What with the White House's issues with torture, war mongering, and the like, doesn't it seem funny that document retention should begin to hog the spot-light. While one case has begun to erupt, another simmers on a back burner...
The National Coalition for History, a self-described "history-related advocacy" group, has written US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Archivist of the US Allen Weinstein urging them to retain government records associated with several Guantanamo detainee cases. A court order issued by a federal judge in the federal circuit may be interpreted to allow the government to destroy all records "pursuant to [the government's] general document retention policies." The historians write:
We are concerned that the court order could be interpreted to authorize or direct destruction of government records that should be permanently preserved, such as the Combatant Status Review Tribunal record and the interview notes. The court's order is permissive, allowing the government to retain a set; yet as you know, federal statutory records retention requirements mandate retention by the government of a set of the records. Further, the government and the public would be best served by the permanent retention of the materials.
(emphasis in original).
Bless them, calling on Gonzalez to further the interest of the public.
Their concern, as everyone here will be aware, is quite valid. If the court order may be interpreted to allow the government to destroy records damaging to the administration (and quite possibly the AG himself), then that is the interpretation Gonzalez will give it. After all, we already are discovering that incriminating documents tend to slip through their hands and into oblivion.
The phrase "pushing the envelope" is an understatement for this administration. In the light of Geneva Convention provisions, to which this country is bound, the administration has attempted to re-define the term "torture." It has found euphemisms, such as "enhanced interrogation techniques". It has described the Geneva Convention as "quaint." It has engaged in rendition flights to allow prisoners to be tortured in other countries.
These people have engaged in a systematic destruction of our judicial system. They, or their cronies, have attempted to intimidate judges and attorneys. The very constitution so often invoked by the words of the White House henchmen has been mutilated. If you are their employee, and you don't bend to their will, they fire you. If you are not under their unfortunately opposable thumbs, they publicly trash you or endanger your life.
I wonder what the mere unlawful shredding of documents means to men and women such as these?