Report Says Berger Hid Documents under a construction trailer

Report Says Berger Hid Archive Documents (under a construction trailer)
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 to unlawfully removing and retaining classified 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.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that National Archives employees spotted Berger outside the building, bending down and fiddling with something white around his ankles.
The employees did not feel at the time that 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 reported that on one visit, Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark outside.

“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,” said notes prepared by the inspector general’s office.

“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.

The significant portions of the inspector general’s report were redacted to protect privacy or national security.
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.
For his guilty plea, Berger was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and barred from access to classified material for three years.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Just 3 years! How the heck could they give him such as light sentence when he admitted that he stashed the documents and retrieved them later. Not only is he NOT going to jail for the rest of his life for taking documents that have the same classification as our nuclear secrets (probably to modify them to protect Clinton’s legacy), he’ll also be able to access classified documents after 3 years? Berger is a common thief. He did this intentionally. He should never get a security clearance again. I don’t care who he is. And what is even more concerning is what Berger put in the files than what he took out of them.
Remember when we used to execute people for this sort of behavior? Not only is he walking free…but he was included in on the ISG.
There have been reports in the past how Berger was a “workaholic” as Clinton’s National Security Adviser —-always seen surrounded with top-secret documents—often working late.
(1) He was on-duty when our technology was sold to China.
(2) He was on-duty when we bombed the aspirin factory, advising Clinton it was manufacturing deadly chemicals.
(3) He was on-duty during Somolia, and Kosovo, and Hatti, and all the other wonderful military success stories of the Clinton administration.
(4) And then there’s the infamous Clinton pardons, including the biggest tax cheat in US history—Mark Rich—who absconded, then renounced his US citizenship to evade US prosecution.
(5) Clinton also pardoned 16 terrorists—members of the FALN—- so Hillary could get Latino votes for her Senate run in NY’s large Puerto Rican population. The Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) was involved in more than 100 bombings in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s.”
(6) And let’s not forget the bombing of the Chinese embassy. Then-Pres Clinton went to Norfolk making a “solemn promise” to the families, friends and shipmates of the USS Cole to avenge their deaths. But when the opportunity presented itslef, he squandered it. Clinton flunky Burger blamed the misstep on the Pentagon. As if anyone in the Pentagon would pass up the chance to avenge the sailors of the USS Cole.