Episoder
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Can a good spy become a good politician? I mean, not as an undercover agentâspy agencies are pretty good at thatâbut in an overt way, in, say, the messy US Congress.
Or, put another way, can the skills that a CIA officer employs in clandestine operationsâgregariousness, empathy and, letâs face it, a learned talent for manipulating people, be put to good use in a place like a deeply polarized Congress?
This week Iâm putting those questions to Abigail Spanberger, a former member of the CIAâs clandestine service, who in 2018 won a seat in Congress from Virginia as a Democrat, breaking, by the way, a nearly 40-year long Republican chokehold on a sprawling district in the near and far suburbs Washington, DC. Since then Spanberger has developed a strong reputation for working across the aisle with Republicans on bills that help constituents. And now sheâs running for governor of Virginia with no primary opposition.
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Top cyberwar expert and former Trump White House Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert tells host Michel Isikoff that Israelâs deadly exploding pagers op was a âbrilliantâ tactic that Hezbollah's terrorists deserved.
Tom Bossert
https://twitter.com/tombossertTrinity Cyber
https://www.trinitycyber.com/Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:
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Mangler du episoder?
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Sam Goodwin tells us about his harrowing ordeal as a prisoner in one of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's torture chambers. It is an extraordinary story of a young American from St. Louis who embarked on a personal adventure to visit every country in the planet only to be ensnared when he made it into Syria by Assad's security forces, who threw him into one of their most notorious prisons as a suspected CIA spy. His account, told in his new book called Saving Sam, the true story of an American's disappearance in Syria and his family's extraordinary fight to bring him home, is a reminder of the still ongoing atrocities in Syria's 13 year long civil war.
More from Sam Goodwin:
https://www.samrgoodwin.com/
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Over a period of roughly 14 years, according to the feds, Linda Sun rose through the ranks to become deputy chief of staff to Governor Hochul, before she was fired for unspecified reasons and became a target of federal investigators. But according to the DoJ, the 41-year-old was secretly using her position to advance Chinese political and business interests and steal relevant documents. In return, the feds say, Beijingâs spy service showered the couple with millions of dollars that afforded them lavish homes, a Ferrari Roma sports car, andâpeople had fun with thisâspecial salted duck dishes prepared by a Chinese Embassy chef. In court on Tuesday the couple entered not guilty pleas to charges of acting as unregistered foreign agents.
One person who is absolutely not surprised by all this is Nicholas Eftimiades who became a leading expert on Chinese espionage over his 34-year government career, which included work for the CIA, the State Departmentâs Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and as a Senior Intelligence Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Today he teaches at Penn State and is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also the author of âChinese Intelligence Operations,â which will soon be reissued with an update.
Chinaâs MSS spy agency, of course, couldnât care less about which party, or level of US government, it infiltrates. Its goal is to weaken the United States by any means necessary.
Nick Eftimiades
https://twitter.com/neftimiadeshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/eftimiades/
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John Sullivan, the former U.S. ambassador to Moscow under Presidents Trump and Biden, worries that the Ukraine war could go on for "decades" and offers some candid views on his dealings with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
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Washington Post investigative reporter Craig Whitlock, author of âThe Afghanistan Papers,â is Jeff Steinâs guest on the sad anniversary of the chaotic retreat.
Craig Witlock
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SOMEWHERE IN THE REMOTE MOUNTAINS of Pakistanâs southwest province of Balochistan, a shadowy, 29-year-old veteran of the Afghan Army is believed to be holed up, keenly conscious that the U.S. government has placed a $10 million bounty on his head.
Read Michael Isikoffâs piece for the SpyTalk Substack
https://www.spytalk.co/p/another-911-style-attack-in-the-works?
Colin P. Clarke - The Soufan Group
https://x.com/colinpclarke
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This week, weâre going to take a look at the shock and disorientation the children of spies face when they learn that one, or both, of their parents are not who they say they are.
Jeffâs guest, Johanna McCloy, didnât know she was the daughter of an American spy until she was 15 years old.
Johanna McCloy
https://johannamccloy.substack.com/
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The Pentagonâs stunning plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants was negotiated and announced without briefings for the families of victims of the terrorist attackâan apparent failure that drew a furious reaction Thursday from a leading 9/11 victimsâ group.
Brett Eagleson
https://www.911justice.org/Follow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/isikoffFind Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election
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Veteran CIA ops officer Jim Lawler talks about the tricks of the trade with host Jeff Stein.
Jim Lawler
https://www.spyex.com/expert/james-lawlerhttps://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09FMVF622
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Former DHS Intel Chief John Cohen on the Butler, Pa. fiasco with guest host Michael
Isikoff.
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âMafia Spiesâ is based on a 2019 book by the same name by veteran investigative reporter Thomas Maier, with the subtitle, âThe Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro.â Which in turn was based largely on declassified files relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The TV series includes dramatic recreations of critical moments in the plots, lively, insightful commentary with longstanding experts on Cuba, Castro and the Kennedys, as well as on-camera interviews with a few, still living relatives and associates of the key gangsters in the conspiracies, Johnny Rosselli and Sam Giancana.
The series sheds new light on the grisly demise of Giancana and Rosselli before they were able to spill all the beans about the demonicâand sometimes comic failuresâof the Castro assassination efforts.
Thomas Maier
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Reuters reporter Aram Roston with Jeff Stein on the Proud Boys resurgence.
Aram Roston
https://twitter.com/aramrostonhttps://www.reuters.com/authors/aram-roston/
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Frank Figliuzzi talks with Jeff Stein about the Bureauâs dizzying challenges.
Frank Figliuzzi
https://twitter.com/frankfigliuzzi1LONG HAUL: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/long-haul-frank-figliuzzi
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Fat Leonard was âa maritime fixer who provided harbor protection, barges, cranes, food, fresh water, sewage collection, and anything else a nuclear powered aircraft carrier might need.â Itâs absolutely astonishing how easily Leonard corrupted so many ranking Navy officers by providing them with prostitutes, booze, cash and airline tickets.
Craig Whitlock
https://twitter.com/CraigMWhitlockFat Leonard
How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy
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There are friendly nations, but no friendly intelligence services, goes an old saw in the spy business. What that means in practicality is that we have close intelligence relationships with our allies, but in many cases, we also spy on each other, not entirely trusting what theyâre telling us. In no place is this convoluted arrangement better exemplified than the security relationship between US and Israel, who have a long history of snooping on each other while closely working together on mutual targets, like Iran and its allied militias, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and now, Hamas in Gaza.
Here to discuss that with me today is my old friend and colleague Jonathan Broder. Heâs been in and out of the Middle East for decades, in particular Israel, whose struggles and wars he began covering many decades ago as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune based in Tel Aviv. Heâs also been a foreign policy editor and writer for Congressional Quarterly and Newsweek, and today weâre blessed to have him as a contributing editor at SpyTalk, where heâs written a number of shrewd pieces since the Hamas invasion of Israel last Oct. 7.
Jonathan Broder
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Jason Leopold, a senior reporter with Bloomberg News, has literally been getting under the skin of government bureaucracies for decades. His weapon: The Freedom of Information Act, enacted by Congress in the mid-1960s because the feds, well, had an insidious propensity to bury embarrassing, or even illegal, acts under layers of official secrecy. Over the years the law has been strengthenedânot that itâs stopped the government from continuing its bad behavior.
Thatâs where Leopold, a multiple prize winning, much admired, relentless digger, comes in. The 55-year-old journalist is a legend for forcing the government to release explosive documents ranging from Hillary Clintonâs secret email server to CIA torture procedures to Donald Trumpâs misrouting, should we say, of highly classified documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. For his efforts, the FBI labeled him an âFOIA terrorist,â a moniker he cheerfully welcomes.
May 1st marked the seventh anniversary of his most favorite FOIA triumph, the release of details on a threatening telephone call a person imitating a Mafia thugâall but certainly Trumpâmade to a lawyer representing investors going after Trump after the failure of his Atlantic City casino. It seemed like a good day to ring Jason up.
Jason Leopold
https://twitter.com/JasonLeopold
https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/foia-files
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Last monthâs spectacular terrorist attack on a concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow, which left 144 people dead, was quickly followed by startling news that US intelligence had warned the Russians about the impending assault. When the Kremlin said the warnings hadnât been specific, moreover, US officials pushed back, saying, in effect, âOh yes they were,â and added details to its rejoinder. Likewise, it turned out that back in January, US intelligence had warned Iran about an impending Islamic State terrorist attack at a gathering to honor its fallen Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani, who had been killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad.
The revelations that our spy services had actually warned two of our greatest mortal enemies astounded many people and triggered a lot of acidic commentary, confusion and the inevitable conspiracy theories on social media.
Todayâs guest, former CIA case officer and base chief Laura Thomas, who held a number of senior intelligence positions during her nearly 16 years of government service, says those actions followed a standard practice in American intelligence. Itâs called âa duty to warn.â And sheâs here to explain how that seemingly esoteric, even confounding, practice is not only a staple of the spy worldâat least on the American sideâbut it has some espionage benefits as well.
Laura Thomas
https://twitter.com/laurae_thomashttps://www.lauraethomas.com/
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New SpyTalk Contributing Editor Mike Isikoff pokes holes in 60 Minutesâ blockbuster story.
Michael Isikoff
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Jeff talks with Henry Schlesinger, author of "Honey Trapped: Sex, Betrayal, and Weaponized Love."
Henry Schlesinger
Honey Trapped: Sex, Betrayal, and Weaponized Love
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- Se mer