Source:
Associated PressJan 17, 4:51 PM (ET)
By PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) - ....
"We have no reason to believe that there is any data missing at all" from White House computer servers, said <White House deputy press secretary Tony> Fratto . "And we've certainly found no evidence of any data missing." ...
Regarding the disclosure that backup tapes had been recycled, the sworn declaration by Theresa Payton defended the White House's conduct by saying that recycling backup tapes was "consistent with industry best practices."
An e-mail technology expert disagreed.
"The best practice is to archive and store everything in a system that's searchable for e-mail and kept in an orderly and organized way," said Rurik Bradbury, vice president of strategy for Intermedia, which runs e-mail systems for a quarter of a million companies ...
Read more:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080117/D8U7ST1O0.html
Bush tapes backing up e-mails got recycled
The White House's filing that it routinely recorded over messages raises the possibility that significant data may be lost forever.
By Dan Eggen
The Washington Post
Article Last Updated: 01/17/2008 12:11:10 AM MST
WASHINGTON — The White House has acknowledged in a new court filing that it routinely recycled computer backup tapes containing its e-mail records until October 2003, a practice that could mean that many electronic messages from the first two years of the Bush administration are lost forever.
The disclosure raises the possibility that the White House effectively erased e-mail related to some of the biggest controversies of the Bush administration, including the leak of a CIA officer's name, the start of the Iraq war and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.
The administration previously has acknowledged problems with its archiving systems but had not disclosed its practice of overwriting backup tapes. The backups are meant to preserve records in case of a disaster. They also serve a role in ensuring that federal record-keeping laws are met. Two separate statutes require the White House to preserve federal or presidential records ...
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_7992236White House: What Missing Emails?
Today, the White House dramatically changed its tune on the 5 to 10 million emails reportedly missing from its servers ...
MR. FRATTO:
I think those charges came from outside the White House. I think that's the charge of one of the—Q:
One of your colleagues addressed those from the podium and suggested that that was accurate‹again, I'm taking—MR. FRATTO:
I'm not sure what was said on that. I can tell you today, though, that we have no evidence and we have no way of showing that any emails at all are missing ...
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6905_tony_fratto_can.htmlMissing White House tapes — sound familiar?
Under a court-ordered disclosure, the Bush White House revealed this week that it destroyed e-mail backup tapes for a period of time before October 2003 — a possible violation of federal laws requiring preservation of presidential documents.
The revelation came amid a lawsuit by citizen groups trying to find out what happened to millions of allegedly missing White House e-mails.
Because of the recycling, “there may be no way to recover the missing e-mails from a period in which the U.S. decided to go to war with Iraq, White House officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame and the Justice Department started a criminal investigation of the White House,” said Anne Weismann, a lawyer for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The most secretive administration in history is working hard to cover its tracks. What does the Bush team have to hide? Apparently a lot.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2008/01/missing-white-house-tapes-sound-familiar/Fratto: ‘We Have Absolutely No Reason To Believe Any E-mails Are Missing’
... As CREW executive director Melanie Sloan told ThinkProgress:
Tony Fratto is lying. There is considerable evidence demonstrating that millions of White House emails are missing from between 2003 and 2005; in fact, White House spokesperson Dana Perino confirmed this in a previous statement, televised on April 13, 2007.
As Sloan notes, on April 13, 2007, Perino explicitly told reporters, “I wouldn’t rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost. … We screwed up, and we’re trying to fix it.” Additionally, the White House officials admitted to the House Oversight Committee on May 29, 2007, that “an unknown number of e-mails may not have been preserved in the White House archive” ...
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/17/white-house-emails/White House Suggests No E-Mail Missing
By PETE YOST – 55 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — ...
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., scheduled a hearing and challenged the White House to explain spokesman Tony Fratto's remark that "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
The White House provided information indicating 473 days for which various units in the Executive Office of the President had no archived e-mails, wrote Waxman, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Asked to testify on Feb. 15 are White House counsel Fred Fielding; Alan Swendiman, director of the White House Office of Administration; and Allen Weinstein, archivist of the United States ...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hsG0My2Q3Eu9Sj2PSupnj4xeQXxAD8U81HLG0