The Truth About CIA Hit Teams, Black Ops & Covert Action | Ric Prado (throwback)

September 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Ric Prado was eight years old when he saw a firing squad in front of his house in Cuba. That image, and the rapid transformation of his country under Castro, set the course for a career that would take him from Air Force pararescue to the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, where he became Chief of Operations. In this conversation on The Team House, Prado walks through the reality of covert action—what it actually looks like on the ground, how it differs from the Hollywood version, and why the most important skill for a CIA officer is not pulling a trigger but staying invisible.

From Peter Pan to Paramilitary

Prado’s entry into the CIA began with a childhood escape. Through the Catholic Church’s Peter Pan program, his parents put their only child on a plane to the United States alone. He spent eight months in an orphanage in Pueblo, Colorado, learning English from C. Spot Run books, before his parents managed to leave Cuba and reunite the family in Miami. That experience forged what Prado calls a “debt of honor” to the United States—a conviction that drove him to join the Air Force as a pararescueman (PJ) and later, after a failed first application, to the CIA as a contract medic.

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What you'll learn

1 (02:15) **Cuban Childhood & Escape from Castro** - Prado describes witnessing the revolution as a child, the toxic environment under Castro, and being sent to the U.S. alone at age eight via the Peter Pan program.
2 (10:00) **Origin Story: Pararescue & Joining the CIA** - Prado recounts his path from Air Force PJ to his first backdoor entry into the CIA as a contract medic for the Contra program in Honduras.
3 (15:35) **Honduras: The Covert Contra War** - Prado explains his first mission as "Captain Alex," the only American allowed in the Contra camps, and the challenges of building a fighting force from scratch.
4 (24:14) **The Barracuda Operation & Bridge Rescue** - Prado describes training Miskito lobster divers ("Barracudas") to blow up the Puerto Cabezas pier, a major success.
5 (35:21) **The Hasenfus Incident & The Southern Front** - Prado explains how the shot-down plane of Eugene Hasenfus exposed the American hand and his own shift to running a covert "French resistance" style operation out of Costa Rica.
6 (46:16) **Dual-Track Case Officer & Recruiting a Terrorist** - Prado describes his transition from contractor to a formal CIA officer and his first CT tour in South America, where he recruited a terrorist asset using coercion.
7 (51:17) **The Myth of CIA Hit Teams** - Prado directly addresses the Hollywood perception of the CIA, arguing that if an officer draws a weapon, the mission has already failed.

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Show Notes

original air date 5/13/22

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Ric Prado is a former CIA operations officer who spent more than two decades working in some of the agency’s most demanding assignments, including counterterrorism, paramilitary operations, and overseas intelligence missions. He later chronicled his career in Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior, offering a rare look at the covert side of U.S. national security.

Grab Ric's book here:
"Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior"
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Ops-Life-Shadow-Warrior/dp/1250271843

Support our show here:
https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTeamHouse

00:00 – Start
01:19 – Escaping Castro’s Cuba as a Child
08:00 – Joining the Air Force & Becoming a Pararescueman
11:33 – Ric’s First Exposure to the CIA
15:00 – Undercover With the Contras in Honduras
23:16 – CIA Sabotage Missions Against the Sandinistas
26:31 – A Covert Mission Goes Wrong
35:23 – Running the Southern Front & the Iran-Contra Scandal
40:13 – Becoming a CIA Operations Officer
51:15 – Fighting Terrorists in the Philippines
57:35 – Ric Addresses the CIA Hitman Allegations
1:05:06 – The Original Bin Laden Task Force & North Korea Operations
1:18:08 – Building a CIA Intelligence Capability in Africa
1:22:17 – Inside CIA’s Counterterrorism Center on 9/11
1:31:55 – Building a New Post-9/11 Covert Operations Team
1:58:16 – Blackwater, Intelligence Operations & Life After the CIA
2:18:48 – How to Join the CIA & Advice for Future Officers

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