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(Fwd) FC: U.S. phone eavesdropping software open to spying --Fox News
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- Subject: (Fwd) FC: U.S. phone eavesdropping software open to spying --Fox News
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 10:25:54 +0100
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------- 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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