Historians: Stop Bush/Cheney From Destroying Presidential Records
Historians: Stop Bush/Cheney From Destroying Presidential Records
Thirty-two of the nation’s leading historians have sent letters to congressional leaders calling on them to stregthen the Presidential Records Act (PRA). The effort, led by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and joined by the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the National Coalition for History, notes that while the PRA requires the administration to preserve presidential records, “it fails to provide an effective means
of enforcing compliance with that requirement.” (View the letters here and here.)
This effort has taken on increased urgency as the Bush administration prepares to leave office and may be ready to expunge the record on its tenure. Bush has already repeatedly manipulated and rewritten open government laws in order to cover up his wrongdoings:
– The White House is “missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating back to 2003 and there is little if any likelihood a recovery effort will be completed by the time the Bush administration leaves office.”
– In 2001, President Bush issued an executive order “allowing former presidents to review executive documents before they can be released.” Last year, however, a U.S. District Judge invalidated the order, ruling that former presidents would be able to “indefinitely” keep their documents secret.
– Bush plans to solicit contributions from foreign donors for his $200 million presidential library, but plans on keeping their identities secret.
CAPAF Senior Fellow Mark Agrast told ThinkProgress that although the “prospects for legislative action during the remainder of the 110th Congress are not promising, we felt it was important to lay down a marker for the next Congress and the incoming administration before this Congress adjourns.”
CREW and several historian organizations are also filing a separate lawsuit today, “asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney’s records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.”
Agrast has more here.
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There is 1 “presidential record” that Chimpy and Co will never be able to destroy or be rid of ; worst and most dishonest president in US history ………..
September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pmThe vast collection of shredders will be working overtime until 20 January 2009.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pmThose mising e-mails cover Bush’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. They kept Andy Card and Frances Townsend’s e-mails from Congress.
We can’t get the story while the Executive is accountable to the legislative branch. What happens when Bush/Cheney are out of office? They have complete and total disdain for the government envisioned by our Founding Fathers. A pox on their houses.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:38 pmWill it be the same shredders that ENRON used…. i hear they have a coulple laying around.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pmIt really doesn’t matter what historians do, or what Congress does. All the laws in the world can be enacted to preserve the paper trails of Bushco, but it won’t matter. On January 20, 2009, there won’t be a shred of written documentation to be found anywhere. And what’s more, Bushco will get away with it because nobody has the fortitude to go after that band of crooks.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:40 pmEnron will lend them their paper shredders. It’s the least they can do.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pmEven a judge’s order did not prevent the destruction of the records from the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio.
It was just, ‘ooopsie! I guess we’ll never really know …’
September 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pmGuido the Loving OBGYN Says:
——————————————————————————–
Good luck with all that. Bush/Cheney=Banana Republic, endorsed by Pelosi.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:45 pm……………………………………………………….. disallowing shedding of paper documents is “off the table”
The missing e-mails should have been a big enough red flag to kick start impeachment hearings/investigations. If Congress would have done the right thing and sent in their own team to confiscate WH hard drives and used forensic data recovery experts to immediately retrieve all the “lost” data as is within their rights as representatives of the American people, where would we be now? A helluva lot better off IMHO! We can only imagine how much evidence was contained in those e-mails regarding such minor matters as the treasonous outing of a CIA agent, voter suppression/caging, illegal occupation of a sovereign nation, the firing of all those pesky judges and replacements with devoted believers of the New World Order, politically motivated prosecutions, details of the WH torture program etc. which ALL would have been traced directly back to Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the Shrub.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pmHow will McCain clean up Washington if the Bush/Cheney records are shredded and burned? Or is that the confetti for McCain/Palin’s hoped for inauguration?
Obviously John has no plans to clean up Washington with his lobbyist buddies running the campaign. Also, as President McCain could submit all his pork as a budget proposal, completely avoiding the “earmark” designation. Will we know their name, Johnny?
September 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pmLet’s ask the mavericks on the Republican-Change ticket what they think about this issue.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:47 pmWhere did my country go?
September 8th, 2008 at 12:47 pmWhat happened to Bush’s “zero tolerance” for law breakers? That only applies to poor people trying to find shoes, food and water after an “unprecedented disaster.”
September 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pmGood luck.
~A <— cynic
September 8th, 2008 at 12:57 pmIt’d be nice if we could totally erase any evidence of the incompetent bush admin. The trouble is that even if we could erase all documentation, we would still be living with the effects.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:00 pm.
LOL
Like CONgeress cares?
Some in there do, the majority … DON’T!
The majority have backed this Administration down the line to:
~ Aggressively wage illegal war.
~ Use contrived and misleading statements to wage that war.
~ The use of illegal tactics upon prisoners captured in that illegal war.
~ The privatising of military actions to so called “private contractors”
~ The outing of a covert CIA operative.
~ Ordering the warrantless spying of Americans.
~ Using signing statements to usurp Congressional intent
… etc, etc, etc…
R E M E M B E R:
THEY(sic) HATE US FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE, OUR FREEDOMS…
… And so THEY(sic) have lobbied, debated and legislated away those freedoms and altered our way of life.
[sarc]Why should THEY(sic) stop now?[/sarc]
.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm.
Attempted Statutory Immunity For The Executive’s War Crimes.
http://velvelonnationalaffairs.blogspot.com/2008/09/attempted-statutory-immunity-for.html
.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pmThe effort, led by the Center for American Progress Action Fund
I admire the effort. Good luck.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:10 pmAnother consecutive republican admin will make those a**holes that took impeachment off the table regret that until the day they die.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pmThat ship has sailed, when the Dems took over in 2006 the shredders began working overtime.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pmSome brave Federal judge could really make a name for her or himself by issuing an injunction prohibiting, explicitly, the destruction of any record, notes, memoranda, e-mails, text-message records or any other potentially incriminating record by the Busheviks.
It’s not EVER gonna happen, of course.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pmBut why the need to destroy presidential records?
September 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pmAnyone?
Anyone?
Buehler?
Anyone?
You’re not going to stop this criminal conspiracy with a few historians wailing! It requires an honest Attorney General, and that ain’t happening.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:50 pm“Good luck with all that” historians! – Jerry Seinfeld
September 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pmtokin librul at 1:35 pm
The penalty for destroying the records is tiny compared to what charges the records could create. Besides, how do you prove the existence of records that no longer exist?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pmBush plans to solicit contributions from foreign donors for his $200 million presidential library, but plans on keeping their identities secret.
Hey, I’ll tell you their names. Bandar, Bin Laden and Saud.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:21 pmYour current entry regarding Bush’s executive order about presidential records mistakes what your original piece got right. Here’s part of the correct original:
Today, a federal judge “invalided part of a 2001 order by President Bush allowing former presidents to review executive documents before they can be released under open records laws.” The AP reports:
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the presidential order eliminated the discretion of the National Archives to control the release historical records. She said the executive order allowed former presidents to delay the release of those records “presumably indefinitely.”
Bush wanted to allow an indefinite delay in releasing records, but the court said NO. Of course, there is the matter of enforcement (known as enfarcement under Bush).
September 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pmDon’t forget Lord John Browne, the BP CEO BushCo let off the hook after their Texas City refinery killed 15 and injured 180 people. Both the USCSB and James A. Baker investigation absolved Lord John from fault.
Browne ended up with a plush job at Riverstone Holdings. The firm is an affiliate of The Carlyle Group, a politically connected private equity underwriter.
I expect the good Lord to kick in mightily for the Bush mythology library.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:07 pmThey really should impound all the RNC mail servers and their backups. That’s were the missing e-mails are.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:32 pmInteresting that bush jr had many of bush sr’s records closed and/or transfered to avoid availability to the public. Perhaps those covering Iran/contra ? cover thy ass is a repubs motto.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:42 pmbushies contributors will be the same that bailed him out of every failed business venture. The same that had taxpayers buy the land for his stadium in Dallas. The same that own the bush toll road in Dallas. The same that will give rover money to buy the election for mccain.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:44 pmWhy the secrecy? Why destroy or let anything go “missing”?
Wasn’t Bush the best president ever?
Wasn’t his presidency chokefull of just and righteous causes?
What was it that they told us when they were pushing for the illegal surveillance? Wasn’t it “if you’ve got nothing to hide…”?
September 8th, 2008 at 6:08 pm“Historians: Stop Bush/Cheney From Destroying Presidential Records”… ARREST THE BASTARDS! HANDCUFF THSE WAR CRIMINALS NOW!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:30 amWhere are the Democrats on this?
Why isn’t the Democratically controlled Congress and the candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency talking about this??
September 9th, 2008 at 3:20 amA corrupt pair of war criminals will walk out of the White House scott free. That in itself is a crime. Thanks speaker Pelosi.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pmThis is another example that the “old world jounalism of Murrow, Cronkite and Rather is dead and buried. In the case of the Time Magazine reporter Ms Tumulty, she seems to think the finding out the who, what, where, when and how have been replaced with a steno pad, which she records what ABC said in rebuttle to the complaint of Congressman Kucinich. There is a great disconnect with what happened and the points made by ABC. She asks little of no questions to ABC. She takes what is handed to her and repeats it vebatim and then calls that reporting. I call is stenography. Lida Sohbet sohbet sesli chat Gelinlik Modelleri
January 11th, 2009 at 11:50 amIf you’re referring to Karl Schwarz’ articles, if they are true, how will we ever know unless the news media gets involved without bias? The military under orders not to speak out may never convey Karl Scharz’ expose’. Sesli Sohbet If Cheney was truly involved in 9/11 and protected in some way, then he’s being protected by what may be going on in the Caspian Sea area as well. That pre-9/11 August 10, 2000 article drives the point home to me that Cheney had a vested interest in the oil at the Caspian Sea area (before 9/11). Fx15 From all I’ve read in Schwarz’ articles, he claims the Taliban was working on a deal with Argentina with that pipeline in the Caspian Sea area and UNOCOL wanted the deal instead. Orjinal Lida It’s too much to get into here and I’m not able to convey in here what Schwarz has presented in his articles. Sikis Dig into Schwarz’ articles to learn more about the unnamed soldier’s experiences related to so-called Black Ops missions in the Caspian Sea area in Schwarz’ article. What Schwarz had to present in this article is an eye opener: kurtlar vadisi pusu izle
January 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pmthanks Lida Dai Dai Hua Jiao Nang Seo Yar??mas?
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:15 amI want suits in Colorado, New Jersey, and any other state where illegal suppression campaigns are being conducted. And some real looks at the polling methodology would also be eye opening.
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:36 am