ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 7

November 2001
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest : e2k_news@hotmail.com

News & items of interest

Out of respect for all those who perished in the US Terrorist attack 11/09, or suffer as a result, ENIGMA 2000 will not publish any articles on the matter in this issue.

Cuban Number SW Transmissions confirmed as Spy Messages

Firstly, we start with an excellent tip-off from Arik in New York City who wrote in to say,

"While reading the New York Times over breakfast today,[30/09], I was stunned to read third to last paragraph in the following story about the arrest of Ana Belen Montes of the Defense Intelligence Agency on charges that she spied for Cuba. Here's the excerpt: "According to the F.B.I., Ms. Montes received numeric messages from Cuba by shortwave radio, which she decoded on her home computer, and replied in code by telephoning a pager number from pay phones."

The rest of the story can be found on the URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/30/national/30SPY.html

[Thanks Arik, an excellent find, confirming the broadcasts as being exactly what the numberists always accurately suspected they were]!

Ms Montes, 44, was charged with spying for Cuba on 21^st September, being the highest ever official charged with espionage at the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA handles analysis for the Pentagon.

Officials have said that Ana Belen Montes, who had high level security clearance, spied for Cuba for at least 5 years and identified at least one American undercover agent as well as a secret intelligence gathering programme. American training in the Caribbean was also compromised.

A former top Pentagon official stated that, 'the damage could be multiplied if Cuba shared stolen intelligence with other governments hostile to the United States. Ms Montes had access to a daily synopsis of American intelligence worldwide.

[Thanks to all those who sent in the reports making the above possible].

Greek paranoia

Rob of Essex wrote, in addition to his logs of stations received, whilst he was on his holidays in Greece. Rob stayed on the island of Kos which is apparently near to Turkey, and, as Rob reckoned, a good place for an HF listening post. Rob was unable to turn up any visual or radio evidence of this and apologised for the short log [see last issue]. Rob wondered if this was because of intelligence agencies not having any interest in Greece.

However, Rob relates an article that he read in a book entitled 'A Visitors Guide to Modern Greek Behaviour and Habits'. The article states ' They believe that the CIA and KGB have a get the Greeks Dept and would like to blame them for everything. This mode of thinking of course has led the Greeks to believe they are not to blame for anything, Foreign Governments are in the middle of it all. There are all sorts of theories: that the CIA and KGB collaborated for years to make sure that only 25% of the six public toilets in Athens were functioning so as to prevent tourists coming to Greece and thus discredit the Government' !! Thanks Rob!

Union des Ecouteurs Français

E2k received an interesting notification from Simon Mason. It appears that the Union des Ecouteurs Francais, an organisation devoted to the spreading of knowledge in radio communications and techniques, is carrying out research on Number Stations. They intend to publish a booklet accompanied by a CD containing audio clips of various stations, including the now [?] defunct East German stations.

Code Breaking Americans in Kent

The last tenant of a stately house in Bexley, Kent was Lady Limerick who lived on the estate known as Hall Place until 1943.

The house was built in mid 16th century and was later owned by an Archbishop of Canterbury. Apart from having such an upright figure of society as an owner, Sir Francis Dashwood took ownership of the estate in 1772 for 150 years. Sir Francis is better known as the founder of the notorious Hellfire Club.

Many famous persons are known to have stayed there, including the then future George VI and Queen Marie of Romania. Bexley Council purchased this estate in 1935.

During the Second World War it was used by code breaking American troops.

[Thanks D of Kent]

Further to the above:

A talk to be given at Hall Place on 24^th October, 2001 at 1930 and entitled 'Bletchley Park' - Code breaking in the Second World War. 'This talk has a special relevance as Hall Place housed American soldiers who fed back intercepted codes to Bletchley Park as part of Operation Ultra.'

Unfortunately the talk was by ticket only and the event was sold out by the time that ENIGMA 2000 found out about it.

We were told that a lot of Americans who served there are still trying to find out the full picture as to what actually went on. There are apparently groups in the US of those wishing to know the full story.

ENIGMA 2000 would particularly like to hear from any interested party who has attended this talk, to discuss and allow a resumé to be written, or from those who may have served at Hall Place during WW2.

MI5 to help the Private Sector ?

The organisation, MI5, is reported as offering its services to the Private Sector. Information on the criminal links of company's foreign associates and their rivals will be made available. However, co-operation will be expected and those 'on the take' will be asked to 'keep their eyes open' in their travels.

With the end of the Cold War and the supposed diminishing terrorist targets it would seem to those 64 executives invited to attend the lecture, entitled 'Secret Work in an Open Society', given by MI5 head Sir Stephen Lander, at Millbank that MI5 is trying to uncover new areas for its expertise.

Sir Stephen was reported as having said, "increasingly, organised crime, drugs and money laundering are our common enemy. When getting into deals abroad, particularly in Eastern Europe, you can get into bed with the wrong people if you don't have good risk assessment information on them."

What of MI6? Will this foreign intelligence service assist MI5 in this new and exciting venture or will it stay silent on these matters? An article written in the Gloucestershire Echo and Citizen of 10/09 entitled 'We won't spy for big business - GCHQ' Puts up a good case. The information contained within the piece states that 'Spy Bosses at GCHQ are refusing to let giant corporations use their eavesdropping services for industrial espionage.' The article goes further when it discloses, 'Bosses at the GCHQ listening post in Cheltenham, which employs 4000 people, have dismissed the suggestion that they may also take on commercial contracts.'

Be that as may, there is the ongoing EC claim that Echelon has been used to enable the US to gain the upper hand in seeking lucrative contracts. If that is the case would the UK not do it by the same means? Another question that needs to be asked is, 'if GCHQ does not assist in this manner will UK PLC buy this commercial intelligence from someone who can?'

The final paragraphs within the piece in the Gloucestershire Echo and Citizen of 10/09 quietly sums the entire matter up: 'GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, the secret intelligence service, have supplemented the dwindling work against republican terrorist and Cold War foes by muscling their way into the fight against organised crime. Reports suggest market forces and competition may now lead them into competitive tender to big business'.

The information for this piece was taken from 'The Independent', 07/09 and Gloucestershire Echo and Citizen 10/09.

US Colonel sentenced for spying

Following up from our report in Issue 6, George Trofimoff received a life sentence for selling military secrets to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He worked for the KGB whilst employed as the civilian chief of the US Army Joint Interrogation Centre, Nuremberg 1969 -1994.

Troffimoff was a US Army Reservist holding the rank of Colonel. Trofimoff, aged 74, born of Russian parents who had fled the Russian Revolution, is reported as having been recruited to the KGB by his foster brother, a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church.

MV Gaul, yet another aspect !

Following ENIGMA 2000's first article on the tragic loss of MV Gaul and the recount of Mr Prescott's statement that another survey will be undertaken when the new technology is developed for ROV use.

It may interest readers, and indeed Mr Prescott, that such a deep depth device already exists.

This information was gleaned from the web on this URL:
http://www.rov.net/pages/Perry_Scorpion_spec1.htm

For those without net access we list the relevent specs, in part, as :

"The SCORPION® is designed to meet the needs of current and future application requirements in market areas including:

Drilling Support
Offshore Construction Support
Pipe Survey and Installation Support
Subsea Tool Deployment
Deepwater Salvage

Specifications: (subject to change without notice)

Depth capability: 1,000 meters (Optional deeper depth available) ."

Why is it necessary for Great Britain to develop the 'new technology' when it appears that it already exists?

E2k will not ask, 'why the delay?' We all know the answer.

The full page can be accessed using the above stated URL. Another very interesting site can be found on http://www.teleport.com/~samc/seas/deep3.html

Money recovered from former Peru spy chief

Peru has recovered about £13m kept in secret Cayman Islands accounts linked to former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos.

The money is a small fraction of the amount thought to have been hidden away by the head of intelligence under former president Alberto Fujimori.

Mr. Montesinos is now in jail in Lima awaiting trial on corruption charges.

Meanwhile, Peru's congress has called on Mr. Fujimori to return from Japan to face charges of human rights abuses.

[Thanks J of A]

India's Intelligence Agencies undergoing radical reorganisation

Following the avoidable failures of preventing the intrusion of Pakistani soldiers and Islamic mercenaries into northern Kashmir state [May 1999] and the murder of Border Security Force members by Bangladeshi's frontier guards it has become obvious that Indian Intelligence Agencies have a need to be radically reformed.

It has been widely accepted that the failure of the relevant intelligence agencies to report the overt movement of troops and equipment in the affected regions allowed India's armed forces to be caught 'unawares'.

[Thanks 'E']

Russian Hackers recruited by US ?

Verse, a Russian Hacker was reported as being asked to collaborate 'in the interests of American intelligence services against the Russian Federation.'

Verse is reported to have been contacted by a retired US Air Force colonel who instructed 'Verse' how to communicate with US authorities. His task was to hack into the FSB central servers and provide programs to conducive to electronic surveillance. He was also asked to recruit other hackers to help him with his task. He was also asked to find and copy databases that would be of interest to the US whilst destroying others.

However, 'Verse' contacted the FSB and confessed all he knew about this matter.

[Thanks 'E']

Guilty Plea entered in ENIGMA machine theft case

The defendant in the Enigma Machine case pleaded guilty the other week at Aylesbury Crown Court. Dennis Yates was given 10 months imprisonment. There is still to be an on going investigation into who stole the machine, and the involvement of possible insiders at Bletchley Park.