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International Spy Museum Opens in Washington
Aired July 18, 2002 - 14:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we get down to the business of cloak and dagger. The International Spy Museum is opening in Washington. Visitors can even test their own spy potential. National security correspondent David Ensor joins us live from that museum now for a look. How is your spy potential, David?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know, Kyra, but I am having one of the most fascinating days I have had in quite a while. This new International Spy Museum is just plain fascinating. It is filled with the history of espionage and the tradecraft of espionage. And with me is one of the star practitioners of that in our lifetime, Tony Mendez, who was the CIA's master of disguises for quite some years.
Tony, a couple of months ago, you made me up and made me look like somebody else. While people have a look at what that looked like, tell us what it is you do and how you do it?
TONY MENDEZ, MASTER OF DISGUISES: Well, as you know now that you are a seasoned veteran, David, disguise is really the handing the props and aids to the bearer, and it's really what they bring to it. They have -- a really good operative has to be a good actor, and of course, you've got to have an idea that you're presenting to the audience, which happens to be the enemy.
But there are no retakes in this business. You got one take, and you better get it right.
ENSOR: Well, you turned me into what we are saying, some sort of an Eastern European intelligence officer operating in Vienna, or something like that. It was kind of what we were picturing.
MENDEZ: Yes. We got that idea -- we got inside your head, and all we had to do was hand you the paraphernalia, and you brought the character to life.
ENSOR: Including the funny teeth.
MENDEZ: Yes.
ENSOR: Tony, you when you were at the CIA, you earned this intelligence star which is represented by this band here on your lapel for saving some lives possibly in Iran. Briefly, what did you do?
MENDEZ: Yeah, that was the case of the six diplomats who got away from the embassy as it was being overrun, and my task...
ENSOR: In 1980.
MENDEZ: In 1980. Was to bring them out. And to do that, I had to set up a deception, create a film scouting party from Hollywood and go in and get inside of their heads and coach them through immigration and away from the bad guys.
ENSOR: So you had them disguised and you gave them personae?
MENDEZ: Yes. All the back-stopping that you would need, all of the legend and a place in Hollywood where there was a telephone and somebody would answer it and say, "Studio Six Production."
ENSOR: Was it scary?
MENDEZ: Well, it's always kind of scary. A little exciting. And it's all about saving lives; every intelligence operation is about saving lives.
ENSOR: And disguise is sometimes used for that?
MENDEZ: All the time. Actually, it's a fundamental tradecraft -- probably the most used tradecraft.
ENSOR: Now, if I could just show the viewers briefly, this museum, in the area of the disguises here is interactive. You put this screen to start here, and you go into mission alpha. And you see a lady who is made up to look like someone else, and then they run a sequence where you are going to see some action going on in a hotel lobby, and you are supposed to try to figure out which one of these characters is the lady.
Now, we don't have time to run the whole sequence, but I will just cut to the chase and tell you that it is not a lady in the end. So, so that's it. Very, very interesting stuff on disguises and how they are used in intelligence, the tradecraft of intelligence. It is all going to be open to the public tomorrow, Kyra, at the opening of the International Spy Museum here in Washington.
PHILLIPS: Pretty cool stuff, and I guess we know who to go to now if we ever get into trouble, David. We just go Tony, and, hey, we change our identity.
ENSOR: That's right.
PHILLIPS: There you go. All right. David Ensor from the National Spy Museum. Pretty neat stuff.
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