The Steady State Sentinel

Veteran journalist Jeff Stein on the chilling effect of Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suits, the purge of the intelligence community, and why he's "cautious" about the future.
Host Jim Lawler sits down with Jeff Stein, the founding editor-in-chief of Spy Talk and a veteran journalist who has covered the intelligence community for over 40 years — and who earlier this year beat back a $1 million defamation suit brought by a Trump administration official. Stein shares the visceral reaction to being served on his front porch on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and why he knew from the start his reporting would hold up.
He explains how the Trump administration has weaponized litigation against journalists, and warns that this creates a chilling effect on sources and reporters alike. He expresses concern regarding the "raw mass firings" of intelligence professionals who served under Democratic administrations — a radical departure from past practice — and the counterintelligence nightmare this creates.
He warns that the Iran war is a strategic disaster, that Trump "seems mesmerized by Netanyahu," and that the decimation of CISA and the undermining of NATO are genuine threats. He closes with his view of the upcoming elections: "Trump is a national security threat, and the Democrats... that's our only vehicle for getting rid of this national security threat."
Guest info: Jeff Stein is the founding editor-in-chief of Spy Talk, an independent Substack outlet and podcast covering U.S. intelligence, defense, and foreign policy. Before going independent, he wrote the Spy Talk column at Newsweek and earlier founded the CQ Homeland Security column at Congressional Quarterly. He is the author of three books, including A Murder in Wartime and Saddam's Bomb Maker. From 1968 to 1969, he served as a case officer with the 525th MI Group in Vietnam, running a network of spies against communist forces and was awarded a Bronze Star.
Episode Transcript

Veteran journalist Jeff Stein on the chilling effect of SLAPP suits, the purge of the intelligence community, and why he's "cautious" about the future.
Host Jim Lawler sits down with Jeff Stein, the founding editor-in-chief of Spy Talk and a veteran journalist who has covered the intelligence community for over 40 years — and who earlier this year beat back a $1 million defamation suit brought by a Trump administration official. Stein shares the visceral reaction to being served on his front porch on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and why he knew from the start his reporting would hold up.
He explains how the Trump administration has weaponized litigation against journalists, and warns that this creates a chilling effect on sources and reporters alike, with CBS, ABC, and the BBC all either caving or fighting back.He expresses concern regarding the "raw mass firings" of intelligence professionals who served under Democratic administrations — a radical departure from past practice — and the counterintelligence nightmare this creates.
He warns that the Iran war is a strategic disaster, that Trump "seems mesmerized by Netanyahu," and that the decimation of CISA and the undermining of NATO are genuine threats. He closes with his view of the upcoming elections: "Trump is a national security threat, and the Democrats... that's our only vehicle for getting rid of this national security threat."
Episode Transcript

A former U.S. Ambassador and Los Angeles Deputy Mayor on why local leaders are democracy's front line, how cities can resist authoritarianism, and what you can do to help.
Host Lauren Anderson sits down with Ambassador Nina Hachigian, founder and CEO of the Alliance for Local Leaders International, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and connecting mayors and governors globally to solve shared challenges. Drawing from her recent Foreign Affairs article, "The Autocrats' Worst Enemy," Hachigian explains why mayors are the most trusted level of government (70% trust, held for decades) and how in autocracies around the world, they have served on the front lines to protect democratic freedoms.
She shares harrowing examples: the mayor of Gdańsk assassinated for his support of LGBTQ rights; the mayor of Caracas jailed for leading protests; and Istanbul's mayor thrown in jail and facing 2,000 years of sham charges. She discusses how the current US administration is using classic authoritarian tactics including weaponizing federal funding against states and cities that didn't support the president’s election.
She offers hope through local innovation (participatory budgeting) and civic engagement–volunteering, connecting and communicating with local representatives, and the simple act of getting to know your neighbors. Her message: "Mayors are the canaries in the coal mine," when assessing the health of our democracy. And local democracy is where renewal begins.
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A former CIA officer on China’s espionage successes, America’s IP losses, and the growing threat to the U.S. economy.
Host John Sipher sits down with his former CIA colleague Glenn Chafetz, now Director of the 2430 Group, a nonprofit focused on state-sponsored espionage against the economy. Chafetz explains how technology has transformed espionage — from the days of clandestine meetings in parking garages where “if you didn’t get caught red-handed, you didn’t get caught” to a world where "commercial surveillance far outstrips government surveillance" and the changes the technological expansion required of the CIA.
He describes China's coordinated, party-state, intentional, and purposeful effort to steal American intellectual property (IP) calling China’s intelligence service "the single most successful intelligence organization in the history of the planet." He argues that American companies are losing the IP war because their focus on quarterly profits prevents them from calculating the significant long-term cost of stolen technology and making needed investments in counterintelligence efforts that would protect their IP.
He warns that China's informal network of autocracies — Russia, Iran, North Korea — functions as a modern "Axis of Evil," and that the U.S. is destroying its own alliance network at the worst possible time. He closes with advice for companies: You have to become sufficiently expert in economic espionage, counter-espionage, counterintelligence, because if you don't, your competitors will.
Guest info: Glenn Chafetz is the Director of the 2430 Group, a nonprofit providing research and advice on state-sponsored espionage efforts against the US economy, and publisher of the tRed Report, the organization’s recurring intelligence/geopolitical brief . He served at the State Department and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency before spending much of his 30 year government career at the CIA which included three tours as Chief of Station.. He became the first person to oversee the Agency’s program of espionage tradecraft in the age of technological expansion.
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A former CIA analyst and NSC director on the weaponization of the DNI, the decapitation of the NSC, and why dissent is no longer tolerated.
Host Bree Fram, a retired Space Force colonel, sits down with Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience who served as an National Security Council (NSC) director in the Biden and second Trump White Houses and as a presidential daily intelligence briefer to Vice President Pence.
Curlee explains how intelligence was designed to work — raw reports transformed into context-rich analysis to help policymakers make informed decisions — and how that system has been systematically dismantled. She describes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as a "loaded gun waiting on the table" that has been weaponized under Tulsi Gabbard and Bill Pulte, and warns that the NSC's coordination function has been "decapitated," leading to catastrophic planning failures in the run-up to the Iran war.
She reveals how the head of the National Intelligence CounciL (NIC) was fired for delivering an assessment that didn't align with Stephen Miller's desired narrative, and how this has taught analysts that "any form of dissent" will be held against them. She closes with a sobering assessment: the Iran war is a strategic blunder that rivals Iraq, the U.S. has no good way out, and it will take decades to rebuild the trust that has been destroyed with allies and partners.
Guest info: Julia Curlee is a former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience in national security. She served as an NSC Director in the Biden and second Trump White Houses and as a presidential daily intelligence briefer to the Vice President. She completed multiple tours in the Middle East and South Asia and served in the CIA's China Mission Center. She holds master's degrees from the National War College and American University and is currently a public service fellow at Lawfare.
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