INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM ILLUMINATES SPOOK TRADE.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

WASHINGTON - Blame it on James Bond. And perhaps Maxwell Smart.

America's fascination with the intrigue, danger and gadgetry of espionage has made the year-old International Spy Museum one of the hottest attractions in the nation's capital.

Even in a city of government-run museums at which no admission is charged, the privately operated Spy Museum has proven so popular that visitors - after paying $13 for an adult ticket - are often assigned a particular hour of entry so the place won't get overrun.

Once inside, anyone enchanted by the elaborate craft of the spook is not likely to be disappointed.

There is a rich store of artifacts - electronic bugging devices, for example, that were as big as a tomato paste can at the end of World War II but are no larger than a pencil eraser today. But the real fun is contained in the interactive exhibits.

Examine a photo of a spy, then view a videotape shot by a surveillance camera - at a train station, in a hotel lobby - and try to pick this character out of the crowd. Good luck. The disguises employed are devilish. And after you make the correct pick, you'll learn how the person you committed to memory was radically transformed.

Or pore over gray, grainy satellite photos and try to spot the camouflaged fighter jets.

Or look at a still photo shot on a city street and attempt to pick out examples of suspicious behavior - a person in a distant window looking through binoculars, for example. It unnerved me to learn that one example of shady activity is someone writing in a pad, something I do all the time while on assignment.

Of course, the intricate tools of the spy trade are what capture the imagination of most visitors. They're all here, with exhibits routinely showing the evolution of particular devices. There are wristwatch cameras, cameras concealed in cigarette packs, cameras hidden behind coat buttons.

And - thank you, Mr. Smart - there is even a telephone disguised in a shoe.

Upon entering the museum, visitors are asked to choose a false identity and cover story, then memorize all aspects of it. Later, you're ``interrogated'' electronically, with a gauge revealing inconsistencies in your story.

If you chose, for example, clothing salesman John Campbell of the United States, you'd better remember that you were born in Mandeville, Jamaica, and that your intended length of stay in Budapest is 14 days. And how old did you say you were?

Some aspects of spying are a little too complicated to deal with here. For example, the Enigma encryption device, used by the Nazis in World War II and cracked by a team of mathematicians in Britain, is insufficiently explained in an exhibit, even with the help of touch screens. Better to leave that complicated puzzle to the PBS documentary.

Finally, there are examinations of notorious spies from the recent past - Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, et al. It's troubling, and a little perplexing, to hear about all the operatives in Russia who went to their deaths because Ames gave them up to his counterparts while working for the CIA.

Before his capture in 1994, it is reported here, Ames tooled around Europe in flashy cars, envisioning himself as a real-life James Bond.

Apparently, this spy fascination has reached into all corners of our society.

--The International Spy Museum is at 800 F St. N.W. (about a block from Ford's Theatre). It currently is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (the museum closes at 5 p.m. from November through March). Admission is $13 for adults, $12 for seniors ages 65 and up, $10 for children ages 5 to 18. Information and advance ticket purchase: [phone]; www.spymuseum.org.