Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 9/16/26: Frmr Pentagon Official, Houthis Shoot Down Jet

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

On today's Wednesday show Ryan and Emily speak to Former Pentagon official David Pyne about the merging of the Israel U.S. militaries. After we look at Kash Patel's latest hearing on a myriad of topics and finally Ryan speaks to Yemeni journalist Hussain Al-Bukhaiti about the Houthis.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all?

And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature.

I'm Jack Quist-Peace Thomas, and on this season of the Black Lits podcast, we're outside asking why. They don't want a whole bunch of little Ella bakers, Michael Maxes and Martin Luther King, and when you look at a lot of different cultures, they're like, we need to know where you came from. And considering this is Black Reading Month,

the only real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to Black Lit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What up, y'all, y'all, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music. Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game.

You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. Better be great. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you string podcasts. Hey guys, ready or not, 2024 is here, and we, here at Breaking Points,

are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, ad staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. So earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed what's called Section 219, which would effectively create a new office that would merge the U.S. military and Israeli military kind of research, defense, industrial basin technology, so that you further fuse what is already a pretty tight cooperation.

Now, over in the Senate, the NDAA is headed through. that chamber has to pass at some point over the next several weeks or months. And so there's a live debate over whether or not that fusing of the two militaries is going to take place. Now, one of the main arguments that defenders of the bill make is that this is actually America first because it is a huge benefit to the United States to partner with the Israeli military, which is one of the most innovative in the world. That is the argument. One of the, Two of the programs that are actually held up as central to that argument are known as the Arrow Missile Defense Program and also Iron Beam. Iron Beam in particular really gets people's

attention because it is this new laser technology that Israel says that it developed to be able to knock missiles out of the sky. That to anybody in Washington is going to sound extraordinarily impressive. Wow. Laser warfare. Amazing. And so Mertazza Hussein and I over and put this element up on the screen over at DropSight News looked very closely at these two programs, how they were funded, who came up with the ideas behind them, kind of who drove them to completion, and you find a completely different story than the one that is told publicly effectively. You find that United States taxpayers, United States companies, United States universities were behind nearly all of the breakthroughs that led to these, while it is Israel that maintains significant control over

control over the IP. Why is that? Well, you have, we have a thing called Congress, and Congress insists that that be the case. We talked to a number of Pentagon officials who were involved in these projects throughout their development. One of them is David Pine, and he's joining us now to walk us through more of this. David, thank you so much for being here. Thanks so much for having me on. It's an honor to show. Yeah, you got it. And so David is a former Pentagon official who worked on the Arrow 2 program, veteran. You were a former top national security aide for Representative Mike Lee. You currently are the deputy executive director of the U.S. Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

When it comes to the Arrow 2 program in particular, though, can you walk us through a little bit about, you know, what your involvement was in that program? Yeah, so I was serving as international programs manager on the Army headquarters staff in charge of all R&D, Armaments cooperation with the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Americas. So I had a pretty wide portfolio,

but I did, was involved in signing a, memorandum of understanding in Tel Aviv, along with other DOD officials on the RO2 program. And what struck me as unusual, at least up to that point, was that essentially, you know, we fully funded the program through not only just direct U.S. contributions, but for military financing, which is essentially U.S. taxpayer aid to a country, in this case Israel, which was about three billion a year at the time. So it was 100% funded by the U.S., but we were barred in the agreement from using all, you know, the full technology in our own missile defense system. And missile defense has always been a passion of mine. I was very pleased to see George W. Bush get us out

of the ABM treaty earlier that year. So it was really a focus of the United States, of U.S. national security and yet uh... and we were paying all this money you know billions of dollars over a period of forty years now for the aerial missile defense program and we've never been allowed to fully utilize it we've been able to utilize uh... test data and that type of stuff but uh... not not the actual sensitive design uh... system how does something like that even work i mean and eventually uh... Boeing ended up making component parts for uh... the the the arrow

And so there's that U.S. involvement. But how does it work that the U.S. will have its own people, like, involved with it? But what does it mean to not have access to the technology? And what did you argue for in your negotiations with the Israeli government? Well, I was just serving as a relatively low-level GS-14, you know, level officials. So I really didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of arguing in favor what I thought was best for America. at that time. But yeah, it, you know, I would think that, you know, given that we fully funded the program, we should have had full access to that. Israel, of course, is a very secretive, you know, country. It's essentially a garrison state. I was there. I was, you know, just kind of surprised to see how many, you know, soldiers there were, you know, nearly half of them are women, young women that serve. And it's just a different society. It's relatively closed off. Obviously, there are democratic elections, but it's essentially an apartheid state. But it's a country that,

you know, talk about putting the own country first. Israel, you know, the one thing Israel does amazingly well is they put their country first. And that's something I'd love to see here in America. you know, we've been putting in America last, sadly, under President Trump for probably the last year or more. But it's, yeah, it's something that shouldn't have happened. But Israel is a critical, it's been deemed a critical security threat in terms of intelligence. They've been, you know, stealing our technology for many years. And now with Section 219, you know, they won't need a steal it anymore because we're going to give it to them for free. And it's interesting because a lot of the people who are very pro-Israel, pro the American alliance with Israel are also hawks on China who will be warning till they're blue in the face about China stealing technology.

From your perspective, is this a giveaway to China and other potential non-allied countries who could end up with some of this technology and the know-how from some of this technology in their own arsenals? Well, I think that's a very valid concern. We've seen, I mean, if Israel had their own way, they'd be selling probably all of the advanced U.S. military technology would give them. They had a record of doing that on multiplications up through 2000. The last time we know of, an open source that they attempted to do so was in 2008, but they were dissuaded from doing so by President Bush, who, you know, pressure the Israelis not to make the sales, the technology sales to China. But we know just in there, in terms of F-16 technology, they sold that to China in the 80s and 90s. I think it was the Israeli lobby fighter, which is essentially a development, the Israeli version of the S-16. And that was weaponized by the Chinese with their J-10 fighters. So that's just an example of what they could do. And so it's always been a major concern of mine that they could share our missile defense technology with China as well.

We spoke with another contractor who worked in that joint office who said that when it was on their desk, they would slow walk it as much as possible because they were constantly being told by the intelligence community that this was inappropriate and that Israel was too much of a security risk because of particularly its relationship with the Chinese. The person said, let me quote, we had to be. tons of intelligence to justify not sharing the information with Israel, but we were under pressure from Congress to figure it out and transfer the IP to Israel, said the contractor. No matter how much evidence the intelligence community produced, the response we received from DOD leadership was that

it's congressionally mandated, therefore we have to execute on the program. Can you talk about that, does that match with your experience? And what is the role that Congress plays in putting pressure on on the do d o'd here yeah and by my position i would have to sign off on exceptions to national disclosure policy for a number of countries uh but i found out that uh the hard way that every time i i uh you know decided to go against uh one of those exceptions that i was pressured into uh it to signing off on it because uh it was uh you know the white house that was behind it it wasn't just with israel there were other countries that i was concerned about that I thought were too much supportive of Islamists. And every time that I tried to make an exception,

you know, tried to disagree with an exception, I was pressured into signing off on it. So I feel like that pressure certainly existed with Israel, you know, which of course we're told constantly is our, you know, our best ally in the world, essentially. And in fact, they don't act like an ally. They're trying to sink the U.S.S. liberty and kill all the survivors. They've, again, shared our technology with Communist China, and they're a critical security threat when it comes to intelligence. So I think we need to reconsider the scope of our alliance, not necessarily severe it all the way, but it might be nice to have a trial separation. It is astounding that when you lay all this out to the average person, they'd be like, what, why? what? Who is defending this? Who thinks this is a good idea? But since you've kind of been

inside of those meetings and rooms, you're in a better position to kind of argue against, rather than the phantom idea of what these people are actually saying and why they're defending this, what they actually say. So what in your experience, do they really believe that this is good for America? Or are they what's going through their minds? Because the average person that sounds like it is obviously not an America first policy. And even in Michigan, like Abdul Al-Sayed is trying to look like he's America first coming from a Democrat position because there are opportunities like this left and right to say we should have a foreign policy that's more aligned with the interests of our own country's priorities. So do they

believe that this is America first or do they just not care? Well, I think there's a huge misconception, especially among Republicans and specifically Republicans in Congress that tend to be more of the neocon persuasion that really, I think, sincerely believe they sincerely conflate the national security interests of Israel with our own. And I think the two are very, very different. I mean, we've seen that played out during this disastrous Trump war against Iran, where, you know, Israel has, you know, killed off the moderates, the very moderate leaders that Trump claims that he handpicked to lead Iran, you know, Israel assassinated. They've tried to assassinate the negotiators.

They made multiple attempts. President Trump has made that clear. He's not happy about it. And Israel acts, and that Yahu acts all the time to violate Trump's outstanding gossip ceasefire agreement. You know, even the Lebanon ceasefire agreement, which was heavily weighted in favor of Israel. They've thrown that in the trash. So we see Israel flouting, you know, President Trump's foreign policy objectives, particularly peace, peace with Iran, because essentially Trump is basically saying that he's, we're continuing to fight this war to bring Iran back to the peace table. And every time we get close to do that, it seems like Israel, you know, does something crazy to derail peace talks.

And given that the Senate is now considering whether or not to move forward with the House, version of Section 219. Are you willing to either testify on the Senate side or speak to senators about your experience, given that this is such a high-stakes piece of legislation, and you're one of the people who has actual firsthand experience with it? Yeah, I'm absolutely willing to testify. I was a whistleblower against the Iraq War as well. I was actually dismissed from my position on the Army headquarters staff due to articles I wrote. Again, against Bush's plan to invade Iraq, warning how much disasters that would be in terms of empowering Iran and strengthen Iran, helping them essentially take over Iraq with, you know,

Islamist Shiite proxy leaders. And we've seen that take place. There's been 600 known, you know, strikes from the Iraqi military, the PMF brigades that are sponsored by Iran that the U.S. pays for against U.S. Gulf allies. And in fact, they were also responsible for destroying the East West pipeline in Saudi Arabia. I was going to make that observation. That is the reporting that the East West pipeline, according to the reporting that we understand, was attacked from Iraqi territory. We reported in the first segment of this show that European shipments,

from Saudi Arabia to Europe have been shut down. Like Europe's not getting any oil from Saudi Arabia in the back half of September. And there is quite an irony that the country that, you know, we supposedly, you know, liberated is now playing a significant role in that. I guess while we have you here, if you could just give us your thoughts real quickly on how you think President Trump, you know, could or will end this conflict. that is destroying, you know, everything that he built through his MAGA movement, but also it appears the global economy.

Yeah, I think President Trump has two options before him that can end the conflict. And escalation is not one of them, by the way, and continuing the blockade is not one of them. His options are essentially to pull U.S. forces out of the region. That's something he said he would do just yesterday. He said he was going to pull U.S. troops out of the region anyway. He didn't give a timetable, and he said he might reverse that if he wants to, decides to take the oil, which, of course, is impossible. We can't, you know, can't even invade Iran, let alone take their oil. But, you know, I think that that's one possibility.

General Michael Flynn talked to, you know, his former national security advisor has stated that he could do so he could declare victory. He could say it was part of, you know, a long plan, strategic research. set, he could point to his national security strategy as the foundation for why he's doing it. The other way, of course, is to re-implement the 60-day ceasefire MOU. The problem is Iran is demanding that all of the provisions that favor them are implemented at the front end of the agreement. So essentially, you know, the reparations, the 300 billion reparations, unlocking 100 to 200 billion of their frozen assets and all of that type of.

stuff, and combined with withdrawal of U.S. forces anyway, which, you know, really it's not even feasible for us to keep U.S. forces in the region because Iran has destroyed 13 to 16 U.S. bases. And so, you know, we should pull a Trump should cite Ronald Reagan. You know, in 1983, after the truck bombing of the Marine barracks, what did Reagan do? He didn't start a war with Iran. he pulled all U.S. troops out of the Middle East except for Turkey. So I think that's the model for America First is Ronald Reagan, peace their strength. Well, David Pine, he's the deputy executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. Also writes the substack, the real war.

David, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Ryan, Emily. Have a great day. Thank you, too. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite?

Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was so... someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having.

I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is the Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place.

Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. FBI director Cash Patel was on Capitol Hill yesterday, getting absolutely great. grilled not just by Democratic senators, but also by Republican senators. Let's start with this exchange he had with Sheldon White House, Democrat, of course, on the Epstein files. The only 302s that were released were the ones that did not mention Donald Trump. When the department was caught, having held back the other ones, I think because bait stamps revealed their existence, the department then coughed up the 302s,

that did mention Donald Trump, but we still have 37 undisclosed pages that seem to be the contemporaneous FBI notes that would have formed the basis for the 302 summaries. Am I accurate in suggesting that those 37 pages likely include the FBI contemporaneous notes from those interviews? We have complied with the statute and the court orders and produced three and a half million pages of documents for the first time ever. Investigators looked at the information in real time and the prior administration and made the determinations on referrals for prosecution and not. We've also repeatedly stated if there's new information, we want everyone to come forward so that we can analyze that information as to what is and isn't remaining. So what are those 37 pages? I don't know what you're referencing.

we've produced three and a half million pages and we will continue to comply with the 37. Ryan, he appears to be referring there to 302s related to Donald Trump ratting out Epstein, right? That seemed to be missing from the files. So Trump acted as a federal informant. There's 302, we know. There are moments in there where Trump looks good. Like when he, yeah, is like mad at Epstein. They had a falling out over.

Epstein was trafficking one of his staff and then they had a, and they also had a falling out over a fight over, they're both bidding on the same property or something like that. Right. And so then yeah, he called, like he called the local cops on him. He should try, I don't understand, like, I was

like, I don't say I don't understand. Like, so think about this. There are good things that Trump can say about himself in these files, yet he is still so reticent to release, you know, had to be forced to release what he did release and won't release the other parts, which really tells

you something about what the rest of it is. Because if it's just Trump looking good and ratting him out to the police, all day long he's rolling with that. So White House wrote a letter to Cash Patel back in March saying, DOJ has not produced to Congress all records related to Jeffrey Epstein as the act requires, including documents related to sexual assault allegations made against President Trump in 2019, DOJ initially released just one record associated with FBI interviews of the accuser. Okay, so it looks like they're looking for 302s of the accuser. It then published additional records after these omissions were noted. It appears that 37 pages of records still have not been released, including FBI notes

associated with agents' interviews of the accusers. So he's not, as I originally said, he's not looking for more information on the Trump 302 writing Epstein out. He's looking for 302s of informants who were claiming that Trump was guilty of sexual abuse. But to the point that White House is making, there are legal obligations. Thomas Massey sat right here and told us that they're baked into the legislation is potential for penalties if Cash Patel and other people at the DOJ do not comply with the demand, the congressional demand, that they release all of these records. And so if evidence emerges that they have records,

they're sitting on a Democrat Department of Justice, Democrat-run department. of justice and FBI could potentially find that evidence and bring it to the public and they would be in violation if they are knowingly withholding documents that should be released. And the Cash Patel and all these other guys are probably assuming they're going to get a pardon. But what if Cash Patel ticks off Trump so bad that he doesn't get a pardon? He's like the one guy that doesn't get a pardon. It's a good point. He got some tough questions about flock cameras. Let's take a look here at E3. private companies have and private municipalities in towns put up cameras around traffic circles and the neighborhoods and the like they collect information not the FBI where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy basically publicly available information where the FBI partners with these individuals is on a case by case basis and not a rolling access basis we for the first time at the FBI have professionally partnered and officially partnered with

with more private sector individual companies and social media and AI. Okay, so FBI partnering with flock, not a surprise, but basically what he's saying, right, Ryan? Yeah, describing the efforts to just basically film everything. Trump is not pro-flock, of course. Of course, to your point.

Trump with incredible anti-instincts. Like one of the great political talents of several generations is just on the wrong side of absolutely everything now. Yeah, it did, but it used to be opposite. He used to have like this gut instinct. He did. He now is a gut instinct of how to infuriate people. It's going great for him. Patel also got questions about showing up in the US men's hockey team Olympic locker room after the win. Let's watch E2. Apparently you wanted to go to the Olympics.

And you combined, you were four days there and you did some quote work, a dinner with the ambassador, an hour with Italy counterpart operatives, a 320-minute meetings of a security briefing and a 30-minute tour over four days. And then you barged into the celebration of our winning Olympic team. What were you doing that? Can't you let the players enjoy the joy of their own victory?

What you'll never understand is the players who are my friends invited me into the locker room. What you'll never understand is that during that trip where 300,000 Americans went to Italy to participate in the games and watched them, not a single security incident occurred. What you'll never understand

is throughout the World Cup, not a single security incident occurred because we stood a joint operation center up there. And the most important thing to come out of that trip besides the American men defeating the Canadians and celebrating the love of this country

and inviting me in to do so is the fact that we obtained the seizure and capture of China's most prolific hacker and returned him to the United States. And how about your trip to the boondoggle ranch? How many days?

off a year do you take? Because I took four this year. Well, you'll never understand. Ryan was busting out laughing. I sometimes wish we had the audio turned on while we watched video close because watching Ryan watch Cash Patel was a real treat. The players invited him. You will never understand that, Peter Welch. All my friends are just sitting right here off screen, off camera. You can't see them. I will say, I think it's true that probably like one or two of the players are friends with him and invited him. He's known to be a big hockey guy. But I'm not sure that's the best excuse. That's the point. Yes, for the FBI director crashing the locker room. Now, very bizarre exchange that I think dominated headlines actually yesterday

from the Catholic testimony, despite the fact, by the way, that Chuck Grassley, ahead of the hearing, released documents showing that Thomas Crooks, the shooter in Butler, the alleged shooter and Butler, had his cremation paid for by an anonymous donor. This is an FBI records that Chuck Grassley released yesterday. And there are all kinds of serious questions Cash Patel should be facing. We've covered a couple of them here. But social media could not stop talking.

Could not stop talking about the many exchanges Cash Patel had over the FBI's new beastiality policy, E1. What about the bestiality? Same thing, because the regs wrote it up in a fashion before I arrive that addressed prostitution, bestiality, and trafficking. They were there before I got there. Tell me what it said before.

It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminals. The side of what? The bestiality? Yes. So you disqualified the animal? Well, I don't think we have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify. I understand.

In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who are some of the worst individuals on planet Earth, They don't just traffic you for prostitution. They traffic you for degrading acts of all kind, and they force you into that type of conduct. And some of these individuals would go on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI. I mean, this didn't, these changes didn't start with you, did they? Somebody came to you and recommended it? Yeah. Yeah.

And when you saw bestiality, I say this with respect. the person who recommended it, why didn't you just say what planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to leave with... Well, that was my initial response. Why do I want to leave with my chin and get into bestiality?

That was my initial response, Senator. But they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI. And so I thought they should be considered. It's not an automatic disqualification. That's all. Okay.

Some tough questioning there from Senator Foghorn Leghorn, a Republican of Louisiana, Dr. Kennedy. But, Ryan, what it sounds like happened is that the FBI wants to work with victims who, like, hire victims to help the FBI. And some of those victims happen to have been people who were trafficked probably for the purposes of pornography into situations where there's bestiality and someone came to Capitol and said they can't be disqualified or we don't want to disqualify people

for this. I don't know. I'm trying to cut through the weirdness of this story. Yeah, that's what happened. I think that's exactly right. I could have helped the FBI out with this. So here's what you say. Evergreen. If you were a trafficking victim,

anything that you were forced to do while a trafficking victim does not automatically disqualify you from employment at the FBI. Right. Done. You don't need to go into a definitive list

of all of the different things that people may be forced to do while in trafficking unless you want foghorn, leghorn, making fun of you for your new policy on bestiality in the Senate. Yes. Which is exactly what happened. And also that's totally reasonable policy. This subtext here is

the FBI is having like a lot of other places, recruitment issues. And so they're trying to figure out ways that they can can expand the pool of people. But also if you're the FBI,

you would actually have a particular interest in people who know trafficking because they've been victims of and survived it. So they would have more insight for law enforcement than than others might.

I don't even know how to land to this plane. I mean, Cash Patel's right, but there was a better way to write that rule. They're also, I mean, swamped with suspicions from conservatives and I think

normal people across the board. I'm not sure that Cash Patel has the trust of the American public exactly, but Butler continues to be a huge source of suspicion as those documents yesterday showed from Chuck from Chuck Grassley. Mike Lee pressed Cash Patel a bit on that and or a bit on what we still don't know about Butler. Same thing with the Charlie Kirk case. Obviously, as that goes to trial,

there'll be even more pressure on the FBI when it starts to emerge what the evidence is, what the evidence isn't. But he's in a very difficult spot. We'll see how long he lasts in the administration. He's a loyalist, to your point, maybe not even by choice. He's a loyalist because he wants to have Trump's protection now that he's been in the job. I think that's actually a good observation, Ryan. So maybe he'll survive the whole thing. I don't know. Ryan doesn't know either.

I am just glad that in this very dark era that Cash Patel is the head of the FBI, compared to... It's fun. Imagine if they'd put a competent, dedicated ideologue who was committed... Matt Gates? Like, well, he'd probably be fine, too. But imagine if you had a Stephen Miller-like figure also in charge of the FBI using the awesome powers that the FBI does have. Instead of Cash Patel.

Why are they bothering Cash Patel about his vacations? Take as many vacations as you want, bro. Like, I want you partying. Join the U.S. men's hockey team. Join them. Come back to the office enough to create dysfunction. I don't want you completely gone. but mostly.

All right. Well, Ryan, you have a big interview that we have to get to next. Let's pivot there. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ears. saying shut up. Don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

I knew if he woke up. Without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out a life. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsesives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the digital. dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table.

It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, your end. in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages.

So we can put this element up on the screen. This is from the Yemeni military media, and they write, this is a translation, get ready for high quality footage of the downing of a Saudi F-15 fighter jet and its wreckage in the Maribrebe government. This comes after reports throughout the night. of the downing from Houthi officials and Houthi-linked journalist Hussein Abu Qaeda,

who we're going to talk to in just one moment, had posted last night, breaking news. Yemen Army announced they have shot down a Saudi fighter jet in F-15 in Marib province. Marib is one of the only kind of oil-rich areas of Yemen. Marib City is one of the lone holdouts of some of these Saudi-backed forces. there have been days of negotiations going on between, and we'll talk about that with Albuquerque in a second, between the Ansarala forces, otherwise known as the Houthis, and the kind of holdouts inside Marib city. Those negotiations have broken down very recently, and so the Saudis have sent in some F-15s to kind of try to bomb the area. and as was the big fear among Saudi backers, if you do that, you might get shot down.

And it seems like very quickly in the Saudi effort to counteract these Ansarala advances, if they appear to already have lost a plane, the reports from last night were that one of the pilots died from his injuries sustained during the explosion, but that the other has been captured. Again, this is unconfirmed at this point. But my take, curious for your take, I don't think Yemeni media would post get ready for high quality footage of the downing of a Saudi F-15 fighter jet

if they didn't have that footage. Like that is a... I'm sure they do. That is a very damaging thing to fake because then if you don't have it, then who's going to believe you ever again? No, I'm sure they do have it. Also very plausible that they would have the footage.

It's almost at this point implausible they wouldn't. Right, yes. And so Hussein Albuquerque is a Yemeni journalist who's based in Sana'a. And if you were watching the Friday show, we played a kind of extended section of his interview with Al Jazeera. I was like, this guy's good. This guy's sharp. So I reached out to him and did a fairly long interview that we can play for you guys here. Sounds good. Let's get to it. Clashes continue in Yemen between Ansarala and the Saudi-backed forces that are their proxies serving in the region with Ansar al-A, continuing to strike Saudi oil infrastructure, and Saudi continuing to launch air strikes against Yemen. Joining us now is Yemeni journalist Hussein Albuqaeda to discuss the latest on the back and forth here. Hussein, it's a real privilege to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining us. you're welcome thank you for having me and your show yeah you got it so let's start with the predicament that saudi crown prince muhammad bin salman has found himself in if if you were let's say advising obviously you're you're a journalist you're not an advisor to crown prince mbs but if you were advising the crown prince at this point what to do at this moment what do you think your suggestion would be given the kind of state of play of the conflict now? I think my advice to him. It was before they have broke the truce that was signed in 2020.

They have targeted Sana'a airport two months ago because what Muhammad bin Salman have thought if they let that civilian aircraft will land, it could like damage the reputation of Saudi Arabia as, like, you know, the leader of the coalition against Yemen and the coalition war. So I will advise him to ignore that, like, it's fine. And because now what's happening is the entire Saudi is under attack. So I will advise him not to break the ceasefire because I'm sure that the other side is waiting for you to break the ceasefire. And it's exactly what happened. He thought letting that air flight will damage their image.

But now we see that the attack has come all across Saudi Arabia. And he will advise him as well, the demand of Ansarullah or the Yemeni armed forces in Sana'a is symbol. It was symbol before the Saudi broke the truth. It was to stop and lift the blockade against Yemen, open Sana Airport, by the salaries of Yemeni, from gas and oil revenue that's under the control of Saudi Arabia. I mean, Saudi Arabia doesn't need that gas and oil revenue, they have 12 billion barrel a day. So it will be like things like that, just stop, like there is no need to continue interference in Yemen

because we have seen what's happening since 2015, the first time in history, that Saudi Arabia and their oil infrastructure has come and been under attack. So is it your understanding from your sources in Ansar ala that if Saudi Arabia would end its blockade and end the war against Yemen that the that Ansarala would end its attacks on Saudi Arabia? Is it is that simple? And then what is the next step after that? To be honest with you, now is not that simple. The demand of today is different than demand of yesterday. Demand of today is different than demand before two months before they struck the airport.

Because it will be silly that you are now of the upper hand, you have almost limited Saudi air cover for their back forces in Yemen. This is one of the reason why Yemeni armed forces here in Sana'a are advancing because they've been targeting the military bases in south of Saudi Arabia, the largest two air base in Khamis Mushait, King Khalid Air Base, and as well King Fahd Air Base in Tate. And as well, they have anti-aircraft missile that actually has affected the Saudi ability. So now the demand of Yemen actually is a total withdrawal from Yemen, from the Saudi to stop any fund to any groups inside Yemen,

to stop interfering in Yemen. And as well, lifting the blockade and allowing flight and a full lift of the blockade on Houdidabad. Because Houdidah port only received some ship, but they are forced to go first to Djibouti, and they stay there for one to four months, as they say, for search. And this actually, in fact, Yemenis, and only bulk carrier or bulk ship that comes to Houdaida.

The rest are forced to go to Aden, which under control of the Saudi. So now the demand are actually different because if Ansarra Dahuti will come back to the same demand that they were bought in 2022, which were symbol, as one of them that you mentioned, lifting the blue cape, more flight to Sanar Airport to pay the salary from Yemen revenue.

But now if we go back to this same demand as 2022 or 2023, when we had that so-called roadmap, agreement, this means we will start, like, we will go back to the beginning. There is no guarantee. Saudi will use that as they used from 2022 to build up army bases, to build up airport across Yemen, to build up their backed forces. So now I'm sure it's different. And we have seen the latest attack against Saudi Arabia, just in the last maybe 10 hours ago. they have launched attack against Jida, Yambor, Abha, Chameesh, Najaran, Jayzhan, Asir, and this is the first time

since the beginning of the aggression against Yemen in 2015, the Yemen has launched a large-scale attack. Of course, there is no official statement at this point from Yemen, but there is no one attacking Saudi Arabia, only the Yemenis. Right. Right. I wanted to put up a post of yours from, I believe, earlier today or yesterday, where you shared some video that was going around of a battle in Al Jof, but you made a point that I wanted you to unpack a little bit for us. You wrote here, a footage released by the Yemeni army showing the attacks against Saudi-backed forces in Al Jaf province, North Yemen. You can see clearly how Saudi

mercenaries keep wandering in the desert so that Saudi media will show that as an advance and control of Al Jaf. They're just a sitting duck for Yemeni fighters. Can you unpack for people what you mean by that, what you're seeing kind of on the ground, and what that says more broadly about Saudi Arabia's ability both to project power and also to defend itself. Yeah. I mean, if you say this clearly in this video, you see like armored vehicles and Toyota pickup vehicles. They go like from the left to the right and they keep wondering in that area. Regarding El Jove is at the border. of Saudi Arabia north of Yemen.

It between Saada, north of Yemen, and as well had remote northeast Yemen. This Al Jof is almost the entire area is the desert. Sana'a government has liberated and its control of the east of Al Jove. This east of Al Jove is, I mean, Al Jove has only 500,000 civilians. Almost all of them, they are in the east, in the west of, sorry, in the west area of Al Jav. just maybe 30% of the side of Al Javov. The rest is a desert. There is nothing there.

So what the Saudi do? They bring troops either from Marib, South of Al-Jub or from Saudi Arabia in the north. And they just keep driving in the desert. I mean, you can drive there maybe for maybe 50 kilometers or more or 100 kilometers. You will find anything. They drive there and they show in their media that we are advancing and this is Al Jof or they will find a small hill or a small mountains that people will know that's in Al Jof to show that they are in that area.

And this is only to take footage. But still Yemeni art forces are in control of the major mountain that's maybe in east of Al Jav, which oversees that desert. And you can see now in that video how Yemeni artisan forces has been targeting those troops with artillery shells with guns, with drones, and with ballistic missiles. So Saudi just because to cover the paleo that was in the West Coast and as well to try to recruit more Yemenis and more mercenaries. Because when they see those type of videos, but from the eye of the Saudi media, they will see those hundreds of tracks that you saw in that video going forward and no one in front of them.

And as soon as they come under attack, they're not going to show that. They will cut it. And they do even act. They just go to an open area and just keep shooting at a hill or at a rock or at a small mountain. And there is no one there. I mean, you cannot leave there to have a base there either for us or for them. You need an area to have water, to have water supply, or at least to have a city or a nearby village where you have shops. So this is actually the shows.

This video actually shows the thing that I had been explaining too many outside the media. And thanks God that the video has came today. And how does that compare to what you saw on the West Coast or what the advancing Ansar al-Fourists saw in the West Coast of given when they got there? There were reports that upwards of, you know, say, four out of five of the of the mercenaries who were supposed to be, you know, in the Saudi-backed coalition weren't even there. We're kind of ghost soldiers where the commanders were just pocketing, pocketing the money and, you know, telling their commanders that, oh, yeah, we have. We have 1,000 men under our command, when in fact they might have, say, 200 men. How significant of a phenomenon has that been? Now, to be honest with you, this is not the case, but we've seen that this report that has

been released at some time by international media. I believe because Saudi reputation was really, really damaged. Interesting. And the back to the Yemen because of that. So I can say that is this actually the information that's released by the Saudi? they want to show that it's not their failure, that those commander were lying. But let me make sure that all the soldiers and all the commanders in there, especially Tarek Salih, they were loyal to United Arab Emirates.

And United Arab Emirates, they will better than the Saudi in getting equipment to their backed forces in Yemen. And they were when they were building the bases, they were building the bases like from A to Z. like operational room with satellite internet and all that thing and some footage have shown that was released in the last few days but and we've seen that a nice Arab Emirates because that area was important to them they have built in the area that was controlled in the west coast and Babelmandap is a small area is about maybe the coastal area could be maybe 2,400 kilometers but if we without the mountains. All of the area is 4,400. But the area of the coast, it could be only 2,500 square kilometer. Just imagine in Moka, there's a huge airport building Moka. They say

for civilians. I mean, I said, okay, I could understand that because it's a city. But south of Moka, between Moka and Babel Manda, just inside the coast of Yemen, there is another large airport that was built by United Arab Emirates. and large air base in that area, just 20 kilometers south of Moka. Anadolamune Island, another airport was built. In Zugar Island, in the Red Sea, just off the coast of Moka, another airport was built. And this Zugar Island is inhabited. So just imagine this infrastructure that was built, and they recruited tens, hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

And just now what they are saying, that is because, of this, that there were names of soldiers that they were not there. This is actually not true. The road between Moka to Babel Manda was full during the withdrawal, was full of trucks, armored vehicles for several kilometers. And Ansar Allah let them. They left the road south of Moka open because they do want, you know, as Yemeni to kill each other.

They always, before they take any city, they always leave a road open. So when they advance from the north of Moka, the south of Moka Road, and I have published like a map by the road in it where Yemeni armed forces before the fall of Moka. Because they know if you leave for your enemy road, when he feel the danger, because he's fighting for the Saudis, not for the liberation of Yemen. He will just rather to go and take that weapons and sell it like they did when they arrived in Aden and the cost of near Aden. And they were selling all the weapons or in a state of fighting and get killed because their command, that was the first one to run away.

And as well, they have been saying that there is, that Ansarullah, like, have, with AI, use the voice of Tariq Saleh and sent, like, to their fighter to withdraw. And all that, no, it's all. The thing is that now Yemeni army, because we have limited and obstruct the social. the Air Force, 90% of the strength of the Saudi-backed forces was this, was the Saudi cover and Air Force. Because every area they have controlled since 2015, Saudi used to use carpet bombing to that area, either civilian area or mountain or a hill or a coast.

That's why they advanced to Houdaida. But because that does not now exist because of the attack from Yemen against their main airbase in the south and central Saudi Arabia. have as well missiles. I'm sure that we can hear in the coming days that Yemeni will shoot one or two of the Saudi fighters did. We remember that United States had admitted that Yemeni air missile, they were about to shoot down F-35. And as well, they were about to shoot F-16. There was like a three or five fighters from the United States, and Yemeni has launched missile against them. They had like to maneuver. And because they have maneuvered on the sky of Kudeda

to avoid dozens of missiles that were launched. They were about to run fuel. So the United States has to send another refuel plane, and they have said that, and they have as well given the leader of that group of the fighter jet, like they gave him, I don't know, like a star or like to recognize what he did. Just imagine this with the United States,

what Yemeni are doing now with the Saudi and as well, the attack against Saudi Arabia against Aramco. It prevents as well as well, to launch the same attack and airstrike they used to launch. If there is any war in one area in Yemen, Saudi used to launch 300 to 500 air strike in one day, if they advanced in an area. Now they launch in the entire Yemen,

maybe on a day, maybe 100, 150 air strike across Yemen. You can just imagine the amount that we have reduced those air strike. And one of the reason, because Saudi knows if they will try maybe to conduct the same amount of air strike, like hundreds a day, on Moka, they know that Yemen at that point will launch hundreds of missile against all Saudi oil infrastructure and Aramco infrastructure and airport and airport. So Yemeni, even when we are fighting to liberate our country, when we are fighting, fighting to lift the blockade against Yemen, when we do all that, we still give the Saudi a chance. We still are not attacking everything

in Saudi Arabia. Just to let them think, if you do more, we will. will do as well more. Right. So you mentioned that the airport was struck in July by Saudi Arabia, which really precipitated this entire situation. But the Ansar al-La response could have been much more, much smaller. A decision was made to go on the offensive. From your reporting, what do you understand about how long this plan has been in the works and why, they decided to launch this significant of an offensive at this moment rather than any other moment. Yeah. If you see the attack against Saudi, we respond to the Saudi targeting Sana'a airport and breaking the ceasefire. We consider that here they consider it as a cancellation of the truth. What they did in Yemen, they target Abha airport.

Here, I mean, I was angry. The people here were angry. They said they target Sana'an. target airport. You should target Riyadh and Riyadh airport. But Yemen were still like considered it. They do want war with Saudi Arabia. They just want our country to be liberated. They focus on the blockade. They have stopped Saudi ship

and declared not to allow Saudi ship to go through the Red Sea. But this ground attack they came after what, because Saudi Arabia after they took control of all the bases, especially in Mokad, which was under the control of the United Arab Emirates, they have been sending more weapons and more training and all type of weapons and communication system like they're trying to make that area like make it more stronger. And as soon as the Saudi broke the sea fire and we formed the blockade in the sea, Saudi

have targeted our data port. We didn't target Yompa before. We haven't done that. Saudi is the one. In retaliation of our attack against ship, they have a target. target the data port. And then after that, we expanded and target Yomboa. So what happened in Yemen on the ground, Yemeni has not launched any missile or any single shot against any Saudi backforses in the area. But what the Saudi did, the Saudi in the last two months, they

have expand their fund and their money and their weapons that's been sent to areas under the Saudi-backed force control maybe four times more. Why? Because they know they cannot face San'a army. So they sent to those group. That's why Sana was kind of a dilemma. If we don't attack, and even if you see in the media that belong to this Saudi-backed forces,

they were showing footage, drone footage, attacking position of Yemeni armed forces, as they called them Ansarullah. They were artillery shell and bombing in many areas in Moka and even before the fight started, in Marib and El Jove. And they were speaking about that in their media. But Yemeni were kind of a dilemma here in Sana'a. If we don't want to fight with Yemenis. But Saudi now, when they are ready, when they are setting the plan, they're going to attack us at one point.

And as well, they broke the ceasefire by targeting Sana' airport. And those troops in Yemen considered as a part of the Saudi-Latqqqqq, We can attack them and target them even without, like what I explained to you, that the troops coming from Saudi and reinforcement. As soon as Saudi target the airport, we have the right to target Saudi and as well the back forces in Yemen. So Yemen took the decision to launch missiles against those groups and those evil attacked trucks that were coming from the Saudi border, toward Marib and toward Al Jove and they target them in the road and they show footage

of that. So we had to do that and as well we have the right because there is no more truth but we delayed that action just to irrespect not to have to kill each other and is exactly what the Saudi what the Saudi wants. That's why I think it will be more

escalation from Saudi here in Yemen they're ready. Saudi will stop and stop interfering in Yemen, it will be a simple. And there is one more important point. Before 2002, before Yemeni-Saudi-backed forces were just in Nehm mountain,

just east of Sana'a. Yemeni, before doing that major attack that reached the outskirts of Marib before 2002, they have sent an initiative to Al-Irada, which is the leader of the Saudi-Bart forces and the governor of Marik. They said, look, we do want to attack you. We do want to target you.

But you can keep your weapons. You can stay the governor. You can stay in control of the area that you are in, but stop attacking us because they were close to Sanha. We want to fight the Saudi. Let us fight with the Saudi face to face. And then after that, we will talk with each other. If we didn't agree, you still have your weapons,

and I still have my weapons. You still have your position, your land. And I still have my, it's not that we're going to force him through negotiation. He refused that. What happened? Yemeni armed forces have declared that was at war before the truth. An operation called Albanyan al-Marsus. I don't know how to translate it in English. And they took, they advanced until they reached the outskirts of Marib.

Marib is 14 area district or 14 directory. It contained 14 directory. Yemeni armed forces before 2022, they have liberal. they are in control of 12. What's left is only Marib City and as well the so-called the desert or the wadi district. Only those two. But all the population and most of the population of that two directory is in Marib. So it's kind like Mokka in the west coast and you have Moka, the city. It's exactly the same like Marip. Here we are controlled all the west coast and then We came around the Moka and then it took only a few minutes. It's exactly with Marek. We are in control of most of the populated and most important area and mountains around Mareb is only the city that's left. And I believe that Mareb will be exactly like Mareb, like Mouka, and it could be as well easier.

Because the fighter that they are in Mareb, they are not from Mareb. They are not from the tribal areas, either the 12 directives in the hand of Sana'a or the other two. Most of them, they are from outside and they belong to the Muslim Brotherhood because Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi-Baks forces has been defeated from many areas from Yemen. They all went there. Even those who had run away from Moka, they can be there. So either the people in Marif they are not happy with that. And I'm talking about Marib province, not Marip City, which is still under the control of the Saudi-backed forces.

All the Married people there, they are not happy with that because those, they go. considered them as foreign fighter. You come to my city to fight because they pay you. That's why I think at one point that Maribit will be easy and they were run away as exactly as they did before. As long as there is no cover from Saudi Arabia by airstrike, even though Saudi Arabia is trying, but we determine that or like kind of stop them back.

I don't think that they will be, the entire region will be Yemen will be liberated. And the same initiative, the same initiative has been bought just weeks ago before entering Moka or liberating the coast. This initiative was put it to Marib and to Muka and two months ago before the fight start. Look, look what Sana is doing before the fight start. They asked Tariq Salih, and they said, keep your weapons, stay in your area, don't hand us any weapons. Let us fight with the Saudi face-to-face. Don't stab us in the back.

We don't want to kill Yemeni to kill Yemeni. Will you agree for that? He said, no, I am with the Saudi-led coalition. I will do whatever they say. And he started receiving weapons. This was after the attack against the airport. And he didn't stop receiving weapons and like target with those drones that they have. So I think at that point Yemen has decided because if we didn't do so, this means that Saudi

at one point and Saudi were waiting for the United States to end the war with Iran or to have a truce. they will come to us. And Saudi was waiting for the United States and for Trump because what those United States and the Zionists has been doing, they've been singling out the axis of resistance country by country. Start with Gaza. And then when they're done with Gaza,

we remember Hezbollah was launching missiles against Israel, but Israel response was limited because they were busy with Gaza. As soon as they finished with Gaza, I mean, the resistance still exists. But I mean, yeah, you know what I mean. They went to Hezbollah and focused all the attacking on Hezbollah.

As soon as they finished, was Syria through the terrorists, the one that Jolani, he was in the list for 10 million, and now he's the president. And when they end with Syria, they went to Iran. Just imagine Iran has a clouthing attack in support of Gaza, let's say that Israel think that, okay, like Yemen did. So it was coming to Yemen. That's why Yemen, even though Saudi has broke, this is why Yemen, have decided the best way to defense. is to attack. Does, if Saudi Arabia doesn't end this war, do they face any risks when it comes to their own territory?

Because they don't seem to be able to defend anything at this point. Yeah, I mean, I spoke with this in an interview yesterday. It's done viral in YouTube. It wasn't like an Arabic kind of Arabic channel. And because I'm, I mean, I'm not, I don't represent. answer, that's why I can speak my mind more. So I'm not, but what I think that Yemen have different stage against the Saudis.

First of all, we said blockade against blockade, our airport against our airport. We still now, we are not targeting civilian airports in Saudi Arabia. If they target Sanai Airport, you're targeting. We are not targeting civilian airports. port only when they target Udayda. But now we focus on the air bases of the Saudi and as well Aramco facility. And even when we target Aramco facility, maybe two weeks ago in south of Saudi Arabia, why we did that. Saudi has been launching strikes against Yemen, and here in Yemen, Yemen, army armed forces,

haven't announced any of the strike because they were in the battlefield. They said, okay, they are not affecting our advance, even when they were advancing on Mokka. We will ignore it. We do want to make it all out war. What the Saudi did, they have targeted a prison in Al Jof, killing dozens, including women and children, and they targeted during the visiting hour. That's why when Yemen have targeted a Ramqu facility,

just imagine Saudi has launched 120 airstrike at that time in two days. Yemeni didn't attack. But when they launched attack against the prison, Yemeni had to take a stand. Otherwise, I mean, people here maybe will rise up against him. I mean, why they target Aramco in Jaisan, in Najran, and in Aseid, in Abha, and in Najran.

So this is like a stage. If you target our civilians, we're not going to target your civilians and cities. We will target Aramco. And the second stage, I mean, it will be all Aramcoe across Saudi Arabia, because our blood is not, is more important to us than the Saudi oil.

That was at the beginning, Saudi thought that they could shed the Yemeni blood. And another stage will come. It's like to target all their airports and ports. It doesn't matter civilian or military. And as well, the water plant. I believe that me, if I was the commander of the Yemeni armed force, I will have this plan. I mean, if we see that there is a great aggression against Yemen or that the Saudi,

like let's say, is winning and things. like that and destroying Yemen infrastructure as they did in the last 10 years in 2015, we will exactly target. But that we will leave it at the end because we do want to affect civilians in Saudi Arabia. I mean, they will die from thirst. But about the border, Yemeni still have this solution. But if they enter Najan and Jaisan and Aasir, this means we will not. come out of it, even if the Saudi backed of it, and even if they say we will draw from all Yemen,

we will stop what you want, any demand you want, we will agree. What we will say that time, if I want the command of, insin-law, or the Ameri-Alan, I will say the command of today is not like the demand of yesterday. The demand of today is not like the demand of after Moka, because Yemenis, maybe all of them, will say 99% of Yemen, still consider Najran and Jaisan and Asir as a province that belonged to Yemen. And they were taken by the Saudi in the 30s or the 20s

from our imam at that time, it's like the king. They took it because they got support from the United Kingdom when the United Kingdom has bombed Houda and they had mercenary and Yemenis like Saudi have now. And Houdeda was the only lifeline for Yemen. And at that time, they had an agreement. that the United Kingdom will and the mercenial will draw from areas in Houda and will stop

Houda, and Yemen will give those through province to Saudi Arabia, but they signed an agreement called a Taif, a Taif agreement, is the same name, the agreement that signed for the Lebanese in Saudi. I don't know why they call it all at Taif, I mean, it looks like that we are short of names. So, yeah, so, and in that agreement, that the Saudi will, and the agreement, and the agreement Imam did the agreement because at that time he was weak. But he did an agreement that that agreement still say that this is our land. And this means that if by one, he gave like to any president in the future or any king, if Yemen at one point will be strong, they can take it and they have

the right to take it because he knows that Saudi will not fulfill the agreement. And in the agreements, Yemeni could go to Saudi Arabia using their ID. They don't know. They don't any visa, he will treat Yemeni as he treated the Saudis. Look, look, the Imam at that time, he had a vision. He knows Saudi, he knows that the oil, that people, and as well, that Saudi Arabia will not interfere in Yemeni business, will not attack Yemen, will not target Yemen, will not support any group, and they were not even tried to make other country or threaten us through other country. This is the agreement was. So Saudi have actually, since the Republic has raised up in Yemen in 1962, the revolution against Imam, Saudi Arabia has been interfering in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, as well, lately in the last maybe 30-40 years, has been treating Yemenis. They're really bad. And Saudi, and on the top of that, they have launched a coalition, war and aggression against Yemen, launching more than 300,000 air strike, declaring that coalition from Washington through the Saudi ambassador al-Jubair is the first war you declared against your neighbor from another country, killing directly by airstrike, maybe 20,000 Yemeni civilians, and about 400, between 300 to 400,000 Yemeni civilians have died because of the blockade. Severe malnutrition, malnutrition, lack of water, prevent. disease at the United Nations have saved, cholera, malaria.

So all that, that's why Yemen, if you see, they're always focusing on the blockade. The blockade is killing more Yemenis and the closure of the airport, then the direct air strike. So that's why the Saudi border, if Yemen will go inside those areas, I'm sure they will not withdraw. Why? Because if they withdraw, they will bear the shame for all. our generation, maybe till till the judgment day, that look, at one point we were strong and that agreement that was signed and now is in our favor that we can say the Saudi that they have broke it, and now you answer, you have gone inside and you controlled and you are stronger and you have left it. But this actually will be the last solution and this show you how good

our government here and our leadership. What we are asking now the Saudi, we are not asking need to withdraw from Najjaran and Jaisal and Asir. We are asking them to withdraw from Yemen to stop killing Yemenis and we will have peace with them. And Yemeni here in Sama, especially our leader, Sayyad Abdul-Malek, if he sign an agreement, even with the devil, like with the United States, when we stop attacking the United States, and they stopped attacking us. It wasn't like there was an agreement, but it was Yemen demand, stop attacking us and we will stop attacking you.

Of course, Trump has made it like that he won. He said at the beginning when he launched attack, he said, it was, it was a government, said, I will not stop unless they stop targeting our ship and our allies ship. But when we have agreed not to target each other, he said, I defeated the Houthi. They can beg into me, we'll stop, and we're going to stop targeting them, and they will stop targeting our ship. He hasn't mentioned about their allieship, and whose other allies is Israel. So look, even with that, we have respected that.

It is in our religion. We know that if you lie or if you don't respect an agreement, God will punish you. How can I punish you? He makes you lose the next battle. And even with the attack against Iran, with the attack against Iran and Yemen has not. And they always say Yemen is like linked and they are in the Cuban command from Iran. I mean, Yemen could actually block the Ritzis when Iran was under attack in the 12 days of war or as well now. before, but they waited till Saudi has broke that cease fire.

And what's the funny thing I mean? I had many interviews in the last two days. And the first question, why you are targeting Saudi ship as soon as you seized the Babelmandam straight? They totally forgot that Yemen has a target Saudi oil tanker two months ago, even before they reached the cost of Babelmandem. Yemen has been targeting Israeli ships through the genocide. So we do need to be at the coast to block the Red Sea. We were blocking the Red Sea.

We were targeting ship in far north of the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Eden and the Arabian Sea. But the main thing about controlling that area is to liberate Yemen and this is actually the largest. So they say, why don't you target American ship now? Why don't you target Israeli ship at this point? But look, look, how hypocrites are those. media outlet. When we were targeting Israel and United States, we only targeted and British only when they launched the prosperity garden. When we're targeting those ships to help our brother and sister in Gaza to stop the genocide, to do something that we can and demand them to stop

the killing, all these countries, they will tell us why and they condemn us and they say as piracy why we are targeting those ship in the sea. But now, when we are targeted, not targeting, They say why? Why don't you target and let American ship to go through through through, through, through, this actually show you who we are fighting. Just one final thing. And maybe it's going to make you laugh. During the war before the truth, 2022, when Yemen was launched an attack against United Arab Emirates

or against United Arab Emirates backed forces in south of Yemen. At that time, the disagreement between Saudi and the Arab Emirates start to like to show up on. When you target the Arab Emirate and the back forces in Yemen, Saudi and the Saudi backed forces in Mareb and other area, they will celebrate in that. When we were targeting Saudi Arabia and targeting Saudi back forces in Yemen, United Arab Emirate backed forces and United Arab Emirates themselves, they were celebrating that. But when we target the Zionist ship and we were fighting the prosperity guardian for the Palestinian people to lift the attack, to lift the blockade against Palestine, to help the Palestinian people. and we were the only country to do so targeting ships and United States battleship since World War II. All those countries were against us.

All those back forces were condemning us. It's all about Zion State of Israel. If you are good with them, no one will attack you. You will be fine, like United Arab Emirate or like Saudi. So show you this show everyone who's watching who are fighting. It's okay for United Arab Emirates and their back forces that we kill other Yemeni that's loyal to Saudi or kill Saudi and the opposite as well for those side to kill those sides. But when we try to stop the genocide and attack Israel, they're all

against that. I also wanted to ask you before you go about the 73 UN aid workers that have been detained by Ansar al-A. My understanding is that as a result, humanitarian access to humanitarian aid has gone significantly down you know the u.n and other aid agencies are nervous about you know sending aid workers in why are they why are they still detained it's not only obviously you know an international incident but also just from an ethical perspective what why yeah yeah i know i know i mean i've been speaking to saraharan i said if there's anyone like who you don't have any like a solid proof that he's like what spine was something like that.

You should release him because to be honest, it just is damaging the reputation more than than seldom our cause to liberate Yemen. But if you look, why did that happen? I mean, it's not that I'm giving like excuse of our government here, but it happened after the attack that have killed our entire government. Right. And the area that the aid worker used to work is near that area where it was targeted. It was like a secret meeting and things like that.

And just imagine. So there is this kind of reason. And it's not only the U.S. UN worker. They have arrested other people in that neighborhood. So there is still people, I mean, my neighbor, as someone I know, He's with Ansarullah. He even hash me, as we say, like he's linked to the Prophet Muhammad. And he's a good friend of mine.

His brother, he was arrested. And he's considered, like from Ansarullah and others. So when it comes to the security of Yemen, they don't care. Are you with international? Are you working with this agency? But what I'm asking them, and I did as well before, like, when I meet some of them. Just if there is any process, make it quick.

You'll make it. Don't delay it. But to be honest with you, I mean, if you see, some people think that this international NGO, that it cannot be that one will be like a spy. No, it can because the United States and the Zines, they have used everything. We remember that maybe it's something like, no, not related to Yemen, but related to this incident, when they assassinated and killed the Belaideon, The United States had an idea and everybody can search, I mean, can say to anybody who are not in the stone age that you cannot find anything that I can lie and no one can find out.

Belaideon, what they did, they know the area or maybe the house and the neighborhood where Belaideon is. And they even might have thinking he lived in maybe in that compound or house. But they want to make sure because that area is inside Pakistan and to attack and kill someone is not related to Pakistan. it could make, like, be a bad reputation for the Pakistani, even though the Pakistani government, I believe it has always been a Zion government. The Pakistani people, they are free and good men. So what they did, they sent a doctor with the so-called, like,

a support and aid, an agency from outside, who do vaccination for children, that kind of vaccination, to avoid that the kids will be paralyzed. You give it to your one-month-old or two-month-old baby. So they used that and they were taking DNA because it is by mouth from all the children in that neighborhood. And Saudi, of course, they have the DNA of Belaideon from the brother or, you know, they have it. Till they made sure the exact house. And then they target Belaideon and they killed Belaideon.

What did that entire area, the tribal area, that or that city was. All the tribesmen in that area, which is north of Pakistan, they have kicked all the agency that give vaccination to children and that affected more than 100,000 children. It's because of what? Because the United States want to take B'Ladden, they have affected the life of hundreds of thousands of children in the tribal area of Pakistan.

Because those tribes, as soon as they heard, that what the United States did, they consider that agency, maybe that agency was working in the tribal area, it has nothing, and it was doing a good job. I'm not saying that they are doing it. But this is the United States. They have been using journalists. I mean, so that's why there are coaches,

but I'm sure, and I hope that they will make the process really quickly. If there is no solid evidence, you shouldn't keep anyone in prison. Yeah, it personally drives me in saying, when governments use journalists for those purposes. Because that's the last, that's the last. You're right. All the work of journalists, yeah.

Right, right. Well, Hussein, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. These are certainly interesting times indeed in Yemen. You're welcome. Thank you very much for having me. And hope to see you soon. That does it for us on today's edition of Breaking Points.

Thank you so much for tuning in. We're going to head and do the AMA now. We're going to do it live. is for everyone who wants to make Sager sad. If you've already made Sager sad, right now you have access to the AMA Live because you've signed up as Ryan instructed you to do so on a Wednesday after Ryan makes his pitches. That's right. You sign up at Breaking Points.com.

First thing you're getting is this AMA. There you go. It's huge. It's huge. And Ryan will deliver in the AMA. You will get your value. You will get your money's worth. That's good stuff.

Absolutely. All right, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in breakingpoints.com. If you want to get a premium subscription, we have a free monthly trial running right now. Otherwise, we'll see you back here with more soon. Is there an epidemic against literature? More specifically, black literature. I'm Jack Quist-Pice Thomas, and on this season of the Black Lits podcast, we're outside asking why.

They don't want a whole bunch of little elevators, Michael Rexes and Martin with the Kings running around. And when you look at a lot of different cultures, they're like, we need to know where you came from. And considering this is Black Reading Month, they don't even. real question is, what are you reading next? Listen to BlackLit from the Black Effect Podcast Network on our iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What up y'all. This your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music. Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game.

You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you as a girl. Like, you wasn't getting points. If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you string podcast. Did you think you were the only one? Like no matter what you did, it was never good enough for your mother. I'm Jennifer Arnese, and this is the Black Mother Woon podcast, where we unpack and heal from the very first relationship that shaped us. We rush to accommodate other people when we have been hurt and our hurt has not been healed. Listen to the Black Mother Wound podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcast.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.