# Sandy Berger investigated for stealing terror memos **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 20, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919 "2004-07-20T01:26:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919/241 "2004-08-07T01:30:39Z")
By the way, [today’s “Daily Mislead”](http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df08062004.html) discusses how the Justice Dept has decided to reverse normal policy in handling the public discussion of the Sandy Berger investigation: > [@](#): > > It has been a longstanding policy of the Justice Department not to comment on ongoing investigations. For example, when Deputy Attorney General James Comey, Jr. was asked to comment on the Justice Department investigation into the outing of Joe Wilson’s wife as an undercover CIA operative, he said, "I can’t tell you about the details of any ongoing criminal investigation because our goal is to make sure … anyone who might not be charged with a crime isn’t unfairly smeared."1 Now, in an effort to undermine the credibility of former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, the Justice Department has abruptly changed its policy. > > Initially, career prosecutors handling the Berger investigation advised employees at the National Archives of their policy: Don’t discuss the details of an ongoing case. But according to a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), on July 27, Republican staff members of the House Government Oversight Committee "contacted the Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legislative Affairs and asked him to intervene to overrule the judgment of the career prosecutors."2 Days later, the Justice Department reversed their policy and advised archive employees they were “in no way constrained” from discussing any details of the Berger case. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919/242 "2004-08-07T02:20:15Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > \*\*SimonX \*\*, what you describe could be the actions of a spy on our side, their side or the other side for that matter. You are really trying to make a political point I assume, but fall way short. I’m asking an honest, simple question. As I wasn’t clear, I’m talking about the US’s highly classified national security information that could get Americans killed. ---
**Author:** ![Razorsharp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Razorsharp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razorsharp)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919/243 "2004-08-07T11:55:44Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > That line alone is worth the price of admission for today’s entertainment. 😃 I kinda like this line: > [@](#): > > Berger’s relationship to the Kerry campaign has undergone a massive transformation since news of the Great Hanes Robbery broke. One month ago, the Times was calling Berger one of “Mr. Kerry’s top foreign policy advisers.” Last week the Times described Berger as “an informal, unpaid adviser to Sen. John Kerry’s campaign.” By next week he’ll be “some guy who heckled Teresa in Milwaukee.” And this one: > [@](#): > > If Clinton were still president, instead of a serious criminal investigation, we’d get six months of attacks on the poor National Archives employees as trailer trash, sluts, gold-diggers, etc., etc. How 'bout another? > [@](#): > > Maybe the Kerry campaign could borrow from another Clinton-era scandal – the ransacking of the FBI files – and claim that, like Craig Livingston, no one knows who hired Berger to work on the Kerry campaign. **rjung** , No one cited Coulter as an authority, but she sure has a knack of exposing Democratic hypocrisy, doesn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919/244 "2004-08-07T14:39:35Z")
Coulter quotes are farts in the elevator of ideas. Unpleasant, lightweight, without substance, and only the uncouth will cackle and proclaim them as his own. > [@kanicbird](#): > > WOW what a great idea, no crime was committed if the guy is not already in irons, do you know how much this could save our court system For the less careful readers out there, I will rephrase. If Berger was as guilty of something as bad as some of you continue to believe that he is, he would have been in the hole before any of us had heard about the matter. Denied bail and awaiting trial. Instead, he walks free and the Justice Department says he won’t be prosecuted for ANY CRIME, let alone the crime of treason … Some of you folks need to take that real-life fact, and tie it tightly around your lingering belief that he’s a crook who needs to swing for his heinous deeds. > [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Sorry about that, RTA. No problem, my son … _(gesture of benediction)_ … read _Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot_ two times, and sing _Alice’s Restaurant_ three times. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919/245 "2004-08-07T15:26:20Z")
You guys do know that one of the people Presdent Bush’s picked to help him find Kosovo on a map (GWB’s words not mine), one the Vulcans, illegally passed classified national security secrets to agents of a foreign government, don’t you? This may have been before your time, so don’t worry if you don’t remember it. I’ll gladly discuss it with anyone who can stand the truth. Oddly enough, this same fucktard raised money for the international terrorist group that Hussein actually did have a operational, collaborative relationship with. That was early this year. Oh yeah, he used his position of influence with the DoD to try to broker a deal to sell the phone lines that the US military and the Fed gov use to a company owned by a man with ties to the Chinese military and intelligence services. He tried to do this despite the objections of the FBI and the Pentagon. There are of course a number of other issues and instances in these veins that I’ll not trouble you with here and now. If anyone should be suffering dire consequences who is not, it’s this guy. Of course, depending upon one’s inclinations in these matters, your mileage may vary. While I don’t present this as some sort of a defense for Berger (who knowingly did wrong), this is something that Americans who care about national security, like yourselves, should consider when listening to the poiticians in power. ps. None of this is the same incident that’s currently under investigation as per the passing of “extremely sensitive,” “highly classified” national security information which could “get people killed” to Iranian intelligence services. That information by the way was known only to 'handful" of senior officials, btw. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sandy-berger-investigated-for-stealing-terror-memos/255919.md?page=12)