ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 10

May 2002
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest : e2k_news@hotmail.com

News & items of interest

Rudolf Hell, inventor of Hell-Schreiber.

He was born in Eggmuhl, Bavaria and whilst studying for his diploma at Munich Technical University had the idea of breaking up characters into points and transmitting the point as pulses to be reassembled at the receiving end. This device, marketed in 1929, was called the Hell-Schreiber. It is still popular today amongst radio amateurs, its familiar scratching sound [cats paw on sandpaper] sometimes heard in the amateur bands.

Dr Hell was fertile with the invention and development of other devices, an image transmission device, electronic engraver, colour scanner and electronic digital typesetting. He also had early input into a radio beam flight path detector, an early version of the autopilot.

He received the Grand Cross for Distinguished Service and Star of the German Federal Republic as well as the Gutenberg Prize of the City of the City of Mainz. Dr Hell was revered in the city of Kiel and the street that leads to the Heidelberg plant was renamed Dr-Hell-Strasse in his honour.

Born 19^th December 1901, died 11^th March 2002, aged 100 years.

Office of Strategic Influence [Part 2]

Following alarm over the activities of this 15 person office and Mr Bush's interest, senior US military officials predict that the office would be disbanded or restructured.

Whilst senior Pentagon officials have endorsed the office's general mission Administration officials have pointed out that the US is losing public support for the war on terrorism, particularly in the Islamic world.

Lost Secrets!

The loss of the odd Laptop being reported in the press and advertisements offering rewards for "Ph.D vital research notes to be returned for a 'substantial' reward" [03/03/00] might have been seen as laughable by the public at large.

Two years later the US$310 million security operation at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games were seriously jeopardised by two secret service agents. These two agents nipped into a souvenir shop to buy a couple of hats [US$11 each] and left behind the 'site post assignment log', which detailed movements concerning the movements by the US Vice-President. Luckily the shop owner was an honest man and handed the highly sensitive papers in. [His attempts to do so are comical].

[There was an earlier blunder which, we are informed, occurred in 1999. Mr Clinton, then US President hurried away from a meeting leaving behind an attaché case, which held the launch codes for nuclear missiles].

An article made available to E2k outlines the use of a BIOS stored program and password in IBM and Compaq PC's that would make the operation of lost or stolen laptops impossible. In part the article reads:

" It is an awe-inspiring deterrent to thievery and very valuable as a means of guarding corporate data. If MI5 or the army used systems like that, it would matter less how many drunken operatives left their laptops in bars. No one could ever get the information out of them. If al-Qa'ida had used IBM laptops, it could have left them all over Kabul and its work would have remained locked on a hard disk - rather than being decoded, as it was, by some journalists who bought a second-hand PC there that the organisation had used to write letters and e-mails." [The secret life of your own laptop by Andrew Brown. Independent 25^th February, 2002;
http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/features/story.jsp?story=139444].

The Metro Newspaper of Wednesday 13th March 2002 carried an interesting digest article entitled '20,000 MI5 files 'active'.'

"MI5 is keeping open about 20000 active files on individuals, it was disclosed yesterday [12/03]. Home Secretary David Blunkett said of the 210,000 personal files held by the security service, about 20,000 are 'green' - the most active category. Of the rest, 70,000 are 'amber' - which means further investigation is prohibited, although new information that comes in can be added. The remaining 120,000, including 40,000 on microfiche, are marked 'red', meaning that they are closed."

ENIGMA 2000 acknowledges the use of the Metro Article [for which permission to use was sought via email and to which no reply was ever received].

The Truth Is Out There !

America's western allies reacted with concern to the creation of Pentagon department of propaganda aimed at planting disinformation in the media of America's friends as well as its enemies. The Office of Strategic Influence has been set up to disseminate truthful information openly, but also to spread what one senior Pentagon official called "the blackest of black propaganda". The organisation, which is headed by a brigadier and has about 15 staff reporting directly to the under secretary of defence for policy, is already working on ways to influence and mislead the media in a number of countries, mostly in the Islamic world, but also in Western Europe.

A Pentagon source, who asked not to be named, said there were some European nations that "sometimes needed to be helped to see the light". The existence of OSI was revealed in the New York Times. It was reportedly established to spread positive messages about the war on terrorism, but it would also use disinformation and misinformation to mislead friend and foe alike. Reaction among America's allies was universally negative. One Western official said "This sort of thing might work in countries with no sophisticated media network, but not in Europe or any other major democracy". A European diplomat said: "Everyone uses disinformation for military reasons, but I have never heard of using official sources to spread false information to the media of an ally". Another diplomat said: "The Pentagon is not exactly regarded as the font of truth and justice now, so I don't know what sort of damage to its reputation this might do if it leaked out. "All I can see this sort of thing doing is giving a mighty good excuse to our enemies for dismissing all coalition claims as black propaganda".

By Ben Fenton, Washington. Daily Telegraph.

Stop Press - Department Closes Or Does It ?

With regard to the earlier article - Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, said that he was closing a Pentagon Office which critics said would be used to spread "black propaganda" in friendly as well as hostile countries during the war on terrorism. Well make your own mind up readers !!!

Carry On At Vatican !

Vatican Radio 'immune from prosecution'. Directors of Vatican Radio are immune to prosecution over allegedly harmful electro-magnetic radiation from its transmitters, a court ruled, following protests from people living near the site. The antennae, near Cesano on the northern edge of Rome, had the same extra territorial status as the Vatican the Italian court said. According to reports cited by the prosecutors, rates of child tumours and leukaemia in the area were six times higher than the Rome average.

Money Does Not Buy You Everything !

Greek tycoon on spy charge. The Greek telecoms tycoon, Socrates Kokkalis was recently charged with fraud, money laundering and espionage that includes alleged links to the former East German spy agency. Kokkalis, 63, was educated in Moscow and East Berlin before returning to Greece to set up Intracom, a supplier for Greece's OTE telephone company. He is president of the Athens football team Olympiakos and his personal fortune is estimated at more than æÃ80 million. AP, Athens.

Probe Into Czech Communist Bomb Plot

The Czech authorities have begun a criminal investigation into two communist secret agents for a 1950s letter bombing in France, it has emerged. The attack was made against a meeting of the nascent European Coal and Steel Union - the forerunner of the European Union - and was part of a plot to stop the post-war Franco-German rapprochement. But the spies bungled their work and only succeeded in killing the wife of a French regional official.

The two suspects in this case are both now in their 70s and living on their pensions in Prague - but in the 1950s they were allegedly engaged in an ambitious covert operation straight out of a Cold War spy novel. It was believed that Alsace, the French border area which had often changed hands between the two countries, would be a good place to start. A local prefect was to be assassinated by a letter -bomb disguised as a box of cigars, which would be delivered to him at a meeting of the ECSU. A campaign of rumours and disinformation would then try to make it look like a German nationalist attack. But the bizarre plan went wrong. The letter was opened by the prefect's 39-year old wife a few days after the meeting and she was killed. Now the Czechs want to bring the culprits to justice. In theory, they could face 15 years in prison each. In reality, it could just be an intriguing historical footnote. Czech justice works slowly and few such cases have been brought to a successful conclusion.

Our Man In Moscow

Here is a quiet hero few of us had heard of before. We may all of us - yes, you sir, with the toast and honey in your mouth, and you, too, draining a station -cafã´ coffee - owe our lives to Gervase Cowell. This "small, humorous unassuming man" now dead, features in Peter Hennessy's new book the Cold War and Whitehall. Cowell was the MI6 officer in Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis, who was running Col Oleg Penkovsky, Britain's "golden" double agent.

Penkovsky had a prearranged set of noises to use down Cowell's telephone if a Soviet Nuclear attack was imminent - "three blows of breath, repeated in another call one minute later". As Britain's V-bombers were standing on alert, on November 2, 1962, the coded call came through. But according to Prof Hennessy, who was interviewed for a new talk show on BBC4, Cowell sensed, rightly, that Penkovsky had been captured, tortured and had the codes extracted from him. Acting on his instinct, at this most dangerous moment he did...precisely nothing. He did not tell the British ambassador in Moscow. He did not mention it to London, either. And that single act of inspired passivity stopped... well who knows what? The story was circulating at the party for Hennessy's book, where one of Whitehall's great cold war -warriors, Sir Michael Quinlan, gave the address. Senior mandarins were exchanging stories of their named places in the bunker where they would retreat if the world was about to end. Sir Michael was, we were told, devoted to four things only: "His God, his family, MCC and the hydrogen bomb". He smiled and did not quibble. Andrew Marr, Daily Telegraph.

Red Alert in USA

The United States Government have approved a system of colour coded alerts to indicate threats of terrorism in the country. They are Green Yellow and Orange, the highest level Red signifies a severe risk of attack and may require the pre-positioning of specially trained teams closing public government facilities and monitoring transportation systems, reports Voice of America News.

Former spies fight with police in protest over lost bonuses

Around 500 former South Korean spies clashed with police protesting about their government's refusal to pay bonuses for spy missions they carried out in North Korea between 1953 and the early 1970s.These demonstrators aged 60+ were dressed in black uniforms and fought with 1,000 police using metal staves. The protesters also set fire to LPG canisters but a fire engine quickly exstinguished the flames preventing the bottles exploding. Other security forces stopped the demonstrators from demonstrating near government buildings.

RAF Menwith Hill new role?

The UK goverment previously gave the go-ahead for an update of a system at the North Yorkshire US base, Menwith Hill.

This new role is expected to be in line with a new or updated/upgraded series of US satellites not yet totally operational.

The Space Based Infra Red system [SBIRS] is expected to be used in the 'son of star wars' system despite assurances by the Americans that it is handled, "as entirely seperate from missile defence."

A Defence Ministry strategic technologies director said that "SBIRS was separate from missile defence, but he added: "Clearly that would be of immense value if the US were developing a missile defence system." [?????]

[A new book, Secret Cold War Nuclear Bunkers by Nick McCamley illustrates how the real beneficiaries of all GB's cold war preparations were all steered towards keeping the American way of life going. It certainly looks as though it's happening again]!

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister arrested for spying

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Momcilo Perisic, also a former commander of the Yugoslav army, was recently arrested on spying charges and detained by Serbia's military security service. A US citizen was also questioned but released later.

Spying at BAe

A 45 year old test co-ordinator was arrested on Friday 22nd March in a joint operation involving Essex Police and the Security Services.

The worker, employed in the design department of BAe Systems and Avionics [Basildon], faces nine charges under Section 1. OSA1911 and one under the Theft Act. It is alleged that he obtained "documents and information prejudicial to the interest of the state, which were intended to be passed on to the enemy".

The accused is alleged to have taken a CD-ROM holding project details of the HALO system which held data produced since the beginning of 2002. Other charges involve obtaining NATO restricted data and three of passing information on. Details of the intended recipients have not yet been released.

After an appearance at Bow Streets Magistrates Court he was remanded in custody and appeared at the Old Bailey on 3rd April.The result was that the worker will remain in custody until his trial on these charges.

The BBC News [25/03]carried a full report and showed HALO to stand for High Agility, Low Observable, stating that it is believed to involve the creation of stealth technology making aircraft invisible to enemy radar.Other newspapers of that date carried that detail too, perhaps in an attempt to suppress details of the actual device. [The Times 26/03 mentioned it as a 'hostile artillery locator'].

A visit to http://www.baesystems.com/engineeringexcellence/examples/hostile_artillery.htm shows that it is actually a passive system called Hostile Artillery Location System. This system uses clustered acoustics to range and pinpoint guns or mortars fired in an area of up to 6500 square kilometres.

Each sensor position is described as consisting of three microphones, a processor unit, a meteorological sub-system and a data link, either radio or landline. The system is described as completely passive and covert, so the enemy is unaware of monitoring.

BAe also describe how the HALO system was utilised in Sarajevo, during the 1995 Bosnian conflict, to help destroy Serbian gun positions.

Indian Airman charged with spying for Pakistan

A 30year old Indian Air Force corporal has been arrested for spying after being caught re-handed passing secret documents to a Pakistani embassy official.

The corporal readily admitted to being recruited as a spy in 1998 and had received 100000 [100k] rupees [circa £1260] from Pakistani officials for passing on classified documents relating to the Indian Air Force.

The last documents handed over related to the Indian Air Force's signals unit.

Whilst there has been no comment from the Pakistani High Commission it is expected that the member of Consular Staff involved will be expelled from India, much like the two who were expelled in March for also collecting classified Indian Government classified documents.

Death penalty against a US military employee

The American government recently required the death penalty against a U.S. military, specialist in space intelligence, sued for espionage, believed to be in favour of Iraq.

Brian Patrick Regan, aged 39, worked with the NRO at the time of his arrest and had offered his services to Iraq, Libya and a third unnamed country. U.S. spy satellites are all managed by the NRO. Regan was arrested in August 2001.