brought to you by Aspire MungFront on ITVX, a six-part drama of friendship and betrayal,

starring Damien Lewis and Guy Pierce. The coldest war is within. Aspire MungFront.

Stream-free on ITVX.

Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission. You'll hear the true stories behind the world's greatest espionage operations.

You'll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position?

This is True Spies.

I wanted him to see me as somebody who had control at this point, maybe over his life and death, but not a man of evil.

I wanted his help to keep more people from dying, and I said, people were dead because of you. Here's your opportunity to make amends by keeping more people from dying.

This is True Spies.

Episode 80. Allied with Al Qaeda.

21 years ago, somewhere in the Middle East, a wanted terrorist is sitting at a table in an austere interrogation room. The walls are bare, the heat oppressive.

All night long, the terrorist has been held into tension, anxiously awaiting his hour of reckoning.

It's nearly 4am by the time Douglas London enters the room, dressed in a crisp blue suit, carrying a file, a thick dossier on Yusuf, the man on the other side of the table.

I didn't say anything to him at first. I just kind of looked at him. I looked at the file. I kept coming to the file. He was reaching out, saying, hello sir, good to see you, sir, you know all the pleasantries, being very deferential and very respectful.

I remember, at the time, I was clicking my pen. I had a pen in there and I had a notepad. I was clicking it because I saw it made him a little more uncomfortable, which for my purposes was kind of good.

Then I just sort of shook my head and sort of said, what am I going to do with you?

Of course, you said protest in a sincere way. I'll do anything you need. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just a common ordinary man and such like that.

And I started to refer to him by his real name and it's done to him when I used his real name.

A CIA operations officer plays a lot of different roles in working with foreign agents. Of course, all good spies are credible actors.

But that's just one element with a theatre of recruitment.

There's the art of crafting a compelling script, making sure there are no holes in your story.

There's also a bit of stage craft, finding the right setting, the right props, the right things to wear.

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