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

[Heavy]

Congrats to Rachel Maddow, by the way, highest ratings on her network already. She deserves it. Wish she were conducting an interview with the earmark queen.

[CL696]

I hope her contributions match what she did on Air America...oh wait

[Heavy]

Th thread is moving so fast. Does anyone have a link for Palin now saying that she fired the commisioner because he wanted more budgeting for fighting their rampant rap e problem in AK?

[lamarguerite]

Love Sarah Palin's reactions to her email being hacked:

http://whatissarahthinking.blogspot.com/2008/09/they-got-into-my-email.html

[Enid]

My own daughter of a Democratic household , driving to the airport revealed to me she was going to vote for McCain and felt he was the better choice. Then came Sarah and now she is voting Obama no question.

[fishsandwichesr2good]

Sounds like your daughter is blowing in the wind. Dems deserve her.

[pcplz]

Thank you, yes the Dems do deserve her and any other young person who checks out the situation and decides to vote with intelligence. She sounds like my daughter who is listening and making up her mind with hope for the future instead of greed for the past.

[Heavy]

You prefer them to have children out of wedlock underage eh? Shut down the computer and suit up. Your warmongers need you.

[waitforme]

And we are delighted to have her.

[Topsailsman]

When I said I didn't want the government listening in on my calls, reading my emails, and checking what books I read, my Republican friends lectured me:

IF YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG, YOU SHOULDN'T BE AFRAID TO HAVE THE GOVERNMENT HEAR YOUR CALLS OR READ YOUR MAIL.

So Sarah, if you're not doing anything wrong, you should have no problem turning all your records over to the government, right?

When I said that the government should have to go to court before it could monitor my private communications, my Republican friends lectured me:

IT TAKES TOO LONG TO GET A COURT ORDER, ITS TOO BURDENSOME. IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR.

So Sarah, why are you filing all these lawsuits, using the courts to delay access to your records and making it so burdensome to get information that belongs to the public?

I'm confused, Sarah. Were my Republican friends lying to me? Or are you lying to me?

[Fightnmad]

Notice, you only get the sound of crickets from the repub peanut gallery...

[decibelJONES]

That's OK...
I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway.

[Heavy]

No doubt. I got so sick of hearing that cr ap. Happy to give up the rights that we are supposedly trying to defend. Madness.

[northcan]

This is no more illegal than Bush/Rove/McCain wiretapping is it? On their own citizen's

[SwingingFromCenter]

"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"

3 words:

John the Ripper.

I get that journalists don't keep their ears to the ground as closely as people who are in the business, but come on.

[artistbb]

What we really need to address here is that she and her colleagues undoubtedly violated the State of Alaska's Information Security policy by conducting official business through outside servers, like private email accounts.
Every state has a stated information security policy, that every employee has to sign on to, with repercussions to those who do not follow its guidelines/rules. We are talking SECURITY here, one of her supposed strengths. She violated it.
One of the basics in any security policy is keeping things under the state's servers protection. She exposed herself and state confidentiality by using a private account, that obviously is easily hacked, infected with viruses and susceptible to many kinds of privacy violations.
Ummm, she committed another crime.......
(yes, this is the same thing I posted under the other article about this issue, just want to make my point again. It is a violation of state policy)

[Spesabsquemetu]

YES. We are talking security here, and we are talking about a VP candidate that McCain claims he fully vetted and that he willfully accepted, and we are talking about McCain's JUDGEMENT in choosing this kind of individual, who would participate in these kinds of actions now being uncovered by the AP.

This appears to be very serious and again raises some deeply troubling questions about whether Ms. Palin is capable of respecting the laws and the constitution, when it seems that she may have difficulty in carrying out her duties at the state level, no less the national level.
Palin took an oath to protect and defend the laws of her state.

And one of her first actions as governor is to discuss with a team of close associates, HOW she can CIRCUMVENT PUBLIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT BUSINESS? ( NYTIMES article)

She proceeds to interfere with her employees in cooperating with her own legislative investigation into deeds of misconduct that she is under investigation for, while having initially promised to cooperate fully?

She then refuses to turn over emails, deletes emails, and refuses to cooperate?

Does that sound like someone deserving of living in our White House?
Does that sound like the kind of conduct we should expect from our elected officials?
Does that sound like someone who abides by the law, protects the law, upholds democracy, or subcribes to ethical practices and conduct reflective of integrity?

[ricitizen]

Gallup Daily: Obama 48%, McCain 44%

[Vorticose]

Ras poll tied. Come on polls dont mean anything they get it wrong every year.

[Heavy]

Ras always polls more pug.

[radical1]

Every citizen should refuse to answer surveys or polls, whichever they attempt to call them. I know how to hang up my phone, and did it a couple days ago when a tricky voice at the other end tried to do this thing without identifying who or what group they represented. They now know too much about who they're calling and how to slant questions to get desired responses. PEOPLE, DON'T answer any more surveys. Then of course they'll be "way off" when they reach only stupid voters.

[NaziRegime]

Does anyone really think she'd have a password too difficult for her to remember without writing it down?

It was probably just one of her stoopid kid's names.

[dentrev]

Probably Naziregime

[drumz]

it was a variation of bulldoglipstick. My 14 yo could probably hack her account.

[Sharischul]

You go AP!!!! At least someone or something is standing up to this rabid government.

[pattio66]

no kidding, I have renewed respect for the AP! But if it's so easy to hack, why doesn't the Secret Service just get the information for themselves?

[Lonw]

I don't see where the Secret Service, a branch of the Treasury Dept., has any jurisdiction in this matter unless the emails contained threats to the candidate.

[LeawoodKansas]

Yup. Yup.

A little overstepping by the government. Who would have ever thought ?

[hgovernick]

As we all know, Palin should not have been using a Yahoo email account for government business in the first place. Secondly, the fact her Yahoo account was hacked sheds a strong light on her "readiness" for matters of National Security.

[pattio66]

my thoughts exactly...

[gbht12]

I live in HOUSTON and am without power , sitting in Starbucks to get caught up. I guess the PUBS don't want FEMA help because that is a government entity and you don't like to take government help nor do you want to have government in your business! HA!

So, for all the libs and dems and independents we should all get our power on first since the PUBS don't want government assistance, or do they????

Hyprocrites to the very end! GO OBAMA

McPANE is old news in everyway.

[wazzucoug]

It's about time that Sarah Palin was properly vetted!