Working through our list of places we wanted to visit in DC, we got skunked at our first two. The FBI headquarters is no longer open to visitors; and the Ford Theater and museum were both shut down for renovation.
As it turned out, that worked in our favor, as we spent over four hours in the Spy Museum (AAA said to plan for two). A lot of research, site preparation and electronic jimcrackery has gone into this venue. We came out with the eerie feeling that someone is watching us most of the time. A statistic given was that there were 10,000 people involved in spying working within a mile of the museum! Yikes!
Spies have been used since Roman times. Older names we've heard like Mata Hari and Benedict Arnold, to the Rosenburgs, to Aldrich Ames. American spies -- Russian spies -- German spies -- British spies -- everybody's got 'em. Double agents seem to be quite common. No matter what checks are made, and what precautions are taken, someone will always spill the beans to the other guys, whether for money, sex, or their belief that they are really helping the world by blabbing. An interesting statement was that the most successful spies are never known, 'cause they were never caught or compromised.
I got a kick out of the Soviet and US embassies built in each country. Full of bugs! The US embassy in Moscow had the top two floors dismantled and found lots of metal and bugs in the concrete. The Soviet embassy in DC scanned for bugs before occupying, then the CIA activated a bug on a parachute which had been placed at the top of a downspout, rain pushed the parachute (and bug) down to a good listening spot.
The museum ended up with a short video describing the spying going on today: with the internet and terrorist cells there are untold small organizations without a central head. Which "one" could conceivably cause the most damage? Such massive sources of data! Scary!
