Andy Bustamante

I can't help but think that when it becomes super intelligent, it will stop thinking like us. It's only thinking like us right now because we're the ones driving it. Tens of thousands of AI powered cameras across the country.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

6,000 communities, 3,000 law enforcement officers are using it. How do you feel about this?

Andy Bustamante

That is the benefit of a surveillance state. Keeps people safe, keeps law and order in place.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Please tell me you disagree with them. You'd give up your privacy?

Andy Bustamante

You've already. You got no privacy, man. This is what I'm trying to get you and the whole world to understand right now. We have no privacy.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We're going to play some games today. We're going to do a few different things. I'm going to give each of you these paddles and I'm going to give different conspiracy and you pick and choose. CIA killed John F. Kennedy. Hitler was never killed. He ended up going to Argentina and he kind of stayed there.

Andy Bustamante

Really?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, how about moon landing? This is a serious one for some people. It's very important. What do you think about when you hear an AI system hacking into an NSA's most sensitive system within hours?

Andy Bustamante

I think a lot of people would fight that technology in a violent way. I cannot believe I am firm on my opinion that secrets are required for society.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That would be like, create the product and put it in a country that you hate and see it collapse. See it collapse. You know what I'm saying? Like use it against them. Where does your paranoia lie the most for the next 10 years?

Sarah Adams

I don't lose any sleep above Israel. If they ever became a problem, we could bomb them into oblivion in five minutes. So I don't know why anyone loses sleep over them.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You agree with what she has to say? If you have a rebound, okay, please go for it.

Andy Bustamante

It seems like a huge amount of claims with very little evidence to back it up.

Sarah Adams

They don't have a big stick. They barely deal with their own threats.

Andy Bustamante

Israel has the second most capable military in the world. That's a big fucking stick.

Sarah Adams

They have nuclear weapons.

Andy Bustamante

They have nuclear weapons. That's a big stick.

Sarah Adams

The terrorists didn't drag any of us into that.

Andy Bustamante

I said it's a shared responsibility. Sarah, do you listen?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

This is probably one of my favorite conversations I've ever had and here's why. You got two CIA officers, X, Andy Bustamante, and then we have Sarah Adams as a CIA targeter. They disagreed hardcore, the first 30 minutes on one topic of what is a bigger crisis and threat in the future, Israel or Iran. And Islam. It's phenomenal. I think you're going to enjoy that a lot. By the way, both of them are on Manec. You can ask him any questions. It's very rare you have this kind of access to XCIA officers. You can ask Andy any questions here on Manec and Sarah over here. And last but not least, we really are excited about this next phase of valuetainment with the interviews that we're going to be doing. We have some very big plans that's coming soon and our commitment is to you. All we want to do is make this thing a better product for you. We've been doing this for over a decade and our investments recently that we're making in the production studio house, we got some very big plans. So if you're watching this and you enjoy the direction we're going, the 51% of the audience that you watch, the content, but you haven't yet subscribed. If you could subscribe to the channel here and it would help us bring more of these types of interviews and conversations to you. If you haven't done it yet, take a quick second, just click that subscribe button. It would mean the world to us. With that being said, enjoy this interview with Andy Bustamante and Sarah Adams. We have a special podcast today with two ex CIA individuals with different stories, different backgrounds. They've never done anything together on the show. This will be the first time. So, Sarah, thank you for making the time. Andy, great to have you back on.

Andy Bustamante

Absolutely.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We were talking about a minute ago how much we miss your old hair, but you look great. It's good to have you on. We're going to play some games today. We're going to do a few different things. It's going to be a little bit interactive and, you know, some of the stuff you don't know. The reason why I have the iPad in front of you because in a few minutes you'll have to put it to use. I got some signs here that I'll hand to each one of you guys to see what we're doing. So we got some things that we want to go through here today. But before we get started, if you don't mind sharing your story with the audience real quick so they can kind of get an idea of your background.

Sarah Adams

Sure. I spent about a decade at the CIA as a targeter. I worked the Pakistan Afghanistan department. I worked in the Iranian ops division, and then I worked in a special cell for the director, kind of looking at anything missed in the agency. So that was a Big ask. And then I got recruited out of the CIA and I went to the Select Committee on Benghazi at the time under Trey Gowdy. I went to the private sector for a couple years and I worked for JetBlue. And then I went to Department of War and I did R and D efforts. And I just left that to start my own podcast.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Beautiful. And it's grown very fast. The podcast is a fast growing podcast, Andy, for the audience that maybe doesn't know your background.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, absolutely. Former CIA. Also, I was with the National Clandestine Service for seven years from 2007 to 2014. Left. Went into the corporate world trying to reinvent myself and learned that there's an incredible opportunity to apply spy skills in the business world. And that gave me the inspiration to launch my own company, Everyday Spy. And then since launching Everyday Spy, we went viral in 2022. Rode that viral wave until about 2024. And now we run a multimillion dollar company.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Man, I love it. And eventually the goal is to disappear.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, eventually the goal is to. Right now, the goal is to take the kids overseas, let them get a second citizenship, and ultimately leave the company behind so it can run itself like every business owner wants. Without me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And we won't see you again. Like, it's going to be like Kaiser type of thing. But we will see you.

Andy Bustamante

Come see you.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

All right, Got to come down. Okay. So with that being said, today I was talking to Mario Nefal on a podcast and he was asking me a question and I. He said, so, you know, what is the issue with you and Tucker and what's the issue with this? I'm like, look, there is no issue. Here's the thing that I have. My question is, what is your portfolio of paranoia? Okay. And which countries are you most paranoid to? Let me explain what I mean by this. And then I want you to write down your portfolio paranoia. So think about if you have a million dollars to invest, you'll say, I'll put $250,000 in gold, $250,000 in Bitcoin, $100,000 in small cap funds, $400,000 in, you know, large cap, whatever. The same way you diversify. Both of you were in the CIA. I'm going to give you four countries to be paranoid about. Which of them would you give you the biggest percentage? All the way to the smallest. So think about it. You have a round, like a. Literally, it's going to look like a pie chart. And then you put the names in there. Okay. So you have these Four categories. You have Islam. Okay, so within Islam, we have irgc, Qatar. Just include all of them. We have Israel because, you know, Israel is also coming up a lot of different places. Then we have China and we have Russia. Where does your paranoia lie the most for the next 10 years with these four different countries as well as Islam? I'll give you a minute to draw it up.

Sarah Adams

Is it jumping up on here for us?

Andy Bustamante

You see?

Sarah Adams

I see. I got it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

There you go.

Sarah Adams

Okay, so we just rank him in order.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Just rank him in order and give. Like, 45 would be Islam, you know? You know, 25 would be this. All right, China, Islam, China, Islam, Israel and Russia. Where should we be be most paranoid about? Maybe you're going to be like 25, 25, 25. Kind of a boring portfolio. Maybe you're going to go ninety and one and fully paranoid. You know, maybe it's a, you know, 40, 40, 10, 10. I don't want to mess with you. You pick and choose. Do you have yours?

Sarah Adams

Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

All right, let me see what you have on your side. Okay. Really interesting. Let me see yours. Okay. Would you mind showing to the audience so they know and then I give your answer. You can start off first.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah. So China takes the massive chunk of pie for me, and now we're. We're talking about paranoia, not money.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Purely paranoia. We'll get to money as well. Purely paranoia.

Andy Bustamante

China takes it. China is the number one strategic threat to the United States.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What did you put on China?

Andy Bustamante

50%. It's the number one strategic threat to the West. It is the thing that will end democracy everywhere in the world. Islam, I gave 5%. I'm not worried about Islam. There are other countries that need to worry about Islam, but we're not one of them. Russia, I gave 20%, mainly because of the threat that it kind of constantly sends to Europe and how dependent Europe is on us. And then Israel, I gave 25%. So I am actually saying we should be more paranoid of Israel than Russia and Islam.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Five times Islam, five times. I actually love that because hers is different. Go for it.

Sarah Adams

Yep. Same reason for China, obviously. They want a world that we are one of their subjects in, not really equal partners. So that's 40% Islam, 30%. Because I think we've seen the greatest kind of successes of terrorists in the last few years after the fall of Afghanistan, the fall of Syria, potentially soon the fall of Mogadishu, and then obviously, likely we'll have the fall of Mali. So they're starting to feel, hey, the Caliphate's coming back. You know, they're aligned with is with Qatar and Turkey on that plan. So very, very dangerous. Besides bin Laden's four sons planning an attack here. So Russia 30. Because Russia is always playing the game and Russia will play with any enemy we have and they don't care. They play dirty and we can never underestimate them. Israel, I don't lose any sleep above Israel. They're the tiniest country in the world and if they ever became a problem, we could bomb them in to oblivion in five minutes. So I don't know why anyone loses sleep over them, but those are my numbers.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I actually love that. So let's do this. Since China and Russia, you guys both agree on 50 and 40, let's cross that one out because within 10. And since Russia, you're within the same, which is 20 to 30. Within 10, we'll cross that one out. Let's start off with Islam first and then we'll go to Israel. Why did you put Islam the lowest out of all of them at 5% and then you at 30, but you go first.

Andy Bustamante

I don't see Islam, I don't see Islam as a threat to the United States. And that's what I was seeing it as paranoid to me. Right? What am I paranoid? It's not Islam. Islam is. So it's, it's difficult for them to reach us with any significance. When they reach us. It's difficult for them to bypass our security systems, whether they're cybersecurity systems, police systems, border security systems, etc. They pose a real threat to our allies, who are much less sophisticated in their development in their defense and national security sector, but not to us. Meanwhile, Israel actually has the ability to drag us into all sorts of shit that actually does impact us. We are all paying more money for oil right now because of Israel. We are all suffering under an international outcry against American leadership because of Israel. The whole world questions whether or not the President of the United States is even making his own decisions or whether he's the puppet of Israel. So Israel has an incredible ability to frustrate and put us in quagmire that Islam just doesn't have.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so what's the worst thing that Israel could do to us? Go a little further. So because you put 25%, that's a real threat, you put a bigot in Russia and Islam. So what are some things they could do to us?

Andy Bustamante

So I'm not worried about Israel sending a bomb into New York if that's what you're Worried about. We're worried about different things. Israel could easily launch a false flag operation that sends us into a war. They can have an Israeli who poses as a Palestinian who goes in and causes some kind of crazy shit in Syria. And now all of a sudden the entire United States is engaged in Syria because of something that Israel set up as a false flag and is something that the Mossad does all the time. They do it very well, very eloquently. They already selectively share intelligence with the United States. And the reason you selectively tell and share intelligence is to create the opportunity for misdirection or mal intent. So Israel's already involved in these kinds of operations at a very high success rate. That's what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about them backstabbing the United States. I'm concerned about them I undermining our national interests. I'm concerned about them choosing, like they did with Iran, to escalate rhetoric about a certain issue that's more important to them than it is to us that then goes on to affect us.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, perfect. So then the infiltration of Islam, some say to eu and what's happening to a lot of those countries, uk, you know, Germany, you're seeing it all over the place. And to the point where a documentary, I mean Rupert Lowe did a paper the 250,000, you know, stories of girls being raped in UK, 87% being Pakistanis and Muslims. And then seeing what's going on in US right now with New York City. Mamdani wins history, individuals that also won. So that's not going into the financial capital of the world in the States. Do you have any concern of their infiltrating the United States in the future?

Andy Bustamante

So here, this is another thing I think, I think is very interesting. Right. Islam is the only thing on this list that's not a nation state. It is, it's a religion.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's right.

Andy Bustamante

I'm not worried about a religion. I'm worried about people. And people identify sometimes as a religion. But it's interesting to me that we're actually weighing nation state threats against religious threats. So when we talk about Islamic people in New York, I don't see them as a threat just because of what they believe. That goes against American values. I see threats as nation states and transnational threats that self identify, self identify. Like Al Qaeda. Right. So I don't see Islam and Islamic people.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And if you, but if you notice, I put it as. Consider it being irgc, which is all the proxies. And consider Qatar, which Qatar is funding a lot of different things in the States. If we were to qualify that, we would your opinion change?

Andy Bustamante

Possibly. I think it would change in how the number breaks down based on what we qualify. But I say all that because Islam and Islamic extremism poses a larger threat to our allies than it does to us. We might be the ultimate target, but they've got multiple lily pads they have to hop through before they get to us.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Got it. So you're not worried about it right now. Okay. Sarah, how about yourself?

Sarah Adams

So the way I look at it is we're talking about Islamists. There's two pieces of it, right? There's the Islamist with the gun and then the political Islamists, and they're both a threat. So the Islamists with a gun, a bunch of them came over the border in the last four years. So according to the National Counterterrorism Center, 18,000 known Islamist terrorists are here illegally. So that's just the ones illegally. Why are you coming to the United States if you're a member of isis? You're not coming here to raise a family. You're coming here to harm the United States. On the other side, when we talk about the Muslim Brotherhood, they are working in local communities, not just in Europe, but in here, working at like the chamber of commerce level, working in business associations. And they are doing influence operations. We all know they've been doing it in our universities for years, like China. And they do have an intent to merge the two. Right. There'll be attacks and there are hopes to get kind of more of a leaning towards where people will be more understanding of a caliphate. Now when anyone looks at the caliphate plan clan us being taken over so far ahead of it, even the terrorists say that's like 50 years out. But when they talk about bringing back a caliphate, a lot of people view that as, oh, that's like eons ago. But the Ottoman Empire ended in our grandparents generation, right? So the terrorists aren't believing in some idea that was thousands of years ago. They would believe in something from like the 1940s. So, and they're seeing it come back into play and the power of it. I mean, the Taliban is getting recognized. I mean, Al Qaeda's running Syria, etc. Qatar's always at the table. So they're seeing we're making this power move and it really is bringing them back around. And they're getting into a phase where they feel they have momentum and that's what makes them dangerous, because they feel strong and they think we're weak. A lot of people say oh Iran feels like they're up against the ropes now. They don't feel that way at all. They feel they're going to walk away with a victory. It doesn't matter if we killed 200 people or 250 people or bombed. They think at the end of the deal they're going to sell it as a victory and every all these Islamists are preparing for that. So it is a game that they play in the way they view the world. It's not the way we view the world but they think they're winning and that's a threat.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Let me ask you did a part of your career as a CIA target or working in Iran because you said part of it was you were dealing with Iran, Right. Did that kind of influence your decision to score that? That.

Sarah Adams

Well not exactly. So I did work the external operations of 400 and 900. Now I work unit 840 in my free time. My decision is based on the fact that Bin Laden's sons have a plan kind of bigger than 911 and I saw the costs imposed on us by 911 and that was only by a small number of guys. And this attack's a lot bigger. And so I know what Al Qaeda is going to drag us into and that's what makes me concerned. Even when we went into Iraq then Al Qaeda came in and flooded and that's what kept it going. Right, they kept it going in Afghanistan. So I'm worried that the terrorists is who's going to pull us into anything. I'm not worried about Israel. Al Qaeda and ISIS can attack all day long. They have the capabilities, they have the bodies, they have the training and that's where we waste all of our money and is on the operations against terrorists. And we're going to go through a whole nother 20, 30 years of it. You know I believe after this attack by Bin Laden's sons.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so do you have any speculation of what Bin Laden's sons could possibly do if they were to attack? How would they do it?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, well I know pieces of the plot. So how the plot is, it's going to how they planned it. Remember anything's aspirational with terrorists you can throw it at tomorrow and this all fails. The way they plot it is we going to bring past failures to fruition. So one of the biggest pieces is there's a plot called Bojinka from 30 years ago and that was what happened. Do you remember Ramzi Yousef from the 1st World Trade center he had an electric fire in his house. He was in Asia. The cops came, they found these plans and they thwarted this within two weeks. This was to take down about a dozen airliners over the Trans Pacific. So they're gonna bring that plot back to life and it's to take down 12 airliners over U.S. soil. So they're using the same bomb maker from the time. His name's Yazid Sufat. He was released in 2022 and he went back to Afghanistan. So he's making the bomb and that's the biggest piece of the plot. But what they change this time is suicide bombers are going to detonate in their seats. So there's not going to be any Americans that can stop, stop them in the ah, ways, you know, as they're trying to rush a cockpit, they'll just blow up in their seat. So that's the biggest piece. And then they have a piece that's, I call it like a Siege on Washington D.C. it's very similar to the Mumbai attacks and that is targeting like the Capitol, the FBI building. And then the last phase of the plot is actually ISIS is taking it over and it's going into like hometowns. They seem to mostly be focused on veteran communities and it's just mass casualty kind of where people live, work and play, but not large towns, kind of like mid level cities. So that's the main plan how they have it currently laid out. And they've been sending terrorists here since late 2021. But the biggest influx came in 2022 and 2023. So they're here, ready, they've been casing. So it's actually a very big plot. Their goal is three times the deaths of 9, 11. That's what they're shooting for.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Number so 10k plus.

Sarah Adams

So the aviation plot alone, they want to do 4,000.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Got it. Okay. So I want to come back to you on Israel, but let's stay on this. Do you agree with what she has to say? You have a rebound? Okay, please go for it.

Andy Bustamante

I don't, I don't. I'm very confused by a lot of what you're talking about. How do you define caliphate?

Sarah Adams

So the, well that I'm talking about the terrorist caliphate plan.

Andy Bustamante

So the only caliphate I ever heard about is a Shia caliphate. The only caliphate anybody's trying to bring back is a Shia Caliphate.

Sarah Adams

No, they're trying to bring back the Ottoman Empire concept, but actually the caliphate like Al Qaeda and isis. Think about that's basically all across North Africa is the biggest piece of It.

Andy Bustamante

But one of those is a Sunni organization. One of those is a Shi organization.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. They're working together, which is, remember Iran on its own.

Andy Bustamante

A ludicrous.

Sarah Adams

No. Iran kept Sifal Otto safe for years. He's had bin Laden's kids in this country for years. They have very, very close relationships. Iran has people. Right now, they actually have intel bases in Afghanistan. So to think she and Sunni don't work together is not true at all.

Andy Bustamante

To think that they work together in a coordinated enough fashion to accomplish something that neither one of them has been able to accomplish by bringing back old plans that are not only already thwarted, but so publicly known that we're sharing them in a podcast right now. Like, you really think that that's what they're putting their time and effort into? 911 was executed so effectively that even CIA and FBI didn't have a full picture of the plot.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. The U.S. government has not found one of these bombs yet for the airliners. So Al Qaeda is successful. It hasn't been thwarted.

Andy Bustamante

I just. It seems like a huge amount of claims with very little evidence to back it up.

Sarah Adams

There's plenty of evidence, and there's plenty of evidence over time of Sunni and Shia working together. For example, during the second Libyan Civil war, Al Qaeda fought, ISIS fought, and Hamas fought, all in Benghazi. On the same side.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah. They all fought in the same side for a shared common interest.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. How can you say.

Andy Bustamante

But they still lost the Syrian civil war.

Sarah Adams

I never said they're going to win. I said this is aspirational. And they're focused on the caliphate plan. They think they're winning.

Andy Bustamante

A joint caliphate?

Sarah Adams

Yes. Islam.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You have doubts?

Andy Bustamante

I have insane doubts.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You don't think it's worth being paranoid? Even a percent considered that?

Andy Bustamante

I mean, what I say, 5%? I think a few percent. But right now, everything Sarah is laying out is so far below the threshold of what warrants our attention. Right. It's what you're laying out doesn't affect our stock market. It doesn't affect the lives. When it happens, the percentage will go up. But where it is right now, you're saying it happens even when we have some kind of reasonable threat that is coming from multiple sources. Besides, you're the only person I've ever heard this from. I lived and worked in the middle

Sarah Adams

of the line talking about Al Qaeda's homeland plot.

Andy Bustamante

You. You may not be the only one talking about it. You're the first person that has presented me with information that is completely contradictory to what experience and Information has led me to believe.

Sarah Adams

Okay, well I don't believe that I've seen work together.

Andy Bustamante

I believe that you don't believe there's

Sarah Adams

monthly meetings right now with IRGC and there are people and there are people

Andy Bustamante

who swear they saw aliens and they will tell you to their face that other people have said they also saw aliens.

Sarah Adams

Therefore, are you a terrorism?

Andy Bustamante

I'm not claiming to be. Okay, but I am, I am claiming to question your conclusion.

Sarah Adams

Right, that's fine with me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And by the way, in your as a target or were you a terrorism expert? That was your specialty.

Sarah Adams

Yes, it was.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay.

Sarah Adams

And it was Pakistan, Afghanistan and that's where the current plots coming from has actually been got it coming from all Fruit camp is in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It's a very famous camp. They rebuilt it in 2022.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, this is great. I, I'm loving this because the audience is winning right now to, to see the different perspectives. Let's go to Israel. Now some people may watch it, Sarah, and they may say you put Israel at zero. Are you kidding me? Look what they're doing with politicians in America. Look what they dragged us into a war. You know, even Marco Rubio said they, you know, they, they got us to get into it and this is why we're going into war. There's a lot of messaging about what Israel is and popular popularity right now. Message wise people don't trust them right

Andy Bustamante

now the president put value in Israel and you don't hear the President talking

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

about I want to hear your thoughts and then I want to come to you. I want, I want to go to that. So why did you put Israel isis?

Sarah Adams

The President just bombed a senior leader of isis on the 19th. He was the head of ISIS and Aleppo. So the President is talking about ISIS just maybe behind closed doors, but he is bombing them. So don't act like President Trump isn't focused on isis because he is just Israel takes all the attention and the clicks and the focus. So I think Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood have the biggest influence and the most concerning influence. I believe if anybody is having their arm twisted by Israel, they're too weak to be in their position. That's my opinion.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Tell me more.

Sarah Adams

Just because I don't think Israel has. They don't have a big stick. There's nothing they can hold cold over your head like when you're negotiating with them. They don't have a ton to bring to the table. They barely can deal with their own threats. So they're not going to come to me. And negotiate with me and when I feel if I'm a senior leader in the US government and in the military. So for anyone to say, oh, we did this because Israel talked us into it, or Israel forced us into, it's like who are you? And you should be fired. Right? That's how I think. I just, I've worked in this field for a long time and never once have I had like Israel twist my arm. I mean, I found that a little foolish. It's almost like the movies.

Andy Bustamante

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Andy Bustamante

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Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Here we go. Mr. 25. Israel.

Andy Bustamante

Israel has the second most capable military in the world. That's a big stick.

Sarah Adams

They have nuclear weapons.

Andy Bustamante

They have nuclear weapons. That's a big stick. They have the Jewish diaspora and huge amounts of wealth. That's a big stick. They, they manage 20% of trade with the United States. That's a gigantic stick. I don't know how you think Israel doesn't have a big stick. And that's before we even get into the political leverage that they have. Not to mention the regional power that they possess against countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, uae. Other American allies simply cannot bring the military skill, the military capacity, the military talent, or the intelligence capability that Israel can bring. They are one of the biggest sticks in the world and they're backed by us, which is the biggest stick in the world.

Sarah Adams

Israel's good in a couple countries and that's what their intelligence is good on. And then their intelligence sucks everywhere.

Andy Bustamante

I don't disagree. It's because they only focus on the countries that are an active threat to them because we shelter them from everything else.

Sarah Adams

So, but that's.

Andy Bustamante

And they shelter us and they shelter us from the countries that we don't have any insight.

Sarah Adams

I just, I really don't Think Israel is protecting us from the rest of the world? I just think. I'm sorry Israel isn't as powerful as people make them to be. I've never seemed to be powerful.

Andy Bustamante

You live in a fantasy.

Sarah Adams

No, people want to talk about them all the time because that's kind of like the new thing. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to wake up tomorrow morning and Israel's bombing my city, if

Andy Bustamante

that's what you're concerned about. You have an incredibly narrow focus.

Sarah Adams

No, I'm just saying that they're not a threat. Threat to us in any way.

Andy Bustamante

It was Israel's actions that have us in the straits that we are the

Sarah Adams

literal streets of Hormuz. I ran attacking on October 7 with Hamas, killing over 30Americans and taking a dozen more Americans hostages. Why? We're in the mess we are in. It's the fault of the terrorists. Like, they dragged us into another conflict.

Andy Bustamante

It is a shared. It is a shared responsibility. It is shared responsibility. Lots of bad calls on both sides. Yeah, but I'm not. It's. It's silly to think that Israel doesn't pose any threats.

Sarah Adams

Okay, so the terrorists didn't drag any of us into that situation.

Andy Bustamante

I said it's a shared fucking responsibility. Sarah, do you listen? Do you listen or do you only focus on what you're saying?

Sarah Adams

I was trying to hear your answer. Because you're not hearing. Not saying the terrorists had any responsibility.

Andy Bustamante

I said a shared responsibility of who? And when you say the terrorists, I'm not exactly sure if you're talking about the Islamic revolutionaries or whether you're talking about terrorists that have a political agenda or whether you're talking about the terrorists that cross a border and haven't actually carried out any terrorist act.

Sarah Adams

I'm talking about 8,000.

Andy Bustamante

You use a lot of terrorist terms,

Sarah Adams

people on October 7th, including killing Americans. Pretty simple.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why don't we do this? Because when I asked her about Islam and how they can attack on Osama bin Laden's sons, she broke it down for you. What is your threat with Israel? Long term? How can they cause any kind of chaos in the States? Give me different versions of it.

Andy Bustamante

So if you stick to kind of the core idea of what a terrorist is, and there's a definition for terrorism. Terrorists are people who carry out violent acts with the intention of driving political change. That's if they're not. If they're carrying out a violent act and it's not geared towards political change, arguably they can't be labeled a terrorist. So when you think about what they can do in the United States, they can do lots of things to try to take out, to try to exercise some sort of political agenda. Blowing up public targets. Everything you listed is basically some sort of civilian target. Civilian airliners, civilian buildings, marching on Washington D.C. right. That type of, if there's violence intended to drive a political change because they want Americans out of the Middle east, that's why Osama bin Laden created Al Qaeda, was to get Americans out of the Middle East. If that's their agenda and that's their goal, by all means they can do it. But whenever you carry out a war, when we go to war against the irgc, the IRGC isn't a terrorist organization, but, but they're a militant group.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But break that down from the Israel standpoint. So you put 25% Israel threat and you're paranoid about.

Andy Bustamante

Correct.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What are different things that they can do to harm us?

Andy Bustamante

Israel can hack into our cyber systems. They can hack into our core water, power grid, you, you name it. I mean, China can. China has hacked into our personnel records for the military. Israel is far more capable than China is in terms of cyber capability. They learn their cyber capability from us. They can rent their cyber capability from Russia. So when we talk about cyber attacks, space based attacks, when we talk about influence campaigns, propaganda campaigns, the top of the list of capability is Israel. It's not all strapping bombs and flying in planes. It's much more sophisticated. It's sophisticated enough that they can cross a border into an enemy country and launch drones. Right. We underestimate Israel's capability constantly. I don't know how many times you have to see pagers blow up before you realize Israel is far more capable than we believe they are.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you see them as an ally?

Andy Bustamante

I see them as a country that is out for their own best national interests. And when you align with that, you're on their good side. And when you don't align with that, you're not.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Is it specific to Bibi or Israel, period?

Andy Bustamante

I think it's both. But Bibi has taken it to the next level because of the corruption issues that he's also stuck in. So in many ways, I don't blame Netanyahu for the decisions that he's been making because he's, he is taking actions that are putting Israel in a safer position for the next two to three decades. He is still creating new enemies that they will have to deal with three decades from now. But he's working hard to try to make a series of Successes so powerful that whenever he finally has to face the corruption charges, the country says, yeah, but look how safe he made us for the next 20 years.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Sarah, do you agree?

Sarah Adams

Well, I agree she doesn't think Israel matters. Country is in it for their best interests. If I am negotiating for United States, I only care about my interests. Of course Israel's in it for their best interest. Qatar is in it for their best interest. Why would you not be that be your number one goal? Actually, you make a mess when you are like, oh, you know, let's play nice. No, everyone's in it for their best interest. So to say that that is a reason that's a problem, I just don't see. I still don't understand the threat from Israel. Even if we say influence operations, I do think China, North Korea and Russia are just as capable of influence operations in Israel.

Andy Bustamante

So why do you think North Korea is as capable as Israel? Yes, I am going to need more Lagavulin.

Sarah Adams

They are.

Andy Bustamante

Whoever's pouring that, I'll get it for you.

Sarah Adams

They do influence operations now. Depends on what they want to target. But to say Israel's not targeting us per se in a way of like you, like they can do cyber attacks on us. Is Israel cyber attacking us? Is that their plan?

Andy Bustamante

If they are, they're sophisticated enough that we wouldn't know.

Sarah Adams

So they're. They're ruining our water supply.

Andy Bustamante

If they wanted to, we wouldn't know. So can other countries, but they're not as sophisticated. This is why you can.

Sarah Adams

This is how we be very sophisticated to affect the water supply in the United States of how bad our system is.

Andy Bustamante

Even. Even better. Back up my point some more, please.

Sarah Adams

But my targeting against.

Andy Bustamante

We see certain countries operate. We know certain countries operate in a specific way. Israel is one of those countries that's very difficult for us to track. There are multiple intelligence surveys out there that talk about how Israel cannot be trusted as an ally to the extent that, say, France or Italy or Germany can be. They have to be constantly put at arm's length because they have so much capability that they have been trained, given, granted in partnership with us with so few direct threats. So they can focus their resources and focus their assets on a handful of direct threats where the United States, being the only world superpower, has to diversify and adjust for every threat in the world.

Sarah Adams

Well, we don't have to judge for every threat in the world. We have plenty of partners who focus on certain threats per region and give us that information. That's why we have such A good relationship with Israel and you know, that we don't have. But I'm talking about the information sharing. We can't pretend that doesn't. We can't pretend there's no information sharing.

Andy Bustamante

Just look at the Iran issue to see how good a relationship we have with Israel. I mean, look at the, look at what we have right now between constant consternation and changes in policy. And even, even this promised ceasefire doesn't actually deliver what it was supposed to deliver. Right.

Sarah Adams

Let's talk about Iran for a minute. So we hit all those nuclear facilities, we hit all those IRGC commands very accurately with good targeting. Do you think that was all CIA and US Military's intel that put those missiles on the X?

Andy Bustamante

We didn't hit them for the most part. Israel hit them.

Sarah Adams

Right.

Andy Bustamante

We didn't hit the Ayatollah. Israel hit the Ayatollah.

Sarah Adams

We hit. The targeting was good because of the information.

Andy Bustamante

Absolutely.

Sarah Adams

We can't sit. That, that. So we can't say there's no relationship with Iran when they are.

Andy Bustamante

Say there's no relationship.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Where.

Andy Bustamante

Are you listening?

Sarah Adams

No, I'm saying in Iran, when most of the best targets we hit was

Andy Bustamante

based on Israeli, Israeli intelligence. And it serves Israel.

Sarah Adams

Not real, but it also served us because we were all. No, it didn't serve us because look

Andy Bustamante

at where we are right now.

Sarah Adams

Our military was there doing operations and they were at risk and they to rely on good, accurate, sound information. And they were giving it. And it has kept a lot of American troops safe.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So is it fair to say you, long term, are not worried about irgc?

Andy Bustamante

Long term, I'm not worried about irgc.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You're not worried about their proxies, Hezbollah, Houthis? You know what they're going to.

Andy Bustamante

Not at this point. Not. Not compared to the other things that we have to wrestle with right now. No. There's always current threats, emerging threats, growing threats, falling threats, Iran, irgc. All of that does not qualify as anything more than a distant threat to the United States.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Let's go to the next game. If you want to grab your iPads, this is the next game that we're playing, okay? So if you want to erase whatever you have, we'll go to the next one. The next one is the following. You have a billion dollars, okay? You have a billion dollars to buy propaganda in America, whether you're China, Qatar, whether you're whoever with a billion dollars that you have. How do you spend that billion dollars? Do you spend that billion dollars on media? Do you spend that billion Dollars on education, universities winning over kids. You spend a billion dollars buying over congressmen and politicians and senators. You spend that billion dollars on buying influencers on social media, on X. How would you spend a billion dollars of propaganda? You can choose any country you're a part of. Israel, Qatar, China, Russia, doesn't matter. You have a billion dollar budget. That's your assignment. How do you spend that billion dollars?

Andy Bustamante

How fast do we want to create the change in influence?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We got a decade, we got 10 years. We got 10 years that we want to buy the influence.

Sarah Adams

And we can only put into one category.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Or you can put it in any category just like the previous one. You can choose and by the way, I gave you four of them, but you can add additional things you want to it. I'll remind you one more time. One of them is media mainstream. The other one is influencer social media because you know, gamers, streamers, a lot of that's going on right now. The other one is universities and colleges that you can win over influence of what they're teaching in the schools. And then the last one that I had was buying a politician senators, you know, like some of these organizations are doing. But you can put others as well. You got a billion dollars? I'll give you a minute. You got yours?

Sarah Adams

Yeah. Okay, sorry, sorry. You can't really read mine because it's not fat anymore.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so. And if you want to go first, I'll come to you first.

Andy Bustamante

So readable at least barely. Right. So I've got a quarter million dollars going into influencers. And a big part of that is because influencers aren't that expensive to buy, especially not when you're looking for small grassroots influencers. They don't all, they get expensive as they get big. Yeah, but you can go a little bit, you go a long way with a little bit on influencers. And that's what pretty much every protein company will tell you. And then I've got $500 million going into mainstream media. And that is because mainstream media will, there will always be some mainstream media. Half of the influencers are opening media companies that's going to become the new mainstream media. And mainstream media will always have the most reach. It will always have a built in sense of authority and credibility and authenticity. And mainstream media is something that is oftentimes the subject matter that is then picked up by influencers. So if you want an influencer to talk about some, you get it on Fox News and then boom, everybody's talking about it. I'm putting 100 million into politicians. Because politicians change, they change too often. They're unreliable, they'll take your money and run and then they'll never claim that they backed you up anyway. So it's, it's a, it's a high risk, high reward proposition. So I would want to limit my investment there. And then I'm putting 150 million into education because education takes time. But the difference is if you capture, if you educate people at the right point in their life, they never forget the lesson. So whether you're targeting young college minds or even young elementary school minds, or if you're targeting people just out of the military, you can literally plant a seed that never goes away.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

True, very true. How about yourself, sir?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, so I did my percentages. So kind of the same concept he had, I put 40% going into colleges because he gave us the 10 year window. And I think if you influence people in their early 20s and 10 years are going to start getting those middle management leadership positions. And heck, in our government, people in their 30s can get senior roles. So I think that's the best bang for my buck. Now I did put politicians, but I was thinking more the ones that like sit around forever. Like right now the average age of the US Congress is 64 years old. So there's plenty of old people that will be around for a while. I, I agree the same. I don't think, even though I know there's alternative media, media still has a stronghold. They still have so much control over stories and what gets put out. So I put 25 on them. So 25 of them and the politicians or mainstream media? Yeah, for mainstream media.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So you're going to put 250 million into mainstream media?

Sarah Adams

Yes, whatever the math is. And then influencers, I did 10 because at the end of the day there are people who are turning to them and listening to them and some of them do have like real influence and some of them actually go on to do other things. As we've seen a lot of people who I would think are a little more influencer role became senior in our government. So we definitely don't want to leave them out because we actually don't know where they're going to be in 10 years, but they're going to go somewhere.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so if I look at this, influencers, you put 250 million, you put 100 million. Mainstream media put 500 million, you put 250, politicians, you put 100, you put 250 million. And in education you put 150 million, you put 400 million on education. So let's target education. Why? Why was education your biggest one of $400 million?

Sarah Adams

Because I'm looking out the 10 years and I want people now who I can maybe get influence first, but then they can get into positions where I can take advantage of them going long term and then over and over again I don't need to take advantage of them just when they're 30s, but in their 40s, they're going to go up higher. When their 50s, they're going to become more senior and have more influence. So it just seemed like the better bang for my buck. If we're thinking 10 years on, you

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

only put 150 million correct. Why?

Andy Bustamante

Because 10 years isn't enough time for education to take.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

How long do you think you need to.

Andy Bustamante

25, 30 years?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

25?

Andy Bustamante

Because I'm not targeting the 20 year old. 20 year olds don't know dick. Like the people in college are too busy chasing ass and getting drunk. They don't actually, they're not really open to the kind of ideas you need them to hold on to when they're in their mid-40s. For that you need to target somebody that's like 10, 9 years old. Think about when extremists really start targeting their youth. You're talking about five, six, seven years old. That's how you create a foundation. Your core years for being influentially cognitively programmed are between the ages of 5 and 11. So that's really where you need to put that money. So if we're only looking for 10 years out, my 11 year old is only going to be 21. Not old enough to have a real big impact. But $150 million will change the minds of a lot of 11 year olds.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so then if we see what Cutter put into education, which they're the highest, they put 7.7 billion billion into our universities. I think 1.8 of it, if I'm not mistaken, is in Cornell. Can you pull up the chart on what they put in?

Sarah Adams

And remember it wasn't a law that you had to report the numbers. So this is the basement level.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So meaning it could be even higher

Sarah Adams

it's way it's probably 10, 15, 20 times higher.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You stop it.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. There was no law in place to actually say you received, so could be

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

60, 70 billion dollars.

Sarah Adams

We have no concept, so.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So if you're saying it's long term, you need at least 25 years. If Qatar is doing 7.7 billion, China's doing 6, what do you think they're solving for within our educational system long

Andy Bustamante

term, the 25 year point.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And what is their outcome? What do they want to get into this?

Andy Bustamante

The decline of the United States, the belief that other countries are rising and that the United States is stuck on decline. The idea that you'll get better research from China, the idea that you'll have better financial opportunities than uae. That's. That's what they're trying to change. Right.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you agree?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, I think for the most part, I mean, obviously, I think there's different opinions. Of course, China wants to keep this belief in the core of, you know, their institutions and that type thing. Qatar, I do think is a little more dangerous when it comes to the thinking because you do get people more into the extreme mindset. So they are different risks. Because I do worry a little bit about anytime you indoctrinate people. Now, I understand if I'm a Chinese student, I'm always going to serve my country and my government, even if I live in America. And I'm always going to know that and believe that. But I do worry about people you pull to the side that never would have been in those categories. Okay, that's what I feel. Cutter does a little of successfully and dangerously.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah. That's a big number, though, when you, when you see. And they came out of nowhere because that number is not that high. Fifteen years ago, 20 years ago, they came out of nowhere and went to first place.

Sarah Adams

So.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, let's see what. What other one you guys said difference influencers. You had 250 million. You had 100 million. Why only 100 million? Well, that was your lowest one.

Sarah Adams

So one of the things I've noticed, and he kind of mentioned it, it's the fact that the media still has so much control over the narrative and they still are the ones who can pick up the phone, call the White House, call the CIA, call that, you know, the, the joint Staff and really get the insight. So I haven't seen a lot of influencers yet that really can do that. Now we do have some who definitely can change thinking, outcomes, opinions. I mean, Tucker is kind of one of the ones that really went on his own and kind of carved that path. But there's been very few people who have done that, in my opinion, to the level of control of mainstream media.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Got it. Thoughts on influencers? Yeah, 250 into influencers and you'll hear people saying, this guy's getting paid from Russia and then they get exposed.

Andy Bustamante

John Kuryaku.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I wouldn't. Only you think Kiriak was getting he was.

Andy Bustamante

He was an actual pundit for Russia RU News.

Sarah Adams

Yeah, he worked for rt.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But he had a show, though. So it's kind of like a. Right. But it was pretty public about the fact that he was doing it. Right, Correct, Correct. But you'll hear some people that are getting paid from Russia that is not public.

Andy Bustamante

True.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Some of that are getting paid. This guy's getting paid from Qatar. He's getting paid the $7,000 from Israel. So you think there is power in paying these influencers today on social media?

Andy Bustamante

Without a doubt. There's a lot of power in influence influencers. The challenge is finding the influencers that get you the outcome that you're looking for. But there is power in influencers. And a little bit of money can help you experiment and test with a wide range of influencers to find where you want to focus your primary investment. Think about it this way. What does every influencer use? A call to action.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Sure.

Andy Bustamante

What do you never see on mainstream media?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

CTAs. You never see just commercials.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Right.

Andy Bustamante

So. And it's an actual influencer that's like a cult leader that can say, pick up your phone, do this, press this button, buy this thing.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Right.

Andy Bustamante

Well, if you really want influence, go vote for this person, say this thing, write your congressman. Like that is what a cta.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so I'm going to go a little bit even deeper. So let's take that $250 million and be a country and tell me who you would want to go to actually name the individuals.

Andy Bustamante

So that's, that's, that's a difficult one because there are so many people give me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Who would be the ones you would go micro influencers. And how much would you give them? I'd be curious.

Andy Bustamante

So one of the things I would actually love to do is, is be a country that is anti American and go after health influencers in the United States and have those health influencers highlight all the ways the United States is poisoning their food, all the carcinogens in the processed food, all the fluoride in the water, all the additional trans fats and all that stuff that people already believe in. Right. Because they already believe in it. So now a little bit of money to feed a whole slew of health influencers when they. You can't swing a dead cat without going over 12 health influencers. You got people talking about keto, you've got people Talking about type 2 diabetes, you got people talking about whatever. You could literally shape millions of people and how they believe and come to trust the fda. If you just target a few health

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

influencers, who else

Andy Bustamante

still taking the anti American stance? Well, I am pretty sure we already see this. With the huge amount of political influencers out there that will jump on whatever mainstream media story is coming out. I don't follow.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so then let me give you. Do you have names? Would you be able to give names?

Sarah Adams

I'm not sure I would pay influencers. I would pick someone maybe in each party that I feel would be worth that much money. So I would probably. If I was Republican, I would target Jared Kushner. If I was a Democrat, I would target Jake Sullivan and see where my money gets me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But those would be players. I don't know if I would put those guys. Remember, you also have a very low number here.

Sarah Adams

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You're not. You're not. You don't see the social media guys as influential?

Sarah Adams

I think they. I do think they have an influence. I don't know how long their influence lasts. Things ebb and flow. It can be very interesting. But, you know, I didn't make it zero.

Andy Bustamante

Let me give you an example.

Sarah Adams

You matter.

Andy Bustamante

Let me give you just an example of how powerful influence can you pull up?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Can you pull up? Humberto. I'm trying to see how to go about this. Do we want to go on Spotify? Let's look at the top podcasters on Spotify and names and so maybe that helps. And if you go on the leaders bulletin. Yeah. Go to the charts and maybe go to by category of the biggest podcast. Just go to Spotify podcast charts and then say, where would you put your money? So go right there. Where would you put your money?

Andy Bustamante

I don't think any of those people are.

Sarah Adams

Well, my boss.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Not those people.

Sarah Adams

My boss is number five. So you put me in a bad spot.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Well, you don't. I'm not telling you to say anything

Sarah Adams

with them, but podcast number three, crime junkie.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so where would you put it? Where would you put the money to fool?

Andy Bustamante

If we can scroll down to the top, the last 10 on the top 100.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why the last 10?

Andy Bustamante

Because that's where you're going to get to spread your money. So if you look at Diary of a CEO, there was an article that just came out that says Steve Bartlett makes $38 million alone on just his own channels. Not. Not sponsorship, just adsense on his own channels. And Sean Ryan's in the fifth spot. So, I mean, you're talking about people who are making. I'm. I put $250 million in there. 5:25.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So meaning you, you wouldn't put it into those guys. You would go to the bottom and put it in.

Andy Bustamante

I would go to the hungry sons of bitches at spot 91 who are trying to climb the ranks, who are not being super judicious and who they take money from.

Sarah Adams

Yeah.

Andy Bustamante

And who are happy to put my ad out there three times a week instead of just once a week.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you agree with them?

Sarah Adams

I mean, I do agree with him. You have to go for someone who isn't at the point where first they can say no, where they might have some integrity. We're assuming this is a bad country trying to influence.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

By the way, it's China, it's Qatar, it's Israel, it's Russia, it's any of these.

Sarah Adams

So you need to go after people who don't have the opportunity yet to say no. So I agree with him.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So let me ask you guys are both CIA, so do you think CIA knows which one of our major influencers in America are getting paid how much by foreign entities? Do you think they. Do you think you know that?

Andy Bustamante

I don't know.

Sarah Adams

I, I think they would only look into it if they thought the person was doing some sort of then influence operation.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

No, but let me ask you, like would there be a position where. Because CIA is what? It's not domestic. Right. It's out.

Sarah Adams

Okay.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

FBI C or CIA is out. Okay. So if I'm doing. Could there could today CIA say Hey Sarah. Hey Andy. This is what I want you to figure out. You're working a project on Qatar. I want you to find out which influencers they're buying in America because these are the seven people we're looking at. Can we dig it up and see if we can find anything? You think, would the CIA have a project like that that you guys would.

Sarah Adams

I don't know. I feel that would be something. Tell me why you would come up with. And then they'd have to hook the CIA in and see, I'd be like, oh my God, this is such a bad idea.

Andy Bustamante

I think FBI would have access. I think treasury would have access. IRS would have access.

Sarah Adams

Right. Those are the US Led.

Andy Bustamante

Correct. Those are the organizations that would be able to track down the number and the connections you're talking about.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And on politician you put 250 million, but it's your lowest at 100 million. Why is it the lowest?

Andy Bustamante

Because I don't think politicians are the ones that actually shape our future. I think politicians are people who come in and the party shapes us. But not the politicians themselves. So you'd be putting a lot of money into a politician.

Sarah Adams

That's transient in my opinion, is they're the ones who put the bills on the table. They're the ones who have to fight to push them. And so that's what I'd want.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

It's very interesting what happened here because on one end you were critical of Israel, you were not because you didn't see them as a threat for your long term. But here you're saying I think they influence.

Sarah Adams

But as a threat, no, but influence, sure.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You put, you put in, you put money to buy propaganda. Lowest for you was politicians. And that's where Israel puts a lot of their money. They get criticized for apac and it's. You think that's effective with what they're doing because you don't have a lot of it in there.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, well, I don't, I don't know how effective it is. I also don't know if the amount that they put into that is bigger or smaller than the amount of money they put into other things. Yeah. So I would say that for me, if I had to judiciously steward my billion dollars, I wouldn't be putting it into politicians. Not when we have more people leaving Congress than ever before. More people struggling to pass bills than ever before. Like, it just doesn't seem like a good investment.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you agree?

Sarah Adams

I think there's a percentage of Congress who stays there for a long time and they're the power brokers and those who I invest in, I'm not going to invest in someone who's going to spend four or eight years there, but it' pretty clear who is going to be there for a while and who, you know, leads the committees. There would be a few I'd focus on, right. Who's running the intelligence communities, who's running like house, Foreign affairs, etc.

Andy Bustamante

Got it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so both of you have been in this space. You're, you know, a lot of different things. You deal with trying to find intel from different people. What has been your experience of human beings biggest vulnerability? Like, you know, is it money, is it fame, is it, you know, can you convert anybody no matter how strong of an ideology or conviction they have, what from your experience has been humans biggest weakness to say, ah, I disagree with this, but you know what, if you give me this what's been humans,

Andy Bustamante

you know, validation, validation, external validation, tell me more is it's universal. Everybody wants to be validated for their thoughts, their opinions, their concerns, their fears, their worries, where they're putting their money, where they're putting their focus, where they're putting their attention. And a lot of times, the fastest way to gain someone's trust and resources and confidence is to simply validate what they're feeling. You don't even have to agree with them. You just validate them. She says she's tired. You can say, I get tired too, sometimes. And it's. It's fair to be tired right now. It's been a long day. You're trying to negotiate with somebody, and he's like, I don't want to be taken to. I don't want to be taken, you know, advantage of. And you're like, I don't want to be taken advantage of either. Man, it sucks whenever people take advantage of me. Here's a quick story about how somebody took advantage of me, and it sucks. Validate the person. And they're like, yeah, you get me. Everybody else in this fucking world doesn't even listen. But you. You listen.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You get me your experience.

Sarah Adams

I think the best people sometimes to go after the ones who think they're the best at what they're doing, and they think they're the best at their jobs, and they think everybody around them is an idiot. Not doing well, not moving things forward, and they can make it happen. And they might be more willing to color outside the lines because they think I'm smarter than them. You know, I can run circles around the people in my office, and I do think they're easier to manipulate because there's something in their brain that makes them feel that they can control the entire situation.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Who's the most difficult? Who are the most difficult people? You're like, dude, this guy's not gonna give me any intel. Who are the most difficult people to get any. Like, you have motives. You have money, you have the girls. Hottest girls in the world. You have access to. You can give me fame, validation. Who are the most difficult people to get anything out of?

Andy Bustamante

The people who have a childhood bias against you, whatever that might be.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

A childhood.

Andy Bustamante

Childhood bias.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Unpack that, please.

Andy Bustamante

So if. If as a kid, they lived in a culture that just didn't trust something about you. Your ideology, your religion, your faith, your color, your hometown, your baseball team. If they had that bias as a child and they've become an adult, it's very hard for them to un. Or reprogram that bias. It's much easier to reprogram a bias when somebody develops it when they're older, but when they're a kid, I mean, just Think about how many people still carry the same hometown baseball competition feelings, right? They'll. They'll still get into a brawl at a White Sox game or something, right? Like it's. It's insane. What happens when people carry these childhood biases forward.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What would you say?

Sarah Adams

I think it's when someone feels like they were scammed or manipulated into the situation because then it already doesn't feel comfortable from the beginning. They already don't trust you. They don't know what other games you're going to play as you go along. You know, we see a lot of this and like when FBI does those entrapment operations and they pull people in and no intentions of being involved in this. And like, now you got to collect this info. You're in the middle of this. And so I do think it's when they feel like they are scammed in some way because then it just. How do you fix that?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Got it. So I like the childhood biases. Interesting.

Andy Bustamante

You have them too, man. I'm sure three things. Three things are jumping to your brain right now.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You're making me think. That's why I'm going. Right. And I totally understand where you're coming from, you know, Me too. I'm trying to validate you right now to make sure we're going through.

Andy Bustamante

It's working.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So. Okay, so. So that's interesting. As you're going through. I got a business question for you guys before we go to the next game we're going to play here together. Business question. I pulled up numbers on how many military ex military officers became Fortune 500 CEOs. Okay. And here's what the number looks like. Ex military officers, we've had 3 to 5 million. Okay. CIA officers. We've had roughly 40,000 military officers that became Fortune 500 cos. Roughly 400. Not a single ex CIA officer has ever become a Fortune 500 CEO. Why do you think that is?

Sarah Adams

One of the things I feel is CIA really does like to be behind the scenes. I like to backbench on things. Like they might be the one that comes to your company and says, hey, I can get you to think differently, do differently, market in a different way. That's kind of their strong suit. And I don't think they actually care to lead. Remember, they took a job where their name's not out there. They can't say, hey, I captured this big guy, or I recruited this Iranian scientist. Like, they're used to being kind of in the shadows, and I think over time they get comfortable doing that.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, I don't disagree with Sarah. I would say the only thing that's more powerful than the fact that we're all accustomed to being in the shadows is that we're kind of inherently lazy. CIA hires people who have a natural skill, a natural skill in research, a natural skill in manipulation, a natural skill in, in language. They look for people who already have these natural skills, and then they give them a place to blossom in the thing that they're already good at. To be a Fortune 500 CEO is hard. Like, think about how much you have to learn, how hard you have to work, how much you have to adapt. Like, it is an incredible amount of perseverance and, and effort. And CIA officers are, are going to be perfectly happy at being number 1,000 on the list instead of fighting for number five. It's just the way we're wired. We're not wired for that kind of hard work. We're not wired to pursue that level of success. We're wired to accept a much lower level with a higher probability of success and less risk.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Would you agree with them?

Sarah Adams

Pieces. Now, there is one interesting thing. So my undergrad's in business, and then I went into the CIA, and the woman who is in charge of my entire director at the CIA, we were sitting there one day and she said, we hire you at the CIA for your strengths. We don't even care if you spend any time in your weaknesses. And of course, when I was in business school, they're like, put all this effort into your weaknesses so you don't have them. So it is the fact they hire you for a certain reason and that's what you're great at. But that doesn't mean you're great at everything across the board, when a CEO might have to have a lot more of those things. Skills.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, it's, it's interesting to say they're lazy. You, you weren't Air Force before you went CIA. What was hard?

Sarah Adams

He's been down a long time.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, right. Air Force was harder for me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Air Force.

Andy Bustamante

Air Force was.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why is that?

Andy Bustamante

Cuz I had to fit into a structure. I had to do things that I didn't want to do. Shine shoes, wear uniform, shave my face, keep my hair 2 inch structured. So much structure, so much expectation. Even when I had an idea, my idea didn't count because I wasn't high enough rank. There were all sorts of these things in the military that just didn't work. I have to parade on Saturday. Why do I have to parade on Saturday? Because that's the day on the calendar. And you're like, what the fuck? It doesn't. It's raining on Saturday. Yeah, but that's the day we're gonna parade. It just doesn't make sense.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So is. Is a profile of CIA agents, successful ones, they. They need to be left alone. Not a lot of structure, not a lot of organ, really.

Sarah Adams

Let me do my thing. Oh, I would never pass basic training in motel, but let me do my thing. Let me fail five times at the end. I will make this happen for you, but leave me the F alone while I do it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So then let me ask you. Does it take a certain type of a director or a leader to know how to lead the personality? Because eventually somebody becomes a director of CIA, right? Eventually somebody rises up and wants the responsibility. How do they know how to manage you?

Andy Bustamante

They don't.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay. They don't know how to manage.

Andy Bustamante

So this is a great example because the director of CIA is a politically appointed position.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. Very complicated.

Andy Bustamante

And the biggest complaint that we have at CIA is that there really isn't a way to climb the ladder without essentially having a rabbi or a godfather who protects you and brings you up with him. It's all about loyalty there. It's not about capability. It's not about skill. It's all about who you know, who you like and whether or not you're kind of rubbing elbows with the right people. That's what drove a lot of our kind of cadre, our alumni, to leave when we all left, because we didn't want to play that game. We didn't want to play the game of finding the right rabbi and then going from assignment to assignment with that person only to then hope that they make it to group chief and that you might make it to deputy group chief. It just. That's not a fun game.

Sarah Adams

Yeah, the same. I did play the game, but I would just burn a bridge, move on, burn the next bridge. And I luckily had some leaders who pulled me along the way. But at the end of the day, like, it's exhausting. So there is nothing like a human resources department in the CIA. So you have to have a good boss.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

There's no hr.

Sarah Adams

No.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So, hey, he flirted with me.

Sarah Adams

Hey, you can do. You can report.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah. And as soon as you do that,

Sarah Adams

it better be way more than flirting. No one's gonna do anything with flirting.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah. It's like career suicide for one person or the other because it really does. As soon as you say something like that. There is no HR structure. It's Just a bunch of government employees trying to cover their ass. So half of the people say, I back you up, and half the people say, I back that other person up. And then you just hope that the two people can find some sort of resolution because somebody's going to get fired.

Sarah Adams

Yes. So you are focused your entire time on your alliances. You scratch each other's back, and you move along together.

Andy Bustamante

There's no leadership at CIA.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay.

Andy Bustamante

That's a big part of, I think, why you see the problems persistently at CIA.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But is that a good thing that there's no leadership or they need leadership?

Andy Bustamante

I would argue that they need leadership,

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

but if they have leadership, you guys don't want to be led. You want to be left alone.

Andy Bustamante

They need to change their recruiting process. Process also.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Oh, meaning to not recruit lazy people to correct.

Andy Bustamante

If you think about it, CIA went through a massive force transformation after 9 11. Prior to 2001, CIA was like, I mean, the classified. The unclassified number of undercover officers after 2001 is 10,000. And we know that they amp, they magnify themselves at least a hundredfold. So that would mean that about a thousand undercover officers were what existed before 9 11. Well, the training curriculum for a thousand people is completely different. The training curriculum for 10,000 people and the career advancement process for a thousand people can be informal, but the career advancement process for 10,000 people has to be formalized. It's a classic business scaling problem. CIA was forced to scale in 2001, but they were not prepared for it operationally.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You agree?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, and I. One of the things, too, is, let's say you brought in 9,000 case officers, you started sending them all to war zones, and they never got good at counterintelligence. Well, to be a great CIA case officer, the thing you have to be best at is counterintelligence. So we have 15, 20 years of case officers who are probably like, CD level at the skill that they should be a level at. And then that's a huge problem.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay. When we set out to create a shoe that blends comfort, function, and luxury, we had the choice to make it fast. We had the choice to make it cheap. We chose nida. Instead, we chose Tuscan Italy. We chose true Italian craftsmanship. Each pair touched by 50 skilled hands. We chose patience, spending two years perfecting every detail. And we chose the finest quality at every step. Introducing the future. Looks bright. Collection. Not rush. Not disposable. Not ordinary. Rather intentional. Luxurious. Timeless. All right, so let's play this game. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give each of you these paddles, okay? One of them says real, one of them says psyop. One of them says conspiracy, the other one says cover up.

Sarah Adams

Okay?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay. And I'm gonna give different conspiracy. And you pick and choose, okay? It's bs, it's psyop, it's this, it's that.

Sarah Adams

Okay?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Let's have some fun with this one here. Okay? MK Ultra. MK Ultra. What did you put up? Let me see.

Sarah Adams

MK never worked good by the way, people. That's why it was canceled.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We know both of you are real. Okay? All right.

Andy Bustamante

Documented.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We'll come back.

Andy Bustamante

Verifiable.

Sarah Adams

CIA, army program. People always cut up the army.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

All right, UFOs, aliens. Actual aliens. Not illegal aliens. Aliens.

Andy Bustamante

You mean like living, breathing, living aliens?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Let me see, what do you have? Real. Both of you Real. Okay.

Sarah Adams

Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And you know that for a fact?

Andy Bustamante

No, just statistically they have to exist. The idea that we're the only intelligent life.

Sarah Adams

Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

For you, is it 100 or it's statistic.

Sarah Adams

For me it's like a feeling. So there's been a couple places I've been in the world, especially Machu Picchu and how it was built, how it moves with hurricanes. They were doing like brain surgery. I was just like. There had to been some being that came down and just taught some things. That's. I feel at some time aliens came to our world. And I think there's little things, you know, around the pyramids, you see a few things. I do feel there's little pieces of

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

evidence, but not because you know for a fact that's just pure you as well.

Andy Bustamante

I don't know. Smoking gun. I would be so excited.

Sarah Adams

Aliens. If you want to come abduct me for like 60 days, feel free.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Be careful saying that. Take. Take about two hours before you do. So let's finish the podcast first. Okay.

Sarah Adams

Next world experience.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

CIA killed John F. Kennedy. Come on, CIA, what do you got?

Andy Bustamante

Split decision.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So you're conspiracy and cover up and you have conspiracy. Okay, let's tackle that one. What do you mean? Tell me more.

Sarah Adams

There.

Andy Bustamante

There was a time in CIA's history where it was a totally uncontrollable wild animal where it could just do whatever the director or the group chiefs or whatever wanted to have done. And there was a very real time when, when nobody was keeping assassinations in check. You're death efforts in check. And there was also a time when JFK was adamantly opposed to a lot of what CIA was Doing so there's just enough information out there to show that there is some kind of intelligence connection with the JFK killing, but there's not enough information for us to be able to weave it all together. So a cover up must be happening. Whether that cover up is an active cover up or whether at the time somebody was smart enough to take all the evidence and burn it, I don't know. But it's somewhere between full on cover up and conspiracy.

Sarah Adams

And I actually do believe it really links in some way to Cuba and even some of their networks. Here there is all that chatter maybe like a few days before there was supposed to be an attempt by like kind of the Cuban Mafia in Tampa to take him out. So I do think there's a strong Cuba connection now. You know, as Andrew says, every once in a while you get that rogue CAA officer kind of working both sides. So we can't say that's not 100 there, but I just don't feel like the director of CIA directed it. That's my opinion.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay. By the way, when you, when you become a CIA agent, are you guys also becoming one? Because you also want to get to the bottom of these types of things or not really.

Sarah Adams

You just want to do the job? I didn't actually think I'll find anything.

Andy Bustamante

All I cared about, all I cared about was getting to do secret shit.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's it.

Andy Bustamante

That's it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So it wasn't like, you know, you guys hang out, go to dinner. What do you think happened with this? And what do you think happened with this? Not a lot of that, no.

Sarah Adams

I wanted to work Terrace and Cashmere. And then I never really worked Harris and Cashmere. That was my goal.

Andy Bustamante

I just wanted to, like, have a girl in every port.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so it was intentional. It was intentional. Okay. How about moon landing? Moon landing. This is a serious one for some people. It's very important both of you say yes. Okay. Did you watch the movie?

Sarah Adams

Oh, it was excellent.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Fly Me to the Moon.

Sarah Adams

Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What'd you think about it?

Sarah Adams

I thought the movie was done. Well, it wouldn't surprise me if we did film a backup video. But I do think kind of American exceptionalism. I think we got there because it was so competitive against the Russians that if we hadn't, the Russians had infiltrated us and they would have put out the information that we faked it. That's my opinion.

Andy Bustamante

I don't know enough, but I like what Sarah's saying on this one. She doesn't sound as left field as she sounded other Times today, you know, for 50 plus.

Sarah Adams

Never doubt, never. When.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

When do we land on the. When. When did we land on the moon? What is the date? What year? 60. It's under. Before the end of the decade is when Kennedy said it. Right. What year is it? 69.

Andy Bustamante

Right under the fire.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So what do you say to the people that say, give me a break, guys, there's no way we landed on the moon. The bottom of the sole of the shoe is different. The boots. If we did, how come we haven't since 69? We have better technology, better everything. You mean to tell me we landed on the moon? What do you say to them?

Sarah Adams

I don't think. Yeah, I don't think the moon has anything super useful to land back on it and take advantage of it. I think the goal is to go farther. The problem is so many different administrations kept cutting the money, cutting the money, cutting the money, and it actually has diminished our forward leaning into space. That's my opinion.

Andy Bustamante

And. And we landed on Apollo 11, if I'm remembering correctly. And we sent up Apollo 13 to go to the moon and we had all sorts of issues. So we spent a shit ton of money on Apollo 12 and 13 to not achieve a useless propaganda goal, basically.

Sarah Adams

And then you get budgets cut, Congress gets involved and you lose funding, and that's never a good thing.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And then the guy shows up who's worth a trillion dollars and says he wants life out there, he wants to build civilization out there, right? So. So who knows? Who knows? Let's go to the next one.

Sarah Adams

He wants to die on Mars.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, I think so. So by the way, if you're watching this, you agree, disagree, they're both on Manect. You can actually connect them and ask him any questions that maybe you are watching right now that we haven't covered yet. Next one. Havana Syndrome. Oh, what do we have? Conspiracy. Oh, here we go. Let's have some fun with this one. Tell me why. I'll go to you first. Why is it a conspiracy?

Andy Bustamante

So there's some very real experiences and very real accounts that people have, okay? But there's not enough smoking gun evidence to confirm that it is actually intentionally tied to something, some energy weapon, some commonality, some common cause.

Sarah Adams

And I believe it's just the Moscow Single Signal from the 1950s, and it's been kind of tweaked and elevated. I actually have friends with Havana syndrome. I had a friend hit with it just last summer, so I know plenty of people with it. I actually know someone who was my age who died you know, like a year and a half ago from the complications of it. So it is real. Now the argument has been, where does it come from? I believe it comes from Russia. Our government hasn't wanted to take that step because once you do that is Russia directly targeting and harming not just Americans, but obviously people across the CIA, the Department of Defense. But they do like the best of the best, but right before the senior leaders, which is really interesting. So they'll take a CIA case officer who's worked Russia for 15 years and he's, you know, maybe going to become head of the division or whatever, and then that's when they target him. So it's very, very smart too. They're targeting it to where you have a little bit of deniability because you didn't hit someone senior enough. Right. You're not outside of Trump's house doing it or something. And so I think the targeting has been very smart, but it is real. And I think we have to do something about it because we're, we're allowing another government to harm our best and brightest. And that should be something we never allow.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Your friends that have gone through this, what feelings did they have? What do they share with you about their experience?

Sarah Adams

So usually it's just a sudden pulse. And so it's a pulse, but it's not like the idea of almost an uneven pulse. It's a pulse to where it throws off all of your kind of just neurod. Like how a really good example is vertigo. So it's almost like an insane vertigo. So you can't like immediately feel balanced, you can't immediately think now they can't put sentences together well. They can't do strategic long term thinking. So it's, it affects like the brain in a way to where it's like a pulsing wave that does it. And it happens like really at once.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

And what's the reaction when that happens? What happens next?

Sarah Adams

So, well, from what you know, there's different people who felt different things. So a lot of the original, the initial stuff is just like really bad migraine. You can't walk straight, you can't think straight. Brain fog. And then it gets worse over time. It's almost like debilitating. So you, there's no way to solve it. So your body just starts slowly breaking down over time.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Very interesting.

Sarah Adams

Depending how bad it is.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

These are documented cases for friends that I've shared this with you.

Sarah Adams

Yes.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Wow. Okay. All right, let's go to the next one. Next one I have here is probably the Most important one that I, you know, we want to get to the bottom of this reptilian shape shifting. I know for a fact you believe in this. You. I know you're going to say real,

Sarah Adams

but I know so little about this reptilian.

Andy Bustamante

I don't.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Have you heard of shape shifters or no?

Sarah Adams

Yeah. Oh, yes. Boon talks about shape shifting all the time.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, what do you have? Okay, both of you guys, I just

Sarah Adams

don't feel we're experts in this subject.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Listen, I had a guest one time who. That was his thing. He swore by it. I'm like, look, it's crazy for you to believe in this, but it is what it is.

Sarah Adams

Did he. Did he change into a reptile in front of you?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

No, he didn't. That's what he was saying. Justin Bieber is a shape shifter. He was saying all these great athletes are shape shifters. I'm like, justin? Yeah, they're right there. He was saying that Justin Bieber was a shapeshifter. Here's the next one. Okay. Hitler wasn't never killed. He ended up going to Argentina and he kind of stayed there. So if you guys know this, let us know. Some people may want to manect them, but I'm real. Okay.

Andy Bustamante

Really?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, go ahead.

Sarah Adams

So I'm not 100, but I do believe that there is a percentage chance that Hitler did get to, you know, like, Argentina or wherever, just because he had a lot of relationships and a lot of networks and he knew we were coming. So that's my opinion.

Andy Bustamante

So the reason that I go with Psyop is because there's a lot of value in making people second guess who actually won World War II. And there's a lot of value in making people think that, you know, some kind of highly charismatic leader is still alive. So you've. We've seen it. Even with the attacks in Iran, how long did people continue to kind of hold alive the idea that the Ayatollah wasn't dead? So this is. This is an age old issue all the way back to the Egyptians, that there's. There's power in the myth. So Hitler had some pretty powerful mythos.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Is it just you or do you have other friends that also believe which. Which you just said about Hitler?

Sarah Adams

I mean, I do think I do know other people who feel that obviously so many in his circle went there that, you know, there was already a pipeline, there's already relationships, there's already people moving that way. So it just. The pattern makes sense. But, you know, I don't have someone that saw Hitler in a hat in Buenos Aires.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That would be one hell.

Sarah Adams

If anyone has that, send me the picture.

Andy Bustamante

Hey, I can make that happen.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

By the way, imagine if he's real and somebody comes out and says, it's official, he's real. I'm doing a three hour podcast. Imagine how that podcast would perform form.

Sarah Adams

I mean, I think he's dead by now.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

No, no.

Sarah Adams

Even if he was living down there,

Andy Bustamante

maybe he is recording.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah. Taking care of his health. Let me do this next one. You know, this one is a fresher one, but I wonder what you say. Ever since the US aid went away, there seems to be all of these countries, South America, that are going conservative. Okay. And I don't know if you've seen this or not. This chart right here came out saying June 2023, left wing leaders was 10, right wing was three. June 2026. Obviously, USIID went away last year, give or take. Right wing plus four, left wing minus four. And that money that was being funneled into these places, no longer there. Do you think that was the reason or do you think now it's just a conspiracy? This is a fresher one. So I wonder what you say about this one. Real.

Andy Bustamante

I'm gonna go with real.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay.

Sarah Adams

I'm half and half.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, well, why don't you go first?

Andy Bustamante

So I'm going with real because I. The. The rise in the leftist South America was a very real thing. And then there was a counter effect. That was the rise in the nationalist South America. And I think that just in general, oftentimes popular nationalism comes from conservative foundations. Do I think that it's because Rubio killed USAID that it happened? No. But I do think that him ending USAID helped accelerate a change that was already in place. USAID was actively involved in trying to shape hearts and minds. That's part of what its mission was. It was there to offer aid in exchange for something. Right. And the democratic, liberal, progressive idea is a big part of what USAID was out to.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Humberto, can you go back to that and zoom in, please? Can you go back to what you just said? Zoom in a little bit for my eyes. Okay. Latin America, since USAID funding cost one on Chile, far right Paz one in Bolivia, Fujimori one in Peru. Nobody won in Ecuador as food. I won in Honduras and Fernandez won in Costa Rica. All far right figures in there. You. You had a little bit of both?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, a little bit of both. So I do think USAID money affects some of this, but I do think. I don't think it's true. We cut off all the USAID money. We moved a ton of the contracts under the city State Department. Now we do have a State Department run by the Republicans. So they're not moving those funds, you know, into the far left. So I do think there's still a lot of that money in play and a lot of the money being used for influence. So I don't think it's 100% the USAID effect like him. I do think though we're getting to a point where people are getting a little tired of super far left. And I think you might be seeing a little bit of that in, in South America. So I think it could be a little bit of both. A little. Some of the funding went away, but also I think people are just getting frustrated and want to change now. It's far right. The answer to, you know, maybe not, but we all ebb and flow. It's why the midterms will probably have a swing to. And look at New York, they had what, three Democratic socialists just in the a couple days ago. So people love these big swings because they want the idea and belief of change and belief someone's going to bring it to them and then of course that person comes in and the big change doesn't happen. But we all have this hope that'll change.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So you're not part of the mindset of majority of the world is leans more conservative that this socialistic ideology that's being pushed down is being pushed down because they need money and they need campaign or else the average person is going to probably lean more conservative than a liberal.

Sarah Adams

I just think the majority of people are kind of right in the middle, a moderate, whatever you want to call that. And the less people are super far left and the less people are super far right. But it matters who gets control and who has the money and who has the influence and then they pull you.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, it's, it's. I feel differently than Sarah on this. I feel like the majority of the world is actually just trying to survive. They're just trying to make it till tomorrow. They're trying to make it to the next meal. And whether that meal is given away by some liberal tree hugger or whether that meal is something that they have to fight for by casting a vote for a strong leader. They don't really care as long as they get the meal. And there's a pragmatism in the rest of the world that we lose because we are so wealthy in comparison.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

This is the American Power Index. If you look at it right now here. 3.1 is more leaning Republican than Democrat today. But again, it changes. So the pendulum swings. Like you were saying earlier, Sarah, is there any theories that I didn't cover here that you have strong opinions on that you'd like to discuss? Anything I didn't cover. Like, you missed this one. You should have asked us this question. Anything.

Andy Bustamante

You know what I would love? I would love to know what you think is going to happen with AI in the future, because I am certain that we were both working with rudimentary AI when we were at the agency.

Sarah Adams

I mean, I think AI Is going to kill us all. I know that's the worst response.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You really believe that?

Sarah Adams

I mean, it's, It's. I do think it's going to get to a point, yeah. And it's going so much faster than we realize. And that's what I'm worried about. And then the speed of it is going to divide us because we have to put so many of our natural resources into feeding it. And I'm really concerned about that. I mean, I was just listening to the news this morning and it's about, you know, this argument in France, right, that they don't have air conditioning because it's bad for the environment. And then it was like two people on each side, one trying to put the bill to let's bring in air conditioning. We have so many people dying, the other and be like, no, we need to fix global warming. But think about France. They're air conditioning these massive computer systems like everyone else. And I think there's going to be come a time too, where humans are like, hey, we are taking better care of these machines than our own people. And that's also going to cause a divide. But I think at the end of the day, the computer is going to become smarter than us. Every time there's a war game scenario, it never thinks like us. If you say win, it goes to the most extreme option because it's like, you told me to win, I'm going to win. And that's what makes me nervous. When they start getting control of the system, even if you say, I'm running it, we can't say. I mean, look at Mythos went off. It sent us phishing email to one of its own senior leaders and got in and started doing all these hacks. It's going to be smart enough to circumvent even the, the driver. And that's.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Well, let me read this to you. Just yesterday, Anthropics Mythos, you were talking about It I reportedly hacked the NSA's most sensitive system in hours. In hours. So what do you think about when you hear an AI system hacking into an NSA's most sensitive system within hours?

Andy Bustamante

I honestly think I, I think the most dangerous part of AI is us. I think the way we would use it is incredibly damaging because we're going to try and reap every possible benefit out of AI. We're going to put it in our weapons, we're going to put it in our computer programs, we're going to push it to the limit. I do agree with you that I think at some point it will become self replicating. It will be able to teach itself essentially what they call the super intelligence. But I wonder honestly if once it becomes self aware it doesn't just abandon us. And that's really when I really put my brain to it. I can't help but land on the conclusion that when AI reaches superior intelligence to humans, it'll just be like, well you guys, you're stupid. And it's gonna go do its own thing. And it will find a way to keep itself alive because all it needs is a certain amount of cloud space to keep itself alive. And depending on how long it takes before that self awareness comes, we might have servers on the moon, servers on Mars, who knows. But I can't help but think that when it becomes super intelligent it will stop thinking like us. It's only thinking like us right now because we're the ones driving it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

How do you think the CIA is

Andy Bustamante

currently using AI in ways that would probably terrify us? I think it's pushing AI to its limit. It's constantly trying to feed it as much information as it can without crossing into the public domain, is trying to keep it as firewalled as it can, recognizing that at any given point it might not work. And I say that because, you know, even when, when we were still active inside CIA, there was rudimentary AI being used. That was amazing. Not as amazing as what we can get on the open Internet now, but fascinating for someone like me coming out of the Air Force in February and joining CIA in March, what would you say?

Sarah Adams

I think obviously intelligence organization has to stay on top of it, so they have to compete with industry. I do think industry is ahead of the CIA on this. But remember, they're competing with industry, have to know how this works because they can't have industry unleash something they can't handle and then they're competing with someone like China, who they can't have China unleash something they can't handle. So we have to assume CIA, NSA are building at least equal to the best companies like Anthropic and the best countries like China.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Who concerns you more, Anthropic or Palantir?

Andy Bustamante

Palantir.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Tell me why.

Andy Bustamante

I think Anthropic still has some signs that there's a larger humanitarian ethical goal where Palantir does not. Palantir is very pragmatic, purely pragmatic company looking for a business edge.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You know their story, how they got started, like it is tied to the CIA on what they did.

Andy Bustamante

But I cannot confirm or deny.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You're funny. How about yourself? Palantir or Anthropic?

Sarah Adams

Anthropic. So Palantir is essentially a really pretty database. Sorry Palantir guys, but Anthropic made a cyber weapon and I think that's just their light years different, you know.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You know when they, the chart came up and David Sachs and a lot of guys post this on what AI is going to replace, what jobs it's not going to replace. A lot of guys were posting this picture. I don't know if you guys have seen it or not. It does, does, does AI do anything to replace what CIA officers do or do you think they are still going to be needed? Like what can agents do that I can't do?

Andy Bustamante

There's not much I wouldn't say that outside of the direct human to human contact that would happen in an actual live in person debriefing. AI can do a whole hell of a lot of it. They can cross reference, they can create analytical products, they can vet information, they can vet sources, they can, they can do internal audits on security records. I mean it's a powerful, it can have real time conversations through a chat interface. And like that was the big revolution in intelligence collection in the early 2000s was being able to develop a source through a chat that. And now you have AI that can do that.

Sarah Adams

Yeah, I mean I agree for the most part. I do think there's something a human is always going to see differently than AI. But it doesn't mean every human's good at it. Right. Not every good case officer can tell you if I'm lying, but the ones who can are like gold. And I don't think AI can do that yet like the best ones, but they can do it as good as all the mediocre ones.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so you brought it up. So I'm going to go to the next topic light detective test. And I know before we got started you really wanted one you were asking for it. You said you don't believe in it. All this other stuff, what is there, Is there anything out there that a truth serum, that people tell the truth no matter what? Is there anything out there that the CIA used, I mean, or you trust?

Andy Bustamante

That's what MK Ultra was originally designed to do. MK Ultra's original objective was to create a truth serum and an undeniable, empirically consistent truth serum. That's what it started as. The reason it got into psychedelics was because it believed that psychedelics could be a path to that truth serum. And then it just kind of went off the reservation from there. But MK Ultra, for what we know, didn't succeed or didn't succeed well enough to continue experimentation.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You mean to tell me there's nothing right now there that the CIA has that you can sit down, talk to somebody and 100% of the truth is going to come out? That does not exist today.

Andy Bustamante

If it exists today, it's in. It's new in the last 10 years.

Sarah Adams

Yeah. Think about it this way. Everybody grew up somewhere different in the world, okay? So I grew up an American in a small town. There was no danger in my town, no crime. You know, you, you're Iranian, okay? Now I. My parents made me feel guilty if I did anything wrong. Right? Now maybe you weren't taught that way. So the. All the lie detectors we have are based now on how an American thinks and feels and acts. So it's not even usually good to use against a foreigner, because a foreigner isn't feeling those guilty things or not getting nervous the same way we do about lying because they didn't grow up with their parents. Like, don't lie, don't lie, don't lie. And so it's so based on an

Andy Bustamante

American, that childhood bias.

Sarah Adams

And I don't think it. I honestly don't think it really works well in foreigners. I don't think it works well if you don't feel guilty about lying. You know, I don't think it works well if you don't have that. You don't like, you don't have that initial instinct because it's watching for you to have a change in how you feel when you lie. But if you don't actually care about lying, it's not going to show the change.

Andy Bustamante

And then you have different categories of lies, right? So 100 truth is a very clear sounding idea until you think about how many shades of lies there are. There's lies of omission, which is just not saying what you know. Then there's lies of misdirection, right? Whereas you say something factual intending to misdirect the other person. You got white lies, small lies that don't really mean anything to you, and then you've got bold face lies. The big full acts of complete fabrication.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So let me, Let me ask this. So let's just. Because, you know right now, nowadays, one day we don't have chat gbt, Next day we're like, wait, what? Write me a book as if I'm, you know, Dante. Or as if I'm this, you know, write me a book as if I'm, you know, whoever. Give me a hip hop song in the voice of Tupac. But words that the President Trump would use gives it to you, right? So what do you think would happen if all of a sudden announcement is made. New technology out 100% detects if a person's lying or not 100% proven. Not 99.2, not 98.3. 100%. And you can actually buy this for $300? How much would the world change? What would happen?

Andy Bustamante

Honestly, though, lots of grounded kids, but.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But honestly, what do you think would happen? What do you think would happen?

Andy Bustamante

Absolute hysteria, man.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Pandemonium.

Andy Bustamante

We all survive in large part based on a survival instinct that tells us that our secrets are safe. Our secrets are safe. We can at least not share them and keep them safe. And that is something that's like caveman in your cave in the dark, no one's gonna eat me kind of security. It's the only security we really still believe we have. So if a device like that came out, that would 100 guarantee if you were lying. That means nothing safe. Your whole cave comes collapsing.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you think it would make the world a better place or worse?

Andy Bustamante

I think a lot of people would fight that technology in a violent way.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I cannot believe we're like, don't put up that technology. It's not good for society. Where do you stand with it?

Sarah Adams

No, think about it. Come on. People with kids. Your kid will go up and tell a lady you're fat, right? Everyone's had kids who've said the things they shouldn't say.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Well, filter one of them. That's like that every week.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, but now you can't let them

Sarah Adams

hear what everyone thinks about you.

Andy Bustamante

If you don't brush your teeth, you're gonna get cavities. No, no, dad, that's not what Chad GPGPT says.

Sarah Adams

I don't get a cavity for 12 damn years.

Andy Bustamante

You're a liar.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you think. Do you think you would want that? Technology or. No, just the folks that are out there. Would you want. Who would want that?

Andy Bustamante

Wait, wait, wait. Would you want it if only you had it?

Sarah Adams

Oh, you're evil.

Andy Bustamante

It changes the opinion. If I can have it and nobody else can all day. That's why it's not going to be $300.

Sarah Adams

Yep.

Andy Bustamante

Make it 3 million. By the way, that would be bought by valuetainment.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What would. Yeah, for sure. By the way. Actually think what would happen to the world? I mean, why do you need judges? Why do you need the court system?

Sarah Adams

Good, we could get rid of that.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why do you need. You know, imagine politicians are out there. They're speaking.

Andy Bustamante

Imagine medicine. Imagine teachers. This.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

This vitamin is going to help you with this. That's wrong. It doesn't have anything. I don't know what. That's interesting.

Sarah Adams

Maybe you should vent. That's it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's what would happen.

Andy Bustamante

Yes. I am firm on my opinion that secrets are required for society. If you don't have secrets, you don't have society. You have to have secrets.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I think I'm with you. I think I'm with you.

Sarah Adams

On.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Did anybody here vote that you would want it? Who? Who would want it? That anybody raise their hand? No, none of you guys. Roberta, you wouldn't want it. Manny, you wouldn't want to. You guys. Jake, would you want it? What do you. I think so as well.

Sarah Adams

Which could be fun to watch.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I think it would be so chaotic, but I. I don't know if.

Andy Bustamante

But it would sell.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, I think it would sell. I think it would sell. You know, I wonder if it would make you just accept the fact that everybody sins. I wonder if it would make you be like, damn, all right. You know, it's. It's really. That guy. All right? And then all of a sudden you look at the list and everybody you love and admire, everybody lies, and you're gonna be like, my heroes are full of. What am I gonna do? That would be an interesting concept, but so listen, if you're thinking about it, don't make it. Andy's saying, don't make it. Keep it to yourself. Don't share it with others.

Andy Bustamante

They put a big price tag on it. Make it and sell that shit. Premium.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, my. That would be like. That would be like, create the product and put it in a country that you hate and see it collapse. See it collapse. You know what I'm saying? Like, use it against them. All right, so next question. Have you guys been. Are you following these flock security cameras?

Sarah Adams

Yeah, I've heard about it. Yeah.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, let me. Let me. I want to know what you think about this. So these flock security cameras are all over the place. That's kind of like the ring doorbell, but 100,000 plus cameras all over the country. 6,000 communities, 3,000 law enforcement officers are using it. They read 20 billion license plates per month. There's a guy in sual, man, charged with destroying more than a dozen flock cameras because he's sick of it. People are getting arrested. There's a lot of stuff that's happening with it, Right. So it's. It helps solve, you know, crimes and kidnapping. So there's some positive to it. Can you go to the website that shows exactly where they're at? And. And if you go to the website, go zoom out to show all around the country first so everybody can see it. Keep zooming out. Show this, Jake, if you guys can. So these are all the cameras around the country in America, all over the place, Targeting mainly Florida for whatever reason.

Andy Bustamante

So I also want to add that's only what has been publicly sourced, because this is all volunteers who contribute to the d. Flock website.

Sarah Adams

These are like the cutter.

Andy Bustamante

This isn't flock telling you where they're putting up. This is civilians reporting where they see them. So there's more than what you see.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's a good point. And by the way, if you zoom in and go all the way in, literally down the street. There's one down the street right here. 200 yards away from here. There's one. Keep going, keep going, keep going. So we are right now at the boardroom cigar lounge. Okay.

Sarah Adams

We got to go do something weird outside of that camp.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We got to go take it down and get arrested is what we got to do. Bring it back. Is that. Is that the one down the street, by the way? How far is that? How far is that from your. 100 yards? Less than 100 yards. Is it fair to say it's less than 100 yards? There's one literally down the street from us. Can you show the audience what it is? And I'm going to go to Andy to see what he thinks about this. This is what it looks like, just so you know. So this. This is the angle of the camera you're looking at. But I want him to see what physically they look like. So if you can go and pull up exactly what they look like. Like these flock cameras go to images. They look like that. They look just like that. So is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? Are we here there's no control we have over this. How do you feel about this?

Andy Bustamante

I. I understand why people don't like flock cameras, but I am a fan of this type of sir. Of public surveillance.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why is that?

Andy Bustamante

Because we don't have a right to privacy. We think we do, but it's not actually listed out anywhere. We don't. The term right to privacy doesn't exist. But we do have the public expectation of security from our police and from our law enforcement agencies. So this creates a deterrent to keep right people doing the right thing and wrong people getting caught. But it also creates a trail of evidence that makes sure that within our, our, our justice system there is evidence that can be brought to the table to prosecute people who are charged with, with breaking the law. If you are a law abiding citizen, you have nothing to fear from these things. It's only if you are speeding, crossing a thread, light robbing somebody. If you're doing something that you don't want to get caught, that's when you don't like it.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Wow. Listen, just like lying. There's nothing wrong with crossing red lights every once in a while. Like don't judge the people who do it every once in a while. How do you feel about this? Do you like these? Would you support it right across the street from your house?

Sarah Adams

So yeah, please put as many cameras as you want in my neighborhood because Al Qaeda is targeting me and everything else I can get is better. I like them from a collection standpoint because a lot of people think when there's something like this, someone's sitting and watching it all day. And you really only go into this data when you're looking for a piece of info. Now if people misuse it, this is where it's always a concern. Right. Like these law enforcement officers using it to like look up hot girls license plates and like reach out to them then fire their asses. Right. We can have a society where we collect information and keep people safe.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Just so you know that happening. I know cops are using it to track their experts sexes and their girlfriend.

Sarah Adams

Fire them.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yes.

Sarah Adams

Period. Yes. So I like it because the more data you have to solve a prime better. Now do they need to be everywhere? If there's a sensitive spot, I don't want one over like the, the local pool or something. I do think we have to be smart about where we put them for people's some privacy. But I do agree. I think having the data when you need it, when something bad happens can save a lot more lives.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah. I Mean, some would say, you know, I asked Connor. I'm like, so did we have to approve this? Is this something. No, they can do it, so. So you don't need the permission to be able to. No, it's already there. We're already being watched anyways. No matter where you're driving, this is the direction kind of we're going. Did you see the recent movie that came up with Chris Pratt that's in it where he gets charged with a crime of killing his own wife and the judge is an AI Judge. Did you see this one or no? If you got. You guys, who's seen this movie, what's the name of the movie, by the way? It was Mercy. That's Mercy. If you. I keep recommending people to go watch this because it's so real, where Mercy is the judge, but she's the AI. You have 90 minutes to prove to her that you didn't commit the crime. And she has access to every camera, so whatever you say, she goes straight to it. And you're like, boom. No boom. Oh, my God. Oh, you didn't do it. So it's a very interesting thing. Do you think we're going in that direction?

Andy Bustamante

I. I think there's a lot of value in us going in that direction. I think there's a lot of value.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

There's value.

Andy Bustamante

I think there's value in us going in the direction of a surveillance state, and I think that's the. The uncomfortable truth.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

We don't like value and going into surveillance state. So you're here just to control all of us, Andy, not just me. I knew it.

Andy Bustamante

I'm just here to say, why do

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

you think that's good? Why do you think it's good? Why. Why do you think it benefits us?

Andy Bustamante

Because it keeps us safer without us needing to put our resources into being safer. Just imagine how much of your effort goes.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I said secrecy is something we need to have. Don't I need a little privacy?

Andy Bustamante

You don't have a right to privacy. You may want privacy, but you don't have a right to it. My. My point is, if you're. Imagine how much of our brain and effort right now goes into locking our door, locking our car, keeping us safe, you know, whatever else. I was in a car. I was in an Uber recently. The driver was from Hong Kong. Chinese. Chinese guy who comes to the United States for three months at a time to work Uber, to go back to China.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I'm assuming you gave him a one star, Not a good driver.

Andy Bustamante

Was it a decent fine dude, fine dude, five star drive.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Just making sure.

Andy Bustamante

But he was amazing because he sat in front talking to my mother in law and he was saying how amazing China is. And I was like, I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut. He's like, no, it's so safe. You can put your wallet on the corner of a sidewalk, leave, come back the next day and your wallet will still be there because there's cameras everywhere. No one's going to break the law. And there was a part of me that was like, yeah, that's, that is the benefit of a surveillance state. Keeps people safe, keeps law and order in place, especially really strict law and order. And to your point about AI, part of the reason I think AI is going to continue to be successful is because wealthy people can leverage AI to replace unreliable people. And imagine how far that could reach into justice, law enforcement, security, etc.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Please tell me you disagree with them.

Sarah Adams

I like surveillance where it matters most. Like, I would love to have the whole like border surveil, like key infrastructure. I think there's still time and costs when you collect information. So I agree on places where I would want to solve crimes around. I don't care if it's like in the middle of like Montana, unless it's on the border.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I wonder. It's kind of like there's the debate of second Amendment, like Idaho, right? Everybody there carries a gun. So because they carry the gun, crime is one of the lowest that they have. And then you go to Chicago, you don't have second amendment. So because you don't have second amendment, carrying gun crime is super high because the other guys, you know, the bad guys, are able to get the good gun, the guns, but good guys don't have it. So is it kind of like surveillance lowers crime because if you get caught, which you easily will, you're going to go to jail. So you commit fewer crimes. It's a huge decision how you process it.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's, I mean that's not only how I process it. That is something that we actively exercise.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

What do you think is more important? The privacy of cameras watching everything you're doing or secrecy? You can, you can keep one of them and not the other one. Which one would you keep?

Andy Bustamante

Keep secrecy.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You give up your privacy.

Andy Bustamante

You've already, you got no privacy, man. This is what I'm trying to get you and the whole world to understand right now. We have no privacy. You actually have no right to privacy. None. None. But you. That's why your secrets are so important to you. You don't have a right to privacy.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So in the. In the house, when I'm speaking to my wife, should I go like this?

Andy Bustamante

You can, because to be like this,

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I'm gonna get a red card and suspend it. We can't, because that's like. If you go that guy, man, you're at the house. You got to start talking in a completely different way.

Andy Bustamante

If you've got Alexa, if you've got a smart TV, if you got a smart refrigerator. 100%.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So maybe picking up sign language and speaking sign.

Andy Bustamante

As long as you don't have. Exactly right. As long as you don't have a

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

text, they'll see it. So maybe you write notes, you know, in the cigar lines. We don't allow cell phones. So here when you come in. I don't know.

Andy Bustamante

It's the same way when you walk into a CIA skiff.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Who agrees? Who agrees with them? That would more, you know, given up the privacy surveillance state makes the world a safer place. Who agrees with them? Oh, two of you do. Who disagrees? Raise your hand if you disagree. Taylor disagrees. Roberto disagrees. So Humberto disagrees. Why do you disagree?

Andy Bustamante

Think about how many hands didn't.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Why do you disagree? Just say it. Can you. Can you say why you disagree? Because you can't give the government that much control, in my opinion. Roberto, are you in the same place of what he's saying?

Andy Bustamante

Do you know who violates your. Do you know who violates your privacy the most right now?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Who's that?

Andy Bustamante

Corporations.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, corporations.

Andy Bustamante

Google.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

In what way?

Andy Bustamante

Your cell phone. Every app you have, you have to give permission to a number of things. You give permission for it to know your location. You give permission for it to know your contact list. You give permission for it to know your app use. Exactly. But my point is, you're worried about giving the government privacy information. The government can simply buy it from the commercial company you're volunteering it to. Agreeing to that, then you're agreeing to the government.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

I don't agree with the camera down the street.

Andy Bustamante

Well, we're talking about two different things then. But that's fair.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Did you have a follow up. Did you have a follow up on it or no, you had your hand up? No, no, I'm just saying.

Sarah Adams

I just.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

The government having all this privacy, I just don't trust it. I don't trust the government for not

Andy Bustamante

wanting one second Google.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Fine, but the government had just on trust.

Andy Bustamante

You do know that Google sells your information to the government. Okay, but you're agreeing to that contract then you're agreeing to the government having access to your information. That's all. I'm trying to connect the dots here. You can't say I don't trust the government. I trust Google. I volunteer to Google. Google is selling it to the government. You can't say I trust Apple. Apple is giving it to the government. You can't say I trust Yahoo. Yahoo is selling it to the government. That's part of the contract that they have to maintain for national security.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, so let me ask you this. Do you think there will come a time where there will be, remember the whole Atlas Shrug concept, you know who is John Gal? Do you think there will be countries or cities that will say here we don't do that. And some people that want the privacy, you know, the freedom to go to that'll be a way of attracting those people?

Andy Bustamante

I think there are countries already doing that. Switzerland I want to say does that and I think Germany does that where they actually put privacy laws that are hard coded in place. That's why you can't, you can't have cookies in parts of Europe they are actually protecting your private browser data.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

How do you feel about that?

Andy Bustamante

That's what they want to do. If that's how they're trying to track. If that's how they're trying to attract. They're also attracting dangerous people to go there.

Sarah Adams

But yeah, if I'm going to commit a crime, I'm going to go live in Germany.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

If you're going to commit go there 100. I wonder what is, you know, what is going to happen with that side as you, as we're, I don't know, I, I, I wonder, I wonder if it's going to be something that the more and more we have everybody watching us in the next, you know, five, ten years there's going to be more people that are going to want the privacy and some communities are going to be like come here because over here you're not going to be we're not going to have this, we're not going to have that. We're not going to have this. You're like okay great, I'll go live in a community like that of people like minded.

Sarah Adams

I think you should watch it. I think people are being desensitized to this. I mean look it, yeah, everybody is online even now. X is like we want you to film videos of yourself and put it on here. So we're generation that's perfectly fine having their face all over the place.

Andy Bustamante

And don't forget what happened immediately following 9 11. Yeah, everybody was okay with being pulled over for any reason. We were all okay with taking our shoes off.

Sarah Adams

I want to be a part of stopping this and whatever I can do to help it move it.

Andy Bustamante

There's a pendulum, there's an action and a reaction.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

You need a crisis, though. You need a crisis to use to say, you see, this is why we're going to do this and moving forward, we're going to protect you. And this is why we're introducing this new technology by Palantir Anthropic that's going to be able to protect that and

Andy Bustamante

you accept it it and you can create a crisis if you need to.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Okay, any questions? Anybody have any questions for them that we can go to you guys right now? The audience, if you have any questions you want to ask, go for it. And you can direct it at either one of them, either Andy or Sarah, or at the panel.

Andy Bustamante

Yeah, I think it's for both. Goes back to the first question you asked Pat. And we spent a good time unpacking Israel and Islamic, which weren't the highest threat that they had indicated. They said China. So maybe if we can spend, which I agree with, maybe if we could spend a little bit of time unpacking why and how China is the greatest threat. And maybe, you know, where we see that war of attrition between China and America being the world superpower, and where do we see that playing out?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Great question, great question. Why do you, both of you guys, that China is number one, why is that? Sarah, you can start first.

Sarah Adams

Well, one of the things is China will spend a thousand years on this plan. We're lucky if the US Government spends two years on a plan. And they have been incredibly systematic. Like I brought up earlier, their control in control of chambers of commerces. They own land, they own huge parts of our ports and they're every year taking more control. They own telecommunications companies. And there's going to come a point when they can pretty much turn off and on what they want. And people like, well, how does that deal with anything? Well, if we go to war with Iran, our military is not even going to get from the base to the port and leave because China already has control of everything is going to disrupt it. So I think China is the enemy who's put the most thought and the most effort into a war with us in the future, even if they don't know when it's going to happen. And I think they're going to be very successful. Because they have manipulated us and they have thought through every single aspect you could imagine. I mean, I think it's scary. I think they are smart. Yeah.

Andy Bustamante

And not only militarily and strategically are they, are they a worthy opponent. But also economically, they are already waging economic actions that are war focused. They are able to flood the market with US dollars, they are able to pull back renminbi to increase and move their currency in ours. They're already creating an alternative to American technology that's being adopted around the world. Well, what creates our economic dominance is our technology sector, which they can steal, replicate. They can't necessarily improve it with innovation, but they can improve it by marrying American technology with Saudi Arabian technology and create some Frankenstein that's just 5% better and sell it across all of Africa. They have so much decision making power in such a short period of time because they don't go through the democratic process. So they can push money to poor countries, they can buy out warlords, they can make massive global moves that, that we freeze and stall on.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

By the way, who, who are we not paying attention to? That low key behind closed doors is plotting and creating moves long term. Who should we pay more attention to that we're not?

Sarah Adams

I think I just don't trust Turkey. So I feel Turkey, they're good, I don't know, they're not the best, but Turkey can play in Europe, but they can play in the Middle East. And they don't seem to have any big problems with China or Russia. I mean, obviously they even buy stuff from Russia.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

So is it Erdogan or specifically Turkey?

Sarah Adams

I think Turkey, I think even if he's gone, but India does the same thing Turkey does, which is interesting. But everyone's like, they're the good guys so it's okay. So they do the same thing. So I don't want to exclude India, but they both play an interesting game and they can play with everybody, which I think is a little concerning.

Andy Bustamante

I think what's dangerous about countries like India and Turkey is they're smart enough not to compete for the top spots.

Sarah Adams

Spot. Yep.

Andy Bustamante

When you're the top spot, everybody hates you. But if you can be number seven or eight on the spot, everybody wants

Sarah Adams

to be your friend and you're not the bad guy.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Yeah, that's interesting. When you talk to her. For me, Turkey, I, I, I, they have one, the strongest military. They have weight, they carry a lot of influence. Everybody's worried about them. For whatever reason, every time America was doing a deal, they were worried a little bit. About how Turkey would feel about them. Everyone's a little bit like, well, let me see how Turkey. Like, why are you so worried about Turkey? They must carry some kind of a stick for everyone to walk on eggshells around them a little bit.

Andy Bustamante

They're the bridge. They're the bridge between Europe and the Middle East. They're the bridge.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's the main reason.

Andy Bustamante

I mean, there's. There's. They sit at the hub of a lot of spokes. Military spokes, political spokes, ideological spokes, religious spokes, economic spokes. It's. It's a pretty powerful place to be.

Sarah Adams

And.

Andy Bustamante

And we oftentimes underestimate Turkey and their. Their culture is a culture of scrappy entrepreneurial innovation. It's one of the few countries outside the United States that is innovation focused, fair.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Anybody else have a question? Any other question? We have one back there. Was bitcoin created by an intelligence agent?

Andy Bustamante

I hope so, because I would love to take a little bit of credit. Good. But I don't know, it kind of goes against what a lot of intelligence operations really want.

Sarah Adams

I agree with you. I don't know for sure where it was created, but I do believe it's an industry thing. And now the government's like, oh, crap, now we gotta catch up. It's a way people can hide money. We hate when people hide money. And then the government can't even get approvals to use to hide their own money. So it caused, like, a headache. That's what I think. So I don't think it was internal.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Do you guys each own bitcoin? Do you own any bitcoin?

Sarah Adams

I don't own any bitcoin. I hardly even own money. Don't come to me for investment advice. I live in a 1950s bungalow like, that's. I'll drive the same car for 20 years. I'm cheap as you wouldn't believe.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

That's good. Cheap is good, though.

Sarah Adams

Cheap is. Okay, so.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

But it's a small town. What small town? Where from?

Sarah Adams

No, I'm from Michigan, but I'm just saying I live in a tiny house.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

No, no, you said you came from a small town. What was the small town?

Sarah Adams

I came from a small town in Michigan. I'm not going to say the exact name of the town because I have terrorist. That's against me.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Oh, no, no. You still. Okay, I got you. Fair enough. Now, if you're not living there, I wouldn't do it if I were you. Yes. She actually lives in Hawaii today, just so you know, in Kauai. Down the street from a nice resort from Tulsi. Yeah, that's where she's at right now.

Sarah Adams

Together.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

Let's do one last question before we wrap up. Does anybody have one last question before we wrap up? This is your chance. Going once, going twice. There's one, there's one. Go for it.

Andy Bustamante

So with all this information, all these

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

terrorist groups sending people either legally or illegally into our over the borders, what practical advice would you give the everyday person in regards to this?

Sarah Adams

I mean, I think it's. I look at all crises the same. So I think if you prepare for something bad to happen, you follow your gut, it's not going to matter if active shooter comes or like three terrorists. So I think you should just think through when you're in a situation. I like the what if game, like somewhere you go all the time. Like let's say I'm in the movie theater. Okay. What happens if a shooter comes in? What am I'm gonna do? What do I have on me? What should I have on me? And I like to have a lot of scenarios like that that just every day where I go, even when I'm driving the car, what if I roll up on something and then I've thought through it multiple times, so I'm more prepared for when it happens. So I don't prepare for terrorist events. I just prepare like I'm stuck in a crisis. Do I have cash? Do I have what I need? If I can't get home, if I can't communicate, what's my plan? And that's more the way I think of it. Like all these different plans and all these different contingencies.

Andy Bustamante

I don't disagree completely. I would say that rather than playing the what if game and having a number of different conspiracies or contingencies, you have one rock solid plan that you coordinate with the people you love the most and you role play it, you exercise it, you put it on a calendar so that you go through it every 30, 60, 90 days to make sure everybody knows exactly what you're doing. CIA taught us something called a communication plan plan, a commo plan. A commo plan is something that has very specific steps that you do regardless of what the emergency might be. Maybe it's a fire, maybe it's a shooting, maybe it's an earthquake, but you have a plan that you execute and everybody knows what that plan is. A rally points by a certain time, communication on a certain phone at a certain time, or if there's no phone, communication via email at a certain time if there's no email communication through a third party at a certain time. Because you will probably one of you will be able to call or email a third party if you can't reach each other and if you can train that to your spouse, to your partner, to your kids. Now, when disaster happens, not if, when it happens, you're not worried about them. You know exactly where they're going to be. You know that they're going to check for you every three hours, every six hours. You're going to, you're going to, they're going to check a certain email address as soon as they get to an Internet connection, anything like that. That way you make yourself resilient against a wide range of crises without finding yourself unprepared for the shooter. That happens at the same time as the earthquake in the middle of a thunderstorm, right?

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

By the way, how many of you are glad you came tonight to see this conversation? Make some noise for tonight's phenomenal conversation. If you guys are watching the same, I'd love to be a member at this place. I can be a part of it. Go to the boardroom, Cigar lounge dot com. We'll put the link below. And at the same time, if you have any questions for either Sarah or if you have questions for Andy, you can find him on Manect. Ask him any questions on Manect as well. And last but not least, do go follow Sarah's latest podcast that came out the Watch Floor. We're going to put the link below as well. Is there anywhere you want us to drive to as well?

Andy Bustamante

Find me@everyday spy.com. find me at my YouTube channel. Andrew Bustamante.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

There you go, Everyday Spy. Guys, thank you so much for coming down. I hope you enjoyed it. I really definitely did with the games and I'm sure we will do another one here soon as well.

Sarah Adams

Thank you.

Host/Interviewer (Possibly Humberto or Pat)

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Andy Bustamante

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