AP Refuses To Comply With Secret Service Request On Sarah Palin's Hacked E-Mails

WASHINGTON -- Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska's governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.

"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said in a statement.

The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply.

The disclosure Wednesday raises new questions about the propriety of the Palin administration's use of nongovernment e-mail accounts to conduct state business. The practice was revealed months ago _ prior to Palin's selection as a vice presidential candidate _ after political critics obtained internal e-mails documenting the practice by some aides.

One person whose e-mail to Palin apparently was among those disclosed, Amy B. McCorkell, declined to discuss her correspondence. "I do not know anything about it," McCorkell said. "I'm not giving you any comment." Wired.com said McCorkell later confirmed that she did send the e-mail to Palin.

Another of the e-mails apparently revealed Wednesday was an exchange in July with Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell discussing a talk show host who had been critical of Parnell. Parnell declined to discuss the matter.

Palin herself used "gov.sarah" in one of her e-mail addresses, but the hackers targeted her "gov.palin" account. Her husband used "fek9wnr" in his address. "Fe" is the representation for iron, and "k9" is an abbreviation for canine. Todd Palin was the winner of the grueling Iron Dog snowmobile race, and "fek9wnr" also is Todd Palin's vehicle license tag in Alaska.

It wasn't immediately clear how hackers broke into Palin's Yahoo! account, but it would have been possible to trick the service into revealing her password knowing personal details about Palin that include her birthdate and ZIP code. A hacker also might have sent a forged e-mail to her account tricking her into revealing her own password.

McCorkell was appointed by Palin to an advisory board on issues involving alcohol and drug abuse. One of the leaked e-mails suggested McCorkell wrote to Palin on Sunday to say she was praying for Palin. "Don't let the negative press get you down!" the message said.

Comments

[ThePublicRecord]

http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/332-in-2000-letter-palin-called-ex-brother-in-law-fine-role-model.html

In 2000 Letter, Palin Called Ex-Brother-in-Law ‘Fine Role Model’

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s opinion of her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, an Alaska state trooper, appears to have darkened only after his marriage to her sister failed in 2005.

When Palin was mayor of the small town of Wasilla, she had been a character reference for Wooten when the Air Force veteran was pursuing a career in law enforcement.

In a Jan. 1, 2000, letter of reference, Palin wrote that if “America had more people with the grace and sincerity that mirrors the character of Mike Wooten...we would have a much kinder, gentler, trustworthy nation as a result. …

[thinbluetorpedo]

The question is, why was Palin using Yahoo for official Alaska state business? Would she do the same for official US business? Poor judgment, to say the least.

[Darkdonnie]

This just in:

“ Barack Obama’s e- mail was broken into today similar to Governor Sarah Palin’s. The e-mails are being widely distributed to conservative blogs. Item’s seen were personal e-mails sent from his wife berating him for his comments about Sarah “The Moose” Palin. Also several e-mails received from Hillary in regards to paying off the debts or your _ss is grass remark was used several times along with references to her ability to field dress a deer faster than Sarah could shot it. Obama responded with that is nothing compared to what Michelle would do to me if I cave in. The timeline corresponds to just prior to the DNC.”

[PSRinNJ2]

Repost, because it's important:

You are all using the information obtained in the commission of a federal crime in order to try (key word: try) to smear Governor Palin. You all are as guilty as your hacker. Again I say: if it had been Obama's email hacked, you'd be crying for blood. Where I differ from you: If it HAD been Obama's email hacked, I would still be calling it a federal crime.

[Amalek]

There was no meaningful information disclosed in the emails. The hacker could well have been in the campaign (Rove has played this game before).

Nevertheless, an important issue here is her behavior in doing state business in a private email account, apparently to avoid Alaska's open records act. That has been disclosed by others. That behavior is possibly criminal, and exactly the same as the members of Bush's administration who were using RNC email accounts to avoid potential disclosure of their potentially illegal activities.

Do we really want four more years of these scoflaws?

[PSRinNJ2]

C'mon, stupid, the hacker was not a part of of the campaign. The hacker was from 4chan.org, hardly a bastion of conservatives. You and all the other Democrat Party hacks are trying to turn this into some ridiculous "cloak and dagger" nonsense. The hacker was trying to destroy Palin, therefore the hacker was a liberal. Like you. Like Obama.

[pjones006]

What federal crime are talking about, not disagreeing just want to know which law. Nobody is smearing Palin, she is doing a pretty good job of it herself.

[AzRealProgressive]

If someone hacks your personal e-mails and posts all of you personal information on the net I bet you would call that a crime.

[NamelessGenXer]

You know what's a crime? Scarah using rickety free-mail to hide her dirty laundry. That, my friends, is a SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID ;-)

[jmyoung666]

The difference would be that Obama is not committing ethical and possibly criminal violations by using his personal email for government business.

[hooboy]

The resason is, he has never done any government business, except vote present.

As for the hacker, there are a higher percentage of criminals in the Demorat party than in the mafia, and computer criminals are usually Demorats.

Did you ever notice that Demorats are the ones who complain that criminals can't vote. The reason it matters is that most criminals are Demorats.

[RealityBaseCamp]

I trust Yahoo about like I trust Bsh/McCn to keep me safe. I certainly wouldn't use it as a primary email (shudder).

[meleon]

Sorry, but I won't automatically assume this is an enemy invasion. As crooked as the neocon's have been in the past and will be in the future, I believe they're in the present desperate enough to whatever thye can to stay in control.

[Agent420]

I have to congratulate AP for not being afraid of the secret service.

[PSRinNJ2]

So much for being unbiased. In case anyone needed more proof: the AP is now officially in the tank for Obama. Alongside ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NYT, WAPost, MSNBC, etc, etc, etc...

[Cybersquirt]

LOL. That's quite an extensive list you got there, speaking of being unbiased.

[Agent420]

I wish they had a button to flag for stupidity.

[mabinog]

So is FOX in Obama's court, one of those etc?

I laugh at ABC, they are just FOX-lite.

[LeawoodKansas]

Mr. Four More Years Fournier is in the tank for Obama. You have got to be kidding me.

[holyhandgrenaid]

Lets see...
ABC and WAPost.... nope, definite McPalin Bias in their coverage
CBS... either a McPalin bias, or Couric is a stooge
CNN... They no longer count as news, therefore a bias is irrelevant
ABC... no way. Totally McPalin bias

I'll allow MSNBC and NYT alone

[lincheryl]

Hey--if Rove and Bush and Cheney don't have to follow rules or answer subpoenas, why should anyone else cave in?

[dadumdee]

KARL ROVE HAS DONE THIS MULTIPLE TIMES!
*Iowa Senate race between Tom Harkin and GOP candidate Greg Ganske. A story was leaked that the Harkin campaign had employed a spy within the Ganske campaign.
*1986 Texas gubernatorial race in which Rove's candidate Bill Clements was taking on Democratic Governor Mark White. Just before a debate between the two candidates, Rove spun the story that his office had been bugged. No proof. But the insinuation that White's people had carried out the bugging was reported by the media.
*2000 presidential campaign, the following Associated Press story hit the wires: "A woman who worked for a media company that produced ads for President George W. Bush's campaign was indicted for secretly mailing a videotape of Bush practicing for a debate to Vice President Al Gore's campaign." Yes, that videotape, along with a 120-page briefing book, just happened to turn up in Gore's headquarters as fast as the CD-ROM turned up in Lafayette Park.

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen1101.html

[vernbvb]

And it is exactly the same type of thing being done with palin's emails. They are setting up someone but in the process she will be able to get troopergate emails protected. As crooked as the cronies in the Bush/Gore and Bush/Kerry election in Florida and Ohior. When will America say ENOUGH.

[lovethesinner]

THE AP is working for McCain. Ron Fournier was offered the job of running McCain's communication strategy for the campaign. If you've read any of his puff pieces for McCain, you know the reason he turned down the job with the campaign was because he could do so much more for them as the Washington Bureau Chief of the Associated Press. (McMinistry of Propaganda)

Did you notice that this story broke just as McCain began to MELT DOWN on the economy? Yea, that's right. THIS IS A MANUFACTURED DISTRACTION, a classic disinformation campaign right out of the KARL ROVE PLAYBOOK. (very similar to an episode right out of "Bush's Brain" by James Moore, and Wayne Slater):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush's_Brain:_How_Karl_Rove_Made_George_W._Bush_Presidential

WE NEED CHANGE, and this isn't it, folks. This is just MORE OF THE SAME bulls**t we've been dealing with for the last eight years.

[PurplePhase]

Unbelievable!

Who in their right mind would use yahoo's email service for official business?

Yahoo has little security and it's handled by clueless ragtag programmers.

[optech007]

OK, somebody has provided me with a more extensive list of the e-mail subject lines on this account.

Assuming the list is for real, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, I do think she is discussing state business with this account. Some of the subject lines are too obvious to think otherwise.(Motor Fuel Tax Suspension, DPS Personnel and Budget Issues, and especially this one CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter) Therefore I do think it's worth looking at.

So, you all were right and I was wrong. Enjoy it!

[Cybersquirt]

Why would "we" enjoy it? She deleted the accounts; the proof may be gone. Personally, I'm disgusted.

[raskolnikov72]

You know what concerns me? Who cares!

There is an election on. Forget this shenanigans ...

[Cybersquirt]

Uhm. What? The VP nominee is (quite) apparantly conducting her business in a way that'd make Rove and Cheney proud. I think that's BIG news. Maverick's my arse.

[NamelessGenXer]

Too bad shenanigans is all the re thugs have left... sigh... it IS getting OLD.

[collprof]

I have a great degree of doubt over whether Palin's email site was hacked OR the GOP released these rather innocuous emails to the public for the purpose of sympathy for Palin as her numbers are tumbling and whether we will soon see remarks from McCain campaign concerning sexism and that the Democrats are somehow involved.

Remember, this campaign has the involvement of Rove and Rove was the campaign manager who released a barrage of telephone messages to the Carolinas back in 2000 alleging that McCain black adopted daughter was in fact his by birth.

This is highly suspect...

[Cybersquirt]

Not really. While I agree the choice of released emails is strange, the list of emails (they may or may not have) is pretty condemning.

[123andy]

You sure you want an "anything goes" culture? Be careful what you wish for

[SwingingFromCenter]

You know what really concerns me about this?

What they did isn't technically illegal, yet everybody is saying that it is.

By law, it's only illegal to destroy, manipulate or steal data. Now there is a loose argument here that by taking the emails and making them public, that's theft of data. The thing is though, no "data", per se, was actually stolen. The emails that were published were benign in nature and could cause no damage to any person or entity. It's a bit of a stretch to call this illegal.

[LibRS]

i think in the end when the culprit is in jail you'll see that it is illegal.

boy i bet the libs are proud of this upstanding person.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Hey look, an internet lawyer! So tell me, what statute, exactly, did these people (yes people--I know exactly the group that did this. I could even tell you what the password was. Again, I keep my ear close to the ground as it's my job to be up to date on this stuff) violate?

Did they manipulate data? No
Did they destroy data? No
Did they steal data? This is a grey area, but they didn't do it for profit, personal gain, and nor did they release anything that could be damaging or disparaging to Governor Palin, so logically the answer would be no.

This isn't to say the US wouldn't trump up some charges like "they took a credit card number" or something. Our government is nothing if not efficient at doing that, and there are a number of hackers in cells right now who don't deserve to be (James Bell comes immediately to mind). But doesn't change the fact that it wasn't "technically" illegal.

The government just hasn't made laws to catch up with the times.

[PSRinNJ2]

That's right, your party commits a federal crime in order to smear a political opponent and now you're trying to make excuses. What your hacker did was a jailable offense. Deal with it.

[Heavy]

How many times must it be explained to you? If you still support your party you are obviously not a quick learner.

[Heavy]

Your party always blames the whistle blowers and not their own corruption...lol.

[proudloudlib]

Not "our" hacker, just some hapless guy with too much time on his hands, acting on his own, pulling off a self-confessed prank. In case you haven't noticed, this is the M.O. of the Republican Party, not the Democrats. Deal with that.

[SwingingFromCenter]

"My" party? I'm an independent, Scooby.

I just also happen to be a very well-known internetworking security consultant (legalized computer hacker, in case that title confused you). I keep my ear to the ground on these things.

[Heavy]

When you use personal emails for govt. business they are no longer private.

[bobbysgurl]

I do believe, correct me if I'm wrong, you are referring to the hacker in your post instead of Sarah Palin.

Don't you think it is wrong that someone accessed someone else's email? Couldn't the argument be the same argument the government uses in prosecuting someone for reading someone else's snail mail? The question isn't whether the hacker took the emails, but rather he accessed the emails without Palin's consent. The argument could also reveal that the email's were accessed fraudulently, because the hacker had to acquire a password different from the one Palin uses to access her own email account..

I'd like to prove that Palin was up to no good, but not at the expense of someone going to jail to prove it.

[SwingingFromCenter]

The government has 2 supercomputers, one codenamed "Carnivore" the other named "ECHELON" that scan every email that is sent from a US based IP address. Every last one. They won't say what for specifically (they use the "T" word a lot), and they won't say how or if they are stored, but the government does it. This is why encryption keys have to be filed with the government--so they can decrypt your mail.

As to the laws themselves, laws on hacking have been ramped up a lot (obviously) but the ones related to breaches are pretty much the same as always. It's perfectly legal to go into a server or anything else and "look around". There is no crime (supposedly) for curiosity. Now, history has taught us that's bung, because the government will just create things out of thin air to punish people who do this, but it is what it is.

[Topsailsman]

bobbysgurl,

look up Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers. Read about his trial and the lying dogs of the Nixon administration, of which Cheney was a part.

[wadda]

Spy on the Government.

[Heavy]

Love it. Some paybacks.