I Spied

After spending the last month looking at Australian terrorist incidents, it’s high time to look at where these people are coming from. What makes a terrorist, how does someone get radicalised and what can we do to stop it? And just what is a Secret Policeman’s Ball really like and why does David like dancing so much? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia has long been a refuge for the Irish but what about the IRA? This week we look at terrorism from the Emerald Isle, it’s influence from the early days of the colony and into the 21st century. And David reveals a dark family secret involving an uprising, a rebellion and a drunken horse & buggy ride along Parramatta Road. Sláinte! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

At 12.40am, 13 February 1978, Australia was thrown into the international spotlight when a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. This week we attempt to unpack that story - the causes, the controversies, the casualties and the repercussions. Probably the truly defining moment in Australian intelligence that saw counter terrorism become ASIO’s big target. Not to be missed. See omn...

In this bite-size ep. we look at the Five Eyes - the intelligence-sharing alliance between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ. What does it do, why was it set up and how do the member states feel about Five Eyes becoming Six? An interesting glimpse at a little-known feature of the  Western intelligence landscape, along with David’s terrible Churchill impersonation. A perfectly ludicro...

This week we look at the literal explosion of Yugoslav terrorism in Australia in the 60s & 70s. What did the terrorists want, how did they manage to stay active for so long and why was ASIO seemingly unable to stop them? And just why would the AG raid the ASIO offices? A fascinating piece of almost forgotten history that reshaped ASIO and put counter-terrorism firmly on the map. See omnystudio...

Following a spirited debate on the @ISpiedppodcast twitter feed re. Christine Holgate asking Senate Estimates for the records of her telephone conversations with ministers and the Auspost board, we decided to look at telephone intercepts. How does ASIO go about bugging your phone, what are the legal ramifications and who else is involved? This one definitely warrants a listen. See omnystudio.com/l...

This week a listener request takes us down the rabbit hole of terrorism in Australia, and does that hole go deep! In the first of a multi-episode series, we look at some of the stranger incidents, including the Battle of Broken Hill and the only ever reported attack by the Queensland Republican Army. Far from a new phenomenon, terrorism has been a feature of the security environment down under for...

In this bite size ep. we say farewell to one of American security’s craziest characters - George Gordon Battle Liddy. Former FBI agent, Watergate conspirator and all-round whack job, Liddy exemplified the paranoia and clandestine chicanery of the Nixon era. You woudn’t leave your pencils lying around if George was in the room. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, in the wake of the Channel 9 and Parliament House hacks, we are joined by Jason Brown, National Security Director for Thales and globally renowned cyber expert to look at just what is going on online. Who are the big players, what are the threats, and just how prepared is Australia to face the digital future? And why was the printer at ASIO given it’s own office? You’ll want...

For the second year ASIO DG Mike Burgess has addressed the public with his annual threat assessment. This week we have a look at what the speech contained - from changes to how ASIO describe extremists to the “nest of spies” ASIO recently uncovered - and what this all means to Australia. Not just the contents of the speech, but also the extraordinary new openness DG Burgess is promotin...

Our intelligence agencies have a lot of confidential material and in this bite-size episode, we look at how they determine just how they classify them and how they determine who can look at them. From your birth certificate to your online footprint, ASIO takes a good long look at you before sharing their secrets and after this ep. you’ll be even more mystified at how David ever cleared to th...

Back in the day, a claim that a Satanic Cult of sex-trafficking paedophilic cannibals working out of a pizza shop was running the world would immediately find itself relegated to the ASIO Crank file. And yet people are jumping on the QAnon bandwagon in droves. This week we take a long, penetrating look at QAnon: what does it mean, why do people believe it and what are the security implications? It...

This week we slip across the 38th parallel for a look at the most secretive totalitarian state on the planet - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Living on an almost permanent war footing, starving its citizens to build nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles and being ruled by a family that make what the Windsors did to Meghan look positively welcoming, the aptly named Hermit Kingdom is a...

In this bite-size episode we look at embassies, consulates and all that stuff around diplomats. What kind of immunity do they have? Is an embassy actually a sovereign part of the country that occupies it? And how did Julian Assange get to live in an Ecuadorian bathroom for so long? From defectors to diplomatic bags, this mini ep. tells you everything you never knew about diplomatic missions. See o...

With the release of the CIA report into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, David and Michelle take a deep dive into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its latest Crown Prince and likely prime suspect, Muhammad Bin Salman. What is the relationship between the US and the Sauds? What is its future with MSB in the mix? And just what was David and Michelle up to w...

In this week’s episode we look at women in the world of espionage and discover that far from the bubbly Bond girls we’re used to, women have shaped intelligence world and can be as badass as the best of them. Running resistance cells, rescuing downed pilots, skiing over mountains into enemy territory, nothing was too hard for these femme fatales. From Mata Hari to Avril Haines it becom...

This week is the story of Mordechai Vanunu, just an average guy who winds up caught in a web of international intrigue, honey traps, Mossad black ops, kidnapping and nuclear weapons. From Israel to Sydney to London to Rome and back to Israel, this is truly a gobsmacking spy expose which also sees David get accosted at the Civic bus interchange in Canberra. Not to be missed! See omnystudio.com/list...

Vladimir has a problem and that problem is Alexie Navalny - lawyer, activist and all-round pain in Putin’s posterior. This ep we have a look at Alexie and his 20 year fight against corruption in Russia. From poisonings to prison sentences, Putin can’t seem to be able to get rid of this problem, much like ASIO’s DDG when David started editing the in-house newsletter. A real David...

Welcome to 2021 and I Spied - the embarrassingly overweight insurrectionist of Australian intelligence. We feel we can’t start the year without talking about the ruckus in the US. David and Michelle look at how the storming of the Capitol happened, where US security failed, and David talks about how ASIO handled a similar crisis when protesters tried to storm the Canberra Central Office. I S...

If you feel like betraying your country, maybe you should listen to this first. From Kim Philby to the Petrovs and beyond, we take a glimpse at the life of a defector: how it’s done, what are the rewards and what are the downsides. Spying is hardly glamorous, and defecting is even less so. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While we often take a long laughing look at how spies are depicted in fiction, some of the true stories are seriously wired. In this bite-size I Spied we look at the CIA’s operations in Moscow during the Cold War and some of the stranger devices they came up with to foil the KGB. How about a dog skin created by the CIA wig department? Or how rats were used to send messages. Fact is often str...

A special episode of the stuff we couldn’t fit into the interview with friend of the podcast and all-round intelligence security guru Neil Fergus. We look at his experience as the Head of Security for the Olympic Games, the terrorist threats we didn’t hear about during the Sydney Games, and the most awkward phone call Neil had when the President of the Brazil Olympic Committee called t...

Osama Bin Laden. The most recognisable name in terrorism and a major case study for all things ASIO and security. On this week’s snack-sized episode of I Spied, we unpack how Bin Laden came about, 9/11 and how he outsmarted the American Security System. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Atomic Blonde. Does the hit movie accurately represent the intelligence industry and is everyone as badass as Charlize Theron? Welcome back to the snackable I Spied episodes to listen to over your Christmas break. Today on another bite-sized ep we analyse spy movies and investigate if the cookie-cutter plots are closely aligned to any possible truth of the real world spy industry. See omnystudio.c...

Would you believe that ASIO has a file on Santa? Welcome back to the snackable I Spied episodes to listen to over your Christmas break.  When you consider Santa’s criminal abilities, technology, obviously far-reaching surveillance capabilities, constant flouting of sovereign borders and his obviously socialist ideology of giving every child a present, why wouldn’t they? We look at...