Latest / Your Leo Nation / CIA Insider: Why the Iran Ceasefire is Extremely Dangerous
Transcript
- Mark Garrett: hello America welcome to your Leo nation where we in and support the rule of law joining is our friend Sam Faddis retired CIA operations officer Sam great to have you back on the program SAM: Happy to be here, man. Thank you very much. Mark Garrett: Well, listen, we are living in busy times. know you are a busy man within those busy times. I've been watching you all over the internet and it's such a privilege to be able to reach out to you in times like this to discuss these important topics. Just last night, it seems like the. Really kind of a bad situation. think, you know, there's a way around it was avoided at least temporarily. I hope permanently. I'm talking about the ceasefire with Iran. We haven't had to talk about the war with Iran since it started, but I want to get your perspective on what this ceasefire means. Will it hold the Iranian offer the kind of the counter from the US and where we are really what it means effectively. SAM: Well, most of it is, the answer is we don't know yet. I mean, we have a ceasefire agreement with the Iranians. Although as you and I are talking, there are reports filtering in that maybe some elements of Iran is still launching drones out of Saudi and other places. So it's early hours and the thing is fragile. question really is, okay, so where are going to go from here? Because we're supposed to now have negotiations and obviously the plan is, the hope is, we're going to have some sort of peace agreement, formal agreement, and the war is really going to come to an end. And that's when we really get into unknown territory. The Iranians said, officially, when they agreed to the ceasefire, that they were agreeing to proceed with negotiations on the basis of 10 points that they had put forward. Okay, that's clear. They're saying, yeah, fine, we'll agree to stop shooting at each other and we'll talk, but we're talking about the 10 points we submitted to you guys. Because we had submitted earlier a 15 point plan for how to negotiate this thing. They rejected it. They sent us their alternate 10 point plan. And now they're saying, That's what we're going to talk about in these negotiations that are supposed to happen in Pakistan. All right. Well, this is, know, as they say, therein lies the rub because when you read the 10 point plan, the 10 points they put forward, you know, like eight and a half, nine, nine and a half of them, I cannot imagine we could possibly accept. Right. Says they get to control the Straits. They get to keep charging ships. We got to pull all our troops out of the whole region. We got to remove all sanctions on them, all limitations on their nuclear program. They get to keep enriching uranium. We have to stop being mean to all their proxy groups like Hezbollah. I mean, it's like an Iranian dream sheet. It's a surrender document, but we're the ones surrendering. So, I mean, I hope to God we are not actively considering. accepting those terms. So now you the next question is, so what the heck are we actually going to talk about when we sit down on Islamabad? And everybody has that question. You know, I presume we're going to start by saying, OK, let's talk. But like you guys weren't serious about these 10 points, right? We're like if you needed to put that out for public consumption internally to make it look like you guys were tough. Cool. But now let's get down to brass tacks. But Mark Garrett: Yeah. SAM: I hope that's true. I don't know that's true at this point. Mark Garrett: Well, Sam, it's interesting bringing that up because look, you and I are both old enough to really appreciate this 47 year history with this regime. And one thing has been constant. They lie. They lie. They lie. They lie. And quite frankly, I mean, even from their own religious leaders, they are told and they teach that SAM: Yes. Yes. Yes. Mark Garrett: lying in the pursuit of their religious beliefs is holy. In other words, it's part of their culture. And I'm talking about from the religious zealots. I'm not talking about the people of Iran here. So when I first saw this 10-point plan, I'm thinking the same thing that you just are teaching. said, I'm scratching my head. So how can they even put this out? SAM: Right. Right. Mark Garrett: I'm assuming like you said that they put this out probably for internal purposes to their own people that this would be what publicly you know said the behind the scenes. We're looking at some other reality I think otherwise we would not have come to the ceasefire point agreement that we entered into last night that's just me speaking. I think otherwise that we would have seen mass destruction you know late last night Eastern Standard Time. There was a modified plan you touched on, I believe that was a counter that was offered and this is what we've kind of come to terms with from ⁓ a ⁓ jumping off point. Is that accurate from the Americans, from our side? SAM: Wait, from our side, you mean? Yeah, but what we don't have, well, look, I can only go on the basis of what I have access to. So maybe there are back channel communications of which I am unaware. But ⁓ I haven't seen, I am unaware of any indication from the Iranians that they are willing to negotiate on the basis of the terms we gave them. And here's one of the things I think people need to consider. I'm not convinced the Iranians and we're obviously talking about the regime. I'm not convinced they think they're losing. I mean, are they absorbing horrific damage? ⁓ Obviously, there's no, I mean, they haven't achieved anything of consequence against the conventional American military, but that's not really what the war is about. mean, our military beats the hell out of them. And then they basically shoot at the Gulf States. They shoot at Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait. The center of gravity for them is threatening the world oil and gas supply and the world economy. So they're not really... If they could attack the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group in India in the ocean and hit it, yeah, obviously they would love to do that. Do they really think that they're gonna win the war against the US military? No. But what they're doing is holding the world economy hostage. if you will. like, you know, it keep hitting the Straits of Hormuz are closed. Oil, by and large, and gas are not getting out. And periodically, they shoot at the production facilities in the Gulf. Just to remind us, we also have the option of burning the whole place to the ground. And then it won't be about no oils coming out today. It will be no oil's coming out for five years until you rebuild the whole place. So it's almost a, it's like a national suicide vest kind of mentality. It's like, that's really. Mark Garrett: ⁓ listen, I want to chime in there. I don't think there's any like about it. I think what you said exactly right, that is a suicide despotality because we've actually seen that in actuality for the last 47 years perpetrated directly by this regime or through proxy that death by suicide in the name of their religious beliefs is a good thing. And this is what I tell people all the time is that we're not dealing with the old Soviet Union who had nuclear weapons. SAM: Yes. That's right. Mark Garrett: who could wipe the world out as we could, but they didn't want to die. We're not even dealing with North Korea has nuclear weapons, but they don't want to die. We're dealing with people who are excited about the possibility of dying in the name of the religious beliefs, which makes it a whole different game we're dealing with here. SAM: Yeah, and look, particularly we're talking about the Twelvers, particular brand of Shia, right? Shia Islam. They believe we're at the end of times. This is Armageddon, this is Apocalypse, and this is not a metaphor for them, this is not abstract, this is real. We're at the end of times. They're going to win. The Mahdi, their Islamic Superman, is going to come back, this 1500-year-old Imam. And beyond that, they believe the only way to get to the true end of times where they win is you must go through effectively Armageddon. There must be fire, brimstone, worldwide destruction. And further, they believe it is their job to bring on that apocalypse. that's... And with the idea of Paradise, mean, having worked against Not just these guys, but the Sunni ⁓ hardcore jihadist guys. Again, this is not a metaphor or an abstract. When the guy is wearing a suicide vest and he presses the switch, he literally believes that the next moment he is in paradise. Again, it's not an abstract, fuzzy, spiritual thing. That's what opens the door. So it's not... We talk about them being willing to die. At a certain point, it's not about willing to die. It's wanting to die as long as you die that way. Because you can't just commit suicide. You have to die in the performance of jihad. That's what does it. So yeah, when you start backing guys who think like that into a corner and you're making a judgment that they're... they're unwilling to call your bluff on it. You're like, you might want to rethink that. They are very much willing to just burn the whole place down. It's not a bad ending for them. Mark Garrett: which No, it's not in their mind, which brings us to the point of the nuclear weapons and we could spend a lot of time. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on it, but this is the reality with which this current president is dealing with and other presidents had in front of them, certainly, is that you have a regime that if they obtain a nuclear device, they will use it because they feel this ends to an internal SAM: Yeah, yeah, without question, that has always been my position. It is inconceived. There is no such thing as a world in which these guys have nuclear weapons. They will use them in a hard Mark Garrett: you know, means to an eternal end. Yes. Yep. They will use them to heartbeat. So just briefly, Sam, you know, no secret, this is no, you know, a huge discovery on my part, but for a long time, going back to Venezuela, when we took out Maduro, I said to, you know, my circle of friends and anybody ⁓ who listened to me that Venezuela is important. by itself, but Venezuela in my mind, my belief was part of a larger strategy ⁓ of the Trump administration to deal with China in the long run. see Iran ⁓ clearly far more substantial than Venezuela in of itself, absolutely because we're talking about nuclear weapons and people who are enthusiastically trying to use them. but I also see it part of that strategic ⁓ process dealing with China in the long run as well. What are your thoughts on that? Am I off base with this? SAM: No, I don't think you're off base. think that's absolutely right. mean, look, the Chinese, the number one adversary, the main thing is, you know, my friend, Captain James Fennell, likes to say is China. That is the center, right? They are the biggest threat. They are the long-term, worldwide strategic threat to our status on the planet. And they are ⁓ in bed with the Iranians and they get huge amounts of oil from Iran and ⁓ And Venezuela impacts the same way. yes, think all of that from a strategic standpoint makes sense. It still leaves us in a position of we got to land the current plane. We're in this now with the Iranians. I think we went into it with unrealistic expectations of how quickly this would and easily this would be resolved. We now have to figure out Okay, Plan A didn't work. What exactly is Plan B? How do we win? How do we do this? No question, this is a huge, huge impact on China. Mark Garrett: Well, I hope so and ⁓ these are bold decisions being made by President Trump. For you know the eyes of his detractors. It's certainly not a lack of leadership. There's nothing perfect in the world. No strategy is perfect. No tactics are perfect. War is by definition unpredictable, but he's exhibiting leadership in something that no other president in these last 47 years has taken on. I give the man a lot of credit. I do want to jump into this real quick, real briefly and and go back a few days about the recovery of these two eras. It's it's it's unfortunately is paled a little bit now because of the ceasefire last night and thank God for that but it's so important when you look at the relationship between civilian intelligence and our armed forces our military command Sam King tell us a little bit about the historic, you know the few minutes we have left about the historic kind of relationship from your point of view between those two entities and what you know what that relationship is like SAM: Yeah, we'll look at, I mean, in DC, there's always bureaucratic wrangling between everybody, When you're, because they got nothing better to do in DC, I guess. When you're actually out in the field and you're working, it's one team, one fight, to use a trite phrase, but it's absolutely true. I mean, when I was running a base inside Iraq in advance of the Iraq war, we had CIA guys, obviously, we had military in our base. They didn't operate in a separate location. Everybody was in the same house, eaten at the same table, access completely to the same communications in all the same meetings. that's just that's the way it always is, the way it is down range. And, know, and if you're operating in an environment like that, in a war zone and you've got somebody, you know, a flyer goes down or some of our guys get captured or we don't know where they are. You know, like ⁓ a vehicle goes missing. Basically we lose comms. We got X number of guys wherever in Iraq. We're not sure where they are. ⁓ at that point, there is no higher priority than tasking every asset, every resource, every capability you have. mean, ⁓ you know, find our people, get our people safe. Nothing else has priority. That has always been the way it is. Mark Garrett: Well, I'm really glad to hear it. I'm glad you are you really distinct or you made a distinction between bureaucracy in DC and in actual operations in the field. And by the way, just to chime in here, we experienced the same type of stuff when it came to law enforcement, you know, with me being a state law enforcement for 30 years and dealing with all these different agencies from local, county, state and federal. When it hit the fan, any disagreements went right out the window and everyone focused SAM: Yes. Absolut. Mark Garrett: and the job to do and it's really reality. I'm really glad to hear that's been the same, you know, in your world and the situation. Finally, speaking about those airmen, what, just briefly tell us without giving away obviously anything you can't talk about, but how did it go so well? I mean, this truly is historic, the recovery of these two airmen in that environment. How did it go so well? Whether it's technical, whether it's cooperation, the resources, I know how much was spent and the amount of resource to get these men back. How did it work so well, Sam? SAM: Well, I mean, the short answer is because you have really superb people. I mean, yeah, you've got great gear and tech, but the bottom line is you have guys that are the best in the world and they are probably the best the world has ever seen. And you know how the ethic is. I mean, I'm sure in law enforcement, when you're on the street and somebody's life is literally in danger, you take care of your own, right? You don't. And ⁓ it's exactly the same ethic. We got a guy down. We're going to go get him. We're not. There is no we're going to try to go get him. There is no we might not get him. What I think people still don't appreciate is these this weapons officer they had to go get was down a way inside of Iran. And Iranians had a whole bunch of guys hunting for him. And so we had to put, you this is not six guys jumped in a Huey and flew in and got our guy. We had to fly in a significant assault force and fight a major battle and then got not only that guy out, but all of our people out with without having anybody killed. ⁓ I have, you when you see these guys in action, you're just like, mean, sometimes you think that's just not even humanly possible. They're that good. So anyway, all credit to them. Fantastic operation. Mark Garrett: That it was and ⁓ I appreciate you focusing on the human side. ⁓ Not the technical is not important, but without the good people that you spoke about, none of this would be possible. It makes me proud, Sam, and grateful to live in this country, to be an American, a country with all of our flaws, but it's the greatest place with the greatest military and the greatest people making up that military machine in the world. has ever seen. Sam Faddis, thank you for your service out in the field during those rough times in the Middle East and thank you for again sharing your time with us. We appreciate it and we appreciate the fact that you are a friend of your Leo Nation. I am the chief for your Leo Nation and we will see you next time again. Sam, thanks a lot. Make sure you follow, make sure you subscribe, make sure you share, make sure you watch, you listen and we appreciate the support. God bless you all. SAM: Yes, sir.