Hi everyone,
Although my designers pompously christened me “RISO comcolor 7050” when I left the factory, I am better known as the Libertad Anarchist Library’s printer-copier. My move away from the filthy mouth of the real estate speculators who initially employed me gave me a bit of a thrill two years ago: goodbye invoices, rent receipts and other advertising leaflets to be reproduced… and long live subversive ideas! Just imagine if I had had to end my days in yet another branch of domination, printing indigestible university dissertations or insipid democratic petitions addressed to the authorities. In short, in this Belleville library, it was rather posters, leaflets, newspapers, brochures and other anti-authoritarian gems that began to parade before my eyes at a jerky rhythm, when I wasn’t snoozing in my corner in the middle of books and heated discussions against the old world.
Until this beautiful spring afternoon…
Tuesday, March 29, 2022, after having removed about fifteen screws to remove several casings and finally access my entrails, some curious individuals suddenly found themselves face to face with a small red light. While they were trying for the umpteenth time to solve a recurrent failure, they came across a well-hidden listening device. I don’t know how long it had been there, but the police lackeys must have at least entered the library when no one was there, before choosing my gut to hide it in and to do some tinkering. To do so, they directly soldered two cables to my power socket, which they then connected to a transformer (220v/12v), itself connected to a small box containing a modified RB800 router card, a battery, a 64 GB micro SD card, an Orange sim card… from which were protruding an antenna and two microphones (left and right), fixed as close as possible to the slots opening onto the outside. The imposing stature of my carcass preventing it from going on the road, they didn’t consider it necessary to add a GPS, although the connectivity is present inside the box. Finally, after a little autopsy, it turns out that this device was manufactured by one of the suppliers of various intelligence services: Innova, located in Trieste (Italy)*.
As for the background, there is nothing surprising in the fact that those who intend to destroy all authority are the object of the indiscreet attention of the State, whether in libraries or homes, in vehicles or via cell phones, in the context of judicial investigations as well as in the context of the “white notes” of the intelligence services. Even if it is more widely any individual who does not fall into line who can enter into their sights. And so, it is neither the first nor the last time that some and others will unearth surveillance devices here or there.
To continue to defend and spread one’s subversive ideas without falling into paranoia, while finding ways to deepen affinities far from any electronic device, remains a challenge. As for making this discovery public so that it can be useful to all -according to the good advice that our friend Riso immediatly provided-, it seems to us the minimum to do in this kind of situation.
Some of the participants at the Libertad anarchist library
19 rue Burnouf – 75019 Paris
Permanences every Tuesday from 5pm to 8pm
PS : you will find attached all the pictures of the spy device, as well as the technical sheet of the RB800.
