From: cmckie@ccs.carleton.ca (Craig McKie)
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 94 16:44:17 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Keyword voice searching
Message-ID: <9407292343.AA13728@superior.ccs.carleton.ca.YP.nobel>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Does anyone have access to the original article? The author is unnamed
in this version. One would wonder who the "congressional and other
sources" are as well.

 =============
Ottawa Citizen Friday July 29 1994 A9

Key words trigger U.S. security system

Seattle Times

WASHINGTON - Dozens of words, including "bomb", "assassination" and
"terrorist," apparently can trigger a recording device used by the
National Security Agency to monitor phone calls between the U.S. and
foreign countries.
          So say congressional and other sources who have been offered
a glimpse of the agency's secretive electronic intelligence gathering.
There is surveillance equipment, referred to simply as the big vacuum
cleaner, said to be capable of sweeping up conversations in the air,
recording them and then searching for words that might indicate some
hostile action against this country.
          In his book The Puzzle Palace, author James Bamford contends
the agency operates a worldwide network that can eavesdrop on almost
every phone conversation in the world.
          The agency has denied it has such broad capabilities.