Why The CIA Is Opening Its Own Museum And Starting Its Own Podcast
The CIA is making the public privy to a special treat and celebrating its 75th birthday by giving citizens exclusive access to its museum and launching a podcast called The Langley Files, where historical missions will be discussed in depth.
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. It is marking the occasion by doing something out of the ordinary for an intelligence agency; seeking attention. For their 75th anniversary, the CIA has launched a new podcast and given a select number of journalists an exclusive tour of their new museum.
The CIA has never opened its museum to the public sector, which has not changed. Still, they gave journalists an exclusive tour of their newly renovated and expanded museum at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, over the weekend.
CIA Museum to Open Up to the Public
Upon entry to the museum, the ceiling is covered with a variety of white and black spy codes such as Morse code, ciphers, and a crossword puzzle. It is up to the visitors to break it and reveal the message. Until now, the museum’s target audience was CIA staff and official visitors, but now they are opening it up to the public with online exhibits.
Within the museum are some high-profile exhibits, including some of the CIA’s best-known operations since its opening in 1947. There is a model of Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, where Navy seals killed him in 2011, and a life-size model of where the SEAL team trained for the raid.
Also, the replica of the house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where the CIA tracked Bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and killed him in July 2022, is on display. “This model was used to brief President Biden on the pattern of life that had been established, why we thought Zawahiri was here with his family, and what our plan was to go and get him,” said the museum’s deputy director, Janelle Neises.
The museum tells well-known stories from inside the intelligence agency that would not be so well-known to civilians. It also includes some of the CIA failures, like the attempt to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1961, named “the Bay of Pigs.”
Source: CIA.gov
The Langley Files Podcast
This museum’s new exhibits are sure to be popular with the people as everyone wants to know how these missions are completed and executed so well, most of the time. Until the CIA released the virtual exhibits, they still gave the public something to listen to.
The CIA has just launched a new podcast, called the Langley Files, a homage to the intelligence agency’s location in Virginia. Its first guest last week, CIA Director William Burns, explains why they have ventured into the media spotlight. “We usually operate in the shadows, out of sight, out of mind, but I think it’s important to explain ourselves the best we can and demystify a little bit of what we do.”
Over the last years, former CIA and intelligence officers have been much more willing to open up and talk about intelligence operations. Like many Americans, we all love to hear about any secret operations and intelligence stories!
