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FBI Illegally Tapped Phone Phreaks In 1969

Posted by kdawson on from the nothing-new-under-the-sun dept.

xmedar writes "In his talks about the history of Apple, Woz has often recounted how the 1971 Esquire article 'Secrets of the Little Blue Box' set him on the road to phone phreaking. Now someone has obtained the FBI file of one of the phreaks, Joe Engressia (who later changed his name to Joybubbles), via Freedom of Information requests. The file reveals that Engressia was illegally wiretapped by the FBI and the phone company back in 1969. J. Edgar Hoover considered the blind college student a national security risk and wrote a memo about him to John Ehrlichman."

4 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Illegal wiretaps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...an American tradition, going unpunished for __39__ years.

  2. Re:Incoming republicans by bobbozzo · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'll take Hunter S. Thompson's word on the matter, he was there, watching him, and being much more vocal on the matter of government corruption than teenage druggies give him credit for now.

    --The FNP

    Nixon. Vocal. About. Corruption. ???

    hilarious!

    --
    Nothing to see here; Move along.
  3. Re:If you are illegally hacking phone systems by T3Tech · · Score: 0, Troll

    I knew the FBI were essentially terrorists, I just didn't know they had such a penchant for bombing public buildings. I thought they pretty much stuck to blowing up private buildings of citizens.

    Even further I didn't realize the FBI was so seriously against the weather underground. I mean really, they probably have better data than the weather channel.

    --
    Of course I didn't RTFA... why would I do that? You really are new here aren't you? Don't let my UID fool you.
  4. You have a strange idea of what "these days" means by biolysis · · Score: 0, Troll

    "It applies more and more to the behaviour of Western Governments these days. "

    This story is about something that happened in 1969.

    I don't know what's worse, your post or the fools who modded it interesting when what they meant was "YEAH FUCK AMERICA! I'LL OBVIOUSLY MOD ANYTHING DENOUNCING THE "WEST" (a trollish euphemism for America) UP!"