joining me now from new york is christopher o'leary, senior vice president for global operations at the safan group, a global intelligence and security consultancy. he's also a former u.s. government director of hostage recovery. good to have you with us. >> good to be here. >> so in your role as the former director of hostage recovery for the u.s. government, you were dedicated to the safe rescue and recovery of u.s. citizens taken by terror groups. what are you hearing from your sources in the field about the release of those two americans who are held captive by hamas? why would hamas release those two? what was the calculation? >> well, it's tough to say exactly what their calculations were. but it was calculated. hamas did not do that because they're all of a sudden ben nfl leapt. they didn't do it for humanitarian reasons. i think it's important to recognize and remember they're a terrorist organization. they took hostages to terrorize. it's a tried and proven tactic for terrorist organizations in the modern era. and it's intended to influence victims beyond its immediate victims,

joining me now is christopher o'leary, who was until recently the u.s. director of hostage rescue and recovery. he has extensive experience with the fbi and counterterrorism and hostage matters throughout the middle east. mr. o'leary, thank you for being here. it seemed like there was hope yesterday of a major hostage release. and then all of a sudden came this uptick in israel's ground activity. do you relate the two? >> i do, but i also would caution that it was not going to ever be a major hostage release. it would have been a very deliberate, calculated and manipulative release of some additional hostages by hamas, but they're not going to open the flood gates and release any leverage that they have on israel and the international community. >> there have been no public signs of life. what, if anything, do you make of that? >> well, i make of it that they are likely being held in the gaza metro, probably see creted in the most secure areas and most difficult to get to by idf if and when they start going in more deliberately. so, listen, hamas is look

. >> christopher o'leary joins me now from new york.enior vice president for global operations at the safari group. until last month he was the director of hostage recovery for the u.s. government. appreciate you talking with us. >> happy to be here. >> israel believes 199 hostages are being held in gaza. hamas says they have more than 200, people happy even 250 hostages. however mandy they are holding, that is a lot of people, who need food, water, and other basic necessities. what conditions would they be living under, right now? do you assume they are all being held in the underground tunnels? >> so traditionally speaking, hamas has treated there are hostages well. they're your currency for hamas. if you reflect back to one of their more infamous cases where they took israeli soldier, they held him for older five years, but then traded him years later, for 100 palestinian prisoners. it is in their interest to treat the hostage as well. secondly, because there is international hostages who have dual citizenship from places like the un

joining me now is christopher o'leary. the sudan group. but until last, month he was the director of hostage recovery for the united states government. he's got decades of experience working counterterrorism, as well as an hostage rescue and recovery efforts. which makes him the greatest and perfect person to talk to all. this good person -- good to see one person again, thank you for talking with us. whatever is going on there's clearly something going on, because we had two hostages released, and we had the government of qatar involved, which is fairly typical when we deal with hostage releases. so there is some conversation going on somewhere. but, in your old job, until a month ago, there would also be a different, a parallel track in the case that everything went wrong, and you need to go in the hot to get these hostages. you, mean the american government, or troops, or israelis, or whomever. tell me about how these parallel tracks work? >> so, as soon as an american is taken, it triggers the response from the u.s. go

i'll be joined by christopher o'leary, he's the former director of the hostage recovery for the unitede left only last month. he's a former fbi special forces operator, and he was in charge of, as we were just explaining, for technical rescues of hostages, when negotiations fail. he joins us tomorrow morning, 10 am, eastern. still to come, when your lawyers need, lawyers and then your lawyers plead guilty, integrated cooperated prosecutors who charge you, you might be squirming a bit. coming up next, the latest on the two plea deals taken this week by donald trump's codefendants, in the election interference case at a fulton county, georgia. interference case at a fulto county, georgia. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches, and b-complex vitamins to fortify healthy nerves. try nervive. and, try nervive pain relieving roll-on. >> perhaps understanding several new stories was the fact that donald trump had a pretty bad. weak and that's not cou