This Sunday, Next Stage Arts in Putney will host Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning journalist Tim Weiner for an evening set to explore the high-stakes battles shaping America’s intelligence community today.
The acclaimed author of “Legacy of Ashes” has written a sequel, “The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century,” drawing from over one hundred exclusive on-the-record interviews with CIA directors, top spymasters, and undercover officers. In his work, Weiner examines the escalating conflicts between the White House, U.S. intelligence agencies, and the press in an era of unprecedented political and global upheaval.
This week, Weiner spoke with the Standard about his latest book, his career as an award-winning journalist, and his personal ties to the Green Mountain State. Weiner attended the Putney School in Putney, Vt., and he recalled, “The Putney School stands on top of a hill. I remember climbing that hill to the old Elm Tree before I decided to attend. When I got to the top and looked out over the miles of curvaceous Vermont hills, something in me knew I was home.” 
According to Weiner, his career really took off in the late ‘80s. “I worked as a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer,” Weiner said. “It was a great paper at the time, run by a top editor named Gene Roberts — a legendary man in the industry. My beat was white collar crime until the day my editor wandered over to my desk and asked, in his perfect North Carolina drawl, if I had a passport. The day prior, the dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, who had been in power for over twenty years, declared that he was going to have a snap election, and the whole country was erupting into revolution. I told him I had my passport, and so he sent me to the Philippines.”
Once Weiner touched down in the Philippines, he spent several weeks reporting on the revolution of the Filipino people revolting against their dictator. He went on to tell the Standard, “We did not and could not have known it then, but this was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.”
The next secret project Weiner would go on to tackle took place in Afghanistan. In 1987, the CIA was in its eighth year of smuggling weapons and war material to Afghanistan to help the Afghans fight the Soviet occupation of their country. “Congress at the time, in its infinite wisdom, decided to send American weapons to the Mujahideen,” Weiner said. “For the first time in the history of the Cold War, American weapons were going to be used to shoot down Soviet planes and to kill Soviet soldiers. This was a big deal back then. Very few reporters went to Afghanistan — the land was a war zone, and so much had been destroyed in the last eight years. I decided that I had to go and see this war for myself.”
While there, Weiner collected evidence — he saw the American missiles fire at Soviet planes, brought back pictures and vivid accounts of how the operation worked, and then returned to his desk in Washington, D.C. “One day the phone rang and my pal from the CIA — the one who hung up on me just three months ago — was on the other end,” Weiner recalled. “He asked if I wanted to come down to the CIA for a briefing. Of course, I said yes.”
Weiner would go on to recount the story of his first time stepping into the lobby of the CIA, saying, “Inscribed on the left-hand wall in capital letters sits the bible verse ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,’ John 8:32. I remember how deeply this image struck me.
Tim Weiner will be discussing “The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century,” and sharing his thoughts on where intelligence stands in the present political landscape at Next Stage Arts in Putney on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance at nextstagearts.org.
