Episodes
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Tom LoBianco answered an ad for a writer and then things went south.
Tom LoBianco is a veteran national politics reporter and editor of 24sight News, the independent news site on Substack.
24sight's scoops have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, the Reddit front page, the Columbia Journalism Review and many other outlets.
Tom LoBianco
https://www.24sight.news/
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Seeing-eye bombs were supposed to limit civilian casualties. Jeffrey Stern, author of “The Warhead,” explains why they didn’t.
Jeffrey Stern
The Warhead
https://www.jeffreyestern.com/books
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Jeffrey E. Stern is an award-winning journalist and the author of five books, including his newest book The Warhead, The 15:17 to Paris, which was adapted as a major motion picture by Clint Eastwood and Warner Brothers, and The Last Thousand: One School’s Promise in a Nation at War, an honorable mention for best book of the year by Library Journal. Stern co-wrote and produced the award-winning independent film Yasmeen’s Element, which premiered at the SXSW film festival and was named a “best of the fest.” He has been named a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center for International Conflict and Negotiation and a grantee of the Pulitzer Center Fellow for Crisis Reporting. Stern’s reporting has appeared in magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.
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New York Times Intelligence Reporter Julian Barnes on the Rise of Bill Pulte.
More from Julian
Julian E. Barnes
Writes about the American intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other spy agencies, as well as broader national and international security issues. His stories seek to break news about what intelligence officials are thinking, and occasionally doing, and to explain the U.S. perspective on security matters.
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Former senior CIA analyst David Kanin on the crises in US intelligence.
David Kanin is a retired CIA senior analyst and member of the Senior Intelligence Service.
https://commonsensecoalition.net/about-csc/
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Former Gitmo prosecutor Michael Lebowitz takes us inside the nuclear plot that never was.
Mike Lebowitz is one of America’s few war-crimes prosecutors with front-line counterterrorism experience. A former senior attorney at the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, he spent nearly a decade prosecuting cases at Guantanamo Bay, including the 9/11, USS Cole, and top Al Qaeda commander trials. A US Army combat veteran and former Pathfinder unit paratrooper officer, Lebowitz also served as a senior legal advisor to US Army Cyber Command. He has been featured or quoted by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Associated Press, and the Atlantic. He lives in Washington, DC.
Second Wave by Michael Lebowitz
In 2003, US intelligence uncovered evidence that al Qaeda had acquired nuclear materials, plotting to smuggle them into American ports. The “Second Wave” threat triggered one of the most urgent and secretive manhunts in US history.
With the cinematic intensity of Zero Dark Thirty and the investigative depth of The Looming Tower, Michael Lebowitz captures post-9/11 chaos and drama: agents risking everything to prevent another catastrophe, families torn apart, and the ethical fault lines still dividing US intelligence.
Readers meet Pakistani-American industrialist Saifullah Paracha, whose import- export business concealed ties to al Qaeda; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, architect of 9/11; Majid Khan, a Baltimore gas-station clerk turned jihadist who mapped US targets; an FBI interrogator who broke suspects faster than any waterboard; and an Orthodox Jewish garment importer whose betrayal helped avert disaster. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Lebowitz’s account reveals a global pursuit that tested America’s moral limits and asks: Are we as prepared today as we were then?
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Former Obama speechwriter Tommy Vietor talks about energizing Dems on vital US foreign policy issues.
Tommy Vietor | https://x.com/TVietor08 | https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-world/
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Cuba intervention expert Peter Kornbluh joins SpyTalk to discuss Trump’s pressure campaign.
Peter Kornbluh | National Security Archive
Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, has worked at the Archive since April 1986. He currently directs the Archive's Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects. He was co-director of the Iran-Contra documentation project and director of the Archive's project on U.S. policy toward Nicaragua. From 1990-1999, he taught at Columbia University as an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs.
Cuba: Declassified Records on the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown | National Security Archive
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Ex-CIA operative Jerry Watson and journalist Bob Drogin tell the disastrous story of Curveball and its relevance to today’s war against Iran.
The US invaded Iraq after the based on bogus intel. Much of that intel was fabricated by Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi an Iraqi defector codenamed "Curveball."
More from our guests:
Bob Drogin | Los Angeles Times
A CIA Officer Returns to Iraq and Uncovers Embarrassing Details of the Spy Agency’s WMD Debacle
Curveball
Jerry Watson | https://www.criticalanswers.net/
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Former CIA Russia hand Sean Wiswesser assesses Putin’s grip on his security services amid rumors of coups.
Sean Wiswesser is a Russian intelligence and espionage expert, retired CIA senior ops officer, and author.
His latest book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War, is out now.
x.com/Wiswesser
https://www.instagram.com/seanwiswesser/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-wiswesser
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Veteran journalist Jack Cheevers takes another look at President Kennedy’s ambivalent role in the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
Check out Kennedy’ Coup by Jack Cheevers
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A former Pakistani ambassador to the US says the more Trump bashes Iran, the more it will dig in.
Husain Haqqani joins SpyTalk to discuss the state of diplomacy between Iran and the US.
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Former CIA Iran spy recruiter Mark Fowler says the “peace deal” is not the end of the war. He shares his analysis of the recent peace talks based on his understanding of how Iranians negotiate.
For more of Mark Fowler's analysis follow him on Substack | https://substack.com/@malfow5
Mark also writes espionage fiction | https://markafowler-author.com/
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Former CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel says military leaders should refuse a Trump order to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages"
Joseph Leonard Votel is a retired four-star general in the United States Army who was commander of United States Central Command from March 2016 to March 2019. Before that, he served as commander of the United States Special Operations Command.
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Trump and Netanyahu finger others for Iran war problems.
SpyTalk speaks with Yossi Melman, an investigative journalist with The Jerusalem Post about issues USA and Israel have with the methods and objectives of the war.
More from Yossi Melman | Yossi Melman | The Jerusalem Post | www.yossimelman.com | (@yossi_melman)
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Former CIA operative and Senior DOD Official Mick Mulroy Details Trump’s Bad Options on Iran.
https://www.loboinstitute.org/
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Acclaimed Iranian American writer Hooman Majd talks about the likely future of the Islamic Republic.
Hooman Majd is an Iranian-born American journalist, author, and political commentator focused on Iranian affairs.
https://x.com/hmajd
Minister without Portfolio: Memoir of a Reluctant Exile
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Ex-CIA op sees no end in sight for Iran conflict.
"What you're now looking at is perpetual war," says Reuel Gerecht, former Iran target officer in SpyTalk interview.
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Former top intel operative David Shedd says it's now "50-50" Xi will invade next year.
David Shedd
The Great Heist China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets
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Trump, Iran at fateful crossroads, top Middle East expert Jon Alterman says on the SpyTalk podcast.
Jon Alterman — https://www.csis.org/people/jon-b-alterman
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Congressmember Mary Gay Scanlon speaks with SpyTalk's Michael Isikoff about the secretive government list of “domestic terrorist groups” Attorney General all but confirmed the existence of in her recent trip to The Hill.
Then Karen Greenberg and Michael Isikoff talk with writer and retired American FBI agent, Mike German about the implications and consequences of the NSPM7 memo and the FISA court.
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