Nicholas F. Benton's White House Report

A Bush administration initiative emanating from its highest levels that many believe has as its goal a cynical suppression of public documents in underway now to force out the Archivist of the United States John Carlin.

On April 8, the Bush White House submitted the name of Allen Weinstein to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee as its nominee to replace Carlin, even though Carlin has no intention of leaving his post until the summer of 2005.

According to reliable inside sources cited on the History News Network web site, "the effort to replace Carlin is coming from the highest levels of the White House. Reportedly, Karl Rove, who is widely viewed as one of the president's chief political advisors, if not his political mastermind and Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, want their own archivist in place for two overarching reasons: first, because of the sensitive nature of certain presidential and executive department records likely to be opened in the near future, and second, because there is genuine concern in the White House that the president may not be re-elected."

In January 2005, under the Presidential Records Act, the first batch of official records of the senior George Bush administration are due to be opened to the public.

In addition, this administration is also concerned for the 9-11 Commission records, which are not subject to the mandatory 30-year closure rule (except for the most highly classified documents). All materials relating to the Commission's work are slated to be transferred to the National Archives upon the termination of the Commission later this year. Those documents could be opened to researchers and journalists as soon as they hit the National Archives.

The Bush administration is foisting Weinstein, a man with strong Republican Party ties but a virtual unknown in the archivist world, upon the U.S. Senate in hopes it can force Carlin out before all this happens, with the hope that it can suppress embarrassing or even incriminating documents that might otherwise become public.

It is willing to do this despite the clear wording of the law on this matter, which states that the Archivist of the U.S. "is to be an appointment based without regard to political affiliations and solely on the basis of the professional qualifications required to perform the duties and responsibilities of the office."

As for Carlin, he's made it clear on numerous occasions long before now that his plan has been to stay on as the U.S. Archivist until July 2005, upon his 65th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his appointment to the post. While archivist organizations had begun to pull together qualification statements and a "highly qualified" list of names for the White House to consider in finding Carlin's replacement in 2005, what was an orderly procedure to pass power from Carlin to a new archivist in the summer of 2005 has been short-circuited by the Bush administration's pre-emptive act.

Carlin, meanwhile, continues to insist that he has no intention of leaving, and that there is no cause for his replacement.

Several archivist organizations have expressed alarm at these developments. The Society of American Archivists, on behalf of several archival and historical organizations, issued a letter expressing concern about "the sudden announcement on April 8 that the Bush administration has nominated Weinstein."

The statement, endorsed by more than eight credible archivist and historical organizations, said, "Prior to the announcement, there was no consultation with professional organizations of archivists or historians...We believe that Weinstein must demonstrate his ability to meet the criteria that will qualify him to serve."

A former foreign policy advisor to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), "outside the world of Republican political activists and a small circle of historians of espionage, Weinstein is not very well known by many academics. He is a virtual unknown to archivists," the History News Network reports.

His nomination was characterized by former National Security Archive founder and director Scott Armstrong as "the most cynical appointment of an archivist possible. He (Weinstein) has a very clouded, very complicated, self-promoting, neo-con, politically manipulative record. While he uses historical documentation in his work, he is very selective in his use."

In fact, Weinstein fell into favor with conservative Republican circles through his work on Alger Hiss. His work, "Perjury: the Hiss-Chambers Case" (1978, rev. 1998) drew much criticism for the research methods he used. Weinstein's conclusion that Hiss was a Soviet spy drew the wrath of many, but made him a darling to the conservative that helped finance his various projects since.