Rove investigator wiped computers

[kpete]

Official probing Rove now under investigation himself
Jason Rhyne
Published: Wednesday November 28, 2007

The federal official helming a probe into potentially illegal partisan political activities conducted by Karl Rove and other White House officials is himself the focus of a federal investigation.

Scott Bloch, the Bush-appointed head of the US Office of Special Counsel, is under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers, The Wall Street Journal's John R. Wilke reports.

"Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year," writes Wilke. "They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said." The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management is examining the case at the urging of the White House.

The Journal reports that Bloch called the tech support service Geeks on Call for help deleting specified computer files instead of using his agency's own in-house computer technicians. That company "dispatched a technician in one of its signature PT Cruiser wagons," according to Wilke, who adds that Bloch confirms contacting Geeks on Call but maintains it was part of an effort to "eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer."

more at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Official_probing_Rove_now_under_investigation_1128.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Virus name? WMD

wireless messages of deception

[Octafish]

25. Certainly wasn't DOJ.

Ashcroft went fishin'.

[leftofthedial]

33. virus name is kinda long:

Karl Rove will rat fuck me to death if I don't cover up his crimes.

[tom_paine]

2. Ah, the hallmark of any totalitarian society. Party Criminals "invetsigating" other Party Criminals

Bush Party, Communist Party, Nazi Party, no matter what part of the politicsal spectrum they used to justify their mostrous tyrannies, they are always the same, at bottom.

What to do when the entire upper echelons of goverment are seizsed by arch-criminals?

From examples in Germany and America...the answer is clearly "go along with it." :puke:

[mod mom]

3. Coverage from TPM Muck:

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - November 28, 2007, 9:39AM
It's just not enough that a number of administration officials have been investigated for malfeasance; the Bush Administration takes it the extra mile. The man who's charged with investigating some of that malfeasance is himself under investigation. And he's clearly no slouch at malfeasance.

Scott Bloch heads the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an odd little agency that was set up to police federal employees of infractions that do not rise to the criminal level. The OSC's main brief is enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using government resources for political ends (so Bloch should be a busy man). He's also supposed to make sure whistleblowers do not suffer retaliation. The OSC reports to the White House.

Bloch himself has been under investigation since 2005 for a variety of infractions, including retaliating against employees who took issue with internal policies and discriminating against those who were gay or members of religious minorities. At the direction of the White House, the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general has been pressing on with an investigation of Bloch.

Which makes this all the more curious. From The Wall Street Journal:

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.
Bypassing his agency's computer technicians, Mr. Bloch phoned 1-800-905-GEEKS for Geeks on Call, the mobile PC-help service. It dispatched a technician in one of its signature PT Cruiser wagons. In an interview, confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call but said he was trying to eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer....

Mr. Bloch had his computer's hard disk completely cleansed using a "seven-level" wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards. The process makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. He also directed Geeks on Call to erase laptop computers that had been used by his two top political deputies, who had recently left the agency....

-snip

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004790.php

[blogslut]

5. Jaysus H. Christ!

These freaking losers either don't have the management skills to hire their own IT people or they're just too idiotically cheap to grasp the importance of an in-house technical staff. Or, they're lying their butts off and using Geek-on-Call to cover their crimes.

[Botany]

10. Rove's e-mail was through a "off the books" company; Smartech

Smartech located in Chattanooga, TN hosted
The RNC, bush/Cheney '04, and gwb43.com
and Ken Blackwell sent the Ohio 2004 vote there too.

And this big time site host did not have a virus blocker?

[blogslut]

15. Oh, I know all about it

It's all a mess, combined with incompetence and sheer chicanery. The incompetence is what will nail them.

[seafan]

24. More on Smartech here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1705725&mesg_id=1706354

[MrMickeysMom]

39. My bet is that they're lying their butts off...

... It's the signature "non-criminal" method these liars use... They feign their activities with the appearance of mere incompetence. How anyone gets to the level of that made up office and is this stupid doesn't follow.

As they say,, "that dog won't hunt"!

[Cha]

32. That's like hiring

faux to take care of the chickenhawks.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. "After deleting the files..."

"The Geeks on Call technician convinced Mr. Bloch to buy Norton Internet Security, a new hard drive, 3 thumb drives, a polo shirt and a USB drink cooler. The total bill was $1295.00"

[formercia]

6. I smells a rat.

but did the rat wipe out the mail on the servers?

[MadMaddie]

29. Exactly...these guys are just too stupid...

[Botany]

7. What law didn't they break?

So the person who was supposed to investigate Rove worked to
cover up Rove's actions and blamed it on a computer virus?

Subpoena the person from geek squad.

[seafan]

22. Wouldn't it be interesting if the computer geek was a good NSA'er? Hoo.... boy.

And he just pretended to wipe the equipment clean.... holy moley.

If that has possibly occurred, these criminals are finished.

[MadMaddie]

30. or he copied the data...even more interesting..

[FREEWILL56]

34. Hey isn't this like driving 100mph with your buddy and when the siren

blares they stop and switch places real fast because you are wanted for felony questioning? This equates to a speeding ticket for the other guy as opposed to jail for the real criminal.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Things that make you go Hmmmmm

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. The DOJ from Orwell's 1984.

Holy crap, the outright mocking of the term justice by this cabal and its flunkies.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. There are no crimes they cannot commit openly,arrogantly, brazenly,

that will convince our stalwart Democratic leadership that perhaps impeachment might be called for. There is no actual crime on this planet that can achieve their interpretation of what constitutes High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

[Auntie Bush]

41. Yes, there are crimes that they condsider high crimes and misdemeanors

Having a blow job in the Oval Office or in the peoples house!

[samsingh]

12. this is sick - the repugs can't complain if we use these

dirty trick on them in the future.

[Poll_Blind]

13. The way they removed the data reveals his motivations.

  If you have a virus-infected file on your hard drive all you have to do is delete it. Just delete it. That's it, nothing special. Now, the OS may be damaged because the virus infected a system-critical file but that's beside the point. You delete the file via normal means and it's end of story.

  What you don't do is a DOD wipe like they did. A DOD wipe is what you do when you've got to get rid of data that you don't want anyone, not even a computer forensics expert, to find. Since they only did a 7-pass, there still may be a chance that a top-notch data-recovery company, or more likely Federal counter-terrorism experts, might be able to recover the files or parts of them*.

  I doubt that the hard drives in question will receive such treatment, however.

* There's a lot of debate about whether this can even be done at all. Most of the publicly-available research isn't geared toward data recovery, per se, but theoretical testing done to help improve hard drive technology. What our government is able to do, or what technology and methods they have access to is unknown (by me).

[Bitwit1234]

14. Just imagine....just think for a SECOND

if a Democratic administration had done just ONE just a tiny fraction of what this administration had done. We would have seen a coup and the whole damn administration would be sitting in jail.

[debbierlus]

16. There should be a special press conference by the dems

Stating impeachment hearings must begin -

This is fucking ridiculous.

[zbdent]

17. Exact quote: "Whoops"

(as in, "Whoops, I accidentally deleted it from the computers, the backup tapes which were locked in a vault that you had to go through three levels of security to get into, and accidentally shredded every piece of paper and burned the shredded remains") ...

[pleah]

18. I wonder if

the geeks will be charge, eventually, with distruction of evidence, while Block gets off (scott) free.

[MadMaddie]

31. Well of course that's what's going to happen....no one in

charge who actually commits the crimes go to jail....

[LTR]

19. Great, now we're outsourcing to Geek Squad

Calling the local computer joint to fix government computers instead of hiring competent tech people with security clearances sounds a bit disturbing. Not to mention getting infected by viruses.

[peacetalksforall]

23. Yeah, thiink about it - the geek copied it all to some side drives and

walked away - wasn't that interested - gave it to a friend? How do we know as much as we know so far? Calling all geeks for hire - get the stuff on them. Don't they have any security protocals? Gosh, they put all their records in a lock box or destroy them and then someone off treet gets called to find some, access them - for the regular fee?

Besides lying stealing deceiving killing bribing paying off manipulating changing reality - they are mismanaging the entire city and every office.

What ever happened to the 'lady' who used our offices, employees, and time to plan RNC programs?

Every single day there are about three to four outrageous, illegal, unethical, corrupt, or suspect findings - PLUS continued torture and rendition PLUS killing and destroying a nation - PLUS denying rights to human beings - PLUS untold stealing.

THE GEEK HELPED PEFORM A THEFT - pure and simple - probably without intent.

[barbtries]

35. i don't believe it had anything to do with a virus

there was information on the drives that he wanted to get rid of.

[progressoid]

20. It never ends with these fuckers does it?

[spanone]

21. another mission accomplished

[valerief]

26. What a Blochhead! nt

[proud patriot]

27. GRRRR

:mad:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

28. Fucking shit, man. I knew the Bloch "investigation" was going to be a total whitewash, but THIS..

the mind boggles.

[DeeDeeNY]

36. I wonder if this is part of the 3 million emails that disappeared

This line is great: "They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said." Please. There's no question the deletions were improper. And whatever happened to the consequences for them using the RNC servers for government emails, or is that now in the passt and forgotten?

[deacon]

37. As rove cries "witch hunt" ! n/t

[blogslut]

38. morning kick

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

40. BUT, but, Bloch was himself investigating "improper deletion of emails" The HUBRIS !!!

And investigating almost everyone in the Whiter House for Hatch Act violations.

Is this just a trick to derail his inquiries??
Perhaps a spotlight on Bloch is overdue.
We have seen little work product from him!
And, he has so many violations to work on.

From: GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY. Is Everyone in the WHITE HOUSE Going to the "OUT" House?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1069515

What constitutes a Hatch Act violation? ANY political activity on USG time, ANY.
It does not matter if it is a dot.gov or rnc.com e-mail if the person is on the clock,
at work in an official capacity. If anything at all is done on a CAMPAIGN it is a
Hatch Act violation. Read ILLEGAL. Read a CRIME. Read getting flushed!!

While researching Tim Griffin---the vote-caging, Rovian, just-resigned, Patriot Act implant
USA in Arkansas---and his vote caging e-mail that landed in the lap of Greg Palast, I noticed
that some of the e-mails had dot.gov addresses AND were being used to conduct campaign business.
This adds one huge illegal dimension to the mis-directed e-mails in addition to voter caging,
Hatch Act violations. Inquiry into the Hatch Act made me aware of the scope of the law's reach.

Here is the "catch-all" georgewbush.org e-mails site I was reading: http://2004.georgewbush.org/deadletteroffice/headers.asp

Example--one to the entire Florida GOP--showing this could impact way more than all the White House personnel:

To: FL GOP COS FloridaGop @mail.house.gov
.... a FL briefing this Thursday, July 22nd at 8:30 AM at the RNC ... with Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove ...

It is definitely time to reexamine the "MISSING" e-mails issue in light of the "EVERYONE IS GUILTY" possibility!!!

It is also time to examine how we were SPUN into the such a narrow focus, ROVE,
and how the issue of years of missing e-mail has gotten lost in all that spinning.

........MORE.......