Author Debriefing: Double Agent, The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring

SpyCast

Education, News, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2014

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

Leading up to the US entry into WWII, Germany set up a sophisticated and productive espionage ring, which effectively utilized well-placed German Americans in the States. They were able to infiltrate key military and industrial facilities, and succeeded in obtaining critical information, including plans for the exceptionally accurate and very secret Norden bombsite device. When naturalized American William Sebold visited his native Germany in 1939, German intelligence officers saw him as a prime target for recruitment. Threatened with arrest, Sebold seemingly agreed to work for the Germans, but they woefully misjudged him. Returning to New York, he contacted the FBI and told all. In his new book Double Agent, journalist Peter Duffy uncovers how Sebold became the center of a 16-month investigation that led to the arrest of 33 enemy agents in June 1941. Known as the Duquesne Spy Ring, the colorful cast of traitors included military contractors, a South African adventurer with an exotic accent and a monocle, and even a Jewish femme fatale.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:07.0	Hello. Hello and welcome to an author debriefing from the International Spy Museum.
0:19.0	I'm Dr. Vince Houghton, the Museum's historian and curator. Here at the museum we get the most interesting
0:25.0	authors, including journalists, scholars, former spies, and intelligence officers coming in to speak
0:31.7	with our visitors and answer questions about their
0:33.9	latest works dealing with espionage, intelligence, and other national security issues.
0:38.3	Please join me in listening to another of our selected hour-long author debriefings.
0:44.0	So good afternoon, welcome to the International Spy Museum.
0:47.0	My name is Vince Houghton. I'm the Museum's historian and curator,
0:50.0	and I'd like to welcome you to another one of our author debriefings.
0:53.5	I'm going to keep my introduction short, because I actually really want to know and hear what
0:57.6	Peter Duffy has to say.
1:00.2	Before that, however, a little bit of business taken care of.
1:02.7	This Sunday, we have a very special author debriefing,
1:06.6	not a normal time.
1:08.0	It's at 1 PM, not a normal day on a Sunday.
1:11.8	When I tell you about it, you'll see why we kind of jump through hoops a little bit to get this done.
1:17.0	It's an author of a book coming out or already out called Sylvia Raphael, the life and death of a Masad spy.
1:23.0	And it's about a woman who was part of Operation
1:26.0	Wrath of God, which was the retribution for the 1972
1:30.0	Munich massacre.
1:31.6	And the co-author of the book was actually
	...

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