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REF ID:A4lr~,~ 

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311.55 (Misc.Div.) 1st 'rna.. 

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\1ar Depar1ment, .A.G.O., ].iay 10,1919- TO the Director, Military 

Intell~gence Division. 'f":- · 

1-Inclre 

( fl!nops is made ) 

OF"r1c.: CHlf;F OF STAFF 

REC'D MAY 13 1919 

REC-9, M. J. 8., 0. G. I• MAY 13 1919 

roved for Release b NSA on 11-19-2014 ursuantto E .0. 1352 

. :· ~ .. 
From: 

To: 

·"\ 

Subject: 

1. 

2. 

3. 

C· REF ID:A4148~5 

'-' 

311.55 (Misc.Div.) 

CHA/AMSi). 

' ' I - ' ~ ~ • • 

'George FabYa.n ,R'i =@:~rba~\c .~.e~eva , . 111 inois. 

The Adjutant General of the Army, Washington, D.C. 

(.' 

·- ' ~ 

The report by Captain J. A. Powell to the M.I.D. on t~e 

ability or Riverbank to decipher messages of the A.T·:& T. -.. . Machine ... C:i:pher-:-Sys.tem.~~· ---

" \. Correcting par.agraph 5 of our letter of May 5th. 

'. 

\Ve are reli~bly inf.ormed that Captain Powell's report was 

sent under personal cover and addressed to Captain J. A. 

'Manly or the M.I.8. 

If the M.I.8 will attack this Cipher, we believe 

that they will have little difficulty in arriving at the 

conclusion that it is not invulnerable, that it can be 

deciphered and that it will be extremely difficult to 

change the system or rather the ma.chine to make it iniulnerable. 

When we expressed an opinion that the Wheatstone 

Cipher was weak and dangerous to use,~he Cipher experts 

were skeptical and said it was absurd. We are informed 

that the system was discarded.by the Associated Governments. 

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311.55 (Miao.Div.} 

CHA/AMSi). 

May 5,, 1919. 

From: George Fabyan, Riverbank, Geneva, Illinois. 

To: The ,A~jutant General of. the Army, Washington, D. c • .... __ -

.. [~~b.je_~'.1!-!~ __ !jl.rl!~b~~t~~:par.-t_~ent."':f.or.:-tbe goo.d-~of--t:heo:.,,,se.z;v,,:t:-ee::-:..:."' '...'-__ ,_:-. ---~-=---- : -· · that the ·'.~_,.:Js.j~-P.l~C}l~ne __ cip]!.er is not invulner- ~· able, and does no,t give the1i"ecurity-"'ola:im_ed for it by . 

. ·. •- .,, ,.- _ :... . _. -~·~e P.~.P~~~merit experits •. J. . -' .. · . ' ' f .J ' L • •o I ,' 

l. Ri~ank has no desire to have any controversy with th~ Department aa to -~he merits of ~y cipher employed by them, 

beyond expressing an opinion which we believe to be for the good of 

the service. 

- . a. We venture the opinion that Riverbank has had.the time 

to devote to attacking this system which probably has been lacking 

on the part of the Government experts. 

_ .. _-, 3. Since we called the attention of the office of the 

Secretary of War to the danger of the use of t~e so-called indec iph~rable ·machine ciphers, under date of_ March.23rd, 1919,.we 

have had ~he pleasure of a visit from.Capt. J. A. Powell, of, the 

M. I .• D., who was in' Ch~cago on special duty. •. ' I I 

4. Capt. Powell is conversant with the A. T .• & T. machine 

cipher system an4 we asked him to furnish ~s-with four ~essages, 

using that system. Capt. Powell did so, under the impression that 

they could not be deciphered. They were deciphered within two hours, 

a.nd the clear text given to Capt. Powell over the long distance phone. 

5. Capt. Po~ell said he considered it hie duty to notify the 

M. I. D. ,. and to ~he beet of our. knowledge he did so~ 

6.· We respectfully submit t~at 1~ would be far more 

satisfactory for the Department to secure the opinion of one of 

their own officers in the service than from a source which seems to 

be questioned. · ... ·. _.·, .· 

7. We believe it to be our duty to agai~ state the fact th~t 

this _system is deciphera~le under ordinarY. condit~ons. ~- ~ I. 'tO 11 ..... 1 ... A i'i 0. MAY g 1911 ! ~~·....,,..~.