Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is Noman.
Speaker 3: They called me Bed. We're joined as always with our
Speaker 3: super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
Speaker 3: argue you are here. That makes this the stuff they
Speaker 3: don't want you to know. Now, guys, I'm thinking for
Speaker 3: the beginning of this we get into like, let's really
Speaker 3: set the scene, Dylan Andrew. Could we get some kind
Speaker 3: of like ominous you know, espionage music? Perfect? Yeah, No,
Speaker 3: give us like you're great at this. Noom, give us
Speaker 3: like a give us like a want to beat. Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: I like it. I like it. Here we go. I
Speaker 3: love a throat seeing. So we're setting the scene. A
Speaker 3: fellow conspiracy realist. Let's say, Matt, Noel, you and I
Speaker 3: have all gathered together. We're off the books. We're in
Speaker 3: and out of the way cafe. It's a side street
Speaker 3: in Vienna and uh, Noel, Matt, we're grabbing coffee. Uh,
Speaker 3: whichever you like to order. Remember, there is symbolism involved.
Speaker 3: So we're having a polite conversation with a well dressed, unremarkable,
Speaker 3: middle aged gentleman. And we've all, you know, all four
Speaker 3: of us have seen this guy here and there at
Speaker 3: previous parties. He speaks with a refined pod Oxford tented
Speaker 3: English accent. Yet we know him as a representative of
Speaker 3: our friends in Moscow. In this conversation, which is polite
Speaker 3: as pie, he speaks for Moscow. And so he comes
Speaker 3: to us, Matt Nole and he he we're getting You know,
Speaker 3: Nole's got cafe Olay, Matt, what kind of thing do
Speaker 3: you get at a coffee bar?
Speaker 2: Keeps barkeep? Yes, yes, I'll have I'll have one. Bailey's
Speaker 2: in a shoe.
Speaker 3: Okay, Bailey's in a shoe. Cafe Ola, h call me espresso.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: We're having this very polite conversation with this guy, and
Speaker 3: he places two documents on the table. The first document
Speaker 3: is a police report, and this police report, translated from Russian,
Speaker 3: details a fatal car crash earlier that week, just that
Speaker 3: week in Saint Petersburg. Turns out a US diplomat pulled
Speaker 3: a hit and run after are colliding with a young
Speaker 3: man on a motorbike. The second document shows a photo
Speaker 3: that all of us recognize. It's a man that we
Speaker 3: internally call John Smith. He's been held in Russian custody
Speaker 3: for three years now. And this well dressed man putting
Speaker 3: these things again politely on the table in this out
Speaker 3: of the way cafe. He says, My friends, we can
Speaker 3: all agree it's best to keep things collegiate. We are
Speaker 3: at a wonderful time in our conversation, So why rock
Speaker 3: the boat? Surely we can figure this out together.
Speaker 4: Geez, yeah, I'll do whatever you say, buddy. That accent.
Speaker 2: Is this story referencing the actual crash and death that
Speaker 2: involved Harry Dunn.
Speaker 3: Which we will get to. Uh, let's say, loosely inspired
Speaker 3: by possible events.
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, yeah we do? What do we do?
Speaker 4: It's not only for us to do. He's kind of
Speaker 4: I mean, we kind of know where things stand, right.
Speaker 4: Isn't that the whole idea that we're being strong armed
Speaker 4: at this cafe amongst polite cohorts?
Speaker 2: But wait, who were we? Why is he telling us?
Speaker 3: Are we We're uh, we're just some guys at a cafe.
Speaker 2: Weird horses.
Speaker 3: So folks, welcome to our episode on diplomatic immunity.
Speaker 2: Do you love me?
Speaker 4: I know it's a reference to Matt.
Speaker 3: Okay, we all know it, just like we're at the cafe.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, excuse me, uh Viennese server. Could we have
Speaker 3: one more Bailey's in a shoe another cafe Oley and
Speaker 3: espresso and my friend, Hey, would you.
Speaker 4: Like Earl Gray?
Speaker 3: Earl Gray? Sleepy time in a busy town.
Speaker 4: Let's hit a quick sponsor break and we'll be back
Speaker 4: with more on diplomatic immunity.
Speaker 3: Here are the facts, all right, what is diplomatic immunity?
Speaker 3: First off, you know, obviously it's I don't know. The
Speaker 3: weirdest thing we can say about it is it's like
Speaker 3: a cultural version of vaccination.
Speaker 4: Can we also say a real quick right up front?
Speaker 4: It's some bulls?
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, yeah. It really does seem like that, especially
Speaker 2: when you get into the real world. Examples that even
Speaker 2: people like the State Department make YouTube videos to try
Speaker 2: and explain, and when you watch them and you hear
Speaker 2: the way local law enforcement officers are supposed to interact
Speaker 2: with consulates and diplomatic.
Speaker 4: Training video from the nineties, Matt, when you're describing this
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, but feels yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2: Cool, but animated but animated yeah, Well, and you can't
Speaker 2: show anything that actually happened or any of the specifics,
Speaker 2: but you can just illustrate what happens in these situations.
Speaker 2: So diplomatic immunity, what these things are trying to show, right,
Speaker 2: is the literal immunity that certain individual human beings have
Speaker 2: to the laws of a certain country they're operating in
Speaker 2: because they don't live there, they're on a mission there there.
Speaker 3: To the rule of law. Yeah, it's it's at the
Speaker 3: most basic level, it's the idea that certain human individuals,
Speaker 3: due to their position in one government, will be holly
Speaker 3: or partially exempt from the rule of law in another
Speaker 3: government in another regime. So this guarantees basic stuff like
Speaker 3: freedom and travel, safe passage in or out of a country.
Speaker 3: And to this point, you know, obviously it's sounds a
Speaker 3: little bit bonkers, like why are we placing some people
Speaker 3: as automatically better than other people?
Speaker 4: Question, is this the kind of thing that the current
Speaker 4: administration might start to put the kaibash on? It just
Speaker 4: seems very anti their whole vibe.
Speaker 3: Well, as we'll see, there are a lot of conspiratorial
Speaker 3: soft factors involved. That's an excellent question, and it's one
Speaker 3: that people have wrestled with for no kidding millennia. History
Speaker 3: has proven that concepts like diplomatic immunity are surprisingly ancient.
Speaker 3: You can go to Indian epics like the Ramayana, you
Speaker 3: can look through any number of examples in ancient Greece
Speaker 3: and Rome. Cultures across the world kind of have this,
Speaker 3: and across the chasms of time they kind of have
Speaker 3: this loose gentleman's agreement or understanding that if you know,
Speaker 3: King matt sends a messenger an envoy to the sultan null.
Speaker 3: The thing is, no matter what kind of news is delivered,
Speaker 3: the receiving sultan is not going to kill the messenger,
Speaker 3: not going to kill that envoid. That's the origin of
Speaker 3: the old saying, don't shoot the messenger.
Speaker 4: Unless you're the mouth of Sauron, in which case you
Speaker 4: get your head cut off.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: See, But guys Plutarch and Sophocles taught us about these
Speaker 2: in the stories that they wrote, and one of the
Speaker 2: primary ones that is cited often is this concept of
Speaker 2: one I guess sultan or king or somebody at the
Speaker 2: highest level of government in a country did that very thing.
Speaker 2: We're got so angry at the bad news that was
Speaker 2: delivered that he killed that person and then everyone was
Speaker 2: afraid to share information to that king that was bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I certainly think there's way problematic issues
Speaker 4: around it that were going to get into, but in general,
Speaker 4: it is sort of a guarantee that information can be
Speaker 4: shared freely without fear of immediate retribution.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as always, let's go to the primary source.
Speaker 3: I love you're pointing that out, Matt. The line that
Speaker 3: stands out to me, and I think to a lot
Speaker 3: of us is from Plutarch in his work Lives, where
Speaker 3: he says the first messager that gave notice of Lucullus's
Speaker 3: coming was so far from pleasing Tigrains that he had
Speaker 3: his head caught off for his pains, and no man
Speaker 3: dared to bring further information without any intelligence at all,
Speaker 3: Tigrain sat while war was already blazing around him, giving
Speaker 3: ear only to those who flattered him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that's the point, right, That's kind of the
Speaker 2: point of this, not the point, it's one of the
Speaker 2: main points of the State Department, and a lot of
Speaker 2: the stuff that exists under the State Department is to
Speaker 2: intelligence gather That's what all of this is about. So
Speaker 2: even as dipple mets are operating within the United States
Speaker 2: and United States diplomats are quote operating in other countries.
Speaker 2: It is this weird little game that we've talked about
Speaker 2: in our spy episodes. It isn't exactly the same thing,
Speaker 2: but it is directly tied to it.
Speaker 3: And as we'll see, there are other forms of immunity
Speaker 3: that I think trouble all of us, especially with the KSA,
Speaker 3: Saudi Nationals and some incidents in Japan where they absconded
Speaker 3: with or they leverage state power and corruption to save
Speaker 3: accountable from justice. We'll get to that towards the end
Speaker 3: as well. I mean, like this is the great point.
Speaker 3: It is not to say that everyone always respects this
Speaker 3: loose agreement, especially pre Vienna. There are so many real
Speaker 3: life horror stories about rulers who got bad news and
Speaker 3: they broke a covenant. They didn't just murder the messenger.
Speaker 3: They didn't just shoot the messenger. They would torture them
Speaker 3: in brutal ways and then send pieces of the body
Speaker 3: back as the message to that foreign power in general.
Speaker 3: To the earlier point across the span of human civilization.
Speaker 3: Everybody said, you know, this is dirty pool, this is
Speaker 3: below the belt.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure. Before we go below the belt, guys,
Speaker 2: can we just quickly talk about town criers? Mm hmm, sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think yeah, I think we mentioned it before. I
Speaker 2: can't remember the context of the episode, but it was
Speaker 2: kind of I don't know, mind blowing in a way,
Speaker 2: but also makes a lot of sense that back in
Speaker 2: the day, specifically in the United Kingdom, it was treasonous
Speaker 2: to harm a town crier. I feel like we've talked
Speaker 2: about this before. Yes, oh, okay, okay, I didn't. I
Speaker 2: didn't realize that that we could. In a way, the
Speaker 2: crier was the diplomat of the crown like that, coming
Speaker 2: out to the people to speak right of the words
Speaker 2: of the king or the queen or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's in theory an arrangement that benefits both the people
Speaker 4: and the crown.
Speaker 3: You know, it's the Twitter of the town, right, It's
Speaker 3: the social media of the day. So if you have
Speaker 3: a problem with what's being said and you kill the platform,
Speaker 3: then now you have to find a new platform. So
Speaker 3: there's logic to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and it's a full affront to the person
Speaker 2: who was making those statements, right, this concept right of that,
Speaker 2: and that's the way I'm thinking about consulates and diplomats
Speaker 2: now in this version, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, metonomy Like in our early you know, our opening
Speaker 3: thought experiment, this Oxford accented man speaks for Moscow very
Speaker 3: much is Moscow, and so the town crier is very
Speaker 3: much the king, and so a relative of a sovereign.
Speaker 3: Back in the cursed days of monarchies, the relative of
Speaker 3: the sovereign is autonomy. For the sovereign is the crown
Speaker 3: is speaking for and behalf thereof. So the logic being
Speaker 3: that any injury or insults to that envoy is indeed
Speaker 3: a direct attack upon the government or the regime represented.
Speaker 3: You know, like it's so weird because this was incredibly
Speaker 3: important back in the day. It was such a party
Speaker 3: foul that the intelligentsia of the time would say, if you,
Speaker 3: even if we don't have you know, modern laws, if
Speaker 3: you break this agreement, if you kill the messenger, you
Speaker 3: have violated divine protocols the gods. The gods should punish.
Speaker 4: It's an act of war at the very least, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, and happened very many times, especially as the kanate
Speaker 3: expands through so much stuff, so many examples. We can
Speaker 3: fast forward to modern diplomatic immunity. Let's call it nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty one. There's a little town in Austria called Vienna.
Speaker 3: They're known for their coffee shops. There's a thing that
Speaker 3: occurs in nineteen sixty one, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Speaker 3: This is still to this day, as we record on
Speaker 3: April eighteenth, twenty twenty five, it is still regarded as
Speaker 3: one of the bar nun top tier international agreements in
Speaker 3: all of human history, because it says, look, even if
Speaker 3: your countries are fighting, even if there is a regional
Speaker 3: or dare we say, a world war, we're all going
Speaker 3: to make a deal where you can send representatives to
Speaker 3: respond to stuff, to propose some stuff, and you can't
Speaker 3: kill them. You gotta let them get out. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, just this concept that we all need to be
Speaker 2: able to talk first about whatever it is, whether it's
Speaker 2: economic stuff, whether it's trading, you know, making some kind
Speaker 2: of trade for prisoners, you know, all of these things.
Speaker 2: We need to be able to talk at least before
Speaker 2: we start firing weapons at each other. It's a great idea.
Speaker 2: It is weird to me that it was written in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty one, but it wasn't officially entered into force
Speaker 2: for three year well almost yeah, no, almost exactly three
Speaker 2: years in nineteen sixty four. So it's and that.
Speaker 3: You aske didn't have a version until nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it makes sense though that I guess it
Speaker 2: would take that long for enough countries to say, okay,
Speaker 2: yes we agree when everybody else sends people to us,
Speaker 2: will be careful with them and let them do whatever
Speaker 2: they want, even though it's not It isn't saying that
Speaker 2: these this the accords and this convention and everything. It
Speaker 2: gets really close to saying people can just do what
Speaker 2: they need to do in your country.
Speaker 3: It's it's very much like in personal experience. We won't
Speaker 3: spend too much time on it. It's very much like
Speaker 3: for anyone who's been to a college dormitory and you
Speaker 3: have an RA or something where they resident advisors and
Speaker 3: they say, look, I'm just a few years older than you.
Speaker 3: We're all from different places.
Speaker 4: We all got to live together, like becoming the op
Speaker 4: so quickly you know, it's all monitor right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Just don't make trouble, you know what I mean like
Speaker 3: if you if you know, you might drink a little beer,
Speaker 3: you might smoke a little pot, or just don't let
Speaker 3: people see it and don't be a dick to the
Speaker 3: other people in the door.
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, the one flavor of RA, but then you
Speaker 4: also have the real hard nosed ones that everyone despises.
Speaker 4: But you're absolutely right then, But.
Speaker 2: For me it goes even further. It's and and also,
Speaker 2: I'm the RA, so I'm gonna need to do things
Speaker 2: any that you don't need to know about. But I'm
Speaker 2: gonna you know, I'm gonna be doing these things. And
Speaker 2: you might even see me doing some of these things. Yes,
Speaker 2: but that's that's if I do it, doesn't mean you
Speaker 2: can do it.
Speaker 3: That's great because now our RA I love this example
Speaker 3: because now our r R A is going to one
Speaker 3: door room and saying, look, we all know this guy
Speaker 3: came into your room and took a massive and he
Speaker 3: did smear it on the walls. But there are factors
Speaker 3: at play that are bigger than this.
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, he doesn't have to clean it up.
Speaker 2: That's just one of the rules.
Speaker 3: Someone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, and we will also let me the RA
Speaker 2: know that he did it, so you know, and I'm
Speaker 2: aware that he did it.
Speaker 3: We all know. We've all seen his SpongeBob pants. It's
Speaker 3: clearly this guy. So investigations continue. Yeah, this is this
Speaker 3: is at heart a mission critical thing. This practice of
Speaker 3: the concept of don't shoot the messenger, diplomatic immunity. It
Speaker 3: has saved civilization from war and it has definitely saved
Speaker 3: a lot of diplomats, add a lot of diplomats.
Speaker 2: But it's made a lot of deals too.
Speaker 3: It's made so many deals. That's part of it. There
Speaker 3: is very much an art of a deal. Unrelated to
Speaker 3: the book, this is also a concept that all of
Speaker 3: us found widely misunderstood in the modern day. I remember
Speaker 3: when this came up and we decided to make an
Speaker 3: episode about it. Maybe it was on air, maybe we
Speaker 3: were hanging out. But the question is, is diplomatic immunity
Speaker 3: really a get out of jail free card? But can
Speaker 3: if you're powerful enough in say Foreign Ministry or US
Speaker 3: State Department, can you actually get away with murder to
Speaker 3: understand that we got to bust some myths it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm already so uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: Yes, because we can get prosecuted. Yeah, like the three
Speaker 3: of us, and.
Speaker 2: If I if I go into the Nordstrum somewhere and
Speaker 2: take three thousand dollars worth of business jackets and stuff
Speaker 2: them into a bag. This is this is an actual,
Speaker 2: real example, and I walk out and the store says, hey,
Speaker 2: you can't do that, and they call the police. I
Speaker 2: go to jail for a felony. But some other people
Speaker 2: might not.
Speaker 4: The thing's question, do they get to keep the stuff?
Speaker 3: All right, you said you were going to be cool man.
Speaker 4: I'm just asking, I'm just it seems like there has
Speaker 4: to be a limit to this diplomatic community business.
Speaker 3: All right, Yes, and that's perfect. That's our first misconception,
Speaker 3: and it's partially the fault of Hollywood and fiction and film.
Speaker 3: Not every embassy employee the world round has some sort
Speaker 3: of magical blanket immunity under the Vienna Convention of nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty one, which again the vast majority of countries have ratified.
Speaker 3: The laws of this magic getaway card only applies to
Speaker 3: the top diplo dogs. So if you're saying one of
Speaker 3: the it guys, massive apologies, you still have to pay
Speaker 3: your parking tickets at some point, unless you're not really
Speaker 3: an it guy whatever. So if you're a non embassy employee.
Speaker 3: Right like, if we all just get a wild hair
Speaker 3: and we say, hey, when's the last time we went
Speaker 3: to Bhutan together? If we're just visiting a country, we
Speaker 3: don't get immunity. And that's why, that's why it is
Speaker 3: very important wherever you live, if you are traveling to
Speaker 3: a different country, always check to see whether your country,
Speaker 3: your origin country has an embassy or a consulate in
Speaker 3: the place that you are visiting. Let them know your
Speaker 3: travel plans if it is possible for you to do so. Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 3: the US State Department is you know, we know folks
Speaker 3: in there. They're doing their best kind of in an
Speaker 3: uphill situation right now, but they will they will be
Speaker 3: readily transparent with any concerns they might have.
Speaker 2: Dude, let's really quickly. I think we've talked about this too,
Speaker 2: but let's establish this as well. You will hear the
Speaker 2: words embassy and consolate thrown around sometimes as the same thing.
Speaker 2: It's synonymous, but they are not the same thing. An
Speaker 2: embassy is the primary version of one state's operations within
Speaker 2: another state like a host country. And then and that's
Speaker 2: usually in like the capital city. But then the consulate
Speaker 2: is there can be multiple consulates, and those are in
Speaker 2: strategic areas for maybe economic stuff, trade stuff, or other
Speaker 2: types of missions that might be happening within a host country.
Speaker 2: But they're very interesting. You can look up both. You
Speaker 2: can get in too the minutia of it. It's like
Speaker 2: officially what they do, but diplomatic relations between the two
Speaker 2: governments generally occur at the embassy. Consulate. Stuff often goes
Speaker 2: into like the cultural.
Speaker 3: Things, which is really interesting, Yes.
Speaker 2: Because that's where I don't know, I feel like that's
Speaker 2: where that's where some of the Shenanikins can occur there
Speaker 2: because it is there there they are the people. The
Speaker 2: consulate is the place where the one on one stuff
Speaker 2: happens between people who are visiting a host country from
Speaker 2: the consulates country. That's where they interact often.
Speaker 3: Yeah, picture it like DMV or DDS. Our official line
Speaker 3: is that for UH, for someone visiting foreign country, your consulate, UH,
Speaker 3: your regional consulate is going to be the place where
Speaker 3: there's a little window and you wait in line for
Speaker 3: a former stamp. That is our official line to your point, Matt.
Speaker 3: There are many cultural programs out of consulates, and there's
Speaker 3: great time and care paid to those programs.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I got Uh. Just, guys, I got invited
Speaker 2: to a very interesting cultural thing for China recently here
Speaker 2: through my son's school. That was very interesting. The way
Speaker 2: it was worded, Did you go? No, I haven't gone yet,
Speaker 2: but I might.
Speaker 4: What do you mean, oh, yes, can we crash?
Speaker 2: It's it's maybe yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Can you give us of the No, it's just it's
Speaker 4: so language.
Speaker 3: Did they give you the jimmies or something? What's going on?
Speaker 2: I didn't get the jimmies, I got the shakes. No, No,
Speaker 2: I just it was one of those things where the
Speaker 2: way it was worded specifically was so much in promotion
Speaker 2: of China. It reminded me a bit of some of
Speaker 2: the Shenyun stuff. But maybe from the state's side, does
Speaker 2: that make sense?
Speaker 3: It does make sense such that I think I may
Speaker 3: We're not going to say it on air, but I
Speaker 3: think I may know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: I think I might have gotten an invite too.
Speaker 3: Also, there's a there's an International rud convention that occurs
Speaker 3: every so often in Houston and Atlanta. If you guys
Speaker 3: want to go.
Speaker 4: That sounds great, tasteful throws.
Speaker 3: Speaking of speaking of tasteful throws. Here's the here's the
Speaker 3: straight poop on this, and we're back. If you are
Speaker 3: one of those top diplo dogs, you are an ambassador.
Speaker 3: Usually in the US, at least typically, there's a mix
Speaker 3: between lifelong career public servants, very high fluting experts on
Speaker 3: a region, and straight up political hires. There are ambassadors
Speaker 3: who might not even speak the language of the country
Speaker 3: in which they reside. But if you are in that
Speaker 3: rarefied air, you cannot be handcuffed, arrested, detained, you can't
Speaker 3: even be prosecuted by law enforcement in the country that
Speaker 3: you're working in. Caveat asterisk, caveat asterisk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, dude, can I give a quick example of this? Okay,
Speaker 2: So the State Department of the United States or the
Speaker 2: United States State Department US sorry, or the US Department
Speaker 2: of State. They have a YouTube channel, you guys, and
Speaker 2: on that YouTube channel they posted this thing, and they
Speaker 2: give an example of that I kind of already talked about.
Speaker 2: It is the woman who was caught shoplifting three thousand
Speaker 2: dollars worth of goods from a mall. The police showed
Speaker 2: up and they said, oh, yeah, you have too much.
Speaker 2: This is like too much money and goods. This is
Speaker 2: a felony. I have to detain you like I have
Speaker 2: to arrescue. And she said, well, she said no, this
Speaker 2: is a real example the state department gave. She said, oh, no,
Speaker 2: my husband is a diplomat. I have diplomatic immunity. And
Speaker 2: everybody who has diplomatic immunity or supposedly has a state
Speaker 2: department issued ID like a driver's license, but from the
Speaker 2: state department. And she shows that to the police officer.
Speaker 2: The police officer is required to make a phone call
Speaker 2: that just goes to the state department and they say, hey,
Speaker 2: I am confirming these numbers on the back of this
Speaker 2: idea this person's identity, and the state department will say
Speaker 2: yes or no to whether or not this person has immunity.
Speaker 2: If they have immunity. In this case, the felony part,
Speaker 2: the arrest cannot happen. The arrest cannot happen, so she
Speaker 2: has to be let go and just go on her way.
Speaker 3: Like, really, that's true, that is all true. Everything you
Speaker 3: just heard is factual, folks. There are other misconceptions. That's
Speaker 3: a high level thing. It doesn't always happen. For instance,
Speaker 3: if you are the spouse of an administrative employee. You
Speaker 3: may not have the same considerations and superpowers. People also
Speaker 3: maybe confuse diplomatic immunity with the idea of that as
Speaker 3: soon as you put your foot over the threshold of
Speaker 3: an embassy, you are automatically on sovereign territory. That is
Speaker 3: not quite true. You do not automatically get the rights
Speaker 3: guaranteed in US law just because you made it past
Speaker 3: the front gate. There are exemptions and exceptions to this,
Speaker 3: to all of these concepts. Most notably and horrifically, I
Speaker 3: think we've all seen the stories of North Korean refugees
Speaker 3: escaping the Hermit Kingdom and getting by hook or by
Speaker 3: crook to mainland China and then risking their lives to
Speaker 3: get past those front gates for the r ok that
Speaker 3: be South Korea to most Americans, or to the US
Speaker 3: embassy or another friendly, friendly country, And you can see
Speaker 3: terrible videos of Chinese authorities literally snatching these people by
Speaker 3: the back of the neck as there as they're almost.
Speaker 4: To freedom by the scruss.
Speaker 3: Just so, and if China catches these folks first, they're
Speaker 3: considered not refugees but rather illegal economic immigrants. They're deported
Speaker 3: back to a life of horror in the DPRK. So
Speaker 3: there are exceptions, sort of like how for a long
Speaker 3: time during the Cold War, United States standing policy is, hey,
Speaker 3: we don't like illegal immigration, but if you are from
Speaker 3: Cuba and you touch foot on the soil, we got you.
Speaker 3: Not if you're Haitian, not if you're from the Dominican Republic,
Speaker 3: but specifically, if you're from Cuba and you make that
Speaker 3: ninety mile trek, then we got you. So there are
Speaker 3: many exceptions to these ideas of immunity.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. And the State Department wants you to
Speaker 2: know that just because someone has immunity doesn't mean they
Speaker 2: have immunity of consequences for their actions.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: They're very they're very strict about this, and they say,
Speaker 2: just because some nobody can't get arrested for a felony
Speaker 2: they committed, doesn't mean that the State Department isn't going
Speaker 2: to get a full detailed report of that incident, and
Speaker 2: then maybe the embassy itself or the consulate or the
Speaker 2: State Department will take action.
Speaker 4: That could mean losing your job at the very least,
Speaker 4: right or getting stripped of your diplomatic you know, schrcial powers.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, you nailed it. There are consequences
Speaker 3: because being exempt from like having diplomatic immunity in a
Speaker 3: destination country or a country of residents, does not provide
Speaker 3: diplomatic immunity in a country of origin.
Speaker 4: And let's just remember too that this all even comes
Speaker 4: into play and stuff kicks in when you get caught,
Speaker 4: well everybody knows, you know, and then it becomes a
Speaker 4: potential diplomatic crisis or a pr night. There has to
Speaker 4: be dealt with in some way, you know, to keep
Speaker 4: the relationship between the countries, you know, in good standing.
Speaker 3: Yes, many variables, And I want to spend a second
Speaker 3: before we move on to that idea of getting caught. Yes,
Speaker 3: getting officially caught is not the same thing as the
Speaker 3: polite conversation we had at the top of this show
Speaker 3: in Vienna.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, it's not the same thing. It's also getting
Speaker 2: caught by a police officer that just lets you go
Speaker 2: isn't the same thing as being caught in the public eye,
Speaker 2: right if And and let's let's get to this next
Speaker 2: point about diplomats and consular employees driving vehicles in LAS
Speaker 2: parking violations, moving violations, driving traffic, motor violations.
Speaker 3: Right right, Dy's as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, like this is a big This is
Speaker 2: a real big deal. And we talked about it when
Speaker 2: we were we went we went pretty deep into the
Speaker 2: diplomatic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia a
Speaker 2: while back, and we talked about this a bit.
Speaker 3: But our previous episode, why does the US let Saudi
Speaker 3: fugitives flee the country? We're gonna spend some time on
Speaker 3: that later too. Okay, we recorded that in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so not that long ago. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: you can't believe for so far from twenty twenty already.
Speaker 2: But this is this is a huge deal because, just
Speaker 2: like that other example, the Statement Department goes into some
Speaker 2: of these violations, including getting like anyone else in the
Speaker 2: world would get a DUI if they were definitely intoxicated
Speaker 2: and crash their very nice consular vehicle into a railing
Speaker 2: and destroy their vehicle. But in that case, a police
Speaker 2: officer cannot arrest that person for any of those things.
Speaker 2: They just have to let them go and notify the
Speaker 2: State Department.
Speaker 3: See the car, make the call. Yeah, this is a
Speaker 3: third lighter misconception parking violations. It's a whole ridiculous bag
Speaker 3: at badgers. We do want to recommend an excellent piece
Speaker 3: from NPR way back in twenty eleven. Shout out to
Speaker 3: the journalist Mark Memmett who points out that Washington, d C,
Speaker 3: and New York City in particular are still quarreling with
Speaker 3: various foreign diplomats and embassies regarding parking tickets. Now, if
Speaker 3: you've ever been to New York City or d C,
Speaker 3: first off, they're great towns. They're two of the best
Speaker 3: towns in the entirety of the United States, and parking
Speaker 3: sucks there. Parking is a hostile environment in DC. And
Speaker 3: these folks have people, they have, you know, stuff to do.
Speaker 3: Matters as state. It's ongoing. But the scary thing is,
Speaker 3: unlike an average person, a non diplomat committing a crime,
Speaker 3: every crime you commit in this role is negotiable. That's
Speaker 3: where the danger lies.
Speaker 2: Oh dude. In the example the State Department gave of
Speaker 2: that dui dude. Who the dui dude? It was in Maryland,
Speaker 2: by the way, right outside d C. I think in
Speaker 2: Arundel County makes sense. It's where it all happened. The embassy,
Speaker 2: his home country's embassy that's within the United States ended
Speaker 2: up terminating his assignment and sent him home, and the
Speaker 2: US State Department suspended his license that he got through them,
Speaker 2: and they made him pay for this for his three
Speaker 2: other violations, which I'm pretty sure we're parking violations as
Speaker 2: you're talking about, Ben, But so so there are consequences
Speaker 2: for these things, right, But it's not at all, as
Speaker 2: you're saying, the same way that anybody else would get
Speaker 2: would have to deal with consequences.
Speaker 3: Right Right, it's a it's a different it's still a pop,
Speaker 3: but it's a different kind and we're not going to
Speaker 3: reuse that sound. C The other the other thing we
Speaker 3: have to set up here is that this type of
Speaker 3: immunity is not permanent, nor is it consistent. One of
Speaker 3: the first things they really hammer home in DOS or
Speaker 3: in any foreign ministry kind of employment regimen is the following.
Speaker 3: Your origin country can always get a call and they
Speaker 3: can agree to waive immunity just because you know you
Speaker 3: are the high muckety muck for whatever Ottoman Empire is
Speaker 3: in vogue. It doesn't mean the Ottoman Empire is required
Speaker 3: to support you. They can get the call and they
Speaker 3: can say, oh yeah, ah man, beat me here Dylan.
Speaker 3: They can say, oh yeah, no, yeah, fuck that guy.
Speaker 3: Put him under the jail. You can meet with consequences.
Speaker 3: And it's all because despite the modern legalese and all
Speaker 3: the accords and whatnot, this is still the ancient gentleman's agreement.
Speaker 3: People are still just sort of handshaking on this thing.
Speaker 3: And that should scare you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely, just to get in that
Speaker 2: idea that you put forward, been the idea that diplomatic
Speaker 2: community has varying degrees, right, Because there's one last example
Speaker 2: I want to put out here from that video. I'm
Speaker 2: sorry the guys I got all hypes on this animated
Speaker 2: State Department video. This one other thing.
Speaker 3: They're really good, by the way, everybody should check them out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys know the highway four hundred that goes
Speaker 2: from Atlanta up north. Now, there's an example from Roswell, Georgia,
Speaker 2: which is a town along that highway as you're going
Speaker 2: back into the city, where a dude got pulled over
Speaker 2: on August fourth. They didn't give it like a year.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, but he was going ninety two
Speaker 2: miles per hour on four hundred, which is a big no.
Speaker 2: No police officer lights and sirens pulled the guy over.
Speaker 2: He showed yep, he showed his State Department ID. It
Speaker 2: got checked there via the phone number you call on
Speaker 2: the back, and it was noted that this guy does
Speaker 2: have diplomatic community. But the state department says this quote
Speaker 2: the driver, as a consular officer, has immunity only for
Speaker 2: his consular functions, so he had to appear before a
Speaker 2: criminal court for charges regarding non official acts. So in
Speaker 2: this case, he got cited for like unsafe driving and
Speaker 2: like because he was going so fast over the speed limit,
Speaker 2: which I believe is like fifty five maybe sixty five
Speaker 2: right in that area. But he did have to end
Speaker 2: up going to court for that for those charges. But
Speaker 2: this is what the State Department finishes that with. This
Speaker 2: is the case for most consular officers, but there are
Speaker 2: some exceptions, So always call the state department, and that
Speaker 2: is speaking directly to law enforcement officers.
Speaker 3: Just check in and we'll get to that point about
Speaker 3: official versus personal duties as well. Well. We got to
Speaker 3: hit you with here, folks, is that there are obviously
Speaker 3: a lot of loopholes, caveats, soft variables, asterisk so on.
Speaker 3: As a result, it is sadly not surprising that the
Speaker 3: concept of diplomatic immunity has been corrupted, conspired with, leveraged,
Speaker 3: and abused. And that's what we're looking at tonight. We're
Speaker 3: going to take a break for a word from our sponsors,
Speaker 3: and then we'll ask what happens when this immunity goes wrong?
Speaker 3: Years where it gets crazy? All right? First type of
Speaker 3: corruption with this the funniest one. We have it in
Speaker 3: the notes as uh, screw you guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's about right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what happens though? What is screw you guys
Speaker 3: as the first type of corruption? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think it's relatively self explanatory. In some cases, when
Speaker 4: a foreign government and gets into a situation involving diplomatic community,
Speaker 4: they may just decide to ignore the rules of that
Speaker 4: country that their person is deployed in. So this is
Speaker 4: once again kind of a callback to some of those
Speaker 4: ancient examples of don't kill the messenger diplomatic community, you know,
Speaker 4: one point zero. So, just as there were warlords of
Speaker 4: the time who might slice the head off of someone
Speaker 4: bringing some particularly unwelcome news and send that head back
Speaker 4: to the rival rulers as a sign of their displeasure.
Speaker 4: Dare we say an act of war. More modern governments,
Speaker 4: you know, have exercised a slightly less dramatic, but equally
Speaker 4: fu form of violating terms of the Vienna Convention numerous times.
Speaker 4: This has happened over the course of more modern history.
Speaker 4: It often happens during periods of international or regional dispute,
Speaker 4: particularly when there is something of an uprising or a revolution.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pre war and during war, that's when the paranoia
Speaker 2: gets its worst.
Speaker 4: I mean, technically, isn't all time not during war?
Speaker 3: Pre war you know that's good? Or post war? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, post war is another form of pre war. As
Speaker 4: we know, it's common.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you don't kill them in post war. That's
Speaker 2: when you.
Speaker 4: Watch it, when you try to be nice and make agreements.
Speaker 3: Nuremberg has entered the chat. The idea is, I would
Speaker 3: argue human civilization is in a toxic relationship with itself. Yes,
Speaker 3: just a few periods in between violence. What I love
Speaker 3: about the example you're setting out there, Nolu. The anecdote
Speaker 3: of warlords of old deciding or choosing how they send
Speaker 3: their reply or their message. It reminds me of the
Speaker 3: old joke I don't know a familiar with this is
Speaker 3: with a lot of people. But uh, the old joke
Speaker 3: goes the guy, one of the court members opens the
Speaker 3: box that has returned from the connet and they find
Speaker 3: human head with the word no written on it, and
Speaker 3: they really need the know's. Yeah no, it's it's insult injury,
Speaker 3: they said, your highness, I believe the con has replied, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: with revolutions. We got two examples that will be helpful
Speaker 3: here and hopefully uh memorable to all of us playing
Speaker 3: along tonight. Them then receiving a head in a box, Well,
Speaker 3: we're not going to send heads. I don't think we
Speaker 3: have it in the budget.
Speaker 4: They are quite pricey, especially they're really photo realistic looking
Speaker 4: fake ones.
Speaker 2: Pinkies exclusively, yeah or pinky toes mm toes, very very much,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, an overrated part of Human Anatomy.
Speaker 3: Check out the dailies.
Speaker 2: Oh all right, all right, so.
Speaker 3: It's the French Revolution. There's this guy named Napoleon. He's
Speaker 3: most famous for being in Bill and Ted's excellent Adventure
Speaker 3: the first one.
Speaker 4: Uh pivotal, Yes, pivotal character.
Speaker 3: Really the star of the show, this guy Napoleon, who
Speaker 3: was not that short. He went crazy arresting all foreign
Speaker 3: diplomats he could touch during his rise to power and
Speaker 3: his ascendancy toward the French Empire. And he he did
Speaker 3: this despite the sort of gentleman's agreement about diplomatic immunity.
Speaker 3: He arrested all these folks because he said they're actively
Speaker 3: conspiring against the new France.
Speaker 4: This sounds really familiar, This sounds well.
Speaker 2: Enemies from all the countries.
Speaker 3: Well, history would proved Napoleon Batch crazy for a number
Speaker 3: of reasons, but it would also prove him correct in
Speaker 3: this regard. The monarchical powers of Europe were super pissed
Speaker 3: at him, and they were doing anything they could to
Speaker 3: kill him.
Speaker 4: Well, when you treat everyone like an enemy for long enough,
Speaker 4: they eventually become enemies. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 2: So weird that works.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: Then, in nineteen seventy nine, we had another revolution, this
Speaker 2: time in Iran, and it was a whole other bag
Speaker 2: of badgers.
Speaker 4: That's right. Fifty three US citizens that included diplomats, were
Speaker 4: held hostage inside the US embassy in Tehran. The Iranian
Speaker 4: revolution really could be a series unto itself. But we'll
Speaker 4: just talk about how this impacted the idea of diplomatic community.
Speaker 4: The positive note is, of course that the hostages were released. However,
Speaker 4: it's a bit of a play, you know, when you
Speaker 4: look at the timing, it doesn't it just feels, you know,
Speaker 4: But that's sort of the nature of a lot of
Speaker 4: these diplomatic deals. They're all kind of strategic plays.
Speaker 2: And now you can go back to twenty eighteen and
Speaker 2: listen to our episode that we did on Iran back
Speaker 2: in the day. Can't remember what it was called, but
Speaker 2: it was about the imperial time in Iran and then
Speaker 2: how everything changed, and I think we even touched on
Speaker 2: this exact revolution.
Speaker 3: You can also watch this popular Western media. You can
Speaker 3: watch film adaptations like Argo I think it's called, which
Speaker 3: goes into a hostage crisis.
Speaker 4: Where they made like a fake movie and that was true,
Speaker 4: that actually happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those hostages are released on January twentieth, nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 3: This shows us that there are bigger issues not just
Speaker 3: with the concept of diplomatic immunity, but with the concept
Speaker 3: of international accords in general. The rules only work when
Speaker 3: every one agrees to follow them, just like painted lines
Speaker 3: on the interstate are the only things stopping other cars.
Speaker 3: From swarping at.
Speaker 2: You, and that nice thing that some new cars have
Speaker 2: that makes you stay in the same lane, but sometimes
Speaker 2: doesn't understand what lanes are.
Speaker 4: So it beeps at you when it turns off that
Speaker 4: lea's mind does I've.
Speaker 3: Been using it.
Speaker 4: It actually works relatively well most of the time.
Speaker 2: Or it makes you try and turn into traffic across
Speaker 2: the line because it doesn't understand it's a line.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like how early GPS services would say the best
Speaker 3: possible move is for you to take this impossible left.
Speaker 2: Yeah, through the woods.
Speaker 3: Through the woods, over the river. Yes, yeah, Look, if
Speaker 3: a given state doesn't want to play along, there are
Speaker 3: sovereign power the international community can impose consequences carrot and
Speaker 3: stick stuff right sanctions. We're gonna pull out of this deal,
Speaker 3: But if we exercise empathy, you realize these macro maneuvers,
Speaker 3: they're not really helpful to the individuals who have been detained, imprisoned, tortured,
Speaker 3: or murdered in the meantime. And you know, we're not
Speaker 3: going to get too into this for our own time here,
Speaker 3: but we also suggest to you folks that there are
Speaker 3: state powers currently using quote unquote terrorist groups as proxies
Speaker 3: when they violate diplomatic immunities, so they can say, oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, it wasn't us. You guys, we're just as
Speaker 3: confused and pissed off and worried as you. You know. Oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, you have a few of our very
Speaker 3: innocent people in your prison. If you consider a trade
Speaker 3: of some sort, we can talk with these terrorists, even
Speaker 3: though we don't know them, again and we definitely don't
Speaker 3: control them, Maybe we can work something out. Wow, spooky, stuffy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: sometimes immunity doesn't It just doesn't work. That's not the
Speaker 3: worst part. Let's go to the second type of corruption, uh, crimes.
Speaker 3: Who doesn't love to do a good crime? Don't email us?
Speaker 4: Just really feel good? This really makes you feel alive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just have a feeling, you know.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: Diplomatic immunity can be weaponized as a cover for criminal activity.
Speaker 3: As was pointed out earlier, the law and all international
Speaker 3: accords technically do not cover. You don't get immunity if
Speaker 3: you are doing private acts that are unrelated to official duties.
Speaker 3: To spend this out. That means that if you are
Speaker 3: if you are a top level diplomat, you get caught
Speaker 3: doing something unclean and creepy or just dumb and impulsive
Speaker 3: like shoplifting. You would have to prove that's part of
Speaker 3: your official duties. That doesn't mean you automatically get in trouble.
Speaker 3: But if you or your legal team can make a
Speaker 3: case that says, you know, this guy is stealing snacks
Speaker 3: and one tourist hat as a diplomat, as a representative
Speaker 3: of the UK or the US, then you scooch it.
Speaker 4: Is that the same as leaning him.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure, okay, fair, Oh oh, oh, guys, I
Speaker 5: can't believe I haven't already brought it up. Whenever we
Speaker 5: talk about diplomats, I'm always fascinated by this, this idea
Speaker 5: of this attached a case or this diplomatic pouch that
Speaker 5: everyone's always screaming about. That's where all the secrets are hidden, right, that's.
Speaker 3: The hot one. Yeah, diplomatic pouch or diplomatic.
Speaker 4: Bag, diplomatic capoose if you will, here we.
Speaker 3: Go, diplomatic valise, diplomatic shipping container.
Speaker 2: Career in all shapes and sizes, diplomatic Fannie pack.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like how any airplane the US President
Speaker 3: is on is air Force one. It becomes that. So
Speaker 3: anything you put the right official stamp, lock and seal on.
Speaker 3: That container gets some of the same rights that individual
Speaker 3: diplomats have as people. You've got a bit of immunity.
Speaker 3: Your container cannot be searched. It can't be seized so
Speaker 3: long as it contains articles for official diplomatic use.
Speaker 2: Huh huh. How do you confirm if said items enclosed
Speaker 2: are for official use?
Speaker 4: Well, you can't because you can't look inside. Don't ask
Speaker 4: stupid questions. Back what no cheating? Sort of a Schrodinger's situation.
Speaker 2: Yea, I say so, Therefore it is right right, right.
Speaker 3: This is methemphetamine for government purposes, so you can stay
Speaker 3: late to do all the work.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: These North Korean counterfeit supernotes are for the Swiss Bank,
Speaker 3: not for you, guys. Don't cham us up. You said
Speaker 3: you were being cool. Yeah. North Korean officials have used
Speaker 3: diploma pouches to smuggle drugs counterfeit currency. One example of
Speaker 3: how easy it is for this stuff to go wrong.
Speaker 3: Do you guys remember back in twenty twelve, someone not
Speaker 3: officially identified used counterfeit diplomatic pouches to send thirty five
Speaker 3: pounds of cocaine straight to the UN.
Speaker 4: That's a lot of pouches. Broh, it was.
Speaker 3: Two bags, I think, yeah, two bags they officially caught.
Speaker 2: I guess that one.
Speaker 4: That's a question that I have though, like the nature
Speaker 4: of the pouch in terms of it being an accessory. Oh,
Speaker 4: it can be anything, or is it like a particular
Speaker 4: style or brand.
Speaker 2: You can ship huge things in these huge pouches they've created,
Speaker 2: as long as it's got that State Department official language
Speaker 2: and stuff.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, contains like it just needs the lock and
Speaker 3: seal and the super fish stamp.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or if you just I'm looking around, I'm imagining
Speaker 2: stuff that I could fit into some of the pouches
Speaker 2: I've seen. You could fit a guitar in some of them.
Speaker 2: And they have this like brown kind of color that
Speaker 2: is just off putting in a weird way.
Speaker 4: Who can also forced me to do it?
Speaker 3: I'm googling, Like here, I have a lunch box from
Speaker 3: our friends at McSweeney's with the right stamping, with the
Speaker 3: right heraldry signage and lock and seal. This would qualify
Speaker 3: as a diplomatic pouch. WHOA, that's yeah, cool lunchbox too,
Speaker 3: you know what.
Speaker 4: Some of these are more like diplomatic duffel bags. And
Speaker 4: they're like diplomatic bag, the property the People's Republic of China.
Speaker 4: A twelve five eighty seven is the one that I'm
Speaker 4: looking at. And then there's one or like literally a
Speaker 4: wooden shipping container with that stamp on it and like
Speaker 4: draped with a velveted cloth that says diplomatic pouch.
Speaker 3: That's correct. Yeah, classic, sweet. Yeah, they've got this style
Speaker 3: over function.
Speaker 4: Sure. Actually they're big into function overfunction. They're they're an
Speaker 4: equal measure of style.
Speaker 3: What's that aesthetic called hemma? The Swedish concept is this
Speaker 3: aesthetic of living comfortably? We agree with it anyway. This
Speaker 3: the thing with this smuggling of massive amounts of cocaine
Speaker 3: is that they were not using real diplo bags. They
Speaker 3: knew most people do not understand what those look like.
Speaker 3: So they made a close counterfeit and it made it
Speaker 3: all the way from Mexico City to New York City,
Speaker 3: primarily because most people couldn't tell the difference, and they
Speaker 3: got shook. They saw something that looked like a bag
Speaker 3: they have maybe seen earlier, or looked like signage they
Speaker 3: have maybe seen earlier, and they said, oh, okay, we
Speaker 3: gotta you know, move this forward. It didn't get popped
Speaker 3: until it made it all the way to the actual
Speaker 3: United Nations.
Speaker 2: Dude, Okay, let's talk about that. So if you put
Speaker 2: a phone number on that bag, that is like a
Speaker 2: lot of the other state department signage for diplomatic purposes,
Speaker 2: like the ones that's on the license the licenses that
Speaker 2: people carry, like the one that you can find on
Speaker 2: a license plate on some state department issues cars. Sure,
Speaker 2: you just call that number, and whoever's on the other end,
Speaker 2: you ask questions or try and confirm is this bag legit?
Speaker 2: And you probably, if you're like me who called like
Speaker 2: one of these numbers earlier today, you just believe whatever
Speaker 2: the person on the other end of the line says.
Speaker 3: So it could be a fake number.
Speaker 2: Yes, you just put a fake number, and now you just, oh,
Speaker 2: this is that's kind of terrifying.
Speaker 3: Well, unfortunately, I don't know if it works anymore. But
Speaker 3: this was a great exploit and you absolutely nailed it.
Speaker 3: There's also a log record of people pretending to be diplomats,
Speaker 3: which is also cartoonishly easy, you know, if you've got
Speaker 3: your vinegar about you.
Speaker 4: We do have to say, though, this.
Speaker 3: Is the part we really want to get to yes,
Speaker 3: some individual diplomats and people we could call VIPs do
Speaker 3: get away with stuff, a lot of stuff with very
Speaker 3: few things in the way of actual consequences. And speaking
Speaker 3: of crime, yes, individual diplomats and people we could call
Speaker 3: VIPs do get away with stuff up to child abuse,
Speaker 3: domestic violence, manslaughter, willful murder. It gets really dirty, really quick.
Speaker 3: And that is going to be part two of our
Speaker 3: series on diplomatic immunity.
Speaker 4: It feels right, there's just so much there and it's
Speaker 4: really truly kind of plumbing the darker depths of this topic.
Speaker 4: So please tune in for part two.
Speaker 3: In the meantime. Thank you so much for tuning in,
Speaker 3: fellow conspiracy realist, diplomat, non diplomats, criminals and non criminals alike.
Speaker 3: We can't thank you enough for your time. We want
Speaker 3: to hear your thoughts, your experiences. Tell us if you've
Speaker 3: ever seen a shady diplomatic pouch. We try to be
Speaker 3: easy to find online. You can get us on the internet,
Speaker 3: you can call us on a telephonic device. You can
Speaker 3: even send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 4: I'd like to put forth that the producer and DJ
Speaker 4: Diplo is missing out on a crucial merch opportunity. You
Speaker 4: should have diplomatic pouches.
Speaker 2: Are the pouches that play his songs when you open them?
Speaker 3: Maybe that's how you know it's real.
Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, And what are some ideas that you might
Speaker 4: have for merchandising opportunities for DIPLO. You can write to
Speaker 4: us all over the internet where conspiracy stuff on x FKA, Twitter,
Speaker 4: on YouTube we have video content galore for your enjoyment.
Speaker 4: And on Facebook with our Facebook group here's where it's crazy.
Speaker 4: On Instagram and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy stuff show.
Speaker 2: We have a phone number. You can call it right now.
Speaker 2: It's one eight six six two one seven two o
Speaker 2: eight nine. Oh wait no, sorry, that's the Diplomatic Security
Speaker 2: Command Center.
Speaker 4: Call that one to leave them. You don't even have
Speaker 4: to limit it three minutes.
Speaker 3: I call them all the time. Ask for Steve.
Speaker 2: Just actually, let's not harass the State Department has.
Speaker 3: Just check in with Steve's your reasonable questions.
Speaker 4: We're also lonely.
Speaker 2: They are available twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: If you want to call us, our number is one
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