White House scrubbing government websites

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

WHITE HOUSE COVERS TRACKS BY REMOVING INFORMATION

In a high-tech cover-up, the Washington Post this morning reports the White
House is actively scrubbing government websites clean of any of its own
previous statements that have now proven to be untrue. Specifically, on
April 23, 2003, the president sent his top international aid official on
national television to reassure the public that the cost of war and
reconstruction in Iraq would be modest. USAID Director Andrew Natsios,
echoing other Administration officials, told Nightline that, "In terms of
the American taxpayers contribution, <$1.7 billion> is it for the US. The
American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any
further-on funding for this."

The president has requested more than $166 billion in funding for the war
and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. But instead of
admitting that he misled the nation about the cost of war, the president has
allowed the State Department "to purge the comments by Natsios from the
State Department's Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have
vanished." (The link where the transcript existed until it caused
embarrassment was www.usaid.gov/iraq/nightline_042403_t.html).

When confronted with the dishonest whitewash, the administration decided to
lie. A Bush spokesman said the administration was forced to remove the
statements because, "there was going to be a cost" charged by ABC for
keeping the transcript on the government's site. But as the Post notes,
"other government Web sites, including the State and Defense departments,
routinely post interview transcripts, even from 'Nightline,'" and according
to ABC News, "there is no cost."

This story is not the first time the President has tried to hide critical
information from the American public. For instance, the president opposed
the creation of the independent 9/11 investigative commission, and has
refused to provide the commission with critical information, even under
threat of subpoena. Similarly, after making substantial budget cuts, the
president ordered the government to stop publishing its regular report
detailing those cuts to states. And when confronted with a continuing
unemployment crisis, the president ordered the Department of Labor to stop
publishing its regular mass layoff report.

It is also not the first time the administration has sought to revise
history and public records when those records become incriminating. As the
Post reports "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." And the
"Justice Department recently redacted criticism of the department in a
consultant's report that had been posted on its Web site."

Read the Mis-Lead -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1154959&l=12635

[RandomKoolzip]

1. I hope someone's been able to grab these screens before they

got scrubbed....Big Brother is a piker compared to the Bush clan! Even Orwell would be shocked at this shit.

[tom_paine]

6. I disagree, Orwell would not have been shocked.

The Busheviks still aren't anywhere near Room 101. However, I wouldn't feel comfortable making that statement in 2030 and the Mad Reign of Emperor George P. Caligula.

If anything, Orwell would have said, "Damn. I wish I had named that book 2001!"

[ET Awful]

2. Hehehehe Nice one.

Of course, she didn't say the cost was from ABC. :).

There's a cost, it's their credibility. :)

[burythehatchet]

3. KICK

.

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

4. Kick yet again

Although to be honest I really don't know what kind of comments anyone would have for this, other than the above Orwellian observation.

Yet another in a long, unending string of unacceptable shit, courtesy of the Bush administration.

[seasat]

5. Something else that bugs me about the gov web sites

Try and find current reports on these sites. It used to be during the Clinton administration you could find information on everything. They put both the good and bad reports out on the web. Now they only publish the minimal amount of information. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the agencies under the executive branch have become much less open. One case is climate change web site. They used to update it with links to news daily. Now this government website only comes out with official government agency announcements on a monthly basis. I was discussing a report on the Reagan budgets submitted to congress on this forum. There was a report that showed that the actual budgets Reagan submitted were the same or greater most years than the budgets passed by congress when you took into account the Reagan budgets underestimated the growth in mandatory expenses. The report disappeared from the goverment website after Shrub took office. My tax dollars pay for this information. It should be free and easy for me to access.:mad:

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. *sigh* The dumbing down of the American public

marches on.

[OneTwentyoNine]

8. LOL--Go right ahead boys....

Are they so DAMN stupid to think that people haven't printed out articles over the last few months or YEARS? What idiots,now their REALLY covering up their deeds with this action.

Unbelievably stupid....


David

[NewJeffCT]

12. yes, that is what they think

Most folks won't notice and then when they research the information... it will be gone or changed and people will start to believe the revised information before long, sort of how many people still believe that guy in Sudan offered to turn over bin Laden...

[BevHarris]

17. This is why the LIBRARIES going digital is so dangerous

I'm serious. I used to work in a university library. Went back there and there are rooms full of empty bookshelves. "Oh, it's on computer now," they say.

Not only that, but it centralized. Used to be, you'd have to run all over the country grabbing books off of shelves to truly censor information. No more. One swipe of the keyboard, if you have the admin password.

That's why I just LOVED the library in Canada. It was full of actual records, in addition to all the computer databases.

Bev Harris
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

[adriennel]

9. try working on a .gov

it's great fun being told by the BushCo what info you can post and what info you can't. anything with real numbers or science is discouraged.

[never cry wolf]

13. You work for a .gov??

Please, please, juicy details please!!!!

[grannylib]

10. This misadministration is so unbelievably corrupt...how can people who

are being so mistreated and whose intelligence is consistently negated be fooled into supporting this inbred little monkeyman dogturd?

[VOX]

11. Talk about Soviet-style "airbrushing!" This is an absolute outrage...

Anyone who has any doubts left about our living in a totalitarian state desperately needs a wake-up call.

Can you imagine the amped-up tirades that would cascade forth from the right wing had Clinton pulled this crap?

Let's *cancel* this administration with extreme prejudice on 11/2/04!

[Hippo_Tron]

14. See this is why we needed to win the 2002 elections...

If Dems controlled congress you'd be able to get all that stuff from the good ol LOC which the white house has no control over.

[never cry wolf]

15. Here's the WaPo link

referenced in the misleader article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9821-2003Dec17.html

Thanks for posting, I signed up at misleader.

[Kanary]

18. Thanks for the link! Couldn't find it...

Interesting that the exact words don't show up in their search function.

I appreciate the link!

Kanary

[LTR]

16. Here's a site that remembers

http://www.archive.org/

aka the Internet Archive.