Story of a Cold War Debugger

Jack Glass saw plenty of action during World War II and plenty more afterward...

His services also were rendered during the Cold War, searching U.S. embassies around the world for the hidden microphones and other surveillance equipment frequently planted by Soviet spies.His specialty was "audio countermeasures," meaning he was responsible for finding hidden listening devices, or "bugs," planted by other governments in U.S. embassies, consulates and other diplomatic buildings overseas.

From 1962 to 1974, Glass was stationed at U.S. embassies in the Middle East, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and South America, serving two to three years at each location. His wife and daughters, Nancy and Jacki, traveled with him, with the children attending schools set up for diplomatic families.

From central headquarters, Glass and other security engineers would travel to U.S. diplomatic posts in surrounding countries.

"We got around pretty good," Glass said, noting that from Beirut, Lebanon, they would travel throughout the Middle East and the entire continent of Africa.

From Budapest, Hungary, they would span Eastern Europe, including Moscow and other cities in the Soviet Union. South America was covered from Buenos Aires, Argentina, while Frankfurt, Germany, was the base of operations for Western Europe.

Eastern Bloc nations, Glass said, were by far the most active.

"We found hidden microphones in all our embassies in Eastern Europe," he said, including Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Bucharest, Romania; Sofia, Bulgaria; Budapest, Hungary; Moscow and other Eastern European capitals.

"We tried to keep the embassies from being bugged," Glass said. "Sometimes we were successful, sometimes not. Whatever we could do, the Soviets could do as good or better, which they did, especially in Moscow."

Glass said hidden devices were usually found through "pick and shovel work" — physically taking apart telephones, office equipment and furniture, and even digging inside the walls, which could be up to 3 feet thick.

Glass once found a wireless transmitter inside a hollowed out piece of firewood in an ambassador's office.

A team of Navy Seabees also was assigned to assist the audio teams, since "anything we tore up we had to rebuild," Glass said. "They also helped us demolish certain things."

The searches were not a matter of paranoia — more than 130 microphones were discovered in the former U.S. embassy in Moscow, Glass said.

"It was renovated by the Russians and every office in the building was bugged," he said. "Some had been there so long the microphones didn't work."

Construction on a new embassy began in 1979 but was suspended several years later.

According to congressional documents, U.S. personnel discovered in 1984 that an unsecured shipment of typewriters for the Moscow Embassy had been bugged and had been transmitting intelligence data for years.

"In August 1985," the U.S. State Department said, "work was suspended on the partially completed (building) due to a security compromise of such consequence that there was serious doubt that the building, if completed, could be used for the purpose intended." (more)

Senior Russian Cop Held in Eavesdropping Scandal

Moscow - A senior local police officer has been arrested for illegal eavesdropping, while several other officers are under probe for allegedly making phone tapping into a profitable business, according to an influential daily.

Mikhail Yanykin, deputy head of a secret police department responsible for wiretapping, covert video surveillance and other technical support operations has been apprehended pending official charges, Kommersant daily reported adding that another official Nikolai Orlov, deputy chief of the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department has been ordered not to leave the city.

According to investigation phone tapping, which can be conducted as part of a criminal investigation and requires court approval, had been turned into a profitable business, with services, including printouts of tapped telephone conversations, being provided to a wide range of "clients." (more)

SpyCam Story #362

WA - A security guard was fired after allegedly using remote-controlled cameras on top of the downtown post office in Spokane to peer inside a condominium. The investigation could lead to voyeurism charges.

The unidentified guard worked for a private company, Secure Solutions. The Florida-based contractor provides security in a downtown block including the Courthouse and adjoining post office. Guards remotely control cameras mounted on extension booms on the roof of the four-story post office. (more)

On Chinese Espionage

Denny Hatch's summary of the situation is the best we've read so far.

Chinese Theft of Intellectual Property
"China is notorious for stealing the designs and manufacturing hundreds of patented and copyright products and selling them all over the world, including in this country. Among them: Callaway Big Bertha golf clubs, Ikea furniture, Chivas Regal and Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey, Italian and French wine, luggage, designer clothes, Honda motorcycles, Sony PlayStation games, Cisco Systems router interface cards, even Mitsubishi elevators!

Target stores here have been accused of selling bogus Coach bags and two weeks ago, Wal-Mart settled with Fendi for selling counterfeit handbags for up to $525 each.
What’s more, these thieves get off lightly. In March 2005, a Chinese factory was raided and 32,980 counterfeit Zippo lighters were discovered. The factory manager, Zheng Shengfen, was taken to court and the judge fined him $12,500 with no jail sentence.

Quite simply, if you create any kind of desirable product here or abroad, expect to be ripped off by the Chinese.

The Ultimate Eavesdropping Tool?

...now on ebay! (ugh)

"Haunted 925 Silver Ornate Chalcedony Ring - Witch Spell - Read Other's Minds! Telepathy! Pick Up on Thoughts."

"This is a Ring that Albina imbued with an incredible spell!. She says that Chalcedony has always been highly regarded beacuse of it's natural power to increase thought transmissions. As a result, Albina consecrated this ring with her "Mystical mind reader" spell. This powerful spell allows one to actually "read the mind's of others as well as hear their thoughts and pick up on their feelings". She says that this is a form of psychic ability only it is focused solely on mind reading and not the ability to see future events.

In turn, Albina says that wearing this ring will allow one to "tune into and pick up on other's thoughts and feelings" which is as she says "very beneficial in many situations. She does caution one however, to using this power to "eavesdrop on the feelings and thoughts of those who dislike or are an 'enemy' to one. She says that she herself has 'felt hurt' by some of the information she has received. Yet, overall, she says "this power offers one a great advantage especially in business and career matters. She goes on to say that this ability is "key" when one is facing important decisions and chioces. Albina says that before purchasing a summer home, she wore this ring and was able to "hear the realtor become fearful" that she would discover the 'bad' plumbing in the lower level of the home! She adds that this is only ONE example of how this imbued ring has "given me information that I was VERY grateful to receive". This is a VERY special piece and my GREAT Thanks and Blessings go out to Albina for donating such a cherished item!

My reader says that the energy emitted from this ring is "very consistent and carries a low, humming frequency". She said that the piece "gave me the chills and seemed to open a door" that allowed her own ability to increase.

She went on to say that she could feel the ring "connecting to those around one on a level in which one would be able to read thoughts". She added that the longer she held the ring, she felt the ability getting stronger, and this was only within a few minutes. She went on to say that "if this ring can allow this within such a short period of time, one who wears this ring often should be able to achieve geat abilities and gain a very clear pathways to another's mind".

She adds that she senses that this particular ring "knows it's true owner" and that the person it will go to "will feel a pull towards this piece and not rest until it is in their possession'. She also could view a brilliant green and dark, sharp pink aura around this piece. (more) ...currently, only $20.50 - whattabargain :)

French Fear Blackberry's Will Be Squeezed...

...for their juicy information.

The French national-security office SGDN has warned the country's new cabinet members and presidential staff to stop using their BlackBerrys because confidential political and economic information could be intercepted by the Americans. ...

...its data transmissions processed by servers in the U.S. and U.K., France fears the U.S. National Security Agency could get its hands on any information sent through a BlackBerry...

...the French oil giant Total has never let its employees use one because of "security reasons." "There are plenty of other perfectly good PDAs," Total says. (more)(more)

Video Surveillance Supermarket

It's not just paranoia anymore. With improvements and cost reductions in video surveillance technology, more people than ever may be watching you... Supercircuits Inc. is helping them watch more effectively and for less cost than ever.

The company, which moved from California to Austin as a hole-in-the-wall operation 15 years ago, has grown into perhaps the biggest discounter in the video surveillance industry. And business is booming as the world grows more security-conscious in the wake of increased terrorist attacks.

The tiny camera, shown here in a page from the Guinness Book of Records, can fit in a baseball cap undetected. (more)

Teacher Accused of Bugging Colleague

MI - A middle-school teacher charged with bugging another teacher's classroom is expected to report for arraignment June 25.

Anne Harvey, 44, was charged Thursday with attempted eavesdropping, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police and prosecutors allege she planted a wireless listening device on the back of a chair in a classroom where her daughter had complained of problems with the teacher. (more) (see also)

SpyCam Story #361

Thanks to new "Shot Guard" underwear from Cramer Japan, female athletes, students and children are now protected from infrared photography.

Yes indeed, Japan's legendary "hentai" (perverts) have found a new way to get their jollies: snapping photos of female athletes through their sports wear.

It seems that these Bizarro Superman wannabes are adapting the night-function capabilities of ordinary camcorders to take infrared photos of unsuspecting women & children in the daytime.
Since infrared radiation (known to us regular folks as heat) is emitted by the skin, the modified cameras can record the surface of said skin.

The result is kind of dark and grainy, much like the thoughts of the perverted paparazzi. from inventorspot.com (more)

In case your crotch concerns run more along the lines of, "Hope that cell phone in my pocket doesn't fry my nads," check out radiation-proof Slipways underwear, by ISA Body Wear. (more)

Saayyyy, how about a nice hat to go with your new ensemble?

Cable Cabal Capitulates

Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the cable industries research and development consortium, has released the specifications needed for the minions of law and order to "wiretap" cable broadband user's activities on the web. (more)

SpyCamMan "He's everywhere, he's everywhere!"

A Chicago mother turned on her baby monitor and saw images of astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis and mission control. (more)

Zimbabwe Passes Bugging Law

Zimbabwe's MPs have passed a law to allow the government to monitor e-mails, telephone calls, the internet and postal communications.

Opposition MP David Coltart called it a "fascist piece of legislation" aimed at cracking down on political dissent.

But Communications Minister Christopher Mushowe defended it, saying it was similar to anti-terror laws elsewhere such as in the UK, US and South Africa. "These are countries which are regarded as the beacons of democracy," he said.

The Interception of Communications Bill now passes to the Senate, where it is expected to face little opposition, Reuters news agency reports.

President Robert Mugabe's government already faces criticism for laws that curtail free speech and movement. (more)

“If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

from: Why Nixon and Watergate Still Matter: An Interview with James Reston, Jr.

"With the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break-in coming up this Sunday, one of the hottest tickets on Broadway is Richard M. Nixon. Played by Frank Langella (who just won a Tony Award for his performance), Nixon cunningly spars with Michael Sheen’s David Frost in a live re-creation of the famed television interviews that the British TV personality held with the ex-President in 1977.

The interviews were a landmark in the history of both American politics and television, and they attracted some 50 million viewers. The play, Frost/Nixon (which next year will be a motion picture from Ron Howard), was developed from James Reston, Jr.’s The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews (Harmony, 208 pages, $22), just out this month.

From his home near Washington, D.C., James Reston answered questions about his involvement with the interviews and how they came about..." (more) (Why is this man really laughing?)

Covert Video - Legal Considerations

Questions about the legalities of installing covert video CCTV cameras arise often. The safe answer is, "Contact your attorney."

The expedient and practical answer is…
"Avoid legal problems in the first place."
- Research the latest laws.
- Follow these guidelines.
- Combine all this with common sense.
- And, err on the conservative side.

• Title III, the federal law regarding interception of wire and oral communications, does not address the covert video surveillance issue. Courts, however, do have the authority to make rules about video surveillance. Past decisions are important guideposts to follow.

• Congress has made several attempts over the past few years to regulate video surveillance. It is likely that a video surveillance bill will be passed – in some form – in the near future. Remember, what is legal today may not be legal tomorrow.

• Some states have laws regarding video surveillance. Keep up to date on all the current laws, federal and state. The books Wiretapping and Eavesdropping, by Clifford S. Fishman and/or The Law of Electronic Surveillance, by James G. Carr are good references. Available from Thompson West Publishing at 800-344-5008.

General Guidelines…
• Covert video surveillance is generally considered illegal when…
- the subject has a reasonable expectation of privacy (Fourth Amendment rights);
- it involves sexual activity (even with one-party consent);
- if audio eavesdropping is also taking place without consent,
(one-party, or all-parties depending upon state law);
- prohibited by a state or local law.

• Covert video surveillance may be illegal when…
- the person with authority over the premises has not consented;
- the reason for the video surveillance fosters an illegal purpose;
- if under Sixth Amendment the subject has the right to counsel;

• Covert video surveillance should be avoided when…
- a less intrusive, legal investigative method is equally available;
- when you feel uncertain about the installation legality or ethics.

• The days show-of-force fake CCTV cameras are over.
- Visible CCTV cameras are now perceived by the public as a safety item. If you display a camera, the public will have the expectation that you have provided an extra measure of security. The cost of cameras has dropped dramatically - eliminating the rational for fake cameras.

Video Recording Police Leads to Felony Charge

PA - Brian D. Kelly didn't think he was doing anything illegal when he used his video camera to record a Carlisle police officer during a traffic stop. Making movies is one of his hobbies, he said, and the stop was just another interesting event to film.

Now he's worried about going to prison or being burdened with a criminal record.

Kelly, 18, of Carlisle, was arrested on a felony wiretapping charge, with a penalty of up to 7 years in state prison. (more)

UPDATE!!!
Saying Pennsylvania's Wiretap Act is "not the most clear statute we have on the books," Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said this morning he plans to bring the issue up at the next conference of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association in the hope of getting the law clarified.

Meanwhile, Freed withdrew wiretapping charges today filed against a Carlisle man who videotaped a Carlisle borough police officer during a May 24 traffic stop.

And he announced a policy for future cases of recording during traffic stops: "When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges."

That decision will be communicated to all police agencies within the county, Freed said.