Clandestine: Documentary & Fiction

IDFA screening times and locations

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:55:13 -0500

IDFA has written up a wonderful synopsis for Clandestine, also published are the showtimes for the film while it is in Amsterdam. Come on out if you can make it!

At The Tuschinski Theater
Friday November 20th 8:15pm
Saturday Nov 21st 4:00pm

At the Pathé de Munt
Monday November 23rd 2:45pm
Saturday November 28th 7:00pm

Here is what I could find on the Tuschinski theatre. “The Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam is the Netherlands’ most beautiful cinema and one of the greatest ever erected.”

Flyer designed by Patrick Mayton

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:58:45 -0500

Flyer designed by Patrick Mayton

Clandestine accepted to International Documentary Film Festival...

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:16:31 -0400

Clandestine accepted to International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

I’d like to tell you our good news. This morning we received word from the Netherlands that our film, Clandestine, has been accepted to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for their short documentary competition. It is an incredible honor for us, and is an exciting way for us to have our World Premiere.

The festival is November 19th-29th but we don’t know yet what time or date our film will be showing. We are coordinating with IDFA and making our travel arrangements to Amsterdam.

Thank you for reading the blog, waiting for the movie, and for your support.

More details will surely come soon.

Visiting the Prelinger Library (by Marcus)

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:49:25 -0400

About the Prelingers and their endeavors: The Prelinger Archives is a collection some 60,000 industrial and ephemeral films discovered and preserved by Rick Prelinger since 1982. After being acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 the Prelingers have placed over 2,000 of their films into the public domain and made available for download through the Internet Archive. From this source, Clandestine draws near 80% of its visual material. In 2004 Megan Shaw Prelinger, along with Rick, established the Prelinger Library which houses over 50,000 books and pieces of ephemera.

Last weekend I visited San Francisco with my brother Donny. Besides doing the usual site-seeing we made an effort to visit the Prelinger Library during their public hours of operation. We discovered Megan and Rick there, working hard, labelling, preparing, and sorting various types of ephemera. I was flattered to find out that Rick had already known about Clandestine and already had some ideas of places for me to research and people to get acquainted with. He directed me to a collection of Monitoring Times periodicals that he has subscribed to for many years. I was impressed to find out how interested Rick was in radio, radio history, Numbers Stations and other types of ambient noise. At one point in the conversation he retrieved a scanner from his carryall and we began listening to whatever signals it would pick up from the surrounding area. We all spoke about the state of film and documentaries, about giving things away, about the Library, its history, and other archives and libraries in the south and around the country that are worth visiting. My brother and I dug into their collection of the Official Gazette of U.S. Patents in hopes of finding a patent with our Great Great Uncle’s name attached. (A feat that we quickly realized could not be accomplished during our time there.) Donny flipped through music and aviation ephemera, and I went looking for items related to some of Climenole’s upcoming projects. All of this while the Library was filled with sound of opera coming from Megan’s stereo. If you’re in San Francisco make time to visit the Prelinger Library.

The library is at 301 8th Street (corner of Folsom Street), Room 215 in San Francisco. See website for public hours.

Paste Magazine on Numbers Stations

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:46 -0400

Paste Magazine on Numbers Stations:

Readers: Read Paste Magazine’s brief post on Numbers Stations and popular music.

Sly Girl Music Video Trailer As many of you know Nathalie Nahai,...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:08:40 -0400

Sly Girl Music Video Trailer

As many of you know Nathalie Nahai, the female voice of Clandestine, is a talented London-based musician. She has released a teaser to her upcoming music video and single, Sly Girl. Find out more about Nathalie at her website http://www.nathalienahai.com/.

Other Women Incarcerated at FMC Carswell with Ana Montes

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:04:50 -0400

Ana Belen Montes arrived at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in 2002. While there she was/is likely to bump into any of the following women who have also spent some time in Carswell.

Marion Jones - 84868-054
The Olympic athlete convicted of check fraud and steroid usage. She served her sentence from March 7, 2008 until September 5, 2008.

Chantal McCorkle - 23033-018
Convicted of financial fraud, along with her husband, using get rich quick infomercials, McCorkle’s 18 year sentence has caused tensions between the UK and the US, and raised eyebrows around the international human rights community. She has been serving out her sentence since November 5, 1998 and will complete her sentence on July 7, 2014. According to her web site she has been granted a prison transfer to the UK to be closer to her family.

Sharanda Jones - 33177-077
A so called victim of the drug war. Her situation was well documented in the film The War on Drugs. Jones also draws connections to her arrest to an image crazed Chuck Norris. She has been serving out a life sentence since 1997-98.

Lynette Alice “Squeaky” Fromme - 06075-180
Besides spending the wrong period of time with Charles Manson, Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford. She has escaped or been transferred from various prisons eventually ending up in Carswell in December of 1987. She is expected to be released on August 16th 2009.

Kristen Gilbert - 90371-038
Called “The Angel of Death” by her fellow nurses during her time working at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center because so many of her patients died from cardiac arrest. Turns out, she was murdering them by injecting them with adrenaline. For this she has been serving out a life sentence without parole since March 14th 2001.

Stay tuned for more interesting facts and spin-offs of Clandestine.

Numbers Stations used by Washington based Cuban spies

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:54:50 -0400

A call for “comprehensive damage assessment” came from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the arrest of Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers yesterday, June 5 2009. The couple is officially accused of spying for the Cuban government for up to 30 years. Reports are indicating that Shortwave radios were used by the couple to receive encrypted messages from Cuba via Numbers Stations broadcasts. 8 years earlier Ana Belen Montes was also arrested for spying for the Cuban government, evidence in her case included a Shortwave radio and one-time pads on her laptop.

This is good news for Clandestine as it provides further evidence that these mysterious broadcasts are used by governments to communicate to spies in the field.

U.S. Defense Imagery and the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center

Thu, 21 May 2009 07:22:00 -0400

U.S. Defense Imagery and the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center:

Visit defenseimagery.mil if your documentary or research requires U.S. Government defense images. Defense Imagery claims to have all their images and media from 1982 and forward available and searchable online. It’s a great place to star looking as most government images fall under the public domain.

Knowing that while Pentagon is the Department of Defense headquarters, the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC) is where a lot of the heavy lifting occurs. One such heavy lifter is Ana Belen Montes. We were able to locate her affidavit which provided the address and room number for her office which is located in the DIAC across the Potomac from the Pentagon.

While wikimedia.org had some images of the DIAC, they were all taken before the re-construction process in 2003-2005, and Ana Montes was arrested in 2001. Paying a visit DefenseImagery.mil proved to be the best approach for finding older photographs of the building. We were able to find an aerial shot of the building from 1984, which is most likely visually the same as it was in 1985 when she was hired and 2001 when she was arrested.

Find more about Ana Belen Montes relation to Numbers Stations and espionage when we release Clandestine.

Happy Birthday Samuel Morse

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:00:14 -0400

Happy Birthday Samuel Morse:

Thank you to Google for the reminder this morning that today is Samuel F. B. Morse’s Birthday. It was May 24th 1844 when Morse sent the phrase “What hath God wrought” over the wire in the first Morse code message.

…. .- .—. .—. -.— / -… .. .-. - …. -.. .- -.— / … .- — ..- . .-.. / — —- .-. … .

Translate your own Morse Code Message

Re-Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher (Click to listen if you...

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:37:00 -0400

Re-Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher

(Click to listen if you don’t see the music player)

BBC Radio did a great little special called Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher. We first discovered it on Speechification.com, from a post by Stephen Bowbrick. In it you will hear an account from a man who has met women who remember reading Numbers Stations, and Akin Fernandez will discover a Numbers Station he had never heard before. With the Lincolnshire Poacher now off the air, it’s perhaps even more worth your time to listen, too.

The Lincolnshire Poacher was a Numbers Station broadcasting from June 1989 until June of 2008. (This information comes from Jochen Schäfer, the “Kopf” of the ENIGMA2000 German Branch, E2Kde. Thanks Jochen!) Its name was copied from the British folk tune that plays at the beginning of each of its broadcasts. Many other Numbers Stations begin with a melody—The Swedish Rhapsody, for example. These melodies are popularly believed to be some sort of queue for the agent in the field to ready themselves to take down the message.

Most of the tunes are nationalistic, which raises an interesting question: Why is it important that a government choose a nationalistic tune? It seems like this would not be important if all that was needed by a government was to send a communication to an agent, while not revealing the agent’s nationality. So then, could it be that the tune is a decoy for an alias country? But broadcast locations are easily detected, compromising the decoy. So why, when a Numbers Station broadcasts for 19 years or more, would it be of any significance what melody acts as prelude? It could have been a completely random choice or a favorite tune of the operator, but let’s be more suspicious.

We know that anyone, anywhere, can pick up a broadcasting Numbers Station with an over-the-counter shortwave radio. And, we know that shortwave radio signals travel halfway across the globe, allowing a listener to pick up signals from many different countries. Therefore it seems safe to wonder if the choice of melody is somehow related to the knowledge of a broad listening public, a show of force to a enemy, a comfort to its allies, or simply a nag.

Here you have a broadcast blaring the proud tunes of your enemy, unregistered on the dial but received within your borders, and it’s accompanied by secret codes. You know that if you can hear it, most everyone in your country can. So, what is the message saying? Who is picking it up? Which of your loyal citizens sneaks a listen? Maybe the broadcasts are like a fly buzzing in the room; an invader that you can hear but can not see; you know what it is but you feel helpless to do anything about it. Maybe it’s like the feeling of disappearing livestock. Frustration is a military tactic.

The Lincolnshire Poacher

When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire
Full well I served my master for nigh on seven years
Till I took up to poaching as you shall quickly hear
Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.

As me and my companions was setting out a snare
‘Twas then we spied the gamekeeper, for him we didn’t care
For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump from anywhere
Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.

As me and my companions was setting four or five
And taking them all up again, we caught a hare alive
We caught a hare alive, my boys, and through the woods did steer
Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.

We threw him over my shoulder, boys, and then we trudged home
We took him to a neighbour’s house and sold him for a crown
We sold him for a crown, my boys, but I divven’t tell you where
Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.

Success to every gentleman that lives in Lincolnshire
(Alt. Bad luck to every magistrate)
Success to every poacher that wants to sell a hare
Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer
Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.

Spy Chatter: Listen to Live Numbers Stations

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:50:00 -0500

Spy Chatter: Listen to Live Numbers Stations:

After joining the Spy Numbers Stations mailing list, we started receiving a couple of emails a day with the subject “Automated Spy Numbers Loggings” from the Spy Numbers Robot. The email is generated by a database observer associated with the Spy Numbers Stations database. When a radio operator discovers a Numbers Station broadcast, they can report the discovery to the database. Then Spy Numbers Robot emails everyone on the list that a new broadcast has been found and logged. The Spy Numbers Robot reports frequency, ENIGMA ID (the name for the broadcaster), day of the week, date, time (in UTC), mode (radio band), additional comments, and the name of the person who reported it and their location.

Here is a sample: (click here if sample does not appear below)

Let’s look at the second listing.

So we see that someone logged station M8a on March 6th, 2009 at 7:00am Greenwich Mean Time on frequency 5883 on the CW band. If you look at the ENIGMA ID reference list you’ll find that M8a is a Cuban station that broadcasts three or so times a week with Morse Code blasts. This broadcast was reported by an amateur radio operator from Paris, TN, USA.

Spy Numbers can then analyze the history of data to provide information on current and future broadcasts. You can find predictions on what may be broadcasting now. An incredible resource for someone starting on a quest to hear a live Numbers Station broadcast. (See also what may be broadcasting in the next hour.) The database is publicly available, and searchable. If you don’t have a shortwave radio but would like to listen to numbers stations, there are three easy ways.

Numbers Racket CD: The largest collection of Numbers Stations recordings with a special emphasis on recordings that are no longer active.
The Conet Project: Available for free, streaming or download, from archive.org. Akin Fernandez complies recordings of Numbers Stations broadcasts. 4-CD set (1997).
Clandestine: Our film in part about the history of Numbers Stations. Sign up to receive a notification when the film is released and being screened near you.

Things Ana Belen Montes must do after serving 25 years in jail

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:04:00 -0500

When Ana Belen Montes is released from prision, scheduled to be July 1st 2023, she will have to comply with the conditions of her release put in place by Judge Ricardo Urbina on September 21st 2002.

She will deny government contributions to her Thrift Savings Program. She will endure five years probation. She will be participate in 500 hours of Community Service. She will regularly undergo drug testing. She will allow authorities to perform random searches on her computer. She will allow them to copy all of her data onto external drives. She will allow them to install technologies that observe her computer use. She will provide funding for this equipment. She will not be allowed any data encryption software. She will maintain a daily log of everything she does on her computer by pencil and paper. She will not be allowed to use the internet at home or at work without prior approval. She cannot receive any benefits from foreign entities. She cannot work for the US government. She cannot work for a foreign government. She will have her income tax returns reviewed. She is to have no direct contact with foreign operatives. She is to have no indirect contact with foreign operatives. Yet, she has a right to an appeal within ten days… but that was expired October 2nd 2002.

At least she is alive.

Find out more about Ana Belen Montes when you watch Clandestine.

reference: http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Montes_2.htm

Control to Operative Email List

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:36:20 -0500

Control to Operative Email List:

Volunteer,
If we are to engage in clandestine operations, you are to not expect regular contact from us, lest our objective be compromised. Currently there is no IMMEDIATE and all contact should be directly with control. Because we are in lockstep, limit your exchanges to EEI, even then, a relay will not arrive until we are in the wind.

There will be no OC, therfore you may defect at anytime.

A legend is provided in the following forms:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
RSS

Good luck Operative.

Clandestine Control

Clandestine updates available via Twitter

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:05:31 -0500

Clandestine updates available via Twitter:

Clandestine progress. Dick-George, Tenn-Tom screenings. Plus updates ongoing research projects.

V is for Victory

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:31:00 -0500

… -

bum-bum-bum-buuuum

It didn’t take much to unite the citizens of allied nations against the Nazi’s, just one letter or four simple notations. Those familiar with Beethoven’s 5th Symphony or Looney Tunes know it by heart. Three short notes followed by one long. Likewise, in Morse Code, three dots followed by one dash represents the letter V.

An article by icons.org sums it up best, but essentially by throwing up a V sign, painting a V, honking a V, or clapping a V to children, was a protest used in Nazi occupied territories during WWII. The idea was attributed to Victor de Laveleye who might have had his own interests in promoting the letter, nevertheless his message was broadcast over the BBC network on January 14th 1941 via shortwave radio.

Music has also played a part in the history of shortwave radios, espionage and Numbers Stations. Many of the Numbers Stations broadcasts begin with a few bars of a familiar melody. Usually a nationalistic folk tune. Speculation suggests that this would alert the spy to the incoming message, and to ready themselves to take down the incoming code. Clandestine documents this by using these melodies as source music through much of the documentary and narrative parts of the film.

Barnard College Archives

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:46:00 -0500

Barnard College Archives:

If you are researching a person, or piece of history that at some point had crossed paths with Barnard College in New York, chances are there is a cove of information that waits for you in the Barnard College Archives.

It was a pleasure working briefly with the staff at the Barnard College Archives in our recent pursuit of an image for Juliet Stuart Poyntz. Astrid Cravens was the person who was working with us, and she was very quick in responding to our requests and dug deeper into the archives on her own initiative.

The archive has very reasonable rates and fees for the resources that they provide. In addition their site contains all of the information necessary to begin your research as well as video clips, interactive exhibits, and two separate archive searches.

Working with the archives is also a great way to get your project archived. With a keen interest on collecting and showcasing the lives and subjects that play into the history of their school, the archives request that you return a copy of your work to them that they may properly document and catalogue it along side the other items in their collection. Once Clandestine has reached completion, you will be able to find it in the Barnard College Archives.

Selmer Jackson - The Secret Code

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:04:00 -0500

Selmer Jackson played in over 400 film or television shows in his 40 year career as an actor. This year he’ll add another credit to his resume in Clandestine.

In 1942, Selmer Jackson played Major Henry Burton, a military intelligence professional who’s job was to find and crack enemy codes in World War II America. The film was The Secret Code, a 15 episode serial about pseudo suspended city cop who finagles his way into a Nazi Spy ring in efforts crack the enemies code. At the end of each chapter Maj. Burton gives a lesson to the audience on espionage and cracking secret codes. (Presumably these are actual cases from the field that he and his team have had to crack in the past weeks, months.)

Whether or not codes were actually distributed the way Maj. Burton describes is anybodies guess. However, we do know in fact that encrypted messages were delivered via Numbers Stations through the use of Shortwave Radios and One-Time Pads. There is a reason this method of spy craft is not mentioned once in the 15 episodes, and it relates to our perception of how spies do what they do. In the 1940’s spies shuffled about hiding messages in lunch boxes with a belt full of smoke bombs and a girl they loved but could never trust. In the modern era, a spy is a link in a chain of a vast network of information flowing to and from satellites, camera’s hidden in eyeglasses, a passport and alias for every culture and country, and an army of people staring at computer monitors from 2025. But the fact is, one method remains the same and yet there is no more publicly available information available on Numbers Stations from our governments then there was in 1940.

Going back to Selmer Jackson, his career seems to be as clandestine as a spies. For many of the films to which he can place his name, many of them he remains uncredited. Look for Selmer Jackson in The Secret Code, and find him as well in Clandestine.

Clandestine on Facebook

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:52:00 -0500

Clandestine on Facebook:

(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clandestine/52491697245)

Clandestine is now seeking an audience in a social network near you. The official Clandestine Facebook page is up and the “fans” are pouring in. In the process of getting a page on facebook, we came across some groups that fans of Clandestine might be interested in:

The Conet Project: Decyphering Numbers Stations

Numbers Stations

Shortwave Radio Listeners (SWL’s)

Just to name a few.

In a way, part of the draw of being an amateur radio operator must be similar to the sensation one gets on a social network. The ability to connect with total strangers or long lost friends. But that’s off the topic. Will governments or agents use social networks as a way to transmit ciphered data? Are they using it now? After all, the blog is a broadcast similar to the short wave — anyone in the world can pick it up, and know the source. But of all those that read the blog, which one is the spy.

Likewise, what about relationships? Certainly social networks can conjure up the strongest feelings from the past. Like looking into an old photograph, you see how far you’ve gone, for better or worse. How often does a person look at the profile of an old crush and asked “what if”? How many times do they chose to act on those feelings? When does the reach of the past come to close to the present? Why is there an unsettling ease with which people are willing to jeopardize their current relationships?

As it concerns Clandestine, we have to ask: what does this have to do with listening to a woman in a land far away, softly reading numbers?

Historian, Archivist, Spy

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:18:00 -0500

Historian, Archivist, Spy:

(http://www.historyisahoot.com/mccarthy_bio.htm)

Linda McCarthy says that “History is a Hoot”. And to those that are bored with history, consider the type of narrative that comes from 24 years service with the Central Intelligence Agency. It is likely full of the stories that are not usually welcome to public eyes. Stories told in secret are not typically kind to their subjects.

Linda McCarthy created the CIA Museum, which contains this tricky working on the web site:

All artifacts have been declassified by the appropriate officials for public viewing. Please note that because the Museum is located on the CIA compound, it is not open to the public for tours.

Despite this, they do offer a virtual tour on the web site, and have a surprise mention of One-Time Pads. Details given are vague. The site explain what a one-time pad is, without explaining how they are used. Among other things, cia.gov particularly dodges the use of one-time pads in conjunction with Shortwave radios, or that they are a transcript for Numbers Station broadcasts.

But Ms. McCarthy has more work that she is interested in. In addition to many speaking engagements, she serves as a research director for various Film and Television productions. Her work in this field has earned her an Emmy award and brought us to another interesting figure in espionage history.

Morris “Moe” Berg was a mediocre baseball player, who was surprised to be asked to visit Japan with other notable ball players in the 30’s. Being a highly intellectual individual, it began to make sense why he was asked to go when he received a 16mm camera and some instructions from the U.S. Government while on this trip. Ms. McCarthy has all the details on this Berg’s interaction with the O.S.S., which really only begins with his first trip to Japan.

Linda McCarthy’s work as a historian, archivist, espionage enthusiast, and spy (?) resonates and inspires the work that is being done on Clandestine. We hope you will take some time to learn more about her.