U.S. Department of Defence's Paranoia Reaches Hilarious Low

[Johnny Justjohnny]

[URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070507.wspycoins0507/BNStory/National/home]Link[/URL]

[QUOTE]WASHINGTON ? An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier this year, The Associated Press has learned.

The odd-looking ? but harmless ? "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors travelling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

The silver-coloured 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy ? Canada's flower of remembrance ? inlaid over a maple leaf. The unorthodox quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors' accounts.

The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red colour from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.
The Globe and Mail

"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."

The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the Defence Security Service, an agency of the Defence Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors travelled through Canada.

One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. "Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket," the contractor wrote.

But the Defence Department subsequently acknowledged that it could never substantiate the espionage alarm that it had put out and launched the internal review that turned up the true nature of the mysterious coin.
[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20070507/wspycoins0507/0507poppyquarter188.jpg[/IMG]
[COLOR=Gray]

Hilarious. Simply the funniest thing to ever happen in the world of espionage; this is zanier then Leonard 6. This is straight out of The Stupids. I can just see the DD agents huddleing around a table in a dark room, staring a single, solitary commemerative coin with intense looks on their faces, saying: "This strange red marking, likely some local combination between the swastika and communism, is far too outlandish; who puts colours on their money? Yes, there's no way around it, boys, the Canadians are spying on us."

This is just emberassing. Paranoia in the US is getting pathetic. Still think the West is winning the war on terror?[/COLOR]

[Retribution]

[size=1]This is partially foolish, partially understandable. Foolish because we haven't seen enough currency from our own continent that we thought it an espionage tool. Understandable because, well, to an outsider I can see where they were coming from. I'd rather have the Dept of Defense take all precautions to prevent espionage on them rather than being too lax and putting national secrets at risk.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/Canadian2004PoppyQuarter.jpg[/img]

But I wish the Dept of Defense was worrying about, you know, securing our porous souther border and protecting our ports. But hey, being suspicious of coins is cool too.[/size]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]It is one retarded looking coin -- homemade looking to some point, but it's absolutely retarded that we don't even recognize Canada' money -- not to metion that before even taking the opportunity to do a little research on the coin, they've got it under a microscope analyzing it, lol.[/COLOR]

[Johnny Justjohnny]

[QUOTE] Foolish because we haven't seen enough currency from our own continent that we thought it an espionage tool.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR=Gray]
Wether you've seen it or not... well, come on! It's a poppy coin; how out-of-your-gourd nuts do you have to be to think it's spying on you?[/COLOR]

[QUOTE]I'd rather have the Dept of Defense take all precautions to prevent espionage on them rather than being too lax and putting national secrets at risk.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR=Gray]
See, it's one thing that the US Army contractors put it under a high-powered microscope. That's just idiotic. Then, when they found absolutely no evidence of anything resembling radio or broadcast tech, only something that looked sort of nanotechy (and trust me when I say this... if Canada ever made a spycoin, it'd have a big honkin' antenna on the back and a Radioshack logo instead of a poppy.), they sent the evidence to the DD... well, rather safe then sorry. But when the DD looked at all this evidence that had been gathered, and found something there worth declaring an espionage threat, THAT'S where the rediculous, Voneggutian comedy aspect comes into this. It's like the Culture of Fear theory gone to the hilarious.[/COLOR]

[QUOTE]It is one retarded looking coin -- homemade looking to some point[/QUOTE]
[COLOR=Gray]
The poppy is supposed to look like that; it comes from the poem In Flander's Fields, and the stamp that was made to commemorate it in the 60's. The same poppy was used on the stamp as is used on the coin. Plus the picture that Retri posted looks kind of wierd, it doesn't normally have those tiny holes in it... Wierd. [/COLOR]

[QUOTE]

[Kirra]

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Wow...That's pretty pathetic really. It's hard to believe that our Department of Defense would have so much suspicion against a theory that makes us believe that Canadians are spying on us using nano-technology on coins! That makes me think less of our Defensive Dept.

Also, about the war on Terror...I honestly don't believe that that war will ever come to a halt. We are attacking terrorists, and since terrorists are defined by whatever we consider to be a threat to ourselves; it's forever changing. On top of that, I also think that another war will break out in Iraq, simply because we are trying to establish a democracy there and that's not going to work for the people of Iraq. So they'll probably get mad at us again and attack. Then it's back to the "War on Terrorism."[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Dodeca]

[SIZE=1]Someone really needs to fire said contractors, if they haven't done so already. Being cautious is one thing - but jumping to conclusions out of sheer paranoia is ridiculous and inexcusable. While they're at it, they should dispose of the fools who sent out the warning [i]before[/i] having the common sense to research the matter.

Next time, they should try letting someone who knows their stuff take a look before making total ***** out of themselves. Simply taking it to the aforementioned Royal Canadian Mint and checking whether or not the coin and/or the coating were of their making would've been a good start.[/SIZE]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]This thread should definitely be moved to Group Sounds where we can properly ridicule what's occurred here.

In all seriousness though, it seems this whole thing could have been avoid if one of said contractors happened to bring said coin into a bank and say something slightly less stupid sounding than "Does this coin look right to you ?".[/SIZE]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=Lucida calligraphy]So let me get this straight... the US Departmenmt of defense thinks that Canada is plotting against us?

Oh no! Fear the Canadians... yeah[/color][/font]

[PWNED]

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman][color=#9933ff][font=Lucida calligraphy]So let me get this straight... the US Departmenmt of defense thinks that Canada is plotting against us?

Oh no! Fear the Canadians... yeah[/color][/font][/QUOTE]
It's because they are Canadian, thereby making them part French. Thereby making them the enemy.

Fear my logical reasoning

[Gavin]

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman][color=#9933ff][font=Lucida calligraphy]So let me get this straight... the US Departmenmt of defense thinks that Canada is plotting against us?

Oh no! Fear the Canadians... yeah[/color][/font][/QUOTE]

[SIZE=1]The plot of South Park the Movie grows ever more realistic...[/SIZE]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1']The plot of South Park the Movie grows ever more realistic...[/SIZE][/quote]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]Don't remind me...

You know after reading this a few more times I'm thinking two things.

1.) The US DOD needs to go on vacation. I suggest one away from the TV in a nice padded room

2.) I think I may take my boyfriend's mom up on her offer of sponsorship, move to British Columbia and become a Canadian citizen...eh?[/color][/font]

[KingEarthEater]

Wow... Just wow...

How dumb can we get? Maybe they were drinking before-hand, but man! What in the world is a coin going to do for Canada anyway? If we are so worried about it, we could just leave it outside a room before hand, or even just drop the cursed coin somewhere. You aren't very forced to keep it. (I understand that if it were real that means that Canada was planning something, but its still a good solution if you were [b]that[/b] afraid of a coin).