Anybody can tap any telephone line, expert says
JAKARTA (JP): Special bugging devices concealed in forms of ballpoint pens, books, magazines, ashtrays and briefcases can be easily purchased abroad and used to tap any telephone lines, an expert said.
Priatna Abdurrasyid, who has studied astronautics and space law for 42 years, said on Tuesday anybody interested could utilize the bugs, which are sold widely in Hong Kong, the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, China and Taiwan.
"One does not need expertise for that... just the technology. It is very expensive, but used worldwide by industrial spies wanting to steal company secrets and beat competition," Priatna told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.
The professor at the University of Indonesia here and Bandung's Padjadjaran University in West Java was commenting on the furor over the tapped conversation purportedly between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General A.M. Ghalib.
Priatna said even though state-owned telecommunications operator PT Telkom vouched for the security of the presidential lines and those at the Attorney General's Office in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, it was no guarantee against tapping.
"Each line has a special locked code. With the right technology, that code can be broken easily," said Priatna, who is the honorary director of both the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law in Paris.
Placement of the bug could easily be done by cleaning workers or "just someone impersonating the personnel from PT Telkom".
He said tapping a phone line was also possible through the use of a "beaming tele-lens".
"A person could act as if he's taking a picture. Actually, he could be using the tele-mike, which comes in the form of the tele-lens specially designed to catch voices from distances up to one kilometer on the earth's surface, and record them," said the former deputy attorney general in charge of intelligence affairs from 1969 to 1971.
"That could cost somewhere near US$100,000. Such lenses are also used in football stadiums."
Such bugging devices can be obtained at Times Square in New York and the Frankfurt airport. They can pass through customs without trouble.
"Just switch off the bugs' batteries. Nobody will know... customs will probably think it is an ordinary book or ashtray."
Priatna added that one of the participants in a conversation could also be responsible for the bugging.
"That is 10 times cheaper. It's called indirect taping and is done via a special recording tape."
He explained the conversation could be recorded by simply by fitting a bug on the telephone's mouthpiece and a microphone at the end of a cable attached to the tape.
Priatna believed it "very possible" this method was used in the Habibie-Ghalib phone tap scandal, with the answer probably found in who would gain most from recording the conversation.
"Police must look into that possibility."
He wondered why no voice verification tests were conducted on the tape.
Each person's voice, like fingerprints, has distinct characteristics.
"There are special voice detectors that can be purchased anywhere around the world to determine whether the voices are those of the President's and the Attorney General's or not," Priatna said.
"Why has the government or the police, for that matter, not used those detectors until now?" (ylt)