Episode 5269: US Fighter Plane Downed In Iran

Yeah, I think the legacy of Pam Bondi is going to begin with her politicization of the Department of Justice to go after Donald Trump's political opponents. So I think that's like top line, right? The fact that she was willing to open criminal investigations and pursue political investigations, it will be the biggest legacy. It's going to be her use of the Department of Justice, not just to gut enforcement of the civil rights laws, but to actually reverse them, to actually turn the Department of Justice for the first time under either Democratic or Republican presidents into a tool of the vote suppressors and the people who want to overturn minority voting rights. And that is a dark legacy that unfortunately, like the first one, is going to be really hard to shake. I mean, it's going to be hard to unring the bell about the political, the politicization of the Department of Justice. It is also going to be hard to unring the bell about all the damage that has been done by having an election and I are not just in the White House, but an election and I are running the Department of Justice willing to do anything to undermine the rule of law, the Constitution and the voting rights of Americans. Notice, notes that some senators are pushing for Senator Mike Lee. Wonder why some senators are pushing the White House to appoint Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to pitch Trump directly on the idea, coined the two sources with knowledge of the matter. And I think that's why they're pushing for Senator Mike Lee to appoint Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to appoint Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to pitch Trump directly on the idea of the White House. And I think that's why they're pushing for Senator Mike Lee to appoint Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to pitch Trump directly on the idea of the White House. And I think that's why they're pushing for Senator Mike Lee to appoint Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to pitch Trump directly on the idea of the White House. And I think that's why they're pushing for Senator Mike Lee as Attorney General and plan to pitch Trump directly on the idea of the White House. If you would consider Paxton for National Post, quote, he's very, very talented. I mean, we have a lot of people that I want that want that one and will be very good at it. But he's a very talented guy and there's a little bit of noise to promote him largely because he got a Texas problem right now with Paxton and Cornyn running for that U.S. Senate seat. How do you see this thing landing from your experience inside the building looking out, looking back into it now? Who do you think the president would likely lean on if the goal here is to prosecute his political opponents? It's really hard to say in this kind of circumstance because Trump has been so unconventional all around in his handling of all matters related to the Justice Department, including the leadership. Pam Bondi is coming into DOJ. She came into DOJ without any experience working in that organization whatsoever, which is very unusual for an attorney general. And if he's willing to bring in somebody who's never been in DOJ before, that really opens up the field to potentially many, many people. And I think that it really is anyone's guess right now who it will be. But I'm not sure that who is serving that sort of figurehead role that Bondi served is actually the person we really need to be worried about. It's Todd Blanche who's been running the day-to-day operations of DOJ behind the scenes under Bondi's leadership. He's now been elevated to the number one position, but he's already been playing a very important role behind the scenes, that in many ways has been more important and more impactful than what Bondi has been doing in front of the cameras. Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places? Illegals can't vote. It doesn't make any sense. Mark, to ask a rhetorical question, is the DOJ any safer in the hands of anyone whose name is currently on the president's shortlist? No. In fact, I think it could get quite worse. I mean, the thing about Pam Bondi is she was, you know, she was of the election in our movement. But she also fashioned herself to be a prosecutor. This is the reason why some people early on when she was first nominated, I think we're taken in by her. I never was, but there were people who were because they said, look, she's been an attorney general. There are a lot of people that could be put forward who are much worse, who are just straight-up election hires and are just, you know, are much more cold-blooded in their willingness to overturn the results of free and fair elections. And there are a lot of those names that are familiar. There are some of those names that would be less familiar to people. But just to answer Todd Blanche's question, you know, the two people who were most famously gunned down and killed in the streets of Minneapolis were both U.S. citizens. The people who we see had their windows broken in their cars and dragged out, and their seatbelts cut off, those were U.S. citizens. The people who were harassed and tear-gassed for simply standing and holding up a cell phone to record what was happening, those were U.S. citizens. So why should U.S. citizens be worried about ice at the poles? I can name dozens and hundreds and thousands of tragic incidents in which U.S. citizens were victimized. So those are just some of the reasons why they should be worried. Myself and my colleagues, and that is that despite close to five weeks of war now that Iran maintains, as you said, John, significant responsibility. Fifty percent of its launchers, fifty percent of its one-way attack drones, a significant percentage of its coastal defense missiles, as well as large inventories of both medium and long-range missiles. One problem we're hearing is that Iran has maintained a capability to move those missiles around with mobile missile launchers and hide them underground, which has made it difficult for the U.S. and Israel to take out all of them, despite more than 12,000 targets hit since the start of this war. And I'll tell you that continued capability explains what we've been experiencing quite consistently here in Tel Aviv, John, over recent days, which is consistent incoming fire from Iran. Yesterday, one of the busiest days since the start of the war. And of course this contradicts what you've heard from President Trump last night, but also the Pentagon. That missile capability has been dramatically destroyed, reduced maybe, but not eliminated. And some of the sources telling us that Iran may be holding back some of those capabilities, which explains some of the reduction in fire in recent days. I should note here was the White House response to the story. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly saying, quote, anonymous sources desperately want to attack President Trump and demean the incredible work of our United States military in achieving the goals of Operation Epic Fury. We should note that this is a U.S. military assessment that has found that continuing Iranian capability. Iran is undeterred and China is more powerful. Russia is richer. NATO is weaker. And Americans are less safe and more isolated. This has been Operation Epic Failure. And this president owns it in entirety. There have been presidents in the past, John, that have started wars that they've had to hand off to their successors. There have been presidents in the past that have had to end, in gloriously, wars that were not working. But Donald Trump is going to be the only president in American history to single-handedly start and lose a war. And this is what the president's getting briefed on. I mean, what would you say to him? How would you put it to him, given what he's also considering and the exit and how that works? I would say the thing that I'm saying to you, and that is you have to be really clear about your purpose and your end state. There are lots of different options. You can choose. We have fewer now than we did at the beginning. And notwithstanding the fact that we have certainly degraded and maligned regime, we have certainly disabilized it. But the idea that an air and maritime assault would overthrow a regime or leave a nation of that heft without action still to play is just, is not realistic. So my question would be, here's the situation on the ground, here's what we assess, what are we going to do now? And the other thing I'd just say is people don't intend to escalate. They tend to escalate because they will think it will lead to deterrence. And so I think that's one of the soundtracks you're hearing by both the president and by Iran is they're doing this thing of can I make a threat, can I escalate? And where we've left ourselves is words won't be enough to achieve the outcomes that we probably require. The president is trying to cover his tracks on a strategic failure claiming that there is regime change because we've replaced an 86-year-old terrorist hardliner with a 56-year-old terrorist hardliner claiming that somehow Iran has been deterred from ballistic or nuclear power projection. Meanwhile, he's frantically dialing 911 in the form of paratroopers and the Marine Expeditionary Units. And what Congress needs to do in the face of this strategic incompetence is prevent the deployment of ground forces on any of the islands or the shoreline around the Strait of Hormuz because if this president deploys these Marines or paratroopers to seize these islands, they'll take them. But then after 15 to 30 days, they're going to need reinforcement and re-supply and we are in a boots-on-the-ground quagmire for the third time in the 21st century. The American public is exhausted by these failed forever wars. They don't want them. They want us investing here in the United States. They want us working with our allies. And instead this president is berating NATO, making it weaker, and he's strengthening our adversaries in China, Russia and Iran. So, the job, job, jobs report expecting 65,000. We are significantly stronger, 178,000. However, there's a pretty big revision in the rearview mirror. If we look at the minus 92,000, it becomes minus 133,000. So the two-month revision ends up actually, if you look at the previous month, only minus 7,000. So not as bad. 178,000. When was the last time we had a number that strong? We have to go on the way back in the machine all the way to May of 23 when we were, excuse me, June of 23, we were 225,000. We have a big number. Excuse me, excuse me. We have to go back to Dece of 24, Joe, 237,000. So it's still a very solid number going in the way back machine. This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going to medieval on this people. Here's the thing, I've got a free shot of all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big line? Maga, media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. It is Good Friday, 3 April in the year of our Lord 2026, the most solemn day in the Christian calendar. Good Friday. We'll have our program today plus special program tomorrow on Holy Saturday and then Easter Sunday. I'll talk more about that in a little while. So as we come on the air, I think, and I'm not sure we've gotten confirmation from Sancom, but I believe there's at least enough reporting out there that a F-15E strike eagle has been shot down or as the pilots have ejected in Iranian territory. We've got Dr. Bradley Thayer is going to join us in a moment and Brandon Weichert is going to join us and we're going to talk through everything about the escalatory trap. What's happened in the last 24 hours as the war intensifies, we said President Trump and looking for a, not an off ramp, but looking to roll this thing up in two or three weeks. He said he was going to, if they didn't look like he was going to get a deal, he was going to escalate. I think they kind of escalated a little early. They took out bridges and infrastructure. Bibi Netanyahu has been on Israeli TV talking about the infrastructure and the, and other aspects of Iranian civil life that the Israelis are pounding. So last night, another intense bombing campaign. We're also going to have, we're going to talk about Pam Bondi, this entire situation. There's so much going on, particularly in the state of Texas. Julie Pickren and others are going to join us to talk about this Texas School Board meeting on Tuesday. We need people lined up today by 5pm. Central daylight time. We need you to sign up to, if you're going to address the Texas Education Board. We need to do it by today and that's what I'm going to have on us. So a whole lot going on. Birch Gold, we have the, Phillip Patrick is going to join me for a couple of segments tomorrow morning. We're going to walk through everything in the global capital markets and commodity markets, particularly precious metals. Now more than ever, we've put out series number eighth and eighth installment at the end of the dollar empire. You can get it by going to birchgold.com promo code war room. Excuse me, promo code Bannon. I think I would know that by now promo code Bannon. You get the eighth free installment here. We very much focus on the current status of the dollar, which is under assault from both deficits here. The BRICS nations on the shoulder of the dollar rests so much on the financial stability of this planet. So we get into it in great detail. Installment number eight, birchgold.com promo code Bannon. But most importantly, you get to talk to the experts, Phillip Patrick and the team. So make sure you do that today. Maybe over the holiday weekend or on Easter Monday, as people get back to work. Or maybe the day after. I think the Easter egg hunt is Monday. The dollars convertibility into gold ended in 1971. Gold was fixed at $35 an ounce. Well, fast forward to the day and the US dollar has lost over 85% of its purchasing power. Gold, on the other hand, is increased in value by over 12,000%. That's why central banks are buying gold at record levels. That's why major firms like Vanguard and Black Riot hold significant positions in gold. And that's why I encourage you to consider diversifying your savings with physical gold from Birchgold Group. But it starts with education. Birchgold just announced their learn and earn precious metals event. This free online event rewards you for learning the basics of investing in precious metals. Sign up to get a free silver on your next purchase. Get even larger incentives as you go. The more you learn, the more you can earn. But you must act now as this special event only runs through April 30th. The dollar lost its anchor in 1971. You don't have to lose yours. Text my name Bannon B-A-N-N-O-N to the number 989898 to join Birchgold's learn and earn precious metals event by April 30th. Text Bannon B-A-N-N-O-N to 989898 and do it today. Borrow, here's your host Stephen K. Bannon. Okay, so this is very, very, very sketchy, but we'll report to you. Unless we've got Dr. Thayer and Brandon Weikert. Brandon, I think they're reporting in the near the town of Issa in Kuzestan, which I believe is near the Iraq border. And it's where a lot of the horrific Iraq-Iran war took place. Give us what we know so far. I think there's an F-15E that's down in the Americans. We have sent in, it looked like forces striking. We've sent in Blackhawks and others, C-130 gunship to retrieve the pilots. Give us what we know. Yeah, it looks like there's a search and rescue SAR operation going on. And one of these videos that you were showing, I saw earlier because they apparently the locals are shooting at our Blackhawks and the C-130. They were apparently mid-air refueling and they were flying low and people on the bridge started shooting at our planes. But they are looking for the pilots. It's a two-seater. So my assumption is that our guys got out. We've got some pretty great ejection systems. So I'm sure that our guys survived and hopefully they are laying low. There's a local news report in that district of Iran in which the anchor of the news there is encouraging all the locals to go out and arrest the pilots and hand them over to the IRGC. So so much for this being a people's revolution. Also, on confirmed reporting that might be connected to whatever the plane was doing that was shot down. I am hearing that there is a UH-60 Blackhawk that was that crashed in southern Iraq right across the border. So there's no further reporting on that. SENTCOM hasn't even commented on this one. But but clearly the operational tempo as you noted, Steve, is increasing after the president's speech a couple days ago. Yeah, I think that people shouldn't think that in the winding down he's going to keep the pressure on. I mean, the last last night or since the president talked has been pretty intense. Dr. Thayer. And of course, this is what's going to happen in war. You're going to get people particularly running these many combat sorties. I think the combat sorties have been now almost 12,000. So that op tempo of naval air and also our Air Force assets in the region have been incredibly intense. And this is about the defanging and decline. I mean, the way that you take down this regime's conventional forces is you just pound the president said that's going to happen. Any updates that you've got on this situation, Dr. Thayer. Other than to what Brandon provided that it was it seemed to be about 50 kilometers inside or that is north of the Persian of the Persian Gulf. So it looks like Southwestern Iran. In terms of the location. And I hadn't seen Brandon mentioned a 60 down and I hadn't seen that but obviously that's we obviously pray for the crews of both the 60 if it went down and then of course of the F 15 E. Well, what it what it people should take heart that you know you've got an American search and rescue looks like you got a C 130 and a bunch of black cars and they're trying to get the pilots I understand that it appears and I think this is why they weren't on local media to have locals go and search for the pilots that they're both it looks like the ejection seats were hit. I mean we're used and so the pilot is used the pilots look like they've at least made it out of the plane before crashed. That is what it looks like and obviously if the locals are putting out these these news so called news reports encouraging their tribesmen to go out and hunt these these pilots down obviously they have very good reason to believe that the US pilots are alive. Now these pilots as you know Steve are trained in Evasion tactics. They actually my understanding is I think they go through seer training as well so these are these are not just fly boys these these guys are designed to to evade and withstand a lot if they are shot down so it's a it's a matter of time now it's a race to the to the finish our guys get them or God forbid the Iranians find them. I'm sure it's the Air Force also but the Navy every pilot my kid brothers a lamp's helicopter pilot who was in the Gulf during the during the tanker wars of 86 and 87. You had to go to Sears school and Sears school is very intense so the training for the pilots to evade and to stay alive until the rescued is is almost as intense as their pilot training which is the best in the world. Brandon I want to go because you know both you guys are authors of amazing books is one of the reasons I think you're both you guys although you kind of take different views of the world are such good observers and analysts because you've done deep research into the topics you have your book on Iran. I think spectacular just this part of the of Iran where they are people people forget you know after the failed house you know after the shaw fell and they took the in 79 and they took the they then took the embassy in early November and that's when my ship deployed from the Pacific Fleet we sent carrier battle groups which we had never done before. The fifth fleet at that time was you know a couple of ships I think were painted white like the British fleet in Bahrain was very small but the ever since that time the Americans are really the North Arabian Sea has been back then it was camel station and Gonzo station where the two battle groups were. But a lot of people don't remember probably outside of World War two one of the most horrific wars of the 20th century took place shortly thereafter between Iraq and Iran and remember yeah in our fiasco in Iraq a big part of Iraq today is is basically controlled by the Shiites because the Vatican of the of the Shiite religion happens to be geographically I think it's in the job right where we had that during the during our movie the last 600 meters we showed we showed the assault on that in fact if you look at. The. Malton the congressman who's a left wing congressman now he was the kind of heroic Marine captain. Yeah that led that assault for a couple of weeks talk to people about this 10 year war because right now it looks like our pilots. Are down in that region that was so intensely fought people don't I think there was a million casualties am I correct. Yeah between both. It was the I think it was the I think it was one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century and it was very similar to World War one where you had sort of you initiated with a war of maneuver and then it just became this locked in trench warfare. Struggle for 10 years in which the U.S. nominally backed Saddam Hussein's Iraq. We even gave them precursors for chemical weapons sarin gas and whatnot which they then promptly used on the Iranian front lines and then the Iranians who were still sort of rebuilding from the revolution that overthrew the Shah just a few years before the war began. They started conducting human wave attacks where they basically would round up people as young as nine years old. Give them a Quran give them a green bandana the color of Islam and tell them run at the Iran the Iraqi front run at the Fox holes and of course the Iraqis were well armed but they were not as numerically superior. And ultimately the green wave is what it was called. And that was how the Iranians pushed the Iraqis back and if you listen to the rhetoric ever since then of the regime in Iran. They speak about the Iran Iraq war in much the same way the Russians and the Soviets talk about the quote great patriotic war. In fact there was a lot of similarities between the Eastern Front between the Soviet Union and the Nazis of World War two and the Iran Iraq war. The Iraqis had technology they had our support they had a lot of advantages but they weren't able to overcome the will the ideological will of the Persians and the Islamists of Persia. And the fear today I talked with Matt Bracken a former Navy SEAL on my show a couple weeks ago. He said his fear is that the United States is essentially on a grander scale possibly replicating the Iraqi basically failure in the Iran Iraq war. And we don't understand the Persian mindset and we certainly don't appreciate the ideological fervor with which the Islamic Republic rules Iran and if they're shooting at our search and rescue birds. As you see in those videos that indicates to me that the Shiite resistance mentality going back to the breakdown of the Sunni Shiite split you know hundreds of years ago. I think that's that's now informing their their response to us they're not pro overthrow they're not pro regime change they are very much. Even even even even the ones you know you get a combination of Persian nationalism because these are very proud people it's an ancient civilization and it's fought the West is fought the Roman Empire from the beginning. I want to go back this time though because I think it's important to think about the other day Brandon and then Dr. They're bringing in the other day there was a report coming out of Tehran that the the ideological masters of Iran this fear. Theocracy were saying and going to round up. I think kids as young as they were talking about children kids as young as 1011 1212 to 12 to augment and and and people when it first came out people said these guys are horrible that will never happen. This is how they broke the Iraqis they just can and fodder they had no concern whatsoever with these kids. They weren't even armed. I mean they had no concern at all with these kids lived or died. I mean it was just you're going to get it's like the the Chinese and in Korea right in North Korea when we fought in the Korean War you just hit wave after wave. Most of them don't even have weapons. It's just it's just a human wave. Well they were told to pick up the weapon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hang on for one second. I'll bring you back to the break. Human life to these people means nothing means absolutely nothing is a totally different and complete mindset. I'm not saying the Persian mentality. This is the this is the theocracy that is now in charge. And like I said I think we've got a hard hard core people. So the Iran Iraq war is is still a living thing to many of these people particularly because they think it was one of the great victories of not the greatest victory. Besides overthrowing the Shaw and running the Americans out of their of their regime. Short commercial break search and rescue for an American American pilots right now in the Iran war back in a moment. This year marks a critical moment for our country as the opposition grows more aggressive and more unapologetic. The fight now reaches into the everyday decisions we make. Patriot mobile has standing has been standing on the front lines fighting for freedom for more than 12 years. 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That's Patriot mobile dot com slash ban or call 972 Patriot. Enjoying the team today. Brandon we got an update on the UH 16. Give us an update. One of the one of the O sent people that I deal with told me that it was a special forces UH 60 Black Hawk. It was hit did not crash in Southern or made it made it across the border to safety in Southern Iraq and apparently it has returned to base. That is what I'm being told. So yeah and there is that video there. They're shooting from this bridge the people on the ground in Iran. These are just ordinary people are shooting at our birds there that are conducting search and rescue operations for that F 15 strike eagle. The two pilots that are the pilot in the WIZO that are that are down in Iran somewhere. So this is a developing situation but but the Black Hawk is fine. I am told so. Yeah and look the Sencom obviously has preparation for all this but I will tell you that is looks like pretty barren territory. You see what our kids. So keep telling folks this is like the freaking moon when you're over there right so once again the heroism and valor and training to train for this. This is why these pilots can go in under enemy fire and and do this. Also you might know one of the things we did say Dr. Thayer. Let me get you in the conversation here. We kept saying that the the expeditionary operation in late June to totally obliterate the nuclear weapons program then the Venezuelan and the Venezuelan heroic. I mean a special forces and they took they took a you know they almost lost the helicopter that went in if it was not for the incredible airmanship and bravery. The pilot who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for that by President Trump here you're going in and you know to talk about air supremacy air superiority. Those are kind of military terms and mathematical equations but you've got resistance. I mean these people are resisting that the Iranians are going to put up a fight and like we said they've they've shifted the center gravity of the battle to to the Persian Gulf and they shifted it to the end of the war. And they in many respects they've taken the initiative. It shouldn't be law some people that the search and rescue area is down close to the Persian Gulf close to the Tigris and Euphrates close to Iraqi territory. So it's closer to there. It's hundreds not thousands of miles away from Tehran. You had been one of you had been very not adamant but you say hey look I don't think President Trump's gotten into an escalatory trap. Right. I think that he's really thinking this thing through and he's trying to avoid that. Can you give us your update on that as you see because last night was a quite intense and I think would surprise some people. They said he started to take out particularly the bridges. They took out some bridges where one would say well hang on I thought we weren't going to I thought we were going to wait if you couldn't get a deal. You know in a week or two you're going to do that looks like it came up pretty early in the in the punch list or target list for Sencombe your thoughts. My thoughts are to see first we want to remember that Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 because he thought the Iranians were going to be a pushover. He thought that revolutionary Iran was weak and that he could just slice off a province of Iran the Southwestern province and occupy it and the Iranian regime would yield to that. So he was thinking he had a limited aimed strategy was going to fight a limited war. And that turned in immediately almost immediately to total war that lasted eight years. So we always want to bear in mind of course the the Persians that Iran is not going to be a pushover that they're the regime and the Iranian people the Persian people are formidable of course and we're seeing that as we're looking at the the videos that you're showing today. Second point to keep in mind so Saddam Hussein thought he was going to get a quick and easy victory and it turned out that he got a hellish conflict that rivaled World War One is as we referenced earlier. Secondly, with respect to the target set so President Trump said of course in his address that he was thinking considering expanding the target set from the military targets and the objectives that Secretary Rubio laid out and that President Trump. laid out to to infrastructure right to the oil to water and other aspects of civilian infrastructure and you did see with that bridge hit obviously a taste I see what President Trump is doing is conveying to the Iranians of course that we can escalate we can brought brought in the target set. And that was an indication that we could do so if they don't yield more is to come right so that there would be additional attacks, leaving aside what Israel would do but from the US perspective there would be additional. How is that but how is that civilian infrastructure. How is that and I want to get to Wiker in a second about this, because I think delving into the Iraq around war is quite important here for people to understand because these folks in the Middle East I mean they think they got vendetta from 1000 years ago, right they got a vendetta from the crusades. It's not like in America where people, right, most people are not the war in the audience because you guys weren't just feeling this but you're going to CNN or MSNBC or some of these youth groups and they're going around Iraq fought what do you talk about I didn't know that. The the the Iranian people the Persians. How do they they don't know any of this. And we're not even sure what the leadership is because they're so dispersed but the internet's totally shut down. All they see is that they're bombing first military targets or communications and next thing you know, you're taking out bridges and taking out the basic functions of life it was like the Israelis bombing the the oil. You know the old depots on Saturday night and causing a firestorm like Dresden, a couple of Saturday nights ago, and then, and then coming back a couple days later and bombing the week later and bombing the gas fields the Iranian people are completely blacked out, right, there's there's no Starlink, there's no internet. One of the reasons we took took out command and control. So how is this signaling is this going just to we hope the the Iranian whatever's left of the Iranian guard and all this dispersion and still we can't get. We can't get face to face negotiations we're going through some of the most nefarious people in the world, the Pakistanis or the Turks or I mean this is kind of what I'm not saying upsets me. But in this region of the world, starting in Israel and going to Saudi Arabia and going to UAE and going to Pakistan, you can't trust any of them. You can't trust any of them. None of them have America's interest in hearts. And so, Dr. Thayer when you're saying this bombing. How is that what what is being communicated to the Persians. What's being communicated of course is that we can escalate and that we could go after additional targets and economic targets that that would greatly hurt the Iranian economy we haven't done that yet. Our objectives as they as they've been laid out don't require that. But it's something that we could do. Likewise, the threat is present from the 82nd and from the Marines that the United States could take. The island has been discussed many times or other parts of of Iran. So there's the threat of escalation to attempt to coerce clearly the the Iranian government to come to some type of an agreement which is what President Trump wants. And so, we're going to be expected as President Trump has identified this is going to be going on for weeks. Right. We're going to have weeks, two or three weeks more, of course, in the conflict. But you believe now is going to go more than two weeks. But hang on, sir, I'm going to come back to you. I want to go back to this run war because one of the engine room one of our engine room personnel just brings some eyes and hey look. At the time that this war took place, people got to remember what it was like back then. The the Persians under the Shaw. They were it was a different Middle East. Israel wasn't our big ally. Our big ally was Iran. The Shaw. They had the most sophisticated weapons systems. In fact, one of the reasons that it got so big and intense is that the weapons industry had a customer. Another customer besides the U.S. government and particularly with the wind down of the Vietnam War, they're always looking for new markets. They were they were loaded up when I went to Officer Canada School in Newport. I think we had a couple hundred midshipmen go through every class. You know, we're 90 day wonders. There were 500 Iranians. They would all send them to Newport, Rhode Island for their first training and then they would disperse them out to go get down to Texas or Pensacola to learn how to fly. Or they go to other aspects for military preparedness. We were my point in that time in the all volunteer force post Vietnam. We were training as many Persians over here as we were training people to go because at that time we didn't have Reagan 600 ship Navy. You had 200. I think we had 250 ships. The Navy was quite small when I got in and we were training as many as Iranians. When the Shaw fell, that was the strategic ally of the United States and we pumped in the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world. When when we were thrown out unceremoniously right in 79 when the Shaw left and then when they seized the embassy. Brandon Weicker in your book, what what Sodom was saying because he's always the cleverest guy, right? It wasn't just taking a province. He was going for a deep strike to take the oil. He thought, hey, these guys are all messed up. You got that. You got this crazy guy from Paris. They're all, you know, they throw all their officers are dead. All the leaders of the Iranian military. They don't have to use this equipment. And I just want people to understand something when they had their back because you see President Trump telling the Europeans, hey, Hormuz is precious. You just go in and seize the oil. The last time someone tried to seize their oil, they sent nine year old kids and they took a million casualties. You know why? Because they don't care. Okay. They don't care. They sent nine year old kids to beat Sodom Hussein. You know what they did? They fought him to a standoff and I would actually say I think they kind of in their mind they beating Brandon Weicker. Well, if I can just build off that, I would argue the straight line from the end of the Iran-Iraq war to Desert Storm to 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein. It all goes back to the Iran-Iraq war had Saddam never done that. Amen. And there would have ever been any problems with Iraq and Kuwait or Iraq and us. That was all a downstream unintended consequence of the Iran-Iraq war because Saddam Hussein. Hang on. You're sticking around. Hang on. People don't. Okay. 1979, three things happened that changed. And this was the most important geopolitical year post-World War II. The Shah fell, this, you know, the Islamic Revolution, because up until then most of these guys were Arab nationalists. It was kind of secular. The Shah was obviously very secular, but the Arabs were secular. The Muslim Brotherhood was getting in there in both Egypt and, you know, where Nasser had been and in Syria. You had the fall of the Shah in 1979. You had the siege of the great mosque, which they never talk about it anymore. They seized the great mosque, right? In the Saudis, this was the beginning. And then you had the Russians going to Afghanistan, of which the Americans, obviously we funded the Mujahideen to beat them back. And so all of this from 1979 is all in a shirk, you'll be linked to today. And those people don't forget that history. That history is alive to them today as it just happened. To us, you mentioned 1979. People go, well, oh, you know, what, what, what was the rock music that was number one? Or didn't the Yankees win the World Series? No, they don't think like that. They think very differently. History is the lived history of that of today, of today's lived experience is informed by their history. And as now we have a search and rescue attempt in a province near the Tigris Tigris and Euphrates River, right? Down there on the Iraq border. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind as you pray today on Good Friday for our American pilots and the search and rescue teams that are there to retrieve them. Short break back in a moment. 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There's no pressure, no BS, just straightforward, honest help from fellow patriots. So don't wait. Call 845 war room right now. That's 845 war room. Tell them Bannon sent you. Now listen, in the first couple of days of the launch of this company with the war in Posse, Posse members saved tens and up to hundreds of thousands collectively of dollars in these fees. Go check it out today. That's chapter. Call 845 war room. He was your host, Stephen K. Bannon. So I don't think the networks are confirming this, but CNN's heads are pointing up. Let's play CNN. Jack Basobis going to join Brandon Weikert. And before we go to that real quickly, Brandon, about the Iran-Iraq war. Remember, you mentioned Saren Gass and the gas that was used later when he used it because he was outnumbered and he had these nine year old kids coming in when not all nine years, but young people coming in waves. He did use Saren Gass. He did use on the Kurds. Of course, that was used against him years later in his weapons of mass destruction. That's right. Young people on Fox cheerleading this war right now with the same exact crowd. Lindsey Graham in that crowd cheering, you know, Bill Crystal, we're going to be, you know, they're going to be throwing roses in front of the U.S. Marines that go to Baghdad. Those guys are the guys that were saying, Saddam Hussein is the biggest monster in the world, right? Because he used gas. Didn't the United States, didn't we make it? Memory serves me correctly. They made, didn't we make a deal to provide that to him? Yes. The idea was to provide pesticides. It was the precursor for pesticides, but in fact, it was the precursor for Saren Gass. And it was the young Don Rumsfeld who became George W. Bush's secretary of defense during the Iraq War. Young Don Rumsfeld was the frontman for that deal in the 1980s between Saddam and the U.S. Hang on one second. Let's play CNN's reporting of this. I'm going to bring in Jack Vesovic to join us. Tell us more about what you're learning about these claims from Iran that it's forces downed a U.S. fighter jet. Pamela, I'm going to be very careful because the information we have at this point is incomplete. But here's what we know. Iranian state media is reporting that search and rescue operations are underway in southwestern Iran by the U.S. for downed pilots. As you noted, they previously claimed today that they had shot down a U.S. aircraft. There are videos that have been circulating online which appear to show a refueling operation in the air and aircraft refueling to helicopters, which would at least be consistent with a search and rescue operation. Earlier, as you noted, there were pictures posted and shared by Iranian state media which appear to show a piece of wreckage from a U.S. aircraft consistent with an F-15. CNN has repeatedly reached out to Central Command, U.S. Central Command, and has not yet received comment on whether a jet was indeed shot down and whether search and rescue operations are underway. We continue to seek comment from them. I don't have to tell you, Pamela, or Wolf, the seriousness of this, if it is confirmed that a jet has been shot down and that those pilots are on the ground, either been captured or that Iranian authorities are now looking for them. But again, we're treating this with caution because the information is incomplete at this hour. Our reporting from CNN regards a U.S. military assessment that is found that even after close to a month of war now and the U.S. striking more than 12,000 targets in Iran, that Iran maintains a missile capability that it still has 50% of its missile launchers, 50% of its one-way attack drones, as well as a significant percentage of its coastal defense missiles, those particularly important because it allows Iran to project power over the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to threaten shipping there, not just shipping of oil, fertilizer, containers, etc., but also potentially U.S. warships operating in that area. We're told that according to the assessment, while the U.S. has had great success striking multiple ballistic missile targets, launchers, missile storage facilities, that it has been more difficult to strike mobile missile launchers and to strike both launchers and missiles that are stored underground. The response has been to try to strike the entrances to those underground storage facilities to block them in, and it seems that they've had some success there. But at a minimum, Iran maintains what I think you could call remarkable capability a month into the war, and that helps explain the fire, the continuing incoming fire we've seen here in Tel Aviv. In fact, just a few minutes ago, we were back in the shelter here in Tel Aviv once again. It looks like it's real, unfortunately, and based on the pictures that we've seen so far, it is consistent with an F-15, not an F-35, as the Iranians have said, but an F-15. One of the key things about this is the F-15 is not a stealth fighter. It's an older generation aircraft. It is designed for multiple missions, but mainly air superiority-type missions, and it is vulnerable to the kind of anti-aircraft fire that the Iranians are capable of conducting. So in conjunction with the reporting from the U.S. intelligence community that says that the Iranians still have major capabilities, this is one more piece of evidence that they have those capabilities, and it's dangerous still for our pilots. You know, Jack Pasovic gets pretty amazing after, I think, 11,000 or 12,000 combat sorties. They finally, if this is true, CENTCOM has not confirmed it, but it's been a remarkable record so far, but these type of things happen when you're in a shooting war. You're going to have pilot shot down, you're going to have plane shot down, you're going to have search and rescue, and the danger of search and rescue is, what is the magnitude even more than the pilots going in the first time? Your thoughts, sir? Well, Steve, that's absolutely right, and I would remind everyone that it was that friendly fire incident over Kuwait where there was, again, three of the F-15 Eagles that were shot down in that friendly fire incident, but in that incident, all of the pilots and crew, the WIZO, the weapons officers, were able to eject and were safely recovered, so there are indications that we've seen this already in Operation Epic Fury where there's been ejections and recovery, now, of course, not over Indian territory, Indian country, like this is here in Iran, and that's why those C-SAR missions are out there the way that they are, but it seems to be that every indication is that with them flying low and slow the way they are, that they do perhaps have indications that an ejection did take place so that the pilots can be recovered. Of course, we're also monitoring Iranian channels on Telegram and other places to see if locals attempt to pick up the pilot, and we saw that in Kuwait a number of times, so we will see what happens there. And Steve, I just got to say, man, Jim Shudo, seriously, this guy is the, he never served a day in his life. He is the biggest wannabe over at CNN, sitting over there in Tel Aviv, look at me, look at, he's an Obama staffer, all right? This guy was an Obama staffer, they stuck him over with Gary Locke in the US Embassy in Beijing, and he's running around, look at me, look at me, like he served, he's the biggest joke every time I see him. Unconstituted Russia Gator, all of it. Real quickly, Sencom has not confirmed any of this, correct? Has been total lockdown on any confirmation from our... Well, I saw at one point that Sencom was actually denying, I think that they were denying that NF35 had been shot down, and yet we are getting Axios, CNN, and the reports are beginning to come out, no official word yet. Hang over a second, short commercial break, back in the warm with the entire team in a moment. Do you owe back taxes or you haven't filed your taxes in years? Now is the time to resolve your tax matters. With the national conversation around abolishing the income tax, the IRS is fighting back, improving, it's here to stay by becoming more aggressive than ever before. They're sending out more collection notices, filing more tax liens, and collecting billions more in recent years. If you owe the IRS can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, seize your retirement, and even your home. If you owe or haven't filed, it's not a question of if the IRS will act, it's a question of when it will act. 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