Rather clearly, this wasn’t a spur-of-the moment decision on Berger’s part to snatch documents but rather a premeditated act.

Berger is a complete scumbag and should be jailed.

Remember, this is the same treasonous character who--along with Clinton--could have prevented 9/11. When he was National Security Advisor he had Bin Laden in his hands but called off the hunt when the CIA had the terrorist in his grasp.

That first transgression was a harbinger for his shameful behavior at the National Archives.

I've got to admit that this entire matter baffles me. Why did he do it? What was he trying to accomplish? Why was he let off with a wrist-slap?

I'm with Dave. I don't understand the motivation or the wrist-slap. Bizarre.

Double jeopardy makes him safe as houses. He even admitted it was intentional when he plead guilty, so a perjury rap is going to be hard to pin on him.

Maybe... if this new stuff demonstrates some crime they didn't throw at him in the earlier case, it could still go forward, but considering the wrist-slap earlier, it's hard to imagine the political will to pursue it is there. I too don't understand why he's not in the slammer...

What does this do to the integrity and credibility of the 911 Commissions report?? What a joke. If this was an average Intelligence analyst (except for maybe V Plamne/Wison) or someone else with access above secret, they would be in a federal prison for the rest of their life. He should have his clearance back in time for the 2008 presidential election.

We all act on the sperm of the moment every once in a while. Not that Plame did 'cause those witches just drug you and steal it, so it was all planned.

Integrity of the 911 commission: Elvis' piano, made in 1911, is on sale and they knew that guy was British and so did Larry.

Oh, that’s just Sandy, ha, ha, ha – didn’t surprise any of us, when we heard about it. You should have seen his desk at the White House! Sloppy Sandy – ethical as the day is long, though.

WJC

“He headed toward a construction area. . . . Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone,” the interview notes said.

He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

“He was aware of the risk he was taking,” the inspector general’s notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.

The notes said Berger had not been aware that Archives staff had been tracking the documents he was provided because of earlier suspicions from previous visits that he was removing materials.

Ethical as the day is long

Well, it is the winter solstice after all.

The exact motivation will most likely never be known. The reason for the slap on the wrist is that he's a Democrat. The Republican politicans are suckers and are lazy. They think that by going easy on him they will one day be granted leniency by the Dems/MSM if a Republican is caught in a similar situation. Of course that's wrong. I'm not saying that the Republicans have to stoop to the level of the Dems/MSM, but at times they have to be as ruthless as them. One or two GOP Congressmen should have thrown a fit about this until the media gave it the attention it would have received if it had been done by a Republican.

A Justice Department lawyer said Berger didn't prevent anyone from looking at any documents. This was a case of extreme arrogance. But don't be surprised to see Berger in a future Democratic administration.

Thanks for letting us know about this. It must have been a lot of damaging evidence against Clinton. The FBI needs to follow up on it. Along with Hillary Clinton's ex lawyer partner who allegedly committed suicide. Which was not true because of all the evidence to the contrary. Also has any one seen the names on the Clinton's hit list who were killed when they were trying to investigate their financial and other ethics charges when Bill Clinton was in office.

I'm not at all sure this is a "Democrat vs. Republican" thing, or a "Conservative vs. Liberal" thing, but rather a "One of Us vs. Everyone Else" thing -- in other words, special rules for career Beltway insiders.

As to why: Cui bono? Anyone who could have been acutely embarrassed -- not by the printed document texts, for there were duplicates of those, but by handwritten marginalia ... doodles perhaps, but more likely statements of agreement, mockery, disagreement, who knows? And from the time frame of the documents he stole, some of which he admits to having destroyed, we can fairly infer that those who benefited from his acts were those in the Clinton Administration who wanted or needed to hide something at least dimly remembered as having been left in that marginalia that, post 9/11, wouldn't look good. Either it was Berger own notes being trashed, or someone else's, which is even scarier, because then by definition it's someone who wanted it badly enough to enlist, [i]and[/i] had the clout to persuade, a top-level guy like Berger to commit obvious (and ham-handed) felonies to them.

"I stuffed them down my pants" ain't far from "The dog ate my homework," but the ludicrous nature of the crime isn't inconsistent with it being a very, very serious crime. Every righteous keeper of government secrets, military and civilian, is himself or herself betrayed by this travesty of a plea bargain and "sentence."