SpyCast

You may have heard of the long-running TV show NCIS, based on the real work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. But you may never have heard of a unit inside it, called the Office of Special Projects, where staff work on espionage cases that originate inside the U.S. Navy. Case agent Mike Garzon has worked in the office for four years. He sits down with Sasha to talk about a case that clo...

It's November of 1983, the closest the world came to nuclear war, some may argue even closer than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Yet the Able Archer 1983 exercise incident is relatively unknown by comparison. A series of events that started with the Soviet shootdown of a Korean Air Lines plane, ended with not one but two almosts, when it came to accidental nuclear war. This included a simulated...

Since its emergence in 2014, the Wagner Group operated as the Kremlin's shadow army, deploying mercenaries across Africa and the Middle East. It gave Vladimir Putin plausible deniability, expanding Moscow's geopolitical influence by propping up leaders through military assistance and securing Moscow's economic interests through weapons deals and access to natural resources. UN experts and human ri...

The FBI won’t discuss exactly how Chinese spy Xu Yanjun came to the attention of special agents. Xu was handling a GE Aviation engineer in Ohio who specialized in composite fan-blade technology. That engineer, David Zheng, had been approached by an official from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, on LinkedIn with a request to give a presentation. So Zheng ended up traveling from h...

Now that drug cartels can be labeled foreign terrorist organizations, how do you dismantle one? As part of his 26 years at the Drug Enforcement Administration, retired Special Agent Chris Feistl was on a team that brought the demise of the Cali Cartel in Colombia. One of the world’s biggest crime syndicates, the cartel earned billions each year. From selling marijuana in the 1970s, to harder drugs...

"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone." This is the end of the announcement Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight David Eisenhower had prepared in June 1944 in case the D-Day landings failed. He never had to deliver it, but the fact that he wrote it tells you all you need to know about how precarious the success of the invasion really was. And at the center of that unc...

Karen Schaefer retired from the CIA in 2019, after 26 years of service. She started out in Latin America and ended with a stint at the FBI. In between, she earned numerous intelligence awards and held key positions that spanned operational, supervisory, and policy roles. Her many job titles included Chief of Base in Iraq and Director of Intelligence Programs in the White House's National Security...

In 1947, a new civilian intelligence agency was established: the CIA. But a series of intelligence failures undermined its credibility. The White House and Congress were up in arms, and a new mission was formed- to recruit Ivy League professors with uncanny skills. Leaving their so-called Ivory Tower, the academics brought new ways of thinking about national security to the CIA, helping the United...

It’s 1864, and against the backdrop of the US Civil War- a war the Confederacy is losing- a group of spies and saboteurs have set up a base in Montreal, Canada. Today we would call this a sanctuary or a safe haven. Canada would become home to several infamous Confederate missions, some of which are detailed in Tim Wendel's novel Rebel Falls. While this book is fictional, it's grounded in several r...

In 2009, Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his Army post in eastern Afghanistan, only to be abducted and held hostage until 2014. He was captured by the Taliban and then handed to the Haqqani network, an aligned terrorist group. US officials said they kept Bergdahl locked in a metal cage in total darkness after he tried to escape. By 2012, the US government was turning to Tony Shaffer for help. The r...

One of the more notorious German spies of the 20th century, Lothar Witzke lived a life of intrigue: from escaping the death penalty in the First World War to joining the Nazi party in the Second. It's a story that Robert Hornick and Paul Friedland stumbled on by chance. With help from Witzke's grandchildren and by digging through archives, these lawyers pieced together Witzke's story, sifting fact...

It’s a story that journalist and veteran Stephen Harding uncovered: a secret component of the FBI’s “European Operation,” whereby agents traveled abroad working undercover to track down American citizens who had betrayed their country during World War II. These traitors ran the gamut, from spreading propaganda for the Fascists and the Third Reich, to starting Nazi spy rings. What became of them is...

Confusion and controversy are growing around the intelligence community’s handling of Havana Syndrome. This is what the government refers to as Anomalous Health Incidents, or AHIs. The mysterious health condition has left a group of American spies, diplomats, and service members with serious brain injuries. Many believe Russia’s hand is at play. But an intelligence community assessment from 2023 s...

He may dress like he’s on a vacation in Hawaii, but Palmer Luckey has been busy designing weapons for the Pentagon. He founded California-based defense technology firm, Anduril, in 2017, named after a sword from the Lord of the Rings and, according to Palmer, is 20% veteran owned. He is promising a marked shift: faster, cheaper, and more agile systems to fight the wars of today and tomorrow. This...

Half-truths. Lies. Distrust. And spying. These were part and parcel of the tenuous relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - the “Big Three” who were eventually brought together by their opposition to Adolf Hitler during World War II. From London, British historian Tim Bouverie lays out the complicated dynamics of this coalition. His new book, Allies at War...

Jonna Mendez knows how to blend in and when to stand out. Starting out as a secretary at the CIA, she left as its Chief of Disguise. Her career took her into denied areas, where her special abilities assisted in a variety of high stakes operations - collecting on the adversary, recruiting and exfiltrating agents, and staying on the cutting edge of technology. She sits down with Sasha to discuss st...

In the 1960s, the CIA lost a plutonium-fueled generator on top of a mountain in India. The generator was supposed to power an unmanned listening station, intended to pick up signals from China’s missile tests. But when mountaineers ascended the near 26,000-ft Nanda Devi – under the guise of studying the environment – weather got in their way. They left the nuclear device behind and months later, w...

When you’re sitting alone, and you want company or advice, have you ever turned to Artificial Intelligence? Chip Usher, who spent 32 years in the CIA, has been looking at AI companions. The tech companies behind them claim they offer comfort and reliability. Chip says they mostly come from China, and eventually they will be used to collect personal data on users, building a roadmap for recruiting...

Children grew up reading Roald Dahl’s tales of giant peaches and chocolate factories. Adults know about the controversy surrounding the antisemitic statements he made in his later years. But before becoming one of the most successful children’s authors of all time, Dahl worked for MI6, seducing Washington socialites and cozying up to the First Family. He did this to gather intelligence and exert i...

Katrina Leung, code name Parlor Maid, received nearly two million dollars from the FBI for being their top China informant. But little did the Bureau know… she was a double agent, collecting intelligence for China’s Ministry of State Security. Not only that, she was also sleeping with her FBI handler, James J. Smith (J.J.). For nearly two decades, J.J. covered up reports that raised red flags abou...

Before Delta Force captured Nicolás Maduro, Bryan Stern went on a secret mission in Venezuela. The veteran and Purple Heart recipient was there to extract opposition leader María Corina Machado, who had been living in hiding for her own safety. Bryan was trying to get María to Oslo to accept her Nobel Peace Prize. This daring operation – named Operation Golden Dynamite after Alfred Nobel, the inve...

A 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina opened the world’s eyes to Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America. But the Iranian proxy, a US-designated terrorist group, has operated in the region since the 1980s. This started in the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, earning the nickname "the United Nations of crime." The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has said He...

As an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who later embedded with the CIA, Wes Tabor worked to dismantle criminal networks in Central and South America - think gangs like MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Tren de Aragua. In 2006, he was stationed in Guatemala, a transit corridor for South American cocaine to enter the US. It was during this time that he created a gang intelligence sy...

This January marks the anniversary of the conclusion of Operation Just Cause, which began days before Christmas, on December 20th, 1989, when about 27,000 US troops deployed to Panama. Their mission was to capture Panama’s notorious dictator, General Manuel Noriega, whom the US had indicted for drug trafficking. Noriega had also been suppressing unarmed demonstrators, gathering intelligence on the...

When The Night Manager aired in 2016, it was an instant success. Based on the 1993 John le Carré novel of the same name, the series centered on former British soldier Jonathan Pine. In the show, Pine is recruited by MI6 to infiltrate the secret network of a notorious arms dealer. Ten years later, the series returns, despite the fact le Carré never wrote a sequel before he died. Georgi Banks-Davies...