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Secret Programs and Real Life Spies

Happywatcher

By Happywatcher
in The Americans [V]

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Umbelina
Umbelina

I pulled out my DVD of the movie RED last night, and listened to the commentary by Robert Baer, 21 year vet of the CIA, author, and sometimes commentator on CNN, again.  It was better, and more releva

albaniantv
albaniantv

I came on here to post the Barsky link and of course you all are way ahead of me. That was a much better,more detailed than usual 60 " profile-- maybe they are being more careful and less dramatic sin

Umbelina
Umbelina

I was thumbing through that book last night, and sure enough, pen bugs, and pen cameras were in there, including photos of some real ones through the decades.   I see why I didn't have to pay the $1

TimWil

TimWil

That Jack Barsky segment on 60 Minutes was great. I can see DiCaprio for the film version-maybe title would be 100% JACK? I would love to have The Americans work him into an episode at some point.

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AllyB

AllyB

Can anyone point me in the direction of good material on Lona and Morris Cohen (aka the Krogers)? What I'm especially intrigued by with them is the time they spent in the USSR in the 50s. I can understand why an American couple, especially where both of them were the children of Russian/Eastern European parents had come to support communism when the realities of life in the USSR were unknown. Their beliefs would have come from idealism and a genuine belief that they and the people around them would live better lives under communism. But after their time living in Russia, first under Stalin and then through the political chaos following his death, I find it hard to imagine how they stayed so loyal as to continue their commitment to communism when the reality of it meant an oppressive way of life and a pretty basic existence for ordinary people along with the hypocrisy of the ruling elite who enjoyed far more luxuries. To go from life in the US to the USSR must surely have been a viscious culture shock. To then move to middle-class suburban London and a return to a place where people enjoyed political and religious freedoms (along with consumer choice and certain luxuries even the elite in Russia would have struggled to obtain) and even certain benefits of socialism like the NHS and for them to still feel that the Soviets would bring a better way of life to the world is mind-boggling to me. Even if they were still 100% convinced in the principles of socialism how could they believe in the version of that which the Soviets had created?

 

So I wonder then if they were extremely sheltered in Russia? If they had no contact with the real world there? Or did they experience the realities of Russia and they are an extreme case of cognitive dissonance; ie - those who have heavily invested in a position may, when confronted with disconfirming evidence, go to greater lengths to justify their position.

 

I'd also love to know more about their last decades in Russia. Though obviously after years apart in a British jail where they were held as traitors, life together in the USSR where they were held in good regard would have been considerably better.

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albaniantv

albaniantv

I came on here to post the Barsky link and of course you all are way ahead of me. That was a much better,more detailed than usual 60 " profile-- maybe they are being more careful and less dramatic since their huge errors on the Libyan ambassador stories. 

 

During the 70s and 80s I worked with international organizations in status with the UN and voluntary (hesitate to use the word advocacy) groups from throughout the Soviet Union and the satellite EEuropean countries were active. Very occasionally a few staff who were less senior could come to the meetings in New York or, sometimes DC and I often took them around on tours or out for a meal. Skipping a lot of detail, I remember they were the most intrigued by how much food we had everywhere-- markets, 24 hour delis (NYC), restaurants, automats, candy stores or bakeries, fruit stands in the streets and the ubiquitous hot dog carts. As long as I would answer questions, they would ask. Once, our tour of lower New York included the then new 24 hour fruit and veg stands run mostly by Korean families, and one woman from, I think East Germany, cried the whole time she took pictures of the pyramids of fresh produce. 

 

A couple aspects of the USSR system that I think kept them believers longer than most were: very few had access or had actually seen the private stores run by the govt with material goods distributed to the highest party members, so many people considered it just a rumor they existed. Therefore, a large number really did think they had less so that all could have some; and, secondly, the curtailing of religious freedom was often done more obliquely than head on. For example, a number of churches I saw in Moscow and Leningrad had scaffolding around them, with signs they were just closed temporarily for repairs. Often bosses and high party members had a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to workers and students who took time off for a religious event.

 

They also learned quite well to take advantage of the US and UK free press and often reprinted stories we wrote criticizing our governments for inequality, or prejudice and discrimination. For example, I remember seeing pictures of American children, especially if they were black or brown, being served in a free lunch or breakfast program with statistics about how common this was --poverty in U.S. This was a constant flow in their state controlled media--stories of generous foreign aid from the USSR to some 3rd world country, then followed by something disparaging we had published, such as how few women doctors we had. I remember being asked about why we didn't do more to support women. Anyway, these are just a few anecdotes --there is better information in any book by David Remnick, just to name one American who has spent alot of time in Russia.

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sistermagpie

sistermagpie

I always think Philip and Elizabeth were trained in something like The Charm School book.  One of my first ever spy novels and I loved it.  Alias did a rif on it as well, basically an entire "American City" where they had everything from currency, only English being spoken, and bowling alley, fast food place, car dealerships, banks...

 

 

General Hospital also had a little nod to something like that once, iirc. LOL!

 

But of course it makes sense. One of the most basic things you have to learn in another country is just little things like this. Not just how to bowl but how to order at McDonalds.

 

It reminds me of one of the imo dumbest spy movies ever, "Shining Through." Melanie Griffith is a secretary dropped into WW2 Berlin. Apparently she's the only person qualified because she speaks German 'with a Berlin accent" because her grandmother was from there and did. Leaving aside the fact that she probably would still have an American accent at least a little, they seem to pay barely any attention to the fact that she's trying to pass herself off as a native Berliner when she's never set eyes on the city before. Not to mention her grandmother would have left pre-WWI and the city has obviously changed in the Nazi-era. It's far from the only incredibly silly thing though. Michael Douglas eventually goes after her because he's the brilliant superspy who runs the agency. He has only one weakness...

 

He's crap at language. Flunked right out of Berlitz. Can't speak a word of anything but English. So he winds up, iirc, getting into a fight with a train conductor who asks for his ticket.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

Yeah, that book introduced me the wonderful world of books about spies!  Ha, I really loved it, think I have it here somewhere, I wonder if it would stand up to time?  Also, as I said in another thread, I was studying Russian, so it peaked my interest there as well.

 

Then this show came along and my interest in spy writers came back full force, read a ton of novels and branched into some non-fiction stuff.

 

I recently read a book that I adore, because it cracked me up in so many places, it's one of the few books (actually two novels in one,) that has made me turn every page fast, and, for real, laugh out loud in places.  SPY MOM The Adventures of Sally Sin.  It actually showed up in the dollar store, so I picked it up, and then ended up paying full price to give it to a couple of friends.  "Full Price" being about $6 on Amazon by the way.  Basically a former spy, now mom, periodically needed back by her agency, so it's a mix of being a mom and a secret natural born spy, modern day time setting.  One of her best assets is her savant-like facility with languages.  Can't say more or I'd spoil some reveals, but let's just say Russia plays a pretty major role.

 

However, her skill with languages did make me think of Philip and Elizabeth.  Some people are just born with it, and I think that, much more than Philip's propensity for violence, is why these two were chosen.

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

Oh, by the way, apparently putting Spy Mom in the dollar store ended up being good business, the price has risen on Amazon.

 

Oh, and an actual "Philip" is on the 2nd episode podcast, I need to look him up, but I have to listen again to catch his name, he was very interesting.

Edited by Umbelina
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crgirl412

crgirl412

(edited)

This is why Gaad is on to something when he is freaking out about the extra copies laying around!

 

British traitor Kim Philby revealing secrets of his success as a Soviet agent to an audience of eager Stasi spies in 1981: 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522500/Newly-unearthed-video-shows-British-traitor-Kim-Philby-describing-career-Soviet-agent-audience-eager-Stasi-spies-1981.html

Edited by crgirl412
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SlovakPrincess

SlovakPrincess

(edited)

This is why Gaad is on to something when he is freaking out about the extra copies laying around!

 

British traitor Kim Philby revealing secrets of his success as a Soviet agent to an audience of eager Stasi spies in 1981: 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522500/Newly-unearthed-video-shows-British-traitor-Kim-Philby-describing-career-Soviet-agent-audience-eager-Stasi-spies-1981.html

 

 

Ooh, I finished reading a book about Philby a few months ago.  Very creepy that he had a few recruiters killed in Stalin's purges and he was still (apparently) game to spy for the Soviets.  And that he fooled everyone for so long.  And that he got quite a few people killed.

 

LOL--did he tell them to be born an upperclass Englishman?

 

 

Yeah, that was apparently pretty key to his success! 

Edited by SlovakPrincess
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

Obviously, much more at the links.

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/01/29/former-cia-spies-call-the-americans-more-exciting-than-reality

 

The Soviets posing as Americans sought to develop Indiana accents to pass themselves off as native Midwesterns, and could be very tough to spot, says Bob Baer, a former CIA case officer. The problem with “The Americans” is that “if you took the real life of a Russian illegal spy it would be boring,” says Baer, who used to run undercover illegals whose lives were very different than those depicted on the show.

 

“If you go for 100 percent realism, you’re going to put the audience to bed,” Baer says. “I used to run illegals and you would let them float around a community looking for people who could be potential sources – people with marriage problems, with money problems, people who hated their government. Then they would bring in a case officer who was protected with diplomatic immunity to recruit someone – they would never recruit anybody themselves.”

 

Nonofficial cover spies ran a much higher risk than operatives protected by diplomatic immunity, so they almost never did things that might blow their cover like recruiting, surveillance or kidnapping, Baer says. The Jennings do these things each episode because it makes for good TV, but “it’s very hard” for a spy show to be realistic and dramatic, Woolsey says. Russian spies like those working under assumed identities as diplomats at the Soviet embassy on the show were more likely to do spy work like recruit sources, Woolsey says.

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55240/real-life-spies-vs-americans
 

 

Leading a Double Life

Considering the show’s protagonists spend most of their time fighting bad guys, seducing important sources, and breaking into secure locations, it’s difficult to believe that anyone in their situation could hold down a double life, with kids, neighbors, and clients of their cover businesses being unaware. While maintaining a double life, the real-life counterparts were less concerned about the awesome spy stuff and more focused on their new identities. They were putting legitimate work into their cover businesses, integrating themselves into American life, and raising families. And a couple of them were pretty successful: One was a financial planner earning $135,000 a year, while another owned a real estate firm in Manhattan that was valued at $2 million.

 

According to ex-CIA operative Milton Bearden, the Russian government likely didn’t mind these side businesses becoming successful because self-sufficient spies were cheaper to support.

 

In her 1994 memoir, ex-Russian spy Galina Fedorova said that illegals were trained at the KGB’s legendary Directorate S to assume a false identity. The candidates were given a psychological screening and underwent grueling training to prepare them for an isolated life in deep cover. In order to make their covers convincing, the KGB would mine records of deceased foreign babies and use their identities for the spies.

---

According to Earnest, “Illegals are used for maybe one or two missions at most because they’re very sensitive assets. [The Russian government has] gone to great expenses to train and deploy them."

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The Loyalty Issue

According to Bearden, Moscow’s biggest challenge with agents like Philip and Elizabeth wouldn't be entrusting them to complete dangerous missions, but rather ensuring that they remained loyal amid the comforts of daily suburban American life. Earnest points out that defections happened fairly often. When asked why anyone wouldn’t defect, Earnest replied that, in many instances, sleeper agents had friends and family back home whose lives would be threatened if they defected.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/06/18/famous-kgb-spies-where-are-they-now/

 

Cold War Spies, what became of them?  Kind of an interesting read.

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)
Quote

The trade name for this type of spying is the "honey trap." And it turns out that both men and women are equally adept at setting one — and equally vulnerable to tumbling in. Spies use sex, intelligence, and the thrill of a secret life as bait. Cleverness, training, character, and patriotism are often no defense against a well-set honey trap. And as in normal life, no planning can take into account that a romance begun in deceit might actually turn into a genuine, passionate affair. In fact, when an East German honey trap was exposed in 1997, one of the women involved refused to believe she had been deceived, even when presented with the evidence. "No, that’s not true," she insisted. "He really loved me."

http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/03/12/the-history-of-the-honey-trap/

Honey Traps and their spy history.
 

Quote

 

Soon after arriving in Rome with his lady friend, Vanunu was seized by Mossad officers, forcibly drugged, and smuggled out of Italy by ship to Israel, where he was eventually put on trial for treason. Vanunu served 18 years in jail, 11 years of it in solitary confinement. Released in 2004, he is still confined to Israel under tight restrictions, which include not being allowed to meet with foreigners or talk about his experiences. Britain has never held an inquiry into the affair.

The woman who set the honey trap was a Mossad officer, Cheryl Ben Tov, code-named "Cindy." Born in Orlando, Fla., she was married to an officer of the Israeli security service. After the operation, she was given a new identity to prevent reprisals, and eventually she left Israel to return to the United States. But her role in the Vanunu affair was vital. The Mossad could not have risked a diplomatic incident by kidnapping Vanunu from British soil, so he had to be lured abroad — an audacious undertaking, but in this case a successful one.

 

One more quote from this one, because I think this is what the FBI would have done to Martha if she had confessed, make her a double, feed her bad information, etc.  Also, it kind of ties into Philip's "gay sex" training, because I do know that homosexuals were much more easily compromised, since it was illegal.
 

Quote

 

Take the tragic story of Jeremy Wolfenden, the London Daily Telegraph‘s correspondent in Moscow in the early 1960s. Wolfenden was doubly vulnerable to KGB infiltration: He spoke Russian, and he was gay. Seizing its opportunity, the KGB ordered the Ministry of Foreign Trade’s barber to seduce him and put a man with a camera in Wolfenden’s closet to take compromising photos. The KGB then blackmailed Wolfenden, threatening to pass on the photographs to his employer if he did not spy on the Western community in Moscow.

Wolfenden reported the incident to his embassy, but the official British reaction was not what he expected. On his next visit to London, he was called to see an officer from the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) who asked him to work as a double agent, leading the KGB along but continuing to report back to SIS.

 

Another article about honey traps:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/12/the_spy_who_said_she_loved_me.html
 

Quote

 

Are honey traps real, or are they found only in James Bond movies?

Oh, they're real. Honey traps, also called "honey pots," have been a favorite spying tactic as long as sex and espionage have existed—in other words, forever.

 

Quote

Governments around the world set up honey traps to this day, but it's an especially common practice in Russia and China. The Central Intelligence Agency doesn't comment on whether its agents use their sexuality to obtain information, but current and former intelligence officials say it does happen occasionally.

One more, and this one includes a "How To" section, ha.:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11102237/How-to-set-a-honey-trap.html
 

Quote

During the Cold War, a security guard at the US embassy in Moscow bumped into a 25-year-old KGB officer Violetta Seina at a metro station. Sergeant Lonetree said he coincidentally ran into her again one month later and the pair were so engrossed in conversation that Seina missed her train stop as the two talked about American films and Lonetree’s life in Moscow. He eventually leaked information about life in the US embassy and was convicted of espionage.

Quote

 

Stefan Wolff, professor of international security at Birmingham University, says that few governments would consider seduction an off-limit technique. “If you’re in the spying business, any opportunity that you have to get information, you will use,” he says. “Especially given what we’ve learnt from Wikileaks and Snowden, not much is considered to be beyond the pale when it comes to key issues of national security. I would argue, maybe that’s the right approach. If you want to save lives then a honey trap is a much more palatable approach than waterboarding.”

National Archives have revealed that special agent “Fifi”, a stunning blonde woman, was used to test the trustworthiness of young British spies during the Second World War. And there's no signs that the technique has gone out of fashion. But how do you set a honey trap? Here are some of the secrets of seduction gleaned from the great femme fatales of history.

 

The Chinese are apparently currently using it quite a bit.  This link has more recent honey traps, mainly.

http://morgana249.blogspot.com/2014/07/5-examples-of-honey-trap-spies.html 

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

That was great!  There are a lot of other spy stories linked below that one as well.

This one caught my eye, what happens if you do defect to the FBI/CIA?  Well, even though this guys seems like a petulant spoiled brat of a Russian?  Nothing good apparently.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/26/russian-defectors-spies-dead-end-american-dream

Also, holy crap, I ran into these two people, at a tourist spot on the West Coast.  I remember thinking they were both completely full of themselves, and I only paid attention because they were speaking Russian.  Let's just say they were rude and dismissive.  I remember her, and that triggered the memory of him.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/15/ryan-fogle-summoned-russia-spy-claims 

Very cute American Spy with worse wigs than Philip!

Edited by Umbelina
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jjj

jjj

(edited)
11 hours ago, TimWil said:

A new real-life "Our parents were Russian spies" story which has just emerged:

Thanks, this is indeed fascinating, especially as it shows what happened to the children of the "illegals" -- transported back to Russia, and in this case, stripped of their citizenship of their place of birth, Canada.  Another Guardian article linked through this one said that the children of the deported spies were "repatriated" with their parents in Russia.  Of course, Philip and Elizabeth would have no idea of the complexity of the citizenship issues for Paige and Henry if they were discovered. 

2 hours ago, Umbelina said:

That was great!  There are a lot of other spy stories linked below that one as well.

Yes, the other articles at the site show that the lives of the children were quite put off track, once their parents were deported. Thanks for these additional links -- now we know that Philip running to the FBI for money will probably not turn out the way he thinks it would!

Edited by jjj
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AliShibaz

AliShibaz

(edited)

Why would Russia want to invest in a bomber? Especially one that was somewhat designed from the WW2 era?

Isn't it correct that if one country wants to devestate another country with nukes, the most effective way to attack is by putting those bombs on missiles and then launching them from a submarine or some ground based silo? I don't know very much about this subject. So I could be all wrong about that. But it seems to me that producing nuclear bombers in this day and age is a very poor way to spend resources.

Oh gosh! I just read the entire article and saw where it said that many of the Russians enjoy building nuclear "toys" (funny name for those things) and that is one reason why they may be doing it. This confuses me a great deal. I get the feeling the people who would enjoy building these things must be out of their minds. Good Golly!

P.S. I know this will make me look like an "Old Fogey" but I just started watching Breaking Bad and I keep seeing parallels between the Jennings and their FBI neighbor and the Whites with their DEA brother in law. I have to wonder if the show runners for The Americans borrowed from the plot of Breaking Bad. It's a very entertaining parallel no matter how it came to pass. I'm sorry if I posted this in an inappropriate place. I just couldn't think of any better place for it.

Edited by AliShibaz
I read the article more completely.
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AllyB

AllyB

I've just bought Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B018UG19PA/ref=docs-os-doi_0

I've just browsed the opening chapters and am looking forward to it. I really hope Carr has managed to find out about the Cohen's time in Russia. The one thing so far that bothers me a little is that there is a few pages about the February and October revolutions in 1917 and it so far it seems so critical of the revolutions with not a mention of the harsh reality of life for most people in Tsarist Russia. A false myth about Maria Bochkareva is also erroneously stated as fact. So I'm wary of Barr's objectivity and doubt that he'll manage to get into the heads of the Cohens, which is the story about them that I'd love to read.

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Hanahope

Hanahope

Quote

A new real-life "Our parents were Russian spies" story which has just emerged:

That was interesting.  I noticed that the parents did have the kids meet their grandparents from time to time while "on vacation", but such meetings stopped after the oldest turned 11, but gifts and photographs still came.  That's a big difference from the TV show, notably that Paige was so curious about the lack of extended family and that was part of what made her push her parents so hard for information.

I'm sure it must have been such a culture shock for the kids, though at least they had the experience of living in other countries.  Its interesting how the kids considered themselves as real "Canadians" despite the fact that one barely lived there a year as an infant, and the other only a few years as a very young child.  It must be rough on the one kid that couldn't get visas to go to school in other countries because of what his parents did.  I can see why Canada though claims they aren't citizens, arguing that the parents were actually "employees of the government of a foreign country" at the time of the kids' birth.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://cdn.panoply.fm/SM5134458514.mp3

It's in the podcast thread, but this week's inside the show has a guy discussing exactly what we've been talking about here.  80's spy craft.  So I thought I'd put it here too.

Everything from tools, techniques, communication all kinds of things. 

He just mentioned one time pads, in the book, it has examples for you to decipher those codes.  He's now talking about alcohol use being part of the training.  VERY interesting.

Edited by Umbelina
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hellmouse

hellmouse

 Interesting article about a Russian convicted of spying in the US just last month.

The Russian Spy Run by Dumb and Dumber

Zhenya Buryakov, a Russian spy convicted this past month of espionage in the U.S., had the misfortune of having comically inept handlers from Russian foreign intelligence. Zhenya Buryakov lived a quiet Bronx existence with his wife and two children in Riverdale, an affluent neighborhood, working at a state-owned bank by day. He moved there, his wife would later say, because he wanted his children to speak perfect English, and two nuns next door would even pet-sit the family’s bird. But by night, Buryakov met with his handlers at SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, and passed along information his bosses in Moscow hoped to use against his host country. 

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Umbelina

Umbelina

It's got to be nearly impossible today to actually spy.  Cameras everywhere, directional eavesdropping devices, satellite photos, even heat readings inside buildings.  

Thanks for posting that!

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crgirl412

crgirl412

Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies, a new eight-part CNN Original Series, debuts on Sunday, June 19, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.  Hosted by former U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers, also the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, each episode features a newly declassified mission told first-hand by the agents who lived it, providing viewers with unprecedented access to the riveting and secret world of espionage.

Declassified covers missions set in fascinating locations and time periods from Cold War era Moscow to modern day Iran, from the streets of 1980s Cuba to today’s bustling Beijing.  All 16 intelligence agencies from the CIA to the FBI are represented, revealing the unbelievable true stories of America’s covert operations in the United States and around the world.  The hour-long series is produced by All3Media America with Gregory J Lipstone, Domini Hofmann, Aaron Saidman, Stephen Lambert and Mike Rogers serving as executive producers.

From Spymuseum about the series and A TRAILER:

http://www.spymuseum.org/calendar/detail/declassified-untold-stories-of-american-spies/2016-06-14/

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hellmouse

hellmouse

(edited)

More Russian spies! This guy was found in 2010 in Spain.

The Spanish Story of a Russian Illegal

A Moscow spy worked for two decades under cover in Europe by building a fake biography. There are others.

According to Western intelligence sources, the industrious life of a busy, frequent-flying Spanish consultant was a front. Henry Frith, they say, was born Sergey Yuryevich Cherepanov in Russia in 1955 — two years before his alleged birth in Ecuador. Back in Moscow, Cherepanov had a wife, Olga Konstantinova Cherepanova, and a son, Andrei. During all the years he spent in Spain, he served as an officer in the SVR, the Russian foreign security services. “Henry Frith,” these sources allege, was an alias for a Russian spy, a so-called “illegal” who lived for years under a carefully constructed “legend” — a false identity, complete with a fake history and background. He is the first “illegal” to have been uncovered and publicly named in Europe since the end of the Cold War.

In most cases, illegals are used as couriers. They don’t behave like the spies portrayed in the current hit television series “The Americans” that was inspired by the FBI 10 case. The Jennings couple in the show leads a perfect Washington suburban life with their two children in the early 1980s, but are highly trained KGB operatives who run agents, kill and occasionally sleep with the enemy. But real-life illegals don’t lead such a James Bond-type of life. Their mission is to blend in.

“Usually,” said one agent with a detailed knowledge of the case, “those spies serve two purposes. They may sometimes manage their own sources and agents, but mostly they are used as messengers for the SVR because the ‘official’ spies are under a surveillance that prevents them to move around much.” Official spies work out of embassies, operating largely in the open under cover of diplomatic immunity.

Edited by hellmouse
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SunnyBeBe

SunnyBeBe

On 6/11/2016 at 11:11 PM, crgirl412 said:

Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies, a new eight-part CNN Original Series, debuts on Sunday, June 19, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.  Hosted by former U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers, also the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, each episode features a newly declassified mission told first-hand by the agents who lived it, providing viewers with unprecedented access to the riveting and secret world of espionage.

Declassified covers missions set in fascinating locations and time periods from Cold War era Moscow to modern day Iran, from the streets of 1980s Cuba to today’s bustling Beijing.  All 16 intelligence agencies from the CIA to the FBI are represented, revealing the unbelievable true stories of America’s covert operations in the United States and around the world.  The hour-long series is produced by All3Media America with Gregory J Lipstone, Domini Hofmann, Aaron Saidman, Stephen Lambert and Mike Rogers serving as executive producers.

From Spymuseum about the series and A TRAILER:

http://www.spymuseum.org/calendar/detail/declassified-untold-stories-of-american-spies/2016-06-14/

I came here to post about this show and discovered your link and post.  I just saw this show on CNN last night for the first time! OMG. LOVED it.  What a great perspective on what it was like being a spy in Moscow in 70's and 80's!  I hope to catch more on this.  I think I'll see if there is an actual thread on this show on this board.  So fascinating. 

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Bubbetv

Bubbetv

It's a series that looks like it's going to air Sundays at 9:00 Central Time on cnn. I recommend setting the dvr because it's an hour long and it has over 20 minutes of commercials and lots of repeating the exact same scene before and after each break. 

That said, I really enjoyed the old footage and story they are telling!! 

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

13 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Thanks.  I wasn't able to find a thread for this show on this site though. If there is one, please post it here. 

If there's no forum, you can always request they start 1 (or maybe discuss it in a CNN forum if there is 1). I think there's a place for new show requests in the Site Business section.

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