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John Sipher

@johnsipher.bsky.social
75K followers 863 following 7.9K posts

Former CIA clandestine service. Spycraft Entertainment, Atlantic Council, NAFO. Host of Mission implausible podcast. Friend of dogs everywhere. Jimothy welcome here!

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Reposted by John Sipher
Hayden Center @haydencenter.bsky.social · 7h
This will be good. Honor the heroes. tobyharnden.substack.com/p/my-new-boo...
tobyharnden.substack.com
My New Book: “The 39: Uncovering the Secret Heroes of the CIA”
Published by Simon & Schuster on March 23, 2027
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Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 @olgalautman.bsky.social · 16h
I read about the break-ins in Finland and immediately remembered a story John Sipher told me years ago when he was stationed in Moscow. I don’t know if Russia is behind this but it does have the hallmarks of an old KGB tactic
olgalautman.substack.com
Someone Is Entering the Homes of Finnish MPs and Leaving Signs Behind
Today, for a change, I am not writing about explosions, arson attacks, drone incursions, information operations, or critical infrastructure going up in flames somewhere in Europe.
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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 23h
1. Let's not say goodbye to Eric Schmitt just yet. His story is about more than a power-mad senator falling on his face. It's part of a larger story about the Republicans defending the leader of an insurrection against the United States.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026
I recommend people read this to get a sense of the president's grave cognitive impairment. Trump is either unwilling or unable (or maybe both) to answer the questions he's actually asked, so he just rants and raves while the interviewers do their best to provide structure to his random brain firings
time.com
Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript
The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.
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Shoshana Bee @shohanabee76.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“What a democracy cannot—and should not—tolerate is a secretary of defense who trucks in propaganda and wants the people who serve in America’s military to be the armed instrument of his own resentments and biases.” @radiofreetom.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
theatlantic.com
Pete Hegseth, Idea Guy
His State of the Force address was a partisan disgrace—with a few good ideas buried in it.
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And on it went, with Hegseth spinning one bad idea after another, and managing to insult any number of Americans in the process. A bad idea hamster www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
theatlantic.com
Pete Hegseth, Idea Guy
His State of the Force address was a partisan disgrace—with a few good ideas buried in it.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
cepa.org/article/russ...
cepa.org
Russia's Rage Fixes on the British
Russian officials seem to recognize the importance of British leadership in stiffening the spine of Ukraine’s other European backers.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
School rankings are shit www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/n...
nytimes.com
U.S. News Shuffled Its N.Y. High School Rankings. An Uproar Ensued.
After the New York State Education Department denied a request from U.S. News for A.P. scores, perennially top-ranked schools plummeted.
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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The same Brendan Carr who wanted to investigate NBC because Kamala was on SNL? The same Brendan Carr who wanted to dismantle independent fact checking and accused them of being a “censorship cartel?” Periodic reminder that the corruption is a feature, not a bug.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We don’t spend enough time talking about just how WEIRD all these people are. This is just an incredibly weird and insecure thing to say. Imagine any other SecDef ever being this weird and insecure?!
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
As we all suspected. The Federal Reserve’s independent watchdog found no reasonable grounds to believe its multibillion-dollar renovation broke federal law. Trump made it a target, federal prosecutors briefly scrutinized it, and the watchdog found no basis for the accusations.
oig.federalreserve.gov
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Sukie 💙🇺🇸🇺🇦🌊 @froggybottompond.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
''I'd like to go ahead and solve it. The Atlanta Hawks.''
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In a fight you are meant to hit back.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“The next day, FBI staff received an email reminding them that October is cybersecurity awareness month.” open.substack.com/pub/spytalk/...
open.substack.com
Kash Patel Has Gotta Go
The ShinyHunters cybertheft of FBI personnel files should be the last straw
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In light of Eric Schmitt beclowning himself trying to skewer Jack Smith, this piece from @davidcorn.bsky.social provides useful context www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Is this the most dangerous man in the US Senate?
Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri is pushing a tribalistic ideology suggesting only descendants of white Christian pioneers are true Americans.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
🤡 Schmitt beclowns himself 🤡 Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory that Smith traveled to Atl for a Hawks game and to collude with Fani Willis, & flashed his "evidence" before accusing Smith of perjury. There's just one problem -- his facts were totally wrong. Here's the whole sequence:
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
omg. Schmitt is such a scumbag! And an incompetent one too.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yes
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Karen (Harris/Walz Alaskan Democrat) @danceswithseagulls.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Here is a gift link for those who need it. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
A Russian Software Company Duped the Secret Service, U.S. Prosecutors Say (Gift Article)
Executives from a Russian-owned company are accused of misrepresentation in order to secure U.S. government contracts.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thank you
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Americans voted to destroy America
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Claudia Montague Wheatley @claudiamw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Paging @johnsipher.bsky.social. I know you were CIA, but what do you think of this? Also, great interview with Rebecca Saltzburg, but as an old reporter I think you and Jerry buried the lead, which is when she started talking about the really scary shit: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Those who live in Russia’s neighborhood understand the threat
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How embarrassing 😳
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They're arguing that the Trump name is so valuable it alone will pull the Kennedy Center back to financial success and (gestures broadly) what the fuck are you talking about?
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Alex Blackwell @alexblackwell.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I can’t wait to read David McCloskey’s next spy novel later this year. www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1324...
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s really good.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“The uncomfortable truth is that we have done far too little to force the Kremlin to abandon these objectives or to make clear that pursuing them would come at an unbearably high price.” news.err.ee/1610149216/m...
news.err.ee
Marko Mihkelson: Defeatism is not deterrence
The snowball of speculation about an imminent Russian attack on Europe is gathering pace. Isolated facts are being mixed with wishful thinking, worst-case scenarios and, at times, little more than the...
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Agreed
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Was just there. Love it
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Our president created a global disaster
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The present global economic disaster is on Trump. Sorry. Let’s save the civilization debate for another time and place.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
lol
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
They warned us Mamdani would impose Sharia law. Instead, he unleashed the real threat: line dancing in Bryant Park.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 26/09/2026
Donald Trump Jr. thanked a Russian businessman for “an extraordinarily generous” wedding gift—but current and former intelligence officials see an effort by the Kremlin to influence people in the president’s orbit, @shaneharris.bsky.social reports. theatln.tc/jOBKRCFF
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 26/09/2026
Amazing detail in this @wsj article about Kimberly Guilfoyle, US ambassador to Greece: she told a Greek minister, in a conversation about the collapse of the Romanian government,“We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here." www.wsj.com/articles/kim...
wsj.com
The Mystery Man Shadowing Kimberly Guilfoyle as She Pushes Deals Across Europe
Christos Marafatsos works as an energy lobbyist while also closely advising the U.S. ambassador to Greece.
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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Trump started this war … and we are paying the price.” That’s the diagnosis of Gulf official, and as the war drags on the bill keeps rising. Today in Foreign Policy, my friend Shawn Howard breaks down the region’s response to Washington’s failure to end the war or provide security.
foreignpolicy.com
Gulf States Are Hedging and Suffering
Neither appealing to Washington nor diversifying security partners nor back-channeling with Tehran is insulating the region from the consequences of war.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Netanyahu is a disaster www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
Netanyahu Said to Have Been Warned by Emirati Leader About Hamas Attack Before Oct. 7
The warning from the leader of the United Arab Emirates, which lacked specific details about the nature of an attack, never reached the chiefs of Israel’s security establishment, Israeli officials sai...
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Admittedly, how hard can that be? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
A Russian Software Company Duped the Secret Service, U.S. Prosecutors Say
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Diesel cost an average of $6.51 a gallon on Thursday, up from $3.69 a year ago.” All because of one stupid man. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/b...
nytimes.com
Why a U.S. Diesel Export Ban May Not Lower Prices
President Trump has said he is considering restricting overseas sales of the fuel to bring down domestic prices, but experts say the policy will have many unintended effects.
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Send this to every university President in the country.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“In the epic contest between democracy and autocracy, Trump…punishes news outlets for being too “negative” about him while embracing Xi and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, two of the world’s leading authoritarians whose governments brutally suppress free speech.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
In Trump’s White House, China’s Dictator Is Welcome. American Media, Less So.
The showdown over President Trump’s partial media ban played out as he welcomed President Xi Jinping, whose government is ranked among the most repressive in the world.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“The president of the United States barred American reporters because he labeled them a threat to national security, while welcoming Chinese reporters who answer to the communist dictatorship in Beijing.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
In Trump’s White House, China’s Dictator Is Welcome. American Media, Less So.
The showdown over President Trump’s partial media ban played out as he welcomed President Xi Jinping, whose government is ranked among the most repressive in the world.
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The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 26/09/2026
Who is the mysterious lobbyist who is advising the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle?
on.wsj.com
The Mystery Man Shadowing Kimberly Guilfoyle as She Pushes Deals Across Europe
Christos Marafatsos works as an energy lobbyist while also closely advising the U.S. ambassador to Greece.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Listen, I just think it's weird that the same people who are saying they're worried that AI is going to wipe out humanity are also eager for military contracts that will give AI control of weapons.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Trump's comments always age so well.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Bad look for a top Division I athlete.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Do the Supreme Court Justices even know what a database is?
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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
why are the midterms any part of this decision might be a question
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