All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E13.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

covert heists so bold, so
daring, no one saw them coming

until it was far too late.

From the agent who steals
a top secret weapon

with an unlikely
getaway vehicle...

- He carts the 10-foot missile

down the runway
in a wheelbarrow.

- To the spy turned cat burglar
who'll do anything

to accomplish her mission.

- She's completely naked
except for a string of pearls.

- And the Mossad plot that's
straight from a heist movie.

- They construct a perfect
replica of this secret archive

and rehearse their heist
down to the minute.

- These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible things

done by governments and the
people who work for them.

It's time to bring them
to light.

♪ ♪

Picking a lock, smashing
a window, cracking a safe,

every heist relies
on an entry point.

But in World War II, when
British special forces set out

to steal top secret
Nazi technology,

their only way in
is a midnight parachute drop

behind enemy lines.

♪ ♪

- In 1941, the balance
of power is shifting

in the skies over Europe.

[Martin] The RAF has won
the Battle of Britain

and now is putting
bomber aircraft in the sky

to strike targets
in occupied territories.

[Sami] Problem is,
the British are being shot

out of the sky
with alarming precision,

and they don't know why.

Sometimes they're losing dozens
of pilots in a single raid.

[Duchovny]
These deaths are no accident.

British intelligence
soon learns

the Nazis have
rolled out a new air defense

over mainland Europe.

[Sami] The Germans have
developed a new radar system

code-named Wurzburg.

It's far more accurate than
anything they've built before.

- A previous system
could detect an aircraft

with an accuracy
of about 500 meters.

Wurzburg, on the other hand,
allows you to detect

with a precision
that's now 25 meters.

[Duchovny] To give its
aircraft a fighting chance,

British command
needs to figure out

how to blind this new radar.

And the best way to do that
is to steal one.

But planning a heist
is a challenge when you know

almost nothing
about the target.

[Don] Germans have kept
their new technology

a closely guarded secret,
meaning the British aren't sure

exactly what
this new radar looks like.

So their analysts pore over
aerial reconnaissance photos

from France looking for leads,
and one image stands out.

Near the village of Bruneval,
they spot what looks like

a large black bowl
perched on a cliff top,

which is exactly
the vantage point you'd expect

for a radar scanning the skies.

[Duchovny] Trouble is, this is
no easy target for a heist.

[Sami] The site is
heavily defended.

Intelligence suggests that
there are up to 100 troops

in an encampment just to the
northeast,

and there are
machine gun positions

all along the shoreline.

So any raiding team will
likely be heavily outgunned.

This means they'll need to rely
on the element of surprise.

[Duchovny] If the British
arrive by boat,

they'll be spotted.

The only way to sneak past
the guards is from above.

- Plan is
to drop 120 paratroopers

behind enemy lines,

approach the radar
installation facility,

and take it by force,
then dismantle the technology

and get exfiltrated
on the coast by boats.

[Duchovny] The code name
for this daring mission?

Operation Biting.

Spearheading the assault
will be a parachute battalion

commanded by Major John Frost.

[Sami] Frost is
a cool-headed officer,

but he and his battalion
are worryingly green.

These kinds of
behind-enemy-lines missions

are relatively new,
and he's never

led a combat parachute drop.

Some of his men have never
even jumped out of a plane.

[Duchovny] Even if the team
makes it to the radar alive,

to steal it,
they'll need a man

with a head for technology.

Enter Flight Sergeant
Charles Cox.

[Jack]
Cox is a radar specialist

in the Royal Air Force,
and he knows

the British radar systems
inside and out.

Cox's mission is to actually
dismantle the Wurzburg

and get it out of there.

[Duchovny] After almost three
months of planning the raid,

British command gives
the green light.

♪ ♪

- Just after midnight,
the paratroopers

make their drop over Bruneval,

and almost immediately,
things go bad.

[Martin]
German anti-aircraft flak

forces a number of pilots
off course,

so dozens of men end up
miles from the zone.

- The troops eventually
regroup at the assembly point

500 yards from the radar,
and they still haven't been

located by the nearby guards.

- Frost and Cox can
now see their target,

but their surprise advantage
is short lived.

As they push forward,
the Germans realize

the radar is under attack,

turning every yard into a
desperate and deadly gauntlet.

[Don] Under a hail of bullets,
Cox reaches the radar.

But it's only then that
he realizes most of his gear

was lost in the drop.

With no other options, he
begins tearing out components

by brute force.

[Dan] After barely 10 minutes,
the German fire

gets so intense that Frost has
to give the order to fall back.

The team grabs
whatever they can

and then blows the rest
sky high.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The British
have secured the radar's

crucial components.

Now the men must
battle their way down

to the beach for extraction.

But when they reach the sand,
the navy vessels

are nowhere to be seen.

- When they're on the verge
of abandoning hope, at last,

the navy spots
their flashlights.

Six landing craft
surge onto the beach,

and Frost's men sprint aboard,
dodging bullets

as they drag the radar
components with them.

[Duchovny] At 3:15 a.m.,
Major John Frost

is the last man
to leave French soil.

In just three hours,
this British battalion

has pulled off one of
the boldest heists of the war.

- The stolen components
reveal exactly how

the German Wurzburg system
works.

Within months, the British
develop countermeasures.

- Over the course of the war,
these countermeasures

are credited
with saving more than

450 aircraft and 4,500 lives.

[Duchovny] For decades,
the theft of the radar

remains a closely guarded
secret.

Then, in 1970,
journalist George Millar

tracks down the surviving
members of the operation

and unearths the truth.

Four years later,
he publishes his book,

"The Bruneval Raid"...

♪ ♪

Finally revealing
the full story

of Britain's intrepid heist.

When the Brits wanna steal
a Nazi radar,

they deploy a team
of elite commandos.

When the KGB has an opportunity
to steal a NATO missile,

it puts its faith
in a German playboy

armed only with a wheelbarrow,
a carpet, and a postage stamp.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] In 1967, the public's
appetite for ground wars

is rapidly fading.

So the Americans
and the Soviets,

they both see air power as key
to controlling the battlefield.

[Martin] At this point,
there's one thing that

the Western world has

that the Soviet Union
doesn't have yet,

and that is an extremely
effective air-to-air missile.

[Duchovny] It's called
the Sidewinder AIM-9D.

[Hakeem] This upgraded missile
is a big problem for Moscow

because it's clear evidence
that their tech

is lagging behind.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] It would take years
for the Soviets

to develop a rival weapon
from scratch.

But in West Germany in 1967,
one man offers the KGB

a faster way to catch up.

Steal one.

He's not a hardened spy
but an architect

with a thirst for adventure.

[Jack] Manfred Ramminger is
a quite colorful character,

known to be a bit
of a playboy.

He's an amateur
race car driver.

But he also owns a construction
company, and it's going under,

and he needs
a quick influx of cash.

[Duchovny] One night
at a card table

in the town of Ingolstadt,

Ramminger spots
the ultimate opportunity

to wipe out his debts.

[Greg] Seated across
from Ramminger

is a West German Air Force
pilot, Wolf-Diethardt Knoppe.

As the drinks flow,
our pilot mentions

to the flamboyant architect
that security is pretty lax

at the nearby NATO base.

[Martin] He even boasts
that it would be possible

to walk onto that base,
steal a missile,

and get away before
they even noticed it.

[Duchovny] Ramminger believes
that stealing a Sidewinder

could earn him a handsome
reward from the Soviets.

So he quietly floats this idea
to a KGB contact,

and he gets the green light.

But he can't
pull it off alone.

[Martin] Ramminger
is going to need Knoppe

to carry out this heist,

and that's because
Knoppe has base access.

Just because
the security is lax,

that doesn't mean
that it's nonexistent.

[Duchovny] With the promise
of a big payday,

Knoppe doesn't need
much convincing.

One late October night,
the playboy

and the disgruntled pilot
make their move.

- That evening, a thick fog
rolls over the base,

which is perfect.
It provides cover.

Beyond that,
there are no guard dogs.

They've been locked away
for the night

while the base is being
treated with rat poison.

[Andrew] Two men cut
through the perimeter fence.

Knoppe goes into the warehouse
that holds the missiles,

disables security,
and has full access

to the Sidewinder missiles.

- Getting in,
that's the easy part.

Somehow, they now have to carry
this 9 1/2 foot,

165 pound weapon off the base.

Their solution comes straight
out of a backyard shed.

[Andrew] They actually find
an old wheelbarrow nearby.

And they put an active missile
on the wheelbarrow

and wheel it off the base.

[Duchovny] They push their
cargo back to Ramminger's

waiting Mercedes.

The problem is,
sedans aren't built

for smuggling Sidewinders.

- They attempt
to load the missile

into the trunk of the car.

The missile won't fit.

At this point, they smash out
the back windshield

of the Mercedes
so that they can

put this missile in the car,
having it stick out the back.

- He wraps the protruding
missile in an old carpet

that he happens to have
in his car.

- The cherry on top is that he
ties a small flag to the back

of the rug, which assures them
that they won't be pulled over

if a police officer happens
to see their oversized load.

- Ramminger then drives
more than 300 miles

down the Autobahn
with his stolen NATO missile

hanging out the window.

[Duchovny] Now Ramminger
just needs a way

to get the stolen Sidewinder
to Moscow.

His masterstroke?

Stick it in the mail.

- Now, you can't mail
a full missile,

so they dismantle it.
They take it apart.

They mail these individual
pieces to Moscow.

The cost for shipping
a top secret weapon?

80 bucks.

[Duchovny] For his trouble,
Ramminger receives $81,000,

the equivalent
of $700,000 today.

But his bold heist doesn't
go unnoticed forever.

- In the months that follow,
a routine inventory check

reveals that
a missile is missing.

[Jack] This triggers
an investigation,

and suspicion falls on Knoppe
relatively quickly

because he's been partying and
waving around his big payday

and drawing a lot of
attention to himself.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] Both he and Ramminger
are arrested.

Their trial sparks
a surge of press coverage.

They're found guilty
of treason, espionage,

and grand larceny,
and they're sentenced

to three to four years
in prison.

[Duchovny] It's a disgraceful
end for Ramminger.

But for Moscow,
the gamble pays off.

[Martin]
The Soviets begin a process

of reverse engineering
the weapon.

And soon thereafter,
they release

their own heat-seeking
air-to-air missile.

♪ ♪

- It's said you can catch more
flies with honey than vinegar.

So in World War II,
when the Allies want to steal

their enemy's
top secret naval codes,

they turn to the master
of the honey trap.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Catherine] In early 1942,
the Allied forces

are planning to invade
North Africa

to draw Nazi forces
away from Soviet Russia.

One significant obstacle
is that the ports

that they're targeting
in North Africa

are controlled
by Vichy France.

- In simplest terms, Vichy is
a puppet government set up

to rule unoccupied France
but really for and in behalf

of Nazi Germany.

[Duchovny] To prepare
for this invasion,

the Allies need intel
on the movements

of the Vichy French navy.

But to do that requires
one crucial item.

[Martin] The Vichy French navy
communicates

using encoded messages.

The codes that can
crack those messages

are kept in a series
of code books

at the French embassy
in Washington D.C.

[Catherine]
If they can get their hands

on these code books,
this would allow them

to monitor the Vichy fleets
during their invasion.

[Duchovny] Stealing these code
books from a secure location

will require
the mother of all heists.

To pull it off,
British intelligence

turns to one of
its most daring

and unconventional agents.

[Kavitha]
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe is

a beautiful American
socialite turned spy

who is also an MI6 agent,
known by her codename, Cynthia.

[Catherine] Cynthia's
methods are unorthodox.

She doesn't use
gadgets or disguises.

Her weapon of choice
is intimacy.

- She's a master
of the honey trap,

using her charms
to garner secrets

from even
the most guarded target.

[Duchovny] Getting her hands
on the Vichy French

naval codes will be Cynthia's
toughest assignment yet.

[Catherine]
She looks for someone

she can target with her charms
and finds her mark

in Captain Charles Brousse,
who is the person in charge

of the embassy press.

- He doesn't have direct access
to the information she needs,

but he can get her
into the building.

And so she seduces him.

[Greg] Two months
into their affair,

Cynthia tells Brousse
that she's a spy

and that she needs access
to this cipher,

to these code books.

He's not on board.

[Duchovny] Brousse knows the
odds are stacked against them.

The embassy is under
round-the-clock guard,

and the ciphers are
locked inside a safe.

But Cynthia won't
take no for an answer.

- She gives him an ultimatum.

Either you help me
or I'll find someone who will.

- Brousse chooses his heart
over his head.

Together, they begin
to plot a daring heist.

Cynthia knows the code books
will be easier to grab

under cover of darkness.

But getting inside after hours
will require a personal touch.

- Cynthia has Brousse
bribe the night watchman

to let them use the embassy
as a private spot

for their affair.

[Catherine]
Brousse tells the guard

that it's the perfect
location because

he can then tell his wife
that he's working late.

- For weeks, the pair use
the embassy as their love nest.

Soon, the guard barely
questions their presence

and gives them pretty much
free rein to recon the site.

[Duchovny]
The next problem,

how to get into
the code room safe.

- Through her
intelligence contacts,

Cynthia recruits a safecracker
known as the Georgia Cracker.

[Sami] He's highly skilled,

but he's also
a hardened criminal.

However, in wartime,
your options are limited.

[Duchovny]
In June 1942,

Cynthia and Brousse
make their move.

- Tonight, the familiar guard
is nowhere to be seen,

which throws them
for a bit of a loop,

but Brousse unlocks the door.

Once inside, they stick
to their usual routine,

smoking, laughing,
whispering sweet nothings.

[Duchovny]
Still, something feels off.

Cynthia senses danger.

Acting on instinct,
she strips off her clothes.

[Martin] The guard
throws the door open,

and a flashlight beam
pierces the darkness,

and it falls on
Cynthia's naked body.

[Sami] And Cynthia,
wearing nothing but

a string of pearls,
gasps and covers herself

in mock embarrassment,
causing the guard

to mumble an apology
and retreat.

And it's this quick thinking
that ensures he won't

disturb them again that night.

[Duchovny] With the guard
out of the picture,

Cynthia moves fast.

She lets the safecracker in
through a window,

and he gets to work.

[Kavitha] The cracker
lives up to his name,

and within minutes,
the safe is open

and the code books are out.

- The cracker slips
back into the night,

delivering them to
the British intelligence team

waiting nearby
to photograph them.

And meanwhile,
Cynthia and Brousse

endure an agonizing wait.

[Duchovny] Finally,
at around 4:00 a.m.,

they hear movement
at the window.

[Sami]
The cracker has returned.

So together, they put the
code books back in the safe

and wipe away any fingerprints.

Then the cracker
slips out the window,

leaving Cynthia and Brousse
to walk out of the embassy

like nothing ever happened.

[Duchovny] The stolen
cipher books are

rushed to Allied codebreakers.

Within days, British
and American commanders

can read every
Vichy naval transmission.

- This intelligence
proves decisive.

When the Allied invasion
of North Africa

begins that November,
Allied forces are able

to predict the Vichy navy's
every move.

[Sami] Cynthia is credited
with saving the lives

of hundreds of British
and American troops.

[Duchovny] For decades,
the full story

of this bold theft
remains classified.

Then, just before
her death in 1963,

Cynthia shares her diaries
with an old friend,

former MP Montgomery Hyde.

Two years later,
he publishes a biography

based on her memoirs,
finally revealing

this remarkable embassy theft
carried out by a socialite spy

armed with nothing
but her powers of persuasion.

- Most spies steal secrets.

But when Israel wants to
supersize its nuclear arsenal,

its agents set out to steal
200 tons of uranium

without leaving a trace.

[dramatic music]

- In the 1960s, Israel begins
a new top secret program

to develop nuclear weapons.

- The country is less
than 20 years old,

and it's absolutely encircled
by hostile neighbors

that all swear to
erase it from the map.

[Duchovny]
Israel's leaders believe

their nation's survival hinges
on their nuclear arsenal.

But in 1968,
they hit a major problem.

- The nuclear bomb takes a
tremendous amount of material.

It takes about
4 tons of uranium

to be able to create one bomb.

[Hakeem]
Unfortunately, uranium

is incredibly hard to come by.

Its sale is tightly
regulated by world powers

like the U.S.,
who is determined to prevent

nuclear proliferation.

- But as suspicions mount that
Israel is trying to create

a nuclear weapon,
it's no surprise

that the world is
unwilling to share

uranium with the Israelis.

[Duchovny] With no one willing
to sell them the uranium

they need, Israel's
intelligence agency, Mossad,

decides to steal it and sets
a bold plan in motion:

Operation Plumbat.

- Mossad knows that uranium
mines and nuclear reactors

are far too heavily guarded
for them to steal the uranium

from those targets.

To have any hope of stealing
the huge amount of uranium

they need, they'll have
to find a weaker link

on that supply chain.

[Duchovny]
Mossad settles on a plan

to covertly buy
a vast uranium stockpile,

then seize it
while it's on the move

and smuggle it to Israel.

Their first step,
find a front company

to make the purchase
on their behalf.

- Mossad chooses to use
a German chemical company

called Asmara Chemie
as a cutout

to cover
the Israeli connection.

This is a company
that creates soaps

and decontamination kits.

- They ask them to buy
a large quantity

of uranium on their behalf.

To sweeten the deal, they
promise a substantial payday.

[Duchovny] In March,
Asmara places an order

with a Belgian mining company
for 200 tons of uranium oxide.

- Initially, the mining company
is a little suspicious

that they've never heard
of this small German firm,

but Asmara's story is that
they're expanding operations.

- The mining company is
also further convinced

because Asmara Chemie
has $3.7 million

in a Zurich-based account,
just waiting to be transferred.

- With the money in sight,
the mining company's doubts

quickly vanish
and the sale moves forward.

[Duchovny] Mossad now
secretly owns a large quantity

of uranium oxide, but openly
shipping it to Israel

would break European law.

To get it there,
it sets the stage

for a heist on the high seas.

♪ ♪

[Don] In Antwerp,
560 drums of uranium ore

are loaded into the hold
of a 1,790 ton-freighter

named the "Scheersberg A."

- It's owned by a shipping
company that is conveniently

run by a Mossad agent,
and its usual crew

has been covertly swapped
for an Israeli crew.

- With the uranium
safely aboard,

Mossad now sneakily diverts
the shipment.

- Asmara tells
the Belgian mining company

that, instead of shipping
the uranium directly

to their factory in Germany,

they wanna take it
to Italy first

for some
additional processing.

- The 2,000 nautical mile
voyage from Belgium to Italy

will be a long one,
which gives Mossad

plenty of time to make this
ship's cargo simply disappear.

[Don] The first leg of
the journey is uneventful,

but as the vessel passes
beneath Southern Spain,

it alters course.

Instead of heading north
to Italy,

it sails east.

- In the black stretch of water
between Cyprus and Turkey,

the freighter patiently waits.

[Don] Soon, an Israeli vessel,
fitted with a heavy winch

and flanked by two gunboats,
eases up alongside.

- Under the cover of darkness,
a top secret transfer begins.

Drum by drum, all 560 barrels
of uranium ore

are winched across.

[Duchovny] By first light,

this furtive transfer
is complete

and the world is
none the wiser.

[Hakeem] Days later,
the barrels of uranium ore

are taken ashore
at an Israeli port

and discreetly transferred
to a reactor in the desert.

- Meanwhile,
the "Scheersberg A,"

now riding noticeably higher
in the water,

heads towards the nearby
Turkish coast.

[Duchovny] Two weeks
after it set sail,

the ship docks in Turkey.

Its 560 drums of uranium ore
are nowhere to be seen.

[Don] Months later, the
European Atomic Energy Agency

attempts a routine follow-up
with the company that

was meant to receive
the uranium,

but they get troubling news.

The uranium never arrived.

- An investigation is launched,
but coordinating

Belgian, Italian and
West German security services

turns out to be impossible,

so that case very quickly
loses momentum.

[Duchovny]
Israel has pulled off

one of the greatest
nuclear heists,

but hardly anyone knows.

Then, in 1977, a former
U.S. government official

leaks the story of the
missing uranium to the press.

Journalists Elaine Davenport,
Paul Eddy, and Peter Gillman

launch an investigation
piecing together information

from 200 sources
across 17 countries,

and a year later
publish their book,

"The Plumbat Affair,"
finally laying the details

of the heist bare.

- Today, it's estimated that
Israel has around 90 bombs

in its nuclear arsenal,
and the uranium stolen

in Operation Plumbat was enough
to make about half of those.

- In 1951, a Soviet MiG-15
is downed

in enemy waters off Korea.

Despite landing in a minefield,

the plane contains
such valuable secrets,

the U.S. decides
to steal it anyway.

[dramatic music]

[Sami] In the Korean War,
U.S.-led UN forces

are locked in a brutal fight

against Communist powers
on the peninsula.

- This is different than
the wars we've seen so far

because this is the first war
in the jet age.

[Sami] Opposing pilots
meet in high-speed,

high-altitude combat.

[Duchovny]
In these deadly duels,

there's one fighter that
coalition jet pilots fear

more than any other,
the MiG-15.

[O'Keefe] The Soviet MiG-15
is considered to be

the cutting-edge fighter
at this particular time

simply because of
its swept-back wings,

which give it
much more maneuverability

at higher altitudes.

[Sami] The MiGs are also
armed to the teeth,

so the plane is
just a real menace,

forcing dozens of UN command
aircraft out of the skies.

[Duchovny] If UN forces
want to control the air,

they need to uncover
the MiG's weaknesses.

And that means
getting their hands on one.

[Martin]
The U.S. and UN allies

are on the lookout for a MiG

damaged in combat, ditched,
intact enough

to where the aircraft wreckage
can be recovered.

But the enemy is not stupid.

They're being very careful.

[Sami]
MiG pilots fly in pairs,

each with a wingman
providing cover.

They're also largely
forbidden from flying

over the sea, where they're
vulnerable to attack

from enemy naval forces.

[Duchovny]
12 months into the war,

UN command gets its chance.

[Dan] A MiG-15
is spotted going down

in a fierce dogfight
near the mouth

of the Chongchon River,
northwest of Pyongyang.

[Catherine] The crash site is
located in enemy territory,

but it's on the coast,

and it appears the wreckage
sits in shallow water.

[Duchovny] Suddenly,
this tantalizing prize

feels within reach.

UN command dispatches
reconnaissance aircraft

to find the wreckage.

But for days,
the pilots come up empty.

Then at last,
the jet is spotted.

[Martin] It's 15 miles from
where it was last reported,

and it's 19 feet deep
in water.

But when the tide rolls out,
the water level drops

and reveals
part of the wreckage.

[Catherine] The good news
is that it's largely intact.

The bad news is,
the site itself is a death trap

for any recovery team.

[Sami] The MiG is wedged
between these sandbars

and is surrounded
by an active minefield.

And even worse, it's within
minutes of key enemy airfields

and close to a stretch of sky

that's so crowded
with fighters,

it's known as MiG Alley.

[Duchovny] A stealthy salvage
team wouldn't stand a chance.

So UN command planners decide
on something much bigger.

[Catherine]
The UN commanders realize

they need enough manpower
and firepower to fight back

if anyone tries to stop them.

So they assemble
this massive array of ships.

[Duchovny] On July 21st,
this convoy of U.S., British,

and Korean naval vessels
sets off.

[Dan] To help them
reach the target,

a helicopter drops
two marker buoys on the wreck.

Then the flotilla
inches its way

through the treacherous
channels between the sandbanks.

[Duchovny] When they reach the
site, they hit a new problem.

The MiG is sunk deep
into the mud, locked in tight.

- Their plan is
to hoist the wreckage

out of the water using a crane.

But to thread
the crane's slings

underneath the aircraft,
they first need to raise it up

by attaching buoys
to the fuselage.

- That's work that can
only be done by hand.

[Sami] So 50 sailors
strip to their shorts,

get onto the sandbank,
and work waist deep in mud.

Every few minutes, they dive
beneath the murky water

to secure buoys to the jet's
frame until it's ready to lift.

- Piece by piece,
this priceless aircraft

is lifted from the water.

But just when the recovery
is almost complete,

the convoy's might is tested.

[Catherine]
A North Korean shore battery

that's located just
a few miles away

suddenly opens fire
on the Allied ships.

[Dan]
Shells are whistling overhead

as this salvage team is trying
their best to finish the job.

- This is where the decision to
come in force really pays off.

[Dan] Within minutes, fighters
swoop in to provide cover,

and one of the ships
is able to unleash

a barrage of return fire.

[Catherine]
The shore battery is silenced,

but the message is clear.

The recovery team
has overstayed its welcome

and needs to get out.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] With the salvaged
jet securely aboard,

the flotilla retreats.

It's carried back to the U.S.,

where the MiG finally gives up
its secrets.

- The U.S. is able to
figure out what the strengths

and weaknesses
of the MiG-15 are,

and they're able now
to design new tactics

to be able to take it on
in the skies over North Korea.

This is intelligence gold
for the air force.

[Duchovny] Washington releases
limited details

about the MiG's capture to
the press, but the full story

of the perilous mission
remains secret for decades.

of the perilous mission
remains secret for decades.

Then in 2018, the operational
reports are first published,

finally revealing
a blow-by-blow account

of the secret UN command
heist to steal a MiG

from behind enemy lines.

- Most covert heists are
planned in meticulous detail.

But in 1956, one journalist
simply finds himself

in the right place
at the right time

to snatch a top secret
document from the Kremlin,

a political speech
so scandalous,

it could shatter
the Soviet Union.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- By 1956, Nikita Khrushchev
has become

the leader of Soviet Russia.

- Khrushchev has
ascended to this position

after three years
of power struggle

upon the death
of Joseph Stalin.

[Greg]
The U.S. has been following

Khrushchev's rise closely.

They know he's
a shrewd operator

but don't know much
beyond that.

[Duchovny] CIA Director
Allen Dulles

then catches
an unexpected break.

[Martin] Dulles is informed
by this wire

that Nikita Khrushchev has
just delivered a secret speech

before the
Communist Party Congress,

and that
this speech scandalized

the thousand people
who were in the room.

- Word is that this speech
is an astounding

denunciation of Stalin.

It includes his purges, the
gulags, cult of personality,

all the things that Stalin has
used to hold the USSR together

under his own persona.

- What makes this
so very scandalous

is the fact that
Khrushchev has labeled

Joseph Stalin as murderous.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] For Dulles,
Khrushchev's incendiary words

present an opportunity.

[Sami] Dulles believes that

exposing these words
to the world

could deal a devastating blow

to the Soviet Union's
carefully crafted image

and turn the satellite states
against Moscow,

all without firing
a single shot.

[Duchovny] The problem?

To show the speech
to the world,

Dulles needs a copy of it.

- No text has surfaced,
and it's rumored that

there are only seven copies,

each bound in red,
stamped top secret,

and with explicit instructions
not to duplicate.

[Martin]
The CIA realizes

it has to get a copy
of this speech,

and it puts its most
effective assets on the case.

[Sasha]
The U.S. is so desperate

that President Eisenhower
authorizes up to $1 million

for the text.

[Duchovny] Then in April,
fate intervenes.

♪ ♪

- At Communist Party
headquarters in Warsaw,

a young Polish journalist
named Viktor Grayevsky

stops in to visit
his girlfriend,

who works as a secretary
to a senior party official.

[O'Keefe] He happens
to notice quite by chance

that there is
a document on her desk.

It is red,
it is stamped top secret,

and this is a copy
of Khrushchev's speech.

[Duchovny] Grayevsky
has heard the whispers

about this
extraordinary address.

As a journalist,
he's desperate to read it.

So he asks his girlfriend
if he can

borrow it for the afternoon.

[O'Keefe]
She hesitates

because of
the security issues.

You're not playing around
in the Communist world

with top secret material.

There will be,
if they're caught,

the most extreme consequences.

- Grayevsky insists
he'll return it

within the next few hours
before anyone notices,

so reluctantly,
she hands it over.

[Duchovny] At home,
Grayevsky reads the speech

away from prying eyes.

What he discovers
horrifies him.

[O'Keefe] Grayevsky is,
up until this moment,

a massively committed
Stalinist.

Stalin was his idol.

But within an instant
of reading it,

Grayevsky's worldview
is shattered.

- Grayevsky feels as though
his eyes have been opened.

And in this moment,
he feels he has to act.

He has to get the truth out.

- The problem is, in an age
before Xerox machines,

there's no easy way to copy
a 58-page top secret speech.

But luckily for Grayevsky, he
has some friends who can help.

- Grayevsky is Polish,
but he's also Jewish.

And he has this friend
at the Israeli embassy.

- Grayevsky slips the
red booklet into his jacket

and makes his way across Warsaw
to meet his contact.

Inside, Israeli intelligence
photograph

every page in the booklet.

- 90 minutes after he
delivered the secret speech,

it's given back to him.

He rushes back across Warsaw

to Communist Party
headquarters.

He returns the speech
to his girlfriend's desk,

where it began the day.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Back in
the Israeli embassy,

when officials read
the speech, they are floored.

- They instantly recognize
how valuable the speech is,

and they also see a chance
to pander to the Americans.

[Sasha] Sharing this speech
will establish

their own credibility to say

we are a force
to be taken seriously.

[Duchovny] Israel forwards
a copy of the speech

to a delighted Allen Dulles,
who immediately orders

his team to authenticate it.

Then, in June 1956,
he sends the full text

to "The New York Times."

♪ ♪

[Sami] Khrushchev's
words send a shock wave

through the Communist bloc,
shattering

the myth of Soviet unity.

- The secret speech
hauls Stalin

before a judgment in a way
that's so powerful

and so scandalous that
it's referred to sometimes

as his second funeral.

[Sami]
Its words spur on uprisings

in Poland and Hungary,

weakening Moscow's grip
on its empire.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
As for Viktor Grayevsky,

he develops a taste
for espionage.

A year after
his impulsive heist,

he joins Israel's
intelligence service.

he joins Israel's
intelligence service.

But it's not until 1994
that he breaks his silence

in a "Washington Post"
interview,

revealing the inside story
of one of the greatest

intelligence thefts
of the Cold War.

- When Israel sets out
to expose Iran's secret

nuclear weapons program,
it attempts one of the largest

physical heists of top secret
documents in history,

in a mission so intrepid, even
Hollywood wouldn't believe it.

- In 2015, the United States,
along with five global powers,

signed a historic
nuclear deal with Iran.

- For nearly a decade,
Iran has been constrained

by crippling sanctions aimed at
curbing its nuclear ambitions.

[Hakeem] Now those sanctions
are lifted in return

for Iran pledging to keep
its nuclear program

strictly peaceful.

[Duchovny] Much of the world
breathes a sigh of relief,

but not Iran's neighbor,
Israel.

- Israel is convinced
that Iran's continuing

to secretly develop
nuclear weapons.

[Hakeem] Having a
nuclear-armed adversary

on their doorstep
sounds like a disaster.

So Israel sets out
to derail the deal.

[Don] Israel's prime minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu,

summons Mossad's
new director, Yossi Cohen,

and delivers him
a clear message:

we can't just tell the world
Iran is lying;

we have to show them.

[Duchovny] Cohen knows exactly
the kind of evidence he needs.

Israeli intelligence
has learned

of a hidden Iranian archive
allegedly filled

with documents detailing its
top secret nuclear program.

But stealing it will be
almost impossible.

- The first problem he has
is simply finding the archive.

Iran is vast.

It's much bigger than France,
Spain, and Germany combined.

This is pretty much
the definition

of hunting for a needle
in a haystack.

[Hakeem] Cohen orders
round-the-clock analysis

of signal intercepts
and human intelligence reports

just to get some kind of angle
on its location,

but nothing turns up.

[Duchovny] Then in early 2016,
Tehran makes a mistake.

- The nuclear non-proliferation
deal requires Iran

to allow
international inspections

of its nuclear sites.

That pressure
forces Iran to hide

its most sensitive files at
a new ultra secret location.

- To avoid scrutiny,
they choose

a dilapidated warehouse
in the Shurabad district

of Southern Tehran.

- What Iran doesn't realize
is that Mossad

is tracking the movements
of all

their key nuclear personnel.

[Hakeem]
When Israeli agents see

what looks like a huge
document archive being hauled

into an old warehouse
where key nuclear personnel

keep showing up, they know
they've got their target.

[Duchovny]
Israel now knows where

the secret files are hidden.

To figure out
how to steal them,

Cohen authorizes an undercover

reconnaissance mission
to the site.

[Kavitha] Mossad discovers
that the files are locked

in heavy safes, but they also
identify a major weakness.

There are barely any guards.

[Sasha] Now, this is not
an oversight by Tehran.

This is a deliberate
tactic to keep

unwanted attention
away from the warehouse

by inspectors and spies.

[Duchovny] Luckily for Mossad,
it gets even better.

[Don] The two security guards
leave at 10:00 p.m.

and don't return
until 7:00 a.m.

This temple of Iran's
nuclear secrets

is completely unguarded
every night.

[Duchovny] Cohen begins
preparing an after-hours

smash and grab,
but a group of Israelis

will stick out
on the streets of Tehran.

So he recruits almost
two dozen Iranian dissidents

and trains them up
into master thieves.

[Sasha]
In a top secret location,

they build a full scale
replica of the warehouse,

complete with identical
Iranian-made safes.

- The team rehearses
every step--

how to disable the alarms,
bypass the cameras,

and most importantly,
crack open the vaults,

all timed to perfection within
a 6 1/2 hour window.

[Duchovny] Now they must
turn rehearsal into reality.

At precisely 10:31 p.m.,
on January 31, 2018,

Cohen pulls the trigger
on the heist.

[Kavitha]
The team disables the alarm,

then they force open
the warehouse's doors

and move inside.

They head straight for
32 2-meter high steel safes.

[Sami]
These are heavy-duty safes,

and they don't have time
to crack them,

so they cut them open
using blowtorches

that burn at 3,600 degrees
Fahrenheit.

[Sasha] They focus on six,
which contain the blueprints

for Iran to develop
a nuclear weapon.

[Duchovny] One by one,
the vaults give way.

Inside, the team finds
exactly what it came for.

[Sami] They make off with a
collection of binders and CDs

that are packed with thousands
of files, videos, and photos,

inside of which
are all the plans

for Iran's top secret
nuclear bomb.

- The loot is loaded
into two trucks,

and at 5:00 a.m.,
the Mossad team is gone.

Now this heist becomes a race.

It's 400 miles to the border,

and they have just
a two-hour head start.

[Sasha] At 7:00 a.m.,
the guards return.

The theft is discovered.

A nationwide manhunt is on.

[Kavitha]
Iran seals its borders.

Thousands of agents,
police officers, and soldiers

are mobilized in an effort
to track down the thieves.

[Don]
With the borders locked,

they make for a notorious
drug smuggling corridor.

And there they bribe
the traffickers

to move their bounty
safely out of Iran.

Despite the huge risks,
every member of the team

makes it home alive.

[Duchovny] Three months later,
in April 2018,

Prime Minister Netanyahu
takes the stage in Tel Aviv.

In a live televised address,

he makes a stunning
declaration--

Iran lied, big time.

[Don] Netanyahu presents
clear evidence

that Iran has been
secretly pursuing

nuclear weapons for years,
even while publicly denying it.

Israel's audacious coup changes
global policy overnight.

- President Trump
pulls the United States

out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Sanctions are reimposed.

Iran is cast back out
into the wilderness.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In the years that follow,

tensions between Iran,
the U.S., and Israel

continue to escalate,

and President Trump cites
Iran's nuclear program

when he sets out his case
for military action in 2026.

♪ ♪

From boatloads of uranium
to top secret fighter jets,

governments will stop at
nothing to take what they want.

But even the most covert thefts
are eventually exposed.