In observance of Thursday’s 2,056th anniversary of the assassination of Caesar by the diabolical Marcus Brutus, we present our list of The World’s Top Nine Most Diabolical Looking Politicians (nine instead of ten because nine is the opposite of six … as in 666!).In no particular order, they are (scroll through the gallery for photos of each of their diabolical visages): 

1. Winfried Kretschmann - Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg - Germany | Shouting and waving a clenched fist in the air is a little gauche for a German politician. 

2. Elio di Rupo - Prime Minister - Belgium | Di Rupo has his hands full running the Belgian government but still finds time to reanimate corpses in the basement of his castle. 

3. Nicholas Sarkozy - President - France | “Croyez moi!” 

4. Frank Lautenberg - Senator - United States | The social event of 1988 was Sentor Lautenberg’s 175th birthday party. 

5. Janet Napolitano - Secretary of Homeland Security - United States | Don’t let the mom jeans fool you. 

6. Geert Wilders - Member of Parliament - Netherlands | What came first, Geert Wilders or Max Zorin?

7. Eric Pickles - Secretary of State for Communities - United Kingdom | What came first, Eric Pickles or Auric Goldfinger? 

8. Louise Hand - High Commissioner to Canada - Australia | The Australian High Commission in Ottawa is reportedly overrun by Hand’s 32 cats.

9. Javier Lozano Alarcón - Secretary of Labor - Mexico | His slicked-back hair and pin striped suits make Minister Alarcón look like a character out of “The Godfather”, instead of a character out of the romantic comedy “Mexico.” 

The U.S.’ First Trans-Atlantic, Encrypted Cable The U.S. National Security Agency last month released a 1991 historical summary detailing the U.S. State Department’s first use of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable to send an encrypted message, which was transmitted on November 24, 1866, from Washington to Paris at a cost of nearly $20,000. The astronomical expense of the cable - the State Department’s telegraph bills up to that point had averaged less than $100 per month - was due in part to the telegram’s incredible length of more than 3,500 words. That length, in turn, was necessitated by the cumbersome, “unbreakable” code the U.S. government had used for the preceding 63 years and prompted the introduction of a new, short code. The short code proved too difficult for recipients to decipher and was, in turn, abandoned in 1876. The State Department’s original, $20,000 telegram was a demand to Emperor Napoleon III for the timely evacuation of French troops from Mexico.
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The U.S.’ First Trans-Atlantic, Encrypted Cable

The U.S. National Security Agency last month released a 1991 historical summary detailing the U.S. State Department’s first use of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable to send an encrypted message, which was transmitted on November 24, 1866, from Washington to Paris at a cost of nearly $20,000. The astronomical expense of the cable - the State Department’s telegraph bills up to that point had averaged less than $100 per month - was due in part to the telegram’s incredible length of more than 3,500 words. That length, in turn, was necessitated by the cumbersome, “unbreakable” code the U.S. government had used for the preceding 63 years and prompted the introduction of a new, short code. The short code proved too difficult for recipients to decipher and was, in turn, abandoned in 1876.

The State Department’s original, $20,000 telegram was a demand to Emperor Napoleon III for the timely evacuation of French troops from Mexico.