Aram Shabanian stops by this week to talk to us about the strong men of the Caucasus. We start with a deep dive into what’s going on in Armenia and Azerbaijan right now with a focus on the 1990s. Shabanian calls Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyevl, the “Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus” and comes to grip with the realpolitik of the conflict. Then we turn our attention to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and discuss rumors of his failing health, mixed martial arts, and how a brutal warlord became an internet meme. Angry Planet<a href="https://angryplanet.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> has a Substack</a>! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict. <a href="https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

The Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus

A lot goes into keeping a navy afloat. There’s ship husbanding, maintenance, and buckets of haze gray. The U.S. used to be good at this, but it hasn’t been on an active war-footing for a long time and the manufacturing base that created its massive navy has seen better days. So what happens if there’s a war and America doesn’t have enough welders, let alone drydocks, to build out its fleets? Gil Barndollar is a senior analyst at Defense Priorities and the co-author of a recent piece in Foreign Policy about America’s <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/17/us-navy-ships-shipbuilding-fleet-china-naval-race-pacific/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inability to build new ships</a>. Barndollar sounds the alarm on a number of different issues facing the U.S. military: the recruitment crisis, manufacturing issues, and sailors pushed to the limits of their physical abilities. We might even talk about arming container ships with missile batteries to augment existing forces. <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/17/us-navy-ships-shipbuilding-fleet-china-naval-race-pacific/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The U.S. Navy Can’t Build Ships</a> <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/january/converting-merchant-ships-missile-ships-win" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Converting Merchant Ships to Missile Ships for the Win</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Ships: America Doesn't Build Them Like It Used To (Or at All)

International criminal organizations are more concerned about message security than the average citizen. The end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp or Signal is great, but drug traffickers are looking for a little extra. Enter services like Anom, EncroChat, Sky, and Phantom Secure— discrete messaging services that charged big bucks and promised criminals a chat experience free from the prying eyes of law enforcement. But the cops always find a way. And one of those services was actually purpose built by the FBI to act as a spying tool on the world’s criminals. In Dark Wire, investigative journalist Joseph Cox tells the story of how the FBI built and maintained a phone service just for criminals. He’s on Angry Plant today to tell us all about it. <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/dark-wire-the-incredible-true-story-of-the-largest-sting-operation-in-history-joseph-cox/20664624" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Buy DARK WIRE here</a>. You could have heard an early, and commercial free, version of this episode. Sign up for the <a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Angry Planet newsletter</a> to get started.Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

The FBI’s Chat App and the Biggest Sting Operation In History

Sign up at&nbsp;<a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">angryplanetpod.com</a>&nbsp;to get instant access to the full episode. <a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/p/russian-murderers-who-go-to-war-and" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A direct link to the episode on Substack</a>. American politics was bizarre in 2016. Alt-right figures dominated many news cycles and shared pictures of cartoon frogs online. A lot of those personalities, like Baked Alaska and Richard Spencer, flamed out and vanished from the scene. But there’s always money to be made and political power to be gained by playing to people’s base fears and a new brand of online far right weirdo has risen to take their places. On this episode of Angry Planet we check in on the so-called “New Right” with investigative journalist Jason Wilson. Wilson has chronicled far-right movements for years and recently exposed some of their thought leaders in The Guardian. If you want to learn why some people care about the “longhouse” or the importance of online anonymity when spreading weird ideas online, then this is the episode for you.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/far-right-twitter-identity-revealed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Revealed: US university lecturer behind far-right Twitter account and publishing house</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/conservative-partnership-institute-republican-laws" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Revealed: the extremist Maga lobbying group driving far-right Republican policies</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/24/people-rights-network-oregon-elections" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">At least 66 members of far-right group in rural Oregon standing for office</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/us-far-right-group-influencing-anti-gay-policy-africa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Revealed: how a US far-right group is influencing anti-gay policies in Africa</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

TEASER: Checking In On the Online Nazis With Jason Wilson

Listen to this episode commercial free at <a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://angryplanetpod.com/</a> No one is really sure how many nuclear weapons are out there. Every number you see is a best guess. Russia and the U.S. have the most, sitting at around 5,000 each. France has just under 200, China has about 500 (and is probably building more), and North Korea has around 50. The world’s nuclear powers love to keep the details of these weapons secret, but not too secret. It’s a complex game of signaling and secrets, one that can be difficult to parse from the outside. Matt Korda of the Federation of American Scientists is here today to walk us through the world’s nuclear powers and the wannabes. Over at the FAS, Korda spends his days looking at high resolution satellite photos of Chinese deserts, pouring over footage of Russian military drills, and reading every line of Pentagon budgets. All that information is mixed together to produce the <a href="https://thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nuclear Notebook</a>: a constantly updated inventory of world ending weapons.&nbsp; <a href="https://thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Nuclear Notebook</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7bj7x/nuclear-threats-are-looming-and-nobody-knows-how-many-nukes-are-out-there" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nuclear Threats Are Looming, And Nobody Knows How Many Nukes Are Out There</a> Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

How to Count Nuclear Weapons

Sign up at&nbsp;<a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">angryplanetpod.com</a>&nbsp;to get instant access to the full episode. <a href="https://angryplanetpod.com/p/russian-murderers-who-go-to-war-and" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A direct link to the episode on Substack</a>. Back in 2020, Daniel Perry was driving for Uber to make ends meet. He ran a red light and dove his car into a crowd at a Black Lives Matter protest. Garret Foster was there to protect the crowd and he’d brought an AK-47 along to do it. Foster, an Air Force veteran, approached Perry’s car. Perry, an Army sergeant, pulled out a pistol and killed Foster from the car and drove away. After a trial and a deep dive into Perry’s online history, a jury of his peers found him guilty of murder. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned him.&nbsp; Why? Perry had become a symbol that transcended justice. Christopher Hooks is here to walk us through the particulars of the case. Hooks is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic. He’s been writing about the Perry case and its consequences for Texas Monthly. Hooks tells us exactly what happened in 2020, when Perry committed the murder, and walks us through the colorful cast of Texas politicians who may soon take the national stage. <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/contributors/christopher-hooks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Why Did Greg Abbott Pardon a Racist Murderer?</a> <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/contributors/christopher-hooks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ken Paxton Takes Manhattan</a> <a href="http://l" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What Azerbaijan Wants From Texas Politicians</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/04/us/abbott-pardon-daniel-perry-texas.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">D.A. Seeks to Overturn Texas Governor’s Pardon of Man Who Killed Protester</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>. <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

TEASER: Getting Away With Murder in Texas

Conversations about conflict on an Angry Planet

The Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus

Angry Planet

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