The White House recycles. They recycle things like backup tapes, because that is a “best practice” in the industry. What industry, you ask? Oh, that would be the Criminal Industry.

The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

…Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes “consistent with industry best practices,” according to a sworn statement by a White House aide.

I’m sorry, but I just have to say, that is rich. You’d think they were running a McDonald’s franchise.

Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.

Separately, the statement reveals the extent to which the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House “does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process,” said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. “We are continuing our efforts,” said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that “there is no basis to say that the White House has destroyed any evidence or engaged in any misconduct.”

Fratto said that despite the recycling, some tapes should contain e-mails from before October 2003.

“Of course the disaster recovery backup tapes were, at one time, recycled,” said Fratto. “However, since October 2003, the Office of Administration has retained and preserved its disaster recovery tapes. The disaster recovery system is set up to regularly back up everything on the network for the Executive Office of the president at the time of each backup.”

The recycling of backup tapes by the Bush White House represents a reversal in policy from the final year of the Clinton administration. The Clinton White House halted recycling of backup tapes in March 2000, when it was discovered that some e-mail from the office of Vice President Al Gore was not preserved.

The seven-page document filed in U.S. District Court says the White House in October 2003 “began preserving and storing all backup tapes and continues to do so.” Payton said this means that e-mails sent or received in the 2003-2005 time period should be contained on existing backup tapes.

The period of 2003 and 2005 is the time frame at issue in lawsuits seeking information about possibly millions of missing e-mails at the Bush White House.

…“It appears that the White House has now destroyed the evidence of its misconduct,” said Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for CREW, the other private group that sued.“The White House declaration raises more questions than it answers, specifically the likelihood that for a very significant period of time — March 2003 to October 2003 — the White House recycled its backup tapes,” said Weismann.

“As a result there may be no way to recover the missing e-mails from a period in which the U.S. decided to go to war with Iraq, White House officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame and the Justice Department started a criminal investigation of the White House,” the lawyer said.

The sworn statement by Payton did not say how early in the Bush administration the recycling of backup computer tapes began. The statement does not say why the White House stopped recycling backup tapes in October 2003.

The Bush Administration behaves in openly criminal ways. They show flagrant disregard for the rule of law. I know everybody already knows this, but still, let it get right under your skin. Pretty soon we will all be preparing our taxes. When you’re sweating out all those damned forms and schedules, trying to line up receipts and every other piece of evidence you need to stay out of the IRS’s way, just think about the White House taking your hard-earned money and blowing it on wars. Think of them giving it to their rich pals. Think of them blithely erasing their emails to cover up their own crimes.

What country is this?