Posted on 05/28/2013 10:14:46 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
IRS Directed to Lock Down All Agency Data
By Eliana Johnson May 28, 2013 12:50 PM
The Internal Revenue Service is in the process of locking down all computer data across the agency, a sign that investigations into the scandal-plagued agency may be taking a broader sweep than initially anticipated.
Agency employees last Thursday received an e-mail alerting them, ”This is a late breaking top priority and things could change in the future,” according to an IRS employee who asked not to be named.
Employees were directed not to “wipe, re-image or otherwise destroy any hard drives” on any machine currently in use or in stock. During this time, the IRS will not discard any laptop and desktop computers that are replaced, and it is ”working on securing a location” where they will be kept, according to the e-mail.
National Review Online previously reported that data on computer hard drives in the Tax Exempt and Government Entity division in Cincinnati was being preserved and uploaded to a restriccted server where investigators can access it.
Four government probes are currently investigating the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups; they are being led by the House Oversight Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the IRS itself.
Lock me agency down, Sport
Lock me agency down
Never a frown cause the boss is brown
Lock me agency down
...what's the chances...
...of the IRS troll planning my audit wiped their computer?...
...yeah I know...
...snow ball's chance in...
They could save themselves a lot of trouble by simply starting with Baraq.
“Too late...everything was scrubbed 6 months ago.”
Everything going as planned. No smoking guns here.
I aint buying it either. Big gov’t pacifying the rubes.
(It's not like they'd be going Postal ;-))
And leave the tyrants inside!
No siree, don't do a coverup, and don't do it now!
This is like saying, “There will be an inspection of the barracks next week, so don’t clean anything up.” Hint hint.
The IRS is a very large organization with centralized computer systems. Completely scrubbing data would be a very difficult and time consuming process and would most certainly have to involve a number of lower and mid rank career employees. It is much more difficult than just deleting an email from the in box or formatting the hard drive on a laptop. I doubt if many managers have the skill to do the job and the career employees who might have the skill are not going to engage in an illegal conspiracy to save them. Every career employee involved in data management is very well aware of the hazard involved. A real investigating will detect any effort to scrub incriminating evidence.
Problem is, there are no honest employees at the IRS. Prove me wrong.
Prove yourself right first.
I don’t believe that Congress has the constitutional power to send anyone to jail.
Well, the IRS has A LOT of employees. There could probabilistically be at least one honest one.
On the other hand:
"One time Alexander the Great came to Athens; he had heard about Diogenes. Diogenes was the man who walked the streets of Athens, Greece, during the day time, with a lighted lantern -- looking for an honest man.
Diogenes lived in a large tub! He never found an honest man, but in the process of looking he exposed many liars and was known as a member of the School of Cynics."
Note that the same could be true even here at FR. ;-)
You made up that word!
Nope, spell check on my ‘puter straightened me out...
I can't help but think/hope that there might be one or more Deep Throat-inspired honest brokers among the "peons" who may have seen these days coming and has spirited away a terabyte or two of really pertinent and incriminating evidence waiting for the prime time to screw a political appointee or two.
“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
George Bernard Shaw, author (1856-1950)
Too many docs sent to conservative groups with idiotic requests. Quite a paper trail and too many computers to CYA.
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