Along for the ride: International Spy Museum, DC

It's a beautiful autumn morning when we drive back into downtown DC to see the International Spy Museum. Fall is actually a good time to visit - the weather's pleasant and there's not as many tourists.

George Washington Memorial Parkway

Spy Museum

Entrance to Spy Museum

DC must be spy central

A good spy needs to have a great disguise to freely move around. This exhibit illustrates how a woman converts herself into a possible Taliban collaborator. It's a pretty amazing transformation. Another exhibit shows the classical Ninja warrior uniform for their infamous night time activities.

Final disguise

Tools to convert a woman into a Taliban

Ninja uniform

Collecting and transmitting sensitive information back to their superiors is a main job spies perform. Over the years, spying devices have grown increasingly sophisticated. For example in 2009, UC Berkeley students designed a small robot called a "roach" controlled by a cell phone. The roach can easily move about any room and survive falls of over 90 feet. My favorite device is "The Thing":

In 1946, Soviet School children gave the U.S. ambassador a carved wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States. The ambassador prominently displayed the seal in his study. In 1952, technicians discovered a small bugging device hidden within the seal. The bug was activated by an ultra-high frequency beam generated from a van parked near the U.S. Embassy.

Early listening & recording devices

The "roach"robot

The Thing

Concealment is a useful spying tool and many everyday objects can serve this purpose.

Cuff links, cigarettes, and rings

Table cigarette lighter has a miniature camera to photograph documents

Furniture wood and shoe tranmitter

Of course any worthwhile spy needs to have a variety of concealed weapons to handily dispatch any "bad actors." The most famous perhaps is the "Bulgarian Umbrella." A similar one as shown below as was used in 1978 to fire a tiny pellet filled with poison to assassinate the Soviet dissident Georgi Markov on the streets of London. I believe this incident was recreated in one of the James Bond films.

Exploding canteen

Bulgarian Umbrella

Lipstick gun

These two exhibits are the ultimate in concealment techniques:

Vietnam War underground tunnels

Enigma Machine - German message coder

Of course any spy worth his/her salt needs a great get-away vehicle, whether it's 007's wheels or one with hidden compartments to smuggle out important collaborators.

James Bond's Aston Martin used in Goldfinger

Escape vehicle

PS - Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond 007 series, actually was a British spy during World War II, serving in the British Naval Intelligence Division as well as working with the American Colonel "Wild Bill" Donovan in a joint effort between American and British Intelligence agencies. It's said that many of the James Bond novels were based on Ian Fleming's WWII intelligence operations. The character of James Bond is based on a combination of men Fleming worked with during WWII.

It's such a nice day that we walk along the top of the Mall after leaving the Spy Museum.