Also, I am curious as to whether or not, if such a scrubbing program were to be implemented, wouldn’t it seem extremely suspect if NOTHING shows up, e.g., prima facie evidence that the e-mails and other docs subpoenaed were wiped out intentionally – that fraud was involved?

I mean, how much control would you be able to have over a program that is designed to just wipe out everything on a hard drive? You can’t really pick and choose, I would imagine, what you want to scrub.

This is the real danger. One could, perhaps, delete a PERSONAL strategy file…but anything that produced a document or email that could be found that derived from your machine would make an intentional deletion probable…especially if there were COMPLETE absence.

So if someone else received an email from that machine, and that mail was recovered or preserved from the recipient…but the senders post was utterly eradicated (not simply dumped into the monthly delete file)…that would be clear evidence of intentional efforts to eradicate the evidence.

Lots of folks serialize email, basically forgetting to erase prior communications making a long pyramid (or as we call them here – a ziggurut). That leaves a whole series of posts that would have to be preserved on the transmittors computer. If they are zapped…bad news!

Gaps in the records can be just as telling as what exists. The coordination to hide everything is Sisyphean, and requires even more communications and eradications, and individuals involved.Provided access can be obtained for these computers, and a fair bunch of investigators, it will be damn hard to conceal obstruction.

As soon as the Republicans can get the Iraqi government to agree to get the electricity to run without a further power “surge”. This might burn out the light bulb. Of course, if they can get approval on a $100 billion light at the end of the tunnel, without schematic, they could leave a permanently dim bulb in the office.

And there is the old Republican adage, if you lose your car keys in the dark alley, go down to the lamp-post on the corner where there is the dim bulb to give you light.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/169979.html

“Doolittle says raid was made to aid Gonzales
Congressman claims search of his house was STAGED so the attorney general looked tough on GOP before Senate hearing.”
By David Whitney – Bee Washington Bureau

“WASHINGTON-Rep. John Doolittle said in a weekend opinion article that he believes federal law enforcement agents staged a raid on his house last month, then LEAKED word of it in an effort to bolster Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he was about to appear before a Senate committee probing the firing of federal prosecutors.

“I do not believe it was a coincidence that the leak came the day before Attorney General Gonzales testified before Congress on charges that his office was overly partisan in its firing of eight U.S. attorneys, especially considering Gonzales specifically cited his recent prosecution of Republican members of Congress as evidence to the contrary,” Doolittle wrote in an op-ed article published Saturday by the Auburn Journal.

Doolittle has been dangling the notion of a POLITICALLY INSPIRED search of his Oakton, Va., home since the raid was first reported in a Capitol Hill newspaper April 17. As recently as Thursday, in a telephone press conference with reporters, Doolittle said he was preparing to GO PUBLIC WITH INFORMATION about the search.”

During the search, he said that only his wife was at home and she was sequestered in the kitchen and kept under surveillance, prohibited from even going to the bathroom without an escort.

Maybe they feared she ate the notes, or had a secret stash in the bathroom!

Doolittle said their house was systematically searched, with agents “removing every book, turning over every couch cushion and every pot and pan, rummaging through every drawer, file cabinet, cupboard and closet.”

Yep! Looks like a staged search to me…pretty clear that they weren’t actually looking for anything. It was all a show, just a knock and a sit on the sofa with a loyal Republican!

He said many personal items were taken, even though the warrant pertained only to items related to Julie Doolittle’s business. “Julie’s personal journals, sensitive information about our two children, phone lists and personal files were all taken and have yet to be returned,” he said.

Materials observed that constitute evidence of criminal activities while searching for specificied materials listed in a Search Warrant are perfectly legal to confiscate.

Hmm! Personal journals~ Wonder if Julie wrote about her “private” acceptance of moneys from Abramoffand her discussions with Johnny about quid quo quos in those? Of course, such things would not be legitimate business items, would they!

Sensitive information about the daughters? Really? What would that be? I thought that these kids were perfect little cherubs who never got involved in “trouble”. “If you haven’t done anything wrong what’s there to hide?” But if they took these it may be because the children have received unreported “gifts”, scholarships, trips, lessons, etc. After all, Johnny Boy…you yourself used a Congressional junket to take your daughter to a resort in Malaysia, and even allowed a Malaysian businessman to give your daughter a TAILORED riding outfit. You got caught out and had to pay for these!

But left behind, Doolittle said, was a file folder with information about Julie Doolittle’s work for Abramoff.

Which, I suspect, was conveniently placed to be found! And contained matter already editted to misdirect investigators, and which had already been supplied to them. Redundant bulldada.

Doolittle said. “As such and while my political opponents work to exploit this incident to further propagate speculation of my guilt,

Doolittle: Karl Rove, Gonzo and Bush HATE ME! I’m being thrown under the bus! Why are they not defending me! I’m a loyal Republican, and raised millions for them. I wasn’t doing anything that other Republican Congressmen didn’t do…and, they themselves didn’t do! Whaaaaaaaaaah!

I ask my constituents to withhold judgment and stand with me in protecting my right and that of my wife to the presumption of innocence while we work to ensure that the truth is revealed.”

Yeah, presumption of innocence…like how you just blamed the Attorney General of staging the incident, leaking the information about the raid, and asserting that you had “information” that would prove this (which you didn’t). Doolittle, you are just one paranoid and corrupt goon!

I know I’m late to the party, but (in case anyone cares) the way to expunge data in fewer passes is to overwrite with other “plausible” data instead of ones and zeros or random data. You can try this at home:

Write several phone numbers on 3×5 cards (say, the first 20 off page 132 in your local white pages). On half the cards, try crossing the numbers out (using the same pen as you wrote with) for 10 seconds per card. On the others, simply overwrite the number with different (made up) phone numbers.

Have a friend (or friends) see how many of the original numbers they can reconstruct.

–MarkusQ

writing on disc is not the same as writing on paper, on a disc the newer “palusable” data would look differant then the older data

try your experiment using differant color pens and it would be very easy to figure out the original message

OT…Speaking of coincidences in timing — Kansas cleanup equipment and their NG…in Iraq.

Huffington has this. Ed Schultz talked about it on his local Fargo show, so likely will be on his national show also.

Props to KFGO Fargo–always steps up to the plate with semi loads for disaster victims….

Another example of the abuse of our National Guard, and why it matters. I hope the local papers make it front page news.

Bob in HI

If I’ve been sending out “problematic” emails from my DOJ/WH computer, wiping it clean would only be one element of the problem. There are also all those computers of the people to whom I sent my emails.

And if just one of those computers has an incriminating email . . .
And if just one of Henry’s subpoenas finds its way to that computer’s owner . . .

That’s the problem with obstructing justice — all those damn loose ends. You’ve got to sweep each and every last one of them up, or you’re headed for the John Mitchell Suite in the federal prison system.. . .

I’ve been thinking about John Mitchell lately. From the Wikipedia:

John Newton Mitchell (September 15, 1906 – November 9, 1988) was the first United States Attorney General ever to be convicted of illegal activities and imprisoned. He also served as campaign director for the Committee to Re-elect the President, which engineered the Watergate first break-in and employed Watergate burglar James W. McCord, Jr. in a “security” capacity. . . .
After he became president in January 1969, Nixon appointed Mitchell attorney general. Mitchell remained in office from 1969 until he resigned in 1972 to manage President Nixon’s successful reelection campaign. As attorney general, Mitchell believed that the government’s need for “law and order” justified restrictions on civil liberties. He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the Vietnam War, and demonstrated a reluctance to involve the Justice Department in civil rights issues. “The Department of Justice is a law enforcement agency,” he told reporters. “It is not the place to carry on a program aimed at curing the ills of society.” . . . .
On February 21, 1975, Mitchell was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, which he dubbed the White House horrors.

However, Mitchell had resigned as attorney general 3 years before he was indicted, so the question of how to indict a sitting AG was mooted. Otherwise, there’s lots of similarities with the present situation.

Bob in HI

Write several phone numbers on 3×5 cards (say, the first 20 off page 132 in your local white pages). On half the cards, try crossing the numbers out (using the same pen as you wrote with) for 10 seconds per card. On the others, simply overwrite the number with different (made up) phone numbers.

Have a friend (or friends) see how many of the original numbers they can reconstruct.

–MarkusQ