Mossad / Spy life · History
Syria Kept Eli Cohen’s Last Will for 60 Years
The 2025 recovery brought back the operative’s false papers, apartment keys and original death sentence.
SPY REGISTER / THE ARCHIVE
The Archive
Operations, double lives, stolen secrets and the people behind them.
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A Chicago student bought dossiers for China’s spies. Then he joined the Army.
A Chicago student’s people-search purchases led to an agent conviction, an Army false-statement finding and a presidential commutation.
The MSS officer America convicted—and then sent home
Xu Yanjun’s aviation espionage case ended with a twenty-year sentence. A conditional commutation and prisoner swap changed what happened next.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Hezbollah Paid for the Bombs in Its Pockets
Mossad’s pager operation turned a communications purchase into a mass attack. Hezbollah was still handing out devices hours before they exploded, Reuters reported.
The FBI Hired China’s Spy to Keep Him Under Watch
Alexander Ma’s case ran from a $50,000 meeting in Hong Kong to an FBI payroll, a fake Chinese handler and a lifetime obligation to talk.
CIA / Spy life · History
The CIA Really Did Put Cameras on Pigeons
The agency’s own account describes Cold War reconnaissance birds fitted with tiny cameras. Being ordinary was their cover.
GCHQ / Cyber & technology · History
Britain Built Colossus to Read Hitler’s Messages. Then It Smashed Eight Machines.
The electronic breakthrough at Bletchley Park outlived the war inside GCHQ—and remained hidden from the people writing computing history.
Reuters sources: RAW and ISI met in Dubai before the Kashmir ceasefire
Senior Indian and Pakistani intelligence officers used a UAE backchannel in January 2021, Reuters reported. Weeks later the militaries restored a border truce; neither government acknowledged the spy meeting.
CIA / Power & scandal · History
Israel’s American Spy Came Home to a Prime Minister’s Welcome
Jonathan Pollard’s airport reception supplied the public ending to an espionage case whose intelligence damage remains partly classified.
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Crypto AG’s customers bought secrecy from a company owned by the CIA and BND
A Swiss parliamentary investigation traced intelligence knowledge to 1993 and political leaders’ notification to late 2019.
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FBI / Spy life · History
Dickson Yeo’s fake consultancy attracted cleared Americans for Chinese intelligence recruitment
A Singaporean agent used job advertisements and paid reports to cultivate sources, then faced prison and security detention.
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BND / Spy games · History
The BND hired an author to attack its KGB mole. Bonn stopped the book.
Heinz Felfe’s exposure produced a second intelligence struggle over memoirs, reputations and the public record.
Shin Bet / Power & scandal · History
Iran Turned Israel’s Former Energy Minister Into a Spy
Gonen Segev had sat in Israel’s cabinet. Years later, Shin Bet said he was introducing Iranian handlers to Israelis as ordinary businessmen. He admitted espionage and received an 11-year sentence.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Tourists booked a Red Sea holiday at Mossad's secret evacuation base
The Arous diving resort hid a clandestine route out of Sudan. Ethiopian activists and Israeli operatives kept it working while real guests checked in.
GRU / Power & scandal · History
UK inquiry says GRU’s discarded Novichok bottle killed Dawn Sturgess
A statutory inquiry traced the poison from a state-authorised assassination attempt to a counterfeit perfume bottle found months later. Russia denies any role, and three charged suspects remain wanted.
MI6 / Spy life · History
The KGB archive that escaped Moscow—and opened in Cambridge
Mitrokhin’s papers gave researchers a remarkable intelligence collection. Its custodians draw a sharp distinction between open typescripts and classified originals.
CIA / Cyber & technology · History
The CIA’s Oldest Secrets Included Aspirin and Water
A First World War ink formula stayed classified until 2011. It was among six documents the government finally opened after nearly a century.
Harold Nicholson sent his son to collect Russian money from prison
A former CIA officer admitted directing overseas meetings with Russian agents while serving a sentence for espionage. The second scheme added eight years.
The SVR built American lives for years. The FBI broke the sleeper ring in one day.
Operation Ghost Stories watched deep-cover agents marry, buy homes, raise children and cultivate future sources. Eleven days after ten arrests, guilty pleas became a spy swap.
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FSB / Power & scandal · History
The poisoned teapot London traced to the FSB—and probably Putin
A radioactive trail led investigators from a Mayfair hotel to two Russian visitors, an earlier failed attempt and an operation the UK inquiry said was probably approved at the top.
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Mossad / Spy life · History
Israel’s Nuclear Whistleblower Wrote His Kidnapping on His Hand
Mordechai Vanunu exposed Dimona, disappeared into Israeli custody and found a way to tell reporters where he said the operation had taken him.
FBI / Power & scandal · History
The FBI’s mole kept searching for himself. The warning went unread.
Robert Hanssen’s case exposed failures in file controls, background checks and computer auditing that the bureau’s own watchdog documented in detail.
FBI / Spy games · History
Ana Montes carried America’s secrets home in her memory
The DIA’s Cuba specialist was already recruited by Havana when she joined the agency. Her arrest came as investigators worried about access to war plans.
FBI / Spy games · History
Brian Regan buried stolen intelligence and hid the map in a toothbrush holder
The former Air Force intelligence officer amassed a buried collection of classified material before the FBI stopped him from boarding a flight to Switzerland.