Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano - Scott Ritter : Russian Drones Over Poland; Israeli Missiles Over Qatar.

Sept. 16, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano

28:05

Scott Ritter : Russian Drones Over Poland; Israeli Missiles Over Qatar.

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	Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom.
	Today is Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.
	Scott Ritter will be with us in just a moment on Charlie Ritter on genocide in Gaza on General Kellogg in Ukraine.
	But first this.
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	Well, I obviously conflated Charlie Kirk and Scott Ritter.
	And I apologize for it.
	Before we get to the latest on Gaza and the latest on uh Ukraine, why do you think Benjamin Netanyahu had to go on international television before this uh person Tyler Robinson was even caught or identified and deny that the Israelis had murdered Kirk?
	I can't uh it's the kind of behavior that guilty people do.
	Um or people who are worried.
	I I think Israel's got a PR problem right now in the United States, a huge PR problem.
	And I think that um you know this this drives a lot of what Israel is doing.
	Um whether or not Israel had anything to do with uh Charlie Kurt's uh murder.
	We should point out there's no evidence of that whatsoever.
	I mean, there's circumstantial conspiracy uh laden theories out there, but there's no direct evidence that Israel played any role in um in Charlie Kirk's uh murder.
	But um the fact of the matter is the internet is alive with buzz uh about a Charlie Cook Israel connection.
	Uh Israel right now is facing um, you know, a uh from their perspective, a very dangerous uh sway in public opinion here in the United States against Israel.
	President Trump has even commented on that.
	Um I think that uh this was a um an effort by uh a desperate prime minister to uh to do damage control.
	I think it failed.
	I mean, as you pointed out, it it makes him look even more guilty.
	But I I think Israel right now is in dire straits because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the heavy impact that's had on Israel's reputation, and they're very concerned about American public opinion right now.
	And uh, you know, right now there's a it's a trend on on online that uh Israel was behind Charlie Kirk's assassination.
	Before we um before we leave uh Charlie Kirk, Max Blumenthal has reported about the extraordinary pressure that APAC put on uh Charlie Kirk by first offering him an enormous uh amount of money to fund his uh outfit uh and then and then when he turned them down pressuring him,
	and Max reports that obviously before he was killed, Kirk uh told one of his colleagues that he couldn't stand Netanyahu and that Netanyahu was behind the pressure being put on him.
	Kirk, who once supported the United States support of Israel, no matter what what Israel did, apparently in in the past two years was making a slow migration to the view of recognizing this as genocide, and Netanyahu was not happy with it, and Kirk recognized that and didn't want to have anything to do with them.
	Does any of this surprise you?
	Again, I I'm gonna just be straight up honest, Judge.
	Uh, prior to Charlie Kirk's um assassination, you know, he didn't register in my life at all.
	Um he is not a player in international geopolitics.
	He doesn't have any impact on military affairs or any of the work that I was doing.
	He is a uh an influencer of great importance, and I can understand how Israel, concerned about public relations would be um worried of an influencer who you know was once very pro-Israel, suddenly moving in the other direction.
	But you know, I'm I'm new to the Charlie Kirk game.
	Uh it's not a game I want to be involved in.
	Um I I've talked about free speech and how his murder is uh an affront to free speech.
	I believe Charlie Kirk had every right to say what he was saying, even if people disagreed with him.
	But you know, it doesn't surprise me that AIPAC you know seeks to put pressure on and influence people or try to bribe them.
	I at one time was offered a six million dollar bribe by APAC back in the good old days of Paul Wolfwitz and uh and company.
	Um, and I turned it down and the rest is history.
	But um, so it you know, it's it's what they do for a living.
	And it doesn't surprise me that Charlie Kirk, a man who uh influenced millions of uh Americans and had taken a very strong stance pro-Israel, that any gravitation away from that would be something that would get on uh Israel's radar.
	What does surprise me is the direct involvement of Benjamin Netanyahu?
	Uh and what that wreaks of is desperation that Israel's actually in an absolute state of panic about what's happening to them globally, they are being isolated.
	Netanyahu acknowledged it.
	He said we're gonna have to learn how to be self-sufficient economically.
	I laughed because Israel never be self-sufficient, they'll always live off of large use of the American taxpayer.
	Can Hamas resist what is now apparently becoming, and if I'm incorrect on what I think is happening there, tell me, a ground invasion of Gaza City.
	Hamas will slaughter the Israelis as they always do, and the Israelis will be compelled to withdraw as they always do after they've slaughtered thousands, tens of thousands of uh innocent Palestinian civilians as they always do.
	Israel's not going to win this war.
	Israel's not going to win this fight.
	Israel will never control Gaza City.
	Uh, it will be a death trap for the Israeli army, as every other uh part of Gaza has become a death trap.
	And it's also the burial ground of uh Palestinian civilians.
	There's an ongoing genocide as we speak.
	The United Nations Human Rights Commission has found this to be the case.
	Um, you know, but no, the idea that Israel's winning, uh, no, that's that's that's not the case at all.
	Israel is able to go in and uh blow up buildings and uh temporarily put tanks and men on territory that they might control on the top for a moment, but as we know, Hamas is underneath, waiting for the moment to come out from the ground, place their minds on the Israeli tanks and kill the Israeli soldiers inside these tanks.
	How uh important in your view was the report released earlier today by the United Nations uh finding not only uh genocide but a genocidal intent uh on the part of the uh Israeli regime.
	Uh, this is a horribly important report.
	Um, because now uh any nation, any member state of the United Nations uh must take action to hold Israel accountable.
	Now that the United Nations has labeled Israel in this manner, it's a moral obligation on the part of the member states of the United Nations to act in accordance with the genocide convention.
	And that means that you begin to uh do undertake measures designed to compel Israel to cease its behavior.
	Um the sad fact of the matter is uh this isn't going to happen.
	The United States will work with Israel to uh denigrate this report, uh, denigrate the human rights commission.
	We already see that taking place.
	But this is a big deal.
	Again, Bijan Netanyahu is waking up to the reality that Israel's finished.
	Uh they're isolated.
	The world will not gravitate back toward Israel, and it's now just a matter of time before Israel collapses from within.
	Economically, that's unsustainable, Israel's unsustainable without the American taxpayer dollars.
	And if you want to come back to Charlie Kirk for a moment, uh watching some of the videos, one of the key drivers for many of uh Kirk's followers who uh uh supported Kirk's move away from Israel was the issue of America needs to start taking care of America.
	I mean our money needs to be spent here in America, and while we while you know the Kirk followers are saying we we shouldn't attack Israel or you know speak out against them, it's time we stop sending money to Israel.
	Um and this is this is the death knell of Israel, because the moment America cuts off taxpayer money to Israel, Israel's unsustainable economically, and Netanyahu knows this.
	Is it even sustainable economically with American uh assistance?
	Is not the economy of Israel in tatters now for a variety of reasons, uh people taken out of their jobs uh and sent uh into the military destruction caused by the um Iranian uh response to the uh Israeli attack uh and other excesses perpetrated on the Israeli people by the Netanyahu regime.
	Sure, but I mean uh you know Israel's attaching itself to an American economy that uh has no problem going from 37 trillion dollars in debt to 54 trillion dollars in debt.
	Um so it's just more debt.
	Um, you know, so it you know it as long as the United States is willing to print money and send some of that money it prints to Israel, Israel will be able to hold its head above water, but it's gonna stink and eventually the American people are gonna demand that we uh we we cut the line.
	Is there any country on the planet besides the United States, Arab or not, that has the ability and the will to stop Israel from perpetrating slaughter, genocide, war crimes in Gaza?
	No.
	Um I mean there's nations that have the ability, but not the will, and there's nations that have the will, like Yemen, but not the ability.
	Um but the the bottom line is, and I'm just gonna be very frank here, nobody cares about Palestine.
	I mean, we got people in the street to do, but no nation state, no Arab state.
	We saw that in Doha, where the collective uh you know gathering of Arab power together with Iran met in Doha to talk about what to do about an Israeli attack against an Arab nation.
	And the answer is nothing.
	Nothing.
	And they never will do anything, uh, because nobody will stand up to Israel.
	No single Arab nation has what it takes to stand up to Israel.
	Um Lebanon had Hezbollah, but Hezbollah now is in a submissive mode, and we see a Lebanese president Aun say, no, no, no, we got to give peace a chance with Israel.
	This is a president of a nation that is being occupied by Israel and bombed by Israel on a daily basis, saying, now we we got to see what the true intent of Israel is.
	Cowards all.
	Even Qatar, who was attacked, is simply looking for support as opposed to doing what any honorable nation would be, which is to strike back.
	Um but yeah, no, the the Arab world is useless, the Arab leadership is useless.
	They don't like the Palestinians, they don't support the Palestinian cause, and they've sold themselves out to the United States from you know a security standpoint that they're unable to break that umbilical cord, they're unable to walk away.
	And as a result, we have a bunch of nothing.
	Russia can't project power into the Middle East in a sustainable, meaningful fashion, neither can fashion, neither can China.
	Um You know, Iran is the one nation that could stand up and do something, but you know, Iran is is very vulnerable as well.
	So, you know, no, nobody will do it.
	As long as the United States backs Israel, Israel basically has uh carbon should do anything at once.
	If Netanyahu attacks Iran, as you and others on this uh program uh have predicted, will Iran not retaliate with the intention of destroying the Israeli state?
	That's a political decision that Iran has to make.
	Um, you know because once you cross that line, once you say, okay, we're going to destroy Israel, that means that you're going to be confronting the United States in a meaningful fashion, because the United States will not sit by idly and allow Israel to be destroyed.
	And the question is, can you ride the United States out?
	Can you survive that?
	Um, and I think right now the decision in Iran is no, we can't.
	Um, and so I think that whatever Iran's response will be, they'll go for a very strong initial response, again, trying to get Israel to scream uh to Dadi for a ceasefire.
	Um, but ultimately I think Iran will stop short of seeking the full destruction of Israel because um Iran doesn't have the assurances it needs from the from Russia or China or anybody else that if the United States turns on Iran, Iran will be backed up and Iran doesn't want to find itself you know all alone um you know facing the the wrath of America.
	So I think Iran's response will be very harsh.
	It'll be uh you know designed to create uh real damage and pain for Israel, but it won't be a nation-killing response because the consequences of that is having to confront the United States in an existential manner.
	Is the United States government even morally distinguishable from the Netanyahu regime?
	Not when it comes to Ghana, we are one and the same.
	We are um I mean, in many ways it's even worse because Israel, even though I don't support this, Israel can make an argument, you know, linked to October 7th, um, an extremist argument that many in the United States would support under similar conditions.
	I mean, after all, we did invade and occupy Iraq because of 9-11, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, because we made an argument about the global war on terrorism, they need to fight them over there rather than fight them here, some convoluted nonsense of that nature.
	Israel at least has the ability to try and construct some sort of you know creative excuse for what they do.
	America has no excuse whatsoever.
	None.
	Uh, and it it's not just that we're supporting Israel, we're the one conceiving ideas such as ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the forcible removal, eviction of Palestinian people.
	And it's not done by bringing police in and you know, like sheriffs knocking on your door and saying you gotta leave.
	It's somebody blowing up their homes by murdering people.
	They're killing scores of women and children every day.
	They're literally scraping the bodies of children off of the rubble, literally scraping the bodies of children off the rubber.
	And the world is not doing a damn thing.
	And it's America that's allowing this to happen.
	We sent our Secretary of State to Israel to Cowtown to cave in to wear the trappings of Zionism, uh, to pray at the whaling wall, um, all the while Israel is committing genocide and now engaged in this uh military effort against uh Gaza.
	You know, America is even worse in this regard because we don't have an excuse.
	What will it take to change Trump's mind?
	I think it's there's no way you're gonna change Trump's mind because we're we're talking a multi-year process.
	Um Trump you know is is a single-term president at this juncture, and you know, he he's buried in his ways.
	Um, you know, unless Israel could be confronted with an existential crisis where Trump has to take a decision um about you know the the resources that the United States is willing to commit to to Israel, you know, we'll ride this genocide out.
	Again, we don't have any qualms about killing Palestinians.
	We don't have any qualms about Israel bombing Yemen.
	We don't have any qualms about Israel bombing Damascus.
	We don't have any qualms about Israel bombing anybody.
	Uh And so we'll let this go on because we'll never pay a price.
	I mean, who's got us accountable?
	The only people that can hold Trump accountable are the American voters, and they've already had their shot.
	He's never going to go up to the American public English.
	But the midterm elections right now, but I don't think we could turn the corner on public opinion.
	I mean, if we could, then Brian Mass would be out of office.
	He's that ridiculous Florida representative who wore the uniform of the IDF to Congress to symbolize his support for Israel.
	He wore the uniform of a genocidal state in Congress to show his support for that state's genocide.
	He's also the guy that tried to get in a language of a law he's putting forward.
	To have the Secretary of State revoke the passports of Americans who spoke out against Israel.
	I mean, my God, this is where we got.
	So there's a long way to go before we get to Trump.
	We have to start evicting members of Congress from the House of Representatives.
	We have to start evicting senators like Ted Cruz from the Senate, and then we have to stop putting people like Donald Trump in the White House.
	I'm of the view that that process will begin at the midterms in 2026, but that is uh 14 months from now.
	Uh we'll see what happens.
	Uh I want your thoughts on the latest.
	Well, before we get to General Kellogg's nonsense.
	What is your understanding with the kerfuffle over the drones in Poland?
	Were they uh Ukrainian drones made to look like Russians?
	Were they Russian drones redirected electronically?
	Were they harmless drones?
	What is your understanding of something that's now no longer in the news but was a uh uh disputed issue uh right before the Kirk murder?
	You know, when this first started, uh I was going off of what the available information.
	What we knew is that it was uh drones uh that were physically similar to Shahid 136 or Duranium-2s, uh that the Belarusian Ministry of Defense said that uh they had uh flown over Bielorusian airspace headed towards Poland, and they believed that the the reason for this was that they were redirected by electronic warfare.
	Um it turns out that not a single one of these drones was an attack drone.
	None of them had they weren't the Shahid 136 or Duranium-2s.
	They were a different kind of drone made out of styrofoam that the Russians use.
	The Russians will flood the airspace of Ukraine with these decoy drones that are designed to activate radars for subsequent destruction or to absorb, you know, make the Ukrainians fire anti-aircraft resources at these drones.
	And they're they're literally they're not meant to come home.
	They go in there and they they get destroyed or they just fall to the ground.
	The Ukrainians have recovered several of these and they have put them back into service.
	And the Ukrainians release these drones into Poland in a pre-meditated, pre-coordinated action with the Polish government designed to um trigger exactly what happened.
	Uh Poland calling for an Article 4 um meeting of NATO.
	We have now NATO, you know, surging support into Poland, Poland surging troops to the border, not because they're gonna go to war with Russia, but this is Ukraine's plan of getting Poland mobilized, getting NATO mobilized.
	And now what's happened is that the real purpose of this was to create an excuse for Ukraine now to come into Poland and begin training NATO air defense on how to engage Russian drones, because the next step would be then to get NATO to extend its air defense umbrella into Western Ukraine to shoot down these Russian drones.
	This is all the Ukrainian plan.
	This is 100% uh set up by Ukraine and Poland.
	And you know who knows it?
	Donald Trump, because he's not falling for any of this.
	And you know who else knows it?
	NATO.
	Why?
	Because take a look at their response.
	The British, two fighters.
	Germany, two fighters, France, three fighters.
	I mean, what is fighter mean?
	A jet?
	The fire aircraft, yeah.
	I mean, it's not like they they you know, normally look at when we were going after Venezuelan speed boats, uh, we put 10 F-35s into Puerto Rico.
	All right.
	Uh here they are going after the Ukraine, the Russian army and their drones, 850 of them launched a day, and uh Germany sent two fighter jets, England sent two fighter jets, and France sent three.
	This is an absolute joke.
	It's not serious, it's just political gamesmanship.
	But the outcome could be serious because now Ukraine has achieved what it wanted, getting NATO to start training on how to engage Russian drones and with that skill set to be positioned to extend that into Western Ukraine should the time come where NATO feels obligated to either protect peacekeepers on the ground or preserve what's left of Ukraine.
	Wow.
	I want your opinion of General Kellogg's latest.
	This is from a few days ago, Chris cut number nine.
	If he was winning, he'd be in Kyiv.
	If he's winning, he'd be west of the Dnepa River.
	If he's winning, he'd be on Odessa.
	If he's winning, he would have changed their government.
	Russia is in fact losing this war.
	Now, they may make movements and say, So, well, they're advancing uh in the Donbass region in the desk.
	But if you consider advancing moving by meters, not miles, well then okay, that's successful.
	But if the cost they're having, it's enormous.
	And I don't think people truly appreciate it.
	It's a number.
	But the numbers they have lost, when you're talking dead and wounded, well over a million.
	They left Afghanistan after losing 18,000.
	We left Vietnam after losing 65,000.
	They've lost over a million dead or wounded.
	These numbers are World War II level numbers when you have when you think about it.
	They're they're stunning in the loss.
	And this is and and their first line units that they came and tried to take Kyiv with a little over four four years ago.
	Those first line units are gone.
	So they've gone through a second or third or fourth iteration of wartime commanders.
	They're pulling tanks out of mothballs out of museums put on the battle line.
	They can't operate in large movements because the Ukrainians will kill them.
	Where to start uh with this.
	Well, first of all, he's as ignorant as the day is long, and the question is whether this is deliberate, meaning uh that he knows he's lying, and then shame on him, he's a former general, and um you know he should be shunned and even criminalized uh because uh you you're as a government official and he is a government official.
	You don't have um uh a writ to uh to lie.
	Um or he's just stupid and um is believing what the Ukrainians spoon feed him, which is what I believe is the case.
	Everything he said is a flat out lie.
	Um nothing he said is true.
	This is a war of attrition, and it's the Ukrainians who have lost 1.7 million dead or missing.
	We're not even getting into the wounded because that takes the number up over three million.
	Uh the Russians have lost, you know, around 150,000 dead, that's a lot.
	And when you add in the wounded, you're probably getting up into the area of 700, 800,000 total casualties.
	That's a lot, but it's not what Kellogg is saying.
	And the vast majority of those casualties are casualties that are returned to either combat or released to service in civilian life, meaning that they're functional, they're not you know, people that are taken off the roles altogether.
	Uh, Russia is winning this war.
	There's not a phase of this conflict that Russia is losing, and Keith Kellogg should know this, but he's he's too stupid to live.
	I mean, I that's a horrible thing to say.
	Um what I mean.
	Um this is a man who you know shouldn't be in the position is why Donald Trump allows this man to continue to embarrass and humiliate America in the way he does, is is beyond me because if you eliminate Keith Kellogg and you replace him with somebody who knows the truth.
	I'm just telling you right now, Judge, I've been to Russia, I've met the frontline commanders, and they're still there.
	I've met the battalion commanders, they're still there.
	The brigade commanders, they're still there.
	The troops, they're still there.
	Are they taking tanks out of mothballs and out of museums?
	This is absurd.
	Well, they they there was, you know, when you're looking at artillery and bringing in the Russians did go in and pull old uh uh T-55s and um you know T 64s, and they brought them in to use them when they mobilized the 300,000 uh before their defense industry kicked in, they used them as is artillery.
	But today the Russians and Mark Rute just says it straight up.
	The Russians are producing thousands of tanks, brand new tanks.
	The formations that are coming in are equipped with all the new equipment.
	Um Again, Keith Kellogg literally doesn't know what he's talking about.
	Literally.
	Or he's straight up lying to his audience.
	The problem is he gets to whisper into Donald Trump's ears.
	Along with Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and Pete Haggsetth.
	It's a big problem.
	I mean, that's why one of the things we're trying to do here is create what I call civilian engagement teams of subject matter experts like Ray McGovern and others who will be available to supplement the information that President Trump is getting from these Russophobic idiots like Kellogg and Rubio.
	Rubio and others, you know, because if the president doesn't get the truth, then how can he be expected to make good policy?
	Scott Ritter, thank you very much.
	Thanks for letting me go across the board on all this stuff.
	Much appreciated.
	I will look forward to seeing you again next time, my dear friend.
	Thank you.
	Okay.

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