The NY Times reports "C.I.A. Case E-Mail May Be Lost" -- with yet another statement from a Bush official
The NY Times headline is accurate, but also missing are emails surrounding the start of the war with Iraq among who knows what else. As CREW's Anne Weismann said yesterday,
..The White House has admitted that although it has long known about the missing emails, it did nothing to recover them, or discover how and why they went missing in the first place. The missing emails are important historical records that belong not to the Bush administration, but to the American people. As a result, the public deserves a full accounting and hopefully, now that the matter is before a federal court, we will get one.
The Times article did include another statement from a Bush spokesperson on this issue:
If the e-mail messages were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of federal records or presidential records.
Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said, “There is no basis to say that the White House has destroyed any evidence or engaged in any misconduct.”
Mr. Fratto said that despite the recycling, some tapes should contain e-mail messages from before October 2003.
The recycling of backup tapes by the Bush White House represents a reversal in policy from the final year of the Clinton administration. The Clinton White House halted recycling of backup tapes in March 2000, when it was discovered that some e-mail from the office of Vice President Al Gore had not been preserved.
We compiled statements from officials in the Bush administration that conflict with their court filing here.
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New York Times / White House emails and backups
Presumably, any emails, email images and their attachments on computers, and any backups of these, have been diligently archived by the New York Times.
I'm sure, for example, Patrick Fitzgerald would have asked them for anything they might have had related to the Valerie Plame Wilson case.
Likewise, I'm sure, any emails and their attachments associated with the lead up to the Iraq invasion, that might have passed between them and the White House etceteras, would be made known by the New York Times at an appropriate time.
At a time when everyone is keenly aware of concerns about the loss of historical content or context related to missing White House emails, I'm sure everyone who has or has had an email (electronic communication) relationship with the White House etceteras over the past several years is auditing their computers/backups to determine what they may have that may fill in any gaps.