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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Top CIA Security Advisor: Jeffrey Epstein Epstein Was A Made Up Person & They Can See Your Messages!

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PodcastThe Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Publisher/creatorDOAC
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About this episode

World-renowned security expert Gavin de Becker reveals how governments read your messages, why Jeffrey Epstein was a construct, secrets from White House and CIA protection, and how to trust your gut and stay safe in a digital world! Gavin de Becker is a security and violence prevention expert with over 50 years of experience, and founder of Gavin de Becker & Associates. He is widely considered to be the leading expert on anti-assassination strategies, and is a best-selling author whose books on the prevention of violence are published in 30-language. He explains: ◼️How to use fear to predict physical violence ◼️Why AI is the ultimate tool for government mass surveillance ◼️The J-A-C-A framework for identifying if someone will become violent ◼️Why your phone is never safe from government-level hacking ◼️The critical difference between true fear and basic anxiety 00:00 Intro 03:17 What Do I Really Do For People — And Why They Call Me In Crisis 04:35 Who Are My High-Profile Clients — And What That Reveals About Power 06:08 The Jeff Bezos Hack: What Actually Happened Behind The Scenes 13:03 The Epstein Files: What They Suggest — And Why It Still Matters 20:42 Was Epstein A Spy? The Question That Changes Everything 23:09 Inside Epstein’s Home: Why The Cameras And Mics Matter 24:22 How Secret Recordings Could Be Used By A Foreign Adversary 26:52 Why Would Epstein Build Ties With Podcast Hosts? What Was The Strategy? 29:06 The Unreleased Epstein Files: What Could Still Be Hidden? 31:25 Why Governments Lie — And What They’re Protecting 34:36 How My View Of Reality Challenges What Most People Believe 40:21 Are We Being Manipulated To Fight Each Other? Who Benefits? 42:44 What Happens If Society Declines — And How Prepared Are We? 48:19 Ads 50:30 Did They Have Today’s Technology Decades Ago? What This Means 53:04 Why You Must Trust Your Intuition — Before It Costs You 58:43 Why We Override Our Gut Instincts — And The Price We Pay 1:02:49 How Childhood Experiences Shape You — And How To Break The Pattern 1:11:04 Ads 1:12:50 What’s Real And What Isn’t? How To Stay Grounded In A Distorted World 1:16:48 Why Trust In Major Institutions Is Eroding — And What Comes Next 1:21:11 The Hidden Costs Of Big Corporations — What We Overlook 1:24:08 How To Live A Fulfilling Life When The World Feels Unstable 1:34:01 Why The Gift Of Fear Resonated So Deeply — And Why It Still Does 1:36:53 Where Meaning Comes From — And How To Build A Life With Purpose Enjoyed the episode? Share this link and earn points for every referral - redeem them for exclusive prizes: https://doac-perks.com Follow Gavin: Website - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/1wkYrYW You can purchase Gavin’s book, ‘The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence’, here: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/DDQWNis The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO Wispr - Get 14 days of Wispr Flow for free at https://wisprflow.ai/steven Factor: https://factormeals.com/diary50off with code DIARY50OFF

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Episode summary

Quick one before we dive in: hit follow so you catch the standout episodes, then buckle up—today’s guest has been in rooms most of us never see and says he knows why the truth around Jeffrey Epstein is still being managed.

I worked inside government and learned the question was rarely how we tell the public, but what we choose to say; on Epstein, senior officials know far more than they’ll admit, and I’m going to lay out what I can.

You’ve protected some of the richest and most powerful people alive—what exactly do you do?

My firm builds anti‑assassination strategies and runs threat assessment, close protection with highly trained teams, armored vehicles, and home modifications—we exist to prevent tissue damage.

Can you name clients, or at least confirm the big names people have linked to you?

Absolute confidentiality is the rule; if a court appearance or a client’s own statement makes it public, fine, but it won’t come from me.

You did speak publicly with Jeff Bezos’s permission—what happened there?

Saudi Arabia had just acquired a no‑click exploit called Pegasus that can silently take over a phone, and our job was to figure out how it was used; bottom line, if a state actor wants in, there’s no phone you can rely on for privacy, so mind what you type and say.

Why would a government target the founder of Amazon?

He also owned the Washington Post while it scrutinized MBS over Khashoggi, the Saudis were nurturing an Amazon rival, and they stood to gain commercially by reading executive comms.

Bezos later accused a tabloid of extortion—what were they pushing you to do?

They wanted me to publicly say it wasn’t political, no outside influence, no hacking; that made no sense given what we knew, so Jeff went public instead and called their bluff.

Let’s talk Epstein—these new files show endless emails and invites; what’s your read?

I believe it was a sophisticated kompromat operation serving at least one allied intelligence service, with cameras and later audio in his homes; Epstein was a constructed persona funded in part by Les Wexner, not a financial wizard who got rich on trades.

You’re saying intelligence ties, likely from a U.S. ally—who?

Israel, and Ghislaine Maxwell’s father’s deep ties are part of the connective tissue; there’s public evidence already, and more I won’t share here.

How sure are we about the recordings?

Witnesses described the setup, and when the FBI first searched, they photographed labeled discs, then inexplicably left and returned days later to find them gone.

Explain how blackmail worked without a direct threat.

You get a ‘bad news’ call that a massage was recorded and the girl was underage, then the caller offers to ‘handle it’—from that moment, you’re owned, which is why so few people do what Bezos did and go public.

He also carpet‑bombed invitations, even tried to pull big podcasters into his orbit.

That’s how influence campaigns work—you befriend nodes with reach, then nudge coverage and framing; with your platform, you’d be a prime target.

Some files are still redacted; do you expect more transparency?

More will surface, but don’t expect a podium confession; deals like the Florida plea with ‘unnamed co‑conspirators’ scream intelligence sensitivities, and leaders weigh whether the public can stomach allies running ops on U.S. soil.

You’ve become skeptical of official narratives; where did that come from?

History shows power centers lie—think asbestos in baby powder, Agent Orange, opioids—and I expect more admissions around vaccine harms over time; our norm as a species is tyranny, and democracies drift toward rule by regulation.

Where are we on the arc—U.S., U.K., the West?

We’re an empire in decline using fear to divide, yet I’m optimistic about human resilience when systems fail—people regroup locally and rebuild.

War with China feels unthinkable because of nukes.

It helps to update the picture—we’re already at war with Russia through targeting intel, EW, and satellites, because modern conflict is more than rifles on a line.

You once toured a CIA museum and saw a mechanical dragonfly—what did that tell you?

They had micro‑surveillance flying in the sixties, which suggests the public usually sees yesterday’s tech; today they can light up your phone, watch, and home devices at will—1984 wasn’t a warning, it was a blueprint.

What practical advice do you give your kids—and my listeners—for safety and sanity?

Honor intuition, the built‑in early‑warning system that moves faster than logic; if an elevator opens and your gut says no, let it close and wait, because true fear is a signal to act, not a feeling to debate.

I’ve felt off about people, only to learn later why—so we should train ourselves to hear that bell, not smother it.

Exactly—life experience adds distinctions, but the training that matters is shutting down the inner prosecutor and listening; the cost of a cautious choice is usually low, and the upside can be your life.

You’ve hinted your childhood shaped all this—what’s the context?

I grew up with violence and a heroin‑addicted mother who later died by suicide, and real healing came when I stopped using energy to manage the past; today I’m past forgiveness and into gratitude for what those lessons made possible.

What have you learned watching public figures privately?

Media is the mirage and touch is real, so I ground myself in what I can hold—nature, family, animals—and even as AI floods feeds with synthetic clips, that pressure may push us back toward what we can trust.

Isn’t the collapse in trust for institutions dangerous?

The real danger is centralization; human‑scale governance works around a few hundred people, which is why I champion subsidiarity and even run my company with daily pulse questions so we don’t lose the person in the process.

If your kids asked for one lesson on a good life, what would you say?

Contribute to others so you feel you belong, know that what’s right for you is right for them in the long run, and remember that everything you want is downstream—forcing what the current won’t give you rarely ends well.

That resonates; when I stopped forcing an old relationship and showed up to apologize with no agenda, it naturally rekindled and we found our way back.

That’s the current carrying you—effort isn’t the same as swimming against the river.

Why did The Gift of Fear explode the way it did?

It gave people permission to trust what their bodies already know, I risked telling hard personal truths, and the media tailwind helped—but it landed because the core ideas were universal.

Our last guest left you this: where does your purpose come from, objectively speaking?

I lean toward predetermination—I once stood on a Fijian reef as a storm, a sunburst, leaping fish, and a breaching whale unfolded in minutes, and it felt like a scene queued up by the universe; my teachers would say we’re robots who still get up and play our part.

We’ll link your books—The Gift of Fear, Protecting the Gift, and Forbidden Facts—and your site for those who want to work with you; thank you for the candor, the intuition lesson, and the jolt of reality.

Thank you—and if you’re young, fit, and mission‑driven, we’re hiring; beyond that, keep listening to that inner signal.

The YouTube AI thinks it knows your next best watch—apparently it’s this one; see you there.

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