Judging Freedom - Ray McGovern: Blinken goes Berserk

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

#israel #gaza #ceasefire #humanitarianaidBlinken dons mantel of legendary ‘invulnerable’ warrior BERSERK, binding US to Israelis' offensive plans for Gaza. To Face the Nation: No ceasefire; No bombing pause. US “is focused on how best to achieve the results that they seek in military operations”.Sponsored by: Lear Capital - https://LearJudgeNap.comIt's time to take control of your financial future and consider investing in gold.Consider adding gold to your portfolio with the company I trust – Lear Capital. Over 25 years of experience, thousands of 5-star reviews, and a 24-hour risk-free purchase guarantee. Give Lear a call today at 800- 511-4620 – the information is Free and there is no obligation to purchase. Get your Gold and Silver wealth protection guides, get your questions answered, and there is zero pressure to buy. Or inquire online @ https://LearJudgeNap.comSee 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, October 23rd, 2023. In just a minute, fan favorite Ray McGovern on what kind of sense was Secretary of State Blinken trying to make over the weekend all over television? And can the U.S. prevent the Israelis from engaging in genocide in Gaza? But first this. in other ways to protect and preserve the wealth you already have. What happens if the government destroys the United States dollar? I don't know. But I do know they can't destroy gold or silver or the value of it. That's why it's so important that you learn now how to transfer your wealth into gold and silver.

So educate yourself about investing in precious metals. Take charge of your retirement with gold-backed IRAs. And you can transfer a portion of your existing IRAs tax and penalty free. So don't procrastinate. Take control. Do the right thing for you and your family. Go to learjudgenap.com or call 800-511-4620. Ray, hi, my dear friend. Welcome, of course, back to the show. A lot to talk about.

And before we get to events and representations and misrepresentations over the weekend, is there yet a consensus of which you are aware in the American intelligence community as to how Israel got caught so flat-footed two Saturdays ago? I don't know the answer to that, Judge. I'm not so much in touch with friends there anymore. They're all dead now, as my Irish grandmother used to say. But I can say that it really doesn't matter. The intelligence community does not play a major role here. I witnessed the fact that that celebrated, if that's the right word, attack on the hospital there, there's no intelligence assessment that I'm aware of. It's a government assessment. It's done in the White House by political hacks. So, you know, does the intelligence community play any role at all? Well, just a very marginal role by, in this case, refusing

to put out an intelligence assessment before all the facts are in. So what we're dealing with here is a guy named Blinken who is unhinged, who is really running wild, and saying on Sunday TV, there'll be no pause in the bombing, hostages or not. There will be no ceasefire. We are currently focused on helping Israel achieve its military aims, period, end quote. It can't be clearer than that. That means that we're standing behind Israel. We're not going to prevent them from doing genocide in Gaza.

Cut number three, Chris. How concerned are you about Iran trying to escalate this war? We are concerned. In fact, we expect that there's a likelihood of escalation, escalation by Iranian proxies directed against our forces, directed against our personnel. We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to. This is not what we want, not what we're looking for. We don't want escalation. We don't want to see a second or third front develop.

We don't want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we're ready for it. Our forces may come under fire from Iran, and that's why we put them there. So we have an excuse to fight. I mean, what are they doing there? Why are there two aircraft carriers and all the support vessels as well? And 2,000 Marines there. What are they there for, Ray? Because the Defense Department is run by somebody who's not quite up to it. He's out of his depth. And he doesn't have any clue as to what he's being asked to do. He salutes when Tony Blinken says, send carriers, two carrier groups, carrier strike groups is what they call them now, one to the Eastern Med and now one into the Persian Gulf. Judge, as I said initially, those are sitting ducks. It's almost as though, could it be that Blinken

would just as soon have those people fired on? And then he'd get his war against, well, against Iran, and maybe even against Russia, if he fools around in Syria, where Russian forces have turned the tide in favor of Bashar al-Assad. And that's a really, really painful thing for the neocons. Is it likely that American intel is on the ground in Gaza? Not very likely. If there's anyone, they're probably not very well-controlled assets. We have been prisoner to Israeli intelligence for decades now. They've always been quite good. But, you know, they were as surprised as we were.

And, you know, over-reliance on a liaison source, no matter how good, can get you blindsided. This is not the first time that kind of thing has happened. You expressed a strong opinion, one that I share and I think most of our viewers do, of Secretary Austin and his political ability to comply with what Tony Blinken wants rather than to make mature judgment about the proper use of military force. You may recall his statement last week in Israel that the goal of American foreign policy is to project power, not peace. He could just as easily have said violence. With that as a background, the New York Times reports this morning that one of

Secretary Austin's assignments, presumably from the president, not from Secretary Lincoln, is to rein in the Israeli Defense Minister Galant. A, do you believe that? B, what does it mean? C, can Secretary Austin do that? B, what does it mean? C, can Secretary Austin do that? Here's the deal, as the president would say. The New York Times is trying to make it look like we're trying to restrain Israel, okay? Now, if you look at the last visit of Secretary Austin to Israel about 10 days ago now, here he is with his arm around Galon, who is a self-proclaimed war criminal. Cut off the gas, cut off the water, cut off everything. We're going to obliterate the Palestinians in Gaza. Okay. Now, are we to believe that this is anything more than unnamed

U.S. officials trying to seem a little bit more reasonable than Tony Blinken did yesterday and saying, well, you know, whatever the Israelis do, we're sort of told not to do it, but, you know, they're on person. They're going to do, we don't control them. So I think that's what the game is here. And the notion that that photo of Austin and Gallant, as I say, self-proclaimed war criminal, is running around the Islamic, the Arab, the Iranian world, showing that, look, what's he whispering to Ghalab? Look, just don't call it genocide, please. Don't say that we encourage it. Does the Arab world believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel intends to commit genocide in Gaza?

Yes, it believes that because it can see it. Seeing is believing. This has been going on for about 15 years now, Judge. Gaza is a problem that the international community has avoided. It's illegal to put this kind of blockade in. Everything that the Israelis have done since Hamas won that key election about 15 years ago has been illegal. So what they're watching now is a bombing to smithereens of Gaza City itself, preparatory to a land invasion. And here's the U.S. saying, well, we're trying to say maybe we should get the hostages. Well, Tony Blinken specifically rejected the notion of a bombing pause to maybe get some hostages out.

So that's how extreme Blinken is. And there's no, I mean, as long as he writes Biden's note cards, I mean, he's running the show. There's one hope here, and that is the people who work for Blinken are up in arms. There are a lot of people who don't want to be associated with genocide, all right? So there are several people in the State Department who are protesting loudly and one of them has loudly quit. And this gives me hope that there's enough sanity and there's enough feeling of justice and proportionality that these people will rise up, maybe hundreds of them, and say, look, he may be blessing genocide. That ain't our charter. We're not going to bless it.

We quit. That's big. And that happened with three of my friends before the Iraq War. And right from, she was in Mongolia at the time, DCM, Deputy Chief of Mission there, Brady Kiesling, who was a political counselor in Athens, and John H. Brown, who was studying at Georgetown. Three very courageous State Department people quit before the war on Iraq,

and none of my colleagues from the intelligence community had the sense of justice and hence the sanity to quit. And that still disturbs me. So the impression in the Arab world is unmistakable that the Israelis intend genocide. And the secondary impression is that, in part because of the nonsense out of the mouth of Tony Blinken, the United States supports it. And that, of course, that impression, of course, could be catastrophic, not only for the U.S. troops that we just put in harm's way, but for those of us that live on the mainland United States. Yes, Judge, that is the inescapable conclusion they will draw. Now, the difference is this time, if we call the bluff of the Arab nations supported by Iran and to agree by China and even Russia and the rest of the so-called third world.

This time, it may be different. Now, a lot of people say, ah, the Arabs, they'll fall just like they always do. They'll make big rhetoric, but well, I don't think it's a sure thing this time. I think they're prepared. And I dare say once Israel faces more hostilities from the north there with Hezbollah, then, you know, they're going to have to make a second thought here. some wild guy sends a drone to do damage to the USS Eisenhower or the USS Gerald Ford. That remains to be seen, but that is highly likely in my view. Will they sink it? No. But is it a good target? Three football fields long, for God's sake. You know, I probably could shoot it with a drone without any training. I'm sure you could. When President Biden was in the Middle East last week, he was supposed to visit this guy,

the King of Jordan, who basically said, don't show up, Joe. Here's what the King of Jordan had to say. Cut number eight, Chris. The relentless bombing campaign underway in Recep, as we we speak is cruel and unconscionable on every level. It is collective punishment of a besieged and helpless people. It is a flagrant violations of international humanitarian

law. It is a war crime. Anywhere else attacking civilian infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water, electricity and basic necessities would be condemned. Accountability would be enforced immediately, unequivocally., an immediate end to the war in Gaza, the protection of civilians and the adoption of a unified position that indiscriminately condemns the targeting of all civilians in line with our shared values and international law.

Second, the sustained and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid, fuel, food, and medicines to the Gaza Strip. Third, the unequivocal rejection of the forced displacement or internal displacement of the Palestinians. For the Jewish people, for Christians, for Muslims alike, starts with the belief that every human life is of equal value and it

ends with two states, Palestine and Israel, sharing land and peace from the river to the sea. The time to act is now. That is not the goal of American foreign policy any longer, is it? Two people living peacefully from the river to the Mediterranean Sea. Judge, this is a new King of Jordan. Now, back in the day, I briefed an earlier King of Jordan. He was interested in the fate of his cousin there in Iran. And so I briefed him. The same human being, but a different mindset. Well, different, no, different different king this is way back in

oh you're talking about his father well yeah hussein right whatever his name was yeah so um we had this this uh we had this engagement with the king of jordan where he wouldn't go to the bathroom without checking with the CIA handler. Okay, that's pretty well known. So this is an incredibly reflective, instructive clip showing this is the change here. This is our staunch ally, the King of Jordan, saying these things, his Arab neighbors and Iran, and as I say, to a degree, even China agrees with that. So is this a bluff? Well, I hate to find out by finding out there's no bluff. This is a different set of circumstances. There are real problems. And if we endorse the genocide in Gaza, then we're in for the kind of retribution, not only in our bases in the Middle East. Think of the Twin Towers, for God's sake.

The people who downed the Twin Towers said they did it out of hate for U.S. policy one-sidedly favoring Israel. Now, I mean, you may not believe that, but that's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the so-called mastermind of 9-11, and it's in the 9-11 Commission Report, for God's sake. Page 147. Look it up. Yeah. The collective punishment of a besieged and helpless people.

I think I've quoted him precisely. Collective punishment, by definition, is a war crime. And by definition, you're right. Defense Minister Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who have ordered this, are acknowledging they're engaging in war crimes because of the worldwide perception that whatever Israel, the Israeli government does, the American government supports? Yes. The answer is yes. It's not just the worldwide perception. It's reality. Okay. Now, no one wants to be associated with genocide, right? And so European countries, as well as the U.S., some U.S. officials are trying to distance themselves. And we've been trying to tell Israel, you know, be careful now when you do ethnic cleansing, when you do collective punishment, please, please be restrained about it, okay? And genocide, well, don't call it genocide, for God's sake. Tell Gala to listen to Austin and certainly don't associate us with genocide.

So, you know, it's a sham. Israel could not do this without our support. And the fact that our European allies also support that is a scandal after what happened in World War II. While this is going on, of course, the militaries are still clashing in Ukraine. And the New York Times reports this morning an interesting map, obviously, the shaded area is occupied by Russian forces and arguably part of Russia and has been for many years. The New York Times reports this morning that a large shipment, I don't know where these came from because I thought we ran out of them, of 155 millimeter artillery shells has been diverted from Ukraine to Israel. If true, are you surprised?

No, I'm not surprised at all. Ukrainians have a very powerful lobby in Washington, but it pales in significance with the Israel lobby. Israel will always get the advantage here. So the fact that these 155 millimeter shells for tanks and for artillery, now, Judge, this is the basic shell for artillery, for just about everything. We ran out of them? Well, the answer was we were very low on them all of a sudden we have a whole bunch of them to give to now we're going to give them to israel now what's the back story here if russia was a threat to europe don't you think that nato and the us in particular would have been producing 155 shells for the basic artillery and tanks?

So this just gives the lie to the fact that NATO should have been preparing for Russian aggression. It wasn't until NATO arranged a coup in Kyiv in 2014 that even rhetorically Russia became a menace to the rest of Europe. And you know the rest of the story. And they still didn't produce 155-millimeter shells. So the whole thing is very telling if you look at it closely. Bottom line for me is Americans should realize that Russia was no threat.

And one of the concrete manifestations of that is that the basic equipment needed to stop a Russian advance in Europe was not being produced from 1991 into 2014. And even then, it was a laggard kind of production. Ray McGovern, thank you very much. I look forward to having you on again at the end of the week for our Intelligence Roundtable. Unless, of course, there are dramatic changes in the world that we examine through your intelligent and experienced eyes, we'll call you back even sooner. All the best, my friend. Thanks, Judge. Of course. Ray's compadre, Larry Johnson, at 11 this morning Eastern and at noon today Eastern, Phil Giraldi. How much genocide can the world take? Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. MUSIC