Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter - Biden, terrorism & foreign policy

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Scott Ritter Zawahiri’s death and the war on terror’s end Al-Qaeda’s leader lived long enough to see the world pass him by. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi... #terror #Biden #terrorism #afghanistanSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, August 2, 2022. It's about 2.05 in the afternoon here on the East Coast. My guest today really needs no introduction. He is our go-to guy on military, diplomatic, and intelligent matters, former UN weapons inspector, not former Marine because you're always a Marine, Scott Ritter. Scott, it's a pleasure. Welcome back to the show. Thanks very much for having me. So we have a lot to talk about. We have Mrs. Pelosi in China. We have al-Zawahiri being assassinated in Kabul. And we have whatever's going on in Ukraine. Let's start with Mrs. Pelosi. What has she gained, if anything, by going,

and how much of a bee in the bonnet is this to President Xi and the Chinese leadership? Well, I think we need to make it clear that the only person supporting Pelosi's trip was Pelosi. The State Department was not supportive of this. The Defense Department warned against this, and even the President tried to dissuade her from going to Taiwan. So this is purely about satisfying um nancy pelosi's ego it's not furthering american interests and in fact i would say it's actually um fatally harmed the relationship between the united states and china there is a very fatal i believe this is this is china I believe, will invade Taiwan in the near future. I hope I'm wrong on this, but I'm taking a look at the unprecedented size of these military exercises that China is initiating, 360 degrees around Taiwan. The fact that they've mobilized 40 brigades,

40 brigades. Roughly how many troops, how many soldiers in 40 brigades, roughly? 40 brigades would be, if you look at 5,000, that's 200,000 troops. Wow. 200,000 troops in war game, Chinese troops in war games in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan. And remember, china elevated its um its defense status to level two which is one step below total war so i don't think the chinese are bluffing there's a lot of people who are you know poo-pooing the chinese saying oh they talked a big game but they let her playing land really you wanted china to shoot down nancy pelosi and get into a direct fight with the united states no what china is going to do is let Pelosi leave, let the United States withdraw, and then attack Taiwan, forcing the United States to

make a decision whether or not it wants to commit a war with China that's unprovoked. But the Chinese, look, they have given unprecedented levels of warning to Jake Sullivan, to Tony Blinken, to Lloyd Austin, and to the president, where they basically warned that there would be serious, serious consequences, and they were ignored. This reminds me of the warnings that Russia gave Biden and everybody else in the lead up to the Ukraine operation, where they said, if you ignore us, there will be a military technical response.

We now know what that was. And I believe China isn't bluffing. I don't think China can back down from this because constitutionally, they can't allow anything to transpire that encourages independence in Taiwan. And Pelosi is doing just that. I mean, this is a fatal blow to U.S.-Chinese relationships, and I believe— Has her trip, and she is there as we speak, as far as you know, accelerated their military plans? Question one. Question two. Do we still have men and material, military military in Taiwan? First of all, we may have a dozen or so special forces and Marines there doing low-level training, but we do not have a significant

military presence in Taiwan, not one that would deter China. And there's no doubt that what she has done has accelerated. It's not just accelerated China's buildup. China has had these plans in place for years. It's not like China suddenly woke up and said, oh, my God, we have to do something about Taiwan. Her trip has caused the Chinese to implement their Taiwan invasion plan. Does the President of the United States, who said as recently as four months ago, we will, this is his word, Scott, forcefully defend Taiwan. Is he aware of what you have just told me and our viewers? Well, I mean, he's been briefed. Whether or not he's aware is a question I can't answer. But he has been briefed by the Pentagon on the reality of China's military capabilities. Look, every year the Pentagon does a warfully prevent China from invading and occupying Taiwan. The only thing we have is nuclear weapons,

and God forbid anybody start talking that kind of nonsense. I mean, it's inconceivable that we could amass enough of a force on Taiwan to resist the Chinese military. I'm also going to guess that there would be no stomach for this among the American people. We have no pre-positioned stocks in Taiwan. So any troops that we deployed would have to be accompanied by their heavy equipment. And that's not going to come in by airplane. That's going to come in by ship. General Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps, when he came into office, basically said, look, the Marine Corps can no longer guarantee the Secretary of Defense or the President that we can implement the national security plan because we are married to a legacy plan that has Marines embarked on ships that will be sunk before they get to any hostile

shore. That's just the fact. So if we try to sail our ships, our fleet towards Taiwan in an act of war, in preparation for war, as part of war, the Chinese will simply sink every ship that we send in there. And we know this. I mean, this is why I sort of chuckle when we put a carrier battle group in there, because the admiral in charge of the carrier battle group, he knows what I know. He knows that the closer they get to China, the less likelihood they are coming home if there was an actual war. All right. So I'm going to assume that this is not a case like Iran where the, or excuse me, excuse me, Ukraine, where the intelligence community is sugarcoating what they're saying to the president because they're telling him what they think he wants to hear. I am assuming that the intelligence community or whoever advises him in a detailed way, what you have just told us in a summary way, is telling him the truth

rather than what they think he wants to hear. I don't know, because there's a difference between what I just said about the military capability of China and how the Intelligence Committee will spin the political intent of China. I believe that we have too many Chinese experts who are preoccupied with interpreting the definition of the Chinese word for face because they're into face saving, etc., and not paying any attention to the actual words of Chinese government. There's too many people that believe China is bluffing, that China will never follow through. I think they're wrong. I think the day of the bluff is over. I think China's about to follow through. And I don't think the president's being told this by the intelligence community. Why do you think Mrs. Pelosi is doing this? Does she have, and I know this is a little off from your field of military and history and intelligence,

does she have, she's 80 years old. I mean, did she have some long game, long-term political game that she's playing here? No, I think this is short-term legacy game. We know that her, what she's doing is not approved by the State Department. We know that what she's doing is not supported by the Defense Department. And we know that the White House isn't supportive of this either. So this is purely a Nancy Pelosi driven initiative. And remember, she's not a decision maker. She doesn't make policy. She doesn't execute plans. This is purely political in nature. This is a woman who's looking at the reality that Democrats are going to be voted out of office come November, that her tenure as the Speaker of the House is over. And I think

she's trying to create a legacy moment that puts her down in history as the greatest Speaker of the House of Representatives that ever existed. I think actually she's going to go down in history as the person that set in motion the trigger for just a horrific war between China and Taiwan. How dangerous to the national security of the United States was al-Zawahiri before the Americans assassinated him last Saturday? Look, I'll start by saying this. If you commit an act of terrorism against the United States, we will hunt you down and kill you. I think every president, Republican and Democrat has said the same thing. And so no tears should be shed for Al Zawahiri's death. We should celebrate the moment.

A terrorist who inflicted immense harm on the United States has been brought to justice. It's 21 years too late. This man was 71 years old. He was out of the game. I know there's people in the intelligence community saying he was actively involved in planning. No, he hasn't been actively involved in anything other than propaganda. You know, am I glad he's dead? Yes. Is this a game changing moment? No, let's not forget that he was killed in Kabul, which is currently under Taliban control because we were defeated in our 20-year war in Afghanistan and forced to withdraw under extremely embarrassing circumstances just last summer. So this doesn't change that reality.

We still lost the war in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda still exists. The Taliban is in power. Al-Zawahiri, good. He's dead. It doesn't change anything except it makes us feel better. Could we have captured him and put him on trial? Now, before you answer that, you probably know my view, which is that the last thing the government wants is somebody like that in a courtroom telling a jury who was really behind 9-11. But the $25 million bounty on his head was to capture him. I'm not going to give the bounty to military guys or to CIA guys. Could we have captured him and put him on trial? He was a much more difficult target given where he was located. We could have captured bin Laden and put him on on trial 100 certainty we had bin laden captured

the seals were on orders to kill him but had they been on orders to capture him he was a prisoner we had him uh he posed no threat we murdered him now again i'm not shedding any tears but he was an unarmed man uh on the third floor the seal came in he posed no threat but the seal killed him because that's what the sealAL was ordered to do. He was not to come down the hall. So here he was, an unarmed man, even older than Bill Hutton, on the third floor, on his balcony at 6 o'clock in the morning, saying his prayers, posing no threat at the moment. Couldn't the SEALs have surrounded that house and captured him? Look, I'm not going to get into doing the business of special operations

forces. I will tell you that there's some very creative people who would have come up with very creative plans to do just that if that was the intent of the United States. Our special operations forces are the finest in the world, and they are capable of doing miraculous things given enough accurate intelligence and enough time to plan. So could we have done this? I'd like to believe we could have, but there was no way we were going to do it because our job isn't to tell the truth about 9-11. Our job is to score political points by murdering or killing the people that, again, I don't like to use the word murder because he was a terrorist and he deserved everything he got.

And fortunately, we didn't kill any noncombatants around with him. Did you hear the president's 10, 12 minute talk last night? I did. Yeah, so I did too. And he sounded more like George Bush than Barack Obama. Yeah. Yeah, so I did too, and he sounded more like George Bush than Barack Obama. Yeah, this, look. He sounded more like George W. Bush than he sounded like himself. Yeah, no, this was a made-for-TV moment.

Let's be clear. This trigger could have been pulled on al-Zawahiri for any time in the past months. The decision to kill him was made apparently on July 1st. So we're talking about, you know, this isn't like, you know, intelligence being developed right now. We have to act right now. This was a decision made a long time ago. And the president made a political decision. This wasn't an operational decision.

This was a political decision. The timing was purely political and i believe that the timing was to distract from what nancy pelosi is doing and yeah i agree with you as well and i think she delayed her landing uh in taiwan until this news cycle had uh run of course yeah it was amazing because we're looking at um you know yeah you're right but we're but still watching the the mainstream media as her planes moving into land and china's flying airplanes around and everybody's wondering what the heck's going on the the media is still leading with you know zuahiri um i will make this this prediction we won't be talking about al-Zawahiri this time, Nick. We'll be talking about Taiwan once President Xi follows through on his plans and his threats.

What is the latest in Ukraine? We are hearing that President Putin is attempting to Russianize by introduction of the ruble and the Russian language and a variety of other things. Is that true, Paul? Well, I mean, first of all, we need to understand that the territories that are under Russian control right now have to be administered by somebody. There's civilians who live there.

The Ukrainian government has balked at this. They've cut off gas. They've cut off pensions, they've cut off everything. And so it's up to Russia to step in and manage as they should and as they're required to under the rule of law. So don't be surprised that when Russia seeks to administer a territory under its control, that it will do so with a Russian face, meaning the ruble, et cetera. That to me is not the story. The biggest story that came out this week about Ukraine, in addition to the fact that we are approaching the culminating moment, the devastation being wreaked on the Ukrainian military, even the Ukrainian journalists now are saying it's just stupid what's happening here.

The squatter is unreal. The Marines are being eliminated. The Marines are being eliminated. Brigades are being eliminated on a daily basis. It's just bad for Ukraine. But the big news is the deputy of Ukrainian intelligence came out and said every time a HIMARS rocket is fired, it's directed by the United States. That the United States is picking every target. Is that true? Yeah, it's definitely true. But the United States is denying it,. Is that true? Yeah, it's definitely true.

But the United States is denying it, creating this plausible deniability. But the fact of the matter is the HIMARS is viewed as a strategic asset. It's not just the targets that are picked, but the operational methodology. The HIMARS isn't pulled out of its cover until the U.S. is guaranteed that there's no aircraft or drones nearby. It's taken to a position by the United States for security with a withdrawal plan already picked out by the United States, and its target is selected by the United States. Are the people doing the selecting, doing the targeting, and doing the operating, the Americans doing this, are they in Langley, Virginia or Poland or Germany, or are they there on the ground in Ukraine? No, no, no. There's connectivity. I believe they're probably in Poland. They could be in

Germany, but probably in Poland as part of a combined fusion cell. So there's Ukrainian sitting next to Americans. But the important thing here is if HIMARS was used, as Russia claims, to strike this prisoner detention facility, where, you know, 73, I think, as of regiment prisoners, Nazis were killed by this HIMARS strike to silence them, to prevent them from testifying against the Zelensky government. That's a war crime of immense proportions. That means that the United States has now committed a war crime because we played a role in targeting a prison facility. And this is a big deal.

The Russians have come straight out and said the United States is engaged in an act of war against Russia. The United States is actively engaged in war against Russia. And I think the Biden administration needs to take a step back and understand what the possible ramifications of that is. And of course, you've just told us President Putin knows. Well, he's the one saying it. He's the one saying, you're at war with us. You can't deny it anymore. You're picking the targets. And remember, it's not just that we committed a war crime against by attacking prisoners.

You know, we're picking the command and control targets. So we're the ones responsible for the killing of Russian colonels and generals. We're the ones responsible for the killing of Russian soldiers. I don't think too many Russians are happy about this. Let me summarize where we are. The Russians have regained and are retaining the portions of Ukraine, which was their target. The Ukraine military is virtually devastated. The Americans are using American equipment and directing American equipment and shooting at A, renegade Ukrainian soldiers and B, Russian soldiers.

And the Russians know all this. Where the heck is this? Where is this going to end up? It's going to end up, I think, either with a devastating defeat by president uh zielinski which won't be a voluntary surrender or with the introduction of american troops well fortunately i i think there's enough american um senior military uh officers who recognize that introducing american troops is insanity um and this will become doubly so if uh if the pacific heats up but um no this is this is the end of zelinsky uh the the bottom line is zelinsky will either be forced to leave ukraine and retire in his 35 million dollar mansion in miami uh living off of the billions that he's stolen from the ukrainian people, or he's going to die.

And if he dies, I think there's a greater likelihood that he'll be killed by his own people. The Ukrainians are losing confidence in this man. He is literally confident, murderously so. He's responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians. And the Ukrainian military is losing faith in his ability as a leader. And as his cachet collapses in the West, we already have Spain saying, you ain't getting any more tanks from us. And we have other European countries saying, we're done giving you weapons. And as his cachet fades, he loses importance. He has no more. There's no reason to keep him in power. And I think there's going to be a coup. It has people applying what I call the nine millimeter solution to the back of its head, and then going to the Russians

and saying, we need to bring this nonsense to a halt. Scott Ritter, always a pleasure. No matter what you tell us, the knowledge and the candor is so refreshing. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but thanks very much, my dear friend. Thanks for having me. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.