CIA shares 10 fascinating covert missions around the globe to mark 75th anniversary

Imagine a James Bond scene in a movie where he has to be snatched from the ground by a moving airplane, after he was covertly dropped to retrieve some secret information within the Soviet Union.

But this is no film trick, it was an actual covert mission carried out by operatives a top secret organisation; the CIA.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America recently shared ten fascinating covert missions around the world to mark its 75th anniversary.

The CIA is a U.S. government agency that gathers intelligence on foreign countries and global issues to the US president, and the US National Security Council, in order to help them further US national security.

Apart from gathering information, it also conducts covert operations, usually with the approval of the US president.

Created in 1947 out of the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA marks its 75th anniversary in September, 2022. In commemoration of the anniversary, the reputed intelligence organization shared fascinating stories of some of its covert operations across the globe.

From the old Soviet union to Germany and the Middle east, the CIA had executed some daring operations, either to save the lives of US citizens or to extract concealed information about other countries. These files were classified until recently.

One of such stories is the purchase of a private commercial airline in 1950. The airline flew commercial routes in the the 1950s and 60s, and was used to transport secret operatives into Asia. This helped the US drop her secret operatives in countries like China with little or no scrutiny by the destination country.

The airline, Civil Air Transport (CAT), according to CIA declassified document, started in China after World War II by Gen. Claire L. Chennault and Whiting Willauer. It was renamed Air America in 1959, and later dissolved in 1976.

Another fascinating story declassified by the CIA is that of a secret tunnel in Germany, thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The Berlin Tunnel (Operation GOLD) was the brainchild of CIA officer Bill Harvey and allowed the CIA and British Intelligence (MI-6) to tap into Soviet cable lines in East Berlin. The tunnel was completed on May 11, 1954.

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Unknown at the time to CIA and MI-6, the KGB—the Soviet Union’s premier intelligence agency—had been aware of the Berlin Tunnel project from its start (although they didn’t know its precise location).

George Blake, a KGB mole inside MI-6, had informed the Soviets about the secret operation during its planning stages. To protect Blake, the KGB allowed the operation to continue until April 1956 when they “accidentally discovered” the tunnel while supposedly repairing faulty underground cables.

Project Coldfeet: The US was determined to know what the Soviets left behind on an abandoned island in the Arctic. The Soviets reportedly abandoned it because the ice was breaking apart and transportation was impossible.

On May 28, 1962, the CIA secretly flew two Navy pilots to the arctic, who parachuted down onto the ice. The tricky part, however, was how to retrieve them and the information they collected. A B-17 rigged with Robert Fulton’s Skyhook, a unique airborne pickup device that included a nose yolk and a special winch system.

On June 2, using Skyhook, the CIA successfully snatched up the pilots and the trove of intelligence they collected: including more than 150 pounds of paperwork, samples, and equipment left behind by the Soviets.

Can you imagine watching a movie ad on television and looking forward to the release of the movie, only to learn that it was a hoax to get through a foreign country and its complex immigration.

The CIA rescued six US citizens trapped in Iran by setting up a fake movie production company; a complex script it had no intention of producing; and a fake movie crew. With the help of the Canadian government, the CIA rescued the US citizens, with Iranian authorities only realizing few hours after their plane had left Iran.

These files are to be fully unveiled by the agency on September 18, 2022 when it is to mark its anniversary.

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