Employees at a CBS affiliate in Anchorage left an accidental voicemail for an aide to GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller in which they discussed and laughed about the possibility of reporting on the appearance of sex offenders at a Miller rally. And they chatted about responding with a Twitter alert to “any sort of chaos whatsoever” including the candidate being “punched.”
Jerry Bever, general manager for KTVA, said in a statement that
a call to Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto to discuss the candidate’s planned appearance on a newscast wasn’t disconnected after the conversation ended. The call took place during a KTVA staff meeting to plan coverage of that evening’s Miller rally in downtown Anchorage. (
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Chicago, IL – It may sound like cloak and dagger fiction, but FOX Chicago News has learned something very odd happened Wednesday night on the fifth floor of the Cook County building. The latest bizarre twist in the ongoing corruption scandal in Stroger’s office involves high-tech surveillance experts caught leaving the office of Cook County Board President’s office.
A deputy sheriff patrolling the building stopped a group of five men leaving Todd Stroger’s office around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
One of the men identified himself as the county’s Homeland Security Director David Ramos. The other four men were asked to provide identification.
They did, and at least three of them have experience in surveillance and counter-surveillance… (One of the men) would not comment on what they were doing in Stroger’s office, but there is rampant speculation at the County building they were sweeping the offices for electronic bugs.
Cook County Inspector General Pat Blanchard said his staff visited Stroger’s office Thursday afternoon and removed some evidence related to the ongoing investigation into sham contracts…
David Ramos, the county’s Homeland Security Director who escorted the men into the office, said through a spokesman they were simply
scouting locations for placement of security cameras in the President’s office. (
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Solution: Ask the Deputy if the “visitors” were leaving empty-handed. A sweep requires several cases of instrumentation. Conducting a CCTV design layout does not.
OH – The former state lawyer behind an electronic eavesdropping scheme agreed yesterday to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges and cooperate in other investigations, including one into an aborted operation at the Governor’s Residence.
Joshua Engel, the former chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, faces three misdemeanor counts of intercepting and disclosing sensitive, confidential information from investigations by the state inspector general, the Ohio Ethics Commission and federal authorities. (
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via The New York Times…
Huang Kexue, federal authorities say, is a new kind of spy.
For five years, Mr. Huang was a scientist at a Dow Chemical lab in Indiana, studying ways to improve insecticides. But before he was fired in 2008, Mr. Huang began sharing Dow’s secrets with Chinese researchers, authorities say, then obtained grants from a state-run foundation in China with the goal of starting a rival business there…
Law enforcement officials say the kind of spying Mr. Huang is accused of represents a new front in the battle for a global economic edge. As China and other countries broaden their efforts to obtain Western technology, American industries beyond the traditional military and high-tech targets risk having valuable secrets exposed by their own employees, court records show.
Rather than relying on dead drops and secret directions from government handlers, the new trade in business secrets seems much more opportunistic, federal prosecutors say, and occurs in loose, underground markets throughout the world.
Prosecutors say it is difficult to prove links to a foreign government, but intelligence officials say China, Russia and Iran are among the countries pushing hardest to obtain the latest technologies.
“In the new global economy, our businesses are increasingly targets for theft,” said Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “In order to stay a leader in innovation, we’ve got to protect these trade secrets.” (more)
If you still don’t have a counterespionage strategy, or your current one isn’t working, call me. ~ Kevin
The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board has no plans to investigate how fired Capt. Thomas R. Leicht Jr. kept his job for years despite failed internal investigations, allegations of bid rigging and a controversial wiretapping program, the board’s chair said…
He also
used county equipment to wiretap jail telephones from his home and sent recordings of at least six attorney-client calls to prosecutors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. (
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