Covert Contact

My first episode (Obey) gave me, a civilian, considerable pause, when the guest compared how her children come to her to chat/negotiate a later curfew with a soldier who might want to chat/negotiate the use of helicopters and going in without unit identification unidentified to quell protests in DC, Portland, you name it, with his commander. The power dynamics and the response times in play are worlds apart. No soldier ordered to climb into their helo during an active citizen conflict on the streets is going to “chat” with his superior about the Constitutionality of his orders. In addition, the top down encouragement of the current Executive Branch for maximum authoritarian measures against citizen demonstrators poisons the climate for any commander who might otherwise want to pause to consider the broader Constitutional implications of demonstration suppression tactics. As a 75-year old, I’ve seen the “Obey” issue dealt with poorly both during our several off-shore wars and in our many citizen street protests. The moms in the military aren’t negotiating teenage curfews - they’re being asked to set the rules of engagement for grownups against grownups. Slanted education of commanders about the thorny “Obey” issue is once again, as in the 60s, going to determine the national dynamic between citizen vs. military for the next facade or two. We’re approaching one of those cultural turning points once again, street by street. Not doing so well right now, guys...

The best podcast out there on national security issues.

This show is a rare find. It’s intelligent, fair and informative. It’s a text book example of focusing on the signal, not the noise. It would serve this country well if cable news could come anywhere close to the level of discourse this program consistently offers. Episode with Alon Pinkas is superb and look forward to seeing him more.

Hopefully there’s more episodes of this great intelligence podcast. They were heavily producing counterintelligence episodes in 2020 after a few years layoff. Hopefully there’s more episodes coming in 2021.