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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan B. who wrote (66767)	9/9/2005 7:01:15 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

Judge orders no prison for Berger $50,000 fine for stealing classified documents Posted: September 8, 2005 A judge today ordered Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, to pay a $50,000 fine for stealing classified documents from the National Archives. Berger avoids prison time under the punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. In addition to the fine, which exceeded the $10,000 recommended by government lawyers, he must give up access to classified government materials for three years. "The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn't reflect the seriousness of the offense," Robinson said as Berger stood before her. During the hearing, Berger described his crime as a lapse of judgment as he prepared to testify before the Sept. 11 commission, the Associated Press reported. "I let considerations of personal convenience override clear rules of handling classified material," Berger said. "I believe this lapse, serious as it is, does not reflect the character of myself." "In this case, I failed. I will not again," he said. The stolen documents were copies of highly secret memorandum, possibly with handwritten notes, that allegedly were critical of the Clinton administration’s response to the "Millennium 2000" terror plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. Berger, who was an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry when the scandal broke, has held multiple national security jobs since the Carter administration and recently was a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Berger initially said he took copies of the classified documents regarding terrorism from the National Archives by "accident" and then misplaced them in what he described as an "honest mistake." He later admitted, however, that after pilfering the documents, he destroyed three of the five with scissors at the office of his consulting firm. worldnetdaily.com