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"... Thursday night when the visiting Steelers’ headsets malfunctioned...."
If the system had totally failed for one team, the league would have shut down both teams’ sets for fairness. That apparently did not happen Thursday night.
Apparently...
The Steelers’ website’s account of the game hinted at sinister goings-on: “Strangely enough, whenever an N.F.L. representative proceeded to the New England sideline to shut down their headsets, the Steelers’ headsets cleared. Then, as the representative walked away from the New England sideline, the Steelers’ headsets again started to receive the Patriots’ game broadcast.”
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73 comments:
Not only that, but I noticed that after last night's cold snap, the tires on my Subaru lost 2 psi. It's that darn Tom Brady again.
I guess if you got away with cheating as often as the Patriots have, why in gods name would you ever stop cheating?
Patriots win.
So Bob Socci and Scott Zolak told Mike Tomlin not to cover Gronk?
Coach, the headset only works when you stay on the sidelines
I just found out that the "Real" in Real Madrid means "royal."
I've recently decided that watching soccer is far more interesting than American football. It took me some time to get used to the guys touching each other and the fake injuries, but the athleticism is nothing short of astonishing, and most of those guys play the duration of the entire game. I read somewhere that in a typical American football game, there's no more than 11 minutes of actual play. And yet a television broadcast takes, what, about 3 hours?
Last night on the TV, by coincidence, I saw that there is a show that covers "Fantasy Football," which I gather is some sort of way for people to pretend that they own a professional football team, and are thus something more than passive spectators. The TV show had announcers in a studio sitting at one of those big desks the same as if they were covering a real football game.
The whole thing struck me as kind of pathetic . . . same goes for anybody's interest in "football skullduggery."
The stadium communications are provided by the NFL. The Pats had nothing to do with the problem. They whipped Pittsburgh's ass fair and square. My hope is that all the other teams will be as distracted when they play the Pats and the results will be the same. Tom Brady was 25 for 32 with four touchdowns. He surpassed Bret Favre for number of wins with one team: 161. He looked angry, but in control.
"Apparently" Ann did not read the whole article to see that it was a league problem with the communication or she would not have wasted the space with this.
interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather.
Imaginary physics for Dummies!
@ Tim in VT I can't let it rest at "Patriots win" although that's the most important point. I have been tied up in knots by the league witch hunt of Brady. I am convinced that, if Judge Berman had it within his power, he would have dropped the hammer even harder on the league. Reading his opinion is liking reading the work of a very intelligent and very angry man who is offended by what has been brought into his court. I keep a copy on my desk so I can read some of the more delicious passages now and then!
Radios aren't important; what's important is that a ball ends up on the other side of a line.
interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather.
All right, Beatrice, there was no alien. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.
I'm a Pats fan to the core, but I'd be as upset about a surprise dose of Zolak in my headset as I would be about a surprise dose of psychotropics.
Smoke and fire have an unusually high correlation rate everywhere on the planet EXCEPT Foxboro.
All this scandal mongering threatens to make the Krafts actually appear sympathetic.
You are totally missing the biggest scandal of the night though.
Millions of advertising and licensing agreement dollars spent by Microsoft to ensure the coaches on the sidelines use a Microsoft Surface ruined by Al Michaels calling it an 'iPad'.
Here's what I don't get:
The signals are encrypted. For them to hear the Patriots' radio broadcast in their headsets, that radio broadcast would have to be encrypted using the same method and key. The patriots couldn't just set up a transmitter and start pumping sound into the other team's headset.
It would be possible to jam the system, but that would cause silence, not some other sound. And the NFL is scanning for such jammers.
The Patriots would have either needed to beat the encryption of the NFL controlled system, or physically hardwire into the repeater transmitter in the stadium ( assuming that the signal is unencrypted at some point in the repeater ).
If the Patriot could do either of these, then the Patriots could listen in on the other team's play calling, defensive adjustments, etc. Which would be a much more effective way to cheat, and that cheating would go undetected.
Why cheat in a marginal, detectable way when you could cheat in a more effective, undetectable way?
Why cheat in a marginal, detectable way when you could cheat in a more effective, undetectable way?
Because even with really smart tools, jerks will be jerks, and the a jerk wants to be seen being a jerk.
Also, the more energy the other team spends wondering how the Pats are going to cheat, the less energy they spend on actual preparation and execution. At this point it's a form of psychological combat.
Hah -- lotta Patriot Haters here. Winning 4 Super Bowls gettin' ya down?
Free Brady! Fire Goodell!
It was also opening night for the competing gambling venues Fanduel and Draftkings. A nice new revenue stream for the owners that isn’t shared with the league or players. I really appreciated ads featuring the loser slacker guys touting million dollar purses, while dressed in man-child clothing.
Occam's Razor would seem to suggest that Marconi and Tesla were time-traveling Patriots fans.
I really appreciated ads featuring the loser slacker guys touting million dollar purses, while dressed in man-child clothing.
Yeah, I noticed that too. You took $35 and parlayed/gambled it into $2,000,000? Good for you. Now go out and buy a freakin' shirt and tie.
Interesting speculation on how an analog signal got into a digital system
Headsets
“Strangely enough, whenever an N.F.L. representative proceeded to the New England sideline to shut down their headsets, the Steelers’ headsets cleared. Then, as the representative walked away from the New England sideline, the Steelers’ headsets again started to receive the Patriots’ game broadcast.”
That's my favorite part of this particularly inanity. Obviously the N.F.L. representative had a steel plate in his head.
Just as obviously, New England is into the heads of all their opponents. In an unrelated story, Ben Roethlisberger accuses the Patriots of tricking his linemen:
“I thought that there was a rule against that,” Roethlisberger told reporters. “Maybe there’s not. Maybe it’s just an unwritten rule."
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Sorry, Ben, There's no rule against your linemen being saps. Not even an unwritten one.
Now here's what sounds like some good technical conjecture to explain the communication problems, by one Timothy Burke:
Assume the Gillette Stadium visitors’ coaching booth utilizes an analog headset amplifier—commonly called a Telex box, after the best known manufacturer of them—and that Telex box suffered from either faulty construction or poor electrical grounding in the booth. The Patriots’ radio booth too featured a mixer or other device with faulty construction (or the booth was improperly grounded). That would provide a path for the radio audio to get into the Telex box, and thus into the Steelers’ communication system. That’s the simplest explanation, albeit the one that implicates the Patriots (or their electricians) as possibly exposing people to millions of volts of electricity in the circumstance of a lightning strike or power surge.
Or maybe not. That's why I used the word conjecture.
Burke does reveal himself to be in the grip of the same confirmation bias that seems to possess every other writer and talker in the American-speaking sportsworld. Given the premise that the Patriots cheat, any complaint involving the Patriots generates a roll-up of every other incident, accusation, and wild-ass conjecture that has ever stunk up an ESPN inbox. Burke manages to do that in his article, combining in one cartwheeling bag of links a reference to a technical malfunction in 2006 by Gillette Stadium security, an apparently never resolved 2007 accusation, and a spattering of beer mumblings by washed up losers.
It doesn't take a lot of research to find out that headphone communication issues are commonplace. The best part of the lovely Your Team Cheats website is the "Leaguewide Cheats" section attached to every team. There it is: Headsetgate (ongoing): All 32 Teams. Recommended.
Credit to dix who posted the Timothy Burke link first.
@Xmas -- I'm with you on that. My favorite comment to the Deadspin article is this:
Gabrielmd : I’m in the odd position of feeling sorry for the very successful Pittsburgh Steelers. Being forced to listen to the Patriots homer radio broadcast is a fate worse than death.
Also good is this:
CTRL+ALT+DELhomme : I’ve been saying since January that this is all just a vast NFL/ESPN conspiracy to promote STEM education
Tomlin shouldn't be surprised. My best man, an African-American Southerner who traveled up to New England to stand by me in my wedding says that by far the worst reception he ever got as a black man was in Massachusetts.
Professional football has become too predictable.
Apparently the Patriots hacked into the comm system and were calling the Steeler defensive formations.
exhelodrvr1 said...
Apparently the Patriots hacked into the comm system and were calling the Steeler defensive formations.
The Steelers had defensive formations?
The Steelers couldn't cover Gronkowski. That was the difference in the game. They didn't have the personnel even when they had a good formation. You need a world class linebacker to contain him.
Back around 1950, RAdm Dan Gallery wrote a humorous short story which "explained" Navy's recent upset win over heavily favored Army (think Vanderbilt routing Alabama). In the story, Navy installed radios in their new hard helmets, allowing the coach to run the team from the sidelines.
Gallery was a personal friend of Chicago Bears owner/coach George Halas, who read the story and had the Bears equipped with similar radios. Gallery warned him that other teams could jam the Bears' signals, thought it would be illegal. "So what," said Halas. "They do illegal things to us all the time." But a few years later the NFL banned the practice.
I once read that for years at home games Halas had a little dog kept by a handler on the field level but out of sight on the sidelines. When he needed a timeout late in a game he would signal to the handler who let the dog run out on the filed, instantly stopping play (and the clock).
Gallery was a great author!
NE is into the heads of other teams, which results in mistakes. At the goal line, however, the refs made a mistake. The NE lineman shifted into the neutral zone and should have been flagged. Refs did not see it and flagged Pittsburgh for illegal procedure instead. Bad calls happen sometimes.
The headphones may be provided by the NFL but they are made by Bose, a Massachusetts company. Can you hear me know? Ha ha ha.
"Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team's offense."
"Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports. "
"At Gillette Stadium, the scrambling and jamming of the opponents' coach-to-quarterback radio line -- "small s---" that many teams do, according to a former Pats assistant coach -- occurred so often that one team asked a league official to sit in the coaches' box during the game and wait for it to happen. Sure enough, on a key third down, the headset went out."
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart
More NE cheating!
Tim in BernieLand: "Look squirrel".
" Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet almost as quickly as the tapes and notes were found, they were destroyed, on Goodell's orders."
"During games, Walsh later told investigators, the Patriots' videographers were told to look like media members, to tape over their team logos or turn their sweatshirt inside out, to wear credentials that said Patriots TV or Kraft Productions."
Same article.
This is Bernieland too. Even the old ladies like Bernie, maybe especially the old ladies.
I would be surprised if Malcom Butler ever has to buy another drink in New England. That was a great play to make that interception. He read that play, got to the spot, and made the play in about a heartbeat and a quarter.
This is a link showing culture upsteam from politics.
Y'all damn should know LBJ cheated and showed the way for Gore (sure sure it didn't work; he still (*&%^*(%& cheated you *(&^*(&^&&) and every other lost soul claiming Democratic as their affiliation, along with George Wallace and Robert Bird and Tamany Hall and Teddy "Traitor par exelance" Kennedy and everyone Mona Charen details in "Useful Idiots" or Ann Coulter does in "Treason."
But currently only the smart ones, us, know about these political death-bargains by Democrats. The change is now with cheating becoming more mainstream, so Lyle Alzedo is the norm not the namable exception, everything else comes into question in the low info voter's mindscape.
Getting caught after-the-fact is no good no more. You cheat, win, and pay the cost of victory. Hillary screwed up even this simple to understand structure.
And if you don't cheat, just what in the Hell do you think you're doing*? There is money involved, and any attempts to actually--as opposed to the needed fail theater and scapegoating to soothe the mark's soul--stop the money flow because of false notions of "integrity" or "decency" or "founding father's view of Christianity as a whole" supports America's wane in the world economically.
We are no better than anyone other, and must cheat/kill/steal accordingly and to great applause from opinion-makers, else we become weak with Truth and die.
*Judge Smails
I absolutely LOVED it when Collinsworth and Michaels started peeing themselves cause of the headset issue. Quick shots of NFL security huddling and hurrying around the sidelines, tsk-tsking by the same announcer who laughed when Tomlin stepped onto the field and interfered with an opposing player's kick return. I cheered cause I thought the Pats were doing some All-World level trolling- "You bitches want to call us cheaters and demean our success, here's something to cry about- patriots radio broadcast!" I was hoping it was a big middle finger from New England to the rest of the league, but unfortunately it was only a technical issue with NFL-controlled equipment that affected both teams. Still, as a few comments above go to show, there's always some whiners and losers whose go to excuse is "Patriots cheat" even when there is no evidence, even when the league admitted that it is their mistake. Patriot-haters have all the sound judgment and rational cognitive process of an Alex Jones conspiracy theory addict. Next I suppose they'll be counting all the Jews in the Patriots organization.
@averagejoe "......even when there is no evidence ...."
"Evidence? What evidence?" HRC 1992-2001, 2007-2015
We need to get those two brothers from the TV show "Supernatural" on the case.
Sounds like the Ghosts of Football Past are responsible.
@averagejoe "......even when there is no evidence ...."
"Goodell tried to assuage his bosses: He ordered the destruction of the tapes and notes, he insisted, so they couldn't be exploited again. Many in the room didn't believe it. And some would conclude it was as if Goodell, Kraft and Belichick had acted like partners ..... "
(same article)
"Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. (born May 16, 1931) is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the 85th Governor of Connecticut, and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President in 1980.[1] Though a member of the Republican Party during his time in Congress, he later left the Republican Party and became one of the few independents to be elected as a state governor in the United States in recent years. Weicker was also a member of the Board of Directors of WWE for 15 years prior to stepping down in 2011.[2]"
So Trump is Lowell's Revenge?
Interesting.
Teddy "Traitor par exelance" Kennedy
This son of a B.I.tch was so stupid he couldn't get the Soviet's to accept what Hillary gave out via email.
Nobody trusted the fat drunk, stupidly.
Slob extraordinaire, Ted had rightly given the U.S. a bad rep for decades, and he will for decades to come like only a jackass of ages could accomplish.
This is what infamous should mean. Ted Kennedy.
@ Humperdink You are quoting from an article written by an Honors graduate of the Seymour Hersh school of journalism. whose motto is "No sources, no problem". Here is an article that refutes Van Natta's reporting on the tapes. Van Natta's only named source is Matt Walsh who has been proven to be a liar many times over. The rest is B/S, but haters going to hate, or as they say in Dorchester "They hate us, 'cause they ain't us!"
To close out the day: "The NFL says the New England Patriots had nothing to do with audio interference that rendered the Pittsburgh Steelers' coaching headsets useless during the first quarter on opening night Thursday……. The problem was "entirely attributable to an electrical issue made worse by the inclement weather" and that the league "will continue to review the matter to determine if there are technical steps that can be taken to avoid similar problems from occurring in other games." Source: ESPN News Service
"They hate us, 'cause they ain't us!"
Hi Humperdink- SpyGate I call CameraPlacementGate for reasons that the ESPN article illustrates. As Belichick has pointed out time and again, the cameraman was filming in front of 80,000 people. Everyone could see him, including the Jets staff and coaches. There was no "spying" in SpyGate, no attempt at deception by New England. The issue was where the cameraman was located.
The part of the latest story that bothers me is the contention that Patriot employees had disguised themselves and used false identities. BUT, since the league and ESPN have been time and again caught disseminating false information, whipping up outrage based on discredited rumor, and outright lying, then I will withhold condemning New England until I have further information from a more reliable source.
The amusing part of the Patriots as serial cheaters is that they do not have to cheat to be successful. They would be champions without resorting to such crap. But it is apparent it is in their DNA.
There is so much money in the NFL with the multi-billion $ TV contracts, the owners have been willing to look the other way as they pad their pockets. But they are also highly competitive.
I think they just got fed up with it.
I do not disagree there is jealously involved with the Patriot success.
Also note the judge in the Brady case did not rule on Brady's culpability, just the process that Goodell used, which was approved by the players union.
Lastly, the Steelers were the only players to veto the union contract in 2011, ostensibly because it gave the commissioner too much disciplinary power.
Humperdink said...
The amusing part of the Patriots as serial cheaters is that they do not have to cheat to be successful. They would be champions without resorting to such crap. But it is apparent it is in their DNA.
9/11/15, 8:23 PM
Okay dude. Go ahead and list all the cheating they've done. And if you think that the judge didn't completely deride and dismiss the entire Deflategate witch-hunt out of hand, then you weren't following the case.
Dude? A bit sensitive tonight Joe?
"On September 3, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman issued a ruling that overturned the NFL’s four game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady. Berman's decision was premised upon several significant legal deficiencies in the NFL's case, including (A) inadequate notice to Brady of both his potential discipline (four-game suspension) and his alleged misconduct; (B) denial of the opportunity for Brady to examine one of two lead investigators, namely NFL Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Pash; and (C) denial of equal access to investigative files, including witness interview notes."
http://yourteamcheats.com/NE
Yep Brady is as pure as the wind driven snow. At least according to Mark Henderson, snow plow operator. Mark Henderson, you say??
Snow plow game 1982: "..stadium snowplow operator Mark Henderson -- who by mutual agreement had been clearing off the yard markers throughout the game -- veered from his line cleaning duties and cleared a spot on the field for New England kicker John Smith."
It seems fitting that at the time, Henderson was on work release from the local jail.
You may have missed my earlier point Joe, that Brady's team voted in 2011 to leave the entire disciplinary process in the hands the commissioner. All of it.
Humperdink, we understand why the judge vacated the decision, and why his ruling was written the way it was. The lawsuit Berman ruled on was filed in his district by the NFL asking him to rule on the legality of the arbitration process. There were three hearings before the judge attended by counsel for both parties. The third hearing was truncated by the judge when he determined that the parties would not reach a settlement and he had sufficient evidence to render a decision. The first two hearings were debacles for the NFL's case, and a rebuke to the entire investigation. Judge Berman repeatedly ridiculed the league's investigation and appeal. The most damning and illuminating may have been when the judge pointedly asked NFL attorney Nash: Do you have any evidence at all of deflation of footballs or a conspiracy to deflate footballs? The answer was one word: No. Now Berman was not ruling on the findings of the investigation, but he took the time and trouble to assail the league's process and findings, going so far as to have them admit in court that they had nothing, yet they punished Brady anyway. And what Berman actually ruled on and addressed in his judgment statement was the unethical and illegal actions of the league, including withholding evidence and witnesses from Brady which could have exonerated him. The judge also took pains to note that Goodell had misrepresented Brady's testimony in his statement upholding the league's decision and punishment. Quite telling that the league falsely accused Brady of smashing his phone to withhold evidence, when in fact it was the league withholding the evidence and lying about testimony.
Yeah, we know the Players Association approved the CBA giving Goodell certain power. They did not give him the power to disregard federal labor law. Goodell abused and misused his power, and he got caught and reined in, for like the fourth time THIS YEAR.
And your evidence of New England cheating is the snow-plow game. So 33 years ago, when Belichick was linebackers coach for the NY Giants, Brady was 4 years old, before Kraft had made his first billion, and the Team owner was still Billy Sullivan, Patriot coaches sent a plow onto the field to clear a spot for a field goal... Yes, first a spot of snow in 1982, then a camera in the wrong area 25 years later!!!! It's been nothing but underhanded tricks and CHEATING for ever!!! Cheatriots!!! They cheat!!!!
Trump voters are refugees and if you have anything than ultimate understanding then fuck off.
Feed me better, bitches.
I JUST GAVE YOU MONEYMAKING BLUEPRINTS
Or, I just allowed you an understanding you'll forever thank me for.
I hate the Steelers because I think the fix was in in 2007 and their rapist quarterback, but my view of Tomlin is that he is a decent person. He also doesn't strike me as the whiner type. When you lose the respect of most of your peers you have gone too far. There are many stories of headset malfunctions in Gilette Stadium that only seem to affect the visitors. Having used a lot of encrypted radio systems things do not go wrong that often. I don't understand why teams don't have their own rigs. I am considering bidding out a contract to some teams because I guarantee this wouldn't happen if I set the system up.
I value winning above all else in combat and in sports it is close to that too. People sometimes object to what I teach kids that play youth sports competitors because I teach them that winning is the point of playing. But there are repercussions and it is clear that the Patriots have crossed a line as far as opposing teams are concerned.
There are many stories of headset malfunctions in Gilette Stadium that only seem to affect the visitors
So, you've heard from the Patriots to confirm their headsets have been largely unaffected?
@Averagejoe Wasn't it you that said trying to deal with Patriot haters was like trying to talk with the mentally ill? Your "discussion" with Humperdink just proves your point.
WE KNOW that Judge Berman was not asked to rule on the facts in the case; WE KNOW that this was a conspiracy by the NFL to "get" the Pats (Humperdink, read further into that useless article to see the "evidence" of the conspiracy.); WE KNOW that there was no deflation of footballs other than that caused by the weather; WE also KNOW that Tom Brady is an honorable man and one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL.
Go Pats!
Judge Berman's opinion.
" WE also KNOW that Tom Brady is an honorable man ....."
Which is why he agreed to disciplinary system until it impacted him, then off to court we go.
Which is why he refused to turn over over his cell phone record and claim no evidence (same as HRC's defense).
But the best argument you folks present is the hater and mentally ill proposition. Won me over.
Averagejoe said: "And your evidence of New England cheating is the snow-plow game. So 33 years ago, when Belichick was linebackers coach for the NY Giants, Brady was 4 years old, before Kraft had made his first billion, and the Team owner was still Billy Sullivan, Patriot coaches sent a plow onto the field to clear a spot for a field goal... Yes, first a spot of snow in 1982, then a camera in the wrong area 25 years later!!!!"
Try this one: In 1986, the New England Patriots lost a 3rd-round draft pick for the illegal use of the injured reserve list.
PS Tom Brady was 8. Inching closer to his MVP years.
I say ban all radio sets. Have the coach, well, actually coach from the sidelines.
I also think players should never deceive the other side. With this in mind, teams should be required to tell the other side exactly what they intend to do. This would also make the game safer. For example, if the defense intends to blitz, the quarterback would be prepared for the hit.
Why doesn't the visiting team bring its own radio equipment? And if visiting the Patriots in Foxborough they should use spread spectrum radios, just to be safe.
"I say ban all radio sets. Have the coach, well, actually coach from the sidelines."
How about making QBs call their own plays? The NFL hasn't been the same since those cheaters Paul Brown and Otto Graham ruined everything with those "messenger guards".
Try this one: In 1986, the New England Patriots lost a 3rd-round draft pick for the illegal use of the injured reserve list.
PS Tom Brady was 8. Inching closer to his MVP years.
9/12/15, 10:17 AM
LOL! Good one, Humperdink! I've got one you probably haven't heard. It's from '97, the Pete Carroll years, Kraft owned the club. I had to do some internet sleuthing but found it after Googling: Bledsoe jumps on girl at club
NFL DAILY REPORT : AFC
Patriots' Leap Injures Woman at Club
November 15, 1997|Times Wire Services
"Drew Bledsoe and two of his New England Patriot teammates jumped from a nightclub stage, leaving a female patron injured when struck by offensive lineman Max Lane, sources told the Associated Press."
It was this incident which disgusted me so much I stopped following the team for years. As I recall the Patriots defended the players, tried to hush it up, settled out of court, of course. Note the date. This incident happened during a game week, Wednesday or Thursday night I think. The players who got drunk and broke a girl's back stage-diving all played the following Sunday. No accountability, no dedication, the players didn't care, why should I? But the fact that the Team's response to the incident was kind of slimy and equivocal, that turned me off for a long time. I've never even seen the first three Super Bowl wins. Then I started reading about Belichick and Brady, and seeing the kind of leadership and management skills they exhibit- I couldn't not watch anymore.
By the way, this quote from the blog post here today about the Chinese scientist accused of spying by the American government clarifies one reason why judge Berman vacated the Brady suspension.
"But it was only when he and his lawyers reviewed the government’s evidence that they understood what had happened. “When I read it, I knew that they were mixing things up,” Dr. Xi said....
The NFL refused Tom Brady the rights that the government gives to suspected spies.
@ Humperdink Here's the article I screwed up the link on last night.
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