PDA

View Full Version : Feds blame Lieberman for Web site crash



Sporkman
April 10th, 2008, 03:56 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/ap_on_hi_te/lieberman_web_site_4


Feds blame Lieberman for Web site crash

By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 9, 8:17 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joe Lieberman's re-election campaign caused its own Web site to crash on the eve of the August 2006 Connecticut primary, federal investigators have found — not supporters of Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, whom Lieberman implied were responsible.

"In short, the server that hosted the joe2006.com Web site failed because it was overutilized and misconfigured," according to an Oct. 25, 2006, e-mail included in FBI documents obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. "There was no evidence of (an) attack."

Once reported by the media, the accusations by Lieberman's campaign helped overwhelm the Web site on primary day, too, the investigators said.

The Advocate of Stamford, Conn., first reported the results of the investigation.

Lamont said Wednesday that Lieberman, a Democratic-leaning independent, should apologize.

"Senator Lieberman's campaign team accused an awful lot of good people of breaking the law on the eve of the primary, and they did it for political purposes," Lamont told the AP in a telephone interview. "If he does the right thing, he'll stand up and say, 'I was wrong."

Lieberman had implied that Lamont supporters had hacked the site, saying on primary day: "I'm concerned that our Web site is knocked out on the day of the primary, you'd assume it wasn't any casual observer."

His campaign asked the Justice Department to investigate; Lamont's campaign denied involvement.

A Lieberman spokesman said Wednesday that the senator considered the case closed.

"We were told by our Web site administrator that there was clear evidence of an outside effort to disrupt our site, and that the administrator was so certain that the site had been attacked that he was willing to swear to it in a legal affidavit," Dan Gerstein said.

After a surprising loss to Lamont, a political newcomer, in the primary, Lieberman defied Democratic leaders and ran as an independent in the general election. Top Democrats backed Lamont. Lieberman won re-election with support from the GOP, including praise from the White House and fundraising help from prominent Republicans such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Lieberman was Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore's running mate in 2000, and he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Lieberman, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, has emerged as one of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's strongest supporters.