Why is it that I envision government office buildings in Washington being filled with the latest in anti-surveillance devices? It seems to make sense that they would be.
Maybe it was because I was haunted by the ability of Gene Hackman's character in the movie The Conversation, to listen in to almost any dialogue between people that he wanted to. Maybe it's because of sites like Spybusters.com
I mean, if private industry can tackle issues involving espionage, the FBI or the NSA should be pretty capable. Aren't those the types of agencies where surveillance experts get their training?
So with the news coming out in today's Delaware paper that Senator Joe Biden's office in Washington DC was bugged during 1987, when he made his failed run for the White House, it brought up a number of questions.
When the bug was discovered, it wasn't functioning. But it possibly was providing someone with some information that they shouldn't have been able to access.
Tim Ridley, who managed Biden's run for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, said there was an atmosphere of distrust in the campaign because it seemed as if other campaigns anticipated Biden's speeches and announcements, information he now suspects was obtained through the bug. "You can imagine that kind of suspicion is very debilitating for an organization," he said.
I also can imagine that there are some senators and representatives who might be directing people to conduct some sweeps of their offices in light of this story. But, who do you get to do that? Who do you trust? (Or should I say, who do you distrust?)
I wonder if the Spybusters' phone was ringing nonstop this morning?
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