Dubious

A Russian GRU operative posing as a Brazilian student in the U.S. was arrested, after the FBI and the CIA kept tabs on him for years. Moscow retaliated and detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich on trumped-up charges of espionage.

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In this episode we discuss the specifics of Sergey Cherkasov’s arrest: Sergey is a Russian spy, an illegal, arrested by the Danish authorities in Brazil. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free.

Cherkasov’s legend – a made-up bio created by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service – presented him as Victor Muller Ferreira, a Brazilian student in his late 20s. In reality, Sergey is 33 and a spy. Using fake documents, he managed to obtain a post graduate diploma from John Hopkins University. He then was offered a junior analyst position at the International Criminal Court, the same institution that recently issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine. The CIA and the FBI had been keeping tabs on him for a while, so he was arrested in Brazil in April 2022 and will spend the next 15 years in prison. 1

The Russian spy story broke on March 26 in The Guardian, and just 4 days later, on March 30, 2023, the Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested near Moscow. Not a coincidence, this was probably payback for the public embarrassment the Russian intelligence services are facing after a very sloppy operative they trained was caught. 2

Evan Gershkovich, a thirty-one-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal is the son of Soviet-born émigrés who came to the U.S. in the late seventies. He was detained while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a city 800 miles east of Moscow. The next day, he was brought to Moscow, formally charged with espionage in a closed hearing, and ordered to be held in Lefortovo Prison awaiting trial. Evan Gershkovich is accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the country’s foreign ministry. 3

1. Greg Miller. He came to D.C. as a Brazilian student. The U.S. says he was a Russian spy.. The Washington Post. March 2023. ⇤

2. Joshua Yaffa. The Unimaginable Horror of a Friend’s Arrest in Moscow. The New Yorker. March 2023. ⇤

3. Daniel Michaels, Vivian Salama, and Jared Malsin. White House Condemns Russia’s Detention of Wall Street Journal Reporter. The Wall Street Journal. March 2023. ⇤

4. Greg Botelho. Dangerous diplomacy: A look at U.S. diplomats killed in the line of duty. CNN. March 2015. ⇤

Mixing fraud and fame is a bad idea. In this episode we discuss two scammers who inexplicably thought they could be both con men and social media influencers at the same time. Predictably, both found prison in addition to internet fame.

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Theodore Robert Wright III went from cell phone case kiosks as a teenager to crashing airplanes for fun and profit as an adult and took the bold move of filming himself after (intentionally) crashing a plane into the Gulf of Mexico and trying to pitch the accident to the cell phone case company to create a “Red Bull moment.” If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes AD-FREE.

It's all very strange, and well detailed in the article written by Katy Vine for the Texas Monthly about our man Theodore, which details how his scheme to set a private jet on fire at the Athens, Texas municipal airport got Theodore in the sights of ATF agent Jim Reed, and ultimately landed him in the slammer. 1

We also discuss whether ostriches should be shoes, how it's totally fine to get a manicure as a man if she thinks you're hot already, how to bum money from a sultan for the CIA and then instantly lose it because you are bad with account numbers, and last but not least, how getting your secretary pregnant is a pretty good way to get divorced and thus lose your private flying hobby.

Lastly, we cover the case of a guy who decided to be a fake Saudi prince. While it's not technically illegal to be an imaginary persona on Instagram, it is illegal to impersonate a diplomat apparently. And certainly illegal to use that persona to defraud foolish business partners out of about 8 million dollars. It turns out that Prince Khalid al-Saud from Instagram is really not Prince Khalid al-Saud, but rather Anthony Gignac from Michigan.

In this part of the episodes we discuss whether a dog needs a grill, which is cooler out of gold beheading swords or gold stoning stones, and how botox may or may not give your camel an unfair advantage in the camel show. 2, 3

1. Katy Vine, The Wildest Insurance Fraud Case Texas has Ever Seen, Texas Monthly, September 2020. ⇤

2. Ian Lecklitner, Braces For Dogs Aren't as Dicey as They Seem, Mel Magazine, 2020. ⇤

3. Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jack Guy, Camels Ejected from Beauty Contest Over Botox Use and Other 'Tampering', CNN, December 2021. ⇤

Charles Taylor, the former warlord and president of Liberia, “sponsored” by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, left a swath of death and destruction through the country in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Charles and Chuckie Taylor left a swath of death and destruction through the country of Liberia in the 1980s and 1990s, which culminated in both of them being run out of political office and tried and convicted of war crimes. If you like our content please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free.

Charles Taylor was the son of an Americo-Liberian judge from Monrovia, Liberia, and his privileged upbringing in private American schools prepared him for the future that would see him befriend the Firestone Tire and Rubber country, and orchestrate a bloody revolution which killed over 250,000 people and exiled a million more from his home country. 1

Taylor's rise began with a post in the administration of the dictator who came to power from a prior coup in Liberia. During that time Taylor was head of purchasing and procurement, and skimming the contracts in that office for personal profit landed him in jail in the US awaiting extradition back to Liberia, after he fled from fraud charges in Monrovia. But he struck a deal with the American intelligence agencies and Firestone to overthrow the current Liberian dictator, and the CIA helped him escape from the American jail and start his genocidal revolution on the borders of Liberia and neighboring countries like Guinea and the Ivory Coast. 2

Taylor's violent revolution ultimately failed to capture Monrovia, but he was elected to the country's presidency anyway. His revolution sponsored by Firestone had given him far better access to mass media facilities than his competitors, so despite running ads with the crazy slogan "he killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I'm voting for Charles Taylor," Taylor won the presidency of Liberia by an election in 1997. But his success would not last. Just a few short years after his election he was run out of office just as he had overthrown his predecessor, Sergeant Samuel Doe, a former Liberian army soldier who had in turn overthrown the government of his predecessor, William Tolbert.

All of this is very well documented in an excellent series of articles published by PBS and ProPublica, which was later turned into a documentary for PBS as well.

Charles Taylor is now serving a life sentence in prison for war crimes after having been convicted by the international court at the Hague. Chuckie Taylor is now serving a life sentence after having been convicted on a similar charge in the US, he's the first American citizen to be convicted of torture abroad. As of the writing of these articles we're citing from the early 2000s, Chuckie's sadistic commander Bill Horace, who was known for crucifying villagers he caught looting abandoned plantations, was still living a free life in Toronto, Canada. 3

1. T. Christian Miller and Jonathan Jones. Firestone and the Warlord. ProPublica. November 2014. ⇤

2. Charles Taylor 'worked' for CIA in Liberia. BBC. January 2012. ⇤

3. Michael Petrou. Safe haven for an alleged killer. MacLeans. March 2010. ⇤

Four Americans were ambushed and caught up in a cartel shootout in Matamoros, then held hostage for days – apparently, the gunmen thought they were Haitian drug smugglers. Two of them were killed, two survived.

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Four friends from North Carolina, Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, Eric James Williams, Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard traveled to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, for a medical procedure. 1

Latavia McGee was supposed to get a tummy tuck, but things didn’t go as planned. If you like our content, become a patron, you'll get all of our episodes ad-free.

Their car was shot at and the four were taken hostage by the Scorpion division of the Gulf Cartel before they were able to reach the clinic where Latavia McGee had her abdominoplasty appointment. Sadly, Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed. An innocent passerby was also murdered by the cartel, by mistake. 2

In this episode we discuss all the theories and rumors surrounding this case, the level 4 “do not travel” advisory issued by the State Department, the timeline and chain of events, medical tourism in Mexico, the cartel’s apology letter and the verified facts that should be considered before jumping to conclusions. 3, 4

1. Lewis Pennock. Woman denied entry into Mexico with 'Tummy Tuck Four' claims group told her they'd return in just 15 MINUTES.... The Daily Mail. March 2023. ⇤

2. David Wolf Twitter account. Just the usual dragging of bodies... (video: graphic). Twitter. March 2023. ⇤

3. Nyamekye Daniel. Authorities Explore Drug Smuggling Motive As Apology Letter, Photos of Suspects from Cartel Raise Public Suspicion In Case of Americans Kidnapped In Mexico. Atlanta Black Star. March 2023. ⇤

4. Jorge L. Ortiz, Rick Jervis, Kevin Johnson, and Josh Meyer. Mexican cartel apologizes for kidnapping, killing Americans, turns over 5 it says responsible. USA Today. March 2023. ⇤

How a sketchy aviation academy in Texas drove an immigrant flight student to suicide. Yan Yang was supposed to learn how to be an airline pilot. Instead, the 21 yo was bullied, made to mop floors and clean toilets.

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We're talking about an aviation school in Denton, Texas that is accused of driving a Chinese student to suicide in 2019. According to plaintiff accusations, this aviation school had Chinese students mopping floors, cleaning toilets, and holding the doors open for passers-by, rather than getting the flight training they had paid for when they came to the US to learn to be airline pilots. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free! 1, 2, 3

The school also let an airplane fly despite repeated engine failure events according to an NTSB Report about a crash that killed another Chinese student and the student's 25 year old American instructor. Predictably, at least one of the owners of this school lists a history of employment and contracts with companies like Halliburton, Texaco, etc. 4, 5

1. Marshall Reid. Chinese parents sue Denton County aviation academy over son's death archive copy. Denton Record-Chronicle. September 2020. (archive copy) ⇤

2. Reddit: Chinese parents sue.... /r/denton subreddit. September 2020. ⇤

3. Reddit: Denton aviation academy photos. /r/denton subreddit. October 2020. ⇤

4. Megan Gray-Hatfield. ‘Our hearts are heavy’: Memorial set up to honor 2 killed in plane crash. Gainesville Daily Register. July 2019. ⇤

5. NTSB. Aviation Accident Summary CEN19FA238. Accidents App. August 2019. ⇤

This is a crazy, lesser-known story of Titan II missile silos, a poultry tariff with serious repercussions for the environment, and relations between France, US, and Germany after WW2.

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In the 1950s, Senator Fulbright from Arkansas politely told a gathering of NATO countries that he would withhold military aid if the French and Germans put a tariff on American frozen chicken. Arkansas was home to not only the largest chicken corporation in the world, but also dozens of Titan II missile silos. If you like our content, please become a patron to get more bonus episodes like this one, and all of our public episodes ad-free as well.

This strange congruence of conflicting nefarious interests incidentally led us to the environmental catastrophe we face decades later. The Johnson administration's retaliation to the chicken tax was to put a tariff on trucks, and in response the American car companies doubled up on marketing trucks and SUVs to Americans due to that protected market.

So in a manner of speaking, the reason that the sky here in Dallas is yellow with exhaust fumes on a hot summer day is because of fallout from a war over frozen chickens, although presidents after Johnson and Kennedy have done their part to push us further toward ruin as well. 1, 2

Not to be outdone: hog farms. We also discuss the abuses of the hog farming industry in North Carolina and how they inevitably pollute rivers after every single hurricane hits that state, from overflowing open-pit waste collection ponds.

As we mention in the episode, this video was captured by a reporter investigating a coal ash spill after hurricane Florence in 2018. We found out later that the coal ash was mixed with pig feces. 3

1. Western Europe: Nobody But Their Chickens. Time Magazine. November 1962. ⇤

2. Rod Leonard. The USDA Plan for Deregulating and Privatizing Meat and Poultry Inspection: A Short History. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. December 2013. ⇤

3. ABC World News Tonight. DAM FEARS: Aerials show Florence floodwaters breaching a dam that contains a large lake at a Wilmington, North Carolina, power plant.... ABC News. September 2018. ⇤

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train transporting deathly chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Weeks after the toxic train wreck, residents have reported a growing number of symptoms – from rashes and nausea to headaches and trouble breathing.

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After the train derailed at approximately 9 PM ET, the chemicals it transported, such as vinyl chloride, were intentionally burned off in a controlled explosion, which prompted a temporary evacuation of the area. If you like our content and want to support us, please become a patron to get all of our episodes ad-free.

The waterways and creeks around East Palestine are covered in an oily sheen, fish died and now people and animals in the area are experiencing worrying symptoms.

For almost two weeks, the media was silent. Similarly, the local authorities did not say much either. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, said in a press conference on Feb 14, 2023, ten days after the East Palestine ecological disaster:

‘Look, President Biden called me and said, “Anything you need.” I have not called him back after that conversation. We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it.’

The EPA and FEMA are on the ground, debate continues whether it is safe to breathe the air or drink the water in the area. Questions are being raised regarding the extent and reach of this environmental disaster, too. 1, 2

In this episode we also look at the peculiar similarities between the East Palestine toxic train derailment and the very similar fictional event described in the novel White Noise. This coincidence is reminiscent of another unbelievable case: the 1979 the film “The China Syndrome” with Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon. This movie about a nuclear plant explosion in Three Mile Island came out in theaters one week before the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in Pennsylvania, which led to 140,000 people being evacuated out of their homes. 3

1. Alex Presha,Brandon Chase ,Morgan Winsor andIsabella Murray. Ohio train derailment: EPA administrator visits East Palestine, asks residents to 'trust the government'. ABC News. February 2023. ⇤

2. This isn't a railway in a Third World County, This is in Ohio. Twitter. February 2023. ⇤

3. Alison Stine. The eerie parallels between Netflix's "White Noise" and the Ohio train derailment disaster. Salon. February 2023. ⇤

After his secret girlfriend tipped off the authorities, McGonigal was arrested over ties with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Jan 2023. As Chief of FBI’s Counterintelligence in New York, Charles McGonigal had near limitless access to US secrets.

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This week we tell the story of a top FBI agent, Charles McGonigal, and his ties with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin and the former employer of Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all of our episodes ad free. 1

McGonigal took $225,000 in secret cash payments from someone who had served as an Albanian intelligence officer. McGonigal concealed that relationship, as well as his meetings with Sergey Shestakov, from the Bureau. FBI’s New York Chief of Counterintelligence also had an extramarital affair with a woman named Allison Guerriero, who later became Rudy Giuliani’s house guest and biggest supporter. The events are reminiscent of the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen spy cases. 2

During his time with the FBI, McGonigal led the WikiLeaks investigation into Chelsea Manning, and oversaw the search for a Chinese mole inside the CIA.

McGonigal was arrested In January 2023 at Kennedy International Airport. Shestakov was arrested at his US home in a simultaneous operation. Both men are accused of receiving payments through shell companies and forging signatures to conceal the fact that Deripaska was paying them. [^3]

They have both been charged with money laundering charges, in addition to charges for violating sanctions. Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 3

1. Mattathias Schwartz. Exclusive: The FBI's McGonigal labyrinth. Business Insider. Feb 2023. ⇤

2. Mattathias Schwartz. Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy hunter charged with taking Russian money. Insider. Jan 2023.

4. Craig Unger. Did the FBI’s Charles McGonigal Help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?. New Republic. Feb 2023. ⇤

A history of knife wielding assassins, from medieval times to Salman Rushdie’s attempted murder in New York, in 2022. The word “assassin” comes from the Persian “hashshashin,” eater of hashish. Who was the first assassin in history?

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We're talking about the attempted killing of Salman Rushdie by Hadi Matar, a New Jersey man obsessed with the Ayatollah Khomeini's Fatwa issued to encourage Rushdie's assassination back in the 1980s after the publication of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. Please become a patron if you like our content, you'll get all of our public episodes ad-free. 1

Fatwas are mostly pretty silly, there are only three recent ones dealing with a person: one in the 1990s was issued for secular Egyptian writer Farag Foda who was murdered in 1992, one was issued in the early 2000s urging the assassination of Libyan president Muhammar al-Gaddafi, and the third for Salman Rushdie in 1989. Rushdie lived with a permanent security presence away from the public eye for a decade due to the threat of violence against him.

The term assassin originated with Hassan as-Sabbah, an 11th century Shia revolutionary who seized Alamut castle and the surrounding region without killing soul... by disguising himself as a teacher and gaining the confidence of the castle's guards and diplomats while the ruler of the region was away. With co-conspirators in hand Hassan took control of the castle and founded both one of the medieval world's great libraries and centers of learning, as well as a school for hired killers. The word itself either came from the Persian word "eaters of hashish" or "hashashin" (because anyone who would kill a man who he had spent years befriending only to be killed by guards moments later must be high), or "hassa", the Arabic word for "killing a large population of people."

Whichever was the true origin, the prevalence of the word in English comes from Shakespeare, who also used the word in Macbeth to describe the act of killing a king for profit and ambition.

We finish by discussing a great article about the state of modern discourse by Kenan Malik printed in the Guardian in 2018, as well as quotes from Rushdie himself and the great fictionalized version of Hassan as-Sabbah's story written by Vladimir Bartol in 1938: the novel Alamut. 2, 3

Episode #DubiMeter = 8

1. Ray Sanchez, Adam Thomas, Kristina Sgueglia, Samantha Beech, Paul P. Murphy, and Lauren Said-Moorhouse. Authorities identify suspect who attacked author Salman Rushdie at western New York event. CNN. August 2022. ⇤

2. Kenan Malik. The Satanic Verses sowed the seeds of rifts that have grown ever wider. The Guardian. September 2018. ⇤

3. DJ Grothe. Salman Rushdie – Secular Values, Human Rights and Islamism. Point of Inquiry. October 2006. ⇤

Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by five policemen after being stopped illegally for an alleged traffic violation, in what looks like a targeted, personal attack.

In this episode we’re talking about some aspects of the Tyree Nichols’ murder that are being discussed less, Memphis and LA deputy gangs, some crazy details of the actual murder that shocked us the most, things like implicit bias and how racism can happen against people of your own race. If you like our content please become a patron and get all of our episodes ad-free. 1

We also discuss the EMTs who didn’t do their jobs properly, the aggravated kidnapping charges, the now disbanded Scorpion Unit, the history of Slave Patrols and why racism is central to policing in America, and many other insane things that make this case so different from other police killings. 2, 3

Nichols was supposedly stopped for reckless driving, but Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis said early Friday morning an investigation and review of available camera footage had found "no proof" of that. All five ex-officers who beat Tyree Nichols to death were charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, one count of aggravated assault, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

The officers involved — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were fired, Davis said, after they violated department policies during the January 7 stop that led to Nichols' death. They are now out on bail awaiting trial.

1. Theodore R. Johnson. Black-on-Black Racism: The Hazards of Implicit Bias. The Atlantic. December 2014. ⇤

2. Dr. Gary Potter. The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1. Eastern Kentucky University. June 2013. ⇤

3. Lynching In America: Confronting The Legacy Of Racial Terror. Equal Justice Initiative. 3rd ed 2017 ⇤