Comment by function_seven
6 years ago
Well, don't stare at them. You know in advance that your contact will be walking down Merriweather Lane at 11:30am. If his shoes sport a single "X" near the bottom, that means the dead drop has the microfilm ready for pickup. If it doesn't have that "X", then try again next Tuesday.
If you see two X's in his lacing, the package is at the alternate drop site.
If he has 3 X patterns, you're burned! Make your way to the safehouse after losing any potential tails.
Glance quickly, agent, and keep moving.
This setup reminds me of operation PIMLICO:
> Every Tuesday, shortly after 7:00, a British MI6 officer would take a morning stroll at the Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow. He would pass outside a designated bakery at exactly 7:24 a.m. local time. If he saw Gordievsky standing outside the bakery holding a grocery bag, it meant that the double agent was requesting to be exfiltrated as a matter of urgency. Gordievsky would then have to wait outside the bakery until a second MI6 officer appeared, carrying a bag from the Harrods luxury department store in London. The man would also be carrying a Mars bar (a popular British candy bar) and would bite into it while passing right in front of Gordievsky. That would be a message to him that his request to be exfiltrated had been received.
https://intelnews.org/tag/operation-pimlico/
Just read the same in Wikipedia. This is extremely strange. Harrods bag and Mars candy in 1985 Moscow would be a telltale the size of Kremlin tower. Kutuzovsky avenue was a KGB owned turf, lots of Communist apparatchik lived there, including late Secretary General Brezhnev.
It reminds me a joke about Soviet spy arriving in Berlin and caughting stares from everyone around. What's wrong with my cover? Is something gives me out? Maybe it is a parachute? Or AK-47? Ah, it should be blue Slavic eyes! And he wears a sunglasses just in case.
Not every agent has to conceal their national identity, the UK had an embassy in the USSR so there were plenty of known Brits wandering around for one to randomly walk through the area. Embassies are classic points to run out of because there's an official reason for being in the country and some protection against retribution.
> Harrods bag and Mars candy in 1985 Moscow would be a telltale the size of Kremlin tower. Kutuzovsky avenue was a KGB owned turf, lots of Communist apparatchik lived there, including late Secretary General Brezhnev.
I took it to mean that the MI6 agents were under diplomatic cover. It would not be strange for British diplomats to carry or eat British things, right? And it's also a decent defense against an accidental signal, since non-agents would naturally not have Mars bars nor bags from Harrods.
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This seems either unlikely or questionably competent. Gordievsky was well known to the KGB and loitering pointlessly outside a bakery would only have aroused suspicions - which would have been confirmed by the second agent, because anyone carrying a Harrods bag in Soviet Moscow would have stood out like a very obvious person of interest.
It could be a matter of routine: Leave your house at 7:00AM every morning. Walk 15 minutes to the bakery. Order and be out the bakery door by 7:20AM. In normal circumstances, you just leave and go about your day. Only once would you stand around for an extra 4 minutes - say reading a paper, or eating what you just bought. Otherwise it looks like a normal routine.
That was poorly conceived. They'd have to keep those things stored somewhere for as long as the spy was active. What if a rat ate the last Mars bar at 6:00am?
Obviously HN always knows better, this reminds me of the Dropbox post.
There's a great book that covers every single aspect of this escape, "The Spy and the Traitor" by Ben Macintyre. Rest assured that the British embassy had plenty of Mars bars and Harrods bags for this signal!
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I'm sure international spies are competent enough to keep the rats out of their tactical mars bars.
Tell the rats that the Mars bars are off limits and they can stick to the Cadbury chocolates.
Thanks for explaining like this. It seems from the downvotes to my comment most people don’t see it as a valid question.
Par for the course here. Glad your question was answered, I was curious as well.
Sit at a cafe reading a paper or the menu, but look past it at the ground?
Use the standard issue prop newspaper with holes cut out for the eyes.
I’d also recommend against the dark sunglasses. Almost as bad as the newspaper holes.
We met a celebrity once on a ferry. The only reason I even spotted her is because she was wearing a trench coat and ridiculous dark sunglasses like some sort of B movie operative. I happened to glance across the cabin just as she was walking past heading the same direction I was seated. Just a blink in full profile. After a moment of thinking, “no... she doesn’t live around here,” I turned to my wife and said, “was that?” And then looked at the woman across from us who had big eyes. When she passed outside the window it was definitely her. (Turns out her mother lived around there.)
Lady, you gotta work on your disguises. That outfit made you stick out like a sore thumb.
Staring depressed on the ground wouldn't have looked out of place.
The X as a signal is a big deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JMHrrSshgc
Excellent description. Love it. I couldn't understand the website description of this technique.