Character

Electronic Eavesdropping

covert precise essential

Leo McGarry cites electronic eavesdropping, alongside paid informants, as the intelligence source confirming the hostages' location in a barracks 37 miles east of Bitanga. This surveillance method supplies critical operational details during the Situation Room briefing, enabling President Bartlet to authorize a Delta Force extraction with Comanche RH-66 helicopters from Ghana. It underscores the White House's dependence on technical intelligence for time-sensitive hostage crises.

3 appearances

Electronic Eavesdropping's Journey

A timeline through the narrative

3 moments

S4E17 · Red Haven's On Fire

Closed Briefing — The Delta Force Decision

N/A — functions as evidentiary input that raises the urgency and feasibility of a rescue.

Serves as the technical corroboration for the hostages' location; Leo explicitly cites intercepts alongside paid informants to justify the operational plan.

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S4E17 · Red Haven's On Fire

Private Briefing — The Rescue Decision and Its Cost

Impersonal and factual — presented as data rather than a human presence.

Referenced as providing the electronic eavesdropping that, together with paid informants, contributes to a confident assessment of the hostages' location and timing.

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S4E17 · Red Haven's On Fire

Authorize Delta Extraction — 'We Got to Go Get Them'

Impersonal reliability—acts as an evidentiary backbone rather than an emotional agent.

Cited as electronic eavesdropping corroborating informants; technical surveillance anchors the location claim and shortens the margin for doubt.

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Affiliation

Delta Force