Tim Weiner

Has the U.S. Lost Track of the Spies in Our Midst? In an era of hacks and breaches, the game of spy vs. spy has changed.

It's a mess. My review: newrepublic.com/article/1709...

I finally had a chance to listen to this. Tight, straightforward interview with answers clear of politics, fake journalism or despair. I highly recommend it

Paraphrase: “President Trump is the single most dangerous thing to our national security

Iran Could Direct Proxies to Attack U.S. Targets Abroad, Officials Warn

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The CIA, the FBI, and much of the US intelligence and cybersecurity systems are in great disarray thanks to Trump and his minions. That raises the chances of a successful op if Trump really attacks Iran in coming days.

This conversation on @thesteadystate.org's new podcast with decorated CIA veteran Jim Lawler and yours truly is a warning you should heed....

The Steady State Sentinel: America’s “Strategic Self-Immolation” Listen now | Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author Tim Weiner about the state of U.S. national security, democracy, and the intelligence community amid unprecedented political upheaval.

The Steady State Sentinel Episode 13: America’s “Strategic Self-Immolation”
open.substack.com/pub/steadyst...

Trump has cut off almost all US military support, choked off humanitarian aid, and curtailed intelligence liaison to Ukraine. He is aiding and abetting Putin's killing. What we have here is a modern-day parallel to the Hitler-Stalin Pact, an alliance for the conquest of a European nation.

Reading geopolitics: The Folly and the Glory (2020) Tim Weiner's The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare, 1945-2020

Brief reflections on @tim-weiner.bsky.social's The Folly and the Glory, a brisk and unsettling survey of American-Russian political warfare (1945-2020) and some of the recurring pathologies of great-power projection: grayskythinking.substack.com/p/reading-ge...

In which the legendary CIA officer Jim "Mad Dog" Lawler and I survey the damage Trump's wrecking ball is wreaking on the national security of the United States.

Just can't quit it, can we? I'm writing advance obits of DCIs and DCIAs.

Artificial intelligence might well kill us all in time but human stupidity is doing it faster.

notorious radical left communist rag says tax the rich

A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS Secretary faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operations.

This devastating profile would be the end of Kristi Noem in an government capable of feeling a scintilla of shame.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump Administration Live Updates: President’s Border Czar Says Minnesota Enforcement Surge Is Ending

The people united will never be defeated.

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

Ron Wyden Only Talks Like This When The Spies Do Something *Real* Bad No, I don't know what they did. But I have a lot of experience with the senator

Wyden has been on the Senate intel committee for many years. The letter signifies that he's been briefed on a major CIA covert action -- as is legally required -- and the briefing was alarming. He wouldn't do this unless he believed a great deal is at stake.
www.forever-wars.com/ron-wyden-on...

Exclusive: US spy chief's office investigated voting machines in Puerto Rico A team working for President Donald Trump's spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, last spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico's voting machines, said Gabbard's office and three sources familiar with the pre...

US intelligence -- of which this wingnut is the titular head -- has no damn business meddling with voting. This madness flows from lunatic conspiracy theories. What Gabbard's doing here (and in Georgia) is an attack on our democracy and our freedom. It has to stop.

www.reuters.com/world/americ...

I wrote that book, and @audacityofdespair.bsky.social has had it under option for fifteen years, and no suit will touch it. Too real. However I know it will see the screen, as did the Civil War and The American Revolution. Watch this space.

Ah, the silent majority. Somewhere, Richard Nixon is looking up and smiling.

Gabbard, a crazed conspiracy theorist, doing dirty work for Trump. He almost crashed the intelligence community chasing this chimera in 2020. His tools back then were Ratcliffe and Patel, now running CIA and FBI. This wild goose chase is insanity. And a direct threat to free elections in November.

YouTube video by Randy Newman - Topic Political Science (2002 Remaster)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5mA...

Cold-blooded murder by Trump’s stormtroopers.

They would have surmised that the President of the United States was acting as an agent of influence for the Kremlin.

The "paid protesters" libel goes back to the '60s. LBJ and Nixon thought (wrongly!) that Moscow and Beijing financed US antiwar and civil-rights movements. They ordered CIA and FBI to spy on Americans. The result? A seven-year assault on the Constitution.

And Nixon's downfall.

From 9/11 to Prisoner Swaps, a History of the 21st Century CIA In his new book, Tim Weiner sets about on the difficult task of chronicling the 21st century history of the CIA.

From 9/11 to prisoner swaps, a new book takes on the complicated task of chronicling the CIA's 21st century history:

inkstickmedia.com/from-9-11-to...

The CIA: A Short Course in Secret Power How does the US run a secret intelligence service in an open democracy? Join Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, to explore the CIA over 5 decades spanning Vietnam and Watergate, the conflicts in Central America, the search for a mission after the cold war, the advent of al Qaeda, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, secret prisons and torture, the threat of Russian and Chinese spies, and today’s assaults on American intelligence under Trump.

Want to learn about the CIA from the guy that wrote the book? I'm teaching six online classes on the world's most famous secret agency in January and February. Sign up here...and see you there!
roundtable.org/live-courses...

I recommend the @tim-weiner.bsky.social book The Mission, a history of the CIA this century. Incredible sourcing, lots of good anecdotes. Includes a fascinating story of the greatest intel op in history, the Russian effort to elect Trump in 2016, what the USG knew about it, and its failure to act.

If the United States Constitution doesn’t protect you from a federal agent shooting you in the face for the “crime” of turning your car around, it doesn’t exist. ICE has become a paramilitary force with zero oversight and a Secretary in Kristi Noem who encourages the chaos. ENOUGH.

Hard to see how this isn’t murder by a federal agent.

The CIA: A Short Course in Secret Power How does the US run a secret intelligence service in an open democracy? Join Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, to explore the CIA over 5 decades spanning Vietnam and Watergate, the conflicts ...

I'm teaching a course on the CIA, through Roundtable, starting in two weeks. It's based on LEGACY OF ASHES and THE MISSION. This dangerous moment in history might be the time to sign up.
roundtable.org/live-courses...

Aldrich Ames, C.I.A. Turncoat Who Helped the Soviets, Dies at 84

My NYT obit on Aldrich Ames, CIA turncoat for the Russians. I interviewed him in the county lockup after his arrest in 1994, then by telephone for eight hours. Deluded, deeply alcoholic, he thought he could lift up the hood of history and tinker with the engine.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...