Former CIA Spies: "The CIA Tried To Ban This Story!" We're Leaving The US by 2030!

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Today, in McDonaldland News, Mount McDonaldland is experiencing thick volcanic shake activity. So try the new Mount McDonaldland Shake when you order the McDonaldland Meal with your very own character souvenir kit.

Andrew Bustamante (0:30)

When this story hits the airwaves, it's going to transform people's opinion about the CIA and the depths to which CIA will dive to collect intelligence that protects Americans. But one of its own officers became a spy reporting our secrets to a foreign adversary. My wife and I were included in an operation to bait them all, to make a mistake so that the mole could be found and disclosed.

Steven Bartlett (0:50)

Your wife is here today, and you've never told this story before, have you? No.

Andrew Bustamante (0:55)

And your curiosity right now is a major issue with CIA, because they don't want the world to know who those people are. It's a dangerous game.

Steven Bartlett (1:03)

Well, obviously, my research team tried to figure out who it was. So was this the mole?

SPEAKER_5 (1:10)

Married CIA spies, Andrew and Jihi Bustamante, were tasked with unraveling one of the greatest intelligence operations in modern history.

SPEAKER_6 (1:18)

Their untold story shows you how to build trust, manipulate and thrive under pressure.

Steven Bartlett (1:24)

What actually happened?

Andrew Bustamante (1:27)

A foreign ally contacted CIA and said, you have somebody inside your organization sharing information on operations, officers, assets to an enemy country. They deployed us to the country and crafted new identities, new aliases so that we could build new sources of intelligence and try to find the mole.

Jihi Bustamante (1:44)

We were really successful in doing that.

Andrew Bustamante (1:45)

Nobody felt like they were in imminent danger, but then that changed. My presence in the enemy country became known. I called Jihi and said, I'm coming home early.

Jihi Bustamante (1:54)

And from that, I knew that something was wrong. Because it is very real that you can be disappeared by a foreign adversary.

Andrew Bustamante (2:01)

Or worse, being captured. And the president can plausibly deny that you're CIA. So I had to try to escape the country. But everything went wrong.

Steven Bartlett (2:09)

And what happens next?

Andrew Bustamante (2:10)

A horrible story.

Steven Bartlett (2:17)

This is the first time I'm setting you at home a challenge when you listen to this episode. Can you figure out which country Andrew and Jihi were undercovering as spies from what they say, but also, our team here figured out that the mole in the CIA was one of these three people. Can you figure out from what they say which person was the mole? It might make sense for you at this moment to screenshot these three faces and the details below so you can remember their profiles. And by the end of the conversation, I want you to comment below which country you thought Andrew was undercovering as a spy, and which one of these people was the mole within the CIA. Let's do this. Just give me 30 seconds of your time. Two things I wanted to say. The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week. It means the world to all of us. And this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place. But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started. And if you enjoy what we do here, please join the 24% of people that listen to this podcast regularly and follow us on this app. Here's a promise I'm going to make to you. I'm going to do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future. We're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're going to continue to keep doing all of the things you love about the show.

You've never told this story before, have you?

Andrew Bustamante (3:51)

No, I have never told the story of my own operational background. It's been something that CIA has forbidden for a long time.

Steven Bartlett (4:01)

And what's written in this book has taken you a long time to get approved by the CIA?

Andrew Bustamante (4:06)

Correct, so all CIA officers sign a lifetime secrecy agreement. And that secrecy agreement gives CIA the right to approve or disapprove any operational elements of our background that are still classified and that fit under this very kind of narrow rubric of sources and methods, sources and methods of active intelligence collection. Because of my time at CIA, my work at CIA, and the sensitivity of that work, I just kind of assumed I would never be able to talk about it. And then all that changed with the first Trump administration.