In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Col. Chris Costa, executive director of the International Spy Museum, about the museum's reimagined exhibitions and upcoming reopening in a new location in Washington, DC. Costa explains how the museum obtained over 7,000 artifacts and uses them to tell a newly dimensional story of global spycraft. He covers the tactics, products and gadgetry of espionage, and tells Morell how the museum provides new insight into different ...
May 07, 2019•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this special edition of Intelligence Matters, which is marking its one-year anniversary since being relaunched by CBS News, host Michael Morell speaks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the top foreign policy challenges facing the United States. Morell and Pompeo discuss the post-caliphate capabilities of ISIS, the way forward in Afghanistan and Syria, the Trump administration's policy priorities in Iran, and its strategy for countering immediate threats from North Korea and long-term ...
Apr 30, 2019•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews Chris Darby, President and CEO of In-Q-Tel (IQT), the strategic investment arm of the C.I.A. and the broader intelligence and national security community. Darby explains the history of IQT, how it identifies and vets the companies it chooses to invest in, and how its priorities have evolved since 9/11. Morell and Darby discuss the top technology challenges facing the intelligence community as well as the intensifying ...
Apr 23, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this bonus episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell leads a panel discussion with four top journalists and editors with decades of experience covering intelligence-related issues. Morell interviews NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Cipher Brief CEO and Publisher Suzanne Kelly, and the Washington Post’s National Security and Intelligence Columnist David Ignatius and National Security Editor Peter Finn about how the media balances accountability journalis...
Apr 18, 2019•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Jamie Metzl, a geopolitics expert, technology futurist and author of a new book called Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity. Metzl and Morell discuss recent advances in reproductive technologies and genetic screening, as well as how their convergence with other technologies like artificial intelligence and big data processing could fundamentally change population health and growth. They also review...
Apr 16, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with former career CIA official Meroe Park, who served at the agency for nearly three decades in a variety of roles -- including analyst, executive assistant to former director George Tenet, chief of payroll and, most recently, chief operating officer. Park was also acting director when President Trump made his first visit to and speech at the CIA in January 2017. She recounts the last-minute preparations for his appearance and ...
Apr 09, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Glenn Gerstell, the National Security Agency's top legal officer. They discuss the looming legal, ethical and societal implications of the digital revolution underway across the globe, as well as the challenges posed by the rapid development and adoption of new technologies. Gerstell explains how changes in the information landscape have prompted an evolution in the NSA's own approach to transparency. He also details the NS...
Apr 02, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this bonus episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell leads a panel discussion with four former intelligence committee members in partnership with the Michael V. Hayden Center and the Schar School of Policy and Government. Former members of the congressional intelligence committees, including former Representatives Jane Harman (D-CA) and Mike Rogers (R-MI) and former Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), weigh in on the role and practice of oversight, challenges th...
Mar 29, 2019•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks about a growing crisis in American foreign policy with Eliot Cohen, Executive Vice Dean of Johns Hopkins University?s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies. Cohen, who also served as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's senior adviser, tells Morell the United States risks becoming 'erratically internationalist' by making inconsistent or incoherent choices about where...
Mar 26, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, former CIA director General (ret.) David Petraeus speaks with host Michael Morell about strategic leadership and the need to conceive, communicate, implement and refine 'big ideas.' Petraeus, who commanded coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, weighs in on the 'big ideas' that should shape some of the biggest challenges in U.S. foreign policy, including vis-à-vis China, Russia and North Korea. He also offers a five-part framework for confronting Islam...
Mar 19, 2019•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with William Burns, career diplomat, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and current president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Burns shares concerns about a decades-long drift in American diplomacy, which he says began after the Cold War, intensified in the years following 9/11, and has been accelerated during the Trump administration. He tells Morell why American engagement abroad remains crucial and how it...
Mar 12, 2019•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with psychiatrist Dr. David Charney, who has spent decades personally evaluating intelligence professionals and has interviewed some of the most well-known spies in American history, including former FBI Agents Earl Pitts and Robert Hansenn. Charney explains the core psychology of espionage, including a theory of what leads people to spy and what kinds of traits and situations are most common among those who choose to do ...
Mar 05, 2019•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Laura Holgate, former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Senior Director for Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism and Threat Reduction on President Obama's National Security Council. Holgate, now vice president for materials risk management at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, explains the threats posed by chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and how the United States, along with i...
Feb 26, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Center of Strategic and International Studies Senior Fellow and Korea Chair Sue Mi Terry about the state of the U.S.-North Korea relationship and the stakes facing both President Trump and leader Kim Jong Un ahead of their second summit in Vietnam. Terry offers an assessment of Pyongyang’s current capabilities, an overview of why Kim has come to the negotiating table, and outlines the questions that remain unanswered about ...
Feb 19, 2019•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who ran the U.S. government’s third-largest department from 2013 to 2017 during the Obama administration. Johnson offers context on the security challenges at the U.S. southern border, addresses the government’s multi-agency handling of cyber threats, and evaluates the Obama administration’s response to Russia’s efforts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. Johnson also r...
Feb 12, 2019•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with former diplomat Vicki Huddleston, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mali and Madagascar and was the country's top diplomat in Havana during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. She details the rocky evolution of the U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relationship, including personal experiences dealing with former revolutionary and Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro. Huddleston and Morell evaluate the Obama administration's 2014...
Feb 05, 2019•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a special bonus episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Pedro Burelli, a former member of the Executive Board of Petróleos de Venezuela who now lives in exile in the United States and speaks regularly with democratic leader Juan Guaidó. Burelli weighs in on the state of affairs in Venezuela and explains why the Trump administration’s efforts to build a multilateral alliance in the region may lead to a peaceful solution. He offers views on Guaidó’s political evolution ...
Jan 31, 2019•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with retired Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, who until recently served as director of the National Security Agency, Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Chief of the Central Security Service. They discuss Rogers’ three-decade military career, including how he went from serving as a Navy cryptologist to leading the country’s largest intelligence agency, how his dual-hatted role worked in practice, and whether changes to the agenc...
Jan 29, 2019•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with David Cohen and Avril Haines, who both served as deputy directors of the CIA during the Obama administration. They discuss with Morell, who was also a deputy director, the demands of the role - including preparing for the Presidential Daily Brief and how it compared to their previous experiences in the U.S. government. They also assess the responsibility of CIA directors to appear and speak publicly, contrasting current dir...
Jan 22, 2019•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Chicago University professor and Director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Robert Pape, who explains how ISIS and other militant groups adopt Western narratives to effectively recruit in the United States. Pape reviews what inspires people about ISIS propaganda and how the group's recruits differ from those of Al Qaeda. He also tells Morell how he works with the FBI and U.S. prison system to better understan...
Jan 15, 2019•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews former deputy Secretary of State and deputy National Security advisor to President Barack Obama Antony Blinken, who weighs in on the Trump administration's foreign policy decisions in some of the world's top geopolitical hotspots. Blinken evaluates the opportunities seized, squandered and still ahead in countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, North Korea and China. A former national security advisor to V...
Jan 08, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Lisa Monaco, former U.S. Homeland Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. She reviews her career trajectory from federal prosecutor to Hill staffer to running the National Security Division at the Department of Justice to a series of high-profile roles at the White House. Monaco evaluates the existing threat from foreign-directed terror attacks, the importance of continuity in counterterrorism policy, and the evolution ...
Jan 02, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, trade expert Gary Hufbauer, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, explains the national security implications of trade policy and why a given economy?s health is one of the most significant determinants of a nation?s stability. Hufbauer evaluates the effects of automation on the global economy, the enduring gap between wage and productivity growth, and how much trade balances really matter. He and Morell discuss ...
Dec 25, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, guest host Admiral Sandy Winnefeld (ret.) interviews Nadia Schadlow, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy. They discuss the 2017 National Security Strategy, which articulates the administration's national security concerns and strategic priorities. Schadlow explains how the document was conceived and crafted to reflect President Trump's 'America First' governing philosophy. Schadlow and Winnefeld also dis...
Dec 18, 2018•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Glenn Gaffney, current Executive Vice President of strategic intelligence investor In-Q-Tel and former head of the CIA's Science and Technology Directorate. Morell and Gaffney discuss space as an area of strategic, scientific, intelligence and military competition with Russia and China, and assess the United States' current positioning. They also review existing and future cyber threats to the U.S., which Gaffney exp...
Dec 11, 2018•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this bonus episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell weighs in on the CIA's reported assessment regarding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. He explains the agency's analytic process, the significance of confidence levels, and which stakeholders would be briefed, and how. He reviews the strategic and policy implications of holding Saudi Arabia to account and what steps the United States and the Kingdom should take to ensure long-term regional stability. To learn more about listener dat...
Dec 07, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with John Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism at the New York Police Department. In a wide-ranging conversation, Miller reflects on his career spanning journalism, public affairs and operations roles at some of the country's top law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Miller discusses his 1998, in-person interview with Osama bin Laden and live reporting after the 2001 September 11th attacks...
Dec 04, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Phil Reilly, former Special Forces soldier and CIA Clandestine Service Senior Paramilitary Officer who was among the select team of ten officers first deployed to Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Reilly recounts how U.S. forces first partnered with the Northern Alliance in the Panjshir Valley against Taliban units and describes his team's harrowing first helicopter flight over Taliban-controlled areas of Afgh...
Nov 27, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and legendary former CIA operative Michael Vickers about about his work combating the Soviets in Afghanistan, his views of the Trump administration’s security strategy, and the biggest national security threats facing the United States today. Vickers explains why he believes the United States and China are not only battling for economic and political supremacy, but a...
Nov 20, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell speaks with Eric Edelman, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Finland, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and current co-chair of the National Defense Strategy Commission. Edelman and Morell, who is also a member of the Commission, discuss the contents of its new report evaluating the nation's defenses in general and the National Defense Strategy in particular. They explain why, just as other world rivals have grown ...
Nov 14, 2018•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
