Target Usa Podcast By Wtop

The U.S. and North Korea, according to some observers, were on the brink of war on the weekend of April 15. Was it posturing? What's at stake? What does this situation mean for those innocent people struggling to survive in North Korea? We'll hear a gut-wrenching story from a young North Korean woman who knows what it's like to suffer inside of North Korea. Also in this episode, two experts -- Ambassador Joe Detrani, who is a former U.S. North Korea mission manager, and Greg Scarlatoiu, who is the executive director of The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea -- discuss the prospect of war with North Korea and what Kim Jong Un's main objective is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Not only are terrorists trying to attack passenger planes, they're targeting cargo planes and airports, too. On this program, we continue our discussion with former Transportation Security Administration administrator Peter Neffenger, who candidly talks about screening problems in airports. We also hear from Brandon Fried, executive director of the Air Forwarders Association. He said the printer cartridge plot by al-Qaida in 2010 opened everyone's eyes -- including other terrorists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After liquid and laptop bans were put in place on planes in 2017, a new twist on a very dangerous threat has emerged. Terrorists are competing for supremacy in aviation terror attacks. Whether it's ISIS, AQAP or other up-and-coming terror groups, they all have master bomb makers and access to extensive knowledge bases that make the terrorist threat to airplanes -- specifically those flying to the U.S. -- more dangerous than ever. Peter Neffenger, former head of the Transportation Security Administration, tells Target USA that terrorist groups never sleep. There are more potential threats out there than ever before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There are no real boundaries in cyberspace. But the laws that govern it are limited. Joining Target USA to talk about the maddening difficulty of chasing criminals in cyberspace is Alexander Seger, who is the executive secretary of the Committee of the Parties to the Budapest and is the head of the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe in Bucharest, Romania. Seger also explains why harassment and bullying are so prevalent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, David Levinson -- the second son of Robert Levinson and Christine Levinson -- says his family is turning to President Donald Trump in what they believe is their best hope yet to bring Robert Levinson home. And they've also filed a lawsuit against Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Robert Berls, senior adviser at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, says the U.S. and Russia have not sat down and engaged comprehensively on nuclear weapons since the signing of a Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty in 2011. Berls said he is worried that the lack of dialogue could lead to a devastating mistake in this breathless age of terrorism and elevated threats from rogue governments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week's episode of Target USA, WTOP National Security Correspondent J.J. Green looks at the impact of terrorist training camps. With three experts, we examine how the camps are set up, how spy agencies track their activities and the impact of terrorist training camps on broader populations in Europe. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraq; Pascal Legai, Director of the European Union Satellite Center in Madrid, Spain; and Robin Simcox, Margaret Thatcher Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., break down what has become a very serious, almost intractable problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Annoyed by a Russian scholar's derogatory comments during a security conference, David Pollock, a Kaufman Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, took the podium to set the record straight about the U.S. role in the war against terrorism. The stinging exchanges appeared to end with the conference, but when Pollock he returned home he realized he'd been targeted for what he called "harassment." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In February, at a security conference in Morocco dealing with terrorism, a Russian scholar took to the podium and launched into a blistering critique of the U.S. war on terror, calling it a fiasco and blaming the U.S. for an increase in terrorism. The tirade upset some Americans in the audience, one of whom stood up and struck back. The episode was an unmistakable snapshot of the deteriorating nature of U.S.-Russian relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Terror groups are utilizing gang tactics as they try to extend their influence, and prisons are a "hotbed" for recruiting. Kristian Bartholin, Deputy Head of Counter Terrorism at the Council of Europe, explains how ISIS is recruiting and surviving, and what must be done to stop them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week's Target USA, J.J. Green talks to Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and co-author of the new book "Countering Terrorism." Crenshaw says part of the country's messaging problem is cumbersome U.S. bureaucracy, which is not agile enough to keep up with rapidly changing terrorist activity. She also says many American policy actions feed into the terrorist narrative that "the U.S. hates Muslims." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The U.S. government is considering a return to torturing terrorists and using black sites abroad to house those operations. U.S. law says it is illegal, but some argue that terrorists do much worse. Former CIA analyst Philip Mudd explains why it's not a good idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There are 200,000 buildings in Mosul. ISIL fighters are using rooftops, internal spaces and subterranean elements of those buildings to launch attacks against Iraqi forces. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, says the effort is designed to put off its inevitable defeat. But that's only a part of the diabolical activity they are engaged in -- they're using children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States may be a significant security challenge for the Secret Service and its partners. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy sits down with Target USA to talk about the threats and what is being done to shut them down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The reclusive regime of Kim Jong Un is close to test-launching an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Multiple sources tell Target USA the KNO8, as it is known, can reach the whole of the United States. Our sources and many other credible international observers say North Korea already has nuclear weapons. So, the question is: how long before they are able to mate a missile with a miniaturized nuclear weapon? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Berlin Christmas market attack and the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Eve have established that 2017 will be no less dangerous than the previous year. Dr. Tricia Bacon, a counterterrorism expert with American University in D.C., tells Target USA what we might expect in the year ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whether it was ISIL, Russia or North Korea, Target USA interviewed some of the most influential national security and international affairs figures from around the world about key issues in 2016. This week's episode is a round-up of those conversations and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On Dec. 19, a large truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin. At the time, German journalist Marc Etzold was at the movies with his mobile phone offline. When he emerged from the cinema, he - like many in Germany and around the world - was stunned by the attack. Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded, 30 of them seriously. ISIL claimed responsibility. Etzold shares his story with Target USA. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is watching the evolution of terror groups very carefully, as it prepares to deal more effectively with it. Also on this episode of Target USA, we hear from Manfred Nielson, Deputy Supreme Allied commander of NATO ACT, and Lt. Col. Andrew Atkinson, also of NATO ACT, about how NATO will adjust. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

ISIL is under pressure all around the world, but former CIA counterterrorism executive Phil Mudd says the group is re-inventing itself and the threat of attack could be greater than ever before. He warns that the group is headed to ungoverned or weakly-governed spaces in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Mudd says one of the biggest enablers of the threat is irresponsible, western media activity. In the meantime, a U.S. precision airstrike conducted on Dec. 4 in Raqqa, Syria, resulted in the deaths of three ISIL leaders directly involved in facilitating external terror operations and recruiting foreign fighters. Two of those targeted - Salah Gourmat, and Sammy Djedou - were involved in facilitating the Nov. 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Russia has made it very clear since the fall of the USSR that it would get revenge against the West and the U.S. for what happened. For years, many U.S. officials have said the Cold War is over. However, in Sofia, Bulgaria, in mid-November 2016, during a NATO conference, David Kilcullen, Lt. Col. in the Australian military (RES), former chief strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department and senior counter-insurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in 2007 and 2008, laid out why the Russian government thinks the Cold War never ended and, through a series of secret operations, they may have the upper hand on the U.S. now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.