The Estonian Spy Case - Herman Simm

[jmm99]

This appeared in a few places:

Estonian In Russia Spy Probe On Trial By March: Official
Wednesday February 4th, 2009 / 15h44

TALLINN, Estonia (AFP)--A former Estonian defense ministry official who is accused of spying for the country's Soviet-era master Moscow is set to face trial within weeks, justice authorities said Wednesday.

"The case will reach court in a few weeks, in March at the latest," Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman of the state prosecutor's office, told AFP.
.....
The defense ministry said Wednesday that it was also planning to seek 21 million kroons ($1.72 million) in damages against Simm.
"The sum was calculated by taking into account the amount the defense ministry has had to pay to change the various communication and guard systems of various institutions," spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP.

[Stan]

This is the part that always gets me

After Simm's arrest, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said other NATO member states which may have been damaged by his alleged espionage could also press charges.
Maesalu (sic), however, said prosecutors did not have any further information about such plans by Tallinn's allies.

The purported NATO team has yet to come up with anything that would shake the roof off Estonia's NATO membership. I love the way a journalist gets paid to ponder evidence that has yet to materialize.

I've truly missed my calling to make money using little more than innuendo and personal opinion (and you do still recall what we say about opinions and Alphas... Right?).

Regards, Stan

EDIT:
As I happen to know these fine folks, I will see just exactly what all this cash will suddenly replace to prevent more Hermans from selling (ahem) highly classified info to the Russkies.

The defense ministry said Wednesday that it was also planning to seek 21 million kroons ($1.72 million) in damages against Simm.
"The sum was calculated by taking into account the amount the defense ministry has had to pay to change the various communication and guard systems of various institutions," spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP.

[kaur]

A spy scandal in Estonia

How many more?
Feb 26th 2009 | TALLINN
From The Economist print edition

A senior Russian spy in NATO is convicted

http://www.economist.com/world/europ...ry_id=13184989

[jmm99]

thank you for the update.

Now that Mr. Simm has pleaded guilty, the question will remain (as it always does in these cases) about why he did what he did. Some will ask why he was not caught sooner - and the answer there is that there is no single profile for a spy-traitor. There are many profiles (developed after the fact) and they are common not only to spies-traitors, but to those who are not.

[marcus.climenole]

Is there any further evidence so far that the radio device Mr. Simm was using, was receiving Shortwave radio broadcasts? Further, have there been any reports of one time pads, or message decryption devices, keys, or codes?

Thanks for the forum, this is great!

[jmm99]

either in this thread or here - web developer and an interest in films tells us not much. Thank you in advance.

[marcus.climenole]

either in this thread or here - web developer and an interest in films tells us not much. Thank you in advance.

I'm sorry, I'll be more verbose. Through Climenole, LLC I'm working on a film about the history of Numbers Stations. Beginning with Bletchley Park in 1940, it tells this history using instances where an individual is charged with treason and the evidence brought against them is, among other things, shortwave radios and One-Time Pads. The sum of which points to Numbers Stations.

The spies prominently featured are: Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (Rudolph Ivanovich Abel), Adolf Tolkachev, Geoffrey Prime, Vaklav Jelinek (Edwin Van Harleem), and Ana Belen Montes.

Montes was discovered in 2001 and sentenced in 2002. Being that it is 2009 and we are near completion of the project, we'd like to be able to include a reference to someone who has been caught recently using Shortwave Radios and One-Time Pads. Bring it up to date basically.

I stumbled upon your forum because of the mention of the radio in Mr. Simm's quarters. I thought if anyone would know if he was using Shortwave Radios and One-Time Pads, it would be the people of this forum. So any thoughts?

Now that it's in the open, if you are interested in more about our film project, it is called Clandestine. visit http://clandestine-movie.com

Thanks for any help you can provide!