15 Minutes

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.

This week Suzanne talks with author and entreprenuer Steve Blank about what is wrongh with innovation in national security.  

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.

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.

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.

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 intelligence.  In order to do that, she had to get inside her customer’s mind, anticipate the questions he would ask and have answers ready.  What are some of the secrets Sanner has for briefing people in positions of power?

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.  

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.