XPost: wpg.general, man.general, winnipeg.general   
   XPost: can.general, edm.general   
   From: Posters@Top,Posters.com   
      
   WASHINGTON - An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the   
   culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier   
   this year, The Associated Press has learned.   
   The odd-looking - but harmless - "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to   
   suspicious U.S. Army contractors travelling in Canada that they filed   
   confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors   
   described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that   
   looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government   
   reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.   
      
   The silver-coloured 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy -   
   Canada's flower of remembrance - inlaid over a maple leaf. The unorthodox   
   quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in   
   the contractors' accounts.   
      
   The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating   
   the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red colour from   
   rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004   
   commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.   
      
    "It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power   
   source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup   
   holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be   
   complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with   
   a wire like mesh suspended on top."   
   The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the Defence   
   Security Service, an agency of the Defence Department, that mysterious coins   
   with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors   
   with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions   
   between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors travelled through   
   Canada.   
      
   One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer   
   coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. "Coat   
   pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a   
   plastic bag in my inner coat pocket," the contractor wrote.   
      
   But the Defence Department subsequently acknowledged that it could never   
   substantiate the espionage alarm that it had put out and launched the   
   internal review that turned up the true nature of the mysterious coin.   
      
   Meanwhile, in Canada, senior intelligence officials expressed annoyance with   
   the American spy-coin warnings as they tried to learn more about the oddball   
   claims.   
      
   "That story about Canadians planting coins in the pockets of defence   
   contractors will not go away," Luc Portelance, now deputy director for the   
   Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wrote in a January e-mail to a   
   subordinate. "Could someone tell me more? Where do we stand and what's the   
   story on this?"   
      
   Others in Canada's spy service also were searching for answers. "We would be   
   very interested in any more detail you may have on the validity of the   
   comment related to the use of Canadian coins in this manner," another   
   intelligence official wrote in an e-mail. "If it is accurate, are they   
   talking industrial or state espionage? If the latter, who?" The identity of   
   the e-mail's recipient was censored.   
      
   Intelligence and technology experts were flabbergasted over the warning when   
   it was first publicized earlier this year. The warning suggested that such   
   transmitters could be used surreptitiously to track the movements of people   
   carrying the coins.   
      
   "I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an   
   individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it,"   
   said H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian.   
      
   But Mr. Melton said the Army contractors properly reported their suspicions.   
   "You want contractors or any government personnel to report anything   
   suspicious," he said. "You can't have the potential target evaluating   
   whether this was an organized attack or a fluke."   
      
   The Defence Security Service disavowed its warning about spy coins after an   
   international furor, but until now it has never disclosed the details behind   
   the embarrassing episode. The U.S. said it never substantiated the   
   contractors' claims and performed an internal review to determine how the   
   false information was included in a 29-page published report about espionage   
   concerns.   
      
   The Defence Security Service never examined the suspicious coins,   
   spokeswoman Cindy McGovern said. "We know where we made the mistake," she   
   said. "The information wasn't properly vetted. While these coins aroused   
   suspicion, there ultimately was nothing there."   
      
   A numismatist consulted by the AP, Dennis Pike of Canadian Coin & Currency   
   near Toronto, quickly matched a grainy image and physical descriptions of   
   the suspect coins in the contractors' confidential accounts to the 25-cent   
   poppy piece.   
      
   "It's not uncommon at all," Mr. Pike said. He added that the coin's   
   protective coating glows peculiarly under ultraviolet light. "That may have   
   been a little bit suspicious," he said.   
      
   Some of the U.S. documents the AP obtained were classified "Secret/Noforn,"   
   meaning they were never supposed to be viewed by foreigners, even America's   
   closest allies. The government censored parts of the files, citing national   
   security reasons, before turning over copies under the U.S. Freedom of   
   Information Act.   
      
   Nothing in the documents - except the reference to nanotechnology -   
   explained how the contractors' accounts evolved into a full-blown warning   
   about spy coins with radio frequency transmitters. Many passages were   
   censored, including the names of contractors and details about where they   
   worked and their projects.   
      
   But there were indications the accounts should have been taken lightly. Next   
   to one blacked-out sentence was this warning: "This has not been confirmed   
   as of yet."   
      
   The Canadian intelligence documents, which also were censored, were turned   
   over to the AP for $5 under that country's Access to Information Act. Canada   
   cited rules for protecting against subversive or hostile activities to   
   explain why it censored the papers.   
      
     a.. Socrates taught his students that the pursuit of truth can only begin   
   once   
     they start to question and analyze every belief that they ever held dear.   
   If   
     a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it   
     should be kept. If it doesn't, the belief should not only be discarded,   
   but   
     the thinker must also then question why he was led to believe the   
   erroneous   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)