Infiltration of files seen as extensive

[isbister]

Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/22

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.


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[girl gone mad]

1. This is...

really stunning.

[patricia92243]

2. Nixon got canned for this-we had a 2 party system then, of course. And

media wasn't owned by a few people who prosper by having a pub in the WH.

[kckc]

3. Absolutely disgusting

was my first reaction, especially when I read this sentence:
"the wrongdoing was only 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".

The repuke equivalent of "the devil made me do it", I guess. This may be the world's stupidest question, but can they ever take responsibility for anything???????????

[frank frankly]

excellent

it is starting to be literally impossible to ignore

[kckc]

4. I'm so disgusted, I forgot my other point!

Just for fun, reverse the roles here. If Democrats were caught in the computer files of the Republicans, what do we think would happen?I shudder to think of the talk radio outrage, although Rush's head exploding is an interesting image...

[girl gone mad]

6. It would be..

in the news 24/7, for starters.

[w4rma]

5. GOP can invoke the Patriot Act in their defense? </sarcasm, maybe> (n/t)

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Posted for the umpteenth time here, but...

still a cause for outrage.

Frist's office is messed up in this, and they say it's a Congressional mail system, therefore not "private" in the usual sense. It's possible it will die, unlike the Plumbers, who were obviously criminal.

Everyone should get the word out about this, and jump on the media and congresscritters to exploit it for whatever it's worth.

[isbister]

8. Has it been posted for the umpteenth time?

I apologize

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Can someone find a Wall Street Journal article?

There was a rebuttal to Jean Kirkpatrick on this issue from a Dem congressman. It gave some great information on this subject. Particularly, it stated that the Republicans, who were in power, insisted that the computer system be shared between the two parties, despite the Dem's concerns that this very abuse could happen.

If someone can check the archive and retrieve that letter to the editor, it would be very illuminating. I believe that the letter ran around Christmas time. I can't remember if it was before or just after.

[Moderator]

10. Duplicate

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