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Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny S02E07
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00:06Tonight on Secrets Declassified, secret units unseen and unheard shaping events
00:13from the shadows. From a CIA heist high in the Himalayas, they're elite cat
00:18burglars risking their lives to steal the world's most guarded secrets. Or a
00:24surprising secret agent under deep cover. It wasn't just a whale, it looked like
00:29part of an intelligence operation. And a covert unit was a dirty secret. Now the
00:35CIA can do a lot of things, but they cannot be caught producing porn. These
00:40are the astonishing and sometimes terrible things done by governments and
00:44the people who work for them. It's time to bring them to light.
00:56During the Cold War, the US Navy creates a secret unit called Red Cell. Its mission? Stage mock
01:03attacks on US naval bases to test for vulnerabilities. And it's successful. A little too successful.
01:15By the mid 1980s, the United States is the world's preeminent military superpower. There
01:22isn't a nation on earth that can match it. It has the best equipment, the most advanced
01:26technology. Yet, there is a critical weakness. There have been a string of high profile attacks
01:33against US military installations. These have highlighted that the US military is vulnerable
01:37to small terrorist units. In 1984, the Navy creates Red Cell as a solution and launches
01:46it against its most secure bases. This mission is unlike anything the US Navy has ever sanctioned
01:52before. It's like mock terrorism against itself. To lead the unit, the Navy picks Richard Marcinko,
01:59a man who doesn't just think outside the box. He blows it up. Richard Marcinko, real life Rambo,
02:07he's one of the US Army's best fighters. But his reputation for flouting the rules gets him desk
02:13duty. He's a loose cannon that might be the perfect fit for the Red Cell operation. So he's placed in
02:20charge. He recruits 13 Navy SEALs and one Force Recon Marine. Now, officially, Red Cell's HQ is assigned
02:28to the Pentagon. However, in reality, Marcinko runs his unit from his favorite Virginia dive bar,
02:34Shooter McGee's. And it's here that the team spend their nights drinking, brawling, and planning covert
02:41operations. Soon, barroom bravado becomes real-world threat. Over the course of several months,
02:51Red Cell runs a string of increasingly bold operations. They infiltrate the world's largest
02:58naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, and plant dummy explosives. They bypass security at Naval Base
03:07New London. And they launch fake attacks on submarines.
03:14With each success, Marcinko pushes harder until he sets his sights on the biggest target of all.
03:22It's 1985 in California. President Reagan is on vacation at his ranch in Santa Barbara. And about
03:29an hour down the coast, Air Force One, the world's most defended plane, is parked at a secure naval base,
03:36Point 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. That is illegal, but Marcinko
03:58plays by his own rules.
04:00On August 30th, Marcinko gives the green light for the operation. One of his team members, disguised as a
04:08commander, drives up to the base with radio equipment, weapons, and dummy explosives hidden in the vehicle.
04:17He 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, loaded up with fake 500-pound bombs, and drive it straight up to Air Force
04:40One, 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. For the Navy, it's a major embarrassment. In a real attack, the
05:01President and his plane could have been blown up.
05:05It's a wake-up call, and security is completely overhauled. A brand new unit of specially trained Marines is created
05:12to 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.
05:26In 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. He's thrown against walls, he's kicked, he's punched, he's
05:44waterboarded.
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. Others destroy reputations.
06:42In the 1950s, the CIA forms a secret unit that fights the Cold War not with guns, but with a
06:50fake 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.
07:26In 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. He 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.
08:08Now 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 with his flight attendant slash KGB
08:38lover in a suite in the Kremlin.
08:41And, of course, they've done so for blackmail purposes.
08:46The 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, one that's locked away by Soviet intelligence
09:05forces?
09:07So it comes up with a radical idea. Fake it.
09:13Now the CIA can do a lot of things, but they cannot be caught producing porn.
09:18And certainly not one starring 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.
09:31Enter Robert Mayhew's secret unit and its network of Hollywood contacts.
09:35The CIA shows Mayhew photographs of the Kremlin suite and Sukarno's blonde lover.
09:43Both will have to be exact for the fake film to be believable.
09:53Mayhew gets straight to work, and he knows exactly who to call.
09:59At 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.
10:08Mayhew convinces the Crosbys to do their part for their country.
10:11So they find a small Hollywood studio, and they convert it into a replica of the Kremlin suite,
10:19as seen in the CIA photographs.
10:21The Crosbys supply Mayhew with a camera and teach him how to use it,
10:26keeping 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,
10:58they're able to turn him into a near-perfect replica of the Indonesian president.
11:06With the set and cast in place, the cameras are ready to roll.
11:11In the dead of night, Mayhew, his team, and the two actors shoot their fake tryst.
11:19The set is dressed to the tiniest detail,
11:22and lighting mimics the grainy look of hidden surveillance.
11:27After months of planning, filming is over in just a few minutes.
11:31What happens next is disputed.
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 stills 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,
13:17and 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.
13:46Sergey Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who defected to Britain,
13:52and his daughter, Yulia.
13:54Investigators discovered that the Skripals have been poisoned with something called Novichok.
13:59This is an assassination attempt.
14:01And really, there's only one plausible suspect.
14:05Russian military intelligence.
14:08Both Sergey 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?
14:29British police investigate, and months later they release CCTV stills and video footage of two men that they believe travel
14:36from 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.
14:51This is where Christo Grozev comes in.
14:55At the time, Grozev is the lead researcher at Bellingcat, an open-source investigative group that uncovers covert operations.
15:04And Grozev sets about trying to uncover these men's real identities.
15:11With the men's names offering no clues, Grozev turns to the only other piece of information he has.
15:18Their passports.
15:19Grozev 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.
15:33In a country of over 140 million people, the chances of two travelers having nearly consecutive passport numbers on the
15:42same plane going to the same city is almost impossible.
15:47Grozev attempts to trace the two Salisbury suspects online but finds nothing, which is odd because in a world where
15:55almost everyone leaves a digital trail, a total absence of information suggests something deliberate.
16:00It's a hallmark of fabricated identities.
16:02With no other personal details on the men, once 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 to search for any high-flying graduates, men who might
16:21have been recruited by the elite security services and match the photos of the Salisbury killers.
16:26One of these places is Russia's Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School, which is one of Russia's oldest military
16:35academies that has connections to the GRU, which is Russia's secretive military intelligence agency.
16:41Grozev begins cross-checking the school's graduates with award roles and keeps hitting one name, Colonel Anatoly Chopiga.
16:50Since graduating, he has become a decorated GRU officer and recipient of Russia's highest honor, the hero of the Russian
16:58Federation.
16:58When Grozev compares photographs of Chopiga with Ruslan Boshirov, they're the same men.
17:11A parallel search of an elite Russian military medical school finds that Chopiga's accomplice, Alexander Petrov, matches the image of
17:20an Alexander Mishkin.
17:24And Mishkin's car is even registered to the GRU's Moscow headquarters.
17:30It leaves no doubt. The 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, but Grozev pushes further.
17:45He's determined to uncover the sprawling secret unit that he believes is behind the Skripal plot.
17:51His big break comes when a Russian opposition paper exposes a third suspect, Sergey Fedotov.
18:00Grozev discovers he's really Denis Sergeyev, a senior GRU officer.
18:07By looking into Sergeyev's travel records, Grozev 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, it pretty much means the Kremlin has marked the target.
18:36Grozev digs deeper and discovers Sergeyev is a senior figure in a top-secret GRU unit of assassins and saboteurs.
18:44After years in the shadows, the existence of Unit 29155 is exposed.
18:51Using the same techniques that he used to identify the two attackers of the Skripals, Grozev keeps going.
18:57And ultimately, he's able to uncover the identities of dozens of members of this secret subunit.
19:03And he makes sure that Western law enforcement and Interpol know exactly who they are.
19:10In one swoop, Unit 29155's operations are disrupted for a generation.
19:19In 2019, Grozev publishes his findings.
19:24The revelation of a secret Russian hit squad creates a sensation worldwide.
19:29But for his extraordinary detective work, Grozev pays a high price.
19:34In early October, Western intelligence warned Grozev.
19:39New Russian operatives have been detected in Europe, gathering information on his movements.
19:44Grozev's name is now on a kill list.
19:48Grozev 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, who rescued 500 prisoners in just 28 minutes.
20:13In the midst of World War II, the United States creates a secret unit that is so clandestine,
20:19not even US military service people know that it exists.
20:23They're not shock troops, they're not commandos, they're specialist reconnaissance spies.
20:30They're called the Alamo scouts.
20:33More than 700 men try out.
20:35But only 138 are chosen, the most resourceful and unbreakable.
20:44Their most important mission begins in the Philippines in 1945,
20:49when a local passes along troubling intelligence.
20:53500 Allied prisoners are being held in a POW camp near a village called Cabana Tuan,
20:59about 30 miles inside Japanese-held territory.
21:04The prisoners being held at Cabana Tuan don't know it, but they are in mortal danger.
21:09If liberation looks imminent, the order is simple. Execute them.
21:14It's a job for the Alamo scouts.
21:18Their mission is to get eyes on the camp and gather intel for a US Army Ranger rescue operation.
21:25They are masters at sneaking behind enemy lines without being seen themselves.
21:32They're led by Lieutenant William Nellist, a combat veteran with a talent for deception and disguise.
21:40He assembles an elite team of 13 men for the mission.
21:44They are literally the best of the best, trained in jungle survival and guerrilla tactics.
21:51If anyone can get near the camp without triggering a massacre, it's them.
21:56On January 27th, the operation begins.
21:59But as the 13 men approach Cabana Tuan, they encounter a problem.
22:05Lieutenant William Nellist discovers all of the foliage and normal cover they expected is actually not there.
22:12Cabana Tuan is built in the middle of a rice paddy.
22:16The space around it is wide open.
22:19The enemy has guard towers and the area is under observation at all times.
22:23Then Nellist spots a crumbling shack overlooking the camp.
22:27If he can reach it, he'll have the perfect vantage point to scout the camp's defense.
22:32Nellist decides that he and another man will essentially disguise themselves as Filipino rice paddy workers.
22:39They wear coarse shirts and straw hats that they picked up from local villagers.
22:43And in plain sight of the Japanese guards, they head out across the rice paddies and go to the shack.
22:52If their deception isn't perfect, the consequences could be deadly.
22:57They eventually reach the shack, located close enough to the camp that it can function as an excellent observation post.
23:05Inside the shack, they perform surveillance for over two hours.
23:09They draw a detailed map of the camp and they count around 250 guards.
23:17The problem is the guard force is more than twice as large as they'd been led to expect.
23:23And the American prisoners are in terrible physical shape.
23:28They've been weakened by starvation, torture and death marches.
23:33In fact, some of the POWs are so weak, they can barely move at all.
23:39Outmanned and outgunned, they devise a rescue plan that uses deception to level the field.
23:45The plan that the Alamo scouts come up with, they need something to function as a distraction.
23:50A U.S. Army Air Force's P-61 Black Widow night fighter will fly in, simulating that it is encountering
23:58engine problems.
23:59And then they'll launch the raid, recover the prisoners of war using caribou and bamboo stretchers, move them to safety.
24:11On the night of January 30th, the scouts, now backed by the 6th Army and local guerrillas, move into position
24:18for the rescue.
24:19Inside the camp, Japanese guards lounge about smoking.
24:23What the guards don't know is that the attack is already underway, starting with a diversion.
24:31A P-61 Black Widow night fighter swoops low, engines roaring, backfiring, it's weaving.
24:38It all is trying to sell the illusion of a stricken plane that's about to crash.
24:42And the guards, naturally, look skyward, distracted.
24:46The rescue raid springs into motion.
24:52The U.S. troops and the Filipino guerrillas converge on the camp.
24:58The guards are overwhelmed and confused.
25:00They don't realize what's happening until it's too late.
25:04They breach through the fence of the POW camp, get 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, but 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 the American military conducted during World War II.
25:37Despite their success, for over 40 years, the Alamo scouts remain a secret.
25:44The records of their operations are, for all intents and purposes, just buried.
25:51In 1986, the U.S. Army finally declassifies the record of the Alamo scouts.
25:57Two years after their records are declassified, the Alamo scouts are granted the insignia of a Special Forces soldier.
26:05Over 40 years after their heroics in the Philippines, the Alamo scouts finally receive recognition
26:11for pulling off one of the most daring POW rescue missions in American history.
26:21Most secret units stay out of sight.
26:24They rely on false identities and clever disguises.
26:28But during the Cold War, the Soviet Union assembles a team that truly operates below the surface.
26:34An elite force of highly trained dolphins.
26:43At the height of the Cold War, Soviet Navy commanders are worried.
26:48Their concern, enemy divers could slip into their bases and sabotage their fleet without being detected.
26:55In the warm waters off the Crimean Peninsula, the USSR sets up a top-secret training school for dolphins.
27:05The Soviets, by utilizing the dolphins' incredible hearing and intelligence,
27:10create a highly effective early warning defense system for any possible inbound enemy submarines.
27:17The dolphins are fully trained to trail a signal buoy and kept on standby.
27:25In 1991, the Soviet Union breaks apart.
27:29Modern Russia has no use for these trained dolphins.
27:33So, the Marine Mammal Program falls apart and is just remembered as a relic of the old Soviet Empire.
27:44Fast forward three decades and the Mammal Program resurfaces in the most unexpected of places.
27:51It's in spring day off the coast of Norway, three fishermen spot something strange drifting in the ocean.
27:56As they get closer, they 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 and to be alone, something is suspicious here.
28:12As the whale swims by, the fishermen notice that there's something caught around the beluga's body.
28:19One of the fishermen dives into the water to help the animal.
28:22But once in the water, the fishermen realizes that this isn't debris wrapped around the whale.
28:28This is a carefully designed harness.
28:33As they haul the harness onto deck, they spot something strange.
28:37A stamp that says, Equipment, St. Petersburg.
28:41This isn't fishing gear.
28:42It's Russian tech.
28:45Just for the record, no zoo or research institution has put out a statement saying that they are missing their
28:51beluga.
28:52It is a total mystery where this thing came from.
28:56The mystery quickly makes international headlines.
28:59And news outlets settle on the unsettling conclusion.
29:04A Russian spy whale has just surfaced in Norwegian waters.
29:09Locals embrace the theory and they give the animal a name.
29:14Voldemir.
29:15Which is a playful mashup of the word vol, which is Norwegian for whale.
29:19And the first name of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.
29:23The Putin administration doesn't confirm knowledge of who, Voldemir.
29:28Intelligence journalists across the world start digging in to see if Voldemir really is a part of a secret Russian
29:35unit.
29:36Footage on social media of Voldemir playing with tourists along Norway's coast reveals a pretty big clue.
29:43It shows Voldemir being playful, tugging at ropes, nudging boats.
29:48He even retrieves a girl's phone from the seabed.
29:50It becomes clear that this whale has experience with humans and may even be trained.
29:56But it's not clear by who or why.
30:00The following month, European journalists make a breakthrough while trawling through Google Maps.
30:07They're scrolling along the coastline looking at clues and they spot something hiding in plain sight in Olenya Bay near
30:14Murmansk.
30:15Floating in the water are what appeared to be large pens, roughly 20 meters wide.
30:21Murmansk is Russia's key Arctic port and the base for its main submarine force, the Northern Fleet.
30:28That fleet comprises more than 30 submarines, including a bunch that are capable of launching nuclear strikes.
30:35The freezing waters of Murmansk are too cold for most dolphin species.
30:41Have Russians begun secretly training a new mammal to serve as underwater sentinels?
30:47Inside those births are white shapes that match the sizes of beluga whales.
30:55This discovery is only the tip of the iceberg.
30:58Later that month, more intel is revealed.
31:01A tip reaches Ukrainian marine biologist Dr. Olga Spock.
31:06She's told Valdemir is actually a whale named Andruha and went missing from the Research Institute for Applied Problems in
31:15Murmansk.
31:16It's a branch of the Russian military that has been secretly training beluga whales.
31:23A secret unit of Russian marine troops is finally exposed by the most unexpected whistleblower.
31:30After his escape, Valdemir lives out the remainder of his days on the Norwegian coast, living proof of Russia's latest
31:37shadow unit.
31:38This top secret battalion of cute belugas that are trained to guard its submarine strike force.
31:48When a secret unit mission ends in success, no one ever hears about it.
31:53When a mission fails, that's when it makes the headlines.
31:59In the early years of the Cold War, the CIA creates its own team of cat burglars, a unit so
32:05secret it operates entirely off the books.
32:09It's known only as the shop.
32:12They're trained in lock picking, safe cracking, and silent entry.
32:17And they're the CIA's answer when what they're looking for is literally locked behind closed doors.
32:26In 1989, the CIA has a problem only the shop can crack. High in the Himalayas.
32:34The CIA has intelligence that a code machine is locked away inside the East German embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal.
32:43It's the key to unlocking three decades of encrypted East German communications.
32:48It's an intelligence goldmine.
32:50If they can steal the code machine, then they can decrypt the intelligence and tip the balance between the U
32:56.S. and its Cold War rivals.
32:58At this point, the Eastern Bloc is crumbling, and understanding what's happening behind the Iron Curtain has never been more
33:06critical.
33:07With the stakes so high, the CIA turns to its most skilled safe cracker, a man named Doug Grote.
33:16Grote is a former Green Beret, trained in survival and evasion.
33:20But after leaving the Special Forces in 1980, he joins the CIA.
33:25By 1989, he's a seven-year veteran of the shop, trusted with the jobs no one else can handle.
33:33Grote is ordered to fly to Kathmandu and steal the code machine.
33:37He's ordered to take the entire safe, because attempting to crack it on site would just take too much time.
33:45As with most of his work, failure means likely death.
33:48Members of the shop do not have diplomatic immunity, and that means that if they are caught, the CIA will
33:56deny their existence and disavow them.
34:00Two days before the operation, Grote's team arrives in Nepal, disguised as tourists.
34:06They move into a safe house and begin final preparations.
34:10To give Grote's team a window of time to carry out the operation, CIA station in Kathmandu sets up a
34:16diplomatic event about an hour outside of the city.
34:19They know that the East Germans can't deny an invitation to come to the event.
34:26Which gives Grote's team about three solid hours to carry out this mission.
34:32Grote and his team need to reach the East German embassy without any suspicion.
34:38That's kind of hard for a group of white dudes to accomplish in Kathmandu.
34:43Grote and his team are given latex masks, complete with black hair and darker skin tone, to turn them into
34:51convincing Nepalese men.
34:54On the day, the Americans put on their disguises and begin the operation.
34:59At the closed embassy, Grote quietly opens the front door.
35:06Inside the embassy, it's too hot to concentrate, so they have no choice. They have to remove their masks.
35:13Grote and his team identify the safe, but it's much heavier than they anticipated.
35:20They drag the safe down the stairs, load it into a van, and speed away to the US embassy.
35:27When they reach the embassy, Grote cracks open the safe to retrieve his prize.
35:32But it's completely empty.
35:35It's a failure.
35:36And soon, when another job goes wrong, Grote is furious.
35:42It's putting his intelligence team at risk.
35:46In the months that follow, Grote falls out with the CIA and eventually leaves the agency under a cloud.
35:55Decades later, in 2012, Grote reveals details of the shop to journalist David Wise,
36:00who, through Grote's testimony and other sources, pieces together details of this still very top secret unit.
36:08In fact, it's Wise who publishes a bombshell article revealing the botched Kathmandu job
36:14and sheds light for the first time on the inner workings of the shop.
36:18The Kathmandu job remains the only confirmed operation that the shop ever carried out,
36:23even though people assume dozens if not hundreds of additional operations have also taken place.
36:32Were it not for that failed mission, we'd probably never have known that the shop even existed.
36:41Spying on your enemies is standard practice.
36:44But when your targets are your own allies, espionage enters dangerous new territory.
36:53F-6 is a subunit of the CIA Special Collections Service.
36:57Essentially, it's a team of master eavesdroppers.
37:00Formed late in the Cold War, some of their triumphs include bugging Moscow's phone exchanges
37:05and tapping Pakistan communication networks to steal nuclear plans.
37:09If you want to listen in on any conversation on Earth, these are the people you call.
37:16The United States' relationship with Germany is facing its biggest strain since the end of World War II.
37:23George W. Bush is making his case to start the Iraq War.
37:29Germany will not be joining in.
37:32It is a very public snub.
37:34And it makes intelligence chiefs inside the U.S. government uneasy.
37:40If Berlin is so willing to openly defy the United States,
37:45that creates fears they're sowing distrust among America's other allies.
37:51The Bush administration wants to know what's being said behind closed doors in Germany.
37:57So it turns to F-6.
38:01To bug the German government, F-6 places their faith in a newly developed piece of computer code
38:06that targets a weak spot in the administration's communication security.
38:11For sensitive business, the Germans use secure encrypted landlines.
38:17But they all carry mobile phones which bounce microwave signals from tower to tower.
38:23F-6 has developed a top secret program to monitor these transmissions.
38:29F-6 can sift through the storm cloud of microwaves whizzing over a city or an entire nation
38:35and pull out any messages linked to that number.
38:40The entire operation can be run from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
38:44There, they can place an antenna on high to trawl the airwaves for sensitive communications between targeted politicians.
38:54The challenge is installing the antennas where they won't attract attention.
39:00F-6's solution is another piece of high-tech trickery.
39:05The antennas are placed inside rooms at the very top of the U.S. Embassy near windows,
39:10which they coat with a special dielectric film.
39:13What this film does is it blocks visible light,
39:16concealing the antenna while allowing radio and microwaves to pass through to be collected.
39:22With the antennas in place, the U.S. now has a direct line into Germany's inner circle.
39:30For weeks, the U.S. pushes Germany to support the invasion of Iraq,
39:34all while simultaneously listening to the private communications of German leadership.
39:39Armed with this intel, they soon realize that the Germans likely won't budge,
39:43and it's little surprise to the Americans when Germany refuses to join their invasion of Iraq in March of 2003.
39:50F-6 keeps the phone tap operation running, even after the Iraq War ends.
39:55As Angela Merkel rises to become chancellor and one of the West's most influential politicians,
40:02her phone remains under surveillance.
40:05On paper, she's one of Washington's closest allies.
40:09Yet F-6 keeps listening, undetected and undeterred.
40:14It stays secret for years, until June 2013, when it's finally revealed.
40:22NSA contractor Edward Snowden walks off the job in Hawaii,
40:26and he's carrying what will become one of the most damaging intelligence leaks in history.
40:34He releases this information to journalists.
40:37Overnight, the world learns of vast and secret U.S. surveillance programs.
40:44Buried among the details is a document listing the personal number of Angela Merkel as an active NSA target.
40:53Scandal erupts, and Merkel calls President Obama to tell him spying on friends is not acceptable.
41:01Within days, the world learns that F-6 is tapping into the inner circles of allied governments.
41:07Outrage sweeps Germany and beyond.
41:11The CIA never officially acknowledges the German eavesdropping operation, or even the existence of F-6.
41:20The question is, who are they listening to now?
41:25From an unusual spy in the waters off Norway, to a daring rescue in World War II,
41:31and a team of deadly Russian assassins, secret units operate in every era, and for every government.
41:38When they succeed, no one's the wiser.
41:42But when they fail, the world finds out.
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