Secrets and Spies Podcast: Current Affairs | Geopolitics | Intelligence

On this episode of Secrets & Spies, we are joined by former CIA officer and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist Frank Snepp. Frank was a CIA officer who served in the Vietnam war and he was there at the fall of Saigon, so in light of the recent events in Afghanistan we take a look at the similarity and differences between the fall of Saigon and Kabul. We also discuss the intelligence picture that led up to the chaotic scenes we have witnessed as US and NATO forces attempt to evacuate personnel and Afghan allies from Afghanistan. Frank has asked me to add this about the fall of Saigon: "Because of US Ambassador Graham Martin’s reluctance to accelerate departures and risk upsetting the “controlled conditions he thought were needed for a diplomatic solution to the military crisis, the pullout from Saigon devolved into every man and woman for themselves.  Every agency battled for seat space on outgoing aircraft, violating the quotas assigned to each one. Vietnamese girlfriends and maids were often shoehorned into evacuee lists ahead of Vietnamese who had loyally at great hazard worked with US agencies in sensitive positions.  On the last day of the war there was no master list in the embassy of the Vietnamese at highest risk and most deserving of being flown to safety.  As Snepp points out in his memoir of these events, Decent Interval, nearly 52,000 people were lifted out of Vietnam in the month of April 1975 on American military aircraft – 6,763 Americans and roughly 46,000 Vietnamese and other third-party personnel. Counting people who departed by commercial carriers, undocumented black flights and the 6,000 who came out by barge the total number of evacuees for which the embassy could claim some responsibility that month was 65,000.  Another 65,000 escaped on their own just before the Communist takeover and in the two years that followed, bringing the total evacuees for that period to 140,000. Ambassador Martin told Congress in early 1976 that 22,294 Vietnamese employed by US agencies had been evacuated by April 30 of the previous year. That was a small fraction of the indigenous employees of these agencies and their families – 90,000. To judge from Martin’s figures less than one third of these deeply imperiled people benefitted from the airlift. Only the Defense Attaché’s Office which had largely controlled available aircraft and the boarding process, came close to evacuating all the “locals” on its payroll, 3,800. But Colonel William Le Gro, who headed DAO intelligence operations, later acknowledged that only 20 percent of the Vietnamese whom his staff had ushered onto outgoing aircraft were truly high risk. Out of the 1,900 “indigenous employees” of the CIA station only about 500 were finally evacuated – together with 2,000 others including family members who had enjoyed privileged contacts with the Agency over the years."  You can read more about Frank’s experiences in Vietnam in his excellent books “Decent Interval” and “Irreparable Harm” which are both available to buy via Frank’s website:http://franksnepp.com/ Frank’s journalism and other writings can be viewed on his blog: franksneppexclusives.com/ Check out our past interview with Frank about the CIA mission in Vietnam https://pod.fo/e/213e1 Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: https://www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0%E2%80%A6BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast” on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us: TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On this episode of Secrets & Spies, we are joined by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen.  Rolf is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Centre, prior to that appointment he was the Director of Intelligence & Counter Intelligence at the US Department of Energy. Before that he served in the CIA for 23 years as an intelligence officer. On this podcast we discuss future intelligence threats such climate change, WMD’s, Chemical Weapons and more. You can find out more about Rolf here: https://www.belfercenter.org/person/rolf-mowatt-larssen And you can get an copy of his excellent memoir “A State of Mind: Faith and the CIA.” https://amzn.to/3eBqUeN Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here:  https://www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0%E2%80%A6BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On today’s podcast we are joined by Ben West and we take a look at money laundering, its connection to organised crime and an FBI sting operation called “Trojan Shield”   Ben is a Senior Global Security Analyst with Stratfor, a RANE company. You can read Ben's two articles on money laundering here: https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/basics-money-laundering-how-criminal-organizations-move-illicit-revenue-legal-economy  https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/basics-money-laundering-case-studies Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On 28th June 2016 I recorded my first interview for the podcast. Back then the podcast was called “The Dry Cleanercast” named after my film “The Dry Cleaner” and now the podcast is “Secrets & Spies” I have decided to re-air the first episode with a little behind the scenes story about the recording of that first interview. You can find out more about Meredith Tax and her two books “The Double Bind” & “A road unforeseen” here at here website: https://www.meredithtax.org/book.php Thank you for listening to the podcast for five years. Keep an ear out for Season Six starting on Friday 2nd July Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released!   Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm    MUSIC Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU     Please support this podcast   Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast” on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies      Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996      Connect with us here:   TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies    FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies 

On this episode of “Secrets and Spies”, we are joined by author and former intelligence officer Anthony Wells We discuss Anthony’s excellent book “Between Five Eyes”, which takes a detailed look at UK-US intelligence through a personal lens based on working uniquely for UK intelligence as a British citizen and US intelligence as a US citizen.   You can find out more the book here: https://www.casematepublishers.com/between-five-eyes.html#.YLntCuvTWjg     Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released!   Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm   MUSIC Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU     Please support this podcast   Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast” on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies     Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996     Connect with us here:   TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies   FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On this episode of “Secrets and Spies”, we are re- joined by author Tim Tate We discuss his latest book “The Spy Who Was Left Out In The Cold” which takes a look at Polish intelligence officer Michal Goleniewski who became one of the West’s most effective Cold War spies.  Michal has largely been written out of western intelligence history.  Join us on the podcast to find out why. You can find out more the book which is available from 27th May here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/112/1120299/the-spy-who-was-left-out-in-the-cold/9781787634015.html You can find out more about Tim’s previous work here: https://timtate.co.uk/ and connect with him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TimTateBooks Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: https://www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0%E2%80%A6BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On this episode of “Secrets and Spies”, we are joined by author Henry Hemming We discuss his book “Our Man in New York” which takes a look at the history of the secretive BSC and its mysterious spymaster William Stephenson. Henry and I discuss the myth and facts of BSC’s operations in the US prior to America joining the fight in World War 2 You can find out more about Henry and his book here:
http://henryhemming.com/ Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here:
youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4
And you can buy the film here:
www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music
 Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird)
 You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon 
Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3
 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop:
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER
twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On today’s podcast we are joined by Ben West and we take a look at economic espionage past, present and future.    Ben is a Senior Global Security Analyst with Stratfor, a RANE company.  You can read Ben's reports here: Understanding Economic Espionage: The Future Understanding Economic Espionage: The Present Understanding Economic Espionage: The Past Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here:
youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4
And you can buy the film here:
www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music
Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird)
You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon 
Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3
www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop:
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER
twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

“Hitler’s American Friends”  On this of “Secrets and Spies”, we are joined by author Bradley W. Hart We discuss his book “Hitler’s American Friends” which takes a look at the history of Nazi sympathisers in America before and during World War Two.  You can get a copy of Bradley’s book here:
https://t.co/HcyUt8s6mB?amp=1 And you can connect with Bradley on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DrBHart Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here:
youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4
And you can buy the film here:
www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music
Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird)
You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon 
Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3
www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop:
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER
twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/secretsandspies

On this special COVID-19 episode of “Secrets and Spies”, we are joined by author and expert Dan Kaszeta We discuss what is known about COVID-19, we take a look at the vaccines now available and we tackle some of the myths and conspiracy theories that have grown online since the pandemic began. Dan is a Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) security specialist. He previously served in the US Army and the US Secret Service. Dan is also the author of 'Toxic' which looks at the history of nerve agents from Nazi Germany through to Putin’s Russia. So we are in good company on this episode! You can get a copy of Dan’s book “Toxic” here: www.hurstpublishers.com/book/toxic/ And you can connect with Dan on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DanKaszeta Our film “The Dry Cleaner” has been released! Check out the trailer here: youtu.be/j_KFTJenrz4 And you can buy the film here: www.drycleanercast.co.uk/watchthefilm Music Music on this podcast is provided by Andrew R. Bird (Andy Bird) You can check out his work here: www.monsteromnibus.com/?fbclid=IwAR0…BdNQbuCvt9KWU Please support this podcast Patreon Become a “Friend of the podcast”  on Patreon for £3 www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Visit our new memorabilia shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Connect with us here: TWITTER twitter.com/SecretsAndSpies FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/secretsandspies