BANDERA — Concerns that municipal offices were bugged by police led to an emergency City Council meeting Wednesday, where Police Chief Jim Eigner denied the claim and said he welcomes an inquiry.
A motion to suspend the entire force with pay pending an investigation was defeated on a 3-2 vote.
Councilwoman Maggie Schumacher said the alleged bugging was mentioned by an officer upset that a computer technician was told Wednesday — without advance notice to Eigner or others — to copy police computer hard drives.
Eigner said the officer’s comment was misinterpreted by Schumacher, who joined Councilwoman Binky Archer in voting for the suspensions.
Council critics at the meeting praised the force, blasted the council for micromanaging it, and said they don’t want to rely on Bandera County deputies for law enforcement.
The Finance Ministry today said its office premises are subjected to regular screening for the presence of bugging devices, but no such material has been found so far.
“… All these premises (in Finance Ministry) have been subjected to regular screening. During these exercises, no devices have been detected,” the Minister of State for Finance, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
He said that security checks are periodically conducted in the Ministry of Finance and the Finance Minister’s Office.
One such routine security check was conducted on September 4, 2010, by the Investigation Directorate of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which engaged the services of an expert with domain knowledge of the subject, he added.
During the check, adhesive-like substances were noticed at various locations.
“This was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister by the Union Finance Minister in September, 2010,” he said.
Subsequently, the Prime Minister directed the Intelligence Bureau to conduct a secret inquiry into the matter.
“Adhesive patches were found stuck at a few places. The adhesive patches were subjected to chemical/forensic analysis, which revealed that the substance contained contents comparable with contents of chewing gum,” the Minister added.
Physical examination of the recovered substance did not reveal any sign or mark suggestive of any device having been attached thereto.
TENAHA, Texas (KTRE) –
Tenaha Mayor George Bowers has confirmed that Texas Rangers and FBI agents searched city property for bugging devices this week.
Ranger Tom Davis is the lead investigator in the case, according to a spokesman with the ranger’s office. Messages have been left for Davis.
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The Finance Ministry on Friday said that no bugging device was found within its premises, including the office of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee [ Images ], and the suspicious adhesive discovered was chewing gum-like material.
Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam [ Images ] informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that security audits are periodically conducted in the ministry and Mukherjee’s office.
One such routine security check was conducted on September 4, 2010, by the Investigation Directorate of the CBDT, which engaged the services of an expert with the domain knowledge of the subject, he said.
During this check, adhesive-like substances were noticed at various locations, Palanimanickam added.
“This was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister by the Union Finance Minister in September 2010,” he said.
The Prime Minister directed the Intelligence Bureau to conduct a secret inquiry into the matter.
“Adhesive patches were found stuck at a few places. The adhesive patches were subjected to chemicalforensic analysis, which revealed that the substance contained contents comparable with contents of chewing gum,” the minister added.
Physical examination of the recovered substance did not reveal any sign or mark suggestive of any device having been attached thereto.
“Thereafter, all these premises have been subjected to regular screening. During these exercises, no devices have been detected,” Palanimanickam added.
In June this year, the government faced a controversy of alleged snooping of the offices of Mukherjee and his aides in the North Block.
SEOUL – Police said Friday they are currently investigating telephone calls made between a reporter and politician related to the alleged bugging of a Democratic Party meeting.
“We are currently looking into telephone calls made by the reporter, politician and his aides to verify whether they shared information over the alleged bugging,” an officer at the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul said Friday.
Police are also considering the option of banning the suspected reporter and politician from leaving the country should they make deliberate attempts to avoid the probe, the official said, asking not to be named as investigations continue.
The potentially-explosive scandal was disclosed to the public on June 26 when the main opposition Democratic Party filed a complaint with the police, claiming a KBS reporter had bugged a meeting held to discuss strategies over the state-run broadcaster’s controversial plan to raise TV subscription fees.
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