The List: What You Liked in ‘23

There were some surprises among the top 40 favorites of SpyTalk readers

“TOP 40” HAS A NOSTGALGIC RING FOR ME—it was a staple of my teenage rock-radio years. Does it even exist anymore in this era of multiple streaming music channels?

Our list of SpyTalk’s “most popular” stories, meanwhile, as measured by the Substack algorithm that compiles reader clicks, is about as objective as pop music sales figures before Billboard started including rap and hip hop via big-box stores like Walmart. Which is to say, quality isn’t everything: Timing counts for a lot. Extraneous events certainly influence what readers choose to look at—the shocking war between Israel and Hamas, for example, which drew a spike in our traffic.  Stories related to China also always play well, too, and not just with U.S. readers, because, well, it’s China—big. (We’re now read in 183 countries and all 50 states, Substack also tells us.)

Another thing to factor into our Top 40 list is the sheer number of stories by particularly prolific contributing writers, like Jonathan Broder, our terrific expert on all things Middle East, and Matthew Brazil,  coauthor of the authoritative Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer. We’re lucky to have such brilliant talents on our masthead. I’d like to think I landed several spots on the Top 40 list sheerly out of my own superior talents, but, without admitting otherwise, the fact is I just write more than anybody else. (It’s my job.)

What did come as a bit of surprise was impressive reader interest in lingering mysteries related to Saudi involvement with the 9/11 hijackers.  Seth Hettena’s scoops always did very well, as you’ll see from the rankings below. The works of a handful of newcomers—historian Derek Leebaert, US-Mexico specialist Dolia Estévez, former Army intelligence spook and VOA writer Gary Thomas, propaganda expert Emma Briant, and retired longtime CIA ops officer Doug London—also made the Top 40.

Some of my favorite pieces did not make the readers’ Top 40, but added sparkle, heft and longtime value to our modest enterprise. These were the book and film reviews by Henry Allen, a Pulitzer Prize winner (for criticism) during his decades at The Washington Post,  Peter Eisner, a prolific investigative author and former deputy foreign editor at the paper, and Adam Zagorin, a former longtime senior correspondent for Time and, later, senior journalist at the watchdog Project on Government Oversight.  We’re proud as heck to have them as regular contributors. Do yourself a favor and do a search for more of their SpyTalk bylines.

But now, without further ado, the 40 most-read stories here in 2023 . . .

1. Exclusive: FBI Agents Accuse CIA of 9/11 Coverup 

Previously unreported interviews filed in court claim CIA is hiding information relating to a failed 'recruitment' effort SETH HETTENA MAR 22, 2023