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CIA & KGB Gadgets On Display
ricst writes "Been postponing that visit to the Reagan Presidential library? Well, delay no more, because they are hosting an exhibit of some formerly secret CIA and KGB gadgets. reports, "For the first time, the public is getting a large scale view of the CIA's and KGB's real-life James Bond gadgets, from a replica of the Russians' deadly poison-dart umbrella to some of the Amercians' most ingeniously concealed cameras." The last 200 years of history of technology is reflected in these spy devices that go back to the Revolutionary War."
I didn't see the beowolf cluster of shoe phones anywhere!
Like the one-of-a-kind Lucas alternator that works?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Don't you mean KGB?
Believe it or not, the CIA has thier own museum complete with cool old spy gizmos. It's even online at:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/artifacts/
I guess the CIA figures it is safe to put these on display now, because Reagan can't remember what any of it is or what they did with it.
They must be mistaken, doesn't spy on other countries...
I give up, some one get me when Elvis returns...
The world's first microdot, a document shrunken down to a tiny point, is also on display. It dates back to 1852.
Wow, and here I was thinking that Hoffman didn't invent LSD until 1943.
The question is when will the stuff that they are working on NOW be avail. for geenral use?
Everyone knows that things like the internet, GPS and even caller ID would not have been developed without a certain amount of pushing of the technology spectre by those organizations in their race to outdo each other.
--
Time is on my side
A friend of mine had a 69 650 Triumph Bonneville. And that Lucas t-shirt. He rewired the bike to use circuit breakers rather than fuses.
Best Slashdot Co
You might not believe it but the NSA has their own museum National Cryptologic Museum It has a real ENIGMA machine as well as the machine used to break the codes. The displays pretty much end in the 70's or 80's with a massive CRAY machine as the most modern thing they show
Free cell phone tracking
All I wanna see is the cat the cia cyborgized for remote recon mission, I
Oh, I forgot, after all those millions, frankenkitty got squashed....
This ought to be called the obsurdity display, How mush of these toys actually produced results ?
What about all the mind control devices the CIA and KGB played with in the 50's and 60's ?
WHAT ?? Theyre still using them?!?
......I forgot what I was going to say.....
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
My Russian freind told me this joke one day.
Place and time: somewhere in the Soviet Union in 1930s.
The phone rings at KGB headquarters.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this KGB?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
"I'm calling to report my neighbor Yankel Rabinovitz as an enemy of the
State. He is hiding undeclared diamonds in his firewood."
"This will be noted."
Next day, the KGB goons come over to Rabinovitz's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept, break every piece of wood, find no diamonds, swear at Yankel Rabinovitz and leave.
The phone rings at Rabinovitz's house.
"Hello, Yankel! Did the KGB come?"
"Yes."
"Did they chop your firewood?"
"Yes, they did."
"Okay, now its your turn to call. I need my vegetable patch plowed."
I am into the copy and paste.
I wanted to know how this "liberator pistol" (mentioned in the article) looks like, googled for it and found this link of an
CIA article with some pictures of older and/or pre-CIA stuff.
Also on display is a pair of Diana Rigg's leather pants from the hit British TV spy series "The Avengers."
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
From the early days of the CIA's predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, there are tire spikes, bombs and "liberator pistols." The latter were mass produced for $1.72 each and dropped to resistance fighters during World War II.
Somehow, I don't think I'd want to brag about poorly designed, cheap guns that were dropped in large quantities to anyone claiming to be a "resistance fighter," which many times turned out to be a German intelligence operative. Or maybe they were hoping that the Germans would try to use them...
But one device CIA officials say they never had was a version of the KGB's deadly umbrella that was used by an unknown assailant to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978. A model of the umbrella is part of the display.
Death lasers, early death from too much sleep, Unix configurations, deadly umbrellas... I realize that Valentines day was just a few days ago, and a certain someone is entering into a particularly serious contract, but there's really only so much death you need on the front page...
And These are people who were suspicious of the Russians to begin with? jeeze.....
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The full text should read: They must be mistaken, the US doesn't spy on other countries... See now isn't it funny :)
I give up, some one get me when Elvis returns...
The article forgets to mention one of the most stunning weapon in the intelligence world: suitcase nuclear bomb.
Finally, something makes Duke Nukem real!!!
I know this is stating the obvious, but:
A large wooden gift from your rivals?
And you accept it at face value and bring it into your fortress?
And it just happens to have a secret compartment with an electronic spy hidden in it?
Hello?
Weren't diplomats supposed to have gone to Ivy Schools where they teach all that literature in dead languages?
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
The article said the earliest microdot was made (i think) in 1854. Anyone know how this was done? Kinda light on details there.
On a side note, where's the sharks with frickin' laser beams? They had Dr. Evil's ring, but not the sea bass? What gives?
Sent from your iPad.
Cheers,
Ian
We have befallen black days.
"Black days have befallen us", surely?
After he started on his way home by bicycle the stuff started to kick in. Must have been one helluva bike ride through Basel.
The Albert Hofmann Foundation has more interesting stuff about the inventor of LSD (who to the best of my knowledge is still very much alive).
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
What I'd like to know from something like this is whether any tradecraft originally developed for movies, TV, etc. were later imported into industrial use. Like, maybe comrade Boris thought to make a real version when he saw Maxwell Smart's shoe.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Organizations like the CIA are so compartmentalized that I wouldn't expect anyone to make a definitive comment like 'CIA officials say there is no poision umbrella', probably translates to 'in my knowledge there is no poison umbrella'. For anyone, apart from the director, to say that there is no X or Y is wrong.
Each employee probably knows his job section, the admin staff in his job section and nothing more. The canteens are seperated, the sections are seperated, even within sections the compartmentalization is such that one man can not have more knowledge than they need to complete their task.
So my point is that their may well be no poison umbrella, but anonymous officials tend to spout the current political masters party line and know as little (or as much) about various departments as is dictated by overall security protocol. Which is good because it protects both the individual (can't cough up in interrogation or sell what he doesn't know) and therefore organization as a whole.
e4 e5
Did I fail history or was the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima named "Little Boy"? The caption for the article calls it "Fat Man". But I seem to remember in my foggy brain that "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, three days later.
Anyone?
As a CIA employee, whenever I hear that the Agency is programming people's minds, I have to laugh. I don't want to laugh when I hear this, but I have to because that's the way the CIA programmed my mind!
I am into the copy and paste.
Apropos recent events, in case you're wondering what will become of all the unemployed KGB men in the event of a change of regime in the USSR, I was talking to a German friend recently and asked him what had become of all the former Stasi secret policement of East Germany.
"Oh they're all taxi drivers now," he said, "it was the obvious solution."
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Simple," he said, "you just give them your name--and they know where you live."
I am into the copy and paste.
Nah, He killed himself in 1989.
I wonder if this exhibit has any connection to Alan Simpson who has been talking about putting together a spy musuem or a spying themed entertainment park for several years now. The collection suggests a connection to me.
Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
A group of serving secret agents claimed Tuesday their superiors had ordered them to assassinate Boris Berezovsky (pictured), the controversial billionaire with close ties to Kremlin chief Boris Yeltsin and his family...Political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky said the furore was ironic given charges by Yeltsin's former chief bodyguard, Aleksander
...hey, what makes you think I get people killed?
Korzhakov, that Berezovsky had asked him to have rival business baron Vladimir Gusinsky eliminated in 1994.--Reuters, Nov. 19
(Boris Berezovsky is pacing back and forth in front of Boris Yeltsin's desk in the Kremlin. Yeltsin is busy writing)
Berezovsky: Boris Nikolayevich, you must do something!
Yeltsin: (without looking up) I am doing something, Boris, I'm working with documents.
Berezovsky: (looking at paper in front of Yeltsin) You're doing a crossword puzzle!
Yeltsin: I am TRYING to do a crossword puzzle. I'd be making much more progress if you weren't distracting me with your whining and complaining about people trying to kill you.
Berezovsky: (outraged) People? People trying to kill me Boris Nikolayevich? It's the KGB trying to kill me! The KGB!
Yeltsin: How can the KGB be trying to kill you when there is no KGB? There's the FSB...the "toothless shadow of a former Russian intelligence organization." Five across.
Berezovsky: Toothless? It may be toothless but it's still armed Boris Nikolayevich - and the FSB is trying to kill me!
Yeltsin: That's about the best guarantee of long life you could have.
Berezovsky: That's easy for you to say, Boris Nikolayevich, but for me it is a source of constant worry!
Yeltsin: (still concentrating on puzzle) Boris, if you found out that the mafia was trying to kill you, then I would say go ahead and worry, but the FSB? Who goes to the FSB when they want someone killed? Do you go to the FSB when you want someone killed?
Berezovsky: No, but
Yeltsin: Oh, I was speaking purely hypothetically, of course. So what would you do if you wanted someone killed?
Berezovsky: (with an air of giving the question serious consideration) Well, let's see. I guess I'd send them somewhere dangerous. Like Chechnya. Or Miami.
Yeltsin: Assuming you can't send them anywhere. Assuming you have to do the job here in Moscow. What would you do then?
Berezovsky: Well, I might - and this is purely hypothetical of course - I might stand behind him in a crowd in Red Square and yell "So YOU'RE the one who got us into this financial mess!"
Yeltsin: Hmm, clever, but not altogether reliable.
Berezovsky: (warming to his theme) Or I could replace his briefcase with one of those nuclear suitcase bombs Lebed is always on about.
Yeltsin: In which case, you'd wipe out most of the region. A bit excessive, I'd say.
Berezovsky: Yes, I suppose - okay, how about this? I send him to the next Communist Party convention in a "Lenin Sucks" t-shirt.
Yeltsin: Yes, that would probably do it. But you notice, you haven't once said, "I'd go to the FSB and ask them to knock him off," have you?
Berezovsky: No.
Yeltsin: So are you ready to admit that you've overreacted to the idea that the FSB is trying to kill you?
Berezovsky: Well...maybe...
Yeltsin: Good, then all's well. Give my regards to your family.
Berezovsky: (leaving) I will. Good-bye Boris Nikolayevich.
Yeltsin: (returning to puzzle) Four down - "one who is easily duped, a sucker." B-E-R-E-Z-O-V-S-K-Y...
I am into the copy and paste.
One of the more fascinating anecdotes was when Dr. Albert Hofmann inadvertedly tried the stuff on himself (he absorbed 20x the normal dosis through the skin).
Ah, so that explains why Internet Cable Companies are 'Tripping'...must be part of DOCIS/DOSIS compliance...
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Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
http://www.jfk-assassination.de/articles/umbrella. html
AC
"Knock, knock."
"Knock, knock who?"
"CIA."
"CIA who?"
"We ask the questions."
I am into the copy and paste.
If the presidential intelligence binder is the top piece of the exhibition ....
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
if he killed himself in 1989 who is this?
hofmann
...when first we practice to deceive. It wasn't just the yanks and ruskies who were engaged in the spying game. The Imperial War Museum in London (just near Waterloo station) has a permanent exhibition about the British secret war. The exhibition has lots of miniture radios and cameras, invisible writing equipment, escape maps, weaponry and cipher machines from M15, M16, SOE and Signals Intelligence. Super stuff, but far too many School Kids milling around on a week day.
# init 5
Connection closed.
Oh...
Yeah, "haha" Reagan has alzheimers and can't even remember his wife or close friends. "Haha" they have to care for him everyday hoping for only the slightest bit of recognition while enduring the pain that he will never again know who they are.
Yep, this is something we should really poke fun at, since it's such a hilarious situation for everyone.
I'm fully confused now.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, Abbie Hoffman, and bears oh my!
The spy gadget gallery sounds like an excellent idea, but unfortunately most of the gadgets on display hardly measure up to the items on display from movies and TV shows, such as the "Get Smart" shoe phone. Obviously real gadgets won't measure up to ficticious Hollywood gadgets, but you'd think they could do better than the binder for the president's daily intelligence briefing. I wonder why they'd want to overshadow the real gadgets if their goal is to spread the word about why so much money is put into the intelligence community? It seems like some of those items are just filler so the exhibit is a decent size. Still, the cameras and the microdot sound interesting.
..has austin powers mojo?
i knew a guy who was a "retired" army intel guy, and while he wouldn't talk about much, he did tell a few stories about stuff that was obsolete and declassified... the writers for the old "get smart" tv show were actually taken into another room and questioned at length about the shoe phone gag. seems the spooks had just developed and deployed a shoe phone a few months before the show first aired, and the spy dudes wanted to know how the writers found out about it. hey, it was in the depths of the cold war, and the spooks were absolutely humorless back in those days. when they finally understood that a phone in a shoe was just plain ridiculous to the general populace, they liked the show for giving them a great cover for not only the shoe phone, but some other stuff too (he wouldn't elaborate).
These are not my gadgets! ;-)
---
Keith Barrett (kgb)
will there be the cremated remains of everyones favorite cat. :)
Don't tar us all with the same brush you fucking turd.
...as long as John Cleese is nowhere within a 100 mile radius. Painful.
Anybody want a peanut?
Hmm, time for some slightly OT karma whoring...
The bug that was found in that seal was invented by none other than Leon Theremin, inventor of the instrument of the same name.
There's an excellent biography available about Theremin by Albert Glinsky called "Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage" - there's a review here. (No affiliate link here, just a review.)
Theremin was quite an inventor - Glinksy's book is a good read, managing to be interesting and informative in equal measures.
Go here for more about Theremins, or here to buy one.
"Questions have been asked about why we invest so much money in the intelligence community," said Lloyd Salvetti, director of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. "We thought we should team with the president's library to get out our message about why we exist."
"The answer is quite simple, we exist to buy cool toys. Yes, like our brothers in the Defense Department, we invest billions of dollars each year, in really super cool gadgets like this remote control airplane. Except we call it a drone, because drone sounds much cooler than remote control airplane."
Josh