Fwd: [TSCM-L] Feds bugged bedroom, phones of FIU pair

[coderman]

hey, that sounds like a rotor machine.  they should have updated their
ciphers...

"""
The prosecutor said the couple used their cover at FIU to infiltrate
the exile community, spying on the university's president, Mitch
Maidique, and other exile leaders. He said they secretly communicated
with the Cuban intelligence directorate, using five-digit code in
short-wave radio transmissions.

Once the messages were received, they would input them into their
home computer, equipped with decryption technology.
"""

[... and a new enigma on ebay.  sounds a little fishy...  *grin*]
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/29/enigma_for_sale/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James M. Atkinson <jmatk at tscm.com>
Date: Mar 29, 2006 1:06 PM
Subject: [TSCM-L] Feds bugged bedroom, phones of FIU pair
To: TSCM-L <TSCM-L2006 at googlegroups.com>

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14209765.htm

CUBAN SPY CASE
Feds bugged bedroom, phones of FIU pair
New court evidence in the Cuba spy case reveals the United States
used wiretaps for years before agents arrested an FIU professor and
his counselor wife.
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver at MiamiHerald.com

Federal agents planted a bug in the bedroom of a Florida
International University a couple of years ago, netting evidence to
charge them as unregistered agents for the Cuban government,
according to court records.

The FBI also wiretapped the home phones of Professor Carlos Alvarez
and his counselor wife, Elsa Alvarez, from at least late 2001 until
last summer, collecting electronic evidence on practically all of
their conversations.

The reams of intercepts included mundane exchanges and even the
private musings between husband and wife.

The FBI's eavesdropping of the couple's home goes far beyond what was
first known about evidence in the case, which included alleged
''confessions'' to federal agents last summer and the confiscation of
the Alvarezes' home and FIU computers. The surveillance evidence
surfaced as part of their lawyers' efforts to revoke the couple's
detention before their scheduled May 8 trial.

It's unclear from the court record how these thousands and thousands
of surveillance intercepts will help the U.S. attorney's office
prosecute the couple, who are suspected of reporting on the exile
community and its leaders to Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government.

According to sources familiar with the case, the FBI had hoped the
electronic intercepts would provide leads on alleged spying activity
on behalf of the Cuban government. The evidence led only to the
Alvarezes' arrests in January. It's unclear why prosecutors chose to
charge them at that time.

The couple's lawyers say prosecutors have produced ''about 200
supposedly pertinent conversations'' recorded by the FBI, court
records show. The evidence remains sealed from the public. But the
Alvarezes' lawyers say the ''majority deals only with mundane
activities of daily life'' -- such as conversations about the
Alvarezes' dinner plans, the tenting of their South Miami home for
termites and meetings at their Catholic church.

THE DEFENSE STANCE

The couple's lawyers, Steven Chaykin and Jane Moscowitz, argue their
clients would not leave for Cuba if released because they have strong
ties to the community, including five children and elderly parents.

They are challenging whether the FBI lawfully obtained warrants to
conduct the electronic surveillance. The FBI obtained the warrants
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the
government to wiretap people in the United States suspected of being
agents for a foreign government or involved in terrorist activity overseas.

In the war on terror, the Bush administration has attracted sharp
criticism for authorizing warrantless domestic wiretaps without
approval from the secretive FISA court -- an issue that doesn't apply
to the Alvarez case.

It is not clear from court records how long the FBI conducted
electronic surveillance of the couple's home. But it appears the FISA
wiretaps of the Alvarezes may have begun years before the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. Post-9/11, Congress approved the USA Patriot
Act that allows federal agencies to use foreign intelligence wiretap
evidence for criminal investigations, such as the Alvarezes' case.

'On March 6, 2006, the government produced summaries of allegedly
`pertinent' recorded conversations produced by that surveillance
starting in December 2001 and ending July 4, 2005, although the
government states that the eavesdropping began earlier and continued
until the defendants' arrest on Jan. 6, 2006,'' the Alvarezes' lawyers wrote.

The attorneys, in their motion, asked the government to disclose the
documents related to the wiretap warrants. They are trying to
challenge evidence that could affect their clients' case before a jury.

They cited constitutional protections for Carlos Alvarez, 61, a
psychology professor, and his wife, Elsa, 55, a psychology counselor,
both U.S. citizens.

Referring to the FISA law, the attorneys said: No U.S. citizen ``may
be considered an agent of a foreign power solely upon the basis of
activities that are protected by the First Amendment. . . .''

For example, they argued, more than 40 of the ''pertinent'' FISA
recordings are telephone conversations between Carlos Alvarez and an
unidentified colleague regarding legally licensed culture-exchange
programs between the United States and Cuba.

PROTECTIVE ORDER

This month, federal prosecutors refused to turn over documents for
the FISA warrants to the Alvarezes' attorneys.

So far, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore has issued a protective
order that allows only members of the legal teams and their staffs to
review the declassified FISA intercepts for the upcoming trial.

Prosecutors apparently disclosed evidence about the FISA wiretaps to
show the judge that the Alvarezes are a ``serious risk of flight.''

Assistant U.S. attorney Brian Frazier cited Magistrate Judge Andrea
Simonton's January ruling in which she said the couple would receive
''a hero's welcome'' in Cuba.

The prosecutor said the couple used their cover at FIU to infiltrate
the exile community, spying on the university's president, Mitch
Maidique, and other exile leaders. He said they secretly communicated
with the Cuban intelligence directorate, using five-digit code in
short-wave radio transmissions.

Once the messages were received, they would input them into their
home computer, equipped with decryption technology.

Prosecutors say the couple traveled to Cuba, Mexico and other
countries to exchange information with their handlers from the Cuban
Directorate of Intelligence.

According to court filings, the Alvarezes reported on ''community
attitudes'' after the FBI's 1998 arrests of 10 Cubans charged with
spying. That high-profile espionage case was linked to the Cuban
government's shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue exile planes
over the Florida Straits that killed four Miami men two years earlier.

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