DC -- International Spy Museum (New Location) -- 1. Stealing Secrets:
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SPY1S1_190507_008.JPG: Are You Prepared to Enter the Shadow World?
SPY1S1_190507_010.JPG: Your secret codeword is
Radius
Remember it. You need this to unlock your experiences at these stations.
SPY1S1_190507_022.JPG: Born to be Wild
This mini-motorcycle was a WWII quick escape vehicle. Special Operations Executive (SOE) officers parachuted behind enemy lines with the bike in an airdrop container. When they hit the ground and unfolded the bike, they were on the road within 11 seconds.
SPY1S1_190507_038.JPG: Risk
Morten Storm
SPY1S1_190507_048.JPG: Dressed to Seduce
This ornate bodice may have belonged to Mata Hari. She wore similarly provocative costumes on stage -- modeled on those she'd seen in the Dutch East Indies -- with a confident sexuality that defied traditional feminine modesty.
Mata Hari countered charges of indecency by describing her dance as an artistic "sacred poem (and herself "the temple"), exploiting European fascination with cliches of the exotic East.
SPY1S1_190507_062.JPG: Doing the Bidding of the
Highest Bidder
SPY1S1_190507_065.JPG: Seduction
Mata Hari
SPY1S1_190507_068.JPG: The Curtain Comes Down
SPY1S1_190507_077.JPG: Was James a Double Agent?
SPY1S1_190507_083.JPG: Foraging for Facts
SPY1S1_190507_086.JPG: Freedom?
SPY1S1_190507_089.JPG: What the Servant Learned
SPY1S1_190507_095.JPG: Locked Away
SPY1S1_190507_096.JPG: Surviving in Siberia
SPY1S1_190507_098.JPG: His Final Mission
SPY1S1_190507_101.JPG: Illegals
SPY1S1_190507_107.JPG: A Russian Intelligence Family Tree
SPY1S1_190507_113.JPG: Hidden from Prying Eyes
SPY1S1_190507_116.JPG: Strategies for Survival
SPY1S1_190507_119.JPG: His Final Mission
SPY1S1_190507_121.JPG: Dress for Success
SPY1S1_190507_123.JPG: Becoming Someone Else
SPY1S1_190507_127.JPG: Man of Many Faces
SPY1S1_190507_134.JPG: Targeting a Friend
SPY1S1_190507_137.JPG: Volunteers
SPY1S1_190507_140.JPG: Covert Communication
SPY1S1_190507_149.JPG: The "Shapeless Radio"
SPY1S1_190507_152.JPG: Li Bai Foils His Foes
SPY1S1_190507_158.JPG: East German intelligence officers used this kit to reveal invisible ink messages. Agents communicated with special ink visible only under ultraviolet light of a specific wavelength.
SPY1S1_190507_169.JPG: Now You See It... Now You Don't
SPY1S1_190507_178.JPG: This portable radio station, concealed in a suitcase, was the first used by the US intelligence agency in WWII, the OSS.
SPY1S1_190507_188.JPG: Messaging Without Meeting
SPY1S1_190507_198.JPG: Surveillance & Countersurveillance: Listening In
SPY1S1_190507_203.JPG: Vlad's "Bug Detector"
SPY1S1_190507_204.JPG: A Bug Among the Trees?
US intelligence designed this device to look like a tree stump and then planted it in a wooded area near Moscow. Why? A bug inside eavesdropped on radar and communications from a nearby Soviet airbase.
The solar-powered stump stored the data, relaying it to the CIA only when a satellite passed overhead or an embassy car was nearby. A US traitor eventually revealed the stump's location to the KGB.
SPY1S1_190507_209.JPG: The Gift That Kept on Giving
In 1945, a group of Soviet children visited the US Embassy in Moscow and gave the Ambassador a hand-carved Great Seal of the US. It stayed in his office until 1952... when technicians discovered a remarkable listening device inside.
SPY1S1_190507_214.JPG: The Mysterious "Thing"
US technicians dubbed the Great Seal's listening device "The Thing." With no battery or circuits, how did it transmit? After two months, British Tech Ops finally figured it out.
The Thing as a "passive cavity resonator," activated by a radio beam from a van outside. When people spoke, sound waves entered through tiny holes under the eagle's beak. These vibrated a membrane that modulated the radio beam, bouncing it back as an audio signal to the people listening in the van.
SPY1S1_190507_217.JPG: These devices both allow for remote eavesdropping. The "Motel" kit allows the user to secretly listen to conversations in an adjacent room when the microphone is taped to the wall. The MEZON can be concealed under a jacket or converted to record telephone conversations.
These systems tracked vehicles coming and going from the Soviet Embassy in DC. The beacon, codenamed SPIDERWEB, was hidden inside a glove compartment, and transponders throughout the city picked up the signal. The bumper beeper attached to the car magnetically.
SPY1S1_190507_221.JPG: When an American diplomat in an East European country sent his shoes out for repair, the local counterintelligence service secretly outfitted them with a hidden microphone and transmitter.
SPY1S1_190507_223.JPG: Bugged!
Covert listening devices -- bugs -- use a hidden microphone and transmitter to collect sounds and send them to a secret listening post nearby.
Bugs can lurk anywhere: in a phone, picture frame, or even a belt buckle. If agents have access during construction, bugs can even be built into a building itself. Digital technology lets Tech Ops design ever tinier bugs, with hidden wiring as thin as a human hair.
SPY1S1_190507_228.JPG: This highly directional "rifle" microphone was designed to filter out background noises and monitor conversations -- ideal for audio surveillance outdoors.
SPY1S1_190507_231.JPG: The name says it all: Falling Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Back-Doors. It's used to hack into a target's WiFi system. To place the F-BOMB, surreptitiously throw it into a target's property or hide it in their house.
SPY1S1_190507_235.JPG: Leaving a Telltale Trail
In the 1980s, the KGB devised a way to track the movements of US officials with an ingenious chemical compound (nitrophenyl pentadienal) that only showed up under a special light.
Called "spy dust," it was sprinkled on doorknobs, steering wheels, and doormats. Targets unknowingly picked up the powder which left a trail that the KGB could track.
SPY1S1_190507_244.JPG: To listen in, attach a tiny microphone inside this wristwatch to a recording device hidden in the operative's clothing.
SPY1S1_190507_246.JPG: Sleeper Spy
This is a replica of a bug the CIA planted inside the walls of the Soviet Embassy in DC as it was being built in the 1980s.
Dormant during construction, the bug was then remotely activated to drill a one mm hole from inside the wall and insert a microphone. An FBI listening post picked up the broadcast. The KGB eventually located the bug using its Non-Linear Junction Detector, tipped off by a US traitor.
SPY1S1_190507_250.JPG: Codenamed "Sacred Ibis" by the FBI, this "bug" was discovered in 1999 in a US State Department conference room. The FBI detailed Russian technical officer Stanislav Gusev, who was monitoring the bug. Gusev later built this model for training purposes.
SPY1S1_190507_252.JPG: A Parachute in the Pipes
When the Soviets built a new embassy in DC, US Tech Ops embedded bugs in the walls and this device in a drain pipe. Then they waited for a storm.
The rain masked the noise of a tiny blast triggered in the device, releasing a parachute connected by wires to the hidden bugs. It washed out through the pipe, where an agent linked the wires to a listening post. Success... until FBI traitor Robert Hanssen told the KGB.
SPY1S1_190507_261.JPG: The KGB built this model of the US Embassy in Moscow to determine the best locations for planting "bugs".
SPY1S1_190507_265.JPG: This ordinary briefcase contains everything needed to monitor and record conversations in a room: "bugs," transmitter, receiver, and recorder. It can also adapt for use in a car.
SPY1S1_190507_271.JPG: Placed inside a column during construction, this sensor transformed it into a microphone.
SPY1S1_190507_277.JPG: The US Embassy in Moscow was mid-construction when it was discovered that the cement was riddled with Soviet bugs. The top two floors were torn down, and a new steel frame built.
SPY1S1_190507_284.JPG: Charles Fraser-Smith: The Real-Life "Q"
SPY1S1_190507_288.JPG: Escape and Evasion
SPY1S1_190507_290.JPG: A Modern Mystery: How Did They Do It?
No one has ever been able to recreate the Cumberland Pencil Company's secret pencils.
Half a century after they were made, the company tried to reconstruct the pencils... without success. Modern machinery couldn't hollow out the shafts without cracking them. Workers struggled to roll the tissue maps tightly enough to fit inside. In the end, they had to make the replicas thicker than the original pencils.
SPY1S1_190507_293.JPG: A Pencil That's More Than a Pencil
In 1942, British gadget master Charles Fraser-Smith challenged the UK's Cumberland Pencil Company: hide an escape kit in an ordinary pencil.
A small team working in secret hand-drilled pencil shafts, leaving some lead at the end. Then they inserted a tissue paper map and tiny company under the eraser. Britain issued the pencils to Lancaster Bomber airmen. If downed, they could snap them open to get the escape tools.
SPY1S1_190507_301.JPG: A downed pilot could use this concealed knife to cut the top off these boots, making them look like civilian shoes.
SPY1S1_190507_304.JPG: Escape Artists
The Nazis kept "escape-prone" prisoners at Germany's Colditz Castle. At least they tried to...
In one scheme, POWs made these crude German insignia pins by filling empty shoe polish tins with ground plaster from casts for broken limbs; pressing a "borrowed" pin (coated in butter) into the plaster; and pouring lead from melted toothpaste tubes into the mold. The POWs then sewed the pins onto fake German uniforms.
SPY1S1_190507_316.JPG: This canteen would have contained a complete escape kit: map, compass (hidden in the spout), matches, needle and thread, adhesive tape, water-purifying tablets, and a chocolate bar. The Ovaltine tablets provided nutrition.
SPY1S1_190507_323.JPG: This escape radio would be smuggled into POW camps. It was made to look crudely-built, so if discovered it would appear to have been made in the prison or camp.
SPY1S1_190507_324.JPG: Allied spies, pilots, and others used these small radios to evade the enemy and escape once captured during WWII. They were designed by British gadget master Charles Fraser-Smith.
SPY1S1_190507_329.JPG: This knife contains blades to cut through door locks, window bars, or padlocks.
Press the ball bearing into the hole on the pen to release tear gas to clear a room or make a quick getaway.
SPY1S1_190507_334.JPG: Britain's MI9 employed a magician to help design some of its tools -- perhaps this one? Soak off the top layer of this card to reveal a numbered map section. Assemble all the sections to form an escape map.
SPY1S1_190507_339.JPG: Pencils with concealed dagger
SPY1S1_190507_342.JPG: WWII escape maps were often made of silk or Mulberry paper to be lightweight and quiet when unfolded.
SPY1S1_190507_347.JPG: This easily concealed escape compass, issued to pilots, works by attaching a piece of thread and floating it in water.
SPY1S1_190507_350.JPG: This chess set was manufactured with a hidden compartment containing mulberry paper maps, a swinger compass, and emergency currency. The x-ray shows the swinger compass hidden inside.
SPY1S1_190507_357.JPG: Within seconds, this razor has become a lethal weapon. The spike can be unscrewed, and then hidden inside the handle.
SPY1S1_190507_360.JPG: This non-lethal weapon uses compressed air to shoot a small, sharp dart at a target. The British designed it to be used by Free France's intelligence service, envisioning an attack on German soldiers riding the Paris Metro.
SPY1S1_190507_363.JPG: You can take a sip of whiskey and still hide your passport and travel documents inside this flask: a partition separates the two compartments keeping documents dry and secure.
SPY1S1_190507_366.JPG: Shoe concealment, East Germany
SPY1S1_190507_370.JPG: Umbrella concealment, East Germany
SPY1S1_190507_372.JPG: It's Not What It Seems...
SPY1S1_190507_374.JPG: In the 1950s, a nickel famously helped the FBI catch Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. How? It contained a ciphered message on microfilm. To open, insert a needle into a tiny hole on the coin's face.
SPY1S1_190507_379.JPG: This replica shows how "soft" film (emulsion without the celluloid backing, so it's very thin) can be rolled into tiny metal cylinders and hidden inside a cigarette.
SPY1S1_190507_381.JPG: The owner of this British gentleman's hat may be no gentleman! A small holster inside holds a Colt .25 caliber pistol. A metal frame keeps it from sagging from its weight.
SPY1S1_190507_403.JPG: You Put That Where?
SPY1S1_190507_411.JPG: Scrotum concealment, US
This prototype (never used in the field) was specifically designed to be used by downed male pilots to conceal a small escape radio: male security guards, it was thought, would not thoroughly search the genital area.
SPY1S1_190507_423.JPG: A Stasi intelligence officer could visit the bathroom on a train passing through East Germany from the West and retrieve an agent's message hidden inside this toilet paper spindle.
SPY1S1_190507_424.JPG: Found in the apartment of a Stasi spy operating in West Germany, this statue conceals a Minox camera with spare film.
SPY1S1_190507_430.JPG: Stick dead drop concealment, US
SPY1S1_190507_435.JPG: Rectal Toolkit
SPY1S1_190507_442.JPG: These shaving items conceal anything from microfilm to tiny cameras. The shaving cream can actually holds shaving cream!
SPY1S1_190507_448.JPG: Hollow nail concealments
Hollow bolt and screw concealments
SPY1S1_190507_455.JPG: Electric outlet concealment, USSR, ca 1965
SPY1S1_190507_458.JPG: Screwdriver concealment for film, East Germany, 1960s-1970s
SPY1S1_190507_463.JPG: This special battery works both as a power source and a concealment: inside, there's a small battery and a hollow cavity to hold microfilm, money, or messages.
SPY1S1_190507_466.JPG: Ashtray concealment, East Germany, 1965-1975
SPY1S1_190507_468.JPG: An insulated lining in the bowl of this pipe ensures that when it's smoked, the hidden Minox film does not incinerate.
SPY1S1_190507_520.JPG: This pregnant woman disguise designed by Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise, is particularly useful for a female operative who needs to transform her appearance in a snap. It's also designed to conceal a camera.
SPY1S1_190507_533.JPG: Disguise nose impression and mold, US, 2002
SPY1S1_190507_537.JPG: Spymasters
SPY1S1_190507_540.JPG: Allen Dulles
SPY1S1_190507_541.JPG: Jose de San Martin
SPY1S1_190507_543.JPG: "M"
SPY1S1_190507_545.JPG: Dai Li
SPY1S1_190507_556.JPG: Cunning
Sir Francis Walsingham
SPY1S1_190507_559.JPG: The Man Behind the Throne
SPY1S1_190507_560.JPG: Weaving a Web of Spies
SPY1S1_190507_565.JPG: Defeating the Spanish Armada
SPY1S1_190507_569.JPG: Speaking Truth to Power
SPY1S1_190507_575.JPG: Trapping Mary, Queen of Scots
SPY1S2_190507_007.JPG: Soviet counterintelligence units and border troops used this camera and telephoto lens to hake high-definition pictures across long distances. The user steadied the camera with the shoulder stock.
SPY1S2_190507_011.JPG: This tiny camera contains almost 400 parts. While offering a real cigarette, a surveillance officer squeezed the case to activate the shutter release. The concealed lens aligns with small holes on the side of the pack.
SPY1S2_190507_014.JPG: This was the KGB's last and best copy camera. Used in high security facilities, it has no viewfinder and few external controls -- just a shutter release and film advance. The constant shutter speed is 1/80th of a second!
SPY1S2_190507_018.JPG: Fold back the book cover to expose the lens of this amazing copy camera. Tiny wheels in the spine activate the camera mechanism and its built-in light sources as it rolls over classified documents.
SPY1S2_190507_021.JPG: This unique camera copies images onto 16 mm film through a special mirror prism that protrudes from the camera pack when the camera is placed on a document and retracts when lifted off.
SPY1S2_190507_025.JPG: The end of this fountain pen holds a marvel of mechanical precision and optical miniaturizations. The TROPEL camera lens is made of tiny, precisely-ground glass elements stacked to allow clear photographs of documents.
US, ca 1972
SPY1S2_190507_029.JPG: Clint Emerson:
Special Ops Ninja
SPY1S2_190507_030.JPG: Secret Entry
SPY1S2_190507_033.JPG: Instant Identity
Where did US Navy SEAL Clint Emerson use this full-face latex mask? Details are still classified.
We do know he wore it on a covert mission targeting a top Al Queda terrorist leader, and that it helped throw off surveillance so he could move freely in dangerous territory. It's called a "five second mask" because a user should be able to put it on in less than five seconds.
SPY1S2_190507_039.JPG: Clandestine Photography
SPY1S2_190507_042.JPG: A concealed camera snaps up to 20 photos through the clear glass tie tack. A remote controlled shutter release is hidden in a jacket pocket.
SPY1S2_190507_045.JPG: Super-Sized Lock Picking
SPY1S2_190507_050.JPG: Business on the Outside, Spy on the Inside
SPY1S2_190507_065.JPG: This kit contains clay to make an impression of a key, which can then be used either to cast a copy or gauge the pattern of the key's teeth.
US, 1960s
SPY1S2_190507_077.JPG: What Popular Pet Has the Run of the Place?
In the 1960s, agents eager to eavesdrop on an Asian leader saw cats at the meeting area... sparking an idea. Tech Ops embedded a tiny transmitter in a cat's skull and a mic in its ear.
Affectionately called "Acoustic Kitty," the cat proved trainable in familiar settings. When flown across the globe, however, it seemed lost. The CIA canceled the operation.
SPY1S2_190507_086.JPG: Covert Critters
SPY1S2_190507_087.JPG: Which Animals Make the Best Robots?
SPY1S2_190507_091.JPG: What Critter Can "Sniff Out" an Underwater Mine?
SPY1S2_190507_094.JPG: Who's the Stealthiest Fish in the Sea?
Catfish have long been popular among diners. But in the 1990s, they went from fish fry to fish spy.
The CIA developed "Charlie," a robotic catfish carrying a microphone and communication devices, with a propulsion system in its tail. The radio-controlled robot fish swam beneath enemy craft collecting underwater signals.
SPY1S2_190507_095.JPG: During World War I, pigeons were outfitted with tiny cameras and released over enemy territory. As the birds flew, the cameras click away, snapping photos.
Pigeon camera (replica), Germany, 1917-1918
SPY1S2_190507_097.JPG: The best place to hide spy tech? In something no one would want to pick up. In Vietnam, this transmitter was used to direct aircraft to strike locations.
Tiger dung ("dog doo") transmitter, US, ca 1970
SPY1S2_190507_100.JPG: During the Cold War, the CIA used gutted rats as dead drops -- places to hide messages, money, and film to be passed to agents. The rats were doused with pepper sauce to deter scavenger cats.
SPY1S2_190507_111.JPG: Stealing Secrets from the Seabed
SPY1S2_190507_118.JPG: A Fantastic Feat
SPY1S2_190507_122.JPG: Creating a Cover Story
SPY1S2_190507_124.JPG: A Fantastic Feat
SPY1S2_190507_127.JPG: John Graham
Designs in the Dark
SPY1S2_190507_130.JPG: Surfacing the Sub
Up from the Depths ... Almost
SPY1S2_190507_136.JPG: The Glomar crew's clothing featured Howard Hughes' name and the Global Marine logo to support the cover story that this was a mining operation, not a spy mission.
SPY1S2_190507_143.JPG: CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters wore this wig to disguise his appearance when he visited Glomar.
SPY1S2_190507_148.JPG: The CIA never revealed what parts of the Soviet submarine it retrieved from the ocean's floor. This rare remnant is part of a control panel.
Piece of the K-129 submarine, USSR, 1968
SPY1S2_190507_150.JPG: Up from the Depths... Almost
SPY1S2_190507_183.JPG: We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.
SPY1S2_190507_194.JPG: Spies in the Skies
SPY1S2_190507_197.JPG: Battlefields and Balloons
SPY1S2_190507_201.JPG: "Sir: This point of observation commands an area nearly 50 miles in diameter. The city with its girdle of encampments presents a superb scene."
-- Thaddeus Lowe writing to President Lincoln, June 16, 1861 -- the first intelligence dispatch ever sent from aloft
SPY1S2_190507_203.JPG: Battlefields and Balloons
SPY1S2_190507_210.JPG: How can soldiers get a bird's-eye view? Get a bird!
In WWI, pigeons were fitted with cameras and released over European military sites to collect intel.
Their cameras clicked continuously as they flew, snapping photos of weapons, troops, and terrain. Analysts at the birds' destination developed the film. The program never fully took off, however. A new technology proved more effective: airplanes.
SPY1S2_190507_215.JPG: Dragon Lady vs. the Soviet Union
SPY1S2_190507_218.JPG: "No one wants another Pearl Harbor."
-- US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, on developing the U-2
SPY1S2_190507_219.JPG: The Spy Who Fell from the Sky: Francis Gary Powers
SPY1S2_190507_221.JPG: What Are They Saying?
SPY1S2_190507_232.JPG: This is the CIA's "model 1" hotplate, used to melt seals and open envelopes and packages. It heats up as high as 160 degrees F.
Hotplate, US, ca 1956
SPY1S2_190507_236.JPG: Special bags protect communications to and from embassies. Intelligence services actively try to bypass those security safeguards, acquiring other countries' mail bags to study how they can be secretly opened and resealed.
SPY1S2_190507_239.JPG: This display piece was used to teach KGB students how to perform dry openings.
USSR, 1980s
SPY1S2_190507_241.JPG: Steaming for Secrets
Common methods for secretly opening letters and packages are using steam or water to soften the envelope glue, and dry tactics that pull apart the flap.
This vintage steam kit is one of the oldest FBI-made tools. Agents plugged in the water-filled brass cylinder, which produced a precise steam jet. Though this technology was simple, it remains as useful today as it was in the last century.
Steaming tool, US, 1940s
SPY1S2_190507_245.JPG: CIA professionals keep one of these next to their desks to dispose of any sensitive papers. They're collected at the end of every day and taken to the incinerator.
SPY1S2_190507_247.JPG: Reading Their Mail
During WWII, intelligence agencies used tools such as these to secretly open both military and civilian mail.
A reader would insert one of these devices into the small gap at the top of an envelope flap, tightly wind the letter around the prongs, and slip it out. They checked the letter for sensitive information before inserting it back into the envelope.
SPY1S2_190507_250.JPG: It's a smartphone designed to be unhackable -- and a 21st century contradiction: protect your privacy through encryption, while you share your whole life on social media.
SPY1S2_190507_252.JPG: The Black Chamber's Prying Eyes
SPY1S2_190507_256.JPG: The Power Behind the Throne: Cardinal Richelieu
SPY1S2_190507_263.JPG: Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works
SPY1S2_190507_267.JPG: Supersonic, Yet Crystal Clear
The Technical Objective Camera can photograph pointing straight down or at angles up to 45 degrees. Reportedly, its resolution is just six inches from 15 miles up -- the height of about 48 Washington Monuments!
SR-71 Camera, US, 1960s
SPY1S2_190507_278.JPG: Powers in Prison
Powers passed the time in his Soviet cell playing chess and learning carpet weaving from his cellmate. He carried these items in this suitcase when he walked to freedom across Berlin's Glienicke Bridge in a dramatic spy swap.
SPY1S2_190507_288.JPG: The CIA gave a suicide pin like this to some U-2 pilots on Soviet overflight missions. It would cause near instantaneous death -- but its use was optional. Powers discarded his as he landed in the USSR.
SPY1S2_190507_291.JPG: Welcome Home?
Some Americans -- including in Congress -- asked if Powers was more traitor than hero. Did pilot error down his plane? Should he have killed himself to avoid capture? The CIA and US Air Force made their positions clear, posthumously awarding Powers several medals.
SPY1S2_190507_295.JPG: The Soviets put this piece of Powers' downed U-2 plane on public display in Moscow. See the tiny rivets? The Soviets added those when they tried to reassemble the plane from the wreckage.
SPY1S2_190507_300.JPG: This canister is from a November 20, 1956, U-2 flight over the USSR -- one of Powers' first missions. The film inside has never been seen. Opening the container outside of a darkroom would destroy the film.
SPY1S2_190507_307.JPG: Francis Gary Powers holds a model of a U-2 as he testifies in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, March 6, 1962.
SPY1S2_190507_312.JPG: These photos were part of the official press packet distributed by the Soviets, alerting the world they had captured Powers and his aircraft.
SPY1S2_190507_317.JPG: The Mighty Blackbird
SPY1S2_190507_319.JPG: The Final Frontier?
SPY1S2_190507_323.JPG: This is a six foot section of the real Berlin Tunnel. After excavation in 1956, it was used as a temporary underground command post for East German military maneuvers.
SPY1S2_190507_324.JPG: Digging the Tunnel
SPY1S2_190507_330.JPG: The Operation
40,000 -- Number of hours of telephone conversations recorded
368,000 -- Number of Soviet conversations recorded
50,000 -- Number of reels of recording tape sent to London & DC for analysis
600 -- Number of linguists to transcribe and translate
SPY1S2_190507_337.JPG: Overhead reconnaissance captured the US public's imagination in the 50s and 60s. This comic book shows an Air Force surveillance aircraft over the Soviet Union.
Comic book, US, 1960
SPY1S2_190507_343.JPG: The World Beyond Our Senses
SPY1S2_190507_349.JPG: Spy Chemistry 101: Chemical Fingerprint
SPY1S2_190507_352.JPG: Project Rain Barrel
SPY1S2_190507_355.JPG: Read All About It!
When Americans browsed this issue of Popular Mechanics, they may have learned how to fix a toaster or build a radio. Or how the US analyzed air and rainwater to confirm a Soviet atomic test.
An article on Project Rain Barrel offered a first peak into US intelligence capabilities. It showed how the US knew what the Soviets were up to.
SPY1S2_190507_359.JPG: Project Rain Barrel
SPY1S2_190507_368.JPG: Tricking Terrorists: The Four Square Laundry
Bombs rocked Belfast in the 1970s. They were planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a terrorist group fighting to make Northern Ireland independent from British rule. Yet there were IRA sympathizers in Belfast; some hid militants in their homes. How could the British Army find those terrorist hideouts?
IRA bombmakers used an explosive material that left traces on clothing -- until the clothes were washed. So British undercover agents created the Four Square Laundry, collecting dirty washing from IRA neighborhoods to literally sniff out suspects.
SPY1S2_190507_371.JPG: Getting the Dirt on the IRA
Agents from Britain's Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF) opened their laundromat in an IRA stronghold in Belfast, offering discount coupons. Clothes poured in. So did clues.
The MRF had installed a special "sniffer" washing machine to test laundry for explosive materials, gun residue, even blood. It likely used IR spectroscopy. Agents also compared the laundry to previous loads from each home, looking for changes in clothing size or type that might suggest it was hiding IRA members. Anything suspicious triggered a house search.
After three months, double agents betrayed the operation. An IRA ambush killed at least one MRF agent.
SPY1S2_190507_376.JPG: Dirty Laundry or Incriminating Evidence?
SPY1S2_190507_382.JPG: Battling a Bio Attack
SPY1S2_190507_395.JPG: Feel the Vibe
SPY1S2_190507_397.JPG: Good Vibrations
SPY1S2_190507_400.JPG: China's Ancient Invasion Alarm
SPY1S2_190507_408.JPG: April, 1956: The Soviets used their discovery of the Berlin Tunnel to score a publicity victory, calling it "a blatant act of imperialist aggression and international gangsterism." The New York Times called it "a venture of extraordinary audacity -- the stuff of which thriller films are made."
SPY1S2_190507_410.JPG: The Secret Revealed
SPY1S2_190507_413.JPG: How Do You Measure Success?
SPY1S2_190507_415.JPG: The Mole in MI6
SPY1S2_190507_418.JPG: George Blake
SPY1S_190520_003.JPG: Dixie Guthrie (green hat) @ Spy Museum
SPY1S_190520_011.JPG: Glenn Guthrie @ Spy Museum
SPY1S_190520_017.JPG: Glenn Guthrie @ Spy Museum
SPY1S_190520_024.JPG: Glenn Guthrie @ Spy Museum
SPY1S_190520_047.JPG: Dixie Guthrie @ Spy Museum
SPY1S_190520_059.JPG: The CIA uses these system [sic] (codenamed PUPPY CHOW) in Cuba to sedate a dog while a house was secretly entered. Adrenaline woke the dog up before leaving, so owners would not suspect anything was amiss.
SPY1S_190520_073.JPG: Concealments come in all shapes and sizes. This prayer card hides a pick lock.
SPY1S_190520_082.JPG: Former CIA Chiefs of Disguise Jonna and Tony Mendez created this facial disguise, transforming collector Keith Melton into an aging Russian. The CIA used similar techniques to disguise agents for secret operations.
SPY1S_190520_093.JPG: Special equipment like this was used by WWII divers conducting underwater attacks. It reused exhaled breath while prevent exhaust bubbles from escaping and giving away the diver's position.
SPY1S_190520_100.JPG: In Dr. No (1962), James Bond sweats bullets when he feels the furry footsteps of this tarantula. In reality, an adult won't die from a tarantula bite unless allergic to its venom.
SPY1S_190520_115.JPG: Rectal Toolkit
SPY1S_190520_150.JPG: Agents & Handlers
SPY1S_190520_152.JPG: Trust
Mosab Hassan Yousef & Gonen Ben Yitzhak
SPY1S_190520_256.JPG: Can a Drone Read Your Email?
Two security experts wanted to know. So, using off-the-shelf parts, they built this prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or drone.
It worked. Their invention proved that a hacker anywhere, using this base station and an internet connection, could direct a drone to intercept cellphone conversations, steal financial data, or access secret documents. The race to improve cyber drone capabilities continues.
SPY1S_190520_260.JPG: Dragonfly Drone
SPY1S_190520_272.JPG: Soviet intel made this model of a CIA mini drone. At the time, it was too small to be remotely controlled or carry surveillance equipment. That's no longer the case -- and today's devices are even smaller.
Insectathopter, USSR (KGB), ca 1976
SPY1S_190520_282.JPG: With three micro cameras in its nose, the Black Hornet drone is used for surveillance and reconnaissance missions by military forces around the world.
Black Hornet, Norway, ca 2013
SPY1S_190520_292.JPG: QuickBird Was Eagle-Eyed!
Look up! This scale model of the QuickBird satellite sent crisp, clear images from orbit. At launch in 2001, it offered the highest resolution commercially available.
SPY1S_190520_312.JPG: Tricking Terrorists: The Four Square Laundry
Bombs rocked Belfast in the 1970s. They were planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a terrorist group fighting to make Northern Ireland independent from British rule. Yet there were IRA sympathizers in Belfast; some hid militants in their homes. How could the British Army find those terrorist hideouts?
IRA bombmakers used an explosive material that left traces on clothing -- until the clothes were washed. So British undercover agents created the Four Square Laundry, collecting dirty washing from IRA neighborhoods to literally sniff out suspects.
SPY1S_190520_316.JPG: Getting the Dirt on the IRA
Agents from Britain's Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF) opened their laundromat in an IRA stronghold in Belfast, offering discount coupons. Clothes poured in. So did clues.
The MRF had installed a special "sniffer" washing machine to test laundry for explosive materials, gun residue, even blood. It likely used IR spectroscopy. Agents also compared the laundry to previous loads from each home, looking for changes in clothing size or type that might suggest it was hiding IRA members. Anything suspicious triggered a house search.
After three months, double agents betrayed the operation. An IRA ambush killed at least one MRF agent.
SPY1S_190520_320.JPG: Dirty Laundry or Incriminating Evidence?
SPY1S_190520_324.JPG: Chemical Signature Chart
SPY1S_190520_345.JPG: Forensic Analysis
SPY1S_190520_350.JPG: "Improving things comes naturally to me."
-- Hedy Lamarr
SPY1S_190520_361.JPG: "Improving things comes naturally to me."
-- Hedy Lamarr
SPY1S_190520_366.JPG: Star of Stage, Screen, and Radio Waves
SPY1S_190520_370.JPG: Lamarr died in 2000. But in 2014, she and Antheil were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for their frequency hopping communication system.
SPY1S_190520_380.JPG: How can soldiers get a bird's-eye view? Get a bird!
In WWI, pigeons were fitted with cameras and released over European military sites to collect intel.
Their cameras clicked continuously as they flew, snapping photos of weapons, troops, and terrain. Analysts at the birds' destination developed the film. The program never fully took off, however. A new technology proved more effective: airplanes.
SPY1S_190520_388.JPG: Flying spy pigeon with camera.
Germany, 1914-1918
SPY1S_190520_396.JPG: WWI toy soldiers demonstrated the latest in surveillance technology. This one shows a German soldier releasing a pigeon with a camera into the air.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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2019 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
a four-day jaunt to Massachusetts (Boston, Stockbridge, and Springfield) to experience rain in another state,
Asheville, NC to visit Dad and his wife Dixie,
four trips to New York City (including the United Nations, Flushing, and the New York Comic-Con), and
my 14th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Utah).
Number of photos taken this year: about 582,000.
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