[IP] Who Watches the Watchers? Who knows? (Watchers Don't)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Who Watches the Watchers? Who knows? (Watchers Don't)
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:46:34 -0500
From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Dave <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, JMG <johnmacsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=267288
Friday, March 03, 2006 at 1:44 AM EST
Hidden cameras found at airport
By Tammy Anderson
Pacific Daily News
tanderson@xxxxxxxxxxx
A tip from U.S. Customs led Guam airport agency and local customs
officials to numerous surveillance cameras and listening devices hidden
in security-sensitive areas at the airport's arrival area yesterday.
The two agencies' top officials said they were unaware the devices had
been installed, including in areas where arriving passengers and their
bags and other belongings are checked.
The FBI has been notified, Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency Director
Rick Blas said.
Although he does not know if anything has been compromised, Blas said it
is possible that the confidentiality of individuals being inspected and
interviewed by customs officers may have been breached. If the
information was breached, Blas said, the civil rights of passengers
might become an issue.
There also may have been monitoring video and audio or narcotics
arrests, he added.
"The breach of that facility and integrity is of great concern to me,"
Blas said. He said customs operations will not necessarily change
because of the discovery, but local customs will continue investigating.
Some of the cameras were concealed in square "EXIT" sign boxes, Blas
said. What he thought was a typical small, silver electrical panel
positioned above the doors where customs officials enter and exit every
day, was actually the front for a finger nail-sized camera.
"I didn't even know that the camera existed. You wouldn't even think of
it. I am just shocked," Blas said yesterday.
There are surveillance cameras that are allowed and used by the airport
and local customs, but the devices found yesterday were not among them,
said Jess Torres, executive manager of the A.B. Won Pat Guam
International Airport Authority.
Neither Torres nor Blas could remember any authorization for the
installation of the surveillance cameras found yesterday.
Torres said there has never been any authorization for listening devices
at the airport.
Blas and Torres said they did not know exactly how many cameras and
microphones were found yesterday or how many more may be present.
They also did not know if the cameras and microphones were in use, or
what they are connected to.
Torres said he and customs officials met yesterday afternoon to
determine what their course of action would be.
Within the next weeks, Torres said an independent contractor would be
hired to sweep the customs area for devices. The contractor would
possibly be paid with emergency funds, because Torres said the situation
is very serious.
Blas said he recalled that, about four years ago, a private company's
employees were working in the same areas where the devices were found
yesterday.
"This (company's employees) said, 'We looking at wiring,'" Blas said.
Torres also noted that work orders on file at the agency would be
searched today to find out who authorized and paid for the placement of
the cameras and microphones.
http://tinyurl.com/kp24t
--
"The people who still support George Bush are the same people who
believe Adam and Eve rode to church on the backs of dinosaurs". - SNL
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