"The Counterterrorism and Counter WMD Strategist" – with Dexter Ingram.

SpyCast

Summary

Dexter Ingram (LinkedIn; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his varied career. He has a very cool private collection of spy gadgets.

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• What spy gadget he would save if his house were on fire
• How the hunt for a spy artifact “gets his blood pumping”
• Using intelligence to achieve concrete policy objectives
• His preference for Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) while working with international partners

Reflections

• Vulnerability and trust
• Building and leveraging relationships

And much, much more…

Episode Notes

Dexter Ingram is the Acting Director at the Office of the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and in his spare time a passionate collector of intelligence artifacts and gadgets.

He has performed a variety of roles at the Department of State – he was on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, he was a Counterterrorism Coordinator at Interpol in Lyon, France, and has a deep interest in counterterrorism, counterproliferation and WMD. He was formerly a Naval Flight Officer and White House Intern with the US Navy and has studied at Hampton University, University of Oklahoma, and the National Defense University.

In part of our ongoing effort to look at consumers of intelligence as well as producers - i.e., who eats the sausages as well as who makes them - we touch on the various parts of Dexter’s career that intersect with intelligence.

And…

Hampton University, where Dexter studied for his undergrad, is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) in the United States. It sits near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (incidentally on the same peninsula as “The Farm,” a covert training facility for CIA operations officers). Many leaders of the black community have attended HBCU’s, such as Booker T. Washington (Hampton), W.E.B. Du Bois (Fisk), Martin Luther King (Morehouse), Jesse Jackson (North Carolina A&T), and Kamala Harris (Howard).

Quote of the Week

"It's about real people. These are real gadgets better than the movies. It gets my blood pumping." – Dexter Ingram on collecting artifacts.

Resources

*Andrew’s Recommendation*

• “Shall We All Commit Suicide?” (1924)
• One of Churchill’s most powerful and prophetic essays on the destructive powers unleashed by modern science

*SpyCasts*

• Spy of the Century Kim Philby & Artifacts (2022)
• ISIS Leader Al Mawla – Part 1 (2022)
• ISIS Leader Al Mawla – Part II (2022)
• Intelligence and the WMD Fiasco (2008)

*Beginner Resources*

• 100 Years of Intl. Police Cooperation, Interpol (2014) [video]
• Our History, Interpol (n.d.) [website]
• Nuclear Proliferation & Nonproliferation: What you Need to Know, CFR (2019) [video]

Books

• The Terror Years: Al Qaeda to ISIS, L. Wright (Penguin, 2017)
• Black Flags: Rise of ISIS, J. Warrick (Doubleday, 2015)
• Policing the World: Interpol, M. Anderson (Clarendon, 1989)

Articles

• “Islamic State’s Khorasan Vision in Asia,” L. Webber & R. Valle, The Diplomat, (2022)
• “Red Notices,” Interpol (n.d.)

Video

• Deadly Evolution of Nuclear Weapons, Tech Insider, YouTube (2017)
• Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: What you Need to Know, CFR (2015) [video]
• Sailing in the Sea of OSINT, S. Mercado, CSI (2004)

Documentary

• Nuclear Tipping Point, NTI, YouTube (2010)

Interactives

• A Guide to Open-Source Nuclear Detection Work, NTI (2020)

Resource sites

• OSINT Techniques

Primary Source Collections

• Historical Documents, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)

*Wildcard Resource*

• A BBC News Program and Nuclear War (2019)
• “Today” is Britain’s highest profile current affairs radio program, and it has been on air since 1958 - a few consecutive days without it and Britain could launch a nuclear counterstrike. Read more here.

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