Diplomatic bag

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diplomatic bag , also known as diplomatic pouch , is a container with certain legal protection used to carry official correspondence or other goods between diplomatic missions and the city government or other diplomatic, consular, or other authorized entities. The physical concept of "diplomatic bag" is flexible and can therefore take many forms (for example, cardboard boxes, suitcases, backpacks, large suitcases, crates or even shipping containers).

In addition, diplomatic bags usually have some key shapes and/or tamper-clear seals attached to it to prevent or detect interference by unauthorized third parties. The most important point is that as long as it is externally marked to indicate its status, the "bag" has diplomatic immunity from search or seizure, as codified in article 27 of the Vienna Convention of 1861 on Diplomatic Relations. It may only contain articles intended for official use. It is often escorted by diplomatic couriers, who are also immune to arrest and detention.

Video Diplomatic bag

Cryptography

In cryptographic discussions, diplomatic bags are conventionally used as examples of the main secure channels used to exchange keys, code books, and other secret material.

In contemporary practice, diplomatic bags are indeed used for this purpose. An illustration is a heavy protest made by German diplomats in Poland in the late 1920s when a zero engine was sent to the German Embassy in Warsaw - a commercial version of the famous Enigma machine - incorrectly unmarked as a protected and opened luggage, under protest , by Polish Customs. It was released to them, supposedly without many apologies (and with more protests), but may have been checked by Polish cryptography personnel.

Maps Diplomatic bag

Noteworthy delivery

• During World War II, Winston Churchill reportedly accepted the delivery of Cuban cigars in this way.
• Triplex is a British espionage operation in World War II involving secretly copying the contents of the neutral pockets of neutral countries.
In 1964, a Moroccan-born double agent named Mordechai Ben Masoud Louk (also known as Josef Dahan) was drugged, tied up and placed in a diplomatic mailbox at the Egyptian Embassy in Rome but rescued by the Italian authorities. The sealed box "is almost certainly used before for human cargo," including the possibility for an Egyptian military official who had defected to Italy several years earlier, but then disappeared without a trace before reappearing under Egyptian detention and facing trial.
• During the 1982 Falklands War, the Argentine government used diplomatic bags to smuggle several gold mines to their embassy in Spain for use in the secret operation of Algeciras, where Argentine agents had to blow up British warships at the Royal Naval Shipyard in Gibraltar. The plot was disclosed and stopped by Spanish police before the explosives could be set.
• In 1984 Dikko Affair, a former Nigerian government minister, Umaru Dikko, was kidnapped and placed in a shipping casket in an attempt to bring him from England to Nigeria for trial. However, it was not marked as a diplomatic bag, which allowed the British custom to open it.
• In 1984, a Sterling light machine gun was used to shoot dead WPC Yvonne Fletcher from inside the Libyan Embassy in London smuggled out of the UK in one of 21 diplomatic bags.
• In March 2000, Zimbabwe was the object of international political interest when he opened British diplomatic deliveries.
• In May 2008, a replacement pump for toilets at the International Space Station was dispatched in a diplomatic pocket from Russia to the United States to arrive before taking off from the next shuttle mission.
• In 2012, shipments of 16 kg of cocaine were sent to the United Nations in New York in a bag disguised as a diplomatic pouch.
• In January 2012, Italy detected 40 kilograms of cocaine smuggled in a diplomatic pouch from Ecuador, capturing five. Ecuador insisted on checking drug shipments at the foreign ministry before being sent to Milan.
• In November 2013, the British government alleged that British diplomatic bags had been opened by the Guardia Civil on the border of Gibraltar-Spain, sparking formal diplomatic protests. The Spanish government responded that the bag, transported from the Governor of Gibraltar by a courier company in a mailing bag containing other packages, did not meet the transit criteria between diplomatic missions and home governments.

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See also

• Military letter
• Diplomatic cable

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References

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External links

• eDiplomat.com: Diplomatic Glossary
• "Is there such a thing as a diplomatic pouch?". Straight Dope . December 20, 2005 . Retrieved September 23 2012 . Ã, articles with extensive detailed references.

Source of the article : Wikipedia