Spy and Tell: Ex-CIA Agents Write What They Know Spies spend their whole careers hiding secrets from family and close friends. Yet, when they retire, they don't necessarily disappear into history. Many of them turn around and publish memoirs. We discuss what's behind the urge to spy and tell. Is it bad for sources — or the agencies?

Spy and Tell: Ex-CIA Agents Write What They Know

Spy and Tell: Ex-CIA Agents Write What They Know

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Detail from the jacket of Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, by Lindsay Moran. hide caption

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Spies spend their whole careers hiding secrets from family and close friends. Yet, when they retire, they don't necessarily disappear into history. Many of them turn around and publish memoirs. We discuss what's behind the urge to spy and tell. Is it bad for sources -- or the agencies?

Guests:

Lindsay Moran, author, Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy; worked for the CIA from 1998-2003

Francine Mathews, spy-thriller author: Blown, The Secret Agent and The Cut-Out; worked for the CIA for 4 years

Milt Bearden, co-author, The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB; author, The Black Tulip; retired in 1997 after 30 years in CIA