Posted on 12/22/2008 9:16:29 AM PST by BGHater
Legal Battles, Technical Difficulties Delay Required Transfer to Archives
The required transfer in four weeks of all of the Bush White House's electronic mail messages and documents to the National Archives has been imperiled by a combination of technical glitches, lawsuits and lagging computer forensic work, according to government officials, historians and lawyers.
Federal law requires outgoing White House officials to provide the Archives copies of their records, a cache estimated at more than 300 million messages and 25,000 boxes of documents depicting some of the most sensitive policymaking of the past eight years.
But archivists are uncertain whether the transfer will include all the electronic messages sent and received by the officials, because the administration began trying only in recent months to recover from White House backup tapes hundreds of thousands of e-mails that were reported missing from readily accessible files in 2005.
The risks that the transfer may be incomplete are also pointed up by a continuing legal battle between a coalition of historians and nonprofit groups over access to Vice President Cheney's records. The coalition is contesting the administration's assertion in federal court this month that he "alone may determine what constitutes vice presidential records or personal records" and "how his records will be created, maintained, managed, and disposed," without outside challenge or judicial review.
Eventual access to the documentary record of the Bush presidency has been eagerly anticipated by historians and journalists because the president and his aides generally have sought to shield from public disclosure many details of their deliberations and interactions with outside groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wait, I thought W was too stupid to use e-mail....or maybe that was Sarah Palin? John McCain? I’m so confused....
A president has to be able to keep his communications private. There should be some kind of limit, maybe a thirty year limit during which presidential communications remain private. After a generation has passed, then they could be opened up to the historians and archivists. Not before.
The people who are so anxious to see Cheney’s communications need to understand that the same law will apply to Obama, and Clinton, and the same legitimate need for privacy is there. If you insist that every communication be public, then communication will shut down (and real communication will find another route and the real communications will be lost to historians forever).
"I will restore honor and integrity to the White House"
They aren't “his” emails regardless of who the President is.
Rule of thumb:
If they have an R after their name, they’re dumber than a bag of hammers. If they have a D after their name, they’re intellectual marvels.
/s
Remember?
Remember?
(Crickets)
Here’s a question, what MUST be retained?
ALL emails sent TO the President? Including SPAM?
I hope Cheney burns everything and tells them to go to he^^.
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