By David Gewirtz
On Saturday, April 21, 2007, I published a small article in DominoPower called, Technical analysis: the White House email controversy. I'd been watching the news and hearing reports about missing email in the Bush Administration White House.
What bothered me was the way they were characterizing Lotus Notes was wrong, based on everything I knew from my years of experience as DominoPower's editor.
So I wrote that article. Then another. All told, over the next few months I wrote 12 full articles, which eventually wound up in a book, Where Have All The Emails Gone? How Something as Seemingly Benign as White House Email Can Have Freaky National Security Consequences.
During the months I researched those articles and wrote the book, I was grateful to have had the support of both our advertisers and you, our readers. I got exceptional feedback after each article was published by some of the top technical experts dealing with email and messaging management. And I got encouragement and suggestions for more questions to ask and avenues to research.
Since then, over the years, I've written a steady flow of articles and special reports about White House communications for CNN, CBS Interactive's ZDNet Government blog, for Counterterrorism Magazine, for Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and more. I've done hundreds of interviews on Presidential communication and advise homeland security professionals on countering cyberterrorism and conducting and defending against cyberwarfare.
And in July, as a direct result of the small articles begun because of my gig here as editor of both DominoPower and OutlookPower magazines, I had the opportunity to participate in the filming of a History Channel special, The President's Book of Secrets, which premieres Wednesday night at 9pm.
The President's Book of Secrets takes viewers on a journey inside White House history to unveil staggering information about secrets known only to the President, from top-secret intelligence and classified events to covert codes and future technologies.
The President's Book of Secrets features exclusive interviews with Washington insiders, including former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and presidential daughter Susan Ford who reveal what it is like to live and work in the White House.
Additionally, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, journalists Dan Rather and Jonathan Alter and other experts (that'd be me!) share what they know about the secret world of the presidency.
My part in the program is a discussion of the Internet and the Presidency, along with White House email, communications, and messaging technologies. You know, the usual.
Kudos to the producers for their patience while they were filming me. I haven't seen the program yet, but they've promised that even though I've got a face for radio, I won't break your TV screen.
Please tune in. I'm sure it'll be a fascinating program. Set your TiVos. And, if you don't happen to catch it Wednesday night, check the History Channel's schedule for future broadcasts.
