Playboy - I only read it for the geopolitical context

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mgb_phys
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Actually I don't read it - but 'the reg' linked to it.
http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-man-who-conned-the-pentagon-dennis-montgomery/index.html?page=1

if this is blocked at work, a conman took the CIA/NSA/other-secret-three-letter-agencies for millions with some software that could detect hidden messages in Arab news broadcasts.
Eventually the French military intelligence (!) convinced them it was rubbish, but not until after an Al-Jazera cameraman spent a few years in Cuba and Bush planned to bomb them off the air.
 
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This is even more ridiculous:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8471187.stm

Iraq has bought thousands of the detectors for a total of $85m (£52m).

The device is sold by Jim McCormick, based at offices in rural Somerset, UK.

The ADE-651 is in use at most checkpoints in Baghdad

The ADE-651 detector has never been shown to work in a scientific test.

There are no batteries and it consists of a swivelling aerial mounted to a hinge on a hand-grip. Critics have likened it to a glorified dowsing rod.
 
mgb_phys said:
the French military intelligence (!)
Hey, what do you mean !?
 
humanino said:
Hey, what do you mean !?

That the only people able to convince the US top secret three letter agencies that they had all been a bunch of muppets - were the French!
Generally with reference to invading Iraq, the US government hasn't been rushing to ask the French for their opinion.
That must have take some powers of persuasion!

What did the conversation go like?
Mr president, looks like we have been made to look like a bunch of idiots.
Who says?
The French !
The ones we called 'cheese eating surrender monkeys'?
Yes Mr president
Oops!