The Washington Times: Sandy Berger's crime:
Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to federal investigators. But for lying after stealing highly classified documents from the National Archives -- in an apparent attempt to alter the historical record on terrorism, no less -- former Clinton national security adviser and Kerry campaign adviser Sandy Berger will get a small fine and slap on the wrist. He will pay $10,000 and get no jail time. His security clearance will be suspended until around the end of the Bush administration -- meaningless for a career Democrat like Mr. Berger. It makes us wonder who at the Department of Justice is responsible for letting such a serious offense go virtually unpunished.
For those who suspect that different rules apply at the top, a case like this is reason for cynicism. Meanwhile, his associates from the Clinton years are silent, perhaps hoping the scandal will blow over so Mr. Berger can remain a don of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment.
We can only speculate as to why the Department of Justice would agree to such lenient terms for the offense. Perhaps career employees or holdovers with ties to Democrats are responsible. Perhaps the Bush administration went soft. Whatever the reason, we can be reasonably sure it wasn't done for reasons of national security, justice or truth.
Via Glenn.
And more from Lorie at PoliPundit and David Limbaugh:
Where are the Democrats on this issue? Are they not the ones who have been obsessed with retrospectives and endless self-flagellating investigations into how our intelligence agencies failed, implying that we could have prevented 9/11?
Given the gravity they attach to these investigations, how can they possibly understate the significance of Berger’s crime? His actions – even if you naively believe they weren’t in furtherance of a Clinton cover-up – grossly undermined the integrity of our investigative process and national security in general.
Can you imagine if a high-level actor in the Bush administration stole and destroyed documents related to the 9/11 investigation?
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
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