Covert Contact The Poisoning of Sergei Skripal Fred Burton joined me shortly after the attack on Sergei Skripal. We look at the many implications of this brazen attack, security issues surrounding it, and the need for a serious response.
Covert Contact Team Leadership & Ethics Dean Baratta reflects on leadership, lessons learned, team building, and the challenge of public service after serving as Chief of the Analysis Bureau at New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
Covert Contact The Jerry Chun Shing Lee Case Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former CIA case officer, is suspected by many to have compromised CIA activities in China but has only been charged with the less serious crime of unlawful retention of national defense information.
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.
Covert Contact Economic Espionage: No One Is Immune William J. Tucker, a regular contributor on counterintelligence and security topics for Blogs of War and Covert Contact, joins me for a deep dive on economic espionage.
Information Warfare Rise of the Politibots In June (which seems far more distant than it really is) I spent some time at Jigsaw (The Google-formed incubator focused on tackling tough global security issues) contibuting to critical discussions about bots.
Covert Contact The Crypto Wars: Update from the Australian Front Australian freelance journalist, commentator, and broadcaster Stilgherrian is back to discuss the battle over encryption and the seemingly irreconcilable differences between governments and privacy advocates.
Covert Contact From CIA Case Officer to Rookie Cop Former Air Marshall and CIA Case Officer Patrick Skinner has become a become a police officer in his community in an effort to drive change. We discuss the transition and what he is learning in episode 81.
Covert Contact Propaganda, Influence, and Disruption A look at recent developments in the social media component of the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election and what the evidence says about our ability (or inability) to identify and address modern propaganda.
Covert Contact Understanding and Developing Resilience To Information Warfare Dr. Clint Arizmendi, an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow for the Australian Graduate School of Policing & Security's Terrorism Studies program at Charles Sturt University, joins me to discuss information warfare in episode 75.
Covert Contact Deep State Conspiracies Alex Finley, a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, joined me to discuss the rise of deep state conspiracies that often feature a monolithic, highly partisan, intelligence community at their center.
Covert Contact Data, AI, and Ethics Entrepreneur Evanna Hu joins me to discuss our rapidly evolving relationship with data. The explosion of data streams and technologies that offload challenging analysis to machines are creating interesting national security challenges and opportunities at lightening speed.
Covert Contact Beyond Russia: Overlooked Counterintelligence Threats Russian intelligence presents a significant challenge for the United States but it is far from the only threat. There are dozens of nations and non-state actors actively collecting against us at any given time.
Covert Contact Intelligence Analysis: Feedback, Bias, and Other Challenges In this episode we discuss bias and how it can impact both the production and consumption of intelligence products.
Covert Contact Counterintelligence in the Trump Era William J. Tucker, regular contributor on counterintelligence topics for Blogs of War and Covert Contact, joins me to discuss the unprecedented challenge the Trump presidency poses to both U.S. counterintelligence and the intelligence community as whole.
Covert Contact Russia, Trump, and Hillary: What a Debate In episode 62 I look at what may have been the most bizarre presidential debate in U.S. history. Covert Contact regular William J. Tucker joins me later in the show to discuss
Covert Contact Inside the President’s Daily Brief with David Priess Dr. David Priess delivered the Presidents Daily Brief during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and has produced the definitive history on the subject with The President’s Book of Secrets:
Covert Contact The Nice, France Attack: How Can Counterterrorism Evolve with the Threat In episode 54 I’m joined again by Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group. Patrick is a former CIA case officer, with a background in federal law enforcement, who
Covert Contact Building an Intel Shop from the Ground Up In episode 53 of the Covert Contact podcast Dean Baratta, Chief of the Analysis Bureau at New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, joins me to discuss how he and his
Covert Contact The Orlando Shooting and Our Struggle to Make Sense of the Senseless In episode 51 I’m joined once again by Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group. Patrick is a former CIA Case Officer, with a background in federal law enforcement,
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
Covert Contact Developing and Leveraging Strategic Foresight I was recently in Washington D.C. and one of the highlights of the trip was meeting Dr. Mathew Burrows. Dr. Burrows is the Director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Atlantic
Covert Contact Intelligence at the State and Local Level I attended a domestic terrorism conference hosted by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness in May and came away very impressed with how they’re approaching the business of intelligence.
Covert Contact Cutting Through the Hybrid Warfare Hype The conflict in Ukraine sparked a huge surge in interest in hybrid warfare. Phil Walter joins me in this episode to look at the less helpful aspects of that surge, discuss why the
Covert Contact How Will ISIS Evolve and How Will Our Response Evolve with Them? In episode 45 I’m joined again by Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group. Patrick is a former CIA Case Officer, with a background in federal law enforcement, who