By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Costa Rica  has received half of what it seeks from the U.S. White House.

One of two pages that list Costa Rica as a member of the coalition in favor of the war in Iraq no longer carries the name of the country.

However, a second page still lists the country alphabetically as a coalition member.

Both pages contain what is reported to be a March 27, 2003, list of coalition members.

However, a Sala IV constitutional court decision in September 2004 ordered executive branch officials to get the name of the country removed. Bruno Stagno, the minister of Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, said Tuesday that he wanted the White House page to be “delinked” so that those who go to a search engine like Yahoo will not see Costa Rica listed as a member of the coalition.

The agreement by then-President Abel Pacheco to allow the country to be listed aroused strong passions. Costa Rica prides itself on its pacifist tradition.

Although the change in the White House Web page is nothing like the gaps in the audio tapes maintained by President Richard Nixon, the change does represent an effort to  change history.

Although Internet Web pages are updated easily, making changes in historical documents raises the specter of the novel “1984″ by  George Orwell in which the protagonist, Winston Smith, works for the Ministry of Truth doctoring historical records so that they conform to the politics of the day.

At the White House both Web pages purport to contain a copy of a news release issued March 27, 2003. Each Web site says that 49 countries are members of the coalition. One page lists 49 countries including Costa Rica. One page lists 48 countries and gives no reason what the number does not agree with that given in the header paragraph.

An effort to “delink” the page certainly would run afoul of search engines that maintain cache pages of key sites.

The incoming Óscar Arias Sánchez administration renewed a request to remove the country’s name, and a message to that effect was delivered to the U.S. Embassy here last week.