Christine Abizaid, who has served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) for the past three years, sits down with State Secrets Podcast host Suzanne Kelly to talk about how the threat of terrorism has changed dramatically over the years and why the threat to Americans is still very real.

In this sponsored episode of the State Secrets podcast, host Suzanne Kelly talks with Sujit Raman, Chief Legal Officer at TRM Labs about how the private sector is working with government to address some of today’s most pressing national security challenges and how professionals like Raman, who also served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, are helping bridge gaps between government and the private sector.

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.) Former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe, talks to State Secrets host Suzanne Kelly about this week’s NATO Summit in Washington DC, what Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky wants, what Europe needs to ensure its own future security and why Hodges thinks that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s greatest weapon is his ability to scare the west when it comes to taking more aggressive action to win the war in Ukraine.  

Chip Usher, a former CIA executive, discusses the intersection of technology and intelligence in a bipartisan project. Topics include leveraging AI in intel operations, utilizing commercial data for national security, and navigating tech urgency amidst global competition.

In this episode of the State Secrets podcast, we’re talking with Cipher Brief Expert, Nick Fishwick, a former senior member of the British Foreign Office, about his column in The Cipher Brief titled, “The Lights are Going Out all over Europe”.  Fishwick is talking about Europe’s relationship with Russia as it considers the possibility of war after Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  The decline of the relationship between Moscow and western governments which, until recently, still cooperated on issues ranging from counterterrorism to athletic competitions, is leading many in Europe to face the reality that war in Europe may be closer than they think. 

In this episode of State Secrets, we’re talking with Cipher Brief Expert, retired General Frank McKenzie. General McKenzie served for forty-two years in the U.S. military as a Marine and retired as the fourteenth commander of U.S. Central Command.  He also served as Director of the Joint Staff.  Perhaps one of the missions he is best known for was overseeing the targeted drone assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January of 2020.  It was a strong and clear U.S. response to the planning and executions of operations that killed Americans.  Operations in which Soleimani, a popular Iranian general, had played a key role. The photo that’s on the cover of McKenzie’s new book, The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century sums up the grit that he brought to every role he had.  The picture was taken at the Kabul airport in August of 2021, just one day after U.S. troops fought back a breach at the airfield’s southern perimeter and the stories he shares in the book are a true insiders look at some of the most controversial military operations of our time. Here's my State Secrets conversation with retired General and author, Frank McKenzie.

Former Senior CIA Officer Ed Bogan spent a decades-long career at CIA focused on the most urgent issues of our time ranging from counterterrorism to Russia in Ukraine.  In this episode of State Secrets, Bogan shares his journey from law school to joining the CIA and his experiences in counterterrorism and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  He emphasizes the importance of addressing the underlying causes of terrorism and the need to counter Russian disinformation.  Bogan’s mission now – with a new 501c(3) – is focused on studying how leader’s use and misuse ‘states of emergency’ and the need for informed decision-making and action.

“Havana Syndrome” - reported by hundreds of U.S. officials, diplomats, CIA Officers, FBI Agents and White House staff - as well as some members of their families – is described as including severe headaches accompanied by loss of balance and often followed by cognitive issues. Some doctors have concluded that the likely source is a directed energy weapon that uses microwave or ultrasound waves to attack the brain and inner ear. In this episode, Cipher Brief Managing Editor Tom Nagorski talks with Christo Grozev, a journalist who served as a lead investigator on Havana Syndrome for a publication called The Insider and Insider Editor Michael Weiss as well as former senior CIA officer and Cipher Brief Expert Marc Polymeropoulos, who says that he himself was struck during a visit to Moscow. Grozev and Weiss also share the findings of their recent investigation conducted in cooperation with 60 Minutes and the German news magazine Der Spiegel that indicates who is behind Havana Syndrome, saying they have uncovered evidence that members of a special Russian military intelligence unit may be to blame. The revelations of their investigation have called into question findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that found – in their own investigations - that the “Anomalous Health Incidents” as they call them - are not the result of a coordinated effort by Russia or anyone else. Full reports of the government’s findings can be found online.  This podcast focuses on another side of this continuing story. 

The Cipher Brief made its first reporting trip to Ukraine in February of 2022.  That’s when we first met Tymofiy Mylovanov, the President of the Kyiv School of Economics. When we sat down with him then, Ukraine was preparing to mark one year since Russia’s brutal invasion. Mylovanov was sober at the time about what it would take to win the war and rebuild the country.  Just over a year later, with an aid package that has been held up for months in Washington - I sat down with him again to talk about what it will take to rebuild Ukraine even as the war rages on - and why he still has hope even amid the challenges – for what lies ahead. 

Dave Pitts was the CIA’s last man on the ground in Afghanistan as U.S. troops pulled out of the country in 2021. Even though he began his career as a humble private in the U.S. military, he quickly moved into special operations and eventually, to the CIA where he retired last October as the Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia.  In his first podcast interview, Dave talks with State Secrets Podcast host Suzanne Kelly about how much the world has changed since his early days of fighting terrorism in the military and why it’s more important than ever for the U.S. to be leading in today’s world.