7/8: The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA Hardcover – October 17, 2023 by Liza Mundy (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2024
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
by Liza Mundy (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Sisterhood-Secret-History-Women-CIA/dp/0593238176/ref=asc_df_0593238176&mcid=d8b024f8944a3cfb869a04c0b84ba964?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80608071597838&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584207596928557&psc=1
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives.
They were unlikely spies—and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda—though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.
After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound.
1900 KARACHI
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is a series of monday and the world. I'm John Dotcher with the author Liza Monday, her new book, |
| 0:10.0 | The Sisterhood, The Secret History of Women at the CIA, following the attack on Washington and New York, the |
| 0:17.6 | Afghanistan War, following the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War. |
| 0:21.6 | It's now 2009 at a CIA station, advanced station in Kost, the province of Afghanistan of Afghanistan. |
| 0:34.0 | One of the CTC women is present as station chief. |
| 0:38.3 | Her name is Matthews. |
| 0:40.0 | And what's about to happen is both tragic and inspiration for the pursuit of bin Laden. |
| 0:48.0 | What is what is Coast Station? |
| 0:51.0 | How does it why does the CIA run that station inside a country |
| 0:54.8 | that's occupied by American forces? Well they're providing targeting |
| 0:59.7 | information for drone attacks into into Pakistan because just as you say we're in a period |
| 1:06.7 | now where the terrorists have found out all over the world terrorism has |
| 1:11.2 | multiplied and changed form terrorism has |
| 1:15.0 | the war in Iraq has led to the rise of ISIS. |
| 1:19.0 | So there it is no longer even just dealing with one organization. |
| 1:26.4 | There are offshoots al-Shabaab and sort of franchise terrorist groups that are franchise |
| 1:32.3 | to al-Qaeda and independent groups. |
| 1:34.0 | And so there's still a committed team, though, of targeters who are trying to find bin Laden. |
| 1:40.1 | bin Laden was in Afghanistan right after the 9-11 attacks. He was not killed in the war in |
| 1:47.2 | Afghanistan right after that and he along with many other of his Confederates disperse around the world and the |
| 1:53.7 | targeters have to find them all over again and Jennifer Matthews who was |
| 1:58.4 | there in the mid-90s working for Mike Schoyer has been with Alex Station from the get-go, who has matured, has developed |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.