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Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
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WoodlandsOwl Offline
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Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
Jimmy O'Keefe and his buddies stepped into it this time. 10.0 on the "stupid scale".

NEW ORLEANS – A conservative activist who has caused problems for the community organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested and accused of trying to interfere with phones at U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office.

Activist James O'Keefe, 25, was already in Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday when Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, both 24, showed up claiming to be telephone repairmen, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office. Letten says O'Keefe recorded the two with his cell phone.

Once inside the reception area, Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan in Shreveport, and Basel asked for access to the main phone at the reception desk.

After handling the phone, "Flanagan and Basel next requested access to the telephone closet because they needed to perform work on the main telephone system," Letten's office said.

The men were directed to another office in the building, they're accused of again misrepresenting themselves as telephone repairmen.

They were arrested later by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Details of the arrest were not available. A fourth man, Stan Dai, 24, was also arrested, but Letten's office said only that he assisted the others in planning, coordinating and preparing the operation.

Federal officials did not say why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu's phones or whether they were successful. Landrieu, a moderate Democrat, declined comment Tuesday. She has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.

An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday.

O'Keefe was the brains behind a series of undercover videos which have caused major problems for ACORN — the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.

O'Keefe managed to do what Republicans have been trying to do for years — hurt the political affiliates of ACORN, which have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.

By producing undercover videos shot in ACORN offices, O'Keefe brought a firestorm of criticism that the group was helping its low-income clients break the law.

Using a hidden camera, O'Keefe, accompanied by a young woman posing as a prostitute, shot videos in various ACORN offices where staffers appeared to offer illegal tax advice and to support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.

O'Keefe once was editor of a conservative magazine on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

ACORN calls itself the largest grass roots community organization of low- and moderate-income people in the country, claiming over 400,000 families, more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities.

Until the controversy last year over the videos at ACORN offices, 10 percent of ACORN's funds came from federal government grants. In September, Congress blocked previously approved funds from going to ACORN

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_o...ce_arrests
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2010 04:25 PM by WoodlandsOwl.)
01-26-2010 04:23 PM
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SumOfAllFears Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
He must of been doing research. The Federal charge of interfering with a telecommunication system could get them like 4-10 years, on each count. Probation if it's his first offense.
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2010 04:32 PM by SumOfAllFears.)
01-26-2010 04:31 PM
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GGniner Offline
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Post: #3
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
if true, stupid stupid stupid. drunk on fame and his Alinsky handbook trying to turn tables on Dems using their own tactics against them
01-26-2010 04:44 PM
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Lord Stanley Offline
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Post: #4
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
Unbelievable. How facking stupid are you to record yourself breaking the law? Did this fukwit really think the internet was just magically going to get him off the hook, or merely that his accomplice was a U.S. attorney's son?

If he is guilty of something this monumentaly stoopid and illegal, lock him up.

Quote:Activist James O'Keefe, 25, was already in Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday when Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, both 24, showed up claiming to be telephone repairmen...

That sounds like the setup for a truly horrific porn movie.
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2010 05:48 PM by Lord Stanley.)
01-26-2010 05:15 PM
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smn1256 Offline
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Post: #5
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
Is it really a crime to impersonate a telephone guy? Probably not. Most likely, the only crimes they'll face are for what ever they did to the phone system, that is, if they did anything at all, and conspiracy. But it was incredibly stupid, especially since ACORN is suing him.
01-26-2010 06:52 PM
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GGniner Offline
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Post: #6
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
isn't ACORN headquarted in NOLA?
01-26-2010 07:12 PM
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jh Offline
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Post: #7
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
(01-26-2010 06:52 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Is it really a crime to impersonate a telephone guy? Probably not. Most likely, the only crimes they'll face are for what ever they did to the phone system, that is, if they did anything at all, and conspiracy. But it was incredibly stupid, especially since ACORN is suing him.

I wonder if impersonating someone (not just a telephone guy) to access non-public areas counts as criminal tresspass.
01-26-2010 08:30 PM
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WoodlandsOwl Offline
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RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
(01-26-2010 08:30 PM)jh Wrote:  
(01-26-2010 06:52 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Is it really a crime to impersonate a telephone guy? Probably not. Most likely, the only crimes they'll face are for what ever they did to the phone system, that is, if they did anything at all, and conspiracy. But it was incredibly stupid, especially since ACORN is suing him.

I wonder if impersonating someone (not just a telephone guy) to access non-public areas counts as criminal tresspass.

They are lucky they didn't do anything to the telephone lines or phone. Wiretapping is a serious offense.
01-26-2010 08:37 PM
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DrTorch Offline
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Post: #9
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
Guess this is turning out to be much less of a story

http://patterico.com/2010/01/27/law-enfo...by-okeefe/

Except the part about the WaPo being worthless.
01-28-2010 02:38 PM
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moe24 Offline
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Post: #10
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
(01-26-2010 08:30 PM)jh Wrote:  
(01-26-2010 06:52 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Is it really a crime to impersonate a telephone guy? Probably not. Most likely, the only crimes they'll face are for what ever they did to the phone system, that is, if they did anything at all, and conspiracy. But it was incredibly stupid, especially since ACORN is suing him.

I wonder if impersonating someone (not just a telephone guy) to access non-public areas counts as criminal tresspass.

In Michigan (don't know about NOLA) it is indeed a crime to impersonate a utility worker. And it is trespassing to access non-public areas without authorization (regardless of there being a disguise). I really hope it is true that he didn't do anything beyond that because wiretapping will get into serious jail time.
01-28-2010 02:55 PM
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smn1256 Offline
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Post: #11
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
(01-28-2010 02:38 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  Guess this is turning out to be much less of a story

http://patterico.com/2010/01/27/law-enfo...by-okeefe/

Except the part about the WaPo being worthless.

This is more believable than the wire tapping story but it's still amatuerish and more like a college stunt than some kind of investigative act. If I was going to wire tap an office there's no way I'd walk into the office and let everyone, and possibly cameras, see me while I looked fix a problem no one is experiencing or called the phone company about.

There are easier ways to bug phones and they're much, much safer than doing what this kid did. BTW, it's a felony to mess with communications equipment so this kid can still get in quite a bit of trouble.
01-28-2010 03:36 PM
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WoodlandsOwl Offline
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Post: #12
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
It would be funny if these guys were trying to "hardwire forward" the phone so if you called Landrieu's Office it would be forwarded to a line that was answered "Mary's Whorehouse"...

That would still count as "interception of wire telecommunications" however.
01-28-2010 08:38 PM
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Lord Stanley Offline
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Post: #13
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
Messing around with an elected officials phone system is serious, regardless of the intention.

Who wants to bet that as a result of this silliness that all Senators and Congressmen, at both the district and DC office, now get armed security to "protect" themselves and their offices from phone terrorism...... more damn $$$$ out the door.
01-29-2010 09:37 AM
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I45owl Offline
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Post: #14
RE: Four charged in Landrieu phone scheme
I'll suspend judgement on whether or not they violated any laws until hearing whether they ever touched a phone line - or ever had any intention of doing it.

However - even granting that I'm glad this guy embarrassed ACORN the way he did - this guy has douchebag written all over him. He should have layed low for a long time before trying to become a right-wing-geraldo.
01-29-2010 12:45 PM
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