Tag Archives: middle-east

The Rest is Classified Episode 100 Putin’s Secret Army: Fighting with Assad in Syria (Episode 3) Prigozhin met with Dmitry Utkin, a Nazi-leaning ex-soldier with the GRU Military Intelligence Unit. His favourite composer was Wagner, which is not unexpected amongst neo-Nazis, and this became his call sign, and later the name of the group he founded with Prigozhin. The hosts of the podcast, former CIA analyst turned spy novelist, David McCloskey, and veteran security correspondent, Gordon Corera, note that in all ages and all countries have their own mercenaries, not just Russia. There was restlessness in the Crimea and Ukraine, and with his contacts and supply lines of food to the military, Prigozhin could make himself “useful”. He arranged for 200 mercenaries (the ‘little green men’) in Crimea and Ukraine before their takeover by Russia, and it was proRussian groups who shot down Malaysian airlines MH17. Using his PR skills, Prigozhin was able to muddy the waters over the whole affair. The Wagner group fought a dirty war and by 2011 they had committed 1000 men, but the 2015 Minsk theoretically brought the fighting to a close (theoretically). By Sept 2015 the Wagner group was involved in Syria, where Russia had many interests and wanted to project its power. Russia was a big arms supply to Assad, and by 2016, 2500 mercenaries had been equipped by Russia. Soon there were very violent videos circulating on the internet showing beheadings etc. which all helped to build the mythology of the Wagner mercenaries. Prigozhin’s men were involved in fighting IS in Palmyra, and he soon started taking his cut from the infrastructure he ‘liberated’. But when the Wagner group attacked a US base, the Russians denied all knowledge of him and the attack, and suggested that he was freelancing (which he may very well have been doing). Prigozhin was furious with the Russian Ministry of Defence for not backing him up. In 2018 he was indicted by the US for interference in the 2016 election, and he shifted his attention to Africa.

The Global Story. The whole world was talking about Mark Carney’s talk at DAVOS, and I just felt relief that someone was FINALLY standing up to the Orange Bully. In Is Canada leading the global resistance against Trump? we hear a familiar voice, Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent who I certainly would never have picked as Canadian.

Journey Through Time Episode 62 Spanish Civil War: A Nation in Flames (Episode 1) Ah good- I’m looking forward to this. As they start off by commenting, the Spanish Civil War is better known for its cultural effects, especially in terms of the writers and artists it attracted. But why did it matter so much to people outside? 1936 the Spanish army staged a coup, but it neither succeeded nor failed- it just stalled, and the country split with the east coast and urban areas in favour of the Republicans, and the rural areas especially in the South for the Nationalist/Falangists and as they were known even then, the Fascists. The Nationalists were supported by Germany and Italy; the Republicans by Russia . The UK and France decided to abstain, and people in other countries, feeling that their countries had dropped the ball, arrived to fight themselves. In fact, they draw parallels between Spain then and Ukraine today. When the Republic was formed in 1931 it was faced immediately with the Depression. The coup actually began overseas, and Europe was already on edge. Hitler sent the Condor legion, and made Spain the testbed for international intervention, to see what he could get away with. Hitler felt that a Nationalist Spain would threaten France, and would block access to the Suez Canal, as well as distract attention from what he was doing in Europe. Meanwhile, Baldwin was occupied with the abdication crisis, and he gave oversight to Anthony Eden, who was on Franco’s side. The non-intervention pact was signed by France, UK, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union and the latter three promptly ignored it. The League of Nations failed to act, and the US signed the Neutrality Act, which ostensibly meant that there would be no arms sales, no loans etc. However, that didn’t stop US companies from ignoring sanctions and giving support to the Fascists. Meanwhile, Stalin gave support to the Republican goverment in exchange for gold reserves. The International Brigades were organized through Comintern and soon began attracting participants including Orwell, Hemingway, Gellhorn and Kim Philby no less.

The Rest is History Episode 636 Revolution in Iran: Fall of the Shah (Part 1) Very topical, eh. This episode starts with an absolutely dreadful impersonation of Jimmy Carter toasting the Shah, just before the Revolution began. Dom and Tom make the rather big claim that the Islamic Revolution is comparable to the French and Russian Revolutions. I need to think about that. They point out that Iran (formerly Persia, and meaning ‘Land of the Aryans’) is neither Arab nor Sunni, and their monarchy stretches back to Darius and Cyrus, before Islam. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the father of the man who is in the US agitating to lead the current protests) was the rather timid son and heir to an overbearing bully, and he was sent to a Swiss boarding school, where he became quite the connoisseur and Francophile. His father, who was supported during WW2 to prevent the Germans from taking over, was forced by the British to abdicate after the war in favour of his son. As a result, the Shah has long been seen as a foreign puppet. In 1953 the Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh threatened to nationalize BP (formerly the Anglo-Persian Oil Company) so the CIA organized a coup. The Shah did nothing. In the mid 1950s the Shah began modernizing, and began believing his own publicity that he was a celebrity. In 1967 he organized a second coronation and renamed Persia to Iran as part of the 2500 year anniversary (quite amazing really, that any nation could have a 2500 year anniversary!) Corruption was rife, with the CIA training the Savak, the Iranian secret police, and big US arms sales going to Iran, even though the other Middle East countries tried to warn America. Then along comes Jimmy Carter- Christian, Southern Democrat, inexperienced in international affairs, populist outsider and micromanager. He appointed William Sullivan as Ambassador, but the US embassy was largely oblivious to the unrest that rising under Khomeni. Khomeni himself was born in 1900 to a middle class family, he was clever, serious and revered as a Shi’ite ayotollah. It is this Iranian Shi’ite identity that distinguishes Iran from the Arab Sunnis. Local mullahs are very important, and there was always tension between the clerics and the Shah. Khomeni entered politics in 1960, drawing on anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist rhetoric. Revolution was brewing with inflation, unemployment and the bombing of the Cinema Rex, probably by Islamic militants. Strikes shut down the oil fields but the US government, under the unlikely President Jimmy Carter, was slow to realize what was happening until finally William Sullivan, the US ambassador began warning that perhaps the US should distance itself from the Shah, because change was afoot.