Obama's Luddite climite czar

Washington Times:

Don't bother looking for any electronic records of Carol Browner's first stint as a federal government executive. The soon-to-be Obama administration climate czar intentionally didn't keep many.

In sworn testimony obtained by The Washington Times, Ms. Browner disclosed that she refused to use e-mail when she served as President Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency chief in the 1990s for fear of leaving a digital trail. She also ordered her government computer hard drive wiped clean of records just before leaving office.

"It was a conscious decision not to use a piece of equipment or to learn how to use a piece of equipment because I didn't want to be in a situation similar to what I had been in Florida," she testified about government computers. The testimony referred to her days as an environmental regulator in Florida, where an e-mail message sent to her surfaced in litigation.

"This is why I made this decision not to use my computer," she said. "I was very careful."

Ms. Browner's sworn statements were gathered in a little-noticed civil case involving the government's obligation to preserve its official records that transpired after Ms. Browner left office in January 2001. The lawsuit examined why EPA officials failed to save electronic records that chronicled the Clinton administration's final actions in office and that were being sought by a conservative legal group under federal open-records laws.

The same day a judge ordered the agency to preserve such records, Ms. Browner asked a staff member that any files on her government computer be erased, prompting allegations of a possible cover-up.

The ensuing investigation ultimately cleared Ms. Browner of any wrongdoing, concluding she was unaware of the judge's order. Her former agency, however, didn't fare as well. It was found in contempt of court for failing to preserve government records at the heart of the case.

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When special forces are in enemy territory they spend a good bit of time covering their trial and attempting to wipe it as clean as possible to avoid detection by the enemy. That seems to be Browner's MO in a much less hostile environment.

People sometimes complain about the brevity of my email, and I am certainly not trying to cover my back trail but at least I don't mind being on the record on some points. Browner seems to have a stealth agenda she is not very proud of in her role on global warming.