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Podcast Spies Like Us

The podcast where everyone knows your name…but it is an alias

Season 2 Episode 34 – We are guys in a bar chatting about national security but we could not hold a candle to George Wendt This week the guys talk cast off the covers on cover names, challenge CT success claims, and honour the best-known guy to hang out in a bar talking about life […]

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Podcast Quick Hits

Don’t shoot the intelligence messenger!

Episode 263 – If intelligence doesn’t jive with your world view, maybe that view has to change We are inundated with information at levels impossible to process. Much of this is dis- or misinformation and it is a full-time job just trying to distinguish fact from fiction (AI-generated garbage and deep fakes, both of which […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Can the state call a popular political party an ‘extremist’ organisation?

Episode 272 – What will the German government decision to label the AfD backfire? That extremist/terrorist groups can form political parties – and in some cases actually govern – is not unknown. Hamas ran Gaza until the Israeli invasion in October 2023, Hizballah controlled much of southern Lebanon and even ISIS created a so-called ‘Caliphate’ […]

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Podcast Spies Like Us

Is US ‘transactional intelligence’ just ‘plane’ stupid?

Season 2 Episode 33 Back in the saddle after a short last week, the guys delve into the undermining of the US intelligence community by the Trump administration, the dangers of accepting airplanes as ‘gifts’ and why Latvia is helping its citizens identify Russian spies. And lots of golden references…. Former FBI Director James Comey […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

The journey from military practitioner to author

Episode 271 – Why practitioners can make good writers Yes I am biased – as a 32-year veteran of intelligence – but I do think (ex)-practitioners have a lot to say when it comes to national security and international affairs. Those who were ‘at the coalface’ have a lot to say and have the advantage […]

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Podcast Spies Like Us

The shrinkage episode

Spies Like Us Season 2 Episode 32 Unfortunately, Phil decided to swim in 10 degree Celsius water this week and as a consequence the episode is much shorter than usual. The guys weigh in on the vehicular attack in Vancouver. ‘Tragedy all around’: Murder charges follow Vancouver festival attack that killed 11 | National News […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

The (in)humanity of war drones

Episode 270 – Is drone warfare changing how we see armed conflict? If the war in Ukraine is teaching us anything it is that drones – both surveillance ones as well as those that fire missiles at the enemy – are changing the landscape. Their small size, cheapness (i.e. they are not expensive to build […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Just how bad is anti-Semitism getting in the West?

Episode 269 – Post October 2023 Hamas attack violence against Jews is growing The Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 was a horrendous blow to that nation and proportionately bigger than 9/11. And yet, unlike the attack on the US, it was celebrated by many in the West as a legitimate action. […]

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Podcast Spies Like Us

Canadian politicians SITEless on national security

Spies Like Us – Season 2 Episode 31: the election episode In the guys’ election episode they talk about where the debate on national security has been during the campaign (hint, hint: nowhere) and why you should not mark your ballot with the eraser end of the pencil. Also why Spies Like Us is ‘inSITEful’! […]

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Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What are the terrorist trends in France?

Episode 268 – France appears to suffer from a much higher terrorist threat than other Western nations Of all the nations normally associated with the ‘West’, France is the one which seems to dominate the headlines when it comes to terrorism. Bataclan/Stade de France (2015), Nice (2016), Charlie Hebdo, teacher beheadings…the list goes on and […]