Michael Isikoff
@Isikoff
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Journalist, author, podcaster
Washington, DC
Joined July 2011
Tulsi Gabbard and I were in Damascus to meet with Bashar al-Assad within a couple of weeks of each other in 2017. We came away with very different takes.
spytalk.co
Trump’s DNI pick and I were both in Damascus in the winter of 2017 to meet with the dictator of Syria. We came away with very different takes
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RT @mswmediapods: ICYMI: @talk_spy podcast with hosts @SpyTalker & @Isikoff #MSWMedia 🕵🏼♀️ #SpyTalk. Guest: @jahimes. Listen: https://t.….
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"I don't like using 702 as a negotiating tool, but in the minority, it's kind of one of the cards I have to play," @jahimes tells us on the @talk_spy podcast.
spytalk.co
Rep. Jim Himes gets DNI’s attention with reminder she’ll need his help to renew controversial surveillance bill
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“I no longer had a functioning job. There was nothing for me to do anymore,” says the ex-senior counsel at DOJ’s domestic terror unit,on @talk_spy podcast, on why he just resigned.
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Amplifying what we wrote at @talk_spy, @geraldposner makes a powerful case that the entire @washingtonpost article about a supposed CIA-Oswald “connection” should be retracted
skeptic.com
In an era of intense political polarization and weaponized narratives, there always seems to be a conspiracy du jour. From claims of a COVID-19 “plandemic” to endless speculation about Jeffrey...
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"It was an astonishing, even bone-chilling claim, one that certainly deserved such prominent placement and implicit endorsement by The Post-- had it been true. But it was entirely false." @talk_spy
spytalk.co
The capital’s paper of record only partially claws back a conspiracy monger’s baseless allegations of CIA "involvement" in the murder of President Kennedy.
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Notable correction: @washingtonpost retracts claim in lede graf of last week’s front page story that CIA may have had “involvement” in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
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Some fascinating comments from Sue Miller, ex-CIA counterintel chief, about how Comey and the FBI tried to get the Steele dossier into the 2017 Assessment on Russian interference. (1)
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Folks really ought to read what Sue Miller, former CIA chief of countintelligence, has to say here-- about Ratcliffe, Brennan and, perhaps most surprisingly, Comey .
spytalk.co
Susan Miller, who captained 2016 election analysis, says there was ‘no coercion’ from CIA chief Brennan on Putin's interference—but was ‘pissed’ FBI insisted on Steele Dossier inclusion.
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Contacted Oswald or directed anybody to contact Oswald, zero evidence that Joanides was even aware of Oswald’s existence prior to the assassination! The CIA did plenty of nasty stuff during this period but killing JFK wasn’t one of them.Please folks,get a grip.
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We’re now at QAnon-level conspiracy nonsense. These new docs aren’t smoking guns. As @jeffersonmorley own lawyer, @MarkSZaidEsq has noted, they are nothingburgers: zero evidence of an “operational relationship” involving Oswald, zero evidence that anybody at CIA ever (1).
For decades, the media dismissed evidence of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, but new documents show the CIA surveilled JFK's alleged assassin for four years, who figured in six separate operations. The "lone gunman" theory is in shambles. The truth will out, says.@jeffersonmorley
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Interacted? Where does it say that?.
Not any ordinary Friday news disclosure but a 4th of July news dump. CIA finally admitting they knew and interacted w/Oswald pre-assassination.
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"I do wonder why she's still there," says Gregory Treverton, former chair of NIC, about @DNIGabbard on the @talk_spy pod. "She's plainly not part of the team and not trusted."
spytalk.co
In a SpyTalk interview Gregory Treverton, former chair of the National Intelligence Council, questions why the DNI still has her job–and whether her office should be substantially reduced in size.
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Inside Sam Tanenhaus’ 1018 page opus on WFB is a fascinating tale of Cold War spycraft, politics & journalism that begins in the early 1950’s when Buckley was an undercover CIA operative in Mexico City working for future Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt.
spytalk.co
A new biography of the National Review founder explores his early role as an undercover CIA operative who later helped his one time agency boss Howard Hunt cover up Watergate
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It turns out there was a whole other side to William F. Buckley, Jr.
spytalk.co
A new biography of the National Review founder explores his early role as an undercover CIA operative who later helped his one time agency boss Howard Hunt cover up Watergate
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Read all about it: Ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo sends me a "top secret" memo, strictly off the record, of course.
spytalk.co
Mike Pompeo’s pitch is just a glaring case of ex-intel officials getting involved in politics
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Sobering comments from @jahimes when @SpyTalker & I ask about the Tapper book. "Why was it verbotten inside the WH to say, this guy shouldn't run?" And when Harris refused to distance herself from any Biden policies, "it made her look like an idiot."
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