Longform

  • Podcast
  • Best Of
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
  • Archive

    • Sections
    • Publications
    • Writers
    • Tags
  • Random Article
  • Contact

    • podcast@longform.org

Tags

Spying

History

The Once-Classified Tale of Juanita Moody

On the brink of nuclear war, America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative.

David Wolman Smithsonian Magazine Mar 2021 Permalink

Tech

Techie Software Soldier Spy

Is Palantir’s crystal ball just smoke and mirrors?

Sharon Weinberger New York Sep 2020 30min Permalink

Best Article

The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret

How killing by remote control has changed the way we fight.

Michael Hastings Rolling Stone Apr 2012 30min Permalink

Best Article Reprints Arts Movies & TV

The Great Escape

How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran. The declassified story that became Ben Affleck’s Argo.

Joshuah Bearman Wired Apr 2007 20min Permalink

World

The Most Dangerous Game

The parallel lives of a KGB defector and his CIA handler.

Serge F. Kovaleski Washington Post Jan 2006 35min Permalink

Crime

Inside the Mind of a Voyeur

Pete Forde was a good landlord and a great friend, or so his tenants thought. Then they discovered he was filming them in their most private moments.

Katherine Laidlaw Toronto Life Oct 2018 25min Permalink

Tech World

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain.

Jordan Robertson, Michael Riley Bloomberg Businessweek Oct 2018 20min Permalink

World

Inside the Poisoning of a Russian Double Agent

The hit on Sergei Skripal.

Tom Lamont GQ Aug 2018 Permalink

Crime

The Russian Spies Who Fooled Seattle

There the man in the shorts—later identified as a Russian agent using the alias Richard Murphy of New Jersey—handed Michael Zottoli from Seattle two items: a flash memory card and a bag that held $150,000 in cash.

Within nine months they’d both be behind bars.

James Ross Gardner Seattle Met Oct 2017 20min Permalink

Crime

He Convinced Former CIA Operatives He Was One of Them. Was He an Impostor?

Did a school for spies get conned by a fake spook who molested students?

Ian Shapira Washington Post May 2017 10min Permalink

Best Article

The Yankee Comandante

The story of William Morgan: American, wanderer, Cuban revolutionary.

David Grann New Yorker May 2012 1h25min Permalink

The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell

Ever since childhood, Brian Regan had been made to feel stupid because of his severe dyslexia. So he thought no one would suspect him of stealing secrets.

Read more

Excerpted from The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee The Guardian Oct 2016 20min Permalink

Women of the CIA

The stories of women who “are operating at unprecedented levels on every floor of CIA headquarters and throughout its far-flung global outposts.”

Abigail Jones Newsweek Sep 2016 30min Permalink

Crime

It's Not Spying If They're Always Watching

Uncovering Baltimore’s secret aerial surveillance program.

Monte Reel Businessweek Aug 2016 20min Permalink

World

The Day We Discovered Our Parents Were Russian Spies

Their entire lives, Alex and Tim Foley thought their mom and dad were typical, boring American parents. Then the FBI showed up.

Shaun Walker The Guardian May 2016 25min Permalink

Business Crime Politics Tech World

Fear This Man

David Vincenzetti says his company, which sells spyware to world’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies, is helping to thwart terrorism. Others say it’s a danger to citizens, dissidents, and journalists alike.

Read more

David Kushner on the Longform Podcast

David Kushner Foreign Policy Apr 2016 20min Permalink

MFA vs. CIA

On applying to work as an undercover agent.

Jennifer duBois Lapham's Quarterly Feb 2015 15min Permalink

Crime World

The Man Who Solved His Own Murder

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy working for British intelligence, was poisoned. As he lay dying, he worked with detectives to find his killer.

Luke Harding The Guardian Jan 2016 25min Permalink

World

Who Killed the 20th Century’s Greatest Spy?

Who was Ashraf Marwan working for when he fell to his death from the balcony of a London flat?

Simon Parkin The Guardian Sep 2015 25min Permalink

World

Operation Red Falcon

He was one of Israel’s greatest spies. Then he brought his own country to the brink of war.

Ronen Bergman The Atavist Magazine Apr 2015 1h10min Permalink

Destroyed By the Espionage Act

You can have a PhD from Yale. You can be a rising star in the State Department. And you can still find yourself being investigated by the FBI for espionage.

Peter Maass The Intercept Feb 2015 45min Permalink

Crime

Spy in the Machine

NSA-grade spyware is up for sale, and the world’s worst dictatorships are buying.

Amar Toor, Russell Brandom The Verge Jan 2015 20min Permalink

Crime

The Whole Haystack

The N.S.A. claims it needs access to all our phone records. But is that the best way to catch a terrorist?

Mattathias Schwartz New Yorker Jan 2015 35min Permalink

Politics World

The Most Wanted Man in the World

Catching up with Edward Snowden in Moscow.

James Bamford Wired Aug 2014 10min Permalink

Crime Politics

The Traitor

The case against Jonathan Pollard, an American who spied for Israel.

Seymour Hersh New Yorker Jan 1999 25min Permalink

2 3
Older