It was a perfect week to have Philip Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst, on the podcast. Phil spent some 25 years at the highest levels of the CIA – reaching Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center – and FBI, where he was hired to be its first National Security Branch Deputy Director by Robert Mueller.
So when you have Mueller’s Congressional Hearings nine days ago followed by President Trump’s tweets five days later announcing his intention to replace our top intelligence chief with a Republican House member who, as the Washington Post wrote, has alleged anti-Trump bias at the FBI and Mueller’s team, directly accusing Mueller of violating “every principle in the most sacred of traditions” of prosecutors – when you have that and you want to know what in the world is the state of our national intelligence and law enforcement agencies, well, Phil Mudd is who you call.
But truth be told, that timing was mostly luck. The real reason I wanted to talk with Mudd: He has written an important, first of its kind book: Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World. Mudd not only takes us inside the CIA, but inside one of the most hidden parts of the CIA, the part known internally as “The Program”: The secret Black Sites where the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” and where our national debates on torture, waterboarding, counterterrorism, and the deep responsibility to prevent another attack were born.
How were those decisions made? How were they justified? What did CIA officers, deputy directors, directors – even people who interrogated prisoners – think and feel about what they were doing? And how do they feel about it now?
For show notes & my newsletter, go to chrisriback.com.
John Sides, political scientist and author of "The Gamble"
Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign
Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of "The Bully Pulpit"
Mark Halperin, co-author of "Double Down" and "Game Change"
Larry Sabato, University of Virginia's Center for Politics
Joe Scarborough, host of "Morning Joe" and author of "The Right Path"
Michael Beschloss on presidential second terms
Michael Beschloss, presidential historian
Jeff Greenfield on "If Kennedy Lived"
Jeff Greenfield, political analyst and historian
Gov. Howard Dean, Former DNC Chairman and Founder of Democracy for America
Ezra Klein, Washington Post Wonk Blog
Norm Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
Rick Klein, Political Director of ABC News
Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report
Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free