A group of hackers known as “anonymous” claim to have gained access to the personal Yahoo! Mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, posting what they say are screenshots of her inbox, address book and two sample email messages to the WikiLeaks web site.  Pictures of Governor Palin’s children were also posted to the web site.

Although some have said that Palin uses personal email to conduct public business in an attempt to avoid complying with public record laws, the emails released by “anonymous” appear to show the exact opposite: Governor Palin using personal email to conduct personal and political business.  I see no state business being conducted in the information released by “anonymous.”  As such, it’s unclear what the legitimate public interest in viewing Palin’s personal communication would be.

Larry Mendte could not be reached for comment.

The information includes five screenshots from Palin’s account, including the text of an e-mail exchange with Alaskan Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress.

Another screenshot shows Palin’s inbox and a third shows the text of an e-mail from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

The e-mail, a message of support to Palin, tells her not to let negative press get to her and asks Palin to pray for McCorkell, who writes that “I need strength to 1. keep employment, 2. not have to choose.”

[...]

A fourth screenshot shows an e-mail sent to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide, from someone claiming to belong to the group Anonymous advising that the person has changed the password to Palin’s Yahoo account to prevent other members of Anonymous from accessing it again. The e-mail includes the new password.

The data posted by WikiLeaks also includes a list of Palin’s e-mail contacts and two photos of her children.

UPDATES:

It seems initial media reports were incorrect, and the group “anonymous” was not responsible for the hacking as Wired originally reported.  The group, probably more accurately described as a “loosely knit association of like minded individuals against Scientology,” issued a statement about the attack on Palin’s email account.

One of the main tenets of the anonymous movement against the Church of Scientology is to stay legal. Anonymous is no fixed group, just a term for anyone who acts without giving their name. We don’t know who is responsible for the hack on Sarah Palin’s mail account or what their attitudes to Scientology or anything else are. For us, they are anonymous, because we don’t know who they are and they are not us.

A Michelle Malkin reader emailed her a little more detail on the group and a lot more detail on the hacking, including a message posted to a discussion board by someone assumed to be the hacker who, in addition to crapping his/her pants right about now, indicates he/she went looking for scandalous information within the account but found none.

The McCain campaign is not amused, calling for an investigation that will likely be conducted between the Secret Service and FBI.

“This is a shocking invasion of the Governor’s privacy and a violation of law,” campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. “The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment.”

Gawker thinks they’re being cute making a call to listen to Bristol Palin’s outgoing voice mail message.

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