Invisible Ink - Modern Relevance of Invisible Ink Messages

Modern Relevance of Invisible Ink Messages

As an indication of security, most inks mentioned above were already known by the end of World War I. However, in 1999, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency successfully requested that a 1940s technical report on invisible ink remained exempt from mandatory declassification, based on the claim that invisible ink was still relevant to national security. The report thus remained classified until 2011.

Former MI-6 agent Richard Tomlinson alleges that Pentel Rolling Writer rollerball pens were extensively used by MI-6 agents to produce secret writing (invisible messages) while on missions.

In 2002, a gang was indicted for spreading a riot between federal penitentaries using coded telephone messages, and messages in invisible ink.

In 2008, a British Muslim, Rangzieb Ahmed, was alleged to have a contact book with Al-Qaeda telephone numbers, written in invisible ink.

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