Ghost Stories: The Hunt for Russian Spies in the US

SpyCast

News, Education, History

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 2000s, the FBI uncovered a team of Russian operatives who had been living double lives in the United States. They were posing as professors, journalists, financial planners, real estate and travel agents, all while sending information back to Moscow. Now, 15 years after they were arrested, Alan Kohler, the former Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, tells us what it was like to supervise the case which came to be known as Operation Ghost Stories. In this episode, Alan mentions a number of different photos and videos from the Ghost Stories investigation. You can view them all here through the FBI’s digital vault. If you liked this episode, check out these links: "The Minions": Putin's Expendable Spies Spy Chat with Chris Costa | Guest: Alan E. Kohler, Jr. Curator's Corner: Kevin P. Riehle on Russian Intelligence Prefer to watch your podcasts? Find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@IntlSpyMuseum/podcasts. 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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1:00.0	Welcome to SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum.
1:12.6	I'm your host, Sasha Ingberg, and each week I take you into the shadows of espionage,
1:18.6	intelligence, and covert operations across the globe.
1:22.6	In the early 2000s, a team of Russian operatives had been living double lives in the U.S.
1:30.2	They were posing as professors, journalists, financial planners, real estate and travel agents,
1:36.8	all while sending information back to Moscow.
	...

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