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Of any purchase of $100 or more. That's promo code Brian. Bottom line is Iran's partners and proxies with Iranian weaponry, documented by the United Nations Yemen Panel of Experts. have repeatedly attacked our partners in the Gulf. and attempted to damage global energy infrastructure.
And then finally, the Iranian regime. State television amplifies calls for a quote one-bomb solution. to wipe Israel off the map. Which Ironically, it would be not only a massacre of all Israelis. but also the Palestinian people whom the regime claims to support.
That is so smart to put that together. It's so great to have a UN ambassador like Michael Waltz who could fight wars, goes to wars, cover wars, politicians, and also knows how the White House works. We're going to have Jennifer Griffin shortly. But he was just talking about this is the tact of this Iranian regime, as evil as it gets. And keep in mind, too.
That I'm just stunned that there's nobody out here on the streets protesting the point-blank assassinations of thousands of innocent people who are rising up just for an ounce of freedom. You would think in America there'd be people who fight for freedom. Maybe there might be a famous billionaire that says the repressed people of Iran need some supporters on 42nd Street in Times Square. I'm going to pay you $100 an hour. To go out there for four hours and chant for the people of Iran who have the courage to stand up against the Ayatollah, an 86-year-old evil.
Pretend Cleric. who has done nothing but finance terror throughout the region, and he has got no friends. I mean, you could count on one hand the amount of people that even deal with Iran on a regular basis, even though many of these.
So-called enemies and rivals are calling on the U.S. not to take action, that we could make things. that we could make things worse. Here's more from Michael Waltz. In addition to the gross human rights abuses, in addition to its illegal march towards a nuclear weapon.
In 1979, the regime we now know, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, gave support to radical students who attacked the United States embassy in Tehran, took over 50 Americans hostage and held them in captivity for over 400 days. That was followed by The bombing attack on the United States embassy in Beirut. Killing 17 Americans and scores of Lebanese civilians, followed by the supported and directed direction of terrorists who drove two trucks filled with explosives. into US and French barracks. In Beirut.
Killing 241 American soldiers and 58 French military personnel, all part of a multinational force. Invited. by the Lebanese government. It's responsible for the deaths of over 600 American service members. and countless others.
In Iraq. And that number is likely higher. Ambassador Mike Waltz outlining Iran's track record as they begin to just shoot, try to kill themselves out of this threat to their government. Just randomly shooting people on the streets. The video is available, even though it's spotty.
You're getting video out there of just people being shot in the head from close range, assassinated, put into body bags as they pile up. They are charged, get this, they are charging families. if when they come to pick up the body, for the bullets they use to kill their loved ones. I mean, that's how evil this regime is. But what should be the next step?
And what are we capable of doing to help the people who are rising up in the streets? And and at the same time not trying to get involved in an overseas conflict. Jennifer Griffin joins us now. Few people know the military, its capabilities, and the region better than you, Jennifer. As you join us from Washington, Do you get the sense that the president wants to act, they just haven't settled how to act?
I get the sense, Brian, that the President was presented military options. And I think that those military options, given the fact that a lot of resources had been pulled out of the Middle East after last summer's strike on the nuclear program in Iran, the USS Ford, the aircraft carry strike group, was moved to the Caribbean to help with Venezuela. There was no aircraft carrier in the region. That is a gap that we haven't seen for years, really. There were also missile defense systems that were taken out of the region because a lot of interceptors had been used.
Those interceptors have not been replaced. The industry has had a hard time producing enough because of last summer's events and the attacks on the Houthis.
So the military, while we have 30,000 troops in the Middle East, we have numerous bases. A lot of those bases are pretty vulnerable to follow-on attacks by Iran. Iran still has a very hefty ballistic missile program. Program, and I think the president wasn't able to receive assurances that both Israel and the U.S. bases would be safe if the U.S.
were to launch a strike and not have all of its air defenses and its military in position.
So I think what we're seeing is a pause. I think the president used the strengths of the threat to get the regime to stop the hangings, at least for now. And maybe they're keeping a lower profile in terms of simply gunning down people in the streets, which they were doing before. Will it stop and will the protests stop? It's very hard to get information out of Tehran today to know for certain what is happening.
There's a lot of propaganda on both sides, a lot of psyops and information operations that it's really hard for us to know exactly what's happening. I think we'll know if the regime starts up again. There's no way that they can keep a lid on what's happening, and their economy is in a free fall. The people are Are angry, but they're also scared right now. The tactics that they're using to control the people in cities across Iran are very, very, very barbaric and terrible.
So it's a wait and see, but I would keep an eye on when a U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in the Middle East. But I'm also told by Very well-placed sources in the military that if the President were to act in the future and use the military, it would look very different than last summer. This is not going to be a few pinprick strikes. This would be something much bigger, swifter, and the president wants assurances that it will not spread into a wider Middle East war.
So interesting. President Trump and the Wall Street Journal was advised, according to them, that a large-scale strike against Iran was unlikely to make the government fall and could spark a wider conflict. Um Your thoughts on that, and also the fact that the Gulf allies reportedly are trying to persuade the President not to act. I think it's based on all the experts I've spoken to, and I spoke with Norm Ruhl yesterday, who served in the CIA for 34 years, and his focus was on Iran. He is probably the foremost expert on Iran in our intelligence community.
And he said that anyone who thinks that a single or even just a limited military strike on the regime would cause it to fall is fooling themselves. It's not to say that military action can't have some effect in terms of destabilizing the regime, but you're going to have to use other mechanisms, including cyber, including information operations, including the banking system, the sanctions enforcement. The administration is doing some things very well, and that is the targeting of these oil tankers, which is the shadow fleet, which basically helps fund the Iranian regime. That is very significant. Nobody's getting killed in those, the use of the U.S.
Coast Guard and the Navy and the special operations to take those oil tankers. They've taken about five of them now. And that is, now there are about 1,500 in this ghost fleet, but that is having an impact. The banking system is collapsing. You're seeing a flight of capital, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.
The leaders are, you know, it's unstable. And as we've seen with the fall of the Berlin Wall and other situations, these things can change quickly. And I don't think we know, this is not over. And I don't think we know how this ends. But I also think that if the U.S.
military goes to war and decapitates the Iranian leadership and regime, you don't know what comes next. And civil war, as we saw in other countries, it could get very bloody. It could spread to other countries. And that's why we've heard caution. Just from Arab allies, where we have our bases.
Remember, our bases are in Qatar, in UAE, in Bahrain, but also from Israel. Israel and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is very concerned about what comes next.
Now, Bibi Netanyahu did want the president to focus on the ballistic missiles because Iran has been producing more and building up its stockpile again, and they have mobile missile launchers that are very hard to take out. And so, Netanyahu did appeal to the president that something needs to be done about these missile launchers and the missiles. But it doesn't mean, again, this is going to be a very complicated action if the military gets involved. But the threat of having the military on the horizon is giving the president leverage with the regime. We'll just have to see how it plays out.
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General Jack Keene joined us earlier on Fox and Friends Cut 27. This is a process that's taking place. We're focused on holding the people accountable for what they have done and then putting it on a pathway to so weaken the regime, which is already politically, economically, and militarily the weakest it has been in 45 years. Our actions here will further weaken it.
So we look at a regime that has their currency devalued massively. Inflation is skyrocketing. They can't get water into their capital city. And now they know that billions is going to Hezbollah still and millions to Hamas.
So that seems like economic. Economics might have been the reason for the uprising to begin with.
Well, it's interesting. There was a very good piece in the Wall Street Journal about the bank that was being used by many members of the IRGC and the leadership and the security services. And that bank failed back in December. And it really had a ripple effect. More banks are likely to fail.
The situation with the currency, I think it's been devalued by 80 percent. I think that inflation is at 25 percent. But remember, these kind of tyrants and these regimes, you can have that happen, whether it's North Korea, even Venezuela was able to hang on until the U.S. military went and grabbed President Maduro. They've had huge inflation and devalued currency for a long time, and these regimes can hang on.
They have the bullets, and that is what is challenging, is that even the military targets that the U.S. could take out, they could destabilize the regime, but it doesn't have Still going to take the Iranian people overthrowing this regime. It is. And if we can't do it, because we don't want to own it, we do not want to finance it, certainly.
So I have the numbers: 18,400 arrests, 2,600 dead. Do you think that is those some of the numbers that you hear? I mean, that's what I'm hearing, but I don't think anyone knows, Brian. I think that there are a lot of Iranian opposition groups who are outside the country who are getting information, piecemeal information. It's certainly in their interest to give the highest numbers, but then there are also indications that there are leaks from the National Security Establishment of Iran that put it at about, I think, 2,000 dead.
But again, I don't think we know. And I think I know, my guess is it's in the thousands. Based on the videos that we've seen and the approach that they've been taking, this is like nothing we've seen in 45 years. There have been other uprisings. There have been other brutal crackdowns.
This is different. And what Norm Rule told me is that it's coming faster and faster.
So you had the 2009 Green Revolution, then in 2020 and 2022. It seems like the the periodicity of these uprisings coming faster and faster given the shaky standing that the regime has. And don't forget that last summer's attacks really pulled the curtain back on what is really like a Wizard of Oz situation for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the rest of that establishment. They could not protect Iran from those strikes. And that was another sign that the regime is not all-powerful.
The quality of that operation in Venezuela really sent a message in that region and around the world. I mean, we don't know how it's all going to play out, but the way that was put in... We're in a historic moment. We're in a historic moment. And all of these pieces are interconnected.
And we don't know. And we don't know how all this is going to impact Russia and Putin, because Russia is losing a lot of its proxy estates that have helped prop up the regime with their petro dollars. And that has been the only reason they've been able to continue in Ukraine. And so it's all interrelated. And it's going to take a little bit of time.
Americans tend to be very want immediate results. This, I think, we should watch carefully, but it's not over. And the U.S. is playing a responsible role here. And this is the way the U.S.
military should be used as a backup to make sure that the President's word is listened to. But you don't go in guns blazing when you're not, you haven't protected your bases, you haven't protected your troops, you haven't, you know, there are, you have to think of the unintended consequences and the follow-on effects. And I think the President is weighing those very carefully. And lastly, real quick, Jennifer, it looks like China's allies are realizing their relationship has limits. Look at Venezuela and look at Iran, right?
They didn't really do anything after Iran was hit in June, and they're not really doing anything now. Absolutely. And the only thing I would say is that I think the only way to take on places like Putin and China and Beijing is with allies. And right now, some of those alliances are strained because of some of the rhetoric coming out of Washington and the administration. And I think alliances and allies, that is going to be the best way to push back on Putin and Xi in this kind of era of great power competition.
I hear you. Jennifer Griffin, always great. Thanks so much. Thank you, Brian.
