logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2025
37m 43s

The Spy Who Betrayed Bin Laden (Encore) ...

Wondery
About this episode

Aimen Dean is trapped. He wants out of al-Qaeda and Afghanistan, but no one gets to leave the jihadi training camps without permission. So when a missile strike hands him the perfect excuse to leave he seizes the chance to break free.


Have you got a spy story you’d like us to tell? Email your ideas to thespywho@wondery.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Aug 19
Encore: The Spy Who Inspired 007 | The Other James Bonds | 5
Charlotte Philby interviews Andrew Lycett, the biographer of Ian Fleming, about the other real life spies that inspired his most famous character: James Bond - including the flamboyant Biffy Dunderdale, the urbane Sir Peter Smithers and evenIan Fleming’s own escapades. But who is ... Show More
20m 36s
Aug 12
Encore: The Spy Who Inspired 007 | Retribution | 4
British intelligence is out to fool the Nazis into thinking the Allies invasion will start anywhere but Normandy. But to make Operation Fortitude’s lies stick, they need an agent who can sell the fiction to the Abwehr under interrogation and only one man has the chutzpah for that ... Show More
40m 4s
Aug 11
Business Wars Presents: The AOL-Time Warner Disaster
Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what’s going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape ou ... Show More
7m 8s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 8
53. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Great Escape (Ep 3)
"The walls of oppression and humiliation cannot be demolished except in a rain of bullets." These chilling words from Osama bin Laden's 1996 fatwa declared war on the United States. How did this Saudi Arabian millionaire transform into a global terrorist leader, openly inviting m ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 10
54. Bin Laden vs the CIA: 9/11 (Ep 4)
On a clear September morning, the American homeland was shattered, revealing a vulnerability unforeseen for nearly two centuries. But, how did Osama bin Laden, soon to become the world's most wanted terrorist, orchestrate the largest mass murder in American history? What was the ... Show More
44m 56s
Jun 15
55. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Hunt for the World's Most Wanted (Ep 5)
A decade after 9/11, Osama bin Laden remained at large, a constant "running sore" for the US government. But how did a fleeting glimpse of a tall guy with a beard and the interrogation of a high-value detainee finally set the CIA on the right path? And what was the decision that ... Show More
58m 46s
Jan 2025
15. Crossing the Iron Curtain: The Cold War’s Most Valuable Spy (Ep 2)
Was it possible to avoid KGB surveillance in Moscow as a CIA agent at the height of the Cold War? What motivates someone to spy on their country for an opposing power? And how did Adolf Tolkachev manage to smuggle out the top secret documents the CIA needed to defeat the USSR? Ad ... Show More
46m 58s
Jun 16
56. Bin Laden vs the CIA: Death in Pakistan (Ep 6)
His poetry celebrated a cosmic struggle of violence and glory, but his end was far from a medieval power play. Why did Osama bin Laden spend his final years in a secluded compound in Pakistan, attempting to manage a global terrorist organisation while living a surprisingly mundan ... Show More
1h 5m
Jul 13
64. Terror Strikes London: The Al-Qaeda Mastermind (Ep 3)
He left a video for his daughter before he vanished to Pakistan. A quiet farewell, wrapped in the language of faith and finality. What no one knew was that in the mountains near the Afghan border, he would meet the man who would change everything. In the penultimate episode of ou ... Show More
34m 51s
Dec 2024
3. CIA vs the Taliban: Behind Enemy Lines (Ep 1)
America knew Al-Qaeda were behind the 9/11 attacks before the day was out. They knew they were being sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan and so the CIA went after them. Small teams were dropped behind enemy lines with bags of cash and very little else, instructed to link up w ... Show More
47m 43s
Jun 1
51. Bin Laden vs the CIA: The Origins of Al-Qaeda (Ep 1)
What kind of man was Osama bin Laden before he became the world's most wanted terrorist? How did his early life and radical beliefs shape the figure who would one day challenge the West? And what role did the Muslim Brotherhood play in his formative years? In this opening episode ... Show More
57m 52s
Mar 2025
30. The Spy Who Betrayed Oppenheimer: Showdown with MI5 (Ep 4)
What happens when the world’s most valuable spy is finally caught? How did British and American intelligence hunt him down? And, was Klaus Fuchs a hero, a villain, or something in between? Klaus Fuchs' final days as a free man were marked by growing suspicions, clandestine exchan ... Show More
46m 52s