Mr Kennedy,
Long time no soliciting of your awesome legal knowledge! (p.s. I got 80% for that research assignment on cop killers you helped me with a few years back - your âinterviewâ was acknowledged with a vigorously flourished tick, in pencil, by the bloke marking it, followed by a quizical âsummary?â)
On to the wiretaps. I was wondering, for personal satisfaction and a route with which to continue my own nasty and unscrupulous savaging of the mores of Taiwanese society, how it all works. Fortunately, despite my having a land line in my apartment, there is no phone attached. It broke a while back, and because my shorty was the only one using it (yet, surprisingly, not paying for itâŚ) I felt it was in my best interests not to get a new one. Thatâs neither here nor there, though.
The phone line is registered in my landladyâs fatherâs name. For interestâs sake, is this enough of a winding path to throw off the snoops? Do you know how âtheyâ know which lines to tap? Are we being traced through household registrations for example? Or are those foxy minxes we give our numbers to in the hope of having our bells rung really undercover agents hell-bent on doing us in? Are our companies selling us out?! Answers, man, answers!!
Likewise, are cell-phones at risk? Again, my cell number âbelongsâ to a Taiwanese bloke I knew in 2001 and havenât seen for years. The bill gets sent to his place, but I just go to the Taiwan Big Brother Big offices and get a printout of the statement and then pay it. However, I always had the feeling that he was involved in some shady dealings, so I guess that thereâs a risk of him being under surveillance, and therefore me too (well, for a time at least - it is well-known that I fart rose-scented treats, and crap wholesome goodness. My sweat is likened to the tears of angels, and my breath a refreshing breeze on hot and humid days).
How about text messages? Can these be intercepted?
I do have a vague recollection of a few months back having a chat with a mate, and suddenly something I said was repeated, in a voice that couldâve been mine (you know, husky and sensual) but certainly wasnât a member of the Taiwanese constabularyâs, nor my mateâs. At the time we were talking about where to go for dinner, and it was the location that was repeated. We were both on cells.
What can be done with information gathered off wiretaps? Is it used as a reference point for starting investigations and giving the boys in blue a kick-start regarding which paths to follow? Or is it admissible as evidence of wrong-doing?
So when you have the time, Iâd like the answers on no more than 1 A4 piece of paper (or 300 words), and try and make it neat this time, okay? 