Allies, Intelligence, and a Fraying American Center
About this episode
In this week's episode, Lauren Anderson and Phil Gurski discuss the Five Eyes partnership, the FBI’s challenges, and why politicized intelligence endangers everyone.
Summary: Former FBI executive Lauren Anderson sits down with Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski, the first international guest on the Steady State Sentinel, to explore how America looks from the perspective of a close ally. Together they unpack the history and purpose of the Five Eyes partnership, the vital but often invisible fabric of liaison relationships, and the indispensable teamwork between analysts, case agents, and linguists in counterterrorism work. Gurski warns about the politicization of intelligence and the hollowing out of expertise in agencies like the FBI and CIA, and explains how these trends threaten not just U.S. security but Canada’s safety and the resilience of shared democratic values.
About: Phil Gurski is a former senior strategic analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada’s civilian security intelligence agency. Before joining CSIS, he spent 17 and a half years at the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s signals intelligence organization and functional counterpart to the NSA, working as a multilingual foreign intelligence analyst and cryptanalyst in roughly ten languages. Over a 32-plus-year career in intelligence, Gurski specialized in Iran, Arabic-language targets, and jihadi terrorism, regularly supporting source debriefings, operational teams, and joint work with partners across the Five Eyes alliance. He is the president of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting, host of the podcast “Spies Like Us,” and the author of multiple books on terrorism and intelligence, including a forthcoming volume marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11. You can find Phil’s work through Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting and his “Spies Like Us” podcast, where he examines intelligence, terrorism, and security issues for a wider public audience.
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