CREW: Bush White House unconcerned about e-mails.

• Position: GOVERNMENT RECORDS - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics

An extensive review was launched by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) after a settlement reached last December among President Barack Obama's administration, CREW, and the National Security Archive (NSA) research institute at George Washington University, The Washington Post said. The groups sued the Bush White House in 2007, accusing it of violating federal law by not preserving millions of e-mails sent between 2003 and 2005.

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As a result of the settlement, 94 days of e-mail were restored, and documents were released disclosing when the Bush administration learned of the missing e-mails and how it responded, according to The Post.

According to CREW, the restored e-mails are part of the National Archives and Records Administration's historic record of the Bush administration, but presidential historians and anyone else who wants information about the major decisions of Bush's presidency likely will find major holes, including messages sent between White House officials and drafts of policy decisions.

"The net effect of this is we've probably lost some truly valuable records that would have provided insight" into the administration's decision-making process on several policy issues, said CREW Chief Counsel Anne Weismarm, who led the review.

Problems first surfaced when the e-mall recordkeeping system used by the Clinton White House failed to properly archive messages sent by the Bush White House when it began transferring e-mail accounts from Lotus Notes...