This week, Chris and Matt break down Pete Hegseth’s speech at Quantico, where he and President Trump summoned 800 generals and admirals for what turned out to be a culture-war lecture on grooming standards and “wokeness.” They examine what it says about civil-military relations in Trump’s second term and the risks in treating the armed forces as a political prop. Then they turn to the Secret Service’s discovery of a massive SIM-card farm in New York linked to swatting threats and fraud, and what it reveals about the intersection of cybercrime, sabotage, and telecom vulnerabilities. From there, they look at how the US government shutdown is playing out inside the intelligence community—why frontline missions continue while contractors and support staff face furloughs that erode resilience. Finally, they discuss MI6’s launch of a new dark-web tool called Silent Courier, designed to encourage potential sources to walk in virtually, and weigh the promises and dangers of this digital era of espionage. Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the of intelligence, geopolitics, and current affairs. Train Like a Spy with SpyQ - Use this discount code for 10% off - SECRETS&SPIES10 Find out more information about SpyQ and register: https://www.spyq.co.uk/ John Le Carré: Tradecraft @ The Bodleian Library in Oxford 1st Oct - 6th April https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lecarre Please share this episode using these links Audio: https://pod.fo/e/336e28 YouTube: https://youtu.be/CCXcBQkPtec Articles discussed in today’s episode "A Novice Defense Secretary Lectures the Brass on What It Takes to Win" by Greg Jaffe | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/us/politics/hegseth-military-officers.html "Trump Gave the Military’s Brass a Rehashed Speech. Until Minute 44." by Shawn McCreesh | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/us/politics/trump-military-brass-speech.html "Secret Service traced swatting threats against officials. They found 300 servers capable of crippling New York’s cell system" by John Miller & Celina Tebor | CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/23/us/swatting-investigation-server-network-discovered "Six key questions about the dismantled network capable of crippling New York’s cell system" by David J. Lopez | CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/27/us/nyc-network-secret-service-investigation "'SIM Farms’ Are a Spam Plague. A Giant One in New York Threatened US Infrastructure, Feds Say" by Andy Greenberg, Lily Hay Newman & Matt Burgess | WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/sim-farm-new-york-threatened-us-infrastructure-feds-say/ "The Shutdown and the Spies" by Jeff Stein | SpyTalk: https://www.spytalk.co/p/the-shutdown-and-the-spies "Silent Courier: UK intelligence service MI6 launches dark web portal to recruit foreign spies" by Nick Paton Walsh | CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/europe/mi6-silent-courier-dark-web-spies-intelligence-intl What else we’re reading this week "After US strikes, Iran increases work at mysterious underground site" by Warren P. Strobel and Jarrett Ley | The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/26/iran-underground-nuclear-us/ "Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream" by Eliot A. Cohen | The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/pete-hegseth-quantico/684423/ "The aide, the associate, the ‘Chinese agent’ – and the collapse of a long-awaited UK spy trial" by Dan Sabbagh and Amy Hawkins | The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/20/collapse-uk-spy-trial-china-christopher-cash-christopher-berry "Rash of Russian breaches of NATO airspace brings calls for shootdown response" by John Vandiver | Stars and Stripes: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-09-22/nato-russia-airspace-violations-19180208.html "Skunk Works Unveils Vectis Air Combat Drone That Puts A Premium On Stealth" by Joseph Trevithick | The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/air/skunk-works-unveils-vectis-air-combat-drone-that-puts-a-premium-on-stealth "Russia is helping prepare China to attack Taiwan, documents suggest" by Catherine Belton and Christian Shepherd | The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/26/russia-china-weapons-sales-air-assault/ Support Secrets and Spies Become a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Buy merchandise from our Redbubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com Connect with us on social media Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/mattfulton.net Secrets and S
