Michael Ledeen on the Potential Collapse of Iran's Khomeinist Regime and America's Role, the False Sunni-Shia Jihadist Split, IC and Law Enforcement Sacking of Pro-Israel Political Opponents, Why Gen. Flynn Was Targeted and May Have Falsely Pled Guilty
Release Date: 08/08/2018
Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten
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Richard Grenell is the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and the longest serving UN spokesman and political appointee in American history, where he served from 2001 to 2008. Amb. Grenell occupies one of the most critical positions in American diplomacy in Berlin, not only because Germany represents the EU's largest economy and has disproportionate influence on the continent, but because of its pivotal role with respect to both Iran's efforts to evade U.S. snapback sanctions, and Russia's efforts to provide energy to and thus leverage over European nations. During our discussion we touched on the...
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is an expert on the nexus between theological doctrines and information age unconventional warfare, and has spent 20 years combating terrorism in a variety of senior positions within the Department of Defenses. Higgins, an early supporter of President Trump, served as director for strategic planning in President Trump's National Security Council (NSC). That all changed when a that he had produced for President Trump on the political warfare that he was to face internally from the Deep State, and externally from the media and like-minded interest groups in collusion with the administrative...
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Sean Bigley () is a national security attorney who prosecutes intelligence community whistleblower retaliation cases. His firm represents approximately 200 U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats, armed forces members and other security clearance holders each year. But in Mr. Bigley's vast experience as a litigator and former federal background investigator, one case of alleged brazen political retaliation has topped them all. This is the case of former distinguished Pentagon Office of Net Assessment analyst and Trump National Security Council Director Adam Lovinger. In defending Lovinger as a...
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Former CIA operative Charles Sam Faddis, author of "Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA," sits down with Ben Weingarten to discuss his contrarian support for revoking former CIA Dir John Brennan's security clearance, politicization plaguing intel and NatSec, how to reform our institutions and drive accountability, lessons from Iraq re intervention and national interest, China's chilling dominance in intel and NatSec, the threatening nexus of failed states-narcos-Hezbollah from our South and more.
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info_outlineMichael Ledeen (@michaelledeen) is a historian, longtime think-tanker currently serving as the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, former Special Advisor to the Secretary of State and consultant to the National Security Council during the Reagan administration and author of 38 books.
Perhaps most pertinent to today, Ledeen is an expert on Iran, with deep ties to dissidents and countless individuals in the diaspora cultivated over many decades, dating back to the fall of the Shah and the Revolution of 1979.
I had Ledeen on the Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast to discuss a variety of topics including his views on how long the current Khomeinist regime will survive, what America might do to help topple it, the phony Sunni-Shia split, the nature of Iran's dissidents, what happens the day after the regime falls and more. Tangentially related, Ledeen and I also discussed the targeting of those who challenge the national security and foreign policy establishment, including regarding both Iran and Israel, and the sackings of Larry Franklin and Gen. Michael Flynn -- the latter of whom with which Micheal co-authored a book, The Field of Fight. Ledeen shares his take on Gen. Flynn's guilty plea -- which he believes was given falsely -- and explains why he believes Gen. Flynn was targeted in the first place.
What We Discussed
- The false narrative about alternatives for Iran being either appeasement or war
- The impending collapse of the Khomeinist regime and what the U.S. can do to accelerate it
- The history of U.S. intelligence failures in Iran
- How secular and liberal Iran's dissidents actually are
- Whether there is a wedge that can be exploited between Iran and Russia
- What will become of Hezbollah if the Iranian regime collapses
- The allegedly political witch hunt against Iran hawk and Israel supporter Larry Franklin as an illustration of historic anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the foreign policy and national security establishment
- Ledeen's theory that Gen. Michael Flynn falsely pled guilty, and the real reason why Gen. Flynn was targeted in the first place
Further Reading
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Backed Vibes (clean) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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