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Wanted for one last mission: call for Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the D-Day pigeon cipher
Daily Telegraph (London)_ ^ | Nov 23 2012 | Hannah Furness

Posted on 11/23/2012 1:31:55 AM PST by Winniesboy

Historians from GCHQ are appealing for the veteran codebreakers of Bletchley Park to volunteer for one last act of service for their country: cracking the D-Day carrier pigeon cipher that has stumped Britain's finest minds.

The coded message had been carefully filed in a small red capsule and attached to a carrier pigeon to be delivered 70 years ago.

But instead of arriving safely at its destination, the unfortunate bird got stuck in a chimney en-route and lost.

The message was found earlier this month by homeowner David Martin, who ripped out a fireplace to find the skeleton while renovating his house in Bletchingley, Surrey.

Historians believe the bird was almost certainly dispatched from Nazi-occupied France during the D-Day invasions.

The mysterious message, which was written in unfamiliar code, was passed to Government Communications Headquarter (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Glos, in the hope a contemporary professional codebreaker could decipher the words.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bletchley; bletchleypark; cryptographer; cryptographers; cryptography; dday; wwii
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To: Chode
Of course you are assuming that the OTP system is being correctly used.

From the history of the VENONA project, for example, some of the same OTP pages were used multiple times.

Bad things when that happens.

21 posted on 11/23/2012 6:52:54 AM PST by jamaksin
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To: Chode
Of course you are assuming that the OTP system is being correctly used.

From the history of the VENONA project, for example, some of the same OTP pages were used multiple times.

Bad things when that happens.

22 posted on 11/23/2012 6:53:13 AM PST by jamaksin
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To: jamaksin
yes, i was... and you know what they say about assumptions
23 posted on 11/23/2012 7:03:06 AM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Winniesboy

Whistle while you work
Hitler was a jerk
Mussolini bit his wienie
Now it doesn’t work


24 posted on 11/23/2012 7:17:32 AM PST by eartrumpet
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To: Bobalu

Wow! I just finished watching this. Wonderful. Thanks for posting.


25 posted on 11/23/2012 7:31:31 AM PST by Not gonna take it anymore (If Obama were twice as smart as he is, he would be a wit)
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To: Chode

>>if it was from a one-time pad, good luck...

Exactly. A one time pad is not decipherable. Anyone can use a simple Bingo device to encrypt text in such a way that it’s indistinguishable from random text, regardless of the size of the computer trying to break it.... even if quantum computing were fully possible and utilized.


26 posted on 11/23/2012 7:32:36 AM PST by RingerSIX (My wife and I took an AIDS vaccine that they offer down at our Church.)
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To: TADSLOS

blesse mon coeur d’une langueur monotone


27 posted on 11/23/2012 8:05:35 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Winniesboy

All your base are belong to us.


28 posted on 11/23/2012 8:18:05 AM PST by Night Hides Not (The Tea Party was the earthquake, and Chick Fil A the tsunami...100's of aftershocks to come.)
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To: RingerSIX
yup, and as jamaksin mentioned, even IF it had been used before, what are the chances of a message from the same cypher still existing? if i had to guess, i'd say none...
29 posted on 11/23/2012 8:20:45 AM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Winniesboy

!


30 posted on 11/23/2012 8:25:05 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Anger a Conservative by telling a lie; Anger a Liberal by telling the truth....RWR 8-)
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To: olezip

A wet duck never flies at night.


31 posted on 11/23/2012 11:21:20 AM PST by DPMD
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To: Lmo56

If you account for slight misspelling, it seems to read:

Zzfptxgksplt flgmrxndv jrlsgddmrx NOW!


32 posted on 11/23/2012 11:23:03 AM PST by DPMD
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To: Winniesboy

33 posted on 11/23/2012 11:25:28 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: DeaconRed

“What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”


34 posted on 11/23/2012 11:44:02 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: jamaksin

Yep,it would. Oops.


35 posted on 11/23/2012 12:56:00 PM PST by moose07 (The truth will out, one day.)
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To: Winniesboy

Don’t you people realize the gravity of this situation? If we don’t decode this message, this could mean we will lose the war!


36 posted on 11/24/2012 12:13:19 AM PST by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
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To: olezip

Could be a one-write which is arguably impossible to break. And ignore the spacing.


37 posted on 11/24/2012 12:26:17 AM PST by Gene Eric (Demoralization is a weapon of the enemy. Don't get it, don't spread it!)
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