E-MAIL: Top-Secret Computer Messages the Reagan/Bush White House Tried to Destroy

[L. Coyote]

I know, déjà vu all over again. Who would have thunk it, eh?

==================
The Top-Secret Computer Messages the Reagan/Bush White House Tried to Destroy
Edited by Tom Blanton - http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/white_house_email/index.html

Here are the highest-level White House communications on the most secret national security affairs of the United States during the 1980s--shockingly candid electronic exchanges you were never meant to see, virtually none of which has ever before been available to the American public.

1982
- The National Security Council (NSC) staff at the White House acquires a prototype electronic mail system, from IBM, called the Professional Office System (PROFs).

April 1985
- The PROFs e-mail system becomes fully operational within the NSC, including not only the full staff, but also home terminals for the National Security Adviser, Robert "Bud" McFarlane, and his deputy, Admiral John M. Poindexter.

November 1986
- The remainder of the White House comes on line with electronic mail, at first with the PROFs system, and later (by the end of the 1980s) through a variety of systems including VAX A-1 ("All in One"), and ccmail.

November 22-25, 1986
- John Poindexter and Oliver North electronically shred more than 5000 e-mail notes in the memory banks of their computer systems, as the Iran-contra scandal breaks.

November 28, 1986
- Career staff at the White House Communications Agency order the November backup tapes of the e-mail system to be saved instead of recycled as usual. Subsequently, investigators from the FBI and the Tower Commission use the backup takes to reconstruct the Iran-contra scandal.

February 26, 1987
- The Tower Commission issues its report on Iran-contra, reprinting hundreds of PROFs notes exchanged by McFarlane, Poindexter and North.

January 19, 1989
- On the last day of the Reagan presidency, the National Security Archive files a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests together with a lawsuit against President Ronald Reagan, to prevent the imminent erasure of the White House electronic mail backup tapes. At 6:10 pm, on the eve of George Bush's inauguration, U.S. District Judge Barrington D. Parker issues a Temporary Restraining Order, prohibiting the destruction of the backup tapes to the PROFs system.

....MORE....

[Truth2Tell]

1. OK, interesting samples

I don't see any information on where or how to view the rest of these emails? Is this a sales pitch for this material in disk or book form? I don't get it?

[blogslut]

2. The site referenced is home to the National Security Archives

The page is an overview of a book written by Archive director, Thomas Blanton. The messages contained in the book were collected and edited by Mr. Blanton. There are a few excerpts from the emails located on this page:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/white_house_email/excerpts.html

While the page above is not a sales pitch, if you would like to purchase a copy, Amazon has some:

http://www.amazon.com/White-House-E-Mail-Top-Secret-Messages/dp/1565842766/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197798716&sr=1-3

[pnorman]

4. I had that book once, along with the floppy disk.

If I recall correctly, the feds would NOT release the emails in electronic format; only the printout (from which they were transcribed onto that floppy disk). It's no doubt authentic, but the "chain of evidence" is thereby broken, which must have been the intent of the feds. I won't bother looking for that book & disk any longer. Instead, I'll follow your Amazon lead. I notice that some of the cheap "used" ones ($.01 + s/h) don't have the disk. So play it safe; check to see if the disk is specified.

pnorman

[L. Coyote]

3. As scandal breaks: "John Poindexter and Oliver North electronically shred more than 5000 e-mail "

Is this happening again this weekend, during the Mukasey stall?

Also, if this is a good measure of the magnitude of the Bush White House corruption, Bush has 5 million missing e-mails
5 million divided by five thousand = ONE THOUSAND times as much corruption :rofl: that's just not funny!!

[walldude]

5. Have you seen this?

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/12/bush-secret-shredding-soars.php

Behold, the Bush Administration in chart form: Federal spending on paper shredding has increased more than 600 percent since George W. Bush took office. This chart, generated by usaspending.gov, the U.S. government's brand spanking new database of federal expenditures, shows spending on "contracts for paper shredding services" going back to 2000. Click here for the full, heartbreaking breakdown. In 2000, the feds spent $452,807 to make unpleasant truths go away; by 2006, the "Cheney Effect" had bumped that number up to $2.9 million. And by halfway through 2007, the feds almost matched that number, with $2.7 million and counting. Pretty much says it all

[L. Coyote]

7. Thanks. n/t

[hootinholler]

8. Part of that upswing is outsourcing the shredding...

Now that there are shredding companies, shredding has been outsourced. I'd like to see the volume of shredding by prior administrations. I have no problem believing they shred more, but dollars spent may be apples/oranges as the shred money would have been buried in all the other budgets who used to do it in house.

-Hoot

[blm]

6. My question is: Why would Dems vote for anyone who protects closed government

Truth matters.


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html


And if truth DOESN'T matter to you than you are in the wrong party.

[L. Coyote]

9. visibility kick w/? Are e-mail logs flammable?