[00:01] Good morning. You're watching a special edition of the program with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou. It's Sunday, March 1st, 2026. We are normally here Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on YouTube and Rumble, but and streaming whenever, but obviously with the news out of the out of Iran in the Middle East, John and I decided we needed to pipe in and say our piece and answer questions and try to analyze things as best we could. Thanks so much for joining us,
[00:31] John. Hey, good to see you, Ted. Glad to be back even on a Sunday. And I I want to say, too, forgive forgive my my video. I'm in a hotel in Brooklyn. I have only my phone, so I I apologize for the quality of my of my picture. It actually looks pretty good, John. Oh, good. Good. Good. Okay. And you sound good, too. It's a strong >> Good. That's what I want. I'm going to I'm going to make this nicer. Okay, there we go. Great. All right, so let me go over some of the Obviously, today's we're only
[01:03] going to be talking about Iran, nothing else, even though there's plenty else going on in the world. Basically, yesterday the big news being that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was who's been leading Iran for nearly 37 years was killed by Israeli airstrike that was guided by the United States. That was confirmed by the Iranians. The CIA apparently told Trump before he decided to attack Iran that there was a strong chance that Khamenei would
[01:34] probably be replaced by someone who was at least as hardline as he is, maybe someone from the Revolutionary Guards. Interim Council's been announced. Ayatollah senior cleric named Ayatollah Ali Reza Araki, sorry for the butchering of the language there, has been announced. We'll talk about that. The New York Times is reporting that basically insiders are saying that the diplomacy never had a chance due to the way that the Trump administration was approaching and talking to the Iranians and it may have just all been misdirection all along.
[02:05] Polls showed that only 21% of Americans support this war at its very at its inception. I think that's insane. I've never heard of anything like it. Normally 21% is like after you've lost the war and everyone's turned against it and even then it doesn't get that bad. I think more people supported the Vietnam war in 1973 than than 21%. Um Trump is hiding somewhere. We don't know where. No speeches to the nation and no no public no public statements. Um oil futures, not surprisingly, are are
[02:38] are soaring. We'll see what happens when the markets open tomorrow, but we'll know more when the Asian markets open later today due to the time difference. There's a and key members of Congress are pushing for a war powers resolution. Notably, Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie want a public vote. Looks like they're going to probably going to get one. And so this is a unique set of circumstances. The Strait of Hormuz, Iran claims, has been closed by them. My favorite quote,
[03:09] John, was from their social media feed where they said, you know, we have blocked the Strait of Hormuz. Let the orange pig try to unblock it. Oh my god. Oh my god. >> [laughter] >> I didn't see that. So great. I don't mean to I don't mean to laugh, but >> have to laugh cuz war does always have like some funny moments like Baghdad Baghdad Bob. Um Baghdad Bob. And and there's like and and then there was also this really weird moment yesterday. NBC News, which used to be a news organization,
[03:40] they they were interviewing a top Iranian official and they said, how can you justify um hitting these military the US military bases? And he's like, but that's the places that are firing the weapons at us in the war that you started. I mean literally there's never there's no more justifiable military action than that. I don't know, very strange. Unbelievable. Well, things are things are bad Ted, bad all around. The I spoke
[04:11] to friends of mine in Kuwait Qatar and the United Arab Emirates yesterday. It's funny. The I talked to a a Qatari the son of a senior Qatari official yesterday and he just kind of chuckled and said, "Well, this is life in the Middle East. We live in a dangerous neighborhood." My my friends in Dubai were panicked. The Burj Al Arab, the the giant ultra lux hotel that's shaped like a sail.
[04:44] The Iranians fired or not fired but sent a drone to to blow up on it. The drone was intercepted and hit in the air. But when it exploded, it exploded against the hotel and set the hotel on fire. The fire was put out but there's significant damage. The Iranians sent drones to attack the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. They hit it with two drones. Maybe even more importantly though
[05:15] Manama Airport in Bahrain is unusable. It has to be closed for a while and repaired. Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait has also been hit. >> John about the Bahraini Airport. There's reports that the Bahraini local fighting fighting brigade refused to put out the fight to fight that fire. You know, I would actually believe that because [clears throat] Bahrain is a majority Shia Muslim country just like Iran is Shia Muslim and
[05:45] Bahrain has a Sunni Muslim royal family, which can be a problem at times. Heads are going to roll if that's true. But I it doesn't surprise me. So anyway, the the the Iranians, you know, the Iranians can't win this thing, of course, but but they can put up a fight and they can they can, you know, put some hurt out on on the Gulf Arab states. And they could survive, right? I mean, that's what it looks like for them. Um
[06:17] yeah, I mean, this is a this is a regime that's really built for survival. It's been under siege since 1979. Um the you know, they they have as we talked about yesterday in the other extra edition that we did yesterday morning, um John, there was a you know, there's there's redundant governmental systems there. Um the they you know, these decapitation strikes certainly hit hard. Um the Israelis and the Americans killed a lot of top officials. But you know, they have a succession plan. They have
[06:48] number twos, number threes ready to step in. They always did. They always knew something like this could happen. Um I mean, [clears throat] as I don't see how you overthrow this regime um this way unless the Iranian people rise up and overthrow it, but I don't see how that happens. Which we're not seeing. So, I'm seeing I'm seeing video from Iran. You know, on CNN they'll show you video from Iran and say 300 people dancing and waving and
[07:20] whatever, beeping their horns. But then you see video of a million people out in the street self-flagellating and crying and vowing to fight the West to the death. And think of it this way, too. A peaceful transition of power from the current regime to some substitute regime is in US interests. Chaos and death is what is in Israel's interests.
[07:52] And that's what we're more likely to get. And that's what we're more we're more likely to get. I think Netanyahu is hoping for a civil war. I think that's exactly what the plan is, yes. Yeah. Want to support the show with style? Go to theprogram.live and check out our merch. That's theprogram.live or check out the description below. Thanks for watching. >> [music]