Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Socks, Pants, and Construction Trailers

Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday.

The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.

Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he said it was possible he threw them in his office trash.


A new definition for Trailer Trash!

8 comments:

chuck said...

Under a trailer? Where are the guy's connections? They should have been hidden under freshly poured concrete.

The Clinton's sure surrounded themselves with some pretty unprincipled types. Makes me wonder...

Anonymous said...

There has to be more to it than that. Why would he remove them from the building only to hide them under a trailer? In a blind panic just to dispose of them? Or was this a drop-off and pick-up operation that somehow went awry?

Barry Dauphin said...

Maybe this represents the best thinking the Clinton administration had to offer on national security.

Charlie Martin said...

Having spent some years in a SCIF, I think what this means is that Berger knew he'd have to show the contents of his briefcase etc when he left --- but they'd let him outside for a smoke with nothing apparently in his hands. So he got them out in his socks and shorts, then picked them up later when he was leaving. Good tradecraft would have had him use the trailer as a drop and have someone else pick them up, but one gets the impression this wasn't a very well planned op.

Luther said...

No, I think it was a mixture of personal loyalty (to Clinton) mixed with self preservation. OTOH, sounds more like a twelve year old on a mission of shoplifting.

The chagrin is that these are the people running our country. Depressing.

Bob Hawkins said...

[George Carlin voice] Those papers must be reeeeeaaaallllyy baaaaaaad! [/George Carlin voice]

Barry Dauphin said...

The former National Security Advisor couldn't do any better than that?

buddy larsen said...

This is a huge story that died on the MSM pressroom floor, while the Plame affair is the exact opposite, a no-story resulting in years of stop-the-press on every detail, leading to a bogus political trial.

How in the hell did we get into such a weird Stalinist-lite state of being?