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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

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Release Date: 08/08/2018

Rep. Mike Gallagher on the Challenge of Communist China show art Rep. Mike Gallagher on the Challenge of Communist China

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Rep. Mike Gallagher () (R-WI) is a leading China hawk in Congress, where he serves on the Armed Services Committee, with a background in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence and as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I had Rep. Gallagher on the podcast to discuss his views on what China really wants, to the parallels between the CCP and the Soviet Union, and the relevance of the Cold War paradigm, to ideological warfare and the challenges America faces in waging it, countering Chinese influence across all sectors of American life, Huawei and whether America needs a national...

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Rep Brad Wenstrup on the New Cold War with Communist China and Deep State Corruption show art Rep Brad Wenstrup on the New Cold War with Communist China and Deep State Corruption

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Rep. Brad Wenstrup () (R-OH) is a doctor, Army Reserve officer, and Iraq War veteran who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I had Rep. Wenstrup on the podcast to discuss his views on  what he describes as an emerging new cold war with Communist China, and the weaponization and hyper-politicization of our national security and intelligence apparatus. What We Discussed The CCP’s tightening of the noose on Hong Kong Whether America should ditch the One-China Policy and recognize Taiwan Long-term fiscal dangers as a consequence of the coronavirus The railroading...

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Hedge-Fund Manager Kyle Bass on Winning the Economic and Ideological Battle with Communist China show art Hedge-Fund Manager Kyle Bass on Winning the Economic and Ideological Battle with Communist China

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Kyle Bass () is the Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, and arguably the most outspoken China hawk on Wall Street. I had Bass on the podcast to discuss his views on the U.S.-China economic competition, what a U.S. grand strategy with respect to China might look like, and much more. What We Discussed Why Bass believes China is a paper tiger China's ignored Achilles' heel The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) effort to set up a competing global reserve currency How the CCP has ensured a predominant pro-Beijing narrative in the U.S., through developing relationships with our...

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The Democrat-Deep State-Media Cover-Up that Protected the Russiagate Narrative -- Revisiting Awangate with Luke Rosiak show art The Democrat-Deep State-Media Cover-Up that Protected the Russiagate Narrative -- Revisiting Awangate with Luke Rosiak

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Luke Rosiak () is an investigative reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation where he broke arguably one of the biggest scandals in the history of the federal government -- one the media refused to cover and the prosecutors refused to prosecute.  This is the story of Awangate, which proved no match for Russiagate -- but should have on its merits. It is the subject of Rosiak's , a book that has taken on new significance as the treasonous Russian collusion narrative collapses. I had Luke Rosiak on the podcast to reflect on the story of the Awans, and its far broader significance...

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Robert Spencer on Islamic Supremacism, U.S. Middle East Policy, Defeating Jihad show art Robert Spencer on Islamic Supremacism, U.S. Middle East Policy, Defeating Jihad

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Robert Spencer () is the director of the invaluable counterjihadist website, , and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of eighteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers and . His latest book is . Mr. Spencer's work sits at the nexus of a number of seminal issues, from national security and foreign policy, to identity politics and free speech, and theology and political philosophy. The battle being waged by Islamic supremacism against the West implicates all of these matters, and Mr. Spencer's insights make him uniquely qualified to discuss...

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U.S. Amb. to Germany Richard Grenell on Iran Sanctions Snapback, U.S. Energy Competition with Russia in the EU, Chancellor Merkel show art U.S. Amb. to Germany Richard Grenell on Iran Sanctions Snapback, U.S. Energy Competition with Russia in the EU, Chancellor Merkel

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

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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Ex-NSC Official Allegedly Fired Over Memo Warning Trump of ‘Deep State’ Resistance: ‘There’s a Whiff of Tyranny in the Air’ from Politicization and Weaponization of the NatSec Apparatus show art Ex-NSC Official Allegedly Fired Over Memo Warning Trump of ‘Deep State’ Resistance: ‘There’s a Whiff of Tyranny in the Air’ from Politicization and Weaponization of the NatSec Apparatus

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

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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Did the 'Deep State' Deep Six Pentagon's Lovinger Over Discovery of Shady Defense Department Contracts to FBI Trump Informant Stefan Halper? show art Did the 'Deep State' Deep Six Pentagon's Lovinger Over Discovery of Shady Defense Department Contracts to FBI Trump Informant Stefan Halper?

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

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 on Disastrous Politicization of the Intelligence Community, How China's 'Eating Our Lunch' in Intel and NatSec, The Grave (Ignored) Narco-Hezbollah-Failed State Threat on America's Southern Border show art Former CIA Operative Charles Sam Faddis on Disastrous Politicization of the Intelligence Community, How China's 'Eating Our Lunch' in Intel and NatSec, The Grave (Ignored) Narco-Hezbollah-Failed State Threat on America's Southern Border

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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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How Leftism Supplanted Judaism and Subverted Israel and Zionism Under 'Tikkun Olam' -- Social Justice with a Perverse and Baseless Religious Veneer show art How Leftism Supplanted Judaism and Subverted Israel and Zionism Under 'Tikkun Olam' -- Social Justice with a Perverse and Baseless Religious Veneer

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Jonathan Neumann, author of "To Heal the World? How the Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel," sits down with Ben Weingarten to discuss how 'tikkun olam' became the ethos of non-Orthodox Jewry, the perversion of Jewish values and principles by those who have supplanted the religion with Leftism -- justified by a baseless theory of tikkun olam, why Neumann argues "Jewish social justice effectively has no need for Jews qua Jews", the correlation between tikkun olam and anti-Zionism and much more.

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More Episodes

Michael 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

Thanks for Listening!

Check out other episodes, show notes and transcripts at benweingarten.com/bigideas.

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Backed Vibes (clean) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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