Just a passing fancy. Even though the NSA does bug everyone including Aunt Molly, and ratfucking and blackmail are Republican signature moves. Following up on Atrios’s post of the CNN transcript:
[MONTGOMERY SIBLEY:] Well, I’m shocked about two things, if I might, Larry. Please understand that this is one escort service out of approximately 60 [including Shirlington Limo] in the Metro D.C. area. And indeed there are more escort services than there are McDonald’s in D.C.
Now what’s happened here is one service by the coincidence of Jeane being in California had all the calls recorded in the telephone records [and in the NSA intercepts?], and therefore were able to track the customers back through the record numbers. As the other escort services may or may not coming forward, we’re going to get a real full picture of what have goes on in the District of Columbia environments.
[DEBORAH PALFREY:] There’s another point that needs to be mentioned as well, perhaps even more important, and that is the susceptibility of blackmail of certain clients having used the service over the years. Most people at the moment for obvious reasons are focusing upon the hypocrisy angle. However, intellectualize a bit, think about it a bit, and you’ll come to the conclusion that we’ve come to, that there are possible people who have used the service who have become subjects and targets of blackmail. And many of these people being in D.C. most likely have security clearances.
So, “intellectualizing” just a little, let’s ask ourselves the question that Jeanne and Montgomery didn’t explicitly ask:
Who’d be doing the blackmailing?
Surely the most likely scenario would that since NSA is already sucking down everything in secret rooms at the telcos, that they cross-checked the numbers in their feeds with the numbers in the DC yellow pages as a rather simple data mining operation?
Not that the loyal Bushies would ever use sensitive national security information like this for the base political purpose of blackmail…
Poster Comment:
Israeli software covers all the billing data...