Prison time for the Burglar?

[SuperScout]

A House committee released a report today concluding former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger went to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security and that the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 commission that it received the documents it requested. Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, ranking Republican member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his staff's investigation reveals Berger "compromised national security much more than originally disclosed."

"It is now also clear that Mr. Berger was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience," Davis said.

A newly released investigation report by the National Archives and Records Administration showed President Bill Clinton signed a letter authorizing Berger's access to the classified documents.
Last year, Berger plea bargained a criminal sentence on the charge of unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. A judge gave him no prison time, a $50,000 fine, 100 hours of community service and a ban from access to classified material for three years.

Davis said the 9/11 commission "relied on incomplete and misleading information regarding its access to documents" Berger reviewed. The commission was never told Berger had access to original documents that he could have taken without detection, Davis stated. "Mr. Berger's review of documents did not conform to the usual requirements for reviewing classified documents in a secure facility and under strict supervision," he said. "The archives staff's failure to contact law enforcement immediately and their contacts with Mr. Berger about the missing documents compromised the law enforcement effort."

Davis said the "compromised law enforcement effort contributes to reduced confidence that the 9/11 commission received all the documents it requested."

"The execution of a search warrant before Mr. Berger knew there was an investigation would have either located additional documents or enhanced confidence that he stole no others than those he admitted to taking," he said. Davis also said the public statements of the former chief of the public integrity section, Noel Hillman, were "incomplete and misleading."

"Because Mr. Berger had access to original documents that he could have taken without detection, we do not know if anything 'was lost to the public or the process,'" Davis said. The congressman contended the Justice Department's assertion that Berger's statements are credible after being caught is "misplaced."

"One wouldn't rely on the fox to be truthful after being nabbed in the hen house ," Davis said. "But the Justice Department apparently did." Davis also referred to revelations last month from the National Archives investigation, which revealed Berger left stolen highly classified documents at a construction site to avoid detection.

The document upon which Berger focused was the National Security Council's "Millennium After Action Review" on the Clinton administration's handling of the al-Qaida terror threats in December 1999. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft testified before the 9-11 commission about the millennium report, urging the panel to ask why the document's warnings and "blueprint" to thwart al-Qaida's plans to target the U.S. were ignored by the Clinton administration and not shared with the incoming Bush security staff.

[Packo]

Prison time? Bwahahahaha! He'll probably get some sort of medal of freedom or something. This would be headlines for years had the person been of another party. No media bias, Bwhahahahah! I can guarentee I'd be doing 20 to life if I got caught stealing and destroying Top Secret Documents that proved we went to war in Iraq for "oil". Me thinks this will just be a new "culture of corruption" from what I can see right now. Well, I regretted my Republican votes, now I regret my Democrat votes, and basically just quit voting for all these thugs all together. Hey, I know, let's cut off funding for the troops we all "support" so well. That will bring our enemies to their knees, LAUGHING.

I earned in blood my right to vote.....sad I'm giving it up. So far, as I keep saying, "...here comes the new boss, same as the old boss..." The Who.

Pack

[SuperScout]

The 'culture of corruption' test: which is more dangerous to the security of the nation?

1. A light-in-the-loafers congressman who writes kinky emails to a congressional page, OR

2. A former National Security Advisor who steals TOP SECRET documents and then either makes illegal copies of them or destroys them, or sells them to the highest bidder?

Paco, seriously ponder these two questions before casting your next vote.

[Packo]

I get it Scout....just feeling I can't trust any of these people anymore. It's a sad state of affairs.

Pack

[Seascamp]

When a former National Security Advisor directly acts to subvert a process that has significant National Security content, then that fairly well defines the name of the game and his particular view of National Security in terms of importance and priority.

Or in other words, ?moral relativity? at work and therefore a felony crime is not committed, by definition. Or more likely, Berger has some serious dirt on people in high places and is axiomatically a sacred Brahman and therefore no felony crime has been committed, pick one.
Plus I find it hard to swallow the concept that Berger acted on his own hook for his own CYA purposes, yikes; I was born on a Wednesday, but not last Wednesday. Curious that the conspiracy theorists have left this one alone and apparently bought into Clinton?s jovial dismissal of the whole episode as some sort of ?absent minded Professor? scenario. Talk about maxed-out smoke n? hokum.

And Packo, maybe it?s past time for a 3rd Party that is able and willing to represent the vast majority of the middle American center stripe that finds value in playing by the rules, being law abiding and reckon Patriotism isn?t an unclean non-PC concept. And it's the same middle America that has gone unrepresented due to the acrimonious Congressional default gridlock. Maybe we?re stuck with the concept of not voting for, but voting against, and maybe middle America is getting damn sick of the acrimonious status quo and the arrogant, contemptuous, name-giving exercises and disassociation from reality and the perils we face.

Jezz, along with being a supposed reactionary n? racist bigot n? NAZI, I?m also a ?natalian? and a ?retro?. And all this from those who breathe the rarefied air of academia or just enjoy being political punks n? insulting n? harassing people but don?t have any productive ideas, but prefer to run with the hateman agenda.

Scamp