John Kiriakou's Dead Drop

IN THIS EPISODE One of the most remarkable stories that no one knows - which is remarkable in itself - is the assassinatioin of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme on a Stockholm street on February 28, 1986. Palme's murder is to Sweden what JFK's is to America: a demarcation point between a sense of goodness and integrity, and corruption. As of now, the crime still remains unsolved - though much work has gone into trying to figure out who did this terrible thing and why. Though we may think the Cold War is a museum piece, we still live in the darkest part of its shadow. The assassination of Olof Palme wasn't just a dark day in Sweden's history. It was a dark day in lots of other places, too - including the United States - because the US may have been guilty of helping that assassination happen. In episode 1 of this 7 part series, we'll introduce you to the "Stay-Behinds", a secret, anti-fascist army made for World War Two but repurposed - and rebranded as anti-Communist - for the Cold War, with branches and combatants all over Western Europe. SHOW NOTES If you enjoy this podcast, please check out our social media: Insta - @deaddroppodcast And check out our other podcast offerings at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next podcasting binge is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE In the previous two Spy Academy episodes, we talked about liars and how to spot them. Now it's time to put all that knowledge to good use as we deep dive into interrogating a true psychopath, the former leader of Iraq Saddam Hussein. While it would be easy to see Saddam as an unsophisticated bumpkin, it also would be a profound mistake. Saddam may have struggled to understand American motives and actions in the lead up to the American invasion of Iraq, but he understood his corner of the world as well as if not better than anyone. As he stared across the table at his interrogator, Saddam believed he was the host and that the Americans were his guests. In fact, Saddam was so cagey that he managed to interrogate his interrogators even as they were interrogating him. This episode's guest, former intelligence officer John Nixon, had studied Saddam, for years; getting the chance to interrogate the man himself, truly a monster metaphorically speaking, was not just a career-defining moment, it was a personal triumph. SHOW NOTES If you enjoyed this podcast, please sample the rest of our podcast lineup at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, podcast, please check out the rest of Costard & Touchstone' s family of podcasts. They cover everything from journalism to Chinese medicine to culture to self help. Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE Welcome to John Kiriakou's Spy Academy! Whether chatting with someone informally or conducting a full-on interrogation, every spy needs to know whether or not the person they're talking to is being truthful with them. To get to the bottom of that, we'll start with defining our terms: what do we even mean by "lies" and "liars"? Whether we call them white lies, fibs, fabrications or whoppers, lies cover a lot of psychological territory. Before we can interrogate our liar, we need to understand just how many kinds of liars - and lies - we could encounter. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, podcast, please check out the rest of Costard & Touchstone' s family of podcasts. They cover everything from journalism to Chinese medicine to culture to self help. Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE Every whistleblower should know one thing before they step forward with their secrets that demand exposing - at some point, the legal system will engage with you. When that happens, each and every whistleblowerl will need a lawyer. John was fortunate enough to meet Jesselyn Radack early in his whistleblower journey. A whistleblower herself, Jesselyn has spent her career working for whistleblowers (all of them pro bono), making sure that government over-reach and corruption do not trample a whistleblower's legal rights or the important truth they're trying to convey. Having been a whistleblower herself, Jesselyn understands on a mitochoncrial level the run of emotions and thoughts every whistleblower experiences. This is another episode in our "Whistleblower's Roundtable" series. SHOW NOTES To learn more about Jesselyn Radack and WHISPeR'S important work - or to contribute to Jesselyn and WHISPeR's work, please click on this link ! By the same token, if you believe you have information that the public has a right to know - especially if it pertains to American national security - please reach out. We can help put you in touch with the right people who can help you - and keep you safe while doing it. If you enjoy this podcast, please check out the other podcasts in the Costard & Touchstone family! Your next podcast obsession may be just a click away! https://whisper.exposefacts.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE Welcome to Season 3! As the title of this episode suggests, season 3 will refocus the podcast on spying and, this season, on whistleblowing, too. We may be in a Golden Age of Corruption, but that's a future Golden Age of Whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is the cure for corruption and one of our goals this season is to make the podcast a safe space for whistleblowers - especially if they need to unburden themselves. While whistleblowing will eventually lead to John's re-emergence, when fresh out of prison, all anyone saw when John walked in the room was an ex convict. Rebuilding a life after prison is hard for everyone. John had the CIA and the FBI undermining him constantly. For John, that meant the rebuild of his life would be extra challenging. SHOW NOTES If you enjoy Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next favorite podcast is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE We draw the curtain on season 2 with a preview of season 3 wherein we'll ask "What Makes A Whistleblower Tick?" To get us kicked off, John roundtables with whistleblower Tom Drake. A longtime member of America's intelligence community, Tom had just become an official at NSA when 9-11 happened - literally on Tom's first day. But, as America's "War On Terror" ramped up, Tom noticed NSA was gathering intelligence that it shouldn't - information pertaining to American citizens. NSA doing that was both outside its charter and flat out illegal. Tom chose to go through authorized channels to report what he saw. When, a decade later, the problem was still a problem, Tom finally took what he knew to the news media. What makes a whistleblower tick? Judging by Tom Drake - the right stuff. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, please sample our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE We join with another podcast in the Costard & Touchstone Family - The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast - to explore how NOT to make a SPY movie. John and Alan Katz (he's both the host of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast and the co-writer/executive producer of this the Dead Drop podcast) talk about the spy TV series and movies that inspired them both when they were kids, in John's case, to become a spy, and in Alan's case, to want to write about them. And, they'll discuss the process of turning real life spy stories - like John's - into a movie or TV series. SHOW NOTES You can find The How NOT To Make a Movie Podcast everywhere you find your favorite podcasts or here. If you enjoy Dead Drop - and The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, please check out the rest of our podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE John's time at Loretto finally comes to an end - but not without a near hiccup. Though he's free of Loretto, he's not free from the federal Bureau of Prisons; John must report every day to "Hope Village", a halfway house - a situation loaded with ways to trip up and land back at Loretto. John begins the process of shaking off the prison persona he had to adopt in order to survive and relocating his true self. SHOW NOTES If you are enjoying this project, please check out the rest of our podcast offerings at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE When John first entered the gates of Loretto Federal Prison, his goal was to use all his training as a spy to survive prison. But, just as with spying, prison can be very unpredictable. In fact, John found that he'd been fooled by one of his roommates - who'd been betraying him from the jump. As he enters the home stretch of his sentence, John doubles down on his mission to use everything he learned as a spy to survive prison to the bitter end. SHOW NOTES If you enjoy this podcast, please check out our whole exciting range of podcasts at Costard & Touchstone Productions . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE At Loretto Federal Prison, John can almost see the light of his release date in the not-too-distant future. Returning to the Outside World will mean having to shed the prison persona John worked so hard to create - if only for survival purposes. Meanwhile in the outside world, the suibject of John's whistleblowing - the CIA's torture program - is finally getting its day in the court of public opinion as the Senate finally gets up the nerve to release its damning report on torture. Things are coming to a head. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying this podcast, please check out the rest of our podcasts at Costard & Touchstone Productions. Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE John was hardly the first person to point out corruption in America's penal system. Paul Wright was serving a 17 year sentence for murdering a drug dealer when, in May 1990, he started The Prison Legal News. Prison changes people; it changed Paul profoundly. He transformed from a rudderless young man into a veritable crusader for prison amd legal reform. SHOW NOTES Learn more about Paul Wright and The Prison Legal News here. If you're enjoying this podcast, please sample our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone Productions. Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE When he first arrived at Loretto Federal Prison to start serving his 30 month term, John expected to serve that term where the judge and prosecutor both advocated that John be in the minimum security camp. But someone at the Federal Bureau of Prisons decided that John was too dangerous - and assigned him to the actual prison instead. John was not even remotely dangerous. Not nearly as dangerous as the FBP is to every inmate in its charge. But, the FBP wasn't entirely wrong. John was indeed dangerous - but only to the FBP. SHOW NOTES If you enjoy this podcast, please check out all our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE With his out date - the end of his prison sentence - now starting to come into view (albeit still in the distance), John would have been best served by keeping his head down. But there remained unfinished business - with sevveral fellow prisoners and especially with the Soretto Prison authorities. And then there was all the unfinished business - all related to torture - happening outside Loretto. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying this show, please check out all our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE, meet Joey Casolo. These days, Joey owns a great pizzaria in South Carolina. But, back in the day, Joey was one of the greatest prison chefs ever at Loretto. If you remember from the movie Goodfellas, the Italians weren't interested in the prison chow. Instead they cooked their own food - gourmet Italian meals - all prepared using a rudimentary (and incredibly dangerous) cooking system: a bucket of water and a live electrical wire that makes the water boil immediately. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next podcast binge is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: How do you fight corruption when most of the corrupt deck is stacked against you? In John's case, he used his words - and the fact that becoming a federal prisoner does not mean you surrender your rights - like the one to free speech. The prison authorities genuinely feared John's power to expose them and their corruption and plotted endlessly to find ways to silence John and cut him off from the outside world and cut the outside world's access to him. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next podcast binge is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

THE BLURB: While John was serving his sentence, the American government faced the consequences of other whistleblowers speaking their truths about the corruption they'd encountered inside the government. One of the more prominent was Edward Snowden who blew the whistle on the NSA - the National Security Agency - and the fact that it was breaking the law, violating its charter and spying on American citizens by scooping up data on their phone calls. Snowden claimed that he'd been inspired in part by John's whistleblowing. In this episode, we'll tell Ed Snowden's story and how the two whistleblowers found common ground. SHOW NOTES If you enjoy Dead Drop, please check out all the other great podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next great podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

THE BLURB: In this bonus episode, John tells the story of a legal case in which he testified as an expert witness - against the FBI in a case against an accused terrorist. As John learned from personal experience, democracy and secrecy don't always play well together. The people holding the secrets tend to disregard democracy in order to protect their secrets. In this instance, the FBI went after a homeless man, determined - despite a complete lack of actual evidence - that he was a dangerous terrorist. Did John's expert testimony save the day? You'll have to listen to find out! SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying Dead Drop, please check out the other terrific podcasts at Costard & Touchstone . Your next podcast obsession is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE John arrived at Loretto Federal Prison having promised to write about his experiences for various independent news media outlets. He had no idea just how powerful that connection - John's prison experiences and the news media - would prove. In this episode, John tells the story of how his prison blog - "Letters From Loretto" - became a national sensation and an ever-more-damning indictment of the corruption inside our prisons and prison system. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts, visit us at Costard & Touchstone . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

THE BLURB: Already a succesful, best-selling author when the CIA put John in prison, he quickly realized that his writing - his words - were going to be his super power. John wasn't worried about his fellow prisoners; his training as a spy gave him advantages over them. But the prison authorities - corrupt to their marrow - did pose problems to John. Until they realized just how much of a super power John's writing was. Turns out, the pen is mightier than the sword and the corrupt federal prison system. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts, please visit Costard & Touchstone . Your next favorite podcast is just a click away! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.