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PODCAST

The Rest Is Classified

Enter the secretive world of spies, espionage, and covert operations. Hosted by former CIA analyst turned spy novelist, David McCloskey, and veteran security correspondent, Gordon Corera, this podcast unravels real-life spy stories, intelligence secrets, and the hidden power struggles shaping global events. From Cold War espionage to modern-day intelligence agencies like the CIA, MI6, and Mossad, explore the world of double agents, classified missions, and the shadowy figures who operate in them

history

All Episodes

52:32

67. The Great Betrayal: Defecting to Moscow (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/07/22

How do you switch sides and become a spy for the KGB? When the FBI is tracking you, how do you escape the country? And what is life like for a traitor on the other side of the Iron Curtain? Join David McCloskey and Gordon Corera as they discuss the life of Edward Lee Howard, his defection, and whether recent events mean there may soon be more like him.------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a

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49:40

66. The Great Betrayal: An American Traitor (Ep 1)

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2025/07/20

How did an alcoholic, drug-addicted hippie end up working for the CIA? How are CIA agents trained? And what is the real purpose of a lie detector test? Join David McCloskey and Gordon Corera as they discuss the life of Edward Lee Howard, the only CIA officer ever to defect to Moscow.------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to⁠ ⁠www.therestisclassified.com⁠⁠. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to:

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10:16

Former Head of MI5: 7/7, Putin, and Al-Qaeda (Eliza...

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/07/17

What was it truly like inside MI5 and the heart of government as the 7/7 attacks unfolded? How did 7/7 expose a shocking blind spot for Britain's spy agency? And what lessons are still being applied two decades later to prevent future attacks? Listen as David and Gordon sit down with former Head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, to discuss her role in investigating the 7/7 bombings and how the attacks have stayed with her to this day. The full episode is available to members of the

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37:26

65. Terror Strikes London: The Forgotten Attack (Ep 4)

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2025/07/15

Two weeks after 52 people were murdered on London’s transport network, terrorists tried to strike again. How did the UK's domestic security services leverage bulk phone record collection to track down the fleeing bombers? And what was the significance of a gym membership card and abandoned bags in identifying the suspects? In the final episode of our series, we explore the intense investigation following the foiled 21/7 attacks. From forensic clues and CCTV footage to the dramatic arrests across

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36:51

64. Terror Strikes London: The Al-Qaeda Mastermind...

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2025/07/13

He left a video for his daughter before he vanished to Pakistan. A quiet farewell, wrapped in the language of faith and finality. What no one knew was that in the mountains near the Afghan border, he would meet the man who would change everything. In the penultimate episode of our series on the 7/7 Bombings, Gordon and David uncover how two young British men - Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - crossed a hidden threshold. From idealistic jihadist sympathisers to suicide bombers in

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36:04

63. Terror Strikes London: What did MI5 know? (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/07/08

Fifteen months before the London bombings, MI5 had seen them. They had names, photographs, and addresses. Two of the men who would carry out the 7/7 attacks had already appeared in surveillance. And then… they vanished back into the noise.In this second episode of our 7/7 series, 20 years on from the attacks, David and Gordon unravel one of the most haunting questions of the entire investigation: could the 7/7 bombings have been stopped? Through forgotten files, garbled intelligence, and missed

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41:06

62. Terror Strikes London: 7/7 (Ep 1)

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2025/07/06

London woke up to joy and celebration on 7 July 2005. The city had just won the 2012 Olympics. It was a glorious summer. There were parties in the streets. But, by 9am, everything had changed. Three explosions tore through the London Underground. Minutes later, a double-decker bus was ripped apart in Tavistock Square. Confusion reigned. Was it a power surge? A freak accident? Or something worse? In this opening episode of our new series on the 7/7 Bombings, David and Gordon return to the

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42:12

61. The Truth About UFOs: Whistleblowers, Warplanes,...

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/07/01

For years, the term UFO conjured images of tin foil hats and elaborate cover-ups. But with recent official reports from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing hundreds of UAP sightings, including objects that remain stationary in high winds or manoeuvre in strange ways, the conversation has fundamentally changed. What accounts for this new era of openness, and what are these "true anomalies" that continue to baffle experts? From sophisticated Chinese spy balloons caught

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34:37

60. The Truth About UFOs: The CIA's Alien Obsession...

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/06/29

In 1955, a United States Senator claimed he saw a "greenish-yellow ball rising rapidly" over the Soviet Union. Was it a Soviet secret weapon, an extraterrestrial visitation, or something else entirely? And why was the CIA so intent on keeping its UFO investigations under wraps? From the early days of the Cold War, the CIA found itself drawn into the burgeoning world of UFO sightings, not because of aliens, but due to a deeper fear: what if these unidentified objects were Soviet aircraft or a

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38:09

59. The Truth About UFOs: Alien Sightings (Ep 2)

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2025/06/24

In the mid-1970s, new, more outlandish claims about the Roswell incident began to surface: not one, but multiple crash sites, military recovery of alien bodies, and secret autopsies. What do these reports of "bald" creatures in "silver unitards" have to do with the original 1947 mystery?As the Roswell mythology grew, accounts emerged of strange bodies, often described as small, mangled, and blackened, with large flexible heads and concave eyes. But the official US Air Force report from the

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35:51

58. The Truth About UFOs: The Roswell Incident (Ep 1)

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2025/06/22

The date was July 8th, 1947. The Roswell Daily Record boldly announced: "RAAF Recovers Flying Saucer." How did this headline ignite a global obsession with UFOs, and why has the official narrative shifted so many times since?From eyewitness accounts of glowing objects zooming across the sky to official reports of a recovered "disk," the Roswell incident remains one of the most compelling and hotly debated mysteries of the 20th century. But is the government merely guarding classified

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108:07

57. Why Israel Attacked Iran

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2025/06/18

The ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel may have escalated last Friday when Israel launched predawn strikes on its regional enemy, but tensions have been brewing for years. In 2020, the Israeli National Intelligence Agency, Mossad, assassinated Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, using AI-powered weaponry. This attack laid the foundations for the contemporary Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and signalled that this conflict was always simmering at the

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65:04

56. Bin Laden vs the CIA: Death in Pakistan (Ep 6)

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2025/06/16

His poetry celebrated a cosmic struggle of violence and glory, but his end was far from a medieval power play. Why did Osama bin Laden spend his final years in a secluded compound in Pakistan, attempting to manage a global terrorist organisation while living a surprisingly mundane life? What were the chilling details of the raid that finally brought him down, and how did it forever change the landscape of global security? In the final episode of our series on Osama bin Laden vs the CIA, we delve

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58:46

55. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Hunt for the World's...

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/06/15

A decade after 9/11, Osama bin Laden remained at large, a constant "running sore" for the US government. But how did a fleeting glimpse of a tall guy with a beard and the interrogation of a high-value detainee finally set the CIA on the right path? And what was the decision that President Obama had to make, knowing the risks and the history of missed opportunities? In this episode, we detail the relentless pursuit of Osama bin Laden, focusing on the critical intelligence trail that went from a

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44:56

54. Bin Laden vs the CIA: 9/11 (Ep 4)

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2025/06/10

On a clear September morning, the American homeland was shattered, revealing a vulnerability unforeseen for nearly two centuries. But, how did Osama bin Laden, soon to become the world's most wanted terrorist, orchestrate the largest mass murder in American history? What was the "chatter" among Al Qaeda members that something was imminent, and why couldn't the intelligence community piece together the puzzle?This episode plunges into the meticulous planning and devastating execution of the 9/11

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61:15

53. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Great Escape (Ep 3)

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2025/06/08

"The walls of oppression and humiliation cannot be demolished except in a rain of bullets." These chilling words from Osama bin Laden's 1996 fatwa declared war on the United States. How did this Saudi Arabian millionaire transform into a global terrorist leader, openly inviting media attention even as he plotted attacks against America? And what were the critical missed opportunities for the CIA to capture or kill him before 9/11? Today we’re exploring bin Laden's return to Afghanistan in 1996, a

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55:15

52. Bin Laden vs the CIA: Declaring Jihad (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/06/03

How did a Saudi millionaire, seemingly more interested in a simple life than luxury, become the architect of a global terrorist organization? What personal and geopolitical forces converged to transform Osama bin Laden from a shy student into a war hero and the spiritual leader of Al Qaeda? And why was 1979 such a pivotal year for both him and the future of Islamic extremism?In this episode, Gordon and David dissect the pivotal year of 1979, a "hinge year" in the Middle East that profoundly

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57:52

51. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Origins of Al-Qaeda (Ep 1)

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/06/01

What kind of man was Osama bin Laden before he became the world's most wanted terrorist? How did his early life and radical beliefs shape the figure who would one day challenge the West? And what role did the Muslim Brotherhood play in his formative years? In this opening episode of a powerful new series, we journey back to Osama bin Laden's beginnings in Saudi Arabia. Through the lens of the CIA's relentless pursuit, we explore the man behind the myth, guided by those who knew him and the

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46:46

50. The Man Who Tried To Kill The KGB: On the Run...

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2025/05/27

He risked everything to expose the KGB's darkest secrets, but Vasily Mitrokhin had two non-negotiable demands: his family's safety and his archive's publication. How did MI6 navigate these unprecedented requests? What secret deal was struck with the Americans to fund his resettlement? And why did Mitrokhin himself express anger at his handlers?This episode delves deeper into the nail-biting exfiltration of Vasily Mitrokhin and his family from a turbulent post-Soviet landscape. From a comically

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47:48

49. The Man Who Tried To Kill The KGB: A Traitor in...

The Rest Is Classified ·

2025/05/25

The Cold War may have ended, but the hunt for dangerous secrets never truly stops. What happens when a disillusioned KGB archivist decides to betray his masters? How did he manage to steal masses of top-secret files from the heart of the Soviet Union? And what did the CIA miss that MI6 was able to seize? This is the incredible story of Vasily Mitrokhin, a man with a "profound, even spiritual hatred" for the KGB he served. For years, he meticulously copied secret documents, turning a hidden

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131 results

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