This type of discovery happens all the time. Back in the 70's, I took out
several Binaural microphone installations in executive offices occupied by
senior executives in the RCMP Security Service. These installs were still
functioning, with pin hole microphones the size of small apples, and were
obviously from the late 40's or early 50's. Upon making the reasonable
inquiries, full documentation was located on the installs, which had been in
place for over 20 years, and had several individuals occupy the offices in
the meantime.
In the US it appears that interagency cooperation regarding the release of
"Need to know" files seems to lack. It would be common practice to leave an
interview room installation in place when offices are being vacated by an
investigational group. The mic's may be plastered over, but the installs
would probably still function.
Sometimes an illusion is created for political purposes. Any professional
government sweep team should be able to date an installation by the
equipment recovered (Provided it was not old Soviet or Chinese in origin).
The idea that an install MAY have been left behind by a certain
administration that formed a government for 8 years, just doesn't ring true.
The memo in question should have stated yeh or neh.
When the source is the media, I tend to suspect the political motivation of
the article.
Just my two cents worth from the frozen north.
Merl
----- Original Message -----
From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
To: "TSCM-L" <TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 9:03 AM
Subject: [TSCM-L] Pentagon memo reveals bugging
>
>
> (This is an older article, but it highlighter how a dormant/dead bug
> can go undetected for quite some time. -jma)
>
>
> Pentagon memo reveals bugging
> By Rowan Scarborough
> WASHINGTON TIMES
> Published July 26, 2004
>
> When the Bush administration took over the Pentagon's beleaguered
> inspector
> general office in 2002, officials found something startling: The
> director's
> office, at some point, had been electronically bugged.
> Sorting out why the listening device was inside the walls of the
> office,
> with a cord leading to another office, is just one issue that had to be
> addressed by Joseph E. Schmitz, President Bush's pick three years ago to
> be
> the Defense Department's top cop.
> A Naval Academy graduate and civil litigation lawyer, Mr. Schmitz was
> tapped to run the office responsible for investigating million-dollar
> fraud
> in the far-flung defense industry and criminal misconduct by senior
> Defense
> Department employees.
> His nomination delayed by Senate Democrats, Mr. Schmitz finally came
> on
> board a year into the Bush administration. He set out to right a ship
> dogged
> by charges of corruption and cronyism.
> But he also had to deal with an electronic bug apparently left over
> from
> eight years of the Clinton administration.
> An internal "info memo," a copy of which was obtained by The
> Washington
> Times, was written by a staffer in Mr. Schmitz's office:
> "On June 19, 2002, during a routine meeting with the director of
> security for the Department of Defense, it was reported to my staff and me
> that a potential 'listening device' was previously discovered in the
> infrastructure of DoDIG.
> "The DoD directorate of security conducted a routine sweep for
> electronic listening devices in certain areas of the ninth and tenth
> floors
> of the DoDIG on Aug. 7, 2000. The sweep revealed that a wire had been
> installed inside the wall structure leading to and from the ninth and
> tenth
> floors of the DoDIG (areas which comprise the Defense Criminal
> Investigative
> Service and the personal office space of the inspector general)."
> And there was another touchy issue for Mr. Schmitz.
> A second series of internal memos from his staff showed that a Muslim
> who was employed as an auditor and granted a "top-secret" security
> clearance
> was not an American citizen.
> "He possesses a Social Security number tied to multiple confirmed
> aliases," a May 2002 memo said. Another paper said, "Using the improper
> granted interim clearance, [the employee] visited numerous installations
> where he had access to sensitive information. ... The Department of
> Justice
> Joint Terrorism Task Force is currently considering a criminal
> investigation
> into this matter."
> The Times faxed copies of the memos to Mr. Schmitz's office for
> comment.
> John R. Crane, his spokesman, responded in an e-mail: "Both matters
> contained in your fax ... have been addressed and resolved."
> "The memos provided contain information that is not releasable to you.
> In particular, the Privacy Act protects the personal information contained
> in one of the memos," he continued. "I would note that DoD [regulations]
> state 'unauthorized disclosure of ... information that is protected by the
> Privacy Act may also result in civil and criminal sanctions against
> responsible persons.' "
> A U.S. official later said the employee in question had resigned.
> On the bugging issue, this official said, "No one knows who was spying
> on who. They just removed it."
> Mr. Schmitz's biggest public headache was corruption inside an agency
> that is supposed to be a model for weeding out fraud.
> Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and a longtime investigator
> of
> Defense Department wrongdoing, conducted an investigation that highlighted
> an inspector general office that falsified its investigative reports and
> fabricated witness statements in at least two investigations in the
> mid-1990s.
> Mr. Schmitz, a former aide to Attorney General Edwin Meese III in the
> Reagan presidency, did not take office until the second year of the Bush
> era, because Democrats leery of his conservative credentials delayed a
> final
> confirmation vote.
> He inherited a bureaucracy of auditors and investigators that
> Republicans think is more loyal to Democrats than to their party.
> But Mr. Schmitz appears to have overcome objections by vigorously
> investigating corporate fraud, while bringing in an independent assessment
> team to proposed reforms.
> "No member of the team has seen an organization, civil or military,
> manned by so many talented people, so ill-served by its senior
> leadership,"
> the assessment team subsequently reported.
> A government official who has worked with Mr. Schmitz said, "He
> inherited a total mess and did a ... good job of turning that sinking ship
> around. He reorganized in order to eliminate offices that had demonstrated
> a
> refusal to operate as a unified team. He empowered and motivated midlevel
> and lower-level folks and brought back an esprit de corps the agency
> hadn't
> had in nearly a decade."
> In early June, Mr. Schmitz traveled to Iraq to advise the new
> government
> on how to set up a system of inspectors general to play watchdog.
> "I have a high level of hope," the Pentagon quoted him as saying. "The
> issue isn't whether these folks want to do it. They clearly want to do it.
> They want to go through the transition; they want to assume a sense of the
> rule of law. But it's going to be hard. It's going to take time. It might
> take a generation.
> "They are scared for their professional success ... and they are
> physically scared for their own lives and their families' lives," he said.
>
>
> http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040726-122303-7795r.htm
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:20 CST