All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E12.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

[Duchovny] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

the rogue missions
that broke all the rules,

like the black op
to kidnap a Nazi war criminal

in broad daylight.

[Sami] He's one of the most
wanted men in the world,

and they have just one chance
to bring him in.

- Winston Churchill recruits a
boatload of modern-day pirates.

- There's fighting dirty,
and then there's

fighting like Churchill.

- And the wartime spy
who goes undercover

in one of the deadliest
places in history.

- Who's mad enough to actually
break into Auschwitz?

- These are the most extreme
and illicit missions

ever carried out by governments
and the people

who work for them.

It's time to bring them
to light.

♪ ♪

In 1960, a group of men
arrive at Buenos Aires airport.

They look like ordinary
businessmen on a sales trip.

In fact,
they're intelligence operatives

on a high-stakes operation:

to kidnap a factory worker
called Ricardo Klement.

Real name? Adolf Eichmann.

[suspenseful music]

[Sami] It's been 15 years
since the end of World War II,

and Adolf Eichmann
is one of the most

notorious Nazi war criminals
still evading justice.

[Andrew] Eichmann, more so
than almost anyone else,

is the logistical architect
of the Holocaust,

turning genocide into
an industrial operation.

[Martin] He escaped justice
after the war.

He's still on the loose
somewhere, probably alive,

but nobody could
find out where.

[Duchovny] Then, in 1959,
Israeli intelligence gets

a credible tip that Eichmann
is living a quiet life

in a suburb of Buenos Aires.

- The lead comes
from a German refugee

living in Argentina.

Now, this guy's daughter
has been dating a guy

who keeps bragging that
his dad used to have

a really powerful position
in Nazi Germany.

And the dad's name
is Ricardo Klement.

But the son goes by
the name Eichmann.

- The Israeli government
gets word of the fact

that this person is
possibly Adolf Eichmann.

If there's anyone left
who can be

brought to justice for
the crimes of the Holocaust,

this is the man.

[Duchovny]
There's one big obstacle

to bringing him in: Argentina.

[Sami] Israel and Argentina
don't have

a working
extradition agreement,

and Argentina has
a fascist-friendly government.

So if Klement is Eichmann,

there's no way
the Argentinian government

is just gonna hand him over.

[Duchovny] To get their man,
Mossad decides to go rogue.

[Andrew] A top secret group
of Mossad agents

is sent to Argentina.

Their mission is to seek out
Klement and confirm that

he is the same person
as Eichmann.

And if he is, to kidnap him
and bring him to Israel.

- You're not allowed
to do that kind of thing.

That is a blatant disregard
for the sovereignty

of another country.

[Duchovny] First, the Mossad
team stalks their prey.

- They position agents
all along Klement's daily route

to his job at
a Mercedes-Benz plant,

and they snap photographs
using cameras

cleverly hidden
inside briefcases.

- Their plan is
to compare the pictures

they take in Argentina against
wartime photos of Eichmann.

[Duchovny] Getting an image
of Klement is easy.

The hard part is finding
a picture of Eichmann.

- Toward the close of the war,
Eichmann deliberately destroyed

every photograph
he had of himself.

Mossad have some
grainy photographs

from the pre-war period,
but what they are lacking

is a photograph that
will provide a good view

of his facial features.

[Duchovny] This is a problem
Mossad manages to solve.

[Andrew]
After the war, one agent

seduced Eichmann's
previous girlfriend.

And in her personal albums,
they were able to find

a picture
of Eichmann from the war.

[Duchovny]
To tell if these snaps

taken over 20 years apart
are the same man,

the Mossad team hones in on
the one feature

that barely changes with age:
the ear.

[Sami] The curves and ridges
of the human ear

are as distinct as a
fingerprint, so Mossad overlays

the two photos
and runs a painstaking

ten-point comparison.

And they discover that the
two men have an exact match.

Ricardo Klement
is Adolf Eichmann.

[Duchovny] Now, Mossad
needs to capture him.

[Dan] On the evening
of May 11th,

as Eichmann steps off
his usual bus home,

a man approaches him casually
and says, "Momentito, señor."

Eichmann turns,
and in that instant,

he's tackled and dragged
into a waiting car.

[Andrew] He is taken
to a safe house

on the outskirts of town.

There, he is interrogated,
and he ultimately

admits that he is Eichmann.

[Duchovny] Capturing
Adolf Eichmann is one thing.

Sneaking him out of the country

without the Argentinian
authorities realizing,

that's quite another.

To do that, the Mossad team
crafts a daring escape plan.

- In ten days, a large official
Israeli delegation is scheduled

to be in Buenos Aires.

The agents' plan
is to dress Eichmann

in an airline crew uniform,
blend him into that crowd,

slip him past security,
and fly home to Israel.

- Before arriving at the
airport, a doctor on the team

heavily sedates Eichmann.

They take him
through the airport

as part of their delegation,
claiming that

he's sick to everyone
who's around.

- When the Israeli team
gets to customs,

they have a fake passport.

That document was made
just a couple days ago,

and they've done their best
to dirty it and crease it

so it looks like
a well-worn passport,

but they don't know
if it's going to work.

[Andrew] It's almost as if
the Border Patrol officer

can sense that something
isn't right.

♪ ♪

But ultimately, he clears
the group to get on the plane.

[Duchovny]
At 12:05 on May 21st,

the plane takes off
carrying Eichmann.

Two days later, Israeli Prime
Minister David Ben-Gurion

makes a stunning announcement.

Adolf Eichmann is in Israel.

- Argentina is beyond upset.

They lodge a protest
at the United Nations,

accusing Israel of violating
its national sovereignty

and demand Eichmann's return.

[Duchovny] Israel refuses,
claiming private Nazi hunters

carried out the operation.

A year later, Eichmann
finally faces justice.

[Andrew]
Eichmann is put on trial.

Survivors of the Holocaust
describe in detail

the machines of murder
that Eichmann helped construct.

[Duchovny] He's found guilty
of crimes against humanity.

Then, on May 31, 1962,

Eichmann is executed
by hanging.

Only after 50 years
does Israel finally

drop the pretense
that Mossad had nothing

to do with his capture.

- In 2012, the full
truth is revealed

when Mossad opens its archives
in an exhibition on Eichmann.

They display
the briefcase camera,

the forged Israeli passport,
and even the ear comparison

that confirmed his identity.

- Two decades after
Mossad sneak Eichmann out

of Argentina, the CIA begins
its own smuggling operation

to secretly funnel
an eye-watering $2 billion

into the hands
of anti-Soviet fighters.

What follows is
the most expensive

and most consequential illicit
operation in U.S. history.

♪ ♪

- In December 1979, the Soviet
Union launches a massive attack

on Afghanistan to prop up
the Communist government

by sending close to
100,000 troops.

The Soviets seize
the cities quickly,

but out in the remote
rural expanses,

it's a whole different story.

There, a coalition
of Islamist fighters

called the Mujahideen hold
their ground guerilla style.

[Duchovny] The CIA
spots an opportunity.

If they can drag out
this fight,

they could drain the power and
resources of the Soviet Army.

So they kickstart
Operation Cyclone

to support the Mujahideen.

The problem is,
finding any guerrilla force

fighting the Soviet Army
risks igniting World War III,

and these are some highly
controversial new allies.

- The Mujahideen is funded
by the narcotics trade

and are religious
fundamentalists

who hold very
anti-Western views.

- Funding fundamentalist
narco barons?

Kind of a tough sell
on Capitol Hill.

[Duchovny] To help win
Congress's approval

for this rogue operation,
the CIA teams up

with an unlikely ally.

- The CIA turns to Texas
Congressman Charlie Wilson.

He's this heavy drinking
womanizer,

but he's also
politically savvy.

- Wilson's influence manages
to massively inflate

the CIA's budget
for Operation Cyclone.

- With Wilson's help, the
budget for Operation Cyclone

balloons from $5 million to
more than $30 million by 1983.

But to defeat a superpower,
the Mujahideen

needs more than just money.

They need something the CIA
can't send them: firepower.

[Greg] If the CIA flooded

American weapons
into Afghanistan,

that would be
an open provocation

against the Soviets.

Also, the Mujahideen

don't know how to use
American weaponry.

They are trained
on Soviet weapons.

[O'Keefe] Somehow
the Americans have to get

their hands on a cache
of Soviet weapons

that can't be traced back
to them.

[Duchovny] In 1983,
this challenge is handed

to a renegade CIA agent,
a man named Gust Avrakotos,

also known as "Dr. Dirty."

- Avrakotos is a blunt,
foul-mouthed agency fixer,

known for bending the rules.

He knows that Egypt
has recently switched

its alignment from the USSR
to the U.S.

- Avrakotos feels there could
be a massive supply

of Soviet weapons in Egypt.

[Duchovny]
So he flies to Cairo,

where he gets
the red carpet treatment

thanks to
Congressman Charlie Wilson.

[Sami] The Egyptians have
already been softened up

by a visit from Wilson,
who allegedly brought

his own personal
belly dancer to perform

for the defense minister.

Whatever it is
she did during that dance,

it seems to have worked.

♪ ♪

- The defense minister gives
Avrakotos a personal VIP tour

of all the Egyptian
defense installations

that house
the Soviet matériel.

[Duchovny] Amongst
this hoard of weaponry,

Gust spots a weapon that
could truly tip the scales--

54 Katyusha rocket launchers.

[Sasha] The Katyusha is
a 122-millimeter rocket

that would give the Mujahideen
long-range firepower

for the very first time.

Now, it's not accurate enough
to take out helicopters,

but it can hit the Soviet bases
that they fly from.

- Avrakotos buys everything
the Egyptians have.

His next challenge is to get
these weapons over 2,000 miles

from Egypt to Afghanistan.

[Duchovny] Believe it or not,
the best way to get

a rocket launcher
to Afghanistan undetected

is to strap it to a camel.

- Gust engineers a massive
covert supply chain.

First, ships carry the arms
from Egypt

through the Suez Canal
into Pakistan.

And then the weapons complete
the journey over the border

into Afghanistan on
traditional camel caravans.

- At its height,
some 300,000 guerrillas

wield CIA-sourced weapons.

[Duchovny]
By the late 1980s, the CIA

is channeling over
$600 million

annually into Afghanistan.

This flood of cash
and arms turns the tide.

The Soviet Union
officially withdraws

on February 15, 1989.

- The drain on the Soviets
was immense.

Billions were spent,
15,000 Soviet soldiers died,

and scholars say this was
one of the pressure points

that eventually
led to the collapse

of the Soviet Union.

[Duchovny] The full story
of Operation Cyclone

remains a secret until 2003,
when one journalist

named George Crile pieces
together the whole mission.

- George Crile is
a Middle East reporter

who spends 15 years

investigating
Operation Cyclone.

He interviews
everyone involved,

including Avrakotos
and Charlie Wilson.

[Sami] And in 2003,
he publishes the book

"Charlie Wilson's War,"
revealing the whole

tangled truth
for the first time.

[Duchovny] These revelations
expose that many

of the Mujahideen
the U.S. fight in 2001

are the same as those
they armed 22 years earlier.

- When 11 of its athletes
are murdered

at the Munich Olympics, Israel
hunts the perpetrators down,

not through the courts
but in the shadows,

with an extreme
vengeance mission

that breaks all
international laws.

[suspenseful music]

[Sami] The 1972 Summer
Olympics in Munich, Germany,

becomes a horror show.

A Palestinian group
called Black September

storms the Olympic Village
and takes 11 Israeli

athletes and coaches hostage.

It ends in a bloody shootout
on an airfield,

and all the hostages
are killed.

For Israel's
security services, Mossad,

it's a massive
intelligence failure

because it was their job
to prevent something

like this from ever happening.

[Duchovny] Israel's
prime minister, Golda Meir,

publicly vows revenge,
and she wants it by any means.

- Israel doesn't have
extradition relationships

with the countries
that are definitely

going to be harboring the
perpetrators of this crime.

The traditional
path of justice will

get her absolutely nowhere.

- So she orders the chief
of Mossad to plan a series

of extrajudicial revenge hits.

[Duchovny] For Israel,
this isn't just about justice.

It's sending a message:
"If you kill Israelis,

you won't walk away."

The rogue mission's codename?

Operation Wrath of God.

- Mossad draw up a kill list
of the key terrorists.

But these men are scattered
all across the globe,

often living under aliases.

- To hunt them,
Mossad needs the most

up-to-date and reliable intel
on their movements.

[Duchovny] To help,
Israel has a backdoor channel

to a vast European
intelligence network.

- At the time, there's this
semi-secret coalition

of Western
European spy agencies

called the Club de Berne.

Its purpose is
to share information

on terrorist threats
across the continent.

Israel has access
to its telegram system,

which supplies live data
on passports,

hotel registries,
and surveillance.

[Greg] Using the
intelligence flowing

from the Club de Berne,
Mossad tracks down

every target on their list.

They build a series
of compact mobile kill teams

from their most
elite commando unit.

[Duchovny] Now these teams
head out across Europe

to eliminate those
behind the Munich attack

and strike the fear of God
into any other terrorist

who might threaten Israel.

[Don] The first target
is Wael Zwaiter,

the PLO's
representative in Rome,

believed to be
a key facilitator

for the Munich massacre.

As he returns to his
apartment building,

two figures step out
of the shadows.

[gunshots]
[Martin] They gun him down.

They shoot him 11 times,
one bullet for each victim

of the Munich massacre.

[Duchovny]
The message is sent.

Next, Mahmoud al-Hamshari.

Killed when his phone
explodes in his hand.

Then Mohamed Boudia,
killed by a car bomb.

[explosion]

By the summer of 1973,
11 are dead.

- After each hit, the Mossad
uses the Club de Berne intel

to monitor the aftermath.

They read the reports
from European agencies,

and this allows them
to stay one step ahead.

[Duchovny] Then, in July 1973,
the agents believe

they've located
their biggest target of all.

- Ali Hassan Salameh
is the alleged mastermind

of the Munich massacre.

They get a tip that
he is in the town

of Lillehammer, Norway,

and start preparing
an operation.

- The Lillehammer hit
is a particular challenge.

Mossad has
no established network

in Norway, no safe houses.

Add to that,
the intel is thin.

It's all based on a single
grainy photograph of a man

that they think is Salameh.

[Martin] Mossad has
a team on location,

and one night,
they spot a man at a bus stop

who looks like the target.

They follow him
and then gun him down.

[gunshot]

It turns out
this man is not Salameh.

It's a Moroccan waiter
by the name of Ahmed Bouchiki.

[Duchovny]
It's a catastrophic error.

And it's about to get
worse for the Mossad.

Their escape plan falls apart.

- The team have used credit
cards in their own names,

so police trace them easily.

Norwegian authorities quickly
round up the Mossad agents

and convict
five of them in court.

[Duchovny] The fallout is
a public relations disaster.

Israel's kill list is
exposed to the world,

forcing them to halt
their entire operation.

But behind the scenes,
Mossad's secret access

to the Club de Berne remains,

leaving the door open
for Israel to finish the job.

♪ ♪

[Greg] Six years later,
Israel reactivates

Operation Wrath of God
for one last hit.

Fresh intelligence locates
Ali Hassan Salameh.

He's in Beirut.

And this time,
they're certain it's him.

- On January 22nd, Salameh
drives down a bustling street.

[explosion]

A car bomb
in a parked Volkswagen

kills Salameh
and eight other people.

[Duchovny]
Salameh's death

brings Wrath of God
to a close.

For decades,
Europe's intelligence services

are not suspected
to have any connection

to this illicit killing spree.

That changes in 2018.

[Martin] Swiss historian
Aviva Guttmann

is looking into the matter
of this Club de Berne

anti-terrorist network,
and she wants

to see the telegram system.

- Archivists give her access
to a host

of sensitive intelligence
files.

They probably didn't realize
what they were sharing,

because in these files
is definitive proof

that Europe was sharing
intelligence with Israel

and supporting one of
the most terrifying

state-sponsored
assassination operations.

[Duchovny] In 2025, Guttmann
reveals the truth to the world

in a bombshell book.

- They say cheaters
never prosper.

But in World War II,
Winston Churchill

greenlights a mission that
breaks all the rules of war.

To shatter
the Nazis' power at sea,

he sends a secret unit
of saboteurs

to raid a neutral island.

♪ ♪

[Sami] In 1941,
Britain feels like it's losing

the Battle of the Atlantic.

Nazi U-boats are
decimating the convoys

that are carrying food,
fuel, and troops

vital for the
Allied war effort.

- By the end of 1941,
almost 400 Allied and neutral

merchant vessels have been sent
to the bottom of the Atlantic.

[Duchovny] Then, British
receive intelligence reports

from Fernando Po,
a tiny island

off the Coast of Africa
that reveal a critical

chance to fight back.

♪ ♪

[O'Keefe] British intelligence
discovers that the Germans

are gonna use Fernando Po
as a sort of off-the-books

refueling site where they can
refuel and restock

their U-boats and get them
back into the fight quickly.

[Dan]
They believe three vessels

in Fernando Po's harbor
are crucial

to the German
resupply operation.

The ships consist of
an Italian merchant ship

and two German tugboats.

[Duchovny]
Taking out these three boats

could cripple the Nazi
supply chain in the Atlantic.

But there's a problem.

Fernando Po belongs to Spain.

[Dan] Spain is
officially neutral,

but its fascist
leader, General Franco,

is very friendly with Hitler.

So the British know that if
they launch a military strike

in Spanish territory,
that would be

a breach of international law

and would almost certainly
draw Spain into the war

on the side of the Nazis.

And that would be
a disaster for Britain.

[Duchovny] So to
take out these ships,

Winston Churchill greenlights
a more underhanded strike.

- Churchill decides that,
to beat the Nazis,

Britain has to fight dirty.

So he forms a new
top secret team,

essentially one of the world's
first special forces,

the Small Scale Raiding Force,
the SSRF.

[Duchovny] At the
time, Churchill calls them

something else: his Ministry
of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

Their first mission?

A secret raid to steal
the three Axis ships

lying in Fernando Po's harbor,

codenamed Operation Postmaster.

[Sami] The SSRF devises a plan
that, when you look at it,

it's just piracy,
plain and simple.

A raiding team of around
30 mercenaries that are mostly

recruited from nearby Nigeria
will sneak into the harbor,

hijack the ships, and tow them
out to international waters

where the Royal Navy
can "stumble" across them

and legally seize them.

[Duchovny]
To prepare for the raid,

a handful of SSRF agents
quietly slip onto the island.

[Martin] But they realize
that they're going to need

some aerial photography
of the harbor

where the boats are anchored.

Well, it turns out that
the territorial governor

has an airplane.

So they set up
the circumstances

whereby they are
able to photograph

the governor in a bathtub
with his mistress.

Using those photographs,
they then bribe him

into taking them up
for a flight

around the harbor, during which

they take
the needed photographs.

[Duchovny] Next,
the agents discover that,

during the attack,
the SSRF's raiders

will be vastly outnumbered.

So to even the odds,
they throw a party.

- The German and Italian
officers love shore leave.

So using local connections, the
team organize this lavish bash

on the night of the raid.

Music, drinks, just the works.

It's the perfect misdirection,
except the only restaurant

they can book has
a perfect view of the harbor

and all the target ships.

But they solved the problem
with the clever seating plan.

The agents ensure
every Axis officer

is sat with his back
to the sea,

and with a beautiful
woman opposite of him

to hold his attention.

- Never before in the history
of the Second World War

has a seating chart been

a strategic piece of
masterwork, but here it has.

[Duchovny]
Decoy in place,

on January 14th,
the mission begins.

Any mistakes could
bring Spain crashing

into the war on Hitler's side.

So the team is on their own.

- London has made it
crystal clear,

if any of the raiding party
are caught,

they'll be disavowed and left
to face the consequences alone.

[Sami] As the distraction
party gets into full swing,

an operative on the island
kills the lights.

Two blacked out tugboats
enter Fernando Po's harbor,

carrying the 34 raiders.

[Duchovny] In darkness,
the raiders maneuver

alongside their three targets.

Now they announce their
presence to the whole island.

- The team blow
the anchor chains

off the three enemy ships.

- In the chaos, the commandos
board the enemy ships,

taking the crews captive
at gunpoint.

Axis officers
race from the party

and arrive just in time
to see their ships disappear

into international waters.

And a few days later,
they're picked up

or, rather, intercepted
by a British warship.

[Duchovny] Churchill's high
stakes gamble has paid off.

[Sami] London rolls out
pre-written headlines,

"Navy patrols on
routine duty seized

the three ships legally."

The Spanish are furious
over the incursion,

but there's no proof
that Britain

has broken international law.

[Martin]
With this mission,

Churchill is sending
a powerful message.

He is acknowledging that the
Germans are bending the rules,

and he's also telling them,
I'm gonna bend the rules too.

Two can play at that game.

[Duchovny]
For over 40 years,

the British maintain
the cover story.

Only when Spain's
fascist government

is removed from power
does British intelligence

begin to declassify the truth.

The astonishing story
of Operation Postmaster

is finally revealed.

- All rogue missions
ignore the rules.

Our next story also
ignores the risk.

To uncover the horrors
of a new Nazi prison camp,

one spy walks inside willingly,

then escapes it
to tell the world what he saw.

That camp is Auschwitz.

[suspenseful music]

[Greg] It's 1940.

Poland has been occupied
by Nazi

and Soviet forces
for about a year

when whispers
begin circulating

about a new prison camp
being built

in the south near
the town of Oswiecim.

[Martin] Oswiecim will
ultimately become known

as the concentration camp

and then eventually
the extermination center

of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

- Auschwitz is
synonymous with evil.

It's the epicenter
of the Holocaust,

where over a million people
were systematically murdered.

[Duchovny]
But back in mid-1940,

the name of this camp and
its true purpose is a mystery.

[Don] All the
Polish people know

is that the Germans have taken
over some old army barracks

and converted them
into a detention facility.

But when the first
prisoners arrive there,

alarming reports
start to leak out.

There are tales
of murder, torture,

and horrific experiments.

[Duchovny] The Polish
resistance decides

it needs urgent answers
about what's going on

behind the barbed wire.

So one 39-year-old officer
named Witold Pilecki

volunteers for
an incredible mission.

- Witold Pilecki is
a former army lieutenant

who hates the Nazis
and will stop

at nothing to sabotage them.

He literally volunteers to
go undercover as a prisoner

to the Nazi prisoner camp.

[Don] Once there, he means
to collect intelligence,

build a resistance network
to smuggle in food

and medicine for the inmates.

[Duchovny]
His plan is so extreme

not everyone is on board.

- Some of Pilecki's leaders
don't know how bad things are

inside this concentration camp,
but they're worried that

it's basically a suicide run.

- The plan is so far
outside normal procedures

that it's incredible
the Polish resistance

doesn't simply shut it down.

[Duchovny] In late summer,
Pilecki is finally

granted permission
to head into Auschwitz.

But he can't just walk up
and knock on the door.

He needs to be transported
there as a genuine prisoner.

- To make sure his military
record doesn't draw

the attention of the Gestapo,
he takes on a false identity,

Tomasz Serafinski.

[Martin] Then, he deliberately
gets himself

rounded up by
the German military police

in the streets of Warsaw.

[Greg] Those arrested could be
taken anywhere in the Reich.

And his plan is to
essentially just hope that

he gets sent to Auschwitz.

Three days later,
Pilecki's gamble pays off.

- He enters the camp underneath
the now infamous sign

that reads "arbeit macht frei,"

"work will set you free."

[Duchovny]
Witold Pilecki is the only

known person to have ever
entered Auschwitz by choice.

Now he's prisoner 4859.

- In the camp, Pilecki
endures backbreaking labor,

conditions so harsh that
a prisoner's life expectancy

is measured in weeks,
not months.

He keeps his head down, but
he begins to build a network.

- Pilecki recruits other
prisoners inside the camp,

and they start
organizing a group

to distribute food
and clothing.

And they even undertake
small acts of sabotage.

- Against all odds, Pilecki's
daring mission is paying off.

But in March 1942,
everything changes

when Auschwitz transforms
from a brutal work camp

into an extermination machine.

[Dan] In the spring of 1942,
Nazi leaders begin

to enact their Final Solution.

This is a genocidal
blueprint for wiping out

all of Europe's Jews.

Pilecki is witness
to the opening stages

of the Holocaust.

- He sees trains arriving,
coming and going.

He sees Jewish men, women, and
children being dropped off.

And then he sees
billowing clouds of smoke,

indicating that
they have been incinerated.

[Duchovny] Faced with
this horror, Pilecki knows

the world must hear the truth.

It's a message so crucial
he must deliver it in person.

So two years and seven months
after breaking into Auschwitz,

Pilecki plots his escape.

- Through his network,
Pilecki and two co-conspirators

slowly gather false papers,
civilian clothes, money,

and even cyanide, which they
will use on themselves

if they do get captured.

[Don] Pilecki bribes a guard
to transfer him

to the camp bakery
located just outside

the main perimeter, one of the
least secure areas of the camp.

[Duchovny] The night
of April 26, 1943,

they make their move.

- At 2:00 a.m., the three men
force open the bakery door

and sprint into the darkness.

- The alarm sounds,
gunfire goes off behind them,

but somehow they vanish
into the woods.

Then they make a grueling
60-mile journey on foot

until they reach
a resistance safe house.

[Duchovny] Shortly after,
Pilecki handwrites

his 104-page mission report.

It's a landmark document.

- Pilecki writes
the first eyewitness

account of the Holocaust.

It's the first time the Allies

really understand
what's going on,

but they're helpless
to do anything.

It's not until January of 1945
that the Soviet troops arrive

and finally
liberate Auschwitz.

[Duchovny] Pilecki survives
the war, but in the aftermath,

he faces a new,
deadly challenge.

- Two years after
Germany's defeat,

Poland falls under
Soviet control.

Now Pilecki has to fight for
his country all over again.

But this time,
it doesn't go as well.

He's arrested by the
Communists for organizing

acts of resistance.

[Martin]
He's tried, convicted,

and then in 1948,
he is executed.

[Duchovny] After his death,
the Soviets expunged

Pilecki's bravery
from Polish history.

His incredible mission
to reveal the horrors

of Auschwitz is buried--

until 2000, a decade after
the Soviet Union collapses,

when his eyewitness report
is finally published.

[Don] In 2006, Poland
posthumously honors Pilecki

with the Order of the White
Eagle, their highest award.

Recognition of a spy
who broke all the rules

to walk into a hell on Earth

and tell the world what he saw.

- In the last 150 years,
more than 60 national leaders

have been assassinated.

Those responsible
are usually radicals,

rebels, or lone gunmen.

But behind this plot to kill
a democratically elected

prime minister is the CIA.

[suspenseful music]

[Hakeem]
On June 30, 1960,

the African nation
of the Congo,

now known as the DRC,
declares independence

after decades
of colonial rule by Belgium.

The country's first ever prime
minister, Patrice Lumumba,

promises that from now on,
the Congolese people

will control their own land,
including its mineral wealth.

[Duchovny]
The Congolese are euphoric.

In Belgium, they're seething.

- The Congo is massive.

It's about the size
of Western Europe,

and it is absolutely
packed with minerals.

There's copper, there's
cobalt, there's uranium--

all resources that Belgian
corporations have been mining

to fuel their industries
for generations.

[Duchovny] Belgium immediately
moves to reclaim

control of this wealth.

It incites a mineral-rich
southern region

known as Katanga to
break away from the Congo.

- They select
a local politician

to be a puppet leader
and send in Belgian troops

to support him.

[Duchovny]
To hold his country together,

Lumumba asks the U.S.
for military aid.

When they refuse,
he turns to the East.

[Dan] Lumumba reaches out
to the Soviet Union,

and they give him
weapons and advisors.

Now, for America,
that crosses a line.

[Sasha] Washington now
sees Lumumba as a threat,

potentially spreading
Communism throughout

the African continent.

[Hakeem] The CIA director,
Allen Dulles,

demands his urgent removal.

- They wanna take out the
democratically elected leader

of a sovereign nation,
a flagrant violation

of international law.

[Duchovny] The man who gets
the task is Larry Devlin,

CIA Station Chief at Congo's
capital, Léopoldville.

- Devlin decides he's gonna
remove Lumumba from power

by orchestrating chaos.

[Sasha]
He funds the opposition.

He bankrolls demonstrators.

And he spreads
anti-Lumumba propaganda.

Then he sets his sights
on the military.

The CIA starts
paying off colonels

in the army for their loyalty.

[Duchovny]
Soon, the country is in chaos.

And now they encourage a new
leader to take advantage.

[Paul] Colonel Mobutu places
Lumumba under house arrest,

and the military seizes control
of all of the elements

of government power.

[Duchovny] But for the CIA,
that's not enough.

They need a more
permanent solution.

- As long as Lumumba is alive,
he remains a powerful symbol

with huge support
among the people.

The CIA needs him gone.

[Duchovny] But if Devlin
is going to solve

the problem of Lumumba,
he needs to do it fast.

- There has been an election
in the United States

and a concern
that JFK could soon

call for Lumumba's release.

- Devlin's bosses
suggest poison.

But he thinks that might get
traced back to the agency.

Then he figures Lumumba has
many enemies besides the CIA,

so why not get one of them
to do the job for him?

- Larry Devlin
settles in on a plan,

and that is to deliver Lumumba
to his political enemies

in the province of Katanga,

and there, his execution
is pretty much guaranteed.

[Duchovny] But Persuading
the Congo's many factions

to sign up to this plan
isn't easy

without attracting attention.

[Paul]
Devlin needs to coordinate

with a lot of different groups
in the Republic of Congo,

but he's prominent enough
that he needs an excuse

for why he can move
around the country.

[Duchovny] Luckily for him,
the perfect smokescreen is

on its way, a living legend.

- In October 1960,
a plane touches down

at the Léopoldville airport.

And out steps none other
than Louis Armstrong.

Satchmo, arguably America's
first truly global superstar,

has come to play in the Congo
where his concerts draw

crowds of over 100,000 people.

- For the CIA,
the timing is perfect.

Devlin hosts Armstrong at
the U.S. embassy facilities

and can use
the concert schedule

to jet around the country.

It's argued that,
under the guise

of those tours logistics,

Devlin meets Lumumba's
enemies in Katanga

to plot his execution.

All the while,
Armstrong has no idea

his tour is being hijacked
for a covert CIA operation.

[Duchovny] By the time
Armstrong flies out,

Patrice Lumumba senses
the noose is tightening.

He makes a desperate attempt
to escape but is caught.

- On January 17, 1961,
Lumumba is recaptured

and flown into Katanga
under Colonel Mobutu's orders.

That night, Katangese officials
and Belgian operatives

drive him out into the bush

where he's executed
on the spot.

[Duchovny] Patrice Lumumba,
the first democratically

elected prime minister
of an independent Congo,

is dead at 35.

In his place, the CIA's
strongman, Colonel Mobutu,

rules the Congo
for over three decades.

But piece by piece,
the CIA's role

in this rogue assassination
is uncovered.

- The story first
comes to light in 1975,

when Congress investigates
the CIA's illicit activities.

[Dan] Then, in 2021,
a British author

named Susan Williams
stitches details

from newly
declassified documents,

and she uncovers what she
believes are indications

of just how far
the CIA's manipulations went,

right to the CIA's use of
Louis Armstrong's Congo tour

as a smoke screen.

- From the 1950s to the 1970s,

the Federal Bureau
of Investigation

under the iron reign
of J. Edgar Hoover

runs a top secret
illegal operation

targeting thousands
of U.S. citizens.

The only reason
we know about it

is because eight
ordinary Americans

pulled off
one extraordinary heist.

[suspenseful music]

- By 1956, J. Edgar Hoover
has been running the FBI

for over three decades.

For him, the real threat
to America's security

isn't organized crime
or bank robbers,

it's ideas, political movements
that threaten the system,

particularly Communism.

- He wants to root out these
groups and neutralize them.

No holds barred.

[Duchovny]
Hoover's problem is,

the courts keep getting
in his way.

[Andrew] Hoover is willing
to use illegal wiretaps,

bugging, intercepting mail.

He believes that these tools
and tactics are fair game.

But the courts
insist on warrants.

They want
constitutional protections.

Hoover sees these as
operational inconveniences.

[Duchovny] So in 1956, he
decides to circumvent the law

with a new classified
operation he calls COINTELPRO,

short for
Counterintelligence Program.

- Hoover creates a program
to try to monitor the behavior

of potential dissident groups.

He also starts having agents
infiltrate them and push

more radical activity than
they had previously espoused,

which will then justify the FBI
in suppressing those groups.

[Duchovny]
This is an illegal operation

targeting U.S. citizens
on American soil,

and it grows fast.

- By the 1960s, Hoover expands
the program's scope

to civil rights leaders
and opponents

of the war in Vietnam.

Any voice speaking out
against the status quo,

Hoover calls it subversive
and unleashes his agents.

[Duchovny]
One activist is dead center

in Hoover's sights:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

- At this time,
Martin Luther King

is the most prominent voice
in the Civil Rights movement.

His profile and influence make
him a key target for Hoover.

[Sami] In 1962,
Hoover instructs COINTELPRO

to investigate King for alleged
Communist influences.

He doesn't really believe
that King is a Communist.

He just wants to disrupt
the Civil Rights movement.

[Andrew] As Hoover digs into
Martin Luther King Jr.,

he bugs his hotel room,
taps his phones,

puts him under
24-hour surveillance,

all without warrants
from the courts.

- Eventually,
they record evidence.

Not that King is a Communist,

but that he's been having
an affair.

[Duchovny] It's the
ammunition Hoover needs

to bring King down.

Now COINTELPRO crosses
the biggest line yet.

- In November of 1964,
King receives a package.

Inside are audio recordings
documenting

his extramarital relationship.

There's also an anonymous
threatening letter.

He calls King a fraud
and tells him,

"There is but one way out
for you."

- The FBI seems to be telling
a Nobel Peace Prize winner

to kill himself.

It's not subtle.

King refuses.

- Hoover's unchecked operation
targets citizens across America

for over a decade.

But its secrecy
is about to be shattered,

because in a quiet corner
of Pennsylvania,

eight ordinary Americans
are plotting to expose

the FBI's dirtiest tricks.

♪ ♪

- In 1971, a group emerges
that calls itself

the Citizens' Commission
to Investigate the FBI,

and they are convinced
that the FBI

is engaging in behavior
that is illegal,

immoral, and unethical.

[Duchovny] Their plan?

Break into an FBI office to
steal documents that prove it.

Their target is
a lightly guarded

field office in Pennsylvania.

And they'll do it on
the perfect night for a heist.

- On March 8, 1971,
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier

are gearing up
for the fight of the century.

Millions of Americans,
including local police,

are gonna be glued
to their televisions.

[Sami] Dressed in suits
and evening wear,

the team approaches
the office as if

they're heading to a party.
They break in.

And once inside, they ignore
files on mobsters

and bank robberies and instead
search for evidence

of political surveillance.

The group find hundreds
of classified pages.

They take all this information
and walk out into the night.

[Hakeem]
Back at a safe house,

they sift through
over 1,000 pages,

and they come across the
critical name, "COINTELPRO."

[Duchovny] The activists have
uncovered extensive details

of Hoover's illegal war.

The question now,
is any journalist

brave enough to take on Hoover

and publish
what they've found?

- The burglars mail copies
of some of the most

incriminating documents
to members

of the press and politicians.

Most of the recipients
of this classified material

are terrified at the prospect
of publishing it

because publishing classified
documents is a crime.

- Only Betty Medsger,
a journalist

for "The Washington Post,"
has the courage

to publish the story.

And when it hits the press,
the country absolutely erupts.

[Duchovny] Hoover defends
his actions as needed

to keep Americans safe.

Privately, the exposé
forces him

to pull the plug
on his operation.

Determined to
find the burglars,

he unleashes 200 agents,
one of the largest

manhunts in FBI history.

- For 40 years,
the identities of the burglars

remain a total secret
until Betty Medsger

publishes a book
about their exploits.

It's only then that the world
finally learns who they were,

eight ordinary Americans
who risked everything

to expose the illegal plans
of their own government.

- When the stakes are high
enough, no set of rules

will ever stop a government
from getting what it wants.

But the rogue missions
they carry out in the dark

eventually get exposed
for all to see.