Douglas London: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence

Douglas London is a retired senior CIA operations officer and the author of the new book The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence.  

Doug served as a U.S. Marine before joining the Central Intelligence Agency in 1984 where he worked for 34 years - 17 years on either side of 9/11.  His job was the clandestine collection of HUMINT - intelligence that comes from people who provide secrets valuable to the United States.  By virtue of recruiting spies for an equal number of years on either side of 11 September 2001, Doug offers a unique perspective on the Agency pre and post that seminal date in history.   

He served in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Africa including three assignments as a chief of station, the president’s senior advisor at post, and chief of base in a conflict zone.  Assignments at CIA Headquarters included executive positions at the Agency’s Counterterrorism Center, Information Operations Center, and Near East and South Asia Division.  He is the recipient of the CIA’s Career Intelligence Medal.   

Today, Doug is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies, and is a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute.   On this episode of Danger Close, Doug discusses the state of modern intelligence, failures of the intelligence community, a lack of accountability prevalent in the post-9/11 CIA, and a lot more.   

You can follow him on Twitter @douglaslondon5 and you can follow Jack on social platforms  @jackcarrusa. 

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