Judging Freedom - Phil Giraldi: Death of Free Speech.

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Phil Giraldi: Death of Free Speech.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

you Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, March 19th, 2025. Phil Giraldi is here. It's a very sad subject, but we must address it. The death of free speech in America. But first this. Markets are at an all time high. Euphoria has set in. The economy seems unstoppable. But the last administration has buried us so deep in debt and deficits, it's going to

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805-11-4620 or go to learjudgenap.com for your free gold ownership kit and special report $4,200 gold ahead. When you call, ask how you can also get up to $15,000 in bonus gold with a qualifying purchase. Call 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them the judge set you. Phil Duraldi, welcome here, my dear friends. A sad subject that we have to talk about, particularly for someone like you who's devoted his entire, entire professional life to defending the values underlying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. How bad are things from your perspective for freedom of speech today? We know about the Khalil case, you can address that, that's the graduate student at Columbia. We know about the physician, the nephrologist on the Brown University

Medical School faculty, and we know what the administration's trying to do to our dear friend, good friend of the show, longtime friend of mine, and I think yours, Congressman Thomas Massey. What's behind all this? Well, as Mr. Mearsheimer has pointed out, all of this comes out of basically the Israel lobby and the Israel lobby's efforts to silence any criticism and do whatever it takes to

silence any criticism of Israel. And this is what they've been working at for many years and they are at the verge of success right now with Donald Trump. Donald Trump has made it very clear that one of his targets, his particular target, is to wipe out what he refers to as anti-Semitism and anti-Semites in the United States. And he's taken major steps to arrest people that he accuses of committing the crime of being anti-Semites. And Khalil, of course, is the big case that's made the news recently because it's just so bizarre. A guy who's got a green card, is a legal resident of the United States, married to an American

woman. And all he did was participate and also direct and lead some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place at Columbia University earlier this year. And that's his crime. And you and I and many other people would probably refer to that as exercise of free speech. And we'd like to be able to do that ourselves in cases where we feel the government is acting illegally or out of line. But so this is basically what's happening. And Donald Trump is right on board with all of this. In addition to the names you cited, there have been a number of other arrests and a number of cases where the universities,

acting out of fear, have taken away diplomas from students who earned them, have kicked them off campus, have brought in campus police and Homeland Security authorities to question them and look into their social writings on the internet and everything to see if they're saying anything that could be construed in a way as to deport them or put them in jail. In the case of the young man, Khalil, he was arrested and whisked away first to New Jersey for an overnight stay and then to Louisiana. There to be charged. The charging papers, which I read and I suspect you have as well, did not state any crime that he violated, did not state any statute that he violated,

did not state any harm that he caused, did not state any allegation of supporting terrorism, which is a vague and expansive crime, but one that the feds do use. All it stated offered no evidence of anything. All it stated was, this is almost laughable, Phil, the conclusion of Marco Rubio, who probably never even heard of this kid, that his presence, the young man's presence on the Columbia campus, is an impediment to the execution of American foreign policy.

Now I can't imagine any judge, whether an Article 3 judge, lifetime appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, or an immigration court judge, who basically works for the prosecutor, works for the Secretary of Homeland Security, whose lawyers prosecute these cases. I can't imagine either type of judge ordering the deportation on the basis of just that. No, nor can I. And the odd thing is, of course, that this whole argument about how this college student could have negatively impacted on U.S. foreign policy in some kind of way that's not spelled out is ridiculous. But now the real dangerous thing about all of this is this is being pushed nevertheless by the administration, and it clearly is the intention of the president of the United States to ignore what the judges

are telling him and to go ahead and do what he wants to do anyway. So once we get in that kind of hole, how do we ever get out of it? We have a person who is in charge, who believes that everything that he believes is the truth and is right, and what he believes has to be applied to any citizen

whenever he deems it possible to do so. I mean, this is the kind of door that's opening that could lead to people like me and you being deported. I mean, if Donald Trump decides that what we say on this show and what we write and what we are, and the viewpoints that we hold are viewpoints that are not compatible with what he believes and what the clowns that he surrounded himself believe, then the sky's the limit. There is no constitution.

There is no bill of rights. We have no rights. Why are we bombing the Houthis as a favor to Netanyahu? Well, this is the big debate that goes on and I've noted it in some of the people you have on your program. To the extent to which Netanyahu owns the president or the extent to which they are at a certain level manipulating Netanyahu and using him to accomplish certain policies that they also support, whether it's because of Israel itself or because they support them in terms of their own view of what is proper deportment for people in this country. But I incline, of course, to believe that Netanyahu has the goods, or he certainly had

the goods on Biden, and that he has the goods in certain ways, perhaps by way of Mr. Epstein on our current president, Donald Trump. Is there something being held on him? I mean, there's also, of course, the money issue that's constantly being raised about how much money comes from pro-Israel sources, both to Congress and to the president and the people around him. So there are a lot of issues involved here. I tend to think that we are seeing Netanyahu winning on these exchanges, where he's getting what he wants.

Like, for example, now the massacre he's carrying out in Gaza and Trump not saying a word except that hell is being unleashed with the implication that all these Palestinians deserve to die. You know, this is the way it's kind of appearing to me that the shoe is on the Netanyahu foot in this case. And Trump might be eccentric enough in that kind of ignorant way that he has. Well, if he sees that Netanyahu is pushing him around, he might start to push back,

but that might be sort of a hope at this point. This clip will aggravate you, even though it's from a dear friend of mine and it's probably true and you've probably already seen it. Chris, my Q&A with Professor Mearsheimer on the origin in Professor Mearsheimer's view of the suppression of free speech in America. When Secretary Rubio rescinds the green card of a person he probably never heard of freedom of speech, freedom of speech in America when uh Secretary Rubio rescinds the green card of a person he

probably never heard of because of statements the person made on the Columbia University campus uh last April uh this of course is a big deal here in New York. It should be a big deal everywhere because it's an attack on freedom of speech like we haven't seen in this country in many

generations. But I suspect it is the Trump Department of Homeland Security and DOJ doing a favor for the president's Zionist backers. The truth is, Judge, that the single greatest threat to freedom of speech in the United States at this point in time is Israel and its supporters here in the United States. It's truly amazing the extent to which Israel's supporters are going to enormous lengths to shut down free speech, not only on university campuses, but all across the country. He's right. He's also said in another interview, I believe with you, that the Israel lobby in the United States wields enormous power. Yes. And this is something that the politicians fear. They fear to be on the receiving end of it. And this is inclusive of the media

in which Jewish Zionists have an incredible voice and an incredible ability to control. I was reading the New York Times today, and I couldn't believe some of the garbage that they are printing about the latest massacre of women and children who were sleeping under tents because their homes have been destroyed. They are now being bombed under the tents and killed because they are

obviously terrorists and they are not doing what Benjamin Netanyahu wants them to do. I've been asking this question all day, Phil, and I'm curious as to your thoughts on it. How do you think someone who's going to such lengths to change American foreign policy 180 degrees on Russia and Ukraine, who's sailing against such resistance to bring about a reset between America and Russia and maybe even a grand reset involving China, Brazil, and India, which will allow the free flow of goods or the nearly free flow of goods. How can the same mentality that yearns to receive the Nobel Peace Prize authorize Prime Minister Netanyahu to resume the abject slaughter and genocide of human beings, only a portion of which you

just described. They killed 400 women and children in the past two days in Gaza. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I keep describing, you know, Donald Trump is an intelligent man, but he's probably one of the most ignorant personalities that I think I've ever encountered in this kind of context. And I use that word very selectively because I think he doesn't really understand things beyond a very superficial level, which may be something derived from his business head. So what I think we're seeing here is he doesn't see anything to gain or to get out of the continuation of what's going on with Ukraine. I think he sees it like a deep hole, a black pit

where lots of equities are going down and nothing is really going to be coming the other way. And he understands that if you wanna have a friend in that part of the world, Vladimir Putin is a whole lot better guy. Now with Israel, it's a lot more complicated because we're talking about, again, an enormously powerful domestic lobby. This is a lobby that every president since certainly G.W. Bush has recognized as a power that has to be, you know, listened to and obeyed.

And presidents have figured that one out, even Barack Obama who couldn't stand Netanyahu. I don't remember who was the president of the United States when Ehud Olmier was the prime minister, nor do I remember what his attitude was at the time about the two-state solution. But here's a surprising clip of what he said just a few months ago, Chris, number 15. What are we going to do with six million Palestinians? This is a question that we have to ask,

not Dr. Al-Kidwah, he sure has this question from his side, but from our side. What are we going to do with 6 million Palestinians? We have to find a solution. Now, there is not any solution other than a two-state solution. And that's what we, based on what I have proposed to Abu Mazen in 2008 when I was prime minister, that's what we have to do now.

We have to try and bring it back to the center stage, to the international discourse, to the ministries, prime ministers, governments everywhere, to bring it back and build it. So the two-state solution has been ostensibly the policy of the United States. Obviously they've never done anything to bring it about. That's what this young man, Khalil, was demonstrating for on the Columbia University campus, a policy of the very government that has incarcerated him for expressing agreement

with that policy. You can't make this up. Yeah, but the thing you have to remember is right from the beginning of the creation of the state of Israel, the Israeli leadership right across the board has always recognized that the objective of the state ultimately would have to be to somehow get rid of the Palestinians. And that's why the Nakba took place when the state was founded where 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and became refugees. And that's what's been going on ever since. And it's just that now we have the cards really on the table where we're talking about extermination

and not flinching at a genocide that could kill three million, four million Palestinians. If it goes the way that Trump seems to be rolling over and accepting in terms of what Netanyahu and his close associates have been talking about. This is really what is so horrific about what is taking place right now. And the fact that the United States is a full accomplice in it, making up all kinds of fictional stories about how Israel is America's closest ally and best friend and a true democracy.

This is all nonsense. And this is stuff that's being pumped out by the media, pumped out by the politicians. And we Americans are going to have to pay a price someday for this. Was Prime Minister Omer, who we just saw a clip of from three months ago, a proponent of the two-state solution while he was the prime minister? I mean, in 2008 was the tail end of the George W. Bush administration. That was the year that I, if I have my memory correctly, Obama ran against McCain. Well, but I think you have to, you know, there are several ways to interpret what Olmar just

said. He said there was a problem, we have to solve it, but he doesn't really tell you in terms of a two-state solution or some kind of accommodation or what they would actually do because they haven't been, they've never done it. Well, switching gears, just some breaking news, apparently in a phone call between President Trump and Vladimir Zelensky.

Zelensky accepted Russia's offer for a mutual pause in attacks on energy targets. During the call, President Trump also flo during the call, of Ukrainian assets. I'm being a little sarcastic. Well, I don't know if that's good news or not. I mean it just delays the inevitable. Why doesn't he just stop the aid to Zelensky and that'll stop the war in three weeks? Well, because he doesn't really want to do that. You see, there's always got to be an angle for him and it's just like, for example, he maintains our true presence in Syria, where all they exist there for at the moment is to steal Syria's oil.

And obviously, he had something similar in mind for this exchange of commodities and everything, for this exchange of commodities and everything, of natural commodities with the Ukrainians to make up for all the money we've given them. This was another gimmick. And it just, you know, it goes on and on and on. And the Trump-Gaza Riviera resort, not coincidentally, would be right next to very large gas and oil reserves

in the Mediterranean Sea. So there's always this kind of stuff being played when they came up with the ceasefire back in January. I said at that time, there certainly must be some kind of secret understandings that explain a lot of this stuff, and we may never find out what they were. That's the kind of game that's going on. Phil Giraldi, always a pleasure, my dear man.

You're so courageous and you have such an insight from all of your years in intelligence and military. Thank you very much for joining us. My best to you and to your beautiful bride. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on. Sure. Tomorrow at two o'clock in the afternoon on all of this, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson at three o'clock, Professor John Mearsheimer at four o'clock, Aaron Maté, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. MUSIC