Target USA Podcast by WTOP

Target USA Podcast by WTOP


Latest Episodes

Target USA -- Episode 171: EUCOM's fight against cyber threats
May 29, 2019

Brigadier Gen. Maria Biank talks with Target USA about the U.S. European Command's efforts to defend against cyber threats.

Target USA -- Episode 160 | EXCLUSIVE: Maria Butina's attorney speaks out about her case
March 13, 2019

Maria Butina, a young Russian woman, pleaded guilty to charges that she was working as an illegal agent of the Russian Federation in the U.S. Her lawyer Robert Driscoll joins Target USA to talk about why she did that and the possibility...

Target -- Episode 159: Exclusive interview with DIA Director Robert P. Ashley Jr.
March 06, 2019

In a world that seems to be careening out of control, what keeps the intelligence official whose job it is to provide the U.S. government with "decision advantage" up at night? You might be surprised by his answer.

Target USA -- Episode 158: The Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam
February 27, 2019

President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un are meeting for the second time to try to put an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Former Special Envoy Joseph Detrani and the Nuclear Threat Initiative's Richard...

Target USA -- Episode 157 | Munich Security Conference: Global discord highlighted at critical security gathering
February 20, 2019

More than 600 high-level international decision makers from politics, business, academia and civil society along with throngs of media gathered in Munich for what was arguably the most important gathering in the 55-year history of the Munich...

Target USA -- Episode 156: Robert Cardillo's last interview as National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director
February 13, 2019

On Feb. 7 Robert Cardillo retired as director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. But, the day before he did that, he sat down with Target USA for a final time. And something he said was quite troubling -- true, but...

Target USA -- Episode 155: The impact of the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty
February 06, 2019

On Feb. 1, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. was going to withdraw from the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), negotiated in 1987 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev....

Target USA -- Episode 154: Russia denies jailed American access to US assistance
January 30, 2019

Paul Whelan is an American who was arrested on Dec. 28 in Moscow. The Russian government says he was caught red-handed committing espionage. But they've never said what he was doing -- except that he received a USB flash drive from...

Target USA -- Episode 153: The FBI and the impact of the government shutdown
January 23, 2019

Nancy McNamara is assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office. We continue the conversation we started with her in Episode 150. But in addition to the challenging work the FBI faces, its employees now have to face it...

Target USA -- Episode 152: Valerie Plame, former CIA covert officer, discusses why Paul Whelan's arrest is so serious
January 16, 2019

On our last podcast episode, we talked with David Whelan about his brother Paul Whelan's detention in Russia on what many believe are bogus charges. The Russian government says he was caught in the act of committing espionage. But on...