Why is Sandy Berger not under arrest?

Why is the press not covering this more and demanding action?

Published on July 27, 2004 By ShadowWar In Current Events

OK things have gotten to a point now that you have to sit back and say "What in the world is going on?"

Sandy Berger, a man who was one of the top foreign policy maker and one of the elite in this area, a man who has held the highest possible clearances in the governements mirad of classifications, and a man who was given access to documents that could concievably be of great importance to the nations understanding of events that occurred with regards to 9/11. Lets try to get this into laymans terms for us sinple people.

He was given access to top secret and other classified documents and notes.
He stole some of them (regardless of how).
And he is still not charged with anything or in jail.
Why?

There are a few very scary things about this whole issue that some of you may not have thought about. If Mr. Berger was able to remove items from the National Archive and get away with it (he has to this point) what was to prevent him from getting some in? Could he have replaced documents with altered ones? Could he have removed documents that were of such importance that they would have given the 9/11 commission a different view of certain things. Were these things so important that since they are now missing, could what they contain cost the lives of Americans? Could his removal of these items be because they would have shown more blame for something or someone?

I was in the U.S. Army and worked in a Nuclear Duty position. I held a Top Secret NRAS clearance (Nuclear Release Athentication System) These were the types of documents and things that required two people to always be present when handling them. If I had been found to have stolen or removed or any other kind of improper handling of these items it was understood in no uncertain terms that I would have been arrested on the spot and placed in prison for a very, very long time. I have also been to the National Archives to do research and know the security you have to go through to be able to use its resources. If you or I had done this we would be getting free room and board with a roomate named Bubba.

Why is Mr. Berger not under arrest? Why did a search of his home and offices not turn up the documents? Why are they not placing this man under arrest? Are they afraid that people will learn what these documents were and what they contained? Could the material be that damaging to the public? To one group or another? What is going on here?

Here are some very disturbing excerpts from news articles that help show the severity of this issue:

The documents slipped out of the National Archives by Clinton National Security chief Sandy Berger included a draft in which Clinton antiterror chief Richard Clarke proposed a military strike against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Next to the proposal is Berger's response: "No."

And the Clarke document was then scrubbed -- so it was neither briefed nor passed on to President Bush, Condoleezza Rice or John Ashcroft until after the 9/11 attacks. from Link

Berger, former national security adviser under Clinton, is being accused of taking 5 copies of the same document on multiple visits to the National Archive. The highly classified, top-secret, neon-covered 15-page documents were allegedly stuffed in Berger's trousers and socks before he absentmindedly left the Archive and went to Starbucks for coffee.

Berger claims its all an innocent mistake. A source close to Berger says, "It's really all rather innocent. It just looks bad because he accidentally took all the copies of the same document. And he accidentally took that same document on 3 or 4 visits. And he didn't stuff them in his socks, like the White House is leaking; he accidentally put them in a money belt he wears around his waist."

That is from: Link

You mean that you accidently take the exact same document on 3 or 4 different occasions, accidently? PLEASE!!! We are not that stupid.

Given that Berger walked out of the National Archives with classified material and 40 to 50 pages of notes he had taken, and that he failed to show these papers to archives officials for review before leaving, as he should have, can he be still trusted with classified material? Also what did the material he took deal with? Apparently, they dealt with Richard Clarke, the controversial Bush-baiting former CIA operative — and with the Clinton administration's handling of al Qaeda terror threats during the millennium celebration.

Those documents are still missing.

Don't kid yourself folks, had this been you or I, we would be in jail. These documents contained materail that Mr. Berger thought was important enough to steal and then destroy. The people have the right and more importantly the right to know what was on those documents that was so important and is now being quietly forgotten.

Comments

citahellion

on Jul 27, 2004

Okay, you had me going for a little bit. Very funny.

ShadowWar

on Jul 27, 2004

Very funny

Actually its not, its scary..

citahellion

on Jul 27, 2004

Did you look at the source for your second set of quotes?? "The Spoof." Featuring other articles such as "Colin Powell's Colon Clear" and "Kobe Bryant Dating Tips".
And did you read the entire article? It's hilarious.

ShadowWar

on Jul 27, 2004

Your missing the point of the rest of the article I wrote. SO since you think that one quote is out of text, Ignore them, why is he not under arrest and address the other issues I raise.

CS Guy

on Jul 27, 2004

As someone who has been threatened with jail time for the suggestion of installing a particular screen saver on a classified (Secret, not even Top Secret) computer, I have to wonder the same thing.

citahellion

on Jul 27, 2004

Hey, if you're going to quote a humor site, you have to expect that your article won't be taken seriously.

Abe Cubbage

on Jul 27, 2004

Since when do high-level officials ever get arrested?

bakerstreet

on Jul 27, 2004

Don't fall into the trap that the people that scream about Enron fell into. Sometimes whey they know that an individual is very visible and sure of themselves, they take their time and solidify their case. How long did it take for them to get around to Mr. Lay?

I think they'll get him. They just want all their ducks in a row and they don't want it to look like an election-year manuver. If they had done it last week the screams that it was a political move to taint the convention would have been much worse and gotten much more devil's advocate play.

ShadowWar

on Jul 27, 2004

Bakerstreet I hope you are right. Maybe they are finally trying to do something right, but I would still like to knwo what was on the documents that made them worth jail time.

citahellion

on Jul 27, 2004

Okay, sorry, I had to run off earlier. Just for the record, on the serious portion of your post, I do agree it's quite unfortunate that by virtue of his apparent position he has been able to get off so far with just some minor public outcry instead of quick, quiet incarceration and/or a significant bail posting. I hope that he does get nailed to a wall; I don't care if it was accidental, that can be taken into account in his sentencing guidelines but it doesn't absolve him of the responsibility for stealing them in the first place.

thatoneguyinslc

on Jul 30, 2004

Im not sure if it was an honest mistake or not, but if it is true and it wasnt a mistake, there should be some kind of charges filed. A clasified document is a classified document, no matter who you are.

bakerstreet

on Jul 30, 2004

There's no possible way that there is a "mistake". This guy was *about* security, it was his job. The area was known, the documents were marked, he reported asked the guards to "give him some time to himself".

Regardless, mishandling classified documents is a crime, even if it is a "mistake", ask anyone that works with them. If you are a politician, you try and call it a mistake, but it is really "negligence".

In this case I think it is clear that Berger was securing documents to use in Kerry's campaign as chief foreign policy advisor. Others will disagree, but frankly there is no reason he needed these himself, and hiding them from the 9-11 commission would have served no purpose, since many of them were just copies.

This isn't about "damage", this is about the cut-and-dried fact that he admits to committing a crime. Once they start addressing that, perhaps the 'whys' will reveal something more interesting, though I doubt seriously he'd admit to anything more broad.

CS Guy

on Jul 30, 2004

Bakerstreet I hope you are right. Maybe they are finally trying to do something right, but I would still like to knwo what was on the documents that made them worth jail time.

It doesn't matter what was on them. As long as they were classified, and he was removing them illegally, he needs some bar-time.

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