Word: wiretap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ARRESTED. YASUO TAKEI, 73, founder and chairman of Japan's largest consumer-credit firm, Takefuji, and the country's second richest man; for breaching Japan's telecommunications laws when he allegedly ordered his staff to wiretap the phone of a freelance journalist who published articles critical of him; in Tokyo. Takei's family fortune is estimated to be worth about $5.3 billion. His company Takefuji has also come under legal scrutiny for its alleged hardball debt-collection methods and for overworking its employees...
...hired; the FBI went through 1600 Arabic speakers to hire 160 people in the last two years. Part of the reason: It?s hard to find top-notch linguists who also can also qualify for a top secret security clearance. FBI linguists must be equally able to interpret a wiretap laced with street slang and to read a document containing scientific jargon. And, making matters more difficult, the FBI competes with the CIA and other parts of the intelligence community for linguists with impeccable backgrounds...
...reporters who know what happened are not likely to cooperate. Journalists are loath to break a promise of confidentiality to their sources. Moreover, under Justice Department rules, investigators may subpoena, wiretap or seize the records of journalists only with the Attorney General's approval and only after other investigative means have been exhausted. That's not to say it doesn't occasionally happen. In 2001 the Justice Department subpoenaed AP reporter John Solomon's home-telephone records without his knowledge in an effort to glean his sources in a case involving former Senator Robert Torricelli. Other attempts to discover journalists...
...PATRIOT Act is a beastly 131-page creation that was passed in a flurry of flag-waving in 2001. It has several terrible provisions: it allows “preventive detentions” and gives the federal government greater authority over the records of foreign students and vastly expands wiretap authority. One misguided requirement even mandates discrimination; it prevents university labs from allowing citizens of seven “terrorist-supporting states” to perform research on certain classified substances...
None of the answers are simple. Who wouldn't have authorized an extra wiretap or a longer detention if it could have prevented 9/11, but who knows how far to go? As the demands of security bump up against the safeguards of personal liberty, clashes have been breaking out around the country over where to draw the line. Librarians are alerting visitors that their Internet surfing or book borrowing may be monitored by the government. Nearly 100 towns and counties, plus the state of Hawaii, have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, the post-9/11 law that greatly...