Podcasts about ayatollahs

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Best podcasts about ayatollahs

Latest podcast episodes about ayatollahs

Jung & Naiv
#769 - Iran-Expertin Azadeh Zamirirad über das Atomprogramm & Krieg mit Israel/USA

Jung & Naiv

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2025 206:20


Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:50:08 +0000 https://jung-naiv.podigee.io/1085-769-iran-expertin-azadeh-zamirirad-uber-das-atomprogramm-krieg-mit-israelusa 05a2e2d6c9616fc77af456b6ebbfc587 Politik für Desinteressierte Zu Gast im Studio: Azadeh Zamirirad, stellvertretende Leiterin Naher/Mittlerer Osten & Afrika. Azadeh ist in Iran geboren und hat ihre politikwissenschaftliche Ausbildung an der Uni Potsdam genossen. Ein Gespräch über die letzten kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Iran, Israel und Israel, das Atom-Abkommen (JCPOA) mit Iran von 2015, den Ausstieg der USA aus dem JCPOA unter Trump, iranische Verstöße des Abkommens, das iranische Recht auf Uran-Anreichung, die Frage, wie nah Iran tatsächlich kurz vor dem Besitz von Atomwaffen war und ist, Iran als nuklearer "Schwellenstaat", die Fatwa des Ayatollahs, die Verhandlungen der Amerikaner sowie Europäer mit dem iranischen Regime, den Blick auf geopolitische und hegemoniale Interessen in der Region von Iran, Israel, Saudis und Amerikanern, die Druckmittel der Iraner, die Nachfolge des Obersten Führers Ali Chamenei, das Schicksal der Frauenbewegung ("Frauen, Leben, Freiheit") sowie die Rolle des Sohns des Schahs im Exil + eure Fragen via Hans Bitte unterstützt unsere Arbeit finanziell: Konto: Jung & Naiv IBAN: DE854 3060 967 104 779 2900 GLS Gemeinschaftsbank PayPal ► http://www.paypal.me/JungNaiv Link: Azadeh zu Iran bei Jung & Naiv, Folge 456 (Februar 2020) full Politik für Desinteressierte no iran,israel,saudi arabien,usa,atomprogramm,regime change,geopolitik,analyse,krieg

Disorder
Ep 128. The Decline of American Leadership

Disorder

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2025 47:13


In Alex's final episode as an official cohost, she and Jason reflect on just how disordered the world has become since the pod started in 2023. They lament the loss of sane American global leadership during that time, the challenges faced by centrist politicians, and unpack the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They express the need for moral courage and moral clarity in politics. As they Order the Disorder – they talk about the need to use your unique voice to shine a light on what can be done to make politics work better. Producer: George McDonagh Subscribe to our Substack - https://natoandtheged.substack.com/ Disorder on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DisorderShow  Show Notes Links: Watch Why the UK should mediate between Trump, Bibi, and the Ayatollahs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXQb1oXFBh4 Watch Why Regime Change in Iran is Impossible - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlX5_mp1JWc Read about Georgia's struggle for democracy and slide into authoritarianism and how it mirrors our own in the USA: https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/06/08/i-was-not-fierce-enough-georgian-activists-brutal-confession-as-democracy-collapses/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Castle Report
Why Did the U.S. Attack Iran?

The Castle Report

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2025 13:11


Darrell Castle gives his best guess about some of the reasons for the attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. Transcription / Notes WHY DID THE U.S. ATTACK IRAN? Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of June in the year of our Lord 2025. Next Friday is the 4th of July so barring some catastrophe there will be no Castle Report next week. I hope you have that day off so you can celebrate Independence as Joan and I will. Today, I speak not of Independence but of war once again as I try to discern some of the reasons for the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. I will admit that the reasons for the actions of nations at this moment are normally nothing more than someone's or a group of someone's best guesses so I will make some guesses of my own today. The attack raised an important Constitutional issue because the Constitution gives only Congress the authority to declare war. That was just one example of the wisdom of the founders because the decision to go to war puts the entire nation's survival at risk. Perhaps, in this modern era we are expected to think differently and see that this attack was not such a Constitutional question because the last time the U.S. followed the Constitution in going to war was December 1941. Most politicians now on both sides of the aisle think and state publicly that the formal declaration of war is a relic of the past and just isn't done anymore. So, we are constantly at war but nothing is ever declared and that is very convenient for those who love war. The two political parties have apparently reached a consensus to let the president handle the decision alone and afterward they can criticize or praise him at their leisure. It's all just part of the theater of the absurd that we watch every day on our televisions or smart phones. Technology and speed are completely different now than in the days of the founders or even 1941. In the early days a debate about going to war might take months and there was little or no chance your adversary could learn of it before you acted but now those decisions take microseconds. It seems that in government today there are simply no secrets despite any top-secret classification, except for the very important secrets like JFK, RFK, MLK, the Epstein files, and of course 9/11. Those are the things we normal Americans are not supposed to know. For example, someone in the Pentagon or the defense intelligence agency leaked the top-secret bomb damage assessment or (BDA) of the attack which said it was unknown whether or not the nuclear enrichment capability of Iran survived the blast generated by 14 MOABs or mother of all bombs. A criminal investigation is underway to find the leaker. President Trump had previously told us that the nuclear sites had been “obliterated” by the bombing. When asked about it later he said that he got his BDA from Israeli Mossad agents who physically observed the sites. It turns out now that even the Iranians admit severe damage to the sites. Wars tend to be worse than expected. The ones who enter them expect and hope that the duration will be short and victory will come decisively and quickly but then reality sets in. For example, one could say that the Ayatollahs have been at war with Israel and the U.S. for forty-six years or the entire time they have held power in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They constantly inflame their people and incite international fear by leading chants in the streets of Tehran of “death to America” and “death to Israel.” It's not much of a stretch to believe that those two nations would see that as declaring open warfare and act accordingly. When someone screams for your death for 46 years perhaps you should consider paying attention because he might just be preparing the means to bring his ambitions into reality. That is one reason then for the attack i.e. to end the death to America threat.

The Tara Show
"Iran's Fatal Mistake: Trump, Israel, and the End of the Ayatollahs?"

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2025 15:26


In this fiery edition of The Tara Show, Tara dismantles Iran's latest blunder: violating a ceasefire, denying responsibility, and underestimating the Trump-Israel alliance. She explains how Iran walked into a strategic trap, setting the stage for its leadership's potential annihilation. Tara dives into Victor Davis Hanson's warning about Iran's theocracy, the collapsing Iranian military structure, and Trump's renewed pressure campaign. She also exposes the ignored assassination attempts on Trump, the media's propaganda over global warming, and the chilling China-Iran connection behind nuclear development in Isfahan. It's not just another Middle East war—it's a reckoning

History As It Happens
Cornered Ayatollahs

History As It Happens

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2025 37:11


Note: This episode was recorded hours before President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. Over the decades and in the face of Western pressure not to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, the Islamic Republic of Iran has maintained its nuclear program, whose origins predate the ayatollahs' rule. The program has become a potent symbol of nationalism and resistance. On Saturday, the U.S. joined Israel's war and dropped its most destructive bombs on Iranian nuclear labs buried deep underground. In this episode, Eurasia Group senior analyst Gregory Brew tells us why Iran's leaders believe the nuclear program is their key to staying in power and deterring their enemies. Further reading: The Struggle For Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951-1954 by Gregory Brew and David S. Painter 

BS Free MD with Drs. May and Tim Hindmarsh
374— DOCTALES WITH COCKTAILS: Abraham, Ayatollahs, and American Confusion

BS Free MD with Drs. May and Tim Hindmarsh

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 52:54


Dr. Tim Hindmarsh takes listeners on a whirlwind ride through the modern Middle East, unearthing the often-ignored history behind Israel, Iran, and the real reasons bombs are flying. He challenges evangelical dogma, dissects the narrative war in media, and explores how regime changes have long fueled radical revolutions. With a surgeon's scalpel and a bartender's flair, Tim lays bare the absurdity of tribal loyalty, emotional manipulation, and social media echo chambers. Equal parts history lesson and cultural critique, this episode asks the question: Are you thinking for yourself—or just another useful idiot?Our Advice!Everything in this podcast is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute the practice of medicine and we are not providing medical advice. No Physician-patient relationship is formed and anything discussed in this podcast does not represent the views of our employers. The Fine Print!All opinions expressed by the hosts or  guests in this episode are solely their opinion and are not to be used as specific medical advice.  The hosts,  May and Tim Hindmarsh MD, BS Free MD LLC, or any affiliates thereof are not under any obligation to update or correct any information provided in this episode. The guest's statements and opinions are subject to change without notice.Thanks for joining us! You are the reason we are here.  If you have questions, reach out to us at doc@bsfreemd.com or find Tim and I on Facebook and IG.Please check out our every growing website as well at  bsfreemd.com (no www) GET SOCIAL WITH US!We're everywhere here: @bsfreemd  

Inside Israel News
E146: Trump Orders Attack on Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Inside Israel News

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 49:43


President Trump orders an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel launched a very successful surprise attack on the Iranian regime. What are the prospects for regime change in Iran? What would the Middle East look like without the Ayatollahs?

Kerre McIvor Mornings Podcast
Kerre Woodham: US strikes on Iran - where do we go from here?

Kerre McIvor Mornings Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 7:06 Transcription Available


The world is on fire, World War III imminent, what can New Zealand do? Well, very little. Those were the headlines over the weekend. After telling the world he'd decide within two weeks whether or not to unleash the power of the United States on Iran in support of Israel, Donald Trump and his administration sent B2 stealth bombers into Iran on Friday to penetrate the underground nuclear facilities deep in the mountains of Iran. Israel, of course, has been attacking Iran's nuclear and military structures with very targeted attacks for the past 10 days or so, deploying warplanes and drones that apparently were previously smuggled into the country to attack key facilities and target top generals and scientists involved in the nuclear programme. Israel claimed its attacks were necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon. No weapons there at the moment, but apparently the stockpiles of enriched uranium are at a high and unprecedented for a state or a country without nuclear weapons. So there are no bombs as you and I might imagine them, but there is enriched uranium at levels hitherto unseen in a country without nuclear weapons. Initially, the US had a hands-off approach to Israel's attacks - nothing to do with us, nothing to see here. But all that changed when the B2 bombers went in. It was quite the operation as operations go, with the decoy planes being sent to Guam - and they were able to get in to Iran without a shot being fired against them. And you'd hope that one wouldn't be brought down at $2 billion a pop, it's expensive military hardware. The US said it was a pre-emptive strike they were seeking to terminate a threat, that being atomic weapons, not the Iranian regime. After Israel's retaliation for the festival attacks that killed more than 1000 Israeli civilians, Iran's kind of Nigel-no-mates in the middle of the Middle East. Hamas and Hezbollah have been, in effect, nullified. Syria's Bashar al-Assad has had to flee Syria. Russia signed a treaty with Iran but so far it seems to have been very one sided with Iran building kamikaze drones for Russia and working with Russia to build military hardware. And all of a sudden they're in trouble and Russia - goes well this is dreadful, and that's pretty much it. All they've come up with are words and they are busy in Ukraine. There would be very little they could do militarily without weakening their stand in Ukraine, so Russia has its hands tied. So where to from here? The Iranians will close the Straits of Hormuz, which will affect supplies of gas and oil getting to the West, along with other supplies. And there are concerns that you'll see again the kind of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings and hostage taking that we saw some years back. But the Ayatollahs won't be able to rely on an army of dissatisfied young people. They have no particular love for it and a number of them have told journalists that when the Ayatollahs are asking for unity and taking a stand against the aggressors: you have got to be kidding, the aggressor is you. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, told the Iranian people in a video message that, along with Israel thwarting Iran's nuclear programme, we are clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom and some Iranians have gathered behind that call. Others are like, yeah we don't like our leaders, but it's Israel and America. We would love to see a new style of governance within our own country, but it's as well in America who are who are affecting that change. So it's all terribly up in the air. To be honest though, when I saw the headlines saying: ‘the world's on fire, have we reached World War III', I felt more existential dread over the 9/11 attacks. That particular morning, when I woke up to the news that the planes had flown and to the Twin Towers, I really did feel like World War III was on the horizon. That was an attack on civilians, within the US, a strike on home soil. In this particular case - where Iran hasn't got Hamas and Hezbollah at full strength, if at any strength at all, when it's only mates are Russia and China, who have basically done basically done nothing, when it's been weakened with the targeted attacks on the military leaders and on the nuclear scientists, they are not in a position of power. And hopefully, they will realise that and there will be a period of time where the strongest wins and the weak lick their wounds and bide their time. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AMERICA OUT LOUD PODCAST NETWORK
The America First divide and global implications of US involvement in the Middle East

AMERICA OUT LOUD PODCAST NETWORK

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2025 57:50


Viewpoint This Sunday with Malcolm Out Loud – All planes are safely on their way home. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! General Paul Vallely, Col. John Mills, and IQ al-Rassooli discuss the historic decision, what happens next with the Ayatollahs, & the Iranian people, and global impact. Democrat Party is in total disarray - are they nearing collapse? Prof Pedro Blas González analyzes the politics driving the headlines...

VIEWPOINT THIS SUNDAY
The America First divide and global implications of US involvement in the Middle East

VIEWPOINT THIS SUNDAY

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2025 57:50


Viewpoint This Sunday with Malcolm Out Loud – All planes are safely on their way home. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! General Paul Vallely, Col. John Mills, and IQ al-Rassooli discuss the historic decision, what happens next with the Ayatollahs, & the Iranian people, and global impact. Democrat Party is in total disarray - are they nearing collapse? Prof Pedro Blas González analyzes the politics driving the headlines...

The New Yorker Radio Hour
Why Israel Struck Iran First

The New Yorker Radio Hour

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2025 42:38


The Ayatollahs who have ruled Iran since 1979 have long promised to destroy the Jewish state, and even set a deadline for it.  While arming proxies to fight Israel—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and more—Iran is believed to have sought to develop nuclear weapons for itself. “The big question about Iran was always how significant is its apocalyptic theology,” Yossi Klein Halevi explains to David Remnick. “How central is that end-times vision to the Iranian regime? And is there a possibility that the regime would see a nuclear weapon as the way of furthering their messianic vision?” Halevi is a journalist and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and he co-hosts the podcast “For Heaven's Sake.” He is a fierce critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, saying “I have no doubt that he is capable of starting a war for his own political needs.” And yet Netanyahu was right to strike Iran, Halevi asserts, no matter the consequences.  “The Israeli perspective is not … the American war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's our own experience.” 

History Behind News
Kings & Ayatollahs: Iran's National Security Strategy | S5E31

History Behind News

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2025 73:41


The Newsmax Daily with Rob Carson
The End of the Ayatollahs?

The Newsmax Daily with Rob Carson

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2025 41:26


-Carl Higbie, a special forces veteran, shares his perspective on Newsmax, highlighting Iran's role in American troop deaths via proxy weapons and urging serious consideration of military action's consequences. -Chrissy Clark joins to discuss Arnold Schwarzenegger's stance against illegal immigration on The View and the Israel-Iran conflict, emphasizing Trump's measured military responses and public support for law enforcement amid recent riots. Today's podcast is sponsored by : BIRCH GOLD - Protect and grow your retirement savings with gold. Text ROB to 98 98 98 for your FREE information kit! INCOGNI – Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code CARSON at the following link and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/CARSON To call in and speak with Rob Carson live on the show, dial 1-800-922-6680 between the hours of 12 Noon and 3:00 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday…E-mail Rob Carson at : RobCarsonShow@gmail.com Musical parodies provided by Jim Gossett (www.patreon.com/JimGossettComedy) Listen to Newsmax LIVE and see our entire podcast lineup at http://Newsmax.com/Listen Make the switch to NEWSMAX today! Get your 15 day free trial of NEWSMAX+ at http://NewsmaxPlus.com Looking for NEWSMAX caps, tees, mugs & more? Check out the Newsmax merchandise shop at : http://nws.mx/shop Follow NEWSMAX on Social Media:  -Facebook: http://nws.mx/FB  -X/Twitter: http://nws.mx/twitter -Instagram: http://nws.mx/IG -YouTube: https://youtube.com/NewsmaxTV -Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsmaxTV -TRUTH Social: https://truthsocial.com/@NEWSMAX -GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/newsmax -Threads: http://threads.net/@NEWSMAX  -Telegram: http://t.me/newsmax  -BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/newsmax.com -Parler: http://app.parler.com/newsmax Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Verdict with Ted Cruz
Bonus: Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jun 17 2025

Verdict with Ted Cruz

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2025 62:08 Transcription Available


Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too. Here’s a sample episode recapping four Tuesday takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Trump's Big Decision President Donald Trump faces a pivotal decision regarding Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Broadcasting solo from Washington, D.C., Clay Travis unpacks breaking developments in the Middle East, emphasizing the United States’ strategic position and military superiority. The hour centers on whether the U.S. should provide Israel with advanced “bunker-busting bombs” to eliminate Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facilities—specifically the fortified Fordo site—and whether the U.S. should support or tacitly approve Israel’s potential move to remove Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah. Clay highlights President Trump’s recent statement asserting “complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” signaling deep U.S.-Israeli coordination. The show features analysis of satellite imagery and intelligence reports, underscoring the technical challenges of neutralizing Iran’s nuclear infrastructure without U.S. assistance. Clay argues that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a rational strategy for regime survival, likening the situation to North Korea’s nuclear deterrent. He uses a compelling “antibiotic” analogy to stress the urgency of acting decisively now to prevent a more dangerous future. The hour also includes a robust discussion of the geopolitical implications of regime change in Iran, with Clay advocating for the removal of the Ayatollahs, citing their authoritarian rule and destabilizing influence across the Middle East. He draws a sharp contrast between past U.S. interventions, like the Iraq War, and the current situation, emphasizing that this is not about nation-building but about eliminating a clear and present nuclear threat. TX Senator Ted Cruz Texas Senator Ted Cruz joins the program to offer his perspective, strongly supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and warning of the catastrophic risks if Iran acquires nuclear weapons. Cruz confirms that while he opposes U.S. boots on the ground, he supports providing Israel with the necessary military tools to succeed, including bunker-busting munitions. He also discusses the broader implications for U.S. national security and the safety of American troops in the region. Listeners call in to share their views, with opinions split on the best course of action. Some caution against escalation, while others echo Clay’s call for decisive military support to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. KY Senator Rand Paul KY Senator Rand Paul urges President Donald Trump to avoid direct military involvement and emphasizing constitutional limits on war powers. Paul critiques the potential consequences of U.S. intervention, including the risk of accelerating Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the dangers of regime change. The conversation shifts to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” where Senator Paul voices strong concerns about the national debt, criticizing the bill’s weak spending cuts and the proposed $5 trillion debt ceiling increase. He calls for fiscal responsibility and outlines his conditional support for the bill, contingent on separating the debt ceiling from tax reform. Paul also reflects on his complex relationship with President Trump, highlighting mutual respect despite policy disagreements. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, joins the show to discuss media fairness, spectrum policy, and digital censorship. Carr addresses the imbalance in political coverage by legacy media outlets like ABC, CBS, and NBC, and outlines the FCC’s efforts to empower local broadcasters and investigate potential violations by NPR, PBS, and CBS’s “60 Minutes.” He also discusses the importance of restoring spectrum leadership to support emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles and AI, and defends free speech in the digital age, warning against government-corporate collusion in online censorship. Additional listener calls and commentary touch on Iran’s historical context, the role of Elon Musk’s Starlink in bypassing state media, and the cultural shift in how younger generations consume news via platforms like YouTube and TikTok. The hour concludes with breaking news from the U.S. State Department advising against travel to Iran and Israel due to escalating conflict. Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8 For the latest updates from Clay and Buck: https://www.clayandbuck.com/ Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Social Media: X - https://x.com/clayandbuck FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/clayandbuck/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ClayandBuck TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@clayandbuck YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AMERICA OUT LOUD PODCAST NETWORK
A World of Unrest on Viewpoint This Sunday

AMERICA OUT LOUD PODCAST NETWORK

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2025 58:09


Viewpoint This Sunday with Malcolm Out Loud – President Trump advised the Ayatollahs to agree to his terms to avoid annihilation by Israel. Iran refused, and so Israel released an unprecedented attack against Iran. GOP Senator Ron Johnson says he's 'trying to force reality' on DC... Sen Johnson is here to discuss the Bill. The LA Riots expand in the country regarding the ICE enforcement for migrant criminals...

VIEWPOINT THIS SUNDAY
A World of Unrest on Viewpoint This Sunday

VIEWPOINT THIS SUNDAY

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2025 58:09


Viewpoint This Sunday with Malcolm Out Loud – President Trump advised the Ayatollahs to agree to his terms to avoid annihilation by Israel. Iran refused, and so Israel released an unprecedented attack against Iran. GOP Senator Ron Johnson says he's 'trying to force reality' on DC... Sen Johnson is here to discuss the Bill. The LA Riots expand in the country regarding the ICE enforcement for migrant criminals...

The Tara Show
Israel Strikes Back: Ending Operation Ajax and Crippling Iran's Regime

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2025 12:01


In a historic turn of events, Israel has launched a decisive military campaign against Iran, taking out key regime figures and nuclear infrastructure in what some are calling the conclusion of Operation Ajax—an era marked by CIA manipulation and Iranian oppression. This segment breaks down the significance of the strikes, the deep-rooted history of CIA interference in Iran, the covert funding of terror groups like Hamas through USAID, and the geopolitical shift now unfolding. Is this the beginning of the end for the Ayatollahs and their CIA-backed proxies? And how is this a major political win for Donald Trump? A must-hear for those tracking U.S. foreign policy, Middle East politics, and intelligence agency overreach.

The Tara Show
Israel Strikes Back: The End of Operation Ajax and CIA Proxy Wars

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2025 12:01


In a stunning 48-hour span, Israel delivers a crushing blow to Iran's military leadership and nuclear ambitions, signaling a turning point in decades of covert conflict. This segment explores the historical roots of Iran's regime, tracing back to CIA-backed Operation Ajax, and exposes how U.S. funding through USAID may have bolstered terrorist proxies like Hamas and the Taliban. With top Iranian generals dead and covert funding pipelines under fire, host Tara outlines how this could mark the downfall of both the Ayatollahs' grip and the CIA's shadow warfare. A powerful, unfiltered commentary on the geopolitical earthquake reshaping the Middle East — and its implications for American power, policy, and leadership

Disorder
Ep 121. Could Project Russia Destroy the West? with David Troy

Disorder

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2025 59:57


From Gaddafi's Green Book, to Mao's Little Red Book, to Hitler's Mein Kampf, ideological autocrats have frequently spelled out in plain sight their perverse world views and long-term plans to confront their adversaries and upend global order. Rather than engaging in deep study of the thoughts of Qadhafi, Saddam, the Ayatollahs, or Mao, our leaders have traditionally not taken the statements of our ideological adversaries seriously enough. From Obama, to Biden, and even Trump – leaders in the West have long misunderstood what drives Putin's Russia. They have wondered about Putin's hidden agendas and secret plans, rather than reading his published ones. Putin essentially told us he was going to invade Ukraine in his writings and statements. How is it then, that major leaders throughout the West could be caught off-guard and surprised when he did? There is actually a manifesto of the Russian deep state's ideology – a collection of books called Project Russia. And yet almost no one has heard of it and it is not yet translated into English. It might be the clearest indicator of Putin's ultimate goals. To find out more, Jason is joined by Dave Troy, an investigative journalist covering the intersection of technology and democracy. He is currently the publisher and editor of America 2.0, a news site focused on the future of democracy. Dave also hosts the podcast Dave Troy Presents. Jason and David discuss the continuity of Russian intelligence networks from the Soviet era to the present and the incompatibility of oligarchs and democracy. Plus: they unpack 'Project Russia'-- an ideological framework that outlines strategies for undermining Western democracy, the concept of Russian Cosmism, how these ideas intersect with Silicon Valley futurism, and are shaping the West in unexpected ways. Finally, as they Order the Disorder, David suggests a new coalition of democracies united behind promoting Order and confronting the Deliberate Disorders. Producer: George McDonagh Subscribe to our Substack - https://natoandtheged.substack.com/ Disorder on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DisorderShow  Show Notes Links: Watch Does Germany need to embrace Nationalism? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIwVwI7mP5E Watch Will German defence spending make Trump happy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVwZsukFK9g Basic stuff on Project Russia and its origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Institute_for_Strategic_Studies Visit America 2 News - https://america2.news David's Writing in the Washington Spectator https://washingtonspectator.org/category/wide-angle/ David Troy's Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dave-troy-presents/id1610914569 Clarence Streit - Union Now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Now https://dn790008.ca.archive.org/0/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.262135/2015.262135.Union-Now.pdf Marlene Laruelle - Russian Nationalism: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9780429426773/russian-nationalism-marlene-laruelle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Tara Show
"Iran, Nukes & Israel Should Trump Let Netanyahu Strike"

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2025 11:17


Tara Servatius breaks down the high-stakes tension between Iran, Israel, and the United States in this fiery segment of The Tara Show. With Iran's nuclear ambitions back in the spotlight, Trump's alleged opposition to Netanyahu's proposed strike on Iranian nuclear facilities has raised eyebrows—especially after years of saber-rattling from both sides. Tara questions the logic of waiting on a deal with a regime that has repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel and assassinate Trump himself. She highlights the history of Democratic administrations enabling Iran through lifted sanctions and billions in funding, while Israel remains under constant threat from Iranian-backed proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. From internal unrest in Iran to secret back-channel talks and the geopolitical powder keg brewing in the Middle East, Tara argues it's time to stop tying Israel's hands—and start asking why Democrats seem more aligned with the Ayatollahs than America's own allies.

Middle East Focus
US-Iran Nuclear Talks: A Fragile Opening for Diplomacy

Middle East Focus

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2025 35:21


Following seven years of diplomatic deadlock, Washington and Tehran have resumed nuclear negotiations — and for the first time in years, there are signs of real momentum. Alex Vatanka, MEI Senior Fellow and author of The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran, joins hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj to analyze the current round of talks, the technical issues under discussion, and the political stakes on both sides. He explores Iran's economic and domestic pressures, US red lines, and the role of key players like Israel, China, and Oman in shaping the negotiations. The conversation also assesses what's changed since the 2015 nuclear deal, and what it would take for this fragile opening to lead to something more lasting. Recorded on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 For more context, read Alex Vatanka and Ross Harrison's recent article, "Thinking the unthinkable: Improved US-Iran relations under Trump?" Look out for new episodes of Middle East Focus every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

War 102
Episode 50; The Iranian Revolution

War 102

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2025 16:42


Send me a text!The rise of the Ayatollahs and the fall of the Shah.Different quotes Support the showwar102podcast@gmail.comhttps://www.reddit.com/r/War102Podcast/https://war102.buzzsprout.com

The New Arab Voice
Iran to the Max(imum Pressure): Trump sanctions on a weakened Iranian regime

The New Arab Voice

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2025 42:48


With the return of President Donald Trump, we also saw the return of the 'maximum pressure' campaign. The maximum pressure campaign was the hallmark of Trump's Iran foreign policy during his first term, and took the form of a raft of sanctions, which targeted individuals and the country's economy. This week on The New Arab Voice podcast, we look at what the return of Trump means for Iran, if the regime can survive four more years of Trump, and what the Iranian regime is doing to mitigate and circumvent the sanctions.To help us navigate Iran and the maximum pressure sanctions, we speak with Alex Vatanka (@AlexVatanka), a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute (@MiddleEastInst), specialising in Iran, and the author of The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry since 1979. This podcast is written and produced by Hugo Goodridge (@hugogoodridge).Theme music by Omar al-Fil with additional music from Audio Network.To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TNAPodcasts or email podcast@newarab.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maintenant, vous savez
Fermeture de C8 : quel est le rôle de l'Arcom ?

Maintenant, vous savez

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2025 4:30


À partir du 28 février 2025 à 23h59, la chaîne C8 n'a plus le droit d'émettre sur la TNT. En cause : l'Arcom n'a pas renouvelé son autorisation de diffusion. Les concernés, mais aussi la droite et l'extrême droite fustigent depuis que cette décision est tombée que c'est une atteinte à la liberté d'expression. Marine Le Pen dénonce par exemple sur X-Twitter une décision “qui donne raison aux Ayatollahs de la pensée unique”.  Pourtant cette interdiction est une première en France, et C8 a été sommée de cesser ses dérapages à plusieurs reprises. 35 selon l'édito politique de Patrick Cohen le 20 février 2025 sur France Inter. On parle de ”mises en garde, mises en demeure, sanctions pécuniaires”, en tout 7 millions d'euros d'amendes ont été payés par chaîne du groupe Bolloré. Mais l'Arcom a-t-elle le droit de ne pas renouveler cette chaîne ? Quelles sont les missions de l'Arcom ? D'où vient l'Arcom ? Écoutez la suite de cet épisode de Maintenant vous savez ! Un podcast Bababam Originals, écrit et réalisé par Hugo de l'Estrac. À écouter ensuite : Peut-on vraiment trouver l'amour à la télé ? Comment l'émission Loft Story a-t-elle révolutionné la télé ? Comment les Unes de Libération ont-elles marqué les combats de ces 50 dernières années ? Retrouvez tous les épisodes de "Maintenant vous savez". Suivez Bababam sur Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matussek!
Matussek!: Gute Nachrichten

Matussek!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2024 53:54


Diesmal nur gute Nachrichten in Matusseks Stunde. Seine Herzoperation verlief gut, Stent eingesetzt, danke für alle guten Wünsche und Gebete. Zur guten Laune trägt bei, wie sich die ratlose Linke ins eigene Knie schießt. Steingarts Hickhack mit dem Ex-Kollegen vom „Spiegel“. Das Zittern der Ayatollahs im Iran und Matusseks Erfahrungen mit den Schiiten aus seiner Hippiezeit. Das Zittern vor Mileis Kettensäge auch bei uns. Peter Hahnes Gardinenpredigt in Bülow. Ein Gedicht von Chesterton über das Kind in der Krippe, das einst mit Sonne und Mond spielte und nun mit Heu in der Krippe. Songs von John Lennon, Elvis, Simon & Garfunkel, Boney M. Schließlich das Finale des Mafia-Abenteuers von Rupert, auch hier nur gute Nachrichten.

Fighting For Ukraine
The Indicator Of The Changing Nature Of The War - November 4th 2024

Fighting For Ukraine

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2024 3:19 Transcription Available


Nov 4th 2024 Yuriy outlines the new phase of conflict where Ukraine faces off against both Russian and North Korean forces, examining the geopolitical ramifications and the hesitations of Western allies. You can email Yuriy, ask him questions or simply send him a message of support: fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com    You can help Yuriy and his family by donating to his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-yuriys-family   Yuriy's Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy   Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat  Subscribe to his substack: https://yuriymatsarsky.substack.com/  ----more---- TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)       It is 4th of November.  Our work has entered a new phase. This is obvious. First of all, we are now facing two regular armies: the Russian and the North Korean. Over 10,000 soldiers of that stupid greedy Kim have already taken positions with the Russians near the Ukrainian border, and thousands more are currently preparing in military camps in the Far East. This completely changes the configuration of the war.  Previously, all the Putin allies, the likes of Lukashenko, the half-dead Iranian, Ayatollahs and Kim, numbed by his own life of luxury- limited their support to supplying weapons, or providing territory for invasion. Now, everything has changed. We are facing two regular armies and both from   countries with nuclear weapons.  And where is our nuclear arsenal? We had one. Oh right, we gave it up in the 1990s in exchange for promises to respect our sovereignty and to keep our borders intact. And who made those promises? Russia, who took our weapons and now is destroying our country. And who was the guarantor of those promises? Who assured us that life without the bomb would be better and safer? The United Kingdom and the United States. Google the Budapest memorandum if you don't know this story.  Please don't think that I'm an ungrateful wretch who's forgotten all the weapons and other aid the Western countries have given us. I actually remember and deeply appreciate it, but I also know that we could destroy the Northern Korean expeditionary forces right now, before they have the chance to kill wound or rape anyone. Yet we don't have permission from Washington or our capitals to do so. They've told us directly: as soon as we cross the border, hit them with our weapons. Until then, no, no, no.  We are also not allowed to use Western missiles to destroy the Russian air fields from which planes launch daily to bomb our cities. We're also forbidden to strike at their drone stockpiles. Have you seen these drones? They are huge, the size of the car, packed with explosives powerful enough  to demolish an entire building. Just in the past few days, strikes by wars, drones on Ukrainian apartments have killed two children.  These drones- and this is another indicator of a changing nature of the war- are now being used much more frequently here even deadlier explosives. Thermobaric ones. When they explode, they burn everything around them, including people. I've seen how they work. No horror film could show you this, but we all see it every day.  Remember that you can support me. It's still extremely important. Without this help, things would be much harder for me than they are now. All details are in the description. I'll be back soon with shall we say a special episode because my birthday is coming up soon

Sky News - Sharri
Sharri | 28 October

Sky News - Sharri

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2024 49:45 Transcription Available


The Qantas scandal engulfing the Prime Minister, the Greens fail miserably at the Queensland election, and how Israeli female fighters took on the misogynistic Ayatollahs of Iran and won. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kan English
Can the Lebanese overthrow Hizbullah and what the ayatollahs fear

Kan English

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2024 8:24


Was Tuesday's call  by Prime Minister  Binyamin Netanyahu  for the Lebanese people to overthrow Hizbullah realistic? And what does the ayatollah regime in Iran fear the most? KAN's Mark Weiss spoke to Dr Mordechai Kedar from Bar Ilan university. (Photo: Fire and Rescue Service)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Liberty Roundtable Podcast
Radio Show Hour 2 – 09/04/2024

Liberty Roundtable Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2024 54:50


* Just Who Is Jason Miller (Communications Strategist) for Trump? * 'Nobody wants to become the next Bud Light': Another major company Coors Light announces it's ditching everything woke - 'What you should take away from this is that these companies are actually terrified of you, and know that the threat of you turning your back on them is real' - Brandon Morse, RedState.com * Iran has infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. national security apparatus - There are people who make decisions about the defense of our nation who have obedience to Iran's Ayatollahs instead of the United States of America - Two of them even still have top-secret security clearance! - Kash Patel. * As I discuss in my book, “Government Gangsters,” there are no coincidences in government. And I plan to prove it!

Amanpour
Perception Is Reality: A Disastrous Debate for the Democrats

Amanpour

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2024 40:44


As the dust settles from the US presidential debate, how can the Democrats manage the fallout from Joe Biden's faltering performance? Trumper Marc Lotter and Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg discuss. Then, from the Amanpour Archive, flashback to Iran's Green Revolution when citizens shouted 'death to the dictator', accusing the Ayatollahs of stealing the 2009 election and locking up the reformist leader. Meantime, as the UN takes flack for giving the Taliban a seat at the table but leaving Afghan women out in the cold, Anna Coren updates us on a young girl's second chance at life, after she tried to escape the Taliban's misogynistic rule. And finally, how panda diplomacy is making a comeback. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disorder
Ep49. Did WWI start our era of Disorder?

Disorder

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2024 49:17


Exactly 110 years ago, a malnourished teenager with a pistol disordered the world. On Sunday the 28th of June 1914, Gavrilo Princip fired two bullets. They hit their targets -- killing both the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian imperial crown, and his wife, Sophie.     That event ended the age of the traditional European empires, unleashed the mud and blood of the Great War, catalysed the fall of the Tsar and theoretical Marxism's transformation into a totalitarian reality, and uncorked the nationalist genie that would lead to Hitler, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and later the Cold War. But did it also start our era of Enduring Disorder?     Jason has certain contentions about the relative degree of order and disorder in the past -- notably that the years 1815-2011, in general, and 1946-2003, in specific, were periods characterized by global order and coherent hegemonic leadership -- but what if he is wrong? What if our global disorder didn't start in 2003 but rather in 1914?    In this special anniversary episode of Disorder, Tim Butcher tells Jason Pack about that fateful day exactly 110 years ago, what its disordering implications have been, how they have rippled down the years, and how modern history can be thought to have begun on that street corner in Sarajevo.     Princip has been variously described as the `bloodiest assassin in history' and ‘the most important person in the entire 20th century'… but in this episode, we are going to investigate if he is -- possibly more so than even Trump, Putin or the Ayatollahs -- our world's true disorder-in-chief… As Tim explains, there is every reason to feel that the world of the Fin de Siècle was in fact more order than what came after it and that Princip is the author of the Disorder that we now inhabit.    Twitter: @DisorderShow    Subscribe to our Substack: https://natoandtheged.substack.com/     Website: https://natoandtheglobalenduringdisorder.com/     Producer: George McDonagh  Exec Producer: Neil Fearn    Show Notes Links    Buy ‘The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War' by Tim Butcher - https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Hunting-Assassin-Brought-World/dp/0802123899/     For more on Gavrilo Princip's biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gavrilo-Princip     For more on Tim Butcher's amazing career: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Butcher     And for his great episode on our sister Pod, Battleground: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/121-how-the-2006-war-relates-to-gaza-today/id1617276298?i=1000640849125   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Jordan Harbinger Show
982: Israel vs. Iran | Out of the Loop

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2024 70:22


Should we worry that the complex dynamics between Israel and Iran might ignite WWIII? Intelligence analyst Ryan McBeth brings us in from Out of the Loop. Welcome to what we're calling our "Out of the Loop" episodes, where we dig a little deeper into fascinating current events that may only register as a blip on the media's news cycle and have conversations with the people who find themselves immersed in them. On This Episode of Out of the Loop: Israel and Iran have been engaged in recent attacks on each other, with Israel striking Iranian officers in Syria, Iran launching drones at Israel, and Israel firing missiles back at Iran. However, neither side seems to want a wider conflict. Iran's military is split between the regular Artesh forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC gets better equipment and training and has a Quds Force that specializes in unconventional warfare. Iran and Israel both lack strong expeditionary capabilities to directly attack each other. Iran's navy is mostly small fast attack boats, while Israel has a defensive-oriented military. Many ordinary Iranian citizens oppose their government and the Ayatollahs. The people should not be conflated with the regime. Iran has a large young population that is quite pro-Western. Overall, a massive conventional war between Israel and Iran remains unlikely due to the geographic and military constraints on both sides, despite the harsh rhetoric. However, proxy conflicts and tit-for-tat strikes may continue. And much more! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/982 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

The Lawfare Podcast
Rational Security: The “Trump and Elon Both Love Lawfare” Edition

The Lawfare Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2024 73:59


This week on Rational Security, Alan and Quinta sat down with Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes to talk through the week's big national security news, including:“Ayatollahs and Airstrikes.” In retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed several high-ranking Iranian military officers in Syria, over the weekend Iran launched a wave of drone and missile attacks against Israel. The vast majority of these were shot down by Israel and its allies, including notably Jordan, causing minimal injuries and damage in Israel. As Israel considers whether to respond, its American and European allies are putting pressure on it to deescalate. What's Israel's next move and can broader regional war be avoided?“Beginning of the end or just the end of the beginning?” It has been six months since Hamas's attack on October 7 and the start of Israel's war in Gaza, which appears to be entering a new, potentially lower-intensity phase. Israel has withdrawn most of its troops from southern Gaza, although it still argues that it needs to invade Rafah, on the border with Egypt, to defeat Hamas. Meanwhile, violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank continues to increase. What's next in the ongoing conflict?“What's a little obstruction between friends?” Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Fischer v. United States, a case challenging the government's use of a common statute used to prosecute participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The six conservative Justices appeared skeptical of the government's argument that a statute that makes it a crime to “obstruct any official proceeding” applies to physical disruptions. How is the Court likely to rule and how might such a ruling affect Donald Trump's federal trial for trying to overthrow the 2020 election?For object lessons, Quinta recommended a throwing-the-wife-under-the-bus update in New Jersey's Senator Bob Menendez's ongoing legal troubles, and Alan and Ben both recommended excellent, if anxiety-inducing, national security themed movies: the recently released Civil War and the upcoming War Game.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/c/trumptrials.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rational Security
The “Trump and Elon Both Love Lawfare” Edition

Rational Security

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2024 73:03


This week, Alan and Quinta sat down with Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes to talk through the week's big national security news, including:“Ayatollahs and Airstrikes.” In retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed several high-ranking Iranian military officers in Syria, over the weekend Iran launched a wave of drone and missile attacks against Israel. The vast majority of these were shot down by Israel and its allies, including notably Jordan, causing minimal injuries and damage in Israel. As Israel considers whether to respond, its American and European allies are putting pressure on it to deescalate. What's Israel's next move and can broader regional war be avoided?“Beginning of the end or just the end of the beginning?” It has been six months since Hamas's attack on October 7 and the start of Israel's war in Gaza, which appears to be entering a new, potentially lower-intensity phase. Israel has withdrawn most of its troops from southern Gaza, although it still argues that it needs to invade Rafah, on the border with Egypt, to defeat Hamas. Meanwhile, violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank continues to increase. What's next in the ongoing conflict?“What's a little obstruction between friends?” Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Fischer v. United States, a case challenging the government's use of a common statute used to prosecute participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The six conservative Justices appeared skeptical of the government's argument that a statute that makes it a crime to “obstruct any official proceeding” applies to physical disruptions. How is the Court likely to rule and how might such a ruling affect Donald Trump's federal trial for trying to overthrow the 2020 election?For object lessons, Quinta recommended a throwing-the-wife-under-the-bus update in New Jersey's Senator Bob Menendez's ongoing legal troubles, and Alan and Ben both recommended excellent, if anxiety-inducing, national security themed movies: the recently released Civil War and the upcoming War Game.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/c/trumptrials. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Connecting the Dots with Dr Wilmer Leon
Speaking With Missiles: Iran's attack on Israel

Connecting the Dots with Dr Wilmer Leon

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2024 73:00


Follow this week's guest Scott Ritter on X/Twitter @RealScottRitter and his substack http://scottritterextra.com/ and read his latest article here: https://consortiumnews.com/2024/04/15/scott-ritter-the-missiles-of-april/ Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Announcer (00:06): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:14): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon, and I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they happen in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which they occur. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events in the broader historic context in which they happen, enabling you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The issue before it says, what can we expect next? Now that Iran has responded militarily to Israel's attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria for insight into this, let's turn to my guest. He's a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is entitled Disarmament in the Time of Parika, and he is of course, Scott Ritter. As always, Scott, welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Wilmer Leon. Scott Ritter (01:37): Well, thanks for having me. Wilmer Leon (01:39): So Pepe Escobar wrote the following. He called it the Shadow Play, and he writes, so this is how it happened. Burns met an Iranian delegation in Oman. He was told the Israeli punishment was inevitable, and if the US got involved, then all US bases will be attacked and the Rai of Horus would be blocked. Burns said, we do nothing if no civilians are harmed. The Iranians said it will be a military base or an embassy. The CIA said, go ahead and do it. Scott Ritter, you've been writing about these issues in Iran for over 20 years. First, your assessment of Pepe Escobar's assessment. Scott Ritter (02:29): Well, I mean, clearly Pepe, he is a journalist. He is a journalist of some renno, and he has a source and he's reporting it. It's plausible. I can't confirm it. I can't sit here and say, I know that this happened. I have no idea if this happened. I do know that the CIA has over the course of time, taken on a shadow diplomacy role because the State Department in implementing America's hegemonic policies has alienated America with so many nations and that normal diplomatic relations are impossible. And so the CIAs assume this responsibility. Indeed, this is why William Burns was selected by Joe Biden to be the director of the CIA. He's not a CIA hand, he's not a man who has involved. He's a diplomat, former ambassador to Russia, and he's a man who has written a book called The Back Channel, which describes his approach, the back channel approach to resolving things. Burns has carried out similar meetings with Russia when trying to reopen arms control venues or talk about possible prisoner exchanges. (03:55) It's burns that takes the lead on these things. The CIA has played an important role in the past in facilitating dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The CIA had a very big role to play in making that happen. The CIA was behind the secret negotiations with the Taliban that led to the American withdrawal. So would it surprise me that the CIA has connectivity with Iran? Absolutely not. Especially given Burns' role and the importance of the back channel to the Biden administration. I think the Israelis might find it somewhat of a shock that the United States green lit the Iranian response. But then again, we're living in very strange times where the lack of, let's just call it the deterioration of relations between the United States and Israel is real. I've said for some time now that no American president or presidential candidate has won the White House by turning his back on Israel. (05:09) And I've also noted that no Israeli Prime Minister stays in power by turning his back on the United States. And yet we have a situation today where Joe Biden, a sitting president, is starting to turn his back on Israel because of the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's government policies that are being carried out in direct defiance of American instructions to the contrary. So we live in unprecedented times, and it would seem to me that the United States has made it clear that their policy objectives, strategic policy objectives, and again, just a quick background, remember, part of the reason why we withdrew from Afghanistan in August of 2021 is that we were delinking ourselves from a two decade long commitment to the middle. We were going to lower our profile there as part of our pivot to the Pacific to confront China. And so we have, we no longer are actively implementing the Carter Era doctrine of guaranteed American military intervention. (06:21) Anytime something in the Middle East goes south that we don't like, we don't do Desert Storm anymore. We don't do Operation Iraqi freedom anymore. We don't do the invasion of Afghanistan anymore. We're not looking for a fight. We're looking to avoid a fight. And one of the reasons is that Iran has emerged as a very significant regional power with a tremendous amount of military capability. Iran is also a major player in the regional and global economy, and it's incumbent upon the United States to do what we can stabilize this economy to make sure that it doesn't go south, especially in an election year where the old James Carville mantra, it's the economy stupid factors in so large. So we don't want a war or a conflict with Iran that could lead to the shutting down of the straight or moves. This would've a devastating impact on global energy security. (07:20) Oil prices would go through the roof at a time again to remind people when Joe Biden has lowered the strategic petroleum reserve down to less than 17 days worth of reserves. So if there was suddenly a shutdown in oil transit, we'd be in trouble. Huge trouble in an election year, which is for Joe Biden. So it doesn't, what I'm trying to say is a long way of saying that there's a lot of reason to believe the reporting that's put out by Pepe Esquire. And again, when I say believe the reporting, I'm not challenging Pepe Escobar. I understand I'm saying that every journalist has sources and some sources are better than others. But what I'm saying is my assessment of the information that Pepe is reporting from the source would be that this is extraordinarily plausible, that it makes sense that this would indeed happen. Wilmer Leon (08:15): That was my takeaway, whether it was Bill Burns or whether it was Mr. Burns from whatever that cartoon is. I was really focused more on the point that there was a dialogue between the United States and the parties involved, and that those parties came to a consensus. In fact, when I read, it might have been, I guess it was Thursday, that Iran had seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Straits of Horus. Then there was the missile launching, and then that drones were used as the kind of foray or entree into all of this and that the drones traveled as far as they did. I said, oh, well, Iran was really sending a message more than they were an attack. And I think the message was, and is if you're looking for trouble, you found it and you found a very big bag of it, and you really don't want to mess around with this. It seems as though the Biden administration is starting to get that message. I don't know that Netanyahu, I think it seems like it's falling on deaf ears in Israel. Scott Ritter (09:45): What Iran did here is I have said that I've called it one of the most impressive military victories in modern history. Wilmer Leon (09:57): In fact, let me interrupt and say, folks, you need to read Scott's piece, the missiles of April. You can find it in Consortium News, Scott, you can tell me where else, but it's a phenomenal assessment of what recently transpired. Scott Ritter. Scott Ritter (10:14): Well, thank you very much. It was originally put out on my substack, it's scott ritter extra.com, but then Joe Luria, who I have a very good relationship, he's the editor of Consortium News, asked permission to publish it with Consortium News. And then he and I had a discussion and he asked some questions, follow on questions based upon the article, and I gave him some answers. (10:38) So he added some material. So for anybody who read my article on my substack, there's additional material in on the consortium news variant. You might want to read that as well. It's just basically an update when you write things about moving targets such as breaking news, you write based upon the data that's available. And in the time between, I published on my Substack and I spoke with Joe Lauria, there was additional information necessary that provided additional clarity to some of the points I made. So it's not that I changed anything in terms of my assessments, although that's possible too. When you get new information, assessments can change, they should change, and you shouldn't be afraid to change them. But my assessment regarding the Iranian, the efficacy of the Iranian attack remains the same, one of the most impressive military victories in time. Now, people say, well, wait a minute, how could that be? (11:29) They didn't blow up Israel. They didn't destroy anything. War is an extension of politics by other means. That's what everybody needs to understand. Military victories basically mean that you have achieved something through the use of military force. That's impressive, especially an impressive military victory. What Iran did on April 14th, on April 13th, 14th, and this attack is established deterrence, supremacy over Israel. Iran has had a problem with what I would say, making the world understand its declaratory policy regarding deterrence, it's deterrence strategy. Deterrence is basically a policy posture that says, if you want to hit me, understand that I'm going to come in afterwards and pummel you to death, that the price you're going to pay for hitting me is going to be so great that you don't want to hit me. I'm not threatening to hit you first. I'm sitting here saying, live and let live, but if you attack me, the price you're going to pay will be so overwhelming that it won't be worth what you thought you were going to achieve by hitting me in the first place. (12:44) Iran has established this deterrence superiority over the United States. We saw that when the United States assassinated QM Soleimani in 2020, the Iranians responded with a missile attack against the Alad airbase that didn't kill any Americans. It was telegraphed well in advance, but the purpose was to demonstrate the Americans that we can reach out and touch you anywhere, anytime with devastating force, and there's nothing you can do to stop this, nothing you can do. So now we get to William Burns meeting with his Iranian counterparts, and when they say, and we will strike American bases, burns is going, and they can, and if they do, there's nothing we could do to stop it and we will suffer horrific losses. Therefore, Mr. President, we should heed what the Iranians are saying. This is deterrent superiority over the United States, that the United States understands the consequences of attacking. Iran is not willing to live with those consequences. (13:45) They'll be severe even more so in an election year where any disruption of the economy is politically fatal to the incumbent seeking reelection. So they have successfully done that with the United States. Iran has also used missiles. Again, part of declaratory policy. It doesn't have to be necessarily spoken policy, but demonstrative, and we've seen Iran use missiles to strike targets in Iran, in Syria, Pakistan, in Pakistan. Wilmer Leon (14:17): In fact, on that Pakistan point, that was what about a month ago, maybe month and a half ago, and when I heard that Iran had sent, I think it was a cruise missile into Pakistan, I did my best to calculate how far that missile traveled. And then I checked, well, what's the distance between Tehran and Tel Aviv? It was about the same distance. And I said, I think Iran is sending a message to the Israel that we can strike Tel Aviv if we so choose. Scott Ritter (14:57): Yeah, I mean, first of all, just so people understand historically during the Gulf War, and not too many people know this, so Israel was very perturbed about Saddam Hussein's scud missiles hitting Israeli cities and locations, and they were threatening direct military intervention, which would've destroyed the coalition that George W. Bush had built up. And so we were doing everything we could to convince the Israelis that we had the scud problem under Control Pro. And you mean that you were personally involved in doing that? Yeah, no, this was my part of the war that, I mean, first of all, I wasn't a general, I wasn't a colonel. I wasn't lieutenant Colonel. I wasn't a major, I was just a captain. But as a captain, I played a bigger role than one would normally expect from a captain. I mean, when my name gets briefed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, and when General Schwarz cov not only fires me, but arrests me because of what I'm doing, I'm having an impact larger than what I was wearing on my shoulder, and I'm pretty proud of the work I did during the Gulf War, but that's beside the point. (16:04) The point is that Israel was being told, don't intervene because we've got it under control. But Israel needed to make a statement, and it was a statement being made not to Iraq, because what they did is they brought out a Jericho missile, which is a nuclear capable missile, but also can have control warheads, and they fired this missile into the Mediterranean Sea, and when you measure the distance that it went, it's exactly the distance from Israel to Baghdad and what the Israelis were telling, not the Iraqis, because the Iraqis couldn't monitor the attack and it wasn't publicly announced. They were telling the Americans who were monitoring that, if you don't solve this problem, we're going to solve it for you, and this is the weapon that we're going to use. And it was a wake up call. I remember when that happened. We're all like, stop. (16:55) We were only getting two hours sleep at night. No more sleep at night. Do everything you can to stop these Iraqi missiles from flying. We never did, but Israel stayed out of the war. But my point is, when you talk about, because to the lay person, they might be like, come on Wilmer, you're getting a little too creative. They're a little too conspiratorial. Wilmer Leon (17:17): I heard that. I heard that last Saturday night. I was at a buddy's house and he said to me, I walk into his house and CNN is on, as it always is, chirping in the background. And so finally he says to me, so what do you think? I said, think about what he said. What do you think about the Iraq? I said, oh. I said, man, that was collaborated. That was done with collaboration. He said, man, you always come in here with this junk. I said, well, okay. So I hear that a lot. Scott Ritter (17:53): Well, but in this case, it's not junk because I'm telling you, as somebody who has been in the technical analysis business of ballistic missiles for some time now, there are various ways to send a message. To give you an example, in the arms control world, sometimes the way to send a message is to open up telemetry channels that are normally closed down and launch a missile test. You're not saying anything. You don't put out a press release, but the people monitor because you don't want to say anything. North Korea does this all the time, all the time. They open up some telemetry channels and they just go, Hey, listen to this. And they send a to the Sea of Japan, and the technicians are going, ohoh. They got, oh, they did this capability. Oh, no. And then they're writing secret reports, and that message gets, meanwhile, the public is just sitting there, going to the beach, surfing, smoking dope, and doing whatever we do because we are not meant to get upset about this or worried about it. (18:52) It's a subtle message being sent to leadership through the intelligence agency. So your notion that the distance mattered because Iran didn't need to fire at that distance. They just could have fired at a closer range, whatever, but to fire at that distance is a signal to the people who are that distance away, that what we're doing here we can do here. But the problem is the Israelis weren't listening. This is the problem. Iran has through very indirect and direct means. First of all, Iran has never issued a public declaratory policy on deterrence and ballistic missiles until now. And it's one of the weaknesses of Iran is that they didn't make it clear what the consequences would be. The United States got it because they hit us and we're smart enough to go, oh, we don't want that again. Pakistan sort of gets it, but I mean ISIS and Syria, when they got hit with missiles, ISIS isn't going to sit there and go, oh, you're going to hit us with missiles, so we're not going to carry out terrorism anymore. (20:03) No, that was a punitive attack. The same thing with the various missile strikes in Iraq. It was punitive attack. It wasn't meant to be a declaratory policy statement. And so here you have a situation where Israel just isn't getting it because Israel believes that it has deterrent supremacy over Iran. And why would Israel believe that? I don't know. Maybe they've assassinated a whole bunch of Iranian scientists in Iran with no consequence. Maybe they've carried out covert direct action sabotage in Iran blowing up nuclear related facilities with no consequence. Maybe they've struck Iranian revolutionary Guard command positions in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, inflicting casualties with no consequence. So maybe Israel believed that it had established deterrent supremacy over Iran. Therefore, when they saw a meeting at the Iranian consulate in Damascus of these major people plotting the next phase of the operation against Israel, they said, take it out. (21:04) There won't be any consequence because the Iranians are afraid of us. The Iranians won't strike us because we have deterrent supremacy. Iran believes that if they attack us, we will come down on them tenfold. And so they struck the consulate and Iran went, guess what guys? Nope, it's over. We're done with the subtlety. We warned you don't attack our sovereign territory. The consulate is sovereign territory. We're going to respond. But now the problem with the Iranian response is you have to put yourself in the Iranian shoes because the last thing Iran wants, it's just like the United States. They don't want a war with Israel. They don't want it, as they said in the Godfather, it's bad for business, it's bad for business. And business right now for Iran is improving. They're members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China has brokered a reproachment with Saudi Arabia, dismantling an American strategy of creating a Sunni shield against the Shia crescent and provoking permanent conflict that would empower American defense industry, Israeli security credibility and economic co prosperity between that part of the ward and Europe with Israel in the middle. (22:25) Israel's going, wow, we're back in the game, guys, when Israel was Benjamin Netanyahu, for all the criticism that people have out there, and I'm one of those biggest critics understand that on October 6th, he was on top of the world on October 6th, he had created a geopolitical reality that had Israel normalizing relations with the Gulf Arab states, Israel becoming a major player in a major global economic enterprise, the India, middle East, economic C and the world, not talking about a Palestinian state anymore. Israel was entering, becoming legitimate. It was like Michael Corleone and the Godfather when he was saying, I'm going to put all that behind me and I'm going to become legitimate, reached out and just drag them back in by October 7th. And then Israel was exposed for the criminal enterprise that it is, and now Israel has collapsed. But Iran, that was the Israeli process. (23:27) Iran is sitting here saying, we don't want to war. We're members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We normalized relations with Saudi Arabia. We have an axis of resistance that's holding Israel in check and these plans, Hezbollah is very strong. The militias in Iraq and are strong. The Anella movement in Yemen, the Yemen strong, but we don't want to provoke war. What we want is to become economically viable again. The promise that we, the theocracy have made to the Iranian people over time that trust us, things will get better. We're in that, Hey, you trusted us. Now things are about to get better. We're joining bricks together with Saudi Arabia, so we're going to work with Saudi Arabia and these powerful economic interests that no longer are turning their backs on us to create economic opportunity. And the last thing Iran needed is a war with Israel. It's bad for business. (24:29) It's bad for business. And so now the Iranians are like, how do we set declaratory policy to achieve deterrent supremacy? I mean, not supremacy, superiority supremacy is where you have everybody just totally intimidated. Superiority is where you put the thought in people's mind, and they now need to tell the Israelis, you can't attack us or the price you're going to pay is tenfold. Normally you do that. It's like going in the boxing ring. Mike Tyson, even now, I don't know if you've been watching his training videos of him getting ready for this fight he's got in July 20th. The man's a beast. I'm intimidated if I could 57, what he's doing. Wilmer Leon (25:10): Well, lemme tell you. I don't know if you saw the report of the guy that was kicking the back of his seat on the airplane, and he came over. He kept asking the guy, Hey man, can you stop kicking my seat? And the guy wouldn't leave him alone. And the folks on the plane said, finally he came over the top of that seat like Iran and pummeled the guy. They had to carry the guy off the plane and a stretcher. Scott Ritter (25:42): Well see, that's deterrence supremacy. There you go. Deterrence supremacy is when I jump into the ring with Tyson and Tyson knocks my face in, kicks my teeth out, and I'm on the ground hospitalized and bites your ear, pardon? And bites your ear. That is a bonus. Yes. (26:02) The deterrence superiority is where I jump in the ring, ent Tyson comes up, takes the fist right to my nose and just touches it. But he doesn't in a way that I'm in my stance, but he's already there and I'm like, oh, oh, I got a problem. Yeah, okay. I don't really want to be in this ring, Mike. It was a misunderstanding. I'm backing off. I'm just going to go out here and pee my pants in the parking lot. So that's what Iran needed to do. But how do you do this? It's very delicate operation. That's why this was one of the most impressive military opera victories in modern history because what Iran did was make all the demonstration necessary to show potential, and in the end, they hit a base nem. And this is important for your audience to understand. The Naam airbase is the single most heavily protected spot on earth when it comes to anti-ballistic missile defense. (26:55) There's no spot on earth that's better defended than nem. It has at the heart of this defense, a and I'll give you a fancy name, a N TP Y two X-Band radar sounds like, well, not one, not one, but two. Well, it's the number two radar, not two radars. Wilmer Leon (27:13): No, I'm saying because I got one over my house. Yeah, they got two over 2.0. This is 2.0 man. Scott Ritter (27:20): They got this radar there that has the ability to do overheard the horizon surveillance, but it's not just the radar, which is the most sophisticated radar of its type in the world. It's linked into the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in the United States Strategic Command and the satellites that we have over hanging over the area. So all of that's linked in into a common command center that's shared with the Israelis. So this data is fed to the Israelis and around Nati. (27:48) And why is Naam important? I don't know. The F 35 I fighters are there. This is Israel's best fighter plane, their strategic deterrent. They have F fifteens, F sixteens, and they do other secret things there as well because of the notice that they were given, if I understand it, they were able to move those F 35. So the F, again, it was coordinated 100%. I mean, we'll get to that in a second. But they have the arrow two and arrow three missiles, which are joint Israeli American projects are deployed around Nevada. David Sling, which is another anti-ballistic missile capability, is deployed around Nevada. Advanced Patriot missiles are deployed around Nevada. And the US Thad system is deployed around Nevada. The bottom line is they have, and there's Iron Dome as well. So what they have is this multi-layered defense using the world's best anti-ballistic missile technology linked to the world's best surveillance and tracking technology. (28:56) And you read the literature on this stuff, we hit a bullet with a bullet. Okay, wow, you guys are good. Now here's the other thing. It's all specifically tailored for one threat and one threat only. Iranian medium range ballistic missiles. That's all it's geared to do. It's not like there's confusion. It's not like you have a multitude of missions. One mission, Iranian medium range missiles. Okay? So now that's like me watching Mike Tyson training videos, and I'm watching the training and I'm like, I got 'em. I can move. I got this guys, I got this. I go into training, bullet, hit a bullet, hit a bullet. I got this. And so now, Mike Tyson, Iran, they go a step further. Not only do they do the Pepe Escobar advanced notice, they build the attack in a way that says, Hey, this is really happening. They announce that the launch of the drones, and these aren't just any drones, guys. (29:57) These are slow, moving, loud drones. So you couldn't get a better air alarm system than what Iran gave Israel. They unleashed the drones, and here the drones go. Now Israel's got, they're like flying bumblebees six hours of advanced notice, which gives the United States time to say, take your F 30 fives out, anything value out. But the other thing the Iranians did is they told the United States, see, I think they went a step further. The Iranians made it clear that they will only strike military targets that were related to the action. Iran's whole argument. And again, I know in the West, we tend to rule our eyes, like when Russia says, we acted in Ukraine based upon Article 51, self-defense, preemptive self-defense, the Caroline Doctrine, all the people who hate Russia go, no, no. That was a brutal roar of aggression. Unprovoked. No, the Russians actually have a cognitive legal case because that's how Russia operates based upon the rule of law. (30:57) Now, the rule of law, Wil, as we all know, can be bent, twisted, manipulated. I'm not saying that the Russians have the perfect case. What I'm saying is the case that Russia has made is cognizable under law, right? It's defendable. You could take it to a court and it's not going to be tossed out asr. It's not Tony Blinken rules based order. It is not. And so now the Saudis, or not the, I'm sorry, the Iranians, they have been attacked and they have cited Article 51 of the UN charter as their justification. But now you can't claim to be hiding behind the law and then just totally break the law yourself. If Iran had come in, you can. You're the United States, correct? But that's the rules based international, not the law based international. That's the difference between the two. The rules say we can do whatever we want. (31:50) The law says no, you're constrained by the law. So in order to justify self-defense, Iran had to limit its retaliation to the immediate threat that was posed by those who attacked them, which means you can hit the two air bases where the airplanes flew out. And there's a third site that nobody's talking about yet. Is that the CIA site? Well, it's the 8,200, the Sgin site on Golan Heights that's looking out into Damascus. And according to the Iranians, that's the site that gathered the intelligence about the Iranians being in the consulate and then shared that intelligence with the airplanes coming in. And so these three targets are the three. Now, in addition to that, Iran is allowed to strike facilities and locations that are involved in the defense of these three things. So the ballistic missile defense capability becomes a legitimate target. But now, so Iran has to hit these three, and so they've broadcasted, we're coming, we're coming. (32:55) And that gives the United States do something politically smart, which is to tell the Israelis, we will defend you, but we will not participate in any Israeli counter attack. So we've limited the scope and scale of our participation in this. And so we came together, we started shooting down these drones, creating a fiction of Iranian incompetence, Iranian lack of capability. So this is part of the plan. This is all part of the plan. Now, Iran didn't sit down with the United States and say, this is what we're going to do. This is what we want you to do. Iran is scripting it for them. I mean, this is basically United States going, damn, I forgot my lines. Here you go. Here come the drones. Here come the drones. Shoot them down. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. And so we're shooting it down, and then we're sending the cruise missiles, just in case you don't know, we're launching them live on TV Here. (33:51) Let me show you a closeup of what they look like so you understand the operational parameters of the system. And off go, the cruise missiles. Don't shoot pigeons, shoot cruise missiles. So now they're shooting. But then as they're doing this, the Iranians are sitting there going, okay, so we sent the drones. What's lightening up, guys? First of all, what people don't understand is before all this happened, the Iranians did a very targeted cyber attack and shut down. They attacked the Iron Dome system. Now, why do you want to attack the Iron Dome system but not attack the others? Because the Iron Dome system isn't designed to take down big ballistic missiles. It's designed to take down the other stuff. Medium range cruise missiles. No, well, cruise missiles and drones, low flying. It's actually designed to take down kaka rockets and the Hamas rockets. Okay? That's what it's supposed to do. (34:44) So you disrupt this so that the other systems have to take priority, and then the arrives, you go, oh, thank you very much. Now, some of the drones that were sent in aren't armed with explosives, but armed with radars and signals intelligence collection, which they're broadcasting the data back to Iran. These are guys are very sophisticated ladies and gentlemen. These aren't amateurs you're dealing with. And so they're sitting in going here. They come turn it on, collect, thank you. And now they have their targeters looking at a big map going, okay, we got a radar here. We got here. Okay, now they're shooting. Okay, we got missile launchers here, boom, boom, boom. It's all there. And they've looked at all. Then they say, okay, remember, because the goal now is to get the glove to touch the nose. The goal isn't to hit the knockout. (35:33) So they say, what do we need to do to demonstrate capability the Iranians used? Now, there's some mixed reporting out here. The problem is I like everybody else, I'm held hostage with the Iranians. I don't get to go on the ground anymore and look at the debris and do technical analysis. I used to do that, and I used to be able to come back. One of the things we did with the Iraqis, just so people understand, I am not the dumbest marine in the world. I'm one of the dumbest Marines in the world, but I do have some capability based upon experience. And when my time as a weapons inspector, I worked with the Israelis, their technical intelligence people on looking at debris of the missiles that Iraq fired against Israel. And we were able to ascertain several different variants of scud missiles that have different capabilities that the Iraqis had been denying or not declaring. (36:27) And by coming back to them with the technical intelligence from the debris on the ground, the Iraqis had to admit to certain capabilities that they had been denying. And this is important when you're trying to be able to stand before the world and say, we understand the total picture of Iraqi ballistic missile capability, and we can certify that we can account for it all. Because imagine going before the security council and saying that only to have the Israelis go, yes, but what about variant 3D alpha four? Well, I don't understand what you're talking about. What's 3D alpha four? That's the point. You're making a report and you don't understand what we're talking about, which means you don't know everything, do you? I don't like to be in that position as an expert, or I want to know everything. And so we did, and we got the Iraqis to come clean. (37:14) So when I say we could account for Iraq's ballistic missile program, we could account for every aspect of it. So I don't get to do that right now. So I'm at a disadvantage where I have to rely upon information. So I don't know if Iran used their hypersonic missiles or not. I don't know that, okay, reports, it's reported. There's reports that they did, and then there's reports that they didn't, and it's conflicting. The most recent press TV report and press TV is a organ of the Iranian state, says that they did use the fat two missiles against thetan airfield. So I'm going to run with that, but I want to put a big caveat on that, that I don't know for certain. (38:01) But we do know, just looking at the characteristics of the missiles that came in, that they used at least three different kinds of, they used more than that, but three that were designed to put the glove on the nose, other missiles that were sent were designed to be shot down again as part of the intelligence collection process. So you send in an older ballistic missile that comes on a ballistic missile trajectory. The first thing that you do by doing that is you are training the defense systems. These Iranians are smart. They understand these things. You're training them because you see, there's a whole bunch of computers, software, artificial intelligence. This is the proof that ai, please don't do it better than ai. Is the brain a train brain? Because ai, listen to what everybody's talking about. I mean, I get this phone call. I don't know if you get this up, Scott, I'd like to take the transcripts of your discussions and use them to train my ai. I don't know if you've ever received that request. And I'm like, no, I don't want you to do that. But I just personally go. But the point is, that's how ai, it's not artificial intelligence, ladies and gentlemen. It's just programmed, just programmed in a different way. And you can program in stupidity, which the Iranians said, which they usually do. Let's program in stupidity. Wilmer Leon (39:24): Well, for example, just for a quick example, that's why facial recognition technology fails to the degree that it does. It's limited by the abilities and capabilities of the people that are programming it. That's why facial recognition technology doesn't work on Asian people, and it doesn't work on people of color. Dammit, I'm the wrong race. I could have put that a long time ago. Go ahead, Scott Ritter (39:57): Touche. So the Iranians are programming the ai. They're sending missiles in, and the system is starting to normalize to come up with a, because it's wartime now. So now you're actually detecting tracking and firing. Then what you do is you throw in, it's like a pitcher, fastball, fastball, fastball, changeup, and here comes the changeup. First changeup they do is, and I don't know the sequence that they did this, but we see the video evidence. There's a warhead that comes in, and again, it's about timing. So you're sending these missiles in. Now they have separating warheads. So what happens when a missile has a separating warhead is the radar's picking one target. (40:44) All of a sudden, the radar is dealing with two targets, but it's not just two targets. When you separate the warhead from the missile body, the missile body starts to tumble and it starts sending differentiating signals, and it's no longer a ballistic trajectory. So the computer's going, oh my God, what's happening here? Meanwhile, this warhead's going this way, it's tracking that, and it has to make a decision. Which one? Which one? Which one, which one, which one? This one, pick this warhead. So now they've trained it to discriminate onto this warhead, which is what they want. Now, you'd say, why would they want to look at that warhead? You'll find out the warhead comes in and they're timing. It's like a track coach got the timer, warhead comes in, and the missiles fire up to hit it, and you go, we got it. We now know what the release point is for the missiles being fired. (41:29) So now they send in this other missile, it comes in, warhead separates the AI says, go with the warhead baby. They ignore this thing, which is good. It's just a distraction. They're focused on the warhead, they're on the clock. Everything's getting queued up just the way it's supposed to be. Everything's optimized. We're going to take this thing, a bullet hits a bullet baby, and all of a sudden, the warhead right before the launch on the ground, fires off a whole bunch of decoys. It's like a shotgun shell. And the computer goes, damn, what the hell just happened? We don't know. It's going crazy, trying to differentiate between all this stuff. And they're firing a whole bunch of missiles now in panic overload, and they're trying to deal with this. And meanwhile, they have a warhead here. They accelerated these shotgun shells out. So they're going faster. (42:17) Now, the computer's adapting to that. Oh God, what do we do? Fire, fire, fire. That warhead's hanging back. It's not the priority right now. And then once everything's committed, you see it on the film, boom. It has a booster engine on it. It gets fired through the chaff. Nothing's intercepting it, bam hits the ground. But not only that, as it comes in, it makes an adjustment. I don't know if people saw that. It comes in and you see it go up, up. Again, terminal adjustment to hit the precise target it wanted to hit. Iran sent a couple of those in, and they took out the Iron Dome sites, et cetera. A signal just got you. And they know that the Israelis are smart. They know that there's a bunch of Israeli guys who were smarter than I am that I used to work with who were looking at all this stuff going, oh God, they got us. (43:11) They got us. Damn. Now we come to Nevada, and it's the same thing. They send in the missiles. This is the most heavily layered system in the world. They send in the missiles, and this one's not even as sophisticated. It just comes in. They release it, hyper accelerates down. Then wham hits the ground and the Israelis, because the Israelis are like, okay, we got it. We got it. We don't have it. It's like a catcher used to catch 70 mile an hour fastballs, and it hits him in the head, and then the guy fires the 102 mile an hour. Bam. What happened? I wasn't ready for that. It comes in and it hits it. Wilmer Leon (43:47): Well catcher called a change up, and a fastball came through. Fast ball came in. Scott Ritter (43:52): So then they came into Na, Nevada, and they touched Naum at least five times. The Iranians were saying seven times. I would probably go with five. And the reason why I say this is that there is a chance the most heavily defended space on earth, there's a chance that they got two of 'em. I'm going to concede that point to the Israelis and the Americans that you put all these hundreds of billions of dollars into building something, and you got two out of seven, but five hit. But the idea, none of them were meant to be a knockout blow. Each one was just a, Hey, hey. And the Israelis know that They're sitting there going, and now they've come to the realization, and this is the whole point. After all of this, the Israelis have come to the realization that Iran can reach out and touch us anytime it wants to, any place it wants to, and there's nothing we can do to stop them. So now the Israelis are in a quandary because Iran has war is an extension of politics by other means. (44:51) So Iran has established a political reality using military means to establish a deterrence superiority without creating the conditions that mandate an automatic Israeli response. You see, they've allowed the situation a narrative to be developed by the United States and Israel that says, Iran sucks. He sent everything in there. We shot it all down. We're better than they are. We actually established deterrence over Iran by telling the Iranians that no matter what they do, you thought you were Mike Tyson. You came in and swang gave us all your punches. You miss, you, miss you, miss you, miss you, miss. It's like, Ali, I'm still here. You didn't touch me. You punched yourself out. Can't touch this. That's the narrative that Iran was allowing the West to do. But the reality though is that the Israelis got down there, and there was an interesting text, I don't know if you saw it by, not text, but a post by an Israeli insider who has connectivity with the war council. (45:58) And he said, if the Israeli public heard what was being said in the War Council, 4 million people will be leaving Israel right now. I'm going to tell you right now what was said in the war Council, Iran can destroy us. Iran can flatten us. There's nothing we can do if we allow this to happen to remain unanswered. We've lost everything that we've fought for over the past several decades. This deterrence, supremacy that we thought we had has gone forever. Nobody will ever respect us. Nobody will ever fear us, and therefore people will attack us, and we will be in an untenable situation Wilmer Leon (46:39): Wait a minute. That's that's very important politically, because that is part of the whole Zionist ideology, is we we're the persecuted people, and you all need us to protect you because the wolves are always at the door. And now what is the reality is all that insurance money you've been paying for those insurance policies, you've wasted your money. Scott Ritter (47:15): Absolutely. I used to live in Turkey, and when I've traveled through the planes of Turkey, they have shepherds with their flocks, and out there amongst the flocks are the sheep dogs. I don't know if you've ever seen a picture of an Anatolian sheep dog. Yes, big. Wilmer Leon (47:34): I'm a big dog guy. Yes. Scott Ritter (47:35): Okay, so these are like bears, right? Some of them are bigger than bears. And I remember we were walking once in a Kurdish village and we got too close to the sheep, and all of a sudden, these two things coming at us, and they're bigger than we are. I mean, these are bigger than humans, and they're coming at us, and they're going to kill us. And we knew that it was just all over. Then you hear, and the shepherd gives whatever signal, and the sheep dogs stop, and then they come up and they sit down and you pet 'em. (48:04) They have no ears because their ears have been chewed off. Their noses are scars their faces. They got these giant collars with spikes on to protect their throat, their faces like that, because they fight wolves. They hold the wolves off. Israel has been telling the world that we are the anatolian sheep dog. We are here and we will protect you. The rest of the world, the sheep from the wolves, they're getting ready. What Iran just did is went, took off the cloak, then went, you're just a sheep. You're just a sheep. We are the wolves. You're just a sheep. And the sheep's going, I don't want everybody to know this. We were faking them out, that we were the anatolian sheep dog, but we're really just a sheep. So that's a political problem for the Israelis, and this is important, and this is probably the most important part of this discussion, believe it or not, this isn't about Israeli security. This isn't about a real threat to, because Iran is a responsible nation. When Iran talks about deterrence, Wilmer Leon (49:07): oh, wait a minute now, wait a minute. Now, Scott, now you've crossed the Rubicon is Iran is responsible? Yeah, Iran is a, they're ravaging. Crazy. Raghead. Come on, Scott. Scott Ritter (49:25): That may be true, but they're ravaging, crazy Raghead who operate based upon a law-based system as opposed to a rule-based system. Not only that, a law-based system that is based on thousands of years of history and culture, right? I mean, that's their own national culture. I mean, a lot of people go the theocracy, the theocracy, theocracy, yes, but Persian. Persian, Persian. I understand that this is a civilized people who have been around. They invented cataract surgery. They invented a lot of stuff. They invented the agrarian watering system, the irrigation, the irrigation system. They invented the wheel. I think they probably did. (50:20) We've been reinventing the wheel over time. But mathematics, psychology, the whole thing, sociology, all comes out of there. And today, you see it when you Google International Math Olympics, the teams that are coming in at top are Chinese teams and Iranian teams, MIT, California technology, they're coming in down at the bottom. They're not one in this thing behind it. The Indian Institute of Technology, the Indians are getting up there too. They have good applied science and good applied skills. And it's not just that. I mean, to give you an example, the Iranians have the highest percentage of peer reviewed, not percentage, the highest number of peer reviewed PhD thesis published per year. So it's not like, excuse me, Iraq, I, forgive me for this, but under Sadam Hussein, where you went to an Iraqi university, it used to have a good reputation, but they were just punching out, handing out diplomas to Kuai. (51:26) And the thugs who went in there and said, I went to school. Here's your diploma. See, I'm a doctor. No, in Iran, you earn it. You go to the school, you earn it, and you earn it the old fashioned way, peer reviewed, which means your thesis leaves. Iran goes out of ranks the world, the experts, they review it, they come back and they say, this is PhD level work. Wilmer Leon (51:46): I just had a conversation with another dear friend. And when you look at their diplomats, when you look at their leadership, many of them are engineers. President Amad, the first time I went to Iran, I got to sit for two hours with then former president Amadinijad has a PhD in engineering and teaches engineering at the University of Tehran. I sat there for two hours listening to this cat going, oh my God. Yeah, he's not what? (52:22) He was sold deep. He's not some short madman. He's a short, brilliant man. Scott Ritter (52:31): A brilliant madman maybe. But the point is, brilliant dude, genius. No, they're all that way. They all have extraordinary. First of all, let's stop picking on Ayatollahs. If people understood what it took to become an ayatollah in Iran, the level of seminarian study, what you have to know, not just about. And here's the important thing about the Shia theocracy for all the Shia people out there, if I got this wrong, please forgive me, but it's my understanding, especially in the Iranian model, they have something called the Marja, which is basically, it's like your flock. (53:14) What do they call it? A diocese in the Catholic church, right? Congregation. Thank you. There's what we want, congregation. It's a congregation. Now, you have to, because in Iran, it's not just about knowing the religion, but having a philosophy that is derived from absolute understanding of the religion that is approachable to the people. It is religious democracy, because now I've done my ayatollah training and they go, Huma, I can't do the cross. Sorry, God, I just made a huge mistake. Forgive me. But they anoint you. They say, you're the dude. You're the guy that can do it. But now, to survive, you have to write a document that says, this is my religious philosophy as it applies to something today. There's a name for that, the, or something. Again, I apologize, but they put that out there. Now. People read it, the public, it's there for the public. (54:10) And then people go, I like this guy. I'm going to hang out at his marja for a little bit and see what he does. Now, if they come to the Marja and he's not impressive, then the Marja dissipates and they shut 'em down. They say, you failed. You couldn't win the people. It's not just about imposing religion on people. It's about getting the people to buy into what you're saying religiously. Wilmer Leon (54:35): That's what the Ayatollah Khomeini was doing when he was in exile in France. Scott Ritter (54:39): Bingo. Okay. But you have compete, for instance, Al Sistani in Iraq, he has a competing the Najaf. Marges compete with the coal Marges that compete with Carval, which compete with, there's competing margins. And even within Comb, there's different margins. Wilmer Leon (54:59): I'm drawing a blank on the guy in Iraq that was raising all kind of hell. Muqtada al Sadr. There you go. Yeah. Who is the son, if I have it right? He's the son of a the, Grand Ayatollah Scott Ritter (55:17): yeah, yeah, yeah. And he, in order to become credible, had to go to Cole and study and learn things because everybody, when he was out there talking, he had a lot of personality. He had the name, but people are going, you don't have the credentials, man. You can't sit here and play religion because we take our religion seriously. So we had to go disappear and go to calm and train up and all that. Wilmer Leon (55:45): Had to coach him up a little bit. Scott Ritter (55:48): But he also then has to go out and sell himself right? To an audience. And a lot of people weren't buying what he was selling. I mean, he's a very popular man, very influential in Iraqi politics today. But it's earned. It's not given. But the point is, the Iranians are a responsible nation, and if Israel was smart, they would've said, okay, we're in a bad position here, bad position. (56:12) It's not a good position for us to be in. We need to take a step back, take advantage of the fact that the Iranians have written a script that makes it believable that we did some amazing stuff. And then we have to reassess where we are. What do we have to do to get our defenses back up? What do we have to do to get capabilities to strike Iran? When do we want to do it? Because the United States isn't on our side right now, behavioral modification to get the world to love us. Again, things of this nature, strategic thinking. But Israel's governed by a crazy man named Benjamin Netanyahu, who doesn't care about Israel. He doesn't care about the Israeli people. He doesn't care about Israeli security. He doesn't care about alliances with the United States. He's a 76-year-old man in bad health who only cares about Benjamin Netanyahu. (56:58) And he right now has his butt in a sling because he got embarrassed on October 7th, and now he was just humiliated by the Iranians. And he can only stay in power as a wartime prime minister. And if they're going to either, they have to ratchet it up in Gaza. Every Israeli knows that they lost in Gaza that they haven't won Harts the day before, the Iranian attack front page headline, we lost. We lost everything. We haven't won anything we've lost. And that's the assessment of the Israeli intelligence service. And people who don't know need to know that Harts is a very prominent Israeli newspaper with a very good reputation of like, well, you said good reputation. I was about to compare to the New York, used to have, right? There you go. There you go. Like it used to have. But so he's lost in Gaza. (57:52) He was looking to maybe promote a conflict against Hezbollah to expand the war. And there's always that hope that we can drag the United States into a larger war with Iran. But the United States, it says, no, we're not doing that. Hezbollah now is linked to Iranian deterrence, superiority. So you can't do the Hezbollah thing like you wanted to do anymore. You're in a, and now you've got Ansara Allah in the Red Sea shutting down the Red Sea, shutting down the Israeli economy. Wilmer Leon (58:22): And on the other side, you have Iran shutting down the strai of Harmouz. And that's why I go back to that ship that they captured because they wanted the United States to understand will shut your oil off. Scott Ritter (58:36): And the United States, remember, we've been running guardian prosperity or something like that, whatever the name of our wonderfully named operation to deter the Hootie. And we, I don't know if everybody understands, we had to approach the Hoothie last week and beg them to stop it. Please, please, please, please, please. We'll stop bombing you. We'll do everything. We'll lift the terrorism thing, but just stop this, please, because we can't force you to stop it. And the Hootie went, no. Yeah. They said, here's another one. The missiles, you guys are deterring. That's a failure. But that's the thing. The failure of deterrents policy has been played out with the Hoothie and it's being played out. See, America no longer has deterrents, superiority. We no longer have deterrence. We can't deter a minute. Wilmer Leon (59:25): Wait a minute. We sent the Eisenhower into, now this takes me back to, so we sent a couple of aircraft carrier groups into the region when I think it was the Eisenhower. Oh, it was Gerald Ford. We first sent the Gerald Ford in President Putin says to Joe Biden, why did you do that? You are not scaring anybody. These people don't scare. And oh, by the way, we can sink your carrier from here with our Kenjal missile. Hypersonic missile. So stop it, Joe. You're not scaring anybody. Scott Ritter (01:00:08): But here's something else that happened, and I'm glad you brought this up. This is an important thing. The United States linked at least two of its ships to this system, and this is part of the American anti-ballistic missile strategy. We do this with Japan, we do this with Korea, we do this with Europe. We have a whole bunch of ages, class destroyers in Spain that we now are going to fan out to protect Europe from Russian missiles. And we're telling everybody, no worry. We got this. We got this. Remember guys, when that satellite was coming down, we shot it down. We're that good? We can pull it, hit a bullet kind of stuff. So we went to the Israelis and we plugged in to the world's most sophisticated anti-ballistic missile shield in the world. We plugged in and the Iranians went. (01:00:55) What the Iranians proved, and I just want this to sink in there, they can hit any American ship anytime they want with a warhead that will sink that ship. They just sent a signal to the United States that we will sink every one of your aircraft carriers. We will sink every one of your destroyers, all these wonderful ships you have. You can't stop it. The missile we sent in and touched, Nevada can sink any one of your ships. And how do we know? Because you plugged your ships into the system. Guys, up until then, we might've been theoretical about this, but now you plugged it in and you were playing the game. You committed your best anti-missile ships to the defense system, and you didn't stop us. We went in and went pop, pop, pop, pop, pop five times on the target. If Nevada had become the Gerald Ford or become the Eisenhower or the Carl Benson, we would've sunk that ship. (01:01:52) That's the other thing that the Iranians did here that nobody's talking about, because this is the scariest thing in the world to the United States. Iran just told the United States, your Navy is useless. Useless. It's done and now, but it's not just the Iranians, the North Korean, China China has everybody out there who has hypersonic missile capability is now basically saying, oh yeah, we can sink American ships too. And this is important thing. Wilmer Leon (01:02:22): I was talking to KJ Noh last week, and KJ was talking about the United States sending all kind of hardware into Taiwan and that the United States may even wind up sending personnel in Taiwan and in anticipation of China making a, I think this is what KJ said, making a land invasion in Taiwan. And I said, kj, why would China do that when all they got to do is sink an aircraft carrier with a hypersonic missile? And he said, well, that's a good point. Scott Ritter (01:02:58): No, I mean the United States, but now we come to, because America's facing the same problem that BB Netanyahu is, except there's not a political dimension to it. BB Netanyahu right now has to do something to stay in power politically so now Wilmer Leon (01:03:15): and not be prosecuted for theft. Scott Ritter (01:03:19): Correct. For his corruption. Yeah. Second, he leaves office, he gets arrested and he gets put on trial. Wilmer Leon (01:03:25): Ala Donald Trump. Scott Ritter (01:03:27): Except, yeah, I mean, yeah, Wilmer Leon (01:03:32): that's a whole nother story. But I'm just saying that right now is what Donald Trump is facing. Scott Ritter (01:03:38): Correct. Wilmer Leon (01:03:38): And I'm not saying it's legitimate or not legitimate. Scott Ritter (01:03:41): Yeah. That's my only reason why I did that is I don't want to get into the, no, Wilmer Leon (01:03:47): it's happening. Scott Ritter (01:03:47): Because Netanyahu is a criminal. He is a corrupt person. Donald Trump is an imperfect human being who may have committed some crimes, but in America, you're innocent until proven guilty. And he has these trials, many of which people believe are politicized, designed, and diminishes. We can move on. We don't need to go down that rabbit hole on this episode. But the fact is Israel right now is desperately looking for a face saving way out of this because the fiction of we were so good that we stopped this Iranian attack is not believable. It's not believable domestically. So now the Israelis are looking for the ability to do something that if not gives them deterrence, superiority they're looking for right now, deterrence, parody. Parody. And so here's the question, because you remember now we come back to Pepe, and this is probably a good way to spin this around. (01:04:53) William Burns met with Iranians beforehand and came up with an elegant solution to an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous problem. Iran now has established a deterrence philosophy, and they articulate the second Israeli airplanes take off. We launch our missiles. We're not waiting for Israel to attack us. The second your planes take off, we're firing. And Iran has said, we consider the matter settled. Settled. We consider the matter over. You struck us, we struck back, let it go. Correct. But it's not settled because there's thing called politics. And Iranians, again, are some of the most sophisticated political players in the world. So my guess is as we're speaking, Hey Pepe, if you're out there, call your source. I'm giving you a hint that behavioral patterns, one thing I used to do as an intelligence officer is do analysis and assessments, predictive analysis based upon behavioral patterns. Humans tend to repeat behavioral patterns. (01:05:59) And so now the CIA and the Iranians have talked to prevent one crisis. They're talking right now and the CIA saying, guys, what can we do to prevent Israel from doing something really stupid, which is the big attack, which politically we need a safety valve. This is the equivalent of a methane tank getting heat on it. And if you don't have a safety valve that goes, it's going to blow. So how do we get a safety valve? What can Israel do to save face that doesn't impact you? And you see the Israelis now ratcheting it down. It was, we're going to strike nuclear facilities. We're going to strike this, we're going to strike that. And now they're saying, well, what if we strike something outside of Iran? But it's clearly Iran like at seven 11. Yeah, at three in the morning when it's been closed and nobody's there strike at seven 11. (01:06:53) And so they're desperately looking for this outlet. The question now is, what will Iran do? My bet is that Iran will facilitate a face saving gesture by Israel because the Iranians don't want and don't need a war, a major war business. Well, it's horribly. The Iranian foreign ministry, just so everybody understands this, their number one priority now, one of their top priorities is they have all of their smart people right now writing papers for the Brick summit in October, which Iran will be attending and will be playing a major role in establishing new global infrastructure and institutions on how the world's going to be governed and a possible international currency off of the dollar bingo. These are big ticket things. Business. They don't need to be business. They don't need to be dragged into this stupidity of a mafia family dispute Wilmer Leon (01:07:54): Really quickly. One of the reasons why President Putin went into Ukraine light in the beginning was he doesn't want a war because it's bad for his economy. Scott Ritter (01:08:11): But the West didn't pick up on that. Now we got thing. Wilmer Leon (01:08:15): And now he's kicking ass and taking names and folks are all befuddled. Hey, you started. You went looking for trouble. You found a big bag of it. And now, so thank you for your time, Scott. Two things I want to hit quickly. One is the estimates are in very simple terms, that Iran spent a million dollars on this attack and Israel lost a billion in their response to it. Scott Ritter (01:08:50): I'd say 60 million for the Iranians, about 3.2 billion for the Israelis and the United States altogether. Wilmer Leon (01:08:55): Okay. Okay. And this other thing, is it velvet or violet, this AI program that Israel has developed that they assign a score? Are you familiar with this? They assign a score to Palestinians based upon a number of predetermined social behaviors. And when your score gets close to a hundred, you get assassinated. And this is all generated by artificial intelligence. You mentioned ai, so I want to just to quickly drop that one in there before we get out. Scott Ritter (01:09:31): No, I mean, again, it's a criminal enterprise. It's about killing innocence. And part of this AI too is that it calculates the number of civilian casualties that'll be assigned to that thing target. And unfortunately for the Palestinians, one would think if you're a rational, look, I keep telling people, I'm not a pacifist, and if you want to go to war, I'm old. You're the guy. But guys, I have no problem killing you. I mean, I know you're trying to kill me, so I will kill you, and I'm not going to weep at night when you die because you wanted to play this game. But I'm not in the business of killing you and taking out innocent civilians. Okay? (01:10:17) That's where I draw the line. Now there's collateral damage. If it happens, I'll be upset, but I have my parameters. If I'm going to take you and they're saying, you're going to take out this many civilians, I'm going, that's a bad target. Not the right time. Not the right place. We're not going to do it. But the Israelis have the opposite thing. It's not just when you're going to take out the target, but when you get the maximum impact of civilian casualties. The Israeli approach is AI program is designed to kill the maximum number of family members and civilians to maximize the impact of the attack on the morale of the Palestinian people. But see, that's where AI fails because it doesn't understand the human heart and doesn't understand rage, it doesn't understand hate, and they don't understand that the more Palestinians you kill, the more you train them to hate you. (01:11:05) And not only that, the world is turning against you. See, the AI program hasn't figured out the global factor that every time they do this, the world hates Israel even more. Hamas is a political organization. Hamas is a military organization. Hamas is an ideology, and you don't kill an ideology with weapons. You defeat an ideology with a better ideology, which is generally linked to a better lifestyle, better standard of living, economic prosperity. Again, Jane Carville's mantra, it's the economy. Stupid isn't just an American only. It's a global human reality Wilmer Leon (01:11:52

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The Savage Nation Podcast
ISRAEL; BREAKING NEWS & INSIGHTS with Alex Traiman, Chief of Jewish News Syndicate - #709

The Savage Nation Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024 59:00


What will Israel do next? Savage speaks with Alex Traiman, CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate), to discuss the evolving war in Israel. Learn what Iran's unprecedented attack means for the Middle East and the world. Is Russia supporting Iran? How did the Biden Admin unravel the progress made during the Trump term? Why is Israel a harbinger for the rest of the world? How did Obama enable the Ayatollahs? What is John Kerry's SHOCKING connection to the Iranian Regime? Why have Russian-Israeli relations collapsed? Why has Biden's posturing put the world at risk? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shield of the Republic
Nuclear Iran, NATO's Future, and America First Isolationism

Shield of the Republic

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2024 43:11


Eliot grills Eric on three recent articles identifying some big problems in U.S. foreign policy.  What will happen once Iran is nuclear armed? Will the Ayatollahs undergo "nuclear learning" as some political scientists suggest or will they become more emboldened (not to seek a suicidal nuclear armageddon but to unleash their proxies -- Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, the Houthis, etc)?  Should the U.S. be ready to launch a pre-emptive or prevent strike? Should it accelerate covert efforts at regime change? What about NATO decision-making? Now that the alliance is made up of 32 rather than 12 members should the decision-making move away from the consensus rules that have governed it since 1949? What should be done to avoid Hungary, Turkey or Slovakia from blocking consensus and acting as a Trojan horse inside the alliance? How tough should the U.S. be willing to be with putative allies, particularly in a wartime scenario? Finally, has the Trumpist turn to "America First" isolationism in the GOP rendered it unfit as a political instrument for conservatives who remain committed to internationalism and the US role in upholding the global order?  Is it time for a new conservative internationalist political party? https://thedispatch.com/article/when-iran-goes-nuclear/  https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/iran-protesters-want-regime-change https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/natos-decision-process-has-an-achilles-heel/ https://sapirjournal.org/friends-and-foes/2024/03/republican-isolationists/ Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Progressive Voices
A Turning Point - Welcome to Tehran

Progressive Voices

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2024 5:53


Today we examine the war on diversity, equity, and inclusion, three stalwarts in the building of our great country, and why they're in trouble today. The Ayatollahs have nothing on the new Republican Party. Give a listen, won't you?

Lessons From The Cockpit
Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea

Lessons From The Cockpit

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2024 80:56


Welcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation. The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been here before, sometimes with tragic results. The USS Cole was nearly sunk in the Yemeni harbor of Adan after an al Qaeda suicide boat rammed into it. The weapons used are now much more sophisticated and supplied by other US enemies. But we are more prepared in my opinion to fight and win a maritime conflict in this region, which this episode discusses. This episode is financially supported by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats; hardback, softback, Kindle, and Audible on Amazon. The Hardback, Kindle and Audible formats contain the 32 pictures in color, the softback in black and white. Tanker Pilot gives readers a behind the scenes look at global air refueling and air operations in four wars. The Lessons from the Cockpit show is sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Wall Pilot creates profile views of famous aircraft, printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can also create custom graphics of your favorite airplanes with your name, tail codes and numbers, and cool weapons loads. Support the Lessons from the Cockpit show by ordering one or two of these very detailed prints for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. We did a thirty foot long profile for one customer and his hanger! US and Coalition forces recently struck Houthi targets in Yemen. The Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has four F-18 Super Hornet squadrons in its air wing. This F-18F Super Hornet from VFA-103 represents the 22 Super Hornets involved in the air strikes in Yemen. The strike packages were supported with electronic intelligence by the RC-135 Rivet Joint signals collection and intelligence aircraft of the US Air Force. This print is an RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft assigned to the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Offutt Air Force base Nebraska. F-15E Strike Eagles from Royal Air Force Lakenheath England have deployed to the region when Iran tried to close down shipping going through the Straight of Hormuz. This F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron is configured for the Maritime Air Support or MAS mission to interdict and destroy enemy surface ships using Laser and GPS guided weapons. The Panthers Strike Eagles carried the AN-ASQ-236 Dragon Eye pod on the centerline as this graphic depicts. Unmanned and remotely piloted vehicles have played a huge role in the Horn of Africa, combating terrorism and piracy on the high seas. This MQ-9 Reaper drone armed with GBU-12 500 pound laser-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is assigned to the 867th Attack Squadron of the 432nd Wing based out of Creech Air Base north of Las Vegas Nevada. MQ-9 Reapers are the type of drones operating out of Djibouti and Chadbelli airports in the Horn of Africa. Thanks for downloading and listening to this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show. This and previous episodes can be found on the Lessons from the Cockpit website. Every lesson learned today becomes the foundation for tomorrow's breakthroughs and your stories fuel our mission! We are always looking for guests with compelling aviation stories and terrific lessons learned from those experiences. Contact us through the website and lets talk about you becoming a guest on the show. We want to hear your lessons learned and leave a legacy of wisdom for future generations of aviation enthusiasts.

The Annie Frey Show Podcast
Hour 2: Halloween Take It or Leave It

The Annie Frey Show Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2023 41:42


In hour 2 of The Annie Frey Show, Annie and the crew discuss what is important to the left. Later, Annie is joined by Tyrus, Co-Host of the Tyrus and Timpf podcast, Gutfeld!, Fox News Contributor, and author of Nuff Said available for pre-order. He discussed the current indoctrination of students in universities and what's causing it. Later, she is joined by Deroy Murdock, Nationally syndicated columnist and Fox News Contributor to discuss how Joe Biden is the greatest gift ever to Iran's Ayatollahs. They wrap up the hour with Halloween Take It or Leave It.

The Annie Frey Show Podcast
Deroy Murdock Gives His Thoughts on Biden Coddling and Enabling Iran

The Annie Frey Show Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2023 12:56


Listen to this segment of The Annie Frey Show where Annie is joined by Deroy Murdock, Nationally syndicated columnist and Fox News Contributor to discuss how Joe Biden is the greatest gift ever to Iran's Ayatollahs.

The Iran Podcast
The Battles of the Ayatollah

The Iran Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2023 34:36


Negar Mortazavi speaks with Alex Vatanka about Iran's domestic politics and mass protests, the crisis of legitimacy and the issue of leadership succession, Tehran's deescalation with Washington and regional engagement with Arab rivals, and the continuous shift to the East towards Russia and China. Guest: Alex Vatanka, Director of Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, and author of “The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry Since 1979”. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

SkyWatchTV Podcast
Five in Ten 9/28/23: City of Brotherly Looting

SkyWatchTV Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2023 17:00


Mobs looted multiple stores and damaged property in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Meanwhile, President Biden attended a fundraiser at the California home of a billionaire couple that funds the movement to “abolish policing.” 5) Large crowds loot stores across Philadelphia; 4) Target closes nine stores in major cities because of organized theft rings; 3) Biden spends 12 minutes on UAW picket line before heading to California for fundraiser hosted by billionaires; 2) Anthony Fauci was smuggled into CIA headquarters to influence agency's COVID-19 analysis; 1) Ayatollahs consider using artificial intelligence to help issue fatwas. FOLLOW US! Twitter X: @SkyWatch_TV YouTube: @SkyWatchTVnow @SimplyHIS @FiveInTen Rumble: @SkyWatchTV Facebook: @SkyWatchTV @SimplyHIS @EdensEssentials Instagram: @SkyWatchTV @SimplyHisShow @EdensEssentialsUSA TikTok: @SkyWatchTV @SimplyHisShow @EdensEssentials SkyWatchTV.com | SkyWatchTVStore.com | EdensEssentials.com | WhisperingPoniesRanch.com

Fighting For Ukraine
Warheads For Ayatollahs - September 13th 2023

Fighting For Ukraine

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2023 5:53 Transcription Available


September 13th 2023 Yuriy delves into Russia's long-term intentions and their alarming preparations for a century-long conflict, shedding light on how their war against Ukraine is just the beginning of a broader global threat with a startling revelation about the Russian school curriculum. You can email Yuriy, ask him questions or simply send him a message of support: fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com    You can help Yuriy and his family by donating to his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-yuriys-family   Yuriy's Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy   Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat  ----more---- TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions) It is 13th of September I have a friend in the army who urges Ukraine and the world to brace themselves to the prospect that this war may endure for another century. And he might be right. He has been in the midst of this conflict for almost a decade now, since the spring of 2014 when the Russians invaded Donbas. Since then, Russia has displayed no signs of willingness to relent. On the contrary, it is evidently gearing up for a protracted conflict, with Russians hoping to gain control over not only the entirety of Ukraine, but also to restore their influence over Eastern and Central Europe.  They don't even attempt to conceal their intentions. If you have even a basic understanding of the Russian language, just take a look at any Russian news broadcast from the past year and a half online. It inevitably includes accusations branding Ukrainians as Nazis, calls for the dismantling of Ukraine's current political system and threats to severely punish Europe and the western world if they dare to obstruct Russia's mission to annihilate Ukrainians. They construct a highly distorted narrative in which a country where a president is Jewish and the defense minister is Muslim suddenly transforms into a Nazi regime and the entire civilized world supporting this nation is automatically labeled as an accomplice of the Nazis. Recently, I had a conversation with a Russian acquaintance who relocated to another country a few weeks ago. She explained that she made the move for the sake of her children since their education in Russia primarily consisted of imbibing hatred for Ukraine, the United States, and Europe. Russian schools now have a dedicated subject aimed at indoctrinating children with this hatred, aptly named "Conversations About Important Things". During these classes, Teachers are mandated to inform children that all power in Western countries is controlled by gays, transgender individuals, and perverts who aspire to destroy the last righteous Christian nation in the world- Russia. In this context, aggression against Ukraine is portrayed as the opening act of this war. Teachers even tell children that Russians do not kill, rob, and rape Ukrainians, but rather save them from Western Perverts.  Other subjects also frequently became vehicles for propagandistic endeavors. In geography classes, children are taught that Eastern Europe must fall under Moscow's dominion and that the cunning West deceived Russians into losing control over Poland, the Baltic countries, and other territories. History lessons revolve around perpetual grievances against foreign rulers who supposedly insulted Russians for centuries fostering a belief in children that enemies surround them, necessitating revenge for past offenses. Literature classes have devolved into lessons in chauvinism with students being taught with genuine literature exist only in Russia, while writers from all other countries, if they exist at all, are deemed unworthy compared to Russian classics.  Once again, it is crucial to grasp that Russians are preparing the next generation for an unending conflict, one that extends beyond just Ukrainians. For them, the war against us serves as the initial phase of their confrontation with entire world. Shockingly, many Russians are comfortable with this situation. Much like my acquaintance who relocated from Russia so her children could receive a proper education, she remained in Russia while her country bombed peaceful Ukrainian cities, while Russians tortured Ukrainians, erected concentration camps, and carried out mass executions. I believe that if Russia continued its actions, but left the school curriculum untouched, she wouldn't have even contemplated leaving because everything seemed fine for her and her children. She displayed minimal interest in the actions of her country in Ukraine, done in her name and on behalf of all other Russians.  Nonetheless, let's return to the matter of preparing Russians for a long term, possibly multi generational war. It is crucial to understand that the longer Russia's conflict with Ukraine persists, the greater the threat to the entire world. A protracted war offers Putin the opportunity not only to indoctrinate Russian youth with hatred, but also to forge a new Axis of Evil. Russians are already buying weapons from Iran and at this very moment they are negotiating missile supplies from North Korea. What will Putin provide to fanatical ayatollahs and bloodthirsty Korean communists in return? Who can assure us that at some point he won't transfer them the technology required to create atomic bombs or even ready warheads? in exchange for their assistance in eliminating Ukrainians. Where will these warheads ultimately be targeted? Israel, Europe, the United States, Japan or elsewhere? Do you genuinely want to find out or would you rather not? In that case, be aware that the defeat of Russians, and it must be a comprehensive and definitive defeat, is not only a matter of survival for Ukraine and Ukrainians, but also a matter of global security.

The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 1786 - Biden Bribes The Iranian Ayatollahs

The Ben Shapiro Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2023 48:06


Iran releases five Americans to house arrest after Joe Biden pays them $6 BILLION; the House Oversight Committee vows to subpoena the Bidens; and a massive brawl breaks out between a group of white offenders and a group of black defenders in Alabama. Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEj Ep.1786 - - -   DailyWire+: Get 25% off your DailyWire+ membership: https://bit.ly/3VhjaTs Get your Ben Shapiro merch here: https://bit.ly/3TAu2cw  - - -  Today's Sponsors: ExpressVPN - Get 3 Months FREE of ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/ben ZipRecruiter - Try ZipRecruiter for FREE: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/dailywire Boll & Branch - Get 15% off your order with promo code Shapiro at https://www.bollandbranch.com/ PragerU - Have your donation DOUBLED at http://www.PragerU.com Masterworks - Use my link to skip the waitlist: https://masterworks.com/benSee important Reg A and performance disclosures: https://www.masterworks.com/about/disclaimer - - - Socials: Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3cXUn53 Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3QtuibJ Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3TTirqd Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPyBiB

Roqe
Roqe Ep#273 - Drinking in Iran: Alcohol & the Islamic World - Dr. Rudi Matthee, Roqe Roundup

Roqe

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2023 104:10


A special new edition of Roqe focused on the confusing culture of drinking in Iran. We all know that alcohol is officially forbidden under Islam. But we also know that most of the Islamic world, including Iran, has a long history that is drenched in drinking and culturally entwined with the consumption, celebration, romance, and medicinal practise of wine, beer, and alcohol drinking. So how do we make sense of this? Historian Dr. Rudi Matthee, author of the newly published book, "Angels, Tapping at the Wine Shop's Door: A Comprehensive History of Alcohol in the Islamic World," joins Jian to walk through the paradoxical past and present of alcohol and the Islamic world - including Iran under the Ayatollahs. Plus, a very special Roqe Roundup with Captain Reza and Smart Pegah discussing alcohol, hip hop lyrics and the latest from inside Iran including the latest reinforcement of hijab laws.

ThePrint
Security Code with Praveen Swami : Pakistan is being run by its very own Ayatollahs. But this time, Jihadists aren't to blame

ThePrint

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2023 10:02


Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan's Generals can't risk opening a fourth front. Their surrender to the Tehreek-e-Labbaik last week demonstrates just how fragile the foundations of the State itself have become.

History Behind News
S3E19: Is Türkiye Still A Democracy?

History Behind News

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2023 63:09


From Atatürk to Erdoğan. From Secularism to Islamism. From a parliamentary system to absolute presidential power. Türkiye is set to hold a runoff election next week, on May 28th, between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the opposition leader, Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. And the general consensus is that Erdoğan is in the lead. This has come as a surprise and a disappointment to many, particularly since there is much discontent against Mr. Erdoğan. But as you well know, we are not here to cover the news. So let's uncover the history behind this news. Atatürk is writ large in modern Turkish history. Many businesses and government offices (at least up to the recent past), hung his portrait on the wall. He disliked religion and "despised" Islam in particular. Accordingly, he set out to sever Türkiye from its Ottoman past - practically in every way. For example, Atatürk changed the Turkish alphabet from its Arabic base to a Latinized European alphabet. He forbade the hijab in many government institutions and essentially relegated religion to the private realm. Additionally, he pivoted Türkiye toward the West, especially the ideals of the French Enlightenment. Whether or not the Turks liked it, Atatürk drastically changed Türkiye and its direction into the 20th century. Dr. Sinan Ciddi, my guest in this episode, explains that Atatürk acted like a benevolent dictator. He is the "Father of the Turks", a title bestowed upon him by the Turkish parliament in 1934. Well, if all of this is true about Atatürk, then who is Erdoğan? How did Erdoğan rise to power in a country that was modeled after Atatürk's visions of secularism and Westernization? And how did Türkiye lose its parliamentary form of government that was founded on strong institutions, and replace it with an all-powerful presidential system of personalized government in which Erdoğan essentially rules by decree - like an Ottoman Sultan?  Per Dr. Ciddi, Erdoğan is essentially the anthesis of Atatürk, at least in several major areas that matter most to Türkiye and the world. And the danger that Türkiye faces now is that Erdoğan has imperiled its democracy, its secularism, and its international alliances and commitments. Dr. Ciddi is an Associate Professor of National Security Studies at Command and Staff College in Marine Corps University. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University. In addition, he is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Dr. Ciddi is the author of Kemalism in Turkish Politics: The Republican People's Party, Secularism and Nationalism, a book that we discuss in this episode. To learn more about Dr. Ciddi, you can visit his academic ⁠homepage⁠. Also, the shift from secularism to Islamism seems to be a trend in the Middle East since Iran's 1979 Revolution. In an earlier episode, Dr. Ghamari-Tabrizi of Princeton University spoke with me about Iran's dichotomy of an Islamic state pretending to be a Republic! How would one even write an Islamic constitution for a republic? Here is a Hint: Iran's Ayatollahs had no clue! Click ⁠here and listen⁠ to this fascinating episode. I hope you enjoy these episodes. Adel Host of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠History Behind News⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

Secure Freedom Radio Podcast
With Amb. Yoram Ettinger, Peter Huessy and Faith McDonnell

Secure Freedom Radio Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2023 52:55


YORAM ETTINGER, Former Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel's Embassy in DC, Consultant to Israeli and US legislators A recent meeting convened by Iran to try and expand their "sphere" all the way to the Mediterranean Analyzing the "vision" of the Ayatollahs of Iran What lead to a resumption of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran? PETER HUESSY, Senior fellow at Hudson Institute Assessing the nuclear capability of the Iranian regime Do Russia and China care if Iran has nuclear weapons? What does Vladimir Putin want the U.S. to do with respect to its nuclear weapons in Europe? FAITH MCDONNELL, Director of Religious Liberty Programs at the Institute on Religion and Democracy: A fight for control of the government taking place in Sudan A history of Sudan's government supporting terrorism Is there any hope for the citizens of Sudan?

The BreakPoint Podcast
One Year for the Taliban in Afghanistan

The BreakPoint Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2022 1:12


It's been a year since the U.S. military's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan left allies, colleagues, and up to 1,000 American citizens there to fend for themselves. Though the new Taliban government promised to respect human rights, especially the rights of women, it's turned out as many expected.   Universities and primary schools are open to women, but girls over age 11 are locked out of secondary schools, women are only permitted to work in education and health, must keep their faces covered, and must be accompanied by a male guardian for long-distance travel. And, swift and cruel punishments for breaking these rules also have returned.  Though the Taliban deny it, a division is growing between a political wing that wants better relations with the outside world (and therefore wants to relax restrictions on women) and clerics in Kandahar who, like the Ayatollahs in Iran, dictate policy on the ground.   We often hear that all worldviews are equal, all religions the same, and we shouldn't impose our values on anyone else. The truth is that our ideas about the world and human beings have real consequences and real victims.