2/19/26: Iran War Imminent, Israel Detains Tucker, Prince Andrew Arrested

23:51I mean, you're just a sitting duck then for Israel and, you know, whatever they, then their proxies and whatever they want to do to you and for us as well. There is no way, and that is intentionally put in to these negotiations, inserted into these negotiations by Netanyahu and agreed to by our idiot president as an intentional poison pill. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest.

24:30It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

25:35shapes us and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

26:10China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

27:00Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go ahead and take a listen to, this is a professor at the University of Tehran who speaks to Western media quite a lot, or I guess like, you know, Western but non-establishment media quite a bit. He speaks English. He's basically a regime translator for the rest of us, which is fine. We want to show people what they're thinking. Well, and in fairness to him, I mean, you live in Iran. You're a university professor. Like, your ability to completely speak freely is going to be curtailed. But in any case, I wanted to play a bit of how he is explaining the view from inside Iran and how they're thinking about, you know, as we proceed on this march to war, how they're thinking about what they have, what this is about.

27:51and what chips they have to play as well. Let's take a listen to that. This is not a normal part of the world. This is not an ordinary region. It is full of oil and gas installations, oil and gas wells. It is full of refineries. It is full of ports for exporting oil and gas, importing goods from the West through all the wealth that is accumulated. and from different parts of the world. And then you have ships, tankers coming and going. Then you have the Strait of Hormuz. The Persian Gulf itself is not very wide. Iran controls one side of it and islands in the middle of it. And then there's the Indian Ocean.

28:37There is, with the missile capabilities and drone capabilities that Iran has, whether they're from the sea or the land, the global economy will be devastated and the price of energy will go through the roof. Trump being weak and vulnerable as things are, unpopular, people opposing war in the United States, you now have a very difficult economic situation. It's getting worse in the United States. And then to add on all that is, of course, the exposure of the Epstein class to the American people and the cover-up and the continued cover-up. So he's not going to have popular support when he engages in war.

29:29And when the pain starts kicking in, Americans are not going to like that. His own small, his own 30 % or so supporters are going to be the first to be outraged when they lose their jobs. I thought it was interesting. And he mentioned several times around this interview, the Epstein class and tying that in and saying, this is this war and the whole march to war. This is the doing of the Epstein class and talking about the vulnerability of Trump, who is both in the files and also, you know, responsible for this mass coverup that has created this backlash in the population. What do you learn from that?

30:05They're They're not stupid. And like, that's one of the things I really hate often about the way that we paint our adversaries. Even with the Al-Qaeda, with the Tether, they're like, oh, they're just, you know, goat herders in caves. I'm like, yeah, the gunmen maybe. I'm like, the people at the top are definitely not like that. Same thing with, I mean, what do you hear all the time? It's a great civilization. You know, they invented math and all of that, right? They have this great air of learning. And yeah, that's the point. Like, we're not up against a bunch of rubes. Like, these people have survived for decades despite being punished by the West, including with sanctions.

30:40I mean, they have defied us for, I mean, like you said, decades. Yes. That's an astonishing accomplishment. I mean, this isn't the first time an American regime has wanted to take them out. Right, exactly. And they've survived, and, you know, I can't say thrive, but they've survived nonetheless. That's all they care about is survival. I mean, North Korea is a similar example. Like, if you're willing to bear pain, you can live as long as you sprint to a bomb. Well, what we see inside of their logic is also they're obviously paying deep attention to us. And in an asymmetric conflict, Vietnam – I mean a lot of people forget this.

31:16People said the same thing, Ho Chi Minh. He's just a communist guy. No. They were very intelligent. They deeply exploited the cleavage in American society over the Vietnam War. And they intentionally fed into that. They would invite Jane Fonda over, right? And they had all these press conferences and they would make it very clear with their propaganda, like all of this can end. This is not about you. You're being taken advantage of. You're being drafted and sent to die. Like they speak fluent English. They knew exactly how to play into the problems for LBJ. I mean the whole Tet Offensive thing.

31:48Remember that we would have killed LBJ wanting to run for re-election. Like they know exactly what they're doing. You should remember then that the Iranians have a very similar capacity. I am a bit scared. And actually, this will be a great testing ground for many of my theories of the U.S. military. I have long believed we're like a Rolls-Royce engine, which is really, really cool, but requires an insane amount of mechanics and uptake and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what I've always feared is that it could be taken out by these$10 ,000 drones in mass capacity with the Chinese and the Russians as the Ukrainians, frankly, have been able to stand up even to their limited capacity against the Russians.

32:27Like all you need is drones running off to be able to defeat like much more expensive technology. This will be a genuine test case if it does happen. Can they actually shut down the Straits of Hormuz? What are their capabilities? They could actually be a paper tiger. I am actually not ruling that out considering what happened with the 12-day war. So on the one hand, they had ballistic missiles that were capable of hitting Israel. On the other hand, it was a disaster for them. Like a lot of them were killed and infiltrated by the Mossad. It's very possible. I wouldn't put it past the US military to wipe out all their ballistic missile defenses.

32:58I mean, God, our military has not been used in this way. I mean, since 2003, like who God only knows AI Palantir and all of this. Like we could probably wipe it out. We could actually maybe destroy all their conventional capabilities. But again, that doesn't mean that we're going to win the strategic battle. So that's a long way, you know, kind of setting this up. Let's put the maps and all of that on the screen, just so you guys can see all of these assets that are moving into the region from all of these refueling tankers and different military assets. And you talked about the command and control planes and the U.S.

33:30Navy. Let's go to that one. The next one, please. Third of the U.S. Navy is now operating in and around the Persian Gulf. Two aircraft carriers, air support, comparisons with 1991 and raises the question, as they say, that nobody wants to talk about. And then 8-8, let's put this one up here. This is getting ready for war with the United States, is confronting its biggest threat in decades. The regime is trying to boost its odds of survival if the diplomatic odds fall through. Tehran is deploying its forces, dispersing decision-making authority, fortifying its nuclear sites, expanding its crackdowns.

34:05The move reflects its leader's belief the survival of the regime itself is at stake. It's like I said, I mean, they know that they're all probably, most of them are probably going to die. So what you do is you create a cell structure, You move it around. You try and create survivability inside of your command and control networks. They have been hardening some of their things. And they're probably focusing on like a Pareto principle of like the highest impact with the lowest amount of force. Try and mine the Straits of Hormuz, right? And make it so that it's instantaneous, like a button push. Their ballistic missile capability probably will get wiped out very quickly.

34:39So then you need like various different nodes and things that they may not be able to hit in a first strike. Again, I'm not going to underestimate the capacity of the U.S. military. But it only takes one, two, three for it to change the entire strategic logic of the situation. I mean, on the one hand, you've got the Venezuela example where, you know, Venezuela had supposedly significant capabilities that were just wiped out, right? And there was, you know, not a single U.S. service member is killed in this, you know, extraordinary action, et cetera. On the other hand, you have the example of the Houthis where it's this ragtag group, you know, some like cheap, some of it off-the-shelf technology.

35:12And we're effectively defeated by that. We're like, OK, we're just not really up for expending what would be required to deal with the situation. So we're moving it along. So you have both examples in recent memory. And to the point of Iranian preparation, keep in mind that we learned something from the 12 days war. The Israelis learned something from the 12 days war, including the fact that they do have some vulnerability to Iran being able to hit them and penetrate their air defenses. the Iranians also learned from the 12 Days War about what they're able to accomplish, where those weaknesses and vulnerabilities are, you know, in terms of Israeli air defenses in particular.

35:53So and they learned about, OK, who are the infiltrators? You know, where how were we compromised in this way? They also learned from the protests because, you know, one of the things that happened during the protests is we helped to funnel a bunch of Starlink satellites into Iran so that, you know, and we're, you know, out there, Mike Pompeo and others bragging about, oh, to the Mossad agents who are marching alongside the protesters, congratulations. So in any case, you know, the protests were a fantastic opportunity for the Iranians to smoke out on, okay, who are our ops? And with the Starlink thing, one of the theories is, they were eventually able to take the Starlink capacity down as well.

36:36So were they able to track, which, you know, that was an extraordinary development. Were they able to track who were the owners of those terminals who was using that tech, because that, again, would have given them a blueprint and a roadmap to who are our ops and how do we take them out. And some of those would have been very likely, you know, foreign intel that could have, you know, been causing problems and providing intelligence to the Israelis, most likely, and to the U.S., obviously, you know, those two being very connected. So they have also learned and have some ideas of where their vulnerabilities are, where their strengths are, and the way that they need to approach this as well.

37:08And so that's important to keep in mind as two, that they have not remained static. To the point about the, you know, the sort of propaganda push. This was interesting. Put A10 up on the screen here. You have the Ayatollah, again, getting in on the kind of Epstein class discussion. And he tweeted out, this island of corruption, referring, of course, to Jeffrey Epstein's rape island, is only one example. There is much more of this. Just as this was not apparent and then became exposed, there are many other things that will soon come to light. So a threat, a direct threat there that like, hey, we've got some stuff.

37:44And, you know, I mean, the Iranians have successfully hacked Epstein's emails and have been, you know, successful Iranian hacks. And Ryan points out here, according to the search warrant used to search John Bolton's home, Iran hacked Bolton's AOL account three times. That cash has not yet been released. Kamini is hinting at leaks to come as several U.S. armadas float nearby with countless missiles aimed at his head. So maybe this is just an empty threat, but, you know, there's reason to believe that he could have some goods here. He could have some sort of compromise that is, you know, plausibly could be released.

38:17This is what you do, is you have to do your best to try, you know, you leak stuff, you make it difficult, you do the mining. I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, I don't underestimate the U.S. military. On the other, like, I look at the Houthis, I look at all, you know, we've had a significant amount of planning. I do know about all of the different problems in logistics and supply chain. I mean, this is the problem. You always know something is going to go wrong. Nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. Even in Venezuela, one of the helicopter pilots got shot to shit in on the, I think it was on the way out, right?

38:46Like it's a miracle he didn't die. Imagine if it, how different it is. I mean, think about the Bin Laden raid, always one of the most highly helicopter pilot. If you don't have the best trained guy in the world in that seat at that exact moment, everybody on the chopper dies, right? It's a different world. Half the Navy SEALs get killed. It's a nightmare. And then the Pakistani military arrives like that. History turns on a dime and you never have any idea. And especially if you have all of these guys, a multi-week bombing campaign, it only takes one thing to go wrong. And think about the U-2 spy plane crisis with the Soviet Union.

39:26It was the greatest plane in the history of the world. Boom, Boom, gone, shot out of the sky. Now we're doing bridge of spies, like swapping people in West Germany. Like that's, it just, you always have to hope for the best, plan for the worst. And I've seen enough now over the years just to know like all it takes is one or two different things. And we can, I mean, can you imagine if one thing goes wrong or if some civilian tanker, you know, misses the mine and gets blown up and, you know, several Americans are like, we're going to be living in a different universe. Like that's troop level deployments and all that.

40:00And you can't look to the people who are in power and are like, oh, yeah, they're definitely looking out for all of our interests and trying to turn down the dial. Like, no, this is bad. All right. And then the last thing, I know we've been talking for a long time. A12, can we put that up there on the screen? I just wanted to show you all what the Secretary of Defense is up to. So yesterday, as all of these missile, you know, all of these carrier strike groups and all that were moving there, Secretary Hegseth joined Dr. Oz for a beachside brunch hanging from trees doing cold plunges for a leisurely afternoon, quote, into a Maha extravaganza with tree pull-ups, a cold plunge, and a Mediterranean feast.

40:39So really glad to see the Secretary. That's so nice for him. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your service. Last thing. Also shows you how essential this administration thinks he is to their planning, too. Last thing we'll put up here, major shout out to, again, the heroes of our time, Ro Khanna, Thomas Massey. Let's put that up there on the screen, the last element. They are now introducing a war powers resolution to debate and vote on a war before putting U.S. troops in harm's way. I will make a motion to discharge a force and vote on it next week. So hoping that this will actually come to pass.

41:15Thomas Massey, Ro Khanna, bipartisan resolution will terminate the use of U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran without congressional authorization, which of course is like the final thing. There has never been a buildup or a potential military action like this ever in United States history of this magnitude without any congressional authorization. And by the way, it's not that the congressmen all support it. They just don't want to vote for it so that you hold them accountable. Let me make that clear too. Outside of like five people who are in the U.S. Congress. They love this. They all support it.

41:47Yeah, I saw Senator Mark Warner, of course, Democrat of Virginia. Ken Klippenstein was clipping him saying like, oh, I'm glad the president's keeping all the options on. Yeah, exactly. Oh, this is our opposition. Yeah, that's that's fantastic. But shout out to Roe and Thomas Massey, the dynamic duo. And one dynamic that Massey was highlighting in Politico interview that I hadn't completely thought of. He thinks there are going to be more Republican dissenters like himself going forward after primary season. And in particular, one dynamic I had not thought of is, you know, Trump did this big redistricting push.

42:22You're going to have some Republicans who are redistricted out of their seats. Good point. They're going to be like, fuck you. But on the other hand, they'll have to think about like, oh, if I piss off the president, no, not primary, but what about my post-Congress job prospects if If I'm not in good with the administration, you know, they'll have to balance that. But I did think that was an interesting note for him that he expects in the future there could be more room, more Republicans who are retiring, who lost their primaries, who got redistricted down to their seats, etc., who might be more open to taking a dissenting line.

42:54I'm not going to hold my breath for that one, but it'd be great to see. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying.

43:321968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

44:01What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul. A place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life. Celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks. And we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

44:39Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

44:59China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

45:49Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

46:22to leave at the airport and the protection around them. Don't blame him. I wouldn't want to leave. If I were him, I would never set foot on Israeli soil, considering that, especially to go to Bethlehem or any of these Christian communities with these crazy separatists with guns who want to kill you. Like, I'm no way. I saw some speculation that the Israelis didn't want to let him in. And there had to be some State Department negotiations that result in him just like, okay, he's just going to Ben-Gurion airport. That's it. Right. So the Israelis are criticizing him for not leaving the airport. Then there's also this reporting that maybe the State Department was like, no, no, no, you have to let him in, but just interview us in arms.

46:58So who knows what happened? Anyway, here's the story from Tucker and his team. Let's put this up here on the screen. Tucker Carlson, quote, detained in Israel. Journalists dragged into an interrogation room as explosive interviews sparks a diplomatic firestorm. So Tucker told the Daily Mail that his producer, shortly after the interview, Israeli officials confiscated his passport, hauled one of his colleagues off to an interrogation room. Quote, men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room, and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about.

47:34Quote, it is bizarre. We are now out of the country. This immediately ignited a major firestorm, especially from Israeli defenders. Let's put their response up here on the screen. The Israeli foreign minister insists, quote, Contrary to reports, Tucker Carlson and his entourage were not detained, delayed, or interrogated. Mr. Carlson and his party were politely asked a few routine questions in accordance with standard procedure applied to many travelers. Did you note that? Many travelers, aka not all travelers, many travelers. The conversation took place in a separate room within the VIP lounge solely to protect their privacy and to avoid conducting such a discussion in public.

48:19No unusual incident occurred and Israel Airport's authority firmly rejects other claims. So basically their defense is like, guys, guys, guys, we didn't treat Tucker any differently. We interrogate and detain and harass all foreign journalists. It's not clocking for you. This is how we treat everybody who's an international journalist. I believe them. I actually believe them. I believe, yeah. I'm sure it's more that they're shocked because, I mean, these people have went to Moscow, Saudi Arabia, and Israel is a country that detains them, harasses them. I mean, look, do you really want to parse it?

48:54If you're led to a separate room where people take your passport and ask you a question, that is literally interrogation, whether it's polite or not. Okay, I'll tell you this. When I was in Israel, I was there for school. And I was doing a program about counterterrorism, okay? And I have never been harassed in an airport more in my, this is long before any show. I'm 22, something like that. And they're like, well, why are you studying this? And I was like, I mean, I was like, do you read the news? It was two hours, constant. And I was flying to Jordan. Why are you going to Jordan? Is your father Muslim?

49:29I was like, no. Is your grandfather Muslim? Have you had any association? This is 2015. 15. Have you ever had any association with Muslims in the past? No. Where do you study in the United States? George Washington University. Oh, when did you graduate? Well, why are you coming here now? I was like, well, I'm doing a master's program. It's like it was never ending. And then you had to go to a special security line. And by the way, it was totally racially profiled because I was the only person who was detained out of this whole group. And it was before they even started questioning me, they came up to me.

50:01Like the moment that I arrived at the airport based upon, before I even had a beard or anything like that. And it was nonstop. And then, you know, and you're, and again, I'm flying to, the funny thing is you land in Amman, they're like, welcome to Jordan. That's what it was like over there. But even this is me leaving the damn country. That's crazy. As an American citizen, I have landed probably 45, 50 different countries. It was the worst experience. And this is me as a student. So now imagine Tucker Carlson and his entire entourage. So I believe Tucker and his team 100%. I also believe the Israelis that it's routine to harass every international journalist who goes in and out of the country.

50:38That's why I'm never going back. I mean, that's the tell. It's like, what is it any of your business what the interview between a close ally of the president of the United States and an American official? So an American media personality and an American official, how is it any of your business what we discussed, what questions were asked, et cetera? I mean, it is wild. It just underscores, you know, we get fed all this, oh, the only democracy in the Middle East, blah, blah. It just underscores what a crock of shit that is. And especially with their rationale here of like, guys, this is just how we operate.

51:10Like, what is your deal? The other thing I would say is, you know, they are authoritarians and they're very fragile. Like they are so sensitive. It reminds me some of the way the Trump people operate, like with this trying to, you know, the James Tallarico interview and that whole situation. It's like by taking this heavy handed approach, you are undermining the very thing that you're trying to accomplish. Like now people are going to be even more interested in the Tucker Huckabee interview and what was said and how that all went down. They clearly have no understanding of the Streisand effect.

51:42But the other thing is that their whole tactic is just to, like, scare people and bully people so that whether it's those journalists or other journalists who hear of this story and don't want to be harassed in Ben-Gurion Airport and decide, you know what, I'm just going to leave this one alone. I'm not going to do it. I mean, that really is ultimately the goal here because the interview was already done. There's no going back. Now, maybe you can scare them into editing some part out, but I highly doubt that that is going to be the case. They've already got it. They're already out of the country.

52:12It's a done deal. If I know them, they immediately uploaded it to the cloud and got it out there as soon as possible. Yeah, so the idea is for future journalists to look at this and be like, yeah, maybe this is just not really worth it. Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you, I'm never going back there. Let's put Huckabee's tweet up there on the screen. hate defense. By the way, this is the humiliation ritual. Everyone who comes out of Israel has passports checked and routinely asked security questions. Even me going in and out with diplomatic passport. He goes, even I, the United States ambassador, and harass going in and out of this country.

52:47That's how great this country is. You should be humiliated. That's how cucked we are to this country. We even allow our officials to be harassed by them. Thank you. I'm like, wait, so the U.S. ambassador even is questioning? It's like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not doing that. over here. We pay for your shit, mister. I cannot believe that this is what happened. It's also funny. All these other people, they're like, guys, this is totally routine. When I flew into Israel, I was also detained and harassed and my staff was questioned. I'm like, uh, and nobody else seems to have a problem with that?

53:19Like, what are you talking about? Wow. I just, I can't believe it. I'm looking forward to the interview, uh, specifically why Mr. Huckabee allowed a convicted spy Jonathan Pollard to come into his embassy on set foot on U.S. soil, literally a traitor to the United States of America. I believe that that beef is what set everything off here. Yeah, with Mike Huckabee. So we'll see. We'll see for another Ted Cruz moment. Sure. We're likely to cover it here on the show. Oh, I cannot wait to see this one. Okay, let's get to Wexner. Welcome to the A building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969.

53:55Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated, and Black America was at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest.

54:37It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

54:52What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul. A place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life. Celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks. And we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Fake when it's complicated.

55:30Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

55:50China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

56:41Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

57:13course, refusing to even name him as his own brother and saying that he respects the police in their current investigation. Man, they're ruthless, huh? Oh, I love it. I'm loving every second of this entire thing. Quote, as part of this investigation, we have today arrested a man in his 60s from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. The man remains in public custody at this time. We will not be naming the arrested man per national guidance. Please also remember this case is now active and should be taken with any publication to avoid being in contempt of court.

57:49So this is very different rules there in the UK. But basically, the king later confirmed this morning that Prince Andrew had been taken into custody. And there may be some misunderstanding about this whole thing. Prince Andrew is currently being investigated, not necessarily for his conduct, horrific conduct, previously with the pictures of him with the women, Virginia Gouffre, et cetera. And remember, he maintains his innocence. It's about the shared information that he sent Epstein, which was in the files. Remember, he was the trade advisor to the UK, and he was sharing sensitive documents, including his schedule and other inside information, with Epstein.

58:29That is open, clear cut, and a violation of his official duties, which he was doing at the time. That's what he's under investigation for. In addition, this is part of the Lord Mandelson investigation, too, for insider trading, for stock manipulation, for basically going after telling Jamie Dimon to try and blackmail the chancellor at the time. That's the criminality that we're dealing with, not to mention Prince Andrew, what is it, ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and all of her dealings with Epstein. Yeah. That's happening right now. So this is a deep, this goes deep in the British aristocracy all the way up to the prince.

59:04I was telling you, Prince Andrew is now the first royal in 400 years to be arrested. The last one was King Charles I in 1647 during the English Civil War, who was then executed some two years later. So I would like to see some old Lindy justice here, but anyway. Yeah. Well, I mean, the the while I think the interesting part is, like you said, that the what they're going after him for the thing that is most concrete is abusing the public trust by sending the sensitive information. And it is very much like what Mandelson appears to have been up to as well and is now under investigation for, too.

59:41And so, you know, we've heard all this nonsense in the U.S. about there's nothing here that's prosecutable. There's nothing here to investigate. It does seem like this sort of either abuse of public trust or insider, you know, insider trading. That is one of the avenues that could be the most clear cut in terms of legal consequences. But, you know, I think it's easy to forget because we're very American centric that Ghislaine Maxwell first was she's British, like British socialite. She's from the upper crust. Yeah. I mean, the elite of the elite, the Epstein class of the UK. And so, you know, she had deep ties in elite society within the UK.

1:00:17And so there is massive fallout there, including, you know, Keir Starmer, who already was deeply unpopular. You know, he brought Mandelson into his government at a time when this hadn't all come out. But it was known that he had had some level of close Epstein contact. And, you know, he has now been caught in a lie. Andrew's been caught in a lie. Fergie's been caught in a lie. They all have been caught at this point in lying about the nature and the extent of their relationship with Epstein. So people are rightly saying, you knew that this guy was in league with Jeffrey Epstein when you chose to bring him into your government.

1:00:57So this has really created a massive crisis for him at a time when he was already politically weak with the population. It's a huge deal. Like I said, I mean, the first royal to be arrested. So I was joking to you, Crystal, this morning. I go, it doesn't feel right to prosecute a prince. Like, it's just, it's like modernity catching up with royalty. I think he should be banished, exiled, married off against his will, pilloried in the Trafalgar Square, reduced to rags in a stockade. And then everybody, like businessmen on their way to work at 8 a.m. in the morning, housewives can come and heckle and throw rotten tomatoes at him.

1:01:33Like, that's what we need to see. What's the point of having a king? Why have a king and a royal in the first place? It's ridiculous. So if we're going to do it, then let's do it. Let's do it right. The Tower of London. If you're there, you can do the tourism for the Tower of London. Put him in there. Lock him up and let all the tourists parade past him. Chinese people could take selfies. So you're basically arguing that they get the benefit of the archaic tradition without having to deal with the archaic punishments that could come. Exactly. It's not right. If they step out of line and the public is disgusted with them.

1:02:06We have the crown and the robes and the velvet and the carriages and the palaces. And then we need the other part, right? That was the interesting part for the masses. So look, I'm not British. You know, sometimes I wish I was. But if I was a Brit, this is what I would be demanding. I want pillory. I want reduced to rags. But now, originally, we were going to talk about the Wexner story. Let's go ahead and start with that. C1, this is unbelievable. So for those of you who don't know, Leslie Wexner, he was the victorious secret. billionaire. He was the source in many ways of Jeffrey Epstein's wealth.

1:02:40In 1991, he signs over power of attorney. He eventually sells him the townhouse for a sweetheart deal, transfers significant amounts of his assets, doesn't break ties with him until 2007. He was interviewed under oath yesterday by members of the House Oversight Committee, and he has now testified under oath that neither the FBI nor the DOJ has ever sought to question him regarding Epstein. Let that sink in. This is despite victims publicly alleging his involvement, an FBI document that names him as a co-conspirator. He literally is the source of this entire thing, not to mention his modeling stuff with Victoria's Secret, the properties in Ohio, as Ryan and Dropside have revealed, the Iran-Contra planes that landed at the Leslie Wexner base, which are then brokered.

1:03:27I mean, this is unbelievable. And this is the bigger sign to me of a cover up than anything, because you're getting named as a co-conspirator in the document. You're literally a billionaire, the source of his entire wealth. Numerous victims and others are alleging Wexner involvement or Wex, you know, and again, to be clear for his lawyers, he denies literally all criminality. his statement, which we have some of here on the screen, put C2 up here, is that he was duped by Epstein. He says that Epstein was a con man, that he conned him, and that he stole vast sums of money from Wexner over the years, and that he's an unfortunate victim in all of this.

1:04:06So I do want to be clear that he literally denies all wrongdoing. He didn't know anything about trafficking, never visited the island, according to him, and all this other stuff that he's put out on the record from his statement, but it is just absolutely insane that he's never been interviewed considering what we know in the files from the co-conspirator original document to all of the other allegations and the information between the two. I mean, at the very least, interview him about how Epstein allegedly stole from him. That's a crime. That's embezzlement, if it's true, or something else. You never filed suit against him.

1:04:40I never complained about that publicly until now. I mean, yeah, I did complain about it, but until it became uncomfortable for him, that's kind of interesting. No, I mean, even just from the financial entanglement perspective, this is the man you would want to talk to. Of course. He knows everything. He gave Jeffrey Epstein power of attorney over his whole financial empire. I mean, it's insane. Dropside had a great report where, you know, the philanthropic arm of what Wexner was up to, which, by the way, they were some of the largest donors to pro-Zionist causes. They paid Ehud Barak$2 million.

1:05:14Exactly right. And, you know, they conducted a review. Oh, how involved was Epstein? And, oh, really, he wasn't involved at all. Well, DropSite, you know, reported out. That was not true at all. He was directing the whole thing. You know, anytime a question would come, oh, should we do this or should we do that? They would reply, ask Jeffrey. Check with Jeffrey. He was running the show there. And so at the very least, you would want to know, okay, Like, why were you persuaded to hand over power of attorney to this man? How much money did he have control over? Let's talk about the sale of the mansion.

1:05:49What exactly went down there? What do you know about any of this? And then when you add into that, you know, one of the first accuser, I think the first accuser to come forward, Maria Farmer, back in the 90s, she alleges that she was sexually assaulted at New Albany, which is Wexner's, you know, whole town that he built at Epstein's house in New Albany, which again, she says the security there were all Wexner security. She had to ask Wexner's wife whether or not she could leave. She had to get permission to be able to leave. So there is more than enough there, which just goes to show you, I mean, there clearly was some investigation that was done.

1:06:26We know Wexner was named as one of the potential co-conspirators who was being investigated. So the fact that this all gets closed up and he never gets charged with anything without even being interviewed is so incredibly wild. That is a stunning revelation. And it just speaks to also the incompleteness of the documents that we've been given access to. We talked earlier in the week about how it looks like it may just be about 2 % of the existing files that the government actually has in its possession that have been revealed to the public. So, you know, it shines a spotlight on the vast trove of questions that remain and vast amount of information that we still do not have access to.

1:07:09Yeah, I just think it's so unbelievable that this is the – I mean, it is too – also, Wexner is 88 years old. I mean, he can claim all sorts of things now at this point. When it mattered, he was completely – I mean, never questioned is insane. And he's testifying this under oath. Maybe he's lying. I guess it's possible. Somebody needs to prove it then. They should prosecute him for perjury if that's the case. I don't suspect that he's— But I think I believe him. Yeah, because it would be the sort of thing that the government could very easily check him on. Right. You know, and so it wouldn't be a smart lie to pursue because it would be so easily debunked.

1:07:46It's so crazy. Let's continue when we're talking about foreign investigations. Let's put C6 up here. This is very interesting. And I've been talking about this more recently. This is about Jean-Luc Brunel, who, again, was one of these modeling agency conduits for Jeffrey Epstein. The Wall Street Journal reports that the accomplice who was going to testify against Epstein then went dark. Jean-Luc Brunel was actually negotiating to provide prosecutors with evidence against Epstein in 2006, three years before he was arrested, but ultimately backed out. Basically, he was considering working with Epstein victims who were suing the Epstein estate while Epstein was still alive at the time.

1:08:23Epstein was negotiating with Brunel via Kathy Rumler and a few other people where allegedly Brunel wanted like$3 million to shut up. And it seems that the investigation didn't go anywhere. Now remember though, what ends up happening is that Brunel goes to prison in France and actually dies, again, allegedly by suicide. So you can see – Hanging, hanging death. Cameras didn't work. And just so you guys know, they're currently reopening the investigation in France after the release of these Epstein files. And you can see that, look, there's obviously a pattern. Jean-Luc Brunel, I mean, he has been accused of some of the most heinous stuff.

1:09:04And, I mean, you need a tough stomach if you want to go and read some of the things that those two used to reminisce and to talk about. But it's the same relationship that we're talking about here. modeling agency, key conduit, potential cooperation against Epstein, goes away, gets arrested, dies by suicide in a cell. Emily's been surfacing some of the emails from the young women who were promised this life of, oh, we're going to help you with your modeling career. And the way that they were completely men-boosling, one of the emails in particular says, it seems like the only piece that you were serious about was me being your mistress.

1:09:39And you've got a track record of emails of Epstein effectively like grooming these girls, coaching them on how what they should say around these powerful men. They're being effectively pawned off to this man or that man as, you know, sort of currency in Epstein's relationship with them. So the modeling pipeline is a really important one. Now, the specific allegations against John Luke Burnell, like you said, are just utterly heinous. I mean, one allegation is that he provided Epstein with, I think it was 13-year-old twins provided him with 13-year-old twins as a birthday present. Clearly, his modeling agency, which, you know, was a real modeling agency, quote unquote, that this was really used as a core part of trafficking girls and young women to Epstein as part of, you know, his web of abuse.

1:10:29So, yeah, I mean, I think the revelation that he was considering cooperating and then he walks away and then he ends up in prison And then he ends up dead under very strange circumstances. You know, there's a lot there. I recommend people read the piece, too, because some of the exchanges here are very, very enlightening about the way that Epstein operated, too, and the type of like threats and manipulation that he engaged in as well. You know, the other piece, let's put C4 up on the screen. So the UN experts are saying that the allegations in the Epstein files could amount to crimes against humanity.

1:11:08And I just want you to contrast this reaction. And this is from independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Contrast this reaction with what we've been fed here in the U.S., which is that this is completely exonerating to Trump. That's what he says, that there's nothing to see. There's nothing prosecutable, that there's no further even investigation. that is worth pursuing. And then when you have, you know, new investigations open in France, you have former Prince Andrew arrested in the UK, a total political crisis in the UK. There are other foreign officials who have lost their jobs.

1:11:41Corporate America, actually, there has been some fallout from, you know, Kathy Rumler lost her job. There's been some fallout there in corporate America. The law firm here, you know? Yeah, that's right. It's crazy. Like, these are very rich, powerful people. Pritzker. Tom Pritzker had to step away. And, you know, I mean, look, let's not shed a tear for they're all keeping their money. They're all going to be fine. But at least there was some level of social consequence. The political class here escapes utterly unscathed. And so, you know, to go back to this UN report, they said crimes outlined in documents released by the U.S.

1:12:12DOJ were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption, and extreme misogyny. They said the crime showed a commodification and dehumanization of women and girls. I mean, that's just undeniably true. So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, the experts said in a statement. So, you know, this is how they're evaluating what is seen there. So when you're looking at this and you're horrified and disgusted and appalled and outraged that there has been effectively no accountability.

1:12:45I mean, the one person who's in prison for this right now is Ghislaine Maxwell, and she's getting the cushiest treatment you could possibly imagine and has the possibility even of getting a pardon from this president. You know, when you're appalled by that, just know that you're not insane. Other independent experts who are looking at this are like, yes, this is utterly appalling, degrading, horrifying, and massive in terms of scope and reach. this behavior is so appalling that we think it could reach the scale of crimes against humanity. So just, you know, an astonishing result there. And so it's, I mean, I'm glad to see some of the accountability that's happening in other countries, but it does just make you realize how utterly without accountability and what utter impunity the political class here, the Epstein class here, and the United States enjoys.

1:13:37And even, you know, the corporate America reckoning, it's not like any of them are having charges filed against them. It's not like any of them are taking anything other than like a temporary reputational hit ultimately. Exactly. So look, everybody stick with it. These are just the latest. And unfortunately, it does seem that other countries are going to do much more than our country to actually look into and hold accountable anyone in public life who had anything to do with this. So anyways, it's a tragic story, I guess, but maybe a hopeful one. Maybe we can get to that. Maybe if somebody runs on holding these people accountable, then they'll have to do it if they do come into office.

1:14:15But somebody already did though. And then now this happened. So yeah, kind of a black billing experience. We need a little bit more credibility this time in the, you know, whoever's going to take that direction. We need them to not be themselves a direct member of that. I've really wondered about I'm like, how do you, you know, I've seen how many presidents have promised, I'm not talking about EPSI, but generally on certain things, come into office, turn on a dime, and we just fall for it every single time. Why do we always fall for and believe? Maybe because we want to, that it'll be different.

1:14:49It's always the same, man. And I'm like, can we do something different? Like, I don't know. Maybe you need a total shakeup in the whole system. But again, we thought we were trying that, right? I mean, I don't even think that, but a lot of people did. Okay, but you're talking about, let's talk about Obama. How many people thought that? Oh, yeah. I thought it. Didn't you? A lot of people did. 2008, hope, change, Iraq, thought a whole new thing was coming. A lot of people thought that about Clinton too. New guy, baby boomer, never seen that before. Yeah. Well, let me just, I think the most important thing to look for is you have to look at who the funders are.

1:15:21You have to scratch one layer deeper than the rhetoric and say, okay, well, but who is actually like, who is actually backing this candidacy? Because if you are, you know, like with Obama, the red flag was all the Wall Street guys loved him. They funded his campaign to the Hill, you know? And he, so that's who ultimately, you know, was really running the show in terms of his administration. Over the last couple of years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama? After Montgomery brawl. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo.

1:15:58The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between celebrities, thinkers, everyday people.

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