Why hasn't the media been all over this?

[Gem]

Sure, sure, its old news. But I can't help but wonder why this old news wasn't bigger than it was. Most media outlets covered this story: a national security adviser stealing documents from the national archives relating to the largest and deadliest terrorist attack on US soil in history, took them to a construction site and either hit or deliberately destroyed them.

This is shocking, appauling news...and people seem just plain disinterested. Am I missing something here? I mean surely this is as important as Barak Obama being mad at Maureen Dowd for making fun of his ears or Henry Ford getting miffed about a white girl in a tv add, or even, in my opinion, the Valerie Plame non-affair which fizzled...this hasn't fizzled...but no one is paying it any attention.

Report Says Berger Hid Archive Documents


By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday.
The report was issued more than a year after Sandy Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removing the documents.

Berger took the documents in the fall of 2003 while working to prepare himself and Clinton administration witnesses for testimony to the Sept. 11 commission. Berger was authorized as the Clinton administration's representative to make sure the commission got the correct classified materials.

Berger's lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said in a statement that the contents of all the documents exist today and were made available to the commission.

But Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., outgoing chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said he's not convinced that the Archives can account for all the documents taken by Berger. Davis said working papers of National Security Council staff members are not inventoried by the Archives.

"There is absolutely no way to determine if Berger swiped any of these original documents. Consequently, there is no way to ever know if the 9/11 Commission received all required materials," Davis said.

Berger pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. He was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.

Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that National Archives employees spotted Berger bending down and fiddling with something white around his ankles.

The employees did not feel at the time there was enough information to confront someone of Berger's stature, the report said.

Later, when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he lied by saying he did not take them, the report said.

Brachfeld's report included an investigator's notes, taken during an interview with Berger. The notes dramatically described Berger's removal of documents during an Oct. 2, 2003, visit to the Archives.

Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark. He had taken four documents in his pockets.

"He headed toward a construction area. ... Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone," the interview notes said.

He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

"He was aware of the risk he was taking," the inspector general's notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.

The notes said Berger had not been aware that Archives staff had been tracking the documents he was provided because of earlier suspicions from previous visits that he was removing materials. Also, the employees had made copies of some documents.

In October 2003, the report said, an Archives official called Berger to discuss missing documents from his visit two days earlier. The investigator's notes said, "Mr. Berger panicked because he realized he was caught."

The notes said that Berger had "destroyed, cut into small pieces, three of the four documents. These were put in the trash."

After the trash had been picked up, Berger "tried to find the trash collector but had no luck," the notes said.

Significant portions of the inspector general's report were redacted to protect privacy or national security.

www.drudgereport.com[url]

 

[cranston36]

Because it is unimportant.
I worked at the Trustees office in Seattle Washington and archived a few hundred recipes and dirty emails the secretary had left on the machine I was working on. The office administrator threatened me with trying to steal state secrets.

There are a lot of sick people working in the bureaucracy of the United States.

No harm and no foul.

 

[Gunny]

Because it is unimportant.
I worked at the Trustees office in Seattle Washington and archived a few hundred recipes and dirty emails the secretary had left on the machine I was working on. The office administrator threatened me with trying to steal state secrets.

There are a lot of sick people working in the bureaucracy of the United States.

No harm and no foul.

Unimportant like John Walker Jr?

 

[dilloduck]

Because it is unimportant.
I worked at the Trustees office in Seattle Washington and archived a few hundred recipes and dirty emails the secretary had left on the machine I was working on. The office administrator threatened me with trying to steal state secrets.

There are a lot of sick people working in the bureaucracy of the United States.

No harm and no foul.

Somehow the information that Berger swiped seems a little more important that recipes and emails.

 

[cranston36]

None of it matters.
I'm just upset that we weren't given more time to learn Spanish before surrendering our nation to the Mexicans.

Is the plan to let the soldiers in Iraq stay there until they are all dead or will they be rotated out to garden spots like Guam?

I am curious - I have a deep and abiding respect for the Iraqi military and what they have become. I want to honor them in a real way here in my hometown. I was thinking of inviting my congressman to a rabbit heart chewing ceremony at a local park. Do you think it would be going too far to sing 'God Bless America' while we are showing the flag or would that be crossing the line between church and state?

 

[William Joyce]

I'd like to see those documents, myself.

 

[Mr.Conley]

I remember this. Strange case. The DoJ or whatever probably couldn't get enough evidence to move forward.

 

[UnAmericanYOU]

I'd like to see those documents, myself.

Two possibilities with Sandy - first, he's a undiagnosed klepto. Seems he'll stuff papers anywhere, in his pants, underneath mobile trailers, you name it. If this is true, he probably shoplifts as well.

Or it could be that these documents were incriminating in some way to his precious Clinton. Just saying.

 

[Annie]

I remember this. Strange case. The DoJ or whatever probably couldn't get enough evidence to move forward.

They had enough to convict him. They gave him a slap on the wrist. Luckily for whomever he works for in '08, he'll be able to get to the documents again, for while I don't see that little detail, he was ordered to not have access to documents for 3 years:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/08/berger.sentenced/

Sandy Berger fined $50,000 for taking documents
Must perform 100 hours of community service

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was sentenced Thursday to community service and probation and fined $50,000 for illegally removing highly classified documents from the National Archives and intentionally destroying some of them.

Berger must perform 100 hours of community service and pay the fine as well as $6,905 for the administrative costs of his two-year probation, a district court judge ruled.

"I deeply regret the actions that I took at the National Archives two years ago, and I accept the judgment of the court," Berger said outside the courthouse after his sentencing.

"I'm glad that the 9/11 commission has made clear that it received all the documents that it sought, all the documents that it needed, and I'm pleased to finally have this matter resolved," he added.

Berger reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in April to avoid a jail sentence...

 

[Gem]

I am still having trouble with the concept that our national security advisor ILLEGALLY removed documents that had relevance to the 9/11 investigations, DESTROYED them, has been found guilty of doing so, and we're shrugging our shoulders as if this was par for the course.

Sorry...but I just don't see our media going along with this if say, Condi had admitted to shredding a few Presidential Daily Briefings before walking in to testify before the commission....

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I am still having trouble with the concept that our national security advisor ILLEGALLY removed documents that had relevance to the 9/11 investigations, DESTROYED them, has been found guilty of doing so, and we're shrugging our shoulders as if this was par for the course.

Sorry...but I just don't see our media going along with this if say, Condi had admitted to shredding a few Presidential Daily Briefings before walking in to testify before the commission....

...the New York Times would run a weeks worth of headlines talking about it, all the network newscasts would be doing "investigative reports", Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be gathering with the usual crowd proclaiming that she's not really black, Jon Stewart would do an entire half hour on it, Rosie O'Donnell would be bellowing at the top of her lungs, and Liberals would be crawling out of the woodwork on this board screaming "Hey! Look at this!"

Yeah. I know where your going.

 

[Mr.Conley]

...the New York Times would run a weeks worth of headlines talking about it, all the network newscasts would be doing "investigative reports", Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be gathering with the usual crowd proclaiming that she's not really black, Jon Stewart would do an entire half hour on it, Rosie O'Donnell would be bellowing at the top of her lungs, and Liberals would be crawling out of the woodwork on this board screaming "Hey! Look at this!"

Yeah. I know where your going.

Actually Jimmy, Jon Stewart did do a show about it (or at least part, there's always a seperate interview) on this particular incident, The New York Times has run 4 seperate pieces on LexusNexus, and I've seen this story featured in the 3 major news sources I subscribe to (Time, The Economist, CNN).

 

[Gem]

Mr. Conley,

I would still argue that this story has not received nearly the amount of press it a) deserves to get and b) would have gotten had it been a Bush administration employee destroying classified documents relating to 9/11.

Stewart joked about Berger stuffing stuff down his pants...he did not hit on the bigger isssues. 1) What was he trying to hide. 2) Why aren't we outraged that our officials can "erase" things from our history by simply taking them out of our national archives. 3) What have we missed in our understanding of 9/11 by Berger's actions?

The story has been mentioned...its has not been covered. Important classified documents being smuggled and destroyed is at least as important as some of the crap that has received MAJOR coverage in the last year or so.