Another Government Cover-Up

Well, it’s official. Another Clinton administration official gets off with a slap on the wrist and the rest of us regular peon citizens continue to cower in the shadow of the US justice department.

“Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified material from the National Archives, a misdemeanor, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Berger is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Friday, said Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra.

The former Clinton administration official previously acknowledged he removed from the National Archives copies of documents about the government's anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents. He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

He called the episode "an honest mistake," and denied criminal wrongdoing.”

This, of course, is complete bull based on what I read last summer. Do you go to the library and put copies of historic documents into your socks, underwear, coat pockets, and briefcase by accident, then walk out and take them home and cut them up with scissors while trimming your mustache?

I usually don’t have that problem.

Let’s review what Mr. Berger and his magic socks and pants were observed doing in a secure area of the National Archives, as reported by FOX News last summer:

"Berger testified publicly at one of the commission's hearings about the Clinton administration's approach to fighting terrorism.

Berger had ordered his counterterrorism adviser, Richard Clarke, in early 2000 to write the after-action report and has publicly spoken about how the review brought to the forefront the realization that Al Qaeda had reached America's shores and required more attention.

The missing documents involve two or three draft versions of the report as it was being refined by the Clinton administration. The Archives is believed to have copies of some of the missing documents.

In the FBI search of his office, Berger also was found in possession of a small number of classified note cards containing his handwritten notes from the Middle East peace talks during the 1990s, but those are not a focal point of the current criminal probe, according to officials and lawyers.

Breuer said the Archives staff first raised concerns with Berger during an Oct. 2 review of documents that at least one copy of the post-millennium report he had reviewed earlier was missing. Berger was given a second copy that day, Breuer said.

Officials said Archive staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and others disappeared, Archive officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey.

Berger immediately returned all the notes he had taken, and conducted a search and located two copies of the classified documents on a messy desk in his office, Breuer said. An Archives official came to Berger's home to collect those documents but Berger couldn't locate the other missing copies, the lawyer said.

Breuer said Berger was allowed to take handwritten notes but also 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."

Justice officials have informed the Sept. 11 commission of the Berger incident and the nature of the documents in case commissioners had any concerns, officials said. The commission is expected to release its final report on Thursday."

I can’t find all of the news articles archived, but I remember reading that the National Archives staff became very suspicious when Berger repeatedly excused himself to make bathroom visits and acted suspiciously while reviewing the documents.

Now here is the kicker...

After jacking around with this for over a year, the government morons let Mr. Berger off easy.

Although the crime carries up to a year jail sentence and a $100,000 fine, they let him off with no jail time, a $10,000 fine, and a three year suspension of his security clearance.

What a total load of crap…