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450 lines
24 KiB
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450 lines
24 KiB
Text
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==Phrack Inc.==
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Volume Three, Issue 26, File 10 of 11
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PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN
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PWN %%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%% %%%%%%% PWN
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PWN Issue XXVI/Part 2 PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN April 25, 1989 PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN Created, Written, and Edited PWN
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PWN by Knight Lightning PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
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Reach Out And TAP Someone April 3, 1989
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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Two former employees of Cincinnati Bell, who were fired by the company for
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"good cause" according to Cincinnati Bell Chairman Dwight Hibbard are claiming
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they installed more than 1200 illegal wiretaps over a 12 year period from 1972
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- 1984 at the request of their supervisors at the telco and the local police.
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Among the alleged targets of the snooping were past and present members of
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Congress, federal judges, scores of the city's most prominent politicians,
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business executives, lawyers and media personalities.
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Leonard Gates and Robert Draise say they even wiretapped the hotel room where
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President Gerald Ford stayed during two visits to Cincinnati; and this part of
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their story, at least, has been verified by the now retired security chief at
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the hotel.
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As more details come out each day, people in Cincinnati are getting a rare look
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at a Police Department that apparently spied on itself, and at a grand jury
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probe that has prompted one former FBI official to suggest that the Justice
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Department seems more interested in discrediting the accusers than in seeking
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the truth.
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Cincinnati Bell executives says Gates and Draise are just trying to "get even"
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with the company for firing them. But disclosures thus far seem to indicate
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there is at least some truth in what the two men are saying about the company
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they used to work for.
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According to Gates and Draise, they were just employees following the orders
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given to them by their superiors at Cincinnati Bell. But Dwight Hibbard,
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Chairman of the Board of Cincinnati Bell has called them both liars, and said
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their only motive is to make trouble for the company.
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Cincinnati Bell responded to allegations that the company had specifically
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participated in illegal wiretapping by filing a libel suit against Gates and
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Draise. The two men responded by filing a countersuit against the telco.
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In addition to their suit, four of the people who were allegedly spied on have
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filed a class action suit against the telco.
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In the latest development, Cincinnati Bell has gone public with (according to
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them) just recently discovered sordid details about an extramarital affair by
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Gates. A federal grand jury in Cincinnati is now trying to straighten out the
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tangled web of charges and countercharges, but so far no indictments have been
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returned.
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Almost daily, Gates and Draise tell further details about their exploits,
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including taps they claim they placed on phones at the Cincinnati Stock
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Exchange and the General Electric aircraft engine plant in suburban Evendale.
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According to Draise, he began doing these "special assignments" in 1972, when
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he was approached by a Cincinnati police officer from that city's clandestine
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intelligence unit. The police officer wanted him to tap the lines of black
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militants and suspected drug dealers, Draise said.
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The police officer assured him the wiretapping would be legal, and that top
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executives at the phone company had approved. Draise agreed, and suggested
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recruiting Gates, a co-worker to help out. Soon, the two were setting several
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wiretaps each week at the request of the Intelligence Unit of the Cincinnati
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Police Department.
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But by around 1975, the direction and scope of the operation changed, say the
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men. The wiretap requests no longer came from the police; instead they came
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from James West and Peter Gabor, supervisors in the Security Department at
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Cincinnati Bell, who claimed *they were getting the orders from their
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superiors*.
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And the targets of the spying were no longer criminal elements; instead, Draise
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and Gates say they were asked to tap the lines of politicians, business
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executives and even the phone of the Chief of Police himself, and the personal
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phone lines of some telephone company employees as well.
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Draise said he "began to have doubts about the whole thing in 1979" when he was
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told to tap the private phone of a newspaper columnist in town. "I told them I
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wasn't going to do it anymore," he said in an interview during the week of
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April 2, 1989.
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Gates kept on doing these things until 1984, and he says he got cold feet late
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that year when "the word came down through the grapevine" that he was to tap
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the phone lines connected to the computers at General Electric's Evendale
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plant. He backed out then, and said to leave him out of it in the future, and
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he claims there were hints of retaliation directed at him at that time; threats
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to "tell what we know about you..."
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When Dwight Hibbard was contacted at his office at Cincinnati Bell and asked to
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comment on the allegations of his former employees, he responded that they were
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both liars. "The phone company would not do things like that," said Hibbard,
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"and those two are both getting sued because they say we do." Hibbard has
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refused to answer more specific questions asked by the local press and
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government investigators.
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In fact, Draise was fired in 1979, shortly after he claims he told his
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superiors he would no longer place wiretaps on lines. Shortly after he quit
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handling the "special assignments" given to him he was arrested, and charged
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with a misdemeanor in connection with one wiretap -- which Draise says he set
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for a friend who wanted to spy on his ex-girlfriend. Cincinnati Bell claims
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they had nothing to do with his arrest and conviction on that charge; but they
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"were forced to fire him" after he pleaded guilty.
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Gates was fired in 1986 for insubordination. He claims Cincinnati Bell was
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retaliating against him for taking the side of two employees who were suing the
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company for sexual harassment; but his firing was upheld in court.
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The story first started breaking when Gates and Draise went to see a reporter
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at [Mount Washington Press], a small weekly newspaper in the Cincinnati
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suburban area. The paper printed the allegations by the men, and angry
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responses started coming in almost immediately.
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At first, police denied the existence of the Intelligence Unit, let alone that
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such an organization would use operatives at Cincinnati Bell to spy on people.
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Later, when called before the federal grand jury, and warned against lying,
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five retired police officers, including the former chief, took the Fifth
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Amendment. Finally last month, the five issued a statement through their
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attorney, admitting to 12 illegal wiretaps from 1972 - 1974, and implicated
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unnamed operatives at Cincinnati Bell as their contacts to set the taps.
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With the ice broken, and the formalities out of the way, others began coming
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forward with similar stories. Howard Lucas, the former Director of Security
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for Stouffer's Hotel in Cincinnati recalled a 1975 incident in which he stopped
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Gates, West and several undercover police officers from going into the hotel's
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phone room about a month before the visit by President Ford.
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The phone room was kept locked, and employees working there were buzzed in by
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someone already inside, recalled Lucas. In addition to the switchboards, the
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room contained the wire distribution frames from which phone pairs ran
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throughout the hotel. Lucas refused to let the police officers go inside
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without a search warrant; and they never did return with one.
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But Lucas said two days later he was tipped off by one of the operators to look
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in one of the closets there. Lucas said he found a voice activated tape
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recorder and "a couple of coils they used to make the tap." He said he told
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the Police Department and Cincinnati Bell about his findings, but "...I could
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not get anyone to claim it, so I just yanked it all out and threw it in the
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dumpster..."
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Executives at General Electric were prompted to meet with Draise and Gates
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recently to learn the extent of the wiretapping that had been done at the
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plant. According to Draise, GE attorney David Kindleberger expressed
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astonishment when told the extent of the spying; and he linked it to the
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apparent loss of proprietary information to Pratt & Whitney, a competing
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manufacturer of aircraft engines.
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Now all of a sudden, Kindleberger is clamming up. I wonder who got to him? He
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admits meeting with Draise, but says he never discussed Pratt & Whitney or any
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competitive situation with Draise. But an attorney who sat in on the meeting
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supports Draise's version.
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After an initial flurry of press releases denying all allegations of illegal
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wiretapping, Cincinnati Bell has become very quiet, and is now unwilling to
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discuss the matter at all except to tell anyone who asks that "Draise and Gates
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are a couple of liars who want to get even with us..." And now, the telco
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suddenly has discovered information about Gates' personal life.
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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FBI/Bell Wiretapping Network? April 3, 1989
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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[Edited For This Presentation]
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Bob Draise/WB8QCF was an employee of Cincinnati Bell Telephone between 1966 and
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1979. He, and others, are involved in a wiretapping scandal of monumental
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proportions. They say they have installed more than 1,000 wiretaps on the
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phones of judges, law enforcement officers, lawyers, television personalities,
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newspaper columnists, labor unions, defense contractors, major corporations
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(such as Proctor & Gamble and General Electric), politicians (even ex-President
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Gerald Ford) at the request of Cincinnati police and Cincinnati Bell security
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supervisors who said the taps were for the police. They were told that many of
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the taps were for the FBI.
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Another radio amateur, Vincent Clark/KB4MIT, a technician for South-Central
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Bell from 1972 to 1981, said he placed illegal wiretaps similar to those done
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by Bob Draise on orders from his supervisors -- and on request from local
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policemen in Louisville, Kentucky.
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When asked how he got started in the illegal wiretap business, Bob said that a
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friend called and asked him to come down to meet with the Cincinnati police. An
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intelligence sergeant asked Bob about wiretapping some Black Muslims. He also
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told Bob that Cincinnati Bell security had approved the wiretap -- and that it
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was for the FBI. The sergeant pointed to his Masonic ring which Bob also wore
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-- in other words, he was telling the truth under the Masonic oath -- something
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that Bob put a lot of stock in.
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Most of the people first wiretapped were drug or criminal related. Later on,
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however, it go out of hand -- and the FBI wanted taps on prominent citizens.
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"We started doing people who had money. How this information was used, I
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couldn't tell you."
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The January 29th "Newsday" said Draise had told investigators that among the
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taps he rigged from 1972 to 1979 were several on lines used by Wren Business
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Communications, a Bell competitor. It seems that when Wren had arranged an
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appointment with a potential customer, they found that Bell had just been there
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without being called. Wren's president is a ham radio operator, David
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Stoner/K8LMB.
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When spoken with, Dave Stoner said the following;
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"As far as I am concerned, the initial focus for all of this began
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with the FBI. The FBI apparently set up a structure throughout the
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United States using apparently the security chiefs of the different
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Bell companies. They say that there have been other cases in the
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United States like ours in Cincinnati but they have been localized
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without the realization of an overall pattern being implicated."
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"The things that ties this all together is if you go way back in
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history to the Hoover period at the FBI, he apparently got together
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with the AT&T security people. There is an organization that I
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guess exists to this day with regular meetings of the security
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people of the different Bell companies. This meant that the FBI
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would be able to target a group of 20 or 30 people that represented
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the security points for all of the Bell and AT&T connections in the
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United States. I believe the key to all of this goes back to Hoover.
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The FBI worked through that group who then created the activity at
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the local level as a result of central planning."
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"I believe that in spite of the fact that many people have indicated
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that this is an early 70's problem -- that there is no disruption to
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that work to this day. I am pretty much convinced that it is
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continuing. It looks like a large surveillance effort that
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Cincinnati was just a part of."
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"The federal prosecutor Kathleen Brinkman is in a no-win situation.
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If she successfully prosecutes this case she is going to bring
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trouble down upon her own Justice Department. She can't
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successfully prosecute the case."
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About $200 million in lawsuits have already been filed against Cincinnati Bell
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and the Police Department. Several members of the police department have taken
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the Fifth Amendment before the grand jury rather than answer questions about
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their roles in the wiretapping scheme.
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Bob Draise/WB8QCF has filed a suit against Cincinnati Bell for $78 for
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malicious prosecution and slander in response to a suit filed by Cincinnati
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Bell against Bob for defamation. Right after they filed the suit, several
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policemen came forward and admitted to doing illegal wiretaps with them. The
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Cincinnati police said they stopped this is 1974 -- although another policeman
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reportedly said they actually stopped the wiretapping in 1986.
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Now the CBS-TV program "60 Minutes" is interested in the Cincinnati goings-on
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and has sent in a team of investigative reporters. Ed Bradley from "60
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Minutes" has already interviewed Bob Draise/WB8QCF and it is expected that
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sometime during this month (April) April, we will see a "60 Minutes" report on
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spying by the FBI. We also understand that CNN, Ted Turner's Cable News
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Network, is also working up a "Bugging of America" expose.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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Crackdown On Hackers Urged April 9, 1989
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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Taken From the Chicago Tribune (Section 7, Page 12b)
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"Make Punishment Fit The Crime," computer leaders say.
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DALLAS (AP) -- The legal system has failed to respond adequately to the threat
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that hackers pose to the computer networks crucial to corporate America, a
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computer expert says.
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Many computer hackers "are given slaps on the wrist," Mark Leary, a senior
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analyst with International Data Corp., said at a roundtable discussion last
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week.
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"The justice system has to step up...to the fact that these people are
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malicious and are criminals and are robbing banks just as much as if they
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walked up with a shotgun," he said.
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Other panelists complained that hackers, because of their ability to break into
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computer systems, even are given jobs, sometimes a security consultants.
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The experts spoke at a roundtable sponsored by Network World magazine, a
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publication for computer network users and managers.
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Computer networks have become crucial to business, from transferring and
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compiling information to overseeing and running manufacturing processes.
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The public also is increasingly exposed to networks through such devices as
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automatic teller machines at banks, airline reservation systems and computers
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that store billing information.
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Companies became more willing to spend money on computer security after last
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year's celebrated invasion of a nationwide network by a virus allegedly
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unleased by a graduate student [Robert Tappen Morris], the experts said.
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"The incident caused us to reassess the priorities with which we look at
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certain threats," said Dennis Steinaur, manager of the computer security
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management group of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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But computer security isn't only a matter of guarding against unauthorized
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entry, said Max Hopper, senior vice president for information systems as
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American Airlines.
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Hopper said American has built a "a Cheyenne mountain-type" installation for
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its computer systems to guard against a variety of problems, including
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electrical failure and natural disaster. Referring to the Defense Department's
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underground nerve center in a Colorado mountain, he said American's precautions
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even include a three-day supply of food.
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"We've done everything we can, we think, to protect the total environment,"
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Hopper said.
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Hopper and Steinaur said that despite the high-tech image of computer
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terrorism, it remains an administrative problem that should be approached as a
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routine management issue.
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But the experts agreed that the greatest danger to computer networks does not
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come from outside hackers. Instead, they said, the biggest threat is from
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disgruntled employees or others whose original access to systems was
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legitimate.
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Though employee screening is useful, Steinaur said, it is more important to
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build into computer systems ways to track unauthorized use and to publicize
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that hacking can be traced.
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Steinaur said growing computer literacy, plus the activities of some
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non-malicious hackers, help security managers in some respects.
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Expanded knowledge "forces us as security managers not be dependent on
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ignorance," Steinaur said.
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"Security needs to be a part of the system, rather than a 'nuisance addition,'"
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Steinaur said, "and we probably have not done a very good job of making
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management realize that security is an integral part of the system."
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IDC's Leary said the organization surveys of Fortune 1000 companies
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surprisingly found a significant number of companies were doing little to
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protect their systems.
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The discussion, the first of three planned by Network World, was held because
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computer sabotage "is a real problem that people aren't aware of," said editor
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John Gallant. Many business people sophisticated networks."
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It also is a problem that many industry vendors are reluctant to address, he
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said, because it raises questions about a company's reliability.
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Typed For PWN by Hatchet Molly
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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Ex-Worker Charged In Virus Case -- Databases Were Alleged Target Apr 12, 1989
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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by Jane M. Von Bergen (Philadelphia Inquirer)
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A former employee was charged yesterday with infecting his company's computer
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database in what is believed to be the first computer-virus arrest in the
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Philadelphia area.
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"We believe he was doing this as an act of revenge," said Camden County
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Assistant Prosecutor Norman Muhlbaier said yesterday, commenting on a motive
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for the employee who allegedly installed a program to erase databases at his
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former company, Datacomp Corp. in Voorhees, New Jersey.
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Chris Young, 21, of the 2000 block of Liberty Street, Trenton, was charged in
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Camden County with one count of computer theft by altering a database.
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Superior Court Judge E. Stevenson Fluharty released Young on his promise to pay
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$10,000 if he failed to appear in court. If convicted, Young faces a 10-year
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prison term and a $100,000 fine. Young could not be reached for comment.
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"No damage was done," Muhlbaier said, because the company discovered the virus
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before it could cause harm. Had the virus gone into effect, it could have
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damaged databases worth several hundred thousand dollars, Muhlbaier said.
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Datacomp Corp., in the Echelon Mall, is involved in telephone marketing. The
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company, which has between 30 and 35 employees, had a contract with a major
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telephone company to verify the contents of its white pages and try to sell
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bold-faced or other special listings in the white pages, a Datacomp company
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|
spokeswoman said. The database Young is accused of trying to destroy is the
|
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|
list of names from the phone company, she said.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Muhlbaier said that the day Young resigned from the company, October 7, 1988 he
|
||
|
used fictitious passwords to obtain entry into the company computer,
|
||
|
programming the virus to begin its destruction December 7, 1988 -- Pearl Harbor
|
||
|
Day. Young, who had worked for the company on and off for two years -- most
|
||
|
recently as a supervisor -- was disgruntled because he had received some
|
||
|
unfavorable job-performance reviews, the prosecutor said.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Eventually, operators at the company picked up glitches in the computer system.
|
||
|
A programmer, called in to straighten out the mess, noticed that the program
|
||
|
had been altered and discovered the data-destroying virus, Muhlbaier said.
|
||
|
"What Mr. Young did not know was that the computer system has a lot of security
|
||
|
features so they could track it back to a particular date, time and terminal,"
|
||
|
Muhlbaier said. "We were able to ... prove that he was at that terminal."
|
||
|
Young's virus, Muhlbaier said, is the type known as a "time bomb" because it is
|
||
|
programmed to go off at a specific time. In this case, the database would have
|
||
|
been sickened the first time someone switched on a computer December 7, he said
|
||
|
|
||
|
Norma Kraus, a vice president of Datacomp's parent company, Volt Information
|
||
|
Sciences Inc, said yesterday that the company's potential loss included not
|
||
|
only the databases, but also the time it took to find and cure the virus. "All
|
||
|
the work has to stop," causing delivery backups on contracts, she said. "We're
|
||
|
just fortunate that we have employees who can determine what's wrong and then
|
||
|
have the interest to do something. In this case, the employee didn't stop at
|
||
|
fixing the system, but continued on to determine what the problem was." The
|
||
|
Volt company, based in New York, does $500 million worth of business a year
|
||
|
with such services as telephone marketing, data processing and technical
|
||
|
support. It also arranges temporary workers, particularly in the
|
||
|
data-processing field, and installs telecommunication services, Kraus said.
|
||
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
||
|
|
||
|
Mexico's Phone System Going Private? April 17, 1989
|
||
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
|
By Oryan QUEST (Special Hispanic Corespondent)
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Mexico Telephone Company, aka Telefonos de Mexico, aka Telmex, is likely to
|
||
|
go private in the next year or two. The Mexican government is giving serious
|
||
|
consideration to selling its controlling interest in that nation's
|
||
|
communications network, despite very stiff opposition from the local unions
|
||
|
which would prefer to see the existing bureaucracy stay in place.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The proposed sale, which is part of a move to upgrade the phone system there --
|
||
|
and it *does* need upgrading -- by allowing more private investment, is part of
|
||
|
a growing trend in Mexico to privatize heretofore nationalized industries.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Mexico Telephone Company has spent more than a year planning a $14 billion,
|
||
|
five-year restructuring plan which will probably give AT&T and the Bell
|
||
|
regional holding companies a role in the improvements.
|
||
|
|
||
|
One plan being discussed by the Mexican government is a complete break-up of
|
||
|
Telmex, similar to the court-ordered divestiture of AT&T a few years ago.
|
||
|
Under this plan, there would be one central long distance company in Mexico,
|
||
|
with the government retaining control of it, but privately owned regional firms
|
||
|
providing local and auxiliary services.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Representatives of the Mexican government have talked on more than one
|
||
|
occasion with some folks at Southwestern Bell about making a formal proposal.
|
||
|
Likewise, Pacific Bell has been making some overtures to the Mexicans. It will
|
||
|
be interesting to see what develops.
|
||
|
|
||
|
About two years ago, Teleconnect Magazine, in a humorous article on the
|
||
|
divestiture, presented a bogus map of the territories assigned to each BOC,
|
||
|
with Texas, New Mexico and Arizona grouped under an entity called "Taco Bell."
|
||
|
|
||
|
Any phone company which takes over the Mexican system will be an improvement
|
||
|
over the current operation, which has been slowly deteriorating for several
|
||
|
years.
|
||
|
|
||
|
PS: I *Demand* To Be Let Back On MSP!
|
||
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|