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In this episode of Seculo, Logan Sekulow dives deep into the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran. Joined by a roster of formidable guests including Rick Grinnell, Mike Pompeo, and others, the episode unpacks the intricacies of Israel’s strategic strikes on Iranian targets. As tensions escalate, listeners are provided with expert analysis and insight into the efficacy and global ramifications of these military actions. Throughout the discussion, there is also a focus on America’s evolving role and the implications for international diplomacy. Tune in to explore how these developments could signify a turning point not only for regional politics
SPEAKER 03 :
As Israel strikes a round, we have top-notch analysis coming right up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Sekulow, packed show today. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. My dad, Jay Sekulow, will be joining us. Mike Pompeo will be joining us. Danny Deneau will be joining us. And Rick Grinnell. So you’re going to want to stay tuned for a packed, packed show. Of course, we’re talking about the breaking news. Hey, Will, knock, knock. Who’s there? Netanyahu. Who? Netanyahu. I even messed it up. That’s right. Sorry. Yeah, you didn’t even get that right. The joke was, let’s try it again. All right. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Netanyahu. Netanyahu. Oh, man. New war, who dis? That’s right. This is Iran being attacked currently. They took a preemptive strike against… or Israel took a preemptive strike against Iran, something that we were expecting that something would happen. And of course, it developed overnight in a pretty big way. We’ve all been watching the news as they have targeted some of the sites that they believe were being developed for enrichment of whether it was nuclear war or nuclear bombs or whatever it may be. They were getting to the point of no return. And Israel felt like it is time. Now, America put out a statement saying, hey, this isn’t our war to fight. but also President Trump responded with a pretty strong message of support without fully saying the U.S. is going to get involved other than helping out where needed. So this is the breaking news, obviously, that’s still happening. A lot of footage is coming out, a lot of very interesting footage that is being released, whether we’re actually seeing a lot more of how Israel has conducted a lot of this. And it’s interesting because you… First, your stomach sinks in some ways because you never want to see war and you never want to see, like I said, it kind of evokes back to how we all felt in March of 2003 if you were alive then, if you were watching then, watching the news, watching the bombing that started in Iraq. And sure, at that moment, a lot of us were very excited that we were fighting back against terror on the heels of September 11th. However, when you look back at it now, there’s a lot of mixed emotions, a lot of mixed feelings. And I think that’s going to be true for this as well, because war always comes with consequences. War always comes with death and destruction. And that’s really unfortunate. It’s really sad. But they are targeting. It seems like very strategically targeting not only the sites, but also a lot of the leadership.
SPEAKER 06 :
this was one of the most spectacular strikes that i’ve seen in all the years of following israel even america’s wars and even when you look at the things that have happened in ukraine until today the the drone operation that ukraine did against russia was one of the most incredible intelligence things i think anyone had ever seen this strike had over 200 Israeli aircraft striking over 100 targets, including the nuclear enrichment sites, as well as taking out top military leaders. They basically wiped out the head of the IRGC, that’s the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as other top military leaders in the army. And they did this with precision strikes, many times taking them out in their penthouse apartments by very surgically… putting bombs where they needed to be to minimize civilian casualties. But it was impressive. It was broad in scope. It is not over. But what we have seen now is Iran is in disarray. They have lost their top military leadership. They’ve also lost their ability to defend Tehran against airstrikes because the air defense systems were taken out by Mossad right before the strike happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
And look, I know a lot of people are complicated in this. They’re trying to decide on what side they should be on. I’m looking on social media. I’m seeing a lot of positive, a lot of negative. A lot of people say they don’t want Israel to be doing this. A lot of people saying Israel’s bringing us into World War III. What do you think? I want to hear from you as well. We will try to get to as many phone calls as we can, but like I said, we’re going to have a very packed show. So give us a call now if you want to be on the air, and you can get a chance. 1-800-684-3110. But look, we have an ACLJ Jerusalem for a very specific reason, and these are the kind of days when it’s necessary. So here’s what I’m doing. Today, and even throughout the weekend, we will say that this will be a drive specifically for our offices, ACLJ Jerusalem, and for the support of Israel. So if you want to be a part of that right now, if you want to show that the ACLJ should be there, this is the weekend to give. It’s Friday. Do it now. Do it now. Before sundown, how about ACLJ.org. Give a donation today and support the work of what we’re doing in Israel. We’ll be right back with Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3010. But like I said, we have a very packed show. Rick Grinnell is joining us right now. My dad, Jay Secular, will be joining us for a couple of segments. And Mike Pompeo and Danny Denones. I mean, we’re going through a lot of people today because we need to get advice. information of what’s happening rick obviously this is the big breaking news first one obviously congratulate you over a very successful weekend at the kennedy center uh that we saw that was a great moment you know i would have loved to have been there you know for lay miss but it’s okay no no no offense there rick but no it was it looked like come up anytime i know open invite i’m sure but rick uh this is a big uh a big moment here and i think look there’s there’s people who voted for president trump who look at this and say hey we voted for no wars and no more conflict but at this moment i mean america is not directly involved but for those people who are concerned about that i wanted to get your uh thoughts on on these specific strikes that are happening
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, look, Donald Trump has been very clear. He’s also an extreme realist. And what he has been saying for the last 60 days to Iran is let’s talk. He’s been offering carrots to say, come to the table and let’s talk. We want to make sure that we are communicating directly. We want to have a peaceful resolution. But when Israel calls and says we’re threatened, it’s our neighborhood. and we’re the target of Iran more than anyone else. It doesn’t really matter what the United States is going to say in response because Israel is a sovereign nation. They coordinate with their great ally, America, in certain ways. But Marco Rubio and President Trump made it clear that this was unilateral action. This was the actions of the Israelis. And it was not the action of America and that we continue. Donald Trump continues in the midst of all of this to be a realist, to say, look, there’s still a second chance here. You’ve got a lot of dead leaders. You have been funding terrorism. Why don’t we talk about this issue? Why don’t we try to come to some sort of a diplomatic solution? So I still see President Trump doing exactly what President Trump does best, which is to give people an off ramp, to give countries an off ramp. They’re dealing with the consequences that Israel has put forward. And certainly the United States knew what was going to happen. But this was unilateral action. And now President Trump comes in and says, I continue to be the president for peace. I want to talk about peace. You just have got to take the talks.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rick, when you look at what Israel carried out, this will be studied, I’m sure, by militaries around the world for strategy. But the sheer scope of what they were able to pull off, both with Mossad on the ground, the reports are, with drone capabilities and targeted targets, precision missiles to take out the air defenses of Tehran before the Israeli jets got there, and then being able to take out so many leaders at the same time of destroying many of these nuclear facilities. This was one of the most impressive operations that definitely in our lifetime, maybe in history, because of the technology that’s available now. What was your take on when you saw this as it was unfolding?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, certainly you’re correct that it was deep and detailed. I want to be a little bit careful. I was the former DNI. But the point is well taken that this operation was done from inside Iran by the Israelis. And so it would lead one to say, you know, how long have they been inside? What were they doing? And what is that strategy? But it was done from the inside. And again, this was unilateral action from Israel. This was something that the president was trying to avoid, President Trump. And what we try to tell every single country that we’re having conflict with is that there is a path for talks. We want to do diplomacy. This is a president who doesn’t start conflicts and he didn’t start this conflict.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And Rick, you spent a lot of time at the U.N. My brother is there just coming up next week and he’s been in our European office for a long time. We know how their response has been to Israel when they’ve taken any sort of not even only preemptive attacks, but have taken any sort of attacks. It’s always that they seem to get slammed. What do you expect the U.N. to respond when Iran is claiming this? Hey, this is a declaration of war.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, look, there’s 15 members of the Security Council and five of them have vetoed. So five of them can stop any action of the Security Council. What happens in the General Assembly is a different story because that’s a non-binding resolution. So it just kind of means that they pronounce on a piece of paper. But the Security Council is much different, and that has a Chapter seven resolution potential to it, which means military action is authorized. I don’t see that there’s going to be much action from the U.N. because the United States has a veto. It’s the Trump administration. We don’t have to worry about the Biden administration. So what that means is there will be common sense resolutions that pass If something is one sided or trying to go after one country for blame, I think you’ll see the United States act against that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rick, we haven’t seen a large response from Iran yet. There was a report that about 100 drones were launched from Iran. All of them were intercepted by all reports. But obviously, the Iranian leadership is in chaos right now, unsure of what’s coming next or even how to defend themselves right now as their air defense systems are taken out. But I would bet that they are planning some sort of response What should we be looking out for as the world watches this? Many people concerned it will spread or become more aggressive and involve other nations. But what would you say we should be watching for in the days ahead?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, first of all, let’s be clear about one thing is Iran has money. Joe Biden gave them tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, cash and credit. So they have the money to continue their terrorist ways. And we know over the last two years, they’ve been funding the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah yet again. And so we know they have cash. We know they have the desire to fund terrorism. And so we have to take their pronouncement seriously because they can foment violence and cause death through terrorism. But one thing that is clear is that we have a President Trump, not a President Biden. And President Trump is watching this in real time. You can go to his truth and he is clear. fully engaged and briefed. And he is telling the Iranians, if there’s one thing that you need to clear, you need to be clear on. It’s don’t touch the United States. Now, that’s not just a threat from Joe Biden, which is like a no, which is what he usually says is just no, don’t do it. But this is a credible threat. People know, countries know, leaders know that when Donald Trump says this, that he means it and that he will act quickly. This is not going to be something that you throw to the State Department or the Pentagon to ask some deputy assistant secretary to look into it. This is an act. It will happen fast. And the Iranians are very clear, the Iranian regime is very clear about Donald Trump being a credible threat.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rick, one thing, and I know you always tell me not to watch CNN or read the New York Times, but I guess I have a bad habit. It’s hard to break. But I was watching their coverage and I was seeing them try to force this narrative that Israel doing this is sticking it to Trump. They are clearly showing there’s division between them when in reality, first of all, there’s no way that there would not have been at least knowledge. And that’s even in the reporting now that the administration knew something was coming. But the even now, even with President Trump’s statements, they’re trying to start this narrative that this is now the ultimate breakup between the president and Israel and But it doesn’t seem that way when you read the statements coming from the administration themselves.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, President Trump knows that there are two sovereign nations, Israel and the United States. And we sometimes can disagree on tactics, but we both agree that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon. This was a unilateral action from Israel. We’ve made that clear. And President Trump is somebody who is now dealing with the reality on the ground. He’s not trying to do wishful thinking. And he is focused on protecting American assets. Americans are military and has made it very clear that if the Iranians make a move, America will defend itself. This is something that is extremely clear. And so I think we’re lucky to have President Trump, a leader who is watching this, has the capability to understand it and will act quickly.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because one of the reasons we even have an office in Jerusalem, it’s why it’s ACLJ is there in Jerusalem. It’s not a separate Israeli version of it. It’s just, again, kind of similar situation. Make sure that we’re watching, that we’re keeping ourselves informed, that we know what’s going on and that we can work with our friends in Israel because it’s important for America to have a voice there. And that’s one of the things we’re doing right now. We’re saying, hey, this weekend, if you’re supporting the work of the ACLJ. You’re kind of standing up and saying, yes, you think we need to be there. We need to be in Jerusalem. We need to have these offices. We’ve only got about 30 seconds, Rick, before that. But I think it’s important to have these to remember, though the borders of the United States certainly exist. We got to make sure our message gets out.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I’ve been to the ACLJ office in Jerusalem. It’s a serious office. It’s something that is needed. We have Americans there that are coordinating policy. These are very serious issues. They’re life and death. They’re terrorism related. And so having an organization like the ACLJ, which does action, not just words, there on the ground and getting the most credible, fastest information possible and getting it back to America, is good for policymakers.
SPEAKER 03 :
Very important, Rick. Thank you so much. We’ll be right back with my dad, Jay Sekulow. Welcome back to Seculo. As I said, phone lines are open. We will do our best to take some of your calls. We do have a packed show. Dad J. Seculo is joining us live. Chief Counsel, the American Center for Law and Justice. Dad, I’ll just let you take it a bit from here to get your feedback of all that’s been going on the last 15 hours or so.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, well, I think the first thing to understand, and it kind of underscores what Rick was saying as well, and that this was not a one-off. This was not just thought of. The approach that the Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, who worked very, very closely, has been planned for years. So the threat of a nuclear Iran is not new. What was new is their capability had reached a point basically of no return. If you didn’t act now, you would have an Iran with a nuclear weapon. Now, that would destabilize, of course, the Middle East. but it would also put all of us, including the United States, at tremendous risk. Risk not from a bomb or a weapon, although they are quite capable of trying to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East, but also you’ve got to realize something. It could affect the world distribution of oil. I mean, on and on it goes. But you could not have a situation where Iran would get a nuclear weapon. It’s a theocracy. It’s a theocracy based on an attempt… or a worldview that they have, that Israel is the little Satan and the United States is the big Satan. So we can’t ignore that. So this is not one of these situations. And I want to talk to some of my conservative friends who are worried about U.S. involvement. Well, so far, the U.S. hasn’t done anything per se. That doesn’t mean they won’t. The president was involved. Very clear with Iran, they had 60 days to get to the table and get a deal done. They didn’t do it. And on the 61st day, Israel attacked. That should say a lot. Now, we also talked about, and Rick just mentioned this, we are very uniquely positioned. at the american center for law and justice jeff alibon our senior counsel who’s based out of our office in jerusalem logan as you said it’s an american center for law and justice office it’s not an israeli center it’s an american center for law and justice we have been involved in the most strategic and important issues in the middle east going back decades This is where I have to say that the ACLJ is uniquely positioned because, remember, I have been to the International Criminal Court in The Hague twice, once on Israel’s behalf, once on the United States’ behalf. We were successful. But this takes real effort. So I think we’re looking at a new world order of sorts, not in the sense of apocalyptic, but that the Iranian regime, I think you’re going to see regime change at the end of this, because the Iranian people, especially the people under 50, want freedom and liberty. They had it before. They want it again. So I’m actually optimistic that this latest action is going to result in a reshaping in the Middle East that will be very, very positive.
SPEAKER 06 :
And when you bring up the work that we’ve done at ACLJ Jerusalem and our offices here in Washington and around the world, we also know that while Israel’s campaign is not over, And we will see how that plays out. But we know another front, so to speak, of this war will open up very quickly at the United Nations. Iran has already reached out to the United Nations, sending a letter saying, wanting to have the United Nations respond to Israel’s aggression, as they’re calling it. And we know that Jordan is at the United Nations as we speak, and we will be hearing from him early next week. but also with our office at ACLJ Jerusalem, with the history and the expertise we have here, we know that angle of the war of protecting Israel’s sovereignty, protecting them from the aggressors that want to come after them with lawfare, that is the fight that we have to engage even now.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And think about this for a moment, Will, and to our audience, especially our ACLJ champions and ACLJ members. Jordan is in Europe right now. He is going to be at the United Nations dealing with these issues. I think he’s actually meeting with members of the Egyptian delegation as well as the Americans and the Israelis. I mean, it’s quite a program he has going on over there. So we’ve got a team of senior lawyers on the ground in in the United Nations. Our office in Washington is working on the research, and our office in Virginia Beach at University is also working on that. So that’s all in play. This morning, I’ve been in communication with leaders about the likely legal consequences. You mentioned the United Nations. The UN has notoriously provided more condemnations of Israel than any other country. interesting here though is that the iaea the atomic energy commissions from the united nations have said that iranians were violating uh the agreement and in fact were enriching uranium for the purposes of a nuclear weapon so the u.n will be hard pressed doesn’t mean they won’t hard pressed to do a condemnation of israel there’ll be an attempt at a de-escalation the only de-escalation here i see is uh in my view would be a regime change i’ve got you know six grandkids and you all have kids and we have to have a world that’s a lot safer and i think with president trump at the helm here israel will be protected that certainly was not happening under the previous administration that’s how we’ve got into this mess but this president is committed to reshaping the middle east you saw that with the abraham accords and if you look at the abraham accords And you realize that what happened in 2019 and 2020 with the Abraham Accords has changed the way Israel can operate in the Middle East, including relations with the UAE, including relations with a lot of the Gulf region, as well as the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Saudis. None of those countries want a nuclear Iran. It’s a non-starter. And I’m optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction. But this is going to get complicated. And this is where it comes in. And I want to ask our ACLJ members and especially our ACLJ champions for some special effort here. We need to be praying for our leaders, praying for those on the front lines of this. But we also need your support at the ACLJ because we’re mobilizing teams around the globe. And again, you know, we opened that office in Jerusalem years ago. And we’ve been involved in so many significant issues along the way. But right now, this very moment, I think we’re at maybe the point where it comes into effect. that we see this reshaping in the middle east and we eliminate this terrorist regime who is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world we’ve done a documentary series on this um and it’s called the export because they export more terrorism than anybody in the world And what we have to do now is be strategic, look at the legal consequences, fight at the UN, fight at the international tribunals, and stand with our ally. And we need our ACLJ members to stand with us as we do this.
SPEAKER 03 :
I still want to go ahead and quickly take a call. We only have about a minute to go. But Ray, I want to get your feedback real quick. Ray in New York as we head into the second half hour. Our dad, Jay Sekula, is going to continue on with us. And Mike Pompeo and Danny Deneau are joining us. But go ahead, Ray. You got about 30 seconds. Unfortunately, Ray, we’ll put him back on hold. All right, see if you check in on him. I was going to give him a good moment to shine, but you know what? It is what it is. We’re heading into the second half hour of Sekulow. Stay tuned. If you don’t get us on your local station, we’re broadcasting live every day, 12 to 1 p.m. That is on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, however you get your podcasts. Of course, available on some stations as well. But if you want to join us, see us, be a part of the conversation, great way to do it is to find us broadcasting live. And, of course, you can watch it later on. Look, I’ve said this is the weekend to support Israel. If you feel like you are drawn to this issue and you need to figure out how you can support, a great way to do it is support the ACLJ office in Jerusalem. And we’ll kind of note that all donations that come in over the weekend during this show time, that that means that you care for the state of Israel and that you want us to have your voice being heard there. So be a part of the ACLJ.org during this very important weekend for Israel. Stand with Israel right now. keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo and now your host logan seculo welcome to seculo of course we’re kind of going to give you a little bit of a reset here my dad jay seculo is joining us we’re obviously covering the major strikes that happened overnight and have continued on in iran by israel these were preemptive strikes uh knowing that the enrichment of nuclear materials was closer than ever and of course there has been some outcry from both sides a lot of people though know that this is likely the right move as their threat uh dad of of real war being um spun up from this a real uh safety risk to the entire world and israel kind of stepped and said we’re not gonna just take this exactly correct and the israeli first of all
SPEAKER 08 :
the massad was inside i mean think about this for a moment the massad which is israel’s uh basically the equivalent of their cia uh was inside iran that’s how they were able to eliminate these the three leaders and the military leaders they’re all dead and the the fact is that that aspect of the intelligence work a mil the israeli air force israel air forces did a phenomenal job, as President Trump said. It was very successful. I’ve been communicating with leaders, including Mike Pompeo and others, about this. And I will tell you that anybody that studied this knows that this was the moment, because if we delayed, the reality was this could have been the consequences of a nuclear Iran are not something you even want to think about because friends, they would use that weapon. They would use the weapon.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s go ahead and take a phone call. Cause then we’re going to be running short on time here coming up in the next segments. We’ll have you and Mike joining us. And then Danny to known after that. So let’s go ahead and get Michael who’s calling about for a little while, watching on YouTube in Florida. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Gentlemen. My question is, um, Do you think the current Iranian leadership has the humility to come back to the negotiation table, or do you think they’re more in line with, say, Putin, who wouldn’t come to the table without showing some clear victory, albeit in some twisted, untrue way?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, Michael, I think that a lot of people… I know, Dad, you probably have a lot to say about this because you kind of wrote the book on it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Well, I mean, the fact is, I think the Russia-Syria-Iran connection is real. It’s dangerous. Russia’s been quiet with all of this, and that’s because they don’t want to increase their conflict. They got enough problems as it is right now with Ukraine. So I think that Russia is… In partnership with Iran, let’s not kid ourselves, Syria, of course, is part of that regime too. And I think the reality is that that’s why you got to, this was the moment. And that’s why we have to be prepared both from a policy standpoint, but also from a legal standpoint to engage. And again, a huge thank you for ACLJ members and champions for standing with us as we fight forward here.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Hey, we only have a minute and a half in this segment left. And Dad, one of the things that we have been saying today is really champion our office in Jerusalem. And though this isn’t a specific fundraiser, a specific drive, we know that if you give right now and you’re listening right now, that you care that we are there. Because, look, it’s a tough time for supporters of Israel. But sometimes in these moments, you can kind of see a rallying of people saying, you know what? I don’t necessarily want America to be getting involved in these wars. I don’t want that to be happening. But you know what? At least Israel is deciding to take action finally and take care of this. Well, they had no choice.
SPEAKER 08 :
They did the thing they had to do, which was to stop this. The world will be better off. But again, a huge thank you to our ACLJ members. That office in Jerusalem is critical. We’re engaged in it. Of course, our office is in Washington and literally around the globe. This is the moment. We need to seize it. And your support of the ACLJ as ACLJ champions and ACLJ members is vital.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we will be back in just a moment, but you can support the work of the ACLJ by going to ACLJ.org. You’ll see that on your screen right now. ACLJ.org, any donation made, really would appreciate it. We’ll know that that’s you standing with Israel. We also have a new petition up right now. You can sign that petition if you believe in this battle. Help fuel it. Donate today at ACLJ.org. Israel’s under attack again, and of course, they are fighting back for the world to survive. They need your support. We need to be there for them. Go to ACLJ.org. Make your donation today. When we get back, Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us and my dad sticking with us. Welcome back to Secular. We’ll try to get some calls. No guarantees. We obviously have a packed show. We want to make sure we heard from a lot of different voices. Mike Pompeo is joining us right now, as well as my dad via phone, Mike via Zoom. So we want to make sure we can hear from a lot of different points of view. Obviously, Secretary Pompeo, I am sure you have a lot to say about this because this is a moment where your own safety has been at risk many times. And now it seems like Israel is starting to do something about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Well, first of all, thanks, Jay. Great to be with you as well. A big day, a good day, a good day for the world, a great day for Israel and a bad day for the Ayatollah and his tyranny and theocracy. Clearly, the results that we can see with our own eyes demonstrate that Iran is on its back foot. It’s had its entire IRGC leadership, a good piece of its army leadership wiped out. You Clearly, its air defense system is completely useless today. The Israelis are flying with relative freedom just about any place that they want. And this was the moment as a strategic matter. The whole world has suffered under Iran’s threat to gain a nuclear weapon. They were within days or weeks of getting one. They had failed to be serious about a negotiation with the United States in spite of President Trump’s efforts to achieve a negotiated solution. And the Israelis did the necessary. They did it with incredibly long and the work, the work that’s still in front of them is something that we all have to continue to support because the Israelis are taking on this fight on behalf of the United States of America. Make no mistake about it. Americans are safer this morning than we were last night as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Secretary Pompeo, I want to pitch over to my dad again, who’s on the phone to make sure he gets his two cents in as well, because I’m sure you have some question or commentary for Secretary Pompeo.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Mike, you and I shared a text last night as we were watching this unfold, and you were on with our friend Sean Hannity. But, Mike, one thing I think we need to dispel for some people is some are taking this as a view that this was something that just happened and was just arranged. But the fact of the matter is the Iranian threat, and you dealt with this both at the CIA and as Secretary of State, The Iranian threat, as you said, got to the point where they were within days, possibly a couple of weeks, of having sufficient uranium enrichment to have a nuclear weapon. That would have destabilized the whole region. But this wasn’t some last-minute decision by the Israeli government here to take action.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, Jay, absolutely not. This has been years in the making and development, months in the decision making process. And then over the course of the past few weeks, everyone was hanging on to the hope that Mr. Witkoff’s efforts would lead to a good solution. All of those just simply didn’t materialize. And so, you know, optionality had become limited. The Israelis did what made good sense. But this was a thoughtful decision. strategic set of efforts that took place over the last 24 hours. I’ve heard some some Democrat senators say that this was reckless. I have to tell you, I find that just lunacy. What would be reckless is to allow the Iranians to continue to close the last inches with respect to their enrichment program to continue to build their ballistic missiles in a way that could gain leverage against the whole world, all the while partnering with the Chinese and the Russians to do so. This was not reckless. This was very strategic, very thoughtful and executed within the rule of law and in a powerful, forceful way, sending a message to the regime in Iran. You must stop. And to the Iranian people, this is your moment.
SPEAKER 08 :
I want to underscore that because one of the things that we’ve seen, we saw this in 2009, you had millions of Iranian citizens on the streets of Tehran and other places within the country, other major cities, protesting and wanting freedom. And the Obama administration just totally blew it. It was horrible. And now we’re looking at it. You know, we’re now it’s hard to believe it’s already been 14 years later, 15 years later. But here we are. And my sense is that we’ve got an active office in Jerusalem. We’ve done the work at the ICC and these other international tribunals. But the fact Jordan’s at the UN in Geneva now. So my question is, from a strategic standpoint, is regime change the appropriate goal here?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think the answer is the Iranian people know that that’s the case. And I think there’s more evidence of that every minute. Your point is so well taken. The history here and the history of the ACLJ working on this set of issues, whether it was the brilliant decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, the work that the ACLJ did to go after these anti-Semites at the ICC, this all built to this very moment. And what we’ve done now is create the space for the Iranian people to get this right. If President Obama had only simply issued a statement saying we’re with the Iranian people and done a little bit to help them, we might not have even found ourselves here today. I’m confident President Trump and his team won’t make that same mistake. I’ve seen limited reporting today from inside of Iran, but the Iranian people must surely know. that the billions of dollars in sanctions that they suffered under and the tens of billions of dollars they’ve squandered to build up a security state and conduct terror campaigns in seven theaters all across the Middle East, that has failed them. And I am very hopeful that they will find a methodology to be in community and gather up and convince the regime in Iran that they have to fundamentally change. It’s possible that it could happen. You never know the moment, Jay, as we all saw when the Soviet Union fell. But the cumulative effect of what we’ve seen over these last days and months and now years may well be the moment where we see that change that would be so good for the United States of America.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mr. Secretary, one question I wanted to ask you was just about the sheer scope of Operation Rising Lion. Even the Israelis have said to the media that this was more successful than they could have even hoped. But when you see the level of targeting the coordination between the IDF and the Air Force and Mossad on the ground in Tehran, the surgical strikes using drones, much like what we saw with the Ukraine strike in Russia, but to take out air defenses. As someone who has been Secretary of State and Director of the CIA, what stuck out to you about the sheer scope and success of this initial round of this operation?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I’m smiling only because as a former soldier and former director of the CIA, this is really remarkable work, what they did. To Jay’s point earlier, years in planning, meticulous, thoughtful, grinding work. I’m sure that they’ve lost people trying to do this work. I’m sure there’s projects that didn’t actually succeed. But it also reminds me, I doubt we’re done. I doubt we’ve seen the last of what Israel has in store. And the regime should know that. The regime should know that when the pagers went off, no one expected it. When the Mossad showed up in the living room of IRGC leaders, no one expected it. Wouldn’t surprise me, but there are both kinetic and clandestine and perhaps even electronic and cyber activities that the Israelis still have in store. They’re going to finish this task, and we need to simply stand with them so they can accomplish this mission on behalf of themselves, the nation of Israel, the Jewish homeland, and the United States of America.
SPEAKER 03 :
Secretary Pompeo, go ahead. Go ahead, Logan. No, no, no, it’s fine. I was going to pitch back to you. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Mike, last thing that I wanted to say on this with you, and that is we’ve dispatched Jordan over to Europe. He’s heading over to Geneva at the UN. What are we expecting? What do you expect to see out of the UN on this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, the UN is pretty feckless. I hold out little hope that they’ll do anything. But what they have historically done is they’ll issue a statement demanding that everyone create peace, that everyone stand down and be restrained, when in fact there’s only one operator that can create peace here. And that’s the Ayatollah. He’s the one who could lay down his weapons tomorrow and there would be peace not only between the Iranians and Israel, but amongst the Gulf Arab states as well. So I expect the UN to fail in this mission as well in terms of its core mission of creating peace. It has moved to a place where it is no longer just against Israel, but it’s uh become anti-semitic in the deepest of ways i hope that i’m wrong and then i hope when the u.n security council gets together that the russians and the chinese will come to see that they picked a losing horse here the iranians and will uh will come to their senses and begin to behave as more normal nations as well i’m i’m not optimistic jay uh evil roams the earth As a Christian, I’ve read the first part of the Bible. I get it. But I always live in hope that we can find a methodology by which we can build peace and prosperity, even in this region that’s been so troubled for so darn long.
SPEAKER 03 :
Secretary Pompeo, I always appreciate you joining us and giving us your feedback. It’s always great to hear from a myriad of voices. And yours is certainly one that’s had a lot of impact on this situation. So we appreciate it. We head into the next segment. We’re going to have Danny Danone joining us next, as well as my dad, Jay Sekulow, sticking with us. Dad, we have a minute and a half till the next segment here. Why don’t you give the audience a little bit of a background and how we’ve worked with Danny over the years and who he is and why it’s important to stay tuned.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, we worked with Danny when he was a member of the Knesset in Israel, which is their parliament. We worked with him, of course, in his first stint at the United Nations and then subsequently now. So we’ve had a long relationship with Ambassador Danone. He’s a good friend of the ACLJ’s, and he’s been a tremendous diplomat for the Israelis and all freedom-loving people. But I just want to underscore what Mike was just saying on this, folks. We are uniquely positioned. I mean, look at the ACLJ team here. Rick Grinnell, former director of national intelligence. Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state and CIA director. Our legal team, who represents the president of the United States. for a long time. I mean, look at it, the scope, Jordan going out, our media team that’s getting all of this on, you and Will, and everybody else that’s helping behind the scenes. It doesn’t happen without the support of our members and our champions.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. We’ll be right back here shortly. And like Dad said, without your support, none of this happens. Our offices in ACLJ Jerusalem can’t happen. This show, this broadcast, not paid for by major sponsors or anything like that. We are funded by you. A lot of individual donors and champions, those that give on a monthly basis. You can also, absolutely free, sign the petition right now to stand up for Israel. That does us a great service as well. Do that at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are still trying to connect with Danny Danone. Obviously, there is a lot going on in Israel, a lot going on with the war currently in Iran. So sometimes there’s connection issues. Sometimes there’s some problems. So we don’t anticipate these kind of things, or we do anticipate them happening. Sometimes they do. It happens live. You know we’re live. The other broadcast is live because sometimes these things happen. With that being said, as we await him, I’m going to open up the phone lines again so we can give him some call. What are your thoughts on this? Do you like that the ACLJ is working in Israel? Do you like that we have our studios? We have our offices there. We have a studio there as well, as you see Jeff Balaban on the show all the time, in Jerusalem. We’re able to get real-time updates of what’s happening. 1-800- 6 8 4 31 10 1 800 6 8 4 3 1 1 0. I’m also monitoring your calls and your comments right now. Uh, president Trump has made some pretty strong statements about what has happened, uh, with this. And this is, I’m going to read actually his statement from truth social from this morning. because there was a talk. We were talking well last night and dad, we were talking about how a CNN was starting to spin this as the first time Israel was not being supported by us government as Israel headed into war saying that maybe this was the Trump administration softening their support on Israel. And here is what president Trump said just this morning. I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them in the strongest of words to just do it, but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, They just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know anticipated or were told that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world by far. And that Israel has a lot of it with much more to come. And that’s how they use it. That’s how they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all dead now. and it will only get worse. There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal. Come to an end. Iran must make a deal before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction. Just do it before it’s too late. God bless you all. And of course, Dad, I wanted to get your feedback on this. President Trump makes this statement, not saying, hey, we fully support what Israel is doing, but saying, we warned you this was going to happen. And, you know, and always trying to kind of play the middleman, but clearly the middleman leaning one direction.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, look, OK, we’ve been around this a long time. We know the politics. We know how it works on geopolitical diplomatic statements. The United States is not involved per se, but the president said it exactly correct. The weaponry. The artillery, the missiles, the aircraft utilized in this attack from Iran were American assets that we sold to the Israelis. And that scope of the weaponry, the Iranians could not defeat. It was executed flawlessly. There’s no daylight between the United States and Israel on this. The president, I mean, I want everybody that’s listening to think about this. President Trump was very clear. One thing you have to say about this president is he’s very clear. He gave him 60 days on the 61st day. the leadership of the Iranian military, the Revolutionary Guard, is dead. I think that says the whole thing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Means what he says. You got something? Yeah, well, I was going to also bring up the fact that we know the precision that the Israelis have. We’ve seen it now. We’ve seen how they can target individuals. Some of the most valuable people within the regime are easily able to be taken out. If the Ayatollah wasn’t afraid of what Israel can do, he should be now. And I think that is that where this is leading, in your opinion, that this could be the next round could be taking out not just the military leaders, but the actual head of the snake?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, look, I think regime change is absolutely necessary here. And I think the Iranian people, from everything we’ve researched and studied over many years, I wrote a book dealing with a lot of this, and it was called Unholy Alliance. I don’t think there’s any question that this is regime change should be the ultimate goal here. That will be better for Israel. It will be better for the Iranian people. It will be better for the Middle East and be better for the world, frankly. So that I don’t think is even an option. So I think anybody that’s kind of dancing around the issue, will this be regime change? I hope it is. I mean, we should all be hoping that the Ayatollah is gone and that there is no Ayatollah. Remember, the Shah’s son is in the United States. That was another fiasco of Jimmy Carter. Think about that one for a moment. You know, we helped topple the pro-Western Shah of Iran, and we ended up with Ayatollah Khomeini. So this is, you know, these consequences of these actions you see 50 years later. And that’s why we’ve been consistent in our approach, both diplomatically and legally. And we’ve deployed the assets of the American Center for Law and Justice around the globe to work on this. This will be better for the world and better for my grandkids and your kids and grandkids and better for the world.
SPEAKER 03 :
that’s right we’re trying to get uh sort of the global opinions on everything that’s happening it’s why we have uh staff all over the world as you said not just in the aclj but at the eclj and now the aclj jerusalem will do you have that yeah we just saw a news and we got to get your opinion on this too uh uh dad is we’re going to be running out of time here shortly but a headline just popped up this is from governor tim walls that’s right these are the things that make you uh thankful that he is not the vice president of the united states there’s a lot of
SPEAKER 06 :
things to be thankful for that reason but he was on this was on c-span at the center for american progress he was being interviewed and was asked about israel’s preemptive strikes and this is the quote that he gave back iran has to retaliate in their mind i’m sure and now who’s the voice in the world that can negotiate some type of agreement in this who holds the moral authority all right pause pause i’m gonna let everyone want to fill in the blank
SPEAKER 03 :
of who you think that moral authority is. Is it going to be America? Who is it going to be?
SPEAKER 06 :
United Kingdom? He says, we are not seen as a neutral actor. It might be the Chinese. Governor Tim Walz.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, this is absurd. And that’s why my favorite senator of the Democratic Party in the United States Senate is Senator Fetterman. Because he said, back Israel and eliminate the leadership of Iran. I mean, Tim Walz, thank the Lord he is not the vice president of the United States. We’ve got to get that back. I can’t even believe they come up with this stuff.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, of all the places. I mean, it sounds funny. I mean, we’ve been kind of goofing off a little bit today because the response has felt that way, where you’re like, I can’t believe these things are happening. We’ve got to pull that bite and have it for next week when we’re back on the air. I want to quickly take this call, who is an ACLJ supporter. It’s Matthew. Go ahead, Matthew, with your statement.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, Iran has had this coming at least since October 7th, probably longer. I stand with Israel.
SPEAKER 03 :
There you go. Very short and sweet there, Matthew. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 08 :
This has been going on for 50 years.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I mean, for a long time. But yes, Matthew, we appreciate it. We appreciate it. You also said you were listening or watching on the ACLJ app. It’s something I kind of forget sometimes to promote. But the ACLJ app is there and there’s thousands of people that use it each and every day. And it’s a beautiful design. It’s a really easy way to sign those petitions. We have that new petition for Israel right now. You can watch the show live. You can watch it later on. You can see clips. You can read great blogs and articles. And if you’re an ACLJ champion, you get sort of a customized experience. What I really like about the ACLJ app is, say Israel is your top topic, or maybe it’s your only topic that you agree with us here. Maybe you’re not someone. Maybe you are like a Senator Fetterman. You don’t agree with us on most things, but maybe Israel you do. You can download the app and say, I want to be notified when they’re talking about Israel. I don’t want to be notified when they’re talking about, you know, other topics, religious freedom or life or whatever. I think you should. But maybe you just want to focus on Israel. You can do that really easily with the ACLJ app. Great content. I want to thank all our guests today. Rick Grinnell, Mike Pompeo, my dad, Jay Sekula, Will Haynes joining us. Sorry we couldn’t get to Danny Denone. Of course, there’s connection issues, and it seems like that’s a real issue happening right now around the world, as you would expect. We’ll have him on next week, likely. Again, support the work of the ACLJ in our ACLJ Jerusalem office. Pray for Israel this week. Pray for America. And we’ll just stand up. do something about it. Stand with Israel, sign the petition, but also make that financial contribution.
