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Following on from the episode “how to hijack a ship” in Season 1 of this show, in this episode we sit down with Rob Phayre. Rob was a director of a crisis management consultancy based in East Africa during the peak of Somali Piracy. He worked on more than 40 kidnap for ransom cases with the majority being the release of vessels and crew kidnapped by pirates. He spent more than 18 years living in Africa following a military career as a helicopter pilot. Rob currently works for a global energy company, and in his spare time is an author of military thrillers, including "The Ransom Drop", "Jungle Heist", and "The Insurgency".If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Please also consider supporting our work via a Patreon subscription (getting you access to early releases and other perks), or by tipping us on Ko-fi. While the topics we discuss here are often shrouded in secrecy and security classifications, we really hope you’ll tell your friends about us!

In this episode, we speak to Gabriel Bourdon-Fattal, Director of Programmes at the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers, on how to silence and defend whistleblowers across the globe.Gabriel Bourdon-Fattal is the Director of Programmes at the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa and co-director of Climate Whistleblowers. Gabriel is an experienced human rights jurist and campaigner. Among others, Gabriel led an organisation against the deportation of migrant workers’ children and worked on environmental justice issues in the Middle East. Gabriel has an LL.B from the University of Haifa and a Master in African Legal Studies from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Gabriel is an alumnus of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin and of the Our Generation Speaks Fellowship in Boston.If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Please also consider supporting our work via a Patreon subscription (getting you access to early releases and other perks), or by tipping us on Ko-fi. While the topics we discuss here are often shrouded in secrecy and security classifications, we really hope you’ll tell your friends about us!

In this episode, we speak to the pseudonymous F. X. Regan about the ins and outs of bank robberies. The pseudonymous F.X. Regan was a street police officer in a major metropolitan police department, a SWAT team member, and is a retired FBI agent. After his 33 year career in law enforcement, he served as VP and COO for security at two large companies. In addition to writing full-time, he is a licensed private investigator. Regan is writing in three fiction series including the AREA 51: Project Series, The Detective Kiki Diaz Thriller series, and the CJ Hawk - FBI Thriller series. You can follow all of his work at www.fxregan.com.If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Please also consider supporting our work via a Patreon subscription (getting you access to early releases and other perks), or by tipping us on Ko-fi. While the topics we discuss here are often shrouded in secrecy and security classifications, we really hope you’ll tell your friends about us!

In this episode, we speak to Colonel Olivier Mas about his experience as a clandestine officer for France's DGSE, the work that goes into creating backstories, and the high stakes world of covert Human Intelligence. A graduate of the École de Guerre, Colonel Mas worked for 15 years at the DGSE. His first years were spent in service to a special unit dedicated to undercover operations. It was here that he became adept at establishing a false identity or “legend” in French, to carry out operations around the world. Next, Mr. Mas joined the Intelligence Directorate, where he was successively responsible for counter-terrorism activities and political intelligence as well as counter-espionage. Twice, he acted as head of station in sensitive areas overseas and/or high-security environments. Mr Mas left active service in the summer of 2017 to launch a YouTube channel called « Talks with a Spy » (which now boasts 174,000 subscribers). He is the author of two books on the world of intelligence: Profession : Espion (Profession: Spy) from the publishing house Les Éditions Hoëbeke, and J’étais un autre et vous ne le saviez pas (I was someone else and you didn’t know it) from the publishing house Les Éditions de l’Observatoire. Mr. Mas is an expert lecturer and regular speaker for both private companies (Air France, Vinci, Matra, Rothschild group, etc) and for the media. His latest project — a novel entitled Le Walk-In (The Walk-In) — will be published by the publishing house Les Éditions Flammarion in October 2024.If you like this show, don’t forget to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Please also consider supporting our work via a Patreon subscription (getting you access to early releases and other perks), or by tipping us on Ko-fi. While the topics we discuss here are often shrouded in secrecy and security classifications, we really hope you’ll tell your friends about us!