Canadian Coins And Spy-tech

[MalahatTwo7]

Very interesting "Get Smart" story here - I thought this stuff was the makings of movie/spy fiction.

U.S. Defense Workers Warned About Spy Coins. Coins With Transmitters Planted On Contractors.

POSTED: 8:21 pm EST January 10, 2007
UPDATED: 8:27 pm EST January 10, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is warning its American contractors of a new spy threat.

Canadian coins with tiny radio transmitters hidden inside were found planted on contractors with classified security clearances on at least three occasions, a government report said.

The incidents occurred between October 2005 and January of last year after the contractors traveled through Canada.

The report doesn't suggest who might be tracking the defense contractors or why.

Other unanswered questions include how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function and what type of coin contained the them.

The Defense Security Service said the report has been "sanitized" and further details are secret.

Canadian intelligence said it knows nothing about the coins.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
-------
USA Today January 11, 2007 Pg. 5

Pentagon Warns Workers Of Canadian 'Spy Coins'

By Paul Leavitt

A Defense Department report warns U.S. contract employees of an espionage tactic that uses Canadian coins with tiny radio-frequency transmitters hidden inside. On at least three occasions, the coins were found on contractors who traveled through Canada.

The report doesn't suggest who might be tracking the Pentagon contractors or why. Details were secret, but the incidents happened and the risk is genuine, Defense Security Service spokeswoman Martha Deutscher said. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said it knew nothing about the coins.

--With wire reports

[lvwrench]

Reminds me of the cold war days when hollowed out coins were used to smuggle micro film.

[DaSharkie]

See, ya just can't trust those Canucks!


Nothing better to do on those frigidly cold days up there, right Malahat?

[MalahatTwo7]

See, ya just can't trust those Canucks!


Nothing better to do on those frigidly cold days up there, right Malahat?

Well now.. I dunno about the folks "Up There" right now. Although looking at the news from the Victoria/Vancouver area, folks around those parts are still digging themselves out from yet another fall of snow. Which I am very happy to report HAS NOT been seen in the DC area - so far.

Kinda falls right in with the contractor who took his clothes off and then decided to test his own elevator, without using electricity or even an elevator car.....

[manofire2]

I'm selling Toonies, all with the potential for carrying transmitters for the bargain price of $5.00 US each. Get them now while the're still some available.

For $10.00 US I will throw in a genuine replica of the Loonie that was hidden at center ice during the salt Lake Olympics.

It's a great deal, this could be the biggest thing since pet rocks. Don't be the only one out there without the Loonie Toonie Combo.

[MalahatTwo7]

I caught a bit of the tv news last night. Now I dont know if the depicted coin was the "culprit" in this story, but the news showed a HUGE Canadian 50 cent piece. Other than for collector series coins, we DO NOT use 50 cent coins as regular currency. So if this is the coin in question, then...... well.... maybe I have some water front property for sale on Mars.

[Dalmatian190]

1) Go to kitchen.

2) Tear off a decent size piece of Reynolds Wrap

3) Fashion a tinfoil hat

4) Download and read: http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/2006trends.pdf

Which is the report that included the Toonie Loonies.

[firefighterkid]

its Twonie as in two as in two dollars

[Dalmatian190]

Have to say, didn't know about the Twonies...

I was using it "Toon" like "Tune" for the radio...thus Loonies --> Toonie...

Must've been my New England accent

[MalahatTwo7]

Have to say, didn't know about the Twonies...

I was using it "Toon" like "Tune" for the radio...thus Loonies --> Toonie...

Must've been my New England accent

HAHAHAHAAAAA either that or I've been "down here" too long already - I actually understood what you were getting at, Dal.

[MalahatTwo7]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA Now this is FUNNY

Mystery Solved: Poppy Coin Prompts Spy Warnings
Coins Commemorate Canada's War Dead

POSTED: 7:46 am EDT May 7, 2007

WASHINGTON -- An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defense Department's false espionage warning earlier this year, The Associated Press has learned.

The odd-looking -- but harmless -- "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

The silver-colored 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy -- Canada's flower of remembrance - inlaid over a maple leaf. The unorthodox quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors' accounts.

The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red color from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.

"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."

The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the Defense Security Service, an agency of the Defense Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.

One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. "Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket," the contractor wrote.

But the Defense Department subsequently acknowledged that it could never substantiate the espionage alarm that it had put out and launched the internal review that turned up the true nature of the mysterious coin.

Meanwhile, in Canada, senior intelligence officials expressed annoyance with the American spy-coin warnings as they tried to learn more about the oddball claims.

"That story about Canadians planting coins in the pockets of defense contractors will not go away," Luc Portelance, now deputy director for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wrote in a January e-mail to a subordinate. "Could someone tell me more? Where do we stand and what's the story on this?"

Others in Canada's spy service also were searching for answers. "We would be very interested in any more detail you may have on the validity of the comment related to the use of Canadian coins in this manner," another intelligence official wrote in an e-mail. "If it is accurate, are they talking industrial or state espionage? If the latter, who?" The identity of the e-mail's recipient was censored.

Intelligence and technology experts were flabbergasted over the warning when it was first publicized earlier this year. The warning suggested that such transmitters could be used surreptitiously to track the movements of people carrying the coins.

"I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it," said H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian.

But Melton said the Army contractors properly reported their suspicions. "You want contractors or any government personnel to report anything suspicious," he said. "You can't have the potential target evaluating whether this was an organized attack or a fluke."

The Defense Security Service disavowed its warning about spy coins after an international furor, but until now it has never disclosed the details behind the embarrassing episode. The U.S. said it never substantiated the contractors' claims and performed an internal review to determine how the false information was included in a 29-page published report about espionage concerns.

The Defense Security Service never examined the suspicious coins, spokeswoman Cindy McGovern said. "We know where we made the mistake," she said. "The information wasn't properly vetted. While these coins aroused suspicion, there ultimately was nothing there."

A numismatist consulted by the AP, Dennis Pike of Canadian Coin & Currency near Toronto, quickly matched a grainy image and physical descriptions of the suspect coins in the contractors' confidential accounts to the 25-cent poppy piece.

"It's not uncommon at all," Pike said. He added that the coin's protective coating glows peculiarly under ultraviolet light. "That may have been a little bit suspicious," he said.

Some of the U.S. documents the AP obtained were classified "Secret/Noforn," meaning they were never supposed to be viewed by foreigners, even America's closest allies. The government censored parts of the files, citing national security reasons, before turning over copies under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Nothing in the documents -- except the reference to nanotechnology -- explained how the contractors' accounts evolved into a full-blown warning about spy coins with radio frequency transmitters. Many passages were censored, including the names of contractors and details about where they worked and their projects.

But there were indications the accounts should have been taken lightly. Next to one blacked-out sentence was this warning: "This has not been confirmed as of yet."

The Canadian intelligence documents, which also were censored, were turned over to the AP for $5 under that country's Access to Information Act. Canada cited rules for protecting against subversive or hostile activities to explain why it censored the papers.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.

Photo credit: (the "offending" coin)

BTW: I have 5 or 6 of these coins at home... somewhere in my office....

[rhvfd1214]

Doubt, confusion, hysteria,

Let's look at this story.. Malahat has access to DC, plus a collection of these "coins." I tried to look at the picture, but it locked up my windows operating system. (eyebrow raises..) Is this just a way to throw off the public? I think there is a conspiracy to track contractors. Malahat must be in on it, and is posting these stories to mislead and misinform those that would question the funny money.. It must be a plot to follow the contractors to the best places to buy coffee. They (Canadians) must be plotting to change the coffee, and switch it to decaffeinated brands, thereby bringing US contractors to a sleepy halt in their endeavors. Shut down the contractors, and the US economy will grind to a stop. This will open the door for the "Great Invasion from the North." Hockey will replace baseball, Shania Twain will be Queen, and we will all be forced to learn to speak French. All the public information signs will use the Metric system, which will cause gridlock and confusion on the roadways. Mass Hysteria will result. Oh, the doom! Aye?

Then again, my computer is always acting up, and the story does sound plausible. Hmm.. Just in case, if I see one of these coins, I'm going to lock it up in a lead box..

[MalahatTwo7]

I am sorry I cannot answer that question on the grounds of ... oh wait, I can neither confirm nor deny any of that either.....

Or maybe I could? But I am sure I was "out of town" that day. I am sure I have proof in receipts, but it will take 24 hrs to produce them.....

[rhvfd1214]

Ah Ha!

Plausible Denial, Information Deflection, Everything is clearly semitransparent.

My head hurts, my ears are ringing. There is a quarter on the counter, and it's playing music,
Celine Dion, aaahhhhh, my ears....
No, NO!
Don't Mess with Malahat!!!