The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - The Stone Zone ｜ 03-19-26

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00:00:15.240 This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.

00:00:28.500 People love him and respect him. Roger Stone.

00:00:31.280 Now, get him a zone. It's the Stone Zone. Here's Roger Stone.

00:00:37.020 You are now entering the Stone Zone.

00:00:40.880 Well, tensions are really rising in Washington, D.C. after the sudden resignation of Joe Kent.

00:00:46.280 Joe Kent was essentially the number two official at the Office of Defense Intelligence.

00:00:51.220 He specifically headed the National Counterterrorism Center.

00:00:54.780 he resigned, claiming he could not support the current conflict in Iran and saying that Iran

00:01:00.540 posed, quote, no imminent threat to the United States. His comments drew immediate pushback from

00:01:07.300 congressional leaders, but most importantly, his boss, the director of national intelligence,

00:01:12.820 Tulsi Gabbard, released a statement saying that Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the

00:01:17.640 American people to be our president and commander-in-chief. As our commander-in-chief, he is

00:01:22.840 responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat and whether or not to take action

00:01:28.000 he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people,

00:01:33.360 and our country. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping

00:01:38.300 coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander-in-Chief

00:01:43.100 with the best information available to inform his decisions. After carefully reviewing all the

00:01:48.380 information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamic regime in Iran posed

00:01:53.440 an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion. Also, Speaker Mike Johnson,

00:01:59.460 who sits on the highly classified gang of eight, those congressional leaders who get to see all

00:02:05.260 classified intelligence, and he told a very different story. During a press conference in

00:02:09.260 Washington, Speaker Johnson said, I got all the briefings. We all understood there clearly was an

00:02:14.080 imminent threat. I don't know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but certainly wasn't in

00:02:19.380 those briefings. President Trump commented on Joe Kent's remarks, saying that Earl Kent was a nice

00:02:25.300 guy, a highly decorated veteran whose wife was also served. He lost his wife, tragically, killed

00:02:32.360 by terrorists in the line of her duty. But the president noted that Joe Kent was very weak on

00:02:37.640 security, and he said, well, it's a good thing that he's out, considering how to diametrically

00:02:41.860 opposed the administration's strategy. He apparently is. This dispute comes as the Trump

00:02:47.580 administration continues Operation Epic Fury, which is a series of military strikes targeting

00:02:53.460 Iran's nuclear infrastructure and leadership networks. Kent, who is a retired Green Beret

00:02:57.940 and former CIA paramilitary officer, believes the conflict risks pulling the United States into

00:03:03.580 another prolonged Middle Eastern war. Kent is certainly entitled to his view, but so far the

00:03:08.460 president has made it clear that he believes in the limited, strategic, yet lethal use of American

00:03:14.660 power without committing ourselves to long, endless foreign wars, boots on the ground,

00:03:21.760 hundreds of thousands of American casualties, and of course, billions in new defense contractors

00:03:27.200 and spending. That is not what transpired in his first attack on Iran. It's not what transpired in

00:03:32.700 Venezuela. It is not what is transpiring now. I think the president clearly understands

00:03:37.040 that this conflict needs to be limited.

00:03:40.380 That's why the president has used, ramped up American power

00:03:44.060 and moved, I think, in total concert with his national position.

00:03:49.400 Anybody who knows Donald Trump knows that he's been crystal clear

00:03:54.080 on the Iranian threat starting in the 1980s.

00:03:58.020 This position of the president taking action in Iran

00:04:01.220 is completely consistent with everything he has ever said on the issues.

00:04:05.240 confronting Iran now is far safer than allowing a hostile regime to threat the United States 0.99

00:04:10.160 and its allies with a nuclear capability. So this fight, which appears to be dividing

00:04:16.880 those in the MAGA base, I suspect this will resolve itself if the president and the secretary

00:04:23.420 of war are correct and that this engagement is relatively short. What the American people don't

00:04:30.000 want, of course, is endless foreign war. That has not been the policy of the Trump administration.

00:04:35.240 Meanwhile, demonstrating further as to why the Save America Act, now before the U.S. Senate, must be enacted,

00:04:42.620 new reports have shown that illegal immigrants have repeatedly voted in American elections.

00:04:47.540 While it is known that illegals have voted in some election,

00:04:50.600 recent cases uncovered by federal authorities suggest this issue may be far more widespread than once believed.

00:04:57.580 According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice,

00:05:02.280 Moritiana, a national Mahali Sacco, an illegal immigrant, ordered to be removed from the United

00:05:10.360 States in 2002, allegedly voted in seven federal elections since 2008. Investigators say that

00:05:19.000 Sacco falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen in order to register and cast bullets in Pennsylvania.

00:05:23.780 Officials have also identified other such cases across the country. North Carolina, for example,

00:05:28.220 A Canadian national, Denise Beauchard, pleaded guilty to falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 22 and 24 elections.

00:05:37.300 In Michigan, they identified a Chinese national whose name Gao, a college student, was charged with illegal voting in 2024 elections before reportedly fleeing the country.

00:05:48.400 Meanwhile, Pennsylvania officials acknowledged a problem in the state's motor voter system that mistakenly allows roughly 100,000 non-citizens to register to vote.

00:05:57.840 These incidents demonstrate precisely why stronger safeguards are needed and why the Save America Act is a no-brainer.

00:06:04.700 Democrats don't want us to derail their fraud machine that has served them so well, particularly during the 2020 election steal.

00:06:13.120 It's very hard for me to grasp who could possibly be against a simple requirement that one be a U.S. citizen before the one can vote in elections, as well as why one should have a simple photo ID.

00:06:25.720 You need a photo ID to get out of an airplane. You need a photo ID to buy a pack of beer,

00:06:30.560 a pack of beer or a carton of cigarettes. You need a photo ID to register for welfare,

00:06:36.540 to apply for welfare. Why would you not need a photo ID to vote? The idea that requiring a photo

00:06:42.820 ID is somehow racist, that idea is racist in my view. But we're sitting here in a situation which

00:06:48.920 there are 50 votes for the Save America Act, but because of the arcane traditions of the U.S. Senate,

00:06:58.360 something called the filibuster rule, where you need 60 votes to move an issue to the floor,

00:07:05.660 we're stuck. And therefore, I think it is time to dump the filibuster rule and to proceed to a vote.

00:07:11.640 If there are 50 votes, Vice President J.D. Vance can break that tie. And I think that this will

00:07:18.100 largely solve the issue of election integrity in this country. I think we might get too deep

00:07:22.660 in the weeds here when we start arguing about mail-in ballots, early voting, whether these

00:07:27.880 electronic voting machines are susceptible to being hacked and manipulated. I think all those

00:07:32.500 things, by the way, are true. But the easiest way to solve this, of course, is to clean up the voter

00:07:38.580 rolls. And the easiest way to clean up the voter rolls is with the simple requirement that a person

00:07:43.520 be registered, pardon me, be a U.S. citizen in order to vote. The Democrats are very clear.

00:07:49.600 They want more illegals to vote. In fact, that's their key to long-term political success. They

00:07:53.800 want to replace us demographically. It was never a conspiracy theory. Those who say it was are

00:07:58.580 simply wrong. The fight for mass deportation is an existential fight for this country. We need to

00:08:04.800 pass the SAVE Act now and get every single one of these illegals out of the country. But let's 1.00

00:08:09.420 start with those who have criminal records, those who either have a record in their home

00:08:15.180 country of origin or a record here in the United States. The president is pushing very hard

00:08:20.480 on the Congress to pass the SAVE Act, a sweeping election integrity bill that, as I said, would

00:08:25.900 simply require proof of citizenship and voter identification in federal elections. It is time

00:08:31.340 to do away with the filibuster rules. If we don't, the Democrats will when they retake the Senate, 0.51

00:08:37.080 and then you'll have a torrent of crazy left-wing legislation. So the time is now,

00:08:42.780 although I already see that some Republicans, like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example,

00:08:49.020 are refusing to go along. Again, we have the votes. It's time for the Senate Majority Leader,

00:08:55.960 Mr. Thune, to call the vote. He can do that. We don't have to be bound by these arcane traditions

00:09:03.340 of the Senate. It's the same triple tradition, the so-called blue slip, that keeps President

00:09:08.160 Trump from having his own U.S. attorneys, his own federal prosecutors in every jurisdiction.

00:09:14.140 It's time to do away with this filibuster bill and to give us honest elections. We have a unique

00:09:19.860 opportunity to do that and to do it now. The president said lawmakers who vote against the

00:09:25.120 SAVE Act should expect it to be used against them in their campaigns. That is a very key

00:09:30.240 threat by the president because all of the polling shows that he's extraordinarily popular

00:09:35.560 among Republican voters. That's who votes in Republican primaries. And there's a clear

00:09:40.860 challenge from the president that he is going to threaten the re-nomination, re-election of

00:09:46.720 senators who vote against him on this crucially important bill. The bill, which is led in the

00:09:52.620 Senate by Senator Mike Lee from Utah, requires individuals registered to vote in federal

00:09:57.200 elections, providing proof of U.S. citizenship and identification when they do so. To me, it is just

00:10:03.720 a common sense safeguard already supported by large majorities of American people. Some, like

00:10:09.140 the Democrats, like Dick Durbin from Illinois, argues it will make America harder to register

00:10:13.580 to vote. That's a canard frequently used by opponents of any form of election integrity.

00:10:19.080 I'm Roger Stone. I believe in honest, fair elections, and I believe the SAVE Act is the

00:10:23.660 Best way to get them, you're listening to The Stone Zone right here on the Red Apple Audio Networks, and we'll be right back.

00:10:30.040 This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.

00:10:33.280 And he's a great, great person, Roger Stone.

00:10:37.200 The Stone Zone.

00:10:53.660 this is the stone zone now get him a zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell

00:11:05.860 but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but

00:11:12.200 people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone

00:11:17.760 Welcome back into the Stone Zone. Vice President J.D. Vance pushed back today against media attempts to divide the administration as the United States carries out military actions against Iran under Operation Epic Fury.

00:11:34.300 Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the president, Vance correctly accused reporters of trying to manufacture conflict between him and the president.

00:11:42.180 One reporter pressed Vance on whether he had reservations about the operation, pointing to his past criticism of prolonged foreign war.

00:11:50.140 The vice president dismissed that suggestion, made clear that the administration is united.

00:11:55.320 Vice President Vance said what the president has said consistently, going all the way back to 2015, is that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon.

00:12:03.040 We've taken this action under the president's leadership, and all Americans, Republicans, and Democrats alike should be praying for the success of our troops.

00:12:10.720 The vice president also drew a sharp contrast with past administrations, saying the difference today is strong leadership in the White House.

00:12:18.320 The vice president says, and I agree with this totally, that he trusts President Trump to avoid the costly mistakes that defined earlier foreign conflicts.

00:12:26.860 President Trump effusively praised Vance during the exchange, calling the vice president great and emphasizing that his goal remains peace through strength.

00:12:35.640 President Trump said the operation against Iran is necessary to prevent a far greater threat to the United States and its allies.

00:12:43.400 The president has been completely consistent about this.

00:12:46.180 I've been involved in his earlier exploratory efforts to look at the American presidency in 1988.

00:12:55.780 I was certainly with him in 2000.

00:12:58.540 He has always been a hardliner on the question of whether Iran should be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

00:13:04.400 and therefore nobody should be surprised. This is completely consistent with his entire public

00:13:11.000 record. The president said we're going to have a much safer world when this is all wrapped up,

00:13:16.200 making it clear that the mission will conclude soon. The president also brushed aside concerns

00:13:21.440 about rising oil and gas prices following the operation, arguing that economic fluctuations

00:13:26.600 are insignificant compared with the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran threatening America and the 1.00

00:13:32.580 world. It's clear that the president and the vice president are on the same page, and any attempt to

00:13:38.040 manufacture division with the administration will ultimately not be successful. I think we saw some

00:13:42.800 of that in the interpretations of the resignation of Joe Kent as the national director of the Center

00:13:50.780 for Counterterrorism, but I think Tulsi Gabbard put that in the proper perspective when she said,

00:13:57.820 look, the president makes the decisions. Our job is to give the president the best information we

00:14:03.260 have, and we have done that. So she has closed ranks along the president and the vice president,

00:14:08.940 and we all pray that this war will be brief. So far, it appears that way. Now, General Mike Flynn

00:14:17.180 was on my show about a week ago, and he insisted that the U.S. Navy is more than capable of clearing

00:14:25.540 the straits of her moves and making sure that there is a that there is a lane there for commerce 0.99

00:14:31.800 president has correctly called on our allies to share their burden since they all benefit from

00:14:37.940 that but of course once again the united states seems to be the only country country that is

00:14:42.700 stepping up uh it is uh it is therefore i think um absolutely clear uh that this administration

00:14:51.800 is committed to peace through strength.

00:14:55.380 Trump, unlike the neocons who went before him,

00:14:58.020 is committed to the limited, targeted, finite,

00:15:03.160 but extraordinarily lethal use of American power

00:15:07.000 only when it is necessary.

00:15:09.940 Therefore, I stand with the president in this war,

00:15:12.460 as I think most Americans do.

00:15:14.680 At the same time, we know politically from history

00:15:17.260 that the American people do not have the appetite

00:15:19.600 for long drawn out foreign conflicts, particularly if they don't see our inherent national interests.

00:15:28.060 Later in the show, Hamlet Yosef, who is a national security professional,

00:15:32.440 former intelligence community official, and now today a venture capitalist

00:15:35.900 specializing in defense and intelligence technologies,

00:15:38.840 he knows more about Iran than probably almost anyone in America.

00:15:43.640 He's going to join us here in the Stone Zone to help us assess exactly what is going on there.

00:15:49.040 Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdami, this guy never disappoints, he used today, St. Patrick's Day's event, to accuse Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in outrageous remarks that were so outrageous, this is really what we've come to expect from a socialist Islamist who was incomprehensibly elected to the position of mayor in New York City. 0.89

00:16:11.780 Mamdami made his remarks today during a breakfast at Gracie Mansion, where the city leaders gathered to celebrate Irish heritage and honor former Irish President Mary Robinson.

00:16:23.880 But instead of focusing solely on the holiday, the president shifted the event towards the Middle Eastern politics, claiming the world has remained silent while what he calls a genocide unfolds.

00:16:35.620 Mamdami argued that the Irish experience with historical oppression gives him special

00:16:40.820 connection to the Palestinians. Boy, there's a reach. He praised Robinson for speaking out on

00:16:46.660 the issue and suggests that many people concerned with human rights have ignored the Palestinians

00:16:50.940 suffering. Robinson echoed broader concerns about global conflicts, referencing war and

00:16:56.500 instability in places like Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Iran. She said many Irish people feel empathy

00:17:04.440 for those facing displacement and violence around the world,

00:17:07.740 showing shamefully that she's not particularly too far off

00:17:11.460 from Mamdami's point of view.

00:17:13.640 She's a globalist.

00:17:14.960 Mamdami's comments are clearly inappropriate for a holiday

00:17:17.960 meant to celebrate Irish culture and heritage.

00:17:20.640 Mamdami shares no concern for any European 0.63

00:17:22.980 other than to see them replaced and have their traditions

00:17:26.520 blotted out by the refuse of the third world. 0.98

00:17:30.100 Mamdami injected this anti-colonial, anti-Western foreign policy agenda even into an event traditionally focused on unity, faith, and community.

00:17:41.040 This, I'm sorry to say, is Mayor Mamdami's M.O.

00:17:44.740 This is what he's known for, and he's just now getting started.

00:17:48.480 Could we just celebrate St. Patrick's Day and do it in an appropriate way?

00:17:53.080 He's posted a great piece on St. Patrick for those who don't know the history of this important holiday.

00:17:58.860 But today, we salute the Irish.

00:18:01.700 I'm Roger Stone.

00:18:02.700 You're listening to Stone Zone right here on the Red Apple Audio Networks.

00:18:06.540 When we come back, Hamlet Joseph, a national security professional who knows all about Iran, joins us.

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00:19:17.900 this is the stone zone now get in the zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell

00:19:32.160 but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but

00:19:38.500 people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone

00:19:44.060 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:19:47.700 To help us assess the situation in the Persian Gulf, we're joined now by Hamlet Youssef.

00:19:53.300 He is a national security professional, a former intelligence community official,

00:19:57.620 and now today a venture capitalist specializing in defense and intelligence technology.

00:20:03.200 Born to an Iranian family, he emigrated to America as a child after the 1979 revolution.

00:20:10.040 Mr. Youssef holds degrees from Florida State University and Pepperdine University, 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.

00:20:26.960 with broad experience across all governmental and private sectors.

00:20:30.980 He focuses specifically on national security questions,

00:20:34.420 as well as economic security issues,

00:20:36.660 as well as the complex geopolitical challenges facing this country.

00:20:41.460 We're very honored to have him.

00:20:43.180 Mr. Youssef, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:20:46.240 Yeah, thank you for having me.

00:20:48.260 I have a bit of a passion, I guess, when it comes to Iran

00:20:52.440 and have a unique perspective, having been born there, raised in the U.S.,

00:20:56.880 and having the pleasure of serving the federal government, but also the private sector.

00:21:01.080 So the unique approach.

00:21:02.080 And as you mentioned, my background, I definitely have my biases,

00:21:05.800 having seen what the regime did in 1979, turning a very progressive,

00:21:11.940 a very pro-West, pro-U.S., pro-Europe, pro-Israel country,

00:21:15.540 and turning it to what it is today.

00:21:17.500 I, like many Iranians, have always thought that it would be great

00:21:21.720 if we could ever have the opportunity to see that regime fall.

00:21:24.040 And I think for the first time in my lifetime, we're pretty close to seeing that.

00:21:27.680 So I say that because I do have, like I said, my biases, and I try to remove my biases, in fact.

00:21:32.660 But all humans have their own kind of perspective on how they see the world.

00:21:36.140 So I thought it was important to get that up front as your listeners listen to my take on how things are going to transpire here.

00:21:43.220 Well, I appreciate that.

00:21:44.400 It's an opinion show.

00:21:45.560 I certainly give my opinions five days a week and for two hours on Sunday.

00:21:50.560 So I know where you are coming from.

00:21:52.520 On the other hand, you have a depth of experience and knowledge that obviously all Americans don't have. 0.62

00:21:59.720 There's a lot of second guessing of the president today.

00:22:02.240 I'm sorry to see this.

00:22:03.720 But I guess the most important question is this one, which is, did the regime oppose an imminent threat to the United States when the president decided to attack them?

00:22:13.560 That's a complicated and loaded question.

00:22:16.200 So do I personally think they had an imminent threat?

00:22:19.420 Is there a plan for the Iranians to strike the homeland?

00:22:23.900 Probably not.

00:22:25.080 I'm a venture capitalist.

00:22:26.380 I'm not plugged into the halls of intelligence community, diplomacy or whatnot.

00:22:30.820 So I don't know what the relevant day-to-day intel is.

00:22:33.940 The chatter is the Iranians will be coming very close to getting to a point of breakthrough in terms of nuclear technology.

00:22:41.780 that's a non-starter given the ideology of the regime

00:22:44.940 and kind of their view on kind of what destiny has in mind for them.

00:22:50.480 So I think that was a critical path that caused us to take action.

00:22:54.700 There is a consensus body of thought that they had

00:22:57.160 or were becoming in possession of certain weapons

00:23:00.960 that were provided, especially from out of China or Russia,

00:23:03.840 that would have been a direct threat to our fleet 0.98

00:23:06.160 that was forming throughout the Arabian or Persian Gulf and the Union Ocean.

00:23:11.780 And we had to take action.

00:23:14.100 Had we not taken action, I think we probably would have come to regret it.

00:23:19.040 Because if Iran does become a nuclear state and has a nuclear capability, 0.71

00:23:23.960 then your options in dealing with the regime are obviously by calculus changes.

00:23:30.440 And if you look at what happened within Iran,

00:23:34.000 everything comes, all conflict to me comes down to economic stability and economic power.

00:23:39.820 The regime was under significant, significant economic pressure.

00:23:43.740 For decades of mismanagement and waste and grift,

00:23:47.200 they had basically wrecked the entirety of the Iranian economy. 0.95

00:23:50.940 You can blame sanctions to a certain extent,

00:23:52.600 but you can't ignore the fact that it feels completely mismanaged.

00:23:56.400 Iranian society got to the point where they had it. 0.94

00:23:58.540 They wanted regime change.

00:23:59.580 That's why you had hundreds of thousands of millions of people

00:24:02.060 coming into the streets of Iran towards the end of December

00:24:05.640 and into the early part of this year.

00:24:07.080 the regime reacted like they'd never have before because i think they viewed this as the most direct

00:24:11.960 threat to them uh was the uprising of the people um and it got to the point where they i mean

00:24:17.880 literally slaughtering and killing thousands and thousands of iranians in the streets and president

00:24:21.920 trump made a very direct statement he goes you need to cut it out or we're going to come in and

00:24:27.060 help the people and that's kind of what we're at right now so was there an eminent threat like a

00:24:31.200 like a 9-11 style attack against the u.s i don't think so uh were they in a position where they

00:24:36.080 It could have done a great harm to our fleet and our friends in the region, probably.

00:24:41.060 Were they getting danger close to becoming a nuclear state?

00:24:44.400 I think pretty close.

00:24:45.680 I think Iran as a country will probably end up becoming a nuclear state at some point

00:24:50.780 because they've proven the technical people know how to do it.

00:24:53.620 Now it's just a matter of time and resources before they get there.

00:24:56.440 The issue with nuclear is you can't have a regime like this get access to nuclear weapons

00:25:01.660 because for them, first strike use, those are all things that I think their calculus of what that means is different than the Western mindset.

00:25:10.780 So I think we had a limited window, and I think the president chose to act.

00:25:14.360 I think you just made an excellent case for acting now.

00:25:18.260 Imminent danger to me is the development of a weapon.

00:25:22.960 What did you think of these claims reportedly by the Iranians at the negotiating table,

00:25:28.440 in which they said they had enough enriched uranium to put together 11 nuclear devices.

00:25:38.320 Do you think that's accurate?

00:25:40.220 There's probably some gamesmanship in there.

00:25:42.200 I think they could have potentially overplayed their hand, no different than how Saddam overplayed his hand ahead of the invasion of Iraq.

00:25:50.640 If you understand nuclear enrichment, and me being a sales and finance guy, I'm not a nuclear physicist,

00:25:56.660 But the way I had this explained to me is when you're enriching uranium, the process of taking raw uranium and enriching it to 3% or 20%, which is what you need for a conventional benign uses, whether it's energy, research, or a nuclear reactor.

00:26:12.440 The science and the mechanics of that emission process is the same.

00:26:16.720 To get it to 60%, you need just time and resources and infrastructure to get there.

00:26:21.520 In order to have a nuclear weapon, you need to enrich uranium to 90% plus.

00:26:26.660 Once you can enrich at 20% and 60%, it's just a matter of time and resources before you can get to 95% plus.

00:26:33.400 Now, let's say I've mastered the ability to enrich uranium to the 95% level.

00:26:37.520 I now have weapons-grade uranium.

00:26:40.660 That in itself does not make a nuclear device because now I need two other things.

00:26:45.360 I need a triggering mechanism, something that will create that nuclear reaction,

00:26:49.020 and I need a delivery mechanism, something that I can deliver it into pick-your-cart, target, country, or region.

00:26:56.660 The speculation, I think, was if they got to enriched uranium, they could always go and collaborate potentially with North Korea on the triggering mechanism.

00:27:07.720 And unfortunately, one of the shortcomings of the Obama era nuclear deal, JCPOA, gave Iran a lot of latitude to continue to make advancements in their ballistic technology.

00:27:17.500 So now you have a regime that became danger-close to having the ability to natively develop nuclear-grade processed uranium

00:27:27.100 and could very easily, arguably, access a trillion technology from another bad actor in North Korea 0.73

00:27:33.180 and was already developing their ballistic infrastructure domestically.

00:27:35.980 So to me, I think they were reaching very, very close to it.

00:27:39.060 So for the Iranians to come back and say they had over at 60 percent, I believe at face value 0.78

00:27:44.040 because I think they've been enriching for the better part of seven years

00:27:47.740 since JCPO was taken off the table.

00:27:50.520 There's no reason for them to enrich to this level

00:27:53.120 unless they wanted to get to nuclear power.

00:27:55.500 I'm sorry, for a nuclear weapon material.

00:27:58.700 Because once they're at 60,

00:28:00.400 which means they've more than enough processed uranium

00:28:03.940 to feed any nuclear reactor that they need to develop

00:28:07.780 for domestic energy consumption.

00:28:09.700 So if you're enriching to 60,

00:28:11.800 So you're seeing a pretty clear message in terms of where you want to go from a weapons program, and that's my opinion.

00:28:17.720 Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Hamlet Youssef.

00:28:21.260 He is a national security professional, currently a managing partner at Iron Gate Capital Advisors,

00:28:27.160 a strategic partner from the Tower Strategy Group, where he advises them on irregular warfare and other geo-economic issues.

00:28:35.420 He has a vast background understanding the region.

00:28:39.780 And Mr. Youssef, I am curious as to the current state of the regime.

00:28:45.560 Obviously, we killed the Supreme Leader and 40 of his top henchmen, yet they continue to use drones and fire missiles at their at their Arab neighbors.

00:28:58.580 Clearly, they may be wounded, but they don't seem to be completely decapitated at this point.

00:29:05.500 Do you think that's what do you think their current military state is?

00:29:09.760 That's a great question.

00:29:11.020 I think if you look at their capabilities from a conventional military standpoint,

00:29:14.860 no doubt that it's been degraded significantly in terms of leadership, command and control,

00:29:20.160 but also their conventional ability to wage war.

00:29:23.540 For all intended purposes, it looks like all their air defenses have it for the most part taken care of,

00:29:28.280 their conventional Navy for the most part taken care of, no Air Force to speak of. 1.00

00:29:32.680 But these guys are not idiots. 0.99

00:29:34.480 They've suspected and been planning for this from day one. 0.98

00:29:38.420 To me, I think there's a lot of credence to believe that these guys are spending a fortune building a drone arsenal, an unconventional rocket arsenal, where they can reach out and hit our neighbors and hit our forces throughout the region.

00:29:51.640 So I think this conflict that we're seeing right now is going to very quickly change from a conventional conflict to a very irregular asymmetric conflict.

00:29:59.220 And unfortunately, you touched on a drone, drone technology is a big piece of that.

00:30:03.320 But as an investor in this space, we saw this coming seven, eight years ago when we first started the fund.

00:30:09.120 We thought it was important to invest in drone and counter-drone technologies

00:30:12.160 because this is what was going to reshape the battlefield in the 21st century.

00:30:16.240 So what's entirely plausible now is as a conventional missile and locket technology becomes degraded,

00:30:24.320 they are going to rely on these very crude, inexpensive Shahid drones 0.99

00:30:28.240 that are literally one-way, $30,000, $40,000 flying lawnmowers.

00:30:33.320 that are cheap to make easy to deploy very very easy to basically hide under a civilian

00:30:38.840 infrastructure and launch against your adversaries this now introduces where the future of warfare

00:30:44.040 is going which is a complete destruction of the economics of war because if i'm the iranians and

00:30:48.680 i'm launching let's say a thousand uh lawnmowers with with motors and wings and i say lawnmowers

00:30:56.760 doesn't exactly sound like they fly but i'm launching these these cheap drones at u.s forces

00:31:02.440 I'm putting billions of dollars of hardware at risk.

00:31:06.480 And right now, the U.S.'s counter to that is to launch fighters and helicopters to knock down these assets.

00:31:13.580 So we're spending millions and millions and billions of dollars to address a threat that's maybe a couple million dollars.

00:31:20.700 So that's changing.

00:31:22.200 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

00:31:29.420 everything from trying to disrupt commerce and trade in the Straits of Hormuz

00:31:33.660 to attacking Arab infrastructure, civilian infrastructure,

00:31:37.200 and also our targets and our locations throughout the Middle East.

00:31:40.240 So the tenor and the conflict of this is changing.

00:31:43.480 The third element that I think is starting to really impact and come to light

00:31:47.600 is what we call cognitive warfare, which is basically messaging media,

00:31:53.480 framing of what's happening.

00:31:54.520 They want to continue, they being Iran, and I think to a certain extent 1.00

00:31:58.540 backed by proxies from China and Russia, primarily China,

00:32:02.200 is they want to make sure the message is this is a failed war.

00:32:05.360 This is a horrible decision for the U.S.

00:32:07.560 This is terrible.

00:32:08.320 The Iranians are being unfairly treated and whatnot

00:32:11.820 because they want to put as much pressure as they can

00:32:13.880 on the administration and the Israelis to stop this conflict.

00:32:18.180 The reason they're attacking the Middle East and their neighbors is, 1.00

00:32:20.420 one, I don't want to call the pit of Shia Sunni divide,

00:32:25.440 but I think what they're trying to do is they're trying to turn sensitive

00:32:28.300 been in the Middle East against us.

00:32:30.640 I think the reason you have not seen any major action against Iran in the past is we were

00:32:35.740 always afraid, well, that's the Middle East thing.

00:32:38.880 Well, we're starting to see the exact opposite.

00:32:40.420 We're starting to see actually the entire Middle East unified behind giving us support

00:32:44.580 to take out Iran. 0.98

00:32:45.540 The reason they're doing that is the entire Middle East, the Arab world, they're not anti-Iran.

00:32:50.640 They're not anti-Shia.

00:32:51.580 I think the rest of the Middle East is, by many estimates, getting closer and closer

00:32:56.340 to realizing they have a very bright future ahead based on secular unity

00:33:01.820 and put all the secretarian BS behind them.

00:33:05.140 And they view the number one challenge to that as being the Iranian regime.

00:33:08.980 So this is going to turn very quickly, I think, from a very conventional conflict

00:33:12.980 to a very unconventional conflict steep in regular warfare

00:33:16.220 and cognitive warfare and economic warfare.

00:33:18.140 Let's turn for a few minutes to the Strait of Hormuz.

00:33:21.840 As you know, a very substantial amount of the world's energy flows through there.

00:33:26.900 The Iranians have said from the beginning if they were attacked, they would close it down. 0.98

00:33:31.120 Do they have the ability to sustain that?

00:33:33.920 I mean, it appears to me that the U.S. Navy ought to be able to take care of that.

00:33:37.180 Great point.

00:33:37.980 Actually, I love the sub-statue roads on Park Island.

00:33:41.460 I think you and I share a lot of the same views there.

00:33:44.260 I think shutting down the Straits of Hormuz is definitely very easy for the Iranians to do, 1.00

00:33:48.320 Although we've debilitated a large chunk of their conventional Navy,

00:33:55.660 they still have thousands of thousands of small merchant ships

00:33:58.780 that they could very easily use for one-way suicide missions

00:34:02.460 into any commercial flight vehicle that's there.

00:34:07.240 The Straits are pretty narrow,

00:34:09.120 so any variation of the Shaheed drones that we talked about

00:34:12.660 can very easily reach out and hit a tanker.

00:34:15.260 There's a whole risk of mining the Straits.

00:34:16.780 Those are all plausible.

00:34:18.320 And I think you're going to see some elements of that deployed over the next couple of weeks.

00:34:21.780 But I don't think it's sustainable for a couple of reasons, because at the end of the day, some of that oil that's leaving the straits is Iranian oil.

00:34:29.420 They're going to need that income stream to continue to fuel those fights. 1.00

00:34:33.720 At the same time, if you look at, I think, somewhere around 30 to 40, close to 50 percent of the oil that leaves results, whether it's Iranian or Arab, is going to China and India, two of the biggest economies out there.

00:34:47.200 They're only going to stand for so long in terms of allowing this.

00:34:50.140 When you look at the overall global trade and what Europe has at stake,

00:34:54.040 at some point you're going to see the other powers to be either step in

00:34:58.220 and block the U.S. from continuing this aggression,

00:35:01.140 which I think is less likely to them stepping in and say,

00:35:04.520 okay, you know what, we've got no choice.

00:35:06.420 We now have to commit our naval resources to help keep these channels open.

00:35:11.620 So I think that's what's going to happen.

00:35:12.900 um in the near term i think the iranians will continue to take pot shots at us

00:35:17.420 the benefit of us owning the airspace is um again it's going to be a bit of whack-a-mole but as you

00:35:23.020 see uh planes fly or drones fly from the iranian coast against uh global shipping then we're going

00:35:28.920 to take action we did that against the houthis pretty successfully in years past um the last 1.00

00:35:33.940 point i wanted to touch on is is i think you had made the uh the case of what happens uh or with

00:35:39.820 the strategic relevance of Karg Island, that's pretty significant.

00:35:43.700 And for those years, that's an island off to the coast of Bashir in southwest Iran.

00:35:50.560 That island, I think, is responsible for a bulk of the oil that is exported from Iran.

00:35:57.240 President Trump was very vocal earlier this week, I think, and talked about how he's blown

00:36:00.980 up every military asset on that island.

00:36:03.440 That's a key statement, because I don't think there's ever a scenario where you're going

00:36:07.620 have like a military invasion force going into Iran.

00:36:11.500 But if we can take Karg Island off of the map temporarily for the Iranians, and again, 1.00

00:36:17.320 it chokes off the regime's ability to fuel and fund Huzbala, Hamas, their proxy networks 0.91

00:36:23.240 and their ability to buy weapons and materials from China and Russia and sustain this fight.

00:36:27.780 And the reason I think we attack the military infrastructure and not the actual rural infrastructure

00:36:31.760 is when and if there is regime change in the near term, we want to keep that entire

00:36:35.500 infrastructure attack so we can hand it back to the Iranian people so we rebuild their country 1.00

00:36:39.440 like they should. Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Hamlet Youssef. He is an

00:36:46.000 esteemed intelligence agency veteran who has served his country, but now works on Wall Street,

00:36:52.900 an expert on what's going on in the Persian Gulf. And we'll be right back with more.

00:36:57.100 This is the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.

00:37:00.800 That is a great, great person, Roger Stone.

00:37:03.860 The Stone Zone.

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00:38:02.960 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.

00:38:10.040 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:38:12.500 Roger Stone.

00:38:13.540 Where's Roger Stone?

00:38:14.800 Here's Roger Stone.

00:38:17.280 And we're back with Hamlet Youssef, an intelligence community veteran,

00:38:22.400 and now working on Wall Street, an expert on the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

00:38:27.300 We've got about a little less than two minutes, and I'm going to let you wrap this up with a final key point.

00:38:32.920 Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

00:38:34.600 Honored and a pleasure.

00:38:35.760 I'm glad to have a voice here.

00:38:37.660 In all my years when I worked in the federal government supporting the State Department when it came to national security and energy issues,

00:38:43.220 I always had the opinion that Iran was central to solving so many of the issues from a geopolitical standpoint with the U.S.

00:38:50.500 I think replacing this regime is going to be a tremendous added level point for the West.

00:38:58.560 I think it drives up all funds for Hezbollah and Hamas.

00:39:01.500 It neuters Putin's ability to wage one Ukraine. 0.72

00:39:03.620 But more importantly, this is what it's all about.

00:39:05.820 It significantly hinders Xi and the CCP.

00:39:08.860 So I think there's no coincidence that this is happening a month before President Trump is set to start negotiating and engaging Xi in Asia later this year.

00:39:18.080 So I think there's a lot of dominoes that are set to fall, but I think it's been very constructive in terms of where things where we only at least want to be a regime and Iran is no longer in place. 0.70

00:39:29.360 I'm in agreement.

00:39:30.280 Anybody who will look at Donald Trump's long-term public record, he's always been hardline on this issue.

00:39:35.520 Therefore, there is no inconsistency here.

00:39:37.840 And he is a man who means what he says and says what he means.

00:39:41.180 He made, I think, the right call regarding the dangers that a nuclear Iran posed to this country, and I think he took the right action. 1.00

00:39:50.340 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.

00:39:58.120 I want to thank you for joining us today, bringing your wealth of experience to the table.

00:40:02.760 A lot of my listeners are still, you know, concerned about the war, not sure they're getting the straight story.

00:40:08.440 That's why this was very valuable.

00:40:09.660 I want to thank our guest, Hamlet Youssef, for joining us today.

00:40:13.200 And thank you for joining us today in the Stone Zone.

00:40:16.300 Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.

The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - March 20, 2026

The Stone Zone ｜ 03-19-26

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