Secret history: a (virtual) tour of the CIA’s museum

[G_j]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/shortcuts/2014/oct/06/virtual-tour-cia-museum

You can’t visit in person unless you happen to have a buddy who’s a spy – but for the rest of us, there’s the online version of the intelligence agency’s in-house treasure trove


The CIA insectohopter. Photograph: Central Intelligence Agency

The CIA has a museum. But you can’t go into it. That would be telling. However, there are signs that the museum, housed within CIA’s headquarters in Virginia, is becoming a little more outward-facing. Recently, it has given a tour to digital media outlets such as Smithsonian and Yahoo. Its director Toni Hiley even has a Linked-In profile. Ordinary mortals not in possession of a friend with a pass card for Langley HQ can enjoy an official virtual tour of some of the most notable of the 26,000 items in the museum’s collection that have been added since it was founded in 1972, on the CIA’s 25th birthday.


Dead rat drop at the CIA museum Photograph: Yahoo News

Some of the exhibits show the agency’s inventiveness – such as a tiny precursor to the drone, with the size and looks of a dragonfly. It never flew in “theatre” but only in a test flight, and bears the brilliant name of insectothopter. Others are surprisingly basic – one of two pairs of gold cufflinks showing the head of the goddess Athena, each worn by US agent George Kisevalter and his Soviet “asset”, as Homeland has taught us to call them, Petr Semenovich Popov. When they met, they flashed their cufflinks in order to be sure they were speaking to the right person. (This secret code wouldn’t work so well now that you can buy Athena cufflinks on Etsy). At the less hi-tech end of agency devices is the rat carcass. It was once hollowed out to contain messages. Apparently, this device was successful because very few people want to poke around inside a dead rat.

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[MineralMan]

1. The NSA has a museum, too - Open to the public

They have an Enigma machine and lots of other cool stuff. Here's the website:

https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/

If you're in the area of Fort George Meade, call ahead and arrange a visit. I've been there and it's very interesting.