Plame Emails Deleted .... VP's Office Scrubs E-Mail Files

[RedEarth]

Plame emails deleted: In a letter to Scooter Libby’s lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald says he has learned “that many e-mails from Cheney’s office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy.” 2:53 pm | Comment (2)



tp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007576.php



BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald collected 10,000 pages of documents - including the most sensitive terrorism memos in the U.S. government - from Vice President Cheney's office, he said in court papers released yesterday.
Without serving any warrants in his probe of who outed CIA officer Valerie Plame, Fitzgerald even obtained censored copies of the President's Daily Brief, the supersecret CIA threat memo for President Bush.

Now Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Cheney's disgraced former chief aide, is asking a court to force Fitzgerald to fork over all the documents to fight charges of perjury and lying to the FBI.
..........

The special counsel got the presidential briefing in his hunt for any files concerning Plame or her husband, Joe Wilson, a diplomat sent to Niger in 2002 to see whether the African regime sold uranium to Iraq.

Fitzgerald, who is fighting Libby's request, said in a letter to Libby's lawyers that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/387392p-328749c.html

[electron_blue]

surprise surprise. I wonder if Fitz knows how to extract erased emails

I presume so.It's possible in most cases.

[cdsilv]

4. true....they could also look on the backups of the mail server.....

... and on staff's desktops....

[Mabus]

11. and look at the IP records

I mean if they want Google to turn over search records shouldn't the WH be willing to give up a few of their IP records pertaining to WH connections to the media?

[electropop]

84. e-mails leave a very large electronic shadow.

If Fitz hires the right professionals, the emails will be found.

[Maraya1969]

107. They do it all the time in criminal cases. Especially ones with child

pornography. You can bet the emails and photos get deleted once the person knows they are being watched.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Let me get my hands on those hard drives

I'd find those friggin files.

[Coexist]

24. Is that Obstruction of Justice? Is Old Lefty Lawyer here?

I would think so - but I am no legal scholar.

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Yes

n/t

[Beetwasher]

26. Yes, Clear Case of Obstruction and Destruction of Evidence

There's really no argument about it I would think, unless they argue "intent". But that would be difficult considering it seems to be totally against protocol to delete ANY emails.

[Coexist]

28. thank you.

So would Cheney or Cheney's staffer be charged with that?

[Beetwasher]

29. Well, It Depends

On what can be proven, I guess. IOW, if it can be shown that Cheney ordered the emails to be removed Cheney could get charged.

Unfortunately, it might be difficult to prove WHO deleted the emails and under whose orders it happened. That's the difficult part I guess. But it seems pretty clear (once again) and indisputable that a crime was committed.

[leftchick]

34. but didn't Gonzales intentionally wait until the morning to notify the WH

of the investigation? That left a lot of time to scrub emails and shred docs.

[Imagevision]

120. Kinda reminds me of Nixon erasing the tapes during Watergate!!

Bush thinks Nixon was the greatest prez in history.

[Mabus]

31. While we're at it, let's take a look at Bob Woodward's, Judy Miller's,

Tim Russert's, and the rest of the media whore HDs to see how often they communicate with the Bush PR team. Let's compare the text of the communications to the "reporting" done by the media whores.

[Coexist]

32. is that why Russert and Tweety have been so sweet to BushCo?

Wouldn't that be funny if they were busted with that.

The liberal media theory would go the way of the dinosaurs.

[Mabus]

37. They *were* on the subpoena list

source http://www.ariannaonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=455

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed White House records on administration contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets in a special investigation into the improper leak of a covert CIA official's identity to columnist Robert Novak last July. They include:

Robert Novak, "Crossfire," "Capital Gang" and the Chicago Sun-Times

Knut Royce and Timothy M. Phelps, Newsday

Walter Pincus, Richard Leiby, Mike Allen, Dana Priest and Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post

Matthew Cooper, John Dickerson, Massimo Calabresi, Michael Duffy and James Carney, Time magazine

Evan Thomas, Newsweek

Andrea Mitchell, "Meet the Press," NBC

Chris Matthews, "Hardball," MSNBC

Tim Russert, Campbell Brown, NBC

Nicholas D. Kristof, David E. Sanger and Judith Miller, The New York Times

Greg Hitt and Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal

John Solomon, The Associated Press

Jeff Gannon, Talon News

[carolinalady]

51. How do they know there was e-mails if they do not exist?

Someone was on the receiving end-had to be so why not find them there?

[DoYouEverWonder]

57. They look for gaps

Like no emails for the days in question would be odd for someone who sends 100 emails a day.

Or they can look a web logs and see that there were transmissions at certain times but no records can be found to match the transmissions, that sort of thing.

[Mabus]

64. That's what I'm talking about

Or look at the weblogs of the journalists that are suspected.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=296760&mesg_id=296908

The only question I have left is, "what about Scooter's computer?" Has it been confiscated or has it too been erased by the spirit of Rose Mary Woods?

[DoYouEverWonder]

66. If Scooter had half a brain

he should have encased it in cement and thrown it in the bottom of the ocean. If you're going to go for obstruction of justice, you might as well go all the way.

[loudsue]

81. JEFF GANNON, TALON NEWS!!!!! ROFLMAO!!!

:rofl: :applause: :woohoo:

I can't WAIT to see what might be in THOSE e-mails!!!!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[EVDebs]

76. You mean the Operation Mockingbird 'chirp' squad !

[Tigress DEM]

106. Chenney was out of visible range for like 4 days right around Fitzmas...

and I remember thinking, "I wonder how busy that shredder of his is right now?"

[DoYouEverWonder]

122. The problem with email

is that once it is sent then there are logs and copies all over the place. Very hard to destroy all traces of your electronic transmissions.

[Tigress DEM]

124. We can only hope. nt

[ChickMagic]

20. They sure pulled out all the stops

on Monica's deleted emails.

[Missy Vixen]

33. There's no such thing as a "deleted e-mail"

It's possible to reconstruct and retrieve. It happens a lot. DH works for the leading provider of Web and e-mail security.

I'm just sayin'.

Julie

[markbark]

42. Struth!

Unless one physically destroys the disk platters, data is recoverable.
It all depends on how badly you want it.

[BlueIris]

111. I was gonna say. Didn't we learn anything from Mr. Starr?

The first time I learned that basically nothing you "delete" on a computer is actually deleted was during the Ken Starr mess, when dumb people asked representatives of Monica and others why Lewinsky hadn't simply erased evidence of her communication with the president and the press had various experts in various places talk about how electronic data is stored.

[Inland]

49. That's how they got the Iran Contra people.

All WH shit is stored somewhere.

[EVDebs]

77. Isn't this how the public found out about REX 84 and Ollie's concentration

camps ?

[Inland]

78. I dont' remember what they found

but the WH archived all its emails as a matter of course in some server somewhere. They CAN'T be deleted. What it looks like is someone tried to delete it, and failed. Oooops.

[EVDebs]

79. Here comes the 18 minute gap...Rosemary's stretch...

The Truth Will Out ! BTW, here's where Cheney's energy planning proves relevent

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2432151

Stale planning for seizing oilfields in Saudi were translated to Iraq. Shades of Three Days of the Condor. Now it's a double feature with 7 Days in May. Really a sick, sad, situation.

[fooj]

1. Wow! What a surprise.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Peace.

[SemperEadem]

117. Nothing is ever deleted from a hard drive

take the computers to a forensic computer tech--they'll be able to reconstruct the emails.

[caledesi]

125. Exactlty! In fact I once worked at a computer company and one

of our techs used to work solely on hard drives retrieving deleted classified files or crashed drives owned by the government.

[annabanana]

2. does not surprise me in the least...

i would like to see some more action here.. (would be nice balm to potential alito horrors)

[Beetwasher]

3. Well, That's Obstruction, No Way Around It

Destruction of evidence etc. It's a crime. End of story. I don't see how Fitz can't or won't press charges regarding this. There's really no defense and no argument about it.

[uppityperson]

5. gee whiz, how could that have happened? nt

[TacticalPeek]

6. Rate this puppy up!

:evilgrin:

[sabra]

7. It's good to see Fitzgerald name come up again...

how's Karl doing these days?

[Stephanie]

8. He needs to subpoena the hard drives

:evilgrin:

[Patsy Stone]

9. When?

When were they deleted? If they can retrieve them, I'd be interested to learn if this happened in the mysterious hours between Abu finding out about the subpoena and the time he told everyone to turn it over.

K&R.

[Julius Civitatus]

10. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE!!!!

That's what the wingnuts would be SCREAMING if it was Clinton's emails that got deleted.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. And that is what Fitzgerald will be charging them with

Obstruction of Justice.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. An 18 minute gap was discovered in a Cheney email (expletive deleted)

[LaurenG]

15. What? Our administrative officials deleted files (((sarcasm)))

It used to be the shredder now its the deleted files. Arrest the deleter and confiscate the computer.

[Mabus]

39. Makes you wonder what other e-mails have gone missing

Maybe they deleted Saddam's pre-invasion surrender or an NSA alert about 9/11.

[Double T]

16. This is a WH whitewash job, again. Criminals getting away......

with criminal activities with NO ACCOUNTABILITY for their criminal actions.

[stop the bleeding]

17. hide your tracks you fucking crooks n/t

[H2O Man]

18. Interesting.

The NY Daily News seems to contradict the Washington Post, which reports that Fitzgerald does not have the PDBs.

[stop the bleeding]

22. deleted - I figured it out

[janx]

45. The obvious question is: Why would he need PDBs

in connection with this case?

[H2O Man]

50. Who? n/t

[usregimechange]

19. Its the crime and the cover up.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Can you say, "Cover Up", boys and girls?

[Mabus]

23. The WH can turn over "the most sensitive terrorism memos in the U.S. ...

government - from Vice President Cheney's office" but they can't find e-mails on WH computers. I suppose Barney accidently erased Cheney's e-mail "contrary to White House policy." :sarcasm:

[alfredo]

27. Can you say

"Tampering with evidence"? I knew you could.

[nashville_brook]

30. ah, the eighteen minutes -- here we go again

[LiberalinNC]

35. Can you spell Conspiarcy...

:evilgin:

[WinkyDink]

123. Well, I can.....Hee. ^^^^^^^^

[JPZenger]

36. You can bet those hard drives are history

Before Ollie North was bragging about how he lied to Congress during Iran-Contra, he thought he had deleted all of the incriminating computer files. However, the prosecutors brought in a young intern/ computer wizz who recovered all of the files from the White House network.

You can bet that the computer hard drives that were in Cheney's offices during the Plame scandal have all been melted down.

[spinbaby]

41. Ah, but what about the servers?

And servers are archived. It's very, very difficult to erase an email without a trace.

[frylock]

44. yep. and they're backed-up to tape every night..

should be easy to recover the data.

[Missy Vixen]

63. And that would be

tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, wouldn't it?

>You can bet that the computer hard drives that were in Cheney's offices during the Plame scandal have all been melted down.<

JD's? Anyone?

Julie

[Dr Fate]

38. I'd like to see DEMs on TV asking "What is Bush hiding now?"

n/t

[barbtries]

40. kinda like 18 minutes

of tape - i'm sure they were deleted inadvertently. :sarcasm:

[Canuckistanian]

58. I got that.

You beat me to it.

[LoKnLoD]

43. Wow, hard to believe

That I've set up a more secure and safe email system, with automatic archiving and revolving backups in my 80 person office than what the White House has :sarcasm:

[Pacifist Patriot]

46. I would be very very surprised if...

there is not a single electronic or hard copy of the emails in existence anywhere on the planet. Someone...or some machine...has a record somewhere. It's just a matter of recovering it.

Obstruction of Justice!

[DinahMoeHum]

47. Another case of the cover-up being worse than the crime. . .

and the tripping point for those who get convicted.

[spindrifter]

48. If they "erased" the emails

I have little doubt that they have tracked down all the mirrors and have been able to alter them also. Remember, these guys have access to stuff that can make sure that "eyes only" means just that. i do not trust the idea that even tracking down the servers will "find" the messages Fitzg is interested in.

[0rganism]

55. and all the backups too, you think?

And the offsite backup tapes/DVDs?

Sounds like it might just be time to subpoena the sysadmins.

[spindrifter]

89. And the response I predict:

"National security prohibits us from disclosing the content of these emails. Trust us. We must protect the nation."

[McCamy Taylor]

52. What a strange reply! Suggesting that they were not "top secret"

because Cheney gave him Top Secret documents. It is like Fitz is telling Scooter "I have your boss by the balls, I know he is guilty as sin, and I am not going to give up on you until you tell me everything I want to know about Cheney."

Oh, man. I love the smell of fresh Plame Affair Rumor in the Afternoon!

[TacticalPeek]

53. Check Fawn Hall's panties.

Or, umm, nowdays maybe check Fawn Hall's girdle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawn_Hall

[JerseygirlCT]

54. Let me get this straight: WE'RE the obstructionists? nt

[Canuckistanian]

56. It's Nixon and the '18-minute gap' all over again

A simple clerical error. Just coincidentally on the very day investigators are looking at.

[Me.]

59. How Did FitzG. Find Out About The Emails?

Who spilled the beans or did they somehow find them? And does he know what was in them?

[H2O Man]

60. Because

they are either sent by or received by someone else.

Watch MSNBC now (4:39 est) for an Scooter update.

[Me.]

65. Missed It

Anything?

Also, one would think that if emails were sent between Cheney and Libby or any combo of these felons, that when Gonzales gave the thumbs up for the scrub, they would have realized it would have to be a two way swipe. Are they truly that stupid? Arrogant? Or did someone (KKK) say to FitzG. don't look at me, look at them?

[understandinglife]

61. Raw Story has a portion of Fitzgerald's letter online:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Fitzgerald_admits_White_House_may_have_0201.html


Peace.

[janx]

62. WOW.

From the link:

In the letter, Fitzgerald admits that he has been told some emails from the President and Vice President's offices have been deleted, though he cautions that "no pertinent evidence has been destroyed."

"In an abundance of caution," he writes, "we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal achiving process on the White House computer system."

They tried to destroy it, but Fitz somehow got it anyway!

[lonestarnot]

68. whooooo hooooo Fitzie! My hero!

[robertpaulsen]

83. Raw Story also covering the latest on the AIPAC angle.

FBI seeks interview with Times reporters in pro-Israel lobbying, spying probe

RAW STORY
Published: February 1, 2006

Print This | Email This

Two journalists for The New York Times are being sought for questioning by the FBI regarding stories they wrote about a pro-Israel lobbying group receiving classified information from a former Pentagon official, according to a story slated for Thursday's Times, RAW STORY has learned.

The bureau's actions are part of the "second round of investigation" regarding classified information passed from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Franklin worked out of the Office of Special Plans reporting to Douglas Feith (More in Larisa's recent article for RAW STORY).

Excerpted from the forthcoming article written by David Johnston:
Advertisement

#

The FBI is seeking to interview two New York Times reporters about their conversations with a former Pentagon official and representatives of a pro-Israeli lobbying group who have been the focus of federal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
#

Developing...

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FBI_seeks_interview_with_Times_reporters_0201.html

[stop the bleeding]

115. Yes - AIPAC - Larisa has been all over this

here is her links to the stories


Pentagon investigation of Iraq war hawk stalling Senate inquiry into pre-war Iraq intelligence-01/30/2006

Senate Intelligence Committee stalling pre-war intelligence report

Flex Power A Capital Way to Gain Clout,Inside and Out-12/12/2004 WAPO

FBI conducting more investigations into AIPAC-01/28/2006 - Jerusalem Post

[lonestarnot]

67. Well dertader.... did we expect anything different from dick vader?

[Justice Is Comin]

69. Subpoena the NSA

they love collecting things flying around in the sky so much.

[lovuian]

70. Whoo Hoo!!! Fitzy!!!

:bounce:

[ryan_cats]

71. Deleted but not forgotten

Deleted but not forgotten.

1) Tape backup.

2) Un erase utility.

3) Emails forwarded to other people.

4) Data recovery that can access deleted files unable to be accessed with un erase.

Those emails may be gone but they always seem to have a way of popping up when you least expect them, much like the Spanish Inquisition.

If the real president or his staff had nothing to do with outing Plame, why the guilty behavior of deleting emails hmmmm?

[loveable liberal]

72. nothing is ever deleted........ n/t

[cdsilv]

74. but it can be degaussed...n/t

[Sparkman]

80. Just low level format, then over write with large files. Repeat...clean.

[sendero]

85. If you do that ..

... seven times, you render the media unreadable by modern forensic methods. Seven times.

[Sparkman]

116. Sendero stipulated SEVEN TIMES to obscure trace magnetic fields.

[greiner3]

73. Damn, and I thought Rose Mary Woods died!

Seriously, That's another case of felony conspiracy. Anyone keeping track?

[EVDebs]

75. NSA has the 'undelete' capability, right ? Let's press 'em on this

[Jujiman]

82. Press NSA on Bush Spied BEFORE 9-11!

Yes,
I really wish the media would report on this
little gem...that Bush Spied BEFORE 9-11!

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

Even DemocracyNow! has NOT reported this fact!

Totally Controlled M.S.M. and I really wonder about
D.M!

Yikes.:crazy:

[EVDebs]

114. Besides, the warplans were drawn up in 1973

and were dusted off and moved from Saudi Arabia to Iraq as the 'target' country.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2432151&mesg_id=2432151

Someone should also have Three Days of The Condor movie shown over and over again...The NYTimes in that movie was supposedly to act in a 'whistleblower' role and save Robert Redford. Today, Redford's character would be dead ! Cliff Robertson's character (Bush ?) wins out in the end; but listen to his 'speech' at the end of the movie. Very prescient.

Murtha should be speaking out more, now that that poll of Iraqis (verifying the British military intell's poll) showing that what's fuelling the insurgency is fear of permanent US bases in country, exactly what the Quaker website showed which is why they were targetted for domestic spying.

If the U.S. is ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military building 'permanent' bases?
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

[democrank]

86. Sounds like Fitz

might go nook-yu-lar.

[Halliburton]

87. ABC's Note reports that the grand jury met today

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238

[stop the bleeding]

88. Wednesdays and Fridays - good find BTW

The grand jury investigating leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name is scheduled to meet.

[usregimechange]

90. Here it is:

[usregimechange]

91. Obstruction of justice...

[Polemicist]

92. Photoshop idea...

I don't have the ability to do this, but I've got an idea....

Somebody needs to take that old photograph of Nixon's secretary stretching answering the phone while keeping her foot on the erase pedal, showing how she "accidently" erased the 18 minute gap in the White House tapes and replace her head with Dick Cheney's head.

Tee Hee Hee.

[usregimechange]

93. Guys I think this is big....

[xiamiam]

95. Way big.....

[upi402]

97. evidence of obstruction, you think?

[upi402]

94. k/r

police state don't care

maybe if just make all nice-like to the neocons they'll be nice, and 'mericans will not think badly of us.

[Oilwellian]

96. Rawstory provides a link to the entire letter

Page 6, towards the bottom of the page:

"We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiorS."

:popcorn:

[TacticalPeek]

98. AP and Yahoo headline it - Fitzgerald Hints White House Records Lost

Fitzgerald Hints White House Records Lost

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is raising the possibility that records sought in the
CIA leak investigation could be missing because of an e-mail archiving problem at the White House.

The prosecutor in the criminal case against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff said in a Jan. 23 letter that not all e-mail was archived in 2003, the year the Bush administration exposed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

snip

"Bottom line: Accidents happen and there could be a benign explanation, but this is highly irregular and invites suspicion," said Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists government secrecy project.

"A particular subset of records sought in a controversial prosecution have gone missing," Aftergood said. "I think what is needed is for the national archivist to ascertain what went wrong and how to ensure it won't happen again."


more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060202/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_1


:evilgrin:

[Hailtothechimp]

99. But will the MSM bother to report this??

That girl's still missing in Aruba, ya know.

[orleans]

100. i could've sworn i heard a story on the deleted emails on cnn

"the situation" with wolfie, but i was looking on their website and cant find a damn thing/reference to it!

why not?

[Mabus]

101. It is in the transcript which is posted

BLITZER: Welcome back. A newly discovered letter from the prosecutor in the CIA leak probe says the White House may have destroyed some e-mail. Our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena, is joining us. She has got details. Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The letter was written last month by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to Lewis Libby's lawyer. It was recently made public as part of a court filing. In the letter, Fitzgerald admits that some of the e-mails from the president's and vice president's offices were destroyed.

Fitzgerald's letter says that the e-mails were sent during certain time periods in 2003 and they were not, quote, "Preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."

That happened to be the year that the U.S. invaded Iraq, but the letter doesn't offer any clues as to what those e-mails were about or how many of them are missing.

Fitzgerald does say in his letter that he's not aware of any evidence having to do with the charges against Libby being destroyed. Now, this letter was written in response to Libby's lawyers who were asking the government to hand over evidence that could help their defense. Libby, as you know, was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation. He has pled not guilty.

So far, spokesmen for both Fitzgerald and the vice president's office refuse to comment.

BLITZER: All right, Kelli. Thanks very much. Let's get some legal analysis now on this new development. Joining us on the phone is our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Potentially, how significant or insignificant is this development?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think you have to say it raises questions. Why were these documents destroyed outside the normal course? Who knew about it? Who ordered it? What kind of documents were there? All these questions may have entirely innocent answers, but we don't know what any of the answers are at this point.

BLITZER: Because when I hear a story like this, it hearkens back, I remember, of course, some of those missing tapes during Watergate and the Nixon White House that evidence may have been destroyed. This may be totally, totally overreaching. There may be a simple explanation, but the fact that the prosecutor writes this letter saying what happened to this -- to these e-mails, that raises certain questions.

TOOBIN: And certainly the Iran-Contra affair was based almost entirely on electronic messages, so-called prof notes sent between Oliver North and colleagues. They have been crucial evidence in all White House investigations. What happened to them? A lot of things get destroyed in the normal course of business. Why were the normal procedures not followed? As you point out, could be completely innocent. But we just don't know.

BLITZER: How normal is it for e-mail to be destroyed in the normal course of business over at the White House? A question I don't have the answer to, but presumably the special prosecutor is going to be looking into that question right now.

source: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/01/sitroom.03.html

[orleans]

102. thanks. i just looked on their subjects link and didn't find it. n/t

[buddysmellgood]

103. I think I remember some tapes being missing from the White House years ago

[autorank]

104. In that or a similar case, there was a system back up that had them all

Wouldn't that be a nice surprise!

[dave123williams]

105. It's pretty easy to scrub his machine and get the emails back, you know.

[passy]

108. You all miss the point, I think. The e-mails are irrelevant, PDB isn't.

From http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/387392p-328749c.html

" Without serving any warrants in his probe of who outed CIA officer Valerie Plame, Fitzgerald even obtained censored copies of the President's Daily Brief, the supersecret CIA threat memo for President Bush." "The special counsel got the presidential briefing in his hunt for any files concerning Plame or her husband, Joe Wilson, a diplomat sent to Niger in 2002 to see whether the African regime sold uranium to Iraq."

This would mean that * was informed in his PDB about Valerie Plame. It could have something to do with her work for the CIA on WMDs.
Actually it doesn't really matter because we know that he doesn't ever read or listen to his PDB, however poppy does.
Poppy also might have known who she was without knowing that she was a NOC.
Maybe somebody here can look at the implications of Valerie Plame's name being in the PDB, as for me it just makes my head spin.

[JWS]

109. That's what happens when you don't have Arthur Anderson doing

your accounting, sloppy destruction of evidence.

[brettdale]

110. Doesn't matter

It doesn't matter if the emails are deleted, as long as its the original hard drive , computer Forensics can recreate any file deleted.

[HereSince1628]

113. But me thinks the hard drives WERE removed remember the Philipine Spy?

They pulled the hard drives of Cheney's staffers. You think they ever returned them?

[pushycat]

118. Good point. Just a lot of coincidences in favor of the WH... NOT

[BlueEyedSon]

112. I'm shocked I tell you, SHOCKED!

[stop the bleeding]

119. check this research out by BR_Parkway - stellar if you ask me

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2432282&mesg_id=2432282

[negativenihil]

121. What about backups?

I'm sorry, but no self-respecting IT team would run a shop witout some sort of backup system.
It's possible if it were a tape based system they could have already recycled the tapes... but imo its worth looking into...

[Independent_Liberal]

126. They deleted the emails! They deleted the emails!

The Watergate tapes and the Plamegate emails. The times sure have changed.

[spanone]

127. If it's illegal, they are doing it.

So now Libby will call for these 'deleted' files. When they can't be delivered, judge will dismiss case on lack of evidence.

You'd think that deleting e-mails during an investigation would be tantamount to shredding hard copy files....EVEN IF YOU'RE THE FUCKING VICE PRESIDENT.