In December, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington settled its lawsuit with the White House over missing Bush administration e-mails, and pursuant to that settlement, the White House provided a letter today outlining the system it uses to preserve unclassified e-mails among White House staffers. It stores them "in an off-site, tight security, location" using EMC Corporation's EmailXtender (EX) system, which alerts the Records Management team if anyone tries to remove an e-mail without authorization (the White House says this hasn't happened so far)...the Records Management team would then notify Information Security, the Chief Information Officer, the Office of Administraion's general counsel, and the relevant part(s) of the White House Counsel's Office.

EX system administrators are the only people who have the ability to delete e-mails; to remove an e-mail from the database, one needs "advice" from the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, the National Security Council, and authorization from the CIO, the Office of General Counsel, and the director of the Office of Administration. Neither the White House intranet, nor its Blackberry network allow employees to use any personal e-mail systems. See the letter here (.pdf).

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.