Of all of the Central Intelligence Agency's activities, paramilitary operations might remain the least understood. This, in part, is both a cause and a consequence of inaccurate portrayals of such work in prominent movies; it's also because fewer memoirs come from the CIA's Special Activities Division than from traditional human intelligence collectors and from analysts.
David Priess chatted with former CIA officer Ric Prado about the fiction and the reality of CIA paramilitary operations, including stories Ric tells in his book, “Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior.” They spoke about what Hollywood gets wrong about intelligence work, Ric's escape as a child from Castro's Cuba, his path to a CIA career, differences between paramilitary operations and intelligence collection, his years of work with the Contras in Central America, the Counterterrorist Center (CTC) at CIA before and on 9/11, the work ethic in CTC after 9/11, why his book has substantial chunks of redacted text, and who he thinks played the best James Bond.
Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced by David Priess with Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo, with additional editing by Cara Shillenn. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Lawfare Daily: Domestic Deployment of the National Guard
Trump Trials and Tribulations: N.Y. Trial Dispatch (May 2, 2024)
Rational Security: The “RatSecapella” Edition
Trump Trials and Tribulations: Weekly Round-Up (May 1, 2024)
Lawfare Daily: Protecting Information and Communications Technology and Services, with Director Elizabeth Cannon
Lawfare Daily: Dmitri Alperovitch on ‘World on the Brink’
Trump Trials and Tribulations: N.Y. Trial Dispatch (Apr. 30, 2024)
Chatter: How the Cold War Made Miami with Vince Houghton
Lawfare Daily: How Congress Passed the National Security Package with Molly Reynolds
Lawfare Daily: Justin Sherman on the Benefits and Limits of a New Law Governing Data Brokers
Lawfare Archive: TikTok, WeChat and Trump
Lawfare Archive: Jim Sciutto on ‘The Shadow War’
Trump Trials and Tribulations: N.Y. Trial Dispatch (Apr. 26, 2024)
Lawfare Daily: Presidential Immunity at the Supreme Court
Trump Trials and Tribulations: N.Y. Trial Dispatch (Apr. 25, 2024)
Rational Security: The “Don’t Call It a Comeback (Because I’m Technically Still on Leave)” Edition
Lawfare Daily: Trump Trials and Tribulations Weekly Round-up (Apr. 24, 2024)
Lawfare Daily: CYBERCOM Legal Conference: The Role of the Private Sector in Conflict
Trump Trials and Tribulations: N.Y. Trial Dispatch (Apr. 23, 2024)
Chatter: New Cold Wars with Journalist David Sanger
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
It’s Complicated
Deep State Radio
Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner
Morning Joe
City Manager Unfiltered