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Aug. 21, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
32:39
Scott Ritter : Will Russia Attack NATO?
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here on Judging Freedom.
Today is Thursday, August 22nd, 2024.
Our dear friend Scott Ritter is here with us today.
What exactly happened in the incursion into Russia, and when and how will Russia respond?
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Scott Ritter, welcome here, my friend.
I want to spend a fair amount of time exploring with you your understanding of what happened in and around Kirsk, what is happening now, who is behind it, and what you think will be the response to it by President Putin.
But before we get there, I need to ask you about the latest out of Israel and Gaza, where Prime Minister Netanyahu emerged from a Is
it fair to conclude he is absolutely not interested in the hostages?
I think we know this.
The only thing that Benjamin Netanyahu is interested in is Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tragically, he has sacrificed the security of Israel and the safety of the Israeli people for his own political ambition.
This is a man who does not want his legacy to be political.
Embarrassment.
And right now, if he were to step aside, he would be politically embarrassed.
He is the leader who built his career on the notion that he is the security man, the guy that guarantees the security of Israel.
And yet it was under his watch that October 7th took place.
And it's under his watch that the Israeli Defense Force has been unable to bring to closure.
You know, the military campaign against Hamas has gone so poorly that the Israeli military itself has acknowledged that Hamas cannot be defeated.
And so, you know, how does he get out of this?
An honorable man would resign, but he can't because he's not an honorable man and he's also a man with looming allegations of condemnation.
This is not the outcome he wants.
So what he's doing is playing a very dangerous game of escalation management.
You know, he went to the United States in July, spoke to United States Congress, got 54. Standing ovations, all the while breathing fire and brimstone about the need to go to war with Iran, the need to go to war with Hezbollah, the need to finish the job in Hamas, war, war, war.
Everybody saw that.
What most people didn't see was the subsequent meetings at the Pentagon and the White House where Netanyahu was told the truth, that the United States will not support any continued Israeli, major Israeli offensive actions against Hezbollah.
Or against Iran and that we were pushing for a ceasefire.
Now what does Netanyahu do?
He goes back home and he orders the assassination of a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut and the chief Hamas negotiator in Tehran.
Now normally these two actions would result in a massive retaliation but Netanyahu was gambling on the fact that neither Hezbollah nor Iran Want or looking for a big fight at this point in time.
And that the goal and objective of everybody is a peaceful outcome.
So he gambled and he guessed right.
There hasn't been a major Hezbollah retaliation in Iran so far is likewise held in check.
Why?
because they are hopeful that there will be a ceasefire, that there will be an end to this conflict, which is after all their strategic objective.
And so now that, He's now seeking to see how far he can push this.
Eventually, I believe he's going to have to accept a ceasefire.
What he's trying to do is get a ceasefire that is less damaging to him politically so that he can offset that damage with what he's done.
with Hezbollah and Iran.
If this sounds crazy, it's because it is.
This is all about the personal political ambition of Benjamin Is he in danger of an IDF coup against him?
That would be unprecedented.
I think he's already seen the IDF express its concerns over an extension of the war.
I don't think it's so much an IDF coup as it would be A rebellion within the political establishment.
When the IDF will tell the war cabinet and tell the other leaders of Israel that it can't win a war, that this would actually put Israel in grave harm, it would be hard to see how Netanyahu could pull that off.
As opposed to a straight-out coup where generals take over, I think the IDF would work within the political establishment to Put Benjamin Netanyahu on notice that his political future would be over if he pushes this too hard.
One of the things that upset you a lot, upset me a lot, upset a lot of people, was the IDF slaughter of a young girl.
Her death has taken a life, an afterlife of its own.
And the clip we're now about to run, which will aggravate you, Shows the depth of American complicity in all of this.
Cut number two.
It's been over two weeks since Israeli forces attacked Hindorah Rab's family, killing her aunt, uncle, and cousins, leaving her trapped alone in her vehicle.
We heard her pleas to the Red Crescent Society.
Two medics were sent, all to be blown up allegedly by Israeli forces.
I wanted to ask about the status of the inquiry into this.
So I think that question is appropriately directed to the government of Israel.
I will say on behalf of the United States, we have made clear to them that we want that incident to be investigated.
Any updates on Hindorajab's investigation and the killing of Hindorajab's family and the paramedics sent to save her?
I don't have an update.
my understanding is that the investigation is ongoing.
So I'm wondering if you have updates on not just the investigations, but actual accountability measures in response to these.
And if not, how can this administration's approach of relegating things to months-long investigations while not changing policy, Secondly, it's been 101 days now since him, their job, her family members, the medics sent to Saver were killed.
So first question related to that, is there an update on the investigation into that attack?
I don't have anyone.
I'm happy to go back and get you the latest.
Okay, okay.
Is there an update into this investigation?
Let me get you an answer on that and come back to you.
Is it?
Really an independent investigation if the alleged culprits are the ones conducting the strike?
So what I said, we thought it's appropriate for the government of Israel to investigate.
Last month when myself and other colleagues asked about the investigation into this, the department said Israel said that they're still investigating and that Israel also said that the UN and Red Crescent did not respond to outreach from the Israeli government.
I reached out to the Red Crescent and they said that no, the Israeli government did not reach out.
Has the Biden-Harris administration followed up on this alleged lie by the Israeli government or sought to confirm any of Israel's claims on the half-year-old killing now of this girl and her family?
So, we are in touch with our partners in Israel around the clock on a variety of issues.
I don't have any specifics to read out as it relates to this conversation.
It's now 197 days since Hinder Jav was killed, her family members were killed, the medics said they were killed.
What's the update on that?
I don't have any updates for you.
This is one of the reasons why Ambassador Freeman calls this the least reputable Department of State in the post-World War II era.
What are your thoughts?
I mean, I'm furious.
This is outrageous behavior on the part of the United States government, on the part of the State Department.
These are trained liars.
I always worked with press representatives, press spokespersons, and they said, you know, we may not be able to tell you the truth because, you know, classification or sensitivity, etc., but we won't lie.
Here we have a case where they're just lying, straight out lying.
This administration will not hold Israel to account, cannot hold, is incapable of holding Israel to account, especially in the public information space.
And, you know, after a while, you know, Hen just becomes a name.
We forget who she was.
We forget how she died.
And that's the goal here.
The goal is to stretch this out so that our memories get dull, that the pain goes away.
And there's no greater insult to her death, to the murder, to the families of not just her, but the tens of thousands of children who have lost their lives in Gaza at the hands of practitioners of genocide, murderers armed and abetted and facilitated by the United States.
And that's half the problem.
Because if there was a genuine investigation into Henry Job's death, the United States would come out as...
We have allowed this to happen.
We have facilitated this happening.
We have done nothing to stop it.
And, you know, I wish there was justice in the world because there would be no greater justice than to see these two quote-unquote spokespersons be hauled before a court, an international tribunal, and held accountable for their lies.
Switching gears to Russia, who or what invaded Russia with the military incursion into the Kursk area?
Well, it's the government of Ukraine using a military force comprised of up to Italy.
This would have been a week ago, 18 separate units, whether they be brigades, regiments, independent battalions, etc.
Now, participating in this attack are Ukrainian units, including several who are notoriously affiliated with neo-Nazi political sentiments like Azov and others.
Also included are International Legion units, Georgians.
A large number of Polish mercenaries, French mercenaries, Americans, Australians, British.
And there's been a lot of speculation in the press that this was primarily a mercenary-driven unit.
I've spoken to a number of Russian war correspondents and military officers.
And yes, while there are mercenaries there, and the radio nets are filled with Polish, French, and English language.
The majority of the people that are being killed and captured in the Kursk area by the Russian army are Ukrainians.
The vast majority of the forces that went in are Ukrainian forces that have been organized, trained, equipped by NATO advisors and are fighting a NATO-style war.
But there is a definite foreign element, but it's not the majority of these forces.
Is it fair to say, as our friend Larry Johnson does, that because this was authorized and no doubt planned by CIA with the help of MI6, using American equipment, using American technicians to operate the equipment,
using American ammunition to kill Russian soldiers, and more likely than not with American persons, Whether they're CIA, outside contractors, soldiers of fortune, or full-time military in Ukrainian uniforms, another legal issue, that America, this is Larry's conclusion, the United States of America invaded Russia.
NATO invaded Russia, and that includes the United States.
One of the things that have come out of this is that the Russians have killed And so through interrogation, evaluation of captured material, the Russian military has concluded that the force that came in was organized unlike any Ukrainian force Russia has ever encountered in the past.
This force was organized to be the equivalent of the most advanced NATO.
fighting force with total informational awareness, the full integration of artificial intelligence, satellite connectivity, real-time interactions so that as the troops advance, they're getting real-time updates on where the Russians are and where the Russians aren't.
Artificial intelligence helped predict outcomes, designed the best of This allowed the Ukrainians to advance rapidly because normally you're probing the way.
This way, with this new connectivity, they're able to find the gap, shoot the gap, exploit the gap.
Communications are outstanding, which also leads to more effective fire support.
So these Ukrainians were more lethal, more capable.
This was a very, very good Ukrainian force that went into the Kursk area.
Why are the invaders still there, Scott?
I mean, this is really a question only the Russian Defense Ministry can answer.
You know, Optial Adonov, who is a Chechen general in the Russian Armed Forces, has basically said that the Ministry of Defense, Russian Ministry of Defense, lied so much.
About what was going on in Kurs that eventually they began to believe their lies and they deceived themselves.
The irony is just by monitoring Ukrainian telegram channels in the lead up to the invasion, the Kurs concursion, it was clear that this was going to happen.
I mean, civilians like myself were looking at it and just seeing that the Ukrainians were predicting this, projecting this.
Russian telegram channels were warning about this, and then it happened, and it seemed as if the Russian Ministry of Defense was taken by surprise.
And again, according to Opti Al-Adanov, they were.
His forces were some of the initial ones that came in to respond, and he has said that the first day was just confusing, chaotic, very difficult with these Ukrainian forces just maneuvering all over the place to try and bring some sort of cohesion to the battlefield.
By the second day, they were able to get things Calm down and be better defined.
But then the days that followed, he said, were very, very difficult days, very difficult fighting.
You know, now Russia has contained the advance and is in the process of eliminating the Ukrainians.
Optia has said they've inflicted horrific casualties on the Ukrainians, both in terms of personnel and material.
You know, the Russians have only responded.
The Ukrainians went in with about two divisions worth of troops, anywhere between 12 to, by some estimates, 30,000.
I think that's a very high number, but maybe 12 to 20,000.
The Russians have responded with two brigades, an airborne brigade, the 11th, and the 810th Marine Brigade, plus the Chechen Ahmad.
um you know special forces uh which is about a regiment in size so you know roughly half the the the russians have responded with half the manpower that ukraine has but now russia has terminated communications the the ukrainians can't communicate they're not they don't have the situational awareness they've isolated them and now they're in the business of hunting them down and killing them but in order to push them back You'd need to bring in significant forces,
which was one of the Ukrainian objectives to begin with, to get the Russians to divert troops from the Donbas front and bring them to respond to curse.
Because at the Donbas front, the Russians are killing it.
They are advancing rapidly.
The Ukrainians are in absolute collapse as we speak.
One Russian war correspondent who was on the front lines.
It's very likely that the Ukrainian forces in the Donbas will totally collapse and the Ukrainians will have no choice but to pull back behind the Dnieper River sometime in the near future.
That's basically the complete defeat of the Ukrainian forces.
So this was a gambit designed to get the Russians to slow down their advance by diverting significant forces up to Kursk.
Russia didn't take the bait.
They did send some troops, but just enough to contain this.
Russia is not going to allow Ukraine.
To achieve some sort of strategic advantage by this.
This is a political embarrassment for Russia.
Let there be no doubt about that.
This is a devastatingly political embarrassment.
But in terms of military, I'll let Abdul Adhanov speak.
He said, you know, he was always confident that Russians are going to win and then they'll must.
He believes that, you know, the fighting will reach its terminal phase sometime soon.
Russia will prevail.
But he said, I was always worried about the reserves.
Where are the reserves?
How are we going to get the reserves?
And he said, thank God the Ukrainians gave them to us.
And so Ukraine has taken its strategic reserves, put them into Kursk, and now Russia knows where they are and Russia's killing them.
And once they kill them, there's nothing left.
Let's go back to Kursk.
Have the Russians cut off supply lines from Ukraine to Kursk?
Or can these invaders still get...
My understanding is that the Russians have put a considerable amount of effort into seeking to denigrate and eliminate and suppress and cut Ukraine's logistical bases and lines of communication connecting them to the four deployed units.
According to the Russian officers who are doing the fighting, The Ukrainians are lacking their mobility because they've run out of gas.
In many cases, they're compelled to abandon their equipment and move into tree lines and into housing areas and dig in, awaiting some sort of reinforcement.
But as the Ukrainians bring troops, divert them from the front, because it's now the Ukrainians that are diverting troops from a front line that can't afford to have troops diverted, they're assembling and they're getting bombed.
The Russians have, you know, put in there what they call intelligence surveillance reconnaissance assets that are surveilling the Sumi area and anytime new forces come in they're being hit immediately by these glide bombs and as they seek to move into the cursed area they're being interdicted by artillery by Multiple rocket launchers, a lot of Iskander missiles, ballistic missiles, aircraft helicopters.
And so, you know, on occasion, a pickup truck may get through with some food and ammunition and maybe a couple five-gallon jerry cans of fuel.
But not the significant, sustainable, logistic supply that needs to occur.
Russia has effectively cut that off.
Is Zelensky crazy enough to have this invasion force?
Attack Russian nuclear facilities.
That appears to be one of the principal goals and objectives of this is to have these Ukrainians seize the Kursk nuclear power plant and then Zelensky would seek a trade, returning Kursk to the Russians in exchange for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant that is currently occupied by the Russians and is part of the new territory of Zaporizhia, which Russia has, you know, Next, following referendum in September 2022.
So that was the goal.
That was the objective.
But from everything the Russians have told me, the Ukrainians didn't even get close.
The nuclear power plant is very well defended.
And even its outer rings of defense weren't even approached.
The Ukrainians didn't even get that close, but that appears to be, according to the interrogation of Russian prisoners of war, Ukrainian prisoners of war and the documents seized by the Russians, that appears to be one of the main goals and objectives of this Kershk operation was the capture of the Kershk nuclear program.
I don't want to be disrespectful to people who might believe that, but to say that means you don't understand who Vladimir Putin is.
Putin doesn't work with pressure.
It's not how it operates.
He's the president of Russia.
You can have a conversation with Putin, but you can't pressure him.
Ask Purgosian how that worked out when he tried to pressure Putin.
It never works out.
So the idea that the Russian right Of course, they're out there speaking.
There is somewhat of a press-related safety valve that allows people to speak out on talk shows and on social media to be critical.
But the way Putin works isn't to have people come in and pressure him or threaten him.
The way he works is to sit down in conference and talk to people, listen to them.
Now, if there's members of the right there who are capable of having informed discussion, you know, responsible discussion, these ideas might get bounced off of Putin and he will consider them and he'll discuss with others.
But he's not a leader that is prone to panic and he's not a leader that's prone to pressure.
He's a leader that governs the way he governs in everything, where he sits down and he consults with The experts, he receives their reports, he asks questions, he gets answers, and then he comes up with solutions.
That's how he works.
So the idea that people are putting pressure on him to come down hard is wrong.
I'm sure Putin recognizes that this situation has changed and that he's already said that the negotiations are off the table.
That isn't going to happen.
And he's also implied that the final endgame solution for Ukraine will be to correct the mistake of Lenin, which was something he mentioned in one of his earlier speeches, that Ukraine only exists because Lenin created it during Bolshevik times, and that was a mistake.
And so he's basically implying that there will be no Ukraine when this is finished.
Now Ukraine continues to escalate.
They just blew up a oil storage facility in the Krasnodar region in Russia.
I think you're going to see Russia begin escalation, not because Putin's been pressured into doing this by the right, but because Putin, after consultations, agrees that what needs to happen now is that Russia needs to escalate the level of violence on Ukraine to punish Ukraine for attacking Kursk and attacking other parts of Russia proper.
However, This is a time period with which you are very familiar, May of 2013.
These clips involve a decent, peace-loving man whom you knew, and a colossal blowhard whom I don't think you ever met, but you'll know who these two are, and I think you'll...
This is back around the time when General Petraeus was arguing in favor of a surge.
Cut number 10. We say that her positions are radical, and they are radical.
Let me tell you what's radical.
What's radical is to send more Americans to die in this war, which is a monumental blunder by a president who's swaggered us into it, with, by the way, the at least tacit approval of the Democratic Party.
There's a lot of sin to go around here.
What's radical for you?
Do you want to send more people to this war?
Is that your position?
If we cut and run out of there like you want to do, we would be putting every American in a thousand times more jeopardy than they're in now.
We're going to cut and run anyway, Bill.
Well, that's your opinion.
That's my opinion.
American military leaders have said we're going to draw down beginning next year.
The difference is we've drawn down and cut pictures.
Now listen, listen.
You wouldn't send your children to this war, Bill.
My nephew just enlisted in the army.
You don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Very good.
Congratulations.
You ought to just walk away.
How many more young men and women?
Are you going to send to have their arms and legs blown off so that you can be tough and point at people in a kind of cowardly way?
And they knew that, first of all, only Congress can declare war.
Why is that unimportant to you, Billy?
Why can't you become the patriot that your loud voice proclaims to be and stand behind the Constitution and insist that we never go to war again without...
Poorly planned and poorly executed, but Bill O 'Reilly wants to send more kids to fight and die.
We've already had almost 2,000.
Just let me have the last word.
In the last year, two things have doubled.
The number of dead American troops in Iraq have doubled, from over 1,000 to almost 2,000.
You know what else doubled, Billy?
The price of Halliburton stock.
Wow.
Well, I actually know both of them.
I was on the Bill O 'Reilly show numerous times, and I have to tell you, if he had ever tried pointing his finger at me like that, he would have lost his hand live on set.
What ridiculous posturing.
I will say, first of all, Phil Donahue is just a...
the fact-based truth about the inadequacies of the case for war.
Against Iraq.
He was fired because of this.
And so he's a brave man.
But I will say this about Bill O 'Reilly.
He did that with me once, right before the war.
And he was on with, you know, I think General McInerney.
And they were just coming at me about Iraqi chemical weapons.
And I said, there are no chemical weapons in Iraq.
I know it because I was there.
None of you were there.
You simply don't know what you're talking about.
And O 'Reilly said, okay, Scott.
We're getting ready to go to war.
Now, when American troops cross into Iraq and Iraq responds with chemical weapons, will you come on this show and apologize to the American people?
I said, yes, absolutely.
But Bill, when American troops cross into Iraq and find out that there are no weapons of mass destruction, will you invite me back on your show and you apologize to the American people?
He said, yes, he would.
What was interesting is the summer went along and it became clear there were no weapons of mass destruction.
I kept getting calls from O 'Reilly's producer.
He said, Scott, Bill wants to bring you on, but the management won't let him.
Won't let him.
He hasn't forgotten what he said.
Bill O 'Reilly went on ABC's Good Morning America, and he said straight up, I told Scott Ritter that I'd bring him on and apologize to him, and they won't let me.
So I'm here right now to say, Scott Ritter was right, I was wrong, and I'm sorry.
So as much as I don't like Bill O 'Reilly sometimes, he was a man of honor in that case.
So I was in the green room when this happened because I was also on that show.
And when Donahue came out, we hugged each other.
And then I went on the set and I said, Bill, Phil just ate your lunch.
And he was furious.
He wanted to cancel my segment and throw me out of the studio.
Hothead par excellence.
But like you, I had a great relationship with him at one point.
I was his most frequent guest for a couple of years.
I was on three times.
But I thought you would appreciate that.
God rest your soul, Phil Donahue, a great human being, a great journalist, and a very big heart.
Boy, I loved what he said at the end.
You know what else went up?
Halliburton stock doubled the value of Dick Cheney.
Wow.
Scott, thank you very much.
Thanks for your time.
Thanks for everything you do for us.
We'll look forward to seeing you again next week, my friend.
Thanks for having me.
Of course, all the best.
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