02.5 Rubicon

Two hours later, Argentineans learnt everything there was to know about the secret operation codenamed ‘Rubicon’. They played the game one step ahead of Borys Jasinski.

Nevertheless, when word reached the Ministerio del Interior, the top brass in shock mood, ordered the operatives to continue with interrogation on Borys Jasinski for three more days. In other words, hold him abducted. At the same time, the top brass in shock, ordered all outlets to terminate using those machines procured from Crypto AG. Almost all cryptograph machines in the country came from this Swiss company. All at once, the top brass got increasingly occupied in sprouting a scheme to continue the use of the cipher machines to exchange deceptive messages among friends and allies to misinform the enemy – the eavesdroppers.

This was a task that could not be done in twenty-four hours. It didn’t look feasible or worthwhile. And still, those cipher machines should not be used to exchange messages on sensitive issues.

Minister Juan Carlos Bauzá entered a tiny office on the communications floor at the Headquarters of the Ministerio del Interior. A single desk and piles of paper, cabinets on the walls full of files and more paper, a typewriter on the clerk’s desk, a cipher machine in one of the pigeon holes, a telex machine on the floor and no space to move about.

He struck at the door, “What is that?”

“A Hagelin, señor,” answered the clerk.

“Model?”

“HC-500.”

“And what is that?”

“A typewriter, señor.”

“Don’t use it! All the machines here, the telex and other devices from Crypto AG. They are rigged.”

“The typewriter!”

“It’s rigged,” uttered the minister, “CIA is decoding our messages.”

Minister stood frustrated after learning that the CIA played this game of Rubicon for a very long time. “Now it is our turn to play the game and we stay one step ahead.”

Meanwhile, Spain sent three messages and none had been replied. CIA knew it. At the same time, Crypto AG in Zug had not heard from Borys Jasinski. After learning from Mrs Jasinska that he booked in at a hotel called the Avenue Palace, they tried to contact him but it seemed to be the wrong place.

It started one year ago, Argentina was talking to Spain through the diplomatic mission and the banks to obtain a fleet of navy vessels, rescue boats and RIBs, to patrol the marine coasts. However, there was a rumour that some of them would end up in Cuba.

In January of 1986, Spain inhibited this programme without an explanation; 25 days after she joined the EEC.

Soon Argentina learnt that the United Kingdom sternly condemned the newcomers, particularly Spain, in collaborating with Latin American countries on military intervention, endangering the Falkland Islands and some of those vessels falling into wrong hands.

In 1982, Britain wrestled a battle with Argentina over Islas Malvinas that they called the Falkland Islands – a British Overseas Territory. After two months and two weeks, this conflict ended in defeating Argentina.

Argentina suspected that the United States rigged into their communications and passed vital information to the British in disclosing their military positions in the war that made them lose.

The US denied this allegation and sent a Swedish-born mathematician to Argentina who suggested that the DC-505 was insecure but the Hagelin, CAG, was ‘unbreakable’. The Argentineans swallowed it hard and carried on using the CAG, or the Hagelin, that saved the CIA by the neck and it helped a step forward to continue with rigging the Argentineans.

However, when Spain abandoned the marine boat programme in 1986 due to British pressure, Argentina began to suspect strongly that some part of the secret dialogue sent via the cryptographic machine was deciphered by some source. Nobody would know otherwise.

The Argentine secret service from the Secretaría de Inteligencia – SIDE – started to follow the professor who said that the Hagelin HC-500 was ‘unbreakable’, in New York, Zug, Paris, in Lichtenstein and around the globe.

That huge lie from the mathematician and professor, dubbed ‘Windman’, that Borys Jasinski referred to as ‘Kell’, put the secret service on his tail to collect a bulk of information – schedules, day-to-day activities and people he meets.

Windman was linked to the NSA and Crypto AG. Travelled routinely, once in every six weeks he would be in New York. Windman met many people and the list kept growing. It became impossible to follow them all. He was a very trusted middleman. If he was quizzed, like Borys Jasinski, during the Falkland War, the entire MINEVRA PROJECT would fall apart. He knew every bit of secret involved in it, the people, including the works of the algorithm. And yet he was sent to bluff and appeared as a very humble man in the Argentine Republic.

Among those ‘PERSONS OF INTEREST’, as gathered by SIDE, Borys Jasinski was one.

Five months later, two of the Hagelins at Banco de la Nación broke down. They asked to send a technician. Crypto AG suggested to send Borys Jasinski.

By then, the Secretaría de Inteligencia knew that any person sent from Crypto AG to replace a CAG part would be a deep source. Particularly, Borys Jasinski was a direct link to Windman.

The Argentineans were left with only two weeks to prepare. They won’t let Jasinski to hang around in pretence. They planned this game to stay one step ahead.

This woman who appeared as Claudine Cartier was hired and a storyline created. All what Jasinski saw was premeditated and acted upon. Inclusive of the video on the monitor in the directorio. It was hardly caught on candid camera. It was carefully planned, rehearsed, acted, filmed, edited and rolled in his eyes.