SpyCast
SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum, is a journey into the shadows of international espionage. Each week, host Sasha Ingber brings you the latest insights and intriguing tales from spies, secret agents, and covert communicators, with a focus on how this secret world reaches us all in our everyday lives. Tune in to discover the critical role intelligence has played throughout history and today. Brought to you from Airwave, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum.
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Sexpionage
Since biblical times, spies and intelligence services have used sexual entrapment and emotional blackmail to recruit agents and gather secret information. International Spy Museum advisory board member and espionage author H. Keith Melton discusses the...
23 min
652
The Cambridge Five
In the 1930s, five young Cambridge University students were recruited by Soviet intelligence to penetrate the British intelligence community. In the course of their decade-long espionage career, the Five did enormous damage to Western security. British...
24 min
653
Cold War Radio
Richard H. Cummings served for fifteen years as Director of Security for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He reviews the propaganda activities of RFE/RL during the Cold War and describes Soviet bloc operations against the stations, including t...
26 min
654
Intelligence on Pakistan
"Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world today," asserts Bruce Riedel, a 30-year CIA veteran and currently a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Bruce discusses the various threats emanatin...
26 min
655
Intelligence in Cyberspace
Cyber threats, information warfare, and internet espionage are growing challenges for business companies, private individuals, and the intelligence community alike. A former CIA operations officer and current president of the cyber intelligence company...
25 min
656
Inside the National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA), America’s premier cryptanalytic organization, is the largest and most secretive member of the American intelligence community. Discussing NSA’s mission, capabilities, and past exploits, former NSA Chief of Informatio...
20 min
657
U.S. Military Intelligence—Past and Present
A West Point graduate, Brian G. Shellum was U.S. Army attaché in Germany, served in the armed forces during the first Gulf War, and worked for over a decade as historian for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Today, Brian discusses the history and ...
25 min
658
U.S. Naval Intelligence in World War II
Rear-Admiral Donald Mac Showers joined the U.S. Navy’s codebreakers at Pearl Harbor in 1942 and went on to serve three decades in the American intelligence community. Today, he talks about the contribution of codebreaking to the defeat of Japanese nava...
29 min
659
Intelligence and Conspiracy Theories II
During the Cold War, Soviet intelligence used disinformation to malign the United States, for example, by spreading the rumor that AIDS resulted from U.S. Army bacteriological warfare experiments. U.S. State Department Counter-Misinformation officer To...
29 min
660
Intelligence and Conspiracy Theories I
What makes conspiracy theories so appealing, and why have they become so prevalent in this day and age? Do some of them contain a grain of truth? And who stands to gain from spreading these ideas? To answer these questions, Peter interviews Professor R...
25 min
661
Intelligence Lessons from Vietnam
Working for the Saigon Military Mission and the CIA, Rufus Phillips spent ten years in South East Asia during the Vietnam War. Drawing on this experience, Rufus talks about psychological warfare and counter-insurgency tactics in Vietnam, and lessons fo...
25 min
662
Robert De Niro on Intelligence
Today, Peter chats with actor and film producer Robert De Niro. De Niro talks about his long-standing interest in the world of intelligence and discusses his latest espionage movie The Good Shepherd about the early history of the CIA. He also provides ...
16 min
663
U.S. Intelligence in Decline?
A senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, Melvin A. Goodman served many years as an analyst at the CIA and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. A critical observer of the intelligence community, he elaborates on his...
26 min
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The CIA and the End of the Cold War
As CIA station chief in Pakistan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Germany in the 1980s and early ‘90s, Milt Bearden observed—and influenced—the end of the Cold War from a unique vantage point. Today, he talks with Peter about U.S. support of Afghani mujahideen aga...
26 min
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Woman in Disguise - Jonna Mendez
Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a secretary and ended it as head of the agency’s Office of Technical Services, overseeing the development of gadgets, disguises, and high-tech devices in support of espionage missions. Today, she discusses ...
24 min
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Intelligence and the Presidential Elections II
Judge William H. Webster, the only person who directed both the FBI (1978-87) and the CIA (1987-91), taps into his vast expertise to discuss with Peter the guidance he would offer to the next U.S. president. In addition, he provides insight on the eve...
24 min
667
Inspecting the CIA
Peter’s guest today is Frederick Hitz, the CIA’s first inspector general subject to U.S. Senate Confirmation (1990-98) and now a lecturer on intelligence at the University of Virginia. In a wide-ranging discussion, Fred talks about intelligence oversig...
23 min
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Intelligence and the Presidential Elections I
A former station chief in Moscow and head of the CIA’s Soviet/East Europe division, Burton Gerber now lectures on intelligence and national security at Georgetown University. Today, Peter interviews him about the post 9/11 reforms of the intelligence c...
24 min
669
The Iranian Hostage Crisis
In November 1979, radical Iranian students overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran, capturing most of the embassy staff—except for six diplomats who found refuge with the Canadian embassy. Today, Peter talks with retired CIA officer Tony Mendez who, in an e...
28 min
670
Intelligence and the Presidency
How is information from the intelligence community (IC) conveyed to the president, and how have different administrations incorporated intelligence in the political decision-making process? John Hedley, former CIA officer and editor of the President’s ...
24 min
671
Gizmos and Gadgets—the World of Spycraft
Peter interviews Robert Wallace, director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services (OTS, the department in charge of “gadgetry”) from 1998 to 2002. Bob explains some of his favorite devices, such as the T-100 subminiature camera, and compares OTS’ per...
24 min
672
Predicting Terrorism
Peter’s guest today is Malcolm W. Nance. A 20 year veteran of the US intelligence community, Malcolm has participated in numerous counter-terrorism operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. The author of The Terrorist Recognit...
27 min
673
Congressional Perspectives on U.S. Intelligence
Peter’s guest today is former Democratic Congressman Louis Stokes from Ohio, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee in the 1980s and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s. Congressman Stokes discusses Congress’ role in oversee...
22 min
674
Comrade J and Russian Espionage in the U.S.
Today, Peter interviews espionage writer Pete Earley about one of the most senior Russian intelligence defectors ever, Col. Sergei Tretyakov or “Comrade J.” Pete reveals some of the secrets Tretyakov covertly betrayed to the FBI/CIA while serving as SV...
25 min
675
Intelligence and the WMD Fiasco - Part II
Looking further into the U.S. intelligence community’s faulty assessment of Iraq’s WMD program, Peter interviews Bob Drogin, author of Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Conman Who Caused a War. Bob reveals how fabricated information about Saddam’s WMD pro...
24 min