Senate Judiciary File Infiltration Seen As Extensive

[LoneStarLiberal]

<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/22/infiltration_of_files_seen_as_extensive?mode=PF>

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.

<snip>

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.

<snip>

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.
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While poking around unauthorized on other peoples' systems is a no-no in my book, what irks me more is that there are fools like this "technician" running around the Hill, doing jobs that I would kill for, who apparently (this is my estimation of what the problem sounds like) can't even properly secure a freaking guest account in Windows.

That's not a glitch. That's stupidity.

[9215]

1. Maybe the techie who "screwed up" was

really "doing his job" :tinfoilhat: or not.

An odd coincidence, the techie forgets this very important safeguard and coincidently the Repugs find the glitch and exploit it.

[9215]

2. Maybe check his bank account for any large deposits, or

a sudden an drastic improvement in his lifestyle.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. far worse than Watergate..spying on Congress...rather than party HQ's

this is fucking SCARY SHIT!....

[spanone]

4. Turn this around and Asscroft would be railing on CNN about libs.

By the way, where is the outrage?

[LoneStarLiberal]

5. The Double Standard Is Stronger Than Ever

Yep, you wouldn't be hearing that line about "oh the files were left open through the negligence of the technician maintaining the system."

You would only be hearing about how evil and insiduous the Democratic staffers who did this were and how they want to invade EVERYONE'S privacy like that.

The double standard is stronger than ever!

[Bandit]

6. Remember the hubbub when Gore received information from Bush*

and Gore immediately turned it over to FBI. They were saying all sorts of stuff about Gore and even launched an investigation over it. I guess Republicans are above ethics. Over a year when they knew they were stealing information. Family Values I guess.