Tom Secker joins me in the first hour to discuss the upcoming Netflix movie about Anders Behring Breivik and the Oslo and Utoya Island attacks. Tom and I talk about why the film is being made now and the state funding it is receiving from the Norwegian government. We then talk about the writer and director of this film Paul Greengrass. Tom explains his career as a government propagandist and focuses on his film United 93. We then talk about the aspects of the attack we anticipate Greengrass and Netflix will leave out of the film. We discuss Breivik’s politics and how they have become adopted by much of the alt and far right in recent times. Tom discusses the notion that the attack may have been intended as a message to far right groups to further embrace this political ideology. We also touch on the idea that this was a Gladio style event, and whether or not Brevik was working for others. Later Tom and I talk about former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his current job as Secretary General of NATO. We discuss NATO’s role as it exists today and the power it has. Tom and I finish off by discussing our final episode in our review of House of Cards. I also update the listeners about the return of Porkins Great Game.
In the second hour I rant about the recent political purge in Saudi Arabia and the larger implications of it. I talk about Mohammad bin Salman’s alleged corruption and liberalization campaigns, and how he is using this as a smoke screen for his larger political ambitions. I discuss my thoughts on the forced resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri by the Saudi’s. I talk about how Hariri and Lebanon are being used as a proxy battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Yemen and the famine is also discussed. I finish off by laying out my theory that this is the foreign policy nightmare we can expect from Donald Trump. I also mention the rumors that Trump was bribed directly by Mohammad bin Salman, and how this might explain the recent developments across the middle east.
Show Notes:
Spy Culture
Too Soon: Netflix’s Anders Breivik Epic Needles Norwegians
Netflix Lands Paul Greengrass Pic About Norwegian Terrorist Who Killed 77
Saudi Arabia detains more than 200 people in widening crackdown
EXCLUSIVE: Senior Saudi figures tortured and beaten in purge
Saudi prince killed in helicopter crash near Yemen border a day after royal purge
Saudi Arabia says prince ‘alive and well’ after rumours of his death
Saudi-owned TV says Hariri was target of assassination plot days ago
Hariri ‘held for refusing to confront Hezbollah’
The Prime Minister of Lebanon’s Unnerving Interview
Saudi attempts to discredit Hariri fail as Lebanese public backs PM
Saudi Arabia agrees to lift blockade on Yemen as children face starvation & cholera
Trump weighs in on Saudi purge in tweets
Crown Prince bin Salman ‘bribed’ Trump, Saudi Twitter whistleblower claims
Porkins Policy Review 