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http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/White_House_Missing_CIA,_/2008/01/19/65772.html
White House Missing CIA, Iraq E-Mails
Saturday, January 19, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Apparent gaps in White House e-mail archives coincide with
dates in late 2003 and early 2004 when the administration was struggling to
deal with the CIA leak investigation and the possibility of a congressional
probe into Iraq intelligence failures.
The gaps - 473 days over a period of 20 months - are cited in a chart
prepared by White House computer technicians and shared in September with
the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee, which has been looking
into reports of missing e-mail.
Among the times for which e-mail may not have been archived from Vice
President Dick Cheney's office are four days in early October 2003, just as
a federal probe was beginning into the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity,
an inquiry that eventually ensnared Cheney's chief of staff.
Contents of the chart - which the White House now disputes - were disclosed
Thursday by Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House
committee, as he announced plans for a Feb. 15 hearing.
Waxman said he decided to release details from the White House-prepared
chart after presidential spokesman Tony Fratto declared "we have absolutely
no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
Among the periods of time for which the chart indicates e-mail is missing is
a five-day span starting on Jan. 29, 2004, when the White House was dealing
with the possibility of an election-year probe by Congress into Iraq
intelligence failures.
Not archived by the office of the vice president is e-mail for Jan. 29-31,
2004, according to chart information released by Waxman. In addition, all
e-mail from the White House Office in the Executive Office of the President
was listed as missing for one of those days.
The chart indicates that e-mail also was not archived by the White House on
the following Monday - Feb. 2, 2004 - the day President Bush took a big step
in averting what could have been a politically troublesome congressional
inquiry. He ordered an independent investigation into intelligence failures
in Iraq.
The president conferred that day with former chief weapons inspector David
Kay, declaring, "I want to know all the facts."
The commission named by Bush reached a harsh verdict about the U.S.
intelligence community's performance, but the panel stopped short of
addressing the White House's use of the intelligence data to support the
idea of war with Iraq.
The White House says computer back-up tapes should contain substantially all
e-mails between 2003 and 2005. However, the White House recycled backup
tapes until sometime in October 2003, taping over existing data. That could
mean some e-mail is gone forever if it is also missing from archives.
An example might be any missing e-mail from Cheney's office in the early
days of the CIA leak probe. The White House has not said when in October
2003 it halted the recycling of backup tapes.
E-mails in early October 2003 could reveal key discussions between White
House personnel in the week after the Justice Department opened a criminal
investigation into the leak of Plame's CIA identity. The White House denied
that Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby or top presidential
adviser Karl Rove were involved in the leak, an assertion that turned out to
be false.
"Can it be a mere coincidence that some of the missing e-mail correspond to
a key period during the Valerie Plame investigation?" asked Melanie Sloan,
executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"Given everything else we know, that is nearly impossible to believe."
Her organization is one of two private advocacy groups suing the White House
in the e-mail controversy.
At issue on Oct. 1, 2003, was the push by congressional Democrats for
Attorney General John Ashcroft to step aside and appoint an independent
prosecutor to investigate the White House.
Ashcroft eventually recused himself, and at the end of 2003 U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by a Justice Department official to head
the probe. Two years later, Libby was indicted, and he was later convicted
of obstructing the investigation. His 30-month prison sentence was commuted
by Bush. Rove was questioned by a federal grand jury five times but was
never charged.
In January 2006, shortly after Libby was indicted, a letter from Fitzgerald
to Libby's lawyers was the first public disclosure that the White House was
having a problem with its e-mail system.
Fitzgerald wrote: "We have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice
President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods
in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White
House computer system."
The White House says the e-mail matter arose in October 2005 in connection
with the Justice Department's CIA leak probe, in which Fitzgerald later that
month obtained a grand jury indictment against Libby for perjury,
obstruction and lying to the FBI.
White House Missing CIA, Iraq E-Mails
Saturday, January 19, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Apparent gaps in White House e-mail archives coincide with
dates in late 2003 and early 2004 when the administration was struggling to
deal with the CIA leak investigation and the possibility of a congressional
probe into Iraq intelligence failures.
The gaps - 473 days over a period of 20 months - are cited in a chart
prepared by White House computer technicians and shared in September with
the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee, which has been looking
into reports of missing e-mail.
Among the times for which e-mail may not have been archived from Vice
President Dick Cheney's office are four days in early October 2003, just as
a federal probe was beginning into the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity,
an inquiry that eventually ensnared Cheney's chief of staff.
Contents of the chart - which the White House now disputes - were disclosed
Thursday by Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House
committee, as he announced plans for a Feb. 15 hearing.
Waxman said he decided to release details from the White House-prepared
chart after presidential spokesman Tony Fratto declared "we have absolutely
no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
Among the periods of time for which the chart indicates e-mail is missing is
a five-day span starting on Jan. 29, 2004, when the White House was dealing
with the possibility of an election-year probe by Congress into Iraq
intelligence failures.
Not archived by the office of the vice president is e-mail for Jan. 29-31,
2004, according to chart information released by Waxman. In addition, all
e-mail from the White House Office in the Executive Office of the President
was listed as missing for one of those days.
The chart indicates that e-mail also was not archived by the White House on
the following Monday - Feb. 2, 2004 - the day President Bush took a big step
in averting what could have been a politically troublesome congressional
inquiry. He ordered an independent investigation into intelligence failures
in Iraq.
The president conferred that day with former chief weapons inspector David
Kay, declaring, "I want to know all the facts."
The commission named by Bush reached a harsh verdict about the U.S.
intelligence community's performance, but the panel stopped short of
addressing the White House's use of the intelligence data to support the
idea of war with Iraq.
The White House says computer back-up tapes should contain substantially all
e-mails between 2003 and 2005. However, the White House recycled backup
tapes until sometime in October 2003, taping over existing data. That could
mean some e-mail is gone forever if it is also missing from archives.
An example might be any missing e-mail from Cheney's office in the early
days of the CIA leak probe. The White House has not said when in October
2003 it halted the recycling of backup tapes.
E-mails in early October 2003 could reveal key discussions between White
House personnel in the week after the Justice Department opened a criminal
investigation into the leak of Plame's CIA identity. The White House denied
that Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby or top presidential
adviser Karl Rove were involved in the leak, an assertion that turned out to
be false.
"Can it be a mere coincidence that some of the missing e-mail correspond to
a key period during the Valerie Plame investigation?" asked Melanie Sloan,
executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"Given everything else we know, that is nearly impossible to believe."
Her organization is one of two private advocacy groups suing the White House
in the e-mail controversy.
At issue on Oct. 1, 2003, was the push by congressional Democrats for
Attorney General John Ashcroft to step aside and appoint an independent
prosecutor to investigate the White House.
Ashcroft eventually recused himself, and at the end of 2003 U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by a Justice Department official to head
the probe. Two years later, Libby was indicted, and he was later convicted
of obstructing the investigation. His 30-month prison sentence was commuted
by Bush. Rove was questioned by a federal grand jury five times but was
never charged.
In January 2006, shortly after Libby was indicted, a letter from Fitzgerald
to Libby's lawyers was the first public disclosure that the White House was
having a problem with its e-mail system.
Fitzgerald wrote: "We have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice
President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods
in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White
House computer system."
The White House says the e-mail matter arose in October 2005 in connection
with the Justice Department's CIA leak probe, in which Fitzgerald later that
month obtained a grand jury indictment against Libby for perjury,
obstruction and lying to the FBI.
