Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site umd5.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!dual!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!cvl!umd5!don
From: don@umd5.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: U.S. State Department license plates?
Message-ID: <636@umd5.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Jul-85 02:22:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: umd5.636
Posted: Sat Jul  6 02:22:24 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 06:41:54 EDT
References: <6033@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Md, CSC, College Park, Md
Lines: 104

<>
> .
> .
> .
> 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