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alp227

(32,063 posts) Wed Dec 2, 2015, 01:36 PM Dec 2015

Sandy Berger, Former National Security Adviser, Dies at 70

Source: NYT

Samuel R. Berger, a political confidant of President Bill Clinton who became his national security adviser, died early Wednesday in Washington. He was 70.

His death was announced by Tara Sonenshine, his longtime aide and friend. Mr. Berger, known as “Sandy,” was given a cancer diagnosis more than a year ago. On Tuesday, he wrote to his colleagues at the Albright Stonebridge Group, an international consulting firm he ran with former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, that his condition had worsened and that “time is not on my side.”

A stocky, sometimes temperamental, frequently humorous political operative and trade lawyer, Mr. Berger helped oversee American foreign policy during a remarkable time. He played critical roles in the strategy to use American power, including airstrikes, to end a war with Slobodan Milosevic, then the president of Yugoslavia.

Mr. Berger turned to his upbringing on Capitol Hill to lobby to allow China into the World Trade Organization, part of a big gamble on the part of the Clinton administration that it could entwine the world’s fastest-growing power into a web of Western-based rules, and tame its behavior – a strategy that many still question.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/us/samuel-berger-dies.html

9 replies

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Highlight:

Sandy Berger, Former National Security Adviser, Dies at 70 (Original Post) alp227 Dec 2015 OP

Caused Clinton a lot of grief back in the day LiberalArkie Dec 2015 #1

In January of 2001 Sandy tried to warn Condi Rice for over an hour in her office about the ........ Botany Dec 2015 #2

yup. under the bus he went to make room for more war. restorefreedom Dec 2015 #3

RIP 840high Dec 2015 #4

RIP Crabby Appleton Dec 2015 #5

RIP. trillion Dec 2015 #6

Some good information in the locked duplicate thread bananas Dec 2015 #7

Less than laudatory comments from Reuters, BBC & NYT Divernan Dec 2015 #8

He got away with theft & destruction of classified govt. documents Divernan Dec 2015 #9

LiberalArkie

(15,730 posts)

1. Caused Clinton a lot of grief back in the day

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Wed Dec 2, 2015, 01:45 PM

Dec 2015

Botany

(70,592 posts)

2. In January of 2001 Sandy tried to warn Condi Rice for over an hour in her office about the ........

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Wed Dec 2, 2015, 02:00 PM

Dec 2015

... danger from al Qaeda and bin Laden and she blew him off and the rest is history. However
Karl Rove and company tried to destroy Sandy with a phony charge of him stealing government
documents so nobody would listen to him when he tried to tell the truth.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2099101

RIP Sandy

restorefreedom

(12,655 posts)

3. yup. under the bus he went to make room for more war.

Reply to Botany (Reply #2)

Wed Dec 2, 2015, 03:20 PM

Dec 2015

rip

and for rove, well, his karmic debt increases daily

840high

(17,196 posts)

4. RIP

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Wed Dec 2, 2015, 03:42 PM

Dec 2015

Crabby Appleton

(5,231 posts)

5. RIP

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 12:31 AM

Dec 2015

trillion

(1,859 posts)

6. RIP.

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 04:28 AM

Dec 2015

bananas

(27,509 posts)

7. Some good information in the locked duplicate thread

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 03:47 PM

Dec 2015

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141277555

Divernan

(15,480 posts)

8. Less than laudatory comments from Reuters, BBC & NYT

Reply to bananas (Reply #7)

Fri Dec 4, 2015, 08:31 AM

Dec 2015

From the earlier, locked thread, reports from BBC, Reuters and the New York Times, detailing Berger's bizarre theft and destruction of classified documents.
Star Member Divernan (13,707 posts)
4. Clinton advisor who stole/destroyed classified documents.

Yesterday afternoon's coverage on Sirius' BBC channel news broadcast (repeated on the hour as part of news highlights) referred to Berger as the Clinton national security advisor who admitted to and was punished for stealing classified documents (relalted to Clinton's presidency) from the National Archives, by "stuffing them down his pants". Reuters' coverage goes into more damning detail about his career - linking said documents to Berger's 9/11 testimony, and detailing how he was repeatedly given a pass by the State Department in investigations for illegal actions.

Part of the Clinton legacy/pattern - Hiding/destroying documents. HRC when she was researching for the congressional Watergate committee; Flotus HRC "losing" for 2 years her billing records for the Rose law firm which had been subpoenaed by Ken Starr (thereby dragging out his investigation long enough for Monica Lewinsky to appear on the scene) and most recently HRC unilaterally deciding which of her SOS-era emails to delete.

(His) accomplishments were overshadowed in July 2004, when the Justice Department revealed it was investigating whether Berger had removed classified documents and notes from the National Archives several months before his testimony to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

At first, Berger at first said removing the documents in his attaché case and pants and jacket pockets was accidental, but later admitted he had done it deliberately. One Archives employee said Berger stuffed the papers down his pant legs. Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and was fined more than $50,000 and given 100 hours of community service and probation. He also lost his security clearance.

Republicans were outraged, saying Berger was trying to destroy incriminating evidence. But the Justice Department said he only took copies to cut up and no original material was lost. Still, Berger was forced to resign as a foreign policy consultant to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Berger also had controversies during his days at the White House. A number of Republicans called for his resignation when it was learned that he was aware in 1996 that China was trying to get designs of U.S. nuclear warheads, but did not tell Clinton for more than a year.

In November 1997, Berger paid $23,000 to settle a conflict of interest charge over stock holdings. He had been told by the White House three years earlier to sell his stock of Amoco Corp but he did not, saying he forgot. The Justice Department found no intent to break the law.

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/03/us-people-sandyberger-obituary-idUSKBN0TL1OL20151203#lWOThCODs54uczS5.99

From the New York Times article (in which Berger was fulsomely praised by Bill Clinton, speaking on behalf of himself and Hillary):

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Berger appeared before the commission formed to investigate them to testify on what kind of warnings had been passed to his successor, Condoleezza Rice, in President George W. Bush’s administration, and by implication whether Mr. Berger and his colleagues had done enough to address the rising threat of Al Qaeda in its sanctuary in Afghanistan.

During the investigation, Mr. Berger went to the reading room of the National Archives in Washington, gathered several documents related to the Clinton administration’s handling of a Qaeda plot and spirited them out of the building, hiding them under a nearby construction trailer and retrieving them later.

A prosecutor found that while Mr. Berger had destroyed some of the papers, he had taken only copies, so nothing was permanently lost. Mr. Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, paid a $50,000 fine and temporarily lost his security clearance. He also stepped down as an adviser to Senator John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

The episode made Mr. Berger politically radioactive for a time, and while he quietly advised Mrs. Clinton during her White House run in 2008, it was only in recent years that he began to re-emerge more publicly as a national security voice in Democratic circles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/us/samuel-berger-dies.html?ref=us&_r=0

and from Huff Po:

He was deputy national security adviser during Clinton's first term.

In 2005, Berger pleaded guilty to illegally removing classified documents from the National Archives by stuffing some documents down his pants. He cut up some of the documents with scissors, for reasons that remain unclear. He was sentenced to probation and a $50,000 fine. He expressed regret for his actions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sandy-berger-dead-dies_565f067ee4b072e9d1c42ad0

Divernan

(15,480 posts)

9. He got away with theft & destruction of classified govt. documents

Reply to Divernan (Reply #8)

Fri Dec 4, 2015, 08:36 AM

Dec 2015

dealing with 9-11, with a lousy fine. Sounds more like the kind of punishment if you spilled coffee on your library book!

More posts from the locked thread:

Star Member Divernan (13,707 posts)
5. Inept attempt to cover up for Clinton administration re Al Qaeda/Afghanistan

See my post # 4 in this thread, and quote from NYT obit.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Berger appeared before the commission formed to investigate them to testify on what kind of warnings had been passed to his successor, Condoleezza Rice, in President George W. Bush’s administration, and by implication whether Mr. Berger and his colleagues had done enough to address the rising threat of Al Qaeda in its sanctuary in Afghanistan.

During the investigation, Mr. Berger went to the reading room of the National Archives in Washington, gathered several documents related to the Clinton administration’s handling of a Qaeda plot and spirited them out of the building, hiding them under a nearby construction trailer and retrieving them later.

Ironically, since it was determined that he had not removed/destroyed ALL copies of said documents, he argued in his defense, "Hey, no harm done." and got off with a fine instead of being prosecuted for theft and destruction of classified documents. Hey, the establishment takes care of its own. He advised Hillary in 2008.

Response to Divernan (Reply #5)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 12:54 AM

Star Member TwilightGardener (45,762 posts)
6. So a fall guy for Clinton, then.
The clean-up guy. And pretty much got away with it. That's nice.

Response to TwilightGardener (Reply #6)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 01:10 AM

Star Member Divernan (13,707 posts)
8. And doubtless would have been part of a HRC administration if such came to pass.

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