are we really surprised??? no email, no paper trail.....

do people actually think the white house would allow any entity, other than itself or these private contractors that they refuse to name, to have prying eyes look into the illegality of some of the emails and who sent them to whom, etc....

I think not!

Folks... the Sh*t is about to hit the fan....

Oh, okay then. Sorry to have bothered you Mister President Sir.

But you see, we will never see any Pres records. They will make sure they never see the light of day.

As someone who worked in the tech industry for many years, the idea that millions of offical government emails would somehow be "lost forever" is ridiculous. No amount of gross incompetence can explain the meticulous, deliberate, and repeated steps needed to erase data which is copied or "mirrored" in real time onto multiple servers located in different geographic locations. Archived files are further protected by off-site and offline storage separate again from all of the above. The odds of all these databases being "accidentally erased" are less than zero by multiple decimal points.

How convenient - Doesn't it make you wonder what the Bush Regime is up to and what they are trying to hide? They still think most of us are plain stupid. Didn't Karl Rove claim to loose his emails also? This excuse is getting really old.

Unbelievable but not a surprise! This republican administration has to be one of the most corrupt in history.

Politicians are like fighting siblings....bicker, b*&%$ and bicker some more! Shred them like Hillary Clinton and the Clinton administration or just archive them eternally lost....some things are just not meant to see to read by the public eye. Maybe that is why I can still sleep at night. That is where they get the saying...."Ignorance is bliss." We voted them into the office. Let them do the job that we hired them to do and if we dont like it in the end.....DONT RE-ELECT THEM!

Even Nixon was more honest and had more class than Bush.

The government can see our's but they wont show us their's. Same old thing. Unintelligent people are running the country.

The White House is full of crooks, liars, and thieves and Congress and the Senate are full of cowards and collaborators. Terrorism isn't a tiny fraction of the threat to this country that Bush, Cheney, Rove and the Republican AND Democratic leaderships are. Our rights are stolen from us in the name of "protecting" us. Our money, our childrens money, and our grandchildrens money are diverted into the pockets of a select few who grease the palms of our elected leadership. We need to start at the top with Bush, Cheney, and company - remove them from office, try and convict them of the treason they've commited on the American people. From there we need to go straight down the lines of the Republican and Democrat leaderships and through the "big business" crooks they've sold us out to. Try, convict, and execute the lot of them - after taking what they've stolen and returning it to the people.

Seriously.

Hmmmm. How damned convenient. I wonder if those die-hard Bush fans will still believe he is so wonderful now?!?!

Not surpising since The State of Texas mysteriously (read conviently) lost his driving records when he was getting ready to run for pres.
Frankly, if you can't produce your driving record and pass a credit check, you shouldn't be able to run for president...or Congress. Wouldn't it be better to make all candidates be tested of IQ? We wouldn't be in the mess we're in if people had seen behind the good ól boy facáde and knew up front he was a dunce before we elected him?

Sounds like another Sandy Berger (burglar) episode from the Clinton administration! Look at the second post by "bush-is-guilty" - can't even write without using profanity. That's how the rabid liberal left of this country show us their lack of intelligence and illiteracy. So, can anyone tell me what happened when Sandy Berger stole documents out of the National Archives? Why should this be any different?

The Bush Administration is the largest, most criminal tragedy to ever happen in U.S. Government. Problem is, do we have any Patriots left smart enough to out smart them and put them in Jail where they all belong??? I highly doubt it based on the dog and pony shows we have been subject to so far.

Impeach and Imprison. Uphold the laws of this country.

Well, between them shuffling off to Buffalo and this, it seems obvious to me that they have absolutely nothing to hide. Now go sign your sons and daughters up for the volunteer military for Dick and Georgie's whim.

Bush-is-guilty-- let's hope so!!! I think we need a special investagation!

Now who you gonna believe, us God Fearing, Conservative good ol boys or your lying eyes???

Secrecy is used to mask guilt. Now consider how much secrecy has been employed by this administration.

Again, the rule of law has been broken. This government loves to access your emails, phone calls, and pry into the private lives of citizens, yet refuses to cooperate about it's own illegal actions.

They won't give the name because then Congress could ask the company what happened and the company would either have to lie or say "we just did what the White House told us to do."

It appears that Cheney et al have learned their lessons from their time with the Nixon administration and know to destroy the records of their illegal activities.

As someone who worked for years on data networks with 99.999% reliability, the White House assertion of "accidental" loss of millions of emails is ridiculous. Such data is invariably mirrored not only on distinct servers in real time (located in different geographic locations) but is also archived offline in data vaults impervious to anything short of direct nuclear impact. No amount of gross incompetence can explain the many deliberate, meticulous, and repeated steps needed to destroy such data. The odds of this occuring by chance are less than zero by multiple decimal points.

Wow, that all I can say.

Everything is shrouded in secrecy with this administration. When challenged, they invoke executive privilege trampling all over the constitution. Why so much secrecy if nothing illegal was done ? What is this about Bush's campaign to bring democracy to other nations while at home he's governing like Stalin. But this is from a holier than thou party of hypocrites ala Craig, Vitter, etc, etc.

Another proof: Bush is the worst president ever.

how crazy is this, yet another instance of this "regime" doing whatever they want with no checks and balances, i mean shame on every last person who voted for this entity in the last two elections, this is your fault and for the rest of us and the world it just really sucks!

Since when do you hire a company and not remember their names?????
Are these people serious? Why haven't the Congress already started Impeachment proceedings on Bush and Cheney, it's obvious they are crooked as a stick and obstruct, avoid responsibility, lie, and basically thumb their noses at the American Public and our Constitution. If this was a Democratic President oh my, we would have had billions of dollars of investigations every talking head would be out telling everyone how bad the Dems are, do we hear a peep from anyone with regards to this? No. Why, because ever since 9-11 Bush and Rove and Cheney have made it their goal to paint anyone and everyone who don't agree with them as unpatriotic and traitors, so of course the Dems shut up and march lock step with the Nazi's. How pathetic our government is.

This is the natural progression from "dog ate my homework"

THE UNITED STATES IS TOO POWERFUL TO BE DESTROYED BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE.
OUR GOVERNING FATHERS WILL DESTROY IT
THEMSELVES.
THEY ARE DOING A PRETTY GOOD JOB SO FAR.

just more evil monkey business by the sleezy slimeballs. Why are we surprised?

What are they hiding?

the only reason snow and rove have quit is so they can take their evil monkey business into the democratic presidential campaign.

all fear mongering by a left wing media. Yeah Bush is terrible but when will the media stop trying to link nonsense to some big scandal. How many things are going to be thrown at the Bush white house and none of it sticks? Whats hilarious are all the "sheeple" who believe it. Love the pic of Brian Ross to. Its an action shot as if he's on his little phone getting some inside scoop. Ohhhh, its so covert and he'll expose 'em.

GWB sounds more like Richard Nixon every single day. But unlike Nixon, the Presidential Records Act is now in place and this issue will not go away like the missing minutes from tricky dick's recordings.

Guess GWB doesn't need a presidential library after all!

It will eventually float.

However the folks in congress are such a bunch of useless sacks of dung that they will do nothing or the inquiries will silently slip away.This kind of example is an invitation to anarchy.
You can only get away with the whole "do as i say not what i do" for a finite amount of time.

Folks, this is your government; your democracy. Please don't give me any more of your bull$$#t about this being the most free and open society in the world. This administration is getting away with crimes that will one day looked back upon with awe. Just as today's Germans look back upon Nazi Germany and wonder how it could have possibly happened. Wake up, people. Wake up!

Those emails belong to the people of the USA. DON'T FORGET, bush is NOT a dictator regardless of what he may think of himself as being.

If you Liberals (ABC TOO) spent as much time and effort going after terroris,(the very people that want a non muslums whiped off the face of the earth). we would would be better off. you seem to think these people are our enemy. Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. A (D) from California, Imagine that

Truly the best generation that ever lived is fading off.......

They borrowed that one from Slick Willie and Hillary. Henry Waxman had this to say in his Minority Staff Report titled "Unsubstantiated Allegations of Wrongdoing Involving the Clinton Administration", March 2001.

Quote:
"Several problems relating to the e-mail archiving system at the White House over the past few years prevented a subset of White House e-mails from being archived. These problems may have had some impact on White House document production, because the White House conducted searches of archived e-mails to respond to information requests from investigators.
The Committee received no information that any White House official intentionally created the e-mail problems, made any attempt to impede investigation of the problems, or had any knowledge of the content of e-mails that may not have been captured."

In 2001 when the Clintons were being investigated, Waxman didn't consider it to be an issue. Now he is in full attack mode. Can you say "hypocritical partisan politician"?

I doubt anything is going to hit the fan. This Administration is so corrupt they've taken steps to cover their trail since taking over the White House. Gawd this is sickening.

They learned from the best. This is what was being said about the Clinton Administration in 2000:

Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) pointed to the continuing flap over the White House email messages that seemed to disappear after being subpoenaed.

"We've been having a series of hearings, the conclusion of which from the Clinton administration standpoint is, we don't even know how to keep track of our own emails,"

If I remember correctly, Henry Waxman was one of the Clinton's staunchest defenders at the time regarding their "lost" emails.

this appears to be another case of the white knowing what we as americans need to know and what we need to see for ourselves. mr bush and his pals think we are all too stupid to really undertsand all this and therfore should not ever see this information. mr rove decided what i should or should not see. mr snow tells me what i should or should not hear and we go blissfully down the road to complete and utter disstruction.so much for open and transparent governemnt lets see this would more likely look like closed and clouded government. we can't get out of this war because mr bush believes it is not time and we can't stop spending money o this war because mr bush says so and we can stop the war machine becaue mr chaney says so and we should support our troupes and keep them fighting in the streets to regain again and again the same positions, because it is anti american to do otherwise. ok i get it. Thanks

Congress controls the purse.. get the GAO to take a look at billing and you'll find out which company cashed the checks.

Bush Jr. says "I am not a crook!"

Heh, yeah "it" hit the fan quite a while back ... they're juut starting to see the full splatter.

If Democrats don't do anything about this or any of the other dishonest things that this administration has done for the past 6+ years, then the American people might decide to make a change on Capitol Hill in 08!!!

This has become the most toxic administration since Richard Nixon. I can't believe the audacity of these bald-faced liars.

Remember Animal House when the crew destroyed Flounder's brother's car?

"We'll just say we parked it around back, came out, and BAM, it was gone!"

"Will that work?"

"It's better than the truth!"

.

This arrogant, self-absorbed, war-proffiteering, immoral, unethical, illegal WH fronted by w is the worst in US history. Using rovian manachean paranoia, they authored the unjust pre-emptive invasion and destabilization of Iraq by refusing to listen to our allies, intellegence agencies, state department, and military. The initiated a sub-prime economy by cutting taxes for the wealthy, anhihilating the middle class, and unprecidented debt.

They believe they have everything to lose by being honest and accountable. Their rovian blitzkrieg tactics will go down in history as setting the US back 25 years.

.

It is stunning that something that could dwaft Watergate is taking so long to get traction in the press. Are we so numb that we cannot even muster outrage at what is clearly obstruction of justice?

This is simply unacceptable in a functional democracy. The Congress has a duty to investigate and find out why the Executive Branch doesn't feel like it owes information to the American people, for whom they work and to whom they report. The audacity of this Administration is stunning. I sincerely hope that dedicated journalists and the members of Congress continue to demand accountability from the Bush Administration. Obviously, 6 years without oversight was a dangerous and reckless proposition. Please, let's not repeat the past. The news media was envisioned by our Founders as the 4th pillar of democracy, acting as a liason between the government and the people. I commend this report for doing just that, and I call on all MSM to do the same. For the sake of our country, it is an imperative.

The GOA would have the contract information.

Any check signed for payment:
Hard copy.

Betcha it's Rove's old company -
Check those servers down in
PLANO, TEXAS

And - did anyone take Rove's top secret clearance badge?

I say he's sittin' pretty - he's got that "whole world" in his hands.....digitally.

Here we go again. Bush and his administration make Nixon and his administration look like a bunch of choir boys. Wow, these guys are something else. They have no respect for the law of the land or the Constitution of the United States. Are we even sure they are American citizens? Or for that matter, are we even sure they are Earthlings?

Yet more of that sociopath stench.

is this really a "mystery"

Think the contractor might be Inforeliance. Found resume of someone who helped with Sharepoint setup in White House. Anyone know current email setup there?

Has this administration ever been straight with the American people? Lies, deceptions and cover up is the modus operandi. We threw out a dictator in Iraq and has installed one in Whitehouse.

.
Once again, in a now familiar pattern, the current WORST-PRESIDENT-EVER has sunk lower than the former worst-president-ever. TrickyDick's taping system and his 18 1/2-minute gap pales in comparison to the millions of potentially incriminating deleted e-mails. Like TrickDick, DickNBush are just stonewalling and covering up.

The Congress should know what to do. The high crimes and misdemeanors of DickNBush are essentially identical to those of Tricky. The Articles of Impeachment and transcript of TrickyDick's impeachment hearings are readily available. It now just a simple matter of following the script.

I suggest appointing Russ Feingold as the lead Senator in the BushCheney impeachment proceedings and having him work with Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers to draft the Articles of Impeachment. There is no time to waste. PELOSI/CONGRESS: STOP STALLING AND DO YOUR JOB. Carpe Diem!

.

Sept 10th deadline. They'll miss that and there will be another deadline that will be missed. SERIOUSLY, your effort to hold there morons accountable are simply laughable.

I work in IT and know a little something about how data retention is supposed to work.

Rule number 1: Always take a back-up of whatever file(s) you are modifying before each and every modification.

Rule number 2: Never violate rule number 1.

Somebody has obviously ordered the destruction of these records and the destruction of the back-ups. No CIO could keep their job under such a circumstance, even if so ordered. They should resign rather than clicking their heels then violate the very ethical foundation IT resides on.

Well, that just makes us want the info more!

The Watergate burglary and cover-up by TrickyDick pales in comparison to the high crimes and misdemeanors of DickNBush. Yet, because of Pelosi and the Congress, these criminals are not being held accountable for violating the Constitution and oath to uphold the law.

EIGHTY (80) US towns and cities now have resolutions calling for the impeachment of the DickNBush criminals. Pelosi provides the lame excuse that the Dems are focusing on ending the senseless neocon wars and can't handle impeachment as well - in other words, Congressional Democrats can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Impeachment proceeding must begin in the House. House Resolution 333 defines the articles of impeachment for Cheney - the necessary first step. Somebody with a backbone needs to proceed on that. Once the House does its Constitutionally mandated job, Sen Feingold and other patriots will carry the ball in the Senate. Let the Repugs in Congress defend the indefensible high crimes and misdemeanors of DickNBush - the American people need to know exactly who these co-conspirators and accomplices are before the 2008 election.

CONGRESS/PELOSI: STOP STALLING AND DO YOUR JOB!

My face is black and blue from all the times the Bush Administration has slapped the citizens of this country in the face. The gall from them is neverending. Republicans have shown over and over again their contempt for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people. What a corrupt, divisive, hypocritical, fear-mongering, hate-mongering, bigoted, criminal, devious, pathetic, reprehensible group of liars. Thank you again to all the geniuses who keep voting Republican.

This entire administration adn their cronies are absoutely pure evil. Sick, perverted, evil! Book'em Dano!

Elsies,

The difference between Bush Co. and Sandy Berger is that Berger took copies. As an American Citizen I would very much like to know copies of what, and I would support an investigation into that also. But that is a very different from ‘without a trace’.

This Whitehouse is very good at misdirection. Like the ‘Yellowcake’ story. It got turned into the Wilson saga, but the real story is who and where did the badly forged document originate and why was such a poorly faked document taken at face value by people who presumably should have known better; albeit some did.

hmm...convenient that these records disappear when having them just might incriminate those in office. But since when can we really expect anything but blatant disregard for legalities in politics? Not legal and wanna do it? Tell everyone lies, get elected, and change the laws to suit yourself. God, What has America come to?

All I can say is that for a bunch of guys RUNNING A COUNTRY... they lose a lot of crap! I mean, what's next? California? Could they lose my state? Because I would like for them to lose my state... or at least my tax records... could they lose that? Because they seem to be ALL over that!!!

Hmmm. Maybe the adminstration doesn't want to supply bait to a democrat fishing expedition? I wouldn't provide Henry Waxman with the time of day. I'm just saying.......

The company is probably run by Roger Ailes. So what else is new?

Could be inforeliance. They have contracts with almost every military and civilian government office.

When I was young, they all told me that America was the land of the free. This was a lie. The America that I was taught about has now become the "threat that we all feared".

Today it was announced that:

New FBI Network Allows Instant Wiretaps on Any Communication Device. Don't believe me?

These Christians in the White House are liars.

Xrucifer:
As a liberal, I'm a little offended by you refering to us as rabid and lacking intellegence. Your side has Anne Coulter, perhaps the most hateful and mean spirited person in political commentary today. It sounds like you have a problem with stereotyping people by their political beliefs. I am a liberal, and a tax payer, and I love my country's people. And I have conservatives and republicans as friends(and no, they are not one in the same). I am also not an idiot, and I do not constantly use profanity to express myself, though at times I find it hard not to when dicussing our country's politicians.

The government is able to read our e-mails. We should be able to see theirs. It is true that the government is fit with checks and belances to control its power, but we the people are the ultimate check. We control the government, not vice versa. Or at least that is how it should be.

It's a subsidiary of Halliburton.

I was involved in disaster recovery protocols over 20 years ago and I'm sure they are much more secure and sophisticated today. I don't believe for one minute that these records we lost by accident. However, I don't believe this type of activity is divided by political party lines. One party is just as bad as the other. Our government officials at all levels and all parties think we are technbology challenged and will buy into this nonsense.

It's not like Bush is hiding criminal behavior or anything.

"So, can anyone tell me what happened when Sandy Berger stole documents out of the National Archives?"

elsies:
Sandy Berger pleaded guilty to removing the documents and was fined $50,000, got two years probation, and lost his law license.

This ain't rocket science folks...

all we need is one of those emails to trace the path contained in the header's routing info.

Once we have the originating IP address, we can then look up who "owns" that IP address and track down the "secret" email "disappearers".

Didn't someone like Greg Palast receive one or two of those emails accidentally?

I'm guessing it's a subsidiary of Halliburton.

I agree w/ the person above about the idea that these e-mails are "lost forever". That's absurd. You see, Mr. President, unlike you, I actually read things. The American people (well, 50% of us anyway) are NOT as stupid as you wish we were (and I worked in the tech industry as well).

As far as I'm concerned, these people, and all the way to the top for ignorance of the law is NO excuse, have some nerve calling themselves Americans, for they do not behave as Americans. They do not behave like people who believe in our system of government; they have their own set of rules and go by them. If you ask me, they are behaving like not-very-bright criminals, and ought to be dealt with accordingly.

A company contracted for a Government Agency, paid by public funds is PUBLIC RECORD. Simple?

If George doesn't "recall" who he wrote the check to, subpoena his checkbook . . or the RNC . . .

PLEASE! Impeach and prosecute this criminal!!!

If a sevice was provided (e-mail handling)it was paid for. Therefore, the information sought is certainly in the hands of a governmental third party, or parties. Why isn't the info sought from them?

All of the IT professionals are absolutely correct. There is NO WAY these emails were lost. And if they were, which they most definitely were not, but if, then the company officers who allowed this to happen should be facing a judge for violating the Presidential Records Act. Simple as that.

The company that retains this correspondence is employed by the citizens of the United States. We have every right to know who they are. Let's say they WERE dumb enough to 'lose' 5 million emails, don't all of us and all businesspeople have a right to know what screw-ups they are so they don't get hired again?

Please...this is so patently a cover-up is annoying to even read that anyone thinks it's anything else. If you believe this nonsense, don't vote in 2008.

"Hmmm. Maybe the adminstration doesn't want to supply bait to a democrat fishing expedition? I wouldn't provide Henry Waxman with the time of day. I'm just saying......."

Posted by: rlb | Aug 31, 2007 2:29:55 PM

A traitor to the Constitution of this country. And don't come back with some crap about how you served your country, blah, blah, blah....... These are LAWS this president and his cabal are breaking indiscriminately. They were sworn in to UPHOLD the laws and the Constitution. They do neither. But, you, just jump into line in lockstep with your Fuhrer, don't you? No matter what criminal action he announces or does, you are his defender. Oh well, I guess even Hitler had his supporters.

As I said, you are a traitor to your country!

I am also in IT, and I agree with the many other experienced posters here. I worked for a contractor with USDA. This stuff is put on tape and vaulted, often in unused converted missile silos. Now the tape for a particular day might turn out to be bad, but "millions" of emails over what is presumably a substantial period of time simply cannot be "lost". This is a bald-faced lie.

I am continuously amused by the posters who somehow feel bringing up the Clinton administration is some kind of rationalization. What does what happened during the Clinton admin have to do with anything? It's like, hey everybody, look over there! A bright shiny object! Please - some of us are not that stupid.

It's amazing how secretive they are. They will pull out all the stops to keep whatever illegal dealings they are up to but on the other hand use the Patriot Act laws to spy on hard working Americans. This is the act of a fascist government. I wonder when they'll start handing out the brown shirts to the dead-ender 25% who sill love him. The republican party is imploding by the day and they're too stupid enough to see that...or they just don't care. Just steal and pillage as much as you can before the term is up.