Podcast
CovertAction Bulletin
Hosted by CovertAction Magazine · EN
CovertAction Bulletin is the official podcast of CovertAction Magazine which began publishing in 1978 as a newsletter called Covert Action Information Bulletin (CAIB) and later as CovertAction Quarterly (CAQ). CAIB was cofounded and copublished by Ellen Ray, William Schaap, and Louis Wolf, along with former CIA agents such as James and Elsie Wilcott, and infamous whistleblower, Philip Agee.The magazine developed a following not as a conspiracy-theory-related publication, but as a source for reliable, consistent, and accurate investigative reporting. In 2018 we launched on the web at CovertActionMagazine.com where you will find hundreds of articles that blow the whistle on U.S. imperialism and plutocrats worldwide.
18episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Sold Out: How Profit Undermines the World Cup and New York Basketball
1w ago00:51:44Tap to summarizeThe World Cup is starting on June 11th with matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada. 104 matches will be played, with the majority in the 11 venues across the US. But as this week’s openers get closer, chaos is spreading around visas, travel and the question of whether fans are even going to bother coming to the United States. Host cities like Kansas City, MO are relying on revenue from an increase in tourism to boost their local economies, with the city estimating 650,000 visitors over the next few weeks. Economists question whether the predictions on visitor count or economic impact will hold true as the Trump administration has instituted steep visa bonds for people from some countries, including Tunisia and Algeria, which will play in Kansas City.At the same time, the U.S. government has already forced the Iranian team to stay in Mexico, despite having its three games in June scheduled for Los Angeles and Seattle - requiring the team to travel across the border on game day. Customs and Border Protection also just denied entry to the only Somali referee, Omar Artan.Plus, we talk about Trump’s appearance at Game 3 of the NBA Finals and the NYPD’s response to a watch party in Bryant Park.Support the show
Transcribe →Two Americas at 250
2w ago00:52:04Tap to summarizeThe Trump administration is planning a series of grand patriotic events for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. From a massive Ultimate Fighting Championship match on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14th - which is both Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday - to a ball drop in Times Square, a Grand Prix on the streets of DC in August and the Great American State Fair spanning the course of two weeks on the National Mall - the America 250 and Freedom 250 celebrations are set to take over the summer across the country.America 250, led by the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, has been a decade in the making and says they’re striving for “350 for 250” - “engaging all 350 million Americans by our nations’ 250th anniversary.” The Trump administration’s Freedom 250, with sponsors like Northrop Grumman, and Moms for Liberty and the Museum of the Bible, seeks to celebrate “the triumph of the American spirit.” The two initiatives might seem radically different, with media and administration figures criticizing one or the other, but both intentionally leave out real parts of the history of the United States: the legacy of slavery and indigenous genocide and the racism that’s still with us today, centuries of wars and conquest, mass oppression, but also the resistance and struggle of workers and other oppressed people in the United States. Those true stories won’t be told by either America 250 or Freedom 250.Support the show
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Are We in the Middle of a Socialist Revival?
4w ago00:53:41Tap to summarizeFrom the Governor of California to the Mayor of Pensacola and Senate seats in Massachusetts, Ohio and beyond, socialist candidates and ideas are gaining momentum across the country. They’re talking about common-sense ideas that resonate with everyday people - things like public seizure of the 100 biggest corporations, abolishing the Supreme court, reparations for Black Americans, slashing the Pentagon budget, abolishing ICE, expanding housing, public transit and access to medical care and much more.The popularity of socialist candidates and ideas is a reflection of the multiple crises of capitalism that get worse every day. As people can’t afford the basics for survival like food, transportation and shelter, it’s clear that the money is there - but capitalist governments prioritize spending it on war, terrorizing communities with immigration raids and bailing out giant corporations.Also on this episode, we discuss the baseless early-morning raids that happened last week targeting organizers with the immigrant rights group VC Defensa in Ventura County, CA. Listen to our 2025 interview with two VC Defensa organizers: https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/07/30/covertaction-bulletin-ventura-county-organizes-against-ice/Support the show
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Close Encounters of the Distraction Kind
May 1300:54:01Tap to summarizeThe Pentagon has released hundreds of declassified files, pictures and videos relating to UAPs - Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena - more popularly known as UFOs. The materials date back to the late 1940s and include firsthand but generally uncorroborated narratives from military officers and civilians as well as grainy photos and videos that could really be anything.Various government and private investigations into whether extraterrestrials have tried to make contact have never come up with anything conclusive. But since the end of World War II and the start of the Space Race and the Cold War, UFO culture in the United States has always intersected with fear of others and distrust in the system on the one hand, and government secrecy and coverup on the other hand - going as far as the Pentagon testing planes and surveillance equipment and blaming sightings on aliens.Many questions are still open. Are we alone? Have we been visited? But perhaps most importantly, why is the Trump administration releasing these files now?Plus: Sign the petition to pardon whistleblower John Kiriakou: https://change.org/PardonJohnSupport the show
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May Day and the Power of the General Strike
May 600:54:58Tap to summarizeIn over 3,500 cities and towns across the United States, workers took to the streets on May 1st for a day of no work, no school, and no shopping on the fourth day this year of mass organized action. Following the January 23rd and 30th shutdowns that started in Minneapolis and spread coast to coast and the No Kings Day in March, May Day was the latest in what’s becoming a building process of collective power and consciousness. Around the world, May Day or International Workers’ Day, is a celebration of the power of workers and our movements. Many countries mark it as an official labor holiday.ICE raids continue to terrorize immigrant communities around the country. The fragile ceasefire with Iran is marked by regular threats to resume and intensify with a ground invasion. Trump on Friday signed another executive order trying to starve the Cuban people of resources by further restricting trade. Gas prices and costs of consumer goods continue to soar. And the Supreme Court has taken another step in rolling back hard-won civil rights in its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, attacking core provisions of the Voting Rights Act. It’s becoming more clear to so many that only the power of the people will stop the attacks of the Trump regime and the system it represents.Support the show
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Age Verification: Backdoor to Surveillance & Censorship
Apr 2200:55:36Tap to summarizeImagine being forced to prove how old you are - and having it verified by a third party - before unlocking your phone or signing up for a social media site. That’s the goal of legislation introduced or passed in some U.S. states, the UK and Australia. Age verification requirements for social media and “adult content” are being proposed across the US, Europe and beyond with the justification of protecting children. But verifying your age basically means scanning your ID, and therefore tying your online presence with your real-world identity. Not only will this exclude millions of people who don’t have government IDs, it attacks people who need to speak out anonymously against injustice, including whistleblowers. Even beyond age verification for social media, California’s Assembly Bill 1043 goes into effect on January 1st, 2027 and requires operating systems - Windows, macOS and Linux among others, to perform age segmentation at the base level of the phone or computer system.The surveillance state loves the idea of age verification, which does very little to protect children as it claims to do - but does a lot to silence dissent, prevent the spread of information and silence free speech.Support the show
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Secret Court Reauthorizes Secretive Spy Program
Apr 1500:52:53Tap to summarizeCongress is set to vote soon on reauthorization of the Section 702 warrantless surveillance program, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. 702’s authorization expires on April 20th. On its surface, the program allows intelligence agencies to spy on non-citizens outside the United States - without their knowledge, or the consent of their governments. But people inside the US can be and are caught up in this surveillance if they’re in contact with targets of the program for any reason - including,as noted by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, “business or personal reasons” not associated with any criminal activity.The intelligence community is on a propaganda tour ahead of the renewal votes, saying the program helped them prevent an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Austria and to kill El Mencho, a Mexican cartel leader. But regardless of the vote, the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has already approved the program through March of 2027 - regardless of what Congress votes on regarding the renewal of Section 702.PLUS: Democrats are ignoring their own recent history of criminalizing student protest to claim there are no left-wing protests under Trump as the midterms come up - and more.Support the show
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Trump’s Threats Further Destabilize World Order
Apr 800:51:54Tap to summarizeNOTE: This episode was recorded hours before the announcement of the 2-week ceasefire on April 7th.Just a day after Donald Trump made a national prime-time address on April 1st claiming the US is “winning and winning big” in the war on Iran, an American F-15E Strike Eagle fighter plane was shot down over a mountainous region of eastern Iran, kicking off a frantic search-and-rescue and a covert misinformation operation by the CIA within Iran. The U.S. military has over 200 F-15E planes, at a cost in 2026 dollars of $65 million each and the next-generation F-15EX set at about $100 million each. The war on Iran has cost about $43 billion so far.But at an Easter luncheon earlier on April 1st, Trump also said he told Russel Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care.” and went on to say, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things,” saying that the federal government’s priority should be wars and weapons while people still go hungry, without housing and without healthcare. And he’s effectively threatened genocide against the Iranian people and the entire region.The Trump administration and Project 2025 have been shaking the core of civilization like an earthquake shakes a building. The question of what comes after this structure breaks is at the core of how we move forward.Support the show
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Eyewitness Cuba: Solidarity, Not Blockades
Apr 100:56:33Tap to summarizeCuba is set to receive oil for the first time in 2026, following the March 31st arrival at Matanzas Bay of the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin with over 730,000 barrels, or 100,000 tons, of crude oil. The tanker and its owner, the state-owned company Sovcomflot, have had sanctions on it since 2024. Late last year, the Trump administration announced severe tariffs on any country selling oil to Cuba and, after the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, prevented Venezuelan ships from reaching the island. All of this on top of decades of sanctions put the island into a severe fuel shortage, an attempt to strangle and starve the population. The delivery of the Russian tanker is a much-needed event and pokes a hole in the U.S. blockade of Cuba, but much more remains to be done.Also in March, the Nuesta America convoy to Cuba brought people from around the hemisphere and the world to Cuba in solidarity, bringing with them aid including solar generators and solar panels to help Cuba advance its renewable energy infrastructure in the face of the blockade. Our guest today was part of the Youth Brigade of dozens of organizers who went to Cuba, where he met, exchanged and stood together with Cuban youth, building bonds of solidarity. We’ll now welcome Phill Campbell, an organizer and member of Artists Against Apartheid to the show.Support the show
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Deception, Oppression & Cover-Ups: Mueller Was No Hero
Mar 2500:51:36Tap to summarizeFormer FBI Director Robert Muller died on March 20th. He entered into that position on September 4th, 2001. Within eight weeks of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI had arrested over 1,200 people - mostly Muslim men in the United States. None of them were shown to have any connection to Al Qaeda, but that didn’t deter the FBI and its partners in local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD from heightening their surveillance of Muslim communities, even sending informants into mosques.All of this was done under the presidencies of George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, who convinced the Senate to allow Mueller to serve an extra two years on top of the 10-year term for FBI directors. It was also under the shadow of the War on Terror, powered by the PATRIOT Act to destroy lives and curtail rights abroad and at home.But Mueller underwent an image transformation about a decade ago. Rather than rightly being decried as an enemy of the people and of civil liberties, he led the charge on the so-called Russiagate hoax, kicking off years of delusional frenzy among liberals that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to get Donald Trump elected.Support the show
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