Time to jump in on this one. We had an argument about this some time back on another board. As a TSCM tech I've found MANY devices and have left many of them in place. Often it is very nice to either place hidden video on the device to try to i.d. the Target, or to "feed" the bug information you want them to believe.
As for removing a government planted device, I don't make the determination of who planted it. My client pays me for a service which I provide to the best of my ability. If a device is found, my client will be notified and I will do with it what he or she wants me to do with it. The argument became at one time that as a TSCM tech, we didn't have the authority to leave an illicit device on a line. My responsewas, if it's my client's line, and my client, although not origionally knowing about it, now consents to it and want's to leave it there to feed info to it, then he may. As for destroying them, no. I often hang on to them to test new equipment and train help.
Trace Carpenter Investigations
2926 Maple Ave., Ste. 200 ------------ Friends help you move;
Dallas, Texas 75201 ------------Real friends help you move bodies.
214.828.4520
214.740-0112 Facsimile
Tim, you and I and the rest of the *professional* community knows this is pure feces.
I would be surprised if the busiest private sector sweepers in the industry do anywhere near this volume.
We once had a contract for weekly sweeping for a firm, rotating between several of their offices. One sweep a week was busier than I cared to be, and we dropped the client after a few months. One real sweep ties up at least two business days by the time you pack, travel, sweep, do the oral debriefing, unpack, do the written report. I can't afford to tie up 1/3 of my working hours for a single client.
In 25 years in this business, doing sweeps regularly for most of that, we've found devices in fifteen jobs. Several jobs were more than one at the same site. These do not include stuff from when I was in government service, which I will not discuss.
Most recent was two cameras and integrated mikes concealed in a DP facility about a month ago.
One job was 5 hookswitch bypasses on an antique key system.
Two were a voice TX and telephone TX in(person and location deleted at the request of the submitter) . He would not have been elected if the bugs had not been found and pulled before his strategy sessions.
Another was identified but not located or pulled (at their request) in (the capitol). It may still be in place. Odd situation; definitely open mike in a large business area, but RF signal strength seemed constant over quite a large area. They did not want us to pursue it, and I have no idea of the current status.
All the domestic audio devices we have found were left in place and turned over to the FBI, except for the two cameras/mikes which were handled by the firm's internal security and the firm's legal staff. I testified before a grand jury on the hookswitch bypasses, which were apparently instrumental in a theft of 2300 ounces of gold from a jewelry manufacturing facility in Cranston, RI. The FBI is only too glad to take jurisdiction.
On reflection, the above stats do not include a number of Radio Shack type telephone recorder interfaces or baby monitor type devices. I don't even count those as real finds although I guess they are technically. I only count professional intercepts, not Joe Sixpack bugging his wife in a domestic situation.
One time for a large electronics manufacturing place, they had a leak of sales and new product info from quarterly sales meetings. They hired us to look at it, and we found that some employees in the plant were listening to the wireless mikes used in the large conference room during the meeting, and running their mouths. Not a professional surveillance install, but exploiting an information source nevertheless.
Once we found one of our own bugs, which had been installed without a court order by the local police in a shady corporate situation. We were working for the corporation. I suspected it was ours because it was on an oddball "house" frequency we use. The client's security guy was right in the room when the receiver heard the audio, and he kind of picked up on the building's background music coming out of the Scanlock. I thought quick and told him we had left a test transmitter on and were picking up our own "test" transmitter. He accepted that, and Lee and I walked the building and spotted the concealment we had sold to the local police containing our transmitter. I never told the client, never mentioned it to the local police. I knew there was no T3 order because the device obviously had been in place for months (longer than any T3 order would have carried).
Another time I TDR'ed a slave on a residential phone line, found it in the Telco box and called the local PD's wire guy, who I knew, from my pocket cell phone. He confirmed it was theirs and installed under a T3 order, so I left it be (though I photographed it and still have the photos), and refunded the client's money and told him "his lines were just too noisy and the results were inconclusive". The client was later indicted for narco trafficking, and I no longer work for the attorney who knowingly sent me in there.
On another job for a car dealer in Baltimore, I found where they hadback wired background music speakers in the sales cubicles and couldlisten to them from an upstairs office. I showed the work to theirown lawyer who had hired us, and he was very put out and had no idea his own client was surveilling their own facility. I never heard what happened, though months later I bought a truck from the same dealer and they gave it to me obviously substantially below their cost.
In another residential job, we didn't find anything, but the lawyer who sent us in there stupidly gave our business card to the client. Later the place was raided in a drug sweep and my card was found by the police. I testified before a grand jury against the lawyer for conspiracy to obstruct, by hiring us to sweep the place looking for LE bugs. The lawyer got out of it by having his clients plead guilty, and he still hates me to this day. Not that I care.
If some other guy is finding "thousands" of devices, I guess we are just incompetent and missing a lot of stuff!
I estimate we've done around 300 sweeps, in about 30 countries. Our finds come to about 1 in 20 jobs, or 5%, which I believe is an unsually high hit ratio. The reason for that is we generally get hired only on high risk stuff. Our pricing keeps us out of the garbage jobs.
I'm not missing anything!
> The last time I saw anything even close to this was in Langly Va.
Somehow I have a hard time believing this, especially when he can't even spell Langley.
> The band was so narrow on this that it was missed by a Avcom Spectrum Analyzer. OSCOR found it the first time three rooms away from its location.
Another instance of children putting the OSCOR up on a pedestal. Apparently saying nice things about the OSCOR makes one a professional. What is the technical backing for "band so narrow"? Not that Avcom is anything special, but in this instance I would blame the competence of the sweep technician rather than the sophistication of the bug or lack of same in the TSCM equipment. Not that any of it's true.
> I have found quite a few that transmit to a receiver antenna
> located about 20 to 30 feet from the transmitter then the antenna
> coax is run to a recorder some place in the building.
This being the case (doubtful), all that means is that the sweeper now has an extra antenna and relatively large receiver and recorder to locate, making his job all that much easier.
> There are exceptions, Gotti tag and operation Tic Talk (Miami)tag,
> both these were tagged by contract help under government control.
I know the government parties who were involved in Gotti, and it is not true. No contract help. Frank Jones claimed he was contracted in Gotti, which was not true but repeated by people who believe his nonsense.
I can asssure you that all good TSCM ops will destroy any transmitter they find. its the right thing to do.
*ALL* good TSCM ops do this? I guess that excludes me then.
You do what's legal, and to a certain extent what the client wishes as long as you stay legal yourself.
I've actually had some good results with the Radio Shack 170MHz wireless mics. If you take them out of the cigarette pack sized case you have two pc boards that can be placed inside target objects, and if you boost B+ to around 12volts you actually get a >low cost transmitter with a useful range for may hotel type applications.
XXXXXX Investigations
And here's a private detective discussing all the illegal audio surveillance he does?
Regards ...... Steve
Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA)
Manufacturers of electronic surveillance and commo equip
mailto:Steve@swssec.com
website http://www.swssec.com
tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190
Celebrating our 25th anniversary in 1997
"In God we trust, all others we monitor"
Glad to see you back with the Bulletin Board.
Harry
Virtually all bug transmitters are FM which are CLASS C ! Linear amps do not apply to class C transmitters which require a class C amp which absolutely is not linear. Linear amps at class C are extremely inefficient and the wrong choice.
"Linear" amps are for AM/SSB/CW only. A term used only by hams and
CBers discussing HF radios, virtually never in surveillance. Linear
are class A, B or AB. Not class C.
Any high school electronics student would know better.
Steve
Having had one too many, a bar drinker was beginning to display an ugly side. An unescorted female sat down beside him and he whispered to her, "Hey ! How abou t ÚX , ‚
As she got up to move, he said loudly, "Honey, you sure look like you could use the money, but I don't have an extra two dollars."
She looked back and replied just as loudly, "What makes you think I charge by the inch ?"
These four catholic crones were having coffee. The first catholic woman tells her friends "My son is a priest. When he walks into a room, everyone calls him 'Father'."
The second catholic woman chirps, "My son is a bishop. Whenever he walks into a room, people call him 'Your Grace'."
The third catholic crone says "My son is a cardinal. Whenever he walks into a room, he's called 'Your Eminence'".
Since the fourth catholic woman sips her coffee in silence, the first three give her this subtle "Well...?" look, so she says "My son is 6'2"; he has broad, square shoulders; he's terribly handsome and dresses very well. Whenever he walks into a room, women say 'Oh, my God...'."
A woman had been dating a doctor for a short while when she became pregnant. The couple didn't know what to do.
About nine months later, just about the time she was going to give birth, a priest went into the hospital for a prostate gland infection. The doctor told the woman, "I know what we'll do. After I've operated on the priest, I'll give the baby to him and tell him it was a miracle."
"Do you think it will work?" she asked the doctor.
"It's worth a try," he said.
So the doctor delivered the baby and then operated on the priest. After the operation he went in to the priest and said, "Father, you're not going to believe this!"
"What?" asked the priest. "What happened?"
"You gave birth to a child!"
"But that's impossible!" cried the priest.
"I just did the operation," insisted the doctor. "It's a miracle! Here's your baby."
About fifteen years go by, and one day the priest realizes that he must tell his son the truth. One day he sits the boy down and says, "Son, I have something to tell you. I'm not your father."
The son said, "What do you mean, you're not my father?"
The priest replied, "I'm your mother. The archbishop is your father."
Clarification Of Corporate Lingo
"COMPETITIVE SALARY:" We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors.
"JOIN OUR FAST-PACED COMPANY:" We have no time to train you.
"CASUAL WORK ATMOSPHERE:" We don't pay enough to expect that you'll dress up; well, a couple of the real daring guys wear earrings.
"MUST BE DEADLINE ORIENTED:" You'll be six months behind schedule on your first day.
"SOME OVERTIME REQUIRED:" Some time each night and some time each weekend.
"DUTIES WILL VARY:" Anyone in the office can boss you around.
"MUST HAVE AN EYE FOR DETAIL:" We have no quality control.
"CAREER-MINDED:" Female Applicants must be childless (and remain that way).
"APPLY IN PERSON:" If you're old, fat or ugly you'll be told the position has been filled.
"NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE:" We've filled the job; our call for resumes is just a legal formality.
"SEEKING CANDIDATES WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE:" You'll need it to replace three people who just left.
"PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS A MUST:" You're walking into a company in perpetual chaos.
"REQUIRES TEAM LEADERSHIP SKILLS:" You'll have the responsibilities of a manager, without the pay or respect.
"GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS:" Management communicates, you listen, figure out what they want and do it.
"I'M EXTREMELY ADEPT AT ALL MANNER OF OFFICE ORGANIZATION:"I've used Microsoft Office.
"I'M HONEST, HARD-WORKING AND DEPENDABLE:" I pilfer office supplies.
"MY PERTINENT WORK EXPERIENCE INCLUDES:" I hope you don't ask me about all the McJobs I've had.
"I TAKE PRIDE IN MY WORK:" I blame others for my mistakes.
"I'M PERSONABLE:" I give lots of unsolicited personal advice to co-workers.
"I'M EXTREMELY PROFESSIONAL:" I carry a Day-Timer.
"I AM ADAPTABLE:" I've changed jobs a lot.
"I AM ON THE GO:" I'm never at my desk.
"I'M HIGHLY MOTIVATED TO SUCCEED:" The minute I find a better job, I'm outta there.