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Speaker 1: Through the time we were reporting this story, Robert and

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Speaker 1: I walked miles and miles around the streets Maysot. Being

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Speaker 1: the only two journalists in town and also both giant

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Speaker 1: white guys, we kind of stood out and taking a

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Speaker 1: taxi to a sensitive interview isn't always the smart choice.

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Speaker 1: Even when it was, they frequently dropped us off in

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Speaker 1: a wrong place and we'd end up walking anyway. Everyone

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Speaker 1: in Masot rides scooters, but riding without a helmet can

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Speaker 1: get you a fine. We figured that, as relative novices

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Speaker 1: to the world of scooting, we probably fucked something up

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Speaker 1: and we probably better off walking. When the time came

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Speaker 1: to meet me out, though he offered us a ride

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Speaker 1: that was very nice, but it put us in an

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Speaker 1: interesting position. What exactly you say when a guy you've

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Speaker 1: never met, who's a friend of a guy you DMed

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Speaker 1: on Reddit who know is engaged in the illegal production

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Speaker 1: and smuggling of guns into a war zone officers to

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Speaker 1: pick you up at a cafe so you can go

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Speaker 1: out for dinner. We decided to call our friend, a

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Speaker 1: long suffering guy we go to when we have a

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Speaker 1: security question, Paul. At his request, We're keeping him anonymous,

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Speaker 1: but he works in security and has an extensive professional

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Speaker 1: background dealing with situations just like this, or maybe mostly

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Speaker 1: like this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So basically, Paul, we're meeting with these people.

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Speaker 4: We don't have an established human chain with them of trust.

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Speaker 4: They're they're just a Reddit account that James has been

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Speaker 4: talking with. But for like six or seven months. It

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Speaker 4: doesn't really seem like there's much else we can do

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Speaker 4: besides keep our eyes open and try to meet in

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Speaker 4: a digital place.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: I mean, the big concern is they would be get

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Speaker 6: the government, which is not from what you guys have said.

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Speaker 6: The government simply doesn't have the wherewithal to do operations

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Speaker 6: like this, and I mean rebel groups like this, they're

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Speaker 6: they're trying, they want to get everything out there they can. So, yeah,

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Speaker 6: is there a concern about the fact that you don't

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Speaker 6: have a chain of people that can vouch for each other.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, but the situation therein.

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Speaker 6: Everything's in their favor, they are, everything's in your favor.

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Speaker 6: Even minor cultural faux pause shouldn't be an issue.

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Speaker 3: With Paul's help, we came up with a watertight plan.

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Speaker 3: I should note here that he was at least as

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Speaker 3: concerned with our fate as he was with the fate

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Speaker 3: of the pair of pants he'd loaned James for the trip.

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Speaker 5: And I mean, yeah, it's a story that needs to

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Speaker 5: get out.

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Speaker 6: So being slightly lax on the rules while knowing that

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Speaker 6: it's an everybody's favorite that it goes well.

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Speaker 5: I guess you gotta been the rules sometimes.

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Speaker 7: I guess we'll check in.

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Speaker 8: We'll try to proof of life.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll do a proof of life.

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Speaker 2: I will.

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Speaker 4: I will send you a picture of James holding a

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Speaker 4: piece of paper that says big wife guy. And if

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Speaker 4: if we are kidnapped, I'll send you a picture of

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Speaker 4: me that says Elon Musk will be a good custodian

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Speaker 4: of Twitter.

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Speaker 5: Okay, I'll know that that's the that's the sign.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I'll yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 5: I'll figure out something. Yeah, me and me and a

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Speaker 5: few friends will be on our way. That sounds awful.

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Speaker 5: James has my favorite pants.

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Speaker 4: Yea, yeah, you gotta get those pants bag.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, this is all about the pants.

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Speaker 6: If I find James dead body, I'm getting those pants off.

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Speaker 1: Luckily, both I and Paul's trousers made it back that night. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: any damage was to several delicious plates of food. Milk.

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Speaker 1: His fiance and their godfather were the most gracious hosts,

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Speaker 1: and we decided not to record that first night. Instead,

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Speaker 1: we met up the next day. But there is one

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Speaker 1: thing from that night that I want to share with you.

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Speaker 1: Rather than explaining it, I'll let the song me out

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Speaker 1: played for us talk to you through the beautiful medium

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Speaker 1: of punk music. Bella Choo, of course, is an anti

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Speaker 1: fascist anthem. Then it's original version tells the story of

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Speaker 1: a young partisan who says goodbye to his girlfriend before

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Speaker 1: he goes off to fight Italian fascist. If he dies,

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Speaker 1: he says he wants to be buried under a flower

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Speaker 1: in the mountains so people will see it and remember him.

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Speaker 7: Oh boo, no, no, they do not all job a job.

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Speaker 5: A job, job job.

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Speaker 7: Day, No dog gonna do they.

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Speaker 9: M away episode.

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Speaker 2: Rather shy oh, I guess a job A job, a job,

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Speaker 2: job job.

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Speaker 7: I want a job as same job wall photo and

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Speaker 7: a nod A job as a job.

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Speaker 6: Had a job job John.

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Speaker 5: Do bas oh john jay?

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Speaker 2: Dad's all okay, y'all shabat a job rather jo a job.

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Speaker 7: A job, job jack.

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Speaker 1: Job. After a few months of revolution, all our characters

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Speaker 1: found themselves mourning their friends and many of them were

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Speaker 1: in the mountains. Their struggle is one they see in

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Speaker 1: the same vein as the Italian partisans who fought fascism

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Speaker 1: in their mountains and the anti fascists who came from

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Speaker 1: around the world to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

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Speaker 1: I first heard that song Belachoo from a Spanish Civil

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Speaker 1: War veteran, and it's a strange closing of the loop

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Speaker 1: to be here sitting hearing it with young people who,

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Speaker 1: just like the Spanish Republicans, are fighting a coup with

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Speaker 1: next to no international support and a critical shortage of weapons.

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Speaker 1: But Miant was trying his best to fix that shortage.

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Speaker 1: A month into what would become the Spring Revolution, and

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Speaker 1: the stakes had become clear when the first protester would

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Speaker 1: shot and they kept marching. When people decided to go

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Speaker 1: back into the streets, they showed that the future of

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Speaker 1: their country was worse dying for weeks later, some of

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Speaker 1: them decided it was also worth killing for. It was

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Speaker 1: about then that me Out's buddy and Keen Reddit use

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Speaker 1: a Daddy UMCD said he'd been online we reckon they

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Speaker 1: could use their three D printers, a steel pipe and

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Speaker 1: the expertise and some strains on the internet to arm themselves.

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Speaker 1: The promise of revolutionary technology would take quite some time

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Speaker 1: to have any kind of battlefield impact in Meanmma, but

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Speaker 1: the effects of a different kind of revolution would be

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Speaker 1: felt immediately. But the nation's young activists took up arms

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Speaker 1: against their government.

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Speaker 2: Uh, I was like, I'm interested us in Horwest and

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Speaker 2: three D printing especially my profession is a grand us

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Speaker 2: some virtuariality and one the test three D prinding is

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Speaker 2: my hobby. So I just do I just donload some

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Speaker 2: five from thinking bus or other three D three D

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Speaker 2: print in criminal dy and just do it for my

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Speaker 2: dad's not specially especially.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, desk toys and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, just a twice.

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Speaker 5: Yes, what do you think of guns? Then?

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Speaker 2: I have never emergined a care because you know, we

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Speaker 2: have been living in a military booth for a long time,

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Speaker 2: so we're afraid of soldier, especially not the soldier, especially

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Speaker 2: the care that they hold. So we are so afraid

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Speaker 2: of that, so we never imagine, like like we are

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Speaker 2: the same as in Korea. We're so afraid of that,

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Speaker 2: so we never imagine making gan. But after that the story.

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Speaker 1: Began at first and his team felt safe despite the

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Speaker 1: dangerous nature of their work. He felt the Topmador was

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Speaker 1: so behind the times they wouldn't even know what a

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Speaker 1: three D printer.

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Speaker 2: Was like at those tide the military didn't didn't know

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Speaker 2: or didn't give out a funk about brind So it

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Speaker 2: is okay at those time, it's really okay. And when

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Speaker 2: when day can we need to hide the campus if

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Speaker 2: they see three D printer, that that's okay because we

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Speaker 2: were saying this is for our job or for some

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Speaker 2: hobby that we can say at those times, but not

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Speaker 2: this time. If this time, if they found trainder, yes,

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Speaker 2: cam can go to day like yeah or hashot headshot.

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Speaker 10: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Soon that headshot became a lot closer to being a possibility.

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Speaker 2: It's like as soon as we we we finished the

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Speaker 2: second second APCNI, we try and to do tasted in

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Speaker 2: Yangon and we send it to our warehouse. But unfortunately, uh,

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Speaker 2: this warehouse is exposed and uh ambushed by the military

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Speaker 2: and this gun is taken by the military. Uh. And

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Speaker 2: they they did announced this on the new by pataring

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Speaker 2: this uh like like Hamdmaigins and Podle give fun about

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Speaker 2: this just a ham again they just stay at the

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Speaker 2: very first time. But later and later later and Lada

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Speaker 2: when they were uh the second time they were arrest

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Speaker 2: there a this time that they arrested my revolutionary from

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Speaker 2: my team. So I told hand about the efficiency and

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Speaker 2: how do you use and the history. Also the gamp

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Speaker 2: at the time maybe maybe he was, you know, investigator

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Speaker 2: and he told the crew I was that He says

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Speaker 2: like the nine yeah, and now and now was the

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Speaker 2: name nine like this before before the at the very

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Speaker 2: first antee and now the gamp from the Turkish gap.

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Speaker 3: From if you missed that, they thought the guns were Turkish.

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Speaker 3: The reason we giggled at this is that whenever we

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Speaker 3: see videos of combat in me and mar James and

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Speaker 3: I send them to a group chat and try to

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Speaker 3: work out what the weapons are and where they came from.

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Speaker 3: Nearly every time we're stumped. The guns turned out to

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Speaker 3: be some kind of niche Turkish shotgun made to look

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Speaker 3: like an AR fifteen. It seems the military were operating

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Speaker 3: on the same assumption, only this time they were very wrong.

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Speaker 3: Like Allan's k Yok started this second, more deadly phase

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Speaker 3: of the Spring Revolution by taking a trip out to

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Speaker 3: the jungle, and he stayed for several months to learn

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Speaker 3: some of the skills he was going to need to

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Speaker 3: fight back against the top Madar.

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Speaker 2: I was going the Mandai as a culminated data so

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Speaker 2: I'm not like the I'm not have a video training

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Speaker 2: or something like that. I just going as a culminated aga.

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Speaker 2: So I met with Gan specially or Sam Trena, and

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Speaker 2: I said, I want to know how to shoot Gan,

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Speaker 2: how to ask Mber the gang. So they teach me,

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Speaker 2: I said, saying, I'm an acuminadaga. I can't do the trainer,

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Speaker 2: but I want to lamb the books out of things.

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Speaker 2: So they sent me some videos that ideas to lamb

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Speaker 2: by myself.

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Speaker 7: Yes.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Later he went back to carry prototype printed guns

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Speaker 3: to the EAOs for testing. We asked if it was

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Speaker 3: scary being an undercover gun runner in a dictatorship. He

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Speaker 3: says it was, but he found that he had a

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Speaker 3: powerful ally in his fire. Homophobia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but we need to discus it, so you know, yeah,

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Speaker 2: disguises though. I just that I have a long hair,

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Speaker 2: so I act like a day So you know that

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Speaker 2: the military has sold China and equality, so.

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Speaker 1: They hate gays.

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Speaker 7: That's why.

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Speaker 2: Just just our advantage.

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Speaker 3: The military assuming Miok was gay and therefore incapable of fighting,

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Speaker 3: let him go. Miok kept his mouth shut and let

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Speaker 3: their homophobia help him smuggle the guns with which he

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Speaker 3: hopes to help topple the regime that places so much

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Speaker 3: stock and values like these. Miok said he had to

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Speaker 3: go to the jungle to prove that his guns worked

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Speaker 3: because at first the eeos didn't believe him.

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Speaker 2: About again, no one, no one believes believed that. No

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Speaker 2: one believes that. So we have to make made it

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Speaker 2: first and show them. So we made it first. I

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Speaker 2: wish that we got again. It's it's a sulfu. We lie,

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Speaker 2: we need to lie, and we send this to the EO.

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Speaker 2: Then they made it and it didn't walk out and

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Speaker 2: the achas and it walk out.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, yeah.

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Speaker 1: How do they feel.

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Speaker 2: When they oh, oh, oh my my one of my

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Speaker 2: revolutionary and EO s. They said, oh, they're really really happy.

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Speaker 2: They said all that, all of the brand that and

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Speaker 2: campaigns for this, let's do it right now. Yes.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, almost everyone we met spent time in the jungle.

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Speaker 3: Rooney that's a nom the gear, not a given name,

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Speaker 3: started off as a protester, and just like everyone else,

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Speaker 3: he fled into the jungle to avoid being murdered by

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Speaker 3: the government and to learn from the ethnic armed organizations

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Speaker 3: how to fight back.

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Speaker 2: When we try and make peaceful protesting and it's really

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Speaker 2: break down. Then he decided like he also we, so

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Speaker 2: we decided to choose to have a hands and to

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Speaker 2: make it to make a revolution. So at this times

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Speaker 2: he goes to the e or stays and he lands

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Speaker 2: the trainings, you know, even especially the explosive trainees, and

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Speaker 2: he got back to the town and he's started making

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Speaker 2: this explosive with the head of teachings.

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Speaker 3: After learning from the eeos, he came back to Yangon

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Speaker 3: to put his knowledge to use. Of course, just like

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Speaker 3: Miyok's gun making team and the street protesters who learned

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Speaker 3: from Hong kongers, he took to YouTube and Google to

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Speaker 3: try and find a better way to build killing machines.

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Speaker 2: So it's like the EO teach us the very business

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Speaker 2: exposed just kembaumb like this, but after the land a

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Speaker 2: very business then and they want to improve. So the lambindself,

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Speaker 2: it's just like Di I y the lam googear with YouTube,

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Speaker 2: so later and later even they can make tan T

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Speaker 2: and DN.

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Speaker 11: Yes.

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Speaker 3: Of course, nearly everyone we met at some point googled

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Speaker 3: something like how to make gun or how to make bomb.

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Speaker 3: Now this is not ideal opsect, but it speaks to

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Speaker 3: the desperation of the times. They used crowdfunding websites to

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Speaker 3: raise money for ingredients, and Rooney soon started putting his

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Speaker 3: knowledge into practice. What that meant was that people died.

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Speaker 3: He killed human beings with the explosives that he made. Now,

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Speaker 3: those people would have killed Rooney or anyone else we've

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Speaker 3: spoken to in this series. He was defending himself and

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Speaker 3: others by making killing machines. But still, if you're a

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Speaker 3: decent person, it's not easy to watch your work result

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Speaker 3: in a stranger being blown into a pink mist.

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Speaker 2: He is not proud of that, but you know he

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Speaker 2: is never trying to ky event a cat on any man.

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Speaker 2: He is sad, but he had to do because of revolution.

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Speaker 3: Yes, revolution was in Rooney's blood. The military had stolen

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Speaker 3: his house as a kid, and he'd grown up with

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Speaker 3: his uncle sharing memories of the nineteen eighty eight pro

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Speaker 3: democracy uprising and its violent repression. He'd seen his family,

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Speaker 3: his cousin brothers, and their parents harassed for his whole life.

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Speaker 3: Now he had a chance to fight back. He carried

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Speaker 3: out hundreds of missions before he eventually had to flee

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Speaker 3: the city when an accident led to serious injury.

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Speaker 2: To Jone Saba. There is a nine mission, so he

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Speaker 2: has to be made nine bone. Yeah, really bit bone.

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Speaker 2: So they did trying to assembly this bowl as one

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Speaker 2: of his friends smoking and this this famy is called Gamhau.

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Speaker 3: After the blast, he had to run away from his

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Speaker 3: house before the police arrived. His friend was not so

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Speaker 3: lucky and is in jail now. Rooney is mostly recovered,

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Speaker 3: but it's not safe for him to go back, so

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Speaker 3: he's hoping to make a new start in Massont.

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Speaker 1: The fight didn't stay in Yangon, in Napid or either.

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Speaker 1: For villages living outside, the coup was just as real,

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Speaker 1: and so was a desire to fight back. People outside

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Speaker 1: of town found themselves in the crosshouse at the Topmador

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Speaker 1: as well. The military employs a strategy which they call

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Speaker 1: four cuts. It's designed to alienate the rebels from local support.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't work. His kind of SCORCHDF stuff has never worked.

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Speaker 1: Didn't work when the Nazis tried in Europe, did work

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Speaker 1: when the US tried it in the Middle East of Vietnam.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't work when Israel keeps doing it, and it doesn't

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Speaker 1: work in Meanmar. What it does do is drive people

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Speaker 1: who lose their families to pick up a gun and

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Speaker 1: kill soldiers. And it's not hard to see why. I

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Speaker 1: just want to play you our conversation watching one of

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Speaker 1: Andy's videos about one of hundreds of masacrets that have

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Speaker 1: happened since last February, and as a warning, the stuff

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about, it's about horrible as stuff

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Speaker 1: can be.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, basically about I think twenty eight people would

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Speaker 2: kill that day.

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Speaker 5: They just came into a village and shot everyone.

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Speaker 2: That's a handmade guns that these villagers had, but it

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Speaker 2: was just they weren't shooting anyone.

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Speaker 5: Though, they just had that's all that. Everyone died. All

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Speaker 5: these guys died.

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Speaker 10: Look at that his hands tied. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's

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Speaker 10: what electrical.

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Speaker 5: Game it looks like.

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Speaker 11: And they burned the whole village. Now yeah they do,

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Speaker 11: yeah you guys, Yeah.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, hell, And that's why we say massacre because it's

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Speaker 8: fucking look at all the brains up, you know.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, all these kids, they weren't even eighteen.

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Speaker 2: So all the villagers that run away, they took a

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Speaker 2: photo of the village from Afar, and.

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Speaker 10: They burned their relatives and then left.

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Speaker 11: Yeah, O Jesus fucking Christ.

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Speaker 1: And he says a nonprofit called Liberate Mianba supports the

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Speaker 1: families every month, keeping them fared and sheltered, because however

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Speaker 1: hard the government tries to divide the people from one another,

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Speaker 1: it always seems to fail. Instead, it just pushes them

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Speaker 1: closer and closer together. While we were in Thailand having

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Speaker 1: a drink on a rooftop actually and talking about some

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Speaker 1: kind of meditation retreat that a guy we'd met had

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Speaker 1: gone on, we got to see some of the action

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Speaker 1: for ourselves. That night was a fun one. We were

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Speaker 1: hanging out with some nonprofit folks and we'd acquired some

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Speaker 1: pretty terrible whiskey. At various points in the evening we

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Speaker 1: would ambush one of the boys and tell them they've

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Speaker 1: been shot in the arm or the leg, and have

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Speaker 1: the others rush into practice they stop the bleed skills.

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Speaker 1: Robert and I demonstrated some improvised carrying techniques and how

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Speaker 1: to effectively turn and drop to the floor when you're

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Speaker 1: in the intimate presence of a grenade. Everyone else at

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Speaker 1: the party probably thought we were pretty strange, but we

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Speaker 1: were having fun. Then in the distance we saw a

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Speaker 1: huge yellow flash. It took a few seconds of us

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Speaker 1: all wondering if that whiskey had sent us blind before

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Speaker 1: the boom reached us. At first we thought it's one

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Speaker 1: of the air strikes that have been happening in the

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Speaker 1: border region. But it was close and it was just

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Speaker 1: one huge boom, not the rockets had cluster bombs the

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Speaker 1: Tupma door liked to drop on civilians. Within minutes, minutes

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Speaker 1: of nervously waiting on the rooftop to see what was

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Speaker 1: coming next, and his phone started buzzing. It was a

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Speaker 1: car bomb and it had gone off about one hundred

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Speaker 1: yards from the border where we stood earlier that day.

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Speaker 9: A camera or something let me see, Yeah, right, scam,

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Speaker 9: How did they fucking get it in there?

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Speaker 1: Immediately we had questions, but very few answers. Car bombs

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Speaker 1: hadn't been the thing thus far in the revolution. This

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Speaker 1: was new. Car bombs are also extremely scary. It's hard

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Speaker 1: not to be around cars in a city, and when

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Speaker 1: any one of those cars might kill you, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to do anything feeling any semblance of safety.

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Speaker 7: I want to know who's did what I mean in

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Speaker 7: the air.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no car bombs. I've never heard of it.

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Speaker 1: It hasn't yet.

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Speaker 7: Is it somebody who driving it?

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Speaker 8: Or do they like I don't think if someone driving it?

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Speaker 8: Is it like you don't see anything there?

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Speaker 4: Like uh no, I mean it could have Wait is

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Speaker 4: it by the because if if there was a person,

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Speaker 4: there wouldn't be anything left.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, no, no, no, But the thing is, Look, there's the

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Speaker 8: fence like that that looks like it was there when

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Speaker 8: it was Yeah, it was.

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Speaker 1: It looks like it's the shocks. Yeah, it's right by

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Speaker 1: the bridge.

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Speaker 8: But I don't know why what this what happened.

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Speaker 3: We still aren't sure who set off the car bomb,

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Speaker 3: or if anyone died. In a conflict like the one

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Speaker 3: in Meanmar, it's sometimes as confusing as it is scary.

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Speaker 3: The military are more than capable of a false flag

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Speaker 3: style attack, killing civilians and then blaming the PDF, and

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Speaker 3: it has done this before. That's what totalitarianism does. It

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Speaker 3: aims to control every aspect of everyday life, even the truth.

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Speaker 3: The jungle haunted us the whole time we were there, unattainable,

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Speaker 3: but right next door, just a few miles away, in

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Speaker 3: lochhe Kaw, the fight was raging. Lakee Kaw is what's

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Speaker 3: called a friendship town. It was built with Japanese money

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Speaker 3: as a place for k and U fighters to live

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Speaker 3: after they put down their arms. It was supposed to

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Speaker 3: be a symbol of hope in a new, peaceful and

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Speaker 3: democratic mianmar Now it's a battlefield. But while we couldn't

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Speaker 3: get there, we could walk along the river bank and

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Speaker 3: look at the jungle and imagine what it must be

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Speaker 3: like up in those mountains, which we did almost every day.

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Speaker 3: Myanmar itself looms like a mountain over the town of Maysaut.

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Speaker 3: It's a border town without a border, but the city

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Speaker 3: is surrounded by refugee camps, non profit offices, and even

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Speaker 3: museums for political prisoners that can't exist on the other

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Speaker 3: side of the river. One day, we took a cab

402
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Speaker 3: to see a monastery on a bluff overlooking the river

403
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Speaker 3: down into Myanmar. We could see a casino still doing

404
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Speaker 3: business with Chinese tourists despite the bombing. Nearby. On the

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Speaker 3: walls of the monastery were a colorful but horrific scenes

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Speaker 3: of rape and murder Buddhist stages of Hell, a reminder that,

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Speaker 3: according to the Four New noble truths of Buddhism, All

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Speaker 3: life is suffering and greed is the cause of suffering.

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Speaker 3: The same thing could be said for the refugees and

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Speaker 3: fighters forced to hide in the endless green of the jungle,

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Speaker 3: driven away from their homes by the greed of men

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Speaker 3: who worship.

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Speaker 12: Power O Yeah, Demo, Crazy dig wandream my Josh hold on.

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Speaker 10: Oh do.

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Speaker 5: Ye.

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Speaker 12: It could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 12: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

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00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,960
Speaker 12: cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the

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00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,440
Speaker 12: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,119
Speaker 12: You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated

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00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:50,240
Speaker 12: monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.