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 Terrorists and Technology Levi West, Director of Terrorism Studies at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, returns to look at how terrorists leverage (or don’t) emerging apps and platforms ranging from social media, to encryption, to cryptocurrencies.
Guest Posts U.S. Objections to the Afghan Taliban: Ends, Ways, or Means? With reconciliation between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan Government being the goal, it is clear that the U.S. does not object to Afghan Taliban ends, but instead its ways and means.
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 Australian Approaches to Counterterrorism Levi West, the Director of Terrorism Studies at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, joins me for a wide ranging discussion on Australian counterterrorism programs.
Guest Posts Carlos In my office, visitors are surprised to see that I have a copy of one of my own books signed by Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as “Carlos the Jackal.”
Covert Contact Iran in the Age of Trump In episode 70 Phillip Smyth joins me for a quick look at how the change in U.S. leadership is impacting the balance of sectarian power and our policy toward Iran.
Covert Contact Egyptian, Muslim, American My friend Angie Gad joins me for episode 68 of Covert Contact to discuss growing up as a first generation Egyptian-American Muslim. We cover a lot of ground in this episode including her family's struggle to maintain and establish roots in two very different worlds
Covert Contact The Manchester Attack Regular contributor William J. Tucker joined me to examine the Manchester Attack about 24 hours after it occurred.
Iraq Ambassador Lukman Faily on Iraq's Future, the Travel Ban, and ISIS Lukman Faily served as Iraq’s ambassador to the United States for three years. He left that post, and the Iraqi Foreign Service, in 2016. A lot has transpired since our last chat and we plan to follow this short exchange with a more in depth discussion on Covert Contact soon.
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 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 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
Covert Contact A Look at Transnational Crime from a National Security Perspective Andrew Trabulsi, entrepreneur, consultant, and co-editor of Warlords, Inc.: Black Markets, Broken States, and the Rise of the Warlord Entrepreneur, joined me on episode 42 of Covert Contact to discuss the growing impact
Terrorism Ungoverned Spaces: What Threat do they Pose? Phil Walter has served in the military, the intelligence community, and the inter-agency. The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not contain information of an official nature. He
Covert Contact Are Ungoverned Spaces Inherently Dangerous? In episode 40 of the Covert Contact podcast Phil Walter joins me to discuss some of the concepts laid out in his recent post on Blogs of War about ungoverned spaces and how
Covert Contact Understanding the Limits of Intelligence and Counterterrorism In episode 31 of the Covert Contact podcast I’m joined by Patrick Skinner. Patrick is a former CIA case officer who specializes in counter-terrorism issues. Patrick’s background in both law enforcement
Covert Contact The San Bernardino Attack, Small Scale Terrorism, and ISIS The San Bernardino attack is an odd one in many ways but understanding it is critical as this model of small scale attacks, directed at soft targets, and using readily available weapons is going to be a persistent and growing threat.
Covert Contact What You Are Getting Wrong About ISIS Northeastern University professor and terrorism theorist Max Abrahms excels at poking holes in the conventional wisdom and he joins me again in episode 26 to do exactly that. I initially asked Max to
Covert Contact Discussing The Paris Attacks and Europe’s Security Challenges with William J. Tucker William J. Tucker joins me again for a high level look at the Paris attacks and the impact that instability, chiefly in Syria, will have on the region. Failing states and the mass
ISIS The Return of the Gold Dinar: What is ISIS Up To? ISIS is extremely proud of their latest video but, trust me, it’s a bit of a snorefest. But, to be fair, it’s also very different. The horrific violence they’re known
Covert Contact Why Terrorism Fails: A Discussion with Max Abrahms We know that terrorism succeeds at terrorizing its targets but does it help the groups behind it achieve their political goals? In this episode I’m joined by Northeastern University professor and terrorism
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
Covert Contact Counterterrorism Challenges: Pondering Seemingly Unsolvable Problems with Phillip Smyth The first Covert Contact interview features University of Maryland Laboratory for Computational Cultural Dynamics researcher Phillip Smyth. Phillip is also well known for his Hizballah Cavalcade project on Jihadology Phillip specializes in Shia
Covert Contact The Navy SEAL Who Killed Osama bin Laden and the Anonymous Heroes You'll Never Know In episode eight I look at the case of Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill and the culture that lures men and women like him out of the shadows and into a world of
