Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : Is the CIA Fueling Iran’s Chaos?

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Larry Johnson : Is the CIA Fueling Iran’s Chaos?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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government? What if 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 Monday, January 12, 2006. Larry Johnson will be here in just a moment. Don't we all realize that the CIA is behind these now failed demonstrations in Iran? But first, this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse. And look at where we are now. 38 trillion in national debt. Stocks at record highs defying gravity. So what happens next?

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Call 800, 511, 4620 or go to Learjudgeonap.com today. Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. As always, thank you for accommodating my schedule. Before we get to the CIA and whoever else is collaborating with them or has been collaborating with them in Iran, I want you to take a look at what President Trump posted on his truth social. Is Donald Trump the acting president of Venezuela, or is he out of his mind? Well, he thinks it's like those children four or five years old,

who pretend that they're doctors and nurses and policemen and cowboys. He is kidding himself. We saw over the weekend on Saturday, to be precise, that the State Department, through the exiled embassy of Venezuela, so the U.S. embassy that's supposed to be in Venezuela is not in Venezuela, because it's not safe. Instead, it's operating out of Bogota, Colombia, next door. and that embassy issued a basically a warning to all Americans,

get the hell out of Venezuela. It's too dangerous. The militias are running around with arms. Well, that warning wasn't the idea of the embassy of Venezuela. That came from Maine State, from Marco Rubio and his team. And that means they have intelligence that is credible that they don't think that they can counter it. In other words, they've got information about potential threats to Americans that the United States can't do anything to stop. And so the next action is warn Americans get the hell out.

I was at the creation of that policy back in 1989, 1990. It was a reaction to the bombing of Panama 103 that blew up over Lockerbie. Anyway, we're not in control on the ground. the government of Venezuela is still intact. There are armed militias in addition to the Army and the intelligence services. So the United States has no control over the ground. And, you know, as I discovered when I started doing some research, this entire notion that we're, oh, we went there for the oil.

Nonsense. If that's the real reason they went, boy, they went for something that's not going to pay off. You know, because right now Venezuela's production, accounts for 2% only 2% of all OPEC production. And as Alastair Crook correctly noted in your earlier discussion with him, what comes out of the ground is,

you know, it's not Jed clampet in the Beverly Hillbillies where, you know, he shoots a rifle in the ground and up comes a bubbling crew. No, no, this stuff is thick. It's as Pepe Escobar talked about. It's like tar. It's very thick. It has to be pulled out of the ground that doesn't want to leave on its own.

And if they go ahead and give Trump his 50 million barrels, it's going to take Venezuela 71 days to produce that. And if Trump thinks that's going to change the price of oil, that amount of oil that would be pumped in those 71 days would account for less than one half of 1% of global oil. So, I mean, it's just Trump is, he's often. and never, never land. He just does not have a realistic understanding of the oil business

and Venezuela's relationship to it. Is it any wonder? Now, of course, he hates ExxonMobil, that the CEO of ExxonMobil, so we're not going to invest any money there, and Venezuela is uninvestable. Yeah. It's going to take the estimate about 100,

to get one million barrels of oil, you're going to have to invest basically $100 million. And so just, you know, these are businessmen. These are not ideologues. They're looking at how do we increase our profits, minimize our costs. And, you know, ExxonMobiles, you know, they're not playing that game. And if Trump, again, this is the hallmark of Donald Trump, he's a bully. And he's an ignorant bully on top of it.

So the president says he is only constrained. by his own mind, his own morality. He doesn't need international law. So it's a brief clip. We'll play it. And then I'll finish with the question, Larry. Chris, cut number two. Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage?

Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to? Yeah, there's one thing. My own morality, my own mind. It's the only thing that can stop. Not international law. And that's very good. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people.

What moral principle justified the invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of Mr. and Mrs. Maduro? Well, he's taking us back to Hobbs, Thomas Hobbs. You know, those who are the strongest, they get to make the rules and coerce and force everybody else to conform to conform to what they want. I mean, this is, you know, this takes us back to the early days when kings could declare life, death, what was right, what was wrong. And it was only, you know, it was out of England that the first successful attempt to constrain the power of the monarch, that's where it began.

And inherent in that was this notion that there are. certain fundamental rules that govern human beings that should be abided by that no government can take to itself and claim that it is the only arbiter. I mean, that's enshrined in our Constitution. It's enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. We call it the natural law. Everybody in their hearts knows that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. But this Trump doctrine is they have it. We want it. We'll take it.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's it is going to produce, it's not producing the results that he thinks. I mean, you know, for example, he thinks he thinks he's in charge and in control of what's going on the ground in Venezuela. But, you know, as we noted, the U.S. is essential travel advisory telling Americans, get the hell out, it's too dangerous. Well, if we're controlling the situation there, why is it so dangerous? The fact is we're not controlling it.

All we've succeeded in doing is kidnapping Nicholas Maduro. And I anticipate that it's not going to be a slam dunk legal case against him. There are so many holes in that indictment, at least the initial one he was charged on, that his defense team is going to have a field day with the Department of Justice that I think was guided more by ideological fervor than actual law. It's sloppy, poorly crafted, and there are allegations in there that couldn't possibly be crimes, like the possession of a machine gun in Caracas. It may be illegal in Miami, but how to a federal court prosecute somebody in,

it may be illegal in Manhattan. How could a federal court in Manhattan prosecute somebody for something they did in Caracas, shipping cocaine from Caracas to Paris? What does that have to do with the United States federal law? There's a variety of those in there. As we transition in our conversation, Larry, to Iran, a lot of folks have been asking about your and my colleague, Professor Miranda. So I want everybody to know he is well.

Chris, my producer, just chatted with him. He will be on judging freedom on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Our Eastern time, that is, assuming that the Internet, is working. Is CIA and its colleagues MI6 and Mossad trying to foment

another color revolution in Iran? Yes. Yeah, no, absolutely. Look, as I've commented previously, this started on December 28th and anticipated one day before the visit of BB Netanyahu to

Mara Lago, in which on the agenda, Trump and Netanyahu were discussing what was going to happen with Iran. And this plan that was presented, they discussed this covert operation there because it's a combination of CIA and Assad. CIA has had longstanding relations with the Kurds. And there are Kurds in Iran, up on the northwest border of where Iran and Iran and Iran and Iraq, come together. And so you work with a, you work with Kurdish elements. And then out in the far east of Iran, you've got the Baluchis,

and there are elements there. And then, you know, there are people in Iran that don't like the Islamic Republic. And the fact that the United States has been working with this other group called the Mech, the Mujahideen al-Kal. they've got now sort of a front group. It's called the National Coalition of Iran of Resistance, the NCRI. If you check out a lot of the press reports that were coming out about what was taking place on the ground in Iran,

it was the NCR that was the primary source for that. They were putting out disinformation, propaganda, trying to paint a picture that Iran was on the cusp of a collapse, that the Ayatul al-Kamini was looking to flee, like Bashar al-Assad did, to Moscow for safety, that it was coming apart. That was the narrative that was being fed, and then you got Trump going, yeah, if they kill any protesters,

we're going to go in and respond. Great. Talk about it, but there's nothing the United States can do militarily right now or even in the next two to three weeks that would even make it would it would not defeat the system what these what these clowns do not understand is you cannot affect a regime change unless you've got control over the military and or the intelligence services as long as you've got the folks with the guns that can enforce what the government wants we'll crack down on these these protests But what we see is a very, it was a very elegant, a very sophisticated propaganda campaign that has dominated global media over the last, now two weeks.

So it was really two weeks ago today was when B.B. Netanyahu was meeting with Trump. And that's when this whole thing started. And these operations, they always start with a grain of truth. I mean, there is, there's genuine upset at the government of Pajeskian for his mismanagement of the economy. But then you add into that people, these outside groups, which have a more nefarious purpose. And they incite the crowds. They can create crowds by paying people money, just as we've seen here in the United States. You load up a group of protesters who are short of cash.

You know, they'll show up. But now that the government started cracking down, and yeah, they're killing some people. And they're killing people that are shooting at them. And just like, you know, it's sort of the same. It is actually ironic that we've got all of these anti-ice protests taking place in the United States with, you know, law enforcement killing some of the protesters or at least one of the protesters so far. And, you know, Ron just saying, hey, you're pointing the finger at us.

Go look at the mirror. Take care of your own house. Well, you know, Alster Crook argued that there are, mobs and gangs in the cities that are actually fermenting the violence. They'll just pick on an innocent person and beat the daylights out of him. And that ferments other violence and that brings in the Iranian security forces. And then they shoot at the security forces. Then the security forces shoot back and inevitably an innocent person is killed. And some of the security forces are killed them a thing sort of fomence.

Meanwhile, in Paris, the Shah's son is planning his return. I would think he'd be crazy to go back to Iran. No, he's not going back. I mean, that's been the plan all along. That the Shah's son, he's not ordained by God to rule Iran. I mean, that's how he thinks, that they've got some inherent, that he can trace his heritage, lineage back to ancient Persia maybe? I mean, this is ludicrous.

But this is typical of this Western, of this CIA operation. And Mossad is definitely involved. Yeah, you got to have a front guy. Somebody you can put out in front that is, yeah, he's rallying and mobilizing people. But as Alistair made the point earlier today, it's quite different. from Pahlavi is reaching out to some Iranians, but it's not getting people saying, yeah, by God, he's got the vision, he's got the power.

That's the Shah's son's name, Pallavi. Reza Pahlavi. But in contrast, when the Ayatollah Khomeini was in exile in Paris back in the 1970s, he had Jews. He had people that his message, resonated with him. He offered a vision. And, you know, that's a big difference. So, but, but let's understand that this effort to destabilize and destroy the Iranian government, good God. So it started 19, you know, when the shawl took over, they dumped the shaw is, so 1980. So we're now 46 years

into this. And particularly starting in 2004, when the CIA, uh, the CIA, uh, enlisted the mech this group that had been formally identified as a terrorist group by the u.s government because it had killed americans in terror and attacks against you know civilian targets um the united states harnessed the mech starting in 2004 and they were they've had camps both in iraq and in albania as alistair also pointed out um and they've uh they've uh they've have been involved with the assassinations in Tehran of nuclear scientists, some that took place in 2011, 2012. So the United States has been using this terrorist group to try to foment unrest in Iran.

And right now, it's failed. This latest CIA Mossad effort, it has failed. We're going to continue to get some stories about all their protests, this, the protest. Tomorrow morning, you're going to see some of the organizers. of this hanging from cranes into Iran. They're going to hang him. You're going to execute them. While there may be unhappiness and disgust with the government of Pajeshkin for financial mismanagement,

there is not that same animus directed at the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic. Is the tide turning and are there now pro-regime demonstrations in the streets? Yeah, in fact, what's interesting is some Western outlets, you know, my friends over at the Gateway Pundit, they put up, said, see, there are millions of people in the street. Yeah, but those millions are chanting in support of the Iranian regime. They're not anti-regime. Just last night, I posted at sonar21.com, a video out of Mashdad, which is a city about 250 miles. northeast of Tehran.

And the square was just packed with young men chanting about their support for the Islamic regime. So this, again, the goal of the intelligence operation by CIA Assad create a narrative that can persuade most of the people in the West that Iran is vulnerable, that Iran can be collapsed, that there is no support left for the Islamic Republic. Therefore, when we come to you and tell you we're going to launch a military attack, you'll be with us.

That's what this is all about. This is about shaping the perceptions in the West so that we will support future military actions. Problem there, though, is the U.S. military has come back and said, we need some time. What do they need time for? Well, they need time to either harden their bases and develop shelters to protect. their personnel or start removing them from the area. There's no aircraft carrier or carrier task force in the area. They might need one or two of those.

We don't have any additional fighter bomber squadrons in the area. So there's a lot of preparation that would have to take place before a new military operation can be carried out. I believe it's going to happen, but it's not going to happen this week or next week. It's too far off. I mean, do you think that Trump and Netanyahu actually thought that these demonstrators would overthrow the government and save the two of them for cost of an invasion? Yes. I think they really genuinely believed it.

You know, if you're told you, oh, we got this support. And again, remember how Trump gets his information. He watches television. He watches videos. So you see a video of, you know, 200 people in a square. Well, that looks like 2,000 people. you know and then but when you step back you know think about where you live and if there's one street in the downtown area of the nearest big city where there are 500 protesters what does that mean for

everybody else that's out in the surrounding area is it goes for miles nothing so but but it's this is how media they focus in on it and then they create this narrative and then it feeds into social media, then it becomes reality when in fact it's just, it's a, it's a relatively small group of people. I don't think total over the course of the last two weeks that you had more than a million protesters. So people go, wow, that's big. That's one percent of Iran's population, okay?

Yeah, million people. Gee, we, I bet we have at least a million or two million people here or maybe 30 million people that would be able to get out in the streets and protest Donald Trump. Now, so I mean, it's just we sometimes pass our own expectations and convince ourselves that what we expect to be the outcome is the outcome. When it's objectively speaking, the Ayatollah was not in trouble, has not been in trouble, and there's nothing that's going on right now that would threaten with the collapse of the Iranian regime. Oh, but you wouldn't know that to listen to your favorite senator from South Carolina. Carolina Larry Johnson. Yeah.

Here he is. Cut number five, Chris. I don't care if they extract him, but I want him to be considered. He's the modern day Hitler. He's a religious Nazi. He's a horrible person. It's time for him to go. The people want him to go.

Trump has done what Reagan did. Reagan went to the Berlin Wall and said, tear this wall down. Donald Trump picked the people over the Aitola. Donald Trump says the best way to make Iran great again is for the protest. to win and the regime to come down. How do you do that? Whatever action we're going to take, Mr. President, needs to embolden the protesters

and scare the hell out of the regime. If I were you, Mr. President, I would kill the leadership that are killing the people. You've got to end this. If it ends well, then peace breaks out. All the state sponsor of terrorism activity stops, Hezbollah Hamas, they would go away. Israel and Saudi make peace,

a new day in the Mideast. If the Ayatollah hangs on, it's a giant Obama step backward. I have faith in you, Mr. President. I have trust in you. You are the Ronald Reagan plus of our time. In this, in this will. Stand with the people, Mr. President. Let them know you're going to kill their oppressors. Even too much for Maria Bartaramo to put up with. He is an idiot, imbecile, moron. I mean, the things that come out of Lindsay Graham's mouth, you would think with his education and with his life experience, that he would have some measure of common sense and judgment.

You're likening the Ayatollah Khomeini to Hitler? Really? Last I checked, Hitler was not a religious figure, number one. Hitler was not a religious scholar, number two. and under the tenure of the Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran has not been out attacking other countries. Iran has not been out trying to conquer other countries. Yeah, they provided support to Hamas and Hezbollah because Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters. They're fighting for their freedom.

Now, we call them terrorists. And in our narrative, which is dominated by a Zionist mentality, you have to call them terrorists. But from the Iranian perspective, they're freedom fighters, and they're going to support people fighting for their freedom. Here's another Hitler comparison from somebody that knows or at least knew Donald Trump very well. You'll know who this is as soon as you see him. Chris Cut number seven.

Miller and Trump are fascists. Okay, let's just stipulate that. And they're being unchecked by the U.S. Congress, who is very fearful of him, and they are intimidated by him. And those are the facts. He was democratically elected. And he's, well, so was Hitler. Hitler rose the power on the 30th of January, 1933.

He's democratically elected Chancellor of Germany. So what we know about, and by the way, think about what Trump is doing with January 6th. The rewriting of history. And that's what classically would fascists do. But listen, if he loses the midterms, he said something last night that he knows, He's going to get impeached because he's got an Amulamist clause issue.

He's broken the... Not profiting from the presidency. He's broken the Constitution. He's done a whole series of things that's going to cause a huge amount of problems for him. So your viewers know he's a fascist and I know he's a fascist. And the question is, are you going to check him or not? And if you're going to let three more years go with this fascist-like behavior, it's going to be a problem.

What do you think? Well, you know, the... For the record, there was Anthony Scaramucci. Yeah. The, you know, the name, just to describe him as a fascist is one thing. The issue I have is we have government institutions that are supposed to check his power, and they're not operating. Neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives are stepping up to do...

Well, actually, I'll take that back. The Senate, at least the other day, did pass a resolution to prohibit Trump from taking additional military action in Venezuela without the consent of the Congress. As it's, you know, the Constitution stipulates that going to war, attacking other countries, that's got to be a decision of the Congress, not of the president, not just because the president thinks it's a threat. But, you know, what we're seeing right now in this presidency of Donald Trump, and this is what we talked about at the outset, a complete disregard of the law. There is no international law as far as he's concerned that governs him. It's a matter of if he thinks it's right, he's going to do it. If he thinks it's wrong, he's going to oppose it. And, you know, there's no objective standard to it.

And the fact that he is allowed to get away with this without, because most of the Congress is compliant. They go along with it. And we'll see what the judiciary does. Larry, thank you very much for your time, my dear friend. We'll look forward to seeing at the end of the week with the youngster McGovern. All the best. See you then. Thanks, Judge.

Okay, thank you. And coming up at 3 o'clock this afternoon on all of this, Venezuela, Gaza, Ukraine, Tehran, Scott Ritter. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.