-Caveat Lector- http://cgi.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=16888078&template=worldnews/?action=display&article=16888078&template=worldnews/search.txt&index=recent
Thu, 21 Nov 2002 FBI Benefits From Surveillance Law The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After FBI agents broke into the apartment of a suspected spy to search for clues, they extracted from a laptop computer a prescient warning from Cuban intelligence officers: Don't leave any evidence lying around the FBI might find. ``Do not leave prepared information that is not ciphered in the house,'' the message advised, according to court records. ``This is the most sensitive and compromising information that you hold.'' Too late. The FBI secretly stole into that apartment in northwest Washington at least twice last year, using one of the government's most extraordinary and little-understood weapons in the high-stakes fight against the world's spies and terrorists. Operating with permission from a secretive federal court, the FBI has broken into homes, offices, hotel rooms and automobiles. Installed hidden cameras. Listened with microphones in one couple's bedroom for more than a year. Rummaged through luggage. Eavesdropped on telephone conversations. Most Americans never see this side of the FBI. ``The average citizen has no idea whether information about them might be caught up in one of these investigations,'' said David Sobel of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, an expert on this type of surveillance. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — enacted in 1978 and strengthened after Sept. 11 by the USA Patriot Act — gives investigators a formidable weapon against ``agents of a foreign power.'' This week, the Bush administration won an important court victory affirming its plans to expand these tactics to more cases. Besides break-ins, agents have pried into safe deposit boxes, watched from afar with video cameras and binoculars and intercepted e-mails. They have planted microphones, computer bugs and other high-tech tracking devices. ``The whole thing is very, very mysterious and quiet,'' said Plato Cacheris, the Washington lawyer who represented spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. ``There's not a lot that anyone can tell you.'' This is a deadly serious game among the trench-coat set. Their 007-like gadgets — one captures every keystroke typed on a target's computer — and the specialized agents who use them are among the best available. These tools and the law are ``designed to target intelligence officers and people trained by intelligence officers,'' said Michael Woods, a former senior FBI lawyer who coordinated many investigations. Nearly all those known to have been targeted never detected what was happening until FBI agents flashed guns and badges. The bureau is cautious. Agents didn't break into Hanssen's home in the Washington suburbs because they couldn't find time when his wife or children weren't there, according to people familiar with the case. ``They're very good at not getting found out,'' said Nina Ginsberg, a lawyer in Alexandria, Va., who has represented three people under surveillance. ``I'm sure they would sit outside a house for a week before they made sure they could go in.'' The FBI watched Therese Marie Squillacote, a Defense Department lawyer, and her husband for 18 months. Over that period, they broke into the couple's home three times and planted a microphone in their bedroom to monitor conversations, according to court records. She was sentenced in 1999 to nearly 22 years for attempting to spy for East Germany and Russia with her husband. Details about some FBI techniques emerge from court records spread across dozens of cases. But only a fraction of these nearly 1,000 surveillances each year result in any kind of public disclosure, so little is known outside classified circles about how they work. Convinced that a longtime Defense Department analyst was spying for Cuba, the FBI sneaked into her apartment in Washington last year to search her bedroom and make a secret copy of all the files on her laptop. They went back six weeks later to look around, while other agents secretly watched her elsewhere. And the FBI rifled through her purse and wallet one week after that. Their evidence haul: e-mails and codes describing espionage, a shortwave radio and a prepaid calling card used to send spy messages over pay phones. Ana Belen Montes pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to 25 years in prison. FBI microphones in another case recorded a murder. Surveillance of suspected terrorists in St. Louis captured one man fatally stabbing his teenage daughter 13 times with a butcher knife while shouting, ``Die! Die quickly!'' Stunned FBI agents handed over the recording to Missouri prosecutors, who convicted the man and his wife. He died of an illness in 1997 on death row. Sometimes the FBI overreaches. An FBI memo that surfaced last month said agents in early 2000 illegally videotaped suspects, intercepted e-mails without court permission and recorded the wrong phone conversations. In one case, the FBI listened to conversations long after its target gave up a cell phone and its number was reassigned to an innocent person. Legal experts said this week's court decision will lead to increasing use of the surveillance law. ``We're going to do everything we can to identify those who would hurt us, to disrupt them, to delay them, to defeat them,'' Attorney General John Ashcroft promised. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
