Today Justin speaks with Luis Baptistella. Luis is a specialist in intelligence and counterintelligence, and a retired officer of the Brazilian Navy, where he attained the rank of captain during a distinguished 35-year career. He also served on a US Navy ship in the late 1990s during the conflict in the Balkans, studied at the National Defense University in China, and served as a military attaché in West Africa.

In November 2020, he founded Bravus Consultoria, a consulting firm focused on business intelligence and corporate counter intelligence for the Brazilian market. He’s here to discuss his career in the Navy and his later work as a private intelligence consultant. He has also written about intelligence threats, history, and strategies in his book, which is available now.

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
Substack: spycraft101.substack.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.

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This week Justin talks with Rory Cormac. Rory is a professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, specializing in covert action and secret statecraft. He's also given presentations at Number 10 Downing Street, the UK Ministry of Defense, the US State Department, and the Pentagon. Besides his teaching career, he has authored or co-authored many books focusing on British history, covert action, and statecraft. You might remember Rory from his first appearance here on the podcast when we discussed his book Disrupt and Deny. Now, Rory is back to talk about his newest book, Fakers, which covers the British government's Information Research Department, a Cold War era organization dedicated to producing and disseminating black propaganda worldwide.

Check out Rory's first appearance in Ep 107: British Covert Action.

Connect with Rory:
LinkedIn: Rory Cormac
Check out his book, Fakers, here.
https://a.co/d/08lUc74v

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
Substack: spycraft101.substack.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.

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Today Justin sits down with Kirillo Alexandrov. Kirillo grew up in the United States, but moved to Kherson, Ukraine in 2018. In April 2022, following the Russian invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine, Kirillo was taken prisoner. He was held for 37 days on charges of espionage, but was rescued by a small privately funded team led by Brian Stern. After a harrowing 20-hour journey across Ukraine, Kirillo crossed into Poland before safely returning to the United States. He’s here to discuss his capture, detention, and rescue, which resulted in indictments of four Russian service members by the Department of Justice on charges of war crimes.

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
Substack: spycraft101.substack.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.

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Today’s guest is Dr. Emrah Safa Gürkan. Emrah received his bachelor's and Master's degree from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and graduated with a PhD from Georgetown University in 2012. He's worked as a consultant for historical television series and co-hosted the Ottoman History Podcast with Chris Gian beginning in 2011. He also hosts the YouTube History Channel, Omnibus Live, which currently has nearly half a million subscribers. He's here today to discuss Ottoman intelligence operations throughout the Mediterranean.

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.

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Today Justin sits down with Eduardo Barreto. Eduardo is a high school teacher at Gulliver Prep School and an adjunct professor of English composition at Miami-Dade College. He's married with five children and lives in Miami, Florida. Eduardo has published several books and various subjects, including both fiction and non-fiction. He's here to discuss the life and wars of his "uncle" Angel Benitez, who he has written about in his book. Eduardo was also joined during this interview by Mercedes Benitez, Angel's wife of more than 60 years. You may hear her contribute to the conversation here and there.

Connect with Eduardo:
theteacherwriter.net
Check out the book, Rebel with a Cause: A Cuban in the Congo, here.
https://a.co/d/0cwKm2hT

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
Substack: spycraft101.substack.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.

Kruschiki
The best surplus military goods delivered right to your door. Use code SPYCRAFT101 for 10% off!

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Justin's guest for today is Sean Wiswesser. Sean is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in History and Russian and Slavic Linguistics. He also has a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the Air War College. Sean is a former senior operations officer and former Chief of Station with the Central Intelligence Agency and has served multiple overseas tours, including in war zones during his career. He's here to discuss his career with CIA, working inside and against the Russian Intelligence Services, which he has written about in his new book. In it,  he details lessons learned from more than 30 years in the intelligence community, working up close with Russian spies, dissidents, and defectors.

Connect with Sean:
LinkedIn: Sean Wiswesser
Check out the book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War, here.
https://a.co/d/0ckwvi9m

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin sits down with Mubin Shaikh. Mubin grew up in Toronto, Ontario in a family of Indian Muslim immigrants. As a young man, he was drawn down the path of radicalization after traveling to India and Pakistan and encountering Taliban fighters there. However, in 2004, he experienced a change of heart and soon began working with the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service to identify potential jihadis in Canada. In 2006, Mubin was the key witness in Canada's biggest ever homegrown terror investigation, which resulted in nearly 20 convictions. He's here today to discuss his experiences undercover with a terror group that later became known as the Toronto 18, which he wrote about in his book. Mubin's work was instrumental in securing convictions for the participants, but living a double life for more than two years also came at great personal cost to him.

Connect with Mubin:
parents4peace.org
LinkedIn: Mubin Shaikh
Check out the book, Undercover Jihadi: Inside the Toronto 18, here.
https://a.co/d/06jRj4HA

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today Justin talks with Dr. Damien Van Puyvelde. Damien is an associate professor and head of the Intelligence and Security Group at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, Netherlands. Before joining Leiden University, he led the Scottish Center for War Studies at the University of Glasgow. He is the author or co-author of several books, and co-editor. His work has also been featured in outlets such as Le Monde and The Washington Post. He's here to discuss his newest book, The DGSE: A Concise History of France's Foreign Intelligence Service, which is available now from Georgetown University Press.

Connect with Damien:
Twitter/X: @DamienVanP
Bluesky: @dvanp.bsky.social
LinkedIn: Damien Van Puyvelde
Check out the book, The DGSE, here.
https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/The-DGSE

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.

Kruschiki
The best surplus military goods delivered right to your door. Use code SPYCRAFT101 for 10% off!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.