When the Vice-President of Iran invited Nizar Zakka to speak at a September 2015 conference – as CEO of a global tech NGO working closely with the U.S. government – he never hesitated, and promptly booked a flight from D.C. to Tehran. He never dreamed he’d end up in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison as a political prisoner, experiencing solitary confinement and repeated torture.

Following his speech at the conference, Nizar entered a taxi to take him to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. En route his vehicle was pulled over by the infamous Iranian Revolutionary National Guard, and he was promptly seized and imprisoned.

Initially expecting the matter to be resolved in a matter of days, Nizar, a Lebanese citizen and legal U.S. resident, spent four years in prison. The U.S., led by the Obama administration, was wooing Iran at that time, and so didn’t go to bat for the release of a non-citizen resident of the U.S.-- even one that worked closely with government agencies focused on the Middle East. There was little progress or hope until Nizar began organizing his campaign for release from behind bars. With a big assist from his sister and the first Trump administration, he finally won his release.

Nizar now runs an organization called Hostage Aid Worldwide, dedicated to the release and support afterward for victims of unfair political imprisonment around the world.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Author Tom Sileo tells the inspiring story of the late Michael Ollis, one of thousands of young men who followed their fathers into the military. On August 28, 2013, Ollis, Staten Island native and 10th mountain soldier, was serving at Forward Operating Base Ghazni, a joint force partner mission with the Polish military. During a sneak attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest and Sgt. Ollis threw himself in front of Polish comrade, Karol Cierpica, whom he’d only met and fought side-by-side with minutes earlier. His selfless action saved the life of Cierpica and many others.

Celebrated to this day in the U.S. and especially his hometown of Staten Island, Ollis was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (the highest honor in the U.S. Army) and–perhaps even more remarkably–was honored by the Polish military as well, and is considered a hero in that country as well. Ollis’s family later met and embraced Cierpica (the man he saved) as family, and Cierpica named his son after Michael.

In his book, “I Have Your Back,” military author and expert on the Global War on Terror, Sileo honors one of America’s more recent heroes.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Born in Hawaii shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wade Ishimoto grew up to help found the storied Delta Force special operations group. Wade shares the story of his amazing career in U.S. Army intelligence starting in Vietnam, to the planning of the failed 1980 mission to rescue the U.S. hostages from Iran. He describes what it was like to be on the ground in the desert of Iran when Operation Eagle Claw was compromised and ended in tragedy.

Author of “The Intoku Code,” Wade has lived his life following the precept, “Do good in secret.”

We’re honored to have Wade Ishimoto join us.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com