WEBVTT - 5) Pandora's Box 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:03.920 All eight episodes of The Die For are available now 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.000 to bitch absolutely free, but for ad free listening and 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:12.160 exclusive bonuses, subscribe to tendorfoot Plus at tenderfootplus dot com 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:14.200 or on Apple podcasts. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.720 Warning, the following episode contains explicit language and sexual themes. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.320 Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.600 About four years ago, I received an unexpected offer to 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:40.720 interview the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. He wanted to 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:45.200 create quote mutually beneficial ties with the US, and someone 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.960 evidently thought that one way to do that was for 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.880 me to profile Lukashenko for Rolling Stone magazine. 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.480 Belarus quotes between Russia and the European Union has been 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.560 ruled for decades by autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko FTKL victory 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.920 in August elections the US said were fraudulent. Huge protests followed, 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.600 and he moved swiftly to crush them. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:11.720 They reached out to me, and I told them that 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.200 if my editors approved the story, I'd be honest in 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.480 the interview and wouldn't be throwing him softball questions, and 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:18.520 they seemed open to that. 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.200 He and Russian President Vladimir Putin are two peas in 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.680 a pod. When it comes to shutting down to scent. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440 So Putin swiftly helped his skiing partner with one point 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:34.160 five billion dollars. Months of systematic repression and torture followed, 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.880 documented by human rights groups. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.240 Then came the emails, ask me what kind of women 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.000 I liked, asking me to send photos of my type 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.040 of women, offering to range dates for me when I'm 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.240 in Belarus. Perhaps they can even throw a party from me, 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.440 start with beautiful women. I will be set in Belarus 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:58.200 for the trip and possibly my life, they said. As 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.720 a journalist, I knew what accepting favors, whether cash or 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.360 sex or anything from a subject, can mean the end 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:11.040 of your career. And that was my first possible experience 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.840 with what the Russians call compromat. 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:19.240 Compromat comes from the Russian for compromising material. It means 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.080 that the Russian Secret State have managed to film somebody 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:30.480 having sex with somebody they shouldn't be having sex with. Politicians, diplomats, spies, whoever. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.920 A former British spy called Christopher Steele reported that the 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:40.440 Russian Secret State had filmed Donald Trump in a hotel 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:46.680 room in Moscow. Trump has denied it ever happened but 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.359 if it did happen, then that was a classic case. 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:59.880 Of compromat. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.280 Sorry, I had to do that. 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.880 I got on my duty. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:14.880 The away that was how my. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.840 God, I got to. 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:18.920 You. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.279 I had to joy. 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:31.160 It, says Sost. 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.040 Episode five, chapter eleven, Seduce and Destroy. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:05.960 I wanted to let you know I was transcribing the 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.840 interview with the sex buy and I actually have firsthand 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.400 knowledge of this because in my past life I worked 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.040 on these black programs in aerospace. Each program had its 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:18.280 own security office. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.400 Shockingly, at least to me, the voice you're hearing is 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.160 that of my audio transcriber. For ten years, she's listened 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.359 to my interviews and written down the secrets of the 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.720 famous and powerful, from Tom Cruise to Elon Musk. And 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.880 this is the first time she's called like this after 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.719 listening to my first recordings with Alia Rosa. She wants 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:39.480 to let me know that she has actually had her 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.640 own experiences with compromont and sexpionage. 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.200 We would actually have meetings where the upper management would 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.400 inform us about it, and the men who were usually 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.120 the target had to sign paperwork indicating yes, they had 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:58.360 been informed about these women, especially for Brussia. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.560 I had no idea that prior to this, she'd worked 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.039 at a company that contracted with the military, and that 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.919 spies like Aleah are evidently a well known threat in 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:07.520 the industry. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.480 Wow, it was like part of standard operating procedure. 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:16.760 Absolutely every program I worked we talked about it. I 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:21.479 just remember them warning, mostly men about women who might 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.080 approach them when they're traveling on work or traveling out 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:25.400 of town. 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.239 And what were the telltale signs of these people. 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.080 Oh, if the woman was extremely attractive, you know, definitely, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.760 if she was really out of your league type of 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.440 a woman. And if she came on sexually, you know, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.400 too aggressive sexually, or wanted to be alone with you, 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.640 or wanted to get into your hotel room with you 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.719 for whatever reason and to watch your drink, they could 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.760 drug you that kind of thing. 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.560 In fact, the government was so worried about compromant that 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.200 anyone with a secret sex life was considered a security risk. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.000 There were people who openly key it on their wives 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.960 that everybody knew, and they lost their clearances. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.000 I asked my transcriber for her thoughts in Aliah's story. 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.360 Since she's listened to the recordings so closely, I. 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.680 Think it sounds accurate. Because it was exactly what we 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:21.560 were being warned about. She's incredibly attractive, she's charming, she's smart, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.720 she's manipulative, she's loyal to her country. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.320 But it all sounds like it worked. 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.440 I call a Leah after speaking with my transcriber, and 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.600 Aaliyah has just returned from a session with a new therapist. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:39.960 How was your therapy session? 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.280 Honestly, not really good. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:54.159 I mean, I don't know, it's like really difficult to 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.560 go through that again. It's like it's so so many feelings, 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.839 you know, so many sensations which are just like disgust 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:02.520 me so much. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:05.520 I feel really. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.279 Guilty, guilty in what way and can very differ like. 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.480 In many like I felt like I have done so 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.600 much that, you know. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.560 Things in my life, like really bad things, Like I've 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.160 done so many things. 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.280 Which I never wanted to do. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.440 The therapist she said that I had to survive, That's 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.880 why I did it. But it doesn't matter to me, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:32.160 you know, It's it's just like I feel really guilty. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.200 I asked her more about it. Eliah says she was 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.520 at a friend's birthday and was given a small dose 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.800 of mushrooms, something she doesn't ordinarily do. These triggered memories 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.240 that she keeps compartmentalized in her mind. She calls that 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:48.960 compartment Pandora's box. 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.000 I felt like I saw so many ghosts of those 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:57.200 people who who were like were killed or I did unintentionally, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.480 or they were affected by my life or something like. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.080 I saw them and it was so scary. I felt 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:06.240 like I saw they. 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:07.880 Even they faces. 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:08.520 You know. 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:16.200 It's not really pleasant, you know, view and it's kind 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.640 of like maybe I'm going crazy. 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:19.160 I don't know. 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.200 We talk about PTSD and therapy and decide to take 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.320 a little time off so that Aliah can recover from 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.840 her experience. She feels that unburdening herself of her secrets 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.280 will give them less power over her. In the meantime, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.560 I tell her about the conversation with my transcriber, So 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.440 my transcriber called she and we discussed how large this 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.120 program must have been and how many women must have 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.280 faced similar traumatic experiences. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.800 You know, Neil, I feel very very very big sorrow 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.800 and very big sadness when I think about this woman. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.680 I remember my classmates, the old king, so. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.280 Young and fresh and beautiful, and then just in a 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.600 few months, instead of happy face, instead of smile. 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:14.960 I saw sorrow and helpless and nothing else. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:22.480 I wonder how many women have done this throughout the history, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.920 and how many women are doing this right now in 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.559 the whole world, even in the United States. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.680 So while Aliah takes some time off, I decided to 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.000 take some time to find answers to her questions about 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.920 the program. Since speaking to my transcriber, I've been wondering 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.040 similar things. Are there other countries also using sex as 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.160 a weapon of war? And just how big are these operations. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.680 I spent the next couple of weeks doing research and 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.040 interviewing agents and journalists from around the world, and what 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.880 I find shocks me. First of all, it's not just 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.040 Russia that does this, it's China. 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.240 Chinese intelligence operation on US soil, targeting American politicians with 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.160 a female operator who had ties to a Democratic congressman 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.360 and intimate relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors. 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.040 North Korea, according to Young, North Korea's honeytrap plan, established 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.280 by former leader Kim Jong il, was to set up 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.760 foreign dignitaries with females buys posing as translators or aids. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:41.840 Pakistan, You're dear, befriended on email and WhatsApp group, etc. 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.040 And they get entrapped, and then they emotionally get in. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.280 Trapped, even America, the United Kingdom and so many others 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:51.160 throughout history. 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.079 We will then Nostellius in a pub and Lisbon a 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.240 pub frequenc it biof cuity sellers from a nearby army 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:58.559 plan and we're here. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.760 This tamply planned opper began. 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:08.120 In fact, even ancient military writings advised weaponizing this weakness 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:08.920 in human nature. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.160 If we go back to two and a half thousand years, 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.240 one of the ancient military writers said that you should 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.200 trade a martial art warrior to identify an employed four 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.000 humored weeks. So they were fear, lost, anger, and greed. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.840 The certain of these are all used in sexpionage. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.760 This is David Lewis, a psychologist and author of the 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.520 book Sexpionage, The Exploitation of Sex by the Soviet Union. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.360 I called doctor Lewis to find out the kind of 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.240 impact that this type of spycraft has had on political 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.000 history and why it works so well. 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.880 It's always struck me as a psychologist very straight. So 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.400 you have people who are immensely powerful, usually highly educated, 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.400 very wealthy, yet they throw it all away for the 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.360 sake of a one night stead. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.440 Yet it happens over and over again. And if you 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.040 think that more people would be smarter, think again. Here's 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.080 just one chilling example of a target who's literally in 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.959 hiding from the government, throwing all cautions to the wind 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:14.640 for an attractive woman. Mordecai Venunu was working as a 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.800 technician in an Israeli nuclear facility when he began to 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.280 have moral misgivings. He gathered evidence, left the country and 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.800 told journalists for the first time about the extent of 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.559 Israel's nuclear weapons program. And then, as he was working 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.440 with the Times of London unleaking the story, he met 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.640 someone special. Here he is describing it in his own words, 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.440 speaking to an interviewer from sixty minutes Australia. 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.600 I bought a cigarette that I saw an American woman 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.760 standing there buying gos a cigarette. 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:46.440 I look at her, she look at me. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.439 You'll notice in this next part some similarities with the 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.760 lea's training, which is that the agent never approaches the target. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.040 She gets the target to approach her. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:01.439 You took the initiative to forgive the collequialism to pick 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:02.200 up this lady. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:03.680 Yes, you did it. 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.640 If she had tried to pick me up, then I 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.400 would suspected her. But if I was too with the initiative, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:12.160 I mean, I'm not suspecting it. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.320 She was dragging you into her trap. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.439 No, I was already in her trap. 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.839 After a few dates, she convinced Venunu to join her 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.079 for a weekend in Rome. Despite being a whistleblower who 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.360 was wanted for treason by the Israeli government. Venunu suspected 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.760 nothing and flew to room with her. In the car 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.319 from the airport, she kissed him passionately all the way 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.240 to the house where they'd be staying, evidently to keep 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:40.439 him from thinking with his brain. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.760 When I entered the house, the door opened and immediately 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.600 jump on me two people and one kick me in 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.760 the stomach and I collapsed. Another one jump on me, 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:59.199 put his hand on my mouth, silencing me. Another woman 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.000 come and injected me, and then I lost my conscience. 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.360 The New New spent the next eighteen years in an 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:12.560 Israeli prison, eleven of those years in solitary confinement. And 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:16.400 this is just one of many historically significant examples from 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.120 the Moon Sisters. Two Confederate seduction spies who at one 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.280 point were engaged to thirty eight Union soldiers. Between them 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.280 to Ramone Mercator, an agent of Stalin who honeytrapped his 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.480 way into Leon Trotsky's study, where he executed the famous 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.480 Russian revolutionary with an ice pick. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:38.440 Posing as a Trotskyist or Ramon Mercando seduced Trotsky's secretary. 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.000 Soon he was a frequent visitor to Trotsky's villa and 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.480 a familiar face to his security guards. 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.440 I don't think people really understand the extent to which 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.840 sexual version has helped shape Western society. 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.040 This is historian David Lewis. Again. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.800 I have a specific question that I'm hoping he could answer. 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.720 How did expionage go from a dirty trick that governments 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.240 use in a moment of desperation like in the cases 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.080 we just heard. Twitaliah and my transcriber have been describing 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.280 to me a factory like training camp that a country 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.200 uses to turn out sex buys. 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.320 We can trace the start of what we might call 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:23.600 industrial sexual version back to a woman called Katherine Zabage. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.640 She was actually known as Kitty Smith. She started life. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.840 Kitty Smith began running Berlin's most in demand brothel. Then 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:33.600 World War II began. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.800 When she saw war was going to be declared after 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.280 Hitler come to Part thirty three, she tried to flee 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.040 to England. She was arrested at the border and she 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.960 was offered a choice. She could either come back and 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.520 rather her brothels for the government as spy centers, or 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:56.359 she could go to a concentration gap. So she decided 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:57.960 to set up the brothels for them. 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.760 It's all own Kitty Riou's House for Forbidden Pleasures in 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.000 Berlin under the Nazi. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.000 This was organized by a guy called Walton Schillenberg, who 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.160 was head of SS counter espionage. Now this was the 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.480 first time. The girls used were highly trained. They had 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.040 to be aged between twenty and thirty. They had to 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.120 be single, they had to be National Socialists snots these 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.920 other words. When they joined they were inducted into the SS. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.360 They took it over the leaders to Hitler. They attended 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.560 classes on hairdressing and social etiquette, but also on ad 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.600 armed combat marksmanship, foreign languages, uniform identifications, so they were 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.880 very professional spies. This was really the start of the 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:46.680 industrialization of sexual reversion and it was certainly a model 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.840 followed by the KGB after the war, and they took control. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.440 Now with the kg be the first ones that then 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.000 take women, some who'd even had a sexual experience before, 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.200 and then train them from there versus using sex workers. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.880 Don't know of any other intelligence agency which had done 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:04.840 that to that extent. 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.240 On the outskirts of Moscow stands the Giant Training Academy 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.080 of the KGB. Here the uncles as they are called 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.480 in the espionage business are instructed in how to persuade 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.600 women to offer sex to foreigners in return for information. 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.240 These days the organization is called the FSB the Wild 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.960 The name may have changed. Sexual entrapment using young women 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:31.400 is still a priority. 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.240 Young women, much like Aaliyah enter classmates. 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.760 And they had traders in their kind of total the 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.880 robes and showed them how to behave and really deprive 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.120 them of their inhibitions. So they were prepared to go 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:52.199 with any bad however disagreeable they found him, or however 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.679 older he was, or indeed however young he was, in 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.160 order to extract information problem, and they were taught how 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.359 to behave that. Actually, although the situation they were in 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.160 was of course, I any think about. 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:30.440 Natural Chapter twelve, Tools of the Trade. As our time 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.000 off draws to a close and Leah feels ready to 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.920 continue her story. I find myself deep down the rabbit 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.840 hole of Russian espionage. I even managed to find FBI 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.560 agents and contractors who work to bring down the Russian 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.840 illegals program. Eleven spies who are working in the US 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.159 using seduction and other techniques to infiltrate different groups. You 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.600 did some work with I think you were saying with 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.080 agents that were still. 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:58.359 Working here, turn it off in the corner. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:02.840 Most of the people I reach aren't willing to talk 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.840 about it on the record, not just in America, but 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.720 even more so in Russia. Or my sources fear reprisals 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.399 from Putin. Here's a former Russian intelligence officer who is 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.399 trained at the same academy that a Lea went to, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:16.080 speaking through a translator. 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:24.679 You ever heard of a program like that? With this question, 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:25.240 I wouldn't. 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.000 I will not be able to reply to respond to 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:33.439 this question due to let's say, professional secret. 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.000 Many of these sources were willing to speak to me 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.760 off the record, and a few you'll hear from shortly. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.800 We're surprisingly willing to talk openly. And here's what I learned. 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.400 There are four levels of sexual espionage that are important 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:49.760 to know because they'll help explain the next parts of 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.920 a lea's story, and because they're still going on today. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.600 Level one is the most mild, but it's also the 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:03.679 most It is everywhere, and unknowingly you may have come 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:08.040 across it in your own life. It's called nabludinya, or 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.440 surveillance in American intelligence terms. We call these people eyes 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:13.439 and ears. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.920 You know. One of their biggest exports of Russia is 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:21.679 beautiful women, and they send out an enormous amount of 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.879 girls into the world. 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.840 This is Ina DeSilva, one of the first Russian model 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.200 agents in New York City during the nineteen nineties. 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.160 All these girls were sent out into the world and 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.840 they were told try to meet important men, try to 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.680 attach yourself to important men. And they would send back 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:48.240 information to handlers that you know, this moment, I'm dating 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.320 so and so, I've met so and so, and the 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.480 handlers would decide if anybody was important enough to really 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.359 put an effort into by maybe recording them or you know, 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.240 they would be received further instructions. 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.600 She mentions a well known Russian model who did this 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.399 type of work along with her boyfriend who was also 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:12.439 her KGB handler. 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.760 If you're really going to do modeling, you do not 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.200 go Moscow to Washington. They lived in Washington for a year, 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:27.640 attending daily cocktail parties and ambassies, consulates and stuff like that. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.840 And that's like a typical thing. It's pretty unbelievable. I mean, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.960 Germany right now is like a rat's nest with all 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:37.280 of this. 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.560 German intelligence agency has warned against the risk of an 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:44.639 aggressive Russian espionage operation. 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.840 This comes as West ramps up its support for Ukraine. 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:54.320 They've all been told to penetrate and influence anybody who 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:59.199 has decision making powers in Germany, you know, regarding meaning 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:04.439 Milly So. I mean, the war in Ukraine is also 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:11.639 being fooed by older girls that are all over important cities. 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:12.239 You know. 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.960 There's this Russian doll, a doll within a doll within 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:21.320 Nadal Kolomatosha. Well, a lot of these girls. That's really 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:28.240 what it's like, unless, like any you know, national security agencies, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:32.600 any of these countries gets lucky. I think it's very 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:34.520 difficult to keep track of this women. 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.199 Level two is pravo kasia in Russian or provocation, and 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.240 someone who has eyes and ears, if they land the 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.800 right target, can be moved by their handler into this 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.720 more prestigious position of influence. One example of this type 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.840 of agent is Maria Bhutina, who is living in yes, Washington, 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:57.879 DC and convicted in twenty eighteen of acting as an 0:22:57.960 --> 0:22:59.919 unregistered foreign agent of Russia. 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:05.760 She definitely was going into these conservative circles right among 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.679 mostly the Republican Party, the NRA, these types of places 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:16.160 where there is a machismo. And she came in looking sexy, 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:20.000 toting a gun, and she used that. 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:23.639 This is Alex Finley, a former CIA officer who was 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:26.000 stationed in Europe and the author of the Victor Caro 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:27.960 trilogy of novels about the CIA. 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:31.960 The whole point, as an intelligence officers you have to 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.760 assess your target. What is it that's going to motivate 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:38.800 them or what are their vulnerabilities. She knew and understood 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:43.119 if I go in in short shorts and carrying my gun, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:46.760 that's going to get me closer to them. Now, separately, 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:51.240 she did have relationships with a few different political functionaries 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:52.919 right within the Republican Party. 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:56.159 She goes on to mention a prominent figure that Maria 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.359 Boutina had a relationship with, one who ended up pushing 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:02.000 many canspeak theories that may have been planted in his 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.160 mind by this agent, because the goal of these agents 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.960 is not just a spy, but to suit as powerful, 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.480 vulnerable people and influence their thoughts and behavior to help 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:12.720 destabilize a country. 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:17.760 So she knew who to target, and she knew how 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:19.639 to find the people that were going to have the 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.600 sympathies that she needed to help push more and more ideas. 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.359 So you see, it's not always just to I'm going 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:28.520 to have sex with you, you'd give me secrets. It 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:30.920 can become a bit more complicated. 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:34.359 I ask Alex what she thinks of the statements from 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:37.480 Ena de Silva, the model agent, about the large number 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:41.200 of low level Russian agents still operating in the US, 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:43.440 and she confirms this terrifying assessment. 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:48.320 We went through this sort of kicking diplomats and everything 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:51.160 out over the past few years, right, But those are 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.320 just the people who are declared, So you have to 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:57.920 assume that there's still networks of illegals, you know, sort 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:01.320 of these sleeper cells who live in live and work 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:05.200 among us like normal Americans, but in fact they're Russian 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:09.080 agents and then their assets. I'm sure, I'm sure you 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:10.960 have been a huge network of them still in the 0:25:11.080 --> 0:25:16.520