(ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN "GERMAN FINANCIAL TIMES" 7th April, 2006 BY CHRISTINE ALLGOWER).
Little Jochen presses his ear to the radio. It glugs roars and buzzes from the loudspeaker. On his first school day he is not interested in the teaching his fellow pupils or the teacher. Jochen is bound up in the secrets which come from the apparatus which, during a break, he has found on the floor of the classroom. It is tuned to the short wave. Jochen turns the control knob. Suddenly, he hears the voice of a woman coming from the radio." LIMA MIKE, LIMA MIKE", she calls. It whistles. A pause. "There are announcements for; "Five Zero Three" Columns of numbers. Jochen has no idea what they mean. Only many years later does he believe he knows whom he has overheard: the Federal Intelligence Agency, (The then West German Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND.) (Translators' note) which sends its agents coded messages.
The secret services know us. They send satellites into space and agents into the whole world, monitor telephone conversations, bug flats and offices. It is a one sided knowledge. Whether the BND fed war related intelligence to the US military, and whether the CIA has transported prisoners by way of Germany, an examining committee of the Federal Government will decide. But we too can monitor secret services. In so much as we can track their satellites, observe their aircraft, and monitor their radio. A few citizens have already begun spying back. They are hunters after data pictures and sounds.
Jochen Schafer hunts and collects the agent radio transmissions since he first heard them as a child. Today he is 33 years old, and a documentation assistant in a library. Schafer was born without eyes, his lids are fast shut. Form him, the world consists of sounds.
The numbers on the radio are the sounds filled with secrets which he has heard. He ahs archived them meticulously. On his window dresser on the seventh floor of a Marburg multi storey stand six wooden cases, full of cassettes. He does not like CDs. "They are historical recordings "he says. "They need historical bearers of sound. "They are not labeled, not even in Braille. He takes a cassette from box 3, shakes it, places it tin the recorder, and listens for a few seconds, forehead bent against the shelves. "25779" says the woman's voice" That is cassette number 171" he says, sounding as if to say "Wanna bet?" There are 546 items in the collection. What the puzzling rows of numbers which he records mean, he does not know.
No secret service ahs yet admitted that it contacts its agents by the short wave. "That sounds like code "said Jochen's father when for the first time he heard his son monitoring the agent transmissions. Jochen's always listening to the secret transmissions it was soon said in the family.
That the secrtet transmitters actually belong to secret services is confirmed by former STASI spies, retired MOSSAD agents and former CIA employees, on the condition of anonymity. The openness about these puzzling radio contacts is only heard if the spies remain hidden. In 2002, a female employee of the Washington Defence Agency was found to have been spying for Cuba for 16 years. The FBI found her to have on her computer number codes which she had received by means of short wave.
These sparse facts do not extend to Jochen. He wants to know which transmitter belongs to which secret service. Therefore, four years ago, he joined the ENIGMA 2000 group, (EUROPEAN NUMBER INFORMATION GATHERING AND MONITORING ASSOSCIATION), a group of like minded hobby agent hunters, of which the 600 members worldwide compare their findings, put them on the internet, log transmission times and frequencies, and workout from signal strengths the likely location of the agent radio
Every transmitter has it's own start and end characteristics. Jochen Schafer can recite them all. Then he knits his eyebrows together, sinks his head, and does not move until; the last sound has come. He knows about how the British Secret Service greets it's agents with the folk song "Lincolnshire Poacher". The French call their secret employees with a yodelling melody, believes Schafer, the STASI which used to call their theirs with "The International". The presumed BND transmitter simply sends two letters in NATO phonetic alphabet to alert the agent for whom the message is intended. Charlie Delta for example, or Papa November.
Presumably, the secret services are not too pleased about having their reports recorded. As long as the agent hunters cannot decipher the codes, they can, however, hardly be dangerous. More uncomfortable for spies are the the hunters of pictures, like the so called PLAINSPOTTER.
When Patrick Hikvera monitors Secret Services, it is more than just switching on the radio. Then, the 20 year old industrial engineer from Gutersloh gets up at 0230, and loads his equipment into his car. A ladder, two cameras, three objective lenses, and five memory cards. At Frankfurt, he turns off the autobahn, parks his car in woodland, and carries his accessories to a fence. Punctually at sunrise, he points his 21/2 metre objective lens through the barbed wire of the fence in the direction of the runway. There she is again. Three times already he has photographed her. A Boeing 737-300 on approach, on whose ramp no flight crew stands. She looks so suspiciously unsuspicious, with a base coat of white paint, and a green yellow striping. Hilvera notes her registration number which stands on her wing. It starts with "N" the national code of the USA. The machine turns off to the north, in the direction of the military base.
Patrick Hilvera likes aircraft. He likes to photograph them; he has taken more than 40,000 photos of them. The vast majority are machines the identity of which is clearly visible-only a few are unpainted and conceal secrets. Through his meticulousness, aircraft observers such as he have contributed to the bringing to light of what must certainly be the greatest secret service scandal of recent years.
They document the aircraft movements of the machines in which, by way of Rhein Main air base in Frankfurt am Main, the CIA have been transporting terrorist suspects to secret prisons.
On the internet plane spotters can find the life history of just about any aircraft. There can be found to whom the machine belongs and to whom it has previously belonged. German BA for example, a bank, the Post Office, an oil sheikh. By the Boeing is shown only "Private". Patrick Hilvera does not know from where she come or to where she flies. The airport employees, who keep he and his colleagues advised of aircraft arrivals and departures via emails and mobile phones, know nothing either. "That in itself is unusual" says Hilvera. Like a police officer doing a traffic check, he has a feeling that something is developing, with which machines something is not quite right. With the other observers at the fence, he discusses owner and origin of the 737-300. But only for a short while. Then he turns again to the other aircraft so beautifully painted. Plain spotters monitor secret services at the same time.
At the same time-that is not for Lutz Schindler, he needs to aim his viewing at the object of his monitoring, otherwise he will miss it. When the sun has gone down he opens the door on to the terrace and goes out. Then he has two hours time. By day the 47 year old criminal investigation official hunts criminals. At night, Lutz Schindler hunts spy satellites. They can only be seen when the remaining rays of the sun fall on them. As soon as they reach the shadow of the earth, they disappear.
For observation Lutz Schindler needs a pair of binoculars and a clock. As soon as his eyes have grown accustomed to the dark, he raise his view from Lehrte near Brunswick out into the stars. Should he spot a satellite, he checks it's position by means of the star chart to within 0.05 degrees and notes the time on the clock.
About 30 spy satellite trackers observe, as does Lutz Schindler, the spy satellites in the sky. They all link up on the internet and compare their route data. Only jointly can they follow the approximately 150 secret objects which swing through the earth's orbit. With the point, which Lutz has recorded, as have other spy satellite trackers who are observing in the southern hemisphere, the orbit is confirmed.
The satellite observers discover where they must look from official data. If a rocket launch is given as a "classified payload" they act on reports from air safety and coast guard. The blocking of certain areas of the sea to shipping traffic also advises them of the direction of the rocket's flight. Once the rocket is in space the secret services can hardly alter it's course as that costs fuel. After 2 days in space, the spy satellite trackers will have located it.
With normal weather Schindler cannot confuse the spies n the sky. Their route data is known and is for all to read on the website SPACE TRACK WEBSITE which belongs to the US Government. Only with the military satellites have the Americans stopped releasing details for more than 20 years
That has awakened Schindler's hunting instincts. He wants to be the first among the spy trackers to discover a new spy satellite.
Satellites and aircraft are things which Lutz Schindler and Patrick Hilvera will be able to observe for a long time yet. However, whoever wants to get into agent radio monitoring will need to hurry. Russia Cuba China Taiwan and Israel are all still transmitting believes Jochen Schafer. The BND, however, has terminated radio communications to agents since 1999, and nothing has been heard from the CIA for 3 years. The STASI bade farewell to it's agents in 1990, not with a numbers message, but with the song "All my ducklings", sung in a *Saxon* accent by officers who gave the impression of being drunk. Schafer has it recorded. On cassette 425.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE; SAXONY IS ONE OF THE STATES (LANDER) WHICH COMPRISED EAST GERMANY. THE ACCENT OF THIS REGION IS VERY DISTINCTIVE.
THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN BY CHRISTINE ALLGOWER AND PUBLISHED IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES GERMANY IS TRANSLATED HERE IN IT'S ENTIRETY.
Thanks to Christine Allgöwer, Jochen [for interview and arranging permissions to use] and to the German Desk ENIGMA 2000 for translation services.
The translator has requested we state he does not necessarily agree with the content!
©German Financial Times 7th April, 2006 and authors rights.