FBI Arrests O'Keefe Attempting to Tap Congressional Phones

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[quote name='http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/01/fbi_arrests_james_okeefe_at_landrieus_office.php']
James O'Keefe, the conservative filmmaker who posed as a pimp in video stings at ACORN field offices, has been arrested by the FBI at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) office in downtown New Orleans, in connection to what appears to be an attempt to wiretap the offiice, NOLA.com reports:

FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O'Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office's telephone system.

A fourth person, Stan Dai, was accused of aiding and abetting Basel and Flanagan. All four were charged with entering fedral property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
​
O'Keefe gained notoriety for his secretly filmed ACORN videos, which caused a firestorm of media intrigue surrounding ACORN after O'Keefe posted them on the Andrew-Brietbart-owned blog Big Government last year.

UPDATE: Here is an affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes. joseph basel et al.pdf According to Rayes, O'Keefe and another man, Stan Dai, have admitted to federal agents that he helped plan, coordinate, and prepare for the attempted infiltration and wiretapping, and the two men who allegedly posed as telephone company workers have admitted to entering Landrieu's office under false pretenses.

O'Keefe entered Landrieu's office and told a staffer there that he was waiting for someone to arrive, according to the affidavit. Special Agent Rayes states that two men, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, then entered the office wearing blue denim work pants, blue work shirts, flourescent vests, tool belts, and carrying hard hats, and claimed to be workers for a telephone company.

O'Keefe then recorded them with his cell phone (which the staffer noticed) as Basel asked to see the office phone, "manipulated" the handset, and tried to call it with his cell phone, Rayes states. Basel and Flanagan said they needed access to the phone system, at which point the staffer directed them to the GSA office in the building, according to the affidavit. They went there, were asked for credentials, and said they had left their credentials in their vehicle; neither of them actually work for a phone company, according to the affidavit.
[/Quote]

This fella O'Keefe, is the fella who executed a "sting" on ACORN with his lady friend. The new story follows (slightly) on the heels of the congressional investigation that cleared ACORN of wrongdoing.

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/CRS-ACORN091222.pdf

I'm a bit more inclined to believe ACORN's allegations that the video was manipulated, especially because this guy only seems to target folks who favor (or are) the big D.

Nail him to the wall, I say.
 
Him and his friends are douches. I hope they don't get off, they should get at least a few years for this.
 
lol who's gonna bet that Breitbart and FOXNews are gonna (if they haven't already) throw him under the bus.

Weren't the ACORN videos a form of entrapment?
 
[quote name='IRHari']Weren't the ACORN videos a form of entrapment?[/QUOTE]

O'Keefe and Breitbart were named as defendants in a suit filed by ACORN in Maryland - their state law mandates two party consent to recorded conversations.

There's also evidence supported by transcripts that the ACORN videos were doctored (e.g., in one case, the ACORN people specifically noted that they were not going to assist O'Keefe with his prostitution ring, but were able to offer some services that were legal).

ACORN was assassinated by a liar supported by propagandists - and no matter how easily the truth of this matter is discovered, people will ultimately side with what their political party says (in this case, the right).

It's a shame how much damage the political right is willing to do to get its point across. There's something to be said when you have to entrap, deceive, edit and lie (and repeat that lie) - all willingly and knowingly - to earn political points. How solid is your ideological foundation when you have to resort to zero-sum tactics?

But O'Keefe will be fine. This is how G. Gordon Liddy started his career, after all. ;) And could you imagine what a nobody, average-income earning schlep Oliver North would be if he did not participate in Iran Contra?

The innocent are made to be villains, and the villains lauded as heros - all in your political right. Can you name someone on the left who has done what O'Keefe has? And don't you dare say Michael Moore - like him or not, he has not violated the law or spied on people. He has the guts to face them head on.
 
Agreed. To the right, the ends justify the means.

I'm still haunted by the Chris Wallace/Dick Cheney interview. I'm paraphrasing here but:

Chris: So in the instances where they went beyond the specific legal threshold of torture, you're ok with that?

Cheney: I am
 
Oh, no. This is how it's supposed to work. It just doesn't work equally for everybody. O'Keefe will be a well-paid muckracker/"consultant" with a major conservative lobby in coming years no matter what he does (well, okay, Mark Foley just leaned over and told me that you can't fondle little boys, but that's pretty much it).

Take a look at New Edition. Yeah, someone gets to be Bobby Brown, or Bell Biv Devoe - but just as likely someone's going to end up like Ralph Tresvant or Johnny Gill, forgotten by time and barely successful. Like E. Howard Hunt's post-Watergate career compared with Liddy.
 
Just plain stupid thing to do... but who says he's going to get "taken care of?" Linda Tripp didn't, as I recall.
 
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[quote name='IRHari']lol who's gonna bet that Breitbart and FOXNews are gonna (if they haven't already) throw him under the bus.[/QUOTE]

Is that a bad thing?
 
Whoops - sorry UncleBob, I was wrong...

From Breitbart himself:

"I'm sure [the liberal media] would like to believe O'Keefe is stupid enough to try to "wiretap" a sitting U.S. senator in broad daylight during office hours, while recording the entire sequence of events on his cell phone camera. And they'd like you to believe it, too.

But there is absolutely no allegation in the criminal complaint that "wiretapping" or "bugging" is any part of this case, just the charge that O'Keefe and the others entered Sen. Landrieu's office in New Orleans "for the purpose of interfering with the office's telephone system."
Click to expand...

Oh, and:
"Hugh Hewitt: And I think that's the key thing. Lots of people work for lots of corporations, and do dumb and sometimes illegal things that are not within the scope of their employment. And this was not within the scope of his employment.
Andrew Breitbart: Yes, absolutely. That is absolutely the case."
Click to expand...

Interesting, because the same could be said about ACORN, right? But Breitbart wouldn't want to defend an organization that registers voters that vote for the big D.
 
He was just bein' civic minded and had dudes checking the headsets to make sure they worked.

I think it's a fetish thing. I read it on a blog once.
 
[quote name='mykevermin'] Can you name someone on the left who has done what O'Keefe has? And don't you dare say Michael Moore - like him or not, he has not violated the law or spied on people. He has the guts to face them head on.[/QUOTE]

Glad to see the delusion of right and left is still alive and well in America.
 
Haha, no. Definitely not an Alex Jones-inite here.

But seriously, comments like "Can you name someone on the left who has done what O'Keefe has?" are unbelievably fucking stupid.
 
So you're saying I should refute a statement that essentially says there is no one on the "left" who ever did something stupid like this?

Really? Do you honestly believe this garbage? Do you honestly believe that people on one side of a political spectrum are that different from those on another?
 
There's nothing to refute. Because only idiots would truly believe that one "side" in politics is all good and fair while the other is the opposite. If you truly believe that then you're beyond help.
 
[quote name='NutManIV']So you're saying I should refute a statement that essentially says there is no one on the "left" who ever did something stupid like this?

Really? Do you honestly believe this garbage? Do you honestly believe that people on one side of a political spectrum are that different from those on another?[/QUOTE]

Let me say it slower this time.

So.
Refute.
It.

It's not that hard.
 
Oh you're so right. Only Republicans ever do bad stuff and the Democrats are just victims of those monsters. Since it can't be easily proven or disproven over the internet then you're right.

That's generally how the conspiracy theorist mind works too. I say only lizard men from the ninth dimension(disguised as humans of course, those monsters) rob gas stations. You don't think so? Well refute it then.
 
Well I would think you would want to see some evidence before you say something. Myke says he has yet to see proof that someone on the left has pulled a plumber type scandal like GGLiddy/OKeefe. Until he sees evidence that proves otherwise he has no reason to believe it.

Apparently you don't need to see evidence that lizard men from the ninth dimension rob gas stations.

Isn't there something wrong with this? Just trying to look at this from, well, a logical perspective.
 
fuck you and fuck your straw man.

I asked about political activists whose work is presented on a national platform (FOX News in particular, though the other media rolled over and let his lawbreaking videos air with little to no critique about their content or editing).

It's not "ALL LEFT" or "ALL RIGHT." So either your reading comprehension is shit, or you're deliberately stirring things up.

You can cite an example of a publicly prominent member of the political left who violates the law, violates confidentiality, and selectively edits their work in order to avoid neutering their argument entirely and presents it on a national platform.

Or you can GTFO. Door's that-a-way.
 
[quote name='spazx']him and his friends are douches. I hope they don't get off, they should get at least a few years for this.[/quote]

qft
 
A "documentary maker" who attempted to bug the offices of a sitting US Senator? I've heard of sitting presidents and foreign governments doing it, but that's because they don't get 20 years for felonies.
Really? Do you honestly believe this garbage? Do you honestly believe that people on one side of a political spectrum are that different from those on another?
Click to expand...
It zooms this way and that.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']We've annexed Denmark. Why didn't anybody tell me?[/QUOTE]
It's hush hush. They don't want their working social healthcare system dismantled because Boehner says it's can't possibly work.
 
Oh. I heard the Danes voted for a Republican senator because they didn't want to pay for anybody else's health care.

That's the last time I'm eating their cookies, I tell you what.
 
church_jok.jpg


http://images.amuniversal.com/ups/features/beakman_jax/church_jok.jpg

This man is a Dane?
 
Speaking of Danes, what about good ol' Pogo the Clown?
Even after he was arrested for drugs, prostitution and sexually assaulting young boys, he was brought into the Democratic Party (from... Oh, hey, Chicago). If only he had a bigger crawl space - who knows, he could have been working for ACORN. ;)
 
[quote name='JolietJake']Beakman's World rocked back in the 90s.[/QUOTE]

They're just as popular as the Muslims during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.

Now, they're the new face of terrorism.

I need a poster of Uncle Sam with the slogan of "Report All Scientists!"
 
[quote name='UncleBob']Speaking of Danes, what about good ol' Pogo the Clown?
Even after he was arrested for drugs, prostitution and sexually assaulting young boys, he was brought into the Democratic Party (from... Oh, hey, Chicago). If only he had a bigger crawl space - who knows, he could have been working for ACORN. ;)[/QUOTE]

No one? Really?

I'll give a hint - here's a picture of him with the wife of a former Democratic President...

126771.jpg


Note the Secret Service pin that shows he was there with full approval...
 
Four conservative activists accused of trying to tamper with a senator's phones were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of her staff ignoring phone calls from constituents angry that she supported health care reform, one of their attorneys said Thursday.
Click to expand...
O'Keefe's twitter page:
I am a journalist. The truth shall set me free.
Click to expand...

you_re-doing-it-wrong.jpg

/hot
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I know who John Wayne Gacy is.

I'm asking you to get your point across.[/QUOTE]

What this representative of the Democratic party did was far worse than anything O'Keefe has been accused of doing.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']representative of the Democratic party[/QUOTE]

straws. you're grasping at them.

if you're reaching that far out, go with Jim Jones. Sure, Gacy's macabre and all that, but Jones utilized the organizing power of People's Temple to successfully campaign for both Harvey Milk and George Moscone. He also had an audience w/ Carter, I believe - so you can weave a tale from a single photo op into a sordid tale of how the Democratic Party was in cahoots with People's Temple and sent thousands to die in Guyana so they could take down Congressman Leo Ryan.

Jones' body count was far higher than Gacy - so since you're just in the business of tying a string between any two things you can get your hands on, you failed to go for the gusto here.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']What this representative of the Democratic party did was far worse than anything O'Keefe has been accused of doing.[/QUOTE]
Is that moral relativism I'm hearing?
 
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