By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
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Among the times for which e-mail may not have been archived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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. BadConcress.com has no affiliation
whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is BadCongress.com
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.
|
