Word: ferreter
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...BUGS." Last month the Pentagon warned defense contractors to be wary of what they said in messages carried by commercial satellites because the Soviets are listening to every word. Using innocent-looking vans or "ferret" satellites or balloon-supported towlines, trailing from submarines, that act as 2,000-ft. antennas, the Russians pick up microwave transmissions from telephones, radios and satellites. Last year they installed huge eavesdropping antennas near Havana to intercept messages sent from the U.S. overseas. At KGB headquarters in Moscow, 30,000 workers specialize in computer analysis of miles of taped transmissions. The U.S. can scarcely complain...
When West German counterintelligence agents swooped down on 16 East German spy suspects one night 18 months ago, the mass roundup was cheered as evidence that Bonn had finally found ways to ferret out the myriad espionage agents in its midst and plug the embarrassing flow of government secrets to the East. The cheers, it now appears, were premature. Last week the highly regarded Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung revealed contents of a secret Defense Ministry evaluation showing that Communist spying had been far more compromising to West German armed forces-and NATO-than anyone had previously imagined. Specifically, the government document...
...been in Timbuktu." But, he adds, they "insisted." So, ignoring friends' warnings that he might "screw up" his Watergate reputation, he accepted-and agreed to serve without pay. Says Jaworski: "There is another challenge to another institution of Government, and it's up to someone to ferret out the facts...
...Verfassungsschutz (literally, Federal Office for Protecting the Constitution), West Germany's counterintelligence agency. A dogged, professional spy catcher, Meier reduced harmful frictions between his agency and state police departments, and with West Germany's equivalent of the FBI. He also introduced a secret computer system to ferret out even "sleepers" and "moles"-deep-cover agents whose meticulous disguises are planned for long-term use. So far, 30 East German spies have been bagged this year. Says an admiring U.S. intelligence officer in Bonn: "Mischa, who's no fool, has met his match in Meier...
...Genealogy. The TV series impelled thousands of kin seekers to ferret through attics, trunks and old boxes of letters in pursuit of clues to their origins. At the Heritage Library in Glendale, Calif, which boasts an excellent genealogical collection, the number of visitors has increased by 75% in recent months. The New York Public Library, with one of the world's largest genealogical libraries, reported an increase in attendance in the month following Roots of 37% over February 1976. At the National Archives, the gray stone temple on Washington's Constitution Avenue, where Haley found his inspiration, mail...