-Caveat Lector- http://www.ctrl.org/">
-Cui Bono?-
Click now, repent later
By FRANCINE KIEFER, The Christian Science Monitor
(April 7, 2000 12:02 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - In 1993, Linda Tripp sent
out a
blistering message, calling senior members of her White House office "the three
stooges." It's
hard to imagine that happening in today's White House, where "no trail, no trouble" is
the
unspoken mantra. Such caution prevails that one staffer used erasable magic markers
during a
strategy session, rather than risk a subpoena.
White House staff chose their words carefully long before the advent of e-mail. And the
Watergate tapes proved that conversations don't have to be written to be dangerous.
But the
point-and-click missives have added a new dimension to White House communication - one
with
implications ranging from front-page embarrassments to, perhaps, Al Gore's political
future.
As Congress and the Justice Department investigate the White House for a potential
cover-up
of perhaps 250,000 missing e-mails, many of which could have escaped subpoena
dragnets, the
probes reveal a unique, cautious culture of messaging at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
People outside the wrought-iron gates of the presidential compound might view e-mail
as a
private, informal way to talk. But the knowledge that everything they write could be
scrutinized
by both the media and investigators, has inspired an attitude of apprehension about
e-mailing,
especially among the president's legal advisers.
"E-mails and anything else written was not only discouraged, people were living in
fear that the
wrong e-mail would lead to a prosecution, or at least several hundred thousands
dollars of legal
fees," says former counsel Lanny Davis.
In fact, whenever a White House staffer clicks "send," a message reminds them that a
copy of
their missive is being sent to records management.
When it comes to saving e-mails, the White House is held to a higher standard than the
private
sector, and even Congress.
Companies that have a policy of saving e-mails usually do so only for three to six
months,
according to records-management consultants. Many companies consider them the same as
phone calls, and don't archive them unless they are equal in weight to a written
communication.
But the White House is different. It saves its records for posterity. After President
Clinton
vacates his office next January, at least 30 million stored e-mails will be deposited
with the
National Archives, http://www.nara.gov/
an unfathomable mountain of data ranging from such queries as "How about
lunch?" to speech drafts, to perhaps more juicy communications.
In the federal government, "retention of records tends to be driven by ... the need to
inform a
free society and the need to retain information of historical consequence. For most
businesses,
neither of those issues are on the radar screen," says Patrick Cunningham of Hewitt
Associates,
a management consulting firm in Lincolnshire, Ill. "Do we need to see Monica
Lewinsky's e-mail
messages to various Executive Office persona? Certainly, because they are material to
an
historical event - the impeachment of the president."
On Capitol Hill, e-mail archiving is at the discretion of the lawmaker. For instance,
the office of
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who last week grilled White House counsel about the missing
e-mails,
stores its electronic messages for a mere week, then overrides them with new work.
The White House, on the other hand, installed an e-mail archiving system in July 1994,
after a
court ruled that electronic records must be preserved in the same way as federal
records. It
was such a novel concept at the time that it had to be custom-built.
Another former administration official says he used to hold back on sending something
electronically because e-mails can be so easily copied.
He cited an example of a White House directive electronically leaked to the media in
1998. It
said certain words related to the first lady's pet millennium project were off-limits
to
speechwriters, causing an employee to jokingly wonder whether staffers could even say
"21st
century" in conversation.
But he rejects the assumption that history is being lost in this anti-documenting
atmosphere.
According to the former official, a great deal still gets zapped around - including
budget-related
items, speech drafts, and the president's schedule.
And because e-mails, even in the White House, so often mimic phone calls, they add a
new
dimension to White House archival history. "They're a treasure trove."
But they're also a challenge for the White House tech team. For example, until last
month,
about a third of the e-mail accounts in the vice president's office weren't being
captured by
the archiving system, White House counsel Beth Nolan testified.
That includes the account of the technologically savvy vice president. Unlike the
president and
first lady, who don't even have personal e-m
