March 17, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
25:47
Pepe Escobar : The US vs. BRICS: Global Power Clash You Can’t Ignore
Judge Andrew Napolitano and Pepe Escobar analyze the escalating US-Iran conflict, detailing how Israel and the US bombed Iran's South Pars gas field under Gulf pressure, triggering threats to destroy Persian Gulf refineries. With oil soaring past $150 and decapitation strikes failing against a decentralized regime led by Ayatollah Khamenei's successor Said Jalili, Escobar warns of imminent retaliatory attacks within days. The discussion highlights Iran's demands for US base removal and a Petro Yuan toll on the Strait of Hormuz, while criticizing India's alignment with Israel as a potential BRICS betrayal that could lead to its expulsion from the bloc. [Automatically generated summary]
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Wednesday, March 18th, 2026.
Pepe Escobar will be with us in just a moment on what is the status of the United States versus BRICS and how dangerous and out of control is the Netanyahu and Trump war about to become.
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Pepe Escobar, my friend, welcome here.
No matter what we are talking about, it's always a pleasure to have the benefit of your insight.
Before we get, before, thank you.
West Asia War Control Concerns00:16:06
Before we get to BRICS and before we get to Russia and China, you have some very serious concerns, I think, about the Netanyahu and Trump war getting out of control.
What do you know?
What do you hear?
What are your concerns?
I cannot emphasize enough, Judge, and all of you, our audience.
This is it.
This is the ultimate escalation moment.
So we are beyond any red lines.
The latest echo I had from Iran a few minutes ago was we are ready for total war.
And I'm quoting literally.
We had been provoked to go into total war.
And I'll explain to you now why.
Yes, Judge, please.
No, that's what I was going to ask.
So without telling me who told you this, you obviously believe it.
It's obviously a credible source.
What do you know or believe they mean by total war?
Because of what happened a little while ago, in fact, a few hours.
I was at my dinner here in Southeast Asia.
When I came back, this was exploding everywhere.
Trump, Netanyahu, together, and under pressure as well from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Emirates, which are pushing them to go all the way against Iran.
They bombed the South Spars gas field in Iran.
This is the largest gas field on the planet.
And South Spars is linked to the North Dome in Qatar.
It's the same geology.
So South Spars and North Dome, Iran and Qatar, together, this is the largest concentration of gas and export of gas on the planet.
And South Pars, the refinery part of South Part was bombed today by Israel US.
And that provoked an immediate, for the moment, rhetoric response from Iran.
An evacuation order already issued for several installations all across the Gulf.
And the list of installations that is going to be bombed in the next few hours.
This is, I think it's midnight here in Southeast Asia.
It's around seven to eight in West Asia.
So it's going to be certainly tonight.
The Iranians are going to bomb the Samraf refinery in Saudi Arabia.
Very, very large.
The Al-Hazen gas field in the Emirates, enormous.
The Misayed Petrochemical Complex affiliated with Chevron, by the way, in Qatar.
The Ras Lafan refinery phases one and two in Qatar.
This is immensely serious because this is the largest gas terminal on the planet.
And the Iranians are saying they're going to bomb that in retaliation.
And the refinery in Haifa.
That's the full list which is going to be bombed in retaliation by Iran.
And that explains what I heard only a few minutes ago.
We are ready for total war because this is the ultimate escalation because it's not about bombing military targets in Iran anymore.
This is about bombing civilian installations and provoking the collapse of the state in Iran.
So we are way there, way there.
There's no comparison to what was happened until a few hours ago.
So this is the ultimate escalation.
So now it is, for all practical purposes, total war.
And Iran said, if you attack our gas infrastructure, our energy infrastructure, we're going to attack all the energy infrastructure of the Persian Gulf.
That's where we are now, Judge.
Wow.
This is a video of South Pars, Iran.
The footage shows the facilities on fire.
This is exactly what you were talking about.
What did the, well, you wouldn't know directly, but what do you expect the Americans and the Israelis thought they would accomplish by bombing this?
They're only going to wreck the international economy.
Exactly.
But they were not thinking about international economy and they were not, obviously, they were not thinking about the immense repercussions all across the globe.
They are absolutely obsessed in smashing every structure that is now resisting, sorry, in the Iranian state.
They tried everything.
They killed Ayatollah Khamenei.
They bombed everything inside, according to them, but not what really matters, which are the underground missile stations and drone stations in the eastern and southeastern part of Iran.
These are absolutely intact.
They could not get their regime changed.
The whole structure of government is now, we were told hours ago, today, still today, it's not only four layers that were first established by Ayatollah Khamenei of replacements in case they are killed, military commanders, provincial leaders, etc.
It's seven layers.
So if you kill Larijani, you have Said Jalili, which is immensely competent, a former supervisor of the Iranian nuclear program.
He's going to be the next secretary of the Security Council.
He has been appointed today.
So it's this absolutely stupid policy of decapitation doesn't work with the system that is completely consolidated and decentralized at the same time,
the decentralized Mosaic strategy, which now includes decentralized Mosaic strategy on attack, total attack in terms of total war against every possible node of U.S.-Israeli presence from Israel to the Persian Gulf, and now includes the energy infrastructure as well.
So there's no limit to this.
If this happens only tonight, depending on what happens in the next few hours, and we see the extent of the Iranian attacks on this list of especially refineries and energy installations, especially Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, the repercussions for the global economy, we cannot even imagine.
For the moment, apparently, no, for the moment, the barrel of oil in West Asia is over $150.
Tomorrow could be $200, Judge.
Easily.
Or even more.
So there is tremendous pressure on Trump when people can't fill up their automobiles and pickup trucks in the U.S. for under $150.
Exactly.
Well, they are not considering the reparation because now it's a psycho-killer mentality, Judge.
And not only among those psycho-killers of that death cult in West Asia, but inside the Trump administration.
And Trump now is beyond the range and completely controlled by this psycho-killer logic, especially because he's desperate.
Everything that he tried backfired.
He's cornered.
There's no off-ramp.
And this particular bombing of South Spars, which was obviously an Israeli initiative, cuts off any possibility of an off-ramp, which, by the way, did not exist until a few hours ago because the Iranians were over and over again.
This is our list.
We don't want a ceasefire.
We want all U.S. military bases out of West Asia.
We want reparations for everything that you caused against us.
We want, and that was part of, It started with nine points, then six points.
Then it broke down to three main points.
And of course, there is an extra point which they mentioned over and over again, a solution for Lebanon.
So a solution for Lebanon is inexorably linked to the Iranians agreeing to a ceasefire later on.
For the moment, there are no off-ramps whatsoever.
So Israel and Trump are betting on destroying the Iranian state, period.
It's not about liberating the Strait of Hormuz anymore.
We are one step beyond.
Chris, do we have the interview with Jeremy Scahill?
So Jeremy is, of course, you probably know him, a well-known investigative reporter.
Here's what he revealed this morning.
Well, Ryan, so yesterday we did a story that was based on talking to two senior Iranian officials.
And what they told us was that over the course of the past week, Steve Witkoff, who is the special envoy for President Donald Trump and was alongside Jared Kushner, the lead negotiator in the fraudulent pretend nuclear negotiations that preceded this bombing.
And of course, the U.S. started bombing Iran February 28th when there was supposed to be another round of negotiations just two days or three days later in Vienna.
And so, you know, Witkoff had dealt with Abbas Arachi, the Iranian foreign minister, during those negotiations.
And one of the things that we've reported is that there was actually much more direct negotiation that took place in these talks between the U.S. and Iran that had been actually reported.
And so what we reported is that throughout the course of the previous week, Steve Witkoff had personally sent a number of text messages to Abbas Arachi, the Iranian foreign minister, and that senior Iranian official said that Arachi ignored them completely and didn't respond to them.
She ignored them completely and didn't respond to them.
What does this tell you about who's interested in a ceasefire?
The Iran has already said the only possibility of a ceasefire is if you follow our list.
It's what I wrote last week about the eviction notice.
And the eviction notice, you know, the number one is no more US military bases all across West Asia, period.
This is non-negotiable.
And these past 24 hours, more than that, the situation of the Strait of Hormuz will be completely reorganized from now on.
They will install, they already install a toll booth, and this toll boost will continue.
It will probably evolve into some charging 10% for each cargo, each tanker, that crosses Hormuz, which could bring them over $70 billion a year.
And crossing through Iranian territorial waters, Judge.
This is what I wanted to start our discussion today, if it was not because of the South Pars tragedy.
The Pakistani tanker, Karachi, that crossed the Hormuz and going all the way to the Arabian Sea, final destination, Pakistan.
First of all, this is how the toll boost works.
The cargo was paid in petrol U1, not in US dollars.
Number two, they paid the toll to the Iranian authorities.
Number three, he navigated very close to the Iranian border of the Strait of Hormuz from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.
So this is how it's going to be from now on.
You have to follow these two steps.
Otherwise, you cannot cross period.
How is this playing geopolitically on the countries that are not involved in the violence?
For example, we haven't heard.
Maybe he's spoken and it's just not covered in the west.
A peep from president Erdogan of Turkey.
Where is he?
Where is he on this?
I'm sure he's plotting some way to take advantage of it.
Absolutely, he's hedging, as usual.
He spends 24, 7 hedging all the time because for the moment Turkey is not directly involved in Hormuz.
So that's and Turkey.
They receive their oil and their gas via the BTC oil pipeline and the BTS gas pipeline.
They all start in Baku and they receive also energy through the Blue Stream and the Turk Stream from Russia.
They don't depend on the Persian Gulf and that's why he didn't say anything.
Are the Turks still selling oil to Israel?
Yes, they are a judge.
And the BTC?
Once again Baku Tbilisi, Chehan.
To remind all of you, our audience, when the oil arrives in Chehan, in Uh in Turkey, then the eastern Mediterranean, they are loaded into cargoes and they go to Israel.
Israel receives.
It varies at the numbers.
It could be between 30 to 49 percent of Israel's oil coming via the BTC.
So Erdogan, if he was directly involved, is very simple.
He could make a phone call to this Chehan terminal in Um in Turkey and say, look, don't no uh charging any tankers going to Israel.
Very simple, he didn't do it.
Well, tell me about um Bricks uh, and the effect of what prime minister Modi of India recently did on the future of Bricks.
Uh judge, uh.
It pains me tremendously to uh be a realist in this matter.
I was born in a bricks nation and I followed three others very, very closely and, like you know, in 2024 I spent six months in Russia.
Basically, the main reason was because I wanted to follow the preparations for the Bricks summit in Kazan.
So obviously uh, for all of us who defend Bricks as the number one multilateral institution trying to organize a new system of international relations and going towards a multipolar world, when we see what is happening now, we have to recognize it's our professional duty to recognize the bricks in deep coma And it's going to be very,
BRICS Collapsing Under Bullying00:06:14
very hard to raise from the dead before the summit later this year in India, which just betrayed BRICS all the way.
First of all, they betrayed Russia because when Trump told them you cannot buy oil from Russia, they said, okay, yes, master, etc.
And now they had to come back to Russia and Russia said, ah, so you want a royal game?
Okay, no more.
We were giving you a lot of discounts before.
No discounts anymore.
You have to pay the spot price.
And of course, what they did to Iran.
48 hours before the decapitation strike of February 28th, Modi was best friends with the war criminal in Israel.
And he said that Israel was the fatherland and India was the motherland.
So we have a BRICS member openly aligned with the abstinent syndicate.
If this is not betrayal, what is betrayal?
Well, what would have motivated Prime Minister Modi, who's not a stupid person, to have alienated himself from what was destined to become the alternate financial capital of the world?
Weapons deals with Israel.
His personal and the BJP's organizational and the Hindutvas that they support absolute hatred of Muslims, including Muslims who are part of BRICS.
So this explains the very close connection between this Indian supremacism, which has nothing to do with deepest India, cultured India, and Zionism.
And of course, interests, financial interests between the Zionist axis and elites in India, including some of the richest entrepreneurs in India.
So that's it.
They made their choice, Judge.
They're going to have to live with it.
The problem is, BRICS cannot live with it.
Well, can BRICS exist without India?
Yes, they can.
So, you know, I would say that a rational decision by BRICS will be to at least suspend India, if not expel them.
They won't expel them because they are too polite, especially Russia.
But ideally, it should be a suspension, a reprimand.
And people like Lavrov telling India, okay, which side are you on?
The case of Saudi Arabia is already settled because Saudi Arabia is in and out of BRICS on the fence all the time.
But after what they have been doing, especially they have been instigating Trump to go all the way against Iran, one of the full BRICS members.
Saudi Arabia should be out of BRICS.
And the Emirates is another very complicated case.
Emirates are a full member of BRICS as well.
And Emirates is once again in conjunction with Israelis and Trump.
They are campaigning for go all the way against Iran.
So BRICS is collapsing in front of us.
It's a very, very, very sad state of affairs.
All right.
The Iranians are releasing a statement.
And Chris, do we have it from the beginning or are we jumping in the middle?
Can you increase the size so I can read the print, Chris?
This is a firm warning and a red line for the criminals who attack parts of Iran's energy infrastructure in the southern region of the country.
As a result of this action, the fuel and gas infrastructure at the origin of the aggression will be set ablaze and reduced to ashes at the earliest opportunity.
We declare the cowardly and criminally aggressive American military and savage child-killing Zionist regime.
You are compelled to throw your soldiers into their doom and lose your dignity.
The throats of your commanders and soldiers are under the boots of the warriors of Islam and the strategic confusion you face.
The reality of the battlefield is clear.
Think about the astonishing you came with a victory scenario and you are searching for ways to preserve your survival hidden in the underground think tanks.
Your end, your bullying is over.
Your era of bullying is over.
This is basically this was in real time that I'm reading this.
Yes, basically what you had told us about a half an hour ago when we started this conversation, we should expect.
Yes, and it could start tonight, Judge.
It could start tonight or maximum two or three days.
And they're going to hit all these targets.
And if they do, wow.
In terms of hell for the global economy, this is it.
Much more than the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, which is not, once again, to try to introduce a lighter note.
When the Iranians say that the strait is not blocked, no, it's blocked for hostile powers.
If you follow that three-step that I was outlining a few minutes ago, you settle your cargo in Petro Yuan, you contact Iranian authorities to pay the toll bulls, and you navigate Iranian waters.
You can cross the Strait of Hormuz anytime.
Wow.
Nobody Sleeping Safe Tonight00:00:36
Pepe, thank you very much.
As dastardly as all this has become, you are an oracle informing us of all of this part before it happens and part in real time.
Thank you, my man.
Nobody's going to sleep tonight, Judge.
Nobody's sleeping.
Be safe.
Safe travels.
We'll look forward to seeing you again soon, my dear friend.
Thank you.
Thank you, Judge.
All the best.
All the best to our audience.
Thank you.
All the best to you.
Coming up on all of this at two o'clock, if you're watching us live in 33 minutes, Professor Glenn Deason, at three o'clock, the great Phil Giraldi, Judge Nepal Towna for judging