meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Story

Kill list and cover-up: how I took on the government and won

The Story

[email protected]

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, News

41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For years, the British government used a court superinjunction to conceal a data leak that could have handed the Taliban a “kill list” of innocent civilians. Times defence editor Larisa Brown describes her fight to uncover the truth.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Larisa Brown, Defence Editor, The Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producer: Edward Drummond.

Further reading:

Further listening: 'The Taliban will kill me': The interpreter trying to flee Kabul

Clips: Times Radio, LBC, Parliament.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected]  


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED.

0:05.3

This episode is brought to you by FreshWorks.

0:08.0

FreshWorks believes the complexity is the enemy of efficiency.

0:11.2

So stop wrestling with bloated expensive service software that takes forever to implement an update,

0:16.4

where ROI is someday, not today.

0:19.1

You've been overcharged and underserved for way too long.

0:22.7

Uncomplicate with fresh service for IT and fresh desk for customer support.

0:27.9

And with FreshWorks AI-assisted service software, you'll work smarter, not harder.

0:33.1

FreshWorks uncomplicates.

0:35.2

Learn more at freshworks.com.

0:47.8

From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Manvine Rana.

0:55.3

This is a story that the government didn't want you to hear.

1:02.3

This really was unprecedented. No super injunction has remained in place for this long.

1:09.2

It's been incredibly difficult to get this story out. And it's just amazing to be able to tell it finally.

1:17.6

This is a story about people, Afghan people, the government had a responsibility to protect. It's a story that really begins in the summer of 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban,

1:24.6

and the Afghans who'd been helping British forces now found that their lives

1:29.1

were under threat. We spoke to one at the time. To be honest, we are kind of counting the

1:36.2

moments to get killed by Taliban, and we cannot leave, we will get killed. And no hope left, no hope left.

1:48.0

The government set up a scheme to relocate as many of these Afghans as possible.

1:56.0

But it was clear even then that many of them wouldn't make it,

2:00.0

as a tearful Ben Wallace, then the Defence Secretary, admitted at the time.

2:05.7

The very least our obligation has to be as many of these people through the pipeline as possible.

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from [email protected], and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of [email protected] and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.