Gallery: Covert Action | International Spy Museum
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Discover the age-old techniques leaders use to secretly influence events abroad. Find out about the covert mission failures and successes-from sabotage to lethal action.
FEATURED EXHIBITS
Sabotage
- Disrupt. Delay. Destroy. What is the potential and the danger in sabotage operations? This exhibit includes stories about
Operation Gunnerside
, the WWII Allied effort to prevent Germans from building a nuclear bomb, and
Opération Satanique
, an attempt by French Intelligence to disable Greenpeace’s flagship, the
Rainbow Warrior
Visitors also encounter
ninjas
, the WWII submarine the
Sleeping Beauty
, an array of sabotage artifacts, and can avoid detection by crawling through an
Air Duct
Deception
- A magician’s misdirection. A forger’s fakery. A poker player’s bluff. Spotlight classic deception techniques used to make a force appear stronger than its enemy, or to hide in plain sight—strategies still used today.
Lethal Action -
Targeted killing. Wet jobs. Assassinations. Eliminations. Learn the deadly plots in which governments eliminate spies, operatives, dissidents, or enemies of the state.
Secret Soldiers
-  Learn about the 1960s failed
CIA Bay of Pigs
operation and the successful 1980s
Operation Cyclone
in Afghanistan.
Undermining Nations
- How can a nation secretly undermine a rival’s political or economic system? This exhibit covers the
Sidney Reilly
and Robert Lockhart plot to overthrow the Bolshevik regime and the Nazis’
Operation Bernhard
to wreck Britain’s economy during WWII through counterfeit money
Propaganda
- What is fake news? This exhibit includes examples of government attempts to manipulate public opinion across history, from Ancient Egypt to the 2016 US presidential election.
Exfiltration
- How do spy agencies undertake risky missions to rescue hostages or bring defectors to safety? Here, visitors can discover the story of the
Canadian Caper (ARGO)
from the CIA officer who carried it out: Tony Mendez.
Cyber Deception Technique - Trojan Horse
Air Duct
The assassination of Leon Trotsky was known as the crime of the century when it occurred in Mexico in 1940. This ice-climbing axe used in the assassination was missing for decades before it resurfaced in 2005. It was recently donated to the Spy Museum courtesy of H. Keith Melton and features in the Lethal Action exhibit.
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