Apparently, the RNC, provided cover e-mail addresses for White House staffers to use so as to avoid federal record keeping requirements. Now we have news that the RNC routinely deleted these emails.
It is essential that congress immediately, today, issues orders to confisticate RNC hard drives to prevent further purges of records, and to prevent the hard drives from being wiped at a deeper level, since some deletions can be retrieved.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel reported that 22 Whitehouse employees used RNC emails, including Karl Rove and a number of his assistants.
"Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters.
Asked whether some of the lost e-mails could be related to the firings of the U.S. attorneys last year, Stanzel said: "That can't be ruled out."
Democrats reacted with scorn.
"This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework. I am deeply disturbed that just when this Administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
...Some White House aides trying to avoid violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits using government property for certain political activities, may have used the political account to communicate about official White House business, Stanzel said.
Some of those official e-mails may now be lost because the RNC had a policy of deleting e-mails about every 30 days. That policy was changed in 2004 to exclude White House officials, who are required to retain records and correspondence. Everything e-mailed from a White House account is automatically archived, Stanzel said.
The only way to insure that RNC operatives do not electronically remove all vestiges of the records is to impound the machines. This is eerily familiar, like the erased audio recordings that Nixon Secretary Rosemary Woods tried to explain, as I mentioned in my March 22nd article Looking For Another Rose Mary Woods.
Now, we need to find the Whitehouse staffers who read and printed out those deleted emails. You don't start at the top. You start with people like Bush's Monica Goodling, or even lower down the totem pole-- Goodling's lower level assistants.
But first, Senator Leahy and John Conyers need to get those hard drives to a place where they are not going to be "accidentally" wiped totally clean. It's a long shot. It was probably just done in the past few weeks. I'd even bet on it. Still, they should try.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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and there are Rob's quotes, here.
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A few declarations.
-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
I consider the entire Republican party guilty of treason, after all we are in a perpetual state of war are we not? Covering up the acts of treason of a president and vice president and skirting your sworn duty to protect this country from enemies foreign and domestic, is all treason in my eyes. We can impeach a president for lying about infidelity that was none of our business in the first place, not to mention all the wasted tax dollars in the process, but we can't even consider impeachment over a cabal of bungling idiot warmongers that commit treason on an hourly basis 24/7. This country deserves what is coming.
by
Eckfan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 10:03:50 AM
To whom would they "issue orders"? Would those orders be followed? I have been trying to get an answer to this since I heard the RNC emails "went missing". . .
by
annabanana (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 10:43:44 AM
The minor infraction opens the dealer to police inspecting the whole car. Th RNC has cleared conspired to violate federal law. That opens them up to inspection.
by
Rob Kall (749 articles, 3834 quicklinks, 320 diaries, 1613 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 10:51:33 AM
ConfisTIGATE RNC Hard drives. Not another minute to wastes
Amen,Rob Kall, This is Just one more 'cover-up' out of this corrupt White House that has been turning Muddier and more treacherous with every day that passes. THere is Only One Workable Solution to what is unraveling right before our faces... Impeach the whole Lying..cover-up bunch of them. BUT do Start at the TOP . Cut off all of the heads of this sneaky Five-headed monster and Just see how fast the remaining RATs will scuttle . I do admire What Waxman and his totally committed committee is trying to do, But isn't it Time to get down to the actual act of Issuing subpeonas to the main characters envolved here, ( past their eyeballs)..to begin the business of Impeachment against this 'sitting prez and his cabal of murderous thieves ? What more evidence do you need to gather and document to get the Job DONE ? Are not all of you "Members of the Congress' sworn to uphold the Laws of this Country.. and to protect the citizens of this country from enemies inside, as well as Outside of this country ? Are you procrastinating in your duty to the people here..out of Fear of this rabble, who from all appearances, has each one of you BY the EAR ..leading you around the Stump ? Don't you realize that with every day that passes, more harm is being done to this country, and to the whole world ? )
These excuses for leaders are demeaning and destroying the proud heritage of our democracy with every breath they take. Maybe Someone should be ' enterprising' enough to set bush up with a 'facsimile of a Monica'... in bush's inner chamber. Now THAT should oil the wheels of Impeachment FAST ! Sure, Why NOT ? It worked ..to an embarrassment degree, against President Clinton ! But with bush, you have too many Proven, truly impeachable charges to ever need to fabricate foolish ones such as That was. Just get on with the business of Impeachment, won't you ? And stop wasting any more of this Country's tax dollars on Investigating Committees... and on committees investigating committees ! The Citizens of this country deserve Far better than What we are getting from Our Congress..
We Must rid our White House of this insidious Five-headed monster that is 'home-steading' it. Only then you can get down to the real business of correcting the horrific mistakes this regime has made. End this undeclared, preemptive war against the peoples of Iraq...and bring Every one of our Military forces Home. And Attend to Their Wounds , and to their Families'. The rebuilding of The Country of Iraq will not erase the loss of Over 700,000 lives that they have lost... nor will it bring back to Us the Almost four thousand troops Killed ( that we are aware of ) back to their families.
NOT ONE MORE Life can be forfeited for such a misguided Venture as bush and his henchmen have concocted to Forward Their Plan for a 'One World Order'. Please do not procrastinate .. ACT NOW. Start at the Head of the Snake... Impeach bush and cheney NOW , ( As starters ! ) VGF
by
VGFlick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 76 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 12:00:06 PM
It is starkly similar to Nixon's refusal to hand over the missing tapes, claiming executive privilege and "separation of powers". Ironically, it is precisely those separation of powers that compels Congress to "check" the president.
As we now know, Nixon was actually trying to hide the fact that he had broken laws, also using taxpayer resources to his political advantage.
It's amazing how quickly they go from "how dare you ask me" to "my dog ate my homework".
After the national disgrace of Watergate and Nixon's resignation to avoid impeachment, several laws have resulted - FISA law, requiring judicial oversight of executive branch surveillances, as well as the Presidential Records Act, a law requiring record keeping for possible investigation just like this.
In 2001 the GAO, headed by a Reagan apointee, sued the White House for info on Dick Cheney's closed-door energy meetings. According to FACA (Federal Advisory Committee Act, 1972) full disclosure must be made when non-government employees are involved in shaping public policy. Cheney claimed the CEOs, including Ken Lay of Enron were not there. Later the CEOs were asked in Congressional hearings if they were there: Lee Raymond of ExxonMobil, David J. O'Reilly of Chevron, James Mulva of ConocoPhillips, Ross Pillari of BP America all denied being there and John Hofmeister of Shell Oil said "Not to my knowledge." After documents were published contradicted these denials in 2005, Congress wrote to Attorney General Gonzales seeking a perjury investigation, but strangely, Gonzales has not yet responded to the request.
Also still outstanding are the requests to see White House visitor logs. After standing accused of meeting with Jack Abramoff, you would think the White House would want badly to clear their name and show that Abramoff was not there.
In the case of the DOJ firings, investigators need to work up the chain of command and find out who authorized using external mail servers for official business, one violation in itself, and then who deleted the key emails that would seemingly prove guilt or innocence. Time is truly of the essence as hard drives could be purged in seconds. Low-level formatting (ensuring no file recovery software can scavenge disks) takes a bit longer but here is where the "weakest link" theory will be crucial regarding protecting the boss. If just one employee, IT person or archivist retained copies of the email, not only will the crimes therein be revealed, but the cover up will be proven as well.
by
Gustav Wynn (50 articles, 33 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 232 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 1:14:59 PM
....you were right on top of that one! congratulations... although just about anything Illegal. Deceitful, Sneaky, anti-Constitutional, anti-American, anti-Labor, anti-civil liberty or Dishonest in any shape or form - that one can imagine these days has about a 98% chance of being correct. :-(
I would like to remind people NOT to "blame the Repubs" --- that's like claiming 'all white dogs bite'. The REAL Repubs (I used to be one) are victims of the PNAC/BushCo/Corporation/Fascism TOO... Too bad they were in denial for 6 years, though. (and many repub VOTERS still haven't got a clue) And do not forget there are plenty of DEMs that are also PNAC-supporters albeit 'undercover' supporters... like Hillary and Leiberman and Pelosi-the-AIPAC-pet-poodle. They all want the same that the PNAC's want - the difference is that they want to be in the Dictators seat.
What I would really LOOOOVE to see is all the registered Dem AND Repub VOTERS -- JUST QUIT (!) We should ALL quite both the Partys - at least for four years. We could all vote Green = STRAIGHT TICKET! BOTH the Party Machines NEED TO HIT THE WALL!
It's just a 'game' to the Political Machinery: they use psy-ops-propaganda to divide us and to keep our focus on "candidates" while stirring up phoney 'cat-fights' to distract and separate us - so that we lose sight of the fact that the only "candidates" we get to choose from are the ones THEY have vetted and who pass THEIR criteria -and are financed by the same Corporations... IN THE END what the People are given is a "choice" between the Two Heads of the Same Snake.
...AND SADDEST OF ALL IS THAT MOST AMERICANS NEVER CATCH ON TO THAT.
Impeachment will separate the "REAL Repubs and the REAL Dems" from the PNAC's. Separate the REAL Americans from the FASCIST/Zionist/PNAC's.
Impeachment is the reason why I joined http://pledgetoimpeach.org The founder there, Anthony St Martin, has spent time in DC and finally found three House members who are willing to start impeachment proceedings --- DUE TO THE IMPAIRED THINKING OF THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS - who 'are afraid that impeachment would distract from the '08 elections and divide the voters' (humph!) Due to Pelosi's threats that they'll lose their committee standings, they are afrAid to proceed UNTIL THEY CAN BE ASSURED - BY LOTS OF PETITION SIGNATURES - especially of THEIR CONSTITUENTS. That's why St Martin is pleading with ALL the groups who have collected petitions and letters to either BRING them and accompany him OR send copies to him to take to Capitol Hill on May 1st.
PledgeToImpeach does NOT ask for any donations - only for signatures!
I would personally like to know why Ramsey Clark's website "votetoimpeach" has almost 900,000 signatures... and displays NO plan about what he intends to DO with them??? Attemps to reach him or the website (which is a part of A.N.S.W.E.R) have so far had NO RESPONSE. Those sig's would certainly be a huge help to the Congress members who NEED the support of us Voters!
IF ANYONE CAN FURNISH AN EXPLANATION OF THE RAMSEY CLARK SIGNATURES, PLEASE CONTACT admin@pledgetoimpeach.org and a message can be forwarded to me. (w/ notation: in reference to 'pizzed's oped comment) It just seems strange to me that a website that sells gazillions of bumper stickers and tee shirts, etc, and takes donations, isn't CLEARLY making use of the signatures. ??????? Pledge to impeach and Congress NEEDS them on May 1st!! Can anyone help????? If so, PLEASE DO!!!!
Americans - NOT 'the Dems', but ALL American citizens - NEED to IMPEACH these terrible people! ASAP!! They are tearing down OUR nation as we speak!
BTW ~ PLEASE note: I use "zionists" NOT to mean 'all' Jews or Israeli's but that FANATIC, RADICAL Israeli/American/PNAC element which is obsessed with World Domination and the elimination of the mideastern Arab nations.) A majority of Jewish folks oppose them, too.
by
mary-ann (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 1:30:49 PM
The forces that govern Bush's foreign and domestic policies are the military/industrial/media complex, the neocons, and the radical Christian fundamentalists. If a law or regulation adversely affects the goals of the significant leaders of this complex, the first question to be answered is whether the costs of ignoring the law or regulation exceeds the benefits. The benefit in this case - politicalization of the Justice Department coupled with friendly judges in the federal courts would insure one party rule, the Republican Party. But, exposure and prosecution of those responsible for the attempt to politicize the Justice Department, the cost, would be catastrophic for the guilty parties and their cause. But both exposure and prosecution are critical; exposure without prosecution is just further proof that the criminals in the White House can do what they please when they please. Bush wins.
A Congressional hearing is not a criminal proceeding. It is more like a preliminary hearing or a grand jury proceeding. If evidence discovered during the hearing suggests that it is probable that a crime has been committed, in the case of a preliminary hearing or grand jury proceeding, the case is referred to a District Attorney or federal prosector who then decides whether or not to prosecute. In the case of a Congressional hearing the case is referred to the Attorney General. When the suspected criminals are the Attorney General, the President and his advisors, thls procedure is akin to shoveling sand against the tide. The benefits of ignoring laws and regulations exceed the potential costs of failure.
The President and the Attorney General can appoint an idependent counsel but that isn't going to happen. Once there was a law that in such cases as this, Congress could appoint a special prosecutor (independent counsel) to prosecute a president and other members of the executive branch but that law self-destructed several years ago.
So even even if Congress gets all the evidence necessary to show a wilful attempt to politicize the Department of Justice and that evidence shows that Bush, Gonzales, Rove, et al committed the suspected crimes, where do we go from there? Is there any remedy other than impeachment?
by
Alden Mason (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 31 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 1:36:43 PM
They are legally required to keep the records. The absence of the evidence is the proof of a criminal conspiracy. Multiple servers can not be erased except on purpose.
Time to start taking names and kicking preverbial Rethuglican scumbag butt.
Immunity to a few geek Net Admins and it should all start coming out. But they have to get to them fast before they are millionaired and sent overseas.
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 638 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 3:51:23 PM
if they have the system in their pockets it doesn't really make any difference what they're guilty of. If the judges, prosecutors and we the people have not held them accountable for one single thing to date after all the crimes they've blatantly committed what makes you think this will be any different?
And we don't know what the prosecutors that were not fired did. This could be far worse.
Don't get me wrong ... I hope you're right. At this point I'm ready to believe in the "rapture" if they'd only take chimpy and Darth Vader first. But I don't see it.
Christ, cold blooded murder of nearly 1,000,000 people for a lost cause and at a cost that can never be repaid. How do you say you're sorry for 1,000,000 deaths?
And emails will take them down?
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1247 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 6:52:45 PM
Oh, we'll hear some huffing and puffing and by Friday night a strongly worded letter of indignation will be delivered to the thug-in-chief and he'll do what he's done in every instance where the outcome doesn't somehow benefit him. He'll ignore it and go one step further, he'll do something to punish you for daring to challenge his authority. (ask Joe and Valarie)) And an authority mind you that we gave him.
Now "we" the people have spoken and a majority of us now say, even if we're wrong, we don't want to do it "your" way any longer. We know we elected you - (my doubts on the it being "fair" part) twice. We were trying to be nice and give you a second chance. We were wrong. As we've come to see bush never should have been given any chance. But, somehow ... through our apathy, or our willingness to take what they feed us, we screwed-up and bush became leader of the largest arsenal of weapons the world has ever seen. Scary - I know.
So, what's going to happen?
bush won't give a shit. He'll wipe his ass with the letter of indignation and send even more off to die for a war he should by now have already been convicted for.
Then some dumb-shit will fart on air and another bimbo will prove that being a slut in a society that has been completely stripped of dignity and has no shame and we'll get 24/7X3 of useless information as the real story of mass murder in the name of the United States of America, at the cost of America's fortune, honor and as children's blood spills into the sands of a dessert they never should have been in.
The ones responsible for this will feel no pain. They will not be punished. If recent history was to judge they'll have library's and ship's named after them, maybe even a Medal of Honor. If they haven't been held accountable by now for what has been so obvious for so long, what makes you think that bush is going to change, or that congress would also suddenly become any less corrupt?
As I speak I'm watching and all four networks lead off with the "Imus" (who gives a shit) story ... ah ... see what I mean?
Only this time it's different. We've run out of time.
Maybe it's good that they plaster us with useless information. After all reality really sucks.
"And so it goes"... homage to Mr. Kurt Vonnegut ... maybe it as well my friend that you should leave us now ... none the less you will be soarly missed.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1247 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 6:30:45 PM
The MSM are the sheepherders leading the sheeple away from their masters dirty deeds!..You wouldn't want to be in my house right now, I'm absolutely OUTRAGED at this crap, and I'm damn sick of it every time some heat comes down on them, the lapdog media helps them out. WHAT IS IT GONNA TAKE TO BRING THESE A-HOLES DOWN!!!????
by
mike wygant (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 287 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 7:29:48 PM
To hell with the kangaroo courts, sic the techies on them:
April 13-15, 2007 -- WMR is going to press in an early edition to bring light to the matter of the e-mails between White House and Justice Department concerning the firings and possible attempted firings of US Attorneys for political purposes. The e-mails were sent on e-mail accounts run by the Republican National Committee. The RNC is claiming that many, if not all, of the e-mails subpoenaed by the Congress may have been deleted.
The RNC's web site (RNC.ORG) is hosted by SMARTECHCORP.NET. Relevant whois data is:
Registrant Name: Republican National Committee Registrant Organization: Republican National Committee Registrant Street1: 310 First Street SE Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City: Washington Registrant State/Province: DC Registrant Postal Code: 20003 Registrant Country: US Registrant Phone: +1.202863850 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: +1.202863885 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email: dns@rnchq.org <mailto:dns@rnchq.org> Admin ID: 6248954-NSI <http://www.pir.org/Search/WhoisSearchResults.aspx?txtWhoIsSearch=contact+6248954-NSI> Admin Name: Steve ** Ellis Admin Street1: 310 First Street SE Admin Street2: ** Admin Street3: Admin City: Washington Admin State/Province: DC Admin Postal Code: 20003 Admin Country: US Admin Phone: +1.2028638670 Admin Phone Ext.: Admin FAX: Admin FAX Ext.: Admin Email: dns@RNCHQ.ORG <mailto:dns@RNCHQ.ORG> Tech ID: 15683805-NSI <http://www.pir.org/Search/WhoisSearchResults.aspx?txtWhoIsSearch=contact+15683805-NSI> Tech Name: RNC Tech Organization: RNC Tech Street1: 310 1ST ST SE Tech Street2: Tech Street3: Tech City: WASHINGTON Tech State/Province: DC Tech Postal Code: 20003-1885 Tech Country: US Tech Phone: +1.2028638651 Tech Phone Ext.: Tech FAX: Tech FAX Ext.: Tech Email: knolan@RNCHQ.ORG <mailto:knolan@RNCHQ.ORG>
Name Server: NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET *SmarTech Corp.* 801 Broad Street, Suite 220 P.O. Box 11181 Chattanooga, TN 37401
All relevant e-mails sent to and from the RNC should be held by Smartechcorp or whoever stores their backup media, possibly Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania. Congress should subpoena these backups before they are tampered with.
As for GEORGEWBUSH.COM, the same website provider, Smartechcorp, was used:
