Today’s theme: Espionage

In time for Mission: Impossible – Fallout release earlier in the week, we look into spies and espionage. Espionage or spying, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information without the permission of the holder of the information. Spies help agencies uncover secret information. Like many others, the field is facing more and more privatization and nowadays intelligence gathering is not only done by secret agents for governments but also by private detectives in many countries. We look into the history as well as morality issues associated with espionage with different experts from around the world.

The Conversationalist

with

Troy Whitford

government-licensed investigator in Australia

lecturer in Intelligence and Security Studies at Charles Sturt University

You wrote that gathering political intelligence has been a significant part of the repertoire of government based intelligence agencies and law enforcement personnel, but in the 21st century, there has been an increase of interest from the private sector wanting to access to political intelligence. Why is this?

What’s your thought on the increased scrutiny and criticism towards government intelligence agencies and their wrongdoings, ranging from privacy invasion to political interference in many countries? Do you think private investigation can be an answer to this problem?

&

Tim Lister

Terrorism analyst with CNN and Co-Author of a nonfiction book/autobiography of Mortern Storm, a.k.a Agent Storm, who is an Islamist-turned double agent from Denmark.

How common is it for intelligence agencies to recruit double-agents like him, or have source inside terrorist organizations?

Much of the recent terrorism activities seem to be focused on soft target terrors against civilians. For example, ISIS is claiming responsibility for many recent soft-target terrors in Europe. What do you think is the reason behind this?

Media Monster

Next week: Economic trade war