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Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Brief. On this episode, my friend Brian Dean Wright. You got two CIA guys diving into the Middle East. I'm going to tell you how it really is and what's really going on and more. Brian also has the Right Report podcast, which I recommend you all go check out and subscribe to yourselves. My CIA brother from another mother, how are you doing.
I'm good man, so good to be here. Thanks for having me Ken.
Actually, can we talk about one thing before we dive in the Middle East? Do you ever get a little bit frustrated lately on the right? Well, the one thing is because everybody knows, I mean, I went right out of CI, worked for Glenn Beck. I've always been conservative or right wing. Anyone who knew me in real life, I was considered a kind of a right wing loon when I worked at CIA. I mean not in my work now, people who knew me going all the way back to when I was probably about fifteen, I was like,
I'm right wing. People now think that CIA they think of it in terms of you're part of some like illuminati, deep state conspiracy and you can't be trusted on the right. I look at them, I'm like, I joined the CIA to join the unit that was trying to hunt and kill Osama bin Laden after nine to eleven. Like, I didn't go in there to be, you know, collected to be the bag man for hunter Biden or something.
You know what I'm saying.
I just kind of want to I want you to address this because whatever, so, oh you can't trust me CIA. I'm like, I went into CTC in the bin Laden unit, Like, well, what do you write people to find?
Kill them or not? Yeah? Look, I do get this as well, and I actually think it's fair. So I think that there are two different eras. There was an era that you and I joined in, which was back of the day, immediately after nine to eleven. We were going after the bad guys. We were killing them, and we were doing what we needed to do to serve the American people, and we didn't care about politics. Man, that's tough state at the front gate. You and I remember those days.
Yeah, there are was a time where CIA had a clear united mission. It did exist is correct.
Yes, that is correct, sir. The Trump Russia collusion investigation, I think changed a lot of things. You can probably go back a little earlier than that as well. Some of the hires that you started to see in the Obama era. There was a huge switch from mission for others for the country. It was all about this self, it was my truth. I don't know if you ever were there or you would talk to people when they would start working during that time, and a lot of
people just became very much focused on the meat. And I think what was two years ago we had those CIA recruitment ads. They were talking about being intersectional and bipolar, and none of that was about actually the agency or mission for the country. So I think you combine those two things. These crazy ads. They're asking people who would have mental illnesses and intersectional, which I don't even know what that means. It sounds like a sofa, But the
point is they're recruiting these crazy people. And we got the Trump Russia collusion thing with guys like John Brennan and James Comey at the FBI, and it just poisoned the waters. And I think a lot of people, very for very good reason, are like, I don't know if I dressed yet, if you got those three letter agencies behind your name, I don't know.
I'm a little suspicious.
So yeah, look, I think for the rest of our lives, we're going to get be smeared with that, and it's going to be our fight, which is why I believe you.
I just know, Yeah, I look, I wanted us to be able to go in the record league somewhere and say, you know, in the post nine to eleven days, really up until the Obama administration, so there was an eight year period at the CIA where it was all about now put aside the I know, there's the Iraq WMD part of the conversation. People who worked in the Iraq Office leading up to the invasion were part of that.
People like me who joined the Iraq Office in like two thousand and six two thousand and seven had nothing to do with that. We were trying to find the Al Qaeda in Iraq, guys who were beheading people and turning the country into a healthscape in a civil war. But before that I came into CTC, and I know you were working the Counter Terrorism Mission too, And I just think that it's worth like letting everybody know. I lasted for or uh what two years of the Obama administration,
and I was like, I'm out, I can't. I can't maybe three years of the obom administration, so I didn't. I was like, I can't. I'm not going to stick around for this. I went to the NYPD for one of those years. So anyway, but it's it's a little bit. I see it now more than ever. With the FBI, though, I've got to say, and I had some friends you've been the FBI back in the day, FBI at the top level lost its mind, man, I mean and and and it deserves to lose a lot of the faith
of the American people. I'm not saying CIA doesn't. We've already been taking shots at CIA FBI. I don't trust them. I'm gonna say I don't trust that FBI anymore.
Well, you got to a couple of great special counsel reports that gives you very good reason for that lack of STIC fidelity to law. That is one of the great lines that came out from the Germ Durham report.
So yes, we all have good reason to say that the FBI might have some troubles. These days.
Yeah, it's it's disconcerting. All right, let's let's let's move this to the Middle East. But first up, I want to tell everybody about my friends at a American Financing and how they've been helping your neighbors save money for twenty five years. They save their customers an average of eight hundred and fifty four dollars a month last year by tapping into their home's equity to payoff high interest debt. And with mortgage rates dropping into the fives, now's a
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credit costs and terms. All right, Brian, we lost three of ours killed in action in Jordan on a base your own strike from they believe Taibe Hesbala. What should be done about this?
Well, so I think looking a small picture first, Let's go big picture in a second. The small picture is we have lost a turns right, So a lot of folks in the Middle East, a lot of governments, terror groups, the Iranians beyond. They just don't believe that we have a credible military, We don't have a credible commander in chief, and so they think they can get away with a lot, and they are. We're seeing this with the Houthis and the Red Sea. We're seeing this in places like now
painfully in Jordan. But it's in Syria, it's in Iraq. So the question is what do we do in terms of this immediate short term response. We can certainly hit the Iranians hard inside of Iran or throughout some of their various proxy groups in the Middle East.
We can hit them, We can do that.
The Biden Winehouse is trying to find this sort of Goldie Locks approach, which is, well, we want to hit them, but not too hard, not too such, just right. I don't know what that looks like. I don't think the administration does either. So now the big question is, whatever you do, it's going to escalate. The Iranians have already decided they want to escalate. But stepping back for a second, buck, why are we in the Middle East? Why were those three folks there in Jordan? I think that starts to
get to the bigger question of what comes next. Maybe the short term strikes fine, but we really are there.
Now, I think for one or two reasons.
One people will say, I think at the Pentagon to Cia we need to go towards at the root cause of Islona radicalism. Do we really need boots on the ground for that? We should be debating that. The bigger question is around oil. That is historically why we have been in the Middle East. Well, because of the fracking and the shale revolution. We are actually the world's biggest producer of oil and natural gas. You produce about twenty million barrels a day. We consume that as well. So
do we need to be there? Can we have a fundamental change from the nineteen seventeens nineteen thirties when we and the Brits rushed into the Middle East to try to secure oil. Do we really still need to be there? Because beyond oil, why do we have oaks there? So I think that that is the bigger, sort of medium to long term question that we should all be asking ourselves about. But in the short term, yeah, we can certainly hit the Ranius, we can hit them hard or not.
But I think this bigger picture stuff also should be part of the calculus.
Yeah, I say to people, I mean the Wall Street Journal had its these are the three things that can be done. One was hit the proxies directly, Two is hit iron directly, and three was economic stuff and diplomacy, which is like you know, suffering silence basically right, no one cares.
Yeah.
Yeah, but even on those on those first two levels, you know, I think you do it to establish some deterrence. Fine, but they're still going to do this kind of stuff. That's I'm not sure how effective it is even as a deterrent effect. You really just want to be able to stop them at the tactical level, at the upper rational level, right, Because I don't think changing the Iranian proxy militia calculus, whether It'skataib has Beala or just has
Bela or any of these groups. The who thies have been talking about what they've been doing and firing off at ships that that's likely to happen. So how worried are you? People seem to get very energized about the possibility we might get dragged into another Mid East war? Do you feel like that's overblown?
I think that anything is on the table now because you have an administration that doesn't quite know what it wants to do. You have a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who's put out mixed messages. The Pentagon is as well. I think that the one thing that probably limits a much much bigger response is the fact that Joe Biden needs to win in places like Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania that have very big either Arab or Muslim populations, and they
would sway the election. And we know that mister Biden is facing serious headwins definitely in Michigan with this abandoned Biden campaign. So he is struggling, and I think any kind of bigger middle it used to a conflict is going to not be good for his reelection effort.
So I would.
Say that from the political calculus in the White House this morning or today, I should say, I don't think they want to push for a war, and that's why it's all about politics. And if that means that a lot of our people in uniform have to be put at greater risk because we don't have an acterrence anymore, well, the White House is okay with that, which is awful. But I think that that is what the White House is saying right now. So I think that we could
stumble into a much bigger conflict. But I think what is holding back to the White House right now is the fear that Biden will lose his reelection effort if he.
Push us too hard.
All right, I want to ask you also about that period where the Secretary of Defense was mi Ia for a few days while he was getting a surgery doun So I want you to wait on that. But first up, we're talking here about tension on the world stage and how very real it is. I mean, look at the Middle East, right, that's just one example of how things can change very rapidly and they can have a real
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Beach Research Group. All Right, Brian, the Secretary of Defense was gone and his next in command was on vacation, and nobody knew what was going on what happened?
Goodness gracious, well, I think that's a great question for the White House to answer. And our secretary of Defense, why did he think that it was appropriate to disappear to not tell anybody as he underwent his mysterious treatment for something that we found out was cancer. Obviously, we
hope the best for him is in his recovery. But secretaries of Defense, you know, come on, that is not something that you want to hide, no matter if it involves a degree of embarrassment, which is what I assume mister Austin why he.
Hid his ailment. But you just can't do that.
What does that say to the national globe about the leadership that you can have a secretary of Defense hide something from the commander in chief. That's a problem that that's a pretty clear message around the world that we got some dysfunction in DC, and we do. So that's why that was so bad, is how the rest of the world looks at the strength of our military and the strength of our government and whether or not our commander in chief actually has a hold of his own team.
Brian, is there one place that you're keeping an eye on right now that you think could either get much worse. It's already bad but could get much worse, or could just turn in a hurry, and we got much bigger problems than we ever thought we would. You know, is there a possible flare up a hot spot that you're keeping an eye on other than just you know Ukraine and you know Israel slash Iran stuff.
Yeah, the big one man is Taiwan and what happens there in the South China Sea. And the fundamental reason there is because of computer chips. We rely on Taiwan for the vast majority of the computer chips that go into lots of stuff, to include our military of course, but it basically is this this little island that is the responsible for modern life.
And so if there is a war there, there's a.
Cyber attack, an emp attack, whatever it might be, profound immediate effects on all of us everywhere, certainly in the homeland. The other piece that we are learning more about.
Is China is embedding a lot of.
This malware in our country to basically shut down modern life as well. So in the hours leading up to or post invasion of Taiwan's that flip gets switched. That's which gets flipped rather then you are looking at chaos anarchy inside of this country. The US president distracted to not defend Taiwan instead front of deal with all the anarchy here. China is has done that. That's a bult Typhoon is the group that has done it. So Taiwan is a big one for me, I know it is
for a lot of other people. We could see some interesting conflicts also in the South China Sea or some of all these little second line islands.
That's the big one for me.
Brian before we let you go, and everybody check out the Right Report Brian's podcast where he dives into these issues and he's actually somebody who talks to national security issues who knows what he's talking about, which is nice because Brian, as you know, and I know a lot of people go on TV and like Scott doesn't know anything, uh a lot.
Do you ever get somebody, do you ever get somebody to reach out to be like, hey, Buck, what do you think about this issue abroad?
And you're like, oh, I think you know X y Z.
And then they're on an hour an hour later. Yeah, of course all the time, yes, yeah, of course. If it's like a friend of mine, it's fine, but it's like, hey, dude, haven't heard from you in like five years? What do you think about the the Hooties? And I'll be like, Yemen, you're close buddy. Anyway, Yes, that that does happen to me with some frequency. So let me ask you before
we let you go. You're you get to a you get to a sign a high school or no, let's say college, college level class on intelligence one spy novel?
What is it? Oh man, God, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. I mean, come on that that that book?
Yeah, amazing, can't go wrong, can't go okay? And and you get to show one movie about the agency to that intelligence class.
What is it? Do you remember the old movie called The Recruit. I watched that on the bus going to the farm. It was a Calm Farrell.
Yeah, I remember you like that movie. I thought that movie was so boring.
He was he was awful. But the best part was I was on the bus going down to the farm.
While I watched that, so I can tell fun stories about that. And we were all like, we gonna die?
Is that what this is? Really? Like? Why are they showing us this movie as we go to the farm. This seems crazy anyway, that's only because there's a great memory there.
And then you're just like riding around bicycles going to the mess hall. You're like, this isn't this isn't so bad, Like the farm is actually kind of cool. Yeah, I honestly always liked I always liked the farm. I mean, you know, I didn't spend as much time there as you did, but I liked it. I would. I would go and get to cool stuff and the things that go bang and things that go Yeah, it was pretty good.
So wait, but you.
Didn't give me your answer though, what what is the movie you that's the movie you wouldn't show? Okay, what would you show?
Oh man? Look, I nothing comes to mind, And I'll tell you why all these shows represent.
You like killing me. You gotta give me an answer. What about what about Spy Game with Redford? You got nothing for me?
Oh man?
I I you don't like Zero Dark thirty.
I mean, I can't let you off the hot seat here. Zero Dark thirty doesn't get it done for you.
Okay, fair enough, Zero Dark three? That was sold. That was absolutely brilliant. That is a lot of fun. There you go.
Okay, that was all right, I'll throw you that Lifeline zero Dark thirty. Very well done for what it was. I thought it was pretty excellent. I also think Thirteen Hours because they just had the they just had the GRS guys as consultants, and I mean, I think that's a underrated movie and very good for what it is.
A man, brother, and I'll tell you a lot of those that you're highlighted now, it's how it actually is. And that's why I hesitate with all of these movies. It TOCs you kind of the CI or the Hollywood version. Now you're getting the stuff of what it's really like and the painful stuff, the hard stuff.
Yeah, I mean, I just I never got my exploding cufflinks or the laser guns in the headlights of my Asston Martin Like I was a little What.
About the beautiful Little Lady? Would did you get one of those? Or is your wife going to listen to this?
How are you going to respond? Let's be careful here.
Bond girls, I don't even know. I don't even know what you're talking about. When I was in the agency, I don't even know if there was such a thing as bond girls. You you lest you lock it up. Sure, no one's read, no one's read into that program. All right, we've had enough of that. Uh go check out the Right Report with my friend here, mister Bryan Dean. Right, Brian, always a pleasure. We'll talk again soon, Buddy, Thanks for being here.
Thank man, We will