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Oct. 29, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
25:05
CMD CMSgt Dennis Fritz :
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Wednesday, October 30th, 2024.
Our guest today is Dennis Fritz, a new friend of mine, a person whose work I have grown to admire the more I learn about it.
Chief Fritz was the Chief Master Sergeant, the highest ranking enlisted person in the United States Air Force.
He worked in the Pentagon.
He worked for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
When he left the military, he decided to write a book about the lies we were told to get us into the war in Iraq.
There's the book, Deadly Betrayal, Why the U.S. Invaded Iraq.
The Pentagon tried to stop him from publishing the book.
He went back and forth and reluctantly agreed to some redactions, but the guts of his argument is there.
And soon the guts of his argument will be here.
The Chief and I were privileged to work together on a panel put together by Scott Ritter at a gathering in New York City about which you've heard me speak.
The gathering was last Sunday.
Chief, what a pleasure.
Welcome to Judging Freedom.
I'm so happy to be here, Judge.
The pleasure is more of mine.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Chief, give us a little bit of your background in the military, and then I'm going to ask you a question or two about the Eisenhower Institute.
With which our friend and regular contributor and your colleague Matt Ho is also a member.
But tell us a little bit about your background that got you to the point where you were able to observe the lies and deceptions that got us into Iraq.
Well, thank you, Judge.
I spent some 28 years in the Air Force.
The majority of that time was in the Pentagon.
I had an unusual enlisted career where my first assignment in the Pentagon was in 1979, and I went back and forth to the Pentagon up until my retirement and then went back as a contract employee to the Pentagon up until 2022.
Now, with that said, being in the Pentagon, I had an opportunity to see a lot of policy as it was established.
After 9-11, I was assigned to Andrews Air Force Base at the time, and like all of us, we were all shot by 9-11, and we were really ready to go and what we would call defend our nation, country.
But after 9/11 and our invasion of Afghanistan, we started seeing operation orders of mobilizing and going to Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.
And that shocked me.
As stated, I spent some 28 years in the Air Force, had been around Intel Sure, sure.
As a senior enlisted leader in our Air Force, not seeing the so-called intel that would really be directing us to Iraq, I started asking questions from my many years of being at the Pentagon.
I stated earlier, over half of my career was spent at the Pentagon.
I started asking questions of folks that were assigned to the Joint Staff.
A number of those folks had worked for me in previous assignments in Space Command and the Pacific Air Forces Command.
And nobody could tell me about the intel.
That showed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
And so I started getting concerned about that as troops would come to me and say, hey, why are we going to Iraq?
And so as an enlisted man, as a senior enlisted leader, I could not resign, but I could retire because I just couldn't see myself sending troops off to war, one that I didn't believe in and one I didn't see.
Chief, actually, before I ask you why we were in Iraq to begin with, what did the Pentagon try and stop you from saying in your book?
What were they afraid that the public might learn?
Well, let me just phrase it like this, Judge.
Many people say I shouldn't say this, but I consider myself a poor man's Daniel Ellsberg.
And for those of you who don't remember Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers is what he's known for.
He released a classified number of correspondents that showed that the American people were being lied to in regards to the Vietnam War.
Well, likewise, As part of my duty, I was assigned, almost like Daniel Ellsberg, to a project where I had access to every pre-planning document preceding the Iraq War and Afghanistan wars.
The difference between Daniel Ellsberg and myself was that he released classified top-secret documents, whereas my job was to review all these documents, to recommend them for declassification.
And from there, I saw where the lies were actually taking place, where the American people would be lied to why we went into Iraq.
And I decided, as I saw such people as I was working for at the time, Doug Feith, who was the number three guy in the Pentagon, they decided that, listen, because of the historical significance and the controversy of the Iraq war, we better start declassifying some of these documents, you know, for the public.
Well, I come to find out that was not even the case.
The case was, we declassified these documents, as many have said, we cherry-picked intel to go to war.
Well, that's what Doug Feith was doing.
He was cherry-picking He was cherry-picking documents.
I decided that I was going to follow suit and write my own book as we cherry-picked.
He cherry-picked the documents we were going to declassify.
As we started to classify it more, I realized there was really a story to tell, to show the lies and deceit that our government was doing.
In regards to our reaction.
Good question, Judge.
No.
And we knew that he didn't have weapons of mass destruction.
And that is why you've heard stories about the Pentagon creating its own intelligence cell.
The Defense Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of the Pentagon, was telling Wolfowitz and Fyfe there was no WMD to be found.
Also, likewise, the CIA was telling there is no WMD to be found.
But after 9-11, in order to go to Iraq, they had to find a legitimate reason for us to invade another country.
And so they were going to find some way to say that, hey, he had WMD.
And what did they do?
They used people like Shalabi.
I'm sure you've heard that name before.
He was head of the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group.
And he used a person called Curveball, who was in Germany.
And Germany had already said that, hey, this guy cannot be trusted.
But those were the two sources we used, Shalabi and a code named Curveball, to justify going to war and saying that he indeed had WMD.
What is the true reason?
That the government wanted to invade Iraq if it was not to prevent Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction.
Actually, before we get there, even if he had weapons of mass destruction, that could hardly be a basis for invading, could it?
Israel has weapons of mass destruction.
We have weapons of mass destruction.
India and Pakistan have weapons.
Judge, what another great question.
As I stated years ago, even if he had WMD, so what?
He was still no threat to us.
But once again, as I was greeted a little too, 9-11 was used as a justification.
we were already a scared public because of the fact of what happened to the twin towers and the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.
So 9-11 was used as fear that if he had WMD.
Now, you ask the question, well, why with him being no threat, will we plan on going to war?
Well, Judge, it ties into what is going on today.
Bibi Netanyahu has always wanted But he couldn't do it alone.
But even when he was a finance minister back in the early 2000s, before he became prime minister again, he was planning with others in the Likud party that we were going to go in and take out Hamas and Hezbollah, and we were going to do it the way he is doing it right now.
But at the time, when the Bush administration came in, in 2001, they held him off and said, we could do the dirty trick for you.
And so the plan of Iraq, to go into Iraq, was part of the master plan to take out Saddam, to take out Assad in Syria, and to take out the al-Tollah in Iran.
Now, why were they doing this?
Well, it was on behalf of Israel.
And why did we pick Iraq first?
We're under the Clinton administration.
We had what we call a regime change policy.
They had convinced through the old PNAC think tank that we must take out Saddam for credibility because we had a regime change policy under President Clinton, which he didn't do.
And so we decided that we had somewhat legit grounds to take out Iraq as part of the master plan.
Now, why were we doing that?
As you can see, it's what's happening today in Gaza and now Lebanon as well.
The Bush administration at the time and the neocons that was working with Bibi Netanyahu in the Pentagon, they knew we couldn't take the condemnation of the killing and the mass killings of women and children.
And so the Bush administration, Doug Feist, Paul Wolfridge, and Donald Rumsfeld came out with this plan.
Also, some other nations may not have heard before.
Even Newt Gingrich was part of this and Richard Pearl.
plan that we can't go in and just kill innocent women and children with urban warfare.
What we're going to do, we're going to take out the leaders who were funding Hamas and Hezbollah.
And once we take those leaders out, once again, Saddam, Assad, and Iran, we would be able to do whatever we wanted to do in convincing the Palestinians that they had no choice but to make peace, because those countries.
And also, by the way, if Hezbollah and Hamas didn't have that funding and those weapons being given to them by those countries, there will be no way that the Palestinians could defend themselves.
Chief, what was accomplished by invading Iraq?
And if you and I were to ask enlisted Formerly enlisted, now veterans, what were you fighting for?
What would the answer be?
Well, the answer would be, there is no reason that we went to Iraq.
There is no reason to be trying to go to war in Iran, because it's not in the defense of our nation.
We talked about the book I wrote, Deadly Betrayal.
I have a chapter in there called Ponds of Foreign Policy.
We in the military...
And what are those interests?
Well, those interests are usually imperialism, just being able to control the resources of other countries.
And our military are being used in support of that imperialistic agenda.
And we resent that.
We signed up to support our country in defense of our country and our Constitution, not to be policing the world.
And the reason behind that, the younger generation are more of a critical thinkers than we were.
You know, we were indoctrinated to go into the military to defend our country.
Well, that's not the case.
We realize, especially the young folks, with the introduction of social media, that is indeed not the case.
We're put in to police the world and to carry out lying, deceitful political agendas in foreign policy, and our military is being used as pawns.
Chief, this is a very courageous, insightful, fascinating, and in my view, totally accurate analysis from a unique individual, you, who spent most of your adult life.
In the military.
Talk to us a little bit about classified documents.
Is everything that's classified truly a national state secret?
Or is some of it just an embarrassment that the government prefers to keep from the public and so it stamps classified on the document?
Judge, you can take this to the bank.
It's about classifying certain documents to prevent embarrassment.
Of our government and certain individuals.
I've worked around top secret since I was the age of 22. And I was a top secret control officer.
And I controlled top secret documents.
And I can tell you in a lot of cases, and I'm sure you've seen this in the open press, we overly classify documents.
And in most cases, it's to prevent embarrassment or to conceal lies and deceit.
Now, we tend to use the word government, but we must understand, Judge, that people make up government.
The United States is designed to be a fair and humane government.
But it's people that get into office.
And that's why voting and watching the platforms and agendas of people that wish to be in government, because it's the people with bad intentions that causes us to make bad decisions like going into Iraq.
And as we're doing right now, supporting and providing the arms and weapons and financial support and diplomatic cover for Israel right now in the inhumane, So it's people that get into office that corrupt our government.
Our government is designed to be good, but it's people that get into government with bad intentions.
Chief, do the Palestinian people in Gaza, do the Palestinian people in Lebanon, do the Iranian people in Iran Well, to the national security of the United States.
let me explain it this way.
No, but.
But.
I want you to think about this for a moment, Judge, in your audience.
If you know that the United States of America is supporting Right.
Well, yes, you would.
And so the reason, if our national security is at risk, is it's because of the support.
And it's always been the case.
Whether you go back to 9-11 and if you go back to bin Laden, it has always been the case.
It is our national security and our agenda.
That are putting us at risk.
Let's go back.
If we were not supporting the humane things that Israel is doing right now, no.
The Palestinian people are loving people.
They're not a threat to us, but what causes us to have a national security possibility of having that threat from them is because of the fact our support of the killing, as I stated again, of their moms, their dads, their brothers and sisters.
Our friend and colleague, whom you know, former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles Freeman, is fond of saying in a very, very pithy way, the problem with searching the world for monsters to slay is that the monsters have a way of following you home.
Well said.
Do you think 9-11 was an inside job?
Do you think some government, Israeli, Saudi, or even US, Knew it was coming before it happened?
Judge, I have this statement I always make.
I can give you facts, I can give you opinions, and I can give you assumptions.
I don't know if it was an inside job.
I don't know.
But what I can tell you that is fact, and you take this to the bank, neocons in the Pentagon, when 9-11 happened, Think about what I just said.
Okay, why do you say that, Chief?
Because it gave them a rationale and a justification to start their master plan of invading Iraq, Syria, and Iran later.
Because, as I stated earlier, 9-11 scared all of us.
We had never seen anything like that since Pearl Harbor.
And so they knew then they can use the justification of 9-11 and start this so-called war on terror by way, we cannot never let this happen on our land again.
And so this is fact right here.
That gave them the justification to actually invade and start their master plan and invade Iraq first because of 9-11.
And likewise, if you look at today, when I say all this ties into today, you've heard Bibi Netanyahu mention October 7th is our 9-11.
It gave him justification.
Oh, by the way, it didn't work our way when we were going to take out the leaders and the funding, those that were funding Hamas and Hezbollah.
October 7th gave Bibi Netanyahu to do it his way because October 7th was their quote-unquote 9-11.
Chief, I promised I would play this for you.
While you and Colonel Wilkerson and Scott Ritter and I We're addressing a group of like-minded anti-war activists on the east side of Manhattan.
A madman was addressing about 25,000 people over on the west side.
You'll know who he is in an instant.
This is about a minute long.
I'd love your comments on what he had to say.
Chris, cut number four.
I worked for Ronald Reagan for eight years.
Ronald Reagan said, "We have to be there for Israel always because they are always there for us!" Hamas is not there for us!
Iran is not there for us!
They want to kill us!
And the Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old!
They won't let a Palestinian in Jordan.
They won't let a Palestinian in Egypt.
And Harris wants to bring them to you.
They may have good people.
I'm sorry, I don't take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at two.
I'm on the side of Israel.
You're on the side of Israel.
Donald Trump's on the side of Israel.
And they're on the side of the terrorists!
What is the origin of any kind of an argument that Iran wants to attack America and that Iranian people want to kill Americans?
Judge, it goes back to what I said earlier.
The Iranians, they do not hate America.
Under their law, they try to emulate us.
They love Americans, but they don't love our foreign policy.
Let me talk about Iran for a moment.
After 9-11, Iran tried to support us, help us.
They wanted to befriend us.
But you know why that didn't happen?
It was because of the fact of Israel and the Israeli lobby.
Because of their imperialistic goals of controlling the Middle East is why we cannot be friends to Iran.
Iran has nothing against us, the people against us, but it's our government and our foreign policy and how it's being swayed by the Israeli lobby.
And that's frank and that's candid.
In regards to Palestinian people hating America, and that is not true, that is a lie.
Now I must admit now, if you see what's going on today, you see young children who's losing their mom and dads and grandparents, of course.
They're not going to ever forget that, Judge.
They're not going to ever forget that.
But they're not raised to hate Americans.
Now, in some cases, yeah, there are some schools that are trained to say, hey, the Israelis, they're our enemy.
Well, guess what?
If you're a refugee, you don't have the freedoms that others have, well, you will perceive them as your enemy.
And guess what?
We're creating more Hatred of Israel and goes back to what you said earlier.
How about our national security?
How does it impact our national security?
Well, once again, it does impact our national security because we are complicit in what is going on in Gaza and what is going on in Lebanon right now.
The book is Deadly Betrayal, The Truth About Why the United States Invaded Iraq.
The author is Chief Master Sergeant Dennis Fritz, who I hope will become a regular on this show.
Chief, what a pleasure.
Pleasure meeting you, a pleasure getting to know you, and a pleasure being able to interview you.
I hope you'll come back and visit with us again soon.
I sure will, Judge.
You just call me and I'll be there.
And thank you so much.
Thank you.
All the best.
Coming up at 1 o 'clock this afternoon, Eastern, on all these same topics.
Our pal, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski.
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