Robert Young Pelton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Robert Young Pelton ©Spencer Mandell. Used by permission
Robert Young Pelton ©Spencer Mandell. Used by permission

Robert Young Pelton (b. July 25, 1955, Edmonton, Canada), is an author, journalist and documentary filmmaker. A self-styled adventurer, he considers himself a "witness" to conflict, rather than a journalist.[1]

Pelton prefers to use his experiences and coverage to create his own book and television projects.[2] He is noted for his regularly published 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. Now residing in Los Angeles, California, Pelton currently writes books and produces documentaries on conflict-related subjects.

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-1990s.[3]

Contents

[edit] Writing projects

Pelton has written about contemporary private military contractors (Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror), as well as his experiences with US Special Forces in the opening weeks in the war on terror (The Regulators). He has also written a fictionalized account of his early life, entitled Raven, as well as an autobiography entitled The Adventurist.

He is currently working on the updated version of DP: Professional Strength while writing a column entitled, "Pelton's World" for National Geographic Adventure. Pelton has been known for conducting exclusive intereviews in high-risk areas, including one with John Walker Lindh in December 2001, and with captured Russian GRU agent Alexei Galkin in Grozny, Chechnya.

Pelton has also investigated from the inside the drug business in Colombia and Peru, mafyia in Georgia and Turkey, and bounty hunting in Mexico. In January 2003, Pelton was kidnapped in the Darien Gap by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and held for 10 days before being released.

[edit] Film and Print projects

Pelton has built a career around his own unique experiential style of reportage and documentary filmmaking, spending time with many different terrorist, rebel or insurgent groups around the world, often returning with exclusive and unique footage. Some of the groups include, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the LURD rebels in Liberia, MILF in the Southern Philippines, Bougainville Revolutionary Army, the SPLA in Southern Sudan, the Taliban leadership in Kabul, the FARC leadership in Colombia, and the Chechen rebel leadership.

During the first few weeks of Operation Enduring Freedom, Pelton was in combat with a covert U.S. Army Special Forces A-Team (ODA 595) during the war in Afghanistan and with Northern Alliance General Rashid Dostum. During the war in Iraq, Pelton initially worked for ABC Investigative and then CBS's 60 Minutes but eventually chose to document evidence of mass graves around the country, traveling in a red Bentley previously owned by Uday Hussein.

In late 2004 he lived with a Blackwater USA security team running Route Irish in Baghdad while researching Licensed to Kill. He continues to travel to hotspots to produce documentaries like National Geographic Explorer's "Iraq's Hired Guns" and book projects like his upcoming on "Inside Special Forces" for Popular Mechanics. Currently Pelton owns and contributes to Iraqslogger.com

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

[edit] National Geographic Adventure Columns

"Pelton's World" column from National Geographic Adventure Magazine

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this section may require cleanup.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page, and/or replace this tag with a more specific message. Editing help is available.
This section has been tagged since January 26 2007.
  • [4] "ShadowCompany" footage and interview with Pelton on mercenaries and contractors.
  • [5] "Iraq for Sale" interview with Pelton on mercenaries and contractors.
  • [6], IraqSlogger.com. Pelton's blogs on the Iraq disaster, 2006-2007.
  • [7] National Geographic Explorer "Iraq's Guns For Hire" (Executive Producer)
  • [8] Bounty Hunting - History Channel - Interview and footage about Peton's bounty hunting in Mexico with Irish American Jihadi Aqil Collins
  • [9] Child Soldiers - History Channel - Pelton's footage and interview from his time in Liberia as General Jungle Fire with the LURD rebels
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/o/b/Robert_Young_Pelton_6e23.html"