ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Engulf, Operationcurrency and coinage solely through member financialinstitutions. BEP is also responsible for the processing ofclaims for the redemption of mutilated currency. Its researchand development department is concerned withanti-counterfeiting technology, which is perpetually upgradedin an effort to remain many steps ahead ofcounterfeiters.Although the production of U.S. currency is perhapsthe most visible of BEP’s activities, it is far from the onlyone. BEP produces a number of stamps and notes, includingpostage stamps for the United States Postal Service,license stamps such as those used on alcohol products,and Treasury securities. The lowest-value note ever issuedby BEP was a $0.002, or one-fifth cent, wine stamp,while the item of highest value was a $100,000,000 InternationalMonetary Fund special note. BEP has also manufacturedcurrency for other nations, including pre-CommunistCuba.BEP produces federal identification cards, certificatesof naturalization, and other security documents as requestedby particular government agencies. Among itsmost specialized products are engraved White Houseinvitations.The Suez crisis began in July 1956, when Egyptianpresident Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the Suez Canal,formerly under the control of Britain and France. Britainand the United States, well aware of Nasser’s increasinglyclose ties with the Soviet Union, had refused to fundNasser’s plans to build the Aswan High Dam. Therefore,Nasser took over the canal, not only as an act of retaliation,but as a means of raising money by collecting the tollscharged to ships passing through the canal. Britain andFrance, in a plan orchestrated with Israel, forced the evacuationof Egyptian troops, but were ultimately forced tothemselves evacuate by the threat of United Nations orSoviet intervention.In the months leading up to the crisis, MI5 undertookefforts to plant a listening device (bug) in the Egyptianembassy. The British postal service, which controlled telephoneservice, deliberately created problems with theembassy’s phones, and an MI5 undercover team arrivedunder the guise of repairing the equipment. While there,they planted bugs that allowed them to hear the noisesmade by the setting of the machines. Skilled specialistswere able to translate these noises into usable intelligence.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:History of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1862–1962.Washington, D.C.: Treasury Department, 1964.The Money Factory. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Engravingand Printing, 1993.Sincerbox, Glenn T. Counterfeit Deterrent Features for theNext-Generation Currency Design. Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press, 1993.ELECTRONIC:Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (February 5, 2003).SEE ALSOCounterfeit Currency, Technology and the ManufactureFederal Reserve System, United StatesTreasury Department, United StatesAn unexpected conduit from Moscow to London. As Wrightlater recalled in his autobiography Spycatcher, interceptingthe Egyptian cipher transmissions allowed MI5 to followdiscussions between the Egyptians and Soviets in Moscow,the specifics of which were regularly passed on to theembassy in London. From these transmissions, the Britishlearned that the Soviets were not simply bluffingwhen they threatened to intervene in Suez on the Egyptians’behalf.Wright went on to recount that the Soviets helpedtheir Egyptian allies by sweeping the London embassy forbugs, but when they discovered the device planted byMI5, they opted to leave it in place and not inform theEgyptians. By allowing MI5 to listen in to the Egyptianembassy, the Soviets were able to convey exactly wherethey stood on the Suez situation, and to do so in such away that the British would know that they meant what theywere saying.❚ JUDSON KNIGHTEngulf, OperationEngulf was a series of operations whereby the BritishSecurity Service, MI5, intercepted Egyptian and Frenchcipher transmissions during a period from the mid-1950sto the mid-1960s. The first major operation of Engulf tookplace during the Suez crisis of 1956, when a team led byBritish spymaster Peter Wright planted a bug in the cipherroom of the Egyptian embassy in London.Other phases. In later phases of Engulf, MI5 attempted todetect cipher noises in other contexts. In 1959, for instance,while the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze was mooredat Stockholm, Sweden, MI5 placed microphones in a nearbywarehouse. This time, of course, there was no question ofgoing aboard the ship under any pretext to plant a bug,and as it turned out, the warehouse was not close enough.Though MI5 did pick up what were apparently ciphermachine noises, this did not lead to any usable intelligence.From 1960 to 1963, in an operation known as Stockade,MI5 listened in to the French embassy in London.Unlike the Suez phase, however, reliable intelligence didnot give the British any real diplomatic benefit. The United404 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security