# CIA Officer Busted With $40 Million in Gold Bars | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

An episode of [The Team House](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492797340), 2 Jun 2026, 1 h 08 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72288896/cia_gold_bars_spreaker.mp3

The guys break down the still-unresolved Iran ceasefire talks, the Strait of Hormuz crisis, possible sanctions relief, and whether the U.S. is about to reward Tehran just to return to the status quo. They also dig into nuclear inspections, Iran’s hardliners, Israel’s push deeper into Lebanon, Hezbollah’s drone threat, and the political bind Trump now faces. The episode also covers the CIA executive arrested with gold bars, cash, and luxury watches, plus the proposed NDAA language that could deepen U.S.-Israel military and technology integration. GhostBed ⬇️ https://www.ghostbed.com/team FOR 10% off! Support the show on Patreon:⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse Subscribe to our newsletter!!!! https://teamhousepodcast.kit.com/join Jack's news outlet:⬇️ https://thehighside.substack.com/ Find Jon Hackett here:⬇️ Jon's Twitter: https://x.com/jonathanhackett Jon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett Jon's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0C5L659N5?ccs_id=e11a2062-f8d3-498e-bfd7-7d2f3869caf6 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett Twitter: https://x.com/jonathanhackett Check out Mick's new podcast here:⬇️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/pub-and-porch-applied-stoicism/id1836955475 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1k3QPmkAMwnGJxMLDwUSSd?si=n6piIu8XRcag1Z0K43A3bQ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCd0Hq6QFk8CoTu5j-VU0Ong Find Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️ https://fogbow.com/ Lobo Institute ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/ Twitter ⬇️ https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCA LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/ Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.social Mick’s publications ⬇️ https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/ Whitefish security summit ⬇️ https://whitefishsecuritysummit.com Find Marc P here: https://x.com/Mpolymer Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️ https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8 LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023 Substack ⬇️ https://amilburn.substack.com/ Andy’s book ⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-Operations Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.social Find Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?u Bluesky ⬇️ https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.social "Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio 00:00 — Start 01:32 — Strait of Hormuz crisis and why it affects the entire world 04:08 — What should Iran get for reopening the Strait? 07:20 — Rewarding Iran, global chokepoints, and the precedent for other countries 09:23 — Highly enriched uranium, China, Kazakhstan, and monitoring problems 12:00 — Why the U.S. should be pushing internet access into Iran 13:59 — Trump’s options, sanctions relief, and the backlash to “JCPOA 2.0” 16:18 — Did the Iran war actually improve anything for the U.S. or Iranian people? 20:31 — Trump’s political bind, gas prices, and whether there are any good options left 24:01 — What the U.S. and allies could realistically do to reopen Hormuz 29:29 — Why allies may not want to risk lives for a war the U.S. started 31:51 — Nuclear inspections, Iran’s hardliners, and why Tehran may want nukes more than ever 34:38 — Israel pushes deeper into Lebanon and the symbolism of Beaufort Castle 38:50 — Hezbollah, drones, and Israel’s fear of losing freedom of movement 42:13 — Israeli politics, Gaza, Netanyahu, and the limits of military force 46:15 — CIA executive arrested with gold bars, cash, and luxury watches 50:22 — How did he get through CIA security screening and internal oversight? 53:05 — Counterintelligence concerns and how CIA tech officers support operations 56:24 — NDAA Section 224 and proposed U.S.-Israel military/tech integration 01:00:34 — Counterintelligence concerns, Title 10 limits, and what the bill actually does 01:02:35 — Knicks, Trump at MSG, Patreon, and closing thoughts…

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics.
[0:04] Speaker 1: I'm here with Mick Molroy and Mark poly Moreopolis Jonathan Hackett.
[0:08] Speaker 1: Good good, uh good ratio here two verse two, which
[0:12] Speaker 1: is good to Marines.
[0:13] Speaker 2: Two Greeks.
[0:15] Speaker 1: Missed you, guys, Mark, everybody, Jonathan and Mick, guys been
[0:19] Speaker 1: you know out there, you know, shaking, shucking and driving. Anyway,
[0:23] Speaker 1: A lot happening as usual. Iranian ceasefire still up in
[0:27] Speaker 1: the air. Last I heard, uh, President Trump was mulling
[0:32] Speaker 1: over whether to accept it. All the reports that are
[0:35] Speaker 1: coming out are saying that both sides are very far apart.
[0:39] Speaker 1: There's talks about a three hundred billion dollar fund for
[0:42] Speaker 1: the Iranians. It's crazy, it's nonsense. But obviously the straight
[0:48] Speaker 1: of Hormon is still kind of closed. We have traded,
[0:51] Speaker 1: you know, we bombed them, they like shot at the
[0:54] Speaker 1: Kuwaiti base. There's been a little bit of like some
[0:56] Speaker 1: kinetic action going on as well.
[0:58] Speaker 3: So very much still up in the air.
[1:01] Speaker 1: Let's start off with that, obviously, and then that'll like
[1:04] Speaker 1: dovetail right into like Israel going past the Latani River
[1:07] Speaker 1: in Lebanon. Israel really stepping up the bombing and stuff
[1:10] Speaker 1: like that in Lebanon. My guess is to try, and
[1:13] Speaker 1: you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but kind
[1:15] Speaker 1: of throw a ranch into the any kind of ceasefire
[1:17] Speaker 1: negotiation because it looks like a Ran wance. Let the
[1:20] Speaker 1: Lebanon issue with Israel to be covered in that, and
[1:24] Speaker 1: I don't think Israel is exactly amped about that. So Mick,
[1:28] Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you go first because I haven't seen
[1:30] Speaker 1: you in a while and I miss you.
[1:33] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I was a couple of weddings.
[1:36] Speaker 1: Congratulations, Yeah, my son and close friend.
[1:42] Speaker 4: Well, let's start with the straight at Hormos, right, So
[1:45] Speaker 4: I think it's you know, we have this discussion in
[1:47] Speaker 4: terms of the US and Arona obviously Israel, but I
[1:50] Speaker 4: think it's important to start off saying like this is
[1:52] Speaker 4: affecting the entire one. Right, So, not only is the
[1:56] Speaker 4: energy prices going up around the world, which of course
[1:59] Speaker 4: it increases the cost for everything, countries are now starting
[2:05] Speaker 4: to run out of their reserve fuel. There's also about
[2:09] Speaker 4: thirty percent of the nitrogen comes out of this, which
[2:12] Speaker 4: is key for food production. So now food's going to
[2:16] Speaker 4: cost more and there's going to be less of it,
[2:18] Speaker 4: which means it's going to cost even more. The countries
[2:22] Speaker 4: in the global South are going to start feeling the
[2:24] Speaker 4: pinch even higher. It will just mean less food available
[2:29] Speaker 4: in the US and other developed countries. It's going to
[2:32] Speaker 4: mean more expensive food. And you know we do all
[2:35] Speaker 4: we do humanitarian food ad delivery, so kind of stick
[2:38] Speaker 4: this really closely. This is effect in every country in
[2:41] Speaker 4: the world, and I think we ought to start feeling
[2:43] Speaker 4: it that way all the parties involved, and I think
[2:45] Speaker 4: the rest of the world should start weighing in a
[2:48] Speaker 4: lot more forcefully on the straight itself. You can completely
[2:52] Speaker 4: disagree if you want to, on the US reasons for
[2:56] Speaker 4: going to war, but you should be completely against the
[2:59] Speaker 4: idea that a country can simply claim sovereignty over international
[3:04] Speaker 4: waterway just because they happen to get been attacked by
[3:08] Speaker 4: another country. Because it's affecting people, real people around the world.
[3:13] Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is the UN should
[3:14] Speaker 4: start you know, I know resolutions, what do they mean, Well,
[3:18] Speaker 4: they mean something or they wouldn't do them. So under
[3:21] Speaker 4: the un conventional the law of the sea, the straight
[3:25] Speaker 4: upfom Moods is an international waterway, so that's the basis.
[3:29] Speaker 4: And then I think countries should start preparing to do
[3:31] Speaker 4: whatever is necessary to open up the Straight And I
[3:33] Speaker 4: know that most countries, if not all countries, wouldn't want
[3:37] Speaker 4: to do this militarily. It doesn't even seem like we do.
[3:39] Speaker 4: But we've got to be preparing for clear in the
[3:42] Speaker 4: trade of mines. There's reports this morning that more minds
[3:45] Speaker 4: have been laid. The NATO has two standing mind clearance groups,
[3:51] Speaker 4: Amphibious Groups North and South. They should be being prepared,
[3:56] Speaker 4: they should be moving that direction, if you ask me,
[3:59] Speaker 4: because aultimately that has to be open, and it has
[4:03] Speaker 4: to be open with unfrittered access for the good of
[4:07] Speaker 4: the globe. So that's the first point I make. And again,
[4:11] Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I mean I want
[4:13] Speaker 4: the US to be successful on this. I'm obviously not
[4:15] Speaker 4: going to agree with all the policy decisions, but ultimately
[4:19] Speaker 4: I want the US to be successful. I want Iran,
[4:24] Speaker 4: the regime at least not to be but we're on
[4:28] Speaker 4: a path where that's still unclear. So the question, of
[4:32] Speaker 4: course is what are we willing to offer for the
[4:35] Speaker 4: Strait to be open. The Strait was obviously opened before
[4:39] Speaker 4: we started the war. I don't think Iran should get
[4:42] Speaker 4: anything for opening the Straight. I think they might. The
[4:44] Speaker 4: only thing they could get to be a benefit would
[4:46] Speaker 4: be an ending of the blockade of their reports that
[4:50] Speaker 4: to me seems somewhat actual, but giving them sanctions relief,
[4:55] Speaker 4: giving them access to frozen assets. I think there's twelve
[4:58] Speaker 4: billion apparently and are or as you mentioned, I think
[5:03] Speaker 4: in the lead up this three hundred million investment, that's
[5:08] Speaker 4: just reparations.
[5:09] Speaker 3: Guys.
[5:09] Speaker 4: If companies wanted to invest in Iran, they wouldn't and
[5:13] Speaker 4: maybe they would if there wasn't a regime. But I
[5:15] Speaker 4: think that's a complete mistake, not only because it would
[5:19] Speaker 4: be paying them to do something that they don't have
[5:21] Speaker 4: the authority to do, which is control of the Straight.
[5:24] Speaker 4: And it would formally, especially the three hundred billion, it
[5:28] Speaker 4: would formally embed the regime. The very regime that says
[5:32] Speaker 4: death to America and death or on would then be
[5:34] Speaker 4: permanently in place. Right if you gave them access to
[5:37] Speaker 4: that much money, and what would they do? They would
[5:39] Speaker 4: rebuild the everything anything that we gain from this, like
[5:42] Speaker 4: the degradation of the ballistic missile capacity in manufacturing and
[5:46] Speaker 4: suicide drone, et cetera. And the Navy and Air Force,
[5:49] Speaker 4: we'd be given on the money to rebuild the whole thing. So,
[5:53] Speaker 4: and to be fair, we actually don't know if that's
[5:55] Speaker 4: in the MoU so I'm only commenting based on media reports.
[5:58] Speaker 4: But if that is, obviously we're going to have to
[6:00] Speaker 4: give them sanctuary belief. But that should only come if
[6:03] Speaker 4: we have a new nuclear agreement, and that nuclear agreement
[6:06] Speaker 4: has to be more restrictive than the JCPOA. If not,
[6:11] Speaker 4: then people are going to say, why the hell did
[6:14] Speaker 4: we get out of the JCPOA twenty eighteen because at
[6:17] Speaker 4: that time we had a uranium and rich three point
[6:20] Speaker 4: six seven percent. Now because we got out of it,
[6:24] Speaker 4: one could make the argument, we have one thousand pounds
[6:26] Speaker 4: enriched to sixty percent. So now we're trying to get
[6:30] Speaker 4: that back. At the same time we're trying to get
[6:32] Speaker 4: them to accept no Richmond, when one could have made
[6:35] Speaker 4: the argument, although we can't go back in time, we
[6:37] Speaker 4: could have just tried to improve the JCPOA rather than
[6:40] Speaker 4: just blow it up, which was more political than policy.
[6:45] Speaker 4: But anyway, so we'll have to see where this is.
[6:48] Speaker 4: But I think the where I'd end on this is
[6:51] Speaker 4: it seems that we're getting further apart that we're not
[6:54] Speaker 4: getting closer to a deal that we're either going to
[6:56] Speaker 4: have a long stalemate or we're going to have a
[6:59] Speaker 4: return into major air operations. And if that's the case,
[7:04] Speaker 4: I don't see it necessarily helping push forward or policy objectives.
[7:10] Speaker 4: So we just might be in this flaw.
[7:12] Speaker 3: Whoever wants it takes a baby brought jovin.
[7:16] Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we're kind of moving toward rewarding them
[7:20] Speaker 5: at our own expense for our own actions. It's again
[7:23] Speaker 5: interesting logical series of steps where you know, action, as
[7:27] Speaker 5: the US does something, Iran responds, and the US rewards
[7:30] Speaker 5: Iran for responding to go back to the way things
[7:32] Speaker 5: were before Actor A acted, which is kind of a
[7:35] Speaker 5: strange sequence of events. And of course we can't go
[7:38] Speaker 5: back in time, like you said, Nick, but we can
[7:40] Speaker 5: look forward and think about what actions do we take next,
[7:43] Speaker 5: and what results do those actions have. And if we
[7:46] Speaker 5: reward one actor Iran for what it's doing with the
[7:49] Speaker 5: Straits basically exerting sovereignty over international waters, that's not just
[7:54] Speaker 5: an Iran problem. It's a problem in Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt,
[7:59] Speaker 5: and Anima telling other countries that hey, if you behave
[8:02] Speaker 5: this way for long enough, the US or another country
[8:05] Speaker 5: that's powerful will will give you a concession to allow
[8:08] Speaker 5: you to keep control over the thing you have now
[8:09] Speaker 5: that you shouldn't have had in the first place. That's
[8:12] Speaker 5: a huge concern. And of course with the run that
[8:15] Speaker 5: it will remain a concern with they run, but it
[8:16] Speaker 5: will also trickle over to other countries too. And we
[8:19] Speaker 5: can't predict how the world's going to be ordered in
[8:21] Speaker 5: fifty years, seventy five years, one hundred years. You know,
[8:23] Speaker 5: right now, Indonesia's a friend. In the fifties, Indonesia was
[8:27] Speaker 5: not necessarily a friend when we had the non Aligned
[8:29] Speaker 5: movement other things going on. So that is a huge place.
[8:32] Speaker 5: Like thirty to sixty percent of all world goods travel
[8:34] Speaker 5: through the Straits of Malacca, and if Malaysia or Indonesia
[8:37] Speaker 5: decide that they have something that's not aligned with the
[8:40] Speaker 5: interests of the West, there's going to be a challenge there. Sorry,
[8:43] Speaker 5: my dehumidive fire was was beeping.
[8:45] Speaker 4: There in fact, but.
[8:47] Speaker 6: Yeah, it's actually very cold here. It was forty eight
[8:50] Speaker 6: degrees yesterday. It felt like fall. It's crazy. But back
[8:54] Speaker 6: to the nuclear issue. You know, you had.
[8:55] Speaker 5: Connecticut, Yeah, it's Connecticut, man, it's fall here or winter
[9:00] Speaker 5: one of the two.
[9:02] Speaker 6: But the uranium.
[9:03] Speaker 5: I just saw recently that Kazakhstan was named as a
[9:06] Speaker 5: country to potentially take the enriched uranium in addition to China.
[9:10] Speaker 5: I think this is very interesting because we're thinking about
[9:13] Speaker 5: sending this uranium to two countries that we have very
[9:15] Speaker 5: little monitoring capability over. So if we send it to China,
[9:18] Speaker 5: there is a possibility that is non zero that that
[9:21] Speaker 5: uranium either ends up back in Iran or ends up
[9:24] Speaker 5: in a way that Iran can continue working with it
[9:26] Speaker 5: even if it's.
[9:26] Speaker 6: Not in Iran.
[9:28] Speaker 5: We've had similar issues with the North Korean scientists and
[9:30] Speaker 5: Pakistani scientists, you know. So it's like, are we sending
[9:34] Speaker 5: it to a country that we can control or not?
[9:36] Speaker 5: And if the problem is that we don't have control
[9:38] Speaker 5: or monitoring capability. But like the IAEA has complained about,
[9:41] Speaker 5: it is true, we're not really solving that problem either.
[9:44] Speaker 5: We're just putting it somewhere else into a similar problem set,
[9:47] Speaker 5: perhaps a worse one, because China is far more powerful
[9:49] Speaker 5: than Iran in a variety of ways. So if China
[9:52] Speaker 5: begins acting badly with this uranium, there's even less.
[9:55] Speaker 6: We can do about it.
[9:56] Speaker 5: Clearly China is not affected by sanctions. If they were,
[9:59] Speaker 5: the oil issue we see right now would not be happening.
[10:02] Speaker 5: China has been benefiting and so is Iran. Have been
[10:04] Speaker 5: benefiting from the sanctions going on since February twenty eighth.
[10:07] Speaker 5: And when I say Iran, I don't mean the people.
[10:08] Speaker 5: I mean the government, the small amount of people that are.
[10:10] Speaker 6: Controlling the country right now.
[10:12] Speaker 5: And as you mentioned, Nick got the twelve billion dollars
[10:15] Speaker 5: of asset possibly being unfrozen. We have a three hundred
[10:18] Speaker 5: billion dollar reparation fund, there's sanctions relief. All three of
[10:21] Speaker 5: these things that are being mentioned benefit only one class
[10:24] Speaker 5: of society, and it's a small managerial class and ownership
[10:27] Speaker 5: class in Iran, which is, like you know, Esthima's vary,
[10:31] Speaker 5: but let's say ten percent or less of the people
[10:34] Speaker 5: in the country, all of whom are very much against
[10:39] Speaker 5: the United States, very much against the West, seeing this
[10:41] Speaker 5: as a victory. And if you can see the propaganda
[10:43] Speaker 5: on the Persian language side, you would understand what I
[10:46] Speaker 5: mean by this. I was just listening to someone in
[10:48] Speaker 5: Iran speaking yesterday and they noted that they asked, are
[10:53] Speaker 5: things as expensive as they say they are? On the
[10:54] Speaker 5: rest of the world, because on the Iranian propaganda side,
[10:57] Speaker 5: the propaganda there says that eggs here are like one
[10:59] Speaker 5: hundred dollars for a dozen, and they're like just everywhere
[11:02] Speaker 5: all over the place, saying that the West is falling apart,
[11:04] Speaker 5: that the US government is completely collapsing, there's been a coup,
[11:08] Speaker 5: like all this stuff, and it's like every day all
[11:10] Speaker 5: the time that the Iranian people are seeing and thinking
[11:13] Speaker 5: that that's actually what's happening in the outside world. Because remember,
[11:15] Speaker 5: they don't have the Internet, or if they do, it's filtered,
[11:18] Speaker 5: so their view of what's going on is very different
[11:20] Speaker 5: than our view of what's going on.
[11:22] Speaker 6: And the information.
[11:23] Speaker 5: Domain is a domain that the Iranian government understands very well,
[11:26] Speaker 5: and if we keep funding them, they're going to keep
[11:29] Speaker 5: maximizing that use of the information domain, which they're doing
[11:31] Speaker 5: in English like on x when we see the lego,
[11:34] Speaker 5: you know, videos, and also the ways that they're actually
[11:37] Speaker 5: paying for cultural centers and other things in Europe and
[11:39] Speaker 5: the United States and Canada and all these other ways
[11:42] Speaker 5: they're understanding the information domain that we're failing.
[11:44] Speaker 6: We're going to be funding them to increase that.
[11:50] Speaker 4: I think it was your idea, Jonathan before to have
[11:54] Speaker 4: just to do like commercial businesses to blast the Internet
[11:59] Speaker 4: into our I don't know why we don't do that.
[12:01] Speaker 6: We spend Apparently there was a stuff.
[12:03] Speaker 4: Don't there was a plan any go ahead?
[12:06] Speaker 3: Sorry?
[12:06] Speaker 5: Yeah, in January there was a plan one hundred billion
[12:09] Speaker 5: dollars it would cost for sixty days to completely cover
[12:12] Speaker 5: Iran twenty four hours a day in direct to sell
[12:14] Speaker 5: communications using a starlink like platform, and the US government,
[12:18] Speaker 5: I'm not sure which office shot it down. So there
[12:21] Speaker 5: was a pitch for that to actually bring it in
[12:23] Speaker 5: and the US decided not to do it. Also similarly
[12:26] Speaker 5: with T one hundred billion, because you've got to put
[12:29] Speaker 5: up new mesh networks. So like right now, the amount
[12:32] Speaker 5: of coverage that's up there is not sufficient to actually
[12:34] Speaker 5: cover the demand that would be put on it. Because
[12:37] Speaker 5: you're thinking like eighty eight million to ninety million users
[12:40] Speaker 5: active per day with video with voice, with all this data,
[12:44] Speaker 5: like that's going to be a huge step up from
[12:46] Speaker 5: what's currently up there for the limited number of users
[12:49] Speaker 5: that are up there, plus the ground station equipment, plus
[12:51] Speaker 5: the backbone infrastructure. So there would be some cost to
[12:54] Speaker 5: additional cost actually getting this thing to be sustainable.
[12:58] Speaker 1: Johnathan, wasn't there also another thing where like they asked
[13:00] Speaker 1: Starlink and Starlink said it was one hundred million up
[13:03] Speaker 1: front and then I think five hundred million over the
[13:06] Speaker 1: course for like the first and the d D said
[13:08] Speaker 1: no bueno on that.
[13:11] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that was like a U Traine model that
[13:13] Speaker 5: they had already tested out basically and seen that it
[13:15] Speaker 5: works in extremists nothing. And I heard that the Kurds
[13:21] Speaker 5: with the weapons issue, remember that that there was a
[13:24] Speaker 5: lot of talk about what's going on with the Kurds.
[13:25] Speaker 5: I read recently about a week ago that apparently Turkey
[13:28] Speaker 5: is the one that vetoed that because they saw the
[13:31] Speaker 5: Kurds getting hands on weapons and they're very concerned about
[13:33] Speaker 5: what would happen after day one.
[13:36] Speaker 4: It's a history mark in my life going back decades,
[13:40] Speaker 4: it's always about us giving guns to the Kurds.
[13:44] Speaker 2: So let me just my kind of quick two cents
[13:46] Speaker 2: on this, because I think you guys uh kind of
[13:50] Speaker 2: made a lot of sense just first and foremost, you know,
[13:53] Speaker 2: Trump doesn't want to go back to any kind of
[13:55] Speaker 2: armed conflict period, which I think we can. It is
[13:58] Speaker 2: absolutely clear. I'm not sure what the Pentagon is briefing him,
[14:01] Speaker 2: but I would imagine Sentcom is also saying that the
[14:03] Speaker 2: remain you know, they've gone through seventy percent of the
[14:05] Speaker 2: target list. Anything else they can hit is not going
[14:07] Speaker 2: to actually affect Iranian regime behavior, because I think it won't.
[14:11] Speaker 2: And so even the notion of a return to armed
[14:14] Speaker 2: conflict doesn't actually make any sense militarily. And so and
[14:19] Speaker 2: at the same time, the Iranians want obviously the straight
[14:22] Speaker 2: of her moves is a card, but they need sanctions relief,
[14:24] Speaker 2: and so that's what they're going to get and almost
[14:27] Speaker 2: did get. And then Trump panicked because if you saw
[14:29] Speaker 2: this kind of outcry from the right, whether it's Lindsey
[14:32] Speaker 2: Graham or Mark Bibowitz from Freedom Defensive Democracy, or Mark
[14:36] Speaker 2: Thiason or Hugh Hewitt, you know, Mike Pompeo, there was
[14:42] Speaker 2: kind of this outrage on that we were about to
[14:44] Speaker 2: do with JCPA two point zero, which is actually what
[14:47] Speaker 2: we are going to do. There's no other option on
[14:50] Speaker 2: this right now. And so, you know, the New York
[14:52] Speaker 2: Times at a piece this morning, which I think is
[14:54] Speaker 2: probably accurate, saying that, you know, Trump hurt all this criticism,
[14:57] Speaker 2: and then they came back now with a response to
[14:59] Speaker 2: the is strengthening the notion of you know, until you
[15:02] Speaker 2: get rid of some of the nuke stuff, we're not
[15:04] Speaker 2: giving you any sanctions relief, and the Iranians are going
[15:06] Speaker 2: to reject this probably, and so we're you know, if
[15:09] Speaker 2: you remember literally a week ago last weekend, there was
[15:12] Speaker 2: all sorts of optimism for a deal because Trump wanted out,
[15:16] Speaker 2: and then things leaked in terms of the sanctions relief,
[15:19] Speaker 2: and then it really does. I mean, the Republican talking
[15:21] Speaker 2: point mixed from your time with Jcpoa was we gave
[15:28] Speaker 2: bags of money or whatever it was, millions flying in
[15:31] Speaker 2: jets to the Iranians. Well, we're you know, all that
[15:34] Speaker 2: of course is simplistic. It's a little more complicated, but
[15:38] Speaker 2: essentially that's they're going to replicate this, and so I
[15:40] Speaker 2: think that's why we're in this position now and we're
[15:42] Speaker 2: kind of stuck, and so, you know, I'm not sure
[15:46] Speaker 2: how this gets resolved other than Trump actually caving because
[15:49] Speaker 2: the Iranians need that sanctions relief period. The other piece
[15:53] Speaker 2: of this is I think just going through and indeed,
[15:55] Speaker 2: you and I might have talked about it last week,
[15:57] Speaker 2: So forgive me for saying this again, but go through
[15:59] Speaker 2: a check list of five or six questions, regardless of
[16:02] Speaker 2: where you are in this, just fundamental questions. Number one,
[16:05] Speaker 2: you know, has Iran actually been thwarted in an attempt
[16:07] Speaker 2: to get a nuclear weapon right now? What's the answer
[16:10] Speaker 2: to that? Probably not? Number two? Is the Irnan regime
[16:13] Speaker 2: more or less hardline?
[16:14] Speaker 3: Now?
[16:15] Speaker 2: Arguably more hard line? Not good? Is iron still a
[16:19] Speaker 2: threat to the US and our allies, both in the
[16:20] Speaker 2: conventional military, which is ballistic missiles and drones and then
[16:24] Speaker 2: and then or an asymmetric cyber and terrorism? The answer
[16:27] Speaker 2: is yeah, still not degraded enough.
[16:31] Speaker 6: Uh?
[16:32] Speaker 2: Again, is the Iranian regime more firmly entrenched?
[16:36] Speaker 6: Uh?
[16:36] Speaker 2: If we give them sanctions relief the answer of the yes.
[16:40] Speaker 2: How about you know, has has Iran now gained a
[16:42] Speaker 2: geostrategic card they can always use in the future, regardless
[16:46] Speaker 2: there's an agreement they now know closing the strait of
[16:48] Speaker 2: Hormu's works. Check, are our golf allies actually reconsidering security arrangements? Absolutely?
[16:56] Speaker 2: Trump went crazy a couple of days ago, and I
[16:58] Speaker 2: can't believe Deve when we went over of our in
[17:00] Speaker 2: the pre brief what we're going to talk about I
[17:02] Speaker 2: don't even know if the thing it's threatening to bomb
[17:05] Speaker 2: Oman which Watching that press conference, I was like, man,
[17:08] Speaker 2: he made a mistake there he meant Iran. Wait, that
[17:10] Speaker 2: was the cabinet meeting. No, it was, oh mind because
[17:12] Speaker 2: the State Department retweeted it. That's psychotic. So what about
[17:18] Speaker 2: our security arranges where the Saudis, you know, are running
[17:20] Speaker 2: around trying to you know, I think everybody's cutting deals.
[17:23] Speaker 2: They got Pakistani forces on Saudi territory, you know, in
[17:26] Speaker 2: Saudi territory. Now the UAE has the IDF now deployed
[17:30] Speaker 2: in the Emirates, and so everyone's cutting their own deals
[17:33] Speaker 2: because we don't seem like a solid partner. And then
[17:36] Speaker 2: the last piece and the one Jonathan and actually everyone here, Jonathan,
[17:40] Speaker 2: Mick and Die I think you all agree on and
[17:42] Speaker 2: this goes to why we are good people and good Americans.
[17:45] Speaker 2: Is what I care about most in all of this
[17:47] Speaker 2: is the Iranian people. January thirteenth is when Trump made
[17:50] Speaker 2: that statement help was on its way. There's nothing that
[17:52] Speaker 2: suggests we are doing anything for that. In fact, if
[17:55] Speaker 2: there is kind of a deal, it's going to mean
[17:57] Speaker 2: the regime kind of stays in power and that's again
[18:00] Speaker 2: other long line in the betrayal the US government has
[18:02] Speaker 2: had in the region. So when you go through kind
[18:04] Speaker 2: of those checklists, those just key questions, it's hard to
[18:08] Speaker 2: make any argument that anything is actually uh better off.
[18:11] Speaker 2: Right now? Did we degrade the Iranian I mean, I
[18:14] Speaker 2: can't believe people are saying this, did we degrade the
[18:16] Speaker 2: Iranian Air Force and navy? Sure? The Iranian Air Force
[18:20] Speaker 2: and navy? Are you kidding me? These are not you know,
[18:23] Speaker 2: entities that we all thought were throughout to the United States.
[18:25] Speaker 2: And so, you know, I hate the notion when we
[18:28] Speaker 2: say the US lost this war because I think that's
[18:30] Speaker 2: really simplistic. I don't like hearing that that's that kind
[18:33] Speaker 2: of that doesn't even make a lot of sense. But
[18:36] Speaker 2: because and and and armed conflict, everything's really murky. But
[18:39] Speaker 2: we certainly didn't win, and so we're kind of in
[18:42] Speaker 2: this kind of odd situation right now. And so you know,
[18:45] Speaker 2: we'll see when this goes. But the other thing too is,
[18:49] Speaker 2: you know, the the foreign policy by true social post
[18:55] Speaker 2: I mean, it just is so kind of old and
[18:58] Speaker 2: tiring right now. And you know, we you know, either
[19:01] Speaker 2: you read barackra vied and Axios on what the administration
[19:03] Speaker 2: is thinking, or you read Trump's true social posts, but
[19:07] Speaker 2: the kind of the days of actually figuring out that
[19:10] Speaker 2: this is being done by kind of normal individuals and
[19:12] Speaker 2: the national security counter meeting that's along gone.
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[20:57] Speaker 4: It's a question for you Mark. You said uh, and
[21:00] Speaker 4: I think you're correct of course that if we give
[21:03] Speaker 4: sanctuary leave for opening the straight Obviously the far right,
[21:06] Speaker 4: especially the Hawks, are going to be opposed, but doesn't
[21:09] Speaker 4: it seem like everybody across the political spectrum is going
[21:11] Speaker 4: to be a posed to this. We've basically just given
[21:13] Speaker 4: them money for opening something they shouldn't have closed.
[21:18] Speaker 2: But that's the only way this will get resolved. I mean,
[21:21] Speaker 2: and I say this, I mean Trump stuck. Your Annians
[21:24] Speaker 2: are not going to agree to anything but that, and
[21:27] Speaker 2: they don't have to, and so.
[21:29] Speaker 3: Why would they They're holding the cards, guys, Yeah.
[21:33] Speaker 4: We do it if we've essentially said that this is
[21:37] Speaker 4: a failure, the whole things fail. Yeah, but that's I
[21:40] Speaker 4: think that's the way history is going to view it.
[21:42] Speaker 4: So we've then given them money, which is sanctions releaved. Right,
[21:45] Speaker 4: they get money, it goes to like you all said,
[21:47] Speaker 4: it goes to ten of the population. So that's going
[21:51] Speaker 4: to firmly embed themselves into your last point, Mark, And
[21:54] Speaker 4: what are they going to do. They're going to use
[21:56] Speaker 4: it to a press or any people.
[21:57] Speaker 2: People, right, right, So yeah, I'm I mean the policy
[22:01] Speaker 2: options for Trump or you know, everything is political, and
[22:03] Speaker 2: so the midterms are coming up, the price and gas
[22:05] Speaker 2: is high, inflation is up. I mean, he needs this
[22:08] Speaker 2: thing to end, and the only way for it to
[22:10] Speaker 2: end is to reward the Iranians in some kind of compromise.
[22:12] Speaker 2: I mean, and I hate that, but he got himself
[22:14] Speaker 2: in this box. But he's in a pickle. And Mick,
[22:17] Speaker 2: I mean, I've used your kind of line a zillion
[22:19] Speaker 2: times and all sorts of media stuff. Is you know,
[22:21] Speaker 2: there's no kind of you know, silver bullet or kind
[22:23] Speaker 2: of magic you know, magic toy or whatever it is
[22:26] Speaker 2: you whatever you said before. I loved and I used,
[22:28] Speaker 2: but there you know, there's no there's no good options
[22:31] Speaker 2: right now. If there was, we'd be advocating for it.
[22:34] Speaker 2: If you told me that, you know, another three weeks
[22:36] Speaker 2: of bombing would bring the Iranians to their their their knees,
[22:39] Speaker 2: I would be like, all right, fine, But it's just
[22:40] Speaker 2: I don't think anybody even assesses that anymore, and it
[22:43] Speaker 2: certainly Sencom doesn't. But Sencom's gonna do the right thing
[22:45] Speaker 2: when they see the President says, get you know, I'm
[22:48] Speaker 2: interested in going back at it. You know, what are
[22:49] Speaker 2: you gonna hit? Okay, here's what we're gonna hit. I mean,
[22:51] Speaker 2: they're gonna they're gonna give them targets if he wants
[22:53] Speaker 2: to go down that line. Uh, but I don't just know,
[22:57] Speaker 2: I don't, I don't know. I mean this, we're we're
[22:59] Speaker 2: gonna We're in a bind right now. This is one
[23:02] Speaker 2: of those kind of paradoxes where I really don't know
[23:04] Speaker 2: what we actually can do to further US interests at
[23:07] Speaker 2: this point. I don't know if you guys do, if
[23:10] Speaker 2: you were sitting in your you know, in your old jobs,
[23:13] Speaker 2: you know, what would you advocate that we do because
[23:15] Speaker 2: again knowing the I mean, you have to assess Iranian behavior.
[23:18] Speaker 2: You guys know Iran you know, and and they you know,
[23:21] Speaker 2: their view is that might in my sense that they
[23:23] Speaker 2: can hold out much longer than we can. They can,
[23:26] Speaker 2: they have more patience than us. They don't care about
[23:28] Speaker 2: the Iranian people. The Iranian economy is a mess. Okay,
[23:31] Speaker 2: that's that's all right, because but the midterms are coming up,
[23:34] Speaker 2: and Trump is going to get claubord unless he doesn't
[23:36] Speaker 2: give a shit at all. But if that was the case, we'd,
[23:39] Speaker 2: you know, uh, I think we'd continue on kind of
[23:41] Speaker 2: a harder line policies. I don't know, I'm not you know,
[23:44] Speaker 2: it's always good to it's always easy to criticize. But
[23:47] Speaker 2: in terms if someone gave you, like, what's the policy
[23:48] Speaker 2: prescription of this? I don't know, guys, I don't know
[23:51] Speaker 2: what I would say.
[23:52] Speaker 4: What else can we do economically? I mean, unless we
[23:56] Speaker 4: just want to concede and start giving them money, which
[23:59] Speaker 4: I don't think is in our interests. I mean, what
[24:02] Speaker 4: else can we do to put pressure on them that
[24:04] Speaker 4: doesn't involved to be starting the air campaign, which I
[24:07] Speaker 4: think you're right. I mean I don't. I don't. I
[24:09] Speaker 4: think Sentcom's telling them, like, look, we can bomb stuff,
[24:12] Speaker 4: but ultimately we're just depleting our our munitions and it's
[24:19] Speaker 4: not going to affect a policy.
[24:20] Speaker 2: Change given the year of squeezing, I'm sure, but then
[24:23] Speaker 2: the international economy has destroyed, you know it is.
[24:26] Speaker 4: But these are things that should have been worked out
[24:29] Speaker 4: in the NSC process, right they anybody in the NSC
[24:33] Speaker 4: would have said they're going to close the straight We're
[24:35] Speaker 4: going to.
[24:36] Speaker 1: On the podcast with four of us, we worked it out.
[24:40] Speaker 6: You know.
[24:41] Speaker 4: It's like, so either we'd be willing to force it
[24:43] Speaker 4: open militarily, which is a big decision. I think we
[24:45] Speaker 4: could do it, but I mean being able to and
[24:48] Speaker 4: should is two different things. Or we're willing to tough
[24:52] Speaker 4: it out, but I mean we're also bringing the world.
[24:55] Speaker 2: Let's put five hundred thousand grand troops and go to
[24:57] Speaker 2: war and defeat the Iranian military.
[24:58] Speaker 3: Believe that idea. Let's do that.
[25:00] Speaker 2: Let's do that what I'm saying. But you know, there
[25:01] Speaker 2: are options out there, there are.
[25:03] Speaker 4: That's an option. That's an option.
[25:05] Speaker 2: It's a terrible it's not palatable.
[25:06] Speaker 3: That's on Lead Graham's mood board, you know what I mean,
[25:09] Speaker 3: that's what that.
[25:10] Speaker 2: But you know, defeating a regime via an air campaign very
[25:13] Speaker 2: rarely works. If ever, I think Libya is the only
[25:15] Speaker 2: sort of model, but it just doesn't work. And so
[25:18] Speaker 2: you know that that again goes to the early assumptions
[25:20] Speaker 2: in the war. But Jonathan, I mean, what if you
[25:22] Speaker 2: were sitting in a policy meeting right now, what would
[25:25] Speaker 2: you advocate for us to do well?
[25:27] Speaker 5: I'd be looking at the problem and the current problem
[25:28] Speaker 5: is the Straits are a challenge, right and you know
[25:31] Speaker 5: the question of why are they a challenge because Iran
[25:33] Speaker 5: is threatening to put them at risk, not necessarily actually
[25:36] Speaker 5: putting them at risk.
[25:37] Speaker 6: This is a very important thing.
[25:39] Speaker 5: I think yesterday there was just one naval mind that
[25:41] Speaker 5: was detected, that was tossed overboard to threaten a vessel.
[25:45] Speaker 5: That's just one nable mind, right. So it's the threat
[25:48] Speaker 5: of force that's the problem, not the use of force.
[25:51] Speaker 5: So if there's a way to actually reduce that threat
[25:53] Speaker 5: of force from your own I think that's helpful. And
[25:55] Speaker 5: when I'm looking at this problem, we're talking about what
[25:57] Speaker 5: can the US do, like the ground troops, the sanctions relief,
[26:00] Speaker 5: all these things. The real solution is not what the
[26:02] Speaker 5: US can do, but what the US and its allies
[26:04] Speaker 5: can do. So we're looking at not just the golf partners,
[26:07] Speaker 5: but also the Combined Maritime Task Force which is led
[26:09] Speaker 5: by the United Kingdom, and many other partners including Japan
[26:12] Speaker 5: that are in that area that I've experienced in that area,
[26:15] Speaker 5: the US has been turning its back on its international
[26:17] Speaker 5: partners since last year, two years ago and even further
[26:20] Speaker 5: back in time. And rather than walking away from those partners,
[26:22] Speaker 5: we need to be walking toward those partners and asking them, hey,
[26:25] Speaker 5: actually we need your help this time. And I know
[26:27] Speaker 5: that's a really tough thing to do for the US
[26:28] Speaker 5: government right now because a lot of the narrative has
[26:30] Speaker 5: been the opposite. We don't need you, and we're going
[26:32] Speaker 5: to punish you because you're not helping us, even though
[26:34] Speaker 5: we don't want your help, but we're going to punish
[26:35] Speaker 5: you for not helping us.
[26:36] Speaker 6: There's just a lot of ambivalence.
[26:38] Speaker 5: I was with the German delegation two weeks ago from
[26:40] Speaker 5: the defense industry in Germany, and they were asking the
[26:42] Speaker 5: US Trade representative and some other US government officials about this,
[26:45] Speaker 5: like do you want us to help or not?
[26:47] Speaker 6: And the US was.
[26:47] Speaker 5: Saying, well, we have these ten percent tariffs, they're very attractive.
[26:50] Speaker 5: You can just bring your industry to America and not
[26:52] Speaker 5: do it in China. And one of the guys from
[26:53] Speaker 5: the German companies, the CEOs, like that doesn't make any sense.
[26:56] Speaker 5: Why would I pay more money for it more expensive
[27:00] Speaker 5: labor to relocate my factory to the United States to
[27:03] Speaker 5: avoid your ten percent tariff when I could just produce
[27:05] Speaker 5: it in Europe or China at a fraction of the
[27:07] Speaker 5: cost and have it out faster than if I could do.
[27:09] Speaker 6: It in the United States.
[27:10] Speaker 5: And the US view is that that's nonsense, and instead
[27:13] Speaker 5: the tariffs would be excused if you just do it in.
[27:15] Speaker 6: The United States.
[27:15] Speaker 4: Completely logical, but I highlight that then the tariffs could
[27:18] Speaker 4: go away the next administration, so they would have spent
[27:20] Speaker 4: it all that money to kind of the anize it. Even
[27:22] Speaker 4: if it did make economic sense, it could be short lived,
[27:25] Speaker 4: like it could be a situation.
[27:28] Speaker 5: And that's why I bring this up because it's not
[27:29] Speaker 5: just a military problem, it's an economic problem. The Straits
[27:31] Speaker 5: of War moves is an economic problem with a military component,
[27:34] Speaker 5: but the bigger issue is economics because as you said, Mick,
[27:37] Speaker 5: this is affecting the entire world economically, So the US
[27:40] Speaker 5: needs to turn back to its allies and partners and
[27:42] Speaker 5: look for their help, not only in the military side
[27:44] Speaker 5: of it, but also economically. There's three places in the
[27:46] Speaker 5: world that can produce the type of heavy crude that
[27:48] Speaker 5: Iran produces. Two of them are outside of the Straits,
[27:52] Speaker 5: Norway and Venezuela. Norway's production is extremely low the Brent crude.
[27:56] Speaker 5: Venezuela's is completely aged because of how the infrastructure has
[27:59] Speaker 5: gone down over the years. But those are two potential
[28:02] Speaker 5: sources where the US could dramatically create incentives for those
[28:05] Speaker 5: to increase production. That's one thing the US could also
[28:08] Speaker 5: help with insurance companies by offsetting the cost that insurance
[28:11] Speaker 5: companies are incurring by not letting their vessels go through
[28:14] Speaker 5: or letting them go through at a very high cost
[28:16] Speaker 5: for insurance. This is a war of insurance, it's not
[28:18] Speaker 5: a war of bullets and bombs. Going through the straits
[28:19] Speaker 5: of war moves. So if there's a way to incentivize
[28:22] Speaker 5: these insurance companies, like the insurer for Marisk, to send
[28:25] Speaker 5: the vessels through there and be okay with it, the
[28:28] Speaker 5: US will agree to offset, kind of like lend lease,
[28:30] Speaker 5: where there's some there's some incentive on both sides for
[28:33] Speaker 5: letting this thing happen at acute cost with a long
[28:38] Speaker 5: term benefit. But that doesn't seem to be in the
[28:41] Speaker 5: cards right now.
[28:43] Speaker 4: So wildcard, including the last part. So, like this indemnification
[28:47] Speaker 4: of these ships, what if the UN pass the resolution
[28:52] Speaker 4: saying we authorize naval coalition to escort the ships through
[28:58] Speaker 4: the strict It can't the US because we're a combat
[29:01] Speaker 4: in this. I don't know if any country is going
[29:04] Speaker 4: to sign on. But I'm we're, we're, we're. I've grasp
[29:06] Speaker 4: but just draws you if the UN intel's you are on,
[29:10] Speaker 4: like they're coming through and they're going to esk out
[29:12] Speaker 4: escort these ships out that are I don't know thousands right,
[29:16] Speaker 4: that are all identified, you know, financially, so they accept it.
[29:21] Speaker 4: Would that potentially work, would iranally?
[29:24] Speaker 6: Wildcard two?
[29:27] Speaker 4: A wildcard on top of a walid car?
[29:28] Speaker 5: Yeah, because uh, you know, the UN is about to
[29:31] Speaker 5: run out of money in August and they're about to
[29:33] Speaker 5: have a UN presidential election as well in August. The
[29:37] Speaker 5: US and China combined provide forty six percent of all
[29:39] Speaker 5: funding for all UN activities. This is like a special
[29:42] Speaker 5: pocket veto that both China and the US have in
[29:45] Speaker 5: the funding. Obviously the US has been using this veto
[29:47] Speaker 5: quite a bit. But this is a problem where just
[29:49] Speaker 5: because we authorize it doesn't mean it can happen. And
[29:51] Speaker 5: we saw this with Mali with the MANUSMA, the multi
[29:54] Speaker 5: Dimensional International Stable Stabilization Mission in Mali or whatever it
[29:59] Speaker 5: was MANU where there was this authorization for African countries
[30:03] Speaker 5: and other partners to come and help stabilize against ISIS.
[30:05] Speaker 5: And what happened after that? It didn't work. I mean
[30:08] Speaker 5: the country is split up and now controlled by ISIS.
[30:10] Speaker 5: So I mean we can authorize this stuff. Same with Lebanon,
[30:13] Speaker 5: UNSCR seventeen oh one set up the Blue Line two
[30:15] Speaker 5: thousand and six down in southern Lebanon, and that has
[30:19] Speaker 5: not worked either. So, like there's a lot of aspirational
[30:21] Speaker 5: things with the UN, but the problem is that states
[30:22] Speaker 5: themselves have to agree to actually commit forces and resources
[30:26] Speaker 5: to do it. And if the US is already giving
[30:28] Speaker 5: the middle finger to the international community, why would the
[30:30] Speaker 5: international community come in and do something that US could
[30:32] Speaker 5: do as a leader And it's not doing it.
[30:35] Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, I realized this is a long shot.
[30:38] Speaker 4: The only thing is they have an incentive like this
[30:41] Speaker 4: isn't They're not doing us a favor, right, Like this
[30:44] Speaker 4: is affecting everybody around the world. So when will it
[30:47] Speaker 4: get to a point where they'll say, yeah, we'll do it.
[30:49] Speaker 4: We'll just we'll just take the risk because it's impacting
[30:53] Speaker 4: them and their people. It's not just doing the US.
[30:56] Speaker 2: The one thing on that we have to remember that
[30:57] Speaker 2: most of these countries, when we were talking about if
[30:59] Speaker 2: the US, the UK, or France, you know what they've
[31:01] Speaker 2: agreed upon. I believe is if you know, once the
[31:04] Speaker 2: war is over, they will do this. But if you're
[31:06] Speaker 2: the Prime Minister of Britain, or the French president you
[31:11] Speaker 2: are behold into your electorate. And there's probably three people
[31:13] Speaker 2: in the entire country of France and England who thinks
[31:16] Speaker 2: that anyone from their military should die for this for
[31:18] Speaker 2: a ward the United States started. So I think that's
[31:21] Speaker 2: you know, that's the thing too. So even even if
[31:23] Speaker 2: and you do hear kind of behind the scenes, the
[31:25] Speaker 2: UK defense planners are like, yeah, you know, we do
[31:27] Speaker 2: have an interest in here. British prime ministers get get
[31:30] Speaker 2: you know, he's already in big trouble anywhere. Uh but
[31:34] Speaker 2: I mean, are you kidding me? You know, British sailors
[31:36] Speaker 2: dying over a war the US started, and especially.
[31:40] Speaker 6: After turning NATO like we just did recently.
[31:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, and so so why would any why these are
[31:45] Speaker 2: these are these are democracies and they have their constituencies,
[31:48] Speaker 2: and so I think there's no political will. And so
[31:50] Speaker 2: you do see people, especially in the right here, you know,
[31:53] Speaker 2: screaming that you know, our allies are not helping us
[31:55] Speaker 2: while our allies are democracies, and even if they wanted to,
[31:58] Speaker 2: I don't know I think they would. If so, if
[32:00] Speaker 2: there is this kind of mythical agreement, now, you know,
[32:03] Speaker 2: would we see this kind of maritime cast force takes holder. Maybe,
[32:07] Speaker 2: but you know, in you know, under duress, you know,
[32:10] Speaker 2: or really is any is any country going to actually
[32:13] Speaker 2: put their men and women, by the way, because President
[32:15] Speaker 2: Trump is sitting there insulting all of the countries that
[32:17] Speaker 2: lost forces in Afghanistan. I rock on a daily basis.
[32:20] Speaker 2: Trump is insulting them. And so I mean that's just politically,
[32:22] Speaker 2: I don't see it happening in many of these European
[32:24] Speaker 2: states unless there is some kind of uh, you know,
[32:27] Speaker 2: a more when I say it's not peace because by
[32:29] Speaker 2: the way, this sixty day mu is just a it's
[32:31] Speaker 2: a ceasefire agreement. The idea that it's a deal is
[32:34] Speaker 2: also preposterous. And let me just throw one other thing
[32:38] Speaker 2: in here. I know, we've got some other subjects to
[32:39] Speaker 2: get to. But the notion that Trump keeps saying that
[32:43] Speaker 2: one of the key sticking points is that they we
[32:46] Speaker 2: need to have a firm promise from the Iranians to
[32:49] Speaker 2: not pursue nuclear weapon Like it's a verbal promise from
[32:52] Speaker 2: the Iranians. Are you kidding me?
[32:54] Speaker 4: I mean it's it's already have a flat wall, right,
[32:56] Speaker 4: they already have a flaughts.
[32:57] Speaker 2: Then they said the same thing before. Of course they cheated,
[33:00] Speaker 2: but it doesn't matter. I mean that the idea that
[33:02] Speaker 2: this is actually being thrown about, and that if someone
[33:05] Speaker 2: would celebrate the an MoU with includes that and take
[33:09] Speaker 2: it seriously. I mean, no one in the national security
[33:11] Speaker 2: world is really kind of holding their breath.
[33:14] Speaker 4: They didn't agree to even talk nuclear did they. Isn't
[33:17] Speaker 4: that what reporting is?
[33:20] Speaker 6: You know?
[33:20] Speaker 2: That's that's stage two. This is like, this is gonna
[33:23] Speaker 2: get me going yet. This is the I watched that
[33:25] Speaker 2: Charmel shake summit from several months ago on Gaza, and
[33:28] Speaker 2: I've been opposed to the Abraham Accord hooplah for so
[33:33] Speaker 2: long because it didn't address the Palestinian issue that that
[33:36] Speaker 2: whole summit UH with which was in essence a ceasefire
[33:40] Speaker 2: agreement in Gaza UH and then there was gonna be
[33:43] Speaker 2: This twenty point plan was always going to be bullshit,
[33:45] Speaker 2: and it is because it hasn't gone past I think
[33:47] Speaker 2: stage two. And so now we have a bunch of
[33:50] Speaker 2: real estate guys, Kushner and Wickoff again now negotiating another
[33:54] Speaker 2: twenty point plan with the Iranians of several stages. I mean,
[33:57] Speaker 2: it's incredible to me because this is just and this
[34:00] Speaker 2: go Remember the Alaska summit with Ukraine, there was a
[34:03] Speaker 2: multi point plan as well. This is what these folks,
[34:05] Speaker 2: these real estate yahoo's love, and it just ends up being, Look,
[34:09] Speaker 2: it's this. This will be a ceasefire agreement, if anything.
[34:12] Speaker 2: That's it my two cents.
[34:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[34:19] Speaker 4: And then when it gets to the nuclear agreement, if
[34:21] Speaker 4: we ever get there, it's going to have to include
[34:24] Speaker 4: the recovery of the agu of course, it's going to
[34:27] Speaker 4: have to include dismantling of the nuclear program and inspections.
[34:30] Speaker 4: You need inspepections anytime anywhere, inspections, man, because you said it,
[34:35] Speaker 4: we change the regime, we made it more hardline. So
[34:38] Speaker 4: these guys, the guys that I think that are left
[34:40] Speaker 4: and correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, anybody, I think
[34:44] Speaker 4: they're more prone to want a nuclear weapon. Now, I
[34:46] Speaker 4: bet you they're behind the scenes, are like, everything we got,
[34:50] Speaker 4: we're going to put in to get a nuclear weapon,
[34:52] Speaker 4: right because from their perspective, this has proved they needed
[34:56] Speaker 4: because we're not doing this Korea.
[34:59] Speaker 2: Is that less in the Ukraine? Ukraine gave up their web,
[35:01] Speaker 2: their nuclear rep I mean, is that not the lesson
[35:04] Speaker 2: of Libya? I mean there's all the all the you know,
[35:06] Speaker 2: the successes of counterproliferation of countries given up their nuclear
[35:09] Speaker 2: weapon have never ended up good for that country.
[35:14] Speaker 4: And so so we have to have any time anywhere
[35:16] Speaker 4: inspections because they're going to try to at least clandescently.
[35:19] Speaker 3: Get to alar wep never going to it'd.
[35:21] Speaker 6: Be crazy not to.
[35:22] Speaker 5: I mean, like like you said, even especially the hardliners,
[35:25] Speaker 5: like they may have wanted a weapon before, but now
[35:27] Speaker 5: like their survival depends on it. There is no way
[35:30] Speaker 5: they are going to survive if they give up their
[35:32] Speaker 5: nuclear ambitions.
[35:34] Speaker 6: It's not going to happen.
[35:35] Speaker 2: And think about when we you know, during the Biden administration,
[35:38] Speaker 2: when we were doing a lot, but not ever enough
[35:40] Speaker 2: to help the Ukrainians actually win. It was always because
[35:43] Speaker 2: of the saber rattling on nuclear stuff from Putin. So
[35:46] Speaker 2: having a nuclear weapon really does help ensure one's country survival,
[35:50] Speaker 2: one regime survival. That's the lesson of the last you know,
[35:53] Speaker 2: several decades.
[35:55] Speaker 5: In India, Pakistan and North Korea are perfect examples of
[35:57] Speaker 5: that truth.
[36:00] Speaker 3: Go nukes also an Iranian title, Yeah, something something wild.
[36:07] Speaker 3: I'll all come up at.
[36:08] Speaker 2: The gold bars next, come on, Yeah, let's touch on
[36:12] Speaker 2: a little bit of Israel have taken more and more
[36:14] Speaker 2: of the Lebanese land, they'd moved past the Latani River.
[36:19] Speaker 3: Jonathan, what are you tracking on this?
[36:21] Speaker 5: I mean, it's hugely symbolic because if you look at
[36:24] Speaker 5: the nineteen eighty two invasion, this is very similar as
[36:26] Speaker 5: far as the incremental northward movement, where in domestic Israeli
[36:31] Speaker 5: media it's advertised that we're only going to hit this line,
[36:33] Speaker 5: and then next week they go another line and justify
[36:35] Speaker 5: why they had to do that. Very similar messaging back
[36:38] Speaker 5: with Ariel Sharon who was leading that back in eighty two.
[36:41] Speaker 5: But the issue really here is there's always been a
[36:45] Speaker 5: Lebanon Israel problem that's separate from the other issues that
[36:49] Speaker 5: we've been discussing, and this is coming into the four
[36:51] Speaker 5: because I believe net Yahoo sees his time is limited,
[36:55] Speaker 5: not because of the US elections, but because of Israeli elections.
[36:58] Speaker 5: There's a possibility that the coalition will collapse by September,
[37:02] Speaker 5: a real possibility that's being discussed within then esset right now.
[37:05] Speaker 5: And what's going to happen if that. If that happens,
[37:06] Speaker 5: then they're going to lose control over this conflict, which
[37:09] Speaker 5: doesn't mean the conflict will stop. It means they will
[37:12] Speaker 5: lose the ability to have the initiative in it, which
[37:14] Speaker 5: could be threatening to Israel's northern border. So on the
[37:17] Speaker 5: hawk side there's concern, and then on the security side
[37:19] Speaker 5: is also concerned about what will happen if the government collapses.
[37:22] Speaker 5: And I think there's a mad dash right now to
[37:24] Speaker 5: just end the issue before that red line approaches. But
[37:29] Speaker 5: the symbolic movement up to view Fort Castles, it's a
[37:31] Speaker 5: big deal because typically if you look on a map,
[37:33] Speaker 5: this is very far north into Lebanon. This is far
[37:36] Speaker 5: like just like nineteen eighty two and two thousand and six,
[37:39] Speaker 5: and two thousand and six is an important conflict to
[37:40] Speaker 5: look at to compare it to, because that's when Hasbola
[37:43] Speaker 5: claims they defeated Israel. Really it was Israel decided to
[37:46] Speaker 5: withdraw because the price was too high and remain engaged
[37:49] Speaker 5: with Hesbola. But this gave us United Nations Security Council
[37:52] Speaker 5: Resolutions seventeen oh one and seventeen oh two in two
[37:54] Speaker 5: thousand and six, which said the blue line's going to
[37:57] Speaker 5: be the limit the border between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanese
[38:00] Speaker 5: armed forces eventually have to move south and reassert sovereignty
[38:03] Speaker 5: over South Lebanon, including Nabatia, which is where they currently
[38:06] Speaker 5: where Israel currently is now, and that hasn't happened. Hesbola
[38:09] Speaker 5: has not given up its weapons. This is the weakest
[38:12] Speaker 5: Hasbola has been since two thousand and six, so that
[38:14] Speaker 5: I think Israel seeds a possibility for actually forcing Hasbola
[38:18] Speaker 5: to disarm. The problem is, does Israel trust the Lebanese
[38:21] Speaker 5: armed forces the laugh to actually exert sovereignty in the
[38:24] Speaker 5: south effectively, And I think that that is a questionable statement.
[38:27] Speaker 5: It's not clear if that's true. That means that Israel
[38:30] Speaker 5: will have to be the de facto annex or of
[38:34] Speaker 5: South Lebanon to insure security for South Lebanon, which is
[38:36] Speaker 5: something that Israelies don't want, the Lebanes don't want, the
[38:38] Speaker 5: international community does not want. But it may be something
[38:40] Speaker 5: that Israel is rapidly accelerating toward because of this red
[38:43] Speaker 5: line they see with the potential domestic collapse of the
[38:45] Speaker 5: coalition government.
[38:48] Speaker 4: It's a Bruford castle, like a Crusader castle. It is
[38:52] Speaker 4: yes Yeh's.
[38:54] Speaker 2: You know, if you go back and there's a great
[38:56] Speaker 2: book written in two thousand and five and in a
[38:58] Speaker 2: great movie These Allies, produced in two thousand and seven.
[39:01] Speaker 2: And this this, you know this, This is about the
[39:03] Speaker 2: futility of war. This is about the Israeli occupation. This
[39:06] Speaker 2: is their Vietnam. And you know, I called it a
[39:09] Speaker 2: talk to a friend of mine, to a former ASSOUD officer,
[39:11] Speaker 2: And there's a lot of Israelis in the national security
[39:13] Speaker 2: establishment who are like, are you kidding me? This is insane.
[39:17] Speaker 2: We're back up at at at Uh, you know, north
[39:19] Speaker 2: of Latani, at a very symbolic place. And again, if
[39:22] Speaker 2: you see those movies, these are anti war films and
[39:25] Speaker 2: books which have a lot of resonance inside resonance inside uh,
[39:30] Speaker 2: inside Israel. And I think it's also the notion of
[39:34] Speaker 2: you know, the Israelis and this is and this is
[39:36] Speaker 2: under the current Israeli government. And there's a lot of
[39:38] Speaker 2: debate in Israelian national security circles, but they've lost kind
[39:41] Speaker 2: of any ability to do diplomacy and everything is you know,
[39:43] Speaker 2: via blunt blunt force. Now and this is this is
[39:46] Speaker 2: after kind of the psychological trauma of October seventh. But uh,
[39:50] Speaker 2: you know, you know this, uh This is something in
[39:53] Speaker 2: which I think there's a lot of concern too, especially
[39:55] Speaker 2: when you get to the Hisbolah's clearly learning from the Iranians,
[40:01] Speaker 2: UH and the Russians in terms of drone warfare, and
[40:05] Speaker 2: if you look at social media you see the use
[40:07] Speaker 2: of these FPV drones UH, and the Israelis are having
[40:11] Speaker 2: a hell of a time with it, and that just
[40:13] Speaker 2: means more casualties and so UH, this is a this
[40:17] Speaker 2: is a pretty serious issue inside Israel. I think when
[40:19] Speaker 2: people woke up and talked about Beaufort Castle again, everyone
[40:21] Speaker 2: is like, are you kidding me? I mean this. Think
[40:23] Speaker 2: about this in terms of us going back to some
[40:25] Speaker 2: of these remote outposts in Afghanistan like now, and you know,
[40:30] Speaker 2: there would be a lot of from a lot of veterans,
[40:32] Speaker 2: there'd be a lot of trauma, like what are you
[40:34] Speaker 2: kidding me? We're going back there? So pretty interesting. The
[40:39] Speaker 2: one piece in which I think that but the Iranians
[40:42] Speaker 2: are trying to do the Israelis certainly don't want to
[40:44] Speaker 2: have happened, is to link this with the Iran negotiations
[40:47] Speaker 2: and the idea of and no Israeli national security planner
[40:50] Speaker 2: from the right of the left would ever agree that
[40:52] Speaker 2: they cannot have freedom of movement on their borders. And
[40:54] Speaker 2: so the notion that Israeli somehow have to stop the
[40:57] Speaker 2: war in Lebanon because of our negotiations with ira with Iran,
[41:02] Speaker 2: there's a lot of opposition to this, and it's the
[41:04] Speaker 2: opposition from the left and the right in Israel. Those
[41:06] Speaker 2: are the left saying, you know, this is what you get.
[41:09] Speaker 2: You're cozy up to Trump so much. Now he's ordering us,
[41:11] Speaker 2: ordering us what to do, which is what you know
[41:15] Speaker 2: could be could be occurring. But this is this is
[41:17] Speaker 2: something worth worth watching because uh man back up into
[41:22] Speaker 2: into the Old Crusader Castle. I mean, go back and
[41:24] Speaker 2: watch that movie. It's incredible.
[41:28] Speaker 4: Oh it's it's named after the castle.
[41:30] Speaker 2: Two thousand and seven. It came out. I saw a
[41:32] Speaker 2: couple of years ago. I read the book as well.
[41:33] Speaker 2: But it's a it's a very serious anti war film
[41:37] Speaker 2: about the kind of the futility of a conflict, that
[41:40] Speaker 2: never ending conflict.
[41:43] Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, the only thing I'd add to this is,
[41:45] Speaker 4: I mean it does look to many fairly that Day
[41:52] Speaker 4: launched us right at the opportune time to have some
[41:56] Speaker 4: disruptive effects on the negotiations, right because Auran's clearly tying
[42:02] Speaker 4: their willingness to go into a ceasfire with a regional seasfire,
[42:05] Speaker 4: which means to them that these rallies have to stop
[42:08] Speaker 4: attacking Hesbel. The question, in addition to what Mark and
[42:13] Speaker 4: Jonathan just said that these rallies is like, how if
[42:18] Speaker 4: Hesbel isn't part of the seaspar agreement, right, So if
[42:20] Speaker 4: they continue to attack Israel and we're not talking.
[42:22] Speaker 2: About whether they should be doing well, they are doing that, how.
[42:26] Speaker 4: Are we going to tell any country they can't respond
[42:28] Speaker 4: that they're getting a time So Auran's gonna have to
[42:30] Speaker 4: step up. The answer should be if you want regional peace,
[42:34] Speaker 4: you have to tell Hesbal, right, it can't just be
[42:38] Speaker 4: one way piece that's not going to work. That's got
[42:39] Speaker 4: a zero percent chance. So you're going to have to
[42:42] Speaker 4: either stop supporting these uh your proxy forces here, or
[42:47] Speaker 4: you're gonna have to exert some control. And if you
[42:49] Speaker 4: can't exert some control, don't ask us to try to control,
[42:52] Speaker 4: because if they're getting an attack, just like us, we're
[42:55] Speaker 4: going to respond. So, I mean, hopefully we can decouple
[42:59] Speaker 4: that the negotiations, but I don't know that it's our choice.
[43:03] Speaker 2: Amazingly. You know, Trump at one point said he said,
[43:05] Speaker 2: I don't worry about this, BB does whatever I tell
[43:07] Speaker 2: him to.
[43:09] Speaker 7: Uh.
[43:09] Speaker 2: And that might that that might not have gone, that
[43:11] Speaker 2: might have kind of flown past people here, but in
[43:13] Speaker 2: Israel it didn't because again that's the notion of it.
[43:15] Speaker 2: If you know the Israelian national security system, one of
[43:18] Speaker 2: the things they have always wanted is to have that
[43:19] Speaker 2: independence from the United States, not not give the United
[43:22] Speaker 2: States a veto on anything. That was pretty amazing when
[43:26] Speaker 2: when Trump said that, and he said it because he
[43:27] Speaker 2: believes it. I mean, this is this is the the
[43:29] Speaker 2: you know, the the you know this is delusional, but
[43:32] Speaker 2: that but but this is a Trumpian thing because you know,
[43:35] Speaker 2: he says, yeah.
[43:36] Speaker 1: You know why it flew by in America because most
[43:38] Speaker 1: Americans think that Israel tells us what to do specifically
[43:41] Speaker 1: in the Middle East.
[43:42] Speaker 6: Right, not even watching the conflict at all.
[43:44] Speaker 3: Or that, Yeah, they don't give a ship one way
[43:46] Speaker 3: or the other. Just remind you.
[43:49] Speaker 1: Thirty four hundred people have died in Lebanon and over
[43:52] Speaker 1: ten thousand are injured. Twenty six IDF soldiers and two
[43:57] Speaker 1: civilians in northern Israel have been killed from rocket fire.
[44:01] Speaker 1: So it's ongoing obviously.
[44:04] Speaker 2: And by the way, the one key thing on this too,
[44:06] Speaker 2: And just think about the psyche of the American people
[44:09] Speaker 2: with never ending wars, you know, the psyche of the Israelis.
[44:12] Speaker 2: They're getting sick of this. You know, since October seventh,
[44:16] Speaker 2: there's been a perpetual state of war on about six
[44:18] Speaker 2: or seven different fronts and so and Jonathan said something
[44:21] Speaker 2: October to October is when I think we're coming up
[44:27] Speaker 2: next October for potential elections. But the coalition does look
[44:31] Speaker 2: like it's going to fall apart, and so these Raeli
[44:35] Speaker 2: elections are incredibly important because I think that there is
[44:39] Speaker 2: certainly a recognition that net Nyahu has over promised on
[44:42] Speaker 2: all of these fronts and hasn't delivered.
[44:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, frankly, like some of the polling coming
[44:47] Speaker 1: out of Israel doesn't really seem like they're fed up
[44:49] Speaker 1: with this, to be honest, if we're being completely on,
[44:53] Speaker 1: maybe there are other polls that you know, that that
[44:55] Speaker 1: take the temperature in terms of like let's keep cracking.
[44:58] Speaker 1: You know, gaz is still going on, and there's still
[45:00] Speaker 1: people getting fucking smoked in Gaza, and I know Hamas
[45:03] Speaker 1: is bad and all that shit. But idf owes seventy
[45:05] Speaker 1: percent of Gaza right now, and they keep pushing and
[45:08] Speaker 1: pushing in.
[45:09] Speaker 2: Leban seventy nowt Ya right said he's going to go
[45:12] Speaker 2: next ten percent. That'll be interesting to see you.
[45:14] Speaker 3: No, I trust that. I trust what Yaho says.
[45:17] Speaker 5: I remember on October sixth, twenty twenty three, there were
[45:20] Speaker 5: three hundred to five hundred thousand people in the streets
[45:22] Speaker 5: in Israel protesting against the government the way it was governing,
[45:25] Speaker 5: and that that sentiment is not gone. It's just quieter
[45:29] Speaker 5: because of as you mentioned, Mark, there is a war footing.
[45:31] Speaker 5: There are people that still sirens going off, have to
[45:33] Speaker 5: come up and downstairs multiple times a day to go
[45:35] Speaker 5: out of their bunkers, so they're not able to think
[45:37] Speaker 5: about what they were thinking about before. But I think
[45:40] Speaker 5: that's another reason that the war is going on, because
[45:43] Speaker 5: the war cabinet understands that the moment that the tensions
[45:45] Speaker 5: do go down, people come back to the streets, and
[45:48] Speaker 5: so they're.
[45:49] Speaker 2: Kind of calling. Now does have Netnya's coalition losing, it's
[45:52] Speaker 2: very close, but he does not want to end any
[45:55] Speaker 2: kind of arm conflict now because if there were elections,
[45:57] Speaker 2: I think that, you know he would.
[45:58] Speaker 3: The fact that it's still very very close is insane
[46:01] Speaker 3: to me.
[46:02] Speaker 2: Gonna be to do with the trauma after October seventh.
[46:04] Speaker 1: I know, I understand that, but like Frankly and I
[46:07] Speaker 1: think all you guys can agree, the way they went
[46:09] Speaker 1: about what what they did in Gaza after October seventh
[46:13] Speaker 1: was ridiculous. So I mean, and they bombed the Ran,
[46:17] Speaker 1: you know laterally, like let's not act like they're the
[46:20] Speaker 1: ones getting attacked.
[46:21] Speaker 3: All the time.
[46:21] Speaker 1: October seventh was a terrible tragedy and they should have
[46:23] Speaker 1: went after hamas hard but strategically and thoughtfully and smoke
[46:27] Speaker 1: done what they do well, which is fucking assassinate them,
[46:31] Speaker 1: and not do what they've done the last almost three years, bro,
[46:35] Speaker 1: because US US opinion and world opinion they are Paria
[46:40] Speaker 1: state fact, like the numbers are there, So like, I
[46:45] Speaker 1: have a little bit of a hard time them acting
[46:47] Speaker 1: like a victim when all they do is just I
[46:49] Speaker 1: hate a Ran too. I don't like the I didn't
[46:51] Speaker 1: like Kamani, bro, like, but they unilaterally bombed the ship
[46:55] Speaker 1: at him, and they don't, you.
[46:56] Speaker 2: Know, like Saron who said they'll go play a concert there.
[46:59] Speaker 2: Here's a question how much how much you guys are
[47:01] Speaker 2: up on social media? Who just in social media just
[47:03] Speaker 2: said if I was asked to go play in Iran,
[47:05] Speaker 2: I would.
[47:06] Speaker 4: Go Vanilla Ice.
[47:07] Speaker 6: I hope it wasn't. I.
[47:10] Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that's wild.
[47:12] Speaker 4: I don't know. I know that. I don't know why
[47:14] Speaker 4: you'd say you would do that.
[47:17] Speaker 3: Yes, the check is right.
[47:19] Speaker 4: It'll play at the two hundred and fiftieth Universion USA
[47:23] Speaker 4: or go to Tehran and play for them.
[47:25] Speaker 2: And I love it.
[47:27] Speaker 4: He needs uh, he needs a pr.
[47:32] Speaker 6: He needs a job.
[47:34] Speaker 3: Yeah, he needs a gig.
[47:35] Speaker 1: Right, all right, let's move on to Mick and Mark's
[47:39] Speaker 1: old friend who got arrested for having.
[47:41] Speaker 2: Wait wait, wait, we don't know him.
[47:43] Speaker 4: You don't know I don't think you don't know him?
[47:44] Speaker 1: Right, So, there was a CIA executive who got arrested
[47:49] Speaker 1: recently for stealing or they found forty million dollars worth
[47:52] Speaker 1: of gold bars in his home. And it seems extremely sketchy.
[47:56] Speaker 1: If any of anyone's read the article, it's you guys.
[47:59] Speaker 1: Give us a little bit of a rundown of what
[48:00] Speaker 1: this is. Old friends of Mark.
[48:03] Speaker 2: So it's a it's I don't know him, it's a
[48:05] Speaker 2: it's someone from the Director of Science and Technology, the
[48:07] Speaker 2: d S and T. That's the kind of the the
[48:09] Speaker 2: you know, the the techie side of the house, at
[48:11] Speaker 2: the senior intelligence service level. So that means he had,
[48:14] Speaker 2: you know, he was promoted up through the ranks. He
[48:17] Speaker 2: had super superstar rabbis on the seventh floor. You don't
[48:20] Speaker 2: make S I S without that, uh, And so that
[48:23] Speaker 2: means he you know, he was he was in some
[48:25] Speaker 2: fashion considered extremely high performing.
[48:29] Speaker 3: Uh.
[48:29] Speaker 2: You know what has kind of seeped out over the
[48:31] Speaker 2: last couple of days is he also was very close
[48:33] Speaker 2: to the current Secretary of Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg,
[48:37] Speaker 2: former CEO of serbs UH, which is a huge kind
[48:40] Speaker 2: of tech firm that that provides a lot of stuff
[48:42] Speaker 2: to the US government. So again talking about very senior
[48:45] Speaker 2: level rabbis. The incredible part of this story is that
[48:48] Speaker 2: he seems to have first embellished both his military career
[48:53] Speaker 2: but also his education. In fact that he I mean
[48:56] Speaker 2: things that in his security processing, his background check, and
[49:00] Speaker 2: you go through multiple background checks when you get hired,
[49:03] Speaker 2: and then even along the way overyself for several years,
[49:05] Speaker 2: which include talking to all your friends and neighbors and
[49:09] Speaker 2: lots of looking at your finances, but also the polygraph.
[49:12] Speaker 2: How he got by all of this is rather extraordinary.
[49:15] Speaker 2: It is not a good look for the Office of Security.
[49:17] Speaker 2: It's not a good look for people who sat on
[49:20] Speaker 2: his boards, his coworkers, and again the kind of the
[49:23] Speaker 2: senior rabbis in this. And then he goes off and
[49:25] Speaker 2: somehow has forty forty million dollars, right, I mean, just
[49:30] Speaker 2: extravagance amounts of money, three d and three gold bars
[49:33] Speaker 2: with well you know, you know, I remember when I
[49:35] Speaker 2: got like a pen from like, you know, the Egyptians,
[49:39] Speaker 2: the Jordanians, I'd have to spend forty five minutes writing
[49:42] Speaker 2: a cable about it. And so you know, we have
[49:46] Speaker 2: such strict rules on gifts that you can do all
[49:49] Speaker 2: your accounting. I mean, you have to account for everything.
[49:53] Speaker 2: I like, I don't want to speak for you, but
[49:55] Speaker 2: I probably know the answer to this. I have provided
[49:59] Speaker 2: allies and indigenous forces, you know, foreign government services with
[50:03] Speaker 2: at sometimes millions of dollars of money that is accounted
[50:07] Speaker 2: for very closely, and I can't really walk off with it.
[50:12] Speaker 2: What this guy was working on seems to be some
[50:14] Speaker 2: probably some type of covert program with an alternative payment mechanism.
[50:17] Speaker 2: But if you saw the stories today from the New
[50:19] Speaker 2: York Times and others, stuff is kind of dribbling out
[50:22] Speaker 2: and it's it's going to look really nasty. And everything
[50:24] Speaker 2: I'm hearing from my old friends is that it's so
[50:27] Speaker 2: bad that they're going to cover the shit up because
[50:30] Speaker 2: there's just so many huge errors along the way from
[50:33] Speaker 2: the security side, the performance side, accounting side, and then
[50:37] Speaker 2: all of his senior rabbis, including people on the seventh floor,
[50:40] Speaker 2: and so everyone expects this to just try to to
[50:43] Speaker 2: try to make it go away. But it's pretty amazing
[50:45] Speaker 2: and doesn't really give you a lot of faith in
[50:48] Speaker 2: the intelligence community. And this is a pretty state. I
[50:50] Speaker 2: will say the last piece for you guys, you like this,
[50:52] Speaker 2: Hey man, if you got to go out here, you
[50:54] Speaker 2: got to go out. You gotta go out big. I'm
[50:56] Speaker 2: talking like elephant dick big, Like it's got to be
[50:58] Speaker 2: something so fucking outrageous. Because the first thing when I
[51:02] Speaker 2: read this, everyone laughs like, holy shit, right, I mean
[51:05] Speaker 2: that's your first reaction is god damn. Like he didn't
[51:07] Speaker 2: like failed to talk about a foreign contact or didn't
[51:10] Speaker 2: do his accounting one day.
[51:12] Speaker 3: He went hard.
[51:13] Speaker 2: He went hard. You gotta go.
[51:14] Speaker 1: He also found two million dollars in cash and thirty
[51:17] Speaker 1: five luxury watches, many of which were Rolexes. Right, so like,
[51:22] Speaker 1: I mean, what do I I know? Sis, guys get
[51:24] Speaker 1: paid a lot, right, like recently, I mean you're making whatever.
[51:28] Speaker 3: There's a couple and eighty grand Yeah, not that and
[51:31] Speaker 3: not not that much.
[51:33] Speaker 2: Yeah anyhow, but you got you guys thoughts on this.
[51:35] Speaker 2: I just it's it's an amazing story, but I expect
[51:38] Speaker 2: it to be covered up because it's going to be stinky.
[51:42] Speaker 4: It's really hard to believe it happened. It obviously did,
[51:45] Speaker 4: but I mean it's and Mark knows, and I think
[51:48] Speaker 4: most people would guess. It's really difficult to get screened
[51:52] Speaker 4: to go in the CIA. Yeah, like it's really it
[51:54] Speaker 4: takes forever. My wife is a security investigator for the government,
[51:58] Speaker 4: including our organization. It's diked into the weeds. So the
[52:03] Speaker 4: idea he just made up a degree and made up
[52:05] Speaker 4: that he was even in the Navy.
[52:09] Speaker 2: We got to talk to her.
[52:10] Speaker 4: Yeah, right, No, it's just like, but I mean, it's
[52:16] Speaker 4: don't don't they have to get the degree from the
[52:18] Speaker 4: from the actual university. You don't just show up and
[52:23] Speaker 4: hand him to degree. Right, I get a transcript, it's
[52:26] Speaker 4: got to be certified, comes in the mail, right, and
[52:27] Speaker 4: then then the Navy records come from the military, because
[52:30] Speaker 4: now it's like so easy to duplicate fake things. I mean,
[52:33] Speaker 4: it's just insane. And then he I mean, as most
[52:37] Speaker 4: military guys know and gals, you talk about your service
[52:40] Speaker 4: all the time. So if this guy's was known to
[52:43] Speaker 4: be a Navy fighter pilot, Like, how did that go
[52:45] Speaker 4: on for twenty years without somebody going, no, you weren't.
[52:49] Speaker 4: I mean, because they know each other, right, are they
[52:52] Speaker 4: Somebody's going to start talking about flying a freaking jet
[52:55] Speaker 4: and this guy's not gonna have any idea what he's
[52:56] Speaker 4: talking about.
[52:57] Speaker 6: Like, it's just.
[52:58] Speaker 4: Astounding for me that this happened. This is before we
[53:00] Speaker 4: even get to the point where he has access to
[53:04] Speaker 4: that many gold bars. Well, funny somehow not accounted for.
[53:08] Speaker 3: Funny you mentioned that.
[53:09] Speaker 1: So the CIA says it informed the FBI of its
[53:11] Speaker 1: suspicions about Rush, who apparently fell into scrutiny after he
[53:15] Speaker 1: began asking for gold bars last November. That's when he
[53:19] Speaker 1: began making several requests to obtain a significant quantity of
[53:23] Speaker 1: foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold
[53:25] Speaker 1: bars for work related expenses. That's an expensive mini bar. No,
[53:29] Speaker 1: what the fuck is it?
[53:30] Speaker 2: You got them though? Like so someone signed off on again.
[53:33] Speaker 2: Like the amount of paperwork you have to do to
[53:37] Speaker 2: do these things is astounding. These are mass amounts of money.
[53:40] Speaker 4: They scrutinize your accounting every month and your average line
[53:45] Speaker 4: case officers.
[53:48] Speaker 2: I passed seven figure amounts to organizations and entities. But
[53:52] Speaker 2: I would never like go alone. You got to go.
[53:54] Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you go with somebody if we're
[53:56] Speaker 2: driving down the road in XYZ country to pay off
[54:00] Speaker 2: some warlord, Like you're not going by yourself, and you.
[54:03] Speaker 4: Don't like keep it in your house for six months?
[54:06] Speaker 4: Get it? Yeah, I don't get it. Man, somebody's this
[54:09] Speaker 4: is gonna be I agree, Mark, this is gonna be people.
[54:14] Speaker 4: They're gonna have to relook at the system because this guy,
[54:16] Speaker 4: he's he uh played the system the entire career, probably.
[54:21] Speaker 2: Certainly apparently lived in.
[54:25] Speaker 3: Is there a c I worry about all this or No?
[54:28] Speaker 1: This is just a guy who got sticky fingers and
[54:30] Speaker 1: like figured out how to make him a ton of money.
[54:33] Speaker 4: That was the first all those rollocks Rolex has come from.
[54:35] Speaker 2: I get they don't think about his tournament payment mechanisms.
[54:38] Speaker 2: You have to, like you're trying to give someone the
[54:40] Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt, you know, is this the way
[54:42] Speaker 2: he was going to pay people off? I don't know,
[54:45] Speaker 2: but yeah, the c I thing was if that came
[54:47] Speaker 2: to mind too.
[54:47] Speaker 1: But you know, but he's if he's a D S
[54:49] Speaker 1: S I S D S T guy, is he doing
[54:52] Speaker 1: that that he's gonna go pay off fucking sources?
[54:56] Speaker 6: There?
[54:56] Speaker 2: S and T folks are are involved in in COVID opera.
[55:00] Speaker 2: I mean, I'll give you a perfect example. And this
[55:02] Speaker 2: is at the very low level. Remember Scooby vans, Remember
[55:05] Speaker 2: zero Dark thirty, the guys running around in the van
[55:08] Speaker 2: during the geolocation of the courier. Those are S and
[55:10] Speaker 2: T guys assigned to assigned to mix all folks.
[55:13] Speaker 3: But an S I S guy a senior like, would
[55:16] Speaker 3: he be doing that?
[55:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe he's dealing with senior people. I don't know,
[55:22] Speaker 2: I asked. I mean, someone's gonna have to explain. The
[55:24] Speaker 2: Other thing is worst congressional oversight on this. I would
[55:26] Speaker 2: think if you're a HYPSI, your assisty, you're like we
[55:28] Speaker 2: need a briefing what happened here. It's the American This
[55:33] Speaker 2: is the American people's money.
[55:35] Speaker 4: Yeah. History. Fact is there was a gb guy in
[55:38] Speaker 4: that van. I don't want to disclose his name, but
[55:43] Speaker 4: I think you know him. But who actually was the
[55:45] Speaker 4: one that followed him back to that's.
[55:48] Speaker 3: Tell us that story.
[55:51] Speaker 4: Well you kind of see it depicted in the in
[55:53] Speaker 4: the movie. He wasn't a foreign person. He was you know, America,
[56:00] Speaker 4: and he passed away. So he's at Arlington. His story
[56:03] Speaker 4: is just incredible. I don't want to tell it because
[56:07] Speaker 4: you know, I don't have the authorization to disclose it,
[56:09] Speaker 4: but it's an incredible story of uh and he was
[56:13] Speaker 4: a marine. I said that already, no, but I'll say it. Yeah,
[56:18] Speaker 4: he was a Recomraine. Great guy, great guy, great great human,
[56:21] Speaker 4: total hero. But he tracked. He was the one that
[56:23] Speaker 4: tracked the courier to the compound that then turned the
[56:29] Speaker 4: focus of the IC all that compo. He passed away.
[56:35] Speaker 2: They're in service, but those you know, the S and
[56:37] Speaker 2: T is fully integrated into a lot of stuff like this.
[56:40] Speaker 2: But again, so it's not that they'd a bunch of
[56:42] Speaker 2: you know, tech geeks. I mean they can be involved
[56:44] Speaker 2: operationally in some really big programs. So we're trying to
[56:48] Speaker 2: find a way to explain this. Yeah, no, I think
[56:51] Speaker 2: he did a good jump. Ashburn. Ashburn is the place
[56:54] Speaker 2: where you go out there you see these like white
[56:56] Speaker 2: rocks outside people's houses. That's how you know they do
[56:58] Speaker 2: the swingers because ash its famous for that. It's like
[57:01] Speaker 2: a swimmer.
[57:02] Speaker 4: Really.
[57:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, if you see a white rocket means inviting in
[57:05] Speaker 2: your house, leave your keys in a little pools. You
[57:07] Speaker 2: know they do weird shit. Google the Washington Post and
[57:12] Speaker 2: Ashburn and swingers, so there's stories on this.
[57:15] Speaker 1: Good lord, so it'sn't expecting that funny.
[57:20] Speaker 2: Don't do that for your thing.
[57:22] Speaker 3: People are gonna be ringing the door. But I'm here
[57:23] Speaker 3: for the orgy. Yeah.
[57:29] Speaker 1: Oh man, all right, last bit of news the New
[57:33] Speaker 1: n d A A right.
[57:34] Speaker 3: I got that correct.
[57:35] Speaker 1: The National Defense Whatever, where we give all our money
[57:38] Speaker 1: to for the Defense Department. There is a section in
[57:42] Speaker 1: their section two twenty four that wants to essentially integrate
[57:48] Speaker 1: the US and Israeli militaries together. U, Jonathan, you explained
[57:52] Speaker 1: it better because I'm a dummy, but you know you
[57:54] Speaker 1: can actually speak English.
[57:56] Speaker 6: So first it's it's not a law.
[57:58] Speaker 5: Yet that's you know, the NBA has to go through
[58:00] Speaker 5: the House and the Senate and has to argued, right,
[58:04] Speaker 5: So there's a lot of debate that still is to
[58:05] Speaker 5: come on it, but it is important that it's in
[58:07] Speaker 5: there to debate. And what it's basically doing is integrating
[58:12] Speaker 5: some of our defense industrial base and some of our
[58:13] Speaker 5: research together, things like AI and other battlefield operating concepts
[58:19] Speaker 5: together so that they're more integrated in the future. And
[58:24] Speaker 5: it'll probably change before it gets out, but it will
[58:28] Speaker 5: probably be there in some form. But it is a
[58:30] Speaker 5: modification of past practices where we either ad hoc or
[58:34] Speaker 5: by other mechanisms, provided integration with than through Israel to
[58:39] Speaker 5: do things in the Middle East. So it's interesting to
[58:42] Speaker 5: see it as a law or going to be a law,
[58:43] Speaker 5: because if we look at, for example, defense use of
[58:46] Speaker 5: cover for intelligence operations, that is section four thirty one
[58:51] Speaker 5: of Title ten, which actually codifies how the Defense Department
[58:55] Speaker 5: uses businesses as cover. It's a couple of sentences long,
[59:00] Speaker 5: but it does a lot. Those sentences do a lot,
[59:03] Speaker 5: and if there's money behind it, that can do a lot.
[59:04] Speaker 5: And I think this section two forty four will be
[59:06] Speaker 5: very similar if it does come out this way where
[59:08] Speaker 5: it'll be a couple of sentences that have a lot
[59:11] Speaker 5: of power behind them if Congress appropriates money to do
[59:14] Speaker 5: those things, and I think Mark, you can talk more
[59:16] Speaker 5: about what the effects of that would be.
[59:19] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[59:20] Speaker 2: So I think that you know, the controversy over this,
[59:22] Speaker 2: and you see the Quincy Institute and others going crazy
[59:25] Speaker 2: over it and Al Jazeera, you know, all of these
[59:27] Speaker 2: favorite news outlets. What's it? What's the other one that
[59:32] Speaker 2: you love? That crazy lefty freak show, drop whatever.
[59:35] Speaker 3: Drop site.
[59:36] Speaker 1: I don't love it, bro, but I don't need to
[59:38] Speaker 1: just hear from the washed Wall Street Journal and CBS News.
[59:41] Speaker 2: You needed to trigger you.
[59:42] Speaker 1: It's so good like you do Rock Revieve to give
[59:46] Speaker 1: you all your information so you can believe.
[59:47] Speaker 2: It, all right, So going back to this, So, but
[59:50] Speaker 2: the idea behind this, I think is that there is
[59:52] Speaker 2: there's certainly a train of thought based on US and
[59:55] Speaker 2: Mexic politics, but also coming from the Israelis too. And
[59:57] Speaker 2: net Nyahu actually mentioned this the other day of you know,
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: weaning Israel off kind of the US assistance. You know,
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: we provide three point eight billion a year, I think
[1:00:06] Speaker 2: three point three directly directly and and and this would
[1:00:09] Speaker 2: so there is a notion that that is going to change.
[1:00:13] Speaker 2: And so this would kind of change the nature of
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: this in which Israel, and they're kind of their value
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: to the United States in terms of their high tech
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: sector could assist. I mean, I think there are certainly
[1:00:27] Speaker 2: significant counterintelligence concerns that have to be addressed, and they
[1:00:30] Speaker 2: will be because there has been an appropriate kind of
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: like eyebrows raising, like what does this really mean? But
[1:00:36] Speaker 2: when you take it, you know, Israeli advances on artificial
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: intelligence and drones and others and air defense. I mean,
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: there certainly is a way to do this. I think
[1:00:43] Speaker 2: that would be beneficial. But again, and it would it
[1:00:46] Speaker 2: would then kind of negate that the billion dollar a
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: year assistance program to Israel, which I think, you know,
[1:00:55] Speaker 2: next year at twenty twenty eight, there's a ten year
[1:00:57] Speaker 2: MoU that that's how this runs. It's up I think
[1:01:01] Speaker 2: in a year or two. I do not believe it
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: will get passed again in those current numbers, given the
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: political sentiment and both on the right and the left
[1:01:09] Speaker 2: in the United States. And so this is uh, this
[1:01:12] Speaker 2: is probably from those who kind of are interested in
[1:01:14] Speaker 2: the US is real a relationship away to continue that
[1:01:18] Speaker 2: some type of productive and productive manner. But those who
[1:01:22] Speaker 2: question the kind of the counterintelligence piece on this, I
[1:01:25] Speaker 2: think are doing so h correctly and it's got to
[1:01:28] Speaker 2: be addressed. So I think that's kind of the most
[1:01:30] Speaker 2: the best way to kind of to look at this.
[1:01:32] Speaker 2: Theseraelies do have a lot to offer us, but we
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: have to have our cover mechanisms, but really are technology
[1:01:38] Speaker 2: protected as well? That this what this is not is
[1:01:42] Speaker 2: you know, uh, you know Israel or the US you
[1:01:45] Speaker 2: know having any kind of say over operational decisions on
[1:01:48] Speaker 2: war and peace. That's not that's not has anything to
[1:01:52] Speaker 2: do with it.
[1:01:55] Speaker 6: That have.
[1:01:57] Speaker 4: A relationship like this. I mean we have it with NATO.
[1:01:59] Speaker 2: Do we have it with I mean some partners you have,
[1:02:02] Speaker 2: don't you have? You know you have what is it
[1:02:04] Speaker 2: the sing there's something with Singapore. There's something with what
[1:02:08] Speaker 2: golf country where they're you know, they're they're actually training
[1:02:11] Speaker 2: and operating at US bases.
[1:02:13] Speaker 6: But no.
[1:02:13] Speaker 5: Chapter sixteen of Title ten has dozens and dozens of
[1:02:16] Speaker 5: countries named in it as partners for specific things under
[1:02:19] Speaker 5: different sections. You've got three three three building partner capacity,
[1:02:23] Speaker 5: which doesn't name countries, but the sections right after that
[1:02:26] Speaker 5: do name dozens of countries by name on specific operations.
[1:02:30] Speaker 5: And I think part of the concern too is that
[1:02:32] Speaker 5: it says integration, and when you read that in an
[1:02:35] Speaker 5: article on Al Jazeer, for example, people think that means
[1:02:37] Speaker 5: that the IDF is going to become a service component
[1:02:40] Speaker 5: of the d D. I think that's that's how people
[1:02:42] Speaker 5: are reading this, and that is absolutely not what that's
[1:02:45] Speaker 5: not what's written there.
[1:02:48] Speaker 2: But legitimate concerns, and so you know then that's why
[1:02:51] Speaker 2: that's why they will be up for debate here. There
[1:02:53] Speaker 2: was there there there is bipartisan support on this though,
[1:02:57] Speaker 2: you know, for this from the two committee chair in
[1:02:59] Speaker 2: Armed Service. Is that's worth noting. I think Jonathan you
[1:03:01] Speaker 2: said that.
[1:03:02] Speaker 5: And also Tittle ten is mantrain equip whereas Title fifty
[1:03:06] Speaker 5: is actually the conduct of War and war powers. So
[1:03:08] Speaker 5: this is a Title ten section for non operational use
[1:03:13] Speaker 5: of the military. It's for you know, providing services, providing forces,
[1:03:17] Speaker 5: building forces, sustaining, maintaining and transiting forces, not actually using
[1:03:21] Speaker 5: them in combat operations. So that's also another important separation
[1:03:25] Speaker 5: here to distinguish.
[1:03:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, and the way it's currently drafted, Section two twenty
[1:03:32] Speaker 1: four will appoint an executive agent to coordinate, and I'm
[1:03:36] Speaker 1: nominating Jonathan Pollard to be the first ever executive agent
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: to do this. How to get that, I had to
[1:03:44] Speaker 1: get that joke.
[1:03:46] Speaker 2: Got his point.
[1:03:47] Speaker 3: Maybe they'll stop.
[1:03:48] Speaker 1: Spying on us if we have more integrate you know,
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: maybe Sorry anything else, boys, this is a good episode.
[1:03:54] Speaker 2: Hey your knicks. Aren't you excited about the Knicks being
[1:03:56] Speaker 2: in the finals?
[1:03:56] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: New York Knicks, big boys. Yeah, they're playing great, And
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: I'm happy that Spurs one too. That means we might
[1:04:01] Speaker 1: have a chance because.
[1:04:02] Speaker 2: Health Garden is gonna be going crazy.
[1:04:05] Speaker 3: That is when the city is going to burn down.
[1:04:07] Speaker 3: If we've been like, all.
[1:04:08] Speaker 4: Right, here's the game.
[1:04:10] Speaker 2: This is important.
[1:04:10] Speaker 3: Trump one is coming up.
[1:04:12] Speaker 2: Trump says he's gonna go to a game. How is
[1:04:14] Speaker 2: he going to be received at the Garden?
[1:04:16] Speaker 1: I don't think Super Great gonna be honest, because yeah,
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: I can't see it. I can't see it being like
[1:04:23] Speaker 1: super you know, conquering hero coming back.
[1:04:26] Speaker 6: Now.
[1:04:28] Speaker 3: Who knows probably is.
[1:04:30] Speaker 6: Going to play Trump He's gonna play music at the fiftieth.
[1:04:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like artists. He's headlining it now because everybody
[1:04:39] Speaker 3: else is like run for the Hills.
[1:04:41] Speaker 6: Uh.
[1:04:41] Speaker 3: I think the first game is Tuesday. I might be Tuesday.
[1:04:44] Speaker 2: It's coming up Tuesday. The third, Oh no, is it
[1:04:48] Speaker 2: the second or the third? Tuesday or Wednesday, one of
[1:04:50] Speaker 2: the two. Yeah, they're they're opening on the roads that
[1:04:52] Speaker 2: Knicks don't play until I think the seventh.
[1:04:56] Speaker 3: Back in.
[1:04:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, wild first times since ninety nine, and I went
[1:05:01] Speaker 1: to the I went to a nineties in the finals
[1:05:04] Speaker 1: game back then too. Yeah, we won that they won
[1:05:06] Speaker 1: with my dad.
[1:05:07] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:05:09] Speaker 2: Pricey tickets on stuff hub.
[1:05:10] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not going again this time.
[1:05:12] Speaker 6: There.
[1:05:12] Speaker 1: I saw some of the ticket prices like three grand
[1:05:14] Speaker 1: to sit up in the fucking noseblees get lost. It's ridiculous.
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. Anyway, boys, everyone listening to us a favor.
[1:05:23] Speaker 1: I want you to check out all the links for
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: the guys down to the description. Of course, you have
[1:05:28] Speaker 1: Jonathan's books, McK mulroy's podcast, The Pub and the Porch applied.
[1:05:32] Speaker 1: Stowis as a Mark Mark. Just follow him on Twitter
[1:05:36] Speaker 1: or something. That's where he gets That's where he gets crazy,
[1:05:38] Speaker 1: the craziest. All those links are into the description, and
[1:05:41] Speaker 1: the best place to support the show is Patreon, dot com,
[1:05:43] Speaker 1: slash the Teamhouse. You get both episodes of Teamhouse and
[1:05:47] Speaker 1: I was on episodes free not yeah ad free and
[1:05:51] Speaker 1: early and you help support the show.
[1:05:52] Speaker 3: Guys. Thank you a pleasure as always.
[1:05:58] Speaker 2: Take care.
[1:06:02] Speaker 7: Hey guys, I want to take a moment to tell
[1:06:03] Speaker 7: you about the Teamhouse Podcast newsletter. If you go and subscribe,
[1:06:08] Speaker 7: it's totally free, and what it will do is aggregate
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[1:06:23] Speaker 7: with Sean Naylor on the high Side, anything else that
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[1:06:58] Speaker 3: So we hope to see you there. Oh, I will
[1:07:00] Speaker 3: be down The description

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