Useful Idiots

Watch our full, unpaywalled interviews with Sina Toossi and Negar Razavi here:

As Israel ramps up its Trump-backed, unprovoked war on Iran, warmongering U.S. politicians, Western media, and the “experts” they turn to are revealing that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

So we at Useful Idiots decided to do something crazy and interview people who actually do know what they’re talking about: Iranian-American analyst and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy Sina Toossi and Iranian-American Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University's Iran and Persian Gulf Center Negar Razavi. We are releasing them unpaywalled so their messages can be heard.

Useful Idiots: What do you think is the most important thing for people to know right now about what is happening [with Iran, Israel, and the United States]?

Sina Toossi: This is a completely unnecessary, unjustified war. It is objectively a war of aggression on Israel's part. Iran had just done five rounds of negotiations with Trump, and Trump was adamant that he wanted a deal. And all of a sudden, they're surprise-attacking Iran. So this is a war of choice.

This could be potentially catastrophic for American interests and stability in the Middle East and the world. And it is entirely due to the recklessness and impunity by which the Israeli government has been acting.

Useful Idiots: I want to show you a headline from the New York Times. This is just shocking: “Israeli strikes kill civilians across Iran.” After a year and a half of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a headline like this, just a straightforward, factual headline that applies agency to Israel as it kills civilians is a rarity. It's almost unheard of. What are your thoughts on this and the overall media climate in this Israeli assault on Iran?

Negar Razavi: The fact that we are all shocked by this headline is in itself shocking. We have come to expect the mainstream media to always center Israeli lives when they are lost and to always put the losses of Palestinian lives, Lebanese lives, Yemeni lives, and now Iranian lives in the passive tense. They have somehow died without the aggressor being named.

The fact that this was just given straightforward, and then they took one step further and interviewed fifty people inside Iran to actually add some texture to those losses and tell the stories of the people who have been killed, this is unprecedented. And the fact that we are starting with this and remarking on how exceptional it is in itself, it tells us a lot about the Iran discussion and the Iran debate.

Useful Idiots: Here's a video of Netanyahu:

“The nation of Iran and the nation of Israel have been true friends since the days of Cyrus the Great. And the time has come for you to stand up for your freedom from an evil and oppressive regime. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard. Woman, life, freedom. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi. Israel's fight is not with you, the brave people of Iran, whom we respect and admire. Our fight is with our common enemy, a murderous regime that both oppresses you and impoverishes you. Brave people of Iran, your light will defeat the darkness. I am with you.”

Okay, so I know it's laughable. I heard you laughing. It's like we're watching a standup routine. But what are your thoughts on this [standup] set?

Sina Toossi: It's ISIS with nukes with the backing of the entire West: They're religious fanatics, they engage in genocidal slaughter, they're trying to destabilize the region. I don't think there's that much moral difference between what they're doing.

And so Netanyahu right now is acting like he's liberating Iranian women. I saw a tweet that said that they're liberating Iranian women from their lives.

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Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Outsources Iran WMD Lies to Israel

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Join us live right now:

Watch Aaron’s full debate on Piers Morgan here.

Reporter to Trump: “Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon.”

Trump responds: “I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”

After Tulsi Gabbard sold her soul to MAGA in service of Donald Trump and Israel, Donald Trump has thrown her under the bus for opposing nuclear war. It’s a dangerous game out there.

This feud came from a video Gabbard released last week in which she warned against the global catastrophe that would come from the use of nuclear bombs. Funny enough, she managed to anger both Republicans AND Democrats with this extremely logical claim.

Dems thought she was talking about Russia and Ukraine, and those warmongers claimed she was spouting Putin talking points, because only a Putinist would advocate against nuclear armageddon.

And Republicans think she was talking about Israel-Iran: those warmongers claim she’s spouting Iranian talking points, because only an Iranian agent would advocate against nuclear armageddon.

All these warmongers have become so ridiculous that it’s nearly impossible not to use sarcasm to refute their madness.

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Also in this Thursday Throwdown: Tucker Carlson catches Ted Cruz in his lies about AIPAC, a Fox News guest shockingly advocates against nuking Iran, and Aaron Maté returns to Piers Morgan Uncensored.

It’s another crazy week in the media, watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at it all. Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

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Hours after we spoke to Johns Hopkins Professor of Advanced International Studies Vali Nasr, Israel killed multiple Iranian military officials in a strike against “Iranian nuclear sites.” Both Israel and the United States threatened “even more brutal” attacks to come.

Professor Nasr, whose latest book is Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, explains why Israel benefits from attacking Iran, and why they can’t do it without US assistance and consent.

Useful Idiots: Are you expecting some sort of military strike from Israel against Iran?

Professor Vali Nasr: I don't think Israel is actually able to take out Iran's nuclear facilities on its own without US assistance. It could perhaps hit Iran and then hope the Iranians would retaliate and then bring the United States into a war with Iran. But even in order to get to Iran, Israel cannot surprise the US. It has to go through US radar lines. This idea that Israel would attack Iran on its own without telling the United States, without US cooperation or US support, is just not credible.

Useful Idiots: From Iran's perspective, can you explain why enrichment is a red line? Why they insist on what they see as their right to enrich and how they would respond to an argument from the outside saying, ‘Why can't you meet your energy needs through some other means that doesn't include enrichment, which could put you one day on the path to a nuclear weapon?’

Professor Nasr: They view it as an inherent right. To say that Iran does not have a right to enrich is basically singling out Iran as a special case in the international community. There are other signatories to the non-proliferation treaty agreement, which also enriched uranium. So the Iranians are basically saying, ‘We're happy to give you inspections, we're happy to be transparent with the inspections, but this is an inherent right.’

Secondly, the Iranians have spent billions of dollars over two decades building essentially an industrial capacity enrichment program. And it's now very much embedded in Iran's economy with tons of companies, businesses, et cetera, tied to it.

And thirdly, I think they believe that if they gave up enrichment, the United States would not abide by any deal that is signed. They have zero trust in the US, particularly given that this is the very president who walked away from the previous deal. What guarantee do they have that after they gave up all of their enrichment that any country will supply them with their fuel? And then the United States says, ‘OK, we took everything out of Iran. Now let's renege on the deal like last time, reimpose maximum pressure sanctions on them, and then go after the regime.’

So for varieties of reasons, they don't think it's a good idea to give up the right to enrich. And that's their red line.

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Subscribe to hear the full interview with Professor Vali Nasr on the validity of the claim that Iran’s aim is to destroy Israel, whether Iranian tensions would cease if Palestinians were freed from Israeli occupation, and the true nature of Iran’s relationship with Russia and China.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Claims No One Wants to Protest His Birthday Parade (but threatens them just in case)

Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full interviews here:

News alert not in our Thursday Throwdown: Our guest Thiago Ávila, who was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, has been forced into solitary confinement by Israel. He is reportedly on Day 3 of a hunger strike in a "small, dark, airless, and contactless cell." Hear him speak last month about why he's risking his life for Gaza. We will give updates on his condition as soon as we have them.

We hope you’re not busy on Saturday because it’s the Big Blowout Military Birthday Celebration Extravaganza Parade to proclaim the 79th birthday of King Donald Trump! There will be no protesters at the event, announced Trump, but if there are (which there won’t be), he plans to use “heavy force” against them. (But it won’t be a problem, because no one would protest his birthday parade.)

This is the gist of Trump’s comments at a press conference this week, as news reports show a rising number of people plan to participate in the “No Kings” protest on Saturday. Trump pretended he wasn’t aware of these protests while also warning illegal and violent action against them.

In this episode, we discuss the political theory that it is better to have a wolf in wolves’ clothing than a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as with the former we can be more prepared for violence. Whether or not this theory is valid, one thing is certain: we are in the era of wolves.

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Protests have been the main news story this week, as anti-ICE protests surge in Los Angeles against the deportation of undocumented immigrants and anti-genocide protests rise against the US’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. Republicans, the so-called “anti-cancel culture” “pro-free speech” crew, have taken aggressive steps to crack down on dissent, from Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna trying to ban the Code Pink activists from the Capitol to AG Pam Bondi suing a Palestinian-owned coffee shop for having a drink named after a slain Hamas leader.

Sounds like snowflake behavior to us.

But don’t worry liberal media, we make fun of you too, and so much more. It’s a jam-packed Thursday Throwdown. Don’t miss this one.

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On this week’s show, you’re getting two scoops.

It’s a Useful Idiots double header, with former CIA Agent Barry Eisler, who left the CIA to become a spy-thriller novelist (get his latest book The System at barryeisler.com), and Ben & Jerry’s Cofounder Ben Cohen, who was arrested recently for interrupting RFK Jr.’s congressional testimony to protest US funding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

First, Barry Eisler explains his role as a covert operative in the CIA, and the truth it taught him about American tribalist politics.

I spent three years in a covert position in the CIA. It taught me a lot about the culture and machinations of the U.S. government and what some call the deep state. And it became great fodder for a guy who then went on to become a full-time thriller writer.

What I found there is in some ways a microcosm of tribalism politics in America. And it's this.

A lot of people think, ‘oh, is it a bunch of liberals there? Or is it a bunch of conservatives?’ But the fundamental, underlying, and much more meaningful political culture in the CIA is the belief that ‘Hey, America is a force for good in the world. And everything we do, whether it's traditional espionage or shading off into coups or even invasions and occupations, that's all just to make the world a better place.’

It's that more fundamental thing where they really believe that America is a force for good in the world and that our mistakes are just innocent mistakes, rather than something much more nefarious.

Subscribe for the full interview with Barry Eisler, where we discuss Russiagate from a CIA perspective, watch Palantir’s Alex Karp let slip that his AI kills people, and the connection Barry’s spy thrillers have to Aaron’s nonfiction writing.

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Next we talk to Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s.

After disrupting a Senate testimony from RFK Jr. to protest US funding of weapons for Israel’s mass assault on Gaza, he was hauled out by police and arrested. He explains why he did it:

Everybody has their breaking point. I was reading about the slaughter of all these innocent children in Gaza. And then I read another article in the paper about another outbreak of lead poisoning in Milwaukee. Lead poisoning creates irreversible brain damage and there's nothing you can do about it.

And we know how to prevent it! It's chipping lead paint and lead in plumbing pipes and we could fix it, for a minuscule five percent of the Pentagon budget!

And so those two things: we’re making a conscious decision to provide the bombs as a gift to Israel that they use to kill kids in Gaza. And we're kicking kids off Medicaid and not preventing lead poisoning, an easily preventable permanent disease.

So I said, I’ve got to make my voice heard. I’ve got to take the most serious action that a citizen can take, which is an act of civil disobedience. And so that's what I did.

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Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Ukraine Proxy Warriors Have Second Thoughts about WWIII

Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full interviews here: