Continuing our thread from yesterday, eleven data brokers asserted their fifth amendement rights today during congressional testimony today concerning the pretextual collection and re-sale of personal telephone records. Apparently the testimony from James Rapp, a former Colorado data broker was pretty incendiary stuff, as he described in detail the tactics he formerly used to obtain personal and private information.

Rapp has testified before Congress before on this issue, back in February of this year. You can read that testimony here. He rose to infamy few years earlier by impersonating John Ramsey, father of Jon-Benet Ramsey, the six year old whose death spawned an entire industry of legal and conspiratorial punditry.

In 2000, Rapp was also sentenced to 100 days in jail for using fraudulent means to obtain information on behalf of his clients. The Rapp case was actually cited in Senate testimony in 2003 as evidence of the "Homeland Security Threats Posed By Document Fraud." Interesting then that based on recent reports law enforcement agencies have become steady clients for a new wave of phone records dealers.

Congressional hearings are supposed to resume tomorrow. Details of the hearings can be found here.

-- MDT