Podcasts about consortium news

Russenhass ist deutsche Staatsräson – und Abort-Journalismus ist Tagesschau-NormalitätEin Standpunkt von Friedhelm Klinkhammer und Volker Bräutigam.Welch eine Niedertracht: Das neonazistische Regime in Kiew hat es (zunächst) abgelehnt, 6.000 Leichen gefallener ukrainischer Soldaten von Russland zurückzunehmen.(1) Doch unser leibhaftiger öffentlich-rechtlicher Skandal, die Tagesschau, versuchte, die Schuld dafür den Russen in die Schuhe zu schieben. Die fiesen Kostenüberlegungen der Ukraine unterschlug sie.(2) – Ebenso erbärmlich: Die Leitung der KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau ließ von den Kränzen, die zu Ehren der von den Nazis dort ermordeten 4.000 russischen Kriegsgefangenen niedergelegt worden waren, die Schleifen in den russischen Nationalfarben abschneiden.(3) Darüber verlor die Tagesschau erst gleich kein Wort. Es ist ihr Beitrag zur medialen Massenverblödung: Nachrichten verfälschen oder unterdrücken. Nichts, auch nicht der Respekt vor dem schrecklichen Tod junger Soldaten hindert sie daran, ihre russenfeindliche AgitProp an fanatisierte deutsche Einzeller zu liefern. Unsere Gesellschaft nimmt es hin. Wir verlieren den letzten Rest Anstand.Die niederländische Journalistin Sonja van den Ende(4), näher am aktuellen Frontgeschehen und der politischen Realität als irgendein ARD-Korrespondent:„Das ist wirklich schrecklich, das ist ein Verbrechen, denn diese Soldaten haben für ihr Land gekämpft … jetzt sieht es so aus, als wolle die ukrainische Regierung sie nicht zurückholen. Wir wussten, dass in Kiew ein kriminelles Regime herrscht, und diese Situation beweist es.“(5)Doch solche Stimmen können im regierungsamtlich zensierten deutschen Diskurs nicht gehört werden. Wer sich über Ursachen, Hintergründe und Verlauf (nicht nur) des ukrainisch-russischen Krieges vollständiger und objektiver informieren will, ist auf ausländische Quellen ebenso angewiesen wie auf kritisch-alternative deutsche: auf Russia Today(6), Sputnik international(7), Strategic Culture(8), Consortium News(9), Globalbridge(10), Moon of Alabama(11), Schweizer Standpunkt(12) und Sonar21(13) einerseits und NachDenkSeiten(14), Overton(15), Anti-Spiegel(16), Hintergrund(17) und Berliner Zeitung(18) andererseits. Denn selbst humanitäre Projekte wie den am 2. Juni in Istanbul vereinbarten Gefangenen- und Leichenaustausch zwischen Russland und der Ukraine nutzen unsere Mainstreammedien – vom Spiegel bis zum öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk – um primitiven deutschen Russenhass zu fördern. ...hier weiterlesen: https://apolut.net/6-000-soldatenleichen-werden-antirussische-propaganda-von-f-klinkhammer-und-v-brautigam/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the political season to be thankful for small favors of optimism, and in this edition of Scheer Intelligence, host Robert Scheer and guest Joe Lauria, editor of the Consortium News website, are excited to have found a gift of striking significance to what remains of the practice of serious journalism on the internet. It is Donald Trump’s delivery on a promise in his inauguration address that “After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all censorship and bring back free speech to America.” What Trump is referring to is summarized in his executive order, “Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” asserting: “Over the last four years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.” Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ `disinformation’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States.”  Despite its presence In the egregious pile of Donald Trumps otherwise deeply frightening Executive Orders assaulting logic and decency, both Scheer and Lauria, who edit internet publications that have been targeted in this manner, argue that this particular executive order is a gem of sharp brilliance that should not be shunned for the 

* Israel's Series of Assassinations, Lebanon Invasion Puts Middle East on Brink of Regional War; John Feffer Director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies; Producer: Scott Harris. * As Netanyahu Addresses UN General Assembly, Americans Protest Israel's Genocide in Gaza; Gregory Daly a participant in a NYC protest against Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 26th; Producer: Melinda Tuhus. * US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Condemned for Advocating Reckless Action in Ukraine War; Joe Lauria, Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News; Producer: Scott Harris.

In this explosive episode of "Connecting the Dots," I sit down with Professor Dan Kovalik to expose the harsh reality of free speech under attack in America. Dan shares his chilling story of being detained for hours at Miami Airport, interrogated simply for telling the truth on RT and other alternative news outlets. He's part of a disturbing trend—journalists in the U.S. being raided, arrested, and harassed for daring to speak out. Is free speech in America on life support? We dive into Noam Chomsky's theory of controlled debate, where public opinion is tightly managed, and how today's media manipulates what we're allowed to hear. From the prosecution of dissent to the silencing of pro-Palestine voices on college campuses, this conversation reveals the frightening erosion of our First Amendment rights. Don't miss this urgent wake-up call—are we witnessing the death of free speech in the land of the free?     Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Patreon and YouTube!   Hey everyone, Dr. Wilmer here! If you've been enjoying my deep dives into the real stories behind the headlines and appreciate the balanced perspective I bring, I'd love your support on my Patreon channel. Your contribution helps me keep "Connecting the Dots" alive, revealing the truth behind the news. Join our community, and together, let's keep uncovering the hidden truths and making sense of the world. Thank you for being a part of this journey!   Wilmer Leon (00:00): The linguist, Noam Chomsky tells us the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. Even encourage the more critical and dissident views that gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on. While all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of debate. That's Noam Chomsky. Let's talk about it. Stay tuned. Announcer (00:43): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:51): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon, and I am Wilmer Leon is this what American mainstream media and those in Western established press are engaging in actually the violation of the First Amendment? Let's discuss this. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historic context in which these events occur. During each episode of this podcast, my guests and I, we have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, the issue of force is very simple. The first amendment, freedom of speech, and the US government's attack on this inalienable right, and my guest is a US labor and human rights lawyer, writer, author, and activist. His latest book is entitled The Case for Palestine, why It Matters and Why You Should Care. He has been a peace activist throughout his life. He has been deeply involved in the movement for peace and social justice in Columbia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and other countries in the global south. He's also taught international human rights law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law since 2012. He is Professor Dan lik. Dan, welcome. Dan Kovalik (02:26): Thank you. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. Wilmer. Wilmer Leon (02:30): So there are a number of events. We're going to connect a number of dots here, but let's start with the First Amendment and it reads as follows, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of people to peaceably, to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Dan, we take this as Americans, we take this for granted, but as the first amendment of the first 10, this one was very important and made number one for a reason why? Dan Kovalik (03:18): Well, because the founding fathers having come from England, where there was a king who was able to prescribe speech arbitrarily, wanted to protect the right of free spree speech, the right of religion. Of course, England had a state religion, the Anglican Church, and they wanted to make sure that Americans had the right to such things as speech and religion and freedom of the press. In England. Those things were not protected even to this day. By the way, great Britain does not have a written constitution and does not protect those types of rights in the way that the United States does. Wilmer Leon (04:05): And again, we've taken this right for granted for so many years, but we have found history shows us, particularly during times of war, when the United States feels that it is being threatened, the screws tighten on free speech, hence people get charged with sedition and other types of violations. When the government feels it's being threatened, when there is a perceived threat from outside the country, then the government will tend to tighten the screws restrict speech, and then once that threat is vanquished, then the prohibitions relax. Have you found history to prove that to be true? Dan Kovalik (04:57): Yes. I mean, one of the most famous examples, of course is during World War I, people like Eugene v Debs, great socialist from Terre Haute, Indiana. He was put in jail for publicly opposing World War I and famously his persecution and those of others like him was approved by the Supreme Court in a famous case by Oliver Wendell Holmes is one of the most celebrated jurors, and he created the clear and present danger rule. And what that says is that the First Amendment is not, as they often say, the US Constitution is not a suicide pact. He said that in cases of a clear and present danger, Congress in fact could (05:59): Limit speech. He gave the example famous example of you're not allowed to yell fire in a crowded theater, for example. And he compared incredibly advocating for peace during a time of war as tantamount to claiming there's a fire in a crowded theater. And that remains the law of the day. And so that law or that decision, which is now almost a hundred years old, I think sets the precedent that advocating for peace in the United States is somehow a clear and present danger. And so when we look to how speech is being regulated and limited today, what we often see it being regulated when people are clamoring for peace. Wilmer Leon (06:58): There's an interesting piece in consortium news entitled Free Speech in the Department of Political Justice, and it's written by former judge Andrew Napolitano, who was a superior court judge in New Jersey. And he writes in this piece, I don't want to spend a lot of time getting into the weeds of the First Amendment, but I think this is very germane to what we find ourselves dealing with. He writes, the framers of the Constitution, were debating this idea of free speech, and they concluded that expressive rights are natural to all persons no matter where they are born. And natural rights are, as Jefferson had written in the Declaration of Independence inalienable. That's why I refer to them as inalienable rights in the open stated differently. He writes, Madison and his colleagues gave us a constitution and a bill of rights that on their face recognized the prepo political existence of the freedom of speech and of the press in all persons and guaranteed that in Congress, by which they meant the government could not and would not abridge them until now. And he, in his piece, he's referencing some charges that the United States government has imposed against some Americans and some Russians, and it's not even a matter of challenging war as much as it is challenging the established government narrative. Your thoughts? Dan Kovalik (08:35): Yes. So again, this is very similar to laws and regulations that have come down before during World War I and also around the same time you had the pomades against socialists and union leaders. Of course you had the McCarthy period, which also really represented an abridgement of peace of speech and of course very, I think relevant to today because of course the McCarthy period, at least ostensibly involved the persecution of communists. Though of course a lot of people persecuted were not communists, though a lot of the people who were persecuted were communists. Most notably in my mind, the great Paul Robeson who went, he and I went to the same law school. By the way, it's a big reason I went to Columbia Law School is because Paul Robeson went there, one of my heroes. Wilmer Leon (09:31): He was a few years ahead of you though. Dan Kovalik (09:33): A few years, yeah, yeah. I know I look old, but I'm not quite old enough to cross paths with Mr. Robeson. But why is that important? Because of course that involved claims that the communists were somehow how stooges of the Soviet Union. And now of course you have people making allegations that those opposing US foreign policy are pawns of Russia and Vladimir Putin. Right. So it's the same old trope that we've been hearing for years and years, and we see this manifested in the last two weeks with the Justice Department announcing indictments against people associated with rt, formerly known as Russia Today News based in Moscow. You had Anthony Blinken statements over the weekend that RT should be considered an espionage organization that means a spy organization. And of course the implication being that those Americans that work with it are spies. And then you had Hillary Clinton chiming in, I believe yesterday, saying that people spreading propaganda, Russian propaganda should be civilly if not criminally prosecuted. And so again, welcome to McCarthyism 2.0. It's a very scary time for people who, I'll just say like me, I'll only speak for myself who want to advocate for peace, but also specifically advocate for peace with Russia who say Russia's not our enemy who go to Russia. I've been to Russia five times in the last two years. (11:26): I've been to the Donbas three times to Crimea once to the Kherson region of what was Ukraine once. And I have worked with RT proudly so, but I and others like me are now in the crosshairs of the US government. And they're not even hiding it. They're being very clear that we are enemy number one at this point. Wilmer Leon (11:51): And this is important for people to understand because as you just mentioned, they've indicted two Americans living in Russia who are Russian citizens. They work for rt. The Feds are accusing them of spreading propaganda. And what they are basically doing is they're challenging the narrative of the Biden administration. And unlike what transpired during World War I, as you talked about Eugene Debs, and also what happened during World War ii, right now, last I checked, the United States has not declared war on Russia. So we are not in a war footing or on a war footing right now. These are individuals that, and I am one who is challenging the narrative of the Biden administration as it relates to what's going on in Ukraine as it relates to what's going on with China over Taiwan, what's going on in Venezuela, what's going on in the Middle East. There are a number of areas where I believe, and I think I have historic and current evidence to support the position that the established stated narrative of the administration is flat out wrong. Dan Kovalik (13:18): Yes, absolutely. And again, Anthony Blinken was very specific about that. He said that rt, that its alleged propaganda has undermined the cause of the war in Ukraine. But as you say, while the US is defacto at war with Russia, it is not officially at war with Russia. It is not declared war on Russia. And as you know, the US rarely declares war anymore. Only Congress can declare war. And rarely does it do that. We usually go to war again, not officially unofficially with countries without declaring war. So we are not officially at war with Russia, which means that those who work with Russia or Russia related entities are not engaged in sedition of any kind. (14:12): But that is what is being claimed. Now, I mean, that is being specifically claimed that we are in fact involved in sedition. And by the way, I know people, Wilmer friends of mine that are fleeing the country. Oh, really? Oh yeah. A number of people and some to Russia, but some to other places, Canada, other places for fear, they're going to be prosecuted because of their work with rt. And no, it's very serious. I know several people, I won't name them. I think I can name one because he's already done it. So he is safe there. And that's Jackson Henkel. Wilmer Leon (14:55): Oh, okay. Dan Kovalik (14:57): But there's others in the process of doing that. Some people have urged me to do that. So we have a very serious situation, and I understand why people would make that choice, because really the government is signaling that they may go after us. So it makes some sense, Wilmer Leon (15:21): And we're going to get to that with you in just a few moments because there, there's another, there are a number of facets of this that if you look at these things individually, people may have a tendency to think, oh, well, this is just a one-off here, or a one-off there. But when you start connecting these dots, what you find out is the government is engaged in incredibly fascist behavior, and they are establishing policies. When Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, former First Lady comes on television and starts talking about people who are spewing propaganda need to be considered for facing criminal charges. What's the difference between her saying that here in the United States and some of the incredibly repressive policies that have been and are in place by some people that she and other members of the current administration label as dictators label as strong men label as fascists? Dan Kovalik (16:37): No, I mean, of course there's no difference. I mean, and think about it. The US has voice of America, which again, openly broadcast US viewpoints around the world and in particular in countries that the US is hostile towards. Radio Liberty is a similar one in Europe, but frankly, you don't even have to point to those because now frankly, most of the US media operates like those. They're nothing but mouthpieces For the US government, I would put NPR in that category, C-N-N, M-S-N-B-C, and of course the iron. And if those stations or those broadcasting systems are jammed in other countries or people associated with those entities are arrested or persecuted, of course the US is the first one to claim foul. Right? But of course, the other irony here is that M-S-NBC, which is the station that Hillary Clinton made her statements on, and Rachel Maddow, they have been propagandists themselves in terms of pushing these lies about Russian interference. They've been pushing these lies for eight years now. And Hillary Clinton herself was one of the main origins of that lie, which has been debunked, (18:02): Almost entirely and right. So they are pushing propaganda and they're pushing war propaganda again, specifically against Russia. They themselves are guilty of war propaganda, which is by the way, a war crime under international law. But so talk about calling the kettle black, or in fact, they're calling the China, the China plates black when they're the ones that are engaged in propaganda. Wilmer Leon (18:32): In fact, there's a, I'm trying to pull it up right now. There's an NBC story from a while ago from 2022 where they admitted to using propaganda to fool American people. And in fact, the author of the story is a journalist, Ken Delan, who by the way I believe had been dismissed from the LA Times because he was clearing stories through the CIA before the stories were being submitted to his editors at the LA Times. That's history. But there was a story back from 2022 where NBC admitted that they're involved in his propaganda war with Russia and that they will lie to the American people in order to get out in front of a story before the Russians can tell the story or to mislead the Russians. And so the United States government em, it does it to the American people itself Dan Kovalik (19:41): All the time. We know this happens all the time. Another classic case was Judith Miller at the New York Times, who was doing nothing but writing CIA propaganda at the behest of the CIA, which led it helped lead us to the war in Iraq. And in fact, the CIA credited her reporting for helping pave the way to the war with Iraq. And of course one of the big lies of the war, the weapons of mass destruction was a lie that she promoted and incredibly, she's landed on her feet. She was let go or forced to resign for the New York Times because that came out. But now she works for CNN. I mean these folks, it's really not a negative mark on their career if they do this sort of thing. John Stockwell just mentioned John Stockwell, I don't know if you remember him well, I do. But he was a CIA Bureau chief at Angola. He talked about how the CIA would write stories that they would've published in the press, and he gave one example. He said, we once wrote a story about Cuban troops who were fighting US backed forces in Angola, and who by the way helped liberate Southern Africa and South Africa, as you know, Wilmer. (21:06): He said they would claim Cuban troops had raped these women in Angola. Then they'd write a story saying the Cuban troops were killed. And then he said, incredibly, they'd write another story about the same Cuban troop unit somehow revived from the dead doing something else. And yet the press printed it without question. And this happens, and Hollywood's the same way. Hollywood is very much under the sway of the ca. If I can just give one example of that famous interesting example, if you've ever seen the movie, which I like quite a bit, meet the Parents, pretty funny movie. There's a scene in which Ben Stiller, the main character, goes into Robert De Niro's layer for the first time and discovers he's with the ccia. Originally, the script had it that he found he was with the CIA because there was a CIA torture manual de Niro's desk. Well, the CIA who reviewed the script and reviews many scripts in Hollywood, you can't do that. So they ended up just having photos of De Niro with Bin Laden and Clinton and different things. So a lot of what we watch on TV in the movies and reading the newspaper, a lot of that is clear through the ccia, if not utterly based on CIA misinformation that they feed to the press. Wilmer Leon (22:42): And let me connect these dots. I found the story and here's the headline. This is from NBC News in a Break with the Past. Now that's a lie. Us is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid. It doesn't have to be solid intelligence. One US official said it's more important to get out ahead of them, the Russians Putin specifically before they do something. So this is NBC admitting that they're using less than accurate intel in stories that they're telling to the American public. They're basically lying in order to further a narrative. And we can take this back to the Iraq War with the Office of Special Plans, which was set up in the Pentagon to take intel that hadn't been vetted and spin it into stories that would support the US narrative about why the United States needed the whole idea of weapons of mass destruction. And Dick Cheney's letter about yellow cake uranium coming from Niger, okay, why are we getting into these weeds? Because the United States government is attacking American citizens, independent journalists for telling the truth about stories that are challenging the standard narrative when the United States government admits itself, it's lying to you. And this is in violation of the First Amendment, professor Dan Kalik. Is that a good summation of the issue? Dan Kovalik (24:38): It's a very good summation. You often hear, for example, someone like myself will say, oh, there's neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Which by the way, before 2022, even a lot of the mainstream press reported on that, right? Wilmer Leon (24:55): I won't say even Barack Obama said, one of the reasons we don't want to send weapons to Ukraine is because we don't want to give weapons to the Nazis. Dan Kovalik (25:01): Yeah. Not only did Barack Obama talk about it, there was a law passed by Congress that I think Obama signed saying that the US could not fund neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Well, I don't think they passed the law just because theoretically there might be because they knew there were Nazis in Ukraine, and then in fact, that law was repealed because they later decided, oh, well, we need to support Nazis in Ukraine. Okay, so everyone admitted there's Nazis in Ukraine. Then once the special military operations of Russia began in February of 2022, all of the press all of a sudden pretended, oh, there's no Nazis there. Okay? So now after that, if someone like me who's actually been to the Don Bass, which was part of Ukraine, says, oh yeah, there's neo-Nazis in Ukraine. They're like, well, that's a Putin talking point. Well, the fact it's a Putin talking point doesn't mean it's untrue. If Putin says the world is round, it doesn't mean the world is flat. (26:00): But that's what's happening. That is really the claim leveled against people who are trying to give a more balanced picture of what's happening in Ukraine as they're being portrayed as somehow being controlled by the Kremlin, when in fact they're just saying what the truth is. Even though, yeah, it may happen to correspond with what the Kremlin is saying, which I will say, I find the Kremlin a lot more credible on many of these issues than the White House, but other people have to judge that. But again, the fact that my views may overlap with those of the Kremlin at times doesn't mean I'm under their sway. Wilmer Leon (26:47): And let me give the reference those who want to look this up for themselves. Again, the headline of the story is in a Break with the Past US, is using intel to fight an in full war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid. And the story is from April 6th and 2022 written by Ken Delan and others. And again, it's important to remember that again, Ken Delan was dismissed from the LA Times for writing stories, for sending stories to the CIA, having the CIA edit the stories, not telling the editors at the LA times that this was being done. So again, this shows you the kind of work and the kind of propaganda that is being sold to you as news. Now, there's another element to this because as we talked about before, there are a number of facets of this, and that is, again, in Consortium News, pro-Palestine students and faculty Sue UC, Santa Cruz, the lawsuit seeks to vindicate the fundamental democratic and constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly and due process against overreach by university authorities. So basically what has happened, and this story came was last week, September 11th, 2024. So if you all remember back in the spring, there were a number of protests across college campuses all over this country in support of the Palestinian efforts, and they were protesting against the genocidal action of Israel against Palestinians at the United States is supporting. And a number of students were arrested, and some students that were arrested at UC, what did I say, UC, Santa Barbara or UC, Santa Cruz (28:52): In the spring have now still been put off campus in violation of campus regulation. So they are suing the University of Santa Cruz to have that overturned. And just Tuesday, the University of Maryland now finds that care, the Council of American Islamic Relations, Palestine Legal, they are suing University of Maryland for canceling. And this is who would ever think to do something this horrific Jewish and Palestinian student groups holding an interfaith vigil? Dan Valick, the country is going to hell in a hand basket. Dan Kovalik (29:44): Yeah, absolutely. It's outrageous. I mean, what we see is violations of the First Amendment in many different ways. Not only the violation of free speech, of freedom of assembly, but of course freedom of religion because of course, the interfaith vigil would be an expression of religion. I don't see how these actions by Santa Cruz, which by the way, is part of the University of California system, that's a public school system. It means they are subject to the First Amendment. I don't see how those actions can stand if they do stand, if the courts allow them to stand, then we have entered a brave new world, my friend. I mean a very dangerous world by any precedent of the court, at least recent precedent, they should be permitted to have these types of protest in vigils. And I hope they win in the courts. They should win. Wilmer Leon (30:42): In fact, I remember saying after September 11th, as we looked at the crackdown that the United States government was imposing upon American citizens, that when a country violates its own constitution in reaction to action taken by terrorists, the terrorists have won. Dan Kovalik (31:06): Yeah, well, that's absolutely true. And of course, what we saw after nine 11 was an abomination in terms of the rights, not just of US citizens, but of others that were curtailed. The people put in Guantanamo Bay without charge. It turned out most of them had done nothing. Some died in jail, some died of torture. (31:34): It was a huge mark on American democracy. I believe there's still people there. It has not been there. I think there's a couple survivors still hanging on. It's an amazing thing. And of course then you had Barack Obama who decided he could murder American citizens with drones abroad on his own authority. And he killed one man who was claimed to have been a terrorist again, that had never been proven, that he had not been, that had not proven in a court of law. And then incredibly, they murdered his son, his 16-year-old son. And in defense, one of the White House spokespeople said, well, he chose the wrong father. Wilmer Leon (32:25): Eric Holder came out and said when he was the Attorney General, that an American president can execute American citizens anywhere in the world without judicial review. Dan Kovalik (32:37): Yeah, incredible. An incredible thing. And it's bad enough, frankly, Wilmer, that the government has done these sorts of things. But the sad part also is there's been so little resistance to this, so little criticism. And that's what allows these things to continue and not only continue, but to escalate Wilmer Leon (32:59): Quickly going back to the campus issue. So we're told that there has to be this prohibition against protesting in support of the Palestinians because we have to be mindful of the sensitivities of Jewish students, and we can't have these Jewish American students feeling threatened and feeling unsafe on the college campuses amidst these peaceful protests, ignoring the fact that a lot of the protestors are the very Jewish students who the authorities claim their rights are being protected. I believe I submit to you attorney Kovalik, that that is merely a cover or a pretext for the protection of these interests of these students is a pretext, is a cover that is being used by the government to violate our First Amendment rights the same way the Israeli government claims it has to engage in genocide of Palestinians as it attacks Hamas. Dan Kovalik (34:22): No, exactly right. Because the other issue, I mean, of course you're right that many Jews are protesting for Palestinians, but also what about the Palestinians rights? There's Palestinian students on campus, there's Arab students. What about their rights? Right? Wilmer Leon (34:37): What about my rights? I'm neither Palestinian nor Jewish, and I have this problem, and I know I'm nuts, Dan. I got a problem with genocide. I admit it. I admit America. I admit it to the world. I got a problem with genocide. Dan Kovalik (34:52): It's an incredible thing. Wilmer, what we've all been taught since World War II is that the worst crime in the world is genocide, right? It is the high crime. It is the most abominable crime. And even one of the worst things you could say about someone is they're a genocide denier, right? Wilmer Leon (35:15): Oh, yeah. Heaven forbid. Dan Kovalik (35:16): And now all of a sudden when people are protesting against genocide, they're the bad guys. And yet it's an incredible thing that is happening. It's an amazing Rubicon we've crossed, and no one can really defend it. That's the problem. And that is why there's repression. The universities, including some of the best in the world like Columbia University, which may be the main offender on this, they can't defend their actions. They can't defend the genocide. They can't defend against those saying it's a genocide. So they've decided we just have to shut the speech down because we as an institution, we have no argument. We can't ideologically defend this. We can't ideologically defend the United States. And so we're just going to say, students, you can't talk, which goes against every notion that anyone has about what the university is supposed to be, a space of free speech and free debate. And Zionists should have a right to their views. They should have a right to peacefully protest. And those are against Zionism. And the genocide should also have that right. And that is so obvious and so clear, and the fact that the universities have decided to go the other way and only repress one kind of speech, and that is pro-Palestinian and not pro-Israel. It's abominable. It just shows the corruption of our institutions from the universities all the way to the White House. Wilmer Leon (36:55): And it also, I believe, shows the power of the military industrial complex, or what Ray McGovern called the Mickey Mat, in that once you start challenging the narrative via free speech, you now threaten the defense budget. You now start threatening the billions of dollars in weapons that are being wasted in Ukraine, that are being wasted in Gaza, that are being wasted as the United States is trying to foment a Middle East war. And heaven forbid those billion dollar contracts that are going to Lockheed Martin, that are going to Boeing, that are going to ge, Raytheon, heaven forbid, people start asking questions about why is so much money being wasted on genocide? Dan Kovalik (37:53): Yeah, no, exactly. That's correct. When we look around our cities, we look around this country, we see so many problems that need fixing, and people are saying, Hey, why aren't you fixing our problems instead of sending money abroad to these wars in Ukraine and Gaza? Those are very inconvenient people to the powers that be, and not just to the military industrial complex, but apparently we know that in the case of Columbia University, that they responded to calls by millionaires in New York City who asked them to repress the protest. So we know the ruling class is very much in the tank for Israel, very much in the tank for the genocide in Gaza, and that they are influencing these universities and how they respond to this. Wilmer Leon (38:45): And let's connect another dot. And that is the trial in Tampa, Florida that just wrapped up last week in the Uru, the African People Socialist Party, also known as the Uhuru movement or the Uhuru three. There was an incredibly confusing verdict that came down in that trial. It was alleged that the defendants were doing the bidding of the Russian government by sowing discord in America's political process by promoting political views that were contrary to those of the United States government and favorable to those of the Russian government. Now, I got to reiterate, they're not talking about overthrowing the government. They're not talking about attacking the government sowing discord, their own words in America's political process by promoting political views, not military political views that are contrary to those of the United States government. So well, go ahead, Dan. You want to say something? Dan Kovalik (40:00): Yeah. Well, that's exactly what the First Amendment is supposed to protect, are controversial views that go against the government. I mean, right? You don't need the First Amendment to protect speech that is pro-government, right? I mean, that's kind of obvious. If the First Amendment only protected pro-government speech, it wouldn't be much of a protection at all. As people say, you have to protect inconvenience speech and dissident speech. And so it's amazing that this prosecution went forward. Apparently, I guess they were convicted of conspiracy, but not some of the other charges. And by the way, let's say a couple things about it. First of all, I'm not sure they influenced anyone. I never heard of this organization to be totally honest, until this, right, until this indictment came down. And so number one, so they don't have much influence at all. Number two, I think this was over like 500 bucks in a donation they got for some Russian 500 bucks. Meanwhile, APAC is giving over a hundred million dollars in this election cycle to people's election campaigns. APAC owned Wilmer Leon (41:15): And Corey Bush Co Bush lost because of those efforts. And Jamal Bowman in New York lost because of those efforts. So not only is APAC donating and it's a hundred million by their admission in the New York Times, they were successful in their efforts. Dan Kovalik (41:36): They claim they were successful in every effort, every person, they backed one. And this has been true for years, of course, this type of influence. In fact, John F. Kennedy tried to make APAC liable under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which is the act that the Arru group was prosecuted. And of course, Kennedy was not able to do so, and he was actually killed shortly after. You can draw your own conclusions. APAC has been this huge elephant in the living room, a huge influencer of American politics for many, many years. And yet, who's getting prosecuted for that? No one. No one. They go after these small fish Wilmer Leon (42:28): To make a big point. Dan Kovalik (42:29): Yeah, Wilmer Leon (42:30): Small fish to make a big point. And so this was an incredibly bizarre verdict because they weren't, as you mentioned, they weren't found guilty of failing to register as agents of the Russian government. They were convicted of conspiring to fail to register as agents of the government. Dan Kovalik (42:54): Incredible. It's absolutely incredible. Wilmer Leon (42:57): So the jury said that Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the other two defendants agreed to become unregistered agents of the Russian government, but didn't actually become agents of the Russian government. Dan Kovalik (43:15): They wanted to be agents, but Russian didn't care. They didn't want them to be agents, whatever. It's absolutely bizarre. And that we could talk about this all day. I mean, again, I'm a lawyer. I study criminal law, and that sort of, to get someone on that, that becomes just a thought crime. They literally did nothing they made, Wilmer Leon (43:35): Which by the way, isn't a crime, Dan Kovalik (43:36): Right? No, you're right. I mean, again, because that would be a First Amendment violation. We were not supposed to prosecute thoughts. And the idea is, oh, I wanted to do something. Well, that's not enough to convict someone. I mean, it's completely outrageous. And I think their case is on appeal, if I'm not mistaken. If it is, I really hope they win. I mean, God bless 'em. They really are the test case here for the rest of us. I mean, I think the government went after this small group that no one heard of because they figured no one would support them. They go after them first, make some bad precedent for the rest of us, then start going after the rest of us, which means it's a very important case. Wilmer Leon (44:22): And the prosecution, the government was unable to present hardly any witnesses. They had hardly any evidence because this was 95% fiction. It was just flat fiction. And I think what also the government didn't expect was the attention that this was going to bring. The courtroom was full of supporters for the Uhuru. They've been around since about 1972, and they've done incredible work in the communities that they work in. And so now final data point, as I understand it, you Dan Kalik we're coming back into this country last week. Dan Kovalik (45:14): Yeah, Friday. Last Friday, yeah. Wilmer Leon (45:16): I'll let you tell the story. Dan Kovalik (45:19): Yeah. So I was coming back from the anti-fascist Congress in Venezuela. Wilmer Leon (45:26): Yeah, Dan Kovalik (45:27): I believe, Wilmer Leon (45:28): Oh, wait a minute. See, I knew when I saw that white jacket, when I saw that white jacket Dan Kovalik (45:32): Knew something was bad. Yeah, they used to say they were premature. I guess that's what I'm, but anyway, I came back through Bolivia. And to be, make a long story short, I was held for four hours. I was interrogated where, what airport in Miami, which is not the airport, you really do want to come back through. But I was asked about my travels, about who I meet with, about my connections, my political beliefs. They Wilmer Leon (46:07): Asked you about your political beliefs. Dan Kovalik (46:09): Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, it was all about what countries do you like? What countries do you not like and do you feel most comfortable? What countries are you most afraid of? I said, honestly, the one I'm in right now because I get treated like this. And then Wilmer Leon (46:27): What was their reaction to that answer? Dan Kovalik (46:29): Well, they were a little defensive, but tried to continue with the conversation and then, well, even before, so before they got deeply into the questioning, they searched all my bags and took my cell phone and my computer. By the end of the evening, I did get my computer back, but my phone, I did not get back. And I just got it back this morning. So that would've been about three or four days they had it. And we know, I mean, you can Google this. There's a lot of stories about it. They have the right outside New York City. We can get into the exception outside of JFK and LaGuardia. They have the right everywhere else to take your phone and copy the whole thing, copy your computer, which I imagine they've done, which is an incredible privacy violation. As you can imagine. Most people have a heart attack if that happened to 'em. And it was clear, it was motivated by my trips to Russia, Venezuela, other countries. And in fact, I've been subject to secondary interrogation, which is what it's called at the border in the airports a number of times since I first started going to Russia about two years ago, I've been stopped. That was probably my fourth or fifth time being stopped. (48:02): I was told in Chicago when I was stopped some months ago, that I have a case number with the State Department that marked me for this type of interrogation. And other people like Danny Shaw, who's a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, he also was stopped Wilmer Leon (48:21): Friend of ours. Yeah, Dan Kovalik (48:23): Stopped for three hours. His phone was taken. I mean, he's Scott Ritter. Wilmer Leon (48:27): That was in Chicago. Dan Kovalik (48:28): Danny was stopped Wilmer Leon (48:29): In Chicago. Dan Kovalik (48:29): Chicago. Scott Ritter's house in New York was raided by the FBI. They took his phone and computer. So look, the hunt is on. There's no question about that. I do want to give one caveat, I mentioned this exception in New York City. There is a judge in New York, the federal court in New York who held in her court district, in her court jurisdiction, which covers JFK and LaGuardia. They cannot take your computer and phone without a search warrant. So people out there, Wilmer, if you're doing international travel, try to come back through JFK because Wilmer Leon (49:13): Thank you. I was just going to ask you about the warrant because this seems to be another violation. You're supposed to be secure in your person and your papers. Last I checked, and I'm not a lawyer. I did go to law school and I did stay at Holiday Inn Express. So there seemed to be a number of violations beyond the First Amendment when they start to detain you and they start to seize your property without warrants. Dan Kovalik (49:50): Yes. Well, the problem we have, Wilmer is outside the jurisdiction in New York, the courts have held that customs has the right to hold you even up to 72 hours, Wilmer without a lawyer interrogate you and to take your phone computer and copy it. They have held that until you get through the customs and immigration, Wilmer Leon (50:20): You're not officially in the country. Dan Kovalik (50:22): You're not in the United States of America. The Constitution does not apply to you. That's an incredible, incredible thing. Most Americans have no idea of it, and most Americans won't experience the repercussions of that. (50:36): But what that means, until you go through passport control and get your bag and go through those double doors and push on those double doors and go into the main terminal, they really have the power of God over you. And again, most people have no idea about that. And so what the government's decided to do is, okay, we're not going to even worry about getting a warrant. We won't even send the FBI to Dan Aleks home. We don't have to do that. We wait until he leaves the country. He comes back because he travels all the time, and we'll do things to him and take things from him. We could never do without a warrant and without an attorney being present if he's interrogated, et cetera. It's an incredible violation of our rights, as you say, Wilmer. But it is totally sanctioned, at least at this moment by the courts, except for that court in New York City. Wilmer Leon (51:33): So and where did they approach you? You're coming through the jet way. You're coming off, you're deplaning, you're coming through the jet way. So when you come out of the jet way to the terminal, what happened? Dan Kovalik (51:51): Well, so just as almost every time, so only one time this happened to me in Chicago recently. They were waiting for me off the plane. Right outside the plane. In theJet. (52:05): Yeah. The only time that happened, in fact, as we were descending, they announced in the plane is we were descending. Please have your passports ready when you exit the plane. They checked everyone's passports. When they got to me, they stopped checking because they had their guy and they took me to be interrogated. Now, there was only time that happened every other time, including this time in Miami. I get off the plane, I walk all that way. Usually it's a long walk all the way to passport control. I get in the line, I get up to the passport agent, she checks my passport, had a few questions, and I'm thinking maybe I'm going to be okay this time. And then she said, please stand over there. And I knew what that meant. Wilmer Leon (53:00): Did you say, go stand in the corner Dan Kovalik (53:02): And face the wall, basically. And she put a little orange slip over my passport and another guy comes out, he takes my passport and says, come with me. And I'm brought into another room with a bunch of other people, and I sat there for probably an hour. Other people were getting processed very quickly. After an hour, a customs officer came and said, please come with me with your baggage. And she said, now she begins, I'm sorry, Wilmer. She lied. Okay. She begins to make up this story. She says, you're subject to a random drug search from Bolivia because a lot of people are bringing in drugs. So we're going to check your bags and then I'm going to ask you a few questions. We'll let you go. And this is just a random, but she checks all my bags that she does, but she doesn't have a sniffer dog and she doesn't check my prescription pill bottles, which could have drugs in them. She didn't check my coffee I brought in, which could have drugs in them. Clearly this is theater. (54:08): And she says, as part of our search, we can take your phone and your computer. We're going to do that, but we're only going to search for issues related to drugs. Whether you told someone you have drugs or you swallow drugs. But then when she takes me to another room for interrogation, there's no questions about drugs. It's all about what countries do you visit? Do you meet with government officials? Do you know government officials? Do you know presidents of other countries? Again, what countries you feel comfortable in? What countries do you not feel comfortable in? (54:45): That sort of thing, which indicates that was the real reason for me being pulled over was my travels and political beliefs, not the drug stuff. That was just a lie, I think, to get me feeling comfortable enough to talk to them. So there you go. That's what happened. Again, it took me days to get my phone back again. You can read about it. The customs now copies thousands of phones a year. They put 'em on a database. All of that information is on the database for 15 years, and all 3000 customs officials have access to it. So some guy in whatever Oklahoma's board during his lunch can go eat his sandwich and look at my data. I mean, it's an amazing thing. Wilmer again, most Americans have no idea this is happening. Wilmer Leon (55:48): Wow. The land of the free and the home of the brave. So it's also important for people to understand this is happening during a democratic administration. Dan Kovalik (56:00): Yes. And especially because it's democratic. We know from the New York Times, an article about three weeks ago, talked about the FBI, investigating people for connections with Russia and rt, and they said specifically that this was ordered by President Joe Biden. So this is not an accident. This isn't just the bureaucracy doing what they do or the deep state. This has been ordered by a democratic president to happen. Wilmer Leon (56:30): And we also know that more whistleblowers were prosecuted during the Obama administration than any other administration in history. Dan Kovalik (56:40): Indeed, indeed. Wilmer Leon (56:44): Dan Kovalik, professor Dan Kovalik. Man, thank you so much for your time. I truly, truly appreciate. First of all, I'm very sorry that you as an American went through this. I'm even more aggrieved that you as a friend went through this. Thank you. But thank you for joining me today, Dan Kovalik (57:04): Wilmer. It's always a pleasure and you are a friend, and I admire you a lot, and I look forward to the next time we talk. Wilmer Leon (57:11): Well, man, appreciate it. And folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting to Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wiler Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow us on social media. You can see all the links below in the show description. And remember, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge, talk without analysis is just chatter. And we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (57:51): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.    

In the first half of this episode, Marcy Winograd shares a CODEPINK Congress program featuring John Kiriakou, former CIA torture whistleblower, and Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-San Francisco/Bay Area Chapter. During the second half of the program, Marcy speaks with Norman Solomon, author of War Made Invisible; How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, a book published before October 7th. Solomon has updated the paperback edition to include Afterward: The Gaza War, a beat-by-beat account of how a negligent corporate media enabled President Biden's complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza. Learn more: "The Slide into Authoritarianism" by John Kiriakou. Consortium News.8/27/24https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/27/john-kiriakou-the-slide-into-authoritarianism/CODEPINK Congress: "Authoritarianism at Home and Abroad." Host Marcy Winograd. Guests John Kiriakou and Zahra Billoo. 9/3/24https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwVYn2WJy3kUS universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan by Carrie Zaremba. Mondoweiss. 9/2/2https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/u-s-universities-spent-the-summer-strategizing-to-suppress-student-activism-here-is-their-plan/War Made Invisible; How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine by Norman Solomon, with Afterward: The Gaza War (paperback edition)https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/war-made-invisible-norman-solomon/1141772212;jsessionid=6A49181CF105503620265F1CA4BA4B9D.prodny_store02-atgap12?ean=9781620979167"Holding the Press and White House Accountable. Solomon's Afterward on the Gaza War." Marcy Winograd's review.CODEPINK's blog: Pink Tank. Sept. 4, 2024https://www.codepink.org/solomonbookreview

The U.S. government is spying on you through your mail. The little-known program called mail covers lets law enforcement request that an investigative bureau inside the Postal Service track and report on all the mail you're getting. And it's done without a warrant, without any real oversight or transparency, and at the request of agencies like the IRS, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and ICE. While the USPS Office of the Inspector General hasn't provided updates on the program in a decade, recent reporting in The Washington Post exposed more about the mail covers program.We're joined for this show by John Kiriakou. He's a former CIA counterterrorism officer, a whistleblower who exposed the CIA's torture program, and a member of the Editorial Board of CovertAction Magazine. He also has personal experience with mail covers.Read John's article on the mail covers program and his experience at Consortium News.Read Chris' article on the mail covers program at Liberation News.Support the Show.

Overnight, news broke that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was on a flight to freedom on the basis of a plea deal that would end six grim years in Belmarsh Prison. With a stop on a remote American territory to ratify the deal for time served, he's off again to reunite with his wife and children in Australia.  Kit Klarenberg is British journalist, living in Serbia who is close to the Wikileaks organization. He joins me to talk about how western legacy media betrayed a man they once revered and what this means for the future of muckraking — something we need now more than ever. At the beginning of the interview I suggest, wrongly I think now, that the deal might imperial journalism more generally, but experts are saying it won't. “Bruce Afran, a U.S. constitutional lawyer, told Consortium News that a plea deal does not create a legal precedent. Therefore, Assange's deal would not jeopardize journalists in the future of being prosecuted for accepting and publishing classified information from a source because of Assange's agreeing to such a charge.” Follow Trish on X @woodreporting Website: www.trishwoodpodcast.com  Shop: https://www.trishwoodpodcast.com/shop 

“Peace is the duty of our time,” Phillip Berrigan told a class of college students in 1965. 60 years later, it remains so. Berrigan was an iconic peace activist, a soldier, a priest, a scholar, and a protester who came to international prominence as part of the Catonsville 9, a group that burned draft cards in 1968, during the Vietnam war. In 1973, Berrigan, with his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, founded Jonah House in Baltimore, a Catholic Worker House inspired by the gospel nonviolence work of Dorothy Day. Today on Midday, a conversation about the work of Philip Berrigan, whose writing has been assembled in a new collection, A Ministry of Risk. Brad Wolf edited the work. He is a lawyer, former prosecutor, professor, and community college dean. He is cofounder of Peace Action Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of Peace Action and a partner of World BEYOND War. Brad's writings have been published in The Progressive, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Antiwar.com, Consortium News, and Dappled Things. We also speak with Brendan Walsh and Willa Bickham, the founders of a Catholic Worker House in Southwest Baltimore called Viva House. On July 4, the 2024 Peace Walk is set to take place in Washington, D.C.Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Scott interviews journalist Cathy Logan and lawyer Eddie Lloyd about David McBride, the Australian whistleblower who revealed war crimes committed by Australian forces during the war in Afghanistan. McBride was just sentenced to prison. Vogan and Lloyd recount McBride's story and then dig into the technicalities of the case. Discussed on the show: “Whistleblower McBride Sentenced to 5 Yrs., 8 Mos.” (Consortium News) “If you're seeing this, I'm in jail.” — McBride's latest YouTube video Scott's interview with Braden Chapman Scott's interview with Ben Mckelvey Cathy Vogan is a journalist with Consortium News.  Eddie Lloyd is a defense attorney representing David McBride This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Scott interviews journalist Cathy Logan and lawyer Eddie Lloyd about David McBride, the Australian whistleblower who revealed war crimes committed by Australian forces during the war in Afghanistan. McBride was just sentenced to prison. Vogan and Lloyd recount McBride's story and then dig into the technicalities of the case. Discussed on the show: “Whistleblower McBride Sentenced to 5 Yrs., 8 Mos.” (Consortium News) “If you're seeing this, I'm in jail.” — McBride's latest YouTube video Scott's interview with Braden Chapman Scott's interview with Ben Mckelvey Cathy Vogan is a journalist with Consortium News.  Eddie Lloyd is a defense attorney representing David McBride This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY

 Download Episode. Scott interviews journalist Cathy Logan and lawyer Eddie Lloyd about David McBride, the Australian whistleblower who revealed war crimes committed by Australian forces during the war in Afghanistan. McBride was just sentenced to prison. Vogan and Lloyd recount McBride's story and then dig into the technicalities of the case. Discussed on the show: “Whistleblower McBride Sentenced to 5 Yrs., 8 Mos.” (Consortium News) “If you're seeing this, I'm in jail.” — McBride's latest YouTube video Scott's interview with Braden Chapman Scott's interview with Ben Mckelvey Cathy Vogan is a journalist with Consortium News.  Eddie Lloyd is a defense attorney representing David McBride This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY

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

On today's show, Tony Thompson will address the case of Clive Freeman, described as "Britain's longest-serving miscarriage of justice prisoner," who has recently garnered mainstream attention. Thompson will likely explore the details of Freeman's case, including the circumstances surrounding his conviction and any recent developments that suggest a breakthrough in his quest for justice. The discussion may also touch upon broader issues related to the criminal justice system and the challenges faced by individuals who have been wrongfully convicted. GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Tony Thompson was head of London Transport Police and first on the scene of crime at the Clapham Train Disaster. He has since fought against many injustices including Grenfell. GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Eva K Bartlett is an independent journalist with extensive experience in various conflict zones. With 15 trips to Syria between 2014 and 2021, some lasting months, she has provided in-depth coverage of the region. Additionally, Bartlett has spent significant time in occupied Palestine, including eight months in the West Bank and a cumulative three years in the Gaza Strip from late 2008 to June 2010, returning intermittently until March 2013. Her reporting extends to the Donbass region, with nine visits starting in 2019, as well as Venezuela. In 2017, Bartlett was short-listed for the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. The award ultimately honored the late Robert Parry, a distinguished journalist, for his work on Consortium News. Recognized for her international reporting, Bartlett was awarded the "International Journalism Award for International Reporting" by the Mexican Journalists' Press Club in March 2017. Co-recipients of the award included renowned figures like John Pilger and political analyst Thierry Meyssan. Bartlett was also the inaugural recipient of the Serena Shim award, an honor she shares with numerous esteemed journalists.

Originally recorded during the 3/10/24 Episode of How Did We Miss That?, found here:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQWhjov8IzA RumbleVideo: https://rumble.com/v4iegzl-taibbi-smeared-by-google-ai-us-journalists-arrested-assange-extradition-app.html TheRokfin: https://rokfin.com/stream/46235 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/364147119781192 Journalism Under Assault in the US Judge Holds Former Fox News Correspondent In Contempt: Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter https://thedissenter.org/judge-holds-former-fox-news-correspondent-in-contempt-for-protecting-source/ Blaze Reporter Arrested for January 6 Reporting https://www.theblaze.com/news/blaze-news-investigative-writer-steve-baker-whos-been-reporting-on-january-6-handcuffed-charged Matt Taibbi Proves Google Gemini AI is a Narrative Manager I Wrote What? Google's AI-Powered Libel Machine: Matt Taibbi, Racket News https://www.racket.news/p/i-wrote-what-googles-ai-powered-libel Normal Island News Says: Free Julian Assange! Joe Lauria's Day X Notes Man could be extradited to the US for telling the truth: Laura K, Normal Island News https://normalislandnews.substack.com/p/man-could-be-extradited-to-the-us REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Covering Assange in Court: Joe Lauria, Consortium News https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/04/reporters-notebook-covering-assange-in-court/ INN & my channel co-hosted the 2 days of protest & speeches outside The Royal Courts of Justice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYXjqS73KY&list=PLzO1fzu9UDj3dY1kdf__XoM74wKFWBid_ Max B & The Grayzone Expose Frank Luntz Providing Narrative Talking Points for Israel Leaked Israel lobby presentation urges US officials to justify war on Gaza with ‘Hamas rape' claims: Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone https://www.instagram.com/p/C4RABBRrfcV/?igsh=MTJsdXdiNXVya3pvaA%3D%3D https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/06/leaked-israel-lobby-officials-war-gaza-mass-rape/ How Did We Miss That? features articles written by independent journalists who expose corruption & worker exploitation, report on the worker organizing movement & routinely challenge establishment narratives & talking points. Watch new episodes LIVE Sunday nights at 10pm ET / 7pm PT on YouTube, ROKFIN, Rumble, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter & Telegram. A podcast version is published within a couple of days to Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Amazon + most other major platforms Credits: ⭐ Co-Host, Producer, Stream & Podcast Engineer, Clip Editor: Indie Left ⭐ Co-Host, Producer & Technical Director: Reef Breland ⭐ Thumbnails & Outro: Bigmadcrab ⭐ Intro: Joe @STFUshitlib3 & Indie Left ⭐ Music: Jesse Jett Wherever you are, Indie is! ⭐ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/indleft  ⭐ Substack: https://www.indiemediatoday.com  ⭐ How Did We Miss That?: https://rumble.com/c/HowDidWeMissThat ⭐ How Did We Miss That Twitter: https://twitter.com/HowDidWeMissTha ⭐ How Did We Miss That? Podcast: https://anchor.fm/independentleftnews/ ⭐ How Did We Miss That? Clips & Livestreams: https://indiemediatoday.substack.com/p/how-did-we-miss-that-clips-livestreams ⭐ Indie Media Awards: https://linktr.ee/indiemediaawards  Reef's Links: ⭐ LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/reefbreland ⭐ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReefBreland ⭐ Unofficial Jimmy Dore Discord: https://discord.gg/N2Xe3QBvM2 INN Links: ⭐ Network Channels LinkTree: https://indienews.network  ⭐ Network Members LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/innmembers  ⭐ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/indienewsnetwork ⭐ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/IndieNewsNetwork ⭐ Twitter: https://twitter.com/getindienews ⭐ Rokfin: https://rokfin.com/iNN ⭐ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/indienewsnetwork/ ⭐ Substack: https://indienewsnetwork.substack.com

Published with permission from Consortium News. Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bccv50tIPWI

Scott talks with journalist Mohamed Elmaazi about the latest Assange hearing before the UK High Court. The hearing, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, saw the Assange team requesting the ability to make an appeal on the order extraditing the Wikileaks founder to the United States. Elmaazi, who attended the trial, explains the arguments each side is using at this stage. He and Scott also take a step back and talk about how ridiculous this case against Assange is, bringing up and shooting down all the common myths used to smear this heroic journalist. Discussed on the show: “Assange Is No 'Ordinary Journalist': US Opposes Request For Appeal” (The Dissenter) “UK High Court Finally Hears Assange's Request For An Appeal” (The Dissenter) Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist who has covered all of Julian Assange's hearings. His work has appeared in The Dissenter, Consortium News, Jacobite and Electronic Intifada. He is the new editor-in-chief of Truth Defence. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Scott talks with journalist Mohamed Elmaazi about the latest Assange hearing before the UK High Court. The hearing, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, saw the Assange team requesting the ability to make an appeal on the order extraditing the Wikileaks founder to the United States. Elmaazi, who attended the trial, explains the arguments each side is using at this stage. He and Scott also take a step back and talk about how ridiculous this case against Assange is, bringing up and shooting down all the common myths used to smear this heroic journalist. Discussed on the show: “Assange Is No 'Ordinary Journalist': US Opposes Request For Appeal” (The Dissenter) “UK High Court Finally Hears Assange's Request For An Appeal” (The Dissenter) Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist who has covered all of Julian Assange's hearings. His work has appeared in The Dissenter, Consortium News, Jacobite and Electronic Intifada. He is the new editor-in-chief of Truth Defence. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY

GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Andreas Michli is a candidate for Mayor of London in 2024. You can find him on Twitter/X at @andreasformayor. GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: For almost ten years, Australian researcher and writer Greg Maybury has been a regular contributor to various alternative (independent) media sites such as Op-Ed News, Off Guardian, Dissident Voice, Gumshoe News, The Greanville Post, Russia Insider, Global Research, Consortium News, Information Clearing House and several others. Greg has more recently been a host on TNT. He now writes on Substack under the “No Fly Zone” banner, on gregmaybury.substack.com.

On this Moats, George Galloway gives his take on the chaos and farce in the UK parliament and how Labour policy has been outsourced to Israel and tried to bully and buy the Commons Speaker. The world is waking up and young people in particular will decide the future of Palestine says Palestinian Activist Arab Barghouti but It's very hard to find hope in the United Nations anymore. Lara Elborno returns as a crackdown on Pro-Palestinian protests is promised under a Trump administration as the Democrats send more weapons to Israel meaning both candidates will continue to fund death and destruction. In the British court, Julian Assange is subject to one-sided extradition agreement, even though Assange isn't a US subject why should he be subject to their law? Joe Lauria paints a picture of what he has seen in the hearingsFollow Lara Elborno https://x.com/thegazangirl YouTube"@thePalestinePodFollow Joe Lauria https://x.com/unjoe & YouTube: @consortiumnews8774Arab Barghouthi: Palestinian Activist:- Twitter: https://x.com/arabbarghouthiLara Elborno: Palestinian-American International Lawyer, Activist and Co-host of The Palestine Pod -Twitter: https://x.com/thegazangirlPodcast Twitter- https://x.com/palestinepod- Instagram: https://instagram.com/gazangirlhttps://instagram.com/thepalestinepod-YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ThePalestinePodJoe Lauria: Author and Editor in Chief at Consortium News-Twitter: https://twitter.com/unjoe?lang=en Get bonus content on Patreon Become a MOATS Graduate at https://plus.acast.com/s/moatswithgorgegalloway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's show, Mohammed will discuss Assange and the pending court case. GUEST OVERVIEW: Mohammed El Maazi is the Editor-in-Chief of @Defence_Truth, @TheInterregnum, and @Consortiumnews. Find more about him on https://www.muckrack.com/mohammed-elmaazi.  

On today's show, Greg will talk about Disease X, Israel/ Gaza, and why people choose a side and close their minds GUEST OVERVIEW: For almost ten years, Australian researcher and writer Greg Maybury has been a regular contributor to various alternative (independent) media sites such as Op-Ed News, Off Guardian, Dissident Voice, Gumshoe News, The Greanville Post, Russia Insider, Global Research, Consortium News, Information Clearing House and several others. Greg has more recently been a host on TNT. He now writes on Substack under the “No Fly Zone” banner, on gregmaybury.substack.com.

Aaron and Bryce speak with Patrick Lawrence. A commentator, author, essayist, and lecturer, Patrick Lawrence has served as a correspondent and subsequently a columnist overseas for more than twenty years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker. He has won two Overseas Press Club Awards as well as other honors and prizes. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The Nation, The New York Times, Business Week, TIME, Salon, and CounterPunch. Lawrence currently writes at The Floutist on Substack and these columns are often carried by Consortium News and ScheerPost. Find Patrick's work here: The Floutist (Patrick Lawrence's Substack) Journalists and Their Shadows Special thanks to: Four Died Trying Dana Chavarria, production Casey Moore, graphics Michelle Boley, animated intro Mock Orange, music

Ray McGovern served as an Army intelligence officer and a CIA analyst for 27 years under 7 presidential administrations, from John F. Kennedy to George H. W. Bush. Among his duties was preparing the President's Daily Brief starting with Ronald Reagan's administration.  He was also responsible for the analysis of Soviet intelligence regarding Vietnam. Since leaving the CIA, Ray has been a vocal peace activist and journalist and helped create Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose the way intelligence was falsified to “justify” war on Iraq and the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. He also works with Tell the Word, an ecumenical Catholic publishing house.   Ray's opinion pieces appear in many leading alternative news sources here and abroad.  He holds degrees in theology and philosophy from Fordham University, an MA in Russian History, is a graduate from Harvard Business School and has a certificate in theology from Georgetown University.   His website is RayMcGovern.com  and more of his writings can be found on AntiWar.com, Scheer Post, Consortium News, among others.

Consortium News is suing Newsguard & the Pentagon, claiming that their 1st amendment rights are being violated – and their allegations do hold water. Check out Saving America 276 to learn more!   Thanks for joining me for this episode! I'm a Houston- based attorney, run an HR Consulting company called Claremont Management Group, and am a tenured professor at the University of St. Thomas. I've also written several non-fiction political commentary books: Bad Deal for America (2022) explores the Vegas-style corruption running rampant in Washington DC, while The Decline of America: 100 Years of Leadership Failures (2018) analyzes – and grades – the leadership qualities of the past 100 years of U.S. presidents. You can find my books on Amazon, and me on social media (Twitter @DSchein1, LinkedIn @DavidSchein, and Facebook, Instagram, & YouTube @AuthorDavidSchein). I'd love to hear from you!   As always, the opinions expressed in this podcast are mine and my guests' and not the opinions of my university, my company, or the businesses with which I am connected.

Bookending the historic Consortium News suit, conservative news outlets take on the Global Engagement Center for funding "censorship enterprises" and blacklistingwww.racket.news This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.racket.news/subscribe

Recent lawsuits filed by Consortium News, The Daily Wire, and The Federalist threaten to expose US government ties to censorship programs.

The Daily Wire and The Federalist have followed several US states and Consortium News in filing censorship lawsuits against the Biden Administration.

On today's show, Cathy Vogan and Joe Lauria discuss the David McBride trial. GUEST OVERVIEW: Cathy and Joe are both journalists at "Consortium News'. Cathy is producer for CN live and Joe is co-host of CN live.

Consortiumnews.com, a news website, has filed suit against the US government and a censorship organization for violating its First Amendment rights.

Supreme Court lifts judge's stay on Biden's open use of government to censor— Alito is rightfully outraged (2:06) Consortium News sues NewsGuard a creature of Pentagon & Intelligence Community to censor dissidents (21:29)No area of life, big or small, will escape this totalitarianism — UK is monitoring teachers comments critical of policy or funding — for censorship and recrimination (43:40)Adobe jumps on the censorship bandwagon using multiple layers of AI. New details on HOW the CCPA (Coalition for Content Provenance & Authentication) will identify people as dissidents and block ALL forms of speech — articles, memes, audio, video — you create (1:05:31)Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders bans government use of terms for women created as gender warfare by the left — notably absent from the order are UNIVERSITIES (1:14:16)Do the majority of people WANT to be slaves? (1:27:34)There were MANY reasons to reject Tom Emmer as Speaker, but only one mattered… (1:43:53)INTERVIEW Eric Peters — Car Banners Retreat! There have been several important pull backs by the authoritarians in the agenda to ban private cars. 1981 DeLorean found in barn with less than 1,000 miles which gets the audience talking about "cash for clunkers" and the agenda behind it. Eric Peters, EricPetersAutos.com (2:00:00)Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.comIf you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to TrendsJournal.com and enter the code KNIGHT

Supreme Court lifts judge's stay on Biden's open use of government to censor— Alito is rightfully outraged (2:06) Consortium News sues NewsGuard a creature of Pentagon & Intelligence Community to censor dissidents (21:29)No area of life, big or small, will escape this totalitarianism — UK is monitoring teachers comments critical of policy or funding — for censorship and recrimination (43:40)Adobe jumps on the censorship bandwagon using multiple layers of AI. New details on HOW the CCPA (Coalition for Content Provenance & Authentication) will identify people as dissidents and block ALL forms of speech — articles, memes, audio, video — you create (1:05:31)Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders bans government use of terms for women created as gender warfare by the left — notably absent from the order are UNIVERSITIES (1:14:16)Do the majority of people WANT to be slaves? (1:27:34)There were MANY reasons to reject Tom Emmer as Speaker, but only one mattered… (1:43:53)INTERVIEW Eric Peters — Car Banners Retreat! There have been several important pull backs by the authoritarians in the agenda to ban private cars. 1981 DeLorean found in barn with less than 1,000 miles which gets the audience talking about "cash for clunkers" and the agenda behind it. Eric Peters, EricPetersAutos.com (2:00:00)Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.comIf you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to TrendsJournal.com and enter the code KNIGHT

It may be worse than McCarthyism, which was defeated by its own excesses. Today's information war against individuals and media who do not adhere to the Western-government-enforced narrative on Ukraine is part of a long history in the U.S. of officially crushing dissent. With the advances of technology for both surveillance and censorship, we might be in the most chilling atmosphere yet for thought control. Will it too be brought down by its own excesses? The First Amendment has not prevented the U.S. from suppressing speech throughout its history. Just eight years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, press freedom had become a threat to John Adams, the second president, whose Federalist Party pushed through Congress the Alien and Sedition Laws. They criminalized criticism of the federal government: "To write, print, utter or publish, or cause it to be done, or assist in it, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame, or bring either into contempt or disrepute...” was banned. Congress did not renew the Act in 1801. Freedom of the press and speech next came significantly under attack in the lead up to the 1860-65 U.S. Civil War. Newspaper editors who campaigned for the abolition of slavery were attacked by mobs, sometimes directed by elected officials. In 1837 an editor was killed by a mob, one of whose organizers was the Illinois attorney general. During the war numerous editors and journalists were arrested in the North. "Throughout the war, newspaper reporters and editors were arrested without due process for opposing the draft, discouraging enlistments in the Union army, or even criticizing the income tax," according to the First Amendment Encyclopedia. While formal censorship was excluded from the 1917 Espionage Act by just one vote in the U.S. Senate, the 1918 Sedition Act was a two-paragraph amendment that was aimed at Americans who insulted the U.S. government, military or flag and who tried to criticize the draft, military industry or sale of war bonds. This law distilled the essence of enforced loyalty of the population to the symbols and military power of the state. It demolished the idea that America is exceptional as it showed the U.S. enforcing the same state-worship as most nations in history.  The act, with similar federal laws, was used to convict at least 877 people in 1919 and 1920, most infamously the socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for publicly opposing the military draft in a June 1918 speech. Publications such as The Masses were also prosecuted. The Sedition Act was repealed by Congress in March 1921. During the First World War the peculiar American practice of renaming food to erase the enemy began. Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq French fries became freedom fries, because France opposed the war. Today Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky have been removed from concert programs and living Russian artists have been fired. The Red Scare under Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s was one of the worst periods of smearing and punishing Americans who were thought to be disloyal. Its end came with the excess of McCarthy trying to find communists in the U.S. army. In the 1971 Pentagon Papers case there was a rare ray of light for free speech, when Justice Hugo Black wrote: "In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.” The 2016 election and the Russiagate fiasco gave the Democrats in Congress an excuse to use social media companies as proxies to shut down speech it did not agree with. It also led to smearing of those who questioned the Russiagate tale as being Russian agents. One of the gravest acts of U.S. repression of press freedom and free speech was the arrest and indictment under the Espionage Act of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who for three years as been incarcerated in the maximum security Belmarsh Prison in London, awaiting extradition to the United States. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the U.S. the excuse it needed to launch an economic war against Russia, which so far is backfiring, to try to bog Russia down in a quagmire with continual arms shipments to Ukraine, and also to launch an information war, not only against Russia, but against U.S. and U.K. domestic dissent. Our guests today have all been either censored or smeared, or both as they are among the leading dissidents in the West today: They are George Galloway, Chris Hedges, Jill Stein and Scott Ritter.

Screening of UKRAINE ON FIRE in presence of the director Igor Lopatonok. Produced by and starring Oliver Stone, with the participation of the late Robert Parry, founding editor of Consortium News. Film starts at 1 hr 42 mins 46 secs.

GUEST OVERVIEW: For almost ten years, Australian researcher and writer Greg Maybury has been a regular contributor to various alternative (independent) media sites such as Op-Ed News, Off Guardian, Dissident Voice, Gumshoe News, The Greanville Post, Russia Insider, Global Research, Consortium News, Information Clearing House and several others. Greg has more recently been a regular guest on a variety of TNT programs. He now writes on Substack under the “No Fly Zone” banner, on gregmaybury.substack.com and is a host on TNT Radio.

GUEST OVERVIEW: Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former UN correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers. His focus has been international affairs and its intersection with domestic policy. He is an author of two books: “A Political Odyssey”, which is a history of US foreign policy and the defence industry; and “How I Lost: By Hillary Clinton”, an analysis of the DNC and Podesta emails revealed by WikiLeaks, with a foreword by Julian Assange.

GUEST OVERVIEW: For almost ten years, Australian researcher and writer Greg Maybury has been a regular contributor to various alternative (independent) media sites such as Op-Ed News, Off Guardian, Dissident Voice, Gumshoe News, The Greanville Post, Russia Insider, Global Research, Consortium News, Information Clearing House and several others. Greg has more recently been a regular guest on a variety of TNT programs. He now writes on Substack under the “No Fly Zone” banner, on gregmaybury.substack.com and is a host on TNT Radio.

A London High Court judge rejected Wikileaks editor Julian Assange's appeal against his extradition to the United States. He now faces up to 175 years in prison — despite public opinion around the world and in his home country, Australia. The UN has declared his detention “arbitrary,” which usually results in the release of the detainee, but not so far. The fate of the man who revealed so many of the hidden crimes of the US empire hangs in the balance. Brian Becker is joined by Joe Lauria, editor in chief of Consortium News. Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

We talk with former CIA officer John Kiriakou. We pick up where we left off with John last time—as the Global War on Terror was beginning, setting off a series of events which would lead to John exposing and essentially blowing the whistle on the CIA's torture program. John is co-host of the Political Misfits radio show on Sputnik International. He also has a Substack in addition to writing for Consortium News and CovertAction Magazine. Music: "Only in Dreams" by Mock Orange Special thanks to Dana Chavarria for producing the episode!

Bruce Fein… is a lawyer who specializes in constitutional and international law. He was associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and research director for Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran.On February 10, 2023, he wrote an article for Consortium News titled The Calamity of America's "Divine Mission"In 2010, he wrote a book titled American Empire Before the Fall 

Ellen Brown is an economist and attorney in Los Angeles and the founding Chairperson of the Public Banking Institute – a non profit economic venture to develop viable, sustainable solutions to America's banking crises by promoting people-owned state and community banks. In 2015 she ran as the Green Party candidate for California State's Treasurer. Ellen has written extensively about the private financial cartels and the Federal Reserve. She is the author of the best-seller "Web of Debt" and her last book, “The Public Bank Solution: From Austerity to Prosperity”, introduces a safe soluble public banking alternative to the credit-based system of the current big banks. Her articles frequently appear on websites such as Scheer Post, Consortium News, and Global Research.  She is the host of the radio program “Its Our Money”, heard every Wednesday at 3 pm Eastern time here on the Progressive Radio Network, and her websites are EllenBrown.com and PublicBankingInstitute.org

We talk with John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who blew the whistle on the agency's illegal torture program. John is co-host of the Political Misfits radio show on Sputnik International. He also has a Substack in addition to writing for Consortium News and CovertAction Magazine. Music: "Only in Dreams" by Mock Orange Special thanks to Dana Chavarria for producing the episode!

It is one year after Russia invaded Ukraine and most people in the United States and Europe still think that is when the war started. I speak to Consortium News editor Joe Lauria and our geopolitical analyst Professor Gerald Horne. And we take another look at the Oliver Stone-produced documentary, "Ukraine on Fire," which tells the truth about how this war really started eight years ago with the U.S.-backed violent coup of Ukraine's democratically elected president. Plus headlines on the more than $100 billion sent to Ukraine, the "Rage Against the War Machine" rally, and Black farmers.  

SPECIAL GUEST  Michal Krupa  Short bio: columnist and historian, published in such venues as The American Conservative, Consortium News, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Chronicles. He hosts VotumTV: Heretics podcast, where he interviews dissident and competent mostly American voices. He loves the Latin Mass, Italian cuisine and Pat Buchanan.  Also, appeared on the Two Mikes Podcast with Col. Mike Dr. Michael Scheuer on the Crusade Channel! Canadian Ex-Pat The Border Crossing - how many Ukrainians into Poland as of about 3 weeks ago amounted to just under 10 million. That doesn't mean they are STILL in Poland. 3-5 million Ukrainians in Poland that came into Poland in 2013 so we've had a large number of Ukrainian people in Poland for some time now. We have more than we should have taken. They come to Poland for money, then bring it back to Ukraine it was a way to milk the Poland system. Most came from West Ukraine and that isn't even where Russia is concentrating they are in East Ukraine.  Civilians are not dying in Western Ukraine so why are they in such huge numbers ‘escaping' into Poland? If you ask these questions you are called a Putin Stooge. Zelensky is betraying or undermining the so-called Midon Revolution -  We know that the Russian Administer of Defense are making claims that Americans were conducting biological weapons in laboratories in Ukraine. Bioweapons in Ukraine remember Victoria Nuland said under oath there were these laboratories there in Ukraine.    Feb 24th Poland has been the biggest supporter in Kiev.  Poland has been at the forefront supplying Ukraine w/ money, weapons and taking in refugees. They have also animated the narrative that Putin must be taken down. Polish Anti-War movement -  The only people interested into bringing Poland into a full on war w/ Russia is NATO and others, most Polish people don't want anything to do with this war. Catholic Baseball -  The whole notion that Putin would leave Russians behind defenseless was silly. The Ukrainian government was in-fact bombing people w/ Ukraine passports but they were Russian. They wanted to be back in union w/ Russia. The goal was very clear, it wasn't about defending Ukrainian democracy. You can't expect the Russians NOT to react to this. Our Lady of Czestochowa

In the early 80's an organization called The National Endowment For Democracy(NED) was formed under the Reagan administration by a bi-partisan group of representatives, and bureaucrats to allegedly to foster democracy around the world. At its conception, 4 others subgroups were included; The International Republican Institute(IRI), The National Democratic Institute(NDI), The Solidarity Center, & The Center For International Enterprise(CIPE). This covered both political parties, Unions, & Private Business. According to former Intel Agents, & Journalists like the late Robert Parry, NED, & its other well funded, and well connected organizations were created to do what the CIA had been doing for decades, and that was to assist in the infiltration, and overthrow of foreign governments who weren't on board with the Western Elites business plans of expansion, and global imperialism. Today Ned funds over 2000 other NGO's around the world, and cand be found working closley with USAID, Freedom House, Bellingcat, Goerge Soros' Open Societies. Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, wherever there's a color revolution, you will find NED, and its vast legion of tax-exempt groups fomenting dissent, and looking for embers to heap gasoline upon. Often by way of education, or media including tv, print, radio, and internet. Under the guise of fairness, and equality NED does a little good in order to make way for its financial masters. Did I mention, its supposedly non-governmental yet, is funded by Congress aka, taxpayers, and to the tune of $300 Million a year? So, it gets money like a government agency, but doesn't have to follow the same rules, and regulations. This my friends is where the R's, and D's, the private, and public sectors come together to create the atmosphere where the upper echelons of industry, and high finance can profit all over the world. This is the expanding arm of the real NWO.   Cheers, and Blessings   PT. 1 Ep. 130 Democracy Is Their Business, & Business Is Good!   Support My Work   Odd Man Out Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/theoddmanout   Follow John Brisson's Work, Like, Share, and Subscribe https://twitter.com/weve_read   https://linktr.ee/weveread   Show Notes   In 1983, the strategy of overthrowing inconvenient governments and calling it “democracy promotion” was born.   "With unfailing consistency, U.S. intervention has been on the side of the rich and powerful of various nations at the expense of the poor and needy. Rather than strengthening democracies, U.S. leaders have overthrown numerous democratically elected governments or other populist regimes in dozens of countries ... whenever these nations give evidence of putting the interests of their people ahead of the interests of multinational corporate interests." ~ Michael Parenti   The National Endowment for Democracy, an agency created by the Reagan administration in 1983 to promote political action and psychological warfare against states not in love with US foreign policy. It is Washington's foremost non-military tool for effecting regime change. William Blum, America's Deadliest Export   Reagan Inaugurates NED https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YYR6LJedPnM   ... as CN founder Robert Parry explained in an 2015 article republished today on Consortium News, the C.I.A. had a direct hand in the establishment of the NED, even in the writing of the Congressional legislation that authorized the U.S. Agency for International Development to fund it with U.S. government money. The continued hand of the C.I.A. was to be hidden in the “Age of Overt Action.”  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/20/the-three-types-of-us-regime-change/   "The US NED, NDI, Open Society, and the International Republican Institute (IRI) are engaged in funding and supporting opposition groups including the so-called “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong, the “Bersih” street movement in Malaysia headed by now-jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and deceptive media fronts like Prachatai in Thailand, who openly and repeatedly attack Thailand's indigenous institutions, while providing cover for US-backed opposition groups, including Thaksin Shinawatra's Peua Thai Party (PTP) and his ultra-violent street front, the so-called “red shirts.” U.S. Funded Foreign Election "Monitors" Exposed   William Blum On NED, Rogue State https://thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/TrojanHorse_RS.html   In the omnibus appropriations bill that the president signed in December Obama 2009, lawmakers set the NED's amount at $118 million,(Now $300) more than restoring the proposed cut. The bill went on to specify that the $18 million above the administration's request had to go for democracy, human rights, and rule of law programs.   NED, and The Council On Foreign Relations(CFR)- The National Endowment for Democracy is funded by the U.S. Congress. Founded in 1983, in recent years NED has spent about $100 million annually on over 1,000(Now 2000) projects of nongovernmental organizations in over ninety nations. A large percentage of these projects are to foster the neoliberal geopolitical capitalist penetration of these countries, under the cover of promoting democracy. In the year prior to the 2014 conflict in the Ukraine, for example, it spent millions on sixty-five different projects in that nation, including $359,945 to fund a “Center for International Private Enterprise,” at least partly to build up the lobbying power of Ukrainian businesses. Many of the Ukrainian projects are to train local activists, including election-related training. The twenty-three-member board of directors of NED include ten CFR members (43.5 percent). Two of them—Vin Weber and Robert B. Zoellick—are former or current Council directors and two—Elliott Abrams and Stephen Sestanovich—are CFR Senior Fellows. Laurence Shoupe   NED Subgroups   International Republican Institute(IRI)   BOD-Members Include   Lindsey Graham   Mitt Romney   HR McMaster   Marco Rubio   Tom Cotton   Jamie Ernst   John McCain was the former longtime Director https://www.iri.org/     The National Democratic Institute(NDI)   Members Include   Thomas Daschle   Stacy Abrams   Donna Brazile   Howard Dean   Michael McFaul   Walter Mondale   Chris Dodd   Michael Dukakis   Richard Gephardt   Madeline Albright was the former longtime Director https://www.ndi.org/ambassadors-circle   Hillary at NDI https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2011/11/176750.htm   Mr. Richard C. Blum( Husband Of Diane Feinstein)
 in their Millionaires Circle Donor List   The Solidarity Center(The Union Arm) https://www.solidaritycenter.org/   Center For International Private Enterprise(CIPE) (The Private Business Arm) https://www.cipe.org/   Some NGO's Funded By NED   *Notice Heavy in Ukraine, and Afghanistan   https://swprs.org/organizations-funded-by-the-ned/     House Bill To Create NED https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/house-bill/2914?s=1&r=82     NED, & It's Main Four Groups https://www.ndi.org/publications/national-endowment-democracy-ned-ndi-iri-cipe-and-solidarity-center-welcome-increased   Please check out my Podcasting Family over at Alternate Current Radio. You will find a plethora of fantastic talk, and music shows including the flagship Boiler Room, as well as The Daily Ruckus! https://alternatecurrentradio.com/   Fringe Radio Network- Radio on the Fringe!  http://fringeradionetwork.com/   Patreon-Welcome to The Society Of Cryptic Savants  https://www.bitchute.com/video/C4PQuq0ud   Social Media: _theoddmanout on Twitter, and Instagram       Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoddcastfttheoddmanout         "A special Thank You to my Patrons who contributed to this episode. You are very much appreciated.   Thank You Guys For Your Continued Support!   Their Order Is Not Our Order!

In the early 80's an organization called The National Endowment For Democracy(NED) was formed under the Reagan administration by a bi-partisan group of representatives, and bureaucrats to allegedly to foster democracy around the world. At its conception, 4 others subgroups were included; The International Republican Institute(IRI), The National Democratic Institute(NDI), The Solidarity Center, & The Center For International Enterprise(CIPE). This covered both political parties, Unions, & Private Business. According to former Intel Agents, & Journalists like the late Robert Parry, NED, & its other well funded, and well connected organizations were created to do what the CIA had been doing for decades, and that was to assist in the infiltration, and overthrow of foreign governments who weren't on board with the Western Elites business plans of expansion, and global imperialism. Today Ned funds over 2000 other NGO's around the world, and cand be found working closley with USAID, Freedom House, Bellingcat, Goerge Soros' Open Societies. Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, wherever there's a color revolution, you will find NED, and its vast legion of tax-exempt groups fomenting dissent, and looking for embers to heap gasoline upon. Often by way of education, or media including tv, print, radio, and internet. Under the guise of fairness, and equality NED does a little good in order to make way for its financial masters. Did I mention, its supposedly non-governmental yet, is funded by Congress aka, taxpayers, and to the tune of $300 Million a year? So, it gets money like a government agency, but doesn't have to follow the same rules, and regulations. This my friends is where the R's, and D's, the private, and public sectors come together to create the atmosphere where the upper echelons of industry, and high finance can profit all over the world. This is the expanding arm of the real NWO.   Cheers, and Blessings   Support My Work   Odd Man Out Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/theoddmanout     Show Notes   In 1983, the strategy of overthrowing inconvenient governments and calling it “democracy promotion” was born.   "With unfailing consistency, U.S. intervention has been on the side of the rich and powerful of various nations at the expense of the poor and needy. Rather than strengthening democracies, U.S. leaders have overthrown numerous democratically elected governments or other populist regimes in dozens of countries ... whenever these nations give evidence of putting the interests of their people ahead of the interests of multinational corporate interests." ~ Michael Parenti   The National Endowment for Democracy, an agency created by the Reagan administration in 1983 to promote political action and psychological warfare against states not in love with US foreign policy. It is Washington's foremost non-military tool for effecting regime change. William Blum, America's Deadliest Export   Reagan Inaugurates NED https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YYR6LJedPnM   ... as CN founder Robert Parry explained in an 2015 article republished today on Consortium News, the C.I.A. had a direct hand in the establishment of the NED, even in the writing of the Congressional legislation that authorized the U.S. Agency for International Development to fund it with U.S. government money. The continued hand of the C.I.A. was to be hidden in the “Age of Overt Action.”  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/20/the-three-types-of-us-regime-change/   "The US NED, NDI, Open Society, and the International Republican Institute (IRI) are engaged in funding and supporting opposition groups including the so-called “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong, the “Bersih” street movement in Malaysia headed by now-jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and deceptive media fronts like Prachatai in Thailand, who openly and repeatedly attack Thailand's indigenous institutions, while providing cover for US-backed opposition groups, including Thaksin Shinawatra's Peua Thai Party (PTP) and his ultra-violent street front, the so-called “red shirts.” U.S. Funded Foreign Election "Monitors" Exposed   William Blum On NED, Rogue State https://thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/TrojanHorse_RS.html   In the omnibus appropriations bill that the president signed in December Obama 2009, lawmakers set the NED's amount at $118 million,(Now $300) more than restoring the proposed cut. The bill went on to specify that the $18 million above the administration's request had to go for democracy, human rights, and rule of law programs.   NED, and The Council On Foreign Relations(CFR)- The National Endowment for Democracy is funded by the U.S. Congress. Founded in 1983, in recent years NED has spent about $100 million annually on over 1,000(Now 2000) projects of nongovernmental organizations in over ninety nations. A large percentage of these projects are to foster the neoliberal geopolitical capitalist penetration of these countries, under the cover of promoting democracy. In the year prior to the 2014 conflict in the Ukraine, for example, it spent millions on sixty-five different projects in that nation, including $359,945 to fund a “Center for International Private Enterprise,” at least partly to build up the lobbying power of Ukrainian businesses. Many of the Ukrainian projects are to train local activists, including election-related training. The twenty-three-member board of directors of NED include ten CFR members (43.5 percent). Two of them—Vin Weber and Robert B. Zoellick—are former or current Council directors and two—Elliott Abrams and Stephen Sestanovich—are CFR Senior Fellows. Laurence Shoupe   NED Subgroups   International Republican Institute(IRI)   BOD-Members Include   Lindsey Graham   Mitt Romney   HR McMaster   Marco Rubio   Tom Cotton   Jamie Ernst   John McCain was the former longtime Director https://www.iri.org/     The National Democratic Institute(NDI)   Members Include   Thomas Daschle   Stacy Abrams   Donna Brazile   Howard Dean   Michael McFaul   Walter Mondale   Chris Dodd   Michael Dukakis   Richard Gephardt   Madeline Albright was the former longtime Director https://www.ndi.org/ambassadors-circle   Hillary at NDI https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2011/11/176750.htm   Mr. Richard C. Blum( Husband Of Diane Feinstein)
 in their Millionaires Circle Donor List   The Solidarity Center(The Union Arm) https://www.solidaritycenter.org/   Center For International Private Enterprise(CIPE) (The Private Business Arm) https://www.cipe.org/   Some NGO's Funded By NED   *Notice Heavy in Ukraine, and Afghanistan   https://swprs.org/organizations-funded-by-the-ned/     House Bill To Create NED https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/house-bill/2914?s=1&r=82     NED, & It's Main Four Groups https://www.ndi.org/publications/national-endowment-democracy-ned-ndi-iri-cipe-and-solidarity-center-welcome-increased   Please check out my Podcasting Family over at Alternate Current Radio. You will find a plethora of fantastic talk, and music shows including the flagship Boiler Room, as well as The Daily Ruckus! https://alternatecurrentradio.com/   Fringe Radio Network- Radio on the Fringe!  http://fringeradionetwork.com/   Patreon-Welcome to The Society Of Cryptic Savants  https://www.bitchute.com/video/C4PQuq0ud   Social Media: _theoddmanout on Twitter, and Instagram       Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoddcastfttheoddmanout         "A special Thank You to my Patrons who contributed to this episode. You are very much appreciated.   Thank You Guys For Your Continued Support!   Their Order Is Not Our Order!  

An update from Sri Lanka on the unfolding political and economic crisis; Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on pressure for independent media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war; Reproductive rights leaders in the Deep South on their work post-Roe, including the CEO of the Mississippi clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

An update from Sri Lanka on the unfolding political and economic crisis; Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on pressure for independent media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war; Reproductive rights leaders in the Deep South on their work post-Roe, including the CEO of the Mississippi clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

We take a sober look at Saturday's massacre of African Americans in Buffalo. The shooting was partly because of white supremacy. But the REAL reason for the shooting is it's too easy for every lunatic in America to get their hands on an assault weapon. Our nation's gun laws are an act of collective suicide. We choose weapons over peace. We prefer profits for arms manufacturers over our own security. From guns to for profit healthcare Americans are killing themselves in the name of Mammon. CORRECTION: David identified Congresswoman Liz Cheney as representing Idaho. She represents Wyoming. We are sorry for both the mistake and the fact that there is a Wyoming or an Idaho. Guests With Time Codes:  (01:07) David Does the News: Kimberly Guilfoyle wants to ban foreign cows; We need to have a serious conversation about serious conservations; Chuck Schumer's daughter is a lobbyist for Amazon; The Buffalo massacre; Why do cops shoot to kill?; Goods guys with guns NEVER stop bad guys with guns; 70 percent of Americans in jail never get a trial; Amazon is a surprisingly unprofitable business; It's time to call Jeff Bezos what he is, "An Illegal." ; Christian Smalls takes on Lindsey Graham; Corporations, like Amazon, that break the law are not supposed to get government contracts; Virginia's Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is Pro Amazon and Anti Union (1:12:12) "Ain't No Chairs" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (1:16:32) Gregg Barak (author, "Criminology on Trump") Gregg Barak is author of, “Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America”, “Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding”, and “Unchecked Corporate Power: Why the Crimes of Multinational Corporations are Routinized Away and What We Can Do About It.” His newest book is “Criminology on Trump.”   (1:35:32) Pascal Robert (co-host of "This is Revolution" podcast) Why gentrification in Black neighborhoods is less a part of White Supremacy and more a function of capitalism. Also, how Haiti was forced to pay reparations to French slaveholders up until 1947. Yes, you read that correctly. Haiti had to pay reparations to the SLAVEHOLDERS. (2:03:54) Howie Klein (founder and treasurer of The Blue America PAC and author of Down With Tyranny) Howie does a complete rundown of Tuesday's primaries in Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Carolina, and Idaho. Idaho's GOP Governor Brad Little is up against a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin; Trump endorses North Carolina's Rep. Madison Cawthorn; In North Carolina we love Erica Smith; Oregon's Right Wing Democratic Congressman Kurt Schrader is challenged on the Left by Jamie McLeod-Skinner; In Pennsylvania Dr. Oz has Trump's blessing for senate; Can Conservative Congressman Conor Lamb beat Pennsylvania's Left Leaning Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman? ; Summer Lee is Bernie's pick for a congressional seat that covers Pittsburgh, but will AIPAC destroy her like they did Nina Turner?; (2:37:36) David Cobb (environmental activist and Green Party Presidential candidate) (2:58:33) "USA of Distraction" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (3:05:16) Dr. Harriet Fraad (host of "Capitalism Hits Home") How the so called "Pro Life" movement is nothing other than a full scale war on women. (3:36:00) Professor Adnan Husain ("Guerrilla History" and "The Majlis" podcasts) Diem25's new Manifesto for Europe. What is a possible left agenda for geopolitics in this era? (4:04:16) Peter B. Collins (Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame) w/ Joe Lauria (Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News) PayPal said it mistakenly informed Consortium News its account could be restored, but now says it's shut down permanently while offering no explanation. Is PayPal silencing Left Wing news organizations? Joe Lauria is Editor-in-Chief of “Consortium News,” and has covered foreign policy at the United Nations for numerous newspapers, including the “Boston Globe”, the “Montreal Gazette”, and the “Johannesburg Star.”  Professor Mary Anne Cummings (physicist and parks commissioner Aurora, Illinois) (5:18:02) Stump the Hump! w/ Quizmaster Dan F challenges David, Professors Mary Anne Cummings and Adnan Husain on their Top Gun knowledge 5:40:46 Professor Mike Steinel (Jazz historian and Dylanologist) We livestream here on YouTube every Monday and Thursday starting at 5:00 PM Eastern and go until 11:00 PM. Please join us! Take us wherever you go by subscribing to this show as a podcast! Here's how: https://davidfeldmanshow.com/how-to-l... And Subscribe to this channel. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=PD... More David @ http://www.DavidFeldmanShow.com Get Social With David: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidfeldmanc... Twitter: https://twitter.com/David_Feldman_ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

Scott is joined by CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to discuss the recent uptick in deplatforming efforts against alternative media sites like Consortium News and MintPress News. They discuss the hold that the Intelligence Community has over establishment national security “journalists.” The example of Ken Dilanian comes up, the journalist who reported on the CIA, but who sent every draft to the CIA for approval before even sending it to his own editor. Meanwhile, alternative websites like The Gayzone, Consortium News, MintPress News and Antiwar.com get no access and are quickly labeled as unstable conspiracy theorists. Recently, the deplatforming attempts against these sites have ramped up with the new “misinformation” labeling group NewsGuard. Scott and Kiriakou agree that this is the logical consequence of the attempt to ruin Jullian Assange, but also that it could be an act of desperation. Discussed on the show: John Kiriakou's books OKC Bombing Archive NewsGuard Radley Balko at the Washington Post “Ken Dilanian CIA” Google Search MintPress News John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer and author of The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers' Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies and Doing Time Like A Spy. He is the host of Loud and Clear on Sputnik Radio. Follow him on Twitter @JohnKiriakou. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Much of today's conversation returns to The New York Times' new expose on Tucker Carlson which reveals Tucker Carlson was abandoned by his mother at the age of eight because she hated him. According to the Times, Tucker's mom fed him amphetamines, alcohol and marijuana while he was still in grade school. According to The New York Times, Carlson's mother moved to France when Tucker was eight and he never saw her again. After Tucker's mom died she reportedly left him exactly one dollar in her will. Topics: Hitler wasn't Jewish; Putin's Wagner Group and why he needs to DeNazify Russia; Can Nina Turner win today?; Supreme Court about to overturn Roe; Amazon Labor Union loses in Staten Island; Dennis Prager is a lying ignorant bigot Guests With Time Stamps: (1:13) David Does the News (1:05:52) "Turtle" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (1:10:49) Grace Jackson Explains America's foreign policy of "strategic ambiguity" and how it relates to China, Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine. (1:34:23) Jason Myles (co-host of "This is Revolution" podcast) The L.A. Riots thirtieth anniversary. (2:01:53) Tom Nelson (Candidate for US Senate, Wisconsin) Tom Nelson is a candidate for the US Senate in Wisconsin, and currently serves as Outagamie County Executive. He supports Medicare for All and unions. Plus he's not a lawyer. Tom is endorsed by Howie Klein and the Blue America PAC Donate: https://nelsonforwi.com/meet-tom/   (2:28:24) David Cobb (environmental activist and Green Party Presidential candidate) w/ Debbie Notkin (Public Bank East Bay) Public Banking Debbie Notkin is an economic justice advocate, who believes passionately that economic reform is a cornerstone of racial justice and social progress. She has been active in the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group and Strike Debt Bay Area. (3:09:50) Dr. Harriet Fraad (host of "Capitalism Hits Home") Why do Republicans focus on gender issues, transexuals, gays, women choosing abortion? (3:43:52) Ethan Herschenfeld (his new comedy special "Thug, Thug Jew" is streaming on YouTube) Ethan joins us hours after filming a new movie with Samuel L. Jackson; Killing baby Hitler   (4:07:26) Peter B. Collins (Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame) w/ Mnar Adley (founder and editor of Mint Press News) Last week, Paypal froze Mint Press News' account, with no warning or explanation. The same thing happened over the weekend to Consortium News, another important anti-establishment outlet. We talks with Mnar Adley, founder and editor of Mint Press News. PLUS: ASMR for your eyeballs - Live from Dave in PA's workshop (5:01:02) Catherine Liu (Professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California, Irvine and author of "Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class") Coverage of right wing figures like Tucker Carlson in the New York Times and the Vanity Fair article by James Pogue on the National Conservative Convention. Peter Thiel's interest in right wing critiques of liberalism and his financing of conservatism. Also the infighting on the Left in the absence of a figure like Bernie Sanders to unite us. (5:36:47) Professor Mary Anne Cummings (physicist and parks commissioner Aurora, Illinois) Nina Turner. The Supreme Court is about to get rid of Roe. And Amazon Labor Union loses one.