wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (06/17/85)
In the past few months, I have started to see numerous cars here in
Los Angeles with U.S. State Department license plates. (The State
Department, for the benefit of anyone outside the USA who doesn't know,
is the government agency which handles our relationships with other
countries -- our "foreign ministry", if you will.)
These plates have a blue stripe on top, a white area in the middle,
and a red stripe on the bottom. The blue area extends down to form a
background for the first letter of the (three-letter-and-three-digit)
license number itself; the other two letters and three digits are on a
white background.
In VERY small lettering at the bottom of the plate (so small that I had
to wait until I was stopped behind a car with these plates before I
could read it) were -- if I remember correctly -- the following words:
Issued By
U. S. Department of State
I don't recall having seen any annual registration-fee stickers on these
plates -- leading me to suspect that they may indicate "official" cars
of some kind. However, cars with these plates don't seem to have any
kind of decals or insignias on them identifying them as being "U.S. Gov-
ernment Property -- For Official Use Only" or anything like that.
My questions:
(1) Why do these plates exist?
(2) Do they mean that the car in question is owned by the U.S. Govern-
ment -- or that the owner is a diplomatic official (one of ours, or
even from somewhere else) -- or do they mean something else entirely
different?
(3) Are they used on U.S. cars (official or otherwise) in foreign coun-
tries? (It is for the sake of this particular question that I chose
not to restrict the distribution of this article to the USA.)
(4) Does anyone else know anything else about them?
Please mail any info to me, and I will summarize to the net if I find
out anything.
--
Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
ARPA: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA -or- wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
UUCP: ...!(ihnp4,ucbvax)!ucla-cs!walesdon@umd5.UUCP (07/06/85)
<> > . > . > . > These plates have a blue stripe on top, a white area in the middle, > and a red stripe on the bottom. The blue area extends down to form a > background for the first letter of the (three-letter-and-three-digit) > license number itself; the other two letters and three digits are on a > white background. > . > . > . > My questions: > (1) Why do these plates exist? > > (2) Do they mean that the car in question is owned by the U.S. Govern- > ment -- or that the owner is a diplomatic official (one of ours, or > even from somewhere else) -- or do they mean something else entirely > different? > > (3) Are they used on U.S. cars (official or otherwise) in foreign coun- > tries? > > (4) Does anyone else know anything else about them? > > -- Rich Wales For those of you who read The Washington Post, see today's (July 5) article on the front page -- for those of you who do not read the Post, I will excerpt from the article to answer the above questions. [ the article was written by Charles R. Babcock, Wash. Post Staff Writer ] " ... " -- from article [ ... ] -- added for clarity "The new diplomatic tag system cuts the old number of 18,000 plates back to 14,000 by limiting the plates to foreigners [working at foreign missions] paid by the sending country and members of their family." "The new system also replaces and centralizes what was a hodgepodge of more than 18,000 diplomatic plates [old style DPL tags] from 28 jurisdictions around the country." " ... they are also coded to help the FBI's counterintelligence agents keep track of possible spies." "Two letters on the side of the new plates identify the foreign mission to which the plate has been issued, and counterintelligence agents have been furnished with a wallet sized card that identifies the codes of 18 countries." "The new plates are the first to have country code designators, and officials cite several reasons why the change was made. The old DPL plates used in the Wash. D.C. area weren't that easy to spot, and officials note that it simply isn't possible for all our agents to follow all of those suspected of being their [foreign] agents." "Straightforward license tag designators such as (SU) for the Soviet Union and (UK) for Great Britain aren't used because of concerns about vandalism." "The Soviets have used a similar system for years." " ... the codes are used because if the country designators are widely known `we'll start getting kids trying to play Sam Spade and follow them around.'" For those who suddenly get the Spade urge, here are 18 designators on the so-called "criteria" list, and 3 others. The format is "Daa nnn" where "aa" is the country designator and "nnn" is the plate number, of course. OTHERS: ------- DJ France TG Canada WZ Great Britain CRITERIA: --------- GP Albania QM Bulgaria DC Cuba PH Czechoslovakia TJ East Germany KH Hungary DM Iran TS Iraq FM Libya QU Nicaragua GQ North Korea QW Poland CY People's Rep. of China ND Romania FY South Africa AQ Syria SX U.S.S.R. LD Vietnam ---------- I don't advocate anything, I'm just a public service. ---------- -- --==---==---==-- ___________ _____ ---- _____ \ //---- IDIC ----- _\______//_ ---- ---------- ARPA: don@umd5.ARPA BITNET: don%umd5@umd2 SPOKEN: Chris Sylvain UUCP: {seismo,rlgvax,allegra,brl-bmd,nrl-css}!umcp-cs!cvl!umd5!don
wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (07/08/85)
A few weeks ago, I asked for information about the red, white, and blue "U.S. State Department" license plates I have recently started to notice here in the Los Angeles area. Several people replied to my article and informed me that these plates are being issued to foreign diplomatic personnel in the United States. They are apparently intended to replace special plates formerly issued by individual states within the U.S. The first letter of these plates is white on a blue background (the other two letters and three digits are black on a white background). Further examination reveals that the first letter is pre-printed on the plate -- not embossed as is the case with the rest of the plate number. Apparently, the first letter on one of these plates has some special meaning. For example, I have seen several plates with "C" as the first letter -- and in the blue field at the top of the plate is the word "CONSUL". I have also seen plates beginning with "S", but these don't have anything written at the top. -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA ARPA: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA -or- wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU UUCP: ...!(ihnp4,ucbvax)!ucla-cs!wales