Scott Ritter discusses the US's third day in a row of "limited strikes" on Iran, this time hitting Qeshm island. CENTCOM has declared a new operation "Iron Gate" to cut off Iran's land routes while secretly telling Israel to be prepared to launch a wider war at any moment. This show breaks down what these developments mean for the region and the world as Trump finds himself stuck on the path of escalation on many fronts of the geopolitical landscape.
Scott Ritter and Patrik Baab on The World This Week: Will lame ducks Trump and Netanyahu unleash their fury on Iran? Does Trump have a big Ukraine deal? Also, the crisis in Poland, the Democrats and Ukraine, and the uprisings in Europe.
Scott Ritter argues Trump delivered on nothing after the midterms, as buyer's remorse hits voters. He claims the US cannot attack Iran and has lost leverage.
In this conversation, former UN weapons inspector and US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter shares his perspective on the US midterm results, the state of Donald Trump's presidency, and US-Iran tensions.
Timeline:
00:00:00 Buyer's remorse after midterms
00:02:29 Divided America and purple voters
00:04:30 Ritter on Trump promises, ICE and war claims
00:08:00 Economy, defeat narrative and leadership vacuum
00:10:04 Democrats, revenge tactics and rudderless ship
00:13:54 Constitution and American voters
00:14:21 Comfort, consumerism and moral compass
00:23:40 Corrupt system, media and campaign money
00:25:46 US economy, foreign policy and Iran war impact
00:30:02 Israel, US policy and moral debate
00:37:48 Iran stance, no compromise and nuclear claims
00:51:29 Why Ritter says US won't attack Iran
00:55:01 Conclusion: No sense in attacking Iran for Trump
Scott Ritter discusses his reaction to Tucker Carlson's nuclear Iran warning and the secret US combat operation underway during midterm elections that threatens a wider war in the Middle East.
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector.
A top election analyst says if Trump loses just the House on Tuesday his era is over. Would a Democratic House have the guts to cut Iran war funding? Plus an update on the uprising in France. Ray McGovern, Scott Ritter.
Ray McGovern is a former C.I.A. Russia analyst and presidential briefer, Scott Ritter is a former U.N. weapons inspector, intelligence officer and author. Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News. Cathy Vogan is executive producer of CN Live! and The World This Week.
Scott Ritter tells Judge Napolitano that the Pentagon plan is a raid on Iran's energy sites at Kharg and Qeshm, meant to collapse the Iranian economy and target its leadership, not an occupation of the islands.
He says Iran would answer by striking Gulf energy infrastructure, including Saudi Arabia, and that Senator Chris Murphy should reveal the plan and try to stop what Ritter calls an illegal war.
Scott Ritter sits with Jacques Baud in Brussels and introduces the Swiss colonel to an American audience, opening on Europe and free speech. Baud describes his path as a citizen-soldier and strategic-intelligence analyst, from Warsaw Pact work and training in the US and UK to UN peacekeeping and a NATO small-arms post that took him to Ukraine in 2014.
Scott Ritter discusses what he reports as an imminent US combat operation against Iran as Netanyahu's plan to sabotage the Israeli elections taking place October 27th. Desperation has set in as Iran and Russia remake the Middle East and the world order.
Scott Ritter tells Judge Napolitano that EU sanctions on Jacques Baud, a Swiss officer living in Brussels, froze his bank, and that officials told a German parliamentarian even a loaf of bread would break the sanctions.
He says a later review dropped the Russian-propagandist charge, kept the sanctions because Baud is so neutral that his speaking would reinforce Russia's position, and calls those sanctions a death penalty.
Jacques Baud, former Swiss colonel and strategic military intelligence analyst, lives in Brussels under EU sanctions that have frozen his assets and restricted his life.
In this conversation he describes the everyday reality of those sanctions: food brought by people who call themselves a resistance, strangers stopping him on the street every day to offer support, a humanitarian banking exemption that took five months to approve and still isn't fully implemented, and sanctions that are renewed with no clear end date.
He explains why he sees the current European system as a "democrature," why foreign-policy tools are being used inside the EU, and how his case has become emblematic for many Europeans who feel the same pressures.
Scott Ritter tells Glenn Diesen that the largest drone attack on St. Petersburg did not exploit a hole in Russian air defenses so much as a corridor along Belarus, Poland, and the Baltic states, where intercepting the drones would put Russian assets into NATO airspace, and that the precision implies guidance beacons inside NATO countries. He says Zelensky made the quarrel with Donald Trump personal, a mistake he calls fatal, and that the split points to the collapse of Ukraine and, with it, of NATO and the European Union.
Scott Ritter with Nima Alkhorshid on reports that two ships are sinking, one in the Strait of Hormuz and one in the Gulf of Oman, after more than ten vessels were hit. They discuss an Ansarallah announcement of strikes on Aramco headquarters, an Aramco facility, and King Khalid International Airport, and Ritter's view that Iran controls the strait while Saudi attempts to divert oil to the Red Sea have failed.
Scott Ritter with Danny Haiphong on C-17 transports surging into Ben Gurion, a Trump-Israel war plan for Iran the show says is already underway, and an Iranian response that has left Washington and Tel Aviv panicking.
Vasily Prozorov, a former Ukrainian SBU officer who defected to Russia and survived two assassination attempts, has spent years tracking the network of foreign fighters and mercenaries operating inside Ukraine. His new book, "Ukraine: Murderers for Hire — Dogs of War Lured by Kiev," is a documentary investigation into who these fighters really are.
He sits down with Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector and Marine Corps intelligence officer, and DDGeopolitics to break it down.
He sorts foreign fighters into three categories: ideological neo-Nazis, mercenaries chasing a paycheck, and Western military professionals operating NATO systems under official deniability. British Afghanistan veterans could not answer how to defend a checkpoint against a tank. A Ukrainian officer had already faced that in 2014. By late 2023 most Western mercenaries had left Ukraine. The war was nothing like Afghanistan or Iraq.
The supply has shifted to Latin America. Colombians are now the dominant foreign mercenary group and are used as cannon fodder. Western countries are paying their own mercenaries through Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, with their own financial assistance. Colombian cartels are recruiting Ukraine-trained FPV drone operators. Prozorov says he has seen it firsthand. Ukrainian instructors have been sent to Colombia to train cartel members on FPV drones on the spot.
Israeli instructors were seen in the Dnipro battalion in 2014, a personal connection through Kolomoisky. On drone operators controlling strikes from European apartments, he says: "War criminals. Nothing but disgust." He calls Laura Loomer a soldier in information warfare, a foreign mercenary serving the Kiev regime. His next book is on weapon smuggling from Ukraine.
Description:
This past June I was able to sit down with Dmitri Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos, current Senator for Zaporozhia, and the commander of the BARS Sarmat Brigade, which focusses on drone warfare in the Special Military Operation.
Description:
00:00 Hegseth reshapes the rules of the military
03:43 Personnel decisions divide military leadership
07:07 Top commanders gather under one roof
10:26 Netanyahu and Trump discuss political influence
14:17 Vance could become Trump’s political safeguard
17:48 Expensive diesel drives up American prices
21:13 Saudi Arabia faces mounting internal pressure
24:14 Saudi megaprojects raise serious questions
27:44 Witkoff emerges as a diplomatic channel
