Word: eavesdropped
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Hard though it may be to believe, the invisible listeners who electronically eavesdrop on foreigners through Moscow's walls seem to have a sense of humor. At one New Year's party in the Soviet capital, there was a champagne-fueled debate on how agents manning the microphones and tape recorders were spending the holiday. "Imagine the poor devils down at the KGB sitting listening to all the parties tonight and not a drop to drink," said one Western diplomat, raising another glass. A few minutes later the phone rang and the host answered. He heard no voice...
...issues related to criminal justice. The directive also asked for ideas on specific campaign activities that Ehrlichman could recommend to the President. Though coming under the heading of political intelligence, the service requested was far different from espionage activity like the Watergate affair. The FBI was not asked to eavesdrop, spy on candidates or disrupt campaigns. Nevertheless, the order was a violation of the FBI's nonpartisan tradition...
...frisk a suspect even if the officer's suspicions are based on the word of an unnamed tipster. When the court did find that officials had overreached their authority, however, it proved ready to slap them down, thus the Justices ruled unanimously that it is unconstitutional to eavesdrop on domestic political "suspects" without a judicial warrant...
Shortly after taking office, the Nixon Administration claimed the right to eavesdrop-without a judicial warrant -on anyone it chose to consider a threat to the national security. By the time the issue reached the Supreme Court, Nixon had appointed four new Justices, so the Government thought its chances of enforcing the claim seemed promising. But last week, by a vote of 8 to 0, with Justice William Rehnquist abstaining, the court declared that bugging or tapping domestic political "suspects" without a warrant is illegal. "Those charged with this investigative and prosecutorial duty should not be the sole judges...
According to Justice Department procedures, after Mitchell gave the go-ahead. Will Wilson, a former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division, was to write a formal letter instructing investigators to get a court order for the proposed eavesdrop. But many of Wilson's letters were actually signed by two of his aides, Henry Petersen and Harold Shapiro. Both Mitchell and Wilson permitted aides to sign for them, despite the legal requirement that Mitchell or a designated assistant personally review each bugging application. The practice went on until James Hogan, a defense lawyer in the Miami case...