Wednesday, March 09, 2005

CODE TALKING
The recent killing of Federal Judge Joan Lefkow's family is a story we hope will prompt the media to continue focusing on white hate groups. Right now, the suspicion is that all-purpose hater Matthew Hale somehow ordered or at least suggested that one of his crimies or followers execute Lefkow's husband and mother.

The NYT today has a story today that Hale has been communicating with people on the outside through his parents and lawyer by means of coded messages. Hale's mother is quoted as saying that the coded messages was "the dumbest thing I've ever heard of." The lawyer said that Hale's mother made the lawyer write the message down verbatim and deliver it to one of Hale's people on the outside. The message was apparently not delivered.

As a result of all this, POs have cut off Hale from communicating with his parents. Surprisingly, the ACLU has yet to raise an objection about cutting Hale off from his family.

While code comms from prison may be something new to the average citizen, the fact is, codes have been around almost as long as prisons. The range of codes run from simple hands signals, ghost writing, one time pads, Aztec writing, lip reading, imbedded writing with signifiers and variations of all those.

For instance, one of the more common codes is the simple letter that appears innocent to the untrained eye. The key to the code in the letter lies in the salutation. If the salutation for instance is "HI, HOW'S IT GOING?" the recipient knows to pick out every fifth letter. A letter that starts with "WHAT'S NEW?" indicates that every seventh letter in the body is the coded message. All this, of course, is worked out ahead of time long before the inmate lands in prison.

Also common is what cryptographers call the one time pad. Again this is worked out well ahead of time and consists of a number of code guides. Every letter in the alphabet is assigned a random number or letter. The key as to which page of the code guide to use is somewhere in the code. By going to the correct page in the guide, the recipient simply compares the random number or letter in the message to its actual meaning.

The difference between this and a letter with a salutation signifier is that it looks like a code and therefore harder to slide by the POs in charge of reviewing communications.

The most secure avenue of comms still remains legal documents. By law, POs can't open letters addressed from prisoners to their lawyers and vice versa. These are confidential. Some lawyers, as was documented in the Lynne Stewart/Blind Sheik case that recently ended, knowingly cooperate in illegal communications from prisoners to the outside. Other lawyers aren't even aware that they're being used as a conduit.

So Matt Hale's mother's contention that Hale might have been communicating in code is anything but "dumb."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your absolutely right on with the methods that these "dummies" are able to come up with. I realize that the woman being his mother is not going toacknowled that her son would be involved in this murder. I have read a letter from Mike Ison's mother were she was passing on information to other Mexican Mafia members what was going on from one prison to another.

one of the ways that I have also seen done was the inmate will "write between the lines of a nothing letter, however, he writes the real message using invisible method. (Urine) The receiver will heat the letter and the invisible writing is then able to be read.
Wil.E. Coyote

Anonymous said...

You don't need "invisible ink" or invisible anything to send a "coded" communication in the mail. If I send a letter to my Uncle Tony Casas that reads: "Hey, Tio, give a warm hug to Culo Breath when you get a chance", that could easily be a hit order on a person who only Uncle Tony and I know affectionately as Culo Breath. The hit is carried out and no decoder from Langley or the Pentagon can decipher such a message. As proficient as our intelligence people are, there are simply no 100% monitoring system for creative minds. As Mr. Coyote explains, the mama's play very active roles in relaying messages even if they don't know the exact content of each message. At the very least they are aware that they are relaying important vital (and oftentimes deadly) information!

Anonymous said...

You don't need "invisible ink" or invisible anything to send a "coded" communication in the mail. If I send a letter to my Uncle Tony Casas that reads: "Hey, Tio, give a warm hug to Culo Breath when you get a chance", that could easily be a hit order on a person who only Uncle Tony and I know affectionately as Culo Breath. The hit is carried out and no decoder from Langley or the Pentagon can decipher such a message. As proficient as our intelligence people are, there are simply no 100% monitoring system for creative minds. As Mr. Coyote explains, the mama's play very active roles in relaying messages even if they don't know the exact content of each message. At the very least they are aware that they are relaying important vital (and oftentimes deadly) information!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You don't need "invisible ink" or invisible anything to send a "coded" communication in the mail. If I send a letter to my Uncle Tony Casas that reads: "Hey, Tio, give a warm hug to Culo Breath when you get a chance", that could easily be a hit order on a person who only Uncle Tony and I know affectionately as Culo Breath. The hit is carried out and no decoder from Langley or the Pentagon can decipher such a message. As proficient as our intelligence people are, there are simply no 100% monitoring system for creative minds. As Mr. Coyote explains, the mama's play very active roles in relaying messages even if they don't know the exact content of each message. At the very least they are aware that they are relaying important vital (and oftentimes deadly) information!

10:29 PM

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You don't need "invisible ink" or invisible anything to send a "coded" communication in the mail. If I send a letter to my Uncle Tony Casas that reads: "Hey, Tio, give a warm hug to Culo Breath when you get a chance", that could easily be a hit order on a person who only Uncle Tony and I know affectionately as Culo Breath. The hit is carried out and no decoder from Langley or the Pentagon can decipher such a message. As proficient as our intelligence people are, there are simply no 100% monitoring system for creative minds. As Mr. Coyote explains, the mama's play very active roles in relaying messages even if they don't know the exact content of each message. At the very least they are aware that they are relaying important vital (and oftentimes deadly) information!

10:29 PM

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You don't need "invisible ink" or invisible anything to send a "coded" communication in the mail. If I send a letter to my Uncle Tony Casas that reads: "Hey, Tio, give a warm hug to Culo Breath when you get a chance", that could easily be a hit order on a person who only Uncle Tony and I know affectionately as Culo Breath. The hit is carried out and no decoder from Langley or the Pentagon can decipher such a message. As proficient as our intelligence people are, there are simply no 100% monitoring system for creative minds. As Mr. Coyote explains, the mama's play very active roles in relaying messages even if they don't know the exact content of each message. At the very least they are aware that they are relaying important vital (and oftentimes deadly) information!

10:29 PM

Anonymous said...

Sorry guys. I got trigger happy. Am learning how to navigate. Talk about a dangerous driver!! Once again, my apologies for repeating myself SEVERAL times!!!

Anonymous said...

To the one that named my friend Tony about the coded messages, I would like to meet you or correspond with you. You seem to have your shit together. I enjoy reading info that has REAL meanings not the crap being put forth by these so called "experts."
Wil.E. Coyote

Anonymous said...

Why's that... you wanna give him a "warm hug".