Author: John Greenewald

In 2009, the United States introduced a new version of the $100 bill. Below, is a description from Wikipedia about the background to the bill: The United States one hundred-dollar bill ($100) is a denomination of United States currency featuring statesman, inventor, diplomat and American founding father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse of the bill. On the reverse of the banknote is an image of Independence Hall. The $100 bill is the largest denomination that has been printed since July 13, 1969, when the denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 were retired. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says…

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The following was written by Wikipedia, which summarizes this historical incident: The Martin and Mitchell Defection occurred in September 1960 when two U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) cryptologists, William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, defected to the Soviet Union. A secret 1963 NSA study said that “Beyond any doubt, no other event has had, or is likely to have in the future, a greater impact on the Agency’s security program.” Martin and Mitchell met while serving in the U.S. Navy in Japan in the early 1950s and both joined the NSA on the same day in 1957. They defected…

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Background According to Wikipedia: “Project AGILE was an ARPA project in the 1960s that investigated means for engaging in remote, limited warfare of an asymmetric type. The research was intended for use in providing U.S. support to countries engaged in fighting Communist insurgents, particularly in Vietnam and Thailand. Project AGILE was directed by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, or ARPA, and ran from mid 1961 through 1974, when it was canceled. The project was charged with developing methods to use in the looming Vietnam War, and also provided information for use by Thailand in counterinsurgency action…

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If asked about informants, the FBI answers with the following about their informant program: What is the FBI’s policy on the use of informants? The courts have recognized that the government’s use of informants is lawful and often essential to the effectiveness of properly authorized law enforcement investigations. However, use of informants to assist in the investigation of criminal activity may involve an element of deception, intrusion into the privacy of individuals, or cooperation with persons whose reliability and motivation may be open to question. Although it is legally permissible for the FBI to use informants in its investigations, special…

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(Scroll Down for Declassified Documents) The following is a great write up by Wikipedia of what “The Beale Ciphers” or “The Beale Papers” really are. I was surprised to learn of an extensive collection of documents regarding these papers. The Beale ciphers, also referred to as the Beale Papers, are a set of three ciphertexts, one of which allegedly states the location of a buried treasure of gold, silver and jewels estimated to be worth over $63 million USD as of September 2011. Comprising three ciphertexts, the first (as yet unsolved) text describes the location, the second (solved) ciphertext the…

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