FW: NBC - AND ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
06399216
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RIPPUB
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U
Document Page Count: 
8
Document Creation Date: 
March 16, 2022
Document Release Date: 
January 20, 2016
Sequence Number: 
Case Number: 
F-2013-02277
Publication Date: 
July 25, 2013
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PDF icon FW NBC - AND ROUND-UP C[14582898].pdf247.83 KB
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Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED !--roor Toni L. Hiley Fw: NBC- and ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM 0: Cnte t3 rho Stft.ly of oTjeirce CAL\ MtiSE:uin message ;:-.) olgitalk,' signed Classification: UNCLASSIFIED FYI Toni L. Hiley CIA Museum Director Request a Tour CIA Museum Blog CIA Museum Website Hall of Honor Potential Artifact Donation Forwarded by Toni L. Hiley/STF/AGENCY on 07/25/2013 05:44 PM From: To: Date: Subject: Toni L. Hiley/STF/AGENCY@WMA 07/25/2013 05:30 PM NBC- and ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM (b)(3) (b)(3) (b)(3) (b)(3) Classification: UNCLASSIFIED FYI Respectfully, Forwarded by From: To: Date: Subject: "Windrem, Robert (NBCUniversal)" 07/25/2013 03:41 PM FW: ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED (b)(3) (b)(3) (b)(6) (b)(3) (b)(3). UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED (b )(3) Thank you.... FYI, MSNBC has run the Today piece twice already today, in the 11 a.m. and the 3 p.m. hours. Also, here is a round-up of coverage from other news organizations. From: :NBCUniversal) Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:10 PM To: Engel, Richard (NBCUniversal); Windrem, Robert (NBCUniversal), (b)(6) NBCUniversal); (NBCUniversal) Cc: (CORP COMM) Subject: ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM (b)(6) (NBCUniversal); (b)(6) (b)(6) (b)(6) Hi all � the photos and video of Engel's CIA Museum report got some nice pick-up, including a few viral websites like Daily Mail and Huff Po. It is also still prominently displayed on NBCNews.com. ROUND-UP: CIA MUSEUM July 25, 2013 1. Huffington Post: Osama Bin Laden AK-47 Being Displayed At 'Secret' CIA Museum: Report 2. New York Daily News: SEE IT: Osama Bin Laden's AK-47 displayed in ultra-secret CIA Museum: report 3. Talking Points Memo: CIA's Private Museum Displays Osama Bin Laden's AK-47 4. Daily Mail: Osama bin Laden's AK-47 rifle with mysterious Chinese markings goes on display at 'secret' CIA museum 5. Daily Beast: CIA Trove Features Bin Laden's Gun 6. RI: Bin Laden's AK-47 displayed in CIA museum Huffington Post: Osama Bin Laden AK-47 Being Displayed At 'Secret' CIA Museum: Report Paige Lavender July 25, 2013 UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED [VIDEO] An AK-47 found next to the body of Osama bin Laden is on display in a "secret" museum at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, NBC's Richard Engel and Robert Windrem report. "Because of its proximity to [bin Laden] there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his," museum curator Toni Hiley told NBC. "It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings." Bin Laden was killed in 2011 at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. "After a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body," President Barack Obama said in a May 1 announcement. "No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties." The soldiers who killed bin Laden found two of his guns only after he was dead, the Associated Press reported in 2011. NBC reports on the gun's display at the museum: Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror. Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras. The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as "Osama bin Laden's AK-47," shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/osama-bin-laden-ak-47 n 3652301.html?utm hp ref=po litics New York Daily News: SEE IT: Osama Bin Laden's AK-47 displayed in ultra-secret CIA Museum: report Philip Caulfield July 25, 2013 The Russian-style rifle taken from the third floor of Bin Laden's compound after he was killed in 2011 now hangs in a super-secret museum inside the CIA's headquarters, NBC News reports. The Russian-style rifle found near Osama Bin Laden's body after he was killed in a raid by Navy SEALs now hangs in a super-secret museum in the belly of the CIA's headquarters, NBC News reports. The AK-47, taken from the third floor of Bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout, lay just out of reach for the 9/11 mastermind when SEAL Team 6 members stormed his bedroom just after midnight on May 2, 2011, and felled him with a blast to the forehead. UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED The gun is one of the most recent additions to the CIA Museum in Langley, a thrilling archive of spycraft memorabilia dating back to the agency's birth during World War II. It is closed to the general public. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta requested for the Kalashnikov to be fished from agency's shadows so it could be displayed as one of the premiere trophies of the War on Terror, NBC News reports. Mounted on pegs behind a glass case, the rifle is identified by a brass plaque that reads "Osama bin Laden's AK-47." An Al-Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan after 9/11 sits beside it, while the mock-up of Bin Laden's compound used to plan the raid lies a few steps away. CIA museum curator Toni Hiley told NBC Bin Laden's rifle still works but, in true spook fashion, declined to describe the details of its recovery or whether it was loaded when found. "I just know that I have it in my museum and I'm happy to have it," she said. [VIDEO] http://www.nvdailynews.com/news/national/bin-laden-ak-47-displayed-cia-museum-article-1.1408519 ### Talking Points Memo: CIA's Private Museum Displays Osama Bin Laden's AK-47 Zoe Schlanger July 25, 2013 A Russian-made assault rifle housed in a glass case in the CIA's private museum is identified simply as "Osama bin Laden's AK-47," NBC reported Wednesday. The gun, found next to the body of Osama bin Laden after Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid in Pakistan, is part of a collection most people will never have a chance to see. NBC recently became the first news organization to get a camera inside the museum, which is open only to employees and invited guests. The agency will not specify how the rifle was recovered, but it is in good working condition, curator Toni Hiley told NBC. "Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his. It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings," Hiley said. The museum's exhibits fill three hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. and house artifacts from the organization's 70 years of clandestine operations, according to NBC. UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED [VIDEO] http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entrvicias-private-museum-houses-osama-bin-ladens-ak Iti*# Daily Mail: Osama bin Laden's AK-47 rifle with mysterious Chinese markings goes on display at 'secret' CIA museum Olivia Williams July 25, 2013 The gun found near Osama bin Laden's body when he was killed by U.S. Navy Seals has gone on display at the CIA headquarters. The CIA's collection of unique artifacts from 70 years of major historic events, including bin Laden's gun, are on display to CIA employees only at their secretive base in Langley, Virginia. The AK-47 was recovered from the Abbottabad compound after bin Laden died in a midnight raid in May 2011. It was analysed and found to be a Russian AK-47 with counterfeit Chinese markings. CIA museum curator Toni Hiley told NBC in their exclusive tour of the museum that the explanation for the Chinese markings remains a mystery. The careful planning of the raid is also recorded in the CIA's collection, with the model of the compound that former CIA director Leon Panetta used to plan the mission and part of the life-size mock-up of the compound used to practise the raid, on display. The mock-up of the Abbottabad compound turned out to be pieced together so accurately from intelligence reports that when the seals entered 'they said 'We felt like we'd been there before," Hiley told NBC as she showed them around private museum. Although the CIA had thought since September 2010 that Bin Laden was in Abbottabad, it waited to attack until May 2011. It found bin Laden's hideout by tracking a man identified as his key courier. When the courier was found in Abbottabad, the CIA began the surveillance that led to the raid. After careful practice on the CIA's model of the compound, the raid was planned for May. Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the President and his staff at the White House saw the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks shot in the left eye. The Seal then carried out what is known as a 'double tap' � shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead. UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED Following the raid, relations between Pakistan and the West were put under intense strain amid disbelief that intelligence chiefs in Islamabad had no idea Bin Laden was living only 800 yards from the country's leading military academy. Other recent museum acquisitions from the War on Terror include a partially-burned al-Qaeda training guide to firing surface-to-air missiles found in Afghanistan, as well as the raw lapis lazuli used to pay its members. The displays began in the early 1990s but the museum's collection starts with the agency's origins running spy networks in the Second World War when it was known as the Office of Strategic Services, through its Cold War years and right up to the War on Terror since 9/11. The OSS wing of the CIA's museum, which opened in 2011, traces the history of an organisation that was founded in 1942 to aid resistance fighters before it became the CIA in 1946. The exhibit from the Second World War period includes counterfeit German postage stamps created by the OSS, the desk of OSS director William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, and a selection of false identification documents, maps and escape equipment. There is a further layer of top secret artifacts that are not on display even within the CIA. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377533/Secret-CIA-museum-features-Osama-bin-Ladens-AK- 47.html ### Daily Beast: CIA Trove Features Bin Laden's Gun Staff July 24, 2013 Somewhere inside the belly of CIA headquarters lies artifacts from decades of intelligence gathering, including drones disguised as insects and Osama bin Laden's AK-47. Found next to his body during the Navy SEALs' raid on his Pakistani compound, bin Laden's assault rifle is the most recent addition to the CIA museum's vast collection of gadgets, spyware, and the like. The Russian-made AK-47 is displayed in a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. But don't expect to get close look at the gun or any of the other artifacts in the museum, which isn't open to the public. Visits are invite-only, though NBC News recently got a peek and recorded it for the rest of us on camera. http://www.thedailvbeast.cornicheats/2013/07/24/cia-trove-features-bin-laden-s-gun.html ### RT: Bin Laden's AK-47 displayed in CIA museum Staff July 25, 2013 UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED The CIA's museum in Langley, Virginia, recently acquired a new artifact: the AK-47 of Osama bin Laden, a weapon that was found beside the former al-Qaeda leader's dead body after he was killed by US Navy SEALs. The museum contains gadgets, trophies, spyware and artifacts from the past 70 years, including pieces from World War II and the War on Terror. The museum is closed to the public, but NBC News became the first media organization permitted to bring video cameras into the facility. The Russian AK-47 with counterfeit Chinese markings was recovered from the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was killed in a midnight raid, and recently put on display at the museum, according to the exclusive NBC report. Museum Curator Toni Hiley said the Chinese markings remain a mystery, but a Central Intelligence Agency analyst has concluded that the weapon definitively belonged to bin Laden. "This is the rifle that was recovered from the third floor of the Abbottabad compound by the assault team," Hiley said. "Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his. It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings." The CIA has not provided specific information on how the weapon was obtained or whether it was loaded when it was found. An anonymous source told NBC that it came from the "dark side" of the agency, referring to the operations staff that worked with the SEALS on the raid. The movie "Zero Dark Thirty" shows a member of the assault team taking the weapon from a shelf above bin Laden's bed. But Hiley said she knows nothing aside from the fact that former CIA Director Leon Panetta requested it and that it is in good working condition. It is not the same weapon that bin Laden was carrying in his anti-American propaganda videos. "I wasn't there," said Hiley. "So I can't confirm or deny exactly where the weapon was. I just know that I have it in my museum and I'm happy to have it." In 2011, the Associated Press reported that American soldiers only found bin Laden's guns after he was already dead and photographed, which added fuel for critics who accused the US of killing him while unarmed. The Kalashnikov is mounted on pegs behind a glass case, identified by a plaque that reads, "Osama bin Laden's AK-47." It sits beside an al-Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan, near a mock-up display of bin Laden's compound. The model of the Abbottabad compound closely resembles the facility as it was found when bin Laden was living in it. http://rt.com/usakia-bin-laden-ak47-593/ Classification: UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216 UNCLASSIFIED Classification: UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2015/12/15 006399216