An Enigma machine was stolen from the museum at Bletchley Park, in England. The German cipher machine, valued at around $263,000 is considered rare because it belonged to the Abwehr, or German military intelligence, and is one of only three like it left in the world. The museum at Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, was protected by 24 hour guards and alarm systems, but thieves stole the machine anyway sometime on the 1st of April. The machine was stolen during an "open day" at the site, when visitor would have been milling around. The glass case housing the Enigma machine was not damaged, so the thieves apparently just lifted it out, giving the impression the machine was being removed by museum personnel.

Bletchley park was home to Allied cryptanalysists during WWII, who were successful at breaking German, Japanese, and Italian codes and ciphers. At its height, the site handled more than 2,000 Engima messages. In 1991, the British government had hinted about turning the site, long abandoned since the end of the war, into a large homeless shelter. The Bletchley Park Trust was set up which obtained a lease for the site. Now, the site stands as a museum to honor those men & women and their efforts. The breaking of Axis codes made a tremendous impact on shortening the war.

A 50 year-old man was arrested in connection with the theft. Authorities were also searching for a woman who had parked a red car near where the Enigma machine was stolen. As of the 5th of April, the machine hadn't been recovered. However, authorities believe that whoever stole the machine may have had inside knowledge since the machine was stolen shortly before the museum was scheduled to have infrared detectors installed.

A movie entitled Enigma is going to be made soon, starring Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and Titanic star Kate Winslet. The movie will be based on the novel of the same name written by Robert Harris. I have read the book and it is a very good read. While fiction, it does go a little in depth about the intricacies of code breaking. If the movie is anything like the book (but when are they ever?) it should be a pretty good flick. I doubt, though, that they'll go very in-depth about the actual codebreaking, since general audiences would get bored with that very quickly. I can't wait to see it.

In other news, an American was detained for spying in Russia. On April 5th, Russian authorities detained an American who works as the director of an American firm in Russia, but was previously employed by a U.S. intelligence agency. The Russian Federal Security Service, known by its acronym FSB, would not release the name of the American.

An FSB statement released later said a search of the American's belongings had revealed that "the foreigner intentionally developed contacts with Russian scientists in Moscow, Novosibirsk and other cities of our country with the goal of gathering state secrets of Russia." It said that among the confiscated items were "technical drawings of various equipment, recordings of his conversations with Russian citizens relating to their work in the Russian defense industry, and receipts for American dollars received by them."

The arrest was likely to put new strain on U.S.-Russia ties, which are already troubled by U.S. criticism of the war in Chechnya, Russia's opposition to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and recent claims of spying by both sides. In early December, Russia ordered the expulsion of U.S. diplomat Cheri Leberknight after accusing her of attempting to obtain secret military information from a Russian citizen. Shortly afterward, the United States ordered Russian diplomat Stanislav Gusev to leave the country after he was allegedly caught eavesdropping on the State Department with the help of an electronic bug planted inside the building.

Ah, so goes the world of international espionage. See you next month.