Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Gates

[admin]

Michael Hudson - Life and Thought
Global University for Sustainability
Jul 11, 2018

The interview with Professor Michael Hudson was conducted on 7 May 2018 in Beijing, by Professor Lau Kin Chi and Professor Sit Tsui Jade. Professor Hudson talked about his formative years, and his turn to economics from music as he found his mentor Terence McCarthy's speech about economics beautiful and asethetic. He recalled his experiences in research and teaching, and the background leading to his writing the many books on imperialism, balance of payment, history of debt, and fictitious capital.



Key moments

13:37 Concepts of Productivity

29:22 The Sieve of Gold

43:54 Modern Monetary Theory

56:20 The Origins of Money and Accounting

[admin]

'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid
IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes ■ Netanyahu, Katz reject claims, call them 'blood libels'.
by Nir HassonYaniv KubovichBar Peleg
Jun 27, 2025
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/202 ... be33780000

[x]
Palestinians gather at an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on June 25, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP) Credit: AFP/EYAD BABA

Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites over the past month.

Conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds to drive them away or disperse them, even though it was clear they posed no threat.

One soldier described the situation as a total breakdown of the Israel Defense Forces' ethical codes in Gaza.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 549 people have been killed near aid centers and in areas where residents were waiting for UN food trucks since May 27. Over 4,000 have been wounded, but the exact number of those killed or injured by IDF fire remains unclear.

Haaretz has learned that the Military Advocate General has instructed the IDF General Staff's Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism – a body tasked with reviewing incidents involving potential violations of the laws of war – to investigate suspected war crimes at these sites.

In a statement released following publication of this exposé, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected the claims, which they called "blood libels."

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid centers began operating in the Strip at the end of May. The circumstances of the foundation's establishment and its funding are murky: it is known to have been set up by Israel in coordination with U.S. evangelicals and private security contractors. Its current CEO is an evangelical leader close to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

[x]
Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas Credit: DAWOUD ABU ALKAS/רויטרס

The GHF operates four food distribution sites – three in southern Gaza and one in the center – known in the IDF as "rapid distribution centers" (Mahpazim). They are staffed by American and Palestinian workers and secured by the IDF from a distance of several hundred meters.

Thousands, and at times tens of thousands, of Gazans arrive daily to collect food from these sites.

Contrary to the foundation's initial promises, distribution is chaotic, with crowds rushing the piles of boxes. Since the rapid distribution centers opened, Haaretz has counted 19 shooting incidents near them. While the shooters' identities are not always clear, the IDF does not permit armed individuals in these humanitarian zones without its knowledge.

The distribution centers typically open for just one hour each morning. According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centers close, to disperse them. Since some of the shooting incidents occurred at night – ahead of the opening – it's possible that some civilians couldn't see the boundaries of the designated area.

"It's a killing field," one soldier said. "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire."

The soldier added, "We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces." According to him, "I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons." He also said the activity in his area of service is referred to as Operation Salted Fish – the name of the Israeli version of the children's game "Red light, green light".

IDF officers told Haaretz that the army does not allow the public in Israel or abroad to see footage of what takes place around the food distribution sites. According to them, the army is satisfied that the GHF's operations have prevented a total collapse of international legitimacy for continuing the war. They believe the IDF has managed to turn Gaza into a "backyard," especially since the war with Iran began.

[x]
Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operated by the U.S.-backed organization in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/אי־פי

"Gaza doesn't interest anyone anymore," said a reservist who completed another round of duty in the northern Strip this week. "It's become a place with its own set of rules. The loss of human life means nothing. It's not even an 'unfortunate incident,' like they used to say."

An officer serving in the security detail of a distribution center described the IDF's approach as deeply flawed: "Working with a civilian population when your only means of interaction is opening fire – that's highly problematic, to say the least," he told Haaretz. "It's neither ethically nor morally acceptable for people to have to reach, or fail to reach, a [humanitarian zone] under tank fire, snipers and mortar shells."

The officer explained that the security on the sites is organized into several tiers. Inside the distribution centers and the "corridor" leading to them are American workers, and the IDF is not permitted to operate in that space. A more external layer is made up of Palestinian supervisors, some of them armed and affiliated with the Abu Shabab militia.

The IDF's security perimeter includes tanks, snipers, and mortars whose purpose, according to the officer, is to protect those present and ensure the aid distribution can take place.

"At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone and they mustn't come near," the officer said. "Once," he recounted, "the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren't allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people."

In other cases, he said, "We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn't intentional, but these things happen."

He noted that there were also fatalities and injuries among IDF soldiers in these incidents. "A combat brigade doesn't have the tools to handle a civilian population in a war zone. Firing mortars to keep hungry people away is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas operatives among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid. As a country, we have a responsibility to ensure that happens safely," the officer said.

The officer pointed to another issue with the distribution centers – their lack of consistency. Residents don't know when each center will open, which adds to the pressure on the sites and contributes to harm to civilians.

I don't know who's making the decisions, but we give instructions to the population and then either don't follow through with them or change them," he said.

"Earlier this month, there were cases where we were notified a message had gone out saying the center would open in the afternoon, and people showed up early in the morning to be first in line for food. Because they arrived too early, the distribution was canceled that day."

Contractors as sheriffs

According to accounts from commanders and fighters, the IDF was supposed to maintain a safe distance from Palestinian population areas and food distribution points. However, the actions of the forces on the ground do not align with the operational plans.

"Today, any private contractor working in Gaza with engineering equipment receives 5,000 [roughly $1,500] shekels for every house they demolish," said a veteran fighter. "They're making a fortune. From their perspective, any moment where they don't demolish houses is a loss of money, and the forces have to secure their work. The contractors, who act like a kind of sheriff, demolish wherever they want along the entire front."

As a result, the fighter added, the contractors' demolition campaign brings them, along with their relatively small security details, close to distribution points or along the routes used by aid trucks.

[x]
A Palestinian carries a sack of flour as people gather to receive aid supplies in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 26, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem KhaledCredit: Hatem Khaled/רויטרס

In order [for the contractors] to protect themselves, a shooting incident breaks out, and people are killed," he said. "These are areas where Palestinians are allowed to be – we're the ones who moved closer and decided [they] endangered us. So, for a contractor to make another 5,000 shekels and take down a house, it's deemed acceptable to kill people who are only looking for food."

A senior officer whose name repeatedly comes up in testimonies about the shootings near aid sites is Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, commander of the IDF's Division 252. Haaretz previously reported how Vach turned the Netzarim corridor into a deadly route, endangered soldiers on the ground, and was suspected of ordering the destruction of a hospital in Gaza without authorization.

Now, an officer in the division says Vach decided to disperse gatherings of Palestinians waiting for UN aid trucks by opening fire. "This is Vach's policy," the officer said, "but many of the commanders and soldiers accepted it without question. [The Palestinians] are not supposed to be there, so the idea is to make sure they clear out, even if they're just there for food."

Vach's division is not the only one operating in the area. It's responsible for northern Gaza, and therefore Vach's policy is relevant to those who loot UN aid trucks, and not GHF sites.

A reserve tank soldier who recently served with Division 252 in northern Gaza confirmed the reports and explained the IDF's "deterrence procedure" for dispersing civilians who gather in violation of military orders.

"The teenagers waiting for the trucks hide behind dirt mounds and rush them as they pass or stop at distribution points," he said. "We usually see them from hundreds of meters away; it's not a situation where they pose a threat to us."

In one incident, the soldier was instructed to fire a shell toward a crowd gathered near the coastline. "Technically, it's supposed to be warning fire – either to push people back or stop them from advancing," he said. "But lately, firing shells has just become standard practice. Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there's never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders."

In that case, some people began to flee after the shell was fired, and according to the soldier, other forces subsequently opened fire on them. "If it's meant to be a warning shot, and we see them running back to Gaza, why shoot at them?" he asked. "Sometimes we're told they're still hiding, and we need to fire in their direction because they haven't left. But it's obvious they can't leave if the moment they get up and run, we open fire."

The soldier said this has become routine. "You know it's not right. You feel it's not right – that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don't even stop to think about it."

Earlier this week, soldiers from Division 252 opened fire at an intersection where civilians were waiting for aid trucks. A commander on the ground gave the order to fire directly at the center of the junction, resulting in the deaths of eight civilians, including teenagers. The incident was brought to the attention of Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, but so far, aside from a preliminary review, he has taken no action and has not demanded an explanation from Vach regarding the high number of fatalities in his sector.

[x]
People carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distribution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), on June 25, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)Credit: AFP/EYAD BABA

"I was at a similar event. From what we heard, more than ten people were killed there," said another senior reserve officer commanding forces in the area. "When we asked why they opened fire, we were told it was an order from above and that the civilians had posed a threat to the troops. I can say with certainty that the people were not close to the forces and did not endanger them. It was pointless – they were just killed, for nothing. This thing called killing innocent people – it's been normalized. We were constantly told there are no noncombatants in Gaza, and apparently that message sank in among the troops."

A senior officer familiar with the fighting in Gaza believes this marks a further deterioration in the IDF's moral standards. "The power that senior field commanders wield in relation to General Staff leadership threatens the chain of command," he said.

According to him, "My greatest fear is that the shooting and harm to civilians in Gaza aren't the result of operational necessity or poor judgment, but rather the product of an ideology held by field commanders, which they pass down to the troops as an operational plan."

Shelling civilians

In recent weeks, the number of fatalities near food distribution areas has risen sharply – 57 on June 11, 59 on June 17, and around 50 on June 24, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. In response, a discussion was held at Southern Command, where it emerged that troops had begun dispersing crowds using artillery shells.

"They talk about using artillery on a junction full of civilians as if it's normal," said a military source who attended the meeting. "An entire conversation about whether it's right or wrong to use artillery, without even asking why that weapon was needed in the first place. What concerns everyone is whether it'll hurt our legitimacy to keep operating in Gaza. The moral aspect is practically nonexistent. No one stops to ask why dozens of civilians looking for food are being killed every day."

Another senior officer familiar with the fighting in Gaza said the normalization of killing civilians has often encouraged firing at them near the aid distribution centers.

"The fact that live fire is directed at a civilian population – whether with artillery, tanks, snipers, or drones – goes against everything the army is supposed to stand for," he said, criticizing the decisions made on the ground. "Why are people collecting food being killed just because they stepped out of line, or because some commander doesn't like that they're cutting in? Why have we reached a point where a teenager is willing to risk his life just to pull a sack of rice off a truck? And that's who we're firing artillery at?"

In addition to IDF fire, military sources say some of the fatalities near the aid distribution centers were caused by gunfire from militias that the army supports and arms. According to one officer, the IDF continues to back the Abu Shabab group and other factions.

"There are many groups that oppose Hamas – Abu Shabab went several steps further," he said. "They control territory that Hamas doesn't enter, and the IDF encourages that."

Another officer remarked, "I'm stationed there, and even I no longer know who's shooting at whom."

In a closed-door meeting this week with senior officials from the Military Advocate General's Office, held in light of the daily deaths of dozens of civilians near aid zones, the legal officials instructed that the incidents be investigated by the IDF General Staff's Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism. This body, established after the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, is tasked with examining cases where there is suspected violation of the laws of war, to fend off international demands to investigate IDF soldiers for alleged war crimes.

During the meeting, senior legal officials said global criticism over the killing of civilians is mounting. Senior officers in the IDF and Southern Command, however, claimed the cases are isolated and that the gunfire was directed at suspects who posed a threat to the troops.

[x]
A youth carries an empty box of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), on Sunday. Credit: AFP

A source who attended the meeting told Haaretz that representatives of the Military Advocate General's Office rejected the IDF's claims. According to them, the arguments do not hold up against the facts on the ground. "The claim that these are isolated cases doesn't align with incidents in which grenades were dropped from the air and mortars and artillery were fired at civilians," said one legal official. "This isn't about a few people being killed – we're talking about dozens of casualties every day."

Although the Military Advocate General instructed the Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism to examine recent shooting incidents, these represent only a small portion of the cases in which hundreds of uninvolved civilians were killed.

Senior IDF officials expressed frustration that the Southern Command has failed to investigate these incidents thoroughly and is disregarding civilian deaths in Gaza. According to military sources, Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor typically conducts only preliminary inquiries, relying mostly on the accounts of field commanders. He has not taken disciplinary action against officers whose soldiers harmed civilians, despite clear violations of IDF orders and the laws of war.

An IDF spokesperson responded: "Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that starves the Gazan population and endangers them to maintain its rule in the Gaza Strip. Hamas does everything in its power to prevent the successful distribution of food in Gaza and to disrupt humanitarian aid. The IDF allows the American civil society organization (GHF) to operate independently and distribute aid to Gaza residents. The IDF operates near the new distribution areas to enable distribution while continuing operational activities in the Strip."

"As part of their operational conduct in the vicinity of the main access roads to the distribution centers, IDF forces are conducting systematic learning processes to improve their operational response in the area and minimize, as much as possible, potential friction between the population and IDF forces. Recently, forces worked to reorganize the area by placing new fences, signage, opening additional routes, and more. Following incidents where there were reports of harm to civilians arriving at distribution centers, in-depth investigations were conducted, and instructions were given to forces on the ground based on lessons learned. These incidents were referred for examination by the General Staff's debriefing mechanism."

The Israeli army issued an additional response following publication of this exposé, saying it "strongly rejects the accusation raised in the article - the IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians."

The army added that "any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary. The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field."

© Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved

[admin]

BBC Kneecaps Itself In Attempt To Censor Anti-Genocide Trio At Glastonbury Music Festival
by The Rational National
Jun 29, 2025



Transcript

we have seen a strange reaction to
people that come out and voice support
for Palestine the BBC's attempt to
censor the anti- genocide or pro
Palestinian trio kneecap at the
Glastenbury Festival completely
backfired so in this video I'm going to
get to what they played instead which uh
you may find highly entertaining as well
as a few other clips of artists
supporting the uh Palestinians in their
anti- genocide stance a a very
controversial stance apparently to be
anti-genocide so let me start with uh
what NAB posted before their performance
that was not aired on the BBC
sharing uh this picture we are all
Palestine action shirt now this gets to
the BBC's uh decision to not show the
kneecap performance but uh don't worry
the pro- genocide apparently types at
the BBC were um
ensured that they're going to have some
nice and easy listening for the uh
viewers at home this is what happened in
replace of kneecap this is Bob Villain
free free
free all right but have you heard this
one though death death to the IDF death
death to the IDF death death to the IDF
def
[Applause]
now this is apparently very
controversial
doesn't Bob Villain know that the IDF
soldiers were ordered to shoot
deliberately at unarmed gazins waiting
for humanitarian aid this from
Israelbased newspaper Harets idf
officers and soldiers told Harets they
were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds
near food distribution sites in Gaza
even when no threat was present hundreds
of Palestinians have been killed
prompting the military prosecution to
call for review into possible war crimes
and of course Netanyahu is denying it
yet it's apparently very controversial
uh to issue that chant at a music
festival not as controversial is the
intentional killing of uh innocent
people
deadline here BBC Slam's deeply
offensive Glastonbury set we have no
plans to make it available on demand
we'll never be able to see it again like
in the tens of thousands of clips I've
seen online of the set this from a
satirical site Normal Island Normal
Island News breaking the people who
support genocide would like you to know
that music acts at Glastonbury really
crossed the line today
so this was also a good screenshot from
the set free Palestine UN have called it
a genocide the BBC calls it a conflict a
lot of the media is continuing to call
it a conflict when uh that doesn't
really give you a good indication of
what's happening here is a a really good
clip this is before the chance we're
seeing the UK and the US be complicit
complicit in war crimes and genocide
happening over there to the Palestinian
people
and uh I know we're on the BBC that
we're not going to say anything crazy
all right don't leave that for them lads
you know what I mean
but we have seen unfortunately we have
seen
we have seen a strange reaction to
people that come out and voice support
for Palestine even though anybody with
any kind of moral compass can surely
tell that what is happening over there
in Gaza is a tragedy
so look we're not pacifist punks here
over at Bob Villain Enterprises we're
not pacifist punks we are the violent
punks because sometimes you got to get
your message across with violence
because that is the only language that
some people speak unfortunately
this next song we want to dedicate it to
every single band that is using their
platform to speak up to the for the
Palestinian people and speak against the
crimes that Israel the UK and the US and
much of the Western world are complicit
in
so this is for all of you this is for
Murder Capital this is for kneecap this
is for AML and the Sniffers
every single band out there using their
platform to speak up for the Palestinian
people cuz we must pray hope and wish to
see a day where the Palestinian people
are liberated and free from the tyranny
of the Israeli government so the BBC's
attempt to try and avoid any sort of
controversy with the kneecap performance
completely backfired by having Bob
Villain come out and just give his heart
out there in support of Palestinians and
uh what's been going on in Gaza at the
hands of Israel and the support from the
UK and the US and a lot of the Western
world really good message there and it
made headlines to his point the chant he
did there the some of those comments
made headlines to the point that people
are maybe now a little more aware of
what the IDF had been doing including
what they were literally doing that day
with shooting at people at Palestinians
who were trying to get humanitarian aid
now a few more uh clips here so kneecap
even though this was not aired on BBC
this was during their set it's worth
sharing
we said before the story isn't about the
camp it's about the genocide that's
happening right now in Palestine
[Applause]
and we're blessed that we have this
opportunity to be in the sun in the
festival having the crack but I know I
know in Palestine when they see this
many people with Palestine flags it
means a lot to them it's solidarity and
it goes a long way so appreciate
[Applause]
another artist Irish rock musician
Elijah Houston used this platform to
speak up for Palestine i'd like to
dedicate this next song to the people of
Palestine
to any uh innocent people being starved
or bombed or genocided for the sake of
some lunatics
i feel like we have to say that because
I think our greatest strength is uh just
freedom of expression and uh there's no
better place for it than right here at
Glastonbury
so be kind to each other
and have a great time
here's another great clip so uh Joe
Ginian tweets out "What a time to be
alive the political class have
absolutely no idea how hated they are."
This uh is chance of fierce star being
led by kneecap
the prime minister of your country
not
[Music]
saying he didn't want us to play
no so star
all right a few last things here uh Jade
gets the biggest European music festival
Glastonbury crowd to chant FU to reform
welfare cuts transphobia selling arms
and justifying genocide uh I can't play
it cuz it's during her music which I
assume would get copyrighted so uh I'm
not going to play it but shout out to
Jade as well and here's an interesting
clip so it starts off a little uh
questionable but uh I was kind of
surprised that I don't know who Steve
Richards is i don't you know watch Sky
News but uh worth watching this you
don't watch Glaston brief for nuance on
a nightmarishly complex political situ
international situation and I think what
you saw from the audience I mean these
people these the these rock stars
they're not kind of political uh leaders
i think what you saw from an audience is
there is real anger about what's going
on in Gaza you must get I get it every
day from people who don't follow
politics to my annoyance but they are
really taken aback by what's happening
in Gaza and and and you got that and you
know where we're streeting of course was
very careful to say October the 7th was
a horror that needs to also be addressed
you always and everyone has to balance
with these things i don't think what you
saw at Glastenbury was thousands and
thousands of people relishing in
anti-semitism i think you just saw a
kind of bunch of people expressing
horror with Gaza and I get it all the
time wherever I go with friends you know
they say "Why why why doesn't Starman
say more about it?" And and that's what
it was i find that really interesting
cuz what that tells me is that this has
broken through and you look you see that
in polling as well but it's it's hard to
grasp uh the extent of it until you hear
somebody talking about people who aren't
that involved in politics aren't that
aware but are very aware of the genocide
in Gaza and are wondering why isn't our
prime minister saying more about this
clearly there's a genocide happening and
that's why when you have musicians come
out and make these sorts of statements
this also permeates this this gets
through so this gets past the people
that are just following politics
following the news and gets to the
general public to make them more aware
of what is happening and maybe what the
IDF is doing that they weren't aware of
last thing here this from Ash Sar saying
quote unquote just following orders does
not absolve anyone from carrying out a
genocide and that is in response to Jack
Ecklas saying there is no excuse for
chanting death to the IDF it's mandatory
service if your mandatory service
involves carrying out a genocide
it's time to find a way out of it
does not excuse you from carrying out
said genocide so good to see the
reaction there from other musicians at
the Galastenbury Festival and that the
BBC simply could not escape the reality
of what is happening

[admin]

This Is How Empires Collapse — And It’s Happening Now
Larry C. Johnson
by ŞAHİN Kamera & Fotoğrafçılık
Jun 29, 2025



Transcript

[Larry Johnson] Most people don't realize that Israel was probably a week, two weeks, from actually being completely defeated. People are going, "Oh, you're just spouting Iranian propaganda." Okay hear me out. Israel has two seaports where containers come into the country, and where exports leave the country. Iran shut those down. So there was no more sea-time maritime traffic coming in and out of the port. Iran also destroyed the two oil refineries, or interrupted their ability to process and produce fuel: the oil refineries at Haifa and Ashdod, which are also the places where the ports are located. Iran shut down the only international airport in Israel, so nobody was getting in and out of the country unless they went to a military airfield and got out on a military aircraft. But all of the military airfields in Israel were also hit, but we've not seen the pictures of it, or been able to assess the nature of the damage because Israeli sensors have blocked that. But we also know that Iran hit and damaged, and in some cases destroyed, Israel's version of the Pentagon, Israel's version of the CIA, Israel's version of the FBI, Israel's version of the National Security Agency, as well as their major research laboratory, the Wiseman Institute, that was used for nuclear research, and Dimona the nuclear facility, was hit and damaged. But you know the reactor was not breached. So all this nonsense that, "Oh boy, Iran just got wasted by Israel." -- Nonsense!


You know, just step back and compare the kind of
firepower that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine over the last three and a half
years and compare that to what Israel
launched on Iran. Let's put them in comparison. Iran is three times the size
geographically and numerically in terms of population as Ukraine. Three times bigger. Wow!
Iran has 29 international airports. So yeah, Israel closed down two of them.
Big deal, they had 28 others, or 27 others they could fly out of. israel only had
the one that was shut down.

So what Israel launched at the beginning,
on June 13th, was a devastating attack, there's no doubt about that. They fully expected, and Donald Trump had been
briefed and promised, that this Israeli operation would bring an end to Iran. It
would cause the collapse of the regime. Instead, it unified the people of Iran,
number one. With Russian assistance, the cyber attack that was
supposed to have taken out Iranian systems for a week, was back up and running within 10 hours. And then,
within 12 hours of the attack, Iran was launching ballistic missiles on Israel.
Those ballistic missiles exhausted and defeated Israel's much ballihood iron dome. David's sling failed. The US
supplied theater high altitude air defense system, THAAD failed. Patriot
missiles failed and and yet the west continues to spreas all of this nonsense
that this was somehow a great victory for the West and in Israel it's just the opposite.

Well, you're
absolutely correct Larry. I did read some analysis coming from out of some
military and security think tanks outside the US. And some of them converge
on one conclusion. And that conclusion is that the Iranian attack overwhelmed the
Iron Dome and exposed its vulnerability. So yeah this is why I believe the
Israeli prime minister yesterday, or the day before, gave a speech in which I believe
was a hidden message asking, or begging, Iran to please stop. So that was my own assessment and I may be wrong in that Larry.

[Larry Johnson] No no, not at all. You
know, we've entered an era, at least on the US and Israeli side, where the defensive missiles, the air defense
systems are more expensive than the offensive systems. So as an example,
the Israelis relied upon Arrow2 and Arrow3 missiles. Each one of those costs between
2.53.5 million a piece. Wow. And they only
manufacture 25 to 50 a year. Why does that matter? Well, for every incoming missile that Iran
fired, and the estimated cost on the Iranian missiles is 500,000 to a million
dollars to produce, so think about that. Here comes a million-dollar missile in and the Israelis, to take that out, have
to fire a minimum of two at the arrows and sometimes upwards of 10
to take out one target. So just do the math. That's $6 million worth of missiles
to take out a 1 million dollar missile. You're going to run out of money after a point. And that's exactly what happened
to Israel. The THAAD that the US supplied, those go for 13 million a
missile. Wow. So you can see how quickly the United States can be
financially depleted by having to counter a barrage of ballistic missiles,
cruise missiles, and drones. Yeah.

So what's next? What's next Larry?

[Larry Johnson] The US and Israel found out that they couldn't intimidate Iran. The
outcome wasn't what they expected. They were thinking that they were just going to fly a bomber, drop some bombs somewhere, which
didn't even damage the nuclear facilities anyway.

And now, what's next?

[Larry Johnson] Well, I think Iran has
learned its lesson. It had previously turned down Russia's offer of a full-on
defense pact, like what Russia signed with North Korea. I think Iran is now
revisiting that. Foreign minister Araghchi was in Moscow on Monday meeting
with Putin and with Lavrov, and he carried a personal letter from the Ayatoĺlah. Vladimir Putin, and I don't know for a fact, but I do believe that the
motivation of that letter was to ask the Russians, "Hey, remember that offer
for a defense pact? We want that. I think you're going to see both Russia and China step up and increase their support
now for Iran, because this is not about Iran's nuclear program.
That's a red herring. It is just like Saddam Hussein has weapons
of mass destruction. That was a fraud. It was about getting rid of Saddam. This is about getting rid of the Islamic
Republic, and replacing it with a government that's going to be obedient,
slavish if you will, treating the United States like, "You're our daddy."

You know and all of this in order to go after Russia and China iran is merely a
chess piece on a big global chess board they're they're not a pawn they're a more important piece but destroying Iran
is seen as the first step for further weak trying to weaken Russia and that
have now exposed both the partnership of the US and Israel in a region that is
going down because Iran is not Iraq iran is not Libya iraq is not Syria and and
and they I I think they were just surprised while we talking Yeah go ahead Larry well I was just going to say this
is you you've seen the movie Godfather right oh yeah of course and and so you
see that one scene after uh the Don Corleó goes to make peace with I forget
the other mafia guy so he so his son Michael can come back from Italy and at
the head of the tables this guy Barzini and so you know the character Tom Hagen
the lawyer is talking to Don Corleon and he says oh you know how are we gonna
handle this other mafia chief and and Don Corleon says He's not running it
he's not in charge it's Barzini you know so what does this have to do with you
know Israel and Iran and and Russia russia realized with the June 13th
attack that the one country Yeah that was implicated in the attacks in Russia the
attempt to kill Putin with drones the attack on the airfields on June 1st with
drones that it was Israel israel was involved that was like that was their
Barzini moment where Putin and his team realized you know
son of a gun it's been Israel all along israel has
been an active but trying to keep itself out of the limelight partner in this war
against Russia and by extension against Iran very very interesting take on this Larry
while we're on Russia I want to have your take please because I need the community to sort of get an idea exactly
what is going on and I couldn't think of anyone that I trust personally for you to provide our community uh the your
objective assessments sure there are reports coming out of the New York Times and I read one yesterday suggesting that
Russia sort of gave up on its allies when it matters so sort of Russia didn't
want to do anything with it but how accurate is something like this knowing and here's the thing Larry knowing that
it was a meeting that took place when the Iranian president went over to Russia and Russians asked him what do
you need his response meaning Brazilian at that time said we don't need anything
at this moment yeah yeah and so what what why the New York Times is sort of
uh uh uh disclosing lies that they don't exist well I I well they are they're
listening to Western propaganda sources and there's a there's a strong Iranian
expatriate community here in the United States so they they're doing everything they can to try to you know try to spin
it and downplay it uh I had a good conversation earlier today with uh my friend Pepe Escobar and uh we we
specifically dis discussed sort of the political situation in Iran there was
the you know President Peskin has been was viewed up until this attack
on June 13th as being somewhat weak now there's no doubt he is viewed as
extremely weak he's surrounded by a bunch of by people who've been very
eager to try to reestablish ties to the west they're very sort of western
influenced and um but that all changed on June 13th the nature of that attack
was so shocking so unexpected so so devious see because
you know the Trump was playing the you know he talks about Putin tapping him
along man he was tapping the Iranians along hey yeah we're going to meet and have negotiations on Sunday and then he
green lights he approves this attack which took place and if you remember in
the first six hours he was like "Yeah I knew all about it i I knew the date i
knew everything." Yeah but but once it became clear that the
attack actually had failed to achieve what he was promised it would achieve which was the collapse of the Iranian
government instead Iran got up off the floor look it did get its ass kicked
it did get get knocked down but it got back up off the floor it began firing back at Israel and that's when you know
within 36 hours of the start of the uh the attack by Israel here's Donald Trump
going I know nothing i see no I hear nothing you know he was he was playing
Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes yeah so um this uh this whole thing has
really touched off uh a new dimension of relationship between Iran and Russia and
that's why when when the foreign minister Iraqi went to Moscow on Monday
and he had direct he had a long meeting with Putin and it was afterwards the
Peshkov came out and said you know hey whatever the Russians whatever the
Iranians asked for we'll will definitely uh consider it you know which means there absolutely
because one of the lessons of these 12 days is there was there was only two
there was an S300 and an S400 air defense Russian air defense system both
were placed around the Busher nuclear power plant where 200 Russians are busy
working guess which plant did not get bombed or attacked act during the 12 days it was
the bushier indeed right indeed so so the Iranians went you know they're not
stupid they're going "Hey if we got Iranians around if we got
Russians around our plants helping us we're going to be okay because neither
Israel nor the United States is going to risk a nuclear war with Russia." And
that in fact that's where I think this is headed i think you're going to see announcements in this week next week
about in closer ties than ever between Russia and Iran and China and Iran yeah and
we're going to be talking about China soon so I just want you guys to hear it from Larry directly right here and as I
said someone I trust so what you are be aware what you are watching on YouTube
as to the statements that Russia is has dumped Iran and all that none of it has
to do anything you got you got one of your community there are more on this Amanda Joya saying that my paycheck from
Putin's in the mail i don't get a damn penny from this one here yeah not a damn
penny amanda you know people like that are disgusting instead of listening to the fact that Amanda Jane right yeah
okay let me put her out yeah so she can go to hell yeah those are not part and
community please if you see something like this just give me a heads up so we'll remove this kind of nonsense from
this conversation because they have no place here so you are here because you want to learn something and that's what
Larry gave us his time to come over here he has other stuff to do but he was willing to come over here so to share
this with us so liking this video so far don't just be a watcher go ahead and hit
the like share and subscribe button and don't forget to tap the bell so you will
not miss any of my videos or live streams this way you will be supporting
the channel that stands for the truth and objective reporting the choice is
yours thanks for your support let's go into China uh Larry because um
I I read once again this morning prior to our uh conversation here i had to just check out some updates and one of
the things that Iran now is considering is the purchase of the Ju 10 the Chinese
jet cell yeah uh now is this going to like a sort of a conflict of interest
between China and Russia or is Iran's going to go on two trajectories one with
Russia and one with China well so Iran's
role for both Russia and China it's it's a critical lynch pin in the bricks
system um bricks has been this ambition of China and Russia but it was
accelerated by uh when Russia initiated the the special military operation in
Ukraine in 2022 and uh over that it has brought Russia
and China closer together as cooperating partners from China's perspective with
uh its alliance with Russia and China it has a pretty secure source of oil going
forward so it doesn't have to it's not going to be held hostage by other countries uh number one uh number two
China is uh they've set up this thing called the u the crossborder interbank
payment system CIPs it is a competitor an alternative to
Swift the difference is it's digital it works in seconds and it's uh using
blockchain technology out of uh the whole realm of Bitcoin whereas Swift is
locked you know in in the 19th century you know they're using email but it
takes takes sometimes days yeah three days Larry three days yeah to my
knowledge three days okay yeah so uh already China's making a move in that
way well Iran plays a critical role both for Russia in terms of a north south
economic corridor and a critical role for China in terms of its belt and road initiative so uh that's why both you've
seen Russia and China conducting joint naval military exercises with Iran since
2019 and they do it every March uh so uh this
was the seventh time they did it uh so the cooperation between Russia and China
on this is significant in fact you had when the start of this war between Israel and Iran you know when it went
hot in June 13th within uh two days you had she and Putin on the phone
coordinating and talking then uh two days ago you had the u the meeting of
the defense ministers under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
what was interesting there is you know you had the Iranian defense minister there meeting with the Chinese and
basically came with a shopping list but more interesting you had the defense ministers of India and Pakistan sitting
side by side so this this attack by
Israel with US backing against Iran on June 13th this wasn't about the nukes
about enriching uranium this is about trying to destroy disrupt derail bricks
because bricks represents an existential threat to the western to the US
dominated international financial system you're absolutely correct Larry i just
found out yesterday uh I had a uh reached out to some of
Trust sources that I I I check stuff with and found out that President Xi
it's not going to attend the break summits right and the reason being because Brazil which I don't know it
lost its mind that is throwing uh some sort of uh
uh it it's throwing the uh
uh state dinner for India just doesn't make any sense whatsoever so but anyway what you stated Larry is exactly had to
do with uh what the US and Israel did because of what they are seeing regarding rapes
no yeah i I was just going to say I think uh with respect to India versus
Iran Yeah um while India is far larger in terms of population uh Iran is is
actually going to be more important than India economically in terms of because of its oil oil supply yeah you're
absolutely correct i want to get your take on one one aspects regarding this aspect before we move into something
else what do you make out of the attack on Al base in Qatar you and I know that
is an extension of the central command and the US went ahead and moved I was
aware of the movement of the 40 fighter jets that we have over there so uh what
do you make out of that from some sort of just the the big picture th this is a
repeat of what happened in 2017 and 2018 when the United States launched missile attacks Tomahawk missile attacks in
Syria u back then it was claimed that oh the Syrian government had used chemical
weapons against its people so therefore we're going to punish them but what really happened back then is what
happened this time is the the attack was precoordinated
back in 2017 2018 that was pre-coordinated with the Russians and and the Syrians so the they knew where
we were going to attack they knew when we were going to attack they knew what we were going to attack with and we gave
them advanced warning about eight hours u because we wanted to put on a show
yeah but it wasn't it wasn't real and that's exactly what happened at Aludit
the the Iranians the United States was
asking for an off-ramp and to get that off-ramp
they they said we're going to bomb we're going to bomb your nuclear facilities for Natan Sishahan
and uh and and if you attack our planes then we'll you know we'll escalate this
to war so Iran you know Iran had already removed the highlyenriched uranium and
recognized that United States would not be able to do any significant permanent damage to Fordo it's just buried too
deep no matter how many you know bunker buster bombs they dropped uh so uh you
know you know United States launched 14 GBU 57s 12 at Fordo two at Natans I
believe uh and what did Iran Iran do it launched 14 missiles at Aluded now I
I've been to Aluded back in 2006 and
you know the once you remove the planes there's only there's an air operations
center that is part of Sentcom's command uh that was evacuated and closed down so
there was nothing there to hit this was so Iran could say "See we struck back." Yeah and then the then Trump gets to say
"Okay ceasefire everybody." Because Trump was acting to save Israel israel
was in trouble it wasn't Iran seeking a ceasefire it was Israel israel yeah very
very interesting guys uh if you want to read up more on Larry's articles on
Substack so I'm going to show you posted on the screen here for you but I'm going to put the link for you in the chat box
you can go ahead and subscribe to that i read them on a regular basis when they come out and thank you Larry for doing
that man truly appreciate you sort of sharing the knowledge with the masses a lot of people are just clueless as to
what's what what as as to what's going on so now excuse me uh I want to turn
our conversation to the NATO summit yeah I know that's my reaction Larry i
laughed let me That's all I get trivia question so who which musical group
originated the phrase "Who's your daddy?" Oh my god guys does anybody know put the
answer in the chat box let's see if they know does anybody know come on oh my gosh that I know i should have known
this Larry what's your name who's your daddy the
zombies oh oh man
that's correct so yeah very very interesting well on a serious note go
ahead you heard what NATO just said as far as the increase of the 5% in defense
spending for one objective and one objective only is to increase weapon
production to support Ukraine how ludicrous is statements like that
when you consider country like Greece can afford 5% increase in its defense
budget yeah maybe they'll send send some satsiki sauce or something you know
do a goodro um you know Ukraine by the time they start allocating some of this
money Ukraine probably will not exist uh the um we saw a decided shift in
Russia's tone yesterday and it was I think made in response to
the NATO meeting previously Russia had said that while it opposed and it would
and and that Ukraine could never enter NATO it didn't you know it said "Hey if Ukraine wants to become a member of the
European Union that's okay fine knock yourselves out." Yesterday they said
"Nope the European Union is an extension of NATO therefore Ukraine Ukraine will
never be a part of of the European Union because Russia said we're not going to
let it happen now you're I think uh the the movement
the advances that Russia is making right now they they've already now fully captured Lukans that happened last week
uh they will probably finish capturing um the Daetsk by maybe the end of August
could be that quick uh and then at that point they'll be able to take Neprop
a large portion of that they're they're advancing in Sunumi they're advancing in Kharkiv and they're advancing in
Zaparisia so uh Ukraine Ukraine's going to there
will come a point where it's going to crumble fast and and and I and we're edging towards that wow uh I was
recently in Poland Larry uh just about two weeks ago and some of the conversations that I heard uh about has
to do with Poland considering sending troops to Bellarus
h Why do you think will Poland embark on such ventures that do you know it's
going to be risky for them uh they may have a death wish you know we're we're
seeing right now Poland is sending troops to I believe Odessa odessa yeah
the the Brits have sent troops the French have sent troops the Australians are sending so there's now a NATO
military presence without being dressed up as NATO in Odessa
and you're going to see in the coming days Russia will be hitting those targets will be destroying
you know killing those soldiers well it's a legitimate target yeah so you kind of coming all the way to Russia's
border and do what so just I want you guys to to once again hear it from Larry directly how things tanks are so again
pay close attention and be careful as to what you are reading or hearing on
YouTube stuff so if you have trusted sources that is exactly what you stick
with so I want to move Larry if I may i know you are on on a tight schedule here
no we got I got that great i appreciate it um I want to move to the domestic front and the domestic front has to do
with two things one of them has to do with the allocation of a 2,000 FBI
agents suggesting that there are some counterterrorism operations that's going
to take place and so forth and Iran might end up causing problems here iran
in itself has warned the Americans that the Israelis could conduct a false flag
operation and I would not be surprised Larry we've seen this before 1967 we saw again what
James Engleton the former CIA director did when he shared the information nuclear technology with the Israelis so
how how how do you see it playing out uh Iran is not going to launch terrorist
attacks against the United States you remember last right after Trump was
elected maybe a day before the the FBI claimed that they had disrupted a plot an
assassination plot by Iran but when he went through it you realized that the
primary source for all this information were DEA informants
two guys two guys who'd been busted on a on a big drug deal in Singapore of all
places i mean hell they they they put you in prison for chewing gum and these knuckleheads were running a drug deal in
Singapore and yet they mysteriously didn't spend any time in jail well that's because uh you know when uh when
DEA showed up they had to give up their whole network and they became cooperators so it was just a fabrication
just simply look at the history iran has not been carrying out terrorist
attacks against terrorist attacks means attack on civilians for political
purpose purpose they don't attack American civilians they said "Well what about the embassy bombings in Beirut in
the Marine barracks?" Yeah the Marine Barracks is a military target and why
was Iran doing that because we the United States were firing battleship uh
loads into the BA Valley we were killing Shia men women and children so you know
the the Americans only always get half the story you get the story about where we're the victim never talking about
what it is that we did uh what it is that we did to provoke uh so um when you
go back and look at the history of terrorism over the last 25 years the only terrorists that have been attacking
American civilians are the Sunnibbacked ones the ones backed by Saudi Arabia by
Qatar by the United Arab Emirates not by Iran so this is uh you know I think
they're generating up a false flag to justify us to go back in to attack Iran
to try to get regime change that's that's all this is about you're absolutely correct Larry and I know you
talked about some of this on your channel by the way guys to those who do not know you need to subscribe to
Larry's channel it's it's called the countercurrent very very informative one if you know want to learn the truth and
hear an objective assessment so so I'm going to put the link for you in the descript in the chat box there so you
can check it out and make sure to subscribe to Larry now Lar yesterday there were some
chatters inside Washington and once again I uh still have my contacts in DC you know how it is you know how it yeah
and one of the chatters was about the US is proposing of providing Iran with $30
billion to help them build a civilian nuclear facility so is this like a bribe
or should Iran be careful because he can't trust the Americans well the the
Iranians are already getting help from the Russians and the Chinese on building
uh nuclear facilities and Russia and China have far more experience at it
than the United States i mean for why would they why do you go with the second rate power that's what
the United States is in this case second rate and that there is no foundation for
trust for the Iranians to trust anything that Donald Trump Steve Whit
Marco Rubio say i I mean if I was advising the Iranian government I'd tell
the United States you know stay at arms length let's have cordial relations but
you know I'm not dating you you know we can go out for a meal together but that's it you know I'm not uh not going
going home with you for the night that's not going to happen absolutely correct so uh I want to address one last
question Larry before I let you go my friend and this one has to do with the lack of the Arab world what I mean by
this no Arab country condemns what the US did uh a nuclear power sort of
dropping a bomb on a non-uclear country violating all the international norms international law the Geneva Convention
the IEA conventions and no Arab country whatsoever condemned that are they part
of the problem oh absolutely you know the they are enablers and facilitators
of course um you know it's partic it's expected you know Turkey I wasn't
surprised by Erdogan you know in fact he came out and condemned uh condemned Iran
for retaliating you know so but uh you know I think
these kinds of situations are always good it helps you find out who your real friends are you find out who's got your
back and who just talks a good game and so you know Iran there was a lot of
concern about Iran shutting down the Gulf Straits of Hormuse um I I argued
that wasn't going to happen or at least ban what they would have done is done a
selective enforcement like like the Houthies have done in the Red Sea the Red Sea any ship going to the United
States or Europe Yeah that would be embargoed attacked taken under control
uh any ship going to China Vietnam India
Thailand Cambodia uh Malaysia they would have been fine because 80% of the oil
coming out of the Persian Gulf goes to Asia not to Europe and the United States yeah just to piggy back on that last
point Larry hypothetically this is hypothetical if Iran were to shut down the rate of hormones will it coordinate
with the Houthis to shut down the Red Sea well no i mean the Red Sea's already shut down
houthis have not lifted their banan in fact they've said they'll they'll attack any US ship that now comes in wow as
we've already seen the United States could not defeat the Houthis for sure for sure and so but now we're
claiming oh yeah we wiped the floor with those Iranians it's just it's not you know we're just getting fed a load of
propaganda it's spin and uh you know Trump Trump really has painted himself
in a corner now because he said the intelligence community has said Iran moved so that their highly enriched
uranium to a secret facility and Trump had you know Carolyn Levit out yesterday no they didn't we destroyed it all it's
been obliterated okay now they're going to have to come out eventually okay trump was wrong yeah
they did move it and now in the negotiations because Steve Woff came out
yesterday well we're going to demand that uh Iran return it and if I'm the
Iranians I'm just going to ask Witco how can we return what you destroyed that's right you oblit you obliterated
it congratulations we can't return it because you destroyed it next question yeah you're right yeah i don't know if
they're as much of a smartass as I am but that's what I do well that's correct i mean is Steve Wikov qualified to begin
with to carry out this kind of negotiations no no i didn't think so
nice nice guy well nice guy doesn't cut it in geopolitics you have to have an
indepth and understanding of what's going on well you got at least be something of a chess player
uh you know you just uh have to be able to think strategically and and think two or three four moves ahead yeah you know
Donald Trump and Steve Whit are golf players they're not chess players they play golf the little white ball keeping
at the fairway that explains it that explains it some uh I want to say thank
you to I am Valentina thank you very much for your super sticker your vote love and respect to you both go team
resistance the axis of hero thank you so much for your super sticker chili Pepper
appreciate your kind support for the channel and you wrote thanks for having Larry it is always a treat and pleasure
to have Larry and I I'm always I always learn something new from Larry and I'll take last question here from Matt Becky
and this is for you Larry do you see a USRussia summit in the next two months
uh I think it's unlikely i I think Trump has done a lot of damage to himself for
sure because Russia now realizes you know the Barzini moment it was Barzini
that u Russ United States and Israel were involved with this effort to kill
Putin wow just like they tried to kill the Ayatollah yeah and they're not going to succeed
with that so uh Kevin Baptist thank you so much for your super sticker truly
appreciate you well Larry on behalf of the entire community I want to say thank you so much my friend for really carving
out time for us here your knowledge is uh is is is is needed by many around the
world and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us all well I always appreciate your your kind words and the
invitation it's always an honor David thank you you're most welcome

[admin]

Scott Ritter: Will Trump Nuke Iran?
by Judge Napolitano
6/30/25



Transcript [Judge Andrew Napolitano] Hi everyone Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday June 30th 2025. Scott Ritter will be here with us in just a moment on will Donald Trump use nuclear weapons on Iran... Scott Ritter welcome here. Uh my dear friend, before we get to what Donald Trump might do, I want to talk with you for a few minutes about what Donald Trump did do. He continues to maintain as recently as yesterday on Fox Business Channel with Maria Bartiromo that the bombs that he dropped two Saturday nights ago totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities. His secretary of defense has repeated that mantra. Is there any evidentiary basis to make these claims?

[Scott Ritter] There's I guess circumstantial evidence meaning that, you know, according to Pete Hegseth on the Fordo, facility it's been studied now over the course of many years by two DARPA scientists who you know have postulated a theoretical scenario involving ventilation shafts and the precision application of GBU57 bombs that could hypothetically produce a result that in theory could have caused collapse or thermal destruction of centrifuges contained inside the Fordo facility. So the B2s dropped the requisite number of bombs. Photographic imagery shows the bombs landed approximately where they're supposed to. I mean, according to the president MP Katz, you know, the size of a refrigerator door. I haven't seen any evidence to sustain that but the the point is he doesn't know, because they have no way of knowing what happened inside. There's theories about what could have happened: vibrations, collapse, heat. But they simply don't know. What we do know is that the Iranians are in the process of excavating into the facility. Remember, they filled up the tunnels before the strike, and so they're in the process of gaining access. And you know, whether or not they choose to share what they find with us is, you know, is their business. But what we do know also is that the President simply doesn't know. Has no idea, no way of knowing. He is acting on a theory that was put forward by two scientists. You know, I've dealt with a lot of people who put forward theories -- I've put forward theories -- theories don't always play out. Reality is a is a tough mistress. And, you know, it just doesn't always work out the way you think it's going to.

But we also know that there's two other big facilities Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan. Natanz has been struck by the Israelis. This is a shallower, underground facility, and nobody believed that it could withstand big bunker busters. This is where the older centrifuges were kept and it appears that significant damage has been done to the Natanz facility. And if the President wants to take credit for, you know, applying two bombs on top of the numerous bombs that Israel dropped on it, and say "obliteration," so be it. But one of the most critical facilities in all of Iran is the Isfahan facilities, the nuclear research institutes and such. These are located very far underground. So far, that Trump didn't even try to hit them with the bunker busters, because they just would have bounced off. This is where the uranium conversion takes place. This is where you make metal to convert the feed stock once it's enriched to a level that you want. Let's say if it's a weapon over 90%, you turn it into a metal. These weren't touched at all. Trump fired 34 cruise missiles against surface targets, but the critical infrastructure deep inside wasn't touched, wasn't impacted. Nobody even tried, because you can't get to it.

So now we take this critical conversion facility, with the ability to make the metal, and we note the following: 400 kg of uranium hexafluoride enriched to 60% is missing, and nobody knows where it is. The Iranians said they secured it, and it wasn't impacted by the strikes. And there's no reason to contradict that. We know that since January, February of 2021, Iran has been producing centrifuges that are no longer accounted for by the International Atomic Energy, because Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in which accounting for centrifuges was one of the critical aspects of monitoring, and because we withdrew, and because we encouraged the European nations not to engage in the required economic interaction, that agreement said the Iranians followed through with what the agreement allows. If one or more parties are not abiding by what the JCPOA says, then the other parties are not held to their commitments. And so Iran said, "We're no longer bound by this." And they began to withdraw. In 2021 they stopped letting people count for the centrifuges. You can build a lot of centrifuges in four years. Iran has over a dozen buried sites around Iran similar to Fordo that easily could be converted. In fact, they were in the process of declaring a third uranium conversion facility when the bombing took place. My point is there's nothing stopping the Iranians from building advanced centrifuge cascades in other locations, now undeclared, because they don't trust the IAIE, because the IAIE spied on Iran on behalf of Israel and the United States, providing critical information that was used to destroy facilities and assassinate scientists. So we don't know where the centers are -- they can easily build them -- and don't know where the already enriched material is.

And let's say the Iranians did enrich it up to over 90%. The facility that converts it into metal they can use in a weapon is 100 meters underground, untouched. So Donald Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. Or he does, and he's simply lying to the American people in bluster. But there's no professional in the world that would say that Iran's nuclear program has been totally destroyed. The evidence, in fact, directly contradicts that assertion. I note that General Caine [John Daniel "Razin" Caine], the Air Force Four-star who's the current chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not say that. But the very, very political, and very very sycophant-like Secretary of Defense did mouth what the president said.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] But I've got to believe, and I think this is dangerous, Scott, when they say something as if it is historical fact, and they do not have evidence for it. And it's basically PR bluster. And it could affect human lives. And it could provoke Trump to do something else about which we'll talk in a few minutes. Was Iran weeks away from developing a bomb, as Trump also said yesterday on Fox?

[Scott Ritter] Here's Iran's weak spot in this entire adventure. I wrote an article, published in Consortium News last October, where I said Iran already has the bomb. They just haven't built it. You see, because there's no reason for Iran to enrich uranium to 60%. None whatsoever. Except according to the Iranians, to have leverage to get the United States to come back to the negotiating table, as if to say if you don't come back, or if you attack us, we could go forward. That makes them a threshold state. Then you have the words of the Iranian officials themselves that condemned them. They said, "We're weeks away. If we wanted to, and a decision was made, we're weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb." So the answer is yes. Iran was weeks away if a political decision had been made. But countering against that is the fact that the Iranians, since April, had been involved in negotiations, which they were negotiating in good faith, to eliminate all of the concerns, to turn over the 60%, to get rid of excess enrichment, to allow American inspectors, and to sign a treaty saying that they will never go back on their declaration. So if you want to make the case that Iran was an imminent threat, you can't. You simply can't. Because the United States was supposedly engaged in good faith negotiations with the Iranians. But yeah, technically speaking, I always told the Iranians, and I say it to this day, you don't wave a red cape in front of a bull and then cry, when the bull charges. You don't brag about having the potential to produce a nuclear weapon within weeks, and they'd be surprised when people say, "Well, that's unacceptable. We may attack." Who prevailed, if you can use that word. Who had the better outcome in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel? I put it as a rough draw, since Iran still contends that it doesn't plan on producing a nuclear weapon. You know, they went through a lot of effort to create a threshold capability that would never be manifested. And even though they theoretically held on to this threshold capability, since they don't plan on having a nuclear weapon, you know, what was the purpose, what was the sense? Over 900 people dead. 102 women, 32 children, some of the women were pregnant. I mean. we're talking about a lot of people dying for this.

So what Iran did show is that it can strike Israel. The Israelis haven't been forthcoming about their losses, because they can't be. According to channel 13 in Israel, we are talking massive losses. Now, I don't know if any of that can be verified, but Israel itself hasn't opened up and said, "Remember last time when Iran attacked ____ airfield, within days we had camera crews out there saying, "Okay they hit here, here." But they didn't do anything. Ain't no camera crews going to any of the Israeli air bases right now for a reason. Just like there's no camera crews allowed to roam Tel Aviv and take a look at the strategic facilities that were struck. Iran hit Israel hard.

[Larry Johnson] Most people don't realize that Israel was probably a week, two weeks, from actually being completely defeated. People are going, "Oh, you're just spouting Iranian propaganda." Okay, hear me out. Israel has two seaports where containers come into the country, and where exports leave the country. Iran shut those down. So there was no more sea-time maritime traffic coming in and out of the port. Iran also destroyed the two oil refineries, or interrupted their ability to process and produce fuel: the oil refineries at Haifa and Ashdod, which are also the places where the ports are located. Iran shut down the only international airport in Israel, so nobody was getting in and out of the country unless they went to a military airfield and got out on a military aircraft. But all of the military airfields in Israel were also hit, but we've not seen the pictures of it, or been able to assess the nature of the damage because Israeli sensors have blocked that. But we also know that Iran hit and damaged, and in some cases destroyed, Israel's version of the Pentagon, Israel's version of the CIA, Israel's version of the FBI, Israel's version of the National Security Agency, as well as their major research laboratory, the Wiseman Institute, that was used for nuclear research, and Dimona the nuclear facility, was hit and damaged. But you know the reactor was not breached. So all this nonsense that, "Oh boy, Iran just got wasted by Israel." -- Nonsense!

-- This Is How Empires Collapse — And It’s Happening Now, by Larry C. Johnson, Jun 29, 2025

Now Israel showed that it is capable of reaching out and touching the Iranians, but it was Israel, after 12 days, that was begging for a ceasefire. And it was the United States that desperately went through this act of theater at the end. You know, if the attack that Trump says "obliterated" the Iranian nuke -- we warned the Iranians in advance! We warned them in advance. Their counter strike -- they warned us in advance! "This is where we're going to strike. This is how many missiles. Please evacuate. We don't want to kill anybody." The end of this war was theater, so that people could say, "Okay everybody did what they need to do; now, we're going to end the war. And that theater was brought on by Israel, which was severely hurt by all of this. They don't want to talk about it. They're broadcasting as if they've somehow come out of this ahead. You know, the Iranians have been far more open about their losses, their casualties, and the Iranians say, "We're ready to do this again." So even though it's a rough draw, these are two punch drunk fighters that went to their respective corners. If they want to come out and answer the bell, Advantage Iran.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] Here's David Bara, the head of Mossad, apparently speaking to a group of Mossad and CIA agents, thanking the CIA for helping coordinate the attack on Iran. This goes out for about two minutes but it's very telling. I've never seen this guy make statements of this specificity. And identifying, without using a name. But his title, "The Mossad Asset," happens to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Chris, cut number six.

"I also want to express appreciation and gratitude to our main partner, the CIA, for the joint operations and the missions that were carried out, and also to the head of the CIA who supported the Mossad in making the right decisions, which ultimately made this operation possible. We will continue to keep a very close watch on all the projects in Iran which we know in the most thorough way, and we will be there just as we have been until now. But we must not forget that there are still 50 hostages in the Gaza Strip: 30 deceased, and 20 living hostages, whom it is our moral and ethical duty to bring back to our border. I want to thank you all again, and to tell you that you are part of history, an unforgettable and inseparable part of what the Mossad has done and continues to do: continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners in the IDF and the Shin Bet. And in this way we will keep bringing great achievements to the people of Israel. So thank you all very much. Well done. Truly well done."

 

Israel is in shambles, and he's saying, "Truly well done." Well, what do you think of that Scott?

[Scott Ritter] I agree with him: "Well done." I mean, I don't agree with his cause, or anything else, but what they accomplished was phenomenal. Over the course of 10 plus years, apparently together with the CIA, they built a massive organization inside Iran, and sustained it, that was able to establish warehouse-size drones that were capable of assembling drones, and then disseminating these drones in operational cells throughout Iran, and position them to have a decisive impact against Iranian air defense, to assassinate senior Iranian leadership, to take out ballistic missiles. "Well done." I mean, my god, if I were carrying out an operation of this nature, I would want those results.

Now, I would also want to protect my assets. The Mossad has abandoned nearly a thousand of its agents to be hung by the neck until dead. Because they recruited throwaway assets. They recruited Afghans, Indians, Pakistanis, poor Iranians. You know, it's the typical model. People need to know, and hopefully they've learned now, that if you get recruited by Mossad or CIA to operate inside Iran, you are a disposable asset. You will be arrested, and you will be hung. And nobody's going to come and rescue you. But be that as it may, Mossad accomplished a a great thing. Now, whether they can replicate this down the road I don't know.

But I think it is interesting the linkage he's made with the CIA. You know, the CIA, for the longest time, had something called the Iran mission center, which was created to do just this kind of operation. The Iran mission center, in my understanding, dissolved because a decision was made during the Biden administration that we weren't going to go to war with Iran. And the Iran mission center was about war. But the Near East division of the CIA's operation wing, their Iran desk, they they maintained all the contacts. They maintained everything. They've maintained the liaison with the Israelis. So the US is capable of providing tremendous amount of material support.

If you, remember, Stuxnet was the virus that was inserted into the Natanz centrifuge facility. That was a joint US-Israeli operation. The Israelis went rogue in the end. But it was developed and maintained, monitored, by the United States. You have to know, and have to believe, that there are scores of operations of this sort that have been conceived, and may have been implemented, and some of which may still be held in reserve for any future activity. So, you know, yeah, "Well done, Mossad." It doesn't mean I support what they're doing but hey, you got to call a win a win. I mean, I'm a Yankees fan, but if a Boston slugger comes up in the ninth inning, knocks a one over the center, yeah, you got to say "Well done." I don't like the outcome, but "Well done."

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] Did any Mossad agents lose their lives or get captured by the Iranians? Israeli Mossad agents, not the people that they hired as intermediaries?

[Scott Ritter] If they have, they haven't been advertising it. It's very rare that Israel will have a case officer inside Iran. There was evidence that Israeli special forces, and it could have included some paramilitaries from Mossad, were operating on the ground inside Iran on that first night or so carrying out direct action operations, using special missiles designed for that purpose. These are primarily Sayeret Matkal and Shaldag, and some other you know special operations unit, maybe Mossad's version of ground branch. But it doesn't appear that any of them were captured. They were all extricated. Generally speaking, the Mossad agents will be operating, either there's a huge CIA base in Azerbaijan that runs operations of this nature, and was heavily involved in this effort. The Mossad is working with them probably in an off-site shared facility. The same thing in Kurdistan. Up in Urbil there's a huge Mossad presence working with the CIA, again, to project force into northern Ira, out of Kurdistan. And there's every reason to believe that there's a similar CIA/Mossad base in Pakistan working the Beluch front. So that's where your case officers will be on the outside looking in, as opposed to be on the ground running things.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] What will Netanyahu expect Trump to do next?

[Scott Ritter] It all depends on what Trump has signed off on. I personally believe that Trump has signed off on regime change in Iran is his primary objective, and everything else is just a subterfuge. The Iranians should treat it as such. There will be no diplomacy with the United States. This talk of Witkoff going in and you know opening up the $30 billion. Trump has already said that's nonsense. But even if it wasn't, you can't believe anything Trump says. He has already been exposed as a liar. I mean, the American people have to understand they should quit high-fiving yourself saying, "Hey, that's cool. Trump lured him." That's the American president of the United States who has now been exposed globally as a liar, straight up liar. You can't trust them. Diplomacy in America means nothing. It's a subterfuge. Nobody can trust anything. Sign a treaty with America, doesn't matter. We won't abide by it. So stop high-fiving yourselves and understand this has done critical damage to the reputation of the United States. But the bottom line is, I believe, that Donald Trump is committed to a policy of regime change. He would like to have the nuclear program eliminated, using regime change, and the things that can happen there, as opposed to direct military force, but he has boxed himself into a corner here. Because what happens when it emerges that we know that Isfahan is intact, and Iran's not giving it up. It may turn out that Fordo is intact, and therefore the best conventional strike capacity of America, DARPA's best minds, didn't do what they were supposed to do, and Natanz, the reason why they built Fordo is they knew Natanz was going to be destroyed. So Natanz did what Natanz was going to do. But now there's a third facility that can be opened up to replace Natanz. Now you have a nuclear enrichment program that Trump says will never be allowed to exist. What do you do?

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] Well, what is he going to do? Do you think he'll be tempted to use nuclear weapons on Iran?

[Scott Ritter] Yes. The fact of the matter is, there's only two ways to take out the Iranian nuclear program. One is that the Iranians do it voluntarily, so you have regime change, and the new regime says we will turn everything over to the IAEA, and get rid of it that way. The other way is using nuclear weapons. And there is a war plan in place that's already been designed to do this. Back when Trump was talking about attacking Iran in his first term, he was told that our conventional munitions can't do this, that if you want to take out these nuclear programs, you got to use nuclear weapons, and a new nuclear deployment plan was developed that has nuclear weapons available to target these facilities. And so I think Trump will probably go into a longer regime change game right now. But if that doesn't work, if it fails, then Trump may have no choice but to either reverse course -- Obama did it; I just want to tell everybody you don't always have to go to war; Barack Obama had promised to go to war if Iran wouldn't give up its enrichment program, and ended up negotiating the JCPOA instead. But if Trump's not willing to find a negotiated outlet, and he insists on the elimination of an enrichment program Iran won't allow to be eliminated, then the fact of the matter is the only choice he has, the only weapon he has that can accomplish that, is a nuclear weapon.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] He must know by now that the bluster he articulated as recently as yesterday and the sycophant-like bluster that comes out of the mouth of his secretary of defense, is profoundly erroneous. He must know that what happened two Saturday nights ago utterly failed to do what he now has claimed it did. Do you think they are contemplating something greater, harsher, more catastrophic, and with utter disregard for human life?

[Scott Ritter] I believe they're capable of doing that. Whether or not they're going to jump from A to Z is another question. I do believe there are rational voices in the Trump administration that would try to mitigate against that kind of outcome. But the bottom line is Trump has boxed himself in. He has insisted on zero enrichment. He's insisted that the Iranian government give up this capability while Iran has said we will never give up. And he has talked about regime change. So I believe that's the direction that he's headed. I think right now people might be saying that you have to build a better case for war. One of those cases might be what I call the inspection trap. That is that now the IAEA has been disgraced and shown to be little more than an espionage front for the United States and Israel, Iran says they're not welcome back in. And so you might see the United States trying to lead the charge to get the return of the inspectors, and make the case that if inspectors aren't allowed back in then we have to assume that Iran is building a nuclear weapon; therefore we have no choice but to move in with massive strength. And look, DARPA spent two years, according to Pete Hegseth, with two scientists to come up with this strike option against Fordo. And if it didn't work, what other options do you have? DARPA is a defense advanced research projects agency. It's an organization that does advanced technology, etc. And they have some of the best minds in America. And two DARPA scientists, according to Pete Hegseth, have been evaluating the Fordo facility for many years, coming up with this strike plan to put this many GBU57s through a refrigerator door size target to destroy Fordo.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] This is the sort of cartoon that he played at one of his press conferences, created by these scientists for what they hoped, and expected, and think, would happen. But of course they have no idea if it did.

[Scott Ritter] Correct, And just so you know, Theodore Postal, who's an MIT arms control specialist who's been reviewing nonsense like this for years has already debunked the DARPA scientist theory. He's gone through the science of the strike, looking at the geology etc., and he contends that these bombs wouldn't even come close to making the penetration necessary to achieve the outcome that uh Pete Hegseth is crowing about.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] What do you think will happen next? I mean, Netanyahu's on the ropes domestically, legally. Israel is in shambles. Trump is caught in a lie. Sounds to me like they're going to take us to war.

[Scott Ritter] That's the path we're on. Doesn't mean that's always the outcome you're going to get. There's a lot of variables in here. I mean, you saw Trump's panicked social media posting about Benjamin Netanyahu's legal problems. You know, Bibi's in a lot of trouble. And we don't know what the outcome of that will be. If the Israelis had received the damage that their own channel 13 and others are talking about, Israel is not ready to begin attacks again. If they haven't received the damage, then Israel can do a rapid turnaround. We have a lot of airplanes flying in with a lot of munitions. So they can reload that.

I think the critical thing here is Trump's domestic political reality. If there's enough voices within MAGA who are speaking out against the possibility of war, Trump may have to have a second thought. But there was a lot of voices yelling before the bombing. It seems to me that the voices have somewhat dissipated, because they are loathe to be seen as being unpatriotic or anti-American. And that's the genius of the propagandist approach taken by Hegseth and Trump to you know loudly crow about an outcome they can't demonstrate, but then to say anybody who doesn't support this is unpatriotic, not supporting the brave pilots, not supporting the the two DARPA scientists, these wonderful people who made this all possible in theory. And I'm fearful that the domestic opposition that could stop a war isn't manifesting itself. And so unless something else happens, and that's always a possibility, I'm afraid that we are on a weeks or month-long path towards the potential of nuclear weapons being used against Iran. Trump, I believe, will make a play for regime change, together with the Israelis. And that will fail. And then when that fails, and the Iranians don't allow IAEA inspectors back in, I think you're going to see Russia and China putting pressure on Iran to allow them back in to try and prevent this very outcome. But if Iran says no, they spied on us --

Let me just give you a quick background. When I was a weapons inspector in Iraq, we installed a camera monitoring facility, a system, to all of Iraq's industrial infrastructure. They had the capability of producing things that could be used in weapons of mass destruction. These cameras were in place, and were directly fed into US Central Command and the CIA, who picked the targets, the timing, and everything. These cameras are supposed to be used for arms control monitoring, but instead were used for targeting by the United States military and United States intelligence service. The IAEA did the same thing. They had their cameras in there, that camera information was fed to the Israelis and to the United States, and was used for targeting purposes. The visits of the IAEA uh gave away targeting information. Grossi met with Israeli officials and handed this over. He allowed his inspectors to meet with Israeli intelligence officers to share information, to take taskings from the Israelis to go back into Iran and pick out specific things. The IAEA is 100% a corrupt institution that can never be trusted again to carry out safeguards agreements. And until it's reformed, Iran would be lunatic to allow them back in.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] Wow. Scott Ritter, thank you my dear friend. These are not happy stories, and who knows how it's going to end, but your analysis is extraordinary and deeply appreciated. All the best.

[Scott Ritter] Thanks for having me.

[Judge Andrew Napolitano] Sure.

[admin]

Court agrees to cancel PM’s testimony this week after briefing by security chiefs: Heads of Mossad and IDF Military Intelligence tell judges why Netanyahu must be freed from hearings in coming days; his lawyer has cited key ‘diplomatic, national, security issues’
by Jeremy Sharon
29 June 2025, 4:16 pm Updated at 1:19 am

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday agreed to cancel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled days of testimony in his criminal trial for this week, after Netanyahu, backed by the heads of IDF Military Intelligence and Mossad, appeared before the judges in a closed-door hearing to lay out the reasons the hearings must be put off.

The court decided that the two hearings scheduled this week for Netanyahu’s testimony will be canceled, but declined at this stage to cancel next week’s hearings — as Netanyahu also requested — citing a “lack of certainty” regarding “relevant developments.”

The judges stated that they would consider a new request to cancel next week’s hearings should one be submitted later.

Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad had submitted two requests on Friday to cancel the prime minister’s testimony for the next two weeks due to “diplomatic, national and security issues of the first order” in the wake of the recent war with Iran, which ended with a ceasefire last week.

The judges rejected those requests, saying they had not been presented with a sufficient basis to justify them.

On Sunday, however, Netanyahu went to the court himself along with the top security officials to explain why a delay was necessary.

The judges noted in their decision that IDF Military Intelligence head Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder and Mossad director David Barnea were both present and gave explanations as to why Netanyahu needed to miss the scheduled court hearings on Monday and Wednesday.

Shortly after the hearing ended, the judges announced the cancelation of this week’s hearings due to “the explanations that were given, which included significant additions and changes compared to the basis presented for the previous decisions.”

The court asked Netanyahu’s defense attorneys to “make every effort” to have another defense witness testify on Wednesday instead of the prime minister, in order to cause as little delay as possible to the trial.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Barnea and Binder told the court that there is an opportunity to change the face of the Middle East and for Israel to expand its circle of peace, including with Syria. The closed-door hearing lasted 10 minutes, unnamed sources told the broadcaster.

Netanyahu is charged with fraud and breach of trust in the three cases against him, as well bribery in one of those cases. The trial began in 2020 and is expected to last at least into 2027, not including potential appeals.