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Ted Rall & John Kiriakou Iran War Viewer Q&A / DeProgram Show

DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas · 2026-03-04 · 11:00

This page is a transcript of a public appearance by John Kiriakou, used as a citable source for articles on KiriPedia. The transcript was auto-generated from the video's captions; minor errors may be present. Timestamps link directly into the video.

[00:00] Um, all right, let's get to some of these ah questions slides questions. Will China provide Iran with intelligence and continue to sell them weapons? Absolutely, yes. Um, Bahrain is buzzing with revolution talk. Is it likely that a full-scale uprising will occur? What would be the consequences? >> That is a very important question. So, historically, Bahrain had been between 2/3 and 3/4 Shia Muslim. The royal family is Sunni Muslim. When I was

[00:31] there, I was there during what is now called >> situation. Yeah, I I was living there during what was then called the Intifada. It became now known as the first Intifada. And and it was freaking hideous, let me tell you. So, what the what the Bahraini royal family did in the intervening 30 years, I was living there 30 years ago, is they imported Syrians, gave them Syrians are mostly Sunni Muslims, gave them Bahraini citizenship,

[01:03] and then started naturalizing Indian and Pakistani Muslims, Sunni Muslims. So, now it's closer to 50/50. But even though it's closer to 50/50, the Shia the Sunnis still have money, the Shia are still poor, so there is always a threat of an uprising in Bahrain. Uh, now that the war has started, is there any way to end it with peace in the region without an increase in terror attacks? Not the not the second one. >> [snorts] >> Um, what will the impact be if Congress

[01:34] does take Trump's war powers away? I don't think doesn't look, John, like that's going to happen, right? We're going to see a vote, um, but there's enough there's even though there's some conservatives who are, you know, I think Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, people like that who are going to vote for the war powers resolution, but there's also going to be the John Fettermans and other Democrats in name only who are going to cross the other way. So it'll probably look kind of like a normal vote in Congress that Democrats try to get through that fails.

[02:06] Yeah, and if it's written as a resolution, a sense of the Congress resolution, it's not going to have any any teeth or authority anyway, if it's done as as a you know, bill being passed into law, the president's going to veto it. Um let's see. Uh Over the past year, several current Israeli former Israeli officials have pointed at Turkey as the next strategic threat to Israel. God, what a change. They used to be buddies. Yeah, they used to be close buddies, which is one of the

[02:39] reasons why the Greeks and the Palestinians were so close. Um Yeah, you and I should explore this more deeply at some point, but but let's say that let's say that the Israelis are successful in Iran. Mhm. And and the Iranian leadership is removed from from power, there's no need to worry anymore about uh about an Iranian nuclear program, but the Israelis are always looking to attack the next guy. Yeah, well, this is

[03:11] that's the rest of this question from our anonymous question here. Does Turkey constitute a meaningful military, diplomatic, or economic threat to Israel? Not only in terms of capabilities, I would say yes in terms of capabilities, but also in terms of oh my god, it just uh it just um it just it just it moved forward. I'm sorry. Anyway, >> Oh, that's okay. you get the idea. Yeah, um diplomatically, yes. I I do believe diplomatically the Israelis have their hands full with the Turks, but that's life. Maybe the Israelis should

[03:42] try to to start getting along with people. Um militarily, economically, no. No, the the the Turks aren't going to invade Israel. No. No. No. Yeah, I don't think they Yeah. Um have you seen that Israelis are going to advance troops into southern Lebanon? They already have. >> They did this >> Greater Israel coming true. Although they do that all the time, so it's hard to say whether this is >> There's this like 20-mi no-man's-land uh along the border. Yeah. Yeah. Um okay. Thank you uh

[04:14] sorry. Um Do we think Hezbollah's intervention was a smart move for them? I mean, it it does feel a little bit like Syria's >> They have nothing to lose. But remember remember martyrdom is something to be aspired to. Right. Um is there a big John big big fan of the content you produce? I'm thanking you. I want to ask is there a reason why the UAE and Dubai is being disproportionately targeted compared to other Emirates in the country uh other

[04:45] Gulf countries be by the count of missiles intercepted. Other question is that reports are showing UAE and Qatar running out of THAAD Yeah, so the reports uh from last night were that the UAE would be out of THAAD missiles in 7 days and the Qataris would be out of them in 4 days and we can't resupply them quickly enough. So this is a problem. I think that the reason why the UAE has been so disproportionately targeted is that the UAE has been at the

[05:17] forefront of the attacks against the Houthis. Mhm. And um you know, despite the fact that Dubai is is home to thousands of Iranians and Iranian businesses, I think the Iranian government just wants to bloody the Emiratis' noses as best they can. Um what do you make of Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson's suggestions that we attacked well, we talked about this because Israel was going to attack Iran. Um what could possibly be the PR strategy of such statements from such

[05:48] pro-war and pro-Israel leaders. It's really it is baffling. It's bad PR. I mean, I'm interested in in crisis management. I mean, they knew they were going to do this, right? For at least months. So, why did they why do they not know how to spin this? John, why is the president still not speaking to the American people? You know, when he announced the the attack, the start of the attack, he did it at 2:00 in the morning Mhm.

[06:18] on Truth Social. He did not address the American people. He did not stand at the podium in the East Room of the White House and and make an announcement that essentially we're at war. He did it on Truth Social. And you're right, he's only been going between Washington and Mar-a-Lago, back and forth. He has not begun crisscrossing the country to explain why he decided to send young American men and women uh into battle and put their lives at risk. He owes that

[06:50] Well, I mean to the American people. >> is I mean, the only thing I can think of, John, is that the reason that there we haven't seen a primetime Oval Office address to the nation is he wants to do this as kind of a side project. He doesn't want it to become a defining feature of his presidency, right? >> Right. But but you can't it can't not be. Want to support the show with style? Go to dprogram.live and check out our merch. That's dprogram.live or check out the description below.

[07:20] Thanks for watching. Um the Balint TCC, thank you very much for the Hungarian forints, 4,000. I don't have no idea how much that's worth. I'd like to think it's a king's ransom, but I suspect it's not. Anyway, do you guys think that the news of 50% of Iran's missile launching capabilities have been taken out is true. If not, what do you think the true figure is? Iran's missile capabilities? >> Uh-huh. Yeah, that's I mean, that's what the Pentagon is reporting. The Pentagon is

[07:52] saying that we've destroyed all these these missile launchers. I saw I saw a report yesterday saying that 50% of Iran's missile launchers have been destroyed, but the Iranians can still take deliveries from Russia and China through the north. And if the Russians have any idea what's good for them, they're going to try to get back to us for for Ukraine by continuing to send um surface-to-air missiles and missile launchers to the

[08:23] Iranians. I would I would too, big time. Um LOL, thanks for the five bucks. Saudi analysts say that that Israel attacked their Aramco oil refinery, not Iran. Is this another Israeli false flag? What other false flags should we expect? Uh speaking of false flags, on the other side of that, Iran was accused uh by right-wingers of attacking that school themselves. Yeah, so stupid. >> didn't happen. I had a friend tell me today that he uh does not wish to speak

[08:55] with me any longer because he posted he's he's very very religious, and he posted this thing on Facebook saying that there are millions of people in the streets in uh Iran, and that they're all secretly Christian, and now a Christian Iran's going to turn into a Christian nation, and I and I wrote literally not one single word of this is true. >> [laughter] >> And he says, "Oh, because you're the expert." And I said, uh "Yeah, >> [laughter]

[09:26] >> Ridiculous. Um Johanna, thanks for the $4.99. I'm in the process of enlisting as infantry in the army. What are the chances that we ever use boots on the ground in this in this war? 48 hours ago I would have said we're not going to do that because it's going to go very quickly. And today I'm going to say it's probably a 50/50 prospect because even after the president said repeatedly we are not going to set send boots on the ground. Um yesterday morning Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defense said,

[09:57] "Well, not so fast." And then the president refused to reiterate his earlier position that we won't send boots on the ground. I think there's a chance. I do, too. I mean, I don't know if it's quite at 50% but we're we're moving toward that direction. Magnus Coranis, thanks for the 50 Norwegian krona. Why did Iran bomb all the Gulf countries? We did address this so we should just quickly though. How would the Gulf countries react to this when the Gulf countries aren't the biggest fans of Israel? The Gulf

[10:28] countries, I mean, I was just there in the Gulf and we talked about this. They would have they would have very nervously just sat the whole thing out, right? This is between the Americans the Americans, the Israelis, and the Iranians. But you know, when you're blowing up hotels in Dubai or the airport the civilian airport in Manama and in Kuwait and you're bombing of all people the the peace-loving Omanis who have been trying to broker peace between the two sides, okay, then you've made a

[10:58] lot of enemies that you really didn't need to make.