Fitz: White House email archives may be missing. Rosemary Woods moment?

[Lefty48197]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/02/cia.leak.ap/

"The prosecutor in the criminal case against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff said in a January 23 letter that not all e-mail was archived in 2003, the year the Bush administration exposed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame."

"...the prosecutor added: 'In an abundance of caution, we advise you that 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 Presidential Records Act, passed by Congress in 1978, made it clear that records generated in the conduct of official duties did not belong to the president or vice president, but were the property of the government. The National Archives takes custody of the records when the president leaves office"

"Bottom line: Accidents happen and there could be a benign explanation, but this is highly irregular and invites suspicion," said Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists government secrecy project.

This story reminds me of the story of the Nixon White House tapes that were "accidentally" erased by his secretary Rosemary Woods. The tapes were made a couple of days after the Watergate break-in, and it is assumed that Nixon and his co-horts discussed their plans to cover up the story of their party's connection to the break-in.


Here's the story of Rosemary Woods:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2005/01/23/woods050123

"Woods will go down in history as the woman who was believed to be responsible for the erasure of 18 1/2 minutes of crucial evidence, before it could be turned over to Watergate investigators seeking to impeach Nixon."

"The infamous gap in the tape might have proved Nixon's personal involvement in the Watergate break-in and cover-up..."

"The erasure of the tape came amid a fight between the White House and Senate investigators. In a compromise move, the White House released written transcripts of the tapes, and it was Woods who did the transcriptions."

[Catch22Dem]

1. You know how nothing is ever really "erased" from mag tape...

I wonder if those missing minutes were eventually recovered by the government agencies with the really cool toys, and we just don't know about it.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. Didn't they seize Cheney's computer?

probably had a new hard drive fitted though?