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| Fifth Column |
| How Sandy Burglar Stashed Classified Information |
| 2006-12-21 |
| A former national security adviser to President Clinton, Samuel Berger, stashed highly classified documents under a trailer in downtown Washington in order to evade detection by National Archives personnel, a government report released yesterday said. The report from the inspector-general for the National Archives, Paul Brachfeld, said Mr. Berger executed the cloak-and-dagger maneuver in October 2003 while taking a break from reviewing Clinton-era documents in connection with the work of the so-called September 11 commission. " Mr. Berger exited the archive onto Pennsylvania Avenue," the report says, recounting the story the former national security chief told investigators. "He did not want to run the risk of bringing the documents back in the building. … He headed toward a construction area on 9th Street. Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the archives and the DOJ, and did not see anyone. He removed the documents from his pockets, folded the notes in a ‘V' shape, and inserted the documents in the center. He walked inside the construction fence and slid the documents under a trailer." According to the report, Mr. Berger said he retrieved the documents after leaving the archives complex for the evening and took the papers to his office. It is not clear how long the documents were unattended at the construction site, but the report suggests it was a few hours, at most. The former national security chief said he cut three documents up in his office and discarded them in the trash. Mr. Berger returned two other documents after archivists notified him that some records were missing, but his efforts to retrieve the others from the trash collector were unsuccessful. Last year, Mr. Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information. A magistrate, Deborah Robinson, sentenced the international business consultant to two years' probation and ordered him to surrender his security clearance for three years. Prosecutors and defense lawyers had agreed on a fine of $10,000, but the magistrate boosted it to $50,000. " Mr. Berger made mistakes in his efforts to prepare thoroughly for the 9-11 Commission. But he has taken full responsibility for his conduct, he long ago provided everything that government investigators needed, and he has fully paid his debt to society," the former security chief's attorney, Lanny Breuer, said in a written statement yesterday. "Like the court, the government, and the 9-11 commission, Mr. Berger considers this matter closed, and he is pleased to have moved on." Mr. Breuer did not address the trailer-related episode, but stressed that the Justice Department determined that no original information was lost as a result of Mr. Berger's actions and that he did not intend to hide any of the records. A leading authority on classification policy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, said Mr. Berger's behavior was reminiscent of a "dead drop," when spies leave records in a park or under a mailbox to be retrieved by a handler. "It seems deliberate and calculated," Mr. Aftergood said. "It's impossible to maintain the pretense that this was an act of absentmindedness." All five documents Mr. Berger removed were versions of an after-action report about the foiled "millennium plot" to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport and other sites. The internal review, by a top counterterrorism official, Richard Clarke, reportedly found that luck was the major factor in disrupting the plot and that more attacks were likely. Mr. Berger has admitted placing classified documents and his notes, which were also presumed classified pending a review, into his suit pockets to carry them out of the archives. However, the inspector general's report resurrects claims that Mr. Berger may have removed some papers by placing them in his socks. An archives staffer reported that Mr. Berger took frequent bathroom breaks and was seen in a hallway "bent down, fiddling with something white, which could have been paper, around his ankle." Mr. Berger later told investigators that any fidgeting near his feet was due to difficulties he has keeping his footwear tidy. "He stated his shoes frequently come untied and his socks frequently fall down," the report said. A person close to Mr. Berger said yesterday that the so-called docs-in-the-socks incident never took place. "It simply didn't happen. It was wrong. The Justice Department determined it was wrong," the Berger ally, who asked not to be named, said. The inspector general's report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, was heavily redacted on national security and privacy grounds. The internal watchdog appears to have focused on whether archives personnel were too deferential to Mr. Berger by contacting him about the missing documents before notifying the FBI. Names of archives employees were deleted from the report, as were those of any National Security Council staffers involved. One employee "did not believe there was enough information to confront someone of Mr. Berger's stature" and delayed acting as a result, the report said. When the allegations about the missing document were leaked to the press in 2004, Mr. Berger resigned from a team advising the Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts. At that time, Mr. Berger insisted that he accidentally removed and destroyed the records. When he pleaded guilty last year, the former national security chief admitted he acted intentionally. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #11 nice. what needs to happen is to publicize this far and wide - taint the perpetrators and their sponsors (hello HRC '08!) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-12-21 22:20 |
| #10 We really should line these fuckers up and shoot them. The Clintonistas bent on advancing communism in America at any cost. I'd kill these fuckers if I could get away with it. Maybe there will be a CW2. Maybe there will be a time when their guard is at the wall, and someone like me has come up behind them, locked and loaded. I can only dream and pray. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-12-21 21:19 |
| #9 One employee "did not believe there was enough information to confront someone of Mr. Berger's stature" and delayed acting as a result, the report said. A registered Democrat, no doubt. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2006-12-21 20:44 |
| #8 Lets take a little trip down memory lane for some tasty quotes shall we? "For all those who know and love him, it's easy to see how this could happen" An unidentified former Clinton colleague "So is this about Sandy Berger, or is this about politics?" Sen. Barbara Mikulski, (D-Md) "It’s interesting timing" Former President Bill Clinton “Why now?” Sen. John Kerry,(D-Ma) “This incident was triggered by a carefully orchestrated leak about Berger -- and the timing of it appears to be no coincidence." CBS News Anchor Dan Rather Something tells me the same people prolly will respond with the obligatory “No comment” in light of these latest revelations. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-12-21 19:57 |
| #7 Clinton administration National Security Adviser Samuel ‘Sandy’ Berger today said he “still can’t say for sure” what happened to several classified documents he removed from the National Archives in October 2003, but that they may have gone up in smoke. Mr. Berger, who was convicted of the crime, fined $50,000, sentenced to 100 hours of community service and barred from the Archives for three years, allegedly smuggled out some of the documents in his socks. Today his attorney released a statement from Mr. Berger in response to this week’s report on the Inspector General’s probe of the case. According to Mr. Berger’s own account: “Twas nigh upon Christmas and down in my socks I secretly stuffed those archival docs. My stockings I hung by the chimney with care in hopes that the FBI wouldn’t look there.” Later in his testimony he admits the documents may have fallen from his stockings into the fireplace: “As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly when they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky so up through the chimney in ashes they flew and thus my secrets were safe and Bill Clinton’s were too.” A spokesman from the Inspector General’s office expressed skepticism about Mr. Berger’s new story, but said “it has a ring of familiarity.” /S. Ott |
| Posted by: RD 2006-12-21 19:21 |
| #6 You said it, dot. Unfortunately, if Evita or any other Donk gets in, they'll all (including Burglar Boy) be back for Round III. |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2006-12-21 18:42 |
| #5 Lol. Wotta lame-assed bunch of worthless pricks inhabited Camelot II. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-21 18:06 |
| #4 He was hiding something for Bushitler. No wait, he was hiding something from Bushitler, ummm he was hiding the secret of happiness from the haliburton robot Chainey who wanted lunch, uhh, umm... it didn't happen? |
| Posted by: At m Laundro Matt 2006-12-21 18:04 |
| #3 The former national security chief said he cut three documents up in his office and discarded them in the trash. But... but... those would have been the documents that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Clinton was DA MAN when it came to counter-terrorism and that the whole millennium plot was blown wide open thanks to his awesome capabilities. Why ever would he want to destroy those, right before the 9/11 Commission testimony and all? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2006-12-21 16:12 |
| #2 but his efforts to retrieve the others from the trash collector were unsuccessful Bwahahahaha! Hang him. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-12-21 15:55 |
| #1 I'm certainly glad that no one has made comparisons between Sandy Berger and the front page guy of goatse. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-12-21 14:59 |