
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 14, 1993                   TAG: 9308140177
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PRESERVATION OF RECORDS BROADENED

A federal appeals court Friday expanded the definition of records that must be preserved by the government to include millions of White House computer messages and other documents from the Reagan and Bush presidencies.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals here represents a landmark ruling involving the maintenance of government records as more and more material is placed into computers. Such records already have proven invaluable in the investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration and the prosecution of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega on drug charges.

"This means a major change in record-keeping practices for federal agencies," said Michael E. Tankersly, the lawyer from the watchdog group Public Citizen who led the court fight. "They must catch up with the innovations that have been made in electronic records systems."

The case stemmed from a lawsuit brought in 1989 by the National Security Archive, a non-governmental library of declassified documents. It sought to save from destruction the backup magnetic tapes and disks of computer information from the National Security Council under Reagan and Bush.

The appeals court decision also will require the Clinton administration to update its practices to ensure that future records of all federal agencies are kept, too.

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB