Radio War Nerd, EP #54—Syria War Propaganda + 2014 Gaza War with Max Blumenthal
Syria War Propaganda + 2014 Gaza War
Guest: Max Blumenthal, journalist & author
Interview with one of the most fearless journalists working today, Max Blumenthal. We discuss the 51 Day War in Gaza, and Syria's White Helmets — the group's ties to USAID, Salafist radicals, and various shady pro-war organizations, and their efforts to coax the West into a major war in Syria...Max Blumenthal is the author of "The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza" and is senior editor of the Grayzone Project at Alternet.
Links to Blumenthal's exposés on the Syria White Helmets here and here.
Total Time: 1:35:37
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
Music: "Sundown" from the album The Talking Book by Bill Gould & Jared Blum, courtesy of Koolarrow Records; Intro/outro by Greg Conger
Comments (20)
A really brutal listen in 2025, you are three wise and unbelievably prescient men - thank you for the work.
Blumenthal killed it and I am now a huge fan of this top-notch journalist. Keep fighting the good fight, guys!
Rivetting information. Because of the hubris in both US political parties, I doubt that there will be a solution in my lifetime to the involvement of the US in the Middle East. On the bright side- I am best defined as "older than dirt".
Man, you guys are constantly killing it!! Every episode has been revelatory, and those bonus tracks at the end are also great. My orbit of political consciousness usually revolves around The World Socialist Website, You guys, and The Young Turks/Jimmy Dore. Keep up the great work! Hopefully your membership continues to grow and grow.
Thanks a lot Karl! Glad you're enjoying the show.
Hot Fire. Another great episode.
Thanks Richard.
Interesting EP. About the Hamas attack at Zivim that Max mentioned, it's quite an interesting story. There is a navy outpost there like Max mentioned, but also a small Kibbutz with 600 residents, and really no way of knowing where the Hamas commandos were planning to go. There is an internal leaked IDF video with Hebrew subtitles and comm chatter. The bravado of the Hamas militants is quite evident: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDny1bp7ds" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDny1bp7ds</a> I think that what is quite revealing is the edited down version that the IDF released of the same incident (obviously from the same footage), which makes it an amazing case study of how editing can be used to tell any story you'd want to be told, I encourage everyone to see both: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDaCZgg46A" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDaCZgg46A</a>
Excellent show guys... I'm gonna spead it around.. Also, what's the song at the end?
"Sundown" from the album The Talking Book by Bill Gould & Jared Blum, courtesy of Koolarrow Records
Most of the major media outlets have gone all in on producing propaganda for the HRC campaign. It's one of the worst things the Trump campaign has done. The self-aggrandizing bullshit they're printing shocks me, and I didn't think I had much faith in these publications left. HuffPo, The Atlantic, the NY Times, Washington Post...they more or less refuse to run anything even mildly critical. I almost haven't seen anything like this since the ramp up to the Iraq War.
Another Little interesting thing. This just popped up in my facebook feed. Apparently Marvel and Disney made a comic about a mom in Madaya: <a href="http://stepfeed.com/all/marvels-newest-superhero-syrian-mom/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=PagePost" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://stepfeed.com/all/marvels-newest-superhero-syrian-mom/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=PagePost</a>#.V_90P2f7WUl another attempt of legitimizing intervention through the humanitarian angle?
Great episode! Really loving the Syria content on the podcast. A small request, maybe for the preamble talks in Next episode: What are the kurds up to now in Syria? I have been following the situation on some of the livemaps, and it seems very quiet in kurdish territories (except for a couple of suicide attacks by ISIS). Are they just waiting to see how the Euphrates Shield operation turns out before comitting to new campaigns? Could we expect to see them Work closer with the Syrian government, maybe in breaking the seige of Deir-ez-zor? (or is that completely far-fetched?) Some years ago, I had the priviledge of attending a meeting in the dainsh parlaiment with Asya Abdullah of the PYD. She talked a great deal about how they wanted a unified Syria with a more federal constitution, and didn't seem that interested in regime change (for obvious reasons). Could a collaboration between SAA and SDF/YPG/J Work at all?
No offense to previous guests but I liked this interview more than any others that you've done. Might be an opportunity to gather more subscribers if you made it available on Youtube etc. considering the press Blumenthal is receiving as well as the release of the Netflix "documentary." Do you have a Youtube channel? Why not post at least the free previews and the several free full episodes there and direct viewers to the Patreon page?
I think we should get more of the latest military developments in syria (analysis). We all know the SAA captured district X or Y in Aleppo and village X or Y in Hama, but what could that lead to?
Great discussion about Shuja'iyya. Clearly Hamas learned a great deal of lessons from Cast Lead and the 2006 war in Lebanon. I'm wondering if Israel has learned any lessons from these wars and change their tactics.
Ta!
Check now
I can't see the link neither.
I don't think there's an actual link?