Now, on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. It is 5.07 on this Monday, second day of March. It's a brand new month, and well, it's a brand new world we wake up to today after the United States military strike, along with our ally Israel, against the Islamic Republic of Iran, most specifically against their government, their infrastructure, their military, not against the Iranian people. In fact, the people of Persia are celebrating worldwide and certainly in the streets of Iran today, yesterday, and all through the weekend. What a sight, something I think many of us never thought we'd see in our lifetimes, the culmination of decades of terror inflicted upon the West by that country, by that government, by that evil Ayatollah Khamenei who is now dead. We're going to give you everything that we know right now, everything that transpired over the last couple of days, the opposition to the president's actions, which really seem to be centered within one political party here in Washington, D.C., their leadership at least, and the steps forward here with regard to world oil prices and energy prices, with regard to our United States military, and with regard to the politics of it all. How are we going to do that? Well, first and foremost, we've got our buddy Bethany Mandel here to be the wingman, as it were, throughout this day. I was thinking of you while you were, uh, while you were, um, observing your Sabbath thinking, what's it going to be like when Bethany turns her phone on? Yeah. So it wasn't that exciting this week because, um, I was staying in a hotel. It was my cousin's bar mitzvah. Uh, so I went into the lobby and saw the news pretty early this morning. Yes. Or what day was it? It was Saturday morning, yeah. My Lord, it all runs together. But, yeah, no, so I was glued to the news pretty much all day Saturday. Oh, all right. Understandable. So I didn't get a Sabbath. But I was telling you, actually, it's kind of interesting. So it used to be that we would kind of be in the dark all day Saturday when our phones were off. But since October 7th, I know a lot of people who got those sort of echo display things where you can – So folks will put on, like, the Times of Israel homepage on their Amazon device over Shabbat. And I think, honestly, it's necessary because here in Washington, I think our synagogue is a target. Yeah, you've got your head on a swivel, as it were. Yeah, if something's going on, it changes my decision-making about, like, if I'll send my kids to synagogue alone. By the way, real fast, as the morning develops, 6.05, Daniel Turner, Power of the Future, We'll talk about how this is going to affect energy prices and oil prices in his estimation. 635, General Jack Keene on our military. 705, of course, we'll check in with Joda Genova, as we always do. 735, Daniel Hoffman is the former director of the CIA in the Middle East and North Africa division. So he'll have a good insight into the intelligence gathering that led to this. It's 8.05, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense for Democracies, who has been advocating for this kind of military action against Iran for quite some time. And then at 8.35, former Navy SEAL and now author Jack Carr got his new book series coming out. We want to talk to him about that and also about his understanding of what the special forces might be doing right now. So that's a loaded morning for us here. Where do we stand right now? Well, as I said, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strike. If you've seen the video, you should see the video. Incredible. Apparently, based on intelligence gathered by CIA and Mossad agents on the ground, the Ayatollah, along with the president of Iran and upwards to 40 people in the military higher command, were all meeting in the same place at the same moment when that initial strike occurred. And I don't know, Bethany, what were they thinking? I mean, you'd think they would learn after the Hezbollah pager attack that, you know, they're really, first of all, they're not safe. We're going to find them. But why make it so easy? It's incredible. And I can't wait to hear the stories about how our intelligence infrastructure, along with Israel's intelligence, carried this one off. So my favorite Babylon Bee headline was that they wish that they had just logged on to Zoom. But it's this like hubris that comes with being a dictator, I guess, that they think that they can escape the fate, that somehow they haven't – they've evaded the intelligence. And they would make people go into meetings blindfolded. blindfolded. They would take you and then transport you to the meeting blindfolded. They thought that they had all these mechanisms in place. But when so many people in your country hate you, they figure out a way. They do. I think one of my favorite stories over the last, I think it was in the last decade, was Iran mobilized a special intelligence unit within their IRGC to try to root out Israeli double agents. And the person they put in charge of that unit was in fact one of the Israeli double agents. I love it. Incredible times. Obviously, celebrations by Persians worldwide, including in the streets of Tehran and other cities across the country of Iran, and they are incredibly emotional to watch. You should see the videos of especially women. There really is something noteworthy when you see the joy being exhibited by Persian women with their hair flowing, able to dance, able to celebrate, able to sing, able to express joy, able to be a human being. Again, it truly is something to witness. We also recognize that, you know, there are many people, even supporters of President Trump and this military effort, who do have their eyes wide open and are concerned at what is often called the forever wars. for people who suggest that President Trump ran as an anti-war candidate who, you know, vowed never to take military action against America's enemies. You're just making things up. That's not the case at all. In fact, we can play clip after clip after clip of his rallies where he actually threatened to bomb the bleep out of Iran. That at a time when Kamala Harris's only response to a question about Iran's aggression was don't. Don't remember that. Yeah I think it also displays a little bit of an ignorance of recent history about the aggressions that Iran has taken against both President Trump individually They tried to assassinate him in 2024 And also the aggressions that they've taken against our troops overseas. One of the most terrifying videos in my recent memory is when they took over a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. I think it was like less than 10 years ago. And they had American troops on their knees. And this is a retaliation for all of that. Perhaps people don't realize the extent to which the Iranians control terror proxies around the region. But every time U.S. servicemen have been killed in the area, the root cause is Iran. So to say like this came out of nowhere, which I'm hearing a lot of opponents claim, displays a really basic ignorance. of what has been happening in that region since 1979. Yeah, you're 100% right. There were two giant myths, the three giant myths. Number one, that Trump ran as anti-war. That's not true. It was anti-forever war. I think President Trump has shown no hesitation to utilize military force if it means a targeted attack that will advance America's goals without getting dragged into a multi-decade quagmire, even multi-year quagmire for that matter. And so far, that's exactly what he's done. And, well, let's watch and see what happens in Iran. But I know that that's his goal going in as well. But we need to keep our eyes wide open. Number two is that it came out of nowhere, and Bethany just sort of blew away that myth. And the third one is that this is an illegal war. All right, we'll get into that in just a moment and also give you the latest on what we know about the strikes, about the strikes, about the casualties, including some American casualties already, and get you up to date on the military action against Iran in a moment. First, though, it is 5.15. The president never ran against war, obviously, or utilizing military strikes. He ran against forever wars. And there are still people out there, and some who identify themselves as conservative commentators or influencers or podcasters or what have you, Bethany, who are saying that we're at war with Venezuela. We are not at war with Venezuela. We had a military strike with one focus and one target. We got our guy, and there's no war going on in Venezuela. But they'll look at that and say, look at the wars he started. The use of military force is not starting a war. Same with Iran. In fact, President Trump did not start a war this weekend. He's now beginning the military action to end a war, end a war that's been going on for nearly five decades. Let's just be real about that. And then finally, this idea that this is an illegal war. There's the 1973 War Powers Act. It allows the president to utilize the military for advancing America's interests and protecting American citizens and our military personnel. And then he just needs to communicate to Congress within a timely manner. That's the War Powers Act. This is not an illegal war. And by the way, President Obama, all of the Democrats, including Tim Kaine, including Mark Warner, including Pocahontas, Elizabeth Warren. Sorry, I couldn't remember her name for a moment there, but I do know her Pocahontas. AOC, Zoram Mamdani, all calling it an illegal war. None of them said a thing when Obama utilized military force against Libya, against Iraq and Syria and ISIS and in various countries around this region and in other parts of the world, all under the same law, under the War Powers Act. And by the way, neither did Republicans criticize Obama at that time, oftentimes because they agreed with the use of military force. And by the way, these same Democrats, including Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, have all been speaking out about Iran and encouraging presidents to utilize military force against Iran. But now suddenly they all hate the idea. Why? Because they're blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump. It's really something to behold. I thought it was interesting and to be honest, a little scary when Chuck Schumer came out of the meeting, I think like a week or two ago. I think it was the day after the State of the Union. He was briefed by Marco Rubio, he along with the Gang of Eight. And he looked like he had seen a ghost when he walked out. He was practically speechless and he said, you know, something needs to be done basically. And it was made clear to him that something needed to be done. um the the things that i've heard about why this action was taken so urgently um i mean obviously we don't know we don't know what was said in that meeting um but i've said i've heard things like they were in the process of developing a dirty bomb that could be delivered anywhere in the world that was laced with you know nuclear material um i have heard that they were planning imminent attacks on our troops in the area. Sinking one of our ships, that's 5,000 servicemen who would be at risk. You posted a video that I just retweeted a minute ago from 2016, and this is what I was referencing earlier. When Obama was president, they seized a Navy boat, and in response, Obama sent $400 million of cash on a pallet. That's right. That was the Obama response. What can we do to stop this threat? Let's give them money. And it was funny because— It was then used to fund Hezbollah and Hamas and all of our enemies. I was telling my kids about this over the weekend, how Iran was handled by different presidents, and they straight did not believe me when I said Obama tried to pay them off. And they were like, but they'll just use that money to develop more weapons. I was like, oh, guys, you're smarter than the pod bros. Congratulations, my 10 and 11 year old. That's right. Although calling them smarter on foreign policy than Ben Rhodes and Jon Favreau is sort of a backhanded insult if you think about it. It's a low bar. It's a low bar. But no, I mean, it's just basic common sense that children seem to possess, but Ben Rhodes and Barack Obama did not. And we have had other leaders, military and elected, who have made the case that we are poised to be able to do this sort of thing. But there has been restraint and concern, number one, about other countries in the region opposing and joining Iran as their allies. And number two, other countries in our backyard. Here's the thing, though. The only allies Iran had here after the peace deal that was negotiated the sort of under and by the way after about two years of relentless attacks on Hamas by the Israeli government in response to October 7th that diminished their military threat right there in the backyard of Israel. But also Venezuela was one of their allies. Venezuela got their head chopped off. China and Russia ended up being their only two other allies. China doesn't want to wade into this in any way, and Russia is kind of occupied right now. The other thing that was fueling is Iran's ability to retaliate was global oil prices, which have crashed because of our energy policies and the aforementioned actions with Venezuela. And so when Iran lashed out after this attack, inexplicably, they sent rockets to other Arab countries in the region like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. And suddenly all of those Arab nations within 24 hours announced their allegiance to the United States and Israel. So it was Iran against the entire region. It did not destabilize the region. And if anything, it unified the region against the Iranian threat. So the one thing that was making people very worried about what would happen if there was a U.S. or Israel strike actually was mitigated within 24 hours. Yeah, I mean, I think it didn't help the Iranians that they've just been randomly sending suicide drones into every neighboring country. That might have been a little bit of a strategic error. I don't know. I want to rethink that. Who am I to be giving strategic advice to the Iranians? I guess I should shut up. It's a remarkable day right now, 48 hours after these initial military strikes. And no doubt events will develop over the course of the four hours this morning. As I said, at 6.05, the global impact to oil prices and how it might affect your life economically, Daniel Turner, Power of the Future. And at 635, we'll unpack some of these military questions that we're venturing into with General Jack Kane, a retired four-star Army general. That's all coming up. It's 524. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. It is 537. Good morning. Thanks for tuning in here to O'Connor and Company. We have a pretty big lineup for us. 605 Daniel Turner with Power of the Future on the impact of oil prices after the military strikes on Iran and their retaliation. 635 General Jack Keene on military strategy going forward. 705 Joe DeGeneva. 735 Daniel Hoffman, former director of the CIA Middle East and North Africa Division. 805 Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense Democracies. and then an 835 check car, former Navy SEAL and author. That's a lot. Larry O'Connor with Bethany Mandel. Good morning, Bethany. Slow news day, my lord. I'll say. Add to that a violent attack on the beltway. You know, and I want to be as forthright as possible with you. We want to not venture into speculation here, although it is pretty easy to speculate the second an attack like this happens, especially after what appears to be the radical Islamic terrorists taking shots in an Austin bar over the weekend. And then within 12 hours of that shooting in the Austin bar by a jihadist, you now have multiple people stabbed on the beltway. There was a collision, and then suddenly one of the participants in that collision came out and started a mass stabbing event against human beings and even a dog. And again, the reason that one jumps to conclusions, first of all, is because of the progression of events that led up to this, number one. Number two, this is the kind of thing you've seen in Europe, in other countries. The U.K. has had a plague of these kind of stabbings that were inspired by radical jihadi mentality. We don't know that is the case here necessarily. This could just be a very bizarre road rage incident. We don't know. But what we do know is the two are dead and the dog has been killed after this stabbing spree on the Beltway I-495 in Annandale, Virginia. A 39-year-old woman died from her injuries. A dog was stabbed and died on the scene. There were four victims altogether with two now two dead. I don't know what more to say about this other than it's just bizarre. It's not the kind of thing that you see normally here at all. I can't remember a stabbing incident on the Beltway on any major interstate. Yeah, I mean, what it reminds me of is the Beltway shooter from, gosh, was it 20 years ago now? Well, that was right after 9-11, like the year after 9-11, so it's even more than that. But, yeah, the sniper where nobody felt they were safe because they were always looking over their shoulder as they were pumping gas. But, I mean, this was, again, when troopers arrived on the scene, there was a guy wielding a knife on the beltway, middle of the afternoon, around 1.15 in the afternoon. um i've left a little speechless here without again without speculating and going into it but it there's there's two possibilities here number one there was a car accident and tempers flared and this guy decided to start stabbing people or this person deliberately caused the accident so that he could get out and then stab people right what i find frustrating at moments like this is it feels like we have no one that we can trust in positions of authority. Because, you know, after the transgender shootings, the sheriff was referring to this transgender individual as a she. And we were never given the background of this individual actually had, you know, gender dysphoria and all. Like, they don't, they're not straight with you. And so when you see a story like this, and you wonder, I wonder what the real story is. You're never guaranteed you'll get it. Well, perfect example of that. Also in Fairfax County in Virginia, we discussed this story last week of a murder of a woman who was riding home on the bus. I think we delivered this story to you Thursday morning. She was followed by somebody who was on the bus and then stabbed to death. At the time, we knew that the person had a criminal record and had been released again and again and again by the prosecutor's office there. But they did not give us all of the details of this person's criminal history. Now we know even more. It took a while. It took some reporting It took some digging Abdul Jalloh 32 years old who was killed with that murder of stephanie minter of fredericksburg at a bus stop shelter after he stalked her and pursued her and came off the bus with her as she was traveling alone on a city bus he was in the country illegally and had been in custody by fairfax police multiple times and in most of the cases prosecutors dropped charges against this person and was allowed to roam free. He was an illegal alien from Sierra Leone. And of course, this murder happens just a couple of weeks after Governor Abigail Spanberger directed police across the Commonwealth of Virginia to not cooperate with ICE. Had Glenn Youngkin been governor, the police would be under orders to hand this man over while he was in custody to ICE agents for deportation. That's the bottom line. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's a scary time, I think, in Virginia. You know, a new day has dawned. And especially when it comes to these radical woke prosecutors, who knows if this stabber is going to be back on the streets. That's a very legitimate concern that I think Virginians should have. That's right. Should this person be deported? Abigail Spamberger should answer that question. And if so, by whom exactly? What agency should deport them? That same one that you're now on board with defunding? The one that the Democrats refuse to fund right now in the department? We are now 48 hours after a military strike against the leading terrorist state on the planet, and Democrats still will not fund our Department of Homeland Security for political reasons. Coming up in a moment, the story of another immigrant to this country who, well, was naturalized under Barack Obama. And this weekend, opened fire in an Austin bar. We'll tell you all about that in a moment. It's 543. In what is being presumed a retaliation to the military strikes in Iran, a lone shooter opened fire at 2 a.m. as revelers were leaving an Austin bar. there's footage of this by the way that is just absolutely harrowing obtained by the local Fox affiliate he was wearing a gray or white hoodie that had the words property of Allah emblazoned across the front of the shirt two people dead, 14 others injured when the shooting finally stopped this was outside of Buford's backyard, beer garden, popular hangout near the University of Texas campus. He had a Quran in his car at the time of the shooting. Authorities are investigating whether he may have been motivated by the airstrikes against Iran. He came from this country, from Senegal. It's unclear as to whether, at least I have not seen it, and help me, Bethany, if you have, whether he entered this country legally or illegally, but he was naturalized under the Obama administration's rather loose enforcement of our immigration laws, and he was given citizenship. It's cute because my initial instinct was like, well, yeah, of course he entered legally because then he was naturalized. They wouldn't have just naturalized someone who entered legally. And then I remembered, Bethany, you're so naive. Yeah, there were eight years of a whole lot of citizenships being handed out. Yeah. It's funny because it reminds me of, I think it was an SNL skit that, or maybe it just should have been an SNL skit. I don't know. But there was a joke video that went around. I was like, we'll never know. We could never know the motive. And the attacker's like, no, it's right here in my shirt. It's very explicit. It's very clear. I could not be more clear. It says property of Alad by shirt. Yeah, and his shirt underneath was an Iranian flag. So truly, it's a mystery. We may never know the real motive here. We'll never know. And I think that was one of those things that even FBI and local police, if they wanted to hide it, there's just no way. It's like, well. He was 53 years old, former resident of New York City. And, by the way, he had a history of arrests in both New York City and Texas. He lived in New York after he arrived in 2000. He had a string of arrests between 2001 and 2016. Here's what I don't understand. According to the New York Post article, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2013, but then he applied for asylum in 2016. If you're naturalized as a United States citizen, why then do you have to apply for asylum three years later? Yeah, that's strange. There's some confusion going on here, and I think that we still need to dig into the immigration status because that is relevant to the story. It's also relevant how often he was arrested and how often he was released by prosecutors in New York and in Texas. We should look into that. And for people who think, well, it's Texas, you know, deep red state, not Austin. Not Austin, my friends. Trust me. The DA in Austin, the county where Austin is, I'm not sure what county it is, notorious for their – it might as well be Steve Descano in Fairfax County. Very, very similar mentality. Yeah. No, and it's wild because there's just no punishment anymore. And I think that that's something that Americans are starting to learn, that you can do lots of things actually and you don't actually have to go to prison. And that's something that normal Americans, especially in this area with Steve Descano, are starting to learn that there's, you know, there's there's a lot of get out of jail free cards, which those of us who don't need them were perhaps not aware of. But they exist and they are growing on trees. By the way, the final two paragraphs of the New York Post article. Sources familiar with the investigation told the Post that Diagne had a shirt underneath his sweatshirt featuring the Iranian flag or other Iran-related symbols. And then a quote from the acting special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office. Obviously, it's still way too early in the process to determine the exact motivation. But there were indicators on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism. You think? That's a mystery. That's more than you hear from an FBI special agent usually ever, that there may be a potential nexus to terrorism. After he had a Quran in the car, he's wearing a shirt that says property of Allah, and the shirt underneath has an Iranian flag. Yeah, yeah, it's a mystery. We might never know. We may never know. It's 553.
