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Hillary Clinton Used BleachBit To Wipe Emails (neowin.net)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: The open-source disk cleaning application, BleachBit, got quite a decent ad pitch from the world of politics after it was revealed lawyers of the presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton, used the software to wipe her email servers. Clinton is currently in hot water, being accused of using private servers for storing sensitive emails. "[South Carolina Representative, Trey Gowdy, spoke to Fox News about Hillary Clinton's lawyers using BleachBit to wipe the private servers. He said:] 'She and her lawyers had those emails deleted. And they didn't just push the delete button; they had them deleted where even God can't read them. They were using something called BleachBit. You don't use BleachBit for yoga emails or bridesmaids emails. When you're using BleachBit, it is something you really do not want the world to see.'" Two of the main features that are listed on the BleachBit website include "Shred files to hide their contents and prevent data recovery," and "Overwrite free disk space to hide previously deleted files." These two features would make it pretty difficult for anyone trying to recover the deleted emails.
Slashdot reader ahziem adds: The IT team for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used the open source cleaning software BleachBit to wipe systems "so even God couldn't read them," according to South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy on Fox News. His comments on the "drastic cyber-measure" were in response to the question of whether emails on her private Microsoft Exchange Server were simply about "yoga and wedding plans." Perhaps Clinton's team used an open-source application because, unlike proprietary applications, it can be audited, like for backdoors. In response to the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013, privacy expert Bruce Schneier advised in an article in which he stated he also uses BleachBit, "Closed-source software is easier for the NSA to backdoor than open-source software." Ironically, Schneier was writing to a non-governmental audience. Have any Slashdotters had any experience with BleachBit? Specifically, have you used it for erasing "yoga emails" or "bridesmaids emails?"
"Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice used private accounts for classified emails"
https://www.theguardian.com/us...
I regularly use something to overwrite/erase files, and overwrite/erase free space on hard drives of machines I use; does that automatically make ME a criminal?
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT voting for Clinton.. I am also NOT voting for Trump.. but I AM VOTING. WHO I am voting for is nobody's damn business, so DON'T EVEN GO THERE, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS SUBJECT.
Now, then.. just because she used BleachBit doesn't mean she is or is NOT a criminal or committed a criminal act. If I were running an email server for my personal use I'd probably overwrite/delete on it occasionally, too.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
You're building a strawman; you made a fake argument designed to be easily knocked down. The actual argument being made is: If you complain that Clinton used a non-governmental email server, but you did not complain that Bush+ did the same thing (and "lost" a lot more email), then you are not concerned about the potential email-server crime; you're just a whining partisan idiot.
A similar situation: The tea party folks were incredibly upset that Obama ran a big deficit. You wouldn't know it to listen to them now, but for many years the deficit was the most important thing in the political world and proof that Obama was trying to destroy the USA.
But the deficit under Obama shrunk every year, while the deficit under Bush Junior grew every year. Yet the tea party folks never made a peep of complaint when Bush grew the deficit.
So the most likely explanation is that the tea party folks never really cared about the deficit; they are just whining partisan idiots.
There are of course partisan idiots on all sides of the political spectrum, but the republicans seem the only ones who let the partisan idiots set their policy and talking points. Odd way to run a railroad.