TeaBuggerGate, Two: Some Questions and the Simple (But Inadequate) Explanation
One way I’m trying to make sense of TeaBuggerGate is to isolate the details that don’t make any sense. Such as:
Why was O’Keefe filming the apparent bugging?
I raised this question in my first post on this. One of Landrieu’s staffers reported–and O’Keefe admitted–that filmed the interaction between the Landrieu staffer and Flanagan and Basel.
WITNESS 1 further stated that when FLANAGAN and BASEL entered the office, O’KEEFE positioned his cellular phone in his hand so as to record FLANAGAN and BASEL.
[snip]
O’KEEFE further admitted to recording FLANAGAN and BASEL inside of Senator Landrieu’s office.
Now, if the plumbers were actually bugging these phones, why would O’Keefe film them? Why would they let O’Keefe film them? From the sounds of things, O’Keefe did not video the interaction with the GSA employee (he presumably did not follow them out to the telephone closet). So why did O’Keefe film what he filmed, and only what he filmed? [See update below.]
Why wasn’t Dai’s possession of a listening device noted in the affidavit?
NOLA reports “an official close to the investigation” saying that one of the four–who must be Dai–was a few blocks away with a listening device.
An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator’s offices. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents.
A description of Dai’s role is limited to this in the affidavit.
Subsequent investigation determined that JAMES O’KEEFE and STAN DAI aided and abetted FLANAGAN and BASEL in the execution of the plan.
[snip]
O’KEEFE and DAI have also admitted to federal agents that [sic] worked with FLANAGAN and BASEL in the planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation.
That’s it–no mention of the listening device, no description of where Dai was when everyone else was in Landrieu’s office. Nothing.
Of course, the FBI may have not described the listening device because they have not yet proven the connection between Dai’s listening device and whatever the plumbers were doing in Landrieu’s office. Or maybe because they wanted to do further investigation about potential further accomplices without revealing how much they had discovered from the plumbers.
Which all raises the question of why this “official close to the investigation” leaked this to NOLA’s local press (and not to many others). Was the official just providing a tip to a reporter with whom he had an existing relationship? Was he trying to make sure the plumbers didn’t get to tell the least damning story? Was the official trying to signal to other potential accomplices the extent of the investigation?
I’d suggest the motives of the “official close to the investigation” (which, after all, could include personnel in one of LA’s US Attorney offices) given the fact that Flanagan’s dad is acting US Attorney in W LA, and surely has close relationships with the local FBI, might be significant.
Why was Stan Dai in a car with a listening device, rather than at Pelican, which is just down Poydras Street from Landrieu’s office?
In addition to being the son of an Acting US Attorney and a former Congressional intern. Flanagan is also employed by the Pelican Institute, a LA-based wingnut welfare institution. In addition, O’Keefe was in town to give a talk for the Pelican Institute. So presumably, Pelican is at least in the background of this scheme.
But, as Justin Elliot notes, the Pelican Institue is just half a block from Landrieu’s office. So why did Dai go “blocks away” to a car rather than to Flanagan’s cubicle at the Pelican Institute?
The Simple Solution
Now, Republicans keep pointing to a TeaBug TeaBag protest of Landrieu’s office last month, in particular claims the TeaBuggers TeaBaggers made at that time that they couldn’t get through Landrieu’s phones.
Carrying his 2-year-old son, Tony Perkins, who is president of the Family Research Council, was turned away at the courthouse door by federal security officers who said Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office was closed this week.
“I had a personal letter written to her asking her to reconsider her stance,” Perkins said a few minutes later. “Why she and her staff are not working this week, it’s certainly irresponsible.”
[snip]
“We were stunned to learn that so many phone calls to Sen. Landrieu have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals,” Perkins said. “We asked them to call their senators. They could get through to Sen. Vitter, but not Sen. Landrieu.”
“Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize,” Landrieu said in interview after giving a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But no amount of jamming is going to keep me from supporting a good work for Louisiana and the nation.”
Dwight Hudson of Central said many of his fellow Baton Rouge Tea Party members had phoned Landrieu’s office unsuccessfully for weeks. “The point is they’re not getting their opinion heard. Maybe that’s why they’re out here today,” he said.
And on the surface, you could imagine that the TeaBuggers were in Landrieu’s office trying to document or (just as likely) pretend to document that Landrieu’s phones were jammed. Consider the following actions.
BASEL requested to be given access to a telephone in the office, and WITNESS 1 allowed him access to the main telephone at the reception desk. WITNESS 1 observed BASEL take the handset of the phone and manipulate it. BASEL also tried to call the phone with a cellular phone in his possession. He stated that he could not get through. Soon thereafter, FLANAGAN used a cellular phone in his possession to call the phone that BASEL held in his hand.
That is, you could imagine that O’Keefe was trying to capture video of Landrieu’s phones supposedly not getting through the phone. Of course, the video wouldn’t prove that. We’d have no proof, of course, that Basel had actually called the Landrieu number. We’d have no proof that Basel hadn’t simply turned off the ringer. We’d had no proof that what the video purported to show actually did show.
Of course, that’s perfectly consistent with O’Keefe’s known film-making tactics. As we know, the videos from ACORN were deliberately edited to make ACORN employees’ behavior appear worse than it actually was. In addition, the–as MadDog calls them–clown suits the plumbers were wearing would be consistent with O’Keefe’s past exaggerated characters (like his pimp).
So that might be the simplest explanation for what the TeaBaggers were doing–they were framing Landrieu, and got caught in doing so. Is that your final answer, TeaBaggers?
But there are some problems with that, starting with Stan Dai, in a car blocks away and not in the Pelican Institute, with a listening device. If all they were doing was framing Landrieu’s office to suggest they were deliberately not answer TeaBugger TeaBagger calls, why include a purported intelligence expert?
Then there’s the city. The TeaBuggers TeaBaggers complained that Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office was unresponsive (during Christmas week, I might add). So if they wanted to prove those phones weren’t working, why not go to Baton Rouge office (incidentally, in an entirely different US Attorney office than NOLA and than the district currently run by Flanagan’s dad).
And finally, why go to the GSA telecom closet–the move that got the plumbers into trouble (I guess GSA employees know a bit more about what telephone guys look like than Landrieu’s office staff)? As I suggested, it’s not clear that O’Keefe was even there filming. So why go to the closet as part of a scheme to film Landrieu’s phone system, if you weren’t filming. [See update below.]
Now, it’s still possible that’s what all this is about. But it doesn’t resolve any of a number of weird problems with the story as we know it.
Update: As a couple of you have pointed out, there is now someone identified as a federal law enforcement officer (who might or might not be the anonymous official above) leaking the detail that one of the plumbers had a camera on his hard hat.
A federal law enforcement official said Wednesday one of the hard hats was rigged with a tiny camera. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
So this would address two of my questions above: why go to the closet when you weren’t filming the closet. They were!
Read number 143 in previous posting on Buggergate
Thanks–did.
Interestingly, Basel deleted a tweet he wrote in December last night after he got home from jail. It said:
Related to the hacked climate emails? Did anyone ever get credit for that?
Interesting point.
Yeah, you might keep Cheryl’s point in mind. Because the other thing most frequently kept in a locked closet with telecom panels is all other network panels and possibly servers.
At least that’s where my equipment was for Fortune 100 co’s small satellite offices.
Perhaps these guys weren’t doing the actual tapping, but doing the due diligence. Seems like it would be easier to simply “buy” a GSA maintenance or security person, especially in NOLA, which makes me think Pelican was not directly connected to this effort since they would have had the money and more local info as to how to do this. I’d bet there are a couple firewalls in place (and I don’t mean software).
Yeah, but have you ever tried to figure what’s going on in somebody else’s wiring closet? Unless you have inside information, the most you can expect to do is random damage by mindlessly unplugging cables. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of techs who do that in their own wiring closets just to figure out what’s what. If you don’t label everything and keep those labels up to date, it’s a pain to figure out where everything goes.
You are oh, so right!
If folks haven’t seen them before, I’ve got some wiring closet picture links over in my Seminal Diary:
Bugging Senator Mary Landrieu’s telephones by clowns…wearing big clown shoes…and driving tiny clown cars. Sheesh!
Why yes, that was a shameful self-promoting plug. *g*
Actually, yes, I have had to figure out what’s going on in somebody else’s wiring closet. Happened whenever Fortune 100 Co bought a small co (actually had a situation where I had to attach two servers to a global enterprise from some tiny shop with a handful of branch offices. When we asked for the server names, they said Billy Bob (mail) and Bobby Joe (data). Jeebus.)
If these guys had help from somebody else who gave Dai a diagram, they could have done some damage. And if this building was wired old school, cheese-on-rice, CAT3 and CAT5 is going to stick out like a sore thumb from POTS.
We’ll have to swap horror stories someday. Dai, the only one in this group who seems to have a clue, was sitting in a car somewhere away from the action.
I was too tired last night, not to say mind-boggled, to type this point. But like you, some of the closets that I’ve seen contain a whole bunch of cable spaghettis. And servers.
So my question on the previous post was intended to be something like… ‘what kind of digitized data/info were they after?’ Or were they just the preliminary team, imagining themselves as some New JournalisticHeroistTrailblazery dudes?
Speaking of digits and pixels… Slinking off now to wallow in a very bad case of iPad lust…
Yeahh someone did and we figured out to make him pay in hard INTEL currency…they also got teabaggers running around…but for now only educated gueeses hard intel on that front would start a minor war ladies and gents…so back off por favor
just my five cents worth
Do you mean to suggest China is a hidden force behind climate anti-science? I’d never thought of that, but it would make an awful lot of sense from a global economic development PoV.
Well, your guess is as good as mine. But I’d assumed it was probably some mix of criminal interests with links to Russian oiligarchs, and possibly Iranians and/or Saudi’s.
Then again, it could as easily have been ExxonMobil or Total.
Did I just repeat myself…?
Ah, Allen Raymond was the author.
He’s on Maddow tonight, making some very interesting points.
Minnesota, follow the money
Just a hunch here…nothing else…if you got amateur hour stumbling in on real op? But the pro’ are freidly’s…you would whanna tell the pro’s to walk away right?…Lets just for one minute play with the idea that 25 years from now Healthcare or the lack of it turns in to a Consern Of national sercurity? with me so far? If other guverment agencies in other countries know this (I for one dont rule it out) then you would by know be moving assets in on the unsertenties of US healthcare/cap and trade…. already no reason to think that US marshall servise and the FBI dosent know this already…hence the little song and dance….message…BIG BROTHER SAY GET OUT OF MY TOWN?
Just a hunch
over at Juan Cole’s
Four charged in phone scheme at Sen. Landrieu’s office ;
Or, Rightwing Politics is Mostly Dirty Tricks
Four charged in phone scheme at Sen. Landrieu’s office – USATODAY.com
So the political right wing ruled the United States for 8 years, holding all three branches of government during some of the W. era, and the result was a Democratic landslide in 2008. The more the Right is in power, the less it is liked.
But the Right in the US wants its way no matter what, and is constantly anxious that maybe the people will wake up to the scam that is being pulled on them by people who actually represent big corporations but claim to speak for the “people.” Politics nowadays is about fatally crippling Obama and rolling back the Democratic surge, by any means possible.
Thus, you had the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to defame at will candidates who don’t kowtow to them, deploying all the billions at their disposal. This overturning of a hundred years of precedent by five far-right Republicans on the court was a deliberate attempt to undo the 2008 Democratic victory.
A great connecting there by Juan Cole.
Nothing up about wiregate over at National Review or Weekly Standard. Although there is an article up over at Weekly Standard about
Bipartisan Group of Senators Urges Action on Iran
Another question about this Dai character. How did they find him in a car with a listening device. How did they track him? Were they tipped off?
If a person is sitting in a car wearing headphones are they at risk of search or seizure?
Aside from the possibility that he was ratted out (don’t know the timing of the arrests), maybe an alert building guard put 2&2 together when the arrests there began. That might put visible gear in the vicinity into play as pretty good cause for a stop.
there is no constitutional protection against search and seizure in an automobile
the simple act of refusing permission to search can be legally construed as probable cause
That’s a very good question.
I got the inference from the FBI affidavit that his clown crew buddies ratted Dai out, but there’s nothing explicit saying that in the affidavit.
Which makes this clown crew even dumber than a Pet Rock. Dai was in the clear, but his BFFs took him down with them.
Emptywheel, I’m a Federal employee, and while my office isn’t in a Federal building, we still go through both our Regional Office and GSA whenever work has to be done on the phones. No one is allowed into the phone line closet without correct credentials, and GSA always calls us before any work is done with the day and time the repairman will be here.
Security is MUCH tighter in a Federal Office Building — both GSA and the Federal Protective Service must be notified. I’ve never been in NOLA, but the Hale Boggs Building probably has a similar security set-up to our local Federal building — which means security guards and metal detectors. The guards know how the repairmen usually dress, and I can tell you those outfits (Hard hats?!! Vests??!!!) are not what INDOOR phone repairmen wear.
Buncha twits…hope they do hard time.
I would bet this is absolutely correct for all Federal buildings!
At most organizations, wire/phone closets are kept locked at all times and the only folks permitted entry to them are the trusted techies with the keys.
It sounds to me like someone in the building will be losing their job over giving these yahoos access to the closet.
Reading the FBI affidavit, I got the impression that Flanagan and Basel never actually made it to the wiring/phone closet, but instead were “captured” by an aware GSA staffer when the clown crew admitted they didn’t have their credentials.
I’m betting the alert GSA staffer immediately called in security (US Marshals), and the clowns went down.
That GSA staffer might get a medal. Probably not a promotion since that means passing a Civil Service exam for higher paygrades. *g*
Good, that is quite a bit more reassuring.
Uh, Mad Dog — there are no “Civil Service exams” — haven’t been since a lawsuit in the 1980s.
All promotion requires is time-in-grade, skills and a position you’re eligible to be promoted to…
Thanks for the correction!
I once worked for the US Postal Service in my youth for about a year in the early 70s, so my civil service exam knowledge dates from before that lawsuit.
MD picked out:
JimW @ 15:
Huh. I know we don’t have a clear answer yet as to whether they actually made it into the comms closet, but if so: Possible accomplice inside?
“The guards know how the repairmen usually dress, and I can tell you those outfits (Hard hats?!! Vests??!!!) are not what INDOOR phone repairmen wear.”
To be fair, I have seen phone repairmen that looked like that in phone closets at some of the smaller places where I have worked. When you saw these guys, you knew that the network (LAN) was going down any minute.
Thanks for the diary plug EW!
And mucho thanks for the real essence of this very post – simple questions yet to be answered.
Minor typo: “GSA employees know a bit ore about” should be more.
I especially appreciate your theory about the “official close to the investigation” perhaps deliberately leaking the info about listening device in Dai’s possession to the local NOLA press. That does sound like someone sending a danger message to co-conspirators, and perhaps local co-conspirators at that!
A simple answer for the question of Stan Dai not sitting in Flanigan’s cubicle a half block away at the Pelican Institute – witnesses!
The clown crew knew what they were doing was definitely illegal, and somebody at the Pelican Institute might even recognize the eavesdropping equipment in Dai’s possession for what it actually was if he were sitting in Flanigan’s cubicle. Better to be “anonymous” in a nearby parked car.
Well, that’s my default from seeing how well the Plame leakers used further leaks pass signals to co-conspirators.
But it could work the other way, too. If, for whatever reason, this official believes there won’t be a real investigation, then he might go to the press to make sure this gets out there. I’m agnostic, frankly, and there is the distinct possibility that this guy is just a regular source for NOLA (it’s more plausible in the excellent local press, after all, than if Fox had this leak). But you always gotta question the motives of leakers tied to the investigation. (And remember defense attorneys often call themselves officials close to investigations.)
Yes, that’s sort of my point. And/or plausible deniability.
Yup, could be a closet Democrat in the USA’s office or even with the FBI.
I say “closet Democrat” to make both a pun *g*, and a point that after 8 years of the Bush/Cheney regime’s stocking every Federal organization with Bush/Cheney true believers/political operatives, anyone left who had Democratic leanings probably kept the door closed and rarely if ever peeked out.
Minnesota Public Radio is reporting that Basel is a graduate of the University of Minnesota at Morris (a small residential liberal arts college in the State University System. The College is famous for nearly getting off the grid by building wind turbines and creating a methane-bio-mass project that uses potato peelings from the local potato processing plant.) — and that he managed a successful Republican State Senate Campaign a few years back (probably 2006). The Senator’s office issued a statement to the effect that this was totally out of character, etc., etc. He also apparently did some work for the Coleman Campaign last fall, though was not a paid staffer. (Any number of unofficial Republican Groups that might have paid his ticket.)
Very interesting, especially given his deleted tweet.
Sorry for sounding so mundane. But couldn’t amateur hour with the teabuggers, just actually be nothing but amateur hour at its worst? I didn’t know with the previous phone thing with Landrieu that EW mentioned.
If this was a *serious* attempt at bugging there just seems to be details missing in the FBI affidavit that would lend credence to this being a serious bugging attempt.
The description of the buggers made no mention of a device that was meant to be planted, made no mention if they were wired with a hidden microphone or video camera on their persons either. Hell the “buggers” didnt even have a teleco logo on their shirts.
As for Dai, he may have been in the car to provide getaway…ya know always have to have a get away driver. I am also thinking (If EW is right about this being phone lines not working), that Dai was in the car with recording devices to record his call that he was going to make to Landrieu’s offices. If the “buggers” had a hidden vid/microphone, he may have been recording stuff from their devices.
Scenario: Dai and the other three are in car. Okeefe is there with his phone recording Dai trying to call Landrieu’s office and of course he cant get through. Okeefe narrates….”were about to find out what is up with their phones”. Dai drives them to the offices for them to do their sting operation. Okeefe goes up to film the other two coming in and messing with the phone. HA! We found the culprit, They are blocking all of their calls into this phone see it isnt working when I try to call. They go ask for access to the phone closet to “fix the problem”…..(but they got caught)….supposedly they would come back and try the phone again (With Dai calling in from outside, and Okeefe again doing vid with the cell phone) and he gets through. Phone guys leave with Dai picking them up in the car outside.
It is all supposed to be some type of Dateline/local news hidden camera thing, but they got caught doing it in a Fed building. Probably would get away with it on private property.
It’s definitely possible. As I said, it is a simple explanation, and your hypothesis would fix a lot of the details.
I have another, wackier, theory which I’ll get to in a follow-up.
Emptywheel:
Please note that Flint Hills Resources- Minnesota ( Koch Industries) also “accidently” spilled 260,000 gallons of crude oil in Dec. 2009 and “discovered” that they have also polluted all the groundwater surrounding their refinery in North Pole, Alaska. Recent interview in Koch’s hometown newspaper The Wichita Eagle, made no mention of these accidents, only that have contributed 27 million dollars to Kansas environmental projects and other charities. While they claim on their webpage that they have reduced their funding to AFP.
EW is the new Darby Shaw (Amherst rather than Tulane)
“She (Darby)contacts a reporter at the Washington Post. She tells him about her brief. He thinks that it could be the biggest story since Watergate. They run together, trying not to get killed.” John Grisham
So many dots…. I know if there’s any connecting to do, you are the master.
It appears obvious that these clowns are two clicks away from being a carbon copy of the idiot McCain staffer who scratched the backwards B on her face.
So applying logic or spy trade craft to what they were doing will not offer up much.
It should be noted that now there are some young Republicans in custody the principles of law such as a presumption of innocence, fairness and compassion will come into play.
You know the things these assholes so blithely deny to everyone else.
-G
+
Funny you should mention the backwards B girl, Greg B, as I was just thinking of her, among other things.
She got off. It was so obviously a stupid prank that she was let go.
Three of these guys have, in the days previous to this attempt, been using the latin word “veritas” in their tweets. Someone found an outfit named Veritas that they seem to be associated with.
Then O’keefe gets out and tweets “I’m a journalist:the truth will set me free.” Well, that and 10,000 dollars bond. Veritas is of course latin for truth.
What if this prank from the beginning was meant to fail and be caught out? What if the whole idea was to get publicity for some wingnut idea (the truth about x) that would either come out as a result of the investigation or allow them to grandstand it at the trial?
Just another theory, of course, and the truth (hopefully the real stuff) will out eventually but it’s fun to speculate.
EW, just heard Pete Williams of MSNBC state that “one of the men with the hard hats had a miniature camera affixed to the hard hat…”
That makes sense. Part of the M.O. for O’Keefe.
And Time is quoting that hard hat-affixed miniature camera as well:
They sound like a bunch of Linda Tripp wannabes, sure of a big Fox Fame payoff and a Trippian immunity deal from a Republican star prosecutor. Kind of a, “this non-prosecution agreement brought to you by Pfizer, a leader in mind altering drugs for use in Presidentially approved human experimentation”
So – when is Obama going to be inviting this guys over with Sen Landrieu to share a cup of tea and talk about looking forward? Has anyone talked to Lipton or Celestial Seasons about the opportunity in the making?
Given that O’Keefe was seen using his cellphone to video the teabuggers (what a great name, btw), I’ll speculate that the ‘listening device’ was really a walkie-talkie. I don’t think these yahoos had an intention of actually tapping the phones. They were trying to pull off a repeat of the “Acorn sting”. I think Dai was just the lookout. They probably expected the cops to show up, not the U.S. Marshal to already be in the building. What idiots.
In that case, would we be talking misdemeanor vs. felony because of the intent? Or does it matter?
Intent means nothing here — what they’ve done is considered a felony. They’re looking at 10 years minimum, and the FBI is real hardnosed about getting a conviction on every arrest they make. There are more things they can be charged with, and if I were the lead agent I’d push for doing so.
Um, intent usually means something in criminal charges. And even when it purportedly doesn’t, it still does in the hands of a decent defense attorney. Just sayin…..
Are you telling me you can bargain a Federal felony charge down to a misdemeanor? Listening to our investigators and the US Attorneys discuss this sort of thing never gave me that impression…of course, most of our cases involve fraud, so maybe this one is different.
Well, yes, you can plea Federal felonies down to misdemeanors or the relative equivalent thereof. However, in Federal cases, unlike state prosecutions, the sentencing guidelines are a more critical concern in a lot of regards than the relative designation as felony or misdemeanor (unless the defendant is subject to deportation). So the real question is what time, terms and conditions are attached to a guilty plea.
Ok — I’ll bet the Flanagan kid gets the “slap on the wrist;” and O’Keefe gets the harshest sentence, with Dai and the other guy falling somewhere in between. One thing for sure — there’s no way Dai gets into the CIA with this kind of record. (Maybe Xe will hire him…)
Well the deal in Federal cases with multiple co-defendants is to cut the first and best deal of the group and get the hell out. That will not be offered to O’Keefe, that leaves the other three to reach for the ball. You may be right about Flanagan, but he will have to sing deep and fast.
Especially in a corrupt state where your daddy’s the Acting US Attorney.
yeah, intent matters
except when we’re talkin bout lying to federal officials, and fucking with the phones of a United States Senator
then, intent ain’t important
they sure the fuck were NOT trying to help Mary Landrieu
and that is where intent loses it’s importance
there is the little matter of lying to a federal official, for ANY reason. That is specifically mentioned in the US Code
title 18, chapter 47, § 1001
we’ve been thru this before, and intent has absolutly nothing to do with it
and
TITLE 18, CHAPTER 19, § 371 says “in any manner or FOR ANY PURPOSE
so if these dickheads conspired to defraud Senator Landrieu to save kittens and puppies, or if they lied to a federal official to help grandma cross the street, “each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. ” and they ‘shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years ”
so intent matters in some cases
but not this one
You’re welcome — I took one of the last PACE exams when I was hired by the Feds…retiring in 1 year, 11 months and 7 days…
Then I’m ahead of you. Took early retirement as of July 1st last year, and have never looked back. *g*
I switched from CSRS to FERS, so that delayed my retirement a little. Otherwise I’d have been out the door at the end of this year. Glad you’re enjoying retirement.
I wonder if the FBI has checked what was happening at Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office while the clowns were in NOLA. Remember that the initial charge of the phones being “blocked” related to the Baton Rouge office. Were the clowns a diversion for something else?
I can’t imagine that these guys are that organized.
I’m thinking in terms of the puppetmasters who move them around (and pay them).
I’m having trouble seeing how this would be an effective diversion.
I am with WO in all this; i.e. there is likely less going on than everybody is ginning it up to be. That said, they have still committed Federal crimes and ought to get the shit kicked out of them a little as a matter of principle.
I think O’Keefe was sitting down in his parents’ basement eating Cheetos and watching Law & Order SVU Spooked when a light bulb -dim as it may have been- went off in his head…
usu Law & Order is ripped from the headlines.
“Landrieu’s Republican counterpart, Sen. David Vitter, called for a racketeering investigation against New Orleans-founded ACORN last year in the wake of O’Keefe’s videos” (NOLA article).
Does Vitter belong to the Pelican Institute? Did Vitter aid and abet this operation?
At least we have some entertainment today.
Why was O’Keefe filming the apparent
buggingbungling?Fixed it.
Is there a relationship between Koch and Petsec?
Since o’keefe’s stock-in-trade is embarrasing people and entities the republicans don’t like,
It’s reasonable to assume that that was the focus of this little escapade.
What could the intended embarrassment have been? That’s the real question.
Since landrieu is up for election, it would have been designed to harm her in that race.
Maybe a politico/video play on the word “security”, e.g., if landrieu can’t keep her phone closet secure,
How can she be expected to keep the nation secure.
Just the kind of dumbassed parable that repelicans love to make into big news stories.
Could it really be that simple? Boy are they going to pay a lot for that stunt if it was.
Never thirst!
Landrieu is not up for reelect right now.
But her brother is–barring any big embarrassments–going to be elected Mayor of LA in a few weeks.
Also, the TeaBuggers were pissed that their health care protest didn’t work, and Flanagan has written to attack the HCR. Landrieu is probably vote 53 or so for reconciliation, so they would have real reason to try to dissuade her from voting for reconciliation.
Assuming the two assholes playing repairman had no knowledge of how to do any damage in the telephone closet except cut or cross wires, which would be pretty pointless except as embarrassment,
The only long-term damag they might have done is plant something.
That requires no knowledge beyond following instructions on placement.
And they may have done just that.
But most likely it was just another o’keefe candid camera propaganda piece.
Ew @57
Thanks ew
For the correction
and for keeping my entry in the office pool at least semi-plausible.
EW – Re: Bernanke / Geithner collusion on AIG – did you see this comment?
“Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), a Bernanke critic, said on CNBC that he has seen documents showing that Bernanke overruled such a recommendation. If that’s the case, it raises questions about whether bailing out AIG was actually necessary, and what Bernanke’s motives were.”
Protect the crime syndicate. That was his motive. Period.
Oh, and who founded AIG?
“Mr. Greenberg is Honorary Vice Chairman and Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission. In the 1980s, his extensive foreign connections prompted the Reagan administration to offer him a job as Deputy Director of the CIA, which he declined.”
“On March 15, 2005, AIG’s board forced Greenberg to resign from his post as Chairman and CEO under the shadow of criticism from Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of the state of New York. On May 26, 2005, as part of a series of actions against leaders of large corporations, Spitzer filed a complaint against Greenberg, AIG, and Howard I. Smith (ex-CFO of AIG) alleging fraudulent business practice, securities fraud, common law fraud, and other violations of insurance and securities laws.”
And look what happened to Spitzer consequently–taken out thanks to intelligence-gathering wiretaps.
Then: “all criminal charges were dropped, and Greenberg was not held responsible for any crimes.”
Well, looking up a little background on the Leadership Institute.
From Allan J. Lichtman’s book, “White Protestant America: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement” (2008)
Info begins p. 315
Roots in the Heritage Foundation in 1977. Initial ideas generated by Jean Kirkpatrick, William Simon, Arthur Burns, Michael Novak, and Ben Wattenberg. Initial projects were Hudson and Manhattan Institutes, with Bradley and Olin Foundation Funding. Also founded Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs at the same time.
Leadership Institute was a follow on from this, founded by Morton Blackwell in 1979. Leadership Institute combined the above with the work of M Stanton Evans at National Journalism Center — and created the larger Leadership Institute in 79. Blackwell had a leave of absence to be in the first years of the Reagan Administration, but returned in 1983. Notable graduates include Ann Coulter, John Fund and Michael Johns as well as Ralph Reed, Senator Mitch McConnell and Grover Norquist. Over time, all subsequently became board members, etc.
Institute’s emphasis is on Journalism, but also Policy Analysis, Strategy and technical skills.
Much more to come.
Abramoff’s Evangelical Soldiers… then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy … Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff’s …
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060220/blumenthal – Cached – Similar
Maybe the reception was poor in the cubicle inside the building, so he went to his car.
Or maybe his Cheetohs were in his car.
No Brink’s, No Specs O’Keefe… No Cheetohs
“….There had been seven robbers – all wearing Navy P-coats, gloves and caps, and Halloween masks. They wore rubbers and crepe-soled shoes.
The robbers said little and knew exactly what they were doing. They’d come through a series of locked doors to reach the second floor, where Brinks employees were counting and storing money. The only evidence was a chauffeur’s cap one of the robbers left behind, and the tape and rope they’d used to gag and tie up the employees. They also took four revolvers from the employees.” The Great Brink’s Robbery
Stan Dai
Alleged Phone Tamperer Plays Young Nat-Sec Expert (Video)
Zachary Roth | January 27, 2010, 2:28PM
Stan Dai
Before he hooked up with James O’Keefe in an alleged bid to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone-lines, Stan Dai had developed an impressive resume as a precocious national-security expert.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:
According to information Dai posted in September 2007 on the university’s online alumni directory, he lived in Naperville, Ill., helped run a “Defense Deparment regional defense counterterrorism/irregular warfare program” and then became assistant director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity Washington University, which prepares undergraduates for careers in intelligence.
Read more »
o/t to Gitcheegumee (my fav lake) I responded to your note on the tea bugger 1 post. Homecomings financial (owned by GMAC) provided millions in financing for Katrina victims. There are lots of complaints by these folks who took the refinancing that they were not allowed to cash the insurance checks because Homecomings requires a co sign. (not uncommon) What Homecomings does is hold on to the checks. You are required to hire a contractor first, have it bid, and then have the contractor sign off on the work a third at a time. This forces home owners to pay for the contractor up front and many contractors don’t like working this way. Many people were unable to fix the damage to their homes due to these policies. (especially resulting from the second storm.) Many abandoned their homes and their mortgages, unrepaired.
Thanks,wavpeac. I left a reply on Teabugger One.
PLEASE follow up.
Thanks,again.
@#68
VIDEO: Alleged Phone Tamperer Plays Young Nat-Sec Expert …Jan 27, 2010 … Before he hooked up with James O’Keefe in an alleged bid to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone-lines, Stan Dai forged a reputation as a …
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/…/alleged_phone_tamperer_is_young_nat-sec_expert.php – 1 hour ago
Can’t help but wonder what was the basis for Dai’s arrest, and how he didn’t get away.
I do think Breitbart will end up getting implicated in this matter. I think he’s shown that he’s an absolute lunatic.
I mean O’Keefe was on his payroll and Breitbart was his biggest cheerleader.
Drip…drip…drip…
-G
*crossing fingers*
In the thread story, mention is made of Tony Perkins complaints about Mary Landrieu’s phones not being answered,and his protest of being turned away at her Baton Rouge office last month.
Perkins and Landrieu have a history going back to when Mary Landrieu was running against an opponent named Woody Jenkins. Jenkins’ campaign manager was Tony Perkins-this was before Perkins founded his Louisiana Family Forum non-profit.
Well, Perkins was so determined to get Jenkins elected, he (Perkins) bought KKK David Duke’s mailing list, to target particular voters,and garner more votes against Landrieu. It didn’t work,Jenkins lost.
Perkins has links to Ralph Reed AND David Vitter,among others.
After Vitter got caught with the madam,Vitter contributed BIG BUCKS to Perkins. Here’s a little Wiki excerpt:
Louisiana Family Forum earmark
Senator David Vitter to earmark $100,000 for creationist group
In September, 2007, Vitter earmarked $100,000 in federal money for a Christian group, the Louisiana Family Forum,[193] known for challenging evolution by means of “teaching the controversy” which promotes intelligent design while discrediting evolution.[194]
According to Vitter, the earmark was “to develop a plan to promote better science education”.[193] Though the Louisiana Family Forum is largely forbidden from political activity due to its non-profit status,[195] The Times-Picayune alleged the group had close ties with Vitter.[193]
On October 17, 2007, the liberal organization People For the American Way, along with several other groups asked the Senate to remove the earmark.[197][198] Vitter later withdrew it.(Wiki)
Isn’t Tony Perkins network of resources also funding the Tim Tebow Mrs Tebow pro Jesus pro Life anti Choice Super Bowl Ad?
I’m not fond of the tradition of wearing one’s religion on one’s sleeve or wherever or conflating one’s religious beliefs as righteous justification of one’s political beliefs but we all the right if not the resources to do so.
Anyway, I’ll be interested to see if Tony Perkins is connected in any way to the scheme.
Focus On The Family – Silobreaker
I’ve always been a defender of Tim Tebow—he has every right to express his religiosity in the …. Tim Tebow’s Mom To Star In Focus On The Family . …http://www.silobreaker.com/focus-on-the-family-11_6620338 – Cached
Perkins and Vitter Tag-Team The Town Hall
Submitted by Kyle on September 2, 2009 – 8:22am
Last week we posted on the toolkit that the Family Research Council was distributing to its members urging them to organize town hall events in opposition to healthcare reform in their local churches.
Well, it looks like this effort has gotten off to a fast start, thanks to Sen. David Vitter, who recently participated in one of these events which was organized by and featured FRC President Tony Perkins:
On his Facebook page, David Vitter just thanked Family Research Council President and former Louisiana legislator Tony Perkins for hosting a Vitter event in a church last night.
“Last night I participated in a community wide town hall in Greenwell Springs to discuss health care reform. Was a great meeting. Special thanks to Tony Perkins and a group of local churches who partnered together to host a panel discussion on health… care, allowing over 800 in attendance to participate in this important topic.”
<strongRight off the bat, after Sen. Vitter thanks "Tony," he says that he is particularly delighted to finally participate in a church-based discussion about healthcare and hopes to have several more such faith-based discussions around the state.
Perkins and Vitter Tag-Team The Town Hall | Right Wing WatchPerkins and Vitter Tag-Team The Town Hall. Submitted by Kyle on September 2, 2009 – 8:22am. Last week we posted on the toolkit that the Family Research …
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/…/perkins-and-vitter-tag-team-town-hall – Cached
Hmmm. I don’t think it’s worth trying to sort through all of the details of this case quite yet. I agree that WE don’t don’t yet know what these guys were up to, but you can bet your ass the feds have a pretty good idea. For example, we don’t know what kind of equipment these yahoos had on them when they were caught, but the feds obviously do. And it’s hard for me to imagine the feds picking up Dai unless they really did have some sort of “bug” on them. There are still a few more shoes to drop.
O/T Howard Zinn has died. One amazing man.
One amazing, courageous human being, whose example and writings touched millions.
Thank you, fatster, for bringing us this sad news.
DW
Tears…o,k, now I am depressed. One of my all time heroes. Zinn cut through the bull. I have heard him dig down to the truth in a matter of seconds even during the last few years. Had no idea that he was 87.
May that brilliant man rest in peace. He has given us many gifts of truth and honesty.
From the protest at Landrieu’s office link:
Phones are “jammed” can mean two things – totally swamped with lots of calls, or the line is blocked from receiving calls. So I am not sure what the Senator meant when she said “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” My opinion is that she meant that someone was keeping her line busy all the time so that callers could not get through to her office staff.
Yeah, I had a similar read on that. Maybe Pimpy Boy & Co. had an automated phone bank somewhere constantly dialling Mary L’s office; very very easy to then demonstrate that calls can’t get in, and ascribe the fault to Mary L’s office. Side benefit of crippling the office’s ability to get any of its regular work done — including communicating with local NOLA press etc?
None of this makes much sense. What is meant by a “listening device” I wonder? If they were using something like a radio mic that they could leave in the office and monitor from a car, why did they need to get into the phone closet? If they were to get into the phone closet, why wouldn’t they just use an outside line to monitor their equipment? How were they going to log into the switch and identify the line?
I have to think that this was a stupid frat-boy publicity stunt intended to get the gang back on the rightwing talk shows now that their 15 min of ACORN fame is over.
I also wonder about Landrieu: why are her people making this comedy skit out to be as big as Water Gate? Could it be that she hopes that martyrdom at the hands of CREEP Lite will restore her bona fides as a Democrat after her disreputable performance in the healthcare debacle?
Maybe the guy in the car was recording the video that the Tiny-Helmet-Cam was broadcasting? Then there wouldn’t have been any actual video recorder on Village People Phone Repairman Guy, an evidentiary boon in case of his arrest. (Prescient as far as it goes, that.) You can radio-transmit low-res analog video pretty easily from there tiny cam heads, with or without audio, though I’m not sure whether the range would be enough to reach Car Guy.
Idle Speculation: If Tiny-Helmet-Cam was video-only, then maybe the cellphone video that PimpyBoy was shooting in the office was for audio + establishing/wide shots, and they were going to sync them up later in the video edit?
More speculation: Did Car Guy have enough time to destroy, drop, or hand off the actual video recording before his apprehension?
That occurred to me, too. Remember the hubbub just a few weeks ago because the military’s drones’ video feed could be hacked with simple tools?
Ahem.
Same approach.
So now I’ll reply to WO (79): imagine Dai in a car with a sniffing device which captures the video from the head-cams while he radios/calls the guys dressed in vests in the closet and coaches them on which panels/cables to mess with…I’ve had to work in situations like this where I was flying blind, couldn’t see what the tech saw at all. This would have been an easier job with enough advance coaching (“This is CAT5, this an RJ45 connector, this is an RJ11…).
[edit: too funny, must have started my comment at the same time WO filed his (98). I don’t think he was just a look-out, but I can see that being one of his roles.]
Doesn’t seem plausible to me. A low-grade video link in the poor light of a typical server room/phone closet wouldn’t show much.
In fact, I can’t see how this stunt could be made to anything useful. The days of simple inductive taps are over–the equipment is all digital. The problem isn’t connecting a physical wire: its knowing how to manipulate the software to byass security and gather useful information. You couldn’t talk these bozos through that.
Oh, perhaps they really did have something on Dai.
Seems like he could have had something in the car with him. Given his background, he could have had access to something much better.
The inexpensive tool used on the drones wouldn’t have been applicable here, but you get the point.
[edit: EW, to answer your question, Why was Dai in the car instead of at Pelican? Perhaps because the technology he was using only had a range of 300-1000 feet depending on interference…?]
More plausible deniability for Pelican?
But Pelican would have been closer (half a block) than the car a couple blocks away.
Think I have now read too many accounts — thought I’d read Dai was in parking near the building.
Whose account do you trust?
[edit: have seen nothing which indicates that Dai was in the same spot for the entire duration of time O’Keefe, Basel and Flanagan were in the H-B Bldg. Was Dai parked or did Dai move?]
The only sourced citation I’ve seen is the one above, saying he was a few blocks away.
OK. But what was the video for? Bragging rights? I don’t get it.
I can’t see that documenting that Landrieu’s phones weren’t ringing, nor documenting that they were, would be much of a scandal. Whatever you think of the ACORN video, it had hooks. “The phones didn’t ring” isn’t worth the effort.
They had to be after something more. I’m awaiting, and trying to anticipate, EW’s “wackier” theory. I can see that these guys might be wacky, but they aren’t risking felony charges for a story that’s Picayune p. 15 and then gone.
According to an affidavit signed by Steven Rayes, a special agent for the F.B.I., the O’Keefe operation began about 11 a.m. on Monday. Basel and Flanagan entered the building dressed in “blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, and construction-style hard hats.”
They said they were there to perform repair work on the telephone system. O’Keefe who was waiting in Landrieu’s office for his comrades was “holding a cellular phone so as to record” video of Basel and Flanagan’s actions.
Basel picked up the handset of the main telephone at the reception desk. Both he and Flanagan told the Landrieu’s staff that the phones were down and asked to be led to the telephone closet, so they could fix the building’s phone system. After the men were directed to the main General Services Administration office on the 10th floor, a GSA employee asked for the men’s credentials. Flanagan and Basel claimed that they had left them in their vehicle.
Shortly afterward, United States marshals arrested all four men.
Common Dreams -link to follow
They said they were there to perform repair work on the telephone system. O’Keefe who was waiting in Landrieu’s office for his comrades was “holding a cellular phone so as to record” video of Basel and Flanagan’s actions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ALright, is it just me,or does this statement from the FBI special agent seem to infer that O’Keefe was ALREADY there BEFORE the TB arrived?
I don’t think this has been mentioned,but Landrieu is on the Homeland Security Committee.
I am going to claim a Colbert-style “I called it!”. David Schuster just reported that Dai’s “listening device” was a cell phone or walkie-talkie. Now I’m waiting for him to be id’ed as the lookout. The feds also apparently believe that these idiots just wanted to see how Landrieu’s office reacted to a shutdown of their phone system. That makes sense with O’Keefe in the reception area AND the capabilities of the team.
Congrats! That would work well if one of the Village People Phone Repairman Guys had the matching walkie-talkie on their belt, with the button already locked in the On position before walking in to Mary L’s office. Also there are those NexTel things which are kind of a cross between cellphone and walkie-talkie.
Still wonder what was recording Tiny-Helmet-Cam.
A further micro-thought: I read “The truth shall set me free!” as possibly meaning “Veritas, get yer ass down here to make my bail and lawyer me up, pronto.”
O/T: Greg Craig has joined Skadden Arps in D.C. as a partner, leading the law firm’s Global Policy and Litigation Strategy Practice Group.
OT — SOTU loveblog up top at the Lake.
A few things came to mind.
In the strategem to have the lower chamber blue pencil the senate healthcare bill as a way to address passage by a plurality instead of having to mire in filibuster, Landrieu and Nelson perqs, increaesd federal share of medicare, are bargaining chips for Pelosi Reid; cite [some article I read quickly in local NYT owned sensationalistic hardcopy newspaper].
Another thing which came to mind was the effort in the first caper to get the office personnel at the other site at the organization with the name of the oak tree*s seed, to say things sounding like illicit expenditure of govt funds, may have been in play at Landrieu*s.
However, a yet further similarity was the discovery (for me) at bradblog this week that Connell rdotidotpdot had installed Manny*s Judiciary Committee email administrator privilege architecture, which the senator from UT denied, finally fired, and Frist sheltered from the political winds. The (4) guys arrested in the Landrieu telephone escapade were all early to mid 20s years old; they are aging quickly compared to the best agegroup demographic for hacks.
The photo of the leader of the bugging plumbers reminded me, as well, of the crocodile tear outrage of the Brooks Brothers rebellion in FL y2k. I leave it to People mag to report on the precise labels of the instant defendants* haberdashery.
Sh!t.
One thing I can’t get past: Why did these guys think it was a good idea to create a video of them breaking the law? With the ACORN videos, they were there to catch (or indicate that) someone else was breaking the law. It just makes no sense that, prank or no prank, they’d want themselves to be caught doing that. This is just not making sense.
I just think they were not bright enough to figure out that the kind of stunt they pulled in the Acorn shop might be viewed quite a bit differently in the office of a US Senator in the main Federal office building in New Orleans.
Something else that doesn’t make sense is that O’Keefe said he was going to be coming out with something ‘big’.
Landrieu’s phone system problems just don’t seem to qualify. ‘Course, it could be accounted for by his usual bragadoccio but there is so much that doesn’t make sense in this.
Maybe his arrest is someone’s way of preventing that ‘something big’, whatever it was intended to be?
bmaz, you think they didn’t know they were breaking the law?
I wonder what was going on in the building while all the excitement took place. With the marshalls busy with the plumbers, maybe someone else was busy doing something more sinister.
I have no idea what they knew or thought; but yes, I think it is possible they really did not consider the consequences.
I’m wondering if Flanagan stopped by to visit his Acting US Attorney daddy before the caper began…
After all, Landrieu’s office and the US Attorneys office are in the same building…
US Attorney’s Office – Eastern District, Louisiana
500 Poydras Street
Room B210
New Orleans, LA 70130
Mary Landrieu’s Office
Hale Boggs Federal Building
500 Poydras Street
Room 1005
New Orleans, LA 70130
What else is in that building?
And why would there be just one GSA phone closet? There would have to be at least one on each floor.
No, Daddy’s in Sreveport.
There are 3 USA districts in LA: ED (NOLA–where they’ll face charges and the USA for whom Vitter is holding up Daddy’s replacement over); MD (Baton Rouge–where Landrieu’s allegedly non-working phone was); WD (where Daddy is).
And aren’t the phone lines usually “jammed” in the DC offices and not in the district offices? I thought most cranks called the DC numbers. Why choose a backwater district office?
Was Landrieu in the New Orleans office at the time? Maybe they were there to embarrass and ambush her?
I think we’re missing a huge chunk of what went down. Wonder why it took a day for the arrests to hit the news.
Is there a way to hook into a line and make outgoing calls that appear to be coming from the senator’s office?
I think with the walkie talkie confirmation (congrats
ColbertWO) it’s increasingly likely that this simple story is just that–a simple, stupid story.Though clearly evidence that O’Keefe was taking video he meant to show somethign it didn’t.
That is my inclination; it is what it appears to be on the surface – a freaking unbelievably idiotic stunt to claim the you couldn’t get through on the phones.
I think they may well have been this dumb, fed and puffed up by all the attention they received from the extreme right over the ACORN stuff. Absolutely tragically bad judgment.
But you’d think these guys might have taken note of the fact that at least one guy went to
jailprison for phone jamming back in New Hamshire (was it the 2004 election? or the 2000 election).Yeah, Landrieu looked pretty awful since her phones didn’t work. When did they stop working so well…? Any timeline linkages with any specific issues (or Homeland Security topics…?)
Who was pointing out that her phones didn’t work?
Mr. Focus on the Family.
Here’s hoping Mr. Focus on the Family didn’t put a few GOP punksters up to the ‘great’ idea of phone jamming at a time when Landrieu’s in hot water politically, and her brother also has a big election on his hands.
But it sure looks like a GSA employee did their job.
(**who, FWIW, was once an author at FDL Book Salon, and interesting).
Keep in mind, we only have their word the phone didn’t work. That’s not unusual in such heavy calling periods, though I can think of Senators who seem to have mysterioius clogs (such as DiFi, but then she’s got more constituents than anyone but Boxer).
But that’s one of the reasons this hoax wouldn’t work–there’s been no setting the narrative first. The ACORN stuff was all lies, but those were lies crafted over 4 years.
Or the walkie-talkie was an easy way to monitor what was going on in the building so the getaway driver would know when the car had to be out front. I had the impression the inside guys said they left their ID in the vehicle and they were headed out to get it (supposedly) when they were caught. That could have been the cue for the car to arrive from a few blocks away.
Maybe the camera was to help gather intel for the return visit?
@#120
John Atlas: ACORN Is Back in the News, but the News Still Gets it …Jan 27, 2010 … Last year, the mainstream media treated O’Keefe’s exploits against ACORN as an example of investigative “gotcha” journalism, …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/acorn-is-back-in-the-news_b_438324.html – 13 hours ago
ACORN Is Back in the News, but the News Still Gets it Wrong …Jan 27, 2010 … Now ACORN is back in the news, but as part of the “back story” linked to O’Keefe’s arrest. In reporting on O’Keefe’s arrest, however, …
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/27-10 – 10 hours ago
NOTE: Truly informative article that sets the record straight and debunks much of the sins of commission and ommission in regards to media coverage about ACORN.
Late-breaking news on Olbermann just now:
All four will appear in court on Feb. 12th.
Washington Post has a new report about all this posted:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012702917.html?hpid=topnews
Owie. PimpyBoy, meet bus.
Oh, puleeze tell me that she used pom-poms!
Gimme an ‘L’!
… yeowsa…
How did they get in to the building? I’d have thought security at Federal Buildings was a bit tighter. Or is security really lax at the Hale Boggs Federal Complex?
Last time I visited a Federal Building, I was on a visitors list and got a guest pass.
Excellent question.
Makes one wonder if that’s what Flanagan’s role was, if the US Atty’s office was in the same building. Was he responsible for getting a guest pass?
Now that I think more about it, I’m fairly certain I had to put my belongings through an x-ray scanner as well as pass through a metal detector and was then wanded by security. Not quite as thorough as at the air port, but it certainly wasn’t a casual affair.
If there was a visitor’s list, I wonder whose guest they were.
THere’s no guest pass. Why would there be, for an elected official whose office is supposed to be open to all constituents?
No.
Think about getting into any of the House or Senate office buildings in DC. You do, IIRC< have to show ID (which is probably why the GSA people knew they were full of shit when they said htey had left their credentials in the car. But you don't wear a badge until you get into interior offices that have classified information in them.
You know that bit about the guys trying to make cell phone calls but the phone in the senator’s office didn’t ring? I’ve been reading about the infinity transmitter and see that calling the target’s number (in order to turn the phone into a room-bugging device) and entering a code before the phone can ring is how the transmitter is activated. The transmitter can be installed anywhere on the phone line (it’s very thin, measures about 1″x2″) or on/in the phone itself. If these guys really didn’t have bugging equipment with them, but they videotaped themselves dialing a number and getting no ring, it could have been part of activist “theater” to make it look like they had installed a bug.
Interesting. That would make the purpose of this expedition to activate a previously installed device.
So under that hypothesis, the video could, perhaps, have been for proof to some third party that the deed had been done. Tiny-Helmet-Cam would show the right numbers entered on the keypad, and the cell-phone cam would show that they really were in Mary L’s place.
But that would imply that the device had been planted some time previously. When, and by whom? And if they had previous physical access, why wait ’til now to switch the device on?
I’m reminded of War of the Worlds where the attack ships were buried here aeons ago, lying in wait until the arrival of the opportune moment.
I’ll say this, your idea explains more of the information than anything else I’ve yet seen on this. Thanks for that.
Speculation on Joseph Basel as a result of “die Google”
City Pages in Mpls has some interesting comments from people who knew him, none of them pleasant. His Biology teacher called him a lout, another former U of M at Morris Conservative says his Conservatism is little more that strung together bumper stickers.
Another post indicates he sued the Feds for bad vacine.
Father is a Lutheran Minister in Mankado — didn’t distinguish between ELCA and Missouri Synod. Important distinction.
No further mention of connection to Coleman Campaign. My own little alarm system makes a connection between these types and the Koch Brothers who were huge backers of Coleman. (oil and gas) Koch also major funder of Heritage and the Leadership Institute. (keep eyes open for connection)
One of 12 Morris students invited to George W. Bush’s 2005 Inaguration. Special guest of Leadership Institute. In 2005 he would have been a College Freshman. Apparently his campus conservative group had only 15 members.
Flanagan apparently was doing Graduate Work at a special program of the U of Missouri that is located near CIA in Virginia. There were a number of these special programs set up after 9/11 as quasi intelligence recruitment efforts, the idea being to use retired IT people as faculty. They were roundly criticized by some as boondoggles. Flanagan’s apparently offered all expense paid trips to Israel for specialized study programs.
Flanagan and Dri also appear to have connections to the Mackinaw Institute — I think this is the recent new name for what once was called “Up with People” which was a project of foundation behind “The Family” and “C-Street”. Apparently they used the facility to engage in some sort of Intelligence Seminars. Further research seems indicated.
Another interesting connection — Dri also has a connection with Trinity University in Washington DC, a Catholic Women’s College run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Nancy Pelosi is an alumni, and the college apparently has a 250,000 dollar grant for an Intelligence Program. (I thought they more or less specialized in Bio-Tech grad degrees — Hum???)
Interesting insights. There’s further speculation along this same line in the comments at TPM’s story on Stan Dai.
I think you may have something on the educational experience of some of these young lads.
Flanagan claims to be currently enrolled at the University of Missouri’s Department of Defense and Security Studies. This odd little institution is located in Fairfax, Virginia and seems to graduate about 15 people a year. It is (or was) headed by a man named Van Der Cleave, who was a Reagan DoD official. More importantly, he’s a neocon and was on the infamous Wolfwitz, Cheney et al “team B.” This institution is also (literally) located next door to the National Institute of Public Policy (NIPP) which is another neocon institution. Flanagan’s national security credentials are thin, nay, nonexistent, but he has a close proximity to some prominent neocons. Yet he seems to have a real interest in wmd, nonproliferation, etc.
Dai’s case is similar. His resume claims association with a CIA-funded (nay, Office of the Director of National Intelligence) intelligence grant program which supposedly was set up to create a pipeline of talent for US intel. Dai is listed as the Assistant Director, and appears to be largely responsible for administrative matters. The most recent Director of the program was (is) a Dr. James S. Robbins. Robbins writes for the National Review, Washington Times, and also has a neocon history. And he worked for Rumsfeld’s DoD. The Trinity program was funded on a year-to-year grant coming directly from ODNI, and at least from the looks of the webpage, the program may have died out in 2008. Or maybe Robbins left. Again, Stan Dai also seems to have a like for WMD, national security, etc, but a nonexistent resume and only a close proximity to a prominent neocon. Trinity is a very small school (2,000 enrollment) and was better known for its nursing program. It does not seem a logical place to recruit future intel officers – which is why the program appears to be a boondoggle.
I don’t know if the other two in this caper are similarly interested in national security, defense, etc.
What I’m really curious about is what brought these four together? How did they know each other? And how did the DC kids get down to Louisiana?
“What I’m really curious about is what brought these four together? How did they know each other? And how did the DC kids get down to Louisiana?”
Pure speculation on my part. I remain intrigued by Tim Shorrock’s book, “Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing” which I pair with Thomas Frank’s “The Wrecking Crew, How Conservatives Rule.” Shorrock’s prime point is that since 9/11 about 80% of Intelligence Work has been moved outside the agency structure (and the Congressional Oversight realm) via outsourcing contracts that in essence make the agencies the “supervisors” of contracts, while the actual work is done in the private sector. One thing this means is that Intelligence Agency recruitment is no longer through the old avenues, the new Security Industrial Complex (Shorrock’s term) has to find it’s worker bees someplace, and such “educational mini-programs” controlled by Retired Intelligence Community types are as good a set up as any recruitment formula. If Shorrock is right, and they do 80% of the actual work out of agency, they have to get their live warm bodies someplace.
It parallels the Goodling set-up at DOJ, which was essentially outsourcing recruitment for entry level Main Justice Attorneys to Jerry Falwell’s Regents Law School. It is all about getting your permenant government, your tenured civil service from an ideologically pure source.
Thomas Frank’s contribution to thinking around this matter gives us a sense of contrast. He celebrates the old fashioned good grey highly qualified civil servants who came into government in the New Deal, the WWII era, the 1960’s, who were essentially satisfied with Civil Service salary and pensions, and derived much satisfaction from making agencies run effectively. He contrasts these now nearly all retired types with the new crew, his Wrecking Crew, who disparage Government except as they can find a way to privatize at much expense, Governmental Functions.
My guess is that one of the better examples of the effect of all this would be found in analysis of why dots were not connected in the matter of the Christmas Day Nigerian Bomber. I believe (at least according to Shorrock) Booz Allen has the contract for Analysis at the Counterterrorism Center, and their lower level employees are the ones who actually cross check data bases.
I suspect Flanagan, Dir and Basel were all recruited in College through the Morton Blackwell Leadership Institute, funded to run their little conservative college papers, and then are funneled into these “schools” to be credentialed, and then become the employees of the outsourcing contractors. Some of the basic tradecraft of covert action (Disinformation projects as well as engineering system screw-ups) are the same no matter whether your target is a Foreign Nation’s intelligence service or other institutions or the political operation of someone in a political party you oppose. In this respect Landreau’s political operation in Louisiana would be an attractive target. My guess is this is the critical pipeline that could be unraveled if we dig around in this Teabugger matter.
Wow. It’s been my sense that they can’t distinguish between ‘foreign’ and ‘domestic’; and as Citizen92 points to other aspects of their history, this does seem to be related to neocon views (which I roughly interpret as using the resources of the US for purposes other than its own national interests).
If that is their mindset, then they probably thought of a US Senator as a legitimate ‘black ops’ target. And then sanctified their ideas with some belief that they were somehow pushing the journalistic envelope.
I’d sure love to hear John Dean’s insights about this situation; or Thomas Frank’s, for that matter.
John Dean WAS on KO a couple of nights ago discussing this-and he was certainly not dismissing this as a prank.
I will say it again.
Landrieu is one of the members of the Homeland Secuity Committee. This is a FEDERAL building.
One of your most insightful posts ever, and that’s saying a great deal. Thanks, Sara.
According to a currrent newspaper article I just read, O’Keefe was touting a NOLA “Project” FOUR days before .
At a Pelican Institute luncheon of teabaggers last Thursday, he was peppered with questions about Landrieu,but made no reference to her as being the target of his project, according to a statement by the Louisiana Tea Party founder who was at the luncheon.
Activist touted ‘project’ before phone tamper incident at Sen …Jan 27, 2010 … Activist touted ‘project’ before phone tamper incident at Sen. … Four days before James O’Keefe was charged in a plot to tamper with the …
http://www.nola.com/politics/…/activist_touted_project_before.html – 11 hours ago
Has anyone considered the possibilty of ties to C Street and the Family on this?
I suggest one read the article “Christian Mafia”, or Jeff Sharlet’s articles/book about the youth programs that they have promoted for years.
The recent media coverage has used the term “C Street”as a shorthand for “The Family” aka The Fellowship Foundation.
However, the base operations for the Fellowship is not on C Street ,but on a leafy estate-the Cedars- overlooking the Potomac,in Arlington ,Virginia.
Coincidentally, Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute is based in Arlington,Virginia also.
This phone closet argument doesn’t make sense to me either.
This is a federal building. The GSA controls all the phones of all the tenants in the building. There would be multiple phone closets in the building, probably several per floor.
They would have had to ask the GSA to take them to the appropriate phone closet – and then show them the appropriate circuits that pertain to Mary Landrieu.
But, realistically, the phone company [Verizon, BellSouth, whomever] would not be coming in to work on individual circuits. The phone company would be responsible only for working on the trunk coming in. The individual circuits would be handled by whatever GSA contractor had sourced for the work. And one would presume that the GSA front office would know the name of the contractor whom they had selected to working on government phones. I assume that would be the same if that Federal building is wired for IP phones instead of switched.
Weren’t the telecoms granted immunityy on wiretapping,ATT in particular, a while back?
On Wednesday,(1/27/10) Landrieu’s spokesman defended the staff against claims that her office was dodging critical callers.
“We did hear that complaint, but absolutely at no time did Sen. Landrieu or her staff intentionally avoid phone calls related to health care or any other topic,” spokesman Aaron Saunders said.
O’Keefe, 25, hinted last week that he had a new, high-profile stunt in the works. Four days before he was charged in connection with the Landrieu incident, he promised his audience at a conservative think tank’s luncheon they would be hearing about a project he was working on in New Orleans.
He wouldn’t elaborate, according to people who heard his speech Pelican Institute’s event last Thursday in New Orleans.
“He just sort of alluded to the fact that we would all find out real soon. And we did,” said Audra Shay, a Mandeville resident and chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation
YAHOO News
(Link to follow)
@#159
Activist touted ‘project’ before phone tamper case (AP) – Yahoo …Activist touted ‘project’ before phone tamper case (AP) … AP – Four days before James O’Keefe was charged in a plot to tamper with the office phones of …
buzz.yahoo.com/…/1:y_news:e504afe926be59cbf75885b189bfb264 – 14 hours ago
I haven’t seen reporting that identified who they were impersonating. Did they say they were from Verizon, BellSouth, AT&T, etc? Or did they say they were telephone repair contractors (presumably contractors that GSA had chosen to perform maintenance)… Don’t know.
If they gained access to a phone cabinet, I bet it would have been more than likely that they would have ended up taking down ALL lines in the cabinet. Not just the Landrieu lines.
Unless they instead asked for access to the trunk coming in from the outside, which would be a Verizon, BellSouth or other wire. Which would enable them to tap everything coming in.
Basel picked up the handset of the main telephone at the reception desk. Both he and Flanagan told the Landrieu’s staff that the phones were down and asked to be led to the telephone closet, so they could fix the building’s phone system. After the men were directed to the main General Services Administration office on the 10th floor, a GSA employee asked for the men’s credentials. Flanagan and Basel claimed that they had left them in their vehicle.(comment #120 upthread)
NOTE:Has any of Landrieus staff stated that the phones were not working that morning- did they not have any phones ringing at all?The statement that he wanted to fix the BUILDINGS’ phones ,not specifically Landrieu’s phones,is interesting.
Has it been established by anyone else in the Boggs building that they had irregularities in their service?
Tea for (minus) two
Thu Jan-28-10
Bachmann Is Latest To Pull Out Of Tea Party Convention
Source: Talking Points Memo
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has become the latest to pull out of a scheduled speaking gig at the controversial National Tea Party Convention next year.
Like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) earlier today, Bachmann’s office cited concerns about the event’s financial arrangements. Some Tea Partiers have accused the convention’s organizer, Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, of seeking to profit from the confab.
…snip…
Bachmann’s office had earlier said it was concerned about the possibility of violating Congressional ethics rules.
Sarah Palin is currently still scheduled to speak, but is reported to be under pressure to bow out as well.
Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/bachm…
Now, if there really are actionable ties between Dai and CIA, but the FBI is in charge of this…there may be some turf war going on here. Jus’ sayin’.