Sat phone permit "wire"taps

[Ted_Anderson@transarc.com]

I found these paragraphs in a recent Space News interesting.  They were
at the end of an article titled "Military Officials Open To Using
Civilian Links" in the July 3rd issue. 

  "Officials said government police authorities have expressed concern
that satellite telephone systems may enable people to conduct
conversations that are out of the earshot of government investigators. 
This would be particularly true in an area where, for example, there
were no gateway through which government investigators could tap into
calls. 
  "Iridium, Globalstar, Inmarsat-P and Odyssey all plan to include
features to permit authorized eavesdropping, officials said. 
  "``Iridium will include a leased land line to areas where there are
now local gateways to permit monitoring,'' Johnson said.  ``We are
willing to put the technical capability to do this in the hands of the
governments.  They then will have to pay to have all those people listen
to all those telephone calls.''" 

Ted Anderson