STEG: a real-life use for steganography

[dm at hri.com]

I think the proposed scheme is a little top-heavy.  What's wrong with
clear text?

When the Shah still governed Iran, the followers of Khomeini would
smuggle his speeches into the country (in clear-text) on cassette tapes
of Western popular music.  I guess you could call this steganography
--- so many ``legitimate'' copies of the tapes were pouring into the
country, that the ``subversive'' ones were hard to find among them.  

I think the tapes actually held a few minutes' worth of the original
music, to discourage those zealous customs agents who would actually
listen to part of the tape to make sure it is authentic.

Similar things existed in the Soviet Union, where they were known as
``Magnetizdat''.

And, well, if the police have already gone to the length of
confiscating your tapes and listening to them all to find the ones
which contain Khomeini's speeches, they've also probably already got
you on the train for the Gulag, no matter what they find.