True Life Spy Stories

Ways to support the podcast:
Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠
In 1968 a Soviet nuclear submarine sank in the North Pacific with 98 men aboard. The Soviets never found it. The Americans did — and they spent six years and half a billion dollars trying to secretly raise it from three miles down. This is the story of Project Azorian: the CIA's deep-sea submarine heist.
📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate links):
📕 Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129 by Norman C. Polmar - https://amzn.to/4u7ovxg
📕 Project Azorian: The History of the CIA Operation to Recover a Sunken Soviet Submarine by Charles River Editors, KC Wayman - https://amzn.to/3ORHbSj

Ways to support the podcast:
Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠⁠
Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier:
Russia's secret unit for assassinations and sabotage finally unmasked — after one of its operatives used Google Translate to arrange a murder and was arrested in Colombia;

A former Google engineer becomes the first person convicted in the US on AI-related economic espionage charges, after stealing thousands of pages of proprietary AI technology for China; and

A FOIA lawsuit extracts internal emails revealing how America's top intelligence office quietly wiped hundreds of its own public records from the internet.

Ways to support the podcast:
Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠
In October 1957, a young Ukrainian man walked into a Munich office building, passed a stranger on a stairwell, and killed him with a weapon that left no trace. Two years later, he did it again. Both deaths were recorded as heart attacks.On 13 August 1961, as the Berlin Wall was being erected, Bogdan Stashinsky walked into a West Berlin police station and confessed to both murders.This is the story of a KGB assassin recruited and trained to kill with a Soviet poison gun concealed in a rolled newspaper, and ultimately broken by the weight of what he had done. It is also the story of the two men he killed, Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in exile, hunted by Moscow across Western Europe throughout the 1950s.Stashinsky's trial in Karlsruhe in 1962 exposed the Soviet Union's use of state-sponsored assassination to the world. His memoirs, written before the trial and lost in an archive for sixty years, were published in 2024.His whereabouts today, should he still be alive, are unknown.
📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link):
📕 The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story by Serhii Plokhy - https://amzn.to/4cHLecS
📕 Erinnerungen eines KGB-Agenten: Kontexte des Mordes an Stepan Bandera und Lew Rebet by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe

Ways to support the podcast:
Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠
She walked 1,400 kilometres across Europe. Cycled through Nazi Germany as Hitler rose to power. And then, in the middle of the most elaborate deception operation in history, she made a decision that would cost her everything.Nathalie Sergueiew, known to everyone as Lily, was one of just five double agents entrusted with feeding Adolf Hitler's high command the lie that saved D-Day. The Germans trusted her completely. MI5 codenamed her Treasure. She had one condition. She wanted her dog.What followed threatened to unravel Operation Fortitude and erase Lily from the history books entirely. This is her story.📖 This video is based on Codename TREASURE: The Life of D-Day Spy, Lily Sergeiev by Peter Winnington, published by Pen & Sword Books. A superb read, highly recommended (affiliate links): 📖 Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3KBK5VR📖 Pen & Sword Books: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Codename-TREASURE-Hardback/p/23441/aid/1237Peter Winnington's website: https://gpeterwinnington.com/

Ways to support the podcast:
Buy Me a Coffee: ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bmc.link/philipthompson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Donate via PayPal: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paypal.me/PhilipT284⁠⁠⁠
Welcome to Dead Drop. In this week's dossier:
Russian spy fleet caught stalking the undersea cables that carry the West's internet and power;

Iran's wartime spy ring penetrates the Israeli Air Force — and its hackers hit American hospitals and water systems;

A Delta Force employee is arrested for leaking classified secrets to a journalist; and

Ukraine kills 12 FSB officers in a devastating drone strike in Donetsk .