A proposed deal between Sprint Nextel, Cricket and two Chinese telecom companies has raised a few eyebrows, with some U.S. senators concerned about security.
The Hill reports a bipartisan group of legislators wrote a letter seeking reassurance about the deal from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The letter, signed by Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), contends the two Chinese companies, ZTE Corporation and Huawei, have ties to the Chinese military and are financed by the Chinese government.
The letter raised the specter of the Chinese government or military using the companies to spy on American communications. (
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How does watching a football game land you in court facing wiretapping charges?
You’re a former police detective. Your accuser is a former judge.
Care to judge this one yourself?
If you have the time… (
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P.S. Wiretapping is a McGuffin.
Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say.
The officials say tougher legislation is needed because some telecommunications companies in recent years have begun new services and made system upgrades that create technical obstacles to surveillance. They want to
increase legal incentives and penalties aimed at pushing carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast
to ensure that any network changes will not disrupt their ability to conduct wiretaps. (
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More than 70,000 telephones in Turkey are currently officially under electronic surveillance, daily Radikal reported Sunday.
Radikal said it was the first media institution to have visited the Telecommunications Directorate, or TİB, in Ankara, the institution responsible for installing and maintaining telephone surveillance by court order.
Exactly 71,538 telephones have been tapped by TİB through court orders, among which 65 percent have ostensibly been tapped to gather intelligence on terrorism and organized crime, Radikal reported.
Wiretaps for the purpose of gathering intelligence can be requested by intelligence institutions to prevent crimes from being committed.
The remaining 35 percent of surveillance is being carried out because of
strong suspicions that a crime has been committed and no other way to obtain evidence. (
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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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