Inside the CIA museum: these are the secrets it hides

To one side the weapon with which they killed Osama Bin Laden. At the other end of the room, a mouse stuffed to send classified notes. This is the secret museum of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), an exclusive place closed to the publicbut open to current and former government employees, official guests, foreign associates, potential recruits, and recently a group of journalists who were able to document what was inside.

It is located in the state of Virginia and was founded in 1972. In 2022, to commemorate its anniversary, the museum decided to renew its collection. There are more than 600 artifacts used for espionage, as well as details of the most important operations at the intelligence level.as was the death of the terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, who is blamed for the attack on the Twin Towers on September 9, 2001.

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After the raid on bin Laden’s compound, 13 bricks variously stamped with an “A”, “M” or “S” were recovered from a pile of building materials next to the main house.

A journey through history

It all starts from 1947 with the founding of the CIA. The walls of the compound tell the story of the organization, while leading the public through artifacts and secret missions that have been declassified for informational purposes.Gadgets such as a communication device disguised as a tobacco pipe used in the 1960s, or Morse code panels can be found there.

The CIA used semi-submersibles to reach spaces where ships couldn’t.

Photo:

CIA museum website

Also, there are large screens that show specific missions, such as one that explains how the CIA managed to intercept phones from East Germany, going under the Berlin wall.

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There is even a very recent model of the US missile that hit Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, in July 2022, in the shelter where Ayman al-Zawahiri, the then leader of al-Qaeda, was held.

This painting shows an elite group of CAT volunteers who were ambushed and two were imprisoned in Manchuria.

Photo:

CIA museum website

However, not everything can be said. There are still different stories that cannot be fully told. For example, in the museum there is an exhibition of all the clothing that was used to maintain the facade that had been mounted in 1960 to rescue a lost submarine at the bottom of the ocean. Clothes, ashtrays and mail bags can be found.

The submarine was partially recovered, because when it was removed it broke into some pieces. Even so, despite the fact that the operation is told in the museum, the information that they managed to recover from the artifact remains classified.