The Estonian Spy Case - Herman Simm

[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!

[jmm99]

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]

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]

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

[jmm99]

did not reveal its sources and methods, at least in the BBC article, used to detect the "rock radio".

Since the transmission signals may have been very short range (don't know that, but that is an inference), signal intercepts may not have been the key. If the FSB surveils adversary diplomats as well as the KGB did, investigation and surveillence may, indeed, have been the key - too many UK diplos hanging around a location punching their hand-helds.

In any event, the 2006 incident seems closer to what m.c is looking for - simply updated in technology.

[bourbon]

[jmm99]

as this .....