Target USA Podcast with JJ Green

Could a change in Starlink access help Ukraine strike the Russian weapons attacking its cities—and give Washington new leverage for a ceasefire?

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker joins JJ Green following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York. Volker explains why Zelensky considers Starlink access over Russian territory critical to targeting missile launchers and other military threats.

They also examine Russia’s jet-powered drones.

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, America is safer from the kind of large, coordinated terrorist plot that struck New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. 

But the threat did not disappear. It evolved.

In this sometimes emotional, special report, I revisit the day that changed the country through the memories of former D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter and terrorism expert Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director at the Counter Extremism Project. Their accounts connect the fear and helplessness of September 11, 2001, with the more fragmented, digital and difficult-to-detect terrorist threat facing the United States today.

9/11 at 25: The Threat That Changed examines what America fixed, what terrorists learned—and why the country can never afford to let its guard down.

Twenty-five years after 9/11, America is better prepared—but the threat has changed.

The Iran war is beginning to create consequences far beyond the Middle East. Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery joins Target USA to examine what the extraordinary deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln—and the decision to replace it with the Pacific-based USS George Washington—reveals about the growing strain on American military power.

Olen Cherkun left Ukraine for Spain when the war started, to study and prepare herself for the say when she could return. While away, with war raging, she has a new view of independence. She talks to Target USA about it.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unusual and unannounced trip to Moscow and Washington is saying virtually nothing about it.

The world of intelligence rarely reveals details of its developments. But this visit may be one of the biggest developments in years. We spoke with former CIA Director Leon Panetta about it.

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President Trump threatens Oman over Iran as retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery warns his rhetoric could undermine U.S. strategy. Meanwhile, former Ambassador Joseph DeTrani examines Washington’s new overtures to North Korea after a surprise reduction in U.S.–South Korean military exercises.

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President Trump was secretly moved off Air Force One and onto another aircraft during his trip to Turkey amid a reported Iranian threat. Retired senior Secret Service agent Donald Mihalik explains why deception is a critical presidential protection tactic. Then former U.S. Ambassador Gordon Gray assesses the proposed 60-day Strait of Hormuz arrangement, Iran's negotiating leverage, and why regime change in Iran could be extraordinarily difficult.

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The United States finds itself at the center of two of the world's most dangerous conflicts. In the Middle East, the war with Iran is testing American military endurance, precision weapons inventories and the limits of deterrence. In Europe, Ukraine is running dangerously low on the air-defense interceptors needed to stop Russia's growing missile campaign.

This week on Target USA, former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Robert Wilkie examines the strategic and military consequences of a prolonged conflict with Iran, while Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project, explains how these wars are reshaping global security, empowering America's adversaries and increasing the risk of wider escalation.

Together, they provide a sobering assessment of two conflicts that are no longer separate wars, but interconnected tests of American power, industrial capacity and global leadership.

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The war with Iran is widening, but Washington still has no clear path to end it. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker argues that limited strikes are not changing Tehran’s strategy—and warns the United States may soon face a stark choice between a negotiated ceasefire and a much larger war.

Meanwhile, Sudan is enduring what Professor Jok Madut Jok calls the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, largely beyond the glare of international attention. Millions have been displaced, aid systems have collapsed, and outside powers continue to fuel a conflict neither side can win.

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Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, Sr. Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, joins us from Kyiv with a direct assessment: Ukraine is not losing, its military is adapting fast, and its drone and long-range strike campaigns are hurting Russia. But Kyiv is uneasy after President Zelenskyy fired popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, sparking protests, then removed the senior military leader Fedorov had been feuding with just days later. Montgomery says Russia will exploit the turmoil, but Ukraine’s military and society are still not breaking.

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