Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell

The extraordinary turn of events in Syria in recent days saw the city of Aleppo, once Syria's largest and a key part of the earlier story of Syria's revolution, fall to Syria's rebels, with the soldiers of the Assad regime in chaotic retreat. I spoke to Thomas van Linge, one of the few journalist who has been covering the story, about what has happened and the reasons why.You can support Thomas's work here https://ko-fi.com/thomasvlinge and he is active on Twitter and Bluesky.If you'd like to support this podcast the easiest way to do that is becoming a paid subscriber of my Substack: arthursnell.substack.com

Christopher Steele needs almost no introduction. But if you are interested in learning more about him you can buy his new book, Unredacted, here https://www.amazon.com/Unredacted-Russia-Trump-Fight-Democracy/dp/0063373432/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VZCQ114PBRZX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qv6Zf5VhmrCD7zu54PyFEawg2dYzrTOT0sYgpY4o3jI.poSf3-HXXCfxlQwgK_vy6Xubh-BXVRLmOA0iPDWXVhc&dib_tag=se&keywords=unredacted+christopher+steele&qid=1732891790&sprefix=unredac%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-1

Charlie Gammell is a historian and Iran expert. His latest article on Iran can be found here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-winds-of-change-are-blowing-in-iran/

Dr Jonathan Terra is an American academic and analyst who has been based in Prague for 30+ years. We spoke about the impact of a Trump presidency on Eastern Europe and the wider geopolitical context.

I spoke to Mike Martin, military expert, writer, former soldier and now Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells about the new world (dis)order that lies before us under a Trump presidency.Mike can be found here: https://x.com/ThreshedThought and here https://mike-martin.co.uk/ and his book How to Fight a War is available in all the usual places.

In this episode I spoke to Jason Pack of the excellent Disorder podcast (https://x.com/DisorderShow) about conspiracy theories and how they are affecting the 2024 US presidential election. We also spoke about the state of the race which remains on a knife edge. You’ll be interested to look at Jason’s article in The New European on conspiracy theories here https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/a-lizard-persons-guide-to-us-election-conspiracy-theories/ and also an article Jason mentioned by Jonathan Winer on how Trump’s people might try a coup in this election https://washingtonspectator.org/endgame-the-risk-of-a-trump-coup-and-how-to-prevent-it/

I spoke to the Swedish journalist Axel Gordh Humlesjö about his work investigating Russian dirty money in Sweden, especially in relation to Swedbank, Sweden's largest bank, whose CEO has been imprisoned on money-laundering charges.https://x.com/axelhumlesjo?lang=en

In the chaotic world we inhabit, the smartphone has become a key element of warfare, even in societies where we might imagine that connectivity is limited by reduced technological sophistication. I was privileged to be able to discuss this rapidly evolving landscape with three brilliant scholars:Professor Mirjam de Bruijn (https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/mirjam-de-bruijn#tab-1)Dr Jethro Norman (https://www.diis.dk/en/experts/jethro-norman)Professor Matthew Ford (https://www.fhs.se/sc/profile-page.html?identity=400.78d9ed61181920a3a625796c

A special episode in support of the Vladimir Putin Do F*ck Off - #VPDFO - festival. This event, held in Kyiv earlier in October brought together soldiers, journalists, activists and politicians with the primary purpose of raising funds for a group of charities doing essential work on the ground in Ukraine. Go to VDPFO.org to find more details of the charities involved and please donate using the link below:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/ukraine-can-win-vpdfo-2024This is a straightforward way to get funds to some incredibly valuable organisations. Everything you donate goes direct to the charities.The festival ran for two days and there were several sessions. This episode contains highlights of the first day and you'll get to hear from day two in a subsequent episode.During the recording you'll hear from Mariia Chepa, Vlad Demchenko, Paul Conroy, Caolan Robertson, Paul Niland, Liudmyla Buimister and Dima Kovalchuk . The event was of course moderated by John Sweeney.