[David] Tonight on "Secrets Declassified,"
secret units, unseen and unheard,
shaping events from the shadows,
from a CIA heist high in the Himalayas...
[Dan] They're elite cat burglars
risking their lives to steal the world's
most guarded secrets.
Or a surprising secret agent under deep cover...
[Hakeem] It wasn't just a whale.
It looked like part of an intelligence operation.
And a covert unit with a dirty secret.
[Sami] Now, the CIA can do a lot of things.
But they cannot be caught producing porn.
- These are the astonishing and sometimes terrible things
done by governments and the people who work for them.
It's time to bring them to light.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy creates
a secret unit called Red Cell.
Its mission?
Stage mock attacks on U.S. naval bases
to test for vulnerabilities.
And it's successful.
A little too successful.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- By the mid-1980s, the United States
is the world's preeminent military superpower.
[cannon fire]
There isn't a nation on Earth that can match it.
It has the best equipment, the most advanced technology.
Yet, there is a critical weakness.
[Andrew] There have been a string
of high-profile attacks
against U.S. military installations.
These have highlighted that the U.S. military
is vulnerable to small terrorist units.
[David] In 1984, the Navy creates
Red Cell as a solution and launches it
against its most secure bases.
- This mission is unlike anything
the U.S. Navy has ever sanctioned before.
It's like mock terrorism against itself.
[David] To lead the unit,
the Navy picks Richard Marcinko,
a man who doesn't just think outside the box,
he blows it up.
- Richard Marcinko, real-life Rambo,
he's one of the U.S. Army's best fighters.
But his reputation for flouting the rules
gets him desk duty.
- He's a loose cannon that might be the perfect fit
for the Red Cell operation.
So he's placed in charge.
He recruits 13 Navy SEALs and one Force Recon Marine.
[Sami] Now, officially, Red Cell's HQ
is assigned to the Pentagon.
However, in reality, Marcinko runs his unit
from his favorite Virginia dive bar,
Shooter McGee's.
And it's here that the team spend their nights
drinking, brawling,
and planning covert operations.
[David] Soon, barroom bravado
becomes real-world threat.
- Over the course of several months,
Red Cell runs a string of increasingly bold operations.
They infiltrate the world's largest
naval base in Norfolk, Virginia,
and plant dummy explosives.
They bypass security at Naval Base New London.
And they launch fake attacks on submarines.
[dramatic music]
[David] With each success, Marcinko pushes harder,
until he sets his sights on the biggest target of all.
[Dan] It's 1985 in California.
President Reagan is on vacation
at his ranch in Santa Barbara.
And about an hour down the coast,
Air Force One, the world's most defended plane,
is parked at a secure naval base,
Point Mugu Naval Air Station.
[tense music]
[David] Marcinko and his team plot their attack.
[Dan] Red Cell stakes out Air Force One,
probing it for weaknesses, looking for points of attack.
And they also hit local bars,
where they steal ID cards from sailors.
That is illegal.
But Marcinko plays by his own rules.
- On August 30th, Marcinko gives the green light
for the operation.
One of his team members, disguised as a commander,
drives up to the base with radio equipment,
weapons, and dummy explosives hidden in the vehicle.
He sails right on through, no questions asked.
- They're able to get out onto the airfield.
And several members get off and attach fake explosives
to the side of F-18 fighter jets.
Then it's time for Air Force One.
[Evy] They steal a weapons carrier,
load it up with fake 500-pound bombs,
and drive it straight up to Air Force One,
all unchallenged.
Had this been a real attack,
they could have blown up Air Force One,
as well as a host of F-18 fighters
for good measure.
[David] Eventually, Marcinko's team
is detained by base security.
For the Navy, it's a major embarrassment.
In a real attack, the president and his plane
could have been blown up.
[Sami] It's a wake-up call.
And security is completely overhauled.
A brand-new unit of specially trained Marines
is created to protect U.S. Navy installations.
[David] The attack on Air Force One marks
the high point of Red Cell's operations.
Soon after, Marcinko's team takes their mission
one step too far.
- In March of 1986, a naval security officer
is kidnapped by Red Cell,
ostensibly for a training exercise.
- Red Cell interrogates him so violently
that he suffers lasting injuries.
He's thrown against walls.
He's kicked. He's punched.
He's waterboarded.
- It seems that Marcinko's finally lost sight
of the difference between security tests
and real violence.
[David] Marcinko is stripped of command.
And in a separate case, the law catches up with him.
He's placed under criminal investigation,
convicted on federal charges, and sentenced
to nearly two years in prison.
Red Cell is officially disbanded.
- You know, some people would argue
that Marcinko was somebody who never knew
what the limits were.
[David] In 1992, Marcinko is released.
Soon after, he publishes
a tell-all memoir called "Rogue Warrior"
that blows the lid off of Red Cell.
The book becomes a bestseller, a dramatic final chapter
in Marcinko's controversial career.
Some secret units destroy targets.
Others destroy reputations.
In the 1950s, the CIA forms a secret unit that fights
the Cold War not with guns, but with a fake sex tape
code-named Happy Days.
[tense music]
[Hakeem] In the depths of the Cold War,
the CIA calls on a secret unit
so adept at bizarre, covert operations,
they're kept completely off the books.
The man in charge? Ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu.
- Maheu's unit is founded in 1954.
And its main strength is the litany of unusual contacts
it can draw on.
Maheu's little black book stretches
from the mafia to Hollywood's rich and famous.
[David] In 1957, the CIA gives Maheu
his toughest mission yet--
stage a fake romantic encounter on film
to blackmail a global leader.
[suspenseful music]
- Indonesia is the world's sixth most populous nation,
making it a pivotal power broker in Southeast Asia,
which is a key battleground in the struggle
between the USA and the USSR.
[Hakeem] Indonesia is led by President Sukarno.
He is a charismatic dictator
that Washington considers to be a wild card.
For years, he's been carefully courting
both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
- Now the CIA spots an opportunity
to bring Sukarno to heel.
They learn that on a recent trip to Moscow,
Sukarno became involved with a blonde flight attendant,
who was actually a KGB agent.
- This flight attendant has since visited
President Sukarno in Indonesia a number of times.
CIA sources also know that the KGB has filmed
compromising footage of President Sukarno
with his flight attendant/ KGB lover
in a suite in the Kremlin.
And of course, they've done so for blackmail purposes.
[Hakeem] The CIA now sees an opportunity.
If they can embarrass the president of Indonesia
by pointing out that he's dating a KGB agent,
perhaps then they could twist his arm
into working for the U.S.
[David] The problem is, how can the CIA
leak a film it doesn't have, one that's locked away
by Soviet intelligence forces?
So it comes up with a radical idea--
fake it.
[Sami] Now, the CIA can do a lot of things.
But they cannot be caught producing porn,
and certainly not one starring the leader of another nation.
So this needs to be a totally off-the-books operation,
conducted by a team who can make this film
without any trace leading back to Langley.
[camera shutter clicking]
[David] Enter Robert Maheu's secret unit
and its network of Hollywood contacts.
[Jesse] The CIA shows Maheu
photographs of the Kremlin suite
and Sukarno's blonde lover.
Both will have to be exact
for the fake film to be believable.
[lively music]
[David] Maheu gets straight to work.
And he knows exactly who to call.
- At the top of his address book
is the Academy Award-winning actor
and famed singer Bing Crosby,
the voice behind "White Christmas,"
and his brother Larry.
- Maheu convinces the Crosbys to do
their part for their country.
So they find a small Hollywood studio,
and they convert it into a replica
of the Kremlin suite,
as seen in the CIA photographs.
[Sami] The Crosbys supply Maheu with a camera
and teach him how to use it, keeping the film's crew
to an absolute minimum and maintaining secrecy.
[David] The biggest challenge is finding the right cast.
He needs perfect doubles for Sukarno and the KGB agent.
For help, he turns to local law enforcement.
- First, they find a doppelganger
for this KGB agent.
She's, in fact, an informant for the police.
[Jesse] For a convincing Sukarno,
a Hispanic-looking former roommate--
with help from Bing Crosby's makeup artists,
they're able to turn him into a near-perfect replica
of the Indonesian president.
[David] With the set and cast in place,
the cameras are ready to roll.
- In the dead of night, Maheu, his team, and the two "actors"
shoot their fake tryst.
The set is dressed to the tiniest detail,
and lighting mimics the grainy look of hidden surveillance.
- After months of planning, filming is over
in just a few minutes.
What happens next is disputed.
[Sami] One story goes that worrying
about the consequences of putting together a fake film,
the CIA got cold feet and never released it.
[Jesse] But Maheu said that stills from his film
were circulated in Indonesia, which caused the president
to drop the blonde and eventually led
to his fall from power.
- Either way, the story of Hollywood's
most unlikely production stays secret for more than a decade.
[David] In 1976, Alexander Cockburn
exposes the story in an article
for "The Village Voice."
Today, in the age of deepfakes and AI images,
the story seems even more incredible.
But once upon a time, a fake movie was enough
to topple a president.
- Secret units are meant to stay hidden,
out of sight and in deep cover,
like Unit 29155, a distinctly unmemorable name
for a team of Russian assassins.
[Hakeem] Unit 29155 is a clandestine Russian
military unit that has been in existence since at least 2008.
And they're linked to poisonings and sabotage
across Europe.
[dramatic music]
[David] For years, the unit works
in total secrecy, unknown and unseen
by the world's governments and intelligence services.
♪ ♪
Then in 2018, one operation changes everything.
[Sami] It's a spring afternoon in the city
of Salisbury, England, and locals find
two people slumped on a bench.
♪ ♪
So somebody quickly dials 999,
and first responders go rushing in.
[sirens wailing]
- As the hours pass, it becomes clear to residents
that this is no normal incident.
Hazmat suits appear, and a huge portion of the city center
is completely closed off.
[David] Soon, police identify the victims,
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer
who defected to Britain,
and his daughter Yulia.
- Investigators discovered that the Skripals
have been poisoned with something called Novichok.
This is an assassination attempt.
And really, there's only one plausible suspect--
Russian military intelligence.
[David] Both Sergei and Yulia
are near death when found.
But after weeks in the hospital,
they somehow survive.
- Global news outlets begin to point the finger.
Russian military intelligence is now the prime suspect.
[David] Can investigators find
any hard evidence linking Russia to the attack?
[Sami] British police investigate.
And months later, they release CCTV stills and video footage
of two men that they believe traveled from Russia
to Salisbury to carry out these poisonings.
And the names listed in the passports
are Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov.
[David] A database search for these names
turns up nothing,
and the investigation grinds to a halt.
- This is where Christo Grosev comes in.
At the time, Grosev is the lead researcher at Bellingcat,
an open-source investigative group
that uncovers covert operations.
And Grosev sets about trying to uncover
these men's real identities.
[David] With the men's names offering no clues,
Grosev turns to the only other piece of information he has--
their passports.
- Grosev uncovers a crucial detail
reported in the Russian press.
The passport numbers of these two men
are virtually identical, except for the last three numbers.
In a country of over 140 million people,
the chances of two travelers having nearly consecutive
passport numbers on the same plane
going to the same city is almost impossible.
[Sami] Grosev attempts to trace the two Salisbury
suspects online but finds nothing, which is odd
because in a world where almost everyone leaves
a digital trail, a total absence of information
suggests something deliberate.
It's a hallmark of fabricated identities.
[David] With no other personal details on the men,
once again, the investigation hits a dead end.
[phone vibrates]
- That's when one of Grosev's ex-intelligence contacts
gives him an idea.
Why not look at the alumni of Russia's military academies
to search for any high-flying graduates,
men who might have been recruited
by the elite security services,
and match the photos of the Salisbury killers?
- One of these places is Russia's Far Eastern Higher
Combined Arms Command School, which is one of Russia's oldest
military academies that has connections
to the GRU, which is Russia's secretive military
intelligence agency.
[Don] Grosev begins cross-checking
the school's graduates with award rolls
and keeps hitting one name--
Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.
Since graduating, he has become a decorated GRU officer
and recipient of Russia's highest honor,
the Hero of the Russian Federation.
- When Grosev compares photographs of Chepiga
with Ruslan Boshirov...
[intensifying music]
♪ ♪
They're the same men.
A parallel search of an elite Russian military medical school
finds that Chepiga's accomplice, Alexander Petrov,
matches the image of an Alexander Mishkin.
And Mishkin's car is even registered
to the GRU's Moscow headquarters.
[David] It leaves no doubt.
The two men's arrival before the poisoning
is no coincidence.
They're highly trained Russian killers
operating under state-issued false identities.
[Don] Most investigators would stop here.
But Grosev pushes further.
He is determined to uncover the sprawling secret unit
that he believes is behind the Skripal plot.
His big break comes when a Russian opposition paper
exposes a third suspect--
Sergey Fedotov.
Grosev discovers he's really Denis Sergeev,
a senior GRU officer.
[Sasha] By looking into Sergeev's travel records,
Grosev sees a chilling pattern.
Wherever Sergeev goes, disaster follows.
A weapons depot explodes in the Czech Republic in 2014.
There's an attempted poisoning of an arms dealer
in Bulgaria in 2015.
- Essentially, if Sergeev shows up at passport control,
it pretty much means
the Kremlin has marked a target.
- Grosev digs deeper and discovers Sergeev is
a senior figure in a top secret GRU unit
of assassins and saboteurs.
After years in the shadows, the existence of Unit 29155
is exposed.
[Dan] Using the same techniques that he used
to identify the two attackers of the Skripals,
Grosev keeps going.
And ultimately, he's able to uncover
the identities of dozens of members
of this secret subunit.
And he makes sure that Western law enforcement
and Interpol know exactly who they are.
- In one swoop, Unit 29155's operations
are disrupted for a generation.
[David] In 2019, Grosev publishes his findings.
The revelation of a secret Russian hit squad
creates a sensation worldwide.
But for his extraordinary detective work,
Grosev pays a high price.
[Sami] In early October,
Western intelligence warned Grosev
new Russian operatives had been detected
in Europe, gathering information on his movements.
Grosev's name is now on a kill list.
[David] Grosev exposed Russia's most secret
assassination unit.
Now he's forced into a life on the run.
- Some army units get the job done with force.
Others use deception, like the Alamo Scouts
in World War II, who rescued 500 prisoners
in just 28 minutes.
[unsettling music]
- In the midst of World War II,
the United States creates a secret unit
that is so clandestine,
not even U.S. military service people
know that it exists.
They're not shock troops.
They're not commandos.
They're specialist reconnaissance spies.
[Sami] They're called the Alamo Scouts.
More than 700 men try out, but only 138 are chosen,
the most resourceful and unbreakable.
♪ ♪
[David] Their most important mission
begins in the Philippines in 1945,
when a local passes along troubling intelligence.
[Sami] 500 Allied prisoners
are being held in a POW camp near a village
called Cabanatuan, about 30 miles
inside Japanese-held territory.
[Martin] The prisoners being held
at Cabanatuan don't know it,
but they are in mortal danger.
- If liberation looks imminent, the order is simple--
execute them.
[David] It's a job for the Alamo Scouts.
♪ ♪
Their mission is to get eyes on the camp
and gather intel for a U.S. Army Ranger rescue operation.
- They are masters at sneaking behind enemy lines
without being seen themselves.
[David] They're led by Lieutenant William Nellist,
a combat veteran with a talent for deception and disguise.
He assembles an elite team of 13 men for the mission.
- They are literally the best of the best,
trained in jungle survival and guerrilla tactics.
If anyone can get near the camp
without triggering a massacre,
it's them.
[David] On January 27th, the operation begins.
But as the 13 men approach Cabanatuan,
they encounter a problem.
[Paul] Lieutenant William Nellist discovers
all of the foliage and normal cover they expected
is actually not there.
Cabanatuan is built in the middle of a rice paddy.
[Martin] The space around it is wide open.
The enemy has guard towers,
and the area is under observation
at all times.
[David] Then Nellist spots
a crumbling shack overlooking the camp.
If he can reach it, he'll have the perfect vantage point
to scout the camp's defense.
- Nellist decides that he and another man
will essentially disguise themselves
as Filipino rice paddy workers.
[Hakeem] They wear coarse shirts and straw hats
that they picked up from local villagers.
And in plain sight of the Japanese guards,
they head out across the rice paddies
and go to the shack.
[David] If their deception isn't perfect,
the consequences could be deadly.
[Martin] They eventually reach the shack
located close enough to the camp
that it can function as an excellent observation post.
[Hakeem] Inside the shack,
they perform surveillance for over two hours.
They draw a detailed map of the camp,
and they count around 250 guards.
[Paul] The problem is,
the guard force is more than twice as large
as they'd been led to expect.
And the American prisoners are in terrible physical shape.
[Hakeem] They've been weakened by starvation,
torture, and death marches.
In fact, some of the POWs are so weak,
they can barely move at all.
[David] Outmanned and outgunned,
they devise a rescue plan that uses
deception to level the field.
- The plan that the Alamo Scouts
come up with, they need something
to function as a distraction.
A U.S. Army Air Force's P-61 Black Widow night fighter
will fly in, simulating that it is
encountering engine problems.
And then they'll launch the raid,
recover the prisoners of war using caribou
and bamboo stretchers, move them to safety.
[tense music]
[Sami] On the night of January 30th, the scouts,
now backed by the 6th Army and local guerrillas,
move into position for the rescue.
[David] Inside the camp,
Japanese guards lounge about smoking.
What the guards don't know is that the attack
is already underway, starting with a diversion.
[jet engine roaring]
[Sami] A P-61 Black Widow night fighter swoops low,
engines roaring, backfiring.
It's weaving.
It all is trying to sell the illusion
of a stricken plane that's about to crash.
And the guards naturally look skyward, distracted.
♪ ♪
[David] The rescue raid springs into motion.
[dramatic music]
- The U.S. troops and the Filipino guerrillas
converge on the camp.
♪ ♪
[Martin] The guards are overwhelmed and confused.
They don't realize what's happening until it's too late.
[gunfire]
- They breach through the fence of the POW camp,
get inside, and begin liberating prisoners.
♪ ♪
It all goes down like clockwork.
[solemn music]
[David] The raid is over
in less than 30 minutes.
The Japanese suffer nearly 600 casualties,
but not a single Alamo Scout is lost.
Altogether, 500 Allied prisoners are freed.
- This is, like, one of the most daring,
heroic operations
the American military conducted during World War II.
♪ ♪
[Sami] Despite their success, for over 40 years,
the Alamo Scouts remain a secret.
♪ ♪
[Paul] The records of their operations are,
for all intents and purposes, just buried.
[tense music]
[David] In 1986, the U.S. Army finally declassifies
the record of the Alamo Scouts.
♪ ♪
[Jack] Two years after
their records are declassified,
the Alamo Scouts are granted
the insignia of a Special Forces soldier.
♪ ♪
[David] Over 40 years after
their heroics in the Philippines,
the Alamo Scouts finally receive recognition
for pulling off one of the most daring
POW rescue missions in American history.
- Most secret units stay out of sight.
They rely on false identities and clever disguises.
But during the Cold War,
the Soviet Union assembles a team that truly
operates below the surface--
an elite force of highly trained dolphins.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] At the height of the Cold War,
Soviet navy commanders are worried.
They're concerned enemy divers could slip into their bases
and sabotage their fleet without being detected.
In the warm waters off the Crimean Peninsula,
the USSR sets up a top-secret training school for dolphins.
[dolphins chattering]
- The Soviets, by utilizing the dolphins'
incredible hearing and intelligence,
create a highly effective early warning defense system
for any possible inbound enemy submarines.
♪ ♪
[David] The Dolphins are fully trained
to trail a signal buoy and kept on standby.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] In 1991, the Soviet Union breaks apart.
Modern Russia has no use for these trained dolphins.
So the marine mammal program falls apart
and is just remembered as a relic
of the old Soviet empire.
♪ ♪
[David] Fast forward three decades,
and the mammal program resurfaces
in the most unexpected of places.
- It's a spring day off the coast of Norway.
Three fishermen spot something strange drifting in the ocean.
As they get closer,
they realize it's a beluga whale.
♪ ♪
[Greg] Now, this is odd.
Belugas swim in colder waters than this.
Also, they typically travel in pods.
So for it to be this far south and to be alone,
something is suspicious here.
[Hakeem] As the whale swims by,
the fishermen notice that there's something
caught around the beluga's body.
One of the fishermen dives into the water
to help the animal.
But once in the water,
the fisherman realizes
that this isn't debris wrapped around the whale--
this is a carefully designed harness.
[dramatic music]
[David] As they haul the harness onto deck,
they spot something strange--
a stamp that says, "Equipment, Saint Petersburg."
This isn't fishing gear.
It's Russian tech.
♪ ♪
[Dan] Just for the record,
no zoo or research institution
has put out a statement saying that
they are missing their beluga.
It is a total mystery where this thing came from.
♪ ♪
The mystery quickly makes international headlines,
and news outlets settle on the unsettling conclusion
a Russian spy whale has just surfaced in Norwegian waters.
[Sami] Locals embrace the theory,
and they give the animal a name, Hvaldimir,
which is a playful mashup of the word Hval,
which is Norwegian for whale,
and the first name of Russia's president,
Vladimir Putin.
♪ ♪
[David] The Putin administration
doesn't confirm knowledge of Hvaldimir.
♪ ♪
[Greg] Intelligence journalists
across the world start digging in
to see if Hvaldimir really is
a part of a secret Russian unit.
[Sami] Footage on social media
of Hvaldimir playing with tourists along Norway's coast
reveals a pretty big clue.
It shows Hvaldimir being playful--
tugging at ropes, nudging boats.
He even retrieves a girl's phone from the seabed.
[Hakeem] It becomes clear that
this whale has experience with humans
and may even be trained,
but it's not clear by who or why.
♪ ♪
- The following month, European journalists
make a breakthrough while trawling through Google Maps.
[dramatic music]
They're scrolling along the coastline,
looking at clues.
And they spot something
hiding in plain sight in Olenya Bay
near Murmansk.
♪ ♪
[David] Floating in the water
are what appear to be large pens,
roughly 20 meters wide.
[Dan] Murmansk is Russia's key Arctic port
and the base for its main submarine force,
the Northern Fleet.
That fleet comprises more than 30 submarines,
including a bunch that are capable
of launching nuclear strikes.
[David] The freezing waters of Murmansk
are too cold for most dolphin species.
♪ ♪
Have Russians begun secretly training
a new mammal to serve as underwater sentinels?
[Dan] Inside those berths
are white shapes that match
the sizes of beluga whales.
♪ ♪
[David] This discovery is only
the tip of the iceberg.
Later that month, more intel is revealed.
[Sami] A tip reaches Ukrainian marine biologist
Dr. Olga Shpak.
She's told Hvaldimir is actually a whale named Andruha
and went missing from the Research Institute
for Applied Problems in Murmansk.
It's a branch of the Russian military
that has been secretly training beluga whales.
♪ ♪
[David] A secret unit of Russian marine troops
is finally exposed by the most unexpected whistleblower.
[Sami] After his escape,
Hvaldimir lives out the remainder of his days
on the Norwegian coast, living proof
of Russia's latest shadow unit,
this top-secret battalion
of cute belugas that are trained
to guard its submarine strike force.
♪ ♪
- When a secret unit mission ends in success,
no one ever hears about it.
But when a mission fails,
that's when it makes the headlines.
[tense music]
[Sami] In the early years of the Cold War,
the CIA creates its own team of cat burglars,
a unit so secret, it operates entirely off the books.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] It's known only as The Shop.
They're trained in lock picking, safe cracking,
and silent entry.
And they're the CIA's answer when what they're looking for
is literally locked behind closed doors.
♪ ♪
[David] In 1989, the CIA has a problem
only The Shop can crack, high in the Himalayas.
[Sami] The CIA has intelligence that
a code machine is locked away inside
the East German embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal.
♪ ♪
It's the key to unlocking three decades
of encrypted East German communications.
It's an intelligence gold mine.
[Hakeem] If they can steal the code machine,
then they can decrypt the intelligence
and tip the balance
between the U.S. and its Cold War rivals.
At this point, the Eastern Bloc is crumbling.
And understanding what's happening
behind the Iron Curtain has never been more critical.
[David] With the stakes so high,
the CIA turns to its most skilled safecracker,
a man named Doug Groat.
[Sami] Groat is a former Green Beret,
trained in survival and evasion.
But after leaving the Special Forces in 1980,
he joins the CIA.
[David] By 1989, he's a seven-year veteran
of The Shop, trusted with the jobs
no one else can handle.
- Groat is ordered to fly to Kathmandu
and steal the code machine.
He's ordered to take the entire safe
because attempting to crack it on-site
would just take too much time.
[tense music]
[David] As with most of his work,
failure means likely death.
- Members of The Shop do not have diplomatic immunity.
And that means that if they are caught,
the CIA will deny their existence and disavow them.
♪ ♪
[David] Two days before the mission,
Groat's team arrives in Nepal disguised as tourists.
They move into a safe house and begin final preparations.
- To give Groat's team a window of time
to carry out the operation,
CIA stationed in Kathmandu
sets up a diplomatic event
about an hour outside of the city.
They know that the East Germans can't deny
an invitation to come to the event...
♪ ♪
Which gives Groat's team about three solid hours
to carry out this mission.
[dramatic music]
[Hakeem] Groat and his team need to reach
the East German embassy without any suspicion.
That's kind of hard for a group of white dudes
to accomplish in Kathmandu.
[Jesse] Groat and his team are given
latex masks, complete with black hair
and darker skin tone
to turn them into convincing Nepalese men,
[tense music]
[David] On the day,
the Americans put on their disguises
and begin the operation.
[Sami] At the closed embassy,
Groat quietly opens the front door.
Inside the embassy, it's too hot to concentrate.
So they have no choice.
They have to remove their masks.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] Groat and his team identify the safe,
but it's much heavier than they anticipated.
♪ ♪
They drag the safe down the stairs,
load it into a van,
and speed away to the U.S. embassy.
[dramatic music]
- When they reach the embassy,
Groat cracks open the safe to retrieve his prize.
[David] But it's completely empty.
[Hakeem] It's a failure.
So when another job goes wrong,
Groat is furious.
it's putting his intelligence team at risk.
In the months that follow, Groat falls out with the CIA
and eventually leaves the agency under a cloud.
♪ ♪
[Sami] Decades later, in 2012,
Groat reveals details of The Shop
to journalist David Wise, who,
through Groat's testimony and other sources,
pieces together details
of this still very top secret unit.
In fact, it's Wise who publishes a bombshell article
revealing the botched Kathmandu job
and sheds light for the first time
on the inner workings of The Shop.
[Andrew] The Kathmandu job remains the only
confirmed operation that The Shop ever carried out,
even though people assume dozens,
if not hundreds, of additional operations
have also taken place.
♪ ♪
- Were it not for that failed mission,
we'd probably never have known that The Shop even existed.
- Spying on your enemies is standard practice.
But when your targets are your own allies,
espionage enters dangerous new territory.
[tense music]
- F6 is a subunit of the CIA's Special Collection Service.
Essentially, it's a team of master eavesdroppers.
- Formed late in the Cold War, some of their triumphs
include bugging Moscow's phone exchanges
and tapping Pakistan communication networks
to steal nuclear plans.
[Don] If you want to listen in
on any conversation on Earth,
these are the people you call.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] The United States' relationship with Germany
is facing its biggest strain since the end of World War II.
♪ ♪
George W. Bush is making his case
to start the Iraq war.
Germany will not be joining in.
[Don] It is a very public snub.
And it makes intelligence chiefs
inside the U.S. government uneasy.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] If Berlin is so willing
to openly defy the United States,
that creates fears they're sowing distrust
among America's other allies.
♪ ♪
[David] The Bush administration wants to know
what's being said behind closed doors in Germany,
so it turns to F6.
[suspenseful music]
[Sami] To bug the German government,
F6 places their faith in a newly-developed
piece of computer code that targets a weak spot
in the administration's communications security.
♪ ♪
- For sensitive business,
the Germans use secure, encrypted landlines.
But they all carry mobile phones,
which bounce microwave signals from tower to tower.
♪ ♪
[David] F6 has developed a top-secret program
to monitor these transmissions.
♪ ♪
[Sami] F6 can sift through
the storm cloud of microwaves
whizzing over a city or an entire nation
and pull out any messages linked to that number.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] The entire operation can be run
from the U.S. embassy in Berlin.
There, they can place an antenna on high
to trawl the airwaves for sensitive communications
between targeted politicians.
[tense music]
[David] The challenge is installing the antennas
where they won't attract attention.
♪ ♪
F6's solution is another piece
of high-tech trickery.
[Sami] The antennas are placed inside rooms
at the very top of the U.S. embassy,
near windows, which they coat with
a special dielectric film.
What this film does is, it blocks visible light,
concealing the antenna while allowing radio
and microwaves to pass through to be collected.
♪ ♪
- With the antennas in place, the U.S. now has
a direct line into Germany's inner circle.
♪ ♪
[Andrew] For weeks, the U.S. pushes Germany
to support the invasion of Iraq,
all while simultaneously listening
to the private communications of German leadership.
[Sami] Armed with this intel, they soon realize that
the Germans likely won't budge.
And it's little surprise to the Americans
when Germany refuses to join their invasion of Iraq
in March of 2003.
♪ ♪
[David] F6 keeps the phone tap operation
running even after the Iraq war ends.
- As Angela Merkel rises to become chancellor
and one of the West's most influential politicians,
her phone remains under surveillance.
On paper, she's one of Washington's
closest allies, yet F6 keeps listening,
undetected and undeterred.
[David] It stays secret for years,
until June 2013, when it's finally revealed.
[Sasha] NSA contractor Edward Snowden
walks off the job in Hawaii,
and he's carrying what will become
one of the most damaging intelligence leaks in history.
♪ ♪
[Don] He releases this information to journalists.
Overnight, the world learns of
vast and secret U.S. surveillance programs.
♪ ♪
Buried among the details is a document
listing the personal number of Angela Merkel
as an active NSA target.
[Sami] Scandal erupts,
and Merkel calls President Obama to tell him
spying on friends is not acceptable.
♪ ♪
[Don] Within days, the world learns that
F6 is tapping into the inner circles
of allied governments.
Outrage sweeps Germany and beyond.
[David] The CIA never officially acknowledges
the German eavesdropping operation
or even the existence of F6.
The question is, who are they listening to now?
♪ ♪
From an unusual spy in the waters off Norway
to a daring rescue in World War II
and a team of deadly Russian assassins,
secret units operate in every era
and for every government.
When they succeed, no one's the wiser.
But when they fail, the world finds out.
♪ ♪