BBC News Online: World: Americas

White House 'pranks' taken seriously

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said numerous acts of apparent vandalism, blamed on departing staff, were being catalogued. But no legal action would be taken, he added.

New reports talk of severed computer cables, misdirected telephone lines, obscene messages and stolen champagne flutes.

One office is said to have been adorned with a makeshift sign reading "Office of Strategerie" - a reference to a Saturday Night Live television spoof of George W Bush.

Glued

There was also reported to be an "Office of Subliminable Messages" - a phrase used by Mr Bush during the campaign - along with a "Division of Uniting."

Filing cabinet drawers were said to be glued stuck and printers found to have pornographic images hidden among stacks of white paper.

Other reports said obscene messages were left on answering machines, while incoming calls were misdirected to other offices.

Champagne flutes embossed with the presidential seal were said to have gone missing from the Air Force One plane in which Mr Clinton left Washington with some of his staff.

Some former Clinton staff confirmed that pranks were played on the incoming Republicans, but said they were not intended with malice.

They said they were meant to be funny or, in some cases, were just a manifestation of the frustration felt by people about to lose their jobs.

Mr Fleischer did not share their sense of humour, but declined to give details of the damage.

"I choose not to describe what acts were done that we found upon arrival, because I think that's part of the changing tone in Washington," he told reporters.