Living in a no e-mail world

And, , reports that Al Qaeda top leader won't use the Internet or phones.But, as we discovered at the Doan hearing, many people at the White House do use e-mail -- just . (More .) -- or CREW -- has about whether the White House is following the . Crew has also "sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Administration seeking White House record-keeping policies and guidance for presidential and federal records dating from January 1, 2001, to the present." spoke to CREW's Melanie Sloan about the issue. They also spoke to Anna Nelson, a presidential historian at American University. Back in the '70s, she worked on a governmental commission that helped draft the , which requires presidents to preserve their documents as records.During the , they also discussed , which limits access to the records of former United States Presidents. Needless to say, many organizations have grave concerns about that executive order. There are links on .

So we discovered last year that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff doesn't use e-mail.

Well, apparently he is not alone. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez apparently doesn't either. And, according to the NRP program On the Media, a media critique program, "he's not the only Cabinet official. Donald Rumsfeld claimed not to use it. Ditto for Condoleezza Rice and Michael Chertoff. In fact, the President himself told CNBC last year that he didn't touch the stuff.

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: I tend not to email – or not only tend not to email -I don't email, because of the different record requests that could happen to a president. I don't want to receive emails, 'cause, you know, there's no telling what somebody would e-mail me - and it would show up as a, you know, a part some kind of a story. And I wouldn't be able to say, well, I didn't read the email. But I sent it to your address. How can you say you didn't? So, in other words, I'm very cautious about e mailing.


ABC News.com's blog, The Blotter

Wary of Western intelligence tehnologies, bin Laden's deputy Ayman al Zawahri has not used a telephone or accessed the Internet for four years, according to a report in today's Asharq al Awsat, a London-based Arabic-language daily.

not official e-mailhere

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washingtonraised questionsPresidential Records Act

On the MediaPresidential Records Act

On the Media programPresidential Executive Order 13233Wikipedia