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How The FBI Plants Bugs

Aired October 09, 2003 - 14:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So just how does the FBI go about bugging someone's office, or home or that matter? And how can you tell? Right now you're probably looking around for them.
Let's bring our own Mike Brooks in. Tapping into his years of law enforcement expertise. He spent a lot of time as part of investigations where they did just that. Mike, good to have you with us.

First of all, let's get back to the bugging device that was used here. Fairly sophisticated. It's not like they had to go in and grab a tape from there. It was actually transmitting. Explain roughly how it works.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It looks like this kind of transmitter was actually placed in the office. And when it was placed in the office, it is put in by a technical team. The technical team comes in usually off hours, it's usually off-hours. And during the off-hour time, they will install this.

It's very difficult to install with someone there. So, again, every FBI office in the country has a technical services team. The technical services team will come in, use usually some kind of ruse to get in, as a cleaning man or a cleaning woman, come in do the case, do the installation. And then after that, they will go ahead and start transmitting from inside the office.

And they'll usually set up a van. This was the kind that was wireless. So they were probably monitoring it from another office nearby or some kind of van outside the building.

O'BRIEN: Certain amount of irony that you began this report without your microphone on. But let's press on and talk about the whole issue.

BROOKS: I hate when that happens.

O'BRIEN: Speak into your tie a little closer, shall we? The whole issue of finding these things. When they say routine security sweep, I know they do them here in this building, corporate America employs this frequently for the possibility of corporate spying. This is part of the fabric of America now looking for these bugs.

BROOKS: Absolutely. Most corporations do it every six months. And their own security people will do it or they'll have someone outsourced to do it. They use different equipment. I was trained to use equipment called an Oscar (ph) and an O'Ryan (ph). An Oscar is just a little suitcase, comes in and it picks up radio frequency from all over the room.

O'BRIEN: A scanner.

BROOKS: Yes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) prints out the frequencies. Then you take the O'Ryan, which almost looks almost like the metal detectors you use on the beach. And then you can actually find something that's hidden in plants, hidden in furniture, hidden in pictures, up in the ceiling tile, those kind of things to actually focus in.

The FBI does an excellent job of this. They have agents assigned to each FBI office. But they also have an engineering section in Quantico that can custom make lamps, pictures, furniture, you name it to be put into places or take something out of an office, bug it and put it back in, you could never know it was ever touched.

O'BRIEN: We saw that "Soprano"'s episode. All right, thank you very Much Mike Brooks. We appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 9, 2003 - 14:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So just how does the FBI go about bugging someone's office, or home or that matter? And how can you tell? Right now you're probably looking around for them.
Let's bring our own Mike Brooks in. Tapping into his years of law enforcement expertise. He spent a lot of time as part of investigations where they did just that. Mike, good to have you with us.

First of all, let's get back to the bugging device that was used here. Fairly sophisticated. It's not like they had to go in and grab a tape from there. It was actually transmitting. Explain roughly how it works.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It looks like this kind of transmitter was actually placed in the office. And when it was placed in the office, it is put in by a technical team. The technical team comes in usually off hours, it's usually off-hours. And during the off-hour time, they will install this.

It's very difficult to install with someone there. So, again, every FBI office in the country has a technical services team. The technical services team will come in, use usually some kind of ruse to get in, as a cleaning man or a cleaning woman, come in do the case, do the installation. And then after that, they will go ahead and start transmitting from inside the office.

And they'll usually set up a van. This was the kind that was wireless. So they were probably monitoring it from another office nearby or some kind of van outside the building.

O'BRIEN: Certain amount of irony that you began this report without your microphone on. But let's press on and talk about the whole issue.

BROOKS: I hate when that happens.

O'BRIEN: Speak into your tie a little closer, shall we? The whole issue of finding these things. When they say routine security sweep, I know they do them here in this building, corporate America employs this frequently for the possibility of corporate spying. This is part of the fabric of America now looking for these bugs.

BROOKS: Absolutely. Most corporations do it every six months. And their own security people will do it or they'll have someone outsourced to do it. They use different equipment. I was trained to use equipment called an Oscar (ph) and an O'Ryan (ph). An Oscar is just a little suitcase, comes in and it picks up radio frequency from all over the room.

O'BRIEN: A scanner.

BROOKS: Yes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) prints out the frequencies. Then you take the O'Ryan, which almost looks almost like the metal detectors you use on the beach. And then you can actually find something that's hidden in plants, hidden in furniture, hidden in pictures, up in the ceiling tile, those kind of things to actually focus in.

The FBI does an excellent job of this. They have agents assigned to each FBI office. But they also have an engineering section in Quantico that can custom make lamps, pictures, furniture, you name it to be put into places or take something out of an office, bug it and put it back in, you could never know it was ever touched.

O'BRIEN: We saw that "Soprano"'s episode. All right, thank you very Much Mike Brooks. We appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com