Insecurity

How classified material from the National Archives ended up in Clinton Administration National Security Adviser Sandy Berger’s pockets and down his pants inadvertently is difficult to fathom. How such a formerly highly placed person wouldn’t know that he was been watched while placing such documents in such a strange place is even more difficult to fathom.

Additionally, he claims to have discarded some of the “borrowed” documents.

Please.

It appears to me that he purposely and knowingly did the deed, got wind that it had been discovered and—along with his legal representation--crafted this incredibly implausible story of incompetence and forgetfulness to cover himself.

Well, it’s a pretty thin cover, if you ask me. In fact, you don’t have to ask me, even though, at one time, I handled many classified documents and, somehow, none of them managed to end up on my person. Ask the thousands of military personnel who have been tasked to handle and protect like documents. Ask them what would have happened to them had classified documents ended up growing legs and walking out under their supervision. Ask them what would have happened to them were they to tell investigators that it was “inadvertent.”

Laughter would be the response and Fort Leavenworth would be their new home. Civilians have more legal leeway, for good or ill.

Will Mr. Berger be prosecuted? I doubt it. Fawn Hall wasn’t and she was just a secretary. (For the record, she was granted immunity from prosecution to pry her information from the cover of the Fifth Amendment. I have mixed feelings about that: immunity is granted to many people for this reason, but the unauthorized destruction of classified material should carry some penalty with it. Ms. Hall deserved incarceration more than Martha Stewart does. To be fair, military personnel have Fifth Amendment rights as well, but I wonder how often they are offered such deals.)

Notice, however, the word “security” in the informal title “National Security Adviser.” That means that Mr. Berger was the go-to guy for national security issues in the Clinton Administration. That a person in such a position could mistakenly treat classified documents in such a cavalier manner boggles the mind. Either he was/is incredibly stupid or incredibly venal. I vote both.

Comments

[teal marie]

My first wish is that the missing documents are found in Kerry's pants. My second wish, Hillary's pants. My third wish is for more wishes. This country is half full of suspect pants. I believe this makes me an optimist.

[Silicon Valley Jim]

Folks in the Clinton administration sure had problems with their pants, didn't they?

I would find it a bit more believable if it were the former President who "inadvertently" ended up with documents down his pants, since he removed and then replaced them so often while in the office.

[Mike Boelter]

This incident is so typical of the entire Clinton Administration. For one persons view of how security was viewed during those years in the White House read Gary Alrditch's "Unlimited Access" .

As a currently serving member of the armed forces I can remember being denied a TDF to Europe because my security clearances had not yet come through during that era.

I am currently having to take 3 computer classes to show that I understand Opsec, Security and Computer Security before I to be allowed to be deployed back to the sand box to move cargo.

Yet we have someone who was supposed to be National Security Advisor violating the simplest of security procedures (with the provision for fines and jail terms) who will probably only get a verbal warning. (Bad former national security advisor. No more secret documents for you!)

At a minimum I figure I would be losing at least a stripe or two and have to undergo remedial training in security procedures while my supervisors got a royal butt chewing for allowing such laxity.

When you are having to work with the nitty-gritty details of complying with minimal security procedures and see such a degree of rot at the top it really makes it hard not to feel bitter and think this country is becoming a place of two sets of laws, one for the peons and one for the elites.

Just for once I'd like to see the press follow this one to the degree they are bird dogging the 'Valerie Plame - Secret Agent' scandal.

[La Shawn]

I can't WAIT to see how this thing turns out.

[Jay G]

La Shawn,

Given the lack of coverage this has been given (imagine, even for a second, that this was Orrin Hatch during the Clinton presidency. Now imagine how many consecutive days the NYT would have run this as a front page story...), I'd say we may never know how this pans out...

But I'd wager money on Berger getting a complete and utter pass. No jail time, no censure, nothing.

Let's not forget, too, that Berger is John "I didn't have time for terror briefings" Kerry's foreign policy advisor...

[torchy]

If Sandy Berger has his hand in Kerry's pockets,"informally", what else is in Kerrys suspicous pants? I'm betting they're 'half full', at least. Trying to give Clinton his other hand it left Berger to wipe his ass on the Constitution, also located at the National Archive.

[torchy]

Fallout from Kerrys pants (eww). AP: Berger Steps Down As Kerry Adviser

[David D]

Y'know, I've read tens of thousands of pages of confidential documents (medical, not national security) and not a single one has 'inadvertantly' found its way into my pants. Perhaps I am lacking a 'kinky' gene.

Berger's documents must have been a lot more exciting than what I had to read.

[baldilocks]

Apparently. :-)

[David D]

"Ohh - great reports on Iraqi insurgents! Oh, I love this! Ohhhhh. . . time to go home.

(Later) Oh, MY. How did these papers end up in my pants?! Into the shredder with them!

Damn, I miss that gene.
Feel free to delete this post. I have no idea if Bur(g)ler really stole something.

And I do like your site.

[baldilocks]

Hey! No classified document prÖn on my site, please. LOL

[Cybrludite]

I'm sorry, but when the penalty is $50 large & ten years in the Federal pen per item, and there's signs all around to remind you of this fact, how do you just "inadvertently" walk out with this stuff? I'm not sure what scares me more, that he did this on purpose, or that he's really that careless with docs classified at the highest levels... At any rate, he's nailed for hiding his notes on the way out. Those were supposed to be vetted & cleared before leaving, and he's admitted to hiding them. Here's hoping he doesn't loose his grip on his soap...

[joel]

There is just no innocent explanation for this.

Bill Clinton's former National Security Adviser and currently John Kerry's adviser caught redhanded stealing classificed documents regarding terrorism. He admits he stuffed them into his sock. Doesn't sound inadvertant to me. Does it to you?

I have learned from my obsessive history reading that during WW II many Americans who were thought to be good Americans were actively working for the other side.

This included men in the White House. They believed in the Communist future.

Some scientists during WW II adopted the moral equivalence mindset and helped the 2nd greatest mass killer in history, Stalin, to get the atomic bomb, to maintain the balance of power.

So, it wouldn't be surprising if Berger stole documents to help someone other than the US govt. Only, question, who was he working for?

But, this sort of document problem plagued the Clinton White House. I remember those missing billing records. Never explained. It is nice this has happened to remind us of why Clinton was hated by so many. It is interesting to see how a man who got 43% and 49% of the popular vote when he ran for President is presented as a popular President.

[DarkStar]

Jail him.
Fine him.

[Velociman]

The GOP will make a lot of hay out of this, and rightfully so, but I just can't help thinking: what the fuck? There can't be anything that damaging for a former NSA to go groveling. Can there? Weird. Just weird.

[Noah]

Yet another reason to despise the Clinton administration. Had, say, Condi done something like this, the liberal media Hyenas would be all over it. Typical leftist hypocracy.

[Noah]

I meant hypocrisy. Oh well. And have you read about what Canadian teens think of the US on FOX? A survey says about 40% of Canadian teens think the US is a force of evil in the world(Not that I think surveys mean much). And these are Anglo Canadians, not the French ones. The French-Canadian evil rating was at about 60%. That makes me so mad! I knew that pesky Avril Lavigne was up to no good! Sorry for the change in subject, but I just needed to rant. Thanks, and I love the site.

[dick]

as one who worked with codeword docs and eyes only messages during the Cuba Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall Crisis during the Kennedy era, if I had done anything remotely like this jerk I would still be locked up. That somebody with that kind of position and the kind of clearance he had to have (it took me 3 days to get debriefed when I left the service) would even consider doing this is inconceivable. I also saw an article showing Clinton laughing about it and saying everybody knows that Berger was always snowed under with paper. Unbelievable. These fools were in charge??? Whatever was the country thinking of to put these jackasses in charge.

[StinKerr]

I think DarkStar pretty much covers it with:
"Jail him.
Fine him."

Any bets on either one happening? The partisan hacks are already lining up to defend him.

I was trained on an obsolete sonar system but it was still classified. My notebooks never left the classroom and if I wanted to study after hours I had to go to a designated room in the school. NOTHING could leave that building except me and what (little) was in my head.

[Lola]

On my desk I have a 13-page printout of an article. 8x11, and I can definitely feel its weight. It just boggles my mind as to how someone could walk out with that stuffed down one's paint. That person would definitely be walking like a bow-legged cowboy. And he's supposed to be the security advisor? Please.

[Warthog]

Watch the Spin Doctors go to work! Just sloppy absentmindedness, bullshit!

[joel]

Yes, how they spin. I heard a few minutes of some "analysts" on NPR talking about this. Words like trivial and tragedy were used. The only suspicious thing they saw was the timing of the leak.

The Democrats are starting to remind me of the French. Whose side are they on, anyway?

[Sharps Shooter]

Its not germane whether he 'inadvertently' or 'maliciously' or 'purposely' broke the law!

Its not germane that I (and as Baldilocks points out, thousands of others) would have been sent straight to Leavenworth, no Go, no $200...

Its only important THAT he broke the law. Therefore, deal with Sandy Berglar, lawbreaker.

[Carridine]

As Joel, Warthog and Lola point out, Berglar invokes 'inadvertent' expecting Americans (and American justice and American legal systems) TO FALL FOR IT...

If he gets off the hook, THAT is frightening! What a slimey, underhanded turncoat!