Comments on: House Staff Report on Berg(l)er: The Justice Department Cannot Be Sure He Didn’t Take Original Classified Documents

By: MD in Philly

MD in Philly — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:59:28 +0000

Esteemed Blog Host-

I would love your opinion on the conduct of the DOJ as related in the report, if you get the chance and can. Sounds to my uneducated opinion there was incompetence or collusion, or both. The fact that the judge imposed a stiffer fine than was asked for by the DOJ again suggests they were either not thinking or helping to put this under the radar.

By: rightisright

rightisright — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:44:31 +0000

And to think two border patrol agents are going to prison for a long time for doing their job.

By: djangone

djangone — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:03:03 +0000

This whole thing with Berger is astounding to me. It’s a massive embarrassment to me and all other on the left. What possessed him I can’t imagine.

[This commenter has been banned, but I will probably post most of his comments anyway, as I choose to. (Like almost any banned commenter, if he apologizes sincerely for the behavior that got him banned, I'll reinstate him entirely.) -- P]

By: G

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:38:21 +0000

Personally, I think Berger should be drugged so that he tells the truth as to what he destroyed.

By: Holmwood

Holmwood — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:33:59 +0000

Imagine the damage this does, all the way through the National Security Apparatus. Junior people, who know full well that if they did anything like this, they’d be looking at loss of job and a lengthy prison term, see what senior people get away with.

At the very least, it’s corrosive to morale; at worst, it breeds disrespect for the rule of law. I can guess why the Administration didn’t want to pursue this aggressively, but I’m not sure that was the right choice.

Finally, the LA Times’ disingenuous “not original documents” was laughably and demonstrably false even then. What do handwritten notes on a document make the document but a new and different document? The value for historians and archivists of being able to see what actual senior players thought is tangible, and Berger has damaged security, possibly destroyed evidence, and certainly destroyed original and unique documents.

Holmwood

By: htom

htom — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:36:04 +0000

Are the inventory files inventoried?

This is not a joke. If he took, modified, and replaced an inventory, we would be even more clueless as to what was missing.

By: G

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:25:46 +0000

Upon reading the pdf, at end of page 3 it says “Because the Staff Member Office Files are not inventoried at the document level, Berger could…..”

By: G

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:22:19 +0000

“Everything should be inventoried and calendared–everything should have some trace that would ensure evidence of its existence, even if the document itself has been destroyed.” - kishnevi

Well it is government. What do you expect?

By: Old Coot

Old Coot — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:01:16 +0000

Likely your eyes will be peeled for a long time.

By: Dubya

Dubya — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:44:45 +0000

Do ou have any idea of the volume of documents the National Archives has to deal with? It wouldn’t surprise me if they were 3 or more years behind on inventory and processing.