Angry Planet Subscriber Feed

Joseph Stalin’s Bolsheviks were atheists. At least in the traditional sense. But that didn’t mean they didn’t believe in prophecy. In fact, it was prophecy that guided their nearly every action.

If people would just obey the rules of communism, peace, prosperity, justice and brotherhood would grow from the soil and be mass produced in the factories.

So, what happens when a decade passes and the Bolshevik bible has no answers?

Blood.

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

An ambush killed four U.S. Special Operations soldiers in the North African country of Niger. Before the incident, few Americans had ever heard of Niger and fewer knew American soldiers were fighting and dying on the continent.

What were the troops (a mix of Green Berets and support troops) doing there, and who is ultimately responsible for their deaths? This week, War College looks for some answers along with Derek Gannon, a retired Green Beret, and Joseph Trevithick, who’s been studying the fluid situation in Africa for years.

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

The Kurds live in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq but have no country to call their own. When they decided to create one for themselves inside Iraq, it didn’t go well.

After Iraq's Kurds held an independence referendum—which passed with more than 90 percent of the vote—Baghdad's armed forces moved fast. Its armies and allied Shi'ite militias took the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding oil fields. Within days, the Kurd’s economic engine was gone.

At the same time, Kurds in Syria captured Islamic State's capital, Raqqa. The United States, which has backed Kurds in both countries, had little to say about either event.

So what's really going on with this U.S. ally without a country?

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

Tensions between North Korea and the United States are at a fever pitch. The DPRK’s nukes are scary, but once the first missile flies there’s no way to know who might join the fight and how it might end. That’s scarier.

So just how bad could it get? Would global nuclear war leave nothing alive but the cockroaches? We talked with Neil Halloran, who has literally done the math. The answer wasn’t what we expected.

You can see Halloran’s full analysis in his fantastic animated film:

http://www.fallen.io/shadow-peace/1/

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

Barack Obama ordered the U.S. military to directly prepare for climate change. Donald Trump’s White House reversed that policy.

So what’s a general to do?

Tara Copp, Pentagon bureau chief for Military Times, takes us deep into the five-sided box to tell us what the military is doing to fight what they see as a real threat, not just a political football. With more and more civilians in need of rescue, shipyards sinking below sea level, and Arctic ice breaking up, top brass is taking action now and leaving labels for another day.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

Sometimes the only way a spy agency can hide a secret is under the brightest of spotlights. This week, we talk with author Josh Dean about how the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology works and about some of its most audacious projects, including the SR-71 Blackbird.

According to Dean, though, nothing tops the CIA plan to recover a sunken Soviet submarine from 3-miles deep in the Pacific. Even more than 40 years later, the technology used to do it is nearly state of the art, and the cover story seems even more unlikely.

We cover a lot of ground in the podcast, but for even more, check out Dean’s book: The Taking of K-129: How the CIA Used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History. 

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

On August 6, 2011, an American Chinook helicopter named Extortion 17 carried 38 people—including 15 members of SEAL Team Six—to an area 40 miles southwest of Kabul. As the helicopter made its final descent to land, a group of insurgents fired an RPG at it. The lucky shot destroyed the helicopter’s rear rotor and the subsequent crash killed everyone on board. It was the greatest loss of life from a single incident in the Afghan war.

This week on War College, journalist Ed Darack walks us through the last moments of Extortion 17. It’s the subject of his new book The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six, and the Deadliest Day of the U.S. War in Afghanistan. Darack’s meticulous reporting sets the record straight on a tragic accident that’s long been the subject of conspiracy theories.

Pick up a copy of Darack’s book.

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

The Party of God, Hezbollah, is reaching out far beyond its Lebanese roots as they work with Iran to spread their joint vision of holy war. Working with money and equipment from Iran, the Shi’ite militia now operates in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The party dedicated to the destruction of the Israel is doing a lot of work in countries east of its target.

Don’t get them wrong, Hezbollah still hates Israel and wants to destroy it, but it’s lending its expertise—and soldiers—to faraway battles. This week on War College, New York Times journalist Ben Hubbard takes us through what’s changed for the Shi’ite militia group and why they’re fighting so far from home and what Iran gets by supporting it.

Read Hubbard’s article on Hezbollah here.

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

From The Day After to Threads, fiction has long reflected our nuclear fears. Today, Daenerys Targaryen’s flying dragons stand in for B-52 bombers armed with thermonuclear bombs and the ashen corpses of Lannister guards remind us of Hiroshima.

This week on War College, nuclear weapons expert Timothy Westmyer talks us through the nuclear metaphors in Game of Thrones. Westmyer is a nuclear security expert with CRDF Global and the host of the Super Critical Podcast—a show that explores pop culture’s obsession with atomic power.

It’s a geek fest this week, as Westmyer runs down the history of weapons of mass destruction in Westeros. We argue about whether Dany’s children really are weapons of mass destruction or just an effective air power, what Game of Thrones can tell us about our fear of an atomic confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea, and the TV movie from the ‘80s that’s still effective today.

If that wasn’t enough, we dive into the Fallout video games series, which take place in an alternative American future where the bombs fell and the atom never went out of style. The popular games take players through a world that looks like the 1950s never ended, and nuclear armageddon froze it in place.

Please let us know what you think of this show. It’s definitely a change for us. By making our break from Reuters, we have a chance to do a little experimentation, but we know it’s the serious stuff that got us here.

You can reach us on our new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

Next week, we’re back to a more traditional topic, an Islamist group you may not think much about that’s reshaping the Middle East with the help of Iran.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe

The impunity of some of the world’s most frightening men is under threat from people stereotyped as geeks in basements around the world. In the 21st century, well-informed and observant social media addicts have extraordinary powers. Eliot Higgins started watching and reporting on war from the comfort of his living room in 2012. Five years later, he’s using his skills to help the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prosecute war criminals. It’s been a strange journey.

This week on War College, Higgins walks us through how he built Bellingcat—a team of investigators who use open source-intelligence and social media to investigate a variety of subjects. They unearthed Russian lies about the shootdown of passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, proved the existence of chemical attacks in Syria, and looked into financial crimes in England.

Higgins is a self-taught open source intelligence expert who thinks anyone can learn to do what he does. Bellingcat doesn’t only investigate crimes, it also teaches its readers how to do the same. For Higgins, it’s a hobby that became a job and a mission. One that’s earned him the admiration of the international community and more than a few enemies.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe