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How the Colombian army sent a hidden message to hostages using a pop song

342 points by kposehn 12y ago

blahedo 12y ago
This is a fantastic example of steganography in action, in a context other than hiding info in low-order bits of images.
- kposehn 12y ago
  I know, right? It found it rather fascinating immediately.
lrm242 12y ago
The morse is subtle but if you listen closely you can hear it. Set the Soundcloud player to 1:25 or so and you'll hear singing as they finish up the chorus. As the chorus completes at about 1:31 the singing stops and instruments play. Listen closely, and try to remember what morse sounds like in the movies. It's there in the background, and once you hear it it's obvious. Don't listen to the drums or tambourine, it's not there in the beat. It's "behind" the beat as if a background instrument was playing. (edit: it also kicks in again around 2:30 and 3:30. So the start times are at approximately 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30.) Outstanding.
- ufo 12y ago
  The lyrics make it even getter: "...escute este mensaje hermano - beep beep beep beep beep..."
  - nmc 12y ago
    As the article points out, this translates to: "Listen to this message, brother"
  - aeurielesn 12y ago
    For the sake of correctness, it's "escucha", not "escute."
- jpmattia 12y ago
  > Listen closely, and try to remember what morse sounds like in the movies. It's there in the background, and once you hear it it's obvious. I'm a ham operator from the days when Morse was required for all licenses. They really relied on the fact that the captors were not trained (otherwise they would have picked it off, it is obvious if you've spent quality time with a keyer), as well as the captive soldiers were trained to receive at a fairly good speed (it's too fast for me, but it's been years since my last conversation via morse code. Damn internet.)
- JshWright 12y ago
  Here's the 'bare' code: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/cgi-bin/message.cgi?m=eJxjZBARYTC0VMjJTEotSkzJL1YozkwvTc1TKC0uSU1JLVZIzMvMzQcAzT4MZQ== http://morsecode.scphillips.com/cgi-bin/message.cgi?m=eJxjZB...
- JustGotHere 12y ago
  I thought it was pretty obvious, it plays at a pitch higher than the rest of the chorus and doesn't fit the rhythm. But then again, I was waiting for it.
monitron 12y ago
I think I hear an additional bit of trickery that the article didn't mention: the morse signal keeps oscillating between the left and right stereo channels, which on headphones or a nice speaker system make it sound more like artsy synth and less like a coded message. If the illustration in the article is accurate, the hostages are probably listening on a monophonic radio or one with limited stereo separation, which would make the code easier to pick out and understand.
curiously 12y ago
I wonder if anyone would've picked it up? You would have to listen to the song over and over. Then figure out morse code and what letter each signal represented.
- philwelch 12y ago
  If you know Morse code already it's probably something you can work out in real time in your head.
  - gonzo 12y ago
    If you know Morse code already, you just hear it.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  Soldiers learn Morse code as part of their training. It's still in widespread use, and required for any sort of advanced sailing license.
  - BillySquid 12y ago
    Former Colombian soldier over here, at that time, only radio operators were trained in Morse code; regular soldiers would have a hard time to get the message.
    - jacalata 12y ago
      What proportion of soldiers would have learned it?
      - BillySquid 12y ago
        About one per squad (1/13)
    - anigbrowl 12y ago
      Thanks for the interesting correction! I imagined it would be common for all soldiers as Morse can also be used to signal with a flashlight etc..
bbayles 12y ago
Clever! It reminds me of another story of broadcasting information such that only interested parties will receive it. In 1997, during an auction of wireless spectrum by the FCC, some of the participants colluded by stealthily signaling the geographic region of the licenses they most valued. They made the last few digits of their bids (in dollars), which were visible to all, the area codes of those regions.
- iamcreasy 12y ago
  Interesting, can you link any article?
  - bbayles 12y ago
    The Economist describes the incident here: http://www.economist.com/node/149797 http://www.economist.com/node/149797
biot 12y ago
Though I don't know morse code (beyond S-O-S), I know of morse code and roughly what it ought to sound like. I really wish the article had started out with the SoundCloud player, saying "Listen to this first... notice anything peculiar about the song?" since because I knew it contains morse code, I instantly recognized it in the chorus. I wonder if I would have been as oblivious to its inclusion as the FARC members had I not been made aware beforehand. It reminds me of Evanescence's "My Immortal" song where people have speculated there's a hidden message in it. Take a listen and see if you can hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo
- joshschreuder 12y ago
  If you're listening to the Evanescence song, the supposed morse code is right at the end of the song. I did a bit of reading and one of the band's co-founders said it isn't morse code but rather a preset synth effect on the keyboard they were using (see here: http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=6106 http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=610...)
  - biot 12y ago
    It's also in one other place that I can detect, though you may need to play it with sufficient volume to hear it. That you only heard it at the end lends credibility to the effectiveness of hiding morse code in a song.
- jacalata 12y ago
  I wouldn't have heard a thing, I had trouble picking it out when I knew exactly where it started.
- hetman 12y ago
  If you had been trained in sending and receiving Morse code, as some of these soldiers had been (rather than just knowing about it conceptually), your brain would probably catch on to the patterns much more naturally.
shutupalready 12y ago
It's a great feel-good story, but the whole thing is just intelligence theater, à la Bruce Schneier's security theater. That is, the coded message serves no intelligence or military objective. It sounds to me like the government concocted this idea because they felt they should be doing something, anything, no matter how useless( * ). What's a hostage supposed to conclude from hearing, "19 people rescued. You’re next. Don’t lose hope". Should I run? Run now? Hide in the jungle? Run when the rescue starts? Stay put? Fight during the rescue? Don't fight? If you asked 10 different people what specific action you're supposed to take based on this message, you'd get 10 different answers. If this message had any tangible effect, why aren't there any first hand accounts from the hostages explaining what they did differently as a result of hearing the message? So 3 million people heard this song, yet the only ones who understood it were some of the hostages? Not one of the several thousand militants and no one in the public decoded it? This just proves the point that it's un-actionable. Case (1): Lots of people got it besides the hostages, but there's nothing to blow the whistle on. It's not as if the message says, "Raid at dawn". Case (2): Nobody got it, which also implies that the message had no effect. ( * )If the government claimed that the message was simply a way to make the hostages keep up hope, then OK (though it still seems like a lot of expense for little gain). But they're trying to make it sound like a big intelligence or military coup, which it is not.
- mccooscoos 12y ago
  That's exactly what I thought. When I read the translation I thought they were telling the hostages to not get into trouble so that they would not be chained up to a tree by their neck or otherwise handicapped. If I was in that situation I would have interpreted the exact opposite of the messages.
  - iamcreasy 12y ago
    As your interpretation, it is a sign that your time as a hostage might come to an end, because something might happen, as it happened to other 19 hostages. And that `goodness` is what this message is all about.
- iamcreasy 12y ago
gabrielblack 12y ago
It's very important to keep prisoners' morale high, so this initiative is very commendable. But this isn't a new idea, there are a lot of pop songs with embedded morse code messages, for example, this Slipknots' song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_I_Forget_%28song%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_I_Forget_%28song%29 A tutorial: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/MorseMusic.html http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/MorseMusic.html Anyway, there are more creative methods to insert coded messages in radio shows, for example, some years ago, the italian police confiscated a commercial radio in Naple. That radio was controlled by a mafia family and used to send message to the inmates of Poggioreale prison. They used fake "inscription" related to the songs transmitted: http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2007/06_Giugno/12/napoli_radio_camorra.html http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2007/06_Giugno/1...
seandhi 12y ago
This is a pretty great story. I was in Bogotá in July of 2008 just after Ingrid Betancourt and several other hostages were rescued. In the face of such jubilation of their rescue, there was a small demonstration in Plaza de Bolívar to remind everyone that there were still people who needed help. https://www.dropbox.com/sc/93d9g1ycgxamg3o/AAD4g5xPPyT3R-AWJxG_JEr9a https://www.dropbox.com/sc/93d9g1ycgxamg3o/AAD4g5xPPyT3R-AWJ... It is inspiring seeing the steps that the government took, the planning, the rescue, and the demonstration of genuine care for all involved.

342 points by kposehn 12y ago

This is a fantastic example of steganography in action, in a context other than hiding info in low-order bits of images.

kposehn 12y ago
I know, right? It found it rather fascinating immediately.

lrm242 12y ago

The morse is subtle but if you listen closely you can hear it. Set the Soundcloud player to 1:25 or so and you'll hear singing as they finish up the chorus. As the chorus completes at about 1:31 the singing stops and instruments play. Listen closely, and try to remember what morse sounds like in the movies. It's there in the background, and once you hear it it's obvious. Don't listen to the drums or tambourine, it's not there in the beat. It's "behind" the beat as if a background instrument was playing. (edit: it also kicks in again around 2:30 and 3:30. So the start times are at approximately 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30.) Outstanding.

ufo 12y ago
The lyrics make it even getter: "...escute este mensaje hermano - beep beep beep beep beep..."
- nmc 12y ago
  As the article points out, this translates to: "Listen to this message, brother"
- aeurielesn 12y ago
  For the sake of correctness, it's "escucha", not "escute."
jpmattia 12y ago
> Listen closely, and try to remember what morse sounds like in the movies. It's there in the background, and once you hear it it's obvious. I'm a ham operator from the days when Morse was required for all licenses. They really relied on the fact that the captors were not trained (otherwise they would have picked it off, it is obvious if you've spent quality time with a keyer), as well as the captive soldiers were trained to receive at a fairly good speed (it's too fast for me, but it's been years since my last conversation via morse code. Damn internet.)
JshWright 12y ago
Here's the 'bare' code: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/cgi-bin/message.cgi?m=eJxjZBARYTC0VMjJTEotSkzJL1YozkwvTc1TKC0uSU1JLVZIzMvMzQcAzT4MZQ== http://morsecode.scphillips.com/cgi-bin/message.cgi?m=eJxjZB...
JustGotHere 12y ago
I thought it was pretty obvious, it plays at a pitch higher than the rest of the chorus and doesn't fit the rhythm. But then again, I was waiting for it.

monitron 12y ago

I think I hear an additional bit of trickery that the article didn't mention: the morse signal keeps oscillating between the left and right stereo channels, which on headphones or a nice speaker system make it sound more like artsy synth and less like a coded message. If the illustration in the article is accurate, the hostages are probably listening on a monophonic radio or one with limited stereo separation, which would make the code easier to pick out and understand.

curiously 12y ago

I wonder if anyone would've picked it up? You would have to listen to the song over and over. Then figure out morse code and what letter each signal represented.

philwelch 12y ago
If you know Morse code already it's probably something you can work out in real time in your head.
- gonzo 12y ago
  If you know Morse code already, you just hear it.
anigbrowl 12y ago
Soldiers learn Morse code as part of their training. It's still in widespread use, and required for any sort of advanced sailing license.
- BillySquid 12y ago
  Former Colombian soldier over here, at that time, only radio operators were trained in Morse code; regular soldiers would have a hard time to get the message.
  - jacalata 12y ago
    What proportion of soldiers would have learned it?
    - BillySquid 12y ago
      About one per squad (1/13)
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    Thanks for the interesting correction! I imagined it would be common for all soldiers as Morse can also be used to signal with a flashlight etc..

bbayles 12y ago

Clever! It reminds me of another story of broadcasting information such that only interested parties will receive it. In 1997, during an auction of wireless spectrum by the FCC, some of the participants colluded by stealthily signaling the geographic region of the licenses they most valued. They made the last few digits of their bids (in dollars), which were visible to all, the area codes of those regions.

iamcreasy 12y ago
Interesting, can you link any article?
- bbayles 12y ago
  The Economist describes the incident here: http://www.economist.com/node/149797 http://www.economist.com/node/149797

biot 12y ago

Though I don't know morse code (beyond S-O-S), I know of morse code and roughly what it ought to sound like. I really wish the article had started out with the SoundCloud player, saying "Listen to this first... notice anything peculiar about the song?" since because I knew it contains morse code, I instantly recognized it in the chorus. I wonder if I would have been as oblivious to its inclusion as the FARC members had I not been made aware beforehand. It reminds me of Evanescence's "My Immortal" song where people have speculated there's a hidden message in it. Take a listen and see if you can hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo

joshschreuder 12y ago
If you're listening to the Evanescence song, the supposed morse code is right at the end of the song. I did a bit of reading and one of the band's co-founders said it isn't morse code but rather a preset synth effect on the keyboard they were using (see here: http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=6106 http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=610...)
- biot 12y ago
  It's also in one other place that I can detect, though you may need to play it with sufficient volume to hear it. That you only heard it at the end lends credibility to the effectiveness of hiding morse code in a song.
jacalata 12y ago
I wouldn't have heard a thing, I had trouble picking it out when I knew exactly where it started.
hetman 12y ago
If you had been trained in sending and receiving Morse code, as some of these soldiers had been (rather than just knowing about it conceptually), your brain would probably catch on to the patterns much more naturally.

shutupalready 12y ago

It's a great feel-good story, but the whole thing is just intelligence theater, à la Bruce Schneier's security theater. That is, the coded message serves no intelligence or military objective. It sounds to me like the government concocted this idea because they felt they should be doing something, anything, no matter how useless( * ). What's a hostage supposed to conclude from hearing, "19 people rescued. You’re next. Don’t lose hope". Should I run? Run now? Hide in the jungle? Run when the rescue starts? Stay put? Fight during the rescue? Don't fight? If you asked 10 different people what specific action you're supposed to take based on this message, you'd get 10 different answers. If this message had any tangible effect, why aren't there any first hand accounts from the hostages explaining what they did differently as a result of hearing the message? So 3 million people heard this song, yet the only ones who understood it were some of the hostages? Not one of the several thousand militants and no one in the public decoded it? This just proves the point that it's un-actionable. Case (1): Lots of people got it besides the hostages, but there's nothing to blow the whistle on. It's not as if the message says, "Raid at dawn". Case (2): Nobody got it, which also implies that the message had no effect. ( * )If the government claimed that the message was simply a way to make the hostages keep up hope, then OK (though it still seems like a lot of expense for little gain). But they're trying to make it sound like a big intelligence or military coup, which it is not.

mccooscoos 12y ago
That's exactly what I thought. When I read the translation I thought they were telling the hostages to not get into trouble so that they would not be chained up to a tree by their neck or otherwise handicapped. If I was in that situation I would have interpreted the exact opposite of the messages.
- iamcreasy 12y ago
  As your interpretation, it is a sign that your time as a hostage might come to an end, because something might happen, as it happened to other 19 hostages. And that `goodness` is what this message is all about.
iamcreasy 12y ago

gabrielblack 12y ago

It's very important to keep prisoners' morale high, so this initiative is very commendable. But this isn't a new idea, there are a lot of pop songs with embedded morse code messages, for example, this Slipknots' song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_I_Forget_%28song%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_I_Forget_%28song%29 A tutorial: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/MorseMusic.html http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/MorseMusic.html Anyway, there are more creative methods to insert coded messages in radio shows, for example, some years ago, the italian police confiscated a commercial radio in Naple. That radio was controlled by a mafia family and used to send message to the inmates of Poggioreale prison. They used fake "inscription" related to the songs transmitted: http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2007/06_Giugno/12/napoli_radio_camorra.html http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2007/06_Giugno/1...

seandhi 12y ago

This is a pretty great story. I was in Bogotá in July of 2008 just after Ingrid Betancourt and several other hostages were rescued. In the face of such jubilation of their rescue, there was a small demonstration in Plaza de Bolívar to remind everyone that there were still people who needed help. https://www.dropbox.com/sc/93d9g1ycgxamg3o/AAD4g5xPPyT3R-AWJxG_JEr9a https://www.dropbox.com/sc/93d9g1ycgxamg3o/AAD4g5xPPyT3R-AWJ... It is inspiring seeing the steps that the government took, the planning, the rescue, and the demonstration of genuine care for all involved.