Graham–Netanyahu ICC tapes
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The Graham,Netanyahu ICC tapes are recordings of Lindsey Graham working with Benjamin Netanyahu to blunt the International Criminal Court's finding that Netanyahu had likely committed war crimes. John Kiriakou introduces them as the clearest available illustration of "how Benjamin Netanyahu captured US officials and anyone sympathetic to his cause."

The first call

What strikes Kiriakou about the audio is its ordinariness. Graham proposes a signatory, "I I tell you the perfect person would be the speaker, Speaker Johnson", and promises to try. Kiriakou's reading: "Did you catch how casual their tone was? Uh let me brainstorm some Democrats we can get to cosign." Netanyahu, he says, "is there talking exactly like how he would say say call a friend if a judge were to find him guilty of a crime. No plan desperate for anything. I'm going to call my friend Lindsey. See if Lindsey can write a strongly worded letter. Get a bunch of important people to sign it. And um hope for the best. What else are you going to do?"

The second call

Kiriakou then reads the New York Times account of a second call recorded the same day, on which only Graham's voice is audible. Graham joked that Netanyahu should "pay me for all this. I should get tons of shekels," adding that it would take "more than dinner." He then reported "we got them both", apparently Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ben Cardin of Maryland, who had agreed to sign a letter protesting the arrest warrant.

The operational request follows: "So, here's why I'm calling you," Graham said, hoping to get the letter "out the door Wednesday," and asking Netanyahu to "send me over whatever you want to say." The two demands to be made of the court were that the prosecutor should speak to the Israeli government and should not advance the case until "the cloud is lifted" from his own difficulties. What Graham asked in exchange was that Netanyahu "call Blumenthal and Cardin and thank them for being fair-minded on this and also thank them for trying to help with Saudi-Israel normalization," on the reasoning that "that will encourage both of them."

The letter was released on 1 November 2024 with both senators among the signatories. It alleged that the court had not complied with the law in declining to keep a planned meeting with Israeli representatives before applying for the warrant. Kiriakou notes in passing that the prosecutor named in it resigned a week before the broadcast over sexual improprieties.

The espionage argument

Kiriakou's own conclusion turns on the legal standard applied to him. "I'm very sensitive to the term espionage," he says, recalling that his judge set a new precedent for the Espionage Act by determining that espionage was "very simply providing national defense information to any person not entitled to receive it. Simple." Neither the documentary filmmakers who made the recordings nor, by implication, the foreign prime minister on the other end of the line was cleared for classified information, "and literally everything that Lindsey Graham is talking about is classified." From which: "People in the United States have gone to prison for far less collusion with a foreign leader than what he we have seen in these tapes."

The second call, as read out

Kiriakou read the reporting on the second recorded call aloud rather than summarising it. On that call only Graham's voice is audible, and he joked to Netanyahu that he should "pay me for all this. I should get tons of shekels", adding that "it would take more than dinner."

The operative line for Kiriakou is the next one, in which Graham reported success in recruiting co-signers: "We got them both", understood to refer to two Democratic senators who had agreed to sign a letter protesting the move toward an arrest warrant. Graham wanted the letter "out the door Wednesday", and asked Netanyahu to "send me over whatever you want to say."

What was requested in return is the part Kiriakou lets stand without comment: that Netanyahu telephone the two senators to thank them "for being fairminded on this" and for helping with Saudi,Israel normalisation, because "that will encourage both of them." The letter was released on 1 November 2024 with both men among its signers, and argued that the court had failed to comply with the law by declining to keep a planned meeting with Israeli representatives before applying for the warrant.

On the tone of the exchange, his observation is that there was no plan behind it at all: Netanyahu was "talking exactly like how he would call a friend if a judge were to find him guilty of a crime", "no plan, desperate for anything."

See also

- Lindsey Graham
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- International Criminal Court
- Espionage Act
