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Justin Black

SPYCRAFT 101

Today Justin sits down with Tim Willasey-Wilsey Tim is a visiting professor of War Studies at King's College London, and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He served for many years as a foreign office diplomat in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in the national and international press, and for academic institutions and think tanks. He's here today to discuss the story of William de Ropp, who successfully earned the trust of members at the highest levels of the Nazi party in the 1930s, including Hitler himself prior to the beginning of World War II.

Connect with Tim:

kcl.ac.uk/people/tim-willasey-wilsey-cmg

Check out the book, The Spy and the Devil, here.

https://a.co/d/3kfZJoK

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

Subtack: spycraft101.substack.com

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.

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

214. The MI6 Spy at the Heart of the Nazi Regime with Tim Willasey-Wilsey

Today Justin speaks with Reality Winner. Reality enlisted in the US Air Force after high school and served as a cryptolinguist assigned to the National Security Agency where she translated audio recordings in Pashtu and Dari from Afghanistan. Following her first enlistment, she was hired as a private contractor working at a different NSA facility in Augusta, Georgia. In June, 2017, she was arrested after leaking a classified report to The Intercept media outlet. Her story became a media sensation, and since then, she has been the subject of a 2021 documentary, as well as two film adaptations released in 2023 and 2024. She's here today to discuss her life, her arrest, and her incarceration, which she wrote about in her new memoir titled, I Am Not Your Enemy.

Connect with Reality:

IG: @reazlepuff 

Check out the book, I Am Not Your Enemy, here.

https://a.co/d/7WPCba5

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

Subtack: spycraft101.substack.com

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.

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

213. Beyond the Leak: Life, Justice, and Redemption with Reality Winner

Today Justin sits down with Jen Gatien. Jen is a filmmaker and producer based in New York City. Some of her film credits include Hound Dog starring Dakota Fanning and Robin Wright, Holy Rollers starring Jesse Eisenberg, and For Ellen starring Paul Dano. In her spare time, Jen serves as a board member on the Lower East Side Girls Club, as well as a volunteer for Pup Stars Dog Rescue and the Mercer Houston Dog Run. She's here to discuss her new documentary film, Men of War, which is debuting this week on streaming video on demand services. It's the story of the Ill-fated Operation Gideon, which took place in May, 2020. A small group of former Army Special Forces soldiers teamed up with Venezuelan rebels to stage a coup against the government of Nicholas Maduro. But the plan went awry immediately and nearly everyone involved was either killed or arrested, which further inflamed tensions between Venezuela and the United States. 

Connect with Jen:

IG: @deerjen

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

Subtack: spycraft101.substack.com

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.

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

212. Operation Gideon: Inside the Failed Venezuelan Coup with Jen Gatien

Today's episode is another solo episode where Justin shares his own research with you. This time he's talking about Ralph Sigler, a US Army warrant officer, and one of the best double agents in Army history who died under mysterious circumstances in a Maryland hotel room in 1976. We briefly discussed Sigler's death way back in episode 76 in December, 2022, but Justin decided this case was worth a much more in-depth exploration. Once you finish this episode, if you'd like to learn more, checkout his article about the case along with photos and the bibliography on Patreon page or Substack.

Read the article on Justin's Substack page here: https://spycraft101.substack.com/p/death-of-a-double-agent

Or find it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/death-of-double-137703109

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

Subtack: spycraft101.substack.com

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.

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

211. The Mysterious Death of Double Agent Ralph Sigler

This week Justin sits down with Robert Kerbeck. Robert is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in theater, film, and television, appearing in lead roles in major shows, and earning several awards. He is a lifetime member of the Actor's Studio. He's also the founder of the Malibu Writers Circle and the author of Malibu Burning: The Real Story behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire. His first account firsthand account of fighting the Woolsey Fire, which devastated the area surrounding Malibu, California in November, 2018. He's here today to discuss the story of his many years of work in corporate espionage cold calling employees at major firms and convincing them to give out proprietary company information over the phone. Robert started out earning just $8 an hour in an apartment in New York City and ended up making over $2 million a year in Malibu.

Connect with Robert:

robertkerbeck.com

IG: @robertkerbeck

Facebook: Robert Kerbeck

LinkedIn: Robert Kerbeck

Check out the book, Ruse: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street, 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.
History by Mail
Who knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.

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

210. From Hollywood to Corporate Espionage with Robert Kerbeck

Today Justin sits down with Dr. Aviva Guttmann. Aviva has worked as a visiting researcher in war studies in King's Intelligence and Security Group, and a Marie Curie senior researcher at the Center for War Studies at Southern Denmark University. She's also worked for the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces where she managed product projects on police cooperation in the Western Balkans. She's currently a lecturer in strategy and intelligence at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Aviva is also the founding founder and chair of the Women's Intelligence Network, which connects and promotes women, scholars and practitioners in the field of intelligence studies. She's here today to discuss the story of how Israeli operations targeting the Black September terror group following the Munich Olympics massacre, where aided both wittingly and unwittingly by European intelligence agencies. 

Connect with Aviva:

Bluesky: @guttmannaviva.bsky.social

Twitter/X: @guttmannaviva

Check out the book, Operation Wrath of God: The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad's Assassination Campaign, here.

https://a.co/d/5R2vvUx

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

209. Europe, Mossad, and Operation Wrath of God with Dr. Aviva Guttmann

This week Justin's guest is William "Bill" Ray. Bill is a retired army major and a Department of Defense civilian with more than 50 years of service as an intelligence and counterintelligence officer, including 20 years in Europe. During his career, he spent over three and a half years as a remote viewer at Fort Mead, including as the unit commander from 1985 to 1987, along with my previous podcast guest, Dr. Paul Smith from episode 201. Bill is hear to discuss his decades counterintelligence, both during and after the Cold War and his experiences as a remote viewer with Project Star Gate. 

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

208. From Cold War Counterintelligence to Project Star Gate with Bill Ray

Today Justin talks to Shaun Walker. Shaun worked as a reporter in Moscow for more than a decade starting in 2007, first for The Independent and later for The Guardian. He now lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he is the Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Guardian, and mostly covers the war in Ukraine. Besides his many articles for The Guardian and other media outlets, he's also the author of The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and The Ghost of the Past. He's here this week to discuss his newest book which tells the story of decades of painstaking effort to select, train, and deploy a very small number of highly-effective spies all across the world, and their successes and failures at infiltrating Russia's greatest adversaries for years at a time. 

Connect with Shaun:

Twitter/X: @shaunwalker7

Check out the book, The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West, here. 

https://a.co/d/82GyXpt

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.
History by Mail
Who knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.

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

207. Russia's Sleeper Agents Infiltrating the West with Shaun Walker

Today Justin is joined once more by Tim Spicer. Tim served for 20 years in the British Army where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and saw active service in Northern Ireland, The Falklands Campaign, the Gulf War, and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus, and Germany. Today, he's back to discuss his own life and career, which has been full of danger and adventure as well. Tim wrote about it all in his autobiography which covers his service all over the world, as well as his work as the founder of a private military company not long after he left the British Army. 

Check out Tim's first appearance in ep 200: 'From Biffy to Bond: The Real Spy Who Inspired "From Russia, with Love"' here.

Connect with Tim:

timspicerauthor.com

IG: @timspicerauthor

Check out the book, An Unorthodox Solider, here.

https://a.co/d/6wZaj6Y

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.
History by Mail
Who knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.

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

206. Behind the Lines from Belfast to Sierra Leone with Tim Spicer

This week Justin welcomes Dr. Luca Trenta. Luca is an associate professor in international relations at Swansea University in Wales, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy. He's written extensively on covert action and assassination as tools of foreign policy. He's the host of the Out of the Shadows Podcast with nine episodes available now, and he has appeared on four episodes of the Secret Wars Uncovered series on the History Channel. This is Lucas's second appearance on the podcast. Today, he's back to discuss his research into the effects of covert action on the relationship between the US executive and legislative branches, specifically as it applies to Operation PB Success, the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954. PB Success took place during what could be called the Golden Age of Intelligence Operations, which also coincided with very little formal oversight by Congress. 

Check out Luca's first appearance on episode 150: 'The President's Kill List' here.

Connect with Luca:
swansea.ac.uk/staff/l.trenta
Bluesky: @lucatrenta.bsky.social
Check out the article, ' Secrecy and the Politics of Selective Disclosures: The US Government's Intervention in Guatemala', here.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2023.2279317

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.
History by Mail
Who knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.

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

209. Europe, Mossad, and Operation Wrath of God with Dr. Aviva Guttmann

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