http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/06/telemarketers_have_homeland_se.html
Telemarketers have Homeland Security's number
June 17, 2006
The Department of Homeland Security has this super-secret, secure
"hotline" that is supposed to ring in the offices of the nation's
governors only times of national emergencies.
Only, nobody told that to the telemarketers.
Reports USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-06-15-security-hotline_x.htm?csp=15
Ever feel there's no getting away from telephone sales calls?
You're not the only one.
The federal government has decided to put its own secret Homeland
Security hotline to the nation's 50 governors on the federal Do Not
Call Registry, according to Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.
The move came after a complaint Thursday by Minner, who said that when
her line rings, chances are it's not an emergency but an unwanted
intrusion.
"Every time that phone rings, it's telemarketers," she said in
Washington.
Minner keeps the secret homeland defense hotline in her office.
Governors have them for instant communication with Washington in case
of a major emergency.
Minner says that when her line rings, it's someone offering a
time-share condominium or the latest deal on long-distance phone
service.
"I wonder about the security of that line," Minner said.
She said other governors have reported similar interruptions, such as
the caller who chirps, "Hello! Are you satisfied with your
long-distance service provider?"
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle reported getting a similar call in 2003.
The caller jangled nerves and the phone just as U.S. troops were
launching ground combat in Iraq.
Telemarketers that use random-number call generators have been
stumbling onto the secure phone lines by accident, Minner said.
So, she said, the federal government is at last doing what it
recommends to millions of Americans with the same problem:
placing the line's number on the registry, which makes calls to the
number by most telemarketers illegal.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said he was
unaware of the problem.
No word on whether the governors' phones ring only at dinnertime.
Homeland Security waqs "unaware" of the problem.
And these are the folks who are charged with keeping us safe and
secure?
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Now, it's not nice to chuckle...heh heh...whoops...sorry...couldn't
help it.
Harry
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