All photos are my own unless otherwise labeled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Early Cold War<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Arlington](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3941\/15390962450_7cf0e09c80_b.jpg\")
<\/a>Arlington Hall as it now appears<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nArlington Hall began as a girls’ school in the 1920’s. However, a ready-made facility with easy access to the Pentagon sounded really attractive to the government a little later. So the military seized and closed the school during the Second World War as vital to the American war effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It became Arlington Hall Station, a headquarters of the US Army’s Signal Intelligence Service. There, cryptologists focused on cracking Japanese codes. Then the Army decided to retain the property after the war because of an emerging new threat, the Cold War. Eventually the operation became part of the newly-formed National Security Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soviet efforts to penetrate Arlington Hall began almost immediately<\/a>, and succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“The secrets were held from everyone except the Russians… the first decrypt of Soviet KGB messages sent from New York was witnessed by Bill Weiband, the NKVD agent. The secrets were later officially shared with Kim Philby, the phlegmatic British MI-6 liaison officer to the new CIA in 1949, when he visited Arlington Hall.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Many of the Arlington Hall workers lived in the adjacent garden apartments of Buckingham<\/a> and the single family homes of the Arlington Forest<\/a> neighborhood. Soviet spies flocked there too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn off-premise Officers Club sat at the old Henderson Estate, now the site of the Lubber Run Community Center (map<\/a>). Officials feared inebriated officers might say things that should remain silent so they moved the club onto campus. That didn’t halt the flow of sensitive information from deeply-embedded moles though.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCryptology operations moved to more secure facilities in the 1980’s. One part of the Arlington Hall campus now hosts the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and the other holds the US Army National Guard Readiness Center. That was the official word, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were also rumors of Soviet and\/or East German operations coordinated from a condominium building at 1515 S. Arlington Ridge Road (Street View<\/a>). I had no idea whether that was true or not, although Arlington Ridge Road did make an appearance on Twelve Mile Circle in a completely different context<\/a> a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAldrich Ames<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Aldrich](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5606\/15389965079_aa7ca9e3d0_b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAldrich Ames is serving a lifelong prison sentence<\/a> at the Allenwood high security prison in Pennsylvania, as he has done for the last two decades. He served as a counterintelligence officer in the Central Intelligence Agency for more than 30 years before his final exposure and arrest in 1994. His job focused on targeting people who worked at the Soviet Embassy to see if he could convert them into moles. Behind the scenes, he sold information about the identity<\/a> of Soviet spies who then promptly faced execution or simply disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“The CIA and FBI learned that Russian officials who had been recruited by them were being arrested and executed. These human sources had provided critical intelligence information about the USSR, which was used by U.S. policy makers in determining U.S. foreign policy. Following analytical reviews and receipt of information about Ames\u2019s unexplained wealth, the FBI opened an investigation in May 1993.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The FBI arrested Ames at his Arlington home, at 2512 N Randolph Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Arlington County property records<\/a> noted ownership by Aldrich H. & Rosario C. Ames. The Federal government seized Ames’ property and sold it in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nRobert Hanssen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Long](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5599\/15390569847_f211bd5761_b.jpg\")
A dead drop used by Robert Hanssen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRobert Hanssen worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation until his 2001 arrest. He now serves a life sentence<\/a> at Florence ADMAX prison in South Carolina. Like Ames, Hanssen sold secrets primarily for greed, and he exposed informants buried deep within the Soviet military system. Hanssen used a number of “dead drops,” or inconspicuous places where he could leave documents and receive payments. At least one of those secret hiding spots was located in Arlington.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI used to take my children to the Long Branch Nature Center<\/a> when they were younger (map<\/a>). Little did I suspect that it had a hidden historical past. There, under the edge of a wooden outdoor amphitheater (photo<\/a>), Russian agents left a paper bag filled with $50,000 in cash for Hanssen. The FBI was already on Hanssen’s tail at that point and watched the location for several days<\/a>. Hanssen never showed-up although officials captured him at another dead drop a little later. Upon arrest he reportedly exclaimed, “What took you so long?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOperation Ghost Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Arlington Hall began as a girls’ school in the 1920’s. However, a ready-made facility with easy access to the Pentagon sounded really attractive to the government a little later. So the military seized and closed the school during the Second World War as vital to the American war effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It became Arlington Hall Station, a headquarters of the US Army’s Signal Intelligence Service. There, cryptologists focused on cracking Japanese codes. Then the Army decided to retain the property after the war because of an emerging new threat, the Cold War. Eventually the operation became part of the newly-formed National Security Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soviet efforts to penetrate Arlington Hall began almost immediately<\/a>, and succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The secrets were held from everyone except the Russians… the first decrypt of Soviet KGB messages sent from New York was witnessed by Bill Weiband, the NKVD agent. The secrets were later officially shared with Kim Philby, the phlegmatic British MI-6 liaison officer to the new CIA in 1949, when he visited Arlington Hall.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Many of the Arlington Hall workers lived in the adjacent garden apartments of Buckingham<\/a> and the single family homes of the Arlington Forest<\/a> neighborhood. Soviet spies flocked there too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An off-premise Officers Club sat at the old Henderson Estate, now the site of the Lubber Run Community Center (map<\/a>). Officials feared inebriated officers might say things that should remain silent so they moved the club onto campus. That didn’t halt the flow of sensitive information from deeply-embedded moles though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cryptology operations moved to more secure facilities in the 1980’s. One part of the Arlington Hall campus now hosts the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and the other holds the US Army National Guard Readiness Center. That was the official word, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were also rumors of Soviet and\/or East German operations coordinated from a condominium building at 1515 S. Arlington Ridge Road (Street View<\/a>). I had no idea whether that was true or not, although Arlington Ridge Road did make an appearance on Twelve Mile Circle in a completely different context<\/a> a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aldrich Ames is serving a lifelong prison sentence<\/a> at the Allenwood high security prison in Pennsylvania, as he has done for the last two decades. He served as a counterintelligence officer in the Central Intelligence Agency for more than 30 years before his final exposure and arrest in 1994. His job focused on targeting people who worked at the Soviet Embassy to see if he could convert them into moles. Behind the scenes, he sold information about the identity<\/a> of Soviet spies who then promptly faced execution or simply disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The CIA and FBI learned that Russian officials who had been recruited by them were being arrested and executed. These human sources had provided critical intelligence information about the USSR, which was used by U.S. policy makers in determining U.S. foreign policy. Following analytical reviews and receipt of information about Ames\u2019s unexplained wealth, the FBI opened an investigation in May 1993.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The FBI arrested Ames at his Arlington home, at 2512 N Randolph Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Arlington County property records<\/a> noted ownership by Aldrich H. & Rosario C. Ames. The Federal government seized Ames’ property and sold it in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Hanssen worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation until his 2001 arrest. He now serves a life sentence<\/a> at Florence ADMAX prison in South Carolina. Like Ames, Hanssen sold secrets primarily for greed, and he exposed informants buried deep within the Soviet military system. Hanssen used a number of “dead drops,” or inconspicuous places where he could leave documents and receive payments. At least one of those secret hiding spots was located in Arlington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I used to take my children to the Long Branch Nature Center<\/a> when they were younger (map<\/a>). Little did I suspect that it had a hidden historical past. There, under the edge of a wooden outdoor amphitheater (photo<\/a>), Russian agents left a paper bag filled with $50,000 in cash for Hanssen. The FBI was already on Hanssen’s tail at that point and watched the location for several days<\/a>. Hanssen never showed-up although officials captured him at another dead drop a little later. Upon arrest he reportedly exclaimed, “What took you so long?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAldrich Ames<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nRobert Hanssen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOperation Ghost Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n