Welcome to the Hostile Zone. Use your voice, somebody hears you. Welcome to the Hostile Zone. You're with the infamous and dangerous and always in your face, calling a spade a spade, pulling back that curtain on government, waste, fraud, abuse, and police misconduct. Welcome to the Hostile Zone. I am your humble correspondent and host, Eric G. Andrew Sinati, Eric A. Sinati, Big A, Eric Sinati. Miss Bianca is not here today, again, still working on her new tracks. Good luck to her, but she has contributed songs for the evening. So welcome again to the show. If you are watching on the ticker, if you're watching on your TV screen, on your cable network, and if you don't have the show, call your cable provider and demand it. Or go on Roku or the Fire app or the Apple app. The shows are available there as well. If you're watching on the ticker is all the contact. If you are listening on iHeartRadio or one of the thousands of channels that we're on, AM and FM, etc., then you can reach us at eric.sonati at bbstalkradio.com eric.sonati at bbstalkradio.com or the hostile zone at bbstalkradio.com the hostile zone at bbstalkradio.com and always you can get me at eric at eric andrewsonati.com welcome to the show folks again I always I say thank you thank you thank you because without you folks this show is not on we're not getting sponsors we're not here and yet it's been a year and we are now on seven days a week multiple channels I mean in the thousands I don't even know I think we picked up another country as I received an email we were fifty four countries but I believe we had fifty five I don't want to say it yet but I'm pretty sure because I saw the email but it's because of you folks I your humble correspondent I thank you for you paying for paying homage to my show and taking one hour out of your time That's very busy, I'm sure, because you have your own personal lives and things that are going on, and you're spending the hour with me because you know you're getting good quality commentary and content. Now, with that, I want to introduce a new member of our staff, but also my executive producer, Carrie. Shout out. Say hi to the crowd. Good evening, everybody. How's your night, Carrie? It's been awesome. Isn't it fun working with me? It's great. Right? All right. So Carrie handles everything behind the scenes. So when I have a meltdown due to cameras, we all yell at Carrie. I'm kidding, Carrie. I'm kidding. Anyway, thank you for your support, Carrie. You're wonderful. We appreciate you. Thank you. In the studio, we have a new member that has come on from somewhere else. We'll talk a little bit. You don't have to dip your face in. You can just feel there. His name is Tomas. Hello. How's everyone doing? How are you doing, Tomas? Are you nice and clear? Because I can't tell. You've got to get close to that mic there. Oh, okay. I'm sorry about that. Hello there. My name is Tomas. How's everybody doing? So tell me, Tomas. You've got thirty seconds. Tell us who you are and how you're going to contribute to this show and how you're going to keep Carrie and myself and the rest of the team happy. My name is Tomas from Boston, Massachusetts, and- Beantown, huh? Hell yeah. All right. I bring a lot of different kinds of energy. You do. He does. I definitely see points in conversation that need to be addressed. Nice. Very good. I think I can. Yeah. We want you to be involved. Jump in. Feel comfortable, you know, and pay attention. You're obviously working with Carrie in the background, too, but I want you to be part of the show. Welcome to the show, Tomas. Thank you. All right. Okay, folks. So opening monologue. welcome back to another exciting episode of the hostile zone where I bring you stories from the front lines from the far lines from behind the lines or the lines that you don't even know exist yes the lines you don't even know exist that's what we do on this show we pull back that curtain and show you what's going on and then we let you make a decision because it's your government your tax dollars they work for you. So you make the decision on this show. I don't tell you what my opinion is. I want to talk really serious opinion about it, but I lay out the facts, give you what the information is. I try my best to site. Now that we have Tomas in studio, um, and Angelo is not good at this stuff. You'll be fact checking me as I go on some statistics, et cetera, Tomas. All right. So this week, it's a big week. The IC, the intelligence community, for the potentially devastating terrorist attack on American soil, folks. Let me just reiterate that. It's in my notes, but I'm going to repeat this so we get this very clear and everybody understands. There's no reason for alarm here. But this is something that we should be thinking about, especially if you listen to other shows and we're talking about the poorest border on the south part of the United States. People are coming in and out of our country. So here's a thought, food for thought. The intelligence community was this close We were almost out. And if you're watching, I'm holding like a little quarter inch in my fingers. That close to a terror attack on United States soil. And that is... Firstly, hands down, thank you to the IC, the intelligence community. Thank you, CIA. Thank you, NSA. Thank you, DIA and other affiliated and non-affiliated agencies and et cetera. Thank everybody in that. I understand FBI had a play in this as well, but the real players in this particular case were CIA. the intelligence community, mainly those other agencies I named. If you watched last week, we've been following up on that. And if you notice, I mentioned when they were talking about the Chinese spy a couple of days ago. I found it very interesting that the cyber crimes and counterintelligence unit was involved in that raid that that involved in that case in New York State. but that now with this new information here and this story that we're covering today, that kind of now explains the whole, the whole bigger process. The FBI often gets reports of domestic disruptions. But, and this is really, honestly, having experience in these areas, there is a daily report and it is continuing updates during the day based on what you do inside of the ICD intelligence community. And that includes military, MI, military intelligence and civilian, et cetera. So everybody is compartmentalized. So not everybody knows what the other person is doing. However, everybody does get a I'm not going to name what the documents call, but it's documents that are given out based on your classification of security clearance. And that updates all of the threats so that they do get all kinds of nonsense on a daily basis. They can't possibly follow up on everything. And some of them, you've got to assume are are nonsense, but Are they really not? And that is the question. We're going to take a short break and we're going to come back and talk about what really went down here and how we as Americans need to stay vigilant. Don't go anywhere. Don't make me come looking for you. Ever thought about turning your spare change into serious investments? Let me introduce you to Acorns. This app makes investing as simple as one easy swipe of your credit or debit card. With Acorns, every purchase you make rounds up and invest the difference. Watch your future grow one swipe at a time. Start small, dream big. With Acorns, every bit adds up to something significant. Download Acorns today, acorns.com forward slash share, or use your smartphone camera and scan the QR code on the screen, or enter my referral code, fifty six X J Q P C. Again, referral code fifty six X J Q P C and get five dollars for free compliments of me to start investing today just by downloading the app. Download Acorns now. I'm Eric A. Sonati, the host of the syndicated radio TV talk show, The Hostile Zone, right here on iHeartRadio. Welcome back. I always appreciate when you stick through our sponsors commercial and you come back for the content. So I appreciate it. I really do mean that. I can't express it enough. So we were talking about the reports that come in on a daily basis. I mean, twenty four hours a day if you think about just the stupidness that goes on in every small little town you know the nonsense phone calls that come into the police department even if it's a two police officer town and as five hundred people live there they probably still get ten fifteen calls a night of garbage loud dogs barking all kinds of nonsense so imagine on that's a finite level bring that to a macro where we're talking intelligence community, FBI, et cetera, other agencies, they're receiving triple those numbers because their jurisdiction is the entire United States. So keep that in mind. Like if you look at your local paper, you ever look at your local paper, Tomas, and they have like the police blotter and they tell you all the things that happened during the week and you read all the stupid calls they did? absolutely man yeah so like imagine like and you see the nonsense in your little local paper um of stuff and you're like wow so then if you think of something like this how many reports they're getting daily it's a lot so um but we're going to shift our focus just a hair we're going to be discussing the more broader intelligence apparatus the operatives the analysts the field agents and those that work behind the scenes there are many and they are the shadow warriors the shadow heroes here uh heroes and they are the people that are putting it all out there for you and for me and for this flag and for this document right here the u.s constitution they're putting it all out there for you for all of that and the end of the day they could end up just being a mark on a wall a gravestone in arlington national cemetery that does not say where they were when they died what they've done they may never even be recognized for working for specific agencies they are in the in the industry silent professionals silent professionals that are not are not there they work tirelessly From the analyst to the field agent, to an operator, to an operative, to a spy, if you want to call it like that, to a cyber hacker, to somebody that is involved in behavioral analysis, human intelligence gathering, understanding people, looking at people watching and sitting in a place and looking around and figuring out everything about everybody. to ensure the safety of the United States and but for these individuals that do this for us they receive no medals publicly they receive no credit in the papers you don't see them on the front page they're not getting a ticker tape parade but they're there and that is what we're going to focus on today these professionals alongside non-affiliated operatives managed through handlers and other parties meaning when I say these professionals then you have non-affiliated operatives these are people that the that the government officially doesn't recognize and they handle certain things so they their their existence is protected And their cover is protected. But they are in grave danger and in grave risk a lot of times because of the intertwinings of all the different agencies they have to deal with and maintaining their cover. A lot of times in a job that's not actually the job that they do. That's what we call their forward-facing job. So you could be lined up to be anything. And they have to go through that training for that position. So if they're going to become a, I don't know, let's say, I can think of a job, a flight attendant, I'd say, or anything, just any stupid job. Not that it's a stupid job, but I just mean a job. They have to learn that job and be there doing that job, but that's not really their job. Their job is gathering intelligence and providing information through their handler to get back to the United States, wherever they are to keep us safe. And clearly this system works because we have not had a nine, eleven like this. And they try again and again and again and got very close, but it didn't happen. So We have to be careful because we cannot take a hand back. It's not a time to step back. It's the time to be ever vigilant, ever vigilant and no procrastination you must be always prepared for anything and this is just in life you know be prepared with you know food water etc anything could happen look at how many times at&t has gone down how many times has nine one one gone down how many times has tv uh gone out how many times this cell phone company I mean a lot of this has happened in a very short period of time Now one can speculate, and again, we're just speculating here. One can speculate that those might be tests to see how the American people respond. meaning the actual citizens, the populace. How do we respond as in citizens? John Q. Public, I guess you could say. How does John Q. Public respond to not having nine one one for the day or not having cell phone access or no TV or no water, no power, whatever it might be, because all of these things have been happening in separate spots and even happened in Boston. Thomas, they lost nine one one and whatever. So this is happening in different. And if you look at all of the cities, folks, where this is happening. These are major locations. And what do we look for? What does a terrorist look for? Our infrastructure. Our infrastructure is our national power grid, our fresh water supply, our filtration, our communications, our telecommunications, our landline communications, old school phone lines. Old school DSL lines that run underneath the ocean that provide connecting internet from country to country. They all come in through various points of entry. I know one spot, the main lines come into New Jersey. and they go into a location where then they can you know figure out what what internet is going where um so our infrastructure is key so tonight we're gonna step inside and take you inside what it might be like to be inside of an operation so with that the relevant famous quote of the day the function of intelligence is not only to provide security but to provide democracy The function of intelligence is not only to provide security, but to protect democracy. Kind of a double-edged sword. That was Leon Panetta, intelligence director. Interestingly enough, that's kind of a double-edged sword, because this quote really opens up a lot of thought for me. Intelligence is, yes, security. When you have good intel, or information for John Q. Public. When you have good information, if you're in college and you're studying for an exam, you've prepared, you know what the material is on the exam. When you show up to school, whether they do the pop quiz on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, either way, if you have read the information and are up to date with the information that your professor or teacher provided you, then you should be prepared for that pop quiz at any time during the week. You shouldn't be cramming the last minute. That's what this quote says to me. I want to break it down a little bit. So yes, it provides security. Yes, you need to have that information, that intel to provide actionable information, intelligence to the on the ground operators and analysts and other people, handlers, case agents, et cetera. But the second half of his quote but to protect democracy. That is where I call you to ponder and I ask you folks out there what your thoughts are. Basically, Intelligence is providing democracy. This is some of the same intelligence where Edward Snowden mentioned and discussed the former program PRISM, which now was a highly classified program but has now been released. And intelligence was literally snatching grab data, all kinds of snatching grabs. Now, in a country like ours, we have this beautiful document I'm going to hold here again. There's one on the wall behind me. There's one in the book right here. We have the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution says you have the right to be protected from unlawful search and seizure of your person's papers, property, and things. Papers and property and things include your cell phones and all of your data and your electronics today. So even though they wrote papers back in the day, papers now would be your cell phone data. So I'm not having anything negative against Leon Panetta. I'm not trying to do an on-air argument with Mr. Panetta. I'm just merely stating that sometimes too much intelligence affects democracy. That's the Sonati quote. Sometimes too much intelligence can affect democracy. Because when the people are afraid of those who are looking for intelligence, do you truly have a democracy? Ponder that thought. We're going to take commercial. Hey, it's Eric Asinati, host of two syndicated talk shows on iHeartRadio. When I need a sharp look, I head to Quick Cuts. Susan, the owner, always nails it perfect every time. Mention Eric sent you, she'll give you a special deal. call nine one zero three seven one five five one zero to book now welcome back welcome back as always thank you for sticking through the commercial we really count on our sponsors and commercials and we appreciate that you stick through and come through and we appreciate our sponsors um now I just want to go back one second I was just analyzing leon panetta's quote here I'm not having any opinion on what he meant I don't know the context behind this sentence because a lot of times you can extrapolate a sentence from a page and it means something else but then if you look at the rest of the page it really has absolutely nothing to do with that so I don't know the context in which this statement the true context behind it so I'm not calling or passing judgment I'm just saying we do know that big brother needs a big brother and another big brother and a father making sure that somebody's always watching so that the person in the level next to them to the right of them above them is not violating their oath at the end of the day we all have taken a note I do solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign domestic etc that that that um you take that oath so Who's watching to make sure that somebody is not compromised or it just didn't get too far? And that's kind of what Edward Snowden and the WikiLeaks thing put out years back, that it was just getting out of control. So I just wanted to put that that preface in there that the quote from Leon Panetta was good. And I just gave my opinion of the democracy section. but the purpose of the quote the quote underlines the role of intelligence operatives in maintaining both security and the core values of a country now that's very true that is very true I'm going to repeat that this quote underlines the role of intelligence operators and this includes all of the people in the ic the intelligence community at whatever position they do, whether it be affiliated, non-affiliated, operational, non-operational, analyst, whatever it might be, a handler, whoever you might be, a contractor, et cetera. But you must maintain the core values. You must maintain what the founding fathers and the very fabric that makes the United States as great as it is, is this document on the wall and the one in the book here the constitution that is our core values and you have to adhere to that safety does have a paramount and what we do outside the united states to bad actors and in uh foreign states that are adversaries they might be looking to do harm to america americans american infrastructure it's a different ball game folks the constitution does not apply in russia it does not apply in china it doesn't apply in tehran doesn't apply in those places so these people can do what they need to do and our core values are still okay as long as they're not doing this inside of the confines of our nation to an american citizen that's where the mix-up gets kind of hazy because at what point are you now looking at too much information and some of that you're actually spying on americans then you would need a warrant which they've created a secret court for that and we'll discuss that secret court in a few minutes the secret court that most of you probably don't know exists and the ones that do will say oh there he is I know about it so the the key is It is a delicate balance, truly a delicate balance on a daily basis. And if you are on the front line at whatever level and you get these actionable reports, these actionable intelligence, or you are one of the parties involved in either the transfer of intelligence through a handler to a case agent back to the United States or wherever it might be to a consulate or wherever or a black site or a know a station chief or whatever then you have to look at all of the things that are happening every day and it's a very difficult job because they have to look at the at the micro everything and the macro very difficult think about the amount of weight on somebody's shoulders one little mistake and that plot that was going to happen here on our soil would have happened so that's good Bravo Zulu to the intelligence community. Job well done. I salute you. So talking points. The intelligence community's role in preventing the attack was paramount. This week, operatives from multiple agencies within the intelligence community, including CIA and NSA, intercepted communications that revealed a terrorist plot aimed at disrupting key United States infrastructure. Okay? You're hearing it right here, folks. I'm going to say that again. This week, operatives from a multitude of agencies in the intelligence community, including CIA and NSA and other agencies, whether named or unnamed, intercepted communications that revealed an actionable, meaning credible, actionable plot to disrupt the United States on our soil to hurt our infrastructure. Intelligence agencies use advanced surveillance tools. And what I said before, human intelligence. That is tradecraft in itself. That is being able to go into a public place, change your look, and change an accent, change your complete look and go from one thing to the next, to the next, and be able to merge in and gather human intelligence by your one-on-one interactions with the people that they're meeting with and that they're seeing in their forward facing position, right? Whatever job they might be, could be a bartender. That's their forward facing position, but they're bartending at a place that a lot of people who are anti-American hang out. Right? So yes, they have to know how to make drinks. So they have to be a bartender because that would not help them in their position of uncovering intelligence to keep you and I safe. So they would have to know how to be a bartender so they can go and do that. They would know if they were a firefighter in a town. let's say close to New York, and they wanted to be monitoring stuff. Their forward facing position, they would have to go to the fire academy and be hired as a firefighter. And that would be their forward facing job. But their real underlying position is providing actionable human intelligence. And you will see they'll bounce from position to position and position, et cetera. So human intelligence is key because you're talking about sitting in a place with people of various cultures and languages and all kinds of stuff. And being able to get into that crowd, make friends and be there good enough, and then actually understand what it is you're seeing. And if it's a new culture, if you're doing this in a like if you're going to London or whatever, it's not going to be too different for the United States. But if you went and you were operating in, let's say, Pakistan, Karachi, something like that, Islamabad. Those are key names if you remember those. Kenya, the Horn of Africa, these places, even in like Turkey and other places. I mean, wherever anybody might be. I'm not specifically saying anybody's anywhere. I'm just saying. Those are cultures extremely different from what we know here in the United States. So the operative that's going to be providing human intelligence needs to a fit into that into that um that that community they need to to uh be like the melting pot they need to assimilate to that community and become one with that community build trust they have to do their forward-facing job and they actually have to know the job if anybody saw the hollywood movie argo did you see the movie argo um tomas argo that we got in my heart I believe I've seen that in middle school. Argo was the movie where it was real. It was a CIA operation to get the hostages out of Iran. And they created, Hollywood created a fake movie. And they went over there and they created, everybody had a forward-facing job. A producer, a host, on-air talent, all these positions. And they had IDs, phone numbers, business cards, the whole works. and they all were working there shooting the show, but they really were rescuing American hostages from Iran. Watch the movie Argo, folks. If you did not see one, that's a true CIA operation. It occurred. in nineteen seventy nine right and the hostages were released right when reagan took the oath actually when ronald reagan took the oath of presidency but they used hollywood there was an office set up in hollywood that a phone rang and somebody was there to ring answer it twenty four hours a day to validate that these people they had to go through with passports that were made obviously not real or maybe made from that other countries You know, there's a lot. Watch the movie. You'll learn a lot from that movie. Yes, there's a lot of drama and extra added to it to make it fun. But think about what it was like for those operatives to do that mission during that time. The amount of heat on these people. How they had been caught operating inside of Iran. to rescue our hostages. Think about that. That is human intelligence. They had their forward facing job. Somebody was a cameraman and they had the film footage and actually Iranians looked at the footage to see that they were filming. So they actually had the film scenes and actually make it look legit. with actors and all this stuff. Watch the movie. It's really a great movie. It'll really blow your mind because nothing is as it seems, folks. Nothing is as it seems, and the best thing that happens is right in front of your eyes, and you don't see it happen. When somebody's looking around and they're casing a joint, you see them. They're caught. What's done is done right in front of people's eyes, and they never see it because they just assume it couldn't have possibly happened. I didn't see that. That guy didn't do that. That woman didn't do that. That is tradecraft. And that is why we are safe today. So these individuals provided crucial data, vital data, that literally put a stop to a potential devastating attack on our soil and our infrastructure. And it's only the beginning. They're not gonna try one time. We know this. And you know, I'm gonna say it and you may not like it. It's not if, it's when. Let's get real. Everything is when. You know, like everything's when, let's be real. Everything at some point could happen. Everybody is going to die. That's just life, right? And somebody is going to be born every day. People have a hate towards America. They are trying every day, every possible way to attack, disrupt, and hurt us. Now, also, let me define terrorism for you, okay? Let me give you a quick definition. On that note, actually, I'm going to give you a definition after this break. Don't go anywhere. At the Ram Ram Law Firm, we understand the importance of your constitutional rights. We truly care that we must get a client their desired result. If your freedom is compromised in any way, you call us. We do immigration, state and federal criminal defense, personal injury, bankruptcy, DWIs, family law, real estate law. We want you. to be confident in our ability to represent you. Welcome back, folks. Welcome back to another exciting section of the Hostile Zone. Your humble correspondent, Eric A. Sinati, here to tell you what it is, a fact of fact, calling a spade a spade. So before we went on a commercial break, I was about to give you a definition of terrorism. This might be a different definition than you would be thinking in your head. This might not be what you're going to see it as, but I want you to see and hear, if you're listening on iHeart in your car or wherever, I want you to think about this. I want you to marinate and internalize what I'm going to say, okay? Because this is crucial, crucial. The act of terrorism is not just let's kill Americans and let's destroy the infrastructure. Let's knock out satellite communications. Let's knock out telecommunications. Yeah, that is a part of it. When they blow something up, yes, that's part of it. People die. That's inevitable. But the real hit, it's kind of like It's a double puncher, okay? The first punch is the actual detonation of whatever it is they're going to do. And now it could be cyber shutting down our infrastructure. They don't even need to blow anything up. But the first part of terrorism is an act. An act with malice intent to do something against a nation, a group, or whatever. The second part of that, folks, is what I want you to encompass your ears and hear this. It's not the act of what they've done that is the true terror. It is the terror in the hearts and minds of our children, the hearts and minds of our citizens, the hearts and minds of those that are our allies around the world, our people here. that is the terror when a child goes to bed afraid think about anybody that grew up for nine eleven I was a nine eleven responder changed my life forever forever no turning back from that day how about somebody that was younger and was in school there is nobody out there that cannot tell me can you tell me right now tomas where were you on nine eleven You got to lean into the... I was in gym class. We were sitting... Describe the scene. How detailed can you give to the scene? I want to prove a point. We were about to... We were drinking from the bubbler, I remember, and I was going into the auditorium. We were going to start our laps for jogging, athletics, and the teacher came over and stopped us from... starting gym class, essentially. So that's very detailed. Now, can you name any other day in high school that detailed that you actually know, like what you were doing specifically and what you're about to do? Not really. No, not like that. Yeah. So that means it's etched in your brain for life. That's terror. So think about children that have nightmares over that. soldiers and operatives that have post-traumatic stress disorder which I don't like to call it disorder post-traumatic stress syndrome because it's not a disorder they weren't broken they were broken by somebody but for their actions you weren't broken they broke for you remember that okay so I want I'm glad that you we went with that section here because that is the real terror part when they took down our towers on nine eleven thousands of people were killed. And several people afterwards are having health conditions, responders and people that were there have health conditions that have to be dealt with, that are still dying from all kinds of cancers and disease and stuff that was, you know, toxic fumes they breathed in. But the point is that thousands of people died on that day. So that was a terrible incident. Hands down, devastating incident. Should have never happened. A catastrophic failure of our intelligence community, of all the agencies. Catastrophic failure. Lack of communication. That could be a whole episode another day on why that actually happened. if you actually have time and you want to read thousands and thousands of pages you should read the nine eleven report I did it's not worth it really you want to go to sleep and you don't have any sleeping pills thomas get yourself a copy of the nine eleven commission report and just start reading once you get through paragraph two you're sleeping you don't need a xanax or an ambient you're good to go so so they that came those towers came down thousands of people died but think about how america has changed in all the years past that we no longer have the same freedoms at the airport that we do. Right. We hold the Department of Homeland Security. Tom Ridge was the first secretary of of he was a former governor. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to head be the secretary of a new department. the Department of Homeland Security that did not exist before nine eleven. Most people don't know that there was no Department of Homeland Security. You had your other agencies. There was nobody actually worrying about security because we were kind of dumbfounded and thinking nobody would do this. So it created a department, which then created the government takeover of security in the airports. When you used to go to the airport, it was a private security guy, barely wanted you. You all know how we got on an airplane before nine eleven. And, you know, now that you take your boots off, your shoes off, your belt off your laptop, you're standing on your hands in air spinning around. They're doing it. And that is terror. That's terror. It cost us trillions of dollars. in just the creation of these departments. Cause then Homeland Security, then you got TSA, right? The transportation safety. So those are your agents that are out there, you know, they got the gold badges and you know, they're there when you get to go on to get into the airplane, when you get to a certain point in the airport. All this costs trillions of dollars. And that is not including military conflict that we've been involved in for more than twenty years. Most recently, we pulled out of Afghanistan in a hideous, hideous way. That's a whole other conversation for another day. That video alone watching of the airplane, of US military plane leaving Afghanistan and people running to climb on the plane, these were people that were allies of the United States, people that helped the United States to form democracy for those own people, and they were left behind. We left trillions of dollars of equipment in Afghanistan that we know now is being used against us. Fact. That equipment was left behind, beautiful equipment, Armored vehicles, weapons, all kinds of things were left. Literally, individual military members were told to leave their gear behind. Body armor was left. I mean, literally, personal items were left because they could not fit it on the plane and they wanted out of Afghanistan that fast. That is a catastrophic failure in my book. But bringing us back into the point where That was terrorism. That is what I wanted you to hone in on your head and your ears if you're listening and if you're watching. It's not just the buildings that fell. It's how your life, my life, and our children's lives are forever changed in this country. The certain freedoms and protections we had before nine eleven, we no longer have. And that's just a simple fact. And I guess you got to weigh the options, security or privacy. I don't like to say that because I have constitution all the way, but also I've seen the dirty grip of what goes on in the world. And if you knew a quarter of the things, if you knew one percent of what goes on around the world and what threats we face on a daily basis, twenty four hours a day. then you might get jaded a little bit. And that's how I think we ended up down the road where Edward Snowden released the PRISM project. He whistle blew on that because I think everybody was like, safety, safety, safety. And we started falling down that because we saw in person what was going on on the ground. We were reading actionable data. We were hearing, listening, analyzing. knowing what was going on so somebody had to juggle that in their head where does the constitution start and where does it end now historically outside the confines of the united states and if not a citizen then it's not an issue but there are a whole bunch of policies with the united nations and other stuff which we're not going to get into but wanted you to understand that definition of terrorism I hope that that cemented or lamented and you thought about it because nobody's life has ever been the same and had this attack occurred and it was close very close this one and um if this had occurred all life would for again forever change This is why I call on this show all the time. We need to unify. We're Americans. I don't care what pronoun you use. I don't care what color you are, what religion you are. If you are here in this country and you truly love this country, you love the freedoms that we provide in this country, then we need to look past the other nonsense. This woke thing, we need to be woke about what's going on around us. need to be woke that people are crossing the border every day of the southern border and they're chinese men of military age there are other countries crossing the border of military age not accompanied with children or some are showing up with children and a woman that they allege to be the wife and then twenty minutes later They don't see them. They were fake family. This is happening daily. Pay attention, folks. You got to pay attention. So central to this operation was the role of non-affiliated operators, those who aren't directly connected to any intelligence agency but work under the guidance of a handler while they're out there gathering the operator, non-affiliated operators out there gathering intelligence. If you saw the movie, The Recruit, that's another good movie. You'll understand what they mean by non-affiliated. These are individuals that are, they don't exist, but they are getting actionable data, passing it through a handler, through an analyst. It gets vetted to ensure that it's actionable and it's usable and how credible it is. Think about how finite of a mistake could change everything. So these operators, these non-affiliated operators, if they are caught in foreign countries, will be killed. And nobody will be going to rescue them. They know that. They've taken that oath and they've taken that position that this is the choice that they've made with their life. They know that they cannot verify a lot of stuff in their life. This is who they are and we need to pay homage to them. They are the shadow heroes that are in the shadows daily keeping everybody safe. They are the silent professionals. These operators infiltrated networks that the United States agents could not access directly. meaning actual case agents and other direct members of the intelligence community that are allegedly affiliated. And I'm air quoting if you're not watching. These non-affiliated, those ones were unable to penetrate networks to get this raw, actionable, credible data intelligence to ensure safety. Those people weren't able to do it. So who had to do it? The non-affiliated people through a third party handler and another handler and however else it gets passed along the way. Check out any of the movies that are out there. You can see Hollywood beefs up stories, but at the end of the day, they get the stories from somewhere. So they were moving swiftly and they were able to get this data How they pulled it off, no one will know or no one will say. But the tools and techniques that are used are some pretty basic things I'm going to say. It's signals intelligence. And we call that, we'll just call it signals intelligence and human intelligence. That is pivotal. Signals intelligence is intercepting communications, phone calls, emails, WhatsApp, Telegram, Right. What's the signal? The other ones out there. You're a fool if you're actually using them and thinking that you're that you're actually end to end encrypted. Wake up. Also, the NSA was using digital. information which it comes from another intelligence agency that provides actual intelligence via satellite data satellite intelligence so you're talking about a lot of a lot of agencies involved in here and a lot of people and they were able to do this quickly silently professionally with precision with precision and they won't get a thank you I thank you This operation highlights the ongoing debate around tools like Section seven or two of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That is the FISA court that I mentioned before. That's the secret court. That's the only court that an American does not have access to say you can't go up to that courthouse and type in and try to look something up and request documents. You're going to get nothing. That's those courts when there is an American citizen or an American business or whatever it is that they're going to be looking in and they might be in this document, the United States Constitution. If there is a question to somebody's Fourth Amendment right to privacy, it may have some sort of connection. FISA would be the court to review that and issue secret warrants overriding the Constitution. Very pivotal, pivotal thing. We could do a whole episode on Pfizer, but not going to. Cross-agency collaboration. The success of this mission results in seamless, seamless collaboration between CIA, NSA, DHS, and I'm going to throw it out there, DIA, MI, and the rest of them. they were actually sharing information, which is how nine eleven happened in the first place. People weren't sharing, but the seamless sharing and collaboration between these agencies, information sharing. Made all the actionable intelligence much more actionable much more credible remember we talked about compartmentalization multiple people working in an agency and they might be friends but they don't know what that this guy does for work and this one doesn't know what that one does because that's how you keep it separated. So not one person knows all the keys to the secrets. So when these agencies have to communicate, they may have some very good data in one particular area that they're good at, but another agency doesn't have very good data in this area, but they have excellent in another area. So when now they have this seamless collaboration, now you're talking about having the big pie. And I think that is what kept us safe in this particular incident. Communications are key. We have to disrupt these plots in advance. So we have to get to an operational stage at all times, but not a war action stage. I'm not calling for war. We need to be vigilant, steadfast, and have resolve. we need to have resolved. We cannot allow terrorists to hurt innocent people and whether anywhere in the world and to terrorize our children and to disrupt the lives of everyday Americans. Because again, it's not the incident that people died. It is the aftermath of that incident. So this case underscores the importance of joint efforts in addressing all types of threats. increasing as I always say public vigilance you know like I say at the end of the show three sixty three sixty five we'll discuss that at the end it's part of the end of my show but stay vigilant pay attention notice what's going on around you intelligence agencies have warned of increased threat environment approaching I mean christopher ray of fbi director fbi said this is the highest we've ever been since nine eleven and he said that a couple months ago And just think about that. Think about when the director of the FBI stands in front of Congress on live TV and he says, this is the closest we are to being attacked. And we have been since two thousand one. That is alarming. DHS has issued several statements urging the public to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity that obviously goes to stand. If you see a package, if you're in the airport and there's a bag left behind, you know, use your head, though. Use common sense, people. We don't want to tie up resources somewhere else when the real thing is going on over here. A lot of times they set up a ruse. So this way, that place gets raided because they think something's going on there. And it's really a ruse. Nothing really was going on there. And all of our resources are now investigating somebody that really is really just wanting to be investigated. They're putting himself on the radar to draw everybody there to watch them so the person over here can do what they want. Stay vigilant. So summary and conclusion. The week we foiled a terrorist plot. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the intelligence community. It's a primary example of how the intelligence community works tirelessly behind the scenes, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the protection of the United States and our allies. The use of non-affiliated operatives managed by handlers coupled with advanced surveillance tools and cross-agency collaboration were key in stopping this attack before it could materialize and be the one-two punch. it stopped as we move forward we have to have the balance between privacy and security like I said with leon panetta's quote privacy versus security where is the medium that's for you to call everybody has their own opinion I say it on this show government does not belong in anybody's bedroom that's my opinion they need to stay out of your homes and out of your bedrooms so With that said, we have dedicated professionals in the intelligence community, and they remain steadfast, and we all tip our hat to you. Sonati's call to action. Remember, three-sixty, three-sixty-five. One-hundred and eighty degrees forward, paying attention. One-hundred and eighty degrees behind you, paying attention. Your head is on a swivel. That's three-sixty, one-eighty, one-eighty, three-sixty, and it's times three-hundred and sixty-five days a year. Your head must be on a swivel. You must be vigilant and be paying attention and conscience to your surroundings, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, because danger doesn't take a day off. It's there. The terrorists aren't on vacation, or if you're English, on holiday. They're not doing that. They're working every day to get us, to get you. So we need to be just as vigilant and more so. The intelligence community cannot do this alone. We are a unity. We are a country. Remember that. At the end of the day, you are an American. We need to remember that, especially with the election season coming up. They cannot do this alone. Stay alert. Stay informed and report any suspicious activity. Use your head with that because you can help prevent terror attacks. I'd like to special thank... Carrie, my executive producer, thank you for your hard work on the show. Welcome to the show, Tomas. I hope you enjoyed your first show. Thank you very much. And are going to leave us with our historic closing quote. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. C-U-R-E, like getting fixed. Benjamin Franklin, this quote reminds us that intelligence work is all about prevention, stopping threats before they become a terror act, before they become an actual incident, combating it before it actually comes to fruition here in our world. Thank you very much, folks. I enjoy every moment of the show. We read your emails. I'm doing the best to respond. We have Tomas on staff and a few more people. We will be getting to your emails. If you have questions, reach out. Don't ever miss a show. We're on seven days a week. Re-airs on the weekends. Two shows on Monday nights. And the rest of the night, we're primetime, nine o'clock. and you can get every single show in every podcast platform with four and a half to five stars in all of them, Apple, iTunes, Spotify, Podbeam, and just any one of them. You just Google The Hostile Zone, you'll find a place to listen or watch. Now, Tomas, on your first day, I closed out with a funny joke. Why do spies make terrible singers? End of the mic. You got to get close to that mic. Let's see. You're never going to get it. I don't know. Because they always have to stay undercover. We're going to take this now to Miss Bianca, who's going to take us out with honor, pride, and glory. And remember, God bless America, and God bless everybody that is out there keeping us safe. I thank you, and I'll see you tomorrow night. Bring it to Bianca. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare The bombs bursting in air Gave proof through the night That our flag was still there And she's not going anywhere. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave Bye.