Very interesting. The chorus has the lyrics: "a message from my heart" and then "listen to this message" before going into the section with the morse code message.
I struggle to believe that if a hostage with military training can notice and decipher the hidden morse code, that a hostage taker with paramilitary training wouldn't also spot it. But then it's probably not too much of a problem if they did, except for maybe shutting of the radios.
The section of the song with the morse code almost sounds like there is interference. Maybe when played on the radio in the jungle it would be less obviously "odd" than when in a high def digital format.
There’s also the case of that one guy blinking “torture” in Morse code.
I think we may oftentimes underestimate the chasm of difference between proper training and the lack thereof. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought that into focus for me, and probably a lot of people, that you can dress the part, talk the part, and still be complete garbage.
It might be very easy to miss the signals when you’re focused on all the things that real warfighters have committed to muscle memory.
There's also the method of using slang/phrasing that's obvious to your own side but the captors might be oblivious to, as in the North Korean captive example:
"Bucher was psychologically tortured such as being put through a mock firing squad in an effort to make him confess. Eventually, the Koreans threatened to execute his men in front of him, and Bucher relented and agreed to 'confess to his and the crew's transgression.' Bucher wrote the confession since a 'confession' by definition needed to be written by the confessor himself. They verified the meaning of what he wrote, but failed to catch the pun when he said "We paean the North Korean state. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung" ("We paean" sounds almost identical to "we pee on").[4]"
That "paramilitary training" mostly included training which end of the gun the bullet flies out and that's about it I believe. I've seen quite a few documentaries with/about FARC and the way they hold guns did not instill a lot of confidence in their training.
I think you might find hostages much more motivated than their captors to spend time decoding a weird part of a song (out of nothing else to do or a desire to not think about their situation, rather than an expectation of a message meant for them).
Listening to it it's a bit easier to hear when the volume level of the sound is turned down to the point its a bit too quiet, I'm not actaully sure its intentional-- but if it is thats sort of a masterstroke.
Given the inherent difficulties in providing specialized training to a thinly-spread and relatively disorganized guerrilla group, I'm guessing that they wouldn't have had the organizational capacity to conduct Morse code lessons.
It's not easy for me to figure out. I'd guess it's at around 25 wpm. (Anybody know?) At that speed with an absolutely clear signal and when I'm totally relaxed I can copy maybe 50% of what I hear. I can barely get a letter or two from that song - there's a lot going on on top of the Morse code.
When code was required for US ham radio licenses, it took passing a 20 wpm test to get the top license (Amateur Extra). Commercial Radiotelegraph Licenses used to require 20 wpm for a second class license and 25 wpm for a first class license.
Unless someone was in the equivalent of the Signal Corps, I'd be surprised if they could copy the message.
I assume this got played more than one time. The message is included three times per play of the song. And the hint of a message was surely enough to motivate hostages who noticed it to focus on decoding it over time.
It wasn't necessary for everyone to be able to decode it themselves:
> one rescued hostage spoke of hearing the Morse code message in his psychological evaluation and had passed on its meaning to his fellow captives.
Brief review it seems to be about 20 wpm. It is tricky, as it seems to go from channel to channel.
Among hams, this was not all that strenuous to decode, particularly if the song is repeated.
Many hams, particularly in Europe, work contests at speeds at or over 40 wpm.
I'm one of the ones that got the Extra class license at 20 wpm. My peak speed was about 40 wpm. One of the teachers not far from where I grew up, W7QYA, Flo, was usually found at 60 wpm.
There is a weekly operating activity called CWT from CWops where the speeds are often on the order of 40 wpm.
It sounds like their basic training covered Morse Code. I know that pilots used to be required to know the code.
Some time ago, the requirement for Merchant Marine operators to know code was dropped. Nowadays, it is pretty much ham radio operators that have facility in morse code operation.
I always thought of this as a gimmick from the government. Why would they risk an operation just to send hopes to the hostages. I always felt this was more to get good will from people than for the hostages themselves.
And as always, only part of the story is told. Who were the guerrilla? who where the hostages? not defending them, but in the countryside is common that the guerilla defends the farmers, and the hostages are corrupt politicans.
I would suggest you look up a bit on the history of the conflict, which is long and very bloody. Most of the time its regular citizens and army personnel that are kidnapped (it's a business in human trafficking) - i knew some of them and the experiences are horrific.
Have you spent any considerable amount of time living in Colombia to feel confident enough to make these type of claims: "not defending them, but in the countryside is common that the guerilla defends the farmers, and the hostages are corrupt politicans."
A close family member of mine was kidnapped in the early 90's and I can assure you that he was neither a politician or a corrupt one at that. First thing he did after paying his ransom was to send his children abroad where they remain to this very day.
Aren't you aware that Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people in the world at 8 million! Guerrillas aren't solely responsible for this, but the paramilitary groups which are equally responsible emerged as a desperate response to counter their growing power and influence throughout large regions in the country.
Aren't you aware that guerrilla groups such as FARC recruited over 18,000 minors in the countryside against their will. Poor peasant children some as young as 12 forced to take up arms and fight for a cause which long ago lost any credibility among the general public.
Would you mind pointing me to the media that you consume which has allowed you to have such an enlightened perspective which seems to elude those of us living in Colombia?
I don’t know if you’re Colombian, but this sounds like Marxist wishful thinking. When I was there with my Colombian ex, everywhere we drove around the countryside had military or police checkpoints, and at every one of them the people clapped, tooted the horn and yelled thank you out the window at the guys with guns outside. We went to visit one of her uncles who is an actual farmer growing soursops, and he told us stories of how the guerrillas came to extort people years before, and if you didn’t pay to support their “revolution” they would spray oil all over your farmland, ruining it.
Colombia's had some of the most creative spec ops tactics anywhere. They rescued 15 hostages by posing as NGOS with no bullets shot [1]. Many other examples exist.
They were high profile, high value hostages too, including a presidential candidate. In 2003, a failed operation to liberate a kidnapped governor led to the governor being executed, further raising the stakes.
Yup. Kinda like how the US used a doctor to stake out Bin Laden's compound under the guise of a vaccination campaign. It triggered massive public distrust in NGOs and was a massive setback for the Polio eradication efforts in Pakistan.
It's worse than that; was a massive setback for the *world-wide* eradication of Polio which appeared to be close to accomplished, since Pakistan and Afghanistan were (and remain) the last countries with endemic Polio. It also feeds into general vaccine skepticism that will complicate getting other diseases under control.
Still, I guess not ridding the world of polio was a small price to pay for Obama's re-election (https://www.wired.com/2012/08/bin-laden-book/) at least when compared to what it took to get Bush re-elected.
Dream Theater hid a (decidedly less wholesome) message in Morse code in one of their songs, and it took fans a while to find it even after the band revealed that something was hidden in the song (third bullet point from the bottom here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_of_Thought_(Dream_Theate...). I imagine that hiding these sorts of messages in songs would be fairly easy, but making them possible to decipher for a passive listener without being too obvious seems a lot tougher.
I wonder if they took any inspiration from Martin Galway's not-so-secret morse code hidden message in the C64 Rambo intro song, which is a game about rescuing prisoners of war, that was released in 1985.
Amazing. Also it just sounds really... cool. Almost a little unsettlingly like a real-world version of some strange encoding in a Boards of Canada track or something. Wild.
> The code was inserted in three different places within the song and the team decided to transmit one simple message: "19 people rescued. You're next. Don't lose hope." After eight months, the song was ready for its first broadcast
Was there also rescuing going on during the development of the song?
Was my first thought. Second thought for anybody that found this interesting: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/ explores the idea that the CIA was responsible for the writing of the Scorpions hit Wind of Change.
49 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 107 ms ] threadThe section of the song with the morse code almost sounds like there is interference. Maybe when played on the radio in the jungle it would be less obviously "odd" than when in a high def digital format.
I think we may oftentimes underestimate the chasm of difference between proper training and the lack thereof. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought that into focus for me, and probably a lot of people, that you can dress the part, talk the part, and still be complete garbage.
It might be very easy to miss the signals when you’re focused on all the things that real warfighters have committed to muscle memory.
"Bucher was psychologically tortured such as being put through a mock firing squad in an effort to make him confess. Eventually, the Koreans threatened to execute his men in front of him, and Bucher relented and agreed to 'confess to his and the crew's transgression.' Bucher wrote the confession since a 'confession' by definition needed to be written by the confessor himself. They verified the meaning of what he wrote, but failed to catch the pun when he said "We paean the North Korean state. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung" ("We paean" sounds almost identical to "we pee on").[4]"
Your third-world paramilitary is lucky to know how to use their iron sights in those days.
“19 people rescued. You're next. Don't lose hope.”
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Days_(Natalia_Gutierrez...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fVUWjoTxOU8
When code was required for US ham radio licenses, it took passing a 20 wpm test to get the top license (Amateur Extra). Commercial Radiotelegraph Licenses used to require 20 wpm for a second class license and 25 wpm for a first class license.
Unless someone was in the equivalent of the Signal Corps, I'd be surprised if they could copy the message.
It wasn't necessary for everyone to be able to decode it themselves:
> one rescued hostage spoke of hearing the Morse code message in his psychological evaluation and had passed on its meaning to his fellow captives.
Among hams, this was not all that strenuous to decode, particularly if the song is repeated.
Many hams, particularly in Europe, work contests at speeds at or over 40 wpm.
I'm one of the ones that got the Extra class license at 20 wpm. My peak speed was about 40 wpm. One of the teachers not far from where I grew up, W7QYA, Flo, was usually found at 60 wpm.
There is a weekly operating activity called CWT from CWops where the speeds are often on the order of 40 wpm.
It sounds like their basic training covered Morse Code. I know that pilots used to be required to know the code.
Some time ago, the requirement for Merchant Marine operators to know code was dropped. Nowadays, it is pretty much ham radio operators that have facility in morse code operation.
The message was embedded as morse code into the chorus.
And then the Morse code is in the instrumental break right after that.
And as always, only part of the story is told. Who were the guerrilla? who where the hostages? not defending them, but in the countryside is common that the guerilla defends the farmers, and the hostages are corrupt politicans.
I’m not Colombian, so I can’t be certain, but my impression is that 99% of them hate the FARC.
There's no angels in this conflict and support is definitely divided.
A close family member of mine was kidnapped in the early 90's and I can assure you that he was neither a politician or a corrupt one at that. First thing he did after paying his ransom was to send his children abroad where they remain to this very day.
Aren't you aware that Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people in the world at 8 million! Guerrillas aren't solely responsible for this, but the paramilitary groups which are equally responsible emerged as a desperate response to counter their growing power and influence throughout large regions in the country.
Aren't you aware that guerrilla groups such as FARC recruited over 18,000 minors in the countryside against their will. Poor peasant children some as young as 12 forced to take up arms and fight for a cause which long ago lost any credibility among the general public.
Would you mind pointing me to the media that you consume which has allowed you to have such an enlightened perspective which seems to elude those of us living in Colombia?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Jaque)
Still, I guess not ridding the world of polio was a small price to pay for Obama's re-election (https://www.wired.com/2012/08/bin-laden-book/) at least when compared to what it took to get Bush re-elected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfXpQUVc8dc&ab_channel=Zeusd...
https://tcrf.net/Rambo:_First_Blood_Part_II_(Commodore_64)
Was there also rescuing going on during the development of the song?
Was my first thought. Second thought for anybody that found this interesting: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/ explores the idea that the CIA was responsible for the writing of the Scorpions hit Wind of Change.