The Opperman Report'

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DICKIE MOUNTBATTEN: A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the Royal Family taking the Mountbatten name, he was Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War II and the last Viceroy of India.

EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN: Once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs, she emerged from World War II as a magnetic and talented humanitarian worker loved around the­ world.

From British high society to the South of France, from the battlefields of Burma to the Viceroy's House, The Mountbattens is a rich and filmic story of a powerful partnership, revealing the truth behind a carefully curated legend.

Was Mountbatten one of the outstanding leaders of his generation, or a man over-promoted because of his royal birth, high-level connections, film-star looks and ruthless self-promotion? What is the true story behind controversies such as the Dieppe Raid and Indian Partition, the love affair between Edwina and Nehru, and Mountbatten's assassination in 1979?

Based on over 100 interviews, research from dozens of archives and new information released under Freedom of Information requests, prize-winning historian Andrew Lownie sheds new light on­ this remarkable couple.

'Painstakingly researched... genuinely enthralling' Observer
'A page-turner which is also a carefully researched work of history' Spectator
'A compelling new biography...superbly researched' Daily Express
'Incisive... strongly recommend' The Times

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Chilling. Candid. Controversial.

This is the voice of one man from within a dark scandal that nestled in the heart of London's Soho in the 1970s.


Travelling to the big city to escape The Troubles in his native Northern Ireland, Anthony Daly accepted a job in Foyles Bookshop and began a new life in England. However, his naivety saw him quickly fall foul of predators, looking for young men to blackmail and sexually exploit.

After years of hiding the secret of his abuse at the hands of some of the most influential men in the country, Anthony's trauma became harder to contain, as he witnessed revelations of historic abuse coming to light on TV and in newspapers.

Then, finally, his lost voice ripped through the safe family life he had built over 40 years.

With parallels to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, this is stylishly written and politically explosive. It is the haunting true story of a young man's decent into a hell designed to satisfy the powerful. A world that destroyed the lives of everyone involved.

***Previously published as Playland (2018)***

'Tony Daly's story goes to the very heart of a corrupt and perverted establishment.' Derry Journal

'Explosive' Belfast Telegraph, Ivan Little

'An extremely powerful and honest read that I just couldn't put down.' Waterstones staff review

'A shattering memoir' Robin Jarossi, author of The Hunt for the 60s Ripper

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PLASTIC DEFENCE is a documentary about illegal 3D printed firearms in Europe and the decentralised network behind them. These guns are robust, they don't blow up in your hands, and they're untraceable. What's more, they're being made in people's bedrooms.

At Popular Front, we got access to the network designing and building these downloadable rifles. It goes by the name "Deterrence Dispensed". Its members are determined to give untraceable DIY firearms to the world. We spent time with the founder of the movement—a man known as JStark.

He showed us how he designs the firearms, builds them in his workshop, and even makes bootleg 9mm ammunition for them.

We also went out into the forests with JStark to witness how powerful 3D printed firearms have become, and to gauge how dangerous they could be for Europe.

JStark argues that his group is helping people living under authoritarianism fight back against their oppressors. Whilst this could be true, Deterrence Dispensed is sending their technology out into the world for free to anyone and everyone. It's totally unregulated. If it gets into the wrong hands, which it easily could do, many innocent people could die.


[NOTE: Sorry gun fans, I interchangeably used the term "assault rifle" incorrectly I think. Forgive me, I'm Bri'ish.]

____

Reporters, writers, other media people:

If you want to write about this doc (3D printed untraceable guns in Europe that you can build in your bedroom, hello!) we've put together a presskit that can be downloaded here: http://popularfront.co/3D

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This introduction to the most mysterious and important dimension of war (whether ancient or modern) explores topics like technology, psychological warfare, social engineering, music, nature, as well as spiritual warfare - all in the context of seven pillars of culture across seven legendary societies. Donald Oliver Davis harnesses his unique foreign and domestic experiences, liberal arts undergraduate degree, and security informatics post-graduate degree to weave nearly 500 bibliographic references into a vivid narrative about worldview warfare. Also, his geometric models of information systems are sure to raise worldview warfare analysis to a new level as well as spark future exploration.

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New York Times bestselling author Stephen Singular provides an inside look at the Mormon polygamist sect that made headlines in 2008 for coercing young girls into marriage, and the story of their ruthless leader, Warren Jeffs.

As the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. His rule was utterly tyrannical. In addition to coercing young girls into marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives, many of whom were his father's widows. But in 2007, after landing on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, Jeffs's reign was forcefully ended. He would be imprisoned for committing rape as an accomplice.

In When Men Become Gods, Edgar Award–nominee Stephen Singular traces Jeffs's rise to power and the concerted effort that led to his downfall. Newly updated, it describes the controversial 2008 raid on Jeffs's Texas compound and the fate of the 439 children taken from the sect. It offers readers a rare glimpse into a tradition that's almost a century old, but has only now been exposed.

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Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine’s research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA’s relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA’s ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA’s activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.A common theme is the CIA’s ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.

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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.