DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Boat Buddies | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Trump didn’t talk to European allies before going to war against Iran. Now he’s asking them to help him reopen the Strait of Hormuz and claims some countries have agreed. Details are sketchy. When does he call it quits?• As the Middle East war enters its third week, it’s clear that the main U.S.-Israeli war aim, regime change, will not be achieved any time soon. Meanwhile, there are reports that Mojtaba Khamenei lost one leg and was treated in Russia.• As the DHS shutdown enters its second month, are unpaid TSA workers vulnerable to being corrupted by terrorist groups?JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLEhttps://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

This episode is brought to you by Spreeker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might

someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Good morning. It's Monday, March 16th, 2026. You're watching Deep Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. How you doing? Okay, just checking out the breaking news just as we went on the air that Senate Republicans are planning a takeover of the United States Senate to try to, they're comparing the fight over the Save Act to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What a clown show.

Well, that one was about letting people vote. This one's about stopping people from voting. Anyway, we'll watch that. Obviously, we're continuing to talk about the war. war. We've got, I think the funny story is definitely the lead story. You know, Trump did not consult with America's European allies before going to war with Israel against Iran. And now he's kind of finding that shutting down the strait of war moves is going to be even too much for the U.S. military. So now, after the fact, you know, kind of like your drunken friend who picks a fight at the bar against a big dude. And now you're like elected to be part of that fight, even though you didn't want this fight. He's asking like the French and the Brits, like,

hey, will you help us, send some boats? You know, he even wants China to send some boats to the, to the Strait of Ormuz. Not going to happen. No one's going to do that, right? But he wants it. I mean, it's just like, wow. The war is now entering its third week. And it looks like both Israel and the United States are now admitting that there's not much chance of the main war, aim regime change of happening anytime soon there's reports that the new supreme leader muchaba kamini lost his leg in that bombing attack that killed his father and that he went to russia to be treated but that's sketchy and may or may not be true it's not well sourced and i had a question for you john i guess we could start with this just because i want to get it out of the way um dhs shutdown

continues. It's entering its second month. TSA workers are not getting paid, although they'll get, as you always point out, they will get paid later. Some of them are quitting, hundreds of them are quitting. There's long lines at some airports. And so I have a question, which is, from a security, national security perspective, are unpaid TSA workers a security vulnerability? In other words, are they open to possibly being bribed by a terrorist group? Like, look the other way, while we sneak something onto a plane? This is exactly what a foreign intelligence officer would be looking for, which then logically leads us to conclude this is exactly what a terrorist group would be looking for. The keyword being a vulnerability, and in this case, the vulnerability is that nobody is getting paid.

So if I give you 10,000 or 20,000, are you going to look the other way while you're sitting at the scanner? and I try to get this bomb through in my carry-on, sure. This is a problem. Would, I mean, the solution there be better paid TSA agents? Because, I mean, I find it a little bit alarming that guys are saying, I have to quit because I don't have one month's worth of salary in my savings account. I mean, if these were people who are making $150,000 a year, that wouldn't be an issue. They'd have savings.

And they could weather storms like this. But remember, the federal worker is the enemy of Americans, right? I mean, isn't that what Donald Trump said? He brought in Elon Musk and created Doge and started just firing people wantonly. Well, you know what? It comes back to bite in the ass. This is exactly what happens when you don't really care about federal workers and you don't treat them right. You know, there are lawn signs all over my neighborhood.

We support our federal workers. But I bet you those signs only appear right here in the Washington area. For sure. I've never seen one anywhere near New York City. Of course, we don't have many lawns. But John, you know, you've talked often about as an officer, money is the main inducement when you're trying to recruit someone. And, I mean, are people who are better people who are better people?

paid, this is my theory, less vulnerable to being recruited. Like if you have, if you make a good living, are you, are you more impervious or is that just not true? No, no, that is true. I mean, Aldrich Ames agreed to be debriefed extensively after he was arrested for espionage, working for first the Soviet Union and then, then the Russians. And it was all about the money. The truth was that he first decided to work for the KGB because he had $50,000 in credit card debt. His wife had, you know, champagne tastes and he couldn't afford the Birken bags and the in-ground pool and the jaguar that she insisted she had to have. And so he volunteered to provide top secret information to the KGB. And it was all downhill from there. But it's almost always about the money.

All right. So, all right. Well, I mean, yeah, I always think that if a job is important, people should be well paid. I mean, if we claim that this is an important job, why are we paying people so poorly? Yeah. Well, can I add something too before we jump into the war in Iran? This was a very bad weekend for Tucker Carlson. People are really, really beating up on Tucker Carlson like never before. And he realized in a Saturday podcast, not even a podcast, just an announcement that he made that he had been referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for working for the Iranians. Specifically, he said he referred by whom.

Well, that's the $64,000 question. Tucker said on Saturday he believed that the CIA had referred him to the Justice Department for prosecution under the Espionage Act. That turned out not to be the case because on Sunday, Laura fucking Loomer announced that she was the one that made the criminal referral

to the Justice Department accusing Tucker of committing espionage for Iran, but specifically for for neglecting to register under the FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. She said that because he exchanged emails... This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused

relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

with Iranian government officials that showed that he was committing espionage against the United States. Now, any journalist would be vulnerable. I'm going to admit to you that I got a role in this, and this is why I wanted to bring this up. An Iranian contact of mine asked me months ago, months ago, if I would introduce him to Tucker because President Pasechkian wanted to interview him. So I did. I put Tucker in charge with Pasechkian's office, and they were trying to work out an interview. They ended up having the Iranian foreign minister meet with Tucker in Muscat.

And then that was first. And then Tucker interviewed Peschkian. This was six, seven, eight months ago. So Laura Lumer says, just because he spoke with an Iranian government official means he's guilty of espionage now nothing literally nothing is going to come of this right there are dozens of of crimes reports that are filed with the justice department every single day and they ignore 99 and a half percent of them but that's not the issue there was never any chance that Tucker was going to be prosecuted the the problem is that our system is

breaking down. And in part, it's because of not just Zionists, but dangerous Zionists like Laura Lumer, that if you don't tow the Israeli line, and I mean 100% tow the line, they will actively work to ruin you. They will work to cost you money by forcing you to hire a team of attorneys. they will look to take away your freedom. Now remember, Laura Lumer is an extremist by any definition. Laura Lumer is banned for life from Uber, from Lyft, from Target, because she has committed hate crimes against Muslims and more specifically against Arabs. Now she's going after Tucker because Tucker is questioning our country's blind alliance with Israel

and our willingness to sacrifice American lives for Benjamin Netanyahu's Zionist agenda. So this is, in my view, Ted, this is the beginning of the fight. It's not the end of it. And I think that we really need to rally, not just you and me, I mean Americans need to rally around Tucker Carlson. Otherwise, the Israelis are going to control things. George Galloway made a statement yesterday saying, you know, nobody has seen Benjamin Netanyahu in two weeks. And if Benjamin Netanyahu is missing, who's running the United States? You're leaderless.

So funny. Yeah, so wait. But Laura Lumer is a nobody, right? She's an influencer. She's just some chick with an ex account. But she's welcome in the White House. And that's where the danger lies. So, yeah.

Well, and yeah, so, I mean, so this is bad. I mean, look, full cards on the table. I've gone to the Iranian mission to the United Nations and met with the Iran's ambassador to the UN. I was there to interview him and also to request a visa to Iran. Does that make me, you know, should I have be forced to register under Farah, under Laura Lumer's logic here? I mean, you know, I was afraid enough when I had my TV show with RT that I consulted an attorney.

And the attorney said, you don't have to register under Farah, but I would anyway. He said, Washington has gone so crazy and you're high enough profile that you're going to come to somebody's attention. He said, I would register under Farah and then write out of an abundance of caution, I am registering. under Farah, even though I do not believe that I must. I disagree with that vehemently for several reasons. Because it's caving. I know. It's caving.

And then also, you know, it's also onerous, right? To register under Farah. It's not like a one-time thing. You have to do it every single year. More often than that is my understanding. I mean, every time you post content, I think it's literally could be every day. Well, you know, I think you're right. Because when I was at Sputnik, when we were at Sputnik, we had a guy on staff whose sole job it was to load all of our shows onto the Justice Department website every day and register under FARA every single day.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's just like not possible. And so, yeah, I mean, it's like easy for a lawyer to say that. Well, out of an abundance of caution, out of an abundance of caution, we should, someone needs to take a stand against fascism. But unfortunately, as I rail constantly, we don't have a left. And that's the only kind of organization that can do that or will do that. Democratic Party is not the left.

To say, you know, to say the least. That's a heinous story. So where does it stand with Tucker? So is he going to have to, I mean, obviously he can lawyer up. He's rich as shit. Sure. He's the heir to the Swanson fortune. Yeah, he is.

And he said, he did. this whole this whole thing on Saturday and he's like they don't scare me I'm not caving I'm gonna fight you're scared well I mean yeah no I'm obviously any I don't I'm I'm I'm should be honest side any journalist any and he said it's not the money he said thank God money's not a problem for me I have the money for good lawyers and I'm going to fight them but he said this isn't really just about me this is about all of us that we all have to tow the Israeli line or there's going to be a significant price to pay. Yeah.

And meanwhile, there already is a price to pay. We have seven dead U.S. servicemen. That's right. And $2 billion a day going down a sinkhole. Yes. All right. So, wow, that's depressing. Well, we're talking about the war.

We do have some leftover superchats from Friday. So we really do need to go ahead and do those. make sure I can bring this out. Sorry about leaning in and looking at this. Oh my God, I can't even see it. Okay. Okay. Here it is. This is from Miles. Ted, do you know who's a Piro, South African cartoonist is? If so, what are your thoughts? Pardon John, Colin Hassan. I do. I absolutely do. He's a good guy, and, you know, I love my, cartooning is a fraternity, so we tend to know each other from all over the world. and he and I have met.

Gospel of Tommy, this is also, I think, from last week. Or no, it's from early this morning. Morning, guys, on a scale from 1 to 10, thanks for the 999. How much would you say today's tech has changed, one, public perception of war, e.g. social media,

and two, the actual theater of war, i.e. strategy and tactics, and how? Really good questions. Good question. Well, I mean, the public perception of war, obviously the Trump administration is basically presenting this war like a video game,

literally interspersing footage of air strikes into like video games and talking about basically masculinizing and making it a very macho appeal. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be any interest in appealing to women as a political constituents to any of this. But social media is hyper-masculine that way. I think it's an effort to desensitize us further from the violence of war is what that's primarily about. And in terms of the actual theater of war, obviously, you know, we now, drone wars are now the norm. That's started with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

You know, there had certainly been drones used in war. going back 20 years, but like this is, but in terms of like cheap, like ubiquitous, everybody's got them. The U.S. had a monopoly on them for a while, but no more. Yeah, that's right. This is the future and it's not just drones. The next thing we're going to see are these robot dogs like from Black Mirror. Like the Boston Robotics one. Uh-huh. And then actual robots coming. Darpa has been working for decades on building a robot that can take the place of a soldier and what has held them back, where there were two things. One was, until very recently, they had to be physically connected to, you know, wires

so that they could be manipulated. Now they can be autonomous, but we don't have batteries that are long enough lasting. Thank God. That's the next invention. It is going to happen. There's a facility at Bright-Patterson Air Force Base north of Dayton called the aviary where they experiment with micro drones. And they have drones that are the size of a mosquito that could land on your skin and kill you. Like they inject you with a toxin. And so, I mean, I don't know what, I mean, I don't even know if it's really fair to call it war at that point. I mean, it's something else. you know it's it's it's and I don't even know how you can put that genie back into the bottle yeah seriously thanks for the donation from the Czech Republic Andra thank you much

appreciated Zilu thanks also for your donation for 999 sorry very very weird question but I'm looking for help if someone in the government caused an innocent American civilian citizen brain damage oh my God how How do I seek justice? That is a strange question. I'm not going to ask how this happened. I mean, a government horse kicked you in the head. I don't know.

Suing the federal government is very hard. It's almost impossible because the government has to agree to be sued in order for you to be able to go to court. Obviously, they're not likely to do that. So how do you get justice? You probably don't is the harsh answer. I would say your best shot is if it's the same thing has happened to other people, other plaintiffs, you might have a shot with a class action.

But it's, I mean, what I'm talking, that's a serious hail, Mary Pass. Gringo chains, thanks for the 499, much appreciated. Thanks, Peter, for the five bucks. Hello, John, yesterday, Larry Johnson, linked to a video claiming that General Esmail, Kaini, head of the IRC, is a most solid. God asked that and has been arrested. The video has too much detail. I also read that yesterday.

That and who knows, it may be true. If it is true, he'll be executed rather quickly. You know, I will say Larry is incredibly well informed. I have a great deal of respect for Larry. He and I don't always agree on politics, but on these intelligence issues, he's very, very, very important. very good. And yeah, as soon as he said that yesterday or day before yesterday, whatever it was, I searched for it and found reports that that was the case. I don't know if the reports are true,

but that is what people are saying. Let me see if there's been anything new. Robbie West, do we have any ads by any chance? Okay, please, when you're ready, please post, please put that up. Gavin S8, thanks for the 499. Do you think they're could be issues in the Gulf states for the U.S. If oil processing is forced to shut down and people lose jobs there. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess what issues would, I mean, I guess we're talking about civil unrest,

political unrest. How, I mean, there were, the last, I'm trying to, if memory serves, the last time there was significant civil unrest in one of the Gulf states, wasn't Bahrain maybe about six years ago or something? like that. I'm trying to remember what it was about. That had unrest? Yeah. Oh, the first Intifada started in 1994 a month after I got there. And it was bloody and brutal. The second one began in like 97 or 98. And then the Arab Spring was the big one in 09. But yeah, they have ongoing unrest in Bahrain. But like not so much is that not so much in the other Gulf states, right?

No. So every once in a while there will be a demonstration in Kuwait, but it's all about Kuwaiti democracy. Always has been. The other countries, not a chance. Why Bahrain? Because Bahrain has a Sunni Muslim royal family and a Shia Muslim majority population. And the Shia are discriminated against. So it's like the Kashmir problem. It's very much like the Kashmir problem. And what the Bahrainis have done is over the course of now two decades, they've been giving citizenship to Syrians, Egyptians, and Indians who are Sunnis to sort of dilute the population. Oh, man. God. Not good. No, not at all. John, thanks for the 10 euros from AASSS. Thank you. Do you think people like Nick Fuentes pose a real threat to the status quo, or should he just be ignored? That's not so easy to answer. I think Nick Fuentes and people like him, Andrew Tate and, you know, their ilk, I think they do present a danger, but only if they are paid attention to. I think that we should be ignoring them. Listen, I'm not going to take advice from some 20-year-old in-cell. I'm just not. He's not a serious person to me. I don't know why anybody, anybody would listen to

to him. But I would even lump people like, you know, Ben Shapiro in there. Why are we listening to this clown? And so I think it's better just to ignore them. Don't, don't engage with them, don't follow them, and they'll drop back into obscurity where they belong. Good advice. Repentant 1645. Thanks for the 499 pounds. Slightly off topic, John was the Nigerian military president, Sonny Abacha killed by the Mossad or by the military regime itself back in 1998. I believe that it was killed by the military regime itself, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they had done it with help from the Mossad. For whatever reason, the Nigerian military and the Mossad had very good relations.

They probably still do. Yeah, I think that's what it was. Zemal Nair, thanks for the two Canadian dollars. Are we worried that Iraq might deteriorate to 2006? I'd say no. I don't think that's going to have. There's no pressure from ISIS now because ISIS has been largely defeated. I would say no as well.

Brandon Avila, $1.99. You guys hear the BB death rumors, AI fakes. I have seen the AI fakes, but here's BB doing this. Here he is at the deli. Here he is riding in the back of a cab. Here's BB doing this, BB doing that. Bebe me doing the hokey pokey. And it's like always fake BB.

Always. His body looks wrong. You know, it's just like, it's strange. Yeah, he is hiding. No question, right? Do you think, I mean, they're not going to do a weekend at Bernie's thing with BB Netanyahu, are they? Not really.

Could they? They wouldn't. Here's the thing. I don't think they need to. Let's say he died of a hard. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives,

and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com.

Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. They have other guys. Exactly. It's a democracy. They have other guys. You know, Israeli prime ministers have died in office before. Yitzhak Rabin being the most dramatic. True. Arias Sharon having a, you know, cerebral hemorrhage and then being in a coma for eight years before he finally died. But they die and they get replaced.

Yeah. That's all. There are these rumors that BB, you know, fled to Germany or fled to Cyprus or Germany and then Cyprus or that he's in a bunker west of Jerusalem or it. Either way, he's really. he's running scared because this thing is not going the way he thought it was going to go. How did he think it was going to go? Because, I mean, my take was that he sold this to Trump. He convinced Trump that Iran was a house of cards and it was going to collapse as soon as the first rocket was fired.

And anybody who knows anything about the Middle East knew that that was complete and total nonsense. John, I understand why Trump believed it. I don't understand why Bibi believed it. I mean, you know, the Mossad knows better. I mean, Israel knows better. Everyone knows better, like you said. Unless his calculation was, you know, he did know better, but the only way to get Trump to actually attack

was to convince him that it would be easy and it would cement his position as the liberator of the Iranian people. That's what I think. I think BB's idea was like, we're going to mow the lawn. And we know we can't destroy the Iranian government, but, you know, we'll just do this every few years. Yep. All right. All right.

Anger is a gift. Thanks for the two bucks. For the SpongeBob Laundry and Dry Cleaning Fund. Inside joke here on the show. DBGT, thanks for the 200. I don't know what those are. I think those are rupees. Hey, Ted and John, love the show.

Question for Ted. Ted is a fellow lefty. I'm confused on who to support in this matter. I despise Israel and the West bullying, but IRGC and regime aren't innocence either. I love questions like that. To me, that's analogous to like, I hate the Democrats and the Republicans equally.

So don't support either. It's entirely possible to say that you want the Iranian people to have a different future with a different government and say that the U.S. government should not invade Iran. Saddam Hussein was a very bad man, and no one on the left should have ever supported Saddam Hussein. But, like, you know, the U.S. wasn't there to overthrow Saddam Hussein and install a nice liberal or leftist regime to, you know, to make life happy for all Iraqis. Same thing, the United States and Israel are not in Iran to make life better for the Iranian people.

they're there to exploit and extract resources and to degrade them. So don't support the war and don't support the Iranian government. In this conflict, because there's only two sides, militarily, I would like the Iranians to defeat the United States and Israel. But then I want the Iranian people to do what's right for Iran and have a revolution and do things their way. but it's their country. They need to take control of it. They need to determine its future. John, Bryson Smalls, thanks for the 99.

Do you think it's fair when people question your objectivity on topics like Russia versus Ukraine or being critical of Trump because you get paid by Russia and want a pardon from Big Ego Donald? I criticize the Russians all the time. True. All the time. Listen, people are going to criticize me because people criticize. I genuinely don't give a shit. I don't care.

They can do whatever they want. Yeah, I mean, people who watch you. Criticize to your heart's content. People who pay attention will know what you're about, and they'll know that you can't be bought. Gringo Chains 999. I just purchased all your books, John, and I've been interested in intelligence work forever. Are there other fields where you do foreign work but not for the CIA? I want to immerse myself in Muslim culture.

Oh, listen, there was a guy that I used to work with at DIA. He was an Iraq analyst. When I was an Iraq analyst, I went into operations. He resigned from DIA and went to work for an NGO. And they based him in Pakistan. It was like a food and clean water-oriented NGO. You could also go to one of the myriad of United Nations organizations spread out all across the Middle East.

There are a lot of jobs out there in a lot of different organizations where you don't have to be working in the intelligence services and you're making a real contribution. That's a great question. John, before we take the next question, do you think any of the year, you know, what do you think is going to happen? I mean, it feels like the U.S. and the West is really feeling the heat from the Strait of Ormuz. I mean, there's 2,500 U.S. Marines headed out there. They bombed that island with the oil facility in the, you know, near the strait.

Yeah. Is the U.S. going to be able to secure the Strait of Ramos? not without significant a significant number of ships I think that this is going to be difficult I don't think we can do it by ourselves over the long term and I think if we try to do it

like to escort ships I think that we're going to have a serious problem with Iranian mines wouldn't we also have to capture wouldn't we also have to capture a significant chunk of Iranian terrorist adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz? Most likely.

Yeah. And I'll tell you, one of the things that we've always had a problem with is fast boats, swift boats. We just can't deal with Iranian swift boats. Is it just because the oil tankers and all those vessels are big and lumbering? Yeah, and very, very slow. They're difficult to turn around. Yeah. And I think it's tough.

Yeah, yeah. All right, let's do some more questions here. Sorry, meow, meow, meow. Thanks for the 1999, like your name. John did, one, did the CIA do Benazir in Pakistan? No. Two, is Malala Yusuf an MI5 plant? She's the Afghan lady.

Three, did LBJ do JFK? That I have no idea. I mean, a lot of people believe that he did. I was talking to Michael Franz East the other day, a former mob captain who says that his father said until his last breath that the mob did JFK. Oliver Stone once said that I was completely and totally full of shit because at the time I didn't believe that the CIA did JFK.

I believe now elements of the CIA did JFK. JFK. Who knows? It's impossible to say. The reason I don't believe that is because JFK was, I don't know if JFK would have been in Dallas if he was part of it. I mean, LBJ. Yeah, LBJ, yeah.

Keno, Keno, thanks for the five Aussie dollars. Does John know he's become a sex symbol online? I'm seeing girls post edits on him on TikTok. and spawn in the comments. What? I have seen that too, John. There are people talk about, like, you know, your dreamy eyes and how they can just get lost in you.

What? Yeah. I'm old enough to be their grandfather. Be careful. You're going to be like the Beatles, like I wrote about my column this week is about, is about what the huge fame that's rained down on you. And it's like I talked about,

like it's like the Beatles arriving at Idol Wild. Oh, my heavens. Oh, my God. Cadmus, thanks for the 10 bucks. John, I was born in Beirut on August 8th, 1985. Talk about making me feel old. A week later, my cousin who saved me was bombed. Can you give insight into operations in Beirut,

mid-August, 1985, conducted by the CIA? It's very specific. Say the last sentence again? Can you give me insight into operations in Beirut by the CIA in mid-August 85? Oh, yeah, well, I mean, that's kind of become a matter of public record. Just look up William Buckley, CIA, and you'll get even more information than you can shake a stick at. You know, between the bombing, the two bombings of the American Embassy, the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks a little bit earlier in 1983, and then Buckley's disappearance, oh my gosh. God. I mean, Beirut was the most dangerous place on the planet in the middle 1980s,

especially if you were a CIA officer. Robbie, you have some housekeeping? Yeah, just real quick. We will be airing a premium episode that John and Ted did on Saturday about John's rise to stardom and I guess sex symbol. We did not know that at the time, but now we do. Thank you for that. and that would be going up at around 11 a.m. Mountain time. So wherever you live, figure out of what that is and come over to Rumble. If you are a Rumble channel subscriber for $5 a month, you can see it.

Or if you are a Rumble premium subscriber, you can see that. And also all other Rumble premium content for $10 a month. That's all I got. Thanks, Robbie. Okay. John, Miles, Miles Schock. Thanks for the ZAR, 8180 of them, whatever that is. Does Zambian something?

Hey, John, do you think the U.S. is hesitance to declare war might be influenced by their hosting of the FIFA World Cup? Nations participating may be forced to withdraw if they are at war. We haven't declared war since December 8, 1941. And it's because we're nothing but cowards on Capitol Hill. Nothing but cowards. We never declared war during Korea or Vietnam or the liberation of Kuwait or Afghanistan or Iraq or Panama or Grenada or any of the other wars that we've fought over the last 75 years. We just don't do it because on Capitol Hill they're nothing but cowards. Let's see.

Would Mosheed Zadine, thanks for the two Canadian dollars, would it be hard for the USA to fight in Zagros range? Yes. Yes. Without any question. Those are big fucking mountains, and there's a lot of them. Yeah. I mean, our guys aren't, I mean, John, this is going to be maybe controversial. I feel like our troops are soft. I remember watching Black Hawk down, and the guys are tied down in Mogadishu, and they get, they have to get, like, it's hot, it's dusty, and they get like an a skid of water, of bottled water. And I'm like, meanwhile, these skinny little Somalis are like, you know, are lighting them up, right? It's like, our guys are like, they're fat. They need too much shit.

Ted, they call it the chair force for a reason. I don't see us going up against Iranians like that in the fucking mountains. Are you kidding? No. When they were the Iranians have nowhere to go and it's a fight to the death. No. Yeah. We can't, we can't beat them.

We cannot beat them. Just like we couldn't beat the Taliban and we couldn't beat the Iraqis and we couldn't beat the Vietnamese. We can't beat the Iranians. Yeah, we can hurt them. We can annoy them. Sure. It's basically like defending, it's like fighting a bear with like a bat. You're just annoying.

The bear is going to eat you eventually. But, you know, he could bruise him. Yeah. Question for both. Thanks for the $799 Australian dollars from Von Hintz. Is trying to take Kark Island possible. what could happen i mean it's possible to try to take it we won't be able to hold it i mean it's it's like the single most important place in all of the iranian economy um why we would want to take it i have

no idea other than just so that they can't produce and export any oil and they probably don't think they can export any oil right now anyway no no no it's That's right. And it's just going to piss off the Russians, the Chinese, and the Indians. I mean, I think, you know, I agree with you. With enough troops, of course the United States can do that. No question. The question is, why would we want to? I mean, the question is, is it a game changer? I don't think it's a game changer. Because it all does come down to buttoning up the straight of foremost. I mean, that's, I think what this entire war is now about. Yeah. Dem will, thanks for the 20 euros. Does anyone in the U.S.

the U.S. realized that when you go to war with other countries, even when those countries deserve it, the survivors who lose their family members often become terrorists themselves. I mean, hell, we just saw that with the... In Michigan. Exactly. Yeah, like that dude, he apparently lost four members of his, including two siblings of his family to the Israelis in Lebanon. But the Israelis today are claiming, do you see? And of course, the New York Post dutifully puts it on a banner.

headline the brother was a Hezbollah commander okay assuming highly unlikely i don't believe much they made you have to say but let's just say for the sake it's our let's just say for the sake of argument that it's true okay so big fucking whoop the guy's a Hezbollah commander the fact is you guys went to war against Hezbollah and now like you know the this guy's brother is still dead you love your brother even if he's a Hezbollah commander right right so you know so yeah i don't think Americans think about like how these wars are such a breeding a recruiting ground for militant you know for the terrorists of the future. That's right, man.

I mean, that's right. Of course, the ultimate example of that was like all the, you know, the orphans raised in the madrasas back in the 90s, you know, along the Pakistani Afghan border. That's like just such a, I mean, you know, these kids are lost. They got nothing to do. It's not even about revenge. It's just like nothing to do. That's right.

Nothing to lose. Nothing to lose. I mean, at the fighter level, when I was in Pakistan, you know, that that level, that level of, you know, 18 to 25-year-olds, they had never read the Quran. They had no beef against the United States. it's just that they were poor. They wanted to get married. They had no money to get married. And so they went to make jihad against the Americans

because it was good for $500 a month. That was good money then. That was a lot of money. Steve, thanks for the 10 Canadian dollars. The actions of the Arab militias in the Sahel amount to genocide against black Africans. They have brand new armored trucks and they're well armed. Who funds this butchery and why?

That is a good question. That is a terrific question. And to tell you the truth, I don't have an answer to it. Do you? I can speculate. You know, I want to, for me, like, my first suspicion goes to the Saudis. Maybe not the government, but maybe elements, you know, the same people who, you know, the Wahhabists who pay for those aforementioned madrasas. Yeah.

But I don't have any. This episode is brought to you by Spreeker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing.

Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. That's just pure speculation. You know, back in the, back in the aughts and the early teens, they made a lot. of money by kidnapping Westerners and holding them for ransom and then using the ransom money to buy weapons.

I don't know if that's still the case. That was when I was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, that was a very big deal. It was kidnapping money because most countries pay. You know, the US has this policy where we will not negotiate with terrorists. Yeah, we will. We just won't do it publicly.

Everybody pays the money in the end. Yeah, yeah. Cleve to antiquity, thanks for the 99. John, can you discuss Ted Cruz, blaming the mass conversions to and from evangelism to Catholicism and orthodoxy on foreign interests, making the United States less Zionist? I'm not sure that that makes the United States less Zionist.

I would hope it does. Well, first of all, Ted Cruz, for being for being the person whom Alan Dershowitz calls the smartest student he ever had Thank you for saying that if you hadn't I would have

I think he's the stupidest man I've ever encountered yeah and maybe part of his stupidity rests on the fact that he's so arrogant that he expects you just to bow before him because he's so smart In fact, he's actually an idiot.

He may be book smart, but he's an idiot. And I think the people of Texas curse themselves when they vote for him time and time again. Okay, number one. Number two, there are more converts from evangelical Christianity to orthodoxy than to any other denomination or faith. And this has been going on for a decade now.

a decade now. Evangelicals tend to appreciate the tradition in orthodoxy, the theological conservatism in orthodoxy, the fact that unlike the Catholics, we have remained exactly the same since the year 453 AD. Even church Greek or church Slavonic or church Arabic is more than a millennium old. I think that they like that. In many cases, and Robbie, correct me if I'm wrong, but in many cases, it also can pull people away from Zionism,

which I think is very, very positive and very helpful. Because the Orthodox don't have this messianic view of Zionism that evangelicals tend to have. And we don't believe that you can force God's hand by making Jews return to Israel. You can't say, okay, God, I know you've got this plan that the Messiah is going to come as soon as all the Jews return to Israel. So what we're going to do is charter a whole bunch of planes

and we're going to put the Jews on the planes and send them back to Israel. It doesn't work like that. What do you think? Well, no, it doesn't. And you're 100% right because at the end of the day, I mean, this whole thing about dispensationalism is only about 100 years old. That's right. It's 100 years old. It's exactly right. For the last 2,000 years, Protestants, Baptist, Orthodox, and Catholics,

the one thing that we could all agree on was that the church is Israel. That's the whole reason why the parable of the olive tree is there. That's the whole reason why the parable of the vineyard is there. The kingdom is taken away from you, given to another. That's what it is. Jesus came. The Jews rejected their Messiah. Matter of fact, they took a step further and said, his blood be on us and on our children.

That is a curse that they put on themselves. And if you tell God going to be his enemy, he will, he'll take it your word. So not, but that's why, that's why this is happening. And the reason why it's happening is because these Zionist churches, don't preach the gospel. They go up, they perform, they do shows, they do theater. They wave their Israeli flags. And people, if you're going to, if you're going to church, you don't want to hear about, you know, how

great Israel is and how you're inferior. So that's what it is. And there's so few, there is so very, very few independent churches that reject Zionism. Where are you going to go? You're going to Catholicism, listen to a dude who wears a dress, and wears a magic hat, sits in his chair, or you go to Orthodoxy, which if I was ever going to convert from being a Baptist, I'd become Orthodox. In defense of Catholicism, I've sat through hundreds and hundreds of masses, and I never heard any priest waxing rhapsodic about Israel. Well, because it doesn't happen. Yeah, so it's a good thing.

I agree. That's what it says. Up to like 30 minutes ago, that's the one thing that Protestants, Orthodox, and Catholics could all agree on. Like, I don't agree about venerating Mary or the saints. It's not the Bible. The Bible for me is the final authority, not church traditions, not the church fathers. It's the Bible. That's where I part ways with Orthodox and Catholics.

That's really part ways with me. I understand that. But we can all agree that there's one mediator between man and God, and that's the person, Jesus Christ, and your bloodline does not matter. Galatians is clear. Your genealogy is foolish, and it promised you nothing. Okay, Robbie. We'll have to have a whole rumble. We've already had some theology.

We had our Ted versus Robbie. May I take a show? on one other person before we move on. Christine, thanks for the, go ahead and make a big dump. Something's happening

to my microphone. I've no idea what. So I want to take a shit on one other person before we move on. And that is Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio was raised Catholic,

then converted to Baptist, then converted to Mormon, then converted back to Catholic again. It's like, dude, what is? problem. Like if you can't even, if you don't even have any core beliefs, how in the world are you going to run the country?

He's a lost man. He's a lost boy. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't like talking about. Very, very strange. Yeah. God.

Yeah, no, that's like hilarious. I had a roommate who she was like, she probably converted like six times from one religion to another. I wrote a famous essay about. her back in the 90s called Choosing My Religion, like the REM song, but losing my religion. Anyway, Christine, thanks for the $799 Aussie dollars. Thank you. Why doesn't the CIA view the Mossad in Israel as an enemy considering the amount of operations

they've conducted against the U.S. and U.S. interests? John, that's a you question. Yeah. So, you know, we as individuals at the CIA, we did see the Mossad as the enemy because they are actively carrying out operations against us and against the United States. From a policy perspective, we're not permitted to see the Mossad as an enemy because the policy is set at the White House and the CIA has to implement the policy as dictated by the White House. But yeah, I never encountered a CIA officer in my life who liked the Mossad,

who trusted the Mossad or who enjoyed working with them, not one. Ian, thanks for the 9-199. John, hope you stay safe with the bad weather today. Thank you. We're expecting a storm to start around 2 o'clock. 75-mile-an-hour winds. Here, too. And tornadoes. It's not tornadoes here, but we're expecting those kind of winds here, too.

They're closing the schools three hours early to get kids home before the tornadoes hit. Wow. Meow, meow, meow. Thanks for the $1.99. Why want a pardon when a convicted felon can be president? I'll tell you what, just in case I'm hoping I can make enough money that a pardon doesn't matter. I mean, it's kind of the principle of the thing, but I have serious trouble holding my tongue. Yeah, no, I mean, it's sort of like, you know, that's the way I feel about winning a Pulitzer.

I'd like to get one. I feel like I deserve one more than some of the people who've gotten one. Yeah, that's definitely the case. But honestly, you know, John, do you ever think about some of the rascals who've gotten presidential pardons and think, I don't know if I want to be on the same list as Mark Rich? Yeah, I have thought about that. But then I thought, no, you know what? I deserve a pardon.

I shouldn't have been convicted in the first place. The FBI agents who arrested me have told me that I shouldn't have been arrested and convicted in the first place. So even my, even my lead attorney, I had lunch with them a couple of weeks ago, and he said, he said, a pardon's coming. It may not be right now. It may be, you know, the next president or the one after, but someday, someday you're going to get a pardon. If we ever have a next president. John, okay, so we already talked about that. Will Lesbis, thanks for the three bucks. Love the show. How involved is Australia in Iran? And could this escalate to Australia and other NATO countries sending troops.

To my knowledge, they're not involved at all. Yeah, I don't think that they're involved at all. I think it's so far just us and the Israelis. They may be providing things like targeting information, but I don't think they're directly involved at all. Demwell, thanks for the 30 euros. What will happen if Trump cancels the midterm elections and then after that also cancels the presidential elections,

which I now believe is likelier than not to happen on both cases? Does the U.S. have a mechanism in place to handle this, or will America become just another dictatorship? So theoretically, one would go to the courts. And the way that, but how it would play out would depend on, this would be a severe constitutional crisis. And how it would play out would depend, I think, largely on street action. If you had millions of Americans dropping their jobs and spending every day, in the streets mixing it up with ice and the police and the National Guard. And the entire economy came crashing down.

The rich would weigh in. And I think ultimately it wouldn't have anything to do with the courts because the courts would probably be shut down. I'll go one. I'll go one beyond that. I think the military would step in and push him aside. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I'm literally writing my column about this like next week. I don't think that's true. I mean, the military is so Republican, it's so conservative.

They're going to be working hand in hand with ICE, the National Guard, local law enforcement. They're all conservative. I just think they're going to be between the culture of following orders from civilian authority and the fact that, I mean, just think about the way that they acted on January 6th and also it's Charlottesville, more to the point. where they were like, local law enforcement was liaising with, I know it's local law enforcement, it's not the military, but they were liaising with the proud boys and the oathkeepers and all those people. They don't do that with the lefties at protests.

They don't do that at all right. They didn't do that by Wall Street. These are right-wingers. But I will say that there, in January of 2021, there was evidence that's been, that's been published that the military days before January 6th was preparing to step in if Trump refused to leave the White House. Now, granted, a lot of those guys have been forced into retirement. Exactly. But I think that the military is far more rule of law than they are loyal to Donald Trump as a person.

I think they're more loyal to the Constitution. Well, I think we agree it would come down to them. Yeah. Because there's no left on the streets who's going to carry the revolution. And that's what would be required. Yeah. And also we're talking about it would require violent street demonstrations. Without any question.

Not pacifist. Great violence. The kind of violence that we haven't seen, I mentioned this to Robbie yesterday. I said the kind of violence that we haven't seen since 1960. and he said the kind of violence we haven't seen since 1861. I think I'm on team lobby here. Kenneth Colton, thanks for the 99. Let's try to get some of these questions out in the minutes we have remaining.

China, looking at Taiwan like a juicy steak while this Iran mess is going on. Do you see any credible, them credibly taking action while the U.S. digs itself into a deeper hole? I don't think they want to invade Taiwan. Cyrus, thanks for the dollar. I'm a Persian Brit dating a girl from Thessaloniki. Hey, one of a few years, great cities. Oh, this is a good question. I'm meeting your parents in the summer.

How do I win them over? As a Greek dating a Persian, are there any differences I should be super aware of? You know, it's funny. It's funny. Lots and lots of Greek state Persians. Lots. Like I know a bunch of them. You know, just be yourself.

Show her respect. bring flowers to the to the house don't go and see-handed you know don't call them by their first names unless they tell you to good advice not just for Greek in-laws right Luke thanks for the five Canadian John did you see the official revelation that Dershowitz did know Epstein was intelligence which means that when we were on Pierce Morgan together he looked right in the camera and he lied which I said at the time. You're lying.

Clept Antiquity. Sorry, we want to do these questions. Robbie, 499. Thank you so much. If you want to talk about orthodoxy, reach out. I was a prominent Protestant apologist before I decided to journey to orthodoxy. Good morning, John.

Thanks for the five, I'm sorry, we have Vimal. Thanks for the two Canadian. Levin got his regime change in MAGA, not in Iran. A pardon that can be bought, ARS 5,000. I don't know what that is. Claudio, thanks so much, can be bought. Argentinian, something, can be bought is not a dignifying pardon. John, cut the crap run for Congress.

Then you'll be sitting around in a lot of boring meetings, but okay, whatever. John, with your knowledge of the Middle East, thanks for the five bucks. Can you break down your knowledge of Bashir Gamayel and the Falangis militia? Well, we got. We don't have time. We should talk about that at some point, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if this, we'll do this, meow, meow,

last one, 499, if you are not able to cop out, would you rather be stuck on an island and marry Nome, Christine Nome or Pam Bondi? No cop out, toaster shower option allowed. I'm going to go Pam Bondi. Why? She's less likely to kill me in my sleep. Okay, yeah, okay, I'm going Pam Bondi then, too.

Okay. And with that, as far as I know, Pam Bondi doesn't kill animals gleefully. Right. All right. Thanks, everyone for joining us here on March 16th on D-Program with Ted Roll and John Kariaku. We will be back tomorrow Tuesday at 9 a.m. Here as we are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern Time live. Thank you for watching.

Thanks for streaming. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with myself and Manila Chan. Bye, John. Bye, bye, Ted.