Today, we talked to Laura Thomas, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and Chief of Base in Afghanistan. She has served over 17 years in national security and leadership roles. We discuss:

00:00 How a CIA station operates

8:46 What kind of intelligence failure was October 7th?

24:39 Why did intelligence agencies predict Kabul would fall quickly to the Taliban?

30: 09 The holes in how CIA teaches tradecraft

Read the transcript at https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-run-a-cia-base-in-afghanistan

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