The Lawfare Podcast

On January 6, a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the Electoral College vote. As lawmakers were being evacuated by Capitol police, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, tried to climb through a shattered window in a barricaded door. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot Babbitt as she was climbing through the window and Babbitt died later that day. In the polarized debate over January 6, the death of Ashli Babbitt has become a focal point and one of unusual political valence.

Today, we’re bringing you another episode of Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem.

During the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover of the country, some observers were quick to question the U.S.’s security commitments to various countries around the world. These commentators point to countries like Ukraine and Taiwan that have defense relationship with the United States and said that, if the U.S. could not be dependable in Afghanistan, those countries could not rely on the U.S. to meet its security commitments.

Marc Polymeropoulos served for 26 years in the CIA. He joined the agency working on Afghanistan in the 1990s and moved on to operational roles across the Middle East, recruiting spies and hunting terrorists. Later, he became a senior officer responsible for operations in Russia, which as you'll hear, led to a fateful trip to Moscow that altered the course of his career and his life.