The Live Drop

This episode isn’t so much about espionage or intelligence collection as it is an example of how understanding how what you don’t know can help shape your reality. How do you take precautions against an unseen and undefined threat - in this episode - to public health.  After getting his Phd in Chemistry, Sergei was called to duty by his reserve military unit for the clean-up at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site in 1986.  As a ‘nuclear jumper’ he was in charge of 28 soldiers tasked with the dangerous duty of removing debris from the roof of the remaining structures. His 2011 book The Liquidator is a poignant memoir and scientific appraisal of these events.   Sergei discusses the vigilance and awareness necessary to manage an individual and public health threat: radiation or viral.  Sergei now runs his own nano-technology business based in Singapore which faces its unique challenges to contain the pandemic. With his 30 years in the chemical-pharma industry Sergei offers his recommendations. Episode 038

WNYC Public Radio Interview

Liquidators of Chernobyl - Youtube

Liquidator: The Chernobyl Story, Sergei Belyakov

Sergei Belyakov Biography:

Sergei A. BELYAKOV received his Ph.D. in organic/polymer chemistry (1984, USSR). After moving to the USA in 1992, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Alan R. Katritzky (University of Florida).

In 1998 Sergei moved to the pharmaceutical industry, joining Guilford Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off of Johns Hopkins University, where he developed novel drugs for CNS/metabolic diseases (collaboration with Amgen). In 2005-2006, with MGI Pharma, he led the team of scientists, which developed second generation (SG) Dacogen®, a promising anti-cancer drug.

From 2009, Sergei worked at AMRI Singapore, a CRO with expertise in the pre-clinical research, where he held a position of Assistant Director. He successfully guided multiple research teams totaling over 50 researchers in the areas of CNS, HIV and cancer diseases, collaborating with a range of the world-class pharma/biotech companies (Merck, GSK, Takeda, Sanofi etc.). In 2016, Sergei has started a new scientific research company, Theracross Technologies, co-establishing another start-up, Wintershine Health and Skincare, in 2018. Both companies focus on the development of novel delivery nano-systems for biomedicine, food industry, and personal care.

Sergei is an author and co-author of over 60 scientific papers and presentations, and of over 20 patents/patent applications, located in the areas of organic and medicinal chemistry and material science.

Sergei is a veteran-liquidator of Chernobyl NPP accident (1986); his accounts are gathered in his book “Liquidator: The Chernobyl Story”. He is the author of science fiction novels, and an avid basketball player and coach.

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Mark Valley
Creator/Host

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Focusing on the motivations, The Anatomy of a Spy  by Michael Smith tells the story of why spies spy, presenting a wealth of spy stories—some previously unknown and some famous—from the very human angle of the agents themselves. He breaks them into categories that go beyond the widely shared MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise/Coercion, Ego. We discuss some classic examples from his book: Operation Diamond where the Mossad used sex and coercion on pilots to fly a MIG-29 out of Iraq in the early 60s; Gabriele Gast - who was caught up in a Stasi Romeo-operation; Polish spy Ryszard Kukliński was a patriot who shared the Warsaw Pact operational plans. We touch on the intentions and needs of spies like: Oleg Penkovsky,  Aldrich Ames, Stephen Hanssen, and Ronald Pelton - what was the nugget they were after?

Michael shares some of his experience working for the BBC Monitoring Service - listening in on Cold War transmissions across Poland and East Germany. We also discuss the similarities to journalism with both terminology (stringer, fireman, source) and tradecraft from his experience as an award-winning journalist for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. Smith is the author of a number of books, including The Secrets of Station X, Killer Elite and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, and MI6: The Real James Bonds. He is a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Look for the debut of the #dozendecions that Michael makes in under a minute that reveal if his true nature is that of a spy, handler, or analyst.  I’m thinking he’s secret agent material. Episode 037

More on the author at  michaelsmithauthor.com

Resources Cited:

An Alternative Framework for Agent Recruitment: From MICE to RASCLS, Randy Burkett

Ryszard Kukliński

Kuklinski Documents on Martial Law in Poland

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Mark Valley
Creator/Host

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Author James Stejskal talks about his secret Berlin unit during the Cold War.  Their mission, should hostilities have commenced, was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal.

Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific war-time persona. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, and intelligence tradecraft and able to act as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move.

Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit with no parallel. It left a legacy of a new soldier: expert in irregular and unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for missions such as the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the US government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told. Episode 036

Special Forces Berlin, Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite 1956-1990, by James Stejskal

https://www.detachment-a.org/

James on Cold War Conversations

Author’s Facebook Page

Live Drop theme performed on electric cello by Danica Pinner danicapinner.com

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Mark Valley
Creator/Host

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Fred Burton, one of the world's foremost authorities on security and terrorism, tells the harrowing story of the hunt for William Buckley - CIA station chief abducted by Hezbollah in Beirut on March 16th, 1984. 

Mr. Burton was deputy chief of counterterrorism at the Diplomatic Security Service, where he was in charge of preventing and investigating attacks against diplomatic personnel and facilities. During his 14-year career, Mr. Burton was involved in many other high-profile investigations including: the search for and arrest of Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing; the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; the killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane and al Qaeda's New York City bombing plots before 9/11; and the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Mr. Burton is the author of four books, including the best-selling memoir, GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent , in which he tells the story of his role in the fight against the burgeoning terrorist threat in the 1980s and beyond. His second book, Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice), follows his 35-year quest to solve the case of an Israeli diplomat assassinated in Mr. Burton's childhood neighborhood. Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi, is a New York Times best-seller and provides the first detailed account of the infamous assault in Libya in September, 2012. Beirut Rules is his fourth book.

Fred currently oversees Stratfor's analysis of global security developments and consults with clients on security-related issues affecting their business assets or personal safety.

Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America 

Daniel Pearl Foundation

Other works mentioned:

Agents of Innocence  by David Ignatius
The Good Spy  by Kai Bird
No Shadows in the Desert  by Sam Katz
Rise and Kill First  by Ronen Bergman

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Mark Valley
Creator/Host

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Special Agents of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) have been on the front lines of securing diplomacy for over a century. From the Fall of Saigon to the U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, special agents of the DSS have relentlessly put their lives on the line to protect their fellow diplomats around the globe. Agents Unknown reveals the story of Cody Perron, a former Special Agent of the DSS, and his journey through the Middle East and Southeast Asia, negotiating international fugitive returns, interviewing ISIS hostages, and protecting the highest level U.S. government officials in some of the most volatile places in the world. Raw and unfiltered, Perron offers the perspective of a ground level agent revealing the unconventional duties and accomplishments as one of many “agents unknown.” Cody also offers his experience as a US Marine posted at the US Embassy in Moscow during the 911 attacks and Vladmir Putin’s rise to power.  Episode 034

Agents Unknown: True Stories of Life as a Special Agent in the Diplomatic Security Service   by Cody Perron

On camera interview with KUSI San Diego

For more information on the author go to  codyperron.com

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Mark Valley
Creator/Host

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Ilya is an asset protection practitioner and sought after security specialist.  After immigrating to the US from Moscow, he graduated and later taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.  He spent his formative professional years at Prudential Financial HQ in Newark, NJ, under the tutelage of Paul DeMatteis.  He then went on to Kroll Security for eleven years - starting in New York and then moving to Hong Kong.  Ilya now consults and coaches under his own brand - Sphere State - and closely collaborates with a team of practitioners at Current Consulting, based in Hong Kong and mainland China.  Ilya is helping clients protect people, information, reputation, and environments.  He has worked for governments, corporations, and high net-worth individuals.

I wanted to talk to someone about corporate security and the spycraft and counter-espionage that goes into other than governmental operations – what I got was something I hadn’t expected - a nuanced discussion of the theory and application of security in our lives with terms like: digital pause, shoulder surfing, video analytics and my favorite fundamental aspiration. Ilya and I talked a bit about the psychology and history of security then veered into current events and ways to process the diluge of information available today.  This was recorded in mid march of 2020 just as the world was becoming aware of the surge of Coronavirus cases. Two weeks later it already seems like the before-times, but this episode is a look into future challenges in the security industry. 

Resources mentioned:

Talking to Strangers by Malcom Gladwell
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker

The Benefits of Traveling Grey, by Scott Stewart, Stratfor
Misfit, by Ilya Umanskiy in Medium

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Live Drop Team

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My guest Neil Graham Hansen began his aviation career as a pilot for Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He then spent more than a decade in Southeast Asia as a captain for Air America - the CIA's airline that operated during the Vietnam era and the 'Secret War' in Laos. Upon returning to the States, unable to let go of the thrills of high stakes flying, his career trajectory veered off course into a Federal prison for smuggling narcotics - where he began his redemption as an advocate for his fallen Air America colleagues.

Neil talks with me about the history Air America (the world’s most shot-at airline) that could go anywhere anytime, especially where military wasn’t allowed.  He talks about his relationship to the customer - the CIA, and he clarifies the daring, diverse, and patriotic culture of Air America pilots and crew.  Look for him to explain terms like: sticky brick, blackpearl, hard rice, the customer, and five-dollar turns.

Neil has recently written a great book FLIGHT with co-writer Luann Grosscup – An Air America Pilots story of Adventure Descent and Redemption.

This historical aviation narrative incorporates the pathos of a war zone, humor, and candid insight. Neil pulls the reader directly into the cockpit, onto dirt mountaintop landing strips, into the raunchy brothels of Laos, alongside his first toddling steps into Buddhism, aboard the plane he flew out of Cambodia hours before it fell to the Khmer Rouge, down the road of self-destruction and beside him as he regains a foothold on the path to integrity.

Neil's tireless in telling the story of Air America’s heroes. His appearances are currently subject to confirmation, but look for his presentation at:  AIRVENTURE in Oshkosh, WI

Other links and resources mentioned:

Air America Historical Social Club

Flight Facebook Page

Air America, by Christopher Robbins

Experimental Aviation Association

Veteran’s Channel

Flying Men Flying Machines

Episode 032

Hello Listener,

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Tracy Walder,  ex-USC sorority girl joined the CIA at age 22, hunted down the most dangerous terrorists, then joined the FBI to uproot domestic spies and wrote a fantastic book about it - The Unexpected Spy. 

“I’d show up in countries where armies of terrorists wanted to kill Westerners. I’d wear red lipstick, curl my hair and stand firmly on the rock of my convictions.” 

Tracy talks about her select experience in the early drone program at CIA during the Bush administration's push into war with Iraq. Seemingly at the vanguard of the agency’s critical missions, Tracy went on to hunt dealers and suppliers of WMDs across Europe and Africa, before joining the FBI to complete a counterintelligence operation and convict a pair of spies in Los Angeles, CA. 

What she always wanted to be was a teacher, and now is on the board of directors of the non-profit girlsecurity.org which seeks to increase representation of women in national security by building a pipeline for girls and young women through learning, training, and mentoring support focusing on building a future workforce of women national security decision makers.   

Episode 031

More episodes at thelivedrop.com

If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content.  A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop

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Mark Valley
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Author and journalist Stephen Vogel’s written a definitive and engaging book about the Cold War’s most audacious espionage operation – Betrayal in Berlin - about a clandestine tunnel as long as the Empire State Building into the Soviet sector of Berlin in the mid 50s.  The operation collected years of telephone and wire communications from the Soviet forces long after it was revealed to have been compromised in 1956 by British spy George Blake. 

We refer to the film The Innocent, a 1992 John Schlesinger movie starring Anthony Hopkins as a brash CIA chief based on a larger than life Bill Harvey. The film was historical fiction but essentially re-enacted the tunnel operation capturing the mood and textures of the time.  It was also your host's first acting job. The son of a CIA officer, Stephen Vogel shares his connection the subject matter, the time and the place. 

For more information on the author check out  Stevevogelsite.com

Transmission 030

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Joyce Wayne has written a historical novel called The Last Night of the World  about a Soviet female operative, a key player in the Gouzenko Affair.  When Igor Gouzenko defected from the GRU to the RCMP in September of 1945 the west would see for the first time the extent of Soviet espionage activity in North America.   His 200 pages of documents would reveal a covert ring of dozens of operatives working for Soviet military attaché and GRU Rezident Nicholai Zolotkin in the capital city.  

In this interview Joyce lays out the setting of wartime Ottawa, the unassuming spy city just north of the American border.  Aside from diplomatic and government centers, a target of intelligence collection was an hour and a half north of Ottawa at the atomic  facility called Chalk River, which is still  in use today as an active research facility.

Joyce’s fiction has the haunting credibility of a first-hand account. Her father was a member of Zolotkin’s ring and managed to avoid detection and prosecution throughout his life. He left the communist party in 1947, disillusioned with Stalin’s brutality. She explains the attraction of Communism in the 1930s and 40s and how this period, and the Gouzenko Affair, is not talked about much in Canada.

TRANSMISSION 029

More about the author at Joycewayne.com

Her book The Last Night of the World is available on Amazon.

Other works cited in this interview:

How the Cold War Began, by Amy Knight
The Fall of a Titan, by Igor Gouzenko
The Spy Who Changed the World: Klaus Fuchs, Physicist and Soviet Double Agent  by Mike Rossiter

The Sound of Neutrons - Deep River Players - Chalk River, Ontario

Spybrary Episode with Joyce Wayne

Joyce Wayne on Spycast

Live Drop theme on electric cello by Danica Pinner danicapinner.com

More available at show notes on  thelivedrop.com

Hello Listener,

If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content.  A $10 a month donation will really keep us going ---> https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop

Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop

Thank you for listening and your support,

Mark Valley
Creator/Host

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.