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Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent joins former CIA analyst Larry Johnson for an insider’s examination of how intelligence is collected, filtered and politicized before it reaches the White House.
Drawing on experience in special operations, the CIA and the NCTC, Kent explores the suppression of dissenting assessments, Washington’s dependence on foreign liaison services and why a system awash in classified data can still profoundly misread Iran, Russia and the wars it helps shape.
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Iran told Trump "get lost." Sources with direct contact to Islamabad and Tehran tell Transition Protocol that Trump offered Iran a 10-day cessation of hostilities this week — and was refused. Then, through Qatar, the White House asked Iran to allow "performative strikes" with no retaliation. Iran refused again.
Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir has stopped returning Trump's calls after being sent to Tehran twice and reneged on twice. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed despite official claims it is "wide open," CENTCOM has re-stood up a 24/7 battle staff, and Iran's retaliation doctrine is now 2-to-1, 3-to-1, 5-to-1 with a war plan built to run through the US midterms.
Larry Johnson explains why the bond market — not the Pentagon — is forcing Trump to back down: Treasury yields are rising and, in his words, "nobody's buying." Pepe Escobar breaks down the tanker-for-tanker gamble that could detonate global shipping insurance, Ghalibaf's warning that "if we cannot export oil, nobody will," and the SCO development bank being built outside the US dollar at Bishkek and Vladivostok ahead of the BRICS summit in India. Zulfiqar Ali reports Tehran's final position: diplomacy only through the Islamabad MOU — no more negotiations.
Guests: Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and State Department counter-terrorism official; Pepe Escobar, veteran geopolitical correspondent covering BRICS, SCO and Eurasia from the ground; hosted by Zulfiqar Ali. Inside-source claims in this episode are attributed and identified on screen as developing; nothing unverified is presented as settled fact. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel — evidence-based reporting on global power shifts and their financial consequences. Subscribe and join us on Substack for twice-weekly briefings
Larry Johnson and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson with Danny Haiphong on Iranian strikes on US bases after a reported attack on a wedding party in southern Iran, and claimed heavy US Marine casualties.
Larry Johnson talks with Nima Alkhorshid on Dialogue Works about reported U.S. strikes on two military sites on Iran's Larak Island, near a key oil chokepoint.
Description:
A source described by Zulfiqar Ali as the person drafting a Pakistani announcement says Iran and the United States have agreed on a contemporaneous first step: a controlled reopening of the Strait of Hormuz alongside U.S. sanctions and naval-blockade relief.
That claim is not yet publicly corroborated. What is verified is that Pakistan’s mediation channel is active, Iran and Oman are working on a temporary maritime corridor, Hormuz remains severely disrupted, and Washington has just intensified sanctions pressure.
In this urgent Transition Protocol conversation, Pepe Escobar and Larry C. Johnson stress-test the reported Trump–Iran off-ramp: who moves first, what “simultaneous” action would actually mean, whether a 60–90 day indirect process exists, how an oil and fuel shock changes Washington’s choices, and why Trump—or a third-party spoiler—could still collapse the window. The central question is not whether officials sound hopeful. It is whether reciprocal action becomes observable.
Zulfiqar Ali brings source-based reporting from Pakistani and Iranian contacts; Pepe Escobar and former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson provide geopolitical and security analysis. Transition Protocol is a source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel focused on evidence, power shifts, and real-world consequences. Source claims in this episode are identified as developing or uncorroborated where appropriate.
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Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson blows lid off the secret CIA mission that flew to Moscow and why Russia and Iran were very much aware of what was happening when the US C17 landed on August 25th.
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Trump's White House tried to buy off Iran's Revolutionary Guard with a multi-billion-dollar offer modeled on the Venezuela playbook — and got refused twice, first by IRGC commander Vahidi, who called it treason, and then by Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir, who told Trump directly that Islamabad would not help destabilize Tehran's leadership.
In this episode, Zulfiqar Ali, Pepe Escobar, and Larry Johnson break down the failed bribery attempt, China's directive to Pakistan to prioritize its Iran relationship, and why the collapse of the US–Iran memorandum of understanding is now pushing Washington toward open discussion of a nuclear strike on Iran.
The panel also covers the global diesel and aviation-fuel shortage triggered by the Strait of Hormuz blockade, the UAE's public cutoff of trade with Iran days after reportedly sending Tehran billions in cash and gold, and why Oman and Qatar are now openly rejecting US pressure over who controls the strait.
This episode is built on direct reporting from sources inside Tehran and Islamabad and lands the same week the US–Iran MOU formally expired (August 17–18, 2026), with Iran declaring a shift to a fully offensive posture on Hormuz.
Zulfiqar Ali reports with direct access to decision-making circles in Islamabad and Tehran; Pepe Escobar is a veteran geopolitical analyst covering Eurasia and the multipolar order from the ground; Larry Johnson is a former US intelligence and State Department official providing military and strategic analysis. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel focused on evidence-based reporting and high-signal breakdowns of global power shifts and their financial consequences.
Description:
Iran has moved from defensive to offensive posture — and sources in Tehran and Islamabad tell Transition Protocol the next step under discussion is an attack on a US Navy warship. Meanwhile, the American fleet enforcing the Iran blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is running out of food, having lost its forward resupply warehouses in Bahrain and Oman and half its fast combat supply ships to a decade-old budget cut. Today the US–Iran MOU officially expired. Larry Johnson and Zulfiqar Ali break down what happens next.
In this episode: why Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman, and the Hormuz transit-fee agreement that likely triggered it; why oil moving off ships is reportedly changing hands as high as $260 a barrel while the tanker ETF has gone from $67 to $387 since February; why the global diesel and aviation fuel shortage cannot be solved by pumping more crude; how BRICS, China’s CIPS payment system and six new Pakistani overland routes have made sanctioning Iran into isolation impossible; why the Turkey–Pakistan–Saudi Mecca pact cannot fight for 12 to 18 months; and what was reportedly discussed about the nuclear option at Camp David this weekend.
Larry Johnson spent 27 years in US intelligence and counterterrorism, including the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, and has run joint military operations planning for over two decades.
Zulfiqar Ali reports with direct visibility into decision-making circles in Tehran and Islamabad. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel focused on evidence-based reporting and high-signal breakdowns of global power shifts and their financial consequences. Some claims in this episode are source-based and developing; each is identified as such on screen. Nothing here is investment advice.;
Military analyst Andrei Martyanov joins former CIA analyst Larry Johnson on Russia's battlefield advances, drone warfare and command systems, the industrial gap with the United States, and what the next five months could bring for Ukraine and NATO.
Judge Andrew Napolitano with Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, and Joe Kent. They discuss the reported Air Force One threat (Israeli warning, CIA skepticism, Trump taken off the plane), Israel's influence on US intelligence, the Iran war and Hormuz blockade, and Putin's Far East order that Russian ships may seize European vessels if Europe seizes Russian ones.
