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The Return Of Venona


Lamneth

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Got a response:

 

From - Tue Nov 16 21:11:00 2004

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Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 05:09:59 -0000 (GMT)

Subject: GCGZ17

From: inconnu@isp.com

To: geocaching@boulter.com

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Hmmm. I see Venona is up to his tricks again, and this time he's

involving me. Well, unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced the

coordinates for this cache, so maybe someone could help out with that.

 

If possible, I'll try to make a run on it tomorrow, although traffic out

here is pure hell in the afternoons. My next chance won't be until the

weekend, and unfortunately, Saturday is right out. At 2:00, I'll be on my

lawn chair with a cold beer, doing my duty for country.

 

More to follow.

 

-----------------------------------------

Join ISP.COM today - $8.95 internet , less than 1/2 the cost of AOL

Try us out, http://www.isp.com/

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Why would FizzyMagic 'Help' someone solve a cache that he's never found... or has he found it and not logged the find as of yet?

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...70-74611526ae81

  RobAGD found 24523 Cache (Not at the listed location) (Unknown Cache)     

 

E 2350.8mi from your home coordinates.

 

 

Feb 9th 2004 11am Find # 368

 

I got the cords to this with the Help of FizzyMagic getting me into the right frame of mind.

 

Just a few miles from work so I stopped by on my way out. The find was easy the GPS was right on and I spotted it from a bit off, then I saw all the tracks in the snow.

 

Funny I dont recall the body of water on my maps.

 

Took Nothing

Left SGT Rock Hero CLick to Guard the cache

 

-Robert

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I too asked for the file/password and went ahead to solved the GCGZ17 cache puzzle. Without the file I'm not sure if I need that information but I have it and it was fun to get something right on this odyssey. I guess we need to be careful about giving away spoilers to this guys cache in this public forum. Hopefully we can solve the Venona cache without posting to much information about GCGZ17.

 

I noticed our alter ego puzzle creator is mentioned in the logs. I'm guessing he had to delete his vacation find to throw us off. :(

 

I know this area very well so I'm kind of hoping that knowlege will help out in someway.

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Well, unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced the

coordinates for this cache, so maybe someone could help out with that.

I have the coordinates but reluctant to post because it would spoil GCGZ17. What do I do???

 

EDIT: OK I sent coordinates to inconnu email address listed in boulter post. It's getting late in central time zone.

Edited by WAAS-up
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Well, unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced the

coordinates for this cache, so maybe someone could help out with that.

I have the coordinates but reluctant to post because it would spoil GCGZ17. What do I do???

 

EDIT: OK I sent coordinates to inconnu email address listed in boulter post. It's getting late in central time zone.

Email it to <inconnu@isp.com> and cc me [please].

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Congratulations! Wow, progress went very quickly once you got the hint.

 

Just so you all know, I am not INCONNU. He gets to make up the next stage himself; I can play along this time!

 

I hope people are having fun!

I see that INCONNU hasn't found 24523 Cache (GCGZ17) yet. Does that mean we need to solve that puzzle cache for him/her before he/she can go find the password?

 

--Marky

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I have never been to the cache in question. I have not deleted any find or anything.

I did not mean to offend. It was just curious that you were mentioned in the logs (we are all in superspy mode :( )

 

BTW, we almost crossed paths in Fairfax (missed by two weeks). I did "The Dead Drop" cache which was one of Aldrich Ames drop locations to his Soviet handlers. It's funny how it all ties in now (small world).

 

Looks like we wait until Tomorrow -thru- Saturday for next cache stage based on inconnu email above. He has the coordinates he requested. Nothing more to do right now.

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... although it appears that we know the first 2 characters ...

You can't be sure it starts with GC.

That was a little embarassing. :( Maybe I need someone to teach me how to use my browser. I hit reload before I posted that last message and when it reloaded, it didn't show the last 5 posts, including the solution to the password, then the forum rolled over to page three, so I got totally lost in what people were posting. I just downloaded Firefox and I'm using it for this thread. Is there a surefire way to make it reload the newest info on the page besides closing it and reopening? I found that works, but the reload button doesn't. I have the same problem with Internet Explorer and WAOL. Do I have to set the history preference to never remember anything I've been to? That seems counterproductive. Ah well, the squad is progressing without me.

Edited by The Rat
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I think that the Web sources you have found will work fine.  From my recent discussions with Venona, I believe he aims to celebrate the anniversary of one particularly notorious missive.

Looks like we need to complete all activities by December 20th

 

From the Chronology:

http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/chron.htm

1946

20 December

ASA's Meredith Gardner translates part of a KGB message containing a list of atomic scientists.

 

From the preface:

http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/preface.htm

Late in 1946, Gardner broke the codebook's "spell table" for encoding English letters. With the solution of this spell table, ASA could read significant portions of messages that included English names and phrases. Gardner soon found himself reading a 1944 message listing prominent atomic scientists, including several with the Manhattan Project.

 

The list:

http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/b74.gif

 

OK, the message is dated December 2... two weeks from this coming Thursday. It's hard to read, so here's a transcript:

 

From:   New York
To:     Moscow
No:     1699                              2 Dec 1944

Conclusion of telegram no. 940 [sic][i].

        Enumerates [the following][a] scientists who are working on 
the problem[ii] - Hans BETHE, Niels BOHR, Enrico FERMI, John NEWMAN, 
Bruno ROSSI, George KISTIAKOVSKI, Emilio SEGRE, G.I.TAYLOR, William 
PENNY, Arthur COMPTON, Ernest LAWRENCE, Harold UREY, Hans STANARM, 
Edward TELLER, Percy BRIDGEMAN, Werner EISENBERG, STRASSENMAN
                       [7 groups unrecoverable]
our country addressed himself to NAPOLI[iii] and the latter, not 
wanting to listen to him, sent him to BECK [BEK][iv] as military 
commentator of the paper.  On attempting to visit HELMSMAN [RULEVOJ][v]
he was not admitted to him by the latter's secretary.

                                 ANTON 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

T.N.: [a]   Inserted by the translator.

Comments: [i]    This internal serial number is used for the second 
                of two messages transmitted under external serial 
                number 1691 of 1 Dec 1944; it was signed by MAY, and
                dealt with an etirely different subject [see S/REF/T37,
                Item 2].   The message of which the present text gives
                the last part probably contains material derived from
                MLAD [Theodore Alvin HALL].   Erroneous re-use of 
                an internal serial number is not without precedent
                on this lane.

         [ii]   To judge by the names which follow, the problem of 
                atomic energy.

         [iii]  NAPOLI, Nichola, President and Manager of ARTKING,
                which produces and distributes Russian motion picture
                films in the Western Hemisphere.   Collateral
                suggests that the "he" of this paragraph was
                STAR [Saville SAX].
         
         [iv]   BEK: Sergei KURNAKOV.
         
         [v]    RULEVOJ: Earl BROWDER.

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I just received this reply from inconnu@isp.com. He "X'ed" out the coordinate to cache GCGZ17 I sent him so I assume he wanted me to post this to the forum (see sentence in BOLD -- I added formating but text is from him).

 

Thank you. To allay suspicions, I have indeed been to this location,

although obviously not under this account. Any information I provide is

suitable for posting in the public forum, although solutions to personal

mystery caches, like GCGZ17, should remain private. Finally, I have

reason to believe certain individuals in my local area may be monitoring

your forum. Since I do not have the message in hand, it remains at risk.

 

> You asked for help with the coordinates to GCGZ17 (email to boulter). They

> are

>

> N XX° XX.XXX

> W XXX° XX.XXX

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I just downloaded Firefox and I'm using it for this thread.  Is there a surefire way to make it reload the newest info on the page besides closing it and reopening?

Use <shift>-reload. That reloads it from the site always.

Or if you prefer a single keyboard key, F5 does the same forced reload in most browsers.

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It's somehow fitting that Venona requires Windows-specific applications.  :P

IF WANTING LINUX VERSION ONLY TELLING ME.

Seeing how you're being such a nice bad guy and taking requests... I'd like a version that's Mac compatible. :D [My new PC is DOA]. In case you don't have it in a version us Mac-Cachers can use, feel free to email the answer to me and I pretend to figure it out. :D

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Nice. I'm lost. :P Besides this being written from right to left, is there anything else people observe about this?

 

------------------------------------

 

§­|}8½™ÂÏ‘vÙÁaHN¯”ÀK•nÛ(¥÷âÕÎ?Æ4ÎïJ›åï[”e÷8[ð½¨NÂÿF³ŠO;ì6áÕ qy‘ eqÄÙ?ÓË•“rv®zÉcëzÙ¹-{öõu†

£áY,Îó3’‚öφL"ÎÞ7‹0oPö`MPú”Ú&j[æáÖ[

æ3ä}Å'w\!¼Kn'ØŸSãá6ÄÔˆL«¼±ó2ßjÍâÙ€k”øUÚ)^1Ï¡=|{€Û©Ë

wÌ®²<­w¶A?Ž7¡[¦9zþîsš/f¢ÈÖ4èîb´³öYº«CÏ,Žyi¬éÎÞ^ 5e×õ‹Ý?«;Æ‚ø¾~S"zæïl9qômÎM`®`´Ã<x?oÇ?Oÿx¬©~:eÃMÊQ0s<¿ÏcíïÉ$¨$ôØ?µ ™öÂyÍp<ê³FDs?¬<Ö°j‘¾k|b2³áFÒ ‰‚õP. »Lp¦Ò;àJ³ë I–%möü03$±‡B#+Óu«ËETIaºŸ)ò d*`Û{Ÿ‘=

¡Z~"ÞU*µ[)Ê@6Þ«<ùàÕFè.Ýp¸SKc{³tLš‹INÜ*—@òÿkdè9‚…µ¬¹°ruÜsJfNUƒª™&¼=Þ“C

\¾¸noÏb4djg&HúUtÿ@Êùl_‘7̧²íH®Mò„ÄD+ÿD‹Ï§3ã¬A7§>¿8¯F1ñÑm`Ĭ!éŒs;rZmO@”‘Ž=z9zfeªªA²+ôV¾/|vã?Z;4ÒZã)/°Óƒ©^x¾è_‚Ó/l†[‚Ãþ+†kØn+·SWÚ™BÿºÖþ?%yßj?šÝ„®ùðÿßQ—åžÀJ¸»¬ÿ+XB?ÃX

Edited by Green Achers
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IS NOW NEXT STEP FOR ACTIVITIES. MUST CONTACT PERSON INCONNU IN LANGLEY VIRGINIA. GET PASSWORD AND FILE NAME FROM THEM. THEY WILL FIND INFORMATION FOR PASSWORD IN CACHE OF 24523.

--

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCGZ17

 

We just need to get the correct password and Venona.exe will create an ASCII text file for us.

 

VENONA -d -i feklisov.txt -o solved.txt -p ???????

 

I've tried the name of the park that the "solved" puzzle coordinates take you too and the last name of the historical person the cache is based on. I can't say the answers in the forum.

Edited by WAAS-up
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I have retrieved and decoded the message from Venona. I can understand now why I am involved. The password you need will be uploaded Thursday. Upon reflection, I see that the password is prominently displayed in our nation's capitol, though it is decidedly difficult to get up close and personal with it.

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Here is a Perl script that will decode the first stage:

 

my $InputFileName = $ARGV[0];
my $Key = $ARGV[1];
my $KeyLength = length($Key);

my $Alphabet = ' 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.,?';
my $Length = length($Alphabet);

my $OutputString = '';

open(INPUTFILE, "<$InputFileName") or die;
my @Lines = readline(*INPUTFILE);
close(INPUTFILE);

my $i = 0;
foreach my $Line (@Lines) {
  my $RevLine = uc(reverse($Line));
  while (length($RevLine) > 0) {
     my $Index = index($Alphabet, chop($RevLine));
     my $KeyIndex = index($Alphabet, substr($Key, $i, 1));
     my $NewIndex = ($Index - $KeyIndex + $Length) % $Length;
     $OutputString = $OutputString.substr($Alphabet, $NewIndex, 1);
     $i = ($i + 1) % $KeyLength;
  }
}

print $OutputString;

 

As you can see, the space was put as character zero, which is why the key shone through as brightly as it did. :P

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I can read this much:

 

Sir,
 We are making a small metal pyra
mid for the               [to use]
as the terminus of the lightning rod.
It is about 9" in height 
and 5 inches square at the base.
The lightning rod of Copper []
inches in diameter passes through 
the top stone and screws into the bottom 
of this little pyramid. I wish to have this 
pyramid plated with Platinum. [] []?
And at what cost? And what would be 
the best metal to cast this pyramid of -- 
Copper, or bronze or brass? [] [] []
plating with platinum. Very respectfully
                      Your [] []

Edited by Lamneth
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Upon reflection, I see that the password is prominently displayed in our nation's capitol, though it is decidedly difficult to get up close and personal with it.

Ok so the "password" is on display...

 

I've tried WASHINGTON, ALUMINUM, ALUMINUMCAP, WASHINGTONMONUMENT ALUMINUMPYRAMID, PYRAMID TEMPUSFUGIT TIMEFLIES FRISHMUTH with no luck.

 

The connection to TEMPUS FUGIT seems to be out of place and hence significant.

 

UPDATE: CAPSTONE must be close the original jpg was called ecapson.jpg

Edited by WAAS-up
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Upon reflection, I see that the password is prominently displayed in our nation's capitol, though it is decidedly difficult to get up close and personal with it.

Ok so the "password" is on display...

According to the National Park Service, the north side lists the members of the joint commission that was in charge of the Washington monument project.

The west side lists the dates of the laying of the cornerstone, the first stone laid at the height of 152 fee, and the the setting of the capstone.

The south side lists the names of chief engineer, the architect, and some of the workmen.

The east side simply has the words "Laus Deo" which is translated as "Praise be to God."

 

I'm trying various permutations now, as I have time.

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