Dear Long List of People Who've Written Me Asking What The Bulge On Bush's Back Was:

The official answer: wardrobe malfunction.

I know: speculation raged after photographs revealed a cigarette-pack-like protuberance beneath President Bush's suit coat during the 2004 presidential debates.

He addressed it, however. "I'm embarrassed to say it's a poorly tailored shirt," he told Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America.

Might the bulge have been a security measure he couldn't discuss? Yes.

Hypothetically, could it have been some sort of receiver, a means of receiving cues or assistance from an off-stage helper, a.k.a. a "Cyrano"?

Sure.

The gadgetry's been around since the 1970s, when CIA operations officers on Moscow streets needed a way to listen to known KGB radio frequencies to find out whether they were under surveillance.

In that pre-Walkman era, a wire leading to from an officer's person to his ear would have been as much of a give-away as a sandwich-board that said "SPY." Langley's "Toy Makers" responded with an adaptation of nineteenth-century technology known as an "induction loop," where electrical current sent through one wire generates an electromagnetic field that's picked up by a second wire nearby.

The monitoring receiver was small enough to be strapped under a man's arm or onto his back. It sprouted a wire that looped around the neck and was hidden by his collar. A second wire was encased in a Q-Tip-head-sized earpiece, which, incidentally, was worn in the case officer's ear, then covered entirely by a silicone cast of the ear. A presidential candidate wouldn't have to go to the trouble of hiding an earpiece. He might wear one openly for several reasons, among them security and television network prompts.

Two of the president's appearances outside of debate halls may offer evidence of an inductive-loop Cyrano. At a White House press conference on April 28, 2005, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux posed a far-ranging question. Afterward the president paused for an usually long time, his features falling blank, not as if he were in thought but as if he were listening to someone. Ultimately he delivering a jumbled answer. In and of itself [view the clip here], this is more likely evidence of a poorly-tailored shirt than a Cyrano.

But it had been preceded by the June 5, 2004 address at the Élysée Palace in Paris. A clip of the FOX telecast may be seen here. In the course of President Bush's introductory remarks, a man's voice can be heard during each of the president's pauses. Following the pauses, the president repeats, almost to the word, what the voice had said. The phenomenon recurs when journalists begin to ask him questions: It appears someone is supplying him answers verbatim.

The prevailing theory was feed from Mr. Bush's Cyrano had been picked up by a French microphone. At one point, seemingly aware of the problem, Mr. Bush reaches up and adjusts his earpiece. A squawk of feedback follows.

Could all of this have been created with an adept prankster's software? Possibly.

Is it illegal or unethical to get help on a day when you're jet-lagged on top of presidentially-busy? No, and arguably no.

Yet, compounded by Mitt Romney's similar experience during the Jan. 24 Republican debate, we are left to wonder what would happen, hypothetically, if a candidate were to succumb to a moral lapse in preparation for a debate.

Veteran ABC Frequency Coordinator Steve Mendelsohn assured me that catching someone communicating with such radio frequency (RF) technology "isn't hard" with the spectrum analyzer he and his colleagues use to police each Presidential Debate. "However," Mendelsohn added, "as we used to say in the Navy, 'We can see every submarine in the world. The question is: Can we catch them?' Who's going to go up to a presidential candidate and pat him down?"

Also, as I endeavored to report last week, non-RF technologies exists that can thwart spectrum analyzers altogether. Two examples are infrared communication devices and the Audio Spotlight manufactured by Holosonics of Watertown, which fires a narrow, targeted ultrasonic stream that only the recipient hears. It would require a candidate to wear no special device, not even a receiver in the ear. According to Joseph Pompei, Founder and President of Holosonics, "It's extremely unlikely the spectrum analyzer would detect it." He added that detecting it at all "would be exceedingly difficult."

And there are more exceedingly-difficult-to-detect communications systems, quite likely, that remain in the stratosphere of Classified.

Finally, there are less-high-tech reasons to be concerned. If a candidate's camp were willing to spend a fortune rigging up a high-tech communications system, they might be even more inclined to try the old Get-a-Look-at-the-Test-Beforehand Method. The lists of questions aren't exactly kept under armed guard. According to a staffer at WETA, the public broadcasting television station in Arlington, Virginia, the office of PBS's Gwen Ifill, who moderated last week's vice presidential debate, had no guards or countermeasures beyond the station premises' standard security.

Once in the station, a rank amateur could do the job. $49 buys a readily-available thumb-drive-sized keyboard phantom that connects to a target's PC and records up to 64,000 keystrokes. For $189, there's a video camera disguised as a pen that can be placed in a target's office and capture up to four hours of him at work.

I spoke about counterespionage measures to Fred Rustmann, a CIA operations officer for twenty-four years and, since 1992, Chairman of CTC International, the venerable private counterespionage company. "We could prevent the moderator's questions from being intercepted," he said. "And modern counterespionage equipment could intercept covert communications in the debate hall."

He suggests bringing qualified counterespionage techs into the debate halls. Or hoping that all of the above is unfounded.

Comments

[khiva]

I was perfectly ready to bellieve Bush would cheat, but I wonder why they wouldn't just put the device inside a coat pocket or in a less visible place?

[ThinMan]

Sadly, I would almost be more surprised if the McCain campaign did NOT try to find a way for Sarah Palin to get some "Cyrano" help. Sounds like there are some technological options they could have explored....

[impatient]

There have been a number of people who've pointed out that Sarah palin had a clear plastic earpiece in her ear during the debate. It wound into her ear from the handle of her glasses.

it is quite evident. why is no one reporting on that?

[lucyring]

If McCain can hear through the Cone of Silence when Rick Warren questioned Obama, is it far-fetched that he can divine Tom Brokaw's questions?

[ResearchGuy]

Can't someone ID the frequency and either jam it or broadcast their own voice on it? (I'd think a loud whistle on the frequency might be bracing.)

[BadDog]

So what do you make of Palin's funny looking flag lapel during the VP debate? Sure looked like a wire snaking around it.

[situationcritical]

You left out the part where Karl Rove accused the wardrobe stylist of being a little light in the loafers.

That was the pot calling the kettle b*tch.

[demfriend]

I watched the debate and was certain Bush was being "helped" I also have seen other times when it looked like he was helped since but the matter wasn't just a me issue. If I were the only one concerned and MSM wasn't then anything I said or asked would be labeled "paranoid". I have also wondered abot McCain and his ability to "listen" as his gaffes a minute with him having his minders around to correct him made the news. But for sue the Rick Warren fumble-mumble when he assured the public that no one would have the questions in advance and then McCain obviously did when he was "late" to the party. I can see that there are persons who would see it in their best interest to not have any failures right now in the last month in the debates and I can see that there would be persons who would have access t such items as to cheat during the debates. Is there any watch dogs out there who look for these things or is trust above all the idea here? I would like to think we would have qualified pople going for the oval office who would no stoop to the lowest but I saw Bush and saw the item and had not a doubt of what it was.

[fedupandgrumpy]

This man with a poorly tailored shirt? Oh, please.

[KenGirard]

It failed to hide the box, hence it is the truth that it was poorly tailored.