RE: [TSCM-L] gov't-planted bugs & TSCM professionals

From: Trixter aka Bret McDanel <tri..._at_0xdecafbad.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 1980 03:54:59 -0700

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Joo Faloopa"<ratla..._at_yahoo.com>
>Sent: 5/16/06 1:35:53 PM
>To: "tscm-..._at_googlegroups.com"<tscm-..._at_googlegroups.com>
>Subject: [TSCM-L] gov't-planted bugs & TSCM professionals
>
>So- and apologies if this topic has come up before, but I'm curious- if you're conducting a sweep (in the US), and you find listening devices planted (presumably legally) by LEAs, how would you handle that?
>

How would you know who planted them? Presumably they wonÂ’t be marked "property of US government". If you tell the client before you knew, then it would be a hard case against you as it would require you knowingly do something (ie 18 usc 2 aiding and abeting).

When they planted devices at one of gotti's underlings they did a remote kill on the transmitters to make them somewhat harder to locate, and the sweeper didnÂ’t find any. After he left, he was grilled about what he found, what he said, etc. The fbi didnÂ’t know if he found anything since they were off during the sweep.

So the pattern suggests that you wonÂ’t know until after the fact. Now if you go back a second time then a case against you would be easy...

I personally think it would be irresponsible to assume they are govt issue and not tell the client if you found anything. And just because the device appears to be govt issue doesnÂ’t mean its 'ours', as such it wouldnÂ’t be there legally.

It is a hard problem too solve, as you mentioned screening clients may work sometimes, but what if its part of a SEC investigation or other white collar fraud? The person would appear to be a normal businessman. I doubt screening would have worked against the execs of microsoft (anti-trust) or the many telcos (sec fraud) etc. I am not saying there were bugs, but they may have hired sweepers...

Now with aldrich ames (cia officer convicted of treason, evidence gathered in part by bugs) you might get suspicious why a cia guy needs outside sweepers but his wife was in on it so she may hire, or he can say they donÂ’t do homes or ....

At any rate I would notify the customer and remove at their option. I like to give people the option, since if removed its known compromised, but if left 'gardening' can occur, which can reveal who is listening, or just burn their resources up tracking down bogus info.

 
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:28 CST