees did not feel at the time there was enough information to confront someone of Berger's stature, the report said.

Later, when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he lied by saying he did not take them, the report said.

Brachfeld's report included an investigator's notes, taken during an interview with Berger. The notes dramatically described Berger's removal of documents during an Oct. 2, 2003, visit to the Archives.

Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark. He had taken four documents in his pockets.

"He headed toward a construction area. … Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone," the interview notes said.

He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

"He was aware of the risk he was taking," the inspector general's notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.

The notes said Berger had not been aware that Archives staff had been tracking the documents he was provided because of earlier suspicions from previous visits that he was removing materials. Also, the employees had made copies of some documents.

In October 2003, the report said, an Archives official called Berger to discuss missing documents from his visit two days earlier. The investigator's notes said, "Mr. Berger panicked because he realized he was caught."

The notes said that Berger had "destroyed, cut into small pieces, three of the four documents. These were put in the trash."

After the trash had been picked up, Berger "tried to find the trash collector but had no luck," the notes said.

Significant portions of the inspector general's report were redacted to protect privacy or national security.
 

Texan

Well-known member
It sure would be nice to know what he was after. And if he was just doing it for himself or for his old boss. Seems like it would almost have to be something that made them look either dirty or inept...or both.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Had Berger been working for the other side of the aisle, the boo-hooing would never stop.

Funny how these things get a pass by the media and the libs.
 

Steve

Well-known member
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.

he was interested in all the versions of the millennium review, some of which bore handwritten notes from Clinton-era officials who had reviewed them. At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it.

At the end of the day, Archives employees determined that that draft and all four or five other versions of the millennium memo had disappeared from the files, this source said.

"This millennium after-action review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999,.. " Ashcroft testified. "It is clear from the review that actions taken in the millennium period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government."

In May, a government official told National Review Online that the report contains a "scathing indictment of the last administration's actions." The source said the report portrayed the Clinton administration's actions as "exactly how things shouldn't be run.

Berger attempted to take "all five" copies of the highly classified Milliennium Reveiw....on the day he was caught....what he attempted to take before that raised Suspicians seems unavailable....

Significant portions of the inspector general's report were redacted to protect privacy or national security.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
It sure is nice to know he is not allowed around classified documents for a whole 3 years :roll:

He should have did some serious jail time for it. It should have been viewed as if he was a spy who can really say why he took them, and what they were. I say try him as a spy working for the terrorist. His actions could have had a direct result in affecting our National Security.

Only thing missing in the picture of him being a spy was the giving to another country. But by destroying them and keeping it from the 911 commission he actually did something similiar to help the Terrorist as if he had given them to the enemy.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
I agree that it seems like there had to be a motive for such bizarre behavior. Taking classified material makes no sense, it's illegal and the guy should have been fried for it. But it seems like he wasn't even taking it to spare himself the inconvenience of reading it in the Archives, but to destroy it. Wow.



I didn't realize you were in favor of capital punishment.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Faster horses said:
As for me, I don't like paying for convicted killers for the
rest of their life.

It turns out it's cheaper to incarcerate than execute.

Not sure if that is accurate but I have nothing to deny it with. But I know it should be cheaper to execute.

$40,000 per year to house a prisoner

VS

$2.00 blindfold
$1.00 bullet
$0 Volunteer to pull trigger
___________________

Total $3.00 execution

Money saved in one year $39,997.00 x 20 years = $799,940.00 in lifetime.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
The court system appeals are generaly what make death sentances so darn expensive vs life sentance, along with the "special" quarters that many on Death row get (They might get them anyways in the general population but such is life).. Also the cruel and unusual punishment interpretations that are used for procedures (Heck, prison life in general) tend to add to cost. If no cable tv and no air conditioning is cruel and unusual punishment than my folks got me good for the 18 years I lived at home.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
The court system appeals are generaly what make death sentances so darn expensive vs life sentance, along with the "special" quarters that many on Death row get (They might get them anyways in the general population but such is life).. Also the cruel and unusual punishment interpretations that are used for procedures (Heck, prison life in general) tend to add to cost. If no cable tv and no air conditioning is cruel and unusual punishment than my folks got me good for the 18 years I lived at home.

I like how that sheriff down in Texas did things, he made them live in tents and cots, eat sandwiches and worked them. I think he might be the same one that also got them Pink Jump suits to wear.

He bought everything through Army surplus and said if it was good enough for our troops it was good enough for the prisoners.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
aplusmnt said:
IL Rancher said:
The court system appeals are generaly what make death sentances so darn expensive vs life sentance, along with the "special" quarters that many on Death row get (They might get them anyways in the general population but such is life).. Also the cruel and unusual punishment interpretations that are used for procedures (Heck, prison life in general) tend to add to cost. If no cable tv and no air conditioning is cruel and unusual punishment than my folks got me good for the 18 years I lived at home.

I like how that sheriff down in Texas did things, he made them live in tents and cots, eat sandwiches and worked them. I think he might be the same one that also got them Pink Jump suits to wear.

He bought everything through Army surplus and said if it was good enough for our troops it was good enough for the prisoners.


All prisons should be run like his.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Yes, the way he does things should be the norm and not the exception.

I think he was a sheriff in Arizona, though.
Hopefully there is one in Texas too.
Maybe it's catching on in the south.

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!! :wink:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
This is law and order of yesteryear-- too bad it isn't the same today- as this posse pretty well took care of trial, appeal, execution, and even burial costs.... Click on the funeral picture too......

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/12/23/news/state/35-hardin.txt
 
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