Oct 8, 2007 3:00 AM (163 days ago) by
Bill Sammon, The Examiner
WASHINGTON (Map,
News) - Sandy Berger, who stole highly classified terrorism
documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and
lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential
candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Berger, who was fired from John Kerry’s presidential
campaign when the scandal broke in 2004, has assumed a similar
role in Clinton’s campaign, even though his security clearance
has been suspended until September 2008. This is raising
eyebrows even among Clinton’s admirers.
“It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger’s
serious misdeeds,” said law professor Jonathan Adler of
Case Western Reserve University, who nonetheless called
Clinton “by far the most impressive candidate in the Democratic
field.”
Adler told The Examiner that it is “simply incomprehensible
to me that a serious contender for the presidency would
rely upon him as a key foreign policy advisor.”
He added: “If Senator Clinton becomes the Democratic
nominee, at some point she will begin to receive national
security briefings that will include sensitive information.
At such a point, continuing to keep Berger on board as a
key advisor, where he might have access to sensitive material,
would be beyond incomprehensible.”
The Clinton campaign declined to comment.
Berger has admitted stealing documents from the National
Archives in advance of the 9/11 Commission hearings in 2003.
The documents, written by White House counterterrorism czar
Richard Clarke, were a “tough review” of the Clinton administration’s
shortcomings in dealing with terrorism, Clarke’s lawyer
told the Washington Post.
On several occasions, Berger stuffed highly classified
documents into his pants and socks before spiriting them
out of the Archives building in Washington, according to
investigators. On one occasion, upon reaching the street,
he hid documents under a construction trailer after checking
the windows of the Archives and Justice Department buildings
to make sure he was not being watched.
Berger came back later and retrieved the documents, taking
them home and cutting them up with scissors. Two days later,
he was informed by Archive employees that his removal of
documents had been detected.
“Berger panicked because he realized he was caught,”
said a report by the National Archives inspector general,
which also recounted his initial reaction. “Berger lied.”
Berger also lied to the public, telling reporters he
made an “honest mistake” by “inadvertently” taking the documents,
which he blamed on his own “sloppiness.” Bill Clinton vouched
for the explanation for Berger, who served as his national
security adviser.
Berger later conceded: “I was giving a benign explanation
for what was not benign.”
The Justice Department initially said Berger stole only
copies of classified documents and not originals. But the
House Government Reform Committee later revealed that an
unsupervised Berger had been given access to classified
files of original, uncopied, uninventoried documents on
terrorism. Several Archives officials acknowledged that
Berger could have stolen any number of items and they “would
never know what, if any, original documents were missing.”
At his sentencing in September 2005, Berger was fined
$50,000, placed on probation for two years and stripped
of his security clearance for three years.
bsammon@dcexaminer.com
