Judging Freedom - AMB. Chas Freeman : US/Saudi Alliance Over

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

AMB. Chas Freeman : US/Saudi Alliance OverSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preempted war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish

fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is Tuesday, September 15th, 2006. Ambassador Chaz Freeman will be with us in just a moment. Is Saudi Arabia still an ally of the United States? But first this.

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while I was traveling and it's great to be back with you on our Tuesday morning get-togethers. Before we get to the United States and Saudi Arabia and what may very well be a rupture in the relationship between the two countries, last week Russia attacked a train station at the Russia-Polish border moments after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. had passed by and moments before a former CIA director and head of SINCOM General David Petraeus was to pass by. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. I think it's a warning.

I think the Russians are about to go for broke in Ukraine, and they're demonstrating their ability to control the borders of Ukraine, transit on the land as well as on the sea. They've made Ukraine a landlocked country by controlling the port of Odhjessa and related ports on the Black Sea. They're now clearly prepared to cut it off on the land as well. And the fact that you had these two important visitors sandwiching their attack is all for the best in their view because it amplifies the warning. Yesterday, President Putin gave a very serious warning to the West. I don't believe you can interpret it for us. We'll play it in a clip.

I don't believe it was aimed at the United States, but it was clearly aimed at Western Europe. Chris, cut number six, please. I think that everything that is happening in Europe as a whole is the result of systemic mistakes by the so-called West. We said many times that NATO's eastward expansion was unacceptable to us. Eventually, they reached Ukraine. This ultimately became the real root cause of today's tragic events in Ukraine. The Western globalist elites are to blame for this. Now they are saying that they are thinking about how to deploy troops on the territory of Ukraine.

This means war with Russia. As I understand it, the citizens of European countries understand what is happening. This means war with Russia. Are you surprised to hear him speak like that? Not really because the Europeans, backed by our CIA and by the British and my 6th, have been striking deep into Russia, striking targets in Russia, largely infrastructure and especially refineries. And ironically, Donald Trump, whose own CIA is in his complicit in this, has,

has now appealed to the Ukrainians to halt such strikes because diesel is, what, about $6, $0.25 cents a gallon now in the United States. So as a whole, at about over $10 in California, which is crippling our transport industry. So, but I'm not surprised because, you know, Europeans have steadily escalated against Russia. The Russia has clearly reached a point where further escalation will be answered. by them with something beyond Ukraine. And I think it's fair to say that the Russian thesis that Western troops, NATO troops, troops from an alliance aimed at Russia, being stationed in Ukraine, would pose an intolerable threat to Russia,

has been validated by the Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets deep inside Russia, the Russian shipping in the Black Sea, in the sea of itself and so forth, and attacks on Moscow, attacks on Vladimir Putin's own Dasha retreat. So I don't think there's any doubt whatsoever that the nonsense about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whether it was wise or not, being unprovoked, I think that's just totally refuted.

And I think we're in a very serious moment. Also last weekend, Iran attacked the major U.S. air base in Jordan. And according to, there it is, according to our friend Alster Crook did severe damage, not so much to U.S. aviation equipment like jets and helicopters, but to the digital and computer equipment that directs and guides them. No U.S. response to this, Ambassador. Does that surprise you? A little bit.

I mean, I think the administration is trying to pretend as it says that the Iraq-Iran war is, quote, small potatoes, unquote, nothing to worry about. Don't look at this, look at something else. And of course, the Department of Defense, so-called Department of War, has a history of complete cover-up of everything that has been done. Casualties, loss of equipment. We know that F-35 through about 30 Reaper drone aircraft and A-10 and other aircraft have been destroyed. I think Alist is probably correct about the computer facility. He said in Wafix Sala, in Saudi in Jordan.

But don't look for any information from the U.S. side, which is trying to pretend that there's nothing going on, even as Donald Trump promises, that after the midterms, the war will end. I fear that he may be thinking about the use of nuclear weapons. His Undersecretary of Defense, Elbridge Colby, is said to be busily working on developing a doctrine that would support the use of nuclear weapons again on a first use basis by the United States against Iran

a non-nuclear power, we think. We don't know whether Iran now has developed nuclear weapons or not, because we don't know what's going on underground in Iran, apparently. So, yeah, I'm a bit surprised by the lack of response, but it's consistent with a theory with a posture that says, let's not remind the American country. people of the defeat that we've suffered in West Asia. I think the American people are reminded of you were ordered to this a few minutes ago with the gas prices almost literally going through the roof.

I mean, you may not own a diesel vehicle, but you surely have something in your kitchen cabinet that was delivered to the grocer in a truck fueled by diesel, and you're paying more for it. There's diesel outside of Atlanta, Georgia, $6. and 40 cents a gallon in northern New Jersey for super gas, the so-called high test. I paid $5 a gallon on Sunday. That's 25 cents more than two weeks earlier. And as you say in California, diesel is already up to $9 and $10 a gallon.

So the president can do his best to divert attention. One of his efforts to divert its efforts to divert its. attention was where he tried to blame President Zelensky, President Zelensky's attacks on the Russian refineries, causing American diesel to go up. I mean, this is really absurd and nobody believes it. There it is. I hope everyone realizes, I'm reading from his truth social, the price increases throughout America were caused by sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden administration, not by Trump. another clip where he actually says, I called Zelensky and asked him to stop attacking Russia refineries because it's raising the price of oil in America. Nobody buys that. But of course,

those attacks are being facilitated by U.S. intelligence. So is Donald Trump in charge of the U.S. government or not? Right. That is a question. Right. I thought one of the most awful moments of recent days was when he was asked whether he had confidence in Messrs. Whitkoff and Kushner, and he replied, oh, yeah, they're doing a great job. Look at Gaza. Well, that raises two questions. Has he looked at Gaza? Because that's hard to describe as a great job. Or was the purpose of the Whitkoff and Kushner duo negotiating with Israel and with Hamas and so forth, to conduct a sort of sort of urban removal, slum removal in Gaza that would facilitate this macabre scheme of building a resort on the corpses of dead Palestinians. What was the purpose? If the latter,

it's purely evil. And I suspect that is more plausible than that Donald Trump, attached as he is from reality, is unaware of the current condition of Gaza and the people there. Also last weekend, and this is the principal subject of our conversation because of your expertise in this area, you are a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The Houthis attacked and captured the Bob Al-Mandeb Street. So from an economic point of view, that's the shown in the map on the screen now is the X at the bottom. The X at the top is the Strait of Hormuz about which we spoke almost daily for a couple of months. The X in the middle is the Saudi East-West pipeline, which has either been destroyed or shut down. Can you take us from there, please, Ambassador?

Well, Saudi Arabia is facing a worst-case scenario. Its economy is about 45%, 44% dependent on oil exports. 55, 56% on other non-oil-related activities. And all of that has been shut down. It can't export through the Strait of Hormuz because that is being jointly located by the Iran and the United States Navy. It now can't export through the Babal Mandev

because that is controlled by Ansar al-A, the Uthis, with whom it is engaged in an escalating war And it doesn't have any oil to export through the Red Sea, the Bdhlamandab or the Suez Canal, because Iraqi, not Iranian, not Houthi, not the Yemeni militias, succeeded in blowing up a key pumping station on the east-west crude oil pipeline that is depicted there in the map. So Saudi Arabia asked the United States for help against the Houthis, to reopen the Babelmandib and was refused by Donald Trump, apparently twice. The Secretary of Energy in the United States claims that the pipeline, East West pipeline,

which is responsible for about 5% of global energy supplies, will be very rapidly repaired. But a word from experts is that this is a three to five week, process at best, even more if the attacks that can continue from Iraq. The Iraqi government takes this very seriously. They're trying to round up and stop the attacks from their territory on the Saudis because they know that the Saudis will retaliate against them, and they're kind of tired of war after having experienced the American invasion, occupation, and all of the consequences of that in their country. So I guess I would finish this by saying that this is a nightmare for Saudi Arabia.

It has historically relied on the United States to protect it against stronger enemies. It is clear that the United States was involved in the war on the Houthis for quite a number of years. And then, in fact, attempted over the course of a year, spent about a billion dollars. and expended a lot of naval assets to try to suppress the Houthi control of the battle of Nandib and the effects on the global oil supply of that. And we failed, and we sailed away declaring victory, the A conformity on having been applied. The Houthis are being very careful now. They are not obstructing ships other than those bound to or from or under the control of Saudi Arabia.

everybody else can get through, they say. So this is calculated to isolate the Saudis and ensure that there's no effective international coalition form to support the Saudi war on them. There was to have been a meeting in Salala in Oman yesterday between the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, which was. wasn't going to join, actually, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, and, of course, Oman, the host.

The Saudis asked for a postponement. I think they realize that they are confronting a major strategic decision. They need to decide what to do about their alliance with the United States, which no longer supports their economy no longer protects them. I mean, what use is an ally if the ally ignored? you're pleased for support when you're desperate. Right. They have to decide whether they agree to the terms that Oman and Iran have apparently worked out to control the state of foremost so it can be reopened. How do they get rid of the American blockade?

What is the peace architecture to follow this war? Can the Iranians who are really the only ones in a position to mediate? between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis agree to do that. That will recognize a bit of Iranian influence in the region. The Saudis are very loath to do. And in the midst of all this, the Iranian Foreign Minister of Aikji is off to Beijing, which is a conciliator capable of composing differences between the Gulf Cooperation Council Arabs and Iran, and has done so.

It's brokered the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in earlier days. So this is the maps that you show conceal a great deal of motion diplomatically behind the scenes, and we don't know what it will produce. But whatever it is, it's going to be a greatly reduced American position in the region. Why do you suppose Donald Trump turned down his friend, Mohamed, had been Salman twice over the weekend when bin Salman was desperate for American military assistance. I think it's all driven by domestic politics. As I said, he doesn't want the American public the voters to focus on the debacle in West Asia. He doesn't want to start yet another war for the

United States. American capacity to conduct war is greatly reduced by the expenditure of munitions and air defenses. We are, every time we attack Iran now, we further weaken our ability to deal with contingencies. Elsewhere, if the Chinese really wanted to move on Taiwan, this would be the moment for them to do so because we couldn't effectively oppose them. The combatant commanders everywhere except in West Asia,

or Brad Cooper continues to promote, combat, probably at the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu, who wants the war to start up again because there's an election in Israel on October 27th, and he wants to be the wartime Premier who can't be dislodged from office or maybe have an excuse to cancel the elections. Anyway, with the exception of the SETCOM commander, the commanders in European Command, a civic command and elsewhere are all saying, look, you know, you're depleting our ability to execute any of our war plans. We are being gutted for this foolish war in Iran and imply, of course, it's not for them to say this,

but they imply that war should be promptly ended, which is, I think, the view of the American people, the view of everyone except Trump and his immediate entourage who are a bunch of sycophants who never tell him the truth because they're afraid of him. Here's Trump blaming the price of gasoline in America. He says it several times on President Zelensky, Chris, cut number one. Diesel is being driven up by the fact that he's having a hard time coming out of Russia. And that's the case that hurts the world. We've got to stop them.

Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel fuel. This isn't done by the Middle East. This is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. So we spoke to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets.

Don't hit diesel fuel. Because that's hurting the world. We don't want him to hit diesel fuel. He's hitting diesel refinery. Who the heck believes that? I can't imagine who does, but there must be people out there who do. There are true believers. This man has a cult.

You know, so what you and I find absolutely absurd, they stomach because it comes from the revered sacred source, Trump. Well, Chris, put up the full screen of Costco, please. I mean, this is a place that the economic model is to buy in bulk. We all know this. Engine oil purchase limit two per member. You've got to be a member to buy there. This is a place that would sell you a truckload if you wanted it and give you a great discount. Now they'll only sell you two cans. What does that tell you? It tells me. It tells that the moment we have all anticipated in which the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

which had been drawn down to keep prices relatively bonded is the moment when that can't be done has happened. The world's storage of oil is depleted. The heavy crude from the West Asia that has been the source

of both diesel and jet fuel, watch prices for airline tickets now, is blocked. This has nothing to do or very little to do with Zelensky striking refineries in Russia. It has to do with the Iran War, which Donald J. Trump, at the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu, launched on February 28th of this year, following up a foolish attack a year early. earlier in June. And we have seen in this war that there is no military action that can bring the Strait of Hormuz back to openness. So free transit. The world is now confronted with a choice of how much it can bargain with Iran on the terms of Iranian control of the Strait of Burmose. There is a diplomatic answer to this. There is no military answer. And the war

of economic attrition that we've launched against Iran is being lost by us at the gas pump. So the midterms are going to be interesting indeed. Why do the Israelis and the Trump administration continue to underestimate Iran and the Houthis? Well, both are suffering from the debasement of their intelligence apparatuses. You know, the CIA and the other 16 intelligence agencies in the United States apparently are scared to tell Trump, but he doesn't want to hear. The same problem that arises in his dealing with foreign nations, he respects only those who stand up against him or those who have material with which to blackmail him.

I don't know whether the CIA has brought material to blackmail him, but they won't do with his own CIA director, who is an inexperienced political figure, not an intelligence specialist, tells him what he wants to hear. The people in the intelligence agencies that told him otherwise, Tulsi Gabbard, for example, are gone. You can't survive in the Trump administration if you tell the president what he doesn't want to hear. Wow. In my two meetings with Foreign Minister Lavrov, the first with our colleagues, Professor Mearsheimer, Alster, Crook, and his wife, and Larry Johnson was a three-hour dinner at the Foreign Minister's residence. In that dinner, he told us, now this was off the record, but there was no restriction on recounting it. And he was vastly more guarded the next day when I, along with a Russian American journalist of renown by the name of Dmitri Symes conducted a one-hour interview.

You know Dmitri's. But what he told the five of us at dinner was the deep Russian disappointment. at Anchorage. The belief that the Americans had offered a proposal for the total resolution of the war about five days before, President Putin didn't like it. The fine ministry and President Putin's aides talked him into it. He announced ahead of time or told the Americans ahead of time, I'm going to accept your offer. They got to Anchorage. The offer was there. They shook hands. Putin said, what about Zelensky? Trump said Zelensky will do whatever I tell him to. they shook hands they left. The Russians believed they had a deal. The deal was for the Dunbuss and

the Crimea, unmistakably to become Russian, for Russian speakers to be liberated from violence and from repression of their Russian speakers in Ukraine and from their religion and their language choice in Ukraine and for Ukraine to be totally neutral and never again to consider NATO. The Russians left Anchorage believing that was a deal, and then they learned that it was not after President Trump's neocon advisors talked him out of it. Okay, all this is background to a statement made a few minutes ago by Foreign Minister Lavrov referencing Anchorage. Chris? If the Americans hadn't, and I truly mean this, if they hadn't backed away from the critical Anchorage agreements, and if Europe had actually...

pulled them away from those essential commitments we would have been living in peace without the shadow of war for a full year already. It is a tragedy that we find ourselves in this position today. That is an obvious fact. So draw your own conclusions. What he told us at greater length and more detail at that dinner ambassador. I'm sure this doesn't surprise you. It doesn't.

I mean, here, the United States government, used to be a symphony conducted by the president, many, many elements playing in concert. It's now a one-man band, Donald J. Trump. And there's no mechanism for formulating policy on an orderly way or implementing policy or monitoring the implementation of policy in this administration. Therefore, whatever you agree with Donald Trump,

even if he's sincere at the time he agrees to it, which is not necessarily true, is not going to get implemented. And this goes back to his use of amateur inexperienced, untrained, unprofessional, self-nest-feathering envoys like Wittgenre, Ritchcock and Kushner. They have a batting average of zero, unless you consider advancing the Israeli extermination of Palestinians in Gaza to be a success. Well, Ambassador Freeman, a great analysis. If you would stay for a minute, I want to ask you a question off air, but thank you very much for your time, as always, and we'll look forward to seeing you next week. All the best.

And to you. Thank you. Coming up soon, if you're watching us live in 29 minutes at 9 o'clock this morning, Professor John Mearsheimer at 10 o'clock this morning, Aaron Mate, at 2 this afternoon. afternoon, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson at three this afternoon, Colonel Karen Kutkowski, Justin Paul Tano for judging freedom.