With summertime comes travel, and as every red-blooded ClearanceJobs reader knows, travel means the opportunity to visit the espionage landmarks of the world. (Right?) Here are 5 gorgeous travel destinations that also happen to have connections to the spy world.
Oahu, Hawaii
Nobody needs an excuse to go to Hawaii. The sun. The food. The water. The weather. The NSA signals intelligence analysis facility. Formerly called the Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center (and nicknamed Kunia Tunnel), the Hawaii Cryptologic Center received some attention in 2013 when a contractor named Edward Snowden accessed an astonishing amount of highly classified material and absconded to Moscow, where he promises that he absolutely did not (and still does not) collaborate with Russian intelligence. Whatever one’s opinion of Snowden, he’ll never again visit Hawaii, which is itself a kind of prison sentence.
Washington’s Crossing, Pennsylvania
George Washington knew the power of espionage, and acted personally as spymaster to John Honeyman, a butcher and tradesman in Philadelphia. Washington recruited Honeyman in the 1776 and sent him to Trenton under the guise of a British loyalist. He blended in so well there that patriots ransacked his home, which had the positive effect of convincing the British of his legitimacy. Now granted freedom of movement in the British garrison, he gathered intelligence until Washington arranged for Honeyman to be “captured” and brought for “personal interrogation.” After the debriefing, Washington had Honeyman incarcerated in an improvised Continental jail. The spy promptly escaped, Washington having also presumably ordered a fire to be set nearby. Armed with alibi—the chaos of a fire—and witnesses attesting to his imprisonment, Honeyman returned to Trenton with even greater credibility. This time he was debriefed by a Hessian commander, and he informed the British that the Continentals were demoralized to the point of paralysis. Trenton, he assured the British, was quite safe from attack.
Washington’s trap was set. The British, convinced of Honeyman’s testimony and feeling safe from the pitiful Continental Army, lowered their state of readiness and held a proper Christmas celebration for their soldiers. Meanwhile, Washington and his men crossed the Delaware River by night and scored a decisive victory against the British in a surprise attack. Washington’s understanding of the power of espionage, coupled with Honeyman’s superb tradecraft, saved the American Revolution. Today, the verdant point of debarkation for Washington’s crossing is preserved at the appropriately named Washington Crossing Park in Pennsylvania. Buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries still stand, and life in the 1700’s is recreated for visitors to view, participate in, and enjoy. The famous crossing is reenacted every December 25th.
Venice, Italy
Only one thing is more romantic than being serenaded in a gondola while gliding down a canal of Venice: doing this while thinking of one of the city’s most famous spies. The word “Casanova” is synonymous with “ladies’ man,” so it is only fitting that Giacomo Casanova—the Casanova in question responsible for that reputation—was at one time a spy, a trade known for its share of seducers. Between the years 1774 and 1782, Casanova both spied for, and was spied on by, the Venice Inquisition. And so when you’re in that gondola, tuning out as best you can the Italian oarsman warbling about love, you can reflect on the city’s espionage history and think about later embarking on any number of walking tours of Casanova’s haunts, from opera houses to the red light district.
Athens, Greece
Athens, capital of Greece, is where Western civilization was born, and where a teenage Alexander the Great studied under Aristotle. The city’s heart rests in the jaw-dropping Acropolis, the rocky outcrop that looms over Athens, and whose Parthenon reaches to the sky as its Theater of Dionysus reaches far below. And if the city’s first ten millennia of history aren’t enough for you, there’s always the Central Intelligence Agency’s storied work there in the 1950’s though 70’s. It was Athens where Gust Avrakotos was first assigned after joining the company. (Avrakotos was famously portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War.) While there is no evidence that the CIA participated in the coup d’état that installed the fascist Regime of the Colonels, the agency certainly took advantage of the now favorable, anti-communist situation. Greece, after all, was vital to NATO’s defense plans against the Soviet Union.
Blenheim, New Zealand
The last time I visited New Zealand, where Lord of the Rings was filmed, I met the Witch King of Angmar‘s brother. I didn’t go searching for him or anything; he was my bellhop at a hotel in Wellington. The lesson: If you go to New Zealand, you’re going to encounter The Lord of the Rings. It’s a small country, after all, and that was a big film. There are dozens of tour companies that will take you to the mind-blowingly gorgeous locations where the films were shot. The Shire really looks like the village you see in the film. Minas Tirith, while mostly a special effect, is apparent in the color and shape of the mountainside on which it was digitally erected. And yes, you can even “simply walk into Mordor.”
Espionage and The Lord of the Rings are inseparable. NSA headquarters at Fort Meade is frequently compared to Barad-dûr, the tower from which the flaming eye watched the War of the Ring unfold. It is only fitting, then, that one of the NSA’s key overseas counterparts—the Government Communications Security Bureau—is located in New Zealand. Just outside the city of Blenheim, known for its bustling wine industry, is Mt. Sunday, a national park that was turned into Edoras, capital of Rohan, where Gandalf saved King Théoden from dark influences. Also nearby is the Waihopai Valley, best known as the site of the GCSB’s Waihopai station, part of ECHELON and an interception point for phone calls and data. In other words, you can visit Blenheim for the Riders of Rohan and stay for the Eye of Sauron.
