From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 13:06:56 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Fwd: FC: EU eavesdropping on Iridium satellite phone system
In-Reply-To: <199811280332.TAA02042@smtp.well.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19981129233444.008ea910@idiom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hugh Daniel and various other people have commented (or ranted :-)
about the difference in wiretap capabilities between satellite systems
that do space-to-space relay connections for user-to-user calls and
systems that always include a ground segment even if it's not needed,
and which move traffic mostly on the ground instead of in space.

The primary reasons for doing this have been to reduce interference
by government PTTs or other monopoly telecom providers who get
a cut of the financial action this way, but it also makes the
system accessible to every wiretap-happy police force whose
territory the terrestrial segment passed through,
and the US government has probably been one of many players
trying to maximize government access.


At 10:21 PM 11/27/98 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>any reactions? some of my newspaper colleagues are thinking of writing
>about this...
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
....
>>As a Europol internal document obtained by Telepolis shows, 
>>massive attempts on the part of European police forces are 
>>underway to acquire the ability to eavesdrop on the Iridium system, 
>>currently in a sensitive stage of expansion. 
....
>>http://www.telepolis.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/1667/1.html

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639