Red Flags (report back from Iran) - The Grayzone live

0:02Hey, what's up everybody?

0:04Welcome back to the Gray Zone. It's been a minute. I was overseas in Iran and now I'm back in studio after uh warm welcome by the federal authorities spurred by Israeli assets.

0:19Uh we'll talk about that whole scenario and do a report back from Iran as the country returns to a US-imposed war in a minute.

0:33Um but before we do that, and let me just get my notes up here or something.

0:44Here they are.

0:48So, before we get into the Iran the discussion of my trip to Iran, the war, um and the uh looming regional war which will engulf Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and possibly even the United States and Europe, uh which is the four scenario that I foresee and that many Iranian analysts who are extremely well connected in Tehran, who I spoke to, foresee, uh and where we'll be joined by my colleague Wyatt Reed, uh I wanted to address uh an issue that's definitely related. Uh that's uh that's that's closer to home, here in the Washington area, uh on Capitol Hill.

1:35Senate Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen, are actually trying to block a bill that would effectively merge the US military with the Israeli military.

1:47An a military which has been found by the International Court of Justice and uh effectively by the ICC of uh serious war crimes and genocide in the Gaza Strip.

2:01It would It would allow Israel to infiltrate US weapon systems as well as quantum computing and uh to put it as succinctly as possible, it would establish a framework for integrating Israeli developed technologies into US manufacturing, the whole acquisition process.

2:25Uh it would be impossible to disentangle the two militaries if this bill passed.

2:31Sections 224 of the NDAA.

2:35Um and this would apply across all areas of military, autonomous systems, AI, cyber, uh biotech, missile defense, uh at the whole defense industrial base would be infiltrated and merged with Israel's. It to me, in my opinion, amounts It it is it it establishes the framework for a military coup.

3:03And those who vote for this are committing an act of treason.

3:07And so I wanted to highlight this bill, which is not getting sufficient attention.

3:12Uh and I thought the most appropriate person to discuss this, the most articulate person to discuss this, would be my good friend, former US representative and uh presidential candidate, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Dennis, welcome to the Gray Zone.

3:32>> Uh and welcome home. Um >> Thank you.

3:36>> Uh it's uh good to be with you, and you have uh touched on some of the concerns about this uh planned merger.

3:45The language of the bill, uh which is now section 219 because some some other >> Right.

3:51>> uh um matters that were in the original bill or if you have Genesis in section 219 now uh creates uh this integration which is a merger because it eliminates duplications. Think about [laughter] this. You know, a classic corporate merger uh eliminates duplications and integrates functions and would make a profit. In this case uh it's Israel that stands to profit from being able to have direct influence over what will unfortunately become uh a $1.5 trillion annual uh annual budget in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027 which is before Congress right now.

4:36So, this uh as you point out hasn't received a lot of attention although tonight I understand the Senate made an attempt to uh uh bring closure uh to the uh to the NDAA and that they failed to do that. So, they're still fighting the Senate and the House as to whether the bill the either version of the bill is going to get to the floor of either uh of the uh House of Congress.

5:05But what they're trying to do is is a is a merger that actually uh sets the stage for forever wars.

5:15And we are we know and you probably know better than most people the extent to which the cooperation has already uh been uh very involved very toxic and murderous.

5:27Uh but we're talking about a merger that merges our most sensitive areas. The uh forever wars include the wars of the future which are going to be more high-tech.

5:38Uh you put Israel and the US together in in high-tech uh increasingly high-tech wars with genocide as a uh as one of the outputs.

5:50Uh, you know, there's serious legal exposure for US officials because what we have is a, a direct involvement in genocide, a direct involvement in ethnic cleansing, a direct involvement in theft of land.

6:04Uh, and you know, there hasn't been any public review of this. There's no separate public debates. There's been no hearings. They've just pushed this thing through uh, as a, as a means of uh, uh, of trying to create this joinder, which by the way, the primary author of it was Benjamin Netanyahu.

6:28>> Really?

6:29Well, via Tom Cotton, who's one of the biggest tools of the Israel lobby. And I hear your dog protesting uh, saying >> that's [laughter] this is the dogs, the dogs of peace here. Uh, >> [laughter] >> What what what do I say? I'm sorry.

6:50Give me 1 second.

6:51>> Let the dogs in.

6:52>> Yeah, well, that's true.

6:54They asked who let the dogs out this time.

7:00>> Well, as we uh, talk with Dennis Kucinich about section 219, he is taking his dogs out and re-situating himself.

7:10And Dennis was, I think, just on Tucker to discuss this.

7:14And has uh, published a a great piece outlining the dangers of this bill at ScheerPost at Bob Scheer's site.

7:24And uh, I think Dennis is back. So, yeah, as you were saying, basically Benjamin Netanyahu wrote this bill.

7:32I mean, the timing of the bill could not be more telling. It's at a time when US-Israeli relations are shifting cuz the American public is essentially done with Israel.

7:43There's only one constituency left that still supports Israel. It's the over 50 crowd of Fox boomers in the Republican Party. Everyone else is turning away.

7:53So, what this would do is actually um you could argue more effective for consolidating the so-called special relationship than uh close to $400 billion of aid given by the US to Israel since 1948. Is that really what this is about? Is preventing the US from ever disentangling itself from this passionate attachment to Israel?

8:22>> Absolutely. You know, what this does is it um uh from a practical standpoint, this this enables Israel to replenish it weapon its weapons under US cover, okay? [laughter] And it lowers its operating cost for a long war.

8:40Now, you pointed out in the introduction the [clears throat] um uh how the how the regional war is mo- it's moving more and more into regional war. Well, if we look at some of the statements by Israeli officials recently, you see that they're even starting to size up Turkey.

8:59Uh they have conflicts over the over the land in uh Syria.

9:04Uh each has their own designs on part of it. Uh even, you know, there's been a cold peace, if you want to call it that, between Israel and Egypt. And the Sinai Peninsula is something that's always uh at uh in question here as far as uh Egypt's concerned. I or Israel's concerned. So, I think that we that this proposal actually is a uh is a schematic for escalation. We're going to have more wars. If if this thing goes through, it is guaranteed that the that the war in Iran will continue because this is something that Netanyahu and his group sees as instrumental in their election just to keep it going.

9:45And I think that we're we're going to uh probably be looking at not just a continuation of war in Iran, but of certainly escalations in uh Lebanon, uh more uh ethnic cleansing, more uh involvement with the um settlers and and the idea of this thing this thing is opens the door on what already has been a nightmare. And and and and and causes a clashing of bloody hands there that will be forever a stain on America.

10:17And frankly, it's a question uh Max of our sovereignty. I think we're look I think this is a blow to American sovereignty. And and one final point I want to make, you know, the people on the right who might be in favor of this, well, don't forget for a moment that Israel has been successful in moving our technology to China.

10:38>> Yeah.

10:39>> So so what are we talking about here?

10:41You know, forget the USS Liberty, forget what happened at the uh embassy in Lebanon with the soldiers that were killed. And Israel Israel had advanced notice and on and on and on and and these are this is who we want for a partner? We shouldn't have any partners. This is we our sovereignty depends on on having permanent interest, but not necessarily permanent friends.

11:08>> And so Israel is one of the most repressive countries on the planet. It presides over a population of occupied people who comprise a majority between the river and the sea.

11:22And it is testing it its weapons on that population and then exporting them, declaring them field tested. That includes its surveillance tech. Israel's Unit 8200 has strongly infiltrated Silicon Valley with hundreds and hundreds of Unit 8200 veterans. It's even infiltrated the US media through the figure of Barak Ravid at Axios.

11:46Uh the infiltration is so deep, but this would set this would take infiltration, Israeli penetration to a new standard. And the question is, under an administration like the Trump administration, which is targeting the left and its political enemies with unprecedented persecution, would this allow uh the US government to use that Israeli surveillance tech, death tech, against domestic political uh perceived enemies?

12:18>> I I think it opens up the door for that.

12:21Because we're not just integrating uh offensive capacities there. Uh we're we're importing values.

12:28>> Yeah.

12:28>> And when you look at at the fact that I that uh some of the ICE authorities uh were trained by the IDF. And And actually, there's been um local police who have gone to Israel for for training.

12:45>> Yeah.

12:46>> And if we if we start to if we start to merge these technologies, let's take for example um drones, okay?

12:54Uh the the drones could become involved in domestic policing, armed drones.

13:02Uh you know, we already see ICE becoming a murderous force on American streets.

13:09And if you start to move towards drone policing, because the drones are ubiquitous in in Gaza and the West Bank, and and they're becoming so in Lebanon.

13:21What Who says that's if these are our partners, that won't happen here?

13:27We we lose control over some basic principles and basic and constitutional rights. And then constitutional principles here, Max, are are not just, you know, the individual articles that we know about, but you know, there's a there's some specifics about the role of a commander-in-chief being able to have jurisdiction over the armed services in times of war, but those members of the armed service taking oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

13:57Israel doesn't even have a constitution.

13:59They have basic laws. They're going to not going to defend the interests of the United States of America. This is really a an effort to smuggle in interests that would usurp uh the American way of life. I mean, we we have our problems here, to be sure. And I don't like our policies in the Middle East. I've I've spent a career in Congress challenging them almost on a daily basis.

14:25However, this proposal in section 219 puts the US and the and and and the Israeli government together in a common offensive effort. It promotes weapons endurance, uh in in intelligence depth, uh increases AI targeting capacity.

14:47US provides cover for Israel in what they do. There's diplomatic deterrence there.

14:52Uh and US isn't You used the word earlier, entangled with Israeli policy. Their enemies become our enemies even more so, and America becomes more of a target.

15:03>> Yeah.

15:03>> There is nothing about this that that is right. If you you know, I don't know if you remember, I mean, when I was growing up, you know, you're a little bit younger, I was looking at you'd look at a comic book and it would have a cartoon that said, "Find Find 10 things wrong with this picture."

15:22You could find a things, a thousand things wrong with this picture.

15:25>> Yeah. Yeah.

15:27Yeah. Well, one one one other thing would be usurping congressional authority on war powers.

15:33>> Uh totally.

15:35Uh because right now the the the Congress by focusing on war powers, the War Powers Act alone, has not been successful. Let's face it. You want to stop a war, cut off funding, period. That's the way you stop wars.

15:52Supreme Court, you know, basically has understands that in some of their decisions.

15:59Uh I've sued three different presidents over war powers issues.

16:03And the bottom line is cut off the funds.

16:07If Israel is is inside the government and it's, you know, Israel becomes a partner in uh in the United States uh Department of War now.

16:18We'll never see the end of war and Congress will not even have any ability to be able to retrieve the policies cuz they will have once once this passes the idea of oversight becomes archaic.

16:33Because everything everything about this is opaque, okay? DARPA, opaque, right?

16:39Cyber warfare, opaque.

16:42Uh the uh intelligence opaque.

16:46Strategic uh uh development opaque. So, this is strategic entrapment more than anything.

16:52>> Right.

16:54Right. And the the it it makes it virtually impossible for the uh from for Congress or the American citizen to even know what the military is doing. There's also a another section on intelligence integration where the US is mandated to share unprecedented levels of intelligence with a country Israel which is spying on the US at an unprecedented rate.

17:27That's according to senior US officials in the Trump administration who say that Israel is targeting the Trump administration uh because of its fear that it will pull out of the Iran war. Uh that spying is at critical levels and this building that essentially we just hand over uh national security data.

17:47>> Well, then they won't have to steal it, right? You just give it away. Uh I mean, what a what a way what a way to cure uh uh spy uh spying and kleptomania. So, you know, I I think I mean, that's not what we ought to be advocating, but if you go deeper into the human into human rights issues, into morals, into ethics.

18:08I know those are are are ideas that seem to be part of a long ago.

18:15But, the fact of the matter is the United States must begin to take care of the um of the violations of law, the the the uh open um genocide and and and you know, the attitude that they don't even care about it anymore, the IDF and the Israeli government and unfortunately a lot of the Is- Israeli public supports it.

18:42That you cannot be killing people throughout the Middle East region without that actually coming home. It it will come home to America. This idea that that's there and that's over there and this is here. Oh, no. No, it will affect the lives of if each and every person in the United States ultimately.

19:01And that's uh you know, that's still another reason why uh and and no, you know, why we need to stop it and why we need to raise some serious questions is how did this thing get so far without even an open public debate? Just sticking it in a bill, smuggling it into a building, and then you know, everything's okay, and Netanyahu is on Meet the Press the other day extolling the virtues of this bill and how it's just going to be great for Israel and great for the United States.

19:34>> Wow.

19:35>> But he essentially acknowledged that it's unpopular, but it has to be rammed down the throats of the American public just for the greater good. Um they don't know what they're what they're missing out on by integrating with this genocidal military that's in a permanent state of war that's waging an eight-front war, and the eight-front is the United States, according to Netanyahu's own words.

19:56Uh we have to be propagandized or criminalized and censored into submission. So, where where does the bill stand uh with um with DeSantis and Van Holland working towards cloture?

20:10>> Yeah, it's tethered right now. It's tethered to um in the Senate to vote on cloture, and in the in the House a rule that needs to pass without the Save America Act appended appended to it. Uh the reason why it went down on the last vote there hasn't really been there has not been a vote alone on Section 219.

20:33Uh the administration and congressional leaders have made sure of that. They don't want that. They don't want to put people on Front Street and force them to vote on something that could be interpreted as a let's say a treasonous act against the United States of America. So, they want to fold it into the bill, and in both the House and the Senate they're they're not there yet.

20:53You know, and it's not and it's not sure. We're not sure.

20:58They may not get there at all. You know, this may be kicked this may be kicked past recess, and as you know, Max, as it get closer to an election, uh politicians become ever more risk-averse and it's not just on this issue, but a lot of issues we don't even know about that people will say, "Well, I don't know. You know, let's wait till after these elections." That's where the push is coming right now. And I think the public, anybody out there who has a concern about this, and everyone should be concerned about it because it takes away our sovereignty and our ability to make decisions on what's best for

21:30America, not any other country.

21:33Call your member of Congress, your senator, and just say, "Look, vote against the NDAA. Vote against the entire thing if it includes this provision cuz this provision undermines our country." And there's plenty of reason, by the way, Max, to vote against the NDAA in and of itself. $1.5 trillion annually, a 66 and 2/3% increase over the 2006 bill, and 80% now of our domestic spending goes for war. So, we're becoming an armed camp, and we're going to have a partner who specializes in genocide. Wow, what a what a deal for Americans on our 250th anniversary as a republic. Wow. No, I we can't let this happen.

22:17And and we we There needs to be a pushback all over this country. People need to understand the nation's at risk here, and this isn't hyperbole. This is a fact. It's not that the sky is falling. It's getting closer to us.

22:33>> Couldn't have put it better.

22:35Get on the phone.

22:36Do what you can to put pressure on your legislator.

22:41We might head up to Capitol Hill tomorrow to ask some questions, and maybe we'll pass by Lindsey Graham's house. I don't know what's going on there. What I do know is they're not they're not going to be as many mourners as I saw in Tehran for their leader.

22:57I wanted to ask you just quickly one or two politic uh about the um um about the political future we face here since, you know, you were a presidential candidate, a mayor, you were in the House of Representatives, uh and you were in the Democratic Party and you were one of probably the last Democrats that I would ever potentially get behind. Uh what do you think of Ro Khanna and even Rahm Emanuel, who lost part of his finger in a kitchen incident in Israel while he was volunteering with the Israeli military, uh taking a much harder line against Israel uh and pushing uh you know, some sort of reorientation of

23:43the US-Israeli relationship. Does this spell an actual change of policy within the Democratic Party or they're simply um trying to uh paper over the contradiction between a Democratic Party base, a constituency that wants real sanctions on Israel, that wants a real arms embargo, and a leadership that is in thrall to the uh donor class, including AIPAC?

24:09>> Well, you know, let's There's two different people you mentioned and I I >> Yeah, they're definitely different, but >> I served with Rahm Emanuel.

24:18>> Yeah.

24:18>> I I think I understand him very well.

24:21>> Yeah.

24:21>> He is one of the most skillful politicians uh that that I've ever met. He really is slick, but that's not necessarily a compliment.

24:32Um what I'm saying is that he he can read the room better than most people. He was very successful in helping guide Clinton and others along the way.

24:44Uh he he's got a uh he's got an instinct for politics. So, he sees which way it's going, but you know, there is this question of where he's been and that he would have to defend uh his previous positions uh and you know, I think that he would find it a little bit difficult the way the Democratic Party is moving as of late.

25:07Uh Ro Khanna is is newer to this uh and he's you know, he's being challenged right now uh from the left on the question of you know, is this just a form of liberal Zionism? But I think I think it's important that he has teamed up with Tom Massie uh because he has given the uh uh uh the gloss of a bipartisan effort to Tom Massie's effort. Massie is is one of the most unique politicians who has come by in a in you know, maybe in this generation because he is not you know, he's unbodied, unbossed and he has frontally challenged these very interests that we're talking about here.

25:53So, you know, where do I think all this is going?

25:55Look, um you know, Rahm Emanuel has the connections and the understanding to be a serious candidate. I don't know however, that given uh his uh his history how far he's going to be able to go.

26:13>> Yeah.

26:14And what do you make of plans for or uh this I I don't even know if I can call it plans, but discussions by Tucker Carlson and others for a potential third party which will unite the parts of the Republican and Democratic constituencies who are sick of being cucked by Israel and merging the US military with Israel, uh who are opposed to the massive expansion of data centers, so many other policy uh you know, so many other viewpoints that transcend partisan lines can be advocated for within a third party.

26:57There is potential for bringing figures like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene and even Ro Khanna has kind of um shown some sympathy to this idea of putting that forward. And would you participate in uh any initiative like this in the 2028 election?

27:17>> Look, uh you know, you remember that it was just a couple years ago I I ran for Congress as an independent. I may have had a chance to get elected as a Democrat, but I think this two-party system needs to be challenged because it has become a duopoly and with interest groups buying both parties and uh and there really not being much of a difference between the two.

27:39So, I think that Tucker Carlson has ignited a national conversation uh that is long overdue and that he's done it with integrity. He has uh you know, I sometimes it's the question that saves the country. Sometimes people are just asking, "Why are we doing this?" starts to create the discussion.

28:04And he's been building that discussion.

28:07So, will there be another political party? I don't know, but look, uh what's happening from the left and the right, the people are seeing a unity of interest here on on on the US Constitution on on freedom of speech on uh right to be secure in our persons against unreasonable search and seizure.

28:31You know a little bit about that recently.

28:33Uh on on equal protection of the law.

28:36Uh and and so, I I think we're seeing uh people understanding that those things that we believe in with respect to America are under threat.

28:45And it's no longer about whether you're a Democrat or Republican is there's something higher here connected to the the mythology of America, the America we want to see unfold, we think could happen, but we can't do it from one partisan pose as opposed to the other.

29:00So, I think the the polarization that has characterized our politics over the last decade and so and more I I think we're starting to see a a knitting together of certain interests that go across party lines that could result in an independent movement, not necessarily a party.

29:17>> Yeah.

29:18>> develop in an independent independent movement uh whose exemplars could come from some of the names that you mentioned. And so, I I would say that keep your eye on that uh because you could see a very not only powerful challenges within the party but should those challenges fail to usurp the uh uh the entrenched party interest you could see going in and then going out.

29:43And 2028 could be a year that is could be one of the most volatile election years we've had since 1968 but in terms of party politics political machines could be more vulnerable than they were when Ross Perot made his entrance and made the economics of trade his uh his issue.

30:06>> Yeah.

30:07>> so so yeah, I mean, do I have hope that this that we can get through this? Yes.

30:12Uh but there is this thing about st- you know, stopping the escalation of these wars if we if this administration keeps dropping bombs in and around nuclear facilities in Iran and these aren't these aren't nuclear bomb facilities, they're nuclear power plants.

30:30>> Yeah.

30:31>> And you know, they dropped the one near Bushehr. If they keep doing this, they could ignite something that gets out of control very quickly. We are not guaranteed our lives here in this country uh from a distance if we visit if we continue to participate in the visiting of death and destruction through throughout the Middle East and the wider region. So, you know, and and our politics need to need to catch up and get away from this idea of that we can achieve peace through through war. You know, this is you know, we we need to have a policy of of strength through peace.

31:16Get away from this peace through strength and understand that America can no longer pretend that it is the the champion and and and and king of a unipolar world. That the multipolarity of this world has unfolded very powerfully. It's doing it economically.

31:33Our our economic situations are tenuous right now with the amount of our bonds losing their elasticity, people dumping US currency, the the yuan starting to become the basis of trade for energy. Hey, we ought to be worried about that because our whole way of life is is built on this expanding of an economy and it could implode if we keep pursuing these wars.

32:00>> I think that the impact of the wars is beginning to devastate the US economy and not just the Iran war, the closure or disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, but also the the endless Ukraine proxy war and its escalation by Trump is making the price of oil driving the price of oil through the roof. It's contributing to the high price of Brent crude right now. These drone attacks on Russian oil facilities, the oil shortage in Russia. The American public isn't being made aware that these neocon wars are affecting them at the pump affecting their own basic kitchen table concerns and I think that could be the role of an

32:40independent movement or a cross-partisan third party. I think the you know, what an independent movement needs to do is set certain benchmarks for candidates and tell people do not vote for them if they don't meet those benchmarks. That's why I told people Kamala Harris must lose because she supported the genocide. The message must be sent. If you support this, we will walk away. And that needs you know, we need to hold fast to those principles.

33:06So it's basically a movement based on certain principles that refuses to fall for the culture war manipulations that are always used to polarize and drive people to vote for these pro-war neoliberal corporatized con artist candidates.

33:21Uh that's what I would like to see and I would love to see you be a part of that. Um >> I I I intend to be and and I and you know, where I come from is to challenge this whole idea about the necessity of war. You know, war is not inevitable.

33:38Peace is inevitable. If you start to explore the science of human relations and seeing other people as our equals and seeing other people as you know, understanding that we're all interconnected. We're all interdependent. We're all connected.

33:50There's it's not about one world. It's about understanding that there are people like us all over the world.

33:57They're They have the same aspirations as we have for for our families, for our loved ones, for our friends, for solid communities, for housing, for education, for for the for our children being able to blossom. And when you see these children and families being devastated and being murdered en masse in the West Bank and Gaza and and in South Lebanon and beyond and Yemen, what are we about? I mean, we're we're we have ventured into into an epoch which which annihilates uh the the the very foundation of of laws which were which were about protecting humanity from these very things.

34:43You know, you go to Congress around the border of the House of Representatives.

34:46They have all these famous lawmakers, okay?

34:50You know, Moses, Hammurabi, on and on.

34:54>> [laughter] >> But here we're we're vitiating all of the moral principles that that that underpinned those laws. And if we don't have anything like that anymore then, you know, people start to justify mass murder on a scale that the world hasn't hasn't seen.

35:12And we think what couldn't happen. Oh, yes, it can. It's happening actually right now.

35:17You know, it's happening. Hundreds of thousands of of Palestinians have been murdered.

35:22And and it's hard I will tell you I don't know how it is for you. I could imagine.

35:27But just for me when I wake up every morning and day doesn't go by when I don't think of the fact that at that very moment somebody's being killed over in another country with with the resources that come from the United States of America. America must change its position in the world. And and and our and we need to try to become a benign influence influence not again but to become a benign influence and we're not there right now. And things like this attempted merger between the Israeli and the United States military would be a nail in the coffin of our freedom frankly and of our sovereignty and would put us in a direction that um

36:10it's like we're a remake of the movie Minority Report or something.

36:15>> Yes. Yes.

36:17As if it isn't already bad enough.

36:19Section two Section 219 is cancer.

36:23Prevent the cancer. That's that's the way I see it.

36:27And And when when it passes all the worst warnings that Dennis Kucinich issued tonight will come to pass and we will pay the consequence.

36:41So, do what you can to to prevent this from happening. Prevent the cancer from seeping in to the into the into the American body.

36:52Dennis Kucinich, former US representative, former US presidential candidate, maybe possible future US presidential candidate. I don't know, but certainly a real rare servant of the people and freedom fighter. Thank you for joining us at The Gray Zone.

37:10>> Thanks so much, Max Blumenthal.

37:13Thanks to everyone who cares about our country. Thank you.

37:17>> See you again soon.

37:21All right. Well, that's just the warm-up. We have so much more to cover and if I get around to it tomorrow maybe I and some colleagues will go up on Capitol Hill and ask questions about Section 219 of anyone who's wearing the congressional pin on their lapel.

37:42They They They tend to run away.

37:45There's been no debate on this. There hasn't been much of a discussion.

37:49You don't hear it discussed on Meet the Press.

37:53The The The media isn't exactly holding their feet to the fire, but this will consolidate Israeli control over the United States and the US military doesn't even I don't even know if the US military favors this.

38:09I don't even know if the Joint Chiefs favor this. Remember, it was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Kaine who was warning about the potential consequences of Trump going to war on Iran back in February. Trump did it anyway cuz he's taking instructions from Netanyahu who sat at the head of the table in the situation room in the White House last February along with his Mossad chief who was beamed in to tell Trump how it was going to be and he gave Trump the playbook.

38:37Trump followed it and now here we are.

38:43The Strait of Hormuz is closed.

38:46The price of Brent crude is above 85 a barrel and guess who's coming back to Washington this Wednesday, I think.

38:55Benjamin Netanyahu to give more instructions to his son Donald Trump.

39:05Uh that's what's being reported that Benjamin Netanyahu is coming back to Washington uh to issue instructions. This is like you know, this is the final This is like the final act in Benjamin Netanyahu's political life and he's got Trump by the short and curlies. So I I was in Iran for a for a week. It was a really momentous week. It felt like a month.

39:29I barely slept. There's a lot to talk about. I gained insights that I could not have by being here uh and was willing to face the potential for repression on my way back and that's what I received.

39:44Uh and someone who is also come back from the region is like colleague Wyatt Reed who's here with us.

39:53What's up, Wyatt?

39:54>> How's it going, Max? That was an incredible interview.

39:58>> Dennis never disappoints. He's one of the most uh charismatic figures I've seen in American politics and he doesn't really get his due like just seeing him as a public speaker.

40:09He doesn't need dual teleprompters like Obama.

40:12Um his and his charisma his charisma is um you know, completely natural and it comes from a place of righteous indignation.

40:23In the tradition of um you know, William Lloyd Garrison and uh Eugene Debs Abraham Lincoln MLK and the you know, the the the prophets of American politics which is which is why the media demonized and vilified him and branded him like a vanity candidate when he ran in 2004.

40:53Um but you know, it was a real honor to host him here at the Gray Zone and uh it's good to have you back in the US. I guess you you were coming in from Lebanon.

41:02How was your trip back?

41:04>> Uh exactly. I just got back in um earlier today.

41:08Um not as eventful of a homecoming as yours, but I was also subjected to about 2 hours delay, secondary screening. They wanted to question me.

41:23Um that's the first time that's happened to me.

41:26Um I uh I know it was obviously quite a bit worse for you, but just on the topic of of of Kucinich, I mean I'm just I'm blown away. You know, it's it's easy to forget that we at some point in the not so distant past actually had someone like that in Congress.

41:45Uh of course, today we have people like Massie or at least we do for the next few months.

41:50Um but you know, I just the the very unflinching um annunciation of just the basic principles of humanity is something that the golden rule, right? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He just it's something that is completely absent from our government, but you know, it was it was a timely reminder that that that that's not an impossible thing to ask and it's actually really the most basic thing that we should be asking from our from our ruling class.

42:26>> Yeah, during his presidential campaign, Kucinich actually proposed a Department of Peace, which would work towards real diplomacy, unlike the State Department, to prevent war.

42:38Now, we have a US Institute of Peace, which is actually a soft power appendage of the State Department, which under Democrats promotes color revolutions and infiltrates societies, funds opposition movements to wage coups. It's not an Institute of Peace.

42:54And then Trump basically took control of it and used as used it as a forum to host the launching of the Board of Peace, which is actually a Board of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in Gaza, as well as a Board of Corruption, where figures like Gianni Infantino of FIFA pay a billion dollars in order to curry favor with the United States, and then the US gets to reverse red card decisions during FIFA matches. Well, Infantino and FIFA actually participate directly in the Gaza Genocide by promoting phony normalization uh initiatives in areas that have already been ethnically cleansed.

43:37The the concept the whole concept of peace has been twisted in I hate to say Orwellian fashion cuz it's a little bit played out, but Dennis Kucinich is someone who represents a true tradition of peace.

43:52And you know, having a Department of Peace, it was it was sort of laughed at.

43:56And I think that's so revealing of the political class of the Beltway class that that laughed at it and mocked it because the the the consequences of war beginning to hit home. It's going to get a lot worse. If you're watching right now, go out and buy gas while you can, while it's still at the terrible level it's at, because it's going to the price is going to get worse.

44:19Cuz the neocon wars are escalating.

44:22Donald Trump is the second the third coming of Bush's second term on steroids.

44:31He's actually possibly worse for uh peace with Russia or an end to the Ukraine Russian proxy war than than Joe Biden would have been.

44:42And the Iran war has restarted uh couple hours ago. Iran's negotiating team led by Mohammad Gallibaf, the speaker of parliament, I believe announced that the MOU is over.

44:56It was It never began.

44:58Trump immediately violated eight points of the 14 points starting with constantly threatening to destroy Iran.

45:08It was always a scam, but now it's over.

45:11War has begun.

45:12And as I said before, I believe the war will engulf the region this time.

45:17>> Well, you've already seen Saudi Arabia and Yemen drawn into it, so it's already expanded beyond the scope of what it was the last several rounds.

45:29So, you know, who's to say exactly where it's going to end this time.

45:33>> Yeah, I was able to actually interview and meet with several members of the Ansar Allah Yemeni delegation in Tehran.

45:43A member of their delegation told me that they were Well, they were under blockade including by air. They flew to Tehran on Mahan Airlines, which is an Iranian airline. And as they boarded their plane, there were several drones overhead, attack drones.

46:00And they um had very good reason to be concerned that they were going to be either attacked on the ground or as the plane was taking off, and the Yemeni military scrambled three fighter jets to protect them. They flew out under those conditions, and they flew back in order to return, they broke the blockade.

46:24And now uh and and then Saudi Arabia proceeded to attack them, and they responded pretty strongly.

46:32Um you know, I asked them, "Under what conditions would you close the Bab al-Mandab?"

46:38And you know, "Are you prepared for the eventuality of war?" And the response, I mean, the res- I'll I'll ultimately publish these. I'm working through so many interviews.

46:47But the response was, "We've already closed the Bab al-Mandab at various points, so we're pre- we're prepared um to completely close it off."

46:55>> When it's closed to Israeli shipping completely, really.

46:58>> They closed it to Israeli shipping, but to all shipping would be a major card to lay on the table for the axis of resistance.

47:05Um you know, they told me the axis of resistance has been granted Each partner has been granted more flexibility than in the past to make their own decisions.

47:14And um yeah, that they're fully prepared for war with the Saudis, uh but you know, this this is only the but these wars are only to prevent uh a real track for peace, which starts with the you know, recognition of the government in Sana'a as a legitimate government, and that's something Saudi Arabia and the US refused to do.

47:38Uh but the response has been pretty hard. So, it looks like that's the next phase. Uh Iraq is uh moving towards conflict. The new Prime Minister is in town to meet Donald Trump. He has demanded that the PMFs the Popular Mobilization Forces give up their weapons by September, which kind of charts a timeline for possible war in Iraq. And US CENTCOM has announced resumption of the blockade on Iranian shipping.

48:11Uh this is US CENTCOM today at 4:00 p.m. resumed the naval blockade against vessel vessels transiting to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas. There are currently more than 20 US Navy warships and hundreds of US military aircraft operating across the Middle Middle East.

48:27So, the war is focused um heavily on the south, almost exclusively on the south. I was in Tehran. Tehran was basically normal while I was there.

48:38There was no bombing.

48:40Uh the bombing was a you know, around Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Sirik Island, Qeshm Island, and Kharg Island has just been attacked with seven projectiles hitting oil and water facilities. So, the US is attacking Iranian vital infrastructure, which means that Iran can and likely will attack the infrastructure of Gulf countries, especially the UAE and Bahrain. Iran has been attacking US bases in Jordan with uh more ferocity that I than I think we saw in the past, probably because they're either rebuilding bases or these are just new targets that have come online, but the US is focusing on the Strait of Hormuz, attacking radars,

49:26surveillance facilities, and trying to sort of dislodge Iran's control of the strait. Uh where do you see this going?

49:37>> Well, it's obviously a major escalation.

49:39The the attacks on Kharg Island are a huge red line for the Iranians. The Americans know exactly how the Iranians will respond. They're going to hit back hard at oil and energy infrastructure.

49:53Um yeah, who knows exactly where in the Gulf, uh but it's coming.

49:58Um and obviously, this is why they are so desperate to force these fake ceasefires and peace agreements uh in Lebanon, for example, that involve total disarmament, unilateral disarmament by resistance forces. The same thing in Iraq, they want to for these resistance forces to unilaterally disarm. I uh was attempting to organize um an interview with some of these uh PMF uh Hashd forces. Uh I never got a formal one, but I was able to speak with um you know, representatives on background, and they made it extremely clear that that's not going to happen.

50:37Uh the same way that Hezbollah won't lay down their arms uh because the threat >> just sorry to just interrupt, but uh just to tell our audience, you were just in Iraq in >> Yes, I was in Iraq >> Karbala.

50:52>> uh earlier this week uh while you were witnessing the funeral for Ayatollah Sayyid uh Ali Khamenei in Iran, I was in Iraq. Um so, this the world's largest funeral, obviously. Something like 40 million people came out to attend. Uh 10 million of those were in Iraq. Um 7 million of them were were in Karbala, which is this kind of basically the cradle of of Shia Islam, sort of the the the the the battle of Karbala is is in many ways uh the birthplace of of of of Shiaism. Uh it's it's one of the holiest places on Earth for them because that is where uh the Imam Hussein, the the prophet's grandson, was basically gave his life

51:42knowing that he would die, him and and 72 of his companions, and um and and gave themselves up uh, knowing that their message would resonate and today, you know, 1,300 uh, some years later, there are now 200 million Shia Muslims. And if, you know, it was hard to avoid the historical parallels with how, uh, how the US executed, assassinated Khomeini in cold blood. Um, people are angry. And, you know, you can speak probably to better to this about how how it was in Iran, but but people were angry and they they want um, revenge in many cases. And at the bare minimum, they want for this to never happen again to them and their

52:25people.

52:27>> Yeah.

52:28Uh, that was the key theme of my trip.

52:33Uh, or what I what I what I saw in Iran. The the the theme could be boiled down to one word, which is revenge.

52:44And we've seen the red flag of revenge go up before after Soleimani Qassem Soleimani's killing, for example.

52:51But Qassem Soleimani, while a beloved figure, a figure who many Iranians credit with saving their country from, uh, being swamped by ISIS fanatics or by the US, invaded by the US following the Iraq War.

53:11Uh, he was a military official.

53:16Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a cleric who was a guide and kind of kind of considered a father by tens of millions of Shia believers. He was someone who was I mean, his stature and significance can't be overstated. And to kill him on the opening day of a war in his office with his family.

53:43It initially it electrified the Shia masses, but this funeral brought the simmering rage of his killing back to the surface at a time when Iran was negotiating Um there's some, you know, crackling sounds. I don't know if you're doing something over there. Um at a time when Iran was in the middle of negotiations with his killers and basically made it clear that these negotiations would not be accepted by the revolutionary core of the Iranian public. The main constituency of the Islamic Republic was just not going to accept it. And everywhere I went, I heard people wanted to emphasize to me that they wanted hard revenge for this.

54:29They wanted to go well beyond where their government wants to go to get revenge for this.

54:35And and you know, it centers on Trump, but it goes well beyond Trump. It centers on Trump. I'll play one of the more um memorable calls for revenge that I recorded during a sort of spontaneous rally in Tajrish Square in Tehran.

54:56Uh this was just a one one of the women I met who'd been coming out to these rallies for over 120 nights throughout the war where Iranians just want to show their presence in the street, show that they're not intimidated, show that they support their military and their government as the US was attempting along with the Israel to destroy their society.

55:21>> Pay attention to this money.

55:24Okay? This is my bracelet. It's one of the million ladies bracelet and gold that they're going to pay.

55:32And this is the price for the person who will kill you. It's because you just not kill Mr. Soleimani. You kill her heart.

55:41You kill HER FATHER. YOU KILL HER IMAM, you know? You have to pay for that. This is blood for the blood. This is the price of the person who will give to the person who will kill you.

55:55>> And so that was she was basically saying they're collecting gold bracelets in order to basically put up a bounty for Trump. And it's just a popular initiative. And then here you can see one of the banners that was over a major bridge and roadway in Tehran.

56:16I don't know who put up the banner.

56:18Um this is was on the third day of the Khomeini funeral.

56:24And crowds were moving down Azadi Boulevard, which is the longest Boulevard in Tehran towards Azadi Square where the main ceremony would take place. Khomeini's coffin was there for only about an hour, I think possibly prevent stampedes and large crowds. But as soon as people saw this banner of Trump with a bullet whizzing towards his head, this is how they reacted.

56:57So Setareh what I interviewed Setareh Sadeghi, who's a academic who's [clears throat] we've interviewed here on the great on the gray zone many times at the University of Tehran about what all of this meant. And I think she put it into a much more complicated context.

57:17And explained that there's a whole debate about how to respond and what revenge really means. And that revenge does not necessarily mean targeting Trump or Netanyahu. And that in her opinion it would only mean that that would only mean like removing a figurehead for a system that would still be intact.

57:37Uh and I think her opinion reflects more of the the mainstream opinion, but there's just so much simmering anger that uh you know, when Masoud Pezeshkian the president came into the streets for the funeral, he was basically run out by crowds screaming at him over the negotiations.

57:56I you know, I I just heard so much anger about negotiating with the killers of so many Iranian leaders. I went to the Imamzadeh mosque that night after the funeral and the you know, I'd been there a a a year before um to see the grave of uh of Fakhrizadeh.

58:23Mohammad of of of Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear scientist who's considered sort of the Oppenheimer of Iran who was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun placed by the Mossad on a roadway in 2011, I believe, to assassinate him and there was uh you know, like a janitor washing his grave because people come to pour rosewater on it constantly and to pay homage to him, but the walls of this shrine were now adorned with the portraits of the commanders and politicians and leaders of Iran beyond Khamenei. They were all across the walls. This was not there before.

59:02Um just the whole pantheon of Iranian leadership had been assassinated and people felt uh stripped bare and they wanted to attain justice by returning the favor to Trump to Trump's inner circle, to his family, to the figures who conceived the policy policy of maximum pressure, Brian Hook, Mike Pompeo, those who were responsible for the killing of Soleimani, they're responsible for the killing of speaker of parliament Ali Larijani.

59:35>> Lindsey Graham.

59:37>> Lindsey Graham, for example, we'll talk about him later.

59:41And this this this wasn't it just was you just had to be there to understand it, to see how large the funeral was. By the time I got there, it was like the end of the day, the coffin was long gone, and people were just continuing to pour in.

59:58With >> In In Karbala we were supposed to the the coffin was supposed to enter the city at 4:00 p.m.

60:07>> Yeah.

60:08>> But because there were so many people packed into the streets, just layer and layer and row and row after row of people, it the funeral procession was only able to advance at about 1 mile per hour.

60:25>> Maximum.

60:26Yeah.

60:26>> So, the the coffin didn't arrive until about 2:00 in the morning.

60:31Um so, it was it was about took about 10 hours longer than it was supposed to just because so many people were there, and so many people wanted to come and and get as close as they could. Um and if not touch the coffin, then then just be near it uh and get a glimpse, you know, one last glimpse at uh the now departed leader.

60:53>> Let's play your uh report from Karbala just so people get a sense of what you saw uh as millions were mourning outside Iraq. This was the largest possibly the largest human gathering in history. I can't think of any larger gathering. It certainly was larger than any gatherings in the US, which tend to be like what? Woodstock 2?

61:15Lollapalooza?

61:17Burning Man?

61:18This was I mean, you can see alone in Karbala it was larger than those. Uh here's your report.

61:25>> This is the moment that millions of people have been waiting for, the arrival here in Karbala, Iraq, of the slain leader, Sayid Ali Khamenei, who is not just the leader of Iran, but a massively important spiritual leader for all Shia Muslims. Here in Karbala, in the year 680 AD, this was the site of the most famous battle in Shia history, the Battle of Karbala, in which the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was brutally murdered by a corrupt, tyrannical leader.

62:01A leader who lived a degenerate, opulent lifestyle, who forced those around him to submit to loyalty oaths, who crushed dissent with an iron fist.

62:12Now, nearly 1,400 years later, Sayid Ali Khamenei is arriving, having faced a very similar fate at the hands of another corrupt, brutal, tyrannical leader, who's known for crushing dissent, who lives in an opulent, degenerate lifestyle, who forces those around him to submit to loyalty oaths. They say that history does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes, and it is rhyming here tonight in Karbala.

62:45>> Intense. Uh yeah, I mean, it's like when you when you're when you're trying to do a stand-up in such a intense environment with so much sound, you can risk looking kind of crazy on camera.

62:56>> [laughter] >> Well, I just I was screaming because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to be heard. Uh it was just like this wall Once once the coffin came around the corner, it was like this wall of noise erupted around me, and I I just assumed that if I didn't yell, I wouldn't be able to be heard over the the roar of the crowd.

63:14>> Yeah, I was doing the same thing in Anglehaub Square, which is where Iranians, supporters of their of the Islamic Republic have been gathering night after night over 120 nights to chant and uh basically it it it it it it is kind of like uh it's kind of like I don't know what to compare it to.

63:36>> There is no compare we have no point of reference as >> There's no point of reference.

63:41It's like a revolutionary rave. I mean, and the chanting they have a new chant every night.

63:46The sound is so intense, but it's infectious. There's this music that you hear in southern Iraq and across Iran called dammam, which refers to this big drum and a crew it's aims to recreate the sounds of the Battle of Karbala. I actually got to sit in with a dammam troop in Tajrish Square.

64:05And they just crank this music over loudspeakers and chant over it.

64:09>> And and all of the, you know, the Shia guys are doing latmia and they, you know, they're they're chanting along with this kind of it's like religious techno. I don't know how to describe it really, but it's uh it's it's very overwhelming when you're around it, especially when it's that many people and it's it's just you know, there were there were six or seven different processions where it's, you know, each one has uh 20 20 massive amps. Um and you can hear it from miles away. Um and it just it fills every corner of the city with this, you know, this is a very spiritually significant um resounding

64:50sort of, you know, it was it was a wall of sound.

64:55In the mosalla on the first day, I entered uh just, you know, from a car with Professor Mohammad Marandi uh to a point where we could walk and we walked towards the Mosallah, the Grand Mosque, got in um you know, I got in with my press pass.

65:20And we walked in and you know, Morandi so soft-spoken and erudite and we're um focused on our conversation. We were talking about years and years of uh failed diplomacy or deliberately failed US diplomacy with Iran.

65:38Uh you know, the legacy of Khomeini, um you know, the Iran-Iraq war, so many issues.

65:44And then when I get into the on into the Grand Mosque, it's just just gigantic um patio and there's water spraying to keep people cool, which kind of creates a a rain almost mystical rainbow effect.

66:01There are red flags fluttering everywhere, people ascending stairs, going up and down, and tens of thousands of people uh chanting.

66:12There's um mournful singing reverberating.

66:17And there were some uh interviews and conversations that I had with, I would say, principalist politicians and figures on that end of the spectrum um where I would not place Morandi, who would just come out and say "It's time to eliminate Trump as revenge." And they And it was is like, I was not ready for that, but that was the call.

66:43And you know, people with handmade signs, blood for blood.

66:48So this this really to me is the story.

66:50I think this is not an official policy. Actually, I was able to interview the mayor of Tehran uh Ali Zakhani, Alireza Zakhani, who is a conservative politician someone who's been a critic or even an opponent of the MOU, you know, he was he ran in the last presidential election and was hammering Poseidon during the debates. He's a you know, a critic of the reformists.

67:20I asked him, I put it to him. You can go to our YouTube channel and watch this this we may we just put up a short of this part of our interview or just watch the full interview.

67:29Um and I should also mention Zakani was a very close friend of Ebrahim Raisi, the president who died in a helicopter crash and was a friend of Qassem Soleimani.

67:41So, you know, he's a major national figure.

67:44And he was the mayor of the city that presided over this gigantic gathering, which saw all of these calls for personally retaliating against Trump.

67:53Uh I put it to him, is this an official policy? Like is it now the Iranian policy to take out Trump, as Trump believes?

68:02And he said that, you know, we have to essentially respect the sacred pain of the Iranian public after having their leader killed.

68:13But, you know, towards the end of his comments, he sort of backed away and said the real revenge will be carried out by removing the US from the region and reorienting our relationship uh and consolidating Iran's place as a great nation.

68:29And I think that is the official policy.

68:32I mean, if a reformist said that to me, I wouldn't trust them.

68:37But this is not someone from the reformist sphere. This is someone who's much closer, I think, to the revolutionary base.

68:44And so, I don't think there's an official policy.

68:48But, uh as Mostafa Hohesh Ho- Hoshesh, who is one of the most connected Iranian analysts and journalists, said to me in an interview. I've released part one, I'll release part two soon.

69:05Uh you have millions of people who are infuriated with righteous anger who are hunting for Donald Trump now.

69:14Um Trump has unleashed that anger with this killing that is not properly understood. And who knows what could potentially happen.

69:25And why did Donald Trump do this?

69:28Why did he kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? Because Netanyahu told him to.

69:35So essentially Donald Trump has been following an Israeli script that has placed him in a cycle of escalation to the point where he believes that his own life is in danger. And so in so many ways Israel has indirectly put a cross put crosshairs on Donald Trump's face.

70:01Donald Trump bears responsibility for following that script. We've been told by the Israel lobby for 30 years that there is no linkage between the US special relationship in Israel and the threat of quote-unquote terrorism facing the US that 9/11 had nothing to do with the US relationship with Israel even though al-Libi said that he was radicalized by the uh Israeli massacre at Qana during Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996 when Israel massacred women and children in a shelter in southern Lebanon that that's what brought him into al-Qaeda.

70:39And now you have these calls for revenge like I've never seen before that have totally reshaped the politics of Iran uh contributed to the shattering of the MOU and I think this will resonate for a generation and we have Israel to blame along with the president who was a vehicle for Israeli influence, Donald Trump, who has no way out of this war, who's still violating every red line, and has no guarantee or a vision for uh achieving any military or strategic objective. Uh and it's escalating in Yemen and will soon move to Iraq, uh I believe.

71:20>> Well, Trump and those around him have been claiming for years now that he is somehow the target of various farcical-sounding assassination plots allegedly orchestrated by the IRGC, but it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

71:37>> Yes.

71:37>> you you take these nonexistent threats and then you you respond to them by assassinating spiritual and political leaders and then you make the threat real.

71:50Um and then someone like you goes to Iran to just explain why it is that people feel this way and to show how they feel.

72:01Um and rather than taking the time to thank you for this invaluable journalism, um a broad sector of the political spectrum decided instead to to tar you as uh I think the term was a rat-faced communist traitor. It was from from uh >> Laura Loomer.

72:25>> Laura Loomer, herself a real looker, by the way.

72:27>> Yeah.

72:28>> Um but uh I mean, tell tell us a little bit about >> Well, before we go there, just one last point.

72:36You know, I think it's it's it would be strategically unwise for Iran to personally target Trump, and that I think they understand that uh at the official level. And I just think that this is what Israel wants, which is why right after this funeral, Israel warned Trump of alleged Iran plot to assassinate him, uh claiming it came from the highest level.

73:03Israel's been doing this uh for years since it compelled or convinced Trump to assassinate Qassem Soleimani. And this is what Israel wants because it will guarantee escalation. Uh they didn't want the MOU and there's no more MOU.

73:22>> Well, and then Trump responded by claiming that if he's assassinated, he will what? Drop and he's going to he's going to nuke Iran. Uh that's >> there would be thousands of strikes on Iran um and and the fact is the people who want this kind of revenge don't care. They already experienced thousands of strikes. They already saw their children killed in Minab and elsewhere. I saw so many you know, war crimes sites when I was in Iran.

73:49And uh there's a part of the public that is just willing to keep going in order to get what they perceive as justice. And this is something that Trump has unleashed.

74:00>> Well, yeah, plenty of people in Iran are willing to tolerate it. Plenty of people in Israel desperately want it. And if they have a guarantee that by assassinating Trump they can ensure permanent war with Iran, um you know, and and and Trump is basically saying, "Look, we're going to put the war machine on autopilot and just allow them to massacre as many Iranians as possible uh if I if I am, you know, subject to assassination." Uh you are basically giving Israel everything that it could possibly want and and and incentivizing them to assassinate you. So, uh >> That's that's the other point that I saw

74:42a lot of people make was that you know, there'd be no better time for Israel to execute a plot against Trump through a proxy agent posing as an Iranian IRGC operative.

74:59>> Which we know that they have and which we know we've seen them carrying out attacks all across Western Europe, all across Australia. These These plots that, you know, Australian intelligence >> low-level arson attacks and >> Sure, but but they clearly are willing to to carry out false flag attacks and blame Iran. That that MO has been very clearly established and we know that that's what happened because uh these various intelligence agencies have said that we we deduce that it was a foreign intelligence agency behind these attacks on our countries and then they refuse to say who which which foreign nation it was.

75:43And if it was Iran, they would say that.

75:46They would They would obviously tell us if if it was Iran behind these attacks.

75:51Um so, we can kind of deduce from the fact that they won't tell us which foreign nation carried out these these arson attacks, uh it means it was Israel.

76:03>> And these were the justification This was the justification cited by the British government, the most repressive British government in history, for listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization, a key initiative of Israel in order to prevent normal relations between the UK and the British government. The IRGC is essentially the Iranian military. So, now the UK is in a de facto state of war with Iran thanks to these phony attacks in which apolitical criminal class young men were delivered crypto payments by shadowy foreign sources to conduct uh vandalism crimes against, you know, Jewish targets or the Israeli consulate.

76:48And then they were passed off as the handiwork of something called Ashab al-Yameen through a strange Telegram account. I mean, it's pretty obvious what's going on. AVI >> None of which had any casualties, right?

77:03>> No casualties. No. No. Same thing that happened in Australia has been happening in the UK and across certain parts of Europe.

77:11So, yeah, we're entering a very dark time and I think it's it's clear to so many people what what's happening, but the you're you're you're not allowed to say you're not allowed to say it. Uh if, for example, RT Russia Today reported on it or provided some analysis about what's really happening, if you share that analysis in the UK now, you will go to jail. You're not allowed to share anything from RT and you're not allowed to praise the IRGC in the UK.

77:43You will go to jail. You could go to jail for 14 years.

77:47Uh this is all justified based on the strange account.

77:51>> as a terrorist by us, you know, under a secret designation that whatever jury judges you won't be told about as uh as happened to the the Felton 24.

78:05>> Yes. Uh and we, you know, the the the architecture of repression is expanding. We broke the story of Fergie Chambers, pro-Palestine financier donor who's sending enormous amounts of money to humanitarian initiatives in Gaza. Uh the Samir Project has credited him with keeping many families alive. He's an heir to the Cox family fortune, a conservative uh telecommunications uh tycoon family, I think based in Atlanta. And you know, he took 250 million and used it to support pro-Palestine causes. He's openly communist. He's been arrested in Spain on Department of Justice orders for supposedly money laundering.

78:57We saw the sealed indictment.

78:59It looked it looked bogus.

79:01And this is just another casualty of the globalization of the war on Palestine solidarity, which you know, you could say maybe it started with the crackdown on the encampments, but now it's going global under the Trump administration.

79:18Um and the repression is tightening and I would say that I've been targeted through this framework of repression.

79:28Uh and it started with my arrival in Iran. I was there as reporter on a press visa, the same press visa that was granted to reporters like NBC's Richard Engel or CNN's Frederick Flightkin, who I joined at a press conference last Wednesday at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, uh headed by Dr.

79:51Esmail Bagaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. And they got in questions and I got in a question.

79:58Um you know, they always say like, "We're here uh with the permission of the Iranian government, but we maintain our editorial independence. We never say this when we go to Israel and as the Israeli government forces us to sign a military censorship policy, but we're saying it in Iran."

80:17>> And we have to submit all of our reports to them if in advance to make sure we didn't accidentally say anything inappropriate.

80:24>> You literally have to do that in Israel.

80:27Uh the Iranians don't make them do that.

80:29They uh confronted Bagaei and you know, we're very critical to him as they would be to an American, maybe to an American uh State Department spokesperson, but probably they were probably less uh confrontational to the State Department.

80:46But, you know, this is tolerated. The Iranian Foreign Ministry wants them in there. The whole time he was jousting with them about the stupidest issues. Um I think the CNN guy asked uh you know, are you really like destroying the MOU by attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz?

81:04Uh did you read the MOU?

81:07I think it's um 0.5, which makes Iran responsible for managing the Strait of Hormuz. Ships aren't allowed to try to um skirt Iranian control by sailing close to the shores of Oman.

81:23That's a deliberate provocation tactic in order to break the MOU. And then the US had, you know, broken eight other points. I don't know if they're confronting them the same way, but the point is they're given full latitude to do the reporting they want to do and to challenge Iranian officials.

81:39Um >> And then they can come back to the US and they face zero problems.

81:45>> Exactly.

81:45>> Nobody Nobody bats an eye.

81:48>> So, I haven't been able to Yeah, I haven't been able to ask any of them, you know, how What did you face Did you have your devices seized when you came back to the US? Were you taken to secondary screening? But, I would assume, especially because Trump is president, that they would protest and raise hell if this took place. And we haven't heard anything from all these American reporters coming back. So, I was targeted when I arrived uh in Iran not by any US element, but by a appendage of Israeli intelligence called Canary Mission, which most of you watching all know is like a doxing website that was established in 2015 to

82:28ruin the lives of American college students involved in Palestine solidarity activism by doxing them, placing quotes by them that make them look unemployable, preventing them from having careers. And now they're targeting me.

82:43Um and what they were trying to do was to present me as someone who was not a journalist who was there to honor Khamenei.

82:51Uh that I was there to pay homage to him and that I'm an extremist.

82:58In order to separate me from the credentialed established media and to compel the Trump administration to target me based on my opinions. So, these four Americans traveled to honor Ali Khamenei. Actually, no. I I traveled there to report from my point of view and you can see nothing but pure reporting and pure factual journalism at The Gray Zone since I traveled there.

83:23A leader who wanted to destroy America at his funeral.

83:27And I'm there with Jackson Hinkle, Christopher Helali, and Carla Walsh.

83:32One of them is elected an American official. Chris Helali holds some position in Vermont, which like you don't really have to campaign for.

83:41Um Yeah.

83:45I've actually never met Carla Walsh or Christopher Helali. I know Jackson. I mean, he's been around alternative media circles for years. So, we both know him.

83:55Um and yeah, they're attacking them. I'm the editor of The Gray Zone, a far-left site known for its positive coverage of the Chinese, Russian, and Venezuelan governments. Now, he is among the Americans honoring Iran's supreme leader. And then they link to a post where I'm basically just reporting on what's going on and what my conversations with people at the Mosallah, the Grand Mosque, So, once that went up, I could pretty much assume because the Trump administration had gathered lists of students to deport from Canary Mission who are green card holders, uh that I would be targeted with some form of repression

84:36on my way back.

84:38Uh and then Laura Loomer enters the chat.

84:42Laura Loomer being the um victim of several botched facial surgery experiments who has been Baker acted and involuntarily committed to various mental institutions by her family and is uh accused of uh heinous acts by various uh men and former colleagues which could constitute crimes.

85:11I'm someone who has not been who has not committed a crime and she's accusing me of criminal activity and she is a has been a close ally of Trump. I don't know if they allow her to ride on Air Force One anymore, but she's responsible for Trump firing numerous holdovers from previous administrations including the top Iran expert at the NSC, Nate Swanson, who had warned that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if it were attacked, something Trump seemed surprised by and said, "I didn't expect them to do it." Well, here's Laura Loomer's attack on me. Um sorry you all have to see her face. Uh Max Blumenthal, an American

85:54citizen, one of the leading communist voices in America. Am I one of the leading communist voices in America?

86:01I think uh >> News to me.

86:03>> Yeah.

86:04>> She called for you to be subject to a heavily armed pre-dawn raid on your family's home.

86:12>> Yes, that that comes next, I think, after I respond. But she says like uh I went to mourn the death of Iran's barbaric supreme leader.

86:23And then she sort of sort of links me to Joe Kent in some way.

86:28And said that Heather Kaiser writes for The Grayzone.

86:33Yeah.

86:33>> Because she wrote one article what four years ago?

86:36>> Yeah.

86:37>> I think that >> Before I think Joe Kent had anything to do with government. But whatever.

86:44I like that I'm considered influential.

86:48So yeah, I responded to Laura Loomer there. When you respond to Laura Loomer, it's like you're preparing It's like uh I don't know. It's like just preparing to uh to go dumpster diving or something.

87:06But you just have to do it because like you got to eat.

87:09Uh This is my response. Because like I didn't >> You got to glove up.

87:17>> Like I I I I I put Khomeini's leadership in proper context.

87:24And you know the Islamic Republic deserves respect as a normal government. The US should have normal relations with the Islamic Republic. That's my position. My position is sort of like the position the Leveretts took in their book Going to Tehran. This is the way to avoid the terrible conflict we're in.

87:44But I did not go and meet him and bow to him or whatever they said or or kiss his coffin. I certainly respect and understand what the pain of those who did.

87:56But that's just not what I did. I'm I'm a journalist with my opinions. And you all know what my opinions are. My work speaks for itself. Here's what Laura Loomer did with someone who you could probably say is a child molester.

88:11Laura Loomer went on a paid propaganda junket to Modi's India. She was being courted uh because she's close to Trump. She's basically an unregistered foreign lobbyist uh to honor the Dalai Lama who is a long-time CIA asset and he has openly compelled children to suck his tongue.

88:35Uh there's video of him going "Suck my tongue" as young children approach him.

88:40And she knew that he made he asked children to suck his tongue. Laura Loomer should have known that. I mean, maybe she doesn't know that because she's stupid and Billy, you know, these um foreign lobbies and all the lobbies that pay her basically tell her what to say.

88:54>> She probably does because until about 2 weeks before this trip, she posted the most heinous things imaginable about India and you know, constantly posted about how horrible it smells and how disgusting the people there are.

89:09Um but then she had a a change of heart when she went on this uh paid propaganda tour.

89:16>> Well, here's this freakish Florida Frankenstein anti-Palestinian Alice Cooper impersonator paying homage to a borderline child molester who compels children to suck his tongue who uh was a close associate of Keith Raniere, a sex cult leader from NXIVM who is in jail for life on several rape charges. I mean, this is the Epstein class in action and they're accusing me of everything they do and worse.

89:54These are the criminals.

89:57And uh these are the people managing this architecture of repression. They're knaves, con artists, thieves, hustlers, sex pests, and perverts who are trying to jail other people for exposing their crimes.

90:13That's what it's about.

90:15>> And she herself has uh you know we I can guess I can't call her a child molester, but she's pretty close. I mean she she when she gets >> a man molester, but we'll get to that.

90:28>> Yeah.

90:29>> I mean there's video of her molesting a man.

90:32>> Yeah.

90:34>> So, she responds and you know, says blah blah blah, you rat-faced communist traitor. I went to India to speak for a communist. She's mad.

90:42She's whipped up into a a petulant frenzy, a petulant frenzy.

90:47Max Blumenthal, you're a shill for Islam and communism and I hope you're raided in a heavily armed raid. You need a you need an editor. By the FBI at 5:00 a.m.

90:56and that secretary of Rubio strips you of your passport for aiding the Iranian regime as they chant death to America.

91:03I was aiding them.

91:04Um And what else does she wish? I hope Scott Scent uh investigates how you paid for your trip to Iran or if it was given to you by Iran and IRGC supporters so you're charged in part and process. So, she wants me jailed and blah blah blah.

91:22So, this is pretty much like you know, she's setting the stage for what happened next.

91:28>> Yeah.

91:29You know, for the record, when I went to Iran, uh we we paid for that flight, you know, it was not paid for by the Ayatollah. So, Scott Scent, if you're listening >> [snorts] >> you know for the record >> We paid for our >> Well, I'm sure I'm sure she can't say the same about her trip to see the uh >> She rode business You know, she rode business class and like was in one of those beds or whatever.

91:57Uh I rode economy. I was like like like this the whole flight, like I had neck pain, lumbar pain.

92:07That's the That's the flight I paid for, but uh It It It doesn't It doesn't even deserve to be dignified.

92:18I I should say though, you know, she's calling for me to be swatted. I have been swatted thanks to the Trump administration.

92:26I was had my house surrounded in 2019 by DC cops because the uh allies of the Trump administration who were like uh proxies of the fake Venezuelan government of Juan Guaidó falsely accused me of assault.

92:47And they threw me in jail.

92:48>> storm troopers.

92:51>> Yeah, Marco Rubio's storm troopers.

92:54And And they threw me in jail for 2 days, uh but it would You know, it's kind of terrifying to have your house surrounded, have them banging on your door with a warrant based on nothing, of totally false accusation that they didn't investigate at all, come into your house, and um you know, then I was uh you know, I went through the whole DC jail system for 48 hours, and then they dropped the charges soon after because they were completely fake, based on nothing.

93:22Uh and this is what the Trump administration has been doing. So, she's calling for another SWAT raid, and then she um Well, I I I and and you know, her and Canary Mission. Canary Mission, by the way, is based in Jerusalem. All of its staffers are based in Jerusalem. Uh they work for a nonprofit called Megamot Shalom, which is the cover for Canary Mission, uh which has been funded heavily by the Wexner Foundation of Les Wexner, Jeffrey Epstein's best friend, the Victoria's Secret magnet. The Wexner Foundation had Jeffrey Epstein as a trustee for many years. So, essentially Canary Mission is connected to Epstein. It's the whole

94:02Epstein class that's coming for me.

94:05And it looks like they managed to get DHS, which is run by Mark Wayne Mullin, a military impostor, someone who is a former MMA fighter and plumber who pretended to be a military veteran who replaced Kristi Noem who had to leave the DHS because her husband was impersonating her and stuffing his shirt with like breasts and sending pictures of himself, basically impersonating his deportation bimbo wife to other people.

94:45She steps down, so this military impostor comes in. I mean, you can't even make it up how many crooks and knaves are in charge.

94:53And I get off like I get on my flight in Istanbul, get my boarding pass, and it has the four S's on it, secondary screening.

95:02So, uh I was waiting for secondary screening when I landed at Dulles on July 10th.

95:11>> [snorts] >> I uh you know, it's all biometric now, by the way. Did you notice that when you came in? Like you don't even hand your passport to some officer.

95:21>> No, you go stare at it into a camera, and it either flashes green, like you're okay, or it gives you a little X, like you have to go go talk to some officer, and then when you talk to the other officer, then they say, "Oh, yeah, go got to head over that way." And they they put your passport into a little red box so that you can't use it. You can't go anywhere until you've dealt with secondary screening and you've been detained and questioned.

95:51>> So, yeah, so I go to secondary screening. I My My passport gets red-boxed uh cuz I got the X on my biometric you know, Philip K. Dick pre-crime pre-crime uh face.

96:04And uh ultimately, after some time, I'm met at a metal table by two young uh Customs and Border Patrol officers who are at the bottom of the food chain and kept referring to instructions from their {quote} {unquote} managers.

96:19They're peppering me with questions the but in order to cover up the political nature of the interrogation um where they're probing about, you know, they asked me like, was I paid to give interviews or to to to conduct interviews in Iran? Like, they actually tried to work that in.

96:37Like, yeah, I'm being I'm going to go uh 20 hours on an economy flight and then go into an area which could potentially become a war zone in order to collect money to conduct interviews.

96:50Like, I can't make money as a journalist in the US and that's what I have to do.

96:55I mean, >> Like, money from one of the most heavily sanctioned economies in the world.

97:00>> Yeah.

97:01>> Where the average salary is like $200 a month.

97:05>> Yeah. Where you you can't like conduct business with US credit cards or whatever.

97:10Um I'm going to just go there to collect money where I interview people. And like, they're going to they're going to give me like some massive payday to interview the the mayor or something like that. Like, they can't deliver those people to uh mainstream outlets as well.

97:28I mean, it's just the the the the the the line of questioning was so absurd that I mean, I I almost couldn't believe it.

97:39And they kept asking me other things like, were you Did you feel threatened there? Did anyone Did anything make you feel threatened or And I And I said no, and they asked it again.

97:51And then they wanted to know if I have any plans to go back to Iran because obviously the US government didn't want me there doing the reporting that I was doing or the kind of reporting you were doing when you were there. That was my takeaway from that.

98:05But the questioning was basically useless and absurd.

98:11And uh then they demanded I open my devices. I open my phones.

98:19And I said no. I'm not going to give you my passcodes so they uh detained my phones.

98:27You know, didn't didn't really have much of a choice in that matter.

98:31My phone uh my phones were taken.

98:36And they told me, "We're going to hook them up to machines and uh this should be done in a day." Well, it's been several days. They're not returning them.

98:44Uh when they hook them up to machines, I assume they mean they're using Israeli Cellebrite technology in order to get past the passcodes and invade my privacy and to learn more about my sources and methods uh to violate my Fourth Amendment rights and to violate my First Amendment rights.

99:04And uh you know, you they they told me, "You have no rights here."

99:08They said that to me. Um and that is well known.

99:12So, I'm working on um trying to recover those phones, but this was a you know, complete violation of privacy. It was political targeting, political harassment because other reporters who were there, American reporters, have not been subjected to this treatment. This is due to my opinions uh and the nature of my factual reporting and our factual reporting at The Gray Zone which threatens Israel and the Israeli interests which are the one the only who are the only elements that targeted me when I went to Iran and demanded my persecution.

99:52>> It's due to your opinions and it's due to the impact of your opinions.

99:56It's due to the fact that we are moving the needle uh and that that they're no longer able to control American domestic public opinion as it relates to the apartheid entity, which is why they're they're offloading all of their lawfare onto groups like the Canary Mission.

100:17They're offloading all of their intellectual heavy lifting onto groups like the Foundation for the Democracies.

100:23>> Yeah. Yeah.

100:24>> And then they're slipping in these morons like Kirstin Christine Noem, Mark Wayne Mullin, uh who are too stupid to uh to tell the difference. Um and then, you know, no one no one's the wiser. So, uh it's it's it's really horrifying when you think about it, but it's it's hard not to laugh because these people are such comical sort of clown figures.

100:48Um you know, it kind of disguises the the dystopian nature of what's happening.

100:56>> Yeah, I mean, you think the the clowns are up front, but there are these grim operatives behind them who are determined to establish a dictatorship behind the guise of the liberal democratic traditions of post-1964 US or post-war US.

101:20It's almost like the perfect dictatorship, except the Trump administration is making it a little too obvious uh that they what what their intentions are. And this could become more clear with Donald Trump's national address on Thursday night as he you know, attempts to invalidate the 2020 election on the basis of claims that Venezuela had had interfered through the Smartmatic voting systems.

101:49That's a whole That's another topic we've talked about before.

101:53That the the Maduro raid the Maduro abduction has been exploited to provide fodder for Trump's pet conspiracy theory. He's going to try to, I think, impeach the two Democratic Georgia senators.

102:06I mean, it just it they're making it too obvious. And in in in targeting me, they are explicitly targeting journalism that Israel doesn't like.

102:18The mask is off.

102:20>> Yeah.

102:22>> I mean, the the mask is off. The Laura Loomer freaked out again today over our reporting.

102:31>> I wish you would put the mask back on.

102:34>> Yeah.

102:35That mask needs to go back on.

102:38>> Yeah.

102:38>> You know, some people don't have like the most perfect face or whatever. Like but but there's something sort of charming about it.

102:46Like, you know, the or like there's there's someone there there are people who are just like have um faces that capture the decency of their personality or something noble about themselves.

103:04And >> He is not one of them.

103:07>> This is someone which has absolutely no redeeming characteristics at all. Like even Donald Trump is sort of funny and can be entertaining even as he threatens to, you know, destroy entire nations.

103:24This is just someone who has There's no charisma there. There's nothing entertaining or funny or charming about it.

103:35And she freaked >> Zionist influence.

103:39>> Yeah.

103:40It's it's like it's like uh >> She's like Israel.

103:48>> It's like Evelyn LaFarge meets Leatherface's daughter.

103:52>> [laughter] [sighs and gasps] >> Uh yeah, it's a lot like Israel today.

103:56Um but she freaked out again on us and claimed because we broke the story on Fergie Chambers. I don't think the US government wanted that story out. The mainstream press hasn't even touched it as far as I can tell. It is an outrage is an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

104:17And we saw a sealed indictment and were able to expose this raid that was supposed to be conducted under cover of darkness of an American citizen in Spain to prosecute him for 30 years for basically set what? Sending humanitarian aid to Gaza?

104:39Just like the Holy Land Foundation who were innocent.

104:42>> apparently considered material support for terrorism.

104:45>> So what she said uh is that there's a conspiracy between Here it is.

104:57I mean this >> of uh the just of global, you know, American power. Just we can reach out and steal you anywhere you are and kidnap you.

105:07>> Yeah, and so we exposed that and here's what she says. The DOJ has been completely penetrated by sympathizers and supporters of Islamic Jihad. This is very dangerous. Why is anyone at the DOJ leaking sealed indictments to Max Blumenthal who is just in Iran for Khamenei's funeral?

105:24Um >> And she tagged the the the agent.

105:28>> Todd Blanche, the like, you know, mega tool at the Department of Justice. Like, what? The number three person at the Department of Justice is Harmeet Dhillon? Harmeet Dhillon's law firm is currently representing a registered foreign agent for Israel called Show Faith by Works. I mean, the whole Department of Justice from the all at the top are basically servants of Israel. And she's saying there's a secret Iranian conspiracy to defend Fergie Chambers by leaking things to me, uh, who's a secret, uh, Iranian agent.

106:06But, this just goes to show how much our reporting is threatening these maniacal, demented elements in Trump's inner circle who claim to be calling shots and calling for my repression. And it just goes back to my original point, which is I was persecuted and I was interrogated and my devices were seized at Dulles International Airport by CBP because of our reporting, because of my journalism.

106:37And because of who it threatens. And that's just what it comes down to.

106:43>> Exactly.

106:45>> I don't have anything more to say about that.

106:49>> No, they they can't oppose us on the basis of the facts.

106:55They can't disprove anything that we've said.

106:58So, it's all personal attacks and insults. And it's all attempts to intimidate us and silence us and demand and like and run to the to the teacher, you know, oh, oh, oh, please, FBI, won't you please conduct a, you know, illegal and illegitimate, heavily armed raid on these people I don't like. It's it's so pathetic, honestly. Um and if she wasn't, again, like such a ridiculous clownish character, uh you know, it it would be easier to spot just how insidious this is. But because she is such a bizarre freak show, you know, you can lose sight of how evil what she's doing is.

107:47>> Exactly. I couldn't have put it better.

107:49And you look at who's who's in the Trump administration. I mean, uh Pam Bondi was the top lobbyist for Qatar when she comes into the DOJ.

107:59She flies down to Florida to meet Miriam Adelson, the Israeli intelligence cutout and top donor to Trump, as Miriam Adelson demands new laws to crack down on speech critical of Israel.

108:15The new I mean, the the the uh Kash Patel was lobbying for Qatar.

108:21Trump's flying around on a $400 million jet given to him by Qatar. That's Air Force One.

108:27Israel's running him when the Gulf states are not. Jared Kushner's uh investment firm is totally funded by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

108:38It Laura Loomer's running ops for Big Pharma for uh Joseph Schwartz, apparently, the Medicare fraudster, for all sorts of uh dark and devious billionaires. Brad Parscale, the former Trump campaign manager, is a federally registered foreign agent for Israel who's paying uh half of the the MAGA influencers you still see supporting Trump on Twitter, including Eyal Yakoby, uh to attack us and to undermine any initiative by the Trump administration to end the Iran war. It's all foreign influence all from top to bottom at the Trump administration and they're trying to claim that I'm some kind of Iranian agent like they're focusing on

109:26me. I'm the only one who's facing the the wrath of law enforcement. They should all be jailed.

109:34They should all be jailed for treason.

109:38Not to mention all of the sex crimes they're accused of.

109:44>> Yeah, the video of Laura Loomer herself.

109:47I just I can't get over it. Just it really shows you who she is just this absolutely sleazy disgusting foul creature just like desperate for you know some like young guy to to get in her pants and he's clearly clearly totally uninterested because how could you possibly be interested? You know, these are the sex pests and sex criminals and and they just are a projection from the 7K crew.

110:18>> Someone should set up a hotline for the victims of her.

110:22>> Victims of Laura Loomer.

110:24>> The victims of Laura Loomer.org.

110:27>> Maybe Milo Yiannopoulos can get on this.

110:30>> Well, yeah, Milo was her former friend and associate. I think he was her comms director on her failed congressional campaign and he left for some [snorts] very disturbing reason so maybe he can he can lead the charge there along with Laura Southern who's also accused her.

110:49But you know, I'm going to stay focused on the facts which clearly are infuriating the Trump administration and its Israeli masters.

110:59We're going to stay focused on the facts. What are the facts Lindsey Graham's death? I don't think we know.

111:08>> It's an open question still.

111:10The jury is out on exactly what happened. It's a kind of a strange timeline.

111:15Um what is clear is that in his time on this planet, his all too long time, uh he spent basically every waking moment desperately trying to find a a new home for a bomb, a new place to go murder innocent civilians.

111:34Um never met a war he didn't like, never met a peace deal he didn't hate.

111:40Um he went to his grave doing what he loved, which was trying to murder Russians, trying to murder uh people in some far-flung part of the world that doesn't really have very much to do with uh average Americans' existence.

111:56Um so, you know, he has that going for him, but I know we have quite a few videos, kind of a greatest hits uh compilation of of just some of the worst of the worst of Lindsey Graham.

112:09>> I mean, this is the guy Yeah, go ahead.

112:11>> No, we were all told that, you know, we we have to you you know, the the the usual they they constantly intone this that any time one of these war criminals kicks the bucket and say, "Oh, you you know, you may disagree with his politics, but you have to respect uh you know, the the man. You have to respect his family."

112:29Uh as though these people respected the families of the hundreds of thousands in Gaza who they were constantly calling to nuke and flash >> his niece to Disney World and and and he took all of the attacks for and mockery for being at Disney World, but he just wanted to show his niece a good time. He was a good man. He didn't make what did Greta Van Susteren, who's at the Israeli uh controlled Newsmax, said uh he's he he he actually wasn't making a lot of money off off being in the Senate. He's one of the only senators who wasn't making money.

113:04That just shows what What psycho he is.

113:06He spent his last years like masturbating to the blood of children like >> outsourcing genocide for the love of the game.

113:18>> Just like I mean [clears throat] we we don't even need to describe it. We don't even need to be descriptive. We can just show what he was like, but he was doing it for the love. He was calling for the nuking of Gaza like the mass slaughter of an occupied people for the love.

113:35>> So when we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by the bombing Hiroshima Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. That was the right decision. Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war they can't afford to lose and work with them to minimize casualties.

113:57>> Look at his eyes. There's nothing there.

113:59>> America did not to to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war. Why was it okay for us to do that? I thought it was okay. So Israel do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state.

114:15So when we were >> Slamming his pencil on the desk.

114:19It's like just can't get enough.

114:24There's there's there's it's endless.

114:28What This is more. Yeah, he's called for nuking Gaza several times, nuking other countries.

114:37>> October 7th Many people in this part of the world say what happened in Gaza does not align with Christian values. Killing children, killing mothers.

114:45>> I'll be honest with you. You are not militants.

114:47>> Yeah, I just I don't buy that at all.

114:49>> Why?

114:49>> What did we do in World War II?

114:52Did we think one minute about starving the Germans? Did we bomb every city into to smithereens?

115:00So this is a war No, this is October 7th to World War II.

115:04>> Yes, I am. This is an absolute existential threat to the Jewish people.

115:08>> Mhm.

115:09>> What happened on October the 7th was 1,200 people slaughtered, raped, and murdered, and filmed by radical Islamists who would kill every Jew if they could to the world. If you don't understand this is a threat to Israel's survival.

115:22>> Gaza.

115:22>> Yeah, flatten. We flattened Berlin. We flattened Tokyo.

115:28Were we wrong to drop an atomic bomb to end the Japanese reign of terror? Were we?

115:33>> Yes.

115:34>> Actually, you were.

115:35>> view, if I were Israel, I would have probably done it the same way.

115:40>> He's got that blood shot eyes.

115:42>> there is no hope of breaking radicalism.

115:45We flattened Germany. We flattened Japan.

115:48>> How All right, well, it goes on.

115:54I mean, >> Everyone talks about his sexual attraction to young prostituted men. Uh but no one talks about >> know about that or if that even He could have been asexual. We don't know anything about his >> But we know we can you can tell there's clearly some kind of sexual attraction to like death.

116:12>> Yes. Yes. Well, it's sort of like uh it's sort of like trans transferring repressed sexual energy into a desire uh to explode other human beings because he himself can gain no orgasmic release.

116:34This is a a common feature of sociopaths and psychopaths uh who have uh tormented humanity throughout history.

116:44>> Yeah.

116:44>> Lindsey Graham should be remembered alongside other figures like Hitler.

116:52>> Yeah.

116:52>> Although some, you know, claim he's not repressed. I mean, yeah.

116:58He may He may not have been repressed.

117:01He may have overindulged, but he certainly did not repress his desire for mass death, including the death of of of supposed allies. I mean, here's where he gave away the whole game of the Ukraine proxy war.

117:15>> Yeah.

117:15>> I like the structural path we're on here. As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person.

117:27>> So, basically, fight to the last Ukrainian.

117:30We just keep giving them weapons and they just keep dying. Rushing into minefields, trenches, dying to kill Russians.

117:37>> I like it.

117:39I like that.

117:42How could you not?

117:44How could any red-blooded American patriot not like that?

117:49Where >> We have this Hannity interview where he says the war is basically about money.

117:55>> Yeah.

117:55>> know which where where what the timestamp is there.

117:57>> Skip to Skip to about 30 seconds on that one.

118:01>> All right.

118:03It's another moment.

118:07Why is he such a complex person, Lindsey Graham? This is a really moment that shows the humanity of Lindsey Graham.

118:12>> day. 4,000 days into this war, Ukraine is still standing. This war is about money. People don't talk much about it, but you know the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals is Ukraine. 2 to 7 trillion dollars worth of minerals that are rare earth minerals, very relevant to the 21st century.

118:33Ukraine's ready to do a deal with us, not the Russians. So, it's in our interest to make sure that Russia doesn't take over the place. It's the breadbasket of >> All right. Well, so, fight to the last Ukrainian and then take all of their resources cuz they won't have any sovereignty or really any any people left. Lindsey Graham's been at this for a long time. Uh do you remember uh was it 2017 he went with his close friend John McCain, the late warmongering neocon of the Senate and Amy Klobuchar to the Donbas to meet with uh a Ukrainian militia.

119:12And this is you know, where Lindsey Graham charted the path to the most destructive and devastating US proxy war in history.

119:22>> Our fight is our fight.

119:252017 will be the year of offense.

119:31All of us will go back to Washington and we will push the case against Russia.

119:38>> So, he's basically setting the stage for the the proxy war as the US was already arming Ukraine and >> It's all these Air Force guys, too.

119:48They're McCain and him. It's these guys that like their ideal war is just like delivering death from 40,000 ft and never ever having to get their hands dirty and deal with the consequence.

120:02You know, I mean McCain actually did while he was bombing I think a what was it? A light bulb factory.

120:08Um he was shot down. So, he actually did see the consequences on the other hand, which is why he became a uh an advocate against torture. Um Lindsey Graham never had to had to suffer any consequences for his warmongering. Uh so, he never had any kind of uh epiphany or you know, any pangs of consciousness conscience.

120:33>> He was just a JAG officer in the Air Force. He never saw combat.

120:36>> Right.

120:38>> [clears throat] >> He never saw the horrors of war.

120:45>> Yeah, JAG was in the the least in the least in combat involved.

120:51>> But he fantasized about death nonetheless. Here he is.

120:54>> Free Iran. Free Iran.

120:56>> Now you are free.

120:58>> Yes, and we will be.

120:59>> And the Russians are dying.

121:01Best money we've ever spent.

121:04>> Best money we've ever spent. He said the same thing about the Iran war.

121:08>> And the Russians are dying.

121:09It's the best money we've ever spent.

121:12>> Ever spent. You know, it's better than spending money on housing. It's better than the the Pell Grants. It's better than the you know, money that created community colleges across America out of the Great Society.

121:26It's bad well, they they don't like Wick.

121:29>> You know, but school lunches for for school kids.

121:32>> No, bad money. The the the highway system that Eisenhower built. No, the best money we've ever spent is to kill Russians. That's Lindsey Graham. And again, he wasn't apparently making money off this.

121:45>> He said the same exact thing about Iran when he was asked whether all of the economic damage that we've incurred was worth it.

121:54He had the same exact turn of phrase.

121:57>> Yeah.

121:58>> And I think that video is in there as well.

122:03>> Yeah, here it is.

122:07A Maria Bartiromo.

122:11That's a voice you can't forget.

122:14>> billion dollars a day. Oil prices up 27% in a week. You've got the president wanting a one and a half trillion dollars a defense budget in 27. The idea that the Pentagon is about to come to you for 50 billion dollars on these strikes to Iran. How are you going to answer?

122:34>> Best [snorts] money ever spent. Best money ever spent. Best money ever spent.

122:39Best money ever spent.

122:44>> [sighs and snorts] >> Best money ever spent.

122:49Lindsey Graham wants mass death in Iran. He wants mass death in Russia. He is willing to see Ukraine fight to the last man. He wants Gaza to be nuked. He said Gaza should be flattened. Guess where else he wants mass death.

123:08>> On the subject of North Korea, the president has said, "We'll handle North Korea. We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled." In your opinion, over the next year, is it more likely that there is some sort of military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, whether that's a surgical strike or something larger, or is it more likely that North Korea will cement its place as a nuclear threat in the world?

123:27>> Well, this is the ultimate question. I know it's early in the morning, but President Trump has said, "I will not allow them to get an ICBM with a nuclear weapon on top to hit America. They're headed that way." The only way they're going to change if they believe there's a credible threat of military force on the table. The Chinese are miscalculating Trump, and so are the North Koreans. He's got to choose between homeland security and regional stability. Japan, South Korea, China would all be in the crosshairs of a war if we started one with North Korea. But if they get a missile, they can hit

123:52California, maybe other parts of America.

123:54>> every military expert says there is no good military option.

123:57>> They're wrong.

123:59There is a military option to destroy North Korea's program and North Korea itself.

124:03>> Iran >> Destroy North Korea itself. Just totally destroy the entire country. Where we've already committed the United States has already committed genocide.

124:13Just wiping out 20% of the North Korean population during the Korean War.

124:20>> Best money ever spent.

124:26>> So, Lindsey Graham was in Ukraine after Marco Rubio ordered US officials not to travel there because of the threat they faced the physical threat they faced to their own safety from escalation by Russia as Ukraine attacks deep in Russian cities including Moscow with drone swarms.

124:51He visited Ukraine. This is what? July 11th. So he visited on July 10th to assure Zelensky of the support of the US. He was shown a secret drone manufacturing facility in Kiev.

125:04The facility was hit after strikes by the Russian Ministry of Defense without warning six missiles struck two manufacturing facilities in Kiev.

125:14The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed strikes on drone sites which started a huge fire.

125:19Not There were no interceptions.

125:22Um and he left Ukraine apparently, but did he leave Ukraine on a flight which meant meant he he had to take like a a train out and then a flight or did he leave in a body bag?

125:41>> Million dollar question.

125:43And I I love that picture of him by the way. He's just grinning ear-to-ear while he poses with that drone.

125:49>> Yeah.

125:50>> Find someone in this Find someone who looks at you the way that Lindsey Graham looks at a deadly munition.

126:00>> Here's the conspiracy theory that we uh can't confirm.

126:07He's in Kiev meeting with Zelensky pushing a Russia sanctions bill which would guarantee escalation of the war which has in claiming it as White House backing. It didn't quite yet.

126:17Then he posts this. Trump says, you know, thousand missiles locked and loaded threat after um you know, there are um public threats on Trump's life from the coming a funeral.

126:29Um and the funeral raged all week.

126:35Graham suddenly dies on Capitol Hill.

126:37There's a emergency personnel response to a cardiac arrest call.

126:43His office releases the brief and sudden illness statement. No cause of death. It was uh some part of his body exploded, according to Trump. It was like an aortic rupture. He was 72.

126:56His father, it's true, his father did die at age 69 of a heart attack. And when you're in your early 70s and you're traveling overseas as much as he does, it does put a lot of stress on your heart. You're traveling across time zones. So, you know, perhaps that was it.

127:11>> It was a short visit, too. It's a 20-hour trip there, a 20-hour trip back.

127:20>> Um you know, and you can deduce all the questions and contradictions in the story from there. I mean, there's one There are a few odd components here.

127:34Uh and I'll come to I'll I'll, you know, produce my own conclusion. We don't really have a clear timeline of his trip. Um we don't really I I I haven't seen a very clear itinerary or the manifest of his travel.

127:48But this is TMZ. They're on the scene.

127:50Exclusive photos show Lindsey Graham being carted out of his residence while surrounded by EMS workers administering first aid. We can't see his body. We can't really see him.

128:01We don't know what condition he's really in here.

128:05And then there's this call to the cops.

128:10This is like from a an account that tracks a police scanners.

128:17Radio traffic from response to Senator Graham's home. Emergency radio traffic indicates that Graham suffered chest pains before going into cardiac arrest, blah blah blah.

128:25The radio traffic from open mhc.com indicates that the 911 caller last night was a woman in Baltimore.

128:32The crew from engine 7 arrived and could not get anyone to answer the door. He was alone.

128:38Uh They apparently forced entry into his home. The radio traffic gives the impression that Senator Graham may not have immediately been in cardiac arrest when they arrived, but there's no confirmation of that information. And then there's this timeline of the call.

128:52Okay, let's go back. A woman in Baltimore makes the call.

128:57Who's the woman in Baltimore?

128:59Lindsey Graham didn't live with any women. I don't think he lived with anyone. So, how was this call made?

129:09It's weird.

129:10>> It's very strange.

129:16>> Um Here are some other questions that are being uh sent to me by a very close colleague upstairs.

129:33Uh yeah, the question of single childless man no one who called 911.

129:38Well, it's it said a woman in Baltimore.

129:41What was the timeline of his trip? Did he plan on staying in Ukraine for fewer than 24 hours?

129:47There's no clear timeline of when he left Ukraine, when he landed, and when he arrived home, considering the drone factory he visited was attacked.

129:55There was also a a um hotel that was engulfed in flames after Russian strikes. I believe on that day or within that same timeline, called City Hotel.

130:07Um maybe you can pull it up, but I'm reading from City Hotels uh website, which bills itself as having a stylish blend of business and comfort. It looks like a very luxurious hotel where a you know, a US diplomat or senator might stay.

130:23Um wait, I I I have it here.

130:30I actually have the headline here.

130:34Russian drones hit Kyiv hotel as capital braces for massive overnight attack.

130:41And this is city hotel um after being hit with a Russian drone strike. Why would a Russian drone target a hotel?

130:49Well, hotels were hit in Kuwait. They were hit in Bahrain.

130:55They were hit in the United Arab Emirates because um a certain intelligence sources, and possibly Iranian intelligence, had determined that US intelligence and military personnel were staying in those hotels and they were hit with Shahed drones accurately causing casualties.

131:14So, did Russia gain wind of an important individual who reveled in the mass killing of Russians and was pushing a new legislation to kill more Russians being at this hotel? I don't know, maybe it was an accident.

131:28>> If there were any journalists left in Ukraine, real journalists left in Ukraine, uh this would be quite an inviting opportunity to go and interview uh employees, former employees, uh people who are worked around that hotel or near it.

131:44>> The hotel, I should say though, the hotel could have been hit several days before Lindsey Graham was there. I mean, we could be confusing this with another incident.

131:55Um there you know, there but there are hotels that were hit within this general timeline, and we don't have a clear timeline of his trip to Ukraine. It takes 20 hours to get there um and return to DC.

132:13>> Well, you can't fly there, you know, the airspace is closed, so you have to travel from a via train, and most most Westerners do so via Poland from my from what I understand.

132:25Um and so the the calculation that most people have been making is that there are only a handful of trains, I think two trains per day.

132:35>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

132:36>> Um so he was, you know, on one of those two trains.

132:41Um and then it's a it's a very long flight from Poland, so you know, it's at at least a uh uh s- 8 to 10-hour flight.

132:54Um so between the two journeys, it's it's not a it's not a short quick trip.

133:02>> So there is a record of hotels being struck. That was, I think, on July 2nd.

133:07Um a drone factory he visited was reportedly struck.

133:14He may have just got out in time, got back to DC, and had a heart attack because traveling he does travel a lot, and traveling is very taxing, as I can attest to.

133:28I do not think Vladimir Putin would authorize a strike targeting a figure like Lindsey Graham uh because if you look at the way that Putin is uh dealing with Trump, he's refusing to use harsh language against Trump, even as Trump is authorizing drone strikes deep inside Moscow causing a fuel crisis. You know, they're offloading so much d- diplomacy to Kirill Dmitriev, who's really tried to attach himself to the Trump administration. Like even Lavrov is complaining about that.

134:02Um I think that Putin sees that after Trump comes in, there's going to be a Democrat who's extremely hostile to Russia, and and is the last chance. But I think Trump is already taking the war to new levels. So, I I just don't see that happening. However, there have been all these strikes in Kyiv that Lindsey Graham was close to. It could be that he may have suffered some kind of heart incident uh fleeing from those strikes or strikes nearby.

134:30Um either way, you know, if that happened, it's an explosive story because the US does not have the munitions left to actually retaliate.

134:46If they were to say, "Oh, Russia targeted Lindsey Graham and we're blaming Russia." The US doesn't have the munitions to take Russia on directly because it is so focused on Iran fighting this war for Israel. And in defending Israel, providing Israel with all the interceptors. There's so few interceptions of these Russian strikes.

135:06So, it says so much about US empire.

135:10Then what were FBI agents doing at Lindsey Graham's house?

135:17>> Trump doesn't seem to know.

135:21I mean, he's he's suggested that there was nothing fishy happening there and he's he's openly questioned, you know, what what what's going on, you know, >> Yeah. He's like, "Why were they all these FBI agents at his house?

135:36I think, you know, maybe we should go down there tomorrow."

135:41>> Maybe we can get Laura Loomer to let us in.

135:48>> I don't know if she's on good terms with Kash for some reason.

135:51But I mean, they're swarming his home. Were they removing potentially embarrassing documents or classified documents that he was holding?

136:00Uh or were they investigating his death?

136:02What were they doing there?

136:04>> It's good to see he's gotten a handful more bouquets of flowers deposited there. When I last saw, there was just one single uh bouquet.

136:14>> Yeah, maybe some like Iranian monarchists will go mourn him. Like >> Yeah.

136:19>> Goldie Ghamari will go to his house and mourn him.

136:23Don't see any mourners there.

136:25You know, I'm not celebrating his death.

136:26I'm denouncing his life.

136:31I'm denouncing the way that he lived his life.

136:34It's a righteous thing.

136:36>> million people outside his house, so that's >> He's not my uncle, you know. He's not like my crazy uncle that I have to mourn.

136:44He's He's someone who's responsible. He's a soft-handed, rosé-sipping Genocidaire who's responsible for masses of deaths of innocent people.

137:02>> And he's probably in the hot place now because of it.

137:07>> If you believe in that sort of thing.

137:09>> If you do. [snorts] >> [laughter] >> If you don't, he's in atheist hell.

137:16Um We'll we'll we'll follow up on that. I mean, we're we're in the DC We're in the DMV, so maybe we can, you know, go ask questions. We should definitely go ask questions of legislators about uh section 219.

137:41But, you know, >> the mainstream media doesn't seem to be too intent on doing it. You know, if um if anyone else were doing it, I would say, you know, we can sit on our hands, but it doesn't seem like it's happening. No one No one seems to be even slightly interested in the permanent uh inextricable integration of our entire military intelligence apparatus with uh the world's number one rogue state.

138:12>> Well, let's close on a positive note.

138:16We have been We've been, you know, bearing witness to some really dark times here for the past 2 and 1/2 hours.

138:30And this is sort of breaking. Uh the Senate has voted against the NDAA 50 to 46, denying Israel a merger with the US.

138:41The 46 who voted in favor, yes, should face charges for treason and should be treated as the traitors they are.

138:50>> Is this the cloture vote that uh former Representative Justin Amash was mentioning?

138:54>> Yes, this is the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the consideration of Senate Bill 4784, which is the NDAA.

139:08So, yeah, bam.

139:12Shut down.

139:14Uh >> For now.

139:17>> This is Joe Kent, our uh IRGC secret employee at The Gray Zone.

139:23Uh actually, no, Joe Kent, former director of counterterrorism in the Trump administration, who resigned because of witnessing the level of Israeli control over the Trump administration.

139:34This is good news, but the fight is not over. The Senate just rejected the NDAA that would merge our military with Israel's, which will now proceed to the House. Call your senators and representatives and tell them not to support the NDAA until the merger with Israel section 219 is removed. The Senate switchboard is 202 224-3121.

139:54That's 202-224 31 21 So, yeah.

140:03If you are an American citizen, light up the switchboard.

140:07>> Let's take down that number.

140:10>> [laughter] >> All right. Well, Thursday night we will expect Trump to announce that Venezuela under Maduro interfered in the 2020 election. It's reaching sublime levels of absurdity.

140:27He is basing He's going to be basing that on testimony [clears throat] provided to him by a coerced witness named Hugo Poyo Carvajal, who is the former director of military intelligence in Venezuela, who was turned by the CIA, which it accused him of narco-trafficking or narco-terrorism.

140:46Uh and he was supposed to be the star witness against Maduro, but he has no credibility. And the way that he's trying to finagle a pardon or commutation of his sentences by indulging Donald Trump's pet conspiracy theory, which is that of Venezuelan uh voting machine company called Smartmatic was used to fix the uh vote in states like Georgia in the US.

141:11It's uh Smartmatic was actually owned by opponents of Hugo Chávez and opponents of Maduro, and um part of the motivation for abducting Maduro is to uh compel him to testify to this.

141:26You heard it here first.

141:28Uh we'll be waiting for Trump's insane announcement on Thursday night. And uh we're also going to be in between then taking action to uh get my phone back from the Israeli-controlled Department of Homeland Security.

141:51And I'll be updating you about that and we'll be back uh uh very soon at the Grayzone. Wyatt, I don't know if you have anything to add.

142:00>> Operation get Max's phone back is a go.

142:03Operation prevent uh Israel from dominating our military intelligence apparatus formally, not just informally, uh is also a go. Um Don't tell Laura Loomer or our vast network of uh DOJ informants, but it's all it's all happening here.

142:28>> Victims of Laura Loomer uh mail hotline not yet a go, but it's a proposal. It's a it's an idea.

142:39The Senate switchboard number is in the chat.

142:44If you want to give them a call, if you don't want the United States to merge with uh the satanic state of Israel, that's there.

142:54And we are out. That's it.

143:01We'll see you all soon. Wyatt, welcome back to the land of the free. It's good to have you here.

143:07And uh we're looking for more reporting for to more reporting from you. Thanks to former Representative Dennis Kucinich for joining us.

143:17Um and for all of his efforts against the US-Israeli military merger.

143:23And uh yeah, once again, we'll be back here soon.

143:26Subscribe, like this stream, sign up on Substack, get all of our work in your inbox free, support us on Patreon, and uh support us in any way you see fit. We're out. Peace.