Netanyahu says Iran's leaders must go. Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson explains Iran's answer: a "dead man's switch" that lets 31 regional commanders fire at pre-selected targets on their own — and why Russian planes, he says, are flying diplomats out.
Timeline:
00:04:21 Russian arms in, diplomats out? What Johnson says the Russian flights signal — and what our host's Tehran sources say landed after Lavrov left (10:15).
00:05:09 The dead man's switch: "In the event of a decapitation strike… The 31 regional commanders of the IRGC have been authorized unilaterally to initiate strikes on their own."
00:11:44 The window: "as early tonight… tomorrow… if it does not happen by Sunday… highly unlikely."
00:24:43 The aim: Netanyahu says Trump "has signed off" on removing Iran's leadership. Johnson: "that I doubt."
Larry Wilkerson tells Nima Alkhorshid that US and Israeli exercises over Iraq look like preparation for a strike on Iran, and that Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump have different aims in that war. He puts the chance that Iran tries to preempt, if it is convinced of the timing, at about 50/50.
Fmr CIA analyst Larry Johnson and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson discuss the massive build up to all-out war by the US & Israel, and why Iran's mosaic defense doctrine carries many surprises that will not only wreak devastation on the aggressors but also change the world order forever.
Description:
A senior Pakistani source tells host Zulfiqar Ali that Pakistan has picked Iran's side against US and Saudi pressure — after consulting Beijing — and that "nobody can save MBS". Live, Larry Johnson reads Haaretz's report that Washington now favours a preemptive strike on Iran.
01:51 Pakistan's choice: "stand firmly on the side of Iran" — per a Pakistani insider.
02:45 "Six corridors… back to where they were."
04:52 The message to MBS.
06:52 The first strike, as Haaretz reports it — and the US embassy order Larry Johnson reads as a war signal.
10:43 "Nothing left": what was said in Tehran about an Israeli nuclear strike — reported by the host's source.
What you'll learn: which side Pakistan has taken and who signed off on it · why Pakistan has told MBS to choose · what Haaretz reported about a US preemptive strike · what the Gulf embassy order does and does not mean · what closing both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb would cost the world.
Sourcing note: Pakistan's decision, the consultation with China's Wang Yi, the message to MBS and the remark in Tehran are our host's own sourcing from a senior Pakistani source and cannot be independently verified.
Public record: Field Marshal Munir was in Tehran on 20–21 October and met SNSC Secretary Mohsen Rezaei; Pakistan reopened its Taftan and Gabd–Rimdan crossings with Iran on 20 October after closing them on 17 October, citing security; LPG imports remained blocked.
The "six corridors" are the source's account. Haaretz's correspondent reported an apparent US shift toward a preemptive strike, citing White House sources — that is the "reportedly" in our title; Haaretz also reported the same day that Trump had blocked an early-October strike.
Reuters reports the US ordered some embassy staff and families out of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan, with US officials citing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia; no report lists Kuwait. Fars reported explosions of unknown origin in Sirik, southern Iran — not Iraq. Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar and Indonesia signed the "Badr" defence-industry MoU in Doha on 21 October.
Description:
Trump said Russia was doing “very little, if anything” to help Iran. Today Sergey Lavrov sat beside Abbas Araghchi in Tehran. Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson asks whether that was a coincidence — and host Zulfiqar Ali’s Pakistani and Turkish contacts say the leader who is really on his own is MBS.
— 09:29 Lavrov in Tehran: “You think that was just a coincidence?” — 19:55 MBS on his own: why Pakistan and Turkey have cut their support, per our host’s contacts — and China’s position.— 30:48 “There are no good military options”: Trump’s only way out, according to Larry Johnson.
What you’ll learn: why Lavrov’s visit contradicts Trump’s claim about Russia · why Pakistan’s border “closure” is two gates, not the border · what our host’s sources say about MBS, Pakistan, Turkey and China · why Iran wants the Islamabad MOU, not the JCPOA · what Johnson expects before the 3 November election.
Sourcing note: The reports on Pakistan’s and Turkey’s support for MBS, on China’s position, on sea traffic through Gwadar and on US helicopters off Pakistan’s coast are our host’s own sourcing and cannot be independently verified. Johnson’s report of a Quantico meeting of senior officers on 20 October had not been publicly reported at the time of publishing.
Public record: Lavrov met Araghchi in Tehran on 19 October and said Russia is committed to its 20-year strategic partnership with Iran; Pakistan suspended trade at the Taftan and Gabd crossings (18 October; some reports say four crossings) and Iran’s foreign ministry cited “technical issues”; Trump said on 16 October that “Israel’s been very helpful to Saudi Arabia”; IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Zarifi was killed in Saravan on 24 September; Pakistan’s information ministry on 18 October called claims that the US Navy operates from Pakistani territory against Iran “baseless”.
Military analyst Andrei Martyanov joins former CIA officer Larry Johnson to discuss Russia’s place in European civilization and the historical forces behind its confrontation with the West.
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, with Zulfiqar Ali on Transition Protocol, on why Trump's MOAB can't crack Iran's Pickaxe Mountain. Ali's sources in Islamabad say MBS asked Pakistan for help, repeatedly, and Pakistan said no. Johnson, who briefed a UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on Wednesday, says Europe will start a war with Russia it will regret.
The show also covers what the MOAB can and cannot do, why Pakistan will not fight Ansar Allah for MBS, what Pakistani and Turkish officers told MBS about Israelis in his war room, how Johnson expects the war to end and China's role, and why diesel is short in a country that makes more than it uses.
The Islamabad decision, MBS's requests and the war-room account are the host's own sourcing and cannot be independently verified. Johnson's Europe and MBS forecasts are his analysis.
Timeline:
00:03:56 The MOAB: why an 11-ton air-burst bomb can't reach a facility under a mountain
00:10:21 No rescue: what Islamabad decided, per the host's sources
00:31:38 At the UN: the US tone shift, Nebenzia's answer, and Europe's hard line
Larry Johnson on reports that Yemeni forces struck two Aramco headquarters in Saudi Arabia and published footage of a hit on a Saudi Typhoon, described as the second fighter jet after an F-15. He also recounts speaking at a Russian-chaired UN Security Council session in New York on civilian casualties in Ukraine, and says the US tone toward Russia has softened.
Has Iran just leaked US-Israeli war plans, which according to Iranian intel, could be carried at any moment? Fmr CIA analyst Larry Johnson and retired US Army Colonel and Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson react to a bombshell report that details the deep war preparations of Trump and Netanyahu when no one was watching, and give expert insights into the Yemen-Saudi war that cannot be ignored as Middle East oil comes under massive crisis.
Following their recent trip to Russia, Professor John Mearsheimer joins former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to examine why Western hostility toward Moscow has intensified long after the Cold War.
Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson with Zulfiqar Ali on Transition Protocol. A senior source in Pakistan's military establishment told the show, in answer to five questions, that no Pakistani aircraft entered Yemeni airspace — "None. Zero." — and that the foreigners inside Saudi Arabia's war are mostly American: 110 American advisors, two Pakistani radar specialists and two Turkish technicians.
CNN has separately reported more than 100 US military advisers supporting the Saudi campaign. On 8 October Pakistan's Information Ministry called a New York Times report of Pakistani jets "fake and fabricated". The source says every Pakistani unit is around Mecca and Medina, under Pakistani command, not Najran.
Escobar says any move toward the border would make Pakistani forces "legitimate targets". Also Saudi Arabia's money, Trump's pause on Iran until after 3 November, and what a senior Iranian source told the host two hours before recording.
The five answers and the 110 / 2 / 2 figures come from that Pakistani military source. The Iranian remarks are a senior Iranian source speaking to the host. Larry Johnson's account of damage at Abqaiq and on the East–West pipeline has not been independently confirmed.
Larry Johnson and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson with Danny Haiphong on a report they treat as a CIA leak: how much trouble Israel is in, and why it is pressing, with US help, to restart the Iran war despite that warning.
Johnson is a former CIA analyst. Wilkerson is a retired US Army colonel and former chief of staff.
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and former U.S. Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik examine why Europe is drifting toward direct confrontation with Russia despite lacking the industrial capacity to sustain a major war. Johnson puts the risk of exchanges of fire within seven months at 70 percent.
They also discuss Ukraine’s battlefield position, Russia’s artillery and glide-bomb advantage, whether Israel can survive its current course and the danger that U.S. escalation against Iran could accelerate nuclear proliferation.
Fmr CIA analyst Larry Johnson and Col Lawrence Wilkerson discuss the Israeli hoax that is setting the pretext for renewed strikes as Trump signals a return to full-scale military action is coming and fast. Iran has blown open the plot and the region is on maximum alert for another round of war.
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson with Nima Alkhorshid on Dialogue Works — smoke rising near Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, and whether it was a direct hit.
