State Secrets

Welcome to the State Secrets Podcast brought to you by The Cipher Brief.  The State Secrets Podcast takes you inside the world of Intelligence and national security through conversations with experts who have spent careers working the toughest issues.  Some of the experts in our network have led organizations like the CIA and the NSA - some have held senior positions in the White House - Many are four-star generals, and others have spent their careers undercover, quietly working the issues from the ground level in the shadows of the limelight. Our guest today is Paul Kolbe.  Paul is the Director of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, before that, he worked in the private sector as the head of BP’s global intelligence and analysis team, but before that, Paul served for 25 years in the Central Intelligence Agency as an operations officer serving in Russia, the Balkans, Indonesia, East Germany, Zimbabwe and Austria. 

China’s Communist Party is deep into preparations for its 20th party Congress that begins October 16th in Beijing, where expert observers are expecting President Xi Jinping to be confirmed for an unprecedented third five-year term. Xi is also expected to announce his new leadership team that will execute on the party’s agenda.  And it’s safe to say that near or at the top of that Agenda is the issue of Taiwan. For context: When it comes to US policy, Washington’s official stance is that Taiwan is in fact, part of China and that if reunification occurs, it must be through a peaceful reunification.  Beijing, meanwhile, sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunified, and has not rule out use of force to do so.   Washington is bolstering Taiwanese defenses in the event that Beijing grows impatient and makes the strategic decision to reunify the island by force. So, diplomatically, the US recognizes one Chinese government yet Washington treats Taiwan like an independent nation when it comes to diplomatic engagement and military support.  That’s the reason why China took such offense to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taipei. Today’s guest agrees that the U.S.’ One China Policy presents a complicated engagement strategy.  How did we get here?  And what is the likelihood that the world’s two most powerful nations could come to blows over Taiwan? Ambassador Joe DeTrani has focued much of his career on China.  He is not only a former Special Envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea, he is also a former director of East Asia Operations at the CIA. In this episode, Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian sits down with Ambassador DeTrani to unpack the US’ One China Policy.

This week Suzanne talks with former CIA officer and author of new book Victor in the Trouble Alex Finley.  They talk about her career, her path to becoming an author and how she recenlty became an expert on oligarchs and yachts.

In this episode Suzanne catches up with Cipher Brief Expert and author Admiral James Stavridis (Ret) to talk about his new book- To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision.

Former Chief of Counterterrorist Operations Ric Prado spent the bulk of his CIA career undercover, taking on the hardest challenges the Agency had, from Nicaragua to Afghanistan. Now, the Cuban refugee shares the secrets of why he did it, and why he thinks it’s time to set the record straight.

Find out how CIA is thinking about Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Data Analytics in a conversation with Marie Falkowski, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation 

This week with all of the heaviness with what’s happening in Ukraine and a new world order taking shape, we wanted to give you a break from the stress of reality, and focus on fiction.  What we’re seeing today is something that no many of us could have written about a few months or even a few years ago.  And a failure of imagination comes with a price.  So I think you’re going to find my conversation with author Mark Greaney as interesting as I did.  Many of you already know Greaney as the author of the Gray Man series, and his latest book Sierra 6 is a well-written escape.  If you follow Mark you also know that he wrote several books under the Tom Clancy name.  In this episode we talked about what’s happening in Ukraine right now, what inspires him as an author and how continues to find the energy and discipline to write two books per year.   I’m your host Suzanne Kelly, and this is the State Secrets Podcast.  

In this episode Suzanne welcomes General Joseph L. Votel U.S. Army (Ret.) to the State Secrets podcast.  Votel is now the President & CEO of the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) organization.  This conversation covers General Votel's perspective on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis and alot more, including the most pressing issues BENS is focused on in partnerhip with the US Government.

In this episode Suzanne talks with Cipher Brief Expert and former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York Police Department Mitch Silber.  Mitch weighs in on how the recent hostage situation in Texas connects to New York City, and what he learned about protecting NYC during his time at the NYPD.  

Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Walter Pincus about his new book- Blown To Hell: America's Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders. 

In this episode Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with former CIA officer and author James Lawler about his new book Living Lies: A Novel of the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program.  Lawler spent more than half of his CIA career focused on WMD's and led the team that took down A.Q. Khan.  

What do Americans need to know about Chinese President Xi Jinping's comments during China's Centennial celebration?  Are we likely to see military conflict over Taiwan?  What are the risks of a miscalculation in today’s extremely fast moving world and should the U.S. be doing more to ensure we have better insight into China’s intentions?  For these questions and more we caught up with Ambassador Joe Detrani for an expert brief.  

In this episode we talk with Cipher Brief Expert and former Senior CIA officer and Chief of Station Dan Hoffman about the Russia Problem. From cyberattacks to the Black Sea, Russian provocations have led to heightened tensions in the US but is it just business as usual for Moscow?  Or are we seeing an increased willingness to provoke with a new administration in the White House? While working for the government, Dan racked up 30 years of distinguished government service including high-level positions not only within the CIA, but also with the U.S. military, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Commerce. His assignments included tours of duty in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and war zones in both the Middle East and South Asia.

We talk with the authors of a new report by the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative that looks at one of the largest and most significant cyber espionage campaigns in US' history.  

Suzanne talks with author and former intelligence officer Alma Katsu about her latest book, and her first spy novel 'Red Widow', a story about two female CIA officers working against a threat to CIA's Russia Division.  

In this episode with talk with former CIA Officer and Author Jack Devine about his new book 'Spymaster's Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression.  

In this episode we welcome Cipher Brief Expert and former Acting Director, CIA John McLaughlin to the show to talk about what really goes on in the Worldwide Threat Briefings to Congress. The briefings are set to resume this week after a hiatus under the Trump Administration.  

In this episode we catch up with General Breedlove to talk about the current state of play with Russia and Ukraine, some possible scenarios that could occur and what to watch for over the near term.  We also talk China-Russia and the U.S. relationship with our NATO allies.  

Kelly Bissell leads Accenture Security, where he oversees the full spectrum of security services including strategic consulting, cyber defense, digital identity, response and remediation services, and managed security services. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee.