The FBI And Mobile Phone Spying

May 7. 2010

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller

People use their mobile phones to call others for business and personal reasons, in addition to taking photos, surfing the internet and sending emails. The Judiciary Report and its sister site, the Sound Off Column, have insisted for years in articles, the FBI has been spying on Americans, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and secretly so. Scandal after scandal and official government oversight reports, later confirmed allegations first broken by the sites. 

Previously, the sites stated, the FBI has been spying on Americans without warrant, via mobile phones, among other things. A report this week on the CBS4 news site in Miami, revealed cases are being thrown out of court by judges, because of warantless mobile phone wiretapping by the FBI and its parent agency, the DOJ.

Nefarious non-government workers are also getting in on the act, especially in Hollywood, infecting people's mobile phones with spyware, enabling them to illegally listen into their conversations, read confidential emails, view private photos contained on the units, see web searches and turn the device into an audio bug that allows unlawful eavesdroppers to listen into conversation taking place in the room (your home, car, office ect). 

Worst of all, the spyware can be used to illegally turn on your mobile phone camera/video feature and spy on you, in what is known as a roving bug, which is sick and perverse, much like the voyeur crimes committed in the Blake Robbins v. Lower Merion School District case. The only way to stop the spying is to take out your mobile phone battery. 

The FBI has been criminally misusing this technology to spy on innocent people, searching for tips and other items, to grant them a political, commercial and social advantage. U.S. Presidents have benefited from the FBI's misconduct in this regard as well.

Many writers, such as myself, whose publications and websites are stocked with scoops, have been unlawfully turned into FBI informants without our knowledge or consent, as the agency illegally spies on well-connected journalists and bloggers, to pathetically share in scoops, exclusives and tips, before they are published to the internet and in print. 

This is the FBI's insane and pathetic attempt at staying ahead of the curve, whilst egregiously violating the U.S. Constitution, at innocent people's expense. Then, FBI Director, Robert S. Mueller, passes around illegally obtained, invasive items gleamed from innocent surveillance targets, to whomever he feels like in government and the private sector, in conduct that is absolutely dirty and dishonorable.

The U.S. Congress has failed to stop this criminal misconduct, which some of them have benefited from and illegally so. However, whether they realize it or not, the aforementioned misuse of technology, poses a severe danger to national security. 

If a non-government worker or foreign entity, secretly uses the aforementioned tactics on members of Congress, they could listen into high ranking, classified, closed session meetings, simply by targeting a senator's mobile phone, with inexpensive malware and spyware. 

If they target the mobile phones belonging to the family members of Congress people, they could also spy on the entire family in their home, by default and eventually hear and see things they are not entitled to under the law, which could also damage national security. After all, many people take their work home.

Even the U.S. White House could be infiltrated in this manner, via U.S. President Barack Obama's Blackberry mobile phone or those belonging to any member of his cabinet or the property's staff.  

May 4, 2010 10:01 am US/Eastern I-Team: Cell Phone Spy Dangers

E-mail MIAMI (CBS4) ? A CBS4 I-Team investigation into your safety and security raises troubling questions about your cell phone and how it might be used against you...

"It takes about 90 seconds to download the spyware and you're in business," said Wilcox of some versions of this software that can be loaded onto someone's cell phone.

The spyware is a lurking danger that turns your cell phone into a secret listening device, an instrument used to spy against you. Worse yet, you'll likely never know it is on your phone.

"There could be anywhere from three to five or six million cell phones that are infected with spyware (at any one time)," said Wilcox...

To find out exactly how this all works, the CBS4 I-Team bought and installed several versions of spyware on anchor Jawan Strader's blackberry. We did all of this with his knowledge and participation...

But once the I-Team got the software working, the capability was scary. The I-Team could read all of Jawan's e-mails. The I-Team read all of his text messages.

I-Team investigator Stephen Stock also got alerts on his cell phone every time Jawan got a call, an e-mail or a text. That way Stock could monitor Jawan's incoming communication at all times.

And even though Jawan met meeting behind closed doors with news director Cesar Aldama and assistant news director Nick Bourne, even with the blackberry turned off, investigator Stock could still dial in and listen to the conversation while standing several miles away.

And the closed-door meetings' participants would never have known that Stock was listening had the I-Team not told them. Remember the cell phone was off. Despite that, Stock was able to use the spyware to dial in and listen using the Blackberry's speaker feature. Experts say that same thing can be done using a cell phone's camera feature.

The spyware also allows someone to listen in on cell phone calls in real time, as they are happening...

In fact, the federal government is using this technology to check out American citizens without a warrant.

The I-Team learned of a half dozen cases across the country in states as varied as New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, where federal magistrates were asked to throw out cases because federal agents had tracked people in real time through their cell phone. In these cases this cell phone monitoring took place without a hearing, without a warrant without even legal probable cause.

One of the cases has now gone to a Federal Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania.

"It's an incredibly intrusive thing for the government to be able to track you," said Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Stanley heads the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties headquarters in Washington, D.C. The ACLU has joined some of the court cases listed above in fighting some of the federal prosecutors' actions.

"It's not that hard if you're a bad guy then they can get a warrant on you. If you're not a bad guy then why do they want to track you?" said Stanley...

"If I told somebody back in 1975, 'You know what, in 30 years every American practically is going to be carrying a tracking device with them that tells the government everywhere they go live and in real time,'" said Stanley. "That person would have said I guess that means the Soviet Union is going to win the Cold War."

http://cbs4.com/iteam/cell.phone.spying.2.1673524.html