Rainy Day Open Thread

Posted by BooMan | Apr 8, 2006 | 20 |

I have the strange and nerdy habit of spending rainy weekend days reading transcripts of Church Committee hearings. I know, I know…but I can’t help it. This morning I have taken a particular interest in reading James Angleton’s testimony about the Huston Plan, the opening of U.S. mail by the CIA, and the infiltration of anti-war groups. If you are interested in the history of domestic surveillance, you can’t do better than to read Angleton’s testimony (beginning here). If you replace each instance of ‘communist’ with ‘terrorist’ and each instance of ‘mail’ with ’email’ or ‘electronic communications’, I think you will find that the only thing that has changed from the 1970’s until now is the party in control of Congress. The Democrats controlled the Church hearings and they did not buy Angleton’s justifications for domestic surveillance. Today, the Republicans control the hearings and they use the exact same arguments to explain away Bush’s abuse of power as Angleton used to justify the abuse of power of Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, and especially Nixon.

This is an open thread.

About The Author

BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

20 Comments

BooMan on April 8, 2006 at 1:47 pm

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70619-0.html

AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers’ phone calls, and shunted its customers’ internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against the company.

Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, submitted an affidavit in support of the EFF’s lawsuit this week. That class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco last January, alleges that AT&T violated federal and state laws by surreptitiously allowing the government to monitor phone and internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.

On Wednesday, the EFF asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting AT&T from continuing the alleged wiretapping, and filed a number of documents under seal, including three AT&T documents that purportedly explain how the wiretapping system works.

According to a statement released by Klein’s attorney, an NSA agent showed up at the San Francisco switching center in 2002 to interview a management-level technician for a special job. In January 2003, Klein observed a new room being built adjacent to the room housing AT&T’s #4ESS switching equipment, which is responsible for routing long distance and international calls.

“I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room,” Klein wrote. “The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.”

Klein’s job eventually included connecting internet circuits to a splitting cabinet that led to the secret room. During the course of that work, he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

“While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T’s internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal,” Klein wrote.

The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein’s statement.

The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, “known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets,” according to Klein’s statement.

Narus, whose website touts AT&T as a client, sells software to help internet service providers and telecoms monitor and manage their networks, look for intrusions, and wiretap phone calls as mandated by federal law.

Klein said he came forward because he does not believe that the Bush administration is being truthful about the extent of its extrajudicial monitoring of Americans’ communications.

“Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA’s spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA’s charter or with FISA,” Klein’s wrote. “And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals’ phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.”
- rumi on April 8, 2006 at 2:59 pm
  
  It was a freak coincidence but back in 1999-01, somewhere in there, I noticed new pieces of hardware being installed on utility poles by Verizon. They were/are similar in shape to a transformer but smaller. After the guys left I noted some names and numbers on the piece and started digging. It was one of the new crystal based switching technology for the fiber optic systems.
  
  I didn’t notice at the time but it was also being manipulated in illicit trading practice.
  The incident is reminiscent of last year’s hoax involving PairGain, in which a phony news story was planted on an Internet message board saying the company was being acquired. The FBI caught up a week later with Gary Hoke, the 25-year-old company employee who planted the story.
  
  When Hoke posted the fake Bloomberg story on a message board on April 7, 1999, PairGain jumped 30% before the hoax was exposed. It closed up 10% that day. PairGain was subsequently acquired by broadband player ADC Telecommunications (ADCT:Nasdaq – news) for $18.92 a share, less than a dollar above the hoax-takeout price.
  …and
  In April of 1999 a counterfeit Web site of Bloomberg.com, a news service, touted a US $1.35 billion acquisition of PairGain Technologies of California by ECI Telecom of Israel. The ruse sent PairGain shares soaring 31 percent on April 7, but the stock fell back to earth after the story proved false. The frenzy started when a financial discussion page on Yahoo! included a link to the fraudulent Web site. For further information see WiredNews [http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,19094,00.html].
  
  I was researching it then for the tech background and wasn’t convinced of rumors of ‘broad internet moitoring’ at that point yet. That optical data signal switching technology is at the center of many different entities.
Arthur Gilroy on April 8, 2006 at 1:52 pm

Yup.

Except…the “Democrats” of that time are NOT the Democrats of THIS time.

Now…they’d roll over and play dead for James Jesus and hope he’d be able to resurrect them.

Come to think of it…he DOES look a lot like that asshole on CNN.

Larry King?

Same family of reptoids, maybe???

No WONDER King never dies.

In fact…maybe Angleton never died!!!

UH OH!!!

Too much information on a rainy saturday morning.

Nevermind…

AG
- BooMan on April 8, 2006 at 1:56 pm
  
  reading him testify is just frightening. He was such a slippery fuck. Truly a bad man. Maybe the worst man in American history.
  - Arthur Gilroy on April 8, 2006 at 2:01 pm
    
    With all that competition?
    
    Kissinger?
    
    J. Edgar?
    
    I dunno…
    
    AG
    - BooMan on April 8, 2006 at 2:17 pm
      
      Well, let’s looks the strange case of Thomas Riha. Who is more sinsiter in this case? Hoover or Angleton?
      
      Moreover, in the spring of 1970 the FBI severed its formal liaison to the CIA in reaction to a CIA-FBI dispute over confidential sources in Colorado. 33 Though hostility between the two agencies had surfaced before with some frequency over matters such as disagreement regarding the bona fides of communist defectors, this particular dispute was “the one straw that broke the camel’s back.” 34 The incident in Colorado, now known as the Riha Case, involved a CIA officer who received information concerning the disappearance of a foreign national on the faculty of the University of Colorado, a Czechoslovak by the name of Thomas Riha.
      
      The information apparently came from an unnamed FBI officer stationed in Denver. Hoover demanded to know the identity of the FBI agent; but, as a matter of personal integrity, the CIA officer refused to divulge the name of his source. Hoover was furious with Helms for not providing the FBI with this information and, “in a fit of pique,” 35 he broke formal Bureau ties with the Agency. 36 To many observers, including Huston and Sullivan, the severance of these ties contributed to the perceived inability of the Bureau’s intelligence division to perform their task adequately.
      
      In this context, a special meeting was called on April 22, 1970, in Haldeman’s office. In attendance were Haldeman, Krogh, Huston Alexander Butterfield (who had responsibility for White House liaison’ with the Secret Service), and Ehrlichman. The purpose of this gathering was to improve coordination among the White House staff for contact with intelligence agencies in the government and, more importantly, as Huston remembers, to decide “whether — because of the escalating level of the violence — something within the government further needed to be done.” 37
      
      A decision was made. The President would be asked to meet with the directors of the four intelligence agencies to take some action that might curb the growing violence. The intelligence agencies would be asked by the President to write a report on what could be done. The meeting was planned for May. In addition, Tom Huston was given a high staff position in the White House; henceforth, he would have responsibilities for internal security affairs. 38 He was now in a strategic position to help Sullivan reverse existing Bureau policies.
      
      The meeting between President Nixon and the intelligence directors was not held in May, because plans for, and the reaction to, the April 29 invasion of Cambodia in Southeast Asia disrupted the entire White House schedule. In the aftermath of this event, the meeting “became even more important,” recalls Huston. 39 The expansion of the Indochina war into Cambodia and the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State had focused the actions on antiwar movement and civil rights activists.
      
      As soon as the reaction to the Cambodian incursion had stabilized somewhat, the meeting between President Nixon and the intelligence directors was rescheduled for June 5th. It was to start a chain of events that would culminate in the Huston Plan.
      
      Senator HART of Colorado: One final question.
      Mr. Angleton, are you familiar with the name Thomas Riha, R-i-h-a
      
      Mr. ANGLETON. I am, indeed.
      
      Senator HART of Colorado. And you are aware of the fact that the so-called Thomas Riha case nlayed a key role in the breach of liaison between the CIA and the FBI?
      
      Mr. ANGLETON. I am.
      
      Senator HART of Colorado. Do you have any information for this committee as to what happened to Prof. Thomas Riha?
      
      Mr. ANGLETON. What has happened to the subject?
      
      Senator HART of Colorado. He has disappeared.
      
      Mr. ANGLETON. I haven’t heard anything. I have not actually inquired, but I have no knowledge. I think I heard speculation at one time, but it was back, more or less, in the res gestae of this trouble, that he was in Czechoslovakia, but I do not know.
      - Arthur Gilroy on April 8, 2006 at 3:05 pm
        
        Birds of a feather fighting for position.
        
        Vultures fighting over the corpse of democracy.
        
        Equally disgusting on every level.
        
        At least Angleton had some intelligence. (The IQ kind.)
        
        Hoover was just a powerful little troll.
        
        AG
Jaded Prole on April 8, 2006 at 1:59 pm

Just keep in mind that the greatest threat to the empire is an active citizenry. They have met the enemy and it is us.
- supersoling on April 8, 2006 at 2:10 pm
  
  I think they just opened their door and realize it us on their doorstep. They are the one’s who are long term fucked.
  Peace
rumi on April 8, 2006 at 2:10 pm

I think it sounds like a really interesting pastime. I don’t know if that qualifies as an affirmation or just additional warning signs.

😀
supersoling on April 8, 2006 at 2:12 pm

Rainy Saturdays are perfect for fires in the fireplace and a pot, I mean a POT of real chili bubbling on the stove. Of course “real” chili is different to everyone. Got in trouble the last time I said real chili…….
- Raging Hippie on April 8, 2006 at 4:20 pm
  
  The last time I got in trouble with chili was when the pot was in the chili.
maynard on April 8, 2006 at 2:14 pm

I’ve written this article outlining my disagreement with Professor Lisa Jardine’s conclusions that men prefer reading ‘puberty’ fiction of ‘angst and orwell’ as if such material were a nonliterary pursuit. In the Guardian article she is quoted tarnishing works by such Nobel Prize winning authors as Albert Camus and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Below is a link to the article in question, along with the first paragraph:

Prof. Lisa Jardine: Men Prefer ‘Puberty’ Fiction of ‘Angst and Orwell’. So What?

Recently, Charlotte Higgins, the arts correspondent of The Guardian, reported on the results of an Orange Prize for Fiction commissioned study by Professor Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins where, according to the article, they interviewed: ‘500 men, many of whom had some professional connection with literature, about the novels that had changed their lives.’ According to Professor Jardine, who was quoted in the article: “We were completely taken aback by the results,” and was paraphrased by the reporter as saying: ‘that they revealed a pattern verging on a gender cliché, with women citing emotional, more domestic works, and men novels about social dislocation and solitary struggle.’ An interesting result even if, in a minor discrepancy, the Orange Prize Press Release on the study states that the researchers had interviewed ‘… 400 men from the worlds of academia, arts, publishing and literary criticism …’ and not 500. But what do her reported results mean, if anything at all?

Cheers!
–M
Street Kid on April 8, 2006 at 2:24 pm

I have the strange and nerdy habit of spending rainy weekend days reading transcripts of Church Committee hearings…

Just in case you missed something or something related to something else you may have read/written, right?

Was I close?
- BooMan on April 8, 2006 at 2:33 pm
  
  maybe. Mostly, the stuff just fascinates me. It’s the only time in our history when the government actually attempted to fix the institutional problems and expose and rein in the real power brokers that move government policy in international affairs.
  
  The only other example I can think of was the lonely and largely disparaged efforts of Lawrence Walsh.
  
  Essentially, in both cases, the government, or elements within the government, exposed and investigated the real underbelly of American power.
  
  And in both cases we found the Bush Crime Family at the heart of the problem.
  
  Of course, the Bushes are just one crime family among many. And from their perspective, they are not crooks at all, but the straw that stirs the drink of American hegemony and our wonderful standard of living.
  
  In any case, we are watching the undoing of everything the Class of 1974 accomplished in these hearing and the ensuing reforms. The past has bent around and become the present. The parallels are not only historically fascinating, but they help explain what is happening, and why.
  - Street Kid on April 8, 2006 at 3:24 pm
    
    and how it all ties together and a historical perspective that can be applied to the present.
    
    See, when I made my comment to your post, I was thinking about myself and all of the reading that I do re: Medicare D(isaster) and health care. Never did I think that I would get as interested/absorbed in the subject of health care as I am. And for some reason, I can’t give it up–not just Medicare D(isaster), but health care as a whole.
    
    Have wondered for awhile if it was also domestic policy as well–all of the Great Society reforms are being chipped at to the point where one wonders how long they will be in existance.
    
    Anyway, that is also fascinating–the how and why, at least to me.
    
    Would also like to say that you are on a roll, BooMan. You have been writing a lot recently that has really got me thinking–last nite, I was ready to call it quits until I read “America and War”. That one said it all.
idredit on April 8, 2006 at 4:44 pm

Spotlight on the family ties as the Abramoff probe is extended. h/t to Laura Rozen, at War and Piece who provides this NYT link

On Dec. 3, 2003, Aeneas Enterprises opened for business in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, and judging by its bank records, the small consulting company with no listed telephone number was an instant success. Within a month, its records show, Aeneas had taken in $2.3 million from a single client.

Aeneas is under scrutiny by the Justice Department and Congressional investigators. Its founder, Robert Abramoff, a lawyer and sometime Hollywood movie producer, is the brother of Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist at the center of a Washington influence-peddling scandal involving several members of Congress.[..]
maryb2004 on April 8, 2006 at 7:40 pm

A lawyer “knowledgable” about the Scooter Libby case says that Bush left the details of the leak to Cheney according to the Associated Press.

President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut
Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President
Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.

Bush merely instructed Cheney to “get it out” and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president’s wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.
canberra boy on April 8, 2006 at 10:22 pm

Thanks for the interesting links, BooMan. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

On another note, I wanted to mention that I’ve again noticed a mismatch between the time provided by your site and my local time. I suspect when summer time started recently your server’s clock was advanced by an hour but the server’s time zone setting in the scoop software was not changed. As a result I think all the times displayed for zones other than the server’s are out by an hour.

I seem to have taken on the role of unoffical BT timekeeper… 😉
KNUCKLEHEAD on April 9, 2006 at 3:29 am

VIRUS WARNING!

There is a dangerous virus being passed electronically, orally and by hand. This virus is called Worm-Overload-Recreational-Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from any of your colleagues, your boss or anyone else via any means DO NOT TOUCH IT. This virus will wipe out your private life completely.

If you should come into contact with WORK put your jacket on and take two good friends to the nearest pub. Purchase the antidote known as Work-Isolator-Neutralizer-Extractor (WINE). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should forward this warning to 5 friends. If you do not have 5 friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

Update: After extensive testing it has been concluded that Best-Equivalent-Extractor-Remedy (BEER) may be substituted for WINE but may require a more generous application.

Rainy Day Open Thread

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