WEBVTT - Part One: Jack Idema: The War On Terror's Dumbest Grifter 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.000 Well, Robert Evans Podcast, I don't have any time for 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:08.000 an introduction. I have had a thought, a critical thought 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.920 that I think must be analyzed before this episode, and 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:16.319 it relates to to Africa by Toto. Uh because in 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.639 the opening strains of the song, the singer notes that 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.920 it's going to take a lot to get whoever he's 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:25.160 singing the song about away from him, and that there's 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.880 nothing that a hundred men or more could do. But 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.159 with social isolation ng in place, I think we have 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.240 to assume that whoever is singing the song Africa by Toto, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.000 like whatever character that is, is in fact isolated from 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.000 the person that they said they could never be separated from, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.800 which leads the question how many men more than a 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.960 hundred is the COVID nineteen epidemic powerful? Then that that 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:56.120 this is this is critical to analyze. Nothing else matters. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.520 We're canceling the rest of the episode until we figet 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:04.280 this out. Sophie, it's more than men. Yeah, yeah, we're 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.360 not canceling the episode. This is an episode with d J. Daniel. 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:12.000 I'm not canceling that, Joy, I'm gonna keep running the 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.280 numbers on this. But while I do that, Dan You're 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.160 a fan of a lot of things, right, You're You're 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.640 big into fandoms, all sorts of stuff that you're a 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.600 fan of. Are you? Are you a fan dan of 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:29.160 the war in Afghanistan? Are you in Afghanistan? Get it? 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.840 Oh my god, Oh my god, was so good. I'm 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:38.039 so proud. Okay, I take it. Um Okay, Well, I 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.039 mean I'm a fan of no wars, but um, you know, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.840 I have a feeling by the end of this I 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.759 will be even less a fan of this one. Well, 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.000 the war in Afghanistan is a real I think people, 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.920 It's been going on for so long that now we 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.400 all just think about it as this like endless, slightly 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.280 draining and expensive but mostly are gotten disaster that we 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.000 just can't seem to escape from. And I think we've 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.400 forgotten what a fucking crazy time the beginning of the 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.600 war in Afghanistan was, like it was. It was one 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.280 of the dumbest times and places that has ever collided together. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.840 Um as a result of what I what I can 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.840 only call army grifters like this was a huge part 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.040 of the early warningt like it still is, but now 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.600 like the grifting is done by giant corporations. But in 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.080 the early days, when like U. S. Troops were first 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.800 into the country, there were a ton of just random 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.360 assholes who would roll into Afghanistan with whatever weapons they 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.440 could manage to smuggle across international borders and just try 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.560 to do some shit. Uh and it it we don't 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.520 we don't talk about them anymore, but it's one of 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.079 the funnest things that ever happened. And I I want 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.080 to tell you about a couple of these guys before 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.920 we get to the main subject of our episode. Yeah, 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:55.800 the first one of these beautiful bastards I want to 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.040 talk about was Gary Brooks Faulkner. Now Brooks was a 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.119 Gary I should say, was a Greely, Colorado native who 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.400 traveled by boat in a series of overland routes to 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.240 try to make his way into Afghanistan and single handedly 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.520 capture Osama bin Laden. Now he had to travel on 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.720 a boat and via smuggling himself across borders because he 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.280 tried was trying to get into Afghanistan with a pistol, 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.320 a knife, night vision goggles, Christian evangelical literature, and a 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:28.040 Samurai sword that he all brought from what that that's 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.079 his his been laden kit was a pistol, a knife 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.120 night vision goggles like, okay, so pistol, Yeah, you're gonna 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:35.960 want you a gun, a some sword, right, A knife 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.600 practical you're in the mountains, You're always gonna want a knife, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:44.600 night vision goggles, share Christian evangelical literature. Okay, I doesn't 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.600 seem practical, but go off. And then samurai sword, which 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.680 really I think keisy window what Gary imagined he'd be doing. 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.120 He just wanted that slung over his shoulders, striding across 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.360 the back so that when you know, the sun was 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.680 beating down on him and you just saw the silhouette 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.560 of a weird o costplayer coming into this town in Afghanistan, 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.560 he would be have that sword in the silhouette off 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.200 to the side. Yeah, you know, he imagined like getting 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.000 into a duel with a couple of Taliban guys, and yeah, 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:21.840 he had such dreams. Gary did um. But unfortunately Gary 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.520 never quite made it to Tora Bora to samurai fight 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.960 the Taliban. Instead, he was arrested almost immediately in Pakistan. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:37.440 Because yeah, so the good news is that obviously, once 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.919 the media heard that some guy with a samurai sword 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.680 had been arrested in Afghanistan after leaving fucking Greeley, Colorado 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:48.280 to got kidnap the world's greatest terrorist. Uh it was. 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.120 It made the news. Uh So he was sent back 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.719 home by Pakistan, and he got kind of famous, and 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.159 he did appearances on the View and The Late Show 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:02.800 with David Letterman. Yeah, he was described as the Rocky 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:06.080 Mountain Rambo, even though he saw no action of any 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.440 kind and was in fact on dialysis the entire time. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.400 Oh my god, I feel comfortable saying if the police 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.480 in Pakistan hadn't arrested him, he would have almost certainly died, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.560 even without the Taliban's help and with and with not 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.880 a word to the world about his presence or actions, 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.800 just disappearing off of this earth. Yeah, his kidneys would 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:31.559 have just given out as he was trying to hike 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:38.400 up the fucking Khyber Pass with a Samurai kana. Like, oh, man, 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.480 you'll you'll love to hear about it, but he obviously 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.680 like all that matters is that he got famous for 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.920 trying to take on Bin Laden with a Samurai sword 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.239 in a time when America was maybe the least rational 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.520 we've ever been. So everyone loved fucking Gary Faulkner, they 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.960 were fans, Okay, okay, yeah, at the time of will Ennium, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.680 we were okay with a guy with a samre s 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:05.520 ord going into kick Bin. Lawton asked, yeah. Now. During 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.600 the media tour he did after his arrest, Faulkner revealed 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:10.600 that he was an ex con who had spent twelve 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.520 years in jail on a number of larceny and burglary charges, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.479 and he kind of brilliantly pivoted off of this to 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.839 claim that as a skilled thief, he had precisely the 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.200 kind of talent necessary to track down a terrorist mastermind. 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.720 You know, that is the way you sell ship to Hollywood. 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.200 I mean most certainly, especially on all these interviews you're doing. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.680 It's just like there I was. But oh my gosh, 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.400 the only thing that's missing is a wife who wouldn't 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.320 give him custody, like an ex wife who wouldn't like you. 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.200 Add that in and you've got fucking ninety minutes solid. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.720 Oh my god, fucking early two thousands. Nicolas Cage would 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.720 have been the right dude to play this character. Oh 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.080 my god. So to see a hand flick somewhere and 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.880 they're just like dismissing somebody just yeah, Faulkner is a 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.320 fun one. He even told so. During his interview with Letterman, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.599 Gary Faulkner told that he didn't need to worry about 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:10.880 whatever bodyguards Osama bin Laden had because quote, I'm a thief, uh, 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:17.720 which is bullet Now. The unfortunate code of the story 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.120 of Gary Faulkner is that as a felon, he was 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.920 not able to legally possess a firearm, which became a 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:24.800 problem for him when he was arrested for shooting a 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.200 man in self defense back home in Colorado. So that 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:32.360 things didn't work out great in the for Gary Faulkner. Now. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.760 Another beautiful Afghan war grifter was the Syrian born Matt Meeson, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.760 a naturalized US citizen who also attempted to kill Osama 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.120 bin Laden in two thousand and five. He got on 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.840 a plane from Detroit to Syria. Apparently there just used 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.000 to be a direct like Detroit to Damaska's route the 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.320 two big d's uh, and he was stopped by authorities 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.160 when they realized he was traveling with thirteen thousand dollars 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.760 in cash, a Taser bullets, pepper spray body armor, and 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:04.760 three Geiger After three I love the bullets because he's like, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:06.560 He's like, I'm gonna be able to find with all 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.360 this cash, I'll be able to buy a gun when 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.520 I hit Syria. But I better bring my own AMMO, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.080 and I better bring three Geiger counters. Now he had 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:19.840 a reason for that, I mean, okayah my gosh, yeah, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.200 he's he claimed that he was. His cover was that 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.720 he was a private investigator studying the illegal uranium trade 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.200 and he was going to use the Geiger counters to 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.560 help him lure in illegal uranium buyers or something like that. 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.079 It never really made much sense. This, this is, this 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.280 is truly this is I mean, you know, all these 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.880 guys are heroes. Speaking of heroes, former British Special Air 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.760 Service soldier Colin Barry was the smartest of all these grifters, 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.719 except for the guy we're about to talk about. He 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.679 traveled to Afghanistan under the cover of working on housing 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.360 projects for an engineering firm, and this seems to have 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.160 been as a way to hide his activities trying to 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.960 ride intel for m I six, who he claims approached 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.520 him for aid and may in fact have done so. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.040 Uh In any case, various time as a secret agent 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.160 in Afghanistan came to an end when he shot to 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.240 random Afghan citizens to death in a hotel bar in Kabul. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.440 He was jailed for murder. Now that little bit about 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.160 the story where it's like this guy with no evidence 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.920 claims he was working for m I six, and maybe 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.160 he was. All of these guys make claims to having 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.160 worked for like m I six, the CIA, the Defense 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.120 Department or something like that, and almost all of them 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:34.560 actually did to some extent um. Because here's here's the 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.240 thing about the start of the war in Afghanistan. So 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.440 number one, by the time like we invaded in Afghanistan, 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.720 the State Department had about three hundred and forty million 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.320 dollars and bounties out for the top thirty terrorism suspects worldwide. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.360 So there were tens of millions of dollars out for 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.800 dudes who could capture Al Qaeda motherfuckers or Taliban motherfucker's right, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.719 tens of millions of these bounties were paid off. So 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:58.400 there's that kind of money going out. But there was 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.840 also the militaries of mult couple nations were active in Afghanistan, 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.160 and none of them knew a goddamn thing about Afghanistan. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.800 So anyone who could come in and make a good 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.800 pitch about how they could gather useful intel or do 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.160 something else that was necessary had a real good chance 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.800 of making tens of millions of dollars, because again, the 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.000 like the the coalition was just shifting cash into the 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.160 open mouths of anyone who could credibly claim to be 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.520 fighting terrorism, and no one knew anything like it was 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:28.600 even like it was a wild West at that point, 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.760 right in terms of the counter terrorism industry. So you 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.040 could just roll in the country and if you looked 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.000 right and talked right, you could suddenly have fucking CIA 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.400 dollars like flowing down your fucking mouth. Um, it was. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.120 It was a fun time. Sounds like sounds like a 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.160 fun time. Yeah. So for for a few years, Afghanistan 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:54.280 was a grifter paradise and no one exploited it more 0:10:54.400 --> 0:11:00.520 entertainingly than Jack Edema. Jonathan Keith Adema was born in 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.600 nineteen fifty six and pau Keepsie, New York. His parents 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.280 were upper middle class and doting, and Jonathan was their 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.319 only son. His father was a former marine and a 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.480 veteran of the Second World War. Jonathan grew up beloved 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.800 and worshiped and surrounded by the sort of comfort and 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.800 care that few children are fortunate enough to enjoy. When 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.080 he was twelve years old, he watched the John Wayne 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.040 classic The Green Berets. Have you seen that movie? Danal, 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.079 I actually have not seen The Green Berets? Side note? 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.120 Side note? Can I put in a request to the 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:32.800 fans if anybody wants to remixed Gangster's Paradise by Coolio 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:38.199 and do Grifters Paradise please? There on Twitter? Yeah? Yeah, 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.400 make it happen. Also shout at the city of Poughkeepsie. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.080 I'm familiar. I've heard of pau keeps you, but keeps 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.680 I don't Daniel a little more familiar with Okay, Daniel, 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:57.480 you missed him yesterday called Beyonce. Beyonce Honestly, I'm always 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:58.960 a fan. When the fans came after you for a 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.000 gop a as well, that was really funny. I love that. 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.480 I mean, it's just so great. I immediately text J. B. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.520 Loftus and Little Recording and said, guess what fantastic And 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.320 we've been laughing about it for two days. It's wonderful. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:18.400 I am so angry right now. Mostly mostly I am 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.880 angry at the way the State of New York names 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:28.719 towns that is complete. Yeah, I it's wrong, and I 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:34.080 don't think we should lean into that anymore. Agreed, You're 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:40.680 on You're on Blast New York more more main mainland name. So, 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.040 the movie The Green Berets was kind of the first 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.319 movie about special forces. Like now there's like a fucking 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.080 ton of those movies. It's like in every action movie 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.560 hero is gonna have some sort of Special Forces background, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.920 but like this was the first time, like special forces 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.080 were kind of new in Vietnam, like the idea that 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.959 you would have these dudes, and The Green Berets was 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.679 a movie about them, and um, it was a very 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.240 a big hit. Uh, And it became John adena Adema's 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.000 very favorite movie as a little boy, and seeing this 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.160 film convinced him to give up his earlier dreams of 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.960 being a veterinarian and instead joined the military and become 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.760 a Green Beret himself. He enlisted as soon as he 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.400 was able to do so in nineteen seventy five, but 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.319 tragically he was too late to fight and maybe die 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.800 in Vietnam, but he did well enough on his entrance 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.440 tests that he qualified for the Special Forces. He was 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.360 helped in this by the fact that the post Vietnam 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.000 Special Forces had endured a serious manpower shortage since new 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.680 recruits had been scared off from joining for some inexplicable reason. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.800 Jonathan was accepted even though he had bad eyesight. He 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.079 did a three year active duty term as a radio 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.280 operator and a weapon specialist, and then spent some time 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.880 in the reserves, reaching the rank of staff sergeant before 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.079 being discharged in nineteen eighty four. One of the difficulties 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.360 here is that even among credible sources, descriptions of Jack 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.760 Adema's time in the military very widely. This paragraph from 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.840 a Rolling Stone article on the man is probably as 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:04.400 close to accurate as you're going to get in a 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.840 story about this con man's military career. Though a demas 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.240 military record reflects qualification as a pistol expert and badges 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.240 awarded for scuba and parachute training, there are no indications 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.080 that he ever heard a shot fired in anger while 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.440 he was in the military. Moreover, a nineteen North Carolina 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:24.160 probation report quotes a military evaluator describing Adema as the 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.120 most unmotivated, unprofessional, immature enlisted man I have ever known, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.400 and a letter of reprimands cited Adema's gross immaturity, characterized 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.160 by irrationality and a tendency towards violence. The reprimand came 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.800 after Adema attempted to attack a senior commanding officer. So 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.200 Jack Adema is in the Special Forces, but you would 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.960 not call him like he's not he's not good at it. 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:54.520 I mean, if he's attacking his officer, you can't come on, man. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.200 There were very few rules right after Vietnam. There were 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.200 like nobody wanted to be in the military. It was 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.200 a real ship show. Well there you go. Now. While 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.760 he was still in the reserves, Jonathan, which is the 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.200 name he still went by at the time, spent several 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.440 amous year, aimless years wandering around the small town in 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.400 New York he lived in. Who pronounces the name of 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.960 their town wrong because there jerks um, you know, just 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:19.680 kind of trying to figure out what to do with 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.040 his life. See, all john had ever wanted to do 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.320 was fight in a foreign war, but the accursed years 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:31.840 of relative peace after Vietnam made that almost an impossible impossibility. Eventually, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.640 Jonathan settled on a way to still do cool looking 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.080 army type stuff without actually serving in the military, he 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.120 founded a counter terrorism training school in the town of 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:45.440 Red Hook. Now John had no real qualifications to do this, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.360 other than the fact that he had been very bad 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.640 at being in the Special Forces UM. The exact extent 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.440 of his work is unclear, but journalists eventually confirmed that 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.080 he trained guards to protect the US government facilities in 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.920 Haiti and did some amount of like eaguely described work 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.640 for the Thai military. The president's son, Ron Reagan Jr. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.120 Used his facilities at some point, and I we don't 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.120 really have a clear idea as to why UM and 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.840 training people in vague counter terrorism techniques was not John's 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.480 ownly activity. During this period, he was also breaking the 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.440 law constantly. In nineteen eighty two, he was arrested for 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.480 possession stolen property. In nineteen eight six, he was charged 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.440 with resisting arrest and assault with attempt to physically harm. 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.400 He received a nineteen eighty eight arrest for disorderly conduct 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.160 in a nineteen ninety arrest for assault involving discharging a firearm. 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.760 He was never convicted for any of these crimes, and 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.080 we don't really know what happened. But you couldn't stop 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:42.280 this dude from getting arrested. Um, so kind of go off, 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.400 go off, just you know, live your truth, get arrested. 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.760 This is clearly going to end in some fantastical manner. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.960 So every move is just like I'm supporting it all 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.680 the way up and I mean it ends in Mexico, 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.400 which I think we all know in our hearts. But great. 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.360 I can't say if if Jonathan was good or not 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.000 at actually training people in counter terrorism, but he was 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.760 terrible at running such a business legally. His camp generated 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.680 numerous noise complaints and was eventually shut down over a 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.720 zoning violation. A DIMA moved next to Fayetteville, North Carolina, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.240 a location he picked for its proximity to Special Forces 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.159 headquarters near Fort Bragg. Now, rather than selling terrorism training 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.520 this time, he instead set up a store dedicated to 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.000 selling non lethal military equipment and a side business running 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.520 a series of Special Operations trade shows. It proved good 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.200 at getting different manufacturers on board and filling big rooms 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.680 with fancy military equipment and people who wanted to look 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.760 at it. Now, some of these people were actually Special 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.600 Forces veterans or members of the Defense Department, but most 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.640 of the people who showed for these trade shows were 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.199 Soldier of Fortune readers their guys who just wanted to 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:54.600 look at guns and stuff. Yeah, thank you, thank you, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:18:00.920 and great magazine, un fully unproblematic magazine. Yeah. So, well 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.200 tell you something. When I had to battle that seal underwater, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.000 I used my knife fighting techniques that I learned in 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.520 the Underwater knife Fighting Technique section of Soldier of Fortune. 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:16.040 That seal came after me and I needed to defend myself. 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.760 For the listeners, I'm absolutely kidding. I have never hermed 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.320 in my life, Daniel. You we don't need to lie. 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.920 Seals are a threat and the only way to deal 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:31.000 with them is underwater knife fighting. I am. I focus 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:35.000 always on practical prepping and so like you want to 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:36.919 have some extra food, you want to know how to 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.600 deal with like a bleeding wound, how to like staunch 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.880 blood flow, and you need to know how to beat 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.280 a seal in a knife fight. Those are those are 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:49.360 basic practical steps we can all take. Love it. So 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.080 speaking of practical steps, so the reality of the situation 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.280 is that John Adma used his connections that he built 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.040 in his counter terrorism training school to like fill up 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.119 convention rooms cool military gear and people would pay to 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.760 go gawk at it, and you know it was. It 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.800 was a decent business. Um. That's the reality of what happened. Now. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.280 John Adema would go on, however, to speak about this 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.080 UH somewhat differently. UM. He would claim in the future 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.800 that after leaving the army, he worked as a US 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.200 military advisor in El Salvador and Honduras. There's no evidence 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.119 for this. He claimed he worked as part of a 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.320 special mission mission unit and refused to ever elaborate as 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.800 to what that job entailed. No records support any of this. Uh. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.040 No records support that he did anything but failed to 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.040 run a training center and then lead a bunch of 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.520 nerds through a fucking convention center. And when confronted with 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.280 the fact that there was no evidence of him doing 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.200 all this badass special ops stuff, he would tell journalists 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.200 that the records of his actual military service were secret records, 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.880 which he described as the ones that they don't want 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:59.679 to give anyone, which is really, really handy. So the 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.600 Trey shows that John ran generated enough interest from legitimate 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.960 experts that Adema eventually met up with a subcontractor who 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.160 was able to get him a real job training real 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.280 cops in the former Soviet Republic of Lithuania, who we 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.800 all knew. No is like the king of doing a 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:21.080 good background check on a guy. That's what Lithuania. Yeah, what, 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:29.399 the trade shows are great places to get products. I 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.600 can't I can't tell what you're possibly trying to lead 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:38.160 me into here, Daniel. Services if one of those services 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:43.000 is enlisting in weird you know, armies and potential terrorist organization, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.399 I I don't know what either of you were trying 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.240 to do. But on an unrelated note, it is time 0:20:51.280 --> 0:21:01.360 for an ad plug. We're back and we're on the internet, 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.159 and now we're going to talk about motherfucking Jack Adema 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.920 some more. So, he manages to like kind of leverage 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:14.560 his his his various experiences into a job training cops 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.120 in the former Soviet Republic of Lithuania. So he rolls 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.480 there in nine right after the U s. S r 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.760 ns UM, and the reality seems to be that he 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.760 spent a brief period of time teaching cops in a 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:30.200 very uh poor nation dealing with the collapse of its 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.720 previous government. The reality for John Adema, though, is that 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.720 he stumbled immediately upon a multimillion dollar black market and 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:41.760 backpack nuclear weapons. Um. These devices known as special atomic 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.840 Demolitians munitions did exist in government stockpiles, and there were 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:46.560 constant rumors after the end of the Cold War that 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:48.320 a number of them had escaped the fall of the U. S. 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:50.879 S R. But there's no evidence anywhere that such a 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.840 device wound up on any nations black market. The general 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.840 incompetence of authorities worldwide, and the fact that no one ever, 0:21:56.920 --> 0:21:58.720 no terrorist group ever got such a weapon as is 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.320 evidence that these were nothing more than rumors. But John 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.119 ademon knew that the story of Russian suitcase nukes was 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.679 a good one, so he started reaching out to senior 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.639 Pentagon officials while he was still in Lithuania and telling 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.959 them that he'd stumbled upon the secret nuke market. Now 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.199 the secret nuke market. Yeah, and I don't know if 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.159 you know this, Daniel, but if you start talking to 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.000 Defense Department officials about the fact that you know where 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.280 a bunch of nuclear weapons are being sold for cash, 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.760 you will probably wind up having conversations with the FBI. 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.479 That's just shocker. Yeah, that's just how that's gonna go. 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:38.400 I feel like, yeah, I feel like the easiest way 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:40.959 to get a conversation with the FBI is to like 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:44.560 make them believe you might know about stolen nuclear warheads. 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:46.760 That's a they're going to be interested in that one. 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.480 So the Bureau demanded to sit down with Jack Adema 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.360 and then demanded that he tell them who his sources were, 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.399 which is a pretty reasonable demand given the fact that 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:01.000