State Secrets

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.  

Suzanne talks with author and former intelligence officer Alma Katsu about her latest book, and her first spy novel 'Red Widow', a story about two female CIA officers working against a threat to CIA's Russia Division.  

In this episode with talk with former CIA Officer and Author Jack Devine about his new book 'Spymaster's Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression.  

In this episode we welcome Cipher Brief Expert and former Acting Director, CIA John McLaughlin to the show to talk about what really goes on in the Worldwide Threat Briefings to Congress. The briefings are set to resume this week after a hiatus under the Trump Administration.  

In this episode we catch up with General Breedlove to talk about the current state of play with Russia and Ukraine, some possible scenarios that could occur and what to watch for over the near term.  We also talk China-Russia and the U.S. relationship with our NATO allies.  

Kelly Bissell leads Accenture Security, where he oversees the full spectrum of security services including strategic consulting, cyber defense, digital identity, response and remediation services, and managed security services. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee.