Antiwar News: Top US Counterterrorism Official Resigns Over Iran War, Israel Kills Ali Larijani, and More

Hey, this is Dave DeCamp from anti-war.com and welcome to anti-war news. It's about 9.30 on Tuesday

night here in Virginia on the east coast of the United States. First thing at the top here,

there will be no show tomorrow. I'm going on a little excursion. I shouldn't say that because I

think Trump called the war with Iran a little excursion at one point. But I'm going on a trip

just for the night. So I'll be back Thursday. So I plan on doing a show on Thursday night.

But there will definitely not be one tomorrow. And now to get into the news here,

there's lots of stuff. And the big story of the day on Tuesday is the first story that we have here.

Top US counterterrorism official quits over Iran war. So this is Joe Kent, who is the national

counterterrorism director, very high level intelligence position. And Joe Kent is a former

green beret and CIA officer. And he has resigned. He has he shared his letter of resignation to

President Trump, where he said that he could not in good conscience support this war with Iran.

So I'm just going to read the whole letter that that he posted on X here. So he said, President

Trump, after much reflection, I've decided to resign from my position as director of the national

counterterrorism center effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war

in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation. And it is clear that we started this war

due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. I support the values and the

foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term

until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America.

Of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.

In your first administration, you understood better than any modern president how to decisively

apply military power without getting drawn into never ending wars. You demonstrated this by

killing a cosmosolomani and defeating ISIS. Early in the administration, high ranking Israeli

officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that

wholly undermined your America first platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war

with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you in believing that Iran posed an imminent

threat to the United States. And that should use strike now. There was a clear path to a swift

victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous

Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make

this mistake again. As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a gold star husband

who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next

generation of... sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit

to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives. I pray that you will reflect upon

what we are doing in Iran and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now you can

reverse course and chart a new path for our nation or you can allow us to slip further toward

decline in chaos. You hold the cards. It was an honor to serve in your administration and to serve

our great nation. So that's the letter and obviously you know I mean this is very significant very

big to have a senior intelligence officials say those things especially say you know there was no

threat no imminent threat from Iran because he had access to the information you know that the U.S.

government had and he puts a lot of the blame on Israel there and of course he's getting

attacked from from all sides over this this move which I think is a heroic move and it's good to see

and I don't remember you know during the Biden administration there was a lot of resignations

over support for the genocide in Gaza but they were at a much lower level. I mean this this is

very significant to see someone at this level and of course there's all sorts of criticisms here

one is that he's he's putting all the blame on Israel making it seem like Trump was conned into this

war but I think either way if you know it does not make Trump look good he's saying that he was

basically deceived into starting this war and then you know he also mentioned his wife and his

wife was killed in Syria in January 2019 and in 2018 President Trump first said he was going to

withdraw from Syria and he ultimately decided to stay and one of the reasons he said again this

was later in 2019 his wife was killed in the beginning of the year then later toward the end of

the year Trump said again that he was going to pull out and everybody remembers Trump said oh I'm

going to stay and secure the oil we're going to secure the oil that's why we're going to stay in

but another reason he said that Israel requested that the US stay and it was very well known at the

time in 2018 right around the time his wife was killed that Israel was lobbying the US to stay in

Syria and you know why did Trump decide to stay well he was convinced by Lindsey Graham who came

into his office with maps of Syria showing him oil fields and saying you know if you pull out of

this area where all these oil fields are you know who's going to come in or Iran you know and

their allies Assad and everything so after 2018 you know they still used ISIS kind of as the

justification but ISIS didn't control any significant territory after that and the US war in Syria

I mean intervention before that obviously funding the so-called moderate rebels and everything

was about regime change but it was you know the my point is the reason for maintaining those troops

in eastern Syria imposing the Caesar sanctions obviously you know that that wasn't about ISIS that

was about bringing about regime change and why did the US help install al-Qaeda in Syria because

that is the the preference that that Israel had what's the difference between Ahmed al-Shara the

former al-Qaeda commander who's the new president and Bashar al-Assad it's not that Shara and his

gang are are humanitarians it's that they hate Iran and Hezbollah and they cut off that that

weapons pipeline so anyway it's kind of a little rant there but you just see so many people going

after him for saying the things that he said about Israel and then the other big thing that happened

was so after this statement I mean obviously so he worked right under Tulsi Gabbard and Tulsi

Gabbard has a history of opposing the idea of a war with Iran when she was in Congress during the

first Trump administration she was very critical of President Trump's escalations against Iran

including the killing of Soleimani even the sanctions and she ran a presidential campaign and one

of her big planks was no more regime change wars and she just very outspoken against war with Iran

so of course after Kent resigned someone who worked directly under her all these calls for

for Gabbard to to follow him and then she put out a very weak statement later in the day so I'm

going to read her statement as well so Gabbard said that Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by

the American people to be our president and commander in chief as our commander in chief he is

responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat and whether or not to take action

he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops the American people and our

country the office of the director of national intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate

and integrate all intelligence to provide the president and commander in chief with the best

information available to inform his decisions after carefully reviewing all the information before

him president Trump concluded that the terrorist islamist regime in Iran opposed an imminent

threat and he took action based on that conclusion so if you notice she's not saying here that there

was an imminent threat she's not you know she's just saying that they provided Trump with the

information that they had at the time and he made that decision so it's kind of a very weak like

she's trying to kind of play some some kind of line here but again I see the first comment here

is a question if she's still selling these shirts that she sold back in 2020 that said

no war with Iran on them so I wonder if you could still buy buy one of those shirts from

Gabbard so of course very disappointing and just disgraceful from her you know this is an

opportunity here to to do the right thing but this is I think again significant and I'm hoping to

see more resignations follow because I know there's other people in the administration at high

levels who vary against the idea of war with Iran and another thing I think Kent you know

intelligence people he probably saw that there's no good way out of this war for Trump it could also

just you know be a political move you know this is going to could kill Trump politically and the

Republicans in the midterms and everything especially depending you know there's so many unknowns

and variables how long it's going to go what escalations are going to happen so it also could be

a political move as well Kent is someone who has run for office before but again very good see

and I think it's huge news and hopefully it makes some kind of impact so the next one here Trump

says that NATO is making a foolish mistake for not entering the Iran war so President Trump on

Tuesday criticized the US as NATO allies saying that they were making a very foolish mistake for

not entering the US Israeli war against Iran as his calls for other countries to send warships to

open the state of Hormuz Hormuz have been rejected he said quote NATO is making a very foolish

mistake I've long said whether or not they'd be there for us and this was a great test and quote

earlier in the day Trump said in a post on true social that he had been informed by most of the

US's NATO allies that they don't want to get involved in the war and in this post on true social

on one hand he's asking for help he's he even asked China to send ships and then in the other

hand he's saying oh we don't need him anyway you know we can take care of everything Iran's

military has been decimated Trump said quote because of the fact that we had such a military

success we no longer need or desire the NATO country's assistance we never did likewise Japan

Australia or South Korea and quote so that's an acknowledgement there that Japan South Korea

Australia they also don't want to get involved and that's significant because I know Japan and South

Korea are extremely reliant on oil that comes from the Gulf so the straight of Hormuz being closed

is a big deal for them and they have the sense to know that trying to open it by forces is not

going to go well and there's other there's been other reports that you know there's potential for

US troops trying to seize the the island off the coast of Iran or a very heavy bombing campaign

along the coast US Central Command announced some airstrikes along the coast on Tuesday night

and I think Trump's I think all signs are pointing towards escalation and the the possibility of

some sort of ground operation and it's just complete insanity so the next one here the Latin

patriarch of Jerusalem responds to Hegseth invoking God so I thought this was very interesting so

Cardinal Pierre Batista Pisa Bala the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem has commented on US Secretary of

War Pete Hegseth invoking God and reading scripture during his press briefings on the US and

Israeli war against Saran so Hegseth during one briefing last week he read from Psalm 144 he said

blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle and he

has also in an interview with CBS News he said that the providence of God was protecting US troops

essentially saying God is on our side here when he's overseeing this this brutal war he's also

saying things like oh no mercy no quarter which is certainly not Christlike and he is the author

of a book I guess there were signs he had a book that came out in 2020 called American Crusade

he has the you know crusade tattoos on them you know the douce vault and you know they call it

I don't like because I'm Catholic the Jerusalem cross people just associate with the Crusades

and everything but it's also I mean it's all over Catholic churches there's those types of crosses

are all over my church as well but what's kind of funny about this is that the Latin patriarch it

was established the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem was established during the first crusade and

then they eventually had to leave because the crusades didn't didn't go very well overall but

then they returned during the Ottoman Empire but so it's kind of funny that the Latin Patriarchate

of Jerusalem is the one responding to Hegseth so he's a ball that he did an event a webinar and

he was asked about this and this is some of the things that he said he said quote the abuse

and manipulation of God's name to justify this in any other war is the gravest sin we can commit

at this time war is first and foremost political and has very material interests like most wars we

must do everything we can to leave no room for this pseudo religious language which speaks not

of God but of ourselves and quote and then he added quote as believers we need we need to say

that no there are no new crusades if God is present in this war he is among those who are

dying who are suffering who are in pain who are opposed in various ways throughout the Middle

East and quote and he added that he was not saying that God you know that one side or the other

you know God he's not saying that God is on one side and not the other side he's saying God is

with the victims that the same thing he has said about Gaza that Christ is in his in Gaza he's in

the rubble he's with the people being killed and starved and we've seen Pope Leo and other Catholic

leaders including in the US been very critical of this war and outspoken calling for peace

and peace of Bala you know we've talked about him a lot because he visited Gaza several times he's

been outspoken about Israel's destruction campaign and starvation there and he also said warn that

you know the situation is still horrific in Gaza he said quote this is him talking about Gaza

there is no longer a problem of hunger but there are still two million displaced people deprived

of everything 80% of the strip is still destroyed and no reconstruction has begun 36 hospitals are

partially operational but medicines are lacking even basic anti antibiotics people are literally

living in the sewers the images cannot convey the smells and quote and I know the last time he went

to the church the Holy Catholic Catholic Catholic Church in Gaza City you know he also went out

and there's pictures of him in 10 camps in at the hospitals you know touring around the area

but I just thought this was good to see him responding to to Hegseth so the next one here

a UK security adviser at US Iran talks judged that a deal was within reach so this articles from

the Guardian so this is interesting so Britain's national security adviser Jonathan

Powell attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran

on its nuclear program was significant enough to prevent a rush to war the Guardian can reveal

so essentially there's a lot of details in this report but essentially what it's saying is that

he thought Iran was making a good enough offer that that a deal was going to happen he gets into

to again it gets into certain details but but the fact that they're willing to agree to no

to not having any stockpile of highly enriched uranium you know which was the big thing that

would cough and all them were we're talking about and that they offered to suspend all uranium

enrichment for three to five years which gets you past the Trump administration and they're also

talking of you know willing to agree to a permanent deal instead of one like the GCPOA which

eventually expired you know willing to make some significant concessions and then the next round

of talks was scheduled for May 2nd and the US and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28th so

we've seen this from Oman which mediated the talks saying that they thought a deal was on the table

and now we have a British official who was also there and this could explain why

Starmer has been reluctant to get involved in this war so the next one here top Iran national

security official killed by Israel so Iran on Tuesday confirmed that Ali Al-Alarjana the head of

Iran Supreme National Security Council was killed by an overnight Israeli strike the most

significant Iranian leader to be assassinated since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kamene was killed

in the opening strikes of the war so this is so the Supreme National Security Council put out a

statement about his death and they they described his death his martyrdom as his long cherished wish

and then Iran's press TV reported that larijana was killed alongside his son and the head of his

office as well as several bodyguards and earlier in the day Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz

said that larijani and golem resa salamani the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

volunteer basseesh force were eliminated by overnight Israeli strikes and then Iran also confirmed

that salamani was killed so the killing of two senior Iranian officials has not slowed Iran's

military operations drone and missile attacks continue to cross the region after he was killed

treat a party who is an Iran expert who I trust and he's really his analysis has been excellent

on all of this he he expected this war to happen and you know he was right but he's saying he

suggested that there's three possible motives for why Israel killed larijani he said it's possible

that they are trying to get rid of any off ramps basically eliminate Trump's options for

deescalating with Iran because larijani has historically favored deescalation and negotiations

with the US though obviously I'm sure his position changed after being attacked during

negotiations the second time but still he was always seen as someone who was in favor of those

things and then the second possibility that party said which I kind of lean more toward this is

that the US and Israel decided together to do this that because they're failing to open the

administrative hormones they're just going to try to do regime decapitation hoping for regime collapse

I kind of lean more toward that we've seen some US officials try to distance the US from the

targeted assassinations of senior Iranian officials but after this happened Netanyahu posted a video

with Mike Huckabee where they're joking I don't know you've seen all this stuff about saying that

Netanyahu's dead and these are all AI videos coming out so he posted this video with Huckabee

and they're joking about that then they also start joking around about you know Israel killing

these two Iranian officials and Huckabee saying home sure glad I'm not on your on your list

but so certainly not and Netanyahu said that he's crossing names off his list and doing it

shoulder to shoulder with the US so certainly not showing any distance between the US and Israel

there and then the third possibility that party said is that it could have just been they just had

the opportunity to do it that they had figured out where he was and so on opportunity to kill him

so but again big deal you know very senior official here at the same time this is not you know

he's expected to be replaced by someone you know more hard line as they say and it's not stopping

the Iranian military operations so the next one here the carrier USS Gerald Ford to return to

Crete next week so this is from a Greek media outlet that I probably would not be able to

pronounce but there's been other reports in US media about this but the American aircraft carrier

USS Gerald Ford which is currently deployed in the Middle East amid the US and Israeli war on Iran

is expected to return to NATO's naval base on Crete next week Kathy Marini Kathy Marini if that's

how you pronounce it understands that's the media outlet and they so there's a report a big

report in the New York Times that we have in the lower part of the page so I don't even know if I

mentioned this on the show but last week central command put out a statement that there was a fire

that started in the laundry room on the ship and that it was put out but two people were injured

well apparently it was much worse than they let on according to a big report from the New York Times

there was a fire for 30 hours and it was they're battling it and more than 600 sailors and crew

members lost their beds and have since been bunking down on floors and tables and according to

this report from Greek media one potential scenario that's being investigated is that the blaze

may have been deliberately caused by crew members to terminate their extended mission so that's

apparently a possibility that they're investigating but the the big aircraft carrier that's

in the Red Sea is reportedly heading into dock so the next one here we just have the Al Jazeera

live updates on the war just so people can check out you know we still have attacks there was a

report fire erupts there's more attacks in Iraq pretty much all day you're seeing reports of

attacks in Iraq this is in Kirk Cuck there was an attack on a base there and there's attacks on

Tel Aviv oh so the IRGC they they targeted Tel Aviv and they said that it was revended for

larie jones killing there's reports at at least to a man and a woman were killed from falling

shrapnel in Tel Aviv I don't know what the death toll is in Israel I mean they've really been kind

of hiding the the damage and stuff I don't know if they've been putting out a death toll

um but so obviously the war is very much still raging missile and drone attacks across the

region the next one here israel assess that Iranians would be slaughtered if they rise up so this

article is from Middle East I so Israel is privately assessed that Iranians would be slaughtered if

they took to the streets against the Islamic Republic despite Netanyahu repeatedly calling for

them to do so so according to a state department cable reviewed by the Washington Post a number of

Israeli officials privately admitted to their US counterparts that the IRGC had the upper hand

and would quickly overwhelm them so if anybody tried to overthrow the government

the Israelis expected them to be slaughtered to be killed yet they were encouraging people to do

that anyway that's what Netanyahu was encouraging them to do so certainly does not seem like

they care about the the Iranian people so the next one here UN says that Israeli attacks

on Lebanon may be war crimes so this article is from Jason Ditz so the UN office for the

high commissioner on human rights is warning that Israel's deliberate attacks on civilian targets

across Lebanon may amount to war crimes because international law demands a distinction between

military and civilian targets since Israel started its new war against Lebanon on March 2nd at least

912 people including 111 children have been killed thousands more have been wounded and well

over a million civilians have been displaced by various Israeli evacuation orders so now over

a million people in a country with a population of about 5.5 million displaced almost one fifth of

the entire population of the country and we've seen a lot of strikes in residential areas hospitals

and ambulances have been hit and just really horrific that the war here as we've been covering

so the next one here reports says that the U.S. is pressing Syria excuse me that the U.S. is

pressing Syria to invade Lebanon to fight Hezbollah so another one from Jason so Reuters reported

that the Trump administration wants Syria to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon to to get in on the war

on the side of the Israelis and of course now Syria is run by Ahmed al-Sharah here and his

group Hayat Teriy al-Sham which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda then they as I said before they really

don't like Hezbollah they don't like the Shiites but according to these reports the HTS is reluctant

to get involved for probably a few reasons that they they're still consolidating power in Syria

so they probably don't want to start a new conflict and also they probably don't want the

the appearance of just being you know fighting a war essentially with Israel but I thought this

report was interesting one thing so Tom Barrick who is a U.S. the U.S. ambassador to Turkey he's

also served as an envoy to Syria and he really loves Shahra in this new Syrian regime he denied

the report and said that it wasn't true said that it was false and inaccurate but you know Reuters

was saying that it was based on you know they had a whole bunch of sources that they cited it seemed

like a pretty rigorous report and I'm inclined to believe that they would ask them to do something

like this and Tom Barrick I mean he's I don't trust him but but anyway I think it's certainly possible

that they've been trying to get just like they've been trying to get the Kurds to fight the

Iranians they've probably been trying to get Syria to fight Hezbollah the U.S. seems to be 100%

in support of the war in Lebanon the escalations in Lebanon so the next one here Israeli

Airstrike kills three Palestinians in Gaza so and Israeli Airstrike and Southern Gaza on Tuesday kill

three Palestinians according to the Kud's news network as IDF attacks continue across the

strip amid the U.S. Israeli war against Iran so the report said that the Israeli strike targeted

a vehicle in the al-Mawasi 10 camp and that a child was among those killed in the strike and

according to the Anadolu agency the child was 14 years old and I've looked you know I was

trying to see if because before this war we've seen statements from the IDF to see what their

claims are when it came to their Airstrikes in Gaza they didn't always put statements out but

I haven't seen any statements on their attacks in Gaza in a while but we saw a day earlier there

is Israeli strikes in Gaza City which killed at least one Palestinian and according to the

latest numbers from the health ministry 673 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called

ceasefire went into effect in early October this is all under President Trump's board of peace

all right so the next one here Israeli settlers sexually assaulted Palestinian man in Jordan

Valley so this article is from Harretz pretty gruesome account here of a settler attack in the West

Bank so settlers who raided a Palestinian community in the northern Jordan Valley over the weekend

severely sexually assaulted a man in front of his family according to witnesses

testimony say the settlers also beat girls and teenage girls in the community and one of them

threatened to kill the children and rape the women for men from the community and two female

human rights activists were evacuated for medical treatment Harretz has learned that the shin bet is

involved in investigating the incident residents of this village kerbet humsa who were present during

the attack along with human rights activists who was with them described to her at what they

said was a severe series of abuses lasting about an hour according to their account the raid began

around 1 a.m. when dozens of mass settlers arrived several testimonies indicate that the

settlers split into groups and three to six of silence simultaneous simultaneously stormed

structures throughout the community so they're saying that they beat the little girls this one

woman said that they slapped her and tore her head covering off ripped off summer for clothes

and just other attacks and and beatings here and then they were releasing livestock and they also

again sexually abused this man in in front of their children and this is the testimony from from

one man who was there Palestinian who's an American citizen and said quote I woke up to my friend

screaming at us to get up before immediately being swarmed and trapped in the tent by about six

masked Israeli settlers armed with heavy wooden sticks they immediately beat the three of us to

the ground smashing our faces with their fists and clubs they zip tied our hands and feet and

were yelling things like we are going to kill you and quote oh so this is a woman actually I think

I said it was a man at this point she said she witnessed the severe sexual assault of the man in

the tent he confirmed the details but asked not to share them in full she said quote they pulled

down the Palestinian man's pants poured water all over him and brutally beat him into the dirt

all he could do was curl into a fetal position and scream when they beat him with their clubs it

was one of the worst things I've ever seen and quote this is how it said said there's I've

just been on a complete rampage here these are people at my cuckabee thinks have the divine right

to this land the people that go around and do things like that so the next one here the U.S.

launches two more airstrikes in Somalia so the U.S. has launched two more airstrikes in Somalia

according to press releases from african and typical stuff here we don't have any details other

than what u.s. africa command told us they said on march 16th a strike targeted oh sorry on march

15th a strike targeted al-shabab in southern Somalia near Mogadishu that same day the Somali defense

ministry say they conducted operations but it was in a different part who's of southern Somalia

so I don't think it was the same operation that that involved the U.S. airstrikes so again no details

and then they set on march 16th at the U.S. launched another airstrike in puntland where they

target the ISIS affiliate and they back local puntland fighters and they used to put out statements

and stuff on the mill and pictures and some videos but they haven't the and I'm talking about the

puntland forces at the U.S. backs but they haven't put anything out in a few months now at this

point so just no details on the situation on the ground this is just to say hey the U.S.

is still bombing Somalia this brings a total number of airstrikes this year to 46 there's been kind

of a slight decrease in the pace of U.S. airstrikes just compared to what they were doing back in

January which was record high but they're still on track to break that record of 124 airstrikes

which they set last year all right so the next next one here the last one trump says he'll have

the honor of taking Cuba so this one is from Kyle Anzalone at the Libertarian Institute

so I mentioned this yesterday but just had to run this again because it's completely crazy but

this is what trump is saying about Cuba as they're suffering blackouts due to this increased U.S.

embargo trump said quote I do believe I'll have the honor of taking Cuba that's a big honor whether

I free it take it I think I could do anything I want with it you want to know the truth there are

a very weakened nation right now I can't tell you that I can tell you that they're talking to

us it's a failed nation they have no money they have no oil they have nothing and quote and Cuba has

confirmed because there is reports initially that Marco Rubio was lying and there were no talks

going on and but now Cuba is saying that there is some kind of negotiations happening not not

clear what the U.S. is asking but trump has been threatening you know to to some sort of military

action against them so that is it for the news for today please go check out our viewpoints one

from Ramsey Barud the explosion inside trump's war machine Joe Kent resigns one from Ted Gaelin

Carpenter trump risks it all on regime change abroad went from stuff ruler papst trump wages war

his sons get payoffs through savvy investments one from Ted Snyder the truth about Cuba one from

Brandon Buck ground war in Iran would be hell one from Scott McConnell the Iran war has ended

the trump coalition and are spotlight from Thomas Carrot God guns and Christian zealots in the

White House so please go check all that out lots of stuff in the lower part of the page hopefully

this resignation from Joe Kent certainly a heroic move hopefully this inspires others to quit

this administration and not be involved in this this horrific war and you know I was thinking maybe

can I looked it up I don't know Joe Kent was raised Catholic I don't know if that means he's a

practicing Catholic but Pope maybe he listened to Pope Leo's advice to examine his conscience and

he decided that he could no longer be a part of this war but anyway so another reminder no

show tomorrow I will be back sometime on thursday but kyle ansalon will be holding it down for us

he's going to be doing a lot of extra work for me while i'm while i'm gone and uh yeah so I

should next time I speak to you should be thursday night I will talk to you then thanks for listening