Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Latest Cuban Spy Bust Spotlights V2 and M8

Once again, well-placed US government workers (in this case, retired) have been arrested on espionage charges.

Following an FBI sting, agents arrested Walter Kendall Myers, a former State Department analyst with a top-secret clearance, and his wife. They allegedly passed documents and intelligence to their Cuban handlers for something like 30 years.

FBI's 3-year investigation produced alleged evidence that they had received instructions from short wave voice and Morse code broadcasts, and made document drops in shopping carts. When surveillance cameras in markets improved, they switched to encrypted e-mail from Internet cafes.

Past testimony has given ample evidence that the mysterious V2, M8, and SK01 numbers broadcasts are indeed aimed at low-level, deep-cover spies operating in the US. Given the sloppy engineering of these, it's a wonder anyone gets their messages at all, but they apparently do just that.