DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - ICE Gone Wild in El Paso | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • In a bizarre episode of epic incompetence and lack of coordination, the Trump Administration shut down El Paso’s airspace—originally for 10 days—over a party balloon. First, it turns out the Defense Dept. lent a high-powered anti-drone system to the Border Patrol. Who turned it on without permission. To shoot down a “Mexican cartel drone.” Which didn’t exist. Fearing passenger jets would tumble out of the sky, a panicked FAA—who never got a call from the Border folks playing with their borrowed toy—ordered a shutdown. Organ transplant recipients may die as a result. Then the Trump Administration reflexively spun tall tales to cover it up. We’ll try to peel away the many layers of insanity here. • Asked about the Epstein Files under oath, AG Pam Bondi helpfully points out that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a record high. • As Trump dispatches a second carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf, he tells Netanyahu he prefers to negotiate with Iran, rather than bomb it—for now. • House Republicans advance the SAVE America Act, which would pass Americans’ voter information to the Dept. of Homeland Security, require proof of citizenship to vote and require special paperwork for people who have changed their names, like women and trans people. • Russians are being evacuated from Cuba.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!https://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

we go. I thought we were going to skip that intro. No, we love Trent's intro. Thanks for watching Deep Program with Ted Raul and John Kiriakku. I'm Ted Raul. That's John Kiriakou. It is Thursday, February 12. Thanks for tuning in. Please like, follow and share. As usual, we will be answering your questions and comments in the live chat on Rumble and YouTube. Always appreciate those. on the DACA today, not limited to this very bizarre balloon story on the Texas-Mexico border. I'm obsessed with it. Can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. Because it's nuts, that's why.

It's insanity on so many levels. It's like an onion of insanity. And Pam Bondi had some, you know, had a feisty appearance on Capitol Hill. Unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. Amazing. Trump, as you kind of predicted, is dispatching another carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf, but at the same time he met with BB and said that he, for now, wants to keep talking instead of bombing. The House Republicans have advanced the Save America Act, which is basically voter ID.

Russians are being evacuated from Cuba, and just breaking just as we went on the air, and I was trying to hit that button in time, was the news that the Republicans, Republicans have sent a one-page offer to the Democrats, which the Democrats are not going to accept to try to prevent a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats say the Republicans are clearly not serious about negotiating with them, about limiting ICE and getting the masks off and all that. So anyway, that's the latest there. What shall we get to first, John? You know, real quickly, I want to talk about this Russia-Cuba thing, if you don't mind. So the Russians made several announcements yesterday.

that I think are important for a couple of different reasons. First, they're evacuating Russian tourists from Cuba, not Russian diplomats. I made a mistake on my substack. But anyway, Russian tourists, and they're doing it for a very practical reason. Cuba simply doesn't have enough oil right now. They just can't cover Cuba's needs. Russia can't cover Cuba's needs. So they're shipping oil.

They're going to do their best. And in the meantime, they figured it would be better just to bring down the number of Russians that are going to feel the pinch by being in Cuba, number one. Number two, the Russians and the Mexicans are going to try to make up for the oil that Venezuela was providing for Cuba. And finally, I'm in touch with a Cuban government official from the Ministry of Culture. I met him when I was in Cuba a few years ago. he plans the annual international book fair.

And he was telling me that he's feeling no difference in day-to-day life, right? The Cubans are used to sanctions. The Cubans are used to the embargo. The Cubans are used to not having enough of everything. That's true. Fuel, electricity, whatever. And he's confident that they'll get through this. In fact, he said he was kind of surprised at that.

the reaction of the American media. Like, this is something that's unprecedented that they've never dealt with before. And that's just not true. Well, I mean, of course it's the very beginning of it, right? So obviously there's still stockpiles. There's literally oil in the pipeline at this point, right? But, you know, when you have, you've lost 60% of your oil supply. Yeah.

That's going to hit hard even for a country that's used to austerity. And they've already had to shut down their colleges and public schools. so, you know, in part or in whole, so because they can't keep the lights on. Rolling blackouts are becoming all-day blackouts. So, I mean, it is a problem. It's going to take, I mean, it takes a long time to get oil tankers across, you know, these big oceans to Cuba. Big question for you, John, and John, I just want to say, you know, I want to point out that you predicted this really to a T. When you said that that's what the overthrow of Nicolas Maduro was primarily about.

Cuba. It's not overthrowing Venezuela. It's overthrowing Cuba. Right. And securing the oil in the Caribbean, I believe it very strongly. So I guess now that, you know, it does harken to the Cuban missile crisis. Filling in for you yesterday, Scott and I talked about it a little bit. But do you think that there could be a repeat of the early 60s and maybe a American naval blockade of Cuba to prevent Russian or, you know, other or Mexican oil deliveries to Cuba? Boy, oh boy, you know, I really hate to say yes, but I'm going to say yes.

I think it is possible. I don't think it's likely, but this administration has such a, like, a surprisingly neocon foreign policy. And again, that's all on Marco Rubio, I think. Oh, for sure. But that's on Donald Trump for appointing him. At the end of the day, it's on Donald Trump. I'd say, yeah, I don't think it's likely, but I think it's absolutely possible. I mean, so, and then what would the Russians particularly do about that?

I don't think that they could do anything. I really don't think they could do anything. Could they go to the UN? I mean, it is illegal. It is illegal. But the UN hasn't been able to do anything about it for the last 65 years. There's that. Okay. Well, we'll watch that story.

I mean, you know, it is actually, you know, having been to Q. Cuba, it is, you know, they're lovely people and it's really, really. They really are lovely people. Horrible too. And it's a gorgeous country, gorgeous country. It's a vibrant culture. With also incredibly, incredible variations in topography, right? Nowhere else in the Caribbean is like that.

You know, I mean, Martinique is interesting. It has like, it has, you know, different, it has canyons. It has mountains. But still, nothing's like, I mean, Cuba has it all. It has, you know, beaches and cities and jungle. and rolling hills and far pasture land. And incredible scuba diving, by the way. Yeah, incredible.

One of the few places that still does. Some of the most beautiful, pristine beaches I've ever seen anywhere in the world. Yeah, if you're a scuba person, that's a place to go. Well, because, I mean, almost every reef I've been to in, you know, the last 10, 15 years has been dead. So, you know, Cuba's super exciting. Okay. So shall we talk about get Pambondi out of the way too?

So Pambandi goes to she goes to Capitol Hill. She's being asked about the Epstein files. Basically, she didn't have much to say about them. I mean, my take, my answer would have been, listen, we released three million of these things. We said we were going to do that. I mean, yeah, there's three more million.

And yeah, they were redacted. But that would have been my talking point. Like, listen, you know, The Biden people never wanted these out. We did it. We said we were going to promises made, promises kept would have been my talking point. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And she and her talking point was basically each shit. Yeah. Fuck you. You're a bunch of losers. I hate you. And also your mother's fat. And yeah.

And you're gay. So it was, I mean, the level of contempt, open contempt on display. I mean, this, this is basically. members of the administration are just copying Trump, the president's style, right? I mean, that's basically what it says. And, oh, man, I have so much to say about this. And everybody gets away with it. Like, this is what's happened to decorum in Washington. And I'm not saying this is specific to Donald Trump. It's not. Both sides have just gone over the top. I'm going to take exception with Pam Bondi's attitude and behavior. It was crude. It was rude. It was

beneath the office of the attorney general. But then at the same time, what the hell did the Democrats do for four years that Joe Biden was in the White House and these three million documents were just sitting in boxes at the Justice Department? So I don't want to hear any complaints from the likes of Jamie friggin' raskin.

Yeah, what aboutism would have been the right talking point? It would have been. I don't understand why she chose not to go that route. And she obviously came with pre-armed talking points. I'm going to say either directly given to her by the president or inspired by the president about what we really should be talking about. Of course, this has nothing to do with it, is the state of the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and all that. And like, look, I mean, those numbers are impressive.

They are great. Donald Trump has always done well with the stock market. He did in his first term, too, even when the economy was a little bit skittish overall, you know, the, you know, whatever. Investors like him. Yeah, I agree with you. Okay. Well, anyway, it was it was a sight to behold. You know, at first, when she just like started lashing out, I was like, you've got to be kidding me. That's what kind of hearing this is going to be.

But then again, as soon as the Democrats started talking, I wanted to reach across the, you know, the table and give them a whack across the face with the back of my hand. Like, where were you when this information first came out in 2000? 2006. By the way, also the Democrats don't ask, and this is really interesting, what about the other half? We know you've released half. You know, can we see the other half? I mean, that's just being, why is that missing in this discussion? I mean, even among Epstein-Biles, obsessive people. Why do they not talk about this? Well, as far as the Democrats go, because they don't really care what's in the other half. They just want to do what they can to embarrass the Republicans. Right. Well, the Republicans are doing a good job at embarrassing. Yeah, they stepped right into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think basically, this reminds me so much. God, we keep talking about it's like, you know, the 60s and the 70s, right? This is so much like the Watergate tapes. Like, you know, I don't want to release them. I don't want to release them. I'm not going to release them. You can't have them. Okay, I'm going to release them. Well, but I'm going to redact them, you know, explosive deleted. Expulsive deleted. Yeah, exactly. I remember my parents, my parents saying that. I was a little. kid. I was 10 years old when the, when the Watergate tapes were released, and it was always

expletive redacted, expeditive deleted, expletive deleted. And I remember my mom and dad saying that. That was a big joke. While they were having a conversation with each other, and then they would both crack up. It was a national joke. Yeah. And then, and then, and then it's like, well, okay, we're going to get them all and we'll get them all later. And I mean, basically it's like, you know, Zeno's paradox, right? Which is the idea that you can never really cross a room because you always have to cross half the remaining distance, but you'll never quite cross the room.

I mean, obviously, the paradox is false. But it's sort of like according to the aerodynamics laws, helicopters can't fly, and yet they do. That's right. But it's similarly, but it's just like that, right? I mean, it was just sort of like you're just never getting closer. It reminds me, God, there's so many things like that. In L.A., the metro, it inches closer to L.A.

It's never going to quite get to LAX. That's right. And it just makes it, you know, rip the Band-Aid off, Mr. President, right? Just rip it off. Just get it over with. Get it, put it behind you. That is right. John, before we move to the questions from the listeners and the viewers, I got to talk to

you about the, and I do want to talk about this balloon thing, but I want to like, I have things to say. The Save America Act. So, Speaker Mike Johnson. So this is voter ID laws, right? And it would go into effect this fall for the midterms. Can't do it. Mike Johnson says, you know, it's really very simple, he said on his ex-feed today.

And I'm like, whenever a politician tells you something's very simple, it's very complicated. Yeah, it's not at all simple. That's right. And so the thing is, okay, so driver's licenses wouldn't work for the obvious reason that they're not a proof of citizenship because non-citizens do have driver's licenses. So green card holders have them and so on. So and in some states, even undocumented people have driver's licenses. So, okay, so then you're looking at passports, which cost over $100 and many Americans don't have. The part, but I guess I could live with those things because I kind of feel like you and I both travel.

Everyone should have a passport, really. I just don't think there should be a fee for any government mandated document, including driver's licenses. I feel like if the guy, government wants you to have this. It should just be issued to you. You shouldn't have to pay for it. It's stupid. I think you're absolutely right. But, okay, but there's two problems with this law for me. First of all, they, they, they, they're, if your name is different from your birth certificate, like you're trans and you changed your name, or you're a woman and you got married and you changed your surname, or you changed your name for some other reason. Or like in my case, I, John, you and I had trouble getting paid by YouTube. You

know what it was? Why did we? What it turned out to be was that YouTube didn't know that could not understand that Frederick T. Rawl III is the same person as Frederick Theodore Rall III. Now, I know Google is a very poor company and they can't afford to write code that would recognize something like that, that people often abbreviate their middle name. But it's so that, so in that situation, let's say I'm registered as Frederick T. Rall, I don't know how I'm registered. I don't know if it's the middle name. But anyway, I would have to go to a lawyer or a notary or something. I'd have to download some kind of form and I'd have to get, you know, some kind of legal process that has not yet been determined that would then be filed with the government,

which would then determine whether or not I'd be allowed to vote. Lots of people have these issues. I have a suffix on my name, right? All these forms don't like the fact that it's all comma, I, I, I. Oh, for God's sake. Like no strange, no strange, you know, think, imagine Asian people who often have like a, you know, let's say a Chinese middle name, you know, that it's, that can be transliterated any number of ways. So, I mean, there's a lot of complications here. And then, John, I think this one will speak to you. The, all of the data, all of our voter data would be automatically transferred to the Department of Homeland Security under the Save Ad.

Wrong, wrong. That is so wrong. First of all, everything that Mike Johnson's talking about is unconstitutional. Congress cannot make voter laws. It's up to the states. It's always been up to the state since the founding of the Republic. And so they can jump up and down and bitch and yell all they want. But all of these proposals are unconstitutional.

So eventually the Supreme Court should throw it out. Question one, would they? And question two, what happens between the time that the law passes and the Supreme Court ruling? I don't think they'll be able to break cloture in the Senate. I don't think this will ever even get that far. Well, yeah. I mean, of course, the ever feckless Lisa Murkowski of Alaska says like, well, you know, this wouldn't work in Alaska. I'm like, why wouldn't it work in Alaska?

because it's really cold? I don't know. The crowd people of Alaska would not stand. They all go by pseudonyms. I mean, I don't know, but I don't know. I've spent enough time in Alaska to answer that question. Yeah, I mean, so yeah, you have to get some depth, but can't, you don't think they're going to be,

Republicans would be able to peel away, you know, what is it, seven Democratic traders in order to, to get to cloture. I mean, yeah, give, all they have to do is say, like,

they're going to let illegals vote. Yeah. Senator John Curiaku wants, wants criminal illegal aliens to vote. Right. Vote no. Exactly. Tell John Kyriaku to fuck off.

Exactly. That's exactly how it would work out. Yeah. Well, I mean, so do you think, I mean, they could get those traders

if they market it correct. I think that they could get, um, Federman, but I think everybody else would be, would be pretty staunch. But then at the same time, I mean, listen, you've got this, the secretary of the Senate would release a report like they do with every piece of legislation that release a report saying

the bill is written is likely unconstitutional. Right. That happens with every, they have to release this report to individual senators for every piece of legislation. I mean, shouldn't that happen before the first vote? When it's proposed for a floor vote, yeah, it happens after it gets through committee. Because then it's been marked up. And then once it's marked up, the Secretary of the Senate reads it says, oh, this is unconstitutional. You guys can vote any way you want, but it's unconstitutional. Is that going to happen?

I think it's likely, yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Ready for some questions? Let's go for it. All right. Let's do it.

Okay. John from Jennifer Private, don't you find out or fault when Epstein is blamed for on Israel and this week, Russia, all this happened on U.S. territory. And Epstein got a deal from the US DOJ. I don't know. This is complicated. It's complicated. Listen, I think this is one of those situations where everybody's guilty.

And I don't think anybody's given anybody a pass. I believe very strongly that Epstein was working for the Israelis. But now we know from this latest tranche, she was probably working for the Brits and probably working for the Americans and may have been working. working for the Germans. And, you know, he was just one of those guys. So the worst part, the worst part about his unfortunate demise is that we're never going to get the whole story, are we? I mean, wouldn't it be great to be able to interview him? It would be great. Yeah, it would be great, but it's not going to happen. I mean, of course, you know, I won't make any ridiculous comments about suicide.

man do I not believe that cool cat thanks for the 999 good morning everyone unfortunately we're both wrong about Jesus in Islam he is absolutely the Messiah to Muslims literally Almasi in Arabic and Muslims believe that he will return is that true this is more your they believe they don't believe that he was crucified they believe it was a look-alike that was crucified. Really? Yeah, they do. That's awesome.

Yeah. That is, by the way, that's very strange that that just came up because I'm literally, I don't remember. I'm literally working on a cartoon right now that is, that involves the crucifixion of Jesus. How do you get your, how do you write your, your letters so, so perfectly? Oh, well, I'm a, I'm a really good letter. You're a really, really good printer. Yeah.

When I was in college, I don't know, it just comes naturally. My mom really encouraged me to write really neatly, and it took. And I have a steady hand. I can draw like a completely straight line, just dead hand. But like back in college, you remember when you would, this is a very Gen X story, but music people would buy the LP, recorded to a cassette tape, play the cassette until it wore out, then buy another cassette and do that again. And you'd write all the songs.

Totally remember doing it. you write all the song names on the cassette. Well, anyway, someone saw, like, on my floor at Columbia saw all my cassettes all, like, lettered like that. And they were like, oh, my God, can you, will you do mine? I'm like, I don't want to. I'll charge you. They're like, I'll pay you a dollar. So I had like a little business. Like, basically, sometimes I'd have to do 50 in a day. People were just having me lettered their cassettes. I wonder if anybody still has them out there. It's very strange. My grandmother bought me an IBM's Electric, too. typewriter as a college as a high school graduation typewriter i'm i love that great typewriter and so i was

always a very fast typist always i'm like in the 90s 90 words per minute plus and um i ended up making a ton of money you know college as yeah right a ton of money to me as an 18 year old um as a typist that would type everybody's papers that's yeah no i mean i yeah i yeah i i yeah i I never wanted to do that on the grounds that, like, rich kids should type their own fucking papers. But anyway, let's see, but I probably should have done it. Kenan Bailey 2632. Thanks for the 20 Australian bucks. John, why is New Zealand in the Five Eyes?

I get it to Western country and beautiful. I don't know what that has to do with it. But it's very small. Is their intelligence agency any good? Many Silicon Valley billionaires are buying up land there like it's an outpost. Wow. There's actually a lot to unpack in that. To tell you the truth, number one, I don't know why New Zealand is a five-eyes country.

When I was first in the CIA, when I first joined the CIA, New Zealand, we were not permitted to share any intelligence with New Zealand at all. That was thanks to Ronald Reagan because the United States had a nuclear submarine that wanted a dock in New Zealand, just regular R&R, everybody gets off the ship, but it happened to be nuclear powered. And this was in the midst of the no-nukes movement. And so the New Zealanders would not allow us to dock there. And to punish them, Ronald Reagan cut off all intelligence cooperation.

And so in 1991, like five years after Reagan had made this announcement, we decided to open up to the New Zealanders. And I was one of three analysts that gave the very first classified briefing to the New Zealand ambassador. And he turned out to be a great guy. And I even had dinner to his house one time. It was very, very nice. But with that said, we became like crazy close to New Zealanders. And in all honesty, I think because they're white and they speak English. I think that's...

It's just part of the Commonwealth thing. Yeah, I think it is. It's part of the Commonwealth thing. Silicon Valley, buying up, billionaires buying up land like a it's an outpost, I think it's because it is an outpost. And I think that everybody has this. You think it's geography too? Like it's in a part of the world that, you know, I do. Nothing else is at. So when the Russians and the Chinese and the Americans and the Israelis all nuke each other, that's the one part of the world that's so far out of the way that it's not going to be, you know,

vaporized. Yeah, and the clouds will just keep going around the northern hemisphere and the equator, but not down there. I think that's it. There's not a lot of landsmass down at that longitude. No, that's right. Okay, so Cyber In Jazeero says that he has a book recommendation for us, Unfinished Victory by Arthur Bryant. Ted especially would be interested since he's curious about the rise of a certain government. While you were talking, John, I googled it. It's published in 1940, and according to the Internet,

presents a somewhat sympathetic view of the rise of Hitler. So, I mean, of course, obviously, the whole story wasn't really quite in by then. Yeah. But anyway, how many Russians go tourists go to Cuba in the first place, according to asked longtime listener, seems awfully far. It is far. It is far. And you know, when I was in Cuba, there's historic ties. Yeah, there are. When I was in Cuba, I don't remember hearing anybody speaking Russian. I heard a bunch of Greeks in the hotel, which really surprised me. There's a lot of French people. And there was a Norwegian cruise ship that was in port. Yeah, there's a lot of, There's a lot of European investment in general, but Russians go everywhere.

I mean, like, Goa in India is lousy with Russians. I mean, I know it's not as far, but still, it's pretty far from Moscow. And you go to Dubai, and like, you're the only person not speak in Russian when you go into some of the restaurants and the bars. Pura Vita. Ted, what do you think of Rubio being installed as Cuban president to move Vegas to Havana? We're getting there. Yeah, no, definitely. This is about Batista, two points.

Right. Yeah. Okay, long time, Mr. Fat, rich people like Donald Trump and Randy Fine like to starve, poor people from Cuba to Gaza. True. Yeah.

Quick question for John, Pink Lady. Do you miss the adrenaline rush of being in the CIA? Yes. Yes. Do you do anything now to satisfy that? Skydiving, extreme sports, maybe? I do miss the adrenaline rush.

But do I do anything? You know, to tell you the truth, I've gotten to the point where I am so busy that I don't have time even for hobbies. I bought a telescope and I've taken some amazing deep space pictures that I'm proud of. But I'm just too busy. But yeah, I miss the rush very, very much. Yes. I mean, so this is a follow-up question to that from me, John.

Do you think that they're, you know, in the agency, is there a sense that like there's a certain age that you kind of like start losing your edge? Because like in war correspondency, the rule was as far as I was understood that you should start thinking about getting out by the time you turn 50 because you sort of learn you lose your spidey sense. Well, by the time you're about 35 in the agency, you need to be transitioning into. management. So when I was 38, I was offered two, three jobs I could choose from two station chief positions in small stations or one deputy station chief position in an enormous station. By the time you're 40, yeah, you're going to want to be a station chief. And, you know, recruiting spies to steal secrets and running around all night long with, you know, guns and high threat meetings and stuff. That's a young man's game. So yeah, by the time you're 40, it's pretty

well over. By the way, that URL, I just put up deprogram.com. Live. Thank you, producer Trent. There is a, that is, if you go there, you'll find some merch, some deprogram merch. I'll just leave that up for a while. Guten tag from Germany, from Weinvalker. How do you, question for both. How do we stay mentally sane with all that's going on in world politics? How do you balance that interest? with self-care without becoming ignorant. To be honest, John, I don't understand the mentality of my many, many friends who say they're overwhelmed by politics and everything that's going on and they feel like they just can't, they just can't even, and they just back away from it and they don't watch the news.

And they just shut it up. For me, if insanity is going on, I feel like knowledge is power and I want to know everything I can. Agreed. Agreed. So it's not a it's a non-issue, I guess, for us. All right. Jennifer, Ted, for amazing coral reefs, try Egypt, the Red Sea. Oh, I've done that. I've done that twice. Oh, my gosh. It's the second best place on Earth next to the Great Barrier Reef. No shit. Although Great Barrier Reef is not what it used to be. It's dying. But Ted, in the Red Sea, I'll tell you what, man, I've seen things there that I've never seen anywhere else in the world. The first time I went, I went with my best friend from college. And I'll tell you, this is kind of a funny story. So you're, you're in three feet of water, right? And it's right on like a coral cliff, which is then a hundred feet deep. So you're right on the edge. So right here, it's 100 feet deep. Right here, it's three feet deep. And I could hear my best friend. He's breathing. You're snorkeling at this point. This is when we first started. So we're

snorkeling. He wasn't, he wasn't dive certified. So herbs. Scoot is certified, so we're snorkeling. And then we see this tiger shark, biggest nastiest shark I've ever seen in my life, like with my own eyes. And he goes, and I was like, relax. I stand up on the reef. I'm only in waste high water. It's like it can't come up here and get us.

I saw, I saw a more eel. This thing had to be nine or 10 feet long. Wow. And then you see all these, you know, finding Nemo fish and just fish. of all the colors of the rainbow that you've never seen anywhere else. It was incredible. That's great. Thank you for the two. Nicholas Franco's John. The CIA knew six months ahead about this Chinese espionage operation in Greece before they told the Greeks. Why do you think? Oh, that's a great question. It's one that I answered in an interview with Antenna TV a couple of days ago.

I don't think they waited. I think they gave the Greeks the information and the Greeks waited. Because what you want to do is see if you can catch the Chinese handler at the same time. If the handler has diplomatic immunity, you can expel him and embarrass the Chinese embassy. If he doesn't have diplomatic immunity, you can arrest both the Greek and the Chinese handler. And so I think that they wanted to see who the handler was. They wanted to see what the tradecraft was. And they wanted to see exactly what information the Chinese were interested in. I think they did this on purpose and for good reason.

Interesting. Tadimari and Robbie, if we have an ad, please let me have it. Tadimari, zero, thanks for the 10 bucks. The question for you, John. What do you make about of the issues within Ukraine relative to the Orthodox Church, arresting metropolitan during liturgy, funding and creating a false church, etc? I have very strongly held feelings that are not at all in line with the Greek Orthodox Church. the Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople are wrong, wrong, wrong.

So listen, I concede that historically the Russian Orthodox Church has been infiltrated by the KGB. It's unfortunate and it's true. But that doesn't mean that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should have been split off from the Russian Orthodox Church, where it had been for a thousand years until Hillary Clinton decided, no, we need to split it off to put pressure on the Russians. Hillary Clinton's global expert on orthodoxy. Exactly. But the Ukrainian government is being extraordinarily heavy-handed,

where priests and bishops that won't switch over to this autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. are being arrested. And there's convincing evidence that the Ukrainians are actually torturing a lot of these priests. This is a, it's a terrible development. Let's do this ad. All right, let me tell you about my Valentine's Day sponsor, our Valentine's Day sponsor. And honestly, this was a no-brainer. Chicago State Company Code H-E-A-R-T-2-6. Look, you could fight for a reservation at some overpriced restaurant all sit there surrounded by strangers rush through your meal or you could stay home cooked together and have a way better experience these are USDA prime steaks hand selected wet aged up to 40 days restaurant quality delivered to your door here's the deal it's the last week

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I just saw it from somebody asking if, or somebody saying that, that they saw a website saying they're selling autographed copies of my first book for 20 bucks, that's the first I've heard of it. Can you please repost? I've lost it now, but can you please repost and tell me where you saw that? Because as far as I know, there are no copies of my first book out there. And I haven't signed any recently. But let me know. Breaking news, Tom Homan just announced that Ice is ending its immigration operation in Minnesota. So Minnesota's loss is Ohio's gain, I think.

All right. So, John, let's talk about the balloon. Okay, so. Yeah, this is nuts. So basically, yesterday, while you were away, we announced that the FAA was close. closing airspace over El Paso. There was even a rumor at one point that this was impacting New Orleans. There was a ripple effect throughout the aviation system, lots of canceled flights. Several organ donors had their organs delayed by being flown to Las Cruces, New Mexico, 45 miles away.

It's not sure. I mean, some of these people might die. Right. And anyway, so it was a fiasco. They said the FAA said it was going to be for 10 days. There was no explanation whatsoever. I and many other people had very dark thoughts that this was like maybe the beginning of some kind of coup d'etat or a test run for a coup d'a. And that might still be true. But it turns out, so the administration, you know, they said, well, first they said, this is for unspecified security reasons. Then they said, well, the security issue was a Mexican cartel drone. It is true that the Mexican cartels do fly observation drones along the border to see if Border Patrol is anywhere nearby so the coyotes can slip across the boat. And, you know,

at those points, that makes a lot of sense. And so they said, and then it turns out that here's where things get really loopy. So it turns out that the Department of Defense loaned a fancy anti-dron laser gadget to Border Patrol for some unknown reason. I don't know if, you know, if the traffic cops on Long Island are going to get like all sorts of loaners

from the DoD, or maybe I can borrow something. I'd love to have an F-18, like why not? Seriously, right? But anyway, so they gave them this toy. Border Patrol doesn't check with DOD. They're like, oh my God, look at this drone. Let's shoot it out of the air. They don't check with DOD to see if it's okay.

They don't check with the FAA. The FAA finds out about it. And so the way these works, right, these are electromagnetic pulses, basically. The Russians use these with great effect in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict against the Ukrainians' drones. And anyway, they're worried. The FAA is like, holy shit. These are computerized planes. We're going to have passenger jets falling out of the sky.

So they put a hold. I don't know why they said for 10 days. I don't know. No. But they're like, okay, everyone, just basically everyone land. They freak out. Left hand does not know what the right hand does not know what the foot, does not know what the ear is doing.

Nobody knows shit. And basically the Trump administration is then, you know, exposed as having spun all these ridiculous tales. And it turns out there was never even. a cartel drone. There have been in the past. Yes. There have been

cartel drones in the past that have crossed the border. But you're right. There was no, there was no cartel drone. They neutralized the threat, which was a party balloon from some kids party.

And this is like, this is worse than Biden and his Chinese weather balloon. Because, I mean, this is just absolutely insane. It's one of the most, it's an Epic.

How embarrassing. Of stupidity and lying. I mean, now, the thing is, so I don't even know where to start, but we'll figure it out. So, first of all, why is the Defense Department loaning out high-tech gadgets to idiot government agencies? Does that make any sense? Is that something that happens usually? No. Hey, I want to tell you, too, if you go to YouTube and search for, you know, Santiago.

Chile crowd brings down police drone with lasers. Drones cannot handle lasers. So even with just one of those pocket lasers, those little pen lasers, if you shoot the laser at the drone, the drone gets confused and it starts to wobble, and then it just crashes. It's such a cool video where these students were demonstrating in Santiago, and then they all just start beaming their pen lasers. at the drone and it just kills itself.

That's what this this DOD weapon does in a little more sophisticated way. But you're right, this is just an embarrassment. It's an embarrassment for the administration. It's an embarrassment for the DOD. You know, people were inconvenienced for no reason at all. And, yeah. And of course, but then it also, I mean, it exposes this lending program that I don't think anyone, including Congress, was made aware of.

No, I agree with you. And it seems incredibly reckless. Like, what's up with this government? You know, why are they doing that? And then, you know, and then the lack of coordination between all these entities, right? Like, yeah, we're fucking around with the air, but we're not, yeah, we're not going to bother to talk to the FAA about it. Right. And then, but then the big one for me is the reflex, the go-to place for administration officials is just

make up a fucking story. Just like lie and just say like Cartel drone. And it's like they found out I mean it's so embarrassing. I mean the only thing more embarrassing the fact that it was a balloon was the fact that they claimed it was a cartel drone and then it was a balloon.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's I mean nobody's going to believe anything these people say. No. I mean ever. It's one I mean you know after the death after the spinning after the two the two deaths of the two Americans, Alex Prady and Renee Good. I mean, again, just lies and it's like the go-to places, we'll just say whatever. Yeah, that's right. You can't believe anything anymore.

So, I mean, do you think there's going to be, I mean, Congress expressed, even some Republicans expressed concern about this. Do you think there'll be an investigation? No. I don't because we're asking we're asking DHS or DOD to investigate itself Yeah So no Yeah yeah

That's the size of it I just I mean I don't know Were you blown away by this? I thought it was I really was Same things I've ever heard When I first heard Cartel drone I was like

Oh my God So they want to really ramp things up And they're sending drones across the border And they're shutting down airports Oh my God this is serious Yeah And then when the details started to leak out, I was like, you've got to be kidding me. I'm freaking embarrassing.

I'm going to use the R word. What a bunch of retards. Well, the one thing, seriously, the real takeaway, as much as start telling the truth, that would be number one. But number two is, seriously, don't lend Defense Department weapons to other agencies. Exactly. You know, it's like this, what do they call it, the surplus equipment program at DOD. I wrote an article, this is about five, six years ago now. Like, does the Ohio State University Police Department really need a tank? Like, really?

Having spent time at Ohio State, I will say no. No. I would think no. So why in the world did they take delivery of a tank? Now, they ended up... I just thought it would be cool. Yeah. And there was such an outcry

that they returned the tank to DOD. South Hampton. You know, the playground of the rich and famous on Eastern Long Island, they took delivery of an armored personnel carrier. Because that's what they need in Southampton. To protect them from Hillary Clinton's fundraisers, yeah.

Okay, HP, thanks very much for your question. John, you often mention meeting legendary CIA officers during your time. Would officers today say the same thing about you based on the things you did? I think so. I'm still in touch with a great number of former CIA colleagues. I'm going to say half of them, half that I was friends with when I was working there. I'm still in friendly touch with half of them. It's funny, there have been a couple. You know, we're Facebook friends. And, as part of that friendship. And there have been a couple where others that I'm no longer friends with have said to the

ones that I'm still friends with, you're friends with him. You could lose your security clearance. You know, security's going to have to ask you. And so they've a couple of unfriended me on Facebook. And I have a policy. And I've done this with relatives. If you unfriend me on Facebook, you're blocked. Because I don't tolerate trolls or lurk.

And so my own cousin, my own cousin, her son was a prison guard in Youngstown, Ohio, and he beat the shit out of a prisoner who was handcuffed. And so he was arrested. He was tried. He was acquitted. And of course, a neighboring police department hired him as a cop. Naturally. And so I wrote not about my cousin's son. I wrote about how violent some prison guards are.

And they are. And I wrote it based on reporting from prison legal news magazine. And my cousin unfriended me. And I'm like, fuck you. And I blocked her. And she's been blocked for five years now. Yeah, I don't understand. There was a guy at the agency who was,

as soon as I got out of prison, he was like, oh, my God, John, I was pulling for you. It was this and that and blah, blah, blah. And, and he, and he, uh, and he, uh, friended me on Facebook. So I accepted it. And then I noticed he discreetly unfriended me. And I was like, okay, blocked.

Sorry, Doug. Bye for you. Yeah, I don't. Bye, bye. Also, I don't understand the whole, like, you know, someone knows you, follows you, likes you for a long, long, long time. Then you say or do something that they disagree with, even if they hate. And then they're like, we're done here.

And it's like, and they, you know, they unfriend you. And I'm like, God. I mean, it's terrifying that to think, I mean, really? I mean, like, I need a 100% A++ record with you. Like, 96%'s not good enough. You know, like, it's like, you're just, that's never going to last. Desert Fox is asking us, how relevant is the second carrier battle group headed to the Mideast? Makes me uneasy to see B.B. smiling.

It always makes me uneasy to see B.B. It's very, very, very. This is a very troubling development. So the USS George H.W. Bush is. off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia right now. It is supposed to be beginning maneuvers, practice, you know, maneuvers in the Atlantic, and instead, Trump is sending it to the Persian Gulf. This is a very disturbing development. We can't make war against Iran with one carrier battle group. We can with two carrier battle groups. And with Netanyahu and Washington, I'm, I'm, I'm,

frightened about this. Yeah, I mean, look, I think Trump is, I mean, look, we know they're meeting in Bahrain, right? Yes. The Iranians and the Americans. In Oman. Oman? I don't have high hopes for those talks.

Yeah. And the pressure coming from the Israelis is crazy. And, you know, like you always say, John, like you don't send all that expensive equipment all the way out to the ass end of the world unless you're planning to use it. I believe that. Ever since you said that, I'm like, can't think of any exceptions to that. Cyber Ingers, Zerro, why is America uniquely incompetent when it comes to voter ID? I mean, I think I'm not sure really what he means there, but I mean, I think maybe just the fact that, like, most countries obviously have voter ID laws.

But most countries require you to carry a national ID with you, including in Europe. and it's to be presented upon demand by any law enforcement official. The United States doesn't have that tradition. I'd have to do a deep dive onto why. Do you know why we don't? I mean, I assumed it's just because we were such a, we had this Wild West libertarian ethos. States rights.

And also we have a colonial mentality where you just sort of go out and stake a claim and you live in the middle of nowhere. and like, you know, you just shit that you don't have to, you just don't have to, you know. Yeah. They used to just compare your, you know, they still do. They just compare your signature to the voter rolls. To tell you the truth, and I've said this many times, here in Virginia, you have to show an ID to vote. And I have zero problem with that.

I wouldn't want, I wouldn't want to go to the voting booth. Not proof of citizenship, just ID. No, just ID. I wouldn't want to go to the to the polling place and then somebody say oh you say you're john kiroaku john kirooku already voted two hours ago that would be an unfortunate well i have that issue because my son and i have the same exact three names right so and we vote at the same precinct so it's always the same thing i'm like i'm the old one he's the young one yeah so yeah obviously our signatures don't look anything alike because he didn't

didn't learn cursive. Nor did my kids, which is nuts to me. I took my third son to AAA to get an international driver's license, and when he went to sign it, he just printed his name. I'm like, what are you doing? You got to sign it. Yeah, like my son looks like his signature is like that of an illiterate. It's embarrassing, really.

Yeah. Jennifer Private, the Save America Act is a red flag for some nasty civil rights violating legal text. Every such title Patriot Act Protect America Act of 2007 always results in gross rights violations. Couldn't agree more. I mean, again, this is, look, who's going to suffer the most from this, right? Like women, because they're the people who change their names the most, and people who are worried about their privacy. I've got to tell you, John, if this were to pass, I don't know if I would vote anymore because I don't want my voter information going.

to the Department of Homeland Security. Not a chance. Not a chance. They're cops. They can call themselves whatever they want to call themselves. They're cops. And they're the worst cops. This isn't officer friendly.

This isn't Andy Griffith. No, no. No, these are ones that are shoot you in the face. Yeah. For fun and laugh about it. Yeah. Does, oh, Pink Lady wants to know, John. Do you have any pets because people

just noticed Clovis in the background. Yeah, I've been admiring Clovis. I don't have a pet. I very much would like to have a pet. I have had pets over the years. When I was a kid, I had a dog. He was a Pomeranian named Scooter, and he ran away. Oh, that sucks.

And a year later, a woman called my mom from Akron, Ohio, and said that he had shown up on her porch. And my mom told her, keep him. Did he have a tag or something? Yeah, get a tag. I had a friend who, she had a Lhasa Apso named Bogi, and she lived in New York. She went, she went on a business trip to Florida. She stayed in a motel.

And she went with her dog. Her dog got out and left. She looked for everywhere, couldn't find him, assumed that was it, right? She left her info with the motel guy. Six months later, the guy calls her and says, your dog's back. at your door. Oh, my God. And he had like a gross rope around his neck.

His fur was all nasty and matted. And his paws were, his pads were worn down completely. And it was like, Boe had some kind of adventure. I mean, he'd obviously been mistreated. But anyway, she flew down to get him. And I got to, you know, it's really funny. I'm not really that much of a dog person, but that dog loved me. And it was really funny.

I kind of started to appreciate that dog because the first time he met my ex-wife. I, bogey bit her. So he knew. You know, like never bit me, never even growled at me. Wow. Bob Schley-Huber's dog bit me. I'm very much a dog person. And dogs love me.

They really do. But, but his, his dog bit me the first time I met him on the knee. And it was painful. And Bob said, oh, I'm sorry. He doesn't like men. He was abused by a man. And I'm like, oh, no, that's, that's cool. I've had birds.

I've had three or four birds over the years, and I wouldn't mind having a cockatiel. I think that would be kind of fun. I had got to put on cockatiels. Did you really? Yeah, no, I can still do the whistle. I can still do the call. It's like,

and I can talk back to them. When I went to Australia, Ted, I was surprised that cockatoos are like, are like pigeons. There are every year. There are millions. You had cockatooes or cockatiels? Oh, cockatiels, I guess.

The smaller ones. The smaller ones. Not the big white. They're everywhere. With the yellow crest. Yeah, yeah. That's it. What is that?

That's a cockatoo. They're everywhere. There are millions of them. Yeah. I've heard that. Crazy. And then fruit bats at night, three feet, three foot wingspan that come out at night. It's crazy.

Yeah, Australia is crazy. Let's see. Z020. What would be the impact on Guantanamo Bay when the whole, when all of Cuba is in the hole? I don't think there'd be any. I mean, actually, it'll probably make the United States really appreciate having Guantanamo Bay because they'll be able to keep an eye on things. Maybe help.

But long-term listener, thoughts on Abraham Lincoln on his 217th birthday. Robbie, you have thoughts. My favorite of all time. Abraham Lincoln. Well, it just kind of touches up on what John talked about earlier, you know, about the question about why voter ID laws are so screwed up. most of the law realized this back then you're a citizen of your state that there was no concept of American citizenship there's nothing in the constitution about by the requirement being a

a United States citizen because there was no concept of being an American citizen you're a citizen of your state and so that's why that's why voter laws are the purview of the states of the state exactly and I mean know when Abraham Lincoln when he destroyed the federal system with his legal war of aggression those are some of the things that just were not ever fixed. Oh, my God. Yeah, because it was that damn Lincoln that attacked Fort Sumter. Yeah, but why did he do it?

No, he didn't do it. Ford Sumter rebelled. No, I understand that. But again, it's all about nullification, right? It's kind of how we were talking about the nullifying federal immigration law. That's what South Carolina did. South Carolina nullified the tariffs. So, a Buchanan sent troops down to Sumter or to,

to close charleson's port. Abraham Lincoln, when they were in negotiations, the governor of South Carolina was just like, no, you cannot send more troops here. Lincoln did the one thing that South Carolina said they will not allow, which is try to reinforce the fort. That's the South's excuse. The truth is that South Carolina in its articles of secession

mentioned slavery 88 times. It was about slavery. It wasn't about Fort Sumter. It wasn't about tariffs. That's just the excuse that the South has hung on to all these years. It was slavery. Slavery was definitely a pretext, but it was not the cause. The cause was like I can know this.

Slagers just, no, the war of northern aggression was about money just like every other war at history. There's no such thing as the war of northern aggression. The Southerners like me would strongly disagree with you. No, we should really, we should really do a Rumble premium episode about this. Probably that would be fun. I can win you. Just four minutes left. So thank you.

guys for that. I knew that would be entertaining guys can you talk about the Trump administration filing lawsuits against 24 states to obtain their voter rolls? I find that extremely disturbing. Very, very disturbing. And I wish, and I hope every single state fights tooth and nail and just basically

says fuck no. Yeah. Question for you, John, from Anick, why are you so adamant that Epstein could not have escaped? Guards and prison officials get paid off for much less than this kind of money all the time. No, they don't. And if you have evidence that they do present it. But listen, his brother identified the body. His brother accompanied the body to the crematorium for cremation.

I think his brother would recognize him. This AI picture and video that everybody's yacking about the last couple of days that purportedly was in wherever Israel someplace, that's all it is. It's, it's AI fantasy. You have to understand how stupid prison guards are. Many of them literally cannot read, let alone implement some complicated, multifaceted escape for the highest profile prisoner in the entire federal system. Yeah. And in a weird way, the Metropolitan Detention Center has challenges that, like, rival Alcatraz in terms of getting out, you're in the middle of a densely populated urban area, and it's a high rise.

Yeah. Right. I mean, like... It is. It's a high rise. Right. I mean, so you can think about all the floors you have to get down. You know, you can't just go, you know, climb out the window.

It's not, I mean, you know, if you got out the window, you're, you know, you're dead anyway. Let's see. There's a request from Great Mosses. Thanks for the five Canadian dollars. Guys, do weekend shows, please. More people will watch on weekends. Well, well, think about that. Like, God, John, we're not allowed any time off at all.

I know, it's killing me. I woke up this morning to 210 emails in my inbox, and I still have 45 texts I haven't answered yet. And that doesn't include, you know, LinkedIn and Facebook and X and I still have to do my taxes. It's killing me here. DeMille, hey, guys, what about the Turks? I think if the U.S. attacks Iran, Turkey might side with Iran. what say you? No.

The Turks and the Iranians don't like each other at all. No. Yeah. There's no history there. A question for John. Does he have an Instagram Clips account? Because I randomly came across John. No, I don't.

Somebody pointed this out to me last night. There's this thing called like John Curiaku clips. It has thousands, thousands of followers. And they're like, people take my podcast and have like, laser shooting out of my eyes and stuff like that or I speak in a chipmunk voice and um like alvin i mean i was amused by it too but it's not mine i have one called the real john kiriaku i wonder if there's some way to i mean i'm sure there's no fucking way to get that taken down not a chance because you have to reach i don't know where i'd start i won't i mean again i want a national law that requires

big tech companies to have a 24-7 one 800 number that anybody can call in case of something like that or like, you know, someone posts like child pornography, anything or doxing, anything urgent like that. You should be able to get through. I agree with you. Guys, thanks so much for tuning in tomorrow's the last day of the week. Friday, February 13th, we'll be back at 9 a.m. I'll be here with Manila Chan for TMI show in just about a minute. Stay tuned. If you're on Rumble, you'll just go automatically on YouTube. You'll have to go and take a look. 11 o'clock a.m. Eastern time. That's in an hour. Scott Stantis and I will be doing our weekly DMZ America podcast.

Guest is editorial cartoonist Steve Kelly. He's a great guest, and we'll be talking about the state of the nation. He's a conservative. So, FYI. Thanks, John. See you tomorrow at 9. Good to see you. Bye-bye.