Social Media: Tools of Liberation or Repression?
Social media—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others—are held up as powerful tools for peoples trying to overthrow police states. Iran’s “Twitter Revolution” electrified the world and the Egyptian government shut off Internet access as demonstrations swept that country. However, Evgeny Morozov of Stanford University, one of the leading thinkers about the political impact of new media, explains to SPY Historian, Mark Stout that they are less powerful than we normally think; worse, “the KGB wants you to join Facebook.”Social media—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others—are held up as powerful tools for peoples trying to overthrow police states. Iran’s “Twitter Revolution” electrified the world and the Egyptian government shut off Internet access as demonstrations swept that country. However, Evgeny Morozov of Stanford University, one of the leading thinkers about the political impact of new media, explains to SPY Historian, Mark Stout that they are less powerful than we normally think; worse, “the KGB wants you to join Facebook.”
1 Feb 201129min
Intelligence and Analysis in the National Football League
In 2007, the New England Patriots were caught videotaping the New York Jet’s sideline defensive signals. That was illegal, but it’s remarkable what is allowed, even routine. From surveillance films, to secure communications, to briefing books, and deception operations, the intelligence activity conducted for the gridiron warriors is as intense as that conducted for the US military. T. J. Waters joins Peter Earnest and Dan Treado of the International Spy Museum to discuss his new ebook, Prior to the Snap: How the NFL’s Hyperperformance Strategy Safeguards the World’s Most Successful Team Sport. You’ll never look at football the same way again.
26 Jan 201123min
Spying on the Soviet Army in East Germany
During the Cold War, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France each had a “military liaison mission” authorized to roam East Germany. While the fiction was that they existed to coordinate military affairs with the Soviets in Germany, the reality was that they collected intelligence on the Soviet military. Join Spy Museum Historian Mark Stout as he talks with Brigadier General Roland Lajoie, a former chief of the US Military Liaison Mission, about the accomplishments, adventures, and tragedies of these little known spies in uniform.
5 Jan 201137min
A Young Woman on the Front Lines of the Cold War
Shirley Perry was recruited to join the CIA in 1951, a time when applications were handed out “under the counter” at the university job office, and when the CIA lived in rodent-infested temporary buildings on the National Mall. What was it like to be a young woman in the Agency at that time, and to be sent to Vienna—the front line of the Cold War—to support intelligence operations? Shirley Perry, former CIA case officer, reminisces with Peter about those early days and talks about her new memoir, After Many Years.
17 Dec 201025min
David Kahn on Codebreaking from Ancient Times to the Internet Era
David Kahn is the author of the classic book The Codebreakers. When it was first published in 1967, the National Security Agency was concerned that the book might reveal sensitive secrets. Over the years, however, NSA changed from perceiving Kahn as “an enemy of the people” to depending on him as a popularizer of codebreaking. Join Peter and David Kahn as they discuss Kahn’s career, some of the greatest triumphs of American signals intelligence history, and the challenges facing today’s codebreakers.
6 Dec 201022min
The Real History of MI6
Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, is James Bond’s home agency and one of the world’s most secretive organizations. The British government did not even admit that it existed until the 1990s. Yet, in connection with its centennial year, the service has commissioned an outside scholar to write an official history of its first forty years. Peter chats with Professor Keith Jeffery, the only outsider who has ever seen the MI6 archives and given their penchant for secrecy perhaps the only one who ever will in our lifetimes. Drawing on his new book, The Secret History of MI6, 1909-1949, Professor Jeffery shares “how it actually was and how it’s actually done.
1 Nov 201032min
Escape from Tehran, 1979: Part II
American diplomats Mark and Cora Lijek were hiding at the home of a Canadian diplomat as the Iranian Revolution swirled around them. Peter continues his discussion with the Lijeks and also welcomes Tony Mendez, the CIA officer who led the daring operation to bring them home. Hear how they escaped the country posing as Hollywood filmmakers and the joy they felt as they finally left Iranian airspace.
14 Okt 201026min
Escape from Tehran, 1979: Part I
When Iranian militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, Mark and Cora Lijek and four other American diplomats slipped out a side exit and found themselves on the run in a hostile country. Before long, Canadian diplomats gave them shelter but now they had to avoid discovery while Washington hatched an audacious plan to rescue them. The Lijeks discuss with Peter their ordeal and how they prepared to escape.
28 Sep 201027min
