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The Dark Web Broker Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

Vinny Troia is at home on the Dark Web. The veteran hacker has developed relationships with cyberactors who have quietly stolen sensitive data from the far corners of the world. Vinny sells that data to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, like the CIA. His book, Grey Area: Dark Web Data Collection and the Future of OSINT, is out this October.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

To Catch a Drug Cartel Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

Keith Bulfin was a banker, not a spy. But then came a special client–a supposed coffee importer who was actually a banker for Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. Soon, U.S. authorities were knocking on Keith’s door. He ended up behind bars in a maximum security prison. While in prison, Bulfin ended up befriending leaders of drug cartels and eventually became their private banker, while secretly feeding intelligence to the U.S. government. It was a descent into a world few see and fewer survive.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Retracing the Hunt for Bin Laden Sep 09, 2025

Show notes

This Thursday marks the 24th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, which spawned a decade-long search for the man behind them – Osama Bin Laden. Ed Bogan was the Chief of Operations for the CIA Counterterrorism Center’s Pakistan / Afghanistan Department. He takes us into agency headquarters, where he oversaw the raid on Bin Laden’s compound, and tells us what lessons can be learned from The Global War on Terror.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

An Assassination in Athens and a CIA Officer’s Legacy Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

It’s been 50 years since the assassination of the CIA’s former Station Chief in Athens, Richard Welch. At the time, he was the agency’s highest level officer killed in the line of duty. A Greek, Marxist terrorist group called 17 November claimed responsibility for his death, but that was just the beginning. Former senior operations officer Ralph Mariani remembers that time and carries on Welch’s memory.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

From the SpyCast Vault: Escaping Tehran with The CIA Pt. 2 Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

We return to November, 1979 when radical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage.

Mark and Cora Lijek were two American officials stuck in Tehran, and in 2008 they shared their story with the late Peter Earnest, the founding director of the International Spy Museum. And this time they were joined by retired CIA officer Tony Mendez, who passed away in 2019. Tony helped plan and execute an elaborate deception and disguise operation, exfiltrating the diplomats before the Iranians figured it out.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

From the SpyCast Vault: Escaping Tehran with The CIA Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

We'll go back in time to November, 1979 when radical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage. Six US officials managed to find refuge with Canadian embassy staff, and 11 weeks later, the CIA led a daring operation to sneak them out of Iran disguised as a Hollywood film crew. Mark and Cora Lijek were two of those officials, and in 2008 they shared their story with the late Peter Earnest, the founding director of the International Spy Museum.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Catching an Iranian-American Missile Broker Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

Reza Olangian, a dual US-Iranian citizen, left behind his life in Silicon Valley to spy for Iran in the capital. And by the time DEA special agent Jeffrey James Higgins found out about him in 2011, Olangian was trying to acquire hundreds of surface-to-air missiles. That kicked off an elaborate, multi-country sting operation… and a 25-year prison sentence. Jeffrey believes the Iranians are using more surrogates to acquire weapons today.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Lethal Dissent: Iran’s Spy Games in Turkey Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

Washington and Tehran have a long and complicated history, with tensions that rise, fall and then rise again. Just this summer, we watched the U.S. and Israel strike Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. This month, SpyCast is bringing you a series of special episodes on Iran, looking back and forward, to unveil the country’s intelligence priorities, capabilities, and tactics.

First in our series is Fariba Nawa. She's a journalist who shows us that if you want to learn about Iranian intelligence, one of the best places to look is Turkey. It may be a member of NATO, but it's also a country where Iranian dissidents flee because of their shared border.

And as Tehran tries to lure certain Iranians back, Israel tries to recruit them. It's a complex, deadly game that Fariba has been bravely documenting through the podcast Lethal Dissent.

Listen to Lethal Dissent here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Agent 202: New Secrets Emerge on an American Who Spied for Cuba Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

Codenamed "Agent 202," Kendall Myers went undetected as a spy for Cuba for nearly 30 years. He worked at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, secretly spying for Cuba out of an earnest love for the island, its people, and their leader Fidel Castro.

Myers was caught in 2009, after he retired. State Department Security Specialist and former Diplomatic Security Special Agent Bill Stowell was part of the team that worked the case. He shared new exclusive details with SpyCast, as Myers continues to serve a life sentence for espionage.

If you liked this episode, check out these links:

Queen of Cuba with Peter J. Lapp

The Skinny on Cuban Intelligence with Ean Forsyth | SpyCast

Caught in the Act : Catching Che Guevara (Cuba and the CIA)

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Agent of Chaos: The Austrian Fugitive Running Russia’s Global Spy Networks Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

Today he’s one of the most wanted men in the world, but before Jan Marsalek fled to Russia, he was the COO of payment-processing firm Wirecard.

Officials and investigators say Marsalek used the company to finance Moscow’s covert operations and spy networks in Africa and Europe. In 2020, nearly €2 billion vanished from Wirecard, along with Marsalek. Financial Times reporter Sam Jones has been uncovering new details through his reporting on Season 3 of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos.

To hear more, listen to Season 3 of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you liked this episode, check out these links:

Russia's Fake Identity Assembly Line in Brazil | SpyCast

"The Minions": Putin's Expendable Spies | SpyCast

Russian Assassinations in the UK: Inside Three Notorious Cases with Historian Nigel West Curator's Corner: Kevin P. Riehle on Russian Intelligence

Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org.

This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

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