Tel Aviv, Part 3: Gaza

Transcript

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And we're back All right with me again is Frayn, I think, where we left off the last time was the suicide bombing at Mike's Place, the bar restaurant right next to the US Embassy there in Tel Aviv.

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And in our time in Israel, prior to that, we had seen a few suicide bombings and they would hit the the types of, like the high-value targets that you would imagine.

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I remember one particular was a Sunday afternoon and we were in our apartment and you just hear this low order, you know, boom, like off in the distance and we headed right up to our like a rooftop patio and we got up there and you could like look right out over the city and see, like the, you know, the smoke plume and, um, a couple times, open air markets, you know things like that.

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But, um, you know, for us this was the closest to home that it had ever been in that it was literally, you know, right next door to the embassy, on the beach side, uh, a place that we would go to frequently.

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We'd go there for lunch or dinner or what have you, and we made friends with the staff there over the time, the months, the year that we had been there prior.

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So that was a bold move.

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It was an absolutely bold move.

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But this entire time and I might have referenced this in the last episode, but at the time the Palestinian Authority was the ruling body, the governing body in Gaza or in Palestine, west Bank, jericho, gaza and there was an absolute Hamas undercurrent coming on strong.

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This was 20 years ago, right, I mean 20 years ago, but they were still coming on strong.

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This was 20 years ago, right, I mean 20 years ago, but they were still coming on strong.

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And we firmly believed that.

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The Palestinian Authority.

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Well, they acted.

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I think we talked about this too.

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They acted as our hosts, for lack of a better word.

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They acted as our hosts when we would go on missions in Gaza and, not to get into too much detail, but when we would do like a diplomatic security mission, you know, in support of the State Department, we would roll in embassy vehicles with the CD I think CD was the prefix on the license plates and that would identify it as an American embassy vehicle.

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So you know, you're not trying to fool anybody, you're on a diplomatic mission.

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So they would be our security escort, I guess you know, escort, once we'd crossed the border into Palestine, they would.

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And because of that and this was something that we all had a problem with, from our internal leadership all the way down to the newest guy on the team you know it's not one of us that thought it was not a bad idea I mean, the night before a mission, you're giving your itinerary to a questionable element, but under the umbrella of the Department of State and their diplomacy initiative.

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That's what it is, that's what the embassy exists for.

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You can't very well tell and that's what we were told.

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We said you know, let's, let's, let them meet us at the first meeting place.

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You know, is it, is it more or less likely that they're going to attempt something in the heart of Gaza City?

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And who knows?

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I mean, you figure that out, you've achieved something.

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But I think our point with that was we're time and place predictable.

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We enter at the same, you know, the northern from the Erez crossing, which was the controlled checkpoint, from there and you'd cross right over into Palestine every time, every mission, time and place predictable, because we send our itinerary and they know where we're going and what times we'll need to be there.

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And we already believed, wholeheartedly, we believed, that they had already been corrupted, infiltrated, that there were guys in the PA that were wearing two hats, working for Hamas and working.

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I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but we went to a convention center for lack of a better word in the heart of Gaza City.

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We had gone to a convention center and we were doing a rotation.

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We were doing a rotation.

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We were doing a rotation where one person, the State Department officer that was with us a State Department agent at that time was a really good guy.

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He was inside with the package.

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One of us would stay in the lobby area, say, you know, with him or close enough to him, him, so we weren't in the meeting room, but, um, and then at this particular time we were rotating.

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So I was the one who was kind of in the entryway to the convention center.

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So I'd get eyes on eric, our state department counterpart, and you know head nod across the hallway or down the hall or whatever.

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This particular moment.

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You know I kind of rove around.

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So uh, q and uh and mark were both in the suburban.

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They were in our vehicle, mark was driving, q was in the passenger seat with him and you know I had relieved him shortly before.

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So I step outside and I'm at the top of the steps and I'm looking out onto the parking lot and I can see our guys right there.

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You know, clearly, this taxi drives by and this is normal, this is normal stuff.

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This taxi drives by and it is riddled with bullet holes I mean, it's just like riddled with bullet holes and it drives by like it's, and it is.

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It's a normal, everyday occurrence, you know.

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So that's kind of stuff that at first it surprised you, then after a while it didn't.

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You know.

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So, as I'm standing out there, it's a beautiful sunny day and this white van pulls into the parking lot, then another one, then another one.

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It's not, they didn't roll in hard or aggressive, they roll in.

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All of a sudden, the panel doors slide open and these young, what we would now call know military age males, they just, you know, disembark the vehicle and they start pulling out all these flag, flagpoles and banners.

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And it's a hamas rally.

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It's a hamas rally that had booked the venue for that day.

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So we're about wrapping up as they're rolling in.

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And it was surreal.

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It was like a deranged comic book or something it really was.

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It's like we know who they are, they know who we are, but at that time it's like, well, you know, we're going to have open hostilities right here, right now.

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I mean, okay, you know, so be it, but I don't even know, I don't have the words.

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So be it, but I don't even know, I don't have the words.

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We weren't at open warfare with them, but we knew how bad they were and what they were.

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But I think at that time they were still trying to appear as an element for the people, kind of thing, for our listeners.

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There's a couple people downstairs right now in the gym who are supposed to be training.

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I don't know what they're training.

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They're training the jaw muscles.

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Anyway, get to work.

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But listen, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

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I love having our little studio up here in the office above the gym.

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It kind of keeps it fun.

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But you know not to and I don't mean to diminish this, I'm not trying to be funny, but I think what was happening it's just my opinion and I think it is accurate At that time they still had the or trying to present the illusion of being like for the people right?

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Well, fast forward 20 years.

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There's no surprise to any of us.

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But in a, in a uh, a fair election, they become the governing power.

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They, they, they defeat the palestinian authority in a vote.

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Then they systematically start to eliminate anyone in the Palestinian Authority.

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That was any challenge to them in the past.

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I mean, you know you don't have to be a genius to see that coming.

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You know you do not have to be a genius.

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I mean we're talking like eliminate, like wholesale murder.

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You know, sometimes individuals, sometimes the whole family.

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You know that's a fact.

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So essentially and I don't say you know, we helped, but the United States and this is the double-edged sword the United States was very, very vocal about supporting free elections in Gaza.

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Okay, that's great, you know, free elections in a country that it doesn't matter how free or fair the elections were, even if they were, hamas won.

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They systematically eliminated after they won, after they won, so that they couldn't come back or resist or try any kind of change.

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Change, um, and that's in a sense.

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If you want to look at it that way, hamas has rapidly become like the next isis.

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You know, and it's, it's just, it's.

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It's unbelievable, it's unimaginable in my mind how it came from that to this.

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But it did, you know.

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But in that moment, here I am at the top of the steps and now I'm watching.

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It was like the circus, you know, where the little car pulls up and all the clowns get out.

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So it's like one, two, three vans and all these clowns get out.

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Right, and I'm not by myself, because I know my guys are right there and there's not that many of us, but I wouldn't have traded places with anybody, not in that moment.

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How many guys were there?

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Was it just you four?

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Oh yeah.

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That was it.

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That was it.

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I mean, we were outnumbered.

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But you were heavily armed, right.

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By State Department standards.

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By State Department standards, we were heavily armed.

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I had a pistol and three magazines.

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But listen though, here's the thing, though, and this is legit I mean, you know, in that moment, are these guys armed?

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I mean, no, they did not roll out.

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You know slung AKs and you know, like that, they didn't.

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But you know, it becomes that thing too, and I remember, you know vividly, I've, over the years, before I ever, ever served in in israel, um, you would always see, you know, the west bank or gaza, and and the, the image that's just burned in my head is like how, how could israeli soldiers open fire on a crowd?

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I mean, they, they were only throwing rocks.

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Well, in October of 2003, I was in the center of about 500 jokers who were throwing rocks.

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Throwing rocks is the first wave.

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Throwing rocks is to get you down and then they will overrun you and they will tear you apart.

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So there's the answer to your question how can you?

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Because you can.

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You know, know that's it.

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But you know, in that moment it wasn't even that.

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Actually, it did get funny, because now we're on earpieces, right, so nobody can hear the radios but us.

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And now these guys come, they start coming up the steps, not aggressive, not anything like that, but as they're walking up the steps, I'm I'm by myself, I'm like prime, you know.

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So they start to, like, you know, get in a semicircle around me and one guy's like oh, hello, my friend.

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You know, like this and that, and I'm like, hey, how's it going?

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You know, oh, what brings you here?

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And I'm like just came for a coffee.

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You know, I came for a coffee and ridiculously, ridiculously and I think we all agreed with this our uniform.

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right, we would wear like cargo pants, collared shirts, because in a fucking gunfight a collar makes a difference I guess you know, but no, I don't disrespect that You're to present a more professional appearance and so we would wear collared shirtso shirts, you know, were acceptable, but we were encouraged to cover up everything.

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So we started to wear like, um, like a photographer's vest, you know?

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I mean, yeah, like yeah yeah, so you have, like your whatever pockets for everything.

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We started to call those and it's actually dark humor, but in hindsight, right, we called it the shoot me first vest, right, like not fooling anybody, you know, I don't know, you know, nobody ever thought that we should sling a camera around our neck, like maybe that would add to the picture.

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Interesting.

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Let's have a coffee camera around our neck, like maybe that would add to the picture.

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Interesting, that's good coffee.

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So when?

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you were rolling with the state department, so you were in my mind.

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I was envisioning you.

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You know heavy, like you know all the rifles, body armor, everything like that well, our our typical loadout.

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We would have, um, a gun bag, you like a kit bag.

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We all carried M4s.

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So our standard loadout was Glock 19 pistol.

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I always carried three spare magazines, just a better number than two.

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Your radio, your personal comms Glock 19, an M4.

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But because of the parameters, the M4 was always to be kept in the bag in the truck, right In the event that it was needed.

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You would have access to it and I'm like, yeah, well, let's just hope that you get to it when you have need for it.

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Now, if Secretary of State at the time was Condoleezza Rice and we did a couple missions when she was in country in support of her mission, and those times, depending on your role in the package, you might be like out on perimeter M4 slung, you know, a higher profile, higher, higher value target.

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You know you hate to put it like that, but so that would.

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It would vary.

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But really you know like you were, on a day to day, low profile, very cordial, very amicable.

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But then the crazy part too was I remember going to a meeting once and and again.

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You know you always go expecting the worst, right, prepare for the worst and then expect.

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You know, back it up from there.

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But we're in an office building in Gaza City and in the hallway, just just, you know again, state Department guys, at the door where the meeting is occurring, down the hall is one of our guys, downstairs are the two suburbans Lead vehicle has an embassy driver, follow vehicle had one of our guys.

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So, you know, the other three of us would be mobile and you know, in this particular case, as I recall, eric was at the door in front of where the meeting room.

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I was down the hall, one of my other teammates was in the stairwell, one of our other teammates was at the entrance.

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So, like I could see you, you could see him, he could see Q and Q could see to the vehicles, and then we'd, we'd rotate.

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So I'm in the hallway and I've got, you know, line of sight to Eric and all of a sudden this jabroni comes out of another office and just starts talking shit, like, like pissed off, and I'm like, oh bro, did I like date your daughter or something like what are you?

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What's your problem?

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You know?

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And of course, yeah, I didn't say anything, of course, but I didn't even understand what he was saying, but it was the body language and the tone.

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Essentially, you're getting a strong vibe, like you know, these guys are here and I don't like it.

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So I just kind of, you know, mosey on down the hall like it's an everyday thing and I said to eric I was like what's, you know what's happening?

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And and he was, he was much more, uh, mature than I was, you know, because he's just like easy, like don't, and you know he was right.

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He was absolutely right because, you know, in my temperament he's just like easy, like don't, and you know he was right.

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He was absolutely right because, you know, in my temperament he's pissed off.

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You know, maybe he's pissed off at you know, some some wrongdoing that happened to.

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Uh, all right, we've got, we've got people coming upstairs.

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Maybe they want to be guests on the show.

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Who knows, who can say.

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But you know, in that regard, I understand it.

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But at the same time, my first thing was well, was this guy going to be a problem?

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You know, because if he and another thing too is, it was nothing to see armed civilians I mean, we're out in front of a venue like this one I'm talking about one particular day and this, you know, military age male goes right down the middle of the street with a slung M4 with a sniper scope on it, just, you know, just walking along like it's an everyday thing, and he's just, we're not out in the country, it's not a hunting rifle.

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I'm like what the shit?

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But that was the norm.

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You know, that was the absolute norm.

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But you know, things like that would happen quite a bit, and I think for us it all kind of fed into that circle of like, just incongruous, unpredictable in a place where abnormal is normal.

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Right, you know.

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So you go, all right, we got to do something to tack, stack the deck a little bit more in our favor.

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Um, but okay, the 430 class is about to start.

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So here's what we should do.

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Let's play it by ear.

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We'll continue along.

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If it gets too loud, if it gets, you know, rocking or whatever, maybe we'll go join in the workout.

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I don't know who's to say, who's to say, who's to say, because you know why, you never know.

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But I will tell you this If you're not training, if you're not preparing yourself, shame on you, because somewhere right now, a true believer is training to kill you.

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That's no shit.

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All right, don't believe it.

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You know, and I've never been a conspiracy.

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I think there's a world of difference between being prepared and being considered a prepper, right, a prepper, I'm like a prep, prep for what you know, prepare for everything you know.

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I don't mean to slurp, but I'll tell you what this is Black Rifle, power Llama, I think so.

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Power Llama yeah, I am, I was going to say this, but you could read it right off the package and I wouldn't do it justice.

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I am detecting a hint of grilled peach, jasmine and something else.

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That's quite tasty, but it really is.

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It's good coffee, black rifle coffee.

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But so, you know, like I said, the abnormal becomes the norm.

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And you know, like I think we talked about this the last time too.

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You know, we rolled out on our first mission never having fired our weapons.

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Now we were, you know, given them by state, and they assured us that, hey, they've been.

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You know, they've been BZO'd, they've been fired.

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That's great, but not by me, not by you, you know, not by our team.

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But our first order of business, you know, one of the first things that Q told, told me to do was find a place, find a range right, and we, we did.

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We were always training, which was fantastic.

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I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything in the world.

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I mean, uh, I've seen I've thankfully never been a part of a project like it but I've seen other projects or heard about them where good enough is good enough and I'm like, well, not when my life or yours or any member of my team is in the balance.

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You know, I'm not going to have to explain to someone's wife or mom or brother, you know, oh yeah, well, you know, we went over and we were ready, but man, shut up there's.

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And that was an eye opener because once I got, you know, when we were on this project, it was just us.

00:19:44.417 --> 00:19:46.020
It was just us.

00:19:46.020 --> 00:19:54.763
The only other contractors we ever came into contact with worked for another government agency and those guys were legit.

00:19:54.763 --> 00:19:56.407
They were legit.

00:19:56.407 --> 00:20:00.082
So you know, my first time out of the gate I was pretty spoiled.

00:20:00.082 --> 00:20:01.704
I worked with some great guys.

00:20:01.704 --> 00:20:16.732
Well, couple cycled through but they self-destructed, they just self-destructed, but a couple others, like I said, we didn't waste any time, we made the most of it.

00:20:17.134 --> 00:20:17.354
Right.

00:20:17.354 --> 00:20:19.182
So, if we go back.

00:20:19.182 --> 00:20:27.040
How did this scenario resolve itself, with the disgruntled gentleman who came out in the hall yelling yeah.

00:20:27.101 --> 00:20:32.573
So what ended up happening was one of the members of the office that we were there to see.

00:20:32.573 --> 00:20:41.560
I guess he heard the loud voice, you know, not voices, because I mean, I just made it clear to Eric I was like what the fuck is this, you know?

00:20:41.560 --> 00:20:45.047
And he's like Rock easy, I swear, and God bless him.

00:20:45.047 --> 00:21:07.563
He is a friend to this day, a dear friend, but I probably gave him some gray hair because it's like what I remember most is that smile and he would just go rock easy, easy and I'm like easy, like this is between me and you, like I'm not like pulling my blade, like I got this guy, but he's a good dude, good dude.

00:21:07.563 --> 00:21:13.346
But, um, what ended up happening was a member from the host's office stepped out into the hall.

00:21:13.346 --> 00:21:15.976
He heard what was, you know, the raised voice.

00:21:15.976 --> 00:21:23.049
So he goes across the hall, he has words with this guy and, as he's walking back towards, us.

00:21:23.471 --> 00:21:26.315
I remember vividly and you know it's weird, the stuff you remember.

00:21:26.315 --> 00:21:30.191
I remember there was a big window at the end of the hall.

00:21:30.191 --> 00:21:39.108
The hall was dimly lit For all I know the power may have even been off in the hallway but a big window at the end of the hall, so we were almost in shadow, you know.

00:21:39.108 --> 00:21:50.579
And I remember, as the host member walked back toward us, I remember eric going hey, like they gave justin by name, he's like what, like what's happening, like the universal, like what's happening.

00:21:50.579 --> 00:21:53.065
And then in in english.

00:21:53.065 --> 00:21:57.133
Then the host says oh, you know, he has a problem with westerners.

00:21:57.273 --> 00:22:20.624
You know this and that and I will tell you when we used to drive in on, again, diplomatic missions right, you could set your clock by it If anything had recently happened in the news where America office of the president came out in favor of the Palestinians, maybe it was even in a statement.

00:22:20.624 --> 00:22:56.551
When we would drive through Gaza City on the way to a meeting, going through the marketplaces and whatnot, civilians on the street would like wave at us, yell, hey, you know if, if the office of the president, you know, was critical and in or appear to be in favor of the Israeli government, they'd throw shit at us, you know, and.

00:22:56.652 --> 00:22:59.623
I don't laugh at it, but it was surreal.

00:22:59.623 --> 00:23:03.570
You know, one minute they're cheering, the next minute they're throwing cantaloupes at us.

00:23:03.570 --> 00:23:06.442
I'm like, okay, you know.

00:23:06.442 --> 00:23:11.690
I mean sorry, but I believe that was really the root cause of it.

00:23:11.690 --> 00:23:15.530
And listen, I don't for a minute take that lightly, I don't.

00:23:15.530 --> 00:23:18.809
I mean I've said this over and over and I don't need to repeat it again, but I will.

00:23:20.059 --> 00:23:41.551
All the difference in the world between supporting the Palestinian citizenry because right now you got some good people there, like you have everywhere, just like when the Russians rolled across the border of Ukraine, you know you've got civilians caught up in someone else's mess I really think that the despicable part, or big part of it, is when you have Hamas.

00:23:41.551 --> 00:24:01.490
Leadership will look you right in the eye and say just about a week ago I don't remember the news service, but there was a leader of Hamas who was interviewed the interviewer actually said to him he said with all these civilians suffering, you've got miles of tunnels under the city and bunkers.

00:24:01.490 --> 00:24:04.307
Why not let them take refuge there?

00:24:04.307 --> 00:24:06.561
This joker didn't even bat an eye.

00:24:06.561 --> 00:24:13.656
He looks right at the reporter and he was like Like almost, as if to say how could you ask such a stupid question?

00:24:13.656 --> 00:24:16.673
He was like well, those are for the Hamas fighters.

00:24:16.673 --> 00:24:23.355
So, you know, there's no level of care, there's no level of concern for the civilian population.

00:24:23.785 --> 00:24:28.976
Now, having said that, I don't mean to sound like well, if they don't care for their people, why should we?

00:24:28.976 --> 00:24:29.817
Because we're human.

00:24:29.817 --> 00:24:41.588
That's why, that's exactly why, you know, when you can fill yourself so much with hate that you lose sight of the fact that, you know, like I'll show you, I don't care how many of my own people I have to kill to make my point.

00:24:41.588 --> 00:24:45.926
That's an ideology that I think most Westerners don't understand.

00:24:45.926 --> 00:25:05.692
You know, I don't like it, and neither do I understand it, but I've seen it enough to kind of just let that flow by and stay focused, because when you have an opponent like that, an adversary like that, they're capable of anything, you know, but, yeah, I mean.

00:25:05.692 --> 00:25:22.459
But what I do remember, though, about getting back to the top of the steps there at that convention center, and I'm surrounded right byestinian version of like boys to men, you know, and uh, or no new kids on the you know, I mean like a boy band only like militant, you know.

00:25:23.288 --> 00:25:25.278
So they're like oh my, yeah, what brings you here?

00:25:25.278 --> 00:25:25.538
What do you?

00:25:25.538 --> 00:25:26.825
I'm like, hey, I came for the coffee.

00:25:26.825 --> 00:25:31.314
So now I hear through my earpiece hey, rocky, you're making friends up there.

00:25:31.314 --> 00:25:34.757
Now I don't want to like, because that's a rookie mistake, you know.

00:25:34.757 --> 00:25:45.612
Like you get a transmission and then you like look to where you know, and I'm like, yeah, you know, and I'm just kind of like real discreetly, like keying my mic, and I'm like, yeah, good friends, you know.

00:25:45.612 --> 00:25:49.086
And so they're like oh, you know, my friend and this and this and all.

00:25:49.086 --> 00:25:51.250
I keep thinking, as I'm like you fuckers.

00:25:51.250 --> 00:25:59.980
Better, I hope the doors are unlocked and you've got one hand on the handle, because you know, because in my mind I'm thinking well, what's about to happen?

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:00.080
here.

00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:00.465
I don't know.

00:26:00.906 --> 00:26:04.346
You know these guys going to, is this going to be like smiles until they make a move?

00:26:04.346 --> 00:26:16.849
And I remember thinking I'm like the two guys right in front of me were small and I was up a step above them and I'm like, well, I I'm gonna launch myself straight at these two and and just go to work, because what right?

00:26:16.849 --> 00:26:19.766
I mean like there's strength in the middle of the crowd at that point.

00:26:19.766 --> 00:26:21.670
Right, I'll just grab one and not let go.

00:26:21.670 --> 00:26:24.096
But uh, yeah it was it was goofy.

00:26:24.355 --> 00:26:26.425
It was goofy, but speaking english with you.

00:26:26.666 --> 00:26:40.361
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, um, but you know, like I, like I said, the situation deteriorated from incidents like that to July of 2003.

00:26:40.361 --> 00:27:02.040
All right, we had and it's interesting too I think I might have described this once before where, the way the embassy was set up, you had post one at the front entrance, post two at the back there's always a United States Marine at each of those entrances and post two opened out into a courtyard.

00:27:02.040 --> 00:27:04.547
We would bring our vehicles.

00:27:04.547 --> 00:27:21.770
Whoever drove that week would bring the vehicles up from the underground garage, come through the entrance, like the security would drop the bollard, would come through, we would load up in the courtyard so we're not out in public, and then, out the exit off, we would go on our mission, right?

00:27:22.525 --> 00:27:29.131
So one morning another agency was just coming in as we were leaving.

00:27:29.131 --> 00:27:35.452
So I'm walking for the door, I've got my guitar bag, I've got my gun bag, watch out, I'm walking for the door.

00:27:35.452 --> 00:27:37.045
I've got my guitar bag, I've got my gun bag, watch out, I'm armed.

00:27:37.045 --> 00:27:44.027
Just let me drop this, unzip it and make sure I'm ready to go, but anyway.

00:27:44.027 --> 00:27:48.978
So I'm walking out and I see this guy's coming in.

00:27:48.978 --> 00:27:50.391
He's like taking up the whole hallway.

00:27:50.391 --> 00:27:51.671
I'm like holy smokes.

00:27:51.671 --> 00:28:02.393
So as we get closer to one another, you know, like you don't know him, he doesn't know you, but like you're both in the same gym, so you're like man, I go to the 5 30, he goes to the 6 30.

00:28:02.393 --> 00:28:04.862
So you see each other enough, your familiar face.

00:28:04.862 --> 00:28:06.907
So when you get close to another, what happened?

00:28:06.907 --> 00:28:08.291
How you doing, how you doing right?

00:28:08.332 --> 00:28:22.201
so we get the bro nod, right and as we, as we pass in the hallway, we do the, the bro nod and all of a sudden this big giant of a man right in front of me turns into this little kid and he goes Rocky.

00:28:22.201 --> 00:28:33.840
Now I see the smile and I go oh my God, danny, we had worked together for a private company out of northern Virginia a few years prior.

00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:39.012
So, you know, I run right into him and I'm like oh, he's like what are you doing here?

00:28:39.012 --> 00:28:41.393
And I'm like what are you doing here?

00:28:41.393 --> 00:28:45.355
Right, so, real quick, we exchanged numbers because we were rolling and they were just coming in.

00:28:45.355 --> 00:28:56.478
So, anyway, that's more for later, but in this moment it was he and his team leader.

00:28:56.478 --> 00:28:58.692
This is July of 2003.

00:28:59.012 --> 00:29:02.388
All right, In fact excuse me.

00:29:03.190 --> 00:29:10.852
When I ran into him in the embassy it was probably June, probably like weeks prior, and, you know, came back from that mission.

00:29:10.852 --> 00:29:12.049
We'd exchanged phone numbers.

00:29:12.049 --> 00:29:12.652
I went over.

00:29:12.652 --> 00:29:24.830
Their hotel was right next door, like is the embassy Mike's place on Beachside, and then I don't remember the name of the hotel, but it was like almost adjacent to the embassy and they always stayed there.

00:29:24.830 --> 00:29:27.933
So I went up to meet him.

00:29:27.933 --> 00:29:29.830
And this is the same day.

00:29:29.830 --> 00:29:31.048
Now this is hours later.

00:29:31.411 --> 00:29:36.967
So I walk in, I meet his team leader, two of his teammates and him.

00:29:36.967 --> 00:29:39.613
First thing the team leader says to me is a guy named Mark.

00:29:39.613 --> 00:29:40.855
Really good, dude.

00:29:40.855 --> 00:29:41.938
He goes.

00:29:41.938 --> 00:29:44.750
So Danny tells me you want to come to work for us?

00:29:44.750 --> 00:29:52.013
And I'm like and in that instant I didn't even have to think about it I was like, yes, I do.

00:29:52.013 --> 00:29:53.818
And he was like well, all right then.

00:29:53.818 --> 00:29:54.019
All right.

00:29:54.019 --> 00:29:54.299
Then he goes.

00:29:54.299 --> 00:29:56.226
Well, look, and I'll never forget this.

00:29:56.226 --> 00:29:58.671
He goes this is jimbo and this is bode.

00:29:58.671 --> 00:30:05.310
And I'm like hey, guys, and this just to give you an idea of of the machine that supports this.

00:30:05.391 --> 00:30:12.766
Right, danny and mark were staff members of this particular agency.

00:30:12.766 --> 00:30:20.640
Right, and in the in the vernacular they they would like refer to them as like blue badgers, right, like you're a blue badge.

00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:32.866
So your ID badge has your photo and it has all your alphanumerics, but the border around your photo is in blue, hence your badge is blue.

00:30:32.866 --> 00:30:36.353
Remember my colors?

00:30:36.353 --> 00:30:41.460
Jimbo and Bodie were contractors.

00:30:41.460 --> 00:30:49.308
They worked for two different companies.

00:30:49.308 --> 00:30:50.653
Now picture the demand where you don't have enough staff members.

00:30:50.653 --> 00:30:51.676
So you got to go to contract, which is the norm.

00:30:51.676 --> 00:30:55.307
I mean, it became the norm, right, hell, even the State Department.

00:30:55.307 --> 00:31:00.858
That was contract because the State Department did not have enough agents in the Diplomatic Security Service.

00:31:00.858 --> 00:31:04.516
So they went to contracts and we filled that one.

00:31:04.516 --> 00:31:11.433
So they were both what they would call green badgers, right?

00:31:11.773 --> 00:31:27.853
Green badge is you are fully cleared at the TS, at the top secret, sci, secret compartmentalized information, ts, sci and whatever other like you would be read on for, but you're fully cleared, you're green.

00:31:27.853 --> 00:31:30.954
The only differentiation there is you're not staff.

00:31:30.954 --> 00:31:40.876
So at a glance you can, okay, that guy's direct hire, that guy's a contractor, but they all work for that entity.

00:31:40.876 --> 00:31:46.755
Yellow badge was a secret clearance.

00:31:46.755 --> 00:31:52.592
So those would be your guys who would be more like assigned to physical security of the compound.

00:31:52.592 --> 00:31:57.432
They wouldn't be read into everything, but they would be cleared at the secret level.

00:31:57.432 --> 00:32:20.625
And then your red badges would be like your uncleared third country nationals, so that would be like your local workforce okay, that you know they would come in and do like whatever right Grounds keeping and things like that but you would always see a minimum of a yellow badge supervising them because they're not to be unattended anywhere on the compound or anything like that.

00:32:20.625 --> 00:32:22.349
I didn't really have that in Israel at all.

00:32:22.349 --> 00:32:30.711
I would see that more when I got downrange Now, just as a little caveat, and we'll address this at some future point.

00:32:30.750 --> 00:32:37.359
But the agency that I worked for was a sister agency to this one I'm telling you about now.

00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:41.160
So we had brown badges, right.

00:32:41.160 --> 00:32:50.039
So brown badge a brown badge was could have been either blue or green, didn't matter.

00:32:50.039 --> 00:33:20.551
When that agency saw brown, they realized that like okay, oga if you've ever heard that expression other government agency, which I used to always chuckle at that Other government agency Well, I guess the US Forestry Department is OGA, right, but I mean what Brown meant or indicated on their watch on their compounds was you are fully cleared at the tssci level, you have full access, um, but you're not like you're that.

00:33:20.551 --> 00:33:23.382
You're a sister agency, you're not them, yeah.

00:33:23.382 --> 00:33:26.029
And we're like yeah, roger, that you know it did.

00:33:26.069 --> 00:33:26.991
It turned out, I swear to god.

00:33:26.991 --> 00:33:32.789
There were times that it reminded me of the, the what's a card game, uno, you know, I mean, you start dealing them out.

00:33:32.789 --> 00:33:34.172
There's all kinds of different colors.

00:33:34.172 --> 00:33:36.875
I'm like I don't even know what the hell that means, you know.

00:33:36.875 --> 00:33:45.215
But um, anyway, so I became good friends with mark and in this first, I mean his first meeting, he was like okay, he goes.

00:33:45.215 --> 00:34:01.836
So jimbo works for blackwater and he's like bode works for mvm and he, you know, at that time they were both major players in the contracting game, right, and they had so much demand that neither of those two companies could keep up with it.

00:34:01.836 --> 00:34:04.218
So they were like okay, you know, we've got.

00:34:04.657 --> 00:34:18.552
And my understanding was, in some other theaters of operation they might have broken it down geographically when they're like okay, you know, in this operating, uh, you know, in this operational theater, mvm handles all that.

00:34:18.552 --> 00:34:20.824
You know, in this one, blackwater handles all that.

00:34:20.824 --> 00:34:24.512
But um other times they were like nope, it's a mix.

00:34:24.512 --> 00:34:31.233
And so in the same again I keep saying this in the same meeting, and mark was just like bam, bam, bam.

00:34:31.233 --> 00:34:32.737
He's like well, here's how simple this is.

00:34:32.844 --> 00:34:40.016
He goes danny says you're a good guy, that's good enough for me, and I would come to find out later on that that is the only way to go.

00:34:40.016 --> 00:35:01.751
It really really is, because if you're willing to put your name on someone, you've already done like a lot of due diligence, because a lot of guys look good on paper and then you start to work with them and you're like, oh my God, like this is Hello, yeah, sure.

00:35:01.751 --> 00:35:05.498
So you know, when you start to look at it like that, you realize fast.

00:35:05.498 --> 00:35:12.675
You're like, oh, I mean, this guy got screened, this guy was cleared, not challenging any of that.

00:35:12.675 --> 00:35:16.335
But at the same time I'm working with him now and he's a moron.

00:35:16.945 --> 00:35:40.829
So you know, this is no bullshit and I'm jumping tracks here a little bit, but we had this one joker had, you know, an impressive background, right, we're doing live fire drills downrange in Iraq on a range outside of Baghdad, downrange in in iraq on a range outside of baghdad.

00:35:40.829 --> 00:35:43.275
And this particular drill, simulate vehicle taking contact from the driver's side, contact left.

00:35:43.275 --> 00:35:45.943
So pop out the off contact side first.

00:35:45.943 --> 00:35:52.134
Man out takes a position up, use using the engine block as cover.

00:35:52.134 --> 00:35:57.043
Right now, necessity dictates, right?

00:35:57.043 --> 00:36:01.871
These were fully armored suvs at that time and at that ao.

00:36:01.871 --> 00:36:04.518
These were our ford excursions, and I only.

00:36:04.538 --> 00:36:05.967
This is not funny, man, at all.

00:36:05.967 --> 00:36:15.074
I only say this because one no one got hurt um, totaled a vehicle, totaled a vehicle by dumb luck, then denied.

00:36:15.074 --> 00:36:17.324
He did it in front of everybody.

00:36:17.324 --> 00:36:19.373
There's only us, there's nobody else.

00:36:19.373 --> 00:36:21.119
There's no grassy knoll, there's no.

00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:22.565
Was there a second gunman?

00:36:22.565 --> 00:36:26.516
You know, yeah, we're all gunmen, but he's on this drill.

00:36:26.516 --> 00:36:38.831
So this joker pops out, the passenger side, comes around and it did not help that he was very, very short, and I don't mean that as a criticism, but the vehicle is high, he's short.

00:36:38.831 --> 00:36:47.394
The vehicle also has a turbo package on the engine, which means that the particular hood had like a scoop on top exactly right.

00:36:47.936 --> 00:36:51.166
So he comes around and he pivots and he comes up over the hood.

00:36:51.166 --> 00:36:52.507
Okay, great, bam bam, bam, bam bam.

00:36:52.507 --> 00:36:54.710
Okay, great, you know.

00:36:54.710 --> 00:36:57.373
The second man out takes up position on the tail.

00:36:57.373 --> 00:36:57.893
Bam bam bam.

00:36:57.893 --> 00:37:02.918
They, you know, accurately engage targets, downrange, okay, index, right.

00:37:02.918 --> 00:37:04.119
So now we regroup.

00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:12.570
One of my teammates goes uh, boys, who shot the hood?

00:37:12.570 --> 00:37:12.952
Who shot the hood?

00:37:12.952 --> 00:37:14.114
Like, what are you talking about?

00:37:14.114 --> 00:37:16.170
Like we were all watching, we were all like standing off.

00:37:16.170 --> 00:37:24.875
Sure enough, you get up to that position on the hood and you look and there are like three One just kind of creased the hood and, you know, kept going.

00:37:25.445 --> 00:37:31.673
The other two actually kind of like you could see where they skidded across the hood but then penetrated that scoop.

00:37:31.673 --> 00:37:40.389
You know what I mean, penetrated that, that scoop, or you know what I mean.

00:37:40.389 --> 00:37:41.333
So now, well, starter up, no go, we lift the hood.

00:37:41.333 --> 00:37:45.889
Well, what happened was the bullets that penetrated actually ended up damaging the, the turbo on top of the engine.

00:37:45.889 --> 00:37:46.731
You know when?

00:37:46.731 --> 00:37:53.688
Just, I mean I'm a mechanic, right, but in training, how do you explain that?

00:37:53.688 --> 00:37:56.753
Right, and we did have more vehicles.

00:37:56.753 --> 00:37:59.818
But now we're like okay, well, let's take it to the KBR garage.

00:37:59.818 --> 00:38:04.431
Kellogg Brown and Root KBR was the mechanic that serviced our vehicle.

00:38:04.431 --> 00:38:19.367
Excuse me, I don't condone lying, but I'll tell you this.

00:38:19.367 --> 00:38:25.266
I was like there's no goddamn way we're going to go to this garage and tell this mechanic that we shot our own vehicle, right, and they all ask hey, what happened?

00:38:25.266 --> 00:38:27.291
You know I'm like, oh God, you know.

00:38:27.291 --> 00:38:31.427
Well, this asshole put three rounds in the hood on purpose.

00:38:31.427 --> 00:38:38.768
I would like to think, not, you know, but that's just that silliness, but anyway, so you know.

00:38:38.909 --> 00:38:42.748
At that time, you know, back in the hotel, mark is saying well, this is what's what.

00:38:42.748 --> 00:38:48.367
And he said the smart play for you would be this Apply for direct hire if you're interested.

00:38:48.367 --> 00:38:57.677
If you're interested, apply for direct hire, but also apply for a contract position with both of these companies, because you'll essentially triple your chances.

00:38:57.677 --> 00:39:05.971
He said, you know, the blue badge is kind of finicky because sometimes they hire very fast, other times it can take forever, it's a long process.

00:39:05.971 --> 00:39:12.759
And he said but you know, he said both of these guys, bodhi and Jimbo, both have their packages in for blue badge.

00:39:12.759 --> 00:39:16.389
And I was like, okay, great, and Jimbo, both have their packages in for for Blue Badge.

00:39:16.389 --> 00:39:17.090
And I was like, okay, great, you know.

00:39:17.090 --> 00:39:23.614
So, um, that was like June time frame, october, within a few months I would.

00:39:23.614 --> 00:39:25.739
I would rotate back home and start that process.

00:39:26.567 --> 00:39:30.554
So yeah, now when you saw Danny in the hallway, did you know?

00:39:30.554 --> 00:39:34.532
Did he tell you what he, what the group or organization he was working?

00:39:34.713 --> 00:39:50.878
for oh, yeah, okay, so it wasn't a complete surprise, no, but what was funny, though, was this like OGA, right In Israel at that time, they worked for political research.

00:39:50.878 --> 00:39:53.932
They were in the Office of Political Research.

00:39:53.932 --> 00:40:05.697

Tel Aviv, Part 3: Gaza

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