 |
HavenWorks.com/archives/archive |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Archives Archive
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
ARCHIVES NEWS Archives News History Archives Archives Archives |
|
 |
|
 |
Military
- 
Archives
- "Lincoln
letter from 1863 is unveiled." ... "Abraham Lincoln
believed the Civil War was nearing the end in July 1863. If only Union
Gen. George Meade would capitalize on victories in Vicksburg and Gettysburg
and aggressively attack Robert E. Lee's Confederate army, the war could
be over, Lincoln felt." ... "That sentiment and Lincoln's desperate sense
of urgency is captured in a newly found July 7, 1863, letter Lincoln wrote
to Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck that was unveiled at the National Archives Thursday."
... "The note, written on War Department letterhead, came to light when
an archivist at the National Archives, searching for another document,
happened upon the signed letter among Civil War-related papers." ... ""Now,
if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far,
by the litteral or substantial destruction of Lee's army, the rebellion
will be over," Lincoln wrote, his misspelling hinting at his informal education."
... "In the end, Meade did not listen to the pleas of Lincoln and Halleck,
which continued over the next week, and Lee's army crossed back over the
Potomac River, leaving Lincoln distraught and possibly prolonging the war
for nearly another two years." -By Leora Falk
-ChicagoTribune
Cheney
- 
Abramoff
- 
Secret
- Archives
- 
Lawsuit
- Religious
- 
Politics
- "Lawyer:
Cheney visitor logs not recorded." ... "A lawyer
for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to
eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly
disclosed letter states. The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney's lawyer
says logs for Cheney's residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory
are subject to the Presidential Records Act." ... "Such a designation prevents
the public from learning who visited the vice president." ... "The Justice
Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of
conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence."
... ""The latest filings make clear that the administration has been destroying
documents and entering into secret agreements in violation of the law,"
said Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel." ... "The letter regarding the
vice president's residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed
between the White House and the Secret Service a year ago when questions
were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence
peddler Jack Abramoff." -By Pete Yost
-AP via -USATODAY
Rove
- 
Miers
- 
Gonzales
- Political
- 
Government
- E-Mail
- Communication
- Archive
- US
Attorneys - "Missing
E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors." ... "The White
House said Thursday that missing e-mail messages sent on Republican Party
accounts may include some relating to the firing of eight United States
attorneys." ... "The disclosure became a fresh political problem for the
White House, as Democrats stepped up their inquiry into whether Karl Rove
and other top aides to President Bush used the e-mail accounts maintained
by the Republican National Committee to circumvent record-keeping requirements."
... "Mr. Rove uses several e-mail accounts, including one with the Republican
National Committee, one with the White House and a private domain account
that is registered to the political consulting company he once owned. Mr.
Waxman said Mr. Kelner reported that in 2005, the national committee adopted
a new policy, specifically aimed at Mr. Rove, which “removed Mr. Rove’s
ability to personally delete his e-mails from the R.N.C. server.”" ...
"Mr. Waxman also said he now had “serious concerns about the White House’s
compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” a 1978 law that requires
administrations to keep records of deliberations, decisions and policies.
The congressman asked for an inventory of all communications by White House
officials on nongovernment e-mail accounts." ... "The Democrats’ investigation
into the political e-mail accounts grows directly out of the inquiry into
the firing of the United States attorneys. When the Justice Department
turned over documents to Congress, they showed that, contrary to the White
House’s initial assertions, Mr. Rove and Harriet E. Miers, the former White
House counsel, seemed to be involved in planning the dismissals." ... "The
documents also revealed that a deputy to Mr. Rove, Scott Jennings, who
works in the White House Office of Political Affairs, had used his Republican
National Committee e-mail account, ending in gwb43.com, to communicate
about the dismissals with a top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales."
(1, 2)
-By Sheryl Gay Stolberg with contributions by Scott
Shane and David Johnston -NYTimes
Rove
- 
Ralston
- Abramoff
- Government
- E-Mail
- 
Electronic
- Communication
- 
History
- Archive
- Law
- US
Attorneys - Politics
- "Countless
White House E-Mails Deleted." ... "Countless e-mails
to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to
history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a
brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue
for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday." ... "The
leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political
adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided
Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication."
... "Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after
30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been
able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete
whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail
system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the
Presidential Records Act." ... "In an afternoon conference call with reporters,
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White
House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said." ... "But when
I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed
clear enough to me: "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic
communications sent or received by White House staff," says the handbook
that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with." ...
""As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office
of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services
for all official communication."" ... "The handbook further explains: "The
official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records
management requirements."" ... "And if that wasn't clear enough, the handbook
notes --as was the case in the Clinton administration -- that "commercial
or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to
help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of
the records management requirements."" ... "Stanzel refused to publicly
release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied
my request to make public the transcript of the call, which lasted more
than an hour but which -- due to Stanzel's refusal or inability to provide
straight answers on many issues -- raised more questions than it answered."
... "The use of non-government e-mails first became an issue about four
weeks ago, when some of the e-mails turned over in a congressional investigation
of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys showed that Rove deputy Scott Jennings
repeatedly used an RNC e-mail address (sjennings@gwb43.com) in his official
communications. One e-mail to Rove was sent to a kr@georgewbush.com address."
... "Since then, it's been pointed out that some of the e-mails released
in the congressional investigation of now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff
indicated that former Rove aide Susan Ralston made a point of keeping her
communication with Abramoff off the White House e-mail servers, and on
either her RNC or AOL e-mail accounts." (1, 2,
3,
4,
5)
-By Dan
Froomkin -WashingtonPost
Karl
Rove
- Government
- E-Mail
- Archive
- Politics
- History
- 
Internet
- Computer
- 
Science
- 
Investigation
- "White
House E-mails: Gone, But Not Forgotten?" ... "The
White House set off a miniature firestorm Wednesday when it revealed that
years of e-mails belonging to White House political aides were deleted,
apparently in violation of federal law requiring presidential documents
to be preserved." ... "In an 80-minute conference call with a select group
of print reporters yesterday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said
that e-mails from 2004 and earlier sent and received by 22 White House
employees, including chief political aide Karl Rove, had been deleted."
... "Without knowing the technical details of how the e-mails were deleted,
computer forensics expert Rob Lee said he couldn't say with certainty if
any of the communications are recoverable. But from his experience
working with the FBI and other criminal investigators, he knows one thing:
Unless the hard drives containing the e-mails were physically destroyed
or lost, "the only way someone could claim something has been destroyed
is if the e-mails themselves have been wiped" from a hard drive or tape
backup, he said, "overwriting every piece of data." That requires special
software designed explicitly to cover any trace of deleted information."
... "The Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires all White House documents
be preserved if they "relate to or have and effect upon the carrying out
of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties
of the President."" -By Justin Rood
-ABCNEWS.com
Karl
Rove
- Government
- E-Mail
- Law
- US
Attorneys - Politics
- Internet
- Archive
- 
VT
- "Leahy
Says Bush Aides Lied About E-Mails." ... "[Republican]
President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican
account that might have been lost, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Patrick Leahy [Vermont Democratic Senator] said Thursday, vowing to subpoena
those documents if the administration fails to cough them up." ... ""They
say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Leahy shouted
from the Senate floor." ... ""You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've
gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there,
they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary.""
... "Democrats say the firings might have been improper, but that probe
yielded a weightier question: Whether White House officials such as political
adviser Karl Rove are purposely conducting sensitive official presidential
business via non-governmental accounts to evade a law [the Hatch Act] requiring
preservation — and eventual disclosure — of presidential records." ...
""E-mails don't get lost," Leahy insisted. "These are just e-mails they
don't want to bring forward."" ... "The revelation about the e-mails escalates
a standoff between the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House
over the prosecutor firings." -By Laurie Kellman
-AP via -SFGate.com
Noteworthy
- Secret
- Government
- 
Library
- Archives
- History
- Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
Terrorism
- Politics
- "Government
guards papers from public eye." ... "More than 1
million pages of historical government documents -- a stack taller than
the U.S. Capitol -- have been removed from public view since the September
2001 terror attacks, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Some
of the papers are more than a century old." ... "In some cases, entire
file boxes were removed without significant review because the government's
central record-keeping agency, the National Archives and Records Administration,
did not have time for a more thorough audit." ... ""We just felt we couldn't
take the time and didn't always have the expertise," said Steve Tilley,
who oversaw the program." ... "The agency has removed about 1.1 million
pages, according to partially redacted monthly progress reports reviewed
by the AP. The reports were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act."
... "In all, archivists identified as many as 625 million pages that could
have been affected under the security program. In their haste to remove
potentially harmful documents from view, archives officials acknowledged
many records were withdrawn that should be available." ... "The archives
program comes less than one year after the records administration came
under fire for allowing public documents to be reclassified as secret under
a separate program." ... "After the September 2001 attacks, the records
administration signed a secret deal with the Pentagon and CIA to review
and permit the removal of tens of thousands of pages from public view that
intelligence officials believed had been declassified too hastily." ...
"A subsequent audit of the disputed program found one of every three sampled
documents should not have been reclassified." ... "The newer program, however,
has been operated wholly by archives officials, and its scope apparently
dwarfs the removal of CIA and Pentagon records. In a memo to employees,
then-Archivist of the United States John Carlin said the records of concern
program would "reduce the risk of providing access to materials that might
support terrorists."" ... "But [director of the National Security Archive
Tom] Blanton also said the effort appears to be a case of misplaced priorities."
... ""Government's first instinct is to hide vulnerabilities, not to fix
them," said Blanton. "And that doesn't make us safer."" -By
Frank Bass and Randy Herschaft -AP
via -BostonGlobe
Secret
- 
US
- 
Iraq
- 
Nuclear
- Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Internet
- Archive
- History
- Hoekstra
- 
Michigan
- Roberts
- 
Kansas
- Legislation- Politics
- "U.S.
Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer."
... "Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public
a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration
did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they
hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers
posed by Saddam Hussein." ... "But in recent weeks, the site has posted
some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed
accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf
war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building
an atom bomb." ... "Last night, the government shut down the Web site after
The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control
officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access
to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content
is appropriate for public viewing.”" ... "Officials of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like
Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American
ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat
said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures."
... "The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams,
equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts
who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet
and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information
on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well
as the radioactive cores of atom bombs." ... "The director of national
intelligence, John D. Negroponte, had resisted setting up the Web site,
which some intelligence officials felt implicitly raised questions about
the competence and judgment of government analysts. But President Bush
approved the site’s creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation
to force the documents’ release." ... "The campaign for the Web site was
led by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative
Peter Hoekstra [Republican] of Michigan. Last November, he and his Senate
counterpart, Pat Roberts [Republican] of Kansas, wrote to Mr. Negroponte,
asking him to post the Iraqi material." (1, 2,
3)
-By William J. Broad with contributions by Scott Shane
-NYTimes
Secret
- Government
- Archives
- History
- Politics
- 
Connecticut
- "Archives
OK'd removing records, kept quiet." ... "Previously
public intelligence documents, some more than 50 years old, have been sealed
under a secret agreement between the National Archives and three federal
agencies, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information
Act." ... "The 2002 agreement, obtained by The Associated Press and released
by archivists this week, shows the agency agreed to keep quiet about U.S.
intelligence's role in the deal that shut off access to thousands of previously
unclassified CIA and Pentagon documents." ... "Rep. Christopher Shays,
a Connecticut Republican who has led hearings into the resealing of records,
described the deal as "the culture of secrecy as tragicomic opera. One
government agency has to sneak into the files of another ... to reclassify
material that may have been on the public record for a decade or more.""
-By Randy Herschaft and Frank Bass
-AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Harriet
Miers - 
Texas
- Archives-
"Newly
released papers offer glimpse of Miers's views: Records
detail tenure on lottery commission." ... "As a corporate lawyer, Harriet
Miers once urged then-Governor George W. Bush to veto legislation that
would have prohibited the Texas Supreme Court from regulating or capping
attorneys' fees, charging that the legislation did ''violence to the balance
of power between the legislative and judicial branch."" ... "Miers, President
Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, said in her 1995 letter to Bush that
the legislation was a blatant attempt to protect a ''handful of greedy,
but immensely rich and powerful" trial lawyers." ... "The letter was among
2,259 pages of documents released yesterday by the Texas State Library
and Archives Commission. Most of the papers involved Miers's 1995-2000
tenure as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission." -By
Jo Becker and John Pomfret-WashingtonPost
via -Boston/Globe
CA
-
- Archives
- John
Roberts
-
- Secrets
-
- "Roberts
Showed Conservative Stripes Early." ... ""While some
of the tales of woe emanating from the Court are enough to bring tears
to the eyes, it is true that only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren
are expected to and do take the entire summer off," Roberts wrote on April
19, 1983, in a memo to Fielding, his boss at the time." ... "He went on
to say: "The generally accepted notion that the Court can only hear roughly
150 cases a year gives the same sense of reassurance as the adjournment
of the court in July, when we know the Constitution is safe for the summer.""
... "The memo and other materials made public Thursday by the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and the National Archives
completed the disclosure of more than 50,000 pages that cover Roberts'
tenure as a lawyer in the White House counsel's office from 1982-86." ...
"Nearly 2,000 more pages from the same period have been withheld on national
security or privacy grounds." (1, 2)
-By Jesse J. Holland with contributions by Jesse J.
Holland and Andrew Taylor -AP
via -WashingtonPost
John
Roberts
- Archives
-
- 
- "Roberts
Opposed Some Sex-Discrimination Remedies, Files Show."
... "U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. criticized some remedies
for sexual discrimination and disputed a high court standard used to overturn
laws that treat women differently, memos he wrote in the 1980s show." ...
"Roberts, who if confirmed by the Senate would replace the Supreme Court's
first female justice, questioned whether ``encouraging homemakers to become
lawyers contributes to the common good.'' In another memo among 38,000
pages of documents released yesterday by the National Archives in Washington,
Roberts termed some state efforts to end sex discrimination in the workplace
``highly objectionable.''" -Bloomberg
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- Sandra
Day O'Connor
- Archives
- 
PA
-
-
- "In
'81, Roberts Offered Counsel to O'Connor: As Aide
to Attorney General, He Urged Nominee to Be Reserved in Sharing Legal Views."
... "Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. once urged a previous nominee,
Sandra Day O'Connor, not to tell members of Congress how she might vote
in cases likely to come before the court." ... "It is one of several hundred
[documents] disclosed late yesterday on the National Archives and Records
Administration Web site that reflect his outlook regarding what a justice
should say or do." ... "The documents released yesterday were the third
collection disclosed by the archives in response to Freedom of Information
Act requests seeking any documents written, approved, initialed or signed
by Roberts during his tenure at the Justice Department in two jobs eight
years apart." ... "Yesterday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who chairs the
Senate Judiciary Committee, prodded the White House to release other documents
-- related to Roberts's tenure as associate White House legal counsel from
1982 to 1986 -- "without delay." Administration officials have said they
are still reviewing the documents partly to assess whether they contain
material that will prove to be controversial." -By
Jo Becker and R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Amy Goldstein-WashingtonPost
John
G. Roberts Jr.
-
-
-
- Archives
- "Bush
Order Lets Him Control Roberts' Memos: A 2001 decree
gives him the power to block the release of papers from presidential libraries,
among them those of the high court nominee." ... "A little-noticed order
issued by President Bush almost four years ago gives White House lawyers
the right to block the release of memos written by Supreme Court nominee
John G. Roberts Jr. when he worked for President Reagan." ... "The order,
signed by Bush in November 2001, said the "incumbent president" had the
right to approve the release of papers from the presidential libraries
of his father, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan." ... "It set off a
furor at the time among historians, archivists and librarians. They said
it all but repealed the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that decreed
a president's records were public property, not the private property of
the former president. Under this law, a former president's papers were
to be opened to the public 12 years after he left office. Exceptions could
be made for national security reasons." (1, 2)
-By David G. Savage and Maura Reynolds with contributions
by Catherine Sailliant
-LAtimes
- 
-
-
- Archives
- "The Archivist:
Brewster Kahle made a copy of the Internet. Now, he wants your files."
... "I'm a few minutes late for lunch at the Internet
Archive, but they know what kept me. The view of San Francisco Bay
[California] outside the archive's digs at the Presidio
is captivating even if you already live here." ... "Search-engine wiz and
dot-com multimillionaire Brewster
Kahle founded the archive here in 1996 with a dream as big as the bridge:
He wanted to back up the Internet. There were only 50 million or so URLs
back then, so the idea only seemed half-crazy. As the Web ballooned to
more than 10 billion pages, the archive's main server farm—hidden across
town in a data
center beneath the city's other big bridge—grew to hold a half-million
gigabytes of compressed and indexed pages." ... "Kahle is less the Internet's
crazy aunt—the tycoon who can't stand to throw anything away—than its evangelical
librarian." -By Paul Boutin
-Slate
-
-
- 
-
- Archives
- Secrets
- "Guarding
the Past: The Archivist's Mild Manner Belies the
Uproar Over His New Job." ... "They're: Sniping at Allen Weinstein from
ivory towers." ... "Suggesting he could become an accomplice in presidential
coverups." ... "Many historians are wondering if Weinstein will make sure
that the [National] Archives' documents of great historical value -- especially
supersensitive presidential papers -- are open and available to all scholars
or if he will engage in some sort of politically motivated subterfuge."
... "A host of historians are also disturbed by the way that Weinstein
got his job in the first place. In a surprising move, Weinstein was chosen
last spring while John Carlin -- a Clinton appointee and a former governor
of Kansas -- was still in office. Nearly two dozen professional organizations,
including the American Historical Association, cried foul. The groups worried
about "the politicization of the office," [history professor Jon] Wiener
says." ... ""My concern was about the process being subverted," says Bruce
Craig of the National Coalition for History, an advocacy group for the
profession. "There is a law." The 1984 law, which created the National
Archives and Records Administration, stipulated that the archivist will
serve an indefinite term and can be removed only if the president gives
a reason to Congress." ... "So far, President Bush has not given any reason
for Carlin's dismissal and Weinstein's appointment." ... "Some historians
suggest the ouster occured because Bush believed he might lose the 2004
election and was concerned that his father's presidential papers -- and
his own -- could fall into unfriendly hands. "All presidents want their
secrets protected," Wiener says. "It's the archivist who is in the middle.""
(1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Linton Weeks -WashingtonPost
