Manuel Miranda ‘not a hacker’
p2pnet.net News:- Negligent management and administration of security protocols, as well as the lack of standard security protocols, were responsible for the leaks of confidential files which “mortified” senate judiciary chairman Orrin Hatch, says unnamed source.
A former senate judiciary committee intern with experience as a computer network security administrator says no one broke into committee computers, a charge leveled by Democrats who say a key Republican stole their political strategy memos.
“The intern said the memos – detailing efforts by Judiciary Committee Democrats and allied liberal special interest groups to derail President Bush’s conservative judicial nominees – were not stolen, but rather were freely available to anyone authorized to access the committee’s computer network,” says a CNSNews.com report here, continuing:
“Judiciary Committee Democrats, upset about release of their strategy memos to the media, compared former GOP committee counsel Manuel Miranda to the infamous Watergate burglars for reading the documents. ‘In those days, break-ins required a physical presence, burglar’s tools, lookouts and getaway cars,’ Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) said last month. ‘Today, theft may only require a computer and the skills to use it and the will to break in.’
“Other prominent Democrats, and the liberal special interest groups that support them, also accuse Miranda of committing a ‘crime’ by allegedly ‘hacking into’ their computers.”
But the mystery intern – “whose identity is being protected by CNSNews.com because he fears retaliation by Democrats and the liberal groups supporting them” – says most of the committee’s staff was aware of the lax security policies and open access to files.
“I let my office colleagues know that the shared server was open and not secure, and that files were unprotected,” the intern wrote in his affidavit, “and I occasionally suggested that they password-protect their folders and files.”
He also informed the Secret Service agents assigned to the committee about the lax computer security, says CNSNews.com, but, “Despite those warnings, and cautions Miranda issued to his Democratic counterparts, the shared access to the network folders and files was left intact.”
Democrats were unwilling to discuss the affidavit or its potential impact on the investigation being conducted by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle, who’s due to report to Hatch and ranking member Patrick Leahy on Wednesday.
“The report is confidential and can only be released to the public in full or redacted form with the committee’s permission,” says the story.
“The intern’s sworn affidavit supports Miranda’s claim that he did not break any laws or Senate rules by looking at the Democrat memos. ‘These documents are not confidential under Senate rules, they’re not protected in any way,’ Miranda told CNSNews.com . ‘They were readily available on our [computer] desktops’.”
Miranda resigned from his job as judicial confirmations advisor to senate majority leader Bill Fristin February 2004 following accusations that he’d hacked committee Democrats’ computers and stolen documents. Miranda said those Democrats and their allied liberal special interest groups had conducted ‘a very clever move … to create this impression that there was another *Washington leak* investigation when, in fact, there was no leak,’ according to the story.
“Senate computer staff members are not, according to the intern, solely to blame for what he views as flawed policies” and, ‘I believe the Judiciary Committee hired network administrators on the basis of salary, and that salary probably was one-half to one-third of comparable private-sector wage rates,’ the intern wrote according to the story. ‘I do not believe that these low-price administrators had the initiative, the authority, or the organization required to co-ordinate a successful partition between the files of various users, offices and political parties’.”
The investigation should now shift, Miranda says, from his actions to the content of the Democrats’ memos, which he said should be released to the public.
“Republicans have made a grotesque error in allowing Democrats to treat their partisan documents as confidential and protected,” Miranda is quoted as saying. “The Senate has no power to protect such unethical conduct as the Democrat documents describe from the eyes of the American people.
“Miranda also said he is even more convinced that he should be hearing from certain unnamed senators after the publicity from the incident subsides. ‘I am owed an apology,’ Miranda concluded, ‘for me and my wife’.”
March 8th, 2004 at 1:32 am
to quantify Miranda activities as “hacking” is a joke. To hack a system you must have a system. There was no system.
This is tantamout to some one reading a memo upside down on some ones desk.
March 8th, 2004 at 3:23 am
Dear Sir:
Apropos of your Newsletter just received, I sent the following E-mail to 30 Senators, Republicans and Democrats, and many members of the news media at 4/30 a.m. on 3/05/04. This is similar to the bombardment I did immediately after disclosure of Intelligence Commitee leaks, but those E-Mails also included letters to the DOJ demanding that an investigation be opened into the Sedition practiced by the Democrat members of that Committee.
This was followed up by another bombardment at the weak initial response of the Committee Chairman and Frist et al. I believe it helped, because there was a turn-around in the Republican response.
The Democrats with their slime machine politics of attacking with lies to hide their criminal behavior is so egregious that I believe it needs to see the light of day by constant exposure every time they engage in this practice.
Sen. Orrin Hatch no longer has an E-Mail address so he is the only member of the Judiciary that did not relieve this letter.
I believe if more citizens would show their displeasure some in government would finally pay attention,
My emails were as follows:
==================================================
Senator: (and also addressed to Editor for print media w/copies to TV entities)
Re: Profit Motives Drives Judiciary Battles; CNS News; 02/20/04
This is the most scurrilous motive yet devised by the Democrats. And it makes so much sense. Greed trumps principle for these politicians in every instance. Which is an even more compelling reason the Democrats are so maniacally determined to defeat President George W. Bush, or any candidate that has personal ethics and a strong vision and steadfastness in leading our country away from the Progressive Liberal Socialist Judiciary.
I applaud the efforts of Manuel Miranda in bringing forth these facts and I am 100% behind the efforts calling for a criminal investigation into the facts divulged in the Memos. These Memos should be released to the public in their totality to educate the people in the behind the scenes venality of our esteemed elected representatives.
I deplore the wishy-washy attitude of Sen. Orrin Hatch and the ineffectiveness of Sen. Frist in dealing with scandals (Judiciary and Intelligence). It is impossible to be collegial with the Democrats. They are too evil and practiced in their policies of deception.
I cringe at the thought of Sen. Arlen Specter becoming the new Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, unless he gives strong and unequivocal assurances that he will be a more effective occupant of the chair than his predecessor. I don’t have that confidence.
I believe that the total removal of all occupants in both Committees should be effected and new Junior Senators installed in the hopes that we might find new unjaded blood that is not bought and paid for in advance. The old system of rewarding tenure is not working and has certainly been abandoned in the past by rewarding luminaries such as Hillary Clinton with special treatment, but of course she came with the same pre-bought baggage.
You may think my language too strong, but I have no respect for the phoniness displayed in the halls of Congress, obfuscating the down-in-the dirt backroom politics. For the Democrats to have the effrontery to continue to accuse Mr. Miranda of criminal activity to hide their dirty secrets is nauseating and if release of the Memos or the ensuing firefight reflects badly on any Republican then so be it. It is long past time to hose out the sleaze in our government.
You may wonder that I do not call for Congressional hearings. I have watched enough of them to know that their only value is the aggrandizement of the participating Senators, with an overriding interest in partisan politics and no interest in truth or fact-finding.
March 8th, 2004 at 9:40 pm
Please, if someone leaves the bank vault open it doesn’t mean its ok to take some money from inside.
March 9th, 2004 at 12:37 am
Information is not money. It is something completely different, so it doesn’t matter if it is taken from anywhere.
March 9th, 2004 at 3:28 am
Manuel Miranda does not appear to be a ‘hacker’; however, the ability to access information is not a grant of right to access, review, or disseminate what is accessed when it is clear it is confidential or is intended to be for limited access. The access and further transfer of confidential information is a violation of an individual’s responsibilities when given access to a system with such information. If Miranda is a licensed attorney, he should know that any such breach of a confidentiality is a violation of his professional conduct, even if not a violation of any law per se.
I agree that Miranda is probably not a hacker, but he appears to be in breach of a duty or law.
March 9th, 2004 at 3:43 am
To allege that Democrats are “evil and practiced in their policies of deception” is a quagmire of self-deception, especially when made in the same communication that suggests George Bush even comprehends ethics.
Mr. Miranda was a part of an infiltration into political communications that should have been respected as confidential, if not more. While I support an appropriate review of any questionable activity by Senetors (of any party) with judicial nominations, if reasonably suspect, the allegations made by Mr. Miranda appear to be a weak defense for his improper conduct. As a Counsel, he should understand the violation he committed and accept the ridicule for his improper conduct.
As for any suggestions that Republicans are not deceptive or underhanded would be a gross mistatement. George Bush is the poster president for partisan politics favoring special interest with practices that should turn the stomach of any american who has read the Constitution and appreciates the structure of the United Statesd Government.
March 31st, 2004 at 9:54 pm
It is absurd that the judiciary committee can obstruct the confirmations of those nominated to judicial service on the basis of prejudice and bias of the far left liberal senators such as Leahy, Kennedy and others. These are actually enemies of our American law and order and do not represent the desires of the majority of USA citizens. The bringing to light of these memos serve as evidence of this obstruction and unconstituational actitivity. The state and national supreme courts have left their lawful purpose and have been making laws detrimental to the morallity and peace of our nation. That “hose” mentioned in one of these previous comments is much needed…The likes of Kennedy, Leahy, Specter, should be flushed out and sent down the drain. It is shocking that voters in their states continue to send such morally bankrupt men to Senate and House of Representatives. We need a moral and spiritual turn around. The ctiticism and villification of our President Bush makes this sufficiently clear.