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From: malloy@ittral.UUCP (William P. Malloy)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.physics
Subject: Re: Microwave and UHF sound detection (bugging embassies, really)
Message-ID: <167@ittral.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Jun-85 14:17:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ittral.167
Posted: Thu Jun 20 14:17:30 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 02:06:30 EDT
Reply-To: malloy@ittral.UUCP (William P. Malloy)
Organization: ITT's own publishing house.
Lines: 31
Xref: watmath net.misc:8137 net.physics:2651


>    Howcome you'd need real microwaves?  I'd think a UV laser beam would work
>much better anyway.  Such a system seems easy enough to design, so I think
>we can safely assume that the CIA or some such organization has already got
>them.
>-- 
>Jeff Sonntag
>ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j

As a matter of fact I remember reading several years back that the CIA HAD in
fact designed just such a device.  It worked on the window glass directly, but
in fact was better suited to some piece of glass inside the room.  Say the
glass in a frame over a photo on your desk.  This was in an article I read
back when former Senator Frank Church was head of the Intelligence committee.
{comments on that should go to net.politics}

If I remember correctly the device (at least in it's original design) was
very flakey.  It had been designed, then sent to be field tested in some
unamed African country.  Where it worked stupendously well.  Unfortuanately
the CIA had never gotten it to work anywhere near as well since that field
trail.  I can only presume that by now, with the application of a few years of
R&D research, and the addition of some microprocessors to elimanate the noise
problem, it's now VERY effective.

This article said that the only way to have secure conversations, was to get
rid off all the windows, along with all electronic devices which might be used
to hide the more common bugging equipment.  Even then I'm sure someone could
listen in if they really wanted to.
-- 
Address: William P. Malloy, ITT Telecom, B & CC Engineering Group, Raleigh NC
         {ihnp4!mcnc, burl, ncsu, decvax!ittvax}!ittral!malloy