Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats: Globe (WOW)

[jbfam4]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/22/infiltration_of_files_seen_as_extensive/

Infiltration of files seen as extensive
Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/22/2004

WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.

With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers -- including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.



Democrats now claim their private memos formed the basis for a February 2003 column by conservative pundit Robert Novak that revealed plans pushed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to filibuster certain judicial nominees. Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi nuclear programs.



As the extent to which Democratic communications were monitored came into sharper focus, Republicans yesterday offered a new defense. They said that in the summer of 2002, their computer technician informed his Democratic counterpart of the glitch, but Democrats did nothing to fix the problem.

[arcane1]

1. I wish I still had the capacity to be surprised at how low they will go

any chance that this will make the news? ANY???

I won't hold my breath waiting...

fucking Repubes, they HATE DEMOCRACY, they HATE HONOR, they HATE AMERICA!!!!

wake the hell up, sheep!!!

[WingNOT]

2. Watergate II, "...this time nobody is listening"

"Republicans yesterday offered a new defense. They said that in the summer of 2002, their computer technician informed his Democratic counterpart of the glitch"

OH MY GOD ! Is this the best excuse they can come up with ? That's equivalent to the "she was asking for it - she was wearing a short skirt" 'excuse' !!!!

[arcane1]

4. in today's media climate, Watergate would get a big shrug-off

Repubes would call the Dems "whiners" and the sheep would agree

:grr:

[uberotto]

Has a crime really been commited...

One of the people (Republicans) believed to have been involved says...

"There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule," Miranda said. "Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document. . . . These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent staff."

But wait, what is the definition of hacking? Do a search on google and this is what you get...
Hacking: Unauthorized use, or attempts to circumvent or bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network.

And what is the current administrations view of hacking...
Hacking = Cyber-Terrorism
According to legislation introduced and passed under the USA PATRIOT Act from October 25, 2001, any hacking that causes $5,000 worth of damage in one year (that's a cumulative amount, not just one incident) is considered cyber-terrorism and is punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison.

I'm betting that it costs far more than $5000 to track down the problem, fix the problem and do an investigation into who all was affected by the problem.

Could the U.S. Patriot Act be getting ready for it's next test case?
My guess is that it's doubtful.

Remember only Democrats break laws, republicans make honest mistakes.

[lancdem]

3. Josh Marshall thinks this is big

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

[jbfam4]

5. Sorry, this is a dupe

bigger discussion here:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=325175&mesg_id=325920