Laura Flanders: Hijinks or undercover ops?

[MinM]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5534.shtml

If four politically-motivated young men with left-wing (or Muslim), rather than right-wing ties, broke into the office of a senior Senate Homeland Security Committee member and gained access to her computer files -- do you think we’d be hearing less about hijinks and more about Guantanamo?

The story of the break-in at Senator Landrieu’s office gets weirder and weirder by the day.

For those who were distracted by the State of the Union, last week, federal officials arrested four young men and charged them with plotting to tamper with the telephone system, after they were caught impersonating telephone repairmen in the New Orleans office of Senator Mary Landrieu.

The mainstream media account of the story has it that the four were neoconservative pranksters gone overboard in an attempt to uncover possibly damaging information related to the Democratic senator and a voter registration drive or the health care bill, or both. One of the men was a conservative activist who gained fame -- or infamy -- last year by posing as a pimp and secretly recording members of the community group ACORN giving him advice on how to set up a brothel...

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2010/01/is-this-the-same-stan-dai-.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/politics/31landrieu.html?scp=1&sq=landrieu&st=Search

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/men-charged-attempting-bug-landrieus-office-intelligence-links/

http://counterpunch.org/cockburn01292010.html

“Hijinks to Handcuffs for Landrieu Provocateurs,” so ran the New York Times story by Jim Rutenberg and Campbell Roberston January 31. “Silent Coup” is the headline of David Price’s piece in Counterpunch. Connecting the two is Raw Story’s “Landrieu Phone Plot: Men Arrested have Links to Intelligence Community.”

Whatever the truth, and however this story pans out, thank heavens for independent media. Left in establishment journalists’ hands, this story might not have gone anywhere. Thanks to inquisitive independent media, the dots are out there, just crying to be linked up...

Hijinks or Undercover Ops?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x430354

Right-Wing, Intelligence Ties to Landrieu Office Bugging
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x430438


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7578398

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. I simply would be astonished if these guys are given a slap on the wrist

One wonders about the historical record of groups or individuals that have attempted to penetrate secure areas dealing with national security and the punishment dished out in those cases.

[KoKo]

2. Thanks to Laura Flanders for this. The story has died...and one does wonder why Dem Ops aren't

crawling all over it. Perhaps it's because their really aren't any "Dem Ops" anymore. I see so little pushed out on the Nets by Democrats it's frightening.

Why are our Dems not pushing this as a Terrorism Incident? Every day I have to comb through the lates Palin and RW Faux News here on DU pushed as NEWS and something we Dems need to worry about. But, there's been little about this GANG OF 4 since the initial reports in the first couple of days. The story died....while if it was a Dem Group or like ACORN the damn story would be out there with megaphones all over the MSM and the Blogosphere..

Sad...but Obama just doesn't want to get into controversy ...and he doesn't seem to have a megaphone to promote Democratic Party issues ....even an intrustion like this. Senator Landrieu doesn't seem to want to promote any more inquiry into the thing, either. But, then she is a DINO...so what's new about that.

So...the story dies...and who out there except us hard core Dems even listen to Laura Flanders...

[KoKo]

3. K&R....see how little Rec's this gets....dying off to archives..

Should be on DU Front Page.

[troubledamerican]

6. Those of us who smell smoke

are getting out of the house.

[Jane Austin]

4. Why does Flanders call it a break-in? ............. n/t

[OnyxCollie]

5. K&R. nt

[MinM]

7. So Why Is Joseph Basel at the Tea Party Convention?

http://washingtonindependent.com/75933/so-why-is-joseph-basel-at-the-tea-party-convention

NASHVILLE — Justin Elliot picked up on my observation that Joseph Basel was here at the National Tea Party Convention and wondered how Basel was allowed to leave his home state of Minnesota before the Landrieu phone tampering case came to trial. I asked him.

“I’m on bond,” said Basel. “I just signed a piece of paper and I could go. I get pre-approval for travel outside of Minnesota, run by a supervision officer — I just gave him a call and said ‘I’m going to go to Nashville.’”

Basel pointed out that James O’Keefe had left his New Jersey home for New York to tape an interview with Sean Hannity. “We’re all fine,” he said. “It’ll all work out.”...