Last night I heard that Senate staffers....

[blue in ohio]

were not even given the time needed to log off of computers before evacuating senate office building. Anyone hear something similar? Make anyone nervous?

Watergate?

[Kolesar]

1. evacuate...when?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. When the Russell building was proclaimed to have a nerve agent in it

[blue in ohio]

5. Russel Senate office building last night was evacuated .....

for several hours. There were unverified reports (that I had heard) that many senate staffers were not able to log off of their computers.

[OzarkDem]

7. Yesterday

Russell Senate Office Building

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4695608.stm

It had the slight whiff of a hoax to the whole thing.

[kenny blankenship]

11. last night there was a false alarm in the Russell Senate Offices Building

Sensors supposedly detected nerve agent. But the initial alert was said to be proven false by subsequent tests. IOW, the sensors failed and produced a false positive, which led to an emergency evacuation.

[teriyaki jones]

2. Ooooh, I love your paranoia

And share it! It sounded like some kind of setup but this angle didn't occur to me!

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Welcome to DU. I like the theory proposed elsewhere on the site that

this was a ploy to get eavesdropping equipment out of the building.

[blue in ohio]

12. Perfect Plan

It was the perfect time of day..... Many staffers at building but few senators... This means that computers were on and offices were unlocked. I didn't use to be this paranoid, but if you keep getting kicked; you start wearing a cup.

[mattclearing]

13. Excellent thought, and welcome to DU!

:hi:

[stop the bleeding]

17. Welcome to DU and what an angle to think of - reaching fot tinfoil now

[mzmolly]

6. cripes.

:(

[radio4progressives]

8. it was the first thing that came to my mind...

but no one dares to mention these things, right?

[havocmom]

19. I mention it, often. Computers vulnerable to data theft AND

'evidence' planting.

Who has offices in that building, besides Kennedy, Kerry and Hagel? Who else there who has had the brass to stand up and critize the junta?

Yeah, I worry A LOT about unattended computers.

[Sammy Pepys]

9. Eh...maybe...

But most folks I know that work in Russell...and I know quite a few...are gone by 6:00 PM.

Why trip an alarm to plant bugs towards the end of the day? Why not just wait until everyone (or nearly everyone) is gone? Why attract the attention that comes with a possible bio threat?

[blue in ohio]

15. Come on......

Watergate was uncovered because someone saw the flashlights. The best crimes take place in the confusion and chaos of a crowd.

[louis-t]

18. It was Forrest Gump that saw the flashlights.

Right? Wasn't it? Really? I was so sure.

[Sammy Pepys]

22. I still don't buy it.

Watergate happened at 2:30 AM...this was at 7:00 PMish

[rpgamerd00d]

10. CTRL-ALT-DEL, then press ENTER. Takes under 1 second.

Try it.

[mattclearing]

14. Exactly. n/t

[myrna minx]

16. Republican staffers were hacking into Dems computers back in 2002.

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 Committee 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.

-snip-

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.

[LaurenG]

20. Due to the unprecedented bs from a single administration

and due to the miniacal and manipulative behavior coming from this whitehouse, anything is possible. Anyone who doesn't at least question this isn't living in reality.

[cascadiance]

21. Was Jack Bauer seen chasing Walt Cummings there? :)

On the serious side. Doesn't there have to be some sort of surveillance cameras in various places in the building? Perhaps their video records should be "locked down" until we can make sure that noone went in there that would have done something they shouldn't have. Perhaps we should also run them through analysis to make sure there aren't any "video loops" in the tapes too or the like. This could be the "NSAgate tapes"! :)