Mission Implausible

The former Royal Navy officer, war correspondent for the Telegraph and the Sunday Times, and author of the Orwell Prize-winning Dead Men Risen and First Casualty — joins to discuss his new book, his covering of Northern Ireland, and the recent history of America’s time in Afghanistan.Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The author of The United States of Paranoia and the editor of Reason sees the enemies within, outside, above and below. The true believers and the manipulators. Every religion and political affiliation in American is uniquely credulous. But maybe there’s good reason to be.Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Former Science of Identity Foundation insider Rebecca Saltzburg, a source for the Washington Post's investigation into Tulsi Gabbard, goes deeper into how its guru Chris Butler shaped Gabbard's political career. Then, as Director of National Intelligence, who was she working for? Why was the deal with her and Syria, China and Russia?Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Rebecca Saltzburg spent years living with Tulsi Gabbard’s family, inside the Science of Identity Foundation, and in the inner circle of Chris Butler, the leader of its Hawaiian sect, of which Tulsi and her parents were long-time members. Years after leaving, Saltzburg took here archives - emails, encrypted memoranda, internal communications - and gave more than 25,000 pages to the Washington Post, which published its investigation in June 2026 — days after Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence. But Saltzburg has more to say that didn’t make it into The Washington Post. The big questions: Who really wanted Tulsi to be DNI? What was their agenda? And how could she take that post without being able to pass a security clearance?Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

In March 1944, three American OSS officers parachuted into Hungary on a mission to be taken prisoner. A story that was classified for decades, the team — a Dartmouth graduate, a World War I fighter pilot and a former New York Giants lineman who became an advertising executive — planned to get caught, tortured by The Gestapo, and “confess” to an Allied invasion that was a complete fiction. The OSS (the precursor to the CIA) knew what Hitler wanted to hear and how he’d react. This is what it looks like when an actual conspiracy of deception works.Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod