Glenn Greenwald
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Is War With Iran—Long-Time Neocon Fantasy—Finally Here? Nancy Pelosi Says Pro-Palestine Protesters Are Russian Agents—or Chinese. Plus: Expert Sal Mercogliano on Houthi Attacks in Red Sea
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January 30, 2024
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Good evening. It's Monday, January 29. 

Tonight: is Joe Biden leading the United States into an even more expanded war in the Middle East, this time targeting Iran? After the October 7 attack by Hamas, the Biden administration pledged full and unconditional American support for Israel, not only proposing to pay for and arm Israel's war, but even deploying military assets to that region, including two aircraft carriers. The objective, they said at the time, was to ensure that there would be no regional escalation. Yet exactly that has happened. 

The Israelis and Hezbollah have been repeatedly attacking one another for months. The U.S. has repeatedly and fatally bombed targets in both Syria and Iraq that it alleges are the home of Iranian-backed militias and has bombed multiple targets in Yemen over the last month, in retaliation for attacks by the Houthi on commercial ships connected to Israel in the U.S. But all of that escalation, though dangerous in the extreme, makes what happens next seem like child's play, as members of both parties are urging, even demanding, that Biden now attack and bomb targets inside Iran in retaliation for the death of three American soldiers at a U.S. base in Jordan caused by a drone attack the U.S. says Iran is responsible for. 

If one looks at this incident in complete isolation—three American soldiers were killed by a drone attack on the U.S. military base—then the question of what the U.S. should do might seem simple. Namely, the U.S. must retaliate, perhaps even aggressively, against whichever country was to blame. But if you pull back the analytical prism just a few inches, much broader and more complex questions arise, ones which complicate that question significantly. 

To begin with, why does the U.S. have military bases and U.S. soldiers deployed all across the Middle East, including in Jordan, Syria and Iraq? Looking at things purely from a pragmatic perspective, what does one expect will happen if the U.S. involves itself in multiple wars in the Middle East, including paying for and arming Israel as it destroys Gaza? Is it reasonable to assume that all these other countries will simply stand by passively, while the U.S. continues to interfere in, and assert its military force in that region? And how far is the U.S. willing to go? What price are Americans willing to endure in the name of protecting Israel and empowering its war in Gaza? 

Such questions regarding the use of force and bombing campaigns and the like had traditionally broken down years ago along left/right lines, but not anymore. After the standard establishment Republican warmongers, people like GOP Senators Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and John Cornyn all demanded that Biden strike Iran, the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in a mega-viral tweet, proclaimed them to be, and I quote, “fucking lunatics.” 

Other Republican politicians, including Rand Paul and Vivek Ramaswamy, have long questioned the wisdom of trifling with the U.S. war with Iran, something that has long been the goal of Israel's most ardent supporters in the U.S., as well as typical cheerleaders for the military-industrial complex and the doctrine of endless war. We'll report on these latest events involving Iran and examine all of these obviously important and quite grave questions that arise from them. 

Then: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went on CNN on Sunday and announced her belief that pro-Palestinian protesters in the United States are likely Russian agents or in some other way are tied to the Kremlin. As a result of her suspicions, which she insisted were well-founded, and what she described as her longtime interest in the topic of Russian infiltration, Pelosi called on the FBI to immediately investigate those who are protesting against the Israeli war in Gaza, to find out about their connections to the Kremlin. In an odd turn of events, however, the very same Nancy Pelosi—when pro-Palestinian protesters showed up at her house earlier today to protest her support for Israel's war—screamed at them, “Go back to China. That's where your headquarters are.” She did not appear to realize that only 24 hours earlier, she had claimed that their headquarters were in Moscow, not Beijing. 

It is tempting just to laugh off Pelosi's rantings as the delusions of a deranged elderly lady who has spent her life accustomed to being shown great deference. That is of course true and is undoubtedly part of what is driving her uncontrolled rage against these protesters. There are several revealing aspects to this incident, however, showing not only how reflexively Washington Democrats seek to weaponize the FBI against their political opposition, but also how demented this core Democratic Party tactic is, which has dominated this party's discourse for almost eight years now, of insisting that anyone who questions or opposes them must be controlled by and loyal to Russia. 

Along the same lines, we'll examine the latest campaign literature of Congressman Adam Schiff, who was Pelosi's candidate for the U.S. Senate in California, where he boasts that he proved that Trump and Russia illegally colluded. 

Finally, one of the most inflammatory events driving the conflict in the Middle East has been the attack by the Houthi on U.S. and Israeli-linked commercial ships in the Red Sea. The way that the Houthis have caused so much turmoil and difficulty for commercial shipping is actually quite fascinating, given how little resources and military sophistication they possess. To help us understand exactly what is going on. We will speak to Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant marine and expert in the maritime sector, who is the host of a YouTube channel show entitled “What's Going On with Shipping?” Last week, he produced a very informative video explaining in detail exactly what the Houthis have been doing, why it is far more serious than it has been appreciated, and what the U.S. response has been and still might be in the future. 

For now, welcome to a new episode of System Update, starting right now. 

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Game of Thrones Actor Liam Cunningham on Gaza Activism and UK Censorship; Journalist Zaid Jilani on Mamdani, Epstein, the State of the Dems and More
System Update #484

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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There are times when we cannot cover everything that is going on that we think deserves attention, and one of the ways we try to rectify that is to bring on guests who we believe are highly informed, engaging and provocative. We have two guests tonight for you who are most certainly all of those things. 

The first is Liam Cunningham, who is the long-time working Irish actor likely best known for his central role as Davod Seaworth in the HBO hit series, Game of Thrones; but for our purposes he is also a very passionate political activist and analyst who has spent decades involved in political activism, in the last two years focused like many people, on the Israeli destruction of Gaza. 

Right after that, we’ll talk to the very independent, heterodox and cantankerous journalist – which I mean in the most flattering way – Zaid Jilani. He was my colleague for years at the Intercept until he left for all the right reasons. We're going to talk about a wide range of topics with him, including the fallout from the DOJ's announcement that it's closing the Epstein investigation with no further disclosures, the state of the race for New York City mayor, where Zohran Mamdani's primary win has sent a lot of people, especially the city's richest, into full meltdown mode. 

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The Interview: Liam Cunningham 

Liam Cunningham is an award-winning Irish actor, as I said, best known for his role in HBO's series Game of Thrones. Various outlets, including The Irish Times, have called him one of Ireland's greatest actors. He's been a political activist for decades, but recently he helped to organize and became a spokesperson for the "Freedom Flotilla,” in which Greta Thunberg and other colleagues were arrested and deported by the Israeli government for attempting to deliver aid to the people of Gaza when the IDF was blockading it. I've followed his work for some time, especially his political work and we are delighted to have him for his debut appearance. Hope it's not the last on the show. 

G. Greenwald: Liam, it's great to see you. I know it's so late in Dublin. I really appreciate your staying up to talk with us. 

Liam Cunningham: No, that's fine. It's way past my bedtime, but an absolute yes. For you, sir, anything. 

G. Greenwald: I appreciate that. All right. So, let's begin with what I just mentioned, which is the role that you played in kind of helping to organize and becoming a very well-known spokesperson for the boat that was intended to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as a way of circumventing the IDF's blockade of food, water, medicine and the like.

I think a lot of people didn't realize at the time what an actually dangerous and courageous mission it was. I remember in 2011, a very similar flotilla attempted essentially the same thing to deliver food to the people of Gaza when there was a blockade there and the IDF actually attacked that ship and killed 10 people on board. You had Nobel Prize winners, holocaust survivors and the IDF just didn't care. They violently attacked it. What was the impetus for your involvement in this particular action, even knowing how dangerous and provocative it might be?

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Trump Mocks Concerns About Epstein; Trump Continues Biden's Policy of Arming Ukraine; Trump and Lula Exchange Barbs Over Brazil
System Update #483

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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 Much of the MAGA world was in turmoil, confusion and anger yesterday –understandably so – after the Trump DOJ announced it was closing the Epstein files and its investigation with no further disclosures of any kind. After all this happened, some attempt was made to try and pin the blame or isolate the blame for all of this on Attorney General Pam Bondi. Yet, Donald Trump himself, today, when asked about all of this, went much further than anyone else when meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House again: President Trump actually mocked and angrily dismissed any concerns over the Epstein matter and how it was handled. 

On our second segment, one of the uniting views of Trump supporters over the last four years has been opposition to the Biden administration's policy of arming, funding, and fueling Ukraine in its war against Russia. Yesterday, however, at the same meeting with Netanyahu, Trump announced that he would continue the Biden policy that he had spent so many years criticizing by now providing defensive arms at least to Ukraine, and he did so based on the longstanding neocon/liberal view that Putin is completely untrustworthy and therefore Russia must be thought because of Putin. That's what Trump himself said. 

Then, we’ll comment on Trump’s lengthy tweet attacking Brazil for its ongoing prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, during the BRICS Summit being held in Rio de Janeiro. This was something we were going to cover last night and didn't have time to, but we will tonight. Brazil's President Lula da Silva quickly responded, very defiantly, by basically telling Trump to mind his own business. 

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Last night, we covered quite extensively the decision by the Trump Justice Department, not even six months into the administration, to completely shut down and close and stop all investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, as well as announcing that there will be no further disclosures of any documents of any kind, that whatever they've released so far, which has basically been nothing – not basically, has been nothing – is all you're going to get. 

This is a blatant betrayal of multiple promises made by key Trump officials over the last four years, before they were in the White House, but was also a complete 180 in terms of what key Trump influencers and pundits had been saying, including several pundits who are now running the FBI, such as Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, as well as the Justice Department, including Pam Bondi. 

We even showed you an interview that Alina Habba, the Trump attorney who is now the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, appointed by Donald Trump, did with Pierce Morgan while she was in the government, just in February, where she claimed they have a whole bunch of very incriminating lists with shocking names. She said there's video and there are all kinds of documents that are shocking, in her words, and she said they're going to be released over time because we've gone long enough where people who do these sorts of things, including are involved in the Epstein scandal, have no accountability. She said that is ending with the Trump administration. There's going to be accountability. 

Yesterday, the Trump Justice Department said, “No, there's nothing here. We looked. There's no such thing as a client list.” We know we've been promising and that JD Vance repeatedly said, “Where's the client list?” Donald Trump Jr. said, “Anyone hiding the client lists is a scumbag.” Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi accused Biden officials of basically covering up predatory pedophilia by refusing to release the Jeffrey Epstein client list. Now, they're saying there's no client list, that thing we've been talking about and accusing Biden officials of hiding and promising to disclose, that doesn't exist. 

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Trump DOJ: There's Nothing to the Epstein Story; State Dept: Syria's Al-Qaeda are No Longer "Terrorists"
System Update #482

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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One of the most significant scandals among MAGA pundits and operatives within pro-Trump discourse generally over the last four years has been the one involving Jeffrey Epstein. 

Now, in less than five months, the DOJ announced today, the one under Pam Bondi, that they are closing the investigation, given the certainty that they say they have that Epstein had no client list. There's no such thing as an Epstein client list, he never tried to blackmail anyone and no powerful people were involved whatsoever with his sexual abuse of minors. They also say that he undoubtedly killed himself: there's no question about that. 

All of this is such a blatant betrayal of what was promised all of these years, such that all but the most blindly loyal Trump followers – like the real cult numbers, a lot of them almost certainly paid to be that – are reacting with understandable confusion and anger over what happened today and over the last several months. We'll delve into all of this and what this means. 

Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today that the group that al-Golani once led, long known as al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, is no longer officially a designated terrorist group. This is al-Qaeda. We'll explore what all of this shows about the utterly vacant and manipulated propaganda terms, terrorist and terrorism. 

As a note, we did not have enough time, so we’ll talk about President Trump’s tweet attacking Brazil and its government, on the day of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, some other time soon.

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Earlier today, the Justice Department issued a statement, essentially announcing that they no longer consider any of the questions surrounding what had long been the Epstein scandal to be worthwhile investigation; that essentially all of these questions have been answered, that there's really nothing to look into. 

You can read the Justice Department's statement here.

They're saying this client list that most Trump supporters, I would say, have been accusing the U.S. government, of hiding to protect all the powerful people on this list, now, that they're in power – people like Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, now they're in charge – they're saying, no, actually there is no client list at all. There's at least no incriminating client list, whatever that means. 

I don't know if there is a client list or not, but according to them, there's no incriminating client list. I don't know how you can have a client list that's not incriminating: to be a client of Jeffrey Epstein seems inherently incriminating. They seem to have said what the White House briefing said today when asked about this, because as we'll show you, Pam Bondi went on Fox News and was asked, “Are you going to release the client list?” And she said, “It's sitting on my desk for review.” 

Trump had strongly suggested he would order it released. Now they're saying, “You know what? There is no client list.” 

So, all these claims that Jeffrey Epstein had recordings of prominent individuals who he invited to his island, who had sex with minors, evidently, there's no incriminating material of any kind that would implicate any powerful person. Just not there, they checked. They checked the storage closets, they looked under the beds, just couldn't find anything. All the stuff they had been claiming was there for years, screaming and pounding the table on podcasts, making a lot of money over it, too, accusing Biden officials of hiding this all for corrupt ends, just not there. They looked, couldn't find it. 

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