Photos of bugging device found in Dublin vehicle

Via The Day They Tried to Kill Me:

A sophisticated bugging and tracking device has been unearthed in the vehicle of a member of the Dublin 32 County Sovereignty Movement. The device was secreted internally into the dashboard of the vehicle and was equipped with its own self contained power supply. The manner by which the device was installed strongly suggests that those who planted it took considerable time to effect this and was obviously professionally done. The device bears English Manufacturing Labels but as of yet it is uncertain whether it originates from a British, Irish or joint British/Irish intelligence source.

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Anonymous

You claim to live in Ireland and have never heard of the 32 county Sovereignty Movement? Good Lord I thought us Americans were unaware. Gee, It’s only been in existence for a few decades. Its leaders jailed, etc. Might I also suggest you google: Bobby Sands (brother of a leader of the movement. Also involved in some type of hunger thing.) IRA, UDA, Sinn Fien, Northern Ireland or just pick up a newspaper.
Anonymous

lets take this opportunity to remember that private US citizens and gaddafi’s libya funded the IRA and prolonged the conflict, which resulted in

“The bare facts are that of the 3, 285 deaths in the conflict from July 1969 to December 1993, Republicans have killed 1,928, Loyalists 911, British forces 357, Irish Republic forces have killed 3 and “others” [deaths impossible to link to a military group] 86. Of these, 3,059 occurred in N. Ireland, 91 in the South, 118 in Britain and 17 in continental Europe.”

from http://www.inac.org/irishhistory/deaths

more than were killed in the twin towers bombing and a comparable number to the US soldiers killed in iraq.
Anonymous

“Loonier organisations” were supported by millions of Irish Americans and helped fund the revolution.

“Loonier organisations” were supported by millions of Wahhabist fanatics and helped fund 9/11.

Just for comparison…
Anonymous

The device was secreted internally into the dashboard of the vehicle…

Ewww. So an alien robot bug of some sort attacked this vehicle and this is the larva it laid inside the dashboard? Will the device eventually grow and use the vehicle’s internals as its own building blocks as it grows, eventually splitting the vehicle’s body open and crawling out?
markbellis

“Given the age of the main component, identifying information was left on it (unusual for professional bugging devices) and that similar-looking auto alarm systems exist, its real purpose can be questioned. Is it a bug, or did someone buy a used car not knowing it was outfitted with an alarm system at one time?” – Kevin’s Security Scrapbook
http://www.spybusters.com/blog/2008/03/bugging-device-found.html
odaiwai

whois for 32csm.info is as follows:

Registrant Name:Brad Costello
Registrant Organization:VodaHost
Registrant Street1:1220 North Market Street
Registrant Street2:Suite 606
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Wilmington
Registrant State/Province:DE
Registrant Postal Code:19801
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.3022833777

Why is an organisation which is purportedly Irish Republican being registered in the US?
Jeff

Scottfree, WTF would I care if you don’t like a statement of truth? Do you know a different American history than I do? Do you know a different Irish history than I do? –YOU– may not like the world EVIL or Overlords, but the words reflect a situation that many would call TRUE. That is why we declared independence. You obviously lack any sort of legitimate education. Now go wank off like the stupid sod that you are.

Takuan, yes there are. Independence and Democracy come with a price.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Calm down now, all of you. Better to explain than to shout.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Also, Mark Bellis, could you please be more careful about permalinks? I nearly deleted that as spam before I spotted the article you meant.
scottfree

Probably the Irish/Iraq lesson is the US should keep its nose out of places it doesn’t belong.

Ot:

What is usually given as cause for the US war of independence is taxation without representation, which is bad, sure, but it remains somewhat hysterical to, for instance, still rail against good old German George III or ruin all that nice tea. I would recommend reading Zinn on the US revolution and what sort of freedom US patriots bought.

If you were talking about Asia or the Middle East or indeed Ireland, no one would be quicker then me to agree with you about British colonialism, which was terrible. I find it awfully quaint, however, when people from the US proudly bring up their glorious revolution. Actually, if France didn’t have problems of its own, the colonies probably would have been, effectively, French. Look it up.
arkizzle

Jeff:
The difference in your original position and the story you told about your friend is this: Having money and actually going somewhere to do something positive with it on the ground is entirely different to sending money off to some organization whose motives and practices may be unclear.

Kudos to your friend for securing investment and generating jobs and income. Not so much to funding paramilitary groups, intent on not only separatism, but power in it’s own right.

OTOH

Scottfree:
There was deninitely some evil, definitely a lot of overlording, and it definitley originated through the actions of the British. “Evil British overlords” may be oversimplification and slightly offensive in todays climate, but the nugget of truth is valid.

Takuan:
Maybe.

How about getting the military out of the country before generations have grown up with an ingrained sense of ‘enemy’ and oppression and forgotten the reasons why, and only remember to hate.

The trouble in so many of these situations (British in NI, Serbs in Kosovo, Chinese in Tibet, Israelis in Palestine) is that one side’s youth grow up carrying the wounds and oppressions of generations past and the other side carries the feelings of irrational hatred toward them for just being there.

After a few generations, the reasons are forgotten, leaving only the ingrained sense of hatred for an arbitrary label, “protestant”, “catholic”, “Serb”, “Albanian” etc.

Occupying forces depend on this to promote their agenda. People born in a place will not be as willing to move on as immigrants are, so an important part of occupation is to settle your people in the land you are occupying and have them breed.

Once you get to that stage, it is near impossible to reason feelings of hatred or oppression away, suggesting that the oppression might stop, if we just let go of the past and decided what kind of future we wanted. This is why official apologies are so important. “Closure” is something that can really make a difference to letting history just be history rather than a reason to fight.
arkizzle

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that America will try to “settle” Iraq, far from it, I was simply explaining my view on such things.
arkizzle

“Why is an organisation which is purportedly Irish Republican being registered in the US?”

Hal: Agreed, America has been the biggest funder of paramilitary and terrorist organisations in Ireland for decades.

It was quite the joke when America lauched it’s War on Terror.
Anonymous

I’d be horrified if the Gardai (Irish police) were not keeping close surveillance on the Real IRA. It is a bona fide terrorist organisation, responsible for (among other atrocities) the Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people, and injured more than 200. Given the very blurry lines between the 32 County Sovereignty Committee and the RIRA, that’s inevitably means that some of the 32CSC’ members are going to be under surveillance
Raj77

Sometimes, when people who have no first-hand experience of the situation are fanatically defending their monetary support of organisations who have murdered your family members within the last 30 years, it’s tempting to shout.

I have close friends whose families were IRA soldiers in the 1970s, and even they hold considerable contempt for the blind cheerleading of Irish-Americans like Jeff. Nearly 2,000 civilians died during the Troubles, of a population of less than 1.5 million- a price Jeff’s willing to pay for my freedom. How nice of him. The PIRA campaign entrenched unionism to the extent that it has prolonged partition, as well as sectarianism which will likely persist for another century.
Anonymous

There are many “Hibernian Societies” in the USA that exist to keep the Irish conflict funded and armed. When I was a wee lad I visited several in the Pittsburgh area; I don’t know if those particular ones still exist.

That Wilmington address is right up the road from where I work. The phone number and ZIP are consistent with the physical address.
Raj77

@Jeff: As a genuine Irish person, I should probably inform you that there’s no such thing as the Irish Orphans’ Fund. The closest thing is the late-Victorian Irish Soldiers’ Widows & Orphans’ Fund, which paid donations to the families of Irish soldiers serving in the British Army. I don’t know who’s really been getting hold of your money, but it’s always worth doing your research. If you want to help Irish kids in difficulty, donate to Barnardo’s in Ireland.
andrewm

That seems far too big to have been produced by an “intelligence agency”. The guys at SparkFun build much smaller GPS/cellular devices (such as http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8289), and they’re just a couple guys running a small business. I suspect a state-funded intelligence agency could do even better.
wyst

That looks a lot more like a wireless alarm system than a bugging device. The modem (the m2050 box) is a decade old.

Are we sure they didn’t buy a used car, and just now discover it used to have an alarm?
Takuan

now THAT sounds likely.
Anonymous

@OGRE LAWLESS – I think you misinterpreted Pauric saying he’d ‘never heard of’ this organisation when you pointed him to Google. Sure, he can do a search for it but his point (I’m assuming) was that he had not heard of it up until this point, emphasising that it is not widely known in Ireland.
Jeff

Raj77. You’re right. The money goes to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Detroit, part of which goes the Irish Fund–a philanthopic network of giving. Whild growing up my family always called it the Orphans fund, probably because that the best way for children to relate to why they are giving. We later learned we were helping Ireland become free from British rule, something that any American can relate to. Or should if they know their history. Some of us American Irish love our homeland and give money to support all sorts of Irish efforts. As for Hal: you are rude. Get bent
A_B

“its own self contained power supply” AKA “batteries.”
Ogre Lawless

Pauric — let me introduce you to a wonderful thing called “Google” that will point you at all sorts of information.

Paranoia runs hand-in-hand with (fringe|extremist) political groups, it seems. Why go with the simple solution when you can tailor one to fit your belief system (zomg, everyone is out to get us). I mean, not that they don’t have cause perhaps, but nothing bolsters one’s feelings of being a VIP bad guy like being able to claim myzterius divvicez in one’s dash. (since when did Sweden == England?? I musta missed that. They gonna bomb them next?)

I’m with some other folks in saying pics or GTFO: without a picture of the thing in-situ with leads to mics, etc, its no more convincing than any other lump of hardware.
Songe

I just found out my computer is full of electronics! I am being bugged by the KGB/MI6/007/CIA/FBI/STASI/DOD/OMG/BBQ! Better email pictures of this to cryptome. Dear cryptome, what is BIOS?
Hal

@20 “Jeff” feels hard cos he gets to claim he supports “the lads”.
Thinkerer

I love it! Secret bugging devices the size of a shoebox with huge batteries and all the serial numbers intact. Sell it on Ebay!
fcummins

“Jeff” articulates a point of view despised by almost everyone in Ireland. Simplistic American interfering crap might be roughly how we might call it. I’m Irish, and have lived here 45 years on and off. Nobody who watched the troubles eat the country alive for 35 years could stomach the “us American Irish” line. Hal is on the money.
Hal

Here’s a link to a BBC story about the bugging of Gerry Adam’s car in 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/555715.stm

I don’t doubt that “Garda Intelligence” or MI5 spend time looking at the various “dissident republican” groups like the 32 County Sovereignty Movement which is allegedly the political wing of the RIRA and considered a foreign terrorist organisation by the US Govt.

“I live in Ireland and I’ve never heard of this Dublin 32 County Sovereignty Movement before.”
Well most Irish people don’t pay any attention whatsoever to this stuff, why would you?

“Why is an organisation which is purportedly Irish Republican being registered in the US?”
The loonier the organisation the more likely they are to rely on Irish Americans for funding. Sinn Fein still relies on fundraising in the US for a significant portion of its funding for example.

That seems far too big to have been produced by an “intelligence agency”.
Plausible deniability!
Jeff

Oh Dubliner, what can I say to a person who has so little regard or respect for the millions of Irish that came to America, and any other country that would take us, and who worked their way out of poverty only to remember those back home, and make a special effort to send money back. And this is when they could hardly makes ends meet! The fact that American Irish efforts were instrumental in helping achieve Irish independence is something that many of us in the States feel pround of. The fact that some in Ireland feel the need to disrespect their American brothers and siters says more about YOU than us. You are not who we come to see when we come back home. Learn your history and be more respectuful. And your arse is probably an unfit place for anything other than your brain. Shit for brains, as it were.
js2347

“helping Ireland become free from British rule”

This sort of stuff makes me angry. I was raised a Catholic living in the north. So much of the IRA’s funding came from ‘Irish’ Americans wanting to support ‘the cause’, without stopping to consider what the actual effects might be.

The old cliche of “one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter” is thrown about a lot, but the terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland (or The 6 Counties, or the Occupied North, or Ulster, or whatever you want to call it) often bombed and killed indiscriminately (check http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/151985.stm for an example).

If Americans nostalgic for a land most of them have never even visited had been a bit more enlightened and able to tell the difference between philanthropic giving and funding terrorism, then there’d be a a lot more people walking around in Ireland today.
Jeff

“Loonier organisations” were supported by millions of Irish Americans and helped fund the revolution. I give to a crazy Irish fund called the Irish Orphans Fund. Us American Irish love the crazy ones.
redbook

Looks like a packet-radio interface that would have been connected to a serial display or terminal mounted in the cab. The two RJ11 connectors on the left going to a keyboard, display and possibly printer. This would provide the driver with simple text based communication to a central control room. Used by dispatch and delivery guys, engineers etc., whilst on the road.

Hardly covert as it would have required an externally mounted antenna about 6-12″ long!

My guess – guy’s vehicle is an old company van or truck, he’s bought it second-hand and it’s been left there by the by the previous owners.
Jeff

JS2347, people should fight for what they think is right. Or perhaps you think Americans shouldn’t have declared their independence from the tyranny of their evil British overlords? America won its freedom, and many of those American-Irish wanted the same for their homeland. If you don’t like it, too fracking bad. My best friend growing up was fresh off the boat from Northern Ireland, and guess what? His family was Catholic and damn glad to be out from under British descrimination. And his back now, in Waterford, with a company backed with American-Irish money. Good for him. He’s been part of the Irish Tiger, helping his fellows with good paying jobs. The company’s next target is the North, which as you know, could use some investment. And, God willing, there will be some American money left to help make this investment happen.
bricology

“Dear cryptome, what is BIOS?”

Not “what”, but “whom”. It’s the “Big International Organization of Spies”, of course!
The Unusual Suspect

1. Not THAT sophisticated. The damn thing is the size of a shoebox and looks like a ’70s Soviet cellphone.

2. How did “a member of the Dublin 32 County Sovereignty Movement” think to tear apart the dashboard of their particular car, and delve into the various black boxes within, to discover this?
scottfree

Jeff, mate, nobody remembers the troubles fondly, and still less those who supported the troubles throuh well meaning ignorance. Both Republican and Loyalist militias are basically street gangs these days, to which any number of people could testify. To give them money would be like giving money to the Bloods or Crypts because you moved out of San Jose, only worse. These guys have bombs.

In the UK, terrorism is a much realer subject than the US. It wasn’t that long ago bombs were going off all over London. Liberal thouh I may be, I don’t particularly want to hear anyone defend that. It really isn’t such a straight forward thing, as you seem to imply. If maybe you’re party to a different history, I’d like to hear it.
madsci

Wish they had some better pictures. I ship a fair number of tracking devices to the UK and Ireland (for tracking of emergency responders and such, nothing designed for covert installation) and while it doesn’t look like any of the equipment is mine, it’d be interesting to examine it in more detail.

I’m curious what the row of modular connectors are for. Normally these things don’t need any external connectors other than power, GPS antenna, and cellular (or 2-way radio) antenna. What else was it wired into? It says bugging device, so was it just microphones?
scottfree

Evil British overlords!!!!!!??????? WTF? Your history is less convincing by the post.
katsoulis

Was it putting out any kind of signal?
PauricTheLodger

Hey There,

First of all, I live in Ireland and I’ve never heard of this Dublin 32 County Sovereignty Movement before. It seems like they are trying to get their name out and about.

Second, I agree with comment #1, surely they’d have better listening devices at this stage… even in here in Ireland :P

Third, what kind of idiot doesn’t take the labels of a damn bugging and tracking device?!

Thanks,
P
manicbassman

if it had really been planted by an intelligence unit, there would have been nothing pointing back to whoever had really planted it…
Takuan

looking ahead in Iraq, are there any useful lessons learned in Ireland that could be applied by ordinary Iraqis over the coming few decades?
The Unusual Suspect

It appears to be an Ericsson M2000series “Mobidem”:

http://www.mobileinfo.com/Product_Dir/wrls_net_infra.htm

“M2000 is a small a small low power radio modem that can be built into PC or other equipment. It has no power source of its own. It does not have its own antenna, which must be designed specifically for the host equipment. It has rated data transfer rates of 1200 to 9600 bps. It supports Mobitex MACS, AT and X.28 protocols. There are three versions of M2000:

* M2050 425-460 MHz UK
* M2060 410-432 MHz Rest of Europe
* M2090 896-941 MHz USA and Canada

Major applications of M2000 are in telemetry, vending machines, kiosks, etc.”

It appears to have been modified to run off 4 rechargeable D cells.