RIC PRADO | The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior (Ep. 312)

Undaunted.Life: A Man's Podcast by Kyle Thompson

Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we welcome Ric Prado to the show. Ric had a legendary 24-year career in the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency. His career spanned two eras: The Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Prado received the CIA Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal (highest award given upon retirement) and the George H. W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism, among other awards. He is a paramilitary, counterterrorism, and special clandestine operations specialist, and served as an Operations Officer in six overseas posts. When he left public service, Prado worked as an executive at a private military contractor where he built a specialized operations team. He is currently a co-owner of Camp-X Training, where he continues his service training and supporting the Spec Ops community, teaching Advanced Special Operations and Techniques among other essential skills. Also, he’s the author of Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior. He’s the first covert operator of major rank to pen a fully operational memoir in the history of the CIA. He retired as the equivalent of a 2-star general in the military. In this interview we discuss what it was like growing up in Cuba during the Revolution, how young Americans are romanced by Communism, how he and his family managed to get to America, growing up on the streets of Miami, how he found himself in the CIA, his service on the ground during the time of Iran Contra, his reaction to seeing the 9/11 attacks, how the US had the ability to easily kill Osama bin Laden in the 1990s but decided against it, and much more. Let’s get into it… Episode notes and links HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you can't quite get the angle, take hands-free selfies with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5,
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0:10.8	The new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Chromebook, available on Vodafone.
0:30.4	This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:38.7	Hi guys. Today we got a special guest on the podcast. His name is Rick Prado. So this man had a
0:43.3	legendary 24-year career in the United States Central Intelligence Agency. His career actually
0:47.7	spanned two of the most important eras in the history of intelligence, and that's the Cold War
0:52.7	and the Age of Terrorism. He's right in the thick of all of that. So Prado received a CIA
0:56.8	distinguished career intelligence medal. That's the highest award given upon retirement from that
1:00.8	community. And also the George HW Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism among other
1:04.9	awards. So he is a paramilitary counterterrorism and special clandestine operation specialist
1:09.8	and expert. And he served as an operations officer in six overseas posts. He's literally served
1:14.7	all over the planet. Also, when he left public service, Prado worked as an executive at a private
1:19.7	military contractor where he built and specialized operations team has really asked me to talk about it.
1:23.9	And also he is currently the co-owner of CAMPEX Training where he continues his service training
1:28.4	and supporting the spec ops community, teaching advanced special operations and techniques
1:32.4	among other essential skills. But he's also the author of a book. And this is how he got on my radar.
1:37.5	The book is called Black Ops, the life of a CIA shadow warrior. And so whenever this book was
1:42.5	pitched to me, I was like, this is kind of unique. I've never knowingly talked to somebody from
1:46.1	the CIA and that type of thing. Certainly not someone that had a legendary career. But the thing that
1:50.1	makes this book even more incredible is the fact that he is actually the first covert operator
1:55.6	of of any major rank to pin a fully operational memoir in the history of the CIA, right? So it
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