The Debrief with Jon Becker
The Debrief with Jon Becker is a no-holds-barred conversational podcast on the leadership principles that govern the world’s elite tactical units. Featuring top military and law enforcement unit commanders from some of the most high-stakes fields, this podcast examines how to form and lead a highly effective team.
After four decades spent working in tandem with top law enforcement and military units, Jon has gained invaluable lessons in leadership, teamwork, communication, and training. Now, he is sharing these lessons through conversations with some of these amazing team leaders. The goal of the show is to make us all better leaders, thinkers, and people.
In each episode, The Debrief shares lessons in decision-making, training, personnel selection, and perseverance that apply to people from all walks of life. Our host Jon Becker, is an expert in tactical equipment; working with some of the world’s top-performing teams. The Debrief is Jon’s payback to the community, units, and leaders who trained him and helped make AARDVARK a success. With this show, Jon invites listeners to benefit from the same insights and stories that have shaped his career and how he views leadership.
Learn more at thedebrief.live
The Debrief with Jon Becker
The Lindt Café Hostage Siege – Sydney, AUS – Guest: Ben Besant (aka Officer A)
On the 15th of December 2014, a terrorist took over the Lindt Chocolate café in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney, Australia, holding 18 customers and staff hostage, creating a siege that would last for over 16 hours.
Although numerous hostages escaped, by the time the event conclude,d 2 innocent people were dead, 4 others were injured.
For 10 years, this incident was suppressed under a government-mandated gag order. This prevented the New South Wales Police Tactical Operations Unit (or TOU) members from even publicly revealing their names. As a result, despite a detailed and scathing coroner’s inquest report, the largest and most expensive in Australian history, there has been very little discussion about what actually happened that night, particularly from a tactical perspective.
In keeping with the standard policy of The Debrief, we will not be discussing the name, objectives, or affiliations of the terrorist in the hope that time will erase his memory. We will, of course, be discussing the names of the team, and in this case, hostages, because they are heroes and need to be remembered. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben Besant.
Guest:
My guest today is Ben Besant. Ben, or ‘Officer A’ as he was identified in the coroner’s report, was the lead member of the Alpha Team during the intervention and the officer who engaged and killed the terrorist. He is currently the author of a book Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! which details not only what happened that night but also explains a very personal battle to recover his mental health following ‘the Lindt Café siege.’
Resources:
Ben Besant - https://tigertigertigerbook.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086482286065#
Resolute Ready - https://resoluteready.com/
Official Report - https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2017/lindt_cafe_findings-and-recommendations.pdf
