Self-deception: one of the most dangerous traps of all. ibid.
The use of tunnels to mislead an opponent is a centuries-old tactic. ibid.
Throughout World War II the Allies’ secrets armies waged a lonely and hazardous campaign in the heart of enemy territory. They landed by moonlight in occupied Europe to link up with members of the Resistance. They came and went like phantoms in the dark. Sabotage was their specialty. Secrets of World War II e21: Confusion Was Their Business, History 1998
SO1 for propaganda; SO2 for sabotage and subversion; and SO3 for planning (SO3 quickly fell by the wayside). ibid.
The SOE stores were an Aladdin’s cave for its agents. ibid.
I feel like something he loaded by mistake, something to be jettisoned if necessary, something disposable. I feel like I could disappear. Gone Girl 2014 starring Ben Affleck & Rosamund Pike & Neil Patrick Harris & Tyler Perry & Carrie Coon & Kim Dickens & Patrick Fugit & Missi Pyle & Emily Ratajkowski & Casey Wilson & Lola Kirke et al, director David Fincher, Amy
I am frightened of my own husband. ibid.
You’re a liar and a cheat. You’re just like dad. ibid. Margo
To fake a convincing murder you have to have discipline. ibid. Amy
I was willing to try. I wax-striped my pussy raw. I drank canned beer while watching Adam Sandler videos. ibid.
You married a complete psychopath. ibid. Margo
Magician: We want to be deceived …
Nucky: There’s an excuse that might come in handy one day. Boardwalk Empire s1e11: Paris Green, HBO 2010
Deception is an integral part of human nature. And it’s estimated we all lie up to nine times a day. But what if we created a world in which we couldn’t lie? Horizon: A Week Without Lying – The Honesty Experiment, BBC 2018
Around three-quarters of us admit to telling white lies; they account for around 80% of the fibs we tell. ibid.
We lie to a third of people in our lives. ibid.
Debra Newell was running her successful interior design empire when she decided to turn to the internet in the hopes of finding love. Inside Evil s1e4: Doctor Love, Sky Witness 2018
John Meehan was far from who he said he was. ibid.
Debra’s daughters decided to take action … He was charged with extortion, stalking and burglary … right before he met Debra. ibid.
Terra Newell had been attacked by her stepfather John Meehan. ibid.
Take one unclaimed cadaver that had died at St Steven’s hospital – a labourer of no fixed abode; give him a name, a rank, a British uniform, and false mission papers; and set him adrift where the Germans will find him. And so begins Operation Mincemeat: an incredible Allied deception to divert the Reich armies from Sicily. This is the true story of the spy who never was, the corpse that changed the course of World War II. Spies of War I: The Soldier Who Never Was, History 2019
The body would carry confidential documents suggesting an invasion in Sardinia and Greece. ibid.
You don’t know their names. You’ve never seen their faces … British spies during the Second World War – their mission to deceive Adolf Hitler to ensure the success of the D-Day landings in Normandy. A life in the shadows that transformed these five agents into masters of deception. Spies of War II: The D-Day Spies
The biggest deception campaign in military history was conceived: Operation Bodyguard. At the head of the mission, the London Controlling Section: an ultra-secret organisation of high ranking army and secret service personnel. ibid.
Its mission: using a network of double agents to mislead intelligence services of the Reich. ibid.
The largest military operation of the twentieth century. ibid.
Under the direction of spymaster Thomas Harris, Garbo quickly expands his network of fictional informants, creating 27 imaginary agents. ibid.
The target of an upcoming Allied attack: the Bay of Biscay, north of Spain. ibid.
I just made the world’s easiest five grand. The Sting 1973 starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford & Robert Shaw & Charles Durning & Ray Walston & Eileen Rennan & Harold Gould & John Hefernan & Dana Elcar & James Sloyan & Larry D Mann & Sally Kirkland & Jack Kehoe & Robert Earl James et al, director George Roy Hill, victim in taxi
Luther said you learn fast. I hope he’s right. ibid. Henry to Johnny
Johnny: He’s [Doyle Lonnegan] not as tough as he thinks.
Luther: Neither are we. ibid.
You can’t play your friends like marks, Hooker. ibid. Henry to Johnny
Revenge is for suckers. ibid. Henry to Johnny
Henry: You’re not going to stick around for your share?
Johnny: Naah, I’d only blow it. ibid.
When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble. John Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, 1968
The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstance of the Divine Sacraments. He baptises his believers and promises forgiveness of sins ... He celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in the symbol of resurrection. Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the devil, who copied certain things of those that be Divine. Tertullian, 155-222 A.D. from Prescription Against Heretics chXL
In 1995 Panorama got a scoop its rivals the world over wanted. It changed history. Now an independent inquiry for the BBC has found that reporter Martin Bashir used forgeries to get the interview, deceiving Princess Diana and her brother. Martin Bashir spun a web of elaborate lies to win the trust of the Princess. For 25 years the BBC defended its global scoop but now stands accused of a failure of integrity. Martin Bashir’s reputation lies in ruins described by the Inquiry as dishonest and devious. Panorama: Princess Diana, Martin Bashir & the BBC, BBC 2021
Like many in the 1980s Nick Leeson wanted to be rich and successful. But Nick Leeson was also a very strange man. He had an extraordinary ability to manipulate and deceive those around him. Adam Curtis, Inside Story Special, BBC 1996
Together they lost £830 million. In 1986 Mrs Thatcher deregulated the City of London. The old division between banks and stockbrokers was removed. The gentlemanly image of the banker was replaced by that of the trader. Nick Leeson was working as a clerk for the giant American bank Morgan Stanley. On the surface he appeared like everyone else in this new world. A boy from the suburbs who wanted to be a trader. In 1989 Leeson asked to become a trader but Morgan Stanley refused. He decided it was time to move. This time he chose a British bank. Barings was the oldest merchant bank in England in Britain. It had been run by the Barings family for over two hundred years. They were related to practically everyone … Even the Queen held an account at Barings. ibid.
Nick Leeson went to work for Baring Securities. Six years before they had been a small team of stockbrokers. Now they contributed over half the profits of the bank. ibid.
Leeson had joined an organisation falling apart after the boom of the ’80s. He worked as a bookkeeper trying to keep track of the bank’s money. And he was good at it. So he was sent overseas to sort out problems. ibid.
Leeson was going to trade in one of the newest, most exciting markets – Futures … Leeson’s job was to buy and sell [Singapore] Futures: these are bets on the way a market will move in the future. ibid.
In the summer of 1992 the market fluctuated violently. In the chaos Leeson’s team began to make serious mistakes ... Leeson hid the loses. He didn’t want to go back to being a clerk. He put the loses into a computerised account called the 88888 account, and altered its software so London wouldn’t see what he was doing. ibid.
As the weeks passed London continued sending Leeson money. They failed to notice there was no equivalent money coming in from clients. Leeson had discovered a weakness in the system. He would hide his mistakes and trade out of them in his own time, a no-one would ever know. But the weakness that Leeson had discovered was just one crack in an organisation that was falling apart. ibid.
Leeson’s deception had gone badly wrong. Throughout the end of 1992 the market had gone against him. As it did so, the losses he had hidden mounted up. The secret 88888 account turned into a monster with a life of its own. At one point it held losses of £4 million. ibid.
Leeson started his deception again. But this time it was not to cover up other people’s mistakes. It was a deliberate fraud. He began to use his secret account to give his clients cut-price deals. He sold them Futures at unreal prices, making a loss for himself. He then took these losses and hid them away in the secret account. ibid.
‘He is an agent of destruction.’ ibid. Barings big-wig
Leeson was now on a merry-go-round he couldn’t get off. ibid.
His loses were catastrophic. On one day alone he lost £50 million. But he kept going. To do so he needed vast margin payments from London. ibid.