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Today's Top News
Bush White House Emails Won't Be Public For Years
The Obama administration and two good government groups yesterday announced, with some fanfare, that they'd come to an agreement on those missing emails from the Bush White House.
But if you think the news means we're finally about to get the full story on the Valerie Plame leak, or the deliberations that took us to war in Iraq, think again. Many of the roughly 22 million emails secured through the deal likely won't be made public until 2022. And even the ones that can be released sooner won't see the light of day for around three years.
The emails will be turned over to the National Archives, where they'll be treated, initially at least, as presidential records, Anne Weismann, a senior lawyer for CREW, one of the groups that had sued over the emails, explained to TPMmuckraker. That means that, under the Presidential Records Act, they won't be made public for five years. But President Bush has broad latitude to direct the Archives to keep them secret for an additional seven years -- indeed, he may already have done so. Given the former president's record on issues of openness and transparency, it's a good bet he'll opt to do so. The administration or the Archives could challenge that directive, arguing that Bush's reasons aren't spelled out in the law. But, said Weismann, it's very unlikely that either would do so.
However, some of the emails -- those from an agency like the Council on Environmental Quality, rather than from a political adviser -- may soon be designated federal, rather than presidential, records. That would mean, said Weismann, that they'd likely be made public in about three years, after the National Archives has processed them and prepared them for release.
None of this is to suggest the settlement was any kind of Pyrrhic victory for the plaintiffs. The important point is that the emails -- at least those that there's enough money to recover -- will be made public, helping to shape our understanding of key events in our history.
It just means that we're unlikely to see a Karl Rove frogwalk any time soon.
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14 Comments so far
Show AllAn administration can commit virtually every crime possible then hide the evidence (emails) long enough so that by the time the National Archives is done picking through them the statute of limitations will have expired.
F*ing unbelievable.
The Kennedy Papers are *still* under lock and key in the US National Archives. Every president from LBJ on has renewed their secret status.
22 million emails? Isn't it likely that 99.9% of those are
"Do you want pizza for lunch?" and the like?
I'm highly doubtful anyone is going to find a smoking gun email: "Go ahead and torture those guys, stack their nude bodies on each other, I don't care - W"
And if one is found, the government has already decided it wants to ignore it.
So let's say we find out that Dick Cheney is really as awful as we thought. And that Don Rumsfeld is a weasel. What good does that do us? Is any one of these goons going to face anything remotely like justice?
22 million emails. I'm amazed anyone got anything done.
I'm highly doubtful anyone is going to find a smoking gun email:
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The Bush administration used a private email server instead of the required government one.
They were hoping this move would keep their communications confidential.
I'd be willing to bet those emails contain lots of smoking guns.
No, but meantime we can enjoy the spectacle of Barry Crusades and a Democrappy "health care", epitomized by the hypocritical Parade of Piece to a tackier tree than the Clintons', priapically sheathed in a golden shroud, with a "how far's the Yule Log" in the Mall and a creche, no less, in attendance, proselytizing the the putative Prince of this Parade, and all to the tune of some seasonably cold jazz, saxting, "US screwed" to We the People, their Earthly hosts!
it went the way of real elections and do do birds.
I am a "natural" scientist. I cannot do my work/research if some crucial data are kept secret. Historians call themselves "social scientists". What a crock! They do not know half of what has happened during their lifetimes. By the time some state secrets are released or leak out they are dead. To me they are "social conjurers".
With each passing hour it grows steadily worse and yet there are Obama worshippers advocating he needs more time when in the time he has had, he has only made it worse.
By the time any truth comes to light our Constitutional Republic will be long dead.
The fascist revoultion has begun, we just have to find the order in one the 22 million emails as proof that Busch/Chenney took over our country as dictators, and passed the magic teleprompter over to Obama.
Hail, HAIL THE LUNATIC RIGHT WING OF SELF RIGHTOUS TORTURE FREAKS ARE IN CONTROLL.
There is not a real constitutional patriot left in the three branches of our government, with the exception of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.
And our military are slave to the military industrial complex.
It will take a real revelution to put the constituion back as law of the land.
The emails wont be made public until the statutes of limitations run out
Isn't it so convenient for the criminals in the Bush administration that there are myriad laws to keep these e-mails from public scrutiny.
My guess is that a statute-of-limitations exists on the crimes that these e-mails would expose. After the statute-of-limitations date has passed and Bush/Cheney, et al are safe from prosecution, the e-mails can be released and we can all feel good that transparency exists in the Amerikkkan government.
why does obama continue to allow bush leniency for his crimes and wrongdoings? there is absolutely no reason that obama could not have taken decisive steps to bring out the truth about valerie plame and the events leading up to 9/11 and the war against iraq, which began march 19, 2003. the cilicot commission, in britain, is now conducting an inquiry about the deceptions that blair and his team engaged in during the run-up to the iraq war, such a commission would not be possible in this country because we have no strong and principled leader in the white house. there have been many revelations in the last two years about the iraq war, and becasue this war produced the moral and financial quagmire that is now the united states of america, it seems reasonable to begin an inquiry into its origins.