Moronmeter.com

James O’Keefe, the man who brought infamy to ACORN with his hidden-video recordings of himself (posing as a pimp) and a female friend (posing as a prostitute)  being given advice by ACORN employees on how to break the law, has been arrested and “accused of trying to tamper with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones”, reports the AP.

Mr. O’Keefe and three others were allegedly involved in some sort of plot to gain access to Landrieu’s New Orleans office’s phone system. Two of the men were stopped trying to enter Senator Landrieu’s office, which is located in a federal building. They were posing as telephone workers, dressed in “hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests.”

Others arrested in connection with the incident are listed as Joseph Basel, Stan Dai, and Robert Flanagan.

I’m not sure what to make of this.

The AP reports that “O’Keefe was sitting in the waiting area of Landrieu’s office and appeared to record Basel and Flanagan on his cell phone when they arrived posing as phone workers”, so it doesn’t sound like they were really attempting to ‘tamper’ with the phones.

Why?

If they were, they probably wouldn’t have been trying to record themselves doing it.

On the other hand, they were messing around in a Senator’s office in a federal building, which is, in a word, unwise.

Whatever they were trying to do, Mr. O’Keefe may be wishing he had quit while he was ahead… I’ve heard the Department of Homeland Security and FBI aren’t too keen on people trying to monkey around in federal buildings.

UPDATE:

I was doing further reading and it appears that they were actually tampering with the phone system.

The whole hidden-camera expose is one thing, but this really does sound like wire-tapping (or something similar).

I’m pretty sure that is a big ‘no-no’.

Unless you have a warrant to do so.

Or, you are the government and can persuade telcos to do it for you without a warrant and then get Congress to give them a blanket immunity after the fact.

Whichever way works for you.

I think the way you aren’t supposed to do it is get a couple of guys to dress up in phone repairman costumes and try to bug a U.S. Senator’s office.

In other words, have fun in the big house, guys!

No related posts.