For several years, as part of a larger project, we've been keeping track of the times and dates of visits to our website from "eop.gov," that is to say, the Executive Office of the President(-Select) of the United States of America. A clear pattern in these visits has now emerged:
9:47 am on 12 March 2002,
twice [two different servers] at 1:34 pm on 30 April 2002,
3:29 pm on 12 October 2002,
8:31 am on 16 October 2002,
10:08 am on 27 March 2003,
twice [two different servers] at 10:36 am on 2 April 2003,
10:32 am on 23 April 2003,
twice [two different servers] at 12:02 pm on 30 September 2003,
8:20 pm on 22 October 2003
twice [two different servers] at 4:49 pm on 23 Oct 2003
These visits occur roughly every six months: in March/April (end of the first financial quarter), and then again in September/October (end of the third). Each one of these bi-annual visits come in pairs, except for March/April 2003 and September/October 2003, when there were three visits, not two. Approximately a month (sometimes more, sometimes less) goes by before the first in the pair is followed by the second. With the exception of the visit made on 22 October 2003, all of these visits were made during "office hours," that is, between 9 am to 5 pm. (Remember: Washington DC is in the same time zone as our server).
What's going on here? Our guess is that, every six months or so, the President-Select has a national or "homeland" security briefing from "experts" who have been "studying" American leftists and their use of the Internet. These experts probably use the EOP's computers to download and perhaps print out pages from of the Web sites that the President-Select is (or might be) interested in. Then, about a month or so later, he is presented with a second report that answers questions and highlights new information, if there is any.
-- Originally posted 25 October 2003.
Our site continues to be visited by servers registered to the Executive Office of the President:
4:44 pm on 30 October 2003
1:22 pm on 18 December 2003
twice [two different servers] at 8:48 am on 23 December 2003
twice [two different servers] at 12:10 pm on 5 January 2004
12:36 pm on 6 February 2003
twice [two different servers] at 4:34 pm on 9 February 2004
4:35 pm on 9 February 2004
11:49 am on 20 February 2004
8:45 am on 2 April 2004
twice [two different servers] at 10:09 pm on 5 April 2004
11:59 am on 14 April 2004
Note well that the pattern of bi-yearly visits has been broken by those recorded December 2003, which came after two months, not six, as expected.
By e-mail SCP@notbored.org
By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998