WHY IS THE 'HIDDEN SCANDAL" STILL SUCH A BIG SECRET?

[redacted]

(All these blog posts and stories in print, and STILL no television news coverage of the "hidden scandal" yet? --RD)

Folks, it looks like, thanks to the blogosphere, CREW and Dan Froomkin, the hidden scandal within the prosecutor purge isn't going away anytime soon. So here are some stories, old and new, that help shed light on this matter:

• Dan Froomkin (Washington Post): GWB43.com, Not an Isolated Incident (March 15)

• CREW: CREW Asks for House Investigation into White House Violations of Presidential Records Act: U.S. Attorney Firings and Abramoff-Related Emails Sent from RNC and Other Outside Addresses Circumvent Mandatory Record-Keeping System (March 15)

• Shakespeare's Sister: King of the Internets (March 16)

• Daily Kos: Rove's "Dirty Tricks" Email Servers (March 17)

• Shakespeare's Sister: Doc Dumb and Emailing (March 20)


(NOTE--For a good overview, see especially the following article. --RD)

Hughes for America/Shakespeare's Sister: The hidden scandal within the prosecutor purge (March 20) http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hughes_for_america/2007/03/the_hidden_scan.html


MORE

http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hughes_for_america/2007/03/your_weekend_hi.html

[BOSSHOG]

1. I certainly hope and believe

that there is yet another huge hidden scandal we haven't even heard about yet.

[grasswire]

2. well, have you heard about Gonzales covering up....

....for pedophiles, in Texas? I just read several pieces on that yesterday.

[DCKit]

3. Apparently Fredo is able to interpret the legal definition of rape

as easily and as conveniently as he is our Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

[grasswire]

6. not only that, but he said...

...that the children who were being abused in Texas ENJOYED it. I kid you not.

[myrna minx]

4. Huh? I missed that.

Sheesh. I'm dizzy from the scandals. I just can't keep up. :crazy:

[seemslikeadream]

8. here

:hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=508254&mesg_id=508254

[myrna minx]

14. Thank you!

:hi:

[redacted]

7. OMG! Yes, I just heard about that story this morning!

Well, we all KNEW that it would just be a matter of time before sex with children surfaced again as a GOP scandal. But I didn't think that Gonzo would get hit by it like he has, though. I expected the scandal to resurface again in connection to other Republicans.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Sibel Edmonds Would Bring Them All Down

if we could hear her story...

[redacted]

12. We will. It's coming.

[redacted]

10. Yes. Let's see if I can briefly clarify what this is about and why it's such an urgent issue.

What the bloggers are focusing on as the "hidden scandal," as I understand it, includes these points:

1. NOBODY at the highest levels of this administration uses electronic mail. That includes Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Gonzo. But today, email is as essential to government and business as the telephone. Moreover, one can take it to the bank that Rice used an email account extensively at Stanford University. The argument is that their refusal to communicate using email, in 2007, amounts to "per se" obstruction of justice.

2. Those who do use email aren't using the government email system required for compliance with the Presidential Records Act, or PRA. The PRA specifically requires that all email messages be preserved using a dedicated, real-time backup system operated by the government. The only logical argument why they're risking noncompliance with a Federal law of this magnitude is that they don't want their communications stored by the real-time backup system and accessible to other branches of government, as required by the PRA. In other words, their bypassing the government's system for secrecy, using non-government servers based in Tennessee, amounts to obstruction of justice as well.

3. The Administration's email users appear to be bypassing the government system, but not using any security of their own. This is probably the most serious issue, because it is likely that confidential issues are being discussed in these non-government email messages that pose a grave and reckless danger to national security. A good example are the national security briefings. Those are classified, but if for example Rove were to comment on a paragraph in a private email using some such domain like "gwb07.com" he has committed an act with at least two consequences: first, he's subjected it to interception by bad guys hacking into the messages over the public Internet, and second, he's waived his right to claim executive privilege because the message isn't transmitted through the PRA-specified email system.

4. Then there's the question of declassification of confidential materials, an issue the bloggers haven't yet raised, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone does. Just as Rice declassified the key PDB in the 911 Commission hearing by discussing it in a public forum, one could argue that the public-switched Internet is a similar public forum and anything a government official transmits over that network is automatically declassified.

If I've mischaracterized these arguments, I hope someone will correct me. However, as I understand these points, at least one of them is an urgent national security risk, and it is absolutely unconscionable that network news hasn't yet picked up this "hidden scandal" as a major story.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Here's what I don't understand:

Why isn't Chimpy calling executive privilege when it comes to Monica Goodling?

Is she nothing more than a cog on a cover-up wheel?

[redacted]

11. Thyme, you're absolutely right. Could he be thinking

he doesn't need to because she's going to plead the 5th and they're not going to get any info out of her anyway, so why claim privilege? What happens if she does a deal with investigators, gets protection, then sings like a bird? I don't understand it at all.

[redacted]

13. .