Huckabee destroyed government hard drives before leaving office

[Ian David]

Huckabee destroyed government hard drives before leaving office

Siddhartha Mahanta at Mother Jones:

In February, Mother Jones wrote to the office of Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe seeking access to a variety of records concerning his predecessor's tenure, including Huckabee's travel records, calendars, call logs, and emails. Beebe's chief legal counsel, Tim Gauger, replied in a letter that "former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been 'cleaned' and physically destroyed."

He added, "In short, our office does not possess, does not have access to, and is not the custodian of any of the records you seek."
...
A former high-ranking Arkansas Republican who was once close to Huckabee and who requested anonymity told Mother Jones that the destruction of the hard drives puzzled him. "I don’t know what that was about, if they had things to hide or not," he says. But, he adds, the episode fits with Huckabee's general reticence when it comes to public disclosure. "Huckabee just absolutely doesn’t trust anybody. In my experience, if you don't trust people, it's because you're not trustworthy. We see the world through our own eyes."

An aversion to transparency isn't surprising for a Republican executive, but it doesn't seem like a far stretch to connect the destruction of these hard drives to wanting to prevent information about his decision to pardon Maurice Clemmons, who went on to murder four police officers in Washington state after his release. Destroying these records opens a whole bag of worms for Huckabee - the sort that could make his entrance into the race less likely.

More:
http://elections.americablog.com/2011/04/huckabee-destroyed-government-hard.html

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/#!/Ann7837/status/55018421733179392

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Angry Dragon]

2. Did he personally pay for the government property that he destroyed??

If not then he should have been charged with destruction of government property

[gratuitous]

3. "I don't know . . . if they had things to hide"

Generally speaking, if you hide things I will assume that you had things to hide. And I think most folks would agree with my estimation. Now, if this story gains a little traction, Fox News employee Huckabee may actually have to address some of these concerns. I trust the popular media will take the responsible action and make sure Mr. Huckabee is well insulated from any questions. It will probably take a wrap of twice the usual number of dirty fucking hippies, but the popular media has been manufacturing them at a terrific pace, so they're probably up to the task.

[mr clean]

4. Wow... and he wants to be President someday. :puke:

If he did somehow got the job, this country would go back to the 19th century where Huckabee can rule like a Pope.

With this news coming out I hope it makes his supporters think about how much of insane(nut) he really is.

[progressoid]

5. Paranoid like Nixon

but not dumb enough to leave evidence around after the crime.

[IDemo]

6. This combined with his recent statement about Obama's Kenyan upbringing

should make him the 'perfect' R candidate..

:puke:

[eppur_se_muova]

7. AR destroys hard drives on all state univ. computers sold at auction.

I don't know if this has any connection -- but when I was at UALR I learned that any state university computers disposed of as surplus properties must have their hard drives destroyed, ostensibly to prevent confidential data from leaking out. I have not seen this policy anywhere else, and it struck me as a touch extreme. Perhaps the rules requiring this apply to all state-owned computers, and maybe just an excuse to facilitate destruction of evidence of malfeasance by the ruling elite.

[mythology]

30. It's not unusual anymore for that to be the case

The university I worked at and the place I work now (which can also deal with confidential data such as social security numbers) both had a mandatory policy of a full erase of any hard drive that might have had confidential data or be used to access confidential data.

That doesn't excuse deleting all the hard copies of emails or even deleting them from the state email server.

[eppur_se_muova]

34. These aren't wiped -- these are *destroyed* .

Wiping drives makes sense, and wouldn't surprise me a bit.

If you buy a used PC from an AR gov't surplus property auction, it will come with no hard drive. PC's moved around within the system are only wiped, AFAIK.

[tanyev]

8. I'm not familiar with the State of Arkansas' retention schedules,

but this is bound to be in violation of at least some of them.

[spanone]

9. americans like to keep their criminals where they can see them

you'd think this would drive republicans AWAY from politics

[undeterred]

10. Huckabee makes my skin crawl.

[cali]

11. good to be reminded of it, but this is an old story. it came out

prior to the last presidential election.

[russspeakeasy]

12. And by another "unnamed source".

[Search4Justice]

13. Does anyone know, IS THIS LEGAL?

If not, how do we, as responsible citizens take action to see to it that the proper legal authorities do their job?

[Blue Owl]

14. Golly Sarge, it was a mistake, honest

Gomer Pyle wouldn't tell a lie, no sir

[NewJeffCT]

15. Was Clemmons the only pardonee who went on to commit further heinous crimes?

I thought there was another one?

[Hubert Flottz]

16. He destroyed state property.

Maybe he belongs in jail?

[NewJeffCT]

17. Be realistic - he's a Republican

anything he does is always the fault of somebody else.

[deaniac21]

18. Many of the records would be on the network if the state didn't

have such a terrible IT staff. They have the best hardware and software available and the worst people. They are truly clueless.

[Scurrilous]

19. K & R

:thumbsup:

[louslobbs]

20. Gee, now why would an honest , upstanding Christian man do a thing like that?

Lou

[eowyn_of_rohan]

21. but wait -- a GOOD CHRISTIAN MAN would never do that

must have been someone else.

[Frisbee]

22. "could make his entrance into the race less likely"

I'd hope that it would make his entrance into Sing Sing more likely.

[Enthusiast]

23. I want Huckabee 'in the race'.

He detracts from the right's credibility. Not that they need any help in that area.

[Liberal_Dog]

24. K & R

[dorkulon]

25. Why doesn't anyone ever get into any fucking trouble for shit like this?

Every day I hear about similar violations OF THE LAW. But no one enforces and no one cares. WTF is happening to this country?

[PatrynXX]

26. were they put thru a shredder

because that's the only way to destroy them. can't even say zeroing the drive works. took a 2.5 inch apart, ran it in my azio

as I was have a bad string of lucky with hard drives at the time , played this video straight off the drive that I was told once exposed to air, the drive dies not long after. yeah right. still works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpdh5KwWzRk yes I'd lost my mind at the time. in truth was hoping if I switched the PCB board the main drive would work but wrong firmware and it was a drive from canada. oh well

[tpsbmam]

27. The plot thickens......

I have yet to find any record retention laws that apply to Arkansas elected officials (just to state employees, agencies, etc)

BUT

I did find this verrrrry interesting article on the preacher man in the Arkansas Times:

<snip>

As you'll remember, in early January 2007, as his tenure as governor ran out, Huckabee ordered his staff to electronically wipe and then crush the hard drives of almost 100 laptop and desktop computers in the governor's office (soon after taking office, incoming governor Mike Beebe had to allocate $335,000 from his operating fund to buy new hard drives and computers to replace those crushed by his successor). At the time, Huckabee said that the decision to crush the hard drives was made in order to protect the privacy of those who had personal information on the drives. Critics, however, recalled that early in Huckabee's term as governor, documents, e-mails and memos stored on hard drives just like the ones that were destroyed formed the basis of embarrassing stories about Huckabee, including a 1998 story in the Arkansas Times detailing how Huckabee and his family were using the $60,000-a-year Governor's Mansion fund as their personal piggy bank. As revealed in documents provided to the Times by a former governor's office employee, the Huckabee family had used the mansion fund — which was supposed to be used only for purchases related to official state business — to buy everything from pantyhose and dog houses to meals out and loaves of Velveeta cheese.

<snip>

One of the more interesting documents that Parsons has found while researching his lawsuit is a memo from Arkansas Department of Information Systems chief technology officer Gary Underwood to then-governor Huckabee. In the memo, dated January 9, 2007, Underwood states that the hard drives in question have been crushed. No news there. More interesting, however, are the bulleted notes just below that item, in which Underwood writes that tape backups of the governor's office network drives “have been delivered to a designee of your office,” and that “a mirror image of the network drives has been created, and the mirror drives have been delivered to a designee of your office.” At the bottom, the memo is signed by Huckabee chief of staff Brenda Turner, who lists herself as the designee of the office of governor Mike Huckabee. According to Parsons, his calls to DIS have found that the last anyone saw of the backup tapes, Turner was putting them into the trunk of her car and driving away.

"Parsons" is this guy Jim Parsons who's been trying to get to Huckabee's records for years with no luck -- he's been rebuffed by the Arkansas Atty Gen, the Ethics Commission, etc. This article is from 2007. This is actually old news but I'm delighted it's resurfacing! :evilgrin:

[upi402]

28. Jim Parsons

:patriot:

[BlueIris]

29. I've been thinking about this for two days.

It's bizarre. What would he have to hide? The pardon issue doesn't seem like enough.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

31. There is also the story of one of his sons who hung and beat a stray dog to death,.

At a Boy Scout no less.

[tpsbmam]

32. See post 27 (right above your post)....

I suspect there's more to hide there than one might think. Just a hunch.

[rustydog]

33. And he believes man walked with dinosaurs 6000 years ago!

He paroled a man who came to lakewood WA and killed 4 police officers. Huckabee has a decision making process that is greatly flawed.