Where Have All The Emails Gone?: How something as seemingly benign as White House email can have freaky national security consequences (Paperback)

by David Gewirtz (Author)
Key Phrases: presidential records act, deep throat, missing email messages, White House, Karl Rove, Hatch Act (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Email at the White House is deep, personal, candid, unfiltered communication within the leadership of the most powerful nation on Earth. And it's very, very broken. Learn about technical and security concerns that blast through political rhetoric and even party affiliation. Read this book and you'll understand the three root causes of the White House email problem. You'll also understand how six very doable recommendations can quickly and easily bring security and safety back to White House email.

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: ZATZ Publishing (November 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945266200
• ISBN-13: 978-0945266204
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #991,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest risks to U. S. national security may have been the White House, February 6, 2008

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The subject of the question is the alleged disappearance of millions of e-mail messages sent by White House staff members during the administration of George W. Bush. It is certainly a legitimate one as there are laws requiring the retaining of all presidential communication for historical purposes. As Gewirtz points out, the laws in this area are somewhat vague and outdated, especially when it pertains to e-mail. Those e-mails are also the subject of some extreme political bickering, as it is likely that some of the subject matter will be damaging to the Bush administration. This is especially true regarding the firing of a large number of U. S. attorneys for what appears to be less than honorable reasons.
Within this context, an unbiased and accurate assessment of the situation is a difficult task. However, Gewirtz, an expert in the principles of e-mail, manages to put forward a politically unbiased report on what he can glean from the sometimes admittedly scant evidence. His conclusions are sobering, if not outright scary. The level of security of White House e-mail is abysmal and the most frightening report was the admission by the White House that former political director Karl Rove has lost more than one Blackberry handheld computer. Given that Rove sat in on high-level security briefings and used his Blackberry to sent messages, it is a very possible that the lost devices contained the most sensitive of national secrets. Amid all the talk of safety and security by the Bush administration it is disgustingly ironic that the point of greatest potential danger for the release of critical information could have been Karl Rove's incompetence at hanging on to important equipment.
As someone well versed in computer security and a political junkie, I enjoyed this book on both counts. Given the survival potential of e-mails in the modern world, it is still quite likely that most of the lost messages will someday surface. One can hope that it will all be sometime in the future and that no real national harm was done. However, as Gewirtz does such a good job pointing out, there is a potential for significant risk as a consequence of the incompetent way e-mail has been handled in the White House.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but reads like an advertisement, April 28, 2008

By	Katie Barlow "Katie Barlow" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This is a decent book, but the author writes way way way too much in the first person.

He also references his company way way way too many times.

Not sure if this is a book or an advertorial.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars E-MAILS GONE WILD!!, February 19, 2008

By	John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Are you a conspiracy theorist? If you are, then this book is for you! Author David Gewirtz, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that offers insight into the White House security flaws that led to the recent missing of millions e-mails; as well as, archived ones. But, one begs to ask the questions: Did the security flaws grow out of outright stupidity on the part of IT management; or, on purpose; from a White House that each day breaks more constitutional laws before 9:00am, than were broken during the whole Watergate scandal?

Gewirtz, begins by looking at three possible scenarios that brought about the missing e-mail problem from a national security perspective, with consequences. Then, the author discusses how controversy over how the White House uses e-mail, dates almost as far back as e-mail's very existence. Next, he looks at how many messages may be missing and then deconstructs some of the damning assertions made by the loyal opposition about how e-mail messages can't just disappear. The author then explains why the President's staff uses at least two domains for e-mail: EOP.gov for official business and GWB43.com for political business. He continues by exploring GWB43.com for clues into the White House e-mail infrastructure. Then, the author takes a strange detour into what he calls "mob Journalism," as he continues to dig for the truth. Next, he explores, in-depth, the technical details of what makes the national security implications of the missing e-mails so troubling. He also discusses what White House spokesfolk like Dana Perino and Tony Snow (ex spokesmen) had been saying about the missing e-mails. Then, the author explains Dana Perino's confirmation that the e-mails were lost; and, her explanation that they were lost, because of the White House's migration from Notes to Outlook that went bad. Next, he looks at why Karl Rove kept losing his BlackBerry devices--two of which are allegedly permanently lost, and contain a mother lode of confidential and classified information. The author then analyzes whether the IT management at the White House are incomprehensibly unprofessional as they seem. Or, is it a pretense of cluelessness that is being used by Karl Rove to divert questions of disclosure, with regards to the firing of the Federal Prosecutors; and, to protect ex Attorney General Alberto "Don't Recall" Gonzales? Next, the author lists six recommendations that will fix the e-mail problem at the White House. Finally, the he discusses technical issues and concerns, plus security issues and concerns that blast through the political rhetoric and even party affiliation.

If I've learned anything from this most excellent book, the White House missing e-mail problem needs to be fixed. But more importantly, I've also learned (but actually knew already) that what appears on the political surface, is not necessarily what is really going on below the surface. The Truth Is Still Out There!!