Page 32 - aruba-today-20190911

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 11 september 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
The old, cramped mu- if they’re better suited to
seum focused on human be 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 assets and their handlers. A recorded him actually tell- crossing the globe to find lica of a “stress position”
failures and even highly former deputy CIA director ing his own story surround- and buy them. The roughly interrogation box that’s too
debated legal and ethical discusses how spooks as- ed by artifacts from his own 1,000 spycraft artifacts that narrow to sit down in and
issues, such as waterboard- sessed the intelligence that life,” Houghton said. can be seen when the new too low to stand up in.
ing. led to the raid of a com- There are stories of decep- museum opens include: They can walk into an ex-
“We’re not playing it safe as pound where al-Qaida tion and tragedy, intelli- The ice-climbing ax used in hibit that recreates life un-
a museum,” Vince Hough- leader Osama bin Laden gence coups and surprises, the bloody assassination of der the secret police in
ton, the museum’s curator was killed in 2011 in Paki- too. Russian revolutionary Leon East Germany before the
and historian, said during a stan. Everybody knows that 007 Trotsky. A chunk of Gary collapse of the Berlin Wall
sneak-peak tour of the $162 Real female spies dispel the was “Bond. James Bond.” Powers’ U2 spy plane shot in 1989. Without warning, a
million, nonprofit museum. myth that women rely on Fewer people know that down over the Soviet Union stern-looking Stasi police of-
“We don’t get money from sex appeal to gather intel- America’s first spymas- in 1960. The handcuffs used ficer and police dog — ac-
the government. We need ligence. ter was President George to arrest John Anthony tually a video behind glass
to maintain our indepen- There’s an exhibit featur- Washington, a.k.a. Agent Walker Jr., a former Navy — appear to be approach-
dence because there are ing Morten Storm, a Danish 711. chief warrant officer con- ing to ask for papers.
a lot of stories we need to man turned Islamic radical. Both sides spied during the victed of spying for the “If you were interrogated
tell.” He later became disen- Revolutionary War during Soviet Union from 1968 to harshly by the Stasi, chanc-
Real intelligence officers chanted with Islam and the 1770s, but at the end, 1985. es are you would sweat,”
tend to be tight-lipped, but went to work for Danish the head of British intel- A large piece of a tunnel perhaps on the cushion of
at the museum, visitors can intelligence as a double ligence operations Maj. that penetrated East Ger- the chair while being ques-
watch videos starring cur- agent, providing informa- George Beckwith stated: many so that the U.S. and tioned, Houghton said.
rent or former intelligence tion about wanted ter- “Washington did not beat allies could tap Soviet and “They’d cut out a piece
officers talking about their ror suspects. His life in the us militarily, he simply out- East German communi- of the cushion and they’d
jobs. shadows became public in spied us.” cations. Code-breaking have your scent.
The top psychologist at the 2012. Washington helped coor- equipment. Hidden cam- They put it in a scent jar and
CIA talks about how trust “We went to the undis- dinate intelligence opera- eras. A pregnant woman if they needed to track you
and fear affect relation- closed location where he’s tions during the war and disguise. The Amber drone, down, the dogs would be
ships between intelligence hiding from al-Qaida and the museum has a letter he a remotely piloted surveil- able to go and find you.”q
wrote creating the first U.S.
intelligence agency.
“It’s the Magna Carta for
American intelligence,”
Houghton said of his fa-
vorite 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,
including more than 5,000
An exhibit on torture includes a section on waterboarding in items donated by H. Keith
the new International Spy Museum, Tuesday April 30, 2019, in Melton, a Florida business- A car used in a James Bond movie adorns the lobby of the new
Washington. man who spent years criss- International Spy Museum, Tuesday April 30, 2019, in Washington.
Associated Press Associated Press