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Berger Admits Removing Copies of Document from National ArchivesA former national security adviser to President Clinton pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court April 1 to a misdemeanor charge of removing classified material from a government archive. Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger acknowledged taking five copies of a 2000 assessment of antiterrorism efforts on two separate visits to the National Archives in 2003 and destroying three of them.The terms of the agreement with the Justice Department make it clear that Berger misled archives staff by claiming he had inadvertently walked off with the papers and then lost them, the Washington Post reported April 1. In fact, the agreement reveals, he shredded three copies with a pair of scissors late one evening in the office of his global business strategy firm. The document in question was an “after-action review” written by terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke that detailed the Clinton administration’s actions to thwart terrorist attacks during millennium celebrations. Berger’s visits to the archives on September 2 and October 2, 2003, occurred when he was reviewing materials for a national commission investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also admitted to improperly removing handwritten notes he had taken at the facility. Berger agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance. The criminal investigation, which came to light in July 2004, prompted Berger’s resignation as senior foreign policy adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, who will review the plea agreement, set sentencing for July 8. Posted April 1, 2005. |
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