The Cyrano Issue: Can A Candidate Cheat in a Debate?

The Jan. 24 Republican debate in Boca Raton got me curious.

As you may recall, moderator Tim Russert asked Mitt Romney, "Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?" A disembodied whisper of "He raised taxes" was heard, followed immediately by Romney's response: "I'm not going to raise taxes."

Theories abounded that the disembodied voice belonged to a "Cyrano" -- an off-stage helper, using a two-way radio to communicate via an earpiece worn by Romney. Possibly the feed had been picked up and amplified by a mike.

While Romney's camp declined comment, television execs dismissed as preposterous the notion that any candidate could employ a Cyrano with the world watching.

But I wondered, in a world where unmanned drones can read a license plate and send a Hellfire missile at the truck, could a candidate get away with it...

Recently I've been immersed in researching techno-gadgetry for my soon-to-be-published-by-Doubleday spy novel. The other day, I read a new book co-authored by the former director of the CIA's Office of Technical Services, Robert Wallace. It turns out that sufficient Cyrano technology not only exists, but has existed since the early 1970s. The CIA created a system known as the SRR-100 for its case officers in Moscow. The case officers wore a wireless earpiece no larger than the head of a Q-Tip that was covered by a silicone cast of the officer's ear. The fake ear was placed over the actual ear.

I began to wonder how far the technology has come since. As it happens, variations of the SRR-100 gadgetry are available to the public for less than $100. High school students make use of these devices to help one another on tests.

One round of Googling led to multiple suppliers. I called CustomEarPiece.com, whose sales manager, Steve Perodi, told me, "The technology absolutely exists for someone using a two-way radio to give instructions to someone onstage via an easily concealable earpiece, over nearly four thousand channels." The earpiece is especially easy to conceal if the wearer has a lot of hair, he added.

Next I wanted to know if a debater could get away with using that technology? A friend of mine who reports for Reuters was interested in the issue, and encouraged me to do some digging (the full results will likely be published by Reuters shortly).

A few calls later, I'd learned that the Commission on Presidential Debates employs an individual as Frequency Coordinator. He's armed with a spectrum analyzer, a device capable of detecting communication by means of electrical, acoustic or optical waveform during the debate. Of the prospects of a Cyrano, veteran ABC Frequency Coordinator Steve Mendelsohn told me, "It's improbable but not impossible. My job is to find them, which isn't hard with a spectrum analyzer."

The thing is, I learned, the spectrum analyzer, the best defense, does NOT detect non-radio frequency (RF) communication, like infrared.

"With an infrared transmitter, you can take sound and convert it to something else, like infrared light, and it wouldn't be detected by the spectrum analyzer," said Kevin Murray, who was once National Director of Electronic Countermeasures & New Jersey Director of Investigations at Pinkerton's Inc, and since 1978, has run Murray Associates, a counterespionage firm. "Spectrum analyzers are basically for radio waves."

Infrared signals can be transmitted wirelessly and converted to sound by the earpiece in a fashion the spectrum analyzer cannot detect.

Gary Grossman, Worldwide Senior PR Manager at Tektronix, a leading manufacturer of spectrum analyzers, confirmed in an e-mail that his company's device "is not intended to find infrared. It's designed to find RF."

According to Murray, infrared systems "operate in the near infrared range. A regular solid-state TV camera can pick it up; you'd see a bright glowing light. A custom-made device could work around that though."

So, what if a debater used a custom-made-device the camera couldn't catch?

"A photo-transistor attached to an amplifier sensitive to that range could capture infrared light coming through the air," Murray said. "There's a relatively inexpensive device, the CPM-700 made by REI of Algood, Tennessee, that would work. It's a matter of holding up a wand, and if there are any infrared transmissions, the CPM-700 would receive them and you would be able to listen in, just like the candidate."

Another company, Holosonics, of Watertown, MA, manufactures an "Audio Spotlight" with which a Cyrano's cues could be transmitted via a narrow, targeted ultrasonic stream that only the recipient hears. It requires a candidate to wear no special device--not even a receiver in the ear. The catch is the Cyrano needs the candidate in his line of sight. But line of sight can be augmented in a number of ways. A solid surface can act as a mirror, for example.

The inventor of the Audio Spotlight, Joseph Pompei, told me, "It's extremely unlike the spectrum analyzer would detect it." Asked how he might find his own invention in a debate hall, he said, "You could sweep with an ultrasonic microphone, but that would only detect the ultrasound when it was on. It would be exceedingly difficult."

Similar technology is being used in the war on terror to transmit messages to individual terrorists, so it seems they are hearing from Allah himself -- hence it's nickname: "The Voice of God."

I called three top officials at the Commission on Presidential Debates to ask if any countermeasures were in place.

So far, no answer.

Follow Keith Thomson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kqthomson

Comments

[JayceBird]

Yes! You can cheat at debates...it's called the Commission on Presidential Debate and Biden, Palin, Obama and McCain are all complicit in this "cheat" on the American People. I'd advise everyone to pay avoid distractions and pay attention to the fact that these debates exclude competition from third parties, including excluding viewpoints and issues that efffect the American people. Where is the discussion on the Bail Out Bill that has just been pushed through, solar power, a living minimum wage, no to offshore drilling, an end to the Iraq war, fighting corporate crime, an end to spending half of taxpayer money in the military industrial complex? These debates are CHEATING the American people from substance. They are vapid and corporate friendly. We need real debates. Visit a site called Third Party Ticket to learn about proposed debates between ALL candidates. Visit a site called Opendebates to learn the history of the corrupt, corporate controlled CPD and how it manipulates information on the presidential candidates.

[MinuteMan]

Use a really good focused dish type mike. With enough gain you could probably be able to hear whatever the candidate is hearing.

[darker]

Unh...do Republicans LIE, CHEAT, STEAL and AVOID THE ISSUES?
Yep, they do. They do that quite well.

McCain? Palin? here is their job:
1) avoid the issues
2) use smoke & mirrors to avoid proposing realistic solutions
3) promise feel-good "pie in the sky"
4) ask people to believe more Republican lies and deceptions
5) smear and slander anyone who tells the truth, especially the opposing candidate like Obama
6) and the list goes on...

BOTTOM LINE: we can't afford Republicans any more.
AND: THEY'RE TOO EXPENSIVE.

[Sunmaker]

I am certain Palin had on some type of ear piece or hair piece. She has never worn her hair down at any time during her nomination, although the day after the debates she had it down. There were alot of questions about her so called french braid in the back of her hair. I questioned this possibility a few days ago here and after reading your story, there is no doubt she wore some type of hidden devise. Also, if you check John McCains earlier town hall meetings etc. he fumbled so much it was shameful, now-------­----------­---he seems to know alot more than he did then. You have answered my questions, and my gut feeling is correct, He and Palin and George Bush wear them quite frequently. It is so very digusting to me that people have to cheat to try and win an election. I hope the American People wake up and realize what is going on here! Thanks again for your great article.

[TheIndependenceParty]

As most remember, Bush was suspected of using some sort of device in a debate years ago, when a bulge was seen under his suit jacket back seam, ... where on a shark there would be a dorsal fin. No one ever determined for certain if that was truly a device, or the work of a bad tailor as claimed. "Shark skin suit, indeed!"

The problem, as we all have seen in Bush's case, is not that the answers in the earpiece constitute a threat to our nation, but quite the reverse. After all, Bush only started to screw everything up when the earpiece was removed, and he attempted to think things through on his own!

[Amalek]

No, Bush never attempted to think things through on his own. That is very important. The past eight years were a result of the collected wisdom of the Republican party. Expect no better decisions if McCain is elected.

[fjpompei]

An amusing article, and we love when people mention us, but for the record, they have the technology completely wrong, as others here have pointed out.

First, they mention “infrared”, which can certainly be used to communicate (just like your TV remotes do), but doing so absolutely requires a device to convert the infrared to audible sound (such as an earpiece). There is no possible way to “hear” infrared (or RF, for that matter) directly.

Second, the Audio Spotlight technology utilizes ultrasound to deliver audio to a listener without a receiving device. This is clear from the Technology page on our website.

Finally, while it’s certainly possible for someone to use our device to covertly cue a listener, we don’t know if they are really doing so or not. It would indeed be difficult to detect by someone in the audience, as there would be no IR or RF signature.

Dr. F. Joseph Pompei
Holosonics
Inventor, Audio Spotlight technology

[cheeseeater]

Because she was so incoherent I thought she wasn't wired. But then as she started fumbling and was scribbling notes furiously as Joe began answering a question she mouthed, "Okay," as if she was listening to someone telling her what to say next. It was kind of like when someone's giving you directions over the phone and your writing them down and trying to keep up and talking them through to yourself. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone noticed the same.

[ede19]

I noticed this too and then started looking to see if there was a wire somewhere. I thought she seemed to be nodding as she was writing which seemed strange. Haven't gone back and looked at the footage though.

[DavidNOE]

I'm a retired optical engineer and while I don't doubt that the Republicans would use a Cyrano if they could manage it, I have a hard time seeing how an IR beam could produce sound in someone's ear without a transducer of some sort. The ear just isn't sensitive to IR any more than the eye is.

[dogged23]

The bulge of the receiver was plainly visible in the middle of Palin's back throughout the debate. George Bush used one in 2004 and still uses one. Did anyone think Palin wouldn't use one? She's the new George Bush!

[milo h minderbinder]

Are you sure that's not just the pack for the wireless mic she was wearing?

It's obvious that she had a mic on her, you can hear her clear as day away from the podium.

[mlweaver]

If that's the best she could do cheating, the Dems have nothing to worry about.

[Fenestrate]

WOW....ear plugs, IR devices? Don't get too silly here.

First, what are the rules on the debaters getting coaching during the debate? Is the use of a comm device forbidden? Yeah, it -seems- like cheating, but is it?

Second, did you look at the podiums they were standing behind? Both podiums seemed to have a glass top. Is it that hard to think that they were glorified blackberries? SP definitely was looking down from time to time. I know many thought she was reading from index cards. More likely, she was reading off the device embedded in the podium. But, wasn't JB doing the same?

Better to wonder how, if she was being coached, SP could be so vague.

[JulieSA]

Wow. You folks are really running scared.

[milo h minderbinder]

Who running scared from what?

[Carolab]

She had a hair strand that was actually a wire. You could see it.

[CaptainStormfield]

Thanks for a very informative article? Was the RF detection equipment in use during Bush's famous
hump-back debate? I found a device that actually looks like the outline on Bush's back. Made by Comtech. They have since upgraded and that model is no longer on their website.

[NicoleAnon]

This is really offensive - I don't support JM or SP and any candidate in this candidate but this is really getting nasty.

You're implying she is too stupid to answer questions on her own - but of course when Biden talks about the last crash and gives the name of President who WAS NOT in office and says he was watching TV although it hadn't been invented yet NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING.

I'm serious - some of you need really need to take a look inside yourself and figure out what it is about her that makes you so angry that you feel the need to constantly insult her.

[chaos4700]

We're not angry about Palin. Seriously, she's like a godsend to the Democratic presidential campaign.

[NicoleAnon]

When people insult someone in a vicious, nasty way it's because they're scared - that is what bullies do. They're not people who are confident - they're weak and that is why they try to attack people so viciously.

I don't think SP is experienced enough to be VP right now but you're acting like mean bullies about it.