US Warns: Canadian Spy Coins Amist

Attention, Canadian Residents:

Those Loonies and Toonies ($1 and $2 coins) jingling around in your pocket may include more than just bronze and metal. Tiny radio frequency transmitters have been found inside Canadian coins, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report.

This all sounds like something out of a spy movie -- and like any good espionage thriller, the facts of this case are a mystery wrapped in a riddle.

This is what the report *didn't* say:

• The coins are from Canada, but the U.S. government isn't saying (or doesn't know) who's doing the tracking -- or why.
   
• How the Pentagon discovered the coins has yet to be revealed.
   
• How the transmitters work -- or even which Canadian currencies contain them (though Loonies or Toonies seem like the obvious culprits).

All that was really been revealed in the report is *who* the coins were intended to track. According to the U.S. government, U.S. contractors with classified security clearances unwittingly traveled through Canada with the contaminated currency. The bugged change was discovered in at least three separate instances between October 2005 and January 2006.

"What's in the report is true," confirmed Martha Deutscher of the U.S. Defense Security Service. However, there's more than meets the eye. "This is indeed a sanitized version, which leaves a lot of questions," she added.

China, Russia, and France are considered the main suspects by experts outside the U.S. government. The three countries are said to run spy operations within Canada -- and they're all sophisticated enough to produce this level of technology.

Or is this in fact some insidious Canadian plot against the States? "It would seem unthinkable," claimed David Harris, formerly the chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). "I wouldn't expect to see any offensive operation against the Americans."

The CSIS claims it had no prior knowledge of the "spy coins." Going one step further, the Canadian agency is actually denying the report: "This issue has just come to our attention," stated CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion. "At this point, we don't know of any basis for these claims." (Source: yahoo.com)

And now the U.S. is following Canada's lead. The U.S. Defense Security Service has officially retracted its earlier report -- despite previously confirming its veracity.

From a written statement by the Defense Security Service:

"The allegations, however, were found later to be unsubstantiated following an investigation into the matter ... the 2006 annual report should not have contained this information." (Source: thestar.com)

While the truth of this matter may never be known, "spy coins" do actually exist -- and they're not new technology. The CIA has used U.S. currency in the past to send secret messages or hide sensitive film. (Source: yahoo.com)

To see a picture of a U.S. spy coin (courtesy of the Associated Press), click here:

http://www.infopackets.com/graphics/us+spy+coin.gif

Is this another "Weapons of Mass Destruction" situation -- or are the U.S. and Canada actively hiding the facts from the rest of the world for security purposes? Either way, I'm still going to check through my change. Just in case.