Episode 137: Mark Thundercloud – Negotiating Philippine Kidnapping, Captain Phillips

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Retired agent Mark Thundercloud served in the FBI for nearly 28 years. Early in his career, he was trained as a crisis negotiator and was eventually promoted to the FBI Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), in the Crisis Negotiation Unit. In this episode of FBI Retired Case File Review, Mark Thundercloud reviews the Philippine kidnapping case of an American mother and son, Gerfa and Kevin Lunsmann, kidnapped by terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf while visiting relatives in the Philippines. Thundercloud also talks about his role in the rescue of the Maersk Alabama commercial vessel’s Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates. During his career, Mark Thundercloud responded to major crisis incidents around the world and managed the FBI Crisis Negotiator Program and the approximately 375 Special Agent negotiators throughout the U.S. He also organized many instructional courses and trained hostage/crisis negotiation and suicide intervention to thousands of FBI Agents, domestic and foreign police officers, military, and other personnel throughout the U.S. and the world. Mark Thundercloud personally responded to major incidents in the United States such as the Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho, the Freemen incident in Montana, the Boston Marathon Bombings, and to the Standing Rock, North Dakota oil pipeline conflict. He has also deployed with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team to numerous other arrest and search warrant events. To assist in negotiations of kidnapped Americans and others, Thundercloud deployed to the countries of Afghanistan, Colombia, England, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as inside the United States. In 2011, Mr. Thundercloud received the FBI Director’s Meritorious Achievement Award for negotiations conducted during a piracy-related hijacking of the near the coast of Somalia.