Why subscribe?

Listen to what others say about SpyTalk:

“SpyTalk is entertaining, informative, and always well-sourced,” says former CIA officer Valerie Plame. “I'm a fan and relieved to have a reliable and thoughtful resource for all things espionage and intelligence related.”

“I turn to Spytalk for deep insights into today's events from experts in the know,” says former CIA analyst Diana Bolsinger, head of graduate intelligence studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. “I enjoy Spytalk's range of topics and the way Spytalk authors draw on history and personal experience to put developments into context. Add in the occasional flash of humor, and it's a great way to start my day.”

“I'm a subscriber, supporter, and huge fan of SpyTalk. I look forward to it landing in my Inbox every day,” says Ray Bonner, the acclaimed foreign correspondent and investigative reporter for The New York Times, staff writer at The New Yorker and contributor to The New York Review of Books. “Jeff Stein's intelligence sources have sources. His SpyTalk is the New York Times for intelligence reporting—and intelligent readers. And it's fun to read.”

“Congrats on what you've built SpyTalk into—a news source that breaks news, gets big guests, and is smartly deployed (I especially enjoy listening to the podcasts!),” says Mark Greenblatt, the award-winning investigative journalist for Scripps News who is now executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Really smart stuff.”

"I supported your work, because it is intelligent and balanced. I am a counterterrorism specialist, and have other experience,” subscriber Steve Paladin wrote while signing up.

Others:

* ”Great quality content”

* ”I am ex-CIA, retired military intelligence, and find it very interesting.”

* ”Great stuff, really wanted to read about the Yom Kippur war."

* "You provide a viewpoint and educate us on topics that would never really rise to the surface of regular media."

"Because there are a few good spy, reporting blogs."

"You are so important encountering Russian disinformation.”

* “Jeff, love your vision for this. Wanted to give you my support with a paid subscription.”

Now how about you?

Hi there, I’m Jeff Stein, the founding editor of SpyTalk here on Substack.

You may remember me as the Spytalk columnist for years at Newsweek, and before that, at The Washington Post and before that, Congressional Quarterly (where I was also the founding editor of the groundbreaking CQ/Homeland Security). In the 1980s I was deputy foreign news editor at UPI. Over the years I’ve also authored three books and freelanced investigative pieces for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, from the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe to GQ, Esquire, Playboy and Rolling Stone to The New Republic, Huffington Post, Salon.com and Foreign Policy.

I got started down this path by serving as a case officer with US Army intelligence in Vietnam. (My way of draft dodging.)

I’m blessed here by a team of veteran journalists and experts who offer original reporting, scoops and analysis on national security topics, with an emphasis on U.S. intelligence operations, both foreign and domestic. Among them:

*Henry Allen, a former U.S. Marine in South Vietnam and longtime feature writer at The Washington Post, who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2000. 

*Jonathan Broder, a former CQ foreign news editor, Newsweek writer and foreign correspondent for the A.P. and Chicago Tribune in the Middle East

*Matthew Brazil, a former US government officer in Beijing and co-author of the authoritative, Chinese Communist Espionage, An Intelligence Primer.

*John Dinges, a former NPR News managing editor, Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of Journalism Emeritus at Columbia University, and author of The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terror to Three Continents.

*Peter Eisner, a prolific investigative author and former deputy foreign editor at The Washington Post. Today he’s also co-host of the influential podcast, Unconventional Threat.

*James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor (shortened to three days for the hit 1975 Watergate-zeitgeist movie), and

*Maria Hartwig, professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Director & Co-Founder, Project Aletheia. She is an internationally recognized expert on deception, counter-deception, and interviewing and interrogation strategy.

*Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst on East Asia who now directs the security and intelligence studies program at King University in Bristol, Tennessee.

*Filip Kovacevic, a leading expert on the history of Russian intelligence at the University of San Francisco.

*Olga Lautman, analyst and researcher focused on Kremlin, organized crime, intelligence and Eastern Europe, and senior fellow at The Center for European Policy Analysis. Co-Host of Kremlin File podcast.

*Elaine Monaghan, former Reuters correspondent in London, Moscow, Kyiv, Minsk, Kosovo and Ireland, and Washington columnist for The Times. Co-author of On The Brink, the memoir of CIA officer Tyler Drumheller.

*Patricia Ravalgi, former staffer at the House Intelligence Committee, the FBI and the U.S. Central Command.

*Gus Russo, a nine-time author (including two books on the Kennedy assassination), documentarian, and musician. His latest book is his first fiction, Gaia.

*Frank Snepp, the former top CIA analyst in South Vietnam, who went on to become aPeabody-Award winning journalist specializing in national security issues. His CIA memoir, Decent Interval, triggered a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

*Adam Zagorin, former senior correspondent, TIME magazine.

Stars all. Subscribe to get full access to these writers and our website. Never miss an update.

Stay up-to-date

You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.

Join the crew

Be part of a community of people who share your interests.

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.

Share SpyTalk