With President Biden ordering the FBI to finally release its findings into the logistics behind 9/11, this week we finish up our retrospective by addressing the camel in the room: Saudi Arabia. With 15 of the 19 hijackers being Saudi citizens, the mastermind behind the attack being a member of one of the Kingdom’s most successful business families and accusations of Saudi government involvement, 9/11 highlighted the incomprehensibly inconsistent relationship between Washington and Riyadh. We examine how a disparate collection of nomadic tribes became a lynch pin of US foreign policy and how, like the ultimate marriage of inconvenience, it seems the US and the Sauds are only staying together for the kids (ie. the guns and the oil).

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In this bite size episode, we’d like to thank all of our listeners for sticking with us for the last year. To be honest, David is surprised Michelle hasn’t quit while Michelle is equally as surprised that David’s hasn’t been bagged and shipped off to a black site. We also look at some of our more interesting Twitter followers and explore a spy’s options once they leave the service (other than podcasting). So raise a glass while you’re listening and enjoy the fact that you’re probably now on a watch list. Cheers!

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This week we look at how intelligence services around the world changed in the aftermath of 9/11. From Canada politely deciding not to spy on foreign powers, to France’s uncompromising attitude to terrorism, to Australia’s increasing police & intelligence powers, we look at how the West armed itself for the War on Terror.

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Twenty years ago 19 men hijacked four airliners and changed the world. While we remember the victims and count the costs of an operation that redefined terrorism, we look at how the US found itself so open to the brutal attacks that took place on 9/11. The US has the largest, most sophisticated and best funded intelligence community in the world, but it seems bigger isn’t necessarily better, and we look at how the CIA and FBI missed the clues to the moment that defined the first two decades of the 21st century.

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In three short months Afghanistan went from a US quagmire to a Taliban powder keg. Three short months… and twenty years. So we thought it was time to look at the tough and ancient land that has claimed yet another empirical scalp, and also the people now running it. Why is Afghanistan so intractable, how did it unravel so quickly and what happens next? To talk all things Taliban, terror and the world’s worst turf war, we’re joined by intelligence maven and Olympic hall monitor Neil Fergus from his quarantine in Brisbekistan. Strap in! This flight is strictly standing room only.

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This week we look at how a single mum from New Zealand became one of ASIO’s greatest intelligence assets and helped take down the #1 KGB resident at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra. An episode that is full of classic, old school tradecraft: dead drops, invisible ink, secret radio transmitters and… a honey trap! And just what wort of relics can be found in the ASIO museum? Settle in for one of the great tales from ASIO history.

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Not everyone likes abstract expressionism, but the CIA loved it. So much so that they literally weaponised it during the Cold War in the battle space of “winning hearts and minds”. Just how did the likes of Jackson Pollock help defeat Soviet communism, how much does the CIA have to do with arts and entertainment these days, and what exactly did the CIA think of the Bourne movies? Art imitates life, imitating art in this week's episode (and David reveals the very best spot in the National Gallery for a romantic tryst).

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We talk a lot about ASIO and everything it does, but what about the other Australian intelligence organisations? Who are they, what do they do and how do they shape up in the modern security environment? And just how well do they all get on with each other? Watch as we use almost every letter in the alphabet in our most acronym-heavy episode yet.

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The intelligence world was rocked by the news that a small Israeli company had been selling one of the most insidious pieces of surveillance software ever devised. Pegasus has been used by authoritarian governments to spy with impunity against friend and foe alike and most alarmingly, it is virtually impossible to stop. This week we look at the intelligence and privacy implications of a system that allows the user to virtually clone any phone on the planet. Should we be worried? Has Australia got its hands on it? And is there any way to prevent exposure? Check your firewalls after downloading this ep!

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