GOP Watergate
Bigger Than the Watergate Break-In
This really is absolutely incredible, and the g*ddamn media is just sleeping. Imagine if Democrats had done this. Really - just try.
Oh, but you do Bob, remember Robert Hanssen?
From Atrios
This really is absolutely incredible, and the g*ddamn media is just sleeping. Imagine if Democrats had done this. Really - just try.
Quote:
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.
But the scope of both the intrusions and the likely disclosures is now known to have been far more extensive than the November incident, staffers and others familiar with the investigation say.
The revelation comes as the battle of judicial nominees is reaching a new level of intensity. Last week, President Bush used his recess power to appoint Judge Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, bypassing a Democratic filibuster that blocked a vote on his nomination for a year because of concerns over his civil rights record.
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.
Citing "internal Senate sources," Novak's column described closed-door Democratic meetings about how to handle nominees.
Its details and direct quotes from Democrats -- characterizing former nominee Miguel Estrada as a "stealth right-wing zealot" and describing the GOP agenda as an "assembly line" for right-wing nominees -- are contained in talking points and meeting accounts from the Democratic files now known to have been compromised.
Novak declined to confirm or deny whether his column was based on these files.
"They're welcome to think anything they want," he said. "As has been demonstrated, I don't reveal my sources."
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.
But the scope of both the intrusions and the likely disclosures is now known to have been far more extensive than the November incident, staffers and others familiar with the investigation say.
The revelation comes as the battle of judicial nominees is reaching a new level of intensity. Last week, President Bush used his recess power to appoint Judge Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, bypassing a Democratic filibuster that blocked a vote on his nomination for a year because of concerns over his civil rights record.
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.
Citing "internal Senate sources," Novak's column described closed-door Democratic meetings about how to handle nominees.
Its details and direct quotes from Democrats -- characterizing former nominee Miguel Estrada as a "stealth right-wing zealot" and describing the GOP agenda as an "assembly line" for right-wing nominees -- are contained in talking points and meeting accounts from the Democratic files now known to have been compromised.
Novak declined to confirm or deny whether his column was based on these files.
"They're welcome to think anything they want," he said. "As has been demonstrated, I don't reveal my sources."
Oh, but you do Bob, remember Robert Hanssen?
From Atrios
Comments
...members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password...
Sounds like the GOP was just hacking...
What type of computers are they using there anyway?
Shrug shoulders, "politics as usual I guess."
Plame = Nothing.
Misleading WMD Evidence = Nothing
Hacking Dem Mainframe = Nothing
To quote KOS, this is pretty startling -- the article suggests the stolen information ended up on the server of the Senate Majority Leader. That means this scandal reaches the highest levels of the Republican leadership in the Senate.
And as an added bonus -- the crime may violate the Patriot Act's cyberterrorism clauses.
So they read hundreds of memos over the course of a year and their defense is that they supposedly warned the Democrats they could do this? That's pathetic.
"My window cleaner told your gardener a year ago that you had a loose window in your backyard. You didn't do anything about it, so we figured it was OK to sneak in and take your stuff."
Don't you just love those law-and-order Republicans? And when do we learn just what this "glitch" was, anyway?
Maybe in the year 2025 when we finally have a Democratic president again, I'm sure the GOP will hunt him/her down and destroy his/her presidency with a personal scandal. You know, something juicy like a nannygate or troopergate or blowjobgate. Because God knows these guys are the teflon party.
It sure seems like it. As of right now 52 people have "viewed" this thread and no-one seems to have an opinion.
in my opinion it was smart of Gore to use a Mac. maybe he should explain the benefits to party members.
Originally posted by Northgate
And as an added bonus -- the crime may violate the Patriot Act's cyberterrorism clauses.
That would be sweet!
In fact, such a challenge of the Act (ie. the Democrats using it to prove a point, and having it declared invalid) would probably score more points with those of us that find the Act wrong than would worrying about any of the secrets the GOP got from them.
Needless to say, the Press Associations and Civil Liberties groups here are a little upset that cops can violate the free press and protection of whistleblower sources this way.
Maybe Novak could explain the fact that he's the link in more a few of these cases now.
Or a simple hack of his communications might provide links to the leakers.
Dirty politics tangos with the press require participation on both sides.
Originally posted by Northgate
Are Republicans scandal proof? It sure seems like it. As of right now 52 people have "viewed" this thread and no-one seems to have an opinion.
[...]
Well I do have an opinion, but I guess the sarcasm of my first post probably did not come through clearly enough.
Yes, this is shocking, but will anything become of it....? I doubt it. Maybe a few chuckles between Republican strategists and some knowing winks exchanged between them and law enforcement officials.
The right-wing is so firmly in control ? and so firmly of the view that conservative ends justify even illegal means - that I think that the Republicans (and them only) are effectively above the law when it comes to things like this, and when it comes to a lot more things besides. Think back to what happened in the last Presidential election. That was shocking - and so is this - but they will get away with it and a large part of the public will support them.
Ultimately, I think that there is an appetite for totalitarian government in the U.S. (and maybe in Canada too) provided that it is right-wing and tarted-up with the 'trappings' of democracy. I don?t think that the U.S. has entirely arrived there yet, but I fear that it is coming.
Reached at home, Miranda said he is on paternity leave; Frist's office said he is on leave "pending the results of the investigation" -- he denied that any of the handwritten comments on the memos were by his hand and said he did not distribute the memos to the media. He also argued that the only wrongdoing was on the part of the Democrats -- both for the content of their memos, and for their negligence in placing them where they could be seen.
"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 [Democratic] staff."
edit:
here's the real info
A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake that allowed anyone to access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by both parties -- even though the accounts were supposed to restrict access only to those with the right password.
and probably why both sides are keeping quiet.
for the reps, they're scared of how it makes them look, digging through other's files. for the Dems.
But for Republicans, the scandal also keeps attention on the memo contents, which demonstrate the influence of liberal interest groups in choosing which nominees Democratic senators would filibuster. Other revelations from the memos include Democrats' race-based characterization of Estrada as "especially dangerous, because . . . he is Latino,"
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
2. Republicans let Microsoft be a monopoly.
3. Microsoft tells Republicans about all its security flaws.
4. Republicans exploit this to spy on Democrats.
Nope no conspiracy here!
Honestly though don't toss around crap about them being shared. It's disgusting. Republicans make me want to barf in my mouth and swallow it.
Originally posted by AirSluf
The shared drive on a server is just that, shared. Unless folders are protected it is implied you are putting them there for all to see, and browse. it's unfortunate the permissions were gooned, but looking through an unprotected folder on a shared server is hardly scandalous. Actually shows a bit of attention to detail on those looking at the "shared documents"
You can't substantiate this claim in the least. How do you know what limits were implied or explicit regardless of what folders were visible?
Originally posted by alcimedes
A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake that allowed anyone to access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by both parties -- even though the accounts were supposed to restrict access only to those with the right password.
My first reaction was that he was a royal fvck up, but if he was a new hire, it's certainly possible that....
Edit: eweek's reporting that the 'glitch' goes back to 2001.
Originally posted by AirSluf
The shared drive on a server is just that, shared. Unless folders are protected it is implied you are putting them there for all to see, and browse. it's unfortunate the permissions were gooned, but looking through an unprotected folder on a shared server is hardly scandalous. Actually shows a bit of attention to detail on those looking at the "shared documents"
Yeah, you really are making a lot of assumptions about how they were protected, how they were compromised and what kind of regulations protect these communications if any.
Originally posted by bunge
You can't substantiate this claim in the least. How do you know what limits were implied or explicit regardless of what folders were visible?
Bunge, alcimedes posted some background info on this and unless you care to call him a liar, or post a different accounting of the incident, you shouldn't chastize someone for mentioning information based off that info.
Security is based so much on assumptions in most instances. Whoever suggested that Republicans and Democrats SHARE the same server for such sensitive information is the one who needs to be shot. I'm sure the Democrats are saying that now, and the Republicans would be just as pissed if the reverse happened as well.
Being in the rental business, I have a little info about keys since I change plenty of locks. Most makers don't have more than about 50 different keys for any type of lock. In fact if you took your house keys to say a brand new house in a tract and walked around trying them in different doors, I have no doubt that out of say 100 houses, you would probably be able to open another 2-3 houses with nothing more than your house keys. The same goes for your auto.
The real issue of course is that most people don't go around trying their house or car keys in multiple houses or cars.
Those folders were visible and probably 98% of the people never even tried clicking on them. They just made the assuption that they were unavailable because they were told they couldn't be accessed. It's that other 2% that tried and low and behold they opened.
That's always the issue with security. My bet on how this turns out. It goes no where and both parties unanimously pass a spending bill that gives them both their own servers with even better security.
Nick
transferring the memos to their own server...
and then leaking the memos to Novak and other members of the press.
The memos were not public domain. They were breaking the law when they were going into the other parties files.
It's pretty simple.
They were using the memos to inflict damage.
They need to be punished.