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From: parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: US Radio Security Breached, Reagan Warned
Message-ID: <708@ihu1h.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Dec-85 18:45:10 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1h.708
Posted: Wed Dec  4 18:45:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Dec-85 09:02:47 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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		 US Radio Security Breached, Reagan Warned

			  from November	24, 1985
			     Chicago Sun-Times

			      Chris Chrystal


	  WASHINGTON - Drug traffickers	and international terror-
	  ists can tune	in to supposedly secret	radio frequencies
	  used by the Secret Service, the FBI and even Air  Force
	  One, two members of Congress said.

	  Sen. Dennis  DeConcini  (D-Ariz.)  and  Rep.	Glenn  L.
	  English  (D-Okla.)  said thousands of	radio frequencies
	  were found among evidence seized in a	Florida	drug bust
	  Sept.	13.

	  English described the	frequencies -  some  top  secret,
	  including those used by President Reagan's airplane and
	  limousine - as "a very serious breach	of communications
	  security."

	  He and DeConcini asked Reagan	to call	 for  a	 National
	  Security   Council   investigation  of  radio	 security
	  compromises, and to ask  the	Drug  Enforcement  Policy
	  Board	 to  review  civilian  law enforcement communica-
	  tions.

	  "We don't know how much of our  intelligence	community
	  may be monitored," DeConicini	said.

	  The list of exposed frequencies shows	the United States
	  has  "lagged	far  behind  in	communications security,"
	  they said.

	  "The technology is  there,  but  the	emphasis  by  the
	  administration  is not," DeConcini said, adding that if
	  communications   security    isn't	tightened,    the
	  president's own safety could be jeopardized.

	  Scrambling radio transmissions, an  effective	 security
	  tool,	 is not	widely done because of the need	for agen-
	  cies to share	information while still	protecting  their
	  own, DeConcini said.

	  In February, 1980, federal agents in New Orleans seized
	  a  motor  home  outfitted  with scanners monitoring 250
	  channels.  Some were being used to transmit information
	  on drug enforcement activities.
-- 
===============================================================================
Bob Parnass,  Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414