Video Infoblog: Ray McGovern: Putin’s PATIENCE THINNING? Israel’s Plan to Drag the US into WAR with Iran!

Streamed live on 16 Aug 2024

Ray came to Washington from his native Bronx in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. https://raymcgovern.com

Transcript

0:04

right let's get started with the situation right now in the K region and

0:11

they're asking civilians to leave the region we remember the last time we

0:16

heard Russia asking civilians to leave was in Syria against

0:23

Isis there was nothing left but sand after Russia puts Russia put the hammer

0:30

down in those days right now how do you see the response coming from Russia in

0:37

order to to respond to Nato and ukrainians in this

0:43

region well Neema this is a very curious turn of events and I think the net

0:49

effect will be to elicit a very strong Russian response um as circumspect as Putin has

0:58

been uh he faces a lot of pressure now that Russia itself has not only been

1:04

raided but invaded okay that's a difference so when I hear reports that

1:12

200,000 civilians have been taken out of those areas uh that's exactly what I

1:19

think you mean Nema obliteration of those areas is bound to

1:25

follow the whole notion that zalinski would do this

1:30

uh defies explanation now some people are saying well uh you know maybe he

1:36

wanted to see some territory to trade with the Russians well you know it's

1:43

crazy if he thinks that he can hold on to parts of K OAS he's crazy okay now

1:52

Obama said that very early 2015 he said look the worst thing we can do is is to

2:00

give the Iranians the notion that they can Prevail militarily against so much

2:06

stronger Russia so let's not give them offensive weapons that made a lot of

2:12

sense okay I don't know what has become of Biden and blinking and suiv where

2:17

they think they can they can you mean ukrainians ukrainians yeah what did I

2:23

say you said the Iranians I'm sorry I got them both on my mind go ahead the

2:29

ukrainians of course yeah so uh what we have here is disregarding the good sense

2:36

that Obama had and challenging Russia in this very sensitive area now how did it

2:43

come to be that these uh these troops were able to invade

2:49

Russia um I don't know it really doesn't matter a whole lot and now uh in

2:55

retrospect my best guess is that the Russians thought this would be crazy

3:01

thing to do I mean hello it's a crazy thing to do

3:07

okay no real Strategic Benefit unless unless the the ukrainians were stupid

3:15

enough to think they could make it all the way to the K the ksk nuclear power

3:20

plan and that was you know if they thought they could do that you know that's just the latest of the Illusions

3:27

they have so whether or not you know my imagination says that yeah of course

3:33

there was evidence that there were troop concentrations in that area on the Ukrainian side but gasimov is looking at

3:41

this and he's looking at at the donbas where the real battles are going on and

3:46

he says well my God if they're crazy enough if they're crazy enough to go in

3:52

there we we'll get them out right quick and they'll suffer a bloody defeat the more so since they're the crackerjack

3:58

Ukrainian outfits the the the brigades that are well trained by NATO well

4:04

equipped by NATO so that's the eventual outcome of this thing uh the L latest

4:10

word is the ukrainians are still there uh if you believe them they're still expanding their presence there but the

4:16

Russians are constructing fortifications that won't quit the kind of

4:21

fortifications that they had before the 2023 celebrated spring well not spring

4:28

summer summer counter offensive by Ukraine so uh what's going to happen it

4:35

seems to me that another week maybe 10 days uh what's left of the Ukrainian

4:42

Cracker Jack battalions and brigades will be uh decimated perhaps most of

4:49

them killed uh you know the the ukrainians don't have a whole lot in

4:54

reserve as a matter of fact most people saying these people are the only Reserve

5:00

they have left and Putin is likely to be under increased pressure to say well you

5:06

know this is it we gota we got to do something very very aggressive and there

5:13

are all kinds of options he could do that along that thousand kilometer line where they're face tace Ukrainian troops

5:20

with Russian troops or he could threaten har could even threaten he and you know

5:28

it's it's quite possible remove zinski one way or another and there are certain

5:34

candidates coming up that there might be might be uh better although no likely

5:40

names have surfaced yet as far as I can see as to takes alen's place uh the

5:46

election year in the United States is The Crucible here uh I think that

5:54

pin uh probably still needs to be believed when he says nothing's going to

6:00

happen before the election that may change now with this invasion of ksk now

6:07

bear in mind your your viewers probably remember this at least if they're as old

6:13

as I am or slightly younger one of the main battles in World War II

6:20

1943 tank battle in ksk I think the Russians lost about

6:26

800,000 people that b one battle they they selling gr ksk people remember ksk

6:33

I mean every school boy you don't have to be very old they learn about ksk okay and how the Nazis put up their last

6:39

fight and sacrificed lots of Russians but the Russians prevailed okay that was

6:45

before the Allies came in in 44 in June

6:50

at the with the invasion of Normandy so

6:55

there's historic uh significance to this historic trappings and uh how long puin

7:03

will re retain his sang and say okay I'm not going to be

7:10

provoked by anything we'll drive these guys out we'll decimate their forces

7:16

will continue on moving toward the west there toward toward kth and for the rest

7:23

of of Ukraine up to the zppa river but we're not going to do anything that the

7:29

West could use as a pretext to up the ante even further that would be my guess

7:36

having watched Putin all these years now it could be that if there's truth to the

7:42

fact that this was a unwelcome surprise to gasimov Chief of Staff the Russian

7:48

forces that he may get the can uh there are lots of reasons to think that he he really hasn't been up to Snuff and and

7:56

if that if that's the reason they're pooching will can him that that's what happens okay but uh the Soviet the

8:03

Russian forces are in a position to move and uh they will keep moving how fast is

8:10

anybody's guess if they really wanted to to embarrass Biden and uh the vice

8:17

president Harris uh then they they might do something really really definitive

8:24

Definitive win in Ukraine before the election but I don't think think the

8:30

Russians particularly want Trump to come in uh the thing that they favor above

8:36

all I believe and actually Putin said this not too long ago is uh

8:43

consistency is predictability was the word in Russian that he used and you

8:49

know Trump is not very predictable uh Harris maybe a tad more

8:55

predictable so I think we can rely on what what Putin said about a month ago

9:02

saying look nothing's going to happen before the election takes place in November then we'll take stock and see

9:08

where we are see if there's any sense left in the in the United States and see if they will be able to come to to terms

9:15

with the fact that they've lost and that they have to sort of uh do the best deal

9:21

they can right one of the things that we know from Russia is how the pun

9:27

Administration specifically p is so pruned and he's so cautious about

9:35

everything with the NATO expansion they they reached to a point that they had no

9:41

option but going into Ukraine and fighting NATO and right now it seemed be

9:47

these escalations on the part of the United States and NATO sending more weapons cluster bombs tanks

9:54

f16s and right now attacking on Russian soil it's something different from what

10:00

we've seen so far in the conflict don't you think that this patience is getting

10:06

just getting away from Russians that they're they're just not having any any

10:12

sort of patience for this type of activities that coming from NATO because

10:17

every time that they're thinking they're thinking that they can be more cautious it seems it's it's going to be perceived

10:24

by NATO and the Biden Administration by and NATO and Biden Administration as

10:30

they're afraid of NATO they're it's unbelievable what's going

10:36

on well you're quite right Nema but look at it from this point of view uh my

10:42

career was spent trying to put myself in the shoes of whoever was leading the Kremlin at the time uh the way they're

10:49

looking at it is look we're all but one in Ukraine okay the US is scattered

10:55

around the world facing the possibility of a twoof front War including the

11:01

Middle East three three front War if the Chinese arise to the occasion and start

11:07

to threaten the US and South the South China Sea or the Taiwan streets so we're

11:13

in a position of of of power that dis disequilibrium of Power with respect to

11:20

China it's two against one now now the only danger is that the people running

11:27

US foreign policy blinkin and Sullivan don't seem to get that I mean from the

11:32

from the outset they told Biden now look he can play Russia off against China well that's what kisser did but that was

11:40

40 years ago for God's sake okay 50 years ago so uh what the real real

11:46

problem here is that they don't get it so what will they persuade uh Biden to

11:52

do I don't know but Biden clearly is not really complish menst fully and uh as

11:59

you know my my notion is that uh there is a chance that these

12:06

unpredictable people and unwashed and untrained and unschooled in any military

12:13

Affairs okay or whether they might suggest to Biden as a way to save things

12:20

in Ukraine and by the way in the election would be to drop one of these

12:26

uh low yield nuclear weapons you know just the mini nukes you know somewhere

12:32

and just to show the Russian we mean business you know just like we show the Russians we been business at

12:38

1945 then of course we were the only ones that had those kind of weapons so

12:43

that's my fear uh do I really think that these these people are capable of doing

12:49

that yes I do and that's what stands the hair up in the back of my neck I mean

12:54

they've gone from know this and oh yes this know this and then there okay no uh

13:01

no 155 mm shells left well let's do cluster Munitions and oh there well the

13:08

next one up is the little mini nukes and there are a lot of people in our army and Air Force and our Navy that think

13:16

that many nukes are possible to use so I think if if puin looks on the situation

13:25

the way I just described uh he's going to continue to be very

13:30

discreet uh not let him be provoked himself to be provoked in in any way and

13:37

just do attrition attrition attrition in Ukraine watch what goes on in the Middle

13:43

East support Iran to the degree he can

13:48

and uh and also count on Chinese support if things really get out of hand uh so H

13:56

waiting for the election is is the first thing I would suggest is the operative Factor here a caution is another and

14:04

you're right he's he'll be under more pressure now that the ukrainians have have invaded Russia but you know he's

14:13

been able to stand up to that pressure before he's been able to say look we can do a b and c and not provoke NATO or the

14:23

us the way they want to be provoked before the election okay let's just play it cool do what we have been doing we're

14:30

winning after all we don't have to rise to this bait that's my that's my clue on

14:37

that and right the other thing would be the way that the Biden Administration is

14:43

talking about this attack they're saying the way that they don't they didn't know anything about this attack coming who's

14:50

the audience when you look at the US defense department spokesman uh um

15:00

Patrick Ryder he was talking about that we didn't know what we don't know what's the purpose of this attack who's the

15:07

audience for this type of talks in your opinion well uh spokesman General Ryder

15:15

is not the sharpest uh knife in the drawer I don't know why he said that um

15:21

it's inconceivable to me uh that the US didn't know that this was in the works I

15:27

mean if they didn't know that's a terrible terrible indictment of us

15:32

intelligence and operational uh equities in Ukraine I mean they're all over the

15:38

place there so I believe they did know I don't know what game is being played and

15:44

professing that they didn't know perhaps uh perhaps they're afraid that if the Russians do retaliate in a meaningful

15:50

way well they can at least say well they didn't rec crinian never told us go kill

15:56

zalinski uh not Biden or Harris you know that kind of thing uh but you the whole

16:02

thing is really unexpected and uh it will be down to Russia's Advantage once

16:11

they well one commentator said first they're going to clean the garbage out

16:16

and that means clean all the ukrainians that are left in ksk out of ksk and in

16:23

the process they'll be they'll be destroying some of their best best armed and best uh best trained troops what do

16:32

they have left very little they have no real Reserve left to cope with what's

16:38

going on down south in the dbas so you know it seems crazy but uh again I would

16:46

say not to defend gasimov but to say well if I were gasimov when I saw these

16:51

people all assembling in a place which if they were in they would never get very far and they would get decimated I

16:58

would say well I don't know I can't figure this out but I'm not going to redeploy all my forces

17:03

to contend with this thing because we can easily get them once they get into 20 miles in inside our border I may be

17:11

giving gasim too much credit on that but the final final analysis is that they

17:16

will be driven back out and I expect that zinski is not very very long more

17:24

in power uh he's really screwed up things what has to happen of course is

17:30

all the Americans have to agree and they'll ask the British as well when do we dump seninsky and who the hell do we

17:38

have to take this place that we can rely on probably that's the operative thing I

17:44

don't see anybody that they do have to rely on so maybe he'll just he'll just

17:49

hang in there till after the election and then of course uh he'll be uh I

17:55

think he'll probably be going to his one of his Villas abroad that he has invested heavily in when it comes to the

18:03

reasons behind this attack on the curs region there are people who are arguing

18:10

that maybe what was behind the reason was that Ukraine wanted to be in in a

18:16

better position to negotiate with Russia and the other reason that people

18:21

there are some rumors that that says it was because of sh visit to Iran

18:30

they wanted to send a message to Russia how how do you see in your

18:35

opinion because if it was to improve Ukraine's position to negotiate with

18:41

Russia it doesn't seem to go to go that way yeah I mean you know people search

18:49

around for logical explanations for these things alexand mcores and other

18:56

really smart people pull out their here trying to figure what was the what was the clever thing

19:02

here it's really hard sometimes to come to the dumb conclusion that uh they didn't know what

19:09

they're doing and the Russians saw the messing but realized that this would be

19:15

a really stupid thing to do and whether they let him do it apparently or whether

19:21

they were totally surprised in now in retrospect that's an interesting

19:27

question but now it doesn't matter because they're going to be thrown out and the situation would be worse for

19:34

them because they were to a large extent the reserves that these ukrainians have

19:39

so why did zalinski do this with or without us express permission and I

19:45

think they had knowledge at least if not permission well you know if it was to

19:50

capture territory they could later trade for the donbas or Crimea well that's

19:57

crazy and you know to see people like even puin suggest that well he they're

20:03

just kind of grasping for some sort of reasonable

20:08

explanation I don't if they thought that they could hold on to that that piece of

20:13

land maybe what the 30 square miles or so they're crazy and so that's why if I

20:21

were a Russian general I would have been surprised if they try it the net effect is going to be a major loss to the

20:28

Ukrainian and uh you know dunas is the focus of things things are not going well and uh

20:36

again if it weren't for the election coming up I think Putin might have to succumb to the pressure to go faster and

20:43

farther now he did say already that we're going 50% faster there and we're

20:49

getting more recruits than ever once our homeland is invaded so you know if you

20:54

want to do something self-defeating or counterproductive man so let has done it

21:00

done it in Spades and Ray when it comes to

21:06

the reaction coming from Germany we we saw that the German publication bill was

21:11

talking about German tanks on Russian soil again this is so surprising because

21:19

you the first question that comes to your mind is how they're thinking of the battlefield right now do they really

21:26

think that Ukraine is winning that's why they're bragging about these little

21:32

things that are happening there well Nema the

21:37

media is I was going to say almost as bad it's as bad in Germany as it is in in the

21:45

West in UK and in the US so there are many people who believe that Ukraine

21:51

still has a chance but that proportion is diminishing last hole I saw was that

21:59

as many as half of the of the Germans don't want to send any more arms to Ukraine want the thing to stop okay now

22:08

the people who rule Germany are PSIs for the US government uh I don't know how

22:15

that came to be but in various stages after the war the second world war that

22:22

that was the case there were people who stood up to the Americans like vly BR and aegon bar and sh and others so but

22:32

this crop is very subservient so I don't know what's going to happen but I think

22:38

that the more the Germans realize how much stake they have in this the more they realize that this is here's the

22:46

latest the Germans have gotten a hold of a

22:51

Ukrainian who they accuse of blowing up the nordstream pipeline

22:58

God you know hello everyone knows who blew up the nostre stream pipeline for the Germans

23:05

to still pretend that this dly act that helped to ruin their economy was done by

23:13

some Ukrainian you know that's you know there that's that's good good indicator

23:19

of how subservient they are you know uh it's not like there aren't really really

23:26

intelligent Germans around back in 1933 okay when Hitler made his big push

23:33

made his big uh push to to become dominant in the government and

23:40

succeeded in those elections at early 1933 the Nazis were a

23:46

real minority party the social Democrats the Catholic Centrum party

23:54

they held the balance of power and they

24:01

caved the Catholic Church the Evangelical Lutheran Church instead of

24:08

speaking out when they saw what was happening to the Jews caved they could not find their

24:14

voice uh one of the uh people I have read uh who was a young lawyer back in

24:23

1933 in Berlin talked about uh uh

24:29

subservient submissiveness on the part of the Germans uh when the gapo started to raid

24:37

their desks and listen to their conversations on the telephone they would have say well I'm not I I don't

24:43

have any communist uh connection it's okay with me I I well same thing of

24:51

course happens now in the United States happening to to uh Scott Ritter as we

24:56

speak so uh what's missing is is a Kern

25:03

of of Integrity of of the kind of courage

25:09

and and reasonable anger that exhibited by people like Scott Ritter to stand up

25:15

and say no this isn't right and a lot of those people were too afraid to do that

25:21

but there were enough of them that knew what was going on and my point is they kept their mouth shut whether do they'll

25:27

do at this time well so far so good schz and all those people even merel you know

25:34

they're all playing the game and uh be interesting to see how they react to the

25:39

presidential election no matter what happens whether they'll start to grow up

25:44

which has always been my dream for the americ for the German people one last thing

25:50

here when um when the bur when the when the wall fell in Berlin and I

25:59

would point out that two days ago what Tuesday was the anniversary of the

26:06

building of that Berlin Wall in 1961 I was just getting out of college I

26:12

remember well I majored in Russian I said well this is going to be there be some sort of Need For What I've learned

26:20

um so that was the anniversary now when the when the wall

26:25

fell and Poland and Hungary and finally East Germany decided to to

26:33

get some courage and Rose up and through out the Russian the Russians well East Germany

26:41

it's good to remember that the East Germans still had

26:47

270,000 Soviet troops in East

26:53

Germany so what I'm trying to get out here is that this is a big problem what

26:58

were they going to do uh George HW Bush to his credit called up

27:05

gof and he said mik I just want to let you know that I'm not going to dance on

27:11

the Berlin Wall okay I'm not going to take advantage of your problems and I sympathize with your problems okay so

27:18

let's get together how soon can you meet me now that was right after the wall fell on the 9th of November okay h g say

27:27

well couple weeks Bo said okay Malta first week of of December okay Malta

27:36

they meet Jack batl good friend of mine the Ambassador was there okay and Bush

27:41

repeats this promise he says look H we want peace we want a a

27:47

Europe complete and free from Lisbon and Portugal to Vlad sto in the Soviet Far

27:55

East okay so what I would to do is send my secretary of state James Baker uh to

28:01

talk with you and sherard L your foreign minister how soon can you see him um so

28:08

first week of December uh God Rich will give me a couple weeks first week of

28:14

February okay so Baker comes first week of February and he says look he's a

28:20

smart Texas lawyer right so he says there now M um and Edward I got a deal

28:26

for you uh we would like to have a a reunited

28:34

Germany now when I heard that offer was being made I I have to tell you

28:43

Nema you know maybe I was alive for the entire World War II but it was real

28:50

small right but I saw all the movies I I read all the history and I knew that the

28:57

very Foundation of NATO was to keep Germany divided and down keep the US in

29:05

and keep the Russian out okay so here's James Baker saying I want to reunited

29:12

Germany to G and Chev NAD who know full well what happened in ksk in 1943 in

29:20

Stalingrad okay so you can imagine their reaction they

29:25

swallowed hard and so well this is a this is a pretty painful quid what's the quo what what are you what are you going

29:32

to give me for this and they said well baker said and this is this is

29:37

documented Jack butlock the rest the the head of Germany Cole at the time it's

29:43

all in the Memoirs it says baker said and coold said well how would it be if

29:49

we promised to not how how about it be if we promise not to move Nato one inch

29:56

to the east of of of Germany well they thought about it they bought into it and

30:03

they didn't insist on something and writing big big mistake now I have to

30:08

tell you that gof as popular as he was with people like me who saw what he did

30:14

in transforming the Soviet Union the Russian people don't remember much of

30:20

that what they remember and they did something very foolish okay he didn't get it in writing

30:27

that they be no Eastward expansion of NATO and he permitted the reunification of

30:35

Germany now he was unpopular I met

30:40

him anyhow he was I met him in about 15 years ago in Moscow uh it was a it was a

30:48

great JW I didn't wash my hand after I shook his hand for about two weeks um

30:53

but he was unpopular in in Russia and the more so now they say well who who

31:00

let Germany be reunited look what they're doing now they they got their tanks going into course for God's sake

31:06

so there's a there's a emotional and a historical reaction among many Russians

31:13

all of whom not all of whom 90% of them remember their history from their school days and this just just long-winded way

31:21

of saying that the Germans are completely out of it in terms of

31:28

recognizing that they have a history to live down that they with the US

31:34

tricked the Soviet Union back in 1990 okay and uh now they're going to

31:41

pay the price for that uh by trying desperately to follow the US lead in a

31:50

quixotic uh quick Sonic attempt to move NATO even farther to the east I pardon

31:58

the long the long dialogue here but you know it really distresses me that people

32:04

don't know their history and if the Germans don't know that history well you

32:09

know they should and they're going to learn that history the hard way

32:15

yeah right getting to the conflict in the Middle East right now we know that

32:21

it seems that they're trying to have some sort of negotiations between gazin and Israel

32:28

what's going on right now in what's your take on the situation right now in the Middle

32:33

East well as far as the hostage negotiations are concerned Hamas is said

32:39

they're out of that thing you if you kill our negotiator we sort of look a

32:44

scance at that hello so uh what else is

32:49

going on well the Western power the collective West if you will are trying desperately to tell Iran look uh we're

32:57

pledge to defend Israel so please don't do anything drastic here it's almost an

33:05

a front you know here the Iranians have suffered these assassinations uh the Iranians have

33:11

suffered all means of assassinations nuclear physicists everything else not

33:17

only the head of Hamas in tan on the inauguration day of the new president so

33:24

uh here are here's the West telling look please don't go too far here when you react please restrain yourself because

33:30

way back Israel 100% okay well I don't think that's going to do anything in

33:36

terms of restraining Iran I think they'll be I think they'll be careful I

33:42

think they have the Russians advising them uh that the the gradualist approach

33:48

is probably the best as indicated by what's happening in Ukraine now and I

33:54

would think that they would be advising them and the Chinese as well to limit

33:59

themselves uh to military targets targets that will really hurt the

34:05

Israelis but stay away from civilians I think actually Putin has already said that uh publicly so what the Iranians

34:14

decide to do uh is going to be interesting I don't think it'll be long in coming now probably next week uh the

34:23

big question of course is will they take shots or will they will they fire

34:31

missiles at sitting ducks and what I call sitting ducks are the non Hunter

34:37

troops the US has in Northern Syria Uninvited by the way uh well why are

34:45

they there president Trump expain well to steal the oil and that's what they're doing they're also very fertile

34:53

agricultural Fields up there 900 troops Sitting Duck

34:59

Iraq well I think it's 1,500 US troops there sitting ducks are

35:06

they have they been invited by Iraq well back five six seven 10 years ago yeah

35:12

but they've been since invited they disinvited or invited to leave by the Iraqi Parliament why don't they leave oh

35:19

they're still fighting Isis in the north come on give me a break so these are sitting ducks uh plus the fact that

35:26

there are all kinds of bases around that area that the US occupies there all

35:31

kinds of ways where the Iranians could hit us targets and of course they're accusing in the US of being directly

35:38

involved in the in the assassination of the Hamas leader in Teran so uh that would be that would be

35:47

something new but not unexpected I would I would expect that that's more likely

35:52

than not and then how will the US react well depends on what you mean by the us

35:58

there are people who want War I will say that again there are people who want war

36:03

a larger war and these are people with influence in the White House and they're

36:09

they're more relatively moderate voices that say well wait isic now we want to

36:15

get involved in in the Middle East and in my God in in Ukraine and like what

36:21

would the Chinese do that's the other thing um the Chinese are actively

36:27

involved now in diplomacy they've brought 14 count them 14 Palestinian

36:34

factions together including Hamas and and the well better known ones in

36:40

Beijing and they signed a joint statement saying okay we'll get a cooperate we're going to really cooperate this time and we're gonna

36:46

we're going to see that palestine's interests are met okay well that's the

36:51

first time that happened now how do the Chinese do these things I don't know but they the Chinese actually created a more

36:59

decent relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran as well everybody's surprised about about that and then the Russians

37:06

well they have a a military airlift going into Ukraine probably some very

37:13

very sophisticated uh electronic warfare systems one is called

37:20

morans uh don't ask me to explain it but it's very effective apparently uh and

37:26

then they had a whole bunch of of Il 76 IL 96's big big wide bodyi transport not

37:32

transport but Freight aircraft bringing in what people think might be um S400

37:39

antiaircraft missiles now this could be a formidable air

37:45

defense of some of the Iranian uh nuclear

37:51

facilities um one last thing to mention here is that Ukraine does not have a nuclear

37:59

weapon you may be told that well Tony blinkin said two weeks ago that there

38:05

were two weeks or one or two weeks away from having what would he said was two

38:10

weeks away from having right yeah Iran right Iran doesn't have yeah Iran doesn't

38:18

sorry Iran so uh what's the deal here the deal is that yeah Iran does not have

38:26

a nuclear weapon but it has enough in highly enriched uranium to fuel one uh

38:33

there have been high level Iranian announcements uh that maybe they're

38:38

they'll revisit this decision made by the AAS that uh that nuclear weapons are are

38:46

against against the Islam I maybe look at that again given What's happen but

38:52

those are just generals talking uh the US us intelligence Community has to its

39:00

credit since November 2007 repeated every year that there is

39:07

no evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapon okay enrich uranium of

39:16

course they they need that for the purposes and highly L urania they got

39:21

that too but a weapon they haven't weaponized it now they may do so but the

39:26

point is that they haven't done so yet at least that's what the intelligence Community said as recently as March of

39:32

this year I don't see them changing that so if you hear hear people particularly

39:37

Israeli saying that ah they've got a nuclear weapon now that's going to be very very dangerous why do I say

39:46

that because my main fear is that uh that the Israelis will use a nuclear

39:55

weapon in extremist okay how are they like likely to get in extremist if they

40:02

attack Hezbollah they attack uh Iran uh if they

40:08

widen the war and if the US Miracle of Miracles decides not to

40:17

come in with both feet okay now I think Netanyahu is counting on the us being

40:25

unable to avoid coming in they'll have to come in especially in a in a

40:31

political and election year for obvious reasons but let's say the US doesn't

40:36

come in let's say that the the fate of Israel is in the balance um would they

40:44

resort to employing one of these smaller nuclear weapons

40:51

well uh prominent Israeli uh military specialist

40:57

have said in the past look rather than face defeat for the Jewish State we have

41:06

the means to bring the whole world down and we

41:12

will one of those people is fellow named vanan

41:17

celd uh he's actually born in Amsterdam but no roddam but he he went to Israel

41:24

when he was two years old and he became one of their most distinguished if that's the word uh military historian he

41:31

his books are on the bookshelf of prominent US military acmy US Colonels

41:38

are forced to read van clayfield as well as sansu and and clitz and the rest of

41:46

them so this is a serious guy uh and this what he said not to well

41:54

it was a couple it was 20 years ago but I asked some of

41:59

my my professional friends who who are military Colonels who are in touch with

42:06

uh with their counterparts in Israel and I said check this out with them is this

42:13

still pretty much the doctrine and uh the Esser came back sorry yes that's

42:20

still the feeling rather than rather than see the whole Enterprise

42:27

go under the whole Zionist Enterprise they would like Samson pull down the

42:33

pillars killing not only themselves but everybody in the region do I think

42:39

that's likely to happen in extremist I think the chances are better than even that's why I hope

42:48

that some reasonable people uh are are able to make a dent on uh blinkin and

42:55

Sullivan and say look you know uh you better tell Netanyahu that if he

43:00

takes on Hezbollah if he he tries to widen this war to mous trap us in We're

43:08

not gonna play the game anymore okay don't even try it the chances of that

43:14

happening well maybe 5050 the chances of Netanyahu taking it seriously in

43:20

election year less than 10% so I fear for what's in store

43:29

there Ray just to wrap up this session I want to talk about your latest article

43:34

in the Consortium news in which you said journalism is not like war in war the

43:41

vectors get to write the history in today's journalism the losers write it

43:48

could you elaborate on this article yeah well you know it has to do

43:54

with Russia gate it has to do with weapons of mass destruction that weren't

44:01

there ties between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda that weren't there and Russia

44:10

gate sorry folks tell you this Russia gate wasn't there either okay

44:17

now where do I start well let me start with this article it was prompted by a

44:23

new article in Rolling Stone by Michael Van landingham who's he well he's a CIA

44:31

analyst who is bragging about his being the principal

44:37

drafter wrote the first draft of the so-called intelligence Community

44:43

assessment of January 6 2017 saying in effect the Russians

44:51

helped Trump win the election this is mind you couple weeks before Trump is

44:56

even even inaugurated to help the Russians the Russians helped Trump win

45:02

the election and they did that by hacking emails from the Democratic

45:08

National Committee okay emails that uh would looked really bad for Hillary

45:15

Clinton because in effect they said that they showed Hillary stole the nomination

45:21

from Bernie Sanders the DNC and Hillary cooperated quite well and making sure

45:28

that Bernie didn't have a chance okay so somebody got those

45:34

emails and gave them to WikiLeaks and Wikileaks published them

45:41

three days before the Democratic National Convention okay

45:48

now Wikileaks acknowledged that they had emails relating to Hillary Clinton in

45:57

June June 12th 2016 and that they were going to publish

46:02

them so the Democrats had what a good month and a half to figure

46:09

out how they would reply uh Hillary got together with her

46:15

counselors the primary of whom was a fellow named Jacob Sullivan real smart

46:22

guy you know brainchild and he said I know what we do we'll blame the Russians for hacking

46:30

into the DNC and giving them to wikileak we'll blame the Russians because we hate the Russian we hate the the DNC and that

46:37

way we could say h look the Russians were responsible for trying to help Trump you know this is before Trump won

46:45

okay so that's what they did and that's what Russia gate relied on these hacked

46:51

so-called hacked emails well long story short uh we found out that no one hacked

46:58

the DNC we could find that out right off the bat we I say veteran intelligence

47:04

Professionals for sanity because we had two former technical directors of the

47:11

National Security Agency NSA in our Collective and we wrote this memo on 12

47:19

December 20 16 okay telling people look

47:25

the technical evidence shows that no one hacked into the DNC that it was a a copy

47:32

onto a thumb drive or some other external storage device it wasn't a hack

47:40

we would know if was a hack and we they drew on documents released by it Snowden

47:46

by their own technical expertise after all they built these systems that collect these things these two technical

47:53

directors and another very senior official from NSA so so we published that on December 12th

48:01

2016 we're proud of that because it turned out to be right what happened next well a year later uh finally uh the

48:11

Democrats who were heading the house intelligence committee were able to get

48:18

the head of crowd strike to testify about the Russian Hack now you have to

48:24

remember that James Comey head of this head of the FBI at the time said well

48:30

you know uh we don't want to do the forensics on the Democratic National

48:35

Committee computers or well let's let's hire crowd strike crowd strike run by

48:43

somebody who worked for the head of FBI for 20 years as his big techie okay

48:49

crowd strike sha Henry is the guy's name okay let's get croud strike to do this

48:54

well what happens crowd strike uh testifies before the

49:00

house intelligence committee on the 5th of December

49:06

2017 and says uh there is no evidence that anyone hacked into the DNC emails

49:14

those particular ones uh not the Russians not anyone else no technical

49:20

evidence at all now we have sometimes this Bears resemblance to what the

49:25

Russians do some sometimes but that's that's with circumstantial evidence now

49:31

that's pretty conclusive no Russian Hack no hack by anybody else obviously a copy

49:38

onto a thumb drive or some other external storage device so what do we

49:43

have here well that's that's testimony that one would have thought the

49:50

president of the United States Trump would have uh would have released right away but guess what Adam Schiff who took

49:56

of the house intelligence committee put it in his bottom drawer of his safe and kept it concealed until somebody told

50:04

Trump two and a half years later hey you're the

50:11

president Mr Trump all you have to do is tell me the new Director of National

50:17

Intelligence and I'll just tell Adam Schiff to release that or I'm going to release it and so he did and Adam shiff released

50:25

it the date was May 7 2020 today is August

50:33

15 20124 okay do the math do the math the

50:40

Americans still don't know that nobody hacked into those DNC emails that it was

50:47

all a big story getting back to this Rolling Stone story this fellow on

50:53

landingham is proud of having written the first draft and he's resurrected the whole thing gratuitously you would have

51:00

thought he would he'd be ashamed but you know what he's not ashamed because people are playing this they don't play

51:07

what veteran intelligence Professionals for sanity said not only now but as

51:12

early as December 2016 right got 2016 it was not a heck so

51:20

what we have here is a Resurgence of this myth that the Russians were responsible for Donald Trump for God's

51:27

sake they really hurt Hillary and by the way the Russians are really black puin

51:33

is just like Hitler and you know this is not academic this not academic mea I

51:39

mean for God's sake um if uh the White House tells the American people these

51:46

guys are really demonic and we have to we have to send our troops to to help

51:51

this poor zalinski turn the tide in in in Ukraine I would dare say the majority of

51:59

Americans would say oh my God if they're that bad sure we have to do that if they if they were responsible for Donald

52:05

Trump uh you know there there's a trump derangement syndrome here I won't spell

52:12

it out any further I don't know what I mean and people are willing to believe anything about anybody who is accused of

52:19

having helped Donald Trump so we tried to expose this and uh it was sort of

52:24

like a it was hard thing to do again because we had done so much of this

52:29

since 2016 but we thought that well since they're trying to raise this thing again

52:35

we have to put this to rest and I forget what the metaphor you used

52:41

but I look at as as kind of a science fiction um uh Ironclad uh

52:49

monster that's impervious to whatever bullets or Rockets or missiles you you

52:55

it won't die uh maybe maybe it's like a vampire vampire and we haven't found the right

53:01

stake to put it its heart but you know it's not academic it's noxious and it's

53:08

really really really important that people realize that all this stuff this Russia gate stuff was made up out a

53:15

whole cloth by the likes of James Comey head of the FBI John Brennan head of the

53:23

CIA a bunch of bureaucrats heading NSA

53:29

and the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who famously

53:34

told a leading in a leading interviewer you know the Russians you know they're

53:43

uh the they're they genetically they're genetically prone to

53:48

be deceitful and to do blah blah blah they almost genetically prone to do that

53:55

now this is the head of National Intelligence this is the guy who picked

54:00

people like David or Michael Van landingham to draft this Furious memo

54:07

blaming the whole blaming the hacking and everything else on the Russians and

54:13

no one has been held to account and that's the that's the point see the people who publish this stuff in Rolling

54:20

Stone uh and people like David Korn and Michael isikoff who wrote the Russ

54:26

roulette thing giving credence to this bizarre story about Trump cavorting with

54:33

prostitutes in Moscow I mean Hello all these people were sucked into this thing

54:39

and uh and profited handsomely from it and when you talk about paying a price

54:44

not only has no one paid a price and they're still repeating this stuff but

54:51

when push came to shove there was a fellow I'll finish with this he was

54:57

ahead of the upet section of the Washington Post his name was Fred Hyatt

55:02

right now he was uh publishing things in 2002 early 2003 before the invasion of

55:11

Iraq saying it was it was sure that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass

55:18

destruction okay no matter what uh Scott Ritter told him Scott

55:25

having verified the this destruction of all these things okay no they have them

55:30

and they're going to use them and the first thing we might have is a Noom cloud like cond Lisa says and all this

55:35

person and besides they have ties with alqaeda inference there of course uh

55:42

Saddam Hussein had something to do with 911 I mean now this is the whole picture

55:48

people forget that's the way it was back then now Fred hayatt went up after it

55:53

was discovered that there were no ties between Iraq in alqa despite uh colon Powell

56:02

telling the security Council on the 5th of February 2003 that there was a

56:07

Sinister Nexus between Iraq and Al-Qaeda that there were no weapons of

56:14

mass destruction uh Fred Hyatt was interviewed by the uh Columbia review of

56:20

Journalism big deal in journalism okay and one of the young fellas there says

56:25

now Mr H you kept repeating for months and months as flat fact that uh Saddam

56:32

Hussein had weapons of M destruction how do you explain that and

56:38

ha said oh well uh if uh if the weapons of mass

56:44

destruction weren't there uh we probably should not have

56:49

said that they were now when I heard that Bob Parry the

56:57

wonderful journalist par excellance was next to be and he said oh yeah right

57:02

that seems to be a principal precept of journalism right if if something's not

57:08

so you're not supposed to say it is right one more thing I can't

57:14

resist uh James Clapper the head of National Intelligence uh wrote his

57:23

Memoir and uh at the end of

57:29

2019 I think was might but been 18 uh he was pedling his Memoir at the uh

57:35

Carnegie Institute there in Washington and I used to go to those things and I learned about it and so I went as this

57:42

is my custom I went a half hour early I bought the book 27 bucks it was you know

57:50

what was worth it because I went into the men's room and I went the index I found out what he said about what of

57:56

mass destruction now for background here Clapper was head of the imagery analysis

58:04

group a separate agency that was charged with analyzing all the imagery whether

58:11

it's photographic radar infrared multispectral it's his job to look at

58:19

all this imagy and decide what's there okay and so he was in charge of finding

58:26

weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the war so how do he explained

58:32

this it's amazing I mean the guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer I think

58:38

I said that before anyway he he says well you know dick CH this is in the book okay Dick Cheney was putting great

58:46

pressure on us to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and so we found 150

58:53

or so suspect sites we never could find any weapons of mass

58:59

destruction and so in the end and I was as guilty of this is all the other

59:05

intelligence people in the end we were under such pressure that we found things

59:12

that weren't really there period end quote so you know so at the Q&A I was

59:21

not recognized for who I was they recognized me and I said that Mr

59:27

Clapper so you were under such pressure and uh before Iraq to find things that

59:35

weren't really there and you found things that weren't really there now did you do a Repeat

59:42

Performance uh on Russia gate now you said that the Russians hacked into the

59:50

DNC emails but we know now from Court testimony that's that's not so you're

59:57

working for a new president but under great pressure from did you find things that weren't really there

1:00:03

again and he no no no no I I I I I

1:00:09

talked with NSA and I say yeah yeah we have two former technical directors of NSA they wrote the paper and they've

1:00:15

been proven right so uh the head of the Carnegie Institute was a fellow named

1:00:22

William Burns at the time he's now to the CIA and finally uh to his credit he

1:00:29

let me challenge him we had five minutes of discussion so to speak and finally so

1:00:34

okay now Mr mcgarvin L this microphone so they gave

1:00:40

it to pink code pink person behind me and she started saying uh Mr

1:00:47

Clapper when you lied to the Senate intelligence committee about electronic

1:00:53

uh East dropping how is it you were permitted to keep your job so I could see cler saying oh maybe

1:01:02

I maybe I should vet my audience a little better anyhow Clapper I was in

1:01:07

charge of all this stuff and you know when you look at who has most to lose

1:01:13

and you know I don't want to disturb everybody but if I were to look at who has

1:01:19

motive to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president again Donald Donal

1:01:26

Trump this time being not totally naive to the ways of Washington Donald Trump

1:01:32

this time knowing exactly what was done to him and by

1:01:38

whom you know there were no better candidates than Clapper James Comey FBI

1:01:45

director John Brennan CIA director uh people who have a lot to lose if they're

1:01:52

crimes and I use that word advisedly crimes are revealed um how do you explain James

1:02:00

Comey uh big lawyer uh playing fast and lose with the with the with the law and

1:02:08

regulation everything else before the election well he explains it in his book

1:02:13

he says quote I was operating in an environment in which Hillary Ram Clinton

1:02:19

was sure to be the next president of the United States period and quote well if

1:02:24

you're operating in that kind of environment I mean you take all kinds of liberties

1:02:30

with the law if you have no conscience or if you're a lousy lawyer like like

1:02:36

James Comey and uh you you're worried about being indicted you're got to be

1:02:41

promoted you're being allowed to you'll be head of the Department of Justice before you know it uh you're not going

1:02:47

to be indicted certainly Trump's not going to win which he did right and

1:02:54

certainly Trump's not going to in again which he might so what am I saying here

1:03:00

I'm saying that there are all kinds of there were too many coincidences in this attempted assassination of Donald

1:03:08

Trump and like an old detective you know uh analysts are very much like this they

1:03:14

look for motive means and

1:03:19

opportunity now the means you could get a g you could get a rifle like that

1:03:24

anywhere you know I don't think the personally the Second Amendment entitles

1:03:30

you to do that but there it is the law opportunity right before the Republican

1:03:37

National Convention couple days where he becomes the candidate now

1:03:44

motive who has the most to lose if Trump comes back in as president now all this

1:03:51

is circumstantial but you that's about all we have to go on just too many mistakes

1:04:00

put together uh last word on this I asked Bill Benny who's a mathematician

1:04:07

pure and so he did excellent mathematician everybody respects him I said now did Bill you let petition know

1:04:14

about probabilities right yeah yeah sure okay well now uh each of these five in

1:04:20

five occurrences here on that day when attempted assassination took place

1:04:26

uh each of these has I think you'll agree maybe that 10% uh chance of of being an accident or

1:04:35

10% chance of happening okay so you take five of those or 10 of those and you put

1:04:42

them all together and you multiply them and in aggregate what are the chances of

1:04:48

uh of of random thing like this happening and you can do the math

1:04:54

yourself he said about 100 about one in 100 100,000 okay so probabilities are

1:05:02

another thing what am I saying I'm saying well I'll leave you with this on this this

1:05:09

one uh I don't know who Trump has now

1:05:15

doing his uh personal security I would suggest he hire Bobby

1:05:21

Kennedy's firm rather than the the Secret Service

1:05:27

uh because from what I've observed um I think that uh they're going to try again

1:05:34

okay it's just too much of a danger and when I say they I mean the Deep State I

1:05:41

mean some of the miscreant that I've already mentioned here and they need to be exposed and people like Fred Hyatt

1:05:49

rest his soul he simp he since died are not going to expose it so so uh it's up

1:05:56

to us to do that without fear or favor and if you see the FBI coming at my my

1:06:02

door Nema I hope that you'll intervene and tell him I'm basically a good

1:06:09

guy thank you so much Ray for being with us today great pleasure as always you're

1:06:14

most welcome neemar

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