It does make me wonder about one thing...if it is true that deleted messages are retained on the system, it seems to me that edited messages could be also (that is, whatever was orginally posted would be retained in addition to any changes). That way, if someone denied a posting (which is pretty silly for them to do because there are usually witnesses to each thread), the powers that be could simply bring up the originals. But, of course, then they would probably be accused of tampering with the messages. It's kind of a no win, no win situation when people are (rightly or wrongly) mistrustful to begin with.