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May 26, 2023 - Knowledge Fight
01:09:16
#810: February 18-23, 2004

In Knowledge Fight’s #810, covering Alex Jones’ February 18–23, 2004 episode, Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes mock Jones’ reliance on dubious sources like "Trimpton," a self-proclaimed barrister who peddled unproven claims—like UK orchestration of Dr. David Kelly’s death via French and Iraqi operatives—without evidence. Jones also compared Tony Blair to Neville Chamberlain and Hitler, ignoring his own past rhetoric against the Patriot Act, which he now dismisses as "evil" yet supported for political gain. The episode highlights Jones’ pattern of cherry-picking fringe theories while avoiding substantive debate, revealing a shallow, opportunistic approach to conspiracy-driven commentary. [Automatically generated summary]

Participants
Main
a
alex jones
infowars 08:55
d
dan friesen
33:52
j
jordan holmes
18:03
Appearances
m
michael shrimpton
04:19
|

Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Dan and Jordan, I am sweating.
alex jones
Knowledgepight.com.
It's time to pray.
unidentified
I have great respect for knowledge fight.
alex jones
Knowledge fight.
I'm sick of them posing as if they're the good guys.
Shang, we are the bad guys.
Knowledge fight.
unidentified
Dan and Jordan.
Knowledge fight.
alex jones
I need money.
Riddler.
Andy and Pansy.
Andy and Candy.
Stop it.
Andy and Kansas.
Andy in Kansas.
unidentified
Andy.
alex jones
It's time to pray.
Andy in Kansas.
You're on the air.
Thanks for holding us.
unidentified
Hello, Alex.
I'm a fishman calling my fan.
alex jones
I love your room.
Knowledge fight.
Knowledgefight.com.
I love you.
Hey, everybody.
dan friesen
Welcome back to Knowledge Fight.
I'm Dan.
jordan holmes
I'm Jordan.
dan friesen
We're a couple of dudes.
Like, sit around.
unidentified
Whoa.
dan friesen
What is happening?
jordan holmes
We like to sit around.
dan friesen
Where's put the altars lane and talk a little bit about Alex Jones?
jordan holmes
Oh, indeed we do.
unidentified
Dude, Dan.
dan friesen
I was slightly wrong with my headphones.
I think that threw me off a little bit.
jordan holmes
I gotcha.
dan friesen
Yeah, I think that's a little bit better.
jordan holmes
A little bit soft.
dan friesen
Yeah, I'm not sure what it was.
There's just something, the strange sound.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I think we're better now.
I think we've recovered.
jordan holmes
We could restart, but we just fucking won't.
This is free behind-the-scenes shit.
It was too gold.
It was too good.
dan friesen
Too solid.
jordan holmes
Indeed, we are, Dan.
Jordan?
Dan.
dan friesen
What's up?
jordan holmes
What's your bright spot today, buddy?
dan friesen
My bright spot, Jordan, is irony.
jordan holmes
Irony.
dan friesen
Well, actually, I have two bright spots.
One is irony, which I'll get back to in a minute.
And the second is I got burned by novelty once again.
jordan holmes
Oh.
dan friesen
I was at the Walgreens.
jordan holmes
Ironically?
dan friesen
Maybe.
I don't know.
jordan holmes
Just unfortunately.
dan friesen
Well, there is, I mean, there's a slight irony to it, which we'll get to in a minute.
jordan holmes
We'll get to.
dan friesen
So I was at the Walgreens picking up some things and I wander through the chip aisle.
And what do I see but a new flavor of Dorito that was called hot mustard?
jordan holmes
No, no.
dan friesen
So it's kind of ironic because I bailed on the year of the mustard.
jordan holmes
There's something to be said.
dan friesen
So I saw that.
jordan holmes
That might still be coincidental, but okay.
dan friesen
I was like, ooh, how do I turn this down?
That is a weird Dorito flavor.
That is strange.
jordan holmes
So easy.
So easy.
dan friesen
Why would that be?
jordan holmes
You go wrong.
Wrong.
dan friesen
So I was on the cusp.
No, I wasn't.
I decided to do that.
jordan holmes
The moment you saw it, you were buying it and you were taking it home and you were like, this is probably pretzels.
dan friesen
And one thing that got me really over the hurdle easily was that it was buy one, get one.
So I was like, well, I can get a safe flavor.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And then it's kind of just free hot mustard.
jordan holmes
Right.
You can't hurt me.
dan friesen
Wow, it was bad.
jordan holmes
It wasn't bad.
dan friesen
It was so bad.
jordan holmes
Why?
dan friesen
It was really, really accurate in terms of hot mustard.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
Yeah.
It was as advertised.
Yeah.
But also, you can't really get rid of the corn flavor of the chip.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And so you had this corn plus hot mustard that's not a card.
jordan holmes
Which is not pretzel.
It's not pretzel plus hot mustard, which makes sense.
dan friesen
Yeah, it just, it was do not recommend.
jordan holmes
I do think I feel like there's two.
I feel like there's two competing factions in the Doritos flavor factory.
dan friesen
The corn and the hot mustard.
jordan holmes
No, there's the people who are like, let's make the best tasting chip.
And then the people who are like, if you're going to call it hot mustard, it's going to taste like fucking hot mustard, all right?
I don't care if it tastes good.
I don't care if it tastes like anything.
It's going to taste like hot mustard.
You said it.
dan friesen
I hate to say this.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Doritos.
jordan holmes
Call them a dead.
unidentified
You can't do better than the Nacho cheese.
You got a cool ranch warrior.
jordan holmes
Your Cool Ranch, you did it.
dan friesen
Yeah, I don't like the Cool Ranch ones, but I know that they have their fans.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
But those have been around for 20-something years.
jordan holmes
Longer than I've been alive, maybe.
dan friesen
Everything since then has been absolute trap.
jordan holmes
I don't know what it is.
And I get, they must just be bored.
dan friesen
They can't be tricked.
jordan holmes
Yeah, they can't just be like, hey, listen, we're going to make these three flavors.
We're going to be rich forever and then we'll just keep going.
dan friesen
I know that there's also fans of the spicy nacho.
I'm not as much of a fan of that one.
Sure.
But, you know, that's kind of become almost within the oeuvre of standard Doritos flavors.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Whenever they start fucking around, it's a mess, and I will get tricked every single time.
jordan holmes
Every time.
dan friesen
Thank you, Doritos.
jordan holmes
You see, I can't get out of my head that there's something, there's some sort of trick behind it, you know?
Like, it's a trick to get you to pay attention to Doritos, recognize one of their flavors is bad, and then go right back to Cool Ranch or whatever.
dan friesen
Well, it's the potential of what could be, and then you realize how good the Nacho Cheese ones are.
jordan holmes
They're so tricky.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
They're better than, they're smarter.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
They remind you of what you like about them by giving you shit.
jordan holmes
Yes, absolutely.
unidentified
Fooled you again, assholes.
dan friesen
So the irony, Bright Spot is.
So on our Monday episode, we talked a little bit about how we have a responsibility to cover the present day and stuff.
And, you know, I don't think it's any secret to anybody who listens to the show that I think that the present day is much less interesting than the past.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I think that Alex is not as there's not as much depth to what he's doing.
There's not as much, the guests aren't really as interesting.
jordan holmes
You know, and so it's a secret the way the Statute of Liberty is a secret.
dan friesen
The Statute of Liberty?
unidentified
Yeah, well.
dan friesen
So there, you know, there is a hurdle that I have to get over in order to get to a place where I'm like, you know what?
The present day requires our attention.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And let's do this thing.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
dan friesen
And so I was there on Monday.
jordan holmes
You were there.
dan friesen
I was there.
And we put out the episode Sunday.
I was like, I can't wait for Wednesday's show.
We're going to do some sneaky snake business.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
We're going to cover Sunday.
We're going to cover Monday.
Alex is out of studio on Sunday.
Harrison Smith hosting.
Monday.
Owens hosting.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
He's been out of studio this whole week.
jordan holmes
What is what is happening?
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
Probably back in Cabo.
jordan holmes
I mean, yeah.
Oh, God damn it.
Somebody take his money away.
Why is this happening?
Why is this happy?
I mean, put him in shackles at least, like a little bit, like fucking goddamn Christmas carol ass shackles.
You know what I'm saying?
I don't want him to be in prison, but I don't want him to be able to enjoy himself.
dan friesen
Cabo.
So I was itching to get to work on this present day business.
I was ready.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I was ready to do Wednesday.
I was excited to have a three-episode week.
I was shadow boxing.
jordan holmes
You were all ready for it.
dan friesen
Alex was out of studio the whole week.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
And maybe it's a small blessing because I was pretty busy this week.
But we, you know, we're here on Friday's episode.
We're going back to the past.
jordan holmes
That's what we're doing.
Because we have a choice.
We get whatever we want.
dan friesen
So, anyway, what's your bright spot?
jordan holmes
My bright spot is a little bit of anime.
I've been watching some anime recently.
unidentified
I've been kind of in.
dan friesen
I've been in the pervy kind?
jordan holmes
I've been kind of into funk.
No, not pervy.
Although, I mean, some of it's from the 80s.
So yes, it's inherently pervy.
Just all anime in the 80s was pervy.
Sure.
In a creepy way.
And then now, also, it's all pervy.
But yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I re-watched Neon Genesis, Evangelion.
Yep, that's still crazy.
dan friesen
I've never heard of that.
jordan holmes
Still crazy.
Horror.
Horror, trauma, just misery.
dan friesen
Horror, trauma, misery.
jordan holmes
Yeah, but Giant Robots.
dan friesen
Sold me on it.
jordan holmes
Giant Robots.
dan friesen
Are they the ones committing the horror and the trauma?
jordan holmes
No, no, no, no.
dan friesen
Are they miserable?
jordan holmes
They are extremely miserable.
Yes.
Also, that's another big, you got to feel, you got to deal with that question watching the anime, and you don't want to.
And when you get to the answer, you don't like it.
No, it's not good.
dan friesen
Do electronic sheep take antidepressants?
jordan holmes
No.
They come from space, and also Jesus is involved.
I mean, man, it's wild.
I think here's the thing.
I think we could definitely do a god-awful movies about an episode of Neon Genesis and Vangelion.
The amount of Jesus imagery in there is absurd at some points.
Yeah.
dan friesen
I'm out.
jordan holmes
But it's great.
dan friesen
Okay, I'm preemptively out, though.
jordan holmes
Just tell you, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then like Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen, and then maybe the perviest anime of all now is Chainsaw Man.
dan friesen
and that's absurdly pervy and so i think based on the title i would that's not how i would assume You wouldn't.
unidentified
But then you watch it and you go, wow, how about that?
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
Sick-ass chainsaw.
jordan holmes
Still going to do that, huh?
All right.
But yeah, it's enjoyable.
That's my bright spot.
unidentified
Fun.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So, like I said, we're in the past today.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
We're going to be talking about the 18th to the 23rd of February, 2004.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
Part of the reason is Alex is also out of studio.
unidentified
Out of studio.
jordan holmes
Yes.
We just did our fucking bright spots, and then we were just like, hey, Alex is out of studio in the past and the present.
I don't know what to do now.
dan friesen
Well, it is strange because I am covering over this period and he's running reruns.
But, you know, there is an ability to go to the next day, whereas in the present day, you know, shit hasn't happened yet.
No.
And I don't have a time machine yet.
jordan holmes
That's true.
dan friesen
So we'll get down to business on this here past episode, which is actually really just the 23rd.
There's only one clip in the week.
It was a terrible episode.
Right.
But before we do, let's say hello to some new wonks.
jordan holmes
Oh, that's a great idea.
dan friesen
So first, now I got to be honest, I'm not super happy about this one.
You're now a policy wonk.
Thank you so much.
You are now a policy wonk.
Hmm.
That was an attack, but I'm not sure how.
Anyway, you're now a policy wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
unidentified
Thank you very much.
jordan holmes
I think that was a joke that they were joking about.
dan friesen
Right, right, because I have said I'm not happy about some of these names.
jordan holmes
Oh, yeah.
dan friesen
You know, when they're dirty.
jordan holmes
Oh, I thought they weren't happy about the, yeah, never mind.
dan friesen
That's how I took it.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
As an attack.
jordan holmes
Yes, you did, as usual.
dan friesen
Next, WAP.
That's some wonk-ass policy.
Thank you so much, UNIOPLICY Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
I'm sure that's a wet-ass pussy.
jordan holmes
That's an attack on you, absolutely.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Next, Karen, it's game time.
Thank you so much, Uranio Policy Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much, Karen.
It's game time.
dan friesen
Thank you.
jordan holmes
Karen's from Karen's from the stream.
Oh, Karen the Dragon.
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Oh, fun.
jordan holmes
Karen, it's game time.
dan friesen
Next, let's do it.
A da-da-daddy shark.
The da-daddy shark.
You and I a policy wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
And next, I'm not mad at the crew.
I'm just disappointed that they're all globalists.
Thank you so much, Uranio Policy Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
And we've got a technical credit in the mix, Jordan.
So thank you so much, too.
Knowledge fight has broken my brain so much, my spouse has to remind me not to talk about the protocols of the elders of Zion in public.
Thank you so much, Uranio Policy Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
unidentified
Four stars.
alex jones
Go honking money and tell it you're brilliant.
Someone, sodomite, sent me a bucket of poop.
Daddy Shark.
Bomb, Jar Jar Binks has a Caribbean black accent.
unidentified
He's a loser, little, little titty baby.
alex jones
I don't want to hate black people.
I renounce Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
Thank you so much.
jordan holmes
Yes, thank you very much.
dan friesen
That is a tough consideration.
And I actually had a moment like that this week.
I mentioned that I'm probably going to be moving pretty soon.
Yes.
I've started getting some stuff packed up.
Indeed.
And I had a box for books.
And it just so happened that the top level of that was the Turner Diaries.
Every copy of the Turner Diaries.
And I'm like, I don't want to risk movers or anybody possibly seeing this.
Let's put something else on top of that.
jordan holmes
That is the most foreshadowing scene in a horror movie: like, you just walk in and it seems like a totally normal guy.
And then at the top of his bookshelf, his Turner dies, and you're like, hmm.
dan friesen
And I have it for research.
jordan holmes
One hour later, several bodies on the floor.
dan friesen
So, Jordan, we have a, it's been a while since we've had an out-of-context drop.
jordan holmes
Oh, it is.
dan friesen
But we've got one today.
jordan holmes
Okay.
alex jones
And I was about to make fun of the Quakers.
I decided not to do it, and then you brought it up.
I mean, I shouldn't make fun of them.
They're very dangerous.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Got to be careful.
Don't make fun of the Quakers.
jordan holmes
Of all the inverted reality worlds, that one's just out of left field to me.
dan friesen
Well, he wasn't going to do it.
I mean.
unidentified
And then someone brought up the Quakers when I got very dangerous.
dan friesen
They're a fellowship of friends, right?
The Brotherhood of Friends.
jordan holmes
Yes.
dan friesen
I don't know.
I don't know all that much about the Quakers, to be totally honest with you.
That's a little bit of a blind spot that I have.
But I don't think that Alex is correct.
jordan holmes
Well, I mean, one, they can only exist on tectonic plates.
Interesting.
A lot of them in California.
Ring of Fire, all Quakers.
unidentified
Oh.
dan friesen
Yeah.
unidentified
Wow.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
alex jones
Didn't know that.
dan friesen
Crazy.
I mean, I'm resisting an oat comment.
I'm going to keep doing that.
jordan holmes
Good call.
dan friesen
So here is our one clip from the 18th.
Sure.
Not really that much going on on this episode.
A lot of treading water.
But Alex has a couple of presidential election, 2004 presidential election stories that I thought he would develop over the course of the episode, and he really doesn't.
alex jones
Abortion claim hits the president.
This is out of the mirror out of England.
Photographer, pornographer, Larry Flint says he has nailed down his claims.
George Bush, a pro-life campaigner, arranged for a girlfriend to have an abortion in the 1970s.
Flint 61, a failed California governor candidate, said, I've talked to the woman's friends.
unidentified
I've tracked down the doctor who's been named Martian and the Bush people who arranged for it.
I've got the story nailed.
alex jones
That's how Flint talks.
He said he would publish his claims in a book at the height of the election season.
Flint's mudslinging comes amid what promises to be one of the dirtiest battles for the White House ever.
Alarmed aides of President Bush want 130 million pounds for the campaign to derail the runaway success of Democratic hopeful John Kerry.
Republicans are trying to portray Kerry, a Massachusetts senator for 19 years as a hypocrite and a political puppet.
Well, you're both puppets.
And yes, Mr. Kerry did use his Purple Hearts to get out of Vietnam.
Yes, Mr. Kerry did the protest with Jane Fonda.
Yes, Mr. Kerry is a whitewasher in a bunch of different committees.
But it doesn't matter.
They're both pieces of work.
And you can forget about the presidency.
We better work on getting our country back at the county, the city, the state level.
As Hutton Gibson says, we need to have a couple states secede to send the message that we're not putting up with this martial law tyranny.
dan friesen
Yikes.
That's quite a message you're looking to send.
jordan holmes
Is that a plan?
Is that a plan?
dan friesen
Warning shot.
jordan holmes
We're going to leave this country.
Now, you better sit up and fly right.
Like, what?
We'll come back if you guys behave better.
alex jones
Sure.
jordan holmes
I don't think so.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You're gone, man.
Yeah, go.
Go away.
dan friesen
Good luck.
jordan holmes
Honestly, love it or leave it, I guess.
dan friesen
As far as like a state seceding, the ramifications are going to be much worse for you.
jordan holmes
That's on you.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's on you.
Figure out your fucking trade routes, I guess.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So that's weird.
But also, if you look at this, the stories about both candidates don't feel right.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Carrie first, Alex, a couple days before this, had responded to a caller talking about John Kerry and recognized that he was like a war hero and what, or at least was somebody who served and went to Vietnam.
And now that's starting to twist.
And I wonder if this is part of like the beginning of Swift Boat.
Yeah.
I wonder if the recontextualization of Carrie's war record is something we're seeing the beginnings of here.
And I got excited about that because I thought over the course of this episode, I might get more details on what Alex's feelings are, and there's nothing.
So that is just a dangling thread we'll have to pick up later.
jordan holmes
Yeah, because that's one of the more interesting.
I mean, if you like, from a non-morality standpoint, like stepping back, there's no such thing as good or evil.
That's one of the most compelling political strategies that's been pulled off, I feel like, in my lifetime, is the way that they just perfectly took what should have been a true strength for this political candidate or whatever, and hung it around his neck like an anchor.
It's very fascinating how that humanity can be like swayed into just being like, oh, yeah, that's stupid now.
dan friesen
It is strange.
And it is something that I really look forward to seeing through the prism of Alex's coverage.
And unfortunately, it did not happen just yet.
But you do see little indications that some of this stuff is starting to become the mode of conversation in the right-wing media.
Now, second, the thing about Bush I got even more excited about because I was interested to see how Alex would cover this.
There is an obligation that Alex has to not attack him very harshly because Alex has at least 10 abortions at this point.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
And he has a position that being involved in abortion in the past is not indicative of your, you know, you can repent of that and stuff.
You can still be a fully pro-life person or anti-abortion person.
jordan holmes
He's an exemplary of that.
dan friesen
Exactly.
So for Alex, someone attacking Bush on that front, he's not truly anti-abortion because he's participated in abortions.
Alex has to be against that.
You would think.
And so I was excited to see if he would defend Bush on this front.
alex jones
Nope.
dan friesen
Well, there's not a yes or a no.
Oh.
There is legitimately the only conversation that happens in this episode is basically him saying that Larry Flint is making this claim.
It's just descriptive as opposed to any real conversation about it.
And that was a bummer.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that is disappointing.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I mean, maybe it'll come back up because Flint is saying he's going to write this book.
So maybe he'll continue to talk some shit.
I'm not sure.
jordan holmes
I was going to say, did he write that book?
dan friesen
I don't know, but it's certainly not sketchy that you're planning to release it at the height of the campaign season.
jordan holmes
That has the ring of talking shit.
dan friesen
It is the ring of profit motives.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
And also, I'm not actually going to write this book.
It's a lot harder than just making pronouncements like, oh, when it matters most, the book will be there.
dan friesen
I think when you're in that kind of space, you can have someone else do it for you.
jordan holmes
That's a fair point.
I've never considered that.
dan friesen
So I was a little disappointed.
And overall, this episode is just quite disappointing.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And so Alex is gone until the 23rd.
He comes back into studio, and it turns out he had fallen ill.
alex jones
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for joining us.
It is Monday, the 23rd of February, 2004.
Two days until the Passion of Christ comes out.
I'll be there on Wednesday afternoon watching it and giving you my report on Thursday.
I apologize for not being here last Thursday and Friday.
I normally do the show when I am sick.
I'm rarely sick.
I thought I had a cold last week.
It turned into the flu, 104 temperature.
Let's just say I was not a happy camper, so I could not do the show.
But I am here totally recuperated.
In fact, there were some good side effects.
I'm off coffee.
I said, hey, I haven't had coffee in three or four days.
Why drink coffee now?
So I'm off coffee.
So I guess the only drugs I use now are occasional Tylenol.
And I lost 10 pounds while I was sick, so I'm even more handsome now.
dan friesen
And he never touched substances again.
jordan holmes
I'm just going to say.
dan friesen
And he gave up all accelerants and the like for no vices past February 23rd, 2004.
jordan holmes
Demarcation point.
Yeah.
unidentified
It's a teetotaler.
jordan holmes
I would enjoy, of all the things that our show has done over the years, you know, we've accidentally stumbled into a lot of interesting events worldwide.
I think it would be fun to discover if time travel was real through this show when Alex from the future gives Alex from the past his first hit a Coke.
He just walks in like, hey, buddy, let me show you something.
dan friesen
That'll change your life.
He has a vision.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think it's kind of gross.
I lost 10 pounds because I was sick.
Because you realize it's like vomiting or diarrhea probably.
And, you know, those kind of mental images Alex bringing up is not that great.
Although, I mean, it is, I don't know.
He always says that he never gets sick, but he's sick a bit.
jordan holmes
Quite a bit.
dan friesen
I seem to notice there are times he's sick.
He had COVID three, four times, probably.
jordan holmes
Almost dead.
dan friesen
Some of these vacations very well, maybe.
Not really vacations.
Who knows?
jordan holmes
Yeah, it seems like his self-image requires an immunity to all disease.
dan friesen
I think he has some of that.
Some like his toughness is built into that.
But then, especially once you start selling supplements that are supposed to boost your immunity and all that stuff, if he's taking those things, it would be bad if he was sick.
jordan holmes
That's a good point.
It's bad for the business if you're sick.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So Alex has a guest on this 23rd episode, and it's a name that I know, but not from Infowars.
alex jones
Okay, I've never had more to talk about.
Just an absolutely gigantic, ultra-massive show.
Coming up in the next hour, folks, you're not going to want to miss this.
We have a very interesting individual coming on the show, Michael Shrimpton, a national security barrister.
He's written for the Journal of International Security Affairs.
He has briefed the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence and a lot more.
Lengthy bio.
dan friesen
So at this point in time in 2004, Michael Shrimpton is in fact a licensed barrister in the UK, who isn't necessarily the most highly placed source Alex could be talking to, but is someone who is at least a British lawyer.
Shrimpton is a conservative, but his party identification has wobbled all over the place over the years.
But he's a critic of the EU, so he and Alex can find some common ground on that front.
You may notice that I said that he's a barrister at this point in time in 2004, which implies that he's not anymore.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
That's because he's not anymore.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that was foreshadowing.
Yeah.
dan friesen
And the lead up to the 2012 Olympics to be held in London.
jordan holmes
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
Of all the ways for this guy's no longer a lawyer story to start.
I'm a big fan of it starting with the fucking Olympics.
dan friesen
The London Summer Games.
jordan holmes
That's the way you stop being a lawyer.
dan friesen
So at that point, Shrimpton made a big deal of publicizing a conspiracy he believed he'd uncovered.
It was his belief that the Nazis had reactivated their intelligence organization, the DVD, and were planning on detonating a stolen nuke during the summer games.
This was very much not true.
And he ended up getting arrested for perpetrating a bomb hoax because he spread disinformation to conservative organizations and made incessant calls to MPs, including the then defense secretary.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
In the course of questioning, it turned out that he believed that this group, the DVD, had taken over Al-Qaeda and had, quote, penetrated MI5 and MI6, which explained why he was the person with this intelligence as opposed to the country's normal intelligence community.
You see, they were in on the cover.
jordan holmes
Yeah, obviously.
dan friesen
In an article in the Bucks Herald about his arrest, they say, quote, Shrimpton refused to reveal his sources, but said they included, quote, someone in Munich who lunches with the Pope.
So, high-level stuff.
The court found that he was not, in fact, an intelligence specialist, though he presented himself as one and conveyed this nonsense bomb threat to the government and the public under the guise of one.
Ultimately, he would be sentenced to a 12-month period of incarceration for this misadventure.
jordan holmes
Damn.
He got a full year for this shit.
dan friesen
However, in the course of the investigation, the police found child exploitation material on a memory stick in his home.
jordan holmes
Motherfuck!
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
He was charged for possessing this and was put on the sex offender list.
He attempted to appeal his conviction but failed.
And as a combination of these two things, the Olympic bombing hoax and the child exploitation material, he ended up losing his license and is no longer a barrister.
These days, you can find Michael Shrimpton on outlets like Project Camelot, spounding nonsense conspiracy theories, which actually was what he was also doing before.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
The Olympic bombing hoax wasn't his first foray into conspiracy bullshit.
It was just his highest stakes one, and the one that ended up ruining the veneer of credibility his job title gave his shit.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
You could probably tell by listening to him that Shrimpton wasn't someone you needed to take seriously, but Alex is a real sucker for someone with an official title who says the stuff he wants to hear.
Also, Alex is blinded by accents.
Either way, you're probably asking yourself, why is Shrimpton here now?
Since 2004 is so much before he cracked open the nuclear bombs story at the Olympics.
jordan holmes
The Nazis had taken over both MIs.
dan friesen
Well, you don't know.
Maybe they had already.
jordan holmes
That's possible.
That's possible.
dan friesen
But this is a bit earlier.
Weird.
What's he doing here?
jordan holmes
Right.
So, okay.
So when did the Nazis take over Al-Qaeda?
Is my first question.
And how?
That one, that's the one that I have like, that's the key to the whole mystery.
dan friesen
Hold on, there.
Hold on.
I got to call a guy in Munich who lunches with the Pope.
Got to find out.
jordan holmes
What's that meeting like?
Oh, the Nazis show up with Al-Qaeda.
Did they have fucking lunch?
What are we talking about?
That'd be weird.
That'd be weird.
Well, the Pope would have to negotiate that for sure.
dan friesen
So there's a very familiar bit of conspiracy that Shrimpton is on to talk to Alex about.
alex jones
He's traveled all over the Western world and given speeches and consulted on terrorism.
Guess why he's joining us on the show?
jordan holmes
9-11 Trutherism?
alex jones
Well, last week you may have seen a story floating around that somebody inside the British government had sources that said that they could confirm that Dr. David Kelly had been killed.
We've already got all these top doctors and scientists coming forward and saying that.
We've got all the evidence and even mainstream headlines saying, is this what happened?
Well, he's got sources inside MI5, MI6, and from the information he has, they know how he knows how they killed him, how they killed Dr. David Kelly, and why they killed Dr. David Kelly.
dan friesen
I wonder if this was while MI5 and MI6 were infiltrated by the Nazi folks.
Yeah.
Maybe.
Or maybe because this didn't work out for Shrimpton.
Maybe that was how he learned that they were infiltrated.
jordan holmes
That could be.
dan friesen
I don't know.
Michael Shrimpton doesn't know shit about any inside information about David Kelly.
He knows as much about this as he does about the nukes at the 2012 Olympics, which is to say, the stuff he knows is horseshit that he's probably making up or someone else is workshopping with him.
Part of what makes me confident about this is that in 2006, he was interviewed by the BBC for a documentary series called The Conspiracy Files.
He comes off looking real dumb in that show, and not because his theories about Kelly.
There were a number of people pitching ideas about how Kelly might have been murdered, and they came off a lot better.
The reason he seemed so dumb was because he acts like a buffoon.
Here's a little clip of him from that show.
jordan holmes
All right.
unidentified
Michael Shrimpton says he knows that Dr. Kelly was assassinated because of his extensive intelligence contacts.
michael shrimpton
That is the red phone, and if that phone goes, it could be anybody from the White House to the President's administration in Russia to the CIA to whoever.
It's not usual for me to pick up the phone and have Henry Kissing the other end, but that has happened.
He actually has that number, but he doesn't have that number.
That gives me a direct line through to Vice President Cheney's office.
dan friesen
Okay, buddy.
jordan holmes
This guy was made for tricking dumb Americans.
This is that's the voice you need to be.
dan friesen
A lot of confidence.
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Oh, boy.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Oh, you aristocratic fuck.
dan friesen
It's not usual that Kissinger just rings me up out of nowhere.
So, also, I will say that this clip from the show did no favors for Shrimpton.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
Michael Shrimpton is also a fan of espionage fiction from Frederick Forsyth to Tom Clancy.
Yes, he's one of my favorite authors, yes.
One of Tom Clancy's books, The Teeth of the Tiger, concerns an off-the-books team of U.S. government assassins who avoid detection by killing their victims with succinyl choline.
michael shrimpton
There is a reference to succinyl choline in this book, and I think that follows the assassination of David Kelly.
Tom Clancy has very good contacts with the in the national security community.
It may be that Tom Clancy picked up a reflection, if you like, or a loop bag.
unidentified
Oh.
michael shrimpton
The Kelly assassination.
But if the suggestion is, oh, I got succinol choline from Tom Clancy novel, then sorry.
That went wash.
dan friesen
I'm not convinced.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of.
I mean, this is obviously going to make it sound like this idea I got from the Tom Clancy novel.
dan friesen
But my conspiracy is weirdly similar to the plot of this book.
No.
jordan holmes
Now, what you won't know is that I have read the book, of course, and I have dog-eared many pages.
But here's the thing: Tom Clancy, ah, he sees the future.
dan friesen
Also, that was one of his lesser novels.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I was waiting.
God, I would have given anything for that British voiceover to be like, Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik, both co-authored.
Oh, that would be a good idea.
dan friesen
I mean, think about this, though.
Like, this guy's got a lot of big brags.
And it's Pacheneki in its nature.
It is a connection to Tom Clancy.
jordan holmes
It is.
dan friesen
Inasmuch as his conspiracies appear to be inspired by the works of Pieczenik's one-time collaborator.
jordan holmes
These two could get together and really fuck some shit up.
dan friesen
Steve and the.
unidentified
Pieczenikin and the Shrimp Man.
dan friesen
Yeah, man.
They could end up on a weird panel on Project Camelot any day now.
jordan holmes
Yep.
Yep, that could be a day and a half.
dan friesen
So, if I got shanked like that by a TV show, I would probably sue them.
And that's basically what Michael Shrimpton tried to do.
After the show aired, he filed a formal complaint with Ofcom, the UK's communication regulatory body.
He thought the program had done him dirty and portrayed him in a negative light.
The BBC said that they had not.
And in fact, the footage that was included was representative of what Shrimpton said in their interview.
And even that he even claimed that he'd been misled about the nature of the program that he had agreed to participate in.
Ofcom reviewed evidence, including correspondence between Shrimpton and the BBC, as well as full transcripts of his interviews, and ultimately rejected his complaint.
jordan holmes
Phone call he had with his mom.
I got invited to do this show on BBC.
I got invited to do it.
I can't wait to do it.
This is my most exciting thing.
dan friesen
This isn't your mother that says Kissing Drew.
jordan holmes
I can't believe you answered the phone again.
dan friesen
Congratulations.
So Shrimpton's just mad that he acted like an idiot.
It was captured in a documentary program, and I would guess that he just didn't like the image that he saw in the mirror.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
That wasn't the BBC's fault.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
He acted like a real dick.
jordan holmes
Yeah, you really shouldn't go on camera and be recorded through somebody else's eyes if you've never looked at yourself through somebody else's eyes.
It's a dangerous proposition.
dan friesen
True.
So he's going to be on later to talk some shit about David Kelly's death.
And it's actually not that interesting of an interview.
There's only a couple clips that I decided to pull.
They were kind of laying out a little bit of his conspiracy, but for the most part, it's just kind of standard Alex talking shit.
jordan holmes
You know, for a guy.
See, that's the thing, though, with the big swing.
You can't take, you know, you got to take big swings, but maybe nuclear bomb at the Olympics, too big.
dan friesen
Too big a swing.
That was a number of years after this.
jordan holmes
That was.
That's what I'm saying.
dan friesen
He got bored.
jordan holmes
He may have learned the wrong lessons from not taking a big enough swing here.
dan friesen
Well, he got bored with these sort of low-level games.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
He got burned by the BBC.
And then a couple of years later, he decided to go for it.
Yep.
jordan holmes
Good, good.
unidentified
Blew up.
dan friesen
Pretty bad.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I would have to be o'keefed too close to the sun.
dan friesen
True.
So David Kelly has a lot of titles.
He was a weapons inspector, you know, and what have you.
But apparently, now he has a new job title that Alex has given him.
jordan holmes
Interesting.
alex jones
An intelligence agency of a country will use its sister intelligence agency that it works with in another nation to do hits for them, and that happens vice versa.
That happened at Waco, according to the Fort Worth Star, a newspaper, where they used MI5-controlled special air services people out there doing some of the wet work.
So this is done over and over again where they use foreign troops, foreign individuals, to kill their own people internally because it's very dangerous to use your own intelligence people to kill fellow intelligence people like Dr. David Kelly, who was a top spy and of course head of Horton Down Bioweapons Lab and the head British inspector.
dan friesen
He's a top spy now.
jordan holmes
He was a top spy.
Yeah.
Where?
For what?
dan friesen
For the UK, I guess.
jordan holmes
To whom?
dan friesen
For MI6?
jordan holmes
To spy for what?
dan friesen
Spying on.
I mean, is weapons inspecting spying?
jordan holmes
I mean, I suppose that that's the most open and obvious form of spying there is.
dan friesen
Excuse me.
jordan holmes
May I please spy on you?
dan friesen
That counts as a spy, I guess.
But I don't know.
I don't know any evidence that he was a like the spy.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I feel like you have to be incognito to be a spy of some sort.
dan friesen
Yeah, there's a clandestine element to it.
And I did not, I don't know.
I don't know where this is coming from.
jordan holmes
You can't knock on the front door if you're a spy.
You know, you can't knock on the front door and be like, hey, I'm from the UK here to inspect your weapons as the world knows.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
I mean, I think what Alex is trying to evoke is that David Kelly operated in some fairly official and touchy areas.
Sure, sure.
And that I can go along with.
Right.
But saying he's a top spy is a little bit ridiculous.
jordan holmes
I mean, well, who else would they trust to inspect nuclear weapons?
They're not going to send like a regular guy.
They're going to send the top spy.
dan friesen
Hell yeah, man.
So one of the things that really was weird for me was I didn't realize that Alex was sick immediately.
When I'm listening to these episodes, sometimes I'll listen to a couple minutes before I realize it's a repeat.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And so Thursday's episode I turned on, and Alex is like, wow, we got Hutton Gibson coming in.
I'm like, again?
jordan holmes
Oh, goddammit.
dan friesen
And I wouldn't be too surprised to be back again.
And so it seemed like it could have been.
I'm like, oh, this is the same episode.
But it turns out that Alex has been getting a lot of heat about the Hutton Gibson issue.
jordan holmes
Interesting.
dan friesen
Maybe not a ton of heat, but enough heat.
jordan holmes
Enough to make people secede from the union?
dan friesen
No.
But because of his Holocaust denial.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure.
dan friesen
There's some issues with that.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
And so Alex will not talk about it.
But maybe he will.
But he's not going to talk about it.
jordan holmes
Courageous.
alex jones
And I'm not going to get into Hutton Gibson.
I've talked to Hutton Gibson many times.
He is not anti-Semitic.
He says he doesn't like Nazis.
He doesn't like Zionists.
He doesn't like the corrupt Catholic Church.
I mean, there's not a lot of things that are happening.
jordan holmes
Because he thinks they're all Jews.
alex jones
He's the winner of, you know, Jeopardy, and he knows history.
And he's a pretty smart guy.
And he does think the Holocaust happened.
He just debates the numbers and says that people should be allowed to debate those numbers.
And he says these interviews have been taken out of context.
And so we'll see what happens.
I had MSNBC call me.
I had a CNN call.
I had a bunch of other people call.
And I'm not doing interviews.
I'm not going to go on national TV and talk about Hutton Gibson.
Alexander Emerich Jones doesn't do that to his friends.
I can care less about being on MSNBC or CNN or something like that.
I'm just not going to do it.
I mean, I thought about going on and, you know, defending Hutton and yet, you know what?
I'm just not going to get involved in it.
I'm just not going to get involved in it.
jordan holmes
Smart.
alex jones
Who knows?
I might have a change of heart and do it.
jordan holmes
Oh, for God's sakes.
God damn it.
God damn it.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Strong defense, by the way.
He thinks the Holocaust happens.
He just debates the numbers.
jordan holmes
He just thinks it's okay to debate the numbers.
dan friesen
Yeah, he just thinks it was like maybe 5 million.
unidentified
6 million, 5 million, 10, whatever.
jordan holmes
We're just debating numbers.
dan friesen
Yeah, you got to ask yourself sometimes why are you what motivates you to do that?
jordan holmes
Let me tell you something.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
One is too many.
Now, he doesn't care about any.
So I don't know why he's debating the numbers.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Strong defense Alex could provide were he to go on these shows.
Now, I like the position that he has of like, I'm not going to go on and allow myself to be used to trash a friend.
Sure.
You know, just from the standpoint of like how friends treat each other.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
You know, that's solid, you know, looking out for your people kind of thing.
jordan holmes
I suppose.
dan friesen
Flash forward just a little bit to Charlie Sheen and Alex going on the view, trying to make that media circus all about himself.
He's totally fine behaving like that.
And that leads me to believe that these outlets aren't calling him and asking him to come on and talk about it.
He'd do it in a second.
jordan holmes
Maybe, on the other hand, I'll throw this out at you.
Going on TV and talking about your friend having a manic episode and yelling about Tiger Blood and stuff is a little bit different from going on TV and being like, no, here's why it's okay to deny the Holocaust.
Maybe you don't want that one on TV.
dan friesen
Maybe, but here, yeah, you know, I don't think that's maybe the distinction, but I think you're right in that there's something different.
There's like a flashiness in a media circus around Charlie Sheen, whereas this has religion attached to it and has the passion of the Christ attached to it.
There's a lot of like weird potholes Alex could step into.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
That maybe the Charlie Sheen situation didn't have nearly as many.
Yeah, I mean, there was less risk for Alex to turn on his friend.
jordan holmes
Denying the Holocaust, undeniably bad.
Denying that a guy denied the Holocaust, I mean, not equally bad, but still up there, kind of suggests that if the latter, maybe the former also.
dan friesen
Yeah, it's yeah, it is dicier territory for Alex.
So a lot of people love to talk about Alex's predictions and how great he is at predicting things.
And here's one for them.
alex jones
House votes for ignition interlocks on every vehicle.
They're out of control.
Sounds interesting.
Do you know what that's fancy dumb speak for?
Well, what I told you they were going to do, and again, I hate to say it because I told you, because I told you, because I told you, but I have their official plans.
New Mexico has passed the law out of the House in the Senate to make everyone blow a breathalyzer to start your car.
Everyone guilty until proven innocent.
Why, if it just saves one life.
And then they're going to say that this doesn't work because people have others blow.
So, oh, we're going to have to retina scan you, and it'll decide if you're drunk.
And this will be the retina scan.
Now, how do I know that?
Because I saw the federal plans four or five years ago.
I read Houston Chronicle articles three years ago.
They have a system that they're already putting into businesses all over the country, and the feds are using a retina scanner that also reads microscopic movement of the eye, and it'll decide if you're on drugs or drunk or tired, and they want to put all these in the cars, and so they're going to make you use the breathalyzer.
Then people are going to cheat, and they're going to say, okay, you've got a retina scan to start your car.
Now, that's the official plan.
You want to put up with it, go ahead.
And then if you're not a good globalist, they turn your car off, and they're going to have infrared cameras in all the cars by 2005, quote, as a detector if there's a child in the car when it's too hot.
But again, the federal plan is it's really a camera.
dan friesen
Hashtag Alex Jones is right.
alex jones
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yikes.
That is.
dan friesen
A little off on some of that.
Quite a bit of that.
jordan holmes
That is a lot of work to expect a lot of car manufacturers to take on in a very short period of time.
dan friesen
He's also doing a flagrant misrepresentation of like they don't want people to have to blow to start their car.
It's like when you have a second DUI.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like that, it's that's part of that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's not.
jordan holmes
Everyone.
dan friesen
It's not everyone.
jordan holmes
No, because.
dan friesen
You're not guilty until you're proven innocent.
It's a mitigation measure for people who will not drive drunk.
jordan holmes
You're talking about somebody who has, at the very least, two DUIs.
So Alex, I am sure, believes that everyone is going to be affected by this law.
dan friesen
Everyone they mean.
jordan holmes
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, goddammit, they're going to have to put a thing in my car.
dan friesen
I mean, if it were what Alex is describing, I would be against it.
Everyone has to blow to start their car.
I mean, I think that's you're making a face where you're thinking, like, maybe that's okay.
jordan holmes
I'm thinking maybe Alex wouldn't be able to go to work.
dan friesen
Maybe not.
jordan holmes
Or at the very least, he wouldn't be able to drive home considering what we've seen on the cameras.
dan friesen
Well, see, here's where I'm coming from.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I think that that is inappropriate for everyone.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
You know, just all cars you have to do.
Because as we learned from Seinfeld with the poppy seed, you know?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
There's all kinds of things.
jordan holmes
Could be anything.
dan friesen
What if you have a screwy machine and it won't start?
You're not drunk, but it thinks you are or something.
Then you need to get somewhere.
You get fired.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
Or if there's a medical emergency, you need to get some.
It's just not.
It's not appropriate.
But for people who drive drunk, perhaps.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It is appropriate because you're going to end up killing somebody.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, it is that kind of intervention kind of stuff where it's like, oh, well, you clearly can't stop yourself.
So somebody has to stop it before it can happen.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That kind of thing.
And I imagine for somebody who can't stop it.
dan friesen
I'm going to tell you that your license is taken away, but you're still going to drive.
jordan holmes
Yeah, of course.
dan friesen
So mechanically, we must solve it.
jordan holmes
Yeah, we have to do this wherein talking does not work.
dan friesen
It's not like, yeah, we can't leave something to a choice because the choice will be bad.
jordan holmes
Yeah, you no longer have choices.
dan friesen
You have a medical condition, more or less, that is overriding your decision making.
jordan holmes
Totally.
Yeah.
And I imagine that for somebody who is filled with unstoppable, compulsive needs, Alex would take this very personally.
dan friesen
Here's something that you're not considering.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
He was sick recently and he's off coffee.
jordan holmes
That's a fair point.
Well, now he can't even perk himself up after he's been driving drunk for a while.
No good.
dan friesen
So Shrimpton comes in, and here is a bit of his theory about who killed David Kelly.
Essentially, well, I'll let him describe.
michael shrimpton
No, again, I've got to be obviously careful on air, but the indications are that the tasking for the assassination came from within the UK.
And I can't name any individual official or minister.
The tasking was generated in the UK went to Paris, was then okayed in Paris.
And on the information available to me, the operational agency for the assassination was DGSE.
Now, there are also indications, and I'm again, obviously, Alex, you appreciate I'm expressing myself with caution here.
There are indications that DGSE, in order to false flag the assassination, should their team be discovered, used Iraqi intelligence assets from the Iraqi Mukhabarat agency that were available in Damascus after the fall of Baghdad.
And I have one source suggesting that an Iraqi team, that's to say, an ex-Mukhabarat team recruited in Damascus with the assistance of the Syrian intelligence operation, also the Mukhabarat, were flown into Corsica in the seven days prior to the assassination of David Kelly.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So this is his complicated conspiracy theory that the UK government put out the hit.
They okayed it through some organization that he doesn't know and can't name.
So they okayed it.
And in order to give like, you know, you don't want to have your spies killing your own spies because they work together.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So you have French people to take care of it.
So they reach out to France.
France is like, we're on it.
But to be careful, we're going to subcontract this out to a group of Iraqis.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And so the Iraqis were the ones who did it.
And now the French, I don't know if you know this.
I learned this from a very reputable source named Michael Shrimpton.
The French never, you should never take on a contract from the French intelligence because they will just kill you once it's over.
So these Iraqis are dead.
Yeah.
jordan holmes
The French know how to do it.
dan friesen
Right.
Which raises the question, why does anyone take a contract from the French intelligence?
And his answer is they must not know the very clear reputation that the French intelligence agencies have to the point where you know about it.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
I think that maybe that Iraqi intelligence group might have been aware of that, that they're just going to die after they carry out this mission.
But it's all fine because none of this is real.
jordan holmes
I'm going to throw this out at you.
Yes.
While I respect the idea that, like, oh, you don't want your own agency people killing each other, right?
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
Because they work together.
There'd be a personal connection.
dan friesen
I get it.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
That's why you bring in corporate to fire someone as opposed to doing it yourself, you know, or something like that.
jordan holmes
But then it's like you're in intelligence, and now you know that your boss just involved two other countries to kill your buddy.
I feel like that makes me hate my boss more than if my boss was like, hey, buddy, we got to kill your buddy.
dan friesen
Is it hate or is it fear tinged with respect?
jordan holmes
Look.
Well, I can't answer that question.
dan friesen
But I mean, he's writing a compelling Clancy novel here.
unidentified
Sure.
jordan holmes
Sure.
Here's what I'm going to do.
If I'm going to assassinate somebody, I'm going to try and get as many people involved as I can.
Yeah.
Especially ones who I know are in the intelligence service who all talk to each other and have information that often finds its way down to this shrimp man over here.
dan friesen
Now, we have a situation, too, now where you have a lot of dangling threads because you have the UK.
There's a lot of dangling threads.
You have the French people.
The French people have now killed the Iraq people.
jordan holmes
So they're the only ones who have cut off one threat.
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
But the French are still a thread.
Anybody who knew these Iraqis is now a threat.
Absolutely.
I don't know.
I find this hard to believe.
jordan holmes
Now, okay.
Now, okay, but now we're talking about the.
But who kills the French?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, the French kill the Iraqis.
Right.
But who kills the French for knowing?
dan friesen
Well, if the French need to get rid of someone, I would assume that they would call the UK.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And then the UK would get someone from Brussels.
unidentified
I don't know.
dan friesen
Some other country?
False flag them.
jordan holmes
I mean, you know, this is the problem with middlemen.
I mean, even our intelligence services aren't like they used to be.
They don't even kill each other anymore.
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
It's just terrible.
It's union.
dan friesen
Not in my day.
unidentified
Back in my day.
Oh, it's so impersonal.
dan friesen
Anyway, Shrimpton.
Yeah.
He doesn't like lone gunman theories.
It's never that.
It's always got to be more complicated because a lone gunman story wouldn't make for a good Clancy novel.
jordan holmes
That's true.
michael shrimpton
We've had a lone gunman, classic example of a lone gunman assassination theory in Europe with the assassination of the Dutch politician Pim Fortune, which was blamed on a lone gunman.
An explanation which doesn't carry much weight with me since in the photographs of the assassin that I saw, there was what appeared to me to be a very thin wire leading up to an ear piece in his right ear.
And normally Alex lone gunmen don't run around with radios and ear pieces, particularly high-tech ones with that clothes.
alex jones
The same thing with Yishak Rabin.
michael shrimpton
Yeah.
alex jones
I mean, Netanyahu's giving speeches about somebody ought to get rid of this guy and then Rabin's security steps back and they blow him away.
michael shrimpton
Well, there are certainly those, certainly respected commentators.
General Thomas is one, who would say that the Rabin assassination was the deadly knockdown to a lone gunman.
dan friesen
I can totally settle this for them.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Steve Pieczenik has confessed to killing Itzhak Rabin on Alex's show.
jordan holmes
That is true.
That is true.
dan friesen
So this case is closed.
jordan holmes
What a dumb fucking world we live in.
dan friesen
It was a lone gunman who was named Steve, who also arrested the Pope and single-handedly took down the Soviet Union.
So this mystery is solved.
Also, the guy who killed Pim Fortune is, that was, they said he is a lone gunman, and by they, I mean, him, the person confessed.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
I'm always weirded out by the assassinations whenever they're brought into real life because I feel like in my experience, it is either a lone gunman and everybody knows about it because they killed the person.
We move on.
dan friesen
Yeah, these wild, like, kind of fluke situations that people are able to pull off something that generally you would just think is impossible, and it turns out it's not.
jordan holmes
Or it's like a flagrant state assassination that basically they want everyone to know, you know, like the Novichock situation.
dan friesen
There's like messages that are.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like I am telling the entire world I can just poison this motherfucker whenever I want, and then he's going to die in my prison.
You know, that kind of assassination.
dan friesen
Yeah, that does seem to cover most of it.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I don't feel like I feel like clandestine, like true, like, oh, we made it look like a suicide shit almost never happens.
dan friesen
Well, I mean, I think all you're arguing is that they're that good at it.
jordan holmes
See, that's the problem with this argument about clandestine shit.
dan friesen
Right.
Yeah.
Yep.
jordan holmes
Anything could be if it's good enough.
dan friesen
You kind of hit a dead end where absence of evidence is evidence of how good the conspiracy is.
And you just can't live in that world.
jordan holmes
Right.
michael shrimpton
You just can't.
jordan holmes
All right, fine.
Boo.
dan friesen
So anyway, how would you like some third-level third-hand intel from Shrimpman?
jordan holmes
I love it.
alex jones
Continuing with what we were discussing and just briefly recapping, you have a source who, in intelligence, talked to his other sources, and it was widely known in intelligence that there was an order to get rid of Kelly even before he died.
michael shrimpton
My source learned after the assassination that others in Whitehall were aware of the assassination in advance.
unidentified
Yes.
michael shrimpton
And that source had spoken to, obviously, he was a friend of David Kelly's, knew him well, had worked with him.
And clearly, once his friend was found dead in a wood, made investigations.
And when he made investigations, he discovered that this assassination was known about in advance.
dan friesen
This is meaningless as intel.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So we have this guy, Michael Shrimpton, who I have good reason not to trust as a source.
He's the only actual known figure in any of this and is the only person whose credibility is possible to assess.
Behind him, he has an alleged source who's anonymous, but who knew David Kelly.
This person may or may not exist.
Their credentials may or may not be accurately conveyed, and whatever they did or didn't tell Shrimpton may be relayed correctly or may not.
Behind this anonymous source, there's an unspecified number of unnamed people at Whitehall who told the anonymous source that they knew that there was a plan to take out Kelly prior to his death.
These people may or may not exist, and the message that may or may not have been relayed to this anonymous source may or may not be accurate.
Even before this information gets to Shrimpton, it's secondhand.
Now Shrimpton is relaying third-hand information to Alex, and there's just no way to look at this as reliable.
The allegation that there was foreknowledge of a plan to kill Kelly is being made by some number of secret intelligence people at Whitehall, but Trimpton hasn't even talked to them.
When the rubber meets the road, he doesn't even really know if these people exist.
All he can possibly know is that this anonymous source told him they exist and said what they said.
It's all sensational and attention-grabbing, but it's just not something that rises to the level of being worth taking seriously.
We know now that Trimpton is someone not worth giving the benefit of the doubt, but even in 2004, he's at best an unknown quantity.
Accepting this narrative from him based on his untested credibility would require a staggering amount of faith.
Or in Alex's case, it's what he wants to hear, so he just accepts it no matter what.
It's just, yes, hooray.
Thank you.
You're technically a barrister, and you're saying what I want to hear.
Now, top lawyers are coming out and saying that, you know, it's just, it's convenience.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, this guy would really make sense wearing one of those powdered wigs in a court.
dan friesen
That would be, I would feel like he was not in the BBC special.
I will say that.
alex jones
Okay.
dan friesen
I will tell you that for sure.
He also got pissed that they called him a barrister.
jordan holmes
Of course.
dan friesen
Then he proceeded to basically act like it and talk about his connections and stuff.
So when he complained about it, that was another thing that Ofcom said.
You don't have any right to complain about it.
jordan holmes
No, you kind of show off.
Yeah.
dan friesen
So we have one last clip of Shrimpton before he takes off, and it's just Alex and Shrimpton discussing who's the worst prime minister in UK history.
jordan holmes
That's a good question.
dan friesen
Probably Tony Blair.
alex jones
Have you ever had a prime minister this bad?
michael shrimpton
Well, that's a political question.
jordan holmes
Chamberlain.
michael shrimpton
The answer is probably, but I can't remember when.
It's a close toss-up between Tony Blair, John Major, and Lord North, who lost the American colonies.
But from your point of view, Lord North is probably, probably quite good to have in Downing Street.
Neville Chamberlain.
I think that without being disrespectful to my Prime Minister on the air, I think it's a close call between Tony Blair and Neville Chamberlain.
You could have 10 different politicians and economists and military strategists sit around a table and come up with 10 different answers as to whether Neville Chamberlain surrendered more of Europe than Tony Blair and whether Tony Blair surrendered more to France and Germany than Neville Chamberlain did.
It's a close-run thing.
alex jones
Well, I think it's clearly Tony Blair if he gets what he wants.
michael shrimpton
Yeah, I had the, I mean, I have to say, having met Tony Blair, he's not quite a pleasant, personable individual.
He's not a monster when you meet him.
alex jones
Well, they said that about Adolf Hitler, too.
jordan holmes
Did they?
dan friesen
Real nice.
jordan holmes
I feel like they did.
I really feel like even the personal reports from people, his best friends, where we're like, that dude is unhinged.
dan friesen
You know what they say about Hitler?
Charming.
Smooth talker in person.
Just like Gilbert.
You know, you want to hate him, but then you talk to him and you leave like, hey, that guy is pretty.
I hate what he stands for, but man.
jordan holmes
You know what?
You could get a bunch of economists and prime ministers and military men around a table, and they will argue for days about whether or not Neville Chamberlain or Hitler was more charming.
That's the main question that they figure out.
dan friesen
Yeah.
You know, Hitler, what he would do is he'd always start with a compliment.
And that really was disarming to people.
jordan holmes
Fuck.
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
So, yeah, who's to say whether Tony Blair or Neville Chamberlain will history reveal to be a worse prime minister?
jordan holmes
I do.
dan friesen
The teasing of Hitler.
I mean, not to minimize the involvement in justifying the war in Iraq.
That's bad.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
That's bad.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
I don't know if it rises to Chamberlain levels.
jordan holmes
I mean, I love a good hyperbole.
You know me.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I do.
I do.
I do, but this might be a little bit much.
Might be a little bit much.
dan friesen
It seems like I understand where the conversation comes in.
You know, I do get that.
Sure, sure, sure.
But I think saying it's a toss-up is maybe that's hard for me to do.
jordan holmes
That's an interesting toss-up.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Shrimp leaves.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He goes to get a cocktail.
Shrimp man get a cocktail.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
I don't know.
But so Alex takes a number of calls.
And one call is someone from Indiana who has an interesting question for Alex.
alex jones
Let's talk to Pat in Indiana, who's really been holding patiently.
Pat, good to hear from you.
unidentified
Well, that's all right.
I just had two things to say that I went to a meeting with Mike Pence, and I went to Earlham College for a meeting about what's going on in this global situation.
And I asked Mike again about the Patriot Act 1 and 2 and the Victory Act 1 and 2.
And I asked him to elaborate on 802.
alex jones
This is your congressman?
unidentified
Yeah, Penn.
And he said he helped write the whole Patriot Act, and he couldn't elaborate on 802, and he said there was no Patriot Act number two.
dan friesen
I'm not sure how much direct involvement Mike Pence had in drafting the Patriot Act, but he was in the House Judiciary Committee at the time of its drafting, which is where that would have been.
jordan holmes
Yeah, he would have been there.
dan friesen
Further, Pence did say in a committee meeting about reauthorizing the Patriot Act that he'd helped draft the original.
It does seem plausible that he had some hand in it, and at very least, he's been a huge proponent of extending the act and keeping it in place over the years.
This is just another really funny thing to think about in hindsight about Alex's support for Trump.
He was potentially rallying all of his supporters to help elect a vice president who helped create the Patriot Act, one of the biggest pieces of evil legislation that Alex built his career out of opposing.
jordan holmes
Now, that's irony.
It is.
That is definitely irony.
dan friesen
And I don't think that's ever something I've heard Alex wrestle with or grapple with the idea of like, you know, because I could see a sincere actor saying, like, I think that Trump is such an important political figure that I will accept the fact that he chose as a vice president someone who takes credit for creating the Patriot Act.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
I could see really struggling to make that decision and showing your work and being like, I think that the benefits outweigh, you know, he's Pence is going to have some ideas, but he's going to be sidelined by Trump.
Trump wouldn't have let him do some Patriot Act ass shit on his watch, something.
But I don't really know that I've heard that.
jordan holmes
Do you know what?
Here's what I'm feeling right here: the reverse of a mighty duck scenario, right?
So we've got our opening character.
They are, you know, salt of the earth kind of, like hanging out with the bad news bears kind of style person, right?
Then they get pulled away by this glossy, ooh, look at this detangled electoral politics.
dan friesen
The Electoral Politics out of the fire of Europe.
Right, right.
jordan holmes
And then, and then in the Disney movie, though, because of the way the resolution is set up, when they start chanting hang Mike Pence, that's his Mighty Ducks moment where he's returning back to the fold of being like, yeah.
alex jones
But he was not.
jordan holmes
Hang that.
No, I know.
But he didn't do it.
Like, he screwed up the Disney movie.
dan friesen
He lost to the Russian team.
jordan holmes
He's the worst Airbud.
He's the worst Airbud.
dan friesen
I don't know.
I've seen a number of those.
They're not great.
There's that one where the dog wrestles.
jordan holmes
Oh, that's true.
dan friesen
Russell Mania, I think was the name of it.
jordan holmes
Not really.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You know, you could get a lot of economists and military bud around a table, and they'll tell you, you never know which is the worst Airbud.
dan friesen
Did they make one where he plays baseball?
Because that would be sad.
jordan holmes
They totally did.
dan friesen
I could see a dog in the outfield, but batting.
jordan holmes
No, that'd be tough.
That'd be tough.
dan friesen
I mean, dogs are made to play catch.
jordan holmes
You know?
Well, I mean, basketball seems ridiculous, but you can hang out.
dan friesen
Pinch Hitter, though, you get somebody.
He could run the baseball.
jordan holmes
He could run crazy.
Yeah, I mean, I don't.
Now, listen, there are not explicit rules saying that dogs can't play baseball.
I know this.
I've been through the rule book.
Right.
dan friesen
What if you had a team?
jordan holmes
What if you had a team?
Okay, all right.
dan friesen
Eight dogs in Shohei Otani.
Do you think they really stand a chance at the same time?
jordan holmes
I think they could.
Not the pennant, no, but I think they could go 40.
I think they could win 40 games.
I think they could win 40 games.
That's a bad record.
40 and a 40 and on Joni is a bad record.
dan friesen
Dogs, it's not bad.
jordan holmes
Eight dogs, it's not bad.
dan friesen
I don't know what other sports bowling.
Dogs can't bowl.
jordan holmes
Dogs can't bowl.
I feel like soccer is right at the dog wheelhouse.
dan friesen
Trick shot pool.
jordan holmes
In what fashion would they perform a masse shot?
dan friesen
That's what I'm saying.
It'd be difficult for dogs to play pool.
jordan holmes
It would be.
dan friesen
I saw a painting of them playing poker, so I know they could do that.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure.
Well, I mean, that's like horses can count.
You know, you just have to signal them to play the right card.
Yeah.
dan friesen
You get an octopus to coach the team.
They're really smart about sports from what I hear.
jordan holmes
Sure.
Sure.
And they can fit into real small places.
So that's a double threat.
dan friesen
So, anyway, the point is that Alex, you're a fucking idiot.
You elected a vice president who created the Patriot Act.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
In another great instance of him in his present and recent present self, totally invalidating the basic tenets of his career.
jordan holmes
It is astonishing the amount of like it is almost brick by brick.
The thing that he built, he tore down brick by brick.
dan friesen
For money.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
For money.
And actually, I think probably almost as much of a motivation is acceptance.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And like being seen as somebody who's credible and like who you want to have around as opposed to somebody who's like, oh, fuck this guy.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
He wants worship.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
For sure.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
And to feel like he belongs and is accepted and that stuff, which are human desires, but, you know, fuck him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So we have one last clip, and it's an instance of this thing that happens in the past that I enjoy.
And that is that sometimes the callers don't really respect Alex that much, or they can kind of steamroll him a little.
Right.
And so this caller does that in a way that I enjoy.
unidentified
Yesterday on Mate the Press, Ralph Nader announced he's running for president without a party.
The Green Party refused to let him be its candidate or anyone else.
And Nader demanded the immediate impeachment of Bush.
He said Congressman Conyers is sponsoring a bill to impeach Bush before the election.
alex jones
I have a clip of Nader's demand for impeachment.
It's exactly two minutes long, and I have it queued up.
unidentified
If you want me to play it on the radio, two minutes long.
Two minutes long is the clip of him discussing impeachment with Tim.
alex jones
Well, the audio's okay.
I might play it, John, but really, I mean, we can get the clips ourselves.
jordan holmes
Well, it's on the transcript.
alex jones
If you go to Mate the Press from yesterday, go ahead and start rolling it if you want to play this.
dan friesen
You can cut it off when you get tired of it.
unidentified
I'll put a minute.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I will.
dan friesen
Do you very strongly get the sense that Alex does not want to do this?
jordan holmes
Absolutely not.
What?
dan friesen
It's like, all right, I'd play the fucking clip.
jordan holmes
That's unreal.
Yeah.
That actually would be, that would be the one moment where I'd be like, I'm not playing a two-minute clip, dude.
Dude, dude.
dan friesen
It's long.
jordan holmes
15 to 30 seconds?
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Totally in the wheelhouse.
Two minutes is too fucking long.
dan friesen
I will say to just for the sake of being above board and everything, he does cut it off fairly quick because the sound's terrible.
But, you know, lest for that, this caller was just.
Just let it go.
I'm going to play it.
jordan holmes
I'm amazed.
I'm amazed.
Why, why, why would you call into a show to play them a clip of another show?
dan friesen
Because they're not doing a good enough job of corralling clips.
Alex doesn't cover stuff, really.
You know, like there's like you are someone who's listening and believes in the quote-unquote info war.
Sure.
And so you see Alex kind of just like talked to Shrevan for a while, take pointless calls, blah, blah, blah.
You know, all this.
And you're like, hey, there's information that the people need to know.
jordan holmes
Let's get some substance in here.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
And so you believe that you can bring that to the table.
And so you decide to bring out your soundboard and force it on Alex.
It's great.
jordan holmes
I mean, playing a clip over the phone is just.
dan friesen
Alex would never put up with that these days.
jordan holmes
No, absolutely.
dan friesen
It feels like this is a very much pre head being too big.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Alex.
Which I enjoy.
I enjoy.
There's a human element to it.
jordan holmes
This is a bit garage rocky.
Yeah.
This is like, this is the behind the music.
He's in his garage.
He has to play two-minute long clips from some asshole who calls him.
I feel it.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I get you.
dan friesen
And, you know, maybe it's a part of me that has a romantic feeling about that kind of thing.
jordan holmes
I want to say I don't, yeah.
dan friesen
That's something, even though it's Alex, it triggers something in my brain of like, this is fun.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Wow.
A guy desperately trying to do a show and having just everything kind of go off course.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that is, that is the high wire act that is entertaining.
You know, that like at any moment this could really go off the rails.
And that is, and in a, in an interesting and exciting and unexpected way that you just don't get now.
Now, if it's going to go off the rails, it's not even off the rails.
The rails are like part of it.
dan friesen
There aren't rails.
jordan holmes
Yeah, exactly.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
But I mean, like, but that's that's part of it is that they're the idea of there aren't rails.
dan friesen
There aren't rails, and the cart is barely moving nowadays.
unidentified
Yes.
dan friesen
What's going to happen if something goes off like slightly is Alex is going to hang up on somebody and then just start screaming for a while to reset.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
dan friesen
And then it's just like, all right.
And then that is seen as going off the rails.
jordan holmes
Exactly. It's actually just like programmed in.
It's part of the game.
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
So anyway, we come to the end of this 2004 episode, and I did sincerely mean that I was going to try and stick around in the present.
unidentified
I know, I believe you.
dan friesen
Maybe on Monday, Alex will have put out something where he's back in studio or, you know, who knows?
Hopefully.
Fingers crossed.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Hopefully he didn't get COVID for the sixth time.
jordan holmes
Oh, if only.
dan friesen
We'll see.
Probably just Cabo.
jordan holmes
Probably.
dan friesen
Or court.
Anyway, we'll find out, and we'll tune in and check with you later.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
But until then.
jordan holmes
That one.
That one we cut out.
That one I keep.
dan friesen
We have a website.
jordan holmes
We do indeed.
It's knowledgefight.com.
alex jones
Yep.
dan friesen
We're also on Twitter.
jordan holmes
We are on Twitter.
It's at Knowledge Underscore Fight.
dan friesen
Yep, we'll be back.
But until then, I'm Neo, I'm Leo.
I'm DZX Clark.
alex jones
Oh, you know what?
jordan holmes
And now here comes the sex robots.
alex jones
Andy in Kansas, you're on the air.
Thanks for holding.
jordan holmes
Hello, Alex.
I'm a first-time caller.
unidentified
I'm a huge fan.
alex jones
I love your work.
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