White House e-mail preservation system ‘primitive.’
White House e-mail preservation system ‘primitive.’
Today, House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) held a hearing on the White House’s electronic data preservation. In light of the White House’s notorious e-mail destruction, Steven McDevitt, a computer expert who worked in the administration, called its system “primitive,” creating a “high” risk that data would be lost. He noted:
– The White House had no complete inventory of e-mail files.
– There was no automatic system to ensure that e-mails were archived and preserved.
– Until mid-2005 the e-mail system had serious security flaws, in which “everyone” on the White House computer network had access to e-mail. McDevitt wrote that the “potential impact” of the security flaw was that there was no way to verify that retained data had not been modified.
In a report presented at the hearing, Waxman’s staff “said difficulties arose in recovering e-mails for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak probe,” the AP writes.
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This man McDevitt was a member of the administration. Would be interested in looking at his background. Any other computer experts have a look at how the e-mails were lost?
I doubt it.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:05 pmLive-blogging of the Democrat debate on TheZoo.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:11 pmDon’t ya just hate when that happens?
Comment by Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Of course, seeing as Republicans do everything SO MUCH BETTER, you’d think they could have straightened this out over the last SEVEN years. I mean, no money for new computers in that multi-TRILLION dollar deficit Botch has run up?
Oh, and at the time, was Lindsay begging for that money to upgrade the computers from a GOOPer Congress? Yeah, ya do it hate when that happens.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:13 pmGin, Bush changed the system from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange in 2002-2004
.Theresa Payton, CIO for the WH, testified Tuesday before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the Bush administration had tried to institute its own archiving system, known as the Electronic Communications Records Management System, but ultimately failed.
Dont ya just hate that Gin?
February 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pmgin is drunk on his own urine again.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pmHeck, everybody knows that Busy-boy has PMS primitive management style.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:55 pmGin says “D’oh”. And of course dusted off the old chestnut “Clinton did it!”. What a maroon!
February 26th, 2008 at 10:05 pmYeah, specialist f… I noticed that too! Right off the top…
A-one… a-two… “And Cliiiiton did it tooooo!”
February 26th, 2008 at 10:13 pmFor all their complaints about Clinton, you’d think that Bush was an improvement. Unfortunately for the wingtards and Bush, they own 9/11, forever. Nothing Clinton did or didn’t do can equal the cowardice, incompetence and sheer treason of Bush’s 9/11 legacy. He is history’s next massive, sick, sociopathic failure, along with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and the rest of the losers.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:18 pmHey maroon, I wasn’t calling clinton a maroon,hint,hint. ;)
February 26th, 2008 at 10:30 pmSubtlety is lost on this one, f.
I suggest a large mallet, and if one’s not readily available, a nice length of 2×4 will work just as well.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:45 pmThat reminds me. Today is the 15th anniversery of the 1st attempt to bring down World Trade Center.
Comment by Cheap Bathtub Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
Yeah… what ever happened with that?
Oh, that’s right… Clinton caught the bad guys, put them on trial and now they’re rotting in prison.
Kinda like Bush and bin Laden… except for the catching, trying and putting in prison part.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:48 pmComment by Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
Yeeeah…. and unlike Botch, Clinton actually caught the “perps”… without getting the country hopelessly bogged down in 2 very expensive wars in South Asia, one of which was totally unnecessary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center#Bombing_of_February_26.2C_1993
In 1997 and 1998, six Islamist extremists were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the bombing.
I mean, geez, after they tried once, ya’d thunk Botch & Co would take a warning like “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike Inside US” seriously, don’tcha?
Back to you, Gin.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:50 pmGeez, Ralph… do you mind? I’m tryin’ ta make a POINT here.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pmMy bad, TRoS… I stepped on your line.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:52 pmS’okay, Ralph. Jes’ think of it as “Doubles Whack-a-Trollâ„¢”…
Sure looks like Point, Set, and Match ta me!
February 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pmOhhhh nice….a three-way. ;)
February 26th, 2008 at 11:03 pmUm, don’t let me interrupt anything…
February 26th, 2008 at 11:04 pmNow, let me understand this. I have access to every email I have sent back to 1982. How in Holy Hell can this administration lose access to records dating back to 2001? Is the IT staff using knotted strings to keep track of messages?
February 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pmComment by Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
Naaah… they’re just tired of gibberish clogging up the threads… ;-D!
February 26th, 2008 at 11:14 pmSensitive to Islamic slurs or something.
Comment by Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
Imagine that…
February 26th, 2008 at 11:29 pmRose Mary Woods lives! And it appears she’s been promoted from Magnetic Tape Erasure Specialist to Email Systems Data Eradicator!
February 27th, 2008 at 12:36 amPerhaps the solution to the lawlessness of the current administration should also be “primitive”.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:31 amThat reminds me. Today is the 15th anniversery of the 1st attempt to bring down World Trade Center.
Comment by Gin — February 26, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
Oh, yes, the one where Bill Clinton caught and prosecuted the perpetrators. “Attempt” is the operative word. Note that they terrorists were completely successful against the bush regime, and are still free.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:33 amSteven McDevitt, a computer expert who worked in the administration, called its system “primitive”
Here’s what we’re expected to believe . . .
The most powerful office of the most powerful country on the planet has a ‘primitive’ electronic data preservation system .
As if it was just the house next door and they had some difficulties with being able to afford their ‘upgrade’.
It’s hard to put into words how stupid they must think everyone is.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:08 amI remember Air America, probably Rachel Maddow, warning that this archivist guy, Weinstein, was bad news, and there it is. He is extremely secretive (secret govt is BAD govt), and even during the hearing, committee members had to constantly remind him to SPEAK UP! He can’t even reveal his own voice! Darrell Issa is such a dick, rhetorically asking him if they should make copies of every Youtube video of Bush. No, idiot, but you are required by law to use the official White House email system and keep copies of every official email. Outside of that, the law gets fuzzy and ill-enforced, hence the RNC system. On the other hand, Bush issued an executive order that makes it too easy to claim privilege on Presidential Records Act items, including past presidents (Poppy) and VICE presidents.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:27 amGeneric Bushco response:
February 27th, 2008 at 2:36 amI can’t tell you how I managed this momentous accomplishment. Rest assured I used only legal,God approved, means to accomplish my ends. Even in cases where I did not have the expressed, explicit, authority; I had an assumed, implicit, authority. But? Those methods are secret. It would only hurt you to know. It’s really better for everyone if you don’t question my methods.
I don’t buy it.
They’re covering their asses: “There’s no grounds for indictment, the system was flawed from the beginning. E-mail could be lost inadvertently. We had technical problems. It was Bill Clinton!” Bull.
I’ll bet the gaps in the e-mail record are very convenient for the administration. And why the use of RNC mail servers? Couldn’t the congress confiscate the RNC servers or their logs (which have no doubt been purged) because of this official government use?
American democracy is broken. I simply hope that it is not beyond repair.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:00 amRather than a design flaw, flawed by design?
February 27th, 2008 at 7:07 amIsn’t the Bush/Cheney administration’s admission of lack of security over emails, if true, a pretty strong argument for the external oversight that FISA provides, since that issue also squarely rests on communications and access/security? How anyone could trust this administration on security is well beyond me.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:33 am