5 amazing declassified military secrets
What are politicians not telling us? In a new Sky HISTORY series, David Duchovny shines a light on declassified secrets once held close to governments’ chests.
Image: David Duchovny uncovers some of the most closely guarded government secrets in his new Sky HISTORY show | Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny
What might our governments be hiding from us? There could be a few hints in what we now know they have been hiding from us. Here are just some of the fascinating declassified military secrets highlighted in Sky HISTORY’s Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny, starting Tuesday, 10th May at 9pm.
1. The East German Stasi collected jars of citizens’ scents
The communist state of East Germany was notorious for spying on its citizens. The secret police (the ‘Stasi’) went as far as surreptitiously collecting smells of citizens whose behaviour aroused suspicion.
The Stasi would sneak tubes into people’s homes in the hope of siphoning smells out of the air. Other times, a suspect would be made to sit on a chair partially comprising an odor-absorbent cloth. This fabric would later be removed and kept in a glass jar.
After a criminal commits wrongdoing, their scent could linger at the crime scene. So, the Stasi could theoretically use sniffer dogs to match suspects to crimes.
2. Israeli spies ran a luxury dive resort in Sudan
If you were looking to embark on an overseas holiday in the 1980s, you might have been handed a brochure for Sudan’s Arous dive resort. However, you would unlikely have suspected that this retreat was run by operatives of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Not that the Sudanese government knew. In fact, for Mossad, it was imperative that they didn’t. That’s because the resort was a cover for Mossad operatives illegally smuggling Jewish refugees to the Red Sea coast after dark.
The refugees would then be taken to Israel, having arrived in Sudan to escape civil war in Ethiopia. Mossad rescued 7,000 Ethiopian Jews in the early 1980s before a worrying change of government in Sudan led the operatives to abandon the resort.
3. The CIA bought the world’s entire supply of LSD
That’s according to journalist Stephen Kinzer, whose book Poisoner in Chief details the Central Intelligence Agency’s notorious MKUltra program of the 1950s.
The CIA was convinced that communist enemies of the United States had cracked the code of how to control people’s minds. This made the Agency determined to follow suit. Hence the founding of MKUltra, headed by chemist Sidney Gottlieb.
In an interview with NPR, Kinser explains that Gottlieb 'arranged for the CIA to pay $240,000 to buy the world’s entire supply of LSD'. Gottlieb subsequently authorised experiments on human participants — often without their consent — to discern their psychological reactions to consumption of the psychedelic drug.
4. The CIA lifted a sunken Soviet sub in the early 1970s
In 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean floor. The Soviets failed to locate the sub’s remains, despite extensive searching. Conversely, using sophisticated acoustic tracking technology, the United States made the breakthrough that eluded the Soviets.
The CIA knew what a trove of valuable Soviet secrets it could unearth by recovering the K-129 from the seabed. So, US contractors built a massive, 619-foot-long salvage vessel to help the Agency pursue this audacious goal.
Soviet ships would easily be able to spot this vessel at work. So, the CIA asked billionaire Howard Hughes to publicly pose as the ‘leader’ of the operation, which was purportedly aimed at deep-sea mining for minerals.
Even today, many details of ‘Project Azorian’ remain classified. However, it is thought that at least the hull of the sub was retrieved before word of the mission got out.
5. The UK developed nuclear landmines — and considered using live chickens to keep them warm
As 1st April 2004 trundled around, the British public would doubtless have braced themselves for April Fools' jokes. Unfortunately, it was on this day that quite possibly one of Britain’s wackiest Cold War-era plans was publicly disclosed for the first time.
The (actually true) story goes that, in the 1950s, the British Army considered deploying chickens in a hypothetical war against the Soviets.
Basically, the British developed nuclear landmines but needed to ensure they would stay warm enough to go off at the right time. One idea was to keep chickens in the casing of these landmines, which were intended to be planted in West Germany.
Like actual chickens, the plan didn’t take flight for very long. Concerned about the huge damage these explosives had the potential to inflict, the British government eventually decided to go ‘bok’ to the drawing board.
You can expect further revelations to emerge in future Sky HISTORY programmes. By subscribing to the Sky HISTORY Newsletter, you can ensure you are among the first to hear about these exciting new shows as they arrive.
