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Oct. 18, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
28:11
INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern - Weekly wrap-up
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Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
It's the end of the day and the end of the week.
It's Friday, October 18th, 2024.
Time for the Intelligence Community Roundtable with my two dear friends, colleagues, and collaborators who do double duty every week, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern.
Gentlemen, welcome here.
Thank you very much for your time.
Larry, to you first, what is your view?
On the word spread by the PR machine in Kiev that there are troops from North Korea on the ground prepared to fight with Russia.
You can't make this up.
Well, I guess you can only make it up.
And some of them have defected to Ukraine.
Great.
Where are they?
Let's see them.
Bring them out.
Let's have them make a Korean barbecue.
One of my favorite foods, by the way.
Yeah, this thing is so nonsensical.
Number one, why would the Russians want to bring in a bunch of North Korean troops who don't speak Russian?
Because the odds of finding an entire battalion, much less a brigade, of Russian-speaking North Koreans is highly unlikely.
So that gets down to the problem of order on the battlefield.
All this was was another one of Zelensky's desperate attempts to convince the United States that you've got to intervene.
I mean, it's Iranians, it's North Koreans.
You know, if the West was really worried about Martian invasion, we'd also hear that it was Martians that had showed up.
Ray, wouldn't American intel know if North Korean troops were there?
Most likely, Judge, but I looked up the source of this.
It's an Iranian PBS radio station, so I paid no more heed to it.
It's ridiculous.
The presence of North Korean soldiers is ridiculous, or the allegation that some of them defected is ridiculous?
Both, both.
There would be none there, as Larry explained.
They don't need them.
There are all kinds of attempts by Zelensky to up the ante here by saying, you know, the Iranians are sending missiles and North Koreans are sending people and who else?
You know, the New Zealanders are sending, you know, it's just really crazy.
So it's not worth researching beyond what I found out.
I would think, Larry, it would be humiliating to Putin if he had to ask another country for manpower to join.
It would also be absurd given the massive numbers of young men that are voluntarily, the opposite of what's happening in Ukraine, that are voluntarily lining up for military service.
Well, it probably wouldn't be so much with Putin.
It would be with the actual commanding generals, the general staff, the Stavka.
They're the ones going to, you know, that are really responsible for training and fielding the army and dealing with these military threats.
It's just, again, it's all part of this desperate Western narrative to portray the Russians as losing so we can justify spending more money, pouring more money into that black hole, which is Ukraine, and at the same time, trying to keep up the pretense until the election has passed.
Once the election has passed, then they'll probably take the mask off and say, okay, yeah, they're losing, they're getting beat.
That's why, I mean, you know, today's meeting in Germany with Biden and Schultz and apparently Starmer showed up and Macron showed up, you know.
And, you know, they're going to probably break out a bottle of booze and drink themselves into while they sob on the table because their whole Ukrainian project is growing up in smoke.
Wouldn't there...
you know, dial it back, guys.
Zelensky's not going to last much longer.
Well, it's very clear from Zelensky's own speech, you know, his revealing of his victory plan, that he's still delusional and he has illusions that he could possibly hang on beyond our election.
The whole name of the game now, and we just learned yesterday that Biden's giving him $425 million more to hang in there for three more weeks.
The Germans, the French, the British can't give them anymore because they don't have it.
The weaponry has been exhausted.
It's just a matter of whether he can last until after our election.
And that's the whole name of the game here.
It's really embarrassing to have these four people, the US, German, French, and British, kind of in a little council of non-war.
Another non-war in the sense that how can we keep this going just till after the election before everyone knows that Ukraine and we have lost definitively?
That's what this is all about.
And maybe Biden still has the delusion that the U.S. and NATO and Ukraine can win.
But that's because he is delusional.
Larry, yesterday, Gilbert Doctorow said, if you will, and that all of them will be killed.
Have you seen that anywhere in the American media?
Oh, no.
No.
They're keeping hope alive.
But, yeah, the Ukrainian Russians have effectively imposed what's called a cauldron, a tea kettle, surrounding the Ukrainian forces.
And, you know, again, the Russian approach is to try to minimize their own casualties.
So they're not charging in recklessly.
They're not launching human wave assaults.
They're trying to pinpoint where these guys are and hit them with bombs, hit them with artillery, hit them with drones.
And then, you know, go in and mop up.
So, you know, there are no rush.
And it is, the key thing is that these are Ukrainian forces that Ukraine couldn't afford to lose.
Was this a General Kavali, who's the commander of, I think he's the commander of all troops in Europe, NATO and American.
Was this his brainchild, Larry?
Reportedly, at least he's getting the blame for it.
Now, whether or not it really was, at least, you know, he sits atop the pyramid, so that's naturally where the blame should rest.
But, you know, there is such a...
It's not just one service.
It's a failure of leadership across the board.
We're starting to get more and more examples.
Just a quick side note.
You remember those two Navy SEALs that died trying to board a ship carrying Iranian weapons?
There was a report out about them this week, wasn't there?
Yeah, so the report was issued, and it is a stunner.
Because what it identifies is these guys were being asked to do something they had never been trained to do.
They had never trained at night to scale that ladder.
It's a very narrow ladder in heavy seas.
Never!
And yet, their commanders thought it a good idea to send out.
This report is such a damning indictment of the chain of command in the Navy SEALs.
And that's why I come back to, we're not looking at this as isolated problem.
Oh, it's just Ukraine.
It's across the board.
It is across the board.
Our military has an endemic corruption.
And instead of dealing with it, we make up stories about the Russians.
Ray, wouldn't CIA, MI6, I don't know, was Mossad there, have advised against this Korsk catastrophe?
Well, you know, you have various factions, Judge.
MI6 seems to be in it full bore.
Mossad wouldn't have much to say about it.
It's factions within the U.S., namely the can-do COVID action guys, the same ones that blew up Nord Stream.
They can do if they're asked to do, and they say, well, sure, we can do this.
And not only the intelligence services, but the Army itself.
Now, I belonged to the Army at one point.
At one point, we had really great respect for the Army Corps of Engineers, right?
So when Biden said, hey, the Israelis won't let our trucks into those entry points in Gaza, let's build a pier.
And can you do that?
Can do, Mr. President.
give me a break.
The pier fell apart within one month, and now it's been towed to some ashkod, some port in Israel.
So, you know, they say it can do, but then they can't do.
And then, you know, the blame is not assigned to anybody until years later.
And it's, well, this, the head of the Corps of Engineers was killed.
According to Alistair Crook, well, according to one of his sources, Sinwar was found above ground wearing a combat vest and a helmet with an AK by his side together with two of his bodyguards.
He was not hiding in a tunnel, nor was he hiding among civilians or Israeli hostages.
He was beside his own fighters right at the confrontation with the IDF.
After all these months, he was not killed by an airstrike or a targeted assassination.
An Israeli soldier found his body by complete coincidence after firing mortars at Hamas fighters in the area.
And I will add, even though Netanyahu boasted that he was found in a tunnel.
Yeah.
Well, the fact, discovering that Netanyahu's a liar is...
I'm glad I was sitting down for that.
Look, Israel labors under the false hope that they can kill their way to peace.
That peace is going to be achieved because they're going to kill every last living Palestinian.
Or kill enough of them so that the others will run away and say, hey, we give up.
Well, all we have to do is look at what happened with Hezbollah.
They killed the top leadership of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
While he was trying to go, you know, seriously negotiating a ceasefire to end the fighting.
They thought, oh, killing him, boy, that'll kill Hezbollah.
And what's happened since then?
Hezbollah has killed, since the death of Nasrallah, Hezbollah has killed more Israeli soldiers in the last two weeks than they killed in the previous six months.
So think about that.
It's not really a good trade-off for Israel.
Israel is, the body count, the casualties on the Israeli side are mounting.
And despite all their tough talk, they can't sustain a war of attrition.
That's the very last thing Israel is built and designed for.
And so, as these losses mount, and they're going to continue, if they flood back into Gaza, there are going to be new Hamas fighters shooting them, killing them.
Wounding them.
And that's, you know, the other thing of comparison.
Just think of this.
In September and August, the Russians captured territory that's twice the size of the Gaza Strip.
Here we are 14 months since Israel started its offense against Hamas, and the Israeli army, mighty as they are reported to be, can't secure that.
Just tells you the difference.
Ray, would, well, strike that.
What do we know about the Kremlin and Tehran and their joint defense agreement?
They haven't signed it yet.
Are they likely to sign it at BRICS next week?
Well, what we have is the Iranian president, Iskashian, saying he hopes.
That it will be signed at Brex in Kazan, which begins just in five days.
Now, before that, it was a full expectation.
And that's my point here.
Why does he say he hopes?
Well, I think the Russians are holding back here and saying, look, we don't want to get involved in a full scale regional war in the Middle East.
If we sign this thing as tantamount to a defense treaty, we don't want to do that until we assure that you're going to not start things or that you're not going to reply to what the Israelis do in such a way as to spark a war, not only with Israel, but probably with the United States.
So, be good!
Come to BRICS, come to Kazan, and we'll see.
Maybe we'll deal, maybe we won't.
So what I'm saying is there's uncertainty with respect to who signs this, whether they signed it in Kazan, whereas before it was a done deal.
So it's all concluded it's going to be...
I'm sure they're making it known to U.S. counterparts, probably through Secretary Austin, who has a direct link with the defense minister in Russia, that, look, they're trying to rein in the Iranians.
Would you please try to rein in your Israeli compatriots?
Because this is really getting out of hand.
We'll see what happens.
That bricks just starts in a few days.
Larry, if...
Well, I think he'll first let Iran do what it's capable of doing, which means Iran will hit.
If the U.S. is directly involved, then Iran, I think, will effectively shut down the Persian Gulf.
They'll hit U.S. military bases both in Qatar, the Al-Adid Air Force Base in particular, as well as bases that are up in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq.
So it will be, you know, I think Iran, frankly, is capable without Russian assistance of doing significant damage both to the U.S. interests as well as to Israel.
If Israel goes forward with this attack, Iran is going to respond.
They're not going to sit back and think about it and talk it over.
They've already made it clear that whatever Israel strikes, Iran will strike the same target.
It'll be tit for tat.
And it will escalate.
And then it remains to be seen what Israel can do, because Israel at this point, I don't think, is going to be just having to worry about attacks from Iran.
I think Hezbollah will step up with its intensity and use some weaponry that we've not seen yet on the battlefield.
And the Houthis as well have vowed that they're going to step it up.
So, you know, Israel has really hit a hornet's nest now, and if they really shake it up some more, they're going to get stung.
Ray, I'm going to play Prime Minister Netanyahu chastising the United Nations for not getting UNIFIL the hell out of the way.
And then I'll ask you your thoughts and you can tell us what the Irish said and did.
We know what the Chinese did.
There's 400 Chinese troops and they basically defied the Israelis.
We can play that clip as well.
But let's watch this one, guys.
Chris, cut number seven.
The charge that Israel deliberately attacked UNIFIL personnel is completely false.
It's exactly the opposite.
Israel repeatedly asked UNIFIL to get out of harm's way.
Israel is not fighting UNIFIL.
It's not fighting the people of Lebanon.
It is fighting Iran's proxy Hezbollah, which uses Lebanese territory to attack Israel.
Hezbollah uses UNIFIL facilities and positions as cover.
While it attacks Israeli cities and communities, we regret any harm done to UNIFIL personnel, and the IDF is doing its utmost to prevent such incidents.
But the best way to ensure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to heed Israel's requests and to temporarily get out of harm's way.
The charge that Israel deliberately attacked UNIFIL is completely false.
It's exactly the opposite.
So I guess he's claiming Unifil attacked the...
Well, ironically, the UNIFIL is armed, and they are authorized under Security Council resolution to shoot back.
Now, that hasn't happened yet, but neither has the Secretary General of the UN kind of caved to this demand.
Now, in harm's way, in harm's way, who's doing the harm?
When they tried to take the Irish contingent out there, they were face down, even though they had six tanks.
Now, the head of the Irish army in Dublin commented that, look, these people shoot at these watchtowers, and they shoot with such accuracy that they have to be intentional.
And when our guards, not Irish, but other UNIFIL guards, fall off these watchtowers and get hurt, Well, that's deliberate, okay?
So what he's doing is deliberate.
It's really interesting to see that not much more has happened, at least to my knowledge, over the last few days.
Whether he will shoot up the rest of UNIFIL, I doubt it.
I think the UN for once may stand firm.
Here's the Chinese commander, gentlemen.
At present, the conflict between Lebanon and Israel is intermittently escalating.
Due to the ongoing combat, several camps of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon have suffered damage.
Additionally, a portion of our peacekeeping comrades have been injured.
We continue to make every effort to maintain peace and stability in the region.
What is President Xi to think if the IDF shoots and kills some Chinese peacekeeping?
Troops, Larry.
Well, it's going to escalate this, I think, significantly, because remember, China is already with a, let's call it a de facto defense arrangement with Iran.
China has been conducting joint naval military exercises with Russia and Iran in the Persian Gulf, near the Straits of Hermos.
For five years, the past five years.
They've also conducted some ground operations.
And watching, observing what China's comments have been at the UN Security Council.
They've been scathing with respect to Israel's conduct.
So, for inflicting casualties on Chinese troops, I think is just going to guarantee that Israel's position vis-a-vis China is going to become much, much worse.
I don't think, you know, China Ray, here's the Liberal Party leader in the British Parliament calling for UK sanctions on Israel using some very strong and
interesting language.
Chris, cut number 10. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich had said that starving two million people in Gaza might be justified and moral.
National Security Minister Ben-Gavir called settlers who killed a 19-year-old on the West Bank heroes.
After my visit to Israel and Palestine last February, having witnessed the damage that these extremist ministers in the Netanyahu government are doing, I called on the last government to sanction them.
The last government refused, but we now learn that the former Foreign Secretary was considering this.
So will the Prime Minister now sanction the Ministers Ben-Gavir and Smotrich?
We are looking at that because they're obviously abhorrent comments, as he rightly says, along with other really concerning activity in the West Bank, but also across the region.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire.
The death toll has surpassed 42,000, and access to basic services is becoming much harder.
And Israel must take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties, to allow aid into Gaza in much greater volume, and provide the UN and humanitarian partners the ability to operate effectively.
Mr Speaker, along with France, the UK will convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address them.
Lip service, Ray?
Abhorrent and dire.
Yes, rhetoric.
Rhetoric only.
They're only going to do what Biden tells them to do.
They're joined at the hip with the U.S. The British, you know, at one point, threatens to end military aid to Israel, and it turned out it was about 10%, 15%.
I don't know what the situation is now.
They don't have much military aid to give.
But unless, well, we'll see what happens.
If the British and the French join with the Russians and the Chinese, okay, at the Security Council, well, thank God for the UN.
there still is a possibility that the Security Council will move in such a way that the U.S. will not be able to veto it this time and will have to acquiesce in authorizing extreme measures against Israel.
As we end,
you can't see the guy, but a Max Blumenthal type with a microphone and a camera approached these American and Israeli arms dealers.
And said, we're looking for baby shredders.
Do you guys have any?
Watch the reaction and watch what happens to him.
Excuse me, is this where the baby killing technology is?
This is the baby killing technology?
We're trying to acquire a couple of baby shredders?
This guy looks like he shreds babies, sir.
Do you shred babies?
Sir, do you know where the baby shredding technology is?
We're looking for someone that shreds them to pieces.
You have that?
We're with Levantine Defense Industries.
Sir, sir, you have that tech, sir?
Can you please move from here?
Can I?
Yeah.
You have the baby shredding tech.
Sir, don't touch my phone.
Sir, don't touch my phone.
Stepping towards me, sir.
Sir, relax, sir.
Sir, you need to relax.
This is America.
You're a foreign citizen.
Can you please go ahead?
I got you, sir.
But there's no reason for you to be here, and we don't need a problem.
In a public accommodation in a building owned by the government, the security guards are suppressing protected speech satire.
Larry?
This is the AUSA conference, the annual Army conference held in Washington, D.C. There was some other news that came out of it that one of my friends is actually attending, and he said that The Biden administration has frozen all cells of Patriot missiles to 17 countries,
and they've removed from the contract that they could resupply them because they're out.
They're literally out of missiles and trying to figure out what to do.
But no, you know, this is...
Any sense of humor or irony about what he was saying?
Yeah, I would add, Judge, that Lockheed, if you're invested in Lockheed instead of gold, your stock went up 58% the last year.
Now, what does Lockheed make?
They make lots of stuff, but they also make those 2,000-pound bombs.
Several of which it took to get down into the basement to kill the head of Hisbola Nasrallah.
So, you know, these guys are making hand over fist.
They don't like people to call them on these things, but they are, you know, doing this for money, and that's the military-industrial complex that I warned about in spades.
Gentlemen, thank you very much.
Been a long week for all of us.
Much appreciated.
Look forward to seeing both of you back with us on Monday morning.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks, Judge.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching, my dear friends.
All of your favorites will be back with us next week.
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