Need any more be said about the antics of the Bush White House? - as the blog of The Board [that is, the editorial Board] of the NY Times details:
"As the Bush administration fades into history, a federal lawsuit is establishing that astonishing chunks of this history have already gone missing.
The White House admitted in court this week that it has no back-up archives for missing email messages covering a crucial period in 2003.
The email gaps coincide with critical events like the run-up to the Iraq war that was driven by incorrect intelligence; the Machiavellian stratagem to leak the identity of the former C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson; and various unspecified activities involving Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political field general.
By law, the missing policy and political communications belong to the taxpayers and must be preserved by the government for posterity. But the White House claims a “primitive” preservation system caused the e-mails to slip away — not any deliberate, post-facto purging by officials worried about the judgment of history.
Initially, the White House admitted hundreds of days of emails were missing, according to reports from a closed congressional hearing. These included 12 work days with no e-mails at all for President Bush’s immediate office and 16 days for Vice President Dick Cheney. Since then, officials have sought to minimize the problem, relying on a search for backup archives. But the administration’s latest court statement raises the possibility that, in one vital three-month period, emails before and after the Iraq invasion may never be found."
"As the Bush administration fades into history, a federal lawsuit is establishing that astonishing chunks of this history have already gone missing.
The White House admitted in court this week that it has no back-up archives for missing email messages covering a crucial period in 2003.
The email gaps coincide with critical events like the run-up to the Iraq war that was driven by incorrect intelligence; the Machiavellian stratagem to leak the identity of the former C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson; and various unspecified activities involving Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political field general.
By law, the missing policy and political communications belong to the taxpayers and must be preserved by the government for posterity. But the White House claims a “primitive” preservation system caused the e-mails to slip away — not any deliberate, post-facto purging by officials worried about the judgment of history.
Initially, the White House admitted hundreds of days of emails were missing, according to reports from a closed congressional hearing. These included 12 work days with no e-mails at all for President Bush’s immediate office and 16 days for Vice President Dick Cheney. Since then, officials have sought to minimize the problem, relying on a search for backup archives. But the administration’s latest court statement raises the possibility that, in one vital three-month period, emails before and after the Iraq invasion may never be found."
Comments