by Shafiq Awan in Daily Times, Oct 6, 2022
The writer is a senior journalist
Today in Pakistan there are hard talks about the scandal of the audio leaks of the Prime Minister’s House. This scandal is not related to any single government, but the previous governments as well.
Sources say that apparently the facilitators of this scandal are the political leaders and officers of the bureaucracy who have easy access to the Prime Minister House. This scandal has come to forth due to the political tussle between the present coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the opposition led by Imran Khan as their sole aim was to humiliate each other.
In Watergate Scandal, a character “Deep Throat” was created who communicated with the Washington Post reporters who broke the story. In the same manner, a “hacker” is being credited for the audio leaks, but it seems ultimately like Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, the informer of this scandal will be an insider. The Watergate scandal was credited to two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. After this scandal, if any secret of political manipulation or government corruption was revealed in any part of the world, the suffix “gate” was attached to it. The Watergate scandal also got its name because of the building called “Watergate” where the offices of Democrats were intended to be installed
Sources expressed doubt that the two main political forces have direct or indirect contact with this so-called hacker. Remember that Bob Verwood, a reporter who later exposed the Watergate scandal, revealed in 2005 that his informant “Deep Throat” was actually Mark Felt, who held a high position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It is possible that if there is a transparent investigation, the audio leak scandal is likely to be linked to an insider spy.
While I contacted six current and former federal ministers and serving and retired senior bureaucrats, they expressed doubt on the maintenance and repair staff regarding fixing the recording device. But the question arises that whether this staff can do this without any support? Even if the hypothesis of using money is accepted, is it possible without any support? However, everyone admitted that audio recording from a sensitive location like the Prime Minister’s House is not possible without a housekeeper.
Now coming to the infamous Watergate scandal, 50 years ago, US President Richard Nixon and his team had to resign due to this scam, after which Vice President Gerald Ford took his place. Although, the Watergate scandal was not related to American national security and its scope was to install secret devices in the election office of the Democratic National Committee, a subsidiary organization of the Democratic Party, and its purpose was to gain awareness of the policy of the opposing political party which resulted into the US president and his entire team’s resignation. However, the audio leaks of our Prime Minister House are directly related to our national security, but forget the resignation of the prime minister, even the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, who is responsible for this security, couldn’t be bothered. Ironically, he is the member of the investigation team. The reason is that all officials of this cadre are considered to be the blue-eyed boys of the prime minister. According to my information, till date, the President of Pakistan to the prime minister and all the cabinet members, personally and officially, their offices, houses, mobile phones, camp offices and vehicles are still bugged. The same is the case with the officers posted at these places.
Generally, four mechanisms are adopted for such recording which include spot device, local device, mobile phone and cyber breach. Spot devices are fixed and can be retrieved later from the card they contain to retrieve data from them. Such devices are affixed to chairs, tables, lamps or anywhere around the meeting.
A local device is a button on your clothes, a pen, a lighter, a watch, a landline phone, a public announcement system, glasses, contact lenses, a bank ATM card, a purse, a women’s cosmetic item, lipstick, a hair band etc. hearing aids and other similar items are installed in such devices and they can be both wireless and wireless. These types of wireless devices are not affected by signal jamming devices because recording with them is the same as if you were to hold a microphone and record someone directly into a recording device. The mobile phone is a double-edged weapon in this regard as it facilitates this type of espionage by providing both local data recording and wireless communication. Local data recording is done inside the phone so its signal is not easy to jam. The range of cyber breach is quite wide and there are countless ways beyond Wi-Fi connection. But this also requires a local handler.
According to my information, apart from political elements, high government officials are involved in the “audio leak scandal” whose daily routine is to visit the Prime Minister House. The political elements also include that group of officers who are lucky enough to have so many overseas postings and tours. While the political people include the most influential people whose routine security check-ups make the security staff tremble. Although Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has not given himself a security check-up, but even today some influential people are being exempted.
The question arises whether the characters of the Prime Minister House scandal will ever be exposed or the series will continue after a break. Our political and military leadership will have to take such measures so that such a scandal does not happen again.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/1007896/from-watergate-scandal-to-audio-leaks/
From Watergate scandal to audio leaks
by Shafiq Awan in Daily Times, Oct 6, 2022
The writer is a senior journalist
Today in Pakistan there are hard talks about the scandal of the audio leaks of the Prime Minister’s House. This scandal is not related to any single government, but the previous governments as well.
Sources say that apparently the facilitators of this scandal are the political leaders and officers of the bureaucracy who have easy access to the Prime Minister House. This scandal has come to forth due to the political tussle between the present coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the opposition led by Imran Khan as their sole aim was to humiliate each other.
In Watergate Scandal, a character “Deep Throat” was created who communicated with the Washington Post reporters who broke the story. In the same manner, a “hacker” is being credited for the audio leaks, but it seems ultimately like Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, the informer of this scandal will be an insider. The Watergate scandal was credited to two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. After this scandal, if any secret of political manipulation or government corruption was revealed in any part of the world, the suffix “gate” was attached to it. The Watergate scandal also got its name because of the building called “Watergate” where the offices of Democrats were intended to be installed
Sources expressed doubt that the two main political forces have direct or indirect contact with this so-called hacker. Remember that Bob Verwood, a reporter who later exposed the Watergate scandal, revealed in 2005 that his informant “Deep Throat” was actually Mark Felt, who held a high position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It is possible that if there is a transparent investigation, the audio leak scandal is likely to be linked to an insider spy.
While I contacted six current and former federal ministers and serving and retired senior bureaucrats, they expressed doubt on the maintenance and repair staff regarding fixing the recording device. But the question arises that whether this staff can do this without any support? Even if the hypothesis of using money is accepted, is it possible without any support? However, everyone admitted that audio recording from a sensitive location like the Prime Minister’s House is not possible without a housekeeper.
Now coming to the infamous Watergate scandal, 50 years ago, US President Richard Nixon and his team had to resign due to this scam, after which Vice President Gerald Ford took his place. Although, the Watergate scandal was not related to American national security and its scope was to install secret devices in the election office of the Democratic National Committee, a subsidiary organization of the Democratic Party, and its purpose was to gain awareness of the policy of the opposing political party which resulted into the US president and his entire team’s resignation. However, the audio leaks of our Prime Minister House are directly related to our national security, but forget the resignation of the prime minister, even the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, who is responsible for this security, couldn’t be bothered. Ironically, he is the member of the investigation team. The reason is that all officials of this cadre are considered to be the blue-eyed boys of the prime minister. According to my information, till date, the President of Pakistan to the prime minister and all the cabinet members, personally and officially, their offices, houses, mobile phones, camp offices and vehicles are still bugged. The same is the case with the officers posted at these places.
Generally, four mechanisms are adopted for such recording which include spot device, local device, mobile phone and cyber breach. Spot devices are fixed and can be retrieved later from the card they contain to retrieve data from them. Such devices are affixed to chairs, tables, lamps or anywhere around the meeting.
A local device is a button on your clothes, a pen, a lighter, a watch, a landline phone, a public announcement system, glasses, contact lenses, a bank ATM card, a purse, a women’s cosmetic item, lipstick, a hair band etc. hearing aids and other similar items are installed in such devices and they can be both wireless and wireless. These types of wireless devices are not affected by signal jamming devices because recording with them is the same as if you were to hold a microphone and record someone directly into a recording device. The mobile phone is a double-edged weapon in this regard as it facilitates this type of espionage by providing both local data recording and wireless communication. Local data recording is done inside the phone so its signal is not easy to jam. The range of cyber breach is quite wide and there are countless ways beyond Wi-Fi connection. But this also requires a local handler.
According to my information, apart from political elements, high government officials are involved in the “audio leak scandal” whose daily routine is to visit the Prime Minister House. The political elements also include that group of officers who are lucky enough to have so many overseas postings and tours. While the political people include the most influential people whose routine security check-ups make the security staff tremble. Although Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has not given himself a security check-up, but even today some influential people are being exempted.
The question arises whether the characters of the Prime Minister House scandal will ever be exposed or the series will continue after a break. Our political and military leadership will have to take such measures so that such a scandal does not happen again.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/1007896/from-watergate-scandal-to-audio-leaks/
Published in Pak Media comment