Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

[admin]

ICE Didn't Know They Were Being Filmed
Really American and Thom Hartmann Program
Jan 12, 2026

Really American host Thom Hartmann breaks down ICE kidnapping an underage employee of Target then dumping him as well as other incidents proving ICE is out of control!



Transcript

This is your warning for what?
Stop [ __ ] following us. You are
repeating operations. This is the United
States federal government over here. I
got to get this is your warning.
Got to get to go home to your kids.
Hi, Tom Harbin here. I want you to watch
something. This is a man in Minneapolis.
He's not protesting. He's not committing
a crime. He's just trying to drive home.
And the ICE agents decide to make an
example of him. Check this out.
agent.
[Music]
Sir, this is your warning.
This is your warning for what?
Stop [ __ ] following us. You are
impinged operations. This is the United
States federal government over here. I
got to get
This is This is your warning.
Got to get to my house.
Go home to your kids.
Go to church.
Go to home to your kids. This is your
last warning. I will arrest you.
Go to church.
You should be in church.
Just don't make a bad decision. Okay,
sir.
I'm not making any bad decision. I'm
peaceful. I serve the Lord. You been
one. All right.
Not a draft dodging coward.
Have a great day, sir.
You, too. God bless. Let these people go
to church.
Let these people serve the Lord and
worship.
Let people out of this, sir.
Let the people that I guarantee you're
not going to like the outcome. Go home
to your children. It's Sunday.
Yeah. Go Exactly. Let people go to
church.
You not learned from what just happened?
Go home to your children.
I have nothing to hide.
Nothing to hide.
Hey, thanks for not trying to run us
over, bud.
Bud, I would not do that. I'm peaceful.
I like your hat, too.
I'm going to go to church. I'm going to
worship the Lord. I suggest you guys do
the same. I serve the Lord, not a draft
dodging coward.
No.
I can't believe you take orders from a
draft dodger.
Make America safe again, brother.
Uh, always.
Thank you.
You just watched federal agents of the
United States government threaten a
man's life. They scream at him. They
pound on his car. And then they say the
quiet part out loud. You didn't you
learn a lesson from what just happened?
Obviously to Renee Good. We can kill you
and we don't have to answer to anybody.
The president will back us up. You know,
Christine Gnome will back us up. The FBI
won't investigate. At least not
seriously. We can do anything we want.
You had uh ICE agents uh earlier today
or early yesterday, excuse me, in uh
Minneapolis literally kicking in
people's doors. It was a black family.
The people inside, they were US
citizens. The citizens in inside were
saying, "Where's your warrant?" These
guys had no warrant. They had no
judicial warrant. They kicked in a door.
You got to have a no knock warrant to do
that. It's a special kind of warrant
where you go to a judge and you present
compelling evidence that there's a high
probability that these people are going
to flush away evidence or or you know
represent some kind of a threat to
police. They kick in the door and then
when this woman says, "Show me your
evidence." They tase her. I mean, this
is this is nuts. And and what you just
watched, you know, federal agents of the
United States government threatening a
man's life, screaming at him, pounding
on his car, which is like an extension
of him. I mean, you know, somebody comes
up and pounds on your car. I think maybe
once or twice in my life I've had people
do that and it's very intimidating and
then they say the quiet part out loud
and they're referring to Renee Good.
This is not law enforcement. This is a
death threat backed up by a badge and a
gun. And let's be crystal clear about
what is going on here. This is what
happens when power is unaccountable.
This is the lesson that people in Europe
learned in the 1930s. This is what
happens when officers who have the
authority to carry a gun and kill people
for what is essentially a traffic stop
believe that they're immune from any any
accountability and and even cover their
faces just like the clan used to. So
when they commit crimes against people,
they can never be identified and held
accountable. This is this is what
happens when these guys think that
they're they're just not accountable to
anybody. When fear becomes a tool of
governance. And now I want to show you
what happened next. This time it's not a
man in a car. This time it's a
17-year-old American kid working his
shift at Target. You know, the retail
store. Here it is.
[ __ ] you.
[ __ ] you.
[ __ ] you. Listen,
you guys are all on video.
No, no, no, no. Don't take my phone.
Hey, you got my phone.
Where is the paperwork for them?
Where's the
They do it on target. They do it on
target.
Minneapolis.
Hey. Hey.
Hey.
Anybody else going to ask where the [ __ ]
the wars are? You guys don't have
Jonathan Garcia. I'm literally a US
citizen.
Give us a phone number.
Get the [ __ ] out of here.
Why are you kidnapping?
Why are you,
sir? Give us your phone number. We'll
call We'll call your family.
Give your Give us your phone number.
Wait, you want your family to know? I
let me have my passport.
What's your name? What's your name?
We'll find your family. Christian,
what's your last name?
Hey, get back there now.
Give us your What's the phone number we
should call?
That's my mom.
That's your mom? I'll call you. and your
first name's Christian, right?
So, you know, ICE grabs him at work,
slams him to the ground. He keeps
saying, "I'm a US citizen." They ignore
him. And then after they've driven away,
and they confirm that he's a US citizen.
He's literally got his passport with
him, which they refuse to look at in the
Target store. They instead of
apologizing, they dump him, bleeding and
sobbing miles away in the winter in a
Walmart parking lot. I No parents. is a
17-year-old kid, an American, no
parents, no ambulance, and most
important, no accountability. Don't let
anyone tell you this is an isolated
incident. This is a pattern. One story,
intimidation, one story, assault, one
story, a killing used as a warning.
Those three just in the last 48 hours or
several days from the same agency with
the same arrogance and the same belief
that they are above the law. This is how
totalitarian regimes create
authoritarian police forces. This is how
they try to terrify the citizenry so
that they will not challenge being
basically looted by the oligarchs
associated with the regime. This is how
democracies collapse. You know, it
doesn't happen overnight. They collapse
when government agents with the approval
of the people above them start acting
like an occupying force. When
citizenship stops protecting you. when
papers matter more than the
constitution. And frankly, the
constitution, nowhere in the
constitution does it say these rights,
these privileges are for citizens only.
Everywhere it says persons. So even
people in this country without
documentation are persons under the
constitution. And by the way, the law
against being here in the United States
without documentation, without, you
know, permission from the federal
government, that is not a criminal law.
It's a civil law. So these ICE guys are
running around empowered to enforce
civil law. Civil law is like parking
tickets. Criminal law is like, you know,
speeding recklessly or drunk driving.
You can be charged with a crime for
those things. Uh you know, a a parking
ticket, you cannot be charged for a
crime. You you don't go to jail for
parking tickets. You might go to jail
for not paying them. That's a whole
different thing. Then it becomes a
crime. But a civil offense is not a
criminal offense. And you don't
typically go after people for civil
offenses with guns drawn. I mean, this
is absolutely insane. When your papers
matter more than the Constitution of the
United States, when a badge becomes a
license to terrorize people, this is how
it always starts. Pick your
authoritarian country. Turkey, Egypt,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Russia, Hungary.
back in our parents and grandparents
generation you know Germany, Italy,
Spain, Pinocha in Argentina or in Chile
rather I this is how it always starts is
with unaccountable authority with uh
police brutality essentially with the
normalization of brutality with threats
with fear. It doesn't start with tanks
that comes way down the road and what is
key to this for them is that their
assumption that the public is just going
to look away. We can't look away. If
they can do this to a man going home or
a 17-year-old kid working a job at
Target with his passport in his back
pocket, if they can do that, what
happens when it's a protester? We saw
that with Renee Good. She gets shot in
the face the same way Christine Gnome
shot her puppy in the face. What happens
when it's a journalist? What happens
when it's a union organizer? What
happens when it's you? This isn't about
immigration. Not even remotely about
immigration. You know, during the Biden
administration and during the Trump
administration before that and during
the Obama administration, you know, they
called the Obama the deorter and chief,
you still had ICE and not just ICE, you
had police departments or, you know,
federal agencies, whatever, that were, I
guess, mostly ICE, that were catching
people, but they weren't doing it like
this. They weren't doing it with
brutality. You know, I lived in Germany
for a year back in the 80s, little year
and a half, and we had a friend who was
whose husband was a police officer. We I
you know I interacted with the police a
couple of times, not in any bad way. And
they would go around the country, you
know, looking for people who were there
without permission to be there. Now,
this is back in the 80s. This is before
the EU or before the, you know, the the
unification of Germany really. And if
they found somebody who wasn't supposed
to be in the country, they'd say, "Okay,
you've got two weeks to get your stuff
together and leave. And if you don't,
we're going to come and evict you." But
it was always very polite. It was I
mean, there's no need for this violence
unless you're trying to terrify the
population. Unless you're trying to turn
a democratic republic into a fascist
state. This is about whether America is
still a nation of laws or whether we're
a nation where armed agents, you know,
decide your rights right on the spot.
And if this doesn't outrage you, if this
doesn't scare you, then they've then
we've already lost something precious
because when government violence becomes
routine,
freedom becomes optional.

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Trump BLEW IT! Iran Vows BRUTAL Retaliation to US Strike | Scott Ritter & Ray McGovern
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 3 hours ago #iran #scottritter #russia

Iran will retaliate in a deadly way to Trump's reported decision go to war says Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern, who join this stream to break down the latest in the unrest that's been spreading across the Islamic Republic, as well as Russia's devastating Oreshnik missile response to Trump's failures in Ukraine plus much more.



Transcript

Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the program. It's your host Danny Hiong. As you can see, I am joined by Scott
Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector and former CIA analyst Ray
McGovern. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you both?
Okay. Under the circumstances. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the circumstances are
what we need to get to. Uh, of course, uh, the latest situation is that the
Trump administration, the United States is on a collision course for war with
Iran. After weeks of so-called protests and riots inside of Iran, uh, the United
States under Donald Trump has, according to, uh, the cradle, uh, essentially is
gearing up for a an attack on Iran. Informed sources in Washington,
according to the cradle, say the decision has effectively been made with only the timing and execution still
pending. And Scott, I want your comment on this. There are two major challenges. Uh, according to the administration
sources, an unusual absence of aircraft carriers within the US Sentcom area of responsibility and the vulnerability of
US bases to potential Iranian retaliation. So, uh, Scott, first, uh, what is going
to happen here? Uh, the Trump administration, Donald Trump himself has said he is ready to bring in help to the
so-called protesters and now we are hearing that there's an imminent strike.
Uh, but no aircraft carrier. So, how does this happen and why is it happening? And I know you've been
talking a lot about the Trump administration's essential lawlessness. This comes in a very very uh uh deep
context. So to you. Well, first of all, I want to point out that Congress, the Senate just passed a
war powers resolution um saying the president couldn't go to war in Venezuela without their permission. I
think it's high time they pass a war powers resolution. Uh to preempt anything this president might
be doing. We don't need carriers. Um you know, this this will be a cruise
missile. This will be a B2 uh bomber. um you know F-22, F-35 type strike. Um so
the lack of aircraft carriers doesn't surprise me. In fact, it makes sense because
if we are dumb enough to attack um and I'll get to that in a second. Um any
aircraft carries in the air would be sunk. You know, the Iranians have the ability to reach out and touch with ballistic
missiles that can't be shot down. And so, uh, there's no reason for them to put these assets in place. Um, the other
thing that's going to happen though is that the American facilities in the region are going to get waxed. Um, it's
just pre-ordained. And there's nothing we can do to stop it, which leads the
question, why are we doing this? Um, the Israelis have
always hinted that they had something else up their sleeves. Um, when they
when they did the whole drone thing, um, you know, that was a huge network. Took decades to install and it was rolled up.
It's dead. But the Israelis were like, "We we got something else." Well, they just shot that bolt. Oh, that's
something else was they had uh the Israelis had created the ability to
mobilize um significant um anti-demonstration
um riots. Now, what the Israelis were hoping is that
they would pull the trigger on the riots. And while the riots reached their peak, the United States would bomb
command and control leadership targets, basically decapitate the regime or neutralize the regime, neutralize
security, and create the conditions for this unrest to spill over and become
regime change worthy. Um, that's done. That's finished. Um, I don't care what
you read on social media, the the revolution is over. Um, the Iranians
have won. They've rolled it up. Um, the Israelis shot their bolt and the United
States is too late to the game. So, I think right now there's a lot of
posturing by Trump to try and intimidate Iran to the negotiating table, but I don't think the Iranians are going to
take that bait. Um, look, we have a mad man in office and
there's no way that you can apply logic to um the methodologies uh there. But he
missed his opportunity. The window of strike and you just listen to the rhetoric of Lindsey Graham and all the other people that are plugged into the
Israelis. They're like, "Strike now, baby. Strike now, baby. Strike now, baby. Do it. Help these poor people in
the streets." Well, Trump didn't strike. and the Israeli card has been played and the
Iraq the Iranians trumped it. Um, so I I I
hesitate to say anything, but I I'm not putting money on the United States
bombing Iran anytime soon. Um, at least not the the
the attack that Trump is talking about is a regime change attack. It's an attack to kill Kmeni, kill Peshkan, to
kill the the Republican Guard. A similar attack that the Israelis did in June 12th. But the Iranians aren't asleep at
the wheel this time. I think you'll find that their leadership is buried um in bunkers, scattered um with plans in
place for, you know, redundancy. Um, and the other thing is their ballistic missile forces now are are fully
mobilized um, and ready to strike. And these are the good stuff. They they used
all the bad stuff earlier. They got the good stuff now. And the good stuff will come down day one. And um,
it will take Israel off the map and it'll take American facilities off the map and thousands of Americans will die
and Donald Trump will have to live with that legacy. And I hope that Chelsea Gabbard um who was cut out of Venezuela
is sending him repeated memos saying don't do this. We'll see.
Yeah. Well, Ray, um I want to kick it to you uh but let me first play uh what Donald Trump said exactly um in the
leadup to this strike threat. Went through the roof. You said to Iran this morning that help
is on the way for protesters. What did you mean by that? What kind of help? You're going to have to figure that one
out. I'm sorry. So many people have been killed in Iran. Uh, nobody's been able to give me an
accurate number. I have heard numbers from everything's a lot. One is a lot,
but I've heard numbers much lower and I've heard numbers much higher. We'll be So, uh, Rey, that's uh, what Scott what
uh, uh, what Donald Trump is saying. And so anything that you want to respond to with regard to what Scott said and and
Trump's uh uh you know threats of a strike? Well, it may be uh not very sensible to
put any trust in our professional military, but I wonder if they want to see their
bases decimated. I just wonder if they'll go the the 10th mile, so to
speak, for Israel. I guess it's it's worth reminding people this has nothing
to do with US national security. Iran is no threat to the United States. Never
has been. This is all for Israel. Now it all depends on whether Trump is so
wedded to Netanyahu. Not only for genocide, my god, not only for force
starvation, but for sacrificing US troops as well as
other troops in a in a fool's errand.
They tried it before. They can't even justify it by the ex by the so-called
existence of a nuclear weapon. There isn't any they're not working on a nuclear weapon. And when Tulsi Gabard
said that, she got she got hit on the cheek there saying you don't say that anymore. Got marginalized. So, I thought
hope Scott is uh I hope similarly to Scott that she'll be able to weigh in
here and I'm relieved to hear Scott say and I've felt for for some time more
hope than maybe hope being father to the thought uh that the the US would that
how however murial or unpredictable Trump is that the US military would tell
him look you know we're going to have these kinds of losses And you know there's a good chance that Israel will
be what what should I use what were oh obliterated Israel and they think oh
obliterated and their only last chance in extremist is you know what Mr.
President a nuclear weapon. Yeah. and and Scott uh the Gulf
countries they are warning uh especially Saudi Arabia is warning the Trump administration to not strike Iran uh
because of the possible retaliation. Uh is Saudi Arabia right to do this? Is
is there a possibility here that the United States could strike Iran and not suffer consequences because Iran has
said that they will and they are prepared uh for a war and they're
preparing for war with the United States especially in mind. What's your thoughts about this?
Again, this isn't Iran's first rodeo. They fought a 12-day war back in June. They're fully cognizant of everything.
Uh they have a very capable intelligence service. Um, one of the things about the 12-day war is that it removed um
uncertainties from the equation. You know, prior to the 12-day war, um, you
know, would the United States pull the trigger? Would Israel pull the trigger? Um, you know, would it be a big strike,
a little strike, what questions asked and answered. Um, Israel
tried to assassinate the Iranian leadership with the assistance of the United States. And for 12 days, Israel
attempted to pound Iran into the Stone Age. Unfortunately, Iran had a counter punch and the Israelis ended up having
to call it quits and beg the United States to intervene and that's why the war stopped. But there's no more
questions. I mean, I can't imagine an Iranian intelligence officer getting up in front of his um, you know, command
and giving out courses of action that's, you know, start with the premise. We're uncertain what the United States and
Israel seek to achieve here. Um, and we we we we don't we don't know that if
they initiated military action, it would be a decisive blow or would it be hybrid warfare? No, he'd be fired on the spot.
You have to come in and say we know exactly what they're going to do. It's a decapitation strike designed to empower
the protesters. Now, we've crushed the protesters, but be prepared for a decapitation strike across the board.
Uh, we need to be ready for this and we need to be ready to launch on warning.
Um, we can't just be sitting ducks. They'll be coming after our launchers. So, the moment we get an indication
aircraft are in the air, uh, we need to launch and we need to launch everything. What we don't launch will be at risk. I
mean, these are these are the kind of things the factors that go into military planning that are no longer um in
question in doubt. And so, I I think the Iranians are very professional. They
understand the region. They understand what's at stake here. and time is not on their side. Um, they need
to knock Israel out of the fight upfront and they need to give the United States the biggest possible bloody nose there
is. Um, in hopes that the United States takes a step back and says we don't want
to we don't want to continue this. So, we'll see. Again, this is all
speculation here, but from a professional standpoint, I just can't imagine an intelligence officer giving a
briefing to the uh the Iranian command that didn't uh list options one, two,
and three is the same. They're going to blow us away, so we need to blow them away sooner.
Yeah. And uh Ray, you know, we have uh the president of the United States right now openly calling for regime change and
openly supporting forces of regime change. This is what he put on his truth social. Uh, Iranian patriots, keep
protesting. Take over your institutions. Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I've
canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops. Help is on its way. MA
President Donald Trump. Um, Rey, your
thoughts on on this situation as it is cascading and really descending into something quite ugly. Is MA make Iran
great again? Is that what MA stands for? It could be. But there's another c there's another uh state that starts
with an I. Uh Israel. Anyway, but um that's but that's neither here nor there. But
yes, I think he is actually referring to Iran here. You know, this is juvenile stuff. Um the
problem is that it is Trump and he is the president of the United States and he does have his fingers on the nuclear
codes. My god. That's why everyone from Putin to she and other sensible people
try not to enrage him, try not to give him any any chance to retaliate against
them. Now to predict what he's going to do is sort of a difficult chore because
he is by definition unpredictable. Uh but the Iranians have made it very
clear that they're they're prepared. And I think Scott is quite right. If Trump
prevails and he gets this uh general or then General Dan, what is it? The
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kane. Yeah, Dan Kane. Kane. If he gets Kane,
I've watched Kane now. I mean, he's very glib and he knows exactly politically
how to act, but in terms of the commander that you need in terms right
now that would be able to say, "M, Mr. President, this is crazy. You were going to lose this many troops." I don't know
if he's that kind of guy. So, that's all I'll say on that. It's uh it's come to a head, but let's hope um let's expect
that some will raise the issues and say, "Look, Mr. Trump, this is really a bad idea." Uh, Venezuela.
Well, bad idea, but this is a really, really bad idea, right? I mean, we just got through, we
just got into 2026. The Donald Trump, the United States conducted that uh war
crime, the the kidnapping of uh Nicholas Maduro. Now, we are here uh Scott, we
are here talking about uh the threat and the preparations the US is making toward
uh an attack on Iran. in uh US Sentcom came out uh uh today uh as of January
13th talking about this new air defense operations cell in uh Qatar uh talking
about how US and regional partners opened a new coordination cell at Aluded air base in Qatar to enhance integrated
air and missile defenses on January 12th. Scott, what does this mean? And
how much does this have to do with these preparations with Iran, do you think?
I think it has everything to do with the preparations with Iran. Um, it's posturing to let's just be honest. Um,
air defense capability is the air defense capability that you have, the technology. No amount of operation cells
and coordination and you know integrated this integrated that is going to change
the fact that we don't have air defense systems capable of protecting our facilities from concerted Iranian
ballistic missile attack. We can weave together THAAD Patriot 3. We can weave
in Aegis um and it's all it won't work. People need to understand
that the Iranians have operationally an arric type missile. It's not the
arric. The Russians certainly didn't give it to the Iranians, but the Iranians, you know, people who study the arric and
the hazelnut aspect of it or rods from God. It's not the first time people have
been talking about rods from God. And um you know the Iranians are fully aware of
this technology and they are very smart. They are certainly able to replicate um
the exotic ceramics that go into um you know making these things the materials.
Um my my point is that uh this is purely posturing. This is
designed to assuage the fears of the Gulf Arab states up until the m remember
the Trump administration can't be trusted on anything.
They're liars. Straight up liars. Um can't be trusted on anything. And so what the Trump administration does is
deceive people up until the last minute. Like Iran, for instance, we're willing to have negotiations. Um why don't you
uh think about it over the weekend? We'll get together Monday. Oh, I'm sorry. Did Israel attack you Friday night? Too bad. Um, you know, Hamas,
hey, we want to have negotiations about what's going on over there in Gaza. Why don't you all come to Qatar and we'll uh
talk about it. And then, of course, they let the Israelis try to kill them. Um,
Vladimir Putin. Hey buddy, we're talking to you about Zalinski. I got Zalinski here. Uh, hey, thanks for call. Can you
hold on the line for an hour? I'm going to go pass on this. I'll get right back to you. Don't move. And then they fire
91 drones, try and take them out. Nobody trusts the United States anymore. This is not a serious thing. Um, first of
all, with planning, you don't get together and have a master plan right off the bat. People get
together, they talk, they come up with ideas. Those ideas then have to be turned into reality. Meaning, you have
to put assets on the ground that link up. There has to be training involved, coordination, uh, logistics,
sustainability, command and control procedures, sharing of classified information. All this stuff goes in. It
doesn't happen overnight. So for all the people out there saying Trump's going to attack Iran tonight, that means that
whatever they're doing in Aludade is is meaningless because a they don't have the assets,
but b even if they did, they don't have time to actually turn it into something that's uh that can manifest itself
realistically on the ground. So, this is just posturing on the part of the Trump administration. It's meaningless. Trump
can't be trusted. The United States can't be trusted. It's a It's a sad state of affairs.
Yeah. And Ray, do you buy that, you know, there's this narrative that uh JD Vance is pushing for diplom diplomatic
talks with Iran uh throughout all of this. Uh but uh as Scott just said, the
Trump administration has been using the word diplomacy, the so-called act of diplomacy as a weapon. Uh do you buy
that this is the case right now? That's an easy one. No, I mean what I
mean what I what I don't buy is the notion that JD Vance or anybody else is working behind the scenes that I mean
this all comes from our media from Washington Post the uh CIA asset which
is called the New York Times. I mean you can't believe anything you read there. So no I don't know if there's any stock
to be put into what JD Vance said uh given the fact that he lies about internal things too. uh saying that that
women in Minnesota uh deserve to be or whatever he said about it was just awful.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe uh Scott, you can elaborate on on on the context here because we just had the Trump
administration conduct this illegal operation to kidnap Nicholas Maduro, claiming victory in Venezuela and total
control, even joking about how Trump is thei the head of state in Venezuela. But
now suddenly we're here uh talking about an attack on Iran. Uh as these so-called
riots uh these so-called protest I should call them these riots uh have according to Israeli and US western
media sources they're still happening. They're still big uh and the Trump administration saying they support them
but many are saying that they've actually as you said died out. So what is the context here? Why is the Trump
administration in this uh seemingly chaotic uh foreign policy situation now
diving deep into the Iran morass?
Well, I don't think Iran was on their I don't think Iran was on their radar to be honest. I mean, um
excuse me. I just have to get a shout out to Berg Spring.
Scott Ritter is an idiot. Thanks, buddy. Um, just take that with a grain of salt
as I respond. But, um, my dogs actually concur with me.
They think I'm an idiot as well. Uh, and they're probably more correct than you are. But the, uh,
the point is, you know, after Venezuela, you know, Trump said that, uh, Greenland
is on our front burner, the invasion, occupation of Greenland. We're going to take this over. Fortress America and all
this. Um but BB has his own plans and
I think you know the MSAD has been when you prepare something like
what's been ongoing and let there be no doubt this is a 100% MSAD operation
heavily supported by the CIA but the MSAD has spent decades cultivating these
ties through the MEK through the Shaw's the Sha's son in exile
through Kurdish groups, through um the Baluch through the Azeris. I mean, you
know, one of the largest Israeli MSAD intelligence stations in the world is in Azerbaian.
Why? Well, because they're going across the border into uh into Iran to work up
those areas. The Israelis are everywhere. And you know, so they've
been working on this, building up these assets, building up these cells because these operate in cellular fashion.
um training them on communications, training them on operations and you know the cells. What what my take on just
reading in between the lines here is that you had cellular structure meaning you had significant assets on the ground
whose job is similar to that of a special forces team. meaning that they are there and when the time comes they
will train an indigenous capability to act on them and they rapidly expanded
their forces and they uh gave them you know modern communications uh and you
know there's some interesting things the Iranians when they started grabbing the phones of all these people found the
same message from a Farsy speaking woman um Israeli you know, instructing on them
on what to do when if captured, you know, what you need to say to protect yourself, protect the system and all
this stuff. They found Starlink um you know, receivers. The the Russians gave
them the uh the secret to Starlink with Russia has figured out of course
fighting Ukraine and the Iranians were able to jam and shut down, intercept, track, reverse engineer Starlink. And um
these cells were all rounded up and they're they're gone. Um
you know I I I love how people are so desperate now that you know it's just a huge bot farm out there. Trolls uh who
just spread the same message. It's not because they're getting truth from Iran. They're being directed by the MSAD via
MI6 via I mean Benjamin Netanyahu is bragging about I think project S3 he called it. They spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm on the wrong side. You know $7,000 a tweet.
I could had a great Christmas. Um yeah I'm I'm I'm you know basically it seems
like I I have to pay money to tweet. But um the uh you know the Israelis were
funny and they're increasing their budget. But the point is, you know, the the Israelis are managing right now a PR
campaign because they have no contact with their assets. They're all dead.
They're all captured tomorrow. They're going to be hung by the neck until dead. Um I mean, it's going to be the the
greatest mass execution of traitors since uh what the Soviets did to the uh
to the Nazis in uh in Kiev in 1946. I mean, I look forward to it. I'm sorry,
Ray. I know you're a good Christian and um Danny, you don't promote violence. Hang them by the neck until dead. These
are MSAD thugs who burned a three-year-old child to death and created violence that killed many, many
innocent people. These aren't innocent activists. Some of them may have been sucked in, but they all knew what the
hell they were doing. They were all taking direction from um you know, people that are working directly for the
Israelis. And the Israelis have their number. I mean, the Iranians have their number. They rolled them up, you So, and
also let's just talk about these deaths. Couple thousand people supposed to die over the course of two or three days.
Scott Barry Weiss is saying 20,000. I mean, the number just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Continuing getting bigger. You know, modern combat.
Do you understand how many live rounds and machine guns and bombs and aircraft
would have to be employed to generate that kind of death count? You know, we're talking about full-scale
war. Um, you know, the bloodiest day in Vietnam didn't come anywhere close to
that. Uh, hell, the Battle of the Bulge, you didn't kill that many Americans. And and the Germans are coming in with
aircraft, tanks, bombs, machine guns, infantry ass, the whole thing. And now we're told, no, no, the Iranian security
forces are just gunning them down in the streets. 12 to 20,000. It's 100% crap.
Excuse my language. Maybe hundreds. I mean, I don't know. The Iranians
apparently lost their you know the Iranians are are very restrained. What do you mean restrained, Scott? They're
one of the most brutal police. The Iranian government actually loves the Iranian people and the Iranian president
is actually very sympathetic to um opposition forces, legitimate opposition forces who voice concern about economic
conditions. Hell, this guy took the hijab away. I mean, I don't know if everybody woke up to this fact, but um
you walk around Thran today and the women ain't wearing the hijab and there's no cops around beating them
up because the Iranian president said, "We have to adjust to the times." And
so, you know, this this this whole thing, I mean, the whole thing about that woman, you know, burning the
portrait and smoking, she's Canadian. It was done in 2022. It's all a lie anyways because there's no protest about taking
off that job. It's already off. The Iranian government already conceded on this one. They've conceded on a whole
bunch of other things. Unfortunately, through those concessions, they create a window of vulnerability because then a
fifth column can be ex, you know, extrapolated from this newly energized
mass of people. You can say, but it could get better if you get rid of them. That's what the Israelis did. Passed out money, promises, uh, the whole thing.
They recruited a whole bunch of people. These are traders. They committed treason. They committed treason. Again,
I'm just all you good, warm, hot-blooded Americans out there.
What would you want done to Americans who worked with
I don't pick the worst country in the world out there, Israel. Oh, wait. Whoops. We can't say that. um worked
with a hostile country to the United States not to just collect information
but to come to the streets, burn down your police stations, burn down your fire departments, murder your women,
murder your children, rampage through, basically declare war on your country and now you caught them and you got them
dead to rights. There ain't no ifands or buts about this. They got the instructions right there. They got the
orders how they implemented it. They got the cash of weapons. They got everything. What would you do, America?
You'd say, "String them up by the neck until dead." Now, people will say, "Well, we have due process." And we we do, and we don't string them up by the
neck until dead anymore. Um, but we could. And with this president, you
never know. I mean, hell, he'll shoot a 37y old woman in the face just for trying to avoid having a nice guy come
in and take control of her car. You know, we already are an occupied country. We already have American citizens being detained illegally,
murdered illegally. Um, I'm just telling you right now that if this if the president of the United States, this
president was faced with a similar situation, we'd be executing those people in very short order. The Iranians
have been doing this for some time now. They're fed up. This isn't the first time Israel has organized large-scale
demonstrations. Rayi when he spoke in um in September of
2023 I believe at the UN said that the
the unrest that followed the tragic death of that Kurdish girl in police custody. He said that put the greatest
pressure on the Iranian on the Islamic revolution since the revolution. It was
a very dangerous time. He said they they exploited all of the fractures in in Iranian society and they came at us
hard. He said, "But the Iranian people rallied around and they were able to restore this." Notice what I said. The
Iranian people rallied around. The the Iranian government didn't violently suppress these people. Those cells still
still were there. They were supposed to rise up in 20 uh in in the 12-day war in June. Uh but that decapitation didn't
happen and the Israelis held them in reserve. But the Iranians know this stuff. They, you know, all those drone
operators they caught, they're dead. They got hung as they deserve to. And
now they've cut all the people who committed murder on behalf of Israel. Israel just lost
the lion share of his assets. And this is why Israel is panicking right now. Because if Trump doesn't attack,
then Israel won't be able to do this again. This was supposed to be the big move. This is supposed to be the regime
change. The theocracy is not supposed to exist very soon. Now Israel is looking
around saying America missed the window of opportunity. It's too late. And you
know it it's it but the Iranian government finally, I believe, woke up
to the fact that you have to eradicate these cells. You can't play soft. You
can't slap a wrist. You can't hang a few. You have to kill them all. And I
think that's what they're doing right now. And I don't think the Iranian people are losing too much sleep over
this. The Israelis are and the pro-Israeli faction in United States losing a lot of sleep. But you know,
they've had large-scale demonstrations in Iran with millions of people in the street demonstrating for the regime.
It's over. The Israelis lost. Yeah. Ray. Yeah. It just uh brings to mind uh the
timing again. Um Netanyahu was in Maril Lago over the holidays, right? Uh it was
after that that things got hot and heavy, it seems to me, if memory serves. Um I don't know exactly, but I'm
wondering how much this had to do with Netanyahu feeling he needed a really big
big boost. Okay. He was almost an extremist because Gaza is not going so
well. Okay? So he needed something to divert attention and he needed Trump to
show that Trump is solidly behind him. Okay? Now he brought that home to him.
Trump is solidly behind me. So the way things have now gone down raises in in
my mind the spectre that well if it is an extremist for Netanyahu,
what's he going to do now? uh how does this relate to the situation he faces
internally and with respect to Gaza? Uh my worry is that this would uh this
would make it even more likely we would all go off halfcocked and that perhaps
our president would support him for similar reasons to to divert attention to what's going on elsewhere. So I don't
know but it it raises hair in the back of my head. Uh, the other thing that hasn't been mentioned, of course, is
Russia and China. This is not Venezuela, folks. This is right on the Russian
border. China. Now, what are they going to do? They have a economic stake. Their oil is really big, especially for China.
They need it through the Persian Gulf. So, you know, we used to talk about, well, will you stay s stand idly by when
this happens? I don't think they're going to do that anymore. Chinese are very cautious but the stakes are very
high and uh I think that both China and Russia having discrete e separate
contacts with the United States uh subliminal ones but really really better
ones than the Biden administration ever had that they're talking to Trump and saying look you know you're in trouble
enough uh we're winning in Ukraine we don't we don't need something right on
our border uh Ukraine is bad enough. So think about it. Think about it real real strongly.
Yeah. And uh great points, right, Scott. I wanted you maybe we can spend some
time now uh talking about the consequences as we are talking more and more news is rolling in and I think it
would be helpful for the audience to know what the consequences of a war with Iran would be because now we're even
having and this is surprising to me uh this just broke. Israeli and Arab
officials have privately suggested the US hold off on Iran strikes. Israeli officials have suggested the Trump
administration delay large-scale strikes until the Iranian regime is even more strained, while one Arab official said
there's a lack of enthusiasm from the neighborhood for American military action right now. But Scott, there are
people who are very enthusiastic about a a war with Iran. Here was Lindsey Graham
in front of Zionist donors actually uh as the announcement that Trump might
attack Iran imminently. Here is what he said. I don't know what, but this might be the night. It's just a matter of time now.
Just a matter of time. Why is it just a matter of time? And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?
This tyrannical regime needs to end. We need to end this for the good people
of Iran and for our own selves and the people of Israel. We need to take this guy down.
He needs to leave standing up or laying down. I don't care.
He needs to go. And if we can pull this off, it be biggest change in the Middle
East in a thousand years. Hamas has blog gone. The Hoodi's gone.
The Iranian people an ally, not an enemy. The Arab world moving toward
Israel without fear. Saudi Israel normalized. No more October the 7th. I
haven't eaten. I haven't slept or eaten in three or four days.
So he is that enthusiastic, Scott, about this that he hasn't eaten or slept in days. Scott, talk about what the
consequences of a war with Iran. What would they really be? It seems like uh many Gulf countries, even some in
Israel, which is shocking to me, uh are uh very much concerned about the consequences.
Israeli infrastructure won't exist when this is done. Um the Iranians made some
clear targeting um messaging u near the end of the conflict. U you know striking
oil refining capabilities, striking some energy production facilities. Um and
then proving they can hit with pinpoint accuracy very specific targets. Uh so
they they took out, you know, an office here, an office there. to the average
onlooker was like, "Oh, that's just one missile hitting in a random spot in Tel Aviv." To the Israelis, they went,
"Damn, they hit exactly where that thing was that we were doing." Um, and that
also was a signal to the Israelis that the Iranians know about that thing that they were doing and they hid it and they
destroyed it. And that's why now you panicked. I mean, he was in sheer panic because the Iranians sent very clear
messaging that we know everything and if we want to, we can kill it. But, you
know, the problem is Israel hurt Iran. Iran was hurting as well. And so, both sides wanted this war to come to an end.
But it Israel's Iran's not going to wait 12 days to send that messaging. This is going to come on day one. And so I mean
I'm not saying they will kill Netanyahu, but they could very well kill Netanyahu depending on his reactive uh you know
how how how he reacts. They could kill a lot of Israeli leadership and I believe the Israeli leadership will be on the
plate. um they will destroy the critical infrastructure of Israel um up to and
including Deona and maybe not the nuclear reactor but you know taking out very specific target
because there's nothing that can defend against what Iran has. You might shoot down one, two, three, four, but you're
not going to shoot them all down and they're so damn accurate and they're so damn powerful um that Israel will be
effectively removed from the map. You know, I don't care about Israel. I mean,
good. I care about Americans. I don't support Trump, but my god, there's men and women out there who took the oath to
wear, you know, to serve their country. They're wearing the uniform of their country. Um, and we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that their
lives aren't thrown away in vain. Um, you know, they got their orders. They had to deploy. They have to do the jobs
they're given. They're sitting ducks. And the Iranians know everything. They
know every target. And the Iranians aren't going to hold back. I don't believe they are. I don't believe there
will be a warning shot. I think when the time comes, the Iran will smother
um American bases the same way they're going to smother Israel. And that's it.
And then if the war continues and Israel strikes, for instance, um
strategic energy targets inside Iran, then you're going to see Iran shut down
the straight or moves, destroy Saudi oil fields, destroy UAE oil fields, and now we have a energy crisis in the world
that nobody's ready for. I mean, Donald Trump's like, "Well, we got Venezuelan
oil." It's still in the ground, Donnie. Still in the ground. Even your big oil companies say it's gonna take a while to
get it out in any significant. This should be a lesson to anybody who starts
playing stupid games with oil infrastructure. When you have a nation like Iran uh like
Venezuela that was producing what 3 million barrels a day at one point in time. Does anybody here know about me
well maintenance pressurization about water pressure about water levels? What
do you have to do with a well once you start extracting oil to prevent water from seeping in and contaminating? What
kind of pressures you have to maintain and you have to maintain them in an active manner as the oil is extracted.
It's not reactive. It's all planned out. So when you start decommissioning
production and you start drawing these wells down, that pressure goes away, water levels
rise, you get a dilution, you corrupt the integrity of the product. Now, that
doesn't mean it's unusable. It just means that you just made it much more expensive when they finally get it out.
And then when you come back, you've got to reressurize. You got to do the whole thing. Um, this is reality. This happens
when we tell I mean the only nation in the world that can get away with this is Saudi Arabia who massively on purpose
over overproduced their their u their their oil extraction infrastructure
because they were supposed to be the break. They were supposed to be United States. Well, we need more oil in the
economy. Hey Saudi Arabia, jack it up a little bit.
Oh, we need to, you know, get the prices to go. Hey, Saudi Arabia, slow it down a little bit. we got to manage this and
Saudi Arabia would do that. Saudi Arabia would increase production, decrease production based upon the orders given
by the United States. Um but you know that requires global stability in terms
of energy. But when the when the United States goes in and we destroy stability through the stupidity of our sanctions,
I mean I just again America I mean just look around my house right now. Light, light, light, energy, oil, um, you know,
plastics, oil. Oil is everywhere. Oil is in
everything we have here. Oil just doesn't get go to producing gasoline. Oil makes modern life possible. We need
a lot of it on a sustainable fashion. and the stupidity of America's policies
are designed to deny oil to the market. Now, we produce our own oil, but the
price will go up. I don't know about the average American out there, but you know, my bank account is extraordinarily
finite. And um when prices go up and my income doesn't match it, that means that
I'm buying less with what I earn. And when you start increasing the price of oil, all prices go up. It has a
cascading impact. This is our future, guys. They're going to kill thousands of Americans,
tens of thousands of Israelis, fundamentally alter the Middle East economy like you've never seen. And the
blowback to our economy and the global economy will be disastrous. Merry
Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it because next Christmas you may not be able to do what you did. Um, this is Donald Trump.
This is the most evil man on the planet, the most dangerous man in the world, and this is what he's doing today. You don't
buy into this crap about the evil Iranian regime. Look, I the one time, you know, when when Akmad was elected
president, you know, I I I bought in sort of to the Akmad bad guy. But then I
went to Iran to investigate. This is during Akmadhad's time.
These are the most wonderful people in the world. They're peaceloving. They are friendly. They love Americans. Um
they've just bent over backwards to be hospitable. They're highly educated. Uh
they're modern. You know, we're like we're Americans. Our standard of living. Go to Iran, guys. Take a look at their
standard of living. Um, I drove on the the superighway out of uh Tyrron going towards Kong going towards um the where
the Natan's facility was. There's a city nearby. I can't remember the name of it. Um but it's a it's a it's a super
highway and I went into the rest center clean modern toilets. They flush and
they're clean. There's no none of this smell you get in the New York uh you
know throughway. the smell of some drunk who decided he was going to miss the urinal and just pee on the floor and
they're not going to clean it up. Or the guy who emptied his bowels in the back and and it's overflowed and that doesn't
exist in Iran. It's clean. They had fast food, but it was good food. It was healthy food. Um the idea that the
Iranians are backwards, that they um you know that they're looking to the West for a superior way of life is absurd in
the extreme. I've been to Iran and I would dare say that 99.99% of the people
out there who are slamming Iran today have never been to Iran and they don't know the reality of Iran.
Yeah, right. Yeah. Let me uh let me comment on um
Air Force Colonel um Lindsey Graham uh
who was a a lawyer in Air Force and he was he was after deserters and people
who didn't want to go to war and he lived uh he he didn't live in the
barracks he lived in the offices officers club and so forth. Uh Lindsey
Graham um is the kind of guy uh that uh defense minister Healey in London is.
And I just want to kind of put a put a reality to this because although the
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria is the consumate diplomat, every now and
then she loses it. Okay. when she said when Healey said, "We're going to kidnap
Putin. He's first on our left. We're going to kidnap him and and make a triumph for war crimes." This is what
she said officially on Russian TV.
Um, Defense Secretary John Healey, uh, his
remarks are, and I quote, "The wet dreams of British perverts." Period.
quote. Okay. So, now you have this kind of thing with Lindsey Graham. You have
this kind of thing from central casting Dick Tracy type Chin Pete Hickith. Uh
the problem is that if you take this or if you're required to take this
seriously as Puchin and she are, you say, "My god,
we have a delusional narcissist as president of the United States. We
don't know what he's going to do. There is no break." As a matter of fact, these PE people catalyze his narcissism and
give him the the idea that we're the kind of martinets that will support you no matter what. And besides, we look
pretty good on TV. So, we're going to Now, the problem with all that is if
you're pooching, let's say poaching, he's looking the asking, my god, who does the president have to rely on for
some solid advice? Well, the answer is maybe Tulsi Gabbard. Where was Tulsi
Gabbard when the big decisions were being made in Venezuela? Oh, she was uh she was sunning herself in Hawaii. Okay,
I think that's probably the truth. She was not consulted. So, let me just bring
this back to a historical perspective here. When the CIA was created, uh, Truman
wanted one agency that would have access to all the information available to the
Pentagon, the State Department, the code breakers, everybody else, a central place where he could go, the president,
and say, "Look, you tell me like it is. Okay, tell me what what's what's going on. I don't care what the pres the
Pentagon is saying. They're 12 feet tall, these these Soviets. Uh the state state department says they're only 5t
tall. You look I give you career protection for telling me the truth. Now
that's what analysts did. That's what I did for twothirds of my career until Bobby Gates and Bill Casey messed it all
up. Okay. But we were able to tell the president that. Now what about regime
change? Okay. Oh, that was something that when the legislation was being
prepared, none other than George Kennan said, "Oh my god, the Russians are the
Soviets are assassinating people. They're all kinds of dirty tricks. They
have these moa these wet things. We have to have the
same capability." And they put that into the legislation. legislation reads, "The
president, the the CIA, the director of the CIA shall perform such other tasks
and duties besides the major thing of analysis as such other functions and
duties as the president of the United States shall from time to time direct."
So you have two CIAs. the one that Tulsi Gabbard has has tried to tried to
resurrect and reestablish the analysis part who were cut out of this this uh
Venezuela operation because the operatives were telling the president and telling everyone else, "Yeah, we
could do this. Of course, we could do that." And when somebody said, "Uh, what about next week or what about next
year?" That was an unpolite impolite. That was a bit out of the question. Okay? So what I'm saying here has
historical pre precedent. Okay. What happened in 1953?
Well, I graduated from elementary school in 1953. I learned later that we
overthrew a leftistleleaning Sovietincclined
puppet who happened to be the freely independently elected uh prime minister
of Iran for the first time in two millennia. Okay. Now what was his name?
Mosedc. What was his offense? Oh, he had the tmerity, the tmerity, mind you, to say,
you know, I think the Iranian people should they profit a little bit more from from the riches under our sands or
they call it oil. Yeah, we should we shouldn't give it all to the British. And now the British Mei 6 took the
fledgling CIA, mind you was just 1953 by the shoulder and said, "Now you young
guys, you have to understand this is this is what you do when an upstart in
the third world thinks that the oil underneath so belongs to him." And there
was a a a terrible a terrible uh up coup
in and so the next year they did Guatemala. Uh they've been doing this
all the time. Now what I'm trying to say here is that this is in the legislation
and uh when later President Kennedy and this is perhaps the best example. I'm
trying to give a context here. uh when Kennedy uh came into office uh
they briefed him on the Bay of Pigs that all these these rebel forces that had
trained really well in Guatemala, elsewhere, they're going to invade Cuba. And guess what, Mr. President Kennedy?
The fatal cash is going to fall because there'll be a public uh insurrection and
we'll get rid of those communists in Cuba. Okay. Now Kennedy looked at the
plans and he said, you know, I don't think Oh, you say Eisenhower approved it. Well, go ahead. But look, don't
expect me to authorize the use of US armed forces to if in case you get bogged down on the beach. Now, they
laughed at him. They said, and we know from Halen Dulles's handwritten notes, coffee stained handwritten notes from
his desk, Jeffrey died, that he said, "When we get caught on the beach, the president will have no other option
other than to to support us with aircraft and army stuff. Uh, lest the
enterprise fail." Enterprise removed Castro. Okay. So, was a setup. What What
did JFK do? And this is what every president should do. He said, 'Hey, who who's around here
that can look into why these people told me that Castro was going to fall? Oh, Arthur Slesinger Jr., you're a
historian, but could you take two months off? Yeah, two months. And look at how this how this this forciful explanation
that How? So, he went two less than two months. We have the memo now. Sleser to
Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy, I hate to tell you this, but the analysis division of CIA
was cut out of this whole thing. They were not even informed that would
happen, much less asked for their views on, for example, were the Fidel Castro
would be the victim of a popular insurrection. All the analysts said that was crazy, that would never happen, but
they weren't consulted. So, it was the operatives that wanted to run the operation. Now the same thing is
happening in Venezuela. The same thing is happening anytime you have not only a CIA director like John Ratcliffe but
when you have a national security advisor now who's a national security oh my god
that's now Rubio is also a secretary of state but national security adviser gives you
the the ability the duty really to funnel things into the president. You
can be very selective and a lot of what Trump has been led to believe comes from Rubio for sure. So all I'm saying here
is that needs to be fixed. And will it be fixed? Well, uh, you know, when hope
uh hope springs eternally, but when Tulsi Gabbard um proves to have been
right about this kind of thing, when her memos from her analysts on Venezuela uh
can be dug out of the computers, I think there's a chance that there'll be a
reckoning and especially if Venezuela becomes becomes the United States's new Vietnam,
and I'm pretty sure it will unless they stop it right now. Uh then you know then
maybe just maybe people come to their senses, realize there are two CIAs, separate them out, give the operations
people to the Pentagon where it should be and let the intelligence people do
the analysis and come up with what Trum Truman called several times untreated
intelligence, which means tell me like it is. Don't don't flavor it. Don't
don't distort it. And last thing I'll say is that the worst crime and I saw
it, you know, and so did Scott on Iraq. Okay, we know that
on July 20th, 2002, the head of MI6,
Sir Richard Dearlo, came to Langley to ask George Tennant,
the director of central intelligence, you know, what does Bush really plan to
do? Now Tony Blair talks to him every week but you know it's not the same as so Tony asked me to come what are you
gonna do and when Blair went back to B when Sir Richard Derlov went back to
bleak Blair we have the minutes of that meeting and it says the operative sentence the fact well the operative
paragraph Bush has decided to invade Iraq on the pretense of weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. Translation, we're going to say he has weapons of
mass destruction and then he's going to give them to terrorists. We're going to associate Saddam Hussein with 911. It
will work like a charge. And then the crowning sentence, but the facts in the
analysis is being shaped around the policy. So Blair knew that, Tenant knew
that, and they did it anyway. And my my my saddest time is watching my former
colleagues who were participants in that fraud uh get meritorious step increases
and prizes for fashioning uh a national intelligence estimate that was
fraudulent from the get-go and which they knew was fraudulent all to please
the vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney. May he rest in peace forever.
Yeah. Uh uh well uh quickly uh before we get to uh the final story uh on on
Russia Ukraine uh Scott and and Rey speaking of history if you can just
comment on this. You know, uh, one of the big things that, uh, has one of the
big things about this regime change operation or attempted one, uh, is, uh,
the support that the United States and now the Trump administration openly supporting the grandson of the sha, Raza
Palavi. And according to, uh, uh, sources, uh, Steve Wickoff met with Raza
Palavi privately. And so maybe you can help us out with a bit of a history lesson briefly on what does this say? I
mean what does this with the United States meeting openly with uh someone not even in the country uh with a deep
deep history a family history with Iran that is uh very dark. Uh what does this
say about the Trump administration and US foreign policy right now? Scott,
it's the foreign policy of um a mad man um and the foreign policy of a bully. Uh
look, why would Steve, first of all, who is Steve Woodco? You know, he's a
special envoy. He's not an expert on anything except maybe New York State real estate and Donald Trump.
Donald Trump trusts him. That's the That's the thing. But
this isn't a guy that can go and have a back channel communication and get deep
insights and then sit down and, you know, based upon his own extensive experience, you know, shape something
together that would be, you know, useful to the president. He's there just for for show. Um he's he's meeting with you
know the this this the sha's son this uh crown prince who you know claims the
throne. Um there's nothing substantive in this meeting. Witco is incapable of
substantive dialogue. He is superficial in the extreme.

[admin]

Part 2 of __

So, he's just going through the
motions of creating an image, a perception that the United States is actively working with this guy who
Israel is using to orchestrate this uh social media campaign to promote him as
a potential successor to the um supreme leader. Um
it also says that the United States isn't serious. Look, if I were um the crown prince, I'd be like, I I I I don't
want Steve Whit. I want the national security adviser. I want Marco Rubio. I want, you know, eats. I want somebody
who actually can, you know, that's a policy maker. Wood's not a policy maker.
He's not even a policy implement. He's a policy um, you know,
he's the coat of wax you put on your car. Um, there's he's not serious. He's not a serious person. So, it doesn't
tell me anything other than the fact that the Trump administration just isn't serious. It's not serious about doing
this, right? The fact of the matter is Donald Trump is a prisoner of the CIA.
Um, they are running every I I mean, I don't want to jump the gun in Russia,
but I'll just say this and maybe it's a good segue into Russia. You know,
the CIA has been at war with Russia forever when it was the Soviet Union.
That's our job. That's our job. Yeah, that's right. Ray Ray was an analyst and your job was
to ascertain the truth and brief people about Russia, but mainly you were looking for vulnerabilities that could
be exploited. Um, you know, or strengths that needed to be countered. You know, you weren't evaluating Russia from this
from the friendship factor. Mr. President today on a scale of 1 to 10
friendship factor is eight. I think we could have good relations with these people. No, you're Mr. President.
Actually, that happened in 1970s and the 80s. So, you know, it was it was a mixed bag, but we were trying to do it
objectively as you know, Scott and there were times of Dayton of Rafon and we
almost had that again almost. But go ahead. Sorry to interrupt, but the operator but the operators never
bought into the operator's job was never to do the operator's job was to destroy
the Soviet Union and destroy everybody focuses on the case officers and the
spying. I mean, that's a big part of things. But you do know that the CIA is responsible for the largest non-nuclear
explosion in history, and that's the sabotage of of a Russian
gas line. Oh. um a Soviet gas line. Um I mean you
know this is what the CIA does. They u they they are a destructive force and
on Russia they have been seeking to bring down you know having brought down the Soviet
Union the decade of the 1990s the CIA was just positioning United States to keep the knee on the throat. Uh we were
very close to Boris Yeltson. Our assets were everywhere and our job was to manage him to keep Russia down to weaken
them. And when we are having trouble weakening Russia, we then went and we
created a conflict in Cheschna by pouring in Wahhabists, outside influencers, etc. both in the 90s, later
in the early 2000s. And then we started sending people off to Kazan um you know,
and in the Tatar Republic to try and get them to break away to Ufa and Bashir to
get the Muslims to break. We tried to turn the Muslims against uh the Russians. This was the CIA's job. Uh
this is what they were trying to do. Regime change. And they've never been given the off switch. Never. The whole
NI thing is a giant CIA setup. Straight up. I mean, they worked with the British. You know, you got Noni's
campaign manager meeting with a British spy out of the embassy. Um asking for $10 million
on tape. On tape. It's right there. Um, and the Russians have every they have the spy
rock. Remember the spyrock where the British would come by and uh and and download messages and then Russians
would come by with their little phone and upload messages and the Soviet the Russians went h why don't we monitor
this for a while? So they're getting all the information guys coming in going we need $5 million. And the British coming
in going all right you'll find the $5 million here. And then the people get that and start heading and they get
nabbed by the FSB who say okay now you got to play the game along and they drug it until they got the whole thing laid
out. Um the the Russians rolled up our our own networks. I mean there's the you know Foley who the stupidity of the CIA
is not there to promote friendship. They're there to destroy and with Ukraine when Ukraine came along in 2014
2015 the CIA was given the job of preparing for war. and they prepared the
Ukrainians for deep strikes. They worked with the British to identify uh deep
cellular structures within Russia that could be mobilized to support things like oh building a drone factory and
sending trucks out to have drones come up and attack strategic bombers. Um and the CIA is actively plotting not only to
destroy Russian oil infrastructure. They admit it. The CIA under Ray called
it out. The New York Times is just the mouthpiece of the CIA. They literally colluded with the CIA uh on a on a
covert operation that's attacking a nuclear armed superpower. Um and and admitting it, bragging about it. I
believe the timing that was supposed to be linked to a 91 drone attack on Putin's um residence, which we know now
they were attacking the residents because the Russians had the chip. But the point is, this is what the CIA do.
Now, for a while there, I thought that this was a rogue operation
because Trump I I'll be the first one to say I I thought Trump was serious about peace with Russia. I really did think
that he was serious about peace with Russia. It turns out he was never serious about peace with Russia. That
peace with Russia was always a setup that Donald Trump's objectives have been aligned with the CIA objectives from day
one in this administration to bring down the regime of Vladimir Putin. straight
up bring it down. You know, when John Ratcliffe in May of last year put out his five-page
whitewashing of um Julian Garganis, the former national intelligence officer
of uh of that, you know, he basically said, "Oh, yeah, she was there uh when
the inter the the the intelligence community's white, you
know, attack on Trump took place." Uh but she didn't have anything to do with it. She was hands off. Meanwhile, Tulsi
Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is getting ready to declassify, you know, Matt Gates's report. Not Matt Gates, I forget who the
uh the California um congressman, can't remember his name, but you know, he did
a report that was just belittled by the Obama administrator. Turns out he was on to something because he basically said
these people hate Donald Trump and they cooked up information to frame Donald Trump. And the person that was behind
this was Julian Gurgganis. Now, so as soon as she published this thing, they put her out into the pasture. She was
still CIA, but she was off at a think tank doing think tank stuff. They brought her back. Radcliffe brought her
back. Why? She was the person on Air Force One
briefing Donald Trump as he flew to Alaska to meet Vladimir Putin. Now, when
I heard that, when I found that out, I'm like, "Wait a minute. She's a known hater of Trump, but worse, she's a hater
of Putin. Why would you have a Putin hater briefing the president on the eve
of a mission that's supposed to be peace to create the Alaska
because it was all a setup and Donald Trump was in on the setup. Straight up
in on the setup. He has been targeting Vladimir Putin from day one. Alaska was
a fraud. Alaska was designed to create the idea that things could get better.
Gel Demetri made him with Steve Witco. Man, we can lift sanctions and make billions, trillions of dollars. We can
build a tunnel. A tunnel. We can connect Alaska to Siberia, baby. Build this tunnel. We can do everything. And
everybody's going to be so rich. It's going to be crazy. And the Russians went, "Cool." Uh, and they started
planning cells. Governors would have planning cells. Um and and but the problem is when you do that, people
start counting their money before it's in the bank. They sit there and go, "Holy cow, if they lift this and America
comes in and we get deep, oh baby, we get that oil out. We can put on the man, I'm already driving my Maserati. I
already have my I got the DACA that I'm going to go to Dubai. I'm spending all this money." That's what the whole
purpose was. It's mental warfare. And then at the appropriate time, Donald Trump goes, "Yeah, no. We're gonna
double down, sanction Russ, sanction Luke Oil, and it's all Vladimir Putin's fault. Everybody, all those Russians
that were spending the money go, "Damn it, Putin." That's the goal. Damn it, Putin. To get him up there. They tried
to kill Vladimir Putin. Straight up. We know there's no ifands or buts. The chip they turned over to the United States
has the exact coordinates of the residence on it. And the intelligence that was packaged
in there to guide this drone in there is very specific intelligence packaged in a
unique manner, a digital fingerprint that lends itself to the Tom Hawk targeting cell that's in Europe,
Department of Defense. It's the only place in the world that can do this. And they have a relationship with Palunteer who then took it and gave it to the
Ukrainians who loaded it on in real time fashion. The Russians know this now. They handed over to the United States.
They didn't say anything. They went here, look at it. And the United States will look at it. And when you do that,
they're going to go, they know everything because it's all there. It's all there. We tried, I'm not going to
say to kill Putin because again, the time of flight of the drones and such, the Russians would have put him in a
bunker that couldn't be hit by these. But we attacked the president of Russia.
Why? Trump was sending a signal. You're weak. You're weak. I'm making you go
underground. I'm Donald Trump. you're weak. And the whole idea is again to diminish Putin in the eyes of the
Russian political and economic elite who have been empowered now with the dream of wealth to create a fifth column to
bring down Putin because that's the CIA's job. And Donald Trump ordered them to do it.
So peace is dead. There is no hope whatsoever for the restoration of this.
The Russians, you know, they put Lavro put out a statement and we're not walking away from American dialogue yet.
Why would they? You need dialogue to prevent a nuclear war. Remember, with Biden, there was no dialogue. So, the
Russians will keep the chain of command open. But then they said, "Yeah, but this latest thing changes everything. Uh
there's no more, let's just put it this way, what you thought was going to happen ain't going to happen. It's going
to be something different." Then they followed up and this is the most important thing here out of all of everything which I believe is important.
They fired a second aression and that closes the door on any
potential of a resurrection of the INF treaty of bringing stability to Europe. The Russians, Dmitri Midv and others
have come out and said that Arashnik intermediate range missiles are now a
major aspect of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence and it will be used.
It gives Russia the ability to escalate using strategic forces in a non-uclear fashion. Now they've now made it their
policy. It is there. They are deploying units. and Riyabkov came out the other day and said, "Yeah, Arashik's cool
more. They're bigger and they're coming on. I can't name them right now, but they're there. They're ready to be
used." And we saw it. The Escandonder 1,000 kilometers now, 800 miles INF system. Um
they they've taken Russia will never back down from INF now. It is a permanent part of their posture because
Europe is irresponsible. America's irresponsible. Donald Trump put the other nail in the coffin. $ 1.5 trillion
dollar defense budget decided to breathe life into Golden Dome. The Russians said you do Golden Dome, there is no arms
control. New start expires next month. It will not be revived and there will be no cap
because the United States is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into mass production of plutonium pits.
We're going to rapidly expand this. and watch what this idiot does because as we rapidly expand, I'm sure someone's going
to say, "Some of these are new designs, boss. We need to test them." And he's going to go, "Test them. Do it." Boom.
Now we got nuclear testing. We're literally in a nuclear arms race right now. There is no
hope whatsoever for arms control. It is dead. The Russians have made it clear now that they have the advantage.
They won the nuclear arms race, by the way. They have overmatch across the board. then they're not going to give it
up. And for the United States to match them, you remember in the Cold War how they said we forced the Soviet Union
to spin themselves into death. Remember that one? Yeah. Star Wars. And we force them in. Well,
the Russians right now are just sitting there going. We got it all. What do you got? Nothing.
Right. Oh, go ahead and spend that money. Spend that three, five, seven trillion dollars you have to spend to
catch up. That isn't going to catch up. You're never going to catch up. This is where the Russians are sitting. And as
long as you have a president of the United States that tries to kill a Russian president, they will never negotiate anything that removes or
reduces their ability to defend themselves. Because the one thing the Russians have is the guarantee that if
the United States ever did kill the Russian president, the United States would cease to exist. So, you know, it's
over. Um, they'll talk, they'll keep the the the communication over, but they
don't trust us at all. Zero trust. Well, okay. Yeah. Um, now, uh, let me
claim equal time. I've taken some notes, Scott. Um, let me
see where we start. Maybe we'll start with the Sha's son. I have met the Sha son. Uh there were back in the day 20
years ago when I used to be in green rooms or blue rooms and uh oh I was
warned and not warned but a very excited uh person with the sha son came Mr.
McGovern the sha son is coming in so he came into the blue room right where I
was standing and I was supposed to be impressed and I didn't say nothing. Okay, I just
looked at him and I remember my Irish grandmother. If that's society, excuse
me. So, I stuck up my hand and I want to
tell you that was the limpest kind of hand that I ever shook. Okay. Now,
in contrast, as Scott knows, I was at the parade on May May 8th in Moscow. Had
pretty good seats. Scott Scott Scott saw me up there with some pretty big dignitaries. Uh the point is I got a
chance to shake the hand of Maduro.
Now I want to tell you that hand is two times as big as mine and he almost crushed my hand. Right now this is all
allegorical but I think it might apply here. Uh the sha son did they think
there's a there's a following for the sha son in Iran? I mean, who told Witco
to, you know, that that was sort of a sign, I guess, to people they thought, I mean, there aren't any there maybe 100
people. They're all descendants of the shot. Anyhow, so that was sort of a a crazy thing. How about Oh, the flight to
uh to Anchorage, you know, after she briefed uh uh the
president uh he told a uh Fox reporter,
and I quote, "I'm really excited here, but you know, if we don't come out with
some kind of ceasefire on this, I'm going to be awfully disappointed."
He already know. He already could have already told him that there wasn't going to be any ceasefire agreed to by the
Russians and yet he told him why did he say I always been wonder well I think I
know why he was briefed by by this rousophobe saying well you know they should give you a ceasefire where
everybody anyhow the way it came out uh Trump apparently made this overture and
Putin hey I thought we told you that's a no no no goer and of course he backed
off and two hours later Trump checked We're not going to do a ceasefire. We're going to do the whole enchilada. We're
going to the whole agreement. Okay. The other thing, the other part of the agreement which people don't really
remember is that Trump agreed to sit on Zilinski and the European seven dwarfs.
Okay. Now indeed uh Trump convened the seven dwarfs uh three days after
Anchorage and they sat before him as if before a tutor uh in the White House and
in the midst of it uh Trump said oh sorry I I Vlad's got Vlad Puchi has
given me a call would you please leave please I'll let you know when you can come back maybe 20 minutes yeah okay so
he thought that would give these guys the message. It didn't. And so Trump was
unable to fulfill his pledge to Puchi to reign Zalinski in and his compatriots in
Europe and make sure they don't put the kibash on an agreement toward a a real
reconciliation or a real agreement on Ukraine. So that was that was the
Anchorage uh agreement and uh I think that was something that uh that Trump
blessed and actually the evidence is clear that uh he put WhitF and I don't
share Scott's view of WhitF. I think he doesn't know much about foreign relations, but he's a damn good
negotiator. Witness Well, don't don't ask me. Ask Fadimir Putin, who has seen
him, I think, seven or eight times, sometimes for over well, one time for
over four hours. So, yeah, let me just uh continue this this sort of thing. Um,
so u what else did I Oh, yeah. The other thing I want to say was Scott, you're
referring to the big gas explosion in Siberia, right? That that where we
sabotage you. Well, you know who wrote a a term paper about that? You, a guy named Anthony Blinken.
You knew about that. It's all laid out there. And of course, Blinken after
Nordstream was blown up, right? would say, "Oh, you know, this is a wonderful opportunity for economic
advancement for us in America." America first. So, okay. Is there anything else?
Yeah, just this. Um, well, no, I'll stop there. Uh, but well,
I'll say this. Uh, now Danny, I sent you two one sentence. Did Did you have a
chance to kind of put that up there because it it indicates exactly where Scott and I disagree on on interpret?
Well, I'll just I'll just read the sentence. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. I could read the sentence, too. Uh I I'll read it.
How about that? Despite this attack, we have no intention to withdraw from negotiations with the US. However, given
the utmost degeneration of the criminal Kiev regime, which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia's
negotiating position will be reviewed. That was Sergey Lavrov directly after the uh attempted assassination of Putin.
But you're same day. Same day. So this is uh in my view the only real official reaction we
have. Lavro was told to say these things no doubt cleared it with poutine and
it's a two-part paragraph and it you know who's who's who's got the best idea
on this. I don't know but the first part says despite this attack we have no
intention to withdraw from negotiations with the United States. Period. Now the
second part is however adnaka. The Russians have this great word adnaka. It
means however. However, given the utmost degeneration of the criminal KF regime
which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia's negotiating position will be
reviewed. I'll just add one sentence. I think it's not over until the fat lady sings. Okay.
Now, the fat lady that is Puchin Lavarov may have sung in in confidential
conversations with their opposite numbers in Washington. I don't know that. It's possible they say go to hell.
We're not we're we're out of it's arms control is over. Uh but I'd like to see
them say that publicly because I would expect them to do that. Last thing, the
attack on Puchin's what the Russians call the the state residence there uh
near Vai. Okay, you're right. They have the parts now.
They have that little uh what is it? Computer, that little gizmo that they
can show exactly where that drone was targeted. Now, the Russians would never
give that to the United States unless, in my view, unless it proved beyond
reasonable doubt that that's exactly where it was headed. Now, the US has had
that for six days. Okay. Now, have they
examined it? Who did they give it to? Oh, they probably gave it to the CIA. And CIA said, "Do you want us to shape
our analysis around the policy, Mr. Trump, or you want to give us, you know, the real the honest answer is, yeah,
that was programmed right to hit the residents." But, uh, then about the technology, you know, more about this
than I, Scott. But I would ask, uh, yeah, this is DoD technology. Uh, have
we not shared that with NATO? In other words, uh could could it be that it was
one of the NATO partners that put this technology in uh in in a place in
Ukraine where it could be used to fire these drones out? In other words, uh,
even though it's western technology, even though it was developed by
Department of Defense here, could it be that someone else other than the CIA or
the armed forces or or the president gave this uh for it to be used in this
manner? I don't know the answer to that, but I think it's a lingering question. I would really like to hear your take on.
Um, yeah. Yeah, Scott, we'll start we'll start with this. Lavrov's response came out the same day
of the attack, right? And that was at a time when um President
Trump said that he was very upset about this that this uh he was very up angry
with Zalinsky if this was indeed the case. Right after that statement was made, Trump
changed his position um radically and then he called Putin a liar.
Said, "You're lying." Didn't happen. Well, well, not he didn't use those words. literally called him a liar. Ray,
he literally called him a liar. No, what he said was this didn't happen. It didn't happen.
It happened. The Russians, that's the that's the importance of this chip. You
see? Yeah. That was the fourth the CIA the CIA colluded with the New
York Times to publish an article about how the CIA was targeting
in the most direct I mean intimate way possible uh Russian oil infrastructure
right precision strikes oil but then say about the residents the same drones the same drones the same
drones the same drones using the same guidance the same guidance the same
guidance It's the same weapon. It's a CIA run asset. The 14th regiment launching the
same drone using the same chips directed by the CIA. And the CIA had been working
with the New York Times on this article for days if not weeks prior to the timing of the release of this article is
not an accident. The CIA was sending a signal. We are targeting you.
We are targeting you. The chip, right? That chip was given to the
Russians days after after Trump called Putin a liar after he said none of what
the Russians were saying is true and the CIA gave this that the Russians gave this chip and that chip does a couple
things. That chip proves that the residence was the target. There's no doubt about it. But given this drone and
the way this drone palunteer, this drone is a drone jointly produced by the
Germans and the Ukrainians, right? Um the guidance system is actually a
German uh chip, okay, produced by Germany. But Palanteer is
responsible for the targeting, not the German government. Palunteer does the targeting. Okay?
says that they get commercially available intelligence that they then
blend with intelligence given to the Ukrainians uh by NATO
by whomever. They didn't say NATO by whomever and it's blended in. The assumption is supposed to be Germany,
NATO, all this. But here's the thing. The technology that's being used, which
is AIdriven technology, mirrors that of the tomahawk guidance system, but slowed down because you're in a drone. But
basically, there's no GPS. The thing gets launched in a in a trajectory. Halfway through, it does a course
correction based upon timing. It'll turn on either radar or a camera. It will
take an image that is then matched with data stored in the drone and it'll line
itself and keep going. But there's other data that comes in wind speed, weather conditions, um the guidance that they go
around the air defense networks. This is stuff that's only collected, it's not
collected by commercially available resources, right? And the specificity of the information
can only be collected by the United States. And the way it was packaged, the
the way it was packaged, et is a unique signature. Remember, the Russians have
complete Tomahawk missiles. You know, the ones we fired into Syria that sort of ended up in a field. So, the the
Tomahawk guidance system is not unfamiliar to the Russians. And those
Tomahawks that were fired received their digital targeting packet from the DoD
activity in Europe. They're the ones who make it up and they're the ones who send it out via commun classified
communication means to the various ships that then program it up. Is that the Russians have a digital
signature? NATO can't do this. NATO cannot do this. Only the United States
can do this. The United States gives it to NATO. We don't
we don't give it to NATO. Okay. So NATO has no way of using the
kind of uh USP specific technology that you described and no way to give that to
the Ukrainians. NATO has scalped missiles. NATO has storm shadow missiles. NATO has the um
the the German Taurus that hasn't been provided, right? But the specific targeting system
is they're different targeting systems that use different inputs. The digital
fingerprint of this chip is a DoD digital fingerprint. And
that was given there's a reason why they gave it to the Americans. They didn't give it to the Americans to point the
finger at Germany. They didn't give it to the Americans to point the finger at France or the United Kingdom. They gave
it to the Americans to point the finger at Donald Trump who lied to them. Straight up lied to them. And they now
know that he tried to kill the president of Russia. That's what they know. Now
you say you'd like them to make a statement. Let me give you a following statement that the Russians have made.
When I was in R in in in in Russia in November, I met with the Gori Institute. That's a group out of u out of St.
Petersburg. Karen Kissell, the former foreign minister of uh Austria, runs it and uh it's in close collaboration with
the Russian foreign ministry. Um and we were at that time trying to figure out how we could put arms control on the
agenda. The Russian government made it clear, very clear to me that um they
weren't going to talk about arms control. They weren't going to talk about archnik. They weren't going to talk about nuclear anything. That was
all hushed up because of the close communications that were supposed to be taking place with the United States on
this issue. Meanwhile, while they're waiting for that, Labro saying, "They ain't picking up the phone. We're waiting here. We're ready. They ain't
picking up the phone. Nobody's talking to us." But we did come up with a thing where we were going to do mock
negotiations. And the idea of the mock negotiations was to go through the processes of problem solving related to
the various issues related to New Start Extension. INF ABM and the Russian
government went, "We like that idea. That's a good idea because that's not making policy, but that's that's getting
it out there. That's moving it forward a positive way. We're going to do it in St. Petersburg. Bring a similar thing
parallel to the United States. Have these two things together so you could deliver packets of information to the
foreign ministry and the State Department." And they were all on board. They just pulled the plug.
They said, "We ain't doing arms control. It ain't happening. It's dead. Now, they
haven't done that publicly, but I'm just here to tell you right now, the foreign ministry was excited about this. They
ain't excited about it anymore. The Russians, they're not interested. They fired the Archnik.
That means that the arric is now, as Dimmitri Midvich said, an integral part
of their nuclear deterrence um posture and they're not giving it up to a lying
sack of manure government that tried to kill the president. Remember, the Russians are furious about this. They're
furious about this because this isn't a CIA accident. Yeah. This is directed activity by the
CIA directed by the president of the United States who's covering for the CIA right now. Right. That's the Russian interpretation.
Well, Ray, well, before you before you go, uh, briefly, I do I did have one more question for both of you. So, Ray, uh,
just if please finish, but I I have one more question and then we can close. Okay. Yeah, the Russians are furious. Um, they
were furious when we uh when the Ukrainians attacked our their bomber
fields, part of their triad deterrent. What did they do? Well, they complained
more about uh drones that dropped a railroad bridge and killed some
civilians. They were furious, but they they did not make a big federal case out
of it. There were other things that they're furious about. But what I'm trying to say here is that Putin may be
furious, but he's calm, cool, and collected. This this statement by Lav you'll re
recall blames it on the terrorists in Ukraine.
If uh Putin is briefed uh and told erroneously in your view uh Scott that
uh this was uh NATO for sure uh we don't know if the US did it directly then he
will have a way of blaming it on Ukraine again. Now the other thing is that uh uh
there's been no response. uh it's been a good week if memory serves that the US
has had this uh this uh component that they could analyze. Now let's say that
of course I bow to you on your expertise that it shows that there was targeted right on the state residence and that it
was US technology. Uh this in my view is a litmus test. If
Putin, as I believe he was, has been interested first and foremost to have a
umbrella good relationship with the United States. Why would he want that?
To avoid a nuclear war. Is that clear enough? I think it's very clear. And I
think they made that very clear. He's a cautious guy. And this guy is irassable. He's unpredictable. He's Yeah. He you
got to be careful with him. That's the priority. Okay. Now, if he still wants to hope that people like Witco and
others can can work out things on Ukraine, for example, then he has the option of of of being being furious but
being also Putin. But if it if the administration comes back with a answer
that says, "No, uh, Mr. Putin, you're lying." We can tell that you're lying.
these were these were uh actually we we know that uh they weren't headed toward
uh to if if he comes back with that kind of massaging of the intelligence or
equally bad if they don't respond at all if even in in secure channels there's no
response uh the Russia will have to take Putin will have to take this as uh the
next to the last straw what's the last straw uh new start. Okay. Puchin made a
personal plea to United States president on the 22nd of February, as you know
better than anyone, Scott, uh that he would abide by the quantitative limits
on offensive missiles and bombers and so forth, uh of new start even after it
expires on February 5th. Okay. Now, what has Trump said? Well, a couple of
weeks later, some journalists said, "What do you think of that?" Oh, I think I sounds like good day. Sounds like good
idea to me. The Russians have been imploring imploring the US. Please, could we
please have a more official response, you know? Okay, they've gotten none. It's less than four weeks now. If
there's no response or if it's a negative response, then I would say,
"You're right. Arms control is dead." Okay. then I would say the fat lady has
sung. But until that time, I see that the fat lady has not sung the final song
yet. And you know, I'm happy to to engage in this conversation because
did But Trump did answer it. Just what did he say? They said new starts expiring. So it
expires. That was his answer. So it expires. Well, that's not an official answer in
my view. He's the president of the United States. He said, when did he say that? How did I miss that? I don't know how you missed it,
but he said it uh in in all of this stupidity that's going on. It's a throwaway statement that the media
didn't pick up on. I picked up on it and Putin did respond. The Ministry of Defense made it very clear that the
Archnik, the firing of the Arnik, and this is why I put so much emphasis on it, was a direct response to the attack
against Putin's residence. Now, Scott, I would argue that the Archnik, the Russians have described
that as an intermediate range missile, correct? Okay. Now, when Putin was asked
about this at one of the Q&As, he was asked, "What's what are the prospects for arms control, he said, there's a
two-part answer here. If the Americans agree to prolong the quantitative limits of new start, I know
what to expect for the next year. If they don't, that's a different kettle
of fish. And it's more complicated now because of middle range ballistic
missiles that need to be taken into account and of course China. So Putin
has made it very clear that there's a difference in Russian eyes between the intermediate range ballistic missiles
which they still consider the aric and the main thing which I would say is the
supreme litmus test. If Trump cannot agree to prolong those limits, no
negotiations, no talks, it just yes or no. If he can't do that, Putin will have
to say, "All right, you guys were right. He's not his own man. Even if he would like to do that, he can't do that. We
will draw the necessary conclusions. Then the fat lady will have some."
But he said just real quick, just he he there's two other conditions Putin put on it, right? First is that uh if if the
intermediate missiles um aren't contained that if they become
deployed and all this if the United States deploys Dark Eagle all bets are off. The second one was Golden Dome.
Said there can be no Golden Dome. Trump just put forward a $ 1.5 trillion defense budget. It's all about Golden
Dome. You're right. It's dead. It's finished. It's done.
Putin doesn't back away from his thing. And I just want to remind you, the Archnik may be an intermediate range
missile. It's a strategic asset. It's operated by the strategic rocket forces
operating under the same command structure. Um, and it's part it's targeted as part of the strategic
targeting. They don't have this isn't a tactical or operational system. The decision to use archnik was a strategic
decision by the president of Russia and the ministry of defense made it clear that it was directly related to the
attack on um on Putin's residence. You're right, Scott. I would say that you remember the last part of that
overture on the 22nd of of September, which included those things that you
just said, and I I compliment you on your memory being more comprehensive than mine.
Well, I'm just I'm just anal. Well, uh, you know, Scott, I have not
been able to cover I wanted to cover the specifics and the particularities of the
Arashnik, uh, strike uh, that occurred in response to the CIA and, uh, US, uh,
assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin. So, could you talk about this like what
exactly happened? uh the Russian slammed into uh Lviv uh which is very which is
right on the Polish border. Uh there was a significant message sent here and so I was wondering if you could help our
audience understand what is significant about this second use of the archnik and
what exactly happened. Well, there going to be an awful lot of speculation here. So, um just understand
because nobody's come out and what I'll say is this. The first arric attack was done by a test missile. Russians said it
was an operational test. Um, and if you look at the strike, uh, it the the
warheads struck in relatively the same area. They picked six different targets within the same narrow geographical
space. The in in in Nepro um this strike
by a second archnic uh there were six distinct physically separated targets. I
think the um there was a aircraft refurbishment facility that might have taken three when I say three it's six
the six submunitions three independently target warheads six submunitions boom boom boom but one of them went off and
hit the uh the strategic gas um position and I think that they hit other targets.
So what the Russians demonstrated this time is because they were saying no it just comes in and it's not accurate. The
Russians went, watch this. See, it's separated. And
now, see what happens. The six independently targeted things go and hit
six distinct targets that are, oh, the arric has a greater. So, the Russians
gave away a very big operational detail about the arric that it's not
just concentrated in one area. It's six separate E, you know, targetable uh
maneuvering warheads that put it down with precision on where they need to go. So that's a that's a signal that the
Russians sent too about capability. The Russians have been that the arric
has gone into serial production. um that was announced, you know, a while back, but it actually began, I think, in
August is when the first serial produced missile came off of the uh production line in Vatkinsk. Um since that time,
they've put together a brigade. That's three battalions of three launchers each. That's nine missiles. There's a
10th missile used there for training purposes. So 10 missiles serial produced out of Vodkans between August and um and
December when this brigade went operational. Um but the Russians have said there are other brigades forming up
as well. The launch didn't come from an operational unit. The launch came from
Capoosear. When Putin first announced the uh the arric he said it was an
operational test and he said we have several of these uh assembled together but it's it's a test missile. We don't
have you know it's not gone into serial production. It is in serial production now. Those you those missiles are going
to operational brigades uh in the Ber Russian military. It's actually a Russian brigade in Ber jointly commanded
and then other uh brigades that are up there. This missile was a was a test missile as well. It's sort of funny to
just tell a little war story here. The um you know, they're looking at the debris and and somebody goes, "Look,
there's a lamp in there. A lamp? An old Soviet lamp in there. This isn't
sophisticated." Um when I was a weapons inspector in in Bkinsk, we used this thing called the
stage measuring device. So, you pop the lid off the missile and you're supposed to slide the stage measuring device down
into the missile and then uh and then they had optic things. You're measuring the gap between the stages to make sure
that the second stage wasn't the same as an SS20, but it had to be illuminated.
And so down there, they had lamps and I remember and now this is a solid
propellant thing. We had to wear anti-static clothing and, you know, touch ourselves clean before we got up
anywhere near this missile. I wasn't on this test. I wish I was. I'd kill myself, but I had a good friend who was,
John Storius. And so they're they slide it down there and they're down there and all a sudden that lamp down there goes
there's a surge. The lamp blows up inside the launch
canister of a solid rocket missile and everybody just freezes. And about 10 seconds later, one of the Soviets goes,
"Well, we're still alive." And so they pull the thing out and now there's shards of glass down there. And they're
like, "Well, we need another lamp." Now, the Soviets had told because when the Americans were looking at it going, "There's a lamp on this. This is a very
specialmade lamp um made by this factory in Moscow specifically for this." The
Russians went out to a standard uh I think it was a um a truck and they took
off the headlight. They took the lamp off the headlight and they came in and they soldered it on there and said we can go again. And the Americans like we
ain't doing that. My point is the Russians when they do testing um there
there's things in there that are sort of soldered in there, you know, to to test. That lamp isn't part of the operating
system of the archnic. That lamp is probably in there to illuminate parts of the missile as it goes through vibration
tests. You know, Capushinar has an off-road area where they take the launcher and they they run it around and
then they bring it back and see if they can raise it up and see if the gyros spin up and they do all these tests on it so that you know if something breaks,
oh wait, we got to fix that. And then they send it back to the ther the min the the um Moscow Institute of Thermal
Technology and they think about it and they come up with fixes and it goes to Vatkansk and they put together a test missile and they send it out to Kusinar
and they test it. The Russians fired a test missile, which again means that the
Russians aren't showing the full capacity of this missile, but they
showed enough. They they fired a missile that this time the warheads separated and hit six distinct targets. But these
weren't operational missiles. Those missiles are now deployed. Um it'll be a
different game the day the Russians stop firing the archnik from Kapinar because that's still a demonstration.
They fire it from an actual operational unit. That's war. But the Russians are
fed up, Ray. I mean, all these guys who advise the president, the people in parliament, the the close advisor of the
president, they're all coming out and they are furious. I mean, they want to nuke Europe right now. They they
straight up the straight up the head of the defense committee and in the parliament, this is the equivalent of, you know, you know, whoever runs the the
the House uh you know, arms armed services committee, you know, nuke them. And I'm going to advise the president to
nuke him now. Sergey Carneagana, very well-known political theorist who is
close to Vladimir Putin. We need to use nuclear weapons against Europe now. It's the only thing they'll understand there.
This is the rhetoric taking place. Now, Vladimir Putin, of course, is much more pragmatic and smart and he carries the
weight of the world on his shoulders and I don't believe he's going to do that. But we we can't be dismissive of the
fact that the Russian system is furious that the United States tried
to kill their president. Yeah. Blind furious. Yeah. No, I would I would say that's
really important. And Kaganov of course has been saying this for if not decades
at least years. Uh so he's under some pressure to uh to do so that is puchin
is and I would just add here um and I think this is something that's really
important 10 years ago when US and other western journalists
were in St. Petersburg for a big economic conference uh pin invited them
to a little uh little around the table uh briefing. There were about 20 of
them. Okay. And what he said was, "Look, I don't know why you guys don't take
this seriously. I'm going to tell you what we've had to do because the US has
re rejected all our initiatives. We're not helpless. We're developing very
imaginative systems that the US can't defend against." Now, I don't expect you
to write this in your newspapers. I don't even expect you to tell your editors about this, which of course
Putin was right. But I'm going to tell you what it is. We have the tape of that. Okay. Now, two years later,
uh, in his State of the Union address, Putin got up and did a show and tell
about these new sophisticated different technology weapons that were going to
come online eventually, and now they're online. Okay, you know what? Not only
the Poseidon and lots of others.

Now, what I'm trying to say is the
important thing is that for the first time in my life, much less my
professional career, Russia has an advantage on us, not only in
conventional arms, but in strategic arms. They have a deterrent that won't
quit. My question, why is it that no
intelligence or armed forces intelligence outfit has acknowledged
that, and has said to the president of the United States, look, you know, we need to cry uncle here. We're not going
to prevail against the Russians, much less the Russians and the Chinese. Why is it, Scott, that people don't know
that the Russians have an advantage now that they never had before, and that we
should stop tweaking the bear?

Look, Ray, I'm not in the
intelligence business anymore, you know, and so it's hard to know that, but I take a look at the theories
that come out from people who are connected, because of course we don't get to read the actual classified
intelligence reports put out by the various missile analytical departments and the intelligence community, but
there's a theory right now that we don't need to worry about the Oreshnik because when the Russians started mass-
producing the Iskander and the Zircon and the Kenzal, they maxed
out their aluminum perchlorate capability, aluminum powder. And
there's only that one factory in Nova Subirk, and the satellite imagery doesn't show that that factory is expanded, and
therefore there's this bottleneck. And so now they want to talk about building a Oreshnik, but that's a bigger missile
that's going to consume a lot more material, and therefore they can't do it. They're bluffing. And plus, you know,
we're taking a look at the yards modernization program. There's all these competing factors out there for this
limited quantity material and I look at their analysis, and I
have to respond by saying that you don't know. I mean, I can't get into sources
and methods here, but I know what they used to be able to do in terms of collection. They maybe got better,
but the Russians have not just sat there being a static target. They change up, too.

The Russian relationship with
China is a completely different relationship. And so is the Russian relationship with North Korea. And both
of those nations produce the various materials that they say are in short
supply now, the raw materials. And
all I know is that when I was in Russia, when I went to Nova Subirk, when I went to Ekadderburg, of course, I didn't have
access to the classified material. There was just a lot of cranes. The Russians are
building things. And there's probably facilities out there that we just don't have a clue what
they're doing. I remember how shocked people were when Vladimir Solivv went up to Victory Park on that complex
north of Moscow where they had this giant cathedral, and this wonderful museum about World War II. But adjacent
to it is a facility, and it turns out
that's where they were sort of building up the Beerus Vesnik drone unit. But they did it there to avoid detection.
But Soliv made a mistake, he did a video, and it allowed people to do geolocating, and there it is.

My point is I think Russia is full of places that are doing things right now that we just don't have a clue. I mean
the CIA is shut down. They don't have any eyes operable inside Russia. Not like they used to. And
satellites are only good when they look at things. You look at a roof, you're looking at a roof.
I mean, they ain't that good yet. They can't go through the roof. And actually, it can actually now with radar
and infrared and hot. But I can also counter that just through simple heat layering, and
reflectors. But my point is I think the United States is flying blind on this. And I think there's also a lot of wishful thinking. We have been
posturing the Russians as weak for so long that we can't accept the fact that the Russians are actually strong.
That they can produce things in quantities, and in quality, that that are beyond our imagination. They're
getting ready.

You know, we talked about the drone revolution has made the tank obsolete. No. You know what Russia's
been doing? They're building a tank that has built onto it modern advanced anti-
drone technology. And they're assembling armored forces now that have this
technology for breakout. Now when and where that's going to happen, I don't know. People are saying it might come
down through Chennai, maybe through Sunumi. But the point is, the Russians are getting ready to reinvent
the battlefield, and using new advanced technology. While we're still trying to
learn how to do basic drone warfare, the Russians and Ukrainians are masters at this.

But drone warfare has
reached sort of the pinnacle of where it can go. Now the question is, do you just have static trench warfare, or do you
come up with new tactics, and new equipment, like the Germans did at the end, and the Russians
are doing right now? And we're just clueless about Russia.

Well, I thought that the Russian economy was falling apart. That's what the president said just the other
day. Would the president be ill informed on that? Do you suppose
I think the president is as ill-informed as he gets? I also think this president doesn't care what other people tell him.
Look, this is a man who basically said international law doesn't
matter. Only my morals. The only thing that matters is my morality.
The man who was on more airplanes with Epstein than anybody else. His morality.
Sorry I went there. I apologize for that.

I know that's relevant.
Any final comments, gentlemen, before we head out, Ray?

February 5 is when New Start expires. I see that maybe Scott, I'd ask you
if you agree with this. If there's no response, or if there's a negative
response from the president of the United States to do this simple thing of just renewing for one more year the
quantitative limits of New Start, then I think Putin
will finally have to say, "All right, bring the fat lady in here. It's all over. No more arms." Do you agree with
that?

Look Ray I'm going to try and be optimistic, and agree with you. My
only problem is that this defense budget, you know, while we've been talking disarmament and all that stuff, the
American nuclear weapons enterprise has been positioning to get funding for the
mass production of plutonium pits. And that's budgeted now. There's
money in the budget. They're doing this. They're building the pits. Why would you build new, and we're talking thousands
of plutonium pits, why would you do this if you're agreeing to caps? I think
the President's already made his mind up. I think that he's not going to give it away.
But, you know, when he said the other day, "New Start is expiring," he said, "So, it expires."

So, this will sound trite, but I believe that a Nobel Peace Prize is very
much in Trump's distorted mind. He's going to steal it from from Venezuelan lady. It sounds adolescent to suggest this, but if he doesn't say yes
to renewing those limits on New Start, I think that may only
disqualify him. I do think that's an element in his thinking about such
things. As odd as that may seem to the rest of us rational people, kidnapping
Maduro, and getting ready to preemptively launch a war against Iran, would disqualify. No, I know those Nobel Peace
Prize quotes. All I need to do, as long as they support the war,
as long as the peace prize committee supports the wars, it's okay, I guess.
I mean, Obama did get one after all, right?

All right, everybody. This was
a great show. It was a huge show. I think it was very fair and very
interesting and I'm so glad so many people came out to hear both you Scott and Ray. I have your websites.
I have Scott's Substack. I have Ray's website. I also have Scott's YouTube channel in the video description, so you
can check out all of their work.

Hit the like button before you go. Everyone every there was a lot of generosity new
members um uh new uh people who gave super chat. So, I'm just putting them on
the screen so you all know that it is appreciative. Um, uh, and yeah, until
next time, everyone, we're gonna head out. Uh, we've been on for a couple hours. Say one thing real quick. Please do.
It's just a personal thing. Um, of course, I I have been uh, what do they call it?
Debbanked by the US government. Um, uh, today the US, uh, the the my my longtime
bank, Citizens Bank, 26 years, informed me that they were just unilaterally shutting down our banking relationship.
And, uh, and doing the research on it, um, it it appears that they were
responding to a suspicious activity report from the US government. There is no suspicious activity. And you dig into
that, you find out that the FBI does this as a form of harassment u to to get
a bank to initiate, then they debank you. Um, and so, uh, if you could go to
scottritter.com and go to the donation page and make a little donation. I'm not asking for a lot, but um, they basically
all my money disappeared in my bank. Um, I don't have any money left and uh, and
uh, you know, we we'll work it out. I'm not panicked, but um, normally I would just let it slide, but
um, you know, sort of a big deal midmon bills. Um, anyways, that's all I would
ask is uh if if you guys could spare a a penny or two um to help me get through
this until I figure out what the hell's going on, I'd appreciate it. Yeah, everyone go to go to uh Scott
Substack, hit the donation button there. Uh do that. That's ridiculous. Well, on that note, everybody, uh just know that
this does have consequences. Uh and you know, uh we all have to stand and and
take care of each other and stand with each other. So, until next time, everyone. Uh, I will be back again soon.
I'll let you know when I am. I believe it's Thursday night, but uh, I'll let you know the time and the guests. Thank you everyone. We're going to head out
together. Bye-bye. Take his gun.

[admin]

Fresh twist in Trump’s Iran posturing amidst fear of consequences in region | Janta Ka Reporter
Janta Ka Reporter
Jan 13, 2026

Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he had cancelled his imaginary meeting with the Iranian leadership. Instead he encouraged protesters in Iran to occupy public institutions. This change in heart comes amidst experts warning that repeating the tactics used in Venezuela against Iran may not augur well for US in West Asia. Rifat Jawaid looks at Trump’s dilemma and the double standard of coverage in the western media.



Transcript

So Donald Trump has once again
maintained his aggressive posturing
against Iran. This morning he said that
his imaginary meeting with the Iranian
leadership had been cancelled. He then
urged Iranian protesters to occupy the
national institutions in the Islamic
Republic. This guy has no limits to his
lunacy just like his genocidal friends.
I will discuss this and the Western
media's broader hypocrisy in covering
the Iranian protests in today's video.

Trump briefly addressed the media before
leaving for Detroit, but he avoided
talking about Iran.

[Trump] So, we're going to Detroit. We'll be
talking about how well the economy is
doing. As you know, uh the inflation
numbers just came out and we have very
low inflation. So that would give too
late Powell the chance to give us a
nice beautiful big rate cut which would
be great for the country but rates are
falling also and growth is going up. We
have tremendous growth numbers so growth
is going up. So I'll be talking about
that today in Detroit the big speech and
I can only say that the country is doing
well. You saw my statement on Iran. You
saw my statement on Minnesota.
In Minnesota we have taken out killers,
rapists, drug dealers, people from
mental institutions that came in
illegally. All of them, most of them
came in illegally.

But when he spoke in
Detroit, he repeated pretty much
everything whatever he had written on
his own social media platform, Truth
Social, earlier today, like the help is
coming, occupy national institutions and
save the names of your killers. Blah
blah blah.

[Donald Trump] And by the way, to all Iranian patriots,
keep protesting. Take over your
institutions if possible. And save the
name of the killers and the abusers that
are abusing you. You're being very badly
abused if the numbers are right. Now, I
hear five different sets of numbers. I
hear numbers. Look, one death is too
much, but I hear much lower numbers. And
then I hear much higher numbers, but I
say save their names because they'll pay
a very big price. Then I've canceled all
meetings with the Iranian officials
until the senseless killing of
protesters stops. The help was on the
way.

This is what he has been promising
Iranians for over a week. In reality, he
doesn't quite know what to do with the
Iranian establishment. Bomb them and
then run the risk of unimaginable
consequences for American interest in
the region and the rogue settler colony
called Israel, also known as the new
occupier of the USA. This is what these
depraved individuals have been doing.

Trump, his war criminal masters Benjamin
Netanyahu, their slave Raza Pahlevi, and
their fellow propagandists have been
instigating ordinary Iranians to take on
the government through violent means
while they sit thousands of miles away
in the comfort of Western countries.
Watch this Pali Chap's reply when he's
asked about his role in the death of
hundreds and perhaps thousands of
Iranian protesters. And as you are
urging people to protest and go to the
streets, the death toll is rising in
Iran.

This violent crackdown continues
just as it has in past attempted
revolutions. I mean, is it responsible
to be sending citizens in Iran to their
deaths? Do you bear some responsibility?
As I said, as I said, as I said, this is
a war, and war has casualties. If this
doesn't make Iranians any more wiser,
nothing will. It's not a coincidence
that Iranian protesters turning violent
has coincided with Western politicians
spending all their energy on this topic.
These are the same politicians who were
either silent on or supported the
genocide of over 600,000 innocent
civilians in Gaza. Watch this aerial
footage on your screen right now. This
is the aerial footage of Gaza. To truly
understand what Israeli terrorists with
the help of the genocidal west has done
to the over 2 million population since
October 2023.
They have destroyed, completely flattened
the whole of Gaza. And these same
depraved and demonic politicians want
you to believe that they care about
human rights.

Politicians in the West work in perfect
coordination with their propaganda
outlets whenever they set their eyes on
their common enemy. Remember how the
likes of the BBC, the CNN, Guardian, New
York Times, Washington Post, and other
Western media outlets went out of their
way to hide Israeli war crimes, crimes
against humanity. The same BBC has now
taken it upon itself to side with
protesters. You wouldn't see BBC
presenters repeat the chant like Iran
denies its committing atrocities.
Remember this, a BBC presenter, Kirsty
Walk, she's no longer with the BBC. She
was so cruel that she wasn't even moved
by the fact that her guest, a diplomat,
had lost over a dozen members of his
family to Israeli war crimes.

Now, of
course, there's more than 800 dead in
Gaza, including members of your own
extended family. What do you know what
happened to them?

They were just sitting at their home and
they were simply bombarded. Their entire
building was brought down. Uh my cousin
Aya, her two children, her husband, her
mother-in-law, and two other relatives
uh died immediately, were killed
instantly. and two of her youngest
children uh a twin two years old are now
in intensive uh care. This is truly uh
heartbreaking. And the issue here,
Kirsty, is that they have no bankers.
They have no iron dome. They have
nowhere to go. They are simply sitting
ducks for the Israeli war machine.

I'm sorry for your own personal loss. I
mean, can I just be clear though? You
cannot condone the killing of civilians
in Israel, can you?

And there were
countless other examples of such biases
when BBC presenters and reporters
disgraced themselves, their upbringing,
and humanity in general. All because
they were tasked with the responsibility
to hide Israeli war crimes in a bid to
dehumanize Palestinians. No compassion,
no empathy, no respect for humanity in
general when it came to the coverage of
Gaza. Contrast this to their coverage on
Iran.
only this morning. This is how BBC Radio
5 live breakfast presenter Rachel Burden
framed her question. She had no doubt in
her mind about the brutalities of the
regime. Her words not mine

and the
number of people killed in these
protests.
Uh and we have seen verified footage of
bodies outside a morgue. We know that
there have been hundreds, possibly
thousands of deaths. The brutality of
the regime's response must surely be
making people incredibly fearful.

Did anyone detect a similar conviction in
her broadcast while covering Gaza or she
had forgotten her journalism in the last
2 years? Or has anything changed in the
BBC's editorial guidelines? Now I asked
her and the BBC press office for their
version, but they chose to not reply to
my queries. Then on BBC news channel, I
saw this. This is Matthew Amoli Wallala,
my former colleague. Watch how he
interviews an Iranian living in England
working as the editor-in-chief of the
independent Persian website. He remained
unmoved when his guest called the
Iranian regime brutal.

Why no instant
intervention stating that Iran would
deny it committing brutalities?
All of us were worried about all
Iranians inside Iran. But it was very
revealing. I just felt better since
Thursday where I haven't had any words
from anyone of my relatives inside Iran.
And as I said again, I feel so much
sympathy with all that Iranians inside
Iran facing this brutal regime and lost
lots of the loved one.

This BBC presenter then was quick to add
his own set of information stating that
the Iranian authorities just keep
killing. And we've also been hearing at
BBC Persian accounts where one person
told our colleagues that they just keep
killing talking about the firing into
crowds live ammunition. They talked
about different areas. Did you ever see
this chap or his other colleagues on the
same TV channel in the last two years
attributing the word killing to Israeli
terrorists from the IDF? Send me the
video if you have one. Also, where was
this compassion from BBC presenters when
Palestinian guests appeared on the same
BBC news channel to talk about Israeli
brutalities?
They kept on mocking their tragedy, a
tragedy, a holocaust that we have not
seen for generations. Even as I speak,
Israeli terrorists are committing far
worse atrocities against Palestinians in
Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

These
BBC presenters scavenging on our license
fee money don't have to go that far.
Just ask their colleagues in the settler
colony and they would tell you how
Israeli terrorist shot dead a child in
Hebron, bombed children in Gaza and
unleashed the settler terrorists to steal
more Palestinian land in the occupied
West Bank.

But the propaganda must
demand a glaring hypocrisy from an
organization which has become an
embodiment of shame to the noble
profession of journalism
on Gaza. We were told that the BBC was
trying to provide a balanced coverage by
presenting the Israeli perspective.
Why does that rule not apply to the
coverage on Iran? I will have no problem
if the BBC indulges in such a propaganda
if it stops expecting this propaganda to
be funded by average households in the
UK. Go and ask Israel or even the US to
fund this dirty campaign.

Coming back to
Trump's threats on military strikes
against Iran, Trump realizes the risk
attached to any such adventurism. If he
bombs the streets of Tehran, he would end
up killing a lot more protesters and not
to forget the unimaginable consequences
which I talked about earlier from Iran
in the region on American interest and
Israel. Trump should listen to this BBC
representative.

It is also worth reminding everyone that
this is a regime forged in war. The
first 10 years of the Islamic Revolution
saw Iran involved in a desperate war
against Iraq, a war that it almost lost.
The country is battle hardened
through that and successive
confrontations with Israel and the
United States and others. So, you know,
to confidently predict the regime's
demise is a foolish thing to do, but it
is definitely in a weakened state.

If this doesn't make Trump reflect on his
desire for another military escalation
against Iran, then he's clearly decided
to risk the lives of American soldiers
to please his Israeli masters.

That's it from me. Thank you very much for your
support of this platform and our
journalism. If you haven't subscribed to
my channel, please do so because that's
one of the many ways you can support
independent journalism. God bless you

*******************************

Iran Finally EXPOSES USA & Israel? 'We Have Audio Recordings...' | Trump EMBARRASED?
WLA
945K subscribers
Jan 13, 2026 #Iran #Araghchi #ForeignMinister

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a press conference in Tehran claiming "extensive evidence and documents" of U.S. and Israeli involvement in what the government characterizes as riots. "This is clear evidence of interference in the internal affairs of other countries," Araghchi stated, referencing President Trump's warnings about intervention if protesters are killed.
Araghchi says Iran has audio messages urging violence, but the recordings haven't been released publicly, so the claim can't be verified. He says Iran possesses recordings of messages sent from outside the country to what he called "terrorist elements."
The Foreign Minister cited a tweet from former CIA Director Mike Pompeo congratulating "Iranians in the streets and Mossad agents walking alongside them"—Araghchi says the post amounts to a "clear admission," but that interpretation is Iran's view, not independent confirmation. Araghchi said detained individuals confessed to receiving payments for various acts—but the documents and context haven't been independently verified.
Araghchi reported destruction during January 8-10, claiming shops, ambulances, and mosques were set on fire across the country. "No Iranian attacks or burns a mosque," he stated, framing the destruction as evidence of foreign direction. The figures can't be independently verified, so treat them as the government's claims until corroborated.
Tehran is framing the unrest as "an extension of the 12-day war" with Israel, claiming it was "planned outside the country in order to bring chaos to Iran." Araghchi claims security forces are "in control," but independent verification is limited during the blackout.



Transcript

The goal was to increase the number of
deaths at the protest scene. Why?
Because Mr. Trump, the president of the
United States, had said that if
people are killed, we will intervene.
This statement itself is a blatant
interference in the internal affairs of
other countries.
We have recorded audio files of various
electronic messages that were sent from
far outside the country to these
specific terrorist agents telling them
clearly that among the many protesters,
shoot. If you can hit the police, hit
the police. If not, shoot ordinary
people. If that's not possible, shoot
that girl or that boy standing in front
of you. Just shoot them.
[Music]
We have an extensive collection of
documents and evidence clearly
demonstrating and pointing toward the
direct and significant participation of
both the United States of America and
Israel in this matter
terrorist act.
Various Israeli news media outlets and
television channels are currently
overflowing with numerous reports and
claims that they are planning and
preparing for strategic military
operations in Iran.
Mr. Pompeo, who is not an insignificant
figure, he was the head of the CIA
during Mr. Trump's administration.
He tweeted and said that he will spend
the new year.
He congratulates the Iranians who are on
the streets and the Mossad agents who
are moving alongside them.
This is a clear admission.
[Music]
We will seek justice. All of them, the
Iranian government and ourselves will
pursue this and we are following up both
through international channels and
within the country.

Our security forces now have full control of
the situation with complete authority.
It is our sincere hope that absolutely
no strategic miscalculations or errors
in judgment will be made by other
nations.

From our perspective, what happened over
these three days
on the 8th and 10th of January in Ottawa
was a continuation of the 12-day war.
It was meticulously orchestrated and
planned from abroad to instigate
widespread chaos and instability
throughout the country. We the people
we have evidence that has been obtained
and they themselves have admitted that
they were given large sums of money and
were enticed by these funds.
80 million Tommans were paid for
attacking each police station. 50
million tomans were paid for attacking
and setting fire to government vehicles.
50 million tommans
and 20 million tomans for setting fire
to buildings.
All of this has documentation. There are
confessions and the payments made to
them exist as evidence.

Furthermore, in addition to that,
there are videos showing them shooting
at people and shooting at police forces.
We even have videos showing them
distributing weapons among the people.
This shop was engulfed in flames in the
market. In one of the cities, 200 shops
were consumed by the blaze.
At ambulances, they attacked. In just
those three days, 180 ambulances were
set on fire.
Buses were set on fire
and then they attacked mosques. What is
truly strange to consider is that no
Iranian would ever choose to attack a
sacred mosque and set it on fire.
53 mosques were set on fire across the
country.

Iran's foreign minister has made
extraordinary claims about foreign
involvement in the recent unrest.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran,
Seyed Abbas Araghchi alleged that Iran possesses
extensive evidence and documents
indicating the involvement of both the
United States and Israel in what the
government characterizes as terrorist
acts. This is clear evidence of
interference in the internal affairs of
other countries. Araghchi declared these
claims cannot be independently verified.
Reuters and internet monitors like
Netblocks say Iran's connectivity has
dropped to near zero levels, making
independent reporting extremely limited.
Tehran is framing the unrest as foreign
backed destabilization, not a purely
domestic protest movement. Araghchi made a
pointed accusation about American
statements. The goal was to increase the
number of casualties in the protests.
The foreign minister claimed why?
Because Mr. Trump the president of the
United States said that if people are
killed they will come and intervene.
Araghchi is arguing that US statements
created incentives for violence but that
claim can't be independently verified.
This is clear evidence of interference
in the internal affairs of other
countries. Araghchi stated the framing
inverts the western narrative. Where
Washington presents intervention threats
as protection for protesters, Tehran
presents those same threats as
provocation for violence. According to
Iranian officials, Araghchi made claims
about alleged evidence and he says Iran
has audio messages urging violence, but
the recordings haven't been released
publicly, so the claim can't be
verified. We have audio recordings of
messages sent from outside the country
to these terrorist elements, the foreign
minister stated. He described alleged
instructions from those recordings
involving violence against protesters
and police. No independent outlet has
verified the recordings because they
haven't been published for
authentication. If such recordings exist
and are authentic, they would represent
evidence of foreign coordination. But
without public release, the claim
remains unverified.

Araghchi pointed to public statements as
alleged evidence of involvement. Mr.
Pompeo, an influential figure who served
as director of the CIA during Trump's
previous term, posted a tweet saying, "I
congratulate the Iranians in the streets
and MOSSAD agents walking alongside them."

Mike Pompeo tweeted on January 3, 2026, saying: "Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them." The post came amid widespread anti-government protests in Iran over economic hardship and repression. Pompeo framed the unrest as a sign of the regime's vulnerability, adding, "The Iranian regime is in trouble. Bringing in mercenaries is its last best hope." His remarks were widely interpreted as suggesting Israeli intelligence (Mossad) was actively supporting the demonstrators, a claim echoed by a Farsi-language social media post from a Mossad-linked account urging Iranians to protest and stating operatives were "in the field." Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi condemned the tweet as a "confession" of U.S. and Israeli interference, asserting Tehran had evidence of foreign involvement. Protesters and analysts expressed suspicion, with some questioning whether the message was a psychological tactic to sow distrust. -- googleAI

The foreign minister stated. Araghchi says
the post amounts to a clear admission,
but that interpretation is Iran's view,
not independent confirmation. The tweet,
if accurately quoted, could represent
either a boast about covert operations,
a rhetorical flourish designed to
encourage protesters or something in
between. For Iran's government, such
statements provide rhetorical ammunition
for claims of foreign involvement,
regardless of their literal accuracy.
Araghchi referenced Israeli media coverage
as additional alleged evidence. Israeli
media outlets are full of reports
claiming they are busy planning
operations inside Iran. The foreign
minister stated some Israeli outlets
discuss Iran related intelligence
issues, but media talk doesn't confirm
real operations. The relationship
between media reports, actual
operations, and government narratives is
complex. Reports of planning do not
confirm execution. But for Iran's
government, the cumulative effect of
American statements, Israeli media
reports, and alleged evidence creates a
narrative framework, one that Tehran
uses to characterize the unrest as
foreign directed. Araghchi delivered a
message about the current situation. Our
security forces are fully in control of
the situation, the foreign minister
declared.

Then came a warning. We hope
other countries do not make
miscalculations.
Araghchi claims security forces are in
control, but independent verification is
limited during the blackout. The
statement serves multiple purposes
according to analysts. It reassures
domestic audiences that the government
remains strong. It warns foreign powers
against intervention based on
assumptions of weakness. Whether the
claim reflects reality is difficult to
assess. Rights groups like Human Rights
Watch say the blackout is concealing a
harsh crackdown, including detentions
and violence. Araghchi placed the unrest in
a broader strategic context. From our
perspective, what happened over the past
3 days from January 8th to 10th is an
extension of the 12-day war. The foreign
minister stated it was planned outside
the country in order to bring chaos to
Iran. International reporting describes
a brief June war that hit Iranian
military and nuclear sites, though
details vary by source. By framing the
protests as an extension of that war,
Arachi characterizes domestic unrest as
external aggression by other means. The
protesters become in this framing
instruments of foreign powers rather
than citizens with grievances. This
narrative, according to analysts,
justifies security responses as national
defense rather than domestic repression.
Aragchi presented what he said were
confessions from detained individuals.
In the documents we obtained, they
confessed that large sums of money were
paid to them and that they were
recruited through financial incentives.
The foreign minister stated he provided
specific figures for alleged payments to
attack police stations, set fires, and
conduct other acts. Araghchi cited
specific payment figures, but the
documents and context haven't been
independently verified. There are
documents and confessions for each case.
Araghchi claimed the money that was paid
has also been seized and documented. The
confessions have not been made public.
Their authenticity and the circumstances
under which they were obtained remain
unknown to outside observers.

Araghchi claimed video evidence of armed
activity. We also have videos showing
them firing at people in police forces
as well as videos showing them
distributing weapons to people. The
foreign minister stated such videos, if
they exist and are authentic, would
support the government's
characterization of the unrest as armed
activity rather than peaceful protest.
Rights groups like Human Rights Watch
have reported that security forces use
live ammunition against protesters.

The question of who initiated violence
remains contested. The government's
narrative emphasizes armed attacks on
security forces. Opposition narratives
emphasize security force violence
against peaceful demonstrators. The
information environment prevents
definitive assessment from outside
observers. Araghchi detailed what he
described as extensive destruction. Many
shops were burned. The foreign minister
stated 200 shops in the market of one
city were set on fire. He continued,
"Ambulances were attacked and during
those three days 180 ambulances were
burned. Buses were also set on fire."

Then came what Araghchi framed as the
most significant detail, "And then mosques
were attacked. This is completely
strange because no Iranian attacks or
burns a mosque. 53 mosques were burned
across the country." The figures can't be
independently verified, so treat them as
the government's claims until
corroborated.

The mosque burning claim
deserves attention and context. Iraqi's
statement, "No Iranian attacks or burns
a mosque," frames the destruction as
inherently foreign, according to the
government's logic. It appeals to
Iranian religious and national identity
to delegitimize those responsible. For
the government, mosque attacks represent
alleged evidence of external direction.
Iranian protesters, however angry at the
government, would not attack religious
sites. According to this framing,
alternative explanations exist.
Protesters in moments of chaos may
attack symbols of the religious
establishment. Some incidents may be
misattributed or exaggerated. Iran is
emphasizing mosque attacks as a message
to discredit the unrest, but the
underlying incidents aren't
independently verified. Araghchi's
presentation constructs a comprehensive
narrative. According to Tehran's
framing, the unrest was planned abroad.
Foreign powers sought casualties to
justify intervention. Armed elements
received payments and weapons from
outside. The destruction targeted
Iranian identity, shops, ambulances,
mosques. Security forces have restored
control. This narrative serves the
government's interests. According to
analysts, it delegitimizes protesters as
foreign agents. It justifies security
responses as national defense. It
positions Iran as victim of aggression
rather than perpetrator of repression.
Whether the narrative is accurate,
partially accurate, or fabricated cannot
be determined from available
information. What can be observed is
that Tehran is constructing a narrative
that serves its position, as are other
parties in this confrontation.

The competing narratives could not be more
different. Washington's framing,
according to US officials, Iranians are
protesting for freedom against a
repressive government. American support
helps those seeking change. Warnings
protect protesters from violence. Tehran's
framing, according to Iranian officials.
Foreign-backed elements are attacking
Iran as an extension of war. American
statements incite violence. Security
forces are defending the nation against
external aggression. Both framings
contain claims that cannot be
independently verified. Both serve the
interests of those making them. Both
characterize the other side as the
aggressor.

For ordinary Iranians caught
between these competing narratives, the
truth may be more complex than either
side acknowledges. The information
environment severely limits
verification. Iran presents evidence it
says proves foreign involvement. Audio
recordings, confessions, seized money,
videos. None of this evidence has been
made public or independently verified.
Some Western officials say they support
protesters and war in Iran. While Tehran
says that pressure proves foreign
meddling. Reuters and internet monitors
like Netblock say Iran's connectivity
has dropped to near zero levels.
International observers cannot access
the country. Information comes filtered
through sources on all sides. In this
environment, confident claims from any
source should be viewed with appropriate
skepticism.

The situation remains tense.
Iran's government projects control while
continuing security operations.
According to rights groups, Araghchi's
press conference represents an effort to
shape international perception, framing
any intervention as aggression against
what Tehran characterizes as evidence-based
government response.

Reuters reports
Trump announced new tariffs targeting
countries that do business with Iran,
adding fresh economic pressure. Military
options reportedly remain under
consideration. According to US media,
both sides face pressures that limit
flexibility. Both sides have constructed
narratives that make compromise
difficult.

Whether the coming days bring
escalation, negotiation, or continued
standoff depends on calculations not yet
made and events not yet occurred. The
world watches as competing claims
continue. Iran says it has evidence of
foreign involvement. The evidence has
not been publicly verified. Washington
says it supports protesters. That
support comes alongside economic
pressure and warnings. According to US
officials, ordinary people in Iran and
beyond wait to see what comes next. The
truth, as always in such confrontations,
may be more complex than any single
narrative can capture. The world watches
and waits.

[admin]

Press Release
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.
WATCH: On Senate Floor, Kelly Stands Up to Hegseth’s Unconstitutional Actions to Censure and Demote Him

“I’ve never backed down from a fight for our country, and I will not back down from this one.”

January 13, 2026

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26469271-sen-kelly-sues-pete-hegseth-complaint/
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

MARK KELLY, United States Senator, representing the State of Arizona,120 Constitution Ave NE, Suite 516Washington, D.C. 20002

Plaintiff,

v.

PETE HEGSETH, in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense,1600 Defense Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 20301

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,1600 Defense Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20301

JOHN PHELAN, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Navy,1000 Navy Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 20350

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY,1000 Navy Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20350

Defendants.

Case 1:26-cv-00081

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

Today, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly took to the Senate floor to discuss Secretary Hegseth’s unconstitutional attempts to censure and demote him, and the lawsuit Kelly filed to fight back against this unlawful use of power and to stand up for the rights of all retired veterans and all Americans’ right to free speech.

Kelly underscored that he must uphold his oath to the Constitution and that it is his duty as a U.S. Senator to defend the rule of law: “I didn’t expect that I would ever find myself here, as a U.S. Senator, having filed a lawsuit against a Secretary of Defense. When I graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and was commissioned into the United States Navy as an Ensign, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I have upheld that oath every single day since.

“And so, I have upheld my oath in this job too, because I take seriously my duty to protect the Constitution for all Americans. I just never expected that I would have to protect the rule of law against a Secretary of Defense.”

Kelly vowed to not back down in order to protect the rights of veterans and all Americans: “For 250 years, we have been the greatest Democracy the world has ever seen because patriotic Americans have been willing to stand up for not just their own rights, but for the rights of all of their fellow citizens. That continued resolve is what will decide if our Democracy lasts for another 250 years. That’s why today, I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense to protect my rights, the rights of retired veterans, and the rights of all Americans. I’ve never backed down from a fight for our country, and I won’t back down from this one.”

Click here to view and download Kelly’s remarks.

[admin]

LEAKED ICE Report Shows AGENTS IN PANIC!
Adam Mockler
Jan 13, 2026



Transcript

All right. Leaked documents from the
Department of Homeland Security show
that ICE agents are beginning to
struggle in their terror campaign
against people across the country. This
is due to a loss of morale and a lack of
volunteers to even head to these cities
because they know they are the bad guys.
They know that they are stepping into
communities where they are not welcome
to commit acts of terror against both
citizens and non-citizens alike. First
of all, you shouldn't commit acts of
terror against anybody. But we were
promised that ICE was going to target
the worst of the worst or the criminals
thugs on the streets. Well, guess what?
The criminal thugs on the streets seem
to have a badge and a gun and seem to
have supposed immunity according to JD
Vance. This is why, as Ken Clippenstein
reports, leaked documents show that
Border Patrol needs more volunteers for
their Minneapolis surge. The desperation
coming from the Department of Homeland
Security indicates a massive loss of
morale because these ICE agents don't
want to go. They don't want to show up.
They know that they are the bad guys and
therefore it is logical to treat them as
such. I will show you videos in this
video and I have shown you in prior
reports that I've done just video after
video of ICE agents grabbing people,
breaking people's ribs, throwing them to
the ground, pepper spring elderly
people, kicking down doors, and now
they're breaking the windows, smashing
the windows of US citizens. We're going
to break all of this down. If you
appreciate the work of Independent
Media, all that I ask is that you drop a
like below. Make sure you're subscribed.
It genuinely helps boost the video. So,
thank you all. And before we dig into
this article from Ken Clippenstein, I
want to show you what's happened
throughout the day. Because ICE is going
through some like internal collapse.
Donald Trump bit off more than Ice could
chew. Or you could say ICE flew too
close to the sun like Icarus. Now they
are getting burned. We woke up this
morning to learn that DOJ resignations
happened on mass over our worst fears in
the Renee Good shooting. Justice
officials are trying to insulate
Jonathan Ross from accountability and
four senior career people couldn't take
it anymore. This came from the Justice
Department's Civil Rights Division, the
division that is dedicated to protecting
US citizens. But I made a video about
this earlier. And after I made that
video, we learned more mass resignations
happened this time at the Minnesota US
Attorney's Office. At least six
attorneys who have left the attorney's
office, uh, including Joe Thompson, are
mad about this investigation. Joe
Thompson is the one who took the lead in
prosecuting fraud in Minnesota. So, the
Republicans who have been whining and
crying about fraud just ran off the one
guy, well, there's many people that have
been working, but the one guy that was
leading the charge on fraud because he's
like, "What the hell? We can't just stop
the investigation into Jonathan Ross
because it's not convenient for us. that
is fundamentally unamerican. Now, before
we get to the leaked documents, there
was then this really interesting story
that popped up in my feed from Laura
Jade. She's doing some great work. She
said, "A few months ago, ICE hired me. I
didn't sign and submit any paperwork.
I'm really outspoken about my opinion of
the Trump admin, and I am extremely
googable." And yet, there it was in
plain English. Welcome to ICE. As
Jeremiah points out, this person failed
the drug test, is openly an online
leftist who just hates ICE online, which
is fine, of course, that's great. But
she applied for the job with posts about
how much she hated ICE, does drugs, uh,
she didn't even finish the paperwork.
She filled things out completely wrong,
and they still let her in. It says,
"This is an extraordinary story. ICE is
doing zero background checks on their
applicants. The author got hired
officially at ICE despite being a
prominent online lefty with followers
online, failing a drug test, not even
completing the paperwork. ICE has no
idea who it is that they're hiring. This
means that they're not even doing a
simple Google search to find out who
this person is, who anyone is that they
are hiring. And this loops perfectly
back to the leaked article showing the
leaked report showing that they are
desperate for personnel. So, they are so
desperate that they're allowing any
easily radicalized people to hop in. I'm
not talking about this person. I'm
talking about radicalized far-right
Proud Boy militia types who just want
any excuse to throw on a badge are now
being sent into cities, blue cities with
masks on. We have videos of them saying
like, "F off with this liberal
bullshit." ICE agents are saying that,
saying that they don't care about
liberal BS. Today at 34 in Park in
Minneapolis, a woman tried to drive down
the street where a protest had broken
out. In this video that I'm about to
play perfectly proves everything we've
talked about thus far and will continue
to talk about. In this video, you see
undertrained ICE agents that are likely
ideologically motivated who likely
didn't have any sort of background check
whatsoever and were just plucked right
off of the streets. Take a look at this
video. I'm going to show you the most
pertinent parts because there's just a
lot of screaming and cussing and honking
and whistleblowing. So, some of these
videos begin to really hurt the ears,
especially if you're watching on a TV or
headphones. So, I'm going to play some
of this for you. But today, a woman
tried to drive down the street when a
protest had broken out in front of a
home ICE was raiding. She had a doctor
appointment to get to, she claimed. ICE
agents then busted out her windows, cut
off her seat belt, and pulled her out
before arresting her on her way to the
doctor's appointment that she was trying
to get to.
window.
Go that way.
Hey, back the [ __ ] up. Sidewalk,
man. It must suck to be an ICE agent, as
it should. Now, of course, I have no
empathy. It sucks even more to be
somebody who is being taken out of their
home or picked up on the way to work or
picked up on the way to court. But I'm
just thinking about the point of view of
an ICE agent. Everywhere you go,
everybody effing hates you. No matter
where it's it's your hotel, when you're
trying to sleep at night, when you're
terrorizing US citizens, I mean, these
people are truly just the worst of the
worst scumbags. And that is why morale
is being lowered. Let me go back to this
video.
I can get up by police before. I'm
disabled. Trying to go to the doctor up
there. That's why.
She said she's disabled and her doctor
is right nearby that she's trying to get
to. That's why she wasn't moving. They
cut off her seatelt, pull her out. I
just can't believe what I'm witnessing.
I I I I I really do not do not
appreciate the anti-American thugs that
are walking through our streets. And
this brings us back around to how
desperate they are, which is good. I
mean, when I go, the first image is Greg
Boino looking like Sergeant Lock Jaw/ an
SS agent back in World War II. They very
clearly are trying to act or at least
embrace the Nazi aesthetic. But in the
wake of an ICE officer's killing of
Renee Good, reports Ken Clippenstein,
the Department of Homeland Security is
rolling out Operation Metro Surge,
flooding Minneapolis with hundreds of
additional federal agents, only to
realize it doesn't actually have the
confidence to match the Pvado. It bit
off more than it could chew. While
Homeland Secretary Christine and others
in the admin pin about justifying last
week's shooting, the DHS is privately
divided and hesitant about the latest
deployments. According to documents
leaked to Ken, not only is a department
seeking volunteers for the apparently
unpopular mission mission, it is urging
its agents to maintain a low profile and
comply with the use of force policies.
It says, "Be mindful of OBSC and officer
safety. Do not wear your uniform or any
piece of your uniform when entering or
exiting your hotel. Do not display any
border patrol insignia on your
belongings. Do not divulge meeting,
staging, or operating locations. Always
employ situational awareness. Turn off
your location settings. They are truly
truly paranoid. On Friday, DHS sought
volunteers to deploy to Minneapolis in
part due to opposition within the ranks
according to Border Patrol agents and
other Homeland Security workers. Quote,
"Please begin canvasing your personnel
for volunteers." A memo sent out said,
"The memo outlines a request for 300
additional personnel. A border patrol
agent familiar with the discussion said
the volunteer push reflects real unease
in the ranks about the shooting of Renee
Nicole Good. Real unease, not only in
the ranks of ICE officials, but also in
the DOJ, in the criminal rights
division, not only in the DOJ, but even
the Minneapolis attorney's office. They
are all resigning and revoling. Asked
about the hunt for volunteers, DHS did
not respond for comment. quote, "There
might be some immature knuckleheads who
think they are out there trying to
capture Nicholas Maduro, but most field
officers see a clear need for
deescalation, said a highlevel career
official." That's not what I'm seeing on
camera. There is a genuine fear that
ISIS's heavy-handedness and the rhetoric
from Washington is more creating a
condition where the officer's lives are
in danger. And this is the real crux of
the issue. Donald Trump is making the
country less safe, not only for US
citizens, not only for non-citizens, but
even law enforcement officers. I'm not
just talking about ICE agents. I'm
talking about the actual cops in
Minneapolis and other areas. There are
many reports, even coming directly from
the chief of Minneapolis and the
sheriffs across the the counties.
They're saying ICE is making their job
harder. ICE is barging in their
communities with tags that say police,
confusing people, and undermining trust.
And to add on to that, Donald Trump's
rhetoric, Steven Miller's rhetoric,
Caroline Levit's rhetoric, JD Vance's
rhetoric inflames tension so much so
that it makes ICE officers in more
danger. It puts them in more danger.
It's cyclical. And it's funny that it's
the admin causing a lot of this danger.
The senior DHS official adds that an
increasing number of Homeland Security
workers are concerned about the public
backlash. The claim is that recruiting
is up, but there is also a dread that
the gung-ho types that ICE and Border
Patrol are bringing in have a propensity
towards confrontation and even violence.
Today, Border Patrol tactical commander
Greg Bavino circulated a legal refresher
for agents in the field on the use of
force. Oh, so they actually tried to
refresh on the use of force and
proportionality. This is not a move that
screams certainty about their conduct.
This guy up here sent out a memo that
was like, "Guys, we're beginning to look
kind of bad on camera. Maybe we
shouldn't be cracking the ribs of 79y
olds." But to continue, it's a legal
refresher on use of force. I'm so glad
I'm so glad that ICE agents have to get
like law 101 lessons. Like Micah, who's
in law student and works for us, he's
probably way more advanced on use of
force and US code 1811 than any sort of
ICE agent. Lord have mercy. Quote, "It
sounds like they're entering a war
zone," says senior intelligence
officials who have been involved in
discussions about the calming of waters
around ICE deployments. Telling a bunch
of 20somes to be prepared for war and
terrorism creates the very condition
officials are cautioning about. Just a
beautiful point. When when Steven Miller
and Donald Trump are claiming that these
ICE agents are heading into a domestic
terrorist situation and they have to
arrest domestic terrorists, of course,
they're going to come with a
disproportionate use of force. I'm going
to leave it there. If you want to check
out this article, you can find it below.

[admin]

Trump Flips the Bird & Minnesota Tells ICE to F**k Off with Pickle Rick and Bologna | The Daily Show
The Daily Show
Jan 14, 2026 #DailyShow #JordanKlepper #ICE

Donald Trump gives a Ford factory worker the middle finger and delivers a message of “keep protesting” but only for Iranians, immigration raids escalate in Minnesota, ICE engages in blatant racial and accent profiling, and Jordan Klepper highlights the Minnesotans fighting back with music, costumes, and bologna. #DailyShow #JordanKlepper #ICE



Transcript

Yesterday, our beloved President Trump
visited real Americans working real jobs at a real factory.
And, you know, these are his people.
So I'm sure he got a much-needed boost of support.
REPORTER: As the president toured a Ford manufacturing
factory, this moment caught on camera and video
obtained by TMZ.
One man shouting at the president, pedophile protector.
President Trump mouthing an expletive in response
and appearing to give the man the middle finger.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa.
Mr. President, you can't flip off a citizen that way,
not with your delicate hands.
[LAUGHTER]
They'll be bruised for weeks.
I don't know why Trump's so upset.
I mean, he could have called you a pedophile.
But he kept it to pedophile protector, out of respect
for the office.
And for all we know, that guy could
have been a pedophile requesting
pedophile protection.
Help me.
Help me.
I know that's your thing.
Redact me the [BLEEP] out of here, Mr. President, please.
But Trump wasn't just there to do hand stuff.
No.
He also gave a speech, where he had
a message for all the people who
have been out on the streets for the last few days.
Keep protesting.
And save the name of the killers and the abusers
that are abusing you.
You're being very badly abused.
One death is too much.
Wow.
Wow, standing up for the protesters in Minnesota.
You know, people call this guy a dictator, a fascist,
a pedophile protector.
But here he is with a full-throated defense
of Americans' right to protest their government.
I've canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials
until the senseless killing of protesters stops.
Ah, he's talking about Iran.
OK, my mistake. Yes.
OK. But you know what?
You know what?
It doesn't matter, because President Trump is nothing
if not consistent in his beliefs
and ironclad in his principles.
And I know that his police force will treat Americans
with the same empathy and restraint when-- oh, [BLEEP],
you know where this is going.
REPORTER: Overnight, flash bangs lighting
up the Minneapolis skies.
Agents seen descending on protesters.
Earlier Tuesday, federal agents were
seen dragging people out of their cars
and spraying others directly in the face with chemicals.
[PELLETS SHOOTING]
Holy shit.
I mean, I don't know what's more terrifying-- them hitting
that guy point blank with pepper balls,
or him not even flinching at them.
Although, to be fair, it's, like, 9 degrees out there.
The pepper spray is only warming him up.
Now, the administration wants you
to believe that these protesters are the ones out
of line here, because ICE agents are just
a group of well-trained, methodical police
officers carrying out their duties, taking
out the worst of the worst.
But in reality, this is what Minnesotans are seeing.
The Trump administration has only double--
or tripled down on these ICE raids, leading to more
instances of racial profiling.
REPORTER: The ICE agents asked to see the IDs of the three
non-white employees and didn't even
bother to ask the white employee
for the identification.
Stops at highway exits, where people
are being pulled out of their cars
and asked to show identification.
An American citizen named Christian Molina
was driving down the road when ICE knocked on his door
and asked for him to show him his identification.
REPORTER: Agents arresting two workers
outside a Minnesota Target.
A state lawmaker says they are both US citizens.
I'm literally a US citizen.
REPORTER: ICE agents demanding that an Uber driver
show them ID.
This is outrageous.
Are you seriously trying to question a person's citizenship
because they have an accent--
in Minnesota?
[LAUGHTER]
Where people sound like this?
So where you girls from?
Chaska.
Le Sueur.
But I went to high school in White Bear Lake.
Go, Bears.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
Speak American.
Come on.
And if you're wondering just how off target ICE
is getting in their supposed focus on illegal immigrants,
the answer is--
very.
REPORTER: Tribal leaders confirm
that four Native American men have been detained
by ICE in Minneapolis.
Native Americans.
Americans is right in the name.
Sir, how long have you lived here?
Oh, I don't know, since Pangaea.
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, look, look, let's--
let's not beat around the bush here.
What the government is doing right now in Minnesota
is blatantly un-American.
But the response to it is as American as can be.
REPORTER: Some community members are not
only protesting, they're also looking
out for their neighbors.
REPORTER: Volunteers delivering groceries
to immigrant families.
REPORTER: All around the Twin Cities,
you hear these ear-piercing whistles.
Activists blow the whistles when they see agents
to alert the anti-ICE network.
REPORTER: Agents drive in and out
all day, greeted by protesters with profanity and
occasional slices of bologna thrown at their vehicles.
Wow.
[CHEERING]
I mean, that is solid aim.
I think the Vikings have finally
found their quarterback.
I mean, that's right.
The protesters are fighting back,
and their weapons are launchable.
Sorry, I read that wrong--
Lunchable.
Their-- their weapons are Lunchables.
I have to say, this is not only rude to ICE,
it is disrespectful to the dog who gave his life
to become that bologna.
[AUDIENCE GROANS]
A lot of bologna fans here, I'd say?
Read the ingredients, folks.
In fact, the downside is, you did just
give those guys free lunch.
Because you know those ICE agents aren't
letting a perfectly good slice of car-door bologna
go to waste.
But the people of Minnesota, they got to be careful.
As we've seen, some of these ICE agents
are poorly trained and hot tempered.
If you're going to confront them,
you have to do it with courage, conviction,
and the finest, most luxurious outerwear you can afford.
A bunch of bitches if I've ever seen a bunch.
And I'm telling you to your face.
And if you don't like it, [BLEEP] you.
Whoa.
[CHEERING]
Can this guy be my dad?
I mean, god damn.
I can't believe this dude is from Minnesota and not
from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The depravity of the police state is so deep that people
are time traveling from a boxing match in the 1970s just
to call out their bullshit.
Now, the protesters aren't just confronting ICE.
Rightwing media has been on the ground
in Minneapolis, trying to make the case
that the situation is justified.
And the residents are giving those rightwing outlets
the respect that their reporting deserves.
We're just trying to have an intelligent conversation.
(TAUNTINGLY) I'm a tall man.
I'm a big and tall man.
I don't act this way.
(TAUNTINGLY) I'm a big and tall man.
You want to engage in intelligent conversation?
You think taxpayers should be funding--
(TAUNTINGLY) What a scary man.
What a smart man.
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERING]
I get the feeling that she didn't
actually think he was smart.
But see, that is how you turn your weaknesses into strengths.
She brings that energy to her daughter's
high school graduation party that she
swore she'd be cool at?
That's a nightmare.
She brings it to a fascist takeover?
Let this lady cook.
[LAUGHTER]
Now, obviously, not all the protesters
are talking to the media in such a ridiculous way.
Some of them are offering very serious, impassioned arguments
while dressed in a ridiculous way.
Why are you out here today, Pickle Rick?
I'm out here tonight because they are terrorizing Minnesota.
They are terrorizing my friends,
neighbors, and my clients.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Your clients?
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't realize it was Pickle Rick Esquire over here.
That explains the billboards I keep seeing on the highway.
Bottom line-- what's happening in Minnesota is dark,
but the community response is inspiring.
These brutal and authoritarian police tactics
have brought together a coalition of Midwesterners
that spans from pickles to wine moms to Vietnam veterans
with incredible drip.
And none of this had to happen if Donald Trump
treated Americans with respect for their inherent rights.
But if you're going to come at Americans with this attitude,
don't be surprised when they come right
back at you twice as hard.
Now--
[CHEERING]
Now, that resistance, that resistance
is going to be a big problem for ICE agents.
Although, there's something else that's
also tripping them up.
MAN: Shame.
Shame on you.
WOMAN: [LAUGHING]
MAN: [BLEEP]
MAN: If you're brave, show your face.
MAN: Whoa, dog.
Whoa, dog.
Aw, you hate to see it.
The coalition against ICE is so broad, it even includes ICE.
[LAUGHTER]
And if you enjoy seeing fascists fall on their fannies,
there's a new show you're really going to love.
ANNOUNCER: This week, on America's Fashiest Home Videos,
it's a massive invasion of hilarious ICE videos.
[PLAYFUL MUSIC]
Oh.
Apparently, ICE training doesn't include walking.
Some liberals want to abolish ICE.
Well, apparently, so does Mother Nature.
[APPLAUSE]
Here's a video for anyone looking for a good icebreaker.
Ooh, I want to see that one again from another angle.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
MAN: Our tax money pays for this!
ANNOUNCER: And he nailed the dismount.
["YANKEE DOODLE" PLAYING]
Turns out migrants aren't the only ones running
from ICE-- so are their cars.
[LAUGHTER]
[PLAYFUL MUSIC]
It's always good to make a splash,
but not at the porta-potty.
Apparently, this officer isn't potty trained.
That's all for this week, but keep submitting those videos.
It's honestly the only funny thing about any of this.

[admin]

Exclusive / US gets first $500 million Venezuelan oil deal, holding some proceeds in Qatar
by Shelby Talcott and Eleanor Mueller
Semafor
Jan 14, 2026, 11:00am PST
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/14/2 ... s-in-qatar

The Scoop

The Trump administration’s first sale of Venezuelan oil is valued at $500 million, an administration official told Semafor.

The sale marks an initial milestone in the administration’s management of Venezuela after the US ouster of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro, 11 days ago. President Donald Trump has indicated that the US would effectively run Venezuela for an indeterminable amount of time and take control of up to 50 million barrels of its oil — marketing and selling it while distributing the proceeds back to Venezuela in an arrangement with little precedent.

Trump signed an executive order on Friday that provided some details on how the US plans to block courts or creditors from tapping any revenue from those oil sales. Venezuela owes international bondholders, oil companies and others as much as $170 billion — one reason why US firms have been reluctant to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

Trump told ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance last week that the US is “not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault.”

The administration official told Semafor that the interim leadership in Venezuela, led by former Maduro No. 2 Delcy Rodríguez, has “fully cooperated” since the US-Venezuelan energy deal was announced last week, adding that the US has “leverage” through sanctions and oil sales.

Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday’s order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.

The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of seizure. Trump’s order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in US Treasury accounts.

“President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Semafor in a statement.

Rogers added that the administration is continuing “positive, ongoing discussions” with oil companies about Venezuela. Despite skepticism from many oil companies about the viability of investing there, Trump’s advisers remain confident that more deals — and sales — will come to fruition.

Chevron, the lone major US oil company that had stayed operational in Venezuela, believes it can expand production by 50% within the next two years, the administration official said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the Economic Club of Minnesota last week that his department “will oversee the accounts” and “then, at the president’s direction [and] Secretary Rubio’s direction … be in charge of the disbursement that goes back into Venezuela.”

“Treasury’s role will be making sure the funds get to the proper place,” Bessent added. “We’re the bankers here; we don’t direct the funds.”

Asked to provide further clarity on the accounts, a Treasury spokesperson told Semafor: “The United States Treasury is fully committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts on behalf of the people of Venezuela.” The spokesperson declined to comment further.

Know More

The administration’s decision to house at least some of its oil revenue in Qatar is likely to draw harsh scrutiny from Democrats who were already alarmed by the prospect that offshore accounts would be used.

“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the party’s top Banking Committee member, told Semafor last week. “That is precisely a move that a corrupt politician would be attracted to.”

Broadly speaking, however, “it would make a ton of sense” for the Trump administration to park the proceeds at private banks in the US, said Peter Harrell, an attorney who served as former President Joe Biden’s senior director of international economics. Harrell pointed to financial institutions in Japan and Korea that banked proceeds from Iranian oil sales over a decade ago.

“I am sure that there are a couple of folks in the Treasury Department who remember working to set up that Iran scheme,” Harrell said.

Treasury will be on the hook for processing the requisite licenses via its Office of Foreign Assets Control, Harrell said. He added that the private banks would likely need to be big; have international experience; and be able to monitor for the type of corruption that had bogged down Iran’s accounts.

“The Venezuelan authorities down there will say, ‘we need 100 million tons of wheat, and we’d like to buy this from John Smith Wheat Trading Enterprises.’ And it turns out, John Smith Wheat Trading Enterprises is giving some kickback to Delcy [Rodríguez],” Harrell said.

“That’s how the corruption happens in these kinds of things — and so you’re going to want a bank that’s willing to spend some time looking at these transactions,” he added.

Given the inevitable political pressures surrounding Venezuelan oil sales, housing those accounts could be a heavy lift, even for financial institutions looking for closer ties to the administration.

“This account is going to be a headache for whatever bank that takes it on,” Harrell said. “They’re going to be getting questions. They’re going to be getting letters from Congress — and if Democrats take control [of the House], there will probably be subpoenas.”

Shelby and Eleanor’s View

The $500 million sale is good news for an administration that very quickly found itself owning the aftermath of capturing Maduro. And Trump is notoriously persistent, often finding ways to get companies and lawmakers to do what he wants.

But there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the US deal with Venezuela, including whether legal questions would get more complex should revenues be housed at any US banks.

Trump’s advisers also still have to figure out how to make good on his plan to give oil revenue to Venezuelans who had fled the country, as well as determine when new elections might be held there. The latter may very well depend on how closely Rodríguez continues to work with the administration.

The View From Democrats

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, told Semafor on Wednesday that lawmakers are “waiting for a briefing on the details” of the oil revenue, including on “how they keep it and who distributes it.”

Reed added that “I am innately suspicious” of using a Qatari account. “I would suspect that that Qatari bank probably also loans a lot of money to Japan.” The US has been pressuring Japan to spend more money on defense.

[admin]

Nothing Is Secure. The home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, was searched by the FBI. Her devices were seized. Runa Sandvik, whose life’s work is protecting journalists’ digital security, assesses the damage—and what news organizations need to know.
By Maddy Crowell
Columbia Journalism Review
January 14, 2026
https://www.cjr.org/news/hannah-natanso ... ources.php

On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post published a story by Hannah Natanson, a reporter who works as part of a team covering the ways Donald Trump is upending the federal workforce. “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal,” the headline went. She described having been an education reporter who wandered over to Reddit, where she put out a call for “anyone willing to chat.” She provided her contact information on Signal, an encrypted app that Post reporters are encouraged to use. “The next day, I woke at sunrise to dozens of messages—the ruling pattern of my mornings ever since,” she wrote. Before long, “I would gain a new beat, a new editor and 1,169 contacts on Signal, all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories.” On Wednesday morning, the FBI searched her home and seized her phone, a Garmin watch, and two laptops—one of them issued by the Post.

Other journalists have been tracked, subpoenaed, or compelled to turn materials over to the government; rare is a newsroom raid, and Natanson’s experience is virtually without comparison. Even so, Runa Sandvik—whose life’s work is protecting journalists’ digital security, and who I got to know a few years ago in the course of profiling her for CJR—said that “the risk has been there for a long time.” Sandvik, the former head of information security for the New York Times, now runs a consulting firm, Granitt, advising reporters, lawyers, and political activists on how to keep their data safe. Though she shares guidance on best practices, when we first met, I asked her how someone could take steps to be fully secure, and she replied: you wouldn’t be online at all; you would have to live in the forest. “It is normal,” she told me when we just now spoke again, “for law enforcement to grab as much as they can and then later on figure out which one they can search, what they can look at, which ones are actually relevant to the investigation.” That the FBI could, with no prior warning and in the absence of an indictment, arrive at a journalist’s home with a warrant to seize the contents of her digital life reveals a vulnerability for every journalist facing the caprices of the Trump administration.

There are several ways to read what happened to Natanson. The first is what the FBI is claiming: that it had a warrant to investigate Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor and Navy veteran from Maryland with a top security clearance who was believed to be in correspondence with Natanson. (Per Politico, an affidavit for the search has been sealed.) A few days ago, according to the Baltimore Sun, federal authorities charged Perez-Lugones with illegally retaining classified documents; during a raid of his home, the FBI said in an affidavit, agents found classified intelligence reports in his basement and in his lunchbox. Natanson, in that telling, was collateral damage. “We are told Hannah, and The Post, are not a target,” Matt Murray, the executive editor of the Post, wrote to staff. “Nonetheless, this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concerns around the constitutional protections for our work.” (Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump alluded to a “very bad leaker” who was in jail for sharing documents related to Venezuela—the subject of Natanson’s most recent reporting.)

Over the course of the day, the Post updated its article about the FBI and Natanson to add: “The Post also received a subpoena Wednesday morning seeking information related to the same government contractor, according to a person familiar with the law enforcement action.” And yet, as Sandvik said, “it would not surprise me if the subpoena to the Post relates to the work laptop that was seized”—as well as information about an “internal tip-sharing Slack channel” that Natanson mentioned in her article from December. A second way to read this case, Sandvik suggested, is as a “fishing expedition masked as an investigation into a specific contractor.”

Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, posted a statement on X: “This morning the @FBI and partners executed a search warrant of an individual at the Washington Post who was found to allegedly be obtaining and reporting classified, sensitive military information from a government contractor.” Pamela Bondi, the attorney general, also tweeted a statement, saying the warrant was executed “at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI,” concerning “a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.” (A Pentagon spokesperson referred CJR to the FBI. The White House referred back to Bondi’s tweet.) As Sandvik put it, “The fact that they have now seized the equipment that she used to communicate with, like, twelve hundred different sources, I think, is disturbing.”

The full extent of what the FBI will be able to gather from Natanson’s devices will rest on her, and the Post’s, digital security hygiene. “It really depends on, were the devices up to date?” Sandvik told me. “What type of authentication was used? Was encryption enabled on the drive? Was lockdown mode enabled on the phone? Were disappearing messages used on Signal?” If Natanson uses Macs, for instance, even if they are fully encrypted, “that encryption only kicks in when the device is fully powered off,” she said. “When you power the device on and you log in that first time, that is when you unlock or decrypt the drive.” The same would apply to a phone. “So if she knew this and she saw the FBI outside her door,” Sandvik noted, “the smartest thing to do would have been to go and power off all her devices.”

In that scenario, the FBI would not be able to get in and review her files. The government’s only recourse would be to sue Apple, which is precisely what it did in the wake of the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, though the effort was unsuccessful; the government then hired an Australian contractor to break into the suspects’ phones. “It would then require a lot of time and effort and money from the authorities,” Sandvik said. The worst-case scenario, she told me, would be if Natanson had not made use of disappearing messages and the devices were not encrypted: “They’d be able to see all the sources.”

Whatever the case, the situation highlights serious risks inherent to online communication between journalist and source. In her December article, Natanson, deluged in tips, described consulting with Post lawyers to develop the best approach to security: requesting that sources send her a picture of their government ID, never writing down names, using a private browser—and, notably, using an encrypted drive, which was not mentioned in the coverage of Wednesday’s FBI raid. And yet “there was no one consulted on a digital security or technology perspective,” Sandvik said. “I think that there’s certainly an opportunity here to come up with additional measures, like using a VPN like Mullvad, or using Tor for browsing.”

Over the course of the day, Post staffers, reeling from the news, wondered whether they had received enough guidance from the organization’s managers on how to handle digital security. “The Washington Post has a long history of zealous support for robust press freedoms,” Murray told employees. “The entire institution stands by those freedoms and our work. We have been in close touch with Hannah, with authorities and with legal counsel and will keep you updated as we learn more. In the meantime, the best thing all of us can do is to continue to vigorously exercise those freedoms as we do every day.” (The Post did not respond to questions from CJR.)

“The government has said that Natanson is not under investigation, nor should she be for simply reporting information provided to her by sources,” Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (and a CJR contributor), said in a statement. “Even the Trump DOJ’s guidelines on searching reporters’ source materials (which were weakened from prior guidelines based on the administration’s proven lies about ‘fake news’) make clear that it’s a last resort for rare emergencies only. The administration may now be in possession of volumes of journalist communications having nothing to do with any pending investigation and, if investigators are able to access them, we have zero faith that they will respect journalist-source confidentiality.” Xochitl Hinojosa, a former head of public affairs for the Justice Department, noted that—despite the comments of public officials—Natanson obtaining material does not constitute a crime. “The Department in modern history has never charged a journalist for unlawfully publishing or receiving classified information,” she said, “and it’s scary to think that this might change.”

At the Post, Sandvik hopes the day’s events “prompted a conversation internally about, how do we handle this in the safest way possible? Is it a legal liability that she’s receiving all of this information on a personal device? Should we rethink how we’re receiving and how we’re storing and disseminating and working with all of this information? What is the safest way to do it, legally, from a physical security point of view, from a digital security point of view, and also emotionally?” More broadly, she said, “what I really, really hope that other newsrooms and journalists take away from this is to really look at their own practices internally and figure out, ‘Okay, well, what can we now learn from what happened in this case? What are we doing or not doing that could either put us in the same spot or prevent some of the things that have happened or may have happened or now could happen?’”

[admin]

‘This is not normal’: Minneapolis on edge and angry after ICE killing of woman amid federal surge
City targeted by Trump has seen swarm of immigration agents on the streets – and residents say the tension is palpable [Federal agents are swarming the Twin Cities, going door to door at businesses and stopping people in their vehicles in immigrant-heavy parts of Minneapolis.]
by Rachel Leingang in Minneapolis
The Guardian
Thu 8 Jan 2026 07.00 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ng-killing

Edwin Torres DeSantiago received a text message on Wednesday morning as he was tracking immigration enforcement across Minneapolis – a person was shot by ICE at 34th Street and Portland Avenue.

He jumped into his car to head to the scene. Torres DeSantiago manages the Immigrant Defense Network, a group that monitors ICE activity and responds to community needs after someone is taken. He has responded to dozens of scenes in the past few months, and even more in the last few days since the federal government surged its presence in the midwestern city.

The scene was the most extreme the city has seen since the deployment here under Trump’s second term began: a 37-year-old woman, US citizen Renee Nicole Good, had been shot and killed by an ICE agent. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has claimed that Good was “harassing and impeding law enforcement operations”, but video of the incident appears to show that she was driving away when she was shot.

[x]
Footage shows woman fatally shot by ICE agent during Minnesota raid – video

Torres DeSantiago started documenting what he was seeing – how many agents, the cars they drove. He called in other observers to come to the scene and assist. He threw on a bright yellow vest and talked to dozens of people and made phone calls to report what he was learning.

Observers have tracked hundreds of ICE vehicles in the last few days, with the volume of phone calls increasing “tremendously” from people reporting ICE activity, needing help after a person was picked up, or seeking food or other assistance because they are worried about leaving their homes.

“Every aspect of our lives are being dissected and targeted,” he said on Tuesday. “So whether you’re picking up groceries, picking up your kid, going to the doctor right now, every place feels like a place that is not safe.”

The Trump administration first added hundreds more federal immigration officers into Minnesota in early December as the president became fixated on Somali residents, who he called “garbage”. Rightwing media focused attention on high-profile social services fraud cases that involved some Somalis. After a video of a rightwing influencer going to area daycares under the guise of finding fraud went viral, the administration said it would send in 2,000 additional agents.

Trump and his allies have attacked Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, over the fraud cases and spread conspiracy theories about the murders of a state lawmaker and her husband. Walz announced that he would not run for re-election on Monday.

Federal agents are swarming the Twin Cities, going door to door at businesses and stopping people in their vehicles in immigrant-heavy parts of Minneapolis. They are also fanning into the suburbs and smaller towns now, Torres DeSantiago said.

ICE has said it expects this big surge to last 30 days. It’s the first week.

It remains unclear how Wednesday’s shooting will affect ICE’s posture in the city. If local officials had their way, ICE would be gone. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said succinctly Wednesday after the shooting: “To ICE – get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Walz has not shut down the possibility of deploying the state’s national guard to protect residents from ICE.

The mood was already tense in December and the fear already palpable in the closed storefronts and quiet streets once populated by Somali and Latino residents. After Wednesday’s shooting, residents are even more on edge and angry – and unsure what more the Trump administration has in store.

“This is just sad,” one man said on Wednesday after watching ICE pull up to a strip mall in south Minneapolis.

The community response to ICE’s influx has proven swift and strong. Thousands have been trained as constitutional observers in recent months. Neighborhood Signal chats ping with frequent ICE sightings and details on suspected ICE vehicles. Observers patrol street corners in highly trafficked parts of town. They call hotlines that take in reports of ICE activity and document ICE’s footprint. They blow whistles or honk horns when they confirm ICE presence. If a person is picked up by ICE, volunteers work to help connect those left behind with legal services, food, assistance paying bills and emotional support.

“If the numbers are correct and accurate, and over 600 people have been detained in the last few weeks, that also means mostly breadwinners,” Torres DeSantiago said. “Rent is due on the first or the 15th, utilities are due. So right now, the need is only getting stronger and stronger.”

Miguel Hernandez, a member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), said on Tuesday that he was driving to work down Lake Street on Tuesday and had to stop twice because he saw active raids happening.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” he said.

People are informed and willing to take a stand for their neighbors, Hernandez said, and that’s possibly part of why the city has become such a target.

[x]
A woman holds a cross at a vigil for the woman shot dead by ICE on Wednesday. Photograph: Kerem Yücel/AFP/Getty Images

“We think this is going to continue to escalate on some scale we haven’t seen before, even past what has happened today,” Hernandez said on Tuesday, the day before the shooting. “We think this is going to be a new norm and that it’s going to get worse.”

Alberto, a small construction business owner who did not want to use his last name, said he was seeing the impacts of ICE’s presence in his community and at work. He owns a construction company, and people are not coming to work because of fear and the possibility of being forced into inhumane conditions, like the workers who sat on a roof in subzero temperatures to avoid ICE. It’s not just affecting workers, though: developers and realtors are not able to finish their projects because of the lack of workers, he said, and that affects the economy at large.

The increase in ICE agents is palpable: people are being taken from their cars on the freeways and ICE is going into workplaces, he said.

“It is terribly affecting workers, because at this moment, many people are not working and they need to pay their rent,” Alberto said in Spanish. And while there are places helping workers with rent and food, the need is far greater than what’s available, he said.

[x]
Minneapolis residents hold vigil for woman fatally shot by ICE agent – video

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), an organization focused on workers’ rights, has pivoted to responding to the crisis among immigrants in the state. It went from dealing with wage theft and worker safety issues to ICE raids on job sites, said Lucho Gómez, director of campaign strategies at CTUL.

The attacks on the immigrant community are “indiscriminate”, Gómez said. It doesn’t matter if people have work permits, visas or are in the process of asylum cases, he said – people are getting picked up and detained.

“It’s difficult not to laugh at the lies that we’re told, that this is about fraud, this is about the safety of our communities,” he said. “As a worker center, our members are these workers on construction sites, are these workers in restaurants: Black, white, Latino, from all over. We can’t help but notice that there are some clear winners out of this, and it’s not us the community, not us the working class.”

Back at the shooting scene on Wednesday morning, ICE agents agreed to leave after intense protest from hundreds in the street. They faced near-endless shouting from observers telling them to leave town and that they committed murder. “Read your history books,” one person yelled at them. “You guys are the villains!” One woman moved through the crowd quickly, telling people more were needed at a nearby school, where ICE had been seen.

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was at the shooting scene in its aftermath.

“I want people to remember, this is how nations collapse – when neighbors are turned against each other,” he said.

As they left, people yelled and threw snowballs – and agents hit some with pepper spray and pepper balls. Volunteer medics rushed to help those hit with chemicals, flushing their eyes out and telling them how to treat the irritations after they left.

Torres DeSantiago and other observers spread the word that ICE had left, just as a round of whistles and horns started up in the distance: ICE was back at work, and dozens of people ran to the next site to try to disrupt the agents.

He got back in his car, only to find more ICE agents at a dollar store in a strip mall minutes away. Messages were coming in of agents present all over the state. The chorus of whistles and horns continued, and he went out to get more information. Bystanders at the mall asked what was going on – both at the strip mall and with the shooting.

“This is not normal everyday behavior where we see a woman be dragged on her face on the concrete floor, or be pepper-sprayed or shot [by] rubber bullets, or [where] I’ve seen a disabled individual be violently pushed to the ground, and see families be ripped apart, or see a standoff that happens on the top of the roof in negative-degree weather,” Torres DeSantiago said. “And what are we supposed to do? Just continue sipping our coffee like nothing happened?

“This is not normal. It’s not normal to our psyche to see this level of violence and to assume that we will just be OK with what is happening.”