The Super-Secure Delivery Service That Only Diplomats Can Use
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
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As a Bulgarian, I'm absolutely not surprised the only package that was lost was stolen here
Imagine being the one guy in the service that lost a package - and it is a freaking piano to boot.
“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."
He left it unattended in Bulgaria, rookie mistake.
"Even the most useless person serves as a bad example"
@zig913 atleast it wasn't romania
a whole piano, unbelievable 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
This reminds me of an old job. We where trained what not to do regarding corruption.
We where not allowed to take clients onto the company Yacht.
Someone asked for a real example. The trainer stated that this IS a real example.
Now where where wondering where the company Yacht is docked, because nobody could have imagined that we had a company Yacht.
Fun fact: USPS Priority (edit: REGISTERED) Mail is approved for classified material up to SECRET
Double-wrapped and reported to your security consultant of course.
Only domestically as Registered Mail though. Probably a rare case these days too since documents nowadays are digitized and sent through classified-level VPNs.
Whar @@doujinflip
Secret isn’t very classified though lol
@@shawnjoseph4009 there's Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret
Yeah, right! There I was a Second Lieutenant recently assigned to First Signal Group in Orleans, France. This was 1961. MY CO called me in one morning in early December. "Hey, Lieutenant, you're Jewish, aren't you? Therefore, you won't be celebrating Christmas, will you?" I nodded. "I've got a little job for you. On December 25th you're going to be assigned as a diplomatic courier on a flight from Paris to New York City. Your orders are being cut."
Hey that was great. I was from NYC and I could surprise my folks.
On Monday morning I arrived at Orly Airport and went to the diplomatic office. I got my .45, met the Sergeant assigned and was taken to the baggage area. The compartment was loaded with postal sacks. I sealed the door and climbed the stairs to the plane's passenger area.
Well, surprise, when we boarded the whole coach passenger area was filled with mail sacks. Primarily military mail heading home to the US. There were no coach passengers.
The stewardess told us we had been upgraded to First Class. In First Class there were only four other passengers:
Bob Hope and Danny Thomas. They had been in Paris for a TV special.
The Sergeant and I had a ball. We played bridge with them; we ate with them; we heard war stories, and I heard the famous story about David Niven and the Battle of the Bulge which I have told numerous times.
When I arrived in New York City I taxied to my folk's apartment, had a great dinner and was back in France the next day.
What fun!
Funny how the fact that you don't celebrate Christmas led to you being able to visit your parents for Christmas.
My pal@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 just doesn't understand the military. None of us celebrated Halloween so we all had duty. Now that should scare you. America in defense.
One nitpick: Courier pouches are not always met by diplomatic couriers at the receiving end. The only requirement is that the recipient be a top secret cleared employee. At some Embassies, this function is performed by the cleared American IT staff, at others there is a rotation amogst staff from across the post, and at some of the largest posts there are positions dedicated to courier pouch processing who are resident in that post and not themselves part of the DCS. (Source: Volume 12, section 126.1 of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual, available on the Internet).
Note: the Diplomatic Security Service is one of the HARDEST special agent jobs to get in the Federal Government. Under 2% of applicants make it through the multiple tests (even a writing sample!), in person vetting process, extensive background checks and situational judgement scenarios. Even after all of that, you now must ACE 9 months of intensive training before you get to work as an agent. Oh, and you need 4 years of college and can’t be older than 37 UNLESS you have been working in the military, and even then you’ll need a wavier from the higher ups at DSS.
Welp, there goes my dream job that I've only just found out about. 😭😂
Gahhh
It is just an easy job and too many people can handle it/apply. Fewer apply to Navy Seal because people understand their chances.
Quite interesting! It'd be easy enough to make a TV series out of this idea, title it "Couriers", and exagerate some stories to create an amusing show.
I'd like to see a bunch of consular officers get together and write up a screenplay for "The Line", because apparently it's just nonstop drama at the visa windows 🛂
They could send a banana as a joke😂
The Pan Am show was a mix between couriers and desperate housewives
@@au5tieno it was more spycraft and desperate housewives and the golden age of jets and it definitely should have gotten a second season. that was the first thing i ever saw margot robbie in!
I mean, given that in the line of duty they've lost more courier lives than packages, you might not need too much exaggeration.
FYI at 4:10 , "Mauritian" refers to people from the Island country of Mauritius - not Mauritania. I was confused how they suddenly built a road from Senegal into the ocean.
Can’t wait to see it in the mistake video!
With grit and determination, thats how!
I was searching for this comment 🙂
The Flag was also outdated, the current version has red stripes
Yeah they also pronounced Lodz very wrong
As a former Defense Courier also called DCS (Defense Courier Service) we worked with them primarily between our Ft. Meade, MD station and their D.C area location. We would hand over material they could delivery more efficiently and vice versa. It was a fun job for about a year or 2, but there comes a point where it gets monotonous. I got to go to Cuba, Germany, Canada, Portugal and flew in a UPS cargo jump seat to Louisville, KY quite often. One major difference is the DCS (Military) uses 2 couriers vs the 1 the state department uses, but generally we have a lot more classified then they do. 20 years ago someone wrote about out history and we had a spy at out Paris location helping out the soviets. In 1980 a hijacking in Italy and after the Gulf War the Saudi King wrote a $760 Million check we delivered to D.C.
In the 1980s, Nigerian officials worked with Mossad to abduct a former minister and stick him in a crate labeled as a diplomatic parcel. It wasn’t properly labeled so British customs officials were able to open it.
That incident would make a pretty good video itself.
How long did it take for Amy to get a diplomatic job so she could research this episode?
Nah, they just stuffed her in a diplomatic pouch, sent her across the world, and had her keep track of the process.
@@JanTuts AirTag in the pouch? :)
@@fetzie23 ... They only thought of that after they had already sent her off :P
When I was in the Army, I did the mail for my Military Intelligence unit. The deployed back from Iraq, and had to mail some of their classified documents. I had to go through the whole process of getting a secret security clearance just to drive my GSA van to the post office, sign for a poster tube marked classified, drive it to the CO, and leave it in a chair in his office while he finished putting his stuff on shelves.
There is always a theoretical possibility of you seeing the contents of the pouch. (Through no foul play, such as recovering the contents of a broken container after a car crash. The process of getting the clearance also vets you personally to make sure you do no foul play.)
Oh finally someone made a video about this extremely specific topic that I really needed to know about, no way!
There's actually a really interesting book about the events Sam describes at 1:26. It's called The Spy in Moscow Station.
Couriers escorting pouches also automatically fly business class when available since they're on the clock, and get to keep the miles too 😮
But it's _when available_, since not all routes can use a commercial airline and someone higher up does the scheduling. So there's also cases where they're seated on charter flights, airfreighter jump seats, riding shotgun in a truck, or even berthing on the dreaded transoceanic slow boat.
When flying on business with any company you always get to keep the miles which is a nice perk for sure. That’s because airlines assign miles to the specific person flying.
Save em up and use them for personal flights.
@@CityLifeinAmericano, they do not get miles, in fact they are banned from keeping loyalty info for diplomatically immune transports
@erkinalp are you saying that actual ambassadors are specifically excluded from the airline's so-called "ambassador" programs? 😂
All of those things sound great, at least you get to travel for free and get well paid for it.
@@erkinalp Depends on the sending country. American couriers can claim the perks, while Australian ones may not.
I remember when I travelled back (with a big group of diplomats) from Beijing to the U.S. they gave us a bunch of these orange packages to take with us because of increased tensions with China. So basically every one of the diplomats acted as a courier I guess. This was about a 6 months ago.
4:22 That is no longer the flag of Mauritania. There are now two red bands on the top and bottom.
4:40 - The pronunciation of Łódź was amazing. 75% of letters are not something generally found in English; but that's apparently not an issue, just remove all the pesky extra lines and read whatever is left.
(Apart from that great video, as usual)
Polish should just maybe stop using mildly different characters for wildly different sounds.
O and Ö look similar, sound similar. L and Ł look similar but sound very different. Makes it more difficult for no reason
@ absolutely wild fucking take. yea just change your whole language for people who dont even live in your country, sounds like a plan
@how about look up how to pronounce a language before reading lines containing that language instead of just plowing ahead like a doofus ignoring new letters and diacritical marks
Wooch!
Did you mean: Woosh!
I think you meant Mauritanian, not Mauritian. Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
According to a polish coworker, Lodz is pronounced like wodge
Yeah, that's probably as close to sounding correct as you can get with english pronounciation
more like woodge
He didn't pronounce correctly Nouakchott either.
woodge, or wooji, but shorten the last "i"
@@Mido_that’s crazy. What’s y’all favorite food
1:05 the pro Byzantium half as interesting shows Constantinople on the map
It's not an anachronism. Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, but the name wasn't changed to Istanbul officially until the 1930s, and this is talking about the immediate post WW1 era, so the name is appropriate.
@@michael_bettsit's always appropriate ☦️ 😊
The scene in The Americans where the Soviet courier takes the pouch to the bathroom to be x-ray'd through the stall wall is one of the best scenes in that series.
Also, haven't various high profile defections happened via diplomatic 'pouch' (as in a person stowed inside a large container with a diplomatic seal) or is that some made up James Bond shit? In another scene in The Americans, that Soviet scientist arrives via 'pouch'
One of my fave HAI vids in a while! Top secret stuff and logistics are both so fun.
Also, thank you to the entire team that makes these videos (especially writers Amy Adam and Ben) for a truly fantastic year of videos!
Wait. The only package that’s ever been stolen from this service was an ENTIRE ASS PIANO?
I'm imagining it's 50% classified documents/drives and 50% pharmaceutical.
Yes, it's kind of a public secret that diplomats smuggle lots of stuff.
10% classified documents, 30% "pharmaceutical", 60% children.
The thing I learned in this video is that the weird government agency Hobbs worked for in fast and furious is real
Lol, I worked at the DS Los Angeles field office back in the day. I answered that phone when the studio called to get an advisor. Transferred it to my boss. Can confirm it's not very accurate.
We need more about this. This is awesome
105 years service😂😂😂😂 , the Kings messengers have been delivering messages for 800 years
It's remarkable what the US government is capable of, now if only we could get that same kind of effort when it comes to doing literally anything for their own citizens.
This IS for the benefit our own citizens! Everything going into and out of a U.S. Embassy or Consulate (whether Classified or Unclassified) is brought in by Diplomatic Pouch. (However, only the Classified ones are escorted by Diplomatic Couriers). The US Embassy and Consulate employees serve the American people. Don’t believe me? Tell me what you will do, and who you will turn to when you get your passport and wallet stolen while traveling overseas. Or what happens to your body if you happen to die overseas? Your friendly US Embassy and Consulate folks are there to help you (and/or your next of kin) for these and plenty more problems that you can’t even imagine. (If you have ever served as an Embassy Duty Officer, you’d understand).
Not everybody serving at an Embassy/Consulate goes around with their pinkies in the air sipping champagne at cocktail parties. In fact, they are some of the hardest working folks I know - living in less than ideal/friendly countries, working literally night and day (and holidays) during periods of crisis.
@@bonmacp I'm not saying this isn't important. I'm saying that this shows they CAN be efficient and excellent at whatever they want to be good at. The only thing standing in their way is the fact that shareholders don't benefit from giving Americans good healthcare etc.
"The Silver Greyhounds" was the royal messenger service set up by King Charles II in the 1600's and used by the British ever since. Woodrow Wilson must have been inspired to use the same name.
They're called the King's/Queen's Messengers now, but their emblem is a silver greyhound
Interesting and informative video, I learned a lot and found the style very pleasant.
1:28 "My keystrokes are being recorded? Literally 1984 i tell ya"
The USDCS is a really, really great job and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes travel, doesn't like people much and can pass the checks and balances.
Also, the UK's diplomatic courier service originated as and still includes the King's Messengers, and formed in the 19th century, and which inspired the US DCS, and which I assume inspired the "Silver Greyhound" name, given they used badges and emblems of a silver greyhound.
04:40 I just couldn't stop laughing at your pronunciation of Łódź. Cute! I'm so happy the city name appeared on the screen 😂😂😂
im colorblind, and i cant believe THIS is how i found out that fedex's colors are purple and orange.
I heard a horror story about one of these diplomatic pouches making it to an embassy in the UK. Turns out, it was a machine gun used on innocent people and the UK government had to cut ties with the embassy's home country before they could arrest the offender.
Well there is one exception when a bunch of people want to smuggle gold they did use Diplomatic pouches but they did get caught
I was sent as a diplomatic courier a little while ago, it will always be in my memories, however the task was way more challenging than what is shown in the video.
Interesting that the army's precursor to the DCS was called the silver greyhounds. The British equivalent to the DCS, the King's Messengers, has a silver greyhound as its badge. The King's Messengers have been around since at least 1199
this is the epitome of DUTY! Bravo ! This would be an AWESOME job man!
6:00 Gotta love the way that sponsor starts out. Throwing obvious shade at the completionist and his fraud. 😂
I snorted when a damned piano was the stolen package.
Excellent video 👍 Thank you 💜
4:02 What are Fixers?
Sounds like someone from a Hollywood movie on drugs…
I know a dude that sat on the tarmac with printers & etc for 6hrs in the sun. He had to make sure no one touched it during the lack of transport in country.. He was in a suit and it was south east asia. he pissed in a bottle..
Oh, the stories we could tell! If you only knew! Each of us could write our own book.
It's a little suspicious that Givewell is sponsoring ads across several channels. Plus the number of ads I get for charities in general is ridiculous. Makes you wonder how they can afford all those promotions. 🤔
Givewell is actually a really good website/charity, its a nice watchdog. Most charities have an advertisement budget. After all, if you spend $1 and gain $10 for charities that do well, its a good investment that helps more people. But true you have to be careful of bad charities, but you can use a bunch of charity watchdogs(including givewell) to see if your money is well spent.
charities aside, because I fully agree on that point, it’s entirely possible that Givewell is paying below market rate but many channels are willing to accept it to help promote responsible giving
They afford it with YOUR donations. 🙄 … the rest goes to salary and administrative expenses.
You used the old flag for Maturitius. To the HAI corrections bucket with yehs!! And right after AtlasPro made a video about their flag change too!
Ah, so like a high-end, secure Uber Eats!
This is how high level smuggling works
I work at a freight forwarding company in Europe. And we sometimes handle Diplomatic Pouches, but its usually just furniture or other personal belongings. Usually when they move to and from a country. Its handled like secured freight but without it being checked. So nobody will ever take a look whats inside. Nor is it x-rayed, sniffed or in any other way checked.
There are no security officers or something following it, this seems only to apply to american diplomats.
Americans also send a lot of unaccompanied diplomatic bags, but it's for stuff like unclassified paper records, official gifts, and personal parcels from those who don't use APO/FPO/DPO via the Post Office.
I've actually done this job in the receiving end. I was be the person at the receiving airport.
Very strong Going Postal vibes, Sir Terry.
so this is how the coke is moved
Sounds like an epic job
I served as a U.S. Diplomatic Courier for 26 years. It was the best job in the world.
I worked for fed ex in the UK and they certainly had a diplomatic courier service, we couldn’t even X-ray it.
There are a few unscrupulous countries traffic a huge amount of narcotics via their diplomatic pouches. In 2012, a 16 kilogram shipment of cocaine was sent to the United Nations in New York. There have been other incidents involving south American and African countries.
Amy could have had a great field trip on this one.
Best channel for gold and other stuff smuggling
Transporting a piano? I bet you 99% of the time they use this service to avoid fees and smuggle drugs.
You’d bet wrong.
DHL did this in the middle east in the 79s, 80s and 90s. Especially Beirut which was in civil war.
The Courier Service would charter a small DHL cargo plane from our hub office in Bahrain to fly to several places in the Middle East. We shared the plane (both costs and cargo space) with the Brits (Queen’s Messengers). The only people onboard were the two US Couriers and two QMs, along with the two DHL pilots.
sounds like a sick job. would love that.
I'm looking for a transporter. "I'm listening."
2:35 Harrison Ford is piloting that plane - taking off from a taxiway
Man, these guys are one exoskeleton with a baby attached away from being Death Stranding couriers
can i wrap my parcel in that pouch?
Lodz in Poland is pronounced Wudge to rhyme with budge. That's the reason it's my favourite Polish city.
Your pronunciation of Helsinki is perfect
3:46 I was exactly here one time, thats a piece of the Berlin wall.
That would be embarrassing to have to admit you lost a piano?
2:27 Hey really- are you Czech related or what? XD So many hints at that at so many videos LOL
@4:38 the town in Poland is pronounced "Wooj". My grandad was always fascinated by this place. My girlfriend is half Polish and taught me why
Ł = a 'w' sound
Ó = 'oo'
Dz = 'j'
This is a subject I have a lot of first-hand experience with and still learned something about the piano. Thanks HAI!
Still have to quibble that staff on the receiving end are not usually technically couriers themselves. But good video.
New knowledge acquired.
The UK has the King’s Messengers… they have their own passports and everything.
The Silver Greyhounds are the UK's Corps of King's Messengers, they got the name Silver Greyhounds from Charles II but had already been running important messages since the 12th century.
The USA's DCS were based on the Kings Messengers.
So I should use that delivery service
So snail mail for security or what in the world are they transporting?
I was totally expecting this one to be sponsored by NordVPN. Seems like the perfect segue.
HAI totally "forget" to mention that DCS is often used to smuggle stuff, especially drugs and illegally import stuff (unpaid custom electronic, historical statue etc)
A small correction: It’s Mauritanian not Mauritian (that’s referring to Mauritius). That’s a common mistake though. Great video
Quite an intereting job to have.
I see these diplomatic packages at UPS quite often actually.
Those would be the white Unclassified pouches. The classified ones are orange, and are always escorted by DoS Couriers.
"Loads" Poland 🤣
Im sure they’ve transported a platinum chip at some point
at least this means the us government don't loose secret files
Can you ship a diplomatic brick with the diplomatic courier service? Asking for a friend!
I love how miami is in cuba.
I have heard stories of treats for children delivered by heavily armed diplomatic courrier service asking which room is safe to drop the loot in an African orphanage. (From a European embassy, not US)
As a French, I know why they chose Tours: there was a US military base there. Everything should be under control.
This job is so cool!!! The government needs to do a better job at letting college students know cool jobs like this exist in the federal government. If I knew this was an actual job I definitely would've looked into the qualifications on how to become a Diplomatic Courier. How cool would it be to say you work for the State Department, but my job is classified? It seems Navy SEALs training would be required or some kind of gun proficiency. Aren't you supposed to stop someone from taking the orange pouch if it's ever in jeopardy?
Lol relax. They don't carry guns and there's no SEAL training. You use "verbal judo" to de-escalate any problems. They do plenty of recruiting, college kids just don't care about it. And you can join whenever, we had a guy join who was a cop for 25 years.
The job isn’t classified; what we carried was. Former military service isn’t a requirement, but most couriers have served. If you were a college graduate and had prior military experience, those were qualifications which put you ahead of someone without that kind of experience. It is very rare someone fresh out of college gets selected to be a DoS Courier. (I was a USMC Intelligence Officer; I had the qualifications of having a high level security clearance, several prior background investigations, and training in the handling of classified materials). Weapons training isn’t required, because we aren’t armed.
Idk if givewell is actually legit but I'm glad ur doing that kinda sponsorship instead of accepting them from questionable charities cuz I remember that happening at least once lol
They are the green berets of the mail service lol
You’re not far wrong.
Weapons and contraband smuggling service.
Would make for a good premise for a heist/spy movie
There actually was a (terrible) movie made in the 1950’s (starring Tyrone Power and Patricia Neal) called “Diplomatic Courier”.
1:02 I see that Constantinople, Sam...
That's really neat!
I want a video on the one package 😂
Hell of a way to ship bricks.
How do you apply for this job