Next Scandal?

Fox News | 2-15-2004 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

I was just watching an interview on Fox News and this journalist was on a segment which they call "The Scoop" with Eric Shaun. Anyway, the man he was interviewing said he was going to break a story this week that the Republican Party is having the United Kingdom bug/tap phones at the DNC and their candidates. Apparently there is a loophole that allows the UK to do it for us and for us to do it for him but he is going to spread out more evidence that this is going on right now.

I expect this to become the next media feeding fenzy.

[My Favorite Headache]

Anyone care to add how this will not be a big story or some history behind this? My stomach about dropped when I heard this.

[My Favorite Headache]

Do it for THEM not him* Typo near the end there.

[Peach]

IF this is true, the GOP will lose EVERYTHING.

[cripplecreek]

Ive been watching too. The guy dis say this has been common practice for at least 50 years.

[dirtboy]

Anyway, the man he was interviewing said he was going to break a story this week that the Republican Party is having the United Kingdom bug/tap phones at the DNC and their candidates. Apparently there is a loophole that allows the UK to do it for us and for us to do it for him but he is going to spread out more evidence that this is going on right now.

The GOP has no standing or means to petition the UK to use Echelon against the Dems. Just the wording of this statement makes me believe it is pure Barbra Streisand.

[dirtboy]

The guy dis say this has been common practice for at least 50 years.

It's been common practice for the UK to snoop on US phone conversations and vice versa, and then exchange intel. However, that is a far cry from the GOP ordering the UK to spy on the DNC.

[My Favorite Headache]

Eric Shaun about had a cow when he heard this. It seems this journalist broke a story 10 days ago about China, Nuclear Weapons,and Oil in the mid-east and it made it to the front page of the Washington Post and Times today. It seems this man's credibility is bulletproof. Shaun was in shock.

[MinuteGal]

Let not your stomach be troubled, LOL. Political offices are regularly swept for bugs and taps. Unless there's a UK 007 planting exotic, undetectable spyware in the DNC offices every couple of weeks, our tummies are safe from tumbling.

Leni

[My Favorite Headache]

Correct. Which makes the fact that he is releasing what he calls "the most explosive story of his career ever", a little more than scary. Why would the GOP do such stupid crap?

[Peach]

I read we were having the UK bug the UN but have my doubts about bugging the DNC. Shades of Watergate...

IF this proves to be true, the GOP is even more stupid than anyone ever thought possible.

There will be NO excuse possible...

[dirtboy]

Let not your stomach be troubled, LOL. Political offices are regularly swept for bugs and taps.

This would be more along the lines of using UK Echelon communications intercept facilities to snoop on the DNC. No bugs in DNC offices would be involved.

[My Favorite Headache]

This is not going to be a story about the UK bugging the UN for us. This is a story that is going to come out about the GOP bugging the Democratic campaigns and DNC through the UK. Shades of Watergate indeed.

[stopem]

No we wont "lose everything" . Lets not panic folks there are a lot of important issues that need to be taken care of and we cant panic over every little thing we hear all the way till november.

Lets have faith in our party to know how to handle this.
If they need our help they will let us know and we are there for them.

[noexcuses]

What's to keep the DNC from having the UK bug the GOP?

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Possibly.

However we are not living in the age of Nixon's resignation.

We are living in the age of Clinton's perjury and win at all cost philosophy.

Do moral values still have affect on the determination of an election?

[My Favorite Headache]

I assume nothing. However, the story that is going to be released is about the GOP doing it..not the DNC.

[Peach]

I said IF this proves to be true...

And IF it does, President Bush is toast.

[dirtboy]

Which makes the fact that he is releasing what he calls "the most explosive story of his career ever", a little more than scary. Why would the GOP do such stupid crap?

Here's my take on what the "logic" of this story will be:

Echelon in the UK monitors all US calls.

The DNC makes phone calls in the US.

Therefore, Echelon is monitoring the DNC.

The White House has access to Echelon intercepts.

The White House is run by a GOP president.

Therefore, the GOP is telling the UK to bug the DNC.

Whereas, the reality is that this stuff has been going on for decades, and is independent of the GOP and the Dems, other than our reps keep allowing it to happen.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

"IF this is true, the GOP will lose EVERYTHING."

Yup.

[Lexington Green]

Perhaps the dems should be watched. Afterall, they have taken the enemy's side in the War on Terror.

[babaloo]

If this were true why wouldn't it have been reported on during the last 50 years? Everyone take a breath here. The sky is not falling.

[TennTuxedo]

The Dems don't have one single issue to run on. So what do they do? They create scandalous news stories to deflect the spotlights off of their pitiful election campaign platform.

[MamaLucci]

There will be NO excuse possible...

I can think of one.....the DNC's continual practice of illegal fundraising.

[Peach]

No one thinks the sky is falling.

ALL we are saying is that IF this proves to be true, it will be devastating to the party. There's no getting around that.

On the other hand, if it's not true, yawn...

[arkady_renko]

This is not going to be a story about the UK bugging the UN for us. This is a story that is going to come out about the GOP bugging the Democratic campaigns and DNC through the UK. Shades of Watergate indeed.

Right. If they can get 2 weeks worth of news out of the non-story about Bush's military history, this one will go off like a rocket. Remember the mantra - It's the seriousness of the charge...

A_R

[Peach]

You know I'm a staunch President Bush supporter.

Illegal Democrat fund raising can be gotten at in other ways.

Wiretapping, without a warrant, is illegal, as it should be.

[MinuteGal]

The same principle holds true for bugging whether it's by "Echelon" or bugs. It's a cockamamie story being cooked up by the Dems.

The RNC should come out and charge the 'Rats with doing the same thing, just change the UK "participation" part to France.

As Rush says, fight absurdity with absurdity.

Leni

[In_25_words_or_less]

common practice for at least 50 years

Then Democrats have been doing it too. Buh bye, story.

[mabelkitty]

Yes, it's been going on since 1943.
Also, this could very well have to do with all that foreign money coming in to the DNC via those 527 accounts set-up in Texas.

[dirtboy]

Wiretapping, without a warrant, is illegal, as it should be.

This isn't wiretapping. Echelon consists of listening stations in the United States, UK and, I believe, Australia. We listen in on calls routed through Britain and the UK listens to our calls, and then we swap intel.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Since when has the UK tabloid press been so interested in US elections?

[My Favorite Headache]

I can feel/see the mileage that the media would get from this. People would feel betrayed...more calls of 1984/patriot act/Bush spying on the American people/Ashcroft etc...oh man...this guys article is gonna put more doubt in the President. Anyone watching probably got the same feeling about the interview and story.

[dpa5923]

If, and this is a big if, the GOP national headquarters asked a foreign government to listen in to private phone calls from the DNC and obtain transcripts or recordings of these call, the GOP is done. Not this election, but done forever. A new party will have to emerge and the democRATs will win the next election. The only way this will not kill the GOP is if the GOP releases those same transcripts and they are damning beyond all imagination (plotting with Saddamm or Al Queda, attempting to undermined security to create another 911). Short of that the GOP would be dead.

Now with that said, do I believe this happened? Hell no. Our party can't be that stupid.

[Peach]

The guy sounds like a nutjob. Here's a link to Loftus's other stories, courtesy of American_Centurion.

http://www.john-loftus.com/default.asp

[cyncooper]

Anyone care to add how this will not be a big story or some history behind this? My stomach about dropped when I heard this.

I didn't hear the report, but I'll "add" that it could be made up, ala the "Bush was AWOL" big lie.

Maybe the DNC is bugging somebody and this is the classic projection of accusing their nemesis of their own transgressions.

We'll see. I don't believe we would do this. But you're free to believe the worst if that's your inclination.

[NordP]

Thank you for your post. I just hope that everyday America can hear and understand this, too. The sheep will follow the soundbites, and this can be easily spun, and would require more than a sentence to explain.

I know Karl is more than likely on top of this. I found it interesting; however, that this reporter used the Roosevelt connection within his report. W has, on more than one occasion, been linked with President Roosevelt--chosing his desk for the Oval Office, reading books on Roosevelt, Mt. Rushmore speeches, etc., etc. Is this at the very least, a subliminal attempt to connect our fine President with this action?

It was interesting how the reporter stated that Truman was the only President that tried to stop this. Does this show the reporter's bias? or factual representation of what really happened?

Anyway, thanks for your explanation!

[My Favorite Headache]

Since President George W Bush became president. They want him gone by any means. But this journalist was not from the UK. He is from the U.S..

[NordP]

Good point to thinking people. The "sheep" of America are a different group altogether, though. THEY scare me more than the Dems.

[null and void]

Why would the GOP do such stupid crap?

Tradition?

[PJ-Comix]

I wouldn't worry about this. First off the GOP wouldn't be so stupid as to pull off something that had shades of Watergate. Most likely (IF true) then someone OUTSIDE of the GOP doing this and feeding info to individual folks in the GOP. Again, must stress IF true.

[optimistically_conservative]

This has come up before and plays primarily in Europe:

What is ECHELON used for?

In the days of the cold war, ECHELON's primary purpose was to keep an eye on the U.S.S.R. In the wake of the fall of the U.S.S.R. ECHELON justifies it's continued multi-billion dollar expense with the claim that it is being used to fight "terrorism", the catch-all phrase used to justify any and all abuses of civil rights.

With the exposure of the APEC scandal, however, ECHELON's capabilities have come under renewed scrutiny and criticism by many nations. Although not directly implicated in the bugging of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in Seattle, the use of so many U.S. Intelligence agencies to bug the conference for the purpose of providing commercial secrets to DNC donors raised the very real possability that ECHELON's all-hearing ears were prying corporate secrets loose for the advantage of the favored few.

Given that real terrorists and drug runners would always use illegal cryptographic methods anyway, the USA led attempt to ban strong crypto to the general populace seemed geared towards keeping corporate secrets readable to ECHELON, rather than any real attempt at crime prevention.

[Johnny_Cipher]

Wow.

IF this turns out to be true, then I will have to do a serious re-examination of my support (monetarily and otherwise) for the GOP. I don't countenance criminal behavior, no matter if the criminals in question are presumably working to further my interests.

Further, you can pretty much start planning the inauguration party for President Kerry if this holds up. This will destroy the Republican Party as we know it.

[TShaunK]

Not good no matter how anybody tries to spin it, the media will go crazy with this.

[cyncooper]

It seems this journalist broke a story 10 days ago about China, Nuclear Weapons,and Oil in the mid-east and it made it to the front page of the Washington Post and Times today. It seems this man's credibility is bulletproof.

Let me get this straight. Your criteria for bulletproof credibility is if a report makes it to the front pages of the Washington Post and the Times?

BTW, what was the guy's name and who does he work for?

[My Favorite Headache]

Loftus...thank you!

[null and void]

Do moral values still have affect on the determination of an election?

If not, we are truly doomed.

[cyncooper]

Shaun was in shock.

And Shaun being credulous does not impress me.

[Libertina]

Why do you assume they DO? This is just like the DemocRAT story from last election season. Untrue but the press played it up. Better hang on to your hat - the weather is going to get rough and the weathermen prefer creating storms to the truth...

[Peach]

You have to read the link above provided about the reporter on this story - Loftus.

He thinks Enron is behind 9/11 and is a conspiracy theorist of the highest order.

[blam]

The next scandal story is already posted here

Explosive Story: GOP Has Asked British SS To Bug Phones Of American Political Candidates!