John Daniel

And at the same time, to remain completely innocent, to do it in good taste, with no errors of judgment or overreach.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's complicated, though, isn't it?

As we record this in mid-March of 2026...

The American and Israeli war on Iran is top of mind and could go anywhere.

It'd be crazy to try to predict an outcome.

But whatever happens, the US has taken a big risk and it could have some very far-reaching effects for the whole world.

But prior to that, the liberal democracies, certainly the English-speaking liberal democracies that make up the Five Eyes, very much including us, have been pretty keen to see the US take a leading role in world affairs.

This is it.

They might have got a lot wrong, but in an era of massive change, since the Second World War, the US has underwritten 80-odd years of peace in a rules-based world order.

Yeah, although there have always been American wars during the American peace.

Iran is not the first.

Well, care for what you wish for.

If they withdraw from that role, the balance of power shifts, and we might not like what happens after that.

But let's keep telling this story, Kit Bennett's story, because it really does tell us a lot about what goes on behind the scenes.

Well, the irony is that, as he points out, even if he hasn't had all the bells and whistles of CIA training, before that, in his early 20s, and even before Bill Such was caught, he'd spent a lot of time learning by experience when he was trying to follow the KGB resident in Wellington.

This is the guy who was here in the late 60s and early 1970s.

Yeah, hands-on experience is always useful.

So he's got a bit of a head start, but he now finds himself in a slightly different role when he goes to Washington.

And Kit Bennett is getting ready for this new role because he needs to look as clean and innocent as possible.