Speaker 1: Ah beaute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military
Speaker 1: News and straight Talk with the Guys and the Community
Speaker 1: SOFTWAP Radio on Time on Target. Hope you guys um
Speaker 1: enjoyed the last episode, but also became informed of some
Speaker 1: you know, crazy things going on. Definitely high opening for
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Speaker 1: on board as a sponsor all of this month and
Speaker 1: loving their gear. Um with that, we were gonna have
Speaker 1: Star Wars in studio. But he apparently is to attend
Speaker 1: classes at Johns Hopkins where he's going, which we'll get into. Um,
Speaker 1: first thing I wanted to mention today at the top
Speaker 1: of Drudge Report. Actually, this is a very big deal.
Speaker 1: The USA is backing Guas. I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: saying the name right Guado over Nicolas Madoro in Venezuela. Um,
Speaker 1: and because of that, you know, I guess you'd say
Speaker 1: previous president Maduro, who would say that he's current President
Speaker 1: Maduro is saying that Venezuela is going to be breaking
Speaker 1: relations with the US. So, I mean, you're you're seeing
Speaker 1: a country in a state of civil rush right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I mean, basically, the vast majority of Latin
Speaker 1: America is standing behind the new government or new leadership um,
Speaker 1: the United States is I think maybe Canada and other countries.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna start seeing like European countries starting
Speaker 1: to recognize them. Also, really the only countries that are
Speaker 1: still standing behind Maduro are China, Russia, Iran, hostile tour
Speaker 1: probably North Korea. Well, this all of this plays into, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the larger global dynamics that the United States
Speaker 1: has ostracized a large portion of the world and we've
Speaker 1: embargoed a large portion of the world. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that that's right or wrong, but when you, um,
Speaker 1: we push these countries to the margin, we do things
Speaker 1: that they don't like. We're the only global superpower, and
Speaker 1: we throw our weight around in ways that some countries
Speaker 1: don't like. So it's just natural that they kind of
Speaker 1: align with one another and they they're only the only
Speaker 1: thing they have in common is anti Americanism. So it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting dynamic to say the least, and that
Speaker 1: dynamic is going to continue. I think it's really that's
Speaker 1: going to be kind of the story of the rest
Speaker 1: of this century is the decline of American power. I mean,
Speaker 1: quite frankly, I think that's what we're looking at uh,
Speaker 1: and it will be interesting to see as we shift
Speaker 1: into presumably a multipolar world, what global order is going
Speaker 1: to look like. I wonder what this will result in.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that writers, you know more than myself, will
Speaker 1: be writing something on news rep but um oil prices,
Speaker 1: things like that, we'll just have an effect on that. Well,
Speaker 1: what's the effects going to have on the internal stability
Speaker 1: of the country. Is this a good change or a
Speaker 1: bad change? And I don't feel like I'm educated enough
Speaker 1: on on the politics of Venezuela to really like weigh
Speaker 1: in on that, um, but I can look at it
Speaker 1: and see with the amount of unrest, the amount of poverty,
Speaker 1: that economic issues, that it's going to take a while
Speaker 1: for Venezuela to pull itself out of this hole. But
Speaker 1: hopefully this, this new government UM gets them at least
Speaker 1: heading in the right direction. Yeah, well, we will see.
Speaker 1: And it's it's weird, though, is it the new government.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if you would call it
Speaker 1: the new government, because Medoro would say he's still curry
Speaker 1: maybe premature, and these things haven't been quite hashed out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a situation that you know, we've never seen
Speaker 1: here in America at least an our lifetime, you know,
Speaker 1: Civil War and Venezuela basically two people claiming to represent
Speaker 1: the government. Yeah. Uh. Another outrage going on is b K.
Speaker 1: Our friend is uh banned on Twitter or suspended on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is the first time this has
Speaker 1: had in a VK. He definitely accounts get suspended. It
Speaker 1: makes me sad. Yeah, he definitely likes to piss people
Speaker 1: off on Twitter. But I wonder what he said that
Speaker 1: um angered people. Yeah, I don't know. I've never been
Speaker 1: suspended on Twitter, but I've been banned or what do
Speaker 1: they call it, like when when they put you in
Speaker 1: Facebook jail. I've been in Facebook jail probably like six
Speaker 1: or seven times, and uh, the usually it's just for
Speaker 1: a week, but a couple of times I think I
Speaker 1: got banned for like two weeks. Do you remember what
Speaker 1: it's four? Because I know sometimes it's basically an algorithm,
Speaker 1: like Bill who's been on the show, you know from Greece.
Speaker 1: He posted that that picture that was anti Nazi stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, but it had it had as in a
Speaker 1: different cultural contact that wasn't Nazism, and the algorithm or
Speaker 1: maybe well we don't know if it was an algorithm
Speaker 1: or an actual person, but one way or the other. UM.
Speaker 1: In my cases, I mean, I don't always know. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it just happens, UM. But sometimes I will show you
Speaker 1: the post, like this post is outside our community guidelines,
Speaker 1: um I So basically I know that at least in
Speaker 1: some cases, it's just someone reporting something I said that
Speaker 1: they don't like, and uh, and there's no like repudiation,
Speaker 1: there's no like uh you know, there's no there's no
Speaker 1: justice system quote unquote. It's Facebook. So it's just like
Speaker 1: someone reports it like you're done. Yeah, that's see. That's
Speaker 1: happened to me. But I never got um suspended. I
Speaker 1: remember one thing that happened was so I previously produced
Speaker 1: Senator Bill Bradley shows, you know, and because of that,
Speaker 1: some previous guests of the show where listeners of Bill
Speaker 1: Bradley like added me on my own private Facebook, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, whatever they've been on the show, I don't care.
Speaker 1: And I remember I wrote something that was like criticizing
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren and then I noticed this guy reported the post,
Speaker 1: tried to like FaceTime call me a million times on Facebook,
Speaker 1: you know, and and was just like messaging me incessantly,
Speaker 1: So I deleted that guy. Um I got like reported,
Speaker 1: but I think they saw that what I said was
Speaker 1: completely within the guidelines. But um, I'm actually kind of,
Speaker 1: uh a little bit more cautious about just what I
Speaker 1: post now because I don't know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: like engage in that type of I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: use Facebook for personal stuff very much at all anymore.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, we do. I mean I'll message you
Speaker 1: and be like, we have this guy coming on there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, like talking to like your family or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I don't like post stuff on Facebook. I don't
Speaker 1: even even my Facebook like author page, like business page,
Speaker 1: I don't post that much stuff on there. My personal page.
Speaker 1: I just once in a while might throw something on there,
Speaker 1: like but like once a week if that, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't write on it because I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just sick and tired of it. I'm getting tired
Speaker 1: of all the social media because of I don't use
Speaker 1: Instagram anymore. I mean on Twitter, we're still you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's another show. We're still talking about this Native
Speaker 1: American guy and he's not a Vietnam veteran. That that
Speaker 1: part was kind of interesting which has apparently been uncovered
Speaker 1: just in that the media did no fact checking, which
Speaker 1: I know is of no surprise to you, but some
Speaker 1: people expect. Well, it's not just the media, like, it's
Speaker 1: also social media. It's like people on social media making
Speaker 1: it into a story. In the past, something like this
Speaker 1: would be like a blurb and a local paper best
Speaker 1: uh maybe would just go unreported. Now it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's just dominates the headlines for days. And it's like
Speaker 1: I've said in the in the past, i mean, it's
Speaker 1: a country of you know, three hundred something million people.
Speaker 1: On any given day, one of those people is going
Speaker 1: to do something dumb. Does that need to be a
Speaker 1: national story? Does that need to be on you know,
Speaker 1: all over the fucking internet for a week. It's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting though, because it's just that we now are
Speaker 1: the journal Anyone could be a journalist. Now, if you
Speaker 1: go to a rally, you capture something on video, it
Speaker 1: trends on toy. I'd like to think that a journalist
Speaker 1: is a little bit more than just you know, somebody
Speaker 1: with a Twitter account. But in a lot of cases,
Speaker 1: i mean you're not wrong, you know, in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases that's what's seen as journalism. Now everybody has
Speaker 1: a platform now right, every psycho has uh you know,
Speaker 1: Facebook Live or whatever whatever the stream is. Everyone has
Speaker 1: access to a live television channel that they produce, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting in the front seat of their car, ranting about
Speaker 1: some bullshit that they know nothing about. It's a crazy yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's not all negative, I'll say, and that you know,
Speaker 1: for example, the attention brought to like police shootings for example,
Speaker 1: some of that outrage is is not real. Some of
Speaker 1: it is. But there's been times now where people capture
Speaker 1: stuff that wouldn't have been captured, like when I think
Speaker 1: when Rodney King happened right where someone videotaped that beating.
Speaker 1: It was new. It wasn't normal for someone to have
Speaker 1: like a VHS camera in their car to tape something
Speaker 1: like that. Now everybody has a phone on them. So
Speaker 1: I think people, you know, police office sers or they're
Speaker 1: more cautious of how they act because anything you do
Speaker 1: can be put on the Internet. I mean the flip
Speaker 1: side to that too is that people would say, you know,
Speaker 1: video doesn't lie, a picture doesn't lie, but I mean
Speaker 1: it frequently does um because it's the contextualized and any
Speaker 1: given any one of these little fake social media outrage
Speaker 1: things that pops off, and within minutes there's like the
Speaker 1: counter narrative, like here's a meme on why this guy
Speaker 1: is really a scumbag. It's like, yeah, but I think
Speaker 1: as I talking about it with you or someone someone
Speaker 1: else is like, I don't give a funk about this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've both mentioned I don't give it and I don't
Speaker 1: need to literally don't give a ship. And again, like
Speaker 1: you're getting like notifications on your cell phone and that's
Speaker 1: the thing you can't escape. Turn it off, like I
Speaker 1: do not care. And especially when we're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: government's collapsing in Venezuela and you know stuff going on
Speaker 1: in Syria, all this like crazy ship going on, or
Speaker 1: even what we talked about in the last show, it
Speaker 1: le owned companies that do military housing, putting you know,
Speaker 1: families like you're gonna get you're gonna get all butt
Speaker 1: hurt over a fucking Gillette ad. But you know when
Speaker 1: some you know slum lord let's military families suffer like
Speaker 1: this and exploits them like that doesn't raise any eyebrows.
Speaker 1: No one says anything about that. So I mean and
Speaker 1: That's why I get jaded and I guess cynical about it.
Speaker 1: And when I see these little social media outrages over
Speaker 1: like I can't believe, you know, you know, some like
Speaker 1: congresswoman said, let's impeach the motherfucker. Wasn't that what with
Speaker 1: the Muslim moment? How upset am I supposed to get
Speaker 1: about this? Somebody said, motherfucker. I'll say motherfucker on this
Speaker 1: podcast every day. And I granted I'm not a congressman,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless, I like, I don't have the energy to
Speaker 1: get upset about all this stupid little stuff. It's like,
Speaker 1: let's pick, you know, a couple of important issues and
Speaker 1: focus on those and talk about those. But unfortunately what
Speaker 1: you see is important is not. What people are clicking
Speaker 1: on is no, no, it's not. And people say they
Speaker 1: want the truth, they want the facts. I just want
Speaker 1: the news to report facts and tell us what's going on.
Speaker 1: Like well, people say that they're being disingenuous because that's
Speaker 1: not really what they want. And there's a ton of data,
Speaker 1: because we live in an era of big data. You
Speaker 1: can see what people are clicking on, what kind of
Speaker 1: media they consume, and people aren't reading like wire reports
Speaker 1: off like a p or Reuter's like, that is not
Speaker 1: the kind of news people want, So don't lie about
Speaker 1: what you want. I mean, yeah, you saw that thing
Speaker 1: that my friend Nick posted it as a journalist in Queens,
Speaker 1: and yeah I did. I did read that. So he stopped,
Speaker 1: uh writing as a journalist or or working for any
Speaker 1: news outlet in Queens because of the fact that he
Speaker 1: was just like, this is my passion, but it's just
Speaker 1: not a money maker. So he's now doing real estate.
Speaker 1: But he was he was saying that he basically gave
Speaker 1: a list of the big stories happening that month, and
Speaker 1: they were big. They were like local election stuff, kidnappings,
Speaker 1: and then one of the stories was where Nicki Minaj
Speaker 1: buys or wigs in New York. He was like, which
Speaker 1: are these stories? Do you think was clicked on the most?
Speaker 1: That was it? And he's like that's what sells adds
Speaker 1: and so this is why you know print media is
Speaker 1: supposedly dying or media's there. Uh. If people listening to
Speaker 1: this are interested in and a little bit of background, uh,
Speaker 1: I could recommend some books also. But there are a
Speaker 1: couple of news articles that came out just the last
Speaker 1: week there's one in the New Yorker magazine and I
Speaker 1: think it's title is does Journalism Have a Future? And
Speaker 1: it talks about old like legacy media like local newspapers
Speaker 1: and how they have all collapsed and and the kind
Speaker 1: of digital media market where in Now that's a very
Speaker 1: good article. And then there's another one out there. I
Speaker 1: believe it's called um, do digital media influencers need to
Speaker 1: be regulated? And it's talking about, you know the whole
Speaker 1: concept of influencers. How these companies high I hate that
Speaker 1: words Instagram celebrities to to hawk their product UM and
Speaker 1: they're asking it's kind of asking the question like should
Speaker 1: these people be regulated because by federal regulators, because it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of a wild West, and you don't really
Speaker 1: know what's an advertisement and what isn't. Yeah, sometimes on
Speaker 1: Instagram it will say that something is an advertisement, or
Speaker 1: they'll put a hashtag that says like sponsored. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so ridiculous, man. People like going on vacations because it
Speaker 1: looks good on Instagram because they're influencers. I I'm so
Speaker 1: tired of it. It's a bizarre to me. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I said, I haven't used I haven't posted anything on
Speaker 1: Instagram and like six months, I know I've noticed that
Speaker 1: I post every day on the Software Radio Instagram to
Speaker 1: keep you guys up to date. I posted actually today
Speaker 1: because I thought it was interesting. I think using it
Speaker 1: like that is okay, I mean use it. I think
Speaker 1: it was Jim West who told me. He said, you know,
Speaker 1: promote the business, not your ego. Yeah. I don't have
Speaker 1: my own Instagram, um, but yeah, today I posted from
Speaker 1: shot show a picture of Dakota Mayer with Kristen Beck
Speaker 1: because I thought it was interesting. That's cool. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's just two people that you wouldn't expect to
Speaker 1: be hanging out with each other, but to decorated service
Speaker 1: members and uh and and and it creates some controversy.
Speaker 1: Anytime I post anything Christian back, you get the people
Speaker 1: who you know, who give Christian a problem. And the
Speaker 1: thing with Christian that I will say it's funny, is
Speaker 1: like a lot of people will let that ship go.
Speaker 1: They don't care Christian will engage with anyone. She'll yeah,
Speaker 1: she'll jump in there and fight him. Yeah. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: like just from like my personal my my heteronormative perspective.
Speaker 1: I used to think like that kind of stuff wasn't
Speaker 1: like a big deal, um, you know, like the the
Speaker 1: LGBT stuff. I was like, like, we did an article about, Um,
Speaker 1: we've done a few articles with Brett Jones, who is
Speaker 1: a uh he's still he still is. I mean he's
Speaker 1: a homosexual, gay Navy seal and uh, he's a good guy.
Speaker 1: But we did a story on it, and and I
Speaker 1: I mean I didn't have any hesitation about publishing it,
Speaker 1: but kind of like in the back of my mind,
Speaker 1: my thought was, Okay, he was a seal, he's gay,
Speaker 1: Like what's the big deal that, why does this even matter?
Speaker 1: And then you see the comments start rolling in like whoa,
Speaker 1: Like Okay, this actually doesn't matter. These kinds of things
Speaker 1: need to be said, and it needs to be talked
Speaker 1: about because clearly there there is still a lot of
Speaker 1: hatred out there. Yeah, I've even seen it when we
Speaker 1: like the first time we had Kristen beck on, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of people saying, why would you promote
Speaker 1: this type of behavior? And so we're not promoting anything.
Speaker 1: We will have anyone. Well there's a whole backstory behind that.
Speaker 1: When we ran a story about christ Kristen back yea
Speaker 1: and they were at their sponsors pulling. We lost a huge,
Speaker 1: huge sponsor over that, and like if I named who
Speaker 1: it was, it which set off some shock waves right
Speaker 1: now because it was a major company and they said,
Speaker 1: we do not want our ads next to that transgender material.
Speaker 1: That was unreal. They so they were actually trying to
Speaker 1: dictate content to us, and we told them basically kick rocks,
Speaker 1: like we're not going to take that story down. And
Speaker 1: it's funny because the tides have changed. I bet you
Speaker 1: that company would love that now because they would never
Speaker 1: say it openly. They if they did say it, I
Speaker 1: think they would catch their words very carefully. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it's social media has made things very different. I think
Speaker 1: like what was once UH once UM ridiculed, is now
Speaker 1: being like celebrated at least on funcial media. So it's
Speaker 1: just things are changing very rapidly if you look at like,
Speaker 1: for example, when Barack Obama first became the president, he
Speaker 1: was against gay marriage. It was UM. It was actually
Speaker 1: when Joe Biden said that he was personally four gay
Speaker 1: marriage while being a part of the administration that things
Speaker 1: started to change. But I've said this on the podcast
Speaker 1: before too, that people who were critical of UM openly
Speaker 1: gay people serving in the military, and they were for
Speaker 1: don't Ask, don't tell. The argument was um by a
Speaker 1: lot of these social conservatives was you know you have
Speaker 1: this the next thing, you know, you're gonna have transgenders
Speaker 1: openly serving in the middle And I remember people being like,
Speaker 1: that's absurd, that's ridiculous, that's never gonna happen. And it
Speaker 1: is happening. So whether you're forward or against it, a
Speaker 1: lot of these things that we thought were crazy and
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory are actually issues. The only hesitation I had
Speaker 1: with repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I think it was
Speaker 1: a good thing to repeal it, for sure, um because
Speaker 1: I heard stories and saw stuff myself where soldiers were
Speaker 1: blackmailed and it was fucked up. But uh, my only
Speaker 1: hesitation was that I thought that we might have people
Speaker 1: joining the military who are gay, who are doing it
Speaker 1: as like social activism, like here, I I'm gay and
Speaker 1: I'm wearing this uniform. And even that concern turned out
Speaker 1: to be in retrospect unfounded and seems kind of silly,
Speaker 1: like that hasn't really happened. Yeah, yeah, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're willing to put your life, your life on the
Speaker 1: line at a time where we still are in multiple wars.
Speaker 1: They're just they're just soldiers and that's their sexual identity
Speaker 1: and they're out there doing their jobs. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad that they repealed. Don't ask, don't tell
Speaker 1: that it led to a lot of bad things. Yeah. UM,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna get to starbar Us, but I'll
Speaker 1: get to this email really quickly sent to soft Rep
Speaker 1: dot Radio at soft rep dot com, and it's in
Speaker 1: regards to one of our recent episodes. Um. Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: I just listened to episode for twenty three, So that's
Speaker 1: us talk about creat Um. Uh. You brought up some
Speaker 1: interesting points and I would love to talk with you
Speaker 1: about the way service members and veterans are treated or
Speaker 1: not treated, and what the military n v A could
Speaker 1: be doing better. Most of the pain I endured could
Speaker 1: have been prevented. I'm an Army veteran whose minor injuries
Speaker 1: turned into major injuries due to misguided medical protocols. I
Speaker 1: became a chiropractor because chiropractic helped me the most when
Speaker 1: I got it. There's no excuse for our troops to
Speaker 1: not receive the best health promoting care, Yet all they
Speaker 1: get is drugs. Anyway, I can talk for days about
Speaker 1: all of this and more and more, like why so
Speaker 1: many veterans suffer with PTSD and have astronomical suicide rates.
Speaker 1: Keep up the great work, and if you were interested
Speaker 1: in diving deeper into these topics to let me know.
Speaker 1: That's from Shelley, so possibly in the future. I mean,
Speaker 1: but I just think it goes to show we've had
Speaker 1: an acupuncturist on here in the past. You weren't here
Speaker 1: for that episode, but I remember it. Um Tay who
Speaker 1: I actually know. But we've talked about everything from chiropractice
Speaker 1: to h yoga, acupuncture, We talked about creatum, We've talked
Speaker 1: about marijuana, all these things. I mean, some people might
Speaker 1: believe in some of them, some might not, but it's
Speaker 1: it's nice there's these alternatives coming out that are not addictive,
Speaker 1: that are, you know, a alternative to using opioids. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've done a fairly poor job,
Speaker 1: you know, on a social level, of societal level, treating
Speaker 1: these guys, and they need whatever help they can get.
Speaker 1: And if if chiropractic care helps you, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: all for it, uh or or acupuncture, like I said, yoga. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a believer in massage therapy. I think all
Speaker 1: that stuff is great. So you know massage therapy like
Speaker 1: the rubbing tug down the street here, Well it could
Speaker 1: it could be that. No, but any type of you know,
Speaker 1: actual massage therapy for for neck pain, back pain. I've
Speaker 1: had issues with that before. Nothing like what you know
Speaker 1: some of you guys have experienced. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I talked about in the past how I
Speaker 1: had quite a bit of back pain when I came
Speaker 1: out of the military, and um, and it was actually
Speaker 1: my own fault, hurting myself, but um, the car going
Speaker 1: to the chiropractor helped me a lot. Yeah. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: if you have any other emails, send them to soft
Speaker 1: rep dot radio at softwarep dot com. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: over to Stavros, whose last name I'll attempt to pronounced,
Speaker 1: and we'll see if I'm correct, Stavros at lam Mazuglu.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask him and we'll see. But star Ros
Speaker 1: has been writing for this side for a while, and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm interested in hearing actually a little bit more about
Speaker 1: his background from Greece and getting into some of the
Speaker 1: recent articles he's been writing. So joining us is stav Ros,
Speaker 1: former Greek army with the five seventy five Marines Battalion
Speaker 1: and Army h Q, currently studying at Johns Hopkins, which
Speaker 1: we were hoping to get you in studio, but I
Speaker 1: know you're stuck there. Um, but you're doing that with
Speaker 1: your undergrad while writing for News Rep full time. And
Speaker 1: I was saying before I actually brought you on that
Speaker 1: I was gonna attempt to say your last name. Uh,
Speaker 1: tell me how wrong I am. So starv rostwa mazulu.
Speaker 1: Actually that's probably the best variation of' heard from four
Speaker 1: from a non Greek speaker. Nice. That's awesome. Wait, so
Speaker 1: how how do you say it? Okay? I was pretty close. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like you should be like like Fabio, he
Speaker 1: just goes by one name, like because everybody who knows
Speaker 1: Star Wars like the last name. It's kind of tough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's tough even for Greeks. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: the name, the name. So, so before we get into
Speaker 1: the articles you're writing and the stuff that we'd like
Speaker 1: to get into, which there there's a lot to talk about. Um,
Speaker 1: we've really only had one other Greek military guy on
Speaker 1: the show before Bill who has written for the site. Um,
Speaker 1: so I'd love to hear about your background and uh,
Speaker 1: not really enlisting because it's a mandatory service, right, but
Speaker 1: i'ming a member of the Greek Army. Yeah. So unlike
Speaker 1: Bill who after his national service when professional for a
Speaker 1: few years, I did my job my national service. So
Speaker 1: I did it with the five seven five Marine Battalion, which,
Speaker 1: unlike everyone else everywhere else in the world, marins degrees
Speaker 1: fall under the army. So it's not like here in
Speaker 1: the States where the Marine Corps fall sunder the Navy,
Speaker 1: or in Britain were the Commander Royal Mary commandos for
Speaker 1: lunder the Royal Navy. Um so it's uh, it considered solve.
Speaker 1: Although if if I were to compared with here in
Speaker 1: the States, I would say that the Marines and the
Speaker 1: regular radar companies are vandias of so whites of in
Speaker 1: terms of boded and the unit in which Bill was
Speaker 1: it lasts are considered tier one, so to give a
Speaker 1: rough equivalent. So, yeah, I did my time there and
Speaker 1: I fin sed up with Army leh Q in opens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the Marines are a big deal. Increase, right, because
Speaker 1: you guys have to cover down and like how many
Speaker 1: different islands in the G and C. Yeah, so so
Speaker 1: we have three marine battalions, but and we also have
Speaker 1: the amphibious radar companies. Um, there are so many islands
Speaker 1: and inlets, it's retricting something over the thousands. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's the the main training focus on how to respond.
Speaker 1: Whereas there the amphibious radar companies would will respond to
Speaker 1: a small inlet being attacked by the Turkish forces. The
Speaker 1: Marines would focus on how to recapture an island that
Speaker 1: was attacked by Turkish forces. But they we undergo the
Speaker 1: same training. So I mean the prophecios, who are professional
Speaker 1: military rotap between units, so you can they can do
Speaker 1: you stint the figures didn't in the Marrington, then go
Speaker 1: to one of the amphibious companies or the mount radar companies.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of interoperable between us. I love
Speaker 1: the that that old school ethnic tension between Turkey and Greece,
Speaker 1: Like you guys, you guys go at it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's over a thousand year old conflict and we
Speaker 1: are the the smaller ones, so we have to do
Speaker 1: what we can and Turkey is resurgent. Looks like there
Speaker 1: are Ottoman ambitions. It seems like they want to come back,
Speaker 1: and that must make make the Greek government nervous. It should,
Speaker 1: but jumping from their defense expenditure, it doesn't. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: at what point did you move here? Star wars Um?
Speaker 1: Actually most of my family United States, so I grew
Speaker 1: up in Greece, but I used to come every summer.
Speaker 1: So it's uh, but I relocated permanently two thousand and fourteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now you're you said you're getting your your graduate
Speaker 1: degree undergrad So yeah, I went. Essentially, I was in Boston.
Speaker 1: I begun with in a community college, and my end
Speaker 1: I fought my way off to Hawkins to things up.
Speaker 1: That's great, man, congratulations cheers. Uh and uh, you said
Speaker 1: your major is history. Yeah, I mean it's very interesting
Speaker 1: to me, and it's also the exist way to get
Speaker 1: a degree from a grade school. What period of history
Speaker 1: are you? Are you mostly interested in? Um? Post World
Speaker 1: War two military history? Okay, so like the same as me?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but you were pyes, right, Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: a political science major. But you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's kind of been my focus as a writer's in
Speaker 1: writing about you know, contemporary more more contemporary military activities.
Speaker 1: It makes sense with what we do because that's the
Speaker 1: of guys we could actually interview, or the Vietnam era,
Speaker 1: the you know, Korean War, vieion or some you know,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to really be able to speak
Speaker 1: to anybody was in World War One or anything like
Speaker 1: that unfortunately. Now. Yeah, so I get it if you're
Speaker 1: an investigative journalist, which you are, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: plays into all that and doing the podcast. Um, but
Speaker 1: any anyway, getting into some stuff that you've been doing
Speaker 1: for the site. You wrote this recent article ken You
Speaker 1: terrorists attack update the accurate story behind the s A S. Operator.
Speaker 1: So there was this man whose former s A S
Speaker 1: or actually I don't know was the active duty or
Speaker 1: former he's uh, he's actively uh, he's no format military
Speaker 1: history totally essentially the reserve components of the Yeah, so
Speaker 1: he happened to be in Nairobi, Kenya, and he took
Speaker 1: action here. I mean the article from you, an unwelcome
Speaker 1: avalanche of fame has fallen on the loan Special Air
Speaker 1: Service member who responded to last Tuesday is terrorist attack
Speaker 1: in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, news outlets around the world have
Speaker 1: speculated about the identity and outfit. At first, he was
Speaker 1: a Navy seal from the from Seal Team three because
Speaker 1: he wore a vel crow patch that the Seal Team
Speaker 1: three seals have been seen wearing. And then more accurately,
Speaker 1: he became an active duty s A S operator. I
Speaker 1: should have remembered that actually read the article. According to
Speaker 1: a news repsource, however, the SA S trooper is in
Speaker 1: fact part of the British Territorial Army s A S.
Speaker 1: That is the reserve component of the famed Special Operations Unit.
Speaker 1: So this gives an update on this maybe identity. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can explain what that means, because you know how,
Speaker 1: let's try. I'm trying to make like an American comparison.
Speaker 1: So like in Delta Force there's Alpha Squadron, Bravos Squadron,
Speaker 1: Charlie Squadron, and Ranger Battalion. There's First Battalion, Third Battalion,
Speaker 1: Second Battalion UH, and the s A S. There's twenty
Speaker 1: two s A S which is the active duty Special
Speaker 1: Air Service guys. But then there's also UH twenty one
Speaker 1: and twenty three which are the territorials that you're speaking
Speaker 1: of um, So the best comparison I can give you
Speaker 1: would be with the special forces groups. So you have
Speaker 1: the five active active duty the first, third, seventh, and ten,
Speaker 1: and then you have the two National Guards of the
Speaker 1: nine twenty, so that that's the best comparison I can make. So,
Speaker 1: since olive are part time soldiers, some of them were
Speaker 1: former active duty twenty two s a s. Others joined
Speaker 1: up from civilian street underwent the same selection as their
Speaker 1: active duty colleagues, although in a different time frame. There's more,
Speaker 1: each longer because you have to compose it for their
Speaker 1: civilian jobs. Thinking, excuse me, I think it takes them
Speaker 1: like two years to go through it. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's brutal because and I think some of them call them,
Speaker 1: some call them waken warriors or one of these. But
Speaker 1: if you if you think about it, it's harder because
Speaker 1: you have a balance a full time civilian job with
Speaker 1: being an operator. I mean it's hard. Yeah. So so, yeah,
Speaker 1: they used to be under the Special Forces Command the
Speaker 1: equivalent to so com the use the use equivalent, but
Speaker 1: recently in two thousand and fourteens they were moved and
Speaker 1: I think because of over budget issues they were moved
Speaker 1: under a new command called the First U S Intelligence
Speaker 1: of Balance and Reconnaissance Brigade of Weeks and Compassors convention
Speaker 1: them units that special idea I S are but also
Speaker 1: a few more SAD units, so like the twenty one
Speaker 1: and twenty three as he is, and a couple of
Speaker 1: other human intelligence units. And these guys, I mean they
Speaker 1: still get the point obviously. I mean this guy shows
Speaker 1: up in Kenya. Yeah, yeah, so essentially they can they
Speaker 1: are they can either deploy individually or they can accument
Speaker 1: twenty tours is it needed? So, I like the National Guard,
Speaker 1: and do you have any idea what this guy was
Speaker 1: doing in Kenya that he suddenly shows up in Uh
Speaker 1: at the shopping mall wearing a balaclava. Yeah, so so
Speaker 1: they are down there training the any and counter terrorists.
Speaker 1: You need the right cas uh and yeah, and a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago there was also another incident in
Speaker 1: the West Gate mall and another he was forward though
Speaker 1: he was he was a civilian by then. H I
Speaker 1: want to see he was a Royal marine. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: The press changed their story like three times on that,
Speaker 1: like first he was a para, then he was a
Speaker 1: Royal Marine then he was sas and yeah it was
Speaker 1: kind of silly. A brave man, yeah, A brave man,
Speaker 1: A brave man. Yeah. So and we have to remember
Speaker 1: Kenya used to be a British colony for taked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's this cultural connection between the two nations and
Speaker 1: Paras deployed her two for exercise every year. So it's
Speaker 1: not uncommon for British personnel to be down there. And
Speaker 1: consider how close is to someone with above it makes sense. Interesting,
Speaker 1: So you could check out the article on this man's identity,
Speaker 1: which is can you terrorist attack update? The accurate story
Speaker 1: behind the essays operator that's now up uh something else,
Speaker 1: I know you wanted to get into that. That has
Speaker 1: been a topic of interest I know for you Jack.
Speaker 1: Uh the so calm war crimes crisis going on. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a huge one. Um. I'm actually because there
Speaker 1: has been some there has been similar incidents, uh internationally,
Speaker 1: So you have enquiries in Australia and New Zealand about
Speaker 1: let's called war crimes, uh, although the music in case
Speaker 1: appears to be different. So a couple of journalists wrote
Speaker 1: a book about the New Zealand says allegedly committing war
Speaker 1: crimes in Afghanistan. But it's by the day their case
Speaker 1: becomes weaker. I mean, the military, which is very the
Speaker 1: New Zealand military is very quiet about itself, very quiet,
Speaker 1: and the keys I s is known to be a
Speaker 1: fairly small but very professional force. Also. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: wrote an excellent piece a few months ago about them.
Speaker 1: So and and I believe those two journalists alleged that
Speaker 1: what they went into a village and executed a few
Speaker 1: civilians or something like this. Yeah, but the military has
Speaker 1: started publishing their own food. That's another documentation proved them wrong.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're on the only defense right now. However,
Speaker 1: in Australia, Yeah, with the Australian I say there um
Speaker 1: allegedly some of them went of the of the rails
Speaker 1: and began committing war crimes. Uh said in the pattern
Speaker 1: and what I'm trying to what I'm currently investigating, is
Speaker 1: a possible connection with certain units here in the States.
Speaker 1: So the say the Australian I says, guys were from
Speaker 1: the maritime troop, from one of the marietime troops. So
Speaker 1: so they say, yes, they are divided in a more
Speaker 1: bi land mobility, air troop and Marietime troop the specialized
Speaker 1: in searching methods. And the guy said there have been
Speaker 1: accused were from the Manetime troup. So you can still
Speaker 1: connect a link. There a possible link with some of
Speaker 1: the war un war crimes been taken place by some
Speaker 1: and w N. Well, I mean, I can tell you
Speaker 1: just based on conversations I've had with people in the
Speaker 1: Australian Special Operations community and this is going back probably
Speaker 1: four years or so now. I was told about an
Speaker 1: incident where an Australian S a S soldier had cut
Speaker 1: off a Taliban guy's hand and I hacked it off
Speaker 1: with a hatchet, and it turned into a controversy internally
Speaker 1: in the Australian military as it got found out. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, of course I asked the question like, well,
Speaker 1: why the funk was the guy even carrying a hatchet?
Speaker 1: Like who carries an axe out on target? And they're like, well,
Speaker 1: you know they out that because they've been working with
Speaker 1: Seal Team six and those guys all carry hatchets out
Speaker 1: on target. Oh yeah, so so yeah, the most probably
Speaker 1: there is some connection, but I want to be sure
Speaker 1: before I go through with it. Yeah, yeah, And it's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard for them to talk, I mean especially from
Speaker 1: for to someone who is not from Australia. They the
Speaker 1: Australians have a and I struggle to put my finger
Speaker 1: on it, but there's some sort of cultural nuance with
Speaker 1: the Australians. How when you talk to these guys, they
Speaker 1: think it's like, no big deal, like nothing's gonna come
Speaker 1: of that, no one cares. And then it becomes a
Speaker 1: big deal and they're kind of like they shrugged their shoulders.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's something unique, I think to their culture.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because Australia has just tucked away so far
Speaker 1: away from everything else that they just don't see it
Speaker 1: in the same light. I really don't know, but it's
Speaker 1: just kind of an had a peculiarity. Um. And those
Speaker 1: conversations I've had with them, they are nice looks though,
Speaker 1: they are nice and I'm I'm very supportive of the
Speaker 1: Australian Special Operations guys that I mean, the ones i've
Speaker 1: met are quality dudes. UM. And of course, like these
Speaker 1: guys are not indicative of all you know, Australian military. No, no, overall,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a good force, UM. But I mean,
Speaker 1: they obviously are struggling with some of the same issues
Speaker 1: we are here as as UH, as you pointed out.
Speaker 1: But then again you have the question of why so uh,
Speaker 1: it's here in the States and it's w and especially
Speaker 1: Debut was allowed to discipline its own so not to
Speaker 1: not to create a controversy of the unit, uh out
Speaker 1: of the U because of the of the alt work crimes.
Speaker 1: But then when you fail to discipline, you said the
Speaker 1: pattern right, especially your ability, you're basically handing the guys
Speaker 1: a license to kill after you keep covering it up
Speaker 1: and covering it up. What you're telling these guys is
Speaker 1: it's the facto acceptable behavior and not the commands will
Speaker 1: cover for you. Yeah, exactly that. But we can also
Speaker 1: you can also see it from another point of view
Speaker 1: as them trying to defend not only their unit, but
Speaker 1: also their selection process. Because if you if you have
Speaker 1: opera the sco that have an underwent the art, you
Speaker 1: selection process with all of the psychological tests and everything,
Speaker 1: and they become and they start committing war climes, then
Speaker 1: that's something about your program. Yes, it says something about
Speaker 1: the program and about the unit culture. I'm working on
Speaker 1: a story right now that it's not. It doesn't involve
Speaker 1: war crimes, but it does involve violent crimes UM here
Speaker 1: domestically in the United States. And it's about one person
Speaker 1: in the Special Operations community who it's amazing that he
Speaker 1: was not screened during the psychological evaluations. That this person
Speaker 1: very clearly it should have screened him out. And he
Speaker 1: was even bragging to other people about how his psychological
Speaker 1: exams showed him to be a sociopath without any empathy. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and he was bragging the people about this, and they
Speaker 1: graduated him through the course. Anyway, So are they so
Speaker 1: hard to fill out the ranks? I mean that there
Speaker 1: are really sort of Yeah, well it's a combination of things. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can't they're not able to retain people in the ranks. Um.
Speaker 1: Then they're also struggling with recruitment numbers. And then since
Speaker 1: nine eleven, Special Operations was directed to rapidly expand uh
Speaker 1: and become much much larger than it was before. Um.
Speaker 1: So we're I think now we're seeing the the the
Speaker 1: long term effects of it, and we're going to continue
Speaker 1: to see those long term impacts for you know, the
Speaker 1: next ten or twenty years. But and then you you
Speaker 1: have to ask the the follow up, So how do
Speaker 1: we deal with it? I mean accountability, leadership, discipline. My
Speaker 1: my opinion for what it's worth is, I think you
Speaker 1: need to go back to the old school, like old
Speaker 1: school military discipline. Uh. You need to hold people accountable. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, people who break the rules need to be
Speaker 1: kicked out. UM. And I'm not saying over like a
Speaker 1: little things. I'm talking about serious, serious stuff here. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know some people UM asked me a lot of
Speaker 1: times like is it just like dev group that's gone
Speaker 1: off the rails like this? And I have to explain
Speaker 1: to them, like, you know, all of these units after
Speaker 1: seventeen years of war, they all have some skeletons in
Speaker 1: their closet, all of them do. UM. But the difference
Speaker 1: is that in a unit like Delta Force, what they'll
Speaker 1: do is they'll kick guys out. They won't necessarily like
Speaker 1: criminally prosecute them in court martial them, but they will
Speaker 1: kick them out of the unit. So at least there
Speaker 1: is some mechanism where they're saying, okay, these are the
Speaker 1: lines you can cross, and if you do this, you're
Speaker 1: kicked out of the unit. So at least that stops
Speaker 1: things from sliding completely out of control. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the big difference in in dev Group, you
Speaker 1: didn't have that. It just kept getting covered up over
Speaker 1: and over again, and and you know, excuses were made
Speaker 1: for these guys and the funcing fun. The interesting thing
Speaker 1: is that when people get it kicked out of the group,
Speaker 1: they go back to the VAMIDIA and FIL teams, which
Speaker 1: is yeah, and they usually get out of the military entirely,
Speaker 1: even if they have like seventeen eighteen years and they'll
Speaker 1: just leave because they don't want to deal with the
Speaker 1: disgrace I guess of going back to the other teams.
Speaker 1: M hm. So yeah, that's uh. I'm trying to find
Speaker 1: possible links between the the different cases out there there there. Um,
Speaker 1: you can also look at some of the links. There's
Speaker 1: some interesting stuff that happened when like dev Group and
Speaker 1: Delta were doing INBDS with one another like they were.
Speaker 1: They were like bringing dev guys over and having them
Speaker 1: go out with Delta on raids early on in the
Speaker 1: war in Afghanistan. Um. And I know there's some friction
Speaker 1: there as well. Yeah, definitely. UM. I mean this is
Speaker 1: a huge topic and I think people are gonna want
Speaker 1: to read more about it, especially with the recent stuff
Speaker 1: with the seals. Um the name escapes me and the
Speaker 1: most Chief Gallagher, Yeah yeah, which is is court martial
Speaker 1: is gonna go forward. And it's interesting though because some
Speaker 1: some former seals that are you know that I follow
Speaker 1: on our accounts Instagram are very insupport of him, and
Speaker 1: you know, are you know, free Chief Gallagher and you
Speaker 1: know that it's all trumped up charges that the seals
Speaker 1: he worked with are lying. I guess they're lying under
Speaker 1: oath according to this narrative that they're all purjured, gonna
Speaker 1: they're about to perjure themselves on the stand. A lot
Speaker 1: of seals also that I've met, to be honest, do
Speaker 1: you have the attitude of like, you know, we got
Speaker 1: to get the job done no matter what. I don't
Speaker 1: really care what these guys do. I've heard that before,
Speaker 1: as I've heard it from civilians also, and it's like, really,
Speaker 1: you want American kids and we're talking about young people,
Speaker 1: like a twenty two year old seal. You want to
Speaker 1: tell these twenty two year old twenty three year olds
Speaker 1: to go out and shoot children and hack limbs off
Speaker 1: of dead bodies, Like really, that's what that's who we
Speaker 1: are now. Um. So, I mean I understand war is
Speaker 1: an ugly thing, um, But at the same time, there
Speaker 1: have to be some sort of standards otherwise, like why
Speaker 1: are we even fighting the Taliban if like we're the assholes,
Speaker 1: if we're not any better than them, but what's the
Speaker 1: point of even doing it? And then the argument I
Speaker 1: also always see um on you know, the side that
Speaker 1: you're making too, is that oftentimes this type of thing
Speaker 1: is used for propaganda. You know, terrorists can say this
Speaker 1: is this is who Americans are. Yeah, for sure. I
Speaker 1: mean I guess the enemy will use anything for propaganda
Speaker 1: against us, um. And this is just one more example. Um.
Speaker 1: And I don't necessarily blame anybody for supporting Chief Gallagher
Speaker 1: if they don't know the facts of the case. And
Speaker 1: I don't know all the facts of the case. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to convict him in a court of public opinion.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the court martial has to happen.
Speaker 1: He deserves a fair, impartial trial. Um. But there has
Speaker 1: to be some sort of accountability mechanism. And I don't
Speaker 1: think that every charge or every court martial is just
Speaker 1: the result of some weird liberal agenda in the military
Speaker 1: trying to persecute our troops. Yeah. Um well, also on
Speaker 1: the topic of the Seals Star Wars, you're working on
Speaker 1: an article about an old school that grew up. I
Speaker 1: don't know much about it, but if you want to
Speaker 1: expand on that, Yeah, without any spoilers, Jack knows about it.
Speaker 1: So it's it's supposedly the mission that the same deav
Speaker 1: grew from disbandent. It took place in the early nineties
Speaker 1: somewhere in the Caribbean, and there are contradicted there three
Speaker 1: or four different versions of why they did the mission.
Speaker 1: The mission wasn't that, it wasn't in the there was,
Speaker 1: it wasn't tactically difficult, but there are three or four
Speaker 1: different the possibilities behind the kind of did So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to to find old school the good guys to
Speaker 1: speak with. I'm waiting to hear from a couple of
Speaker 1: sources and try to see why, what exactly took place
Speaker 1: and why. So Yeah, I'm really excited to read this.
Speaker 1: I mean, as you guys know, I'm a huge, huge
Speaker 1: fan of reading about or are doing stories on the
Speaker 1: unwritten chapters of Special Operations history, and I think this
Speaker 1: is one of those. You know, it's an operation that
Speaker 1: you if you go digging through the books, you'll find
Speaker 1: mentions of it, but no one's really elaborated on it
Speaker 1: or gone in depth on it like you're trying to
Speaker 1: do right now. Yeah. I mean I remember when I
Speaker 1: was younger before I joined up to read such books
Speaker 1: and stories and that's always intrigued my interest. So it's
Speaker 1: great to actually doing the the investigating. Now, have you
Speaker 1: spoke to any guys yet? Have you been successful in that? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: some some of them have come back, but uh, and
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to walk through. So I know people
Speaker 1: that we're in in the operation, or we're in a
Speaker 1: deaf group of people who were star rostros. This just
Speaker 1: reminded me of something. UM, I'll do this when I
Speaker 1: get home, but remind me just in case I forget.
Speaker 1: I know a guy who is an n SW historian, um,
Speaker 1: and I'll dig up his contact information. I'll introduce you
Speaker 1: to him, Okay, than man, Yeah, yeah, he will be
Speaker 1: able to He will know what you're talking about. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he'll have additional information or not,
Speaker 1: but he'll know what you're talking about. WHOA, That's that's
Speaker 1: great yeah. Yeah, I'll introduce you to him UM by email.
Speaker 1: But if I forget UM, just jog my memory and
Speaker 1: uh and I'll pull up his contact info. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do well. I'm looking forward to seeing this piece.
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds great and knowing that you're gonna
Speaker 1: be making even more contacts, this should be really cool.
Speaker 1: I know this audience are you know, total nerds for
Speaker 1: that stuff. They love hearing about, as you said, unwritten
Speaker 1: parts of special operations Stavros. Did you read that article,
Speaker 1: that Sean Nayler article that came out yesterday about the
Speaker 1: CIA operation in Cuba during the Cuban Missile crisis. No,
Speaker 1: I mean I does saw in the in the writers
Speaker 1: for the link. It's worth going to read. I'm jealous
Speaker 1: of of Sean Nayler right in that article. I wish
Speaker 1: I had written it because it's really cool. It's really
Speaker 1: good UM, and people should go give it give it
Speaker 1: a read. Um. It's about a CIA case officer UM
Speaker 1: who was a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy and
Speaker 1: he was working in the Miami station during the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifties guests into the early sixties, and he UM he
Speaker 1: ran a very successful network of spies inside Cuba, and
Speaker 1: they played a very instrumental role during the Cuban missile crisis,
Speaker 1: and his network of spies got eyes on the missile
Speaker 1: sites in Cuba, and that was what led us to
Speaker 1: fly the YouTube spy plane over Cuba, over that area
Speaker 1: to then get um final confirmation that those missile sites
Speaker 1: were there. So, I mean, this was a huge, huge
Speaker 1: deal from an intelligence and ultimately a global political standpoint. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a really cool article. Yeah, whoa, Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: like it's I love such stories. I mean, yeahs sat,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it kind of rewrites the history of
Speaker 1: the Cuban missile crisis because this, this ring of spies
Speaker 1: was not known previously. All we knew was there's a
Speaker 1: YouTube spy plane took the picture, blah blah blah. But
Speaker 1: the only reason why Kennedy allowed us to fly that
Speaker 1: YouTube spy plane over that site because he was basically
Speaker 1: against flying that the YouTube over Cuba, um because over
Speaker 1: fears that would be shot down by sam sites. The
Speaker 1: only reason why that flight went ahead was because we
Speaker 1: had human on the ground telling us that this stuff
Speaker 1: was there. And how did it? Naylor the the link
Speaker 1: reading between the lines a little bit. And I've seen
Speaker 1: stories like this in the past about m c I
Speaker 1: A figures um to me, and I can't speak for
Speaker 1: Mr Nailor of course, but I think that the family
Speaker 1: worked with Nail are very closely the family of this
Speaker 1: um CI A case officer, and they probably want their
Speaker 1: family member to be you know, known and recognized for
Speaker 1: what he did. UM. So I suspect that the family
Speaker 1: helped him out a lot and showed him where to look.
Speaker 1: I see years yeah, yeah, and uh. And the the
Speaker 1: guy his name was Hewitt. Uh. He was awarded the
Speaker 1: Intelligence Star UM after his death. They gave it to
Speaker 1: his widow. Um So it's cool. He deserves to be recognized.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's happening now. Mm hmm yeah, uh yeah.
Speaker 1: So these are the stories I'm working right now, aside
Speaker 1: from their news actor. Yeah, which you write a ton.
Speaker 1: I mean, if people go to the website, they click
Speaker 1: on your name the news rep dot Com, we'll see
Speaker 1: all of your work. Um. Last thing I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask about and I could. I don't know your involvement. Really,
Speaker 1: people are very excited about this new finn Rep financial
Speaker 1: report we're doing at the news Rep dot com Joseph
Speaker 1: talked about it. Joseph will fav of course talked about
Speaker 1: the last time he was on. Have you had any
Speaker 1: involvement in that, because I'm not sure all the guys involved. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's essentially me and John we alternate months during
Speaker 1: the the finger which is a very it's the best
Speaker 1: way to describe it would be financial intelligence. So we
Speaker 1: we don't give stock tips, it's not like that. Instead,
Speaker 1: we provide context. So we studied trends in the defense
Speaker 1: industry and we also compared it with trends in the military.
Speaker 1: For for example, if the Navy is looking for a
Speaker 1: new artificial intelligence systems for for its SIPs or planes,
Speaker 1: and we know of a company that does artificial intelligence
Speaker 1: and it has pretty building was the d D. Then
Speaker 1: we go investigate the company and uh provide a ship
Speaker 1: a brief study of the company and how it may
Speaker 1: potentially be up for grab potentially gain a contract with
Speaker 1: the Navy, for example. So it's actually we provide context
Speaker 1: for those who are interested in investing in some scompanies. Well,
Speaker 1: needless to say, I mean that's important information to know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So if you want to become a member, go to
Speaker 1: the finn Rep tab as. I talk about every show
Speaker 1: at the news rep dot com really looking forward. Especially
Speaker 1: that article on old school dev grew up as you
Speaker 1: were talking about UM, and now that Jack has another source,
Speaker 1: maybe that'll be expanded even more. UM. Anything you're promoted,
Speaker 1: I have promoting. I don't know if you have any
Speaker 1: social media you want to get out there or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Actually, no, UM, trying to stay away from
Speaker 1: some good I want to stay away from it too. Man,
Speaker 1: if I feel like if I didn't have this job,
Speaker 1: i'd be awful lot of it. I would be for sure.
Speaker 1: I have no interest in being a air quotes influence influencer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: staff rous, do you have to write a thesis paper
Speaker 1: for your degree? I I hope not to, Okay, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's unnecessarily I won't be an academic, So
Speaker 1: I didn't have to, Okay, I got you. Um, I
Speaker 1: just wondered because this deaf group stuff probably for for history.
Speaker 1: The history department probably wouldn't let you write about that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff because it's too recent actually speaking of
Speaker 1: uh such topics. So last here, I did the mandatory seminar.
Speaker 1: It's a year long course. So my final thesis, so
Speaker 1: I had to write a huge paper for one and
Speaker 1: he's in class. M HM was the strategic utility of
Speaker 1: so Uh. Now it's a no brainer. I mean conventional
Speaker 1: SO forces supports especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. But previously
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. So I went back and studied
Speaker 1: the mom They say, yes, you know man and the
Speaker 1: Rhodesian salt, the seal scouts, the light infantry, and the Redgion.
Speaker 1: I say yes, and I did a paper on that,
Speaker 1: and now it has been accepted by the West Point History. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's super cool. So I'm always trying to and probably
Speaker 1: I'll try to convert some parts of it into article
Speaker 1: pieces to publish on the side. Uh, I'm always trying to.
Speaker 1: When I think of paper topics for my class, I'm
Speaker 1: almost trying to do to do topics that could be
Speaker 1: rising an asking for the side. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Star
Speaker 1: wars man, you've been doing a great job. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. I mean some of these articles you're writing
Speaker 1: are like getting a lot of attraction, a lot of interest.
Speaker 1: I think Star Wars is currently like our type or
Speaker 1: top writer in terms of like getting hits. And I
Speaker 1: mean I know some of these stuff he's been writing
Speaker 1: lately has gotten a ton of traffic. Well it's it's
Speaker 1: a team effort. It may sound cornly, but one team,
Speaker 1: one five. That's a that's a good political answer. Stop ros,
Speaker 1: thank you. Okay, I have bragging, right, but that's about it. Well,
Speaker 1: next time we'll definitely do in studio when you could
Speaker 1: actually get in here. I actually was gonna if you
Speaker 1: were going to be in studio, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: bring a backpack because we've got some like Bob's Naturals.
Speaker 1: We can hook you up with some mug from some
Speaker 1: free books. We might have one or two more of these. Um.
Speaker 1: I actually us actually have a I have a copy
Speaker 1: of my book here that I brought in for you. Man,
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to be in studio. So
Speaker 1: the next time you make it over here, you let
Speaker 1: me know and you can come in and pick this
Speaker 1: bad boy up. Yeah, we've got we got a ton
Speaker 1: of copies of Brandon's last two books. So there's just
Speaker 1: a ton of free slag the next time you're here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. That's made it the incentive for coming and
Speaker 1: hang with us. I mean, it's it's weird because I'm
Speaker 1: one of those guys who's met pretty much everyone from
Speaker 1: the side of this. Yeah. Well, I mean you haven't
Speaker 1: met you yet. You can come in and take whatever
Speaker 1: you want, because we got let's see, we got Paul
Speaker 1: Shari's book here, Army of None. We got what else
Speaker 1: might you be interested in? One Green Beret Mark Giaconia's
Speaker 1: book that was really good. Jack Murphy Gray Matters Spladder
Speaker 1: my novel, but it's not a real Yeah, but you're
Speaker 1: you're a history dude. You need you need hardcore, real books,
Speaker 1: not not novels. Actually, this book from an upcoming guest
Speaker 1: to be up his alley right in front of you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, on Vietnam, on the on the men on
Speaker 1: the ground, Vietnam BOUCHI. Yeah, I'm a journalists. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to talk to this guy. I think there's gonna be
Speaker 1: an interesting book. Yeah, there was. I wonder if she's
Speaker 1: in here. Who's the name of that French journalist that
Speaker 1: jumped in with the paratroopers and Vietnam. I know you've
Speaker 1: seen those pictures on on the internet. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know start rust, I'm not aware outside, but
Speaker 1: are you referring did you jumping uh not with the
Speaker 1: French with the Americans. Oh, she jumped in. She jumped
Speaker 1: in with American paratroopers and Nam. She was like a
Speaker 1: five foot tall blonde, you know, with like two cameras
Speaker 1: around her neck. I'm sure he will know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll get into get into it with them. But
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, man, really appreciate and we'll do
Speaker 1: this again. Like I said, next time in studio. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having a day. Yeah any time. Thanks, talk to
Speaker 1: you soon. Take care all right, great having Starbars on
Speaker 1: for the first time. Hopefully next time in studio. Be
Speaker 1: sure to check out Create Club. We have different tiers
Speaker 1: of membership depending on how prepared you want to be,
Speaker 1: and gift options are available as well. Scott Whitner from
Speaker 1: the load out Room, Army Ranger, Drew Wallace and all
Speaker 1: those guys who've heard on the show. They're putting together
Speaker 1: custom products for this year, everything from sunglass cases to
Speaker 1: E d C Bags and other manly products. It's a
Speaker 1: club four men by men. You can check that all
Speaker 1: out at Create Club dot Us. Once again, that's Create
Speaker 1: Club dot Us. Also, as a reminder for those listening,
Speaker 1: now is the time to sign up for the spec
Speaker 1: Ops channel that's our channel that offers the most exclusive shows,
Speaker 1: documentaries and interviews covering the most exciting military content today.
Speaker 1: The spec Ops channel Premier Show Training Cell follows former
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Speaker 1: training in the country, everything from shooting schools, defensive driving,
Speaker 1: jungle and winter warfare, climbing and much more. Again, you
Speaker 1: can watch all that content by subscribing to the spec
Speaker 1: Ops channel at spec ops channel dot com and take
Speaker 1: advantage of a membership for only four nine a month
Speaker 1: that spec ops channel dot com. Sign up now and then.
Speaker 1: As I was just talking about with Stavros, the news
Speaker 1: Rep Financial Report has exclusive information that you can act
Speaker 1: on today to secure a brighter future for tomorrow. The
Speaker 1: news Rep Financial Report can help you discover new investment
Speaker 1: strategies and defense sector. Defense industry stocks can be a
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Speaker 1: Just go to the finn Rep tab at the top
Speaker 1: of the news rep dot com to sign up. That's
Speaker 1: finn Rep on the news rep dot com. It's as
Speaker 1: Stavros was talking about, really crucial information that you guys
Speaker 1: are gonna want to read, So check that out now
Speaker 1: the news rep dot com finn rep um and people
Speaker 1: are really loving that awesome week of shows here on
Speaker 1: time on target. We're gonna have more next week. It's funny.
Speaker 1: As I was as we had stab ro Us on,
Speaker 1: I got a d M on Instagram from Sean Parnell
Speaker 1: and he was like, hey, hey, you know you guys
Speaker 1: over at shot so we gotta hang but unfortunately we're not.
Speaker 1: But I saw Scott Winners over there having to blast
Speaker 1: Nick Betts. I saw pictures from the Grate Club event,
Speaker 1: which was called an Oasis for Villains at some ball
Speaker 1: or fucking mansion, which looked pretty cool. We have to
Speaker 1: have those guys on to talk about the show and
Speaker 1: the party and all that good stuff. Yeah, so maybe
Speaker 1: next week we could add that to what we have
Speaker 1: and and do a quick segment for minutes. I'm down.
Speaker 1: I'm always down to have those guys on. I saw
Speaker 1: pictures from the cry Precision party, which is always pretty
Speaker 1: crazy every year. Um, but you know, I'm not. It's
Speaker 1: weird because when I go on the floor there, Admittedly
Speaker 1: I'm not like the biggest gun enthusiast. I'm all for
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment. I just I'm not extremely knowledgeable about guns.
Speaker 1: So as I walk around on that floor for like
Speaker 1: five minutes, I feel like I've seen it all. And
Speaker 1: you know, now they've gone their multiple years, I really
Speaker 1: feel like I've seen it all. Dude, I want seven
Speaker 1: years that our and I mean it's definitely an experience. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're in this line of work at all,
Speaker 1: it's definitely something you to go to once and check
Speaker 1: it out. But the like four of that trade show
Speaker 1: is just exhausting. Um. The one thing that I that
Speaker 1: I do miss though to be fairs. Just like I said,
Speaker 1: how Sean Parnell is there. You're on the ground and
Speaker 1: and a lot of the guys we've seen on the show.
Speaker 1: They're all central. Everyone, I mean, everybody I know is
Speaker 1: there basically, yeah, you know so, and I mean you
Speaker 1: like link up with old army buddies and and guys
Speaker 1: who haven't seen in like ten years. And that's really cool. Um,
Speaker 1: But the show itself I could kind of care less
Speaker 1: about at this point. Yeah. No, I I agree, to
Speaker 1: be honest, But if you are a huge gun guy,
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool to see, oh for sure. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: gun enthusiasts you should definitely go at least once. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I mean, do you consider yourself a gun enthusiast
Speaker 1: because you're a sniper? You know, But it's it's not
Speaker 1: like it was a weapon, sergeant. I mean, I guess.
Speaker 1: I I guess I still am in a sense, but
Speaker 1: because you're stremely knowledgeable, but it's not a good part
Speaker 1: of your life. Yeah, I mean, I got I've said
Speaker 1: in the past like it's something I kind of miss
Speaker 1: because I really like shooting, um, but it's also like
Speaker 1: something I've kind of put behind me. I still like
Speaker 1: to go out and shoot guns when I have the chance,
Speaker 1: but I used to like eat, sleep, and breathe weapons,
Speaker 1: you know, and that kind of part of my life
Speaker 1: is kind of behind me now, Like it's not like
Speaker 1: something I don't I don't sit in my bed reading
Speaker 1: books about a K forty seven's anymore like I used to. Yeah, Hey,
Speaker 1: well you know, okay, knock you if you do. I
Speaker 1: think some of the guys that this scot Winner is
Speaker 1: probably in that kind. If that's your profession and that's
Speaker 1: what you do, I mean, you learn everything you possibly
Speaker 1: can about it, right yeah, um, all right man. We'll
Speaker 1: hope you guys have enjoyed great having stab ros Son.
Speaker 1: We're gonna wrap this up and then in a couple
Speaker 1: of hours I'll be recording a new Power of Thought
Speaker 1: podcast if you want to check that out. As always,
Speaker 1: follow us at Software Radio. And I still have all
Speaker 1: my books and t m s and manuals on. So
Speaker 1: if you ever want to like call me up and
Speaker 1: we can wrap about gun Nerds stuff. I'm still down
Speaker 1: for that. Awesome. I mean, I think we should do
Speaker 1: a show on it. It's been a while since we've
Speaker 1: done a show unlike gun Nerds stuff. I think we
Speaker 1: had Scott Whittner on. You know, you know what, I
Speaker 1: really like talking to people who have like a lot
Speaker 1: of experience in the field and have had to come
Speaker 1: up with like improvised solutions, like fixing guns in the
Speaker 1: in like combat situations, and just like weird improvised stuff
Speaker 1: that is not in the manual. What about guys who
Speaker 1: create the you know, guns out of all different types
Speaker 1: of weird ship when they're in prison. I don't learn
Speaker 1: about that. Oh yeah, there's that one guy who escaped
Speaker 1: prison because he created a paper machee clock and it
Speaker 1: looked exactly like a real glock. I mean, obviously he
Speaker 1: didn't shoot, but it looked exactly was like a scale
Speaker 1: replica of a glock pistol, and he like held it
Speaker 1: to a guard's head and he's like, let me out, motherfucker.
Speaker 1: But I believe people have created stuff that shoots zip guns,
Speaker 1: like a little pipe with some black patter. I find
Speaker 1: that ship pretty interesting. I talked to a guy. He
Speaker 1: was an Air Force guy with an O D A
Speaker 1: and uh. I think he was in Kosovo or Bosnia
Speaker 1: in the nineties, late nineties, and he said a guy
Speaker 1: jumped out from behind a building around a corner with
Speaker 1: a zip gun. And a zip gun is just a
Speaker 1: pipe with like a ball bearing looted into it with
Speaker 1: some black powder and like lights this thing off. He
Speaker 1: goes boom, points right at him and he's like, bro
Speaker 1: to this day, I could not tell you where the
Speaker 1: bullet went. If there was a bull He's like, I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you it just went. And he's like everyone
Speaker 1: just like stood there for a second looking at this guy,
Speaker 1: like what the fund just happened? And then we all
Speaker 1: just brought up our guns and just hosed them down.
Speaker 1: Crazy ship man. Yeah, all right, Well that about wraps it, Uh,
Speaker 1: Free b K on Twitter, b K. I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: every time you try to talk to me about politics,
Speaker 1: it almost gives me a migraine. But you are one
Speaker 1: of our favorite Twitter personalities. Nonetheless, we enjoy your rants.
Speaker 1: Uh and hopefully you know the ship libs let you
Speaker 1: out of prison. Maybe I'll have to talk about it
Speaker 1: all right, have a great weekend, guys. You've been listening
Speaker 1: to self Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 1: Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at self rep Radio.