May 11, 2000
Secret White House phone recordings
High-tech mike permits officials
to eavesdrop on staff conversations
By Paul Sperry
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- In what sounds like something from one of Ian
Fleming's or George Orwell's books, President Clinton signed off
on the installation of eavesdropping devices on the phones of
White House staffers, WorldNetDaily has learned.
The secret bug means there's a strong likelihood that audio-tape
recordings of personal White House phone conversations, as well
as White House staff meetings, exist -- unbeknown to
investigators who have subpoenaed all media containing
information relevant to their probes of several White House
scandals. Clinton has denied the existence of tape recordings.
But that's not all.
At the same time, the president had "a special box" installed on
his and his top aides' phones so that their phone conversations
and meetings could not be recorded using the same technology,
says the technician who ran the White House phone operations for
several years.
Despite the high-level safeguards, the Secret Service objected to
the phone eavesdropping devices, arguing they posed a serious
national security risk.
Indeed, the FBI has been investigating allegations that Israeli
spies penetrated the White House phone system, as first reported
by Insight magazine last week.
The changes were made after Clinton, in a surprise move, hired
AT&T to replace a five-year-old phone switch in the White House,
along with the software and all the desk phone hardware, soon
after he took office.
All the changes, which included turning off software features
that record the dialer of overseas calls, were completed by 1996.
The switch was brought on line in 1994.
"White House officials went to AT&T and Bell Labs and had them
develop a special box to put on these phones for some of the very
top people, so this (eavesdropping) couldn't be done," said
former White House phone manager Sheryl Hall in an exclusive
interview with WorldNetDaily.
"It's only some of the phones that have this special box on
them," which blocks the remote recording feature, she added.
"They (Clinton and top aides) can look down, but no one can look
up."
The rest of White House staffers are vulnerable to having their
phone conversations recorded from remote locations elsewhere in
the White House. Meetings in conference rooms can also be
recorded via the new phone system, Hall says.
So, although the recording feature has been blocked on Clinton's
Oval Office phones, there could be a record of his conversations
with staffers in conference-room meetings.
"With the switch they have now at the White House, you can turn
those phones on from another area, and it becomes a microphone in
that room," Hall said.
"It's a big security risk, and the Secret Service will attest to
that. They didn't want this switch because of that," she added.
"So it's possible to turn on the phone (and) record what's being
said in the room."
During a year-long probe of possible White House espionage, FBI
counterspies have "uncovered what appears to be sophisticated
means to listen in on conversations from remote telephone sites
with capabilities of providing real-time audio feeds directly to
Tel Aviv," said Insight, citing a U.S. official familiar with the
FBI probe.
The suspected spying included foreign eavesdropping on phone
calls to and from the White House and National Security Council.
"Details of how this could have been pulled off are highly
guarded," the report went on. But according to a U.S.
intelligence source, "the access had to be done in such a way as
to evade our countermeasures. ... That's what's most
disconcerting."
Hall says the new phone system, which cost more than $25 million,
can record conversations for instant review from remote sites.
"Because it's more computerized, and has a lot more capabilities,
the microphone can be turned on (and) you can record in most of
the OEOB (Old Executive Office Building) and the new building
(Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where Vice President Al
Gore's offices are located). Wherever there are conference rooms,
you can record what's in there," Hall told WorldNetDaily.
"It technically has the capability to go from that room to the
disk, on the (phone) switch, and send it somewhere, and print it
off and look and see who said what and at what time of day," said
Hall, a career civil servant who worked in the White House from
1992 to 1999.
Clinton has maintained all along that, unlike President Nixon, he
installed no listening devices in the White House. Nixon resigned
after the high court forced him to hand over Oval Office tapes on
which he could be heard approving a cover-up of the Watergate
break-in.
In fact, Clinton first denied the existence of any recordings the
same year AT&T's new PBX switch went on-line in the White House.
In a March 8, 1994, news conference regarding the Whitewater
investigation, Clinton was asked if he knew of any recordings.
Reporter: "Are there any tape recordings of conversations made in
the Oval Office?"
Clinton: "To the best of my knowledge, there are not. If there
are, someone else made them, not the president."
The president did acknowledge, however, that "we keep very
detailed records, obviously, of people I meet with, telephone
calls I make."
He added: "Sometimes I make extra notes on meetings and extra
notes on phone conversations, and when I do, I put those in a
file."
In their subpoenas to the White House, congressional committees
investigating several Clinton scandals asked the White House to
turn over any audio recordings, in addition to papers, e-mails
and videos.
But the only known recordings the White House has turned over are
the audiotape versions of the same White House fund-raising
coffees that the White House communications office videotaped.
"All our subpoenas also called for audio tapes," said a lawyer
for the House Government Reform Committee. "We received some
audio tapes of the same things that were videotaped."
He says the panel has not received any recordings of phone
conversations or conference room meetings.
A Senate Governmental Affairs Committee spokeswoman says lawyers
for the panel also asked for audio tapes during its 1997
Chinagate probe.
"There were some audio tapes provided to the committee during the
special investigation related to various events, such as White
House fund raisers or coffees," Pam Lambo said.
"But as far as (recordings of) private conversations, no, we
didn't have those," she said.
The independent counsel's office had no comment.
"We're not allowed to discuss if we subpoena, and if we do, what
we subpoena," said spokeswoman Neille Russell.
Hall says Patsy Thomasson, Clinton friend and former deputy White
House director of management and administration, spearheaded the
project to replace the White House phone system.
"Because they had these kinds of phones on the (1992
Clinton-Gore) campaign, they wanted the switch," Hall said. "And
they threw out what was in the White House."
Thomasson, now a senior State Department official, is in charge
of building security for the U.S. embassies around the world.
The White House and AT&T declined to comment.
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