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Michael Morell

Former Deputy Director, CIA · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

12statements → 7claims → 1claims resolved → 4.17/5average certainty → 2.75/5average debate potential →

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 6 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 3 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michael argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Morell: Russian networks posted en masse minutes after Clinton's 2016 collapse
“So within five minutes of Secretary Clinton falling in New York City on September 11th during the campaign, there were hundreds of thousands of social media postings coming out of Eastern Europe and Russia questioning whether she was healthy enough to be presi…”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 16:49 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only

How they sound: speaking style how? →

236 words/min while actually speaking · 5 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Michael Morell: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews.

Measured by listening to 3,615 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Michael Morell is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

Everything Michael Morell said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: Intelligence Case for Iraq WMDs Was Stronger Than Bin Laden Case
“And the punchline, right, the punchline was, Mr. President the case that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was stronger than the case that Bin Laden is. You could hear a pin drop in the Situation Room, and it was true, right?”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 6:52 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Disclosure
Morell: Backed Apple over FBI in encryption debate to avoid vulnerabilities
“On the encryption debate, I was actually not where you would expect me to be. I was not on the side of the FBI. I was on Apple's side, because by forcing Apple to create a key for its keyless encryption, you were creating another huge security vulnerability.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 26:15 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: Snowden leaks damaged US tech companies' business overseas
“Edward Snowden Did serious damage to that relationship because the perceptions of the private sector covertly helping the government, whether those were true or not, but the perception that was created, right, of that significantly damaged some American compan…”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 31:04 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Disclosure
CIA Analysts Estimated 60% to 95% Probability Bin Laden Was in Abbottabad
“So the lead analyst said, 95% chance he's there. And the senior most analyst said, 80% chance. And I was at 60%.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:11 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Contradicted
Morell: Russian networks posted en masse minutes after Clinton's 2016 collapse
“So within five minutes of Secretary Clinton falling in New York City on September 11th during the campaign, there were hundreds of thousands of social media postings coming out of Eastern Europe and Russia questioning whether she was healthy enough to be presi…”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 16:49 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: US banks have far superior cybersecurity compared to government
“Cybersecurity in large U.S. Financial institutions is light years ahead of cybersecurity in the United States government.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 21:07 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Insight
Presidents routinely ask the CIA to solve intractable problems, says Michael Morell
“There is this tendency that In every administration that I've seen, and I saw six of them, three Republican, three Democrat, for when the problem gets really hard to turn to CIA and say, fix this. Using covert action, fix this. And a lot of the times, CIA can'…”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 23:18 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: Border biometrics make traveling under alias difficult for CIA officers
“Biometrics used at borders makes it very difficult for CIA operations officers to travel in alias.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 14:57 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: CIA stores its top secrets on paper, not digitally
“For CIA's most sensitive information, we don't store it digitally. We store it on paper, in a safe, in a room, with a lock on it, that only a handful of people can get access to.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 19:38 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morell: 70% of In-Q-Tel investments deliver products to intelligence community
“70% of what they've invested in have given a product or a service back to the intelligence community.”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 30:48 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Insight
Morell: Senior analysts distinguish themselves by answering questions without excessive caveats
“The ability to answer a president's question without giving 10 caveats, which no president's going to listen to, is the difference between a junior analyst and a senior analyst, right?”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:27 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only
Insight
Morell: Strong encryption makes human spies more essential to intelligence services
“Technology actually sometimes makes a human Spy more important. So take encryption, for example. Terrorists can now talk to each other without security services and intelligence services getting in the middle of that. So if that's the case, then technical coll…”
Michael Morell Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 18:35 a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
a16z Podcast | For Your Ears Only Jan 2, 2019 18m
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