Summary: Top-ranked podcaster Shawn Ryan releases a high-security, ground-breaking interview with Commander Ahmad Massoud, the founder of Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front (NRF.) Ryan describes the interview as the biggest of his career and the first to place him on the international stage.
Coordination of the interview involved risk and a critical requirement to protect Massoud’s whereabouts, timing and to encrypt all communications. Ryan and his team used UP Phone and UP Messenger to facilitate a secure meeting. Ryan also gave an UP Phone to Massoud during the interview.
For everyday users, the UP Phone represents a convenient gateway to daily digital privacy. For others, UP Phone and the encryption and tracker-blocking technologies built right into the LibertOS operating system are a critical part of maintaining personal safety in highly sensitive communications.
Read on for full details.
On July 16th, top-ranked podcaster Shawn Ryan (host of one of the top 30 podcasts in the United States) dropped his much-anticipated interview with Commander Ahmad Massoud, a courageous and important Afghan politician who is the founder and leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.
This interview is the first to put Shawn and his wildly popular Shawn Ryan Show on the international stage.
Massoud follows in his father’s path. He is the son of an anti-Soviet military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who is considered one of Afghanistan’s national heroes. His father was a guerrilla commander who fought the occupation of the Soviets during the Soviet Afghan War from 1979 to 1989.
From 1992 to 2001, the elder Massoud was the Defense Minister of Afghanistan until he was tragically assassinated on September 9, 2001, two days before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Taliban and Osama bin Laden wanted him eliminated in preparation for their attack on the United States.
Both Commander Massoud, and his heroic father before him, have spent their lives opposing communism, other forms of tyranny and the extreme and brutal Islamic fundamentalism of the Taliban. Massoud continues to advocate and fight for a free and prosperous Afghanistan. He advocates for a decentralized “Swiss model” of governance.
During the podcast, Shawn and Commander Massoud explore the history of the war in Afghanistan, the legacy of Massoud’s father, the Doha Agreement, and the effects of U.S. policies related to Afghanistan.
You can watch the fascinating full podcast episode here.
Of particular interest to followers of Unplugged, we also learn how the Taliban are using biometrics the United States military left behind to track down our Afghan counterparts. Privacy is so desperately needed the world over, and we, at Unplugged, are more convicted than ever in our mission when we hear interviews like this. Multiple founding members of our team served in Afghanistan or in other modern conflicts.
To maintain absolute security and privacy in arranging the interview, which took place in Vienna, Austria, Shawn Ryan and his team used UP Phones and the UP Messenger to protect the whereabouts of Commander Massoud, the coordination and the timing of the meeting.
Ryan also gifts Commander Massoud an UP Phone during the show.
At Unplugged, we are long-time supporters of the Shawn Ryan Show, and we sponsor the show with an affiliate relationship. The show is “dedicated to preserving history through the unfiltered stories of heroic events and current world issues by honoring the real experiences of the men and women who lived them.”
Ryan and his team undertook this UP Phone integration of their own initiative and kept the nature of the project and the identity of Massoud as the interview subject under wraps. We are proud to be part of such pressing and important global conversations and the fight for individual freedom and civil rights all over the world.
-Theron Harmon
CMO, Unplugged
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