8/8: 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
⏱️ 7 minutes
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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.
1945 PAKISTAN
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a CBSi of the world. I'm John Bachelor. |
| 0:03.0 | Liza Mundi, very generously speaking with me of her rich new book. |
| 0:08.0 | It is the story of the sisterhood, the secret history of women at the CIA. |
| 0:12.0 | Sometimes they call themselves a sisterhood. |
| 0:16.1 | There were adventures plenty over 70 years, 80 years now, since the OSS was formed in the crisis of the Second War. |
| 0:25.0 | And whatever happened to, the senior officials who provided the information that warned and warned and warned of 9-11. |
| 0:33.0 | 9-11 was a sharp turn in the road and we haven't recovered from it. |
| 0:37.0 | Not yet. Not yet. |
| 0:39.0 | So whatever happened to? |
| 0:41.0 | We begin with Barbara Seud Sud, oh the Arabic scholar. Where is she now, |
| 0:46.0 | Liza? Well, she is retired and living in North Carolina. She stayed with the hunt for bin Laden |
| 0:52.0 | for a long time and until you know she was really well past retirement |
| 0:57.7 | age at that point but she hung on for a long time thinking that that you know that they might get him on her watch and |
| 1:06.1 | when she retired she did get a call from a colleague saying turn on the TV you |
| 1:11.3 | know it's been a good day at the office. |
| 1:14.0 | And our our super agent, Heidi August, where is she? |
| 1:20.0 | She's living in California, she is resourceful and well connected as ever able to put herself into a new community |
| 1:29.2 | and immediately begin to build ties and really serve her community when volunteer organizations. |
| 1:36.0 | And you know, as we talked about a number of the women who served in the clandestine service |
| 1:41.6 | in the Cold War really had to sacrifice having |
| 1:45.0 | families, having marriages, having children. And so the women take care of |
| 1:50.7 | each other. A number of them who are no longer alive were essentially |
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