Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• Most American wars begin with high approval ratings and lose support as the conflict drags on. Mere weeks into the U.S.-Israeli War Against Iran, most Americans already say it was a mistake (59%) and disapprove (61%) of Trump’s handling of it. More Americans say the U.S. is losing (45%) than winning (25%).

• Air travelers in the U.S. are dealing the longest TSA security wait times ever recorded because a partial government shutdown has caused thousands of officers to miss work, producing lines of four hours and raising the risk of airport closures.

• A crude oil tanker sailing from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to Istanbul was hit by a naval drone near Istanbul's Bosphorus strait this morning. The incident was one of several ⁠in recent months involving Western-sanctioned vessels heading to or from Russian ports.

• Étienne Davignon, a 93-year-old former Belgian diplomat, will stand trial for war crimes related to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of Congo. The CIA station chief gave a green light to the Jan. 17, 1961 torture and execution of Lumumba by a firing squad of Congolese soldiers commanded by Belgian officers. His body was later dissolved in a barrel of sulfuric acid. Davignon was a 27-year-old trainee diplomat at the Belgian Embassy in Léopoldville, junior in rank but with direct access to Congolese political leaders. The US has neither apologized nor opened the Congo files.

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• It’s V-I Day—Victory in Iran Day! “We've won this. This war has been won,” Trump declares. Or maybe more like Victory in his Imagination. Iran thinks it is winning in its form of asymmetric warfare, at least 2,000 Marines and the 82nd Airborne are headed to the war—er, victory/peace, zone. Also, Israel to keep fighting Iran several more weeks.

• After demanding “unconditional surrender,” the U.S. sends Iran a 15-point peace plan proposal. Highlights: full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, a permanent commitment to never pursue nuclear weapons and a requirement that any already-enriched uranium be handed over.

• Airports are the new Minneapolis. After video of ICE agents manhandling a 41-year-old Guatemala and her 9-year-old daughter at San Francisco Airport went viral, it turns out TSA is handing passenger lists to ICE for arrests and detentions. Is it safe to fly?

• Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emerges battered from Denmark’s election, yet with a path to retaining power. Social Democrats’ performance reflects a pattern across Europe, where the center-left is showing renewed fight. In recent votes from Castilla y León in Spain, to Marseille and Paris, to Slovenia and now Denmark, standing up to Trump-style politics, or Trump himself, can be a winning strategy.

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APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• ICE agents began supplementing airport security. ICE officers seen yesterday were not wearing masks or screening passengers. The Trump administration says they'll help man security checkpoints, but mostly they were standing around as lines remained long. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon says it’s a “test run” for posting ICE at the voting stations in November. Travelers and the TSA union say they’re scared and angry at the ICE presence at airports.

• Reports say Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is talking to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi; Iran calls it fake news as more, bigger missiles strike Israel. The EU refuses to use military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Even Iranians who oppose the government say they are angry and in despair about the chaos and destruction unleashed by the bombing campaign.

• New research finds that the rate of global warming has nearly doubled over the last decade. Many of the consequences of global warming — such as more intense storms, warming oceans and melting glaciers — are arriving faster and more powerfully than many scientists had expected. This week, extreme weather pushed temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of California and the Southwest, even as it is still winter, and the duration and intensity of heat waves is accelerating. At the same time, blizzard conditions whipped the upper Midwest and severe thunderstorms moved east from Arkansas to the Gulf.

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APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• As the US/Israeli war against Iran enters its 4th week, Iran has little interest in diplomacy and is escalating attacks on its neighbors, betting it can increase global economic pain faster than the US and Israel can blow up targets. Trump gave Iran a 48-hour deadline that expires today to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to “obliterate” the country’s civilian power plants—a war crime that says Iran would avenge regionally. Stocks will plunge 1% today; oil futures are at $111/barrel, up 67% since pre-war, as Iran threatens to mine the Strait and strike Gulf State water facilities.

• As LaGuardia investigates a plane crash and remains closed, ICE is being deployed to US airports to assist TSA and, according to Trump, arrest illegal immigrants. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ICE at airports is “the last thing that the American people need ... potentially to brutalize or in some instances, kill them.”

• The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, says that the crisis in the Middle ⁠East has had a worse impact on oil than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined, and a worse effect on gas than the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• The Defense Dept. asks Congress for $200 billion for an Iran War they were never asked about. Will Congress pay anyway?

• Iran is gaining the upper hand as it squeezes the global economy. Iranian attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG facilities slashed Qatar’s export capacity by 17% and will take 3-5 years to repair, as oil rose to $108/barrel. The U.S. may lift sanctions on Iranian oil at sea and release more oil from its strategic reserves to lower prices. Netanyahu says Israel acted alone in its attack on a gas facility in Iran. Saudi Arabia threatens Iran. A tanker operator paid $2 million for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

• Mediators have given Hamas a “take it or leave it” proposal to hand over all weapons, leaving an undefined new authority in charge. Hamas will wait to see the outcome of the Iran war before replying.

• Worried that he might be hobbled by the unpopular Iran War, JD Vance might not run in 2028. ​65% of Americans think Trump will order a large-scale ground war in Iran— just 7% are in favor, a Reuters/Ipsos poll finds. Trump's broader approval is 40%

• Denmark prepared to deploy troops to Greenland to sabotage Greenland’s airstrips with explosives and flew in blood supplies amid fears of a potential U.S. invasion earlier this year.

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, rats out Trump’s big Iran lies. The president said the Iran was rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities—but that’s not what the CIA and other intel agencies told him, she tells Congress. Trump also said Iran was “two weeks away” from ICBMs that could reach the US, but Tulsi said Iran hasn’t even tried and, if it started now, couldn’t achieve them until at least 2035.

• Is the Iran War running out of gas? Israel’s strike against Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar and is the largest such facility in the world, was approved by Trump—but he denies it, even while threatening to blow it up entirely if Iran strikes Qatar—which Iran just did. Qatar’s foreign ministry called it a “dangerous and irresponsible step.” After stocks fell to a record low for the year and oil prices soared to $119/barrel—a 67% increase—and France called for a moratorium on attacks against energy facilities, Trump changed his mind and does not want any ‌further strikes on Iran’s ​energy infrastructure.

• Israel blows up bridges crossing the Litani River in Southern Lebanon. Is this a prequel to annexation?

• AG Pam Bondi stonewalls Democrats at a closed-door hearing over the Epstein Files, half of which still haven’t been released.

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• If the Homeland Security Dept. shutdown continues, some smaller airports may have to shut down entirely within weeks due to a shortage of TSA security screeners. Typically, under 2% of TSA workers call in sick or do not report to work. At Atlanta, JFK and Houston, no-show rates are about 20%.

• In public, Israel is urging Iranians to revolt against their government. Privately, senior Israeli officials are telling the U.S. that Iranians will “get slaughtered” if there’s an uprising, according to a leaked State Department cable.

• Israel and the U.S. are relying on targeted assassinations in their war against Iran. But decapitation strikes against figures like Ali Larijani, Iran’s de facto leader, and Esmail Khatib, intelligence minister, has its limits, and may even prove counterproductive by radicalizing the government and marginalizing moderates. Iranian missiles are flying all over the Middle East.

• Israel has ordered a mass evacuation of southern Lebanon and is subjecting central Beirut to heavy bombing in its attacks against Hezbollah.

• Democrats are turning against AIPAC. Only two out of four AIPAC-backed candidates won special elections yesterday.

• The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has several countries on the ropes. Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to the SocGen commodities team, 80%+ of their oil via Hormuz, and only have about a month of oil in storage before they run out. Singapore has 40 days of inventory. Thailand has 50 days. Taiwan can last about 100 days. Bangladesh can last about 100 days, and has already instituted fuel rationing and shuttered fertilizer plants.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

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SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu

APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• Trump didn’t consult with European allies before attacking Iran. Now he wants their help reopening the Strait of Hormuz. They’re rejecting him—and now Trump is seriously annoyed. Meanwhile, Iran denies Israel’s claim that it killed security chief Ali Larijani.

• More registered voters view Israel negatively than positively in, driven by change among independents and especially Democrats. “This is unrecognizable in terms of where America was, and the Democratic Party was, for a 20-, 30-year history,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff. The 2028 Democratic primary is “going to be fought on very, very different terrain in regards to the issue of Israel,” he says.

• In an echo of the U.S. bombing of the Iranian elementary school, Pakistan claimed it was targeting a Taliban ammunition depot but instead killed at least 400 people in a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pakistan’s war aims are unarticulated.

• Cuba plunged into a total electricity blackout as Trump muses he can “take” the island if he wants.

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APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504