Good Thing It's Not Wikileaks.

Years ago, way before Manning The Transvestite and Snowden The Whistleblower, I wanted to make this blog into a venue for all things leaky and secret, but realized that in long term, after much feedback, it would at best serve the PR of Obama mafia, and at worst, be Wikidiarrhea like Wikileaks.

The latest revelations on Wikileaks show a NSA guide to exploiting cyberinformation. The material is Top Secret, but the content is nothing new, and is extremely logical to anyone with some knowledge of Usenet, blogging, social web, and multimedia authoring.

Maybe we'll never know the real juicy classified info. So fat we have seen a version of a slide show presentation, with nifty general names names for conceptual systems that plug into the WWW and other digital networks, and it's just nice looking colorized flow chart. 

Revealing notice exposes Russia's strategic cable

Russian-Byelorussian notice to protect underground communication lines has an address and a phone number, which I had someone look up. A non-descript address in Minsk, Belorussia, connects it to a Belorussian front for Russian FSB's infrastructure management agency.

In other words, this is a Russian military cable access well.

The real Bolshoi ballet of antennas

I am absolutely fascinated by Russians' obsession with radio snooping. That mean that Russia must be bristling with antennas.
Kitty corner from the Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) Metro's Line 3 terminal station Primorskaya, the there is an office building with this Swan Lake of antennas. The location is great - it looks out over the Gulf of Finland


On Veshnyakovskaya st., bldg. 9, section 2 there is this farm.
You could understand the location of Leningrad tracking antennas. But what foreign traffic :-) is there to monitor in the heartland, in Moscow? Maybe Russians know better - in Butovo they do have one of many tracking stations for monitoring foreign radars(???).
The wind speed-looking device is not for measuring wind speed . The real name for it is HE314A1.


It is BKAS (БКАС), active in the 150-3700 MHz range, vertical polarization.
My fdriends have also reported that the same type of natenna farm is found on the roof of the building at Bolshaya Olenya Street, 15A (55°48'30"N 37°41'26"E), which is the Radio Tracking Center co-located with the Central Design Institute of Communications No. 17, a. k. a. the military unit (В/ч) 25801.

This is most likely a R&S Doppler triangulation antenna, seen on the roof the both buildings is R&S PA055, that has 16 vertical concentric dipoles, and covers the 20-1000 Mhz range.

The second photo also shows this skirt-like antenna between the parabola and the umbrella-shaped antennas. The famous R&S HK014, for receiving omnidirectionally anything in the 80-1600 Mhz range:

Casing out the Byelorussian secrets

The pictures of the Byelorussian KGB are here. Remember, this is the land where communism has never really died. You cans see the old embroidery-spangled flag of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic still unfurled over the City Hall/The Government Building in Minsk. These guys still think the USSR is alive and well.
By the way, note the antenna so typical of secret Soviet/Russian underground command centers.


And on Lenin Street there is a building having no number nor plaque, however festooned with an impressive suite of antennas.

This no ordinary TV antennas for the bored security guard's to watch the reruns of the stolid, tacky Communist song shows.

We were in the process of zeroing in on other features of the building, when a Byelorussian door lady scurried out onto the street and screamed at us in perfect Russian, "Movie cameras are forbidden!" We were using a tiny Canon digital gizmo with no hint of a camera.



and this is the KGB buidling. We were free to approach it and look it over from all directions, looking for any sign of good recce, but, apparently, the really interesting goodies are still inside, whereas only their classic defense-grade antennas and triangulators could be glimpsed on the turret.


Nobody ran out to arrest us. There was no sign of life, or even of a bureaucratic activity, or even of a faint scream of a political prisoner. It's just like scoping out the French Embassy in Moscow.

Next post is of the Russians in Cuba. It's a matter of organizing the photos. Sorry for the long delay.

Recce of French Embassy

The joke from a late-night show that seems to be appropriate for this post - "an ad on Ebay: French rifle, never fired, dropped once."

Most people don't think much about what the French are up to, but they are not behind the leading militaries of the world, and the same is true in the sense of their electronic warfare and intelligence.

Our man in Moscow (not the one that contributed here, nor here)- I know it sounds corny - has been lucky to gain a vantage point from where he succeeded to take a digital look at the French Embassy in Moscow. Don't ever underestimate the French.


You would have thought that this group is just a regular planar spike, but the upturned direction of the whips and the Rode & Shwarz HF dipole with an attenuator testify to its unexpected use.


this is a look from a yet different (I could only wonder) vantage point:

and these thistle whips - according to additional sources, whatever you may call these spikey finials, they have been known to radiate the most exotically encrypted traffic (some of which, unbuttoned, we will publish soon) you could pick up in this city. Note the magnetic antenna to the right of the R & S rig:



and here the gentlemen from France (remember Saturday Night Live's Coneheads? "We're from France!") have installed what might look like an average TV antenna, except - remember not to underestimate the French! - the rig and the microwave minisaucer further to the right are all aimed at the Russian Defense Ministry building.



beside being an average rooftop, they surely had to have the modest suite of satellite dishes.

and this standalone dish is accompanied by an interesting and shy Yagi-esque rig and a satcom disguised as a barstool:


as a collateral lesson from this recce exercise we have learned to appreciate the French taste for stylish rooftop radio shacks.

Next posts:
Centerfolds of KGB and other communication centers in Byelorussia, the land where communism never died
The candid shots of Russian listening outpost on Cuba, the site which has never ceased to operate.

Airport, Mooonscape and Diplograms

In this post:

PICTURESQUE RECCE EXERCISE
SLANT IMAGERY OF RUSSIA'S NOVA TERRA
DIPLOMATIC TELEGRAM ANALYSIS

We have been away, but not idle. We have met a bunch of interesting people, one of them is a former Tu-154 pilot who now flies for a discount airline. We call him Captain Alex, and he likes to take pictures in flight, from his pilot's seat. Here are some of the pictures that also serve us a breathtaking material for recce exercise.

Vnukovo Int'l Airport this winter.
The newly built, partially underground railroad spur serving the passenger terminal is visible to a knowledgeable analyst. The Russkies feel the bulge in the petrowallets, hence they feel that they can built some more megalomaniac projects to the airport.

Captain Alex took the picture and self-censored himself at that. The famous 06-24 runway is cut off below the photograph, because it serves the Government Terminal. Captain Alexey, however, was flying high and fast when he took the pictures below:



We can see the Government Terminal as the grey, black and brightly lit rectangular area towards the far (24) end of the 06-24 runway, below the T-juntion of the highways.

SLANT IMAGERY OF RUSSIA'S NOVA TERRA

Novaya Zemlya, that is. A high-level official who is actually in charge of declassifying DOD materials, has released the following imagery on condition that no other details would be divulged. The material has been declassified, but still has the stuck-in-limbo FOUO (for offficial use inly) markings.
Thus a special recognaissance platform that still remains classified is capable of obtaining imagery at extreme slant angles. That means the method is equivalent to a person shooting landscape phtographs from the ground level. Here is an image inside Severnyy, a Russian outpost on the lunar landscape ravaged by catastrophic nuclear explosions. The angles are marked on satellite map for visualizing the orientation of elements in the photograph.

What are these Russkies up to nowadays? What goof-ups can they suprise us with over there?


DIPLOMATIC TELEGRAM ANALYSIS

A certain someone sent in this telegram, fully confinced that it is a Russian code-word or other type of code text.

It is sufficient to have studied comparative analysis of Slavic languages to spot Bulgarian suffixed articles ( -te, -to) at the end of the nouns. As far as we know, no other Slavic country uses Latin X to represent the "sh" sound. Our contributor is an avid ham radio operator who claims this was a RTTY message sent in an easily decodable diplomatic format. Note the year. We have some really recent material, but are being very careful with what we release.

Good luck to us all, and happy new moon month.

Another Moscow radar site

Few people in the business know about the Chulkovo radar station. Another one of those non-descript dome-shack-and-a-mast site that has never been talked about or reported. However, this very installation is responsible for most of radar and communications monitoring, also for ensuring secure communications for Russia's government and military transmissions, including those originating from Moscow's airports, one of these located nearby the neighboring Bykovo. Google Maps here

This is another view, courtesy of Google Earth.

And this crowning touch is from our friendly and erudite photog, the very one that took the pictures of Butovo Radio Surveillance Site, after his plane took off from the aforementioned Bykovo airport.

The stolen Russian intelligence

Military and government professionals know how the importance of keeping classified information within secure environment. The transgression could cost someone his career, or the indelible, unforgettable wound on his consciousness that thousands hours of work and government's priceless  intelligence gathered through painstaking effort has  fallen into the hands of unsuspecting at best, uncleared civilian. The lesson learned by a Russian SIGINT professional is related below in its original, contributed by a radio amateur.

The SIGINT specialist had a keepsake tape made for him of the best moments from Russian radio surveillance of US Strategic Command and other sorties. On the way home, he could not stand the temptation to let an accidental fellow traveller listen to the tape and later on stealing the tape. The story is heartbreaking, to say the least.

Насчет пеленга я не знаю, какими антеннами они работали. На пеленгаторе сидело три срочника (обычно дембеля), так что им этот пеленг был до одного места. Обычно на рядовые самолеты (транспортники REACH, то есть С-130, С-5, С-7), заправщики и тому подобное пеленг был никому не нужен. И в таких случаях мое общение с пеленгаторами выглядело так:
Я сижу на посту, решаю от скуки взять транспортник на ГКСС. Слушаю, что он дает информацию, что примерно прибывает на Гейленкирхен через 2 часа, на борту 10 тонн груза, просит погоду. Даю команду на пеленг: "Работает 9011". Пеленгатор тут же спрашивает: "А что там за самолет то?". Я отвечаю, что транспортник. Он после этого тут же забивает на пеленг совершенно. После прослушивания я спрашиваю:"Ну что, пеленг давай". Меня просят сообщить, что же я там услышал. Я говорю, что он летит в Германию, прибывает через пару часиков. После этого пеленгатор отвечает:"Ну запиши там 230 градусов". Это так происходило чаще всего. Если самолет посерьезней, то они что то старались изобразить, и даже иногда получалось. Но каким образом они это делали и какие антенны использовали я к сожалению не знаю.
Что же касается позывных, то их основные типы были известны, то есть какой самолет под какими позывными летает. А вот предполагаемые частоты и позывной на отдельные случаи обычно почти всегда приходит по ориентировке. Что же касается содержания радиообмена, то не всегда (исключительно на собственном опыте) можно определить тип самолета, так как военные самолеты, выходящие на ИКАО ничего не говорят, а всего лишь дают три точки своих координат и уровень полета и все. И даже на ГКСС не всегда удается понять, что за самолет, так как на моей памяти бомберы, запрашивавшие канал связи со своей авиабазой обычно никакой информации туда не давали, просто говорили расчетное время прибытия и давали Operations normal, то есть, что полет проходит нормально. А подтверждение тому, что это бомбер я обычно получал, когда оператор сам их просил назвать тип самолета и они говорили его. На ИКАО я однажды по ориентировке ждал перегон тактики 07.06.97. С Европы на континент гнали стаю F-15. Называлось все это движение Coronet East 135. Работали они на частоте ИКАО с ЦУП Нью-Йорк на 13306. Постоянно выходили заправщики КС-135 под позывными BLUE 71,72,74,82,84. Давали координаты и высоту полета, ну как обычно, причем эшелон периодически опускался до 210-230 для дозаправки. Шли они по точкам 43n 43w, 44n, 45w, 44n, 50w. Потом у одного из заправщиком состоялся разговор с оператором Нью-Йорка, где пилот сообщил, что они Коронет Ист 135, причем проспеллировал название, и сообщил позывные тактики, то есть истребителей. Выглядело это так:" New York this is Blue 71. We are Coronet East 135. We have Mazda 31, Mazda 32, Mazda 33, Mazda 34, Mazda 35 and Mazda 36". Все это он еще раз проспеллировал и дал очередные координаты. То есть в принципе если бы не ориентировка, то я бы, не зная, что все это значит, даже и значения этому бы не придал. В основном конечно все заранее известно по ориентировкам, но для меня и был главный интерес, когда заранее зная какую то информацию, находишь самое явное ее подтверждение.
Насчет поста, то я не знаю, как же сделать так, чтобы меня все же взяли. У меня ведь из моей части остались подтверждения допуска и тому подобное. Но я думаю, что это покажет разговор с командиром части.
Самое интересное, что самые волнительные моменты, причем записанные при идеальной слышимости (ну это было качество почти как в студии, почти полное отсутствие шумов и ясные, четкие голоса), причем на кассете было все: бомберы, разведчики, АВАКС, причем не просто выходы на связь, а разные интересные моменты, так вот, такую кассету, выстраданную за полгода (ведь не всегда такая идеальная слышимость и разговоры необычные) я вез на память домой. И вот в поезде из Улан-Удэ с нами ехал дембель какой-то танкист, что ли. Мы ему дали на плейере послушать, он был отрясен, хоть и не знал английского, и вероятно попросту ее спи...дил, чтобы в своей родной деревне девкам давать слушать и рассказывать байки, каким он был отважным танкистом-радиоразведчиком. Он у меня еще в поезде спрашивал, нет ли еще такой кассеты, а то бы подарили ему. Я даже и подумать не мог, что она ему так в душу запала. До сих пор вспоминаю, сердце кровью обливается, в прямом смысле. Мы на дембель сравнивали, у кого самые интересные записи и по качеству слышимости. Так вот эта кассета лидировала тогда с огромным отрывом. С каким бы безмерным удовольствием я бы ее сейчас выложил вам, друзья!!!! Качество ее было просто студийным, поверьте на слово! Какая же сволочь этот танкист...

(source) You wish you could relearn Russian again.

Russian Radio Surveillance Center

One of our Moscow-touring friends who also happen to have an admirable college education and a sharp eye for all things hi-tech, secret and Russian, has stumbled on (surely one of many) Russian Federal radio surveillance center, for decades having been tucked next to Butovo, a quaint village next to Moscow. The giant city by now has swallowed up this village and given it a subway station, but the pictures disclose an intriguing side of the Russian heartland.

As one would expect from similar outpost anywhere in the world, the most exciting, government secrecy, hi-tech installations usually occupy a non-descript, humble, pastoral house just like this



Just when our friendly photographer had finished taking the pictures, he was approached by a serious looking but polite plain-clothes officer-type, and asked for ID. Speaking perfect Russian, but having a foreign passport, our photog seemed to have placed the officer into an uncomfortable predicament, which was resolved by our photog offering to erase the pictures from the Flash card. Herein lies a comment on the IQ of Russian well-dressed gentlemanly perimeter guards. He accepted the offer smilingly and bid our photog farewell, the images safe in the camera's memory.

And just to show that this is not your average ham radio club, feast your eyes on what must be a Western-import, most probably Thomson, interferometric tracking array, adapted to one of those numerous, Russkie-ingenuous radio spectrum snooping ideas. Birch trees look Pasternak-esque, don't they?


Could anyone name this if it was an abstract sculpture at the Burning Man festival?

Milk, Gold, Rupees and Rubles

This should not be a secret, but it is, to most of the world.

Gold prices fell,

Bid/Ask 661.60 - 662.40

Low/High 659.90 - 677.70

Change -0.70/-0.11%, about $22

even though Russia broke records in Gold vs. Forex Reserves. Russian Central Bank said its gold and foreign exchange reserves reached $413.1 billion as of July 20. The amount is the record one in the histories of both the former USSR and Russia.

Carry traders in Japan and Switzerland have been borrowing money (since this is what carry trade is about) in countries with low interest rates and investing in gold. You can see this in the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. Whatever investments sunk into the trades are adversely affected.

Gold demand dipped today as prices headed up but dealers ported moderate sales taking place late the previous day, when prices dipped to one-week lows. This is almost a mumbo-jumbo according to the cold-hard as gold truth about gold.

Ned Schmidt, the editor of the Value View Gold Report said that it is the “beginning of the demise of paper assets…spilling over into the gold market."

Let these carry traders trade. Instead, watch India, the largest consumer of gold. Watch the weather in India as well. The good monsoon at propitious time will yield good harvest, which will lead to an unusually bustling mid-August wedding season, and that should mean strong gold demand. See, no quiet intergovernmental agencies at work here. Sometimes a secret is not really a secret.

*********

There are more to this than the Mitrokhin archives, though. Milk jugs in Russian’s cellars should hold entire home movies shot by KGB officers ignorant of the future. While much of these stashes are irretrievably lost to the alcohol-induced amnesia and realigned priorities, there is a lot to be learned just from various officials discussing the subjects, and attempts to recover the jugs. That’s when Echelon and SALWISS come in. As a background reading, here is more on Echelon and SALWISS.

Got milk?