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Governator 'hot blood' tape leak probed
Schwarzenegger: 'I'll be hacked... '

By Reuters

Published: Tuesday 12 September 2006

Police are investigating whether hackers illegally downloaded a private taped conversation of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from state computers, a spokesman said on Monday.

In the remarks, California's celebrity governor spoke of African Americans and Latinos, including a Hispanic state lawmaker, as having "hot" blood, or being passionate.

The comments were published last week by the Los Angeles Times.

Democrats rebuked Schwarzenegger, a Republican who is seeking re-election in November. State treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor, called the comments offensive and embarrassing for the increasingly Hispanic state.

Computer hacking, not a leak within Schwarzenegger's office, is suspected. A spokeswoman with the California Highway Patrol, the agency in charge of the investigation, said: "We can confirm that we are looking into the security of the governor's office computer system."

Andrea Lynn Hoch, Schwarzenegger's legal affair secretary, said in a statement the IP address used to hack the computer system had been identified. "As a result of the governor's office internal audit, this office discovered that on 29 August and 30 August, 2006, an unknown person or persons downloaded an audio file from the governor's office computer system," she said.

Schwarzenegger has apologised for the comments, taped during a meeting with aides. Police are probing their release because they were stored on digital files in state computers with only a few people authorised to access them.

Reporters at the Los Angeles Times have not said how they acquired the taped remarks, part of a six-minute recording of Schwarzenegger and members of his inner circle. The newspaper said in a statement: "Any questions should be referred to the investigating agency. We do not disclose confidential sources."

Political consultants from both parties said Schwarzenegger may have been the target of computer hackers, who stumbled across material that proved embarrassing to the Hollywood and body-building icon.

Republican consultant Dan Schnur said: "This is the technological equivalent of what the Watergate burglars did in 1972."