Friday, May 18, 2007

Cruel Necessity ?

Samuel “Sandy” Berger (a/k/a “Sandy Burglar”) National Security Adviser in the Clinton White House, is giving up his license to practice law, according to the Washington Times. (Hat tip: Belmont Club, and Instapundit).

In 2005, Mr. Berger was convicted (on a guilty plea) of removing documents from the National Archives, while preparing to testify before the 9/11 Commission. As far as we know, five documents were involved -- five classified copies of a report covering Clinton administration handling of the unsuccessful 2000 millennium attack plot. Mr. Burger destroyed three copies of this document with scissors -- two were recovered. Mr. Burger was fined $50,000 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service – and ordered to undergo a polygraph examination if the Justice Department asked him to – which it didn’t.

Mr. Burger made at least two earlier visits to the Archives in 2002 and 2003, but the Justice Department, according to Republican congressman Thomas M. Davis, III was “incurious” about these trips, during which Mr. Berger may have had access to uninventoried documents. Apparently, Mr. Berger's little visits seriously disturbed the Archive curators. Glad they bothered somebody.

Why isn’t anybody – the Justice Department, the Media, the Congress --- a little more curious ? Can you imagine the firestorm if Berger had served in a Republican administration ?

And now, he's walking away from the bar license: throwing away the product of probably three-plus years of law school (that's Harvard Law School, in this case) without a fight. “I have decided to voluntarily relinquish my license” the Times quotes Mr. Berger as saying. . .”I am very sorry for what I did, and I deeply apologize.” Fine, but what's going on here ? I have some knowledge of what it takes to get a bar license, and I cannot imagine willingly agreeing to surrender it. . .unless cruel necessity absolutely compelled it.

Why is Sandy Burglar rolling over for this ? What on Earth could make Mr. Berger, of his own accord, surrender that piece of paper? Here's one answer: according to the Washington Times: “In giving up his license, Mr. Burger avoids being cross-examined by the Board on Bar Counsel, where he risked further disclosure of specific details of his theft.”

What is Mr. Berger hiding ? Who, or what, is he protecting ?

2 comments:

Mark Tempest said...

I wonder if Berger knows...

El Jefe Maximo said...

Yeah, I guess that is the question, isn't it ? I mean, walking into a FEDERAL facility and walking out with something that wasn't mine ? Gives me the heebie-jeebies just writing it.