The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - The Stone Zone ｜ 03-17-26

00:00:00.000 this is the stone zone with roger stone people love him and respect him roger stone now get

00:00:16.960 in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone you are now entering the stone zone

00:00:25.360 Well, tensions are really rising in Washington, D.C. after the sudden resignation of Joe Kent.

00:00:31.040 Joe Kent was essentially the number two official at the Office of Defense Intelligence.

00:00:35.980 He specifically headed the National Counterterrorism Center.

00:00:39.700 He resigned, claiming he could not support the current conflict in Iran and saying that Iran posed, quote, no imminent threat to the United States.

00:00:48.860 His comments drew immediate pushback from congressional leaders, but most importantly, his boss, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, released a statement saying that Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our president and commander in chief.

00:01:05.280 As our Commander-in-Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people, and our country.

00:01:19.060 The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander-in-Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions.

00:01:31.200 After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamic regime in Iran posed an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion.

00:01:42.520 Also, Speaker Mike Johnson, who sits on the highly classified gang of eight, those congressional leaders who get to see all classified intelligence, and he told a very different story.

00:01:53.100 During a press conference in Washington, Speaker Johnson said,

00:01:55.460 I got all the briefings. We all understood there clearly was an imminent threat. I don't know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but certainly wasn't in those briefings.

00:02:05.600 President Trump commented on Joe Kent's remarks, saying that Earl Kent was a nice guy, a highly decorated veteran whose wife was also served. He lost his wife, tragically, killed by terrorists in the line of her duty.

00:02:19.140 But the president noted that Joe Kent was very weak on security and said, well, it's a good thing that he's out considering how diametrically opposed the administration strategy he apparently is.

00:02:30.420 This dispute comes as the Trump administration continues Operation Epic Fury, which is a series of military strikes targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure and leadership networks.

00:02:40.840 Kent, who is a retired Green Beret and former CIA paramilitary officer, believes the conflict risks pulling the United States into another prolonged Middle Eastern war.

00:02:50.320 Kent is certainly entitled to his view, but so far the president has made it clear that he believes in the limited, strategic, yet lethal use of American power without committing ourselves to long, endless foreign wars, boots on the ground, hundreds of thousands of American casualties, and of course, billions in new defense contractors and spending.

00:03:12.540 That is not what transpired in his first attack on Iran. It's not what transpired in Venezuela. It is not what is transpiring now. I think the president clearly understands that this conflict needs to be limited. That's why the president has used ramped up American power and moved, I think, in total concert with his national position.

00:03:34.020 Anybody who knows Donald Trump knows that he has been crystal clear on the Iranian threat starting in the 1980s.

00:03:42.780 This position of the president taking action in Iran is completely consistent with everything he has ever said on the issues.

00:03:50.140 Confronting Iran now is far safer than allowing a hostile regime to threaten the United States and its allies with a nuclear capability. 0.96

00:03:58.160 So this fight, which appears to be dividing those in the MAGA base, I suspect this will resolve itself if the president and the secretary of war are correct and that this engagement is relatively short.

00:04:13.680 What the American people don't want, of course, is endless foreign war.

00:04:16.980 That has not been the policy of the Trump administration.

00:04:19.720 Meanwhile, demonstrating further as to why the Save America Act, now before the U.S. Senate, must be enacted, new reports have shown that illegal immigrants have repeatedly voted in American elections.

00:04:32.300 While it is known that illegals have voted in some election, recent cases uncovered by federal authorities suggest this issue may be far more widespread than once believed.

00:04:42.200 According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice, Moritiana, a national Mahali Sacco, an illegal immigrant, ordered to be removed from the United States in 2002, allegedly voted in seven federal elections since 2008.

00:05:02.460 Investigators say that Sacco falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen in order to register and cast bullets in Pennsylvania.

00:05:08.340 Officials have also identified other such cases across the country.

00:05:11.920 In North Carolina, for example, a Canadian national, Denise Beauchard,

00:05:16.080 pleaded guilty to falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 22 and 24 elections.

00:05:22.120 In Michigan, they identified a Chinese national who's named Gao, a college student,

00:05:28.320 who was charged with illegal voting in 2024 elections before reportedly fleeing the country.

00:05:33.060 Meanwhile, Pennsylvania officials acknowledged a problem in the state's motor voter system

00:05:38.260 that mistakenly allows roughly 100,000 non-citizens to register to vote.

00:05:42.720 These incidents demonstrate precisely why stronger safeguards are needed

00:05:46.580 and why the Save America Act is a no-brainer.

00:05:49.460 Democrats don't want us to derail their fraud machine that has served them so well,

00:05:54.660 particularly during the 2020 election steal.

00:05:57.880 It's very hard for me to grasp who could possibly be against a simple requirement

00:06:02.520 that one be a U.S. citizen before the one can vote in elections,

00:06:06.860 as well as why one should have a simple photo ID.

00:06:10.620 You need a photo ID to get out of an airplane.

00:06:12.960 You need a photo ID to buy a pack of beer or a carton of cigarettes.

00:06:17.420 You need a photo ID to register for welfare, to apply for welfare.

00:06:22.460 Why would you not need a photo ID to vote?

00:06:25.760 The idea that requiring a photo ID is somehow racist, that idea is racist, in my view.

00:06:31.820 But we're sitting here in a situation in which there are 50 votes for the Save America Act, but because of the arcane traditions of the U.S. Senate, something called the filibuster rule, where you need 60 votes to move an issue to the floor, we're stuck.

00:06:51.060 And therefore, I think it is time to dump the filibuster rule and to proceed to a vote.

00:06:56.420 If there are 50 votes, Vice President J.D. Vance can break that tie.

00:07:01.360 And I think that this will largely solve the issue of election integrity in this country.

00:07:06.080 I think we might get too deep in the weeds here when we start arguing about mail-in ballots, early voting,

00:07:11.580 whether these electronic voting machines are susceptible to being hacked and manipulated.

00:07:16.580 I think all those things, by the way, are true.

00:07:18.620 but the easiest way to solve this of course is to clean up the voter rolls and the easiest way to

00:07:24.540 clean up the voter rolls is with the simple requirement that a person be registered be a

00:07:29.880 pardon me be a u.s citizen in order to vote the democrats are very clear they want more illegals

00:07:35.480 to vote in fact that's their key to long-term political success they want to replace us

00:07:39.500 demographically it was never a conspiracy theory those who say it was are simply wrong the fight

00:07:44.380 for mass deportation is an existential fight for this country. We need to pass the SAVE Act now

00:07:50.760 and get every single one of these illegals out of the country, but let's start with those who have 0.73

00:07:55.180 criminal records, those who either have a record in their home country of origin or a record here

00:08:02.660 in the United States. The president is pushing very hard on the Congress to pass the SAVE Act,

00:08:07.840 a sweeping election integrity bill that, as I say, would simply require proof of citizenship and

00:08:12.640 voter identification in federal elections. It is time to do away with the filibuster rules. If we

00:08:19.000 don't, the Democrats will when they retake the Senate, and then you'll have a torrent of crazy

00:08:24.260 left-wing legislation. So the time is now, although I already see that some Republicans like Lisa

00:08:30.700 Murkowski of Alaska, for example, are refusing to go along. Again, we have the votes. It's time for

00:08:38.620 the Senate Majority Leader, Mr. Thune, to call the vote. He can do that. We don't have to be

00:08:46.160 bound by these arcane traditions of the Senate. It's the same type of tradition, the so-called

00:08:51.440 blue slip, that keeps President Trump from having his own U.S. attorneys, his own federal prosecutors

00:08:56.920 in every jurisdiction. It's time to do away with this filibuster bill and to give us honest

00:09:02.940 elections. We have a unique opportunity to do that and to do it now. The president said lawmakers who

00:09:09.260 vote against the SAVE Act should expect it to be used against them in their campaigns. That is a

00:09:14.260 very key threat by the president because all the polling shows that he's extraordinarily popular

00:09:20.320 among Republican voters. That's who votes in Republican primaries. And there's a clear

00:09:25.620 challenge from the president that he is going to threaten the re-nomination, re-election of

00:09:31.480 senators who vote against him on this crucially important bill. The bill, which is led in the

00:09:37.380 Senate by Senator Mike Lee from Utah, requires individuals to register to vote in federal

00:09:41.960 elections, providing proof of U.S. citizenship and identification when they do so. To me,

00:09:48.040 it is just a common sense safeguard already supported by large majorities of the American

00:09:52.100 people. Some, like the Democrats, like Dick Durbin from Illinois, argues it will make

00:09:56.660 america is harder to register to vote that's a canard frequently used by opponents of any form

00:10:02.480 of election integrity i'm roger stone i believe in honest fair elections and i believe the save

00:10:07.900 act is the best way to get them you're listening to the stone zone right here on the red apple

00:10:12.020 audio networks and we'll be right back this is the stone zone with roger stone and he's a great

00:10:18.860 Great person, Roger Stone.

00:10:21.840 The Stone Zone.

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00:11:12.640 This is the Zone Zone.

00:11:15.200 Now, get him a zone.

00:11:17.120 It's the Stone Zone.

00:11:19.080 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.

00:11:26.200 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:11:28.620 Roger Stone.

00:11:29.680 Where's Roger Stone?

00:11:30.920 Here's Roger Stone.

00:11:34.000 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:11:36.820 Vice President J.D. Vance pushed back today against media attempts to divide the administration

00:11:43.280 as the United States carries out military actions against Iran under Operation Epic Fury.

00:11:49.440 Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the President, Vance correctly accused reporters

00:11:53.800 of trying to manufacture conflict between him and the President. One reporter pressed Vance

00:11:58.900 on whether he had reservations about the operation, pointing to his past criticism of prolonged

00:12:03.980 foreign war. The vice president dismissed that suggestion, made clear that the administration

00:12:09.020 is united. Vice President Vance said what the president has said consistently, going all the

00:12:13.960 way back to 2015, is that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. We've taken this action under

00:12:19.280 the president's leadership and all Americans, Republicans, and Democrats alike should be

00:12:23.900 praying for the success of our troops. The vice president also drew a sharp contrast with past

00:12:28.820 administrations saying the difference today is strong leadership in the White House. The vice

00:12:34.000 president says, and I agree with this totally, that he trusts President Trump to avoid the costly

00:12:38.260 mistakes that defined earlier foreign conflicts. President Trump effusively praised Vance during

00:12:44.120 the exchange, calling the vice president great and emphasizing that his goal remains peace

00:12:49.700 through strength. President Trump said the operation against Iran is necessary to prevent 0.75

00:12:54.560 a far greater threat to the United States and its allies. The president's been completely

00:12:59.820 consistent about this. I've been involved in his earlier exploratory efforts to look at the

00:13:07.620 American presidency in 1988. We're certainly with him in 2000. He has always been a hardliner on

00:13:16.140 the question of whether Iran should be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and therefore nobody

00:13:20.480 should be surprised this is completely consistent with his entire public record the president said

00:13:28.080 we're going to have a much safer world when this is all wrapped up making it clear that the mission

00:13:32.640 will conclude soon the president also brushed aside concerns about rising oil and gas prices

00:13:38.400 following the operation arguing that economic fluctuations are insignificant compared with the

00:13:43.480 danger of a nuclear-armed iran threatening america and the world it's clear that the president and the

00:13:50.220 Vice President are on the same page, and any attempt to manufacture division with the

00:13:54.540 administration will ultimately not be successful. I think we saw some of that in the interpretations

00:14:00.380 of the resignation of Joe Kent as the National Director of the Center for Counterterrorism,

00:14:07.600 but I think Tulsi Gabbard put that in the proper perspective when she said, look, the President

00:14:13.420 makes the decisions. Our job is to give the President the best information we have, and we

00:14:18.840 have done that. So she has closed ranks along the president and the vice president, and we all pray

00:14:24.780 that this war will be brief. So far, it appears that way. Now, General Mike Flynn was on my show

00:14:33.280 about a week ago, and he insisted that the U.S. Navy is more than capable of clearing the

00:14:40.920 Straits of Hormuz and making sure that there is a lane there for commerce. The president has

00:14:47.940 correctly called on our allies to share their burden since they all benefit from that. But of

00:14:53.940 course, once again, the United States seems to be the only country that is stepping up. It is

00:15:00.540 therefore, I think, absolutely clear that this administration is committed to peace through

00:15:09.840 strength. Trump, unlike the neocons who went before him, is committed to the limited, targeted,

00:15:16.380 finite but but extraordinarily lethal use of american power only when it is necessary therefore

00:15:25.140 i stand with the president in this war as i think most americans do at the same time we know

00:15:31.100 politically from history that the american people do not have the appetite for long drawn out foreign

00:15:37.340 conflicts particularly if they don't see our inherent national interests later in the show

00:15:44.220 Hamlet Yosef, who is a national security professional, former intelligence community

00:15:48.640 official, and now today a venture capitalist specializing in defense and intelligence

00:15:53.020 technologies. He knows more about Iran than probably almost anyone in America. He's going 0.98

00:15:59.020 to join us here in the Stone Zone to help us assess exactly what is going on there.

00:16:04.060 Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdami, this guy never disappoints. He used today, St. Patrick's Day's

00:16:10.340 event to accuse Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in outrageous remarks,

00:16:16.920 remarks that were so outrageous. This is really what we've come to expect from a socialist Islamist 1.00

00:16:22.760 who was incomprehensibly elected to the position of mayor in New York City. Mamdami made his remarks

00:16:28.800 today during a breakfast at Gracie Mansion where the city leaders gathered to celebrate Irish

00:16:34.540 heritage and honor former Irish President Mary Robinson. But instead of focusing solely on the

00:16:41.160 holiday, the president shifted the event towards the Middle Eastern politics, claiming the world 0.91

00:16:46.000 has remained silent while what he calls a genocide unfolds. Mamdami argued that the Irish experience

00:16:53.120 with historical oppression gives him special connection to the Palestinians. Boy, there's a

00:16:58.520 reach. He praised Robinson for speaking out on the issue and suggests that many people concerned

00:17:03.600 with human rights have ignored the Palestinians suffering Robinson echoed broader concerns about

00:17:09.260 global conflicts referencing war and instability in places like Gaza Ukraine Sudan and Iran

00:17:16.820 she said many Irish people feel empathy for those facing displacement and violence around the world

00:17:22.580 showing shamefully she's not particularly too far off from Mamdami's point of view she's a globalist

00:17:29.500 Mamdami's comments are clearly inappropriate for a holiday meant to celebrate Irish culture and heritage.

00:17:35.600 Mamdami shares no concern for any European other than to see them replaced and have their traditions blotted out by the refuse of the third world. 1.00

00:17:45.240 Mamdami injected this anti-colonial, anti-Western foreign policy agenda even into an event traditionally focused on unity, faith, and community.

00:17:55.760 This, I'm sorry to say, is Mayor Mamdami's M.O.

00:17:59.740 This is what he's known for, and he's just now getting started.

00:18:03.440 Could we just celebrate St. Patrick's Day and do it in an appropriate way?

00:18:08.320 This posted a great piece on St. Patrick, for those who don't know the history of this important holiday.

00:18:13.800 But today, we salute the Irish.

00:18:16.600 I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to Stone's Zone right here on the Red Apple Audio Networks.

00:18:21.460 When we come back, Hamlet Yosef, a national security professional who knows all about Iran, joins us.

00:18:38.880 This is the Stone Zone.

00:18:41.380 Now, get in the zone. 0.94

00:18:43.320 It's the Stone Zone.

00:18:44.840 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.

00:18:52.380 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:18:54.840 Roger Stone wins Rogers.

00:18:57.080 Here's Roger Stone.

00:18:59.680 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:19:02.560 To help us assess the situation in the Persian Gulf, we're joined now by Hamlet Youssef.

00:19:08.160 He is a national security professional, a former intelligence community official, and now today a venture capitalist specializing in defense and intelligence technologies.

00:19:18.080 Born to an Iranian family, he emigrated to America as a child after the 1979 revolution.

00:19:25.580 Mr. Youssef holds degrees from Florida State University and Pepperdine University.

00:19:29.780 But today he is the managing partner of Iron Gate Capital Advisors, a strategic partner at Tower Strategy Group, and an advisor on irregular warfare and geo-economic issues.

00:19:42.080 With broad experience across all governmental and private sectors, he focuses specifically on national security questions as well as economic security issues, as well as the complex geopolitical challenges facing this country.

00:19:56.200 We're very honored to have him. Mr. Youssef, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:20:01.100 Yeah, thank you for having me. I have a bit of a passion, I guess, when it comes to Iran and have a unique perspective,

00:20:08.660 having been born there, raised in the U.S., and having the pleasure of serving the federal government, but also the private sector.

00:20:15.940 So the unique approach. And as you mentioned, my background, I definitely have my biases,

00:20:20.320 having seen what the regime did in 1979,

00:20:24.760 turning a very progressive, a very pro-West, pro-U.S.,

00:20:28.620 pro-Europe, pro-Israel country, and turning it to what it is today.

00:20:32.360 I, like many Iranians, have always thought that it would be great

00:20:36.580 if we could ever have an opportunity to see that regime fall.

00:20:39.580 I think for the first time in my lifetime, we're pretty close to seeing that.

00:20:42.380 So I say that because I do have, like I said, my biases,

00:20:45.420 and I try to remove my biases in fact.

00:20:47.600 But all humans have their own kind of perspective.

00:20:50.080 about how they see the world.

00:20:51.160 So I thought it was important to get that up front as your listeners

00:20:53.920 and listen to my take on how things are going to transpire here.

00:20:58.020 Well, I appreciate that.

00:20:59.260 It's an opinion show.

00:21:00.440 I certainly give my opinions five days a week and for two hours on Sunday,

00:21:05.300 so I know where you are coming from.

00:21:07.760 On the other hand, you have a depth of experience and knowledge

00:21:11.660 that obviously all Americans don't have.

00:21:14.260 There's a lot of second-guessing of the president today.

00:21:17.120 I'm sorry to see this.

00:21:18.020 But I guess the most important question is this one, which is, did the regime pose an imminent threat to the United States when the president decided to attack them?

00:21:28.440 That's a complicated and loaded question.

00:21:31.040 So do I personally think they had an imminent threat?

00:21:34.280 Is there a plan for the Iranians to strike the homeland?

00:21:38.800 Probably not.

00:21:39.940 I'm a venture capitalist.

00:21:41.380 I'm not plugged into the halls of intelligence community, diplomacy or whatnot.

00:21:45.540 so i don't know what the relevant day-to-day intel is uh the chatter is the iranians will

00:21:50.640 be coming very close to um to getting to a point of breakthrough um in terms of nuclear technology

00:21:56.640 uh that's a non-starter given the ideology of the regime and kind of their view on kind of

00:22:02.440 what destiny has in mind for them uh so i think that was a critical path that caused us to take

00:22:08.500 take action there is a consensus body of thought that they had or were becoming possession of uh

00:22:15.060 of certain weapons that were provided, especially from out of China or Russia,

00:22:18.720 that would have been a direct threat to our fleet 0.98

00:22:21.020 that was forming throughout the Arabian or Persian Gulf and the Union Ocean,

00:22:26.320 and we had to take action.

00:22:28.980 Had we not taken action, I think we probably would have come to regret it,

00:22:33.900 because if Iran does become a nuclear state and has a nuclear capability,

00:22:38.840 then your options in dealing with the regime are obviously by calculus changes.

00:22:45.060 um and if you look at what happened within iran um everything comes all conflict to me comes down

00:22:51.380 to to economic stability and economic power um the regime was under significant significant

00:22:57.220 economic pressure uh through decades of mismanagement uh and waste and grips uh they

00:23:02.420 had basically wrecked the entirety of the iran economy you can blame sanctions to a certain

00:23:06.980 extent but you can't uh ignore the fact that it feels completely disadvantaged iranian society

00:23:12.020 got to the point where they had it they wanted regime change that's why you had hundreds of

00:23:16.020 thousands of millions of people coming to the streets of iran um towards the end of december

00:23:20.520 and into the early part of this year the regime reacted like they'd never have before because i

00:23:25.080 think they viewed this as the most direct threat to them uh was the uprising of the people um and

00:23:31.120 it got to the point where they i mean literally slaughtering and killing thousands and thousands

00:23:34.780 of iranians in the streets and president trump made a very direct statement he goes you need to

00:23:40.160 cut it out or we're going to come in and help 0.98

00:23:42.260 the people. And that's kind of where we're at right now.

00:23:44.440 So was there an imminent threat, like a

00:23:46.300 9-11-style attack against the U.S.?

00:23:48.400 I don't think so. Were they

00:23:50.300 in a position where they could have done great harm to

00:23:52.120 our fleet and our friends

00:23:54.320 in the region? Probably. Were they

00:23:56.280 getting danger close to

00:23:57.560 becoming a nuclear state? I think pretty

00:24:00.140 close. I think Iran as a country

00:24:02.220 will probably end up becoming

00:24:04.180 a nuclear state at some point because they've

00:24:06.160 proven the technical pickle to know how to do it.

00:24:08.480 Now it's just a matter of time and resources before they get there.

00:24:11.320 The issue with nuclear is you can't have a regime like this get access to nuclear weapons

00:24:16.520 because for them, first strike use, those are all things that I think their calculus of what that means

00:24:23.740 is different than the Western mindset.

00:24:25.660 So I think we had a limited window, and I think the president chose to act.

00:24:29.200 I think you just made an excellent case for acting now.

00:24:33.140 Imminent danger to me is the development of a weapon.

00:24:37.120 And what did you think of these claims reportedly by the Iranians at the negotiating table,

00:24:43.300 in which they said they had enough enriched uranium to put together 11 nuclear devices?

00:24:53.180 Do you think that's accurate?

00:24:55.080 There's probably some gamesmanship in there.

00:24:57.240 I think they could have potentially overplayed their hand, no different than how Saddam overplayed his hand, 0.80

00:25:02.380 the head of the invasion of Iraq.

00:25:05.380 If you understand nuclear enrichment, and me being a sales and finance guy, I'm not a nuclear physicist,

00:25:11.680 but the way I had this explained to me is when you're enriching uranium,

00:25:15.300 the process of taking the raw uranium and enriching it to 3% or 20%,

00:25:19.560 which is what you need for conventional benign uses, whether it's energy, research, or a nuclear reactor.

00:25:27.320 The science and the mechanics of that emission process is the same.

00:25:31.540 To get it to 60%, you need just time and resources and infrastructure to get there.

00:25:36.680 In order to have a nuclear weapon, you need to enrich uranium to 90% plus.

00:25:41.680 Once you can enrich with 20% and 60%, it's just a matter of time and resources before you get to 95% plus.

00:25:48.260 Now, let's say I've mastered the ability to enrich uranium to the 95% level.

00:25:52.380 I now have weapons-grade uranium.

00:25:55.340 That in itself does not make a nuclear device because now I need two other things.

00:26:00.100 I need a triggering mechanism, something that will create a nuclear reaction,

00:26:04.380 and I need a delivery mechanism, something that I can deliver it into pick-your-cart, target country or region.

00:26:12.000 The speculation, I think, was if they got to enriched uranium,

00:26:16.840 they could always go and collaborate potentially with North Korea on the triggering mechanism.

00:26:22.480 And unfortunately, one of the shortcomings of the Obama-era nuclear deal, JCPOA,

00:26:27.880 and gave Iran a lot of latitude to continue to make advancements in their ballistic technology.

00:26:32.360 So now you have a regime that became danger-close to having the ability to natively develop nuclear-grade processed uranium

00:26:41.960 and could very easily, arguably, access and trigger the technology from another bad actor in North Korea

00:26:48.040 and was already developing their ballistic infrastructure domestically.

00:26:50.980 So to me, I think they were reaching very, very close to it.

00:26:53.640 So for the Iranians to come back and say they had nowhere at 60%, I believe at face value,

00:26:59.000 because I think they've been enriching for the better part of seven years since JCPO was taken off the table.

00:27:05.420 There's no reason for them to enrich to this level unless they wanted to get to nuclear power.

00:27:10.340 I'm sorry, for nuclear weapon material, because once they're at 60,

00:27:15.260 which means they've more than enough processed uranium to feed any nuclear reactor

00:27:21.060 that they need to develop for domestic energy consumption.

00:27:23.640 consumption. So if you're enriching the 60, you're seeing a pretty clear message in terms of where

00:27:29.340 you want to go for the weapons program, and that's my opinion. Folks, if you're just tuning in,

00:27:34.360 we're talking to Hamlet Youssef. He is a national security professional, currently a managing

00:27:39.320 partner at Iron Gate Capital Advisors, a strategic partner from the Tower Strategy Group, where he

00:27:45.620 advises them on irregular warfare and other geo-economic issues. He has a vast background

00:27:53.000 uh understanding the region uh mr yusuf i'm curious as to the current state of the regime

00:28:00.420 obviously we killed the supreme leader and 40 of his top henchmen uh yet they continue to use

00:28:07.820 drones uh and fire missiles uh at their at their arab neighbors clearly they may be wounded 0.64

00:28:15.160 but they don't seem to be completely decapitated at this point do you think that's a what do you

00:28:21.940 think their current military state is? That's a great question. I think if you look at their

00:28:26.980 capabilities from a conventional military standpoint, no doubt that it's been degraded

00:28:31.420 significantly in terms of leadership, command and control, but also their conventional ability

00:28:37.140 to wage war. For all intended purposes, it looks like all their air defenses have it for the most

00:28:42.260 part taken care of, their conventional Navy for the most part taken care of, no air force to speak

00:28:46.880 of. But these guys are not idiots. They've suspected 1.00

00:28:50.600 they've been planning for this from day one. To me, I think there's

00:28:54.780 a lot of credence to believe that these guys are spending a fortune building

00:28:58.860 a drone arsenal, an unconventional rocket arsenal, where they can

00:29:02.220 reach out and hit our neighbors and hit our forces throughout the region.

00:29:06.500 So I think this conflict that we're seeing right now is going to very quickly change from a conventional conflict

00:29:10.760 to a very irregular asymmetric conflict. And unfortunately,

00:29:14.700 You touched on a drone, drone technology is a big piece of that.

00:29:18.880 As an investor in this space, we saw this coming seven, eight years ago when we first started the fund.

00:29:23.980 We thought it was important to invest in drone and counter-drone technologies

00:29:27.020 because this is what was going to reshape the battlefield in the 21st century.

00:29:31.500 So what's entirely plausible now is as a conventional missile and rocket technology becomes degraded,

00:29:38.860 they are going to rely on these very crude, inexpensive Shahid drones that are literally one-way, $30,000, $40,000 flying lawnmowers

00:29:47.640 that are cheap to make, easy to deploy, very easy to basically hide under a civilian infrastructure and launch against your adversaries.

00:29:56.120 This now introduces where the future of warfare is going, which is a complete destruction of the economics of war.

00:30:01.620 Because if I'm an Iranian and I'm launching, let's say, a thousand lawnmowers with motors and wings, and I say lawnmowers, it doesn't sound like they fly, but if I'm launching these cheap drones at U.S. forces, I'm putting billions of dollars of hardware at risk.

00:30:20.680 And right now, the U.S.'s counter to that is to launch fighters and helicopters to knock down these assets.

00:30:28.600 So we're spending millions and millions and billions of dollars to address a threat that's maybe a couple million dollars.

00:30:35.560 So that's changing.

00:30:37.060 And so I think Iran is going to be able to have a prolonged ability to make things very uncomfortable in the Middle East, 1.00

00:30:44.280 Everything from trying to disrupt commerce and trade in the Straits of Hormuz to attacking Arab infrastructure, civilian infrastructure, and also our targets and our locations throughout the Middle East.

00:30:55.100 So the tenor and the conflict of this is changing.

00:30:58.340 The third element that I think is starting to really impact and come to light is what we call cognitive warfare, which is basically messaging media, framing of what's happening.

00:31:09.400 They want to continue, they being Iran, and I think to a certain extent backed by proxies from China and Russia, primarily China, 0.89

00:31:17.080 they want to make sure the message is this is a failed war.

00:31:20.220 This is a horrible decision for the U.S.

00:31:22.420 This is terrible.

00:31:23.180 The Iranians are being unfairly treated and whatnot because they want to put as much pressure as they can on the administration and Israelis to stop this conflict.

00:31:32.500 Like, the reason they're attacking the Middle East and their neighbors is, one, I don't want to fall down the pit of Shia Sunni divide, 1.00

00:31:40.280 but I think what they're trying to do is they're trying to turn sentiment in the Middle East against us.

00:31:45.500 I think the reason you have not seen any major action against Iran in the past is we were always afraid, well, that's the Middle East thing. 0.71

00:31:53.740 Well, we're starting to see, we're starting to see actually the entire Middle East unified behind giving us support to take out Iran. 0.96

00:32:00.260 The reason they're doing that is the entire Middle East, the Arab world, they're not anti-Iran.

00:32:05.520 They're not anti-Shia.

00:32:06.620 I think the rest of the Middle East is, by many estimates, getting closer and closer to realizing there's a very bright future ahead based on secular unity and put all the secretarian BS behind them.

00:32:20.000 And they view the number one challenge to that as being the Iranian regime.

00:32:23.860 So this is going to turn very quickly, I think, from a very conventional conflict to a very unconventional conflict.

00:32:29.860 steep in regular warfare and cognitive warfare and economic warfare. Let's turn for a few minutes

00:32:35.280 to the Strait of Hormuz. As you know, a very substantial amount of the world's energy flows

00:32:40.640 through there. The Iranians have said from the beginning if they were attacked, they would 0.94

00:32:44.620 close it down. Do they have the ability to sustain that? I mean, it appears to me that the U.S. Navy

00:32:50.300 ought to be able to take care of that. Great point. Actually, I love the sub-statue roads

00:32:54.840 on Park Island. I think you and I

00:32:57.340 share a lot of the same views there.

00:32:59.120 I think shutting down the Straits of Hormuz

00:33:00.900 is definitely very easy for the Iranians to do.

00:33:03.280 Although we've

00:33:04.600 debilitated a large chunk

00:33:06.940 of their

00:33:07.700 conventional navy, they 0.99

00:33:10.820 still have thousands of thousands of small

00:33:12.780 merchant ships that they could very

00:33:14.820 easily use for one-way suicide

00:33:16.880 missions into any

00:33:18.700 commercial flight vehicle.

00:33:21.620 The Straits

00:33:22.980 are pretty narrow.

00:33:23.720 So any variation of the Shaheed drones that we talked about can very easily reach out and hit a tanker.

00:33:29.940 There's a whole risk of mining the Straits.

00:33:31.700 Those are all plausible.

00:33:33.340 And I think you're going to see some elements of that deployed over the next couple of weeks.

00:33:36.640 But I don't think it's sustainable for a couple of reasons, because at the end of the day,

00:33:40.500 some of that oil that's leaving the Straits is a lot of oil.

00:33:44.320 They're going to need that income stream to continue to fuel those fights. 1.00

00:33:48.420 But at the same time, if you look at, I think, somewhere around 30 to 40, close to 50 percent of the oil that leaves the Gulf, whether it's Iranian or Arab, is going to China and India, two of the biggest economies out there.

00:34:02.060 They're only going to stand for so long in terms of allowing this.

00:34:04.620 When you look at overall global trade and what Europe has at stake, at some point, you're going to see the other powers to be either step in and block the U.S. from continuing this aggression, which I think is less likely to them stepping in and say, okay, you know what?

00:34:20.420 We've got no choice.

00:34:21.260 We now have to commit our naval resources to help keep these channels open.

00:34:26.460 So I think that's what's going to happen.

00:34:28.900 In the near term, I think the Iranians will continue to take pot shots at us, the benefit of us owning the airspace. 1.00

00:34:34.620 is, again, it's going to be a bit of whack-a-mole,

00:34:37.560 but as you see planes fly or drones fly from the Iranian coast

00:34:41.520 against global shipping, then we're going to take action.

00:34:44.400 We did that against the Houthis pretty successfully in years past.

00:34:48.100 The last point I wanted to touch on is I think you had made the case

00:34:52.680 of what happens or with the strategic relevance of Karg Island.

00:34:57.500 That's pretty significant.

00:34:58.560 And for those years, that's an island off to the coast of Bashir

00:35:03.020 in south, southwest Iran.

00:35:05.420 That island, I think, is responsible for a bulk of the oil

00:35:09.620 that is exported from Iran.

00:35:11.880 President Trump was very vocal earlier this week, I think,

00:35:14.320 and talked about how he's blown up every military asset on that island.

00:35:18.240 That's a key statement because I don't think there's ever a scenario

00:35:22.080 where you're going to have a military invasion force going into Iran.

00:35:26.640 But if we can take Karg Island off of the map temporarily for the Iranians, 1.00

00:35:31.600 And again, it chokes off the regime's ability to fuel and fund Hezbollah, Hamas, their proxy networks, and their ability to buy weapons and materials from China and Russia and sustain this fight.

00:35:42.660 And the reason I think we attack the military infrastructure and not the actual rural infrastructure is when and if there is regime change in the near term, we want to keep that entire infrastructure intact so we can hand it back to the Iranian people to rebuild their country like they should.

00:35:56.080 Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Hamlet Youssef.

00:35:59.500 He is an esteemed intelligence agency veteran who has served his country, but now works on Wall Street, an expert on what's going on in the Persian Gulf.

00:36:10.420 And we'll be right back with more.

00:36:12.300 This is the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.

00:36:15.680 And he's a great, great person, Roger Stone.

00:36:19.720 The Stone Zone.

00:36:29.500 this is the stone zone now get him his own it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell 0.52

00:36:49.420 but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but

00:36:55.760 People love him and respect him.

00:36:57.280 Roger Stone.

00:36:58.320 Where's Roger Stone?

00:36:59.580 Here's Roger Stone.

00:37:02.200 And we're back with Hamlet Youssef, an intelligence community veteran

00:37:06.920 and now working on Wall Street, an expert on the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

00:37:12.180 We've got about a little less than two minutes.

00:37:14.460 Hamlet, I'm going to let you wrap this up with a final key point.

00:37:17.640 Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

00:37:19.320 Honored and a pleasure.

00:37:20.520 I'm glad to have a voice here.

00:37:22.260 In all my years when I worked in the federal government supporting the State Department,

00:37:25.320 when it came to national security and energy issues.

00:37:28.100 I always had the opinion that Iran was central 0.64

00:37:30.720 to solving so many of the issues

00:37:32.980 from a geopolitical standpoint with the U.S.

00:37:35.260 And I think replacing this regime

00:37:37.820 is going to be a tremendous added level point for the West.

00:37:43.120 I think it drives up all funds for Hezbollah and Hamas.

00:37:46.260 It neuters Putin's ability to wage one Ukraine. 0.72

00:37:48.380 But more importantly, this is what it's all about,

00:37:50.600 that significantly hinders Xi and the CCP.

00:37:53.300 So I think there's no coincidence that this is happening a month before President Trump is set to start negotiating and engaging in Asia later this year.

00:38:03.040 So I think there's a lot of dominoes that are set to fall.

00:38:06.760 But I think it's been very constructive in terms of where things are going to at least want to be a regime and Iran is no longer in place.

00:38:14.060 I'm in agreement.

00:38:15.040 Anybody who will look at Donald Trump's long-term public record, he's always been hard-line on this issue.

00:38:20.120 Therefore, there is no inconsistency here.

00:38:22.740 And he is a man who means what he says and says what he means.

00:38:26.300 He made, I think, the right call regarding the dangers that a nuclear Iran posed to this country. 1.00

00:38:33.260 And I think he took the right action.

00:38:34.920 I'm calling the American people to rally behind him and behind the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State at this crucial time for the country.

00:38:42.700 I want to thank you for joining us today, bringing your wealth of experience to the table.

00:38:47.120 A lot of my listeners are still concerned about the war, not sure they're getting the straight story.

00:38:53.160 That's why this was very valuable.

00:38:54.520 I want to thank our guest, Hamlet Youssef, for joining us today.

00:38:57.960 And thank you for joining us today in the Stone Zone.

00:39:01.040 Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.

The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - March 18, 2026

The Stone Zone ｜ 03-17-26

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