Sandy Berger, who stole highly classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Berger, who was fired from John Kerry’s presidential campaign when the scandal broke in 2004, has assumed a similar role in Clinton’s campaign, even though his security clearance has been suspended until September 2008. This is raising eyebrows even among Clinton’s admirers. “It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger’s serious misdeeds,” said law professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University, who nonetheless called Clinton “by far the most impressive candidate in the Democratic field.”
Adler told The Examiner that it is “simply incomprehensible to me that a serious contender for the presidency would rely upon him as a key foreign policy advisor.”
He added: “If Senator Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, at some point she will begin to receive national security briefings that will include sensitive information. At such a point, continuing to keep Berger on board as a key advisor, where he might have access to sensitive material, would be beyond incomprehensible.”
The Clinton campaign declined to comment.
Berger has admitted stealing documents from the National Archives in advance of the 9/11 Commission hearings in 2003. The documents, written by White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, were a “tough review” of the Clinton administration’s shortcomings in dealing with terrorism, Clarke’s lawyer told the Washington Post.
On several occasions, Berger stuffed highly classified documents into his pants and socks before spiriting them out of the Archives building in Washington, according to investigators. On one occasion, upon reaching the street, he hid documents under a construction trailer after checking the windows of the Archives and Justice Department buildings to make sure he was not being watched.
Berger came back later and retrieved the documents, taking them home and cutting them up with scissors. Two days later, he was informed by Archive employees that his removal of documents had been detected.
“Berger panicked because he realized he was caught,” said a report by the National Archives inspector general, which also recounted his initial reaction. “Berger lied.”
Berger also lied to the public, telling reporters he made an “honest mistake” by “inadvertently” taking the documents, which he blamed on his own “sloppiness.” Bill Clinton vouched for the explanation for Berger, who served as his national security adviser.
The Justice Department initially said Berger stole only copies of classified documents and not originals. But the House Government Reform Committee later revealed that an unsupervised Berger had been given access to classified files of original, uncopied, uninventoried documents on terrorism. Several Archives officials acknowledged that Berger could have stolen any number of items and they “would never know what, if any, original documents were missing.”
At his sentencing in September 2005, Berger was fined $50,000, placed on probation for two years and stripped of his security clearance for three years.
Of course the campaign declined to comment. There's no feasible way to defend this. There's no way possible to put a good spin on this, so the best thing for them to do is to keep quiet, unless and until the shit really hits the fan.
And here's a fun little nugget of information: The Burgler was only stripped of his security clearance for three years. So in September of 2008, he can get it right back, just in time for the presidential election. So presumably, if we get yet another Clinton White House, we can also have The Burgler in the White House again, too.
What's really sad is how unbelievably blatant the Clintons are. They have more unmitigated gall than I think I have ever seen in a politician (she doesn't even try to hide this kind of bullshit!), and yet people are still supporting her in droves.
What is it I'm missing here that makes people want to support her? What is there to like? What positions does she hold that people want? I just don't get it. I honestly don't understand why it is that anyone would want her as our President, unless they are out of their minds or are actively trying to bring about the ruin of the United States of America.
Wants to socialize all industry? Check. More Marxist than Marx himself? Check. Successful husband with coattails to ride to power? Check. Hiring criminals who put national security at risk? Check.
She's just got it all, don't she?
3 comments:
Right on Cassy!
I can't believe the lack of interest in this major security breach. If this were happening to Bush, there would be 24/7 coverage of the theft.
Disgusting.
It proves that 90% of the Democrats that vote don't pay any attention. Have you ever listened to Sean Hannity's "man on the street" interviews? People will say idiocy like, "I'm going to vote for Hillary because she's a woman." Interviewer, "What has she done in 6 years in the Senate for New York?". Idiot on the street, "She cares about the people".
Criminy, it's enough to make me scream.
"...more unmitigated gall than I think I have ever seen in a politician."
Indeed the hallmark of she and Bubba. And copioneer is dead-on -- which is what I find so frightening about our nation's future; that it's likely to be determined by uninformed, ignorant morons. The donk's "elites" are well educated and consider themselves as thinkers-on-a-higher-plane than those wanker conservatives -- but THE BASE is largely as described above. God -- or somebody -- help us.
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