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Intrigue

Mayday - Ep 10. The Second Casualty

Intrigue

BBC

True Crime, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.64.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“They will be targeted for the rest of their lives.” Where does that leave everyone else?

When James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Turkey in 2019 he left behind a tangle of truths and lies. Mayday tells the extraordinary real story of the man who organised the White Helmets – rescuers who film themselves pulling survivors from bombed out buildings in rebel-held areas of Syria – and investigates claims that, far from being heroes, they are part of a very elaborate hoax. James Le Mesurier – his detractors say – was a British secret agent, pulling the strings. So when his body was found by worshippers on their way to morning prayers, there were a lot questions.

Produced, written and presented by: Chloe Hadjimatheou Editor: Emma Rippon Researcher: Tom Wright Mixed by: Neil Churchill Arabic translation and additional research: Vanessa Bowles, Abdul Kader Habak Turkish researcher: Nevin Sungur Narrative Consultant: John Yorke Original music: Nick Mundy and Bu Kolthoum Production Coordinator - Gemma Ashman

REFERENCES

“Statement by Amb.Nebenzia on addressing the issue of linkages between terrorism and organized crime” RussiaUN YouTube channel, 07 August 2020

“UK in Syria- Creating A Dystopian Shadow State Ft Vanessa Beeley on British Constitution Group” ICIT Digital Library, 02 May 2017

Vanessa Beeley Twitter posts @VanessaBeeley

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Fladiated.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:25.0

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds.

0:31.0

BBC Sounds Music music, radio podcasts.

0:35.0

I just want to warn you that in this episode we hear about some very personal and upsetting moments,

0:41.0

which some listeners might find distressing. I wake up to this banging and there's ringing of the doorbell downstairs in the office.

0:58.0

It was someone leaning on the doorbell, you know, it's just ringing constantly and it's banging to banging.

1:05.0

It was dark outside still and I was kind of probably a bit groggy from a pill maybe I don't know but

1:16.0

I was kind of confused it's dark and it's banging and it's banging that only the to, because no one else dares to bang like that.

1:27.0

Ran into the kitchen, I was asking, I was kind of saying, James, can you open?

1:33.0

And I went in and it was just silent.

1:37.0

It was the quietest any quiet has ever been.

1:41.0

And the lights were still on and I ran to the window in the kitchen, but you can't see over

1:52.1

the ledge because it's quite long and so I ran back to the bedroom and the

1:58.9

door was still open to the balcony and so I ran out into the balcony I looked down and there was no

2:05.3

James there and I was like oh my God and I looked left I saw James's body on the ground and he was naked and surrounded by five policemen.

2:20.4

And I was throwing a t-shirt and pants and so I did that to pull on a burrow of trousers and I

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