Former CIA analyst Yaya Fanusie on finding peace from within oneself

The Invisible Men

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Yaya Fanusie — a former CIA agent and a national security expert in finance technology. Yaya discusses how his education, international travel, spiritual journey grew him from a teenager with a distrust of America and a race-centric view of the world to an advocate for the advancement of core American principles at the CIA and beyond. Yaya was raised in California, where he was deeply influenced by movements that taught him his “blackness” was the core part of his identity. Later, as he travelled to Zimbabwe and Ghana through his studies, Yaya met many black Americans who had left the US in search of a national home where their “blackness” would be a more central part of their identity. Yet, Yaya found that most of these people had not found peace in their new home. This experience, combined with Yaya’s recent conversion to Islam, caused him to learn that peace cannot be found by a change in external circumstances, but only through internal moral clarity and the embrace of universal principles.

Later, Yaya shares his pathway from teaching to studying Al Qaeda’s recruitment techniques as a counterterrorism expert at the CIA, and how the teachings of W. Deen Mohammed helped him develop a proper sense of patriotism. Tune in to the full episode to learn more about Yaya’s story and hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”