Bug Didn't Incriminate Mayor

[Mandate My Ass]

Bug Didn't Incriminate Mayor

By Mark Fazlollah, Joseph Tanfani, Emilie Lounsberry and Nathan Gorenstein
Inquirer Staff Writers

The bug planted in Mayor Street's City Hall office did not record any incriminating words from the mayor during its brief, two-week life, The Inquirer has learned.

The discovery of the FBI listening device, found so soon after it was installed, set back the wide-ranging corruption investigation that is mainly focused on the awarding of city contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.

It also ignited a public furor that has blotted out all other issues in the hard-fought mayoral election.

A confident Street, asked last night for comment for this article, said he was not surprised.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/7089091.htm

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. This one screams...

political use of the FBI by A$$$KKKroft and friends.

In a better world, heads would roll.

[CounterCoulter]

2. How dare you

John is a jesus-fearing man who would never do that!
Praise Jesus!

[benfranklin1776]

4. Agreed.

It reeks of Watergate style use of governmental power for political harassment.
However the good news is that it seems to have backfired on them and made Street more popular.
When he wins it will be a strong repudiation of this type of garbage.

[tom_paine]

9. ben, if the Attempted Coup of 2000 taught us one thing

it would be this:

The Busheviks plan long-term. New advances in psychomanipulation and personality profiling and all the rest of the dark arts of advertising/marketing/PR give them this power.

(well not to mention the Right-Wing Sub-Media and a Corporate TV Pravda more worthy of Marcos' Phillipines or Brezhnev's Soviet Union than Amerika)

This isn't about the Philly Mayoral election, I am coming more to think...it is about white suburban voters in 2004.

Remember when we thought the Busheviks exposed their cruelty ignorance and hypocrisy during the Attempted Coup of 1998? Naturally we underestimated the Vast (now openly operating) Right-Wing Conspiracy and it's ability to turn the Old American Republic into a propaganda version of Orwell's "1984".

That's what's at work here. The Busheviks are playing for much bigger stakes than control of a dying city like Philly.

They are playing for nothing less than what Hitler was playing for, and, from a propaganda perspective, they certainly have upgraded his techniques.

[benfranklin1776]

13. An interesting hypothesis and I admit I had not considered it.

"This isn't about the Philly Mayoral election, I am coming more to think...it is about white suburban voters in
2004.

Remember when we thought the Busheviks exposed their cruelty ignorance and hypocrisy during the
Attempted Coup of 1998? Naturally we underestimated the Vast (now openly operating) Right-Wing
Conspiracy and it's ability to turn the Old American Republic into a propaganda version of Orwell's "1984".

That's what's at work here. The Busheviks are playing for much bigger stakes than control of a dying city
like Philly."

For instance swing voters in the outlying ring counties around Philly, the "Clinton Republicans" (a cohort which grows every year near Philly that are the antithesis of the Reagan Democrats) are a coveted lot. This is why Junior is backing Arlen Specter against "movement conservative" Toomey in the hopes that he'll help Junior in 2004. Sullying Street could be part of that effort. Try to discredit the regions most prominent Democrat and hope there is a suburban voter backlash against the Democratic nominee as a result. Devious and underhanded and certainly within the realm of their type of thinking. However Street's win and the Inquirer reporting may have a reverse effect than planned since people are recognizing the foul odor of dirty politics emanating from this episode.

As you say though the shaping of the media propaganda is the key component of their strategm and their immediate actions must always be viewed through a longer term lens.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. What "attempted" coup? They succeeded big-time.

[bleedingheart]

3. this is only the tip of the iceberg...who else are they watching

[salin]

5. So....... the leak of the bug comes out weeks before the election

then after a week or more of speculation (and more "details of the investigation) the FBI releases an apology of a sort - 'we didn't intend for this investigation to be discovered just before the election' - in an attempt to blunt the charges of the FBI being used to play/interfere in the election.

They (DOJ) say: U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan has said investigators never intended for the bug to be discovered before the election.

"Certainly no one wanted to have any negative impact on the election," he said Wednesday.

Note: They (FBI) claims that the investigation was done just before the election because a) the need for money for a campaign makes the chances of an event go up; and b) if the info was 'stale' (old) a judge might not approve the bugging. Raises questions of who/where this information came from - and whether that point a was used to lure the FBI in and point b was calculated to push the FBI into specific action. It could all be a legitimate investigation - but the timing - and the FBIs comments to the press suggest that there is more at play.

The whole drama gets smellier and smellier by the day.

[JM]

6. I'll ask it again...

...WHERE IS THE FEDERAL JUDGE'S SIGNATURE ON THE WARRANT?

Did a Fedral Judge sign off or was it an AG, as allowed upder Patriot?

Later,
JM

[Mandate My Ass]

7. The inky and daily news (PNI) sued to see the warrant

saying that it was a matter of crucial public interest to see if the feds had their ducks in a row or if this was a witch hunt. Their motion was denied in court.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Pat Meehan when he was DA of Delaware County. Though he had an (R) next to his name he did a lot for juveniles and abused women and victims in general and had a reputation as a fair prosecutor. On the other hand, he helped get Santorum elected. While I'm pretty sure he signed off on the investigation, I wonder if the FBI agents are the ones who intended the bug to be discovered at a crucial moment in the campaign.

I guess we'll never know.

[JM]

10. The DA is irrelevant...

...for the purposes of my argument. As I recall, only Federal level DAs have authority under Patriot to sign in place of a Federal judge.

Still wondering, and the fact a judge denied the request to see it adds more fuel to the fire.

Where is ACLU and/or Judicial Watch on this?

Later,
JM

[Mandate My Ass]

11. He's not DA anymore

Pat Meehan is US atty gen'l for the state of PA. This is his investigation, I only wonder if it was at the behest of Ashcroft or if he launched it himself.

The other thing that raises the stink level on this is that the judge limited the bug to be activated only when certain suspects were present. This probably frustrated the feds so much that I wonder if someone got a "bright idea" to take this to the court of public opinion figuring they'd believe investigation = guilt.

Either way, it backfired. Street's popularity has jumped considerably since this bug was discovered.

[JM]

12. Sorry...

...I misunderstood. I shouldn't try and read and type code at the same time. B-)

Later,
JM

[J B]

8. The bug was planted only 2 weeks before being found!

It's not like the bug was there for 6 months and happened to be found just before an election!

[VolcanoJen]

14. Kick!

:dem:

[tlb]

16. There are always political corruption investigations running.

Since Abscam it seems there is always one or more running somewhere. There is also currently another in New York City about the sale of judgeships. Why would Philadelphia be exempt ?

I'd also accept the statement they never intended the bug to be found so soon after it was installed. If the bug had been in place only two weeks the investigation was burned almost as soon as it started. Federal investigations are measured in months and even years. Not like this.

Ashcroft or no Ashcroft, I'm not seeing anything so far to persuade me this is outside ongoing DoJ practices going back to the 80s.