Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

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This week, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee issued a subpoena to the independent online news outlet Breakthrough News, demanding all of the organization’s internal communications, financial records, and more.
This comes on the heels of Marco Rubio’s State Department issuing a near-100 page report on communism in Cuba and its left-wing international supporters, describing Breakthrough News as being “intimately linked to the Cuban regime.”
To discuss this, we spoke with journalist and host at Breakthrough News, friend-of-show Rania Khalek.
00:00 Intro
02:37 Why's the Washington Post this excited about killing Iranians?
08:48 A blatant and definitional call for US war crimes
10:38 Rania Khalek interview
27:05 Is Israel blackmailing Lebanon's president?
36:51 Rania DESTROYS Israeli Emily Schrader
44:02 Hezbollah is blocking an army of rapists from invading

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There is chaos in West Asia as a result of Trump continuing his war on Iran:
The latest US strikes on Iran hit near a children’s cancer hospital, forcing patients to flee; Israel continues to break the MOU by destroying and stealing more land in Lebanon; and Iraq is back in the picture as Trump cuts off its money in an attempt to break their support of Iran.
In order to make sense of the pandemonium, we spoke with veteran journalist and war correspondent Elijah Magnier, who gives his analysis of the expanding conflict, reacts to JD Vance’s thinly-veiled callout of Trump for getting tricked by the Israelis to oppose diplomacy, and explains why Trump is powerless when it comes to taking the Strait of Hormuz or Kharg Island.
Elijah Magnier: Threatening to occupy an island is very easy for US forces to do with a heavy bombardment on several days. But they can’t stay because the cost will be extremely heavy: Iran has the ability to bomb this island or to bomb the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere in the Gulf. Therefore, this plan is actually not feasible.Donald Trump doesn’t have an offer to really propose to end the war in a way that everybody comes out not a loser. He wants to be the winner, and the Iranians aren’t allowing him to be. Iran doesn’t need to win. Iran is not losing because it’s defending itself.And by Donald Trump threatening Kharg Island or the Strait of Hormuz, it means he doesn’t really know the consequences and, militarily speaking, what can be credible or not. His plan in this way is not credible because he can’t hold on to what he potentially can occupy. And then he cannot face the Americans with such a heavy bill.Watch or listen to the full interview with Elijah Magnier where we react to Trump getting called out in JD Vance’s Joe Rogan interview, mocking Syria’s President (and former al-Qaeda founder) Ahmed al-Sharaa to his face, and embarrassing Iraq’s Prime Minister over the Trump-ordered assassination of an Iraqi military leader.
00:00 Intro
02:34 The Massie Amendment STOPS Aid to Israel
05:09 The Dems Who Voted PRO-ISRAEL
08:45 Worse than Netanyahu
13:07 Elijah Magnier interview
17:12 Fmr CENTCOM Commander wants Trump to take the Strait of Hormuz
45:08 Trump's disastrous meetings with foreign leaders
54:16 JD Vance throws Trump shade on Joe Rogan

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This week we have a powerhouse panel on Useful Idiots: Professor Sami al-Arian and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of DropSite News, who join us to analyze Trump’s wars in West Asia.
The breaking news is that Trump is renewing the bombing of Iran, insulting its leaders, and threatening to take out more civilian infrastructure, all while Israel is allowed to continue its genocide in Gaza as well as steal and destroy land in Lebanon.
Useful Idiots: Trump has said the deal is likely over. So where are we with the state of war against Iran?Sami al-Arian: The deal was basically an admission by the United States that it’s been defeated. It is surrender in all points. And I think the Zionists have upped the pressure against this administration, which has been beholden to it for whatever reason. They were trying to find justification to renege on this deal.But regardless, there is nothing that the US could do to defeat Iran. There is nothing that it could do to achieve its objectives, which is basically regime change, regime collapse, breakup of the country, and to reverse its advanced scientific achievements in nuclear power or in missiles or even to stop its support of its allies in the region.None of these objectives were reached in the first thirty-nine days of the war and they are very unlikely to be reached again.Jeremy Scahill: What we’ve seen since Trump took this deal is that he has not been able to effectively spin his victory-narrative on this thing. This is the latest iteration of the Trump pattern, which is that he’s flailing around like a child throwing a tantrum and threatening.And the more he escalates it, the more it becomes clear that he is in the quagmire of all quagmires in this situation. One thing that we have to be always concerned about is that Trump is a very erratic character. I wouldn’t put it past him to authorize a much more significant escalation of the bombing against Iran.My understanding from Iranian officials is that if that happens, if a Rubicon is crossed and it becomes a full-blown war again, that Iran’s response to this in the Persian Gulf and aimed at Israel is going to exceed what it did in the initial weeks when it fought the United States and Israel to a point where Trump was the one essentially begging for some kind of a deal.Watch our full, unpaywalled interview with Professor Sami al-Arian and Jeremy Scahill. Please consider subscribing to support our work and watch the ad-free version of the show.
00:00 Intro
01:05 Aaron's new book
03:16 CNN manufactures a scandal with Netanyahu to hurt Michigan's el-Sayed
09:35 Jeremy Scahill and Sami al-Arian interview
15:38 Could Israel use its nukes?
28:08 Jeremy's sources in the Iranian government
42:56 Who really benefits from this war?

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