Sep 23, 2024
Former CIA Director Calls Israel OUT For 'Terrorism'
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta said that Israel's pager operation in Lebanon was "terrorism."
- 10 minutes
Ability to be able to place an explosive
in technology that is very prevalent these
days and turn it into a war of terror,
really a war of terror.
- This is something new.
- Is it terrorism?
[00:00:18]
I don't think there's any question
that it's a form of terrorism.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta
did not mince words when talking
about Israel's major attack in Lebanon.
It's terrorism. Now, for context.
On Tuesday, a wave of attacks
supposedly targeting pages held by members
[00:00:38]
of Hezbollah killed at least 12 people,
including two young children,
and injured thousands more.
A second wave of detonations
on Wednesday killed another 20 people
and injured more than 450 people,
according to Lebanon's health ministry.
[00:00:54]
And Panetta warns that Israel's tactic
turning ordinary consumer products
into explosives could have devastating
long term consequences.
Take a look.
This has gone right into the supply chain,
right into the supply chain.
[00:01:10]
And when you have terror going
into the supply chain, it makes people ask
the question, what the hell is next?
- It sounds like you're genuinely worried.
- I am, I am.
This is a tactic that has repercussions.
[00:01:27]
And we really don't know
what those repercussions are going to be.
And Panetta warned,
and he stressed that other governments
around the world need to get involved now
to prevent this from escalating
into a much larger regional conflict.
[00:01:42]
Take a look.
The forces of war are largely
in control right now of what's going on.
Do you think there should be
condemnation for it?
Should other nations step in,
including us?
I think it's going to be very important
for the nations of the world
[00:02:00]
to have a serious Discussion
about whether or not this isn't an area
that everybody has to focus on,
because if they don't try to deal with it.
Now, mark my word,
it is the battlefield of the future.
[00:02:20]
This caught me by surprise of all people.
Leon Panetta,
not somebody I thought would be
the voice of reason in moments like this.
What do you make of these these comments?
Hey, don't scroll away,
come back, come back.
Because before the video continues, we
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[00:02:39]
You do it at t.com/team
and we love you for it.
I think he is being the voice of reason,
and the fact that it's Leon Panetta
is enormously relevant.
So let me break it down for you both
in terms of what he's saying
and the repercussions of what he's saying.
So, number one, this former CIA director,
former secretary of defense,
[00:02:56]
it doesn't get any more establishment
than Leon Panetta.
And the reason why that's relevant
is because in America, It. Anyone
who's involved in the establishment,
let alone the former head of the CIA.
Former secretary of defense,
never criticizes Israel.
[00:03:13]
I've never seen it. It doesn't happen.
He just called what Israel did terrorism.
Totally unprecedented.
And I couldn't believe it.
I rewatched it like three times.
[00:03:29]
So if you don't live in America,
you're like, what's the big deal?
Of course, it was a form of terrorism.
12 kids died,
thousands of people got blown up.
It was preemptive, etc..
No, here in America,
our officials never admit the truth.
Never.
So the fact that he's doing it
is super important
[00:03:46]
and I think there's something behind it.
I'm going to come back
to that in a second.
So one he says Israel
is doing the terrorism.
Two, he said now we have terrorism
in the supply chain.
And basically you saw the context, you saw
the videos yourself with your own eyes.
You can interpret it any way you like.
[00:04:04]
My interpretation is crystal clear,
and I think that the overwhelming majority
of you will agree with it, which is
that he's saying Israel did the terrorism.
Israel brought terrorism
into the supply chain.
Now we're all screwed
and the repercussions are going
to be long lasting and terrible.
[00:04:23]
He never once mentioned Hezbollah
or Hamas as the culprits or anything.
I mean, that is textbook
US government to say, well, well,
it appears that Israel did this.
We're going to blame random Rando
Mohammed over there and Ahmed over there.
[00:04:40]
And obviously they're all terrorists.
And as Israel did this,
they're angels and etc.
For former CIA director to say,
no, it was Israel.
It's going to be a disaster
and it's terrorism.
I've again never seen it in my life.
And so and that gets to why I think
he's doing it in one more second.
[00:04:58]
But the third thing that he mentioned,
who did you catch that quote?
The forces of war
are largely in control right now.
Now, why would the former
defense secretary say that?
My guess, Jordan, is that he has talked
to a lot of government officials
[00:05:17]
who he has deep contacts with,
and he's not doing this willy nilly
because he felt like, hey,
I'll get up on a Sunday morning
and call Israel terrorists.
No, there's people inside the government
telling him, you got to do something.
[00:05:32]
Leon, Israel's going to drag us into
this war, and this war is going to be way,
way worse than people realize.
So somebody's got to say something because
the American people are deceived by the
media into thinking Israel isn't doing it,
[00:05:48]
that it's that they're they're the victims
and they're the oh my God, golly,
we're so tiny and small.
Those big Arab countries
with all their weapons.
What weapons?
None of their weapons even land.
Okay.
So like, oh, Israel is being oppressed
for the former CIA director
[00:06:03]
to come out and say no, no,
it's Israel that's doing the terrorism.
And now we're going to have
a huge giant problem that America
is going to have to deal with.
That is my guess. Now that's the reality.
That's those are facts.
And now my analysis is that there's tons
of people inside the US government going,
[00:06:21]
we got to send out word to the
American people that our ally is going
to get all of us into a lot of trouble.
Jordan, what do you think?
So, Jake, there was one thing
that really stood out to me.
[00:06:36]
So let's let's talk about his
terrorism comments first.
And this isn't the part
that really stood out.
He's just calling a spade a spade.
It's undeniable.
And when you aren't directly involved,
you're not in a government position.
You don't have a direct stake in it.
It's much easier for someone
to call that out.
[00:06:53]
Of course, Matt Miller's
not going to call it terrorism.
He's going to call it
a strategic operation, despite it clearly
affecting many, many innocent civilians.
But what stood out to me
from Panetta's comments were his comments
about the supply chain, the effect
that this tactic had on commerce,
[00:07:10]
and that reveals that Panetta's
still got a foot in that camp,
and he's still concerned and understands
what this is ultimately about in
so many instances, you know, forever war.
While we like to portray it as about
freedom and bringing democracy around the
[00:07:26]
world, is very often about the global flow
of commerce and capitalist interests.
He recognizes that this tactic is reckless
because it's not just about the damage.
It's not actually, it's not at all
about the damage inflicted in Lebanon
[00:07:41]
or the people who were suffered
or killed as a result of this tactic.
It's about people having concerns
about consumer goods.
Whoa, whoa.
How are businesses going
to feel about this?
We already had a supply chain crisis
a year or so ago.
He understands that this could affect
economic and capitalist interests,
[00:08:00]
and that's what he's speaking to there.
So it's good that he's saying, yeah,
this is terrorism because it is.
But to me it shows his priority
isn't with the people in Lebanon.
It is businesses.
Oh, absolutely. Jordan.
It's a terrific point,
but that I think doubles down on my point.
[00:08:17]
I've never seen Leon Panetta care about
innocent civilians in the Middle East.
I've never seen Leon Panetta
care about any Muslim lives, ever.
I mean, when he was in office,
he was like Israel.
What kind of green light do you need?
If you want, I'll we'll one in here
the size of Rhode Island.
He sent Israel endless checks.
[00:08:33]
Israel killed endless Muslims,
occupied the Palestinians entire the
entire time Panetta was in charge.
And Panetta never cared.
It's not about the idea that
American officials or former CIA director
would care about innocent Muslim lives.
It's hilarious.
There's no chance that that's the case.
[00:08:50]
No. Hear what he's saying is you.
And what I'm worried about is government
officials that know a lot more than us
but cannot say it publicly, are
saying through him, you're not getting it.
This isn't about protecting
Muslims anymore.
No one's ever cared about that.
This is about protecting the rest of us.
[00:09:09]
Israel is starting both a war
and a terror tactic that cannot be undone.
That's going to affect all
of our businesses,
that's going to affect our populations.
It's going to affect our economy
massively, and it's going to make the
[00:09:24]
whole world live under the literal word
terror as they pick up a cell phone,
as they pick up any equipment, any device.
Is there a bomb in it?
And this Israel started this, obviously.
Look, later they'll probably pretend,
oh, no, the Hamas and Hezbollah made us
[00:09:44]
put the bombs and the pagers because fill
in the blank human shields or whatever
nonsense propaganda they're doing today.
But it doesn't just have to be Israel.
Then other people can copy Israel and
start putting bombs in all the devices.
[00:10:01]
So, I mean, and Israel is now crying
because people are saying they're
not going to buy Israeli products anymore
because they
might be jerry rigged to blow up.
You didn't think that that might happen.
That is certainly at a very, very minimum,
that no one in the Middle East
[00:10:17]
will ever buy an Israeli product again.
How dumb are you?
I know you think you're invincible
if you're a right wing Israeli government
official and you think it doesn't
matter because America is going
to back us up and we're going to will
order them to fight this war for us.
[00:10:34]
Well, there you see the former CIA
director and the defense secretary saying,
I'm not sure that that's going
to happen this time around
because you guys have gone too far.
And that is a turn of events
I have never seen in America before.
Thanks for watching The Young Turks
really appreciate it.
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