[Vision2020] Four Charged in Senate Office Infiltration

[Tom Hansen]

Holy Watergate, Batman!

To coin a phrase . . .

"It's like dejavu all over again."

Courtesy of CNN at:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/26/senate.office.break.in/index.html?hpt=T2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FfW6qh3yiU

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A conservative activist who made undercover videos of the liberal
community-organizing group ACORN was one of four men charged Tuesday with
attempting to illegally access and manipulate the phone system in a
district office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Joseph Basel, 24; Robert Flanagan, 24; James O'Keefe, 25; and Stan Dai,
24, were charged with entering Landrieu's New Orleans office under "false
pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony," according to a news
release from the local U.S. attorney's office. The office is federal
property.

The four posted a $10,000 unsecured bond and were released, said Kathy
English of the Department of Justice. According to CNN affiliate WWL, the
next court date in the case is set for February 12.

O'Keefe is the same activist who dressed up as a pimp last summer and
visited ACORN offices to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among
other scenarios, law enforcement officials confirmed. He secretly recorded
the visits on videotapes that were posted on the Internet, leading to a
media firestorm.

Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for the
Western District of Louisiana, his office said.

Articles on conservative Web sites connect O'Keefe to a man named Joe
Basel, describing them as conservative student activists and filmmakers.

"This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my
staff," Landrieu said in a statement Tuesday night. "The individuals
responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false
pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as
everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become
clear as the investigation moves forward."

Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Michael McHale, in a separate statement,
called the case a "Louisiana Watergate."

"Louisiana families are shocked and outraged that these men would break
the law to carry out their political agenda with this Watergate-like
break-in and attempted wiretapping," McHale said in the statement, which
also claimed Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has "ties to some of
the players involved" and called on Vitter to "immediately denounce" the
suspects and anyone else involved.

According to the news release Tuesday and an affidavit by FBI Special
Agent Steven Rayes, who is based in New Orleans, Basel and Flanagan
attempted to gain access to Landrieu's office Monday while posing as
telephone repairmen.

The two men were "each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a
light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard
hat when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building," the release noted.

Read the affidavit (PDF)

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/26/joseph.basel.et.al.pdf

After they entered the building, the two men told a staffer in Landrieu's
office they were telephone repairmen, according to the release and Rayes'
affidavit. They asked for -- and were granted -- access to the reception
desk's phone system.

O'Keefe, who had been waiting in the office before the pair arrived,
recorded their actions with a cell phone, said the affidavit by Rayes.

Flanagan and Basel later requested access to a telephone closet, claiming
they needed to perform work on the main phone system, the release and
affidavit stated.

According to Rayes' affidavit, the two men went to a U.S. General Services
Administration office on another floor and requested access to the main
phone system. A GSA employee then asked for their credentials, and the two
men said they left them in their vehicle, the affidavit said.

All four men have admitted their roles in the operation to federal agents,
Rayes' affidavit said.

If convicted, the four men would each face a possible maximum penalty of a
$250,000 fine and 10 years in prison, according to the news release.

Edward Castaing, an attorney who represented O'Keefe, Basel and Dai at
Tuesday's hearing, refused to tell reporters how he got involved, WWL
reported. Videotape of an interview with Castaing showed him respond "I
have no idea at this point" when asked who was paying for his services.

Castaing also said he gave them $60 to catch a taxi to retrieve their
belongings after their release.

O'Keefe and a female associate were named in a lawsuit filed January 21 by
an ACORN worker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who accused them of
illegally videotaping an interview with her last July and distributing it
on the Internet.

That video and others by O'Keefe and his associate led to the dismissal of
four ACORN employees who appeared to offer advice to the couple and to
federal legislation barring the group from receiving federal funds. But a
review by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who was
hired by ACORN to examine the issue, found no wrongdoing by ACORN
employees.

"While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and
volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a
pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff," Harshbarger's
report concluded. "In fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or
otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the
videographers."

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was
founded in 1970 to help the poor find government benefits and housing, but
it became the focus of conservative complaints as a result of its voter
registration drives.

Articles posted January 14 on CampusReform.org and Political Vanguard,
both conservative Web sites, quoted O'Keefe and a man identified as Joe
Basel as conservative student activists and independent filmmakers.

"Don't just respond to news, but actually create your own headlines,"
O'Keefe is quoted as saying by CampusReform.org.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown