SPYCRAFT 101

In this solo episode, Justin discusses how the world's intelligence agencies have captured foreign case officers, spies, and even their own defectors alive after they've already escaped to other countries. Killing a target in another country is difficult enough, especially when they are enjoying the security of the host nation that welcomed them in, but it's often even more difficult than that to get them back alive. Different methods have been used over the years, and despite all the planning and preparation that goes into it, it often goes wrong at the critical moment—sometimes the target escapes, and other times they are inadvertently killed during the operation. Today, Justin shares five instances from the Cold War and beyond where these kidnappings or renditions occurred.

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

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Justin's guest today is Dr. Mark Stout, who has held many positions, both inside and outside the U.S. intelligence community. He's worked as an intelligence analyst for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research for the CIA, and was a civilian employee for the U.S. Army at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. He was also the historian for the International Spy Museum from 2010 until 2013, and was the director of the Master's in Arts Program for Global Security Studies at John Hopkins University, former and founding president of the North American Society for Intelligence History. He's also authored and edited several books, and his articles have been published in many professional journals over the years. He's returned to the podcast to discuss his new book on U.S. intelligence before WWII.

Hear Mark's first appearance on episode 44, A Secret US Intelligence Organization: Mysteries of the Pond, here.

Connect with Mark:
Bluesky: @markstout.bsky.social
Check out the book, World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence, here.

https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700635856/

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin talks with Constance Huff. She retired from the U.S. Army as a Chief Warrant Officer IV. Connie spent more than 24 years in Army Intelligence, holding three occupational specialties, Interrogator, CI Special Agent, and Case Officer. She spent the majority of her career in counterintelligence, where she specialized in counterespionage investigations and operations. Connie was a senior instructor for the U.S. Army's Advanced Foreign Counterintelligence Training course, which was a 15 week course where journeyman level special agents were taught advanced investigation skills, physical surveillance, and offensive CI operations. Connie was named as the Department of Defense's Investigator of the Year in  1992. She earned a Master's degree in education from Boston University and is currently a senior instructor with CTCI Training Partners, which provides training to public and private organizations on counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters.

On the eve of Operation Desert Storm, she and her team investigated Specialist 4 Albert Sombolay after learning he'd approached several foreign embassies. offering information on the U. S. Army's plans and movements in Kuwait, as well as their chemical warfare capabilities. Connie and her team pulled off a successful investigation that resulted in a long prison sentence for a traitor inside the U.S. Army.

Connect with Connie:
ctcitraining.org

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin is joined by Zach Dorfman. Zach is a national security reporter whose work has appeared in Politico, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He received his Bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and a Master's degree in International Relations and Affairs from the University of Chicago. Zach is a former senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He's also the host of the Spy Valley Podcast from Project Brazen, which debuted last year, about a Cold War era spy in the heart of Silicon Valley. This week he discusses his newest article, published on August 4th of this year. It's the story of Operation Entering, a highly successful and never before reported operation against Soviet bloc intelligence operatives targeting U.S. technology in the early 1980s.

Connect with Zach
[email protected]
Twitter/X: @zachsdorfman
Spy Valley Podcast: brazen.fm/podcasts/spy-valley
Check out Zach's Politico story: "Moscow’s Spies Were Stealing US Tech — Until the FBI Started a Sabotage Campaign" here.
And his new Rolling Stone article: "The CIA Sent Him Deep Undercover to Spy on Islamic Radicals. It Cost Him Everything" here.

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Justin sits down with William Boik. Bill served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve for more than 30 years before retiring in 2005  at the rank of colonel. Over the course of his military career, he served in various positions in the armor branch and in military intelligence in South Korea, Germany and the U.S. From  2001 to 2018, Bill was a senior civilian at the Defense POW MIA Office, later known as the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency, first as the Director of Global Affairs and then as a Senior Plans Officer. Among his roles at the  defense POW MIA Accounting Agency were serving as the POW MIA advisor to the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and serving as the DOD representative to the Gulf war tripartite commission, which would meet in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bill retired in 2018 with 43 years of government service. He has Master's degrees in International Relations, Strategic Intelligence, and Strategic Security Studies, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University for International Relations. He is an author of two books as well. In this interview, Bill discusses two incredibly unique missions he performed in 2001 and 2002, when he led teams into North Korea to recover the remains of U.S. personnel still missing in action from the Korean War. During each of these month long recovery missions, Bill was the senior U.S. government official in Pyongyang, North Korea. Bill is not speaking as an official representative of any government agency or organization and only as an individual.

Connect with Bill:
usedmilitarybooks.com
Check out Bill's book on North Korean medals and decorations here.

https://a.co/d/8GnXuoH

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin is joined by Christian Hansen. Christian is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and now lives in New York City, where he has worked as a photojournalist since 2007. His work has previously appeared in The New York Times. In 2013, he began to follow a thread of a story about the unexpected death of a writer pursuing his own story in West Virginia in 1991. That turned into a decade-long quest that connects the intelligence community, military, Reagan administration, private corporations, an unsolved triple homicide in 1981 near Palm Springs California, and another unsolved murder in San Francisco in 1982.  His years of research culminated in a four part documentary series, which premiered on Netflix this past March, called American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. Christian is here to discuss his 10-year-long investigation into the death of journalist Danny Casolaro and the work he was engaged in leading right up to the day of his death.

Connect with Christian:
IG: @christianhitehansenen 
Twitter/X: @Yo_Christian
Check out The Octopus Murders on Netflix here.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81168725

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin sits down with Luis Munar Duran. Luis received his law degree from the University of Valencia in Spain and was a practicing attorney for nearly 20 years beginning in 1998. He's also a certified pilot and served as a reserve officer in the Spanish Air Force. Luis also has extensive training and experience in security and human rights issues. In 2012, After traveling to Aleppo, Syria to build a refugee camp and help train guerrilla fighters there, Luis was recruited by the Spanish intelligence agency known as CNI to gather intelligence on their behalf in Syria. But despite his efforts and the risks that he took, the relationship eventually turned sour and left Luis very regretful that he'd cooperated with them at all. Today he discusses his experiences in Syria, both before and after he was recruited by the CNI, and what he did to rebuild his life and reputation in the years afterwards.

Connect with Luis:
Check out Luis's book, Syria...Carne de cañon, only available in Spanish, here.

https://www.amazon.com/Siria-carne-ca%C3%B1on-patria-Spanish/dp/B0D669H62W

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week Justin talks with Dan Lawton. Dan received his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and graduated with his Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center in 1986 and has been practicing and a practicing attorney in San Diego, California for many years. He's also taught at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law since 2001 and has written articles and short fiction, which have appeared in numerous publications. Today Dan tells the story of Kevin Barry Artt, a young man who was convicted of a murder he did not commit in Northern Ireland in 1983, and who subsequently escaped from prison and went into hiding in the United States for many years until he was captured again in 1997.  His story of exoneration and delayed justice has to be heard to be believed. 

Connect with Dan:
abovethegroundbook.com
Twitter/X: @DanLawtonwriter
Check out Dan's book, Above The Ground, here.

https://www.amazon.com/ABOVE-GROUND-Troubles-Northern-Ireland/dp/1960332260

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Tenderfoot TV
Real. Powerful. Storytelling. Tune in to "To Die For" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

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Today just talks to Jan Stocklassa. Jan is an author and journalist focusing on large scale affairs in international politics. He served as a diplomat for Sweden in the Czech Republic from 1997 until 2003, and later helped found a newspaper paper in Prague. Jan spent more than a decade researching the 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, a case which is now officially closed but which still deserves a lot of attention and perhaps to be reopened and reinvestigated.

Connect with Jan:
stocklassa.com
Facebook: Jan Stocklassa
Watch Jan's documentary series, The Man Who Played with Fire, on Max, Discovery+, or PrimeVideo.
Check out the book here.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Played-Fire-Larssons/dp/1542092930/

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Grayman Briefing Classified
Use code GBCSpycraft to save 20% on your subscription.

Tenderfoot TV
Real. Powerful. Storytelling. Tune in to "To Die For" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, Justin talks with returning guest James Stejskal. James enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1973 and served for more than 20 years, including with the now famous Special Forces Detachment A in Berlin in the 1970s and 80s, among many other assignments. He was severely wounded in Somalia in 1992 and medically retired from the Army in 1996, after which he joined the CIA as a case officer, where he spent nearly another 15 years. Now fully retired from government service, James has written several non fiction books as well as a new series of novels called The Snake Eater Chronicles. Today, he discusses the role Detachment A played in Operation Eagle Claw to rescue American hostages in Tehran in 1980. Although Eagle Claw is a very well known historic event, Detachment A's part has never been known in detail, until James now.

Check out James's first appearance on episode 98, Special Forces Detachment A in Berlin, here.

Connect with James:
[email protected] (for any books and signed copies!)
jamesstejskal.wordpress.com/
Facebook: James Stejskal Writer
Check out James's latest book on Operation Eagle Claw, Mission Iran, here.

https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Iran-Special-Forces-Operation/dp/1636243339

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Grayman & Company
Look good and keep a low profile, but stay protected and capable no matter what.

Tenderfoot TV
Real. Powerful. Storytelling. Tune in to "To Die For" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.