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Comment by josephcooney | Hacker News Reader

GCHQ are probably pretty far ahead of the game as far as disinformation goes. Consider what the UK government did to cover up operation overlord.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodyguard

I seem to recall a story where they put fake plans in the pocket of an army coat, which they put on a recently deceased person dressed in full military uniform (of military service age), and then strategically dumped it where they knew the germans would find it. Or maybe that was just a spy movie I watched.

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Yes, this happened - Operation Mincemeat: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/topics/operation_mincemeat

A few people mention operation mincemeat.

> letter from Ernest Whitley Jones, joint general manager of Lloyds Bank,[7] demanding payment of an overdraft of £79 19s 2d (£79.96).

This amount of money seems incorrect. A £56 ring would cost £2000 today, thus a £79 overdraft would not be £79 today, or someone would not have a > £2000 overdraft.

I do not edit wikipedia.

That's a conversion to the decimal amount, not a conversion to today's equivalent.

That feels like an odd thing to do, especially for international readers who won't know or care about UK decimalisation in 1972(?)

Its not really odd, its a natural way to convert a quantity stated in three units that have no obvious relation even to each other to someone unfamiliar with the pre-decimal system into a quantity stated in a single unit.

agreed, if I was more socially responsible I'd create a wikipedia account and edit it.

I believe you're thinking of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

Not a spy movie. It was called Operation Mincemeat [1]. It's certainly movie-worthy though. Both the plan and the fact that it worked are impressive.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

I believe the story you recall was from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon novel.

Did that also happen in Cryptonomicon?

I believe the parent was thinking of Operation Mincemeat:

http://history.writingwithtony.com/2008/05/27/tries-spies-an...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

Something similar happened in Cryptonomicon, certainly; in the section of the story where Detachment 2702 is 'widening the bell curve', there's the segment where they take the cook who died of a heart attack in the cold freezer (blond hair, mushroom, tattoo on his arm with a heart and the name "Griselda"), put him in the wet suit with the watch, and dump him in the ocean; they also pack a coffin full of meat from same freezer, nail it shut, and plaster it with biohazard stickers to ensure that it won't be opened.

I've read the book a few times.

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