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Some disguises hide an individual, others conceal an entire operation; a CIA vaccination campaign masks a global manhunt for the world's most wanted terrorist, while a luxury Red Sea resort operated by Mossad becomes the unlikely front for a mission to smuggle thousands of Sudanese Jews to safety; in wartime Philippines, an American singer uses charm, talent, and deception to outwit occupying forces and help rescue hundreds of POWs.

Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny

Ingenious Disguises

Some targets are taken by force, others require a game of cat and mouse played out across continents and years of relentless chase; when the DEA fails to corner an international arms dealer, they turn not to a spy, but to a retired bush pilot to lure him out; the CIA hunts an insider from within its own headquarters, and across Europe, the world's most wanted warlord hides in plain sight as a reinvented mystic healer; while the prey changes, the pursuit never does.

Cat & Mouse

Before they become instruments of war, they sound like impossible ideas; an American medical student develops a closed-circuit rebreather that allows Allied frogmen to slip beneath enemy harbors without a single bubble, while U.S. Army engineers create a jeep-mounted nuclear launcher known as the "atomic watermelon"; across the Atlantic, an inventor pitches an aircraft carrier to hunt U-boats, carved from wood pulp and ice; because in war, today's absurdity can become tomorrow's secret weapon.

Top Secret Tech

A broadcast details historical espionage technology and covert surveillance operations; the account examines military tracking sensors used in Vietnam, a nuclear-powered surveillance device placed in the Himalayas and a Soviet listening device concealed within a gift presented to a U.S. ambassador; the documentation highlights how intelligence agencies use disguised tools to gather information during international conflicts.

Spy Gadgets

A broadcast details secret military architecture and defense installations; the account examines a 112,000-square-foot government bunker built beneath a five-star hotel, a fake wartime town constructed to conceal a factory and a secluded CIA training facility in West Virginia; the documentation highlights the historical methods utilized by intelligence and defense agencies to ensure government continuity and operational security.

Hidden Bases

Some deals are made to announce headlines, while others are steered in the shadows; when the CIA wants to take out the Iraqi Prime Minister, they turn to a 20-year-old law student named Saddam Hussein, while in Guatemala, a banana company colludes with the CIA to topple the country's leader to protect its profits; decades later in Ukraine, a top-secret unit of CIA operatives thwarts Russia's invasion plans, before the world even knows the battle has begun.

Dark Deals

When conventional tactics fail, governments have been known to test the boundaries of reality; in the darkest days of World War II, Britain turns to an astrologer who claims he can alter the course of war using the power of the stars; in the jungles of Vietnam, U.S. forces turn to dowsing rods and ancient mystical practices to locate enemies hidden underground.

High Strangeness

Sometimes when governments can't negotiate their way to victory, they steal it; when the KGB sets its sights on a NATO missile, they enlist a smooth-talking German playboy armed with only a wheelbarrow, a carpet and a postage stamp; an Israeli covert operation hijacks 200 tons of uranium on the high seas to fuel a secret nuclear arsenal, while during WWII, the Allies deploy a female agent to steal top-secret naval codes, solely with seductive charm.

Covert Heists

Some missions are so risky, they're denied before they even begin. From a covert Mossad operation to abduct a Nazi war criminal in Argentina-identified through the smallest detail, the shape of his ears-to a chilling CIA plot that used a jazz tour as cover for an assassination attempt in the Congo; to one resistance fighter volunteering to be captured and sent to Auschwitz to reveal the horrors within-these operations are proof that the most dangerous missions are often the most unthinkable.

Rogue Missions

To outmaneuver the enemy, you have to sell the illusion; an FBI agent goes so deep undercover he's the best man at a Mafia wedding, while the Stasi deploys a covert network of charmers across borders to win trust and steal secrets; in Egypt, a German-born Jewish spy poses as a high-flying, champagne-soaked ex-Nazi to infiltrate its missile program for Israel.

Masters of Deception

In Operation Halyard, villagers and resistance fighters built an airstrip by hand to spirit stranded airmen out of Nazi territory, while Operation Mount Hope saw American forces steal a Soviet helicopter from the African desert under cover of darkness.

Extreme Extractions

Some of history's boldest missions succeeded because the world was looking the wrong way; the CIA concealed covert missions behind Air America's civilian facade; British intelligence planted a falsified invasion plan on a corpse to mislead Hitler.

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David Duchovny investigates some of the most secretive, disturbing or strangest government activities that have been declassified through history.

S2 E9 | Smoke and Mirrors