All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E09.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[David] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

we reveal the wild cover
stories that fooled the world,

from the FBI sting which traps
a crooked U.S. senator...

- The FBI signs off on private
jets and swanky parties

to fool investors.

- To the CIA's secret airline,

where there's no list
of restricted items.

- They deliver guns, spies, and
soldiers anywhere in the world.

- And a clever magician hides
a vital factory from enemy eyes

during World War II.

- The army wants to
make the entire Boeing

production plant disappear.

- 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]

♪ ♪

When the Nazis
discover the body

of a drowned British officer
carrying classified documents,

they believe they've
stumbled onto top secret

Allied invasion plans.

In fact, it's the most
audacious deception

of World War II.

♪ ♪

- In 1943, the German military
is bogged down

on the Eastern front,
fighting the Red Army.

And now the Allies
want to open a second front

in Western Europe to split
the German Army in two.

Their plan is to use Sicily
as a stepping stone

to mainland Italy.

- The location of Sicily
is a strong choice,

but it's also very obvious.

Winston Churchill himself
puts it like this.

Everyone but a bloody fool
would know that it's Sicily.

[David] To succeed,
the Allies must divert

German attention from Sicily.

[Mark]
What they'd really like to do

is deceive the Germans
into thinking

that the Allies are gonna land
somewhere other than Sicily.

[David] Luckily,
British Intelligence

already has a plan.

[Hakeem]
Charles Cholmondeley

is an MI5
Intelligence officer.

He realizes that he can feed

fake invasion plans
to the Germans...

♪ ♪

By placing documents
on the body

of what appears to be
a serviceman who died

in an air crash
off the coast of Spain.

♪ ♪

- MI5 assign Naval Intelligence
Officer Ewen Montagu

to aid Cholmondeley
in getting the plan together.

[David] The mission
is called Operation Mincemeat.

The first challenge,
Cholmondeley and Montagu

need a fresh cadaver
to play the role

of their downed officer.

- Montagu goes to
the London coroner.

And he asks him, do you have
an appropriate corpse for us?

[David]
Six weeks later,

the body of a Welsh
homeless man, Glyndwr Michael,

turns up at
the coroner's office.

- He had ingested rat poison,

which meant that his insides,
if an autopsy were done,

would look similar to what
would happen to someone

if they had died
of drowning at sea.

[David]
But there's a problem.

The body is already
starting to decompose.

[Vince]
You couldn't freeze it

because even in the 1940s,
a good coroner could figure out

that a body had been frozen.

So you could
keep it refrigerated,

but you had to use it
relatively quickly.

[David]
With the clock ticking,

Cholmondeley and Montagu
create the papers

their fake officer will carry.

- British Intelligence
decides to try and convince

the Germans that the Allies
will be landing

in Greece and in Sardinia.

[David]
Deciding exactly what clues

to give the enemy isn't easy.

- If the fake intelligence
is too blatant,

the Germans will see
through the ruse, game over.

- The British have
to give them just enough

to draw conclusions.

♪ ♪

- The clues to the fake
invasion are planted,

and the corpse
is given a history

and the name
Captain William Martin.

- British Intelligence
realizes that just a uniform

is not enough to make
the Nazis believe this story.

♪ ♪

Martin needed more than that.

He needed his own backstory.

So they created one for him.

[David]
They give him a silver cross,

a half-used book of stamps,
a pencil stub, keys,

a bus ticket, and cigarettes.

[Vince]
They even create letters

from Martin's father and his
bank manager to try to breathe

even more life into him.

They also give him
a girlfriend, a fiancée.

She's actually
a desk officer for MI5,

who they took a picture of
to create this illusion.

[David] On April 19th,
a Royal Navy submarine

sets off with its
top secret cargo.

The lives of thousands
of Allied soldiers

could now rest on the shoulders
of a man who died 11 weeks ago.

♪ ♪

- 11 days later,
at 4:30 a.m. on April 30th,

the body of Glyndwr Michael
is given final rites

and lowered into the ocean.

The body is floating
off the coast of Spain

and is found
by a fishing crew.

They bring it on board,
discover the documents,

and very quickly get them
into the hands

of German Intelligence.

[David]
Back in Britain,

Cholmondeley and Montagu
wait with bated breath.

Will the Nazis buy their ruse?

[Mark]
Finally, on May 12,

British codebreakers
at Bletchley Park

decrypt a message where
Hitler issues an order saying

we need to be particularly
careful about defending

Sardinia and Greece.

[Paul]
Now they actually can see,

almost in real time,

the effects of this
disinformation campaign.

- Soon thereafter,
British Intelligence learns

that German Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel has been ordered

with the entire 1st Panzer
Division to Greece,

along with seven different
infantry divisions.

- A telegram is sent
to Winston Churchill saying,

"Mincemeat swallowed
hook, line, and sinker."

[David] On July 10th,
Allied troops land

on the shores of Sicily,

when they are met by
just two German divisions.

[Paul] The entire campaign
only takes 38 days

before Sicily falls,
and the Germans

are forced to retreat
with their remaining

forces to the mainland.

[David]
This incredible subterfuge

remains a closely
guarded secret until the '50s.

The UK is rocked by
a series of humiliating

Soviet spy scandals.

British Intelligence
desperately needs

some good PR,

and so in 1953,
Montagu publishes

"The Man Who Never Was,"

and the world finally learns
how Operation Mincemeat

changed the course of the war.

- Imagine how many
more British, American,

and Canadian soldiers
would have died

if Mincemeat hadn't been run
and hadn't been so successful.

♪ ♪

- In 1895,
the illusionist Harry Keller

made a woman vanish
into thin air.

In 1918, Harry Houdini made
a five-ton elephant disappear.

So when the U.S. military wants
to make a 26-acre

aircraft plant
become invisible,

who better to turn to
than a magician?

[airplane engines roaring]

[whistling]

[Sami] When the Japanese
bomb the U.S. fleet

at Pearl Harbor,
the United States

immediately declares war
against Japan.

[crowd chanting]

[Paul] But the United States
is not particularly

well prepared
for a war with Japan.

And in February of 1942,
about two months

after the Pearl Harbor attack,
a Japanese submarine

surfaces off the coast
of California

and shells an oil field.

And this really ramps up
American fears

of the possibility
of a Japanese attack

on the West Coast.

♪ ♪

- What the U.S. is
really concerned with

is the vulnerability
of our aircraft

and shipbuilding plants
on the West Coast.

If the Japanese bombers
were to strike there,

they could destroy
this nascent industry

and just flatten it before
it ever gets off the ground.

- An attack on these
factories could totally

cripple America's war effort.

[David] One location
in particular keeps

U.S. generals awake at night--

Boeing's vast
Plant 2 aircraft factory.

- Boeing's Plant 2
is a state of the art,

million square foot
aircraft facility

in Seattle, Washington.

It employs over 30,000
workers who churn out

over 300 B-17 bombers a month.

[David]
To protect Plant 2,

the U.S. military turns to

engineer
Colonel John Ohmer Jr.

- He's the perfect guy
for this job.

Number one, he's an expert
in camouflage.

And number two, as a hobby,
he is a magician.

So who better to make
an entire factory disappear?

[David] If Ohmer
can make Plant 2 vanish,

it will be the greatest
magic trick of his life.

But hiding
a sprawling mega factory

will take far more than
a few rolls of camo netting.

Ohmer must think bigger.

- Ohmer decides to build an
entire fake town on the roof

of the factory,
a whole 3D model neighborhood

perched right on top
of Plant 2.

- Ohmer wants to make
the entire Boeing

production plant disappear
when viewed from above.

- To any Japanese pilot,
this giant aircraft facility

will look like just
another residential suburb.

- Ohmer's plan gets approved,

but given the possibility
of a Japanese attack,

there's no time to lose.

- In 1942,
Army engineer John Ohmer

is planning to build
a fake town

on the roof of the
Seattle Boeing factory

to hide it from enemy bombers.

For help,
he turns to Hollywood.

[upbeat music]

- The film business is filled
with set designers, stagehands,

carpenters, and decorators who
have made their entire careers

building fake worlds
on tight schedules.

Ohmer realizes that they're
the perfect collaborators.

- Ohmer recruits
John Stewart Detlie,

an Oscar-nominated
art director in Hollywood,

who's also married
to the star Veronica Lake,

and puts him in charge of
the project up in Seattle.

- Together, they assemble
a Hollywood dream team

of 13 architects,
8 commercial artists,

7 landscape architects,
5 engineers,

and 1 soil-management expert.

Nothing is overlooked.

[David] They get
to work on construction.

First, they stretch 26 acres
of netting across the roof

of the plant,
50 feet off the ground,

creating an elevated
blank canvas.

On top of this, they begin
to construct their fake town.

[Amy] Next, the team
has a brainwave.

From the air, it's impossible
to tell how tall a building is.

And since they're running
a race against time,

they decide to
cut some corners.

They can build them
a third of the height

using plywood and canvas.

[David] Soon, a strange
miniature town appears--

53 houses, a dozen garages,
greenhouses,

a service station,
even a corner store.

Then it's brought to life.

- Detlie and his people
put in fake trees

made out of fiberglass,

and for the foliage
on the trees,

they use chicken feathers
painted in appropriate greens.

[David] Now all this
Hollywood production needs

to make it sing is a cast.

- Boeing employees
are encouraged

to spend their breaks
on the rooftop,

moving cars,
straightening laundry,

or just lounging
on fake porches.

The total cost of the
subterfuge is $3 million.

Now, at the time,
that's 10 times the price

of making a major
Hollywood movie.

[David] By spring 1943,
it's finished.

Now Ohmer's grand illusion
needs to be put to the test

by top brass back
in Washington.

- They send cameras up
in open-cockpit planes.

They look down, capture images,

and what they find
is startling.

The town works.

This giant factory
with thousands of workers

has completely disappeared.

[David]
Japan's bombers never make it

to the U.S. mainland,

and Ohmer's illusion
is never truly tested.

But the entire operation is
kept secret from the public

until the end of the war.

- It's only as the Americans
are closing in

on the Japanese homeland
in late July of 1945

that they feel confident enough
to tell the public.

[David] On July 23rd,
three weeks before V-J Day,

"The Seattle Daily Times"
unveils the fake town

to their astonished readers,

dubbing it
the Boeing Wonderland.

Hiding an aircraft factory,
that's ingenious.

But up next, the CIA has
to disguise an entire fleet

of U.S. airplanes,
taking the art of subterfuge

to whole new heights.

♪ ♪

[Riskin] In the early 1950s,
the French military

is fighting Communist rebels
for control of their greatest

Southeast Asian colony,
Indochina.

But it's a battle
that they're losing.

♪ ♪

[Sami] By 1954,
much of the French army,

just over 10,000 troops,

are holed up
in this mountainous valley

named Dien Bien Phu,
surrounded by enemy troops.

- The French don't have
the air power to actually

resupply their troops.

[David] Outnumbered,
outgunned, and out of options,

the French make
a desperate appeal for aid

to the Americans.

[Sami] President Eisenhower
sees the French

as a major ally in fighting
Communist expansion

across the globe.

- The president
realizes, though,

that the American public
has no appetite

for another ground war.

[Mark]
We recently had World War II

and the Korean War,
and he doesn't want

to write the French
a blank check.

So Eisenhower
is more interested

in covert assistance
to the French

than in sending the Marines.

[Hakeem] To keep
the U.S. support under wraps,

he's gonna need
a major smokescreen.

[David] The answer could be
an extraordinary air service

with a very ordinary name,

Civil Air Transport
or CAT for short.

[Sami]
CAT was formed in 1946

by combat veteran pilots
flying supplies

to anti-Communist forces

fighting in
the Chinese Civil War--

weapons, people, livestock.

No cargo is too wild
and no route is too hazardous

for CAT's pilots.

[David]
Their gung-ho reputation

catches the attention
of the CIA,

who start using CAT
to help supply

their overseas operations.

- Soon, CAT is flying

hundreds of covert missions
for the U.S.

And by 1950, the CIA had
bought the entire airline

using a shell company called
the Airdale Corporation.

[David] And CAT
has the perfect disguise.

They become an actual
legitimate business,

flying regular passengers
all around Asia.

- In fact,
their work ends up making them

the second largest air
transport company in the world.

[David]
That makes using CAT

a perfect way to secretly
get supplies to French troops.

But pulling that off requires

a whole new level
of deception.

- The U.S. government
wants to be 100% sure

that these airdrops are never
traced back to them.

So they begin working
with the CAT pilots

to make sure that
this entire operation

looks like a French enterprise.

[David] Overnight,
a fleet of CAT's finest planes

and pilots
get a French makeover.

- All the planes are
repainted in French colors

to make them appear to be

regular French
military flights.

[David]
Some of their aircrews

even use French language
commands over the radio.

[radio chatter]

In March 1954,
the supply drops begin.

♪ ♪

Disguised as French airmen,
CAT pilots risk it all,

flying ammo and equipment
through hostile skies.

[Hakeem] These are
incredibly dangerous missions.

Two pilots died.

Among those who survived,
they say that

the anti-aircraft fire they
receive

is as intense as the worst
they faced during World War II.

♪ ♪

- For two months, CAT pilots
run a deadly gauntlet,

flying almost 700 missions to
supply besieged French troops.

[David] Despite Eisenhower's
top secret aid mission,

the French forces
are defeated in May 1954.

Even so, CAT's adventures in
the region are far from over.

♪ ♪

[Sami]
In the late 1950s,

CAT is rebranded
as Air America.

And as the Vietnam War
heats up,

it flies thousands of covert
missions in Southeast Asia

until 1975,
when the conflict ends

and its doors are closed
for good.

[David] In 1979,
journalist Christopher Robbins

publishes a best-selling book
called "Air America."

♪ ♪

And the truth about
this amazing airline...

♪ ♪

Is finally revealed.

- The ultimate con requires
the ultimate con artist.

So when one FBI agent sets out
to catch grifters and scammers,

he wants the best on his team,
even if the best

is a notorious swindler
himself.

[dramatic music]

[Sasha]
It's the 1970s in New York.

John F. Good is an FBI agent
working fraud and corruption,

and he's hungry
for bigger cases.

[Sami] Agent Good is
an "out of the box" thinker,

and he believes
the best way to ensnare

high-level criminals is to go
undercover in sting operations.

[David] The problem is,
John Good doesn't know

the first thing
about running a con.

He needs to find someone
who does.

- In the spring of 1977,
Agent Good hears

about the arrest
of a small-time

con artist named Mel Weinberg.

He's this cigar-chewing,
snappy dressing grifter.

He's got the gift of gab
and a sharp mind,

but not sharp enough to avoid
being picked up by the Feds

for a phony investment scam.

[David] Mel is looking
at some serious prison time,

so Agent Good thinks he'll
be willing to play ball.

- John Good offers
Mel Weinberg a deal.

He agrees to work
with Good and the FBI,

running stings
in the art world.

[David]
Mel joins the team

and immediately hatches
the perfect sting.

- Mel tells Good that
before he was arrested,

he ran this con.

He would pose
as a representative

of these supremely wealthy

and totally invented
Arab investors,

and the crooks lined up
to sell him stolen goods.

- Mel suggests that they
revive his very effective con,

and they start to represent
"Arab wealthy sheikhs"

looking for stolen artwork.

[David] Agent Good agrees
to use Mel's con as bait,

and it doesn't take long
to hook their first big catch.

- Mel knows a New York hustler
with some shady underworld

connections named Ron Sablosky.

He wants to meet Mel's
fake "Arab investors"

to discuss a deal.

[Andrew] Agent Good
creates a fake company

called Abdul Enterprises.

This is what gives
the sting operation

its name, Abscam, a combination
of Abdul and scam.

[Sami] Mel then rents
a suite in the super fancy

Plaza Hotel to meet Sablosky.

And the FBI wire it up
to record the evidence.

[David]
Now all they need

is to find a perfect person
to play the sheikh.

- Mel agrees to let the Feds
allow one of their agents

to pose as the sheikh,

but that turns out
to be a big mistake.

- On the day of the meeting
with Sablosky,

an FBI agent arrives
dressed as a sheikh.

[Hakeem] But there's
a few problems here.

First off, the agent
is a white dude.

Second, he's wearing
a cheap Arabic costume

from a thrift store.

And third, he doesn't
speak a word of Arabic.

- Sablosky should have
seen through this façade,

but maybe it was the prospect
of money that blinded him.

♪ ♪

- As the meeting progresses,
things go from bad to worse

as a tape recorder that's fixed

under the table where
the meeting is taking place

breaks free
and drops to the ground

at Sablosky's feet.

- Somehow, Mel manages
to smooth talk his way

through these blunders,
and eventually

Sablosky offers to sell them
a number of stolen artworks.

- The first sting is a success,
but if Good wants

the next phase to work,
he needs to scale things up

with some serious money.

♪ ♪

[Sami] Good persuades
his bosses to deposit

a million dollars
into a bank account.

Then Mel can
provide their marks

with a direct telephone number
for the Chase Manhattan Bank,

who can truthfully confirm
Abdul Enterprises are indeed

a multi-million dollar client.

- With bigger financial bait
in the water,

you catch bigger fish.

And that's exactly
what happens.

In 1978, Mel is approached
by an associate

of Angelo Errichetti, who's the
mayor of Camden, New Jersey.

[Sami] The mayor
is open to doing business.

Mel and Good are able
to win Errichetti's trust

with a shady
casino-licensing deal.

Errichetti then starts
to introduce him

to more powerful people from
his corrupt political circles.

[David] Next, Mel and Good
supersize their scam

to keep up the charade.

Meeting places get
more extravagant.

And now when
the sheikh appears,

he's played by an FBI agent
who can actually speak Arabic

and who's wearing
more convincing clothes.

- The FBI even signs off on
private jets and swanky parties

to continue to fool investors
of the sheikhs' wealth.

[David] Good hears that
New Jersey Senator

Harrison Williams Jr.
wants to meet.

This could be the biggest
catch of them all.

- The senator secretly asks
for a $100-million loan.

But if the sheikh
sorts out the loan,

Williams promises
to use his position

to secure lucrative
government contracts

for Abdul Enterprises.

[Sasha]
It's a bombshell.

Now the FBI has a senator
on camera clearly demanding

a bribe for political favors.

[David] Senator Williams
would be arrested

and sentenced to three years,

the first U.S. senator to be
sent to prison in 80 years.

- Now, up to this point,
Good hadn't made

a single arrest because
he didn't wanna blow

the fake sheikh's cover.

But now Abscam makes its move

and makes an additional
19 arrests,

including several congressmen.

And it goes all the way
down the food chain

back to Mayor Errichetti.

[David] The case
is a media sensation,

and the story is discovered
all over again in 2013,

when it becomes the basis
for the Hollywood movie

"American Hustle."

- In World War II, Britain,
the most dangerous person

in the country isn't wearing a
uniform or carrying a weapon.

She's wearing an apron,
baking scones for her neighbors

and radioing the secrets of the
atomic bomb directly to Stalin.

[cows mooing]

[Vince]
The Beurton family live

in a picture-perfect
village in Oxfordshire,

about 80 miles from London.

They go to church.

They have young kids.

They are exactly who you would
want to live next to

as your neighbor.

[Sami] Mrs. Beurton
is a striking woman

with a foreign accent.

Neighbors know her
as someone who bakes

the most excellent scones.

[David] What the neighbors
don't know

is Mrs. Beurton is actually
Colonel Ursula Kuczynski

of the Soviet Union's
Red Army.

She's on a mission
to steal the secrets

of the Anglo-American
atomic bomb project

and send them back to Stalin.

And she's one of
his best spies.

- Ursula is
a German Jew by birth

and a longtime
Communist sympathizer.

In the 1930s,
she's living in Shanghai

with her first husband
and her son.

- Ursula starts
a lurid love affair

with a man named Richard Sorge,
who is not everything he seems.

He's actually a headhunter
for Soviet Intelligence.

[Andrew] Sorge recruits her
into the Soviet

intelligence service,
recognizing that her lifestyle

as a domestic housewife
is the perfect cover

and that nobody would
suspect a domestic housewife

is actually a Soviet agent.

- Throughout the next decade,

Ursula spies across the world
for Russia,

using the routine
of family life

to disguise her activities.

[suspenseful music]

In 1940, Ursula marries
a British-born Communist spy

and becomes Mrs. Beurton.

Now, Mr. Beurton knows
all about her espionage,

and they settle down
to a quiet life

in a rural British village.

[David] For Ursula's
Soviet spy masters,

the timing couldn't be better.

- In the 1940s,
the Soviets have a number

of assets inside the American
and British-led A-bomb project.

- Chief among them
is a man named Klaus Fuchs,

who works at a university
not far

from where Ursula lives.

[David] Ursula is tasked
with being Fuchs' handler.

But receiving nuclear secrets
from a scientist working

for the most classified
military venture

on the planet,
that's no easy task.

[Riskin]
The atomic bomb project

is under huge scrutiny,

as are the movements of the
scientists who work on it.

Ursula needs to
get close to Fuchs

to establish a relationship,
but without alerting suspicion

of either British
or U.S. Intelligence forces.

[David] Luckily, Ursula is a
master of becoming invisible.

[Riskin] She arranges
to meet Fuchs for walks

in the
Oxfordshire countryside.

Her plan is that anyone
watching will make

the obvious assumption
that they're just lovers

having an illicit affair.

It's the perfect cover
because it totally explains

why they would
make all these attempts

to be as discreet as possible.

- Ursula then relays
information back to Moscow

from a radio transmitter
she's built herself.

- When Ursula has
more information to pass

than can be done by radio,
she travels to London

and leaves a chalk mark
at a preordained location

to signal to her
Soviet handler

that she has documents
to pass along.

Ursula then has a rendezvous
with her Soviet handler

just outside of London
on the roadside,

and there she passes along
whatever pictures and documents

she needs to deliver.

[David] For 15 months, Ursula
tends her vegetable patch

and hosts the local
church bell ringers

for tea and cakes,

all the while
slipping the USSR

top secret plans
for the A-bomb.

- What she manages to
deliver Stalin from Fuchs

is essentially a guide
to building an atomic bomb.

And her mission is such
a success that by the time

Truman meets Stalin
at the Potsdam Conference

and informs him that
they are working on

an atomic bomb project,

the Soviet leader
doesn't flinch

because he already
knows everything.

- After the war, Ursula's cover

gets its ultimate
life or death test.

In 1947,
one of her previous assets

defects and points
the finger right at her.

A few weeks later,
she gets a knock on the door.

- Ursula is now
in MI5's crosshairs,

and they send Jim Skardon,
one of their most

feared spy catchers,
to pay her a little visit.

[David]
Ursula welcomes Skardon in

and puts the kettle on.

And she serves tea
while politely

answering his questions
and says that

she's a loyal British subject.

[Hakeem] Ursula does not deny
that she does have

a socialist background,
but she claims that

she turned away
from the Soviets.

[Sami] Once again,
the innocent housewife routine

works its magic.

Afterwards, in his files,
Skardon writes that, quote,

"Mrs. Beurton is a
somewhat unimpressive type,

"with frowsy unkempt hair
and a rather untidy appearance.

The British agents have been
totally outmaneuvered."

♪ ♪

[David]
Two years later,

Klaus Fuchs is
arrested for espionage.

Fuchs confirms
Ursula as his handler,

and the game is finally up.

But this time, when MI5 comes
for her, Ursula is gone.

- Ursula moves to East Germany,
where she lives out her life

not as a spy but as
a author of children's books

under a new name, Ruth Werner.

[David] In 1977, the story
of her life of espionage

is revealed when she publishes
a tell-all autobiography.

♪ ♪

- Cover stories
can fool the enemy.

They can also
ensnare the innocent.

In the hunt
for Osama bin Laden,

the CIA tricks thousands
of ordinary people

to catch one man.

[dramatic music]

[Sami] The United States
has been hunting

for Osama bin Laden
for well over a decade,

but he's been like a ghost.

But then in August of 2010,

an operation tracking
an Al-Qaeda courier

leads the CIA to a compound

in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

- Satellite imagery
shows a man taking

regular walks through
the courtyard of this compound.

And visually, it looks like
a match to Osama bin Laden.

But it's not a certain match.

And if you're going to
undertake a mission like this

in a foreign country,
then you need to be

100% certain or at least
as close as possible to that.

[Jack]
Pakistan is a nuclear power,

and a raid like this risks
destabilizing the government.

We have to be absolutely
sure that bin Laden is there

before we decide to launch.

We can't just rely on some
grainy satellite photos.

♪ ♪

[David]
The race is on to verify

bin Laden is
inside the compound,

then the surveillance team
spots something,

which leads to a brilliantly
devious bit of deception.

- Teams watching
the compound have observed

that very few people
are allowed in,

but one group
that is allowed in

is health workers
administering polio vaccines.

So the thinking is,
one way the CIA can get inside

is to set up a fake
inoculation program.

- If they can get medical
professionals into the compound

and collect blood samples,
they're probably not going

to get his blood,
but they might be able to get

blood of his relatives.

[David]
The plan is hatched,

but then they discover
a critical flaw.

- There is no historical
sample of bin Laden's blood,

so we don't actually
know what his DNA

specifically looks like.

- The CIA does some digging
and learns that bin Laden

has a sister who died
in Boston of brain cancer,

and there is some of
her genetic material

still in the United States.

Because she's
a close blood relative,

they can use this sample
to make a DNA match.

[David]
With the DNA secured,

now they need to find
a local accomplice

to run the scheme.

[Riskin] The CIA identifies
Dr. Shakil Afridi

as a man who might be able
to help them set up

this healthcare scheme
without arousing suspicion.

He's a leading physician
in the Khyber tribal district

who's already overseen a number

of U.S.-funded vaccination
programs in Pakistan.

[David] Even better for
the CIA, Afridi needs cash.

[Sasha]
Afridi was recently kidnapped

by a local Islamic warlord.

His family paid $10,000
for his release,

and that was money
that they didn't have.

So the agency offers him
about $60,000

to set up this
covert vaccination scheme.

[Amy] Afridi accepts
the CIA's offer,

and to maintain total secrecy
over the operation,

he's not even told
who the prime target is.

[David]
With their doctor signed up,

the CIA starts
devising a program

to get health workers
into the compound.

- They pick a hepatitis B
vaccination program

for their cover because
it requires a drop of blood

be taken from the subject and
blotted on rapid test strips.

And then the blood can
be later tested for DNA.

- But ethically, it's quite
dubious because the vaccine

needs three rounds to work.

And here they're only
planning to do one.

- They're leaving
an entire community

thinking they're immune
to hepatitis B

when really
they're not protected.

[David] Ultimately,
bin Laden is considered

such a high-value target

that the CIA decides
mass subterfuge

is a price worth paying.

[indistinct chatter]

In March 2011, the CIA
rolls out the scheme.

After administering 1,000 jabs,
the time comes

to enter bin Laden's
suspected compound.

♪ ♪

[Riskin] In late April,
one of Afridi's nurses

is sent to the compound.

If she's denied entry at
the door, the entire scheme,

months of work could
come crashing down.

[Jack] The stakes
are incredibly high.

This might be their one shot
to confirm that bin Laden

is actually on the compound.

And then the door opens,
and she's allowed in.

- Exactly what happens
next within the compound

is fiercely debated.

A nurse tells
a local journalist

that she was able to enter
and take a sample

from a young woman
whose description matched

bin Laden's daughter, Mariam,

but she later retracted
that statement.

But according
to Pakistani Intelligence,

the nurse hands over
the hep B blood test to Afridi.

- As far as the results
from those blood samples,

it's still a bit
of a mystery today

as all the bin Laden files
haven't been declassified.

- Tonight, I can report
to the American people

and to the world.

- What we do know is that just
a few days after those

blood samples were reportedly
taken, President Obama

gave the okay to a mission
to go into the compound

and either capture
or kill Osama bin Laden.

[David] That's not quite
the end of the story.

- Three weeks after
bin Laden's death,

Afridi is arrested
by Pakistani authorities

for colluding
with U.S. Intelligence.

[David] A British newspaper
investigates the arrest,

revealing the CIA's
clandestine operation

to the world.

- Tales of grand
military deception

go all the way back
to the Siege of Troy.

So in 2014, when Vladimir Putin
sends 280 trucks to Ukraine

that he claims are
carrying aid supplies,

the world is sure it's
a modern-day Trojan horse.

The truth turns out
to be even more shocking.

[dramatic music]

[Sasha] It's 2014, and
Vladimir Putin has a problem.

A revolution has swept
through the streets of Kyiv,

toppling the
pro-Russian government,

and the country is turning
decisively toward the West.

[crowd shouting]

- For Putin,
who sees Ukraine as part

of a great Russian Empire,

this is an intolerable
betrayal.

[David]
Putin wants to bring Ukraine

back under Moscow's thumb.

But with the world watching,
he doesn't wanna risk

a full military confrontation.

So he turns to what many
believe the Russians do best--

deception.

- The idea of smoke and mirrors
is deeply embedded

into the Russian military.

The term the Russians
use is maskirovka.

It means masking
or masquerading.

[David] Putin is about to
give the world a masterclass.

His first move
comes in February

on the Crimean Peninsula
in Southern Ukraine.

[Sasha]
On February 27th, hundreds

of highly trained soldiers
in unmarked green uniforms

appear out of nowhere.

They go on to take
Crimea's parliament,

the airports,
and strategic choke points

with chilling efficiency.

- With their lack
of official insignia,

they're dubbed the little
green men by the world's media.

[Sasha]
The West immediately suspects

that the little green men
are elite Russian forces.

But they have no evidence.

[Jack]
Vladimir Putin denies it,

says that these are just
local defense forces

or local guerrillas
that are rising up.

[Hakeem]
Before the West can prove

that these
are Russian commandos,

it's already too late,
and the Russian flag

is already flying over Crimea.

Putin has essentially
created his own ghost army.

They give him
plausible deniability

but still performing
his dirty work.

[David]
The first act of Maskirovka

is a stunning success.

- Next, Putin sets his sights
on Eastern Ukraine's

industrial heartland,
the Donbas.

- Putin needs to send in
more men and heavy weapons.

But now
the Russian-Ukraine border

is more closely watched
than ever.

[Sami] On August 12th,
Russian state television

broadcasts images
of a vast fleet

of 280 white trucks rolling
towards the Ukrainian border.

Moscow announces that this is
a humanitarian convoy

filled with water, food,
and medicine

for the suffering people
of Donbas.

- The arrival of these trucks
raises alarm bells

in Western capitals because

they have already
been deceived once.

- The convoy looks
like its made up

of military vehicles
that have just been

very hastily painted white.

It looks suspect as hell.

[David] It seems like a
classic Trojan horse maneuver

where instead of aid,
the trucks

contain weapons and fighters.

- When the trucks
reach the border,

their passage is barred.

And the unfolding standoff
becomes a global media event.

[Sami] The Ukrainians
won't let the trucks through

without opening them up
for inspection.

The Russians
steadfastly refuse,

which only fuels suspicion
that they contain weapons

and military equipment.

♪ ♪

[David]
The tension grows.

Finally, after several days,

the Russians open
the trucks up.

[Sasha] Inside,
they're half empty.

What cargo they do contain,
they really are aid items--

crates of water, pillows.

No weapons for rebels.

It's all a bit anticlimactic.

And eventually, the trucks are
allowed entry into Ukraine.

[David]
What the West don't realize

is that the convoy is only
half of Russia's plan.

- While the world is
fixated on this standoff,

a darker plan
is unfolding elsewhere.

Many miles away
on a quiet part of the border,

the Russians
are secretly sneaking in

troops, tanks, and artillery
over the border into Ukraine.

[David]
The whole convoy

is a devious
traveling road show

designed to mask the real
movement of Putin's forces.

[Sami] By 2015,
the Russians have taken over

a vast swath
of Eastern Ukraine,

all while denying that
they have any military forces

there at all.

[David]
Later, at a press conference,

Vladimir Putin finally comes
clean and admits his military

was in Ukraine after all.

♪ ♪

From hiding an aircraft factory

to faking entire invasions,
smoke and mirrors

is far more than just
stage trickery.

Often the most powerful weapon
isn't a bomb or a bullet;

it's a perfectly crafted lie.

But sooner or later,
the secret behind

every illusion is revealed.