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

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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

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'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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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 not a pawn, they're a more important piece. But destroying Iran is seen as the first step for further weakening, trying to weaken Russia, and that has 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, Iran is not Syria, and I think they were just surprised. I was just going to say you've seen the movie Godfather, right?

Oh, yeah. Of course.

[Larry Johnson] And so you see that one scene after Don Corleóne goes to make peace with the other mafia guy. And at the head of the tables is this guy Barzini. And so you know the character Tom Hagen, the lawyer, is talking to Don Corleone, and he says, "Oh, you know, how are we gonna handle this other mafia chief?" And Don Corleone 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?" Israel, and Iran, and Russia realized with the June 13th attack that the one country 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 their Barzini moment, where Putin and his team realized, "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 more personally than you to provide our community the objective assessments.

[Larry Johnson] 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?

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 Iran at that time said we don't need anything at this moment.

[Larry Johnson] Yeah yeah, and so why is the New York Times sort of disclosing lies? They are 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 spin it, and downplay it. I had a good conversation earlier today with my friend Pepe Escobar, and we specifically discussed the political situation in Iran. President Pezeshkian 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 people who've been very eager to try to reestablish ties to the west; they're very sort of western influenced. But that all changed on June 13th. The nature of that attack was so shocking, so unexpected, so devious, because Trump was playing the, "Yeah, we're going to meet and have negotiations on Sunday." And then he green lights this attack, which took place, and if you remember, in the first six hours he was like, "Yeah, I knew all about it. I knew the date. I knew everything." 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 attack by Israel, Donald Trump going, "I know nothing; I see nothing; I hear nothing." You know, he was playing Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes.

So this whole thing has really touched off a new dimension of relationship between Iran and Russia. And that's why, when the Iranian foreign minister went to Moscow on Monday, and he had a long meeting with Putin, and it was afterwards that Putin came out and said, "You know, whatever the Iranians ask for we will definitely consider it."

Because one of the lessons of these 12 days is there was an S300 and an S400 Russian air defense system. Both were placed around the Bushehr Nuclear power plant where 200 Russians are busy working, which plant did not get bombed or attacked during the 12 days.

It was the Bushehr indeed. So the Iranians are not stupid. They're going, "Hey, 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's where I think this is headed. I think you're going to see announcements this week about closer ties than ever between Russia and Iran and China.

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, he is someone I trust. So beware what you are watching on YouTube as to the statements that Russia has dumped Iran, and all that. You got one of your community -- there are more on this --Amanda Jane saying that my paycheck from Putin's in the mail. I don't get a damn penny from this. Not a damn penny, Amanda. You know, people like that are disgusting. Amanda Jane can go to hell. 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. You are here because you want to learn something, and Larry gave us his time to come over here. He has other stuff to do, but he was willing to come over here. So don't just be a watcher. Go ahead and hit the 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, Larry, because I read, prior to our conversation here, I had to just check out some updates. And one of the things that Iran is considering is the purchase of the Chengdu J-10, the Chinese jet. Is this a conflict of interest between China and Russia, or is Iran going on two trajectories: one with Russia, and one with China?  

[Larry Johnson] Iran is a critical lynchpin in the BRICS system. BRICS has been this ambition of China and Russia, but it was accelerated when Russia initiated the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022. And over that, it has brought Russia and China closer together as cooperating partners from China's perspective, with its alliance with Russia, and China has a pretty secure source of oil going forward, so it's not going to be held hostage by other countries. That's number one.

Number Two: China set up this thing called 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 using blockchain technology out of the whole realm of Bitcoin; whereas SWIFT is locked in the 19th century. They're using email, but it takes sometimes days, three days, Larry, three days to my knowledge. So 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 that's why you've seen Russia and China conducting joint naval military exercises with Iran since 2019. And they do it every March. So this was the seventh time they did it. So the cooperation between Russia and China on this is significant. In fact, at the start of this war between Israel and Iran, when it went hot on June 13th, within two days you had Xi and Putin on the phone coordinating and talking. Then two days ago, you had the meeting of the defense ministers under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. What was interesting there is you had the Iranian defense minister there meeting with the Chinese, and basically he came with a shopping list. But more interesting, you had the defense ministers of India and Pakistan sitting side by side. So 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 BRICS, because BRICS represents an existential threat to the US-dominated international financial system.

You're absolutely correct Larry. I just found out yesterday, I had reached out to some trusted sources that I check stuff with, and found out that President Xi is not going to attend the BRICS summits, right? And the reason being because Brazil, which I don't know, it lost its mind, is throwing some sort of state dinner for India -- it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But anyway, what you stated Larry is exactly right. I think with respect to India versus Iran, while India is far larger in terms of population, Iran is actually going to be more important than India economically, because of its oil supply.

Yeah, you're absolutely correct.

I want to get your take, before we move onto something else, what do you make out of the attack on Al Udeid base in Qatar?

You and I know that it 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 what do you make out of that from the big picture?

This is a repeat of what happened in 2017 and 2018 when the United States launched Tomahawk missile attacks in Syria. Back then it was claimed that 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. The attack was precoordinated back in 2017-2018 with the Russians and the Syrians. So 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 of about eight hours. Because we wanted to put on a show. But it wasn't real. And that's exactly what happened at Al Udeid. The United States was asking for an off-ramp, and to get that off-ramp, they said, "We're going to bomb your nuclear facilities for Natanz, Isfahan and if you attack our planes, then we'll escalate this to war. So Iran had already removed the highly-enriched uranium, and recognized that the United States would not be able to do any significant permanent damage to Fordo because it's just buried too deep, no matter how many bunker buster bombs they dropped. So the United States launched 14 GBU 57s at Fordo, 2 at Natanz, I believe, and what did Iran do? It launched 14 missiles at Al Udeid. I've been to Al Udeid, back in 2006, and once you remove the planes, there's an air operations center that is part of Centcom's command that was evacuated and closed down, so there was nothing there to hit. This was so Iran could say, "See, we struck back." And 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. Very very interesting, guys.

If you want to read more of Larry's articles on Substack, I'll put the link for you in the chat box. https://substack.com/@larrycjohnson. 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. I truly appreciate you sharing the knowledge with the masses of people, who are just clueless as to what's going on.

So now I want to turn our conversation to the NATO summit. Yeah, I know. That's my reaction, Larry. So which musical group originated the phrase, "Who's your daddy?" Oh my god, guys. Does anybody know? Put the answer in the chat box. [The 1968 song "Time of the Season", by The Zombies, Album: Odyssey and Oracle.] Does anybody know? My gosh. I should have known this, Larry. The zombies. 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 5% increase in defense spending for one objective, and one objective only, is to increase weapon production to support Ukraine. How ludicrous statements like that are when you consider that a country like Greece can afford a 5% increase in its defense budget. Yeah, maybe they'll send some tzatziki sauce, or something. You know, by the time they start allocating some of this money, Ukraine probably will not exist. We saw a decided shift in Russia's tone yesterday. I think it was made in response to the NATO meeting. Previously Russia had said that while it opposed Ukraine ever entering NATO, it said, "Hey, if Ukraine wants to become a member of the European Union, that's okay. Fin,e knock yourselves out." Yesterday they said, "Nope, the European Union is an extension of NATO; therefore, Ukraine will never be a part of the European Union because Russia said we're not going to let it happen."

Now the advances that Russia is making right now, they've already fully captured Luhansk. That happened last week. They will probably finish capturing Donetsk by the end of August. And then, at that point, they'll be able to take Dnepropetrovsk, a large portion of that. They're advancing in Sumy. They're advancing in Kharkiv. And they're advancing in Zaporizhzhia. So there will come a point where Ukraine is going to crumble fast, and we're edging towards that.

Wow. I was recently in Poland, Larry, just about two weeks ago, and some of the conversations that I heard about has to do with Poland considering sending troops to Belarus. Why do you think Poland will embark on such ventures? You know it's going to be risky for them. They may have a death wish, you know. We're seeing right now that Poland is sending troops to, I believe, Odessa. Odessa, yeah. The Brits have sent troops. The French have sent troops. The Australians are sending troops. So there's a NATO military presence, without being dressed up as NATO, in Odessa. And you're going to see in the coming days that Russia will be hitting those targets, will be killing those soldiers.

Well, it's a legitimate target, yeah. So I just want you guys to once again hear it from Larry directly how things are. So again, pay close attention, and be careful as to what you are reading or hearing on YouTube and various 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 a tight schedule here, 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 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 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 in 1967. We saw again what James Angleton, the former CIA director did, when he shared nuclear technology with the Israelis. So how do you see it playing out?

Iran is not going to launch terrorist attacks against the United States. You remember, right after Trump was elected, maybe a day before, the FBI claimed that they had disrupted 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 who'd been busted on a big drug deal in Singapore, of all places. I mean, hell. They put you in prison for chewing gum. And these knuckleheads were running a drug deal in Singapore. And yet mysteriously, they didn't spend any time in jail. Well, that's because when the 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. Terrorist attacks means attacks on civilians for political purposes. They don't attack American civilians. "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 the United States were firing battleship loads into the BA Valley, killing Shia men, women, and children. So you know 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, what it is that we did to provoke it. 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 Sunni-backed ones, the ones backed by Saudi Arabia, by Qatar, by the United Arab Emirates, not by Iran. So 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 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 called the Counter Currents. https://www.youtube.com/@counter_currents_channel. It's very, very informative. If you want to learn the truth, and hear an objective assessment, I'm going to put the link for you in the chat box there so you can check it out, and make sure to subscribe to Larry.

Now Larry, yesterday there were some chatters inside Washington, and once again, I still have my contacts in DC. And one of the chatters was that the US is proposing to provide Iran with $30 billion to help them build a civilian nuclear facility. So is this like a bribe, or should Iran be careful because they can't trust the Americans?

Well, the Iranians are already getting help from the Russians and the Chinese on building nuclear facilities, and Russia and China have far more experience at it than the United States. Why would they go with the second rate power? That's what the United States is, in this case, second rate. And there is no foundation for the Iranians to trust anything that Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Marco Rubio say. I mean, if I was advising the Iranian government, I'd tell the United States to stay at arms length, "let's have cordial relations, we can go out for a meal together, but that's it. I'm not going home with you for the night. That's not going to happen.

Absolutely correct. So 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, that no Arab country condemns what the US did, a nuclear power, sort of dropping a bomb on a non-nuclear country, violating all the international norms, international law, the Geneva Convention, the IAEA conventions, and no Arab country whatsoever condemned that. Are they part of the problem?

Oh, absolutely. They are enablers and facilitators. I wasn't surprised by Erdogan, who came out and condemned Iran for retaliating. But 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 there was a lot of concern about Iran shutting down the Gulf Straits of Hormuz. I argued that wasn't going to happen, or at least what they would have done is a selective enforcement like the Houthis did in the Red Sea. Any ship going to the United States or Europe would be embargoed, attacked, taken under control, any ship going to China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Cambodia, 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, if Iran were to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, 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 ban. In fact, they've said they'll attack any US ship that comes in. Wow. As we've already seen, the United States could not defeat the Houthis.

For sure, for sure. But now we're claiming we wiped the floor with those Iranians. We're just getting fed a load of propaganda. It's spin, and you know, Trump really has painted himself in a corner now, because he said the intelligence community has said Iran moved their highly enriched uranium to a secret facility. And Trump had Karoline Leavitt come out yesterday and say it's all been obliterated. Eventually Trump is going to have to say he was wrong, that yeah, they did move it. And now, in the negotiations, because Steve Witkoff came out yesterday and said, "We're going to demand that Iran return it." And if I'm the Iranians, I'm just going to ask Witkoff how can we return what you destroyed? That's right. You obliterated it. Congratulations. We can't return it because you destroyed it. Next question.

Yeah, you're right. I don't know if they're as much of a smartass as I am, but that's what I would do.

Well, that's correct. I mean, is Steve Witkoff qualified to carry out these kinds of negotiations?

No, O didn't think so. Nice nice, but nice guy doesn't cut it. In geopolitics, you have to have an in-depth understanding of what's going on.

Well, you've got at least to be something of a chess player, to be able to think strategically, and think two or three or four moves ahead.

Yeah, you know, Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff are golf players; they're not chess players. They play golf, keeping the little white ball on the fairway.

Larry, it is always a treat and pleasure to have you. And I'm always learning something new from Larry. The last question from Matt Becky, for you Larry, "Do you see a US-Russia summit in the next two months?

I think it's unlikely. I think Trump has done a lot of damage to himself for sure, because Russia now realizes it was Barzini that the United States and Israel were involved with in this effort to kill Putin. Wow. Just like they tried to kill the Ayatollah. And they're not going to succeed.

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 needed by many around the world, and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us all.

Well, I always appreciate 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.

[admin]

Douglas Macgregor: America’s New Long War
Glenn Diesen
Jul 1, 2025

Douglas Macgregor is a retired Colonel and former advisor to the Secretary of Defense. Col. Macgregor argues that Trump has started a war he will not be able to finish soon, as the ceasefire is temporary and fake.



Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome. Today we're joined again by Colonel Douglas McGregor, the former adviser to the Secretary of Defense [under Trump], and also a writer on geopolitics and military strategy. So yeah, welcome back. It's good to see you again.

It's good to see you, Glenn. So after decades of these forever wars that continue to result in defeat after defeat, some people argue that Trump instead achieved a great victory in only a 12-day war. You are not one of those people. I take it as you argue that well, this was not a success, and also the war is not over. So you expect this to be a long war, if I'm not mistaken? What are your expectations?

Douglas Macgregor
@DougAMacgregor

America’s New Long War

Wars frequently pick up where the last ones left off. World War II ended where World War 1 ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom (Gulf War II) began where Desert Storm (Gulf War I) concluded.

Today there is every reason to expect the recent 12-day conflict between Iran on one side and Israel and the United States on the other to resume when the Israeli and U.S. Forces have replenished their stocks of missiles. No doubt, the Iranians will work hard to radically improve their integrated air defenses. For simplicity, let’s call the current conflict, the “New Long War.”

As always, the New Long War continues with other means. GEN Erik Kurilla, the CENTCOM CDR is known for his close relationship with PM Bibi Netanyahu and his enthusiasm for the Greater Israel Project including seizure of Sinai and the Suez Canal. Fully aware of the impossibility of rapidly conquering and seizing the Suez Canal without active American military support, General Kurilla may have received authority from President Trump to conduct joint planning.

The presence of a newly established Russia phased array radar in Egypt suggests Moscow is aware of the possibility. The Russian phased array radar can reportedly track stealth aircraft and missile launches at long range.

Further east, some 1,200 miles away in Azerbaijan, Israel’s Azeri-Turkish ally is allegedly preparing to attack Armenia and, potentially, northern Iran. GEN Kurilla also knows that Iran, like Russia, has a long history of cooperation with Orthodox Christian Armenia. Israel provided critical drone technology to Azerbaijan in its last victorious campaign against Armenia, and Azerbaijan likely provided support for Israeli operations against Iran.

GEN Kurilla is also acquainted with the MEK (Mojahedin-e-Khalq) an anti-Iranian Kurdish Force formerly aligned with Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq. The MEK fights for regime change in Iran and is predictably now aligned with the Trump Administration.

Azerbaijan’s goal is a greater Azerbaijan created by forcibly annexing Iran’s Turkic Azeri population centered on Tabriz in Northern Iran. The unspoken assumption in Washington, Jerusalem, and Baku is that the Azeri Turks in Northern Iran will welcome the opportunity to join with their Azeri neighbors. The national leaders in all three States view this operation as contributing to the breakup and destruction of Iranian national unity, as well as the desired regime changes in Tehran. These operations are in the planning stage but could be launched at any time. These may or may not wait for the U.S. and Israeli missile arsenals to be replenished.

A similar approach was employed in Ukraine against Russia. However, the operation to remove President Putin from power in Moscow, to foment unrest and violence against Moscow inside Russia, Kazakhstan and other neighboring states was botched.

Washington’s gamble failed. Russia remains intact. Russia’s resources remain beyond the reach of Western financial power. The Russian State and its military power are stronger than ever. Ukraine is destroyed.

The history of Washington’s military interventions is not encouraging. Washington’s interventions since 1953 failed to cultivate the emergence of any liberal democratic states. If anything, Washington’s near constant interventionism spread authoritarianism across North Africa and the Middle East. The new long war seeks to subvert and destroy Iran promising a similar outcome.

However, this time, the New Long War will invite broader participation from numerous Muslim states, Russia, and China. In contrast to past interventions, the new long war could also prove impossible to sustain inside American society. As seen during the Black Lives Matter (BLM)/Antifa riots in 2020 and, more recently, the appearance of Mexican flags during anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles, American societal cohesion is low, with ominous connotations for American national power.

Notwithstanding President Trump’s tariff offensive, the trade policies sponsored by both parties for at least 40 years encouraged de-industrialization. The problem is inseparable from immigration policy. Since 1965, America has admitted over 50 million legal immigrants, most from the developing world. Today, there may be as many as 50 million illegal immigrants inside the U.S., including 20 to 30 million illegals that arrived during the Biden administration. Simultaneously, real wages for working-class Americans stagnated despite real increases in productivity and soaring corporate profits.

At the same time, Washington’s financialization of the economy—a form of rent extraction, with profits earned through privileged access to new money created by the Federal Reserve—combined with the destruction of American manufacturing, supports a massive wealth transfer mechanism. Economic data collected between 1979 and 2018 shows that while productivity increased by 59.7%, hourly compensation for non-supervisory workers rose by only 17.5%. The difference went to capital owners and financial intermediaries. Wealth moved from America’s dying middle class to the top 10 percent of income earners.

The implications of these developments for Washington’s global political, military, and economic power are profound. Why? There are multiple reasons, but three are of immediate importance:

First, in the five decades since Washington disestablished the gold standard, the debt-to-GDP ratio has grown from 40 percent to more than 120 percent of GDP and it continues to climb. Consequently, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expanded from $80 billion to well over $8 trillion. With spending levels and deficit trajectories that are not sustainable, the notion of a trillion-dollar defense budget is absurd.

Second, there is an undeniable shift in the global balance of economic power. A new intercontinental commercial trading and monetary system is rising. It’s called BRICS, an intergovernmental organization consisting of ten nation-states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Together, these nation-states constitute more than a third of global GDP. A further 50 or more nation-states that want to join BRICS will push it to nearly 50 percent of global GDP.

More important, China, Russia, India, and Iran are civilizational constructs—power centers that, after centuries of trailing in development behind the West (or enduring its exploitation), are now roaring back to life. In some ways, the world of the 21st century may be on track to resurrect the constellation of powers that dominated the world in the 11th century.

Third, the proliferation of technology across national borders combined with the growth of high human capital inside BRICS is conferring military capabilities on BRICS members that were previously unavailable to any but Western Powers. Put another way, the attempt to repeat a Desert Storm scenario anywhere on the Eurasian landmass would spell disaster for American military power.

Finally, Washington’s political class manifests much less regard for the long-term strategic interests of its own citizens—their security and prosperity. As a result, Washington pays an exorbitant price in reputation and treasure for policies that confront Palestinians with the choice of death or expulsion from their homelands.

There are many moving parts in the regional strategy outlined at the beginning of this post. Assumptions of tacit acceptance or rapid capitulation are implicit and dangerous.

When Hitler was briefed on the expected Soviet reaction to Operation Barbarossa, Major General Ernst Koestring, a Prussian officer fluent in Russian from a family that had lived in Moscow since the reign of Catherine the Great, advised: “Initially, German forces will advance rapidly. The various peoples on the Soviet periphery will likely welcome the German forces. Resistance will be weak. But when the Germans advance into Russian territory, the resistance will be tremendous. The Russian population will fight for every square meter of territory.”

Hitler politely thanked him but remained convinced that poor Soviet military performance in Finland in 1939 suggested a different outcome in 1941. Koestring, of course, was right.

Diplomacy is the art of the possible. Warfare is always a gamble.

A partial success in the diplomatic sphere is preferable to gambling on success in war that may turn into catastrophic failure. Unless the American electorate demands accountability for what the White House and Congress do in their name, Americans will face a grim reckoning with financial, political, and military reality at home and abroad.

*Grateful to Dave Ramaswamy for his edits and suggestions.
12:13 AM · Jun 30, 2025

[Colonel Douglas McGregor] Well, I wrote something where I tried to introduce the idea of the new long war because I don't see any immediate resolution, and certainly none in sight. This is a different set of circumstances though from what Americans have experienced in the past. This is a wholly Israeli fabricated war. In other words, Israel and its supporters in the United States have fabricated this war with the goal of achieving Israeli supremacy in the region. but more important, I think you're you're talking about about financial hegemony shared by the various billionaire oligarchs that dominate the city of London and New York City and now control Washington. And people are very concerned because this is not the Trump they knew five, six years ago and it's not the Trump they thought they voted for. But they have to go back and rethink some of their assumptions. For those who actually watched the Republican convention, they could not have missed this event that had a giant Israeli flag on the wall, a huge sign that said Israel first, and then this gentleman whom I do not know and have never seen before or since walk out onto the stage and try to lead cheers for Israel first. I don't think people really understood what they were seeing, but it was a very clear demonstration of where we were headed as a country if Donald Trump were elected. And ultimately, Donald Trump could could never have reached the White House had he not had the support of the Israel lobby's billionaires who were determined to get him into office. So now he's there and he's doing essentially what they want him to do. And that's where we are now. As far as the new long war is concerned, the reason I say that is that this 12-day conflict is not the end of anything. We've been down this road before. World War I did not really resolve anything. So, you ended up with what people subsequently called a 20-year truce. And then the Second World War broke out, which was an extension of the first. Desert Storm ended in 1991 inconclusively because there was no willingness to either annihilate the Republican Guard Corps, which was largely allowed to escape, or to march on Baghdad and demand the replacement of Saddam Hussein. So, we're we're in a similar situation now. The last 12 days did not resolve anything. If anything, it demonstrated that Iran's missile arsenal, as pointed out by Ben Gabir in Israel, was far greater than anybody appreciated and far more accurate and devastating.

Israel Suffered Extensive Damage
by Larry C. Johnson
26 June 2025
https://sonar21.com/israel-suffered-extensive-damage/



Despite the arduous efforts of Israeli censors to hide the devastation Iran inflicted on Israel with its barrage of ballistic missiles during the 12-Day War, information is emerging that destroys the myth that Israel had an impregnable air defense. The map at the head of this article reveals the sites targeted by Iran. Based on the videos of strikes in Haifa and Tel Aviv, I think this map accurately portrays the massive scale of the Iranian attack. For the first time in its history, Israel took a major beating.

According to various Israeli media reports, damage spanned residential buildings, scientific infrastructure (e.g., labs at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot), the Israeli Defense Ministry complex, and commercial hubs like the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Iran also struck a military target near the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. The medical center was hit by the blast wave, which caused extensive structural damage, a chemical leak, and dozens of injuries. The Israeli press claimed this was a direct strike on Soroka, but the fact that no one was killed undermines that claim.

Iran also struck the following residential areas, reportedly targeting Israeli military and intelligence officials:

• Bat Yam: 9 killed, ~200 wounded; high-rise apartments destroyed.
• Ramat Gan: Nine buildings destroyed, hundreds displaced.
• Haifa and Tel Aviv: Strikes near military HQs (“Kirya”) and civilian neighborhoods.

Iran also caused extensive damage to the Port of Haifa and the Port of Ashdod (Note, I had no information on the latter when I posted yesterday.), as well as the refineries at Haifa and Ashdod. Israel has maintained a complete blackout on the damage to its military and intelligence facilities, but the sites identified on the map above indicate that Iran likely enjoyed similar success as that observed in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The following brief video shows Tel Aviv — before and after. Israel got a taste of what it has done to the Palestinians in Gaza; it was a painful morsel.

[x]

Despite Donald Trump’s specious claim that the US obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s Defense Minister Katz is telling a different story:



So, what will Iran do? According to Ayatollah Khameni, Iran will continue to enrich uranium. While the US and the IAEA will be stomping their feet and clamoring for Iran to give it up, I don’t think that Iran is in a charitable mood. Trump has painted himself into a corner by his insistent and repeated claim that the US strikes eliminated Iran’s uranium enrichment program. How can Iran surrender something that Trump says no longer exists?

CNN is reporting that Trump is offering Iran a deal that is likely to cause Bibi Netanyahu to have a stroke:



Personally, I find it incomprehensible that Iran would trust any deal offered by Trump in light of his betrayal of the previous negotiations — i.e., he allowed Israel to launch the decapitation strike on June 13 rather than postpone the action in order to continue talks, which were schedule for June 15. My advice to Iran is simple: Solidify your military ties to Russia and China, launch a massive counterintelligence campaign to identify and eliminate those elements collaborating with Mossad and Western intelligence agencies, replenish and harden air-defense systems, and build more ballistic missiles.

Iran’s situation reminds me of the scene from The Godfather, when Don Corleone’s sons debated about how to respond to the attempted murder of their father.



There is a critical difference… I am not advocating that Iran strike back, as did Michael, by killing Sollozo and the corrupt police captain. However, if there are any Iranian authorities who believe that Israel and Western intelligence agencies have given up on their dream of murdering Iranian leaders and collapsing the Iranian regime, they should be removed from office.

In Washington, the brawl between Trump and the intelligence community is not over. I anticipate that DIA, the CIA and the NSA will be producing additional intel that demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran moved the enriched Uranium. Trump boxed himself in with this statement today:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said on ABC News on Monday the U.S. was “confident” Iran’s nuclear program was “completely and totally obliterated,” noting there was a “high degree of confidence” the locations the U.S. strikes took place is where Iran stored its enriched uranium and that Iran “no longer [has] the capability … to threaten the world.”

But the Telegraph is reporting, thanks to Israeli sources, the opposite:

Donald Trump will demand that Iran hand over all its enriched uranium as the price for peace, according to Israeli sources.

A report ahead of next week’s US-Iran talks said the US is requiring the Islamic Republic to give up any nuclear fuel enriched to 60 per cent or more, which is near weapons-grade.

Maybe the Iranians have a mischievous sense of humor and will ask Trump’s negotiators, “How can we turn over something that President Trump said he obliterated”? At some point, I expect Trump will do one of his pivots and admit that Iran is hiding its enriched uranium.

I discussed some of these issues today with Garland Nixon:

And all you have to do is look at the map of targets that Larry Johnson published on his site. It's very clear that Israel is in a lot of trouble. But now, we've had several people that have given us information suggesting that it was Israel that called President Trump and said, "We need a we need a pause. can you help us with a ceasefire? It was certainly not Iran, and no one should be surprised by that. After all, Iran's a nation of 92 million. That's the size of Western Europe. So, why would they be desperate at this point for a ceasefire? So, I think we we just don't know where we go from here, but I don't think it's anywhere good because the American people are not focused. And this is something most Europeans don't understand. Americans are not focused on foreign policy. They never have been really. If if you had put anything to a vote, Americans would not have fought in any of the wars beyond our borders. In fact, the only war that anybody was really excited about was the Mexican War in 1846, 47,48. That's it. We We weren't even very happy about the Civil War. The reason the Civil War lasted as long as it did was because the North didn't want to mobilize. It didn't People didn't want to fight the war. We didn't want to fight in World War I. Didn't want to fight in World War II. We We were hoodwinkedked into these wars by presidents who were determined to drag us in. We went in, we fought, and as soon as they were over, we did everything we could to come home. And when the Cold War ended, you know, we decided that's enough. And virtually everybody said, "Let's collect our military dividend." In other words, an end to this massive spending, come home and focus in the United States. And again, we developed arguments to go around that, to keep us engaged on the assumption that keeping America engaged overseas was not necessarily important to us, but it was so important to the rest of the world that we be everywhere. And so, we've been dealing with these various lobbies that have taken the position the world will not be safe until the United States occupies most of it. Well, that's insanity. But, , here we are with a different version of it. This time it's entirely Israel focused and it's designed to essentially establish this hegemony in the region. Get control of all the oil resources. That's what the banks in the city of London and New York City want. That's what the billionaire oligarchs want. this morning I was listening to I think it's Alex Kina and he mentioned what he called the money lending oligarchs. I had not heard that one before, but that works just as well as billionaire oligarchs, but I think it's  probably more descriptive of just who is behind everything. And then I listened to Oliver Stone who was speaking was talking about much the same thing. And this will continue until Americans are somehow another involved and killed to be to be blunt. As long as Americans aren't being killed, other people can die. Other people can suffer. But until you kill Americans, nobody here in the United States pays a great deal of attention. And I think that's what people in the White House and on the Hill know. However, there's a huge problem. And that is that we are on very shaky financial ground. And you have the Secretary of the Treasury, , Mr. Bessant, , worried about the bond market. You had Jerome Pal under pressure to cut interest rates from the president. and you have a general feeling in the United States of unease. You know, how can we spend on the scale that we're spending anymore when most people know instinctively you can't do that? But there is no will, no resolve to cut spending, no courage. And if you can't cut spending, you can't reduce your your debt indebtedness. You can't reduce the so-called deficit, but you can't even make a dent in the sovereign national debt. So all of these things are somehow or another converging. I don't know what happens but I don't think it's anything good. No, I think many people who have some um nostalgia for the cold war they neglect yeah there's some conditions which is are very different that is yeah the economic prowess isn't there the social cohesion political stability even moral compass and of course the the US dollar. I'm not sure how how long it can hold on in the next economic crisis. It could be very easy that the dollar itself becomes the main source of crisis. Well, I listened recently to someone who insisted that the yen and the pound and the euro would all go down before the dollar does. I don't know what the what the rationale for that is, but that was what many people are saying. In other words, we we're the healthiest horse in the glue factory. I think that's what people call us. I I think it's misleading. It's delusional. And I think you're right. I think the dollar is in a lot of trouble. It's no longer seen as a real store of value. In fact, I think it was Nasim Talib who said today gold is effectively the reserve currency. Yeah. I also heard the expression the the cleanest shirt in the hamper. So, they're all dirty, but this is the best one. well, so where does it go from here? I'm I'm pretty much on the same page that I I don't think this war is over. If anything, it's been already a very long conflict. Again, the Israel has been threatening or warning about Iran for well, a few decades now. And  but the war obviously didn't go as planned. So, what what would happen next? Is it the the US and Israel will begin to replenish and prepare new missiles, new weapons for continuation? bit like the Minsk agreement I guess just give a bit of a pause before having another go or will it be more pressure coming in as Trump's argument that all trace of the nuclear program has been obliterated and when this is countered you know he's pulled back into this how how do you see this war continuing or is it just that the ceasefire will break down fairly soon well no one knows about the timing that there are many many factors that will influence the timing. If things were to remain constant overall, then I would say it would be 90 to 120 days before you would see a resumption because it will take that long to restore Israel's missile arsenal. It would take that long for us to refit and rebuild our arsenal. Remember, we fired hundreds of missiles from offshore destroyers, Aegis class destroyers to try and help protect Israel. However, we're beginning to see something else happen in the region. And this is not necessarily brand new, but I think it's important that we understand that the CIA, MI6, Mossad, working closely together as they did in Syria are also working in places like Egypt as well as in Azerban and the Caucasus and they're trying to isolate to the extent that they are able Iran from Russia. Now, they know they can't completely isolate Iran from China, although that that may be possible in the future, but they definitely want to break that tie to Russia. Russia is a lifeline for Iran, and frankly, Iran is kind of a lifeline for Russia. Remember, Iran is the soft underbelly of Central Asia and the caucuses that Russia depends upon for stability. And the worst thing that could happen would be for Iran to somehow or another disintegrate. Yet, that's exactly what the CIA, MI6, and Mossad want to do. That's what they've been trying to do inside Iran by operating there and assassinating people. They've been trying to cause Iran internally to collapse. Now, that failed miserably. And if anything, I would argue that the last 12-day conflict has probably strengthened the Iranian regime more so than anything else. In fact, I was listening to several people who were experts on on Iran. I am not essentially make that argument and also point to the fact that the Iranian military which has taken a backseat to the Iranian revolutionary guard corps is now very much involved and very much in the forefront of defending the country that's very important because if you can bring down a state if you can somehow another separate it from its army es especially that's not happened. So I think we have to look at some some recent developments. The Azerbajan has an interest in gaining at least parts for portions of Armenia. It may at some point want to capture all of it. There is no love lost between the Turks and the Armenians as we all know and the Azeri Turks and Azerban are no exception. What's interesting about Azerbajan is its close alliance for all intents and purposes with Israel. Azerban provided a platform for the Mossad and the Israeli armed forces to attack Iran. They are now turning into what is increasingly a state that is hostile to Moscow. And their ambassador in Moscow has been talking to the Russian authorities about some actions they've taken recently. I think the Russians are now cognizant of what's happening and they're very concerned about it. The next step is of course for the Azeri army in Azerban to move into northern Iran. Like Israel that wants a greater Israel, Azerban wants a greater Azerbajan. That means it's the most logical route for expansion is into northern Iran where you have a very large Azeri population. maybe 25% or more of the population of Iran. Now these Azeris are Shia. as opposed to Sunni and you have a Sunni Shia mix in Azerban. They do still speak their language, but they have been a very important component of Persian civilization and of the Iranian state, but there have always been voices advocating for some sort of greater Turkish power in northern Iran. We'll see what happens. But I think the aim now on the Azerbajan side is to move towards Tabris, which is the center of gravity for the Azeri Turks. And this of course is music to the years of Washington and in Israel because this would contribute to their dream which is to divide and conquer Iran. Now whether or not that's possible, I can't judge, but I don't think we should underestimate the impact. It will certainly weaken Iran if this happens. It will divert Iranian resources. It will distract them from other things, which is ultimately a partially positive goal. If it contributes to the breakup of Iran, so much the better. And I think what we're seeing is the kind of strategy applied to Iran that has been applied to Russia. Ukraine was utilized much as now there's a desire to use Azer Bjan against Iran to somehow or another break up Russia to remove the government then move into and of course this is very important to the financial interests in London and New York City to move in and strip Russia of its resources it its capacity divide it up into smaller states and then effectively rule it that's failed that gambit is over but The gambit now is just beginning with Azerban and Iran. At the same time, remember if you look at this greater Israel map and a lot of people look at say well this is fancful. This could not possibly happen. There are only a few million Jews. Well, you have another problem and that is the United States and its armed forces. And you have a general in SenCom who is reportedly in the news at least closer to Mr. Netanyahu than he is to President Trump. And in fact, the White House tends to turn directly to SenCom for its quote unquote intelligence, which means that they're getting the Israeli perspective and slant. Now, that may not be a big issue because you've got a chairman of the Joint Chiefs who is the senior military adviser to President Trump who is also a very powerful, strong advocate for Israeli interests.  when he was retired, he was on the board of a hedge fund that was run by Jared Kushner's brother. So the as you begin to look at the ties and the people that are involved in all of this, there is an opportunity here for the US armed forces to become involved on the ground as well as in the air and at sea directly with the Israelis. And that then takes you to Egypt because one of the goals the the Israelis have had for a very long time is to recapture the Sinai and ultimately control the Suez Canal. I mean there's something there worth having and it's something they think they deserve. In 1956 they moved very rapidly through Sinai towards the Suez Canal with the French and the British in the hopes of securing control of it. It didn't work. Eisenhower said get the hell out and ended it. Today that's not going to happen. today. If anything, we will back it. Now, what the level of joint planning is, what the level of joint discussions happens to be, I have no idea. These are just things floating in the ether around Washington DC and down in Florida around US Central Command headquarters and as always around Langley. So, we'll we'll have to see, but it doesn't look good and it certainly bodess ill for any short war. the question is then not if we're going to see more war and see more American involvement but when it doesn't seem like engaging in these larger wars be it against now Russia or Iran and pulling in trying to pull in actors such as Assad Bahan it doesn't seem to be based on any unique I guess historical opportunities or current relatives strength. It more seems to derive from desperation though, a weakening position and hoping to I guess turn things around. But you earlier used the word hoodwinkedked that the Americans had throughout history been hoodwinkedked into wars which they didn't really support. But how did Trump get pulled into this assuming that you know he was genuine in his former statements that he wanted again to end the Ukraine war. he wanted to. I do believe that one, but also they didn't want to get pulled into any Middle Eastern wars. because um yeah, I was a bit surprised that he let himself be used by Netanyahu in this matter. Well, first of all, keep in mind that President Trump owes his position in the White House right now to the same billionaire oligarchs that fund the Israel lobby. and also some who are equally involved in the defense business. In other words, the so-called military-industrial complex, you can't ignore or you can try, but it's difficult to ignore the people that paid for your success. So, I think President Trump is certainly in trouble in that sense, and that's not something that's easy for him to do. The second thing is that we hear all the time about the Epstein files and the attorney general Pam Bondi announced that she had them and then said she couldn't possibly release them. And when she was asked why not, she said, "Well, it will cause a greater anti-semitism in the United States if I release these files." Well, you can imagine that that has piqued everybody's interest. Not that it was a big surprise given Epstein's background and his connection obviously to the Mossad and others and the CIA, but bottom line is we don't know what is in those files. We don't know who is in those files. And remember that this includes a lot of videotape that may still exist, may not. I don't know. But this was a pretty horrific operation that ran the so-called Lolita Express. Everybody's trying to figure out what does it mean and does this mean anything in the White House. Now then you have to look at the people in the White House that dominate the discussions that frame the briefings and presentations. These are people who are unabashed, unapologetic Israeli nationalist supporters. Other words, these are not people who are lukewarm about what's happening. They are avid avid supporters. And against this, you must all or behind this, you must also understand that certainly since the 1990s, you've had a lot of prominent neoons like Richard Pearl and Wolawitz and others who were advocates for gaining control of the Middle East's oil and gas fields. Now their rationale for that at the time was if we control all of this we have China by the throat. This is in the 1990s where people were beginning to see China as a potential peer competitor and we're thinking well how do we hold them in check on the assumption that China is some sort of aggressive power bent on conquering the world which is a lot of nonsense. I don't sign on for that at all but nevertheless that was the thinking. So if you think that's important and you think that this is a way to curb or contain or restrain China, controlling the the flow of oil is very important. Now the Chinese aren't stupid and they realized for a very long time that we were going to essentially move down this road. So what did they do? They they started building this one belt, one road. Essentially a restoration not just of the Silk Road, but also the expansion of a commerce system on land across Eurasia, across Eurasian landmass. We just saw the train arrive in Thrron from China on the rail links. The Russians are very keen on building the rail lines and and roads and transportation nets all the way down to the Indian Ocean through Iran back up into Russia. to Ukraine and all the way to Europe. There's two ways to view all of this. As an American, you can say, "Well, this is interesting. How do we plug into this? How do we, as Americans, we're a maritime power? perhaps we should build fleets of fast ships that can pick up material on the Eurasian periphery, transport it to the Atlantic coast, put it on our own fast rail, move it all the way to the Pacific, and then again on fast ships and move it across the Pacific. In other words, is there a way for us to fit in with this? Because we have a huge advantage, at least we have up until this point, one language, one law, one people from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Whereas the Chinese as they build out this one beltrun road are dealing with a multiple or a multiplicity of peoples and languages and laws and everybody of course along the route has their hands out. We don't we don't have that problem in the United States. So we we should see ourselves as enjoying something of a competitive advantage. But I haven't seen any interest in that. I've tried to promote that idea myself to to no avail. Instead, I see a lot of interest on finding ways to sabotage, destroy, and undermine this one belt, one road, and the development of this commercial infrastructure. Hence, you're back to the where we started, grab control of the Middle Eastern oil and gas fields. Why not just do it and forget Iran? Well, Iran is probably the second, may even be the first with the largest reserves. Iran is the biggest player and Iran has refused to submit and if you will not submit to Israeli hegemony over the region you are the enemy because by definition that he hijgemony extends to us and to the banking interests that I've talked about in London and New York City. Well, if the fighting now for all of these reasons would be revived, grabbing the oil, disrupting some of the connectivity between Iran, the Russians, and the Chinese, , how how would the US and Israel be able to do it different? Because what what will be your lessons, I guess, from the war that just finished? cuz it appears to many that Iran came out as a winner in terms of it was much stronger than people expected. Israel came out being looking much weaker than countries existed which is very dangerous thing for Israel given that it's a small country in that region. So it needs to have a I guess a sufficient deterrent. So it's you know it they kind of enjoyed this position where everyone feared the Iron Dome and you know if anyone tried to go against Israel they would be demolished. So um so how how how are they able to turn things around with Iran? Is it possible to simply do the same thing over again with more missiles? because yeah you mentioned Larry Johnson and his assessment of what was destroyed in Israel. It appears that a lot of the industrial capacity and u yeah the military was hit quite bad as well. So it's they're not going to be able to get back at this the fighting power they had before. Do you have any assessment on Iran versus Israel there? If they will be more prepared um you know in terms of this connection you just spoke about with Russia, China, do they have are they supplying the Iranians now or refernishing or re rebuilding their missile capabilities? I'm just wondering how the the next round of the war would look like. Well, the Russians and the Chinese are engaged in kind of burden sharing arrangement with Iran. In other words, both are supporting Iran. They're supporting Iran in different ways. In other words, each is supplying different things, different capabilities. The Chinese just announced they're shipping, I guess, or it may have already arrived, I don't know, 40 new fighter jets. these are the newest fourth generation fighters that China has. and supposedly they'll eventually reach a total of 127. Now, just because they show up doesn't mean that the fighters will all be extremely effective. I mean, you've got to train people. You have to maintain it. But I'm sure the Chinese will provide lots of support in that connection. The Russians, on the other hand, are very involved on the integrated air defense side and also with the missiles. Although Iran's own indigenous missile production capability and technology is excellent, I think you have to look at what's happening on the periphery. We talked about Azerban. You also have to look at the Turks and Syria. And Syria is an interesting phenomenon because now we have a former deputy head of Alqaeda and ISIS running the country and everybody is very happy with this whether they're in Saudi Arabia, Washington or Israel. is kind of is is doesn't make a lot of sense to me. They're murdering Christians left and right. But then again, the Israelis just destroyed a village in the West Bank that was entirely Christian, burned all the homes down, and are driving the people out. So, it doesn't make any difference to them. But Erdogan has something else on his agenda that's a little different. He is concerned about the emergence of a Kurdish state. And we and the Israelis have supported that. The Israelis take the position that if you're my enemy's enemy, you you must be my friend. And so the Mossad has been active with the Kurds for many years, helping them. It may be that we and the Israelis are now willing to sell out the Kurds in order for Erdogan to realize his vision of crushing any emerging state that could be Kurdish in the region. That is both in Syria and northern Iraq. that's a problem because we also support the MEK which is a Turkish some people call it a ter terrorist organization others say they're just Kurds nationalists that want to overthrow the regime in Thrron. And anybody who talks about overthrowing the regime in Thrron is automatically welcomed in Washington. Even though these people were backed by Saddam Hussein that we went to such trouble to remove, but then we kept them in place for future use against Iran. I guess what I'm saying there's there are a lot of moving parts here. And when I wrote this piece on the new law war, my purpose was trying to get people to understand that this may sound promising. If you're the Sencom commander and you think this is your path to greatness as a general by helping to orchestrate all these moving parts, you may think this is wonderful if you're in Tel Aviv that this is a way to bring down your chief adversary and finally create the Pacific region under your control that you you want. But there's a problem with this sort of thing and that's what I tried to point out at the end that you can't really control these things. Diplomacy is usually the preferred outcome because even though you may not get everything you want, you can get something that may be durable and you can build upon that and you avoid a war. Wars are always gambles and unfortunately everyone in Washington seems to be committed to gambling as opposed to diplomacy. And I I try to tell people that in 1941, one of the last people who was brought in to brief auto fitler on the final plan for Barbar Roa was a German general named Anst Kustring. An Kustring had been born in Moscow. His family had lived there. They were Germans of course and Prussians, but they'd lived there since the reign of Katherine the Great. So he was very fluent in Russian. Knew the Russians very well. during the first world war he went back to Imperial Germany in order to serve in a Prussian cavalry regiment as his family had. But he's he's someone who was always very pro-Russian. And of course, like many Germans, once that war ended, one of the things they said was that was a terrible mistake. We and the Russians should never have fought. So he was very uncomfortable with everything about Barbarosa. And he was then brought in after the final plan that had been developed by Powos who was captured at Stalenrad. It was a catastrophe. After that plan had been altered and its assumptions changed to make it palatable to Hitler. He was brought in and and he said tell you know General, you are the Russian expert on the general staff. You know how do you think the people will in the Soviet Union will respond as we advance into the Soviet Union? He said, 'Well, all the people on the periphery are non-Russians. Most of them don't like the Russians, and they will probably welcome the Germans. So, your advance to the borders of Russia will probably be quite rapid. But once you reach Russia, the Russians will fight ferociously. They will defend every square meter and the war will slow down and become very, very dangerous. Well, of course, Hitler didn't agree with him because the Russians had performed so badly in 39 against the Fins and so he said, "Thank you very much." He was polite, but that was the end of it. Well, of course, we know Kristen was right. We've seen that again in Ukraine with the Russians. And I think we're making similarly false assumptions about any future conflict with Iran, utilizing the Turks as potential agents of destruction against Iran or as potential agents of destruction against anybody we don't like in the region or that Israel doesn't like. And we're assuming that relations between Israel and Turkey, as long as Mr. Erdogan is there, will be wonderful. And we're ignoring Egypt, which is the largest Arab state, major power. And I think that's a serious mistake because although Mr. Cece has been in the eyes of his own people a good puppet for Washington and Tel Aviv, for Jerusalem, now he's very unpopular. There are millions of Egyptians that don't understand why they their government as well as other Arab governments have done nothing about Gaza. And that brings us to the final issue here. People continue to die in great numbers in Gaza. The rest of the world is very sensitive to this, especially the Muslim world. We are hated for our support for Israel for doing for helping them kill these people either through starvation or bombing or whatever. But most Americans see very little of Gaza. People in Western Europe see very little of Gaza. We lose sight of the fact that's not true for the rest of the world. And that is a permanent catalyst for conflict. And we're doing nothing to fix that or to help that or to deal with it. Now, President Trump from time to talk says, "Well, I'd like to see that end and I want to help these people." But President Trump says a lot of things. But in the final analysis, what happens? Not much. And again, to go back to the beginning, look at our financial condition. Look at our spending position. How much can all of this go on? And for how long until something breaks? Yeah. Well, I had that impression as well though that if there will be another round against Iranians that it would be seen as more preferable to also use proxy if not Azarbaan or you know Syria of course with Jolani in power would be possible and you know it could be successful if it exhaust Iranians. I mean the on on one hand the the the war now it did take it did take its toll in terms of its hitting a lot of its military equipment and soldiers but also the economic damages could u could be severe in the in the longer term but but um people often neglect that the war also brought Iran closer that is the cohesion more support now for the government. So these dreams of regime change and splitting the country I think this failed but um but but but as you said there's many variables you have to take into account if if you pull in all these other actors now already the the Russians Chinese are starting to get invested into this struggle you mentioned the different Arab countries and Turkey that would possibly be pulled in and the United States unlimited resources also isn't um that reliable anymore. As you said, if the economy begins to shake and it does appear that it's already in trouble, it seems like a massive gamble to engage in this. It just did do you see this possibly laying the I guess the the grounds for Yeah. was something that could look like a world war or or would Trump and other I guess great powers at least be cautious here. President Trump is someone who absolutely does not want a war. I mean that was very clear to me when I was working with him. I thought very highly. I mean for that reason I still think he feels that way. Just look at how he tried to handle these strikes on Iran. You know first of all we to call them tell them we're coming. They don't shoot at us. We bomb these sites that are ostensibly empty. we don't know, but you know, I you and I can't possibly know with certainty, but it certainly looks like there wasn't much there. There certainly isn't the radiation that everybody expected to find. And then at the same time, I think he wanted to put a put an end to what he thought was the war. How could he do that? Well, he can declare victory and say, "Well, this is over now. There's no more danger of any nuclear capability. It's gone." But we know that's not really true. And if you're an Iranian and you have all of these nuclear materials and you have them in other sites, your probable lesson at this stage is to build a nuclear weapon if you want to survive. Because the lesson is if you give up your nuclear weapons, you end up like Libya and Gaddafi and Libya. I don't think anybody's rushing to get in line for that outcome. So, you know, we don't we can't stay perfectly into the future. we don't know which comes first. Does our financial crisis here stricken us before we get a get a chance to extend this madness even further? we have a lot of people in Washington that absolutely cannot leave the rest of the world alone. You know the other thing is we didn't mention Iraq. Iraq is firmly in the Iranian camp and Iraq does multiply. It's a it's a force multiplier for Iran. We shouldn't lose sight of that. They have aspirations. I don't know what those are. Someone told me that they feel strongly that Kuwait is really their territory and they should control it. There are a lot of moving parts here and I don't see how you control all of them. The other thing is we assume that these emirates and Saudi Arabia for that matter are all solid rock solid places. Well, I suppose as long as everybody has lots to eat, they don't have to work very hard and everything's paid for, they'll survive. But any interruption in that couldn't spell the end of those sort of fictitious places. I say fictitious because if you go to the Persian Gulf and you visit them, you you rapidly discover there are what I would call 10 kilometer countries. You go 10 kilometers into the desert and what's out there? Nothing. so I think we're on the threshold whether we like it or not of profound change and that's always difficult to accept in the west. People always want to believe that the way things are will go on forever. Trying to tell them that forever is almost over and that we are all in for profound change is not wellreceived. I think we're in for a lot of trouble here in the United States. We are not the nation of 1990 or 91 at all. And that needs to be borne in mind because that speaks to this thing that we call societal cohesion. Russia has turned out to be very cohesive, much more so than everyone anticipated.  how cohesive are we? It hasn't really been tested. We'll see. And how cohesive is Iran? Well, thus far it's gone reasonably well. I think the Azerbajani intervention will tell us something more. We'll see. But then again, back to Russia. What will Russia tolerate? This is the caucuses. This is right on the border. This is important to them. What happens there? They don't want to see Iran fragment and become chaotic and and anarchctic. That's the last thing they want. This is a human condition. thing I think the assumption that yeah about the permanent state of the yeah temporary world but current world but um no we are the same in Europe um it's changing rapidly but people they still believe it's as if it's the 1990s but Colonel McGregor thank you so much for your time I yeah it's I yeah appreciate your perspective on this and I would advise anyone to read your articles article as well on the new long war. So, thanks again on X. Yeah, thank you Glenn. Bye-bye.

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Trump’s DOJ TARGETS Millions With New SCHEME
by Katie Phang
Jul 1, 2025

Trump’s coming after naturalized U.S. citizens now. Katie Phang on the attempts by Trump DOJ’s Civil Division to take away your citizenship through whatever means they deem necessary.



Transcript


Amidst all the insanity involving Trump
and the Republicans big bill,
there's other things happening behind
the scenes that we are paying attention
to here at the Katy Fang News Channel
because it impacts you. The Trump
administration is now going after an
entirely different class of people in
the United States. They're going after
naturalized citizens. What is that? That
is somebody who was born outside of the
United States who goes through the legal
process of naturalization to become a US
citizen. And you've seen the
naturalization ceremonies that people
go, they take a test, they have some
questions, and then they take an oath of
allegiance to the United States. So, you
would think that if you're a naturalized
citizen, you're a US citizen. And the
answer is yes, you are. But according to
the Department of Justice Civil Rights
Division, they don't give a because
now they're creating certain
classifications to be able to go after
you if you're naturalized US citizen.
And how do we know this? Well, on June
11th, there was a memo that was released
by the assistant attorney general. His
name is Brett Shoemate. Sh hu m a t. And
this is the department of justice civil
division, right? So, the department of
justice civil division used to do things
like go after bad police departments,
bad cops, you know, going after those
things, entities, people that are
violating people's civil rights. Now,
this was before this Trump
administration decided to completely
destroy and decimate the mission or the
purpose of the Department of Justice's
civil division. Now, now they're going
to be targeting political opponents.
Don't believe me? Check out this memo.
It's a straightforward one. It's four
pages long. Again, it's dated June 11th.
Now, it starts off with section one,
quote, combating combating
discriminatory practices and policies.
So, what's kind of unusual about this is
the following.
There is a federal statute called the
False Claims Act. It's the idea that you
make a claim to the federal government
and then you're prosecuted for it
because of that false claim. In the
instance that it deals with DEI, what
they're doing now is the Civil Division
at the Department of Justice is quote
aggressively investigating and pursuing
false claims act violations against
recipients of federal funds that
knowingly violate civil rights laws. Hm.
So, think about this, right? If you have
a civil rights law that basically says
that you cannot promote or have a DEI
practice and you maybe are applying for
federal funds as a result of what your
business does, then they can go after
you for a false claims act violation.
And what's wild is it results in treble
damages and other penalties. The false
claims act um provides for treble
damages and penalties against a person
who knowingly submits or causes the
submission of false claims to the
government. That is section one of this
memo from June 11th. Section two, ending
anti-semitism. Okay, we are all um a fan
of combating anti-semitism, but in the
context of this memo, it says that the
civil division will prioritize
investigations and enforcement actions
against entities that make claims for
federal funds but knowingly violate
federal civil rights laws by
participating in or allowing
anti-semitism. Stop. So, what does that
include? I don't know. places like
Harvard University, right, certain
colleges and universities, certain
organizations, right, that are getting
or applying for federal funds, but
according to the Trump administration is
not doing enough to be able to combat
anti-semitism or on the flip side,
according to the Trump administration is
promoting anti-semitism. I mean, it's
totally within the lens of what the
Trump administration thinks that you're
doing. Section three deals with
protecting women and children, although
they do it in the anti-trans context.
Right? So here it's this idea that if
you apply for federal funds and you are
a doctor, hospital, pharmaceutical
company or other quote appropriate
entity, um then the attorney general has
authorized that the civil division go
after you for your provision of
impermissible services. And again, this
is an anti-trans pursuit. That is the
lens within which the civil division is
looking at you. But here's the real
doozy and that is sections four and
five. Section four is entitled ending
sanctuary jurisdictions and it says
consistent with this directive, the
civil division shall prioritize
affirmative litigation to invalidate any
state or local laws preempted by federal
law. We are seeing this in real time.
The Trump administration has sued the
state of California for quote violating
the federal laws dealing with sanctuary
cities. Sanctuary cities are not limited
to just California. They're across the
United States. And so the Trump
administration has said that the civil
division will now go after
state or local jurisdictions that are
violating any type of sanctuary city
federal law.
Now, section five is the one that I
started this conversation with that I
want us to focus on. Now, it's entitled
Prioritizing Denaturalization.
Quote, "The Department of Justice may
institute civil proceedings to revoke a
person's United States citizenship." I'm
going to say this again. The Department
of Justice may institute civil
proceedings to revoke a person's United
States citizenship if an individual
either illegally procured naturalization
or procured naturalization by
concealment of a material fact or by
willful misrepresentation.
Okay, I'm fine with that, right? It's
called fraud. If you commit fraud when
you're attempting to become a US citizen
through the naturalization process, then
there's an existing federal statute that
allows you to be prosecuted criminally
for it. Fine, no problem. But here's
where they go a step further.
On page four of this memorandum, it says
here, "The civil division has
established the following categories of
priorities for denaturalization cases."
So, what the civil division of the DOJ
is doing, it is now prioritizing
pursuing denaturalization proceedings
and they are kind of doing it in the
following 10 categories. And they run
the gamut from people that pose a
potential danger to national security,
those that were involved in the quote
unlawful enterprise of criminal gangs,
financial fraud, PPP, loan fraud,
Medicaid, Medicare fraud violators.
Number nine, and nine and 10 are the
ones that we are going to highlight for
you so you understand what's at risk.
Nine says, "Cases referred by United
States Attorney's Office or in
connection with pending criminal
charges. if those charges do not fit
within one of the other priorities. So,
this is another broad catchall. It's a
case that's referred from a United
States Attorney's Office to the Civil
Division of the Department of Justice.
And based on that referral, if it
doesn't fit within any of the prior
priorities, well then or
classifications, excuse me, well then
it's something that the DOJ civil
division is going to be pursuing. And
then number 10, quote, any other cases
refer to the civil division that the
division determines to be sufficiently
important to pursue. end quote. What in
the actual hell does that mean? It's
intentionally broad. It's intentionally
vague. Why? Because as we've seen and as
we've learned here at the Katy Fang News
Channel, when you draft statutes or laws
or provisions or policies and when you
make them so broad and so vague that
they could be subject to multiple
interpretations, I mean, not only is
that not legal, but for the Trump
administration, right, for autocrats and
dictators, it's exactly what they want
because then they can imbue those
statutes, laws, rules, policies, and
procedures with what they want them to
mean. So in this instance, number 10 of
this memorandum says, quote, "Any other
cases?" What the hell does that mean?
Any other cases? Okay, any is pretty
damn broad, right? It covers the
waterfront. And then if the division, as
in the civil division,
determines it to be sufficiently
important to pursue.
So what's sufficiently important? None
of these things are defined terms. And
as we've seen with abortion statutes and
have we seen with other type of
applicable laws, immigration kind of
laws, etc. You're seeing that these are
so broadly drafted that anybody can
drive a Mac truck through them with the
intent to be able to turn them into
abuse them manipulate them for their own
purpose. So in this instance, the
Department of Justice's civil division
can say, "You know what? I think it's
quote sufficiently important for us to
pursue this case against this
naturalized citizen.
They're trying to take away your
citizenship, people. You went through a
legal process born in another country to
be able to attain your United States
citizenship. And right now, the Trump
administration is saying, "We're going
to take it away from you if we think
that it is sufficiently important to
pursue you to take away your
citizenship." And then what happens,
right,
locked step. Next thing you're deported.
You're rounded up because you're now
illegal or you don't have status, legal
status anymore. And you're rounded up
and you're shipped off in the dead of
night. The memo concludes with the
following. These categories are intended
to guide the civil division in
prioritizing prioritizing which cases to
pursue. However, these categories do not
limit the civil division pursuing any
particular case, nor are they listed in
a particular order of importance.
Further, the civil division retains the
discretion to pursue cases outside of
these categories as it determines
appropriate. End quote. Once again, back
in the land of vague and overly broad.
Why? Because the Trump administration
wants to be able to wreak havoc and
completely terrorize a the largest group
of people humanly possible. Because why
the not, right? For them, the
campaign of terror, the campaign of
retaliation, the campaign of retribution
just marches on. And this is now just
another kind of added focus that has
been provided by the Department of
Justice under Attorney General Pam
Bonnie. Folks, this is the civil
division. This is the civil division.
This is not the proliferation of new
criminal statutes or new criminal
conduct because remember the legislature
has to be able to create the laws that
the lawyers are going to enforce. But in
this instance, they're like, you know
what, we're going to deputize the civil
division to do its own reign of terror.
And what we're going to do now is we're
not only having the Department of
Justice go after immigrants that were
going through the legal process through
temporary protected status, you know,
humanitarian parole, etc. You know what?
We're not going to help asylum. we're
not going to, you know, let them have a
pathway to citizenship in the United
States because now we're going to render
all of them to be quote illegals and so
we're just going to sumearily round them
up, especially if they're just brown and
walking down the street and we're going
to just deport them off the United
States soil without any due process. Oh,
now we're going to actually create a new
classification of people. We're going to
call them denaturalized citizens, but
even though they've gone through the
process and have become legal United
States citizens,
we don't care because we're going to
create this list of
classifications in this memo and we're
going to prioritize going after them.
It is about as outrageous as you can
get. And again, when was this memo from,
guys? June 11th. From this little guy,
Brett Schumate, whatever, in DC.
This guy graduated from freaking law
school in 2006, maybe. I mean, the goal
of these people to think one, we're not
going to be paying attention, but two,
that we're not going to care.

We care.
We are mad. We are outraged. We are
demanding accountability because people
are dying in ICE custody. People's due
process rights are being violated left
and right. Court orders are being
ignored.
There is no respect for the judiciary.
And now you have the weaponization of
the civil division of the department of
justice. A division that traditionally
protected human rights and protected
civil rights. Now the department of
justice's civil division, its mission
statement is to violate civil rights, to
violate human rights, to violate humans.
Period.
There is no respect left for your fellow
Americans. If you are a Republican, if
you ascribe, if you support the Trump
regime, you're not an American. I'm
telling you right now, you're not an
American because you don't stand for the
ideas, the beliefs, and the
institutional system of democracy.
You don't. I've said it before. I'll say
it again. go somewhere else. Leave our
country to those of us that believe in
the beauty of the fabric of our
immigrant system. That believe in the
beauty of the fabric of our United
States being made up and comprised of
immigrants.
You don't like it here. Don't tell me to
go back to my country where I'm
originally from. I was born here in the
United States. But you, I don't care
where you were born. If you're
supporting this you should
find somewhere else to live because we
don't want you here. We don't want you
and your Trump MAGA beliefs here, folks.

I'll say it again. Be mad. Be outraged.
Demand accountability. I am. Pay
attention. Check out this memo. Spread
it far and wide and let people know what
the Trump administration is trying to
do. They're trying to denaturalize US
citizens. They're trying to take away
your US citizenship. It's disgusting.
Katie Fang here. The truth matters now
more than ever. So, hit that subscribe
button so you don't miss a thing. Thanks
for watching.

[admin]

Israel Suffered Extensive Damage
by Larry C. Johnson
26 June 2025
https://sonar21.com/israel-suffered-extensive-damage/



Despite the arduous efforts of Israeli censors to hide the devastation Iran inflicted on Israel with its barrage of ballistic missiles during the 12-Day War, information is emerging that destroys the myth that Israel had an impregnable air defense. The map at the head of this article reveals the sites targeted by Iran. Based on the videos of strikes in Haifa and Tel Aviv, I think this map accurately portrays the massive scale of the Iranian attack. For the first time in its history, Israel took a major beating.

According to various Israeli media reports, damage spanned residential buildings, scientific infrastructure (e.g., labs at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot), the Israeli Defense Ministry complex, and commercial hubs like the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Iran also struck a military target near the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. The medical center was hit by the blast wave, which caused extensive structural damage, a chemical leak, and dozens of injuries. The Israeli press claimed this was a direct strike on Soroka, but the fact that no one was killed undermines that claim.

Iran also struck the following residential areas, reportedly targeting Israeli military and intelligence officials:

• Bat Yam: 9 killed, ~200 wounded; high-rise apartments destroyed.
• Ramat Gan: Nine buildings destroyed, hundreds displaced.
• Haifa and Tel Aviv: Strikes near military HQs (“Kirya”) and civilian neighborhoods.

Iran also caused extensive damage to the Port of Haifa and the Port of Ashdod (Note, I had no information on the latter when I posted yesterday.), as well as the refineries at Haifa and Ashdod. Israel has maintained a complete blackout on the damage to its military and intelligence facilities, but the sites identified on the map above indicate that Iran likely enjoyed similar success as that observed in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The following brief video shows Tel Aviv — before and after. Israel got a taste of what it has done to the Palestinians in Gaza; it was a painful morsel.

[x]

Despite Donald Trump’s specious claim that the US obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s Defense Minister Katz is telling a different story:



So, what will Iran do? According to Ayatollah Khameni, Iran will continue to enrich uranium. While the US and the IAEA will be stomping their feet and clamoring for Iran to give it up, I don’t think that Iran is in a charitable mood. Trump has painted himself into a corner by his insistent and repeated claim that the US strikes eliminate Iran’s uranium enrichment program. How can Iran surrender something that Trump says no longer exists?

CNN is reporting that Trump is offering Iran a deal that is likely to cause Bibi Netanyahu to have a stroke:



Personally, I find it incomprehensible that Iran would trust any deal offered by Trump in light of his betrayal of the previous negotiations — i.e., he allowed Israel to launch the decapitation strike on June 13 rather than postpone the action in order to continue talks, which were schedule for June 15. My advice to Iran is simple: Solidify your military ties to Russia and China, launch a massive counterintelligence campaign to identify and eliminate those elements collaborating with Mossad and Western intelligence agencies, replenish and harden air-defense systems, and build more ballistic missiles.

Iran’s situation reminds me of the scene from The Godfather, when Don Corleone’s sons debated about how to respond to the attempted murder of their father.



There is a critical difference… I am not advocating that Iran strike back, as did Michael, by killing Sollozo and the corrupt police captain. However, if there are any Iranian authorities who believe that Israel and Western intelligence agencies have given up on their dream of murdering Iranian leaders and collapsing the Iranian regime, they should be removed from office.

In Washington, the brawl between Trump and the intelligence community is not over. I anticipate that DIA, the CIA and the NSA will be producing additional intel that demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran moved the enriched Uranium. Trump boxed himself in with this statement today:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said on ABC News on Monday the U.S. was “confident” Iran’s nuclear program was “completely and totally obliterated,” noting there was a “high degree of confidence” the locations the U.S. strikes took place is where Iran stored its enriched uranium and that Iran “no longer [has] the capability … to threaten the world.”

But the Telegraph is reporting, thanks to Israeli sources, the opposite:

Donald Trump will demand that Iran hand over all its enriched uranium as the price for peace, according to Israeli sources.

A report ahead of next week’s US-Iran talks said the US is requiring the Islamic Republic to give up any nuclear fuel enriched to 60 per cent or more, which is near weapons-grade.

Maybe the Iranians have a mischievous sense of humor and will ask Trump’s negotiators, “How can we turn over something that President Trump said he obliterated”? At some point, I expect Trump will do one of his pivots and admit that Iran is hiding its enriched uranium.

I discussed some of these issues today with Garland Nixon:

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