By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON — Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, is feeling just fine. Thank you very much. Same goes for Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey.
On a day when Democrats buried their longest-serving colleague, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who died last week at the age of 92, hoax news releases announced the death of Mr. Leahy, following similar announcements about Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Lautenberg.
The hoax messages were sent to various news organizations, including The New York Times, which received the notice about Mr. Leahy, and said that the senators had died of liver cancer.
A close look at the detailed header of the message makes clear that it did not originate from the Senate computer system but rather from an outside domain, 000.webhost.com — a sign that government computers were not hacked.
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/notices-of-senators-deaths-are-hoaxes/