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A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 8 May 2019
Real spies, not James Bond, take spotlight at new spy museum

By DEB RIECHMANN lance aircraft designed by
Associated Press an Israeli that is a forerun-
WASHINGTON (AP) — ner to today's Predator,
James Bond's shiny silver which executes airstrikes in
sports car — with its JB007 Afghanistan and other hot-
rotating license plate — is spots around the globe.
the first thing visitors see Not everything is real. Upon
when they step into the entry, visitors can opt to get
new and improved Inter- a cover identity and mis-
national Spy Museum that sion along with a badge
opens Sunday in Washing- with radio-frequency tech-
ton. After that, it's as if the nology that will recognize
history of Hollywood's fa- them as they walk up to in-
mous private eye vanishes teractive exhibits through-
in invisible ink, while the out the museum.
stories of real-life spies and Their spy skills are tested
modern-day espionage throughout the tour and at
take center stage. the end they can find out if
The old, cramped mu- they're better suited to be
seum focused on human an intelligence officer in
collection of intelligence. the field, for example, or an
The new one also offers a analyst at CIA headquar-
window into covert opera- ters.
tions, counterterrorism, in- The new International Spy Museum is seen, Tuesday April 30, 2019, in Washington. Visitors can create a dis-
telligence analysis, cyber Associated Press guise or climb inside a rep-
espionage, intelligence lica of a "stress position" in-
failures and even highly assets and their handlers. A recorded him actually tell- crossing the globe to find terrogation box that's too
debated legal and ethical former deputy CIA director ing his own story surround- and buy them. The roughly narrow to sit down in and
issues, such as waterboard- discusses how spooks as- ed by artifacts from his own 1,000 spycraft artifacts that too low to stand up in. They
ing. sessed the intelligence that life," Houghton said. can be seen when the new can walk into an exhibit
"We're not playing it safe as led to the raid of a com- There are stories of decep- museum opens include: that recreates life under the
a museum," Vince Hough- pound where al-Qaida tion and tragedy, intelli- The ice-climbing ax used in secret police in East Ger-
ton, the museum's curator leader Osama bin Laden gence coups and surprises, the bloody assassination of many before the collapse
and historian, said during was killed in 2011 in Paki- too. Russian revolutionary Leon of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
a sneak-peak tour of the stan. Real female spies dis- Everybody knows that 007 Trotsky. A chunk of Gary Without warning, a stern-
$162 million, nonprofit mu- pel the myth that women was "Bond. James Bond." Powers' U2 spy plane shot looking Stasi police officer
seum. "We don't get money rely on sex appeal to gath- Fewer people know that down over the Soviet Union and police dog — actually
from the government. We er intelligence. America's first spymas- in 1960. The handcuffs used a video behind glass — ap-
need to maintain our inde- There's an exhibit featur- ter was President George to arrest John Anthony pear to be approaching to
pendence because there ing Morten Storm, a Danish Washington, a.k.a. Agent Walker Jr., a former Navy ask for papers.
are a lot of stories we need man turned Islamic radi- 711. chief warrant officer con- "If you were interrogated
to tell." cal. He later became dis- Both sides spied during the victed of spying for the harshly by the Stasi, chanc-
Real intelligence officers enchanted with Islam and Revolutionary War during Soviet Union from 1968 to es are you would sweat,"
tend to be tight-lipped, but went to work for Danish the 1770s, but at the end, 1985. A large piece of a perhaps on the cushion of
at the museum, visitors can intelligence as a double the head of British intel- tunnel that penetrated East the chair while being ques-
watch videos starring cur- agent, providing informa- ligence operations Maj. Germany so that the U.S. tioned, Houghton said.
rent or former intelligence tion about wanted ter- George Beckwith stated: and allies could tap Soviet "They'd cut out a piece
officers talking about their ror suspects. His life in the "Washington did not beat and East German commu- of the cushion and they'd
jobs. shadows became public in us militarily, he simply out- nications. Code-breaking have your scent. They put
The top psychologist at the 2012. spied us." equipment. Hidden cam- it in a scent jar and if they
CIA talks about how trust "We went to the undis- Washington helped coor- eras. A pregnant woman needed to track you down,
and fear affect relation- closed location where he's dinate intelligence opera- disguise. The Amber drone, the dogs would be able to
ships between intelligence hiding from al-Qaida and tions during the war and a remotely piloted surveil- go and find you."q
the museum has a letter he
wrote creating the first U.S.
intelligence agency.
"It's the Magna Carta for
American intelligence,"
Houghton said of his favor-
ite artifact. "It's the founding
document and we have it.
It's as cool as it gets."
The old museum, which
closed in 2018, had about
3,000 artifacts and could
display about 600 of them
at a time. The new spy mu-
seum has 10,000 artifacts,
An exhibit on torture includes a section on waterboarding in the including more than 5,000 A car used in a James Bond movie adorns the lobby of the new
new International Spy Museum, Tuesday April 30, 2019, in Wash- items donated by H. Keith International Spy Museum, Tuesday April 30, 2019, in Washing-
ington. Melton, a Florida business- ton.
Associated Press man who spent years criss- Associated Press