Radio War Nerd EP #167 — "False Flags" from Mukden to Maidan + Captain Alatriste
Guest: Dr. Ivan Katchanovski, professor of political science at U. Ottawa
Recorded: January 30, 2019
As Trump's regime-change operation in Venezuela gathers momentum, we take a look at the sort of "false flag" operations in the past that have triggered interventions and regime-change. From the Mukden Incident in 1931, a Japanese Imperial Army false flag train bombing used as the pretext for Japan's invasion of Manchuria — to the mysterious sniper killings precipitating the 2002 US-backed coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, false flags do really happen, even if the concept has been flogged to death by professional paranoiacs like Alex Jones. For this episode, we talk to Dr. Ivan Katchanovski, the Ukrainian born scholar who has been analyzing inconsistencies in the 2014 Maidan massacre in Ukraine, when 49 people were killed in events leading up to Yanukovych's overthrow. When he first presented his findings about false flag snipers killing Maidan protesters, Dr. Katchanovski was attacked and marginalized as a Putin stooge, but over time his findings have been validated by Ukraine trial proceedings and numerous other investigations. Is it possible we'll witness another wave of mysterious sniper shootings in the course of today's Venezuela regime-change?
At 2:21:00 the War Nerd talks about the "Alatriste" series of historical novels by Spanish author Arturo Pérez- Reverte that take place during Spain's "Golden Age" in the early 17th C. The novels covered: Captain Alatriste, Purity of Blood, The Sun Over Breda.
Read Dr Katchanovski's reports on the Maidan massacre; buy his books here and here; follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Further reading & links about Maidan massacre:
*BBC Newsnight: "Snipers at Maidan: The untold story of a massacre in Ukraine"
*BBC Magazine: "The Untold Story of the Maidan Massacre"
*Leaked phone call between Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet and EU foreign affairs rep Catherine Ashton.
*Dr Ivan Katchanovski - "The 'Sniper's Massacre' on the Maidan in Ukraine", an annotated 1 hour video analysis of the events on February 20, 2014
*Balkan Insight: "Romania's 1989 Uprising Was 'Orchestrated,' Prosecutors Say"
*Map of Maidan shootings
Intermission music by Brendon Anderegg, the RWN sound genius. Buy Brendon's music here.
Total time: 2:40:26
Comments (16)
Reading Ron from Reno 911 is definitely a reference to Reading Rainbow which aired on PBS (US Public Broadcasting)/local TV in the 90s.
Listening years later, when did this alleged Pink Floyd concert (start at 1:36:00 or so) happen? As a devoted fan of the band, I know it was inactive at the time, and there are only about four dates since 1994 that could qualify as a Pink Floyd concert. All three living members (Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason) have been on tour since 2014, mostly playing old tunes so it would be easy to confuse those with Pink Floyd, but none of which have played Kiev as far as I can tell. Was the concert elsewhere?
PLEASE NOTE: the web-links contained in this sentence from the episode summary seem to be broken (they seem to lead to blank pages) ... just thought you might like to try to fix them. Many thanks! "... Read Dr Katchanovski's reports on the Maidan massacre; buy his books ..."
Thanks for the heads up!
This Cugel guy, he's kind of an asshole. A funny asshole.
I've recently subscribed and don't have the RSS feed. I know it's annoying when people ask for things like this in the comments, but here I am.
I think it's supposed to be in the email you get when you subscribe.
Happy to hear that Mr. Dolan is working on new memoir material. Pleasant Hell is one of my favorite books.
Speaking of Pleasant Hell, I was wondering if there were any plans to convert it to ebook format at some point? I'd like to read it as a more recent fan of the war nerd, but used copies online go for upwards of $60 at the lowest.
If you all are looking to do an episode on Zimbabwe sometime Martin Meredith's Mugabe is a great book (all his books are pretty good. He reported from Rhodesia/Zimbabwe throughout the transition). <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158648558X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158648558X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0233971211/ref=sr_1_4_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549286625&sr=1-4&keywords=the+past+is+another+country" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0233971211/ref=sr_1_4_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549286625&sr=1-4&keywords=the+past+is+another+country</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Africa-History-Continent-Independence/dp/1610390717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549286785&sr=1-1&keywords=martin+meredith+zimbabwe" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Africa-History-Continent-Independence/dp/1610390717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549286785&sr=1-1&keywords=martin+meredith+zimbabwe</a>
Thanks!
I would really like to see the movie about Captain Alatriste. This is such a fascinating period of history because so murky, at least to me. The Spanish “punitive” massacres in the southern Netherlands “to teach them a lesson” are still remembered, we saw contemporary prints depicting them at the Municipal museum in Aachen when we were there two years ago. They were the counterreformation hardliners at the Council of Trent and their American gold was used by Pope Paul V to beautify Rome. (The Church of S Maria Maggiore with its gold ceiling really is the most beautiful I have ever seen). All over Italy they replaced municipal governments by viceroys who ruled by patronage. The reason I know even this much is because I am an admirer of Paolo Sarpi who was the focal point of Venetian resistance against them and a precursor of the Enlightenment
Loved the historical fiction segment. James Mitchener is another writer who provides good introductions to exotic historical situations.
Can you ask Brendan if he has a modular grid account and, if so, can you post the link so we can see his set up?
Will do!
For me, the best aspect of RWN over the 3+ years has been the ability for your guys to cover contemporary war issues, especially with topics that really don't have an easy answer/clarity (in particular I'm thinking of you episodes and coverage of the Russian sukoi shot down in 2015 by turkey, the Paris attacks, the Turkish coup, the chemical attacks in Syria and now the coverage of Venezuela). I know you guys are always worried about “taking a side too strongly” but I don't think you've done that. One parallel that I thought of was when John and Mark discussed the mindset of the American political figures, Democrat and republican, regarding Venezuela, basically lamenting “how are they just gonna fuck up like they did in Syria and Libya and everywhere else?” (paraphrasing). The parallel was the story John had about the tenured college professors of Berkley and the rest of California. They knew they were apart of a ticking time bomb, but by the time they retired and moved on, the bomb wouldn't go off. So, they basically went along with the government measures that took away funding year after year, because it wouldn't affect them. I always think of that story whenever the decisions of political figures decision regarding foreign policy decisions recently. To them, they gain whatever domestic benefit there is to ramping up pressure or straight up intervening, and by the time there's any blowback (if any) in the US itself, they'll be long gone. Now that I think about it, as you guys bring up constantly, who even payed for Iraq, besides the Republicans losing literally two major elections before winning again?