Is Washington Falling Out Of Love With Zelensky? - with Guest Phil Giraldi
Last week's false Ukraine assertion that Russia had attacked Poland was a big wake-up call for many. Some European media outlets flatly declared Ukraine's president Zelensky to be "dangerous." With another $50 billion in the pipeline, will Washington finally blink and stop the war madness? Former CIA Officer Phil Giraldi joins today's Liberty Report.
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Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liber Report.
Dr. Paul is away for the day, so I will be anchoring the show solo, but thankfully I have my good friend Phil Giraldi joining us from my old haunts in Virginia.
Phil, are you there?
I'm here.
Hey, thanks for joining me today, Phil.
I really appreciate you coming on the show.
And I had a sneak peek of some snippets of your column, which is coming out tomorrow on the UNS review.
It's a must-read column, as usual, from you, Phil.
But you talk about some of the things that Dr. Paul himself talked about in his weekly column this week.
And that's why I'm titling this show, Is Washington Falling Out of Love with Zelensky.
And maybe that's wishful thinking in a way, but it's been a pretty rough week for the president of Ukraine.
And I'm going to ask you a couple of things based on some of the stuff you wrote and just based on some observations.
But one of the first things you do in your piece, and you know this stuff better than anyone, you raise some doubts as to whether this Ukraine missile into Poland was an accident.
You have an inference that it possibly wasn't an accident.
What makes you a little bit skeptical about that?
Well, I think the whole narrative is just a tad too cute.
I mean, here the missile came down, killed two farmers in Poland, and within literally minutes, Zelensky was commenting on it and blaming it on Russia and basically calling on NATO to exercise Article 5,
which is the common defense article of NATO, which would mean that NATO and the United States would militarily attack the attacker, which in this case he was saying was Russian.
And why I'm skeptical about it is the fact that Zelensky clearly would have known from his own resources that this missile did not originate in Russia, and yet he insisted that day and the next day, and indeed has not repudiated that view since then, that this was a Russian job, that this was a Russian crime.
And so to me, it looks like a premeditated action on the part of Zelensky, who essentially, as we have seen from his other premeditated actions over the past year, is capable of anything.
So this is in intelligence language, this is a false flag operation where you blame something on someone else with the intent of other parties taking your side.
And this is something that's totally unacceptable.
And the U.S. government should not sit back and just think this is, well, this is a fog of war.
Yeah.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like it's one of those issues of never let a good crisis go to waste, him thinking quick on his feet.
The other thing is, you know, the idea that Russia would decide to start World War III by hitting a grain silo, it stretches the imagination a little bit, yet that's what Zelensky was expecting people to believe.
Surely there are some better targets in Poland if Putin really wanted to open the gates of hell.
There are plenty of places where there's plenty of military equipment being staged for transshipment into Ukraine from Poland.
So, I mean, just at the very beginning, Phil, it was pretty crazy that, hey, I'm going to start World War III.
I'm going to kill a couple farmers and spread some grain around.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, in Poland, there's a whole United States military staff structure in place.
And the 82nd Airborne has been sending troops in and out.
And there have been other troops and also CIA paramilitaries on training missions.
So there are all kinds of good military targets.
And if Russia wanted to make the case that the United States and Germany and Britain had already intervened in this war and therefore were fair targets, you know, they could have made that case, but they didn't.
Russia would have been crazy when, in my opinion, it's winning this war to take that kind of risk.
And, you know, that's a good point because a lot of Putin's critics are angry that he's been too cautious.
Certainly his critics in Russia, from what I can tell, are angry that he's been too cautious in prosecuting this war.
So the idea that he would break out of that mold of extreme caution and conservatism and decide to all of a sudden attack Poland out of the blue and not even hit an important target is pretty wild.
But surely, as you point out, we have plenty of military resources in Poland.
Do you think, I mean, obviously we have the technical means of monitoring and figuring out exactly what happened.
Hopefully we do after all the money we spend on having those technical means.
Do you think the U.S. tried to show Zelensky in an intelligence sort of way that, look, here's the evidence, here's the footprint or fingerprint, whatever missiles have, you know, that we have it here.
I mean, do you think they did that?
Well, I don't know if they did that.
That would have made a lot of sense to do.
It's not like this is classified technology that you're revealing.
This is common technology now, spy satellites, tracking systems, radar, and that kind of thing.
This is basic stuff these days.
So I would hope they, you know, maybe sat down with him.
The ambassador sat down with him and said, look, this is the evidence that disproves what you've been saying.
Apparently, Joe Biden had a sharp telephone exchange with Zelensky and basically was making the same point.
And then he was down in Indonesia.
And he said, the evidence we've seen just doesn't convince that Russia was involved with this.
Yeah, and I read today that actually there's some scandal in Poland because it was a Polish paper.
And unfortunately, I didn't write it down, but a Polish media outlet is reporting that certainly the Polish leadership knew right away that it was a Ukrainian missile, but went along with Zelensky at first, claiming and blaming Russia.
That seems pretty serious if the heads of Poland are willing to go along with such a risky scheme as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, the Poles would have known very quickly this was ordinance that was in the Ukrainian arsenal, and that was something that Russia no longer uses.
But again, they went along with the game.
A lot of sentiment in Poland is very hostile to Russia for various historic reasons.
And so there's always kind of a political play to be made with attacking Russia if you're a Polish politician.
So this kind of weaves its way into it too.
Do you get a sense that, I put it this way, how much of a sense do you get that this incident has tarnished St. Zelensky in the eyes of the American elites, the American leadership that have been pushing this like they pushed COVID for two years?
You know, you don't dare challenge any aspect of this narrative.
Do you think he's been dented and dinged at all this past week?
I think he's been dented, but I don't think the damage is commensurate with what he tried to do.
He tried to start World War III, you know?
It's kind of a big thing.
Would have gone nuclear.
And, you know, so I feel that they're holding back, that there's a consensus in both political parties that we have to support Zelensky.
We have to damage the Russians.
I mean, look at the comments that our National Security Advisor and Secretary of Defense made.
They stated very clearly that the Russians had not launched this missile, but they stated it's still Russia's fault because they started this war.
And, you know, come on.
There's a whole lot of history that is behind how this war started.
And probably the biggest guilty party of all is the United States for not pushing serious negotiations about a year ago.
Yeah, and for not doing a regime change about eight years ago, right?
With the exact same people in power then.
You know, Victoria Newland, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan.
They were all in positions of power then when they did the coup initially.
This seems like they were coming back to kind of cover up some of their mistakes.
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All right, Phil, let's get back to something else that I noticed.
And I was listening to a program this morning that I listened to quite often, Alex Christophoro, who I think does a very good job.
And he's mentioning that the other real ding that Ukraine is taking, and it's getting a little bit of traction.
I don't know if you've seen this.
I actually, I didn't watch the videos because it was a little too strong even for me.
But these stories of the Ukrainian assassination of the Russian prisoners of war, they documented it themselves.
They were not ashamed of it from what we've seen.
Now, they're alleged.
They haven't been proven.
But, you know, when you look at the tape, and I shut it off about when they started shooting, to be honest, but it looks like Russia brought this to the UN, and they haven't been blown off as quickly as I would have suspected.
Have you been following this at all?
Yeah, I have, and I've seen the video, and it indeed looks authentic, although I always say it seems to look authentic because so much stuff in this conflict is being forged.
But the fact is, I think this is for real.
Russia has provided evidence, and this is a war crime, a clear and simple war crime.
And so here's another reason, another good reason to cut our ties with Zelensky.
If we could do it today, yeah, maybe tomorrow, but cut our ties with Zelensky.
He's a liar.
He's a guy who will do anything to start a major war with Russia.
And he is basically his people are committing heinous crimes against the Russian prisoners.
So there are a lot of good reasons.
And I would also throw in the fact that it appears that he was engaged in money laundering, involving our U.S. Congress with FTX and Bankman Freed.
So this is another good reason to say, let's wash our hands of Ukraine.
Yes, that's a good point.
And I was going to ask you, that was actually my next question, because you mentioned our mutual friend, Larry Johnson, in your upcoming piece.
And I read Larry's short piece on FTX, and I thought it was an excellent, excellent summary.
By the way, sonar21.com is Larry's website, and it's definitely worth reading.
And I think he did a great summary.
What do you make of this?
I mean, from what we know so far, we did a show about it last week that was a lot of speculation because we don't have the answers.
But it kind of smells like some kind of funny secret op.
What do you make of the Bankman-Fried FTX Congress Ukraine scandal?
Well, there seems to be a lot of evidence that there was a lot of money moving around.
And the initial money moving around was these huge dollops of billions and billions of dollars that the administration and Congress have been showering on Ukraine.
And so this money moves over, and this is supported by congressmen.
We're talking about primarily Democratic Party congressmen, because Bankman-Fried, his family and himself are major fundraisers for the Democratic Party.
I saw an article this morning breaking down that he had, in the last election cycle just completed, contributed $80 million to the Democratic Party.
So the money is moving in all directions.
It goes over to Ukraine, and once it's in Ukraine, it's shifted around a bit more, and it's basically laundered.
So Bankman-Fried then is able to turn around and use the money coming from American taxpayers to give donations to the Democratic politicians who have been most loyal to the issue of Ukraine.
So this is craziness.
I mean, this is insanity.
The funny part is to see some of the Democrat members of Congress, when they hear about this, when they're interviewed about it, those that have even probably personally benefited saying, oh, my gosh, we've got to regulate crypto.
This is terrible.
You know, there's gambling going on here.
And we joked about that last week in the show, you know, the great line from Casablanca.
They seem shocked and shocked that we have to now regulate.
And one of the things Dr. Paul talks about in his column this week is a little bit of maybe good news.
And we understand that the numbers are not in our favor on Capitol Hill.
But you're starting to see some stirring among primarily the more conservative Republicans.
We're talking about people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who put in a privilege resolution last week, I think it was, with 11 co-sponsors, demanding that documents be preserved so that an audit, a full audit of the, oh, maybe $60 or $70 billion we've sent Ukraine take place.
Conservative Stirring On Hill00:05:31
Do you get a sense that there is some momentum that Matt Goertz from Goetz from Florida, Paul Gosar from Arizona, and a few others have been very vocal about opposing more money to Ukraine and demanding some kind of accountability for what's been sent over there?
Am I just desperately looking for something to be optimistic about, Phil, or do you see some possible movement in that direction?
Well, I would say, to use your phrase, possible movement in that direction is definitely taking place.
But again, we have to quantify this.
And the whole issue is that most of the Republican Party is hostile to Russia and is quite happy to be doing this Ukrainian thing to weaken Russia.
And you might notice at the same time, they're all now beating the drum about China.
It never ends.
And the fact is that I don't think there are enough votes.
There are enough people in Congress who are responsible, who really care about this kind of thing.
But I think Tucker Carlson is doing one hell of a good job.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you could move mountains with just a little bit of media.
You don't have to have the mass control.
Well, we're going to get out of here in just a second, but I can't let you go, Phil.
And I don't want to put you on the spot, but I did give you a warning.
You are an expert on Turkey.
You lived in Turkey.
You worked in Turkey.
What do you make of this weekend's bombing by Turkey, basically bombing U.S. allied Kurds in parts of Syria?
Were you following that?
And what do you think is going on there?
Yeah, I've been following it, and I've even been following it by struggling to read Turkish newspapers.
Essentially, what happened, of course, was the terrorist attack in Istanbul, which took place right around the corner from where I used to work in what was then the Consulate General, next to the Para Palace Hotel.
And anyway, so it was very familiar to me.
And they are saying that the woman that they arrested, a Syrian woman, basically was affiliated with not the PKK, but with another group of Kurdish dissidents that the U.S. has been training and funding.
And that these people basically, when you talk about the different Kurdish groups, all these groups are kind of connected in their hostility to Turkey and their willingness to undertake terrorist attacks in that country.
So I think when the Turks are now bombing northern Syria, bombing some of these camps, and I think the Turkish argument has a lot of validity, but the Turks at the same time are controlling the information very carefully.
I saw one article this morning about how this Syrian woman that they've arrested, the alleged terrorist, was seen associating with two Israeli women.
So there are more wrinkles to this story than there are facts so far.
But I would not discount that groups that the U.S. is supporting are basically involved in terrorism against Turkey.
And you could add to that, you know, Iran.
We had John Bolton, was it over the weekend or a few days ago admitting that the U.S. is funneling weapons to those that are trying to do a coup in Iran, a U.S. regime change operation?
I think it looks pretty clearly that that's at least a good part of it.
And we saw the Iranians also bombing some Kurds, I believe, wasn't it, over the weekend?
Yeah, that's correct.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, they obviously got to the Turkish, to the Iranian World Cup team because they wouldn't sing the national anthem this morning.
So somebody got to them.
Well, it's interesting.
I don't want to put too much into it, but does this spell anything for U.S.-Turkish relations?
This, you know, them hitting our guys over there who were just fighting for freedom, of course.
Well, you know what's funny about the whole story is that two days after the terrorist bombing, the head of the CIA and the head of Russian intelligence met in Istanbul and Ankara.
So what does it tell you?
I mean, there are all kinds of levels of reality that occur in these kinds of situations.
And I think this is yet another one.
The Turks have a lot of good reasons for having good relations with the U.S.
They want F-16s.
They like the intelligence they're provided.
And the U.S. has a lot of good reasons to maintain a relationship with Turkey.
There also seems to be some reason for the Turks and Syrians to make up.
And I think, wasn't there some sort of a diplomatic contact made in the last few months?
Yeah, that's correct.
There have been several contacts, and basically they're negotiating a bunch of issues.
But of course, what really complicates it, of course, is that the Kurds, of course, want a Kurdistan, a separate state, which would take a big hunk out of Syria and a big hunk out of Turkey.
And also there are Turkish ethnics that live in Syria, and they want an independent state, too.
So there are a multitude of issues that are being negotiated.
Where Is The Dog?00:00:51
I'm sure the geniuses in our State Department can figure it all out to everyone's happiness.
Can you name even one?
Well, I can't let you go without one important question that I'm sure all of our viewers are wondering, Phil.
Where is the dog?
We have not seen his rear end this entire video, and we're all disappointed.
Hopefully he's okay.
My wife Angela took him upstairs so he wouldn't be parading through the room.
But next time I'll make sure he's here.
Yeah, we need to have the dog mascot.
Well, Phil, I can't thank you enough for joining us today to talk over some of these important issues.
Your vast experience, your great writing.
I read everything that you write and appreciate it very much.
So, Phil, thanks so much for joining us.
Well, thank you for having me on.
And I want to thank all of our viewers today to the Ron Paul Liberty Report.