And What Did They Find Out?

Nine people were indicted for sniffing around Obama's student loan information:

Nine employees of an eastern Iowa education contractor accessed President Barack Obama's student loan records in violation of federal law, prosecutors announced Wednesday evening.

A federal grand jury in Davenport indicted the workers for "exceeding authorized computer access" at their office in Coralville, prosecutors said in a statement. The company was identified only as a U.S. Department of Education contractor.

Prosecutors say the employees viewed Obama's student loan records at various times between July 2007 and March 2009, before and after Obama was elected president.

Do remember that Iowa was Ground Zero for the Presidential nominating process.  These nine might be Obama boosters, Edwards or Hillary backers, or crazed Republicans with uncanny prescience (Why investigate Obama in July 2007 and not Hillary or Edwards, if you are pulling for a Rep?).

As to what they found, I assume we will never know.  I am sure we have all seen the speculation that Obama got some financial assistance from the Ayers family, wealthy Pakistanis, wealthy Indonesians, or whatever.

Well, relax - Obama will tell us everything that helps his brand management when he signs his eight-figure book deal after leaving office.  No, I doubt he will title it "You Can Fool Some Of The People...".  But he might!

Comments

[heiney manush]

You are assuming that he will leave office.

[ignatz]

--when he signs his eight-figure book deal after leaving office--

Since Barry makes a cool five mil a year now, clearly anything over that is an example of someone who has already made "enough".
When he signs his eight figure book deal I think it's safe to assume his "enough" meter will be recalibrated.

[Porchlight]

Posted by: heiney manush

Great handle. I just watched that movie on TCM the other day.

[Captain Hate]

A federal grand jury in Davenport indicted the workers for "exceeding authorized computer access" at their office in Coralville, prosecutors said in a statement. The company was identified only as a U.S. Department of Education contractor.

This sounds like a garbage charge, pending more information on what they were doing. When I did contract IT work for the DOD, we needed to test across all ranks to make sure that software changes were working correctly. Accordingly I had Powell's SSN but there was no way I'd spill any internal info to anybody. If my logon had been blocked for that access I'd have either had it modified or told the higher ups that testing couldn't be done.

[Clarice]

One of those charged said they changed ids repeatedly and she never could remember hers so she left it on a pot it note in her desk drawer.

When I worked in a secure facility we had a similar problem and everyone had something they used to record the access numbers.It's altogether possible that political operatives being fully aware of this common human frailty found it easy to use these ids after hours to access what they wanted.

[nathan hale]

This does seem odd, just like the contractor that Brennan headed, being involved in the passport search, and then he ended up, in the
administration, although effectively neutered

[Richard Aubrey]

So. Does Joe The Plumber have a case?

[jeff]

clarice ...

after hours political OPERATIVES ????

oh please ... if anybody had dug up Obama's records it would be all over the nets ...

[Clarice]

Interesting point, Jeff. Unless they realized they might be traced back or hadn't had a chance to pass it off to someone who couldn't be traced.

[nathan hale]

So Vangent which used to be Pearson until Veritas Capital sold itwhose board includes
Richard Armitage and General Zinni

[Rocco]

I believe there was speculation a while back that Obama received a scholorship granted only to foreign students at Occidental. If Snopes has any credibility, this speculation has since proven to be false?

But check this out...a former classmate of Obama at Occidental. John C. Drew

I've always wondered why Obama chose Occidental. He claims it was because a girl from Brentwood vacationed in Hawaii and he chose that school to be close to her.

When Obama began his college education at Occidental, Dohrn and Ayers were still underground, bouncing back and forth between San Francisco and Chicago. Obama was in the Eagle Rock suburb of Los Angeles at the time and only about a 5 hour drive to San Francisco.

[nathan hale]

These are the rest of the board at Veritas, in the LUN

[Pofarmer]

oh please ... if anybody had dug up Obama's records it would be all over the nets ...

Depends.

Like the passport deal, where they there to find stuff out, or expunge stuff?

[nathan hale]

It is curious the AP didn't take the next step and find out that Vangent is not a solitary contractor, but who am I kidding?

[Danube of Thought]

I remember Heinie Manush as a coach of the Washington Senators in the early 50's. The radio announcer, Arch McDonald, always spoke of him as though he were a beloved figure of some kind.

Never thought I'd see someone come up with his name as a handle. Good one.

[jimmyk]

as though he were a beloved figure of some kind.

A Hall-of-Famer with a .330 lifetime BA is worthy of beloved status, I'd say.

[Captain Hate]

The radio announcer, Arch McDonald

Wow, I can't even remember that far back; Bob Wolff and Chuck Thompson were the earliest I can recall.

[Boatbuilder]

Heinie Manush? Arch MacDonald? Hell, I'm still having trouble remembering all those conservative pundits shilling for Reagan in the NYT, WaPo and LA Times back in the early 80's.

[Captain Hate]

One of those charged said they changed ids repeatedly and she never could remember hers so she left it on a pot it note in her desk drawer.

Having IDs on a post-it is one thing; having passwords there is another and might be grounds for termination of employment. But prosecution?? I guess I'm missing something from the article.

[Janet]

a random bit of trivia...our house was owned by Jim Shaw (Grunting Jim) of the Washington Senators. He played in the late teens and '20s I think. Not a very famous player. He also rented a room to fellow teammate Ed Gharrity (Patsy).
Our tree out front has carved initials all with S. as the second initial....for the various members of the Shaw family.
It's kinda nice. We're the only other family that has owned this house...and our last name begins with S. too.

[daddy]

It is disgraceful that people are illegally using their technological access to protected personal data to try to dig up harmful dirt on a Black politician, all in efforts to discredit him---unless of course it's Michael Steele's Social Security Numeber we're talking about and the henchmen work for Chuck Schumer. Then it's Okay, ACLU stays silent, move along, nothing to see here etc.

But in this case its simply disgraceful, so lets throw the book at these guys.

[Pofarmer]

It's all right to dig out opponents Divorce records too, Daddy, at least if you're Obama.

[MarkJ]

heiney,

"You are assuming that he will leave office."

And you are assuming Obama will complete his current term.

In both cases, I wouldn't bet the farm on either happening. ;)

[Porchlight]

DoT,

I should have clarified above - the movie I referenced wasn't about the ball player Heinie Manush, but it did use his name in a memorable way in the opening scene (see "Trivia" at the link).

[Clarice]

daddy, don't forget Joe the Plumber..I believe the gal who improperly okayed the search and leak got a tap on the wrist.

as for the divorce records of two of O's opponents--it took only suits by the Chicago newspaper and some friendly judges to unseal the records.

[JM Hanes]

Don't know why, but I'm amused by the idea that the company was once called "Pearson Government Solutions."

So, the oddities:

Accessing the loans multiple times over almost two years -- checking for what?

Being indicted a full year after the last time they snuck a look. How hard is it to nail down that sort of thing?

Charging nine defendants?

Maybe Holder's doing clean up work and just wants folks to know that he'll haul 'em into Court. I wouldn't be surprised if they were released, chastened and silent, before prosecutors have to file any more public documents. After they spill their operational intel, of course.

OTOH, conspiracy charges are a prosecutorial fav.

[bgates]

don't forget Joe the Plumber

It had never occurred to me before, but does George Bush have any kind of privacy interests in his military records? (The real ones, I mean, not the ones that got so much press.) I don't recall anybody threatened with prosecution for that attempt at muckraking.

[Clarice]

I believe even his drunk driving record which had to be hard to get was made public--.

OT--Reps have now moved to cutoff $$ to the IMF Greek bailout.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/republicans_introduce_legislat.html>Ant to grasshopper--buzz off

[Pagar]

Meanwhile,Drudge reports the Bank of England tells us what we already Know. The only Americans who don't realize it work in the Obama administration.

"US faces same problems as Greece, says Bank of England "

[Terry Gain]

I am sure we have all seen the speculation that Obama got some financial assistance from the Ayers family, wealthy Pakistanis, wealthy Indonesians, or whatever.

I'm sure the McCain campaign would have addressed this issue (and others) but I can't seem to recall what came of it.

Not to worry, the Squishes are polishing their questions to Kagan, which will lay bare her entire legal philosophy.

[Janet]

I'm sure the McCain campaign would have addressed this issue

What campaign were you watching?

[nathan hale]

I did happen to go to the library, where the noxious GC tome has arrived, along with Paulson's memoir. The latter makes it clear
that she was really on the ball, questioning
Paulson, as far as one could do, the former is a CYA exercise by Schmidt and company

[Terry Gain]

Janet

Please activate your sense of humor.

[Janet]

Oh, sorry Terry! I'm a little slow tonight... Feeling like Larry King.

[Terry Gain]

Janet

No problem. The current upside down situation is often beyond parody and sarcasm. But on your worst day you can't be feeling anything like Methuselah.

[Captain Hate]

Feeling like Larry King.

Not.On.Your.Worst.Day

The only upside to death panels will be if doddering Larry-King's-Still-Alive appears in front of one, hopefully staffed by his ex-wives.

[Clarice]

That's my other question about King. Who would actually sleep with him? Yuch

[nathan hale]

Laura's "Is Larry King Alive" becomes more and more apt

[Stephanie says Obama sux]

That's my other question about King. Who would actually sleep with him? Yuch

Golddigger playing the odds... I notice though that not one of them has lasted through to the payoff. He must be really hard to live with.

[daddy]

"That's my other question about King. Who would actually sleep with him? Yuch"

You know what's funny. When you read Ben Franklin you find at times he and John Adams had to share a bed at times during the Revolutionary period. One night it was cold and Ben kept opening the windows thinking cold air was good for the body, and the Harvard educated John Adam's kept bitching about the stupidity of freezing his buns off. Classic story that.

Still think all in all I'd rather share a bed with those 2 then climb in the sack with Larry King. How 'bout you guys?

[ignatz]

I'm of the opinion that City Journal is the most consistently important and interesting magazine/website around.

Here's Claire Berlinski on the extraordinary Soviet archives smuggled out of Russia by Stroilov and Bukovsky and the fact that nobody is even interested in reading them.
If anybody has an in with Regnery, seems like a golden opportunity.