Tom Gardner
speaker
61 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 20 May
Tom Gardner’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The Intelligence from The Economist · Bibi, one more time? Israel’s election launches · 20 May 2026
podcast
I was in Jacquesville by the sea in Ivory Coast.
It was a grey, foggy morning just after sunrise, and I was peering through the undergrowth out towards the sea where a motorboat was coming to shore.
A dozen or so men were on board.
Dressed in army fatigues, their faces covered by badaclavas.
And I watched them as they leapt onto the shore, disembarked and began prowling through the thick forest, firing their guns.
Eventually they reached the building which I was standing near.
And broke down the door.
I had to cover my ears as they shot their guns inside the building.
Each room one by one they cleaned of terrorists, to use the word that they chose.
And rescued the hostages.
Well, this was actually a training exercise.
It's held annually in Africa and it's called Operation Flintlock.
It's run by the American Special Forces, and they train dozens of mostly West and North African special forces and have done every year practically since 2005.
It's sort of a mixture of a boot camp and a networking event.
So as
Countries in the region are threatened by jihadist militant groups in particular.
This is an opportunity for these special forces under American guidance to train, swap ideas, build relationships.
And the Americans provide much of the funding and logistics with the support as well of several NATO partner countries.
It did feel for me a bit like a throwback.
I think a lot of the budgeting came from before the Trump administration returned to office.
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