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. Whether you're a true crime addict, a thriller fan, or fascinated by spy stories, this is the show for you.
Episodes
October 5, 2025 • 41 mins
"Like many other well-known organisations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis." This was the striking public statement from Google's chief legal officer in January 2010. What began as a major security incident - a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure, originating from China" and resulting in the theft of intellectual property - quickly escalated into a much larger geopol...
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September 30, 2025 • 47 mins
Hezbollah thought they’d found the perfect solution to Israeli surveillance: the pager. In the midst of their paranoia, they negotiated a cut-price deal for thousands of new devices, but what they received was a trap.
The mass explosions on September 17 2024, injured 3,000 people and killed dozens, including civilians and children. The victims - many of them part-time militia members or political operatives - were not just front...
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September 28, 2025 • 52 mins
"The smartphone is a lethal collaborator. " This was the stark warning from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in February 2024. In the wake of intense conflict with Israel, the group made a fateful decision to abandon high-tech communications. They knew that their phones could be used by the Israelis to pinpoint their location. The solution? Go analog. Go back to pagers.
This episode begins an explosive two-part serie...
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September 25, 2025 • 5 mins
*Declassified Club exclusive: SUBSCRIBE to listen to the full interview* What does it take to smuggle the West’s most valuable Russian agent out of the Soviet Union, under the noses of the KGB? How do you lose a KGB surveillance team on the road from Moscow, while hiding a defector in the boot of your car? And how did the MI6 team manage to sneak Gordievsky past the Russian sniffer dogs on the Finnish border?
Listen as Raymond ...
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September 23, 2025 • 55 mins
Oleg Gordievsky wants to leave Moscow, but how? How can a man under suspicion of being a traitor escape the watchful eye of the KGB? Do MI6 have a plan to rescue him? Or will the man who has leaked countless state secrets become the next victim of the USSR?
Listen as David and Gordon finish their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his fateful showdown with the KGB.
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September 21, 2025 • 53 mins
Just as Oleg Gordievsky was moments away from being the KGB’s most senior man in Britain, he is recalled to Moscow. Has his spying been revealed? What can MI6 do? And will he return to his homeland knowing he may never leave again?
Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his return to Moscow and the fateful decision it forces him to make.
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September 16, 2025 • 50 mins
It’s 1983 and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Operation Able Archer has ratcheted tensions right up, how is Oleg Gordievski going to prevent a nuclear apocalypse? Is this the greatest contribution of any spy to humanity? And what does it say about the enduring value of human intelligence?
Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievski by looking at his role in defusing the sky-high tensions of the ...
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September 14, 2025 • 49 mins
Oleg Gordievsky is now recruited as an agent for MI6 and he is providing intelligence of the highest order, but is there a chance he’ll be rumbled by the KGB? Who will keep him safe in London? And what does Oleg himself have to do to ensure his identity remains secret?
Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at his time in London, his crazy KGB colleagues, and the molehunt he conducts into ...
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September 9, 2025 • 47 mins
How did Oleg Gordievsky get recruited to work for MI6? What effect did living in Copenhagen have on his political views? And how did Britain nearly blow the recruitment of one of the most consequential spies in history?
Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gordievsky by looking at how he became a double-agent, changing the course of his life and the Cold War.
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September 7, 2025 • 45 mins
What makes a spy betray the very system that raised him? How does a loyal KGB officer, born into the service, become Britain’s most valuable Cold War agent? And how did one man’s intelligence reports help stop the world from sliding into nuclear confrontation?
This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky — a man shaped by the terror of Stalin’s purges, the shadow of the Berlin Wall, and the crushing of the Prague Spring. He rose through...
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September 2, 2025 • 56 mins
In the final months of 1993, the hunt for Pablo Escobar reached a fever pitch. On the run and isolated, Escobar is under immense pressure from both the Colombian search bloc and the shadowy death squad, Los Pepes. But it is his family, now targeted and in danger, that becomes his ultimate weakness. With his wife and children desperately seeking asylum abroad, Escobar's deep-seated need to connect with them becomes his undoing.
I...
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August 31, 2025 • 52 mins
After walking out of his luxurious prison, Pablo Escobar is back on the run. With the Colombian government humiliated, they turn to the United States for a new kind of help: a specialized, elite force. The answer comes in the form of a Delta Force team. Their mission is to train and advise the Colombian search bloc, but their ultimate goal is to find Pablo once and for all.
In the penultimate episode of our series on Pablo Escob...
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August 26, 2025 • 50 mins
By the autumn of 1989, the hunt for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel was intensifying. With the US military and intelligence agencies now directly involved, a new, more aggressive phase of the War on Drugs had begun.
Join Gordon and David as they explore how Escobar, facing a relentless manhunt, leverages his position to strike an extraordinary deal with the Colombian state. Discover how he uses his “plata o plomo” (silver ...
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August 24, 2025 • 56 mins
By the late 1980s, Pablo Escobar’s grip on the cocaine trade was unmatched. But a new threat loomed: extradition to the United States. To Escobar, it was a fate worse than death. His answer was brutal - declare open war on the Colombian state.
In this episode, Gordon and David trace the rise of the so-called “Extraditables,” a loose alliance of cartel bosses who vowed to stop extradition at any cost. Through car bombs, political...
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August 19, 2025 • 56 mins
In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he offered campaign donations and political loyalty.
Listen as Gordon and David chart Escobar’s transformation from feared trafficker to aspiring statesman....
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August 17, 2025 • 58 mins
Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one of the richest men in history - and one of the deadliest.
In this first episode of our Escobar series, Gordon Corera and David McCloskey explore Escobar’...
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August 12, 2025 • 41 mins
Who was the Nazi General who called the Allied Gunnerside mission “the most splendid coup I have seen?” How did the Norwegians stop the Nazis' nuclear program for good? And how did one commando use a large amount of laxatives to save his mother's life?
Operation Gunnerside was a dangerous mission to destroy a Nazi heavy water plant in Norway. Led by Joachim Rønneberg, a team of commandos had to climb down, and then up, a 600-foo...
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August 10, 2025 • 45 mins
What was the most dangerous mission of World War II? How did a small team of Norwegian skiers stop the Nazis from building a nuclear bomb? And, what exactly is heavy water, and why was it so important to the Nazis?
Operation Gunnerside was a high-stakes, real-life mission to sabotage a Nazi nuclear program in Norway. Led by the young and fearless Joachim Rønneberg, a team of Norwegian commandos were tasked with a seemingly impos...
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August 5, 2025 • 43 mins
How did the Stuxnet cyberweapon, designed to be covert, break out into the wild? What were the world-changing implications of this sophisticated attack on Iran's nuclear centrifuges, and what happened when it was exposed?
Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera reach the finale of their series on the Stuxnet cyberweapon, discussing its discovery by cybersecurity researchers and the subsequent shift in tactics against Iran's ...
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August 3, 2025 • 33 mins
What was the "horse blanket" and how did it guide Obama's decisions on cyber warfare? How did the Stuxnet virus evolve to target Iran's centrifuges more aggressively? And what were the risks and ethical dilemmas involved in unleashing such a powerful and precise cyber weapon?
Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera delve into the Obama administration's acceleration of the Olympic Games program, the sophisticated targeting me...
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