Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

Chris and Matt open with two reports, from the Washington Post and Politico, that point to a more aggressive Pentagon intelligence posture: a planned deep-cover program with officers posing as businesspeople as part of economic warfare against China, and a quietly created Technology Support Office built to sabotage rivals’ military technology. The Pentagon calls the reporting “simply not true.” They weigh which model of non-official cover the Pentagon might borrow, JSOC’s or the CIA’s, and what oversight should look like. From there: MI5 Director General Ken McCallum’s annual threat update and social media’s role in radicalization; Israel’s inconclusive election, which left neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot within reach of a majority; Austria’s expulsion of four Russian diplomats from Vienna, long a hub for Russian intelligence in Europe; and a Defense Intelligence Agency report with the clearest image yet of China’s secretive spaceplane.

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Articles discussed in today’s episode
"Pentagon looks to build a deep-cover spy program to confront China" by Zach Dorfman & Warren P. Strobel | The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/10/21/pentagon-looks-build-deep-cover-spy-program-confront-china/

"The Pentagon is quietly building an elite new tech sabotage agency" by John Sakellariadis, Jack Detsch & Paul McLeary | Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/22/technology-support-office-dod-tech-spyware-sabotage-01100327

“Unpacking MI5’s Warning on a ‘New Era’ of Security Threats” by Farah Pandith | Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/articles/unpacking-mi5s-warning-on-a-new-era-of-security-threats

“Israel’s Election: When Will We Know Who Will Be Prime Minister?” by Ephrat Livni | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/world/middleeast/israel-election-guide-netanyahu-eisenkot.html

“Spies Suspected at Russian Embassy and OSCE Mission in Vienna. Austria Orders Four Diplomats to Leave” by Katherina Poplinichenko | United24 Media: https://united24media.com/world/spies-suspected-at-russian-embassy-and-osce-mission-in-vienna-austria-orders-four-diplomats-to-leave-23759

"U.S. Intel Confirms This Is China’s Secret Spaceplane" by Joseph Trevithick | The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/news-features/u-s-intel-confirms-this-is-chinas-secret-spaceplane

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Music by Andrew R. Bird

Photos by Eric Lee/NYT, Canva, Aaron Favila/Reuters

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

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Former U.S. Army counterintelligence special agent Pete Turner joins Chris for a conversation about what human intelligence actually looks like on the ground. Turner’s career ran from post–Cold War Germany and Bosnia through Egypt in the weeks after 9/11 to Iraq and Afghanistan, and he explains why the work turned less on stealing secrets than on access: winning over wary commanders, building rapport with sheikhs and district governors, and treating interpreters as partners rather than mouthpieces. Along the way he recounts a meeting he later learned the Taliban had called to look him over, and a colleague’s hunt for a district’s shadow governor that ended at the governor’s own door. Turner, host of the Break It Down Show, closes on what the job taught him about human nature.

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Find Pete on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeteATurner/streams

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/break-it-down-show/id941689175

https://open.spotify.com/show/1FcUXypxYsB2heFD3Q4gcm

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Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/

Music by Andrew R. Bird

Photo by U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Cody Quinn

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

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Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Joby Warrick covered national security for the Washington Post for nearly three decades. In his new book, The Jackal, he turns to Ilich Ramírez Sánchez—Carlos the Jackal—the Venezuelan who in the 1970s and '80s was the most famous terrorist in the world. Matt talks with Warrick about Carlos’s rise, from the audacious 1975 OPEC siege in Vienna to his years as a gun for hire in the Soviet bloc, and about the book’s sharpest argument: that Carlos was less a true believer than a narcissist in love with his own legend. They close on why his story matters now as the deniable, mercenary terror Carlos pioneered is back, in the contract attacks Russia and Iran are running across the West. Only this time, the hired hands have no wish to be famous.

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Order The Jackal: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jackal/Joby-Warrick/9781668070550

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Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/

Music by Andrew R. Bird

Photos by Jack Guez/AFP, AFP/Getty, Marvin Joseph/WaPo

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A quick programming note: this weekend’s episode will be out on Sunday, October 18, rather than our usual Saturday release. We’re taking an extra day in the edit on Matt’s conversation with national security reporter Joby Warrick about Carlos the Jackal, the Venezuelan-born militant who became one of the Cold War’s most wanted men. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you Sunday.

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Support Secrets and Spies

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Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/

Music by Andrew R. Bird

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris and Matt start at RAF Fairford, where the arrest of five men outside the US bomber base, their swift release on bail, and a widening inquiry into possible Iranian involvement were followed by the abrupt return of all twelve American B-1Bs to the United States. They turn to flydubai Flight 1072, where the co-pilot attacked his captain with the cockpit crash axe en route to Tel Aviv, and to the reported red flags that didn’t follow him from one airline to the next. In Germany, former BND president August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason, allegedly fed classified files by a serving insider. And ShinyHunters’ breach of the FBI’s jobs portal may have exposed the home addresses and assignments of Bureau personnel. They close with what the summer’s listener survey told them.

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Articles discussed in today’s episode

"Amateurism and organisation’: Iran’s potential role in RAF Fairford incident" by Charles Clover | Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/7a91fa6b-e908-4a28-b04f-02d5a10a6bb1

"No 10 insists RAF Fairford is safe after US withdraws its bombers from base" by Dan Sabbagh & Aletha Adu | The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/05/no-10-says-raf-fairford-safe-us-withdraws-bombers-from-base

"B-1B Bombers Make Hasty Departure From England" by Howard Altman | The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/air/b-1b-bombers-make-hasty-departure-from-england

"RAF Fairford suspects were ‘just thieves syphoning fuel’, sources" by Daniel Jae Webb | Wiltshire999s: https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/raf-fairford-thieves-syphoning-fuel/

"UK-Iranian dual national arrested over RAF Fairford released on bail" by Olivia Ireland | BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6d095ygggv1o

"What happened inside the Flydubai flight to Israel?" by Mitchell McCluskey & Tal Shalev | CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/30/middleeast/flydubai-israel-plane-pilot-hijacking-incident-latam-hnk-intl

"Flydubai co-pilot originally planned attack for July, investigators believe" by Jason Burke & Stephanie Kirchgaessner | The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/05/flydubai-co-pilot-originally-planned-attack-for-july-investigators-believe

"German court orders detention of former intelligence chief after spying arrest" by Kate Connolly | The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/07/germany-court-august-hanning-spying-arrest-detention-bnd

"What to Know About the Hacking Group ShinyHunters and Its F.B.I. Breach" by Chris Cameron | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/politics/shinyhunters-fbi-hacking-cybercriminal-group.html

"Embarrassing Breach at F.B.I. Fuels Fears of Harm to Its Employees" by Dustin Volz, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/us/politics/fbi-shinyhunters-damage.html

"What Should the U.S. Government Do in Response to the FBI Hack?" by Nikita Shah | CSIS: https://www.csis.org/analysis/what-should-us-government-do-response-fbi-hack

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Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/

Music by Andrew R. Bird

Photos by USAF/Senior Airman Colin Hollowell

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.