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Spring 1958: a mysterious individual believed to be high up in the Polish secret service began passing Soviet secrets to the West.

His name was Michal Goleniewski and he remains one of the most important, yet least known and most misunderstood spies of the Cold War. Even his death is shrouded in mystery.

It was the height of the Cold War, and a dangerous time to be stationed in the Soviet Union. One evening, while the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station was filling his gas tank, a stranger approached and dropped a note into the car.

The chief, suspicious of a KGB trap, ignored the overture. But the man had made up his mind. His attempts to establish contact with the CIA would be rebuffed four times before he thrust upon them an envelope whose contents would stun U.S. intelligence.

“I was no James Bond with a licence to kill, but I worked with the British intelligence services and with, and for, the CIA. I had guns pointed at me, death threats issued, a price placed on my head.”

In 1971, Rod Barton applied for a junior scientist role in the Australian Department of Defence. Little did he know what it entailed: as the Cold War intensified, Barton was inducted into the murky world of espionage.

The first agent disappearance was a puzzle.

The second was a mystery.

The third was a conspiracy.

Intelligence operatives around the world are disappearing. When a missing American agent re-appears in Venezuela, Court Gentry, the Gray Man, is dispatched to bring him in, but a team of assassins has other ideas. Court escapes with his life and a vital piece of intelligence.

How do messages become increasingly distorted and biased, what is driving the polarization of opinion? Read about the mechanisms behind how news becomes increasingly biased when it’s repeatedly retold.

It is possible to use the internet archive to roll back websites to see previous versions and uncover information which may no longer be on the current version.

Sometimes a target may intentionally hide information from their present website, looking at older versions of the site may reveal new information. Sometimes you can gather relevant data like names, phone numbers, email addresses, and even metadata from older versions of a website.

The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, was conducted across more than a dozen countries by over 9000 police officers and saw the seizure of drugs, weapons, luxury vehicles and cash.

After the previous take down of two encrypted platforms by law enforcement agencies criminal gangs were left looking for secure phones.

Authorities were able, through informants, to introduce criminals to a new network which was maintained, monitored and under the full control of officials.

In total, some 12,000 encrypted devices were used by around 300 criminal syndicates in more than 100 countries.

Operation Ironside led to arrests globally, including 224 arrests in Australia of members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, mafia groups, Asian crime syndicates, and serious and organised crime groups.

RUMINT that Vice-Minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei (董经纬) defected to the U.S. in mid-February 2021, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang..

The U.S. White House has released the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, following a 100-day review ordered by President Biden

The idea that COVID originated from a lab leak is being taken as a serious possibility by some of the highest levels of the U.S. government—and by media keen for a new narrative.

Blaming humans for disease is as old as time itself. It’s inherently hard to trace outbreaks that take tangled paths from their origin point to where they’re first detected. Without firm answers, humankind loves to invent stories, from the Black Death of the 14th century to the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.

Was COVID deliberately released, or unintentionally set free?

Read why the COVID lab leak theory doesn’t hold up.

A case study of a recent death investigation that illustrates how assumptions can influence an initial informal investigative approach.

Focusing too early on a specific investigative template can create problems down the road. This holds especially true because an initial template frames expectations and creates the foundation for further investigative inquiry, evidence collection, assessments of risk and who is pursued as a suspect.

This case study follows that focus on a recent death investigation, providing an example of how assumptions can influence an initial informal investigative template.

Deepfakes, altered photos, videos, and still images that use artificial intelligence to appear like the real thing.

The technological advances for deepfake productions have concerned experts that warn these fake images can be used by malicious actors to spread misinformation.

Examples of deepfake videos that used the likeness of Tom Cruise, Former President Barack Obama, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went viral and have shown the development of the technology over time.

Facebook researchers say they have developed artificial intelligence that can reverse engineer ‘deep fakes’ and find their origin.

The Australian drug trade is large and growing.

Despite the best efforts of law enforcement agencies, methamphetamine and heroin use has been increasing by up to 17% year on year, with Australians spending an approximate $5.8 billion on methamphetamine and A$470 million on heroin in FY 2019.

What if China were to attempt to seize Taiwan by force and the US and allies responded militarily? One consequence would be the disruption of China’s trade with many countries, including Australia. While strategic analysts have been working over such scenarios for years, there’s been little study of the likely economic consequences.

Author: David Uren | 23 June 2021

The question of Donald Trump’s relationship with the Kremlin has surfaced once again, this time in a new book by veteran US journalist Craig Unger. The book, American Kompromat, claims that the former US commander-in-chief was cultivated as a Russian intelligence asset for more than four decades.

This article walks through the difference between agent and asset and poses the question, what, if anything, was Trump?

Author: Kyle Cunliffe, Aberystwyth University.

The arrival of Joe Biden as president has signalled a return to some of the diplomatic norms between the two countries that were in place before the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.

While it may be back to business as normal between the Australia and the US, some of the policy stances of the Biden administration have painted Australia into a corner. Among them is climate change, where the US has committed to ambitious new targets to cut carbon emissions, whereas Australia has been seen as languishing in the area.

The new Verification Handbook for Disinformation and Media Manipulation is online and available for free. Let some of the world’s best experts teach you to investigate our chaotic information environment.

Joe Gordon – a Past President at the International Association For Intelligence Education and a strong supporter of AIPIO retired recently from the National Intelligence University.

He leaves a legacy of influencing hundreds of students whose perspectives on intelligence were enriched through coursework, thesis research, and academic debate.

We celebrate Dr. Gordon’s distinguished career and dedication to intelligence education and all his contributions to the field. Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app