The MeidasTouch Podcast - Iran Pushes Back Against U.S. Allegations as War Threats Escalate

Episode Date: October 24, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Iran's forceful response to the Trump administration's allegation that Iran plotted to kill U.S. diplomats in the Middle East. Meiselas examines the administration's memo, why he argues it is being used as a pretext for further war, and the escalating threats involving seven cables and 100 ships as Trump and Netanyahu push toward further military escalation. For a limited-time get 47% off your first order PLUS they are including free gifts valued at $62 at https://trykepos.com/MEIDAS, discount automatically applied. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, here it goes. The Trump regime is trying to find its pretext or false flag in order to invade Iran with the Netanyahu regime. Here is what we are learning. Trump regime leaks the following to their personal stenographer and propagandist Barack Ravid. I'll show you what they're doing. I'll show you Iran's response and folks. Things are escalating very quickly. Scoop. Axios has a scoop. What do you know, Barack Ravid, who was working with Donald Trump and all these other scoops throughout the war. Here's what he says. U.S. intelligence finds Iran has substantially increased its efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond, with lethal plots reaching advanced stages per a memo to Secretary of State Rubio, my story on Axios. So this memo that was just unclassified, it leaked at the same moment the U.S. has, evacuated mostly all of the embassies in the Middle East as the U.S. removed any remaining aircraft and assets, basically, in any of the bases, although most of the bases have already been destroyed by Iran in prior acts of escalation by the Trump regime in response by Iran. But let's see, who is it to? Who is it from? It's to the Honorable Marco Rubio, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. Rubio holds both titles from the Honor

Jay Clayton, the Director of National Intelligence. So Trump Stoge, the Director of National Intelligence, that bootlicker, to another bootlicker. And here's the subject. Downgrading of intelligence information and analysis with regard to lethal plotting against Americans in the Middle East and certain other countries, October 23, 2026. Secretary Rubio recognizing that the safety of U.S. government personnel abroad is a top priority. for the State Department, the intelligence community, and the Trump administration as a whole, it has become clear that certain intelligence and analysis regarding Iranian efforts to target U.S. government officials in the Middle East and certain other areas are relevant to more individuals

than are currently clear to receive this information. Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel, the lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians, against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries. These materials have been provided to appropriately cleared senior staff on your team, and we are available to brief you at your convenience. We will make every effort to downgrade as much intelligence as possible so you can share it with the State Department personnel at your discretion. CC, the Honorable John Ratcliffe, Director of the CIA. Nothing suspicious here,

at all. Nothing to see over here. And I wonder, where are you getting this information from? Let me guess. Is it Netanyahu telling you this? I mean, do you see this just loop right here, this echo chamber? And then this leaks to Barack Ravid. And then the Trump regime is saying, aha, look, they're about to kill our diplomats abroad. So that's why we have to do a preemptive strike to stop the preemptive strike by Iran. Remember, this is what they said the last time Trump and Netanyahu invaded. We did a preemptive to stop their preemptive. They just have one move that they do over and over again. I'll show you Iran's response in a moment, but just reflecting on Rubio. Did you see what Rubio posted yesterday around that same time as well? You know how the United States

is doing this deadly embargo, deadly blockade around Cuba, where the U.S. is starving the Cuban people to death and attacking these civilians believing that if we torture the civilians, That's going to make them love the United States and overthrow the Cuban government. Right? Isn't that the Trump regime's exact plan of what they're doing in Iran? You do an embargo or a blockade in the Arabian Sea. You stop medicine and food from getting into Iran. That people will suffer, that people will be so impoverished,

and they will be so hungry and starving that they're going to love you. No, that's the mentality of a freaking predator. But Donald Trump is a sex predator. sex predator. This is a Epstein-class disgusting regime, and they're behaving as Epstein-class disgusting people. Speaking of, Rubio says, this was his post yesterday, to those who seek to create positive change in Cuba, now is the time. The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only few, seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discreet partnership with the CIA. You're taking out like an ad in X, a discrete partnership with

the CIA that you're talking about in a social media post. This is your plan with Cuba. An ex post? I mean, it's so utterly deranged. Meanwhile, the IRGC told Reuters the following. If attacked, there will be no more red lines with respect to Iran, from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones. Let it be known. You strike Iran, there are no more red line. The stakes go far beyond the battlefield is what they're saying. And I'll show you over here the maps of the seven major internet cables that go underneath the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman. You can see how concentrated they are right by the Strait of Hormuz, where you have. the Oman side and then the Iranian side and Iran says look we're just going to cut them

and then we will then strike two trillion dollars worth of US assets and US related assets in the region you go after us all bets are off global economic depression we're going to go ballistic quite literally we'll go ballistic and remember yesterday morning I did a video where I showed you Iran's intricate underground tunnels with its new drones, its ballistic capabilities, its cruise missiles, Iran is ready. And when Donald Trump and Netanyahu say, we're going to finish them off, finish them off, let's be very clear, I'm against this catastrophic war. I think Donald Trump and Netanyahu are genocidal war criminals.

I also want to just say this from a military strategy perspective, they're never going to be able to do regime change. But if they were to do it, like if you were to do it, like if you were to, to come up with a strategy, you would need to commit hundreds of thousands of troops, perhaps over a million troops. Iran is big, just so we all know the size of Iran. It's the size of Texas, California, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida combined. It's 90 million people. The IRGC is deeply entrenched. A few million people remain loyal to the IRGC. We know of. Now, you can say the rest of the population is not that loyal to it. Sure. But there is a core population in a massive area. It is deeply entrenched in

all of the massive sprawling areas of Iran. So if the United States were to launch a strike, it would need to do a draft. It would need to send hundreds of thousands of troops in. And we would see thousands of people dead every day. If you actually wanted to do regime change, you would still lose, in my opinion, and not get regime change. Or if you temporarily change the regime, it would go back right away. But like, when you say finish them off, you're not going to drop a Moab, a mother of Obama on pickax mountain and make Iran go, oh, please, we want to do a deal now because you just dropped a Moab. No, they're not going to do. You're not going to do another air, an air raids. And then Iran's going to go, oh, we didn't want to do a deal before, but now you've just bombed more areas.

Could we please do a deal? No, you do that. Boom. Iran is ready to go. They're going to launch their ballistic missiles, their cruise missiles, their drones everywhere. And you're going to see all the assets nearby blown up as well. And we are going to be in pure economic devastation. It's so damn obvious. Meanwhile, Iran struck two more super tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, these VLCCs, these very large crude carriers that keep being enticed by CENTCOM in the U.S. Navy. Go out through the southern route of Oman. You're going to be good. Iran released video of the engine rooms exploded, both vessels disabled, crews abandoning both tankers. Here's a video of the super tankers that Iran released. Let me show you this.

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they will bury that wish forever. Iran has rendered the U.S. Navy ineffective. General Abdul Ali says Trump's claim of destroying Iran's military capabilities are false. The longer the war continues, the deeper the U.S. and Israel will sink into conflict. Meanwhile, on Israel's Channel 8, they've been reporting that the United States warned Iraq and their Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of possible imminent strikes against Iran and the U.S. told the Iraqi Prime Minister, Al-Zadi, and the Pakistani Field Marshal and the Pakistani Prime Minister to shut down their, it's a seamuner and Sharif in Pakistan, Al-Zadi and Iraq, to shut down their borders to Iran. Iraq did shut down its borders.

We've been seeing Iran striking more ships kind of near the Iraqi coast. as well. And so we're following what's happening over there as well. Remember, in Iraq, there's the Iraqi resistance. Iraq is overwhelmingly Shiite. And there's a lot of compromises that have to be forged in that government. Remember when we were showing video of Ayatollah Komenay's funeral. Remember those massive million people processions in Iraq, right? Almost as big as what we saw in Iran. And so ultimately, what the Trump regime keeps doing by pushing and pushing and pushing is opening up this massive sectarian strife as well, which is why I say this regional war is brewing, not just what we're seeing, you know, with Trump's threats against Iran, obviously what we've been seeing with

Ansarala and the Houthis striking at the Saudi-backed PLC forces. More strikes took place overnight in Riyadh and other areas in Saudi Arabia. as Ansarala continues to move east, Ansarales, the Houthis, and then pay attention to Iraq, Iraqi resistance, part of Iran's so-called access of resistance as well. I was also focused on the fact that yesterday in Tehran, lots of Russian airplanes, friders, other major planes like the Tupilov-2134B was there. There are people who were saying that Russia were, sending these planes to evacuate staff from the Bushir power plant.

Russia has nuclear joint ventures with Iran in Bushir, and Russia said Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia was in Iran this past week. They'd been talking about more nuclear cooperation together very publicly. This isn't like some secretive stuff like Iran and Russia are involved in economic cooperation, nuclear cooperation. They're really, really close allies. So in addition, we've been seeing in the past two days these Russian planes, enter into Tehran, and lots of people are speculating that they're getting Russian staff from

Voucher Power Plant to leave and head back to Russia. Others are suggesting that Russia may be there to provide more technical and military guidance and other support to Iran. So we're focused on that. M. B. Galabov, Iran's parliament leader, posted the following. Their post-awakening playbook, shift protest from vertical to horizontal, then shame you for waking up. Hold the line. Signal. Epstein, Gaza, Iran war, corruption, all from the same top cabal noise. Native versus non-native. Don't let them change the subject to dodge accountability.

In other words, Iran's parliament leader M.B. Ghalibah Lov is sending a warning or a message to the American people that the Epstein class, frankly to the world, that the Episcus, the Epstein class is global, that the Epstein class is trying to distract you and keep you divided, while they're the ones who are all part of the same cabal, whether it is literally being in the Epstein files, whether it is the genocide in Gaza, the catastrophic war in Iran, all of the corruption, they come from the same cabal. Don't let them change the subject, is what he's saying over there. Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister, Iran. Raji says, the U.S. has over the past, it's what he just posted, the U.S. has over the past three years

spent $11 billion in taxpayer money on missile defense for Israel. It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has. This is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one. Treasury Secretary Besant, really weird individual, loser of a human being, really embarrassment to the Treasury Department. Remember when he announced economic outcast, if you dare do business with Iran, the U.S. is coming after you, unless, of course, you're Russia, the biggest ally of Iran, or China, the other biggest ally of Iran. If you're those two, we'll help you. But if you're anybody else, then maybe we'll go after you. Actually, we're not. We're just going to say we do it, and we're going to post weird AI memes. And so Treasury Secretary Besson goes,

Iran's oil lifeline is decimated. Just you wait. Just you wait. Also, which should be noted, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, sat down for an interview with the Financial Times. The Financial Times then wrote a story

where they quoted him. And the headline for the Financial Times story is, The U.S. is prepared for a long standoff with Iran, says Trump envoy. And during the interview, with Mike Walls, the Financial Times asked him, how long do you think it will take to get Iran to capitulate under the status quo?

Waltz responded, we'll see. The President and the United States can maintain this blockade for the foreseeable future. And then the question was, so do you think this could be the status quo a year from now? The Financial Times asked. And Walt said, I'm not going to put out hypotheticals. One would hope that they come to the table in a meaningful way before that question. But if they don't, we will be answer. Well, again, these are decisions for the president.

How long he wants to sustain the blockade. How long he wants to pursue a diplomatic track with a mix of economic, diplomatic, and military pressure. Those are the decisions and tough decisions and the hard truths that the American people elected him to follow him. No, no, no, nobody elected him. First off, I don't know why you would elect this guy, but putting that aside, regardless. No one wants this catastrophic war. What are we doing here? What is the point of, and why? What the hell? Oh, because Netanyahu? Because Trump wants to cover up the Epstein files? Like, what the hell are we actually doing here? It's so damn. It's so damn nuts. Meanwhile, motion Razai, the top advisor to Ayatollah Mojtabukomene.

He spoke to drop-site news and they said, look, Saudi Arabia and other allies of the United States, said they will not accept a new arrangement that would effectively treat the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian territorial waters. What kind of diplomatic agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council states is possible and what does Iran expect it to include? General Mosin Razi, again, he's the top advisor to the Ayatollah. he says, the management of Hormuz is a national asset for us. And this is not simply about collecting tolls. The main issue is security. Charges can also be collected for security, insurance, and environmental costs, but the importance of managing the straight goes far beyond the revenue it generates. We will continue managing it to maintain peace and security in the region,

and we will not back down from this position. With all of this taking, place, Brent crude futures, surge to $118 a barrel. And as I've always predicted, I expect it to be $120 a barrel very soon. If you thought I was being hyperbolic when I've been saying this, if you thought I've been hyperbolic when I've accurately discussed the amount of oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, when I was talking weeks ago about Iran saying it would cut the internet cables, all of this we've been talking about. All of this is very predictable. And, you know, it's also a aspect. It's a reflection of the Trump regime's weakness as well.

Look, our book is called WTF America the way out of this hell and back to democracy. Order it today, if you can, the hardcover and the e-book. People seem to really like it. We talk a lot about international affairs, building an international media network. I'd love to get your feedback. Thanks, everybody. We appreciate you. It's finally here.

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