International Spy Museum

Imagine a gun disguised as a silvery tube of lipstick, a camera hidden behind a coat button or a tree stump that's really an eavesdropping device. Props for the next James Bond movie? Maybe.

They're also genuine tools of spycraft, used by real-life spooks around the world. These implements and hundreds of other items are going on display when the International Spy Museum opened on July 15. Organizers say it's the first public museum in the United States dedicated to espionage, and the only one to provide a global perspective on an art form dating back to biblical times, when Moses assigned 12 Israelites to “spy out the land” of Canaan, promised to them by God. A particularly prized exhibit - never before seen in public - is a one-page letter Gen. George Washington wrote in February 1777. In it, Washington offers Nathaniel Sackett, a New York political activist and merchant for the Continental Army, $50 a month to set up a network to obtain “the earliest and best Intelligence of the designs of the enemy.”

"Espionage is as old as recorded time, and probably older,” says E. Peter Earnest, a 36-year CIA veteran who spent two decades in the agency's clandestine service. He is now the museum's executive director. Among the gizmos: The lipstick pistol was issued in the mid-1960s and used during the Cold War by operatives for the KGB, the former Russian secret police and intelligence agency. The 4.5-mm one-shot tube was called ``The Kiss of Death.'' The coat with buttonhole camera was issued in the 1970s and used by the KGB. When triggered by a device inside the pocket, the center of the false button opened to snap a photo.

The tree stump listening device was issued by the CIA in the early 1970s. The solar-powered device was stashed in the woods near a Soviet military base to capture secret military radio transmissions. Throughout the museum, visitors get quizzed on the details of a cover they're asked to adopt - name, age and reason for travel. They can also create and break secret codes and test their ability to find examples of common surveillance, ordinary - looking spies or dead drops - prearranged locations where undercover operatives and their handlers exchange messages, money or the goods.

(end)
Khorsheed.com - Aug 2002