WAR ON ELECTRONIC BUGGING

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 13

WAR ON ELECTRONIC BUGGING

(From FRANK OLIVER, N.Z.P.A special correspondent) WASHINGTON, Mar. 10. There is a short stocky man in the United States Senate who for a long time has been conducting a one-man war against the electronic bugging system which has penetrated many areas of American private and public life but the extent of which still does not seem to be grasped by the general public. The Senator is Edward Long, a Democrat from Missouri, and electronic bugging s his speciality because he leads a Senate sub-committee in administrative practice

and procedure, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Long has just published a book which, if it catches the public eye, will make the nation aware of how much Big Brother is doing in the United States. It is called "The Intruders” and its sub-title is "The Invasion of privacy by government and industry.” Senator Long, it should be noted, has become well-known in this city because he has, over a long period, been associated with a ritual in Senate procedure.

His almost daily habit is to ask for recognition by the chair and he then announces, “Mr President, my Big Brother item for today is. And he reads into the minds of his fellow Senators and more importantly into the Congressional Record, an example of wire-tapping,

peephole or camera watching, lie-detector probing or some other form of privacy invasion by government and or industrial investigators. His book forms a damning document concerning these practices and some of the things he reports are likely to startle even those who thought they knew a lot about bugging and electronic eavesdropping. He reproduces a photograph showing how a shotgun can fire what is- called a “spike mike,” a tiny instrument which the weapon imbeds in a window or door frame and which then from remote control can be made to transmit conversations from within the house.

Another shows a knot in a picture frame which can be made to conceal a radio transmitter which can operate for some 200 hours on the power of a battery hidden behind the picture.

Yet another shows a device being taped to the back of a girl. This is then surrounded by silver dimes which become electrodes.

The girl’s partner in, this form of electronic spying can transmit coded shocks from across a room to guide her actions. It can be used to cheat in gambling establishments.

The book is published at a time when a major effort is being made in Congress to pass legislation restricting government and public use of electronic eavesdropping. Senator Long himself wants legislation to restrict government use of devices to well defined natibnal security investigations, to prohibit the use of any wire-tap evidence in court and a number of other things which are embodied in a bill President Johnson has sent to Congress recently.