BREAKING: The U.S. Cuts Intel Sharing w/ Ukraine | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

letter bomb. No, it was two T shirts appropriately double extra large because I'm fat from the team house. So thank you guys. I will wear them proudly. I am honored. Love it great, great, I mean, who doesn't love like you know, bling good swag, sag swag. So thank you, Thank you both very much, our pleasure. Good show.

I think that that is confirmed. And John Ratcliffe, the CI director, just went on Fox just this morning and then said the same. So this is you know, I think this is something that I was dreading happening after the cessation of military aid. But it really does kind of put this in perspective. And Jack will understand because it's not just on the Ukrainian battlefield that Jack, you might be able to address this in a much more

professional manner than I would based on your background. But overall, I mean, our durability and credibility as an intelligence partner globally, I think is going to take a hit. So you know, again, there's there's never a bottom, and I think we're still plumbing downward. But Jack, welcome your thoughts on the military effects of this.

It's it's a position that we've never really had the upper hand on them like this before, and I don't know why we would sacrifice that advantage in this era of you know, pure near peer competition or whatever the hell we want to call it new Cold War. So, yeah, it's a it's a mess obviously for Ukraine, but as you point out, Mark, it signals to the entire rest of the world that we're not reliable, that you can't

work with us. And you know, there's some thought that the reason why we fought so hard in Vietnam, sort of a somewhat obscure country in Southeast Asia at the time that not many Americans had ever heard of the reason why we fought there so hard was because we were trying to prove to Europe specifically that we were

willing to stand up to communism. Right now, what we're doing in Ukraine doing this like heel turn on them, it signals something to Taiwan, it signals something to our partners in Europe, and also our partners closer to home, such as Canada that just got slapped with a twenty five percent tariff just yesterday.

four stories that also were head spinning. So it's you know, the news cycle is such that there are really significant ramifications for these national security for these moves by the administration. But I don't even know if we have time to even kind of do a deep dive or dissect because it's just eclipsed by something else, the cessation of military now this isation of intelligence sharing. Yeah, you know it's but you're right, it's intentional. I mean, isn't Isn't that

the what Steve Bannon talked about? What was it his zone?

been funded. We'll see how long that holds out, uh, to the tune of almost three hundred billion dollars a year.

And you know, there are a lot of complaints about VA, but that organization has also come quite a long way in the last twenty years thanks you know, a lot of it thanks to public and congressional pressure that people are like fix this, like because they feel that veterans deserve better care, you know, especially all the things that we're you know, people were hearing about the g WAT veterans twenty two a day, and all this sort of

stuff did have an impact. And I'm I have a number of friends who are veterans who work at VA in different capacities, in different parts of the country, and they're already impacted by this.

You know, you know, there was a touching moment last night on the President's addressed to Congress about a young cancer patient that you know, kind of got a lot of attention, except they're cutting funding for cancer research and so pediatric cancer research, pediatric cancer. There's the actual truth of what is going on, which is gutting the federal

government without any kind of plan looked. I think all of us here in the show would say, sure, there's a ton of waste in the federal government, but it has to be you know, done in a in a a in a smart, systematic fashion, and then passed by Congress, which I'm not even doing. Congress they just passed.

up to them. Jack, You're right, that's the former intelligence community. A lot of folks too, who are on LinkedIn, which I actually got off because I couldn't take it. Who cheerlead or cheerleading all this stuff, and now I'm going to get the audience all pissed off. It's a bunch of old white dudes. It just is. It's old, cranky white guys who are really angry for some reason about the state of the country or cheering this on. But I think there's there's tangible effects. Let me throw one

of the kind of thing out there. I got it. I got an email, a signal message. Let me be very clear on that, from a case officer CI case officer who on Monday was fired a probationary officer. They're starting to fire probationary officers, but they're doing it based on anyone who had any kind of blip in their file, a security violation, some kind of bad performance appraisal. Every single one of us in the IC would have been fired.

Then I had security violate. You screw up everyone, so you leave that, you leave the station one time, you don't spend the lock on your safe in your office, you get a violation. It's it's it's not ever career ending. It's just saying like, hey, tighten your ship up. They're fired now. Uh. And this case officer was absolutely stunned. Someone had gone through language training, spoke fluent Russian, uh,

served uh over there in that part of the world. Uh, and was less than two years into into their their probationary status and now they're they've been walked out the door again. These kind of cuts make no sense. And I think that uh, you know, the only question is will the American people have ever kind of step up and understand what's happening.

do its job and so uh, I think you're right. Uh. And and he was he was visible, you know, he I mean, he actually you know, went to work and you saw him. And I remember in in you know, even in briefings with him, when we asked for something like concurrence to do something, he'd be like, why are you asking me this? Go do it? And that's kind

of music to ours from the operation side. I think this is a different time though, because there are no adults around Trump and so, you know, the best, the best characterization of what I think those in the Pentagon and the intelligence community are feeling now is disoriented. Uh, And that's just you know, it's just there's so much coming at us. And it's both based on policy, such as the abandon of Ukraine, but also that your job security. People don't know if they're going to have a job.

I just got a message from a friend of mine from the IC. Hey, I'm going to work. I'll text you later if I have a job when I get back there is you know, fear is the wrong word because fear is something you use when you're in Afghanistan or a rock and getting shot at. But I think, you know, you know, significant concern is probably better because you don't know if you're gonna have you can pay your bills. You know, people have mortgages, people have health care.

I mean, this officer who just got fired doesn't have health care right now. And so people are extremely nervous because it's both you know, trimming the fat if you want to call that, you know, with reductions in force at the top, or this idea of getting rid of

kind of the lower level employees as well. And so so I think the people in the IC are just disoriented right now, and it's what the jack the thing is that of course nobody, I mean, I hope some of your viewers listeners will will understand there is no deep state, There's no cabal of people stopping you know, Trump from anything he wants to do. People put their

heads down and they just do their job. I mean, Pierre, I literally I had no idea what anyone's political orientation was in my old shop until after I left, I retired. And then I see someone and they turn out to be from the left to the right just because they're Americans and they can say that. But I think now there's just there again, there's there's significant worry about the US role in the world now since we've switched sides

to our enemy. Remember, Russia is an enemy of not only the Nited States of the CIA that is one of our Absolutely, it's not it's not just a competitor, not even adversary. It's an enemy. I mean, Russia put bounties on US soldiers with the Taliban, they've you know, and they've they've done a tremendous uh you know, harm to to colleagues of mine. Uh So again combination of we've we've you know, flip sides, but also you know, do I have a job tomorrow. That's not a good mix.

By the way, if you're if you want you know, what I think is, you know, you want our kind of nation's first line of defense to be kind of at the top of their.

a more positive light. I think the director and deputy director have to be more visible to the workforce at a time of upheaval, which means doing things like Leon Panetta used to do, George Tennant used to do, literally go down the affacteria and sit sit down with a unsuspecting case officer analysts and have lunch with them, which happened to me. It's you know, and that's that's really and I think that was even a scene in zero dark thirty with the character of that stuff used to happen.

So the director of deputy director have to be visible, especially at times of turmoil. So if I would have any one suggestion, I think they should be more attuned to upheaval in the workforce. I was there.

role as an intellig intelligence chef should do. So so basically President Zelenski UH gets dressed down by Trump UH in the White House in the Oval office, and what happens usually is the rest of the government then who has contacts with the Ukrainians will be like, hey, that's in the political sphere, like things are gonna be okay. That's not what happened because Telsea Gabber then went on

Twitter and basically was cheerleading and dissing all overs Zelensky. Uh. That is absolutely against what any kind of professional intelligence chief would do. It's not their role. What should have happened after that is that that the CIA UH and the Ukrainian side would get together and say, look, our political masters are having a big ship storm, but we're gonna kind of we're gonna, we're gonna work through this.

That's just what's done. It. It happened to me when I was at the agency when you know, in Trump won, when when you know Trump would insult on Gla Merkel, the you know, the German chancellor in a Twitter rant, and then I'd have to go, you know, men ties here in Washington with the German intelligence chief. Uh. And

so no, that's just what is done. If you think back to the first Gulf War, I know I'm gonna I'm dating people here, but this is when when King who then King Hussein cided essentially with Saddam Hussein in the invasion of quoit if you remember that. So the Jordanians were quote neutral, but the CIA and the Jordanian General Intelligence direct Director g I D kept the ties open, and King of Dullah, the current king, now credits that

for the current state of US Jordanian ties. They said, hey, I remember you all, CIA, you know, stuck with us under the table. Now this is done on purpose, of course, by design, because you work through those political differences. Telsey Gabbert going on Twitter and cheerleading for you know, Trump's kind of you know, evisceration of Zelenski absolutely throws that

into question. And I cannot imagine the migrain headache my old colleagues and the operations director it had realizing they'd act to note, try to figure out how to unscrew this with the Ukrainian colleagues, and then of course that falls or that now we see today a suspension and intelligence sharing. And so you know, Gabbard is, as I said on TV, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna try to downplay it here. She was not fit for the job, and she's acting like a political toady to

Trump and that's just not what her role is. And that is that actually feeds into all the worries we had about her as the d N. I just a an awful moment. And uh and and this this is just not me talking. This was kind of the you know, my colleagues, the formers, even across the political spectrum. I had Republican friends who are like, yeah, she really shouldn't have done that. You know, what is she doing here?

and the show, and we really appreciate it. The Patreon members are literally what has helped this company, this small business survive, especially during our early years, and you are what continues to help this thing going even as we navigate the turbulent world of YouTube advertising.

so we really appreciate that. But they're also for sale on the merch shop, and additionally, they got t shirts up there, water bottles, a tote bag, coffee mugs, all that good stuff, So please go and check them out and support the show.

kind of government intrusion in our lives is necessary. But I think we could also say that, you know what, it's a good thing to have weather forecasters, you know, on the government payroll. They were fired the other day, you know. I mean, it's it's a good thing to have people fighting wildfires out west. They were fired the other day.

they need government. Yeah, And so to me, I mean again, there's you know this is uh, you know, go back to to you know, your old kind of theories of of I mean, I don't know are we going to turn into you know, and rand I gotta go back and re read an Ran the whole idea of total libertarianism. There's no government at all? Is that really what we want? Because that you know what, no one's picking up your garbage, no one's fighting your fires in your house. There's gonna

be a tornado. It's going to demolish your house. No one kind of warned you about it. So there's there's parts of this that I just kind of I think are And the last part of it, let me just say is as a former government employee, you worked for twenty six years, you know at some point, you know, I'm starting to get irritated. I don't need a patent the head I worked the CIA, no one ever knew what we did. But this hatred on the federal workforce

is getting is wearing a little thin. It's I mean, what do you attribute that to?

policies and reforms they can improve conditions for people. It seems like there's just no belief in that at all anymore across the spectrum and just the The other thing I would point out is that a lot of people are treating politics as entertainment.

and he was embraced by the community. Really impressive. I remember President Bush saying that, hey, there cannot be kind of any they cannot be anti Muslim sentiment based on this. You know, this is not that, this is not what we're not going We're not going to war with this flom. We're going to war with al Qaeda. But there was a feeling of kind of collective goodwill. And then then I remember that, and so then then compare that to then,

you know what happened to COVID. A million Americans died in COVID, and there was a point in time where there was a feeling of unity amongst the country. But that then all fell apart. And why is it I'm trying to answer your question, because government, I think took measures which I think were understandable at the time in terms of mask mandates and quarantines and shutting down basically the entire country because they were scared and people didn't

know what to do. I mean, my my stepbrother's an erodoc in New York. He had dead bodies piling up. I mean, the doctors have still a pts from this. He said they had no idea what they were doing. They would treat a patient coming in they looked okay, they'd send them home. They're dead. There was bodies. But one of my one of my stepbrothers fellow doctors committed suicide after this because they had such trauma for I mean literally hundreds of people dying on shift.

there is huge government overreach on there, So I was thinking about that the other days. You know, why this hatred of the government, But I think it was people saw that as an infringement on their rights. And that's the only way you can explain how this fucking nuts job is now our hij secretary. In terms of RFK Junior. I mean, the man is certifiably insane if you talk to any medical professional. Yet he's lauded last night in

the State of the Union as well. Well. Why is that because he again is part of this kind of you know, anti government sentiment. I don't know, so I think I think it goes back to a reaction to you know, government measures during COVID. Perhaps it's more deep seated than that, but to me, that was and by the way, and that is not that's across the political spectrum too. I mean, this is a silly statement. What I'm going to make is, you know, my son's big

baseball players. He's played baseball college now, but his high school season that you know, was canceled because of COVID. This was a season in which they thought they'd win the state championship. And most of the people I live in Northern Virginia is certainly are not Trump voters, and they're still furious about this. You know, why did they cancel school? Uh? And and you know, and so maybe it's maybe it's just the reaction overall to COVID.

are staring me like I was a pariah. And and I was like, you know, hey, man, like I'm not getting the flu again. I've got to go on this, you know, I gotta go on this, uh this airline flight. But you know, wearing a mask. I mean, there are measures in certain states banning the wearing of masks, right now, that's the that's the reaction to to COVID, and so yeah, maybe that's I.

one hundred percent realistic. But there's a great scene in there in which there's someone who's against masks comes in and in the er and she's screaming at other people for wearing masks, and then she's about to roll into surgery and the doctor says, ma'am, I just wanted to clarify something with you. You know, is it okay if the doctors here wear masks as we're performing surgery on you? And she said, well, I don't know. You know why. I said, well, you know, if we don't, you know,

you can get infected and you might die. But if you tell us you don't want us to wear a mask, we're happy not to. And she looks at them and she says, wear a mask.

just keep in mind that Jack will get this. You know, there's there's a couple of things in war that I think are relevant. One is, of course material resources, but also it's the will to fight, and the Ukrainian have that,

and that's kind of that that intangible. But if you look at the battlefield, you know, so much now is less dependent on kind of the I think that the way we thought of things before with you know, with maybe with armor, with tanks or even things like that, and now it's now it's all these kind of not only drones, but indigenously produced drones. The Ukrainians have an incredible capacity uh for these fpvs uh, these FPP drones, and so ultimately I think they're gonna be able to

hold on to me. I think the big thing would be air defense, uh, you know, and getting the Europeans to kind of step up on that. But again we've written Ukrainians, you know, obituary many times, and so at some point I think, and this is not a bad strategy, Europe should say, well fuck it, the United States switch sides,

go bye, You're not relevant anymore. And I can't believe I'm even saying that, but I think there's something to that, and that's if the Europeans can get their get their craft together and lead, and there are a lot of signs that they will, you know, in terms of leadership from Germany, from France, from the UK and then don't forget the kind of the smaller frontline states or just savages, you know, go talk to the Estonians or the polls about what they want to do and how they want

to kill Russians and it's fun.

and how that relationship is going to work. Because we're talking right now about the Europeans filling the void that we leave in Ukraine, but if we really are completely out, I mean, how does that affect the five eyes relationship in our European partner's ability to collect intelligence?

that's the communications interceptions. And I think that on on this signals intelligence side, there's been a lot written on this. There's there is interoperability in the sense of like the US and the UK share systems. It's very hard to break that. I don't know how, you you know, how how that gets broken apart because the NSA National Security Agency that's our outfit, and the g c h Q that's the British one are are in essence one, and

so breaking that is gonna be difficult. Where I think, I think it's already happening for sure, because I talked to my especially old friends in the British security establishment. You know, find if I get them, you know, drunk a little bit, they'll admit this to me. On human intelligence, that's a choice. And so when British version of Russia House, and I know you've had former Russia House folks on

the team House. So when the British version of Russia House collects something based on their penetration of a member of Putin's inner circle, they have a choice. And in the past they would share that with the United States. They would sanitize it, probably not tell us the identity of the source, but they would sanitize it to a degree, but still provide critical information. You have to remember, for an intelligence service, they have a sacred duty to their agents,

to the sources to keep them alive. And so I don't think anyone in their right mind in the British Security Service right now it's going to say, hey, we can share this stuff with the Americans like we used to. And what you'll see is there won't be a stated policy of it because that would risk the wrath of Trump. But they will just slowly ratchet this back. And I've talked to numerous British officials on this and they say

that's exactly what is happening. You just will never know until you wake up one morning and you're like, you know, we don't get the same kind of stuff from our counterpar arts. And I'll tell you no CIA officer would say that they don't understand what the British are doing, because again, you have a sacred duty to your asset,

to your agent to keep them alive. And the US cannot be trusted now, not only with you know, uh, you know, dopes in charge uh sorry of the US intelligence apparatus, but also the notion uh that we have in essence switch sides to Russia.

that's insane. So one of the one of the really interesting things is if you if you look at let's even get you know, move forward, the US pulling out of NATO, uh, the US telling the Chinese you can have Taiwan. I mean, I think there are some things that in the past we would have said are absolutely

beyond the pale. We would never do I think we should consider because when people, you know call me up and say, you know, well Trump will never you know, just declare himself, you know, emperor and run for a third term, I'm like, I don't know. I mean, you know, nothing is sacred anymore. So what are your thoughts on that? And maybe I find what are some of the things that in the past you'd say could never happen that perhaps could happen now. Yeah, I mean I totally agree.

the twenty sixteen election of Donald Trump. I mean, all these things we were told repeatedly would never happen took place. So I think that, yeah, we're moving in a direction that is more authoritarian. You're right to point out that some of these things can't just be undone. You know, if we pull out of NATO. It's not the same as US like renaming Fort Bragg every four years. Like there's a little bit more to it than that. But I think that, you know, when I make this argument,

I'm at it. I feel like I'm at a disadvantage because, quite frankly, making this sort of argument for international cooperation is not as compelling as the America first argument. It's saying, fuck all these other people out there, they're taking our money,

they're cheating us, and we get nothing for it. I admit my argument is not as sexy or as compelling as their America First argument is, even though I feel that it's really America last, that our partnerships are vital strategic necessity for us, and you know, our enemies acknowledge that. That's why the Chinese and the Russians and others are always trying to attack our alliances around the world.

doesn't happen. Our quality of life is not better. Yeah, you're telling me, even if we pulled out and we cut our budget in half in terms of defense and foreign aid, and we saved five hundred billion dollars or trillion dollars, that something would happen for the regular middle class person that's struggling day to day to pay rent, to pay for groceries, to do all the things that they need to do to just live a fucking life. If you were telling me, maybe I'd be a little

bit more on the America first side. If you were like, you know what, we're gonna save money from here, and we're gonna give you guys some type of affordable or universal health care that's quality that the rest of the world has, basic things that people should deserve, then I'd be like, you know what, I'm kind of on their side too, but I've yet to fucking see it. The only people I see benefiting are the robber barons, whether

it's those musque correct. If I was a hedge fund manager or a significant shareholder and a big company, yeah, i'd be loving it too, but I'm not.

of grift that is going on is stunning. And I get I guess the American people don't care that you can go and you know, pay a million bucks to have dinner with Trump or this this Golden visa where for five million bucks anybody, including a Russian oligark now can now citizenship. I mean, it's just it's one thing after another. Uh where kind of the the blue collar guy and gal, the middle class is not being advantage whatsoever. And you know how about the tariffs. The tariffs are

gonna crush the working class. So the whole thing is just, uh, you know, preposterous in terms of you know, I didn't do that well in economics in college, but I'm you know, I know a thing or two. It just doesn't even make sense, uh, you know, with with with with economics.

But I think one of the things, uh to look for is that what I thought was kind of interesting is these these town halls where people are are kind of pushing back to the point where there was a kind of a directive from the Republican leadership in the House saying, don't do them anymore. Well, if you can't face your constituents, I mean.

conservative think tank. And in their study on Ukraine aid one hundred and fifty plus billion, you know, a huge majority of that actually went to defense contractors, which who do what they employ American citizens, and so it actually the aid to Ukraine is excellent for the US economy. Now you can make the whole argument like, oh my god, this is the military industrial complex blah blah blah, but ultimately the American worker is benefiting from our aid package

to Ukraine. And so I think that's the way you kind of and and by the way, most of these jobs are in Red States. Yeah, that's the way. That's the retort you say, well, we're giving all this crap to Ukraine and said, yeah, but your brothers and sisters down the street and you know in Alabama have a job because of it.

a military industrial complex. But the larger point is that when we give this military aid to a foreign country Israel, Egypt, Ukraine, whatever, we're not just like giving them money, and we're not just sending them more material. We're basically giving them monopoly money and saying, hey, you have five billion dollars. You can spend it on whatever American defense you know, weaponry you want, and so that that money never even leaves the United States.

Karsi Airport. If you remember, thirteen American Marines not all marases, sorry, and and and some other folks as well from I think Navy and uh uh and the army were killed

in a suicide of bomb attempt. But so President Trump makes these remarks yesterday a couple of things on that, and then of course you see all this stuff on social media which I have to stop reading from from you know, from the FBI director, from CI director, et cetera, et cetera, from people around the Trump national security operat is saying this is Trump, he did this again. So we take an event which I support, of course, which is the apprehension and extradition of a terrorist, uh, and

we fuck it up. And this is how because number one, this operation, a high value target operation takes months, if not years to Germany. It's intelligence driven. The agency was following this individual. It's been out in the press already. And when you know, when we finally get them on the X, we can do a couple of things. We can, you know, conduct a drone strike, calling the Jaysock brothers and sisters, or go to Pakistani leson for help. And they that's what we That's what they did. They went

to the Pakistani's and they captured them. This has nothing to do with whoever's in power. And literally the you know, the Secretary of Defense and others were saying, this is a victory for Trump. We made this a priority to get the perpetrators of Abbey Gate. Once we got into power. And that is utter and complete bullshit because this operation has been going on for months and months, this was

a high value target. Everything is intel driven, and to compound all that, then Trump's goes out and says, in the state of the Union, thanks to the government of Pakistan, who right now is having a fucking aneurysm, because if you understand Pakistani domestic politics, it goes like this will

help you, but please don't tell anybody about this. So now we've screwed up a relationship that if we were trying to rebuild with Pakistan on CT which has always been strained, now it's kind of gone down the shitter. And it reminds me the Solomoni strike of several years ago. Righteous strike killed a really bad guy. But then Trump

has to has to brag about it. So there's this inability of this and every administration is going to try to take credit, but in particular here saying that chest stumping, saying that this was a priority of Trump. That's just total bullshit. This is based on dogged work by the intelligence community, following a high value target for years and it finally comes to fruition. And I know this because this is what I did for a lit for years

and years, and it doesn't matter who's in power. You got the guy in the X, figure out a way to bring him to justice, either kinetic strike, maybe put you know, you know, Jaysack on the ground, or you go to liaison for assistance. But they take they like taking curtain calls even when they don't. It's just it drives me crazy. No. Now, every president does.

We have no eyes or ears in Afghanistan anymore. And so the Pakistanis as much as I find them completely you know, irritating, as I was subject to multiple one hundred and seven millimeters rockets fired by the Government of Pakistan at my base in Afghanistan. I've talked to you about that story before. The Pakistanis and AQ were kind

of shooting at us. But ultimately the pakistan Is a would be a an intelligence partner that's worth investing in again if we can in some fashion, but kind of thanking them globally, it's not something back in any government because domestically it's now now they're going to be on kind of under the gun anyway, that was just kind of something this morning with with all this kind of chest thumping that they're doing. And it's a great ct success the other But again, what I find this administration

and think others are guilty to other administrations. But and I've criticized by the administration when they did stupid stuff like this, But the idea that somehow this is the the you know, the political masters kind of paking credit for this is ridiculous. I mean, there's a lot of work in the intelligence community and military that probably went into I'm sure went into this.

transactional thing. Yeah, but if I were the Taiwanese, I'd be crapping my pants because and let me say alongside that, if we were to come to the aid of Taiwan in defense of Chinese invasion, we would have to have a significant US military build up. And right now they're cutting the Department of Defense. Now there's a whole other issue on that, you know, whether you believe in kind

of a defense build up or not. But d D right now, I don't think is configured at a war against China and the defense budgets, uh, with this kind of cost cutting, this DOGE cost cutting, are not going to reflect that as well. But I think our allies would be very well served to look elsewhere. It pains me to say that. By the way, I'm getting text right now from a good friend of ours who should be on the show. Are you really Nick Mulroy's ship that's going on, so you know, what the hell he

should be on with us right now. That's so funny. I think in the second when I get off here, I said, hey, we're just talking about you. Yeah, he texted me to the group chat tell them we are on air, mocking his absence being anyhow. Yeah, I mean, I guess you know. One of the things that you know, Jack, you know, for you to think about too, based on your you know, your experience in the military, is you know,

what do you think? I'm curious, what do you think people in the seventy fifth Range Regiment, or in the Special or the Green Berets are thinking now about this kind of this abandonment of an ally because and I will say that more than likely, just like the officers of CI in the para military world, probably those in SF as well are generally pretty conservative. But I would think that they're bothered by us walking away from an ally, that they spent a lot of time with your What

are your thoughts? Yeah, I can't say that I have my finger on the.

readings and uh, and you're back in there. But on a serious note, if you were in an o DA right now, and let's say you are where I'm going to make this up, and you know, working with the Philippine government on their counterinsurgency, you know, at some point someone on the on the on the you know, one of our allies is going to say, hey, thanks for your assistance right now, but you know, can we count on you all because we're looking at what you did

in Afghanistan, we're looking at you did in Ukraine? How can we And so the question for you would be what is your what is your response to that? And I just say that because you know, there's the there's the s F slash case officer model of you know, case officering or schmoozing your partner. But they're not stupid. Yeah, so you know, so how do you address that? Well, I mean I've seen.

But as you point out, yeah, they're not stupid at all, and they're looking across the table at you like hmm okay.

promoting democracy, and literally he said stop. He said, we have been betrayed by everybody. He said, We've been betrayed by the Iranians, the Iraqis, you know, the Israelis, the United States, the French, everyone under the sun. So you go stop with the bullshit. And I said, okay, that

was it. Because again, because our our Leison partners are smart and so perhaps one of the things that you know, uh, you know that that that notion of the bright, shining city on the hill, that kind of speech ain't gonna cut it anymore. And it's it's much more transactional. Hey, we're here to help you, help with you right now. I'm happy to do this. The problem is, of course, and what I what I'm sure you're seeing amongst the paramilitary crowd at CIA. Remember they have been with the

Ukrainians since twenty fourteen. And then you know this, you've reported on this one. The one of my before I left as as ops chief over Europe and eur Asia is you know it was and that was before the Russian invasion, was you know, investing in this relationship. Uh and so, uh, there's going to be some pissed off you know, uh uh, you know paramilitary officers. I would imagine s F as well, just because it's impossible not to. If you make repeated trips over years to Ukraine, that

means you break bread with these people. You know about their families, you know about people who've been killed, maybe their families have been raped and murdered, maybe they've had obviously they've had members their unit killed in action the Ukrainians. It's it's just a human reaction for US national security professional to get close to their liaison partner. And so I think there's gonna be some you know, just as

as the Afghan wh's ro all traumatic. I think there's gonna be some pissed off people here now saying, well, hold on a second, I just spent ten years investing in this partnership. I know, Sergey or whoever, it is like, these are my brothers and sisters and and and the other thing is is the Ukraine wasn't Ukraine Russia wasn't David versus Goliath fight like this was. We talked about it last time. This was the moral clarity that we didn't have in the twenty year GUI, which went all

sideways after a while. It was an actual just cause you know what I mean.

I mean, especially if that's our new national policy.

What I'm concerned about is the i'll call it the LinkedIn model, is that they will be commercially recruited now that the Chinese and the Russians are all over LinkedIn, and so someone who has just been let go from the US intelligence community with a TS clearance who has a mortgage and doesn't have healthcare is going to get it. It's getting an email and saying I'm going to do Bai based consultant and I would love your assistance on X, Y and Z. And it's totally done commercially, and people

are going to bite at that. And and that's going to be the modus operandi of the Russians and the Chinese and going after our folks. It's not it's not you know, Vladimir from the Russian consulate city coming up to someone. It's a commercial recruitment and people are going to be desperate because you just are tossing out people with TS clearance, top secret clearances, who have bills to pay.

I mean that One of the amazing things is when we advise other countries on stuff like this, on a purge of the security services, this is the exact thing we say, don't ever do. And this is of course is what we did in Rock with debatification. If you put you know, several thousand angry you know, former security service members out in the street, they're going to turn on you. And so I just think that there is a big counterintelligence concern. And it's not again, someone walking

into a Russian embassy. It's someone responding to a commercial recruitment and they you know, and it's going to be over time, but they're going to get wooed by some Dubai based or Singapore based entity to end up providing intelligence that is. I mean that, you know, my former my friends in the FBI literally are writing these signal messages saying this is a problem right now.

I think it was totally set up, and JD. Vance was acting like this little yappy terror terrier attack dog. Nothing against terriers for the dog loving of viewers. But but this, anyone who says that Zelensky must apologize, that is actually a tacit admission that our president is a petulant toddler who has to be handled with kid gloves. If you're the president of the United States and you have a far ahead of state, come they can have a frank discussion. Yeah, but but Trump is acting like

a mafia. Don you know? His skin is paper thin too. It's paper thin. And so people who say, well, Zelensky mishandled this. Are actually admitting that Trump is a toddler who can't handle any type of criticism. I mean, it's it's it's to me, a great leader is someone who will sit there and have a discussion with someone and you're gonna have opposing views, and you say, and that whole exchange, even though it should never have been in public. The right retort would have been, you know, you know,

President Zelenski, your passion is so admirable. You know, we'll continue this discussions later. Yeah, that's not happening from trump Man, right, But I'm saying, but but the fact that it can't be is an admission of his you know, narcissistic, sociopathic personality and again that he's a he's a toddler who just you know, you know, he cannot handle any type of criticism. So Lindsey Graham, the Senator, when he throws a fit afterwards in a press conference, saying, you know,

Zelensky mishandled this. You're admitting he mishandled it because Trump is you know, it's is such a kind of this flawed individual.

uh is kind of signed onto this. I mean there's an article in Vanity Fairy, yes yeah I saw it, which which talked aout Rubio is kind of upset about his lack of influence I mean, if he had honor, he'd resigned, everyone thought he wouldn't last a year. But he wants to be president. He wants to run for president, is what he wants. Well, I mean, it's just I mean, you know, these people have to be able to wake up and look at themselves and their children, you know,

in the eye. But you know, but again, I was, you know, I've I have kind of this Jack, I know, you kind of like this stuff. I have friends in like in the Cuban exile community down down in Miami, who who you know. I was talking to them yesterday and uh, and they were big fans of Rubio and I'm like, well, hold on a second, what's happened to him? Like this is something that's not right here. He's supposed to be anti Cuban, that means anti Russian, and he's

not signing on to that. So we'll see if if these these people who've kind of signed on to the cult ever kind of get a spine. But even you know, Mike Wall, same thing, former Green Beret. Just just you know, they've they're kind of bending the need to Trump and I find I've heard that Rubio and Waltz are both on the way out. They should be they should resign, I mean being fired. Yeah, yeah, I've heard those things too,

but who knows. And you know, it's but but ultimately, you know, you have to be able to kind of look at yourself in the mirror. But this is, this is a cult, and this is this is a country that is now tilted completely to Moscow and that just is inconceivable. And that's why I said before that, you know, you said, what's the reaction inside the old the ic? I say, it's just it's disorienting. That's I mean, you know,

what are we doing? And uh and the other the other part of this too, and I know we will probably kind of coming to the end right now. There isn't and I'm gonna I'm gonna be I'm gonna be kind of hammered for this. But there's no bureaucracy going on right now. Bureaucracy and national security at times is important. There's no National Security Council process and Jack and Dee, you know, you know the way this works is things come to to fruition at lower levels. You have meetings

at the NSC. Then it goes up to the Deputies Committee, which is maybe you know, with deputies of different cabinet levels, or they are chaired by the National Security Advisor. Then there's a Principals Committee where the president might sit with the varied cabinets. None of this is happening now. These guys sit in the Oval and kind of they are totally winging it. And so you know, my friends and government were like literally the freezing US aid to Ukraine. People.

All the national security reporters down the Pentagon who sit in the Pentagon said their Pentagon contacts didn't know. I mean, we're winging it. Yeah, So that that actually makes it challenging in the media because you don't even know what's happening half the time. There's no people to even tell you that things are going on because they're finding out literally real time. And that's not the way to do really smart, effective policy. You don't want a four hundred

man with women NSC like President Obama. President Obama had, which is then stultifying, but you don't want nothing. And my you know, friends of mine who have been down to the White House recently and it is empty. The NFC is not staffed yet, the State Department's not staffed yet. We are winging foreign policy right now. Probably not a smart idea.

times last month, but mostly on IT five. I'm way too early, which hey, I'm old, I get up now any early anyway, So Jack Murphy we to five. The link is in the description. Marks links are also in the description. Check them out.