Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-03-10 Tuesday

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, March 10, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. But everybody said the same thing. Make sure you win. We will. We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all. 47 years. As the U.S. Israeli war enters its 11th day, President Trump sending mixed messages on war. When the war on Iran will end. Overnight residents of Tehran reported experiencing some of the most intense bombardment of the war.

We'll speak to retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who serves as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the run-up in early years of the U.S. war on Iraq. We'll also look at how Gulf nations are responding as Iran continues to retaliate. Our country has been subjected to a brutal attack by a neighboring Muslim country that we consider a friend, even though we have not permitted the use of our land, airspace, or coasts for any military action against it. We've repeatedly informed them of this through our diplomatic channels. And we'll speak to investigative journalist Antonia Yuhas, whose long documented wars for oil. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. As financial markets were tanking, President Trump told CBS news yesterday, the Iran war is, quote, very complete pretty much, just before the markets closed. But later in the day, Trump continued to send mixed messages about the war. In his speech to Republican lawmakers in Dural, Florida, Trump vowed to keep striking Iran's leadership. We had leaders and they're gone. that we had new leaders in their gun. And now nobody has any idea who the people are that are going to be the head of the country

and will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated. And later, at a news conference, President Trump was asked about the U.S. strike at a naval base near a girls' school that killed 175 people, most of them children. Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday.

Why are you the only person saying this? Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.

On Saturday, President Trump said he told Kurdish forces not to enter the Iran war. That's despite reports the CIA had been working to arm Kurdish forces to instigate an uprising within Iran. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Arachchi has said Iran is prepared to continue missile attacks across the region for as long as necessary and ruled out talks with the U.S. to end the war. Meanwhile, residents of Tehran report toxic air, sit covering streets and cars and balconies filled with black gunk after Israeli strikes hit the city's oil deposed Sunday in interviews with The Guardian and NBC News. Sources from inside Iran report they woke up with pain in their throats and burning eyes due to the environmental disaster. The World Health Organization's Director General Tedros Adnom Gabrizes said, quote, damage to petroleum facilities and Iran risks contaminating food, water, and air,

hazards that can have severe health impacts, especially on children, older people, and people with preexisting medical conditions, unquote. Meanwhile, in Tehran, hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied in support of the new Supreme Leader, Mojtabakhamani, who succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Hamini, assassinated by U.S. Israeli strikes on February 28th. Iran says the war has killed more than 1,255 people and injured about 10,000. CCV TV footage captured a U.S. Israeli strike near a boys' school Sunday. According to Iranian state media, a boy, Majar Zangana was killed in the strike.

On Monday, mourners gathered in Tehran for the funerals for the victims of Israeli and U.S. strikes. If a ceasefire happens, the blood of our martyrs is wasted. And in my view, a ceasefire means disrespect to all these martyrs. And honestly, it must be continued until the end. In Australia, five Iranian women's soccer players were granted humanitarian visas after they sought asylum. Iranian state television had branded the women as wartime traders for refusing to sing

Iran's national anthem. Iran fired drones towards Saudi Arabia and Kuwait early Tuesday. The Saudi Defense Ministry said it's destroyed drones over the country's oil-wit eastern region. While in Kuwait, the National Guard said it shot some drones down in Kuwait's northern and southern areas. This is Kuwait's Emir Sheikh, Michelle al-Amad al-Jabar al-Saba. Our country has been subjected to a brutal attack by a neighboring Muslim country that we can a friend, even though we have not permitted the use of our land, airspace, or coasts for any military action against it. We've repeatedly informed them of this through our diplomatic channels.

This comes as the U.S. State Department ordered American workers of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia to leave the country. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham questioned whether the United States should continue honoring its defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, because the kingdom has so far refused to join U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. In Bahrain, an air defense interceptor fell into a residential neighborhood injuring 32 civilians, including four who were in critical condition. In Turkey, NATO air defenses shot down a second Iranian ballistic missile that entered Turkey's airspace. In Lebanon, the United Nations warns nearly 700,000 people, including 200,000 children,

have been forced to flee their homes over the past week as Israel continues to bombard Lebanon. Lebanese authorities say nearly 500 people have been killed with death toll rising by around 100 a day. On Monday, Israeli airstrikes had five branches of a financial institution run by Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Oil prices fell Monday from near record highs of roughly $120 a barrel after President Trump suggested in an interview with CBS. news, the war in Iran could end very soon. Trump also called Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday to discuss the war soon after the call Trump said the U.S. would ease some oil sanctions. This comes after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would temporarily allow Russian oil sales to India, just weeks after India agreed to stop buying Russian fuel in exchange for a U.S. trade deal.

Putin said Russia is ready to supply oil and gas to Europe as the war in Iran has halted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz while seeing major damage to oil fields and refineries across the Middle East. Europe had largely stopped purchasing oil from Russia to stop funding its war on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has sent drone experts to help protect U.S. bases in Jordan with 11 countries asking Ukraine for assistance in countering Iranian strikes. Since September 2024, Ukraine has faced near daily attacks from Shahed drones originally designed in Iran, the technology later transferred to Russia, writing on X. President Zelensky also accused Russia of turning Iran strikes on U.S.

bases in the Middle East into, quote, a second front of Russia's war against Ukraine. The FBI subpoenaed records from a partisan review of more than two million ballots cast in the 2020 election in Arizona's Maricopa County, expanding President Trump's wide-ranging investigations into his election loss to Joe Biden. The request for records is related to a 2021 audit of the 2020 election carried out by the Republican-dominated Arizona State Senate, which despite the partisan nature of their view, confirmed that Joe Biden's victory was in Arizona. This follows the FBI's raid of the election office in Georgia's Fulton County in January when federal agency seized 700 boxes of ballots. Meanwhile, President Trump said Sunday he will not sign any more legislation

until Congress passes the Republican-back Save America Act, which would require voters to show passports or birth certificates to register to vote or update their voter registration information. The bill also effectively eliminates online and mail voter registration. In New Mexico, State Investigators Monday descended on a ranch formerly owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, where survivors say they were said they were abused and trafficked. The search of Epstein-Zoro Ranch came after New Mexico's Attorney General last month reopened an investigation into the property, which was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has released three FBI interview summaries relating to Donald Trump

that it previously withheld from public release and another apparent violation of the Epstein-Files Transparency Act. Justice Department officials said the documents missing from the initial release were a mistakenly coded as duplicates, but did not explain why only the three interviews that named Trump were excluded. The summaries describe interviews with the woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in the 1980s when she was 13 or 14 years old after she was introduced to Trump by Jeffrey Epstein. In Texas, newly released body camera and surveillance footage cast out on an ICE official's claims about the killing of Ruben Ray Martinez at 23. year-year-old U.S. citizen, fatally shot by a federal agent in South Padre Island as he was driving his car. The video released Friday by the Texas Department of Public Safety appears to contradict the ICE spokesperson's claims that Martinez intentionally ran over a federal officer before another

agent fired three times. The video shows Martinez was given conflicting instructions by officers from multiple agencies as he drove his car very, very, you know, very. slowly near the scene of a previous car accident. The footage does not show Martinez rapidly accelerating or appearing to run over a federal agent. The officer who killed Martinez has been identified as Homeland Security Investigations agent Jack Stevens. Last week, a Texas grand jury declined to indict Stevens in the killing of Martinez. In more immigration news, a family from McAllen, Texas that includes two teenage brothers who've won awards for their marriage music has been freed from immigration detention after a delegation of Texas Democratic lawmakers

press for their release. 18-year-old Antonio Rames-Groyer walked free from the Avayette detention center in Raymondville Monday, and later in the day as brothers, 14-year-old Caleb and 12-year-old Joshua were released, along with their parents from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, the ICE jail there. The family was detained on February 25th following a routine check. with immigration officials. They entered the U.S. in May 2023, had followed the Biden-era process of applying for asylum. Among the lawmakers who pressed for their release was Texas Democratic Congressmember Joaquin Castro. These were upstanding folks who were following the law. They were, again,

at the invitation of their congresswoman, those young men performed their mariachi music at the U.S. Capitol. And now they've been sitting here in this trailer prison, and we're waiting for them to be released so that we can help them get home. Here in New York, federal prosecutors have charged two men with terrorism after they allegedly threw two homemade bombs during a protest outside Mayor Zohanman Dhani's residence on Saturday. Neither device detonated. No one was injured, according to a criminal complaint, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kiyumi made statements in which they said ISIS had motivated their actions and that they sought to cause more damage than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Their arrest came as counter-protesters outside Gracie Mansion

clashed with supporters of white supremacist Jake Lang, a January 6th rioter pardoned by Trump infamous for organizing anti-Islam demonstrations across the U.S. In a statement, Mayor Mamdani wrote, quote, such hate has no place in New York City. It's an affront to our city's values and the unity that defines who we are. What followed was even more disturbing, violence, at a protest is never acceptable, the mayor said. And a federal judge has ruled Carrie Lake unlawfully served as head of the U.S. Agency for global media for several months last year, ordering the federal agency to reverse cuts to programs and over a thousand layoffs carried out under her direction.

Lake was appointed by President Trump without Senate confirmation in early 2025 to lead the independent federal agency, which oversees the voice of America. and helps fund Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, and other state-sponsored U.S. news agencies. Under her watch, the agency fired all contractors laid off most full-time staff and replaced original reporting with the far-right TV network, One America News Network. She also attempted to fire voice of America director Michael Abramowitz, though a federal judge last August ordered his reinstatement. And those are some of the headlines.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now. or the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now as Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The U.S. Israeli War on Iran has entered its 11th day. Its impact is being increasingly felt across the globe. Al Jazeera is reporting residents of Tehran overnight experience some of the most intense bombardment of the war.

At least 40 people were reportedly killed near the same. cities, Rissalat Square. In Lebanon, the death toll from Israel's attacks are nearing 500, about 700,000 residents have been displaced. Earlier today, Iran reportedly fired drones towards Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates, where a large fire broke out, industrial area, home to petrochemical plants. A suspected Iranian missile also hit a residential building in the capital of Bahrain, killing one person and injuring eight others. On Monday, the Pentagon posted online a photo of a missile with the words no mercy superimposed on it. An accompanying message read, we have only

just begun to fight. But soon after Trump told CBS News, quote, I think the war is very complete, pretty much, he said. Trump's CBS interview led oil prices to drop and for global stocks to quickly rise. But after the Wall Street markets closed, Trump told Republicans in Florida, the U.S. hasn't, quote, won enough. At a news conference on Monday night, ABC news reporter Selena Wang questioned Trump about the conflicting messages. Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it? And how long should Americans be prepared? Well, I think it could say it both. The beginning. It's the beginning of building a new country.

They certainly, they have no Navy, they have no Air Force. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. It's all been blown up. They have no radar. They have no telecommunications. And they have no leadership. It's all gone. So, you know, you could look at that statement.

We could call it a tremendous success right now, as we leave here. I could call it. Or we could go further. And we're going to go further. But the, The big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out in the first two days. On Monday, President Trump said he had a good call with Russian President Vladimir Putin,

who reportedly proposed a, quote, quick political and diplomatic end to the Iranian conflict, unquote. We begin today's show with retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the run-up in early years of the U.S. war on Iraq. He's taught national security affairs at both George Washington University and the College of William and Mary. Colonel Wilkerson, welcome back to Democracy Now. Can you respond to what has taken place over this last 11 days, starting with the diplomatic talks in Geneva between Iran and the United States? And as those talks were just wrapping up, U.S. and Israel attacked Iran and killed the Supreme Leader there. Your response?

Yes, and Amy, for the second time. we violated international law in that respect and just common human decency. And your comments at the opening of the show were spot on, but not nearly broad and deep enough. I come from an administration of George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney that committed war crimes. War crimes that Colin Powell and his lawyer Will Taff and I agonized over in trying to present some message to the American people about them. This administration has committed more war crimes in the last few days than I think any country sits out of Hitler committed. And that is an incredible condemnation of this entire process.

We have bombed civilians relentlessly. We have bombed a school. We have bombed a hospital. We have struck facilities in the nature of Iran's oil capacity that is now putting black poison all over 10 plus million people. And we are essentially not bombing ballistic missile sites and bombing war material. We're bombing people. We took a lesson from the IDF, if you will. We are bombing people, as incidentally they are still doing in Gaza and doing now in Lebanon to a fairly well. These are all war crimes. And one wishes with fond hope that someday we might be called before,

for the bar of justice and have to account for these war crimes. And what you just talked about is a crime also in the eyes of international relations and people who want to keep decent international relations ongoing in the world. We're destroying that. And on top of all of that, and this is the real serious problem here for America. Trump and HECF and Rubio and the other entourage of their national security complex have completely misjudged the nature of this war, as has to a certain extent,

Mibi Netanyahu. This is a country as big as Western Europe, with 93 million people, probably 90 million of whom will fight us to the bitter death, who live in terrain that almost killed Alexander the Great. It is entirely inhospitable to military operations, and Trump is talking about, actually talking about putting ground forces there,

and the only way he will be able to claim any nature of victory is to do that. Only that will be the end of the empire's presence in the Levant and the Middle East in general because we will not be able to sustain that economically, physically. We do not have the soldiers or Marines to do that, but that's what he's talking about. This is pure nonsense. There was a column in Haharet's yesterday, and the title of the column essentially, was Trump will chicken out in this war, too. I'm sorry. He's not going to chicken out necessarily. That might be the tone intent he puts to it. He's going to be defeated, as are we?

Colonel, I wanted to ask you, we played that clip with Trump talking about all the damage that Iran has sustained, but there's been very little acknowledgement by the U.S. military or the White House to the enormous damage that has occurred to the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East for decades. All of these bases and a radar, a multi-billion dollar radar were established throughout the region. And what's your understanding of the nature of the damage that has occurred to all of these bases, not just among the Gulf states, but also even in Iraq and and other places of the Middle East. Yeah, that damage is enormous.

And I think what you're witnessing right now is the initial steps of the empire, the American empires, retreat from the Levant and the Middle East in general. I don't think we're going to be able to sustain our presence there after what's going to happen here, particularly if we stay at this for a long time and really do take significant casualties. We're already taking more casualties than people. know about because the media is not being apprised of them. Yes, we had the ceremony at Dover, but there are people getting ready at Lonezstool, our throughput hospital in Germany right now, to accept multiple casualties coming in. They've stopped their civilian service and so forth

at that hospital. And other things are being geared up too, like Walter Reed. I don't think they have even a modicum of appreciation of what kind of casualties are going to result, especially if we put ground forces into Iran, and that is the only way, unless he just lies completely about it, that Trump is going to be able to assert any kind of real force with regard to this population. And to your point, in Bahrain, they have taken out billions of dollars worth of U.S. radar and equipment, including the vertical missile loading cranes. So now ships have to go all the way to Diego Garcita, Diego Garcia to load these weapons.

They have essentially obliterated our capacity to carry out combat actions from a number of places in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Now, Rudid is actually under threat now, too. And this is all part of the warp and woof of our ability to carry out combat operations in the region. I'm not even sure our biggest facility for passing on troops, a throughput facility that we used in both Iraq wars, is in Kuwait. I'm not even sure that that's up now and able to do anything. So how would you even get Marines or soldiers, God forbid, into Iran? That's a huge problem.

They will sink the ships that are coming to deposit those troops wherever they're coming. We have not really damaged their ballistic missile capability. And the media blackout on Israel is keeping the American people from seeing the enormous degree of destruction to Israel, the latest component of which was a repose to Israel's having struck their oil facilities on Haifa, their oil facility port. And Haifa is being taken down much the way Elot was taken down by the Houthis, the Al-An Tsar in the Red Sea, when we failed to be able to reopen the Red Sea. And that's the next step. The Bab el-Mandeb will be closed once the Houthis have gotten into action full-time again. And 60% of the world's commerce passes through the Red Sea. It's not oil and gas exclusively.

It's all manner of things, food stuff, commodities and such. So this is a war with long legs. Trump has completely misinterpreted it. The only one who's interpreted it correctly is Bebeinat-Diahu, and I think he's ready to use a nuclear weapon. should it become as bad as it looks like it might right now, because Iran has not even began to shoot its most sophisticated missiles. And now the second and third class of those missiles is getting through almost without opposition.

Imagine what these mock three, mock four missiles with huge warheads that have maybe a hundred different other warheads they display all across an area are going to do to Israel once they're fired. and they're still there and they're still ready to fire. And, Colonel, I wanted to ask you, you mentioned the media coverage of what is going on in Israel. It has been amazing to me that all of the major U.S. media are based in Israel, in Tel Aviv. Yet we are seeing the least amount of coverage of what is going on within Israel. I want to quote from a piece, an online piece, that CNN and reporter, Orrin Leibem and Post, earlier this week. And he wrote, and I'm quoting, every reporter in Israel and every member of the public is subject to a military sensor. On national security grounds and regulation authorizes

the sensor to prohibit reporting or broadcasting any material that would reveal sensitive information or pose a threat to the country's security interest. And he goes on to say, this is particularly sensitive during wartime where the military sensor has made clear that broadcasting any images that reveal the location of interceptor missiles or military sites hit by enemy projectiles is forbidden, especially in live broadcast. Now, they say this on their website, but they never mention this on air. And none of the networks are mentioning on air that they are strictly prohibited from showing any actual real damage. I'm wondering your sense of the responsibility of the U.S. media,

especially since they're always showing us the results of the plumes rising in Abu Dhabi or in Saudi Arabia or even in Iran, but not the direct hits that are occurring within Israel. I'll tell you what I told the senior editor to the Washington Post recently. I think it's abominable the lies that the American mainstream media, both video and print, is telling the American people. and they're putting us in jeopardy in a real substantive sense because the American people have no way of judging just how foolhardy, how stupid, how unwise,

how violative of international dictum and rule this war is. And when it gets to the point, I think this is the end of the Trump presidency, actually, because when it gets to the point where the pressure is so great and some of this has to come out and casualties are manifest, then the American people are going to ask really important questions. Why did you lie to us? Why did you tell us what you were telling us? Why did you start this war of choice? Iran was no threat to the United States of America whatsoever. Did you go to war for Israel? We have heard you went to war for Israel. These are questions that are

finally going to get out there in the hustings and going to have to be answered by someone, probably your local congressman, the supine body that has done nothing to check this president, particularly in the war power. And we haven't even talked about that. This is a complete violation of the Constitution of the United States. Just as Kofi Annan said about the 2003 Iraq War, it's an illegal war. And he went on to say it was a violation of our own constitution. And he was absolutely right, but this pales or that pales in comparison with what Trump is doing right now and what he is going to probably have to do in order to seem to correct his errors. And I'm truly worried that this destruction of Israel is going to reach a point.

I listened to Netanyahu recently speaking in Hebrew to his clan, to his group, Ben-Givir, Smotrich, and others like that. And at the end of his remarks in Hebrew, which was translated for me very reliably, I think, he essentially said that if it went south, if it went bad, he was prepared to show the Iranians something they had never seen before. I think he meant a nuclear weapon. And I go back to 1973 when Golda Mayer told a BBC reporter, you can check. It was printed in London the next day on the front page that she would use a nuclear weapon. response to his question, would you use a nuclear weapon? Because at that time, they were pretty

hard pressed in the 73 war. And she said, yes, without equivocation. I think we're back at that point again, and for probably a far more dangerous situation. I know you have to go, Colonel Wilkerson, but I just want to point out you were the former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell who dragged his feet on supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. But, over the ultimately gave that speech that he would call a stain on his career at the U.N. It was critical for Bush. President Bush that it was Colin Powell gave this speech because he was seen as the reluctant warrior.

And he gave that speech saying there was evidence of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. Can you make a parallel to what we're seeing today? I can, but I think this is far greater a travesty and a tragedy. That was bad enough. torture was the thing that broke my back, and ultimately it sort of broke Colin Powell's back, too, because we realized that we had signed up not only to a war that was not necessary, we had signed up to a president of the United States for the first time in the nation's history,

making public policy torture. Other human beings being tortured was made presidential public policy. This is far worse, I think, and it's been building for some time. It's been building all since Trump was elected and actually since his first administration. And I think it makes what we did not to discount it, but it makes it pale by comparison. And it makes me deeply concerned about the future of this republic. I want to thank you so much for being with us. Lawrence Wilkerson, retired Army colonel, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005.

Coming up, we look at how the Gulf nations are responding to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the conflicting statements President Trump makes throughout the day. Then we talk about wars for oil with Antonio Yuhas. Stay with us. Mass killings and mass graves. Globalization of slaves. Genocide and extinction. All the functions.

of civilization mass killings and mass graves globalization of slaves genocide and extinction of the functions of civilization yes you know that the war will never be over because war is our bread and butter

we've been living a lie that there's no place or any other creature that is now we're getting to the root of the takers start The taker story by Chicano Batman, performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. As we continue our coverage of the U.S. Israeli war in Iran, we turn now to look at how Gulf nations are responding. Earlier today, Iran reportedly fired drones towards Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates,

where a large fire broke out an industrial area home to petrochemical plants. A suspected Iranian missile also hit a residential building in the capital of Bahrain, killing one person, injuring eight others. We go now to Kareem, Middle East editor for New Lines magazine. His recent piece is headlined, The Gulf Fears Whoever Wins This War. grew up in Dubai, joining us now from Montreal. Why don't you explain that headline? The Gulf fears whoever wins this war, Kareem. Thank you for having me, first of all. I think whether, if we're looking at these different scenarios of how this war ends, first of all, we can see a scenario where the Iranian regime survives in the guise of Mujah Bhamanai, the son of the former Ayatollah,

which will persist in its policies towards the Gulf. Only now it realizes that it can sway American policy, that it can expand its target lists in the Gulf from what everyone expected it to be, which was American military bases, to various economic assets, to various diplomatic assets, embassies, consulates, to energy infrastructure, to desalination plants,

to the broader way of life in the Gulf that has, for the past few decades, right to market itself as this haven for people from the region and for expatriates from the west to come and work and do business and live their life in isolation almost in a silo from all the instability and chaos that's been going on in the Middle East for the past few years and for the past few decades and where you can be peaceful and multicultural societies. And that's what Iran ultimately targeted through its extensive barrages and missiles and own strikes that have taken place all across the Gulf. Only now, it's going to be this

glowering Iran that has managed to survive this American and Israeli onslaught, knows that it can target all of these different assets belonging to the Gulf and not really face any major consequences and be able to sway American policy with it. Now, on the other hand, if Israel is the one that emerges victorious out of this conflict and the U.S. emerges victorious as well, unlikely as it may be in the case of regime change. We've never seen regime change in the region without a ground invasion without ground troops. And based on Donald Trump's comments yesterday, the U.S. doesn't seem to have the appetite for that sort of invasion. But if Israel does win and the Iranian regime and the system overall gets obliterated, then Israel emerges as the hegemon in the region. And Israel has proven over the past few years that it does not mind. deploying force and an aerial power to achieve its political objectives in the region against its enemies, first and foremost. But if these conflicts continue to persist and Israel continues to seek out enemies in the region to neutralize, whether that's Iran today and perhaps

Turkey tomorrow, it's shown that it's willing to deploy its enormous military power and force with the U.S. cheering in the background to carry out these objectives. And I don't think that the Gulf states would like to replace one hegemon with another. But for now, they're focused on the regional power that has been bombing their energy infrastructure that has been bombing their real estate that has been bombing, you know, civilians. And they're trying to sort of focus on minimizing the risk there, which is why all of the messaging that has been coming. out of the Gulf has been, we are not involved in this war. We will defend ourselves if we have to,

but we are not involved in this war. We're not giving over our airspace and bases over to the Americans to launch attacks on Iran. We want nothing to do with this. And obviously, they lobbied the U.S. prior to the conflict predicting that this is exactly what would happen if the U.S. was to bomb Iran. And we're seeing all these scenarios play out right now. But what the end point is, Obviously, nobody knows. Only Donald Trump knows. But we'll get to that eventually. But whichever scenario emerges out of this, whether it's an ascendant Iran that is very confident in its ability to strike at its neighbors with very little consequence, or if it's in Israel

that's empowered by the absence of any regional rivals that can compete with it or that can push back against its objectives in the region. In either scenario, I don't think that the Gulf states will be happy with the outcome. But, Karim, I wanted to ask you about a little further on this issue of where the Gulf states will land after the conflict. Everything that was happening before this indicated that especially in the wake of the so-called Abraham Accords, that the Gulf states were trying to maneuver in a way to reconcile with Israel and be able to continue to conduct business in the region. But I was struck especially by this open letter that one of the billionaire CEO is the chairman of Al-Haptur group in the UAE, Kalaf al-Haptur posted publicly this past week where he direct open letter to President Trump.

And he wrote, I quote, who gave you the authority to drag our region into a war with Iran? And on what basis did you make this dangerous decision? Did you calculate the collateral damage before pulling the trigger? And did you consider that the first to suffer from this escalation will be the countries of the region itself? So clearly, it seems that many people within the Gulf states are now questioning to what degree they expose themselves by being so close to the United States and allowing all of these bases to be put on their soil in terms of this now developing conflict. I'm wondering your thoughts on that. Correct, yes. I mean, the entire security arrangement in the Gulf was based on the U.S. security architecture,

that America was going to protect all these Gulf countries from Iran in the event of a conflict. This scenario of missiles reining on Gulf cities has been envisioned, obviously, for a very long time, and they've been trying to create some sort of precautionary measures against it. the UAE in particular has been the target of the vast majority of Iran's missile missile capabilities outside of Israel. They've had to intercept so many drones and missiles using American provided systems, you know, Fad and Patriot as well as some locally developed systems in order to protect themselves.

But the reality that they're realizing right now is that it's this American security architecture that is the cause of the instability. that is the cause of the war that I started and that they've lobbied so hard against. Khalaf al-Hattur, the businessman you're referring to, he's one of the icons of Dubai's real estate. He was one of the people who truly built the modern city of Dubai, one of its chief architects. It's incredibly close to the ruling families in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And so you oftentimes expect that these sorts of messages that come out of these prominent figures, public figures, tend to be proxies of what the governments and the people who actually

wield power in these countries, the messages that they want to deliver to the U.S., but, you know, without the directness of leader-to-leaders statements. They obviously have to, you know, maintain a cordial relationship with the American president, no matter who it is, because that's what their security depends on. But ultimately, What they're realizing is that this security architecture itself has, in fact, brought this war upon them. Now, this does not say that Iran is not at fault. These Gulf countries feel immensely betrayed by what Iran has been doing, particularly, you know, countries of Qatar, which has had the strong diplomatic relations with the Iranians. They've, in fact, you know, suffered isolation from other Gulf countries because of this, this close relationship.

Qatar has mediated the end of conflicts between Iran and the U.S. in the past. And during the previous war in June last year, Qatar got bombed while it was in the middle of negotiating a truce between the U.S. and Iran. And they continued to, they were very angry about it, obviously, but they continued to negotiate in good faith, and they continued to try and bring peace to the region. But in the meantime, this security architecture is itself the cause of instability and the cause of danger for these Gulf states. They've tried very hard to push back and to lobby against the U.S. involvement in this war, which nobody's entirely clear as to the rationale behind doing it in the first place. But yeah, over the past few years, the Abraham Accords suffered the major setback with the war on Gaza and with the destruction of the Palestinian people there. And that has made it incredibly unpalatable for a country like Saudi Arabia, which had a lot of interest in pursuing peace with Israel, to do so, given the immense public distaste and anger at the violence that was taking place in Gaza.

And now, Karim, I wanted to ask you one other thing. There's been a lot of a focus on, obviously, the shutdown of oil transport through the Strait of her moves. but I wanted to ask you about another aspect of this war that has not gotten much attention, is that the Strait of Hormuz is also the pathway through which an enormous portion of undersea cables for the communications and the Internet worldwide between Europe and Asia pass through. Have you looked into or could you give us some thoughts on the danger pose in terms of worldwide communication? if these cables are cut as a result of continuing conflict in that part of the world? Yes, I mean, the Iranians have not indicated that was something that they're aiming to do,

but obviously the issue is oftentimes not the immediate conflict itself. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz before many times, and they've said that they would provide unlimited access to it to any country that evicts American and Israeli diplomats, obviously not going to happen. But the Iranians have threatened this many times in the past. The key component is whether there are any indications that the war is about to end, in which case these issues with oil prices and with potential communication challenges are going to disappear. As we saw yesterday, as soon as Trump indicated that the war may be a short excursion as he described it, immediately the oil prices went down by a significant amount that that

regained some of its losses. And that's ultimately what seems to be moving the American president is this realization that the markets are responding to the war in a negative way. From the Iranian side, communication has been cut off for most people on the ground for a very long time. We've been trying through our Iranian correspondents who have been writing about the conflict and trying to talk to people on the ground is that there's very limited communication, very limited coverage. It's very difficult to get a hold of people there and actually be able to

tell the stories about the humanitarian suffering that they're going through. And at the same time, on the Gulf side, there's these constant attacks against energy infrastructure over there, including desalination plants, which have been critical to providing water and to, you know, fresh, portable water to the local populations. And the deliberate targeting of those facilities is in and of itself a war crime. So I think in terms of the Strait of Hormuz specifically, ultimately what's going to happen is that Iran, nor the Gulf states, nor the U.S., nor any of the countries in the region, actually have an interest in maintaining closure for a very long time. And as soon as there are indications that the war is about to be over, this will not pose a problem. Very quickly. I wanted to ask you about this changing response to the killing of over 100 girls, 175 girls at the girls' schools at the girls' schools. in southern Iran. Trump continuing to deny the U.S. carried out the strike last week.

Most of the victims were children. Multiple investigations found direct video evidence, contradicting Trump's claims, video shows a U.S. Tomok missile, striking the school, which is located near a naval base. I want to go to the news conference on Saturday, Trump and Defense Secretary Peter Hague Seth held on the plane when they were asked by reporters aboard Air Force one about the girls' school strike. Did the United States bomb a girls' elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people? Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran. Is that true, Mr. Higgs?

It was Iran who did that? We're certainly investigating. But the only side that targets civilians is Iran. We think it was done by Iran. So Trump says it was inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. So Trump says it was Iran.

Then he's asked again about the strike on the girls' school Monday. Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got his hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that

when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this? Because I just don't know enough about it. it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation, but tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report. So, Kareem, New Lines Magazine has published investigations into the strike on the girls' school,

as well as a separate strike on Iranian emergency medical base in Shiraz that killed 20 people. In the last two minutes we have left, can you talk about both? And President Trump first saying it was Iran and now saying he can live with it if it wasn't. Yeah, it's nonsense. I mean, we were among the first to investigate the initial strike on the school and we showed that there was no evidence that Iran could have actually carried out the strike based on the available open source evidence. In the second strike, it was a clear case of bad targeting. they, instead of striking a revolutionary guard base that was about 200 meters away and was quite large, they said struck an EMT center, center for first responders and killed between 20 and 30 civilians and first responders.

So, and this is a, this is a base that has existed and has been known publicly that it exists for the past seven years. So it's clear there are problems with the targeting protocols with that process. And they're failing at protecting civilians. is not even to talk, and this is not even to mention these strikes on the oil facilities that are now poisoning, you know, millions of people who live in Tehran. So it's clear that the Donald Trump is just trying to evade responsibility for this. And I think, you know, your previous guest was talking about the failures leading up to the Iraq war. I was, you know, I grew up in the lead up to the Iraq war and I remembered very well and I'm going crazy watching everything that's going on right now.

But it's really important for the media to also avoid the same failures of the Iraq war. the political class went through, which is to take the words of people like Donald Trump, who are clearly lying at face value and to just simply go with it and publish it as though it's just the other side of the story. We need to be constantly doing the sort of work that we've been doing by conducting open source investigations by verifying these claims and proving to the American people and to audiences around the world what is actually happening through these factual investigations. just because Trump said it doesn't make it true.

Karim Shaheen, Middle East editor for Newlines Magazine, will link to your piece, the Gulf Fears Whoever Wins This War and the other investigations of New Lines. Coming up, investigative journalist Antonio Yuhas, long documented wars for oil in 15 seconds. Side must get in that for the entire universe. And if what you do don't want for us, we'll turn you into dust. You savages are wild.

Chikano Batman in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Fear is mounting over the fate of worldwide energy markets and the global economy as oil prices on Monday soared to nearly 100. $20 per barrel due to the U.S. Israeli war on Iran before dropping. Iranian officials have said no oil would be allowed out of the Middle East until the bombardment ceased, with President Trump Monday threatening to hit Iran, quote, 20 times harder

if it continues to block the passage of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. An interview with CBS yesterday, Trump said he's also considering taking over the strait. During a news conference earlier today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made similar threats, saying Iran would be attacked, quote, harder than ever, unquote, if it continues to disrupt the flow of oil through the state of Hormuz. Iran has retaliated by targeting energy, infrastructure, and U.S. military bases across Gulf nations. For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by Antonio U.S., independent investigative journalist, regular Rolling Stone politics reporter author of several books on fossil fuel industry, including the Bush agenda and the tyranny of oil. Antonio, you have long reported on wars for oil. Talk about what's happening here. And it doesn't just involve the Gulf. It involves China. It involves oil in Russia and more. Thank you, Amy. And thank you, Juan. It's good to be with you. I think what we're seeing is just one of the clearest depictions yet of the frailty of a global order that is grounded in fossil fuels. All sides in this war are using fossil fuels.

as a weapon of war. The Iranians are, of course, retaliating against the Israelis and the Americans by targeting energy infrastructure, by blocking the Strait of Hermuz, by saying we're going to drive up the price of oil, and we're going to try to cut off supply to make this an unbearable war for you. The Israelis, backed by the Americans, have retaliated directly targeting oil depots directly targeting oil infrastructure. It was the bombing of the oil depots in Tehran with millions of residents that has led to this sort of horrific apocalyptic reality of the bombing of the oil infrastructure, releasing plumes of toxic smoke, rain coming down through the smoke, and then carrying those toxins onto people, onto the

the environment, into soil, into water. I mean, I have been on this show many times talking about the harms and the toxicity of fossil fuels reporting from Cancer Alley in Louisiana. Canceralli got its name because of the harms associated to people who live near fossil fuel production. This is, you know, that harm on a magnified scale. And as you said in the beginning, also targeting petrochemical complexes. These are, you know, fossil fuel-based facilities as well that turn fossil fuels into petrochemicals. These are massive facilities. And of course, the entire area around Iran and in Iran is an incredibly energy-rich environment that is being targeted for its fossil fuels and fossil fuels are being used in retaliation. You know, after in the initial lead-up to

in the invasion of by Russia of Ukraine, Russia used fossil fuels as a weapon of war. in exactly the same way that Iran is doing now. It restricted the flow of product, and it attempted to drive up price and reduce supply, and it has targeted fossil fuel infrastructure throughout Ukraine, and Ukraine has actually done its best to try and target fossil fuel infrastructure in Russia. But in response to that invasion, Ukrainians initially put out a call that the world actually picked up,

which was we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels, because fossil fuels are fueling the Russians' ability to wage war and Russian's ability to use fossil fuels as a weapon. And around the world, we actually saw a response to that. We saw policies put in place to try and get off of fossil fuels. Trump aligned with Russia to immediately reverse that progress and those policies and has instead launched the United States into at least too, but we could keep counting wars or excursions, in his words, that are about and grounded in and accelerate the continued reliance on fossil fuels. We have Venezuela. We obviously have also Iran and the rest of the Middle East. And the implications are, you know, extreme. Of course,

you have the immediate human health harms, security harms in Iran throughout the Middle East from the war, from the targeting, of course, of the infrastructure. You also have the ongoing harms of what it means to have that fossil fuel pollution continue to impact soil and water and the health of people, and then, of course, our continued deep dependence on fossil fuels. Antonio, you mentioned these two military attacks all occurring this year on Venezuela with the largest proven all reserves in the world and on Iran now with the third largest reserves in the world. And so is it your sense that the Trump administration is essentially now becoming a not only an empire but an empire seeking to control a world oil supplies?

You know, I think that the two wars, military, uses of the military are not identical. Of course, Iran has long been a target of obviously the Israelis and of the Americans, and sometimes for the same reasons, and sometimes for different reasons, and sometimes for reasons that support each other, and sometimes they don't necessarily support each other. But the source of Iran's power is certainly its fossil fuels and its control of fossil fuels. And if you want to take those fossil fuels, if you're U.S. oil companies, that's a goal. 10 seconds, Antonia.

But also if you want to deflate Iran's power going after its fossil fuels is one of the key ways to do that. And that's clearly an agenda that's being advanced by this administration. Antonio, we're going to do part two of this discussion put online at DemocracyNow.org. Antonio Yuhas, independent investigative journalist, regular Rolling Stone politics reporter, will continue after the broadcast. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.