Fmr. Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked

[FourScore]

Sun Jul 17, 2011 at 10:56 AM PDT
Fmr. Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked
by The AnomalyFollow

Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper has claimed that a special bunker, requiring security clearance for access was created at the company's headquarters to conduct “counterintelligence” including snooping on phone records:

“Has Roger Ailes been keeping tabs on your phone calls?”

That’s how Portfolio.com began a post back in 2008, when a former Fox News executive charged that Ailes had outfitted a highly secured “brain room” in Fox’s New York headquarters for “counterintelligence” and may have used it to hack into private phone records.

After helping chairman Roger Ailes create the Fox News channel in 1996, Cooper was fired for doing an anonymous interview with New York Magazine:

”I'm frightened right now,” said a former Fox employee, noting the vast array of powerful connections Ailes maintains throughout the political and media worlds. “I've been told that if Ailes figures out I talked to you, he'll hunt me down and kill me.”

Negotiating the ground rules for an off-the-record meeting, Ailes came on like an Edward G. Robinson character in a B movie. “Three people in the world hate me,” he blustered. “You're not going to get to them, and everyone else is too scared.... Take your best shot at me, and I'll have the rest of my life to go after you.”

Cooper says that Ailes discovered he was the source by gaining access to his phone records through Fox's “brain room”.

Cooper claims that his talent agent, Richard Leibner, told him he had received a call from Ailes, who identified Cooper as a source, and insisted that Leibner drop him as a client--or any client reels Leibner sent Fox would pile up in a corner and gather dust. Cooper continued:

“I made the connections. Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview. Certainly Brock didn’t tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brock’s telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list. Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation’s New York headquarters, was what Roger called the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie...”

MORE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/17/995568/-Fmr-Fox-News-Executive:-Americans-Phones-Were-Hacked?via=siderec

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Kickety K&R nt

[malaise]

2. Get thee to the greatest page

because we just knew

[Stuart G]

3. I hope Roger gets his, much sooner than later...nt

[proud patriot]

30. +1

[Lorien]

91. Laws apply to Right Wingers? Since when? I'm still waiting for Bush/ Cheney

to "get theirs".

[spanone]

4. the daily revelations are exhilarating !!!!

recommended

[ellie]

21. I agree!

It is delicious!

[trueblue2007]

78. YOU KNOW WHAT is hitting the fan. Fox is going down

[aquart]

5. I await Ailes' perp walk.

[farscape]

94. Absolutely!

That alone would almost make me believe in a god.

[wtmusic]

6. May Ailes and Murdoch share a cell. nt

[tblue]

73. At least one should share a cell with the tossed salad man.

[wtmusic]

74. That's cruel and unusual.

Love it. :thumbsup:

[Dappleganger]

7. House of cards is coming down...

and it cannot fall fast enough!!

[oldhippydude]

79. John Dean was right

as one who spent an inordinate amount of time following watergate... this thing has the same "feel" to it..

[JDPriestly]

8. Cooper does not say that Fox actually wiretapped. He just says

they tracked phone records.

That is not the same as listening in on conversations.

I would like to know whether Fox also listened in on conversations.

If you can get someone's phone records, how hard is it to listen in on their calls?

What is the technology involved in eavesdropping on phone calls? I'm not asking about the technical details. I want to know how hard it would be for Fox News to do that? They seem to have managed it in the UK and to have done it a lot.

How could anyone even manage to find the time to listen in to all the boring back and forth of personal phone calls? What a boring thing to do?

How are you dear? Oh, I had a sinus infection but it's better now.

How are the kids? Great. Marcy had her first piano lesson today. She is all excited and practices constantly. (I am dreaming.)

Etc. Can you imagine listening in to other people's trivia on and on and on?

The Facebook nightmare all over.

At least on DU you can simply move to a different post if one is too boring.

[aquart]

20. Jude Law says he was hacked in New York.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015624/Rupert-Murdoch-face-US-court-Jude-Law-phone-hacking-NY-claim.html

[Gman]

23. It would have involved bribing someone at the phone company

To get billing records which contain call info. And it is not difficult at all to tap someone's phone.

[JDPriestly]

34. Used to work at the phone co. way back when. It would have been

easy at that time. But now everything is transmitted and connected electronically. I suppose it could be done, but would you need inside-the-phone company help?

And wouldn't the number of phone companies in the US make it hard to corrupt that many of them?

What is the reality of this.

I don't know. I am just curious, especially since I remember seeing the old-fashioned system.

(Couldn't work in the technical part because of color-blindness. Pits, isn't it.)

[Caretha]

60. I'm missing your point?

or maybe I'm just confused by your agenda. Yeah, that's probably it.

[JDPriestly]

68. How could they hack (how did they hack) people's phones

when there are so many different cell phone companies?

I can understand how the government does it, but how would Fox News do that?

There was a guy named Anthony Pellicano who was accused of doing something like this in California some years ago, but where do they hack the phones?

Do they hack place something on the phone? If the phone is wireless, how could that work?

I can't picture how this works.

Sorry. I'm just curious about how things work.

I don't have an agenda except that I might want to protect myself from this sort of thing (not that anyone would be that interested in anything I would say on the phone).

[JAnthony]

24. True that, but if you had phone records of employees, enemies, rivals

and big stars, what good would that do if you couldn't hack into their Voice mails, or, better still, their actual phone calls, to get leads on stories, or quash your enemies?

I'm sure that, if one is going so far as to check phone records, they would go further when they they thought they were onto something.

[brewens]

28. I think it's easy to get info from phone calls if you have the right

system. A system programed to red flag certain keywords. Just like the government uses.

What would be fun is if it was revealed the Bush administration helped Ailes set all that up

[Enthusiast]

31. You can forget anything that would implicate

the Bush Administration. Obama's DOJ would fight tooth and nail to defend Bush no matter what he did.

[JDPriestly]

35. How sad but true, Enthusiast.

[tblue37]

62. They don't listen to it all--they data mine it by using filters. They

specify certain words or phrases as search terms, and then when those show up in a conversation, an alert is automatically sent, and that segment is lsitened to by an actual person.

[JDPriestly]

70. OK, I'm really older and I don't know about today's equipment.

How do they get to listen into specific phone lines in the first place?

Do they have to put a device on a phone or in a phone? How do they do that?

[tiny elvis]

83. it is a little like asking how a cell phone works

if you get the gist of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscriber_Identity_Module
then you can see how a device can hack a device
i have not seen accusations of listening to phone conversations yet
murdoch has hacked voice mail, stored outside personal phones
and possibly uncleared text messages

off topic
reactionary neo-what-have-yous call their spying counter intelligence
what do reactionary neo-what-have-yous mean when they speak of counter terrorism?

[tblue37]

100. Cell phones don't have phone lines. They are basically radios.

With the right equipment, anyone can listen to a call.

[abelenkpe]

9. K & R

I'm sorry, this news brings me happiness.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Fox if true this is the end of News Corp, period

mafia comes to mind

[malaise]

12. The Republican Mafia

so was the Patriot Act passed to facilitate Rupert???

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. It was ready to go

and yes you are right... if this goes deep enough it could sink a party too...

Come with me down the proverbial... well rabbit hole

[malaise]

22. It should but will it?

It is way beyond time for investigations

[Buns_of_Fire]

11. "Most people thought it was simply the research department..."

Well, since anyone can tell how much "research" fox does, it stands to reason that the "Brain Room" had to have been for something else.

It's a stroke of genius calling it the "Brain Room," though. Or even referring to it as a "research department." This ensured that the on-air people at fox would avoid it like the plague.

[myrna minx]

13. Kaboom!

:nuke: :rofl:

[malaise]

14. We've been waiting for this

:rofl:

[myrna minx]

16. !

:hi: Who knew Hugh Grant was a Jedi? Hugh Grant-Skywalker. :rofl:

[aquart]

18. Tomorrow, call all your elected reps from any party.

Ask them if they were hacked by Fox. Ask if they were blackmailed by Fox. Ask if they will investigate Fox.

Tell them to pull Fox's FCC license.

Make them feel they need to get out in front of this.

[SpiralHawk]

15. RepubliCON propaganda pimps Vs. America & Decency

What steenking low low low values and ethics the Republicons have. They are at war against decency and America.

[Kaleko]

17. Ailes is a serial bully

of the most dangerous kind, an Intimidator with a vast network of less powerful bullies under his command.

Intimidators use lethal threats to rob people of their willpower to stand up for what they know is right. It is extremely difficult to bring Intimidators down once they've established themselves at the top of an organization, country or social circle. But eventually, these infantile tyrants must fall into their own carefully laid traps, and that is what will happen to Ailes if enough whistleblowers keep stepping up to the plate and hit back.

[japple]

39. But he looks like such a sweet, grandfatherly type.

[Kaleko]

48. LOL, yes he does look cuddly

... and so did his forerunner, Joseph Goebbels, when he was in his element.

Here he is, telling the German people what's what:

[tblue37]

63. I think he has a Jabba the Hut aura about him. I expect to see him eat some sentient being alive at

moment.

[SpiralHawk]

82. Look more closely

outer appearances often deceive (R)

[japple]

85. Sorry, I should have put the sarcasm emoticon on there. It

seemed so obvious to me. Maybe it's not to late to add it here:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[freshwest]

58. Ailes was a major player in the 2000 coup. Along with GE's Jack Welch.

[Stuart G]

25. k and r

[butterfly77]

26. We already knew it..

no surprise hear. They all are frightened because some of them know they were involved and many have done so much dirt that they probably have forgotten some of it.

Please let Hannity,Ailes and a variety of assorted nuts at Fox be involved...

[BeyondGeography]

27. Like Ailes could resist...it's a News Corp. best practice

[Sportsguy]

29. Now For The Stolen Elections Revelations

Well, something with their role in them anyway.

[glinda]

32. Anything connected to politicians. And the Kochs and friends.

[Kingofalldems]

33. K and R for all the Steve Doocy fans

[mucifer]

36. I'm hoping this is true. But, Cooper was fired in1996 according

to "The Nation" article. I think we gotta see how this plays out.

[cy18]

37. Media

I think a media revolution might be on the horizon guys.

[proReality]

38. Here's hoping that it

comes to something other than an empty apology from Murdock.

[kentuck]

40. Ask Governor Blago...

what he thinks?

[tekisui]

41. KNR!

[Maru Kitteh]

42. Sorry for shouting but . . . . . I WISH I COULD REC THIS 100,000 TIMES!

[spanone]

43. k&r...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

44. Thank Dog for the Patriot Act!!!

Where would we be without our orchestrated Reichstag?

And so it goes...

[davidwparker]

45. Check John Kerry, 2004. If not Fox, check Rove. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

46. I believe that one of the reasons for this is to get blackmail material

to keep targets in Congress, in the courts, and elsewhere in line with the neocon plan. It's not just to get juicy tabloid news to sell papers and draw viewers. There's more at stake than this.

[beac]

47. Is it dangerous to eat a bushel of popcorn every day?

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[FourScore]

71. LOL. Pass it over here.

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[DeSwiss]

49. K&R n/t

[KansDem]

50. "That's all, folks!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_voAH8tYZNi0/SwWj2PuRydI/AAAAAAAAFJ0/jkT1I-0IRG8/s400/that%27s+all.jpg

[Lugnut]

51. K&R

:kick:

[blogslut]

52. Ailes is crazy paranoid

Gawker's devoted a number of posts detailing how he's obsessed with his personal security and image in his chosen home town:

http://gawker.com/5793012
http://gawker.com/5800439/roger-ailes-continues-to-ruin-his-adopted-home
http://gawker.com/5797078/fox-news-chief-roger-ailes-cant-stop-calling-the-cops
http://gawker.com/5807533/i-locked-my-keys-in-my-car-and-other-reasons-roger-ailes-calls-the-cops

Knowing this increases the possibility that he would transfer that paranoia to the employees and subjects associated with his job.

[fascisthunter]

53. nazis

[Raksha]

54. K & R

[shanti]

55. k&r!

go DOWN, Faux!

[Raksha]

56. K & R

[Botany]

57. Once again under bush/Cheney/Rove .....

.... The NSA did the spying, the DoJ was the muscle, the U.S. Attorneys were the button men, and Fox news was the
propaganda wing. Who really thinks that all those NSA wiretaps were to stop "the terrorists?" The first phone taps
went in Feb. & March 2001 long before 9/11 and in Ohio 2004 Kerry & the Democrat's phones were hacked and tapped.

ATTN: Eric Holder Do you want to do something?

[in_cog_ni_to]

59. K & R for the beginning of the end of FOX! n/t

[Distant Observer]

61. I imagine a lot of Congress dare not cross News Corp

[Ikonoklast]

87. Wait for the first one to crack.

He'll want to trade immunity over what he knows, and who told him, for any potential jail time for what he was party to.

It will happen; there is always one coward ready to rat out all his criminal buddies in order to save his own ass.


He knows they were blackmailing him with personal information, but is more afraid of becoming an accomplice to a massive crime than have his wife find out about his teenage mistress.

[Prana69]

102. Undoubtedly. And then wait for the news report that said whistleblower has turned up dead.

"Authorities say XXXXX died of natural causes and are not treating the death as suspicious".

P69

[pacalo]

64. K&R.

[AsahinaKimi]

65. Please let this be the downfall of Fox....

Right into the Rabbit hole!!! Be Gone with ye!

[deacon]

66. K + R. Great post! Hax News. n/t

[MadMaddie]

67. I bet a lot of Republicans

eh em Rove, Junior, Cheney and others are sweating.......Murdoch and Ailes hung out with these guys....they didn't just hang out...

[Stuart G]

69. kick..............get em...all of em...nt

[reformist2]

72. The old "Enemies List" again.... repugs are always done in by their paranoia and vindictiveness.

[Firebrand Gary]

75. Are you F&%$#*& kidding me?

[ignatzmouse]

76. Is there more to veiled death threat?

”I'm frightened right now,” said a former Fox employee, noting the vast array of powerful connections Ailes maintains throughout the political and media worlds. “I've been told that if Ailes figures out I talked to you, he'll hunt me down and kill me.”

This has a very familiar ring. Recall the claim in the Andrea Makris lawsuit via Bill O'Reilly that Roger Ailes could have people taken out. He specifically mentions a not-so-veiled threat that Ailes would snuff Al Franken. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/bill-oreillys-loofahfalaf_n_319201.html?slidenumber=5

Ailes, Murdoch, News Corp., these guys are mobsters. They conduct their business as a criminal enterprise. So, I ask is there more to these threats and fears? Is it just an intimidation tactic or have they actually hurt people? The narrative is coming from somewhere.

[tcaudilllg]

77. Be brave... we can bring FOX down.

Although I just want to see the news channel dead. I like the one the runs the Simpsons.

[KansDem]

99. D'oh!!!

[PuffedMica]

80. Keep pressing. Keep showing public outrage. Bring FOX down

The truth is out of the bag and FOX is going down.

[PuffedMica]

81. K&R

[Chorophyll]

84. And there it is!

No big shocker, but I'm glad it's coming out.

:kick:

[Weird Liberal Head]

86. Yup

Let the investigations here in America begin!

[Bake]

88. Ailes needs to go DOWN HARD.

Fox should be dismantled. Murdoch needs to be a fleeing man without a country ... with no haven anywhere. Persona non grata with no access to his billions.

THEN we'd see some real HOPE AND CHANGE. Not until then.

Of course, I'd like to see Murdoch behind bars, but I'm realistic enough to know that will never happen.

Bake

[RZM]

89. I think that severe damage to Murdoch's American interests is unlikely

Even if it becomes clear that hacking occurred here. This scandal very well may be catastrophic to his British interests, but I don't see some sort of 'Foxmageddon' happening in the US.

For one, the scandal may fizzle out over here. Extensive hacking may not be uncovered, in which case Fox won't suffer very much long-term damage at all. But let's say for a second that they do uncover hacking on a similar scale as has occurred in Britain (including soldiers and 9/11 victims).

Such revelations would certainly energize everybody who is opposed to Fox, but what would that really accomplish? You might see congressional hearings or legal action and maybe heads would roll at News Corp . . . but in the end, Fox will still have a large base of viewers, many (I'd say most, actually) of whom would be willing to forgive if the alternative were having to rely on CNN, MSNBC, or the networks for their news. Even if a large American scandal did hurt their numbers somewhat, they could still take a decent sized hit and keep going. That hit might be temporary, too.

And all of that is assuming a major scandal does break out here, which is not at all certain. Fox is going to have egg on its face over this no matter what and they will continue to eat negative headlines in the short term . . . but a year from now I doubt things will be all that different than they were before the scandal.

[Lorien]

92. It would have been a major scandal 20-30 years ago

when the MSM was a little more interested in journalism and laws applied to both the Left and the Right. But today? I won't hold my breath.

[nolabels]

95. A lull in the news and natural disasters could be a problem

After years of drilling the response on when to be quiet, it just might happen badly for those furry tail bastards

[fascisthunter]

90. Anyone remember the Retroactive Ruling for AT&T's involvement with Hacking

question I have, will it be used to sheild FOX as well?

[farscape]

93. I'm shocked!

I'm shoocked, shocked I tell you! *eye roll*

The systematic dismantelling of News Corp, the long slog to the utter destruction of Conservatism, has begun.

And who do I have to thank for this? Hugh Grant???? lol If we didn't live in bizzaro world already, I'd think that was unusual and, well, bizarre.

[greymattermom]

96. to those who think this will disappear

remember that this company has very deep pockets. The trial lawyers can smell those pockets from many miles away.

[lonestarnot]

97. K & R!

[ck4829]

98. K&R

[SpiralHawk]

101. Republicon propaganda pimps spying on honorable Americans

Disgustipating...

[BNJMN]

103. "The rats are coming out of the sewer..."

What kind of world do we live in? People suspiciously bumped off.
Of course that was 'not suspicious'.A professional knows how to do it.

We may never know the extent of it. Or really want to.

[BNJMN]

104. Bigger than fox. Wholesale corruption of gov'ts by media outlets. But I do love watching ol' Rupert

ssssssqqqqqquuuuuirm.
bastard.