![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/haledoc.jpg\")
\n This is the Library of Congress manuscript<\/td>\n
According to a manuscript recently uncovered by the Library
\n of Congress, American Patriot Nathan Hale, patron saint of the CIA and
\n acknowledged by them as the first American to be executed for spying
\n for the United States, was in reality a bumbling amateur uncovered and
\n arrested on the first day of his "secret mission."<\/p>\n
The British hanged Hale the next morning, Sept. 22, 1776, at an artillery
\n park near Dove Tavern,near what is now 66th Street
\n and Third Avenue in Manhattan. At this spot, Hale is reputed to have
\n uttered his famous line: "I
\n only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" —
\n probably a paraphrase of a line from a popular play by British writer
\n Joseph Addison.<\/p>\n
"How could anyone on a secret mission be so stupid, or to use more
\n generous terms, so naive or so credulous, to be taken in by a perfect
\n stranger and then to disclose, the next day, the object of his mission
\n to several more perfect strangers?" <\/p>\n
from the AP<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the Library of Congress manuscript According to a manuscript recently uncovered by the Library of Congress, American Patriot Nathan Hale, patron saint of the CIA and acknowledged by them as the first American to be executed for … Continue reading