ASSASSINS

This week, ASSASSINS presents "This Stupid War", a series from our friends at No One Saw It Coming.

In the 1970s, there was one man that Mossad just couldn't seem to cross off its kill list: Ali Hassan Salameh. 

So who was he and why was he so hard to catch? 

'Operation Wrath of God' was an assassination campaign across Europe and the Middle East that cemented Mossad's reputation as a formidable opponent.

The 1972 Munich Olympics were supposed to be the games that showed the world a new, open Germany.   

Instead, it became the backdrop for one of the most watched acts of terrorism in history.  

Nine days after a massacre at an Israeli airport, Mossad assassinates one of the Arab world's most celebrated writers in Beirut.

Ghassan Kanafani never carried a gun. But his words had power and influence, and he was a spokesperson for the group who carried out the bloody airport attack.

The first part in our special series about Israel and Palestine in the 1970s is about the life and death of writer Ghassan Kanafani.

• Host: Aslan Pahari
• Producer: Hannah Jose
• Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Emrys Cronin
• Video Producers: Tejas Bhat, Dylan Behan
• Special thanks: Michael Osmond for archives research
• Supervising Producer: Kyla Slaven
• Executive Producers: Joel Werner, Eric George, Jessica Radburn

To binge even more great episodes of ASSASSINS with Aslan Pahari go to the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more stories of the world's most shocking assassinations — from the lone wolf hitman to the professional assassin, you'll hear how famous figures like Abraham Lincoln, Benazir Bhutto, Ramses III, Tupac and Gandhi met their end.

UPDATE: On August 31st 2026, Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Prosecutors argued that Davis supplied the weapon, and ordered the shooting – but did not pull the trigger himself. Davis maintains his innocence and says he will appeal the conviction. 

Cabramatta was the epicentre of Australia's worst heroin epidemic. It was also the electorate of John Newman, the state MP gunned down outside his own home in 1994. 

This week we look beyond the assassination and into the epidemic itself, with Don Weatherburn, a professor at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW. 

John Newman, the Australian politician, was shot dead in his driveway while he was still in office.

The gunman has never been found.

Newman was the State MP for the south-western Sydney electorate of Cabramatta.

At the time of his death, the suburb was in the throes of a massive heroin epidemic.

• Host: Aslan Pahari
• Producer: Hannah Jose
• Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Emrys Cronin
• Video Producers: Tejas Bhat, Dylan Behan
• Special thanks: Michael Osmond for archives research
• Supervising Producer: Kyla Slaven
• Executive Producers: Joel Werner, Eric George, Jessica Radburn

To binge even more great episodes of ASSASSINS with Aslan Pahari go to the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more stories of the world's most shocking assassinations — from the lone wolf hitman to the professional assassin, you'll hear how famous figures like Abraham Lincoln, Benazir Bhutto, Ramses III, Tupac and Gandhi met their end.

When Anwar al-Awlaki joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, he knew he could be jailed or killed by the US government.

What he didn’t know was that his death would come at the hands of a person he trusted with his life. 

It was the first killing of an American citizen by his own government, without a trial, on foreign soil. 

And it was President Barack Obama who approved the order.