Since Oct. 7 one year ago, the day Hamas and Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel, information detailing Israel’s conduct of its war with Hamas has often been misrepresented or fabricated, purposely maligning and weakening Israel.
The truth has been difficult to find. Too many of those in the media and on social media cast Israeli leaders, both political and military, its spokespeople, the Israel Defense Forces and almost anyone else who supports Israel’s right to self-defense as complicit in genocide. Who to trust?
If there is one group of people who has the experience, aptitude and skill sets required to assess Israel’s conduct, it is those who served in combat and who have studied warfare. They have seen combat. They know the horrors of war. They know truth when they see it.
The European Leadership Network (ELNET) recently organized and led a delegation to Israel comprised of former combat veterans, military and intelligence experts, and journalists from European countries and the United States. These experts were given unprecedented access to sensitive sites and information so they could assess the truth for themselves.
Participating on this delegation were two counterterrorism experts from the United States, (Ret.) Lt. Col. Jeff Tiegs of the U.S. Delta Forces and Michael Pregent, a senior Middle East analyst with 28 years of military and intelligence experience.
These experts were provided never-before access to tour Rafah, travel the Philadelphi Corridor, assess the Hamas tunnel infrastructure, examine the Israeli Defense Force’s rules of engagement, and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Tiegs is a retired counterterrorism and counterinsurgency expert with more than 25 years of service in U.S. Army Special Operations. From a young ranger private to Delta Force lieutenant colonel, Tiegs has commanded combat operations around the globe, including in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the president of Skull Games, a company that provides analytical and operational support to law enforcement agencies engaged in countering sex trafficking operations. Tiegs has written about his experiences in the novel, Where Have All the Heroes Gone? A Pilgrimage Through the Bible, the Battlefield, and Back Home Again.
Pregent is a senior Middle East analyst, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. He is a former intelligence officer with over 28 years of experience working on security, terrorism, counterinsurgency and policy issues in the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia. A notable expert on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its terrorist proxies, Pregent served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, served as a liaison officer in Egypt during the 2000 intifada, as a counterinsurgency intelligence officer at CENTCOM in 2001, and as a company commander in Afghanistan in 2002. As a civilian, he later worked with CENTCOM from 2011-2013 as a violent extremism and foreign-fighter analyst.
Tiegs and Pregent are making themselves available to share their accounts of the ongoing war against Israel. To interview Jeff Tiegs and/or Michael Pregent, contact: Joe E. Carmean, Joe@orwellgrey.com, 410-845-0715.
