I've recently had the chance to chat with some conspiracy theorists on the internet. I won't go into detail exactly what the conspiracies were, but the underlying theme was the same: they can't prove what they believe is true, they just know it's true. I started thinking about those of us who listen to numbers stations. Many of us just seem to know what's what when it comes to numbers stations, but few of us can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Not that I want the numbers station phenomenon to enter the world of conspiracy theories, where speculation and conjecture are considered fact, and any evidence to the contrary is labled "government disinformation." There is no conspiracy as far as numbers stations are concerned, unless you consider intelligence agencies keeping their business secret a conspiracy. I call it good for business. I was told at Kulpsville that I should go on Art Bell's (or whoever's doing it now) radio program and discuss numbers stations, but if that offer ever came up I'd have to decline. Partially because of the connection to conspiracies, and partially because of the weird email Pat Murphy received after he appeared on the show.

Rather, I thought that we should always keep in mind that what we always know as true may not be. We should always hold our information to a high degree of scrutiny to make sure that what we say about this or that station is true. How do we know that Cynthia is actually run by the CIA?

We as numbers enthusiast have been doing a good job of this. When we speculate about this or that station, usually we label it as speculation, not fact. Based on all available evidence, we can state that Cynthia does indeed work for the CIA, and Senorita "Atencion" works for el Fidel.

But, as a hobby, it is fun to try to match your wits with the intelligence community. Do they know what we're doing? Probably. Do they care? Probably not. It doesn't matter that we listen in if their codes are secure enough. I'm sure they sit back with amused interest at some of our observations and speculation. Could they even be engaging in "disinformation" with us? Possibly, but I don't see the point. It would be pointless, since compared to what they know, we know very little.

Will we ever know everything about numbers stations? Probably not. Perhaps fifty years from now when agents use Dick Tracy two-way wrist radios for instant, secure communications, intelligence agencies may decide to declassify information related to their numbers station activities. Or perhaps not. I won't hold my breath.

They could tell us, but then they'd have to kill us.