Electronic eavesdropping on Congress and Senate? (Abramoff and Ney relate

[chat_noir]

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) oversaw the process for awarding the wireless contract.

WiFi fight involves Abramoff

In 2000, the House of Representatives was close to deciding how to improve wireless telecommunications reception inside the Capitol when LGC Wireless, one of the two companies competing for the license, indicated its surprise that a lesser known, foreign company had edged ahead.

LGC, of San Jose, Calif., had a track record that included installing indoor wireless networks at New York City’s airports, in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The company complained in a letter to the House general counsel that the process on Capitol Hill was unfair and deeply flawed

“(Ney) does not recall having a conversation with Jack Abramoff about the merits of Foxcom, nor does he recall a similar conversation with Neil Volz* from the time Volz left the House Administration Committee through the period when the license was awarded,” said Brian Walsh, Ney’s spokesman. Volz had been Ney’s chief of staff until early 2002.

The Washington Post reported that MobileAccess donated $50,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation, which was run by Abramoff, in 2001. Two years later, MobileAccess paid Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff’s former employer, $240,000 in lobbying fees.

The FBI and National Security Agency reviewed the security of LGC’s technology to make sure foreign intelligence services could not penetrate the network, according to documents reviewed by The Hill.

The Hill: The Newspaper for and about The U. S. Congress March 2005



In 2000, LGC Wireless, a San Jose, California-based firm was considered in the lead to provide wireless connectivity for the U.S. House of Representatives. A year earlier, the House Administration Committee, then headed by Republican Representative Bill Thomas of California, granted LGC authority to conduct a design and securityn survey of the Capitol. In addition, the FBI and NSA reviewed LGC's system design to ensure that foreign intelligence agencies could not penetrate the House's wireless network. By December 2000, LGC had cleared its plans with the Capitol Architect, the House Information Resource Office, and the House Administration Committee. However, soon a new Israeli co,pany named Foxcom Wireless, which changed its name to MobileAccess, began making an end run to secure the Capitol wireless contract. The new chairman of the House Administration Committee, Republican Representative Bob Ney of Ohio, clearly favored MobileAccess over LGC and in 2002, the Israeli company received the House wireless contract. Ney had a close poltical and financial relationship with GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an extreme pro-Israeli political insider, who came under Justice Department investigation for questionable ties to Ney and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. It was later revealed by The Washington Post that in 2001 MobileAccess donated $50,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation, which was run by Abramoff. In 2004, MobileAccess paid $240,000 in lobbying fess to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's former firm. The ranking member on the House Administration Committee, Democratic Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said he was not kept fully informed of the wireless contract by either Thomas or Ney. LGC also cried foul when, in 2004, the U.S. Senate awarded MobileAccess a $3.9 million contract to install a wireless network for the Senate.<49> As with the questions surrounding Information Spectrum Inc. abruptly replacing Larimore Associates as the Jersey City Police Department computer system contractor, similar complaints were aired by LGC. Ian Sugarboard, LGC's CEO told The Hill newspaper, ". . . it appeared that lobbyists had exerted undue influence on the deal." In addition, the House Administration Committee did not specify what security criteria MobileAccess had to meet. The FBI and NSA had previously approved LGC's security countermeasures.<50>

<49> Patrick O'Connor and Jonathan E, Kaplan, "Wi Fi fight involves Abramoff," The Hill, March 3, 2005, p. 11.
<50> Ibid.


Portland Indy Media Center



* Neil Volz

[Lerkfish]

1. K & R...excellent info!

[chat_noir]

2. Feds Faulted For Weak Wireless Security

Federal agencies have yet to fully apply key controls such as policies, practices, and tools to let them operate wireless networks securely, congressional auditors report.

May 17, 2005 03:23 PM

Congressional auditors contend the federal government isn't doing enough to secure its wireless networks.

In a 31-page report issued Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said federal agencies have yet to fully apply key controls such as policies, practices, and tools to let them operate wireless networks securely. GAO tests of the security of wireless networks at six federal agencies revealed unauthorized wireless activity and "signal leakage," wireless signals broadcasting beyond the perimeter of the building and thereby increasing the networks' susceptibility to attack.

• Eavesdropping: The attacker monitors transmissions for message content. For example, a person listens to the transmissions on a network between two workstations or tunes in to transmissions between a wireless handset and a base station.

• Masquerading: The attacker impersonates an authorized user and exploits the user's privileges to gain unauthorized access in order to modify data.

• Replay: The attacker places himself between communicating parties, intercepting their communications, and retransmitting them; this is commonly referred to as "Man-in-the-Middle."

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105071

[Spazito]

3. Oh my!

This adds another very fascinating aspect to what is already absolutely riveting.

[myrna minx]

4. I think my head is gonna explode.

There is a lot of new information out today. This is getting interesting.

[PATRICK]

5. There are so many

circumstantial connections, so much imitation of spying and fraud and Rovian tactic strategies going on in the party that there HAS to be something like this oozing down almost to any level where there is a GOP perp. Even if not just see what conscious or subconscious imitation of WH criminality is infesting the GOP and the government already.

Opportunism rules. Secrecy rules(for the the ruling party). Fraud and spying are SOP. One crime and one lie enfolds and envelops another- the standard tactic du jour since Bush snuck in using one outrage to enable another. It can make one a believer in black magic or quantum manipulation except that it will be more evident in its collapse than in its shadowy practice where denial and lies must rule over reality for anything to 'work". The real world will exact a catastrophic toll on anyone trapped in this mess.

Unity, consistency, repetition, will. That is why it is so surprisingly transparent to the discerning(those in the real world with human values). That is why the swiss cheese voting fraud has to have backdoors you need only two keystrokes to get into. That is why they ignore the details of real military strategy and bull ahead. it has to be kept dynamic and simple and all together on target, the whole murky lying mess, because any truly intelligent or subtle interaction with reality would be even more quickly fatal. This way they can ignore their present downward spiral to disaster and damnation. It is a desperate orgy of "success" by crime. And so wearily, it has tragically happened over and over again
to the useless suffering of the human race.

[bleever]

7. Well said.

They've made a point of filling all possible positions of relevance, governmental or in private industry, with loyalists and flacks, and so the whole network is pervaded with corruption, and the collapse will be monumental.

[ptolle]

6. K& R excellent post

[chat_noir]

8. kick

:kick:

[chat_noir]

9. WiFi caper cited in Abramoff charges

see Article 21


http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/abramoff/10306inf.pdf

[KoKo]

10. Thanks for this post. Had no idea about this...and I thought I was

pretty well informed. :eyes: I wonder why this wasn't big news. Sure sounds to me like it could leave our Congressional Communications open to invasion, monitoring, eavesdropping. Can't imagine why "some" Repugs and many Dems didn't check this out and raise holy hell about it.

Are they still using this system?

[chat_noir]

11. $50,000 payment to CAF (Capital Athletic Foundation

A little spooky that I discovered this WiFI caper this morning before the news of the plea bargain hit.

[SoCalDem]

12. FOXcom?? any relation to Fox snooze?

:)

[SeattleRob]

13. kick! Excellent Info!

:kick:

[AntiFascist]

14. kick

sorry for my dupe thread.

The question I have is, what might now be held over the heads of Dem reps?

[chat_noir]

15. NYT: Tracing the Case

Note wireless company




Anyone know anything about the distilled beverage company?