A bug in your office could hurt you in many ways. Theft of information is one, but the revelation that the bugging took place can have other ramifications as well. The discovery of an FBI bug in the mayor’s office by the Philadelphia Police, may have cost the opponent his election- even though he had nothing to do with it at all.
If you suspect that listening devices may have been installed in your office or conference room, the inspection and any follow up investigation needs to be handled very discretely.
Mitch Blacher from NBC10 was able to interview J.J. Klaver, the FBI agent who planted the bugs.
Site of 2003 FBI bugging operation, office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street
Former FBI Agent Who ‘Bugged’ Mayor Street’s Office Speaks Out by Mitch Blacher, NBC10.com
It was a pivotal moment in modern Philadelphia history – a listening device found in the sitting mayor’s office.
The devices’ discovery swayed an election. 12 years ago FBI special agent J.J. Klaver planted two listening devices in then mayor John Streets’ office. It was less than one month before an election. Street was down in the polls to Republican Sam Katz.
The FBI was investigating a pay for play scheme involving city contracts and had worked for months to listen in on conversations inside Street’s office.
“Our rouse if you will, was we were doing a security survey post 9-11,” Klaver said of how he and his team first snuck into Street’s office to draft a map for planning purposes. “I wanted to see what did the mayor’s office looked like,” he said. “Did it have a drop ceiling? What was the furniture? Did it have any alarms? Things like that.”
On Saturday, September 20, 2003 Klaver and two other agents snuck into city hall and broke into Streets’ office. Once inside Klaver put one listening device in the drop ceiling above a couch. The other he placed in a table in front of the window. “We were wrapping up getting everything installed and we got word from the surveillance teams that the mayor was on the move and might be heading back toward city hall,” Klaver said.
It was nearly midnight but Street was headed back to his office from a fundraiser. Klaver says the agents got out just in time. “We were walking out of one entrance of city hall and he was walking in another,” Klaver said.
At the time Klaver said he was one of only a few people who knew the mayor’s office was bugged. Klaver said he planted dozens of listening devices throughout his career. He said only one was ever found. Philadelphia police found the bug in the ceiling on October 7th, 2003.
Sketch of office made by agent J.J. Klaver
“There was a possibility that we could have gone in and removed our equipment, but a decision was made higher than me, to not do that,” Klaver said.
Street, his staff and Democrats from across the country used the bug’s discovery as a political opportunity, blaming the Bush White House for trying to influence the election by bugging the mayor’s office.
“I knew the truth,” Klaver said. “I knew it was preposterous to say the White House ordered us to bug a sitting mayor’s office but I couldn’t come out and say it was preposterous.”
“I thought we were going to win,” Street’s opponent Sam Katz said. “I thought it was the nail in the coffin.” Katz was up in polls before the bug’s discovery. He would lose the 2003 election. “I went from being up six in our polls to down 14 having barely moved my lips,” Katz said.
“What’s probably more disappointing to me personally than the actual device being found is the effect it had on the mayoral election,” Klaver said. “I wish it had never been found. If I could go back in time and do it differently, I would.”
The FBI did secure 24 convictions in its “pay to play” investigation, but the bug in Streets’ office never picked up any information used in trial. Mayor street was never charged.
Read more with video: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com
Other articles on this incident from 2003:
CNN.com 10/8/2003
“We have not confirmed that at all,” said FBI Special Agent Linda Vizi. “When the bug was found, we were made aware of it, and we will proceed from there.” … Street said he doesn’t know why the device was placed in his office or who put it there. It was found Tuesday during a routine security sweep by Philadelphia police, and the FBI was called in to investigate.
Philly.com 10/10/2003
…federal eavesdropping devices hidden in the office of Mayor John Street, the Democrat running for a second term. “I would like to know what’s up,” the mayor said angrily after the police found the bugs in the ceiling above his desk, only weeks from the election.
LA Times 10/12/2003
“The bugging has become the central issue in this election, but it remains shrouded in mystery because federal investigators won’t discuss any specifics about the reasons for the probe,” said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor and pollster at Millersville University, a state-run campus located about an hour outside Philadelphia. “Until somebody tells us what it’s all about, this becomes a real disservice — to the candidates and to the people who have to vote.”