This week Justin sits down with Phillip Tourney. Phil enlisted in the U. S. Navy in February 1964. He served two tours on the USS Mauna Kea in the waters off Vietnam, then transferred to the USS Liberty, where he served three more tours. In June 1967, he was aboard the Liberty as a petty officer third class when the ship came under attack by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. For his actions that day, he received a Bronze Star with "V" Device and a Pur...
Apr 08, 2024•59 min•Ep. 142
This week Justin talks with returning guest Aaron Stark. Aaron served in the U S army as an Apache helicopter pilot, including on two tours in Afghanistan. He finished his term of service teaching at his alma mater West Point Military Academy as an assistant professor of economics after completing his master's in business administration at Harvard University. Today he discusses Benedict Arnold, the most famous traitor in American history. Arnold served as a general in the Continental Army d...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 1 min
This week Justin talks with Ann Hagedorn. Ann is a former staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and an award winning author of six narrative nonfiction books ranging in topics from thoroughbred horse racing to international kidnapping to unsung heroes of America's anti slavery movement and to the high drama of the tumultuous year 1919. She's a graduate of Denison University and holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan and Columbia University, plus an honorable ho...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 140
This week Justin talks with Richard "Ricky" O'Rawe, a former member of the Irish Republican Army. Since leaving the IRA, Ricky has worked as a peace advocate and has written several nonfiction books as well as two novels about The Troubles. Today Ricky shares the story of Britain's greatest intelligence coup during The Troubles: the recruitment of Freddie Scappaticci, the man who ran the IRA's internal security unit. He vetted all the IRA recruits and hunted down informa...
Mar 18, 2024•59 min•Ep. 139
This week Justin sits down with Dr. Kathryn Olmsted. Kathryn is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, where she has taught since 2001. She's published five books and many journal articles focusing on the political and cultural history of the United States since World War I. Today she discusses the story of Elizabeth Bentley, a spy and agent handler for the Communist Party of the United States and for the Soviet Union from the late 1930s through World War II. But in ...
Mar 11, 2024•50 min•Ep. 138
This week, Justin sits down with Ray Martinez. Ray served three consecutive terms as mayor of the city of Fort Collins, Colorado between 1999 and 2005. He was later elected to the Fort Collins City Council, serving a term from 2015 through 2019. Ray is an active member of several local advisory boards in the Fort Collins area. He's also the author of 15 books and he is the founder of RM Consulting Inc., where he provides consulting services in many different areas, including writing and pub...
Mar 04, 2024•59 min•Ep. 137
Today Justin talks with Dr. Larry Berman. Larry is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis. He has published four books dealing with the history of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. His work has also been featured on C-SPAN, The History Channel, and Vietnam: A Television History . Today Larry discusses the incredible double life of Phạm Xuân Ẩn, Time Magazine reporter and Vietnamese communist agent. It's the story of a spy in South Vietnam who went undiscove...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 136
Today Justin talks with Howard W. Cox. Howard is a former federal prosecutor, criminal investigator, and senior intelligence service officer. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center, he served as a trial attorney for the U. S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps, followed by many other investigative and prosecutorial assignments throughout The federal government, his final position before retiring from federal service was as the assistant inspector general for investig...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 135
This week, Justin sits down with Dr. David Strachan-Morris. David is a lecturer in intelligence and security at the University of Leicester, where he runs the M. A . in Intelligence and Security program, as well as being Director of Distance Learning for the School of History, Politics, and International Relations. Before embarking on an academic career, he served in the Intelligence Corps in the British Army and worked at intelligence management roles in the private security industry in Iraq. T...
Feb 12, 2024•43 min•Ep. 134
This week's guest is Justin Ling. Justin is an award winning investigative journalist whose work has appeared in Vice, Maclean's Foreign Policy, and The Globe and Mail , among other publications. He's also the author of the book Missing from the Village , which is about Toronto based serial killer Bruce MacArthur and has hosted two seasons of the Uncover Podcast for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Today, Justin dives into a story he wrote in April, 2021 titled "The Ris...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 133
This week, Justin sits down with Kati Marton. Kati is an author, journalist, and correspondent who has worked with National Public Radio and later ABC News , where she was the Bureau Chief in Germany. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker , The Times of London , The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal , Newsweek , Vanity Fair, and many other publications. She has also published nine books and has served as an advocate for human rights all over the world, including as the chair of the Int...
Jan 29, 2024•50 min•Ep. 132
This week Justin chats with Dr. Alan McPherson. Alan is a historian of U.S. foreign relations at Temple University and the director of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.A. in history from San Francisco State University. He has also published 11 books and dozens of articles on U. S. foreign relations, particularly regarding Latin America. Today Alan discusses a story which culminates in ...
Jan 22, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 131
Today, Justin sits down with Vince Houghton. Vince is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in the Balkans. He went on to receive a Master's Degree and PhD in Diplomatic and Military history from the University of Maryland. He spent more than six years as the historian and curator for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, and is now the director of the National Cryptologic Museum located on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland. This week Vince discusses Nuki...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 130
This week Justin sits down with Dr. Paul Winter. Paul is an independent historian, an author who specializes in wartime intelligence and military history, and a Red Team consultant. He's published articles in several journals and has written two books about World War II called D Day Documents and Defeating Hitler, as well as a third book called First In, Last Out, The Post War Organization, Employment, and Training of Royal Marines Commandos. He has also been an affiliated academic with the...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 129
This week Justin's guest is James B. Stockdale II. Jim has worked in public education for many years, including as an independent school headmaster, public school district superintendent, and as a distinguished educator for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. He's also the son of U. S. Navy aviator, Admiral James B. Stockdale. Admiral Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam in September 1965. and would go on to spend more than seven years as a prisoner of war in Hualap Prison,...
Jan 01, 2024•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 128
In this bonus episode, Justin shares his interview from The Gunfighter Project podcast. With host B, he discusses espionage stories that sound too incredible to be true. The Gunfighter Project features members of some of the world's most elite military units. It's a conversational show where professionals from around the world share their expertise to help you protect yourself and your family and stay prepared for everyday dangers. Connect with The Gunfighter Project: linktr.ee/thegunf...
Dec 25, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 127
Justin's guest this week is Matti Friedman. Matti has worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press and his work has appeared in The New York Times , The Atlantic , Smithsonian Magazine , and elsewhere. He's also the author of four nonfiction books covering subjects related to the formation of Israel and the conflicts that followed the birth of that nation. Today Matti tells the story of four men who worked undercover as part of the Arab Section, a tiny group of Jewish spies who o...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 126
This week Justin talks with Robert Lancaster. Robert served in the British Army from 1977 until 1989, including time spent with 22nd SAS, and then in the Australian Army as a reserve special forces soldier. In 1991, he founded Lancaster's Global Risk Consultancy based in Australia, which has offered a wide variety of security surveillance, business intelligence, and counterintelligence services all over the world. His previous clients include governments, multinational corporations, publicl...
Dec 11, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 125
This week Justin sits down with Naveed Jamali. Naveed is currently an editor at large for Newsweek, where he reports on national security issues. Naveed grew up in New York City, where his parents owned a small business selling technical journals and other hard to find publications. This inadvertently put them in touch with Russian agents working under diplomatic cover at the Soviet mission to the United Nations, who were constantly seeking information on American research and development across...
Dec 04, 2023•55 min•Ep. 124
Today Justin talks with Peter Dowding. Peter worked as a solicitor and barrister for many years in Australia, beginning in 1966. He also served in various positions with the Labour Party and was elected to serve as the 24th Premier for Western Australia from 1988 until 1990. Peter is here to tell the story of his uncle Bruce who was studying in Paris when Germany invaded duriNg WWII and felt the call to contribute in any way that he could. Bruce served in uniform, was captured, escaped, joined t...
Nov 27, 2023•59 min•Ep. 123
This week's guest is Tomasz Awasiewicz. Tom is an author, journalist, and expert on counterintelligence who has taught courses at the SWPS University of Social Sciences in Warsaw and elsewhere. Currently, he focuses on the Cold War-era intelligence and counterintelligence units of the Polish People's Republic. Today, Tom discusses a covert unit of Polish counterintelligence officers who specialized in penetrating foreign embassies to steal their secrets. The unit was filled with safe c...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 122
This week Justin is joined by Alex Joske. Alex is an analyst and researcher who focuses on the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party. He has worked for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and has also written articles which have been published in The New York Times , The Washington Post , and with NBC News. Today he's here to discuss the incredible effort China has put into influencing world opinion over the past few decades, and how they've successfully lulled so many p...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 121
This week Justin sits down with Robert David Booth. Robert served as a special agent with the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security all over the world for nearly 30 years, in locations like Beijing, Geneva, Tokyo, Haiti, and Paris. He was the deputy director for the Office of Counterintelligence from 1996 until 2002, and afterwards served as a consultant for the same office until 2012. Today Robert shares about his career with the State Department and several of the very famous a...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 120
Repeat guest Rose Mary Sheldon taught history as a professor at Virginia Military Institute for more than 25 years and is a world renowned expert on intelligence activities in the ancient world. She earned her Ph. D. from the University of Michigan in 1987, and has published several books and many articles over the years, as well as serving as an editor for The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence , and Small Wars and Insurgencies , and The Journal of Military History. T...
Oct 30, 2023•59 min•Ep. 119
In this solo episode, Justin tells the story of a notorious serial killer active in France during World War II who effectively used the war itself as cover for his crimes. But Marcel Petiot was much more than just a murder. He was a conman, a thief, a doctor, a politician, a target for the Gestapo, and possibly even a source of information for a little known U. S. intelligence organization known as The Pond. Petiot was finally convicted of 26 murders (though his death toll is thought to be betwe...
Oct 23, 2023•41 min•Ep. 118
This week's guest is Stuart Reid. Stuart is a graduate of Dartmouth college and has worked at Foreign Affairs Magazine for the past 15 years, where he's now an executive editor. He's also written for T he Atlantic , The New York Times , The Washington Post , Bloomberg , Businessweek , Politico Magazine , Slate, and other publications. Today he discusses his new book, The Lumumba Plot . It centers ontThe very short and tragic career of the Republic of the Congo's first prime m...
Oct 16, 2023•57 min•Ep. 117
Today's guest is Michael Honegger. Michael is a professional photographer and author. He spent much of his youth growing up in West Germany in the 1960s. His father was an officer with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Michael knew almost nothing of his father's career at the time, but there were a lot of clues that he was involved in some very important and very secretive work. Years later, Michael embarked on a quest to learn more about his father's work and put it...
Oct 09, 2023•48 min•Ep. 116
This week Justin sits down with Joe Augustyn. Joe was a member of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service for 28 years, working as a case officer in several locations and later as Chief of Station on three different occasions. After the September 11th attacks, he was appointed the deputy associate director of CIA for Homeland Security until the standup of the brand new Department of Homeland Security in November, 2002. He's also been credited as being one of the original ...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 115
This week, Justin covers four mysterious espionage deaths. In most of these cases, the exact nature of the events that came to pass is still up for debate. He dives into chilling and complex stories from Cold War Germany to Czechoslovakia, Washington DC, and Scotland. Unfortunately in these cases, we often never find answers. Check out episode 76, Death and the Dangers of Clandestine Work, here . https://www.buzzsprout.com/1780478/11919106 Connect with Spycraft 101: Check out Justin's lates...
Sep 25, 2023•36 min•Ep. 114
This week, Justin shares the story of the military liaison missions in post-war Germany, or the spies in uniform. If you're a longtime listener, you might recall episode number 23 with Aden Magee, who participated in these missions himself and wrote a book about it titled Cold War Wilderness of Mirrors . Today Justin gives broader overview of the subject today because it was such a unique mission that could only have taken place in a divided Germany caught between the two nuclear superpower...
Sep 18, 2023•34 min•Ep. 113
