WASHINGTON, March 22, 2008

White House: Old Computers Were Destroyed

Admin. Tells Judge Seeking Missing E-Mail Data That Hard Drives Were Removed For Physical Destruction

  •  (AP/CBS)

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(CBS/AP)  Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005.

The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.

"When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired ... the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction," the Office of Administration's Chief Information Officer, Theresa Payton, said in a sworn declaration filed with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola.

It has been the goal of a White House Office of Administration "refresh program" to replace one-third of its workstations every year in the Executive Office of the President, according to the declaration.

Some, but not necessarily all, of the data on old hard drives is moved to new computer hard drives, the declaration added.

In proposing an e-mail recovery plan Tuesday, Facciola expressed concern that a large volume of electronic messages may be missing from White House computer servers, as two private groups that are suing the White House allege.

Facciola proposed the drastic approach of going to individual workstations of White House computer users after the White House disclosed in January that it recycled its computer backup tapes before October 2003. Recycling - taping over existing data - raises the possibility that any missing e-mails may not be recoverable.

At a House committee hearing last month, a computer expert who previously worked at the White House called the e-mail system "primitive" and said it was set up in a way that created a high risk that data would be lost from White House servers where it was being archived.

Under pressure to provide details about its computer system, the White House told the congressional committee that it never completed work that began in 2003 on a planned records management and e-mail archiving system. The White House canceled the project in late 2006 and says it is still working on a new version.

In the absence of a permanent archiving system, the White House has been archiving e-mails on White House servers since early in the administration.

The White House says it does not know if any e-mails are missing, but is looking into the matter.

It would be costly and time-consuming for the White House to institute an e-mail retrieval program that entails pulling data off each individual workstation, the court papers filed Friday state.

The White House said the judge's request that forensic copies of hard drives in use during the period of March to October 2003 be made, with the goal of finding any existing e-mail data, would be "draconian" as it would require expensive and time-consuming steps that would need to be outsourced to a third party.

The government said that CREW and the National Security Archives, the plaintiffs in the case, "simply can't justify" that the Office of the Chief Information Officer and the EOP
"incur significant time and resource expense on the mere possibility (however unlikely) that some useful material may be restored. Because the allegation of missing e-mail from archives is unconfirmed, because the allegation of missing e-mails from back-up tapes is conjectural, and because the computer workstations are unlikely to house significant, if any, relevant material the costs of a forensic copy process would far outweigh any speculative benefits."
Read the White House's response.
Read Theresa Payton's affadavit.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 117 Comments
by twylacrat March 24, 2008 9:15 PM EDT
Why is it that the democrats HAVE to answer for everything in the world and the republicrumbs aren''t ever held accountable for a thing? This is the most secretive, dishonest, incompetant administration in this natiion''s history and they aren''t held responsible for any of their actions or decisions. Are our expectations sooooo low that we are willing to accept this?
Reply to this comment
by tomanyt March 24, 2008 5:59 PM EDT
Hard drives were removed for physical destruction!! Yeah right.
Reply to this comment
by tomanyt March 24, 2008 5:57 PM EDT
mocaIeo...Are you OK? Did someone hit you on the head? Is there someone we should call?
Reply to this comment
by killtheliars March 24, 2008 1:46 PM EDT
they need to keep up this investigation regardless of what the White House says. Even if it continues after they are out of office it needs to go on. Maybe there will be enough evidence to put them in prison. If not at least the stress might cause Cheney to have another heart attack and Bush to start drinking again. They deserve whatever happens to them
Reply to this comment
by thomas22ee March 24, 2008 4:13 AM EDT
Write, email, Pelosi? I''ll write to her after her news conference. Is there any response from anyone in congress? Whats Sen Clinton or Sen Obama have to say? Waxman! I thought he retired 5 years ago.
Reply to this comment
by Deltajoan March 23, 2008 10:37 PM EDT
Hey guys,

Send all the above comments to Nancy Pelosi at AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov and tell her you want them all impeached and for her to PLEASE start it NOW! This should be the last straw!
Reply to this comment
by tucano2 March 23, 2008 10:35 PM EDT
An MBA that doesn''t back up files?...WMD''s in the Middle East?...Of course our troops have body armor and their humvies have shielding...Katrina? "good job, etc.", ..there were no Illegal Aliens voting in Florida in 2000 or 2004...HEY THE GUY''s LIPS ARE MOVING, AREN''T THEY? WELL YOU OUGHT TO KNOW BY NOW WHAT THAT MEANS!
Reply to this comment
by sgtrds March 23, 2008 9:04 PM EDT
This is easily the most crypt and criminal administration in American history. The lot of them deserve to spend the rest of their pathetic lives bent over in a prison shower.
Reply to this comment
by besttyper March 23, 2008 6:14 PM EDT
Huckabee did the same things when he left the Ark. governor''s mansion. He used our Emergency Reserve fund to pay for it. Bush & Huck are of the same scheming political party so I''m not surprised a bit.
Reply to this comment
by observantx March 23, 2008 6:05 PM EDT
You mean someone destroyed evidence and there was an investigation going on?

How fvcking convenient.

Again.
Reply to this comment
by silentrain March 23, 2008 5:08 PM EDT
Of course they were destroyed!!!! What else do you expect King George to do?!?!! How much more of this are we Americans going to take? King George thinks he owns us and it''s *** time this *** STOPS!
Reply to this comment
by silentrain March 23, 2008 5:07 PM EDT
Of course they were destroyed!!!! What else do you expect King George to do?!?!! How much more of this are we Americans going to take? King George thinks he owns us and it''s *** time this *** STOPS!
Reply to this comment
by hotpaulie March 23, 2008 2:13 PM EDT
King George does it again. Who does this guy think he is. If this guy gets to walk away from office with out any repercussions, then shame on this country for letting this lawlessness occur.
Reply to this comment
by skyk-2009 March 23, 2008 12:45 PM EDT
You''''ve heard of AIPAC having undue influence? What would happen if an impeachment investigation led to the root of it all, and uncovered nefarius activities surrounding Iraq and 9-11 that would be much more than a major embarassment to Israel and others? AIPAC to Pelosi.....take impeachment off the table.



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Posted by cbsblogger at 10:11 PM : Mar 22, 2008
+ report abuse

You don''t think the chances of getting anything through the Senate was next to impossible had anything to do with it? That''s pretty insulting!
Reply to this comment
by woodjd42 March 23, 2008 11:02 AM EDT
This is the most lawless administration since Nixon.





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Posted by singingrick

I disagree.

Nixion was a saint compared to bush/chaney.

This administration is the most corupt of all time.
Reply to this comment
by mcvet March 23, 2008 8:13 AM EDT


So shut your spin-doctor pie-hole.


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Posted by TheGateway1 at 10:37 PM : Mar 22, 2008
+ report abuse

ROFLMAO You are a very testy FASCIST my friend. Well you can run but you can''t hide and the American Public hasn''t heard near the end of your Fuhrer''s trash. NOT CLOSE. If there''s one thing you can count on with a Nazi, it''s that when they are close to being out of power, when someone has punched the bully in the nose, all those who have been bullied, who have been trashed, start crawling out of the cracks. No my bootlicking friend the fall for you has JUST started. The longer you wait to accept that the longer the fall and the harder the impact. You can try to appear superior to me all you want, the PUBLIC will make the final decision I guess. Sieg Heil Bush. Come on you pathetic Nazi... sing it out so the fuhrer can hear you!! SIEG HIEL BUSH! Good little bootlicker.
Reply to this comment
by apprxam March 23, 2008 7:40 AM EDT
I used to think that maybe we were so shocked to hear the upfront style of this Vice President''s men/women. They say it and do it and we''re "deer in the headlights" and frozen with consternation.

Now I can see that they''ve gotten away with this type of *** is that we''re all waiting for the deluge of Post-Administration books that will proliferate once Bush/Cheney leaves and the semblance of truth will eek out, entertaining us for decades. But don''t we already know the truth? What will Myers and Card and Gonzales and the rest of the gang tell us that will be new. Hell, Libby will right about things National in scope and secure in nature to finish paying for his law license to be re-enstated in a year or two.

You know...I think we''re gonna miss these times in some sad way.
Reply to this comment
by ioweign March 23, 2008 4:26 AM EDT
TheGateway1:

You get a clue. It is called the Presidential Records Act, and by law the White House was supposed to be archiving all their official emails (not destroying hard drives). This just proves again how completely lawless and comtemptuous the Bush criminals are toward the american people. They should be impeached and then tried for treason.

Posted by enoughya at 12:06 AM : Mar 23, 2008

And to compound it - the WH may have been using RNC computers to conduct government business. Using a RNC computer for emails would not be backed up by the government system and make it harder to track. It also violates a number of laws.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002998.php
Reply to this comment
by thomas22ee March 23, 2008 3:34 AM EDT
BREAKING NEWS: NOVEMBER I, 2008: Homeland Security announces arrest and detainment of members of a major sleeper cell of domestic terrorists operating in America, calling itself the DEMOCRATIC PARTY, Its leaders Barak Obama and H Clinton are detain at Gitmo for plotting the overthrow the Republic of the US. in other news: Sen. John McClain dies mysteriousy. In other news: Auric Goldfinger declared President for Life.
Reply to this comment
by singingrick March 23, 2008 3:34 AM EDT


If the Bu$h administration has nothing to hide, why do they hide or destroy everything?

This is the most lawless administration since Nixon.


Reply to this comment
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