Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: A Global Chessboard New Alliances and Emerging Threats

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Larry Johnson: A Global Chessboard New Alliances and Emerging ThreatsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, March 4th, 2024. Larry Johnson joins us now. Larry, a pleasure. Thank you very much for joining us. A lot to talk about some of the political implications to the horrific plight of the Gaza people with respect to Joe Biden in Michigan and George Galloway being elected to Parliament in Great Britain. But before we get to that, over the weekend, it appears that the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed the presence of the French and German military personnel, I don't know if they're in uniform or not, in Ukraine. That must mean that Americans and Brits are also there. It's hard to imagine the French and the Germans being there without the Americans and the British there. What do you make of this revelation,

and what are they doing there, if they're there? There's trouble in the NATO relationship, a disturbance in the force, to use a Star Wars analogy, and they need some marriage counseling, because they're certainly starting to snipe at each other. This highly touted NATO unity we've heard about, it's gone. So this all really started with that intercepted conversation that was released to Russia Today, RT, on Friday. And that has really attracted the attention of the Russian people. I've been watching RT.

It's been their lead story for the last three days. So they're not letting off on it. And in that intercepted conversation, those German generals admitted that there were French and German and Brits on the ground in Ukraine and that there were all these American voices. So basically, NATO, almost all the major countries in NATO have personnel on the ground fighting alongside Ukrainian military forces. And Schultz, you know, he just came out basically and piled on. So, and the Brits, the Brits are feigning outrage. And look, the Brits are a joke. They, you know, we talked about the problem with their submarine-launched ICBMs,

the ejectile dysfunction. They can't even get it out of the tube, or if it gets out of the tube, it plops into the water. So they can't fill their recruiting goals, and yet they're trying to play like they're the big dog in NATO, and they're not. Yet they have been, of all of the NATO countries, probably the most active in doing training, in working with the extremists, the neo-Nazis, protecting the neo-Nazis. And so it's just, it's not a good situation.

You don't have, NATO's not all rowing in the same direction, I guess is the best way to put it. Did President Macron of France openly offer to send special forces, almost as if to go one step further than what was revealed in this Pilford conversation amongst the German generals and tacitly, I don't know if it's tacitly acknowledged or not by Scholz. Does Scholz admit that the conversation was real or is he silent on it? Oh, no, no, it's real. In fact, the Germans have confirmed that it's real finally, and they've opened a major investigation to find out, you know, who did this. And it's really touched off a political crisis. I've been hearing from some friends in Germany that this very well could lead to the ouster of Scholz in his current position and a shakeup of the German government.

So Macron, you know, Macron was raising, he was discussing, you know, leaving open the possibility. Oh, yes, yes, yes, we can't take it off the table. We need to seriously consider it. What comes out, though, of all of this, when you peel back the surface and you get down into the guts of what's going on, they acknowledge, even these German generals acknowledge that,

okay, hey, we approved Taurus missiles. We're going to send those missiles, which represent a significant threat to Russia. It's going to take six to eight months. One, you've got the problem of producing them. Two, you've got the problem of producing them two you got the problem of producing uh the mounts what's going to actually hold uh the missiles onto uh the aircraft that would be the delivery vehicle and and then uh three you've got you got the training problem you got to train the ukrainians to use them and they they're basically we're acknowledging that you know well if we can't get the Ukrainians to use them, we'll use our own people.

So this is, NATO is, you know, slowly getting pregnant here. Is Taurus a German or an American product? It's German. Because? We used to think it was the Ford car, you know, the Taurus. But this is a German missile. I mean, Chancellor Scholz acknowledged publicly, according to Alistair Crook,

that Taurus would require German technicians. He didn't say intelligence and he didn't say military. He said technicians in order to operate. Yeah, well, it just goes without the assumption, the underlying assumption with all of this is that it will use NATO ISR, the Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Capabilities, which means satellite intelligence, as well as that provided from some of the fixed-wing aircraft.

Is NATO waging war against Russia, Larry? Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah. No, it's clear. This is crazy. When the United States was providing covert aid to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the Soviets, they thought we were doing that, but the CIA went to great pains to try to cover it up and try to, so that there was not this open conflict. It was a surrogate conflict. NATO is no longer taking that step at all. It is clearly out in the open. And I heard just last night, there was a report that the Russians hit one of those CIA bases that was talked about in the New York Times piece a week ago, Monday, and that it killed some CIA officers, as well as some of the special operations forces for the Ukrainians that were being trained. Now, it's unconfirmed, but there was a video report to that effect last night.

So where does this go from here? Does this go towards World War III, or do the Republicans stand firm, no aid for Ukraine, and Zelensky signs a peace treaty in the next couple of months. This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences,

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So they're going to continue to suffer major attrition on the manpower front. Then they do not have the ability to produce the weapons themselves. And it turns out neither does NATO. NATO talks a great game about, oh, yeah, we're going to supply you all these artillery shells, but then after, you know, like the Europeans promised last year, oh, we'll do a million shells, you got it. They couldn't even do 300,000.

So, you know, talking's one thing, actually being able to deliver is another. And so with the shortage of manpower, shortage of weapons, Ukraine's ability to fight is going to continue to erode dramatically as the Russians are faced with none of those problems. They have just the opposite. Their manpower is increasing and it's trained manpower. It's personnel that has been in the pipeline for over a year, number one. Their production of

artillery shells, the barrels that go with the artillery pieces, they're producing those. Those have to be replaced. Tanks, the drones, new missiles, they just came out. I think the Zircon tanks, the drones, new missiles. They just came out.

I think the Zircon hypersonic missile was just deployed and used within the last week and a half. So, you know, it's a complete mismatch. Now, NATO can think, oh, yeah, we're going to go challenge them. I heard one crazy commentator, you know, talking about sending the 101st Airborne. Oh, yeah, they could cross the border and get into the fight. You know, there's no way for the United States to sustain those troops in a battle. You know, it's not just a one-day deal or two days.

It's like if you're going to insert combat troops into theater, there has to be a logistics chain that's going to make sure that they've got food, that they have water, that they have ammunition, that they have the medical care that's going to be needed for all of the wounded soldiers that are going to start showing up. And the United States simply does not have that logistics chain in place. So it's one of those things where trying to pick a fight with somebody

who's actually in top shape fighting condition, and we've been sitting at home eating Doritos and watching television. Isn't it crazy for the CIA to remain in those 12 places that were articulated in the New York Times? I mean, if they've been there, surely the Russian intelligence knows that they're there, knows where they are, is listening to them, knows their every move. Well, that's why we talked about this on Friday, that these were not isolated incidents of the New York Times article coming out and then Vladimir Putin making his speech to the state of Russia, followed by the leak of this conversation of these generals who were German generals in Singapore talking about, well, should

we use the Taurus missile or not? And if we do, it's going to be all these different problems. The Russians are making it very clear to the West that they have, they're approaching, if not crossing, a red line, and Russia's going to hit them. And I think that that strike last night on this one, what was described as a CIA base, I think it's, you know, Russia is going to start killing more of these foreign mercenaries at bases that are in Ukraine that in the past they may have shied

away from simply because they didn't want to create that additional tension. But I think now they don't care. And what happens when the United States has to recognize, because this will be leaked, the number of Americans killed, whether they're special ops in uniform, special ops out of uniform, or CIA? Well, and this is going to be used to try to gin up outrage. How dare the Russians do this? You know, it's like getting upset at the drivers. If you decide to go play in the middle of the freeway and get run over,

you get upset at the drivers who are driving in the freeway. Sorry. You know, the United States chose to insert itself into this war, and there are going to be casualties. Now, during an election year, that's going to, you know, I think that's going to play poorly. You're not seeing what you're seeing in Israel. You know, I saw what Alistair said this morning with respect to the Israelis, where the movement right in the support of these extremist

parties that want to exterminate Palestinians, that even the young people are lining up on that. You're not seeing that similar kind of movement to embrace like, yeah, let's all put on a uniform and rush over to Ukraine or to the Middle East and let's see how many different wars we can get into. That's what we as Americans want to do. It's just the opposite. They can't, the various services can't fill the recruiting goals. Here's Secretary Austin. Now, this is audio only, but it's him testifying on Friday. He got beaten

up quite a bit over his secrecy about his hospital trip. Well, we do have the video and his absence from office, but this is not about that. This is part of the administration's scare tactics on Ukraine. Here's the Secretary of Defense sounding like he's prepared to flunk a high school course in logistics, saying if Putin takes Ukraine, if Putin takes Ukraine, like Putin wants to take Ukraine, it's going to end up in a war with NATO and the U.S. will be involved. Chris. He will not stop.

He will continue to take more aggressive action in the region. And other leaders around the world, other autocrats around the world will look at this and they'll be encouraged by the fact that, you know, this happened and we failed to support a democracy. And so if you're a Baltic state, you're really worried about, you know, whether or not you're next. And so they know Putin. They know what he's capable of. And quite frankly, if Ukraine falls, I really believe that NATO will be in a fight with Russia.

If Ukraine falls, NATO will be in a fight with Russia. Joe Biden on steroids. Look, this is unbelievable from the standpoint of Austin not accepting reality, the responsibility that this entire war in Ukraine traces back to actions that were taken by the United States and by the British, the United Kingdom, and put it together, the coup, the Maidan events of February of 2014 that led to the ouster of a Democrat government. So, you know, what the world sees is the United States is very selective. Sometimes you really think democracy is important. Other times we can't wait to trash it and run over it because we want to make sure it's our Democrat that's in there. So the role of the United States in provoking that,

the role of the United States in continuing to conduct every year from 2014 on, carrying out major military exercises on the border of Russia. That if Russia had been carrying out major military exercises with Mexico that had the scenario

of invading the United States, we would not have put up with that for a minute. Yep, we spent 10 years doing that to the Russians, poking them in the eye, poking them in the eye, poking them in the chest. And then all of a sudden, they punch back and we're going, well, that was uncalled for. So, you know, Putin does not have designs on the rest of Europe or the rest of Ukraine, for that matter. Historically, once you get west of the Dnieper River, you're looking at areas that traditionally have really not, they've been under the control of the Romanians and the Poles, not Russia. So Russia has a historical interest, yes, in the lands that are to the east of the Dnieper River. But Putin is making sure that they are defending Russia. And whatever reason for these various NATO countries to continue to push the lie that Russia's imperial power intent on, quote, regaining its empire? Again, Russia trying to control its territory is not empire building. The United States invading Afghanistan, the United States invading Iraq,

the United States invading Syria, the United States invading Somalia, the United States invading Iraq, the United States invading Syria, the United States invading Somalia, the United States and the British invading Libya. That's called empire building. Russia's not doing that. So we need to just stop this crap and wake up and recognize that the only countries in the world that are out provoking conflict, that are stirring up and having people killed as a result of our reckless actions is us. Look in the mirror. We're going to take a break for a commercial announcement. When we come back, Larry and I will discuss the latest in Gaza. First this. How do you really feel about your financial future right now, today? Stable or uncertain?

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Professor Finkelstein says there are three parties in Israel, right, far right and ultra right. The slaughter, the slaughter continues in Gaza. The vice president of the United States says, well, yeah, we're going to give you more military equipment, but please let us in to bring some food, water, and medicine to the people who survive your killing. And the Israelis walked out of peace negotiations. And forget if it was in Cairo or Paris. There's so many things going on uh at once um it seems to be getting worse not better oh and a hundred thousand democrats vote

for none of the above or uncommitted uh in michigan against the sitting incumbent democratic president of the united states yeah the the the Biden administration is like, you know, a guy who's drunk a bottle of vodka and is trying to walk a tightrope. It's going to be a very, very shaky experience and will probably fall off. Look, they're not going to stop Israel, the flow of weapons to Israel. They can't do that. They will alienate too much of the base, the Jewish base that's funding them. On the other hand, they're trying to come up with a strategy to placate the

supporters of Palestine that are American voters. And so they hit upon this, oh, let's drop some humanitarian aid. That'll do it. That'll convince those people because they're so stupid, they won't realize it's just a symbolic gesture, which is all that it is. It doesn't fundamentally change the physical condition that the Palestinian people are living under. It doesn't make them more secure. On top of this, though, Israel, the pace of ground attacks inside Gaza have slackened. They're still bombing. They're still using artillery strikes.

They're still using drone strikes. But they have shifted their brigades north. And I saw a video over the last three or four days of a significant number of tanks being moved north towards the Lebanese border. So the Israelis, they're going to go in. And once they start a war in Lebanon and are at war with Hezbollah, things are going to take, they're going to go, it's going to

be war on steroids. Because Hezbollah is in a position to launch missiles that are guided missiles, ballistic missiles that will strike targets well within Israel that they have not been accustomed to being hit with. And not these, you know, small, relatively small rockets that Hamas has been firing off. We're talking significant punch that's going to cause mass casualties in Israel. Then on top of that, the defensive fighting positions that Hezbollah have erected are going to be very difficult to breach. Hezbollah is not going to be fighting with all these civilians

scattered about like they've seen in Gaza where you're going to have Israel wantonly killing civilians right and left. Hezbollah is going to be killing Israelis. And so their casualty rate is going to go up, which is going to further inflame the political situation there in Israel.

They will reach a point where, even though they're shifting to the right, as Alistair talked about this morning, or ultra-right, they're going to reach a point where it's going to become so costly to them, they're going to have to stop. What is the Israeli legal or even moral justification for invading Lebanon? Hezbollah has not invaded Israel. Well, because what Hezbollah has done from the standpoint of the Israelis is they have shelled and rocketed the settlements that are along the border

of Lebanon inside Israel. The illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Well, no, no. These are not the illegal ones in the West Bank. These are actually right up against Lebanon in Israel proper, and at least a million people have been forced out. So you've got all these empty kibbutzim up there. And the residents are agitated.

Hey, we want to go back home. But they're afraid to go back home because they realize they're going to get targeted by Hezbollah now. And so Israel wants to create a sanitary zone inside Lebanon that goes up to a river and try to push Hezbollah back beyond that river. But, you know, I don't think that that's going to happen. Getting back to the issue of aid to Gazans and that awful slaughter that occurred the other day, people were mowed down while they were on line to get food. A reporter confronted your favorite ex-admiral, who's the spokesperson for the National Security

Council, Admiral Kirby, about this. Here's their back and forth cut number three, Chris. Thanks, John. You've laid out now a couple of times the practical challenges that will be part of this airdrop or these airdrops. And I'm kind of curious about that because those are risks that the United States now has to take on for itself, conducting those airdrops. The reason those risks now fall to the United States is because Israel is starving those people. So why are we still so supportive of Israel when it is the one that is creating the problem that the United States now has to try to ameliorate? Israel itself has tried to help with the delivery of humanitarian assistance. As I said, they

tried air drops themselves just a week or so ago on their own accord. So are we still starving? It's a war zone and there's nowhere else for them to go. Well, I don't know. Nobody really accepts what he says. It's got a nearly impossible job of trying to defend the indefensible. Well, having to wake up each morning to recognize that you're going to be given this large steaming bag of excrement that you have to carry around with you all day and pretend that you're passing out corn pops. I mean, this is ridiculous. Yeah, Israel's not dropping humanitarian aid,

or if it's dropping humanitarian aid, it's gluing a bag of rice to a bomb and then dropping it on the Palestinians. This is, you know, they call it, quote, a war zone. Whenever you're rounding up and killing civilians, when you're attacking hospitals, when you're rounding up and killing civilians, when you're attacking hospitals, when you're blowing up schools, those are not legitimate war targets. And yet that's exactly what Israel has been hitting consistently. Or when you tell people, oh, hey, listen, go down to this area, go to Rafah, and you'll be safe. And then he began to attack Rafah.

And so what's very clear is Israel's job is to exterminate Palestinian presence from Gaza. It's real simple. And they've made no attempt to hide the fact that they're targeting and killing civilians. And as we saw even on October 7th, you know, that's now four months ago, the Israelis shot, killed, blew up their own civilians because they have no regard for human life. That's what I find so shocking. The old Israel used to at least cherish the concept of human life. They now are such cold and embittered people that they kill children

and don't lose a minute's sleep over it. And we're not talking one or two. You know, we're the thousands of babies that have been mercilessly slaughtered by Israel. And what we see Israel doing is lurching politically in the direction of supporting and electing people who are going to make more of that, not less of that, more of that policy. That's where you see, you know, this Benny Gantz who was thinking off the Washington and London, which I'm sure folks in Washington and London would like to have him as an alternative. But he doesn't politically represent where Israel's headed. The Smotrich and Ben-Gaviris, they represent where Israel is headed. And it's ugly.

Larry Johnson, a pleasure, my dear friend. No matter what we're talking about. Thank you for your insight and for your time. We'll see you again soon. All right. Have a great day. Have a good trip. Thank you. Thank you, Larry. Coming up at the top of the hour, which is 10 o'clock Eastern, Ray McGovern. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. I'm out.