Into the Lion's Den

An insider\u2019s look into nefarious world of hostage taking, where the traditional criminal industry of kidnap and ransom became kidnap and kill. Beheadings replaced proof of life videos as terrorism\u2019s latest tactic embodied the new face of post 9/11 Al Qaeda horror. When two Bulgarian truck drivers were kidnapped in June 2004, President Bush assured the President of Bulgaria that he would bring the full might of the United States to bear to secure their release. This \u201cfull might\u201d manifested itself in the form of an intense, highly trained Navy SEAL, recently assigned to the U.S. Ambassador\u2019s staff. Into the Lion\u2019s Den is his story of frustration and fear, terror and triumph in the murky world of kidnapping, ransom and murder. No one understood the problem, the operating environment or obstacles to overcome when a kidnapping occurred in the most dangerous kidnapping environment in the world better than Dan O\u2019Shea. Widespread hostage-taking incidents undermined every goal the US strived to complete in the post-Saddam era, becoming a metaphor for our failure to bring security, stability and governance to Iraq

Commander Daniel Patrick O'Shea is a qualified SEAL officer and 1991 graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. After two years on active duty, O'Shea accepted a final assignment to help establish the Inter-Agency coordination effort at the recently established U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Tasked by the Deputy Chief of Mission, he established and served as the Coordinator of the Hostage Working Group (HWG). O'Shea is recognized as an Islamic-extremist subject matter expert, and past guest interviewee on CNN, BBC, CBS and quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Esquire among many others. He has delivered Into the Lions' Den lecture series nationally and abroad.