SOMERTON MAN ESPIONAGE CASE:TRADECRAFT, THE EVIDENCE & THE RED FLAGS, 16 INSTANCES

 

TRADECRAFT EVIDENCE

TRADECRAFT is the term used by those in the field of spying and espionage as the use of common everyday items,  techniques, or occurrences in an uncommon way.

Tradecraft used by those actually in the field varies decidedly from that used by those in, shall we say, more comfortable positions. Such operatives are at the sharp end and may well be risking life or limb should they be caught. It is absolutely essential then that any Trdaecraft methods used cannot result in being identified as spies.

In the image at the head of this post, you see a pair of spoons that have been wired and held together to perform a particular function, that function is that they were meant to act as a morse code key.  In this case, it is recorded that the spoon arrangement you see here was used by GRU officer Richard Sorge's radio operator, Max Christian-Klausen. Sorge, code name 'RAMSAY', under the cover of being a journalist operated in Japan from 1940 to 1941 and it is said that it was he that tipped off Stalin about the timing of Operation Barbarossa. Stalin subsequently refused to intervene on Sorge's behalf when he was caught and later executed for spying against the Japanese.

The point I make in this post is that agents as a matter of course used some extraordinarily clever yet simple techniques to avoid detection and or capture. They simply could not afford to have anything in their possession that might identify them as spies. Those looking for 'science' behind the methods used have very little idea of how things were and possibly still are done in the field of Espionage.  

You can read more about Sorge here > >>

You can also watch an entire series of 12 episodes about Sorge in Russian with subtitles here >>>

COVER STORIES

The YouTube videos, whilst sometimes slow, contain numerous instances of how tradecraft techniques were applied by the Russians during WW2. In relation to the spoon morse code key, it's worthy of note that the radio set used was able to be quickly dismantled into much smaller parts that could be easily hidden or seen as common household items. The radio operator Klausen was a Red Army officer and, with his wife Anna, they had a small 'Blue Print' reproduction service in Tokyo, a very handy cover story, very normal in every respect.

Espionage files often include stories of couples who carry on very normal occupations, booksellers, printers, hospital attendants and the list goes on.

In the Somerton Man case, it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that there was such a couple similarly engaged.

SOMERTON MAN TRADECRAFT EXAMPLES
& RED FLAGS

I have posted about this topic before but it is well worth revisiting. Here's a list of what very probably were Tradecraft methods in the Somerton Man case

1. A concealed code that used a known technique INK H found on the code page, the torn slip, and the Boxall Rubaiyat.

2. The torn slip rolled up tightly and pushed firmly down into a hard-to-find fob pocket such that anyone performing a pat-down search could well think that it was part of the seam in the pocket.

3. Pocket litter, numerous items none of which had an identifiable trail, for example, no one was, recalled,  recognized, or could be described by Transport staff as having purchased those tickets. Other pocket items led nowhere,

4. Suitcase litter. The now-famed suitcase contained no items that would help identify the supposed owner of the case. Items that tied the man to the suitcase were dubious. Whilst there was a date, no time stamp was found on the left-luggage ticket.

5. Labels removed from clothing

6.  No other item that would have identified the man was found

7. Although poison was suspected, there was nothing to show what kind of poison was definitely used to cause the man's death, just guesswork.

8. Fingerprint form was not certificated nor signed.

9. Subsequent investigation by this blog and a world-leading Tidal Expert, Dr. John Luick, showed that it was probable that the man's body was placed on the beach after the high tide at 4.34 a.m. on December 1st. No mention or record of Tides was made in the Inquest documents or Police files

10. The Normal notes recorded by a court stenographer have not been found despite having been requested.

11.  The man's facial features seem to have been altered and that alteration could have occurred at the time of his embalming. Photographic evidence and Paul Lawson's commentary clearly state that he had used the original post autopsy photographs to make and detail the plaster bust.

12. When Paul Lawson attempted to 'skin' the skull according to Cleland's instructions, he found that not only had that already been done but the skull itself was absolutely clean, 'pristine' was how he described that to me not once but on a number of occasions.

13. The poisoning death of another man found in Adelaide, Tibor Kaldor, just two weeks after the finding of the Somerton Man's body, was most unusual if for nothing else the Acrostic code found in Tibor's last letter is a definite red flag.

14. Examples of what appears to be the INK H method of concealing micro writing beneath other letters, were found in the HAY BANKNOTES made by Internees at the Hay Internment Camp in 1941. The designer of those notes is known to have taken up a position with the British Military on his return to the UK in 1942.

15. British Intelligence is on record as having sent various codes, ciphers, and techniques to Australian Military Intelligence in 1943.

16. Military Intelligence files record the known presence of  4 known Soviet Spies in South Australia between 1947 and 1949. As per earlier posts on this blog, two of these men were deployed to Salisbury, home of the Long Range Weapons Establishment that supported the operations at Woomera. where another two agents were said to be operating.

There's more to it than this as may well be revealed in the not too distant future.

I will make this point, this blog has consistently stayed the course and focused on the fact that the Somerton Man case is an espionage case. Others have attacked, maligned, and abused whatever this blog publishes for taking this stance. This is the only blog in this space that has survived intact and that's because we publish the truth as we see it.  There are no circumstances when it is acceptable to use personal attacks on anyone because they happen to have a perspective that differs from yours.