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State Secrets

157 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 81 ratings

State Secrets is a weekly interview podcast featuring Cipher Brief experts and national security leaders.

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Episodes

From Special Operations to the CIA: Assessing the Complexity of the Global Environment

March 25, 2024 08:00 - 32 minutes - 44.4 MB

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...

Live from Taiwan :A Debrief with RADM Mike Studeman (Ret)

March 17, 2024 18:33 - 25 minutes - 34.9 MB

Retired Rear Admiral Mike Studeman is the former Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He has extensive experience in intelligence, foreign policy, defense and China.  So, it wasn’t a surprise when Taiwan’s Vice President-Elect Hsiao – someone he had briefed along with President Tsai when he was the Navy’s Indo-Pacom Director for Intelligence – invited him back to Taiwan, this time for a series of high-level visits. Studeman met with the chief of the general staff in Taiwan as well ...

Villains, Victims and Vendors in Cyberspace

February 19, 2024 04:26 - 34 minutes - 46.8 MB

Former Director of CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (and Cipher Brief Expert) Andrew Boyd talks to State Secrets about the dynamic relationship between villains, victims and vendors operating in cyberspace. The CIA, he says, has been paying close attention to cyberspace “since the dawn of IP”, so what lessons can he share about how spies, thieves and nation states are using the domain to find and exploit victims and how the private sector and government are partnering to track them down.

Iran's Proxy War Against The U.S.

February 11, 2024 09:00 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MB

Recent U.S strikes against Iranian proxy groups in Syria and Iraq may be just the beginning of a multi-tier response by the U.S. after the killing of three service members in Jordan last month and it’s raising questions about just how far the U.S. should go in limiting Iran’s ability to use these groups to launch attacks against Americans. Former CIA Deputy Assistant Director of the Near East Mission Center and former Chief of Analysis in the Iran Mission Center Andy Dunn talks to State Secr...

Gen Z and CIA is a Relationship in Need of Counseling

February 04, 2024 19:31 - 24 minutes - 33.7 MB

Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos recently wrote an article exploring the intriguing dynamics of Gen Z in the CIA workplace, sparking a controversial debate. While research suggests Gen Z may display slower independence behaviors and cause tension with older workers in professional environments, they're redefining things like work-life balance and what it takes to succeed in the workplace. We wanted to hear more from Marc about why he felt compelled to take up this issue and what he lea...

The Innovation Gap

January 30, 2024 21:08 - 37 minutes - 51.1 MB

Former NSA Chief of Innovation Kevin Keaton left his government job last year – before the age of retirement - to accept a role as a founding partner at a venture capital firm.  Today, he’s focused on closing a gap between government and the private sector that he believes is a serious issue when it comes to U.S. national security.  In his first podcast interview since leaving government, State Secrets sat down with Keaton to talk about what he sees as the ‘innovation gap’, China is exploiti...

Secrets of Espionage

January 21, 2024 15:21 - 32 minutes - 61.6 MB

Alan Kohler spent 27 years at the FBI, where his priority for decades, was hunting down spies who were operating in the United States.  As Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence Division, Kohler had a hand in nearly every espionage operation the Bureau conducted.  He also served as Acting Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch and was Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence Division before he retired last year and joi...

A Seasoned former CIA Officer Shares Stories of War & Espionage

January 14, 2024 17:36 - 37 minutes - 69.5 MB

In his first-ever podcast interview, former 6-time CIA Chief of Station and 35-year CIA veteran Ralph Goff talks with Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly about what’s happening now in the Middle East and the likelihood that the war will continue to spread beyond Gaza, Lebanon and the Red Sea.  Goff also talks candidly about his career, which spanned the globe, from the Middle East to Europe to Central and South Asia and included postings in multiple war zones.    

Israel, Hamas and the Path to War

November 03, 2023 15:55 - 29 minutes - 40.6 MB

In this episode Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian talks with former CIA officer and Cipher Brief Expert Marc Polymeropoulos.  Marc served 26 years in the CIA before retiring from the Senior Intelligence Service in June 2019.  His positions included field and headquarters operational assignments covering the Middle East, Europe, Eurasia and CounterTerrorism.  Marc joined Brad to discuss what’s happening in the war between Israel and Hamas.  What are the signs to watch for that the conflict coul...

The Future of Open Source - A View from the CIA

September 30, 2023 20:39 - 54 minutes - 74.7 MB

Welcome to a special episode of the State Secrets podcast. Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly recently welcomed the Director of CIA’s Open Source Enterprise Randy Nixon, to the virtual studio for a special briefing to talk how CIA uses OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) in its daily analytic tradecraft. He also talked about  a new tool CIA just launched to help IC analysts better navigate the vast amounts of open source information flowing in each day. Listen in to the briefing, which ...

Putting the National Cybersecurity Strategy into Practice

August 04, 2023 08:00 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MB

Cyber Initiatives Group (CIG) Principal and former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Cyber, Risk, Resilience and Infrastructure Matt Hayden sits down with CISA’s Executive Director Brandon Wales to dig in on just how the government will implement the new National Cybersecurity Strategy and what it means for business.

The Hunt for Spies in the U.S.

July 10, 2023 08:00 - 35 minutes - 48.5 MB

Earlier this month, the National Counterintelligence & Security Center - better known in the Intelligence world as the NCSC – along with the FBI - issued a joint bulletin warning stakeholders in US companies, journalists, academics and researchers who work in China about how an updated counterespionage law passed in Beijing that could put employees of US companies at risk because of the broad definitions of what it means to spy.  Closer to home, the NCSC issued another public warning about f...

An Overture of the Next Phase of US-China Relations

June 26, 2023 02:31 - 39 minutes - 55 MB

In this episode of the State Secrets Podcast Brad speaks with Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joe Detrani. Ambassador Joseph DeTrani is the former Special envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea, as well as former CIA director of East Asia Operations. He also served as the Associate Director of National Intelligence and Mission Manager for North Korea and the Director of the National Counter Proliferation Center, while also serving as a Special Adviser to the Director of National Intellige...

A Life of Secrets

June 19, 2023 19:00 - 36 minutes - 50.2 MB

A new memoir by former Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Dr. Michael G. Vickers offers incredible insights into some of the most consequential intelligence and special operations missions of our time. From the killing of Osama bin Laden to his efforts to try and stop Iran from getting a bomb, to forcing Russia out of Afghanistan, the former Green Beret turned Intelligence leader shares lessons learned with State Secrets co-hosts Suzanne Kelly and Brad Christian. 

The Ukraine Debrief

June 12, 2023 14:03 - 37 minutes - 52.4 MB

We’re letting a secret out of the bag this week.  The Cipher Brief traveled to Kyiv to host The Kyiv Economic & Security Forum on the eve of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly, COO Brad Christian and a group of national security professionals traveled in and out of the country with Cipher Brief Expert Gen. David Petraeus (Ret.) who – as former director of CIA and former head of five combat commands has a unique perspective on the counteroffensive. Today, he’s a partne...

Ukraine's New Cyber Force

May 18, 2023 08:00 - 27 minutes - 37.7 MB

One man knows better than most, just what cyber tactics Russia has been using to attack Ukraine – not just since the full invasion in February of 2022 – but since the war began in Crimea in 2014.  Since then, Ukraine has served as an unwitting testing ground for Russian cyber aggression with an impact that has often spread well beyond the country’s borders.  State Secrets host Suzanne Kelly sat down in Kyiv with the head of Ukraine’s Department of Cyber and Information Security at the Securi...

A Strategic View of Global Security

May 12, 2023 08:00 - 32 minutes - 44.8 MB

Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly interviews the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen Robert Ashley to discuss Ukraine, Russia, China, and the impact of technology on todays complicated world. Listen in on what Gen. Bob Ashley has to say about the private sector’s mission in today’s security landscape. 

The Basics of AI and how it’s Impacting U.S. National Security

April 24, 2023 08:00 - 38 minutes - 53.7 MB

State Secrets Host Suzanne Kelly is joined by co-host Brad Christian in this conversation with Lt. General Michael Groen (Ret.) on the basics of AI and how it’s impacting U.S. National Security. 

The DIA's Global Intelligence Picture

March 29, 2023 12:06 - 58 minutes - 80.3 MB

In this week’s State Secrets, host Suzanne Kelly talks with Dr. Trent Maul. Dr. Maul was appointed to Director of Analysis for the Defense Intelligence Agency in May 2021. Dr. Maul discusses the Defense Intelligence Agency’s global outlook on the Russia-Ukraine war and the possibility of Russia trying to expand its influence in the region to other neighboring countries.

Which Cards Could Beijing Play on Ukraine, North Korea and Taiwan?

March 16, 2023 08:00 - 29 minutes - 40.3 MB

Ambassador Joe DeTrani has spent much of his career centered on China. He is not only a former Special Envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea, he is also a former director of East Asia Operations at the CIA. In this episode, Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian sits down with Ambassador DeTrani to discuss senior leadership changes in Beijing and a potential phone call between Xi and US President Joe Biden.

What I Know About Havana Syndrome

March 10, 2023 14:34 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MB

Former Senior CIA Officer and Cipher Brief Expert Marc Polymeropoulos was in Moscow in late 2017, when he woke up in his hotel room with a blinding headache.  It was the beginning of a 5-year journey that landed him in Walter Reed’s Traumatic Brain Injury Program.  What happened?  Marc believes he was the victim of a targeted microwave weapon attack – something that’s become known as Havana Syndrome, after US government employees working at the Embassy in Cuba reported similar debilitating s...

The War in Ukraine is Changing the World

March 01, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 45.8 MB

In this episode of State Secrets, Suzanne Kelly talks about the ways in which the war in Ukraine is changing the world with author Rajan Menon. Menon, a nonresident scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is co-author of the book, Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order. Menon, like Kelly, recently returned from Ukraine and shares his first-hand impressions about what’s happening there and how this war is changing the...

Ukraine’s Next Move with General Phil Breedlove (Ret.)

February 21, 2023 10:00 - 45 minutes - 62.7 MB

State Secrets host Suzanne Kelly and guest co-host Brad Christian talk with the former NATO Allied Supreme Commander (and former F-16 pilot) about what comes next in Ukraine and what is actually needed in order to win.

China and the Ballooning National Security Threat

February 10, 2023 13:44 - 37 minutes - 52.2 MB

In this week’s State Secrets Podcast, Host Suzanne Kelly talks with The Hon. Susan M. Gordon, a career Intelligence Officer, former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and current member of the Defense Innovation Board, about Balloons, China, Ukraine, Russia and the new world order as well as the role that AI plays in all of it.

The Classified Mess and How to Clean it Up

February 02, 2023 15:03 - 24 minutes - 33.6 MB

In this week’s State Secrets, host Suzanne Kelly talks with former Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Presidential Briefer, Beth Sanner about the discovery of classified documents in the homes and offices of former and current political leaders. Beth shares first-hand accounts from her time serving as former President Donald Trump’s briefer and helps pull back the curtain on where the gaps are in securing classified information.

NATO's Priorities for Intelligence and Security

January 26, 2023 17:04 - 42 minutes - 59.4 MB

In one of his very first public interviews as NATO Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security, David Cattler sits down with State Secrets host Suzanne Kelly to talk about  one of the most trying times in the alliance’s 74 year history. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is re-shaping the alliance, and fueling expansion as NATO keeps a close eye on China’s global rise.  

Meet The ‘Apocaloptimist’ of National Security Dr. Jason Matheny, President & CEO of The RAND Corporation

December 20, 2022 15:57 - 51 minutes - 71.5 MB

This week, I’m talking with RAND CEO Dr. Jason Matheny about a host of threats to US national security – how technology is playing a role and why people call him an ‘apocaloptimist’.  Dr. Matheny has been fascinated with existential threats to the human race from the get go and penned a 2007 paper on how to reduce the risk of human extinction.  If that isn’t worth reading – I don’t’ know what is. Matheny brought that kind of curiosity and insight to the Intelligence Community in 2009 as ...

The Mission to Give Back

November 22, 2022 13:46 - 58 minutes - 80.6 MB

This week we're talking about the mission to give back and we're highlighting three organizations that are doing just that.  Suzanne is joined by Brad for three conversations with charities that are making an impact.  First up is the Special Operations Care Fund known as SOC-F.  SOC-F really targets their giving efforts to the special operations community in ways that you wouldn’t normally think of.  They support things like treatments for traumatic brain injury but they also focus on prov...

Curator of Secrets

November 15, 2022 15:09 - 23 minutes - 32.5 MB

In 1972, former CIA Executive Director William Colby proposed that the spy agency set up an employee museum as a way to share the unique mission and the impact that CIA had around the world.  It took 16 years for it to come to fruition.  And some 34 years after that, a new museum expansion and renovation is helping the Agency mark its 75th Anniversary. Now, the museum hosts artifacts from some of the Agency’s most successful – and some unsuccessful missions. In this episode of The Stat...

Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth- Director, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

November 08, 2022 01:38 - 25 minutes - 35.7 MB

In this State Secrets episode, Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly sits down with the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth at NGA Headquarters in Springfield, Virginia to talk about what’s going on in hot spots like North Korea, as the North undertakes a series of missile launches, about NGA’s expected role with the artificial intelligence program known as MAVEN, and about how the agency is partnering with commercial businesses to know ...

Author and journalist Renee Dudley

October 31, 2022 18:57 - 33 minutes - 45.7 MB

In this episode, I’m talking with journalist and author Renee Dudley.  Renee is a technology reporter at ProPublica who stumbled onto a band of what she describes as misfits while reporting on the rapid rise of ransomware.  What she found was an incredible group of individuals who decided to be a change for good by helping fight cybercrime.  She tells the story in a new book she wrote with co-author and fellow journalist Daniel Golden, The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits’ Improbab...

How close are we to war with China?

October 25, 2022 13:43 - 32 minutes - 44.5 MB

China remains the top concern for long-term US national security and tensions over Taiwan have increased steadily over the past several months. Chinese President Xi Jinping used the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to cement his grip on power – and to make clear where his party stands on its future ambitions, to include the reunification of the self-governing island of Taiwan.    So just how close are China and the US moving toward war over Taiwan?    That's something that Cip...

China's Grand Ambitions

October 18, 2022 13:45 - 27 minutes - 38.1 MB

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October - with a speech that makes clear where his party stands on its future ambitions, to include the reunification of the self-governing island of Taiwan. But tensions between the US and China over Taiwan’s future are really just one part of the story.  Beijing has made clear that it has a thorough and organized strategy to achieve its ambitious goals while the US – in part because of a democratic sy...

Investing in Future National Security

September 29, 2022 17:14 - 34 minutes - 48.3 MB

In this episode, Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian sits down with former CIA Officer Brett Davis and Entrepreneur Jeremy Hitchcock to talk about the future of US national security from an investor’s perspective. Brett is a former Senior Executive with the CIA, and a former Special Operations Officer with the US Navy.  Jeremy is an angel investor who co-founded a company called Dyn in 2001 that grw out of an open source project.  He sold the company in 2017 for $600mm. The two men are now p...

The Complicated Case of Taiwan

September 19, 2022 14:33 - 25 minutes - 35.3 MB

China’s Communist Party is deep into preparations for its 20th party Congress that begins October 16th in Beijing, where expert observers are expecting President Xi Jinping to be confirmed for an unprecedented third five-year term. Xi is also expected to announce his new leadership team that will execute on the party’s agenda.  And it’s safe to say that near or at the top of that Agenda is the issue of Taiwan. For context: When it comes to US policy, Washington’s official stance is that ...

Terrorism and Special Operations

September 14, 2022 14:29 - 44 minutes - 61.7 MB

On the morning of July 31, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been in hiding since 9/11, walked onto the balcony inside a compound in downtown Kabul. The Egyptian-born physician had taken over the leadership of the terrorist organization after US Navy SEALS killed Osama bin laden in Abbottabad in 2011. For 11 years he had directed al-Qaeda from the shadows and there had been many false starts for the US intelligence agencies and special operations team who were tracking him.  But on ...

The Impact of JCPOA with Cipher Brief Expert Norm Roule

September 06, 2022 13:17 - 34 minutes - 47.2 MB

Suzanne talks with former National Intelligence Manager for Iran (NIM-I) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Norm Roule on the impact of a potential deal to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement with Iran.  

Lt. Gen Michael Groen USMC (Ret)

August 25, 2022 17:21 - 1 hour - 83.1 MB

The former Director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center joins us in The Cipher Brief Studio to talk about why technology is not enough when it comes to maintaining a competitive edge in national security over China.  If the US doesn’t organize as well as it innovates, there will be no victory. 

The Potential for Integrating Intelligence & Intuition

August 01, 2022 14:06 - 26 minutes - 36.8 MB

In this episode Suzanne talks with former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence and founder of the Mossbridge Institute, Dr. Julia Mossbridge.

Former CIA Officer and Author Alex Finley

July 22, 2022 14:16 - 19 minutes - 27 MB

This week Suzanne talks with former CIA officer and author of new book Victor in the Trouble Alex Finley.  They talk about her career, her path to becoming an author and how she recenlty became an expert on oligarchs and yachts.

Author and Entrepreneur Steve Blank

June 06, 2022 14:11 - 45 minutes - 63.4 MB

This week, Suzanne talks with Steve Blank, the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur widely recognized as one of the most influential voices in technology today. Blank’s passion for US national security led him to co-launch two classes at Stanford, where he teaches.  One is called Hacking for Defense and the other, Hacking for Diplomacy.  Hacking for Defense later became a federal program as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. Today, Steve has joined a chorus of voices complaining that Dep...

Admiral James Stavridis

May 23, 2022 01:47 - 36 minutes - 51.1 MB

In this episode Suzanne catches up with Cipher Brief Expert and author Admiral James Stavridis (Ret) to talk about his new book- To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision.

The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior

April 27, 2022 13:02 - 52 minutes - 72.8 MB

Former Chief of Counterterrorist Operations Ric Prado spent the bulk of his CIA career undercover, taking on the hardest challenges the Agency had, from Nicaragua to Afghanistan. Now, the Cuban refugee shares the secrets of why he did it, and why he thinks it’s time to set the record straight.

Living in a World of Open Source Secrets

April 19, 2022 17:37 - 36 minutes - 49.9 MB

Former Senior CIA Officer Kristin Wood shares her insights on secrets and the world of Open Source Intelligence. Now CEO of Grist Mill Exchange, Wood shares her insights on how businesses and the government can benefit the most from secrets that are sometimes right there in the open.

My Secrets for Briefing the President

April 12, 2022 12:35 - 31 minutes - 42.8 MB

Cipher Brief Publisher and CEO Suzanne Kelly talks with retired CIA Officer Beth Sanner, who spent 35 years in national security before recently retiring.  Her responsibilities included serving as Deputy Director for National Intelligence, and as former President Trump’s Intelligence Briefer.   That means that twice a week, for two years, Sanner met with the former President in the Oval Office, sometimes in other locations around the White House, to brief him on the nation’s most classified ...

How CIA is thinking about Open Source Intelligence and Data Analytics

April 06, 2022 00:14 - 34 minutes - 47.3 MB

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 

Sierra Six- A Gray Man Series Author Mark Greaney

March 07, 2022 20:19 - 24 minutes - 33 MB

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 a...

General Joseph L. Votel U.S. Army (Ret.) President & Chief Executive Officer BENS

February 07, 2022 16:44 - 34 minutes - 46.8 MB

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.  

Mitch Silber

January 21, 2022 17:24 - 24 minutes - 34.6 MB

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.  

Walter Pincus- Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Author

December 22, 2021 16:42 - 27 minutes - 38.5 MB

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.