Sandy Berg(l)er?
Whoa.
Well..,
It’s.
Not.
Like.
It’s.
Anything.
New.
Stefan notes the Kerry connection. (Via Captain’s Quarters)
OTB muses: “Perhaps his dog ate it.”
Hmmm. More likely culprit: Socks the Cat.
Update: Let the Sandy Berger Photoshopping begin! First out of the gate: Blogs of War.
More: Mark Levin in April noted some damning info that Berger wasn’t able to stuff down his pants.
The Washington Post puts the story on page A2.
From the comment board, “Overheated in Texas” writes:
Let’s recap: In representing a former US president in the course of the 9/11 Commission’s investigation, Berger surreptitiously takes highly classified documents from a federal institution, destroys many of them, and creates a gap in the evidence relevant to an investigation into the worst act of mass murder (not to mention act of war) on US soil.
What’s Berger’s lawyer have to say about possible criminal charges? His client knew that taking his own notes out of the secure reading room was a “technical violation of Archive procedures, but it is not all clear to us this represents a violation of the law.”
It must depend on what your definition of “taking” is. I’m guessing his shirt and pants did the taking and poor Sandy was just an innocent bystander.
Update III: See Chris Muir’s “Day by Day” cartoon. He’s the anti-Garry Trudeau. Gotta love it. And more Berger grilling via Silent Running and friends. Plus, reader Walt Tester says I missed another example for the Clinton Lost Stuff File: here.
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Categories: Sandy Berger
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OMG..this makes me sick.
Remember Watergate? and the threatened impeachment of a president.
A minor infraction compared to this litany of criminal acts. What kills me is that he took some.. when he realized he had taken them incorrectly, he returned them but ‘oops, he destroyed some’.
this is the man who is currently an advisor to the kerry campaign.
I’m disgusted with this country, and the presstitudes not screaming their heads off over this.
Wait, let me get this straight. Sandy Berger ‘accidently’ steals all copies of this report. ‘Accidently’ destroys them. Right around the time we were hearing how ‘magnificently’ the Clinton administration handled the ‘millenial terror threat’. He lifts reports on port security/bridges, etc…
And…and…the media, once again, YAWNS???
This is a HUGE story, and the senate republicans better start making some real noise about it. And if the press doesn’t do it’s job, then we need to go after them, too. I’m tired of this, now. One administration - criminal in the extreme - gets a pass. The other administration - probably too honest for its own good is under the microscope 24/7.
My prayer these last few weeks has been that some journalists’ consciences start to bother them enough to make them re-discover ethics and honesty. Wilson being proved a liar hasn’t done it. If this doesn’t do it, what will?
Prison time!
You are completely right Michelle, it isn’t new.
Putting the notes in his pants and jacket–doesn’t sound like an accident to me.
What was in those documents? What was he asked to get rid of? And by whom?
More info please?
Oh yes, thank you zeluna! Indeed he is advising Kerry’s campaign so we definitely have a very current interest in covering up any improprieties which might have occurred during the Clinton administration and might have led to a security environment conducive to 9-11.
As I was saying in my comments on the Heather McDonald blog, how do you get out with documents that are classified, as these were? You don’t just walk out of these places and procedure calls for searches and much, much more. If that has changed in recent history or at this particular location for any reason, those involved also deserve some spotlight action.
Oh yeah, the AP article quotes Sandy as saying, “”In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives,” Berger said.
“When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded.”
Say, does he happen to have a home in New Mexico?
I should be surprised, but it’s been three and a half years and already all the “escapades” of the Clinton administration seemed to be fading into the nether world. How quickly it all came flooding back while reading this story. This is so typical of the last 10 years that we all had just become numb to the lies and deceit.
Surely this story will get some traction. Surely something has to finally sink in that these “inadvertent” happenings don’t just happen.
How many people has Clinton gotten to do his dirty work, and some end up in prison, or worse, just to cover his backside? Unbelieveable.
A quote from the article:
” employees of the National Archives told agents they believed they witnessed Berger put documents into his clothing while reviewing sensitive Clinton administration papers, officials said. ”
Another quote:
“knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants”
I HEREBY DUB THIS STORY:
“TROUSERGATE”
Malkin,
I wish you would make your links so they would open up in a new window when you click them. Then I can do a little bit of multitasking without having to backspace everytime I click a link.
Oh well.
This is some really dirty stuff. But sadly, as you said, it’s nothing new. The question is will Ashcroft have the guts to put him behind bars, as he would low-level government employees.
I’ll keep my ears to the ground tonight.
http://expertise.blogdrive.com
Michelle to open a link in a new window all you have to do is <a href=”link.html” target=”newwindow”>article name</a>
you can change newwindow to whatever you want it’s just a name the browser uses for the new browser. (i.e. if you keep the target name the same for all links when someone clicks one and a browser window with that name is already opened it’ll just refresh it with the link they clicked.).
u r stupid heads
^^^typical spelling of a woman.
Just upgrade to Mozilla (or better yet, Firebird) as Michelle recommends, and you can open articles in new tabs instead of new windows.
Look at the later AP story (http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/5463586 ) – why did the National Archives folks call Bruce Lindsey?
Were there not local security available? Could they not have shouted, “Hey, buddy, is that a highly classified millennium terrorist report in your pants or are you just happy to be testifying before the 9/11 commission?”
^^^ The Kid asks why Bruce Lindsay. Good question. Remember that it was on the afternoon of Dr. Condoleeza Rice’s testimony before the 9/11 commission that Clinton - accompanied by Berger and Lindsay - did his untelevised, ‘extensive, friendly and informative’ interview with the same commission. An unholy trinity, these three. One of several in the same administration.
You KNOW the Clinton’s won’t want to see a trial ensue over this.
I hope the Bush administration is smart enough to offer a secure location for Berger, and put a ’suicide watch’ into effect, before something happens to this man.
I wonder how big this story would be, and how fevered the reporting would be, if a Bushie had done this?
Berger is a “Rodent Of Unusual Size”.
Pockets, trousers, not in the briefcase, and then we are asked to suspend disbelief that the former National SECURITY Advisor to the President didn’t know that he took classified material.
NSA’s who violate security?
“I don’t think they exist.”
Let’s recap: In representing a former US president in the course of the 9/11 Commission’s investigation, Berger surreptitiously takes highly classified documents from a federal institution, destroys many of them, and creates a gap in the evidence relevant to an investigation into the worst act of mass murder (not to mention act of war) on US soil.
What’s Berger’s lawyer have to say about possible criminal charges? His client knew that taking his own notes out of the secure reading room was a “technical violation of Archive procedures, but it is not all clear to us this represents a violation of the law.”
It must depend on what your definition of “taking” is. I’m guessing his shirt and pants did the taking and poor Sandy was just an innocent bystander.
Berger was sent to the archives by the 9-11 commission to gather data on Clinton and AlQueda plus terrror .
Why did the commission send a partisan member of the Clinton adm to gather the data on clinton’s knowledge?
So…this taints the 9/11 commission itself. I wonder if it was Jamie Gorelick and BenVenista telling Berger: “go to the archives and clear out anything that will tarnish Clinton. Do it before we call you to testify”.
Lovely. Just lovely.
Meanwhile, the press seems very slow to get busy on this story. Lots of glum faces, few details.
Someone from the Clinton administration getting busted for putting something in their pants for a change. Refreshing.
It is amazing. My wife was watching Martha on CNN, we’re discussing Trousergate, and no mention on CNN. It’s on the crawl, but the face Aaron cannot bring himself to talk about another Clinton cabinet scandal.
My wife commented on what is a worse crime. Lying like Martha, or stealing and shredding confidential documents that are related to terrorism and the 9/11 commission? If Martha gets 5 months, this asshat should get 5 years.
OK, this a big story, but… who leaked this story? Why? Was it an administration official? Why wait so late, this FBI search happened months ago? Did a Hillary operative leak this? Did Berger leak it to save his________?
More questions than answers here.
Recently Blackfive commented:
“Berger is a ‘Rodent Of Unusual Size’”.
That has to cause a chuckle. He does look rodentish, now that I think about it. And the words Clinton and Rodent are somewhat “rodundant”…(okay, so I too great liberties there).
And the next question should be, who exactly on the commission sent him there. Was it our dear friend, Janet the Reno’s second in command, the one with an obvious conflict of interest… This is Ann Coulter fodder in the umteenth degree.
The “journalists” at CN apparently don’t hink this a worthy story. Either that or they don’t want to cause their left leaning patrons to chunk their breakfast. They have not posted this story at CNN.com
RE:http://search.cnn.com/pages/search/basic.jsp?QuerySubmit=true&Page=1&QueryText=sandy+berger
What’s up with that?
Oh, there it is, stuffed up Aaron Brown’s trousers.
Why doesn’t this story come up in their site search?
ah, the Clinton modus operandi…
David Gergen, on the Today show this morning, defends Sandy Ham-Berger-lar (Legal XXX’s wonderful pun), by asserting that he merely took copies of the originals and that the originals were available for review by the Commission. Sure, “technically” he may have violated the law. Right, like his former boss “technically” committing perjury. The law is for the little people, not for those who live above it.
>
“Destyroyed” many? Several?
How about a few?
The fact is, there is no “evidence gap.” The documents exist elsewhere.
The timing of this “leak” stinks.
Maybe the missing documents will suddenly reappear on a table in the White House. Oh, wait–Hillary doesn’t work, I mean live, there anymore.
At some point one would think someone associated with Clinton would say, “No, I won’t go that far.” Seriously, look at the lengths to which (formerly) honorable or at least professional people will litterally give up everything for that man. One associate commits suicide (?); former state supreme court justice goes to prison; every cabinet member publicy lies for him or repeats his lies; (where does one stop recounting the lives this guy destroyed?). Now the NSA head steals top secret memos - just before the Commission is to go through them? How damaging was this info that they didn’t want Ben Vanista and Gorelick looking at it!!!!
To say one is surprised by this revelation is a half-truth. Just from what we already know about that administration, can one really say anything is surprising?
>
Go as far as to what? Cover-up thwarting a terrorist strike on US soil?
The documents pertain to the millenium plot that was successfully stopped.
You folks are too paranoid about Clinton.
Chris Muir is definitely the anti-Trudeau. Trudeau tells the truth.
Berger did not remove documents that “the specific memos critical of the Clinton Administration.” He removed drafts of a critical assessment report written by Richard Clarke.
Insert the word “were” after “that” in the above.
It must be killing the mainstream media but there is a clear pattern of sleaze shaping up among John Kerry “consultants.” First, Ambassador Joe Wilson was exposed as an inveterate liar who was given ample air time to trash the president. What no one has asked is if he lied to federal agents during the investigation he sparked. Lying to federal agents, of course, is a crime. Hmmm……does Ambassador Wilson remain on Kerry’s website as a paragon of the truth?
Now we have the Sandy Berger affair. I would have just blown this off as political chicanery if it hadn’t been for the testy exchange between a Democratic Party hack and a CNN anchor this morning. I knew then this is shaping up as a major scandal. What Berger, also a “consultant” to Kerry, allegedly did is no less than a federal felony.
It is killing the mainsteam press, but this all leads to one place–the Kerry campaign. Soon even the media will have to report this rather inescapable conclusion because even the great unwashed can connect the dots when they are real.
“The fact is, there is no “evidence gap.” The documents exist elsewhere.”
And you know this…how? All I know right now is that a former National Security Advisor to the President has deliberately stolen classified documents from a secure reading room at the National Archives. I’m sure we’ll have much better information on what happened within a few days, but at a guess I’d suspect things are going to look worse for Berger, not better - executing a search warrant on the home of a former National Security Advisor to the President isn’t something that’s done without good cause.
This shows - yet again - that Democrats are fundamentally unserious about national security. So long as holdovers from the 60s Left (and its inheritors) control the Democrat Party, Democrats can’t be trusted with the White House.
According to GsOuPx, we should ignore the crime and focus on the source of the “leak.” This is an issue of national security rather than partisanship. As such, the operative words should be objectivity and perspective. The simple fact is that Berger’s conduct is indefensible.
The Clinton filing methodology….It never goes away.
http://orsa.blogspot.com/2004/07/oops-more-errorism-from-7-11_20.html
Actually, this isn’t that surprising. John Deutch should have gone to prison for his treatment of classified info (remember? - he took it home and put it on his unclassified/hooked to the internet/used by his daughter computer).
And, there is not a chance that Sandy Berger did not know what he was doing. When you get a clearance (especially a TS), you get a very thorough schooling in how to handle classified info. Taking notes of TS material is verbotten, and Secret material is questionable at best. You can’t even take unclassified information off of a classified system (say, via printout or floppy) and consider it unclassified without certain approvals happening.
Somebody elsewhere mentioned the signing in and out of classified. That is not what it once was, thanks to the efforts of the executive branch from 1993-2000.
GOPsux, the fact that any classified documents were destroyed without the proper paper trail is enough to send a workerbee home without his paycheck. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, regardless of the contents of the items/notes he removed.
Texas - to people like GsOuPx, everything is partisanship. It’s right out of Saul Alinsky - every event is manipulated to serve the larger goal of achieving their revolution.
Berger was following Alinksy when he attempted to do damage control by stealing and destroying documents. The NY Times followed Alinsky today by misrepresenting the story and burying it deep inside the paper. And GsOuPx is following Alinsky by trying to make this out to be a GOP plot.
To all three, the fact that Berger may have increased the risk of a second wave of mega-terror attacks is of little if any concern. They can blame Bush if that happens, you see, and use it to marginalize him.
Sterling, - I recognize you’re point about rabid partisanship. I was naively trying to keep my rhetoric mild because I assumed the facts would speak for themselves. This story reads like a bad SNL skit. I have a mental image of Berger walking out of the national archives leaving a fluttering trail of documents in his wake and looking like the Michelin man because his clothes are stuffed to the brim.
Jack White: [Ambassador Joe Wilson was exposed as an inveterate liar who was given ample air time to trash the president]
If Wilson was/is such a liar, why is it that the WH retracted those 16 words the day after his first article appeared?
[[According to GsOuPx, we should ignore the crime and focus on the source of the "leak." This is an issue of national security rather than partisanship. As such, the operative words should be objectivity and perspective. The simple fact is that Berger's conduct is indefensible.]]
And it is being investigated properly by all appearances. I guess the fact that Berger hasn’t yet been summarily hanged in Lafayette Park makes it bi-partisan to you?
I question the timing of the leak because the investigation has been ongoing for some time but on the threshold of the 9/11 Report, suddenly, it’s introduced into the public domain?
Please. It stinks.
Jack White: [Ambassador Joe Wilson was exposed as an inveterate liar who was given ample air time to trash the president]
If Wilson was/is such a liar, why is it that the WH retracted those 16 words the day after his first article appeared?
<<<<<<
Good question, GsOuPx.
I think in the post-Clinton environment, the Bush administration often has gone overboard to try to seem squeaky clean. The 16 TRUE words, as it turns out, were removed out of an abundance of caution. I imagine in the second Bush term, the Administration will settle old scores and won’t be so reticent about exposing left-wing liars and digging in its heels. This bodes ill for the partisan rancor that will erupt, but it is coming.
[[Wait, let me get this straight. Sandy Berger 'accidently' steals all copies of this report. ]]
Start over…you don’t have it straight.
Jack White: [The 16 TRUE words, as it turns out, were removed out of an abundance of caution. ]
Those words have never proved to be true.
[GOPsux, the fact that any classified documents were destroyed without the proper paper trail is enough to send a workerbee home without his paycheck. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, regardless of the contents of the items/notes he removed.]
I agree. If Berger is brought to trial and found guilty he should be punished.
I have no issue with that.
I do have issue with why a months long investigation being handled by AssKKKraft’s DOJ has suddenly leaked this.
Those words have never proved to be true.<<<
I’m laughing now. Only a few weeks ago the Left claimed them to be abject lies.
All this exposes how pathetic the Democratic Party remains on national security issues. Unlike most people on this board, I could have supported Kerry until Wilson was exposed as a liar and the Democrats embraced Farenheit 9/11. I’m sure many like me returned to the Bush fold as these relatively trivial stories exposed how dangerous it would have been to have Kerry as president.
Amazing.
Classified material stuffed down the pants of a former national security adviser and the best some can do is question the timing?
Gotta love it. Yanked his/her head straight out of the sand and buried it shoulder deep into his/her @ss.
Classic example of snorting the Kool-Aid right out of the packet.
Classified material stuffed down the pants of a former national security adviser and the best some can do is question the timing?
__________________________________
In a particularly nasty exchange between a CNN anchor and former Clinton advisor Lannie Davis this morning, the latter was quite indignant when the former reported documents also had been stuffed into Berger’s socks. Davis insisted it was only the pants.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Timing of the leak:
Consider if you will. Why time things this way?
I have a suggestion: The Bush administration has proven itself to be very adept at giving its opponents plenty of rope to hang themselves and then standing by and watching the swing once they’ve fallen off the limb they climbed out on.
Perhaps Bush & Co., during the investigation of this, realized that Berger’s “theft” might very will have been part of a larger “spin” effort whereby Gorelick and BenVeniste would use their sway on the 9-11 report to really bash Bush. Only problem, perhaps, were some notes on an interim draft of a document Berger has now “disappeared.”
Bush & Co., COULD have gone public with the Berger investigation immediately, but I think they might have thought it interesting to keep that on the down-low and see how the 9-11 commission dealt with its now diminished record.
Perhaps yesterday Bush&Co. learned that a later draft of that millenium report plays prominantly in the 9-11 commission report, and that its being spun by the commission to give accollades to Clinton and criticism to Bush.
Well, the opponents have taken the rope, put it around their necks, and stepped out to the end of the tree branch.
Perfect time to release the fact that YES, we know Sandy Sticky Socks took some documents.
[Those words have never proved to be true.
I'm laughing now. Only a few weeks ago the Left claimed them to be abject lies.]
I don’t speak from the left but we must not be talking about the same 16 words.
[Unlike most people on this board, I could have supported Kerry until Wilson was exposed as a liar and the Democrats embraced Farenheit 9/11.]
When was Wilson exposed as a liar?
Have you seen Farenheit 9/11?
GOPsux,
[I don't speak from the left...]
[Have you seen Farenheit 9/11?]
I think you just blew any credibility you had left.
This: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&u=/nm/20040720/bs_nm/energy_halliburton_subpoena_dc&printer=1
is probably one reason why this was leaked…
Halliburton Subpoenaed Over Unit’s Iran Work
[GOPsux,
[I don't speak from the left...]
[Have you seen Farenheit 9/11?]
I think you just blew any credibility you had left.]
Huh?
GsOuPx:
You don’t do much for your credibility saying that you’re not posting from the “left” viewpoint when your alias is a play on GOP sux.
Pulease..
[You don't do much for your credibility saying that you're not posting from the "left" viewpoint when your alias is a play on GOP sux.]
Believe it or not, a) there are more than two political parties in this nation and b) political philosophy does extend beyond the two current versions of Statism, crony capitalism and malicious military interventionism that prevail in this nation today.
Dear God, a third Kerry “consultant,” Richard Clarke, now has been implicated in this mushrooming scandal. At this rate, I wonder who will be accepting the Democratic nomination next week.
The Bushies couldn’t have bought such a bonaza.
“The Clinton M/O” — Don’t forget the WHCA videotapes of the coffee episodes, and Charles Ruff’s outrageous dodge of Janet Reno, who wasn’t exactly beating his doors down, anyway. Together, they managed to expire the deadline.
http://tinyurl.com/3kxbu
I know, I know: there is so much of it and it’s so deep, that it’s hard to keep track.
It is now being reported that Sandy admitted to stuffing some of the documents IN HIS SOCKS. Rationale reasons abound, I’m sure. This is the political script I would imagine Karl Rove would write after eating an entire batch of hallucenogenic mushrooms.
On a side note, given that the documents spent considerable time INSIDE Sandy’s rather ample pants and socks, does the National Archives really want them back?
“… AssKKKraft’s DOJ…”
Sophomoric? Inane? You Bet!!
You better get back to your college-level remedial English class, moron, because you need some help.
Keep dancing, son, keep dancing.
[Dear God, a third Kerry "consultant," Richard Clarke..]
When did Clarke begin consulting for Kerry?
That asked, it’s been reported that Berger removed a draft of Clarke’s millenium bombing assessment.
So…put the woody back.
Still waiting for you to show how Wilson lied.
[You better get back to your college-level remedial English class, moron, because you need some help.]
Huh? That sentence is grammatically perfect.
AssKKKraft’s DOJ
Clever Ad Hominem attack - very popular at the student union
Have you seen Farenheit 9/11?
trying to substantiate any claim by referring to F911 will soon replace Godwin’s Law for losing any debate
[trying to substantiate any claim by referring to F911 will soon replace Godwin's Law for losing any debate]
Have you seen the movie?
[Clever Ad Hominem attack - very popular at the student union]
Nice elitist comment. Act as if your above it.
I don’t see you directing that comment to anyone else here.
Sad thing is that everyone is looking at this with an eye on the elections and political implications. What damage may be done to Kerry or what does this do to the Clinton testimony to the 9-11 commission? This is the big leagues though. This guy was the National Security Adviser. This guy was privy to EVERYTHING having to do with the security of this nation. He knows the deepest darkest secrets that our government spends billions of dollars every year protecting. He’s not just some guy who knows the actual range of a “top secret” missile system. Mr. Berger knows the names of people, whom, where it known in their home countries that they were cooperating with the U.S. would end up six feet closer to hell. Mr. Berger knows who our sleeper agents are in Tehran. Mr. Berger knows where pilots shot down over North Korea will be able to hide in order to escape capture. This is the kind of information that Mr. Berger has been privy to. He didn’t spend his time reading technical reports about sound propagation control systems on U.S. submarines. He spent time planning for war. He’s the guy that recommended that we kill this bad guy or the other. He’s the guy who advised the president on bombing this desert camp or that aspirin factory.
This makes the troubles at Los Alamos look like a technical snafu. Knowing that the former National Security Adviser of the United States is so criminally negligent in handling the secrets entrusted to him should and probably will scare the hell out of every human intelligence asset we have. Knowing our top security official takes security so lightly would you trust the U.S. government with your life or that of your family? Would you volunteer information if you knew that the guy responsible to safeguard that information was taking it home to read over with the dog and “inadvertently” disposed of your information in his household trash? Do you think that foreign agents have ever gone through Sandy Berger’s trash post-NSA-employment?
Politics aside, this is not good news for “we, the common people” or those who risk their lives daily to keep our lives from becoming uncommon. It ain’t all about November…..
Now we know why Berger removed the documents. Unlike the spin that they were Clarke’s bombing assessment, they were, in fact, a warning from Clarke to the the president that attacks were likely on American airlines (AP).
Coming on the heels of Joe Wilson’s admission that he was “misquoted” (Paula Zahn) and didn’t really lie, the chickens are coming home to roost for the Kerry campaign which used these people a/k/a “consultants” in recent months.
However, I agree with the previous post that this is too important for politics. More than an alleged crime, Berger apparently has jeopardized the security of the United States. Millions could be dead in the streets as a result of this fiasco. This is beyond the pall–and something I wouldn’t have believed before today. This is a sad day for the United States.
I am curious…is it Sandy Berger’s habit to put things in his pants? How do you inadvertantly put anything in your pants???
Ummm…. How do you “inadvertantly” put anything in your SOCKS?!
Aww, c’mon! He just took his shoes and socks off and propped his feet up on the table. I mean really, it could happen. They just sort of stuck there. I swear!
GMAC - You’re correct. Berger has betrayed a critical trust.
I’ve long suspected that Clinton deliberately appointed cabinet and senior officials of mediocre ability and questionable character so that they would neither rival him nor shame him for his own lapses. And if that was his goal - he successfully accomplished it.
There’s that old, lame gag JFK is reputed to have made when hosting Nobel Laureates, flattering them by declaring that they were “…the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Clinton cabinet meetings were no threat to those laureates or Jefferson. To borrow from JFK, they were biggest collection of freaks, weirdos and shady characters seen in the executive mansion since Amy & Billy Carter watched the Mos Eisley Cantina scene during a White House screening of Star Wars.
At this hour, MSNBC is reporting that Sandy Berger is “stepping down as
advisor to John Kerry”.
Sterling:
It’s the typical “yes-men” leadership style, which buries corporate bigwigs all the time. Ask Martha, Ken, and the rest of the corporate criminals. They surround themselves with managers who either have a fear of raising serious questions or are so eager to climb to the next level they subvert any moral or ethical guides they may have woven into their own character in order to appease the boss. Some people will do or say simply anything to stay in the good graces of others they hold in esteem. Clinton was absolutely masterful at surrounding himself with these people….right down to his, seemingly decent, personal secretary. Sandy Berger has probably betrayed himself and us in a quest to maintain his membership in the Clinton cult-of-personality.
Remember when President Bush submitted a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court while they were hearing the Michigan U. discrimination case? I think it was last year. Anyway, Bush directed the DOJ to file in support of the complainant and shortly thereafter both Rice and Powell told the press that they had different opinions on the matter.
Do you ever remember a Clinton cabinet official talking out of school?
That is the difference and that is why people like Sandy Berger will stuff documents in his pants and put himself in jeopardy this way. He and most of the other followers of Bill Clinton have and will continue to place themselves and other in peril in order to protect their icon. These people are not “friends of Bill” they are “followers of Bill” and they, sadly, are still trusted with our greatest secrets. Obviously half the country has no problem with this.
Here’s a thought: Sandy Berger was one of two people to accompany Bill Clinton to, and to be present at, Clinton’s untelevised testimony to the 9/11 Commission.
How long ago did Berger steal these documents? Could it be that he realized ‘Slick Willy’ told another fib, and wanted to ditch the evidence before anyone else added 2 + 2?
Just a thought, because WHERE THERE’S SMOKE - SOMEONE’S PANTS ARE ON FIRE!!
The left-wing spin has started, and you can tell they are desperate. Now, it isn’t the timing that was suspicious. No, Sandy Berger did it for Bill Clinton. Case closed.
But not so fast. Information Berger pilfered ended up in a John Kerry policy speech the very next day. I agree that Berger was a toady for Clinton, but he was doing what he did best: currying favor with the man he wants to be the next president.
This will be the equivalent of Watergate–before the presidentail wannabe even gets his party’s nomination.
Jack:
Could be that Sandy was just being a starf***er and trying to curry favor with Kerry in hopes of being brought on in a Kerry administration, but, the risks he took were so enormous that there had to be something more. I have no doubt that, as he was already taking a risk, he probably figured he could kill two birds with one stone. Cover some Clinton problems while pilfering documents useful to the next possible leader of the, soon to be, not so free world sounds like a good idea when you’re already going for broke.
Unfortunately I’m sure that this whole story is going to be over before we ever get the truth. If in fact Sandy’s statements tonight are true and that he, to paraphrase, “dealt with these issues, completely, in October 2003”. It sounds to me that Sandy feels that the case is closed. I’m afraid that with the track record we see, wherein politicians need not answer for crimes, Sandy may be sleeping without fear of any prosecution.
I’d like to hear from any active duty military personnel who deal with classified documents on a regular basis. What do you think would happen to you if you walked out of your command with even one, Secret, TS, or codeword document stuffed in your trousers? How quick do you think you’d be prosecuted?
It really is sickening!
I was hired by Los Alamos not quite two years ago. Yes, _that_ Los Alamos. You ask what would happen to me if I sneaked a classified document out in my pants: In the current climate, I’d probably never see my family again.
I am inclined to think that that is what _should_ happen. But it should happen to Berg(l)er and should have happened to Deutsch as well.
Please believe that everyone I personally know at Los Alamos is very careful about classified materials, and we are all genuinely shocked that some of our own would show such reckless disregard for clear rules of operation.
Bingo KGB!
You are a worker-bee and you must follow the rules. Sandy and the gang are the authors of the rules and therefore don’t have to follow them.
Actually the perception of illegal activity these days is so bass-ackwards that a president who goes to war with the approval of the OVERWHELMING majority of the Senate is somehow in violation of some non-prosecutable, yet, media sellable crime and a National Security Advisor who knowingly smuggles classified documents out of a secure facility is defended by a former president as a slob and his actions rate a big “laugh”.
I have no doubt that you and others in similar positions deal with classified material as if lives depend on it because, well, they do. People like you probably do what you do because of your commitment to an oath that you took to protect this information. You also know that there WILL be a price to pay if you fail in your obligation. Sandy Berger, and John Deutsch obviously do not have the same fear of consequences. They don’t feel obligated by their oath. They don’t think of the possible loss of life caused by their actions. To them it is a game….it’s all politics and anything is acceptable when politics are involved. Your pay grade doesn’t afford you the luxury of irresponsibility. That’s what it all boils down to and I doubt anyone in power will take any actions to change this norm.
Good luck at LA.
GMAC:
The Democrats certainly want the story to end tonight, and given the charmed lives they have led recently it could happen. Nonetheless, this is a serious crime, and PR alone may not be enough to bury this one.
I agree Berger very well may have been trying to hide something big from the Clinton era, but it seems to me the idea was to begin to make nice-nice with Kerry. The port and airport security-related documents almost certainly were used in a Kerry policy address within 24 hours of their theft, and the hubris as well as criminality that reveals is astonishing. I laughed when the leftists began to belatedly point fingers at Clinton–they never really liked him, anyway.
This one will follow the SOBs to the convention. If there were actual justice in the world, they would land Berger in a federal prison as well.
Jack:
“If there were actual justice in the world, they would land Berger in a federal prison as well.”
One can only hope my friend, but the record of top-level prosecution of corrupt federal officials in the past decades is abysmal. As long as Sandy has a former / popular president laughing along with him don’t bet that he’s going to end up in the pokey with his now famous trousers around his ankles.
No doubt the left was not fond of welfare reform but aside from that Clinton could then, and can still, get all of those leftists to hit their knees in seconds flat. He is a powerful personality who cannot be denied. It’s not like he is going to headline the DNC Mayday celebrations later this month because the left hates him. Who is, still, the head of the DNC? Clinton’s boy. Do you think John Kerry has the guts to say, “hit the bricks” to Terry? Don’t bet on it. Clinton owns the DNC and he knows he isn’t going to be in any jeopardy with the Berger scandal. Why not laugh when another sucker is going to take a fall for you?
Sandy, meet my friend Susan McDougal…..