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 livin...
Feb 28, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 528
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 (...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 527
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 th...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 526
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 ta...
Feb 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 525
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 in...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 524
"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.
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 523
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 Intelli...
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 522
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, g...
Jan 11, 2022•54 min•Ep. 521
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 Tanzani...
Jan 04, 2022•51 min•Ep. 520
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 ...
Dec 28, 2021•51 min•Ep. 519
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 wa...
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 518
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,...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 517
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...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 516
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-...
Nov 30, 2021•58 min•Ep. 515
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 rum...
Nov 23, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 514
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 t...
Nov 16, 2021•59 min•Ep. 513
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...
Nov 09, 2021•53 min•Ep. 512
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...
Nov 09, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 511
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 Lif...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 510
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" wi...
Oct 28, 2021•8 min•Ep. 509
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
Oct 26, 2021•57 min•Ep. 508
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 C...
Oct 19, 2021•2 hr 26 min•Ep. 507
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 ...
Oct 12, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 506
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...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 505
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...
Sep 28, 2021•47 min•Ep. 504
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 g...
Sep 21, 2021•54 min•Ep. 503
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 Histori...
Sep 14, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 502
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...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 501
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 fu...
Sep 11, 2021•57 min•Ep. 500
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 o...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 499
