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> He just bought it retail. There was a great interview of Kim Jong-Il's sushi chef awhile back, the way he gets ingredients is the chef makes trips abroad to f
by secthrowaway 13y ago
> He just bought it retail. There was a great interview of Kim Jong-Il's sushi chef awhile back, the way he gets ingredients is the chef makes trips abroad to foreign markets and buys whatever he needs from wherever, presumably paying cash. If you're willing to pay the price premium and take care of packing and shipping yourself, you can buy anything you want to, legally, without anyone else knowing.
Right. Most nefarious actors just buy most of their stuff retail. Figuring that out, from whom, what was purchased etc. and if it violates some sanctions regime is one of the things the NSA might participate in, handing off the findings to the State Department of the Commerce Department or whoever for action. The action being that participating companies would not be allowed to do business in the U.S. and would be monitored for further sanctions violations in case other U.S. involved companies want to do business with the retail outfit that sold the whiskey. No big deal if you're Mom & Pop liquor store in Italy with no U.S. involvement. But who knows? It could mean that your supplier is a U.S. based company and may not be allowed to supply you any more in the future.
In practice nobody gives a shit about a few cases of whiskey, but the same practice might be used for large shipments or for items that are undesirable for North Korea to obtain.
- vinceguidry 13y agoHow would the NSA monitor retail purchases made with cash? I guess if they wanted to get all Bourne-happy, they could monitor flights out of NK, then send somebody out to watch Kim's flack go buy whatever in Beijing. (probably where he get's most of his crap) But you're getting pretty far outside the realm of SIGINT. I'm sure the NSA would LOVE to be able to track this stuff, but realistically speaking they can't.