Judging Freedom - COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Zelenskyy Threatens to Drone Attack Civilian Airline in Moscow

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Zelenskyy Threatens to Drone Attack Civilian Airline in MoscowSee 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 preemptive 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. Welcome to Moscow coming to you live from the bar of the Hotel National across the street from Red Square. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson joins us now. Colonel Larry, a pleasure, my dear friend. I know this is not your usual day or your usual time. It's 20 after four in the afternoon here Thursday, Moscow time. It's early morning where you are.

But thank you very much for accommodating my can only be described as insane schedule this week. If Christopher Leonard hadn't told me today was Thursday, I don't think I'd know what day it was. It takes a long time to get here and I had a good night's sleep last night. What is your understanding of the status of things on the ground in Ukraine as we speak? This is a very, very hot issue with the people with whom I interact here at Moscow. I can imagine there's a lot of controversy right now amongst most of the people that I deal with in terms of their expertise. on Europe and on this Ukraine more in particular.

I think what we're looking at is the beginning of the closing stages, and the closing stages are going to be pretty much in favor of Russia, as any fool even could understand given paying real attention of what's happening on the ground and at sea. That said, I think the real question right now, and amongst quite a few of these people, is what's going to happen to Zelensky, and what are going to be his parting blows, if you will,

and what's going to be the ultimate immediate resolution of Ukraine having to accept the fact that the only way they're going to get this to stop and to stop the killing and much else that's going on that's just destroying what's left of Ukraine right now is to go to some kind of peace agreement deal. Negotiations call them what you will, that is almost 99% on Russia's side. I don't know how that's going to resolve for Zelensky, but I would say there's probably a big bull's eye on his back and on his chest right now.

I would imagine, Colonel, that if this is resolved by some diplomatic, or shall we say, conference table resolution, the entity on the Ukrainian side cannot be Zelensky, A, because of the manner in which he has behaved and run the war, B, because he is not the legitimate head of state C, because the Russians simply won't deal with him. Is that your understanding as well? I think so. And I think I would say this, that his disappearance, which would be preferred, or his death, is going to be the immediate thing that keys some sort of a meeting and some sort of an understanding. about what that meeting can and cannot accomplish. Now, the fly in this ointment,

and I had a long discussion with an Italian newspaper editor in Rome this morning about this. We're mostly of the same mind, but I was coming out a little more forcefully than he. The real fly in this ointment are the Europeans. They, Stormer, for example, not Starmer, but Meitz, for example, in Berlin, in a mortal battle for his life politically and otherwise with Alice, the AFD leader, who is more and more impressive every time I see her and hear her. And to a certain extent, Macron and the new guy in London, they won't give up. And the 90 billion euros that they've allocated in perpetuity, essentially,

to Ukraine's defense is still there to be called upon as necessary. I don't know how they're going to get around this. It takes me back to Powell's comments in 1989 when he was very prescient and said when Kohl and Meet the Ron and Thatcher and Major and all these people whose feet was in the war are gone, Europe will turn into a bloody mess. You know, there is an answer to this and I don't know that he will do it. The answer is Donald Trump. I mean, Trump would basically have to say, look, I spoke with Putin. The war is over.

Zelensky's gone. You guys want anything. any support for NATO in your countries at all. Stop supporting the Rump government. That's it. Here's the solution. Putin agrees with it. The new government, which we will install in Ukraine or will naturally develop in Ukraine, will have to accept it.

Will Trump do that? Colonel Wilkerson? I would like to say that, yes, he would if he thought the art of the deal was there, but I can't guarantee that. don't know the man that well. And I frankly think that many people who are telling me this, who are experts in the field, his dementia is growing, fueled by his excessive narcissism and fueled by his megalomania. It's growing. He won't listen to anyone anymore. And the two people who are running the United States government right now, I mean that sincerely, Judge, are the deputy

chief of staff for policy, Steve Miller and the budget director, VALP. Well, Larry, that's about as dangerous a situation as you can imagine. I mean, the budget director doesn't believe in the Constitution. And the other fellow, it's hard for me to come up with the words adequately to describe his understanding of government. The people that ran Germany in the 30s come to mind, Larry. Yes. I'm being told that Miller in particular, that Vought in his

way because of the Heritage Foundation, Project 25 and all that, are more powerful than Susie Wiles, J.D. Vance, or anybody else in the administration, whatever they say, they say in Trump's name, and he never contradicts them. Well, we also have a president who many times has said words to the effect of, I don't understand why I have all these beautiful new weapons and I can't use them. And you know what he's talking about. Yes. And Elbridge Colby, Elbridge Colby in the Pentagon has more or less, he echoes Jonathan Pollard.

If you've seen those interviews Jonathan Pollard did in Israel, where he says, I'm a Russian, really. I was trained as a Russian. That's an absolute lie in terms of the Russian philosophy. They're just as scared of nuclear weapons as we should be. But he says we should use nuclear weapons. And I'm not talking about using them secondarily or tertiary. I'm talking about starting with them. I would think that General Kane and his people would absolutely refuse to do it.

What will Trump do, fire them. Hegset will do whatever Trump tells him to do. Hegset thinks he's going to be the Republican nominee from president in 2028. Who the hell knows if we were going to have elections in 2028? It's a very, very dangerous state of affairs. Let's get back to Ukraine. Chris, can you post or can you run cut number 10? This is President Zelenskyy threatening

civilian airlines in Russia. Today we want to issue a serious warning to every single airline that continues to utilize Russian airspace, to every insurer involved, and to everyone who still relies on key Russian airports. Please understand that the Russian sky is now becoming completely and utterly dangerous for all international travel. We urge you to take this threat seriously and reconsider your operations immediately. It is important that the relevant airlines, which are currently flying to airports'

primarily in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other key Russian destinations hear this. You talk about announcing that you're going to commit war crimes. This is an act of radical desperation. Is it not Colonel Wilkerson? It is. And let me tell you something else that just concerns me deeply because I've been in the bow of this beast. If CIA prompted him to make that announcement, then we are dead. dealing with a beast that has grown beyond the proportions that even I saw in 2003 in preparation for Powell's presentation at the UN. But let me add, I would find it very easy to believe that

CIA put him up to that. Why would CIA put him up to you know the C. We all know the CIA is divorced from the truth and often divorced from reality. Why would the CIA put Zelensky up to something like that, Colonel. Because they are so heavily invested in this conflict. I would say of all the components of American power, bureaucratic American power, cabinet level American power, CIA is most heavily invested in this conflict. And when you get an intelligence agency of their funding and their size, and I mean both personnel and stretch and reach across the globe, when you get them in a situation like this, go back and look at what happened at the end of World War II. And the SIS, now MI6 and CIA, SOS in that time, Donovan would create the CIA out of it.

When you look at that and you understand what happened at that time, you understand why Harry Truman, for example, did his best and was unsuccessful to thwart Donovan's creation of the CIA. And you understand why Kennedy said after the Cuban Missile Crisis, I wish I could break it up and scatter it across the earth, or words to that effect. They're not too powerful, too moneyed, and too much a part of the warping woof of what America does in the world. They're the leading edge, if you will, of American foreign policy, along with sanctions and more. Dangerous, I suppose, is an understatement. any more now today's September 3rd about the trip that John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA made here right across the street from there I am to spend four hours in the Kremlin 10 days ago

one aspect of it that I kind of dismissed but I probably shouldn't have that I have subsequently learned was probably maybe not the substantial part of his visit but it certainly was a part of his visit but it certainly was a part of his visit, probably one reason real characters in the Russian government, as to say people who decide things wouldn't meet with him, and that goes for Sergei Lovov, too, was to essentially warn Russia about any kind of attack on NATO in terms of outside Ukraine, like Lithuania or whatever you might. Pick up a little tidbit this morning, Judge. It's an interesting tidbit.

That's here. More than 100 defense companies have been stood up in Lithuania. Guess who's behind that? You don't have to ponder that too much as to who created these defense companies in Lithuania. Wow. Wow. Here's a montage of Donald Trump and the man of West President when you ran the State Department,

George W. Bush, Chris Cut number 12. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons. When somebody comes up and says, why are we doing this? Just say because we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. We know that treacherous history of the regime. It has waged a war against his neighbors. They did something which was very foolish, very stupid, I would say. They attacked their neighbors. Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies. Iran, number one state sponsor of terror, they send their money all over the world to create problems. You either with us or you're against us in the fight against terror.

And we're telling people either you are with us or against us. You're either against us or you're with us. And you don't want to be siding with Iran right now. Great job, Chris did. I'm putting that together. Colonel, what country is the world's leading sponsor of terror? You can take your pick amongst three or four, but I would say at any given times that will do Arabia is the biggest sponsor. And I include in that and am getting more and more data points every day that goes by virtually, 9-11. I am absolutely convinced now that not only did the royals, and that includes the top in Saudi Arabia, have four knowledge of 9-11. They actually acquiesced in the massive funding that was put out, including the famous case in California, that more or less made it possible for the hijackers to do what they did.

Wow. Colonel, a question about the Israelis in both of these. One, 9-11, two, as sponsors of terrorism, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza. If you want to talk about state-sponsored terrorism in a compact package as exhibited very graphically after October the 7th, then Israel becomes undoubtedly, the world's greatest state sponsor of terrorism, because almost every act, like is becoming the case with us against Iran in this present conflict in Southwest Asia, every act is a war crime. Every single act virtually is a war crime. So when you define terrorism, attacks on civilians for basically military purposes, then it's a war crime. then Israel is in its own way right now, one of, if not the greatest state sponsors of terrorism. I'm sure every Palestinian Arab would probably agree with that statement without a bad of a

eye. You know, there are two definitions of terrorism. The federal government's term definition is two or more acts of violence intended to affect the government policy. Okay, I get it. That's a technical definition. The other one is violence on civilians. for political purposes. You just cited the second. Do you know who originated that second definition?

My understanding is when we did the research, very extensive research in January of 2001, it was, with Will Taft, Powell's lawyer, John Berringer, Condi's lawyer, and that crew from justice, including people like John Kuh, the Korean, I forget his name now. John You. Yeah, John, you and David Addington. I'd never leave out David Addington. Cheney's Constitution in his code pocket, carrying a lawyer who was the most bizarre person

I probably ever met my life in terms of interpretation of the Constitution. The main man on the theory of the all-powerful executive. When we discussed that at length and came up with definitions that were outside Geneva and so forth, We used as the creator of that definition the UN Convention on Torture. Well, when he was asked to un-meet the press, how he defined terrorism, B.B. Netanyahu, the great practitioner of it, gave that definition, taxed on civilians for political purposes. Is that not what Ben-Gavir does in the West Bank, what the IDF does in

Gaza, in Syria, and in Lebanon. Routine. And by the way, this morning, Iran announced if it's true, and it came from a source that in the past has proven more or less reliable. Iran has promised that if B.B. makes this attack that is now being ginned up on southern Lebanon, then all bets are off. They're attacking Israel again. Well, Colonel, I don't know how this is going to end or where it's going to end in the in the Middle East because the United States military is almost hopeless and the president's resorting to economic pressures, which will take a very, very, very long time to have the effect

that he wants, if at all. But back to Ukraine, do you sense, I sense, I've only been here for 24 hours and I'm meeting some very, very significant people in the next two days. Do you sense an acceleration of military activities designed to decapitate the Ukrainian regime coming from Moscow? I do. And I also, I hate to say this, but I also anticipate if this doesn't lead pretty swiftly to some talks that are meaningful, I anticipate more bodies in Ukraine being in coffins and maybe shipped by Russia back to the requisite countries, including the United States, probably Germany, probably France, probably Britain, probably Sweden, maybe others. You know, two of our buddies, Colonel McGregor and Scott Ritter, and three, and Larry Johnson,

have told me there's a lot more American bodies than the United States. the United States has recognized. Larry is of the view the reason John Ratcliffe flew in a very uncomfortable military transport from Dallas to Moscow, rather than his very comfortable, personally assigned CIA Director Gulfstream. It's because he had to bring coffins back of American contractors in CIA killed in Ukraine, bodies rescued, preserved, and bombed, et cetera, the Russians. I agree. I think that's probably one off, if not the primary reason, that he went in the aircraft

he went in. Well, the point of all this is Americans dying and the government not revealing it. Ritter is convinced the same thing as the case in the Middle East that a lot more than 18 are dead, but the government is attributing the deaths to other reasons so that under the law, can characterize and catalog those deaths as other than combat related. Does the government really think the American people want to be misled like this? Colonel, you could spend hours answering that question. Yeah. I'm amazed at the quiescence of the American people with regard to the military until I think about my history at the All-Boleteer Force Forum. We predicted all of this,

General Dennis Lach, myself, others members of the forum, even Bernie Rossiter, who ran the Secret Service System for Ronald Reagan at our first meeting. We predicted this. The American people have lost contact entirely with those people in the military because they do not belong to them. They are in essence mercenaries. I'm going to give you one more cut. This is President Trump saying, are you ready for this? Under the right circumstances, he'll meet again on Zelensky. I don't think he can do anything with Zelensky, but let's listen. Chris, cut number 15.

Is there any hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin would do another summit with you and in the near future? Oh, well, he'd do it if I wanted it, but I want to do it when we're ready to do a peace deal. I want to do it. You know, we want to have good relationship with Russia, Ukraine, with everybody. Be great for business. Russia's got great land and very valuable. land, a lot of good things happening. But no, we could do one. I bet I could do it immediately.

I want to do it when that war is ending. And I think we will. I want to do it when that war is ending. And I think we will. So how many promises does that man have to make with regard to Ukraine and not keep to have everyone realize he's a lying sack of proverbial horse dung? Right. I'm sorry. Let me let me let me let me let me. Let me say something else, Judge. Sure. If I were J.D. Vance, the first thing I would do is cut and run from this place, as politically feasible and as viable an exit as I could make because he's young.

He's got a lot of possibilities in the future. He's got Teal's money behind him and so forth. If he stays with this gang, he's finished. He's absolutely finished. And one of the things I'd be thinking about right now, if I were he, is that breaking of the tie vote in the Senate to put. Pete Higgseth in the position he's in now because he is a clear and present danger to the armed forces of the United States and therefore to the United States.

Thank you, Colonel. This is Senator Tom Tillis. I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country, referring, of course, to HECSF. Colonel, I have to run. Thank you very much for your time today. Thanks for your patience with the internet issues. We'll look forward to seeing you again next week. All the best, my friend. Take care and stay safe. Thank you. Thank you.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure who will be on or when they'll be on, but probably in the morning, East Coast time. Look for the announcements on our website, Judge Napolitano. Thank you for your patience today, everyone, Judge the Politano, for judging freedom.