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Dec. 18, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
26:08
Phil Giraldi : Biden’s Marching Orders
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Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Wednesday, December 18th, 2024.
Phil Giraldi joins us now.
Phil, always a pleasure, my dear friend.
And in advance of saying goodbye for the Christmas holiday, thank you very much for all the time and all the analysis that you have given us.
Much appreciated by the audience, by our team, and not least of all by me.
This may seem the understatement of the age, but is United States foreign policy directed by Israel?
Well, I think you'd have to qualify that a little bit.
You'd have to say that certain aspects of US foreign policy are dictated by Israel.
But given even that, I would point out that the two aspects of that foreign policy that Israel seems to have a big say in, Would be the two wars that are going on right now that the United States did not have to get involved in and only got involved in at least in one case completely for Israel and the other case with Israel as a cheerleader for what was going on up in Ukraine for various reasons.
So the two big issues that would really disturb me as Israel's malign influence over the United States would be the wars that we've gotten into.
You can even go back to Iraq.
That was something that was pushed and successfully pushed by neocons who were very in the Pentagon and the White House, who were very closely connected with the Israeli government, who succeeded in selling a bogus list of goods.
To condemn Iraq, which led to a war which killed half a million people.
So this is not exactly like just saying, "Oh yeah, Israel has a lot of influence in the United States."
It goes way beyond that.
It kills people.
It's killed 200,000 people in Gaza, and it's continuing to kill them every day.
Can any American president resist the pressure?
To march in lockstep, I'm using a Phil Giraldi phrase, with Benjamin Netanyahu or whoever is the Prime Minister of Israel.
Well, I would have to say that certainly the only recent president who had an unpleasant or an uncomfortable relationship with Israel would have been, well,
actually, we'd have to go back probably.
To George Bush Sr., who had a difficult relationship with him.
And Barack Obama was uncomfortable with Netanyahu.
But apart from that, we can wait now a few weeks and we will see exactly how the new president, who of course has already established a track record with Israel of total surrender, we'll see how he deals with The post-Biden situation and the two wars that Biden has left us with.
What is the Israeli interest in the Ukraine war, Phil?
That's more a philosophical war for them.
pogroms going on every week, and these were instigated by the government.
A lot of that is nonsense, as most of this kind of fall history seems to be.
And in this case, it definitely is that way.
You should read some of the stuff Solzhenitsyn has written to debunk these accounts.
But the Jews in Russia, when the Soviet Revolution succeeded, took over many of the security positions and led a lot of what you might call pogroms against Christians in Russia and Eastern Europe to the tune of something like five million Christians being killed in the early years after the Soviet Revolution took over.
And these were people like Dzerzhinsky who founded the KGB.
They killed plenty of Christians.
But this is the kind of victimization narrative that has succeeded with Israel in blaming everyone else for what goes on but the Israelis.
Switching topics, the assassination of General Kirillov in front of his home at 6:15 in the morning on a snow-covered sidewalk in Moscow.
Is there any legitimate, moral, legal, military purpose to this?
I would think not.
He certainly will be succeeded by someone who knows what he was doing and to keep the continuity going in his efforts.
But I think the story that, of course, is emerging is that this was a guy who was looking very carefully into the stories about...
U.S.-funded laboratories producing biological agents in Ukraine.
And so he was one of the people that was exposing that story.
And there's some feeling that maybe this was a part of the narrative that got him killed, that certain parties from certain countries did not want to see more of this kind of stuff coming out.
So that's possibly the case.
But there's also been, in terms of some of the material I've been seeing, pretty good evidence that the Ukrainians do have some assets, some spies, some sources within the Russian military.
And it could be quite true that it was the Ukrainians who planned this, did the intel on it, and carried it out for reasons of their own.
Well, you and others on this program have opined that the Ukrainian intel doesn't do anything without the knowledge and approval of their masters in MI6 and CIA.
I mean, is it conceivable that they would have killed a general of this person's rank without at least informing, if not soliciting, the approval of MI6 and CIA?
Yeah, because my underlying suspicion would be that some of the intel, the high-level electronic intel that tells intelligence services where particular individuals will be at particular times,
this could well have come from MI6 or CIA.
Sure.
And what do you think?
The response will be from the Kremlin.
They surely know the relationship between Ukrainian intel and MI6 and CIA.
Well, I think this is another one of those situations where Putin and the people advising him are going to suggest that there be a commensurate response.
Now what that will consist of Would suggest to me that it might...
And let's also consider the fact that there's been another strike into Russia over the past week using the U.S. provided missiles and the U.S. provided intelligence and techniques.
So there are other issues too.
I would have a feeling that there might be well contemplated some kind of strike into...
Say, NATO installations or NATO troops in perhaps Poland.
Switching over to Syria, it appears that it's being divided up between the Turks and the Israelis with some residue remaining for this character, Al Jelani.
Funded by the CIA, trained by the CIA, but condemned by the State Department with a $10 million bounty on his head and his organization being denominated as a terrorist organization.
I guess it would be the height of naivete if I asked you if the CIA has any qualms about providing material assistance to a terrorist organization, even though that is a direct violation of federal law.
And there are human beings serving 20-year terms here in the U.S. for having done so.
Yeah, I think this is one of the real ironies, although that's too polite a word, that we're seeing in terms of how the United States is behaving in these two conflicts.
And yeah, we're basically, here's Syria, a country which did not threaten or does not threaten The United States in any way.
We occupy a third of their territory, the most productive part of their territory.
We've sanctioned them to the point where their economy is totally destroyed.
And then we've stirred everything up by taking genuine terrorists and training them and equipping them and sending them off on their mission to bring the government down.
So we're doing all these things.
We're doing assassinations, which we're having people in charge who are doing torture, which is illegal, as you point out.
And all these things happen and there are no consequences for the people who are setting these things up and doing them.
I mean, this has become quite ridiculous.
It's like if you speak out against any policy the United States is engaged in, you're going to find a thousand lawyers.
From the Justice Department coming after you on various grounds.
And you're going to find the intelligence services coming after you.
I think there was a senator not too long ago who said you really don't want to fool around with the intelligence people because they have a thousand ways to get you.
And that's what we're kind of seeing in terms of efforts to shut down people who are trying to speak out against the system or to push back against the evil that it is doing.
You know, I've been ranting and raving all week about the drones over New Jersey, one of which hovered over my farm in northwest New Jersey.
I stared at it.
I don't know if there was a human being staring at me, and then all of a sudden it took off.
I wrote a column about it, which will be posted at Judge Knapp and elsewhere later tonight.
But after I wrote the column, It turns out that the intelligence community did brief the House Intelligence Committee on the origin and nature of these drones.
No one on that committee had the courage to go to the floor of the House of Representatives and reveal what they were told.
This goes back to what you said, is you don't want to fool around with the Intelligence Committee.
They have a thousand ways to get back at you.
So we elect a Congress that hears secrets.
That can't reveal those secrets.
We have a populace from Maryland to Boston being taunted by these drones.
There are members of Congress who know what the origin and nature of the drones is, but they're not allowed to say because they're afraid of the intelligence community.
What the hell kind of a democracy is this?
Well, I think the question self answers.
This is not a democracy anymore.
This is something that is marginally and increasingly, under Joe Biden, becoming a serious police state.
We are being told that when Donald Trump comes in, he's going to be deporting everybody who's here legally because they criticize Israel or they support the Palestinians.
And so we have that coming up.
Next.
We have the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which criminalizes anyone criticizing a foreign country, in this case, Israel.
And, you know, this is a creeping process.
We have hardly anybody in Congress, I would say maybe a handful of congressmen, who have on occasion dared to tweak the system a bit.
But even they run in fear of what comes next.
And what comes next is, you know, basically the government is hostile to freedom of speech.
It's hostile to freedom of association.
It's hostile to so many things.
And it's illegally starting wars in places in the world without any process.
Of what the Constitution and everything else and our legal system technically seems to require for people to go to war.
So this is astonishing.
The last few years are just astonishing.
The last time Congress declared war was December 8, famously, 1941.
I want to ask you about Amos Hochstein and Benjamin Netanyahu in a minute.
But first, here is President Trump.
Two days ago.
On these drones.
He has a home in New Jersey, and you'll hear him say he's not going to go there to his home in New Jersey while these drones are up there.
Here he is, cut number three.
Can you comment on the drones that are flying around New Jersey ports?
It seems like the American people have a big disk.
The government knows what is happening.
Look, our military knows where they took off from.
If it's a garage, they can go right into that garage.
They know where it came from and where it went.
And for some reason, they don't want to comment.
And I think they'd be better off saying what it is.
Our military knows and our president knows.
And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.
I can't imagine it's the enemy, because if it was the enemy, they'd blast it out.
Even if they were late, they'd blast it.
Something strange is going on.
For some reason, they don't want to tell the people.
And they should, because the people are really...
I mean, they happen to be over Bedminster.
They're very close to Bedminster.
I think maybe I won't spend the weekend in Bedminster.
I've decided to cancel my trip.
Have you received an intelligence briefing on the drones?
I don't want to comment on that.
I mean, he basically said, the government knows and won't tell us.
And under him, the government will tell us.
And if they're tormenting us, he'll shoot them down.
Well, there you go.
I mean, Harry, on his authority, he's going to shoot them down without telling us who they are, or perhaps telling us who they are.
What if they're extraterrestrials or something like that?
Which, to me, is making more sense than listening to government officials.
Yeah.
You know, the New Jersey State Police, I spoke with them, sent a helicopter up to try and find one that was near me.
They found one.
Who knows if it's the same one or not, but they described it as the same size as their helicopter.
Right.
About the size of a pickup truck.
And when I asked them if they would shoot it down, they said A. We're not allowed to use our weapons from inside the helicopter unless it's to save our own lives.
B, we are taught that we can't shoot something like this down, only the feds can.
Now, I wasn't going to get in a debate with them about public safety because Congress has wrecked the concept of public safety by taking the authority away from the states.
I don't know.
There's got to be an ending to this somehow.
Netanyahu and Amos Hochstein, the Israeli-born IDF veteran who's the U.S. chief representative in the negotiations between Hezbollah and Israel and the United States.
Did Prime Minister Netanyahu and Amos Hochstein concoct the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah so as to liberate the IDF?
Oh, absolutely.
I don't see how anybody is doubting this, but of course our major mainstream media is not talking about it at all.
In fact, I would push it back a little bit farther.
I would think that the attack by the Israelis on Hezbollah in Lebanon was contrived also to basically succeed in, to a large extent, disarming Hezbollah.
Which it did.
Hezbollah was forced to use what weapons it had and without any resupply coming from anybody.
And their weapons supply was badly diminished.
And also a number of their leaders were killed.
So that was success number one.
So once you get that, then you have whole Hochstein showing up yet again and telling the exhausted Hezbollah.
Here we have this wonderful ceasefire.
And of course, he devised a phony ceasefire, which handed the power of basically deciding who was violating it to the Israelis.
So that was step two.
And then after you've disarmed and gotten Hezbollah out of the story, you're ready to go into Syria.
And the Syria thing, of course, was coordinated again by Hochstein using U.S. government resources, and I would assume the Brits and the Turks, and it was all coordinated.
And Syria, of course, collapsed in a matter of a couple days and is now being divided up.
The Israelis have decided they're going to be taking more of the Golan Heights and more land beyond that.
They're already arranging to double the number of settlers in the area.
They've created a buffer zone.
with the Lebanese and they've pushed Hezbollah back.
And I guess the next step will be the discussions that are going on between the incoming President of the United States and with the Prime Minister of Israel about a possible attack on Iran.
So that's kind of the next step I think we're seeing.
And it could come even sooner if Joe Biden wants to take credit for it.
But these are the kind of conversations that are taking place.
They're all about war.
They're not about peace.
We don't even have in Moscow, which is a major power and potential adversary, we don't even have a diplomat there that's talking to anyone.
I mean, this is so ridiculous.
It's almost impossible to imagine that this is the way the situation has been allowed to develop.
It's hard to figure out what's going to happen next.
Do you think that the fall of Assad was a strategic defeat for Russia?
Was it supposed to be what, Russia?
The fall of Assad, President Assad of Syria, was that a strategic defeat for the Kremlin?
Well, it certainly is a tactical defeat.
Whether it's a major defeat strategically, I would somewhat question because it's not exactly like Russia was gaining anything by supporting Syria.
It was Syria that was gaining something by having support from Russia.
So I would say that this just kind of shifts things around again in the Middle East.
But the big question now for Russia will become...
To what extent is it actually supporting Iran?
Do you think that if Israel, with the aid of the United States, attacks Iran, that Russia will come to Iran's aid, and if necessary, China will back up Russia?
Yeah, this is all kind of part of the BRICS thinking, as I put it.
Which is to kind of remake how the world functions.
And I think that in the case of Iran, which is a major power, a major energy producer, that China and Russia would have a serious interest in moving that along or moving it away from World War III.
So it's something to watch.
And I think a number of your other contributors have probably spoken to you much more knowledgefully than I can about how they see that situation developing.
Will any president restrain a prime minister of Israel?
I guess not.
No, I think the answer is given the fact that Congress is owned by the Israel lobby, that by anybody who wants to run for president has to play to say the right things, do the right things vis-a-vis Israel if he wants to have any chance of getting elected.
Given those realities, no.
No American president will be able to confront Israel.
Certainly Joe Biden never did, and Donald Trump never did.
And Donald Trump never will.
Here's news.
Fox News is reporting.
I'm going to read this literally.
The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire.
Israeli government spokesperson David M-E-N-C-E-R, provided an update as the conflict with both Hamas and Syria continues.
Aaron Maté reported earlier that the slaughter continues in Gaza.
Yeah, well, it's every day.
It's not being reported very effectively in the U.S. media, but the fact is, if you look around in alternative media sources, Out of the Middle East and out of Europe.
Yeah, it never ends.
It never stops.
And of course, the plans to colonize these areas, to take them over, to either kill or drive out all the Palestinians that used to live in a place called Palestine, is moving right ahead.
Phil, no matter what we talk about, it's a pleasure to be able to pick your brain.
A Merry Christmas to you and Angela and your children and your grandchildren.
And we'll see you again after the first of the year, my dear friend.
Well, thank you very much.
And Merry Christmas to all of you.
And Rupert sends his regards.
He's over my shoulder there.
I see him.
All right.
Thank you, Phil.
God love you.
All the best.
Sure.
Coming up tomorrow, Thursday, Professor Gilbert Doctorow at 9 in the morning, Max Blumenthal at 11.30 in the morning, our new member of the guest team, former British diplomat Ian Proud at 1 in the afternoon,
Colonel Larry Wilkerson at 2 in the afternoon, and finishing up the day with the great University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer at 3. You can catch my column, Shoot the Drones, at JudgeKnapp.com.
It'll be posted at midnight tonight.
And, of course, at midnight it's released in its 25 or 30 other venues as well.
Thank you for watching.
Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
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