{"id":26305,"date":"2007-07-23T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:15:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T05:15:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:15:04","slug":"is_the_fbi_listening_to_this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/07\/23\/is_the_fbi_listening_to_this\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the FBI Listening to This?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Tim in Wynantskill, New York, nice to have you, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s an honor to talk to you — and it\u2019s pronounced Wynant-skill, New York. It\u2019s about 50 miles east of Albany.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ve never heard of it and I probably will never go there, but I appreciate the pronunciation correction.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I have to repronounce [sic] it to people all day long wherever I happen to be traveling.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So it\u2019s Wynantskill?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Well, I apologize. See, but that won\u2019t take away from accuracy rating, because that\u2019s not an opinion.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, the reason for my phone call is Fox News ran a story a little over a week ago about that the FBI could actually turn your cell phone on and listen to your conversation even when your phone wasn\u2019t on, and there really hasn\u2019t been any play…<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait just a second. They can turn your phone on and listen to your conversation even if your phone\u2019s not on? So how will you have a conversation when your phone isn\u2019t on?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, what I find out between seeing that report and talking to you is there are technology through the cellular phone companies that allow them, with permission of the FBI to actually turn your phone on, even when your phone is off, and listen in. The technology does exist. My question to you is —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait, wait. Hold it. Before you get to the question, I have to understand this. If your phone is off, then there\u2019s no way you intend to have a conversation, so even if they can turn it on —<\/p>\n

CALLER: True.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — you\u2019re not having a conversation because you think it\u2019s off. So what are they listening to?<\/p>\n

CALLER: The reason it\u2019s true is even when your phone is off, there\u2019s continual signals going to the local —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know that. I know that. But you\u2019re talking about them listening in to a conversation that you\u2019re having when you\u2019re not having one.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, they can listen to the conversation that\u2019s going on in the room even though you may not be talking on the phone, and that\u2019s a scary part.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Let me see, now. I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, my new iPhone.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The iPhone is off. Are you suggesting to me that if the FBI wanted to, they could call AT&amp;T — this is the service provider for iPhones — and turn this phone on, even though I don\u2019t know it\u2019s on, and they could be listening to me right now talk to you on this phone that\u2019s off?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s exactly what the report on Fox said, and the only play I\u2019ve been seeing on it is on the blogs on the Internet where it is given some play, and I\u2019m flabbergasted this isn\u2019t a national outrage. I\u2019m just flabbergasted.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, I heard the story. I don\u2019t remember this detail, but I do remember the aspect that the FBI is able to listen in on cell phone conversation, but I was not aware that my innocent little iPhone here that\u2019s powered down could be turned on at anytime. Actually, what he\u2019s saying is it doesn\u2019t needed to be turned on.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s right. (cell breaking up)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, no. What he\u2019s saying is that this thing is constantly sending out a signal whether it\u2019s on or off, and when it\u2019s sending out a signal — see, the thing is, this doesn\u2019t sound workable to me. I\u2019m trying to understand this. I\u2019m not talking to anybody on the phone. So if I think it\u2019s off and they turn it on, or they tap into what\u2019s happening with the phone, you\u2019re saying they can hear a room conversation through the phone microphone, not listening to a phone call itself, just listening to what the microphone of the phone is picking up?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s the crux of the story, that it was a way for Big Brother to go listen in, and the outrageous part of the story was that the federal government claimed that they were going to use the technology against organized crime. As if organized crime is the biggest issue facing our country today. It just sounds like BS.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You mean like what\u2019s going on in the NBA?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. Let\u2019s find out if the referee was actually taking money for the game.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So organized crime is the biggest problem, not terrorism?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s what this story was.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. Well, look, we\u2019ve been even while talking to you. We have been researching this and we found a story about this on ZDnet. I\u2019m not going to have time to read it \u2019til the next break, but I\u2019ll look at that, and I\u2019ll be able to more accurately comment to you once having read the details of the story.<\/p>\n

CALLER: May I ask you (garbled) before I go?<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, your phone\u2019s breaking up, so the FBI is probably listening in here. I hope he\u2019s okay out there. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, we\u2019ve got the details here on this cell phone being activated by the FBI, activating the microphone even when you think the phone is off, being used as an eavesdropping tool. This story is from last December. This story is almost a year old. ‘December 1, 2006 — The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone\u2019s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a ‘roving bug,\u2019 and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him. Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia. The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the ‘roving bug\u2019 was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect\u2019s cell phone. Kaplan\u2019s opinion said that the eavesdropping technique ‘functioned whether the phone was powered on or off.” <\/p>\n

The only solution you have to this is to peel your battery out of there. It\u2019s the only thing you can do. If you have an iPhone, you can\u2019t do that. You have to send the phone to Apple to get the battery replaced. You could take the phone apart if you want to, but it\u2019s not as simple as in other phones. Now, here\u2019s the thing. The judge, Lewis Kaplan, approved the roving bugs. So there was judicial oversight, precious judicial oversight. Like the FISA Court. There was precious judicial oversight here, before they activated the program. So how does this violate anything? If a judge approved it, how does it violate anything? (interruption) Well, I\u2019m just reacting to… (interruption) I\u2019ve known for a long time. I know how cell phones work. I\u2019ve been told for years that when you think your phone is off, don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking it\u2019s not transmitting. You can be tracked. If somebody knows your number, you can be tracked. The company can find out where you are. I first heard about this when I lived in Manhattan. People were crossing the George Washington Bridge or the 59th Street Bridge, and I forget how I found out about this. It was an event that alerted some consumer that his phone was being tracked. Oh! I\u2019ll tell you what it was. There were thieves, electronic thieves stationed on the Manhattan side and the people crossing the 59th Street Bridge were having their phone numbers stolen because the phone is broadcasting all the information, whether it\u2019s on or off. That\u2019s where I first learned that all this was possible. I\u2019ve not heard of this particular story, and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s triggered this in the last couple days because I\u2019m aware this story being brought up again, but it\u2019s nine months old. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Tim in Wynantskill, New York, nice to have you, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network. CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s an honor to talk to you — and it\u2019s pronounced Wynant-skill, New York. It\u2019s about 50 miles east of Albany. RUSH: I\u2019ve never heard of it and I probably will never go there, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the FBI Listening to This? - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/07\/23\/is_the_fbi_listening_to_this\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Is the FBI Listening to This? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Tim in Wynantskill, New York, nice to have you, sir. 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