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It's
certainly inconvenient if your password is hacked and your identity stolen.
But if the CIA's password is hacked, it may mean a death sentence for
its covert operatives.
Recently, there was a huge setback for the CIA when its spies in Iran and Lebanon were caught because their password was cracked. What was that password? PIZZA:
In Beirut, two Hezbollah double agents pretended to go to work for the CIA. Hezbollah then learned of the restaurant where multiple CIA officers were meeting with several agents, according to the four current and former officials briefed on the case. The CIA used the codeword "PIZZA" when discussing where to meet with the agents, according to U.S. officials. Two former officials describe the location as a Beirut Pizza Hut. A current US official denied that CIA officers met their agents at Pizza Hut.
From there, Hezbollah's internal security arm identified at least a dozen informants, and the identities of several CIA case officers.
Organizations like the CIA and Department of Defense have been assisting with blockbusters like Transformers for years. However, there have been complaints from insiders over potential security privacy leaks, raised during talks over an untitled film about the killing of bin Laden. Whether they have reason to be concerned or not, spokespeople insist there is a pragmatic reason for the comradery between Hollywood and national security: image control.
If you want to make a war film and need a fleet of F-22s, a crowd of Marines, or a Navy aircraft carrier, just call up the Department of Defense’s entertainment media office and they’ll tell you if the Army can spare that M1A1 Abrams tank you’ve always wanted for a day or two of filming.
“The scripts we get are only the writer’s idea of how the Department of Defense operates,” Vince Ogilvie, deputy director of the Defense Department’s entertainment liaison office, told Danger Room. “We make sure the Department and facilities and people are portrayed in the most accurate and positive light possible.”
Dialogue from the XtraNormal video featured on Wired explains things a bit differently:
Secret Agent Woman: “I’m glad you’re going to make a movie about how awesome the Central Intelligence Agency is. Everybody that works here is very smart and we never mess up and most people are extremely good-looking too.”
Michael Bay: “I agree because I want you to help me. Kaboom!”
Link | Image: XtraNormal Video
You can guess where. Wired has a gallery of gadgets from the history of espionage, including this CIA-issue escape kit from the 1960s.
Link via Nerdcore | Photo: International Spy Museum
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.
Like
the Coyote and Road Runner, the CIA was obsessively trying to kill Fidel
Castro in the 1960s. But like Coyote, they just couldn't seem to do it.
Was it because Castro was so wiley … or because the CIA was so incompetent?
Here are some examples of how the anti-Castro super spies spent their time
(and our money).
CONCOCTING WEIRD PLOTS
Seven plots against Castro that the CIA actually considered.
1. Use agents in Cuba to spread rumors that the second coming of Christ
is imminent and that Castro is the anti-Christ.
2. Surprise him at the beach with an exploding conch shell.
3. Put thallium salts in his shoes or cigars during an appearance on
"The David Susskind show," to make his beard and hair fall
out.
4. Put itching powder in his scuba suit and LSD in his mouthpiece so
he would be driven crazy and drown
5. Offer him exploding cigars designed to blow his head off.
6. Shoot him with a TV camera that has a machine gun inside.
7. Spray his broadcasting studio with hallucinogens.
EMBARGOING BASEBALLS
In its war against Fidel Castro during the 1960s, the CIA literally tried
to play hardball politics. "The CIA tried to cut off the supply
of baseballs to Cuba. Agents persuaded suppliers in other countries not
ship them. (U.S. baseballs were already banned by the trade embargo the
U.S. had declared.)" The bizarre embargo was effective. Some balls
got through, "but the supply was so limited that the government
had to ask fans to throw foul balls and home runs back onto the field
for continued play.
- Jonathan Kwitny, Endless Enemies
How
out-of-control was the CIA in its anti-Castro frenzy? They even took Ian
Fleming's jokes seriously. This anecdote from Deadly Secrets
"Fleming
was staying at the house of British newsman Henry Brandon. The next day
CIA director Allen Dulles called Brandon to speak to Fleming. Brandon
said his guest had already left Washington. Dulles expressed great regret.
He had heard about Fleming's terrific ideas for doing in Castro and was
sorry he wouldn't be able to discuss them with him in person.
"It is testimony to the resounding good sense exercised by the
CIA during the Secret War that all three Fleming's spoof ideas were
in one form or another attempted---or at least seriously considered."
__________
Reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, which comes packed with 504 pages of great stories.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - check 'em out!
To many wealthy Lithuanians, it was just a fancy horseback riding academy. But horses aren’t the only things kept in the barn: the CIA had built a secret prison there, where they interrogated (or tortured, your choice of word) suspected al-Qaeda terrorists.
ABC News has the story:
The CIA constructed the prison over the next several months, apparently flying in prefabricated elements from outside Lithuania. The prison opened in Sept. 2004.
According to sources who saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."
On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations.
The following is an article from Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader
It sits just steps away from some of the most brilliant cryptographers
in the country, and yet after nearly 20 years of trying no one has been
able to unlock its secrets.
 OBJET
D’ART
In the late 1980’s, the General Services Administration, the federal
agency responsible for building and operating government buildings, started
accepting proposals for artwork to decorate a courtyard outside the cafeteria
of the CIA’s new headquarters building in Langley, Virginia. One
artist who submitted was James Sanborn, a sculptor from the Washington,
D.C. area. Sanborn was struck by how CIA agents spend their entire lives
keeping secrets from even their closest loved ones. He decided to put
himself in their shoes: His sculpture, if accepted, would contain an encoded
message- the CIA’s stock-in-trade—and only he’s take
the secret with him to the grave, just like a CIA agent. (Photo: Elonka)
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD
Sanborn pitches his concept to the GSA and won the commission. But he’s
an artist, not a code expert, so he asked the CIA for assistance in coming
up with a code that would be difficult for even the agency’s own
cryptographers to crack. They put him in touch with Ed Scheidt, chairman
of the CIA’s Cryptographic Center, and known within the agency as
the “Wizard of Codes.”
Scheidt coached Sanborn for four months—he was free to teach any
technique that did not compromise the agency’s security—and
then Sanborn spent two and a half years cutting 865 individual letters,
plus some question marks in rows onto a giant sheet of copper that was
to be the main part of the sculpture. He names it Kryptos, after the Greek
word for “hidden.” The work was unveiled in November 1990;
it consisted of a standing petrified log with a sheet of copper flowing
out from it, almost like a sheet of paper rolling out of a computer printer.
The work also featured several smaller elements: carved stones, smaller
sheets of copper, and even a duck pond, located around the CIA campus.
GOING PUBLIC
Few people would have guessed that Kryptos would attract much public interest.
The CIA headquarters is off-limits to anyone who doesn’t have business
there, so the public never gets a chance to see the sculpture in person.
Nevertheless, as CIA employees began to talk about it with outsiders—the
sculpture is apparently one of the few things around the CIA that isn’t
top secret—it wasn’t long before photographers, detailed descriptions,
and transcriptions of the inscribed letters began circulating outside
the agency. All over the country, aspiring code breakers set to work trying
to unlock Kryptos’ secrets.
The first person outside the intelligence community to make significant
progress was James Gillogly, a computer scientist from Los Angeles. In
1999 he announced that the information on the copper scroll was actually
four different encrypted passages, not just one, and that he had succeeded
in cracking three of them (768 of the 865 characters) using software he
had written.
Gillogly’s announcement prompted the CIA to admit publicly what
had already become well known within the intelligence community: A team
of four National Security Agency employees had cracked the same three
sections of the code in 1992 using NSA computers, and in 1998 a CIA analyst
named David Stein—had been able to crack the last section of the
code.
AS EASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE
As the code breakers discovered, Sanborn encrypted the first two sections,
known as K1 and K2 to code buffs, using substitution, a classic technique
in which each letter of the alphabet is switched with another. For example,
if X substitutes for the letter D, R substitutes for O, and B substitutes
for G, then the word DOG is encrypted as XRB.
K3, the third passage, was encrypted using another classic technique
called transposition. Instead of substituting one letter for another,
the existing letters are rearranged according to some systematic pattern.
Using transcription, DOG could be encrypted as DGO, OGD, ODG, GOD and
GDO. That may sound pretty simple to crack, but is DOG appeared in a larger
body of text, the hundreds of thousands of letters, making the code very
difficult to solve.
ADD’EM UP
How do cryptographers identify these codes? One interesting feature of
many languages—including English—is that no matter what the
text, letters always appear in roughly the same frequency, For example,
the letter E is likely to appear about 12% of the time in any passage,
more often than any other letter if the alphabet. The letter Q appears
least often—only 0.2% of the time.
So if the letter X appears in a body of encrypted text about 12% of the
time, there’s a good chance that the letter X is substituting for
the letter E, and the encryption method used is substitution.
But if the letters in the encrypted text appear about as often a you’d
expect them to in an unencrypted text—E still appears about 12%
of the time—then the encryption method used is likely to be transposition.
ENCRYPTION REVEALED
The first passage of Kryptos, K1, was decoded to read as follows:
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION
(Sanborn deliberately misspelled illusion to make it more difficult to
crack; he did the same thing with the other words in K2 and K3.:
The second passage, K2, was decoded to read:
IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS
MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND
TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD
ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY
WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES
SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY
FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO
The graphic coordinates indicate a point on the CIA campus about 200
feet south of the sculpture. Why this point is mentioned in the text,
or what the rest of the text is supposed to mean is anyone’s guess.
Sanborn hasn’t given up many clues. He has revealed, however, that
WW stands for William Webster, who was CIA director when Kryptos was dedicated.
(According to CIA legend, Webster refused to pay for the sculpture unless
Sanborn handed over a copy of the solution…which is how “WW”
seem to know the “exact location” of whatever it is that is
“buried out there somewhere”… if there really is something
buried “out there.” The CIA’s copy of the solution—if
it really does exist—is believed to remain in the CIA director’s
safe to this day.)
The third passage, K3, decoded:
SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED
THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE
A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE
A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM
THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM
WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q (?)
Sanborn created this passage by paraphrasing archaeologist Howard Carter’s
description of his opening of King Tut’s tomb in his 1923 book,
The Tomb of Tutankhamen. The passage deals with discovery, which fits
in with the sculpture’s theme of decoding encrypted texts. Sanborn
included the text because it was one of his favorite passages since childhood.
So how is K4, the fourth section of the sculpture , encrypted? No one
but Sanborn knows. Here’s the encoded text as it appears on the
sculpture. Let us know if you get anywhere with it:
OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJK LUDIAWINFBNYPVTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAEKCAR
CONCEALED IN PLAIN SIGHT
Why is the K4 passage so much more difficult to crack than the other three?
It could be that it’s not written in English—Sanborn has used
Russia-language codes in other works of art—which would make statistical
analysis of the characters much more difficult. He could also have used
any number of “concealment” techniques to mask the text. Removing
all the vowels before encoding the message is one method of concealment;
another is spelling words out phonetically: If a word like”people”
is spelled “peephul,” for example, the correct solution may
appear to be meaningless gibberish at first glance, causing the code breakers
and computer software to discard to correct solution without realizing
what it is.
The number of people attempting to crack the final Kryptos code grew
dramatically after the references to the sculpture appeared on the dust
jacket of the bestseller The Da Vinci Code. One website dedicated to solving
Kryptos saw its traffic increase from a few hundred hits per month to
more than 30,000…but no one has been able to crack the final code
yet. There have been hints that Kryptos will be featured in the plot of
the sequel to the Da Vinci Code; if so, the sculpture’s fame is
just beginning.
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
There may be other clues that will aid in decoding the fourth passage.
Some of the letters cut into the copper are slightly higher than others
in the same row. Why? And because all 865 letters are cut all the way
through the copper, sunlight slows through the sculpture to create interesting
patterns of light and shadow on the ground. Do these patterns provide
a clue to cracking the code? It’s a big possibility—remember,
the first decoded passage reads, “Between subtle shading and the
absence of light lies the nuance of Iqlusion.” If the light and
shadows around the sculpture do provide a clue, that will make cracking
the code very difficult, at least for outsiders, since none of them have
been allowed into CIA headquarters to study the sculpture in person. Adding
insult to mystery, Sanborn placed a number of large stones around the
base of the sculpture. This, and the fact that the copper sheet curves
around to form an S Shape, makes it virtually impossible to capture all
the encoded text in a single photograph.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Remember, the copper scroll is only the main part of Sanborn’s work—there
are several other mysterious objects scattered around the CIA campus,
including stone-and-copper slabs with mysterious messages like “virtually
invisible” and “t is your position” engraved into the
copper in Morse code. There’s also a magnetic lodestone set on the
grounds that appears to be pulling a compass needle carved into a nearby
rock away from due North. What does it all mean…and what about the
duck pond? Are there clues hidden there, or does Sanborn just like ducks?
Denied access to the genuine article, many aspiring cryptographers have
visited the other code sculptures Sanborn created since Kryptos. Antipodes,
one he created for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., contains
a copy of the same encrypted text that appears on Kryptos, Other code
crunchers use 3D modeling software to create elaborate models of Kryptos
and the CIA grounds and study those for clues. A few pesky diehards have
even stooped to calling Sanborn on the phone to beg for hints…but
he refuses to play ball.
Which of the sculpture’s features provide clues to decoding the
fourth passage…and which one hints at the solution to the final
riddle within a riddle that Sanborn says can be solved only after all
four passages have been decoded? Is there really something buried somewhere
in the CIA campus, perhaps a prize of some kind, waiting to be discovered
by the person who finally cracks the rest of the code?
Only Sanborn and (perhaps) the CIA director know for sure, and they aren’t
talking. |
|
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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.
Proving that some things do get better with age, the latest Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with 600 pages of fascinating trivia, forgotten history, strange lawsuits and other neat articles.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
|
In 1988, artist James Sanborn was commissioned to create an outdoor sculpture to adorn the CIA’s facility in Langley, Virginia. So he created Kryptos, a 10-foot high scroll of copper filled with letters. Its 865 characters contain, the artist asserts, a coded message. But even the best CIA cryptologists have been unable to crack all of it. One of the four sections remains a complete mystery. At the link, you can read about Sanborn’s extensive study of cryptology while planning the sculpture and the passion that it has inspired among devoted codebreakers.
Link via Instapundit
Money is too obvious and weapons are dangerous, so what is the CIA using to bribe information from Afghan warlords these days? Viagra!
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Four blue pills. Viagra.
“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.
The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills.
Viagra is only one of the enticements the CIA uses. The drug doesn’t have a particular appeal for younger men. Link -Thanks, Justin!
