Watch: the secret life and mysterious death of CIA spymaster William Colby

A son’s riveting look at a father whose life seemed straight out of a spy thriller. The secret world of a legendary CIA spymaster. Told by William Colby’s son Carl, the story is at once a probing history of the CIA, a personal memoir of a family living in clandestine shadows, and an inquiry into […]

Women in Special Ops: Original OSS Spec Ops unit included women

Nancy Wake was the most decorated woman of World War II. John Lichfield of the Independent wrote that in her life, “she became a nurse, a journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler, a wealthy French socialite, a British agent and a French resistance leader. She led 7,000 guerrilla fighters in battles against the Nazis in the northern Auvergne, just before the D-Day landings in 1944. On one occasion, she strangled an SS sentry with her bare hands.

Bill Seeks to Recognize the OSS, Predecessor to the CIA

A bill making its way through the U.S. Congress is seeking to bestow Congressional Gold Medal status on the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).  On June 13, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 69 creating […]

Watch: Spy Training – Undercover, from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Archive

OSS – UNDERCOVER | SPY TRAINING FILM – ca. 1942 – ca. 1945: Analyze preparation, arrival, establishment, and “prevalent cover” for secret agents by presenting one movie within another, as introduced by Colonel Robertson, chief of Schools and Training at Office of Strategic Services. R.1: Gives examples of agents discovered because of inattention to details, […]