True Life Spy Stories

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On 6 October 2026, German police arrested August Hanning, the former head of the BND, Germany's foreign intelligence service. It's the equivalent of a former director of the CIA or chief of MI6 being arrested on suspicion of treason.
Prosecutors allege that for 12 years his former chief of staff, Manfred Dankesreiter, supplied him with around 2,000 secret BND documents in return for payment. Hanning allegedly used them in his private security consultancy, and some of the material may have reached foreign intelligence services. Both men deny the core allegations, and neither has been indicted.
The case only came to light by accident, through a police investigation into the kidnapping of two children from Denmark by a German steakhouse heiress.
This is what we know so far.

Pick up your copy of Operation Sparrow at ⁠https://link.amazon/B02NMVdls⁠ (affiliate link)
Learn more: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/operation-sparrow-jason-bell?variant=45398167388194
Author's website:Jason's website: https://jasonbell.org/
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In this episode I sit down with author and professor Jason Bell to discuss the incredible story of the Sparrows, a World War 2 spy story that has been hidden from history, until now. Jason's new book Operation Sparrow: The Incredible True Story of the Spies Who Tricked Hitler and Won the War, is out now!

Originally aired 1 July 2026 as an audio-only episode. Now fully edited as a video documentary.
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On 6 September 1976, Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected to the West in a MiG-25 interceptor, landing at a civilian airport in Japan and handing American intelligence the most secret aircraft in the Soviet arsenal.
The MiG-25 was studied for 67 days before being returned to the Soviet Union in pieces. What the West found overturned a decade of assumptions about Soviet air power.
This is the story of how Belenko did it, what the analysis revealed, and what became of the man who pulled it off.
📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate link):
📕 ⁠MiG Pilot by John Barron

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Welcome to this week's Intel Dossier:
A Swindon man is denied bail over an alleged plot to sabotage UK drone factories for Russia;
Two more Britons are arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran;
Russian submarine crews rehearse cutting NATO's Arctic internet cables; and
A Sydney consultant is jailed for feeding gossip to Chinese intelligence.

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A single Facebook post from an exiled ex-Soviet intelligence chief claimed Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 under the codename "Krasnov." This episode traces the claim from its source through the fact-checks, the older "cultivated asset" theory from Craig Unger's American Kompromat, and the documented record of Trump's 1987 Moscow trip, weighing what's evidence and what's speculation.
📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate links):
📕 American Kompromat: how the KGB cultivated Donald Trump and related tales of sex, greed, power, and treachery by Craig Unger
Full source list for every claim in this episode: https://pastebin.com/1FMkhBrG