Behind the Bastards - Part Two: How the British Empire and U.S. Department of Defense Murdered an Island Paradise

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Robert killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die. Also he concludes the story of the murder of the Chagos Islands by the U.S. and the ailing British Empire. With bonus Dog Genocide!   Behind the Bastards is doing it's annual fundraiser for the Portland Diaper Bank! We had a soft start a week or so ago but will actually be plugging it this week and next. Please help if you can! https://www.gofundme.com/f/btb-fundraiser-pdx-diaper-bank?attribution_id=sl:a1a2d058-9511-435e-ab61-93bc1252ffa5&utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=twitter  Sources: https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/02/15/thats-when-nightmare-started/uk-and-us-forced-displacement-chagossians-and https://archive.is/KvGqw#selection-1769.0-1781.535 Vine, David. Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (p. 18). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/2/25/how-britain-forcefully-depopulated-a-whole-archipelago/ https://archive.org/details/webofdeceitbrita0000curt/page/432/mode/2up?q=chagos https://journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/2003See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cool Zone Media. Who did it? I did it. I pressed all the buttons. Oh, you did it. You did it. I also did it. I have also pressed the buttons that I have to start

to start my job in the podcast, which you're listening to right now. The podcast that I do for a job. You know who else does podcasts for a job? This is why people ask you to do the atonal shrieking because what was that? Ah! How's that, Sophie?

You happy now? Beautiful. You get enough? Andrew T. Welcome to the program. What up? How's it going? It's going good, I'm just saying.

Give us one shriek, Andrew. Just one time. Ha! That was it. That was tonal. That was a tonal shriek, Andrew. That was tonal. It was not atonal. That was tonal. That was a tonal shriek. That was tonal. There was no, it was not atonal. That was tonal.

Well, the subreddit's going to be livid. People are going to be lighting you up, Andrew. Get the music theory people on here. I want to hear what they have to say. Yeah, somebody make an EDM track from all of our, my various atonal openings, but also You know who's not atonal? Dolly Parton and the the Federalists Twitter account just went out

For her evil take on Christianity, which is I don't actually know but I'm assuming it's be nice to everybody Because most of what Dolly Parton says is be nice to everybody and give children free books That's been my general experience Oh So is it is it have incredible? Chemistry with Burt Reynolds. Yeah, is it possible that the Federalist Society's like if you give children free books That's actually doing violence to them because they haven't gotten a job and earned money to buy books. Yeah, they think there's a good chance that's what's going on there. I also think this is

this is like a case of like a naked caveman picking a fistfight with a mastodon. Like you really do not want to want to throw down against Dolly Parton. Yeah. She's like in top 10 of most likeable people. want to throw down against Dolly Parton. Yeah. Come on. Oh, realize. She's like in top 10 of most likable people. Yeah, she is probably the most liked person in this entire country. Yeah.

By people in this country at least. You know who's not liked in this country or most other countries? Ooh. The Department of Defense. Oh yeah. Controversial. I don't know if that's true.

People like soldiers, Andrew. But even so, if you want to talk, if you talk to soldiers, the number one thing they complain about is the DOD. Right. Right? Right. Right.

One of the funny things about the Chagos case is that it involves what I would describe as incomprehensible evil from two empires, one fading into obscurity and the other rising to the precipitous heights from which we will all spend the rest of our lives watching it fall. That's what we're gonna talk about. This really is like a relay race,

like a clean baton pass. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. It's just like two sides of the graph meeting for one brief shining moment. And before we end this cold open, just one more, one more atonal shriek. You. Sylve, I'm not a windup doll.

All right, one. I'm a person. Two, three. Beautiful. From KT Studios, the number one podcast, The Idaho Massacre is back. The new developments in the University of Idaho murder case. It was an unimaginable crime.

One house, four victims, only one accused. If this is true, then this guy is the real-life Dexter. Listen to season two of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's that show? It's the VC Show. What's up? I'm Vince Carter, and my podcast, The VC Show, is coming back. podcasts. Subscribe to the pod and listen to the VC show with me, Vince Carter on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Gary Veeder and I have a new limited series podcast, Number One Dad. Over this 10 part series, I'll go searching for the truth about my father, a con man, who I haven't spoken to in 24 years. He wants me to act like my injury is even worse for a payout. He's posing as my attorney in a court. There were moments where Manny would assume the role of undercover police officer. Listen to Number One Dad on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality,

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and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeart radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. In the early morning hours of September 6th, 2016, St. Louis rapper and activist Darren Seals was found murdered. That's what they gonna learn. On for death, on for nothing.

Every day Darren would tell her, all right, Ma, be prepared. They are going to try to kill me. All episodes available now. Listen to After the Uprising, the Murderer of Darren Seals, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. So, from where I stand, both the British Empire and the United States have pretty equal levels of guilt over Chagos, right? I wouldn't say either Americans or Brits have more to feel ashamed of here.

But of course, officials from both governments have a vested interest in making the other into the bad guy. And you get a hint of this in an article I found in a French journal, Etudes Oceane Indien by Julian Darup, who writes, Britain was forced on her own by its former colony, the USA, to depopulate Chagos of its indigenous population of British subjects and force them into exile in a foreign country. Against all the principle of the United Nations, the principles of human rights, and the Magna Carta, a unique case, perhaps without precedent, in British colonial history."

And like, they didn't get forced. They wanted some nukes for cheaper. Like, that's not forced. You can say a lot, but without precedent is the liest lie. This would be like back when I did drugs, if I was like, well, my drug dealer forced me to buy that cocaine with all that weed because it was just too cheap.

Sorry, did you just say back when I did drugs? I only do gas station drugs now, Sophie. I'm gas station sober. I keep saying this. Just Kratom, trucker pills and beer. Sure, Robert. Sometimes some of that Delta 8 stuff while it's still legal.

Please don't talk about it. My God. Those weird mushroom gummies that are apparently legal in gas stations in Texas now. What? Glorious. Oh my God. Gas stations in a lot of states now sell all of the drugs

that you used to have to spend like 25 minutes listening to Rammstein videos with a weirdo in his apartment to get. It's wonderful. Yeah. Now you watch them with just like a kid who's there working for minimum wage. Yeah.

No longer do I have to sit through an entire Bass Nectar album to get mushrooms. I just go to what should have been a 7-Eleven in a civilized nation. Is that how you pronounce that? That Bass Nectar? Bass Nectar? Bass Nectar? I don't know. It's, it's, yeah. Should have been a 7-eleven in a civilized nation Nectar I don't know it's probably base nectar. I don't care Yeah, that's nectar bass nectar is a worm or like a little fly I'm thinking I'm fishing pill these days Andrew I got my hunting license in hand and everything and I'm thinking I'm fishing-pilled these days, Andrew. I got my hunting license in hand and everything, and I'm gonna go fish.

So not for bass, because I don't think they're up here, but I'm thinking of bass, because I used to fish for bass. I would go for that. I consider fish oil, I call it bass nectar, Andrew. That's right. It's not made from bass. Y'all can just get Dungeness crabs from the ocean at times of the year, right? You sure can at times of the year, but. Y'all can just get Dungeness crabs from the ocean

at times of the year, right? You sure can at times of the year, yeah. And you could get mussels, but all of our mussels are poisoned right now. So we are not doing that this year. It's like a huge, huge shame because I used to go to Mussel Monday every week. Oh, glorious.

Yeah. Oh my God. And then also the food was good. I have two great mussel memories. One time me the food was good. I have two great muscle memories. One time me and a very good friend- You did not catch how great Andrew's joke just was. I'm sorry. What did I miss? Oh shit.

What did I miss? It's okay, you'll listen to it when you listen to the edit and I just want you to know Andrew deserved his flowers. Here you go, Andrew. Nice job. Thank you. I will be proud of you in the future when I listen to this episode, Andrew.

But now I gotta talk my muscle stories because I got two really good muscle stories. One is me and a very good friend of mine spent like a week in Baja. And we went like clambering down the side of this cliff side that was filled with like tidal pools. And there were all of these mussels that we like picked and then climbed up the rock side and like,

they were alive until the second we threw them into the fucking pasta. It was amazing, glorious. One of the best things I've ever eaten. And then a year or two later with that same friend, I was in the, I was in the all you can eat buffet at the Bellaccio having an eating contest that we had decided ahead of time would be mussels.

And unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, we called ahead to make sure the Bellagio had mussels. And they were like, oh yeah, we got them. And as soon as we arrived, we realized the mussels had been rancid and the Bellagio staff had decided to cover them with thousand island dressing in order to disguise the fact that they were no longer fit for consumption.

Now, this friend and I are both the kind of people that when we realize a plan we have made is untenable, our only thought is to just kind of fight through it, right? You know, it's battle of the bulge logic. We're Americans, you know? Win at all costs. And in this case, that meant we each consumed several pounds of rancid muscles.

I won at 14 plates, by the way. I'm really, one, I'm proud of you. Two, I'm trying to guess which friend of yours this is. We were, he'll listen to the show at some point. We got disastrously ill. And in my case, it was after I drove home. And in his case, it was on a Greyhound bus back to LA. Oh no, oh my Lord.

Can I just say, I will just throw this out there. If you're having an eating contest, you can't go with muscles, bro, at the Bellagio Buffet. We did, my man, we did. It's like, no, not because of the danger. It's just, you gotta go with high margin foods. Yeah, I know. It was a bad decision.

Cause we, the Bellagio buffet has a bunch of like really good looking food in it. And we walked past it for 14 plates to fill our plates with ranch. Crab legs are something, man. Can I just say, can I just say. It was a horrible decision. Did you at least, did you at least steal a bathrobe?

No, not from the Bellagio. God damn it, Robert. Can I tell my muscle story, which might be a federal crime? For sure. Yeah. Well, I guess you're allegedly. Allegedly. Yeah. Well, I'm not positive. Yeah, I guess I will just say this still narrows it down too much.

So it'll be pretty clear who this is. And because you can only have two neighbors, really, it's pretty, I guess if you were really sleuth and you could figure this out. But in college, I was friends with this guy who had, ah, you know what, actually, this is over. This could be a couple of different people. Anyway, his stepdad owned a house next door

to a beachside presidential compound. And we went and visited and we were just digging muscles on what we thought was their beach. And the lines are not very clearly drawn. And we came back. I can't remember if it was the mom or the dad was like, you guys didn't go past this, did you? And it turned out we possibly had poached some of the King's muscles.

Oh my God. I'm surprised they didn't black bag you and send you to Chagos, which by the way is where this story ends. This is where they would have, it was a precedent at a time when that very well could have happened and I guess I'll just leave it at that.

Yeah. First of all, well done. Anyway, that was quite a long digression about muscles. I guess sorry, but I thought it was funny. Not sorry. Yeah. So that's quite, I read from those British, from that French article where they were like,

ah, the poor British forced to ethnically cleanse their island by the Americans. Something they've never done before. I will say this is our fault equally with the British, but I consider that a silly way to look at this entire situation, right? Sure, yeah. Yeah.

So from the end of the British Empire, the decision they're making here is that their best case scenario is to keep having an empire on paper, but also like not have to do anything there. Just kind of let the Americans do it, right? So they consider this a pretty good deal. Sure.

Yeah. Now, for our part, the Americans, we are equally responsible, but we deny our responsibility in a different way, right? The British like to play, oh, we're put upon by those American bullies. And the Americans, in our attempt to ignore our complicity in this, we do the thing we do best,

which is we pretend to be big dumb tourists. Like, well, no, we didn't know. I'm just a poor simple boy from Kansas, you know? I didn't know there was people on this island When I built my Navy base That was not a Kansas accent What are we doing what I don't know why I said Kansas but there you go Sort of like what you'd imagine like a real good LBJ

There you go. Sort of like what you'd imagine like a real good LBJ paradise would have done. Yeah, like, and it is exactly that kind of attitude of just like, well, well shucks, I didn't realize there were people there, nobody told us, you know? And that was like, you can, we have paperwork from Navy officers being up, being like, we need to have the British kick these people out for us

because otherwise we're gonna look like shit when people find out that we had them do this, you know? And it is very clear that American officers were well aware of what had to be done to ready Chagos for them. In fact, they demanded it in 1965 for Admiral, and this is one of the most ridiculous names

in Navy history. Elmo Zumwalt told his British counterparts, fucking Elmo, an Elmo, this is a genocide done in part by an Elmo, you know? Just tragic. My own personal desire is to have no indigenous laborers on the island because I could foresee the kind of political complication

that the Soviets always make when you have that kind of indigenous population Therefore I strongly advocate that there be none there when that we take over and establish the base It's such a such a Navy man in the fucking 60s thing to be like yeah It's those damn communists making all these people angry that we have turned their sparkling beaches into diesel fuel all these people angry that we have turned their sparkling beaches into diesel fuel. Yeah. They hate us poisoning lagoons for some reason. The only way to make sure we don't look bad is to, you know, like exile all of them. Yeah, kick them all out. The communists can't take advantage of this situation.

Amazing stuff. When one reads the correspondence of US Navy officials who first laid eyes on Diego Garcia, you can almost feel their hunger, right? They write about like a tolls lagoon could shelter like massive numbers of ships, huge fleets of them. And it's also one of those things because of their location, storms don't really hit Chagos. Like they get like rain storms and stuff,

but cyclones very rarely get close enough to Chagos for it to be a problem. Admiral John McCain described the islands as the Malta of the Indian Ocean. The other John McCain, not the one who didn't quite get plane flying down. His dad though. So I gave Julian a little bit of shit, therefore, in my eyes, spreading some propaganda, but

I will say his paper has a lot of good stuff in it. And it actually did inform me of an added dimension to this horror that my earlier reading had not presented to me. Robin Cook, then a minister of parliament, later claimed that the initial base site that the United Kingdom planned to offer to the United States was a different island and not the heavily inhabited Diego Garcia. This island, Aldabra, was rejected because giant tortoises nested there

and neither great military power wanted to risk the bad PR of herding tortoises. Now. Jesus Christ. I will say, I think tortoises and human beings have an equal right to keep living in their homes that considerably outweighed the British desire for better nukes or the American desire from an easier place from which to bomb the Middle East.

But it is pretty fucked up that they're like, well, we can't kick those tortoises out of their home. Better kick the people out. Oh, my God. That's so uniquely awful. It is, it's like a fascinating and like almost, yeah. Almost a precious kind of evil. It's really 20th century American awfulness. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It's the kind of evil you can only do while wearing a specific sort of khaki suit, you know? Yeah. Amazing stuff. Well, we can't have this. It would look terrible. Yeah, you can see the hat on the military officer. You know, one of those beautiful peaked ones. The question left to both the British

and the Americans then was this. How do you clear an entire culture of people off of their home? And the answer is slowly. Soon after creating the biot, and again, the biot is this political fiction, the British have lassoed some islands together on a map and said, we're giving the other islands

we had previously owned up to be independent countries, we get to keep this chunk of them, right? So they make this and they ink a deal with the US in 1965. And after this point, Great Britain begins what you might describe as a slow motion exile of the Chagossian people. At first, this took the form of encouraging migration away from Diego Garcia to Mauritius. Free tickets on quarterly steamships were offered to islanders who simply wanted to explore their neighborhood. But bit by bit,

they started restricting the ability of locals on vacation or who had moved away temporarily. You get someone who like, well, I want to make some money. I want to acquire a couple of things that I can't get on Chagos. I'm going to move to Meridias for like five years, right? And then I'll go back home. So some of these people start to find out when they try to book routes back home that there's no such route any longer.

There's no more steamships going to Chagos. Now, because Chagos. Now, because Chagos is so isolated, they don't have a way of messaging back home. There's no way for them to warn their families or to explain what has happened to them. To the people, like from the perspective of people living on Chagos,

their family members are leaving on like short trips, like I'm gonna go be on vacation for three months. And then they just don't ever come home and you never find out why Right. This is the British plan. Yeah, sounds about right. I guess Yeah, sounds about right I guess the biot was in British law British territory and all legal precedent makes it clear that the Chegosians should have been treated as citizens of the crown

That would have created a problem though. If you tell these people, you can never go home, but hey, you have UK citizenship now. They might like go to London and find a journalist or a lawyer and start being like, our culture's being annihilated for some reason, you know? And that's a real issue. You can't have them doing that.

So the British, they decide like, well, if these people figure out that they have the right to be citizens, we can't stop them. But what we can do is just never say anything. Jesus. It's amazing stuff. A foreign office memo from 1970 wrote this out.

This is some Mr. Beanship, by the way. This is crazy. It is, it's bean-esque, yeah. A foreign office memo from 1970 writes this out directly. Quote, we would not wish it to become general knowledge that some of the inhabitants have lived on Diego Garcia for at least two generations and could therefore be regarded as belongers. We shall therefore advise ministers in handling

supplementary questions about whether Diego Garcia is inhabited to say that there is only a small number of contract laborers from the Seychelles and Mauritius engaged in work. That is being economical with the truth. That's how they describe it. We're not lying. We're economizing with our facts. That's true. That's true.

The truth is in recession and what can you do? What can you do? There's gotta be some austerity. Hey, we're the UK. There's one thing we can still do and it's austerity. If the memo continued, a member of the House of Commons were to ask about the welfare of these contract laborers

in the wake of the US base being set up on the island, they were to be brushed off. And the matter noted as hypothetical until construction actually began. A 1968 memo from a foreign office legal observer had been even more blunt, bragging, we are able to make up the rules as we go along and treat inhabitants of Biot as not belonging to it

in any sense. Why not? Yeah. Well, what if we just decide to fuck these people over and never explain it? That seems easier for us. I love the rules-based international order, Andrew T. It's dope.

Yeah, you know, it's true that it has always been this way, but yeah, the fiction that this is laws is crazy. It is like, you know, if you want to progress can be defined, I guess, as being like one empire being like, it is fine to depopulate vast numbers of white people from their homes and even Kill huge numbers of them to the the next empire is going like no no no you just make them live in another country Never tell them why and lie about it and make sure they're not white. That's number one Yeah, that's that's that's progress, baby. Yeah.

Great stuff. So under this logic, no explanation was needed as to why Chagosians weren't allowed to return home to their loved ones, their houses, and the graves of their ancestors. They were just guest workers. The government had bought out their old employer, it owned the plantations,

and they were no longer needed to work them. One of the first wave of exiles, for an idea of how this works in practice for a lot of like the first chunk of Chagosians who get forced out, is Rita Bancol. She had been born in June 1928 on an island called Peros Banjos, about 150 miles north of Diego Garcia. Her great-great-grandmother had been enslaved and taken from Madagascar, and ever since, Chagos had been where her family belonged. She joins the vast majority of Chagos' exiles in recalling her life on the island as quite

good. Quote, you had your house, you didn't even have rent to pay. With my ration, I got 10 and a half pounds of rice each week. I got 10 and a half pounds of flour. I got my oil. I got my salt. I got 10 and a half pounds of rice each week. I got 10 and a half pounds of flour. I got my oil, I got my salt, I got my beans. It was only butter beans and red beans that we needed to buy. And to be clear for you libertarian minded folks out there,

they're not being given these rations because the British empire is like taking care of them. This is pay for the work that they do, right? They are laboring and they're being paid in rice because there's really not a lot to buy with money, right? These people use money occasionally to buy like liquor or special kinds of beans and spices, but like they get paid a lot in food because it's more useful to them often than cash, right? But they're not, this is not like a gift they're being given. They are laboring for this, right? Rita also recalls having

a dog named Couture's who would dive into the sea and bring fish back to her, which sounds pretty cool to me, right? That's kind of dope. That's so cute. Yeah, that's adorable. Now, Andrew, I'm gonna have some real sad stuff about all the dogs in this island to tell you in a little bit.

So I wanted to give you one happy dog story about Couture's, the fishing dog. You didn't tell us that there was sad. Oh, this is gonna be a real bad Sophie. I picked up Anderson because she wanted to be picked up and now I want her out of here. Wow, she wants to be held. Don't let any officials

of the British Foreign Office near Anderson. Actually, that's a standing rule. Yeah, I was gonna say that's never gonna happen. Yeah. Oh, Anderson. So Rita told author David Vine in an interview for his book Island of Shame life there paid little money a very little but it Was the sweet life and again, that's basically everybody who lived there is what they say is like, yeah You know, we worked hard and we didn't have money but like you didn't need much money and we were all pretty it was pretty rad We were pretty happy on Chagos.

One of the few downsides of life there, as I've noted, was a lack of good access to hospitals. The only regular passage to Meridius was a quarterly steamship. In 1967, Rita's three-year-old girl Noelle had her foot run over by a mule-drawn cart. The nurse in their tiny local clinic told Rita Noelle needed an operation at a real hospital in Moridius. They still had to wait two months for this. By the time the boat arrived, Noelle was sick with gangrene. Still, Rita piled her whole family onto her boat, her husband Julian and their five uninjured children,

planning to spend three months recovering with Noelle in the capital of Moridius, Port Louis. Tragically, Noelle's gangrene was too severe for the medicine at the time. She died a month after they arrived in Meridius. Rita and her family waited and grieved for two months until they could book passage to return home. Again, these steamships were quarterly. Vine writes, with the departure date approaching, Rita walked to the office of the steamship company to arrange for the family's return.

There the steamship company representative told her, your island has been sold. You will never go there again. Leaving Rita to return to her family speechless and in tears. When Julian finally heard his wife's news, he collapsed backwards, arms splayed wide, unable to utter a word. Prevented from returning home, Rita, Julian, and their five surviving children found themselves in a foreign land, separated from their home, their land, their animals, their possessions, their jobs, their community, and the graves of

their ancestors. The Bancos had been, as Chegosians came to say, deracin, deracinated, uprooted, torn from their natal lands. They have a couple words that they have created in their language for the specific trauma of being raised in paradise and being ripped away from it and not really told even why it's happening. Deracin. Now to hear Rita tells it,

being deracinated is what killed her husband. Shortly after their daughter died and they get this news, Julian suffers a stroke. His body shuts down on him and he dies five years later. Rita gives his cause of death as Sagran, which is another Chagosian word and it means deep sadness. It is specifically the kind of sadness of being separated from Chagos. He dies of sogrin and a lot of her family, her kids, are going to follow in a similar path.

Nobody from the British government ever explains to Rita why this is happening. No paper trail exists. She is just stuck one day in a foreign land with nothing as her family dies around her. The next to perish was her son, Alex, who passed at 38 after years of addiction to drugs and alcohol. Their son, Eddie, overdosed on heroin at 36. Their little boy, Raynald, died at age 11 while begging for money for reasons the family will never know. The way she describes it is like he just his body just gave up.

He was too sad. Oh, God. Yeah, that's like so wild to just be like, yeah, your island, you can't go home. Yeah, your island sold. No one will ever explain this to you. Goodbye. Yeah, you know, I will just say in traditional Western literature, the person that rips you from paradise is typically Satan, just FYI.

Right, right, the devil, yes. And I do like that term, saagran is so evocative, right? This like sadness that literally kills you because you have been separated from the place where your heart is. Rita's story is one small example of the horror enacted by the British to serve the needs of the US empire. She told David Vine, my life has been buried. It is as if

I was pulled from my paradise to put me in hell. Everything here you need to buy. I don't have the means to buy them. My children go without eating. How am I supposed to bear this life? Part of the horror here is that these people, I mean, they worked for a company, so technically they existed within capitalism, but on a day-to-day basis, money was like a thing you occasionally used for stuff you didn't need. You got everything you needed from the island, right? Now they have to pay rent, they have to buy food, they have to like work in factories and shit. It's this it's this totally alien existence for them and it's horrible Yeah, well, and it's also like if you have to live in capitalism like yeah starting when you have a family is right

Yeah, you've got your husband's strokes out and you have five kids to support like a fucking nightmare Yeah, the year after Rita's lifelong nightmare began, 1968, Michael Stewart, the Baron Stewart of Fulham, a British Labour Party politician and foreign secretary, wrote in yet another secret document, and I'm reading from Mark Curtis's Web of Deceit here, by any stretch of the English language, there was an indigenous population

and the Foreign Office knew it. A Foreign Office Minute from 1965 recognizes policy as, to certify the Chagosians more or less fraudulently as belonging somewhere else. Another Whitehall document was entitled, Maintaining the Fiction. The Foreign Office legal advisor wrote in January 1970, that it was important to maintain the fiction that the inhabitants of Chagos are not a permanent or semi-permanent population. So like you have this labor politician being like,

well, we knew there was a foreign population there and you guys just lied. And the foreign office in their own internal policies being like, well, yeah, our policy was to lie about it. That's what we decided to do was pretend it was the easiest thing to do. This is like at least Al Capone didn't deny his, or didn't evade his taxes.

Oh, Al Capone was nearly this evil. And you know who else is it nearly this evil, Andrew? The sponsors of this podcast. I can guarantee you, none of them are responsible for Chagos. We are not presently sponsored by the British Foreign Office or the Department of Defense. So you know. Asterisk guaranteed, not guaranteed.

Yeah. If we ever do an ad for Call of Duty, this will no longer be entirely accurate. Anyway. From KT Studios, the number one podcast, The Idaho Massacre is back. The new developments in the University of Idaho murder case. It was an unimaginable crime. In the early morning of November 13th, 2022, four University of Idaho students killed. Police have no suspect and no murder weapon.

A nationwide manhunt captivates the world. Moscow PD saying today they're now looking for a white Hyundai Elantra. Then a shocking arrest. There is now a suspect in custody. This is a PhD student in criminology. This is the guy. Will he be found innocent? He claims he has an alibi. Or face death.

Listen to season two of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Gary Veeder, and I have a new limited series podcast called Number One Dad. It may have been the greatest scam for a sports fan. I'm Gary Veeder and I have a new limited series podcast called Number One Dad. It may have been the greatest scam for a sports fan.

In the 90s, my dad and I ran a con for years where we snuck into the world's most prestigious arena, New York's Madison Square Garden, and I interviewed some of the biggest athletes in the world, even Michael Jordan. But this wasn't the only scheme my dad was pulling. He's posing as my attorney. In a court. Everything my dad did was a scam. There were moments where Manny would assume the role

of undercover police officer. My father's never-ending string of lies ultimately broke apart my family. And at 15 years old, I completely cut him out of my life. That was 24 years ago. I have no idea where he lives or what he's up to, but my goal is to track him down and get to the truth about who my father,

Manny Beter, really is. This is Brooklyn Federal Court Hatch. My father was involved in a case from the early 90s, and I'm just trying to get information. You better hope that your dad doesn't find out about this before you're ready to talk to him. I'm sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected

or is no longer in service. Listen to Number One Dad on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? I'm Vince Carter and my podcast, The VC Show is coming back. Season two of The VC Show is going to be bigger and better than ever. Every week during the NBA season, I'll give you my real insights and opinions on the league. Oh, nice move by Carter! What?

Yes, indeed! I have a lot to talk about, and it won't always be basketball. If you listen to the show, you will get to know me, my life, and the things I care about. My family, friends, golf, music, and much more. Vince Sanchez Reigns Supreme. Subscribe to the pod and listen to The VC Show with me, Vince Carter, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, it's over! It's over! It's over, ladies and gentlemen! Hey, what's that show? It's The VC Show. Hey, what's that show? It's the VC Show. Hey, what's that show? Hey, everyone. I'm Mark. I'm Greg. I'm Brendan. And this is a trailer for a new podcast called

Get It to Dutch, a Screenwriter's Journey. It's about screenwriting. And a journey. The three of us play aspiring screenwriters on a quest to get a hit Hollywood script to famous producer Dutch Huxley. Well, I would say one of us is aspiring and the other two are sort of struggling. Which one of us is aspiring?

They're gonna have to listen to the podcast. But I don't know and I made the podcast. Well, I made the podcast and I think you guys were along for the ride. Each week we bring in a script, we read it and then we give each other notes. And you'll also hear about our adventures navigating the Hollywood system.p- uh, system.

The show features amazing guests like Tim Robinson, Lily Sullivan, Weird Al Yankovic, and Rob Hubel. And like any great blockbuster, it's filled with heartbreak, adventure, suspense, and just a little tasteful nudity. And some distasteful nudity. Oh yeah, sorry about that guys. Listen to Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's the hardest question you've ever asked your mom? Mom, what happened to your sister Margarita? For me, it's about a murder that's haunted my family for decades. They said that they took her, and the next day she was already dead. To find the answers, I went to the place where my family is from, El Salvador, and found that the story starts with a priest who was killed on the altar and sparked a war.

I'm Jasmine Romero, and on Sacred Scandal Nation of Saints, join me as we uncover an unholy war, one that includes government cover-ups and politicians turned death squad leaders. But I'll also tell you the story of one family, mine. Because on this journey, I found out that we had more secrets than I knew. Listen to Sacred Scandal, Nation of Saints,

as part of the MyCultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. There's also a lot of movies we could read ads for and then would technically be being paid by the Department of Defense in some way. So I don't know.

There's no escaping it. Yeah. Even with the nightmare of exile, Rita's situation might've been vastly improved if she had been informed that she was now a citizen of the, or she technically really always had been, a citizen of the UK with the attendant rights and potential access to social services

that that brought with it. She could maybe leave this place in Meridius that she had been dumped, go to the UK, and gain access to some of the things that British people can access to help when they have a bunch of kids that they can't afford and the culture that they now live in. But Britain's High Commission in Mauritius wrote in 1971

in a meeting with the Mauritian Prime Minister, naturally, I shall not suggest to him that some of these also have UK nationality. Always possible that they may spot this point, in which case, presumably, we will have to come clean. So the British High Commission's official statement was, if they ask us, are we British, we have to say, all right, yep, you guys are. But hopefully they won't find out. There's a part of me that's like, why not just lie again? If you're going to be this evil.

It's because there's this weird thing they have to believe. Most of us do in this country and in the UK have to believe that the laws mean something, right? You can ignore them and often will. But if somebody catches you on it, you have to be like, well, all right. You know, like it's like cops doing a legal search and seizures. They do it a lot on people who are not informed, don't have enough access to the law

to properly protest it. But as soon as you're called, this was an illegal search and seizure, they're like, all right, well, we gotta give this one up, right? We broke the law and you caught us, all right. You have enough money to know what your rights are. Okey dokey.

You know? I guess that's what it is, is it creates a soft social stratification. You have enough money to know what your rights are. Okey dokey. Right. You know? I guess that's what it is. Is it creates a soft social stratification. Yeah. Like access to that information is not free. Right, right. It's not.

It requires having the benefit of a certain kind of education, access to certain kinds of libraries, barristers, all that kind of shit, right? So Rita and her family are just part of the first wave of exiles. The bulk of the Chagossian population could not be induced to leave on temporary trips where they could be surprised exiled.

Because again, it's pretty nice there and most people don't really, it's the kind of place other people go on vacation. You don't always want to leave. So the British authorities started choking them off by cutting, they would just, they made it basically illegal to send medicine or like other supplies to the islands, right?

They stopped taking the things that like the islanders had been exporting successfully to the rest of the world. They're just like, we are denying you the planet with our Navy in the hopes that it will make your lives untenable. That said, this still doesn't fully work because they are capable of keeping themselves fed by what they grow on the island, right? The access to medicine is important, but they can continue to exist there.

Still, by January of 1971, this had not emptied the islands of their populace, and the US was starting to get antsy. Admiral Zumwalt exchanged, our friend Elmo, exchanged a flurry of memos with his counterparts across the sea, and was warned by his own legal advisor, John R. Stevenson, that the 1866 US-UK agreement, or that the 1966 US-UK agreement over Chagos and the UN Charter they'd both signed, gave them both a legal responsibility

not to force people out of their homes without satisfactory arrangements. So the treaty that we had signed, we said, if you have to uproot anyone for us to build this base, they have to be given money and compensated properly for their loss, right? Now that's still bad in my mind, right?

A military base shouldn't outweigh the existence of a culture, you know? But at least that's not, now you live in this other country and you have nothing, goodbye. You know, it is better than that. But, you know, Zumwalt and his colleagues, their concern is not that this is not being done. Their concern again is that people might find out

that this is not being done. And so they really just decide to push the British like you need to empty out Diego Garcia, this most populated island, as fast as possible. So we can send in our CBs, which are the very silly name that we have for the Navy guys who are going to build this base, right? Right. On January 24th, 1971, the population of Diego Garcia was ordered into the old manager's office for the company that had once run things. And it was announced to them that their island was closing.

People had a variety of reactions. Some of them said like, you're gonna house us, can we live in another island in Chagos? Right? Can we just like move to one of the other islands? They're all pretty nice. Others asked if they would be given like money at least to start a new life elsewhere.

Most Vine notes were simply stunned. Half a decade later, in one of the court cases that resulted from all this, an employee of the plantation company, and the company has been bought out by the British government, but they're keeping the employees who had worked on the island there to manage things with the natives. An employee of this company, half decade later in court, swears in a court statement that he had told the laborers, quote, it was quite probable they would be compensated. Now he says that to give himself an out, right?

He was like, yeah, you'll probably get something. The Chagosians who were there say we were promised housing and financial assistance if we left, right? Yeah. I know who I believe. Yeah. who were there say we were promised housing and financial assistance if we left, right? Yeah. I know who I believe. Yeah. But-

Quite probable. Quite probable we'll give you something. Sure, probably you'll get something for being forced out of the homes that your ancestors lived and died on. Yeah, probably. The deportations began in earnest after this point. Julian Darup writes,

"'The first boat of human cargo arrived on the Seychelles on the 500 ton cargo ship, the Nordwehr, the boat of shame, which is what the Chagossians called it, on Thursday, 30th September, 1971. There were 146 persons in a boat that was legally allowed to carry 12 cabin passengers. Some bitter experiences followed this evacuation. When the Nordweyr got to Mahi,

four horses which she transported were taken care of and sheltered. The human cargo was deposited on the jetty with all their belongings. So they ship these people with an illegal number of them on this boat in squalid conditions to another island. And then their immediate concern is, we gotta make sure these horses are taken care of.

We can leave these people out in the open. Now, eventually they do take them out of the open and put them in a woman's prison where they are confined to cells and fed on prisoners' food. Yeah, that feels about right, I guess. Jesus Christ. It feels about right for I guess. Jesus Christ. It feels feels about feels about right for the the old British Empire. Yeah, the sclerotic rotting corpse of the British Empire.

Still fucking people over. Spirit Airlines part of the British. The British Empire in their spirit Airlines era. Yeah. So pretty bad stuff. Now some of the people who are being deported from Chagos were not natives to Chagos. There were some like Seychelloy's

who had been working on Chagos for many years. They get to go back to the place where they had been born, but they're not given any money. Like their contract is essentially broken. And when they get transported back, they're forced to sleep under shop barandas until like someone finally calls their relatives elsewhere in the country, right?

It's just again, this lack, utter lack of concern for these human beings. Boat trips continue to take people away from Chagos for the next two years. In all cases, this process was slap fucking dash for the simple reason that the US was pressuring the UK to get all these goddamn people off the island and the UK wanted to do it with the minimum amount of actual work. On February 4th, a State Department

message warned all relevant personnel to avoid direct participation in the resettlement of Eloy's people because the basic responsibility is clearly British. Hey man, this can't be on us, you know? Soldiers, don't do anything to kick these people off. Leave that to the English, right? We got other, like, we don't, we don't want the heat this is going to bring, right? Well, we're paid, we paid them for this. Yeah. We paid them in nukes for this. Come on. Now of primary concern to the US Navy and State Department men overseeing this process, the reason why they are so worried about American soldiers getting involved

in the depopulation of the island is what was happening at the time in another part of the US empire on an island called Culebra in Puerto Rico. Now at the start of the century, the US Navy had dissolved the main town on Culebra. We had just told this town, you don't get to be a town anymore. We got to have a Marine base here. In 1941, President Roosevelt had claimed exclusive rights to the airspace above

Culebra. In the 1950s, the Navy tried to evict all the remaining residents of Culebra to expand the Marine base. We just decided like, nobody gets to live here anymore. We got a fill list with Marines, you know Like we don't have enough places for our Marines Southern California is not big enough for all the Marines we need Yeah, yeah, I guess our MO throughout Yeah biggest most of the 20th 21st century Yeah, well you guys have lived here for forever No, I think it's most of the 20th and 21st century. Yeah. Well, you guys have lived here for forever.

I mean, you know, that's unfortunate, but you'll understand once we explain this, we need another place to put Marines, you know? Yeah. We gotta send these boys places to die. You know, you can't do that from, I don't know, Michigan. Right? That's not gonna make any sense.

So the Navy tries to evict everyone from Culebra to expand their Marine base, but the Puerto Rican government refuses. This ultimately sparks a conflict between the Puerto Rican people and the Department of Defense. In 1969, as part of the Puerto Rican people on Culebra, and I think people from off Culebra

who want to help the islands not get cleansed, right? Start basically striking, right? And refusing to leave. And so to try to get them out, in 1969, the US Navy starts firing missiles at the island. They do two, in that year, 1969, they do 228 days of live fire missile exercises. They're just, they're bombing Puerto Rico 128 days of live fire missile exercises.

They're just, they're bombing Puerto Rico to make people leave. I didn't know that happened. Neither did I, we should have. It's nuts. It's really fucked up that we, that like, this is not more, I'm sure Puerto Ricans are very well informed about it, but I was not growing up in Texas

I could say that much Misfires injured people and damaged property the island was poisoned because I don't know if you know this Andrew Missiles are not good for like water Like if you drop if you blow a bunch of missiles up and they land in the water supply, it's not great Next I'm gonna quote from an article in Swarthmore University's Global Nonviolent Action Database. Citizens on the island responded to the Navy's

second attempt at a total eviction by demonstrating on the island's beaches in 1970. After a court reaffirmed the Navy's right to use Culebra as a military site, residents marched to a local command post and issued an ultimatum warning that they would also use direct action to force removal of the U.S. Navy. The Puerto Rican Senate also passed a resolution in which they asked President Nixon to re-evaluate

the Navy's presence on the island. This increased national attention on the issue and brought congressional support that would prove helpful later in the campaign. Congressional hearings and investigations continued throughout the summer to determine what could be done about the issue. Throughout the summer, demonstrators protested at a naval base in San Juan. In June 1970, 20 culebrans used their bodies as a human chain to block ship-to-shore missile fire. This was followed by a three-day-long encampment organized by the Puerto Rican

Independence Party, which attracted 600 people. PIP, led by Ruben Berrios Martinez, pledged to follow a course of Pacific militancy. The Navy responded by offering 35 jobs, hoping to placate the people of Culebra. Instead, residents picketed at a proposed demolition site. One of the three boats used to picket the site had to be towed away by force at the last moment to avoid human casualties.

Okay, we know you guys are angry at us bombing your island. What if we give you 35 jobs? What if we what if we open the equivalent of like a small Walmart worth of employment for you That make you not angry about all the missiles Yeah Amazing yes, you know what I guess the audacity of this shouldn't be surprising, but how the f- What is, maybe not surprising, what is good is that because Puerto Ricans, we have owned Puerto Rico for a while and they were in the eyes of other Americans, seen as kind of Americans

at least, they win, right? They get sympathy, people in Congress get angry on their behalf. People on the mainland get angry on their behalf because even as irrational as Americans could be about like their military and patriotism, when you hear that your Navy is firing 228 days worth of missiles at an island with no weapons, it's really hard to seem like the good guys. I mean, we never really are, it turns out. Haven't been for decades. Yeah, it's very, every now and then

it'll be like an aircraft carrier showed up to help after a tsunami, but that's not most of what aircraft carriers do, it turns out. Ultimately, Nixon ordered the Navy to leave the island in 1974. This is a rare case where Dick Nixon is like, yeah, this is fucked up. Like, you know, look, I've said some things about Puerto Ricans that like, you know, you will hear it, but you don't want to.

But like even I know. Bad as he was, there is like a well We haven't gotten that much. Yeah, you know The thing about dick Nixon. He's such a weird guy because he's like, yeah simultaneously in some ways our most evil president but also was more able than a lot of our at least Seemingly less evil presidents. He was a lot more able to be like, well, we gotta stop this, right? Like, we gotta have an EPA, obviously.

Yeah, he's what people try to say good Republicans should be. God, yeah. That is the reality of the situation. Like, you know, yeah, I mean, we're gonna back a couple of genocides to do it, but we should have people talking to the Chinese, right? You know, there's too much risk of a nuclear war for us not to talk to Mao.

Yeah. He's like kind of pragmatic in a way that's like, yeah, you'll do the right thing even if you have to do a couple of unnecessary genocides or at least enable them to do it. He was evil, but not delusional. And now the thing is it's like- Yeah, or delusional and I don't know. I don't know how to- Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. I really, he's hard to quantify Richard Nixon. Well, he feels like he was delusional about people but not about concrete facts. Yeah, yeah. I don't- we will eventually, I've already talked to the, maybe I'm dropping this now, I've talked to the dollop guys,

we're gonna do our start our episodes on him at some point, got delayed by what happened with my dad. He is like a baffling man to try to pin down Richard Nixon. Like one of our most confusing leaders. Yeah. It has only gotten simpler since then to see the evil, I guess. Yeah.

So there's that. At least there's that. So eventually, thankfully the Puerto Ricans and Culebra win their fight here. But again, this is 1971. So that's like the height of the protest campaign against the Navy trying to clear Culebra of human beings. So the Navy guys who were getting the space ready

in Diego Garcia are looking at this ongoing, this hitting everyone in the Navy who was like at a high position is dealing with the fallout from Culebra, right? It's this horrible headache. And so they're like, look guys, we cannot have that happen here. Like you have to get these people out

and do it fucking quietly. So once they start construction and CBs start encountering angry locals who did not want to leave, these sailors started complaining. Some of these sailors are actually sympathetic to these guys. One writes to his commander of meeting a fine old man who's been there 50 years and is like, this guy's really pissed at what we're doing. And like, kind of seems like we're fucking him over. You know?

There's a widespread feeling among the CBs that quote, the UK haven't been completely above board on this, right? They did not tell us we were going to be doing an ethnic cleansing and some of us feel ways about it actually, you know? He warned that Diego Garcia could be another Culebra. One of the officers responsible for all this was Captain E.L. Cochran, who noted that this was

a potential trouble area that could be exploited by our opponents. Quote, a newsman so disposed could pose questions that would result in a very damaging report that long time inhabitants of Diego Garcia are being torn away from their family homes because of the construction of a sinister US base And he writes sinister is like a oh these silly newsmen describing us as evil, but like

bro This is very sinister. This is one of the most sinister things I've ever read about. Can you not see that? really I That that is I think the thing that modern, I guess like TV gave to these people is thinking they could just hang a lantern on it and it insulates them from reality. It's like, yeah, it is sinister, you dumb fuck.

Fuck you. Yeah, yeah, it's very sinister. That is the word. So ultimately this guy and his superiors conclude that the benefits of an air base in Chagos are so great that it's worth the risk. But quote, the United States should adopt a strict let the British do it policy.

That's what Navy officers write. The United States should adopt a strict let the British do it policy. You know, part of World War II we did that and that worked out okay you know cowardice I guess yeah it's a mix of cowardice greed and sloth right it's and if we're like for us I don't know it's I don't know if it's our least fine hour but it's up there in terms of the history. It's not our finest hour. I would say for the British,

this is the opposite of the Battle of Britain. That was legitimately a stirring moment of heroism. And this is the rubber band effect of the Battle of Britain, right? This is your least fine hour. I love how this is sort of like tattling to mom about how, like about whose turn it is to do the ethnic cleansing chores.

Yeah, cause it's like, it is, it's objectively or worse, obviously when they were like literally doing ethnic cleansings with their own troops out in the field, but this is so, like so much like, you're not even willing to say what you're doing. Like you're so scared of the newspapers. It's bureaucratic and cower and sniveling. I guess sniveling is high on the list of what this is.

Yeah, yeah, it's sniveling, right? You don't even have like the courage to go to Afghanistan and get shot by a Jizail, right? Like you're just hiding under paperwork as you do a genocide. And by the way, you don't actually have to, again, I don't know if this would be internationally classified as one, but I think you could make a case for it.

You don't have to kill everybody for it to be a genocide. Forced depopulation and destruction of a culture, destruction of grave sites, destruction of cultural facilities, all of that can be lumped into that. Now, I don't know if the ICC certainly hasn't said that this is one, but I think this is at least like, it's at least like the diet Mr. Pib,

compared to the Mr. Pib of genocide. Shogosians report being threatened that they would be bombed, shot or starved if they stayed. Aircraft began doing, and this is us, close low flies over inhabited areas to scare the locals. We start just dive bombing them, basically, to try and freak them out. And we also poisoned their waters with diesel fuel.

I don't know if that was purposeful or just an inevitable thing when you have that many boats in the area, but either way, we do that too. In April, 1971, the UK issued an immigration ordinance that made it a criminal offense for anyone but military personnel to reside in the Chagos Islands without a permit.

By July, the runway on the new base was operational. The final people forced from the islands were allowed to take one small box of possessions and a straw mat. All of their animals, including their pets, were to remain on the island as shipping them elsewhere would be too difficult and complex. So instead, a decision was made to make people abandon. This is in terms of wealth, this is the majority of the wealth all these people own is their

lifestyle. Right? That's the way this works. And then, you know, dogs are dogs, right? We all know what dogs are. The Biot commissioner, Sir Bruce Greatbatch, which is definitely this guy's name, orders. So again, there's these former company men who are now being employed by the British government who are still handling direct relations with the natives.

And the guy who's kind of running this is named Molini, right? And Bruce Greatbatch goes to Molini and he's like, hey, the Americans, you know, we're not letting these people take their dogs, but the Americans don't want a bunch of wild dogs on the island, so you're gonna have to kill all those dogs. Gonna need to murder every one of those dogs, bro. These like well-trained fishing dogs

that these people had considered part of their own family. Why don't you just kill all those dogs, buddy? You take care of that for me, will ya? You know, I'm Sir Bruce Great Batch. I'm not gonna do any dog killing. When your name is Sir Bruce Great Batch, it's your genetic legacy to order other men to murder people's dogs.

It is nominative determinism. It happens. It happens. It happens. It sure does. I'm gonna quote from the book, Island of Shame, a very appropriate title. Fuckers.

According to Mulini, he first tried to shoot the dogs with the help of CBs armed with M16 rifles. When this failed as an expeditious extermination method, he attempted to poison the dogs with strychnine. This too failed. Sitting in his home, overlooking a secluded beach in the Seychelles 33 years later, Mulini explained to me how he finally used raw meat

to lure the dogs into a sealed copra drying shed, the colorifier. Locking them in the shed, he gassed the howling dogs with exhaust piped in from US military vehicles Setting the coconut husks ablaze. He burnt the dogs carcasses in the shed the Chagosians who are still on the island are left to watch and ponder their fate We gas their dogs with our fucking jeeps or whatever in front of some of these people some of them have been forced out but not all of them and

This is this is a putting sinister in scare quotes. Right, yeah, in scare quotes. Oh, oh, we're so sinister. All we do is, yeah, murder a bunch of dogs. You're pretty sinister. Systematically. If I put that, if I like, again, if I did like a Star Wars and I had the Empire gas everybody's dogs on an island,

people would be like, come on, man, you're making them look a little... Like you've gone to silly territory here, right? Yeah, of course. It's always like that. Great shit. You know who isn't the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, unless they're sponsoring our podcast now? In which case, we're actually fine with that Because Star Destroyers look pretty cool cooler than an aircraft carrier

You know, that's my problem Andrew with the US Empire, right? Like why like Star Destroyers dope as hell air carriers It's just a big airstrip on up on the fucking boat. Like come on, man Come on if an F 35 could come out be like shot out of the belly And it made that sound the Thai fighters make I feel so much better about being in an empire Yeah, my god, and don't get me started on our stupid you ever seen a Navy uniform? Like they look dumb. Like give me those Death Star guys

with the rad helmets any day of the week. I will say it was a, it was Fleet Week a couple of weeks ago, I guess, in LA. Yeah, silly uniforms. I know that this is like part of whatever and they gotta do it, but I would just wanna say, and I know that a lot of the, I don't know if they're like made. But I would just want to say and I know that a lot of the I don't know

if they're like made to or they just choose to wear their like white little sailor suits and they've got to. They have no choice in the matter. I have a family. This is this is they are they do. They are not because none of them like them. Right. I will just say, though, I do understand. They're they're young, mostly men, and their mission on Flea Week is to be here and get laid.

I do think if you have sex with a sailor during Flea Week, you should go on a list of some kind. Cause that means you met them wearing that uniform. They were dressed that way? Yeah. Oh man, like, yeah. Yeah. Anyway.

Something's wrong. Something's awry. Come on. Look mean, like, look, literally, Navy, take the uniforms that the Death Star guys wear and just make that be the Navy uniform. Are you trying to- It'll look better. Were you trying to go to an ad break? Did we? Oh, yes, here's ads.

From KT Studios, the number one podcast, The Idaho Massacre is back. The new developments in the University of Idaho murder case. It was an unimaginable crime. In the early morning of November 13th, 2022, four University of Idaho students killed. Police have no suspect and no murder weapon. A nationwide manhunt captivates the world. Moscow PD saying today they're now looking for a white Hyundai Elantra. Then a shocking arrest. There is now a suspect in custody.

This is a PhD student in criminology. This is the guy. Will he be found innocent? He claims he has an alibi. Or face death. Listen to season two of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? I'm Vince Carter and my podcast, The VC Show is coming back. Season two of The VC Show is going to be bigger and better than ever. Every week during the NBA season, I'll give you my real insights and opinions on the league. Oh nice move by Carter! What? Yes he did!

I have a lot to talk about and it won't always be basketball. If you listen to the show you will get to know me, my life, and the things I care about. My family, friends, golf, music, and much more. Subscribe to the pod and listen to the VC show with me, Vince Carter on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, it's over. It's over, ladies and gentlemen. It's the VC show. I'm Gary Veeder and I have a new limited series podcast

called Number One Dad. It may have been the greatest scam for a sports fan. In the 90s, my dad and I ran a con for years where we snuck into the world's most prestigious arena, New York's Madison Square Garden, and I interviewed some of the biggest athletes in the world, even Michael Jordan. But this wasn't the only scheme my dad was pulling.

He's posing as my attorney in a court. Everything my dad did was a scam. There were moments where Manny would assume the role of undercover police officer. My father's never-ending string of lies ultimately broke apart my family. And at 15 years old, I completely cut him out of my life. That was 24 years ago. I have no idea where he lives or what he's up to. But my goal is to track him down and get to the truth

about who my father, Manny Veeder, really is. Brooklyn Federal Court Hatch. My father was involved in a case from the early 90s, and I'm just trying to get information. You better hope that your dad doesn't find out about this before you're ready to talk to him. Sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.

Listen to Number One Dad on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. I'm Mark. I'm Greg. I'm Brendan. And this is a trailer for a new podcast called Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey. It's about screenwriting and a journey. The three of us play aspiring screenwriters on a quest to get a hit Hollywood script to famous producer Dutch Huxley.

Well I would say one of us is aspiring and the other two are sort of struggling. Which one of us is aspiring? Well they're gonna have to listen to the podcast. But I don't know and I made the podcast. Well I made the podcast and I think you guys were along for the ride. Each week we bring in a script, we read it, and then we give each other notes. And you'll also hear about our adventures navigating the Hollywood system. The show features amazing guests like Tim Robinson, Lily Sullivan, Weird Al Yankovic, and Rob

Hubel. And like any great blockbuster, it's filled with heartbreak, adventure, suspense, and just a little tasteful nudity. And some distasteful nudity. Sorry about that, guys. Listen to Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's the hardest question you've ever asked your mom? Mom, what happened to your sister, Margarita? For me, it's about a murder that's haunted my family for decades.

They said that they took her, and the next day she was already dead. To find the answers, I went to the place where my family is from, El Salvador, and found that the story starts with a priest who was killed on the altar and sparked a war. I'm Jasmine Romero, and on Sacred Scandal Nation of Saints, join me as we uncover an unholy war, one that includes government cover-ups and politicians turn death squad leaders. But I'll also tell you the story of one family, mine, because on this journey, I found out

that we had more secrets than I knew. Listen to Sacred Scandal, Nation of Saints, as part of the MyCultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. And I just got a communique from the head admiral of the Navy. I don't know his name, but anyway, he called me and he said, they're doing it. They're doing the Death Star thing. So Navy listeners, you are welcome

The better uniforms are coming. It can't be worse. It can't be worse than that. It's quite a lot better. Yeah I'm still really sad about the dogs Yeah, it's really bad Sophie. It's horrible They start trying to shoot them and obviously what I think must have happened is the CBs must have been like I really don't Want to shoot anymore dogs I feel like this might be stuck in my head forever So let's just gas them. Dogs are a gift Humans are disgusting. They did it is worth saying that like that company man

Who was being ordered by Sir Great Batch and those CBs literally recreated the exact path that the SS took in Eastern Europe where they're like wow it really fucks people up to shoot all of these people let's just gas them we just did that but with dogs over the course of like a week yeah yeah you know but we're the good guys here but we're the good guys here. Don't forget. But we are the good guys here. This is some good guy stuff. A little bit of dog murder so we have an air base.

Who's to say what's wrong? Me, that's fucking wrong, you fucking asshole gremlins. Yeah, so Diego Garcia gets emptied of its indigenous populace over the year 1971. The other inhabited islands in Chagos are rid of human habitation over the next two years, I think by 73, all of the indigenous people are off. For reasons of rank and competence,

basically every time the British authorities would like send a bunch of these folks away on boats, they would just like forget that they needed to buy food or they would like forget that, well, they're gonna land somewhere and need someplace to stay. They are so lazy with how they do this shit. People are... There's several case times where boatloads of people accidentally starve, not to death, but to enough that it's a medical problem because they just forget to make sure

there's food. But by hook or by crook, the deed is eventually done. Over the next years, the bewildered and grieving Chagossian diaspora built communities in Meridius, the Seychelles, and in the UK. It's actually noted that like, there's like 4,000 or so Chagossian, like a mix of people who had literally been born there and forced out, and obviously their kids,

their grandkids at this point. There's a decent number of them who live in London, I think about 4,000, and actually a significant amount for whatever reason of the maintenance and janitorial staff at Gatwick Airport are from or descended from Chagos. Many exiles keep small bowls of precious sand from Chagos in their homes. You could think of this as how a lot of Palestinian families keep keys to their family houses when they got forced out during the Nakba or got forced out later, right? The Chagosian version is we have these bowls of sand

from Chagos from this island. It has been illegal for most of the last like 60 years for us to return to. Most Chagosians when asked express a desire to return or to at least have that option. A lot of them are like, well, I have a life in London now. I was born here, but I would like to see the island, right? Nearly all wanted British citizenship

or some sort of compensation for what has been done to them. In 1972, the first jet landed on the new American runway in Diego Garcia, and you wanna guess who was on it, Andrew? Oh no. History's greatest monster, Bob Hope. He de-planned there for a Christmas show for American troops stationed on the base. The Chegosians aren't allowed there, but Bob Hope is.

Oh God. Great stuff. Now, by this point, the war in Vietnam was kind of nearing its end, right? By the time it's 73, which is when we finally leave by the time Chagos or the islands are fully depopulated. And it just so happens though that Diego Garcia, it's due south of the Arabian peninsula, which is going to be close to a significant chunk of the world's oil and a significant chunk

of the next generation of American wars. The strategic value thus of this island is only going to get greater in the years after we get that air base working, right? Basically, we build this base right underneath the Arab Peninsula just as that becomes the center of the conflicts that we're getting involved with. So for the DOD, there's really no chance that they're going to give this place up, right? It's just too good a position and there's no people there. So nobody can be, you know, can say that we're being unfair to the locals.

There aren't any locals. We made damn sure of it, right? Right. But the people of Chagos don't take this lying down either. Islanders began organizing right away to force both the, to force, you know, the UK government to give them something because like we need food or money or citizenship in the immediate term.

And hopefully initially securing a right to return. In 1975, they petitioned the British High Commission in Meridius and told them, our ancestors were slaves on those islands, but we know we are the heirs of those islands, right? Your ancestors took us from another home, put us there, and by sheer luck, it turned out to rule. You know, it's not fair to take it back, right?

We are the only people in the history of slavery who got lucky with where they wound up, and you fucked us. Like, that's the attitude, right? The High Commission told them to take their problems up with the Mauritanian government, but this whole brouhaha got the Washington Post interested. And for the first time, the story entered Western media,

described in an editorial accurately as an act of mass kidnapping. And got my issues with the Post in the modern era, but that is what it is. Yeah, you kidnapped the civilization and stuck them somewhere else. This was when the post was still doing the journalism. This was really in their golden era. Yeah. Yeah.

There were inquiries in Congress and in the houses of parliament and interest would return briefly every few years when Shogosians engaged in a new act of protest, including a 1981 hunger strike by the exiled women of the islands. But no amount of protest was enough to overwhelm military necessity. The Navy used Chagos in 1973 to fly P-3 surveillance planes in support of Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Gerald Ford secured a huge batch of new funding to expand the base. When Congress made him promise that this was essential to the national interest, Ford told them, the oil shipped from the Persian Gulf area is essential

to the economic wellbeing of modern industrial societies. It is essential that the United States maintain and periodically demonstrate a capability to operate military forces in the Indian Ocean. During the House Committee hearings that followed, State Department Representative George Vest was asked if there was any question about the territory being open to our use. No, Vest told them, it is open sea and uninhabited.

Which was true at that point, but he's kind of leaving out an important part of the story. And how it became that way? No one can ever know. Impossible to say how. Impossible to say how, impossible to say how. As these CBs are like waking up with nightmares of shooting dogs. Jesus Christ.

Boats full of, so one of the things we do in Chagos, we do this to this day, this is still there right now, is we have these huge massive boats that are filled with tanks and like armored vehicles, Humvees, all sorts of like all of the material that the US needs to fill with ground forces to have a war, right? And we have boats where these things are specially prepared and ready so that we can drive that boat anywhere nearby

and have all of the gear that an army needs. And we ship in the troops kind of separately, right? And one of those boats, or at least a couple of them, are always based in Chagos off the coast of Diego Garcia. When Desert Storm kicks off, those are the first tanks that we get to the Persian Gulf, come from Chagos, right? And in fact, they get there like a month before any of the other material that gets shipped over because it's just so well positioned.

And again, to thinkers in the DOD, that's one more reason like we can never give this up, right? It's the best way we have to get an army rapidly to this area that is the future of our wars, right? Yeah. You know, again and again, Diego Garcia proved itself to be among the most important strategic outposts in the DOD's profile. Likewise, the UK is going to spend the 1990s pretending everything is copacetic in Chagos.

In 1990, Margaret Thatcher promised the House of Commons that the Chagossians who were protesting were just quote, former plantation workers. She claimed their families were resettled in Meridius and given considerable financial assistance, which was just a lie. They had after 1981 been given a little bit of money when they did that hunger strike, but it was not much. It was not considerable.

Like as usual, you know, the iron lady was full of shit. An endless series of court cases eventually forced the UK to extend citizenship to at least some of the Chagosians and minimal payments were authorized to compensate them for a fraction of their loss. To get these payments they had to sign a contract many of them could not read that gave up any future right to return to their homes. Which is that's that's the classic classic imperial contract shit. Again, never side a contract with these people. Yeah. So with us or with them, don't do it.

Actual devil. Yeah. In the year 2000, a UK court finally declared the Biot immigration ordinance from 1971 that made it illegal for anyone but army people to live in the islands to have been unlawful They did they did in 2000 now Yeah, it takes a while, but they start the Millennium off on an ethical note, so if he the British Empire's changed, you know Everything's gonna be good after this point and this is this is where I tell you how all of the people got to return and Chagos is a happy island

filled with happy people living in paradise to this day. No, of course not. I'm as much of a liar as the British. Alongside this case came a wave of documents produced by the discovery process, which is where we get most of those quotes from in secret internal memos that I've read over the course of these episodes.

The good news is that the government at the time accepted this ruling, called their actions against the Chagossians shameful and wrong, and rescinded the laws that stopped them from returning home to every island. But of course, Diego Garcia, still not allowed to go back there.

US needs it, you know, for war and stuff. Now that would have been- We still have the Tridents, why don't we give them back? Right, we're not gonna give back those world ending weapons. Now, I will say, being able to return to the other islands at least would have been something, right? That's better than not, you know?

But that's not what happens either, because right after this ruling is the year 2001. And that's when we get us in 9-11, and the UK becomes an ally in the global war on terror. Given the geographical realities of that conflict, Diego Garcia becomes more important than ever. In 2004, the UK government issued a new orders in council. Now, I hadn't heard of these because honestly,

the structure of the British government is confusing and frustrating to me, as it is to every British person that I know. But orders in council are a legal construct that like, say parliament or a court says something is illegal, the executive can issue these and the queen or at this point, the king will sign it and say like, nope, it's fine.

That's basically what this is. It's kind of a holdover from the day when like the king was sign it and say like, nope, it's fine. That's basically what this is. It's kind of a holdover from the day when like the king was really an executive. In this case, it's the queen. Cause Queen Elizabeth II signs the orders overturning the 2000 court ruling and bans Chagossians from returning home. Thanks Liz.

Yeah. Great stuff. A 2023 article for Human Rights Watch summarizes most of the rest of this century's legal battles over Chagos. The UK government has never provided an adequate explanation as to why it was considered viable in 2000 to lift the ban on Chagosians from permanently returning home. And yet the UK government considered it necessary to reinstate this ban after four years. Successive UK governments have argued that it is not possible for the Chagosians to return

based on vague assertions of security and cost. The latter, they suggest, would place an unfair burden on the British taxpayer. The US has kept a low profile and sidestepped its returnities by claiming it is not responsible for the Chagosians. Now, when I say a low profile, you know one thing we did with Chagos, yeah? It's a great place to keep boats full of tanks and stuff, right? It's a great place to fly planes, you know, into the Persian Gulf.

It's also a really good place we realized, like, so we got these guys we've captured and the CIA has found a way to argue that we get to torture them, but where to do it? You know? We'll do some of that at Guantanamo, but that's pretty far. You know, it's a lot closer.

Chagos, baby. So it's what this is one of those things where like, I don't think it's been fully admitted, but it's pretty clear that we tortured at least some people in Chagos. Sure. Just fly over there, torture them. Journalists are specifically not allowed there by law. Neither are the native Chagosian people, but we can take some dude pull some guy out of Iraq and torture in there It's cool

It's good. Good guy stuff. Listen, I will just throw out I guess I'm not saying this as a specific plot against the United States or UK government, but given that apparently there's you said, like a big population of Chagosian diaspora work in airport maintenance. Yeah, get jobs specifically. Maybe join the US military, get a job there. And maybe long-

Stealth recolonization? Long call on this one, cause take this shit back, Jesus Christ. Yeah, join, like become US citizens, this shit back. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah. Join like become U.S. citizens, join the Navy. And eventually, when there's enough of you, seize the air base. Listen, you got it. You I'm not saying you got to do it or that you should do it, but

if anyone's pretty describing to the video. Yeah. So in 2012, the UK government started a policy of review towards Chagos and they commissioned a survey. Basically, they had a survey firm ask all the Chagosians they could find, do you guys actually want to go back? And like the vast majority of them were like, yes, we would like to return to our island paradise where we don't pay rent. That sounds cool.

So they also kind of commissioned a survey and found that it would cost at most about 500 million pounds in order to do this. So, you know, obviously the UK, they don't got a lot of money right now. They're not doing this shit, right? In 2016, the UK again announced it's going to block Chagosians from returning, claiming national security and cost.

This has remained its position up to the present day, although negotiations with Meridius restarted in the end of 2022. So this is an ongoing story. Recently, some Chagosians who had been exiled were allowed to return to the islands not to stay but to like plant a flag and walk around a while which is kind of a weird compromise to make but okay anyway I my hope remains that like something will be done to let these people live there again yeah you know I just did a quick little search to point out that uh this is five, it'll cost five years of supporting the royal family. Right, right, exactly. Just sell those, sell their palaces

and use it to send those people back to Chagos. You can put the king up in some public housing or something, right? There's plenty of it in England, you know? Yeah, yeah, the biggest, the biggest dole queen available. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's already on the do England, you know? Yeah. Yeah, the biggest Dole queen available. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's already on the Dole, you know? Why not?

Look, I think that if we're going to have public housing anywhere, it should be fit for a king. And the UK has a chance to prove that. Yes. There's my good socialist attitude on the matter, right? Yeah, Council Flats Charles. Yeah. Put him in the new season of Shameless?

Oh, good stuff. Well, Andrew, that's the story of Chagos. Oh God, that was fucking grim dog. That was bleak, right? The dog murder really comes out of nowhere. Yeah. The timing it too, cause it does almost seem like this is gonna be,

yeah. And you gave us a warning, but it was still violent. That made it worse. Yeah. Yeah. Doing the research on this was like, wow, this was already pretty bad, but then dog genocide really came out of left worse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, reading, doing the research on this was like, wow, this was already pretty bad,

but then dog genocide really came out of left field. Yeah. I haven't heard of one of those before. Bizarrely, bizarrely unnecessary. Yeah. Yeah, awful. I planned to spend the rest of my life

making it up to my dog. Yeah. Yeah, you know, the question of like, cause it is one of those things. All empires are evil in their day and eventually become history, right? Like, you know, you could look at bad things that the Babylonians did, but as a general rule, when people talk about Babylon, they're not talking about like, oh, how evil. They're talking about like, yeah, this was like an interesting period in history, right?

It's like generally when we talk about the Roman Empire who did awful things, we talk about it more like it's like, I don't know, a fictional faction in Star Wars or something. Because at this point it's just so distant from us, right? And one day that will be true of the American Empire once we finally collapse to at least the extent that the British have. One day it will be true of the British. We're on one of our paths is,

there's not gonna be history to be removed from as far as humanity goes. People, my suspicion is that 20,000 years from now, when aliens colonize this planet after we've wiped ourselves out, they'll probably cosplay as Americans and British. They'll have like a whole weekend at Chagos where they like cosplay,

expelling the Chagosian people. Trying to kill a dog. They're like, ha ha ha ha, nudes in bio, ha ha ha, nudes in bio. Oh yeah, they'll be nudes in bio-ing left and right. And that will be our legacy. That will be how humanity lasts on in the future. I guess that feels right.

That feels about right, actually. Yeah, a bunch of guys dressed as CBs, saluting and going nudes and bio, a bunch of aliens, you know, doing a nudes and bio. It's what we deserve. Yeah. Oh boy. And we definitely don't deserve dogs.

No, no, hopefully the aliens find a way to resurrect dogs and be better to them than we've been. If you're listening to this podcast, aliens, I task you with that moral responsibility. Do more to deserve the dogs than we ever did. Maybe they're dogs. Maybe maybe it's not aliens. It's just the dogs finally get thumbs. I would love it if the dogs and the vampire squid

become like the new ruling race on Earth. And we're like, we have like a fucking Planet of the Apes style collapse Yeah Right on a plug. Oh My podcast is yo's this racist. I don't know we're doing we're trying to do more fun things We have a premium show called yo Can we live suboptimal pods calm find out about that stuff planning other things trying to do more fun things. We have a premium show called Yo, Can We Live? Suboptimalpods.com, find out about that stuff.

Planning other things. Trying to get a, no, I'm not going to plug it because it might not happen. So yeah, do that. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. We'll check that out. And if you're an alien listening to this podcast.

You know what you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. And look, guys, you don't need to stay away from Oklahoma. Like I don't know what Oklahoma is doing in 10,000 years after human beings have gone extinct but it's nothing good. You know, just avoid it. Behind the Bastards is a production of Cool Zone Media.

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