Everything we know about spies is wrong

Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by nativeit on Friday September 27, 2024 @09:52AM (#41670467)

The story of Nora Inayat Khan is an affecting tale of incredible bravery, heroism, and selfless sacrifice. She nearly survived the war, but was captured only days before she was due to be extracted, and died at the hands of one of Germany’s most sadistic torturers. Nora Khan was a “regular” citizen who rose to the moment, committed herself entirely to the allied cause, and nearly single-handedly maintained radio contact between Paris and London during a critical stage of the conflict.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by 0x0203 on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:43AM (#41671114)

Another incredible agent in WWII was Virginia Hall, aka the limping lady, who managed some pretty incredible feats, escapes, and rescues and did so with only one leg.

For a (hopefully entertaining) rundown of her exploits, you can watch this 22m video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRdGS5ia2OQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by ipython on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:45AM (#41671136)

Also the book “a woman of no importance” on her story is excellent reading.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by bitcharmer on Friday September 27, 2024 @03:54PM (#41674889)

I wish Hollywood used these amazing women's stories to give us great movies instead of gender swapping male stories.

There's plenty of people who would love to watch.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by Der_Einzige on Saturday September 28, 2024 @02:30AM (#41678325)

The Russian sniper women still don’t have a good Hollywood movie about them. Russian government would be upset for bringing it up but the female snipers often worked in pairs and you can totally find some truthful bits of lesbianism to include…

But instead of looking to really history that actually happened, we get the BF5 trailer fake history nonsense

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by gregmac on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:33AM (#41670996)

I was just listening to a podcast that did a season about her [1]. It's kind of in an audiobook style, with some guesses about dialog, which makes it pretty engaging to listen to beyond just that the story itself is interesting.

If you're interested in it, they also did a season on Duško Popov [2] (supposedly the spy that was the inspiration for 007), and one on Aimen_Dean who was an MI6 spy in Al-Qaeda, which includes an interview with him at the end.

[1] https://wondery.com/shows/the-spy-who/season/3/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%C5%A1ko_Popov

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimen_Dean

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by mangamadaiyan on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:14AM (#41670753)

> regular citizen

Almost, but not quite. She had royal blood on both sides of her father's family:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan

Not that this takes away anything from what you wrote, I just happened to be in one of my pedantic moods :)

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by priprimer on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:19AM (#41670810)

royal blood is one of them ideas even worse than the notion of race

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by mangamadaiyan on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:36AM (#41671024)

I used "royal blood" to mean that she was in some sense privileged -- nothing more.

Bad turn of phrase, I guess.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by pwillia7 on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:47AM (#41671161)

Is classism not more real than race?

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:33AM (#41671767)

I mean, classism is about as real as racism but I don't know why one would ask about classism vs race. Class is about as not real as race; they're both things that people made up to justify their disrespectful behavior towards others.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by octopoc on Friday September 27, 2024 @08:54PM (#41676988)

In what way is race not real? Race is determined by DNA.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by Log_out_ on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:15AM (#41671502)

race as an idea is a societywide royalty of blood, which is why its so widespread in failed democracies with despots."We are all zhar/oligarch/king" and those not from here are the serfs.its the very same idea just bastardized.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by belter on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:29AM (#41670957)

Yeah...Declare one person special by birth, and suddenly everyone remotely related claims they're elite too, spreading hierarchy through society...:-)

I recognize only one sovereign:...The Burger King

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by snapcaster on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:42AM (#41671094)

Long may he reign

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by readthenotes1 on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:40AM (#41671081)

My heart aches for you. As does, no doubt, your stomach.

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by belter on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:48AM (#41671174)

We all serve someone...I just prefer mine flame-grilled...

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Re:Everything we know about spies is wrong by fmajid on Monday September 30, 2024 @12:32PM (#41699092)

Some of it being the blood of Tippu Sultan, who died fighting against the British to protect the independence of Mysore (and whose rocket technology the British stole and led to the verse in "The Star-Spangled Banner" about "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air"). If anyone had any reason not to assist the British Empire, it was her.

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