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Canadian Author and Journalist Joyce Wayne Rolls Up the Soviets and Local Members of the Cold War’s Ottawa Spy Ring Feb 07, 2020

Show notes

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.
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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

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Polish Solidarity Operative Witold Radwanski Reveals the Golden Rule of Konspiracja Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

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Witold’s experience as a daring underground operator working within and around the Polish borders offers a view into the relationships, ratlines, allies, enemies, and tradecraft necessary to fund and supply the Solidarity insurgency movement from the late 70s until the Communists were peacefully voted out of power in 1989. He speaks to me from an apartment in Warsaw near the former Ghetto where his relatives had struggled a generation before him.
His unassuming codename - Makaron - means ‘noodle' in Polish, which may offer an explanation to why he was never caught. After the interview he showed me his favorite spot in Old Warsaw to lose a tail, how they encoded messages using poetry, and the home of controversial Polish spy Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski.
This is the first episode in collaboration with my sponsor the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles, California. I’ve included one of my interviews for the The Wende Museum’s Historical Witness Project, sponsored by Fiona Chalum and Joel Aronowitz, which seeks to preserve voices of the Cold War for future generations.

In November of last year I went to Warsaw, Poland to help retrieve historical documents and samzidat (smuggled during the near decade of martial law) for an upcoming exhibit for the Wende Museum. I interviewed several key players in the Polish anti-communist movement, one of whom is my guest for this episode - Witold Radwanski.

thelivedrop.com
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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
Creator/Host

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High Stakes Poker Player Joe Rivers Reveals How to Avoid Being Shaken or Stirred. Jul 10, 2019

Show notes

Live Drop episode 027, I meet up with an old friend of mine who among other things plays high stakes poker. I wanted to talk to him about that world, and perhaps see how it could inform the role of intelligence with the brinksmanship, nerve, bluff and distraction that are tools to a card player, and protection or transfer of clandestine information ie. when to show your cards. Joe doesn’t disappoint, he’s a natural storyteller and fills me in on some of the jargon like: What’s a fish? Stalking, Tilting, Action Player, Smooth Calling, Colluding and the Interview. He also reveals how important it is to control your breathing if the stakes are high and the nerves are starting to frazzle. You can find Joe Rivers on Instagram @rivers483 Thanks listeners for a wonderful first year of podcasting. I’ve learned an immense amount about interviewing and the world of intelligence, espionage, security and diplomacy. There is a lot of information out there: Always be listening, Share what you need to get what you want, build trust, provide something in return, consider sources, share a fact-based reality, consider your biases, put yourself in the shoes of the target, act like you belong, don’t stand if you can sit, rinse and repeat. more information available on the episode debrief at 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

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Dave Rupert American Trucker, Traveler, and British Spy Who Brought Down the Real IRA Jul 03, 2019

Show notes

A trucker from upstate New York, David Rupert spent seven years informing for the FBI and MI5 while working his way as high as the IRA war council. His lengthy testimony brought justice to several key players in the supply and terrorism networks of the Troubles, including Real IRA leader Mickey McKevitt who’d had a significant role in the Armagh bombing which killed 31 civilians and injured hundreds shortly after the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. Rupert learned his spycraft as he went along, with no prior instruction, only taking occasional counsel from his MI5 handlers and his own instincts from a career in the rough and tenebrous world of interstate trucking. Although he provided a trove of information for the FBI and British Intelligence, Rupert had never agreed to testify against those he’d worked with daily in the IRA. But a PBS documentary about the consequences of the Omagh Bombing convinced him he had to take the stand, which we’ll find out wasn’t as easy as it sounds. An engaging and congenial Rupert shares his perceptions of the Irish on their northern border from his arrival with his wife and collaborator Maureen, to his testimony deep in the Republic of Ireland, where loyalties are often at odds with personal identity, and safety. Find out more about him in Sean O’Driscoll’s book 'The Accidental Spy.'
http://www.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

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.

Irish Writer and Journalist Sean O’Driscoll Found an Accidental Spy in the IRA Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

Author and Irish Journalist Sean O’Driscoll talks about his decades of risky investigation into the IRA and his new book - The Accidental Spy - about American David Rupert, aka the Big Yank, a trucking manager, pub owner and erstwhile undercover FBI and MI5 agent within the most violent ruling echelons of the Irish Republican Army. In this episode Sean discusses the possible consequences facing Ireland from England’s Brexit movement, the origin and several incantations of the IRA, and future challenges to Irish re-unification. See show notes at thelivedrop.com for more.

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Former US Army Intelligence Analyst Stephen Hoyt and Tour NCO Thomas Favia share the US Military Liaison Mission in Theory and Practice May 10, 2019

Show notes

Stephen Hoyt is a University of Maryland Professor, former analyst and President of the USMLM Association - United States Military Liaison Mission in Berlin. USMLM in cooperation with British and French Allies were the only observers with daily access behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Mission reports provided not only a realistic picture of the Soviet Army, but a window into East German Society. Stephen talks about the origins, singularity and legacy of USMLM along with the Mission Potsdam Conference June 20-22nd of this year 2019 - sponsored by the University of Maryland and hosted by the Potsdam Museum, where notable speakers will discuss this unique HUMINT organization from a variety of perspectives.
Thomas Favia is a retired cavalryman and Sergeant First Class US Army. He served in Berlin from 1989 through the fall of the wall until 1993. He lives in Germany and enjoys the occasional good cigar with brothers-in-arms of various nationalities. More information about the annual LTC Arthur Nicholson Memorial and upcoming conference events can be found on USMLM website.
USMLM Association Website
Cold War Spies - USMLM Page
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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 $5 a month donation will really keep us going - https://www.patreon.com/thelivedrop

Alternatively, if you would like to help make Season 3 operational you could make a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedrop

Thank you for listening and your support,

Live Drop Team

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

An Advanced History of Intelligence with Professor Mark Stout of Johns Hopkins University May 03, 2019

Show notes

Intelligence historian and former analyst, Dr. Mark Stout directs graduate programs in Global Security Studies and Intelligence at Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs in Washington, DC. He has previously worked for the Department of the Army, the State Department, the CIA, and the Institute for Defense Analyses. He’s recently co-authored the book Spy Chiefs and has co-founded the North American Society for Intelligence History. We talk the history of intelligence from Sun Tzu to the present with our immense volume, velocity and variety of information. The former analyst points out the nature of information and how some questions can and can’t be answered. After a brief discussion about Activity Based Intelligence this insightful 42 minute interview wraps up with a chat about Cold War Ottawa and the successful partnership of Canadian and US Intelligence Agencies. - Transmission 023
Dr. Mark Stout on Twitter @WWIPhDNorth American Society for Intelligence History -- intelligencehistory.org
Book Recommendation: The Secret World by Christopher Andrew.
More information at thelivedrop.com

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The Counterspycraft of Stuart Herrington from MACV-SOG in Vietnam to the US Army Foreign Counterintelligence Activity Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

Top counterintelligence and interrogation expert Stuart Herrington shares from a renowned and decorated intelligence career. He sets the stage with his introduction to military intelligence duty in Cold War Berlin in 1968.
Over the course of a friendly conversation he comments on: The Fall of Saigon, lunch with Henry Kissinger and his most significant command as Director, U.S. Army Foreign Counterintelligence Activity (FCA), between January 1988 and May 1992. During his tenure as Director of FCA, he pursued and wrapped up two of the most sensitive and significant espionage cases in post WW II history: Hungarian operative Clyde Lee Conrad & US Army Analyst James Hall.
A vocal opponent of enhanced interrogation methods, Herrington cites the effectiveness of his more humanitarian approach in Operation Just Cause in Panama, The Gulf War, MACV SOG in the Vietnamese provinces, The Iraq War, and Guantanamo.
And he's prolific, having provided us with a published first-hand catalog of his experiences. He also shares some writing advice along with lessons learned from a fascinating and four-decade intelligence career.
Books by Stuart Herrington:
Traitors Among Us
Stalking the Vietcong
Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam, 1973-1975
Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages
Stuart also appears in the documentary film The Fall of Saigon

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Ambassador Rudy Perina Decodes Cold War Berlinery and How a Diplomat Can Keep the Peace Apr 12, 2019

Show notes

Mark was fortunate to have a chance to speak with Ambassador Rudy Perina** has a storied 34 year career in the US Diplomatic Corps. He’s a sought after Charge d’Affaires at US embassies around the world with a history of service in some of the Cold War hotspots like Moscow, Yugoslavia, and Berlin. We discuss the role of diplomacy in a changing world and what he believes can determine the fate and destiny of nations. He shares his knowledge of fluent Berlinery - the unique system of agreements and rituals in the occupied city. Recorded at LaBrea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, CA 16 Nov 2017** Ambassador Perina passed away on 18 June 2018. He’ll be missed and we are forever grateful for his kindness, candor and lifelong service.

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Los Angeles Mediator Lee Jay Berman Is Ripe to Share the Skill of Conflict Resolution Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

Though most in his profession are former attorneys, sought after mediator Lee Jay Berman recognized his keen ability to diffuse conflict and find resolution while working in corporate real estate. The skills he maintains, and teaches are highly applicable in the world of human intelligence and diplomacy. Listening, and identifying the underlying desires of opposing parties is an intuitive ability he’s used to resolve conflict and find compromise that leaves both parties with satisfaction and peace of mind. He also shares the darker side of how this intuition and skill can be used to exploit or prolong conflict. We talk about the paradox of current political division and the cognitive reward for reinforcing long held beliefs resentments. His work, classes and further reference can be found at his website mediationtools.com TR020

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