Saturday, December 23, 2006

What happened to those classified document Sandy Berger stole?

How many remember the former National Security Adviser during the Clinton Administration Sandy "Paper in your Pants" Berger and the little stunt he pulled at the National Archives?
Well here is a little refresher in case you don’t remember. Back in 2003 Sandy “paper in your pants” Berger was at the National Archives in Washington DC reviewing some documents in preparation for his testimony to the 9/11 Commission Panel. During one of those visits employees at the National Archives witnessed Berger stuffing top secret classified documents into his pants and walking out.

So, what was Berger’s punishment for such an endeavor? Nothing, He did not even get a slap on the wrist. The story made national headlines for about three or for days and then was gone. We never heard about “Paper Gate” again.

But now we have more information. As it turns out Berger immediately hid classified documents under a construction trailer. According to the Inspector General's report, here's what Berger did when he left the National Archives:"He headed toward a construction area. Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the Department of Justice, and did not see anyone," says the report. “Berger then slid the documents under a construction trailer. He came back later to pick them up.” Parts of the report were censored to protect national security.

OK…now, I have some concerns about all of this.

First of all, these were top secret documents, where are the documents now? What did Berger do with the documents? Why has Berger never been charged with anything in this case?Second, where is the mainstream media on all of this? Do you think it would have been a 3 day story and died if it had been a republican? Of course not…if a Republican had done this...we would have never heard the end of it.

Finally, and my biggest concern...what exactly was Sandy Berger up to? What was he hiding? Why take such a huge risk to protect a former boss and administration that he was a part of? It must have been something pretty significant to go through all of that effort to hide something? Up to this point, we don't know.

What we do know is that Berger was in preparation to testify to the 9/11 commission panel on what the Clinton Administration did or did not know about any links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda … and a lot of other things.

Does anyone know what was in those documents? There had to be a reason Sandy Berger was stealing top-secret documents. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know.

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