The Spy Who Betrayed Australia
Reporter
LiSTNR has just released the second series of Secrets We Keep — a thrilling global story about secrets, power, national security and how countries behave when they think no-one is watching.
Secrets We Keep: Nest of Traitors follows LiSTNR investigative journalist, Joey Watson on his three-year hunt to find the spy who betrayed Australia. The extraordinary series is a high stakes investigation that reaches into the present, with the global conflict at the heart of this story now back at the forefront of world politics.
In the early 1990s, ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) discovered that during the Cold War, the organisation was penetrated by a mole. One of its own spies had turned double agent for the Soviet Union and began leaking information to the KGB to bring down ASIO from the inside. For decades the identity of the mole remained a mystery, the extent of the damage they caused unknown, and the story was covered up.
Over seven episodes, Watson navigates the murky world of espionage on his hunt for the spy and the real story.
Watson says he was warned of how difficult it would be to investigate this story “as the spy world is built on deception”.
“But I was pulled in, and what started as a true crime ‘who dunnit’ yarn, quickly evolved into a much bigger story about secrets and power,” he says.
“Having studied ASIO during this period I have learnt a lot about Australia – both then, and now.”
LiSTNR Head of News and Information, Melanie Withnall, says Joey’s incredible exploration of international espionage takes many twists and turns. “It’s hard to believe these events happened in Australia, but they did…with Secrets We Keep: Nest of Traitors, we have delivered one of the most riveting news stories of recent times.”
Building on the success of Secrets We Keep: Shame, Lies and Family, which explored the unconscionable circumstances of forced adoption in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, the new seven-part series investigates the high stakes environment of international espionage.
Listen to the first episode below.
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