Robert Young Pelton

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Robert Young Pelton ©Spencer Mandell. Used by permission

Robert Young Pelton (b. July 25, 1955 in Edmonton), is a Canadian born, American adventurer, journalist, and former strategic planner. He publishes a regularly updated guide, The World's Most Dangerous Places, which provides practical and survival information for people who work and travel in high risk zones. He was also host of the Discovery Travel Channel series "Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places" from 1998 to 2003. He currently writes books and produces documentaries on conflict-related subjects. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

1 Author and Journalist
2 Adventurer and Filmmaker
3 Bibliography
4 External links
- 4.1 National Geographic Adventure Columns

[edit] Author and Journalist

His upcoming books range from documenting his time inside private military contractors (Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror - Crown), to his experiences with US Special Forces in the opening weeks in the war on terror (The Regulators), and even a fictional book (Raven- Penguin) based on his early years. He is currently working on the updated version of his best known book (DP- Professional Strength - Harper Collins), writes a column, "Pelton's World" for National Geographic Adventure and is shooting a documentary based on his new book on private military contractors. As an author and a journalist, Pelton may be best known for the world exclusive interview with John Walker Lindh in the battle of Qala'a-e Jangi, December 2, 2001 for CNN, his 10-day kidnapping in the Darien Gap in January 2003 by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and his exclusive interview inside Grozny in December of 1999 with captured Russian GRU agent Alexi Galkin, who admitted that the Russian FSB was behind the October 1999 apartment bombings that triggered the second Chechen war. Pelton has also been inside the drug business in Colombia and Peru, with the mafyia in Georgia and Turkey, bounty hunting in Mexico, hunting pirates with mercenaries in Sierra Leone and in on the hunt for Osama bin Laden along the Pakistani/Afghan border.

[edit] Adventurer and Filmmaker

As an adventurer and filmmaker, Pelton has spent time with many of the world's most dangerous and well known terrorist, rebel or insurgent groups, often returning with exclusive and unique footage. A partial list includes: Ahmed Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance, Francis Ona of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, the Taliban leadership in Kabul, the FARC leadership in Colombia, Syrian insurgents during the war in Iraq, the Chechen rebel leadership in Grozny, the leadership of the LURD rebels in Liberia, Hashim Salamat of the MILF in the Southern Philippines and many others. He has also the only journalist in the early days of the war on terror in Afghanistan, living with US Army Special Forces A-Teams during the war in Afghanistan and General Dostum. During the war in Iraq, Pelton initially worked for ABC Investigative and then CBS 60 Minutes but eventually chose to drive around the country in a red Bentley Mulsanne (liberated from Uday Hussein) and document mass graves for two months. In late 2004 he lived with a Blackwater USA security team running Route Irish between the Green Zone and BIAP doing the daily runs for a month. Most recently has been in negotiations with the President of Equatorial Guinea regarding the arrested coup plotters, many of whom had worked for Executive Outcomes in the mid '90s.^{[citation needed]}

Pelton's travels and projects have taken through well over 100 countries most often during times of intense conflict. He has traveled and worked (often alone) in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Uganda, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Eastern Turkey, Bougainville, Cambodia, Pakistan, the Southern Philippines, Algeria, Liberia, Tajikistan, Southern Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia and the Darien Gap, as well as numerous other lethal locations. He considers himself a witness to conflict, rather than a journalist and usually defers credit when working behind enemy lines.^{[citation needed]} Pelton prefer to use his experiences and coverage to create his own book and television projects.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bibliography

Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror (ISBN 1400097819)
DP Professional Strength (ISBN 0061120219)
The World's Most Dangerous Places (ISBN 0060011602)
The Adventurist, My Life In Dangerous Places (ISBN 0767905768)
Hunter Hammer and Heaven, Journeys to Three World's Gone Mad (ISBN 1585744166)
Come Back Alive (ISBN 0385495668)
The Best American Travel Writing
Best Adventure and Travel Stories
American Soldier
Boots on the Ground
Fielding's Hot Spots, Travel in Harm's Way
Fielding's Borneo