that Al-Qaeda is printing these super high-quality counterfeit notes. I know. It seems unlikely what with the caves and all. But a lack of technology has never stopped them before from pulling off the most astounding technological crimes. I mean, these guys are just amazing, and they never get caught. Someday the good guys will find the secret Al-Qaeda Bat Cave which will prove everything beyond a shadow of a doubt, but first we have to run through the usual list of suspects: North Korea, Iran, Russia…

The Bush administration and members of Congress two years ago loudly accused North Korean leaders of being behind the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, but a 10-month McClatchy Newspapers investigation raises questions about those charges.

As the currency changer told a reporter, “The ones from Europe are much better.”

Whatever the origin of the bills, “it’s by far the most sophisticated counterfeiting operation in the world,” said James Kolbe, a former congressman from Arizona who oversaw funding for the Secret Service. “We are not certain as to how this is being done or how it’s happening.”

Same paper, same watermarks, same microprint, same optically variable ink…

Industry experts such as Thomas Ferguson, former director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said the supernotes are so good that they appear to have been made by someone with access to some government’s printing equipment.

…Klaus Bender, the author of Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing, said the phony $100 bill is “not a fake anymore. It’s an illegal parallel print of a genuine note.” He claims that the supernotes are of such high quality and are updated so frequently that they could be produced only by a U.S. government agency such as the CIA.

As unsubstantiated as the allegation is, there is a precedent. An expert on the CIA, journalist Tim Weiner, has written how the agency tried to undermine the Soviet Union’s economy by counterfeiting its currency.

Making limited quantities of sophisticated counterfeit notes also could help intelligence and law enforcement agencies follow payments or illicit activities or track the movement of funds among unsavory regimes, terrorist groups and others.

“As a matter of course, we don’t comment on such claims, regardless of how ridiculous they might be,” said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield.

Yeah. Too funny. Who the hell would believe that?
via Cryptogon