Untold Story of the Bush White House Emails

[kentuck]

http://www.citizensforethics.org/pages/untold-story-of-the-bush-white-house-emails

<snip>
CREW's report is based on a review of tens of thousands of pages of Bush-era documents provided to CREW and the National Security Archive as part of their multi-year lawsuit over the missing emails. Among the report's key findings:

Missing emails included emails from the Office of the Vice President for a critical period in the fall of 2003 that were sought by the Department of Justice as part of its investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert CIA identity. Files that should have contained these emails also were missing from backup tapes for that period and in its efforts to restore those emails from individual users' mailboxes, the Bush White House excluded the mailbox of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from those being restored.

Years before its discovery in October 2005 that millions of emails were missing from White House servers, the Bush White House received multiple warnings from multiple sources, including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), that emails were at risk of destruction.

After spending millions of dollars and years of effort creating an effective electronic record keeping system called the Electronic Communications Records Management System (ECRMS), the Bush White House abandoned ECRMS on the eve of its deployment offering explanations that NARA, among others, did not find reasonable.

In the end, the White House spent between $10 and $15 million to restore emails from just 48 components days.

"Sadly, the American people will never know the full truth of just what went on inside the Bush White House as decisions affecting all of our lives were made," said Ms. Sloan. "Despite repeated warnings that information was being lost, Bush administration officials repeatedly and willfully turned a blind eye to the problem."

....mroe

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I remember the issue around Bush era emails.

And how almost every type of record was kept secret.

[strawberries]

4. if memory serves me correctly

he made them classified. Therefor no one was aloud to read them.

[malaise]

2. But but but

Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary HillaryHillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary

[strawberries]

6. for the record

I am not a Hillary fan. Unfortunately our choices are limited.

What do I mean by that? Since 2000 if someone is viewed as unelectable, like Warren, she could not make it through the primaries because of fear a republican would win over her.

[malaise]

8. Well I don't even need to state that I am not a Hillary fan

All DUers know my position on Hillary - but if it's Hillary or a ReTHUG, then I'm supporting her.

[strawberries]

11. which is why she would win the primaries

if Elizabeth Warren was running and won the primaries, Do you think she would win the presidency?

[RussBLib]

3. ...and the Dems said (meekly) "oh well" n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

5. Media creation

[strawberries]

9. Like your picture of Elvis

LOL, I am a patriots fan also, but I remember when we were the boston patriots with the Irish clover and then we became the N.E. Patriots and they put Elvis on their helmets.

I think I just aged myself

[Capt. Obvious]

15. Elvis didn't arrive until the nineties

Do you know why they became the N.E. Patriots?

[strawberries]

19. ya

because of states like RI, NH Maine, they don't have a team so they jump on the boston patriots.

am I wrong?

[Capt. Obvious]

21. You may be wrong

at least according to a tale related by Mike Felger.

Prior to building Schaefer stadium the Pats were set to build a stadium on what is today Pope John Paul II Park. Boston city council nixed the plan. Billy Sullivan was so pissed he changed the name saying the team won't be associated with Boston anymore.


It's from his book.

[strawberries]

22. wow

I did not know that. I'm going to read his book.

I always thought it was because other NE states had no teams

son of a gun, you learn something every day

[mmonk]

7. I remember it well. In fact, I still have a file drawer full of Bush Administration legal

transgressions from the Bush years.

[kentuck]

10. What is most amazing...

to me, is how the Republicans and the media seem to forget this mass destruction of government documents by the Bush Administration. They even went so far as to destroy hard drives. Or perhaps they haven't forgotten, but they think the American people simply don't remember?

[RussBLib]

12. the American people DON'T remember

...and sadly, we don't have a media that would help them remember.

[mmonk]

13. Most likely the latter. I'm a true cynic now.

[kentuck]

14. The media is a tool for the Republican Party, generally speaking.

They have not forgotten the extent of the email and document destruction under Bush. The Republicans plant an obvious political story against their political opponents and the corporate media start taking notes from them and spreading them like cow poop across the land.

[mmonk]

16. Agreed.

[kairos12]

17. Rethugs get a pass, as usual.

[Igel]

20. It's worse.

As a result, certain safeguards, laws, regulations, procedures not in place before this debacle were put into place to prevent its happening again. It was a big deal, and among no group more than among (D), esp. progressive (D).

In 2001-03 certain doors were left open for the horses to escape. That was bad, and a lot of people made sure that those doors had a lot more locks and security attachments added to them and were to be kept under lock and key.

In 2010-13, after boasting that those locks would be tightly fastened and the keys employed responsibly, those same doors were again left open. By members of the same group that had all the new locks and security devices added to them, and who proudly said they'd do a better job with the keys.

In other words, those calling for and implementing high standards earlier have dropped the ball and are saying, "Hey, trust us--yeah, we have two sets of standards, a high one for them and low one for us, even though we say ours is actually higher, but you seriously think there's a problem with that?" And people are defending this.

[kentuck]

18. Also: But nowhere as interesting as Hillary's personal emails...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy

<snip>
The Bush White House email controversy surfaced in 2007 during the controversy involving the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Congressional requests for administration documents while investigating the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys required the Bush administration to reveal that not all internal White House emails were available, because they were sent via a non-government domain hosted on an email server not controlled by the federal government. Conducting governmental business in this manner is a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, and the Hatch Act.[1] Over 5 million emails may have been lost or deleted.[2][3] Greg Palast claims to have come up with 500 of the Karl Rove lost emails, leading to damaging allegations.[4] In 2009, it was announced that as many as 22 million emails may have been deleted.[5]

The administration officials had been using a private Internet domain, called gwb43.com, owned by and hosted on an email server run by the Republican National Committee,[6] for various communications of unknown content or purpose. The domain name is an acronym standing for "George W. Bush, 43rd" President of the United States. The server came public when it was discovered that J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, was using a gwb43.com email address to discuss the firing of the U.S. attorney for Arkansas.[7] Communications by federal employees were also found on georgewbush.com (registered to "Bush-Cheney '04, Inc."[8]) and rnchq.org (registered to "Republican National Committee"[9]), but, unlike these two servers, gwb43.com has no Web server connected to it — it is used only for email.[10]

....more...much more