Dissecting the Anatomy of a Spy For Intent and Motivation with Author Michael Smith
05/15/20 • 44 min
Focusing on the motivations, The Anatomy of a Spy by Michael Smith tells the story of why spies spy, presenting a wealth of spy stories—some previously unknown and some famous—from the very human angle of the agents themselves. He breaks them into categories that go beyond the widely shared MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise/Coercion, Ego. We discuss some classic examples from his book: Operation Diamond where the Mossad used sex and coercion on pilots to fly a MIG-29 out of Iraq in the early 60s; Gabriele Gast - who was caught up in a Stasi Romeo-operation; Polish spy Ryszard Kukliński was a patriot who shared the Warsaw Pact operational plans. We touch on the intentions and needs of spies like: Oleg Penkovsky, Aldrich Ames, Stephen Hanssen, and Ronald Pelton - what was the nugget they were after?
Michael shares some of his experience working for the BBC Monitoring Service - listening in on Cold War transmissions across Poland and East Germany. We also discuss the similarities to journalism with both terminology (stringer, fireman, source) and tradecraft from his experience as an award-winning journalist for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. Smith is the author of a number of books, including The Secrets of Station X, Killer Elite and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, and MI6: The Real James Bonds. He is a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford.
Look for the debut of the #dozendecions that Michael makes in under a minute that reveal if his true nature is that of a spy, handler, or analyst. I’m thinking he’s secret agent material. Episode 037
More on the author at michaelsmithauthor.com
Resources Cited:
An Alternative Framework for Agent Recruitment: From MICE to RASCLS, Randy Burkett
Ryszard Kukliński
Kuklinski Documents on Martial Law in Poland
If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content. A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop
Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop
Thank you for listening and your support,
Mark Valley
Creator/Host
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Focusing on the motivations, The Anatomy of a Spy by Michael Smith tells the story of why spies spy, presenting a wealth of spy stories—some previously unknown and some famous—from the very human angle of the agents themselves. He breaks them into categories that go beyond the widely shared MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise/Coercion, Ego. We discuss some classic examples from his book: Operation Diamond where the Mossad used sex and coercion on pilots to fly a MIG-29 out of Iraq in the early 60s; Gabriele Gast - who was caught up in a Stasi Romeo-operation; Polish spy Ryszard Kukliński was a patriot who shared the Warsaw Pact operational plans. We touch on the intentions and needs of spies like: Oleg Penkovsky, Aldrich Ames, Stephen Hanssen, and Ronald Pelton - what was the nugget they were after?
Michael shares some of his experience working for the BBC Monitoring Service - listening in on Cold War transmissions across Poland and East Germany. We also discuss the similarities to journalism with both terminology (stringer, fireman, source) and tradecraft from his experience as an award-winning journalist for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. Smith is the author of a number of books, including The Secrets of Station X, Killer Elite and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, and MI6: The Real James Bonds. He is a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford.
Look for the debut of the #dozendecions that Michael makes in under a minute that reveal if his true nature is that of a spy, handler, or analyst. I’m thinking he’s secret agent material. Episode 037
More on the author at michaelsmithauthor.com
Resources Cited:
An Alternative Framework for Agent Recruitment: From MICE to RASCLS, Randy Burkett
Ryszard Kukliński
Kuklinski Documents on Martial Law in Poland
If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content. A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop
Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop
Thank you for listening and your support,
Mark Valley
Creator/Host
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Special Forces Author James Stejskal Stays Behind in Berlin with an Unconventional Unit
Author James Stejskal talks about his secret Berlin unit during the Cold War. Their mission, should hostilities have commenced, was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal.
Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific war-time persona. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, and intelligence tradecraft and able to act as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move.
Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit with no parallel. It left a legacy of a new soldier: expert in irregular and unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for missions such as the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the US government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told. Episode 036
Special Forces Berlin, Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite 1956-1990, by James Stejskal
https://www.detachment-a.org/
James on Cold War Conversations
Author’s Facebook Page
Live Drop theme performed on electric cello by Danica Pinner danicapinner.com
If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content. A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop
Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop
Thank you for listening and your support,
Mark Valley
Creator/Host
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Veteran Dr. Sergei Belyakov Liquidates an Unseen Enemy
This episode isn’t so much about espionage or intelligence collection as it is an example of how understanding how what you don’t know can help shape your reality. How do you take precautions against an unseen and undefined threat - in this episode - to public health. After getting his Phd in Chemistry, Sergei was called to duty by his reserve military unit for the clean-up at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site in 1986. As a ‘nuclear jumper’ he was in charge of 28 soldiers tasked with the dangerous duty of removing debris from the roof of the remaining structures. His 2011 book The Liquidator is a poignant memoir and scientific appraisal of these events. Sergei discusses the vigilance and awareness necessary to manage an individual and public health threat: radiation or viral. Sergei now runs his own nano-technology business based in Singapore which faces its unique challenges to contain the pandemic. With his 30 years in the chemical-pharma industry Sergei offers his recommendations. Episode 038
WNYC Public Radio Interview
Liquidators of Chernobyl - Youtube
Liquidator: The Chernobyl Story, Sergei Belyakov
Sergei Belyakov Biography:
Sergei A. BELYAKOV received his Ph.D. in organic/polymer chemistry (1984, USSR). After moving to the USA in 1992, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Alan R. Katritzky (University of Florida).
In 1998 Sergei moved to the pharmaceutical industry, joining Guilford Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off of Johns Hopkins University, where he developed novel drugs for CNS/metabolic diseases (collaboration with Amgen). In 2005-2006, with MGI Pharma, he led the team of scientists, which developed second generation (SG) Dacogen®, a promising anti-cancer drug.
From 2009, Sergei worked at AMRI Singapore, a CRO with expertise in the pre-clinical research, where he held a position of Assistant Director. He successfully guided multiple research teams totaling over 50 researchers in the areas of CNS, HIV and cancer diseases, collaborating with a range of the world-class pharma/biotech companies (Merck, GSK, Takeda, Sanofi etc.). In 2016, Sergei has started a new scientific research company, Theracross Technologies, co-establishing another start-up, Wintershine Health and Skincare, in 2018. Both companies focus on the development of novel delivery nano-systems for biomedicine, food industry, and personal care.
Sergei is an author and co-author of over 60 scientific papers and presentations, and of over 20 patents/patent applications, located in the areas of organic and medicinal chemistry and material science.
Sergei is a veteran-liquidator of Chernobyl NPP accident (1986); his accounts are gathered in his book “Liquidator: The Chernobyl Story”. He is the author of science fiction novels, and an avid basketball player and coach.
If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content. A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop
Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop
Thank you for listening and your support,
Mark Valley
Creator/Host
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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