The White House Office of

Administration wrote a memo to officials who were to

testify to Congress about Administration scandals

informing them that the problem prevented the messages

from being screened to determine if they concerned the

illegally obtained FBI files, Al Gore's money-laundering

visit to the Buddhist Temple, the sale of seats on

foreign trade mission aircraft - or any of the other

alleged administration improprieties. The messages had

been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury and three

congressional committees.

White House officials

solicited a bid from the contractor in October 1998 to

fix the problem, but no further action was taken until

February 1999, when one official dismissed the problem

with the admonition "let sleeping dogs lie."

Meanwhile, depositions indicate that the contractor team

had been told by White House officials to say nothing to

anyone about the missing messages, and reportedly said

that the contractors would be "thrown in jail"

if they disclosed the oversight.

The administration further

tried to hide the content of these communications by

telling the contractors that they were

"classified" - a term indicating national

security concerns.

The problem went unreported

until the Washington Times became aware of the situation

in February of this year. White House officials then

backpedaled, denying they had threatened the contractors

and adding, "We have seen no documents that in any

way suggest that the e-mail problem was hidden from

Congress."

Will anything come of it?

Probably not. The White House now says that the e-mail

recovery effort probably will take until late November.

Its probably just an odd coincidence that the election is

in early November. And if Congress allows the White House

to see the e-mails first, any evidence of wrongdoing will

surely be stifled.

Further, this Congress has

continually backed down rather than hold this

administration accountable. Clinton-Gore, and their toady

in the Justice Department, Janet Reno, simply declare

that the American people want to "put it behind us

and move on." That has a nice ring to it -

putting Bill Clinton and Al Gore's legacy of lies and

decade of deceit behind us and moving on with a new

administration.

William Fielder

Peachtree City