“So, I’m a Spy & I’d like to Write a Book…”
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 Life in the CIA Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House”; “Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and US Government Conspired to Torture”; and, “Decent Interval: An Insider’s Account of Saigon’s End Told by the CIA’s Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2 Nov 20211h 45min
Introducing Shadow of Truth Podcast
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" will take you on a journey into one of the wildest and most contested murder cases in the history of Israel, as it reaches its final resolution, 15 years after it all started. Link to Clip http://wondery.fm/SOT_SpyCast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
28 Okt 20217min
World Series Special: Espionage & Baseball – A Conversation with Marc Polymeropoulos
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
26 Okt 202157min
“First Casualty” – Inside the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
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 Central Asian academic who fought jihadists at close-hand to help his comrade, ex-Marine Mike Spann, the first American casualty in a war that would go on to become the longest in American history. In an extended podcast that is both conversation and historical document: this is their story. Award-winning journalist and author Toby Harnden helps contextualize the story of Team Alpha. You can learn more about the book here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19 Okt 20212h 25min
*15th ANNIVERSARY/500th EPISODE SPECIAL* - “The CIA and the 9/11 Commission Report” – A Conversation with Alexis Albion
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 you just say what I think you said, she was the central researcher on the CIA…? Yup. I know, what the hell, right, we’ve been sitting on this story all this time! Episode 500 is a good time to thank two of the behind-the-scenes unsung technical heroes – Mike and Memphis who have been involved with more SpyCast’s than anyone else. They are awesome. They are great guys, and they rock. Other people who have been involved in the content side of SpyCast have included Peter Earnest and Chris Costa, our former and current Exec Director, as well as my other predecessors in the Historian & Curator role: Thomas Bogart, Mark Stout and Vince Houghton. The show would of course be nothing without our guests, who have contributed their time, expertise and experience to help educate, inform and occasionally entertain the public on the vitally important matters of intelligence and espionage. Sometimes this past year I have felt like Churchill, in that he got the job he had always coveted: but under the least auspicious circumstances. It has been emotional people, but, we are getting there. Here’s to the next 500. Sláinthe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 Okt 20211h 19min
Cyberattacks, Espionage & Ransomware – “Inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC)”
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. Microsoft has billions of customers, serves millions of businesses, and works with almost every government department: to say it might have something to do with information and intelligence would be like saying perhaps it would have been a good idea to have bought buy some shares when it first went public in 1986 (June 2021 it was valued at 2 trillion dollars!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Okt 20211h 9min
“Leningrad, Molehunts, and Life After the CIA” - A Conversation with Christopher Burgess
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 our friends at Clearance Jobs. He tweets @burgessct Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
28 Sep 202147min
“One of CIA’s Most Decorated Field Officers” – A Conversation with Marc Polymeropoulos
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 grand strategy in the Middle East. If you ever pull up a bar stool next to Mark: you’ve hit a home run! Mark’s new book, Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the CIA, distills the insights he derived from his career and is available in the International Spy Museum’s bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 Sep 202153min
