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Judge Says Bush Regiime Must Answer Q's about 5 Million Missing E-Mails
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
National Security Archive Update - January 8, 2008
http://www.nsarchive.org
White House Must Answer Questions About Missing E-mails, Judge Rules
Washington DC, January 8, 2008 - In an Order issued today, Magistrate
Judge Facciola of the United States District Court for the District
of Columbia ordered the White House to answer questions about over
5 million missing e-mails generated between 2003-2005. Noting that
the need for information the missing e-mails is "time-sensitive"
because of the risk that stored copied of the e-mails "are increasingly
likely to be deleted or overridden with the passage of time," the
Court demanded answers in a sworn declaration by January 13, 2008
about the location of the missing e-mails.
"To date, the White House has evaded answering questions about
whether it permanently destroyed over 5 million e-mails about issues
such as Hurricane Katrina, the firing of United States Attorneys,
and the exposure of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent,"
commented Meredith Fuchs, the Archive's General Counsel. "This Order
will force the Executive Office of the President to tell the public
whether it really erased key records of the nation's history or
whether it has made any effort to preserve the information."
The order issued today come in National Security Archive v. Executive
Office of the President (EOP), et al. Previously, Judge Kennedy
ordered the preservation of EOP backup tapes and the consolidation
of this case (filed September 5, 2007) with Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington (CREW) v. Executive Office of the President,
et al. (filed September 25, 2007).
To date, the White House has had the following to say about the
missing e-mails:
"I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million emails
lost"
- - Press Gaggle by Dana Perino (April 13, 2007)
"[W]e are aware that there could have been some emails that were
not automatically archived because of a technical issue."
- - Press Briefing by Dana Perino (April 16, 2007)
"CREW has yet to provide any basis for their assertions -- be it
their original assertion, or their new claim. We are aware that
some e-mails may not have been automatically archived in the past,
but they may be available on backup tapes. Unlike what the liberal
group CREW has asserted, we've never been without a backup system.
The Office of Administration at the White House has been maintaining
and preserving backup tapes for the official email system."
- - Scott Stanzel, White House Spokesman
Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more
information about today's posting.
http://www.nsarchive.org
________________________________________________________
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no
U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication
royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
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