Judging Freedom - Phil Giraldi : Netanyahu on the Brink: Can He Be Stopped?

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Phil Giraldi : Netanyahu on the Brink: Can He Be Stopped?See 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? the 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 Wednesday, March 18th, 2006, the great Phil Giraldi joins us. Now, I lost that bet with Salentine. I have to keep calling you the great Phil Jarlady. Phil, a pleasure, my dear man. I do want to talk to you about the relationship between the United States and Israel, but before we get there to the news that is still hot as we are on air at the moment, and that is the resignation of Joe Kent as the Chief of Counterterrorism.

for the federal government, particularly in the office of the director of national intelligence. How significant is this resignation? What is this guy like? What does the Office of Counterterrorism Do? Well, the Counterterrorism Center was originally set up within the CIA, and it's gone over to the national intelligence area more recently. I have met Joe Kent because when I was working for the agency, I was very much involved with counterterrorism issues. And the people at the counterterrorism center, all of whom I knew and still know to a certain extent, we get together like at holidays and Christmas and there was a Christmas party and I met him. He had a very, very good reputation. He was more on the paramilitary side of things. very, very respected. And that's what I know about him.

And I was really pleased when he came out with what he did yesterday. I think this is going to be an earthquake for the Trump war in Iran. Because he said things that many, many people are thinking about the role of Israel in this war. about this being a war that was a war of choice against a country that did not pose any kind of threat to the United States. And they're gonna have to deal with all this because this is becoming the common view.

And I think this really added fuel to the fire. And I think we're gonna see more resignations probably in the very near future. And I believe all of us who wish for the best, both for Iran, Iran and for the United States. I hope this is the path that seems to be the one that has to be followed and this war will end. Is there any factual basis of which you are aware for the President of the United States characterizing Mr. Kent as, quote, weak on national security?

If there's anyone weak on national security, it's this guy named Donald Trump, who doesn't have a clue. I'm not even sure he can spell security. But the fact is that this guy was first-class background all the way in terms of his security credentials. And this started with the green berets and went all the way on up and through with the paramilitary people in the agency. He's just this is not the way to go after him. This afternoon, I noticed that there are they're now claiming that he was a leaker. And not only was he weak on security, he was a leaker. But of course, they don't tell you what the leak was and to whom.

This is one of these great mysteries that the Trump administration feels that it has to throw out there just to show what a strong guy and what a protector of the United States and its interest, Donald J. Trump really is. So where does this leave his boss, Telsie Gabbard? Well, of course, she rolled over immediately and basically came out with a bunch of lies saying that it's the, basically, it's at the discretion of the president to decide what's true and what's false, and that he can start a war basically on that with that with that. thinking in mind and she's fine with it if that's exactly where she comes from she's doing just to save her behind in terms of her job I presume and her career I presume but if he's got to do that that's really pathetic and and again if that's what she's doing it'll just be the next roll of the knife and they'll get rid of her I thought she did a terrible job of trying to straddle a

picket fence, a senator from Georgia, Senator John Ossoff grilled her. We're going to play the grilling because in this grilling where she reluctantly answers this questions, and then some of them she won't answer. She does resort to the president is the commander-in-chief, and he decides what's imminent. So sit back for a minute. It's about two minutes long. It's compelling. This young senator is very articulate and Tulsi Gabbard is very uncomfortable under oath about two hours ago. Chris. That opening statement as submitted to the committee in advance of this hearing stated that as a result of last summer's air strikes, quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, end quote, correct? That's right. And is that in fact the assessment of the

intelligence community? Yes. So the assessment of the intelligence community is, that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated by last summer's airstrikes. Yes. In the opening statement you submitted to the committee last night also stated, quote, there has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability, end quote, correct? That's right. And that's the assessment of the intelligence community. Yes.

The White House stated on March 1st of this year that this war was launched and was, quote, a military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, end quote. That's a statement from the White House, quote, the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capable. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no.

the only person who can determine and what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. False. This is the worldwide threat searing where you present to Congress national intelligence, timely objective and independent of political considerations. You've stated today that the intelligence community's assessment is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that, quote, there had been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. was it the intelligence community's assessment that nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?

It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. Okay. That is up to the president based on a volume of information. No, it is precisely, it is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States. This is the worldwide threats hearing. Pretty good. I thought his questions were great and she obviously didn't want to answer them. Phil? Phil, he is still with us?

Looks like maybe we have a little internet problem here. Chris will do his best to try and reconnect to our dear friend Phil Giraldi. Well, I was not impressed with the Q&A that we all just watched. Well, I'll tell you this, I was impressed with the Q. I was impressed with the questions. back with us yeah i am okay uh your thoughts on his excellent questions and her efforts not to be there well she made a good job of not being there i mean she contradicted herself uh she basically denied the the reasons going back to nineteen forty seven uh why we have an intelligence community

and uh how it's supposed to uh speak the truth to the policymakers who have to make judgments and clear judgment that Iran did not have, does not have a nuclear weapons program and it clearly did not constitute a threat to the United States, and yet she was trying to dance around that. Well, you know, as I say, she thinks she might be saving herself, but she's dealing with Donald J. Trump and the clowns that surround him. to which I would add her, I might add. And she's still going to go down. They're going to eventually get rid of her because she's not reliable.

And reliable means Slavis devotion to Donald Trump and everything he says and everything he does. What is her job? Isn't her job to make these assessments and report them to the president? Yeah, that's precisely her job. That's why the position of DNI was created precisely so that you had the collective view of the entire intelligence community being given to the policymakers in an honest and unbridled form and very clearly so that they would make good decisions based on that information. All right. So the CIA is just one component of the intelligence community. If John Ratcliffe, this is the job Ray McGovern had, I believe, at one point,

if John Ratcliffe briefs the president, he's doing so just on the basis of the CIA. If Tulsi Gabbard briefs the president, she has data information and analysis from 17 different intelligence agencies, of which the Central Intelligence Agency is just one. Do I have that correct? Well, you do, but the CIA, of course, the briefer also sees the contributions of the other 16 members of the community. So it's not like when the CIA briefer, like a Ray McGovern goes over and is briefing the president on the status quo in one place or another.

It's not like they're ignorant of the other viewpoints that are going. So it's the best judgment, the best assessment, and the CIA echoes that when it's doing the briefing of the president. So they all work together or they're supposed to. The role of the DNI is to be in contact with the president, contact with the government on a more regular basis. She's there. She's sitting in there with the bureaucracy. She's the one that's available to go over and give ad hoc type of judgments on current situations and that sort of thing. Would Joe Kent have been familiar with the briefings that she gave the president? Would he have seen the raw data that was used to compile those briefings? One would presume that as head of the Counterterrorism Center, that he would be a main man in terms of evaluating the information and going through it. But now we're getting these buzzes coming out of the White House, that he wasn't present at meetings, that, of course, he was a leaker, that he was just, you know, basically not very good on security is how,

Trump branded him yesterday. These are all lies. This is all nonsense. If Tulsi Gabbard were running a good shop, here you have one of the guys who's really the most experienced in these terrorism issues. And she's not talking to him. He's not in on the meetings. I can't believe that.

Wow. How much money does the United States give to Israel? Does the U.S. give Israel cash every year as well as military hardware? Oh, yeah, absolutely. The agreement made some years ago that gives Israel $3.8 billion every year on the first day of the fiscal year. That's October 1st. And this money goes into an account right on the first day, all the money, and it's there for Israel to access as it sees fit. But in addition to that, of course, there are also special sums of money that are authorized.

I think Joe Biden came up with a $9 billion package. And I think Trump has also recently did a $6 billion. A lot of it is wrapped up in buying weapons through our arms contractors. So in a sense, it kind of disappears down a hole. But this is all money accessible for Israel and equipment for Israel that it would not otherwise have. The United States is the enabler of all of the war crimes and other atrocities that Israel carries out in the Middle East.

Does the U.S. give this kind of cash to any other country? Yeah, in fact, the bill is bigger than that, and it's all connected with Israel. The Jordan gets, I believe, in excess of a billion dollars a year to keep the peace with Israel. And Egypt is the biggest recipient. I think they get about two plus billion dollars every year, which basically goes into defensemen in Greece, Egypt. But it's basically there as, again, a payment to make sure that Egypt does not upset the apple cart when it comes to Israel. It's all about Israel. Everything is all about Israel under our recent run of presidents.

Wow. Why is it that the Netanyahu government seems to revel joyfully, in its assassinations? Well, it's not exactly, I wouldn't quite describe it that way. What it is is Israel has long had a policy of terrorizing its neighbors and other people that it wants to send messages to through the use of assassinations. We saw it most recently with these pagers that were sent around in Lebanon. This was mass assassinations. They've assassinated numerous officials in Iran.

Iran has not ever assassinated or tried to assassinate an Israeli official, but there have been numerous officials and scientists assassinated by Israel in Iran. And this has been the common rule. I mean, this has been true in Syria. It's been true in Lebanon. It's been true all through the Middle East. and they've also, of course, assassinated, one might say, Americans. USS Liberty is a notable example.

They wanted to sink a U.S. intelligence ship. They killed 34 sellers and injured over 100 more. And Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense then enraged for a cover-up. So Israel would not be blamed for it. So Israel is good at killing people. It's something they like to do. Here's sort of a veiled, but you'll pick it up, reference to a kill list that Prime Minister Netanyahu keeps in his jacket pocket.

Yeah. And you'll see it sharing it with a friend whom you'll recognize. Chris? Mr. Prime Minister, I want to you to know, the president asked me to come and make sure you were okay. Yes, Mike. Yes, I'm alive. I checked that, and I'm happy to see that.

But he wanted to make sure because, you know, you guys get along too well. I know, and we shake hands with five singers in each hand. You know, but I have to tell you, I'm alive, but I have this card. Oh. And, yeah, I don't read it. So it's a punch card. Today I erased two names on the punch cards. And you see how many more to go on this batch.

You know what the good news is? My name is not on the punch card. Your name is on the list of the good guys. Thank you. And what the president, the U.S. forces are doing it incredible. We're very proud to stand, shoulder to shoulder with him. And getting rid of these lunatics would like to develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to every American city.

after wiping out Israel. They couldn't do that. We're wiping them out. A lot of it. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Good to see you. Thank you, much. Thanks.

Take care. Have you ever seen anything like that with a head of state and an American ambassador? Well, not since Barack Obama used to have his Wednesday morning meetings in the White House and throw up a list of people to be killed. No, we haven't. But I just feel real bad that the names of those two people were not on the list. And I'm talking about Huckabee and Beebe and the world will be a lot better place.

This is awful. I mean, they're making a joke out of killing people. And this is just it reflects a whole lot of stuff that's been happening in our government. and a lot of it pushed by the Israelis and by the policies that Israelis insist upon, and since they run our government, well, they get what they want. And this is wrong, and it's wrong when we get Mr. Secretary of War getting up and talking about how we're going to be killing all these people. And the rules don't apply to us anymore, and we're basically free to do whatever we want.

and we're the killers out there, and that's really something to be feeling good about. Well, we killed 170 schoolgirls, and I'm sure Mr. Hanksett feels really, really good about what he's accomplished. Phil Durralli, thank you very much, my dear friend. Much appreciated. Okay. These are difficult topics and hard days, and it's only going to get worse, and you're so steadfast in your own. observations and your analysis and like I said it's deeply appreciated my dear friend all the best to you well I thank you and I thank you everything you've been doing because uh between you and Tucker Carlson and a few others we're really getting the word out it's starting to get out and I think

that we will see that that this later this latest resignation will be a watershed in terms of people coming out of the woodwork. Thank you, Phil. All the best to you. Thank you. Tomorrow we are still working on the schedule, but I do know that at one o'clock we have Chief Dennis Fritz and at two o'clock Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.