White House Web Scrubbing

[Spazito]

It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history.

White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S. taxpayers would not have to pay more than $1.7 billion to reconstruct Iraq -- which turned out to be a gross understatement of the tens of billions of dollars the government now expects to spend.

Recently, however, the government has purged the offending comments by Natsios from the agency's Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have vanished.

This is not the first time the administration has done some creative editing of government Web sites. After the insurrection in Iraq proved more stubborn than expected, the White House edited the original headline on its Web site of President Bush's May 1 speech, "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended," to insert the word "Major" before combat.

more!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9821-2003Dec17.html

[madfloridian]

1. Scrubbing in the science area as well. Waxman's research link.

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/politicsandscience/

They are literally changing science. Unbelievable. There is a way to get updates from this group at the site. It is alarming.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

2. Which Ministry

Is responsible for scrubbing history? Ministry of Truth?

[morgan2]

3. the department of fatherland.. i mean homeland security?

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. Minitruth

We're speaking Newspeak now, as in "we're waging peace in Iraq" :eyes:

[Zo Zig]

4. The memory hole...

See the error message here:
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/nightline_042403_t.html

See his comments here from the Ted Koppel interview:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/archives/003258.html

Found this gem, on the USAID web page where Natsios states the figure is 2.5 billion of us taxpayer's dollars. Dam they even suck at lying about what they lie about.
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/sp030421.html
snip 4/21/03
MR. NATSIOS: Well, there is some misunderstanding in terms of the $2-1/2 billion. Some people think that's Iraqi oil money. None of that is Iraqi oil money or Iraqi frozen assets. All of that U.S. taxpayer money. So it's our contribution from our own tax resources, from the U.S. Treasury, for the rebuilding of Iraq.

Happy Festives

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. Darn Good Revisionist History

.

[Cocoa]

7. they made some change recently to prevent Google caching

some technical change at the web site. Their dishonesty is totally premeditated.

That's some fine reporting by Milbank. Nice little stupid lie he catches that AID spokesperson in at the end. It was taken off for the "cost." God that makes me sick.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

9. It's the Robot.txt file...

Web sites set a flag in that file if they do not want the page archived by sites like google or archive.org.. we wouldn't want to be caught in a contradiction woud we?

[Pale_Rider]

15. The Whitehouse's robots.txt ...

... has been studied and is summarized in a report found at:

http://www.bway.net/~keith/whrobots/

And Dan Gilmor discusses it as well at:
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/001450.shtml

You can view the current robots.txt file by http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt

[Pale_Rider]

14. Prevent any caching ...

... since the WayBack Machine stops in May. Enter www.whitehouse.gov at the WayBack Machine prompt for historical changes to the Whitehouse web pages.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Won't this "scrubbing" just encite hackers to mess around

. . with GOVERNMENT websites ??

. . and give those "dedicated" hackers a sort of "justification" in breaking into sensitive government computers ?

"every action has a reaction"

and there's millions of keyboards out there . . .

Carefull Georgie-Boy.

Guns and bombs won't get everyone . . .

[Snazzy]

10. Mapquest/Global explorer scrubbed on WH/VP res.

http://cryptome.org/seats-uneyeball.htm

Thought this was interesting--a bit off topic. But shows their priorities with tech scrubbing, and their reach.

[OneBlueSky]

11. does anyone know what became of the effort to dismantle the ERIC . .

database? . . . ERIC is the Educational Resources Information Center, a national information system funded by the U.S. Department of Education that provides, through its 16 subject-specific clearinghouses, associated adjunct clearinghouses, and support components, a variety of services and products on a broad range of education-related issues . . . ERIC is used by educators all the time to keep abreast of the latest research, publications, etc. in various fields of education . . .

some time back, the Bush administration announced that they would essentially be dismantling major portions of ERIC by removing anything that didn't correspond with their positions on various issues . . . I know that the Memory Hole embarked on a project to download and save as much of the data as possible before it was lost forever, but I haven't heard the ultimate outcome or whether this effort is still ongoing . . . anyone familiar with the issue that can provide an update? . . .

[madfloridian]

13. I think it was dismantled.

Don't quote me. A library list I worked with was very upset about it. I will check with the list tomorrow. That is very sad. This should not be going on.

[salin]

31. I didn't think it was ERIC that they were scrubbing - but things on the

Dept of Ed website that were funded by or priorties of the prior administration (eg programs, research results, ed resources, etc.). I believe they have done this with other agencies as well. I believe that ERIC is seperate from the DOE and the DOE website. I had not heard that ERIC was being dismanteled.

Nonetheless... as if work that was PAID FOR BY TAX PAYERS - but in a former adminstraztion... IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO THE TAX PAYERS? The entire function of government is NOT political the GOP doesn't get this - their function is to govern. Jerks.

[proud patriot]

12. How Conveinent

:eyes: Liar Liar pants on fire ,
document changing history revising white house :grr:

[Sugarbleus]

16. hahahaahahahahah well said...n/t

[Melsky]

17. Thanks for this

nice to see it in a mainstream newspaper.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, make sure to check out the Memory Hole site at www.thememoryhole.org

[PennyLane]

18. I Second That!

Thanks! It's hard to believe, but not unexpected! Nothing is
sacred with this bunch. Remember, Bush also had the CDC and other government web sites, scrubbed for offensive language like, wearing condems can prevent AIDS! He's done more to set us back than we'll
ever know!

[Pocho]

19. AND YOU THINK YOU LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY

The Pocho web site linked here shows it a bit differently.

[DS1]

23. nice fake, try not putting your own email address

in the supposed DOJ splash page

[Pocho]

28. HATE TO TELL YOU THIS

But it ain't my email address. It is that of pocho.com, a satirically hilarious and politically hard hitting web site dedicated to attitudes and views of US residents of Mexican heritage with which I have no personal connection except similarity of name and cultural empathy.

The term Pocho has meaning besides a gringo misspelling of Poncho, the common nick name for Francisco. It's ontology derives from the verb pochar of the Ocetl natives of the state of Sonora and means to cut, as in the crops. It was originally applied to the Ocetl braceros who worked fields north of their border. Over time it came to be one Mexicans use for countrymen who live the in the land of fear and loathing. It is not a nice name in that context and to use it is a way of saying you are not one of us but without the vehemence of the ever common US racial slurs.

My own name is George and my last initial is W. DU wouldn't allow the obvious for initial registration, so I opted for the name lovingly gifted my dog by Mexican neighbors. That's because he is from here but has traveled across the border with us to visit relatives who not yet enjoyed the fortune of removing themselves from the bowels of the great shark of the north.

The name has also recently been taken to heart by some Pochos, much in similar manner as many blacks once decided they'd rather their designation not be defined by their oppressors. The choice is celebrated in the name of the web site. It is worth a look if you just want a good laugh or perhaps have a wonder where folks who term themselves Pochos sit in regard to their views of US society and its politics.

The front page of the DOJ site was a fake alright. It was a feature of pocho.com's April fool edition a couple years ago and a hack worthy of repeating. Is that joke so far from the truth?

[DS1]

30. IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A FAKE YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET IT RIGHT

I THINK I'M GOING TO YELL SOMEWHERE ELSE NOW, THANK YOU!

[ithacan]

20. it's WORSE than Soviet airbrushing!

at least the Soviets made no bones about the fact that the communist party should determine the truth.

The Republicans are worse because they claim to believe in democracy, yet they are doing all in their power to undermine it, in this case by removing information that would allow voters to make informed decisions...

[Robb]

21. Ding Ding Ding!!!

ithacan, you hit it square in the nuts on that one, so it bears repeating:

"...Removing information that would allow voters to make informed decisions."

:toast:

[AngryAmish]

29. Everyone agrees Bush is Hitler

But Stalin too?

[Just Me]

22. Notice the substitute of "scrubbing" for "censorship",...

[DeepModem Mom]

24. This article is an example of what journalism should be...

in a democratic society. Milbank is uneven in his reporting, but this piece is a good one. And notice that he references the new think tank, Center for American Progress -- a good sign.

[salin]

25. Page A 5.... At least it isn't completely buried

Wonder if this will appear in any other news papers?

[Barrett808]

26. American Family Voices has some amusing coverage

Caught in the Web
12/18/2003

Ever heard that silly joke about the not-so-bright guy who used Windex on his computer to clean up the Windows? (Pause for groaning and slight laughter.) It seems that the Bush administration has attacked government agency websites with a team of technicians and a tub of industrial-strength cleansers. The result? Those stubborn half truth stains disappear in no time! And they didn't even require the amazing cleaning power of oranges. How long before they try to scrub away the comments made by 9/11 commission chairman Thomas Kean?

(more)

http://www.americanfamilyvoices.org/projects/DailyRealityCheck.asp?ID=37

[stickdog]

27. This is part of Bush's job creation package.

The Ministry of Truth is one of Bush's only growth industries.

Keep Winston Smith employed. Vote Bush.