SpyCast: Recent Episodes
SpyCast
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Summary Michael McElgunn (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss intelligence in the Republic of Ireland. Michael is the Assistant Commissioner of An Garda Síochána’s Crime and Security Intelligence Service.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The history of An Garda Síochána
The intelligence components of the Garda
The present state of Northern Ireland relations
Current threats to Irish national security
Reflections
The value of collaboration
Evolving alongside a changing world
And much, much more …
Quote of the Week “I think people should in general take comfort from the work that is done by intelligence services and the exceptional collaboration that there is with these services to keep people safe. And that is not just at home, that's abroad – Where we come into possession of a piece of intelligence that we feel will be a value elsewhere, we'll share that elsewhere.” – Michael McElgunn.
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
Kenya, East Africa, and America with African Intelligence Chief Wilson Boinett (2023)
St. Ermin’s Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site with Stephen Duffy (2023)
Espionage and the Two Queens with Kent Tiernan (2023)
The IRA, The Troubles & Intelligence with Eleanor Williams and Thomas Leahy (2022)
Beginner Resources
A Brief History of Ireland, T. Lambert, Local Histories, n.d. [Short article]
Our History, An Garda Síochána, n.d. [Web page]
The Troubles, J. Wallenfeldt, Encyclopedia Britannica [Encyclopedia entry]
DEEPER DIVE Books
We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, F. O’Toole (Liveright, 2023)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, P. R. Keefe (Anchor, 2020)
Policing Twentieth Century Ireland: A History of An Garda Síochána, V. Conway (Routledge, 2013)
The Guarding of Ireland – The Garda Síochána and the Irish State 1960–2014: A History of the Irish Police Force, C. Brady (Gill Books, 2014)
Primary Sources
Gárda Síochána (Temporary Provisions) Act (1923)
Royal Irish Constabulary Office Preliminary Arrangements for Disbandment, Garda Archives (1922)
Orders for the Guidance of the Troops, Garda Archives (1919)
National Union of Police and Prison Officers, National Museum of Ireland (1919)
The Police and the Nation, Garda Archives (1916)
1916 Proclamation, National Museum of Ireland (1916)
Summary David Petraeus (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter, LinkedIn) to discuss his strategic analysis of the war in Ukraine. General Petraeus is a former Director of the CIA.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
General Petraeus’ appraisal of the situation in Ukraine
What victory would look like for each side
What role intelligence is playing in the War
General Petraeus’ time as Director of the CIA
Reflections
The power of narrative
Organizational culture
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Episode Notes David Petraeus was CIA Director between September 2011 and November 2012, and prior to that had a 37-year career in the U.S. Army, rising to its highest rank of 4 star General. Are you curious to hear an in-depth strategic analysis of the Ukraine War from one of the most talented American officers of his generation? Would you like to know more about his time as CIA Director? Listen in to find out.
Quotes of the Week "This is the first war with smartphones, internet connectivity, and social media, such as we see here. It was not present before. even really in the Iraq and Afghanistan war, certainly not to this scale. so that is a dramatic change…It also gives a degree of transparency to this war that I don't think has ever existed before." – David Petraeus. EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy with Michael Vickers (2023)
Ukraine & the Alliance with NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence David Cattler (2023)
Irregular Warfare & Intelligence with IWC Director Dennis Walters (2023)
Ukraine & Intelligence: One Year On with Shane Harris (2023)
The 75th Anniversary of the CIA with Former Director Robert Gates (2022)
Beginner Resources
5 Things You Should Know About the War in Ukraine, UN Refugee Agency (2023) [Short article]
What Caused the Ukraine War?, J. S. Nye, Harvard Belfer Center (2022) [short article]
A History of Ukraine in 5 Minutes, Sky News (2014) [5 min video]
Putin’s War on Ukraine, Explained, Vox (2022) [8:48 min video]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
DEEPER DIVE Books
Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, D. Petraeus & A. Roberts (Harper, 2023)
The New Makers of Modern Strategy, H. Brands et al. (Princeton University Press, 2023)
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, S. Plokhy (Basic Books, 2017) Primary Sources
Petraeus Testimony on U.S. Middle East Policy, Senate.gov (2015)
Petraeus Confirmation Hearings to be Director, CIA, Senate.gov (2011)
Petraeus Military Retirement Speech, American Rhetoric, YouTube (2011)
Petraeus Confirmation Hearing, ISAF and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, C-SPAN (2010)
The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam, David Petraeus, DocumentCloud (1987) [Petraeus’ Ph.D. dissertation]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Wildcard Resource
General Petraeus was known for the counterinsurgency approach he implemented in Afghanistan and Iraq – sometimes called The Petraeus Doctrine.
You can implement your own counterinsurgency by playing a board game developed by former CIA analyst Volko Ruhnke - A Distant Plain: Insurgency in Afghanistan.
Summary Bill Britton (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) in a discussion about cybersecurity and cyber awareness. Bill is the Director of the California Cybersecurity Institute and CIO at Cal Poly.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
How to better protect your online information
Why cybersecurity is more important now than ever
How Cal Poly is addressing cybersecurity challenges
The state of cyber in California and America
Reflections
Confronting our learned habits
Lifelong learning
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Episode Notes This week on SpyCast, Andrew was joined in the studio by Bill Britton, Vice President of Information Technology, Chief Information Officer at Cal Poly, and the Director of the California Cybersecurity Institute. Bill joins us to discuss the work Cal Poly is doing to train, accelerate, and empower the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. And… In 2011, Oprah Winfrey declared San Luis Obispo “America’s Happiest City,” and it’s no wonder why – the quiet city is nestled within a beautiful landscape surrounded by historic architecture, interesting landmarks, and over 250 vineyards. Erin and Andrew are rethinking their East coast lifestyles…
Quotes of the Week “We're trying to establish a way that people think differently about what cyber really is and does for them, and how it can be an expediter of their abilities to have a job and do great things for not just themselves, but the nation at large.” – Bill Britton EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
Indian Intelligence & Cyber with Sameer Patil of ORF Mumbai (2023)
Espionage and the Metaverse with Cathy Hackl (2023)
Trafficking Data: The Digital Struggle with Aynne Kokas (2022)
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization with Eric Escobar, Part 1 (2022)
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization with Eric Escobar, Part 2 (2022)
Beginner Resources
CyberWire Word Notes, CyberWire (2023) [Audio glossary]
What is Cybersecurity?, CISA (2021) [Short article]
Cybersecurity in 7 minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [7 min video]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE DEEPER DIVE Books
The Cyberweapons Arms Race, N. Perloth (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World, J. Menn (Public Affairs, 2019)
The Art of Invisibility, K. Mitnick (Little, Brown, and Company, 2017)
Ghost In The Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, K. Mitnick & W. L. Simon (Little, Brown, and Company, 2011)
Primary Sources
Cybersecurity Case Library, Vol. 1, California Cybersecurity Institute (2021)
NASA’s Cybersecurity Readiness, NASA (2021)
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, US Congress (1986)
Wildcard Resource
Defend the Crown (2021)
A computer game for all ages that teaches the basics of cybersecurity, through the defense of your virtual castle from cyber ninjas!
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Summary Keith Michaels (LinkedIn) and James Lockhart (LinkedIn) join Andrew to discuss intelligence in an unlikely place: Casinos! James and Keith have collectively over 30 years of experience within Las Vegas gaming surveillance.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
How casinos conduct surveillance
Collaboration between casinos and intelligence organizations
The mob origins of Las Vegas
Nation-state intelligence threats in casinos
Reflections
It’s just the luck of the draw…or is it?
Playing your cards right
And much, much more …
FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE HERE
Episode Notes This week on SpyCast, Andrew is joined by Keith Michaels and James Lockhart on a journey into the secret underbelly of the “Gambling Capital of the World,” Las Vegas. How do casinos conduct surveillance, and what prompted them to adopt formal surveillance operations? Tune in to find out.
Quotes of the Week “Casino operations are venues for intelligence activity, not just for the low-level criminal or the higher-level criminal, but also nation states … You know, we're only catching about 35% of what's going on. There's a lot of cash moving around very fast. A lot of people coming in and out in a casino. So, the possibilities are kind of endless.” – James Lockhart.
FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE HERE
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
70th Anniversary of James Bond, Special with Alexis Albion on 007, Part 1 (2023)
70th Anniversary of James Bond, Special with Alexis Albion on 007, Part 2 (2023)
How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Spy Game with Mike Susong (2023)
Baseball and Espionage with Ryan Zimmerman and Marc Polymeropoulos (2022)
Dealing with Russia: A Conversation with Counterintelligence Legend Jim Olson (2022)
Beginner Resources
A Brief History of Las Vegas, T. Lambert, Local Histories (2021) [Short Article]
A Brief History of Gambling, R. Cormack, Medium (2018] [Short Article]
How to Play Baccarat, WikiHow (2020) [Short Video]
FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE HERE
DEEPER DIVE Books
Casino: The Rise and Fall of the Mob in Las Vegas, N. Pileggi (Ebury Press, 2015)
Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, D. G. Schwartz (Winchester Books, 2013)
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, B. Mezrich (Free Press, 2002)
Casino Royale, I. Fleming (Jonathan Cape, 1953)
Primary Sources
Federal Special Agent Pleads Guilty To Gambling With Government Funds, United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nevada (2022)
Surveillance Standards for Nonrestricted Licensees, Nevada Gaming (2005)
Gaming probers sue CIA, CIA (1979)
How U.S. Made Unholy Alliance with the Mafia, CIA (1975)
Bugsy Siegel Collection, FBI (n.d.)
Wildcard Resource In 1983, William Casey, then Director of the CIA, was invited to the Recording Industry Cultural Award Dinner. Luckily for him, Kenny Rogers was the featured performer of the night. He probably played “The Gambler,” a song that Erin thinks is a spot-on analogy for the Intelligence Cycle. You’ve got to know when hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em … Know when to walk to away, and know when to run.
FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE HERE
Summary Eamon Javers (Twitter, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter, LinkedIn) to discuss China’s Corporate Spy War. Eamon is the Senior Washington correspondent at CNBC.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Why go after corporate secrets?
What’s at stake for the United States
The case of Yanjun Xu and GE Aviation
Military implications of economic espionage
Reflections
The innovation nation
Simple twists of fate
And much, much more …
FULL SHOWNOTES AVAILABLE HERE
Episode Notes This week on SpyCast, Andrew is joined by CNBC’s Senior Washington Correspondent Eamon Javers to discuss his new documentary, China’s Corporate Spy War.
Quotes of the Week “I don't think people in corporate America knew that, fully understood the scale of the threat. They thought this was kind of an annoyance like shoplifting is, and that you kind of just build in some procedures and there's some sunk costs associated with that, and you move on. What these intelligence guys were describing was an entirely different threat. This was the elimination of major American brands from the global marketplace.” - Eamon Javers.
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East vs. West with Calder Walton (2023)
The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)
Trafficking Data: The Digital Struggle with China with Aynne Kokas (2023)
The FBI & Cyber with Cyber Division Chief Bryan Vorndran, Part 1 (2022)
The FBI & Cyber with Cyber Division Chief Bryan Vorndran, Part 2 (2022)
Dealing with Russia – A Conversation with Counterintelligence Legend Jim Olson (2022)
Beginner Resources
What is Corporate Espionage?, A. T. Tunggal, UpGuard (2023) [Article]
Timeline: U.S.-China Relations, Council on Foreign Relations (n.d.) [Timeline]
A Tale of High Stakes Corporate Espionage, Bloomberg (2023) [7:44 video]
FULL SHOWNOTES AVAILABLE HERE
DEEPER DIVE Books
SPIES: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West, C. Walton (Simon & Schuster, 2023)
The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage, M. Hvistendahl (Riverhead Books, 2020)
To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence, J. Olson (GUP, 2019)
Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage, E. Javers (HarperCollins, 2010)
Primary Sources
A Survey of Reported Chinese Espionage, 2000 to the Present, CSIS (2023)
Justice Department Announces Five Cases as Part of Recently Launched Disruptive Technology Strike Force, U.S. Department of Justice (2023)
Chinese Government Intelligence Officer Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Espionage Crimes, Attempting to Steal Trade Secrets From Cincinnati Company, U.S. Department of Justice (2022)
Executive Summary - China: The Risk to Corporate America, FBI (2019)
Economic Espionage Act (1996)
Wildcard Resource
The Second Letter from Père d’Entrecolles to Father Orry (1722)
The art of porcelain making and selling was mastered under the Qing Dynasty. The West got curious and knew the form of pottery could be profitable to produce on their own. Because of the secrets shared by this Jesuit priest, China’s monopoly on porcelain production quickly toppled and the practice was spread across Europe.
FULL SHOWNOTES AVAILABLE HERE
Summary Steve James (IMDb) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his new film, A Compassionate Spy. 18-year-old Ted Hall was the youngest physicist working on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Soviet-American relations during WWII
The Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic Bomb
Motivations for atomic espionage
The life and story of Theodore Hall
Reflections
With great power … comes great responsibility
State allegiance vs. personal conscience
And much, much more And… Steve James has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature in 2018 for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, and Best Film Editing in 1995 for Hoop Dreams. Steve is the first Oscar nominee to join us on SpyCast since Robert de Niro sat down with our first host Peter Earnest in 2009!
Quotes of the Week “Ted was young and naive in some ways, but his reasons for what he did were not grounded in fantasy … Whether you support what he did or not, I don't know that the U. S. having the bomb all to itself would have been a great thing, given that we are the only nation to have actually dropped the bomb on anyone, period.” – Steve James.
Resources SURFACE SKIM Headline Resource
A Compassionate Spy, Steve James, Magnolia Pictures (2022)
Available in select theaters and streaming on August 4th
SpyCasts
Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East vs. West with Calder Walton (2023)
St. Ermin’s Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site with Stephen Duffy (2023)
Becoming a Russian Intelligence Officer with Janosh Neumann (2022)
The Nuclear Doomsday Machine with Sean Maloney on Cold War Emergency Plans (2022)
Beginner Resources
What Was the Manhattan Project?, T. Metcalfe, Scientific American (2023) [Article]
U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Control (1949-2021), Council on Foreign Relations (n.d.) [Timeline]
Theodore Hall: American-born physicist and spy, Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) [Encyclopedia entry]
DEEPER DIVE Books
Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away, A. Hagedorn (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians, C. C. Kelly (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2020)
Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs, N. T. Greenspan (Penguin Books, 2020)
Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy, J. Albright & M. Kunstel (Times Books, 1997)
Video
Modern Marvels: The Manhattan Project, The History Channel, YouTube (2020)
Science Behind the Atom Bomb, Nuclear Museum, Atomic Heritage Foundation (2013)
Primary Sources
Report by the Ad Hoc Committee to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “Evaluation of Effect on Soviet War Effort Resulting from the Strategic Air Offensive,” National Security Archive (1949)
The Evaluation of the Atomic Bomb as a Military Weapon, Harry Truman Presidential Library (1947)
A Petition to the President of the United States from Los Alamos Scientists, Harry Truman Presidential Library (1945)
Albert Einstein to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman Presidential Library (1945)
Decision to Maintain Contact with Theodore Hall, National Security Agency (1944)
Wildcard Resource The development of nuclear weapons not only had a massive impact on history and science – It also inspired new architectural designs and art. Read this Architectural Digest article on the Atomic Age Design and why our brains still register it as “futuristic” 75 years later!
Summary Michael Vickers (Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his remarkable career and memoir. He was formerly the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
His specialized training to wear a “Nuclear Backpack” (yes, literally!)
Overseeing a multibillion-dollar CIA covert action program against the Soviets
Planning the Osama Bin Laden raid
Retooling defense intelligence for the 21st century
Reflections
Finding a narrative that unites the various chapters of your life
Serving a country vs. serving a political party
And much, much more …
Episode Notes Michael Vickers has been on a heck of a ride. He started out as a U.S. Army private with no degree and went on to oversee hundreds of thousands of people as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence while holding a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. Michael is the author of By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operation & Strategy.
Quotes of the Week "That weapon was called the Special Atomic Demolition Munition [i.e., “Nuclear Backpack] ...it was a sporty, uh, you know, it seemed like a good idea when I was 23 years old. So, there you have it." – Michael Vickers.
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
“The Nuclear Doomsday Machine” – with Sean Maloney (2022_
“The Spies Who Came in From the Cold” - Chris Costa and John Quattrocki (2022)
“The Spymaster’s Prism” – CIA Legend Jack Devine (2021)
“Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service” – Hank Crumpton (2012)
“The CIA and the End of the Cold War” – Milt Bearden (2011)
Beginner Resources
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Homeschool History (2022) [2:25 min video]
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023) [3-minute read]
The Operation That Took Out Osama Bin Laden, Military.com (2023) [3-minute read]
The Plan to Get Osama, ABC News (2012) [6:44 min video]
DEEPER DIVE Video
The End of a Superpower - The Collapse of the Soviet Union, DW Documentaries (2022)
Manhunt: The Search for Osma bin Laden, HBO (2013)
Afghanistan 1979, the War that Changed the World, Gulya Mirzoeva, Icarus Films (2015)
Red Star Over Khyber, PBS Frontline (1984)
Primary Sources
Commander, 500th MI Group, Subj: Guerilla Use of Stinger Missiles and Their Effect on Soviet Tactics in AF, circa 1987.
Memorandum of Conversation between Vice President Bush and Pakistani President Zia, December 8, 1982
Conversation between M.S. Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan on Afghanistan (Excerpt), December 8, 1982
Message to Soviet Ambassadors on the Invasion of Afghanistan, Attachment to CPSU Politburo Decree #177, December 27, 1979
Wildcard Resource
A Distant Plain: Counter-insurgency Afghanistan: Government, Coalition, Taliban and Warlords compete (2013)
Play this board game developed by former guest and former World Board Game Champion, Volko Ruhnke,
Summary Jorhena Thomas (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss her career as an analyst and passion for intelligence education. Jorhena spent 8 years in the FBI as an Intelligence Analyst.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
What makes a great analyst
Her thoughts on the “Intelligence Cycle”
The Robert Levinson case
How the FBI adapted after 9/11
Reflections
Teamwork and collaboration
The importance of education
Episode Notes Andrew is joined by Jorhena Thomas: educator, mentor, and analysis extraordinaire. It was a pleasure to have Jorhena in the studio to discuss to her career, which began at the Federal Bureau of Investigation where she served as an intelligence analyst for 8 years. She moved on to work at the Washington D.C. Fusion Center, the District of Columbia Deputy Mayor’s Office, and in private consulting. She currently lectures at both American University and Georgetown University, and serves as the Director of Mentorship and Professional Advancement at Girl Security. And… Women make up 59% (more than half!) of the FBI’s Intelligence Analysis workforce. This has come along way since the first female FBI special agents, Joanna Pierce Misko and Susan Roley Malone, were hired in 1972. However, the work is not done. SpyCast is proud to highlight Jorhena’s work with Girl Security, supporting, mentoring, and training the next generations of women in intelligence.
Quotes of the Week
“All my time with the FBI really gave me an appreciation for partnerships, and understanding everyone has a role to play. And if you respect what they do and they respect what you do, then you can really get some good work done. And I think sometimes people look down on others who don't do what they do. And my attitude is, if they did what you do, then you don't need to be here” – Jorhena Thomas
Resources SURFACE SKIM SpyCasts
The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)
SPY CHIEFS: From Navy Analyst to State Dept. Intelligence Chief – Ellen McCarthy’s Journey (Part 1 of 2) (2022)
SPY CHIEFS: From Navy Analyst to State Dept. Intelligence Chief – Ellen McCarthy’s Journey (Part 2 of 2) (2022)
My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent with Kathy Stearman (2021)
Special Operations, FBI, NSC, et al – Serial Collaborator Karen Schaefer (2021)
Beginner Resources
What is Intelligence Analysis and Why is It So Important?, National American University (2020) [Short article]
FBI Field Intelligence Groups and Fusion Centers, Department of Homeland Security (n.d.) [Fact sheet]
What is The Intelligence Cycle?, SOCRadar (2022) [Short article]
DEEPER DIVE Books
How Spies Think: Ten Lessons in Intelligence, D. Omand (Penguin, 2020)
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, R. J. Heuer (Echo Point, 2017)
Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis & National Security, T. Fingar (SUP, 2011)
The FBI: A History, R. Jefferys-Jones (Yale, 2007)
Articles
How to Think Like an Intelligence Analyst, Z. T. Brown, Medium (2021)
9/11 and the Reinvention of the Us Intelligence Community, E. Kamarck, The Brooking Institution (2021)
No body, no burial, no peace for Iran hostage Bob Levinson's family, J. G. Meek & C. Finnegan, ABC News (2021)
Getting from Awareness to Action on Disinformation, J. Thomas, The Cipher Brief (2020)
Tabletop Exercises to Combat Disinformation, J. Thomas, Medium (2020)
How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11, C. Nobel, Harvard Business School (2016)
Video
Adding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to National and Homeland Security, Education, Intelligence, and Fusion Centers (2023)
Women FBI Agents: In Their Own Words, FBI (2012)
Primary Sources
FBI Washington Field Office Statement on the 16th Anniversary of the Abduction of Robert A. Levinson, FBI Washington (2023)
The Internal Effects of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Reprioritization, Office of the Inspector General (2004)
United States Patriot Act (2001)
Summary Leta McCollough Seletsky (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to share the story of her father, the famous “Kneeling Man” – The man knelt next to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in 1968. Leta is a litigator turned essayist and memoirist.
Nominate SpyCast for a People’s Choice Podcast Award HERE!
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The life and times of Marrell “Mac” McCollough
The CIA connection between father and daughter
Black power and the counterintelligence program (or, COINTELPRO)
The conspiracies surrounding Dr. King’s assassination
Reflections
Coming to terms with the past … and present
Small but important steps of progress
And much, much more …
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Resources SURFACE SKIM Headline Resource
The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Leta McCollough Seletsky (Counterpoint, 2023) SpyCasts
The Counterintelligence Chief with Alan Kohler (2023)
The Third Option – US Covert Action with Loch Johnson, Part 1 (2022)
The Third Option – US Covert Action with Loch Johnson, Part 2 (2022)
The Birth of American Propaganda with John Hamilton (2021)
Juneteenth Special: African-American Spies (2021)
Beginner Resources
“I Am A Man” Dr. King and The Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, M. Gailani, Tennessee State Museum (2020) [Short brief]
Martin Luther King Jr., The Nobel Prize (n.d.) [Biography]
COINTELPRO: United States Government Program, N. Frederique, Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.) [Short article]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
DEEPER DIVE Books
The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., P. E. Joseph (Basic Books, 2021)
An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee, A. Goudsouzian, C. W. McKinney, et al. (The University Press of Kentucky, 2018)
The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., J. Sokol (Basic Books, 2018)
The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, W. Churchill & J. V. Wall (South End Press, 2001)
Primary Sources
The King v. Jowers Trial Findings, U.S. Department of Justice (1999)
Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate (1976)
Report from Vietnam, Walter Cronkite (1968)
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech, Martin Luther King Jr., AFSCME (1968)
"Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" Speech, Martin Luther King Jr., American Rhetoric (1967)
COINTELPRO Records Collection, FBI Records: The Vault (n.d)
Summary Ryan Zimmerman (MLB Stats; Wikipedia) and Marc Polymeropoulos (Twitter; LinkedIn) join Andrew to discuss intelligence and America’s pastime. From the SpyCast Field of Dreams.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Sign-stealing and codebreaking
Glue guys and teamwork
Ethics in baseball and espionage
Clutch and pinch hitters in espionage and baseball
Reflections
Daring to fail
Stepping up to the plate of life
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack. Few things in the world compare to sitting back, putting your feet up, and cracking open a cold one while watching the World Series. For the 2021 World Series Marc joined us for a fantastic discussion on the links between baseball and espionage. How do we top that? A baseball fanatic ex-CIA officer? Why, how about getting a first-round draft pick, World Series Champion with over 6500 at-bats? Done! Enter Ryan Zimmerman, Mr. National! Ever wondered about signs-stealing, how to run a baseball counterintelligence operation, or what some of the many, many links are between baseball and espionage? You’ve come to the right place for a discussion that goes to the bottom of the ninth inning over a two-episode conversation. Ryan played for the Nationals from 2005, when he was a first-round draft pick, through to 2021, when his #11 jersey was retired. He is an ex- All-Star, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove winner, and 2019 World Series Champion. Marc is a highly decorated former CIA operations officer who specialized in counterterrorism, the Middle East, and South Asia. Prior to his retirement, he served at CIA headquarters in charge of clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia. He is the author of the 2021 book, “Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA.” And… “Big Data” is upending many fields, not least baseball and espionage. Gaining a competitive edge is central to both activities, the big argument is about how much “soul” is lost along the way. The Houston Astros have been a lighting-rod team, whose “smart and modern” or “cold and cynical” approach has been discussed at Penn's Wharton School of Business and in the pages of the Harvard Business Review.
Quotes of the Week "I think “Dare to Fail” is enormous. I would want you to put me up at the bases load in the bottom of the ninth. I'll take it every single time. Even if I feel like I have zero chance, I want to be there." - Ryan Zimmerman "You know, you have to have that mentality in these professions." - Marc Polymeropoulos
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
Moneyball, M. Lewis (W.W. Norton, 2004)
Love it or hate it, this is the first port of call for any reckoning of baseball and analytics.
SpyCasts
“Baseball & Espionage” – with Marc Polymeropoulos (2021) Beginner Resources
Spy Agencies Struggling in Age of Big Data, A. Zegart, Wired (2022) [article]
Baseball Analytics for the Casual Fan, Simple Sabermetrics (2020) [7 min video]
Beginners Guide to Baseball Analytics, N. Allen, Fansided (2018) [article]
Best Baseball Analytics Resources, Simple Sabermetrics (2022)
Books
Spies, Lies and Algorithms, A. Zegart (PUP, 2022)
The Catcher Was a Spy: Moe Berg, N. Dawidoff (Pantheon, 1994)
Articles
Baseball and Cybersecurity, S. Handler, Atlantic Council (2020)
Baseball’s Rude Welcome to Age of Cyberespionage, N. Paine, 538 (2015)
The Man Who Remade Basketball, M. McCluskey, Wired (2014)
Baseball on Exhibit: Musuems in the SABR Era, Z. Jendro, SABR (2011)
Video
Lessons from the CIA’s Analytic Front-Lines, B. Pease, JHU (2022)
Sabermetrics 101: Baseball Analytics, A. Andres, Talks at Google (2016)
CIA’s Chief Information Officer - Advanced Analytics, D. Wolfe, O’Reilly (2015)
Primary Sources
The PC Goes to Bat (1984) Wildcard Resource Get “Analytics Certification” from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) - which is where the term “sabermetrics” comes from!
Summary Ioanna Iordanou (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Venice’s Secret Service. Her research on “centralized intelligence” during the Italian Renaissance has secured her two entries in Guiness World Records!
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The origins of centralized intelligence
“The Council of Ten” - Venice’s spy chiefs
“The Inquisitors of the State” - Venice’s counterintelligence body
Venetian power in the Eastern Mediterranean
Reflections
The rise and fall of empires
The relationship between geography and power
And much, much more … EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE Quotes of the Week “Considering some of the most significant challenges we face right now, such as disease, we just got over a global pandemic or migration or trade or climate change or cybersecurity, all these issues do not stop at the borders like any early modern spies, they cross borders. So even reflecting on how people dealt with these things in the past might help us make better political, social, economic decisions.” – Ioanna Iordanou.
Resources SURFACE SKIM *Headline Resource
Venice’s Secret Service: Organizing Intelligence in the Renaissance, Ioanna Iordanou (Oxford University Press, 2014) SpyCasts
Espionage and the Two Queens with Kent Tiernan (2023)
The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)
The Lion and the Fox – Civil War Spy vs. Spy with Alexander Rose (2023)
Keeping Secrets/Disclosing Secrets with Spy Chief turned DG of Australia’s National Archives David Fricker (2022)
Beginner Resources
A Brief Overview of Renaissance History, Art in Context (2023) [Short article]
Profile of a City: Venice, Renaissance Italy (2012) [Short article]
Brief History of the Renaissance in 5 Minutes, 5 Minutes (2022) [YouTube video]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
DEEPER DIVE Books
Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization, M. F. Small (Pegasus Books, 2020)
City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas, R. Crowley (Random House, 2013)
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, W. Manchester (Little, Brown and Company, 1993)
Primary Sources
The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, Internet Archive (1907)
The de’Barbari Map (View of Venice), Cartography Venice Project Center (1500)
Letter of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini to Lord Cardinal Firmanus, Carleton College (1453)
The Shorter Annals of Venice, Carleton College (ca. 13th century)
Primary Collections
Venetian Diplomatic Agents in England, British History Online (1202-1509) Wildcard Resource Browse the art of Titian, an artist whose work was used as a form of payment for spies and intelligence gatherers in Venice. Not a bad paycheck!
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Summary This week on SpyCast, Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) is joined by former DPRK Agent Kim, Hyun Woo. This is the first time Dr. Kim has stepped out from the shadows to speak.
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
What You’ll Learn
Intelligence
The organizational structure of North Korean intelligence
The journey of a defector
The training and skills needed to be a DPRK agent
North Korean intelligence priorities in the East
Reflections
Bravery and courage in the face of danger
State conformity vs. Personal convictions
And much, much more …
Quote of the Week “When I envision reunification, I am envisioning reunified Korea under a liberal democratic system as opposed to say, unified Korea under a more North Korean system – That I oppose. My desire is that in a unified Korea, even North Korean populous or population living in northern parts of the Korean Peninsula will be guaranteed fundamental, standard rights as humans.” – Agent Kim, Hyun Woo.
Resources
SURFACE SKIM
SpyCasts
Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East vs. West with Calder Walton (2023)
The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)
The Counterterrorism and Counter WMD Strategist with Dexter Ingram (2022)
Becoming a Russian Intelligence Officer with Janosh Neumann (2022)
Beginner Resources
The Current Situation in North Korea, United States Institute for Peace (2022) [Fact sheet]
A Brief History of North Korea in 3 Minutes, G. Willson, New York Magazine (2017) [3 min. video]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
DEEPER DIVE
Books
Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer’s Insights, J. H. Pak (Ballantine Books, 2020)
The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future, V. Cha (Ecco, 2018)
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, Y. Park (Penguin Books, 2015)
Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History, B. Cumings (W.W. Norton, 2005)
Primary Sources
Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un Delivers Speech at Military Parade, KCNA Watch (2020)
Key Issue Paper for Secretary of State-designate Madeleine Albright, Subject: Korean Peninsula Issues, National Security Archive (1994)
China: Potential Response to Korean Contingencies, DIA Special Report, National Security Archive (1994)
DPRK: Slow-Motion Succession: the Secretary’s Morning Intelligence Summary, National Security Archive (1994)
Protocol for the Phased Withdrawal of Troops (First Draft), Wilson Center (1954)
Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea, US Forces Korea (1953)
Statement by President Syngman Rhee, Wilson Center (1953)
Congratulatory Message [from Mao Zedong] to the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, Wilson Center (1953)
Telegram from Stalin to Mao Zedong, Wilson Center (1952)
Cable Nos. 408-410, Shtykov to Vyshinsky, Wilson Center (1950)
Statement by the President, Truman on Korea, Wilson Center (1950)
Wildcard Resource
Inspired by Dr. Kim’s love for Sherlock Holmes:
His Last Bow is the last chronological short story installment of the Sherlock Holmes series. In this story, Sherlock tracks down a German spy during the First World War!
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Summary Calder Walton (Website, Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the 100-year intelligence war between the United States and Russia. Calder is the author of the new book, SPIES. EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The epic clash of intelligence systems
Russia’s assassination program then and now
The roots of Putinism
China as “the Soviet Union on steroids”
Reflections
Cold War 2.0
Could it have been otherwise?
And much, much more …
Quotes of the Week My conclusion, unfortunately, Andrew, is that looking at this large sweep of history that we have, not so much a Putin problem today, but a Russia problem. And the Russia problem has been persistent over a hundred years, which is why it makes me very cautious about speculation … Unfortunately, it seems to me that the Putin and the people he surrounds himself with in the Kremlin are all cut from this very similar cloth as he is.
Resources SURFACE SKIM Headline Resource
SPIES: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West, Calder Walton (Simon & Schuster, 2023) SpyCasts
Ukraine & the Alliance with NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence David Cattler (2023)
Ukraine & Intelligence: One Year On with Shane Harris (2023)
Becoming a Russian Intelligence Officer with Janosh Neumann (2022)
The Spies Who Came in From the Cold with Chris Costa and John Quattrocki at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago (2022)
Dealing with Russia with Counterintelligence Legend Jim Olson (2022)
CIA Legend Jack Devine on Countering Russian Aggression (2012)
Beginner Resources
Putin’s Revisionist History of Russia and Ukraine, I. Chotiner, New Yorker (2022) [Short article]
Has Putin's war failed and what does Russia want?, P. Kirby, BBC (2023) [Short article]
The Cold War Explained in 15 Minutes, YouTube (2021) [15 min. video]
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE DEEPER DIVE Books
Russian Intelligence, K. Riehle (NIU, 2022)
Putin’s People, C. Belton (William Collins, 2021)
Between Two Fires, J. Yaffa (Duggan Books, 2020)
The New Cold War, E. Lucas (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014)
Primary Sources
The Putin Files, CBS (n.d.)
Memorandum of Conversations (Rise of Putin)
Clinton with Putin (2000)
Clinton with Putin (2000)
Clinton with Yeltsin (1999)
Clinton with Yeltsin (1999)
Clinton with Putin (1999)
Madelaine Albright with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov (1999)
Clinton with Putin (1999)
Clinton with Yeltsin (1999)
Oral Histories
U.S. Ambassadors to Moscow
John Huntsman (2017-2019)
John F. Tefft (2014-2017)
Michael McFaul (2012-2014)
John Beryle (2008-2012)
Alexander Vershbow (2001-2005)
James F. Collins (1997-2001)
Thomas R. Pickering (1993-1996)
Jack F. Matlock (1987-1991)
Wildcard Resource
Putin Strikes: The Coming War for Eastern Europe
A two-player board game where one commands the Kremlin’s forces and the other an international polyglot force. Trippy or what?
EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE
Summary Bryan Vorndran (Website, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss how the FBI has adapted to the digital age. As Bryan says, “We are not your grandparents FBI.”
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The evolution of the FBI and cyber
Weakening cyber adversaries
Motivations behind creating and distributing malware
How to keep your information safe from cyber attacks
Reflections
Adapting to change within the intelligence field
The value of a passionate and committed team
And much, much more…
Episode Notes When Bryan Vorndran attended the FBI Academy in 2003, cyber was not on his personal radar, nor was it on Quantico’s vigorous training schedule. Now, almost 20 years later, Bryan serves as the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. What changed in those 20 years to bring Bryan to the forefront of the cyber battlefield, and how have the tactics and strategies used in this used in this field evolved alongside the ever-changing face of cyber? Tune into this week’s SpyCast episode to find out! The FBI has historically been associated with law enforcement and criminal justice. How does cyber fit into this world, and what is the FBI’s strategy for defending the country against cyber adversaries? And… Check out the FBI Cyber's Most Wanted list. A look through the details on each of these wanted posters can give you a better idea of the vast array of cyber-crimes committed around the world.
Quotes of the Week “We will not arrest our way out of the ransomware problem. We are not going to arrest our way out of the Russia China Nation state cyber vector problem. Right? It's just not going to happen. But again, national tool power is something we will always do, but there has to be a way to degrade the ecosystem to make their life more challenging.” – Bryan Vordran.
Resources SpyCasts
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization – with Eric Escobar, Part 1 (2022)
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization – with Eric Escobar, Part 2 (2022)
From the CIA to Strategic Cyber - with Hans Holmer (2022)
CIA Case Officer, Cyber Entrepreneur, Burning Man Volunteer – with Mike Susong (2022)
Cyberattacks, Espionage & Ransomware – Inside Microsoft’s MSTIC (2021)
The Cyber Zeitgeist – Cyberwire Host Dave Bittner (2021)
Beginner Resources
What is cybersecurity?, IBM (n.d.) [Article]
How does Malware Work?, Peter Baltazar, Malware Fox (2021) [Article]
Director Wray on FBI Cyber Strategy, FBI (2020)
Books
Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, Fred Kaplan (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime, Brian Krebs (Sourcebooks, 2015)
DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia, Misha Glenny (Vintage, 2012)
The FBI: A History, Rhodri Jefferys-Jones (Yale, 2007)
Articles
FBI: Beware of Cyber-Threat from Russian Hacktivists, Phil Muncaster, Info Security (2022)
Web shell attacks continue to rise, Microsoft Security (2021)
Thingbots: The Future of Botnets in the Internet of Things, Paul Sabanal, Security Intelligence (2016)
Video
Inside the FBI: Decoding the Cyber Threat (2022)
Made in Beijing: The Plan for Global Market Domination (2022)
FBI Oregon Cyber Jobs: Cyber Special Agent (2022)
Life on an FBI Cyber Squad (2020)
The Evolving Attack Surface (2020)
Primary Sources
Oversight of the FBI Cyber Division (2022)
Sodinokibi/REvil Ransomware Defendant Extradited to United States and Arraigned in Texas (2021)
Bryan A. Vorndran Named Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division (2021)
The FBI’s Role in Cyber Security (2014)
Wildcard Resource Quiz: Test your knowledge of the FBI in pop culture!
Summary Brian Vorndran (Website, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss how the FBI has adapted to the digital age. As Brian says, “We are not your grandparents FBI.”
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The evolution of the FBI and cyber
Weakening cyber adversaries
Motivations behind creating and distributing malware
How to keep your information safe from cyber attacks
Reflections
Adapting to change within the intelligence field
The value of a passionate and committed team
And much, much more…
Episode Notes When Brian Vorndran attended the FBI Academy in 2003, cyber was not on his personal radar, nor was it on Quantico’s vigorous training schedule. Now, almost 20 years later, Brian serves as the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. What changed in those 20 years to bring Brian to the forefront of the cyber battlefield, and how have the tactics and strategies used in this used in this field evolved alongside the ever-changing face of cyber? Tune into this week’s SpyCast episode to find out! The FBI has historically been associated with law enforcement and criminal justice. How does cyber fit into this world, and what is the FBI’s strategy for defending the country against cyber adversaries? And… Check out the FBI Cyber's Most Wanted list. A look through the details on each of these wanted posters can give you a better idea of the vast array of cyber-crimes committed around the world.
Quotes of the Week “We will not arrest our way out of the ransomware problem. We are not going to arrest our way out of the Russia China Nation state cyber vector problem. Right? It's just not going to happen. But again, national tool power is something we will always do, but there has to be a way to degrade the ecosystem to make their life more challenging.” – Bryan Vordran.
Resources SpyCasts
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization – with Eric Escobar, Part 1 (2022)
Sure, I Can Hack Your Organization – with Eric Escobar, Part 2 (2022)
From the CIA to Strategic Cyber - with Hans Holmer (2022)
CIA Case Officer, Cyber Entrepreneur, Burning Man Volunteer – with Mike Susong (2022)
Cyberattacks, Espionage & Ransomware – Inside Microsoft’s MSTIC (2021)
The Cyber Zeitgeist – Cyberwire Host Dave Bittner (2021)
Beginner Resources
What is cybersecurity?, IBM (n.d.) [Article]
How does Malware Work?, Peter Baltazar, Malware Fox (2021) [Article]
Director Wray on FBI Cyber Strategy, FBI (2020)
Books
Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, Fred Kaplan (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime, Brian Krebs (Sourcebooks, 2015)
DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia, Misha Glenny (Vintage, 2012)
The FBI: A History, Rhodri Jefferys-Jones (Yale, 2007)
Articles
FBI: Beware of Cyber-Threat from Russian Hacktivists, Phil Muncaster, Info Security (2022)
Web shell attacks continue to rise, Microsoft Security (2021)
Thingbots: The Future of Botnets in the Internet of Things, Paul Sabanal, Security Intelligence (2016)
Video
Inside the FBI: Decoding the Cyber Threat (2022)
Made in Beijing: The Plan for Global Market Domination (2022)
FBI Oregon Cyber Jobs: Cyber Special Agent (2022)
Life on an FBI Cyber Squad (2020)
The Evolving Attack Surface (2020)
Primary Sources
Oversight of the FBI Cyber Division (2022)
Sodinokibi/REvil Ransomware Defendant Extradited to United States and Arraigned in Texas (2021)
Bryan A. Vorndran Named Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division (2021)
The FBI’s Role in Cyber Security (2014)
Wildcard Resource Quiz: Test your knowledge of the FBI in pop culture!
Summary Aynne Kokas (LinkedIn; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss her book "Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty."
Summary Bob Sutton (LinkedIn; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the mysterious intelligence site P.O. Box 1142. High-value Nazis were interrogated here during WWII.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The interrogation of top Nazis for intelligence
The analysis of literally tons of captured German documents
Refining ways to escape and evade Nazis in German occupied Europe
The importance of intelligence on the German Army’s Order of Battle
Reflections
The National Park Service & History
Politicizing Interpretation
And much, much more…
Episode Notes This week’s guest is the former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, Bob Sutton, and what a wonderful conversation we had. His book, Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win WWII, tells the story of military intelligence facility P.O. Box 1142 – present day Fort Hunt, around 15 miles south of Washington DC.It was here, between 1942-1945, that around three and a half thousand high level German prisoners were interrogated, captured documents analyzed, and ways to help Americans escape and evade Nazis in occupied Europe studied. This story is particularly incredible, because many of the interrogators were German born Jews. This story was almost lost to history, but thankfully because of the NPS and Bob Sutton, it never will be. [Conflict of interest disclosure, Andrew has an “America the Beautiful” Annual Pass]. And… John W. Kluge arrived in the United States from Germany not speaking a word of English in 1922. He was 8 years old. He would go on to be the head of the Military Intelligence Research Section (MIRS) at P.O. Box 1142. After the war, he would go on to become the richest man in the United States. He was so appreciative of America, that he provided funds to Columbia University and The Library Congress to provide opportunities to future students and scholars. Andrew is a former John W. Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress and therefore a direct recipient of his philanthropy for which he is grateful.
Quote of the Week "Doing what we did at Fort Hunt is actually fairly unusual, where we didn't know the story. We were able to locate people, we were able to get money, we could actually interview everybody that we found…That's relatively unusual." – Bob Sutton
Resources SURFACE SKIM
Andrew’s Recommendation
Oral History Interview with John W. Kluge, NPS
Some fascinating budgets on how his time in intelligence informed his business practices
Featured Resource
Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win WWII, B. Sutton (Casemate, 2022)
Beginner Resources
POWs and Intel at Fort Hunt in WWII, NPS (n.d.) [web article]
P.O. Box 1142, Top Secret Heroes, YouTube [3 min video]
History Series (GS-0170) Federal Jobs, [career article]
DEEPER DIVE
SpyCasts
“The Beverley Hills Spy” – with Seth Abramovich (2022)
Books
Richie Boy Secrets, B. Eddy (Stackpole, 2021)
Escape and Evasion, P. Froom (Schiffer, 2015)
The History of Camp Tracy, A. Corbin (Zeidon, 2009)
Articles
P.O. Box 1142, The Mysterious WWII Installation, SOF (2022)
MIS-X: Escape and Evasion in WWII, N. Nix, Patch (2011)
Moving Image
Fort Hunt Up to WWII, R. Sutton, C-SPAN (2022)
Richie Boys, 60 Minutes (2022)
The New Americans: The Immigrants who Served, U.S. Holocaust Museum (2020)
Primary Sources
“Red Book”: Order of Battle of the German Army (1945)
Oral Sources
Oral History Interview with Rudolph Pins (2006)
Oral History Interview with Silvio Bedini (2007)
Oral History Interview with Paul Fairbrook (2008)
Oral History Collections
Fort Hunt Oral History Project, P.O. Box 1142
Wildcard Resource
H. Res. 753
A Resolution on P.O. Box 1142 from the 110th Congress
“Whereas” is utilized to great effect to tell the story with great aplomb!
Summary Ryan Zimmerman (MLB Stats; Wikipedia) and Marc Polymeropoulos (Twitter; LinkedIn) join Andrew to discuss intelligence and America’s pastime. From the SpyCast Field of Dreams.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Sign-stealing and codebreaking
Glue guys and teamwork
Ethics in baseball and espionage
Clutch and pinch hitters in espionage and baseball
Reflections
Daring to fail
Stepping up to the plate of life
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack. Few things in the world compare to sitting back, putting your feet up, and cracking open a cold one while watching the World Series. For the 2021 World Series Marc joined us for a fantastic discussion on the links between baseball and espionage. How do we top that? A baseball fanatic ex-CIA officer? Why, how about getting a first-round draft pick, World Series Champion with over 6500 at-bats? Done! Enter Ryan Zimmerman, Mr. National! Ever wondered about signs-stealing, how to run a baseball counterintelligence operation, or what some of the many, many links are between baseball and espionage? You’ve come to the right place for a discussion that goes to the bottom of the ninth inning over a two-episode conversation. Ryan played for the Nationals from 2005, when he was a first-round draft pick, through to 2021, when his #11 jersey was retired. He is an ex- All-Star, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove winner, and 2019 World Series Champion. Marc is a highly decorated former CIA operations officer who specialized in counterterrorism, the Middle East, and South Asia. Prior to his retirement, he served at CIA headquarters in charge of clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia. He is the author of the 2021 book, “Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA.” And… “Big Data” is upending many fields, not least baseball and espionage. Gaining a competitive edge is central to both activities, the big argument is about how much “soul” is lost along the way. The Houston Astros have been a lighting-rod team, whose “smart and modern” or “cold and cynical” approach has been discussed at Penn's Wharton School of Business and in the pages of the Harvard Business Review.
Quotes of the Week "I think “Dare to Fail” is enormous. I would want you to put me up at the bases load in the bottom of the ninth. I'll take it every single time. Even if I feel like I have zero chance, I want to be there." - Ryan Zimmerman "You know, you have to have that mentality in these professions." - Marc Polymeropoulos
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
Moneyball, M. Lewis (W.W. Norton, 2004)
Love it or hate it, this is the first port of call for any reckoning of baseball and analytics.
SpyCasts
“Baseball & Espionage” – with Marc Polymeropoulos (2021) Beginner Resources
Spy Agencies Struggling in Age of Big Data, A. Zegart, Wired (2022) [article]
Baseball Analytics for the Casual Fan, Simple Sabermetrics (2020) [7 min video]
Beginners Guide to Baseball Analytics, N. Allen, Fansided (2018) [article]
Best Baseball Analytics Resources, Simple Sabermetrics (2022)
Books
Spies, Lies and Algorithms, A. Zegart (PUP, 2022)
The Catcher Was a Spy: Moe Berg, N. Dawidoff (Pantheon, 1994)
Articles
Baseball and Cybersecurity, S. Handler, Atlantic Council (2020)
Baseball’s Rude Welcome to Age of Cyberespionage, N. Paine, 538 (2015)
The Man Who Remade Basketball, M. McCluskey, Wired (2014)
Baseball on Exhibit: Musuems in the SABR Era, Z. Jendro, SABR (2011)
Video
Lessons from the CIA’s Analytic Front-Lines, B. Pease, JHU (2022)
Sabermetrics 101: Baseball Analytics, A. Andres, Talks at Google (2016)
CIA’s Chief Information Officer - Advanced Analytics, D. Wolfe, O’Reilly (2015)
Primary Sources
The PC Goes to Bat (1984) Wildcard Resource Get “Analytics Certification” from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) - which is where the term “sabermetrics” comes from!
Summary Ryan Zimmerman (MLB Stats; Wikipedia) and Marc Polymeropoulos (Twitter; LinkedIn) join Andrew to discuss intelligence and America’s pastime. From the SpyCast Field of Dreams.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Sign-stealing and codebreaking
Glue guys and teamwork
Ethics in baseball and espionage
Clutch and pinch hitters in espionage and baseball
Reflections
Daring to fail
Stepping up to the plate of life
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack. Few things in the world compare to sitting back, putting your feet up, and cracking open a cold one while watching the World Series. For the 2021 World Series Marc joined us for a fantastic discussion on the links between baseball and espionage. How do we top that? A baseball fanatic ex-CIA officer? Why, how about getting a first-round draft pick, World Series Champion with over 6500 at-bats? Done! Enter Ryan Zimmerman, Mr. National! Ever wondered about signs-stealing, how to run a baseball counterintelligence operation, or what some of the many, many links are between baseball and espionage? You’ve come to the right place for a discussion that goes to the bottom of the ninth inning over a two-episode conversation. Ryan played for the Nationals from 2005, when he was a first-round draft pick, through to 2021, when his #11 jersey was retired. He is an ex- All-Star, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove winner, and 2019 World Series Champion. Marc is a highly decorated former CIA operations officer who specialized in counterterrorism, the Middle East, and South Asia. Prior to his retirement, he served at CIA headquarters in charge of clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia. He is the author of the 2021 book, “Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA.” And… “Big Data” is upending many fields, not least baseball and espionage. Gaining a competitive edge is central to both activities, the big argument is about how much “soul” is lost along the way. The Houston Astros have been a lighting-rod team, whose “smart and modern” or “cold and cynical” approach has been discussed at Penn's Wharton School of Business and in the pages of the Harvard Business Review.
Quotes of the Week "I think “Dare to Fail” is enormous. I would want you to put me up at the bases load in the bottom of the ninth. I'll take it every single time. Even if I feel like I have zero chance, I want to be there." - Ryan Zimmerman "You know, you have to have that mentality in these professions." - Marc Polymeropoulos
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
Moneyball, M. Lewis (W.W. Norton, 2004)
Love it or hate it, this is the first port of call for any reckoning of baseball and analytics.
SpyCasts
“Baseball & Espionage” – with Marc Polymeropoulos (2021) Beginner Resources
Spy Agencies Struggling in Age of Big Data, A. Zegart, Wired (2022) [article]
Baseball Analytics for the Casual Fan, Simple Sabermetrics (2020) [7 min video]
Beginners Guide to Baseball Analytics, N. Allen, Fansided (2018) [article]
Best Baseball Analytics Resources, Simple Sabermetrics (2022)
Books
Spies, Lies and Algorithms, A. Zegart (PUP, 2022)
The Catcher Was a Spy: Moe Berg, N. Dawidoff (Pantheon, 1994)
Articles
Baseball and Cybersecurity, S. Handler, Atlantic Council (2020)
Baseball’s Rude Welcome to Age of Cyberespionage, N. Paine, 538 (2015)
The Man Who Remade Basketball, M. McCluskey, Wired (2014)
Baseball on Exhibit: Musuems in the SABR Era, Z. Jendro, SABR (2011)
Video
Lessons from the CIA’s Analytic Front-Lines, B. Pease, JHU (2022)
Sabermetrics 101: Baseball Analytics, A. Andres, Talks at Google (2016)
CIA’s Chief Information Officer - Advanced Analytics, D. Wolfe, O’Reilly (2015)
Primary Sources
The PC Goes to Bat (1984) Wildcard Resource Get “Analytics Certification” from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) - which is where the term “sabermetrics” comes from!
Andrew Hammond shares an encore episode From the Vault. From counternarcotics to counterterrorism, from Latin America to the Middle East, and from the back streets of a warzone to the center of events in Washington DC – Karen Schaefer has had, how should we say, an “eventful” career as an intelligence officer. Charming, smart, thoughtful, and you haven’t even met Karen yet…but seriously, it was a pleasure to talk to this week’s guest who had all of those qualities, and more; so enjoyable it will be released as a double-header. This week, Part I focuses on her time as an operator; while Part II focuses on her time as a “serial collaborator” who worked with Special Operations, the FBI, and the NSC. Stay tuned…
Summary Eric Escobar (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss compromising networks and information security. He has a coveted DEFCON Black Badge. What You’ll Learn
Intelligence
What keeps Eric up at night
Thinking like an ethical hacker (aka a “penetration tester)
Protecting your information (i.e., “Hardening the attack surface”)
Plain English explanations of key cyber concepts like “Kill Chains” and “Zero Days”
Reflections
Having a cool job
The information revolution and life in the modern world
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Eric Escobar commits several thousand felonies on any given day, if he didn’t have permission to do what he was doing. A Principal Security Consultant with SecureWorks, Eric has compromised pretty much everything out there: from healthcare and banking to technology and critical infrastructure, through to amusement parks and next generation military aircraft. “From my perspective, it’s the coolest job in the entire world.” His team consecutively won first place in the Wireless CTF category at DEF CON 23, 24, and 25, snagging a Black Badge along the way. He has a BS and MS in Civil Engineering. And… The links between computing, hacking and the 60’s counterculture are FASCINATING. Learn more by dipping your toes here and here, or dive deeper with What the Dormouse Said (2005) by John Markoff and From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) by Fred Turner. Quote of the Week "Watching any critical infrastructure get compromised is really the thing that keeps me up at night because lives are in the balance…and we do a lot of testing for critical infrastructure, and I've seen computers and machines that have been online and not been taken offline, longer than I've been alive…So really interesting to see those types of things because they interact with really big, expensive hardware…there's a catch 22 that happens where you can't really take the machine offline to do maintenance on it because it's critical infrastructure. So then how do you test it to make sure that a hacker can't take it offline, or maintenance can't be done on it? " – Eric Escobar.
Resources
Andrew’s Recommendation
Word Notes
From beginner thru advanced, you’ll find some helpful definitions of things like “Web 3.0,” “NFT’s” and “Digital Transformation” on this Cyberwire audio glossary.
SpyCasts
Inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) – with John Lambert and Cristin Goodwin (2021)
The Cyber Zeitgeist – with Dave Bittner (2021)
Securing Cyberspace – with Charlie Mitchell (2016)
Beginner Resources
What is Hacking? The Economic Times (n.d.) [web]
Ethical Hacking in 8 Minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [8 min video]
Cybersecurity in 7 minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [7 min video]
Books
The Cyberweapons Arms Race, N. Perloth (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Cult of the Dead Cow, J. Menn (PublicAffairs, 2020)
Breaking & Entering, J. Smith (Mariner Books, 2019)
The Art of Invisibility, K. Mitnick (L, B & C, 2017)
Ghost in the Wires, K. Mitnick (Back Bay Books, 2012)
Kingpin, K. Poulson (Crown, 2012)
The Cuckoo’s Egg, C. Stoll (Doubleday, 1989)
Neuromancer, W. Gibson (Ace, 1984)
Articles
2022 State of the Threat: A Year in Review, Secureworks (2022)
The Anthropology of Hackers, The Atlantic (2010)
Timeline Since 2006: Significant Cyber Incidents, CSIS (n.d.)
Documentary
DEFCON, The Documentary Network (2013) Resources
Government Hacking Bibliography, S. Quinlan, New America Foundation (2016) Wildcard Resource
“The Aurora Shard”
Come to the International Spy Museum to see an ugly chunk of metal. Why? Well, it speaks to a revolution in the relationship between the material world and the non-material world. Broken down? 30 lines of code blew up a 27-ton generator. Zeros and ones can cause violent explosions!
Summary Eric Escobar (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss compromising networks and information security. He has a coveted DEFCON Black Badge. What You’ll Learn
Intelligence
What keeps Eric up at night
Thinking like an ethical hacker (aka a “penetration tester)
Protecting your information (i.e., “Hardening the attack surface”)
Plain English explanations of key cyber concepts like “Kill Chains” and “Zero Days”
Reflections
Having a cool job
The information revolution and life in the modern world
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Eric Escobar commits several thousand felonies on any given day, if he didn’t have permission to do what he was doing. A Principal Security Consultant with SecureWorks, Eric has compromised pretty much everything out there: from healthcare and banking to technology and critical infrastructure, through to amusement parks and next generation military aircraft. “From my perspective, it’s the coolest job in the entire world.” His team consecutively won first place in the Wireless CTF category at DEF CON 23, 24, and 25, snagging a Black Badge along the way. He has a BS and MS in Civil Engineering. And… The links between computing, hacking and the 60’s counterculture are FASCINATING. Learn more by dipping your toes here and here, or dive deeper with What the Dormouse Said (2005) by John Markoff and From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) by Fred Turner. Quote of the Week "Watching any critical infrastructure get compromised is really the thing that keeps me up at night because lives are in the balance…and we do a lot of testing for critical infrastructure, and I've seen computers and machines that have been online and not been taken offline, longer than I've been alive…So really interesting to see those types of things because they interact with really big, expensive hardware…there's a catch 22 that happens where you can't really take the machine offline to do maintenance on it because it's critical infrastructure. So then how do you test it to make sure that a hacker can't take it offline, or maintenance can't be done on it? " – Eric Escobar.
Resources
Andrew’s Recommendation
Word Notes
From beginner thru advanced, you’ll find some helpful definitions of things like “Web 3.0,” “NFT’s” and “Digital Transformation” on this Cyberwire audio glossary.
SpyCasts
Inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) – with John Lambert and Cristin Goodwin (2021)
The Cyber Zeitgeist – with Dave Bittner (2021)
Securing Cyberspace – with Charlie Mitchell (2016)
Beginner Resources
What is Hacking? The Economic Times (n.d.) [web]
Ethical Hacking in 8 Minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [8 min video]
Cybersecurity in 7 minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [7 min video]
Books
The Cyberweapons Arms Race, N. Perloth (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Cult of the Dead Cow, J. Menn (PublicAffairs, 2020)
Breaking & Entering, J. Smith (Mariner Books, 2019)
The Art of Invisibility, K. Mitnick (L, B & C, 2017)
Ghost in the Wires, K. Mitnick (Back Bay Books, 2012)
Kingpin, K. Poulson (Crown, 2012)
The Cuckoo’s Egg, C. Stoll (Doubleday, 1989)
Neuromancer, W. Gibson (Ace, 1984)
Articles
2022 State of the Threat: A Year in Review, Secureworks (2022)
The Anthropology of Hackers, The Atlantic (2010)
Timeline Since 2006: Significant Cyber Incidents, CSIS (n.d.)
Documentary
DEFCON, The Documentary Network (2013) Resources
Government Hacking Bibliography, S. Quinlan, New America Foundation (2016) Wildcard Resource
“The Aurora Shard”
Come to the International Spy Museum to see an ugly chunk of metal. Why? Well, it speaks to a revolution in the relationship between the material world and the non-material world. Broken down? 30 lines of code blew up a 27-ton generator. Zeros and ones can cause violent explosions!
Summary Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (Website; Wikipedia) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his book. He has studied American intelligence for 50 years.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The CIA and the American presidents they served
The founding of the CIA just as America became a global superpower
Pearl Harbor, the USSR and covert action under Eisenhower
Assassinations, controversy, the Church Committee, and 9/11
Reflections
How much of the future can we predict
Intention in history
And much, much more…
Episode Notes This week’s guest, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, is Emeritus Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh. He has been studying American intelligence for half a century and has written a history of the CIA to coincide with its 75th anniversary, entitled: A Question of Standing. This episode with Rhodri is a counterpoint to last week’s episode with Robert Gates: a career historian and a career intelligence officer; a European and an American; a 70,000 feet view and a 30,000 feet one. Interestingly, they were born continents apart within almost a year of each other. Rhodri is the author of over a dozen books, has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and grew up in Harlech, Wales. And… Harlech, Wales, where Rhodri grew up, has the steepest street in the Northern Hemisphere. The steepest street in the Southern Hemisphere, and the world according to Guinness Records, is in Dunedin, New Zealand (Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh). The steepest street in the continental United States is Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh (to celebrate its Welsh heritage the Steel City has a St. David’s Society). Espionage in Welsh is ysbïo.
Quote of the Week "CIA can't afford to rest on its laurels and continue with systems it has. It has to change all the time." – Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation “Documents on Origins of CIA,” Truman Library [pdf] SpyCasts
“The 75th Anniversary” – with Robert Gates (2022) Beginner Resources
History of CIA, CIA (n.d.) [web]
A Brief History of US-Iran Relations, ABC News (n.d.) [video]
CIA Involvement in 1953 Iranian Coup, CNN (n.d.] [video]
Iran & Guatemala, 1953-4, NYT (2003) [article]
Books
Covert Action & USFP, L. Johnson (OUP, 2022)
A Brief History of the CIA, R. Immerman (Wiley, 2014)
The [Dulles] Brothers, S. Kinzer (St. Martin’s, 2014)
Mighty Wurlitzer: How CIA Played America, H. Wilford (HUP, 2009)
Countercoup: Struggle for Iran, K. Roosevelt (McGraw-Hill, 1979)
Articles
64 Years Later CIA Releases Details of Iranian Coup, B. Allen-Ebrahimian, FP (2017) Video
“The Nazi Spy Ring in America,” R. Jeffreys-Jones, SPY (2021)
“Secrecy, Democracy & the Birth of the CIA,” H. Wilford, Great Courses (n.d.)
Photo
“The 1953 Iranian Coup,” Radio Free Europe Archives (2013) Documentary
The Spymasters, Showtime (2015)
CIA: Secret Wars, Part 1, Roche (2003)
CIA: Secret Wars, Part 2, Roche (2003)
Curatorial
Pocket History of CIA, CIA (2014) Primary Sources
History Staff Analysis: CIA & Guatemala Assassination Proposals, 1952-4 (1995)
Iran 1953: Transcript of Interview with MI6 Officer Norman Darbyshire (1985)
DCI Dulles to President Eisenhower (1953)
Telegram from CIA to Station in Iran (1953)
Telegram from Station in Iran to CIA (1953)
Monthly Report, Directorate of Plans, CIA (1953)
Memo from Deputy Director for Plans (Wisner) to DCI Dulles (1953)
National Security Act (1947)
Website
Intelligence Milestones During Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower Library (n.d.] Wildcard Resource Tom Paine (Common Sense, 1776), Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America, 1835) and Mork from Ork (Mork & Mindy, 1978-82) are all outsiders, like Rhodri, looking in. What can each of them tell us about the United States? What can they tell us that people born within an ecosystem can’t?
Summary Robert Gates (Website; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to reflect on the 75th Anniversary of the CIA. He served 8 U.S. presidents.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
His reflections on the CIA at 75
How the CIA’s story intersected with his own
His take on the organization’s strengths and weaknesses
The complex intl. environment the CIA must now help America navigate
Reflections
Twists of fate
Identity and institutions
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Robert M. Gates is the first career officer in the CIA’s history to rise from entry level employee to Director. He spent 27 years at CIA, nine of those at the NSC. More recently, he was the first Secretary of Defense to be asked to remain in office by a newly elected president. In all, he served 8 presidents. Wouldn’t you love to know his take on the CIA at 75? Well, we’ve made that happen for you! He was born in Wichita, Kansas, served in the U.S.A.F. and he received his undergraduate education at William & Mary, his masters from Indiana University, and his doctorate from Georgetown University. He was formerly the President of Texas A&M University and the current Chancellor of William & Mary. And… The academic institutions Dr. Gates has been associated with all have quite different capacities of football stadium: Georgetown University’s Cooper Field can hold 3,750; William & Mary’s Zable Stadium can hold 12,259; Indiana University’s Memorial Stadium can hold 52,626; and Texas A&M’s Kyle Stadium can hold a whopping 102,733. What could we infer about Dr. Gates, college sports, or the United States from this information? Well, that would be thinking like an intelligence analyst.
Quote of the Week "I've led four very big, very different institutions and like all of them I always saw where places where CIA could be better. But I always loved the place, and I always was proud to work there and proud of the people that I knew…they were probably the smartest, most honest people I've ever met and worked with." – Robert Gates.
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
“Reorganization in the Intel. Community,” DCI Gates (1992)
Watch this prescient clip on historical naivete, or if you’re hardcore, the entire congressional testimony
SpyCasts
“Dealing with Russia” – with Jim Olson (2022)
“I was a Presidential Daily Briefer on 9/11” – with Mike Morell (2021)
Beginner Resources
History of CIA, CIA (n.d.) [website]
CIA Director’s Portrait Gallery, CIA (n.d.) [online gallery]
Impact of President G.H.W. Bush’s Foreign Policy, MSNBC (2018) [13 min. video]
At 75, CIA Back Where it Started, Countering Kremlin, G. Myre, NPR (2022) [5 min. audio]
Books
Spymasters: CIA Directors, C. Whipple (S&S, 2020)
Duty, R. Gates (Vintage, 2015) [Def. Sec. memoir]
A World Transformed, Bush & Scowcroft (Knopf, 1998)
From the Shadows, R. Gates (S&S, 1996) [CIA memoir]
Power & Principle, Z. Brzezinski (FS&G, 1983) [Gates was Z.B.’s Special Asst. at the NSC during the Carter era]
Articles
A More Realistic Strategy for the Post-Cold War Era, R. Gates, WaPo (2022)
Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, M. Warner, SII (1996)
Video
Legacy of the G.H.W.B. Administration, CFR (2016)
Book Talk: From the Shadows, R. Gates, C-Span (1996)
Documentary
The Spymasters, Showtime (2015) Curatorial
Pocket History of CIA, CIA (2014) Primary Sources
Biden Speech on 75th Anniversary of the CIA (2022)
Robert Gates on CIA and Openness (1992)
Nomination of Gates to be DCI (1991)
Adm. Roscoe, First CIA Director Dies (1982)
CIA Review of the World Situation (1947)
Lester to Truman re Centralized Intelligence (1947)
National Security Act (1947)
Wildcard Resource
North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
We hear the first explicit mention of “CIA” in a major movie
“FBI. CIA. ONI. We’re all in the same alphabet soup.”
Summary Alex Finley (Twitter; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss life as a CIA Reports Officer turned author. She lives in Barcelona.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Her take on CIA analysts vs. case officers
Information and disinformation in fact and fiction
Ukraine, the 2016 election and the Russian historical playbook
The regularity even mundanity of much of daily intelligence life
Reflections
Being an American in Barcelona
Viewing your own country from outside the goldfish bowl
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Alex Finley spent 6 years in the CIA as a Reports Officer - whom she describes as a bridge between the case officers and analysts. She is author of a trilogy of novels on the exploits of fictional CIA officer Victor Caro. Her most recent book, Victor in Trouble, completes the series (…or does it?) by looking at Russian influence operations and the contemporary intelligence landscape through a satirical lens. She now lives in Barcelona, Spain - and yes, apparently it’s as awesome as it sounds! – and she is the voice behind #YachtWatch, which tracks and exposes the activities of Russian oligarchs and their superyachts. And… Satire is often described as fitting into three categories: Horatian, which offers light comedy and social commentary (e.g., Pride & Prejudice, Parks & Rec, The Colbert Report); Juvenalian, a darker and more abrasive take that can often take the form of speaking truth to power (e.g., Animal Farm, American Psycho, South Park) and Menippean, which casts moral judgement on beliefs or generic character flaws (e.g., Alice in Wonderland, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Saturday Night Live). Which one does Alex use?
Quote of the Week "There, there were points where I found myself in the middle of nowhere, West Africa. And there are these moments where…how did I end up here? This makes zero sense. And then there were the bureaucratic Catch-22s." – Alex Finley.
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
Who are the Russian Oligarchs? (2022)
A great visulacapitalist.com infographic - but if you want to go understand how they can afford their superyachts, start here
SpyCasts
CIA Officers Turned Authors – David McCloskey & James Stejskal (2022)
NSA, CIA, Author - Alma Katsu (2021)
Victor in the Rubble – Alex Finley (2016)
Beginner Resources
A Brief History of Spy Fiction, Stella Rimington, Crime Reads, (2018) [short essay]
An Introduction to Satire, Jackson School District (n.d.) [2-page guide]
Russia’s Top Five Disinformation Narratives, State (2022) [webpage]
Books
Victor in Trouble, A. Finley (Smiling Hippo, 2022)
The Revenge of Power, M. Naim (St. Martin’s, 2022)
Active Measures, T. Rid (Picador, 2021)
The Misinformation Age, C. O’Connor & J. Weatherall (YUP, 2020)
Victor in The Jungle, A. Finley (Smiling Hippo, 2019)
Victor in The Rubble, A. Finley (Smiling Hippo, 2016)
Great Spy Stories from Fiction, A. Dulles (Harper, 1969)
Articles
The Russian Firehose of Falsehood, C. Paul & M. Matthews, RAND (2016)
Yellow Journalism, PBS (n.d.)
Videos
The Spy Writers You Love to Read, SPY (2019)
Russian Active Measures: Past, Present & Future, CSIS (2018)
The Strategy Behind Russia’s Disinformation Campaigns, DW News (n.d.)
Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News, NYT (n.d.)
Reports
Combatting Targeted Disinformation Campaigns, DHS (2019) Primary Sources
Disinformation: Russian Active Measures, Senate Intelligence Committee (2017)
KGB Active Measures in SW Asia in 1980-82, Wilson Center
Primary Source Collections
Rumor Control Project Documents, Library of Congress Wildcard Resource
A Clockwork Orange (1962) [novel]
A short, sharp satire that ruminates on the nature of society and free will – it will stay with you for a long time to come
Summary Dexter Ingram (LinkedIn; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his varied career. He has a very cool private collection of spy gadgets.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
What spy gadget he would save if his house were on fire
How the hunt for a spy artifact “gets his blood pumping”
Using intelligence to achieve concrete policy objectives
His preference for Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) while working with international partners
Reflections
Vulnerability and trust
Building and leveraging relationships
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Dexter Ingram is the Acting Director at the Office of the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and in his spare time a passionate collector of intelligence artifacts and gadgets. He has performed a variety of roles at the Department of State – he was on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, he was a Counterterrorism Coordinator at Interpol in Lyon, France, and has a deep interest in counterterrorism, counterproliferation and WMD. He was formerly a Naval Flight Officer and White House Intern with the US Navy and has studied at Hampton University, University of Oklahoma, and the National Defense University. In part of our ongoing effort to look at consumers of intelligence as well as producers - i.e., who eats the sausages as well as who makes them - we touch on the various parts of Dexter’s career that intersect with intelligence. And… Hampton University, where Dexter studied for his undergrad, is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) in the United States. It sits near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (incidentally on the same peninsula as “The Farm,” a covert training facility for CIA operations officers). Many leaders of the black community have attended HBCU’s, such as Booker T. Washington (Hampton), W.E.B. Du Bois (Fisk), Martin Luther King (Morehouse), Jesse Jackson (North Carolina A&T), and Kamala Harris (Howard).
Quote of the Week "It's about real people. These are real gadgets better than the movies. It gets my blood pumping." – Dexter Ingram on collecting artifacts.
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
“Shall We All Commit Suicide?” (1924)
One of Churchill’s most powerful and prophetic essays on the destructive powers unleashed by modern science
SpyCasts
Spy of the Century Kim Philby & Artifacts (2022)
ISIS Leader Al Mawla – Part 1 (2022)
ISIS Leader Al Mawla – Part II (2022)
Intelligence and the WMD Fiasco (2008)
Beginner Resources
100 Years of Intl. Police Cooperation, Interpol (2014) [video]
Our History, Interpol (n.d.) [website]
Nuclear Proliferation & Nonproliferation: What you Need to Know, CFR (2019) [video]
Books
The Terror Years: Al Qaeda to ISIS, L. Wright (Penguin, 2017)
Black Flags: Rise of ISIS, J. Warrick (Doubleday, 2015)
Policing the World: Interpol, M. Anderson (Clarendon, 1989)
Articles
“Islamic State’s Khorasan Vision in Asia,” L. Webber & R. Valle, The Diplomat, (2022)
“Red Notices,” Interpol (n.d.)
Video
Deadly Evolution of Nuclear Weapons, Tech Insider, YouTube (2017)
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: What you Need to Know, CFR (2015) [video]
Sailing in the Sea of OSINT, S. Mercado, CSI (2004)
Documentary
Nuclear Tipping Point, NTI, YouTube (2010) Interactives
A Guide to Open-Source Nuclear Detection Work, NTI (2020) Resource sites
OSINT Techniques Primary Source Collections Historical Documents, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) Wildcard Resource
A BBC News Program and Nuclear War (2019)
“Today” is Britain’s highest profile current affairs radio program, and it has been on air since 1958 - a few consecutive days without it and Britain could launch a nuclear counterstrike. Read more here.
Summary James Brundage (LinkedIn; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss prisoners-of-war and intelligence. He is the Curator at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The intelligence dynamics of “prisoners-of-war”
Tap codes and other ways to covertly communicate
Using POWs for propaganda
Debriefing POWs after their release
Reflections
Comparing across time (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc.)
Comparing within time (German/Japanese/American POW camps during WWII)
And much, much more…
Episode Notes What intelligence questions are generated when we discuss “prisoners of war”? The prisoner’s side asks: what happened? Are they alive? If so, where? What did they know? Can they compromise operations? Can we get them out? The other side asks: what do they know? Can they tell us anything we don’t know? Are they misleading us? The prisoner asks: where are we? Are there any friendlies? Can we share information to escape? To answer these questions, this week’s guest is James Brundage who curated the May 22-Apr 23 exhibit, “Life Behind the Wire: POW” which explores life in captivity. He is a public historian who has also worked at the Obama Presidential Library, the Chicago History Museum & the James Garfield Historic Site. And… Jeremiah Denton Jr. was shot down while leading an attack over North Vietnam in 1965 and the title of his memoir, When Hell Was in Session, gives you an idea of what he endured during his captivity. As part of a propaganda campaign, the North Vietnamese arranged for him to be interviewed by a Japanese reporter. Hi blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code. Needless to say, the intelligence community took great interest in the video footage. He passed away in 2014.
Quote of the Week "So roughly 1% of the POW population perished in Europe at the hands of the Germans versus in Japan…the death rate was almost 40%. A lot of that was the conditions of the camp…in Vietnam, of the more than 700 American POWs, there were 73 who perished in POW camps in North Vietnam, which is roughly 10%." – James Brundage
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
The Railway Man: A POW’s Searing Account, E. Lomax (Norton, 2014)
A powerful, powerful memoir. Lomax had nightmares about his WWII experience for over half a century.
SpyCasts
Operation Chaos – Matthew Sweet (2018)
Eavesdropping in Vietnam – Tom Glenn (2012)
Studies & Observations Group – Donald Blackburn (2012)
Intelligence Lessons from Vietnam – Rufus Phillips (2009)
Beginner Resources
The Vietnam War Explained in 25 Minutes, The Life Guide (n.d.) ([video]
Intelligence in the Vietnam War, Vietnam War 50th [posters]
POW’s: What You Need to Know, ICRC (2022) [webpage]
Books
Spies on the Mekong, K. Conboy (Casemate, 2021)
War of Numbers, S. Adams (Steerforth, 2020)
Tap Code, C. Harris & S. Berry (Zondervan, 2019)
Articles
Meet the Hero: Douglas Hegdahl, Milliken Center (n.d.)
OSS’s Role in Ho Chi Minh’s Rise, B. Bergin, SII 62/2 (2018)
Intel. Support to Comms. with POWs in Vietnam, G. Peterson & D. Taylor, SII 60/1 (2016)
Takes on Intelligence and the Vietnam War, C. Laurie, SII 55/2 (2011)
Documentaries
The Vietnam War, K. Burns & L. Novick (2017)
The Fog of War, R. McNamara (2003)
Hearts & Minds, P. Davis (1974)
Oral Histories
Veterans History Project
Vietnam POW Interviews, U.S.N.I.
Primary Sources
POW/MIA Closed Briefing, DD CIA (1991)
Report on US-Vietnamese Talks on POW/MIAs (1985)
Causes, Origins & Lessons of the Vietnam War (1972)
The POW Scandal in Korea (1954)
Wildcard Resource Interestingly, philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Paul Sartre, Paul Riceour, Emmanuel Levinas and Louis Althusser were all POWs – now, the impact this had on their thinking would be one hell of a rabbit hole to go down!
Summary Seth Abramovitch (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the British war-hero who spied on behalf of the Japanese during Hollywood’s Golden Age. This is a story-and-a-half, by jingo!
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
How a British war-hero became a spy for the other side
Japanese espionage in Tinseltown
How the story involves Boris Karloff, Charlie Chaplin and Yoko Ono’s father
The spy ring’s activities before and after Pearl Harbor
Reflections
Playing the game for yourself vs. for a country or a cause
Hubris & Nemesis
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Sqn. Ldr. Frederick Rutland, AM, DSC and Bar, was the first person to fly a seaplane from a ship in history. He was also the first man to spot the German fleet from his seaplane, thereby precipitating the largest naval battle of the First World War, the Battle of Jutland. After leaving the military because of indiscretions with a fellow officer’s wife, he tries to live an ordinary vanilla life, but still craves his action-packed days of old…ultimately, he is approached by the Japanese to spy on their behalf, which leads him to relocate to LA during the Golden Age of Hollywood. To discuss this doozy of a story, I am joined by Seth Abramovitch from The Hollywood Reporter – i.e., the definitive interpretive voice of the entertainment industry – where he has worked for ten years. And… There are some incredible Hollywood movies from the interwar period, capturing some of the tension and suspicion of the era, as well as the faint drumbeat of approaching war. Hitchcock alone had, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), and Foreign Correspondent (1940). Major stars of the era such as Marlene Dietrich, Great Garbo, and Madelaine Carroll helped solidify the spy genre with movies such as Dishonored (1931), Mata Hari (1931), and I Was a Spy (1933). Don’t forget Fritz Lang’s Spione (1928), which has been called a, “marvel of narrative economy in montage.”
Quote of the Week "At the very bottom of the list, it would be any kind of allegiance to any flag, because he's quick to offer to turn on Japan when push comes to shove at the very end of the whole story. I don't think he was doing it for any kind of nationalism or political, viewpoint. I think if anything he was apolitical." – Seth Abramovitch.
Resources Headline Resources
“Beverley Hills Spy” Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter (2022) Andrew’s Recommendation
Reel vs. Real CIA – The Americans, Argo, Black Panther, and the Good Shepherd
SpyCasts
“Russia Upside Down” – with Creator of The Americans Joe Weisberg (2022)
“The Courier” – the Director’s Take with Dominic Cooke (2021)
“Hollywood Spies” – with Jonna Mendez (2020)
“U.S. Naval Intelligence in WWII” – with Rear Admiral Donald Mac Showers
Beginner Resources
Spy for Japan, T. Bradbeer, Historynet (2022) [webpage]
The Pacific War, WELT (2021) [video]
FBI Raid Japanese Spy Network in LA, Smithsonian Channel (2019) [video]
Books
Intelligence & the War Against Japan, R. Aldrich (CUP, 2000)
The Emperor’s Codes, M. Smith (Bantam, 2000)
Articles
“Agent Shinkawa Revisited,” R. Drabkin & B. Hart, IJIC, 35/1 (2022)
The 1924 Law That Slammed the Door on Immigrants, Smithsonian Magazine (2020)
Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22, Historian, State Dept. (n.d.)
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5, Historian, State Dept. (n.d.)
Primary Sources
“Security Service Files, Frederick Rutland” – National Archives (U.K.):
1924-1933
1933-1935
1935-1936
1935-1937
1937-1941
1941
1941-1942
1942
1942-1943
1943-1944
Wildcard Resource
Reel-vs-Reel
How Hollywood compares to the real CIA
The Americans
Argo
Black Panther
The Good Shepherd
Summary Bill Parquette (LinkedIn; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Denial and Deception. They discuss examples such as D-Day, the Yom Kippur War, and the Persian Gulf War.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Denial and deception – what it is and why it matters
Key examples of denial and deception
Detecting denial and deception operations
How to avoid seeing monsters everywhere
Reflections
How to counter denial and deception in everyday life (children, salespeople, etc.)
Stumbling into new roles in new fields
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Sun Tzu said, “all warfare is based on deception” and so much of the natural world is also based on denial and deception: camouflage, feigning, mimicry, distraction. It is also a feature of our daily 21st century lives: spyware, trojan horses, catfishing, and spear phishing. With this week’s guest we look at the Denial and Deception Committee, which aimed to discover and mitigate foreign denial and deception operations against the U.S. by coordinating efforts throughout the IC. Bill Parquette was a former Chair of the Committee. He joined the Committee in 2002 and left in 2015. He was formerly a Lt. Col. In the U.S. Army, starting his career with 10 years in the 82nd Airborne, and is currently Professor of Practice at Penn State University. And… The episode looks at deceiving others but the human capacity for self-deception and denial is VAST – from head in the sand, plugging your ears, living in denial, willful ignorance, and cognitive dissonance through to doublethink.
Quote of the Week "If I have an audience of one or 100, I ask does anyone have children? And the hands get raised. And then I said, okay, did you teach your child deception or denial? And of course not. Do they conduct denial or deception? And they all said yeah, it's throughout nature, it's throughout society…it's a natural thing to deny. I didn't mom I didn't take that cookie." – Bill Parquette
Resources Headline Resources
“Countering Foreign Denial & Deception – Rise of Fall of a Discipline” – J. Bruce, Studies in Intelligence, 64/1 (2020)
“Denial & Deception Issue,” American Intelligence, 32/2 (2015)
Andrew’s Recommendation
“D-Day Would be Nearly Impossible to Pull Off Today,” D. Lupton, WaPo (2019) SpyCasts
“Deceiving the Iraqis in Operation Desert Storm” – with BGen Tom Draude (2013)
“Agent Garbo” – with Stephan Talty (2012)
“Identity, Espionage and Social Media” – with Thomas Ryan (2011)
Beginner Resources
Deception at D-Day, Army Uni. Press (2022) [video]
The True Story of the D-Day Spies, BBC (2014) [video]
Operation Bodyguard Map, Eisenhower Foundation (n.d.) [map]
Books
History of the National Intelligence Council, Hutchings &. Treverton, eds. (OUP, 2019)
Practice to Deceive, B. Whaley (NIP, 2016)
The Watchman Fell Asleep, U. Bar-Joseph (SUNY, 2005)
The Deceivers, T. Holt (Scribner, 2004)
Deception 101, J. Caddell (Army War College, 2004)
Strategic Denial and Deception, Godson & Wirtz eds. (Transaction, 2002)
Deception in War, J. Latimer (Overlook, 2001)
Videos
The War in October, Al Jazeera (2013) Primary Sources
US-PLO Contacts During War, Oct 26, 1973
Secretary’s Staff Meeting, Oct 23, 1973
Sadat - Speech Calling for Arab-Israeli Peace Conference, Oct 16, 1973
Arab-Israel Tensions – Quandt to Scowcroft, Oct 6, 1973
Ultra – Marshall to Eisenhower, Mar 15, 1944
Overall Deception Policy, Jan 22, 1944
Deception Operations Around England, Dec 18, 1943
Overlord Cover Operation, Nov 20, 1943
Wildcard Resource Movies to explore on deception include Deception (1946), The Sting (1973), The Usual Suspects (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Female Agents (2008) and Operation Mincemeat (2021),
Summary David McCloskey (Twitter; Website) and James Stejskal (Twitter; LinkedIn) join Andrew to discuss writing about espionage. They are both former intelligence officers.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
What it is like writing spy fiction as a former practitioner
How fact informs fiction
Writing as a former analyst compared to as a former operator (James)
Reactions by the intelligence community to practitioners-turned-authors
Reflections
The heaven and hell of being an author
The process of getting a process
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Hear two intelligence formers discuss life as current novelists. Where does fact end, and fiction begin when you are a former CIA officer writing fiction? What parts of your own story bleed into the novel? Are the characters composites of people you knew in your line of work or are they entirely fictional? To answer these questions and more, this week, I sat down with David McCloskey, former CIA analyst and author of Damascus Station, a book David Petraeus described as “the best spy novel I have ever read,” and James Stejskal, author of Appointment in Tehran, which has been called “a textbook clandestine operation involving…US Army Special Forces and a clandestine CIA Case Officer,” which James would know something about, since he was both. And… Spy fiction received quite the blow in the space of a 6-month period (Dec 2020-May 2021) which saw the passing of both John Le Carre and Jason Matthews, two formers who served in British and American intelligence. Le Carre was in MI5 and MI6 while Matthews had a long career in the CIA. David and James join a distinguished cast of formers who became novelists, including Ian Fleming, Graham Greene and Dame Stella Rimington.
Quote of the Week "There are far more edits on, short articles I wrote that weren't even going to the president than on the book, so your writing is being critiqued at all levels. I I think when I did write for the PDB [Presidential Daily Brief], I don't think I'm making this up, I believe it was 9 or 10 layers of review. You could probably argue that sometimes that makes it worse, but you have to be able at all stages to roll with the punches and to write and to try to make things very clear."
Resources Headline Resources
Damascus Station, D. McCloskey (2021)
Appointment in Tehran, J. Stejskal (2021)
Andrew’s Recommendation
The Looking Glass War, J. Le Carre (1965)
Le Carre doubles down on disabusing the public’s romanticization of intelligence
SpyCasts
“Snake Eaters, Detachment A, CIA” – James Stejskal (2022)
“American Spy” – Lauren Wilkinson (2021)
“Red Widow” – Alma Katsu (2021)
“American Traitor” – Brad Taylor (2021)
“The Evolution of Spy Fiction” - Wesley Wark (2011)
Beginner Resources
15 Best Espionage Novels, M. Warwick, Mal Warwick On Books (2022) [article]
Novelists Who Became Spies, C. Cumming, Crime Reads (2019) [article]
Best Spy Novels According to a Spy, A. Katsu, Crime Reads (2021) [article]
Books
Missions of the SOE and OSS in WWII, J. Stejskal (Casemate, 2021)
Special Forces Berlin, J. Stejskal (Casemate, 2017)
On Writing, S. King (Scribner, 2010)
Spy Fiction, Spy Films & Real Intelligence, W. Wark (Routledge, 1991)
Articles
Nine Examples of Spy Fiction Books, Masterclass (2021)
How to Write a Spy Thriller, Masterclass (2021)
How End of Cold War Changed Spy Fiction, J. Ciabattari, BBC Culture (2014)
Videos
All the Old Knives, O. Steinhauer, SPY (2022)
Spy Writing in the Real World, Hayden Center (2021)
The Spy Writers You Love to Read, SPY (2020)
Primary Sources
American Observer, CIA (1970)
Barry Farber Show, CIA (1970)
Wildcard Resource
The Riddle of the Sands, E. Childers (1903)
An early spy novel that presaged the anti-German “spy fever” that struck allied countries before and during WWI
Summary Janosh Neumann (LinkedIn; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss life in the FSB. He was born in the Soviet Union to parents in the “business.”
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Why Jan defected to the United States
How you get recruited and trained as a Russian intelligence officer
What it is like to recruit and run agents in Moscow
His take on what he did for the Russian state
Reflections
Learn to connect with anybody
Making a life-changing and potentially life-ending decision
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Have you ever wondered how a Russian intelligence officer is trained? Ever wondered what it would be like to be a defector? Ever wondered what it’d be like to be given three choices, shoot yourself, get shot, or go on the run? If so, you’ll enjoy this week’s episode with Jan Neumann, who was born Alexy Yurievich Artamonov in the former Soviet Union. Jan’s father was a KGB internal affairs officer, and he would go on to join one of its successors, the FSB, or Federal Security Service, in which his wife also served. He speaks about a number of projects he is involved in, here in the States, where he now resides. And… Jan is the Co-Founder of RealSpyComics, which will be the first independent comic publisher dedicated to telling true intelligence stories. The International Spy Museum is a partner on this venture, because if there is one thing, we have a lot of – its spy stories!
Quote of the Week "I'm not a big fan of ballet, but one of my sources was a big ballet fan. So, I had to go to the Bolshoi Theater, watch this again, and again, and again, I had to do some learning to be able to talk to the guy. And same thing was happening with the art as well. so going to some galleries and talk to the people, be sure that they're using at least same terminology as they are, to be able in the future to support the conversation, be interesting to this person whom you're trying to approach." – Janosh Neumann
Resources Headline Resources
Russian Spy, American Defector: with Janosh Neumann, YouTube, 2020
“Almost American, 1-5,” Aftershock Comics (2021-22)
Andrew’s Recommendation
Russian Intelligence, K. Riehle (NIU, 2022) [download entire book here for free) SpyCasts
“Dealing with Russia” – Jim Olson (2022)
“KGB Spy & NCIS Agent” – Jack Barsky & Keith Mahoney
“The Spymaster’s Prism” – Jack Devine (2021)
“The Corrupted State” – Ilya Zaslavskiy (2016)
Beginner Resources
Introduction to the Three Main Arms of Russian Intelligence, Globe & Mail (n.d.) [video]
Putin, Power & Poison: Russia’s Elite FSB Spy Club, BBC (2018) [article]
From Spy to President: Rise of Putin, Vox (2017) [video]
Federal Security Service (FSB), Britannica (n.d.) [article]
Books
Putin’s People, C. Belton (William Collins, 2021)
Return of the Russian Leviathan, S. Medvedev (Polity, 2019)
Near & Distant Neighbors, J. Haslam (FS&G, 2016)
The New Nobility, A. Soldatov & I. Borogan (Public Affairs, 2010)
Memoirs
Spymaster: My 32 Years in Espionage Against the West O. Kalugin (Basic, 2009)
Special Tasks: A Soviet Spymaster, P. and A. Sudoplatov (Little Brown, 1994)
Articles
How Two Russian Defectors Helped the FBI, B. Denson, Newsweek (2016)
Russian Defectors in Oregon, C. McGreal, Guardian (2015)
Videos
Lubyanka Federation: How the FSB Determines the Politics and Economics of Russia, Atlantic Council (n.d.)
Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy, Y. Shvets, C-Span (1995)
Primary Source Collections [All Wilson Center]
Intelligence Operations in the Cold War
The Mitrokhin Archive
The Vassiliev Notebooks
Wildcard Resource
KGB Members from Ahmed to Yuri, courtesy of Marvel Comics!
Summary Chris Costa (LinkedIn; Website) and John Quattrocki (LinkedIn; Website) join Andrew to discuss coming in from the Cold War. They both had long illustrious careers in intelligence.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Two Cold War intelligence experiences
Two perspectives on the U.S. intel. community in the 80’s & early 90’s
Two reflections on the art and science of counterintelligence
Two perspectives on serving on the National Security Council
Reflections
Career bookends
“Inadequate war termination”
And much, much more…
Episode Notes The Windy City Episode. The Pritzker Military Museum and Library (PMML) in Chicago is well worth a visit. Located on Michigan Avenue overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan – there’s three additional attractions right there – you will not be disappointed. SPY teamed up with PMML to put on what would become this week’s episode. To discuss coming in from the Cold War intelligence landscape, Executive Director of SPY Chris Costa and AFIO board member John Quattrocki sat down for a panel discussion with Andrew. Chris, a former intelligence officer of 34 years with 25 of those in active duty in hot spots such as Panama, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, is also a past Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism on the NSC. John retired from the Senior Executive Service (SES - 4) as a Special Agent of the FBI with 19 years of operational experience against the Soviet Union/Russia, the Warsaw Pact, East Asia, Islamic extremist groups, and domestic terrorism. He also served on the NSC as the Director of Counterintelligence Programs. And… Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s mission is to “increase the public’s understanding of military history.” The International Spy Museum’s mission is to “educate the public about espionage and intelligence.” As you can see, then, in the military-intelligence-espionage national security continuum, we are pretty much as good a partnership as it gets.
Quote of the Week "The government has seen the counterintelligence (CI) resources as a kind of a human capital escrow account to draw on for other elements to the government. And in, so doing, we have started to lend our CI bodies to the private sector. So, we are providing indirect cost support to the private sector for their CI responsibilities, rather than causing them to acquit all their own CI responsibilities." – John Quattrocki "I was not entirely satisfied with the idea of being between wars, because we were trained as infantry men. Our job was to prepare to go to war. And then I said, you know what? I wanna fight against our adversaries on a different plane, multilevel chess, if you will. And that's what brought me into the intelligence business." – Chris Costa
Resources Headline Resource
Video of the live event featuring Chris & John at PMML in Chicago, YouTube
SpyCasts
"The FBI Way" - Frank Figliuzzi (2021)
“Army Intelligence” –Mary Legere (2016)
“The CI Professional” – John Schindler (2016)
Beginner Resources
Cold War Overview, Khan Academy (n.d.)
HUMINT vs. Counterintelligence, Clearance Jobs (2020)
Books
To Catch a Spy, J. Olson (GUP, 2019)
U.S. Army CI Handbook (Dept. of Army, 2013)
Double Cross, B. McIntyre (Crown, 2013)
Articles
The Best Books on Counterintelligence, J. Olson, Shepherd (n.d.)
An Anatomy of Counterintelligence, A.C. Wasemiller, SII (1994)
Terms & Definitions of CI, FAS (2014)
Website
Counterintelligence, FBI
Primary Sources
National CI Strategy, 2020-22 (2020)
The Spy Who Loved Her (1994)
A Review of US CI (1986)
Church Committee Report (1976)
Summary of the “CIA Family Jewels” (1975)
Wildcard Resource
“Gerontion,” T.S. Elliott (1920)
This poem is the origin of the phrase often associated with CI: “the wilderness of mirrors.”
Summary Alexis Albion (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Kim Philby using some of his personal belongings as prompts. This episode on the Soviet mole inside MI6 coincides with SPY’s 20th Anniversary.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Why Philby has been called “The Spy of the Century”
Philby the man, the ideologue, the spy, and the traitor
Philby’s corrosive effect on Cold War British and American intelligence
The cultural blind spot that allowed him to hide in plain sight then ride a storm of suspicion
Reflections
Psychological complexity and contradiction
Social stratification
And much, much more…
Episode Notes The Cambridge Five are some of the most notable and notorious traitors in British history, and among them one man stands out in a way that has led some to call him, “The Spy of the Century,” MI6 officer Kim Philby. How did a quintessential Englishman who came from the “right” stock and went to the “right” schools become a Soviet mole? How did a genial chum come to haunt the corridors of British and American intelligence like a ghastly apparition? Dr. Alexis Albion is this week’s guest and the Curator of Special Projects at the International Spy Museum. She was formerly on the 9/11 Commission Report, the World Bank and the U.S. Department of State. In this is a first of a kind podcast, Alexis and Andrew sat down with some of Philby’s personal belongings drawn from our world-leading collection of artifacts on espionage and intelligence. And… Harold Adrian Russell Philby acquired the nickname “Kim” from the main character in Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, an orphan-boy-cum-spy in British India. Kim and Philby also have the Punjab in common, the novel begins in Lahore and Philby was born in Ambala, although the historic region was partitioned between Pakistan and India in 1947. The drive between Lahore and Ambala is roughly similar to that between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Quote of the Week "So why is he The Spy of the Century? Maybe the fact that he's not identified with any particular event or set of information [e.g., unlike Julius Rosenberg], but he's identified with this idea of betraying his Englishness is perhaps why he's been such a lasting figure because he almost is a touchpoint for the history of the 20th century and England. Great Britain's demise is a great power."
Resources Andrew’s Recommendation
My Five Cambridge Friends, Y. Modin (FS&G, 1994)
A one-time KGB handler of the Cambridge 5 reflects on each of them as spies and as individuals
SpyCasts
Stalin’s Englishman: Guy Burgess – with Andrew Lownie (2016)
The British the Joint Intelligence Committee – with Mike Goodman (2014)
The Real History of MI6 – with Keith Jeffrey (2010)
The Cambridge 5 – with Nigel West (2009)
Beginner Resources
Facts About Kim Philby, J. Hayes, Factinate (n.d.)
Reading Material Culture [i.e., objects] (2020]
India’s Partition in Pictures, BBC (n.d.)
Books
Spies & Traitors, M. Holzman (Pegasus, 2021)
A Spy Among Friends, B. McIntyre (Crown, 2015)
Kim, Rudyard Kipling (1901)
Articles
The Punjab Partition, S. Sultan, LSE (2018)
Philby & Mistrust, M. Gladwell, New Yorker (2014)
Documentary
Why Was India Split into Two Countries, H. Roy, TED-Ed, YouTube (n.d.)
MI6 Agent Turned Russian Spy, Philby, Timeline, YouTube (n.d.)
Primary Sources
Philby, I Spied for Russia from 1933 (1967)
My Silent War, K. Philby (1967)
The Disappearance of Kim Philby (1963)
Kim Philby (Peach): File 1 (1951-52)
Constituent Assembly of India (1946)
Primary Source Collections
Indian Independence & Partition, UK National Archives
Wildcard Resource
Surnames & Social Mobility in England, 1230-2012
So, you thought social mobility in England has changed significantly since the Norman Conquest almost 1000 years ago – well, yes, and NO!
Summary Jim Olson (Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Putin and Russia. He had a 31-year career with the CIA including a tour in Moscow.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
His views on Russia and its trajectory since the Cold War’s end
His frank assessment of Putin and admiration for the Russian people
His time in Moscow with 3 rotating KGB teams surveilling him
His time as Chief of Station in the city of spies Vienna
Reflections
A “beautiful marriage” with American technology
Passing the generational baton
And much, much more…
Episode Notes “James Olson is a legend in the clandestine service,” not my description of this week’s guest, but that of former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Jim spent 31 years in the CIA, including tours in Moscow, Vienna & Mexico City, and rose to become Chief of CIA Counterintelligence. He is the author of Fair Play and To Catch a Spy. He joined Andrew to speak about Russia. He speaks the language, spent time living and working in the country, where he was involved in one particularly daring operation that he shares with us in the episode, and he faced off against the organization that would go on to become the current SVR and FSB – the KGB. Jim has had Vladimir Putin on his radar for many a year, and he doesn’t pull any punches reflecting on his trajectory in this episode. And… Jim grew up in a small town in Iowa where, “we didn’t really follow international affairs, we joked among ourselves…if it didn’t affect the price of corn, we weren’t really interested.” My, how things changed for Jim.
Quote of the Week "I have tremendous respect for the Russian people. They are long suffering. I've gotten to know many Russians. I've worked with a lot of Russians. I found them to be people who had a real soul. They had a human qualities that I could admire, but they were locked into a repressive regime that did not allow them to express any of those human sentiments that that they felt." – Jim Olson
Resources Headline Resource
To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence, J. Olson (GUP, 2019)
Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying, J. Olson (Potomac, 2008)
SpyCasts
“The Spymaster’s Prism” – with Jack Devine (2021)
“Russians Among Us: The Hunt for Putin’s Spies” – with Gordon Corera (2020)
“The Corrupted State” – with Ilya Zaslavskiy (2016)
“Putin’s End Game in Ukraine” – with KGB General (Retd.) Oleg Kalugin (2014)
Beginner Resources
To Catch A Spy with J. Olson, C-SPAN (2020) [9:44 minutes]
The Best Books on Counterintelligence, J. Olson, Shepherd (n.d.)
Putin’s Revisionist History of Russia and Ukraine, I. Chotiner, New Yorker (2022)
Books
Putin’s People, C. Belton (Picador, 2022)
Operative in the Kremlin, F. Hill & C. Gaddy (Brookings, 2015)
One Soldier’s War in Chechnya, A. Babchenko (Portobello, 2008)
Articles
Former CIA Leader Said LinkedIn is Like a Candy Store to China, C. Burgess, ClearanceJobs (2022)
New Documentary Series Explores Pollard Affair, H. Brown, Jerusalem Post (2022)
J. Olson First Recipient of “The Spirit of Aggieland – 41 Award,” J. Adams, KAGS (2022)
Ex-CIA Chief on Accused Chinese Spymaster, P. Christian, WCPO (2021)
Videos
To Catch A Spy with J. Olson, Houston World Affairs Council (2020) Primary Sources
James Collins Oral History, US Ambassador to Soviet Union, 1997-2001 (n.d.)
Jack Matlock Oral History, US Ambassador to Soviet Union, 1987-1991, (n.d.)
Ukraine: Memo. On Security Assurances (1994)
Belovezha Accords, Eyewitness Account of Former Belarus Soviet Leader (1991)
Wildcard Resource
What Classic Russian Literature Can Teach us about Putin’s War on Ukraine
Putin is a big fan of Dostoevsky – who underwent a mock execution & four years of hard labor in Siberia for belonging to a literary discussion group feared by the Tsarist autocracy.
Summary John Gise joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the Wall of Spies Experience. It features over 200 stories of espionage and sabotage in America since 1776.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
America’s first Spymaster
The Founding Father of American Counterintelligence
The New Yorker who adopted a Southern accent so she could spy on the Confederacy
The escaped enslaved man who was described as a “walking order of battle chart”
Reflections
Educating a workforce on its past
Dreaming about history
And much, much more…
Episode Notes The Wall of Spies Experience features over 200 stories of espionage, sabotage and betrayal from American history. The physical wall is a private museum on an intelligence community facility, but the second installment of the Digital Wall of Spies has recently been released. Thus far we have the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, with WWI coming up next. Whether you want to get a sense of the evolution of espionage in America, dork out on a particular historical period, or just have a browse – we are sure you will agree that this National Counterintelligence & Security Center (NCSC) sponsored exhibit is a welcome contribution to the public’s understanding of the history of intelligence and espionage. This week’s guest is John Gise, for whom the Wall of Spies was a labor of love. He has had a number of different roles across the US government, including a stint in Special Forces, but for now, spies from American history are with him while awake…and while asleep. And… If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t visit the Statue of Liberty’s torch, you need to listen to the teaser John provides at the end of this episode on the next installment of the Digital Wall of Spies (we’ll give you a clue…it’s the opposite of White Jerry).
Quote of the Week "We've now posted online…the digital revolutionary war spies, the digital civil war spies…And we're talking in the revolutionary war about 30 continental army spies and British spies…for the civil war, it's about 25 Union spies and Confederate spies. And many of those spies are also Scouts, right? Collecting information, going behind enemy lines, conducting reconnaissance missions and collecting intelligence for their superiors." – John Gise.
Resources Headline Resource
The Wall of Spies Experience (Digital) SpyCasts
“Birthplace of American Espionage” - Spy Sites of Philadelphia (2021)
George Sharpe and the BMI: A Conversation with Peter Tsouras (2019)
Washington’s Spies: An Interview with Alexander Rose (2015)
Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War (2014)
Intelligence and Espionage in the U.S. Civil War (2012)
Books
The Creation of American Military Intelligence in the Civil War, P. Tsouras (Casemate, 2018)
Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War (GUP, 2014)
The Secret War for the Union, E. Fishel (Houghton, 1996)
Articles
Audacious Confederate Spies, G. Brockell, WaPo (2022)
The Wall of Spies, M. Rosenwald, WaPo (2019)
Intelligence Agency Unveils New Weapon to Deter Spies – A Museum, J.J. Green, WTOP (2019)
Primary Sources
John McEntee to George H. Sharpe [Charley Wright’s intel on location of Lee's army] 1863)
Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot – Pinkerton Papers [Kate Warne] (1861)
The Federalist Papers: No:64 (John Jay, 1788)
Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies (1778-1781)
Benedict Arnold Letter to John André (1780)
John André Letter to Joseph Stansbury [for Benedict Arnold] (1779)
Letter, George Washington to Benjamin Tallmadge (1779)
Wildcard Resource
Fraunces Tavern, New York City
If you want to connect to Revolutionary War espionage, grab an ale, a seat by the fire, and muse (they also have a museum!)
Summary Vikram Sood (Twitter, Blog) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss intelligence in the world’s largest democracy. He was the chief of India’s Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW).
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The intelligence landscape in India
China, Pakistan, and the intelligence challenges in the region
The founding and evolution of the Research and Analysis Wing
The pressure involved in the top job and being responsible to the Prime Minister
Reflections
The power of narratives
Spies can be sensitive souls too
And much, much more…
Episode Notes This is the final installment of our month long special on SPY CHIEFS, featuring Vikram Sood. former Director of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (RA&W). This episode from the vault was recorded during the darkest days of the pandemic when the International Spy Museum was closed, infections and deaths were sky high, and Andrew was at home in his living room with Vikram at his in New Delhi. So, is the R&AW similar to the CIA or MI6 or both? Does it have a covert action capability? How focused is it on China and Pakistan? Who does the Director report to? To hear the answers tune in to listen to an Indian Spy Chief who was in office in the critical years 2000-2003. Vikram was in the intelligence business for more than thirty years, since leaving as the professional head of India’s foreign intelligence agency he went on to have a successful second career at the think-tank, Observer Research Foundation, which is based in New Delhi. He is the author of two books (see below). And… Depending on the source, India has more, a little less, or roughly the same number of Muslims as Pakistan. An incredible fact when you consider that Pakistan is generally in the top five for having the largest population in the world. In fact, India has a larger population than the United States, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria combined.
Quote of the Week "There is immense tension in the job because anything can go wrong any day and you will be held responsible if there is another bomb blast somewhere else. But if the leadership is supportive and it's understanding, and also contributes to helping you decide things, takes decisions for you that need politically clearances. That helps a lot that takes away the anxieties, it keeps the blood pressure down." – Vikram Sood
Resources Headline Resource
The Ultimate Goal: R&AW Chief Deconstructs how Nations Construct Narratives (Harper India, 2020)
The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief’s Insights into Espionage (Penguin, 2018)
Beginner Resources
[Video] How Was R&AW Started: Story of India’s External Intelligence Agency, WION (2022)
[Article] RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations, Yatish Yadav, New Indian Express (2020)
Books
The War that Made R&AW, A. Nandakumar (Westland, 2021)
JFK’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA and the Sino-Indian War, B. Riedel (BIP, 2015)
Intelligence Elsewhere, P. Davies & K. Gustafson (GUP, 2013)
The Kaoboys & R&AW, B Raman (Lancer, 2012)
India’s External Intelligence, V.K. Singh (ManasPub, 2007)
Articles
History of RAW, Sachidananda Mohanty, Frontline (2022)
A Peek Into India’s IB and RAW, Amjed Jaaved, Pakistan Today (2022)
Inside R&AW, Rahul Bedi, The Wire: India (2020)
Quiet Americans in India, P. McGarr, Diplomatic History, 38(5), 2014 (1046-1082)
Videos
Ex-Israel Spy Chief Talks Intelligence Cooperation with India, The Quint, YouTube (n.d.)
Ex R&AW Chief Vikram Sood Gives a Glimpse of the World of Spies, The Quint, YouTube (n.d.)
Wildcard Resource
“The James Bond of India”
Real-life spy Ajit Doval who spent years undercover in Pakistan
He is currently the National Security Advisor of India!
Summary Ellen McCarthy (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss her career and time as head of the State Department’s intelligence agency. INR is one of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Her start as a Soviet submarine analyst in the Office of Naval Intelligence
Bringing the U.S. Coast Guard intel. program into the Intelligence Community (IC)
Working for DoD and Geospatial-Intelligence
Why she admires the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)
Reflections
Government/for-profit/non-profit life
Managing complexity and change
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Imagine seeing a pyramid from different angles and different heights instead of from one vantage point? You get a better sense of what it truly looks like, its dimensions, colors, idiosyncrasies, and the shadows it casts, right? Ellen McCarthy has seen more of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) pyramid than most: she started as a junior analyst for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence and ended up as the head of the State Dept.’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). Along the way, she was with the U.S. Coast Guard, in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Quite the journey, I am sure you will agree… And… INR has been called the “biggest little intelligence shop in town” and its morning intelligence summary, “Better than Wheaties.” The NYT called it the “least wrong” intelligence agency on Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and it has been credited for a more accurate assessment of Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russia than its peers. “They get paid attention to because they’re good and they tend to be contrarian,” notes a former chair of the National Intelligence Council. How do they manage this? Well, big question, but the deep, deep expertise of their staff – who are on average on their regional or functional area for over a decade – as well as an “intolerance for mediocrity” would be good places to start.
Quote of the Week "The Geographer of the United States sits in INR. I don't think a lot of people know that. So, when there's a boundary dispute or you've got countries trying to build islands, it's INR that's actually working what the legal boundaries are. The other thing that INR does that a lot of folks don't know about is polling. Polling in the intelligence community is conducted at INR…And I will tell you that the polling capability at INR is the best I've ever seen." – Ellen McCarthy
Resources SpyCasts
“State Department Intelligence: Inside the INR” – INR Leadership (2020) Beginner Resources
Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Wikipedia [webpage]
Learn About the Smallest Organization in the IC, YouTube (n.d.) [1:45 minute]
Geographer of the United States, YouTube, (2011) [13:24 minute]
Books
“Intelligence Informs Policymaking at DoS: INR,” T. King in T. Juneau, ed. Strategic Analysis in Support of Policymaking, R&L (2017), pp. 95-110.
Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis & National Security, T. Fingar, SUP (2011)
INR, Intelligence & Research at State, U.S. DoS (1973)
Article
The U.S. Intelligence Community Needs a ‘Wild Bill’ Moment, E. McCarthy & M. Scott, Cipher Brief (2021) Video
SPYCHAT: Ellen McCarthy & Chris Costa, YouTube (2021)
The New IC: Ellen McCarthy Keynote, YouTube (2019)
FedMentor: NGA’s Ellen McCarthy, YouTube (2014)
Primary Sources
INR: 2025 Strategic Plan (2022)
Oral History with Teresita Schaeffer (1998)
Oral History with Thomas F. Conlon (1992)
Oral History with Frank Burnet, (1990)
Oral History with Daniel Zachary (1989)
Wildcard Resource
The Ralph J. Bunche Library
State Dept. Library named after OSS intelligence analyst, diplomat & Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Bunche
Summary Ellen McCarthy (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss her career and time as head of the State Department’s intelligence agency. INR is one of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Her start as a Soviet submarine analyst in the Office of Naval Intelligence
Bringing the U.S. Coast Guard intel. program into the Intelligence Community (IC)
Working for DoD and Geospatial-Intelligence
Why she admires the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)
Reflections
Government/for-profit/non-profit life
Managing complexity and change
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Imagine seeing a pyramid from different angles and different heights instead of from one vantage point? You get a better sense of what it truly looks like, its dimensions, colors, idiosyncrasies, and the shadows it casts, right? Ellen McCarthy has seen more of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) pyramid than most: she started as a junior analyst for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence and ended up as the head of the State Dept.’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). Along the way, she was with the U.S. Coast Guard, in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Quite the journey, I am sure you will agree… And… INR has been called the “biggest little intelligence shop in town” and its morning intelligence summary, “Better than Wheaties.” The NYT called it the “least wrong” intelligence agency on Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and it has been credited for a more accurate assessment of Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russia than its peers. “They get paid attention to because they’re good and they tend to be contrarian,” notes a former chair of the National Intelligence Council. How do they manage this? Well, big question, but the deep, deep expertise of their staff – who are on average on their regional or functional area for over a decade – as well as an “intolerance for mediocrity” would be good places to start.
Quote of the Week "The Geographer of the United States sits in INR. I don't think a lot of people know that. So, when there's a boundary dispute or you've got countries trying to build islands, it's INR that's actually working what the legal boundaries are. The other thing that INR does that a lot of folks don't know about is polling. Polling in the intelligence community is conducted at INR…And I will tell you that the polling capability at INR is the best I've ever seen." – Ellen McCarthy
Resources SpyCasts
“State Department Intelligence: Inside the INR” – INR Leadership (2020) Beginner Resources
Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Wikipedia [webpage]
Learn About the Smallest Organization in the IC, YouTube (n.d.) [1:45 minute]
Geographer of the United States, YouTube, (2011) [13:24 minute]
Books
“Intelligence Informs Policymaking at DoS: INR,” T. King in T. Juneau, ed. Strategic Analysis in Support of Policymaking, R&L (2017), pp. 95-110.
Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis & National Security, T. Fingar, SUP (2011)
INR, Intelligence & Research at State, U.S. DoS (1973)
Article
The U.S. Intelligence Community Needs a ‘Wild Bill’ Moment, E. McCarthy & M. Scott, Cipher Brief (2021) Video
SPYCHAT: Ellen McCarthy & Chris Costa, YouTube (2021)
The New IC: Ellen McCarthy Keynote, YouTube (2019)
FedMentor: NGA’s Ellen McCarthy, YouTube (2014)
Primary Sources
INR: 2025 Strategic Plan (2022)
Oral History with Teresita Schaeffer (1998)
Oral History with Thomas F. Conlon (1992)
Oral History with Frank Burnet, (1990)
Oral History with Daniel Zachary (1989)
Wildcard Resource
The Ralph J. Bunche Library
State Dept. Library named after OSS intelligence analyst, diplomat & Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Bunche
Summary Mike Burgess (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his agency and the enduring strength of Australia’s alliances. ASIO is the second intelligence agency he has directed.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The Australian idea of “mateship” in the intelligence context
The Australian intelligence landscape
The United States as its most important strategic alliance
The enduring value and historical uniqueness of the FIVE EYES alliance
Reflections
How Man. Utd. might help us understand leadership
The frustrations of watching spy fiction on TV as a practitioner
And much, much more…
Episode Notes The top job: what is it like? what are the joys and pains of leadership? This is not like leading a business, though, or a soccer team, this is protecting the country and its citizens from terrorism, espionage, sabotage, and external interference. Such is the charge of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO). To address these questions, Andrew sat down with Mike Burgess, who was formerly the Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), comparable to GCHQ and the NSA – an agency would serve in for over 20 years. They also discussed the Australian intelligence landscape and its most important alliances, such as the U.S. and FIVE EYES and some of its important regional relationships. And… Mike and Andrew hit it off, especially when discussing Alex Ferguson and how soccer can help us understand management and leadership. Ferguson won more titles in soccer than any other manager, at 49, and he is generally considered the GOAT or a strong contender. Of course, trophies are extremely important, but they do not capture everything. If you are looking for an example of transformational change of an entire organization and its subsequent culture, HBS could do a lot worse than draft a case study on the legendary leadership of Liverpool F.C. by Bill Shankly. He made people believe.
Quote of the Week Talking about FIVE EYES, that's one of those foundational partnerships in our relationships…It's unique because…it was born through WWII. It's an interesting phenomenon because it started its life as a signals intelligence relationship…at its core, it's an intelligence relationship that really has made a difference to each of those five nations’ respective national security…And we do trust each other, and we share our most intimate secrets.
Resources SpyCasts
“Keeping Secrets/Disclosing Secrets” – with Spy Chief turned DG of Australia’s National Archives David Fricker (2022)
“Desperately, Madly in Love” – Brett Peppler and the Australian IC (2021)
Beginner Resources
Australian Intelligence Community, Wikipedia [webpage]
Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO) [Website]
Why I Spy, M. Burgess, YouTube (n.d.) [60 second video]
Intelligence Professionals FAQ, ASIO, YouTube (n.d.) [2:32 minute video]
Virtual Exhibition
Spy: Espionage in Australia (NAA) Books
Spies & Sparrows: ASIO & the Cold War, P. Deery (2022)
Between Five Eyes, A. Wells (2020)
Intelligence & the Function of Government, D. Baldino & E. Crawley (2018)
The Official History of ASIO – 3 Volumes, D. Horner, J. Blaxland, R. Crawley (2014/2015/2016)
Report
Intelligence Oversight: A Comparison of the FIVE EYES Nations, C. Baker et.al., Parliament of Australia (2017) Primary Sources
Director-General’s Annual Threat Assessment (2022)
Foreign Espionage: An Australian Perspective, ASIS DG (2022)
ASIO Internal Message on Vietnam War (1970)
Surveillance of the Aarons, Communist Party Australia (1966)
Counterespionage Film, ASIO (1963)
Citizenship for former Soviet Spies, Petrovs (1956)
Wildcard Resource
Sydney vs. Melbourne: The Real Canberra Story
If you’ve ever wondered why Canberra is the capital…
Summary Paul Lashmar (Twitter, Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss investigative journalism and intelligence. He is a former UK Reporter of the Year.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The similarities and differences between spooks and journalists
The role Watergate played for his generation of journalists
Intelligence overseers as “Ostriches,” “Cheerleaders,” “Lemon-suckers,” or “Guardians”
Bellingcat, Spycatcher and the “Zinoviev Letter”
Reflections
The long shadow of the Second World War
Investigative journalism in democratic societies
And much, much more…
Episode Notes “Cardiac stimulating experiences,” is how this week’s guest describes meeting sources in smoky IRA pubs in Belfast all on his lonesome. But he also met sources in the oak-paneled clubs of Whitehall and in many other places around the world. So, what has our guest distilled from his long career examining intelligence agencies? What are the types of relationships spooks and journalists have had with one another? What are the similarities and differences between both tribes? To answer these questions and more, Andrew sat down with investigative reporter and current Head of the Dept. of Journalism at City, University of London, Paul Lashmar. Paul has worked across the media landscape, as a producer for the BBC, as a broadcast journalist with British current affairs television program World in Action, and as an investigative journalist for the Observer newspaper. He won Reporter of the Year in the 1986 UK Press Awards. He is the author of Spy Flights of the Cold War, Britain’s Secret Propaganda War, and most recently Spies, Spin and the Fourth Estate. And… World in Action was a legendary investigative TV program in the U.K. It’s programming led to the resignation of a Home Secretary, one of the Great Offices of State in the UK; the release of the Birmingham Six, who were wrongfully convicted of planting IRA bombs; and the exposure of Combat-18, a violent neo-Nazi movement. It would also publish the original story of the Spycatcher allegations that the head of MI5 was a Soviet mole and that there had been a joint MI5-MI6 plot to overthrow Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Paul co-wrote that 1984 episode. For all these reasons and more, it was rarely out of the courts. The last series was broadcast in 1998.
Quote of the Week "They would meet you in an up-market club in the center of London…it's leather Chesterfields, gentleman walking around getting your gin and tonic. It was all of that, in those days it was all informal…there are now in most newspapers, somebody who is usually appointed by the editor who maintains those connections… it's a sensible arrangement." – Paul Lashmar
Resources Headline Resource
Spies, Spin and the Fourth Estate, P. Lashmar (EUP, 2021) SpyCasts
The Women of NatSec Journalism – 6 Leading Journalists (2017)
Covering Intelligence (2015)
Part 1: with Mark Mazzetti
Part 2 – with Ali Watkins
Part 3 – with Greg Miller
Books
Zinoviev Letter, G. Bennett (OUP, 2020)
Spies and the Media in Britain, R. Norton-Taylor (IBT, 2018)
Spinning Intelligence, R. Dover and M. Goodman (CUP, 2009)
Spycatcher, P. Wright (Viking, 1987)
Beginner Articles
UK Officials Still Blocking SpyCatcher Files, Guardian (2021)
The Zinoviev Letter, FT (2018)
When Spy Agencies Didn’t Exist, BBC (2014)
Articles
Why Good Investigative Journalism Matters (2022)
Obituary: Peter Wright, Independent (1995)
Documentary
“World in Action,” YouTube (n.d.) Primary Sources
The Spy Who Never Was [World In Action] (1984)
Moscow Orders to Our Reds [Daily Mail Accusation] (1924)
Zinoviev Denies Writing Letter (1924)
Zinoviev Narrative of Facts [TUC & Labour Party] (1924)
Wildcard Resource
How Bellingcat is Using TikTok to Investigate the War in Ukraine
Investigative journalism, Bellingcat style!
Summary Admiral Hernando Wills Velez (Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss intelligence in Colombia. He is the former professional head of the Colombian Navy.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
What it is like to be the head of an entire Navy
Intelligence from the point of view of a senior military officer
The unique set of challenges Colombia faces – insurgents, terrorists, paramilitaries, drug-cartels, etc.
The role intelligence played in the daring Operation Jacque
Reflections
The blessings and curses of geography
Capacity building in organizations
And much, much more…
Episode Notes To hear more about his remarkable career as former professional head of the Colombian Navy, and to discuss Colombia and intelligence, Andrew sat down with Admiral Hernando Wills Vélez. Colombia and its navy must reckon with a unique combination of challenges – including Marxist insurgents, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels, crime syndicates, and a vast and diverse territory. To sum up, it is a remarkably fascinating case-study for the role intelligence might play. Admiral Wills was also the commander of the Pacific Fleet, head of the Colombian Coast Guard, and a former aide de camp to the President of Colombia. His father was a career military officer who served in the Korean War with the Colombian Navy. He is an NDU graduate. And… “Operation Jacque.” This episode coincides with a pop-up exhibit at our museum on a 2008 Colombian intelligence-led operation to rescue 15 hostages held for many years by the FARC, a Marxist guerilla group who were involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and terrorism. 3 Americans and 12 Colombians were rescued, including a candidate for the Colombian presidency. Bottom line: all the hostages were freed from deep within the rainforest without a single shot being fired. Intelligence baby, intelligence.
Quote of the Week "Time goes so fast. I joined the Navy when I was 15 years old, very young. I finished high school. in the Naval academy. And then you start your regular business as a young lieutenant in ships and destroyers and positions on land. And all of a sudden, you see yourself as an admiral. I mean, it's a crazy thing…[then] I had the privilege to be selected by the president to lead the Columbia Navy." – former Head of Columbia's Navy Admiral Hernando Wills.
Resources Headline Resource
“Operation Jacque,” International Spy Museum, Spring-Summer 2022 Books
Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History, M. Larosa & G. Mejía (R&L, 2017)
Out of Captivity: Surviving 1967 Days in the Colombian Jungle, M. Gonsalves, et al. (W. Morrow, 2009)
Beginner Articles
Colombia Profile – Timeline, BBC (2018)
Colombia – CIA World Factbook, CIA (2022)
Colombia Marks One Year Anniversary of Jaque, Reuters (2009)
Colombia – Navy, Global Security (n.d.)
Articles
Anchoring the Caribbean: The Colombian Navy, W. Mills, Stable Seas (2021)
Colombia & Operation Jacque, L. Collins, Modern War Institute (2021)
Plan Colombia and the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group, K. Higgins, Taylor Francis (2021)
Plan Colombia: Effectiveness & Costs, D. Mejía, Brookings (2016)
Globalization & FARC, J. Forero, USAWC (2013)
FARC: A Portrait of Insurgent Intelligence, J. Gentry & D. Spencer, INS (2010)
Videos
FARC Hostage Rescue Video – Operation Jacque, CBS (2008) Primary Sources
Revocation of Terrorist Designation for FARC, A. Blinken, State (2021)
Plan Colombia – Staff Trip Report, Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2005)
Plan Colombia, U.S. Role – Hearing, House Subcommittee on the W. Hemisphere (2000)
NSC 1 – Carter Panama Canal Directive (1977)
Letter to U.S. Senators From Carter – Panama Canal (1977)
Wildcard Resource
One Hundred years of Solitude (novel), Embrace of the Serpent (movie), or Adventures of an Orchid Hunter (travel memoir) – take your pick!
Summary Peter Earnest spent 35 years in the CIA as a case officer and retired as its chief spokesman. He was the founding Executive Director of the International Spy Museum.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Losing a friend in the line of duty vs. betrayal by a colleague
Using affability to your advantage
Thoughts on the shift from classic espionage to counterterrorism for the CIA
The relationship between the CIA, the press and the public
Reflections
The origins of the International Spy Museum
The role museums can play in fostering a sense of collective identity & esprit de corps
And much, much more…
Episode Notes May 21st, 2022. The date of the Memorial Service at the International Spy Museum for Peter Earnest, the founding Executive Director of the museum and a 35-year veteran of the CIA and. In honor of him, his week’s episode is an exit-interview he recorded with my predecessor, Vince Houghton, not long after Peter announced his retirement from the museum. Peter was a case officer at CIA for 25 years, largely in Europe and the Middle East, recruiting and running agents, and getting involved in covert actions, counterespionage, and double agent operations. He later went on to work in the Inspector General’s office and as the CIA’s Senate liaison, concluding his career as the CIA’s chief spokesman. What is it like being a nice guy in the murky world of intelligence? How does a tight-lipped case officer make the transition to chief spokesman? How did a museum on espionage and intelligence end up in Washington D.C.? Peter Earnest died on February 13, 2022. He will be sorely missed. And… Peter wrote the foreword for a 2011 edition of Boy Scout founder Robert Baden-Powell’s classic book, My Adventures as a Spy, featuring chapters such as “Commercial Spying,” “Traitorous Spying,” and “How Spies Disguise Themselves.” The only CIA officer who came through the ranks to become Director, Robert Gates, was an Eagle Scout, as was the only Director of both the CIA and the FBI, Judge William Webster.
Quote of the Week "There's a broad respect from museums by the American public they're distrustful of almost everything else, but the trust in museums is high, and so I think it's a place that some of those senior professionals refer to. If they've come down, they feel, it's, doing good work." – Peter Earnest
Resources Headline Resource TRIBUTE: CIA Veteran Who Helped Launch the Spy Museum, Dies at 88, International Spy Museum, YouTube (2022) *SpyCasts
Peter Earnest: My Life in the CIA (2012) Articles
In Memoriam, Peter Earnest, 1934-2022, SPY (2022)
CIA Veteran who Ran a Spy Museum, Dies at 88, NYT (2022)
CIA Veteran Who Helped Launch Spy Museum, Dies at 88, H. Smith, WaPo (2022)
Family of Spies, Washingtonian Magazine (2013)
Books
The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy, P. Earnest (Harper, 2009)
Business Confidential: Lessons for Corporate Success from Inside the CIA, P. Earnest & M. Karinch (AMACOM, 2010)
Harry Potter and the Art of Spying, P. Earnest & S. Harper (Wise Ink, 2014)
Primary Sources
Soviet Defector Arkady Shevchenko Dies, WaPo (1998)
Emily A. Earnest, Consular Office Obituary, WaPo (1994)
CIA Officer Richard Welch Murdered in Athens, CIA (1975)
CIA COS Richard Welch Murdered in Athens, Counterspy Magazine Blamed for his Death, British Pathe (1975)
Wildcard Resource
Colbert Classic, Spy Training with Peter Earnest, Comedy Central (2013) Go to 3:31
Summary Lis Wiehl (Twitter, Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the FBI Agent Robert Hanssen. His espionage for the Russians was described as the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.”
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The many contradictions of this fragmented personality
The criminal sworn FBI Agent
The sexual fetishist in Opus Dei
The anti-communist Soviet spy
Hanssen’s impact on the FBI and American Intelligence
How the Hanssen case effected the FBI-CIA relationship
Reflections
Technology’s impact on the espionage/counterespionage cat-and-mouse game
Cultural and institutional blind spots
And much, much more…
Episode Notes The International Spy Museum has the handcuffs that were put on one of the most notorious spies in American history, former FBI Agent Robert Hanssen. But what was the backstory of the moment those metal restraints closed around his wrists in Foxstone Park, Virginia? What did he do? Why did he do it? Who was this man? What damage did he do? To discuss these questions, Andrew sat down with the author of A Spy in Plain Sight, Lis Wiehl. Lis is a former Federal Prosecutor and a legal analyst and reporter on major news networks, including a 15-year stint at Fox News. She is the best-selling author of 20 fiction and non-fiction books and last but not least she is the daughter of an FBI Agent who heard stories of Hanssen’s betrayal from her father. Hanssen betrayed “jewel in the crown of American intelligence, Dimitri Polyakov, and other U.S. assets, as well as handing over thousands of pages of highly classified information to the Soviet Union and later Russia. And… In the intelligence community compartmentalization is a way to try to protect sensitive information, caveats, codewords, clearances, read ins, need to know, etc., but in the personal context it refers to being capable of being a “different person in terms of outlook, values and behavior at different times and circumstances.” David Charney met with Hanssen for an entire year after his arrest and described him as “the most compartmentalized person I have ever met.” He also mentions that he is a very experienced psychiatrist. Charney says in terms of compartmentalization most of us are a 1-2 on a scale of 10. Guess where Hanssen was?
Quote of the Week "At one point hacked into one of his colleagues’ computers to get more information, he was found out and his excuse was, I was just trying to show you how easily we're hacked into so that we can make sure that we don’t, and they believed him because he was a computer guy…they just believed him when he hacked in this other person's computer. Crazy." – Lis Wiehl
Resources Headline Resource
A Spy in Plain Sight, L. Wiehl (S&S, 2022) SpyCasts
“The FBI Way” - Counterintelligence Chief Frank Figliuzzi
“Leningrad, Molehunts, and Life After the CIA” - Christopher Burgess (2021)
“Defending a Spy, An Espionage Attorney” - Plato Cacheris (2015)
“The Movie Breach and Hollywood’s Take on Espionage” – Eric O’Neill (2007)
“FBI Counterintelligence and the Robert Hanssen Spy Case” – Dave Major (2007)
Books
New History of Soviet Intelligence, J. Haslam (FS&J, 2015)
Spy Handler, V. Cherkashin, (Basic, 2008)
Articles
Spy Who Kept Cold War Cold – Polyakov, History (2019)
Spy Psychology/Insider Spies, NOIR (2014)
Death of the Perfect Spy – Polyakov, Time (2001)
Videos
Charney on What Makes Traitors Tick? SPY (2014) Primary Sources
Witness to History at SPY, Hanssen Investigation (2013)
Review on FBI Performance Detecting Hanssen, OIG (2003)
A Review of FBI Security Programs, Webster Commission (2002)
Sandy Grimes Interview on Polyakov (1998)
Wildcard Resource
Inside the Supermax Prison (Florence, Colorado)
Hanssen is here alongside Harold James Nicholson, El Chapo, Ramzi Yousef and Terry Nichols
Summary Mike Susong (Website; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss CIA, cyber and corporate intelligence. He won the Intelligence Star for Heroism in the Field.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Applying aspects of Mike’s training to the private sector using “competitive intelligence”
Mike’s role co-founding a pioneering company in the field of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)
The role of technology in enabling and constraining espionage
What drew Mike to an annual free-thinking social experiment in the desert
Reflections
Entrepreneurial thinking as unwavering belief in an idea
The difference between working for Uncle Sam and working for corporate America
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Andrew sat down with W. Michael Susong for a two-parter to discuss CIA, cyber and Burning Man. Last week in PART I we looked at Mike’s time working for the CIA and in the domain of human intelligence, while in PART II we will focus on his time as an entrepreneur and intelligence leader in the cyber threat intelligence and competitive intelligence spaces. Mike was a U.S. Army major who completed multiple combat tours and a CIA case officer. He went into the private sector and created competitive intelligence programs for Fujitsu and Ernst & Young, and he was a pioneer in the field of cyber threat intelligence or CTI, creating the first programs for Visa and Pacific Gas & Electric. He is both CISM and CPP certified and a Black Rock Ranger. And… Black Rock Rangers are volunteers at Burning Man, an annual event that focuses on artistic expression, spiritual regeneration, and radical inclusion. It culminates in the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, known as “The Man.” If you want to explore the event or the ideas that propel it, including its roots in the Californian counter-culture and its Silicon Valley connections, you can do so here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Quote of the Week "I worked with, with two corporations to build competitive intelligence programs, for them…I want to emphasize that's the ethical application of certain aspects of the intelligence cycle, to support a business decision. So, this was more on the analysis piece, some on collection, and certainly when you start to speak of collection within a private sector environment, you have to have clear, bright lines aloud about what is and is not acceptable." – Mike Susong
Resources Headline Resource
Application of Intelligence Principles to Raise IT Security, M. Susong, YouTube (2012) *SpyCasts
From the CIA to Strategic Cyber – Hans Holmer (2022)
Cyberattacks, Espionage & Ransomware – Inside Microsoft’s MSTIC (2022)
Articles
Start a Competitive Intelligence System that Wins, P. Mertens, Sprout Social (2022)
Gathering Competitive Intelligence From Twitter, S. Argawal, Startup Grind
Websites
Competitive Intelligence Resources, SCIP
PBR (Projects, Briefs, Reports)
2022 State of Competitive Intelligence, SCIP/Crayon (2022)
CTI: Applying Better Terminology to Threats Intelligence, A. Greer, SANS (2021)
Understanding Cyber Threat Intelligence Operations, Bank of England (2016)
Courses
Cyber Threat Intelligence, SANS
Cyber Threat Intelligence, Threat Intelligence Academy
Podcasts
Cyber Threat Intelligence, Hacking Humans (2020)
Intelligence Operations: A First Principle of Cybersecurity, CSO Perspectives (2022)
Video
2022 State of Competitive Intelligence, YouTube (2022)
A CEO’s Perspective on Intelligence, Report Linker (2020)
Primary Sources
Letter to CIA Deputy Director on Competitive Intelligence (1986) Wildcard Resource
The Whole Earth Catalog (1968)
Steve Jobs called it “the bible of his generation” and links have been made between it and Silicon Valley, Cyber, and Burning Man.
Summary Mike Susong (Website; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss CIA, cyber and corporate intelligence. He won the Intelligence Star for Heroism in the Field.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The outgrowth of “intelligence” from a nation-state activity to a corporate activity
Recruiting and running agents as a CIA case officer
His shift from tactical intelligence to strategic intelligence
His journey from a curious kid with a short-wave radio to an intel professional
Reflections
Effective decision-making and intelligence
The opportunities and challenges of working in different fields and domains
And much, much more…
Episode Notes What is it like to do intelligence for Uncle Sam and then for the private sector? What is different and what is similar? How did intelligence go from supporting national security decision-making to business decision-making? To answer these questions, Andrew sat down with W. Michael Susong for a two-parter. PART I will focus on Mike’s time working for the CIA and in the domain of human intelligence, while PART II will focus on his time in the as an entrepreneur and intelligence leader in the cyber threat intelligence and competitive intelligence spaces. Mike was a U.S. Army major who completed multiple combat tours and a CIA case officer. He went into the private sector and created competitive intelligence programs for Fujitsu and Ernst & Young, and he was a pioneer in the field of cyber threat intelligence or CTI, creating the first programs for Visa and Pacific Gas & Electric. He is both CISM and CPP certified and a Black Rock Ranger. And… Black Rock Rangers are volunteers at Burning Man, an annual event that focuses on artistic expression, spiritual regeneration, and radical inclusion. It culminates in the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, known as “The Man.” If you want to explore the event or the ideas that propel it, including its roots in the Californian counter-culture and its Silicon Valley connections, you can do so here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Quote of the Week "It’s analogous to business. So, there's closers, people who are really the salesman…but then they're not good at the kind of that long-term relationship, reassuring, working over time…And so I would say that there are case officers who are better at spotting and recruiting, and there are case officers that are better at handling." – Mike Susong
Resources Headline Resource
Application of Intelligence Principles to Raise IT Security, M. Susong, YouTube (2012) *SpyCasts
From the CIA to Strategic Cyber – Hans Holmer (2022)
Cyberattacks, Espionage & Ransomware – Inside Microsoft’s MSTIC (2022)
Articles
Start a Competitive Intelligence System that Wins, P. Mertens, Sprout Social (2022)
Gathering Competitive Intelligence From Twitter, S. Argawal, Startup Grind
Websites
Competitive Intelligence Resources, SCIP
PBR (Projects, Briefs, Reports)
2022 State of Competitive Intelligence, SCIP/Crayon (2022)
CTI: Applying Better Terminology to Threats Intelligence, A. Greer, SANS (2021)
Understanding Cyber Threat Intelligence Operations, Bank of England (2016)
Courses
Cyber Threat Intelligence, SANS
Cyber Threat Intelligence, Threat Intelligence Academy
Podcasts
Cyber Threat Intelligence, Hacking Humans (2020)
Intelligence Operations: A First Principle of Cybersecurity, CSO Perspectives (2022)
Video
2022 State of Competitive Intelligence, YouTube (2022)
A CEO’s Perspective on Intelligence, Report Linker (2020)
Primary Sources
Letter to CIA Deputy Director on Competitive Intelligence (1986) Wildcard Resource
The Whole Earth Catalog (1968)
Steve Jobs called it “the bible of his generation” and links have been made between it and Silicon Valley, Cyber, and Burning Man.
Summary Noah Hurowitz (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss infamous drug kingpin El Chapo. A weak link in his cybersecurity set-up would help bring him down.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
El Chapo’s internal surveillance operation
The cartel’s use of cryptography to keep communications covert
How cybersecurity enabled then brought down El Chapo
The role of the infamous DFS – a corrupt and now disbanded intelligence agency
Reflections
Technology – early adopters vs. counter responders
The changing nature of crime enabled by emerging technologies – spyware, drones, etc.
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, aka El Chapo (shorty) because of his 5-foot 6-inch frame, was called by one of the agents chasing him, “the godfather of the drug world.” So, how did a low-level drug dealer from a provincial state rise to try and subvert the Mexican government to his will? What was the intelligence game that played out with regards to El Chapo? How did the cartels use spytech, tradecraft and cybersecurity to stay one step ahead of the law? How was he caught? To answer these questions and more, Andrew sat down with Noah Horowitz who covered the trial of El Chapo in Brooklyn for Rolling Stone magazine. Noah is also the author of the recent book El Chapo, and his work has appeared in the Village Voice, the Baffler and New York Magazine. And… In the El Chapo trial, question No.57 asked prospective jurors, “Are you familiar with Jesus Malverde?” If you are not familiar with this angel of the poor (el ángel de los pobres) as well as the Sinaloan narcos (el narcosantón), then you can find out why this question would be relevant here, here, here and here.
Quote of the Week "So, in addition to encrypted communications…he was also installing spyware on Blackberry devices that El Chapo was giving out to his lieutenants and his girlfriends and his wives. And then EL Chapo was able to use this, the spyware program to see what was on their phones. He was able to see their text messages. He was able to see their locations. He was even able to remotely activate their mic and listen to them. And he loved that…it was like a toy to him almost. He became obsessed with it." – Noah Hurowitz
Resources Headline Resource
El Chapo, N. Hurowitz (S&S, 2021) SpyCasts
Drug Cartels, Sleeper Cells, the Waco Siege & the Mob - Dennis Franks (2021) Books
Dope: History of the Mexican Drug Trade, B. Smith (W.W. Norton, 2021)
Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs & Cartels, I. Grillo (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Articles
Drugs, Crime and the Cartels, CFR (2021)
The Tech that Took Down Pablo Escobar, Wired (2021)
Mexican Cartels Cyber Surveillance, C. Schilis-Gallego, Forbidden Stories (2020)
Spy vs. Spy, El Chapo Edition, E. Groll, FP (2019)
The Spyware that Brought Down El Chapo, S. Fussell, The Atlantic (2019)
Websites
El Paso Intelligence Project (EPIC)
Centro Nacional De Intelligencia (CNI)
PBR (Projects, Briefs, Reports)
Mexico: Evolution of the Merida Initiative, C. Seelke, CRS (2021)
Mexico Organized Crime and Drug Traffickers, J. Beittel, CRS (2020)
Primary Sources
EDNY Press Release on El Chapo Trial (2019)
Memo in Support of Pre-trial Detention, USA vs. Joaquín Guzmán Loera (2017)
Trial Transcripts of El Chapo Text Messages with His Mistress (2012)
Official Report on Mexico’s “Dirty War” (2006)
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (1999)
Primary Source Collections
The Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (MIDAS)
Inside The Cartel: Key Documents (LAT)
Wildcard Resource
“The Original Indigenous People of Sinaloa”
To understand Joaquín Guzmán Loera, starting at the year of his birth, 1957, might be enough; but to understand “El Chapo” it might help to go deeper still…
Summary Daniel Milton (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the former Caliph of the Islamic State. Al Mawla was killed in a U.S. raid in February 2022. What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The origin of the term “Canary Caliph”
The mythology of Islamic State and the reality
Battlefield intelligence and understanding an enemy
The Combating Terrorism Center being on the radar of terrorists
Reflections
The presentation of “self”
The relationship between organizational priorities and organizational hierarchies
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Daniel Milton joins us again to discuss a series of interrogation reports of Al Mawla, at the time leader of Islamic law in Mosul for the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). ISI was the successor to Al Qaeda in that country and the predecessor of Islamic State (Islamic State is a larger umbrella category, while ISIS, ISKP, etc. come with geographical designations, e.g., Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Al Mawla gave up the names of over 50 people within his own organization: and that was only in the first 3 of 56 interviews. One interesting insight you can glean from the documents is that Islamic State while very different from many organizations in many respects, is just like them in others: empire building, clashing personalities, struggles over process, paperwork, committees, territorialism, jealousy, prejudice, insecurity – like The Office, but with much more malevolent intent. And… If you want to read a document that captures (a) an important inflection point in the transition from Al Qaeda to Islamic State and (b) was one of the West Point CTC publications captured during the Bin Laden raid, read “Al Qaeda Secedes from Iraq.”
Quote of the Week "I think we get a sense of it as an organization that exists and has similar struggles as any other organization does. Having said that, clearly, it's a clandestine organization, and so one of the overriding imperatives is security. Individuals are trying to stay alive and not get arrested or killed. And that affects a little bit of the way that you carry out business. I do think that you also see some element of the things that you described. There is competition. There are people who don't like each other." – Daniel Milton
Resources Headline Resources
Al Mawla Interrogation Reports
“Islamic State,” Mapping Militants, CISAC Stanford
Books
Enemies Near & Far, D. Gartenstein-Ross (CUP, 2022)
The ISIS Reader, Ingram et al. (Hurst, 2020)
The Rise of Global Jihad, T. Hegghammer (CUP, 2020)
Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad, D. Byman (OUP, 2019)
Anatomy of Terror, A. Soufan (W.W. Norton, 2017)
The Far Enemy, F. Gerges (CUP, 2005)
Best Books on the Middle East (Five Books)
Articles
ISIS Leader Quraishi Kills Himself, Al-Khalidi & Bose, Reuters (2022)
ISIS’S Leadership Crisis, H. Ingram and C. Whiteside, Foreign Affairs (2022)
The Islamic State in Afghanistan, A. Jadoon et al., CTC (2022)
The Cloud Caliphate, Ayad et al., CTC (2021)
Lessons from the Islamic State’s “Milestone” Texts and Speeches, Ingram et al., CTC (2020)
Timeline: The Rise, Spread & Fall of the Islamic State, C. Glenn et al., Wilson Center (2019)
Documentary
Iraq & Syria: After Islamic State, BBC (2018)
Confronting ISIS, PBS Frontline (2016)
Reports
Islamic State’s Method of Insurgency, H. Ingram, GW (2021) Web Operation Inherent Resolve Primary Sources
President Biden on a Successful Counterterrorism Operation (2022)
Cyber Command’s Internet War Against ISIL (2018)
Islamic State Memo for Dealing with New Recruits (2017)
Message to the Mujahidin and the Muslim Ummah, Caliph Al Baghdadi (2014)
The Management of Savagery (2006)
The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
Wildcard Resource
“Camp Bucca Newsletter #1”
A U.S. forces newsletter from the time-period when Al Mawla was interrogated at Camp Bucca, in the vicinity of Umm Qasr, Iraq.
Summary Daniel Milton (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Tactical Interrogation Reports of the former Caliph of the Islamic State. Al-Mawla was killed in a U.S. raid in February 2022.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The ideological feud between Islamic State and Al Qaeda
Islamic State's retreat from a quasi-state centered to a shadowy insurgency
Battlefield intelligence such as “exploitable material” and “interrogation reports”
The role of the Combating Terrorism Center in analyzing this intelligence
Reflections
Training your people for the current fight…and the next one
The trade-off between a short-term view and a longer-term view
And much, much more…
Episode Notes This week’s episode focuses on battlefield intelligence, or more specifically a series of tactical interrogation reports from 2008. Ok, so why are they significant? Well, the individual being interrogated, Al Mawla, would go on to become the second leader and so-called Caliph of the Islamic State. Ok, so why are they significant beyond that…well, it turns out that Al Mawla was an informant who gave away colleagues and friends to save his own skin, leading to the nickname, “The Canary Caliph.” Daniel Milton joined Andrew to discuss these reports and what they mean in the broader scheme of things. Daniel is the Director of Research at the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, and he has a Ph.D. from FSU. He has been cited in outlets such as The NYT, BBC, and NBC News and he regularly briefs all levels of the Government, including the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. And… In February 2022, Al Mawla became the second Islamic State Caliph to blow himself up during a U.S. raid. His predecessor Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi had done so in October 2019. I wonder what will happen to the third Caliph…
Quote of the Week "I think that's one of my favorite things about looking at this type of material is that it really gives an inside view to organizations that are clandestine and usually not seen very well from the outside, but these documents paint a very vivid picture of struggles, challenges, bureaucratic minutia, whatever the case might be, which is not typically how we think about these organizations, but these documents really allow us to see that." – Daniel Milton
Resources Headline Resources
Al Mawla Interrogation Reports
CTC Sentinel
Books
Enemies Near & Far, D. Gartenstein-Ross (CUP, 2022)
The ISIS Reader, Ingram et al. (Hurst, 2020)
The Rise of Global Jihad, T. Hegghammer (CUP, 2020)
Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad, D. Byman (OUP, 2019)
Anatomy of Terror, A. Soufan (W.W. Norton, 2017)
The Far Enemy, F. Gerges (CUP, 2005)
Best Books on the Middle East (Five Books)
Articles
ISIS Leader Quraishi Kills Himself, Al-Khalidi & Bose, Reuters (2022)
ISIS’S Leadership Crisis, H. Ingram and C. Whiteside, Foreign Affairs (2022)
The Islamic State in Afghanistan, A. Jadoon et al., CTC (2022)
The Cloud Caliphate, Ayad et al., CTC (2021)
Lessons from the Islamic State’s “Milestone” Texts and Speeches, Ingram et al., CTC (2020)
Timeline: The Rise, Spread & Fall of the Islamic State, C. Glenn et al., Wilson Center (2019)
Documentary
Iraq & Syria: After Islamic State, BBC (2018)
Confronting ISIS, PBS Frontline (2016)
Web Operation Inherent Resolve Primary Sources
President Biden on a Successful Counterterrorism Operation (2022)
Cyber Command’s Internet War Against ISIL (2018)
Islamic State Memo for Dealing with New Recruits (2017)
Message to the Mujahidin and the Muslim Ummah, Caliph Al Baghdadi (2014)
Zawahiri’s Letter to Zarqawi (2005)
The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
Wildcard Resource
“The America I Have Seen”
An account of his time living in the U.S. by theorist of violent jihad Sayyid Qutb.
Summary Thomas Leahy (Website; LinkedIn) and Eleanor Williams (Website; Twitter) join Andrew to discuss the intelligence war during “the Troubles.” Thomas lives in Cardiff and Eleanor lives in Belfast.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The Troubles through the lens of intelligence
Some key intelligence players in the Northern Ireland conflict
How the IRA and the British Army adapted organizationally
The role intelligence played in the end of the conflict
Reflections
The fluid nature of motivations and intentions
How historic narratives shape and constrain the here-and-now
And much, much more…
Episode Notes From the late 60’s to the late 90’s Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries, and the British and Irish states, were engaged in a period known as “the Troubles”: a struggle to define or redefine the future of the island of Ireland. This is an issue with deep and complex roots, but the intelligence dimension of the period known as the Troubles is fascinating and often overlooked. To help us get our head around it all, Andrew sat down with two specialists to discuss all things intelligence and the Troubles: from the role that MI5 and MI6 played, to the Force Research Unit and the RUC Special Branch, through to how the IRA played the counterintelligence game and the role that informers, agents and moles, such as the notorious “Stakeknife,” played. Thomas is the author of the Intelligence War Against the IRA, while Eleanor is a doctoral candidate comparing intelligence use during the Northern Irish and Colombian conflicts. And… The head of the Republic of Ireland’s police and security intelligence force, the Garda Síochána, is Drew Harris. Drew Harris was a career Royal Ulster Constabulary officer whose father, also a career RUC officer, was killed by the IRA in 1989. He was the first external appointee from outside the Garda. Quote of the Week "What's their [IRA] main role in this intelligence conflict?...one of the key points here…the IRA was quite highly regional regionalized. That's actually quite key to explain why British intelligence had some difficulties against them…Initially, it was set up similar to armed forces. It would have brigades, battalions and companies…the IRA operated this kind of army structure up to 1975…the IRA then switched to this new strategy…And part of this was to prevent mass infiltration, which had started to become a problem, particularly in Belfast pre-1975. So, what it adopted in Belfast and Derry was a cell structure." – Thomas Leahy
Resources Books
The Intelligence War Against the IRA, T. Leahy (CUP, 2020)
Britain’s Secret War Against the IRA, A. Edwards (Merrion, 2021)
Thatcher’s Spy, W. Carlin (Merrion, 2019)
The Accidental Spy, S. O’Driscoll (Mirror, 2019)
Snitch! S. Hewitt (Continuum, 2010)
Infiltrating the IRA, R. Gilmour (LB&C, 1998)
Fifty Dead Men Walking, M. McGartland (Blake, 1997)
Best Books on the Troubles (Five Books)
Articles
The Murky World of Spying During the Troubles, J. Ware, Irish Times (2017)
Alternative Ulster: How Punk Took on the Troubles, T. Heron, Irish Times (2016)
Audio MI5 Chameleon Infiltrated New IRA Documentary
Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History, BBC (2019)
The Spy in the IRA, BBC (2017)
Web
Operation Kenova
MI5 in Northern Ireland
Primary Sources
IRA-MI6 Intermediary: Interviews with Brendan Duddy (2009)
Good Friday Agreement (1998)
Downing Street Declaration (1993)
Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)
Thatcher Speech at Airey Neave Memorial (1979)
IRA Green Book (1977)
PM Wilson & Thatcher discuss N. Ireland (1975)
Secret Meetings Between Government and IRA (1972)
Senator E. Kennedy, Ulster is Britain’s Vietnam (1971)
IRA Reports on Intelligence Informants (1922)
W.B. Yeats, “Easter: 1916” (1921)
Oral Sources
Duchas Oral History Archive (2014) Wildcard Resource
“Murals of Northern Ireland” (4500+ Photographs)
Summary Sean Maloney (Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the secret history of emergency war plans and the nuclear doomsday machine. He was the first Canadian civilian historian to go into combat since WWII. What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Top secret emergency war plans for WWIII
The role of human intelligence operations in nuclear doomsday planning
Some key terms you need to understand the nuclear issue
The policy of “massive retaliation” versus “flexible response”
Reflections
Movies to scare yourself by
The best and worst of humanity
Episode Notes Sean Maloney is a force of nature. The first Canadian civilian historian to go into combat since WWII - he went to Afghanistan eleven times, survived multiple attempts on his life, and two bomb attacks. “I’ve been shot at, rocketed, mortared, all of it.” He is also a Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and the author of more than a dozen books, including the “Rogue Historian in Afghanistan” trilogy, as well as another trilogy in the form of the official history of the Canadian Army in Afghanistan. He is never happier, though, than when wading through secret nuclear war plans and documents. Coming on the back of Learning to Love the Bomb (2007) and The Secret History of Nuclear War Films (2020), he returns to “Nukes” in Emergency War Plan: The American Doomsday Machine. Sean has been described as intense and unorthodox, but I found him intense and unorthodox. “Megadeath” is a unit of measurement for nuclear war, equivalent to the death of one million people. It is crazy that as a species we have reached the point where we now have a term for it. Quote of the Week "We have public pronouncements…We have the media and academic discussion of the public pronouncements, but then there's the strategy itself. Which is usually highly classified…that's what I'm getting at with the Emergency War Plan book…you can see all the factors that fed into that, including the intelligence and the intelligence directly affects the plan…there is a direct relationship between the intelligence and the targeting, but it's also in terms of collection of information to get the bombers to the target…that's important because, to have a deterrent posture, that's credible, you have to demonstrate that you're capable of carrying it out." Resources SpyCasts
The Nuclear Emergency Search Team – Jack Doyle
Nuclear Information Project – Matt Korda
Nuclear Threats – Jeffrey Lewis
Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner – Daniel Ellsberg
Spooks and Nukes – James Acton
Books
Restricted Data: A History of Nuclear Secrecy in the US, A. Wallerstein (UCP, 2021)
The Bomb, S. Kaplan (S&S, 2020)
Raven Rock, G. Graff (S&S, 2017)
My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, W. Perry (SUP, 2015)
The Making of the Atomic Bomb, R. Rhodes (S&S, 1987)
Best Books on Nuclear (Five Books)
Articles
How Many Nuclear Weapons Does Russia Have in 2022? Kristensen & Korda, Bulletin (2022)
Doomsday Clock at 100 Seconds to Midnight, Bulletin (2022)
The Cold Comfort of MAD, J. Castillo, War on the Rocks (2021)
Video
282 Interviews: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, PBS (1986-89)
Power of Decision, USAF (1958)
Documentary Sources
H. G. Wells – The World Set Free (1914)
W.S. Churchill - Shall We All Committ Suicide? (1924)
Einstein to Roosevelt (1939)
The MAUD Report (1941)
The Quebec Agreement (1943)
Hiroshima, J. Hersey, New Yorker (1946)
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, H.L. Stimson, Harpers (1946)
McMahon Act (1946)
Truman Announcing First Soviet Bomb (1949)
Atoms for Peace – Eisenhower Speech (1953)
History of SIOP-62 (1961)
Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum (1971)
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1977 [1950])
The Effects of Nuclear War (1979)
Oral Sources
Voices of the Manhattan Project
US Strategic Nuclear Policy, 1945-2004
Wildcard Resource
Threads, Movie (M. Jackson, 1984)
“Arguably, the most devastating piece of television ever produced”
Summary Volko Ruhnke (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his life and career in the CIA as an analyst and designer of board games. He is a former World Board Game Champion. What You’ll Learn Intelligence
Designing board games to teach CIA analysts
Moonlighting as an award-winning board game designer while working at CIA
Similarities and differences between intelligence analysis and board-games
The difference between role-play games and board-games in training national security professionals
Reflections
Humans are good models of humans
Volko’s journey from Virginia to the CIA via William & Mary and the U.S. Army
And more… Episode Notes Volko Ruhnke is a helluva interesting guy. He grew up as an avid board gamer raised on stories of the French and Indian War, which led him to design the 2001 winner of the best pre-WWII boardgame Wilderness War. His time at the CIA after 9/11 then led him to design the 2010 winner of the best post-WWII boardgame Labyrinth, where players were immersed in the operational and ideological aspects of the Global War on Terror. It doesn’t stop there, though, he has also designed a series of counter-insurgency games such as Andean Abyss, which focused on 1990’s Columbia, and Fire in the Lake, a multi-faction treatment of the Vietnam War. While teaching a new generation of intelligence analysts, Volko combined both of his passions to help them understand the complexity and open-endedness of the real-world via board games. As an analyst himself, Volko looked at the Soviet & Russian military and counter-proliferation, before going on to be Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology at the National Intelligence Council, and then on the Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) staff to brief cabinet level officials. And… Volko is now a commercial board game designer, and you can get quite a few of his games here – but not all of them. One day historians, one day… Quote of the Week "Games allow you to get inside and operate the machine yourself and do experiments and pull a lever or push a button and see what happens. And because it's happening on the tabletop, rather than say, in a computer program, you, you can understand it very well. You can see exactly why what just happened. So, I became among others, a promulgator of, of that particular medium for teaching as well as for analysis." - Volko Ruhnke Resources SpyCasts
Intelligence Analysis in the 21st Century - Mark Lowenthal
Modern Intelligence Analysis: From Art to Science?
Books
Storytelling in the Modern Boardgame, A. Arnaudo (McFarland, 2018)
White King & Red Queen: Cold War on the Chessboard, D. Johnson (Mariner, 2008)
Best Books on Play (Five Books)
Articles
All the World’s a Game, C. Hadavas, Foreign Policy (2021)
Digital Version of Counter-Terror Game Labyrinth, J. Bolding, PCGamer (2020)
Winning Edge: Board Game Used by the U.S. Army, P. Suciu, National Interest (2020)
Why the CIA Uses Board Games to Train Officers, S. Larson, CNN (2017)
The CIA Uses Board Games to Train Officers, S. Machkovech, ArsTechnica (2017)
Making Board Games for the CIA, C. Hall, Polygon (2017)
Political Board Games Change View of World, M. Thrower, Guardian (2015)
Volko Ruhnke Has Become a Hero, J. Albert, WaPo (2014)
Video
We Review CIA’s Classified Board Game, Two Bats Gaming, (YouTube, 2018) Primary Sources
Kingpin: The Hunt for El Chapo (CIA, 2018)
Collection Deck (CIA, 2017)
Whodunnit? (Wapo, 1985)
Wildcard Resource
Lego ® Serious Play ® Game
Used by Fortune 500 companies, unleasher of talent, and serious fun!
Summary Hans Holmer (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his time as a CIA operations officer and his transition to a cyber strategist. He served on every continent except South America and won a CIA Intelligence Star. What You’ll Learn Intelligence
The advantages for a case officer growing up in two cultures and speaking multiple languages before joining the IC
The tech person trained to be a case officer vs. a case officer trained to be a tech person debate
That no amount of technology will make up for a lack of “cyber strategy”
The concept of “digital dandruff”
Reflections
Growing up in Denmark, moving to the US for high school, joining the Army then CIA
Privatizing information gains but collectivizing information losses
What it was like to program back in 1973!
And more… Episode Notes Hans Holmer describes the cat-and-mouse of surveillance and counter-surveillance the most fun you can have (a) in public and (b) sober. Ever wondered how you go from a CIA case officer in the Sub-continent, to a technical counterintelligence evangelist who travelled the world, to a cyber strategist living in Vienna, Austria? To find out, listen to this week’s episode where you’ll find Hans thoughtful and articulate, but I think you will also appreciate his forthright views on corporate data leaks and digital personal responsibility. He originally got in touch to talk about the Operation Silver, the British intelligence operation that covertly tapped the communications of the Soviet Army HQ in Vienna, at SPY we actually have a piece – yes, an actual piece – of the Berlin Tunnel, which was a successor operation – betrayed by communist MI6 officer George Blake – which borrowed heavily from Silver: it was even called Operation Gold! The monitoring station in Op. Silver was disguised as a tweed clothing shop on the assumption that no one in Vienna would be interested in Scottish clothing! Hans actually tracked down the modern site of the tweed store and is trying to dig (no pun intended) for further information on the operation – can anyone help…? Quote of the Week "I've been arguing that the way to improve cyber security in the U.S. is very simple. Any company that loses personally identifiable information, payment card information, healthcare information, HIPAA data, or access to critical infrastructure, has to pay each victim a dollar a day from the beginning of the breach till it's been closed off…the average breach lasts about a hundred days…some of the more recent breaches are a hundred million people. So, imagine a hundred million people who get a dollar a day for a hundred days. Companies would take that seriously." Resources SpyCasts
“Operation Gold” - Steve Vogel & Bernd von Kostka (Berlin Tunnel)
“George Blake, Happy Traitor” – Simon Kuper (Berlin Tunnel)
Zero Days – Nicole Perloth Part I and II (Cyber)
“The Cyber Zeitgeist” – Dave Bittner (Cyber)
“Snowden & Surveillance” – Barton Gellman (Cyber)
Books
Betrayal in Berlin, S. Vogel (CH, 2019)
Spymaster – MI6 Chief Oldfield, M. Pearce (Transworld, 2016)
Documents on the Intelligence War in Berlin, D. Steury (CSI, 1999)
Best Books on Cybersecurity (Five Books)
Articles
“Engineering the Berlin Tunnel,” SII (2008)
“Betrayal in Berlin - Review,” WaPo (2019)
Documentaries
The Great Hack, Noujaim & Amer (2019)
Zero Days, A. Gibney (2016)
Education
Cyber Training Series (DNI)
The Danger of Stone Age Habits in a Cyber World (HSToday, 2019)
Primary Sources
Cyber Security Officer (CIA, 2022)
CIA Director Burns - Cyber (WSJ, 2021)
National Cyber Strategy of the USA (WH, 2018)
Interview with CIA Director Brennan - Cyber (NPR, 2016)
The IC’s Role Within Cyber R&D (FAS, 2013)
Remarks by DNI Clapper at HPSCI (DNI, 2011)
Securing Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Stuxnet (HSGA, 2010)
Mail Service of the Soviet Army in Austria (CIA, 1955)
Wildcard Resource
“Technical Counterintelligence Officer,” INTEL.gov
Summary Enrique “Ric” Prado (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his new memoir “Black Ops.” One of the most renowned CIA officers of his generation tells his story.
Book You can buy Ric’s book, Black Ops, and support the International Spy Museum’s mission here.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence
His time as CIA Counterterrorist Chief of Operations which included 9/11
His career battling communist insurgents and Islamic terrorists on multiple continents
His experience living in “Contra” camps during the Nicaraguan Revolution
His time as Dep. Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force
Reflections
Conquering your emotions to stay focused in a crisis
His journey fleeing the Cuban Revolution as a young boy to CIA via USAF Pararescue
And much, much more…
Episode Notes Ric Prado spent twenty-four-years in the CIA – and what a twenty-four years it was. His first 36 months were in the jungles of Central America as the first CIA officer to live among the “Contras,” including a period with the Miskito Native people; indeed, the photos he took ending up on the desk of CIA Director Bill Casey. So, what was it like at the pointy end of the Reagan Doctrine’s anti-communist spear, or as CIA Counterterrorist Center Chief of Ops during 9/11? To find out, and to hear more about Ric’s storied career, Andrew sat down with him for this week’s episode. One of the meanings of the noun “legend” is “a story coming down from the past.” Many people who were in the business at the CIA and elsewhere will have heard the stories that come down from the past re Enrique “Ric” Prado, but now we all have a chance to hear Ric set the record straight in his own words. And… If Ric’s communist uncle hadn’t alerted the family that his school intended to send him off to the Soviet Union as a promising student for further education…if he hadn’t taken an Oceanography class at Miami Dade College and met someone who led him to USAF Pararescue…if he hadn’t been tipped off that he was to be killed in a Contra camp during the night and extricated himself from the situation…as Bob Dylan said, summing up so much of the human condition, “one more time, for a simple twist of fate.”
Quote of the Week "The wiring was there and the mentoring from my dad…then the trip to the orphanage. And then definitely when I got into pararescue…being one of our special operations forces, the training is very, very intense…And making it through SERE school, making it through mountain climbing school. There's a certain level of conquering your emotions that you have to do…But I think that the most important thing was that I believed in what I was doing." – Ric Prado
Resources SpyCast Episodes
In the CT Center on 9/11, C. Storer
A Life in the CIA, Hank Crumpton
Interview with Cofer Black
CT, Nicholas Rasmussen
CT Strategy: P. Bergen & C. Costa
Rethinking CT: J. Blazakis
Books
The Reagan Doctrine, J. Scott (DUP, 1996)
The Real Contra War, T. Brown (UOP, 2001)
Insurgency to Stability, “The Philippines,” Rabasa et al., (RAND, 2011)
Shining Path’s Politics of War, C. Degregori (UWP, 2012)
Red Revolution: Philippine Guerillas, G. Jones (Routeledge, 2019)
The Shining Path, Starn & Serna (Norton, 2019)
US Relations with Latin America (Five Books)
Articles
“Shining Path Leader Dead,” BBC (2021)
“Nicaragua Veers to Dictatorship,” J. Cordoba, WSJ (2021)
Documentaries
Nicaragua Was Our Home (L. Shapiro, 1985)
Ballad of the Little Soldier (W. Herzog, 1985)
Primary Sources
President Carter to Somoza (Brown, 1979)
Reagan Covert Ops. Nicaragua (NSA, 1981)
US Aid to Nicaragua (1982)
Reagan Covert Ops. Nicaragua (Brown, 1983)
Goldwater to Casey, “I’m Pissed Off” (Brown, 1984)
Reagan State Of The Union (APP, 1985)
Reagan Address Nicaragua (ReaganLib, 1986)
Contras Lost Congress (WaPo, 1986)
25 Years of the NPA (Hartford, 1994)
Wildcard Resource The Clash, Sandanista (Album, 1980)
Summary J. Scott Cameron (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the National Intelligence University (NIU). He is the President of this unique “skiffed” institution.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence o The NIU – what it is, what it does, and what it does differently. o NIU’s position within the American intelligence ecosystem o How NIU “banks knowledge” without compromising intelligence o What it is like to be a student in a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS-SCI) research facility Reflections o 20th century institutions for 21st century problems o Scott’s journey from a plant biologist who has been shot at, to his recruitment into the IC at a high school soccer match, to NIU President And much more…
Quote of the Week "We do work in secret. So how do you bank knowledge in that kind of a community? All communities that are healthy bank knowledge and learn from it. So, our job is not just to be a classroom, but to be that defender of knowledge building in the community to make sure that we're learning from ourselves, that we understand ourselves and advance our mission by better ideas and then empowering the next generation to take those and equip them with the confidence to go out there and do something with it." – Scott Cameron
Episode Notes “TS-SCI” is one of the major terms you will hear with regards to American intelligence, but what happens if you cross that with the concept of “the university,” a place that relies on sharing information, pooling knowledge, and the free flow of ideas? To find out how this circle is squared, Andrew sat down with President of the National Intelligence University, Scott Cameron. The NIU, which is housed at the Intelligence Community Campus Bethesda (ICCB), alongside our friends at the NCSC and quite a few other agencies, is unique in many ways. It is behind “guards, guns, and gates,” you need TS-SCI clearance to apply, and tuition is courtesy of the government. The staff-student ratio is also in the very top tier of the 4000 or so degree granting institutions in the United States. It transitioned from the DIA to the ODNI in June of 2021. And… Scott’s grandmother was from Glasgow, as was Allan Pinkerton, Bobby Thompson, Craig Ferguson, and Christina Conte (try her fish n’ chips recipe!). Incidentally, there are many more Glasgow’s in the United States than in Scotland, at 21.
Further Resources SpyCast Episodes · Joint Special Operations University President “Ike” Wilson
Virtual Exhibition · Wall of Spies (ICC-B) Books · China’s Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem, R. Uber (2020) · History of American Higher Ed., R. Geiger (2016) · Higher Ed. & the Growth of Knowledge, M. Segre (2015) · NIU’s Role in Interagency Research, Johnson et al. (2013)
Articles · Eisenhower Signs National Defense Intelligence Ed. Act (Politico, 2018) · Goldwater-Nichols & the Evolution of JPME (CRS, 2016) · The Origins of JPME (JFQ, 2005)
Audio · NIU Moving Under ODNI Umbrella (FedNewsNet, 2021)
Websites · NIU Degrees (NIU) · NIU Catalog, 2021-22 (NIU) · College of Strategic Intelligence (NIU) · School of Science & Technology Intelligence (NIU) · Institute for Intelligence Research (NIU) · IC Centers for Academic Excellence (DNI)
Primary Sources · The American Scholar, R. Waldo Emerson (Em.Cent., 1837) · The Idea of a University, J. H. Newham (1852, 1858) · National Defense Education Act of 1958 (FedEdPolicy) · Degree Granting Authority for NIU (GovInfo, 2012) · US Intelligence Community’s Human Capital Vision 2020 (DNI, 2014) · The National Intelligence Strategy of the US (DNI, 2019) · NIC - Global Trends 2040 (DNI, 2021)
Wildcard Resource How to set up a “SCIF,” aka: · “Technical Specifications for Construction & Management of Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities” (DNI, 2020)
Summary David Fricker (Website; LinkedIn) had the No.2 job at Australia’s security and intelligence agency ASIO. He sat down with Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the relationship between this role and his most recent one as Director-General of the National Archives of Australia.
What You’ll Learn… Intelligence o ASIO, the Australian intelligence landscape and the region o His role as CIO and then Deputy-Director General of ASIO o The role major allies & partners play including the US and Five Eyes (FVEY) o David’s views on intelligence and public trust Reflections o David’s abiding interest in the power of information o The importance of museums and archives in a knowledge society And much more…
Episode Notes Ever wondered what it would be like to go from gamekeeper to poacher, spy chief to chief archivist and - as this week's guest said tongue-in-cheek - the “biggest blabber-mouth in the country”? If the answer is yes, you’ll appreciate this week’s guest David Fricker, who has had all manner of interesting jobs, including a ten-year stint with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), akin to the FBI and MI5, followed by ten years with the National Archives of Australia. By way of information, the “Australian Intelligence Community” is also comprised of: the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), similar to the CIA; Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), similar to the DIA; the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), similar to the NSA; and Australian Geo-spatial Intelligence Organization (AGO), similar to the NGA; and Office of National Intelligence (ONI), similar to the ODNI. And… David was a pretty mean COBOL programmer back in the day, a computer language that grew out of a Department of Defence sponsored program to find a common business language. You can learn it here. It is a legacy software system across the U.S. government and you can command six-figure salaries if you can program in it: any retirement plans David?
Quote of the Week "I think what the SPY museum does and what I hope we do at the National Archives in Australia, gets back to the public...some of it can be quite entertaining. It can be quite engaging and fun, but the work we do has got a serious message as well. And I think it's to make sure the public in a liberal democracy, the public should know. What espionage, what spycraft is all about." – David Fricker Further Resources SpyCasts o “Desperately, Madly in Love” – Brett Peppler and the Australian IC o “I was a Presidential Daily Briefer on 9/11” – Mike Morell & President Bush Virtual Exhibition o Spy: Espionage in Australia (NAA) Books o Spies & Sparrows: ASIO & the Cold War, P. Deery (2022) o Between Five Eyes, A. Wells (2020) o Intelligence & the Function of Government, D. Baldino & E. Crawley (2018) o The Official History of ASIO – 3 Volumes, D. Horner, J. Blaxland, R. Crawley (2014/2015/2016) Articles o “Strategic Intelligence Practice in the Australian IC,” P. Walsh & M. Harrison, INS, 2021) o “The Post-9/11 Evolution of an Australian National Security Community,” D. Jones, INS (2016) o “ASIO Debate”, L. Clohesy, The Conversation (2014) Audio o Spymasters & Secret Agents: the Birth of ASIO (ABC, 2022) o ASIO’s Official History, J. Blaxland (The Conversation, 2015) Documentary o Final Rendezvous (ABC, 2020) Websites o ASIO (ASIO) o NAA (NAA) Primary Sources o Letter to Petrov from Prime Minister Menzies (1954) o Royal Commission on Espionage Report (1955) o ASIO Report on Ric Throssell (1971-74, NAA) o Report on ASIO (NLA, 1977) o Australian Intelligence, 1900-1950 (NAA, 1977) o Soviet Embassy Contact with Members of Parliament (1971-86) o ASIO Annual Report 2020-21 (2021, ASIO) Further Research o History of Intelligence & Security (NAA) o US-Australia Diplomatic Oral Histories (ADST) Wildcard Resource Pine Gap o A fictional portrayal of a real-world AUS-US spy site in Central Australia (Netflix, 2018)
Summary Joe Weisberg (Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his new book on Russia. Joe is the creator of award-winning TV drama The Americans and a former CIA officer.
What You’ll Learn Intelligence o His past experience as a hardliner who loved to hate the “evil empire” o His thoughts on a trip through the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the twilight of the Cold War, especially experiencing it as an American Jew o His interpretation of the KGB and Vladimir Putin o His take on the “moral equivalency” argument and U.S. foreign policy ·Reflections o The role of complexity vs. simplicity in understanding “the Other” o Joe’s journey from the Chicago suburbs of Illinois to Langley to New York City And much, much more…
Episode Notes “How dare you, Joe Weisberg, make me rethink my comfortable loathing of the Russians.” Not Andrew’s words, but those of former chief of CIA counterintelligence James Olson in an encomium for the book (albeit a little tongue-in-cheek). If that is not enough to get you intrigued in Joe’s new book, Russia Upside Down, then perhaps the sub-title will, An Exit Strategy for the Second Cold War. So how do we get out of the Second Cold War? To find out Joe’s diagnosis and prognosis, and much else besides, Andrew sat down with him for this week’s episode. A fair number of listeners will know of Joe as creator of the award-winning and hugely popular TV series, The Americans, some may even know that he had a three-and-a-half-year stint in the CIA where he trained to be a case officer; a few may even be a know him from his stint at the Agency which began on the eve of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And… The Americans is set in and around NoVa which is replete with all manner of famous sites from intelligence history – including the Arlington home of real-life Russian illegals Nataliya Pereverzeva and Michael Zottoli Mikhail Kutsik who were rolled up by the FBI in 2010 as part of Operation Ghost Stories” which we cover in our exhibits.
Quote of the Week "When I was working at the CIA and in my younger years, I had a very one-dimensional view of this evil empire, this totalitarian state that we had to fight because we were the good guys, and we were the bad guys. And the book that I've written is essentially a kind of argument with myself or me with my younger self to say, huh, I think you were not looking at that in all the complexity that you might have." – Joe Weisberg
FURTHER RESOURCES SpyCasts o KGB Illegal Jack Barsky here and here o The Spymasters Prism: CIA Legend Jack Devine on Countering Russian Aggression o 2010 Russian Spy Case – KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin o Spy Sites of Washington D.C.
Books o Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia, Catherine Belton (2020) o The New Tsar: Rise & Reign of Vladimir Putin, Steven Lee Myers (2016). o Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer - The Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen & Aldrich Ames, Victor Cherkashin (2004) o The Caucasus, Thomas De Waal (2018) o Khrushchev's Thaw and National Identity in Soviet Azerbaijan, Jamil Hasanli (2014) o The Best Books on Contemporary Russia (Five Books)
Articles o “Dictatorship and Double Standards,” Jeane Kirkpatrick, Commentary (1979) o NATO Enlargement & Russia (NATO, 2014) o “False Equivalence” & “Tu Quoque”, IEP
Documentaries o The Putin Interviews (ShowTime, 2017) o Cold War 2.0, Vice/HBO (2015)
Primary Sources o Russian-Chinese Relations (CIA, 1998) o Putin’s Munich Speech, (WaPo, 2007) o Interview With KGB/SVR Illegal (Chekist Monitor, 2020) o U.S. Ambassadors to Russia Interviewed (NSA) o US-Russia Oral Histories (ADST) o Archival Research on Russia (NSA)
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Summary David Cattler (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss how intelligence functions at NATO. He is the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security.
What You’ll Learn o What it is like to be the leader of intelligence and security across the largest peacetime alliance in history? o How does intelligence come together at NATO – who are the key-players, institutions, and stakeholders? o What are some of the main challenges facing the Alliance including Russia and Cyber? o “Reading” an institution and its key players o The importance of “soft skills” in professional life
Episode Notes Every polisci student knows from their Plato to NATO class, that NATO is (a) considered the most successful alliance of its kind in history and (b) was founded in 1949. As you can imagine, intelligence is incredibly important to the whole endeavor, so why has NATO only had an intelligence supremo since 2016? To find out the answer, and much else besides, Andrew sat down with David Cattler. David is (a) the principal advisor on intelligence to the NATO Secretary General and (b) the lead for coordinating intelligence relationships between NATO and the 75 individual intelligence agencies across its 30 constituent nations (talk about herding cats). With Russian forces built up on the Ukrainian border in February 2022, the timing of this episode is, well, germane. And… Andrew picked David up outside the U.S. Department of State and drove him to the SpyCast studio at SPY – if the traffic is right, you can do it in under 10 minutes!
Quote of the Week "The secretary general is my boss but imagine him in this context to put it in a different frame is that he is the CEO of a large international conglomerate that engages in multiple business lines. And I am the CEO of the business line for intelligence and security. The nation's intelligence services in effect are my corporate board. So, they provide that governance and the oversight for all the work." – David Cattler
Further Resources SpyCasts o Able Archer 83: An Interview with Nate Jones o Our Latest Long War: An Interview with Ben Jones
Books o Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO & the Postwar Global Order, Timothy Andrews Sayle (2019) o How NATO Adapts: Strategy & Organization in the Alliance Since 1950, Seth A. Johnson (2017) o The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, Lord Ismay (1960) o Present at the Creation, Dean Acheson (1969) o The Best Books on Contemporary Russia (Five Books)
Video o What is NATO, Why Does it Exist, and How Does it Work? (NATO) o How Does a Country Join NATO? (NATO)
Documentary o The Cold War, Narrated by Kenneth Branagh (CNN 1998)
Websites o NATO Declassified (NATO) o NATO (Atlantic Council) o NATO (RUSI)
Primary Sources o The North Atlantic Treaty (1949) o Address by Harry S. Truman on the Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (1949) o North Atlantic Council – First Session – Summary Minutes (1949) o Historical Holdings on NATO (Eisenhower Library) o The NATO Problem: French Forces in Europe (CIA, 1966) o Being NATO’s Secretary General on 9/11 (2011) o USNATO Oral Histories (ADST)
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"The Wright Brothers of the U.S. Drone Warfare Program." That is how some people have referred to this week's guests, Alec Bierbauer and Mark Cooter. Andrew sat down with them to dig into drones and their intelligence implications.
This was the most popular episode of 2020. Apparently, people are interested in the views of former GCHQ Director, Joint Intelligence Committee Chair, and first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator on, well - how spies think. I am sure David – now a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London – has a few thoughts on the subject. Hear Andrew debrief this week’s guest on the insights derived from a career spent at the summit of British intelligence. 1 Book, 2 Glaswegians, 10 Lessons in Intelligence. It’s simple, really. Sláinte!
Alexis Albion – star of our 500th episode anniversary special – is a very good friend of the current Undersecretary for Arms Control & International Security, Bonnie Jenkins. Way back when, they were both on the 9/11 Commission Report – while Alexis’ focus was on the CIA and counterterrorism before the attacks, Bonnie’s was on the DOD and counterterrorism – tiny subjects, I know. In this week’s episode, hear two old friends reminisce, reflect, and put the world to rights. Move over Saturn, get out of the way Jupiter, two huge brains are a comin’ through.
Spook. Warrior. Author. This week’s guest is one helluva interesting guy. He was in a clandestine Special Forces unit in Berlin during the Cold War, “stay behinds” who would sabotage, subvert and generally wreak havoc should World War III break out. He was badly wounded after driving over a land-mine in Somalia in 1992, almost losing his entire leg and suffering a serious head injury. In a subsequent life, James was a CIA officer in Africa when the US embassies were blown up in Kenya and Tanzania and saw the Agency pivot in the aftermath of 9/11. Oh, did I mention, he also dabbles in combat archaeology. “Hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” If this sounds like your last trip down the I-95, listening to your blowhard uncle at Thanksgiving, or what it’s like to watch Jets vs. Giants, it’s purely coincidence – for it’s how this week’s guest characterized Army life.
Project Prometheus. In the words of ex-Delta Force author Brad Taylor, “Super Double Daddy Bad Classified.” If you’re looking to find a podcast that helps break down the complexities of Chinese foreign policy through the vehicle of a page-turner written by a NYT Bestselling Author, you’ve arrived at the right doorstep my friend. Brad does serious research. He is also funny, down-to-earth, and super-duper interesting. Por ejemplo, on his first date with his now wife, he told her he was going to join Special Forces and write a novel – after 21 years in the military, including many years in a special mission unit, Brad has now written 15. We talk through American Traitor, Pike Logan, his writing process (and Chinese foreign policy).
I was really good at buying drugs, which is how I got recruited into narcotics. Apparently, I make a really good crackhead.” “Frankly, fact-checking doesn’t matter in today’s world.” Intrigued? You should be. Avril and Lisa are absolutely fascinating! Avril built an intelligence team for the Attorney General’s Office in Pennsylvania, from scratch. Her unit collected strategic intel on narcotics trends and went on to predict the methamphetamine trend before it even hit the Keystone State. Lisa was the Digital Director for Angus King of Maine, a Senator on the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Armed Services Committee, and the Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Hmmmm…do you think those committees might have digital information foreign adversaries might be interested in…Get the full skinny on Avril – CSO for Github - and Lisa – CEO of Alethea Group - in this week’s SpyCast. Because intel is regional too.
Post 9/11, special operations and intelligence worked together side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-in-glove (or any other heavily-hyphenated term you care to mention that connotates BFFness). What will happen with the relationship now, though, and in American history how have these two important components of national security related to each other? Enter the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU), located in Tampa, Florida, and more particularly their President Isaiah “Ike” Wilson, who sits down with Andrew for this week’s episode of #SpyCast. “I think, therefore I am” Nope. “I think, therefore I do”
Beijing. New Delhi. Kathmandu. “Hang on, I thought the title said FBI, not CIA?” Well, it did. Kathy Stearman was an FBI Legat who lived and worked in all of those capital cities. “Well, I’ve heard of the Ambassador and the Station Chief, but not the Legat?” Well, that’s why you need to listen to this week’s SpyCast! Kathy Stearman is a retired FBI Special Agent and author of It’s Not About the Gun: Lessons From my Global Career as a Female FBI Agent (I know the title sounds like Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike, but Kathy is not a sociopath who will rip your heart out after you invest in her story: I promise). Kathy spent a large part of her career working Chinese counter-intelligence – including time in San Francisco and New York City (I hope the FBI has a generous rent allowance!) – and she speaks fluent Mandarin.
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The Committee on Public Information (CPI) is the first and only Ministry of Propaganda the United States has ever had. It started one week after the United States entered World War I in April of 1917; in fact, there wasn't even conscription for some weeks, but the Committee on Public Information was created right away. Why? To explore this question, and to learn more about the CPI, Andrew sat down with journalist, professor and Vietnam veteran Jack Hamilton (yes, actually sat down, like face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball!).
Doug London is thoughtful and reflective – but he doesn’t pull his punches and he candidly shares his analysis of the contemporary intelligence landscape. In this second part, Doug reflects on the path taken after 9/11, the CIA at the crossroads, and why human intelligence (HUMINT) will remain central to the vast and increasingly technologically sophisticated world of intelligence. Also, hear about a superstar counterintelligence operative Doug is currently running – although there is also a rumor, she might be playing the game for herself – listen to find out more…
This week’s guest believes that espionage is about the “human soul…[it’s] a very intimate profession…the relationship between a case officer and an agent and the need to really have…a profound insight window into their life and their souls.” Doug London may be accused of many things, but you can’t say he’s shallow. His book, The Recruiter, is based on a 34 year career and can be purchased from our online independent bookstore. Next week we’ll hear more about Doug’s career, his views on CIA at the cross-roads, the centrality of human intelligence to the intelligence business, despite profound technological change, as well what he calls the Lost Art of American Intelligence.
He was a Soviet agent who was “turned” by Karl Marx after reading Das Kapital – which led him to give up the important operations, a host of MI6 agents and a treasure trove of secret intelligence… George Blake was a courier in the Dutch resistance, an MI6 intelligence officer, a language student at Cambridge, a “Vice-Consul” in South Korea, a prisoner in North Korea, and a hero returning to Britain in 1953. He would escape from a British prison after getting caught and would live out the rest of his life as “The Happy Traitor” in Moscow before dying in 2020. What did author Simon Kuper think when he sat down to personally interview Blake before his death? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out. SpyCast listeners can win free copies of the book by entering here: https://bit.ly/3mW1YmL
He has worked as a counterintelligence analyst at the FBI and the DIA. He speaks Russian. He was personally supervised by Robert Hanssen. He has an obsession with Soviet Defectors… “Freedom has many difficulties,” said JFK in his Berlin Speech, “and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.” What was it like to leave that type of system, though, to come from behind the Iron Curtain and cross the East-West physical and ideological divide? Kevin Riehle has spent many years studying Soviet defectors and their motivations, and he is the author of Soviet Defectors: Revelations of Renegade Intelligence Officers, 1924-1954.
Nada Bakos is a former CIA analyst and Chief Targeting Officer, Mark Fallon was an NCIS Special Agent and Director of the Criminal Investigative Task Force at Guantanamo, Frank Snepp is a former chief analyst of North Vietnamese Strategy for the CIA during the Vietnam War. Mark Zaid - one of the nation’s top national security lawyers - joins Andrew to help break the issue down.
This week’s guests discuss their motivations, frustrations, victories and defeats in publishing, “The Targeter: My Life in the CIA Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House”; “Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and US Government Conspired to Torture”; and, “Decent Interval: An Insider’s Account of Saigon’s End Told by the CIA’s Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam.”
Description: It’s one of the most haunting murder cases you’ll ever hear about, and it takes place in a small town in Israel. Tair Rada was only 13-years-old when her body was found inside a locked bathroom stall. She was viciously murdered during a school day, and yet no one saw or heard a thing. The police arrested the janitor, Roman Zadorov, and he eventually confessed, but this was far from being the end of it. Based on the hit true-crime series from Netflix, the podcast "Shadow of Truth" will take you on a journey into one of the wildest and most contested murder cases in the history of Israel, as it reaches its final resolution, 15 years after it all started.
Link to Clip
http://wondery.fm/SOT_SpyCast
From the SpyCast Field of Dreams: to coincide with the first game of the 117th World Series, a special episode on the links – yes, there are many – between espionage and America’s Pastime with baseball fanatic and ex-spook (it’s a baseball special, not Halloween, so no pun intended) Marc Polymeropoulos. Baseball fans, welcome to espionage; espionage fans, welcome to baseball; fans of both – welcome to our very own Fall Classic.
baseball #worldseries
On October 17, 2001, Team Alpha were dropped into the mountains of northern Afghanistan. Two of the eight appear in this week’s episode alongside the author of a new book telling the story of the first Americans behind enemy lines after 9/11 – and what a story it is. Justin Sapp was a Green Beret detailed to CIA, he would go on to be a commander in the Asymmetric Warfare Group, and is currently Senior Military Advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. David Tyson was a polyglot former Central Asian academic who fought jihadists at close-hand to help his comrade, ex-Marine Mike Spann, the first American casualty in a war that would go on to become the longest in American history. In an extended podcast that is both conversation and historical document: this is their story.
Award-winning journalist and author Toby Harnden helps contextualize the story of Team Alpha. You can learn more about the book here.
This is a big one, a very big one: our 500th episode & 15th anniversary We have come a long way since we began back in 2006 – it’s quite fitting then, that in this week’s episode I speak to our very first historian and curator, Alexis Albion, who is currently the Curator for Special Projects here at the Spy Museum Alexis actually left us way back when to be on the 9/11 Commission Report, where she was the central researcher on the CIA and US counterterrorism policy before 9/11. Hang on, did you just say what I think you said, she was the central researcher on the CIA…? Yup. I know, what the hell, right, we’ve been sitting on this story all this time! Episode 500 is a good time to thank two of the behind-the-scenes unsung technical heroes – Mike and Memphis who have been involved with more SpyCast’s than anyone else. They are awesome. They are great guys, and they rock. Other people who have been involved in the content side of SpyCast have included Peter Earnest and Chris Costa, our former and current Exec Director, as well as my other predecessors in the Historian & Curator role: Thomas Bogart, Mark Stout and Vince Houghton. The show would of course be nothing without our guests, who have contributed their time, expertise and experience to help educate, inform and occasionally entertain the public on the vitally important matters of intelligence and espionage. Sometimes this past year I have felt like Churchill, in that he got the job he had always coveted: but under the least auspicious circumstances. It has been emotional people, but, we are getting there. Here’s to the next 500. Sláinthe.
From your Visa card to your Outlook account, and from the gas you pump into your Ford to your Windows operating system, a cyber struggle is taking place all around us. In this episode Andrew spoke to founder of Microsoft’s threat hunting intelligence center John Lambert, which tracks the world’s most dangerous cybercriminals and state-affiliated hackers, and the head of the Digital Security Unit Cristin Goodwin, who helps provide security support to governments and works closely with John’s team. Microsoft has billions of customers, serves millions of businesses, and works with almost every government department: to say it might have something to do with information and intelligence would be like saying perhaps it would have been a good idea to have bought buy some shares when it first went public in 1986 (June 2021 it was valued at 2 trillion dollars!).
He is the Horatio Alger of the CIA. His first job was punching paper. He went on to be a Station Chief. He worked for every directorate. He lived in several continents. He was in the Soviet Union for six years. He was caught up in the molehunt for Robert Hanssen. He survived to tell his tale. Christopher is genial, hearty and now lives in the other Washington (the rainy state on the West Coast, not the rainy town in Northern England) in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, where he writes for our friends at Clearance Jobs. He tweets @burgessct
What do you get if you cross a Greek Orthodox guy from Athens and a Jewish girl from Long Island; and then mix in two Ivy League degrees and a 26-year career in the Central Intelligence Agency? If you haven’t worked out that this refers to Marc, given that he is mentioned in the episode title, you can probably forget ever having a career in intelligence. Mark is brimming with vitality, chock full of stories, and can talk baseball and wings as well as the finer points of Algerian politics or US grand strategy in the Middle East. If you ever pull up a bar stool next to Mark: you’ve hit a home run! Mark’s new book, Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the CIA, distills the insights he derived from his career and is available in the International Spy Museum’s bookshop.
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approached Peter Bergen sought to reevaluate the man responsible for precipitating America’s long wars with al-Qaeda and its descendants. Bergen produced the first television interview with bin Laden in 1997. He has had years to reflect on and study the man. In his new book The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden he captures all the dimensions of his life: family man, zealot, battlefield commander, terrorist leader, and fugitive. Join International Spy Museum Historian and Curator Andrew Hammond in conversation with Bergen about the many contradictions he finds in bin Laden and why his legacy lives on despite his failure at achieving any of his strategic goals. Bergen, a Vice President at New America, is the author or editor of nine books, including three New York Times bestsellers and four Washington Post best nonfiction books of the year. He is a national security analyst for CNN and has testified before congressional committees 18 times about national security issues. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen has used the knowledge he has gained in the intervening years to discover who bin Laden really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.
Dave Terry was with Vice President Cheney on the morning of 9/11. He started work as a PDB briefer the same day as Mike. He went on to be Chief of the PDB. He started out working on grain production at the CIA in 1979. He comes from Kansas. For the rest, it’s best if you hear Dave.
“And I think for any intelligence officer, what you're doing is often overwhelming, whether you're in front of the President, or a vice president, or the asset that you're trying to debrief, or your colleagues…And the stakes often are life and death.”
Mike Morell was with President Bush on the morning of 9/11. He saw the President several times that day. Ten years later he was with President Obama for the bin Laden raid. He was former Acting and Deputy Director of the CIA. He comes from Ohio. For the rest, it’s best if you hear Mike.
“I believe that when we get to the end of the trail, we’re going to find al Qaeda, and we’re going to find an Osama bin Laden. I told him that I was so confident in that judgment that I would bet my children’s future on it.”
Kristin Wood was at CIA HQ on the morning of 9/11. Phil Mudd was at the National Security Council. Kristin was a PDB briefer for the VP’s National Security Advisor. Phil was Director for Gulf Affairs. They would go on to work counterterrorism together. Kristen has a Wheaton Terrier. Phil has a farm. For the rest, it’s best if you hear Kristin and Phil. “… knowing that every day, you had to deliver relevant information to the nation's leaders, it is a feeling of enormous responsibility that all of the 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of intelligence officers who have done amazing work, you want to represent it faithfully.” I just I didn't want to be alone. I didn't know what was going on. So I stayed at a friend's house, maybe a mile or two from my house just watching through the downing of the Towers. And at that point, I said, I'm going home. My only other memories are realizing I couldn't go to the White House.
It was the 1980’s. “I don't think they'll ever have the fun I had that year, at 23 years old, going to the White House and the NSC, briefing cabinet members…I mean, you name it. It was just incredible!” Three years into her CIA career, Diana Bolsinger found herself on point as the sole person working on the Afghanistan account in her department. Thereafter, she was Acting Deputy to the Ambassador to the Afghan Resistance (“mujahedeen”), a political officer in Islamabad, an analyst at the Counterterrorism Center (CTC), and received multiple awards including for her role in investigating the Boston Marathon bombing. She has a serious Afghanistan/Pakistan resume; Al Qaeda were on her radar from 1990; and, she oozes calm, measured, thoughtful analysis. Ladies & gentlemen: Diana Bolsinger.
Turning the tide in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway, establishing secure communications on the beaches during D-Day, staving off nuclear Armageddon – what did cryptology ever have to do with anything, right? To discuss these big themes – and to celebrate our partnership on the exhibition “Codes, Ciphers and Mysteries” – we brought back you know who, Executive Director of the National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) and former SpyCast host, Vince Houghton (Retd). Through the end of September 2021, you can see the NCM’s superstar artifacts here at SPY before they return to their home base at Fort Meade. Sssshhhhh, though…No Such Museum.
Codes. Ciphers. Mysteries. This week’s guests are fascinated by codebreaking and cryptography: as well they should be! The Voynich Manuscript, the Dorabella Letter, The Beale Papers, the Zodiac Cipher, Kryptos – so much history, intrigue, and speculation. Andrew sat down with Elonka Dunin, code-breaker extraordinaire, and Klaus Schmeh, a world leading expert on the history of cryptography, to discuss the cat-and-mouse game between code-makers and code-breakers across the ages from ancient cuneiform up to quantum cryptography. Word to the wise: their book has been described by Sir Dermot Turing as “the best book on codebreaking I have ever read, a must for would be recruits to GCHQ and the NSA.”
Is Edward Snowden a traitor a hero? Does the surveillance state threaten freedom or secure it? Andrew sat down with investigative reporter Barton Gellman, author of Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State, and part of the team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the National Security Agency and Edward Snowden, to discuss these issues and more. Bart has a serious resume: The Atlantic, The Washington Post, LA Times Book Prize, Emmy Awards (yes, plural), another Pulitzer Prize (greedy!), but I think you get the general idea…this one might make you scream yourself to sleep, sleep like a baby, or not want to waken up, but it will definitely get you thinking. If it does – our work here is done.
Have you ever felt like “cyber” is changing so quickly, it is difficult to keep up? This week’s guest has seen Cyber-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. How? He hosts no less than 10 podcasts per week on the topic! From the Cyberwire Daily to Hacking Humans, and from Career Notes to Recorded Future, Dave Bittner is what you might call: busy. Dave and Andrew talk the Silicon Valley of the East, state-affiliated hackers, organized crime and staying cyber-safe – because it’s a jungle out there, people.
Counterintelligence. Security. Two words that have serious pull in Washington D.C. The problem is, how do you ensure the strings, woodwind, brass and percussion are all playing the same music? Welcome to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC). Acting Director Michael Orlando was this week’s guest, where he sat down with Andrew – yes, literally sat down, poor Hammond is actually getting to do what his predecessors did and do podcasts face-to-face – to discuss how he helps conduct the orchestra. Michael is fascinating all by his lonesome – he came to the job via the U.S. Army, CIA and the FBI – but add his story to that of the NCSC and the current counterintelligence landscape, and you have the makings of Beethoven’s Ninth.
"Deeply, deeply, disturbing." This is how Alma's Katsu's book, The Hunger, was described by Stephen King. Ok, I'll repeat that, that's how her book was described by Stephen King, author of Carrie, The Shining and Misery! The Hunger was based on the infamous Donner Party trip of the nineteenth century, but her most recent book, Red Widow, turns to intelligence and espionage - something Alma knows rather a lot about having spent over thirty years at the NSA and the CIA. Since leaving the intelligence community, Alma has settled into life as an award-winning and bestselling author (with a side-gig as a technology forecaster!). Want some tips on writing your own book or want to know how the NSA and CIA compare? You'll need to listen to find out.
Last week’s episode focused on “Karen Schaefer, CIA Operator,” while this week’s episode looks at her time as a “Serial Collaborator.” Karen specialized in making sure the heart, brain, left hand and right hand had a better idea of what each was up to and were functioning in unison – whether as Director of Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council (NSC), in the leadership group at the FBI (then Director James Comey was fired two days after she arrived), or with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in a warzone. There is always a lot of focus on the arteries and veins of intelligence – this week we look a little more closely at the capillaries.
From counternarcotics to counterterrorism, from Latin America to the Middle East, and from the back streets of a warzone to the center of events in Washington DC – Karen Schaefer has had, how should we say, an “eventful” career as an intelligence officer. Charming, smart, thoughtful, and you haven’t even met Karen yet…but seriously, it was a pleasure to talk to this week’s guest who had all of those qualities, and more; so enjoyable it will be released as a double-header. This week, Part I focuses on her time as an operator; while Part II focuses on her time as a “serial collaborator” who worked with Special Operations, the FBI, and the NSC. Stay tuned…
Cheesesteaks. Baseball. Rocky. Espionage? Hear about the Philly you never knew – as the birthplace of American espionage. From the Committee on Spies during the Revolution (now there is one committee, that actually sounds like it would be good to be on!) to Allen Pinkerton and Kate Warren during the Civil War, up through the A-bomb, a former Director of Central Intelligence, and a conspirator for the Mumbai Bombing of 2008 - Philadelphia has all kinds of fascinating links to the world of intelligence and espionage. Andrew sat down with H. Keith Melton, the world’s pre-eminent collector of espionage related artifacts, and Bob Wallace, former Director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services who has been called the real life “Q” of the CIA, to discuss their latest collaboration: Spy Sites of Philadelphia. Happy Birthday America!
Quit. Fail. Give-up. Rick Diaz refused to acknowledge the meaning of these terms. The result? Well, you’ll need to listen to find out.
Spy satellites are fascinating! Man-made objects up there – sometimes way up there – looking down to see what other humans are up to. I believe it’s called a God’s eye view. You may not be as unfamiliar with satellites as you think: for starters, you’re on one! The earth is a satellite of the sun, the moon is a satellite of the earth, you are a satellite of…historian Dr. James Outzen sat down with Andrew to talk about artificial – i.e., man-made – satellites as part of a conversation marking the 60th anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
A superstar line-up chooses an African American spy from American history. Harriet Tubman, Ralph Bunche and Willie Merkerson Jr. are introduced, before we have a discussion about African Americans and the American experience. Our guests are Mel Gamble, a former CIA Chief of the Africa Division and Senior Intelligence officer; Reuben E. Brigety II, former US Ambassador to the African Union and current Vice Chancellor of the University of the South; and Kaia Niambi Shivers, writer, activist and founder of Ark Republic magazine.
Juneteenth
Barry Broman spent most of his life in South-east Asia as a photographer, an infantry officer, and as a “diplomat” (although not really!). It is not that he wasn’t a diplomat - it’s just that he did something else too…like recruit over 40 agents, escape the genocidal Khmer Rouge, supervise covert paramilitary operations, and bring in gargantuan quantities of heroin in major drug busts. Barry has lived a life – and then some. Andrew sat down with Barry to talk about his life east of the Irrawaddy River.
You can buy Barry's book here.
What do Afghan Mujahedeen, the KGB, Pablo Escobar, Iran-Contra, and Chilean Elections have in common? Two words: Jack Devine. This CIA legend is the Forrest Gump of the intelligence world, in that he always finds himself at the center of events. Jack reflects on his remarkable career and hones in on Russian aggression and Vladimir Putin, the subject of his current book, The Spymaster’s Prism. Anybody who went from the streets of blue-collar Philadelphia to Acting Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA has serious gumption.
Rob Montgomery had a real scare on deployment in Afghanistan…the scare was back in Virginia though; he had a motion detect on his phone that showed multiple unidentified males outside his home in a sleepy college town - while his wife and children were asleep inside. You’ll need to listen to hear the rest of the story, but it did prompt Rob to think more deeply about the life-saving skills he developed over 34 years serving in some of the most austere and dangerous places on the planet. We talk “situational awareness,” CIA training, Krav Maga, and whether you need a go-bag!
Hear an incredible true story. Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman who went behind enemy lines into Nazi Germany with a pair of walking shoes, a cover story, and about half a ton of chutzpah. 101-year-old Marthe spoke to Andrew over the phone from her home in Los Angeles.
In a first for the show, this week’s guest is a former spy chief from the world’s largest democracy. Vikram Sood was the Director of India's Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Andrew and Vikram talk Pakistan, China, the United States, human capital, intelligence reform and the power of narratives: because spies can be sensitive souls too.
Where to begin. Marty was described to me as, “the greatest analyst we ever had (truthfully),” would I be interested in speaking to him? Guess the answer!? The result, a SpyCast with a CIA analytic legend. For 40 years Marty analyzed intelligence for US foreign policymakers, trained a whole generation of analysts, and mentored figures who would go on to have senior leadership positions within American intelligence, such as former Acting and Deputy Director of CIA Mike Morrell. In this episode we talk China, Asia, making sense of the world, and a whole host of topical issues.
This week’s guest is Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director of Counterintelligence at the FBI, who oversaw all espionage investigations across the US govt. He served for 25 years as a Special Agent, which included countering economic espionage in Silicon Valley, being appointed the FBI’s Chief Inspector, and heading up the Cleveland Division. He is the recent author of “The FBI Way” and a current columnist and national security correspondent for NBC News. In this week’s episode we talk about a sitting member of congress and a presidential candidate who were just a little too close to foreign intelligence services, and hear some of his thoughts on former FBI Director’s Bob Mueller and James Comey. Unfun fact: Frank’s first unit chief at FBI HQ was at the center of, “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history.” Listen to find out more.
Buy Frank's book "The FBI Way" here:
https://bit.ly/3xEx99s
Infosec. Cybersec. Techsec.
In the second part of our double-header on the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations, we round out our previous discussion with two former Directors of Counterintelligence for the US Air Force, Jude Sunderbruch and Terry Phillips. Their world-wide remit includes cybersecurity, information security, technology protection and all things air power and counter-intelligence.
N.B. – SpyCast 2.0
Next week we reboot SpyCast with improved audio and some additional tweaks, hacks, bells and whistles. Through the rest of 2021, we will be seeking out every ounce of audio quality we can and continuing to refine the content and much else besides. We will also be rolling out new material including transcripts for each episode with time-stamps, extended show notes that break the content down and give you the take-aways, as well as links to further reading/sources and complimentary episodes. Thanks for your patience! It. Has. Been. Emotional.
Andrew and Director Dominic Cooke sit down to talk about his new movie The Courier (2021), starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan and Merab Ninidze, which tells the story of Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky. A Cold War spy thriller based on true events where humanity was precariously perched on a wire.
If you think that all the best spy stories happened during the Cold War – we have a doozy for you.
In 2008 FSB officer Alexy Yurievich Artmonov was presented with three choices: (1) put a bullet in his own head, (2) wait for someone else to do it, (3) run. Which would you choose? Alexy chose (3).
In fact, this story has all the makings of Cold War spy fiction: caught between the long arm of corrupt government officials and the mob, a spy and his wife go on the run leaving friends and family behind; to shake off any would be pursuers they book multiple decoy flights, and end up drinking rum cocktails in the Caribbean, before walking into the US Embassy in Santo Domingo seeking to exchange secrets in return for a new life and new identities…except, it was not quite that simple. Oh, and it happens to be true.
Join us as we explore how Alexy, the Russian FSB officer born in the former USSR, became Jan Neumann the graphic novel author, producer and storyteller living in America.
Like the very best spy stories, truth happens to be stranger than fiction.
P.S. Next week we announce the launch date for SpyCast 2.0!
Continuing our journey through SpyCast’s greatest hits enroute to our relaunch, we arrive on a topic of perennial interest and great importance: intelligence and the US presidency.
Just how is information from the intelligence community (IC) conveyed to the president? How have different administrations incorporated intelligence into the political decision-making process?
This blast from the past features John Hedley, former CIA officer and editor of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), who reviews the relationship between the IC and presidents since World War II, in the course revealing fascinating episodes from his personal experience in dealing with several administrations and multiple presidents.
Josh Campbell lit his cigar and extinguished the match. It was Inauguration Day 2017, and he was on the roof of his Washington D.C. apartment building. As the outgoing Obama’s made their way overhead on a helicopter, he turned to his father who had flown up from Texas for the event and remarked, “I hope Trump is good for the FBI.”
Josh Campbell, former Special Assistant to the Director of the FBI, was chosen by James Comey because he didn’t shy away from speaking his mind. No matter what your politics are, you will want to hear him speak his mind and listen to his fly-on-the-wall account of some of the most momentous events in the modern history of the FBI. He was present at a meeting in Trump Tower on January 6, 2017, two weeks before the inauguration, that would later lead to his boss being fired; it would also lead to his former boss Bob Mueller being appointed as Special Counsel to head up an investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
Before the Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, and indeed before Mueller’s appointment, the FBI headed up a counterintelligence investigation into the allegations they codenamed Crossfire Hurricane (yes, after the first line of the Rolling Stones most performed and perhaps best loved song, 1968 hit Jumpin’ Jack Flash!). This is also the name of Campbell’s recent book – Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump’s War on Justice & the FBI – written as part of his effort to speak out after leaving the FBI.
Campbell, who is now a CNN correspondent, spoke to Andrew at an International Spy Museum event on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2021. We couldn’t get you two Irishmen, but we did get the next best thing: a Scot and an American with a very Scottish last name. This episode may lead to heated arguments: but if it does, it will merely be keeping in line with pub culture in Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin!
Carl Sagan said, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Listen and decide for yourself what is and what is not extraordinary and what is and what is not evidence – because due diligence dictated that it couldn’t be all holding hands around the campfire between Andrew and Josh.
P.S. Not too much longer before SpyCast 2.0.
As we continue ramping up for SpyCast 2.0, featuring a content overhaul and improved audio, we release a real gem on a perennial favorite of the SpyCast community. You literally couldn’t make this one up, it has everything you’d expect to see at Shakespeare’s Globe – betrayal, suspicion, ambition, political machinations, royal intrigue and flabbergasting chutzpah.
Philby. Burgess. MacLean. Blunt. Cairncross. Spies who betrayed their country in the name of an ideal: communism. In the 1930s, five young Cambridge University students were recruited by Soviet intelligence to penetrate the British establishment. In the course of their espionage career, the Five did enormous damage to Western security. The gradual unravelling of the spy ring across the decades also led to mole-hunts and an ever widening ring of paranoia. It even put the “special relationship” between Britain and America under strain.
While parts of their story inspired the pages of Cold War spy thrillers, back in 2009 British intelligence author Nigel West examined their motivations and activities, and revealed new evidence he unearthed in Soviet intelligence archives.
As we gear up for an exciting new Spring program – which will feature a number of changes including a content overhaul and improved audio – we are releasing some of our greatest hits from the vault. Back in 2007 Dame Stella Rimington, former Director-General of MI5, spoke about British intelligence past and present and compared British and American approaches to intelligence. She was the first female Director General of the Security Service (better known by its three letter abbreviation, MI5) and her autobiography is entitled, Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5. She is also the author of a number of novels. Most recently in her “Liz Carlyle” series are, The Moscow Sleepers (2018) and Breaking Cover (2016). During her 30+ year career, she worked in all the main fields of MI5’s area of responsibility: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. During Dame Stella’s watch, MI5 moved towards greater openness, so it is fitting that this interview is with a former CIA Director of Media Relations, The International Spy Museum’s former Executive Director Peter Earnest. Suggested pairings: How Spies Think – Spy Chief David Omand (Nov 24, 2020) The MI5 Centenary (Dec 1, 2009)
ONE OF THE GREAT SPY STORIES OF MODERN TIMES
Palestinian & Israeli. Agent & Handler. Mosab & Gonen.
One became involved with Hamas almost as a birthright, his father, after all, was a founder and its spiritual leader; the other was inspired to join Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, and had a father in the Israeli Army. They seemed destined for a collision course.
Fate would bring them together, danger would bind them together, but it was loyalty that kept them together. A unique bond was forged between Mosab Hassan Yousef, aka “The Green Prince,” and Gonen Ben Yitzhak, aka “Captain Loai,” that is remarkably rare in agent-handler relationships. “If he could come to Israel – and I know he can’t – he would be like a member of my family,” notes the Israeli, who revealed his true identity to testify on Mosab’s behalf at an immigration hearing in San Diego. Gonen’s children, meanwhile, call the Palestinian “Uncle Yousef.”
Some stories seem too far-fetched to be true. This one is both. Hopefully you can come to the International Spy Museum one day where we look at their story in one of our exhibits (in the meantime you can also stream the award-winning documentary, The Green Prince). This episode is a blast from the past, our founding Executive Director Peter Earnest was the compère, that lives on. Recommended pairings: “Shadow Wars, 2020” – Israel, Iran & America Dec 8, 2020 “Israeli Intelligence” Dec 1, 2020
Former FBI Special Agent Dennis Franks is nothing if not interesting. He has faced off against the Columbian Cali Cartel – yes, the Cali Cartel from Season 3 of Narcos – the Mexican Gulf Cartel, MS-13, Sicilian Mafioso’s, and all manner of gangbanger, gangster and narcotraficante. He has been a firearms instructor, on an Enhanced SWAT Team, and ran his own undercover unit. He has also worked Russian intelligence and Russian organized crime: “It was very much a learning experience, because that was very different from a lot of the other organizations I have worked.” Why? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out.
It doesn’t stop there though, Dennis was at the Waco Siege in 1993, and he offers listeners a particularly poignant moment involving a little girl, a rearview mirror and a knot in his stomach. He now runs his own investigative and security company out of Austin, Texas, and he was recently the Host & Executive Producer of A&E Investigates: The Plot Against America. This was not the alternative history TV series where the USA and Nazi Germany sign a treaty under President Hindenburg, based on a Philip Roth novel, but a real-life hunt for Russian sleeper agents in North-eastern Tennessee. Yes, you heard it correctly – Tennessee. Why? It might have something to do with a beautiful woman and the atomic bomb. Again, you’ll need to listen to find out! As a North Carolina man in Texas, he gives us the final word on who has the best BBQ…or maybe the controversy will continue.
Nicole Perloth descended into the cyber netherworld and emerged to share her wisdom. This is the second of a double-header with the New York Times cybersecurity reporter and author of This is How They Tell Me The World Ends. Andrew and Nicole talk Armageddon, Stuxnet, Jiu Jitsu, and Michelle Obama – you’ll need to listen to see the link to the former First Lady. Sit back, buckle up, and get ready to tailgate the future.
The door to the walk-in cooler slammed shut behind Jack Barsky. This is it, he thought, this is how it all ends – in a restaurant in the Deep South at the hands of a crazy Irish-American eight inches shorter than me. “He said he was taking me through a secret passage to a speakeasy.” But it was not the end that day in Atlanta, 30 years after the Cold War’s end, but a new beginning. The residual fear felt by the former deep-cover KGB illegal soon dissipated and a new friendship was born over drinks. We ended up, “at a very small bar, looking out through a two-way mirror at all the people in the restaurant, what a great place for two old spies to be.” Hear Jack Barsky (if you’ve ever watched The Americans he worked for the real-life “Directorate S”!) and former US Navy Counterintelligence Agent, Keith Mahoney (if you’ve ever seen NCIS, he was in its 1980’s equivalent) swap war stories. They grew up on either side of the Cold War divide, drank the ascribed kool-aid, lived parallel lives – and ended up best buds! Enjoy.
Have you seen that episode of The Crown where an intruder gets in one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the world via an unlocked window? Welcome to its cyber equivalent: “zero-days.” Join Andrew and Nicole Perloth, award-winning cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for the New York Times, as they descend into a cyber netherworld that will enlighten, challenge and quite possibly terrify you. Oh, I almost forgot, she is also the author of what has been called “quite possibly the most important book of the year,” This is How They Tell Me The World Ends. Guess where you can hear all about it before talks at storied bookstores such as City Lights in San Francisco, Powell’s in Portland and McNally Jackson In NYC, or indeed conversations at UT Austin, UC Irvine or at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress. Yup, you’ve guessed it (we drop the podcast the day the book hits the shelves). Run your software updates, turn on two-factor authentication and cross your fingers: the future is gonna be wild.
Counterintelligence. Counterespionage. Criminal Investigations. The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) have a fascinating remit around the world and across the country – one that also includes cyber, infosec and technology protection. What better way to break all of this down than to chat to TWO former Directors of Counterintelligence for the U.S. Air Force, Jude Sunderbruch and Terry Phillips. They are colleagues, collaborators and close friends who have seen momentous changes in the operational environment since they first met back in the 90’s (are the 90’s “back in the day” already? What the hell happened? I’m getting old). Jude is currently Executive Director at their HQ in Quantico, Virginia. With regards to Terry, what could be more “special” than talking to a Special Agent from Special Investigations? Why, a Special Agent from Special Investigations who happens to be the Executive Director of Special Projects. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. Muy interesante.
What better way to start developing an Antipodean flavor to SpyCast than to release an episode with Brett Peppler. Aussie Army. Spec Ops. Deputy Director Military Intelligence. AIPIO President. Professor. He’s been around the block, thought about the block, and anticipated what the block might do next (he said he is, "desperately, madly in love with Futures Intelligence"). The Indo-Pacific is often overlooked, but it will be a key component of international security long after Brett and I have slipped the surly bonds of earth for the Great Gig in the Sky. The timing of our conversation was interesting, it was the official national holiday of Australia where Brett was (Australia Day, 26th Jan), and the unofficial national holiday of Scotland where I was (Burns Night, Jan 25th). Coincidence? Serendipity? Conspiracy? One for the intelligence analysts among us methinks.
Marie Mitchell is an FBI agent sent by the CIA to spy on the “African Che Guevara,” leftist president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara. Inspired by real events, he became president in 1983 at the age of 33, this week’s guest takes what is best about the spy fiction genre and gives it her own unique je ne sais quoi (if most of what you know about this land-locked West African country can be written on a business card, guess the official language?). The week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day seemed like an opportune moment to introduce Lauren Wilkinson to the SpyCast community: for a spy thriller written by a black female author, featuring a black female protagonist, set in an African country is a triple rarity for the genre. Join Andrew and Lauren as they talk about her debut novel, which managed to make it on to summer reading list of a former US president – to find out which one you will have to listen – and about some of her favourite spy novels. Her book is now available One reviewer said it is “like the best of John le Carré.” Need I really say more?
January 6, 2021. What to say. Former president George W. Bush, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all used the term “insurrection.” As these momentous events unfolded – I watched it on TV although I can literally see the US Capitol from my rooftop – I was constantly thinking about the intelligence implications. Long story short, I reached out to Diana Bolsinger and Mark Stout and voila! welcome to a SpyCast Special. Diana’s background includes service in the National Counterterrorism Center, at the CIA and in the U.S. Department of State. Mark had an equally well-rounded career at INR, the CIA, and the Army Staff at the Pentagon. Both “formers” now teach and research intelligence and national security. Grab a brew, or something stronger, and mull this one over.
This is the second in our two-parter with Dr. Matthew Brazil, a historian of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence operations. Andrew and Matt discuss everything from recruitment, ideology, and foreign tourism, to modern history and contemporary politics – all the biggies really. Ever wondered about the “century of humiliation” or the “Great Firewall of China”? This might be the episode for you (but don’t forget Part 1!). Matt spent over twenty years working in East and South Asia. Even better, the book is based on an engagement with hundreds of Chinese language sources. Well, whatddayaknow? 谢谢
Edward Snowden is back in the news. I know what you are thinking: shocker! As we move into the new year from the annus horribilis that was 2020, however, one of the main intelligence stories is will Snowden receive a presidential pardon. Come to think of it, does he even deserve one? Back in what now seems like the mists of time, 2013, Mark Stout sat down with one of the nation’s top national security lawyers, Mark Zaid, for a legal perspective on the then recent Snowden case. Like a smoky 8 year old single malt, this one lingers on the palate (which depending on your taste may be a good or a bad thing). At the very least, we provide some context on today’s headlines in the run down to Hogmanay. Wishing you and yours all the best.
Nothing makes me happier than a conversation with whip smart people on the past, present or future of intelligence: enter Heather Williams, a senior policy researcher at RAND, and Zachery Tyson Brown, a strategic futurist and founder of Consilient Strategies. With decades of experience at multiple agencies, multiple deployments overseas, advanced degrees from the National Intelligence University and a network of contacts that would do any Rolodex proud, they have oodles to offer. We talk the information revolution, generational change, institutional reform, a variety of -ologies and of course the pandemic and the incoming presidential administration. Basically, just the entire future of intelligence.
Bet you are wondering which adversary caused him the most sleepless nights, right? From the Red Army to New Jersey street gangs, from terrorists to the Taliban – Dean Barrata has analyzed them all. During a 30+ year career in intelligence, Dean has been everywhere from West Germany to Afghanistan, from the Pennsylvania National Guard to a New Jersey Police Street Gang Unit. If you have ever wondered if there was life beyond the three letter agencies (CIA, NSA, DIA), this just might be the episode for you. He now works for GitHub and teaches at a flagship college. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dean Barrata. Did I mention that he thinks Millennials and Centennials make great intelligence analysts?
The second in a double-header on Israeli intelligence. This week we walk the story up to the present day – including the election of Joe Biden and the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. We also hear how Israeli intelligence is retooling for the twenty-first century. Andrew is joined by journalist Yossi Melman, a reporter for Haaretz and advisor on the Netflix Series Inside the Mossad, and Dan Raviv, who was at CBS for over 40 years. They are the authors of Every Spy a Prince and Spies Against Armageddon.
Mossad. Shin Bet. Aman. Legendary names from the world of secret intelligence. Adolf Eichmann. Wrath of God. Stuxnet. Israel’s intelligence agencies never seem to be far from the history books…or the headlines. Were they behind the recent killing of the so-called Iranian Robert Oppenheimer, nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh? To provide some context, best-selling author Dan Raviv spoke about his co-authored book Spies Against Armageddon, back in 2012. Hear about the history of Israeli intelligence from the birth of the country in 1948 through to the end of Netanyahu’s second term.
Ever thought you were the smartest person in the room? You’ve never been in a room with Sir David Omand. My former professor – no slouch himself – described Sir David as “the brightest person I have ever met.” It is certainly difficult to think of anyone more qualified to appear on SpyCast: former Director of GCHQ, former Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, formulator of current British counter-terrorism policy, he also happens to be one of the world’s deepest thinkers on intelligence and espionage (as well as the intellectual man-crush of my former professor). In his new book, How Spies Think, David distills insights derived from a career spent at the summit of British secret intelligence. 1 Book, 2 Glaswegians, 10 Lessons in Intelligence. It’s simple, really. Sláinte
If 1985 was “The Year of the Spy,” was 2019 its equivalent in the sporting world? The Patriots were accused of spying on the Bengals, Leeds Utd. of surveilling Derby County, and the Houston Astros of stealing-signs from, well, everybody. Just before Super Bowl XLV (2011), high-school quarterback, artist and Spy Museum stalwart Dan Treado sat down with ex-intelligence officer, analyst, consultant and author T.J. Waters to discuss the secret world of the NFL. Briefing books. Secure Comms. Deception operations. Think states have a monopoly on intelligence and espionage: think again.
Join Andrew and former Baltimore Sun reporter Liz Atwood as they dig into the fascinating life of multi-lingual Baltimore socialite Marguerite Harrison: path-breaking journalist, documentary actor, co-founder of the Society of Women Geographers…double agent.
Fact vs. Fake. Truth vs. Lies. Information vs. Disinformation. For voters trying to choose between competing parties and candidates the distinction between them would seem to be central. But is it still possible to tell which is which? In this week’s SpyCast Andrew is joined by two analysts from the Alliance for Securing Democracy – Russia watcher Brad Hanlon and China watcher Bryce Barros – to try to get to the bottom of what is going on. Is “disinformation” fake news and malarkey, or a serious threat to the future of democracy?
Transcript available at https://www.spymuseum.org/spycast
For Andrew Hammond, a Scotsman and the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum, the loss of iconic actor Sean Connery this week at the age of 90 hits particularly hard.
“As a Scot, someone from the same country, it’s a great loss and a deep loss,” Hammond told WTOP. “For spy fans and people who are from Scotland, but also for anyone who’s ever loved having the lights out and escaping through the lens of cinema, it’s just a great loss.”
James Bond movies, Hammond said, have taught lots of people what they know about being a spy, even if many of them are pure fantasy - via WTOP.
What do you get if you cross a Harvard historian with a UCLA trained political scientist and an award winning doctoral researcher? One word: context. Join Andrew and his guests – Calder Walton, Dov Levin and Magda Long – as they drill down into intelligence agencies and electoral intervention.
Transcript available at https://www.spymuseum.org/spycast
Authorized History of a Secret Intelligence Agency –(STOP)– author debriefed by Spy Historian Hammond –(STOP)– WW1 WW2 Cold War –(STOP)– reevaluation of Western Front Bletchley Park Ultra Falklands War –(STOP)– discuss Authorized Histories “Cyber Rifles” and coming century –(STOP)– Podcast released on same day as Ferris book –(STOP) – a coincidence? (END TELEGRAM)
SPY Curator Alexis Albion asks author Ben Macintyre “Can women spies have it all?”, as they discuss his latest book on the extraordinary Ursula Kuczynski aka Agent Sonya.
Transcript available at https://www.spymuseum.org/spycast
In the second of our “changing of the guard” episodes, the new SpyCast host Andrew Hammond sits down with Vince. It’s Been Emotional.
Author Chris Whipple discusses his new book, The Spymasters:How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future with SPY Executive Director Chris Costa.
Dr. Vince Houghton sat down for a conversation with the new International Spy Museum historian, Dr. Andrew Hammond.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with Kristin Wood who spent more than two decades with CIA in a number of roles.
SPY Historian sat down with some of the leadership of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research for a candid conversation
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA operations officer Alison Bouwmeester to discuss her career, and how she’s been helping people transition from government service to the private sector.
Executive Director Chris Costa sits down with Professor Kevin King to learn more about his career traveling the world, and how that led to him being held by the Taliban for over three years.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former US Navy officer and double agent Art Lindberg to discuss his career and the sting operation that snared multiple Soviet spies.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bestselling thriller author Brad Thor to discuss his writing career, his process, book research, and how novelists can play a vital role in US national security
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with an extraordinary panel to have a candid discussion about racial issues in the intelligence community.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with GEOINT pioneer Keith Masback to discuss all things geospatial.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with 4 of your favorite spy fiction authors to discuss how they entertain and educate.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Nancy Greenspan to discuss the life of notorious Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs, the fascinating subject of her new book, Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs
It's February 2nd 1922, and all of Hollywood is about to wake up and learn that William Desmond Taylor, the most famous film director in town, was murdered in his home last night. The investigation will shine a light on some of Hollywood's most scandalous affairs, backroom deals, and underground drug dens. This real life Murder Mystery is one of the most iconic "whodunnit" cases of the 20th century that will leave you guessing and second guessing who killed William Desmond Taylor for weeks to come.
Listen today at wondery.fm/spycastMiH
Executive Director Chris Costa talks to Keith Melton and Bob Wallace about their newest book, Spy Sites of New York City: A Guide to the Region’s Secret History.
Introducing the newest Audioboom original podcast, Truth vs Hollywood. Join Film lovers David Chen and Joanna Robinson as they do a deep dive into well-known films and discuss how similar they are to the actual story. Truth vs Hollywood premieres 6/12. Subscribe to Truth vs Hollywood on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truth-vs-hollywood/id1510582080
SPY Historian Vince Houghton had a virtual conversation with three former intelligence professionals to discuss their choices of careers following their time as practitioners
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down for a virtual conversation about the 60th anniversary of one of the most historic events of the Cold War.
Executive Director Chris Costa talks with GSG9 Commander Jerome Fuchs about the history and evolution of GSG9, as well as his career with the organization.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former intelligence analysts Mark Stout and Cindy Storer to discuss how intel analysts in the US and around the world are viewing the coronavirus situation.
Executive Director Chris Costa is joined by former Commander of U.S. Central Command General Joseph Votel to discuss his insights into current events in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and the fight against ISIS.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with prolific author and historian Harvey Klehr to discuss Soviet espionage and his newest book, The Millionaire Was a Soviet Mole: The Twisted Life of David Karr.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with professor Thomas Rid to discuss the history of disinformation, and his new book, Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare.
Executive Director, Chris Costa is joined by former CIA Officer and author, Sam Faddis to discuss his book The CIA War in Kurdistan: The Untold Story of the Northern Front in the Iraq War.
Executive Director, Chris Costa talks with Kirsten Fontenrose, current Director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, about current events in the Middle East and her twenty years of experience with the region.
Executive Director Chris Costa sits down with Washington Post journalist, Jason Rezaian to talk about his book and experiences being taken hostage in Iran.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Rick Holland, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Vice President of Strategy for Digital Shadows, to discuss the latest cyber trends and developments
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bioterrorism expert Hank Parker to discuss current threats and Parker's new book Containment.
Having trouble getting a handle on world events? Join Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa and Former CIA/ Spy Museum Advisory Board Member Karen M. Schaefer for a discussion of the latest intelligence, national security, and terrorism issues in the news.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA officer and FBI special agent Tracy Walder to discuss her career in intelligence, and her new book, The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists
SpyCast has teamed up with Live Science to bring you this special preview clip of the new podcast, Life's Little Mysteries.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera to discuss the Russian “illegals” program and his new book, Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin's Spies.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA officer Darrell Blocker to discuss his career and work throughout Africa.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with writer, speaker, commentator, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Mara Hvistendahl to discuss the rise of economic espionage, the American response to this threat, and her new book, The Scientist and The Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon to discuss her career and many important topics in intelligence
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with retired 4-star general David Petraeus, former Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq; Commander, US Central Command; commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander, US Forces Afghanistan; and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served from September, 2011, until November, 2012.
Having trouble getting a handle on world events? Join Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa for a discussion of the latest intelligence, national security, and terrorism issues in the news.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with counterterrorism expert and former MI5 officer Tom Parker to discuss the role of human rights in the fight against terrorism.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with terrorism expert William Rosenau to discuss a most improbable true story: America’s first female terrorist group and their attacks, which included the Washington Navy Yard, an FBI office, and even the US Capitol.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with the 21st Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to discuss his career, the mission of the DIA, and his role as its director.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with representatives of the United States Marshals Service to discuss the decades-long manhunt for Nazi war criminal Dr. Joseph Mengele.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jack Doyle, former field director for NEST, the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Green Beret Major Jim Gant and his wife, former war correspondent Ann Scott Tyson, who is the author of the book, American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former NSA Director and CYBERCOM commander Admiral Mike Rogers
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jason Fickett, the Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge, Intelligence Division, FBI’s Washington Field Office, to discuss his career and the government’s new program to combat foreign influence.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with recently retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service officer Marc Polymeropoulos to discuss a career that spanned more than two decades and crossed multiple continents.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with Peter Bergen to discuss his new book, Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with a former senior advisor to both the White House and the Secretary of State to discuss the difficulties in explaining American national security policy to both domestic and foreign audiences
In November, 2006, SpyCast was born. After 13 years, 397 episodes, and millions of worldwide listeners, we are still going strong. This is because of you, and your continued support for the little-podcast-that-could. Thank you! Here is the very first SpyCast: a conversation between the great Peter Earnest, and one of our very favorites, Tony Mendez,
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bestselling author Henry Hemming to discuss information operations, fake news, British and German espionage, and his new book, Agents of Influence: A British Campaign, a Canadian Spy, and the Secret Plot to Bring America into World War II
Last week, Gen. Michael Hayden was honored by the International Spy Museum with the 2019 William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award. In 2016, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Gen. Hayden to discuss his life and career in intelligence.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with the Former Director, Directorate of Strategic and Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center, to discuss recent events in counterterrorism, and the Trump Administration’s decision to end their support of the Kurds.
In this special Halloween SpyCast, SPY Historian Vince Houghton spoke to DIA Chief Historian Greg Elder about the DIA’s investigation into telekinesis, telepathy, remote viewing, and other spooky stuff.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author, investigative reporter, and two-time Pulitzer- winner, Eric Lichtblau, to discuss OSS operations in Europe and his new book Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee's Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Guantanamo defense attorneys Alka Pradhan and Ben Farley, who represent one of the 9/11 defendants, Ammar al-Baluchi.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with attorneys John Tye and Mark Zaid to discuss their project Whistleblower Aid, which is a non-profit organization designed to protect whistleblowers – and to prevent them from becoming leakers.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Washington Post reporter and author Steve Vogel, and the curator of Berlin’s Allied Museum, Bernd von Kostka, to discuss the Berlin Tunnel, the ambitious Cold War SIGINT operation that is the focus of Vogel’s new book, Betrayal in Berlin
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with academic and author Dr. Doug Ronald to discuss one of the most fascinating personalities of the American Revolution, and the subject of his book, The Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold
Former SPY Historian Alexis Albion sat down with current SPY Historian Vince Houghton to discuss WWII and early Cold War nuclear intelligence, and Houghton’s new book, The Nuclear Spies: America’s Atomic Intelligence Operation against Hitler and Stalin.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Chief of East Berlin and Moscow stations David Rolph, who also served as the handler for one of CIA’s most important Soviet assets, Adolf Tolkachev.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Mendez to talk about operating in VERY denied areas, and her newest book, The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics that Helped America Win the Cold War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Matt Korda of the FAS Nuclear Information Project, and co-author of the Nuclear Notebook, to discuss multiple current issues in the world of nukes and intel.
At a live event at the International Spy Museum, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA, NSA, and INSCOM infosec specialist Emily Crose to talk the past, present, and future of cyber
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former military intelligence officer and prolific author Peter Tsouras to discuss the role of George Sharpe and the Bureau of Military Information in helping the Union win the Civil War
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with the founder of the James W. Foley Foundation, Diane Foley, and Cynthia Loertscher, the lead researcher for “Bringing Americans Home,” the First Non-Governmental Assessment of US Hostage Policy and Family Engagement.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Deputy Director of CIA, former Acting Director, and former Deputy Director for Intelligence Richard Kerr, to discuss his career and his new book, The Dark Side of Paradise: Odd and Intriguing Stories from Vero Beach
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA counterterrorism officer Dan Gabriel, who is now filmmaker Dan Gabriel, the writer and director of the extraordinary documentary, Mosul.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former intelligence analysts John Gentry and Joe Gordon to discuss one of the most misunderstood aspects of the intelligence business: strategic warning. Gentry and Gordon are the authors of the book, Strategic Warning Intelligence: History, Challenges, and Prospects.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the current threat environment.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with journalist and author Matti Friedman for a fascinating look at early Israeli intelligence, and his book, Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jack Doyle, former field director for NEST, the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Green Beret Major Jim Gant and his wife, former war correspondent Ann Scott Tyson, who is the author of the book, American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant
SPY Adult Education Director Amanda Ohlke sat down with Dr. Julie Wheelwright, the author of The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage. Julie and Amanda discuss the famous early 20th century dancer: her background, how she became famous and successful against all odds, and the truth about her espionage activities during WWI.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with writer, editor, and historian Audra Wolfe to discuss Cold War propaganda and psychological operations, and her book, Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with TD Barnes, who served as a field engineer at the NASA High Range in Nevada for the X-15, XB-70, lifting bodies and lunar landing vehicles; worked on the NERVA project at Jackass Flats, Nevada; and served in Special Projects at Area 51.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former NSA Director and CYBERCOM commander Admiral Mike Rogers
Guest host David Priess sat down with SPY historian and curator Vince Houghton to discuss Houghton’s new book, Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes And Military Plots Left On The Drawing Board.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with John Browne, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was there for – among other things – the Wen Ho Lee spy investigation. IARPA/ARL link: https://sites.google.com/create.jhuapl.edu/join
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with the former Commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces - Afghanistan (USFOR-A)
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis to discuss nuclear threats from around the world, and his fascinating book, The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Gary Weir to discuss some of the history of NGA, and their vital role in the mission to find and neutralize Usama bin Laden
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Peter Lapp, whose two decade career at the FBI included extensive work in counterintelligence.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton say down with cybersecurity expert and former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative Eric O’Neill to discuss the investigation into, and arrest of, Soviet/Russian spy Robert Hanssen, and O’Neill’s new book on the topic, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission To Expose America’s First Cyber Spy.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with the Director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at Monterey to discuss terrorism financing, state-sponsorship, and the rise of domestic terrorism.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down for a second time with journalist, and now congressional candidate, Liz Wahl to discuss Russian disinformation operations and more.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with Rob Saale, the former director of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Army officer and former CIA intelligence officer David Oakley to discuss the tensions between the military and the CIA, and his new book, Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post-Cold War Relationship
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with National Defense University professor Sean McFate to discuss his new book, The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age or Durable Disorder.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with representatives of the United States Marshals Service to discuss the decades-long manhunt for Nazi war criminal Dr. Joseph Mengele.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bestselling author Larry Loftis to discuss the extraordinary WWII British agent Odette Sansom, and Loftis’s new book, Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with terrorism expert Peter Bergen and SPY Executive Director Chris Costa to discuss the details and highlights of the most recent national counterterrorism strategy
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with prolific author Brad Meltzer to discuss his newest book, The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Link: https://www.amazon.com/First-Conspiracy-Secret-George-Washington/dp/1250130336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547763104&sr=8-1&keywords=the+first+conspiracy+brad+meltzer
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with the 21st Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to discuss his career, the mission of the DIA, and his role as its director.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with University of Nottingham professor Rory Cormac to discuss the history of British covert action and his newest book, Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces, and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sits down with the former Ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert to discuss his career and insights on the U.S. relationship with South Korea, as well as current issues surrounding the Korean peninsula.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with journalist and writer Sally McGrane to discuss modern-day Russia, living in Germany, and her novel Moscow at Midnight.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Green Beret and CIA Operations Officer James Stejskal to discuss the legacy of TE Lawrence and Stejskal’s newest book, Masters of Mayhem: Lawrence of Arabia and the British Military Mission to the Hejaz.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with ret US Army LTC and former career intelligence officer Michael Brady to discuss his career, the status of intelligence education, and his latest book, Into the Shadows, Assassination Corps.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with attorney Michael Pullara to discuss the case of slain CIA officer Freddie Woodruff and Pullara’s new book, The Spy Who Was Left Behind: Russia, the United States, and the True Story of the Betrayal and Assassination of a CIA Agent
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ambassador Joe Wilson to discuss his career, the politicization of intelligence, and uranium from Niger
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jeremy Bash and discussed his career at CIA, DOD, the House Intelligence Committee, and other topics.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with Rachel Briggs and Joshua Geltzer from Hostage US, a non-profit organization that supports families of Americans taken hostage abroad
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Josh Campbell, former Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, and now Law Enforcement Analyst for CNN
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with DIA Chief Historian Greg Elder to discuss the DIA’s role in the hunt for Usama bin Laden.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down for a discussion of the most famous spy trade in history: Soviet spy Rudolf Abel for American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with filmmaker Jack Bryan to discuss his newly released film on Russian active measures and the 2016 presidential election.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down with Bryant Neal Viñas to discuss the story of his ideological journey from New York to Pakistan and Afghanistan to wage jihad.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with award winning author and journalist Robert Delaney, who has been covering China as a journalist for more than 20 years. His debut novel, The Wounded Muse, is out now.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Retired Army Infantry Captain, veteran’s advocate, and author Sean Parnell to talk about his new book Man of War, his wartime experiences, and key issues facing veterans today.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with prolific author Ben MacIntyre to discuss the Oleg Gordievsky case and MacIntyre’s new book, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Cofer Black, the former Director of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), to discuss the role of the CTC before, during, and after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Former SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down in 2013 with former CIA and FBI Director, Judge William Webster. Hear it now for the first time.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with attorney Mark Zaid to discuss the revocation of security clearances, non-disclosure agreements, pre-publication review, and recent national security leaks.
SPY Executive Director Chris Costa sat down for a special conversation with the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Nicholas Rasmussen.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former SPY Historian Mark Stout to discuss all things American Intelligence in WWI.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Washington Post intelligence and national security reporters to discuss…well, everything.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former FBI agent and chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Mike Rogers to discuss his career and how he feels about the current state of the Intelligence Community.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Rick Holland, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Vice President of Strategy for Digital Shadows, to discuss the latest cyber trends and developments
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bestselling novelist Daniel Silva to discuss his career, his writing philosophy, and his new book, The Other Woman.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with ABC News national security investigative reporter James Gordon Meek to discuss his career in journalism and government.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with historian Ann Todd to discuss WWII propaganda efforts and her book, OSS Operation Black Mail: One Woman’s Covert War Against the Imperial Japanese Army
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Steven Rieber, IARPA program manager, to discuss CREATE, which seeks to develop, and experimentally test, systems that use crowdsourcing and structured analytic techniques to improve analytic reasoning. CLICK HERE for more information on the program.
CLICK HERE to sign up.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Aimen Dean, former member of Al Qaeda, agent for MI-6, and author of the new book, Nine Lives: My Time as the West's Top Spy Inside al-Qaeda.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with spy novelist Ted Bell, author of 10 consecutive New York Times Bestsellers, including the Alex Hawke series of spy thrillers. The newest is Overkill.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with intelligence experts Drs. Mark Stout and Chris Moran to discuss the 2nd volume of their new book, Spy Chiefs, which they both contributed to and edited.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Chirag Parikh, the Deputy Director for Counterproliferation at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, to discuss the importance of space in the 21st century.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Director John Brennan to discuss his career and key moments during his time as Director .
SPY historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA analyst and targeting officer Nada Bakos to discuss her career, the CIA, and the current state of intelligence in America
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author and journalist Monte Reel, whose new book on the development and impact of the U-2 program is A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA's Secret War. For more information about this week’s sponsor, visit ziprecruiter.com.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Nadia Schadlow, the former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, to discuss the recently released National Security Strategy for the Trump Administration.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Navy SEAL and CIA operator James Hawes to discuss his time in Vietnam and the Congo in the 1960s. Hawes is the author of the new book, Cold War Navy SEAL: My Story of Che Guevara, War in the Congo, and the Communist Threat in Africa.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with award-winning literary journalist and author Joyce Wayne to discuss her new historical novel Last Night of the World, which centers on an infamous Soviet spy ring operating in early-Cold War Canada.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Lee Grubbs, director of the Mad Scientist initiative, a US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) program that continually explores the future through collaborative partnerships and continuous dialogue with academia, industry, and government. Check out their blog, at http://madsciblog.tradoc.army.mil/
SPY Historian Vince Houghton continues his conversation with the new Executive Director of the International Spy Museum to discuss his career in intelligence, special operations, counterterrorism, and policymaking. This week’s SpyCast is brought to you by Casper (casper.com).
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with the new Executive Director of the International Spy Museum to discuss his career in intelligence, special operations, counterterrorism, and policymaking. Part 2 will be posted next week. This week’s SpyCast is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus (thegreatcoursesplus.com) and the True Crime Obsessed podcast (truecrimeobsessed.com).
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with NYT bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize nominee Howard Blum to discuss his newest book In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies. This week’s SpyCast is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus (thegreatcoursesplus.com) and SaneBox (sanebox.com).
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA operations officer Michele Rigby Assad to discuss her career in intelligence, and her new book Breaking Cover: My Secret Life in the CIA and What It Taught Me about What's Worth Fighting For.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Matthew Sweet, who has written on one of the most…extraordinary topics of the Cold War. His book, Operation Chaos: The Vietnam Deserters who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers, and Themselves, is out now.
SPY Historian sat down with recently retired International Spy Museum Executive Director Peter Earnest to discuss his career in intelligence, his time with the Museum, and his thoughts on life moving forward .
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with Daniel Ellsberg, who is best known for his release of the Pentagon Papers to the public in 1971. He is also the author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, which details his early life as a specialist on the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Paula Doyle, former Associate Deputy Director of Operations at CIA, where she oversaw worldwide HUMINT operations and activities that required the use of air, land, maritime, space-based and cyber technologies.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with political scientist and professor Loch Johnson, whose decade-long career in and out of the intelligence world has culminated in a new book, Spy Watching: Intelligence Accountability in the United States.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Paul Kix, deputy editor at ESPN the Magazine, and author of the book The Saboteur: The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with writer and historian Meredith Hindley to discuss her new book Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan to discuss Russian intelligence, their security services, and the Russian use of the internet both internally and externally
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Kevin Maurer, coauthor of the bestseller No Easy Day, and now coauthor of the new book, American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent, which he cowrote with undercover FBI agent Tamer Elnoury .
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Carmen Medina, the CIA’s former Deputy Director of Intelligence and Director of the Center for the Study of Intelligence. She is also the author of Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with CIA clinical psychologist Dr. Ursula Wilder, who in her over two decades at CIA has worked within the Counterintelligence Center, the Counterterrorism Center, and the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Lynn Wright, the current Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence and the Head of the Naval Intelligence Activity.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Kristin Wood, who spent more than two decades with CIA in a number of roles – from the briefer to the Vice President, to intelligence analyst, to the National Clandestine Service, to the Open Source Center.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Deputy Director and Acting Director Michael Morell to discuss his career at the Agency, and his role in some of the most momentous intelligence events of the last two decades.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Israeli activist and attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner to discuss the ongoing campaign to disrupt terrorist finance, and her new book Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ned Price, former CIA analyst and Special Assistant to President Obama on the National Security Council staff, where he also was the Spokesperson and Senior Director for Strategic Communications.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Keith Masback, the CEO of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, to talk all things GEOINT.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Jason Fagone to discuss the history of American codebreaking and his book, The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with CIA veteran John Sipher, who served multiple overseas tours as Chief of Station and Deputy Chief of Station in Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and South Asia.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Nathan Englander to discuss his new novel, Middle East politics, the Mossad, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and growing up Jewish in America.
In late July, SPY Historian Vince Houghton traveled to Pasadena, CA to take part in Politicon, the “Unconventional Political Convention” (think Comic Con for political junkies). There he sat down with prolific actor Robert Davi, who played Franz Sanchez, Bond’s nemesis in License to Kill.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Dan Golden to discuss his new book, focused on the exploitation of American universities by both foreign and US intelligence agencies.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Bernd von Kostka, the Acting Director of the Allied Museum in Berlin, to discuss some of the key stories from the Cold War in Germany.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with attorneys John Tye and Mark Zaid to discuss their new project Whistleblower Aid, which is a non-profit organization designed to protect whistleblowers – and to prevent them from becoming leakers.
Recorded in front of a live audience at the Museum, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA operations officer Duane Evans, who led a team of special operators into Afghanistan in the weeks following 9/11.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Army officer and historian James Kelly Morningstar to discuss the use of intelligence by legendary General George Patton, highlighted in Morningstar’s new book Patton’s Way: A Radical Theory of War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author and journalist Josh Dean to discuss Project Azorian, the Glomar Explorer, and one of the most spectacular covert operations in history.
Buy The Taking of K-129 from the Spy Museum Store
In the second installment of our recurring series, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with DIA Chief Historian Greg Elder to discuss the DIA’s role in some of the most momentous events in recent US history.
Because everyone else is going eclipse crazy, we thought we would re-post SPY Historian Vince Houghton’s interview with one of the tops guys at NASA, Dr. Jim Green. Green’s day job is Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA. In his spare time, he has become one to the top experts in Civil War balloon reconnaissance.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Sean McFate, a former paratrooper, private military contractor, and now author, novelist, and expert in foreign policy and national security strategy. Drs. Houghton and McFate discuss military and intelligence privatization, and McFate’s new book, Deep Black.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA operations officer and Deputy Division Chief for Counterintelligence TL Williams to discuss his career and his new novel, Zero Day: China's Cyber Wars.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman to discuss his life in government, and his book “A Whistleblower at the CIA: The Path of Dissent” – an insiders account of the politics of intelligence.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Green Beret James Stejskal to discuss the role of US Army Special Forces, and their actions against the Warsaw Pact, in Cold War Berlin.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Newsy reporter Liz Wahl to discuss Russian efforts to propagate disinformation to the American public – and her unique role in exposing this threat.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with US Naval Officer and helicopter pilot Jack McCain to discuss the potential lessons learned from his experiences and his new book, Angola, Clausewitz, and the American Way of War.
Hear from former CIA officer Kenneth Daigler, as he closely examines American intelligence activities during the era of the Revolutionary War from 1765 to 1783.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with James Rosen (McClatchy), James Ellenberger (formerly of AFL-CIO), and Curt Harris (NIH National Cancer Institute), authors of High Hand. Their novel, which involves a Republican presidential candidate with close ties to Russia, was written long before the 2016 election.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Tom Nichols, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and at the Harvard Extension School, and the author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters
In the first installment of what will become a recurring series, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with DIA Chief Historian Greg Elder to discuss the DIA’s role in some of the most momentous events in recent US history.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ben Jones, the former Transition Coordinator for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, where he coordinated the transfer of Afghanistan's security from the coalition to the Afghan National Security Forces. He is also a contributor to the new book, Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with British author Henry Hemming to discuss his newest book Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5’s Maxwell Knight.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Stephan Talty, author of two previous books on intelligence, Agent Garbo and The Secret Agent: In Search of America’s Greatest World War II Spy. They discuss his newest book, The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Sven Hughes, a former reserve soldier within British Military Intelligence, Psychological Operations, and UK Special Forces, to discuss counter-radicalization and the effectiveness of influence operations. Mr. Hughes is also the author of the new book, Verbalization: The Power of Words to Drive Change.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Eva Dillon, whose father Paul was a career CIA officer who ran one of the most prolific Soviet spies of the Cold War. Their stories are told in Eva’s new book, Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former improv comedienne and CIA operations officer Emily Brandwin to discuss her career(s) and views on many things intel-related.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author and journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee to discuss the fascinating case of wannabee spy Brian Regan, detailed in Yudhijit’s book The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI’s Hunt for America’s Stolen Secrets.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Sharon Weinberger, national security journalist and author of the book The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with intelligence historian Keith Melton, and former chief of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services, Bob Wallace, to discuss their newest collaboration: Spy Sites of Washington, DC.
Buy Spy Sites of Washington, DC from the Spy Museum Store
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jack Barsky, the longest-surviving known member of the KGB illegals program that operated during the Cold War, and author of the memoir Deep Undercover: My Secret Life & Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with six extraordinary journalists to discuss the challenges associated with reporting on intelligence and national security. They include: Ali Watkins (BuzzFeed), Mary Louise Kelly (NPR), Jenna McLaughlin (The Intercept), Nancy Youssef (BuzzFeed), Molly O’Toole (Foreign Policy), and Ellen Nakashima (Washington Post).
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Scott Miller, author of Agent 110: An American Spymaster and the German Resistance in WWII, to discuss the relationship between future CIA director Dulles and those Germans scheming to overthrow Hitler.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with retired US Army Brigadier General Gerry Galloway and retired US Navy Rear Admiral Dave Titley to discuss the intelligence and national security implication of climate change. Both men are members of the Advisory Board of the Center for Climate and Security. ***NOTE: Vince messed up. The correct link to the survey is podcast.study
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with Joel Whitney, the cofounder and editor at large of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics, to discuss his book on how the CIA used culture to fight the Cold War, Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Technical Operations Officer Warren Holston and former Air Force intel specialist Dave White to discuss their new book Beware the Predator: The American’s Guide to Personal Security.
Get the Book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/beware-the-predator.html#.WL7Y7xIrJUM
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Alex Howard, the Deputy Director of the Sunlight Foundation, to discuss the public’s right to know what the government is doing in its name.
A year ago, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former DIA Director and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Here is their conversation.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss the threat of nuclear confrontation and how intelligence can play a vital role in reducing this danger.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Josh Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss his new book A Great Place to Have a War: The Secret War in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA.
SPY Historians Vince Houghton sat down to rehash the year that was 2016. He was joined by former SPY Historian Mark Stout, former CIA briefer David Priess, and BuzzFeed intelligence and national security reporter Ali Watkins.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton is joined by John Nixon, who shares what he learned as the first man to conduct a prolonged interrogation of the captured Iraqi president.
Get the book:http://www.spymuseumstore.org/spycast-books.html
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bioterrorism expert Hank Parker to discuss current threats and Parker's new book Containment.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dmitri Alperovitch, the CTO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that detected the hack of the DNC, and traced the breach back to Russian intelligence.
The Secret History of Disguises (November 1, 2006) Peter talks with Tony Mendez, former Chief of Disguise for the CIA. Peter and Tony discuss the intricacies of developing disguises for use in hostile environments, the advantages of selective aging, and the secret history of facial recognition technology.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis (September 1, 2008) In November 1979, radical Iranian students overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran, capturing most of the embassy staff—except for six diplomats who found refuge with the Canadian embassy. Today, Peter talks with retired CIA officer Tony Mendez who, in an elaborate deception and disguise operation, managed to exfiltrate the six Americans from Tehran before the Iranians were able to track them down.
Woman in Disguise - Jonna Mendez (November 18, 2008) Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a secretary and ended it as head of the agency’s Office of Technical Services, overseeing the development of gadgets, disguises, and high-tech devices in support of espionage missions. Today, she discusses with Peter some of the operations she was involved in as well as opportunities for women in the intelligence community.
An Army of Illegals: Assessing the Russian Spy Case (July 12, 2010) Two weeks ago on 27 June, the FBI arrested a network of 10 Russian "deep cover" spies. Peter sits down with former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin to discuss this remarkable case and the historic spy swap which took place last Friday. Kalugin, who once ran agents in the United States, is forthright in expressing his views about what this case says about the state of Russian intelligence today.
Leon Trotsky — Murder in Mexico (September 1, 2007) Peter’s guest today is H. Keith Melton, renowned intelligence historian and owner of the largest collection of espionage artifacts. Keith sheds new light on one of the most notorious intelligence operations of all time—the assassination of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940. Keith reconstructs the operation in all its phases, including material from his own original research.
The Litvinenko Murder and Other Riddles from Moscow (December 4, 2006) Peter sits down with former CIA officer Bob Rayle and Oleg Kalugin to talk Russia past and present. The three discuss their perspectives on the recent poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko. Then, they turn to 1967 and Bob's role in the extraordinary defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous, co-authors of an exceptional long-form article, written for the Wall Street Journal, which highlights the tension between traditional diplomacy and the counterintelligence mission of the FBI.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Stacey Dixon, the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Drs. Houghton and Dixon discuss some of the advanced scientific and technological research that will transform intelligence far into the 21st Century.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Twomey to discuss his new book about the attacks of December 7, 1941, Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Canadian diplomat John Graham to discuss his role as the eyes and ears of Western intelligence following the Cuban Missile Crisis. This story, as well as many others, are told in Graham’s memoir, Whose Man in Havana: Adventures from the Far Side of Diplomacy.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with former SEAL Team 6 member Clint Emerson to discuss his new book, 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition, a follow-up to his national bestseller 100 Deadly Skills.
Buy 100 Deadly Skills from the Spy Museum Store
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Nate Jones, the Director of the Freedom of Information Act Project for the National Security Archive, and the author of the new book Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear War.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/able-archer-83.html#.WIdjWrYrJTY
Intelligence officers and investigative journalists both depend on clandestine sources to divulge secrets. But why do people betray a trust? Peter interviews veteran journalist Max Holland about his new book, Leak, which probes the mind and motivations of one of the most famous clandestine sources in American history: Deep Throat. Hear why Mark Felt, the Deputy Director of the FBI, betrayed President Nixon by leaking to the Washington Post and Time about Watergate. Were Felt’s motives patriotic or self-serving…or both? Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/leak-shy-mark-felt-became-deep-throat.html#.Vz3q4PkrIdU
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ken Vogel, Chief Investigative Reporter for POLITICO and author of the article, “The Koch Intelligence Agency.” Houghton and Vogel (who tracks the confluence of money, politics, and influence for POLITICO) discuss the use of use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and even covert action in modern political campaigns.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd to discuss the growing role of intelligence tradecraft in American election politics. Todd, the host of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, explains how political campaigns – on both sides of the aisle – use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and covert action to give their candidates a political edge. This interview was recorded on July 29, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g2F6lEJU_c
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author and literary agent Andrew Lownie, who has been researching Guy Burgess and the Cambridge 5 for over three decades. The culmination of this research is Lownie’s book, Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Thomas Rid, professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and the author of Rise of the Machines. The book tells the sweeping story of how cybernetics, a late-1940s theory of machines, came to incite anarchy and war half a century later.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Lorenzo Vidino and Jesse Morton from the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University’s Center for Cyber & Homeland Security. Dr. Vidino, and expert on Islamism in Europe and North America, is the Program’s Director, and Morton, a reformed, former extremist who was once a prominent radicalizer in the West, is a research fellow who sees this work as an opportunity to repair some of the damage caused by his radicalization.
At a live event at the International Spy Museum, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with journalist Kati Marton to discuss Soviet spy Noel Field, the subject of Marton’s new book True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jeff Stein, who covers the spy agencies and foreign policy for Newsweek in Washington. An Army Intelligence case officer in Vietnam, Stein is an investigative reporter of long standing, specializing in intelligence, defense and foreign policy.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with national security attorneys Mark Zaid and Brad Moss to discuss the impact of the attacks of 9/11 on the US Constitution, and the continuing legal legacy of that fateful day.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Cofer Black, the former Director of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), to discuss the role of the CTC before, during, and after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA analyst Barbara Sude to discuss the intelligence analysis leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Dr. Sude was one of a team of analysts at CIA who focused on Al Qaeda and bin Laden starting in the 1990s.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Charlie Mitchell, editor and co-founder of Inside Cybersecurity, and the author of Hacked: The Inside Story of America's Struggle to Secure Cyberspace. Houghton and Mitchell discuss the ongoing congressional debates over cybersecurity, the landmark framework of cybersecurity standards crafted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the policy ramifications of major hacking events.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with antiterrorism advisor and risk management specialist Tom Ordeman to discuss the little-know case of the Dhofar Rebellion. Often called the “Secret War” (because so few people have heard of it), the Dhofar Rebellion is an example of COIN Theory implemented to perfection.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ilya Zaslavskiy, who was falsely accused of espionage by Russian security services (the FSB). Unwilling to sit back and allow others to be victimized by a corrupt system, Ilya now dedicates his time to exposing those at the heart of the Russian kleptocracy. See his petition here: https://www.change.org/p/chancellor-chris-patten-oxford-university-and-other-academic-entities-review-cooperation-with-putin-s-oligarchs
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Richard Easton, author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, to discuss the development of GPS and its role in the military, intelligence, and civilian domains. Easton’s father, Roger, led the Space Applications Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory from the Vanguard Satellite era to the early days of GPS development.
Blurred Lines: An Interview with Georgetown International Law Professor Rosa Brooks
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Rosa Brooks, professor of national security law, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and author of the new book How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Stephen Budiansky, the author of seventeen books about military history, intelligence and espionage, science, the natural world, and other subjects, to discuss the history of the NSA and his new book, NSA’s Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA officer Steve Slick, who spent more than three decades at the Agency as a case officer, chief of station, and senior executive. He is now the inaugural Director of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas, Austin.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton traveled to Politicon in Pasadena, CA and sat down (before a live audience) with Jon Ronson, author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, and all-around interesting person.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with prolific author Sir Max Hastings, whose 20+ books have set the standard for historical writing over the last 40 years. Dr. Houghton and Sir Max discuss the fascinating topic of Hastings’ new book, The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945, arguably the best single-volume history of the secret side of the War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. John Prados, author of the new book Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy. Drs. Houghton and Prados discuss the role of intelligence in the Pacific War and, specifically, how it impacted the Battle of Leyte Gulf – the largest naval battle in world history.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Lori Clune, Associate Professor of History at California State University, Fresno, to discuss her new book on how the Rosenberg spy case affected American relations with the rest of the world. A completely new way of looking at this milestone in spy history.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Tara Maller, the Spokesperson and a Senior Policy Advisor for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), to discuss the growing threat – and responses to – online extremism. To learn more about the CEP, go to http://www.counterextremism.com
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Barry Meier of the New York Times to discuss the story of Bob Levinson, former FBI agent and CIA contract worker, who disappeared in Iran in 2007. Meier’s book, Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran, drew on years of interviews and never-before-disclosed CIA files to weave together a riveting narrative of the ex-agent's journey to Iran and the hunt to rescue him.
Juan Pujol was the Walter Mitty of World War II, a nobody who at one doomed venture after another while dreaming of doing something interesting with his life -- saving Western civilization, if possible. Journalist Stephan Talty, whose work has appeared widely, including in the New York Times Magazine and GQ, has told the remarkable story of how against all the odds, Pujol did just that by becoming agent GARBO, the most important double agent of World War II. Hear Talty discuss his new book with SPY Historian Mark Stout in this author debriefing which took place on July 12, 2012.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Howard Blum, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal, a book about one of the greatest spies of WWII, Betty Pack. Pack used seduction as her tradecraft, and stole some of the most consequential secrets of the war.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with retired 4-star general David Petraeus, former Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq; Commander, US Central Command; commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander, US Forces Afghanistan; and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served from September, 2011, until November, 2012.
SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down with Ben Jones, Dean of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of History, Dakota State University. Dr. Jones also served as an advisor to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and later as a liaison officer to the Afghan Ministries of Defense, Interior, and their National Directorate of Security for the effort to transition Afghan security from the coalition back to Afghanistan. Peter and Dr. Jones discuss Ben’s new book, Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs, the Maquis, and the Liberation of France.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton discusses corporate espionage with CNBC’s Washington Reporter Eamon Javers, who is also the author of the book Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/broker-trader-lawyer-spy.html#.Vz3tD_krIdU
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former NSA and CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden to discuss his role as the only person to head both of these key intelligence agencies.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/playing-to-the-edge.html#.VyipoBUrJTY
Current SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with all of his former colleagues to discuss listener questions. To submit your own questions, send them via email to spycast@spymuseum.org, or on Twitter, @intlspycast.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Alex Finley, author of the new satirical novel about CIA and the War on Terror, Victor in the Rubble. Finley, herself a former officer in CIA’s Directorate of Operations, provides a hilarious look at the bureaucratic absurdity of intelligence operations, and the great lengths capable officers will go to overcome it.
Buy Victor in the Rubble from the Spy Museum Store
SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down with former CIA intelligence officer, manager, and daily intelligence briefer David Priess to discuss his new book centered on the President’s Daily Brief (PDB). Every living former President and Vice President, along with most former CIA Directors, Secretaries of State and Defense, National Security Advisors, White House Chiefs of Staff, and senior intelligence leaders, shared with Priess their personal stories about the PDB. And by digging through both the extensive files of the Presidential libraries and millions of pages of declassified CIA raw intelligence reports, analytic assessments, and memos—Priess emerges with a unique—and fascinating—look into the most tightly controlled document in modern world.
Buy The President's Book of Secrets from the Spy Museum Store
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with historian Bryan Gibson to discuss the tumultuous history of US foreign policy in Iraq. From the end of the Second World War through today, Iraq has remained a key component in the American security calculus. Houghton and Gibson take a deep dive into this period, and Gibson demonstrates how Iraq should be considered an integral Cold War environment alongside such places as Cuba, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Paddy Hayes to discuss his book Queen of Spies: Daphne Park, Britain's Cold War Spy Master. Hayes recounts the fascinating story of the evolution of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from World War II to the Cold War through the eyes of Daphne Park, one of its outstanding and most unusual operatives. He gives one of the most intimate narratives yet of how the modern SIS actually went about its business whether in Moscow, Hanoi, or the Congo, and shows how Park was able to rise through the ranks of a field that had been comprised almost entirely of men. Queen of Spies captures all the paranoia, isolation, deception of Cold War intelligence work, and combines it with the personal story of one extraordinary woman trying to navigate this secretive world.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Arabic speaking naval intelligence counter-terrorism and intelligence officer Malcolm Nance. After spending 35 years participating in field and combat intelligence activity including both covert and clandestine anti counter-terrorism support to national intelligence agencies, he is now a member of the Board of Advisors here at the International Spy Museum.
Houghton and Nance discuss the rise of ISIS, the connection between Islam and terrorism, the spread of radicalism worldwide, and Nance’s prescription for the ultimate defeat of the Islamic State.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former SEAL Team 6 member Clinton Emerson to discuss the role of special operations forces in modern intelligence activities. Houghton and Emerson delve into Clint’s life as a SEAL, his work with the National Security Agency, and his new book 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/100-deadly-skills.html#.VvVe-eIrKUk
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Mark Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council – and the man who (literally) wrote the book on intelligence analysis. Drs. Houghton and Lowenthal discuss the current state of intelligence education, the successes and failures of post-9/11 intelligence reform, and the controversial CIA analysis on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with current Army G-2 LTG Mary Legere to discuss the current role and mission of Army Intelligence. LTG Legere, who has spent her entire career as an intelligence officer, also provides some historical context on how the dynamic environment of military intelligence has changed since the beginning of the “War on Terror.” Finally, LTG Legere provides invaluable insight into what it feels like to be a woman at the top of what has been traditionally considered a man’s world – in a double sense: both the military and the intelligence community – and how she uses her position to help train and cultivate the next generation of America’s leaders.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Peter Bergen to discuss his newest book, United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists. Paced like a detective story, the book tells the entwined stories of the key actors on the American front. Drawing on his extensive network of intelligence contacts, from the National Counterterrorism Center and the FBI to the NYPD, Bergen also offers an inside look at the controversial tactics of the agencies tracking potential terrorists—from infiltrating mosques to massive surveillance; at the bias experienced by innocent observant Muslims at the hands of law enforcement; at the critics and defenders of U.S. policies on terrorism; and at how social media has revolutionized terrorism.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/united-states-of-jihad.html#.Vxk3s5MrJTY
In what will hopefully become a series of conversations here at the Spy Museum, all of the past and present SPY historians sat down to discuss a key issue in the world of intelligence – from a historical, but not-too-formal perspective. This week’s topic: who is your favorite spy? Join Alexis, Thomas, Mark, and Vince as they present their cases, and stick around to hear how you can find more information on each of our favorites.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former NSA counterintelligence officer John Schindler to discuss his experiences in the Balkans, and his views on the current intelligence war against Russia. Houghton and Schindler also dive into Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, and the unending battle against violent extremism.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with LTG (Ret) Michael Flynn, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012-2014. Houghton and Flynn discuss the challenges DIA has faced in the last several decades, including the sharp transitions from the Soviet threat to the asymmetrical threats of the modern day. They also discuss the ways DIA, and the IC as a whole, must adapt to meet the uncertainty of the future. For information about LTG Flynn’s upcoming book, visit http://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250106223.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Gary Powers, Jr., the son of the legendary U-2 pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. Vince and Gary discuss his father’s legacy, the incorrect assumptions about his father’s capture, and the retelling of his father’s story in the Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies, now available on Blu-Ray.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with USAF Colonel (Ret.) Buz Carpenter, who flew some of the most incredible aircraft ever developed. As an RF-4C pilot in Vietnam, Col. Carpenter flew low level reconnaissance missions over enemy territory. Later, as the pilot of the SR-71, Buz took aviation to speeds and heights that have yet to be equaled (except by other SR-71s). Finally, at the end of his Air Force career, Col. Carpenter worked with the USAF’s Blackworld program, helping to develop today’s most advanced aircraft.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Farhana Qazi, a scholar and speaker on conflicts in the Islamic world, and the first American Muslim woman to serve in the National Counter-Terrorism Center. Houghton and Qazi discuss the role of women in radical Islam, the fight against ISIS, The changing status of women in the Muslim world, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the current state of Pakistan and Kashmir. As a Muslim woman, Qazi provides unique insight into political Islam and the impact of war on Muslim populations.
During a public program at the Museum, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Bruce Riedel, author of JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA, and Sino-Indian War. Riedel, who is a senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project, joined Brookings following a thirty-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, serving as a senior adviser to the last four U.S. presidents on South Asia and the Middle East. His book is a story of war, diplomacy, and covert action, told with authority and perspective. He draws on newly declassified letters between Kennedy and Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, along with the diaries and memoirs of key players and other sources, to make this the definitive account of JFK's forgotten crisis.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ken Vogel, Chief Investigative Reporter for POLITICO and author of the article, “The Koch Intelligence Agency.” Houghton and Vogel (who tracks the confluence of money, politics, and influence for POLITICO) discuss the use of use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and even covert action in modern political campaigns.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with PW Singer, co-author of Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War (which he wrote with August Cole). In the spirit of early Tom Clancy (especially Red Storm Rising), Ghost Fleet is a imagining of how World War III might play out. But what makes it even more notable is how the book smashes together the technothriller and nonfiction genres.
It is a novel, but with 400 endnotes, showing how every trend and technology featured in book— no matter how sci-fi it may seem — is real. Singer, who is also a contributing editor at Popular Science, lays out the future of technology and war, while following a global cast of characters fighting at sea, on land, in the air and in two new places of conflict: outer space and cyberspace. For more on Ghost Fleet, check out ghostfleetbook.com.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Thomas Drake, former senior executive of the NSA – and whistleblower – who in 2010 was indicted on 10 felony counts; charges that would have carried decades of prison time had Drake been convicted. Instead, in early June 2011, the government dropped all of the charges and agreed not to seek any jail time in return for Drake's guilty plea to a misdemeanor of misusing the NSA’s computer system. Although the legal case was settled, the controversy would continue, as a new wave of whistleblowers (or leakers – depending on your perspective) burst on to the public scene, and dramatically changed the way many Americans viewed the power of their government.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Captain Erich Telfer, the commanding officer of the Coast Guard Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Atlantic in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Houghton and Telfer discuss the role of the Coast Guard in the broader American intelligence community, the professionalization of the Coast Guard intel branch, and CAPT Telfer’s research into the intelligence response to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. CAPT Telfer’s study can be read here: http://ni-u.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Telfer_UnlimitedImpossibilites.pdf
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Tom Ryan, former intelligence professional for the Department of Defense and author of Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign. The first book to offer a unique and incisive comparative study of intelligence operations during what many consider the war’s decisive campaign, Ryan’s study evaluates how Gen. Robert E. Lee used intelligence resources, including cavalry, civilians, newspapers, and spies to gather information about Union activities during his invasion of the North in June and July 1863, and how this intelligence influenced General Lee’s decisions. Simultaneously, Ryan explores the effectiveness of the Union Army of the Potomac’s intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Both Maj. Gens. Joe Hooker and George G. Meade relied upon cavalry, the Signal Corps, and an intelligence staff known as the Bureau of Military Information that employed innovative concepts to gather, collate, and report vital information from a variety of sources. The result is an eye-opening, day-by-day analysis of how and why the respective army commanders implemented their strategy and tactics, with an evaluation of their respective performance as they engaged in a battle of wits to learn the enemy’s location, strength, and intentions.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton talked to Morten Storm, who, after a decade of jihadi life, not only repudiated extremism but, in a quest for atonement, became a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence. He is now in hiding, fearful that some vengeful jihadist will try to kill him for his work with Western intelligence. However, this won’t stop him from providing SpyCast with his insight and expertise on global terrorism. On a regular basis, SpyCast will send questions to Morten, he will record his answers, and we will post them here. To be a part of this conversation, send your questions for Morten Storm to spycast@spymuseum.org. We will take the best questions and send them to Morten for the next installment.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/agen-storm-book.html#.Vz3lp_krIdU
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Sheryl Shenberger, the Director of the National Declassification Center at the National Archives. President Obama pledged to preside over the most transparent government ever — a vow that included declassifying as many documents as possible. Houghton and Shenberger discuss the process behind declassification, as the NDC tries to honor the President’s promise by closely working with intelligence agencies to release documents to the public. Why do some historic records get released while others do not? Is automatic declassification after 25 or 50 years really automatic? When do we get to learn who really killed JFK?
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Vin Arthey, who has spent most of his adult life researching the life of KGB Colonel William Fisher – better known as Rudolf Abel. Working with secret sources and inside information, Arthey turned this lifelong study into a fascinating book, Abel: The True Story of the Spy They Swapped for Gary Powers. Houghton and Arthey trace the adventures (and misadventures) of one of the most extraordinary characters in the history of the Cold War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author Doug Waller to discuss his new book Disciples: The World War II Missions of the CIA Directors Who Fought for Wild Bill Donovan. The author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Wild Bill Donovan, Waller tells Houghton the story of four OSS warriors of World War II. All four later led the CIA. They are the most famous and controversial directors the CIA has ever had—Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey. Disciples is the story of these dynamic agents and their daring espionage and sabotage in wartime Europe under OSS Director Bill Donovan.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with University of Southern California history professor Steve Ross to discuss the ongoing research for his upcoming book Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews and their Spies Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America. Ross explains how a group of patriotic citizens refused to wait for the authorities to act on the Nazi menace in America, and instead took matters into their own hands. A never-before-told true story of classic infiltration and espionage in the 1930s and World War II.
SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest and former KGB General Oleg Kalugin discuss the current espionage conflict between Russia and Georgia, reminisce about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and bring an old question to light: Was Isaac Stone a Russian spy? From October 2006.
Professor David Barrett discusses his book Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis which he wrote with Max Holland. He describes to former SPY Historian Mark Stout how the Kennedy Administration impeded reconnaissance flights over Cuba in the weeks before the crisis and how the Administration successfully covered up that fact. From October 2012.
SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down with author Mark Riebling to discuss his new book on the wartime espionage of the Catholic Church. The Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope.” But a key part of the story has remained untold. In fact, Pius ran the world’s largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler—while secretly plotting to kill him. Church of Spies documents this cloak and dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler’s homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler’s bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing.
When Jason Hanson joined the CIA in 2003, he never imagined that the same tactics he used as a CIA officer for counter intelligence, surveillance, and protecting agency personnel would prove to be essential in everyday civilian life. In addition to escaping handcuffs, picking locks, and spotting when someone is telling a lie, he can improvise a self-defense weapon, pack a perfect emergency kit, and even disappear off the grid if necessary. He has also honed his "positive awareness" – a heightened sense of his surroundings that allows him to spot suspicious and potentially dangerous behavior – on the street, in a taxi, at the airport, when dining out, or in any other situation. With the skill of a trained operative and the relatability of a suburban dad, Hanson brings his top-level training to everyday Americans in this guide to staying safe in an increasingly dangerous world.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the radical force behind the nation’s most revolutionary, high-tech military initiatives over the past half century. To write the first definitive history of the world’s most powerful and productive military science agency, bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tracked down DARPA scientists, past and present, including current neuroscientists building an artificial brain, cell biologists working on limb regeneration, and even the Nobel Laureate who invented the laser. From conflict-tested science experiments, like Agent Orange and electronic barriers on the battlefield during Vietnam, to War on Terror insect drones, smart rockets, camera-filled war zones and advanced computer programs, she tracks DARPA from its Cold War inception to present day research controversies. Jacobsen shared her journey to the heart of the military-industrial complex—a place where science fiction and military science collide—and revealed a future that is fascinating and potentially frightening.
In Part 2 of this three-part series, SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Ali Watkins, who covers intelligence and national security for the Huffington Post. Houghton and Watkins discuss the difficulties in reporting on this most secret of topics, the dangers – and benefits – of using anonymous sources, and the ever-changing nature of intelligence and national security journalism. Part 1 of this series was with Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times, and Part 3 will be with Greg Miller of the Washington Post.
In Part 3 of this three-part series, SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Greg Miller, who covers intelligence and national security for the Washington Post. Houghton and Miller discuss the difficulties in reporting on this most secret of topics, the dangers – and benefits – of using anonymous sources, and the ever-changing nature of intelligence and national security journalism. Part 1 of this series was with Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times, and Part 2 was with Ali Watkins of the Huffington Post.
In Part 1 of this three-part series, SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti, who covers intelligence and national security for the New York Times. Houghton and Mazzetti discuss the difficulties in reporting on this most secret of topics, the dangers – and benefits – of using anonymous sources, and the ever-changing nature of intelligence and national security journalism. Part 2 of this series will be with Ali Watkins of the Huffington Post, and Part 3 will be with Greg Miller of the Washington Post.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with career US Foreign Service Officer J. Andrew Plowman to discuss his book, Climate Change and Conflict Prevention. Plowman uses the Darfur conflict as a case study to examine how the effects of climate change might lead to future violent conflicts, and he assesses the best way to prevent these conflicts. Mr. Plowman’s service with the State Department has included assignments to Peru, Panama, Kazakhstan, and Brazil, as well as Washington assignments with the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and the Economics, Energy, and Business Affairs Bureau.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Cuban-exile-turned-CIA-officer Felix Rodriguez to discuss his extraordinary intelligence career. As a teenager, Rodriguez joined the effort to overthrow (and kill) Fidel Castro. After that mission failed, he trained and led the team that hunted – and captured – the guerilla Che Guevara in Bolivia. By the late 1960s, he took his counterinsurgency experience and applied it in covert operations against America’s enemies in Vietnam. This, and much more. Warning: This podcast contains some salty language. Consider it PG-13.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Cuban-exile-turned-CIA-officer Felix Rodriguez to discuss his extraordinary intelligence career. As a teenager, Rodriguez joined the effort to overthrow (and kill) Fidel Castro. After that mission failed, he trained and led the team that hunted – and captured – the guerilla Che Guevara in Bolivia. By the late 1960s, he took his counterinsurgency experience and applied it in covert operations against America’s enemies in Vietnam. This, and much more.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with Cuban-exile-turned-CIA-officer Felix Rodriguez to discuss his extraordinary intelligence career. As a teenager, Rodriguez joined the effort to overthrow (and kill) Fidel Castro. After that mission failed, he trained and led the team that hunted – and captured – the guerilla Che Guevara in Bolivia. By the late 1960s, he took his counterinsurgency experience and applied it in covert operations against America’s enemies in Vietnam. This, and much more.
While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States. From David Hoffman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dead Hand, comes the riveting story of the CIA's most valuable spy in the Soviet Union and an evocative portrait of the agency's Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold War. Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA, as well as interviews with participants, Hoffman will reveal how the depredations of the Soviet state motivated one man to master the craft of spying against his own nation until he was betrayed to the KGB by a disgruntled former CIA trainee. No one has ever told this story before in such detail, and Hoffman's deep knowledge of spycraft, the Cold War, and military technology makes him uniquely qualified to bring to the International Spy Museum this real life espionage thriller.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Joe Wippl, the Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of the Practice of International Relations, Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies. Wippl is also a former CIA officer, who spent a 30 year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service – at the time (as it is again) the Directorate of Operations. Houghton and Wippl discuss his time serving overseas as an operations officer and operations manager in Bonn, West Germany; Guatemala City; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Mexico City; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany – where he was the Station Chief. Later, while on assignments in CIA headquarters, he served as the Deputy Chief of Human Resources, as the Senior NCS representative to the Aldrich Ames Damage Assessment Team, as Chief of Europe Division and as the CIA’s Director of Congressional Affairs.
For three nerve-wracking years, Naveed Jamali spied on the United States for the Russians – or so the Russians believed. Hear Naveed bring his unbelievable, yet true, story to life. By trading thumb drives of sensitive technical data for envelopes of cash, he pretended to sell out his own country across noisy restaurant tables and in quiet parking lots. Although he had no formal espionage training, with the help of an initially reluctant FBI duo he ended up at the center of a highly successful counterintelligence operation that targeted Russian espionage in New York City. With news about Russia’s disintegrating relationship with the United States a frequent headline and political hot topic, How to Catch a Russian Spy is the one-of-a-kind story of how one young man’s post-college adventure became a real-life US counter-intelligence coup.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/how-to-catch-a-russian-spy.html#.Vz3ixZMrJTY
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with biographer Phyllis Birnbaum to discuss her newest book, based on the life of Kawashima Yoshiko, who supported the puppet Manchu state established by the Japanese in 1932--one reason she was executed for treason after Japan's 1945 defeat. The truth of Yoshiko's life is still a source of contention between China and Japan: some believe she was exploited by powerful men, others claim she relished her role as political provocateur. China holds her responsible for unspeakable crimes, while Japan has forgiven her transgressions. This biography presents the richest and most accurate portrait to date of the controversial princess spy, recognizing her truly novel role in conflicts that transformed East Asia.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Gen Lester to discuss her new book, When Should State Secrets Stay Secret. Lester’s book examines the oversight mechanisms that have developed within all three branches of government, how they interact, and what types of historical pivot points have driven change among them. She suggests ways to improve oversight mechanisms based on her expert analysis. The book also includes a fascinating chapter on the inner workings of the CIA to which a number of CIA officers contributed.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Representative Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, to discuss his unique background as a former CIA officer who is now a Member of the US House of Representatives. After spending most of a decade working in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, Rep. Hurd brought his experiences and lessons-learned to the Halls of Congress, where he serves on key committees, including Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform.
More than sixty years after their execution in June 1953 for conspiring to steal atomic secrets for the Soviet Union, debate still rages about the Rosenbergs. Mike Meeropol, the son of Julius and Ethel, has spent his life in pursuit of the real story behind his parents’ secret lives, their trials, their convictions for espionage, and ultimately their executions. Sam Roberts, journalist for The New York Times, is the author of The Brother, a book written with exclusive access to David Greenglass, Ethel’s brother, whose testimony almost single-handedly convicted the couple. In this extraordinary debate, these renowned Rosenberg scholars— with very different perspectives—take on the divisive issues and key questions that remain despite the declassification of intelligence files from the United States and the Soviet Union. Dr. Vince Houghton, historian and curator of the International Spy Museum and an expert on nuclear intelligence, moderated this authoritative debate on the Rosenberg case. This event took place April 21, 2015.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Kelsey Davenport, the Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, where she provides research and analysis on the nuclear and missile programs in Iran, North Korea, India, and Pakistan and on nuclear security issues. Vince and Kelsey discuss the complexity of the arms control process, the role of intelligence in verifying the status of nuclear weapon states, and the hope for a future without the danger of nuclear proliferation.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with historian and author Alex Rose, whose book Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring, is the source material for AMC Network’s series TURN. Drs. Houghton and Rose (who is a writer and co-producer of TURN) discuss history on TV, and the plotline of the second season of the hit series. They also take time to focus on the real history of the period, what is history and what is “Hollywood”, the Culper spy ring, and the importance of intelligence during the American Revolution.
Former SPY Historian Mark Stout sat down with Marine Maj. Gen. (ret.) Mike Ennis to discuss human intelligence (HUMINT) within the Defense Department and the CIA. In 1998, Ennis commanded the Joint Intelligence Center of the United States Pacific Command, was later named Director of Marine Corps Intelligence Command in 2000, and was the Director of HUMINT for the DIA. In 2006, he was named Deputy Director of Community HUMINT of the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service, his final government posting before his retirement in 2007.
This SpyCast was recorded on February 11, 2013.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with Australian author Stephen Dando-Collins to discuss his new book, Operation Chowhound. Beginning with a crazy plan hatched by a suspect prince, and an even crazier reliance on the word of the Nazis, Operation Chowhound was devised. Between May 1 and May 8, 1945, 2,268 military units flown by the USAAF, dropped food to 3.5 million starving Dutch civilians in German-occupied Holland. Dando-Collins takes the reader into the rooms where Operation Chowhound was born, into the aircraft flying the mission, and onto the ground in the Netherlands with the civilians who so desperately needed help. James Bond creator Ian Fleming, Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn, as well as Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill all play a part in this compelling story.
The history of American intelligence in the Revolution and Civil War has been extensively covered by both professional and amateur historians. But what about the time in between the wars? SPY historian Vince Houghton sat down with retired career CIA operations officer and historian Ken Daigler to discuss American espionage during the earliest period of United States history. Who were the first foreign agents sent to collect HUMINT? Can we look at the Lewis and Clark expedition as an intelligence operation? How well did American intelligence function during the War of 1812? The Mexican-American War? Daigler, author of Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War and two seminal articles on early American intelligence for the CIA’s Studies in Intelligence, provides the answers.
For more than forty years, the United States has played an indispensable role helping the Chinese government build a booming economy, develop its scientific and military capabilities, and take its place on the world stage, in the belief that China’s rise will bring us cooperation, diplomacy, and free trade. But what if the "China Dream" is to replace us, just as America replaced the British Empire, without firing a shot? Mike Pillsbury, a fluent Mandarin speaker who has served in senior national security positions in the U.S. government since the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, draws on his decades of contact with the "hawks" in China’s military and intelligence agencies and translates their documents, speeches, and books to show how the teachings of traditional Chinese statecraft underpin their actions. He offers an inside look at how the Chinese really view America and its leaders – as barbarians who will be the architects of their own demise.
What do Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, and Ana Montes have in common? Two things: they all spied against the United States, and they all had Plato Cacheris as their lawyer. SPY Historian Vince Houghton and Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down with the legendary defense attorney to discuss many of his most (in)famous clients – including Ames, Hanssen, Montes – who stole some of America’s most guarded secrets.
Through exhaustive use of declassified documents, previously unavailable investigative materials, and wide-ranging interviews, Malcolm Byrne explores what made the Iran-Contra scandal possible and meticulously relates how it unfolded—including clarifying minor myths about cakes, keys, bibles, diversion memos, and shredding parties. Byrne, the Deputy Director and Research Director at the National Security Archive, demonstrates that the affair could not have occurred without awareness and approval at the top levels of the US government. He reveals an unmistakable pattern of dubious behavior—including potentially illegal conduct by the president, vice president, the secretaries of state and defense, the CIA director and others—that formed the true core of the scandal.
Guest host Dr. Chris Moran of Warwick University (UK) sat down with his colleague, Dr. Trevor McCrisken, for a SpyCast on the role of drones in modern surveillance, warfighting, and counterterrorism. McCrisken, whose biography can be found here, discusses the weaponization of drones, the targeted killing program of the Bush and Obama administrations, the perception in the West that the drone war is “costless”, and the possibility of what he calls the “perpetual war” against global terrorism.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with historian Doug Selvage to discuss the archives of the East German Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. Dr. Selvage, Project Director in the Office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in Berlin, has published widely on the CSCE process, Polish-German relations under communism, and the history of the Soviet bloc. He and Houghton focus on the history of the Stasi, its role in the Cold War struggle between East and West, the devious disinformation campaign to convince the world that the United States was responsible for the AIDS epidemic, and the monumental effort to reconstruct millions of secret documents shredded at the end of the Cold War.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton continues his conversation with historian Gregg Herken, focusing on his previous four books on US nuclear policy. Brotherhood of the Bomb, Cardinal Choices, Counsels of War, and The Winning Weapon redefined the ways historians and policymakers have viewed nuclear weapons. Houghton – who himself is a historian of nuclear weapons and intelligence – and Herken discuss the challenges faced by American policymakers and intelligence professionals in dealing with the world’s most dangerous weapon.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with historian Gregg Herken to discuss his new book The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington. Herken, the professor emeritus of modern American diplomatic history at the University of California, gives a behind-the-scenes history of postwar Washington – the close-knit group of journalists, spies, and government officials who planned and waged the Cold War over cocktails and dinner.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Mike Tassey and Rich Perkins, creators of the Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, a state-of-the-art cyber drone. Mike and Rich built their unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in their garage using off-the-shelf electronics, and with the intention of proving that a drone could be used to launch a cyber-attack. With only an Internet connection, a hacker sitting on a beach anywhere in the world could use their UAV to intercept cell phone conversations, steal financial information, or access secret government documents. The prototype was a success and the race is now on to develop the next generation of cyber drones.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with British author and journalist Sinclair McKay for a two-part SpyCast. In Part 1, Vince and Sinclair discuss the role played by the codebreakers at Bletchley Park in the Allied victory in the Second World War. The author of three books and numerous articles on the topic, McKay provides compelling historical insight into a subject that you only think you really know.
Half of the world’s population has seen a James Bond movie. The historical and cultural impact of this franchise’s 23 (and counting) films is unrivaled by anything else in contemporary pop culture. SPY Historian Vince Houghton is joined by British journalist Sinclair McKay, who is the author of the seminal book on Bond’s cultural impact, The Man With the Golden Touch. They discuss Sean, George, Roger, Timothy, Pierce, and Daniel, and the legacy of Ian Fleming’s secret agent who has now saved the world for more than 50 years – and who might continue to save the world for 50 more.
Moe Berg—the major league baseball player, OSS operative and legendary linguist—was one of the most remarkable secret agents ever deployed by the US. Whether authorized by the government as an atomic spy or choosing to surreptitiously film Tokyo of his own volition, Berg relished and accomplished his espionage missions, yet he died penniless and with little acclaim. Nicholas Dawidoff brought Moe Berg’s achievements to light in his best-selling 1994 book The Catcher Was a Spy. In honor of the Pennant Race, Dawidoff will share his latest thoughts on the only Major League baseball player to have his card on display at CIA headquarters.
Jack Devine is one of the legendary spymasters of our time. He was in Chile when Allende fell; he ran Charlie Wilson’s war in Afghanistan; he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it; he caught Pablo Escobar in Colombia; and he tried to warn George Tenet that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. His new book, Good Hunting, is Devine’s guide to the art of spycraft and his belief in the CIA’s vital importance as a tool of American statecraft. Although it has been caricatured by Hollywood, lionized by the right, and pilloried by the left, Devine believes the CIA remains one of the least understood instruments of the United States government.
Leading up to the US entry into WWII, Germany set up a sophisticated and productive espionage ring, which effectively utilized well-placed German Americans in the States. They were able to infiltrate key military and industrial facilities, and succeeded in obtaining critical information, including plans for the exceptionally accurate and very secret Norden bombsite device. When naturalized American William Sebold visited his native Germany in 1939, German intelligence officers saw him as a prime target for recruitment. Threatened with arrest, Sebold seemingly agreed to work for the Germans, but they woefully misjudged him. Returning to New York, he contacted the FBI and told all. In his new book Double Agent, journalist Peter Duffy uncovers how Sebold became the center of a 16-month investigation that led to the arrest of 33 enemy agents in June 1941. Known as the Duquesne Spy Ring, the colorful cast of traitors included military contractors, a South African adventurer with an exotic accent and a monocle, and even a Jewish femme fatale.
Baseball has been played in the United States since the mid-19th Century, and from the very beginning teams were trying to gain a competitive edge against their rivals. In many cases, this involved stealing signs – the messages passed from coaches to players or from catchers to pitchers. In essence, this is a signals intelligence operation: one team is encrypting its messages, while the other is attempting to intercept these messages, decrypt them, and use the resulting intelligence to their advantage. SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Bryan Soderholm, a former CIA analyst who is now putting his training to use analyzing baseball statistics and history. They discussed the influence of spycraft on the game of baseball – in particular, the infamous case of the 1951 New York Giants, who set the standard for baseball espionage.
Join SPY Historian Vince Houghton as he continues his conversation with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister of CNN. Both men share their expertise on ISIS and the threat of Islamic Jihadism, and Tim, who has traveled to Ukraine on four different occasions this year alone, provides his insight into the current conflict between Ukrainian separatists, the Ukrainian government, and Russia. This interview was conducted September 8, 2014
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister of CNN to discuss their new book Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda and the CIA. The book, which they co-wrote with terrorist-turned-double-agent Morten Storm, traces an improbable journey of conversion, radicalization, reassessment, and redemption. Join Vince, Paul, and Tim as they reflect upon a story that is so incredible it would be completely unbelievable – if it wasn’t completely true. This interview was conducted September 8, 2014
Nathan Hale and Benedict Arnold may be the most famous spies of the American Revolution, but they were hardly alone. George Washington’s use of spy networks and wider intelligence efforts were critical to the fight for independence. In Spies, Patriots, and Traitors, former CIA officer Kenneth Daigler closely examines American intelligence activities during the era of the Revolutionary War from 1765 to 1783. Daigler will explain how America’s founders learned and practiced their intelligence role, providing insight from an intelligence professional’s perspective and revealing how many of the principles of the era’s intelligence practice are still relevant today. After the talk, see the Museum’s famous George Washington spy letter. This event took place July 15, 2014.
SPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd to discuss the growing role of intelligence tradecraft in American election politics.Todd, the host of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, explains how political campaigns – on both sides of the aisle – use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and covert action to give their candidates a political edge.
This interview was recorded on July 29, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g2F6lEJU_c
SPY Historian Vince Houghton in joined by Dr. Michael Goodman of King’s College in London. Dr. Goodman is the official historian for the British Joint Intelligence Committee, and in that role he has published the book The Official History of the Joint Intelligence Committee: Volume I: From the Approach of the Second World War to the Suez Crisis. Drs. Houghton and Goodman discuss the early development of British intelligence coordination, which spans two of the most momentous decades of the Twentieth Century, and includes events such as the Spanish Civil War, WWII, the end of the British colonial empire, the Cold War, and the Suez Crisis. This interview took place on June 16, 2014
Pulitzer Prize- winning biographer Kai Bird gives the inside story of his compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history, Robert Ames. Through Bird’s personal connection to Ames’ family, he gained access to his personal correspondence and range of contacts. Eventually more than forty retired CIA and Mossad officers told Bird their memories of Ames. Those seasoned spies all seemed to feel that they had been waiting for someone to tell the incredible story of Bob Ames, and how he carefully cultivated his ten-year relationship with Ali Hassan Salameh, Yasir Arafat’s intelligence chief. This highly clandestine relationship between the CIA and the PLO planted the seeds for the Oslo peace process.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/the-good-spy-book.html#.Vz3puPkrIdU
Travel back to a time when literature had the power to influence the world. Washington Post national security correspondent and former bureau chief in Moscow, Peter Finn tells the dramatic first account of how a forbidden book in the Soviet Union became a secret weapon in the battle between East and West. The CIA secretly printed Doctor Zhivago in Russian and smuggled it into the Soviet Union. It was snapped up on the black market and passed surreptitiously from friend to friend fueling flames of dissent. Finn shares how he and his co-author used their special access to otherwise classified CIA files, to create an irresistible portrait of the charming and passionate Pasternak and a twisty thriller that takes readers back to a fascinating period of the Cold War.
The development of overhead reconnaissance technology is one of the most important – if not the most important – advances in the history of intelligence. Policymakers today use IMINT from spy planes and satellites in their daily assessments of global threats, but did you know that overhead reconnaissance technology predates the advent of powered flight? SPY Historian Vince Houghton is joined by Dr. Jim Green, Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA, to discuss Civil War balloon reconnaissance. Dr. Green, an expert in the field, explains the role of balloons in the greater Union strategy, their impact on the war effort, and the numerous and significant innovations developed by Union “aeronauts” (including the first aircraft carriers!). This interview took place May 30, 2014
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sits down with engineer Phil Pressel to discuss his role in developing the KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite. The Hexagon, which was the last US spy satellite to use film, was declassified in 2011, allowing Pressel to write his book, Meeting the Challenge: The Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite. Houghton and Pressel discuss the formation of the project, the daunting technological hurdles, the impact of the satellite on US national security, and the top secret mission to recover film lost in the deepest waters of the Pacific Ocean.Video of interview available on the Spy Museum youtube page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmWlw8Ufo6Q This interview took place May 8th, 2014.
Former SPY Historian Mark Stout sat down with SPY Executive Director Peter Earnest to discuss Peter’s CIA career. After his recruitment and espionage training at the Farm, Peter’s entry into the world of spying came at an important turning point in the Cold War. From his posts overseas in hot spots while living undercover, Peter’s fascinating career culminated in a very public role as the Agency’s spokesperson. Join Peter for this reflection on a life in the shadows. This interview was conducted June 1, 2012.
The world sends 3 million emails every second. How do Western intelligence agencies cope with such massive amounts of data? The Spy Museum's Executive Director Peter Earnest sits down to discuss the future of intelligence with historian Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick (UK) and Director of the Institute of Advanced Study. With the prevalence of the internet, social media, integrated communications systems, and surveillance capabilities, everyone is now a de facto member of the intelligence community. Dr. Aldrich discusses Snowden, leakers, whistleblowers, and what he calls “the end of secrecy.” Who – and when – will be the next Snowden? This interview took place April 3, 2014.
Peter and SPY Historian Vince Houghton are joined by retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin. They discuss the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea, Crimea’s strategic place in Russian history, and the potential conflict over Ukraine’s strategic shift toward Europe and away from Russia. They then discuss the role intelligence and special operations forces might play in any future war between Russia and Ukraine. This interview took place March 14, 2014.
Intelligence historian Hugh Wilford reveals the surprising history of the CIA’s pro-Arab operations in the 1940s and 50s by tracing the work of the agency’s three most influential—and colorful—officers in the Middle East: Kermit Roosevelt, Archie Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland. With their deep knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs, the three men were heirs to an American missionary tradition that engaged Arabs and Muslims with respect and empathy. These “Arabists” propped up authoritarian regimes, attempted secretly to sway public opinion in America against support for the new state of Israel, and staged coups that destabilized the nations with which they empathized. They were fascinated by imperial intrigue, and were eager to play a modern rematch of the “Great Game,” the nineteenth century struggle between Britain and Russia for control over central Asia. This event took place January 7, 2014.
Is cyber war really coming? Renowned scholar Thomas Rid of the Department of War Studies at Kings College London argues that the focus on war distracts from the real challenge of cyberspace: non-violent confrontation that may rival or even replace violence in surprising ways. In this provocative talk, the author will trace the most significant hacks and attacks and explore some key questions: What are cyber weapons? How have they changed the meaning of violence? How likely and how dangerous is crowd-sourced subversive activity? Why has there never been a lethal cyber-attack against a country's critical infrastructure? How serious is the threat of cyber-espionage? And who is most vulnerable in the cyber realm? This event took place on September 10, 2013 .http://www.spymuseumstore.org/
Six months after the 9/11 attacks, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly initiated a straightforward, yet audacious, antiterrorist plan to be implemented in the Big Apple, dispatching a vast network of undercover officers and informants to track suspected terrorists. In Enemies Within, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman for Associated Press reveal the effectiveness of the domestic spying plan. Based on hundreds of previously unpublished New York Police Department internal memos and exclusive interviews with intelligence sources, including 25-year FBI veteran Don Borelli who assisted with the book, they found that many of those strategies aren’t even close to being useful, functional, or successful. As Assistant Special Agent in Charge in the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Borelli was responsible for top investigations and counterterrorism missions that spanned the globe. Join Apuzzo and Borelli for an unbridled look at the breathtaking race to avert a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil. This event took place September 26, 2013.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/enemy-within-book.html#.Vz3rRfkrIdU
Historian Randall B. Woods of the University of Arkansas discusses his new biography of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of the postwar period: William Egan Colby. World War II commando, Cold War spy, CIA station chief in Saigon, and ultimately CIA director under Presidents Nixon and Ford, Colby played a critical role in some of the most pivotal events in twentieth-century history. Despite his strong commitment to global democracy and economic and social justice, he was also drawn to the shadowy world of covert action… This event took place on April 18, 2013.
When 26 Army nurses and medics boarded a transport plane in November, 1943, they never anticipated the crash landing in Nazi-occupied Albania that would lead to their months-long struggle for survival. The group dodged bullets and battled blinding winter storms as they climbed mountains and fought to survive, aided by courageous villagers who risked death at Nazi hands as well as Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American OSS. Listen to author Cate Lineberry, a former writer and editor for Smithsonian Magazine, tell this mesmerizing tale of World War II courage and heroism. This event took place August 13, 2013.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/the-secret-rescue-book.html#.Vz3qN_krIdU
In this continuation of the discussion with US Army Colonel James Cox, we hear about the day-to-day work of US military attachés: being military diplomats for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Colonel Cox tells SPY Historian Mark Stout what it was like working in Moscow after the failure of the 1991 coup. He also shares his experiences in Almaty, the capital of the newly independent country of Kazakhstan and later in Poland, a once-communist country, as it joined the NATO alliance.
During the 1970s, Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski was a rising star in the Polish General Staff during the Cold War. He was also a spy for the CIA. Colonel Aris Pappas was a rising star in the CIA’s analytic ranks whose specialty was Poland. Pappas sat down with SPY Historian Mark Stout to discuss the Kuklinski case, the important information that Kuklinski passed about the Soviet and Warsaw Pact militaries and the imposition of martial law in Poland, and how he and Kuklinski eventually met and became friends.
In the summer of 1991, US Army Colonel James Cox arrived in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, to serve as Assistant Army Attaché. Little did he know that Communist hardliners were about to launch a coup. When the coup started, the intelligence agencies in Washington immediately needed up-to-the-minute information on developments, so the attachés went out on the streets to get it. Hear Colonel Cox tell SPY Historian Mark Stout what it was like chasing tanks on the streets of Moscow and witnessing Boris Yeltsin make his stand at the Russian White House.
Sun Tzu’s 2500 year old book The Art of War contains a famous chapter on spies. However, Master Sun was not the only Chinese author to address this topic centuries before Westerners did. In fact, many Chinese authors built on his work. SPY Historian Mark Stout met up with Ralph Sawyer, the translator of the definitive edition of The Art of War and the author of The Tao of Spycraft, to discuss the sophisticated theory and remarkable practice of espionage in traditional China.
“One could not choose a worse place for fighting the Japanese,” said Winston Churchill of northern Burma, but it was there that the fledgling Office of Strategic Services conducted its most successful combat operations of World War II. Troy Sacquety, an Historian for the US Army’s Special Operations Command, ventures into Burma’s steaming jungles in the first book to fully cover the exploits and contributions of the OSS’s Detachment 101 against the Japanese Imperial Army. In this Author Debriefing, Sacquety describes how Detachment 101 succeeded and created a prototype for today’s Special Forces.
This event took place on May 13, 2013.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/oss-burma-book.html#.Vxk39JMrJTY
Military deception was an important part of Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 coalition effort to eject the Iraqi Army from Kuwait. The man in charge of that U.S. Marine Corp’s part of that deception was Brigadier General Tom Draude. Despite the fact that he had no previous background in deception, General Draude and his team of clever American planners put together an elegant and effective deception plan. Hear him tell Peter how they exploited the expectations of Iraq's military to put them off guard and out of place. Also learn about the role in that books such as The Man Who Never Was and John Le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl played in General Draude’s thinking.
Mark Zaid is one of the nation’s top national security lawyers and has defended many alleged whistleblowers and leakers. SPY Historian, Mark Stout, called him in for a consultation on the case of Edward Snowden who has admitted leaking to the press top secret material from the National Security Agency. Hear them discuss Snowden’s present legal position, the options open to a would-be whistleblower, and the actual meanings of treason and asylum.
Morten Storm was a Danish convert to Islam who became a close associate of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American imam who was a senior member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. He even ate in Awlaki’s home and helped find him a wife. When Storm repented of his radical ways, he turned to the Danish intelligence service and offered inside access to AQAP. Hear him tell SPY Historian Mark Stout how MI6 and CIA came into the picture and how he helped tracked down Awlaki, who died in a controversial CIA drone attack in September 2011.
Can you keep a secret? Maybe you can, but the United States government can’t. Since the birth of our country, nations from Russia and China to Ghana and Ecuador, have stolen some of our country’s most precious secrets. Michael Sulick, former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, discusses his book, Spying in America, which presents a history of more than thirty espionage cases inside the United States. This event took place on January 15, 2013.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/spying-in-america-book.html#.Vxk4FpMrJTY
After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy knew it would need vital information from the Pacific. Captain Milton ‘Mary’ Miles journeyed to China to set up weather stations and monitor the Chinese coastline—and to spy on the Japanese. After a handshake agreement with Chiang Kai-shek's spymaster, General Dai Li, the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) was born. This top-secret network worked hand in hand with the Nationalist Chinese to fight the Japanese invasion of China while erecting crucial weather stations, providing critical information to the US military, intercepting Japanese communications, blowing up enemy supply depots, laying mines, destroying bridges, and training Chinese peasants in guerrilla warfare.
Join author Linda Kush as she reveals the story of one of the most successful covert operation efforts of World War II. This event took place on March 5, 2013.
Major General Michael Ennis was one of the rare Marine officers admitted to the Foreign Area Officer program where he became a specialist on the Soviet Union. This led to an assignment as a translator on the Washington-Moscow Hotline at the White House and then got him a license to spy in communist East Germany in the 1980s as part of the US Military Liaison Mission. Hear him tell SPY Historian Mark Stout what it’s like to penetrate a Soviet command bunker at night or be chased by a Soviet tank, and learn the intelligence value of a hunk of concrete.
In the 1970s, historian John Earl Haynes was researching the American labor movement when he discovered interesting connections to the Communist party. Fast forward 20 years to the 1990s, when that ongoing research on the Communist party led him into the murky world of Soviet espionage. SPY Historian Mark Stout sits down with this groundbreaking historian to look back on his career and learn how he became a leading and unlikely expert on Soviet espionage in the America. Follow along on this fascinating journey from Minnesota, to the halls of power in Washington DC, to dusty archives in Moscow.
Looking back on her childhood, Sarah Taber remembers that “my identity was problematic because of moving from country to country and the overall atmosphere of growing up in the CIA.” As an adult she wrote about what it was like to be raised in a culture of “secrecy, stoicism and silence” in her book Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter. Feel the stresses and learn the secrets of a CIA family in this heart-to-heart talk between Sarah and Peter, himself a CIA father.
The United Nations thinks “intelligence” is a dirty word but it still needs intelligence to conduct peacekeeping operations. The result is a euphemism: “military information.” SPY Historian Mark Stout talks with Tom Quiggin, a former Canadian intelligence officer who worked alongside Americans, Swedes, Jordanians, Russians, and others in the Military Information Office supporting UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia during the 1990s. Hear what it’s like to pass through a checkpoint manned by drunken teenage soldiers or to know that your warnings of an upcoming massacre in Srebrenica are being ignored.
In this Spycast Peter finishes his conversation with Peter Sichel. Listen to this insider talking about CIA operations in Germany after World War II, the futile support for anti-communist guerrillas in Ukraine and China during the 1940s and 1950s, the strains of leading an undercover life and his friendship with legendary CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton.
Canada’s Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) operates on a very different model from the American CIA, being neither strictly a foreign intelligence agency nor a domestic intelligence agency. Today SPY Historian Mark Stout discusses CSIS with Ray Boisvert, who was one of the founding members of the Service in 1984 and rose to become its Assistant Director, Intelligence, a position from which he retired in 2012. Hear them talk about the concept of “security intelligence” in a democratic society and explore the dilemmas which the Service faces in an era of terrorism emanating from groups such as al Qaeda and foreign covert influence from nation states.
In January 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted what became the most important telegram in all of American history. It was a daring proposition from Germany's foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, offering German support to Mexico for regaining Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in exchange for a Mexican attack on America. Five weeks later, America entered World War I. Former SPY Historian Dr. Thomas Boghardt who is now at the US Army’s Center of Military History talks about his new account of the Zimmerman Telegram. This event took place on, November 27, 2012.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/zimmermann-telegram-book.html#.Vxk4aZMrJTY
Today Peter begins a conversation with the remarkable Peter Sichel, OSS veteran, senior CIA official of the 1950s, and onetime head of Blue Nun wines. After fleeing Nazi Germany with his family in the 1930s and eventually finding himself in the United States, Sichel joined the OSS and in 1944 he went back to Europe where he recruited German prisoners of war to spy for the US 7th Army. Hear him talk about his operations in Europe and his friendship with future Director of the CIA, Richard Helms.
The modern spy novel was born in early twentieth century Britain with writers such as Erskine Childers and William LeQueux whose one-dimensional heroes were English gentlemen holding back the barbarians. How did we get from there to the gray and morally ambiguous world of John Le Carré? And how does all this relate to James Bond and even George Orwell’s 1984? Listen to SPY Historian Mark Stout discuss the development and importance of spy fiction with intelligence historian Wesley Wark.
The United States and Iran have been at daggers drawn for more than thirty years. While this rivalry has never erupted into open war, it has been an enduring “twilight war” in which spies and terrorists often play the lead role. US Government historian David Crist will discuss his groundbreaking book which pulls back the curtain on many of the deepest secrets of this lethal struggle. Among other fascinating revelations, hear about the massive spy network that the CIA developed in Iran with German help in the 1980s, how these spies communicated with their handlers using invisible ink, and how their discovery led to the deaths of more than two dozen people. This event took place on 1 August 2012.
In Castro’s Secrets, Brian Latell, former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and long-time Cuba analyst, offers a strikingly original image of Fidel Castro as Cuba's supreme spymaster. Latell exposes many long-buried secrets of Castro's lengthy reign, including the extent of Cuba’s double agent operations against the United States. In writing this book, Latell spoke with many high-level defectors from Cuba’s powerful intelligence and security services; some had never told their stories on the record before. He also probed dispassionately into the CIA's plots against Cuba, including previously obscure schemes to assassinate Castro and presents dramatic new conclusions about what Castro actually knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This event took place on October 10 2012.
In the days after 9/11, the CIA directed Henry Crumpton to organize and lead its covert action campaign in Afghanistan. In less than 90 days Al Qaeda and the Taliban were routed. The Art of Intelligence draws from the full arc of Crumpton’s espionage and covert action exploits to explain what America’s spies do and why their service is more valuable than ever. This event took place 12 June 2012.
The surprise of September 11 2001 was, in part, a failure of imagination and CIA Director George Tenet did not want that to happen again. On September 13 he created the Red Cell and staffed it with “people who were willing to take their analysis to a whole new zip code.” CIA analyst Mark Henshaw’s first novel, Red Cell, is about the adventures of two analysts assigned to that team during a military crisis with China. The story is fiction, but it draws on Henshaw’s three years in the Red Cell. Join him and SPY Historian Mark Stout as they discuss what goes on in Room 2G31 at CIA Headquarters.
Juan Pujol was the Walter Mitty of World War II, a nobody who at one doomed venture after another while dreaming of doing something interesting with his life -- saving Western civilization, if possible. Journalist Stephan Talty, whose work has appeared widely, including in the New York Times Magazine and GQ, has told the remarkable story of how against all the odds, Pujol did just that by becoming agent GARBO, the most important double agent of World War II. Hear Talty discuss his new book with SPY Historian Mark Stout in this author debriefing which took place on July 12, 2012.
Peter concludes his conversation with longtime CIA officer George Cave with a brief discussion of some of the funny and unusual events that took place in the course of his career in the Clandestine Service.
The history of Israel’s intelligence community—led by the feared and famous Mossad—includes stunning successes and embarrassing failures with important implications for war and peace today. CBS journalist Dan Raviv co-author with Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, of Spies Against Armageddon, traces this history from the country’s independence in 1948 right up to the crises of today.
Russia was a chaotic hotspot after the Revolution of 1917 and an extraordinary collection of spies, adventurers, and opportunists poured into the roiling Russian political scene. Outsized characters like Sidney “Ace of Spies” Reilly, communist activist John Reed, and author/spy Somerset Maugham all played their parts…under the watchful eye of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the head of the ruthless Cheka, the first of the Soviet state security organizations. Listen to renown British historian Robert Service discuss his thrilling new book about this turning point of twentieth century history.
Peter continues his discussion with career CIA officer George Cave. They cover Cave’s time in Saudi Arabia—from which he was expelled when a candid cable he wrote about Saudi politics leaked to the press—and back in Washington where he became embroiled in the Iran-Contra Affair. Hear his account of a clandestine trip with Robert McFarlane and Oliver North for talks with Ayatollah Khomeini’s government and other inside details of this scandal.
George Cave is a legend in the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He was recruited into the CIA in 1956 as a fluent Farsi speaker and was pulled out of his entry training and sent to Afghanistan to deal with an urgent operation there. He never looked back. Join Peter and George as they relive the assassination attempts in Iran against the US Ambassador and George himself in the early 1970s and discuss CIA’s operations in the Middle East over three decades.
Peter continues his discussion with legendary case officer Dick Holm, the author of The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA. Holm discusses several highlights and low points of his career. Learn about his work with Belgian intelligence in thwarting a Belgian Air Force officer who was spying for Russia and his role in the embarrassing “spy flap” when he was the CIA chief in Paris.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/craft-we-chose-life-in-cia-book.html#.Vz3rhPkrIdU
In 1948, when Whittaker Chambers accused Ivy League-educated senior diplomat Alger Hiss of spying for the Soviets, few Americans were willing to believe him. In fact, Hiss went to his grave protesting his innocence, but now it seems clear that he was guilty, given the evidence available since the end of the Cold War. Retired counterintelligence officer Christina Shelton has written a new biography of Hiss. She highlights the many missed opportunities and poor judgments in the Hiss case, and discusses them in the context of wide-scale Soviet infiltration and espionage. Join Shelton and SPY historian Mark Stout for a discussion of this provocative new book about one of America’s most controversial icons.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/zimmermann-telegram-book.html#.Vxk4aZMrJTY
Josh Meyer, co-author with Terry McDermott of The Hunt for KSM, visits the International Spy Museum to talk about the decade-long FBI and CIA effort to capture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Meyer discusses the repeated failed attempts to find the evil genius who had plotted to kill the Pope and President Clinton and explode a dozen planes over the Pacific Ocean, all before masterminding the 9/11 attacks. Finally, hear how the US finally grabbed KSM as a result of the interrogation of another terrorist, Abu Zubaydah.
Today Peter starts a conversation with Dick Holm, a legendary CIA operations officer, who has served all over the world. Dick, the author of The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA, talks about the importance of intelligence and reveals the terrible price that he paid for serving his country as a young officer in the Congo in the 1960s.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/craft-we-chose-life-in-cia-book.html#.Vz3rhPkrIdU
Intelligence officers and investigative journalists both depend on clandestine sources to divulge secrets. But why do people betray a trust? Peter interviews veteran journalist Max Holland about his new book, Leak, which probes the mind and motivations of one of the most famous clandestine sources in American history: Deep Throat. Hear why Mark Felt, the Deputy Director of the FBI, betrayed President Nixon by leaking to the Washington Post and Time about Watergate. Were Felt’s motives patriotic or self-serving…or both?
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/leak-shy-mark-felt-became-deep-throat.html#.Vz3q4PkrIdU
During the Vietnam War, perhaps the US Army’s most secretive unit was the Studies and Observations Group (SOG). This unit conducted reconnaissance missions, captured enemy prisoners for interrogation and rescued American POWs. It also ran teams of clandestine agents, and conducted psychological operations. The leader of this group in the mid-1960s was a legendary Army officer, Donald Blackburn. Listen to author Mike Guardia describe Blackburn’s colorful life in this event which took place on 16 February 2012.
SPY Historian Mark Stout explores the importance of signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the Vietnam War with retired National Security Agency cryptanalyst Tom Glenn. Glenn served more time in country than any other civilian of the NSA. Hear about the sixth sense that good SIGINTers need to have, the difficulties of working in foreign languages, and how Glenn and his colleagues were able to predict every major Communist offensive. Learn also why American commanders did not always believe them. Finally, hear the wrenching story of Glenn’s last days in Saigon in 1975 as the city was falling to the North Vietnamese Army.
With the ever increasing global connectivity, more and more information is available merely for the asking. This has led to a flourishing of the discipline of open source intelligence collection. SPY Historian Mark Stout has a probing discussion with one of the world’s leading practitioners of this art: Arno Reuser of the Dutch military intelligence service. With the growth of open source, can we stop stealing secrets?
In the early James Bond novels, the hero battled the villainous forces of Smersh, a shadowy Soviet intelligence organization. Bond was fictional, but Smersh really existed. Drawing its name from smert shpionam Russian for “death to spies,” it was Stalin’s wartime terror apparatus and it cut a bloody swath of death across Eastern Europe. Its job was to “filter” the Red Army for spies and it was responsible for the arrest, torture, and execution of many thousands of innocent people. Listen to historian Vadim J. Birstein as he discusses this bloodthirsty organization and discusses the evidence suggesting that Raoul Wallenberg was one of its victims. This event took place on 12 January 2012.
Researching spy history is a difficult business. Spies carefully cover their tracks and intelligence agencies classify everything and release their records only after many years, if at all. Given these difficulties how do historians reconstruct espionage history? SPY Historian Mark Stout explores this issue with Dr. R. Bruce Craig, the author of Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case. Hear Craig describe how a receipt for $1.25 allowed him to discover the real identity of the mysterious “Agent Zero” who spied for the Soviets before World War II. Also listen as Craig tells of his forthcoming book about Alger Hiss and how he has brought lawsuits that forced the government to open up sealed grand jury records for Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Since 9/11, the United States Intelligence Community has expanded into an $80 billion behemoth and taken on many new tasks, for instance spying on terrorists in cyberspace and even becoming a combat organization in its own right. Are we getting value for our money? To what extent did the invasion of Iraq divert important intelligence resources from Afghanistan? And why is the FBI flying reconnaissance flights over northwest D.C.? Intelligence historian, Matthew Aid, the author of the new book Intel Wars: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror, grapples with these and other questions in a discussion with SPY Historian Mark Stout.
Spies, cavalry, and telescopes were the traditional intelligence tools available during the Civil War, but there was also cutting edge high tech: the telegraph and the observation balloon. How did Civil War generals combine these to help make strategic decisions? As we observe the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, SPY Historian Mark Stout discusses this question with Professor William Feis of Buena Vista University, the author of Grant’s Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox.
Operation MHCHAOS was the code name for a secret domestic spying program conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1960s and early 1970s charged with unmasking any foreign influences on left wing protestors. CIA counterintelligence officer Frank Rafalko was a part of that operation. When The New York Times revealed MHCHAOS in 1974 and Congress investigated, MHCHAOS took its place in the pantheon of intelligence abuses. However, in his new book Rafalko says that the operation was justified and that the CIA was the logical agency to conduct it. Listen as he defends his perspective with dramatic intelligence collected on the New Left and black radicals. This event took place on 26 October 2011.
D. J. Thorp, a signals intelligence officer in the British Army, spent many years eavesdropping on the hot spots of the Cold War in Europe and the Middle East. In 1982 he found himself on board a Royal Navy ship intercepting signals from the Argentinean military as it fought the British in the Falklands War. Listen in as Major Thorp describes to SPY Historian Mark Stout how signals intelligence influenced the course of that war, how his team uncovered an Argentinean plan for a counterattack that could have turned the tide of the war, and even how a signals intercept led British naval personnel to shave off their beards!
Clint Eastwood’s movie, J. Edgar, gives a Hollywood take on the controversial Director of the FBI. However, many people have criticized the movie for whitewashing Hoover’s abuses while others have criticized it for its implication that Hoover may have been gay. Peter addresses these issues in discussion with Ray Batvinis, a former FBI special agent, a former Executive Director of the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation, and the author of the book, The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence.
After a childhood in war-torn Lebanon with an abusive father, Nada Prouty jumped at the chance to forge her own path in America, a path that led to undercover work in the FBI, then the CIA. Her work earned her great respect from her colleagues but her promising career came to an end when federal investigators charged Prouty with passing intelligence to Hezbollah. Lacking sufficient evidence to make their case in court, prosecutors went to the media, suggesting that she had committed treason. Though the CIA and a federal judge eventually exonerated Prouty, she was dismissed from the Agency and stripped of her citizenship. In Uncompromised, Prouty tells her story in a bid to restore her name and reputation. This event took place on 15 November 2011.
Who are your friends on Facebook? Are you sure? Thomas Ryan, co-founder of Provide Security, knows that you can’t always be certain. Why? Because he created the fictional Robin Sage, a cyber femme fatale, who quickly wormed her way into the confidence of national security professionals who should have known better. He conceived the experiment to expose weaknesses in the nation's defense and intelligence communities, but even he was surprised by its success. Robin Sage is just one of the fascinating and disturbing tricks of the online espionage trade that Ryan shared with SPY Historian Mark Stout. You may never friend anyone again…
What would you do if you were told to do whatever was necessary to get a prisoner to talk? This is the situation that career CIA officer Glenn Carle found himself in when he was made the lead interrogator for a detainee who was said to be a member of Al Qaeda’s top echelon. Carle, the author of the recently published book, The Interrogator: An Education, tells Peter what it was like to be in this position. And, he describes how he got on the wrong side of CIA Headquarters (HQ) when he objected to the treatment of the detainee, who he came to believe was not who CIA HQ said he was. Listen in on a discussion that raises profound questions about American values and the struggle against terrorism.
The war with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda did not begin on September 11th. CIA analyst Cindy Storer was there from the beginning in the early 1990s, a member of a small band of mostly female analysts who worked on Al Qaeda long before September 11. They faced a frustrating uphill battle convincing others about this new threat and were subjected to ridicule for their supposedly excessive passion right up until September 11th. Hear Cindy discuss with SPY Historian Mark Stout what it was like to be in the building on that day and the amazing combination of emotion, professionalism, and commitment that characterized the following days.
In 2009, the CIA’s partners in the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate had a source named Humam Khalil al-Balawi working inside Al Qaeda and he knew where Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al Qaeda was…or so they thought. In fact, Al Qaeda was running a deception. In December 2009 al-Balawi came to a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan and detonated bomb strapped to his chest, killing seven CIA officers and one Jordanian intelligence officer. It was the CIA’s greatest loss of life in decades. Join Pulitzer Prize winning author Joby Warrick for this gripping true story of miscalculation, deception, and revenge, and learn how Al Qaeda fooled the world’s greatest intelligence service. This event took place on 20 July 2011.
The 13-year search for Osama Bin Laden may have seemed unprecedented, but actually such events have not been uncommon in American history. Since the days of Geronimo, the United States has embarked on at least eleven such “strategic manhunts.” Benjamin Runkle, the author of the new book Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts from Geronimo to Bin Laden, sits down with SPY Historian Mark Stout to discuss what we can learn from the history of these manhunts. Find out what kind of intelligence it takes to track down an evasive enemy leader and learn what the strategic pay-off can be from a successful manhunt. Part three of a series.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was behind many of the most heinous terrorist plots of the past twenty years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Millenium Plots, and 9/11 itself. He even claims to have personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Investigative journalist Richard Miniter brings to life the remarkable story of “KSM,” including his time living in the United States. Based on interviews with government officials, generals, diplomats and spies from around the world, Miniter reveals never before reported Al Qaeda plots and remarkable new details about the 9/11 attacks. He also lets us into the ultimately successful clandestine operations of American and Pakistani intelligence officers to capture this notorious killer. This event took place on May 19, 2011.
“Wild Bill” Donovan was a World War I hero with a Medal of Honor to prove it, a millionaire Wall Street lawyer, and a prominent Republican. Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt chose this brilliant yet disorganized visionary to be his spymaster, head of the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Veteran journalist Douglas Waller has written a compelling biography of William Donovan. He describes Donovan’s reckless nature: how he needlessly risked his life on foreign battlefields and engaged in extramarital affairs that emboldened his enemies in Washington. Waller also recounts the OSS’s daring operations overseas and the vicious political battles that Donovan had to fight with Winston Churchill, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Pentagon. Donovan’s plans to continue the OSS after the war were defeated, yet the CIA rose like a phoenix from the OSS’ ashes. This event took place February 17, 2011.
Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/wild-bill-donovan-book.html#.Vxk4yJMrJTY
A great deal of public attention goes to the CIA’s case officers who recruit and run agents and steal secrets. However, few people pay attention to the fact that those secrets are stolen so that they can be put on desks of intelligence analysts. Analysts, then, must put together information from both secret sources and open sources to produce insightful assessments to inform the nation’s leaders. Randy Pherson, a former senior official at the CIA and the President of Pherson Associates, teaches advanced analytic techniques to the US Intelligence Community. Join him as he discusses with SPY Historian Mark Stout his efforts to move the vital field of intelligence analysis toward greater rigor.
After killing Osama bin Laden, the SEALs reportedly took hundreds of drives, disks, and computers from the house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. What challenges will American intelligence agencies face in exploiting bin Laden’s computers and what can be learned from the computer of a terrorist mastermind? SPY Historian Mark Stout discusses the complexities of digital dumpster diving with Wall Street Journal reporter Alan Cullison, who in 2001 purchased and exploited a computer used by Ayman al-Zawahiri, now the heir apparent to lead al Qaeda. Part two of a series.
What are the implications of Osama bin Laden’s death for the al Qaeda movement? What role did waterboarding and “enhanced interrogation techniques” play in tracking down Bin Laden and should we reassess our views of torture? Peter explores these provocative questions with naval intelligence veteran and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance, the author of An End to al Qaeda: Destroying bin Laden’s Jihad and Restoring America’s Honor. As a SERE instructor, Nance has been waterboarded and has conducted waterboardings. He has even given expert testimony on the issue before Congress. Part one of a series.
The East German security service, the Stasi, was infamous for surveilling and oppressing the East German population. However, it also hunted Western spies and there were many to be found; the CIA, the West German BND, and Britain’s MI-6 were all very active. In fact, from 1955 to 1989 the Stasi uncovered more than 1300 foreign spies operating in East Germany. Join SPY Historian Mark Stout as he discusses Stasi counterespionage with Professor Paul Maddrell who has been working in the Stasi archives. Learn about Western espionage in East Germany and find out the grim fate of the spies who were uncovered.
Montana resident Shannen Rossmiller is proof that things are not as they seem online. Before September 11, she was a judge, a wife, and a mother but not an expert on terrorism or an Arabic speaker. After September 11, she taught herself Arabic and started to explore the world of online jihadism, pretending to be a male terrorist. She soon found that real jihadists were willing to share their secrets with her. She turned these secrets over to the FBI and as a result some of her online acquaintances are now in jail. Listen in as Peter, who used to steal secrets in the real world, compares notes with Shannen who used to steal secrets in the virtual world.
During the Korean War, US military intelligence worked with anti-communist Korean agents and partisans to collect information from behind North Korean lines. SPY Historian Mark Stout interviews Colonel Douglas Dillard, USA (Ret.) who led AVIARY operations, the airborne insertion of the agents and partisans, and Mr. James M. H. Lee, a native of North Korea, who worked at his side as an interpreter. Learn what it was like flying at night over North Korea in a blacked out plane and hear about the courage of the Korean volunteers who parachuted into the dark, many of them never to return.
Social media—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others—are held up as powerful tools for peoples trying to overthrow police states. Iran’s “Twitter Revolution” electrified the world and the Egyptian government shut off Internet access as demonstrations swept that country. However, Evgeny Morozov of Stanford University, one of the leading thinkers about the political impact of new media, explains to SPY Historian, Mark Stout that they are less powerful than we normally think; worse, “the KGB wants you to join Facebook.”Social media—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others—are held up as powerful tools for peoples trying to overthrow police states. Iran’s “Twitter Revolution” electrified the world and the Egyptian government shut off Internet access as demonstrations swept that country. However, Evgeny Morozov of Stanford University, one of the leading thinkers about the political impact of new media, explains to SPY Historian, Mark Stout that they are less powerful than we normally think; worse, “the KGB wants you to join Facebook.”
In 2007, the New England Patriots were caught videotaping the New York Jet’s sideline defensive signals. That was illegal, but it’s remarkable what is allowed, even routine. From surveillance films, to secure communications, to briefing books, and deception operations, the intelligence activity conducted for the gridiron warriors is as intense as that conducted for the US military. T. J. Waters joins Peter Earnest and Dan Treado of the International Spy Museum to discuss his new ebook, Prior to the Snap: How the NFL’s Hyperperformance Strategy Safeguards the World’s Most Successful Team Sport. You’ll never look at football the same way again.
During the Cold War, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France each had a “military liaison mission” authorized to roam East Germany. While the fiction was that they existed to coordinate military affairs with the Soviets in Germany, the reality was that they collected intelligence on the Soviet military. Join Spy Museum Historian Mark Stout as he talks with Brigadier General Roland Lajoie, a former chief of the US Military Liaison Mission, about the accomplishments, adventures, and tragedies of these little known spies in uniform.
Shirley Perry was recruited to join the CIA in 1951, a time when applications were handed out “under the counter” at the university job office, and when the CIA lived in rodent-infested temporary buildings on the National Mall. What was it like to be a young woman in the Agency at that time, and to be sent to Vienna—the front line of the Cold War—to support intelligence operations? Shirley Perry, former CIA case officer, reminisces with Peter about those early days and talks about her new memoir, After Many Years.
David Kahn is the author of the classic book The Codebreakers. When it was first published in 1967, the National Security Agency was concerned that the book might reveal sensitive secrets. Over the years, however, NSA changed from perceiving Kahn as “an enemy of the people” to depending on him as a popularizer of codebreaking. Join Peter and David Kahn as they discuss Kahn’s career, some of the greatest triumphs of American signals intelligence history, and the challenges facing today’s codebreakers.
Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, is James Bond’s home agency and one of the world’s most secretive organizations. The British government did not even admit that it existed until the 1990s. Yet, in connection with its centennial year, the service has commissioned an outside scholar to write an official history of its first forty years. Peter chats with Professor Keith Jeffery, the only outsider who has ever seen the MI6 archives and given their penchant for secrecy perhaps the only one who ever will in our lifetimes. Drawing on his new book, The Secret History of MI6, 1909-1949, Professor Jeffery shares “how it actually was and how it’s actually done.
American diplomats Mark and Cora Lijek were hiding at the home of a Canadian diplomat as the Iranian Revolution swirled around them. Peter continues his discussion with the Lijeks and also welcomes Tony Mendez, the CIA officer who led the daring operation to bring them home. Hear how they escaped the country posing as Hollywood filmmakers and the joy they felt as they finally left Iranian airspace.
When Iranian militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, Mark and Cora Lijek and four other American diplomats slipped out a side exit and found themselves on the run in a hostile country. Before long, Canadian diplomats gave them shelter but now they had to avoid discovery while Washington hatched an audacious plan to rescue them. The Lijeks discuss with Peter their ordeal and how they prepared to escape.
Today Peter converses with Dino Brugioni, a pioneer of the art of photo interpretation and a living legend of the US Intelligence Community. Dino shares his personal experiences briefing Presidents and describes the role that he and overhead photography played in such seminal Cold War events as the “missile gap” and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dino Brugioni has looked inside the most secret places on earth…from above..
A young student in the US when the Iranian Revolution happened in 1979, Reza Kahlili rejoiced and hurried back to his native country, but he soon found that "every promise that Khomeini had made was vividly a lie." In the early 1980s, he made contact with the CIA, agreeing to risk his life and his family's wellbeing as a spy within Iran. He discusses with Peter how he burrowed inside the regime's elite Revolutionary Guard to report what he found, balancing his constant fear against his Persian patriotism.
Two weeks ago on 27 June, the FBI arrested a network of 10 Russian "deep cover" spies. Peter sits down with former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin to discuss this remarkable case and the historic spy swap which took place last Friday. Kalugin, who once ran agents in the United States, is forthright in expressing his views about what this case says about the state of Russian intelligence today.
Mosab Hassan Yousef was the nearest thing to royalty in the terrorist group Hamas: the son of one of its founding members. He was also a spy for Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, which dubbed him the "Green Prince." Today Mosab and his Shin Bet handler sit down with Peter to discuss their dangerous game and his book Son of Hamas.
Martha Peterson, a 32 year CIA veteran, was the first female case officer assigned to Moscow. Today she talks with Peter about her sudden capture by the Soviet KGB while executing a covert operation in Moscow.
In 1973 Captain Gail Harris became the first woman to hold a combat intelligence job in the U.S. Navy. Her 28 year career included hands-on leadership in the intelligence community during every major conflict from the Cold War to Desert Storm to Kosovo. Today, she discusses with Peter her unique experience providing intelligence support to military operations and the challenges of developing policies for defense against cyber warfare.
Shane Harris is a staff correspondent for National Journal and the former technology editor of Government Executive magazine. In his new book, The Watchers, he chronicles the government’s efforts to create a computer system capable of analyzing data and identifying terrorist activity. Harris contends that while pinpointing threats remains difficult, the governments can now spy on U.S. citizens with ease. He joins Peter today to discuss the evolution of surveillance, America’s changing views on privacy, and the human element behind computerized data collecting.
Elizabeth Macintosh continues to offer her insights into OSS. This time, she talks about the many fascinating and colorful people she met at OSS, including Director William “Wild Bill” Donovan and Virginia Hall.
Dr. Herbert Lin is chief scientist at the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council of the National Academies. An expert on cyber security, Herb discusses various aspects of cyber attacks, including ways in which cyber weapons can be used for covert action. To view his co-edited report on this subject, visit: http://www.anagram.com/berson/nrcoiw.pdf
Melissa Mahle served from 1988-2002 at the CIA, much of the time as a case officer dealing with terrorist issues in the Middle East, running agents and gathering intelligence. Today, she discusses with Peter her perspective on the recent suicide bombing of a CIA base in Afghanistan, the perils of collecting intelligence in a war zone, as well as the terrorist challenge.
The U.S. authorities' failure to prevent a Nigerian suicide bomber from boarding a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day, and the suicide bombing at a CIA base in Afghanistan have roiled the intelligence community. International Spy Museum historian Dr. Thomas Boghardt discusses with SpyCast host and CIA veteran Peter Earnest how these incidents unfolded and their implications for intelligence reform.
Elizabeth Macintosh served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Today, she discusses her personal experience working for OSS, the role of women in it, as well as some of the agency’s most exciting operations.
This year, Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, celebrates its 100th anniversary. Cambridge University professor Christopher Andrew, the author of MI5’s official history, Defend the Realm, reveals the agency’s strengths and weaknesses, and relates some of the most intriguing stories involving Britain’s spy catchers.
Melissa Hathaway served as acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security Council, heading a 60-Day Cyberspace Policy Review for President Obama that resulted in a comprehensive report with recommendations for action. Today, she discusses the massive and growing challenges of cyberspace—such as identity theft, cyber espionage, and cyber wars—and what needs to be done to deal with this threat.
How has the sustained U.S. effort to destroy Al Qaeda affected the terrorist organization, and how important is the current struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan for the future of Al Qaeda? A former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism, Juan C. Zarate discusses America’s struggle with Al Qaeda and comments on the organization’s current state.
Could intelligence have prevented the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and has the Intelligence Community been sufficiently reformed to deal with current and future threats? These are the questions that Amy Zegart discusses on the eighth anniversary of 9/11. An intelligence scholar, Amy has worked on President Clinton’s National Security Council and is currently teaching intelligence and national security at UCLA.
Since biblical times, spies and intelligence services have used sexual entrapment and emotional blackmail to recruit agents and gather secret information. International Spy Museum advisory board member and espionage author H. Keith Melton discusses the means, methods, and effectiveness of “sexpionage,” and elaborates on specific examples, such as the Russian honeytrap and the East German Romeo agent.
In the 1930s, five young Cambridge University students were recruited by Soviet intelligence to penetrate the British intelligence community. In the course of their decade-long espionage career, the Five did enormous damage to Western security. British intelligence author Nigel West examines their motivations and activities, and reveals new evidence he has unearthed in Soviet intelligence archives.
Richard H. Cummings served for fifteen years as Director of Security for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He reviews the propaganda activities of RFE/RL during the Cold War and describes Soviet bloc operations against the stations, including the 1978 murder of RFE scriptwriter Georgi Markov in London, and the 1981 bombing of RFE/RL headquarters in Munich by the terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
"Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world today," asserts Bruce Riedel, a 30-year CIA veteran and currently a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Bruce discusses the various threats emanating from Pakistan, including the rise of the Taliban, the security of the country’s nuclear weapons, the murky role of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), and the precarious relationship with neighboring India.
Cyber threats, information warfare, and internet espionage are growing challenges for business companies, private individuals, and the intelligence community alike. A former CIA operations officer and current president of the cyber intelligence company Cyveillance, Dr. Terry Gudaitis discusses specific examples of cyber threats as well as techniques to counter them.
The National Security Agency (NSA), America’s premier cryptanalytic organization, is the largest and most secretive member of the American intelligence community. Discussing NSA’s mission, capabilities, and past exploits, former NSA Chief of Information Policy Mike Levin reveals some of the mysterious agency’s secrets.
A West Point graduate, Brian G. Shellum was U.S. Army attaché in Germany, served in the armed forces during the first Gulf War, and worked for over a decade as historian for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Today, Brian discusses the history and purpose of American military intelligence, describing the DIA and the role of the military attachés posted abroad.
Rear-Admiral Donald Mac Showers joined the U.S. Navy’s codebreakers at Pearl Harbor in 1942 and went on to serve three decades in the American intelligence community. Today, he talks about the contribution of codebreaking to the defeat of Japanese naval forces at Midway in 1942, and he reveals how cryptanalysts helped U.S. forces locate and kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
During the Cold War, Soviet intelligence used disinformation to malign the United States, for example, by spreading the rumor that AIDS resulted from U.S. Army bacteriological warfare experiments. U.S. State Department Counter-Misinformation officer Todd Leventhal discusses some of the most notorious Soviet-inspired conspiracy theories and explains how the United States sought to counter them.
What makes conspiracy theories so appealing, and why have they become so prevalent in this day and age? Do some of them contain a grain of truth? And who stands to gain from spreading these ideas? To answer these questions, Peter interviews Professor Robert Alan Goldberg, author of Enemies Within, and a leading authority on conspiracy thinking.
Working for the Saigon Military Mission and the CIA, Rufus Phillips spent ten years in South East Asia during the Vietnam War. Drawing on this experience, Rufus talks about psychological warfare and counter-insurgency tactics in Vietnam, and lessons for America’s present engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, Peter chats with actor and film producer Robert De Niro. De Niro talks about his long-standing interest in the world of intelligence and discusses his latest espionage movie The Good Shepherd about the early history of the CIA. He also provides an insider look at the making of the humorous polygraph scene in Meet the Parents.
A senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, Melvin A. Goodman served many years as an analyst at the CIA and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. A critical observer of the intelligence community, he elaborates on his thesis about the decline of U.S. intelligence, specifically its militarization, privatization, and deteriorating analysis capacities.
As CIA station chief in Pakistan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Germany in the 1980s and early ‘90s, Milt Bearden observed—and influenced—the end of the Cold War from a unique vantage point. Today, he talks with Peter about U.S. support of Afghani mujahideen against the Soviet invaders, intelligence community reforms, and his work as a consultant on spycraft in Hollywood.
Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a secretary and ended it as head of the agency’s Office of Technical Services, overseeing the development of gadgets, disguises, and high-tech devices in support of espionage missions. Today, she discusses with Peter some of the operations she was involved in as well as opportunities for women in the intelligence community.
Judge William H. Webster, the only person who directed both the FBI (1978-87) and the CIA (1987-91), taps into his vast expertise to discuss with Peter the guidance he would offer to the next U.S. president. In addition, he provides insight on the ever-present tension between civil liberties and national security, and issues of intelligence oversight.
Peter’s guest today is Frederick Hitz, the CIA’s first inspector general subject to U.S. Senate Confirmation (1990-98) and now a lecturer on intelligence at the University of Virginia. In a wide-ranging discussion, Fred talks about intelligence oversight, leadership issues, and terrorism. He also discusses career options in intelligence for young people.
A former station chief in Moscow and head of the CIA’s Soviet/East Europe division, Burton Gerber now lectures on intelligence and national security at Georgetown University. Today, Peter interviews him about the post 9/11 reforms of the intelligence community and what guidance he would offer to the next occupant of the White House.
In November 1979, radical Iranian students overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran, capturing most of the embassy staff—except for six diplomats who found refuge with the Canadian embassy. Today, Peter talks with retired CIA officer Tony Mendez who, in an elaborate deception and disguise operation, managed to exfiltrate the six Americans from Tehran before the Iranians were able to track them down.
How is information from the intelligence community (IC) conveyed to the president, and how have different administrations incorporated intelligence in the political decision-making process? John Hedley, former CIA officer and editor of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), reviews the relationship between the IC and presidents since World War II, in the course revealing fascinating episodes from his personal experience in dealing with several administrations.
Peter interviews Robert Wallace, director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services (OTS, the department in charge of “gadgetry”) from 1998 to 2002. Bob explains some of his favorite devices, such as the T-100 subminiature camera, and compares OTS’ performance to that of its adversaries. He also reviews the role of OTS in some high-profile spy cases and discusses the capabilities and limitations of technical support in intelligence operations.
Peter’s guest today is Malcolm W. Nance. A 20 year veteran of the US intelligence community, Malcolm has participated in numerous counter-terrorism operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. The author of The Terrorist Recognition Handbook and The Terrorists of Iraq, Malcolm discusses with Peter the role of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda operations in Iraq, and the threat of domestic terrorism in the United States. He also talks about means and methods of effective anti-terrorist operations and cautions against overreactions.
Peter’s guest today is former Democratic Congressman Louis Stokes from Ohio, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee in the 1980s and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s. Congressman Stokes discusses Congress’ role in overseeing the intelligence community and the value of intelligence to national security, and his committee’s investigation of the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, Peter interviews espionage writer Pete Earley about one of the most senior Russian intelligence defectors ever, Col. Sergei Tretyakov or “Comrade J.” Pete reveals some of the secrets Tretyakov covertly betrayed to the FBI/CIA while serving as SVR (Russian foreign intelligence) deputy resident in New York in the late 1990s. He also sheds light on Tretyakov’s complex motivations for defecting.
Looking further into the U.S. intelligence community’s faulty assessment of Iraq’s WMD program, Peter interviews Bob Drogin, author of Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Conman Who Caused a War. Bob reveals how fabricated information about Saddam’s WMD program from the Iraqi defector “Curveball” could make it all the way to the White House and consequently became one of the primary rationales for war against Iraq.
Today, Peter interviews Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of CIA covert operations in Europe. In the run-up to the Iraq war, Tyler consistently questioned affirmative intelligence on the existence of Saddam’s WMD program. He recounts his often frustrating efforts to prevent questionable information, such as that provided by the Iraqi defector "Curveball," from distorting intelligence assessments on Iraq.
Peter’s guest today is Valerie Plame, a covert CIA officer who recently left the Agency after her name was leaked to the press. Valerie discusses her time at the CIA, the controversy surrounding her case, and the administration’s drive to war against Iraq. She also reveals how suddenly becoming a focus of public attention affected her marriage and family.
Today, Peter chats with Larry Devlin, the CIA’s legendary station chief in Congo during the 1960s. Larry reflects on his reasons for joining the CIA, the political situation in Congo at the time, and the face-off with the Soviets in the Third World. He also discusses his response to the controversial directive from headquarters to have Congo’s Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba killed.
Peter’s guest today is Robert Baer who served for many years as a CIA operative in the Middle East. Among other things, Bob talks about his tour of duty in Lebanon, the psychology of suicide bombers, and the emerging threat of Iran. He also discusses the movie Syriana, which is based on his book, See No Evil.
Peter interviews John Sullivan, the CIA’s longest serving polygrapher. The lie detector has supporters and detractors, and John confronts the controversy surrounding it head-on. He frankly discusses the role of the polygraph in the Agency’s security process and offers his candid opinion on the possibilities and limitations of this device.
Peter’s guest today is H. Keith Melton, renowned intelligence historian and owner of the largest collection of espionage artifacts. Keith sheds new light on one of the most notorious intelligence operations of all time—the assassination of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940. Keith reconstructs the operation in all its phases, including material from his own original research.
Peter’s guest this month is Scott Carmichael of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). As the DIA’s senior counterintelligence investigator, Scott identified one of the most damaging spies in recent U.S. history, the Agency’s own chief Cuba analyst, Ana Belen Montes. Scott discusses Montes’ motivations, the damage she did, and the continuing threat of Cuban intelligence to the United States.
Peter interviews Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive about a recently declassified set of documents regarding illegal CIA activities in the early Cold War. Putting these "Family Jewels" in historical perspective, Tom and Peter discuss the CIA’s participation in domestic wiretapping, assassination attempts at Fidel Castro, and the popular notion of the Agency as a "rogue elephant."
Peter interviews Dame Stella Rimington, former Director-General of MI5, the British domestic security service. Dame Stella compares American and British approaches to intelligence and offers her view on the terrorist threat and the Litvinenko murder. She also discusses the authenticity of spy fiction and reveals her favorite espionage writer.
After responding to inquiries from listeners, Peter interviews Melissa Mahle who served for over a decade in the CIA’s clandestine service in the Middle East. Melissa provides a unique intelligence perspective on 9/11, terrorist threats, and America’s continuing engagement in Iraq. She also discusses career opportunities in the intelligence community and the changing role of women in the CIA.
Peter discusses the Robert Hanssen spy case with retired Senior FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Major who knew Hanssen for over 20 years and was one of his supervisors. Dave shares his thoughts on Hanssen’s personality and reasons for spying for the Russians. Last not least, Dave offers his perspective on how the movie Breach captures and misses aspects of the Hanssen espionage case.
Peter interviews Eric O’Neill, the FBI investigator who went undercover as Robert Hanssen’s clerk during the final months before Hanssen was arrested for espionage. O’Neill is the model for Ryan Phillippe’s character in the current movie Breach. O’Neill talks about the ways the film mirrors—and diverges—from his real experiences with one of America’s most damaging spies.
Peter sits down with Ron Olive, former special agent in charge of counterintelligence for the Naval Investigative Service, to discuss Olive’s role in the capture of Jonathan Pollard, one of the most controversial spies in history. Ron talks about investigating and interrogating Pollard, explores Pollard’s motivations and significance, and reveals the real significance of gift cacti.
Peter discusses the film The Good Shepherd with former CIA officer Jack Platt and AFIO (Association for Intelligence Officers) Director Elizabeth Bancroft, comparing fact and fiction in the OSS and CIA. Enjoy a bonus spoiler in which the three debate the meaning of the ending—and the best way to destroy secret information.
Peter sits down with former CIA officer Bob Rayle and Oleg Kalugin to talk Russia past and present. The three discuss their perspectives on the recent poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko. Then, they turn to 1967 and Bob's role in the extraordinary defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin.
Peter talks with Tony Mendez, former Chief of Disguise for the CIA. Peter and Tony discuss the intricacies of developing disguises for use in hostile environments, the advantages of selective aging, and the secret history of facial recognition technology.