More on Sandy Burglar
I read this article about how former president Bill Clinton’s National Security Advisor stole documents from the National Archives. Several things about this article stood out from the rest of the drivel. Notably:
Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark. He had taken four documents in his pockets.
“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,” the interview notes said.
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 man deliberately stole classified documents, smuggled them out of the Archives in his pockets, his underwear, and his socks, then destroyed them. What was his punishment for this action?
Berger pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. He was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.
In other words, what Mr. Berger got would not even qualify as a slap on the wrist. A few years back, when I had a security clearance and had access to data significanly less sensitive than that which Mr. Berger had access, if I had pulled this stunt, not only would I never again in my life be considered for any sort of security clearance, I would probably still be sitting in a lovely little room at Ft. Leavenworth. Yet Mr. Berger gets off with a fine he will probably never be forced to pay and community service he will probably never be forced to serve.
Berger is proof that Washington elites can break any law they see fit without ever being held accountable. Who is to blame for this?
Us. The voters.
We continually vote for people we know to be corrupt, and we let them get away with things that would land the rest of us in prison for a very long time. As further proof, I offer up Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), who is currently being investigated for taking bribes, yet the people in his state re-elected him to continue “serving” them in the House of Representatives.
We elect these crooks (or the crooks who appoint other crooks into positions of power), then we shake our heads and wonder why they act like crooks. Everyone wants to change the system, yet no one seems to be willing to break from the Republicrat party long enough to actually try to vote for real change – then they gripe about the corrupt status quo. No, they go much farther than that. They actively demonize and villify anyone who dares break of from the pact and who tries to change things for the better.
There’s an old saying: “you get what you pay for”. We pay for these Corruptocrats with our votes, and we get screwed in return. We really are getting what we pay for.
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