Lovers Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen formed an unconventional and enigmatic network of artists and intellectuals to resist the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s Berlin. As an officer of the Luftwaffe and Nazi film worker Harro and Libertas sought to operate in plain site, and combine friendship with opportunities for espionage. This gripping spy tale asks the question of how much we are willing to risk to challenge the status quo and change society. Norman spoke to me from Berlin about his research...
Jul 17, 2020•31 min•Ep. 42
Emily Whalen is a historian of U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. She is a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Texas - Austin, and an Earnest May pre-doctoral fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Soon to be Dr. Whalen essentially offers a thorough country profile starting literally with ancient history to the present unrest in Lebanon. We discuss how the political system represents the various ethnic and sectarian g...
Jun 20, 2020•51 min•Ep. 41
The Secret War in Laos was sponsored by Americans, fought by Laotians, Thais, Vietnamese, American advisors and pilots while almost entirely eclipsed by the war in Vietnam. Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s book What We Inherit – is a poignant memoir of a family’s loss and search for answers over generations to find Jack Pearce whose AC130 gunship was shot down over Laos in 1972. Decades later Jack's niece Jessica picked up the search where her mother and grandfather had left off. Her quest led her ...
Jun 12, 2020•32 min
Latvian Aviator Hubert Cukurs was a popular figure before WWII, but the Charles Lindbergh of Latvia would soon become the Butcher of Latvia responsible for the murder of some 30,000 Latvian Jews. Somehow, he dodged the Nuremberg trials, and fleed to South America after war’s end. In 1965, with the improbable German war crimes statute of limitations about to expire, the Mossad mobilized their own ace and master spy - Jacob “Mio” Meidad, a brilliant agent who’d already helped kidnap Adolf Eichmann...
May 31, 2020•25 min•Ep. 39
This episode isn’t so much about espionage or intelligence collection as it is an example of how understanding how what you don’t know can help shape your reality. How do you take precautions against an unseen and undefined threat - in this episode - to public health. After getting his Phd in Chemistry, Sergei was called to duty by his reserve military unit for the clean-up at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site in 1986. As a ‘nuclear jumper’ he was in charge of 28 soldiers tasked with the danger...
May 23, 2020•52 min•Ep. 38
Focusing on the motivations, The Anatomy of a Spy by Michael Smith tells the story of why spies spy, presenting a wealth of spy stories—some previously unknown and some famous—from the very human angle of the agents themselves. He breaks them into categories that go beyond the widely shared MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise/Coercion, Ego. We discuss some classic examples from his book: Operation Diamond where the Mossad used sex and coercion on pilots to fly a MIG-29 out of Iraq in the early 60...
May 15, 2020•44 min•Ep. 37
Author James Stejskal talks about his secret Berlin unit during the Cold War. Their mission, should hostilities have commenced, was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific war-time persona . They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, and intelligence tradecra...
May 08, 2020•47 min•Ep. 36
Fred Burton, one of the world's foremost authorities on security and terrorism, tells the harrowing story of the hunt for William Buckley - CIA station chief abducted by Hezbollah in Beirut on March 16th, 1984. Mr. Burton was deputy chief of counterterrorism at the Diplomatic Security Service, where he was in charge of preventing and investigating attacks against diplomatic personnel and facilities. During his 14-year career, Mr. Burton was involved in many other high-profile investigations...
May 01, 2020•46 min•Ep. 35
Special Agents of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) have been on the front lines of securing diplomacy for over a century. From the Fall of Saigon to the U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, special agents of the DSS have relentlessly put their lives on the line to protect their fellow diplomats around the globe. Agents Unknown reveals the story of Cody Perron, a former Special Agent of the DSS, and his journey ...
Apr 22, 2020•43 min•Ep. 34
Ilya is an asset protection practitioner and sought after security specialist. After immigrating to the US from Moscow, he graduated and later taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He spent his formative professional years at Prudential Financial HQ in Newark, NJ, under the tutelage of Paul DeMatteis. He then went on to Kroll Security for eleven years - starting in New York and then moving to Hong Kong. Ilya now consults and coaches under his own brand - Sphere State - ...
Apr 08, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 33
My guest Neil Graham Hansen began his aviation career as a pilot for Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He then spent more than a decade in Southeast Asia as a captain for Air America - the CIA's airline that operated during the Vietnam era and the 'Secret War' in Laos. Upon returning to the States, unable to let go of the thrills of high stakes flying, his career trajectory veered off course into a Federal prison for smuggling narcotics - where he began his redemption as an advocate for ...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 32
Tracy Walder , ex-USC sorority girl joined the CIA at age 22, hunted down the most dangerous terrorists, then joined the FBI to uproot domestic spies and wrote a fantastic book about it - The Unexpected Spy . “I’d show up in countries where armies of terrorists wanted to kill Westerners. I’d wear red lipstick, curl my hair and stand firmly on the rock of my convictions.” Tracy talks about her select experience in the early drone program at CIA during the Bush administration's push into war ...
Mar 11, 2020•31 min•Ep. 31
Author and journalist Stephen Vogel’s written a definitive and engaging book about the Cold War’s most audacious espionage operation – Betrayal in Berlin - about a clandestine tunnel as long as the Empire State Building into the Soviet sector of Berlin in the mid 50s. The operation collected years of telephone and wire communications from the Soviet forces long after it was revealed to have been compromised in 1956 by British spy George Blake. We refer to the film The Innocent, a 1992 John Schle...
Feb 29, 2020•35 min•Ep. 30
Joyce Wayne has written a historical novel called The Last Night of the World about a Soviet female operative, a key player in the Gouzenko Affair. When Igor Gouzenko defected from the GRU to the RCMP in September of 1945 the west would see for the first time the extent of Soviet espionage activity in North America. His 200 pages of documents would reveal a covert ring of dozens of operatives working for Soviet military attaché and GRU Rezident Nicholai Zolotkin in the capital city. In this inte...
Feb 07, 2020•57 min•Ep. 29
TRANSMISSION 028 Witold’s experience as a daring underground operator working within and around the Polish borders offers a view into the relationships, ratlines, allies, enemies, and tradecraft necessary to fund and supply the Solidarity insurgency movement from the late 70s until the Communists were peacefully voted out of power in 1989. He speaks to me from an apartment in Warsaw near the former Ghetto where his relatives had struggled a generation before him. His unassuming codename - Makaro...
Jan 24, 2020•58 min•Ep. 28
Live Drop episode 027, I meet up with an old friend of mine who among other things plays high stakes poker. I wanted to talk to him about that world, and perhaps see how it could inform the role of intelligence with the brinksmanship, nerve, bluff and distraction that are tools to a card player, and protection or transfer of clandestine information ie. when to show your cards. Joe doesn’t disappoint, he’s a natural storyteller and fills me in on some of the jargon like: What’s a fish? Stalking, ...
Jul 10, 2019•35 min•Ep. 27
A trucker from upstate New York, David Rupert spent seven years informing for the FBI and MI5 while working his way as high as the IRA war council. His lengthy testimony brought justice to several key players in the supply and terrorism networks of the Troubles, including Real IRA leader Mickey McKevitt who’d had a significant role in the Armagh bombing which killed 31 civilians and injured hundreds shortly after the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. Rupert learned his spycraft as he went alo...
Jul 03, 2019•59 min•Ep. 26
Author and Irish Journalist Sean O’Driscoll talks about his decades of risky investigation into the IRA and his new book - The Accidental Spy - about American David Rupert, aka the Big Yank, a trucking manager, pub owner and erstwhile undercover FBI and MI5 agent within the most violent ruling echelons of the Irish Republican Army. In this episode Sean discusses the possible consequences facing Ireland from England’s Brexit movement, the origin and several incantations of the IRA, and future cha...
Jun 26, 2019•59 min•Ep. 25
Stephen Hoyt is a University of Maryland Professor, former analyst and President of the USMLM Association - United States Military Liaison Mission in Berlin. USMLM in cooperation with British and French Allies were the only observers with daily access behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Mission reports provided not only a realistic picture of the Soviet Army, but a window into East German Society. Stephen talks about the origins, singularity and legacy of USMLM along with the Mission Po...
May 10, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 24
Intelligence historian and former analyst, Dr. Mark Stout directs graduate programs in Global Security Studies and Intelligence at Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs in Washington, DC. He has previously worked for the Department of the Army, the State Department, the CIA, and the Institute for Defense Analyses. He’s recently co-authored the book Spy Chiefs and has co-founded the North American Society for Intelligence History. We talk the history of inte...
May 03, 2019•43 min•Ep. 23
Top counterintelligence and interrogation expert Stuart Herrington shares from a renowned and decorated intelligence career. He sets the stage with his introduction to military intelligence duty in Cold War Berlin in 1968. Over the course of a friendly conversation he comments on: The Fall of Saigon, lunch with Henry Kissinger and his most significant command as Director, U.S. Army Foreign Counterintelligence Activity (FCA), between January 1988 and May 1992. During his tenure as Director of FCA...
Apr 19, 2019•58 min•Ep. 22
Mark was fortunate to have a chance to speak with Ambassador Rudy Perina** has a storied 34 year career in the US Diplomatic Corps. He’s a sought after Charge d’Affaires at US embassies around the world with a history of service in some of the Cold War hotspots like Moscow, Yugoslavia, and Berlin. We discuss the role of diplomacy in a changing world and what he believes can determine the fate and destiny of nations. He shares his knowledge of fluent Berlinery - the unique system of agreements an...
Apr 12, 2019•48 min•Ep. 21
Though most in his profession are former attorneys, sought after mediator Lee Jay Berman recognized his keen ability to diffuse conflict and find resolution while working in corporate real estate. The skills he maintains, and teaches are highly applicable in the world of human intelligence and diplomacy. Listening, and identifying the underlying desires of opposing parties is an intuitive ability he’s used to resolve conflict and find compromise that leaves both parties with satisfaction and pea...
Apr 05, 2019•45 min•Ep. 20
Tom Pecora is a 24 year CIA veteran and senior clandestine security manager. He talks about his book Guardian: Life in the Crosshairs of the CIA’s War on Terror, and a career in Clandestine security operations. Mark asks him about the mindset of ‘stealth,’ 'getting off the X,' and how to protect those in the business of risking it all for information. Listen in for a chat with the Forest Gump of the GWOT. He cites his early experiences with Islamic terrorists in the Phillipines, Bosnia...
Mar 17, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 19
Jason is an author, entrepreneur and ex-CIA officer. His books Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life and Survive Like A Spy are bestsellers and considered essential for those interested in Spycraft with real stories from the field to back them up. Find Jason and links to all his company services at spyandescape.com or survivelikeaspy.com. He consults at GPTagents.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 27, 2019•46 min•Ep. 18
With INTELLIGENCE, playwright Helen Banner raises some big questions in this production about a charismatic negotiator training diplomats for talks with a violent adversary. Though not practiced now (or yet, rather), they use role-playing and improvisation to show how we code and decode others through our bias, understanding and imagination. More at helenbanner.com If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the co...
Feb 01, 2019•55 min•Ep. 17
Maj. (ret) John W. Spencer currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, NY and Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project. He's instrumental in the design and formation of the institute and a prolific writer specializing in how increased urbanization affects military operations, planning, and... thinking. Find him on Twitter @SpencerGuard. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 29, 2019•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 16
Michael discusses his documentary about an American intelligence advisor in Vietnam. In this film MACV veteran John Murphy narrates his experience and the difficulty of reporting intelligence that some might not want to hear. Michael shares his own challenges, and tips for documentary filmmakers. Episode 15. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 01, 2019•47 min•Ep. 15
In his book Bring Out The Dog, Will Mackin writes a fictional account of his time with Navy Special Operations as a Joint Terminal Air Controller - 'a remarkable portrait of the absurdity and poetry that define life in the most elite, Clandestine circles of modern warfare.' Will’s stories demonstrates the role of intuition, empathy and imagination into the enemies movements and psyche. A 24 year Navy veteran, Will shares his reentry into civilian life. Find his work at wmackin.com Get ...
Dec 14, 2018•50 min•Ep. 14
Author of The Girl Behind The Wall explains her relatively normal childhood in the DDR with little or no exposure to elements of the surveillance state. Or was it there all along? We may have to wait for her second book for the answer. Antje explains the massive download of western culture those from the East had to digest in the 1990s, and what it felt like to be a cultural refugee in her own land. Episode 13 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...
Dec 09, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 13
