"Like many other well-known organisations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis." This was the striking public statement from Google's chief legal officer in January 2010. What began as a major security incident - a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure, originating from China" and resulting in the theft of intellectual property - quickly escalated into a much larger geopolitical crisis. This episode is the origin story of state-sponsore...
Oct 05, 2025•42 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Hezbollah thought they’d found the perfect solution to Israeli surveillance: the pager. In the midst of their paranoia, they negotiated a cut-price deal for thousands of new devices, but what they received was a trap. The mass explosions on September 17 2024, injured 3,000 people and killed dozens, including civilians and children. The victims - many of them part-time militia members or political operatives - were not just front-line fighters. Listen as David and Gordon tell the astonishing and ...
Sep 30, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 87
"The smartphone is a lethal collaborator. " This was the stark warning from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in February 2024. In the wake of intense conflict with Israel, the group made a fateful decision to abandon high-tech communications. They knew that their phones could be used by the Israelis to pinpoint their location. The solution? Go analog. Go back to pagers. This episode begins an explosive two-part series on a truly audacious operation conducted by Israel’s foreign intel...
Sep 28, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 86
*Declassified Club exclusive: SUBSCRIBE to listen to the full interview* What does it take to smuggle the West’s most valuable Russian agent out of the Soviet Union, under the noses of the KGB? How do you lose a KGB surveillance team on the road from Moscow, while hiding a defector in the boot of your car? And how did the MI6 team manage to sneak Gordievsky past the Russian sniffer dogs on the Finnish border? Listen as Raymond Asquith - the MI6 Officer who led Oleg Gordievsky’s dramatic escape f...
Sep 25, 2025•6 min
Oleg Gordievsky wants to leave Moscow, but how? How can a man under suspicion of being a traitor escape the watchful eye of the KGB? Do MI6 have a plan to rescue him? Or will the man who has leaked countless state secrets become the next victim of the USSR? Listen as David and Gordon finish their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his fateful showdown with the KGB. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at therestisclassified.com - go deeper into the world...
Sep 23, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Just as Oleg Gordievsky was moments away from being the KGB’s most senior man in Britain, he is recalled to Moscow. Has his spying been revealed? What can MI6 do? And will he return to his homeland knowing he may never leave again? Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his return to Moscow and the fateful decision it forces him to make. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at therestisclassified.com - go deeper into...
Sep 21, 2025•53 min•Season 1Ep. 84
It’s 1983 and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Operation Able Archer has ratcheted tensions right up, how is Oleg Gordievski going to prevent a nuclear apocalypse? Is this the greatest contribution of any spy to humanity? And what does it say about the enduring value of human intelligence? Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievski by looking at his role in defusing the sky-high tensions of the 1980s. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your fr...
Sep 16, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Oleg Gordievsky is now recruited as an agent for MI6 and he is providing intelligence of the highest order, but is there a chance he’ll be rumbled by the KGB? Who will keep him safe in London? And what does Oleg himself have to do to ensure his identity remains secret? Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his time in London, his crazy KGB colleagues, and the molehunt he conducts into the British security services. ------------------- Join The Declassi...
Sep 14, 2025•49 min•Season 1Ep. 82
How did Oleg Gordievsky get recruited to work for MI6? What effect did living in Copenhagen have on his political views? And how did Britain nearly blow the recruitment of one of the most consequential spies in history? Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at how he became a double-agent, changing the course of his life and the Cold War. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at therestisclassified.com - go deeper into ...
Sep 09, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 81
What makes a spy betray the very system that raised him? How does a loyal KGB officer, born into the service, become Britain’s most valuable Cold War agent? And how did one man’s intelligence reports help stop the world from sliding into nuclear confrontation? This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky — a man shaped by the terror of Stalin’s purges, the shadow of the Berlin Wall, and the crushing of the Prague Spring. He rose through the ranks of the KGB, but inside, he was already planning his great...
Sep 07, 2025•46 min•Season 1Ep. 80
In the final months of 1993, the hunt for Pablo Escobar reached a fever pitch. On the run and isolated, Escobar is under immense pressure from both the Colombian search bloc and the shadowy death squad, Los Pepes. But it is his family, now targeted and in danger, that becomes his ultimate weakness. With his wife and children desperately seeking asylum abroad, Escobar's deep-seated need to connect with them becomes his undoing. In this final episode of our series, Gordon and David recount the cli...
Sep 02, 2025•57 min•Season 1Ep. 79
After walking out of his luxurious prison, Pablo Escobar is back on the run. With the Colombian government humiliated, they turn to the United States for a new kind of help: a specialized, elite force. The answer comes in the form of a Delta Force team. Their mission is to train and advise the Colombian search bloc, but their ultimate goal is to find Pablo once and for all. In the penultimate episode of our series on Pablo Escobar, Gordon and David explore the full-scale manhunt that ensues once...
Aug 31, 2025•53 min•Season 1Ep. 78
By the autumn of 1989, the hunt for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel was intensifying. With the US military and intelligence agencies now directly involved, a new, more aggressive phase of the War on Drugs had begun. Join Gordon and David as they explore how Escobar, facing a relentless manhunt, leverages his position to strike an extraordinary deal with the Colombian state. Discover how he uses his “plata o plomo” (silver or lead) strategy - a mix of bribery, kidnapping, and murder - to be...
Aug 26, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 77
By the late 1980s, Pablo Escobar’s grip on the cocaine trade was unmatched. But a new threat loomed: extradition to the United States. To Escobar, it was a fate worse than death. His answer was brutal - declare open war on the Colombian state. In this episode, Gordon and David trace the rise of the so-called “Extraditables,” a loose alliance of cartel bosses who vowed to stop extradition at any cost. Through car bombs, political assassinations, and the murder of anyone who stood in their way, Es...
Aug 24, 2025•57 min•Season 1Ep. 76
In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he offered campaign donations and political loyalty. Listen as Gordon and David chart Escobar’s transformation from feared trafficker to aspiring statesman. He buys his way into Congress, rubbing shoulders with Colombia’s el...
Aug 19, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one of the richest men in history - and one of the deadliest. In this first episode of our Escobar series, Gordon Corera and David McCloskey explore Escobar’s early years: petty crime in Medellín, his first forays into smuggl...
Aug 17, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Who was the Nazi General who called the Allied Gunnerside mission “the most splendid coup I have seen?” How did the Norwegians stop the Nazis' nuclear program for good? And how did one commando use a large amount of laxatives to save his mother's life? Operation Gunnerside was a dangerous mission to destroy a Nazi heavy water plant in Norway. Led by Joachim Rønneberg, a team of commandos had to climb down, and then up, a 600-foot gorge to reach their target. They successfully planted explosives ...
Aug 12, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 73
What was the most dangerous mission of World War II? How did a small team of Norwegian skiers stop the Nazis from building a nuclear bomb? And, what exactly is heavy water, and why was it so important to the Nazis? Operation Gunnerside was a high-stakes, real-life mission to sabotage a Nazi nuclear program in Norway. Led by the young and fearless Joachim Rønneberg, a team of Norwegian commandos were tasked with a seemingly impossible mission.The Germans had increased heavy water production at th...
Aug 10, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 72
How did the Stuxnet cyberweapon, designed to be covert, break out into the wild? What were the world-changing implications of this sophisticated attack on Iran's nuclear centrifuges, and what happened when it was exposed? Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera reach the finale of their series on the Stuxnet cyberweapon, discussing its discovery by cybersecurity researchers and the subsequent shift in tactics against Iran's nuclear ambitions. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassifie...
Aug 05, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 71
What was the "horse blanket" and how did it guide Obama's decisions on cyber warfare? How did the Stuxnet virus evolve to target Iran's centrifuges more aggressively? And what were the risks and ethical dilemmas involved in unleashing such a powerful and precise cyber weapon? Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera delve into the Obama administration's acceleration of the Olympic Games program, the sophisticated targeting mechanisms of the Stuxnet virus, and the increasing pressure on Iran's...
Aug 03, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 70
How did Israel and the US develop this new type of weapon which they would unleash upon Iran? Who will they rely on to get it into the system? And how will they try to sabotage Iran in silence? Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera discuss Israel’s development of a cyber weapon that could damage the Iranian nuclear program without anyone even knowing it was there. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to www.therestisclassified.com . To sign up to the free newslette...
Jul 29, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 69
When did Israel first attack Iran’s nuclear program? How did they do it? And how did Iran develop its nuclear program that has shaped so much of the politics of the Middle-East over the past 20 years? Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera discuss Israel’s first attempt to slow down Iran’s development of a nuclear bomb. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to www.therestisclassified.com . To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tri...
Jul 27, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 68
How do you switch sides and become a spy for the KGB? When the FBI is tracking you, how do you escape the country? And what is life like for a traitor on the other side of the Iron Curtain? Join David McCloskey and Gordon Corera as they discuss the life of Edward Lee Howard, his defection, and whether recent events mean there may soon be more like him. ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, via this link. Order a signe...
Jul 22, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 67
How did an alcoholic, drug-addicted hippie end up working for the CIA? How are CIA agents trained? And what is the real purpose of a lie detector test? Join David McCloskey and Gordon Corera as they discuss the life of Edward Lee Howard, the only CIA officer ever to defect to Moscow. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to www.therestisclassified.com . To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up ---------...
Jul 20, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 66
What was it truly like inside MI5 and the heart of government as the 7/7 attacks unfolded? How did 7/7 expose a shocking blind spot for Britain's spy agency? And what lessons are still being applied two decades later to prevent future attacks? Listen as David and Gordon sit down with former Head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, to discuss her role in investigating the 7/7 bombings and how the attacks have stayed with her to this day. The full episode is available to members of the declassified c...
Jul 17, 2025•10 min
Two weeks after 52 people were murdered on London’s transport network, terrorists tried to strike again. How did the UK's domestic security services leverage bulk phone record collection to track down the fleeing bombers? And what was the significance of a gym membership card and abandoned bags in identifying the suspects? In the final episode of our series, we explore the intense investigation following the foiled 21/7 attacks. From forensic clues and CCTV footage to the dramatic arrests across...
Jul 15, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 65
He left a video for his daughter before he vanished to Pakistan. A quiet farewell, wrapped in the language of faith and finality. What no one knew was that in the mountains near the Afghan border, he would meet the man who would change everything. In the penultimate episode of our series on the 7/7 Bombings, Gordon and David uncover how two young British men - Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - crossed a hidden threshold. From idealistic jihadist sympathisers to suicide bombers in waiti...
Jul 13, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Fifteen months before the London bombings, MI5 had seen them. They had names, photographs, and addresses. Two of the men who would carry out the 7/7 attacks had already appeared in surveillance. And then… they vanished back into the noise. In this second episode of our 7/7 series, 20 years on from the attacks, David and Gordon unravel one of the most haunting questions of the entire investigation: could the 7/7 bombings have been stopped? Through forgotten files, garbled intelligence, and missed...
Jul 08, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 63
London woke up to joy and celebration on 7 July 2005. The city had just won the 2012 Olympics. It was a glorious summer. There were parties in the streets. But, by 9am, everything had changed. Three explosions tore through the London Underground. Minutes later, a double-decker bus was ripped apart in Tavistock Square. Confusion reigned. Was it a power surge? A freak accident? Or something worse? In this opening episode of our new series on the 7/7 Bombings, David and Gordon return to the morning...
Jul 06, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 62
For years, the term UFO conjured images of tin foil hats and elaborate cover-ups. But with recent official reports from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing hundreds of UAP sightings, including objects that remain stationary in high winds or manoeuvre in strange ways, the conversation has fundamentally changed. What accounts for this new era of openness, and what are these "true anomalies" that continue to baffle experts? From sophisticated Chinese spy balloons caught fl...
Jul 01, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 61
