This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what
You here Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive after twenty six years, and the
CIA Daniel J. O'Connor has released his debut spy thriller, The True American
Patriot on your six o'clock and he's joining us to talk about that and other
current events that I can't resist nor wait to ask him about. Former CIA
director Daniel J. O'Connor, Welcome, Thank you, Thank you very much.
The description of your new novel, A True American Patriot makes it sound
a little like Mark greeney novel The Gray Man. Not even noticed that.
Yeah, and this one is fictional. I'm not sure if the other is
fictional or not, but it is fictional, and it has to do with
things that were in my mind long after having been at the Agency, and
it seemed to move for me. The main reason why I was starting it,
starting the book and working on it has a lot to do with the
US military, a number of number of people that people in the US they
don't realize per se that one hundred and twenty five basis the US military basis
around the world are there, and the troops that are there. It's not
an easy place to be because very small some of them, and they're very
large in terms of but that's quite a number, one hundred twenty five portions.
So what I've experienced in my own with the individuals I work with,
when you're on the road and you're traveling, you might get and the directors
with you, you might get say three hours and any given ten days with
four or five countries being done all quick. And so the US military and
the troops are there, both from the most lower level of being a private
all the way up to you know, the four Stars. They do things
abroad that are very difficult, and their families missed them greatly. So this
is something that you really have to honor and you really have to feel very
good about. And that's what caused me to do the writing of the book.
Former CIA director Daniel J. O'Connor. The name of the book is
a true American Patriot. It's a fast paced novel. Who is your central
character and what is his role in all of this? There's two of them
per sect, but the one is the individual that his name is Devlin doc
O'Connell, and that came from a friend of mine that when I was doing
it getting it put together, and he passed on. He passed away,
and he had the same background in terms of name and a character, so
that I did that as a as au to try to make myself feel better.
And the fellow is a wonderful guy. US Marines's did a lot of
nice thanks for the country. So that's one way I could describe to you.
I'll share with you too if you haven't seen the book or anyone's starting
to see. The first chapter is rather um. There's a lot of activity
goes on real quick, and explosions and explosions occur, and so people work
from there. It deals with all the multitude of national security threats. What
are what are maybe the top five? Top five would be I would say
terrorism, UH, and then there's espionage in the end, the US military
and then war. But the wars is kind of captured in UH portions of
North Korea and the a in that area. It has portions that pay attention
to it, and then the Asian General has aspects of them. A True
American Patriot is the name of the book. Former CIA director Daniel J.
O'Connor is the author. It is a novel I gather though, with the
experience and some of the things that he's seen, you will probably read about
some things that are as timely as taken from the headlines of any newspaper at
any time along those lines of director. You know, I remember when the
CIA had to rely basically on punch cards and you know, maybe an eight
by ten card with a suspect's face on it for the agents to try to
find or flush out. We are in an age now of wonderfully fast and
deficient communication. Is the world safer or more dangerous than it was, say,
during the seventies and eighties, I think it's much more dangerous right now.
We're in a situation globally as well as cus that is going to experience
a lot of loss of food. That's going to be people in that are
going to be left, and then there's going to be a lot of other
people in the rest of the world they're going to be in that kind of
mode. And then China and Russia in up Korea. These are roll portions
that are very dangerous right now. And the fact that right from the beginning
with Putin and is at the time it was February and he right off the
bat talked about, well, our nuclear weapons will be very valuable and we
will use them if we have to and when this mode. And one of
the things that was very good about that, the way he put it all
out front is the entire United States military wise and agency at SA this kind
of thing. The thing that was really great about him doing that opening up
to the world claiming that is that right from that second on, the rest
of these kinds of concerns are put in play immediately and it still is.
So that was very helpful that he went and told people so that we could
really put things together instantly. Yeah, not as much worry, Yeah,
not not as much speculation either. Along those lines, I've read I've read
criticism of NATO and that in some ways NATO has provoked Putin. I don't
see it that way. I see Putin has always had this lust to either
occupy or reannex Ukraine. What are your thoughts. Is it NATO's fault,
Is it Putin's aggression? No, I think you're right. I think you
have it right now. Putin, I think, is very much about to
go over the Abyss. There's none of these people. These people have lost
two hundred thousand troops that they loved and cared for, and they didn't care
about the Ukraine in terms of wanting to do what he wanted done. And
so as a result, the number of times that people have gone out into
the Kremlin in different places, we're talking about millions of people trying to tell
him get out, get away, and so that's something valuable for them that
it's a very dire situation. Yeah, what's happening and how he's hamlood is
horrendous. Well, and it's indicative when you start to get letting your prisoners
out of jailed in order to re stock your troops, That's that's indicative of
desperation. Correct, Correct? And why would someone assume that you can let
them out and everything will be just great. Yeah. Dan O'Connor, he's
former CIA director and his new novel talks about things just like this. A
true American patriot. I love this kind of stuff, especially when it's written
by intelligence agents like you, because you guys lived it. I wanted to
ask you, you know, in your pressures of day to day work with
the CIA, um, how I mean I'm in news talk radio and on
the weekends, I relish, unplugging and not knowing what's going on in the
world twenty four seven. But for you, I don't know, men,
I don't know what were you able to ever do that? Well? Um,
in terms of the DCI, what we were doing is making sure that
that individual and is cared for so he's not killed, he's not harmed in
any way, shape or form. And yet we've gone into hot locations that
are not necessarily a snap of a finger, and we uh the DCI and
the bosses, they had to get there, get in, get out,
and we were making sure everyone knew that, and so that it was very
valuable in that regard. Um, the people that we're back up for us,
we send them out long before we're getting in the director ideally we like
to do it this way, but get them in there and get now in
planes that don't look like playing sometimes they certainly don't look like us points.
And so those are the things that have and will continue to be a major
effect. And dcis are they have very tough times, and most people don't
realize that they spend a lot of their time overseas and we're spending a lot
of time making sure that they're okay, and they're going to get home just
fine. Dan O'Connor, the name of the book is a true American Patriot.
A fantastic read waiting for you this summer. I plan on devouring my
copy. And we thank you director for joining us and for writing this book.
Thank you very much too. We appreciate the director being as graceful as
they all. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
seven and iHeartMedia presentation