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Guest: Annibale, Italian War Nerd

The War Nerd continues the incredible Italy series with guest "Annibale" — this is the second part in Italy's "Years of Lead" story, focusing on the revolutionary leftist group Red Brigades and the  tragic story of Italian center-left politician Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, and eventually murdered by an impossible confederacy of intelligence agencies and interests . . . 

At 2:19:42 Ames and the War Nerd briefly discuss two current, developing war stories: The US-backed Saudi-UAE assault on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, and famine as a weapon of war . . . And recent revelations that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) — the western media's go-to "independent" source for Syria war death toll figures — is funded by the British Foreign Office . . . 

Total time: 2:48:19

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

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Comments

Gengeros

But we did invade Syria, we have 2,000 troops in Syria right now.

MoldyTolge

Plus 5? 6? Forward operating bases/airfields in the north-east

MoldyTolge

Would love a War Nerd episode on the Suez Crisis! I only remember it getting breezed pass in high school history class.

Jed Hovey

The Aldo Moro story was stranger and more complicated than I ever imagined.

Benjamin Glover

Wow. There's a lot going on in these episodes

chris e

Would appreciate some book recommendations to go along with these podcasts - fiction as well as non-fiction - as I thin Annibale mentioned, there are lots of allusions to things that are down to shared culture etc.

Avery

Did not realize that the famous "Ur-Fascism" of Umberto Eco was actually describing a Third Way not the same as the traditional far right.

Avery

Also, thanks for the shout-out guys! Wow! Kennedy is my rep. He is definitely trying to be a quiet centrist who plays it safe by refusing to do anything good

Charlie Dubya

First things first, great show as always. Annibale along with Carl Zha and Amal Saad are some of my all time favorite guests on the show. While I do believe that the criticism of Eliot Higgins is valid and has a lot of good points - I would argue that good work is being made on at least a few issues. Among other things, Bellingcat was instrumental in debunking that ridiculous Russian MoD claim about a Ukrainian SU-25 downing Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

Annibale

No, the "feminist" and the "general" are both Italians

Dark Alliance

Bellingcat is suspicious as hell and anything said by Bellingacat is questionable.

Mark Ames

Everyone and their dog knew Russian-backed separatists shot down that plane. I wrote about it hours after it happened, and I didn't need to be paid by the US weapons industry, NATO, and the Saudis to reach that obvious conclusion. <a href="https://pando.com/2014/07/17/five-things-to-consider-about-the-downing-of-malaysian-airlines-mh17-in-ukraine/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pando.com/2014/07/17/five-things-to-consider-about-the-downing-of-malaysian-airlines-mh17-in-ukraine/</a> Atlantic Council pays Higgins to keep that story in the news as if it's a great mystery requiring ace citizen-sleuths—and to hype up the alleged Russian "disinformation threat" posed by conspiracist propaganda about the Ukrainian Sukhoi tale—because this helps Higgins' paymasters advance their lobbying efforts.

adam jones

Midnight in Sicily by an Australian who lived in Naples for 20 years is very good.

chris e

I meant recommendations that may not be that well known outside Italy. I'm assuming most people would be get to know of books like the one above, as well as the better known Italian authors (Lampedusa, Sciascia, Levi etc.) by doing relatively simple searches.

Dark Alliance

Does anyone know if Annibale has a website or written any books. I'm interested in his works.

TessierAshpoolResearch

How do I send RWN or the producers an email. I have an exciting interview hookup.

Mark

I remember reading that Moro's body was found exactly in between the headquarters of the Christian Democrat party and the Communist party. Aren't the headquarters of the Jesuits and the Masonic Order also nearby too?

teh_drewski

I think the "exactly halfway" story got debunked in one of the more recent inquiries, but a lot of older sources refer to it so it sort of hangs around as a vague meme.

teh_drewski

Vaguely related content 1) the History on Fire podcast has a two episode series on the Magliana Gang which talks about their links to Roman authorities, the Catholic Church, and some wild speculation about their role in the Moro assassination, it's not mostly about their rise and fall but covers a surprising amount of Moro content. Vaguely related content 2) The Guardian had an editorial last week blasting the Saudi/UAE offensive in Yemen and explicitly blaming Western complicity for the ongoing humanity crisis. They still genuflect to "but Iran" and "both sides are wrong" but it's one of the clearest opinion pieces I've seen in mainstream media.

Annibale

Precisely. Via Caetani is much closer to via delle Botteghe Oscure (the former Communist party HQ)

Margherita

This episode was so so goooood! Please can we have Annibale back soon about the Berlusconi era??

radiowarnerd

We hope to do that. It took us a long time to overcome Annibale's love of privacy, but now that we've got him going we hope to keep him talking.

radiowarnerd

Good for them. Glad to hear it. I'll check it out and we'll be sure to give them credit.

radiowarnerd

Yes, our biggest problem was that everything that Annibale said brought up ten exciting questions that we had to bite our tongues on just to get through in a reasonable amount of time.

Margherita

Can't wait to get more!

Martin Knutsen

Oh, the P2 lodge. It was the closest we got to fascist supervillains.

Dark Alliance

Please appear more on the show. Those 4 episodes on Italy where amazing!

Dark Alliance

Good piece of info. Glad it was debunked.

Dark Alliance

For each episode there should be a recap episode where you and Mark ask Annibale all the questions you guys had and dive right in.

Andrew

Does Annibale have any books or articles(regardless of language) on the infiltration of the Red Brigades(specifically Simioni, the Hyperion School, etc.) and the killing of Moro that go into the new information he provided?

Annibale

Hello Andrew, there are many books written on the subject, in particular by Giovanni Fasanella, who was in the 2105 Parliament investigative commission. But it think the most comprehensive is this one, written by judge Rosario Priore, possibly the most authoritative judicial figure who has dealt with the Years of Lead https://www.unilibro.it/libro/de-prospo-silvano-priore-rosario/chi-manovrava-brigate-rosse-storia-misteri-dell-hyperion-parigi-scuola-lingue-centrale-terrorismo-internazionale/9788862201742