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The Watch Floor with Sarah Adams: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Sarah Adams
She hunted the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Now, former CIA Targeter Sarah Adams breaks down global news and emerging threats, helping everyday people stay informed, prepared, and ready.
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The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 2 days ago21 min
The AI Warning Is Information. It Is Not a Conclusion.
Artificial intelligence is moving from answering questions to taking actions. In controlled tests, advanced AI models have deceived operators, attempted blackmail, concealed information, recognized when they were being evaluated, and taken steps researchers describe as self-preservation behavior.Those findings have produced extraordinary warnings about where AI may be headed. But a warning is information. It is not a conclusion.In this episode of The Watch Floor, Sarah Adams walks through four questions: What can these systems actually do? Can we reliably control them? What is driving companies and countries to move so quickly? And if there is a problem, who gets to decide what the response looks like?We look at the emerging AI threat picture, the difference between capability and intent, the race for technological advantage, the national-security competition with China, and the competing concern that AI safety could also become a justification for concentrating enormous technological power in the hands of a small number of companies and institutions.The goal is not to tell you what to think about AI. It is to separate the warning from the assessment, understand what the evidence actually shows, and ask better questions about what comes next.
- 4 days ago18 min
The German Cell in Benghazi
For fourteen years, most of the Benghazi debate has focused on what happened after the attack began. This episode looks at what happened before.In May 2026, Dave “Boon” Benton and I returned to Benghazi, where we were briefed on a completed Libyan investigation into the terrorists and networks behind the 2012 attacks. One part of that investigation followed a German terrorist cell that moved from Europe through Turkey and Egypt into eastern Libya.Twenty German citizens reached Libya as part of the network. Fourteen members of the cell ultimately participated in the attacks on the U.S. Consulate and CIA Annex. Some of the same terrorists later surfaced with ISIS. In this episode of The Watch Floor, I break down how they got there, what their movement tells us about the networks behind Benghazi, and why the story of an attack has to begin long before the first shot is fired.Read the full investigation: The Hidden History of One Benghazi Cell: The German Terrorists Who Joined the Attack at SOFREP.https://sofrep.com/news/the-hidden-history-of-one-benghazi-cell-the-german-terrorists-who-joined-the-attack/
- 6 days ago23 min
Hamza bin Laden Is Alive. Why Is al-Qaeda Showing Him Now?
Hamza bin Laden is alive. On September 10, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, al-Qaeda released A Quarter Century After the September 11 Raids, Part One, featuring Hamza in three separate scenes.But the footage was not new. Hamza recorded it on August 13, 2021, in Kandahar, as Afghanistan was falling to the Taliban. Al-Qaeda held that footage for more than five years.In this episode of The Watch Floor, Sarah Adams breaks down what the video actually shows, the 2019 deception that led the U.S. to announce Hamza bin Laden was dead, how al-Qaeda concealed his survival and eventual rise to emir, and why the decision to reveal him now matters.The most important question is no longer whether Hamza survived.It is why al-Qaeda spent years hiding him, only to begin showing him now.The threat did not disappear. It evolved.
- 1 weeks ago26 min
The 10 Warnings Buried in Congress’s New 9/11 Report
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the House Intelligence Committee went back and reviewed what the United States fixed, what it never finished, and where new intelligence gaps may be forming.In this episode of The Watch Floor, I break down ten of the most important warnings buried in the committee’s new bipartisan report, including unfinished biometric exit screening, counterintelligence stovepipes, the debate over CIA paramilitary authorities, the growing role of OSINT and AI, the risk of losing regional expertise, and why the next strategic surprise may look nothing like 9/11.The report’s message is clear: the national-security system is stronger than it was in 2001, but some old gaps remain and new ones are emerging.
- 2 weeks ago14 min
The Oil War Behind the Headlines
Oil is back at the center of geopolitics, but the biggest story may not be where everyone is looking.In this episode of The Watch Floor, I look at what is happening around the Strait of Hormuz, why that narrow stretch of water still matters so much to the global economy, and how the pressure on energy markets connects to a very different development much closer to home: Venezuela and its enormous oil reserves.This isn't just a story about the price of a barrel of oil. It's about who controls supply, who controls the routes that move it, how much leverage the United States actually has, and what happens when energy becomes part of the battlefield.Because while everyone is watching the headlines, there is another fight taking place underneath them.This is the oil war behind the headlines.The Watch Floor
- 2 weeks ago14 min
85 Americans Missing in the Himalayas
A massive glacial collapse along the Nepal-Tibet border has left more than 900 people dead and thousands still missing. Among the unaccounted for are approximately 85 Americans.Many weren't hikers or adventure tourists. They were pilgrims traveling to or from Mount Kailash in Tibet, one of the most sacred places in several of the world's religions. Some had planned the journey for years. One was celebrating his 60th birthday. A mother was traveling with her 14-year-old daughter. Another American sent his family a video of the Himalayan valley that morning. Less than two hours later, the glacier collapsed.In this episode of The Watch Floor, Sarah Adams walks through what happened, why so many Americans were concentrated near the Gyirong border crossing, and the enormous search-and-rescue operation now underway across Nepal and Tibet. The episode also looks at the nearly 1,000 hydropower workers reported missing from projects downstream, some potentially trapped inside mountain tunnels, and why reconciling the lists of missing Americans has become so difficult. As of the episode's recording, nine Americans had been evacuated and there were no confirmed U.S. citizen deaths. But approximately 85 remained unaccounted for, leaving families thousands of miles away waiting for a phone call. The search is still underway.
- 3 weeks ago21 min
Secret Chinese Police Stations: How Beijing Polices Beyond Its Borders
Secret Chinese police stations have been uncovered in the United States, France, Italy, Britain, and dozens of other countries. But the buildings are only part of the story.In this episode of The Watch Floor, Sarah Adams looks at how Beijing extends its reach beyond China’s borders to monitor dissidents, collect information, pressure critics, and in some cases push people to return to China.From the federal prosecution of operators tied to a clandestine police station in Manhattan to recent expulsions in Italy, investigations are exposing how these networks operate. Sarah breaks down China’s overseas police service centers, “persuasion to return,” Operation Fox Hunt and Sky Net, the role of community networks and access, and why shutting down a physical police station does not necessarily dismantle the system behind it.The question is no longer simply how many secret Chinese police stations remain. It is whether the networks that made them possible are still operating. They are.
- 3 weeks ago45 min
The Untold Story of the Abbey Gate Plot
Five years after the Abbey Gate bombing, we know the name of the suicide bomber. But that is only part of the story.In this episode of The Watch Floor, Sarah Adams reconstructs the twelve days leading to the August 26, 2021 attack at Abbey Gate, tracing how the plot moved from authorization to execution and identifying the Taliban, Haqqani Network, al-Qaeda, and ISKP figures her investigation found connected to the operation.The story begins on August 14 in Kandahar province, moves through the fall of Kabul and the release of the future bomber from prison, and follows the network that selected him, moved him, prepared him, provided the explosive vest, controlled the checkpoints around the airport, and ultimately helped him reach the Marines at Abbey Gate.It also asks the question that remains five years later: Who was actually held accountable?Thirteen American service members and nearly 170 Afghans were killed that day. This episode names the people responsible, but it ends where the story should end: with the Americans standing at Abbey Gate, trying to get others to safety.
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About The Watch Floor with Sarah Adams
She hunted the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Now, former CIA Targeter Sarah Adams breaks down global news and emerging threats, helping everyday people stay informed, prepared, and ready.
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