NYT: Democrats Suggest Inquiry Points to Wider Spying by GOP

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — Senate Democrats who were briefed Monday about an investigation into how Democratic strategy memorandums dealing with judicial nominations ended up in the hands of Republican staff members said they now believed the problem was far more extensive than previously thought.

Some of the internal memorandums appear to have been used to prepare one or more of President Bush's appeals court nominees to answer specific questions from Democratic senators during their Judiciary Committee hearings, Democrats said Monday.

The Senate's sergeant-at-arms, William Pickle, has been investigating how Republican staff aides were able to view and distribute to conservative news outlets several internal Democratic computer entries dealing with judicial nomination strategy. Mr. Pickle discussed his inquiry with four Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, some of whose memorandums were disclosed last year on The Wall Street Journal editorial page and in The Washington Times and a column by Robert Novak.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said he learned from Mr. Pickle's briefing that the improper reading, copying and distributing of confidential Democratic memorandums had gone on far longer and had involved a greater amount of information than had previously been believed. "The extent and duration of the improper access was both remarkably longer and more widespread than I had ever imagined," Mr. Durbin said.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/10/politics/10JUDG.html?ex=1077080400&en=c5faf76b00ed61b4&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[progressivebydesign]

1. Watergate much?

But.. this will be ignored by the public. There's too many important things to be concerned about: Bush at the Nascar event. Janet Jackson's body parts. The public should be outraged over this... the dumbing down of AMerica is working..

[kainah]

2. I don't know, Caliphoto

I think the dam is breaking. It appears as though all the lies have just piled up too high and they are having a damned tough time containing them any longer. I was, frankly, quite stunned today to hear so much continuing, negative commentary. I thought everyone would be giving * another "home run" for his MTP appearance. Instead, tons of discontent.

It almost makes one wonder if skull & bones has pulled their strings and decided that * is a loose cannon and they want him out and Kerry in. :tinfoilhat:

[loudsue]

12. BINGO! Kainah...you've nailed it on the head.

This "rally around Kerry" news media stunt has absolutely convinced me that this issue was far more important than we had previously given it credit for.

Kerry was nothing more than "one of the candidates" until someone decided to bounce him to the top. We've been had. I liked Kerry... he was one of my "top 3" choices. But now I've become so incredibly baffled by the sudden "universal name recognition" and the call of "electability" that it has made me far too suspicious. It just doesn't jive with the reality I saw before this phenomena hit the teevee.

If we don't take care of the black box voting issues, and reel in the bought-and-paid-for media control of people's minds, we're NOT ever going to be a Democracy again.

:kick:

[Skidmore]

13. So, who in the media is

a member of S&B so that this vast conspiracy pump stays primed?

[progressivebydesign]

14. Richard Scaife Mellon is S&B - Remember his media power?

Take a look at the media he has his hand in. Remember Whitewater? I'm sure it's a coincidence, but Kerry's 6.9 million dollar loan on his rowhouse was from Mellon Trust. I'm thinking that it's just a big bank in Boston, and a total coincidence, but no one has replied to me when I post questions about that.

Hey, if it means getting Bush out of office.. If this is the only way, then I'm okay (sort of) with it. I really am hoping that the conspiracy theories are just that regarding all this S&B stuff, because I want REAL change in our government this time. Not just lip service and more power to the PNAC.

[aquart]

3. Watergate was also ignored.

People forget how long it took for anything to happen.

Hell, we knew about Bush's TANG record 4 years ago, and I still remember Frank Bruni of the NYT, the reporter assigned to the Bush campaign, saying "it didn't have legs."

The TANG record has become a Rockette.

[Athame]

9. The TANG record has become a Rockette.

Great line! :thumbsup:

[theorist]

4. Does the Republican leadership actually believe

that Daschle & Co. will be satisfied with Miranda's resignation?

The "no government document is private property" argument won't hold up either. This better go far.

[annagull]

5. Novack, Novack, Novack: How many times does his name

have to come up before his name is synonimous with traitor?

[maddezmom]

6. this admin is going down as the dirtiest in history

[Imalittleteapot]

7. Is breaking into a computer any different from breaking

into an office to STEAL information? No! This affair has "Watergate" written all over it. Dems should take this ball and run with it. A bigger story than Bush's service record, reminicent of the dirty tricks of the Nixon WH, the story IMO is more damaging.

[Neecy]

8. Republicans=fascists

It's stunning that the Republicans have control over the White House, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court and are still compelled to lie, cheat and steal. It's like a bizarre form of genetic wiring that they be as crooked as possible.

Then again, they won't be happy until we're a one-party State-run dictatorship.

[Mithras61]

10. As an I.T. guy...

I can't figure out why these Repukes aren't being tried in court just like any other hacker. Didn't the guy who hacked AT&T claim that "he didn't know he wasn't supposed to, since he was able to access the stuff so easily?" I believe they convicted him and among other things, took away his use of computer systems for 5 years.

In security circles, it's a given that 80+ % of all hacks come from INSIDE the firewall by users that are authorized to use the network, but not authorized to access the files they did. This should be handled just like any one of those cases would be handled... it's a Federal offense to hack government systems.

[Just Me]

11. Excellent point!!! Hacking government systems is a federal offense!!!

People should be taking this very seriously!!! Moreover, there has got to be a more vigorous prosecution of these offenses.

[nolabels]

16. This is a real problem for everybody

Finding the individuals that made it possible could be difficult. Don't be surprised if some of these folks who got caught plead ignorance or lack of knowledge of the gravity for the situation, when and if they are in front of a judge.

http://www.making-a-difference.org/computer-crime-chronicles.htm
(snip)
57. As discussed above, employees represent the greatest threat in terms of
computer crime. It is not uncommon, operators, media librarians, hardware
technicians and other staff members to find themselves in positions of
extraordinary privilege in relation to the key functions and assets of their
organization. A consequence of this situation is the probability that such
individuals are frequently exposed to temptation.

58. A further complication is the tendency on the part of management to
tolerate less stringent supervisory controls over EDP personnel. The premise
is that the work is not only highly technical and specialized but difficult
to understand and control. As an example systems software support is often
entrusted to a single programmer who generates the version of the operating
system in use, establishes password or other control lists and determines
the logging and accounting features to be used. In addition, such personnel
are often permitted, and sometimes encouraged, to perform these duties
during non-prime shift periods, when demands on computer time are light. As
a result, many of the most critical software development and maintenance
functions are performed in an unsupervised environment. It is also clear
that operators, librarians and technicians often enjoy a degree of freedom
quite different from that which would be considered normal in a more
traditional employment area.

59. There is another factor at play in the commission of computer crime.
Criminological research has identified a variation of the Robin Hood
syndrome: criminals tend to differentiate between doing harm to individual
people, which they regard as highly immoral, and doing harm to a
corporation, which they can more easily rationalize. Computer systems
facilitate these kinds of crimes, as a computer does not show emotion when
it is attached.

60. Situations in which personnel at junior levels are trusted implicitly
and given a great deal of responsibility, without commensurate management
control and accountability, occur frequently in the EDP environment. Whether
the threat is from malicious or subversive activities or from honest errors
on the part of staff members, the human aspect is perhaps the most
vulnerable aspect of EDP systems.
(snip)

[KoKo]

15. Why didn't our Democratic leadership know about this sooner? When

their memo's and strategy started to appear in Novak's column, and WSJ/WT's?

Why didn't they have the sophistication to know that the server was being hacked. Aren't there ways to tell these things. And, as I've said in posts before: Why were Democrats and Repuglicans sharing a server in the first place. It's not like our Dem leadership doesn't know what a corrupt group of tricksters and criminals they are dealing with. Just their dealing with Tom DeLay should have warned them of that, and have they forgotten what Watergate was about? It boggles my mind.

Plus the WSJ and WT's have some culpability here. They were publishing stolen memo's as passing it off as "leaks." This would seem to be a big ethics violation. Not that there's any ethics left in our Media, but still......