Old fashioned denial of service attacks

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: RalphW <rwhyre () gmail com>
Date: April 10, 2006 7:35:34 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Old fashioned denial of service attacks

[for IP if you wish]

from Yahoo news - This is the first published report I'd seen on  
this, although I imagine it's happened before, on both sides.  Maybe  
social networking software should be embedded into cell phones so you  
can tell if it's friend of (potential) foe calling.  Clearly, caller- 
ID alone isn't enough.

- Ralph]


Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire  
Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White  
House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records  
introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who  
recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White  
House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the  
phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly  
shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to  
defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business  
and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone  
jamming.

...
Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic  
get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican  
John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46  
percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans' New England  
regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one with  
a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the owner  
of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme. The owner of the  
subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is under  
indictment.

...
The Democrats said in their civil case motion that they were entitled  
to know the purpose of the calls to government offices "at the time  
of the planning and implementation of the phone-jamming  
conspiracy ... and the timing of the phone calls made by Mr. Tobin on  
Election Day."

While national Republican officials have said they deplore such  
operations, the Republican National Committee said it paid for  
Tobin's defense because he is a longtime supporter and told officials  
he had committed no crime.

By Nov. 4, 2002, the Monday before the election, an Idaho firm was  
hired to make the hang-up calls. The Republican state chairman at the  
time, John Dowd, said in an interview he learned of the scheme that  
day and tried to stop it.

Dowd, who blamed an aide for devising the scheme without his  
knowledge, contended that the jamming began on Election Day despite  
his efforts. A police report confirmed the Manchester Professional  
Fire Fighters Association reported the hang-up calls began about 7:15  
a.m. and continued for about two hours. The association was offering  
rides to the polls.

Virtually all the calls to the White House went to the same number,  
which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002,  
White House political affairs was led by now-RNC chairman Ken  
Mehlman. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned  
that phone number in 2002.

...

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