As membership spreads eastwards, Nato troops and equipment are building up uncomfortably close to Russia’s border. ibid.
There is a secret army made up of mercenaries, volunteers and irregulars. ibid.
The fire burned for hours. The largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia had been hit multiple times. The attack was claimed by Shia-backed Houthi rebels from the neighbouring country of Yemen. It appeared to be the latest escalation in the deadly Saudi-Yemeni war that had been raging since 2015. But all was not as it seemed. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e2: Yemen: Britain & the Saudis
Fighting in Yemen has cost the lives of thousands and triggered a humanitarian crisis. ibid.
The Unified Republic of Yemen was declared on 22 May 1990. ibid.
Early in 2015 the Houthis seized the presidential palace and dissolved parliament. ibid.
‘The Saudis have been bombing Yemen indiscriminately’ … Impossible without its [Saudis’] oldest allies in the West: the United States and the United Kingdom. ibid. David Wearing, Royal Holloway University
Saudi Arabia-UK: At stake was one of the most valuable arms deals in history. ibid.
In 2003 The Guardian printed new allegations … [arms deal] secured by corruption on a massive scale. ibid.
Why is Britain selling arms to the repressive Saudi state? ibid.
Donald Trump had authorised a special forces raid in central Yemen … What was meant to be a precision raid turned into a chaotic hour-long battle. The White House insisted the operation had been a success. ibid.
The Navy in Somalia has been disbanded and nobody protects its waters … The Somali piracy industry: a trade that’s been created by the war. Behind these criminal actions are the warlord’s militia who have more ambitious goals. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e3: Somalia Pirates & Black Hawk Down
1992: President George Bush orders American troops into Somalia. This failed east African state is being torn apart by warlords. But Operation Restore Hope is to go badly wrong. 11 months later in October 1993 two US army helicopters are shot down over Mogadishu … The United States are still operating in Somalia. Only this time it’s in the shadows. ibid.
On gaining independence in 1960 British Somaliland merges with Italian Somaliliand creating a new republic called Somalia. On paper this should be a happy union. ibid.
Somalia is consumed with an all-out civil war … The people of Somalia suffer and starve. ibid.
The UN leaves a country without fulfilling its aims. The nation-building that was promised hasn’t been delivered. Its well-intentioned foreign intervention is a fiasco. ibid.
Ethiopian troops are already secretly crossing the border into Somalia. ibid.
5th February Sarajevo Bosnia: The capital had been under seige for almost two years. Thousands had died in the city killed by sniper and shell attacks. But this was a dark day even by the standards of the Bosnian war. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e4: Battleground Bosnia
Western powers were divided over how or whether to intervene. ibid.
The war had already ripped apart a nation. It would go on to threaten the credibility of Nato and the UN. It would force foreign powers into secret and unsavoury alliances. And it would lead to the worst act of genocide in Europe since the Holocaust. ibid.
‘Yugoslavia had succeeded against all the odds in reconciling most of these nationalities roughly into a state. When Tito died, it fell apart and that natural quilt – that patchwork quilt of nationalities – became a source of great instability.’ ibid. Michael Clarke, military specialist
The Federation splintered along national and ethnic lines … Bosnia & Hertzegovina was the most diverse of the Yugoslav republics. ibid.
On 3rd March 1992 the Bosnia parliament in Sarajevo formally declared the country’s independence. ibid.
A plan directed from Belgrade by [Radovan] Karadzic’s key ally – Slobodan Milosevic posed as a strong man. The President of the Serbian republic, he had seized power on a wave of nationalism. Now he sought to carve out a greater Serbia from the remains of Yugoslavia. ibid.
What would the rest of the world do about it? ibid.
In the early days of the war the Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniacs were allies against the Bosnian Serbs … They began fighting each other instead. ibid.
A secret weapons conduit was developed to try to bolster the Bosnian government. Donations from the Middle East were used to buy weapons from Hungary, Argentina, the former USSR and Pakistan … The investigation was a whitewash. ibid.
The people of Bosnia were the ones to suffer. The cost of that international indecision was about to become horrifyingly clear. ibid.
Bosnian Serbs seized 400 UN troops and held them hostage as human shields. ibid.
Peace talks began and a ceasefire was declared. ibid.
It’s a region that’s been at war for more than 70 years: Kashmir, a place rich in culture and tradition, home to Muslims, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. A state which has for decades fomented hate and fanaticism, driving apart two countries who were once one. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e5: Kashmir Powder Keg
Each nation secretly seeks to assert its control over the region. But with every clandestine confrontation the stakes get higher. ibid.
In 2019 Indian prime minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir’s special status in India’s constitution, taking away its autonomy. ibid.
What dark deals have been done by world leaders to prolong the conflict in Kashmir? ibid.
‘The conflict between India and Pakistan goes back to 1947: Partition was a sudden and fairly brutal process, and the problem was that Kashmir which is both Muslim and Hindu was made into a special territory.’ ibid. Michael Clarke, military specialist
Bigger battles were yet to come between these fierce and ultimately nuclear rivals. ibid.
Pakistan launched a series of air strikes against Indian airbases in Kashmir. India responded with force. Its army [December 1971] captured some 90,000 Pakistani troops in Eastern Pakistan … On 16th December 1971 Eastern Pakistan became the new sovereign state of Bangladesh. ibid.
Pakistan became the third largest recipient of American aid. ibid.
In Kashmir, the Islamic insurgency ramped up the pressure on India. ibid.
After decades of conflict, Kashmir still remains an open sore between these two nuclear giants … A wound that doesn’t look like it will be healing any time soon. ibid.
5th September 2016: ‘Barack Obama became the first ever sitting president in US history to visit Laos. And he went there to pledge US support.’ Secret Wars Uncovered s1e6: Laos, Dr James Rogers
‘Over 9 years, from 1964 to 1973, the United States dropped more than 2,000,000 tons of bombs here in Laos. More than we dropped on Germany and Japan combined in World War II.’ ibid. Barack Obama
‘The fact that the war extended into Laos in such a cruel way had a massive attack on civilians.’ ibid. Michael Clarke, military specialist
For decades there had been rumours of America’s actions in Laos. Amidst fighting a bloody and public war in Vietnam, stories emerged of a brutal bombing campaign, unprecedented in size and scale, but kept entirely secret. ibid.
Laos descended into a bitter civil war. Soldiers on both sides were trained by the CIA. It’s a secret war buried deep in the jungle. ibid.
So how did America secretly carpet-bomb a small south-east Asian nation that few had heard of? ibid.
Faced with a communist uprising, his [Kennedy] predecessor President Eisenhower had sanctioned the deployment of cover military trainers to wage a clandestine war. ibid.
The Soviet Union and China were also sending supplies to different groups in the Laos civil war. ibid.
President Kennedy sanctioned a secret bombing campaign in Laos: Operation Millpond. ibid.
CIA officers took steps to cover up their activities. ibid.
The Nixon White House were determined to keep it under wraps. ibid.
The CIA were implicated in this growing drugs trade. ibid.
The war in Laos turned the CIA into the world’s leading covert para-military organisation. ibid.