The CIA could buy the guns. Pakistan controlled how fast they reached Afghanistan.
Declassified 1980 memoranda reveal the aircraft, intermediaries and bargaining behind an expanding covert arms pipeline.
SPY REGISTER / INTERNATIONAL
World
Follow intelligence across borders.
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.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Israel stripped seats from a jet to fly thousands out before Addis Ababa fell
Operation Solomon moved more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in 36 hours. The frantic airlift rested on secret preparations, diplomacy and a network already helping families survive.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Mossad's Nairobi station turned a family home into Entebbe's secret command post
Israel's 1976 hostage rescue was planned under a deadline and with limited information. Nairobi's role emerges in later reporting.
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.
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.
CIA / Spy games · History
The CIA Raided a Soviet Ice Station and Hooked Its Men Out of the Arctic
Operation COLDFEET recovered 150 pounds of documents, film and equipment. Getting the collectors home required a balloon, a line and a passing B-17.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Mossad’s Eichmann capture opened a courtroom to the world
The 1960 operation in Argentina led to a diplomatic clash and a Jerusalem trial that put deportation records and survivor testimony before a global audience.
ASIS / Power & scandal · History
Five armed men, a sledgehammer and the spy raid that cost ASIS its guns
An ASIS training exercise burst into Melbourne’s Sheraton in 1983. The fallout stripped Australia’s foreign intelligence service of covert-operation powers and weapons.
Member article
CIA / Power & scandal · History
The CIA Drugged Americans. Then It Destroyed the Files.
MKULTRA’s surviving paperwork exposes a vast research network, unwitting subjects and a chemist worried about what his testimony might cost him.
Member article
ASIO / Spy games · History
Kay Marshall took Moscow’s spy gadget to a rendezvous that never happened
Kay Marshall’s controlled recruitment exposed covert communications and forced Ivan Skripov out of Australia.
Austria / Russia / Spy games
Austria orders four Russian diplomats out in spying dispute
Three embassy staff and an OSCE delegate must leave; Moscow has threatened retaliation.
Member article
Mossad / Spy games · History
Mossad’s Poison Plot Ended With Israel Handing Over the Antidote
The failed attempt to kill Khaled Meshaal in Amman put Israeli agents in custody, enraged Jordan’s king and brought Canada into the crisis.
GRU / Spy life · History
Moscow’s Cipher Clerk Brought His Secrets to a Newspaper. The Paper Sent Him Away.
Igor Gouzenko’s 1945 defection exposed a Soviet network in Canada. His first problem was persuading anyone to listen.
Taiwan / China / Spy games
Taiwan spy chief probes gang networks after attack on Xi satirist
Investigators are examining whether Chinese Communist Party direction and funding sit behind local intermediaries.
China / International / Cyber & technology
China-linked hackers used ConnectWise as a cloud back door, Microsoft says
An AI-assisted campaign reused trusted application permissions to reach Microsoft 365 customers.
Taiwan / China / Cyber & technology
Taiwan warns of China’s election meddling as disputed information surges 48%
A new intelligence report alleges Chinese influence operations and warns that rising network threats may include election reconnaissance.
Opinion · The Editorial
CIA / Spy games
The CIA’s Best Bet in Cuba Is a Deal With the Regime
Ratcliffe has already gone to Havana. The strongest reading of Washington’s pressure campaign points toward bargaining with the men who can deliver change from within.
NSA / Spy games · History
The Pentagon’s Plan to Frame Cuba for Terror in America
The Joint Chiefs approved proposals for manufactured attacks, a wrecked American ship and a fake airliner incident to build support for an invasion.
CIA / Cyber & technology · History
The White House Retired the CIA’s 2,200-MPH Spy Plane After One Campaign
OXCART delivered nearly a mile of film on its first operational flight. Satellites and the Air Force’s Blackbird narrowed its future.
AMAN / Unit 8200 / Power & scandal · History
Kissinger’s Warning About Israel’s False-Flag Bombers
Twenty-one years after the Egyptian bomb plot, America’s secretary of state brought it up in the Oval Office as a reason to distrust a new arrangement.
AMAN / Unit 8200 / Power & scandal · History
Israel’s Spies Saw the Armies Moving. Their Report Still Said War Was Unlikely.
AMAN’s October 5, 1973 assessment described emergency deployments and Soviet evacuations, then assigned a low probability to an Egyptian attack. The invasion began the following afternoon.
AMAN / Unit 8200 / Spy games · History
The Radio Chatter That Exposed Moscow’s Secret Air War
Russian voices betrayed the Soviet pilots flying from Egypt. Israeli intelligence then helped prepare a fighter ambush over the Suez front.
GRU / Cyber & technology
Russian-linked hackers tunneled into NATO shipbuilder’s network, Symantec says
A defence-sector campaign reached three organisations in two NATO countries; investigators have yet to establish whether sensitive information was stolen.
BND / Power & scandal
Allied spy services review their secrets after Hanning’s arrest
The former BND chief denies wrongdoing as Germany investigates an alleged paid pipeline of classified documents.
Europe / Spy games · History
Five embargoed gunboats slipped out of France on Christmas morning
A fictitious oil-service deal, hidden naval crews and refueling ships helped Israel take its paid-for boats out of Cherbourg in December 1969.
CIA / Cyber & technology · History
France’s KGB mole handed Washington Moscow’s technology shopping list
The Farewell source exposed a collection network—and gave the Americans a route into its requirements.
Switzerland / Israel / France / Cyber & technology · History
Israel Bought Engine Secrets From the Man Sent to Burn Them
A Swiss engineer substituted fake bundles for Mirage engine documents headed to an incinerator. A 1971 judgment laid out the trade.
Mossad Hunted a Missing Boy Across Three Continents
A child hidden under false identities became a mission for the spy chief who had captured Eichmann.
Germany / Russia / Spy games
Ukrainian Accused of Hunting NATO Weapons Secrets for Russia
German prosecutors say the suspect approached arms-industry insiders. A judge has ordered him held.
BND / Spy games
Germany puts sabotage threat at second-highest level after explosive drone discovery
The Bundeswehr raised its Russian-sabotage assessment after an explosive-laden drone was found near Wunstorf Air Base. Moscow denies responsibility for attacks in Europe.
BND / Power & scandal
Allied spy services review their secrets after Hanning’s arrest
The former BND chief denies wrongdoing as Germany investigates an alleged paid pipeline of classified documents.
Opinion · The Editorial
CIA / Spy games · History
United Fruit Lost Its Land. Guatemala Lost Its President.
The banana company’s property dispute became entangled with Washington’s Cold War crusade. The CIA’s own record shows how far the intervention went.
China / International / Cyber & technology
China-linked hackers used ConnectWise as a cloud back door, Microsoft says
An AI-assisted campaign reused trusted application permissions to reach Microsoft 365 customers.
International / Power & scandal
Five years for North Korean missile deal that collapsed over price, DOJ says
A Bosnian arms broker received a 60-month sentence after pleading guilty over an attempted purchase of portable anti-aircraft missiles from North Korea.
FBI seizes China-linked tools used to probe airports and power networks, U.S. says
The court-authorized action disabled Microscan and FishHub and seized seven domains; China rejected the hacking accusations as politically motivated.
Mossad / Spy games
Netanyahu Gives Mossad Its Mission: Bring Down Iran’s Regime
At an officers’ graduation ceremony, Israel’s prime minister said he had directed Mossad and the military to topple Tehran’s rulers.
United Kingdom / Iran / Power & scandal
Police rearrest two men in Fairford Iran spy inquiry
Police invoke the National Security Act in the inquiry into activity near the airbase. Earlier searches recovered petrol and found no improvised explosive device. Iran denies involvement.
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.
MI5 / Spy games · History
A Tailor’s Ticket Unmasked Germany’s Spy in Britain
Carl Hans Lody travelled with an American passport. British censors read his messages, and a label in his jacket exposed his real identity.
Opinion · The Editorial
Epstein: Israel’s Useful Monster
Epstein’s money, apartments and foreign contacts were useful to Israel’s security establishment. The Mossad theory starts with what he actually did.
Mossad / Spy games
Netanyahu Gives Mossad Its Mission: Bring Down Iran’s Regime
At an officers’ graduation ceremony, Israel’s prime minister said he had directed Mossad and the military to topple Tehran’s rulers.
Mossad / Power & scandal
Mossad chief thanked Qatar as Israel privately pressed Gaza aid to continue
Documents reported by TIME and The Times of Israel trace years of Israeli support for Qatari assistance, including a 2020 letter from Yossi Cohen and later appeals from other security officials.
Member article
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.
NSA / Spy games · History
A Fake Water Shortage Helped Nimitz Set Japan’s Midway Trap
American codebreakers planted a lie where Japanese intelligence could find it.
NSA / Spy life · History
Six Messages Gave Genevieve Grotjan a Way Into Japan’s Secret Code
Her discovery opened PURPLE. Her next breakthrough helped unlock KGB traffic.
NSA / Power & scandal · History
Herbert Yardley Turned America’s Codebreaking Secrets Into a Bestseller
Washington closed his bureau. Its former chief put the operation into print.
Member article
Mossad / Spy games · History
Mossad’s Poison Plot Ended With Israel Handing Over the Antidote
The failed attempt to kill Khaled Meshaal in Amman put Israeli agents in custody, enraged Jordan’s king and brought Canada into the crisis.
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.
GCHQ / Cyber & technology · History
Germany Offered Mexico Three American States. British Codebreakers Read the Offer.
The Zimmermann Telegram became a diplomatic weapon in 1917. London first had to hide how it had acquired it.
CIA / Spy games
Iran’s Plots to Kill Americans Have Reached ‘Advanced Stages,’ Spy Chief Warns
A warning to Rubio emerges as Washington cuts embassy staffing across the Middle East.
Mossad / Spy games · History
Mossad recruited an Iraqi pilot—and landed his Soviet fighter in Israel
Munir Redfa's 1966 defection delivered a working MiG-21 to Israel. The United States borrowed it for secret tests at Area 51 two years later.
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.
CIA / Spy life · History
Josephine Baker Took State Secrets on Tour in Her Sheet Music
The star’s fame opened borders and embassy doors. French intelligence used the access—and the musical scores in her luggage.
North Korea Seized an American Spy Ship With Its Secrets Still Aboard
The Pueblo’s crew tried to destroy the cryptographic equipment. The ship’s design made that desperate job harder.
Mossad / Power & scandal · History
Mossad killed the wrong man in Lillehammer. The arrests exposed a European trail.
Norway’s inquiry traced the murder, the criminal convictions and the diplomatic limits of the investigation.
The CIA could buy the guns. Pakistan controlled how fast they reached Afghanistan.
Declassified 1980 memoranda reveal the aircraft, intermediaries and bargaining behind an expanding covert arms pipeline.
Opinion · The Editorial
AMAN / Unit 8200 / Cyber & technology
Unit 8200 Put a Population’s Phone Calls in the Cloud
Israel’s intelligence unit gained the storage to keep intercepted calls on a vast scale. Microsoft’s partial cutoff exposed the commercial machinery behind the surveillance.
Shin Bet / Spy games · History
A Bomb Hidden in a Phone Ended the Hunt for Hamas’s Engineer
Yahya Ayyash had eluded Israeli forces for months. In January 1996, a call said to be from his father reached him through a booby-trapped mobile.
GCHQ / Spy life · History
Britain’s Enigma Expert Threw a Tantrum When Poland Showed Him the Answer
The July 1939 meeting outside Warsaw exposed how far Polish codebreakers had advanced—and helped turn Britain toward the methods Enigma required.
CIA / Spy life · History
Josephine Baker Took State Secrets on Tour in Her Sheet Music
The star’s fame opened borders and embassy doors. French intelligence used the access—and the musical scores in her luggage.
Mossad / Power & scandal
Mossad chief thanked Qatar as Israel privately pressed Gaza aid to continue
Documents reported by TIME and The Times of Israel trace years of Israeli support for Qatari assistance, including a 2020 letter from Yossi Cohen and later appeals from other security officials.
FSB / Spy games
He Went to Meet a Woman. Russia Gave Him 15 Years.
An online romance took David Adrian Kercso to the Black Sea. Detention records exposed a problem with the FSB’s arrest film: he was already a prisoner.
Shin Bet / Spy life · History
The Future Shin Bet Chief Entered Israel on a False Passport
Amos Manor survived Auschwitz, left Romania under an assumed name and joined Israel’s security service within weeks. Four years later, he was running it.
Austria / Russia / Spy games
Austria orders four Russian diplomats out in spying dispute
Three embassy staff and an OSCE delegate must leave; Moscow has threatened retaliation.
Germany / Russia / Spy games
Ukrainian Accused of Hunting NATO Weapons Secrets for Russia
German prosecutors say the suspect approached arms-industry insiders. A judge has ordered him held.
FSB / Spy games
He Went to Meet a Woman. Russia Gave Him 15 Years.
An online romance took David Adrian Kercso to the Black Sea. Detention records exposed a problem with the FSB’s arrest film: he was already a prisoner.
FBI / Cyber & technology
OpenAI’s Hidden Microphone May Become an Espionage Case
The FBI is examining a possible economic-espionage charge against the former engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room, the Wall Street Journal reports.
United States / Saudi Arabia / Spy life
Judge keeps former OpenAI engineer jailed over alleged Saudi flight risk
A federal judge denied home confinement for Abdulrahman Alfozan. Prosecutors allege he was days from leaving for Saudi Arabia; his lawyer says the family trip was planned for paternity leave.
FBI / Spy games
OpenAI’s Spy Scandal Has a Face
An engineer accused of planting a recorder in OpenAI’s executive conference room was filmed looking behind the TV. Prosecutors identify him as Abdulrahman Alfozan, charged with intercepting communications.
Serbia / Cyber & technology
Pegasus reached Belgrade rector’s iPhone, Citizen Lab finds
Forensic researchers identified a zero-click infection of Vladan Đokić’s phone as a second investigation examines spyware warnings sent to a former prosecutor.
Member article
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.
Australia / Singapore / Spy games · History
Six Men Paddled Into Singapore Harbour. Seven Ships Paid the Price.
A captured fishing boat carried Allied raiders through Japanese-held waters in 1943. Its disguise survived an encounter with a destroyer at barely 100 yards.
The Codebreaker Who Turned Rum-Runners’ Radio Chatter Into 650 Prosecutions
Elizebeth Friedman read the smugglers’ secrets, trained their pursuers and later helped expose Nazi agents across South America.
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
Deal bars ex-CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry from South Korean spy-service contacts
The foreign-agent prosecution could end after a year. The agreement records gifts and meetings without an admission of wrongdoing.
Member article
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.
CIA / Cyber & technology · History
France’s KGB mole handed Washington Moscow’s technology shopping list
The Farewell source exposed a collection network—and gave the Americans a route into its requirements.
CIA / Spy games · History
The CIA’s sunken-submarine gamble—and the burglary that exposed it
Project AZORIAN put a giant claw on the Pacific seabed. Mechanical failure and a stolen document left the CIA’s recovery mission unfinished.
MI5 / Spy life · History
Mata Hari Demanded a Million Francs to Spy for France
French intelligence offered a mission to a woman already watched by Britain. The surviving account describes an extravagant price and an ineffective amateur.
Member article
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.
Switzerland / Israel / France / Cyber & technology · History
Israel Bought Engine Secrets From the Man Sent to Burn Them
A Swiss engineer substituted fake bundles for Mirage engine documents headed to an incinerator. A 1971 judgment laid out the trade.
Mossad Hunted a Missing Boy Across Three Continents
A child hidden under false identities became a mission for the spy chief who had captured Eichmann.
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.
AMAN / Unit 8200 / Power & scandal · History
Israel’s Spies Saw the Armies Moving. Their Report Still Said War Was Unlikely.
AMAN’s October 5, 1973 assessment described emergency deployments and Soviet evacuations, then assigned a low probability to an Egyptian attack. The invasion began the following afternoon.
Taiwan / China / Spy games
Taiwan spy chief probes gang networks after attack on Xi satirist
Investigators are examining whether Chinese Communist Party direction and funding sit behind local intermediaries.
Taiwan / China / Cyber & technology
Taiwan warns of China’s election meddling as disputed information surges 48%
A new intelligence report alleges Chinese influence operations and warns that rising network threats may include election reconnaissance.
Ukraine / United States / Spy games
Zelenskyy says missile warnings are working again after intelligence row
Zelenskyy thanks US officials after Oslo talks, while Rubio disputes a policy change and cites an earlier software problem.
FSB / Spy games
He Went to Meet a Woman. Russia Gave Him 15 Years.
An online romance took David Adrian Kercso to the Black Sea. Detention records exposed a problem with the FSB’s arrest film: he was already a prisoner.
United Kingdom / Iran / Power & scandal
Police rearrest two men in Fairford Iran spy inquiry
Police invoke the National Security Act in the inquiry into activity near the airbase. Earlier searches recovered petrol and found no improvised explosive device. Iran denies involvement.
MI5 / Power & scandal
MI5 says state-threat caseload quadrupled as Russia turned to proxies
Britain's domestic intelligence service says state threats now consume more resources than during the Cold War. Its annual assessment points to Russian proxy operations and more than 50 arrests linked to Iran-focused investigations, while Moscow and Tehran reject accusations of hostile activity.
FBI / Cyber & technology
OpenAI’s Hidden Microphone May Become an Espionage Case
The FBI is examining a possible economic-espionage charge against the former engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Top Secret to Substack: CIA Contractor Accused of Feeding His Girlfriend’s Scoops
The FBI’s case follows a trail of classified reports, phone calls and newsletter posts.
CIA / Spy games
Iran’s Plots to Kill Americans Have Reached ‘Advanced Stages,’ Spy Chief Warns
A warning to Rubio emerges as Washington cuts embassy staffing across the Middle East.