Books - Blogs of War

Chinese Spies in US Law Enforcement - And Everywhere Else

The regular counterintelligence chat with William Tucker is a day late but full of new Chinese espionage activity in the NYPD, the EU, and beyond. We also touch on intelligence history and why literature from the Middle Ages or beyond is not only fascinating but still relevant.

Covert Contact

Bullets of Palestine

Author Howard Kaplan returns to Covert Contact to discuss Bullets of Palestine (the second novel in his Jerusalem Spy Series), chronic tensions in the Middle East, the prospect for reconciliation, Abu Nidal, and his approach to writing.

Books

Blogs of War in a Foodie's Guide to NYC?

Just more proof that my work ends up in the strangest places. In this case, a foodies guide to NYC – Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. All credit to Anthony Bourdain on this one. I just get an assist.

Diplomacy

Book Excerpt: The Embassy: A Story of War and Diplomacy

The Embassy is a graphic, cinematic retelling of the harrowing climax of the Liberian civil war and the U.S. and West African role in ending it. Through interviews with the Ambassador and key members of the country team, as well as with peacekeepers, U.S. troops, relief workers, foreign

Covert Contact

Victor in The Rubble: Tackling Intelligence Community Bureaucracy Through Satire

Former CIA Reports Officer Alex Finley joins me in episode 50 to discuss her first novel and the business of intelligence. Victor in the Rubble is a satirical look at the CIA and the War on Terror. The book is insanely funny, and worth reading for the entertainment value alone,

Books

Marie von Clausewitz: A Biography of a Wider Experience

Jill S. Russell is a military historian whose interests lie in contemporary security affairs. She has recently submitted her doctoral dissertation on logistics, subsistence and American strategic culture. She has worked as a defence consultant and in the American professional military education system. You can find her writing at Strife

Covert Contact

The Damascus Cover and the Psychology of Spies with Howard Kaplan

Howard Kaplan wrote his debut espionage novel, The Damascus Cover, nearly forty years ago. He joins me to discuss the book, the recently completed the film adaptation staring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sir John Hurt, his own experience serving as a courier for Israeli intelligence in the Soviet Union (where

Terrorism

All Filler, No Killer: Robert Baer's "The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins"

Theodore W. Weaver is a former Intelligence Officer within the CIA’s National Clandestine Service and the Directorate of Science and Technology. He has close to a decade working as a Special Agent with several Federal agencies and has worked against counter proliferation, human trafficking/smuggling, child exploitation, Intellectual Property

Books

Excerpt: Before the First Shots Are Fired by General Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz

General Tony Zinni (retired) was commander-in-chief of CENTCOM and special envoy to the Middle East before retiring as a four-star general. He has appeared on The Daily Show and Meet the Press, among others. He is the author of The Battle for Peace and Leading the Charge. He lives in

Books

An Excerpt from Linda Robinson's One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare

Linda Robinson is a senior international policy analyst at RAND. She has been an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center. Her book about the U.S. Army Special Forces, Masters of Chaos, was a New York Times bestseller; her

Books

Excerpts from Wife and War: The Memoir

Amalie Flynn is an American writer and the author of two blogs: Wife and War and September Eleventh. Flynn’s Wife and War poetry has appeared in The New York Times at War and in IME’S Battleland, has appeared in her blog for The Huffington Post, and has received