"Attention, attention, attention. 6, 4, 0, 9, 3, 9"... Number station activated amid Iran airstrikes

The Financial News –

FT reported on the 10th that, on the 28th of last month (local time), when the United States and the State of Israel carried out airstrikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a shortwave radio base station known as a "number station"—used by intelligence agencies to send instructions to spies—was activated.
According to the report, a long-range shortwave radio broadcast that reads out only numbers has resumed from somewhere in Western Europe under the direction of U.S. intelligence agencies. A man repeatedly speaks in Persian, leading analysts to conclude that the broadcast is transmitting orders into Iran.
Former U.S. intelligence officers said the broadcast is likely an emergency measure launched by U.S. intelligence to maintain contact with its assets and informants inside Iran.
If Iran’s internet network is cut off, shortwave radio becomes the most reliable alternative.
John Sipher, who once headed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station in Moscow, explained that this shortwave broadcast is probably a backup communication channel for sources inside Iran, describing them as "people who must never be cut off."
The number station that appears to have been reactivated is a shortwave service used by intelligence agencies to send encrypted orders to spies equipped with radios and notebooks. The agents decode the numbers they hear on the broadcast into messages.
Shortwave monitoring enthusiasts refer to this station as the V32 numbers station, and this is the first time in 25 years that it has carried a Persian-language broadcast. The last known activation was a brief period during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
The Persian-language broadcast, which began late last month, airs twice a day at 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Iran time, each time for about an hour and a half.
Former U.S. counterintelligence officer Chris Simons said the number station is the last-resort option for operatives in the field, adding that even a single agent, if well placed in a key position, can wield enormous destructive power using this shortwave broadcast.
There is also a theory that V32 is being used not by U.S. spies, but as a communication tool among Iranian dissidents.
Robert Gorelick, a former CIA station chief, suggested that armed Iranian dissidents may be using the shortwave broadcast to communicate with their internal networks. However, even in that scenario, he noted, the consent of Western intelligence agencies would be unavoidable.
Another possibility raised is that the broadcasts are part of a psychological warfare campaign.
The broadcasts could be designed to provoke paranoia within Iran’s counterintelligence units. Gorelick said that when such shortwave transmissions go out, Iran’s intelligence authorities come under significant psychological pressure, and the broadcasts may be intended to sow confusion inside the country.

dympna@fnnews.com Song Kyung-jae Reporter