“Special Operations, FBI, NSC, et al” – Serial Collaborator Karen Schaefer (Part 2)

SpyCast

Education, News, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week’s episode focused on “Karen Schaefer, CIA Operator,” while this week’s episode looks at her time as a “Serial Collaborator.” Karen specialized in making sure the heart, brain, left hand and right hand had a better idea of what each was up to and were functioning in unison – whether as Director of Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council (NSC), in the leadership group at the FBI (then Director James Comey was fired two days after she arrived), or with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in a warzone. There is always a lot of focus on the arteries and veins of intelligence – this week we look a little more closely at the capillaries.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to The CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:13.0	Welcome to Spycast.
0:15.0	My name is Dr. Andrew Hammond, historian and curator here at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
0:23.0	Every week, Spycast explores a world of intelligence and espionage by bringing you in-depth conversations with spies, spy masters, intelligence officers and authors.
0:36.0	We explore the stories, secrets, tradecraft and technology of a world that looms beneath the surface of everyday life.
0:44.0	Welcome to this week's episode of Spycast.
0:48.0	Today we drop part two of a conversation with Karen Schaefer.
0:53.0	I have to be honest with you, this was one of those interviews that could easily have been released as six parts, but I thought it was best in the first instance to focus on two.
1:05.0	Last week we mainly looked at Karen's time as a CIA operator, where she served in Latin America, Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq.
1:16.0	This week, however, in part two, we're looking at Karen's time as a serial collaborator.
1:23.0	This included working alongside the DEA, special operations, serving as the director of intelligence programmes at the National Security Council,
1:34.0	and then closing out her career in government and the National Security Branch at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1:43.0	I hope you enjoyed this week's episode as much as I enjoyed speaking to Karen, who is truly a wonderful guest.
1:50.0	I went back and watched the Narcos episodes and it's so...
1:54.0	It's such a good show.
1:56.0	It's a great show, I have to say.
1:58.0	I knew quite a few of the people, it's just, but it is that it's so funny you forget.
2:03.0	I don't typically watch shows that have anything to do with work, because I find myself just the constant critic.
2:12.0	It drives me crazy. I'll be like, oh, no one would ever do that.
2:16.0	No case-offs would do that. That is so ridiculous. You'd need to do this.
2:20.0	I find that I can't actually enjoy the film for what it's meant to be, but I have to say I did go back and watch that.
2:29.0	What I found is I got through once, I couldn't keep watching it, though, because it brought me back to so many of the...
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