Former Counterterrorism Officer Drew Berquist | Mike Ritland Podcast Episode 117
Mike Drop
Mike Ritland
4.9 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2022
⏱️ 167 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Drew Berquist is a complicated guy. Between his military work as a former U.S. Intelligence Officer in Afghanistan, his media work as a former CRTV and BlazeTV correspondent and current host of “This is My Show” w/Drew Berquist. What's not complicated is just how dedicated Drew is to his country, his friends, and his sources, even when things get hairy. Enjoy this episode of Mike Drop as host Mike Ritland unpacks his career in the Intelligence Community.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - CIA Orientation
04:00 - Kids in the 80's
12:00 - Football in Minnesota
19:00 - Making My Own Degree
23:30 - How to Apply for the CIA
31:00 - An Arabic-Speaking NSA Employee
41:30 - Language Barriers
45:30 - Navy-Adjacent Iraq Interpretation
50:30 - You Have to Protect Your Source
1:01:30 - A Human Intel Collector
1:11:30 - CIA-Certified Training
1:22:00 - War Dogs & Arms Dealers
1:27:00 - Interrogations
1:32:00 - Pul-e-Charkhi Prison
1:47:00 - You Son of a Gun, I'm In
2:00:00 - Definancing ISIS
2:11:00 - Extracting Shafi
2:33:00 - Getting Into Digital Media
2:38:00 - This is My Show with Drew Berquist
Support Drew Berquist:
Website: https://www.drewberquist.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrewBerquistThisIsMyShow
Rumble: https://rumble.com/DrewBerquist
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6uj7eNLZLHQIoDUzlazu8A
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drewtberquist
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A lot of times in that country or in a war zone like that, you'll get a walk-in. |
| 0:10.6 | Somebody volunteering. |
| 0:12.0 | Someone who volunteers, hey, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, I have access to them. |
| 0:16.3 | Yada, yada, yada, here's how. |
| 0:18.6 | Most of them are just trying to peddle information for money. |
| 0:22.1 | You'll have traditional mill at the base who kind of, that's them, make sure, hey, this |
| 0:26.1 | guy's not strapped with an ID, he's not gonna just clack off and kill people. |
| 0:32.6 | They're in a lot of danger. |
| 0:35.5 | Some of the people they hate more than anyone over there is the people who work with Americans, |
| 0:38.8 | not just Americans. |
| 0:41.3 | So then you start to do some clandestine meetings. |
| 0:43.2 | You'll set up locations, then you'll get a little bit more mousy and work on trade |
| 0:47.2 | craft and do clandestine pickups and go meet in secure places, which sometimes is back |
| 0:52.0 | at the base, but you'll, how you get them there is clandestine. |
| 0:56.8 | You want to, assuming you have, and even if you don't, assume that you do have a tail, |
| 1:02.8 | protect that source, because you gotta protect them. |
| 1:16.0 | Welcome to Mic Drop. |
| 1:17.8 | The podcast where relevancy is irrelevant and we don't give a shit about your feelings. |
| 1:25.2 | Ladies and gentlemen, as always, it's both an honor and a pleasure to welcome my next |
| 1:28.2 | guest to the podcast. |
| 1:30.4 | Over a 15 year period, he spent time at the NSA, the DIA and the CIA. |
| 1:36.3 | Is there any other three letter alphabet soup fucking organizations you're with? |
... |
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