Oct. 2, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
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| Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. | |
| Today is Thursday, October 2nd, 2025. | |
| Pepe Escobar joins us now, where it's already Friday in China. | |
| Pepe, it's a pleasure, my dear friend. | |
| Thank you for staying up late. | |
| You look like you're in a wonderful location with a great and busy street scene on early Friday morning. | |
| Midnight. | |
| Wow. | |
| Wow. | |
| And how far from Beijing are you? | |
| Wow. | |
| It's uh over five thousand kilometers, and we are at over five thousand kilometers from Shanghai. | |
| Wow. | |
| We are in Kashgar, which is the last major major uh tier four city, meaning four million people in Xingjiang before you get to the China-Pakistan border, which is roughly 10 hours away from here. | |
| We were very close to the border yesterday. | |
| We were in Pamir lands yesterday, which is very close, uh, very close to the uh China-Pakistan border. | |
| And the context for you, Judge, in one minute, and to our audience, because this is probably the first time you're gonna see Kashgar live uh on your show. | |
| We have been uh uh shooting a documentary across Qingjiang. | |
| We started in Urunchi, the capital of Xijiang. | |
| We did the major oasis in the North and Silk Road, we crossed the Takla Makan Desert from the north to the south. | |
| We continued on the Southern Silk Road. | |
| We are in Kashgar, and from Kashgar, we went very very close to the China-Pakistan border. | |
| This will be part of a doc an independent documentary. | |
| It's a Chinese production, our support team Chinese is absolutely extraordinary. | |
| And my cameraman Stan, he's Russian, he lives in Shanghai, and he organized this setup specially for your show today. | |
| Well, you are 10,000 miles from New York City, and this reception we have of you, both the audio and the visual image is spectacular, just spectacular, Pepe. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| Thanks to Stanford. | |
| I know you're a night owl, but thank you very much for staying up so late for us. | |
| We just came from a Uyghur wedding, Judge. | |
| Literally, we were at a wedding. | |
| Wow. | |
| I want to talk to you at some length on the Israeli and American preparation for attacking Iran and Iran's likely response. | |
| But before we do, I must ask you about the uh Steve Whitkoff, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, Gaza Plan for the permanent subjugation of the Palestinian people, and why they would think Hamas would accept it, and why of all people they would accept a colonial governor by the name of Tony Blair. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| This is uh neocolonialism on steroids, uh, 5.0, 10.0, uh managed by war criminal Tony Blair, which waited years for his political resurrection, and he believes that is now. | |
| This will not be accepted by the absolute majority of the global south, the global majority, except for the vassals. | |
| And even some of the vassals, Arab nations, are vacillating because they know their public opinion will be beyond in revolt if this ever comes to pass. | |
| This could be just uh uh an intimidation technique, but uh tactic, I'm sorry, by the Trump Ni I uh administration. | |
| And we're gonna see, for instance, how Iran is going to react to that. | |
| Iran that is uh uh privileged target of the Zionist axis since the latest attack, and the next attack, which could happen within the next few weeks, or maximum before the end of the year. | |
| Yes, before we get to Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, United Arab uh Emirates, Saudi Arabia. | |
| Will they say go take a hike? | |
| Or are they so dependent on the United States that they'll accept this nonsense? | |
| They cannot accept it in terms of uh managing their internal public opinion. | |
| This will be so suicidal for all of them. | |
| In fact, they are trying to hedge their bets, and they are trying to say, okay, it's an interesting proposition, just like the Russians said. | |
| Uh in fact, Lavrov in a very Lavrovian, ultra sophisticated way, not saying the most important part, but admitting to the obvious. | |
| Well, it's an interesting initiative, we are considering, etc. | |
| We haven't seen uh any definitive movements towards implementing this situation, but obviously, and here in China, very important. | |
| Here, Chinese analysts so far have been I wouldn't even say puzzled. | |
| They are uh almost like they are speechless for the moment. | |
| China, as we know, was uh instrumental in bringing all the Palestinian factions, 17 of them, if I am not mistaken. | |
| Please correct me if I'm wrong, together in Beijing, and immediately after China sponsored the reconciliation of all Palestinian factions, Israel attacked and killed Ismail uh Hanier, for instance. | |
| So the Chinese the Chinese were directly implicated in finding unity among the Palestinians, and they they obviously know that this new colonial plan is the absolute opposite, it's permanent, eternal subjugation of what would be a Palestinian resistance from now on by that massive uh Israeli blitzkrieg. | |
| So for the moment, the Chinese foreign ministry have been uh they're quiet, they haven't they they haven't said anything really specific. | |
| The Russians, more or less, they're saying uh, well, this is this might be too dodgy in the in the Lavrovian uh terminology, of course. | |
| Here's uh here's that here's that Lavrabian uh terminology straight out of the horse's mouth, so to speak, and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, as you know. | |
| I'm very respectful of him and fond of my friendship with him. | |
| Umister Lavrov uh two days ago. | |
| Now, this is about tomahawks being aimed at Moscow. | |
| This is very, very serious. | |
| Chris cut number three. | |
| Oh, Americans do not supply tomahawks to everyone who asks. | |
| I believe only Spain and the Netherlands have tomahawks in Europe, so they don't supply to anyone else. | |
| And if they believe that Ukraine is a responsible country that can responsibly employ such weapons, it would be a surprising fact for me. | |
| Yes, Kiv Kellogg and JD Vance uh spoke about this, and JD Vance in principle, he's pro-pro-Ukrainsky. | |
| He has uh pro-Ukrainian stance, even though President Trump is always saying that he's uh a mediator, that Russia and Ukraine must uh resolve their differences with each other. | |
| But Kith Kellec recently recommended the Ukrainian regime to accept the reality to accept de facto that they have what territory they have. | |
| And he told them not to worry about this, for example, because the Baltic countries were uh part of the Soviet Union, we did not recognize them, and then the Baltic countries were free. | |
| The same will happen to you, said Kiev Kelik. | |
| It's different from the stance taken by President Trump. | |
| So there are a lot of uh voices, there are a lot of uh speakers who are advancing the Ukrainian agenda. | |
| But the Kremlin has already said it clearly that even if tomahawks are supplied to Ukraine, it will not change the military situation. | |
| The situation, of course, is one of tremendous Russian dominance. | |
| That out of the mouth of the most sophisticated diplomat on the planet. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| And uh, but you can see that you can see the discomfort in the way Lavrov is phrasing. | |
| Uh this is at the Valdae Club. | |
| I didn't go to the Waldai this year because uh my priority was to travel in Xinjiang in Western China to see the development of the far west of China, which is something absolutely it's practically inexplicable to the West. | |
| And what I've seen here, uh, of course, I ditched following the West and even the war in uh uh Ukraine for two weeks. | |
| And when I came back to it yesterday, and I saw what Hag has been saying, and that famous uh meeting uh of Trump with the generals and all that from the Chinese point of view, Judge, and from uh this uh region that is growing at seven percent GDP a year, | |
| way above, way above Chinese development, and you see uh moderately prosperous prosperous society as uh enunciated by President Xi Jinping on the move doing domestic tourism right behind me is the old city of Kashgar, 2,000 uh years old. | |
| It's over midnight, and it's bustling with domestic tourists from all over China. | |
| We they come here in their state of the art uh SUVs, they have charging stations all over the place, their latest smartphones, disposable income, and they look at the West now with what is this? | |
| What are they doing? | |
| You uh mentioned by this uh progressive suicidal move of Western civilization, and more and more moderately prosperous Chinese that we we're seeing here from all regions of China, they are already whispering to each other look. | |
| This is really the past. | |
| We are already in the post-western world, and we are leading, they are self-confident enough to see that to admit that to one another, and they look at us that they are very very few foreigners here in two weeks. | |
| We met like less than 10. | |
| Wow, two weeks ago. | |
| You mentioned you mentioned Secretary Heggseth. | |
| Did the Russians and the Chinese military and diplomatic and political leadership take note of the absurd speeches that Secretary Heg Seth and President Trump gave, and they gave it where they assembled every single American general and admiral on the planet in one room. | |
| From what I've seen since yesterday, I took a look at our friends uh from Guan Cha in Shanghai, and they are puzzled, and they are of course they are not openly mocking the absurdity of it all, the Kafka-esque absurdity of it all, but they are puzzled, | |
| and they immediately identify as uh a collapse of uh uh intellectual capabilities and strategic thinking of the so-called elites uh of the US and uh and NATO as uh even more accelerated than a few days ago. | |
| Um it's fascinating to see on the ground here, all across Xinjiang, how the rest of China is proud of what has been achieved by Xinjiang in these past few years. | |
| For instance, very important number, less than one Chinese has ever been to Xinjiang. | |
| They're starting to come now. | |
| For instance, last year we had, according to an official number that I tried to confirm this today, and they told me yes, this is the official number. | |
| 300 million Chinese tourists came to Xinjiang in 2024. | |
| Wow. | |
| This means that like practically the population of the European Union in one year, they're coming here to see Xinjiang for the first time. | |
| And they see, wow, this is part of China, this is developing fast. | |
| And you go to a city like Urumqi, you have the same services as Shanghai, Beijing, or Guangzhou. | |
| It's extraordinary. | |
| So, in terms of this uh geo-economic development and the interaction with the neighbors, for instance, we were in parts of the New Silk Roads, the China Pakistan economic court or the Belt and Road, you name it. | |
| You see trade back and forth in front of you. | |
| Uh, when you drive from Urunchi, you see a sea of uh uh solar panels, solar stations, uh wind turbine farms, electrification all over, and when you compare to uh even certain parts of the United States, wow, this is eons ahead. | |
| It's it's so impressive that it takes your your breast away, in fact. | |
| And then when you start to compare uh politically with what's uh on CGTN or in Sinhua or in Guangzhou, which is more independent, they are perplexed at the decadence of the US and Europe at the same time. | |
| Have the um Russians and Chinese take note taken note of the US warships uh off the coast of Venezuela? | |
| Yes, they do, and uh there is already this there are already discussions, some of them uh on the sidelines of the Valdae. | |
| I had some very good friends attending the Valdae this year, and of course, here in China as well, between Beijing and Shanghai, that uh the US might be bluffing, or they might be trying a one-to strike against Iran and Venezuela simultaneously. | |
| Uh, I think it's more like the first option. | |
| This could be a gigantic bluff. | |
| Iran is ready, Judge. | |
| Uh, make no mistake. | |
| And if I have a chance to go to Iran by the end of October, I can answer this question for you live from Tehran. | |
| Well, we will definitely we will definitely love to have you on live from Tehran, but when, not if, when the Israelis and the Americans strike. | |
| Is Iran prepared? | |
| Yes, and they are they have been preparing themselves since the the last uh strike in June. | |
| So this is uh a little over three almost uh between three and four months later, they have not even they have advertised uh, I would say quietly that their best new weapons were not even tested in the response to Israel. | |
| So they have a lot of uh aces up their sleeves, and uh they are very sure of themselves if there is an attack, the IRGC, uh the so-called decapitated IRGC, not really, because the new generation they are uh as strong as the former ones. | |
| Uh, Iran is uh doesn't depend on individual leaders, it's a process, and at the same time, they know that if the Israelis try something with help of Americans, uh, slightly more radical, they are also prepared for the fact that Israel might even go for the Samsung option, | |
| and then of course, their Iranian response is gonna be even more devastating than if we're only talking about uh uh conventional weapons, and of course, uh Pezkin um Pezhki is a very complicated affair, | |
| Judge, because he people in the IRGC in the leadership of the president of Iran, exactly the president of Iran, and people very close to Ayatollah Khamenei, they know the Peseshkin is try to appease the Americans by uh any possible means, | |
| and they know that it's not working, and at the same time, they cannot simply uh cut off his wings after all, he is the elected uh president, but he does not reflect the sinking among the the circle around Ayatollah Khamenei and the leaders of the IRGC. | |
| They know what is that? | |
| What is that thinking with respect to Israel and the US? | |
| That the response has to be extremely devastating. | |
| This means no holds barred, and this means their new hypersonic missiles, which they haven't launched in the previous response, which was by the way, bring uh interrupted after 12 or 13 days, because the Israelis phoned Donald Trump and said, Stop this thing, because we are being decimated. | |
| And uh will Beijing or Moscow be involved to help Tehran. | |
| Overtly not. | |
| Uh considering their uh, let's say back channels and underground channels, no question about that. | |
| And this is something that was admitted to some of us when we were in Iran before the attack, the Israeli attack in June. | |
| We were there in May, and this is something that our connections in in Tehran, Moscow, and and even in Beijing are saying, yes, there is BRICS SCO style help in the background, not specified by anybody, presidency level or ministry of defense level, but everybody around here in Eurasia knows that uh yes, the the help is there. | |
| We still we still don't know how to quantify it and how it's going to happen. | |
| Because this is an attack on BRICS, which is something that uh at the SEO meeting in Tianjin uh in the beginning of uh last month, in fact, of September. | |
| Uh those of us who were there, we could see that the way the the SEO is coalescing is uh they have to get their act together, BRICS style and even more forceful than BRICS because they know that the current war by the Trump administration or Trump Niahoo or Zionist access, whichever way you want to call it, is a war against BRICS and war against BRICS integration, which means a war against leaders of the global south. | |
| Wow. | |
| Does Iran pose the slightest national security threat to the United States of America? | |
| Zero, less than zero, judge, and everybody knows that. | |
| Uh and everybody in uh in the US uh with a brain with the brain above above room temperature knows that very very well, but it's once again it's the Zionist axis, their power is immense and uncontrollable, and now we have a desk cult totally out of control in West Asia. | |
| If you were to ask the leadership in Beijing and in Moscow candidly and not in front of cameras and off the record, who controls whom? | |
| Does Trump control Netanyahu or does Netanyahu control Trump? | |
| How would they likely answer that question? | |
| They will probably use a sort of Ouroboros metaphor, the snake biting its own tail. | |
| Well, all right, translate, please. | |
| Full circle, full circle, you know, and and the Zionist axis is full circle. | |
| They uh are uh recharging each other on both sides from the Atlantic through the Atlanticist axis to the desktop leadership in West Asia, and of course, | |
| with this very important derivations of the Zionist axis in the international trading system in the international financial system, now in big tech, uh, with smaller episodes that fit into the general pattern. | |
| What happens to TikTok in the US? | |
| It's a Zionist coup, no, it is now it is because they were desperate that the younger American generations they understand what's going on in Palestine very, very well, even if they are not uh followers of uh foreign policy, they know exactly what's going on. | |
| Pepe, great conversation, my dear friend. | |
| Thank you for staying up late or getting up early, as the case may be. | |
| But deeply appreciated safe travels to you. | |
| We keep going. | |
| We still will be in China until this weekend. | |
| It's the end of our trip, and uh this documentary probably will be out by December and is gonna be an absolute killer. | |
| Well, we can't wait to see it. | |
| We wish you well, and we'll look forward to seeing you from wherever on the planet you are next week. | |
| Thank you, Pepe. | |
| Thank you so much. | |
| Greetings from Kashgar. | |
| Thank you. | |
| All the best. | |
| What a great character he is. | |
| Coming up at one o'clock this afternoon, Scott Horton. | |
| At two o'clock this afternoon, Matt Ho. |
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