Ex CIA Officer Exposes Agency Secrets & AI Threat to Kids
An Interview with Adam S. Hardage CIA Case Officer Intelligence Insider & Author
Erika Grey: What a background. You've got CIA, Middle East, you've been to 40 different countries and you specialize in AI. How did you transition from the I guess strategy or exactly what were you working on with the CIA and how did you transition from that to the medical?
Adam: Yeah. Well, so I've had a really strange career actually. I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1997 and then I was an Air Force officer when 9/11 happened. I wanted to go to war, but they wanted me to man the phones as a communications guy. I didn't want to do that. So I left the Air Force, crossed over to Army National Guard with a special forces unit, and spent a couple years going through the special forces qualification course. Then I got picked up by the Defense Intelligence Agency to go be a case officer—a CIA trained operations officer.
That's what I really wanted to do: pull back the curtain and meet the wizard. I went into the shadow world of lies, secrets, covert action, and clandestine operations for about 10 years. A case officer is essentially a spy handler. Their job is to spot, assess, develop, and recruit foreign agents on behalf of the US government. You have the unilateral authority to commit the US government to espionage anywhere in the world based on your own authority and word. It’s an extremely high level of trust.
Erika Grey: What do you feel was your greatest contribution during that time to the United States?
Adam: Probably the most directly impactful was being part of the national task force responsible for killing or capturing high-value targets—senior level terrorists. The same task force that ultimately went after Osama bin Laden. But my biggest contribution to society came after. I was fired by the CIA in 2017 for questioning a covert action program that Tulsi Gabbard actually noted during her confirmation hearing. We were paying foreign fighters to kill ISIS, but on the other side, we were also training and financing ISIS-affiliated elements. It led to horrific slaughter in Syria.
Erika Grey: What is your take on US foreign policy after working in the trenches?
Adam: In a post-9/11 world, it became the Wild West. Take the Patriot Act—supposedly temporary, but government programs are never temporary. Ultimately, those authorities were used to target political enemies. We saw the weaponization of the intelligence community against Donald Trump and the destruction of General Flynn’s career.
The second reason I was fired was because Director Brennan came into the station after the 2016 election and told 200 of us that we didn't have to listen to the new president. I thought that was treasonous. I was shown the door shortly after for raising hell about it internally. The "Deep State" is just entrenched bureaucracy—tenured bureaucrats protecting their little fiefdoms. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone.
Erika Grey: How do you go from espionage to medical and AI?
Adam: I was in a hotel bar in Amman, Jordan, and met three Americans getting Jordanian FDA clearance for a telehealth technology—a secure two-way communication system. I realized military medics could use this for remote consults with surgeons 10,000 miles away. I started Remote Health Solutions. We won a dozen DoD contracts and got language into the National Defense Authorization Act.
Regarding AI, I’m less concerned about bumbling bureaucracies weaponizing it and more about the speed of its evolution. I wrote Alpha Blueprint to help the next generation prepare. AI has democratized PhD-level intelligence for $20 a month. Everyone is driving an intellectual Ferrari now. To compete, you have to know yourself and stay authentic. AI can enhance you, like steroids to a bodybuilder, but it can’t replicate heart, soul, or true creativity.
Erika Grey: What about the dangers of AI in the hands of an evil dictator?
Adam: It’s terrifying. AI can move a thousand times faster than us. I used Sora 2 to create a video ad for my book where a guy who doesn't exist says he's not real. If you can’t tell what’s real, people get depressed. The cure is human connection, prayer, and authenticity. AI will actually bring us back to earlier times—where real relationships and family matter most because authenticity is so rare.