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00:06Tonight on Secrets Declassified.
00:08Secret units, unseen and unheard,
00:12shaping events from the shadows.
00:14From a CIA heist high in the Himalayas.
00:17They're elite cat burglars risking their lives
00:20to steal the world's most guarded secrets.
00:23Or a surprising secret agent under deep cover.
00:27It wasn't just a whale.
00:28It looked like part of an intelligence operation.
00:31And a covert unit was a dirty secret.
00:34Now the CIA can do a lot of things,
00:37but they cannot be caught producing porn.
00:40These are the astonishing and sometimes terrible things
00:43done by governments and the people who work for them.
00:46It's time to bring them to light.
00:56During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy creates a secret unit called Red Cell.
01:01Its mission?
01:02Stage mock attacks on U.S. naval bases to test for vulnerabilities.
01:07And it's successful.
01:08A little too successful.
01:15By the mid-1980s, the United States is the world's preeminent military superpower.
01:22There isn't a nation on Earth that can match it.
01:24It has the best equipment, the most advanced technology.
01:27Yet, there is a critical weakness.
01:30There have been a string of high-profile attacks against U.S. military installations.
01:35These have highlighted that the U.S. military is vulnerable to small terrorist units.
01:40In 1984, the Navy creates Red Cell as a solution
01:45and launches it against its most secure bases.
01:49This mission is unlike anything the U.S. Navy has ever sanctioned before.
01:53It's like mock terrorism against itself.
01:56To lead the unit, the Navy picks Richard Marcinko,
01:59a man who doesn't just think outside the box.
02:03Once, he blows it up.
02:05Richard Marcinko, real-life Rambo, he's one of the U.S. Army's best fighters.
02:10But his reputation for flouting the rules gets him desk duty.
02:14He's a loose cannon that might be the perfect fit for the Red Cell operation.
02:18So he's placed in charge.
02:20He recruits 13 Navy SEALs and one Force Recon Marine.
02:25Now, officially, Red Cell's HQ is assigned to the Pentagon.
02:29However, in reality, Marcinko runs his unit from his favorite Virginia dive bar, Shooter McGee's.
02:35And it's here that the team spend their nights drinking, brawling, and planning covert operations.
02:43Soon, barroom bravado becomes real-world threat.
02:48Over the course of several months, Red Cell runs a string of increasingly bold operations.
02:56They infiltrate the world's largest naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, and plant dummy explosives.
03:03They bypass security at Naval Base New London.
03:08And they launch fake attacks on submarines.
03:14With each success, Marcinko pushes harder until he sets his sights on the biggest target of all.
03:23It's 1985 in California.
03:25President Reagan is on vacation at his ranch in Santa Barbara.
03:28And about an hour down the coast, Air Force One, the world's most defended plane, is parked at a secure
03:35naval base, Point Magoo Naval Air Station.
03:41Marcinko and his team plot their attack.
03:45Red Cell stakes out Air Force One, probing it for weaknesses, looking for points of attack.
03:50And they also hit local bars where they steal ID cards from sailors.
03:55That is illegal, but Marcinko plays by his own rules.
04:00On August 30th, Marcinko gives the green light for the operation.
04:05One of his team members, disguised as a commander, drives up to the base with radio equipment, weapons, and dummy
04:13explosives hidden in the vehicle.
04:16He sails right on through, no questions asked.
04:21They're able to get out onto the airfield, and several members get off and attach fake explosives to the side
04:27of F-18 fighter jets.
04:30Then it's time for Air Force One.
04:34They steal a weapons carrier, load it up with fake 500-pound bombs, and drive it straight up to Air
04:40Force One, all unchallenged.
04:44Had this been a real attack, they could have blown up Air Force One, as well as a host of
04:49F-18 fighters for good measure.
04:53Eventually, Marcinko's team is detained by base security.
04:57For the Navy, it's a major embarrassment.
04:59In a real attack, the President and his plane could have been blown up.
05:05It's a wake-up call, and security is completely overhauled.
05:09A brand-new unit of specially-trained Marines is created to protect U.S. Navy installations.
05:14The attack on Air Force One marks the high point of Red Cell's operations.
05:20Soon after, Marcinko's team takes their mission one step too far.
05:25In March of 1986, a naval security officer is kidnapped by Red Cell, ostensibly for a training exercise.
05:35Red Cell interrogates him so violently that he suffers lasting injuries.
05:41He's thrown against walls, he's kicked, he's punched, he's waterboarded.
05:45It seems that Marcinko's finally lost sight of the difference between security tests and real violence.
05:53Marcinko is stripped of command, and in a separate case, the law catches up with him.
05:59He's placed under criminal investigation, convicted on federal charges, and sentenced to nearly two years in prison.
06:07Red Cell is officially disbanded.
06:11You know, some people would argue that Marcinko was somebody who never knew what the limits were.
06:16In 1992, Marcinko is released.
06:20Soon after, he publishes a tell-all memoir called Rogue Warrior that blows the lid off of Red Cell.
06:28The book becomes a bestseller, a dramatic final chapter in Marcinko's controversial career.
06:37Some secret units destroy targets.
06:40Others destroy reputations.
06:42In the 1950s, the CIA forms a secret unit that fights the Cold War not with guns, but with a
06:49fake sex tape, codenamed Happy Days.
06:57In the depths of the Cold War, the CIA calls on a secret unit so adept at bizarre covert operations,
07:04they're kept completely off the books.
07:08The man in charge, ex-FBI agent, Robert Mayhew.
07:14Mayhew's unit is founded in 1954, and its main strength is the litany of unusual contacts it can draw on.
07:21Mayhew's little black book stretches from the mafia to Hollywood's rich and famous.
07:26In 1957, the CIA gives Mayhew his toughest mission yet, stage a fake romantic encounter on film to blackmail a
07:36global leader.
07:39Indonesia is the world's sixth most populous nation, making it a pivotal power broker in Southeast Asia, which is a
07:48key battleground in the struggle between the USA and the USSR.
07:53Indonesia is led by President Sukarno.
07:56He is a charismatic dictator that Washington considers to be a wild card.
08:01For years, he's been carefully courting both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
08:07Now the CIA spots an opportunity to bring Sukarno to heel.
08:12They learn that on a recent trip to Moscow, Sukarno became involved with a blonde flight attendant, who is actually
08:19a KGB agent.
08:23This flight attendant has since visited President Sukarno in Indonesia a number of times.
08:29CIA sources also know that the KGB has filmed compromising footage of President Sukarno
08:35with his flight attendant slash KGB lover in a suite in the Kremlin.
08:41And of course, they've done so for blackmail purposes.
08:45The CIA now sees an opportunity, if they can embarrass the president of Indonesia by pointing out that he's dating
08:52a KGB agent,
08:54perhaps then they could twist his arm into working for the U.S.
08:59The problem is, how can the CIA leak a film it doesn't have?
09:03One that's locked away by Soviet intelligence forces.
09:07So it comes up with a radical idea.
09:09Fake it.
09:13Now the CIA can do a lot of things, but they cannot be caught producing porn, and certainly not one
09:19starring the leader of another nation.
09:20So this needs to be a totally off-the-books operation, conducted by a team who can make this film
09:26without any trace leading back to Langley.
09:35The CIA shows Mayhew photographs of the Kremlin suite and Sukarno's blonde lover.
09:42Both will have to be exact for the fake film to be believable.
09:52Mayhew gets straight to work, and he knows exactly who to call.
09:58At the top of his address book is the Academy Award-winning actor and famed singer Bing Crosby,
10:04the voice behind White Christmas, and his brother, Larry.
10:07Mayhew convinces the Crosbys to do their part for their country.
10:12So they find a small Hollywood studio, and they convert it into a replica of the Kremlin suite, as seen
10:19in the CIA photographs.
10:21The Crosbys supply Mayhew with a camera and teach him how to use it,
10:25keeping the film's crew to an absolute minimum, and maintaining secrecy.
10:31The biggest challenge is finding the right cast.
10:35He needs perfect doubles for Sukarno and the KGB agent.
10:39For help, he turns to local law enforcement.
10:43First, they find a doppelganger for this KGB agent.
10:47She's in fact an informant for the police.
10:49For convincing Sukarno, a Hispanic-looking former roommate,
10:54with help from Bing Crosby's makeup artists,
10:57they're able to turn him into a near-perfect replica of the Indonesian president.
11:05With the set and cast in place, the cameras are ready to roll.
11:10In the dead of night, Mayhew, his team, and the two actors shoot their fake tryst.
11:19The set is dressed to the tiniest detail, and lighting mimics the grainy look of hidden surveillance.
11:27After months of planning, filming is over in just a few minutes.
11:35One story goes that worrying about the consequences of putting together a fake film,
11:40the CIA got cold feet and never released it.
11:44But Mayhew said that steals from his film were circulated in Indonesia,
11:50which caused the president to drop the blonde and eventually led to his fall from power.
11:56Either way, the story of Hollywood's most unlikely production stays secret for more than a decade.
12:03In 1976, Alexander Coburn exposes the story in an article for The Village Voice.
12:12Today, in the age of deep fakes and AI images, the story seems even more incredible.
12:19But once upon a time, a fake movie was enough to topple a president.
12:27Secret units are meant to stay hidden, out of sight, and in deep cover,
12:32like Unit 29155, a distinctly unmemorable name for a team of Russian assassins.
12:41Unit 29155 is a clandestine Russian military unit that has been in existence since at least 2008,
12:50and they're linked to poisonings and sabotage across Europe.
12:56For years, the unit works in total secrecy, unknown and unseen by the world's governments and intelligence services.
13:08Then in 2018, one operation changes everything.
13:12It's a spring afternoon in the city of Salisbury, England,
13:16and locals find two people slumped on a bench.
13:23So somebody quickly dials 999, and first responders go rushing in.
13:30As the hours pass, it becomes clear to residents that this is no normal incident.
13:36Hazmat suits appear, and a huge portion of the city center is completely closed off.
13:43Soon, police identify the victims.
13:46Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who defected to Britain,
13:51and his daughter, Yulia.
13:54Investigators discovered that the Skripals have been poisoned with something called Novichok.
13:59This is an assassination attempt, and really there's only one plausible suspect.
14:04Russian military intelligence.
14:08Both Sergei and Yulia are near death when found.
14:13But after weeks in the hospital, they somehow survive.
14:17Global news outlets begin to point the finger.
14:20Russian military intelligence is now the prime suspect.
14:25Can investigators find any hard evidence linking Russia to the attack?
14:30British police investigate, and months later they release CCTV stills and video footage of two men
14:35that they believe travel from Russia to Salisbury to carry out these poisonings.
14:39And the names listed in the passports are Ruslan Bushirov and Alexander Petrov.
14:46A database search for these names turns up nothing, and the investigation grinds to a halt.
14:52This is where Christo Grozev comes in.
14:55At the time, Grozev is the lead researcher at Bellingcat,
14:59an open-source investigative group that uncovers covert operations.
15:04And Grozev sets about trying to uncover these men's real identities.
15:10With the men's names offering no clues, Grozev turns to the only other piece of information he has.
15:18Their passports.
15:20Grozev uncovers a crucial detail reported in the Russian press.
15:25The passport numbers of these two men are virtually identical, except for the last three numbers.
15:32In a country of over 140 million people,
15:37the chances of two travelers having nearly consecutive passport numbers
15:41on the same plane going to the same city is almost impossible.
15:47Grozev attempts to trace the two Salisbury suspects online, but finds nothing.
15:53Which is odd, because in a world where almost everyone leaves a digital trail,
15:57a total absence of information suggests something deliberate.
16:00It's a hallmark of fabricated identities.
16:03With no other personal details on the men,
16:06once again, the investigation hits a dead end.
16:09That's when one of Grozev's ex-intelligence contacts gives him an idea.
16:14Why not look at the alumni of Russia's military academies
16:17to search for any high-flying graduates,
16:20men who might have been recruited by the elite security services
16:23and match the photos of the Salisbury killers?
16:27One of these places is Russia's Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School,
16:32which is one of Russia's oldest military academies that has connections to the GRU,
16:37which is Russia's secretive military intelligence agency.
16:41Grozev begins cross-checking the school's graduates with award rolls
16:45and keeps hitting one name, Colonel Anatoly Chopiga.
16:50Since graduating, he has become a decorated GRU officer
16:54and recipient of Russia's highest honor, the hero of the Russian Federation.
16:59When Grozev compares photographs of Chopiga with Ruslan Boshirov...
17:08...they're the same men.
17:11A parallel search of an elite Russian military medical school
17:15finds that Chopiga's accomplice, Alexander Petrov,
17:19matches the image of an Alexander Mishkin.
17:24And Mishkin's car is even registered to the GRU's Moscow headquarters.
17:30It leaves no doubt.
17:32The two men's arrival before the poisoning is no coincidence.
17:35They're highly trained Russian killers operating under state-issued false identities.
17:41Most investigators would stop here.
17:43But Grozev pushes further.
17:45He's determined to uncover the sprawling secret unit
17:48that he believes is behind the Skripal plot.
17:51His big break comes when a Russian opposition paper exposes a third suspect.
17:57Sergei Fedotov.
18:00Grozev discovers he's really Denis Sergeyev, a senior GRU officer.
18:07By looking into Sergeyev's travel records,
18:10Grozev sees a chilling pattern.
18:13Wherever Sergeyev goes, disaster follows.
18:16A weapons depot explodes in the Czech Republic in 2014.
18:22There's an attempted poisoning of an arms dealer in Bulgaria in 2015.
18:28Essentially, if Sergeyev shows up at passport control,
18:31it pretty much means the Kremlin has marked the target.
18:36Grozev digs deeper and discovers Sergeyev is a senior figure
18:40in a top-secret GRU unit of assassins and saboteurs.
18:44After years in the shadows,
18:46the existence of Unit 29155 is exposed.
18:51Using the same techniques that he used
18:53to identify the two attackers of the Skripals,
18:56Grozev keeps going.
18:57And ultimately, he's able to uncover the identities
19:00of dozens of members of this secret subunit.
19:03And he makes sure that Western law enforcement
19:05and Interpol know exactly who they are.
19:10In one swoop, Unit 29155's operations
19:15are disrupted for a generation.
19:19In 2019, Grozev publishes his findings.
19:23The revelation of a secret Russian hit squad
19:26creates a sensation worldwide.
19:29But for his extraordinary detective work,
19:32Grozev pays a high price.
19:34In early October, Western intelligence warned Grozev
19:38new Russian operatives have been detected in Europe,
19:41gathering information on his movements.
19:43Grozev's name is now on a kill list.
19:47Grozev exposed Russia's most secret assassination unit.
19:52Now he's forced into a life on the run.
19:58Some army units get the job done with force.
20:01Others use deception.
20:03Like the Alamo scouts in World War II,
20:05who rescued 500 prisoners in just 28 minutes.
20:13In the midst of World War II,
20:15the United States creates a secret unit
20:17that is so clandestine,
20:19not even U.S. military service people
20:22know that it exists.
20:23They're not shock troops.
20:25They're not commandos.
20:26They're specialist reconnaissance spies.
20:30They're called the Alamo scouts.
20:33More than 700 men try out,
20:35but only 138 are chosen,
20:37the most resourceful and unbreakable.
20:43Their most important mission
20:45begins in the Philippines in 1945,
20:49when a local passes along troubling intelligence.
20:53500 Allied prisoners are being held in a POW camp
20:57near a village called Cabanatuan,
20:59about 30 miles inside Japanese-held territory.
21:04The prisoners being held at Cabanatuan don't know it,
21:07but they are in mortal danger.
21:09If liberation looks imminent,
21:11the order is simple.
21:12Execute them.
21:14It's a job for the Alamo scouts.
21:18Their mission is to get eyes on the camp
21:21and gather intel for a U.S. Army ranger rescue operation.
21:25They are masters at sneaking behind enemy lines
21:29without being seen themselves.
21:32They're led by Lieutenant William Nellist,
21:35a combat veteran with a talent for deception and disguise.
21:40He assembles an elite team of 13 men for the mission.
21:43They are literally the best of the best,
21:47trained in jungle survival and guerrilla tactics.
21:51If anyone can get near the camp
21:52without triggering a massacre, it's them.
21:56On January 27th, the operation begins.
22:00But as the 13 men approach Cabanatuan,
22:03they encounter a problem.
22:05Lieutenant William Nellist discovers
22:07all of the foliage and normal cover they expected
22:10is actually not there.
22:13Cabanatuan is built in the middle of a rice paddy.
22:16The space around it is wide open.
22:19The enemy has guard towers
22:20and the area is under observation at all times.
22:23Then Nellist spots a crumbling shack
22:25overlooking the camp.
22:27If he can reach it,
22:28he'll have the perfect vantage point
22:30to scout the camp's defense.
22:32Nellist decides that he and another man
22:34will essentially disguise themselves
22:35as Filipino rice paddy workers.
22:39They wear coarse shirts and straw hats
22:41that they picked up from local villagers.
22:44And in plain sight of the Japanese guards,
22:47they head out across the rice paddies
22:49and go to the shack.
22:52If their deception isn't perfect,
22:54the consequences could be deadly.
22:57They eventually reach the shack,
23:00located close enough to the camp
23:01that it can function
23:03as an excellent observation post.
23:05Inside the shack,
23:07they perform surveillance for over two hours.
23:09They draw a detailed map of the camp
23:12and they count around 250 guards.
23:17The problem is the guard force
23:19is more than twice as large
23:21as they'd been led to expect.
23:23And the American prisoners
23:25are in terrible physical shape.
23:28They've been weakened by starvation,
23:31torture, and death marches.
23:33In fact, some of the POWs are so weak,
23:36they can barely move at all.
23:39Outmanned and outgunned,
23:41they devise a rescue plan
23:43that uses deception to level the field.
23:45The plan that the Alamo scouts come up with,
23:47they need something to function as a distraction.
23:50A U.S. Army Air Force's P-61 Black Widow night fighter
23:54will fly in simulating
23:56that it is encountering engine problems,
23:59and then they'll launch the raid,
24:01recover the prisoners of war
24:03using caribou and bamboo stretchers,
24:06move them to safety.
24:10On the night of January 30th,
24:13the scouts, now backed by the 6th Army
24:15and local guerrillas,
24:17move into position for the rescue.
24:19Inside the camp,
24:20Japanese guards lounge about smoking.
24:23What the guards don't know
24:24is that the attack is already underway,
24:27starting with a diversion.
24:31A P-61 Black Widow night fighter swoops low.
24:35Engines roaring, backfiring, it's weaving.
24:38It all is trying to sell the illusion
24:40of a stricken plane that's about to crash.
24:42And the guards, naturally, look skyward,
24:44distracted.
24:46The rescue raid springs into motion.
24:52The U.S. troops and the Filipino guerrillas
24:55converge on the camp.
24:58The guards are overwhelmed and confused.
25:00They don't realize what's happening
25:02until it's too late.
25:04They breach through the fence of the POW camp,
25:06get inside, and begin liberating prisoners.
25:11It all goes down like clockwork.
25:15The raid is over in less than 30 minutes.
25:18The Japanese suffer nearly 600 casualties,
25:21but not a single Alamo scout is lost.
25:25Altogether, 500 Allied prisoners are freed.
25:29This is, like, one of the most daring, heroic operations
25:33the American military conducted during World War II.
25:37Despite their success,
25:39for over 40 years,
25:40the Alamo scouts remain a secret.
25:43The records of their operations
25:46are, for all intents and purposes,
25:47just buried.
25:50In 1986, the U.S. Army finally declassifies the record
25:55of the Alamo scouts.
25:57Two years after their records are declassified,
26:00the Alamo scouts are granted the insignia
26:03of a special forces soldier.
26:05Over 40 years after their heroics in the Philippines,
26:09the Alamo scouts finally receive recognition
26:11for pulling off one of the most daring POW rescue missions
26:16in American history.
26:21Most secret units stay out of sight.
26:24They rely on false identities
26:26and clever disguises.
26:28But during the Cold War,
26:30the Soviet Union assembles a team
26:32that truly operates below the surface,
26:34an elite force of highly trained dolphins.
26:43At the height of the Cold War,
26:45Soviet Navy commanders are worried.
26:48They're concerned enemy divers
26:51could slip into their bases
26:52and sabotage their fleet without being detected.
26:55In the warm waters off the Crimean Peninsula,
26:58the USSR sets up
27:00the top-secret training school for dolphins.
27:05The Soviets,
27:06by utilizing the dolphins' incredible hearing
27:08and intelligence,
27:10create a highly effective early warning defense system
27:13for any possible inbound enemy submarines.
27:17The dolphins are fully trained
27:19to trail a signal buoy
27:20and kept on standby.
27:25In 1991,
27:27the Soviet Union breaks apart.
27:29Modern Russia has no use for these trained dolphins.
27:33So, the Marine Mammal Program
27:35falls apart
27:36and is just remembered as a relic
27:38of the old Soviet Empire.
27:44Fast forward three decades
27:46and the Mammal Program resurfaces
27:48in the most unexpected of places.
27:51It's a spring day off the coast of Norway.
27:53Three fishermen spot something strange drifting in the ocean.
27:56As they get closer,
27:57they realize it's a beluga whale.
28:01Now, this is odd.
28:02Belugas swim in colder waters than this.
28:05Also, they typically travel in pods.
28:07So, for it to be this far south
28:09and to be alone,
28:10something is suspicious here.
28:12As the whale swims by,
28:14the fishermen notice
28:15that there's something caught
28:17around the beluga's body.
28:18One of the fishermen
28:19dives into the water
28:21to help the animal.
28:22But once in the water,
28:24the fishermen realizes
28:26that this isn't debris
28:27wrapped around the whale.
28:28This is a carefully designed harness.
28:33As they haul the harness onto deck,
28:35they spot something strange.
28:37A stamp that says,
28:39Equipment, St. Petersburg.
28:40This isn't fishing gear.
28:42It's Russian tech.
28:45Just for the record,
28:46no zoo or research institution
28:48has put out a statement
28:50saying that they are missing their beluga.
28:52It is a total mystery
28:53where this thing came from.
28:56The mystery quickly makes
28:58international headlines.
28:59And news outlets settle
29:01on the unsettling conclusion
29:04a Russian spy whale
29:06has just surfaced
29:07in Norwegian waters.
29:09Locals embrace the theory
29:11and they give the animal a name.
29:14Valdemir,
29:14which is a playful mashup
29:16of the word val,
29:17which is Norwegian for whale,
29:19and the first name
29:20of Russia's president,
29:21Vladimir Putin.
29:23The Putin administration
29:24doesn't confirm knowledge
29:26of who Valdemir.
29:28Intelligence journalists
29:29across the world
29:30start digging in
29:31to see if Valdemir
29:32really is a part
29:33of a secret Russian unit.
29:36Footage on social media
29:38of Valdemir
29:39playing with tourists
29:39along Norway's coast
29:41reveals a pretty big clue.
29:43It shows Valdemir
29:45being playful,
29:46tugging at ropes,
29:47nudging boats.
29:48He even retrieves
29:48a girl's phone
29:49from the seabed.
29:50It becomes clear
29:51that this whale
29:52has experience
29:53with humans
29:54and may even be trained,
29:56but it's not clear
29:57by who or why.
30:00The following month,
30:02European journalists
30:03make a breakthrough
30:03while trawling
30:04through Google Maps.
30:07They're scrolling
30:08along the coastline
30:09looking at clues
30:09and they spot something
30:11hiding in plain sight
30:12in Olenya Bay
30:13near Murmansk.
30:15Floating in the water
30:17are what appear
30:17to be large pens
30:19roughly 20 meters wide.
30:21Murmansk is Russia's
30:22key Arctic port
30:23and the base
30:25for its main submarine force,
30:27the Northern Fleet.
30:28That fleet comprises
30:30more than 30 submarines
30:31including a bunch
30:33that are capable
30:34of launching nuclear strikes.
30:35The freezing waters
30:37of Murmansk
30:38are too cold
30:38for most dolphin species.
30:41Have Russians begun
30:42secretly training
30:43a new mammal
30:44to serve as
30:45underwater sentinels?
30:47Inside those berths
30:49are white shapes
30:50that match
30:51the sizes
30:52of beluga whales.
30:55This discovery
30:56is only the tip
30:57of the iceberg.
30:59Later that month,
31:00more intel is revealed.
31:01A tip reaches
31:03Ukrainian marine biologist
31:04Dr. Olga Spock.
31:06She's told
31:06Valdemir
31:07is actually a whale
31:09named Andruha
31:10and went missing
31:11from the Research Institute
31:13for Applied Problems
31:14in Murmansk.
31:16It's a branch
31:17of the Russian military
31:18that has been
31:19secretly training
31:21beluga whales.
31:23A secret unit
31:24of Russian marine troops
31:26is finally exposed
31:27by the most
31:28unexpected whistleblower.
31:30After his escape,
31:32Valdemir lives out
31:33the remainder
31:33of his days
31:34on the Norwegian coast,
31:35living proof
31:36of Russia's
31:37latest shadow unit,
31:38this top secret
31:40battalion
31:40of cute belugas
31:42that are trained
31:43to guard
31:43its submarine
31:44strike force.
31:48When a secret unit
31:50mission ends
31:50in success,
31:51no one ever
31:52hears about it.
31:53But when a mission
31:54fails,
31:55that's when it
31:56makes the headlines.
31:59In the early years
32:01of the Cold War,
32:01the CIA creates
32:03its own team
32:03of cat burglars,
32:04a unit so secret
32:05it operates
32:06entirely off the books.
32:09It's known only
32:10as the shop.
32:12They're trained
32:12in lockpicking,
32:14safe cracking,
32:15and silent entry.
32:16And they're the CIA's
32:18answer when what
32:19they're looking for
32:20is literally
32:21locked behind
32:22closed doors.
32:26In 1989,
32:28the CIA has a problem.
32:30Only the shop
32:31can crack.
32:32High in the Himalayas.
32:34The CIA has
32:35intelligence that
32:36a code machine
32:37is locked away
32:38inside the East
32:39German embassy
32:40in Kathmandu,
32:41Nepal.
32:43It's the key
32:44to unlocking
32:44three decades
32:45of encrypted
32:46East German
32:47communications.
32:47It's an
32:48intelligence goldmine.
32:50If they can steal
32:51the code machine,
32:52then they can
32:53decrypt the intelligence
32:54and tip the balance
32:55between the U.S.
32:56and its Cold War rivals.
32:58At this point,
32:59the Eastern Bloc
33:00is crumbling.
33:01And understanding
33:02what's happening
33:03behind the Iron Curtain
33:05has never been
33:06more critical.
33:08With the stakes
33:08so high,
33:09the CIA turns
33:10to its most skilled
33:11safe cracker,
33:14a man named
33:15Doug Grote.
33:16Grote is a former
33:17Green Beret,
33:18trained in survival
33:19and evasion.
33:20But after leaving
33:21the Special Forces
33:22in 1980,
33:23he joins the CIA.
33:25By 1989,
33:27he's a seven-year
33:28veteran of the shop,
33:29trusted with the job
33:30no one else
33:31can handle.
33:32Grote is ordered
33:33to fly to Kathmandu
33:35and steal the code machine.
33:37He's ordered
33:37to take the entire safe
33:39because attempting
33:40to crack it on site
33:41would just take
33:42too much time.
33:45As with most
33:46of his work,
33:46failure means
33:48likely death.
33:49Members of the shop
33:50do not have
33:52diplomatic immunity,
33:53and that means
33:53that if they are caught,
33:55the CIA will deny
33:57their existence
33:57and disavow them.
34:00Two days before
34:02the operation,
34:03Grote's team arrives
34:04in Nepal,
34:05disguised as tourists.
34:06They move into
34:07a safe house
34:08and begin
34:08final preparations.
34:10To give Grote's team
34:11a window of time
34:12to carry out
34:13the operation,
34:14CIA station
34:15in Kathmandu
34:16sets up
34:16a diplomatic event
34:17about an hour
34:18outside of the city.
34:19They know
34:20that the East Germans
34:21can't deny
34:22an invitation
34:23to come to the event,
34:26which gives Grote's team
34:27about three solid hours
34:29to carry out
34:29this mission.
34:32Grote and his team
34:33need to reach
34:34the East German embassy
34:35without any suspicion.
34:37That's kind of hard
34:39for a group of white dudes
34:40to accomplish
34:40in Kathmandu.
34:43Grote and his team
34:44are given latex masks,
34:46complete with black hair
34:48and darker skin tone
34:49to turn them
34:50into convincing
34:51Nepalese men.
34:54On the day,
34:55the Americans
34:55put on their disguises
34:57and begin the operation.
34:59At the closed embassy,
35:01Grote quietly opens
35:03the front door.
35:06Inside the embassy,
35:07it's too hot
35:08to concentrate,
35:08so they have no choice.
35:09They have to remove
35:10their masks.
35:13Grote and his team
35:14identify the safe,
35:15but it's much heavier
35:17than they anticipated.
35:19They drag the safe
35:21down the stairs,
35:22load it into a van,
35:23and speed away
35:24to the U.S. embassy.
35:27When they reach
35:28the embassy,
35:29Grote cracks open
35:30the safe
35:31to retrieve his prize.
35:32But it's completely empty.
35:35It's a failure.
35:37And soon,
35:38when another job
35:39goes wrong,
35:41Grote is furious.
35:43It's putting
35:43his intelligence team
35:44at risk.
35:45In the months
35:46that follow,
35:47Grote falls out
35:48with the CIA
35:49and eventually
35:50leaves the agency
35:52under a cloud.
35:55Decades later,
35:56in 2012,
35:57Grote reveals details
35:58of the shop
35:59to journalist David Wise,
36:00who,
36:01through Grote's testimony
36:02and other sources,
36:03pieces together details
36:04of this still
36:05very top-secret unit.
36:08In fact,
36:09it's Wise
36:10who publishes
36:10a bombshell article
36:11revealing the botched
36:13Katmandu job
36:14and sheds light
36:15for the first time
36:16on the inner workings
36:17of the shop.
36:18The Katmandu job
36:19remains the only
36:20confirmed operation
36:21that the shop
36:22ever carried out,
36:23even though people
36:24assume dozens,
36:25if not hundreds,
36:26of additional operations
36:27have also taken place.
36:32were it not for that
36:33failed mission,
36:34we'd probably never
36:36have known
36:36that the shop
36:37even existed.
36:41Spying on your enemies
36:42is standard practice,
36:43but when your targets
36:45are your own allies,
36:47espionage enters
36:48dangerous new territory.
36:53F-6 is a subunit
36:55of the CIA's
36:56Special Collections Service.
36:57Essentially,
36:57it's a team
36:58of master eavesdroppers.
37:00Formed late
37:01in the Cold War,
37:02some of their triumphs
37:02include bugging
37:03Moscow's phone exchanges
37:05and tapping
37:05Pakistan communication networks
37:07to steal nuclear plans.
37:09If you want to listen in
37:10on any conversation
37:12on Earth,
37:13these are the people
37:14you call.
37:16The United States'
37:18relationship with Germany
37:19is facing
37:20its biggest strain
37:21since the end
37:22of World War II.
37:24George W. Bush
37:25is making his case
37:26to start the Iraq War.
37:29Germany will not
37:30be joining in.
37:32It is a very public snub,
37:34and it makes
37:35intelligence chiefs
37:36inside the U.S. government
37:38uneasy.
37:40If Berlin is so willing
37:42to openly defy
37:43the United States,
37:44that creates fears
37:46they're sowing distrust
37:47among America's
37:48other allies.
37:51The Bush administration
37:52wants to know
37:53what's being said
37:54behind closed doors
37:55in Germany.
37:56So it turns to F6.
38:01To bug the German government,
38:03F6 places their faith
38:04in a newly developed
38:05piece of computer code
38:06that targets a weak spot
38:07in the administration's
38:09communication security.
38:11For sensitive business,
38:13the Germans use
38:14secure encrypted landlines,
38:16but they all carry
38:18mobile phones
38:19which bounce
38:20microwave signals
38:21from tower to tower.
38:23F6 has developed
38:25a top-secret program
38:26to monitor
38:27these transmissions.
38:29F6 can sift
38:31through the storm cloud
38:32of microwaves
38:33whizzing over a city
38:34or an entire nation
38:35and pull out
38:36any messages
38:37linked to that number.
38:40The entire operation
38:42can be run
38:42from the U.S. Embassy
38:43in Berlin.
38:44There,
38:45they can place
38:46an antenna on high
38:47to trawl the airwaves
38:49for sensitive communications
38:50between targeted politicians.
38:54The challenge
38:55is installing the antennas
38:57where they won't
38:57attract attention.
39:01F6's solution
39:02is another piece
39:03of high-tech trickery.
39:05The antennas
39:06are placed
39:06inside rooms
39:07at the very top
39:08of the U.S. Embassy
39:09near windows,
39:10which they coat
39:11with a special
39:12dielectric film.
39:13What this film does
39:14is it blocks
39:15visible light,
39:15concealing the antenna
39:16while allowing radio
39:17and microwaves
39:18to pass through
39:19to be collected.
39:22With the antennas
39:23in place,
39:24the U.S. now
39:25has a direct line
39:26into Germany's
39:27inner circle.
39:30For weeks,
39:31the U.S. pushes Germany
39:32to support
39:33the invasion of Iraq,
39:34all while simultaneously
39:35listening to the private
39:36communications
39:37of German leadership.
39:39Armed with this intel,
39:40they soon realize
39:41that the Germans
39:42likely won't budge,
39:43and it's little surprise
39:44to the Americans
39:45when Germany refuses
39:46to join their invasion
39:47of Iraq
39:47in March of 2003.
39:50F6 keeps
39:51the phone tap operation
39:52running,
39:53even after the Iraq war ends.
39:56As Angela Merkel
39:57rises to become
39:58chancellor
39:59and one of the West's
40:00most influential politicians,
40:02her phone remains
40:04under surveillance.
40:05On paper,
40:06she's one of Washington's
40:07closest allies,
40:09yet F6 keeps listening,
40:12undetected
40:12and undeterred.
40:14It's a secret
40:16for years
40:16until June 2013,
40:19when it's finally revealed.
40:22NSA contractor Edward Snowden
40:24walks off the job
40:25in Hawaii,
40:27and he's carrying
40:28what will become
40:29one of the most
40:30damaging intelligence leaks
40:32in history.
40:34He releases this information
40:36to journalists.
40:37Overnight,
40:38the world learns
40:39of vast and secret
40:41U.S. surveillance programs.
40:44Buried among the details
40:46is a document
40:47listing the personal number
40:48of Angela Merkel
40:49as an active NSA target.
40:53Scandal erupts,
40:54and Merkel
40:55calls President Obama
40:56to tell him
40:57spying on friends
40:58is not acceptable.
41:01Within days,
41:03the world learns
41:03that F6
41:04is tapping
41:05into the inner circles
41:06of allied governments.
41:07outrage sweeps
41:09Germany and beyond.
41:11The CIA
41:12never officially
41:13acknowledges
41:14the German
41:14eavesdropping operation,
41:16or even the existence
41:18of F6.
41:20The question is,
41:21who are they
41:22listening to now?
41:25From an unusual
41:27spy in the waters
41:28off Norway,
41:29to a daring rescue
41:30in World War II,
41:31and a team
41:32of deadly
41:33Russian assassins,
41:34secret units
41:35operate in every era.
41:37and for every government.
41:38When they succeed,
41:40no one's the wiser.
41:42But when they fail,
41:43the world finds out.
41:47They scientists
41:47of by콜
41:48They can't figure it out.
41:48They have smartanes
41:48brothers and sisters.
41:49But when they fail,
41:49they're dead enough.
41:49They can use the WIS
41:49to Spot researchers
41:49toω
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