Anybody can tap any telephone line, expert says
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)