#8 Tim Weiner: Fear, Torture & The CIA's Strategic Failure After 9/11

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner joins Marcel Dirsus to discuss his book, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century. This episode is a deep dive into the CIA, the failures of the War on Terror, and the future of modern warfare. Weiner traces the agency’s evolution from the Cold War through 9/11, revealing how fear drove the CIA into torture, secret prisons, and paramilitary operations that reshaped America’s moral standing. He argues that while the agency has had tactical successes—like dismantling nuclear smuggling networks and stealing Vladimir Putin’s invasion plans for Ukraine—it faces a strategic crisis. The conversation warns of a catastrophic intelligence failure fueled by Donald Trump’s rejection of intelligence, ideological purges within the national security apparatus, and China’s surveillance-driven operations.Timestamps:00:00 – Vladimir Putin’s shadow war across Europe00:20 – Introduction: Tim Weiner & The Mission00:49 – The CIA after the Cold War and before 9/1101:01 – Ignored warnings about Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden02:59 – The Bush administration’s obsession with Saddam Hussein03:29 – Iraq, neoconservatives, and the democracy delusion04:20 – How 9/11 transformed the CIA04:49 – Fear, raw intelligence, and the road to war06:36 – Torture, black sites, and “enhanced interrogation”07:17 – How the CIA justified torture09:26 – Did torture actually work?09:41 – The A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling operation11:26 – Pakistan, the ISI, and playing both sides12:47 – The CIA’s lost focus on Russia and China13:14 – Russia, political warfare, and the 2016 election15:17 – Stealing Putin’s Ukraine invasion plans17:39 – CIA support for Ukraine before and after the invasion18:02 – Why subscribing helps the podcast18:15 – How the CIA rebuilt Ukraine’s intelligence services20:18 – Trump, Putin, and spheres of influence21:11 – Authoritarianism and the logic of force22:20 – Trump vs. intelligence agencies23:05 – Ideological purges inside the CIA25:35 – China’s intelligence services and surveillance strategy27:45 – CIA successes—and failures—against China29:04 – What CIA officers are really like31:38 – Democracy, dictatorship, and a personal warning31:49 – Closing remarksAbout The Next Best:Deep dives into geopolitics, international relations, and history with political scientist Marcel Dirsus. If you found this conversation valuable, please subscribe and leave a comment.