Talk:Numbers station
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is this for real?
- Sure. They're a little weird, but real, honest. The external links give pretty good introductions to the subject. --Camembert
Someone just added an assertion that some numbers stations (perhaps all?) are primarily to give the impression that a country has many spies. This is plausible on its face, if restricted to "some". However, I would like to see citations. I do not find any discussion of this kind of numbers station online.
The author then went on to assert that a numbers station believed to be Taiwanese has 5,000 codes for spies, despite the unlikelihood that Taiwan has so many overseas spies. For this I would especially like to see citations, because (a) one shouldn't be able to tell what part of a numbers station broadcast is a code identifying a particular spy, (b) Taiwan has a population of some 25 million, and in its precarious geopolitical position, has reason to have an active espionage agency, hence an assertion that they are unlikely to have as many as five thousand spies (0.02% of population) should be backed up with evidence; (c) I am more than usually suspicious of unsupported assertions involving Taiwan, again because of its precarious geopolitical and cultural position.
For the moment I have only corrected the author's spelling and grammar, but I am seriously considering deleting the entire paragraph.
Zack 00:14, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- Agreed. I've moved it here for now, pending sources (follows below). If "many have argued", then this should be straightforward to demonstrate. We have to be very careful with this kind of topic, as a lot of things fly about as unsubstantiated rumour, and it's more difficult to get hold of solid, verifiable fact. — Matt Crypto 00:22, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- "Another possibility is that numbers stations are not primarily used to comunicate with spies, but to give foreign counter-intelligence officials the impression that a country has many more spies than it truly does. For example, a number station believed to be operated by Taiwan has about 5,000 different codes for spies, despite the unlikelihood that Taiwan has so many spies."