Bush data overload to challenge archives
The U.S. National Archives, faced with a huge store of Bush administration records, has invoked an emergency plan to handle the load, officials said.
There are growing doubts the agency's new $144 million computer system can process the massive amount of data in Bush White House electronic records, The New York Times reported Saturday.
When President George W. Bush leaves office Jan. 20 he will leave an electronic record 50 times the size of that left by former President Bill Clinton eight years ago, archives officials said. The material will cover everything from Iraq war planning documents to home video shot by a camera worn by Barney, the White House dog.
Archives officials said the agency will begin to take custody of White House records Jan. 20 but it will take considerably longer to move the data into the computer system especially designed to house it.
Paper records are already being shipped to a warehouse the National Archives has leased in Lewisville, Texas, near Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where Bush's presidential library is to be housed.
Archives officials said they had a high level of confidence
that White House e-mails could be entered into an electronic record-keeping system, and messages could be retrieved when Congress and the courts require them. However, Thomas S. Blanton, director of the non-profit National Security Archive, told the Times he doubted the National Archives could manage the feat.
Their confidence is inexplicable,
Blanton said.
Blanton's organization is a plaintiff in a number of lawsuits seeking Bush administration records.
UPI
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