I vaguely remember a scandal from back in 2006 where the Russians claimed that the British were using a rock to spy on them. I don't think I even read the article, it just seemed far fetched and at the time I wasn't even interested. Today however there was an article in the paper about a spy rock, I don't know what has changed in me (probably I am now looking for material for my blog without knowing it) but this article intrigued me! The Russians claimed back in 2006 that the British government had been using a fake rock hidden outside on a Russian street (presumably near an suspected intelligence building) to download and store sensitive information until such time as a British agent could retrieve the data. The Russians had video tape of alleged British agents walking past the rock and kicking it, presumably because it wasn't working correctly and even of a British diplomat picking the rock up and removing it.
Back in 2006 the British government laughed this incident off as a joke, but apparently nobody was really fooled and what I learnt today was that in a recent interview Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff in 2006, has admitted that the rock was in fact their "spy rock". Powell said, "There's not much you can say. The spy rock was embarrassing. They had us bang to rights. Clearly, they had known about it for some time and had been saving it up for a political purpose." Upon reading this I thought it was hilarious but also fantastic, it is all very James Bond or Mission Impossible. I had always loved the gadgets in these movies and TV shows, especially those in Get Smart like the 'cone of silence'. The 'spy rock' has restored my faith that one day soon we will all have shoe phones!
The article was on The Age website.
Some facts learnt are more fun than others!
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