(Fwd) FC: U.S. phone eavesdropping software open to spying --Fox News

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 14 Dec 2001 14:51:51 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: U.S. phone eavesdropping software open to spying --Fox News
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


---

From: Brad Jansen <bjansen@freecongress.org>
To: "'McCullagh, Declan'" <declan@well.com>
Cc: "'Matthew Gaylor'" <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Lisa Dean: Reax to Law Enforcement Letter re: CALEA
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 12:28:33 -0500

FYI (story below)
FBI makes bad worse

 > For Immediate Release:
 > Contact:
 > December 13, 2001
 > Steve Lilienthal
 > 	
 > 202-204-5304
 > 	
 > slilienthal@freecongress.org
 > 							
 > 					Dean Reaction To Fox News Report On
 > CALEA 	
 >
 > Free Congress Foundation's Lisa S. Dean offered this reaction to
 the > report delivered on Fox News tonight that said local law
 enforcement > agents delivered a letter to the FBI stating that the
 wiretap technical > standards are lower and less secure now under the
 Communications > Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) than they
 had been. Dean said: > > "We are exercising our `I told you so
 rights' on this," said Dean, Vice > President for Technology Policy.
 "From the beginning, both the political > Right and Left warned
 Congress and the FBI that they were making a huge > mistake by
 implementing CALEA. That it would jeopardize the security of >
 private communications, whether it's between a mother and her son or
 > between government officials. The statement just issued by law
 enforcement > agencies has confirmed our worst fears." > > 							-
 30 -
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40824,00.html

FNC
Carl Cameron
Friday, December 14, 2001

This partial transcript of Special Report with Brit Hume, Dec. 13, was
provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order
the complete transcript.

Part 3 of 4

BRIT HUME, HOST:  Last time we reported on an Israeli-based company
called Amdocs Ltd. that generates the computerized records and billing
data for nearly every phone call made in America.  As Carl Cameron
reported, U.S. investigators digging into the 9/11 terrorist attacks
fear that suspects may have been tipped off to what they were doing by
information leaking out of Amdocs.

In tonight's report, we learn that the concern about phone security
extends to another company, founded in Israel, that provides the
technology that the U.S. government uses for electronic eavesdropping.
 Here is Carl Cameron's third report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):  The company is
Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private
telecommunications firm, with offices throughout the U.S.  It provides
wiretapping equipment for law enforcement.  Here's how wiretapping
works in the U.S.

Every time you make a call, it passes through the nation's elaborate
network of switchers and routers run by the phone companies.  Custom
computers and software, made by companies like Comverse, are tied into
that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and
at the same time transmit them to investigators.

The manufacturers have continuing access to the computers so they can
service them and keep them free of glitches.  This process was
authorized by the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement
Act, or CALEA. Senior government officials have now told Fox News that
while CALEA made wiretapping easier, it has led to a system that is
seriously vulnerable to compromise, and may have undermined the whole
wiretapping system.

Indeed, Fox News has learned that Attorney General John Ashcroft and 
FBI Director Robert Mueller were both warned Oct. 18 in a
hand-delivered letter from 15 local, state and federal law enforcement
 officials, who complained that "law enforcement's current  electronic
surveillance capabilities are less effective today than they  were at
the time CALEA was enacted."

Congress [probably means Comverse --DBM] insists the equipment it
installs is secure.  But the  complaint about this system is that the
wiretap computer programs made by  Comverse have, in effect, a back
door through which wiretaps themselves can  be intercepted by
unauthorized parties.

Adding to the suspicions is the fact that in Israel, Comverse works 
closely with the Israeli government, and under special programs, gets 
reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs
by  the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade.  But investigators
within the  DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or
even suggest  Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career
suicide.

And sources say that while various F.B.I. inquiries into Comverse have
 been conducted over the years, they've been halted before the actual 
equipment has ever been thoroughly tested for leaks.  A 1999 F.C.C. 
document indicates several government agencies expressed deep concerns
that  too many unauthorized non-law enforcement personnel can access
the wiretap  system. And the FBI's own nondescript office in
Chantilly, Virginia that  actually oversees the CALEA wiretapping
program, is among the most agitated  about the threat.

But there is a bitter turf war internally at F.B.I.  It is the FBI's 
office in Quantico, Virginia, that has jurisdiction over awarding
contracts  and buying intercept equipment.  And for years, they've
thrown much of the business to Comverse.  A handful of former U.S. law
enforcement officials involved in awarding Comverse government
contracts over the years now work for the company.

Numerous sources say some of those individuals were asked to leave
government service under what knowledgeable sources call "troublesome
circumstances" that remain under administrative review within the
Justice Department.  




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