Gabe Fanelli is back. Our Director of Training, 14 years active duty Army, Bronze Star recipient, SIGINT operator from West Africa to Syria, walks us through the new OSINT Operator Course, module by module.

This one is different. It is not a tools course. Tools go down. This is about building the analytical brain behind the tools: critical thinking, bias recognition, geo and chronological verification, the dark web, ad tech surveillance, corporate intelligence, and the ethics that hold all of it together.

We also went somewhere most podcasts will not go. AI in the kill chain. 900 strikes in 12 hours. The targeting deck for that girls’ school in Tehran. Palantir’s Maven Smart system. I wrote my dissertation on LLMs in the kill chain eight years ago, and the fact that the human is being removed further and further from the loop is not a future problem: it is a right now problem.

Gabe and I got into it on ad tech too. Your data broker probably knows your BMI. That should scare you.

The OSINT Operator Course is launching soon with a presale discount. If you work in intelligence, law enforcement, corporate security, compliance, or you just want to understand what is actually possible with open source data: this one is for you.

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Gabriel Fanelli is back on the Grey Dynamics Podcast, and this time as our new Director of Training.

Look, I've been wanting to have this conversation since we first met. Gabe's trajectory is different from most people in the intelligence world. Bronze Star recipient, 14 years in the Army, former SOCOM instructor, fluent in Arabic, and now leading our training programs at Grey Dynamics. But what makes this conversation special isn't just his resume.

We went deep on this one. We talked about what it really means to be a crypto linguist, not the Hollywood version. But the actual work of listening to intercepted communications while sitting in a forward operating base in Syria. We talked about why he hated being stuck in a SCIF and how he found his way to tactical SIGINT work where he could actually connect with people on the ground.

But we also talked about languages in a way I haven't explored on this podcast before. Gabe's father was an archaeologist, and he grew up surrounded by Middle Eastern artifacts and culture. His love for Arabic didn't come from military necessity. It came from genuine fascination. And that makes all the difference when you're trying to connect with people. Whether you're an intelligence collector or just someone trying to understand the world better.

We touched on OSINT and where it sits in the intelligence ecosystem. Gabe's take is refreshing. OSINT isn't better than SIGINT or HUMINT, and those disciplines aren't better than OSINT. They're all sinew connecting different parts of the same body. The gatekeeping and chest-pounding about which INT is superior misses the point entirely.

And then we got philosophical. We talked about AI's role in intelligence work, about writing and how to convey complex ideas without sucking the humanity out of them, about the goal in life not being happiness but usefulness. Gabe wrote a book called The Resilient Dad after losing a friend to suicide, and his perspective on fatherhood, masculinity, and what it means to show up for people hit differently than most self-help nonsense you see online.

This is probably the most introspective conversation I've had on this podcast. Usually I'm just listening and learning from guests, but because Gabe and I are already friends, this felt more like two people thinking out loud together. If you're interested in intelligence tradecraft, if you care about language and cross-cultural communication. Or if you're just trying to figure out how to be a better human being in a world that's increasingly automated and disconnected—this one's for you.

And for those asking: yes, Gabe will be launching our Operational OSINT Fundamentals course soon, along with an open-source SIGINT course for people who want to get their feet wet in that world. More details are coming.

Listen now and see why I'm so excited to have Gabe on the team.

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Even trained intelligence professionals make critical OPSEC mistakes in their personal lives.

In this episode, Ahmed Hassan sits down with Allen Pace, host of the OPSEC Podcast, to discuss the operational security vulnerabilities that compromise even the most experienced officers.

From burner phone misconceptions to the false security of Starlink, they dissect real-world examples of tradecraft failures.

Allen shares insights from his upcoming technical guide for intelligence teams, while Ahmed challenges the erosion of privacy rights in Europe and beyond.

Key topics include:

Why personal life is the widest OPSEC gap for professionals

Common burner phone mistakes that reveal identity

How your phone's sensors track you beyond what you realize

The Know Your Customer law's expansion into communications

Why Starlink isn't the "bulletproof" solution many believe

This is essential listening for intelligence professionals, security teams, and corporate leaders navigating digital vulnerability.

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We are the first fully online intelligence school helping professionals to achieve their long term goals. Our school with tons of new material is currently under construction and will be out there very soon. Meanwhile, you can sign up and be the first to know when we launch, plus get exclusive tips and offers.

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