Bush Admin. admits to destroying e-mails from start of Iraq War, Leak of Valerie Wilson's name and DOJ investigation of leak
Very, very late last night, just before midnight, the Bush administration submitted a filing in CREW v. Executive Office of the President, our lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve and restore millions of missing emails. We first documented the massive loss of White House e-mails in our April 2007 report, WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act.
The latest filing from the Bush administration raises some very troubling questions that the White House clearly does not want to answer. (The filing from the White House and related documents can be found here.) This is how CREW's chief counsel, Anne Weismann, described the situation:
With this new filing, the White House has admitted that although it has long known about the missing emails, it did nothing to recover them, or discover how and why they went missing in the first place. The missing emails are important historical records that belong not to the Bush administration, but to the American people. As a result, the public deserves a full accounting and hopefully, now that the matter is before a federal court, we will get one.
The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails. This is no mere technicality; it is this failure that led to the likely destruction of over 10 million email. What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration -- a system that properly preserved White House email -- but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system.
The White House has also admitted that the only safeguard it has to its patently inadequate method for preserving email (dumping them in files that are put on EOP servers) is back-up tape media. These back-up copies, however, are only a “snapshot” of what was on the server at the time of the back-up. In other words they are not comprehensive, as the White House concedes.
Even more troubling, the White House has now admitted that until October 2003, the White House recycled its back-up tapes, which contained the only copies of emails deleted prior to that date. What the White House has not explained is why it changed its policy of preserving all back-up tapes -- instituted in March of 2000 when the Clinton administration discovered that its system did not fully preserve all email from the Office of the Vice President -- at the same time it decided to dismantle the existing electronic record-keeping system, with no replacement at hand.
The deletion of millions of email beginning in March 2003 coupled with the White House’s destruction of back-up copies of those deleted email mean that there are no back-up copies of emails deleted during the period March 2003 through October 2003. The significance of this time-period cannot be overstated: the U.S. went to war with Iraq, top White House officials leaked the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson and the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into their actions.
The White House now claims there is a lack of documentation supporting both the fact that email are missing and the volume of missing email. Yet in January 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, in a letter to Scooter Libby’s lawyers, stated unequivocally: “We have learned that not all email of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.” Moreover, when the problem was uncovered the White House Office of Administration created abundant documentation that included multiple estimates of the volume of missing email, not a single chart that the White House now suggests is the only documentation. Could it be that having now destroyed the evidence documenting the missing email problem, the White House feels free to retreat from its acknowledgment to Mr. Fitzgerald that White House emails are missing?
Also missing from the White House’s latest explanation of the missing email is why, more than two years after it discovered the problem, the White House still cannot say what happened, why it happened and how many email were affected. And the White House has yet to offer an explanation for why it never acted to recover any of the missing emails, even when presented with a recovery plan by its own Office of Administration.
It is perfectly clear why the White House has used every strategic maneuver it can think of to avoid answering any questions about the missing email: its answers are likely to raise more questions than they answer. That, years after the problem was discovered, the White House is still questioning whether or not there is even a problem is deeply disturbing.
What the F++K
I just keep reading and reading about these scum bags yet they just keep rolling merrily along! What is up with that?
How come they don't have to be accountable for ANY of the
f**ked up things they have done and keep on doing? Can someone PLEASE tell me what I'm missing!!!!
The Sad Reality
By now, it would be beyond optimistic to the point of delusional to think that this administration has not already completely covered their tracks. They have just as many computer experts working to hide their actions as we have trying to uncover their actions. They've had years to work out every way of destroying evidence without oversight and are still the sole controller of their backups. If servers and backup tapes had been siezed in the early early stages of investigations, then maybe (MAYBE) we would have found what they were hiding. Now however, it's likely that it's all gone.
you are worried about this administration...
just wait until Hillary takes over.
I don't know whether you
I don't know whether you mean that in a good or bad way but let me say this, NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING, CAN BE WORSE THAT WHAT WE HAVE NOW!!!
I don't know whether you
I don't know whether you mean that in a good or bad way but let me say this, NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING, CAN BE WORSE THAT WHAT WE HAVE NOW!!!
Sad Reality
Your statement is a bunch of bunk. They have less then half as many computer experts covering tracks because that is all they need, seeing that they know exactly where the tracks are.
yeah, "Sad"...
yes, particularly with the precedents and the powers of the office that this worthless excuse for an "administration" has put forth.
actually my comment was in
actually my comment was in regards to the statement "just wait until Hillary takes over." In addition, yes, the same corporate bunch backs her that backed the piece of garbage that now resides in the oval office.
e mail destruction
It should be obvious at this point that when a government obfuscates/lies, it has ceased working for the people they're supposed to represent and have become an entity in and of themselves perpetuating THEIR objectives/goals that are not those of the people. This is minimally a criminal act that is more likely TREASONOUS.
it should be obvious...
It has been obvious for over well over two hundred years - where have you been?
"Missing" emails
The emails in question are NOT missing. Every server they went thru stores copies and the DOJ and Congress damn well know it. All they need is a subpeona and EVERY ONE can be found.
I missed some emails once
but I got over it. Bush has too.
All they need is a subpenona...
Actually all they need is a wall outlet. Subpeonas are useless without them... the damn equipment must be forced back into service first.
Huh?
It sounds like you guys are buying into the administration's bullshit explanation. Think about it - deleting sensitive emails is a CRIME. They've had people working overtime on a plausible explanation.
"Well, let's see - let's appear stupid and say our backup system involved recycling backup tapes which really don't backup the entire system. Yeah, that's it!"
This administration willfully deleted sensitive information that they did not want to be accountable for. Not wanting their rampant criminality to leak out is also why they largely used RNC email accounts instead of the White House ones to conduct corrupt business.
Lets not forget...
Just recently, the person charged with investigating Karl Rove, for violating the Hatch Act, was discovered to have used an outside company, like, Geeks On Call, or something similar, to come in and perform a full and unrecoverable hard drive wipe of his OWN computer. He used a government credit card to pay for it and when asked about it, he claimed it was done due to his computer being infected with a computer virus.
But when the company he used was asked about the procedure, a 7th level wipe, I think they called it, they said that they were never told anything about a computer virus and the wipe they performed would NOT be the way to deal with a virus.
Also, the White House official used this company DESPITE the fact that he had a whole TEAM of people working directly under his control, who could have and SHOULD have done any such work on White House computers.
If this administration is not held accountable for the flagrant crimes they commit on a virtually daily basis, it is going to give a green light to any other psychopath who may end up winning or stealing a future election, to do it all over again.
I'm all FOR bringing this country together again. It has to in order to remain a decent place to live. However I think that before we can heal, we must root out the infection which has permeated the walls every office and corridor of government.
The person charged with investigating Karl Rove
You do know that approximately 1 in 6 PCs has malware installed on them and doing devious things like outting Val Plame.
Let's Not Forget
Yours was the best comment and analysis I have read on this Admin's flagrant, "in your face" flaunting of the laws to which we, "mere mortals" are accountable. It is also the best rationale for investigation(s) into each of their criminal acts.
B. Leslie
Ah, yes, if Bush and Cheney were to represent all Americans
before a god, whoever greeted us at the Gates of Heaven would say "Wrong Station, Your destination is much farther South".
It's like we have the Mafia running our nation
Our Congress is unfortunately complicit.
We need to get them ALL out.
How to do that?
Lost Email
The Federal Records Act requires that all government records be kept and sent to the National Archives. Every Federal department is supposed to have elaborate systems to capture and categorize records. I worked for the Federal government in Information Technolgy for 30 years, and maintaining government records was a major headache when email became prevalent, but we all did the best we could to preserve all official records. There is absolutely no excuse for the destruction of thousands of emails. This is a clear violation of federal law, AND YET the media just yawns and goes to the next story, and Congress will just...what...hold their collective breath? If this had happended under the Clinton administration, the Republicans would be calling for blood and every talk show host would be screaming. What has happened to this country?
Lost? I wonder if there are not personal lab tops, home
computers, in house computers that have some stored emails that were supposedly "lost".
bush
I'm the decider and there ain't a fuc-ing thing you can do about it !!! I be jorge booosh and i approve dis message !!!!
jorge booosh...
is that like boloich and don't make fun of jorge just because he is Mexican.
when the little bi-otch
went to Viet Nam (on vacation, not when the chickenhawk should've gone) the locals said "Rook, Rook, Jorge Dubberuh Boosh!" Rook was right.
If we can find deleted child porn on a computer...
It does take a rocket scientist to know the technology is available to read those emails and besides the RNC was good enough to have them as well
Actually...
Obviously not. I'm a rocket scientist and I can't do it.
Response
And this is the Democratic Misleadership's response to more evidence the Bush Regime has committed Impeachable offenses -
.
look to 'the sopranos' for insight
how many different ways are the bush adminsitration demonstating, over and over again, that they are acting like a criminal enterprise. they don't want records of their activities, they only want to stay in power and do whatever they want. looks like a criminal enterprise, acts like a criminal enterprise...hey, it must be a criminal enterprise. regardless of the expensive clothing and conservative grooming...these people are thugs.
what we need is an insider techie with a conscience to speak up. come on over to the light!
someone might want to check
Someone might want to secure and check all users’ computers that may have been used to send or receive White House emails; even if these computers were not backed up, copies of the emails that were ‘deleted’ may be sitting on them; user ‘deleted’ and actually deleted are two different things, though most users don't know this.
Someone might want to check White House backups of users’ computers and servers; then check backups of users’ computers and servers anywhere from which emails were sent to the White House and anywhere to which emails were sent by the White House. It's unlikely that emails sent to places like the Congress and the CIA and the Justice Department, and RNC, newspapers, personal computers and the ISPs they use (Gmail, MSN, Yahoo), etc., were all deleted from users’ computers, servers and backups as well.
Then someone might want to check the NSA databases and their backups for any White House or related emails wiretapped and stored there. Mark Klein (AT&T) said they tapped everything.
There may be hard copies wandering around too; and the memos requesting them as well. And don’t forget the email attachments; they must be everywhere and of every variety, including digitally scanned items.
Someone might want to just hire a forensics specialist.
Remember there was a bunch of software that was developed for analyzing all the data the NSA collected that was never moved from ‘test’ to ‘production’, which would have required legal approval it never received. It was in ‘test’ mode for five years or so; who knows how much data may have been collected and stored for that purpose as well.
Also, someone might want to check if someone on the intelligence side of Washington already has these emails or copies of them and a lot more.
re: Someone might want to check
Uh... the dog ate em. Yeah, that's right.
correctly and completely going forward?
Given this unfortunate state of affairs, it would be best if a verification that the current processes in place are working could be instituted to ensure all appropriate backups and documentation are being done correctly and completely going forward.
Something as benign as a fire in a wiring closet could damage connections between user computers and servers necessary to ensure everything is properly backed up. It could even look like the system is working if you didn't know some of the computers were not connected and so were missing from the backups; their absence from the backups might not get documented.
Nothing "Standard" about these IT practices
Nobody over the age of 17 with any practical IT experience can say with a straight face that this is in conformance with standard information technology practices.
They lost data. All the data. Odd as it may sound that is more difficult, way more difficult, than losing some of the data. It is so difficult that it is likely to be deliberate or a hollow firewall to stop people from looking.
Somebody has the data. In fact it's likely that lots of people have pieces of the data and they are clutching it as a get out of jail free card.
Keep up the good work CREW.
chocolate cookie
The other day, I went into my kitchen and found a brand new bag of Oreo cookies sitting on the counter, open and half eaten. I called my daughter into the kitchen, and I asked her if she had eaten the cookies. She looked at me innocently and wide eyed, and said, "no mommy! I SWEAR, I PROMISE, it wasn't me!! It must have been daddy." Her teeth were BLACK, and she had chocolate smeared all over her chin... but she's my daughter, and I just KNOW she wouldn't lie to me, her loving mother. I'm sure there must be a logical explanation. She's a good girl!
-Nobody over the age of 17
-Nobody over the age of 17 with any practical IT experience can say with a straight face that this is in conformance with standard information technology practices.
Indeed. Also they would have had to change the retention policy on the tapes to recycle them if the system was initially set to keep data forever. BS of the highest order.
Redundancy
I couldn't agree more. The point of a disaster recovery system is to collect all email in the system. There would be multiple backup copies of these emails, because each backup is a cumulative sweep of all email. A person might ask: Get me the backup performed in the last week in March. That backup would contain much more than just the emails done in March, but all emails stored in the system up to the date of the backup. Systems people I know back up more frequently than once a month.
Now we are to believe that NOT ONLY THE INITIAL emails were destroyed, but ALL of the backups over a period of several years? This is not industry practice, and it can't be an accident. If the email is really gone, it was an orgy of data destruction.
Besides all the other pre-2003 White House activity already pointed out, the White House contacted phone companies to start their illegal surveillance program in February, 2001. Note: the first meeting was not "after 9/11" as characterized in many media reports. It thus appears the WH destroyed all emails on this subject, or is trying mightily to keep them from seeing the light of day.
All the best,
Guilty Bystander
Missing e-mails
I have a question.
These seem to be impeachable offenses. Who will ultimatley be held responsible for hatch Act violations?
March of 2003 also was when the US DHS opened its doors
CREW missed another important event that happened during the time the emails were destroyed, as were the backup tape records. The US DHS opened its doors in March of 2003. DHS is apart of the Executive Branch and we have no way of learning what instructions the White House was giving the DHS via email from 3/03-10/03. Also, Karl Rove was actively violating the Hatch Act during the 3/03-10/03 time frame that no email records anymore exist. This includes he was violating the Hatch Act at the US DHS.
DHS emails
DHS backups will have those; everything sent, everything received.
White House Thugs
Rove, Cheney, Bush and others will make Watergate
and Nixon appear Angelic. Evil people all of them.
Treason should be at the top of the list for all of them.
white house thugs
Amen... the whole lot of them should be making gravel from very large rocks
Why?
And why, exactly? Oh yes, because he got blown. Right. That's comparable. As hard as they tried, as deep as they dug, that is the best they could come up with, and it made the U.S. look like a bunch of ridiculous, uptight puritans to the entire rest of the world. Anyone who would even TRY to compare anything Clinton did, (Either of them) to the exploits of the current administration, is an idiot and a fool.
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I'm so tired of their endless, venal mendacity
The Bushies need unlimited illegal surveillance over us but demand no accountability for themselves.
Congress has known this now for several years and flat out refuses to stop them. They are complicit.
Congress stood by while Valerie Plame's outing was politicized into oblivian. They are complicit.
Congress has not only allowed the illegal war in Iraq to continue, they continue to fund it and to obfuscate over ending it. They are complicit.
Congress has not stopped, nor seriously attempted to stop, the Bush Administration from going back into our White House every single day and continuing to break the law and make an obscene mockery of the Constitution. They are complicit.
Congress is the only branch of government that can bring this to an end, yet they wilfully refuse to even acknowledge what is in front of their eyes. They are complicit.
We're on Canada's list of nations that might torture their citizens. When does this end?
They could have been stopped years ago, Congress knows what's going on, they have known it. How many young Americans would still be alive if Congress had stopped this insanity three years ago? Or Five? Instead, they hold Committee meetings and wring their hands.
And, while Congress aids and abets, and funds, the destruction of our government and the unjustifiable death and devestation our military has sustained under Bush, they all get Cheneycare, the best health care in the world. Free health care, for them and their families, the socialized stuff they say we shouldn't get because they don't agree with it politically - for us. For them, no conflict.
And as long as we let them stay in power, we are complicit too.
If we don't stop this, an election won't make it right. If we don't stop this, we won't be a generation remembered for greatness or character. We won't be the generation that stopped slavery or helped end a real threat to world peace. We'll be the generation that didn't do anything while it was all taken from us, right out from under our noses.