The
CIA ran numbers stations, a shortwave radio station that
broadcast arranged numbers to intelligence
officers operating
in foreign countries. Rumor has it that some are still in existence, and the
broadcasts have set time schedules, although some may be at random times. Numbers
stations were most prolific during the Cold War era,
and a well-known numbers station was the E03 "Lincolnshire Poacher", which
was run by the British Secret Intelligence Service,
broadcasting from a clandestine location in Bletchley Park in
the mid-1970s.
In 2001, the U.S. tried the Cuban Five on
the charge of spying for Cuba. That group had received and decoded messages
that were broadcast from Cuban numbers stations. Also in 2001, a
senior US Defense Intelligence Agency analyst
was arrested and charged with espionage for communicating with the Cuban Intelligence Directorate through encoded
messages, with instructions being received through "encrypted shortwave
transmissions from Cuba". In 2006, Carlos Alvarez and his wife, Elsa, were
arrested and charged with espionage after they were caught receiving assignments
via shortwave radio number station transmissions.
In June 2009, the FBI arrested Walter Kendall Myers with conspiracy
to spy for Cuba, after they caught him receiving and decoding messages
broadcast from a numbers station operated by the Cuban Intelligence Directorate.
I
enjoyed the movie “The Numbers Station” with John Cusack, a black ops agent
with the CIA, who is assigned to a remote numbers broadcast station with orders
to protect the station and the code operator, Katherine (Malin Akerman). When
the station comes under attack, the pair work together to defend it, save
themselves and stop their attackers from sending out a deadly code that could
change the world as we know it.
Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and authors the "Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster" series- check out his PENUMBRA DATABASE and the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thrillers.
No comments:
Post a Comment