https://youtu.be/HSCZIQsQrWc
For the entire transcript of this interview, please continue reading
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Barry Webb former Arabist and translator
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for the NSA thank you very much for this
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week’s edition of news as as extracted
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from Arabic media and I think the big
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subject right now this several really
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but I think the one that’s most urgent
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might be Iran since it does look like
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something’s coming up there’s a lot of
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reports of of ships which have
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mysterious giant holes cut in the halls
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rumor has it that Iran’s claiming
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responsibility for that I’m gonna let
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you take it away and tell us what we
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need to know or what we’re not otherwise
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being told about this current situation
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with Iran in the United States okay Joe
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orient the audience first of all over
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the weekend there were four oil tankers
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that were less than the attacked off the
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coast of Fujairah which is one of the
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main point point palm ports for the UAE
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United Arab Republic and its port
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through which a good chunk of the
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world’s oil you know it is gathered and
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then is transferred to these oil tankers
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and noticing on the math is just it’s
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just barely outside of the Strait of
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Hormuz now the Strait of Hormuz is very
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important because if you look at it and
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looking at the map and look at the
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various items there and how narrow it is
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theoretically Iran could shut off all
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transport to and from the other Gulf
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states you know Bahrain and and these
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are part of Saudi Arabia UAE etc Kuwait
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by sinking two chips two or three ships
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in the Strait of Hormuz yeah and nobody
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can get through so that’s been a big
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fear by everybody that you know if there
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is a war or and to do that and of course
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Iran has threatened to do that now when
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this happened off the coast of Ruggiero
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which is not really in the Strait of
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Hormuz but close to it it kind of got
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everybody all riled up
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based on the the pics that I’ve seen on
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ya the Arabic TV channels only one ship
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was noticeably damaged that wasn’t our
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Weejun ship so basically you have four
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ships that were targeted but there were
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no casualties and none of the ships were
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sunk there wasn’t even a drop of oil
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that leaked out so is to me a look like
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a very amateurish job and immediately if
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it happened the UAE which is online to
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Saudi Arabia and very much in the camp
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of enemy you versus versus Iran the UAE
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immediately begins saying that the our
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demand that the international community
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had to put a stop to this in order to
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make the sea passage is safe and away
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and that immediately made me think of
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the Tonkin Gulf incident the Protestant
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of Vietnam War and remember the main
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which brought us into the
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spanish-american war and so my first
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impression was that this was not the
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state actor that did this as this job is
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so half-assed amateurish that it was
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either a lone wolf acting on behalf of
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Isis or it was the Houthi group which is
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you know based in Yemen and fighting
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against the Saudis and the Emiratis
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and I kind of held that view until this
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morning I saw some reports for Iran had
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the headlines screamed that Iran had
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claimed this attacked but as a turn out
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that’s not really true what happened was
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that a news newspaper a news site
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Iranian news site which is very closely
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related to the Iranian Republican Guards
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argc which we have just declared as a
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terrorist organization it was that
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organization at that the paper that new
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site that had made the call
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that Iran had done it and they
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exaggerated the damage they said the
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porch area was all in flames which
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wasn’t and they also claimed the port of
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Yanbu which is in northwest Saudi Arabia
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as having been also hit and you haven’t
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gone up in flames which was not true
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what did happen there is that the Saudis
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are building out a huge pipeline from
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their Eastern oil fields to this port on
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the west coast in Yanbu as insurance in
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the case of you know the Iranian Tara
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closing out the Straits of Hormuz and we
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still have a way to get oil out to the
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world and the Houthis had actually
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managed to to hit that pipeline with a
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drone and I’m not sure of the damage yet
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the Saudis closed down the pipeline and
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closed down additional we have
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construction until they investigate to
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see what the damage was so not sure how
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much damage was done there but it
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certainly didn’t yeah you know and yeah
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cause the whole city of the M booty
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would go up into flames so you have this
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this new site making these exaggerated
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claims that turned out to be not true
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and just recently a few hours ago the
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Iranian Republic I mean certainly the
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Iranian government came up publicly and
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said that we didn’t do it okay so I
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think this is to deflate some of the war
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a more wondering that’s been going on
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warfare that’s been going on throughout
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the Middle East and over here of course
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in the States but of course Trump has
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this aircraft carrier on the way is that
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I supposed to started there he’s already
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say any sense and b-2 bombers over there
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now I don’t know why sent the b-2
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bombers because they can they can lift
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off from wom and bomb Iran’s is easy
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that yes you know by placing them on
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tatra they become a potential target
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from rainy missiles but
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way to look at some of the other factors
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some of the geopolitical factors that
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might be you know behind this escalation
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thing we look at our brand I’ve recently
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come across a report saying that mosque
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attendance in Iran is only is only 3%
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now in other words the Iranians are so
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sick and tired of this fundamentalist
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Islamist regime that they’re voting with
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their feet staying away from the mosque
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but even more than that is it they’re no
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longer newborn children that you look at
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the dish their names that are being
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giving them given out to newborn
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children they’re no longer giving their
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kids Islamic names they’re going back
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into ancient Persian pre-islamic person
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history is that fantastic news yes so
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now in terms of around ability or desire
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to wage war there’s two schools of
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thought one is that they would like
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confrontation with the US as a last-gasp
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attempt to unite the public behind them
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but the other side of the coin is that
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Iran is so fractured and there’s so
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little public support for the regime
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that you know something like that could
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actually could bring them down so it’s
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risky for them put it that way so in
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essence if I if I’m understanding you’re
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saying that the damage done to these
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ships was deliberate but it was by a
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Muslim Brotherhood front group er well I
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think probably the Houthis who are you
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know basically radient proxy though yes
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there are Iranian practicing they were
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probably a branding equipment but the
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Chavez so amateurish because it didn’t
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do any serious damage other than they
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did you know poke poke a hole that one
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shit anybody who’d like to know what the
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Houthi are about Google the Houthi motto
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and have a
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on Wikipedia it is a pretty blood
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chillingly awful little slogan to live
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by and I’ll leave it up to people to do
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it but it’s the Houthi motto or slogan
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and whenever they’re doing any kind of
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demo you can see half of them are
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carrying signs with this slogan so it’s
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not like they don’t mean it they
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regurgitate the rainiest Logan death to
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America death to Israel also yes what
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that tell us where they’re at and they
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these are the guys that are hurling
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missiles at the Saudis every day yes and
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that have taken over again yeah so in a
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way it really was arranged that did this
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because I can’t imagine that they would
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do this kind of damage to these these
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ships without yeah yeah very won’t be
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true like a state into a pretty good job
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of it so so here we are now so what did
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we do now do we take vengeance against
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the movies or take offenses against the
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Iranians I mean I think they still owe
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them for one was the Revolution 79 I
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said yeah big job yes absolutely and a
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bunch of other things and another
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meeting with the parking heads and those
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Jazeera were saying immediately after
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this you know after the news came out
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about the the you know these the attacks
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off of from Jarrah
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as they were thinking that it was one of
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the three countries that are trying to
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draw the United States into a war with
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Iran and these three countries would be
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the UAE itself
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Wasabi’s and Israel and well no cutter
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or never let me get it I’ll get it to
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cut it but let me get back on this now
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this makes the mood you know certain
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mental sense so these these three
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countries you are a Saudi Arabia and
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Israel have the capability of course to
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sink all those ships that they wanted to
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but what if they just you know
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had this incident to damage some of them
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to get news in order to touch off this
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confrontation because they would like
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nothing better they’d had the United
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States you know go into Iran and take
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down the regime now this is what Talking
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Heads on al Jazeera are saying and I
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just wondered because the UAE was so
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fast in demanding that the international
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community you know do something about
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this right away that was almost like
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they were begging the United States to
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come in and kick some ass so that’s one
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possibility but you know going back to
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your other question your other comment
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is I agree that even if Iran didn’t do
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it you know the world cannot sit by and
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let them get nukes and they’re kind of
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getting nukes unless we take them down
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so maybe it might be worthwhile to do it
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but it’s going to take more than one
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aircraft carrier and more than 120,000
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troops that that the demonstration is
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planning along the United States was
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able to obliterate Iran’s ability to
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make war set them back 20 or 30 years
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that would be a really worthwhile
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project yeah I could see them doing that
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maybe taking out their entire Navy and
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then their airfields and whatever
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airplanes they can see on the ground and
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their centrifuge their ability their
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centrifuge
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Gary Webb thank you very much for that
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I’m not sure if we should be relieved or
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concerned I feel like in some ways the
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needle stayed at the same place but we
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have more information
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yeah at that situation with Iran keeps
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changing every hour or so just don’t
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keep watch on the news see what happens
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keep watch the news if you want to know
0:12:54.880,0:12:58.199
what isn’t going on
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[Music]
