The Spy's Son, Part 1/2: Bringing Down Batman | CIA

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

SPYSCAPE

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When he was arrested in 1996, Jim Nicholson - nicknamed 'Batman' - was the highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of espionage for the Russian Federation. 10 years later, he did it again. Join Vanessa Kirby for the first ever True Spies duology - a tale of spy-craft, treachery, and a toxic father-son relationship. In Part 1, veteran CIA case officer John Maguire tells the story of his strangest mission - an operation on American soil to bring down one of his own colleagues. Could YOU befriend a traitor? From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Disclaimer, this episode features strong language throughout.
0:03.6	Incoming transmission.
0:05.6	Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to True Spies.
0:12.6	Week by week, mission by mission. You'll hear the true stories behind the world's greatest espionage operations.
0:22.6	You'll meet the people who navigate this secret world.
0:27.6	What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in that position?
0:34.6	This is True Spies.
0:37.6	Life in America is pretty good. And when you are willing to throw everything away and wreck your family by what you're doing, for money,
0:46.6	it's just a cold reality and watching him actually load up classified stuff to give to the Russians.
0:53.6	It just pissed me off. This was someone who was a master manipulator.
0:58.6	Those skills that he had learned and deployed at one time on behalf of the United States government, he'd both turned against the government and his family.
1:05.6	I'm Vanessa Kirby and this is True Spies.
1:09.6	The spy's son, part one, bringing down Batman.
1:13.6	I think he started spying when he was posted in South Asia.
1:24.6	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1994. A humid day in June. Cool by local standards.
1:33.6	But the tall American sweats as he navigates the bustle of the city.
1:38.6	It's not just the weather. He's nervous too. But only in that primeval, gnawing way that no amount of training can ever truly suppress.
1:49.6	Outwardly, he projects supreme confidence. After all, he is Harold James Nicholson, CIA. He's a superhero.
2:00.6	As Carl Sine was bad man on the radio, everybody has their assigned call signs that you keep for your whole career. But he was a successful officer and he had done good work in the field and would be categorized then as a guy that was on the fast track.
2:15.6	Nicholson, Jim, to his friends, is on route to a meeting with the local head of the SVR. Russia's foreign intelligence service.
2:24.6	But this is business as usual, nothing to see here. In the wake of the Soviet collapse, the CIA and SVR have struck an intelligence-sharing agreement focused on tackling Islamic terrorism.
2:38.6	Nicholson enters the Russian Embassy in the spirit of collaboration. Unfortunately for his paymasters in Virginia, the American spy is feeling especially generous.
	...

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