In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape. Its population represented a society in miniature, full of heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and the full range of human joy and despair. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs.
Prisoners of the Castle traces the war’s arc from within Colditz’s stone walls, where the stakes rose as Hitler’s war machine faltered and the men feared that liberation would not come soon enough to spare them a grisly fate at the hands of the Nazis. Bringing together the wartime intrigue of his acclaimed Operation Mincemeat and keen psychological portraits of his bestselling true-life spy stories, Macintyre has breathed new life into one of the greatest war stories ever told. Know more
So reads the compelling introduction to the Department of Justice’s second indictment against Donald Trump—one of four criminal cases brought against the former president. Purposely crafted as narratives to be read by the public, these documents are among the most consequential in American history, forcing the country to grapple with the critical question: does justice apply to the most powerful?
Edited and with an introduction by MSNBC host Ali Velshi, The Trump Indictments collects all the charging documents against Trump and his co-defendants, providing critical insight on a decisive moment in our history. It is required reading as the country faces a pivotal reckoning—both in our justice system and at the ballot box. for more Info
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives. They were unlikely spies—and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda—though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.
After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound. Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous. Know more
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: “She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.” The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill’s “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and–despite her prosthetic leg–helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.
Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall–an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman’s fierce persistence helped win the war. For more infoThe Australian Federal Police (AFP) has successfully implemented the ServiceNow Platform to build a new National Operations State Service Centre (NOSSC) portal, which will help increase the speed, agility, and efficiency of the AFP’s ability to receive and action reports and requests from other government agencies. The NOSSC is the AFP’s front door for reports and requests of significance from partner agencies such as the Department of Health and the Attorney-General’s department. These reports assist the AFP to prevent and disrupt crime, respond to national and international issues, and protect Australia from organised crime and terrorism. The NOSSC portal ensures these important reports and requests are processed, responded to and resolved with optimum efficiency, using automated workflows within a highly secure environment.
Read moreIranian cyber operations targeting Western entities are growing more sophisticated and effective as part of an overall shift among state-backed hacking groups toward espionage, researchers with Microsoft said Thursday. In a report published Thursday describing the global cybersecurity landscape, Microsoft researchers conclude that state-backed cyber operations are broadly becoming more advanced and aggressive and are increasingly pairing campaigns to breach computer systems with information operations to spread propaganda. The company’s findings on Iran illustrate this trend. Over the last year, Iranian cyber operators stepped up their work, particularly in the Global South, with enhanced offensive cyber capabilities and a comingling of rudimentary operations with multi-pronged influence campaigns to achieve geopolitical effects. Tehran views these tools as a way to respond to perceived efforts to foment unrest inside Iran, Microsoft’s researchers conclude.
Continue readingUkrainian attack drones equipped with artificial intelligence are now finding and attacking targets without human assistance, New Scientist has learned, in what would be the first confirmed use of autonomous weapons or “killer robots”. While the drones are designed to target vehicles such as tanks, rather than infantry, it is almost certain that the resulting explosions are killing Russian soldiers without a direct command from a human operator, although no casualties have been confirmed.
Read moreIn the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel this weekend—and the Israeli military’s response—journalists, researchers, open source intelligence (OSINT) experts, and fact-checkers rushed to verify the deluge of raw video footage and images being shared online by people on the ground. But users of X (formerly Twitter) seeking information on the conflict faced a flood of disinformation. While all major world events are now accompanied almost instantly by a deluge of disinformation aimed at controlling the narrative, the scale and speed at which disinformation was being seeded about the Israel-Hamas conflict is unprecedented—particularly on X. “For many reasons, this is the hardest time I’ve ever had covering a crisis on here,” Justin Peden, an OSINT researcher from Alabama known online as the Intel Crab, posted on X. “Credible links are now photos. On the ground news outlets struggle to reach audiences without an expensive blue check mark. Xenophobic goons are boosted by the platform’s CEO. End times, folks.”
Continue readingHamas’ surprise attack on Israel suggests a massive intelligence failure as the Israeli government appeared blindsided by the infiltration of Hamas fighters across the southern border and the launch of thousands of rockets. The Hamas assault by air, land and sea also raised questions about why U.S. intelligence agencies apparently did not see it coming, experts and former intelligence officials said. U.S. officials said that if the Israelis knew an attack was imminent, they did not share it with Washington. “We were not tracking this,” a senior U.S. military official said.
Know moreHamas staged a coordinated attack against Israel on Saturday, and Israel responded by launching airstrikes. X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has been an important tool for learning about the unfolding violence in the region, but some of the viral images coming out of Israel and Gaza are old or taken out of context, while others are just completely fake. The violence has killed at least 250 Israelis and at least 230 Palestinians, according to the latest figures from the Washington Post, with thousands more injured on both sides. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday, “we are at war, and we will win it.”
Read moreOn October 17, 2023, around 7 pm local time, an explosion rocked the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. Within minutes, information about what had happened was distorted by partisan narratives, disinformation, and a rush to be first to post about the blast. Add in mainstream media outlets parroting official statements without verifying their veracity, and the result was a chaotic information environment in which no one was sure what had happened or how. “There’s just been this massive sort of pressure to get videos out there, get your take, get your analysis, and it’s like a perfect storm for chaos,” Kolina Koltai, a senior researcher at open source intelligence (OSINT) news outlet Bellingcat, tells WIRED. Moments after the explosion was reported, Gaza’s health ministry claimed the blast was caused by an Israeli rocket attack and that hundreds of people had died, marking what would be among the deadliest attacks of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza. News organizations such as The New York Times and Reuters ran with the claim, pushing notification alerts to people’s phones with the news that Israeli rockets had killed Palestinians sheltering in a hospital in Gaza. “Breaking news: Israeli strike on hospitals kill hundreds, Palestinian officials say,” the Times alert read.
Know moreThe heads of the Five Eyes domestic intelligence agencies have launched new advice to help organisations protect themselves against the security threats posed by nation states. Sharing a public stage for the first time, the heads of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), MI5, and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) unveiled five principles which businesses can adopt to help keep their staff and their information safe and secure. At an event hosted by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the FBI, the agency heads warned that states were seeking to steal businesses’ intellectual property in order to fast track their own technological and military capabilities and undermine others’ competitive edge.
Read moreAmid global developments and challenges, including the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the rapid advancement of technology, the world is now at a critical juncture. Following global vaccination campaigns, countries reopened as the urgency of tackling COVID-19 began to wane – cross-border trade and travel have gradually resumed to pre-pandemic levels, and social interactions are once again prioritized. Yet despite having collectively weathered the global health crisis, the world seems to have emerged more fractured than ever before. While the pandemic exacerbated certain conditions, including growing inequality, food insecurity and a decline in livelihood opportunities, political-economic tensions and social grievances that had been sidelined to deal with the immediate health emergency have resurfaced with vigour. Conflict and instability, while often occurring in response to political moves, have had a knock-on effect on other aspects of the global ecosystem, from migration patterns to food supplies and extreme climate events. These developments have tested geopolitical alliances, highlighted the divide between democracy and autocracy, and accentuated the unequal distribution of resources and opportunities between developing and developed countries. Major political shifts and economic hardship have not only tangibly affected nearly all aspects of our daily lives, but have also fed directly into organized crime dynamics around the world as criminal interests take advantage of instability, vulnerability and commodity shortages.
Read the reportThe 2022 National Security Strategy states that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order. As a result, the 2022 National Defense Strategy identifies the PRC as the “pacing challenge” for the Department of Defense. As the PRC seeks to achieve “national rejuvenation” by its centenary in 2049, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders view a modern, capable, and “world class” military as essential to overcoming what Beijing sees as an increasingly turbulent international environment. The DoD annual report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China charts the current course of the PRC’s national, economic, and military strategy, and offers insight on the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) strategy, current capabilities and activities, as well as its future modernization goals. In 2022, the PRC turned to the PLA as an increasingly capable instrument of statecraft. Throughout the year, the PLA adopted more coercive actions in the Indo-Pacific region, while accelerating its development of capabilities and concepts to strengthen the PRC’s ability to “fight and win wars” against a “strong enemy,” counter an intervention by a third party in a conflict along the PRC’s periphery, and to project power globally. At the same time, the PRC largely denied, cancelled, and ignored recurring bilateral defense engagements, as well as DoD requests for military-to-military communication at multiple levels. This report illustrates the importance of meeting the pacing challenge presented by the PRC’s increasingly capable military.
The revelations in the Nine newspapers that Mike Pezzullo, secretary of the powerful Home Affairs department, shared with Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs are certainly extraordinary. But, just like the revelations about Robodebt from the royal commission, they must not be treated as an isolated case but as evidence of serious systemic problems in the Australian Public Service (APS). So what is expected from public servants in terms of their relationship with government? The answer is in the Public Service Act, which states secretaries – those at the very top of each department – must uphold and promote the APS Values and Employment Principles.
Read the full pieceIn the last year alone, artificial intelligence has exploded, taking the internet by storm and introducing a host of new platform names (Bard, ChatGPT, Dall-E). The growth of so-called generative AI – algorithms that, with data input, can produce new text, imagery and other types of media – make it increasingly difficult for the naked eye (and ear) to distinguish genuine articles from those that are AI-generated. Some have welcomed the technology with open arms. Already, one-third of respondents to McKinsey’s annual state of AI survey – which included participants from a range of industries like banking, education and, increasingly, health care – reported using artificial intelligence in some capacity at work.
Read the full pieceIn this episode of Spybrary we talked about the inspiration behind each book in Alex Gerlis most recent Wolf Pack series. From the events of Pearl Harbor to the Allied bombing of the Ruhr, to the butcher of Lyon, and even to German football, Alex’s novels delve into significant historical events yet still offer readers a thrilling World War Two spy thriller.
For more informationAs Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to visit President Joe Biden later this month, what priorities will be on his agenda? Is AUKUS at risk of overshadowing other parts of the US-Australia relationship? And what confidence can the Australian government have in the stability and reliability of the United States amid ongoing political turmoil? In this episode of the National Security Podcast, the Hon Arthur Sinodinos AO joins Rory Medcalf to discuss Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s upcoming trip to Washington DC and the future of the Alliance.
For more information