Intelligence,and,Audio,Surveil technology Intelligence and Audio Surveillance in the United States

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The federal government of the United States of America has arather thorough intelligence machine at its disposal. The various organizationsare collectively called the IC (Intelligence Community). The IC itself is ledby the Director of National Intelligence and is comprised of 16 organizationsor elements.Examples of some of these elements are:The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)According to CIA official sources the CIA'sDirector is responsible for duties including:"Collecting intelligence through humansources and by other appropriate means, except that he shall have no police,subpoena, or law enforcement powers or internal security functions;""Correlating and evaluating intelligencerelated to the national security and providing appropriate dissemination ofsuch intelligence;""Providing overall direction for andcoordination of the collection of national intelligence outside the UnitedStates through human sources by elements of the Intelligence Communityauthorized to undertake such collection and, in coordination with otherdepartments, agencies, or elements of the United States Government which areauthorized to undertake such collection, ensuring that the most effective useis made of resources and that appropriate account is taken of the risks to theUnited States and those involved in such collection;""Performing such other functions andduties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the Presidentor the Director of National Intelligence may direct."*Fromofficial USgovernment media.The CIA itself is tasked with assisting thedirector in the above mission. To accomplish this, the CIA performs research, developmentand deployment of intelligence technologies. The CIA as an agency is anindependent source of analysis and information gathering that works closelywith the other members of the IC to ensure the most accurate intelligencepossible for all defense, law enforcement and legal bodies that utilize theirservices legally.FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI)The FBI focuses on threats to not only the nationbut the citizens of the United States of America. The Federal Bureau ofInvestigation protects against terrorist threats and activities, corruptpoliticians and dirty officials, foreign and domestic cyber-attacks,transnational and international criminal organizations, criminally insane andextremely dangerous persons, as well as protecting our civil rights fromindividual and government abuses.The FBI’s Operational Technology Division is theresearch and development center for the FBI’s gadgets and gizmos. The OTD basedin Quantico, VA isresponsible for creating and supplying the FBI with many of its’ cutting edgetechniques and surveillance technologies. Most of the work done is far toosensitive for public dissemination, but for the things we know about, it’spretty advanced stuff.Above and beyond technological advances the OTDis also responsible for most of the forensic media analysis done by the FBI.They also handle the training of FBI agents who need to be briefed in the useof the surveillance equipment and are even deployed on covert missions toinstall or set up their equipment.NationalSecurity Agency (NSA)The National Security Agency carries out"The Information Assurance mission" which is purposed with preventingforeign adversaries from accessing sensitive or classified national securityinformation. They also engage in signals intelligence by collecting,processing, and disseminating intelligence based off of foreign signalinterception.Intelligencein the Private Sector - Corporate and Personal SecurityThe government doesn't have a complete monopolyon surveillance though. There are countless private firms that contract theirservices out to governments, corporations and individuals for the purposes ofproviding information and support for defense, legal, and business purposes.These companies may provide forensic services in addition to investigativeservices to both the public and private sectors.Equipmentand MethodsThere are devices that are designed to becovertly installed and monitor an area or room and either record the goings onor broadcast back to a listening post. Some devices attach to phone systems torecord calls in either direction. Most intelligence gathering organizationskeep their methods a guarded secret and are loathe disclosing exactly whattechnologies they use.The telephone companies themselves can attach adevice called a pen register to determine and record the number of any phonethat is calling on a given line. With digital voice recorders and advances instorage and audio compression some of these devices can record for periods upto 2 weeks or more.Additionally, more advanced technologies areavailable such as infrared laser listening devices that can track thevibrations of a window pane and transform the infrared light into an audiostream thereby allowing the operator to listen in on a conversation in a sealedroom.ForensicAudioParabolic microphones (for listening from adistance), contact microphones (for listening through walls), covert bodyrecorders, and other field recording devices are designed to pick up speech inexceptional conditions or circumstances. However, while surveillancemicrophones and recorders make it possible, they often do so at the cost ofsound quality.This is where forensic audio equipment cansometimes be useful. Forensic audio filtering and other techniques can extracta great deal of information from a recording. This can be helpful withidentifying a speaker and his marginally intelligible words due to poorrecording conditions. However, even with the most sophisticated technology, audiorecordings can remain muddy. The recording may remain difficult to understandand possibly even impossible to make out even after a lot of cleanup. Forsituations like this, forensic transcription and speech decoding can beattempted, although there is still no guarantee that the recording can bedeciphered.Forensic transcription is a tedious process wherethe examiner uses sophisticated software and hardware to filter and visuallyexamine the speech waveform. Words may also be stretched to make each lettereasier to analyze while maintaining the proper pitch so the voice sounds rightand not like chipmunks. There are a lot of techniques used but all in all itcomes down to an incredible ability to take a noisy mess and extract the wordsof a speaker.TheLaws of the USThe problem with audio surveillance is that it is98% illegal. There are only 2 ways to legally record a conversation in the United States.The first way is to inform all parties of the conversation that it is beingrecorded either verbally or with big obvious signs posted near every microphonewhich rarely works very well if you are trying to be covert. The other way isby court order, which is not too likely to happen for the average citizen.There’s a vast difference in the technologyavailable for purchase and how audio surveillance can be used by the generalpublic and government agencies. While a civilian may not be able to legally tapa phone or point lasers at their neighbor for the purpose of garnering somegossip, there is some surveillance equipment out there and forensic audioservices available for people who find themselves in need of them. It’s usuallybest to consult with an attorney regarding the laws before presenting you audioevidence to the media, law enforcement, or the courts.