16 June 1999 - http://jya.com/cia-art-jg.htm



http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/16code.html

June 16, 1999


C.I.A.'s Artistic Enigma Yields All but Final Clue 

By JOHN MARKOFF

It has stood in a courtyard inside the Central Intelligence Agency for
almost a decade, a sculptural mystery inside an enigma. 

But last week Jim Gillogly, a Southern California computer scientist, did
what has until now been done -- quietly, and incompletely -- only inside the
agency's halls. 

He succeeded in breaking almost all of a cipher embedded in a sculpture
called Kryptos -- the Greek word for "hidden" -- that was dedicated at the
C.I.A. in October 1990. 

Since then, the 865-character message etched into the sculpture by the
artist, Jim Sanborn, has defied all efforts to unravel its conundrum
completely. Even Gillogly acknowledges that he has deciphered only its first
768 characters. Still unbroken are the last 97 characters, apparently the
same section that has also stumped both the C.I.A. and the National Security
Agency. 

Sanborn said this week that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle
-- one that will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages are
known. The complete answer was handed to William H. Webster, the Director of
Central Intelligence when the sculpture was completed, and has been held in
confidence by his successors. 

The tantalizing clues uncovered last week are likely to rekindle interest in
a complete solution: The three sections include a poetic phrase, a reference
to a point near the C.I.A.'s headquarters in Langley, Va. (with the enticing
passage, "Who knows the exact location? Only WW"), and an excerpt from an
account of the opening of King Tut's tomb in 1922. 

"I don't really have a good idea of what it might be," said Gillogly, a
53-year-old cryptographer at Mentat Inc., a Los Angeles software maker, who
started designing cryptograms with his brother as a child in an effort to
stump their father. 

A computer hacker in the best sense of the word and a past president of the
American Cryptogram Association, Gillogly (pronounced gill-OH-glee) began
exploring the Kryptos message in 1992, but he abandoned it until nine days
ago, when he saw it briefly alluded to in an Internet discussion group. 

This time he was armed with a better weapon than the pencil and paper he had
seven years ago: his home computer, a highly powered Pentium II. And the key
to solving the first three sections of the message proved to be a program
that Gillogly had written as part of his cryptographic passion. 

The program, he said, is intended to help solve what he refers to as
classical cryptographic systems used by kings, armies and spies before World
War II. 

Even with more computational power, he had to apply traditional
cryptographic methods, using his logical powers of deduction. 

"There was a fair amount of skull sweat," he said. "You work on it and you
see something that is a little out of whack and you start pulling on it to
see what unravels." 

When he contacted the C.I.A's press office last week, Gillogly learned that
he was not the first codebreaker to succeed at unraveling the first part of

the mystery. 


In February, David Stein, who works for the agency as a physicist and senior
analyst, and not as a professional cryptographer, had quietly uncovered the
same three passages. Like Gillogly, he has been stumped by the final
section, although he believes that it will eventually be solved. 

"The Kryptos puzzle is a layered puzzle," he said yesterday, "and we may
find that it has layers within layers within layers." 

Stein sounded a bit miffed when he learned that Gillogly had used a computer
in his pursuit of the hidden codes. 

"Kryptos was meant to be solved with pencil and paper," he said. 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Article
The Kryptos Code Unmasked 
(June 16, 1999)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
There were no written rules in this contest, Gillogly responded, adding:
"As far as I'm concerned a crack is where you find it. The choice of tool
isn't the important part, but rather the decisions about how to use the
tools." 

For his part, Webster, the former Director, said yesterday that he had long
since forgotten the answer. "I have zero memory of this," he said. "It was
philosophical and obscure." 

But he sided with Gillogly on using a computer. "Who set the rules here?" he
asked. "This is precisely what the agencies do when they try to break codes." 

Sanborn, the artist, who has designed a number of sculptures that are
puzzles, has said he believes that the ultimate secret hidden in the text of
Kryptos will never be deciphered. It was designed by Edward M. Scheidt, a
former chairman of the C.I.A.'s Cryptographic Center. 

That has not stopped either Gillogly or Stein from speculating on what the
full message may contain. And Gillogly has even contemplated exploring the
bag of tricks of some of the world's acknowledged past spy masters in search
of the complete solution. 

"There're still those last few lines waiting to be decrypted," he wrote last
week in an Internet discussion group. 

"I'll review the 'Mission Impossible' movie for tips on getting into the
vault, if all else fails." 




Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 07:44:17 -0700
From: Jim Gillogly <jim@acm.org>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Gillogly Cracks CIA Art


John Young wrote:
> So, Jim, what was the message?

It's in the sidebar to the article.  I must say this was the best
experience I've had working with a journalist -- he got everything
spot-on.  Only the last Q was left off of one of the plaintexts.

I worked from an impressively clean transcription by Doug Gwyn,
which you can find at

http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/

Here's what I broke (typos are cut into the copper):

  1. Between subtle shading and the absence
     of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.
     Keys: KRYPTOS, PALIMPSEST.

  2. It was totally invisible.  How's that possible?
     They used the earth's magnetic field. x The information
     was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown
     location. x  Does langley know about this?  They should:
     it's buried out there somewhere. x  Who knows the exact
     location?  Only WW.  This was his last message. x  Thirty
     eight degrees fifty seven minutes six point five seconds
     north, seventy seven degrees eight minutes forty four
     seconds west.  ID by rows.
     Keys: KRYPTOS, ABSCISSA

  3. Slowly, desparatly slowly, the remains of passage debris
     that encumbered the lower part of the doorway was removed.
     With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper
     left-hand corner.  And then, widening the hole a little, I
     inserted the candle and peered in.  The hot air escaping
     from the chamber caused the flame to flicker, but presently
     details of the room within emerged from the mist. x  Can
     you see anything? q
     Keys: three columnar transpositions.

Here are the last 97 characters, which I haven't broken:
                           OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR

I suspect it's running key, or combined polyalphabetic sub
and transposition, or perhaps autokey.  The only likely
periodicity appears to be at period 25, but that may well
just be chance.

The lat-long in the second section are near Langley and McLean,
Virginia.  Perhaps some cypherpunks with GPS receivers could
narrow it down a bit.  ABC News thinks it's right at the spot
where the sculpture sits, but I'd find that surprising given
the text.  The third section is adapted from Howard Carter's
first-person account of opening Tutankhamun's tomb, and the
response to the question was "Yes, wonderful things."  Perhaps
that's a crib for the last section.

-- 
        Jim Gillogly
        26 Forelithe S.R. 1999, 14:29
        12.19.6.5.1, 5 Imix 9 Zotz, Second Lord of Night


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/CIA_clue.txt>

EMUFP HZLRF AXYUS DJKZL DKRNS  HGNFI VJYQT QUXQB QVYUV LLTRE
VJYQT MKYRD MFDVF PJUDE EHZWE  TZYVG WHKKQ ETGFQ JNCEG GWDKK
TDQMC PFQZD QMMIA GPFXH ORGLT  IMVMZ JANQL VKQED AGDVF RPJUN
GEUNA OZGZL ECGYU XUEEN JTBJL  BQCRT BJDFH RRYIZ ETKZE MVDUF
KSJHK FWHKU WQLSZ FTIHH DDDUV    

DWKBF UFPWN TOFIY CUQZE REEVL  DKFEZ MOQQJ LTTUG SYQPF EUNLA
VIDXF LGGTE Z

FKZBS FDQVG OGIPU FXHHD RKFFH  QNTGP UAECN UVPDJ MQCLQ UMUNE
DFQEL ZZVRR GKFFV OEEXB DMVPN  FQXEZ LGRED NQFMP NZGLF LPMRJ
QYALM GNUVP DXVKP DQUME BEEDM  DAFMJ GZNUP LGEWJ LLAET GENDY
AHROH NLSRH EOCPT EOIBI DYSHN  AIACH TNREY ULDSL LSLLN OHSNO
SMRWX MNETP RNGAT IHNRA RPESL  NNELE BLPII ACAEW MTWND ITEEN
RAHCT ENEUD RETNH AEOEI FOLSE  DTIWE NHAET OYTEY QHEEN CTAYC
REIFT BRSPA MHHEW ENATA MATEG  YEERL BIEEF OASFI OTUET UAEOT
OARMA EERTN RTIBS EDDNI AAHTT  MSTEW PIERO AGRIE WFEBA ECTDD
HILOE IHSIT EGOEA OSDDR YDLCR  ITRKL MLEHA GTDHA RDPNE OHMGF
WFEUH EECDM RIPFE IMEHN LSSTT  RTVDO HW

OBKRU OXOGH ULBSO LIFBB WFLRV  QQPRN GKSSO IWTQS JQSSE KZZWA
TJKLU DXYWI NFBNY PVTTM ZFPEW  GDKZX TJCDI GXXXU AUEKC AR

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/Kryptos.txt>

This file is viewed best in a font, like courier,
in which all characters are the same width. 

I don't remember who wrote the memo in Kryptos.txt, 
so I can't express my appreciation adequately. 

There are three files in this set:

     Kryptos.txt  - this file, with the CIA note.
     CIA_clue.txt - Kryptos text with CIA separations
     Kryptos.bmp  - a photograph of the Sanborn 
                    sculpture at CIA Headquarters

The photograph is of a transparent sculpture, with
the text on one side and the Vigenere table on the
other.

Perhaps some member of the KREWE can solve the
KRYPTOS inscription and share it (and the method
of solution) with the rest of us.

----------------

Anonymous memo:

     Recently, out of a sudden curiosity an ACA-er
called CIA Public Affairs and asked if there were
any insights on the Sanborn sculpture at 
Langley they'd care to disclose to an
inquiring citizen.  The woman who answered
the phone said, "No, I can't say anything but,
if you send me your name and address we can send
you something."  The ACA-er felt a tad paranoic but gave
her the info and waited for the guys in the rubber-
soled shoes.  Instead, two days later two
pages arrived in the mail which said a bit about the 
sculpture and gave the complete (and presumably)
accurate cipher(s).
     There were no warnings regarding further
dissemination.  Since there does not seem to be ANY ACA
reference giving the entire cipher, this
might be information worth passing along. It seems there 
are no problems with ACA foreign 
members seeing this info as it was sent via
US postal in an unclassified form.
    Below is the item (typed entirely).
************************************************************
Dec 1996
from: (through US postal channels)
     CIA
     Public Affairs
     Washington, DC 20505

     phone number (703)-482-1100
 they won't discuss it over the phone!
 just ask for "available information on KRYPTOS sculpture"

--------------------------------------------------------------
                SANBORN SCULPTURE

             The Art of Cryptography

     KRYPTOS, that peculiar sculpture in the court-
yard area of the headquarters complex, has raised
many eyebrows and questions ever since its installa-
tion.  Undoubtedly its most intriguing aspect is the
riddle of its hidden message.  What could it be?
     Though few persons other than the author know
the answer for certain, many have contemplated the
question.  We would like to pass on what knowledge
we have gained from our cryptanalysis regarding the
message.                                           
     It is probable, from analysis of the letter distribu-
tion, that at least four separate systems of encryption
have been employed: Digraphic, Poly-alphabetic,
Transposition, and One-Time-Pad.
     The first of these, Digraphic substitution, is
guessed to be applicable from "EMUFPH..." to "...
GWHKK?".  Thus method substitutes two letters for
one letter, or even a whole syllable or word (e.g.,
JK=g, or FE=ible).
     The Polyalphabetic system appears to be used
with the text extending from approximately  "DQM-
CPF..." up to "...JLLAETG".  In this system, mul-
tiple alphabets (we suspect four or eight) are used to
substitute different letters for the same letters in the
origina l text.  For example, an "F" may be translated
into an "R" one time, and then as an "M" another time, and
as a "D" a third time.
     "ENDYAHR..." through "TVDOHW?" is
guessed to incorporate a transposition system, also
known as a permutation.  This is a system in which
the letters in the original message are mixed up
according to a predefined rule.  Often, the message is
arranged into a matrix, say, reading left to right; then,
the message is output reading down the colunms. (See
example next page.)  Perhaps a matrix system in
which the length of the columns are multiples of
eleven or thirteen has been used for this section of the
message.

           |-------------------------------------|
           |       The KRYPTOS Inscription       |
           |                                     |
           |  EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ   |
           |  YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD    |
           |  VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCE    |
           |  GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG     |
           |  TIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNA    |
           |  QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR   |
           |  YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI    |
           |  HHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZERE    |
           |  EVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDX   |
           |  FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF    |
           |  FHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQ     |
           |  ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE    |
           |  DNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKP    |
           |  DQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG    |
           |  ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA   |
           |  CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE     |
           |  TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE    |
           |  WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE     |
           |  TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR   |
           |  EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB     |
           |  TEEFOASFIOTUETUAEOTOARMAEERTNRTI   |
           |  BSEDDNIAAHTTMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB    |
           |  AECTDDHILCEIHSITEGOEAOSDDRYDLORIT  |
           |  RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE      |
           |  ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?OBKR    |
           |  UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO    |
           |  TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP    |
           |  VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR    |
           |-------------------------------------|

|------------------------------------------------------------|
|            Example of a Columnar Transposition             |
|                                                            |
| Original message: "Cryptography is a useful tool for       |
| information protection"                                    |
|                                                            |
| 7x7 Matrix:  C R Y P T O G                                 |
|              R A P H Y I S                                 |
|              A U S E F U L                                 |
|              T O O L F O R                                 |
|              I N F O R M A                                 |
|              T I O N P R O                                 |
|              T E C T I O N                                 |
|                                                            |
| Encrypted message: "CRATI TTRAU ONIEY                      |
|       PSOPO CPHEL ONTTY FFRPI OIUOM                        |
|       ROGSL RAONX"                                         |
| (made by reading down the columns, then breaking           |
| into 5-letter blocks.  The last "X" is an arbitrary filler |
| so the last group will also have 5 letters.)               |
|                                                            |
|------------------------------------------------------------|

     Finally, the part of the message from
"OBKRUO..." to the end may make use of a one-
time system.  Essentially, every character in the orig-
inal message is encrypted using its own unique alpha-
bet.  This is a very secure cryptographic system,
because if the alphabets used are selected at random,
there is no pattern to follow for anyone trying to
break the code.
     The other half of the sculpture may provide a clue
as to which alphabets are used, however.  It is an
arrangement of the alphabet, known as a Vigenere
Square, in which each successive row is shifted one
place to the left (In this case, some of the letters are
shifted in position to spell the word KRYPTOS), with
reference alphabets along the top, bottom, and side.
Though used in many ways, this table is very often
used for one-time-pad encryption.  For example, if
someone wanted to encrypt the letter "G", and the key
they were using was the letter "F", he would just look
down column "G" to row "F" and would see that "G"
becomes an,'E'.  Since there are 26 rows and column
on the Vigenere square, any letter can be encrypted as
any other letter depending on the key used.
     There is speculation that the other elements of
Jim Sanborn's sculpture may hold clues to the cipher
used in the message in the courtyard, but there is yet
no proof.  You may have noted the dots and dashes on
the metal sheets between the granite slabs in front of
the NHB (New Headquarters Building?) entrance; this is
Morse Code, and there are five phrases: "DIGE TAL
INTERPRETATU", "T IS YOUR POSITION", "VIRTUALLY
INVISIBLE", "SHADOW FORCES", and "LUCID MEMORY".
Also to be found are the letter combinations "SOS"
and "RQ".

     In the case of the sculpture, cryptography is
mainly an intriguing oddity; but cryptography has a very
real role in the world of intelligence.  (Information
and sources need to be protected, and cryptography
can afford that protection.)


     If you decide to tackle the cipher, good luck!  We
will attempt to keep you posted on any relevant
developments as they arise.

          |---------------------------------|
          |   The KRYPTOS Vigenere Table    |
          |                                 |
          | /ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD |
          | AKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYP |
          | BRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPT |
          | CYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO |
          | DPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS |
          | ETOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSA |
          | FOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSAB |
          | GSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABC |
          | HABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCD |
          | IBCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDE |
          | JCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF |
          | KDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFG |
          | LEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGH |
          | MFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHI |
          | NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJ |
          | OHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL |
          | PIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLM |
          | QJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMN |
          | RLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ |
          | SMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQU |
          | TNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUV |
          | UQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVW |
          | VUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWX |
          | WVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ |
          | XWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK |
          | YXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKR |
          | ZZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRY |
          | /ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD |
          |---------------------------------|

/end of file/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/gillogly>


From acargi@erols.com Wed Jun 16 12:43:05 1999
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 12:45:42 -0400
From: Henry J Siano <acargi@erols.com>
To: ACA-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU
Subject: Markoff New York Times Article 6 16 99

          June 16, 1999


          C.I.A.'s Artistic Enigma Yields All but
          Final Clue

          By JOHN MARKOFF

             It has stood in a courtyard inside the Central Intelligence
Agency for almost a decade, a sculptural mystery inside an enigma.

          But last week Jim Gillogly, a Southern California computer
scientist, did what has until now been done -- quietly, and incompletely
-- only inside the agency's halls.

          He succeeded in breaking almost all of a cipher embedded in a
sculpture called Kryptos -- the Greek word for "hidden" -- that was
dedicated at the C.I.A. in October 1990.

          Since then, the
          865-character message
          etched into the sculpture by
          the artist, Jim Sanborn, has
          defied all efforts to unravel its
          conundrum completely. Even
          Gillogly acknowledges that
          he has deciphered only its
          first 768 characters. Still
          unbroken are the last 97
          characters, apparently the
          same section that has also
          stumped both the C.I.A. and
          the National Security
          Agency.

          Sanborn said this week that the sculpture contains a riddle
within a riddle -- one that will be solvable only after the four encrypted
passages are known. The complete answer was handed to William H. Webster,
the Director of Central Intelligence when the sculpture was
completed, and has been held in confidence by his successors.

          The tantalizing clues uncovered last week are likely to
rekindle interest in a complete solution: The three sections include a poetic
phrase, a reference to a point near the C.I.A.'s headquarters in
Langley, Va. (with the enticing passage, "Who knows the exact location? Only
WW"), and an excerpt from an account of the opening of King Tut's tomb
in 1922.

          "I don't really have a good idea of what it might be," said
Gillogly, a 53-year-old cryptographer at Mentat Inc., a Los Angeles
software maker, who started designing cryptograms with his brother as a
child in an effort to stump their father.

          A computer hacker in the best sense of the word and a past
president of the American Cryptogram Association, Gillogly (pronounced
gill-OH-glee) began exploring the Kryptos message in 1992, but
he abandoned it until nine days ago, when he saw it briefly
alluded to in an Internet discussion group.

          This time he was armed with a better weapon than the pencil
and paper he had seven years ago: his home computer, a highly powered
Pentium II. And the key to solving the first three sections of the
message proved to be a program that Gillogly had written as part of his
cryptographic passion.

          The program, he said, is intended to help solve what he refers
to as classical cryptographic systems used by kings, armies and
spies before World War II.

          Even with more computational power, he had to apply
traditional cryptographic methods, using his logical powers of deduction.

          "There was a fair amount of skull sweat," he said. "You work
on it and you see something that is a little out of whack and you start
pulling on it to see what unravels."

          When he contacted the C.I.A's press office last week, Gillogly
learned that he was not the first codebreaker to succeed at unraveling
the first part of the mystery.

          In February, David Stein, who works for the agency as a
physicist and senior analyst, and not as a professional cryptographer, had
quietly uncovered the same three passages. Like Gillogly, he has been
stumped by the final section, although he believes that it will
eventually be solved.

          "The Kryptos puzzle is a layered puzzle," he said yesterday,
"and we may find that it has layers within layers within layers."

          Stein sounded a bit miffed when he learned that Gillogly had
used a computer in his pursuit of the hidden codes.

          "Kryptos was meant to be solved with pencil and paper," he
said.

          There were no written rules in this contest,
          Gillogly responded, adding: "As far as I'm
          concerned a crack is where you find it. The
          choice of tool isn't the important part, but rather
          the decisions about how to use the tools."

          For his part, Webster, the former Director, said yesterday
that he had long since forgotten the answer. "I have zero memory of this,"
he said. "It was philosophical and obscure."

          But he sided with Gillogly on using a computer. "Who set the
rules here?" he asked. "This is precisely what the agencies do when they
try to break codes."

          Sanborn, the artist, who has designed a number of sculptures
that are puzzles, has said he believes that the ultimate secret hidden
in the text of Kryptos will never be deciphered. It was designed by Edward
M. Scheidt, a former chairman of the C.I.A.'s Cryptographic
Center.

          That has not stopped either Gillogly or Stein from speculating
on what the full message may contain. And Gillogly has even
contemplated exploring the bag of tricks of some of the world's
acknowledged past spy masters in search of the complete solution.

          "There're still those last few lines waiting to be decrypted,"
he wrote last week in an Internet discussion group.

          "I'll review the 'Mission Impossible' movie for tips on
getting into the vault, if all else fails."

                     Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

____________________________________________________________________

From dlsmith@annap.infi.net Wed Jun 16 12:45:01 1999
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 13:10:35 -0400
From: Dave Smith <dlsmith@annap.infi.net>
Reply-To: ACA-L <ACA-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU>
To: ACA-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU
Subject: Re: Markoff New York Times Article 6 16 99

ARGUSEYE provided the main article in his post. There is also a secondary
article with the text of the solution. It is provided below:

-----
June 16, 1999

The Kryptos Code Unmasked

Here are the first three passages of the code on the Kryptos statue as
deciphered by Jim Gillogly, including misspellings (of "illusion," "underground"
and "desperately"). The second passage identifies a location near the C.I.A.
headquarters; the third is taken from Howard Carter's account of the opening of
King Tut's tomb in 1922.

---------------------------------------------------
Related Article
C.I.A.'s Artistic Enigma Yields All but Final Clue
(June 16, 1999)
---------------------------------------------------

1. Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.

2. It was totally invisible.

How's that possible? They used the earth's magnetic field. x The information was
gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location. x Does Langley know
about this? They should: it's buried out there somewhere. x Who knows the exact
location? Only WW. This was his last message. x Thirty-eight degrees fifty-seven
minutes six point five seconds north, seventy-seven degrees eight minutes
forty-four seconds west. ID by rows.

3. Slowly, desparatly slowly, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the
lower part of the doorway was removed.

With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left-hand corner. And
then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in. The hot
air escaping from the chamber caused the flame to flicker, but presently details
of the room within emerged from the mist. x Can you see anything?
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http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/Kryptos.bmp

(check in same directory for this)