Spycraft - Melton [228]
In a less successful operation, OTS received a requirement for a Mercedes sedan configured to conceal a man who would be driven out of Eastern Europe. The lead OTS specialist designed a concealment using space created by reducing the car’s fuel tank. He worked on the project for six months to remove the original tank, replace it with a smaller one, and make other external and interior configurations to accommodate the agent. When finished, the passenger area, trunk, and underside looked factory new. The tech received unanimous acclaim for doing a first-class concealment job.
The automobile purchase had been disassociated from the Agency and the title and paperwork showed no official connection between the car and the U.S. government. The station arranged for a driver who was not aware of the intended use of the car to deliver the vehicle to Berlin. Apparently, the driver failed to heed the fuel indicator and ran out of gas while in route. He contacted the nearest Mercedes dealer because something “wasn’t working” right—the tank had been full when he started the trip, yet the fuel gauge had fallen quickly and he had run out of fuel well under the normal range for the vehicle. The technician examined the car for some time and then called the driver. “Sir, you have a problem,” asserted the technician as he pointed out the small tank and the cavity. The discovery immediately ended the operation but the U.S. government now owned a new limited-range Mercedes. Eventually the car became the VIP touring sedan at one of OTS’s covert facilities.
Another exfiltration operation required a person be moved from a major hotel in a Middle Eastern country that was known to be under surveillance by the local service hostile to the United States. OTS techs covertly observed the comings and goings at the hotel for several days and determinedthat the surveillance focused exclusively on people entering and leaving but showed no interest in baggage or luggage. It was, a tech suggested, time to consult with some of OTS’s Hollywood contacts who specialized in performing magic tricks. If a magician could saw his beautiful assistant in half and then have her emerge intact from a coffin half a stage away, surely he could sneak someone past a surveillance team.
A magician and his trick builders designed a dolly for rolling luggage that was loaded with varying sizes of suitcases, a steamer trunk, and an ice chest. The façade of the baggage on the dolly appeared completely realistic; each piece was designed to fit around the legs, arms, torso, and head of a person so that the agent could sit inside and be wheeled out of the hotel by the porter into a waiting van. The operation proceeded without incident, completely confounding the surveillance.
CDs are critical to infiltrating secret equipment into a facility. The “Trojan horse” is often an item desired by the target or a gift given as a gesture of goodwill that conceals a bug, a beacon, or even an explosive device.18
A Trojan horse operation against a communist country’s ambassador in Europe exploited the diplomat’s interest in a piece of sculpture he openly admired at a dinner party. The local CIA station reasoned that the sculpture, an impressive large bronze of an old farmer, might be displayed by the ambassador in his embassy conference room. The size of the piece made it an ideal host for an audio device and the batteries necessary for a long service life. The station obtained the original sculpture, but the techs could not create a hollow cavity inside the bronze and restore the original without leaving signs of alteration.
The alternative was to sculpt an identical statue and position the eavesdropping package