00:00In 1974, the CIA built a ship to steal secrets from the bottom of the ocean.
00:05And the Soviets had no idea it was happening.
00:08Three years earlier, a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear warheads had sunk in the Pacific three miles down.
00:15The CIA wanted what was inside.
00:17So they built the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a massive vessel unlike anything ever made.
00:22Publicly, it was a deep-sea mining project funded by billionaire Howard Hughes.
00:27That was a lie.
00:28Every inch of it was designed for one single classified mission.
00:32The ship sat above the wreck for weeks.
00:34Soviet vessels circled nearby on the surface, watching.
00:37Below, a giant mechanical claw descended 17,000 feet into the dark and grabbed the submarine.
00:44The Soviets never knew.
00:45When the story leaked to the press, the CIA needed a response that said nothing.
00:50So they invented one.
00:51We can neither confirm nor deny.
00:54That phrase, created specifically to protect this operation,
00:58is now used by governments around the world whenever they want to hide the truth in plain sight.
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