Is it possible that the GOP or Bush Administration is hiring computer specialists

to do more damage than we realize?

They probably don't need them since they have agencies like the NSA doing just about all kinds of unthinkable things, but I wonder if the groundwork from corporatists are already being laid out. I get this impression from several unrelated events:

(1) According to Curtis, Feeney was asking questions years ago about the plausibility of rigging vote counting software in order to tip an election. We know this kind of thing is a reality, though we just don't know how severe it is.

(2) The Bush Administration is moving to destroy valuable public information from the EPA, closing down libraries in the process claiming that the information is available on electronic files, but even career librarians says the search engines don't work.

(3) Jeb Bush was organizing a Cyber Crime Unit years back, the extent of it is unknown to me because I haven't read much about it in the paper since.

So, I'm asking myself, if the GOP was already working on keeping control by creating back doors into government databases, or has their own set of hackers they can buy off, how difficult would it be to uncover who these people are, and what they're up to?

I mean, think of the drug trade. We know there are big fish controlling the sale of narcotics in this country, we probably know who they are too, but they're not the ones the federal agencies keep nabbing. So, why should we be surprised to find out that public government databases can be hacked by private interest, right under our noses?

Nothing they do would surprise me anymore.

in the 2 yrs they have left.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/25/132559/979

Abramoff's NSA and Domestic Spying Scandal
by leveymg
Wed Jan 25, 2006 at 10:25:59 AM PST
The National Security Scandals of Jack Abramoff - Part II

(Pt. 1, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/24/121156/129)

While Jack Abramoff's scandalous rip-off of Indian tribes is well know, his role as a GOP fixer for NSA and CIA contractors has gone virtually under the radar screen. Abramoff's lobbying activities raise serious questions about the role of his corporate and foreign clients in compromising highly sensitive NSA and Capitol Hill communications networks, in domestic spying and in other illegal national security-related activities.


leveymg's diary :: ::
We now learn that Abramoff is at the center of a much wider web of criminal activity involving private-sector NSA contractors and GOP lawmakers. Abramoff served as a conduit between the NSA and private companies that have become the focus of multiple criminal prosecutions and national security investigations, including the abuse of prisoners abroad, and alledged spying on Capitol Hill lawmakers by Abramoff clients.

Yesterday, we reported that Verizon (dba Qwest Wireless), is the focus of an NSA contracting scandal and a little-noticed trial of executives for cooking company books. Attorneys for Qwest's CEO, Joseph Nacchio, raised knowledge of classified government contracts anticipated by Qwest in 2001 as "one of the key elements to his defense." http://www.democraticunderground.com/... ; also, see, http://today.reuters.com/...

That trial reveals something far more important about the corruption scandal that is gripping top GOP lawmakers. Abramoff and his associates manueuvered his clients -- including now bankrupt Enron, Global Crossing and Tyco International -- into federal contracts that gave them leverage over strategic U.S. markets, a role in framing foreign policy options, or unprecedented private-sector access to operating classified government data networks. This has resulted in the gravest constitutional crisis since Watergate, as well as a massive damage to U.S. national security.

The 2001 Contract to Privatize NSA's Surveillance Systems

In 2001 Verizon, along with CACI (a defense contractor shepherded by Abramoff that heavily contributed to the GOP), was awarded part of a multi-billion dollar NSA contract to privatize the NSA's information technology systems, capabilities that were then used by the Bush Administration to carry out illegal domestic spying. As part of that ten-year program, code-named Project Groundbreaker, NSA surveillance systems continue to be developed, operated and maintained by private sector IT companies. See, http://lists.jammed.com/...

Washington Post
August 1, 2001
Pg. E1

By Vernon Loeb and Greg Schneider, Washington Post Staff Writers

The National Security Agency yesterday awarded a 10-year contract worth more than $2 billion to Computer Sciences Corp. and more than a dozen partners in what NSA officials called the largest effort by a U.S. intelligence agency to entrust its information technology systems to a private contractor.

With the Bush administration engaged in a comprehensive review of the nation's intelligence capabilities, the award represents a clear acknowledgment by NSA officials that the agency has fallen behind the technological curve and now needs the private sector to modernize its
Cold War infrastructure. The contract, dubbed Project Groundbreaker, also represents a major departure for the NSA, which has long prided itself on developing much of its own computer and signals intelligence technology.

SNIP

Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the NSA's director, said the contract "allows us to refocus assets on the agency's core mission of providing foreign signals intelligence and protecting U.S. national
security-related information systems." One intelligence community official called the contract "unprecedented in terms of the scale of the effort, taking advantage of the private sector's ability to make technical inroads
and modernize rapidly. It could very well be replicated by other intelligence agencies, if the effort is successful."

While many of the requirements included in the contract involve non-classified computing and telecommunications services, Computer Sciences and its partners also will be responsible for designing and maintaining classified systems used for the management of electronic
signals and digital data intercepted around the globe. California-based CSC formed a partnership on the contract with Logicon, a Herndon-based unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. The joint venture is known as the Eagle Alliance,
and will be led by Robinson. The team was selected over groups led by AT&T Corp. and OAO TechnologySolutions Inc. Agency officials said the contract, which will become "fully operational" by Nov. 1, includes financial incentives to support the hiring of 750 NSA employees by the contractors at "comparable or better pay, benefits and opportunities."

SNIP

It also undertook a similar outsourcing program for the Army in the past few years, a $680 million job called the Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program. Under that program, about 200 Army employees became CSC employees, the company said.

SNIP

CSC's other partners include General Dynamics Corp., Keane Federal Systems Inc., Omen Inc., ACS Defense Inc., BTG Inc., CACI International Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., TRW Inc., Windemere, Fiber Plus, Verizon and Superior Communications.

CACI: CIA contractor abuse

CACI is part of the Groundbreaker contract. A CACI contractor working for the CIA was implicated in the torture and homicide of a detainee in Afghanistan. Sourcewatch reports that Abramoff's former law firm, Greenberg Traurig, working with a CACI lobbyist on a junket to Israel to introduce Capitol Hill to prisoner interrogation techniques. See, http://www.sourcewatch.org/...

4. "Miami-headquartered firm (Greenberg Traurig) partially funded/sponsored delegation to Israel by House-Senate Armed Services Committee members and government contractors to witness and be briefed on interrogation resistance procedures and torture techniques ... One of lobbyists joining them to Israel included Jack London, CEO, CACI International, the American defense contractor implicated by Major General Antonio M. Taguba in outsourced Iraqi torture at Abu Ghraib prison." See Taguba Report.
Ali Abunimah, "Israeli link possible in US torture techniques. In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security contracts?" (http://www.dailystar.com.lb /...) The Daily Star (Lebanon), May 11, 2004. Also posted May 18, 2004 by San Francisco Indymedia (http://sf.indymedia.org /...).

Scandal over Abramoff foreign wireless company client brings down Rep. Bob Nye

Yet another major GOP scandal concerns a different Abramoff client, MobileAcess Networks(dba FoxCom Wireless) an Israeli wireless company, which was awarded the contract to install a local area wireless network in the House and Senate office buildings. This has led to the downfall of House Operations Committee Chair Bob Nye (R.,OH), who received lavish gifts from Abramoff and his clients in the deal.

The contract was awarded after the Israeli wireless company made a $50,000 gift to Abramoff's favorite "charity", the Capital Athletic Foundation, that also received a million dollar donation from a Russian tycoon seeking favors in Washington. Abramoff's firm received $240,000 for its services.

In relation to the other Abramoff clients involved with the NSA, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this transaction is that the House wireless contract was awarded to the Israeli company despite security concerns that the network was vulnerable to monitoring. Nevertheless, the contract was pushed through by Nye after the NSA cleared the plan.

http://www.hillnews.com/...

(I)n 2002, the license to build a (wireless phone) network inside the House office buildings went to MobileAccess Networks, an upstart Israeli company formerly named Foxcom Wireless. In 2004, MobileAccess trumped LGC (a rival US bidder) again, winning a $3.9 million dollar contract to build a similar network in the Senate.

"We felt that there were irregularities in the vendor selection process and formally protested the process, but to no avail," Ian Sugarboard, LGC's CEO, said in an e-mail. "In addition, it appeared that lobbyists had exerted undue influence on the deal."

The process by which MobileAccess beat LGC has resurfaced because of the scandals surrounding GOP megalobbyist Jack Abramoff.

SNIP

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.
In December 2000, Thomas's staff, the Architect of the Capitol's Office and the House Information Resource Office appeared set to award LGC a license. But the paperwork sat on the chairman's desk, unsigned.

In a brief interview with The Hill this week, Thomas said that as House Administration Committee chairman he made the procurement process "more professional" and kept politics at "arms length" but that he could not recall details of the wireless decision. A former staffer involved in the process recalled that "Thomas never reached a final decision on LGC. Frankly, one of my guys was a little out in front of the decision in how he conveyed things third-hand."

The source added, "Bob Bean, who was Hoyer's staff director at the time, weighed in on behalf of making sure that Foxcom got equitable consideration. Bean came to me to personally suggest steps like weighing the preferences of the telecom companies." Bean died last year. Meantime, Foxcom offered a cut-rate price of $750,000 to each carrier. LGC's initial price to the carriers was $1.15 million, which it cut to $850,000. The license was worth up to $4 million.

Expect updates as this story develops.

COPYRIGHT 2006, Mark G. Levey

Why isn't this frontpage news? Why aren't the Democrats moving now to search-out those people in the industry who are helping the GOP, because if they are positioning themselves for after 2008, this is nothing short of espionage!

Actually, I think there's been a decision at the Justice Department that the operations would be stopped, but defendants will be charged with non-political offenses -- more routine corruption charges -- such as the ripoff of the Indian tribal gambling operations and the labor abuses in the Marianas Islands.

The espionage and foreign influence peddling side isn't being prosecuted. Maybe Waxman will look more closely at it.

espionage, there should be stiff penalties on the books already, surely?

involves accusations that MZM provided false intelligence estimates about the Iraq aluminum tubing. Laura Rozen wrote about that, a while back, as did I:

Here's another on MZM's role as a DoD-supported in-house shop for GOP dirty-tricks and intelligence cooked to order:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/23/8418/64300

MZM: Private One-Stop Shop for Domestic Dirty-Tricks
by leveymg
Thu Mar 23, 2006 at 06:04:18 AM PDT
Corrupt MZM defense contractor doing its own oversight?.

It's the entrepreneurial offspring of the commercialization of intelligence. We now see private contractors bribing Congressmen, operating spy agencies, and staffing the commissions charged with investigating their own abuses. Behold, the one-stop shop for political dirty-tricks.

It has emerged in recent years amidst the mania for gov't outsourcing of counter-terrorism, particularly information technology services related to electronic surveillance. Private DoD and Homeland Security contractors have a vested interest in locating and amplifying "threats". This creates a monetary temptation for tailoring the intelligence product to match the expectations of government clients, including the outright falsification of intelligence.

Take, for instance, Wade Mitchell's MZM, a corrupt defense contracting firm tied in with the Cunningham bribery scandal, which recieved millions to develop surveillance technologies for the Pentagon's new domestic spy agencies. TPM Muckraker reports the following disturbing developments:

MORE below

leveymg's diary :: ::
On background, it should be noted that Laura Rozen's War&Piece column of December 11, 2005, "Wade, Wilkes and Bad Intelligence?" identified Mitchell Wade's MZM defense contracting firm as a culprit in faulty intelligence generation that led to the invasion of Iraq. http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003244.html

A source cited by Rozen identified MZM as the private contractor cited for support of an errant CIA Iraq WMD assessment used to justify the Bush Administration's argument for war. An MZM analysis erroneously concluded that aluminum tubes ordered by Saddam Hussein were intended for use in a clandestne nuclear fuel enrichment progam that didn't exist. Now, Rosen comes up with the extraordinary find that consultants working for MZM and other intelligence contractors staffed the Robb-Silberman Commission that investigated the faulty Iraq WMD findings.

SNIP

but I have to bookmark to read it a little later; Clark's up next at the DNC conference:)

I think we need to start realizing that corporate espionage has evolved over the years, and that business types have hijacked out government and, thus, country. No reason why they wouldn't apply the same techniques now that they're about to lose power.

This is important stuff (and somewhat overwhelming) and needs to be widely distributed.

The GOP has always been one step ahead. I think it doesn't hurt to be proactive and think about what they might do next to maintain their advantage.

I wouldn't rule out anything these people might do at this point. Not anything.

Their behavior pattern, in general and overall, indicates they will ALWAYS revert to looking for a way around something. A back door. Somewhere to slide in under the door. Tracking the watchdogs to make sure you know when they take a break for lunch. WHATEVER it is. They're ALWAYS looking for a way to sneak around to get what they want regardless the morality, the legality, or the ethics. ALWAYS. The entire bush administration has been a case study in this.

I had a website that smashed my congressman over a local issue. He was a friend of Abramoff. My computer was shortly therafter infected with a keystroke logger and who knows what else. Then, when it came time to renew the domain name, the company I had been doing bizz with for four years gave me a total runaround and refused to renew the domain.

Well, the congressman is gone and the local issue all but resolved, but the fact that they gamed me over a minor slight showed me that their fingers are everywhere.

I'm sensing their bullyism too. Everytime things get difficult for a member of my family, it's the first thing I think of. I wish there was a place we could go to check to see if our suspicions are true and get justice if they are.