Michael Chertoff on the use of e-mail

[mcscajun]

The NYT interviewer's questions are in Italics; Chertoff's responses follow.

Actually, one consequence of all this domestic surveillance is that Americans now know that nothing they put in an e-mail is private.

Look at all the people who have gone to jail because they e-mailed something incriminating! Frank Quattrone got convicted based on e-mail, although he just got his conviction reversed.

So what are you saying? That e-mail is bad because it can't be shredded?

I don't use e-mail. One reason is when you write an e-mail, you have to be mindful of the fact that nothing ever disappears. It can be deleted, but it is still in the system somewhere.

But as the man who oversees this country's security in addition to 180,000 employees, and who has been accused of being tragically out of touch, shouldn't you make yourself available to your employees?

They can get me. They don't need to e-mail me. There's a thing called a telephone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/magazine/02wwln_q4.html

Sure...Don't Leave a Trail, there, Mike. Surely your phone calls aren't recorded.

[Flubadubya]

1. OH, the IRONY...

He won't use e-mail, but he would be "out of business" if everyone else followed his precepts. :crazy: :rofl: Dumb schluck!

[acmejack]

2. So we have a pResident & a DHS Jeffe who refuse to use E-mail since

it is maintained for posterity. I wonder how many other criminals in the Administration follow this precept?

[Kagemusha]

6. Rumsfeld does.

I'm not sure who else, but Rumsfeld seems to have fully absorbed the idea of, no tape, no crime.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Silly Chertoff

Uses the telephone cause he thinks his emails are being intercepted....
well...who's to say that his phone isn't tapped.

Especially when you have an administration that loves to spy on their own people.

Chertie does not seem like a very bright buld

[Canuckistanian]

4. "If you're not doing anything wrong, then what are you afraid of?"

To paraphrase a popular saying....

[Neil Lisst]

5. OMG! Chertoff is truly dangerous. He's gotta be fired.

This is a former judge talking like Tony Soprano.