Re: Breaks it angle
"The other possibility is that GCHQ could already decrypt Crypto AG all by themselves, but wouldn't have revealed that to a TIVC technician and quite possibly would have continued to request intel from the CIA to conceal the ability from them too."
Definitely this. If you are a state actor, and Crypto AG is an easily broken system, then there's a decent chance you have already broken it. Furthermore, you would tell more or less nobody about this. If you don't know that Crypto AG is German/US, would you tell the Germans that you broke it? And if you did know it was German/US, would you tell them? The answer's no in both cases.
It's like sitting there nodding and smiling when two friends are conversing in their own language. You definitely don't let on that you know their language if you want to know what they really think.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
