State Secrets

Find out how CIA is thinking about Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Data Analytics in a conversation with Marie Falkowski, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation 

This week with all of the heaviness with what’s happening in Ukraine and a new world order taking shape, we wanted to give you a break from the stress of reality, and focus on fiction.  What we’re seeing today is something that no many of us could have written about a few months or even a few years ago.  And a failure of imagination comes with a price.  So I think you’re going to find my conversation with author Mark Greaney as interesting as I did.  Many of you already know Greaney as the author of the Gray Man series, and his latest book Sierra 6 is a well-written escape.  If you follow Mark you also know that he wrote several books under the Tom Clancy name.  In this episode we talked about what’s happening in Ukraine right now, what inspires him as an author and how continues to find the energy and discipline to write two books per year.   I’m your host Suzanne Kelly, and this is the State Secrets Podcast.  

In this episode Suzanne welcomes General Joseph L. Votel U.S. Army (Ret.) to the State Secrets podcast.  Votel is now the President & CEO of the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) organization.  This conversation covers General Votel's perspective on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis and alot more, including the most pressing issues BENS is focused on in partnerhip with the US Government.

In this episode Suzanne talks with Cipher Brief Expert and former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York Police Department Mitch Silber.  Mitch weighs in on how the recent hostage situation in Texas connects to New York City, and what he learned about protecting NYC during his time at the NYPD.  

Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Walter Pincus about his new book- Blown To Hell: America's Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders. 

In this episode Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with former CIA officer and author James Lawler about his new book Living Lies: A Novel of the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program.  Lawler spent more than half of his CIA career focused on WMD's and led the team that took down A.Q. Khan.  

What do Americans need to know about Chinese President Xi Jinping's comments during China's Centennial celebration?  Are we likely to see military conflict over Taiwan?  What are the risks of a miscalculation in today’s extremely fast moving world and should the U.S. be doing more to ensure we have better insight into China’s intentions?  For these questions and more we caught up with Ambassador Joe Detrani for an expert brief.  

In this episode we talk with Cipher Brief Expert and former Senior CIA officer and Chief of Station Dan Hoffman about the Russia Problem. From cyberattacks to the Black Sea, Russian provocations have led to heightened tensions in the US but is it just business as usual for Moscow?  Or are we seeing an increased willingness to provoke with a new administration in the White House? While working for the government, Dan racked up 30 years of distinguished government service including high-level positions not only within the CIA, but also with the U.S. military, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Commerce. His assignments included tours of duty in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and war zones in both the Middle East and South Asia.

We talk with the authors of a new report by the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative that looks at one of the largest and most significant cyber espionage campaigns in US' history.