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SpyCast

Campus Cloak-and-Dagger: Spies Targeting American Universities

SpyCast

SpyCast

News, Education, History

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For decades, colleges and universities have been a destination for espionage. Especially in recent years, the use of international students and faculty as spies on American campuses has been particularly daunting. Why do intelligence services, both foreign and domestic, target colleges and universities? And what is there to gain on these campuses? Award-winning journalist Daniel Golden, author of the book Spy Schools, describes the timeless game.  If you liked this episode, check out these links: Secret History of History: Color Wars Part II with Catherine McKinley Chinese Corporate Espionage - The Tale of the Tea Thief with Sarah Rose Declassified Dessert | How to Make Cuban Spy Ana Montes’ Cheesecake Queen of Cuba with Peter J. Lapp SpyCast | “Making Sense of China, Taiwan, & America” – Pacific Intelligence with Bonny Lin Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by E-mail at [email protected],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.0

Welcome to Spycast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum. I'm your host, Sasha

0:39.9

Inber, and each week I take you into the shadows of espionage, intelligence, and covert

0:45.7

operations across the globe. It may surprise you to know that for decades, schools have been a destination for espionage,

0:56.2

especially in recent years, the use of international students and faculty as spies on American

1:01.8

campuses has been particularly daunting. Why do intelligence services, both foreign and domestic,

1:09.2

target colleges and universities? What is there to gain on

1:13.1

these campuses? To talk to us about this, we've brought in award-winning journalist Dan Golden,

1:19.4

author of the book Spy Schools. Dan first came across this practice while working at Bloomberg.

1:25.5

He was covering a story about a professor who was teaching at

1:28.4

the University of South Florida, and the professor was in trouble over personal issues, things like

1:35.0

porn on his computer and financial troubles. The FBI smelled blood, and they gave the professor

1:42.2

an ultimatum, lose everything or spy on his Chinese peers.

1:47.7

So, Dan, thanks for being here. What stood out to you about this story?

1:53.1

I was talking to a friend of mine in the FBI, and I said, is this an isolated instance?

1:58.5

He said, no, this happens all the time, but it's a two-way street.

2:02.4

There's this underground spy war on American campuses. Foreign countries are trying to gather

...

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