"Infiltration of (Senate Democrats) files seen as extensive..."

[Vinnie From Indy]

2004 The New York Times -- WASHINGTON

"For 18 months, at least two Republican Senate staff aides engaged in unauthorized and possibly illegal spying by reading Democratic strategy memorandums on a Senate computer system, according to a report released on Thursday by the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

The 65-page report concluded that the two Republican staff aides, both of whom have since departed, improperly read, downloaded and printed as many as 4,670 files concerning the Democrats’ strategy in opposing many of President Bush’s judicial nominees. The report of an investigation undertaken at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggested that many other Republican staff aides may have been involved in trafficking in the purloined documents.

Investigators said that an inexperienced computer coordinator did not adequately make files inaccessible and that Lundell observed the coordinator opening files with a few key strokes and then copied what he had done. For the next 18 months, the report said, Lundell supplied documents to Miranda after accessing the files of staff aides for Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Leahy. The largest share was from Durbin’s office.

Some information sought by Miranda and provided by Lundell, according to the report, was about how Democrats would question some nominees. Leahy wrote to Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, asking if his office received any of the stolen information.

In response, Gonzales offered a denial that was less than categorical, saying: “I am not aware of any credible allegation of White House involvement in this matter. Consequently, there has been no White House investigation or effort to determine whether anyone at the White House was aware of or involved in these activities."

It is mystifying why Congressional Democrats have not revived this story in the minds of the American public. It would seem that a question about this incident at a Gonzalez hearing would have been appropriate and it may have caught the lying weasel off guard.

IN addition, I hope all Democratic campaigns are aware that their communications are most likely being monitored and that they should examine establishing secure lines of communication for their most sensitive information. Just a reminder for all you campaign workers!

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N10/10_long3.10w.html

[ClassWarrior]

1. K&R

NGU.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. With all those Dem-leaning IT workers out of work, you'd think we'd

be able to recruit some experienced people.

[hootinholler]

6. I'd love to work for Conyers or Kucinich!

Resume on request.

-Hoot

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Wonder why they don't use the blogs for that kind of recruitment?

[tblue37]

14. Yeah, but unlike the Republican farm system,

the Democrats expect loyal workers to simply donate their time out of the goodness of their hearts.

The late great Steve Gilliard used to rant about the way Republicans provided well-financed work for their loyal and talented foot soldiers, while progressives with money expected theirs to work for free. That is how we end up with the Jonah Goldbergs, Dinesh D' Souzas, and Ann Coulters, as well as all the well-paid intellectuwhores of the AEI and the Heritge Foundation. When a RW shill's book comes out, RW billionaires buy up enough copies to put it on the NYTimes besteseller list, and copies are given away free to people who join RW websites or send contributions to Republican candidates.

David Brock writes about this well-financed system in Blinded by the Right.

We have wealthy people on our side, too, but unlike the wealthy RW benefactors like Richard Melon Scaife and Rupert Murdoch, who generously invest their money to support their political agendas, our wealthy partisans expect progressive writers, thinkers, and foot soldiers to do everything for free.

Eric Alterman has also written about how when he got his PhD, he noticed that many of his peers were making huge amounts of money working for RW think tanks, while he was struggling just to survive. I know of at least one person with strong progressive leanings who went over to the dark side because he was offered a well-paid position, and he was tired of scraping to survive. When his wife became pregnant, he decided to follow the money rather than his own beliefs.

Forty years ago, at the height of the political ascendancy of liberalism in America, the corporatists and power brokers who now benefit from Republican policies actually came together in strategy meetings to lay the groundwork for taking over US politics and the media for corporations and the wealthy and well-connected. Lewis Lapham, among others, has written about this long-term plan and how they funded it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. That explains why the DLC is such a constipated group of wealth. that 's losing

touch with its base. They aren't spreading the wealth to the foot soldiers, so they're cutting themselves off from the supply lines. Not that anyone constipated needs to eat any more... Oh, bugger that metaphor! You know what I mean.

[lostnfound]

21. Progressive wealthy partisans probably don't get the corrupt payback

that their conservative counterparts do.

Scaife & Murdoch make an ROI on every congressperson they can buy -- their financial interests are inseparable from their political interests. On personal financial issues (like capital gains taxes) or on strategic business issues (like media monopolies), they stand to profit financially. When they invest in AEI etc., they are ensuring their own financial security and/or growth, as well as their own political power.

Meanwhile, the financial interests and political interests of progressive wealthy partisans are usually in total opposition to each other. Hence you have Warren Buffett commenting that his own tax rate is "too low". If he invests in progressive think tanks, his payback might be that he'll end up paying more in taxes, and ideally, dispersing political power, as a populist.

[wicket]

3. K & R

:kick:

[Lasher]

4. It was an outrage, how this never went anywhere.

And people wonder how Turd Blossom always managed to stay a step ahead.

[L. Coyote]

11. It is still going on. The hearing today is part of this. See my post below for more.

[KoKo]

5. Orrin Hatch mentioned it in the SJ hearings with Jennings this a.m. Compared it to Dems

Investigation of White House USAttorney's firings. Said Repugs cleaned this up (yet no one was prosecuted). Somehow in Hatch's mind this compares. :eyes:

[NMDemDist2]

7. 2004? anything new on this? n/t

[Richard Steele]

8. gonzo's lying again. Y'all know damn well this stuff went straight to the White House.

Hell, he didn't even really DENY that they got it:
"I am not aware of any credible allegation of
White House involvement in this matter. Consequently,
there has been no White House investigation or effort
to determine whether anyone at the White House was
aware of or involved in these activities.""


Basically, that translates as "You don't have PROOF,
therefore we're not looking for proof". Not really
a denial that it HAPPENED, is it?

[donkeyotay]

16. Gonzoleeze

I do not recall remembering being aware of any credible allegation of any hard evidence of any involvement by anyone I am aware of recalling being able to remember. We're looking at understanding to determine whether anyone at the WH was aware or involved.

[L. Coyote]

10. Much of the current investigation began with the hacker-gate interception ....

SO, how many secret domestic spy programs are there anyway, and are they legal?
Posted by L. Coyote on Tue Jul-31-07 04:01 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1481897

THIS THREAD: Focus - all domestic espionage programs. Purpose - provide actual context of current events.

Recent news events surrounding the Gonzales testimony re: Meuller, Comey, and Ashcroft's hospital visit, seems to convey a blissful ignorance about just what is happening on the domestic spying front, including the legal spying.

Much of the current investigation began with the hacker-gate interception of all the Senate Committee on the Judiciary electronic communications, and Dem Senators began asking questions way back then, albeit without the power of the majority.

The "oversight era" could not begin until the People transformed the Congress. Now the sheer mass of corruption and abuses of power are difficult to deal with while, at the same time, attempting to stop an illegal war and run the country. Nonetheless, this issue has not yet evaporated, perhaps in no small part due to how it started with Republicans spying on the Senate Judiciary Democrats, and Dems wondering what they are up to this time. Watergate started with Republicans spying on Dems too, some might recall.

================
Feb. 2004. Hacker-Gate, "Republicans stole thousands of Democratic documents.."
This alone is way worse than Watergate. In this case the criminals actually pulled off a
their "listening" program, instead of getting caught trying to bug the Dems. And, in retrospect
from several years later, the Department of Justice or the GOP Congressional leadership did NADA!!
So, do we have the proverbial crime of the cover-up to consider too?

=======================================
Dems: Stolen memo case should go to DOJ
by kos - Tue Feb 10, 2004 at 02:02:22 PM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/2/10/17222/9423

.... Senate Dems are now demanding a criminal investigation from the Department of Justice
after Republicans stole thousands of Democratic documents from a shared Justice committee server.

From the registration only Roll Call:


Key Senate Democrats predicted Monday that the internal investigation into the
Judiciary Committee's leaked memos would be turned into a full-blown criminal investigation.

Exiting a 90-minute briefing about the probe with Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Bill Pickle, a
quartet of senior Judiciary Democrats declared that what they had heard led them to believe
a criminal inquiry, most likely with the Justice Department handling it, should occur.

"Eventually, this has to be looked at as a criminal matter," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)...

Leahy sat in on the Senators-only briefing with Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), all of whom declined to speak of the details of where Pickle
stands in his three-month investigation ......


Republicans, in defending the theft, refer to the matter as a "technical glitch" and deny that the stolen memos amount to criminal wrongdoing .....

================
Uncensored 'Hackergate' Report Accidentally Released; Perps' Names Revealed - March 30, 2004
Report on the Investigation Into Improper Access to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Computer System
http://www.subliminalnews.com/archives/000167.php

An uncensored version of the Senate Sergeant At Arms' report on his investigation into Republican hacking of sensitive Democrat computer servers was accidentally released to journalists on March 4. The 67-page report includes the names of the partisan cyber-thieves, other key figures on both sides of the scandal, and numerous footnotes that were redacted in the public version.

A copy of the full, uncensored report ( http://cryptome.org/judiciary-sys.htm ) is available at Cryptome.org, which highlights the previously censored sections in red text. A link to a PDF of the censored version ( http://www.calpundit.com/blogphotos/Pickle%20report.pdf ) is also provided.

It is unclear just how accidental the "accidental release" of the full report actually was. A letter issued by Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said the release was due to "an administrative error" and that there "was no intention on anyone's part to release this version at this time..."

As reported by Subliminal News at the time ( http://www.subliminalnews.com/archives/000141.php ), the scandal -- now often referred to as "Hackergate" -- erupted publicly in late January, 2004, when the Boston Globe and other press outlets reported that Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee had secretly infiltrated Democrat computers for at least a year.

-----------
FULL REPORT: http://cryptome.org/judiciary-sys.htm
PDF: http://www.calpundit.com/blogphotos/Pickle%20report.pdf
Joint Statement Of Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah)
And Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) .....

=======================================
Was the Senate File Pilfering Criminal?
Monday January 26, 2004 by Ed Felten
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/index.php?p=502

Some people have argued that the Senate file pilfering could not have violated the law, because the files were reportedly on a shared network drive that was not password-protected. (See, for instance, Jack Shafer’s Slate article.) Assuming those facts, were the accesses unlawful?

Here’s the relevant wording from the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. 1030):
Whoever … intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains … information from any department or agency of the United States … shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) …
…
the term ‘’exceeds authorized access'’ means to access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter......

=========================================
Enough of a preamble to the scandal. This is just part of the background of the current events.

[kenny blankenship]

12. They may catch the amateurs now and then

[UTUSN]

13. Who knew the Senate Dems had much info of value or were such a threat to be spied on?!1 n/t

[kenny blankenship]

17. You have to get inside their mind. You have to know what they want, need.

You have to think... like a mouse. If you can do that, you can anticipate...and... boom.

How do we think the Senate Democrats have been neutralized for so long? Surveillance is PERVASIVE.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

15. An even more egregious "watergate" style break-in.

Total corruption of a democratic system!!!

[tiptoe]

22. yep...and an impeachable offense (presuming linkage to WH)

[tom_paine]

19. Yawn. Just another multiple-felony by the Loyal Bushies that will go unpunished

I'd like to get worked up over THIS particular multiple-felony by Busheviks, but it would take away from outrage at the two dozen or so other mutliple-felony clusters they have going on.

[jazzjunkysue]

20. That makes 2 cowbells in 2 minutes. Let's hear it for the Thursday news dump!

I can't wait till Friday!