WH Spokesman: emails sent by staff members via the RNC e-mail system are archived and saved

[sabra]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130276-c,privacysecurity/article.html

<snip>

White House spokesman David Almacy said the outside e-mail accounts were set up to allow legitimate political activities to be conducted by appropriate staff members without using White House accounts, which would be illegal under the Hatch Act. "It was specifically set up that way so that people weren't using their official accounts for political activities," he said. Only certain White House staff members have such outside accounts, including those who regularly communicate with outside political groups, he said.

The creation and use of the outside e-mail accounts has been reviewed by White House lawyers, he said.

Since 2004, e-mails to and from White House staff members sent through the RNC e-mail system are archived and saved, he said. White House staff members are not able to access other home or other personal e-mail accounts on their work-issued computers because access is blocked, he said. "The reason primarily is presidential records and security. We want to be able to control what people bring onto their (work) computers. From a presidential records perspective, this is something that we take very seriously," Almacy said.

[malaise]

1. We shall see n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. Wonder if Waxman will get to those?

I'm guessing it's a big red dot on his radar.

Oh, would that these are the "tapes" of our time!

[sabra]

4. Waxman is already on it...

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1229

Rep. Waxman Requests Information on White House E-Mail Policies

Following new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts, Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies.

[Spazito]

3. Hmmm, they may have been set up for "legitimate political

activities" (yeah, riiiiight) but the evidence is clear they were used, illegally, to do government business and circumvent the WH system.

Why only since 2004, one needs to ask, re " e-mails to and from White House staff members sent through the RNC e-mail system are archived and saved..."?

[BOSSHOG]

5. A preemptive Lie!

Conservatives are liars. They spend their days finding out ways to trick fuck justice. This story is a lie if it originated from the white house.

[sabra]

6. or as Kyle Sampson claimed yesterday - "inaccurate"

[Ioo]

7. "reviewed by White House Lawyers" - Then we know it is illegal

because they have not been right yet!

[Kagemusha]

8. The problem being, if the activities themselves concern agency business

then all you're doing is e-mail laundering because the activities are themselves violations... the e-mail is just proof thereof...

[hang a left]

9. Key here is "work-issued computers"

What about the RNC issued blackberries and computers, hmmmmm?

[grasswire]

10. what were they using before 2004?

And did they start archiving before that election, or after?

[Scout1071]

11. Exactly.

I wondered this myself. What were they using before 2004. All of those domain names reference 2004-2008. Where are the 2001-2004 emails archived?

[DURHAM D]

12. Ok - I am sick of this shit. If they (employees) are paid by the government -

with my tax payer dollars than they could not have been doing "legitimate political activities". End of story. My tax dollars can not be used to pay for political activities.

This is so simple yet no one ever talks about it. I have been pissed that Rove has a the title of political adviser and it was announced sometime after Katrina that he would be spending all of his time on getting Bush re-elected yet he was sucking on the public teat.

Are the Bushies insane or did they just skip school the one day that civics lessons were taught?

Can not begin to imagine the uproar if Clinton had had one single political operative at the public trough?

[madrchsod]

13. what about their personal email accounts?

if i wanted to bury something i`d send it thru my personal e-mail in wording that who i`m e-mailig would understand.