Speaker 1: You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Brief. On this episode,
Speaker 2: my friend Brian Dean Wright. You got two CIA guys
Speaker 2: diving into the Middle East. I'm going to tell you
Speaker 2: how it really is and what's really going on and more.
Speaker 2: Brian also has the Right Report podcast, which I recommend
Speaker 2: you all go check out and subscribe to yourselves. My
Speaker 2: CIA brother from another mother, how are you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm good man, so good to be here. Thanks for
Speaker 3: having me Ken.
Speaker 2: Actually, can we talk about one thing before we dive
Speaker 2: in the Middle East? Do you ever get a little
Speaker 2: bit frustrated lately on the right? Well, the one thing
Speaker 2: is because everybody knows, I mean, I went right out
Speaker 2: of CI, worked for Glenn Beck. I've always been conservative
Speaker 2: or right wing. Anyone who knew me in real life,
Speaker 2: I was considered a kind of a right wing loon
Speaker 2: when I worked at CIA. I mean not in my
Speaker 2: work now, people who knew me going all the way
Speaker 2: back to when I was probably about fifteen, I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm right wing. People now think that CIA they think
Speaker 2: of it in terms of you're part of some like illuminati,
Speaker 2: deep state conspiracy and you can't be trusted on the right.
Speaker 2: I look at them, I'm like, I joined the CIA
Speaker 2: to join the unit that was trying to hunt and
Speaker 2: kill Osama bin Laden after nine to eleven. Like, I
Speaker 2: didn't go in there to be, you know, collected to
Speaker 2: be the bag man for hunter Biden or something.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I just kind of want to I want you to
Speaker 2: address this because whatever, so, oh you can't trust me CIA.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I went into CTC in the bin Laden unit, Like, well,
Speaker 2: what do you write people to find?
Speaker 1: Kill them or not? Yeah? Look, I do get this
Speaker 1: as well, and I actually think it's fair. So I
Speaker 1: think that there are two different eras. There was an
Speaker 1: era that you and I joined in, which was back
Speaker 1: of the day, immediately after nine to eleven. We were
Speaker 1: going after the bad guys. We were killing them, and
Speaker 1: we were doing what we needed to do to serve
Speaker 1: the American people, and we didn't care about politics. Man,
Speaker 1: that's tough state at the front gate. You and I
Speaker 1: remember those days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are was a time where CIA had a
Speaker 2: clear united mission. It did exist is correct.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is correct, sir. The Trump Russia collusion investigation,
Speaker 1: I think changed a lot of things. You can probably
Speaker 1: go back a little earlier than that as well. Some
Speaker 1: of the hires that you started to see in the
Speaker 1: Obama era. There was a huge switch from mission for
Speaker 1: others for the country. It was all about this self,
Speaker 1: it was my truth. I don't know if you ever
Speaker 1: were there or you would talk to people when they
Speaker 1: would start working during that time, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people just became very much focused on the meat. And
Speaker 1: I think what was two years ago we had those
Speaker 1: CIA recruitment ads. They were talking about being intersectional and bipolar,
Speaker 1: and none of that was about actually the agency or
Speaker 1: mission for the country. So I think you combine those
Speaker 1: two things. These crazy ads. They're asking people who would
Speaker 1: have mental illnesses and intersectional, which I don't even know
Speaker 1: what that means. It sounds like a sofa, But the
Speaker 1: point is they're recruiting these crazy people. And we got
Speaker 1: the Trump Russia collusion thing with guys like John Brennan
Speaker 1: and James Comey at the FBI, and it just poisoned
Speaker 1: the waters. And I think a lot of people, very
Speaker 1: for very good reason, are like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I dressed yet, if you got those three letter agencies
Speaker 1: behind your name, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm a little suspicious.
Speaker 1: So yeah, look, I think for the rest of our lives,
Speaker 1: we're going to get be smeared with that, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be our fight, which is why I believe you.
Speaker 2: I just know, Yeah, I look, I wanted us to
Speaker 2: be able to go in the record league somewhere and say,
Speaker 2: you know, in the post nine to eleven days, really
Speaker 2: up until the Obama administration, so there was an eight
Speaker 2: year period at the CIA where it was all about
Speaker 2: now put aside the I know, there's the Iraq WMD
Speaker 2: part of the conversation. People who worked in the Iraq
Speaker 2: Office leading up to the invasion were part of that.
Speaker 2: People like me who joined the Iraq Office in like
Speaker 2: two thousand and six two thousand and seven had nothing
Speaker 2: to do with that. We were trying to find the Al
Speaker 2: Qaeda in Iraq, guys who were beheading people and turning
Speaker 2: the country into a healthscape in a civil war. But
Speaker 2: before that I came into CTC, and I know you
Speaker 2: were working the Counter Terrorism Mission too, And I just
Speaker 2: think that it's worth like letting everybody know. I lasted
Speaker 2: for or uh what two years of the Obama administration,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I'm out, I can't. I can't
Speaker 2: maybe three years of the obom administration, so I didn't. I
Speaker 2: was like, I can't. I'm not going to stick around
Speaker 2: for this. I went to the NYPD for one of
Speaker 2: those years. So anyway, but it's it's a little bit.
Speaker 2: I see it now more than ever. With the FBI, though,
Speaker 2: I've got to say, and I had some friends you've
Speaker 2: been the FBI back in the day, FBI at the
Speaker 2: top level lost its mind, man, I mean and and
Speaker 2: and it deserves to lose a lot of the faith
Speaker 2: of the American people. I'm not saying CIA doesn't. We've
Speaker 2: already been taking shots at CIA FBI. I don't trust them.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say I don't trust that FBI anymore.
Speaker 1: Well, you got to a couple of great special counsel
Speaker 1: reports that gives you very good reason for that lack
Speaker 1: of STIC fidelity to law. That is one of the
Speaker 1: great lines that came out from the Germ Durham report.
Speaker 3: So yes, we all have good reason to say that
Speaker 3: the FBI might have some troubles. These days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's disconcerting. All right, let's let's let's move
Speaker 2: this to the Middle East. But first up, I want
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Speaker 2: of ours killed in action in Jordan on a base
Speaker 2: your own strike from they believe Taibe Hesbala. What should
Speaker 2: be done about this?
Speaker 1: Well, so I think looking a small picture first, Let's
Speaker 1: go big picture in a second. The small picture is
Speaker 1: we have lost a turns right, So a lot of
Speaker 1: folks in the Middle East, a lot of governments, terror groups,
Speaker 1: the Iranians beyond. They just don't believe that we have
Speaker 1: a credible military, We don't have a credible commander in chief,
Speaker 1: and so they think they can get away with a lot,
Speaker 1: and they are. We're seeing this with the Houthis and
Speaker 1: the Red Sea. We're seeing this in places like now
Speaker 1: painfully in Jordan. But it's in Syria, it's in Iraq.
Speaker 1: So the question is what do we do in terms
Speaker 1: of this immediate short term response. We can certainly hit
Speaker 1: the Iranians hard inside of Iran or throughout some of
Speaker 1: their various proxy groups in the Middle East.
Speaker 3: We can hit them, We can do that.
Speaker 1: The Biden Winehouse is trying to find this sort of
Speaker 1: Goldie Locks approach, which is, well, we want to hit them,
Speaker 1: but not too hard, not too such, just right. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that looks like. I don't think the
Speaker 1: administration does either. So now the big question is, whatever
Speaker 1: you do, it's going to escalate. The Iranians have already
Speaker 1: decided they want to escalate. But stepping back for a second, buck,
Speaker 1: why are we in the Middle East? Why were those
Speaker 1: three folks there in Jordan? I think that starts to
Speaker 1: get to the bigger question of what comes next. Maybe
Speaker 1: the short term strikes fine, but we really are there.
Speaker 3: Now, I think for one or two reasons.
Speaker 1: One people will say, I think at the Pentagon to
Speaker 1: Cia we need to go towards at the root cause
Speaker 1: of Islona radicalism. Do we really need boots on the
Speaker 1: ground for that? We should be debating that. The bigger
Speaker 1: question is around oil. That is historically why we have
Speaker 1: been in the Middle East. Well, because of the fracking
Speaker 1: and the shale revolution. We are actually the world's biggest
Speaker 1: producer of oil and natural gas. You produce about twenty
Speaker 1: million barrels a day. We consume that as well. So
Speaker 1: do we need to be there? Can we have a
Speaker 1: fundamental change from the nineteen seventeens nineteen thirties when we
Speaker 1: and the Brits rushed into the Middle East to try
Speaker 1: to secure oil. Do we really still need to be there?
Speaker 1: Because beyond oil, why do we have oaks there? So
Speaker 1: I think that that is the bigger, sort of medium
Speaker 1: to long term question that we should all be asking
Speaker 1: ourselves about. But in the short term, yeah, we can
Speaker 1: certainly hit the Ranius, we can hit them hard or not.
Speaker 3: But I think this bigger picture stuff also should be
Speaker 3: part of the calculus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I say to people, I mean the Wall Street
Speaker 2: Journal had its these are the three things that can
Speaker 2: be done. One was hit the proxies directly, Two is
Speaker 2: hit iron directly, and three was economic stuff and diplomacy,
Speaker 2: which is like you know, suffering silence basically right, no
Speaker 2: one cares.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but even on those on those first two levels,
Speaker 2: you know, I think you do it to establish some deterrence. Fine,
Speaker 2: but they're still going to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: That's I'm not sure how effective it is even as
Speaker 2: a deterrent effect. You really just want to be able
Speaker 2: to stop them at the tactical level, at the upper
Speaker 2: rational level, right, Because I don't think changing the Iranian
Speaker 2: proxy militia calculus, whether It'skataib has Beala or just has
Speaker 2: Bela or any of these groups. The who thies have
Speaker 2: been talking about what they've been doing and firing off
Speaker 2: at ships that that's likely to happen. So how worried
Speaker 2: are you? People seem to get very energized about the
Speaker 2: possibility we might get dragged into another Mid East war?
Speaker 2: Do you feel like that's overblown?
Speaker 1: I think that anything is on the table now because
Speaker 1: you have an administration that doesn't quite know what it
Speaker 1: wants to do. You have a Chairman of the Joint
Speaker 1: Chiefs who's put out mixed messages. The Pentagon is as well.
Speaker 1: I think that the one thing that probably limits a
Speaker 1: much much bigger response is the fact that Joe Biden
Speaker 1: needs to win in places like Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania that
Speaker 1: have very big either Arab or Muslim populations, and they
Speaker 1: would sway the election. And we know that mister Biden
Speaker 1: is facing serious headwins definitely in Michigan with this abandoned
Speaker 1: Biden campaign. So he is struggling, and I think any
Speaker 1: kind of bigger middle it used to a conflict is
Speaker 1: going to not be good for his reelection effort.
Speaker 3: So I would.
Speaker 1: Say that from the political calculus in the White House
Speaker 1: this morning or today, I should say, I don't think
Speaker 1: they want to push for a war, and that's why
Speaker 1: it's all about politics. And if that means that a
Speaker 1: lot of our people in uniform have to be put
Speaker 1: at greater risk because we don't have an acterrence anymore, well,
Speaker 1: the White House is okay with that, which is awful.
Speaker 1: But I think that that is what the White House
Speaker 1: is saying right now. So I think that we could
Speaker 1: stumble into a much bigger conflict. But I think what
Speaker 1: is holding back to the White House right now is
Speaker 1: the fear that Biden will lose his reelection effort if he.
Speaker 3: Push us too hard.
Speaker 2: All right, I want to ask you also about that
Speaker 2: period where the Secretary of Defense was mi Ia for
Speaker 2: a few days while he was getting a surgery doun
Speaker 2: So I want you to wait on that. But first up,
Speaker 2: we're talking here about tension on the world stage and
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Speaker 2: Middle East, right, that's just one example of how things
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Speaker 2: Beach Research Group. All Right, Brian, the Secretary of Defense
Speaker 2: was gone and his next in command was on vacation,
Speaker 2: and nobody knew what was going on what happened?
Speaker 1: Goodness gracious, well, I think that's a great question for
Speaker 1: the White House to answer. And our secretary of Defense,
Speaker 1: why did he think that it was appropriate to disappear
Speaker 1: to not tell anybody as he underwent his mysterious treatment
Speaker 1: for something that we found out was cancer. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: hope the best for him is in his recovery. But
Speaker 1: secretaries of Defense, you know, come on, that is not
Speaker 1: something that you want to hide, no matter if it
Speaker 1: involves a degree of embarrassment, which is what I assume
Speaker 1: mister Austin why he.
Speaker 3: Hid his ailment. But you just can't do that.
Speaker 1: What does that say to the national globe about the
Speaker 1: leadership that you can have a secretary of Defense hide
Speaker 1: something from the commander in chief. That's a problem that
Speaker 1: that's a pretty clear message around the world that we
Speaker 1: got some dysfunction in DC, and we do. So that's
Speaker 1: why that was so bad, is how the rest of
Speaker 1: the world looks at the strength of our military and
Speaker 1: the strength of our government and whether or not our
Speaker 1: commander in chief actually has a hold of his own team.
Speaker 2: Brian, is there one place that you're keeping an eye
Speaker 2: on right now that you think could either get much worse.
Speaker 2: It's already bad but could get much worse, or could
Speaker 2: just turn in a hurry, and we got much bigger
Speaker 2: problems than we ever thought we would. You know, is
Speaker 2: there a possible flare up a hot spot that you're
Speaker 2: keeping an eye on other than just you know Ukraine
Speaker 2: and you know Israel slash Iran stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the big one man is Taiwan and what happens
Speaker 1: there in the South China Sea. And the fundamental reason
Speaker 1: there is because of computer chips. We rely on Taiwan
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of the computer chips that go
Speaker 1: into lots of stuff, to include our military of course,
Speaker 1: but it basically is this this little island that is
Speaker 1: the responsible for modern life.
Speaker 3: And so if there is a war there, there's a.
Speaker 1: Cyber attack, an emp attack, whatever it might be, profound
Speaker 1: immediate effects on all of us everywhere, certainly in the homeland.
Speaker 1: The other piece that we are learning more about.
Speaker 3: Is China is embedding a lot of.
Speaker 1: This malware in our country to basically shut down modern
Speaker 1: life as well. So in the hours leading up to
Speaker 1: or post invasion of Taiwan's that flip gets switched. That's
Speaker 1: which gets flipped rather then you are looking at chaos
Speaker 1: anarchy inside of this country. The US president distracted to
Speaker 1: not defend Taiwan instead front of deal with all the
Speaker 1: anarchy here. China is has done that. That's a bult
Speaker 1: Typhoon is the group that has done it. So Taiwan
Speaker 1: is a big one for me, I know it is
Speaker 1: for a lot of other people. We could see some
Speaker 1: interesting conflicts also in the South China Sea or some
Speaker 1: of all these little second line islands.
Speaker 3: That's the big one for me.
Speaker 2: Brian before we let you go, and everybody check out
Speaker 2: the Right Report Brian's podcast where he dives into these
Speaker 2: issues and he's actually somebody who talks to national security
Speaker 2: issues who knows what he's talking about, which is nice
Speaker 2: because Brian, as you know, and I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people go on TV and like Scott doesn't know anything,
Speaker 2: uh a lot.
Speaker 1: Do you ever get somebody, do you ever get somebody
Speaker 1: to reach out to be like, hey, Buck, what do
Speaker 1: you think about this issue abroad?
Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, I think you know X y Z.
Speaker 2: And then they're on an hour an hour later. Yeah,
Speaker 2: of course all the time, yes, yeah, of course. If
Speaker 2: it's like a friend of mine, it's fine, but it's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 2: haven't heard from you in like five years? What do
Speaker 2: you think about the the Hooties? And I'll be like, Yemen,
Speaker 2: you're close buddy. Anyway, Yes, that that does happen to
Speaker 2: me with some frequency. So let me ask you before
Speaker 2: we let you go. You're you get to a you
Speaker 2: get to a sign a high school or no, let's
Speaker 2: say college, college level class on intelligence one spy novel?
Speaker 1: What is it? Oh man, God, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on that that that book?
Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing, can't go wrong, can't go okay? And and
Speaker 2: you get to show one movie about the agency to
Speaker 2: that intelligence class.
Speaker 1: What is it? Do you remember the old movie called
Speaker 1: The Recruit. I watched that on the bus going to
Speaker 1: the farm. It was a Calm Farrell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember you like that movie. I thought that
Speaker 2: movie was so boring.
Speaker 3: He was he was awful. But the best part was
Speaker 3: I was on the bus going down to the farm.
Speaker 1: While I watched that, so I can tell fun stories
Speaker 1: about that. And we were all like, we gonna die?
Speaker 3: Is that what this is? Really? Like? Why are they
Speaker 3: showing us this movie as we go to the farm.
Speaker 3: This seems crazy anyway, that's only because there's a great
Speaker 3: memory there.
Speaker 2: And then you're just like riding around bicycles going to
Speaker 2: the mess hall. You're like, this isn't this isn't so bad,
Speaker 2: Like the farm is actually kind of cool. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: honestly always liked I always liked the farm. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't spend as much time there as
Speaker 2: you did, but I liked it. I would. I would
Speaker 2: go and get to cool stuff and the things that
Speaker 2: go bang and things that go Yeah, it was pretty good.
Speaker 1: So wait, but you.
Speaker 2: Didn't give me your answer though, what what is the
Speaker 2: movie you that's the movie you wouldn't show? Okay, what
Speaker 2: would you show?
Speaker 1: Oh man? Look, I nothing comes to mind, And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you why all these shows represent.
Speaker 2: You like killing me. You gotta give me an answer.
Speaker 2: What about what about Spy Game with Redford? You got
Speaker 2: nothing for me?
Speaker 1: Oh man?
Speaker 3: I I you don't like Zero Dark thirty.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't let you off the hot seat here.
Speaker 2: Zero Dark thirty doesn't get it done for you.
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough, Zero Dark three? That was sold. That
Speaker 3: was absolutely brilliant. That is a lot of fun. There
Speaker 3: you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, that was all right, I'll throw you that Lifeline
Speaker 2: zero Dark thirty. Very well done for what it was.
Speaker 2: I thought it was pretty excellent. I also think Thirteen
Speaker 2: Hours because they just had the they just had the
Speaker 2: GRS guys as consultants, and I mean, I think that's
Speaker 2: a underrated movie and very good for what it is.
Speaker 1: A man, brother, and I'll tell you a lot of
Speaker 1: those that you're highlighted now, it's how it actually is.
Speaker 1: And that's why I hesitate with all of these movies.
Speaker 1: It TOCs you kind of the CI or the Hollywood version.
Speaker 1: Now you're getting the stuff of what it's really like
Speaker 1: and the painful stuff, the hard stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just I never got my exploding
Speaker 2: cufflinks or the laser guns in the headlights of my
Speaker 2: Asston Martin Like I was a little What.
Speaker 1: About the beautiful Little Lady? Would did you get one
Speaker 1: of those? Or is your wife going to listen to this?
Speaker 3: How are you going to respond? Let's be careful here.
Speaker 2: Bond girls, I don't even know. I don't even know
Speaker 2: what you're talking about. When I was in the agency,
Speaker 2: I don't even know if there was such a thing
Speaker 2: as bond girls. You you lest you lock it up. Sure,
Speaker 2: no one's read, no one's read into that program. All right,
Speaker 2: we've had enough of that. Uh go check out the
Speaker 2: Right Report with my friend here, mister Bryan Dean. Right, Brian,
Speaker 2: always a pleasure. We'll talk again soon, Buddy, Thanks for
Speaker 2: being here.
Speaker 3: Thank man, We will