[NonValueAdded]

Pull them off the server logs or backups at AOL. Otherwise there is no chain of custody. It is too easy to fake a log: set the system clock back in time, edit the file, alter the file's timestamp. A forensic analysis of the hard drive of the computer storing these messages could find traces of the alteration but it would be proof that they were forged and not necessarily proof they were authentic.

ABC should be asking the source "did you receive them directly?" and "why didn't you tell anybody until now?" Also, don't discount the idea that a group of hetero teenaged boys might find it great fun to goof with a "fag." Chances are they bragged about it and that might just come out in an investigation.

[soozla]

Thanks, NVA.........you just answered what me and many other people have been ruminating about. Not that Mark Foley should be let off the hook....BUT.....if you read the content of the email, it's not all that "suggestive" unless, of course, one ASSUMES that Foley is gay, and reads the EMAIL tinted with that observation. I mean would the same attention be focused on Nancy Pelosi asking a female, underage page the same questions in an email?? HHMMMMMM????

BUT, when the IM's are thrown into the mix, it gets pretty rank and raunchy, and IF Foley is the author of them and that can be authenticated, then off with his head.

BUT..........if Foley is being set-up, this is a whole'nother story, baby!!!!! And my message to the Republicans is THE GLOVES BETTER BE OFF!!