All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E20.Ingenious.Disguises.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

the ingenious disguises
and elaborate ruses

used by governments everywhere
to deceive the enemy,

from the decoy army created
by some unlikely tricksters...

Army chiefs
turned to an industry

where the nation
leads the world--

show business.

To the luxury dive resort

that's really
a secret spy base.

The scuba diving tourists

wake one morning to find
that the entire senior staff

have deserted them.

And the Allied agent
who takes on the Nazis

by baking
the perfect camouflage.

He's carrying a bomb
disguised as lunch.

These are some of the strange
and terrible schemes

created throughout history
by governments

and the people
who work for them.

It's time to
bring them to light.

The bigger the mission,
the bigger the disguise.

In the 1950s, when the CIA
needs to hide

its covert operations
across all Southeast Asia,

it secretly purchases
one of the world's

biggest airline companies.

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.

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.

Outnumbered, outgunned
and out of options,

the French make
a desperate appeal for aid

to the Americans.

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.

We recently had World
War II and the Korean War,

and he doesn't wanna write
the French a blank check.

So Eisenhower is
more interested

in covert assistance
to the French

than in sending the Marines.

To keep
the U.S. support under wraps,

he's gonna need
a major smoke screen.

The answer could be
an extraordinary air service

with a very
inconspicuous name--

Civil Air Transport,
or CAT for short.

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 was too wild

and no route is too hazardous
for CAT's pilots.

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 have bought

the entire airline
using a shell company

called the Airdale Corporation.

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.

CAT is a ready made solution
to secretly funnel supplies

to French troops.

But there is a problem.

This mission is
so politically sensitive

that the CIA worries CAT's
cover might not be enough.

So they add a whole new level
of subterfuge.

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.

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.

Some of their aircrews

even use French language
commands over the radio.

In March 1954,
the supply drops begin.

Disguised as French airmen,
CAT pilots risk it all,

flying ammo and equipment
through hostile skies.

These are incredibly
dangerous missions.

Two pilots die.

Among those who survive,

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.

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.

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.

In 1979,
journalist Christopher Robbins

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

And the truth about
this amazing airline...

Is finally revealed.

The CIA goes to extreme lengths
to protect CAT's cover story.

This next spy does, too,
but his disguise

doesn't hinge
on what's in his papers

but what's in his pants.

In the late 1950s,
Egypt's President Nasser

is determined
to turn his nation

into an unshakeable power
in the Middle East.

One of the ways
he wants to do this

is to launch an Egyptian
ballistic missile program.

The problem is
that he doesn't have

the expertise
inside the country

to be able to launch
this program.

So he turns to German
rocket engineers

who were actually part
of the missile program

during World War II.

For Egypt's neighbor,
the state of Israel,

the rocket program
is a major red flag.

Israel is alarmed by
the idea of the dictator

of an unfriendly country
having long-range missiles.

If Egypt perfects
these missiles,

it could strike Israel
with no warning.

Israeli intelligence
decides to send in a spy.

That means finding
a Jewish agent

who can operate amongst
Nazi engineers undetected.

One man fits the bill.

Wolfgang Lotz is
an Israeli spy who was born

in Germany to a Jewish mother.

He's blond haired, blue eyed,
and speaks fluent German,

which makes him the perfect fit
to go into Cairo

to cozy up to some
German rocket engineers.

In December 1960,
Mossad deploys Lotz to Egypt,

armed with
an extravagant cover.

Lotz's cover story is that
he's a fabulously wealthy

ex-Nazi officer who has
an unquenchable thirst

for champagne.

To find his marks,
Lotz begins wining and dining

Egypt's high society.

Lotz is a fun guy.

He's really good at parties.

He's great at
cocktail conversations.

He quickly becomes
the drinking buddy

of a lot of high-ranking
Egyptian officers,

including in particular
General Osman.

This is the very general
who oversees security

for the rocket bases
that he's here to spy on.

But Lotz's party
is cut short

when Mossad sends
an urgent report.

Israeli reconnaissance
identifies what it believes

to be a rocket base
in the desert east of Cairo

in a place called Shallufa.

They want to send
Wolfgang Lotz in

to basically see whether
or not this is an active base.

If it turns out
to be the real deal,

Mossad will probably
recommend that

the Israeli Air Force
bomb the site.

Lotz heads into
the desert to investigate.

He brings his wife along
so they can pose as tourists

visiting a nearby lake.

At a crossroads,
they identify

a lone track and a sentry box.

No barriers and a single guard,
and that one guard

steps away
for a bathroom break.

So the two of them jump on
the accelerator and charge down

the track past the barrier.

This is a terrible idea.

They haven't thought through
the ramifications

of what they're doing.

Lotz and his wife are
intercepted by a Jeep load

of heavily armed
Egyptian military troops.

Inside the base,
the commanding officer

interrogates them.

Lotz makes up
a tale about how they were

trying to find a place to
picnic, and they just got lost.

So he tells the base commander
to call his friend,

General Osman,
to prove his identity.

A few minutes later,
Lotz is chatting with Osman,

who even unknowingly teases
him about his spy mission.

Osman has no idea how close
to the truth he really is,

and the pair is set free.

But just as Lotz's
operation is gaining momentum,

his plan falls apart.

Lotz has been
secretly communicating

with the Israelis using
a covert radio transmitter,

and the Egyptians pick up
on his transmissions.

In February of 1965,
Lotz and his wife

return home, and it's filled
with Egyptian agents.

They find
the radio transmitter.

Lotz knows at this point
the game is up.

Lotz and his wife are
accused of being Israeli spies.

The punishment for that
is execution.

To save them both,
this smooth-talking spy

must spin his greatest lie
of all.

Lotz insists that
he's a German patriot,

and he only agreed
to spy for Israel

because he needed the money.

And they threatened
to expose his SS background

if he refused.

The problem is,
Lotz's interrogators

aren't convinced.

They press him with the same
question over and over.

Is he Jewish?

Luckily for Lotz,
he has one ace left to play--

a bold move that could
put their doubts to rest.

Lotz's father wasn't Jewish,
and his Jewish mother

wasn't particularly religious,
so he'd never been circumcised.

Lotz decides that
his best form of evidence

is to pull down his pants.

Faced with this
incontrovertible

physical evidence,
his interrogators

finally buy his story.

Lotz is
imprisoned for spying,

but he escapes execution.

Three years later,
he's returned to Israel

in a prisoner exchange,
yet the details

of his mission remain secret.

Then, in 1972,
Lotz breaks his silence

by publishing an explosive
memoir, "The Champagne Spy."

The book finally reveals
how this silver-tongued spy

fooled Egypt's military
by baring it all.

In the lead up to D-Day,
the Allies are scrambling

to knock out a key Nazi
armament factory in France.

To blow it sky high,
one young agent cooks up

an ingenious deception.

3 cups flour, 2 cups water,

and 40 pounds
of plastic explosive.

It's April of 1944,
and D-Day is just weeks away.

The Allied commanders
are working overtime

to weaken the German defenses
that they're gonna face

when they invade Normandy.

An important target

is the national
munitions factory

that's located
in Saint Medard-en-Jalle

just outside of Bordeaux.

The Allies drop
268 tons of bombs

in an attempt
to raze it to the ground,

but it's back up within days.

Knocking out a factory
is not as simple

as it seems from the air.

So Britain's wartime
sabotage unit, the SOE,

devise a black op--

send someone behind enemy
lines to blow it sky high.

It's a black op
at its boldest.

High reward and high risk,

which is why Britain calls
on an unlikely recruit--

a 20-year-old
French aristocrat.

Robert de La Rochefoucauld

is a young count from one of
France's oldest noble families.

He flees to Britain
once his father

is imprisoned by the Germans.

While in Britain,
he learns of a new covert unit

known as the SOE, or the
Special Operations Executive.

They were formed by Churchill
for the purpose

of carrying out sabotage
missions in occupied Europe.

Robert arrives in
Britain at the perfect time

for the SOE.

Their operatives
on the continent

keep getting caught
because they're given away

by their school boy French.

So they're looking to recruit
eager French exiles

to carry out
sabotage missions.

Rochefoucauld is the perfect fit--

gung ho, willing, French,

and desperate
to avenge his family.

He's given the mission to
take out the munitions factory

at Saint Medard-en-Jalle.

On May 7, 1944, Rochefoucauld
and another SOE agent

head to Southwestern France
in two Halifax bombers

loaded with weapons,
ammunition, and explosives.

The two men parachute
into the countryside,

where they link up
with the local resistance

and begin plotting how to take
down the Saint-Medard plant.

Early surveillance reveals

the scale of the challenge.

The place is
crawling with guards

who run regular patrols,

and they stop the workers
at random

to make sure that none of them
are smuggling in explosives.

Then the team spots a way

for a native Frenchman like
Robert to just walk right in.

Rochefoucauld observes that the workforce

in the factory,
they're French civilians.

And what that means is that
he has an opportunity now

to blend in.

He can pass for French
because he is French.

To convince
the guards at the gate,

Robert has to look
like a real employee.

So the team scour the workers
and eventually find

a close match who,
desperate to stop the Nazis,

hands over his ID.

It's a major risk for both men,
to be sure,

because being caught would
almost certainly mean death.

Getting Robert inside
is one thing.

Disguising 40 pounds
of explosives

is a much bigger problem.

So the team looks for a cover
no guard would question.

They notice that most workers
come into the plant

each morning
carrying a baguette.

It might be possible
to smuggle

small amounts of plastic
explosive inside baguettes.

In France,
nothing raises less suspicion

than the humble baguette.

But how can you engineer it
into the perfect secret bomb?

Robert needs a baguette
with the right structure

for concealing explosives.

So it's not as simple as just

popping over
to the local bakery.

Any ordinary baguette might
be too dense to hollow out,

too brittle to hold a charge,

or too dry
to seal up convincingly.

The team starts baking.

They shape dough
around a cavity,

bake it firm
but make it pliable,

then load it
with plastic explosives

and seal it with
a flour and water paste.

It's black ops by baking.

Now it just needs
to fool the guards.

Robert starts out
with a small amount

of plastic explosives, which
he smuggles past the guards,

knowing that if anything
looks out of place,

the entire operation is over.

He slips away
just long enough

to plant the explosives
at critical points

around the factory,
including fuel tanks

and munitions stores.

Once one artillery
shell gets detonated,

it has enough explosive power
to detonate

all of the shells around it.

To trigger
this chain reaction,

Robert needs to plant a
network of hidden explosives.

This means returning
to the factory every day

for an entire week.

Each baguette can
only hold a limited amount

of explosive,
so Robert repeats the mission

over and over again.

And each visit carries the
very real risk of being caught.

By the end of the week,
he's planted

eight baguette bombs in total,

enough to blow the factory
to pieces.

It's May 20, 1944.

As thousands of workers
begin to exit the factory,

Rochefoucauld hides under
a piece of machinery.

Robert moves quickly,

and he begins attaching timers
to the bombs.

But he knows that
this is incredibly dangerous

because these devices
don't always work as predicted,

and they sometimes
set off the bombs early.

By 7:30,
the last charge is armed,

leaving Robert less than
10 minutes to escape.

Robert finds himself trapped
inside the factory grounds

by an 18-foot wall.

But the resistance
throws him a ladder,

he climbs up over the wall,
and disappears into the night.

At 8:00,
the explosions begin.

They are incredibly effective,

leveling the factory and
stripping the Germans

of crucial munitions
in the run-up to D-Day.

This secret mission
remains secret for decades

after the war.

It's not until 2017,
when a journalist

named Paul Kix publishes
a book that describes

the baguette bomb incident.

The full story
is finally revealed--

how a young Frenchman pulled
off one of World War II's

boldest black ops
with nothing more than nerve,

ingenuity,
and a handful of baguettes.

In World War II, the
U.S. Army creates

a top secret unit whose
sole job is fooling the enemy.

It calls itself the Ghost Army,
and for a very good reason.

Nothing about
this army is real.

It's 1944,
and the United States

is preparing
to take the fight to Hitler

by invading
Nazi occupied Europe.

America needs to leverage
any advantage they can find.

So army chiefs
turn to an industry

where the nation
leads the world--

show business.

The Pentagon
creates the Ghost Army.

They're not using
rifles and machine guns.

This unit will ultimately
use Hollywood stagecraft

to fight the enemy.

The purpose of the Ghost Army
is to create diversions

and feints and deception.

Officially known as

the 23rd Headquarters
Special Troops,

the Ghost Army is made up
of just 1,100 men.

The concept is that
you're engaging

in force multiplication
by having

a small group of soldiers

pretend and give the enemy
the impression

that they're actually a very
large group of soldiers,

up to two divisions.

So you have a unit
with about 1,000 people in it

that is able to make the enemy
think it's 30,000 strong.

In June 1944,
the Ghost Army Vanguard

Task Force Mason
gets an airlift

onto the battleground
in France.

Here, their mission
is to support

the U.S. 928th
Artillery Division

by providing an attractive
target for German gunners.

The Ghost Army inflate
a series of rubber howitzers,

matching the real guns.

The idea is
to draw in the Nazi fire

to get them
to focus on that area

where these
inflatable weapons are,

as opposed to where American
soldiers actually are.

The Ghost Army has to
keep their inflatable guns

ahead of the real artillery
for almost a month,

taking as many hits
as possible themselves.

So these guys are either just

really, really brave
or really crazy.

Possibly both.

Over the next 12 months, the
Ghost Army supports the Allies

in some 20 operations before
this wartime Hollywood team

gives their finest performance
on the banks of the Rhine

in March 1945.

The biggest obstacle
that we had to confront

after the Normandy landings

was crossing the Rhine.

General Patton
and his Ninth Army

are trapped behind the river,
which blocks them off

from the path to Berlin.

Rivers are
a natural obstacle,

especially to heavy
treaded vehicles like tanks.

You have to bring in
army engineers,

start erecting bridges.

It turns into a big mess.

Meanwhile, German forces

are waiting on the other side,

and they're just poised
to rain hell

on any Allied troops
that try to make

that difficult river crossing.

The Ghost Army is ordered

to divert German
defenders' attention

from Patton's crossing point

to draw
the fiercest German fire.

The first phase
is to generate

sneaky signals traffic.

Ghost Army communications teams
fill the airwaves

with bogus radio chatter,
creating the illusion

of a huge army on the move.

But that's just the
beginning for the Ghost Army.

During the day, sonic teams

play the sound
of heavy construction

through 500-pound
speaker systems.

To the Germans
on the other side,

it sounds as if pontoon bridges
are being constructed.

The enemy would then
be led to believe that

I'm about to be attacked
by this very powerful force,

when in actuality,
all that was over there

were a couple of Jeeps
with loudspeakers on them.

The supporting cast
plays its part

behind the lines,
but the key part

of the operation
is yet to come.

The Germans are conducting
daily photo reconnaissance

sorties over Allied lines,
measuring what our strength

looks like across the river,
so that if there's any

noticeable build up, those
photo reconnaissance aircraft,

they will detect it.

To fool these pilots,

the Ghost Army creates
an entirely fake front line.

600 inflatable
Sherman tanks

and field artillery pieces
are moved into position

purposely so that an aircraft
can photograph them,

and the enemy can then be left
to wonder, all right,

it looks like
there's a build-up here.

The Nazis
react as intended,

pounding the Ghost Army's
position with artillery fire.

Three of the unit lose their
lives, but the ruse works.

Patton's army crosses
the Rhine miles up the river,

facing only scattered
Nazi resistance.

They take only
minimal casualties.

This is a critical victory
for the Allies.

In 2024,
the Ghost Army is presented

with the Congressional
Gold Medal for heroism.

It can be quite difficult
to quantify

psychological operations,
but it has been estimated

that the Ghost Army saved tens
of thousands of American lives

during the war.

Desperate times
demand daring deceptions.

In 1941,
when one American singer

wants to save her husband
from the horrors

of a Japanese internment camp,

she deceives
hundreds of enemy troops

and puts on the performance
of a lifetime.

On December 8, 1941,

the Japanese begin an
amphibious landing operation

on the island of Luzon
in the Philippines.

These islands host
key U.S. military bases,

and Tokyo is determined
to stop them

from becoming a launch pad for
future American counterattacks

in the Pacific.

U.S. forces
beat a hasty retreat

out of the capital, Manila.

Fleeing with them is a young
American couple in love,

Claire and John Phillips.

Claire is a singer
from Michigan

who's been performing
in the Philippines

for the last two years.

John is a young
and handsome sergeant

that she met
while working there.

Despite the war,
Claire and John marry,

tying the knot
in a makeshift chapel.

But these newlyweds
are torn apart

when John is sent
to the front line.

Five months later, Claire gets
the news she's been dreading.

Claire learns that
John has been captured

by Japanese forces
and sent to a prison camp

called Cabanatuan,

roughly 60 miles
north of Manila.

This is one of the most
infamous prisoner of war camps

in the Philippine Islands.

Meals are mainly
basic rations of rice.

Sanitation is all but
non-existent,

and dysentery and malaria
are everywhere.

The thought
of her husband suffering

is unbearable, so Claire
dreams up an audacious scheme

to help him survive, one that
will call on all her skills

as a performer.

Claire's idea is to open
a high-end nightclub

in the heart of Manila
that she'll run and star in.

She'll pack it
with paying Japanese officers

and use the profits to help
her husband and other POWs

by smuggling money and medical
supplies into the camps.

Claire's grand plan
has just one problem.

She's an All-American girl.

To run the hottest
nightspot in Manila,

she needs an entirely
new identity.

So Claire Phillips disappears,

and Dorothy Fuentes,
a Filipino-Italian showstopper,

steps into the spotlight.

Dorothy's persona
is perfect for Claire.

Claire is already
an accomplished performer,

and although she
doesn't speak Italian,

she knows most
Japanese troops won't either.

She persuades someone who

used to work
in the Italian embassy

to cook up some
fake documents to support

the Dorothy Fuentes
cover story.

Now Claire
gets to work opening

the best cabaret in town.

She pawns her jewelry,
including her wedding ring,

and pours every dollar she has

into leasing
a modest dance studio.

Then she painstakingly
transforms it

into one of the city's
most glamorous nightspots.

To appeal
to Japanese clientele,

she names it Club Tsubaki,

named after
a delicate Japanese flower.

On October 15, 1942,

Club Tsubaki finally
opens its doors.

Japanese officers are treated
to dazzling dance routines

and very overpriced drinks.

The liquor is flowing.
The music is hot.

And at 10:00 p.m.
on opening night,

they're already
turning away customers.

Her grand opening
is the talk of the town.

But before Claire can funnel
any profits to help John,

her world is
turned upside down.

Claire receives word
that John caught malaria

and has died at Cabanatuan.

Claire is
devastated by the news,

but she realizes that

while she couldn't save John,

she can press on
to help other prisoners.

Driven by Claire's grief,

Club Tsubaki is soon raking in
thousands of dollars a week.

Now Claire needs
to get this money

and the aid it can buy to the
prisoners inside Cabanatuan.

She links up with a Filipino
allied guerrilla network,

and they quickly devise
an ingenious way

to slip goods past the guards.

They have
sweet-faced young women

pose as street vendors,
and they sell bags of fruit

to prisoners on work detail
for just a few centavos.

The bags look
completely innocent,

but inside
are hollowed out bananas

stuffed with medicine
or secret messages,

while some bags
have false bottoms

that hide hundreds of pesos.

Soon, Claire is
funneling the equivalent

of $20,000 U.S. a week
into the camps,

money that's used
to buy vital rations

at the camp's commissary.

Thanks to Club Tsubaki,
countless lives are saved.

But after almost two years,
the curtain finally

comes down on Claire's
daring act.

In early 1944, incriminating
resistance letters

are discovered
inside Cabanatuan

that point directly to Claire.

Soon after, armed policemen
storm the club,

and Claire is arrested.

Japanese military police
subject Claire

to weeks of brutal
interrogation and torture.

She displays
incredible resolve,

refusing to reveal the names
of co-conspirators

who could be targeted
and keeps the details

of her operation
completely hidden.

In November 1944,
Claire is tried

in a military court
and sentenced

to 12 years in prison.

Claire endures
brutal conditions.

She's starved and forced
to do hard labor.

Her weight drops
to a mere 85 pounds,

leaving her
on the brink of death.

Her rescue
comes in the nick of time

when, in February 1945,
U.S. troops retake Manila.

Two years later, she shares
her story with the world

in a sensational memoir.

Shortly after,
the United States government

awards the singer-turned-spy
the Medal of Freedom

for her truly heroic
wartime deception.

Imagine relaxing
at a five-star beach hotel,

then waking up one morning
to find

every member of the staff
has left.

That's exactly what happened

to the guests
of Arous Dive Resort,

a luxury vacation getaway
in Sudan

where nothing was
what it seemed.

As a result
of the Ethiopian Civil War

and the famine
that was produced

as a consequence of it,
Ethiopian Jews by the thousands

fled Ethiopia into Sudan.

In total, 16,000 end up packed

into refugee camps
in this neighboring country.

Sudan is an Islamist country

and hostile to Judaism.

So the problem for
the Ethiopian Jewish refugees

is that in Sudan,
they're not safe.

They are actively
being hunted,

and they are a target
for killing.

So Israel has to find
a way to exfiltrate their Jews

out of the refugee camps
in Sudan

and smuggle them to Israel.

The Sudanese
government won't help.

Time for Mossad
to come up with a plan.

Mossad identifies
an officer, Dani Limor,

to go to Sudan
to try to find a way

to bring these
Ethiopian Jews back to Israel.

Well, he knew from the start
that he needed something

on the sea
because these evacuations

would have to start
on the coastline.

The rat line would lead them
over water directly to Israel.

So he starts shopping
for a location,

when he finds the perfect
cover story in the form

of this abandoned
Italian dive resort

right on the water's edge.

The resort is called Arous.

For most, it's a collection
of crumbling buildings.

For Limor, it's an opportunity.

Nobody would ever suspect
a luxurious dive resort

on Sudan's Red Sea Coast

could ever disguise
a secret spy op.

So he does a deal with Sudan's
government to lease the resort

for $1/4 million.

Mossad rebuilt
the resort at Arous

to turn it into a functioning
vacation destination

that Europeans
would want to go to

and that
the Sudanese government

would not want
to interfere with.

Mossad would use
the resort as a cover story

to slowly and secretly
exfiltrate Ethiopian Jews.

During the day, the plan is
for Mossad to host guests.

Then at night,
they will drive over 500 miles

to collect the refugees.

A two-night truck convoy will
then take them to the coast,

where Israeli special forces
will ferry them

via Zodiac dinghies to a naval
ship offshore

bound for Israel.

The mission is
highly classified.

All involved are well aware
of the mortal danger

that they face,
not only to themselves,

but all the fleeing refugees.

Mossad agents are convinced
that anyone who's uncovered

participating in the operation
could be hanged in Khartoum.

By spring 1982,
this luxury resort

has been rebuilt, and Mossad's
escape route opens.

The refugee camps that were
holding the Ethiopian Jews

were about 500 miles
from the coastline.

But under cover of darkness,
the actual agents on the resort

would go to the refugee camps
and literally wake up

the Ethiopian Jews
to smuggle them by truck.

And then by night,
they take the refugees out

and deliver them
to the Israeli Navy,

who then takes them back
to Israel.

The rescue resort operates

for more than two years.

A thousand refugees escape
to a new future in Israel,

until political chaos in Sudan

makes it impossible
to continue the mission.

The scuba diving
tourists wake one morning

to find that
the entire senior staff

have deserted them.

The mission stays
secret for more than 20 years,

until a British journalist
hears rumors

that lead to Dani Limor.

And Limor, feeling
comfortable that enough time

had passed, reveals details
about the way

that the Mossad operated
a fake dive resort.

This is why Mossad has
the reputation that it has,

because it is willing
to rebuild a resort

to smuggle Jews across
500 miles of desert

to take them back to Israel.

The scale of this operation
is absolutely mind boggling.

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.

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.

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.

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
gonna get his blood,

but they might be able to get
blood of his relatives.

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.

With the DNA secured,

now they need to find a local
accomplice to run the scheme.

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.

Even better for
the CIA, Afridi needs cash.

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.

Afridi accepts
the CIA's offer,

and to maintain total secrecy
over the operation,

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

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.

Ultimately, Bin Laden

is considered such
a high-value target

that the CIA decides
mass subterfuge

is a price worth paying.

In March 2011,
the CIA roll out the scheme.

After administering 1,000 jabs,
the time comes

to enter Bin Laden's
suspected compound.

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.

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.

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.

A British newspaper
investigates the arrest,

revealing the CIA's
clandestine operation

to the world.

From phantom armies
to fake doctors

and exploding baguettes,

the most powerful weapon
in covert warfare isn't force.

It's deception.

But no matter
how dark a disguise is,

it will always be
revealed in the end.