Preserving Electronic Records in Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/opinion/16mon3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

'A measure moving through Congress would strengthen the power of the National Archives to require that the White House and other related agencies preserve all of their electronic records. The office of the archivist would establish better procedures and would be required to check and certify that the systems are doing the job. This is crucial, since Congressional investigators found that archive officials backed off from inspections of e-mail storage during the last administration.

Maybe it was a coincidence that hundreds of thousands of the missing e-mail messages went missing during the lead-up to the Iraq war — with its manipulated intelligence — and the outing of Valerie Plame and the decision to destroy C.I.A. interrogation tapes.

Congress must protect this priceless taxpayer property before any more history goes missing.'