SS Obergruppenfuhrer Zimmermann (NOT!)

[hallam at w3.org]

>Maybe this is common knowledge, but the name "Zimmermann" and crypto had 
>another relationship, in World War I.  If anybody knows more about this 
>incident than my vague recollection of the famous "Zimmermann cipher" would 
>you care to tell the story?

I think you mean Zimmerman Telegram. This was sent by the Germans to the 
Mexicans through the US Embassy in London and offered Mexico the retur of Texas 
in return for entering the war on the German side.

The Brits were tapping the US cables as a matter of course and intercepted and 
decrypted the telegram. They could not show it to the US types saying it came 
from tapping their embassy so they broke into the German embassy in Mexico and 
pilfered another copy of the cipher in another code.

When the Americans were shown how easy it was to decrypt the German telegram 
they said "gosh how clever these guys are - no wonder they have an empire". MI5 
then managed to get their contact person at the British Embassy in Washington to 
effectively suplant the official British Ambassador, setting up a US 
Intelligence service for the Americans, in the process practically becomming a 
mamber of the US cabinet. [As a footnote Ian Flemming enjoied a similar position 
but with considerably less influence during WWII].

Now you see why uncle Sam is so nervous about Simon and Myself...

There is a good book about all this "For the President's Eyes Only". 

	Phill