Political Eavesdropping News
Bugged phones among problems in treasurer's office, Brown says
By DEBORAH BAKER | Associated Press
August 17, 2006
SANTA FE (AP) - State Treasurer Doug Brown says he found bugged phones, rigged security alarms, altered personnel files and "systematic, pervasive corruption" when he was appointed to the job last year.
A "rogue clique" had been running the office under ex-Treasurer Robert Vigil, making inappropriate investments and ignoring procurement and personnel policies, Brown told an ethics task force.
With no oversight by any other entity, it was "the closest thing to a sovereign nation I could think of," said Brown, who took over in November after Vigil resigned while lawmakers were considering his impeachment.
Vigil faces a retrial in federal court next month on charges that he took kickbacks. An earlier trial ended in a mistrial in May.
Brown said the task force, of which he is a member, should recommend that the treasurer be appointed by the governor rather than independently elected.
"I do think on balance you'd get a better qualified person, and if they ... were acting badly you could get rid of them," he said.
Under the current system there is no way to remove an independently elected treasurer "short of going nuclear, with impeachment," he said.
The panel, which plans to make recommendations to Gov. Bill Richardson in early October, agreed to consider the proposal.
Brown said he discovered when he took over that the office's security alarm system had been tampered with and that security cameras had been positioned to watch employees.
In a sweep of the office about a month after he took the job, listening devices were found in five key employees' phones, including the treasurer's, he said.
"My phone was bugged," Brown said in an interview.
He said he had not been able to determine when that was done or by whom, but that it was not part of any law enforcement investigation.
The personnel files of nine employees had been altered to downgrade their job performance ratings, and there were indications a worker's computer had been hacked into in order to plant inappropriate material on it, he said.
"There was just all kinds of mischief going on to try to discourage employees who weren't with the program," he said.
There also have been acts of vandalism such as scratching or writing obscenities on employees' cars that still occasionally occur, he said.
"For the first six months I drove a real old car to the office," said Brown, a longtime banker and financial industry executive whom the governor plugged in to the job to clean up the problems. His term is up in December, and he's not a candidate for the office.
Brown told the committee that the "dreadful morale" in the office improved with the departure of nine people whom he fired or who resigned. Productivity was unaffected because those who left "were doing nothing productive, but making mischief," he said.
The task force also heard subcommittee reports but didn't make any final decisions on them that included the following recommendations:
Prohibit gifts of more than $250 _ or $100 during legislative sessions _ to lawmakers and other public officials, who would be required to report twice a year all gifts of more than $100. The restrictions would cover candidates for those offices, as well. Campaign contributions, expense reimbursements and gifts from family members unrelated to the recipients' public positions would not be subject to the new rules.
Ask voters to change the state constitution to allow lawmakers to get up to $1,000 a month for constituent-related expenses _ such as phone calls, mailings, gasoline, staffers or office space rental _ while at the same time tightening the law so that legislators would be prohibited from using their campaign funds for anything except campaigning.
Former Gov. Garrey Carruthers, co-chairman of the task force, said the proposal is "more politically doable" than an alternative he prefers: changing the constitution to allow lawmakers to be paid salaries of $24,000 annually. Currently they get only expense reimbursement.
Carruthers said paying lawmakers a salary would "encourage greater citizen participation," including by young people.
And, he said, it's "just plain and simply fair to compensate people for certain kinds of public service."
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Village on spy alert as bugging device is found
This is Bradford Co.Uk
May 25, 2006
RUMOURS of espionage, subterfuge and unsavoury goings-on abound in the otherwise serene surroundings of a Dales village following the discovery of a sophisticated bugging device.
And speculation is rife among the bemused residents into the possible identification of the spy, who is yet to come in from the cold.
The bug was found by Settle electrician Ian Preston, who was carrying out statutory safety checks on electrical equipment in Malham Village Hall.
The device, said to be of a sophisticated, professional type, was hidden inside a 13amp twin socket on the wall, inside a room used by the whole community.
Alan Boatwright, secretary of the Village Hall Committee, who organised the electrical checks, said the discovery had caused a great deal of amusement in the village.
There is also humorous speculation as to who is actually under surveillance and who may have hidden the bug.
Mr Boatwright told the Herald the electrical check was ordered so that they could obtain a safety certificate. Mr Preston had installed the original sockets just a few years ago.
Mr Boatwright explained: "I went along to the village hall to see how everything was going on and Ian said something was wrong with one of the sockets because he was having trouble getting a proper reading.
"We decided to take the cover off and inside there was what we discovered to be a miniature microphone and wires and other things which I assume acted as some sort of transmitting device.
"We were amazed. It certainly looked like a professional, sophisticated piece of equipment," he added.
The socket is at waist height and had a pinhole drilled in the bottom with a wire poking out underneath, so no-one would be able to see it without getting down and looking up.
The new socket had been wired up so it could still be used by conventional electrical equipment while the bugging device remained inside.
A typical surveillance device of this type with a transmitting range of between 400 and 600 metres could cost anything up to around £280, although examples advertised on the internet can be bought from as little as £40.
"Finding it has led to all sorts of speculation and people can't stop laughing about it," said Mr Boatwright. "All that goes on in the hall are things like parish council and village hall meetings, toddler groups, WI meetings and a monthly whist drive.
"People are joking that it must be the WI that's being spied on, although some of us have other ideas."
He added that the Village Hall Committee held a meeting after the find and a member, who was a former police officer, said the bug had to be handed in to the police as placing listening devices in public places was a criminal offence.
"We did this and the police were just as amazed as everyone when they saw it," he said.
PC Vanessa Bateson, of Grassington Police, quipped that perhaps a notice should be put in the Herald suggesting the owner contact the police station if they wanted the device back.
By Viv Mason
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A New Chapter in the Eavesdropping Controversy
Augusta Free Press, July 29, 2005
Dems charge GOP with 'abuse of legal process' related to insurance claim
A lawsuit over two private Democratic Party phone calls that were intercepted by Republican Party of Virginia leaders in 2002 continues to be the source of ill feelings between the two political parties.
"Quite beyond the legal question, this is an effort by the Republican Party of Virginia to avoid responsibility for their actions," Arlington Democratic Del. Bob Brink said on Thursday, referring to the recent news that the state GOP is suing its liability-insurance carrier for breach of contract because the carrier said that it would not cover the $750,000 that the party paid to Virginia Democrats to settle their claim.
Brink and three other state legislators who were original parties to the suit charged that the RPV's suit against the Lincoln, Neb.,-based Union Insurance Co. is "an abuse of the legal process," to use Brink's words, because the party had noted in a disclosure statement filed in conjunction with the 2004 legal action that it had no relevant insurance agreements in place at that time.
"Now, seven months after this case was settled, we learn that the Republican Party of Virginia indeed did have insurance, and they want to collect on it," Brink said on a conference call with reporters.
"The purpose of disclosure is to ensure that a legal proceeding will be open and transparent to all parties, that they'll know what they're dealing with, and that they'll be able to make informed decisions on matters, including the possibility of settlement, with all of the information that is available," Brink said.
The Republican Party of Virginia contends that it was not misleading anybody when it said at the time of the disclosure filing that it had no relevant insurance agreements in place - because Union Insurance had indicated in an April 2, 2004 letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Augusta Free Press, that the conduct alleged in the Democrats' suit "is not covered under the policies."
"The allegations in the lawsuit are for willful and malicious violations of a federal criminal statute," the letter reads. "Coverage for such conduct is specifically excluded under the policies. Therefore, the exclusions would preclude any settlements or judgments that may result from allegations of criminal conduct or damages it may have caused."
The party's former executive director, Ed Matricardi, and former party chairman Gary Thomson pled guilty to charges related to the intercepted phone calls.
The party says that it should have been covered under its policy with Union Insurance because it did not know about or condone the actions of Matricardi and Thomson in regard to the intercepted calls.
"The Republican Party of Virginia has filed a lawsuit against its insurance provider because we were denied coverage," RPV executive director Shawn Smith told the AFP Thursday afternoon.
"This is a contract dispute between the Republican Party of Virginia and its insurance carrier. The insurance carrier refused to provide coverage, and we are asking the courts to interpret the contract between the insurance company and the party," Smith said.
Lebanon Democratic Sen. Phil Puckett, for one, feels that the plaintiffs in the case would have been less willing to settle their claim out of court had they known that the state GOP was going to shift the burden for paying the claim to its insurance carrier.
"Had we been told that there was an insurance company, and that the insurance company was going to assume the responsibility, and that it would cost the Republican Party of Virginia nothing, I think we'd have been much less likely to have settled," Puckett said.
"We would've liked to have gone to court and had the facts presented in a court of law. But we felt like the settlement that was offered was one that clearly indicated that the Republican Party recognized that they had done something wrong, and they were willing to pay for it," Puckett said.
"For me, I know that one of the reasons that settling this suit last year was acceptable was that the Republican Party would be responsible for their actions, and that this would send the message that this kind of criminal activity had no place in our politics here in Virginia, and that if you're going to undertake criminal activity like this, you're going to pay a price," Brink said.
"Now as it turns out, the Republican Party of Virginia wants to shift this responsibility out to some insurance company out in Nebraska. I think that's wrong, and I think they ought to be held to account for it," Brink said.
Arlington Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple was more direct.
"I don't like being lied to," Whipple said. "I think that's awful. It bothers me that an important entity like the Republican Party of Virginia would be willing to lie, both to us and the court. I think that's terrible."