SANDY BURGER'S ARCHIVES THEFT

Chris Field on Sandy Burger's Archives Theft

This video is about the outrageous theft and destruction of classified records from the National Archives and the reactions of officials. As if stealing records was not wrong enough, it was done by a public man, Sandy Burger, a former national security adviser. The officials declared they are quite shocked by this deception.

Even though the theft made a statement in which he declared to deeply regret his actions, it doesn’t put him away from a quite understandable investigation of the National Archives inspector-general. With the testimony of Burger, he wrote a report of this unfortunate event.

The stolen documents were about the administration’s reactions to a terrorist plot that may attack the United States in 2000, while Bill Clinton was president. He stole them because he feared the questions of the 9/11 Commission about the way the White House handled the threat of terrorism.

He gave an edifying statement about how he smuggled the records out of the National Archives building. He walked out with the documents stuffed in his pockets. He took advantage of the darkness, looked around and headed to the Department of Justice, across the street. Luckily for him, at that time, there was some construction going on near the Department of Justice. Instead of sneaking into the building with the documents on him, which might have been careless, he went through the security fence and placed them under a construction trailer. Then he went back to work like if nothing happened. When he went back home, he destroyed most of the documents by cutting them into pieces.

When he was interrogated, he first said he might have taken the documents by accident, or inadvertently. In the end, he faced no legal charge for what he did and was free to go.

Two things shocked the public servants: he indeed didn’t stand in trial. Yet the law makes clear that stealing and destroying public records is a criminal offense, even more serious when the theft is a public official or a state servant. Anyone else wouldn’t have gotten away with it and would have spent some time in prison.

But for them, the most outrageous part is that he stuck the classified papers under a trailer, in the dirt. Stealing is one thing, but acting the way he did is even worse for the Archives officials. And even if the law and the United States have forgiven him, the public servants haven’t, and he will be remembered as a thief who sticks papers in the dirt.

N. CONEJERO