logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2024
40m 25s

'It's much easier for them to create a s...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Anoosheh Ashoori was visiting Iran when he was snatched off the street by security forces. He was falsely accused of espionage, and spent years in one of the country's toughest prisons.

For a long time, he didn't know why he'd been targeted. Anoosheh was a British-Iranian dual national, but he'd worked a career as an engineer, and had no links to intelligence services. Gradually, as his incarceration wore on, he realised he'd become a pawn in a game of global politics.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Up next
Aug 18
Hold Fast! 6. Unicorn poo
As the crew of the Avontuur fight their way out of the Gulf of Mexico and battle a hurricane that delays their journey back across the Atlantic, ship’s cook Giulia faces the spectre of food and gas shortages with ingenuity and a determination to get back home. 15 people, 188 days ... Show More
18m 14s
Aug 18
Hold Fast! 5. No better mirror than the sea
Denied entry to a series of ports in the Caribbean, the crew of the Avontuur begin to wonder whether they will ever be able to get off the ship. They mend sails and find creative ways to entertain themselves until, one night, Giulia begins to feel unwell. 15 people, 188 days at s ... Show More
25m 21s
Aug 11
Hold Fast! 4. Taking the biscuit
Unable to step off the ship, tensions are rising amongst the crew of the Avontuur and coping mechanisms begin to emerge. When the dry store is raided and boxes of biscuits go missing, ship’s cook Giulia is forced to turn detective.15 people, 188 days at sea, one extraordinary shi ... Show More
17m 20s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2025
NEW SERIES: The Redefector
It was 1985, the so-called “Year of the Spy”. The CIA had been losing Soviet assets left and right; the first loss seemed like bad luck, but four in a row? That wasn't a coincidence— it was a deadly leak. And just as the Agency was scrambling to find answers, across the world, a ... Show More
2m 58s
Dec 2024
CLASSIC: Contras, Cocaine and the CIA: The True Story of Barry Seal
Join Ben, Matt and Noel for a Classic conspiracy episode, which only grows more relevant as the years wend on: Across the course of his strange and checkered career, pilot and smuggler Barry Seal was called many things: An informant, a criminal, an asset for America's alphabet so ... Show More
58m 15s
Apr 2025
NEW SERIES: The Redefector
It was 1985, the so-called “Year of the Spy”. The CIA had been losing Soviet assets left and right; the first loss seemed like bad luck, but four in a row? That wasn't a coincidence— it was a deadly leak. And just as the Agency was scrambling to find answers, across the world, a ... Show More
2m 58s
Apr 2025
NEW SERIES: The Redefector
It was 1985, the so-called “Year of the Spy”. The CIA had been losing Soviet assets left and right; the first loss seemed like bad luck, but four in a row? That wasn't a coincidence— it was a deadly leak. And just as the Agency was scrambling to find answers, across the world, a ... Show More
2m 58s
Apr 2025
Kim Philby: Greatest Liar of All Time?
British MI6 agent Kim Philby was a spy for the Soviet Union and one of the great liars in human history, right up until his retirement in Moscow where he lived out his days as a national hero.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
49m 32s
Dec 2023
Strange News: Long-term US Official Exposed as Cuban Spy, QAnon Queen Trolled, the 23andMe Hack
23andMe reacts to a massive hack compromising information of customers across the world. Benevolent trolls infiltrate the telegram channels of the QAnon Queen. Career US diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha is charged with spying for Cuba -- for more than forty years! All this and more i ... Show More
50m 58s
May 8
#198 Blerim Skoro - CIA & FBI Asset / Al-Qaeda Infiltrator
Blerim Skoro is a Kosovo-born former CIA operative whose life took a dramatic turn after deserting the Yugoslav army in the 1990s. Arriving in New York as an asylum seeker, Skoro’s journey led him from a drug trafficking conviction to becoming a key informant for the FBI and CIA ... Show More
4 h
Jul 24
AQ Khan: How to Live Dangerously
He’s been called the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and a real-life Bond villain and depending on where you’re from, he’s a national hero or was the world’s most dangerous arms dealer - who made a career of selling his knowledge of nuclear weapons.See omnystudio.com/listener f ... Show More
40m 44s
Jul 1
The Spy Who Saved MI5 (Encore) | No Return | 3
There’s panic at MI5 headquarters. Oleg Lyalin, their man inside the KGB, has just been arrested for drunk driving putting Operation Foot in jeopardy. But as MI5 races to reach him before the KGB can, Lyalin is working out a daring new plan that will force the British security se ... Show More
33m 27s
Mar 2024
The new Dark Age of Espionage
The spying game was supposed to fade into history with the Cold War. But Vladimir Putin’s historic grievances, obsession with Ukraine and need to placate his own intelligence agencies have sent a new wave of espionage across the world. The West thinks we’re at peace. The Russians ... Show More
45m 4s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami