After all, if as you said, they hooked up RNC laptops to the White House OA network, and they were accessing White House OA services, then they were part of the White House OA domain structure at the very least for authentification if not for their secured access to White House apps.

And I’m wondering just how many domains exist on that network. Would you bet against separate EOP and OVP domains? Not me. *g*

If a hole was created in the OA firewall, someone would have had to order it – and, at least until they cleared out the career staff, it would not have been done lightly.

Timing is not just disturbing, it’s downright sickening…

“Interesting timing” Just after Israel’s alleged August to October strike on Iran and just before the election.

They sure have set the stage for the strike. The last five years Diane Rehm, Talk of the Nations Neil Conan, Chris Matthews, George Stephanapoulous, Joe Scarborough have all allowed unsubstantiated claims to be repeated on their programs. Not just once but many times.

Do you ever see Matthews or hell even Keith Olberman bring former weapons inspector Scott Ritter or Joseph Cirincione, Flynt Leverett, Juan Cole or anyone else to dispute these repeated claims about Iran.

Then we have the Kyl Lieberman amendment passed last fall and now the upcoming warmongering legislation pushed by Aipac after their last conference in D.C.

Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program

Members of the House and Senate have introduced resolutions (H. Con. Res. 362 and S. Res. 580) calling on the administration to focus on the urgency of the Iranian nuclear threat and to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran. The resolutions, introduced in the House by Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Mike Pence (R-IN) and in the Senate by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and John Thune (R-SD), urge the president to sanction Iran’s Central Bank and other international banks and energy companies investing in the country. They also demand that the United States lead an international effort to increase pressure on Tehran by prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products. Please urge your representatives to cosponsor this critical resolution.
Legislative Details:

* Bill Summary: House (PDF, 49K) | Senate (PDF, 49K)
* Text of Resolutions: House (PDF, 55K) | Senate (PDF, 35K)
* Cosponsors: House | Senate

Email Congress:

* Email your Representative
* Email your Senators

Related Materials:

* U.S. Must Do More to Prevent Nuclear-Armed Iran (PDF, 1027k)
* FAQ: The Iranian Threat (PDF, 99k)

THE STAGE HAS BEEN SET FOR A PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE ON IRAN

In the beginning, most of the RNC/campaign email was done via RIM network Blackberries. They could also hook up their RNC laptops to the OA network and then to RNC Exchange servers via SMTP/POP3. The fact that the WH in 2000 was still on Lotus Notes and the Bush political team was filled with Outlook users was a powerful incentive for people who wanted to avoid scrutiny to stick to the RNC equipment.

WHCA/WHMO does IT security for its nets (secure and unclass) and its people. OA does IT security for its nets (wholly unclass) and its people.

There are some users of both worlds. Most senior staff WH political appointeees (Deputy Chief of Staff, for ex) are also carried by WHCA because they need regular access to the President – and may also have a role in COG and other class. programs.

WHCA also oversees tech security – Electronio Warfare, bug sweeps, etc. WHCA also owns 100% of the travel “trip site” infrastructure that they set up when POTUS travels.

WHCA is an active duty joint service activity which answers to a senior politically appointed Director of the White House Military Office (WHMO). For most of his administration, Bush has chosen to appoint/staff that office with a senior active duty officer (VADM, I think).

I think we found a possible explanation, but still, somewhere along the way, someone had to let the techs in to install “pipes” or lines and reconfigure systems so the 80 or so RNC users could get connectivity. Maybe this happened after they purged OA of its careerists and brought in contractors?

So, how does one get access to the RNC in the early days?

In Turdblossom’s case, I’m confident he had a fax machine in his West Wing office, but I doubt he’d be plugging and unplugging his laptop RJ-45 cable to use it. Too many faxes coming in to try that. I’d guess he’d be one to get an additional analog line post haste.

As for the rest of the RNC-accessing staffers, good question. More analog lines?

Given the security of the White House (owned I believe by the WHCA who are primarily staffed by Armed Forces personnel), I’d deem it unlikely that an RNC-based server network could have been easily infiltrated, but given this Administration’s penchant for secrecy, it is still within the realm of “possibility”.