SpyTalk

National Security lawyer Mark Zaid discusses Trump's stunning selection as Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General and what it might mean for his plans to target "corrupt actors" in U.S. intelligence and national security agencies who crossed him in the Russia probe.Mark Zaidhttps://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

New Yorker staff writer Charles Bethea joins Jeff Stein to discuss his startling reportage on thousands of Americans preparing for a civil war or other countrywide disasters. Charles Betheahttps://www.newyorker.com/contributors/charles-bethea  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Rep, Jamie Raskin tells SpyTalk why he wants DOJ to investigate whether Trump's son in law is serving as an unregistered agent of the Saudi government  due to the $2 billion he's gotten from the Saudi wealth fund, as well as another newly discovered $87 million in "management fees."  The feisty Maryland progressive also discusses his thoughts on the election and whether Trump is even eligible to serve as president under the 14th amendment. Jamie Raskin | TwitterOctober 24, 2024 The Honorable Merrick Garland Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Extremism tracker Clara Broekaert talks about political violence in the lead-up to the 2024 election and what conditions have made violent political rhetoric possible.Clara BroekaertClara Anna-Christine (@ClaraBroekaert) / XClara Broekaert - The Soufan GroupUS Crisis Monitor - ACLEDhttps://acleddata.com/us-crisis-monitor/#map Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

As president, Trump was known for his "bromance" with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, holding two summits in Singapore and Hanoi and engaging in a "love letter" correspondence with him that he took with him to Mar-A-Lago after he left office. But before that, journalist Zach Dorfman reminds us, Trump came perilously close to unleashing a nuclear strike on the country--an attack that, then Secretary of Defense feared, would "incinerate a couple of million people." In a SpyTalk podcast, Dorfman also talks about how, under Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign on the country, the Pentagon and CIA updated ambitious-- and somewhat quixotic-- plans for regime change. Which Trump will guide U.S. policy should he return to the Oval Office: The peacenik who tried to engage Kim in diplomacy or the MAGA warrior who once threatened North Korea "with fire and fury" unlike the world has ever seen? As Dorfman points out, it's a pressing question given that, with North Korea's accelerated missile tests and a growing alliance with Vladimir Putin's Russia, including sending equipment and troops to Ukraine, some scholars believe the threat of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula is greater than it has been in years.  Zach Dorfmanhttps://twitter.com/zachsdorfmanInside the Trump Admin’s Secret Battle Plans for North Koreahttps://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-north-korea-secret-battle-plans-nuclear-war-1235132893/  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

The filmed game’s organizer Janessa Goldbeck joins host Jeff Stein to discuss the jarring results of the all-too-real exercise .Janessa Goldbeckhttps://twitter.com/jgoldbeckVetVoice Foundationhttps://vvfnd.org/War Gamehttps://wargamefilm.com/ Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Former FBI analyst and Hezbollah expert Matt Levitt says an attack on Iranian intelligence facilities - rather than nuclear sites- may be coming.Matthew Levitthttps://x.com/levitt_mattHezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of Godhttps://a.co/d/9Ln5srY  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Can a good spy become a good politician? I mean, not as an undercover agent—spy agencies are pretty good at that—but in an overt way, in, say, the messy US Congress.Or, put another way, can the skills that a CIA officer employs in clandestine operations—gregariousness, empathy and, let’s face it, a learned talent for manipulating people, be put to good use in a place like a deeply polarized Congress?This week I’m putting those questions to Abigail Spanberger, a former member of the CIA’s clandestine service, who in 2018 won a seat in Congress from Virginia as a Democrat, breaking, by the way, a nearly 40-year long Republican chokehold on a sprawling district in the near and far suburbs Washington, DC.  Since then Spanberger has developed a strong reputation for working across the aisle with Republicans on bills that help constituents. And now she’s running for governor of Virginia with no primary opposition.  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Top cyberwar expert and former Trump White House Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert tells host Michel Isikoff that Israel’s deadly exploding pagers op was a “brilliant” tactic that Hezbollah's terrorists deserved.Tom Bosserthttps://twitter.com/tombossertTrinity Cyberhttps://www.trinitycyber.com/  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Sam Goodwin tells us about his harrowing ordeal as a prisoner in one of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's torture chambers. It is an extraordinary story of a young American from St. Louis who embarked on a personal adventure to visit every country in the planet only to be ensnared when he made it into Syria by Assad's security forces, who threw him into one of their most notorious prisons as a suspected CIA spy. His account, told in his new book called Saving Sam, the true story of an American's disappearance in Syria and his family's extraordinary fight to bring him home, is a reminder of the still ongoing atrocities in Syria's 13 year long civil war.More from Sam Goodwin:https://www.samrgoodwin.com/https://www.samrgoodwin.com/book/ Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Over a period of roughly 14 years, according to the feds, Linda Sun rose through the ranks to become deputy chief of staff to Governor Hochul, before she was fired for unspecified reasons and became a target of federal investigators. But according to the DoJ, the 41-year-old was secretly using her position to advance Chinese political and business interests and steal relevant documents. In return, the feds say, Beijing’s spy service showered the couple with millions of dollars that afforded them lavish homes, a Ferrari Roma sports car, and—people had fun with this—special salted duck dishes prepared by a Chinese Embassy chef. In court on Tuesday the couple entered not guilty pleas to charges of acting as unregistered foreign agents.One person who is absolutely not surprised by all this is Nicholas Eftimiades who became a leading expert on Chinese espionage over his 34-year government career, which included work for the CIA, the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and as a Senior Intelligence Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Today he teaches at Penn State and is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also the author of “Chinese Intelligence Operations,” which will soon be reissued with an update. China’s MSS spy agency, of course, couldn’t care less about which party, or level of US government, it infiltrates. Its goal is to weaken the United States by any means necessary.Nick Eftimiadeshttps://twitter.com/neftimiadeshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/eftimiades/ Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

John Sullivan, the former U.S. ambassador to Moscow under Presidents Trump and Biden, worries that the Ukraine war could go on for "decades" and offers some candid views on his dealings with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Washington Post investigative reporter Craig Whitlock, author of “The Afghanistan Papers,” is Jeff Stein’s guest on the sad anniversary of the chaotic retreat. Craig WitlockCraig Whitlock - The Washington Post Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

SOMEWHERE IN THE REMOTE MOUNTAINS of Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan, a shadowy, 29-year-old veteran of the Afghan Army is believed to be holed up, keenly conscious that the U.S. government has placed a $10 million bounty on his head.Read Michael Isikoff’s piece for the SpyTalk Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/p/another-911-style-attack-in-the-works?Colin P. Clarke - The Soufan Grouphttps://x.com/colinpclarkeFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

This week, we’re going to take a look at the shock and disorientation the children of spies face when they learn that one, or both, of their parents are not who they say they are.Jeff’s guest, Johanna McCloy, didn’t know she was the daughter of an American spy until she was 15 years old.Johanna McCloyhttps://johannamccloy.substack.com/  Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

The Pentagon’s stunning plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants was negotiated and announced without briefings for the families of victims of the terrorist attack–an apparent failure that drew a furious reaction Thursday from a leading 9/11 victims’ group.Brett Eagleson https://www.911justice.org/Follow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoffFind Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Veteran CIA ops officer Jim Lawler talks about the tricks of the trade with host Jeff Stein.Jim Lawlerhttps://www.spyex.com/expert/james-lawlerhttps://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09FMVF622 Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Former DHS Intel Chief John Cohen on the Butler, Pa. fiasco with guest host MichaelIsikoff.Michael Isikoff on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/Isikoff Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

“Mafia Spies” is based on a 2019 book by the same name by veteran investigative reporter Thomas Maier, with the subtitle, “The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro.” Which in turn was based largely on declassified files relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The TV series includes dramatic recreations of critical moments in the plots, lively, insightful commentary with longstanding experts on Cuba, Castro and the Kennedys, as well as on-camera interviews with a few, still living relatives and associates of the key gangsters in the conspiracies, Johnny Rosselli and Sam Giancana. The series sheds new light on the grisly demise of Giancana and Rosselli before they were able to spill all the beans about the demonic—and sometimes comic failures—of the Castro assassination efforts.Thomas MaierMafia Spies - Watch on Paramount PlusFollow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/ Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Reuters reporter Aram Roston with Jeff Stein on the Proud Boys resurgence.Aram Rostonhttps://twitter.com/aramrostonhttps://www.reuters.com/authors/aram-roston/ Follow Jeff Stein on Twitter:https://twitter.com/SpyTalkerFollow Michael Isikoff on Twitter:https://twitter.com/isikoff Follow SpyTalk on Twitter:https://twitter.com/talk_spySubscribe to SpyTalk on Substackhttps://www.spytalk.co/Take our listener survey where you can give us feedback.http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short