PART 3 ANTI-ANTI-NAZI BARBARIAN HORDES ARE KNOCKING DOWN THE

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Iran Refuses To Cede Control Of The Strait Of Hormuz
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jul 10, 2026

On July 9, millions of Iranians gathered in the holy city of Mashhad to bid a final farewell to their martyred Supreme Leader.

Dimitri Lascaris was there to report on the final burial of Imam Ali Khamenei.

In this report, Dimitri shares footage from the last day of the seven-day funeral and analyzes the violence that erupted this week in the all-important Strait of Hormuz.



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Mashad, Iran on July 10th, 2026 for Reason to Resist. Yesterday was
the final day for the funeral of Iran's martyed Supreme Leader Ali Kamei. A little later in this report, I'll share
you the stunning footage of this remarkable final day. I've been in Iran for the entire period of the 7-day funeral. And like all other days I have
been here, yesterday's proceedings drew huge masses of people who expressed their grief, indignation, and defiance
at the United States and Israel. But before I share with you footage of yesterday's events, I want to talk to you about the ongoing US war of
aggression against this country. This week, after Iran targeted non-compliant commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz
using non-lethal force, the US bombed Iranian ports and bridges. In so doing, US forces killed more than a dozen
martyrs. The aggressor murdered at least three people in Iran's southwestern Kujastan province, a firefighter in an
airport in the southeastern city of Iranchar, and nine members of the Iranian military. Iranian state media
also reported explosions in several cities, including Busher, which houses Iran's nuclear power plant complex. And
apparently, although those air strikes did not hit the nuclear plant, they did strike nearby. Iran's military has
responded with dozens of strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Jordan.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out attacks on quote key infrastructure and facilities close quote at bases used by the criminal US
military in Aries Jan and Ali al-Salum in Kuwait, Ju and Shik Issa in Bahrain uh and also I believe Alu Daid in Qatar.
Most importantly perhaps, Iran fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan's Azarak military base. According to the IRGC in
a statement carried by state media yesterday, Jordan's armed forces said it had intercepted eight Iranian missiles
in the airspace after sirens sounded across the country, adding that falling shrapnel did not cause any casualties or
material damage. So assuming that Iran did in fact fire 10 ballistic missiles, that would mean that Jordan intercepted
80% of them. Well, I find that rather difficult to believe. And I'll tell you why. because uh former MIT professor Ted
Postol who is one of the leading weapons experts in the west uh and was an adviser to the Pentagon has done some uh
very interesting uh interviews uh about this subject about the ability of US air defense systems to intercept ballistic
3 minutesmissiles. uh he did a recent interview in particular on the Daniel Davis program. I think it was about three
weeks ago in which he explained why he has concluded that the Patriot milit uh air air defense system which is
essentially the best air defense system that the United States has and provides to its Arab vessels uh only intercepts about 2 to 3%
of ballistic missiles. It may be quite good when it comes to dealing with slowmoving drones or subsonic uh cruise
missiles. Perhaps even uh non-hypersonic uh missiles uh although uh possessing uh
supersonic speeds uh perhaps they can take out a significant proportion of those. But uh missiles that travel at
hypersonic speeds which is the velocities that these ballistic m missiles reach when they uh enter the atmosphere and hurdle towards the earth.
According to the postal 2 to 3% is probably the uh interception rate. So even if they had taken out one of these
10 missiles they would have been lucky to do that. that would have been an interception rate of 10% uh for you know four to five times uh
above the average interception rate according to the conclusions of professor postal and we also know by the
way that although fantastical claims were made throughout the Ramadan war about the uh proportion of Iranian ballistic missiles that were being
intercepted by the Gulf Arabitocracies uh that house these US military bases.
We know from the corporate media in the United States and satellite imagery that in fact there was enormous damage done to numer numerous of these bases
rendering uh in excess of 10 of them according to the western corporate media inoperable. So if these air defense
systems are nearly as successful as is claimed uh by countries like Jordan uh then uh you would not expect to see that
level of damage in uh US military bases in this region. Now, the IRGC says that
in Jordan, it targeted a US command and control facility. 10 ballistic missiles can do a hell of a lot of damage to a
facility of that nature. For the time being, we can't say here on Reason to Resist, how much damage was done, but
with time, we may well find out, particularly as satellite imagery emerges. And if we do find out, we'll certainly share that information with
you. Now, in its newsletter this morning, the New York Times published a commentary by New York Times staff
writer Kathine Benhold. Her commentary concerned the debate in Iran before those who want negotiations with the US
to continue and those who want them to end. As is customary in the corporate media, Benho describes those who want
negotiations to end as hardliners. and she claims that the hardliners in Iran constitute a minority, albeit a powerful
one. She also says that the hardliners quote prefer war close quote. Benhold
writes that the hardliners used the occasion of the Supreme Leader funeral this past week to physically attack government officials who have been
defending the ceasefire with the United States. On Monday, she says, uh, there was a particularly notable incident
when, according to her, a crowd tried to tackle President Masoud Pajeskian during a funeral procession while shouting,
quote, "Death to the appeaser." Close quote. And Benhold says, quote, "He swayed, looking dazed as security detail
guided him away." She goes on and writes, "Foreign Minister Abasaraki was struck with a rock as he was chased down an alley during the funeral. The
attackers waving flags cursed him and called for his death. Close quote. Now, I've not seen footage of these incidents
and cannot confirm whether these events actually occurred, but if they did occur, I wouldn't be surprised. Not
based on what I've seen and heard in the streets of Tan and Mashad all week. Uh, that being said, I take strong issue
with several aspects of Benhold's article. First of all, if it is in fact true that I rate Iranian citizens uh
threatened the president and the foreign minister in that way uh and I'm not suggesting that they were going to lynch them or anything like that. I have no
reason to believe that they intended to carry out any kind of a death threat or even cause them grievous bodily injury.
But just taking at face value what she said they did. If in fact they did that, it seems a little difficult to recognize
uh to I'm sorry reconcile with the narrative that uh the Iranian government is a brutally oppressive regime uh that is effectively dictatorial.
Would people behave this way in a country, ordinary citizens towards the president and the foreign minister, especially during an important a
critically important state event, uh if uh they were liable to be carted off to
prison and tortured or worse uh for offending the dignity of the president and the foreign minister in that manner.
And Ben Hull doesn't uh seem to grasp that there is an inconsistency between
what she recounts happened this week and uh the New York Times standard editorial line that the Iranian government is one
of the most repressive and dictatorial regimes on earth. Uh but there are other aspects of this with which I take greater exception. First of all, her use of the term hardliners.
You know, you aren't a hardliner because you believe that uh there is nothing to be
gained by negotiating with that psychopath, pathologically lying, narcissistic, megalomaniac
uh and genocidal Donald Trump. Uh that's just common sense. Why would anyone thinking rationally looking at the way
Donald Trump has behaved um believe that those uh negotiations are going to result in an agreement that Donald Trump
uh will respect and that will be uh in the interests of the Iranian people and the Iranian state. That's simply an
irrational belief. So, I, you know, I think a far more accurate term of the so-called hardliners is realists or I
would call them pragmatists. They're being practical. They're being realistic. They're looking at Donald Trump's behavior and they're saying this is a pointless exercise and if we do any
kind of a deal, he's going to use it to somehow disadvantage us even further than he's already done. Uh, but she characterizes them as hardliners, which
uh, you know, obviously carries a negative connotation. It suggests that these people are extremists, that they're inflexible, uh that they can't be reasoned with when the reality is that they're being all too reasonable.
They see the reality of what Donald Trump is. Uh and they are um you know, uh urging upon their government a policy
which takes into account that reality, namely that negotiations with this monster are a fool's errand and likely only to rel lead to further
disadvantages for the nation of Iran and its people. Now she goes on and she says that the hardliners constitute a
so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Uh a claim for which she provides zero evidence. you you that's a
pretty important claim to be making at this point in time uh when the negotiations between the United States
and uh Iran have broken down and this is a war that has potentially profound consequences for uh the global economy
and the US economy included. Um, so I would say that it's journalistically incumbent upon her to provide some kind
of evidence, something to back up the claim that these so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Now, I don't have polling evidence to provide to you, and
if I knew of any, I would I would cite it to you whether or not it is consistent with my own experience, but I can tell you what my own experience is
for what it's worth. and uh you know it is not anywhere close to uh you know it doesn't have anywhere close to the
evidentiary value of scientifically uh valid polls uh but nonetheless it's something and I can tell you that going
through the streets of Iran and interacting with people I saw enormous amounts of hostility towards uh the negotiation process and immense
skepticism. I heard this over and over again. I saw uh quite literally I mean when I add up all the people I saw uh
chanting against negotiations and carrying uh banners opposed to negotiations, it's probably in the tens of thousands and that's just what I saw
in the streets. Uh so uh I uh really question whether these people constitute a a minority. I think it's entirely
possible that a majority of Iranians think that it is uh it is contrary to the interest of the Iranian state to be
negotiating with this uh menacious psychopath. Uh, and as I say, that's simply logical. And my sense is that
most Iranians have common sense and they are rational people fundamentally. And if that is the case and they're paying attention, as I'm sure they are, to
Donald Trump's current behavior and his record, uh, the majority would be of the view uh, that these negotiations should be uh, brought to an end forth with and
perhaps that they should never have uh, begun with uh, or been undertaken to begin with. The third claim with which I
want to take exception in this Benhold uh piece of toilet paper is the claim that the so-called hardliners prefer
war. You know, I haven't met a single person in Iran of the many people I've met during my uh three trips uh to this
country across this country during the past 14 months who actually wants war.
Not a single one. Such people may exist, but if they were here in significant number and if the so-called hardliners with whom I've had extensive interaction
preferred war, then presumably I would have met at least a few of them by now.
But I've met none of them. What the pal what the Iranian people want, let's be very clear about this, Miss Benhold, they want the war to be brought to an
end as expeditiously as possible, but they want it to be ended permanently. I repeat, permanently. They don't want to
be turned into Lebanon or Syria or Libya that is in a constant state of vulnerability, a constant state of war,
a war which simply varies from time to time in intensity, but which is never ending and permanently infeebles the state. That's what they don't want. and
they understand perfectly well that after having kicked the asses of the Americans and the Israelis in the most recent war and in the June war of last
year, the uh Israelis and the Americans are opting for plan B. And plan B is this low inensity intermittent war which
doesn't cause catastrophic damage all at once but which over time gradually weakens the state and the nation to the point that they can no longer defend
defend themselves and there's a breakdown of a civil order and civilized life. Uh that is what the Americans and
the Israelis have in store through this negotiating process uh which is a complete fraud as is now clear as clear
as day and the Iranian people understand this perfectly well. So they don't think that this course of action, the one
being pursued, not all Iranians, but in my view probably a majority of them don't think that the course of action that has been pursued thus far uh by the
government is likely to lead to a permanent end in the war. What will lead to a permanent end to the war? In my view, it is exactly what I've been
saying for months. My view has been strengthened over time by uh the kinds of things we have witnessed this week.
the relentless violations of theou uh and various other ceasefire agreements by the United States and
Israel. What has to happen is that the Iran has to inflict such a penalty on the United States. Israel is really secondary in all of this because if the
United States wants the war to be ended permanently, it'll be ended permanently whether or not Israel wants that. So, it has to really inflict upon the United
States a penalty that is so severe that the next time it's tempted to attack Iran, it will decide not to do that
because the pain of doing so will simply be too great. And how can Iran inflict a penalty of that nature? By shutting down
the straight of Hormuz. You know, we just uh did a press conference with the uh Iranian parliament parliamentarian
Ibraham Izzi who is the chair of the parliament's national security commission. We published that this morning and uh we were allowed to ask him questions any questions we wanted.
there were no restrictions placed upon our questions and a lot of people uh in that room foreign journalists yourself uh your yours truly included expressed
skepticism about the wisdom of pursuing these negotiations any further and uh one question which I asked it's at the
very beginning of the uh uh the video we published this morning or near the beginning was in light of the uh many
violations of theou uh by uh the Trump regime uh and in particular the fact that it has now reimposed sanctions on
the sale of Iranian oil. Uh what are the benefits to Iran of continuing to comply with theou and isn't it in fact uh the
more logical approach to close the straight of Hormuz again uh to impose maximum pressure on the United States
economy and through it the government of the United States. Uh and I commend to you if you want to see the answer that I got back from Mr. Aizi that you watch
this. Another person also asked in this same video that we've published whether uh the United States uh I'm sorry, Iran
entered into theou too early because it was on the cusp of causing serious harm to the United States economy just as the
United States by the way has been doing to the Iranian economy for decades. Uh and so again uh the answer to that
question may interest you and if you want to hear what Mr. Zezy had to say. I recommend that you watch uh the video of the press conference which we published
this morning. But in any case, uh the point here is uh I don't believe and I suspect that a great many Iranians don't
believe that the Iranian government has so far gone far enough to establish real deterrence. That's what they want. They
want real deterrence so that the war is brought to a permanent end and uh they're not uh indefinitely subjected uh
to the suffering the interminable suffering of an inter intermittent low inensity war. Uh so that again Miss
Benhold uh if you happen to be listening uh to uh my comments today that's what the Adanian people want. uh your racist
notion that there are some wildeyed savages who love war or that any segment of the Iranian society is like that
really uh is a disgrace. Uh like all human beings, they desire peace overwhelmingly. And if there are any
people in this country uh who actually do prefer war, I assure you that they are a tiny minority.
Now, um I want to uh close out uh with a couple of other points uh about uh what
has happened over the last couple of days. Uh we will be heading back to uh Thran uh later this evening uh by train.
It's a 12-h hour train ride. Uh we got here by train uh about 3 days ago. Our um uh voyage back to Thran was
complicated by the fact that the uh the Trump regime bombed bridges uh railway
bridges connecting Thran uh to Mashad and in fact we passed over one of these bridges on our way here. Uh now we were
therefore uncertain whether we were going to be able to take the train back to Thran and I do need to go back for one day before uh leaving the country
and returning to Canada. Um but uh we are told that uh the government seems to have found a solution quickly dealing
with the problem created by uh the bombing of this civilian infrastructure.
By the way, this railroad is very important. It's strategically important to Iran because it connects uh Iran, I
understand, to China uh and also to Russia. So, uh that will tell you
something about uh the motivation of the United States for bombing this civilian infrastructure. Um and of course, there's the additional motivation it may
have had uh that people were traveling from the capital to Mashad for the final day of the Supreme Leader's uh funeral.
uh but I suspect the uh main motivation was to impede uh economic relations between uh the Islamic Republic of Iran
and its uh its partners uh China and Russia.
Now uh in the days ahead I guess we'll find out uh whether uh the Iranian government has gotten the message which
I think a great many of its citizens tried to convey during the uh past week uh as to the way they feel about
negotiations with the uh sociopath in the White House. Uh with that uh let's turn to the footage of the final day of
the Supreme Leader's funeral which took place yesterday. Uh I'll just mention briefly uh you'll see as uh this uh
report on the ground report yesterday unfolds that we had expected that the coffin of the the coffins of the martyrs
would be uh brought down one of the main boulevards leading to the uh Imam Breza shrine where the martyr Ali Kamei was
finally laid to rest last night. But in fact uh they were not brought down to the main bullet through the main boulevards and uh we were not able to
view at the end of the day uh the uh the the delivery of the coffins to the shrine. Uh we learned that they had
arrived uh by video feed on Iranian state media. Uh but you will see uh in the video I'm about to show you the
extraordinary uh and uh impressive uh gathering of masses of people uh both inside and
around the ImmA shrine as they waited uh for uh the arrival of the body of their
beloved and martyed leader. And at the very end of this uh clip that I'm about to show you from last night's uh events,
you will hear uh a gigantic throng of mourners chanting in unison. And the words that they chanted uh were quite
powerful. They were all these armies have come for the love of their leader.
This is Dimmitri Lceris coming to you on July 9th, 2026 from Mashad, Iran. This
is the site of the last day of the 7-day program for the funeral of the martyed
supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khani. We have been here in the country every step of the way in the streets uh at the
mosques where mourers gathered to uh pay their respects and to grieve and also to express their indignation. And all of it
will culminate in a few hours time at the Imam Bza shrine uh which is uh
directly in front of me in a distance of a couple hundred meters. But for the time being, I want to show you what is behind me. That is the Imm Resa
Boulevard. And as you can see, it is absolutely jam-packed with mourners as
far as the eye can see. And uh the coffin of the supreme leader along with the coffins of his slain family members,
his martyed family members are we understand somewhere down that absolutely
jam-packed boulevard. Uh and they should have arrived by now at the shrine. uh but because of the great mass of people
who have assembled there waiting for the coffins to arrive uh their arrival has been much delayed and we are going to
share with you uh in a few moments footage of what uh I just saw and experienced down in the streets uh both
on Imamza Boulevard and on our way from our hotel which is uh near the main entrance to this gigantic shrine
complex. Uh, but I'm going to sharp I'm going to start by showing you uh what I can see right now looking in front of me uh at the shrine.
I'm going to go
Are you going to stay here?
Hallelujah. Jesus.
Heat. Heat.
So, we've now left that uh very tall hotel where we had this magnificent view of Imam Resza Boulevard
and the Imam Resza Shrine. And we're back down in the streets below.
We uh have learned that in fact the coffin burying the body of the supreme
leader is not going to uh be delivered via Imam Resa Boulevard uh but rather
another uh avenue that passes directly in front of the hotel we're staying which is a uh smaller hotel an eighth
floor hotel and uh that news by the way is has been spread publicly so uh you You can see that uh there are a lot of
people walking in the direction of our hotel which is about a couple hundred meters away. Uh and we plan to go onto
the rooftop of our hotel so that we can see the uh coffin of the martyed supreme leader uh
go by uh as uh it enters the shrine complex.
More water to keep us cool.
foreign
speech.
That's Industry
man omnico
mico Many manufacturing.
I didn't know you have any work.
Nothing.
You're going to
We are going to the
I cannot
tell
All your nice hair draws up
spaghetti.
I love it.
Long time.
We've now returned to our hotel and are still waiting for the coffin of the
martyrd supreme leader and those of his slain family members to
enter the shrine and we expect that's going to happen shortly.

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US Strikes BACKFIRE as 43 MILLION Iranians Declare War | Larry Johnson & Ray McGovern
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 3 hours ago #iran #iranwar #trump

Former CIA Analysts Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern discuss day three of renewed war as Iran an attack on the funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Kuwait & Bahrain attempt strikes on Iran with US support.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, I'm joined by Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern returning back to the show. First, let's get to the news. So,
uh, yesterday was the final day of the funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamei and his family uh, in Mashad,
Iran. During this time, there was a reported terror incident that occurred.
A few Iranians were killed I believe from the security forces uh but no further attacks came and there was
nothing that came of it at the funeral itself. But what did happen at the funeral is that 43 million Iranians
ended up attending what was 6 days of ceremony with uh many noting that and of
course Israel making up stories about uh Iran wanting to assassinate Trump. But there were chants of we are the
followers of Imam Hami and we seek revenge. Now uh gentlemen Donald Trump
today said after two days of strikes that now Iran is the one begging him to
come to the table and talk and that the United States has agreed to do so but that the ceasefire is over. Iran has
denied these claims entirely, saying they're just not true and there will be no talks until commitments are
fulfilled. Uh Larry, we're heading into the weekend. There are destroyers uh there's aircraft carrier carriers lining up getting closer to Iranian shores.
Threats of a renewed blockade. What do you make of of what's happened over the last , especially the last 24 as
uh uh the United States said they chose diplomacy over strikes again?
United States said it chose diplomacy over strikes.
That's what it said. That's what it said that they are talking to the Qatar mediators that they're the the mediators in the background, but the ceasefire is
over says Trump. [snorts] Yeah, the a little little bit of a contradiction in there. Uh look, this was th this was all a staged
uh provocation by the United States uh when it started let's see we're Friday.
So it started on Tuesday when they put tried to put the four ships, five ships through the straight of Hormuz without
doing following the uh Persian Gulf straight authority guidelines pro protocols put out by Iran and according
to theou the only country in the world in the universe
is that's the obligation the responsibility uh to ensure safe passage passage of vessels through the strait is
Iran. United States signed off on that and in in response or in tandem with the
US acknowledging Iran's primacy in the straight of Hermuz, the Iranians issued
those protocols and the protocols stipulated that any ship wanting to pass the straight of Hermuz must submit an
they've got a website an online application uh stipulating name of captain, name of ship, ownership of
ship, destination, of ship cargo on board ship and the crew and you know
basically Iran is using this as a we'll call it a backdoor embargo. Anything o
owned or associated with Israel in any shape form uh would be denied so as to shut Israel down. Everybody else though
can come on through. Well, instead of uh going along with that uh protocol, the United States encouraged even the Saudis
and Qataris, tell the Iranians to screw off. We're going to do it on our own.
They went through and in in the protocols, it it states very clearly that ships that do not comply with the
PGSA protocols will be denied passage and or subject to use of force. No
surprise there. Iran did exactly what it said in the protocols. They didn't violate any law. They didn't violate any
uh clause within theou. At no point in theou did the United States say Iran, you cannot determine who go gets to use
the straight of authority. That's that's we will not accept that. No, didn't say that. They didn't say that if if you try
to enforce your uh your control that we're going to attack you. Didn't say that. But in fact, the United States in
violation of the first paragraph of the of theou attacked, launched combat operations against Iran. Iran's
retaliated. Uh they so they had two rounds of this. Iran retaliated, then the US retaliated, then the Iranians
retaliated to the US retaliation. Uh, and since then I haven't seen any additional evidence that the United
States is going to escalate, fire back, because if they fire back, Iran's going to escalate. Um, they've already in that
second round, Iran went from hitting bases in Kuwait and Bahrain to also going after bases at the US base at
Aluded uh in in Qatar and the Jordanian base at Mwafik Alti. So, you know, we're
I I do know that Pakistan with Qatar has been busy behind the scenes trying to salvage talks trying to get the Iranians
and the United States back together in Islamabad. They they were trying to do it for tomorrow. That hasn't come off.
Maybe by Monday. We'll see. I'm I personally I I think uh the Iranians would be advised walk away from this.
It's done. The United States is not a reliable negotiating partner.
Well, Rey, we had 43 million Iranians attend that the funeral of Ayat Allemeni and uh that is quite the number given
the country is 90 million and it came as the United States was striking their country. But what do you make of these
simultaneous developments and and what's been going on the last few days?
Good question. Um, I'm amazed that uh when Trump was told about this pour out,
he was amazed and he's quoted as saying, "I I thought they were all against the government. [laughter]
My god, you know, I mean, I wish that were funny." Anyhow, if Mossad told Trump a couple months ago that there was
going to be a public insurrection in Iran because the people hated their government, well, I mean, they may have hated, some of them may have hat, but
they hate it now. Uh, if that if that number is right, 43 million is a lot of people. Uh, Trump is lying again. uh
when he says to the Iranians are really pressing him to re restart the negotiations. I mean uh fool me once,
fool me twice, how many times has he said that and it's not been true. So like Larry, I don't think the Iran
Iranians are going to do anything with respect to real negotiations until until
the uh the hostilities really stop. Now, if I'm correct, then Trump has said, "Okay, we're going to stop now and then
we're going to negotiate. I mean, there's what is there to negotiate?" The main point, in my view, is something
that Larry has been harping on for two weeks now, and that is Well, it's not only Larry, it's his good friend Donald
Trump. Right [laughter] now, wait a second. What What did I do to you? Huh?
Well, no, no. I'm saying that after you pointed out, Donald Trump himself said, "We're running out of oil. My god, we're
running out of oil. We got to get that straight open." That's why I agreed to the Mo. Yeah.
[laughter]
Well, and that's sort of complicated. I think I understand it from Larry's various explanations, but it is the case
that the US desperately needs that so that they could get some Saudi and other crude in there to to to make the
kind of jet fuel and uh the kind of stuff that powers trucks and iron and buses and stuff. So, if that's still the
case, well, Trump has just tried a couple more escalations, but now he's going to talk. Now he's going to
persuade the Iranians to open the straight. I don't think so. So, it's a real kind of corner he's backed himself
into. And God knows what he's going to do. Trump probably doesn't even know either.
Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to bring this up. Uh as there were a bit of a
pause. I mean, there were some reports that Kuwait and Bahrain, I didn't see these verified, uh, supposedly tried to strike Iran with US intel support.
Nonetheless, this was what came out yesterday that Israel has told the United States that uh, conveniently,
Iran is seeking a fresh plot to assassinate Donald Trump. And this came as CNN was reporting a actively that the
United States is trying to do a strike pause pattern, meaning that behind the scenes, the United States is trying to
talk to the Iranians uh with US striking and then pausing to avoid escalation and
let diplomacy work. This is according to uh CNN. Uh Larry, help us make sense of
that. This appears to be a real troubling pattern where the United States escalates can't escalate further
without massive damage, catastrophe, crisis, and then pretends or uh maybe I don't even know if they believe they're
pretending to engage back into talks often citing that this is leverage. Uh what how do you uh help the audience
understand this? Okay, there's several loose threads here and I'll see if I can weave them together to resemble something coherent.
Number one, uh, now two weeks ago, Pete Hexth issued an order to start the withdrawal of US forces from the region.
And in fact, that withdrawal is underway. It's slow. Uh, it's it's not a it's not a speedy withdrawal. It was described to me it's being done in
waves, but we saw last week that the B-52s that were based in England, they returned uh to Konis or continental
United States and that number of F15, I think it was 12 that
were based in Jordan flew back to England, headed back to the United States. So that's you got that on the one hand.
Also, u going back to June 17th, the United States military deactivated what
are called cats. And I'm not talking about furry animals on four paws and a tail. Uh the CAT is a crisis action
team. This is uh or it could also be called a task force. Um, and these are
these are stood up in advance of military operations. The the attack that took place on the 28th of February by
the United States was preceded 7 days earlier by the establishment of cats at
the at the Pentagon in the na adjacent to the National Military Command Center at the operations center at Sentcom at
McDell Air Force Base uh at JOC at their uh you know they've got a couple of different operation centers there and so
these cats are involved with issuing orders responding to requests from field commanders, making sure that resources
are in place, etc. Well, once you take those cats down, you lose that capability. Or in other words, the
military is not on a combat footing. Uh, and they've been operating [clears throat] since about June 17th,
uh, 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, banker hours. I specifically asked a couple of friends who still one one recently
retired, one still active duty if the cats have been reestablished. No, across you know they they have not been
reestablished. So that that right there limits what the United States is going to do. Uh I was also told that uh the
strikes that have been carried out in the Persian Gulf are nothing compared to what we were doing in the first 40 days
of the war with Iran. So even though the press is hyping it and it's getting, you know, sitcoms bragging about the, you
know, destroying Iran, uh it's not as serious as it is be as is being
presented. So you've got that on the one hand. On the other hand, uh Iran is not
messing around. Every time they're hit, they respond and they escalate each response. At the same time, they're
trying to keep it in check. Now, Iran is under a lot of pressure from Pakistan and China to get back to the negotiating
table. But Iran's saying, "How the hell do we do that?" The United States has broken every single paragraph of theou.
And until such time as they comply with theou, we're not going to go back with them. In fact, the Iran just issued a denial
there. It was being leaked that there are upcoming talks with the US and and Iran in Switzerland and according to Fars and Iran said nope, not doing that.
So I I think Iran's going to they're going to hold out for some uh concessions and in a way they have the
United States over a barrel. And I don't I don't want to get too technical here, but the but the bottom line is oil is
not oil. And the high sulfur oil is what the United States imports. United States
does not produce enough high sulfur oil to uh the which is what 70% of our
refineries need and that high sulfur oil is what is used to produce diesel and
aviation fuel. So with the cut off that what took place the cut off on the 28th of February
it didn't the full impact of that cut off did not become apparent to the United States or it wasn't being felt
until April 11th uh roughly because it was 40 days uh that if you had a a full
oil tanker that had just left the straight of Hormuz on the 28th of February would have taken them 40 days to get to Houston or to Louisiana.
This is why Energy Secretary Miller on the 11th of March issued an order to start drawing
down the strategic petroleum reserve at a rate of 1.4 million barrels per day.
And what they were drawing down was the sour crude, not the sweet. Because United States makes we got all the sweet
crude we want. The problem is the it's more for the oil industry and I know I'm I should tell Ray to sit down. I don't
want to shock him but but the oil industry found it more profitable to have these expensive refineries that
process sour crude. And so therefore they built more of those instead of the sweet crude which we have an abundance
of now. You could actually produce diesel and and aviation fuel from sweet crude, but you have to have the right kinds of refineries. We don't have them.
So, right now, the United States is facing that the the reserves that's drawing out of the SPR. It's going to run dry here. Some have said like
tomorrow, July 11th. Some have said no, it'll be mid mid August. But this is what Donald Trump was talking about when he was said we're going to run out of
oil in four weeks. So they need the US needs the straight of Hormuz open and it
ain't at least as far as oil the the high sulfur oil coming to the United States.
Yeah, and Larry, uh I mean uh those are great points, Rey. The uh you know uh
the the reasoning for the strikes by the United States was all about the Straight War moves and was all about supposedly the tankers being hit and uh but the end
result ended up being that fewer tankers were moving through the war actually zero from the so-called Omani corridor.
What do you make of the United States's approach then uh in this uh restart?
It's it's very interesting that CNN is now reporting that US officials are saying this is a uh uh strike pause
strategy almost to uh negotiations. Did you say strategy?
[laughter]
Yeah.
What does that mean? [clears throat] there has been no strategy.
Uh in charge is a commanderin-chief and a president who's who's not really well.
Uh we see that in all kinds of manifestations.
Uh that's why not only the Iranians but the Russians and Chinese, everybody else
tries to not provoke them. Uh now in this case the Iranians have all the
cards. Um they will respond to provocations of a limited nature. Uh but
they're not going to uh they're not going to do anything that will make sure that Trump goes off halfcocked. Now he's
halfcocked already. Fullcocked I suppose is what I should say. Uh and then of course there is the Israel factor which
cannot be overlooked in in a discussion like this. We have defense minister
[clears throat]
um Kats saying we're not we're not going to leave Lebanon. Uh that was number one. That was the first little clause of
the uh memorandum of mis memorandum of understanding. All right. uh two sentences,
one country mentioned three times in those two sentences, Lebanon.
So, it's hard for Westerners to get through their Iranians care about other
Muslims, other people who are occupied by Israel. Andu
I would say it is it's sort of a miracle in our in our inability to to see that
there is such a thing as principle or um sort of sort of a a kind of a look at
things that doesn't center exclusively on one country. Uh but we have to start accepting that and the Israelis are the
fly in the ointment. Did the Israelis tell Trump that he was on number one on the assassination list? Well, I don't know who else could have. Maybe Samoa.
Of course, they told him. Did Trump believe it? I mean, he's saying, "Of course I'm number I'm not only number
one on the Israeli on the Iran Iranian assassination lists. I'm [clears throat] number one on Tik Tok. Everybody knows
that. I'm number one on Tik Tok. I'm number one on all kinds of things. How do you deal with a guy like that with
kid gloves? But you have to show as the Iranians have done uh that you mean business and that you're not going to
give up. 43 million. Well, if Trump was really surprised that he should not have been surprised. Getting back to
strategy, there ain't no strategy. And you know, if you look at all the kinds of things that Trump has done there and
in with respect to Ukraine, I mean, there are no weapons left for God's sake. No tomahawks, no Patriot missiles
in Ukraine. Ukraine is defenseless from an air. No, I mean, was there planning on this?
I don't know what the hell those generals do uh other than, you know, prepare for their next job with General
Dynamics or or Boeing or whatever. But if they hadn't told Trump before, if they hadn't said, "Sir, we're going to
run out of uh we're going to run out of weaponry in two weeks." He would have said probably, "Two [laughter] weeks?
Mossad just told me on a tube that they'll be finished in days. we'll just decapitate uh the supreme leader and
everybody will rise up. These people who would hate hate the supreme leader and oh it didn't turn out that way, did it?
So all I'm saying here is my god no strategy and no predictability
but the cards happen to be in Iran's hands and they have the support of
Russia and China and increasingly other key countries in the world that it's
going to go kind of gradually here to exploit their advantage. They're not going to go off halfcock unless they're really provoked into doing that.
Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to ask you about about this. There was reports that Iran was uh amassing special forces
units near the Iraqi Kurd uh border, Kurdistan border. Uh there has been of course military activities there for
quite a long time throughout this war uh where Iran has been hitting these forces. uh some rumors that the US and
Israel may be trying to activate them in some kind of invasion scheme, especially since the last time we spoke, I asked you about whether these attacks were
some uh cockami scheme to uh uh to eventually take some kind of island. And
then uh I'm wondering what you think the role then I know the United States has been looking for force for a long time uh ever since before the February 28th
strikes to cause instability inside of Iran. Uh what do you make of these reports about the Iranian uh special
forces uh amassing at the border against the Kurds?
Yeah. No, I'm sure it's I'm sure it's accurate. United States is and Britain had been working, you know, CIA, MI6
have been working with the Kurds, promoting them and arming them, equipping them, training them to go in and conduct an operation inside Iran for
the express purpose of, you know, destabilizing Iran. But the Iranians are aware of it and they and that's one of the reasons they've been bombing Kurdish
positions and frankly the Kurds don't have enough forces to be able to penetrate and do do any kind of significant damage. So it's just you
know it's a full Zaron as far as you know there there is no viable ground option for the United States. U if if we
if we dane to figure you know number one how how are you going to get troops onto Car Island?
It's not going to be through a US Navy landing craft um because that'll get blown out of the water before it even gets up that far north in in the Persian
Gulf. So that means you have to drop them in by parachute or you drop them in
uh you fly them in. Well, how many how many troops you going to put in there?
You know, to secure Car Island, you'd probably need about 2,000. And given that a C130 can only take carry 90 uh
soldiers with full combat loads ready to jump out of a plane, just do the math.
Uh you're going to need over 22 23 C130s or you know or if they you know they
come up with um you know a C141 which you know has more capacity but not a lot more. You're still dealing with a lot of
airplanes and that's just what they jump in with. Then how do you resupply? And all all of this assumes that Iran's
going to do nothing. They'll sit there and watch this. Won't they won't fire a drone. They won't fire a missile.
Nonsense. And doing it right now in the summer. Uh you know, I've been there. I would look I haven't been there in July
uh and and August or or or June, but I was there in May of 2026.
And if the choice was going to gutter or hell, you'd prefer hell because their idea you might at least find a cool spot
to be tortured in. Uh it was [laughter] I mean it was blistering. It's pizza oven hot out there. Well, when you get
that kind of heat, uh you're going to get um you know people dehydrated. So, and how do you keep them resupplied? No,
this is just this is madness. Absolute madness. But uh you you know before before we wrap up today I do want to
comment on this so-called assassination plot against Trump because th this is
all this has been staged jenned up uh by the CIA by DEA with the full collaboration of Department of Justice.
Uh you know I'll come back and explain that but you know I want to give Ry a chance to comment.
Yeah, Ray to you your comments.
Well, uh I've just been thinking about um the Kurds and how they've always been the pawns of history. They want independence. They deserve independence.
They were deprived of having independence a century ago or so. And uh the result
is that any opportunity that presents itself that might have a chance of offering them independence, they seize
on it. Uh it's not going to work. And Larry is quite right. Uh it makes good sense for the Iranians to put some
troops up there near the Kurdish area just so they don't get any any uh any ideas.
But the whole notion that Iran is going to give up is what what the Germans would call a vanzin. It's it's sort of a
mild milder form of felt which you're not really allowed to say in Germany.
Felix means crazy. I mean like really crazy like you your your your head is
turned around 180° not 360° as an say
but 180°. Okay. Now, Vansen is just complete foolishness. Okay. So,
everybody's looking on at Trump and I would just read over it again that uh Trump not only has uh no predictability
to him, but he's got a bunch of um sickopants uh who say, "Oh, well, we're worried
about running out of ammunition, but oh, you saw you could rely on Mossad and the Israelis, and it's only going to be a
little bit." What does the CIA say about that? Oh, there is no CIA here at the table.
Uh, what about the National Intelligence D? Oh, no, she's fired. So, all right, let's go. Worth trying. So, it's really
crazy. And the same thing obtains, of course, with respect to to to Ukraine.
as though it's a rudderless kind of ship and uh the leaders of other countries
Iran, Russia, China have to be quite aware that this ruleless ship could do a
lot of damage if it's not contained, if it's not treated in a gingerly fashion.
And so I come back to that notion that uh the US is losing. But since the person in charge is not reliable, is
mercurial, changes his mind, you know, every day or maybe every hour, they got to be really careful. This this means a lot in the Ukraine situation.
Yeah. Well, Larry, back to you about the uh where you wanted to continue.
Well, yeah. So, this assassination plot, so let me take you back. I wrote about this uh back in November of 2024.
And so Department of [clears throat] Justice put out this thing said, "Oh, Far Farhad Shakiri 51 of Iran. He tried
to organize an assassination plot of Jews, but this was all tied into, you know, the attempted assassination of of
Trump." Well, what we learned was Shakiri uh came to the United States as like an eight-year-old child. Uh then he got uh jammed up in a robbery charge.
Did 14 years in prison in New York, made some friends while in prison,
gets out and is deported. We don't know initially his place of deport, but next time he shows up, he's in Sri Lanka.
And what's he doing in Sri Lanka? Well, he's trying to p move a load of heroin. And the Sri Lankan police arrest him.
And then what happens next? He gets released.
What you you know, did he pay off the police? No. What happened? DEA went in and made him an offer he
couldn't refuse. They say, "Hey, Sha, here's here's the deal, buddy. you start working for Team America and you work
with us and our our partners here, the CIA, and uh you'll be taken care of.
Plus, you're not going to go you're not going to go to Jo to jail and get a boyfriend named Bubba. So, he said, "Hey, sounds like a great idea. I don't
want to go back." So, next thing you know, he shows up in Iran and gets a job as an as an oil worker. you know, why
does an Afghan go to Iran just, you know, because I guess better opportunities.
Um, and then he says he claims that Iranian intelligence officers, uh, they get they
get in touch with him and say, IRGC members, they want him to put together
an assassination plot in the United States. So, what does he do? Uh well he calls he calls up two of his former
salemates uh Carlile Rivera who is known as Pop 49year-old Brooklyn New Yorker and a guy named
Jonathan Lo Halt 36 of Staten Island and basically recruits him hey we got this guy we want to get him killed and you
know offer to pass money this is entirely a setup this was entirely to create a narrative and now Israel at a
time when they need the United States to continue the war with Iran are trying to create the same narrative.
Yeah. And I want to uh show you Ry Trump's response to this. I won't play the video, but he says he left
instructions should Iran assassinate him that uh he said that he would uh bomb
them uh to hell in a way that has never been seen before. That was the instructions he had left. That's the uh
it it's you know it seems almost I I don't even know how what to how what word to put behind it in terms of why uh
the United States would be talking like this now. But your thoughts?
Well, it's kind of banal and purile. Um uh you know what are we going to do?
Nukem? Well, I mean, I wish I could say that's ridiculous, but no one can say anything is ridiculous when you're talking about Trump.
Um, and you know, that's why a lot of us are on tent hooks. I mean, it makes no sense, but it made no sense to attack
Iran for God's sake. And if Trump were so easily persuaded to do that by the
Israelis and their, as Joe Kent says, their acolytes in Washington, what might
he be tempted or encouraged to do? Now, there's one other aspect that I'd like to raise just to learn a little bit from
you all. I just saw a report that Mask, the uh big Danish uh transportation
agency which runs all these great big boats, ships and stuff that they're going through the Suez Canal uh to
deliver stuff through the Bob El Mand straight through the Red Sea up until I
s I assume Israel or whatever. Okay, now that's the next challenge. What will the
hooties who pretty much control the Bob Elman straight? What are they going to do? They say, "Oh, mask, please. You're
Danish. Oh, Danish. Danish is we love Danish. So, come on in here." I don't think so. So, here's the next choke
point, I think. Will will they be allowed in to resupply Israel and and others uh with desperately needed oil
and other other goods? Um what do you think, Larry? Uh I that gives pause that
would be one way that uh that this thing could flare up once again in a different spot, but just as powerfully. Well,
yeah, Iran has already mentioned that uh if the United States continues attacks, it's next to options on its uh let's
call it Chinese menu of responses includes having the Houthi shut down the Babel Mandab Strait and then also withdrawing
from the NPT, the non-prololiferation treaty. But did I hear you right? This did they say the ship was going to go
through the Panama Canal and then through No, they I'm sorry. If I said Panama, I meant Suez.
Oh, the Suez. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh if they're coming through Suez to go through uh the Babel Mandab. Um Yeah.
With with a What was their final destination? Do we know?
Uh it was not not specified in what I saw report. It was just Yeah. So, so the um the the big concern
would for the Saudis would be it I think the the port's called Yamboo that's on
the Red Sea and the uh if if the Houthis decide to start attacking Yamboo and
shutting that down then that again that shuts down a major source of oil coming out into the still trickling onto the
world stage. I think some of that's been coming out of Saudi and making its way to Europe uh keeping you know sort of
keeping them afloat. But u you know it is the Iranians made it very clear they're they are prepared to go all the
way to get the straight of uh the Red Sea shut down close the Mandab Bob
Mandab and also make sure that no ships go through the Suez Canal.
Yeah. And uh there's also reports too that uh Iran's defense ministry has said that they are also going to uh let's not
forget about Israel that Israel if these attacks continue that Israel will once again become a target of Iranian retaliation.
Um I wanted to play actually uh because Rey you mentioned the NATO summit and uh
one of the interesting things that came out of the NATO summit there was a lot and and Ray you can comment um first
here uh this is what Donald Trump so he uh make went out of his way Trump did to meet with Golani or Alshara whatever we
choose to call him by [laughter] um he went out of his way to have a meeting with him, you know, between both
sides. And this is what he said during the meeting that has been raising eyebrows.
No president's done as much for Israel as I have. Nobody even close. If you look at I mean, just look at all the things with Jerusalem, all the different
things that we've done. [snorts] Um the Golan Heights, I did things nobody has ever done anything for Israel like me.
And we made tremendous progress. And we're going to we've made a lot of progress with Iran, too. Wiped out their
military, but they should have been done 47 years ago.
So, Trump evoked the golden colon heights uh right in Golani's face as if
Golani actually cares. But, uh, nonetheless, it was seen as an a bitter humiliation or an utter humiliation by
those observing who know anything about the situation with regard to the region.
Uh let uh uh Rey, your first comments on on the NATO summit in general in this uh development in particular. [snorts]
Well, as you point out, it was highly disrespectful of Trump to be talking about Israel see or giving them the
golden heights again. The Goolan Heights part of Syria were occupied by Israel 1967.
Okay.
June. In November, the UN Security Council unanimously resolution 242 said Israel had to withdraw the occupied territories 1967.
So the history should not be ignored here. Uh do resistance forces have the
right uh to fight against occupation forces? Yes, they do under international
law. Do they have the right to use weaponry and arms? Yes, they do under international law. So, the Israelis are
on the back foot here. That's the background. And all the stuff about Golani, the head chopper, now with
really neatly polished black shoes like the rest of them. I mean, give me a break. This is sort of like theater and it's not funny.
Yeah. And uh Trump said that he will be taking Syria off of the state sponsored terror list. I guess because Syria is
not a state sponsor of terror. It is its state is [laughter] actually terrorist entity. Now I hate to joke about it like
that but because there are such serious consequences to this but nonetheless sometimes you have to laugh. Uh Larry, your uh your thoughts on the NATO summit in general as well.
I think the summit was a disaster. Um Trump uh reiterated his claim over
Greenland. Uh insulted Spain and insulted uh Italy. Uh I I I would say he
insulted the UK under Starmer, but Starmer himself is just personally insulting and revuls repulsive. So I'll
give I'll give Trump a pass on that. Um but uh you know he promised that uh Ukraine they're going to give Ukraine the let them build the Patriot missile.
[laughter]
Yeah. We we've got like you know what was the number I read? 40 maybe it was 20 but 40 different subcontractors each
have a piece of that action of putting together the Patriot missile and which is why it takes an actually from start
to finish about two years per missile to get one built. uh not to mention the reliance on uh rare earth minerals pro
that China is no longer providing or has put a put a restriction on w with respect to um exports to the United
States and for use in uh military equipment. So, you know, they um they
really didn't agree to any course of action uh other than Europe continues to double down on its desire to go to war
with Russia. And you know, Russia has, you know, I think we've seen some a decisive shift at least in the language
in the last week that Ditra Pesco twice has basically said uh the the special
military operation is over. We're now at war.
and that Russia is approaching this I think going to be approaching this entire endeavor in a much more different
way that uh while they're they continue to say we remain open to negotiations but uh they're not hearing any kind of
consiliatory tone coming out of anyone in Europe.
Yeah. In your thoughts too, Ray, about the NATO summit in general, uh what do you what did you make of it? No, I agree
with Larry and uh you know in the old crumblinologist tradition, you look at what they said
last year. Uh particularly what did they say about article five of the NATO
treaty which is you know one is attacked the other ones are supposed to come to to their aid. Uh well they said exactly
the same thing this year as last year after Trump said we're out of here. We're not we're not buying any missiles.
We're not going to sell you any missiles, Ukraine. We'll sell them to the Europeans at a little markup and they can give them so they don't have
any money to buy the missile. Actually, we don't have any extra missiles in our inventory, so we can't Well, but but
later, you know, it's really sort of a a comic show, but there were some interesting things over the last couple
of week. Larry is right about the pressure that Putin is under now with respect to getting this damn thing over
in Ukraine. And there were two manifestations of this. Actually, Larry mentioned Peskoff, the presidential
spokesman. Uh, Pasco was talking about whether article 5 might, this was in a
an interview with a Swiss uh outlet, whether article 5 applies or not. And he sort of dismissed, nobody's going to apply article 5 anymore.
What?
Okay. Then there's this other thing where um Margarita Simuan, the head of RT,
who has been head of RT for 21 years now by Putin for her reporting in the
Chetchia uh uprising and so forth. She's no dumb.
She's she's pretty smart. She speaks English. She spent a year in high school in New Hampshire, I think it was.
Anyhow, she's asked about, "Well, you're saying that uh maybe the president should more forcefully reply to these
drone attacks and so forth. When do you think it should reply?" And she says, "Shut up.
Yesterday." [laughter] Okay. So these are these are PR messages
that show that even Putin's closest advisors are saying hey Vladimir for God's sake you should have replied
yesterday and you know the NATO treaty forgot about it we don't have to worry about it my my take on this really is
that Putin has a lot of hards that cards that he hasn't played okay Ukraine has no defense defense against air attack.
My god, the patriots are all gone.
Zinski has complained. We have no patriots. When the Russians hit us two nights ago, they all got through. Why?
Because those damn Europeans are so stingy. They won't give us any of their patriots. And of course, the US doesn't have any to give because [laughter] so
here we go again strategy and and you know the necessary wherewithal to do it.
But more more important uh it seems to me that Puchin uh knows that in the
coming months he has the capability to wrap up the remaining uh the remaining points that strong points they have u in
in places like Constantinoka that has already been captured. Now the rasputs the the the drainy swampy season that starts the end of September usually.
Well, the Russians I think calculate got two good full months plus to wipe these
people out and to show people in Russia that look the battle on the ground is what's doing it. These long range
missile attacks, yeah, they cause us inconvenience but they have no effect on the war. as Puchin says, quote, "This is
the main point, period." End quote. The other thing I'd like to say is, uh,
Starlake, I was really impressed about 3 weeks ago when Russia Day happened and, uh, Putin
convened, oh, maybe about 20 non-commissioned officers of the infantry, right? The infantry wins the
war. That's what as an infantry intelligence officer was in Gre anyhow that they were really being honored and
then Putin says in the defense minister so what what's what what do you need and what's you got any problems let me hear
him well they were all you know ra straight until Belvich the defense minister says now come on
let's go so after about the third person did speak out Look, we're defenseless against the Starly guided stuff.
It's impeded our advance. Can Can that be fixed? And um Bhin says this is all on camera.
Of course, don't tell anybody. But yes, it can. We got our own system.
Almost ready to be deployed. Please just be a little bit more patient. And then he turns to Bella Uso and he says, "You
see this guy? This is a guy I appointed defenseman precisely because he knows how to get this stuff done, right? He
spent his career in military industrial stuff. Are you going to do that?" Yes, sir. Commanderin-chief. So, so yeah,
it's a real problem these drones on the battlefield as well as these long range uh penetrations. But the Russian there
is good evidence now that the Russians have begun to deploy this anti-torlink thing and to be able to jam Starlink
itself. So, uh, from my point of view, Putin being a very cautious person is
going to bomb the hell out of military-industrial sites and everything he can in Ukraine, trying, as the
Russians have done to spare civilian collateral damage. But taking that into account before he goes goes off
halfcocked and hitting places in a NATO country uh well why should he be I mean
Pascoff himself said informally article 5 doesn't matter. Well yeah Peskov can talk like that Putin not. So
all I'm saying here is that Putin doesn't want to be faced with a situation where even though uh his advisers tell
him that there's 5% 10% chance that anyone will invoke the article 5 of the NATO treaty he tells them why would I do
that 5% 10% that's too high I don't need to do that just be a little bit more
patient now I may be wrong on that but that's my forecast uh and I acknowledge that he is under increasing pressure. My
uh response to that is he's got ways to diffuse that pressure and we'll know more when the elections for the Duma
happen at the end of September. It's not too far away. Uh we'll know before and after how much those elections have any effect on all this. Uh and I don't know.
We'll have to see what what comes out of those.
[clears throat]
Yeah. Well, uh, Larry, I know you got about four minutes, uh, uh, to go and maybe I want to leave you both with a
big question. I saw this Sam Hussein who's a very respected uh journalist and has definitely done some uh really good things. But he wrote this that people
have been commenting on talking about the possibility of the American Empire exercising strategic patience right now
when it comes to Iran saying that the empire's long-term goals have compelled Hamas to relation control of Gaza, kill
NASA, oust Maduro and Assad. Uh but several bigname critics of US government policy jabber are endlessly on podcasts
about how the US establishment is losing. I want to give uh you both uh time to answer this. Larry, you first
since you do have a hard deadline. Um just to understand uh how would you respond to this conclusion? So he's he's
saying that the actually the United States is winning that this is all turn going in US more like exercising strategic patience
meaning uh uh uh adapting and maneuvering uh these conflicts that uh
of course this show has made quite quite clear that uh I we don't believe I don't believe they're going well but
nonetheless uh so let me see let me see if I got this straight [clears throat] in the in the deft movements of the US
policy establishment. Uh they have managed to get themselves now forced to abandon the US naval headquarters in
Bahrain because it's no longer safe to stay there. Uh they've had to abandon uh the the air operation center, the
combined air operations center that was at Aluded, which basically controlled all air traffic, monitored all movements
from north to south. They've they've maneuvered themselves into a situation where Iran has blown up, you know, $3
billion worth of irreplaceable radar and satellite systems. Um, that the United States is now basically
unable to keep any kind of uh full-time presence in any of of the Gulf countries
for fear of that they'll be attacked and destroyed. And that was their strategy. Brilliant.
Brilliant. God, I couldn't have come up with something better myself. I I mean really this uh the the
what was the what was the journalist name that wrote that? Oh, is Sam Husini.
Sam Husini. Uh he ought he ought to consider another profession, fantasy writing for Hollywood. Uh something like that because that's just ridiculous. You
know, the what we've seen is the these the events of the last 13 months both uh with respect to what happened in the Red
Sea and now what's happened with Iran is the the limits of US military power have been completely exposed and that the
United States military while the most expensive in the world has turned out to be one of the least capable in the world.
Right. All right. Well, Larry, I know you have to go soon, so you can certainly log off whenever you want.
I want to thank Larry for all his hard work here. Uh, Larry, I learned a lot from watching what you say and what you
do. I wish you God speed and I hope you get through your next three interviews today.
Well, [laughter] at least I'll have you there along to help me, you know. Thank God. We'll have we'll have somebody with some wisdom, knowledge, and experience. [laughter]
That's right. The next tour would be to with the both of us, right?
Yes. So, all right. See, I'll see you in an hour. Thanks, Danny. All right. See you. Bye.
All right, Ray. Yeah. Same to you. I wanted to uh uh give you a chance to answer this um because I found it
interesting, especially given what's been happening with Iran, but also, you know, they bring up uh the author brings up other examples as well for maybe a
fuller picture, but um I'm curious on your thoughts about it.
Well, uh, Sam Husini is a friend of mine. I think he was sort of commenting in a snide kind of way on somebody
else's, uh, predictions. Uh, the fact is, and it's very troublesome fact to
for me, uh, that NATO leaders and the the media, the mainstream media in all
western capitals are saying that Russia is losing and that Ukraine is winning.
Now, one can be very jaundice and say, well, that's just because they want to make sure that more money is given to Zilinski. And that no doubt is part of
it, but they have to know with the fall of Constantin especially
uh that the battle has been joined and won by the Russians. Uh Putin has the option of going faster if he wants to.
He doesn't really need to. Uh but but it's clear that Russia is winning. Now
the propaganda such as it has been during the Ukraine war uh has been
really unsettling because look at look at December 2022.
The head of national intelligence, what was her name again? Uh I'll it'll come to me. Averil Haynes publicly.
The Russians have lost.
They've left so much weaponry on the battlefield and they have no
indigenous capability to produce to produce the weapons that they've left on the battlefield. So, we're in terrific shape. So, that's what she tells Biden.
That's what she tells the press. My god, where is she getting that? And then just several months later, um Biden is in I
think he was in Helsinki and he asks Bill Burns, the head of CIA, give me a briefing. What what do I say about you
about Ukraine? And so Bill said, I know what I'll do. I'll go visit Kief. And he talks to Zalinski. And Zalinski says,
"No problem. Now, you told the president, "We got it made. Russia has already lost." Now, this is the head of the CIA, right?
10 days later, he goes up to Helsinki and he says, "Mr. President, I just heard from the UK from the Ukrainians
that Russia's already lost. I mean, no problem." So, so Biden gets up and says, "Russia's already lost. No problem."
Okay. So, this is three years, four years ago. Okay. Um, that's the kind of stuff that gets
around and into the Washington Post and into the New York Times. It is still doing that. Now, if I'm a Russian, and
[clears throat]
that was my profession, putting myself in the shoes of the Russian leader. I said, "My god, why are they doing this?
They must know. They they have satellite pictures galore. They know the losses.
My god, why are they doing this? And the answer is, we don't know.
And the answer that I give is beats the hell out of me.
So when the Russians face an unanswered question like that that has really crucial dimensions to it, that makes
them very uneasy. Why what are they preparing the people for when we do win in Ukraine? And it's a big surprise. And
all of a sudden they say, "Oh my god, look at they pulled a rabbit out of a hat. What do we do now?" I just don't know. All I'm saying here, they'll stop
now. Is that if the Russians don't know what this means, I don't know what it means either. Um that it's a real [sighs] It's a real paradox.
It's a real conundrum uh that can only lead to more and more insecurity and a quicker response to anything they see that's going on. And we have that story.
I don't know if it's true or not. Larry was one of the first ones to come up with it. But there is the story that
Trump when he was talking about Ukraine or was it uh I guess it was Iran. Yeah.
Was it Iran? Well, he he started talking about what about nukes and uh allegedly he was shut down. Now, we're
not at that point yet, but so and he left the room. Well, I
I don't know. How are you going to say whether what Trump may have said is true or not? I have if I'm a Russian, I have
to give that story the benefit of the doubt. So look, in my view, this is
significant only in so far as Putin realizes he's got to keep treat this guy with kid gloves. He's got to he's got to
praise uh for example, in his latest conversation with with Trump, which
Trump initiated, by the way, hour and a half, right? Uh the readout says that uh
Trump really congratulated um the president on the Fourth of July festivities which were held in a way
that only uh this particular president could possibly arrange them and they regularly in such
readout indicate that Putin thanks the wife of the president for all the good work she's got done in resettling things
and and that you know it's So, it's a mi a mixture of um oozing charm at every
pore like the my lady story uh and then putting teeth in it saying look uh
army infantry in Iran. That is completely unacceptable.
Complete. It just means completely unacceptable.
Beijing Beijing two days later says exactly the same thing. So if there's a
invasion with ground troops, I mean if the head of Sentcom is so
such a sick fan that he would bless that kind of thing and sacrifice all these troops, uh then the Russians and the Chinese are going to react in a in more
forceful way and Iran will will be able to show that they're not in this alone that they have powerful protectors uh
elsewhere in the global south and elsewhere in the world. So, uh it's a really difficult time. But I think the
good news, and I will say it right out loud, we are lucky as hell to have somebody so cautious, perspeicacious,
and unwilling to be provoked as Vladimir Vladimir Puchi.
Yeah, well said uh Rey and I I just wanted to in s or less uh in response to Sam Husseini who I also resp
I don't know him at all but I respect all he's done. I respect especially when he stands up to uh the uh you know the so-called press spokespeople etc.
Uh Sam Husini. Sam Husini.
Oh Sam. Yeah. Oh Right. Right. Right. Um but in terms of his point about strategic patience exercised by the empire, I just I mean I
just don't see it. A lot of those developments he cited uh could have a much more fuller picture to them. I
think even the idea that Hamas is relinquishing control of Gaza, there's a lot of fine details in there that uh
will and necessitate actually Hamas and the resistance having a lot of participation in whatever happens in
Gaza from here on out. Uh the NASA killing while horrible and should be seen as a setback. uh uh Hezbollah has
fought incredibly uh effectively and has shown a level of strength that I don't think anybody had believed they had
before uh the March 2026 restart of the resistance there and then Maduro as much
as it pains me what's happening with Deli even meeting with Israeli um you know the Israeli mission and all of this
that has been circulating in recent days I think that there's a lot to be said about how that situation inside of Venezuela will be determined by the
broader Bolivarian movement at the end of the day. And they've gone through some horrific setbacks uh like for example a natural disaster for the of
the earthquake and of course the continued sanctions that of course uh make it uh difficult and had made the
Maduro capture and that war crime possible. But at the end of the day, I think the people there are going to be the final say and and of Assad, you
know, that was a setback. We made the comments about Golani being the head of state. It's it's horrible. But at the end of the day, the axis of resistance
is now stronger than it was uh since the start of the Iran war. That's quite clear from just the objective situation
seeing how the United States and Israel are ultimately um you know having so much difficulty achieving this greater
Israel project and of course uh keeping US age intact in the region. So setbacks always those will happen but at the same
time I think the picture is a lot more full than uh that and uh but I do think it's an important point to debate and
discuss because uh ultimately we do also have to draw conclusions from developments not just report them. But
uh Ry any final words before we uh head out of here? Well, in the same spirit here, um
Iran has threatened uh to attack Israel in a major way if Israel or the United
States attacks infrastructure is the way they put it. Critical infrastructure in Iran, I imagine oil facilities and and
other things like that. Now, uh, what bothers me on this score is that the
Iranians have the capability to obliterate, pardon the term, Israel.
What will Israel do in those circumstances? I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating.
inextremists.
Do you think a guy like Netanyahu and his co-conspirators would shy away?
They don't shy away from genocide or force starvation or assassinations of
any leader they can kill. Do you think they would shy away from using their nuclear weapons? I do not. And that's
why we have to really treat this whole crisis really, really gingerly. and circumspectly and all the more so since
we have a person who is so mercurial and actually not well at the helm in this country
and with that said that's a good uh place to close thanks so much Annette for becoming a member Farzan for the super sticker and chili pepper for the
super chat and other US oil problem the lion share of the crude is trapped underground due to equipment failure uh thanks for your participation and for
your support. Everybody, make sure you hit the like button before we go. We're going to head out together. Uh, all the plays support this channel are in the video description below. I'll be back tomorrow with Mark Sloota, 1 p.m.
Eastern time, July 11th. And until next time, Ray, any final words for the audience?
Uh, just keep listening and keep watching and keep spreading the word because that's the only thing that's going to do it. I've devoted my the rest
of my life to spreading some truth around. You're doing a far better job than I am, Danny. Let us all join and do
that because I I' I've kind of got to have a basic faith in the American people if they know what's going on.
That's a major major challenge right now.
Yeah, it is. It is. Well, uh those are very uh great those are very wise words to end with. Everyone hit the like button. that will help uh more people see this.