Cindy Sheehan Bugged in Denver

Cindy Sheehan returned to her Denver hotel room today to find the door unlocked and ajar. She walked in to discover a man working on her phone, screw driver in hand.

Sheehan reported, in an email,

"As I walked toward my room, I noticed that the door was opened with the security bolt blocking the complete closing of the door. I knew immediately that I had not left the door open, and I double checked to make sure it was the right room because, as a frequent traveler, I have been known to forget my room number, but it was the right room.

I was upset at first thinking that housekeeping had made a mistake and left my room open and I was worried that something might be missing. So I walked into my room and bigger than life, there was a man standing by my desk holding the room phone with a screwdriver in his hand!

I immediately said; "What the hell are you doing? Are you putting a bug on my phone?" He looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and stammered out: "N--no, we are having problems with the phone." I told him to get out of my room because my phone was fine and I called the front desk and the person at the front desk stammered something out about "problems" with some of the phones.

This room was reserved soon after we got to Denver last night because the room we had was inadequate for 3 people. The room was reserved under my campaign manager's name with a CFC debit card. By the time we left for the march, it could have very well been ascertained that I was the one in this room, and the room we did reserve could be bugged, also. I am confident that that's what was happening when I walked in on the "maintenance" man"

You don't come in the room with a screwdriver if there are problems with the hotel phones. You do it electronically, through the system or you hook up a new phone.

She said to me, "How many hotel rooms have I been in the past four years? It was so obvious."

I asked, "Do you think it was Pelosi's people?" since Sheehan is running against Pelosi, for her congressional seat.

She replied, "Of course, I don't know."

I asked, "Have there been any other episodes that would make you believe this kind of action is being taken against you?"

She replied,

"Not since I've been running for congress, but there were several times when I was in Crawford, or protesting in D.C., when I felt like we were being surveiled. And actually, in Washington D.C., for a period of time, they would just blatantly follow me, and I would just invite them to come in and have coffee with me. Whenever I was in D.C., whose ever jurisdiction it was, I'd have either the Metro police, the Capitol Hill police or the Park police right on me. Sometimes they were in uniform and sometimes they were plainclothes. But they were very obvious.

Asked how her campaign is going, Sheehan replied,

"I believe the momentum is definitely on our side, especially the last couple weeks, with our signature drive.

The department of elections started to mess with our signatures and say that so many were in-valid, when we knew for a fact that they were valid, because I was checking them myself, on the computer. That really motivated people to help us-- to come to the office to help us or sign the petition (to get Cindy on the ballot) or whatever, that said that they had been meaning to help and that this was something that got them of the fence and got them to actually come into the office and volunteer. We've had ten of thousands of dollars come into the campaign since then and we really have a comfortable amount of money to get our message out-- the message that our country is in deep trouble and Nancy is definitely not the solution. She's part of the problem. And we're going to educate the people of San Francisco about this using alternative forms of media and convince them that I am the alternative-- that I will work to be the voice of the people of San Francisco. And that's something that she has not ever been. I think there is a lot of positive excitement and momentum. Her book tour didn't help her out any.

The campaign's going great. We've been able to hire more staff.

Asked about her goals for Denver, she described,

"after protesting the Republicans for so many years, the Democrats have been moving steadily to the right. We want to show that we're not okay with that, that we want to bring the party closer to the people and further from the corporate lobbyists.

So many people are waking up and starting to realize that there is very little difference in the leadership of the two parties. Working for an altenative third party or independent is one way to bring about real change.

So many people with Obama shirts and pins have come up to me and told me that they're 100% on my side and they're very distressed with the right turn of the Obama campaign and the democratic party and they're hoping that demonstrations that we were at earlier, and that will be happening all week, will bring their party to where they think it should be.

Meanwhile, Cindy's hotel room phone is in the hotel room refrigerator.

crossposted from OpEdNews.com

For more Huffington Post coverage from the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.

Follow Rob Kall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robkall

Comments

[Mason]

Uhmmmmm, Cindy, why did you put your phone in the fridge? Put on a pair of cheap and clean gloves, retrieve the phone, and set it aside long enough for it to warm-up to room temperature. Then put it in a regular brown grocery sack, put your gloves inside a smaller brown sack, seal the bag containing the gloves with some wide tape, and sign your name so that your signature starts on the sack and continues across the tape and over onto the bag on the other side of the tape. Then do the same thing with the date and time of your discovery as well as the name of the hotel and your room number. When you're finished with the little bag, place it in the larger bag with the phone and seal the larger bag following the same procedure. Finally, place the bag in the safe.

This procedure won't prevent evidence tampering, obviously, but any attempt to open the bag will be readily apparent. Any reputable private forensic lab can check the phone for prints and swab it for possible DNA testing

[MissDaphne]

tinfoil hats, anyone?

[hopeless277]

Welcome to the United Police States of America.

[RightWingMarine]

I love the paranoid, they are so amusing. If it looked to be a simple fix it makes sense that the maintaince man would attempt to fix the problem rather than take the phone, go get a new phone and come back to the room to replace it. If he was placing a bug wouldn't it be simpler to bring a new phone with the bug already inserted and swap out the phones? Why call the front desk, why would the check in girl have any idea what the maintaince mean is doing? If she stammered out some answer it was based on what Cindy told her and she was just trying to get Cindy to leave her alone.

Hotel employees throw the deadbolt on guest room doors so that the door cannot be closed. This prevents unfounded accusations against the hotel staff because the guest cannot be trapped in a room when the door is not closed and nothing is preventing help from reaching them.

[LeftVetPatriot]

Yeah, that''s the ticket!

[littlepuffycloud]

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

[tbone99]

Somehow your handle makes your whole post worthless.

[RightWingMarine]

well at least you don't have blinders on and are unwilling to listen to a divergent point of view.

[alguien]

so who uses the hotel phone anymore these days? i mean, except for room service?

everyone i know uses their cell phones when they travel since the hotels basically gauge their guests with the phone calls anyhow.

[littlepuffycloud]

And besides, hotel phones are FILTHY. Nobody uses the phones anymore. I usually pull a Howard Hughes and won't even touch the tv remote unless I use a wash cloth. Also pull that nasty bedspread off and throw it in the corner. Hey I've seen those shows with black lights in hotels...and don't think your expensive fancy hotel rooms are any cleaner.

[PumaAnn]

She should pursue this story, make it as public as possible. This is the type of DNC we have today.

[JimR]

Um, so, did she call the police? If not, why not?

This sounds like paranoid conspiracy stuff to me. All due respect, I don't think the Pelosi machine feels that threatened by Cindy Sheehan.

[wanked]

Sorry but the whole US political machine is threatened by Cindy Sheehan. She speaks the truth.

[MikeDu]

She didn't call the police because it was the government doing it. That would be like phoning your local clergy to report parish priest sexual abuse. She did the best thing, turn on the light of media scrutiny and watch the cockroaches scurry away.

This wasn't Pelosi, this was Bush's Homeland Security, or as I like to call the the American Gestapo.

[JScott]

Cindy you mean you don't have a mobile phone with security scrambling.
You should know that whoever it was is playing hardball.
I hope 0 wears a bulletproof vest after hearing of the assasination threats.

[dadw5boys]

They tap everyone phone and internet does she expect to be different than us ?????

Obama will stop this crap !!!!!!!!!!!

[OrganizersWin]

Obama will stop this crap? Hmmm. You make this prediction based on what exactly?

Obama voted to immunize criminals and to further wiretapping, even beyond what BUSH himself was seeking to achieve. And that was just one vote, haha.

[tbone99]

Doubtful-He's in hand in glove with it!

[blueskybigstar]

I've made a donation and I am glad to read that Cindy does have her eyes on the prize. I hope this story gets the press it deserves.

[WorkingClass]

This is the ugly face of the Democratic party. When they are challenged from the left they become mad dogs. They pulled lots of thuggish crap on Nader. They will treat Cindy the same way. Republicans they handle with kid gloves.

[ProudLiberalDan]

Absolutely. As someone who has volunteered on some Green Party campaigns, the Democrats treat them thuggishly, but act like cowards in the face of Republicans. Of course, both major parties are corporate funded, therefore, they are actually natural allies.

[1will]

You are very right. When the really crazy left challenges the crazy left it truly gets ugly. It's up to the moderately crazy left to step in a make peace.

[RoloTomassi]

As compared to you GOP types, who fall into lockstep behind the GOP-piper, regardless of how crazy the mantra may be....

[lisak2008]

Um, I didn't read about any evidence that the Democratic party had anything to do with this, whatever "this" was. Nor did I read anything about Cindy calling the police to investigate or her even changing hotels or hotel rooms. Hell, if I thought there was some grand conspiracy to break into my room and bug my telephone, minimally, I wouldn't be in that room anymore, at the maximum, I wouldn't be at that hotel. I don't think Nancy (or any other Dem) is too worried about Cindy hurting her re-election chances, so I think someone left their tin foil hat in CA. Something about this story smells fishy and it reeks of a fledgling campaign trying to get some free press!

[tompoe]

Sure hope there are a lot of folks in Pelosi's district ready for CHANGE. All Cindy has to do to get elected, is make sure everyone understands she will rely on them to feed her, and her staff, the information needed to make sensible decisions. No lobbyists allowed. And, with the Internet, she'll never need corporate media, either. As Spike Lee said so eloquently, "I don't do Fox . . ."

[joebhed]

I just think it is so ham-handed, another third-rate burglary in the quest for more power for someone.

Cindy Sheehan is the voice of Americans against the war on Iraq.

Unlike Pelosi's non-leadership from the political side, Cindy's position is clearly the moral one.
Maybe she can get some help in her goal of stopping the war from some far away events.

The Islamic leaders in Iraq can step up and recognize their opportunity to end the U.S. occupation via their lack of approval of any continued presence of U.S. soldiers in Iraq until after the next Iraqi election. Absent that approval, no deal.

By the time a new administration is sworn in here in America, the very shaky UN Resolution that allows our soldiers to legally occupy Iraq will expire.

That puts the Iraqis completely in control of their future relationship with this country.
And, it presents an opportunity to have a national campaign on the question of any future occupation of Iraq by American and other foreign soldiers.

Cindy's opposition to the war is a recognition of the wrongness of the invasion itself, and thus the wrongness of the loss of American and Iraqi lives.
It was a mistake.
It is a mistake.

Pelosi's leadership is of a party with no moral compass for its security policy, afraid to put down the challenges of the time in the manner that the situation compels us to do.

Go Cindy Sheehan !

[Querent]

Good luck, Cindy. I really hope you can beat Nancy. I will be sending you a contribution next week.

[BADEN]

Ahhhh - another day in the life of a progressive American activist.

I personally enjoy the "stop and searches" at the airport - usually carry some really smelly food to eat just for the occasion.

If the public only knew....this is business, as usual.

"BBbbback, bbback in the USSR......'