stefan segal
04-18-2007, 03:51 PM
INFORMATIVE ARTICLE...A GOOD READ.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00304.htm
THE "LOST" WHITE HOUSE E-MAILS
The "missing" e-mails scandal, which overlaps with the more-developed one involving the fired U.S. Attorneys, is growing and threatens to take down a whole lot of high-level Administration officials, not the least of whom is Karl Rove.
We don't yet know what might be learned from the so-called "lost" e-mails, but even the little we do know helps fill in the informational blanks.
The CheneyBush Administration, from the get-go, has been the most secretive of any regime in the nation's history. (For a good primer, read John W. Dean's "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush." There's the public facade of this Administration, which the Washington press corps covers, and then there's the real government, hidden from public view and conducted in utmost secrecy. By and large, Rove runs the domestic secret government, and Cheney the secret foreign affairs/military government.
HIDING ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
When CheneyBush were moved into the White House in 2001, they had about two dozen of their key officials and aides use laptops and Blackberries and e-mail servers provided by the Republican National Committee. This was partly to help preserve their deepest secrets but also because they saw the trouble Clinton and his associates got into by using only government-issued communications equipment and servers.
This way, if the Bush Administration ever had to supply information to the relevant oversight committees of Congress, they could truthfully say they would turn over all official White House e-mails, computer hard-drives and documents and so on. Since nobody would have asked them for RNC data (since nobody would know about that hidden channel of communication), they figured they'd never get caught.
But the law, as codified in the Presidential Records Act, is more precise about what information must be preserved and turned over, if requested. Here's the wording of the law about e-mail retention:
"Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff... The official EOP [Executive Office of the President] e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements. ... Personnel working on behalf of the EOP are expected to use only government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."
To repeat, the law covers not only White House-generated e-mails and such but all e-mails and text-messages received by White House staff.
One can imagine that Rove and his minions felt trapped. If they turned over a complete record of electronic communications received, they would be revealing all sorts of possibly illegal activities about a wide variety of scandals, including the explosive U.S. Attorneys one.
"THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK"
Suddenly, potentially vital documents are reported "missing
MUCH MORE...AND SOME PRECEEDING THIS...A VERY COMPREHENSIVE COMPENDIUM OF ADMINISTRATION MALFEASANCE.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00304.htm
THE "LOST" WHITE HOUSE E-MAILS
The "missing" e-mails scandal, which overlaps with the more-developed one involving the fired U.S. Attorneys, is growing and threatens to take down a whole lot of high-level Administration officials, not the least of whom is Karl Rove.
We don't yet know what might be learned from the so-called "lost" e-mails, but even the little we do know helps fill in the informational blanks.
The CheneyBush Administration, from the get-go, has been the most secretive of any regime in the nation's history. (For a good primer, read John W. Dean's "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush." There's the public facade of this Administration, which the Washington press corps covers, and then there's the real government, hidden from public view and conducted in utmost secrecy. By and large, Rove runs the domestic secret government, and Cheney the secret foreign affairs/military government.
HIDING ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
When CheneyBush were moved into the White House in 2001, they had about two dozen of their key officials and aides use laptops and Blackberries and e-mail servers provided by the Republican National Committee. This was partly to help preserve their deepest secrets but also because they saw the trouble Clinton and his associates got into by using only government-issued communications equipment and servers.
This way, if the Bush Administration ever had to supply information to the relevant oversight committees of Congress, they could truthfully say they would turn over all official White House e-mails, computer hard-drives and documents and so on. Since nobody would have asked them for RNC data (since nobody would know about that hidden channel of communication), they figured they'd never get caught.
But the law, as codified in the Presidential Records Act, is more precise about what information must be preserved and turned over, if requested. Here's the wording of the law about e-mail retention:
"Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff... The official EOP [Executive Office of the President] e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements. ... Personnel working on behalf of the EOP are expected to use only government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."
To repeat, the law covers not only White House-generated e-mails and such but all e-mails and text-messages received by White House staff.
One can imagine that Rove and his minions felt trapped. If they turned over a complete record of electronic communications received, they would be revealing all sorts of possibly illegal activities about a wide variety of scandals, including the explosive U.S. Attorneys one.
"THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK"
Suddenly, potentially vital documents are reported "missing
MUCH MORE...AND SOME PRECEEDING THIS...A VERY COMPREHENSIVE COMPENDIUM OF ADMINISTRATION MALFEASANCE.