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See inside the top-secret museum you can’t enter

<p dir="ltr">While most museums aim to educate the public, there’s one that most of us won’t be allowed to enter that holds artefacts that have shaped key historical moments - and it’s located in the headquarters of the CIA.</p> <p dir="ltr">The US intelligence agency has its very own in-house museum at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, with a collection recently renovated to mark its 75th anniversary.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to the <em><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63023876" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a></em>, whose journalists were among a select group given access during a media tour, the 600 artefacts on display include everything from old-school spy gadgets to models of the compound that housed Osama bin Laden.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-c8978b1b-7fff-2994-e40b-b873b130bcef"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">The Cold War gadgets included the likes of a ‘dead drop rat’, in which messages could be hidden, a covert camera inside a cigarette packet, an exploding martini glass and even a pigeon with its own spy camera.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/cia-display.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>A pipe radio receiver is among the hundreds of items on display in the museum. Image: Getty Images</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Some artefacts have never gone on display before, such as a model of the sunken Soviet K-129 submarine created for the expedition the CIA embarked on with billionaire Howard Hughes to recover the ship.</p> <p dir="ltr">That mission was only partially successful since the submarine broke apart while a ship called the Gomar Explorer was trying to bring it up from the ocean’s depths.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Most of what they found aboard that submarine is still classified to this day," Robert Z Byer, the museum’s director, told the BBC.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-36956bbb-7fff-426e-b622-1531a77f9952"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">The mission also marked the creation of an iconic phrase the CIA still uses; after news broke of the mission before the rest of the submarine could be extracted, officials were told to say they could “neither confirm nor deny” what had happened.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/cia-display1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>A model of the K-129 submarine was created by the CIA during the mission to recover the sunken Soviet vessel and has never been displayed before. Image: Central Intelligence Agency</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Others have only been declassified recently, including a model of the compound where al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed earlier this year. The model was used to brief President Joe Biden on the proposed mission.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though the museum moves chronologically through the CIA’s successes and failures, including the failed Bay of Pigs mission to overthrow Fidel Castro, some of the agency’s more controversial acts are less visible, such as the 1953 joint operation with Mi6 to overthrow a democratically-elected government in Iran, or recent involvement in the torture of terrorist suspects after 9/11.</p> <p dir="ltr">The museum’s visitors are restricted to CIA staff and official visitors, with Mr Byer saying it serves to educate CIA officers on the agency’s history.</p> <p dir="ltr">"This museum is not just a museum for history's sake. This is an operational museum,” he explained. </p> <p dir="ltr">“We are taking CIA officers [through it], exploring our history, both good and bad," says Mr Byer. </p> <p dir="ltr">"We make sure that our officers understand their history, so that they can do a better job in the future. We have to learn from our successes and our failures in order to be better in the future."</p> <p dir="ltr">While the public isn’t allowed to visit it currently, officials say some exhibits will be available to view online.</p> <p dir="ltr">Images of the museum are also expected to be shared on social media, with the aim being that members of the public are given the chance to unscramble the various coded messages displayed on the museum’s ceilings.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3a1e4815-7fff-5d89-765c-c4112d2ebddb"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

International Travel

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1,500 secret CIA and FBI JFK assassination files released

<p dir="ltr">The US National Archives<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-16/1000s-jfk-john-f-kennedy-documents-released-assassination/100706500" target="_blank">has released</a><span> </span>nearly 1,500 documents relating to the government’s investigation into the assasination of former president John F Kennedy in 1963.</p> <p dir="ltr">The documents, including secret cables and internal memos, were released in line with federal statute, which has called for records relating to the assassination by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald to be made public.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though there was no indication that the files revealed any new information, historians who are skeptical that Oswald was solely responsible for the assassination have eagerly anticipated the release.</p> <p dir="ltr">Cables and memos from the CIA discussed Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City, as well as discussions of Cuba’s potential involvement in Kennedy’s death.</p> <p dir="ltr">One memo described how Oswald called the Soviet embassy while in Mexico City to ask for a visa to visit the Soviet Union.</p> <p dir="ltr">He also visited the Cuban embassy to obtain a travel visa to visit Cuba and wait there for his Soviet visa.</p> <p dir="ltr">One month before Kennedy’s death, Oswald re-entered the US through a crossing point at the Texas border.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another memo, dated one day before the killing, said Oswald had communicated with a KGB officer while at the Soviet embassy that September.</p> <p dir="ltr">After Kennedy died, Mexican authorities arrested a Cuban embassy employee who had communicated with Oswald and said he had “professed to be a Communist and an admirer of Castro”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Fidel Castro, then the leader of Cuba, was an adversary of Kennedy’s administration and appeared in a CIA document that detailed what is said were government plots to assassinate him.</p> <p dir="ltr">The document, labelled “Secret Eyes Only”, mentioned one scheme that “involved the use of the criminal underworld with contacts inside Cuba”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another document contained considerations by the US government about whether Oswald had been swayed by one of Castro’s newspaper interviews, where he warned of retribution if the US helped take out Cuban leaders.</p> <p dir="ltr">Other files included several FBI reports on the agency’s efforts in investigating and surveilling major mafia figures, including Santo Trafficante Jr and Sam Giancana.</p> <p dir="ltr">These files also revealed that the agency regularly kept tabs on anti-Castro groups in southern Florida and Puerto Rico in the 1960s.</p> <p dir="ltr">In 2017, then-president Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records, after the CIA and FBI raised concerns of “potentially irreversible harm”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite these concerns, about 2,800 other records were released.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty Images</em></p>

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WikiLeaks releases thousands of CIA documents

<p>A cache of the US intelligence community's most closely guarded cyber weapons has been put online.</p> <p>It includes secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) code to steal data and turn devices such as cellphones, computers and television sets into snooping devices.</p> <p>WikiLeaks published thousands of documents purportedly taken from the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence, a dramatic release that appears to provide an eye-opening look at the intimate details of America's cyber-espionage toolkit.</p> <p>The dump of more than 8000 documents on Wednesday, could not immediately be authenticated by media and the CIA declined comment, but WikiLeaks has a long track record of releasing top secret government documents.</p> <p>It includes claims the spy agency had worked on a system to "infect" the system of modern vehicles, allowing it to carry out "largely undetectable assassinations".</p> <p>"As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks," WikiLeaks claimed.</p> <p>"The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations."</p> <p>Experts who've started to sift through the material said it appeared legitimate - and that the release was almost certain to shake the CIA.</p> <p>"There's no question that there's a fire drill going on right now," said Jake Williams, a security expert with Augusta, Georgia-based Rendition Infosec. "It wouldn't surprise me that there are people changing careers - and ending careers - as we speak."</p> <p>Bob Ayers, a retired US intelligence official currently working as a security analyst, agreed, saying that the release was "real bad" for the agency.</p> <p>If the authenticity of the dump were officially confirmed, it would represent yet another catastrophic breach for the US intelligence community at the hands of WikiLeaks and its allies, which have repeatedly humbled Washington with the mass release of classified material, including hundreds of thousands of documents from the US State Department and the Pentagon.</p> <p>WikiLeaks, which had been dropping cryptic hints about the release for a month, said in a lengthy statement that the CIA had "recently" lost control of a massive arsenal of CIA hacking tools as well as associated documentation.</p> <p>The radical transparency organisation said that "the archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorised manner" and that one of them "provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."</p> <p>Jonathan Liu, a spokesman for the CIA, said: "We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents."</p> <p>Williams, who had experience dealing with government hackers, said that the voluminous files' extensive references to operation security meant they were almost certainly government-backed.</p> <p>"I can't fathom anyone fabricated that amount of operational security concern," he said. "It rings true to me."</p> <p>"The only people who are having that conversation are people who are engaging in nation-state-level hacking," he said.</p> <p>The documents covered a range of topics, including what appeared to be a discussion about how to compromise smart televisions and turn them into improvised surveillance devices.</p> <p>WikiLeaks said the leaked data also included details on the agency's efforts to subvert American software products and smartphones, including Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows.</p> <p>A "substantial library" of digital espionage techniques borrowed from Russia and other countries was in the data as well, WikiLeaks said.</p> <p>Ayers noted that WikiLeaks had promised to release more CIA documents, saying the latest publication was just "the first full part of the series."</p> <p>"The damage right now is relatively high-level," he said. "(But) the potential for really detailed damage will come in the following releases."</p> <p>What’s your view on this controversy?</p> <p><em>Written by Raphael Satter. First appeared on <a href="http://www.Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Stuff.co.nz</strong></span></a>. Image credit: Twitter / The WEDA Coalition.</em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2017/01/how-to-take-a-screenshot/"><em>How to take a screenshot</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2016/12/internet-tips-to-make-your-life-better/"><em>4 internet tips to make your life better</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2016/12/what-to-do-to-when-you-lose-unsaved-documents/"><em>What to do to when you lose unsaved documents</em></a></strong></span></p>

Technology

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5 easy ways to catch a liar according to a CIA agent

<p>We’ve all experienced that creepy feeling in conversation when it feels like the person we’re talking to isn’t being completely honest, but some people are so adept that spinning webs of deceptions that it can be difficult to tell if they’re actually lying.</p> <p>But you can actually spot a liar relatively easily, if you know what to look for.</p> <p>In an interview with <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Daily Mail Online</strong></span></a>, former CIA agent Jason Hanson explains how you can spot a liar by being on the lookout for the five following tell-tale signs:</p> <ol> <li>They take too long to answer questions</li> <li>They freeze up</li> <li>They say no, but nod yes</li> <li>They recommend a lenient punishment for the guilty party</li> <li>They overreact to being questioned</li> </ol> <p>As Hanson explains, “As human beings we are terrible liars. So if you ask someone a question such as: "Have you stolen something?" or "Have you done drugs?" and they sit there and they hem and they haw, and it takes them time, that means they are buying time to come up with a lie.”</p> <p>Have you ever encountered something like this? What are your tips for figuring out if someone is lying to you? Let us know in the comments.</p> <p><em>Video credit: Daily Mail Online</em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/little-white-lies-you-should-avoid-with-kids/"><strong>5 worst little white lies you can tell your grandkids</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/lifestyle/relationships/2016/07/the-37-per-cent-rule-of-online-dating/"><strong>The 37 per cent rule of online dating</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/health/mind/2016/06/overcoming-pain-using-the-power-of-the-mind/"><strong>Overcoming pain using the power of the mind</strong></a></em></span></p>

Mind

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CIA publishes declassified UFO files

<p>The CIA has published a <strong><a href="https://www.cia.gov/news-information/blog/2016/take-a-peek-into-our-x-files.html" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">range of declassified documents</span></a></strong> detailing UFO sightings.</p> <p>The documents are taken from several sightings made in the ’40s and ’50s.</p> <p>On the CIA blog, the agency said, “To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA UFO collection, we’ve decided to highlight a few documents both sceptics and believers will find interesting.”</p> <p>These documents are among hundreds that were declassified by the CIA during the 1970s, but this is the first time the agency has acknowledged and posted them on its own website.</p> <p>From <strong><a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015441.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">secret meetings</span></a></strong>, to <strong><a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015464.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">strange UFO sightings</span></a></strong> and vague <strong><a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015345.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">references to a national problem</span></a></strong> these documents make for fascinating reading.</p> <p>To access the CIA blog, <strong><a href="https://www.cia.gov/news-information/blog/2016/take-a-peek-into-our-x-files.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">click here</span></a></strong>. </p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2016/02/two-nuns-ski-cross-country/">Two nuns ski cross country in habits</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2016/02/prince-charles-receives-rare-photo-of-queen-elizabeth-ii/">Prince Charles receives rare photograph of Queen as a teenager</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2016/02/pictures-that-capture-life-above-and-below-the-sea/">15 breathtaking pictures that capture life above and below the sea</a></strong></em></span></p>

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