The Estonian Spy Case - Herman Simm

**jmm99** · 02-27-2009

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** · 03-02-2009

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** · 03-02-2009

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

**marcus.climenole** · 03-03-2009

Originally Posted by jmm99

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!

**jmm99** · 03-03-2009

from m.c
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?

My immediate thought is that the Simm case is so recent that anything detailed about his sources and methods would be classified. Possibly his guilty plea "proffer" (if Estonia uses that sort of document) would give some details. I haven't seen anything beyond the open-source material posted here.

Based on one of the news articles I read, Simm was discovered because the Checkist officer or agent running him had tried to recruit an official from another government. The official reported the contact and the Checkist was surveilled. That led to his meetings with Simm being observed, etc., etc.

The inference is that Simm was transmitting information person to person - also perhaps by dead-drops. If what was reported was true, discovery of Simm was something of a windfall realized because another official obeyed the rules and reported an illicit contact.

PS: You do have an interesting project - sometimes fact is more interesting than fiction, but more often is simply boring.

**marcus.climenole** · 03-04-2009

Wow, great information. I will have to go back through the information posted in this thread more closely. In addition, I'll repost whatever information I find on the topic from elsewhere.

(slightly off topic). Somebody notified me of another spy, Stig Bergling, who was busted in 2005, who they say used shortwave radios to receive communications from the FSB. I'm going to dig into him as well.

You've been very helpful. And thanks for the compliment.

**davidbfpo** · 03-04-2009

The vulnerability to traditional methods (investigation and surveillance) appear to be present in this case. This vulnerability might explain the FSB's delight in exposing a UK spy network / method when an electronic dead letter box was found; IIRC disguised as a rock containing a recording device and you broadcast over a very short distance the text. This appeared on news websites in January 2006 and this is the BBC's report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4638136.stm

davidbfpo