Iranian state TV claims a $10 million bounty has been placed on Barron
Sandy Rios: There are fears for Donald Trump's youngest son after Iranian state TV claimed a $10 million bounty has been placed on him. A chilling video titled where to Kill Barron Trump was broadcast claiming to show the location of his university escort vehicles and Secret Service posts saying the 20 year old's movements are being fully monitored. The video also alleged they had found Barron Trump's online gaming accounts that he uses to communicate with the Secret Service says it's aware of the threat and is investigating.
Sandy Rios: okay, so that's, I think Australian television and that's just happening today. I'm talking to you on August 25th. So that's just happened. You know, they have been threatening, they threatened President Trump. I think it's safe to say they have tried to kill him. And recently when he, you know, took a ride on that catering truck, it was because they found out about a plot to kill him that night. So they, they also put a, ah, threat out for Melania Trump a few weeks ago. And now it's Barron and they've got a graphic of Barron and then in blood, like written in blood, where to kill Barron Trump. So it's pretty scary. I think they said he has some accounts that have to do with gaming and ways of communicating with people so he can't be identified. And they figured all of that out. they claim that there was a girl who got through security and was, and went to set with Baron and she got a lot of information from him. So I don't know. But you know, I guess you could say, well, this is just about Trump and his family and if he would just stop, you know, aggravating them, they wouldn't do this. But oh my goodness, that's very short sighted, very limited thinking. He is, he is the head of the Great Satan. He's the Great Satan, leader of the Great Satan's. That's us. And so if Trump, if one of them gets killed or President Trump is no longer with us, it won't stop with that. It won't stop with that. They've been at war with us for years and that's what we're going to be talking about today. so we're going to talk about that with a national security expert, former CIA agent.
Preborn Network provides free ultrasounds to pregnant women who are unsure
but first this. Doctors told Alba pregnancy was impossible. Her husband's diagnosis confirmed it. A child of their own simply wasn't going to happen. And then the impossible happened. Alba was pregnant. We might call it a miracle, but to Alba it didn't feel like one. That positive pregnancy test felt Like a mistake, a cruel twist of science she didn't understand or want. Nothing added up. She had accepted pregnancy just wasn't possible. The baby was never planned. And suddenly she was confused, afraid, and overwhelmed. What should have felt like a miracle felt like a crisis. Then Alba walked into a PreBorn Network clinic. She was welcomed with compassion and given a free ultrasound. And when she saw her baby and heard that tiny heartbeat, everything changed. Fear gave way to hope, and Alba chose life. Today, baby Laura is healthy and thriving. A, reminder that when God is writing the story, impossible doesn't get the final word. Right now, another mother needs that moment, and you can help her have that moment by providing an ultrasound. We're talking about preborn, of course, and they're a sponsor of our show. And, they do such important work in such a great way. It's an ultrasound. It's $28. Will provide one ultrasound for one of these moms who is confused or not certain about her pregnancy. And as Alba did, when they see the baby, they just, generally speaking, more than half of them, and I think more than that, maybe 60% change their mind about abortion. Maybe they adopt the baby out, but they just decide not to terminate its life. And so, isn't that beautiful? It really is. So if you would like to help PreBorn, go to Preborn.com Sandy, that's Preborn.com Sandy. And make your most generous donation.
Sandy Rios: This is going to be a thorough discussion of Iran
Okay, Sandy Rios, back with you on Sandy Rios, 24 7, in case I hadn't said that. And so this is going to be a thorough discussion of our history with Iran. I think you'll find it interesting and hopefully helpful because so many of you, just. And I understand why these are difficult times economically, but you're being led to believe that it is all about the Iran war. And you're also being led to believe that we're foolish to go up against Iran and try to stop them and that the notion of them having nuclear weapons is kind of silly. And they probably don't. And I'm telling you, that is, So we're going to set the record straight, okay? We're going to set the record straight on today's edition of Sandy Rios, 24 7, from American Family Radio.
Fox News contributor Sandy Rios says crisis in Iran more urgent than domestic politics
Sandy Rios, we are not called to be nice. We are often called to be confrontational. And here with me in D.C. is Fox News contributor Sandy Rios. I think the most important thing we need to demonstrate to our children is genuineness, that we actually believe what we say. We believe. Our longtime Fox News contributor, Sandy Rios
Sandy Rios: thanks very much for being with us. Seek justice. Not social justice, but God's justice. What's right and what's wrong. Sandy Rios is with the American Family Association, a pro life radio talk show host.
Sandy Rios: We've got to say this is the line. Life is sacred. Director of Governmental affairs for the American Family Association. Step up, Speak up. Say something, do something.
Speaker E: The special report that we planned to bring you tonight was about domestic politics, the battle among the Democrats. But we think the cris in Iran is more urgent right now than the campaign here at home. Some 60Americans, including our fellow citizen, whom you just saw bound and blindfolded, are now beginning their sixth day of captivity inside the US Embassy in Tehran. It's Friday morning there now, but throughout this night in Washington, officials will continue their search for some way to negotiate the hostages freedom. That search was not successful today. In this broadcast we'll have reports on the diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem and on other aspects of the crisis as well.
One American television correspondent has been there since the beginning of the embassy seizure
But we begin now with an on the scene account by the one American television correspondent who has been there since the beginning the seizure of the embassy last Sunday and who with his crew has provided us with outstanding coverage all this week. Here is Bob Dyke in Tehran. This picture tells it all. This flag was apparently taken from someone's office inside the United States Embassy. It was bur Tuesday evening outside the embassy's gates. To the Iranian demonstrators who set fire to it, this was a symbol of victory. Two days earlier, several hundred young people, mainly students at Tehran University, had taken over the embassy. We are not occupiers, they said. We have thrown out the occupiers. But instead of chasing all the Americans out of the compound, the Iranians imprisoned them in a building somewhere on these grounds. They have been hostages ever since. This morning, for the first time since the hostages were put under lockdown, one of the captives, blindfolded, was brought out into the open. Here's Harry Rosen, the embassy's press attach? He was turned to face reporters and cameramen and several hundred Iranian demonstrators outside the embassy's gates. Yankee, go home. They cried. But they made no attempt to harm him.
Sandy Rios: Okay, that was a blast from the past. That was ABC News. The anchor was Frank Reynolds. I remember Frank Reynolds. I loved. Actually, that was when we had for the most part, real news. But that was 1979. The Iranians captured, several Americans and they ended up holding, I think 50 of them hostage for 444 days. It was a nightmare. And that, honestly, that is the first. That's the marker for me of America's interaction with Iran. that's the limit of my knowledge. But I thought it would be interesting to just go back and see many people think that this. They've said that to us many, many times, that the war in Iran is all about Israel, that Bibi Netanyahu talked the President into this. And I'd like to illustrate today, if I could, how far back the conflict goes. And let me also add, this is 2026, and today the Iranians said they're going to assassinate Barron Trump. They know everything about where he is. And, they say they're going to kill him. And this is 2026. This was 1979. So the hostility has not ceased. So where did it come from, and when did it begin?
Mike Waller is the author of 20 books about subversion
I've asked Mike Waller to join us. Mike is a senior analyst for strategy at the center for Security Policy and the president of Georgetown Research, which is a political risk and private intelligence company. Mike, used to work for the CIA in Central America. He did a lot of groundbreaking scholarship after the Soviet empire's breakup, and he taught history and methods at America's premier intelligence schools. His stuff has been published, published all over the place. NewSong York Post, Washington Times and other places. And plus, he's the author of. I can't believe how many books you've written, Mike. I didn't even realize it, but the most recent was Big Intel. How the CIA and FBI Went From Cold War Heroes to Deep State villains. And then another one caught my eye. The Secret Empire. The KGB in Russia Today. Fighting the war of ideas. Like a real war. It goes on and on. You got how many books about, Mike? About 20. Have you written about 20?
Mike Waller: About 10.
Sandy Rios: Okay, 10. I've got two. Maybe both sheets have the same thing. That's a lot of books.
Mike Waller: Yeah, yeah. Some I edited with other people, but, yeah, roughly 10. And there's another one in the works.
Sandy Rios: What's that going to be?
Mike Waller: It's going to be about subversion.
Sandy Rios: Oh, All right. Okay. Can you get it out before November?
Mike Waller: Yeah, no, it's going to take about a year to do. But it's about the history of subversion and how it works, because most of us know what it is, but we really, really don't know how it. How it affects us all.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, I, You know, I wrestle with subversion every time I'm preparing a show. I can't believe how many things are still censored. You know, you could find, like, somebody will come up and they're. Maybe it was one of the Political campaigns. And you're looking for information on the. The conservative. And there's like a couple of little things, and they make sure there are negative pieces in those couple of things. And then for the opposition, like the radical, it's all, roses. I mean, it's amazing. It's really hard to find good information. And I think that's part of the subversion that's happening right now.
Meg: Mike, your earliest recollection of Iran was 1979 hostage crisis
But Mike, just a personal question. I don't think we're that far in age. I don't know. I'm not going to confess mine online. And you don't have to. I mean on the air, you don't have to tell me yours. But were you watching in 1979? Were you involved in any way in what you ended up doing at that point in your life?
Mike Waller: I was in high school during the hostage crisis and a freshman in college when the hostages were released. Okay, I remember that Frank Reynolds broadcast very clearly.
Sandy Rios: Isn't that something?
Mike Waller: I dorm at George Washington University. We had about half the floor was Iranian students who had been there on scholarships from the Shah. And they were just terrified. And they didn't want to talk to any Americans because they thought we were all out to get them.
Sandy Rios: Oh boy. Oh, is it something I like, Something that, that will really imprint. And that's what makes, Because you went on to work with the CIA and intelligence and warfare and all of that, it's. I'm, really looking forward to getting your perspective on this. you know, I. My, again, my earliest recollection of knowing anything about Iran with the United States was 1979. But, can you go back in time and kind of give us a little Iran? Iran is one of the oldest, civilizations on earth. So you can't go back all the way, but give us an idea of, Just go back. I heard you give a briefing last week, and I think you started in 1883. So that's a good starting place if that's where you want to start. But, just tell us about our relationship with Iran.
Mike Waller: Oh, wow, that's a long way back. The Persian empire is a great empire that goes back as far as recorded human history. In this case, most of us have heard the story of the, of the 300 Spartans who fought in the great Greek battle. Well, that was. They were fighting against the king of Persia who had invaded to the Mediterranean. So this was part of classical history. And Iran is very, very, still, very immersed in this wonderful pre Islamic history that they have. So in fact you even see the younger Iranians adopting, pre Islamic names.
Sandy Rios: But. But Meg M. They wouldn't be Islam. I mean, that wouldn't be as Islamic back. Oh, would it be back when they were fighting the Greeks?
Mike Waller: Oh, no, this is pre Islamic. Yeah.
Sandy Rios: Right, right. Okay.
Mike Waller: Fantastic history. Yeah. And so. So you have a wholesale, you know, rebellion against fundamentalist, Islam. Now, but when we first developed relations with Iran, the United States did. It was before the Civil War. It was in the 1850s. And the. It was. It was Persia then. And what the Persians allowed was American Christian missionaries to go into Persia to preach. And that's why we established diplomatic relations with them.
Sandy Rios: Wow. Now, Mike, they are. Their basic religion, as I understand it, is Zoroastrianism, or Zoroastrianism. I guess that's what you'd call it, right? Zoroastria.
Mike Waller: Right. That's the historic Zoroastrianism. That's their historic religion.
Sandy Rios: Okay, but is that what they were practicing when the mollus took over?
Mike Waller: No, it was. It was. Had been taken over by Islam many centuries earlier.
Sandy Rios: Okay, okay, so.
Mike: Iran became important to us after World War II
All right, so I'm interrupting you. So back to 1850, we made a treaty. Ah. With them. And they brought, American, missionaries, Christian. You know, that's kind of reminds me, you know, in the Bible, of course, we know about the Iranian empire because King Cyrus, you know, really saved the Jews, provided a way for them to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple. So he was Iranian. That was the great empire. Okay, I'm going to stop interrupting you.
Mike Waller: Yeah. And Cyprus is one of the most popular Iranian names among Iranian young people today. So there's a big, there's a big, you know, thirst for this pre Islam culture, of Iran. So anyway, we had minimal relations with Persia back then because we didn't have a lot of commerce with them. So we had educators, missionaries, a little bit of trade. Persian rugs. That's where we brought them in from, from Turkey and Persia. But it wasn't until after World War II or during World War II when Iran became important to us. And it was ruled then by the Shah Reza Pahlavi, Young Shah, and it was neutral in World War II. But before our involvement, the British, which had. Who had had a strong presence there, established an even stronger presence and with the Soviets, went in and basically took control Iran to establish a corridor for Lend Lease to go in to help the Soviets on the eastern front against the Nazis.
Sandy Rios: Okay, so. So the Soviets then, did they get a foothold then? In Iran. Is that what you're kind of hinting at?
Mike Waller: Right. They wanted to conquer the whole thing. And that's why when you had, at the end of World War II, you had the, the Tehran conference, you know, just before the Yalta conference, the Soviets felt comfortable enough to have a conference with Soviet leadership and the Americans and the British in Iran because they thought they were going to keep control of it.
Sandy Rios: Interesting. Okay, so did the Soviets have a, military presence or did they have any. What effect did they have on the culture there?
Mike Waller: Not much on the culture there. they had a military presence during World War II. They had a subversive presence before, right after the Bolshevik revolution when they tried to have, ah, Bolshevik type revolutions in certain regions of Iran. But those failed and they were put down. And so there was always this tension where the Soviets wanted Iran because see Iran joins by land a southern part of the old Soviet empire.
Sandy Rios: Right.
Mike Waller: And it's the land route to the Indian Ocean which the Soviets needed because they didn't have much by way of warm water ports. So Iran back then for Stalin, as today, with people like Alexander Dugan, is a very important part of then establishing and now re. Establishing a Soviet empire with warm water ports.
Sandy Rios: You know, Mike, I wonder if this, I know you're going to talk about this, but it does make me wonder if the anti American sentiment might have kind, of birthed itself during that time with Russia being part. Of course we weren't at the Russians. What year is this? Is this before the 1917? World War II? Of course not. So they, they. But they wouldn't be so openly anti American then, right as they became.
Mike Waller: No, they weren't. They weren't. No, they weren't anti American at all. In fact, the, they, they adopted American customs, American fashions, American. They were very modernizing country, after World War II. And the Shah was, was overseeing that modernization and very tolerant, very, you know, it would have become a pretty advanced society had it not for the Islam been for the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
There was a hidden Soviet hand in this Iranian Revolution of 1979, Mike says
Sandy Rios: So back to that. All right, let's talk about that because I want to read you something. When I was looking, you know, AI is helping me. It was helping me even if I didn't want it to. so, it said that the captives, the 52American diplomats and citizens, were held. And the reason, the cause for the protest was that they wanted, they wanted the return of the exile Shah. The protesters demanded the return of the exile Shah who was in the US for cancer treatment. Is that how the, the uprising started in Iran in 1979?
Mike Waller: That was the excuse. This was a revolution led by Islamic fundamentalists, jihadists with Ayatollah Khomeini as their leader, who was in exile in France, and by the communists, which was the Tudeh Party of Iran, which was a Soviet loyal Communist party of Iran. So there was a hidden Soviet hand in this Iranian Revolution of 1979. So the Communists and the Islamic fundamentalists had their own red green axis, like we're seeing in America today. so anyway, it's nothing new. So they got together to, first overthrow the Shah. And then when we allowed them, President Carter allowed them the Shah to come to the United States for medical treatment. He was dying. that was used as a pretext to take over our embassy and to remove, all American influence from the country.
Sandy Rios: You know, I know this is an aside, but do I recall correctly that Jimmy Carter. They did, they stood down like the guards that guard the enemy kind of the enemy. The embassy stood down and they got. They didn't have any protection and they just came in.
Mike Waller: Yeah, I don't know the details of that, but if you consider our embassies in most places have a token guard force, ah, they've got marines who guard the embassy. but it's not enough to push back a full blown insurgency or a mass riot or mass protest. So in the interest of minimizing bloodshed and when you're facing certain defeats, you have to surrender an embassy like that.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, all right, so we know that the rescue went badly and ah, that's when our mutual friend, Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, actually was part of the rescue team. and it was such a tragic thing. They had problems with the helicopter, it fell on the other plane and it was just a complete and utter disaster. And, we have to say that, Jimmy Carter was a weak president and there weren't proper preparations made and so they held the hostages 444 days. Do you remember? Can you explain, Mike, to people? Because we do have. How many people really remember this, like you and I, especially people looking at the election and Iran right now. what happened in those ensuing days, what did that do to America, from your perspective?
Mike Waller: Well, the hostage crisis itself, exposed the fact that the United States had such weak leadership that a bunch of rioters could take over sovereign American territory, because any embassy is the sovereign territory of that country and there'd be no price to pay for it. And if the United States, which had just a few years earlier, retreated with its tail between its legs from Vietnam. And it looked like the US Was a declining power and the Soviets and radical Islam were the rising powers. So it looked like America's days were done.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, sounds familiar, doesn't it? But, yeah, it's true. And then, when Reagan came in, I think, was it while right after he took his oath, or while he took his oath of office on the inaugural, the inauguration day, the Iranians let the hostages go, which was a real, embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a great, great gift, to Ronald Reagan. But I,
Mike Waller: Don't you think, remember Carter, holed up in the White House. He basically hidden under the guise of keeping on top of the hostage crisis. Well, that means that you had a, group of so called students, radicals, right. From a Muslim fundamentalist movement and a communist movement, were able to keep the President of the United States holed up in the White House for the better part of 444 days. It's just amazing humiliation on the whole country by doing that.
Sandy Rios: Absolutely. It was humiliating. I think that's. We lived that. You and I lived that. Our older. Those of us that are not young, we lived that. They. They humiliated us, and that wasn't the end of it.
Iran's official slogan for referring to the United States was the Great Satan
Mike, tell us what else Iran did, like the marine bombing and all of that.
Mike Waller: Well, again, it wasn't simply students taking over our embassy. The Ayatollah Khomeini, who was the supreme leader of Iran. That means supreme leader in every sense of the word. He was the supreme leader. Nothing happened without his assent. So he endorsed the takeover of the embassy, which means you had a government endorsed takeover of our embassy, which is really a declaration of war. Yeah. And we did nothing.
Sandy Rios: Was the Shah, I mean, the, the Ayatollah, he wasn't really the official leader of Iran yet. Really, though, because the Shah was getting cancer treatment and there was a destabilization of the country. So is that. Was this when the. With the Ayatollah just kind of grabbed power?
Mike Waller: Yeah, he took power. So the Shah had been deposed, and. And so he. He, So the. The Ayatollah, came in as the supreme Leader. They had some sort of a transitional thing. The one good thing the Ayatollah did in all of his years was he killed all the communists. All the communists who had joined his red green axis. He had him wiped out.
Sandy Rios: Wow. Well, that is, I guess, a good thing in a bad way. Right? Yeah. So, then Iran went on to, as I understand it, they were responsible for Bombing a marine barracks, and it killed 241 service members. So there's a whole string of this stuff. I don't know if they were involved in any of those airline hijackings. I really don't know, Mike. But, we went through several years of humiliation by, you know, these little countries in the Middle east because they were so violent and full of venom. And I could ask you too, could you explain to people why they hate America so much?
Mike Waller: The Iranian government's official slogan for referring to the United States was the Great Satan. The Great Satan, meaning we were the number one mortal enemy, the Islamic Republic. And you don't cut deals with Satan. You don't negotiate with Satan. This is a fight to the death. And if you die in the course of that fight against Satan, then you're bound for eternal glory under their doctrine. And they. And. And that means that there would be. And this is what the United States really failed to understand. When you have leaders who think, well, maybe we can negotiate with these guys. No, no, you don't negotiate with someone who believes that, honestly, supernaturally, that you are Satan. There's no room for it. This is where our intelligence services failed and our political and diplomatic leadership failed, was to think that we could deal with Iran that way. So when they view us as the great Satan, well, that means we're their number one enemy. So about Israel, is it if we are the great Satan, Israel, little Satan in their nomenclature.
Sandy Rios: Yeah. And at one time, Iran had a very good relationship with Israel. I remember. so. But, anyway, they're a little Satan. And I think. I think you would agree that even by the. Using the term Satan, that this is all about, this is all about their view of the world in terms of the. Their religious position. they had. They worship Allah and we worship. You know, the Jews and the Christians have a different kind of God, and we worship only one God, and we have a different, We're their arch enemy. We are their arch enemy. And they feel Sharia, I guess, teaches them that they. It says to destroy the infidel, but that includes everybody else, right, Mike? Why would they. Why wouldn't they think that the whole world was the great Satan beside other thing other than their country?
Mike Waller: Well, they were satanic in other ways or just not. Not, you know, not. Not Islam in other ways, but they were. They were not satanic. The only countries that had the. The designation of being Satan was the United States as the great Satan, and Israel is the little Satan. Other forces they might view as satanic, but the ones they were out to get were us. Now the, So when you. When you think of the conflict today and people say, well, it's all just about Israel, if we just stop being so close to Israel, it would all go away. That's a complete misunderstanding of the entire doctrine of the Islamic revolution. It's a total misunderstanding. It is. This is a fight to the death. It always has been a fight to the death. And the Islamic Republic has proven it will take whatever firepower we can inflict on them. And they will not quit, because in their own mind, if they quit, they're doomed. They would rather die in martyrdom than then live in submission to the great Satan.
Sandy Rios: You know what? Also, don't you think, Mike, that kind of, would disprove their theology, that they would dominate the world and the fourth Imam and would come back and take over if they get defeated, Defeated by the Great Satan, that just really messes up their whole. Their whole belief system. It's interesting, isn't it?
Mike Waller: So, yeah, it does. So it's an apocalyptic, cultish type of Islamic where they want this confrontation, they want this final outcome, ideally, even in their lifetime. Then if they die in the process, then all the greater glory to them.
The Iranians are Shia. The rest of the Muslim world are Sunni
Sandy Rios: let me ask, you a separate question. You and I both know, but I'm going to tell my audience, if they don't know, there are two different kinds of Islam. The Iranians are Shia. I don't think any other country is Shia. is it? I mean, that's the base of Shia, Islam. And then Sunni is also core.
Mike Waller: That's like 60% of Iraq is also Shia. you get Shiite, communities elsewhere, but Iran is the heart of it.
Sandy Rios: Okay. And the rest of the Muslim world, besides what Mike's just mentioned, are Sunni. And they basically believe the same thing. But they. There are differences. Like we think of the differences in our Christian denominations. but they do, basically have the same theology, as it were, about the fourth Imam and the. The end of the world and all of that. The apocalyptic coming. Is there any. Do you know? I mean, I'm asking you things you might not know. I mean, this is pretty much down in the weeds, but they share that same vision of the end of the world and conquering the world. Right?
Mike Waller: It really depends. I'm not a. You know, I'm not up on Islamic theology and the whole differences you've got, you get. You have many differences in the interpretations of it and then us on the analytical side of the house are going to look at the same information and come to different conclusions even among ourselves. But what makes the Iranian, regime ideology distinct from the others is that it is a revolutionary ideology, like a Bolshevik type ideology, fanatical revolutionary ideology, and a supernatural ideology. Whereas opposed to the communists being atheists, they were just fighting for, you know, for the, for the, earthly reasons, whereas the Shiites are fighting for supernatural reasons.
Sandy Rios: Is also another distinction between the Shia Iranians and the Sunni. The rest of the, Muslim world that, like, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the main presence that we see here in this country, they kind of work by stealth, civilization, jihad, into, you know, infiltrating, running for office, taking over in a sneaky slow way. The Iranians, are you, are you saying that they're more warlike, more overt, in their, in their opposition to, to us? They just are all out war. They don't try to sneak like the m. The Sunni do, that seems to me. But what do you think about that?
Mike Waller: Well, you know, it's a good point. There's a sneakiness in a different kind of way. So whereas, whereas you have the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrate society and they mask their intentions to outsiders and they set up front organizations and they set up front companies that then own the mosques and front charities, never acknowledging to the public that they're part of a subversive movement to colonize us, to set up literally communities that are colonies that will never assimilate but that will infiltrate our society to subvert us from within. That's the Muslim Brotherhood side. The Iranian government works differently. They will send agents in the way the Russians would or the way the Chinese would, to subvert us as spies and agents of influence, not seeking to build a Shiite community here, but to subvert us and destroy us from within.
Sandy Rios: Okay, interesting. Well, okay, couple of other things. do you believe it's true that Iran was behind 9 11.
Mike Waller: They facilitated eight of the 10 hijackers, meaning they knew what these terrorists were up to. They knew they were Al Qaeda, but they allowed them, the terrorists, to go into Iran, not get their passports stamped, which is key, so that they, the terrorists could then go into Afghanistan, work with Osama bin Laden and his people, and then come back out and get back to Iran to get to Turkey or other points in the west and not, have their tracks traced through their passport stamps. The Iranian regime also allowed Al Qaeda terrorists and their families to stay in Iran as means of shelter and then also provided financial and logistical support for Al Qaeda overall. So we do know that they were doing this before 9 11. We do know that they facilitated the transit of the actual 911 hijackers and they increased their support for al Qaeda after 9 11.
Sandy Rios: Interesting.
If Iran was involved in 9 11, that means we have to do something
So that leads me to the next thing. So if they're involved in 9 11, I just think we need to let soak that. Let that soak in. I mean, that was a direct attack on our country. And they're never mentioned. Mike, why are they never mentioned when people tell the story or news reporters report the story? I mean, way back they. I don't recall them ever being mentioned as being part of 9 11.
Mike Waller: Right. It came out first during the 911 Commission investigation, but part of it, you have a, standard operating procedure, our intelligence people who will collect and analyze this evidence to not say anything, which is understandable in some ways because they do have to protect legitimate sources and methods or else they're going to lose those sources and methods and no one will help us. Again, that part's understandable. But then there's also this sort of cultishness in the intelligence community where they think their information is sacred to them and they're not going to share it with anybody because nobody else should know. And the third reason is if it's known that Iran was involved in helping the hijackers, that m means we would have to do something about it.
Sandy Rios: Exactly. Kind of like the same thing about China. Like we've been. Not a lot has been reported on how. Well, not enough until recently, until President Trump really came on the scene. Have people talked badly about China and how they are trying to take us over? In everything you can imagine, they play that down. They don't want to talk about it for the very same reason we have to do something about it.
Mike Waller: Right, Right, exactly. And then how do you want to be as a president or as an advisor to a president put in a position of having something so sensational that really Iran helped 911 take place? It wouldn't have happened without Iranian government involvement. They weren't part of the planning of it, they weren't part of the operational part of it, but they were just as much a facilitator of it as anybody else. So if they were behind it, like a lot of this, there were Saudi figures behind it. Remember how the Bush administration wanted to keep that a secret because we had, we had other priorities, or I'm, saying the administration had other priorities with Saudi Arabia. So that's literally letting these foreign jihadists get away with murder because we didn't want to do anything about it.
Sandy Rios: yes. All right, so we've got the 1979 capture of the hostages. We have, killing Marines. And then we have 9, 11. And then when the war, in Iraq and other places in Afghanistan broke out, there were these explosive devices that maimed and killed so many of our men. And, Mike, how is that we know those came from Iran. How do we know that?
Mike Waller: Well, we know because These were, IEDs, right? Improvised explosive devices. And then there were specially formed penetrators, meaning, the explosive charges in those IEDs, which were designed to. Specifically to attack weak spots in our particular military vehicles. We know this came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the irgc. We know it for a fact from the terrorists who we captured. From the other intelligence we collected, there was never any doubt. So even today, the Pentagon's official, estimate is that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard literally provided the training, logistics and explosives that killed. That were used to kill 603American service personnel, wound thousands more. And then so many of our coalition partners, as well as here, we had Iran surrounded on its west side by our forces in Iraq and on its east side by our forces in Afghanistan and on the south side by our Navy. And we never did a thing to make Iran not just pay for it. We never did a thing to make Iran stop doing it.
Sandy Rios: That's just strange. That's just weird. And that was the Bush administration, of course. Well, they did. I mean, between Saudi and that, I guess it was the oil. I don't know if we were getting oil from Iran then, but we were from the Saudis. But, And so, you know, I just want to make a point here, Mike, because when we see the Wounded warriors commercials and we see all those guys who, you know, have their faces blown off or they can't. They've lost a leg, they lost two legs. They've lost all their limbs. And, you know, you see that those are, for the most part, IEDs, aren't they? Aren't they?
Mike Waller: Yes, for the most part, yeah.
Sandy Rios: So there's thousands. Thousands of people. So that's. So that's okay. I just want to make this point, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me. This is the damage that this country, Iran, has done to us. But just because you haven't heard about it or no one made a big deal about it, they didn't have the courage. It really wasn't until Donald Trump, than anybody had the courage to take them on and to take China on, too, which is what he's doing in a different way. But, so, all right, so this all happened.
After 9, 11, the Iranian regime started its nuclear weapons program
And then that brings us to today, Mike and I. There's so much to say about, I think unless I'm leaving something out about our past with him, can I leave some other occasion or event out?
Mike Waller: Well, there were lots of them. In fact, there's. There's so many, you can't, you know, it's hard to even count them. They were behind the Iranian regime was behind the murders of hundreds and hundreds of Americans from at least 1983 up to the present day. And for all those decades, the US did nothing militarily to make them stop. Meanwhile, after 9, 11, the Iranian regime started its nuclear weapons program. Now, it had a civilian nuclear program under the Shah that began, and that was for the one civilian nuclear power plant that it has. And it's a legitimate power plant. But of course, these power plants also produce waste, and many of these plants produce plutonium as part of the waste, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. And so Iran had a colossal, as we all know, nuclear weapons program and then a missile program to fire those weapons at targets. Which is why Europe started a missile defense system to protect itself against what the Europeans and NATO said were Iranian nuclear missiles. So this has been going on for decades. Nothing was ever done really to stop it except negotiations. Right. You're going to negotiate in good faith with the Great Satan. No. And freeing up cash that Iran would have gotten from certain revenues had it not had a US embargo on it. And Obama was sending pallet loads of hundred dollar bills worth billions and billions of dollars by cargo freight to Iran in a bid to buy them off.
Sandy Rios: Oh, he was trying to.
Mike Waller: Nuclear weapons agreements.
Sandy Rios: That's funny because I thought, I thought he was trying to, help them. So you said he was helping them. But, but his, his motive was to.
Mike Waller: Well, you know, you know, you caught me there. Yeah, yeah. The process was to buy them off, but yeah, he was trying to help them too. He certainly didn't want to harm the Ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guard.
Sandy Rios: No, we have only to look to Egypt and how he, supported the Muslim Brotherhood and that, you know, the Arab Spring, so called, you know, we knew what side he was on. So,
Mike Waller: Oh, you know, and that was clear. It was so clear, Sandy, because at that very time there was also a student revolution going on in Iran, a massive revolution going on around the whole country at the very same time as the Muslim Brotherhood color revolutions in Egypt and other North African countries. But the Obama administration and the whole aid and, you know, Victoria Nuland and the others didn't lift a finger to help the Iranians to oust the ayatollahs. They were only helping the Muslim Brotherhood oust our allies.
Sandy Rios: You know, I had forgotten all about that. I remember just being so angry about that. It's amazing how much stuff you forget. A whole lot more than you remember. But, I mean, that happened, and we watched the poor people trying to, you know, break free of the oppression that they're under in Iran. And he wouldn't. And I think they thought because they were calling this the Arab Spring, that, you know, that Barack Obama was their friend, and he wasn't their friend. He was the friend of the irgc.
Mike Waller: So, afraid or maybe friendly. Who knows, really? Right. I mean, if you were a. If you were afraid, that's one thing. But you're the United States. There's a lot that you can do if you're a friend, that's a little different. And it's amazing to see that how many of our enemies benefited concretely from Obama's policies and how many of our friends were harmed?
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, that, needs to be a book or a movie. Hey, maybe that's the next book after the next one. Mike, you should write the truth about the Islamic part of him. It, was so obvious. You know. Remember, his first great speech after he was elected was to the Muslim world. It was to the Muslim world. That was his first speech after being elected. So, But back to Iran signal, isn't it? Yes, I believe so. Not so. You know, he knew he could get away with stuff because people just would not believe. I was from Chicago. I was working on the Allen Keys campaign, Mike, and, we had so much background information on Obama, and I. I would tell people on the air. I tell people everywhere. I went to Israel. I tried to tell. I didn't go there for that purpose, but I was there, and I was trying to tell people because they were in love with him. You remember that? Early on, I said, no, you don't. You don't know who you're dealing with. And of course. And they really did realize it was a nightmare. So,
Is the Iranian war causing that? I know you're not an economist
Well, so now I want to know what your thoughts are right now. Of course, the polls are looking bad. Let's have to get to the political. Because I read everywhere. It's like a mantra you talk about, like an infiltration of. I don't know if you didn't call it propaganda, you had a different name for it. But people are just talking about how horrible the economy is and, and how, you know, the country's just falling apart. It's terrible. Now, let me say before I even ask you this question, I live in a very, very nice place in Florida, but surrounding us are such poor people and neighborhoods. we go to a restaurant somewhere maybe a little bit different town, and the waitresses are. You know, one couple of weeks ago, one was just limping, limping, could hardly walk. She's trying to carry all those plates. And I talk to her and she has no insurance and she has a bad hip. So I know the problems are real, Mike. I know people are really suffering, but we have to have a real view of this. Is the Iranian war causing that? I know you're not an economist, but is it calling all this, ah, causing all this, economic misery?
Mike Waller: It's one of the causes of it. I mean, part of it is the reckless government spending that's doing it. But if you have, oil markets where Iran is such a major oil producer and so much of our other energy comes from the, the Gulf, and Iran is controlling that narrow strait where so much of the energy comes from, that's going to disrupt markets, which means prices are going to go up because the supply is not. It's either limited or it's, it's, uncertain. That hurts all of us. Yes. So where I live now, and I'm, I'm working with a lot of construction guys and local guys and. But they're paying, five and a half bucks a gallon for diesel fuel and they've got a, you know, an F350 and this is how they make their living. Well, it's not a cheap thing to maintain a diesel truck or a dump truck or, you know, or a backhoe or whatever else they need. And with, with, with the fuel prices and with the insurance costs and other liability, just that alone, it's making it impossible for them to, to make a living. And you think, well, gee, this guy's got, you know, a million dollars worth of equipment. He must be doing well, no, none of it's all mortgage payments on it. And so they're hand to mouth. And so like, everybody's hurting and these guys are, you know, their second Amendment guys. They voted for Trump six times if you count the primaries. And they're done. They say, I'd rather take my chances on somebody else than live through this.
If we didn't go after Iran's nuclear program, there would have been nuclear war
Sandy Rios: Okay, so you and I have to address that, at least for a moment. Mike, I've kept you a long time here but, okay, I have a lot of opinions, as you well know, but, really. So did you think it was unnecessary for us to attack Iran?
Mike Waller: I think it was overdue. Because if we didn't. If we didn't go after Iran's nuclear program, there would have been nuclear war. Yeah.
Sandy Rios: I mean, so the threat. See, they're even claiming now that I've heard people say this, you probably have to online, you see this stuff. we don't really know if they had ready for a nuclear weapon. We don't really know that. How do we know? How do you know? and so if you have a doubt about that, Mike, then this economic pain seems senseless. But if you believe it, then you. You must. You have to really think through. You're talking about the future of your children or your country being bombed into oblivion or your children being killed, all of you being killed. That's the reality. And so, it's a Sophie's Choice.
Mike Waller: Well, you know what? It's much easier than Sophie's Choice, really, because they've had 47 years of constant warfare against us, killing us for 47 years. Most Americans don't even remember what it was like before the Iranian revolution. We didn't have all this terrorism directed at us all the time. We didn't have this terrorist culture where everything is security or so called security and losing our freedoms and so forth. The Iranian regime is responsible for a lot of that. For our, for the terrible m. Casualties we took in Iraq and Afghanistan. M. Mostly Iraq because of the Iranian regime. And for the huge amounts of money we have spent defending shipping of other countries, defending other countries own territory, mostly at our own costs to keep world prices stable and to keep the economy stable for us here at home. It's been a colossal investment that we've had to pay for through taxes and deficit spending that's being passed on to other generations along with a regime that views us as Satan and that its holy duty is to destroy Satan. And that would be with the nuclear weapons that Allah has allowed them to build.
Sandy Rios: And they're not going to hesitate.
Mike Waller: That we're not going to get out of that one.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, no. Well. And they're not like Russia. Sorry, they're not like Russia. Russia has more. Okay, this is my analysis, my simple analysis. Russia, in spite of its communism, has a more Christian, humane view of the world. And they're not eager. they were not eager to have a nuclear holocaust either. But Iran's not like that. They're eager.
Mike Waller: Absolutely. And you even See, with Putin, bad, terrible a guy as he is, you don't hear the people screaming loudest about Putin ever once complaining about his nuclear weapons that he continues to build that are aimed at us.
Mike Waller: That's because Putin is using it as, as a deterrent. We understand that the Iranian regime is going to be using it to fulfill its apocalyptic vision. So people who, people who, after all this time, who don't want to believe it and who, who want to basically let the Iranian regime continue, it's not even worth having a discussion with them because it would be, it would fall on their shoulders in the future to wage some kind of a nuclear conflict or to be on the, on the receiving end of a nuclear attack because we don't have the missile defense necessary for this. then, you know, all those people who delayed us from confronting this Iranian nuclear problem all this time are responsible for what Trump has had to do today. Had it happened before, had we stopped it before, we wouldn't be worrying about it today. The problem I have with the president's policy is he's listening too much to the people who say, oh, back off, don't be so tough on Iran. So he will make a decisive move, as he did in June of last year, on elements of Iran's nuclear program, and then back off and then talk to them as if he could cut a deal. Right, and then not cut a deal, and then strike their leadership, knock them out. Yeah, well, fine. Finish the job and just be done with it. What, what is happening is a different kind of forever war that has just tired out our country and demoralized our country by fighting and fighting with no victory, when victory is always in our hand. So let's just fight it, get it over with, and win it.
Sandy Rios: Are, you. But are you, Mike, are you suggesting that sending in troops would be okay with you?
Mike Waller: We might need to send troops to secure, say, oil, terminal or to take out nuclear material or something, but we don't need to send invasion troops and have another war like Iraq or Afghanistan. Don't need to. What we should be doing is arming the Iranian people, letting them fight for their country. There's no shortage of them who'd be willing to. And in fact, many have been for decades. We just haven't been supporting them. Some are Islamists or communists. We shouldn't be supporting them. But there are others who are not. And for all these years, we could have been training these folks and arming them, and successive presidents have chosen not to do that, including this administration, which I just don't understand, let these people fight for their own country, and we can just help them do it.
Sandy Rios: Well, that sounds like a good idea if it'd be possible at this point. So many of them have been killed. I'm sure there's tons of fear. Like, what did they kill? 35, 40,000 of them, just a few months ago. It's horrible. Yeah, well, Mike.
Mike Perry: War is always messy. I'm sure you know that
Okay, so last thing, you're talking to your guy who's doing construction. He's paying $5 an hour for hour and $5 a gallon for diesel. what do you say to him about the war and about President Trump? Can you defend. How would you defend it?
Mike Waller: I'd say we have to get it over with. I can't defend it to them right now because it's not defensible. This has been going on for 14 or 15 months. It could have been over in one month, but the president chose not to do that. Why on earth would you destroy a weapons system of a country when the weapons are never the problem? It's like people with guns here. We just take away the guns, we won't have a problem. No, it's the types of people who have the guns. The people are the problem. And it's the same thing with nuclear weapons. If you remove, the entire regime elements and allow the Iranian people to do the work, to finish them off, then, fine, then the threat is gone. But the threat's still there. Not so much on the nuclear side now anymore, but in terms of disrupting markets, in terms of subversion. Now they've got. They've been trying to assassinate our president. Now they've got assassination plots out to murder his own family members, including his son. And somehow we're thinking, oh, gee, if maybe we're nicer to them, this wouldn't be happening.
Sandy Rios: Well, I think, you know, that's a very smart move on their part, Mike, because people would think without maybe saying it. Yeah, but that's just Trump. They're just after Trump, so if we didn't have Trump in there, they wouldn't be doing this. Yeah. So I don't know. I just, It's a mess, but I.
Mike Waller: A lot of the Trump haters are making that excuse, but a lot of Trump allies are also making that excuse, and that's what's really troubling.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, we're at a crisis. But I do think. I do want to communicate to my listeners that this. If even it's been handled, if it hasn't been handled quite properly. War is always messy. I'm sure you know that. You've been in the thick of it, Mike, but, we have to fight. We have to stop them. We have to stop them. They can't have a nuclear weapon. President Trump is right about that. If we have any criticism, I agree with Mike. It's, oh, well, let's get her done. Let's get her done and stop messing around. So, Mike, this has been such, so helpful. I really do appreciate, appreciate you just talking and helping us to understand this. I hope, and I hope this is, beneficial to my listeners. I think it will be. So thank you.
Mike Waller: Great being with you. Thanks a lot.
Sandy Rios: Okay, thank you. Well, thank you, Mike, and we'll talk soon.
Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood among top leading causes of death in America
All right. This is Sandy rios on Sandy Rios 24. 7.
Mike Waller: This is Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Sandy Rios: Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood were among the top leading causes of death in America, revealing the terrifying truth of the left's anti life agenda. According to Planned Parenthood's 2020, 22, 23 annual report, abortions performed by the organization accounted for the top four leading causes of, death. Think about that. Paid for by our tax dollars. And honestly, this freight train is going down the track so fast and so powerfully. It's really hard. It's going to be hard for us to stop this. And I think one of the best ways I've said before, I'll say again, is preborn. PreBorn, who is not part of the government, not part of the public debate or campaigns, but an organization that's simply providing ultrasounds for moms who are pregnant and doubting whether they should carry the baby to allow them to see their baby through ultrasound. It's an amazing process and it actually works. when the moms see their babies, I think it, ah, doubles the chance that they will not take the life of their baby. You know, you can't beat those odds. If you'd like to help, $28 pays for one ultrasound, just one. And you can send however much you can afford. Go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy.
Mike Waller: The Sandy Rios 24. 7 podcast are available at afr.net back to Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Scott Bessant: Good afternoon.
The United States is launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections
Today, at President Trump's direction, the United States treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast, an, unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers in the Second World War. D Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its Positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Around the globe. Our administration objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone. Iran's fanatics devote themselves to death, to America, and seek nuclear weapons to do just that. They have murdered and maimed more of our citizens and service members than any other terrorist regime Earth. And they have been at war against America, their neighbors in the Gulf, and much of the world for 47 years. President Trump has taken action that his predecessors have long deferred. And under his leadership, America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it. Our great armed forces have laid the groundwork for achieving the President's objective of preventing Iran from ever obtaining nuclear weapons. They have shown America's resolve to finally end this threat. And the strength of America's economy under President Trump allows us to wage this sustained financial operation alongside the might of our military.
Sandy Rios: Okay. Scott Bessent, our Treasury Secretary, who's become. Who knew he would be so fabulous, really. So, President Trump. Mike and I were just talking about the fact that we are not happy that the, altercation, whatever you want to call it, the war has stopped and started. Stopped and started. And I'm not happy about that either. But this is the thing that President Trump understands that I would never have understood. And that is how you deal with someone in a different way. And that is taking Iran down economically. Now, it's hard to do because they live in caves, and, you know, they can live with a lot less than you and I. so it takes a lot to punish them economically. The people are being punished who live in the cities, but, the irgc, they're just. They don't. They don't have the same luxuries. They never have had them. So they can. They can suffer a lot. But remember, perhaps you do or don't remember that Reagan's way of taking down the Soviet Union was to outspend them on military, especially Star wars defense. That was what Reagan began. And President Trump has picked that up also under different names. Space Force. So, Russia was trying to keep up with us in order to, you know, match us in space, and they couldn't, and they bankrupted themselves. And that's really what happened. That's. That was the fall of the Soviet Union. So this is another strategy here. and I just, got a notice this morning. Trump is saying that, they. They have de. Mined. We've completely demined the Strait of Hormuz. And so, I guess their space force is the one seeing that from space. And they're watching and they found all the, all the mines in the Strait of Hormuz. So, I think we are making some good progress here. And I just. I'm trying to think how to. How to make this as clear as I can. This was a very bold thing that President Trump did, and really at great risk to himself in terms of politically and also physically. He knows. He knows what this is like. He's almost lost his life a couple times already, or almost been attacked. One actually m hit. and yet he choose. Chooses to do this bold thing because he wants to make America safe. He means that, and he knows that we cannot coexist. Iran will not let us be. You know, I always say to you when we talk about, the left, whether it's homosexuality, lgbtq, whatever, that's just one example. They. I used to say, they won't leave you alone. You can't just be quiet. it will. You will be forced to bow the knee. And Iran is the same way in a much worse way. this is an ideology. It's a religion for them to kill us. They're doing something righteous. They are not going to stop. And so you have to consider, I do remember only through my parents, but not myself. I wasn't a World War II baby. I wasn't born then. but the Americans had to make lots of sacrifices, terrible sacrifices. Sugar and milk and, just not being able to get clothing. And they did that for, like, four years. And they did it out of love for their country because they knew that, that was their way of supporting the war effort. So I know we're not in the same place. We don't have that much unity now, but it is the same principle. So I just, I'm not discarding whatever suffering you're doing economically. It just breaks my heart, especially the people that I see around here who don't have medical care. And of course, that's from Barack, ah, Obama. That's a whole other issue. But it's, wrapped up in a tale of woes that gets linked in with the Iran war. And President Trump doesn't belong there, but it does get there. And so if you can just hold on. If you can just hold on. There's no one that knows how to bring back this economy back better than our president, and no one that wants to do it better than our president. So I just say be patient. And, he doesn't want this war to last forever.
I don't believe he's lying when he says he doesn't want it
I don't. I don't believe he's lying when he says that he doesn't want it. He's trying to bring it to an end in a way that cripples them forever and that they. At least for our lifetimes and they cannot have, not attack us, kill your children, kill you. You know, just nuke our cities, our towns. that's what he's trying to prevent. And it's. It's coming at a great cost to him, too, so.
Pre board is our sponsor, and if you would like to support them
All right, we said enough today. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you've learned. I want to remind you that pre board is our sponsor, and if you would like to support them, it's 28amonth for one ultrasound. Just go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy well, thank you for listening to today's edition of Sandy Rios 24 7.
Mike Waller: It.
Iranian state TV claims a $10 million bounty has been placed on Barron
Sandy Rios: There are fears for Donald Trump's youngest son after Iranian state TV claimed a $10 million bounty has been placed on him. A chilling video titled where to Kill Barron Trump was broadcast claiming to show the location of his university escort vehicles and Secret Service posts saying the 20 year old's movements are being fully monitored. The video also alleged they had found Barron Trump's online gaming accounts that he uses to communicate with the Secret Service says it's aware of the threat and is investigating.
Sandy Rios: okay, so that's, I think Australian television and that's just happening today. I'm talking to you on August 25th. So that's just happened. You know, they have been threatening, they threatened President Trump. I think it's safe to say they have tried to kill him. And recently when he, you know, took a ride on that catering truck, it was because they found out about a plot to kill him that night. So they, they also put a, ah, threat out for Melania Trump a few weeks ago. And now it's Barron and they've got a graphic of Barron and then in blood, like written in blood, where to kill Barron Trump. So it's pretty scary. I think they said he has some accounts that have to do with gaming and ways of communicating with people so he can't be identified. And they figured all of that out. they claim that there was a girl who got through security and was, and went to set with Baron and she got a lot of information from him. So I don't know. But you know, I guess you could say, well, this is just about Trump and his family and if he would just stop, you know, aggravating them, they wouldn't do this. But oh my goodness, that's very short sighted, very limited thinking. He is, he is the head of the Great Satan. He's the Great Satan, leader of the Great Satan's. That's us. And so if Trump, if one of them gets killed or President Trump is no longer with us, it won't stop with that. It won't stop with that. They've been at war with us for years and that's what we're going to be talking about today. so we're going to talk about that with a national security expert, former CIA agent.
Preborn Network provides free ultrasounds to pregnant women who are unsure
but first this. Doctors told Alba pregnancy was impossible. Her husband's diagnosis confirmed it. A child of their own simply wasn't going to happen. And then the impossible happened. Alba was pregnant. We might call it a miracle, but to Alba it didn't feel like one. That positive pregnancy test felt Like a mistake, a cruel twist of science she didn't understand or want. Nothing added up. She had accepted pregnancy just wasn't possible. The baby was never planned. And suddenly she was confused, afraid, and overwhelmed. What should have felt like a miracle felt like a crisis. Then Alba walked into a PreBorn Network clinic. She was welcomed with compassion and given a free ultrasound. And when she saw her baby and heard that tiny heartbeat, everything changed. Fear gave way to hope, and Alba chose life. Today, baby Laura is healthy and thriving. A, reminder that when God is writing the story, impossible doesn't get the final word. Right now, another mother needs that moment, and you can help her have that moment by providing an ultrasound. We're talking about preborn, of course, and they're a sponsor of our show. And, they do such important work in such a great way. It's an ultrasound. It's $28. Will provide one ultrasound for one of these moms who is confused or not certain about her pregnancy. And as Alba did, when they see the baby, they just, generally speaking, more than half of them, and I think more than that, maybe 60% change their mind about abortion. Maybe they adopt the baby out, but they just decide not to terminate its life. And so, isn't that beautiful? It really is. So if you would like to help PreBorn, go to Preborn.com Sandy, that's Preborn.com Sandy. And make your most generous donation.
Sandy Rios: This is going to be a thorough discussion of Iran
Okay, Sandy Rios, back with you on Sandy Rios, 24 7, in case I hadn't said that. And so this is going to be a thorough discussion of our history with Iran. I think you'll find it interesting and hopefully helpful because so many of you, just. And I understand why these are difficult times economically, but you're being led to believe that it is all about the Iran war. And you're also being led to believe that we're foolish to go up against Iran and try to stop them and that the notion of them having nuclear weapons is kind of silly. And they probably don't. And I'm telling you, that is, So we're going to set the record straight, okay? We're going to set the record straight on today's edition of Sandy Rios, 24 7, from American Family Radio.
Fox News contributor Sandy Rios says crisis in Iran more urgent than domestic politics
Sandy Rios, we are not called to be nice. We are often called to be confrontational. And here with me in D.C. is Fox News contributor Sandy Rios. I think the most important thing we need to demonstrate to our children is genuineness, that we actually believe what we say. We believe. Our longtime Fox News contributor, Sandy Rios
Sandy Rios: thanks very much for being with us. Seek justice. Not social justice, but God's justice. What's right and what's wrong. Sandy Rios is with the American Family Association, a pro life radio talk show host.
Sandy Rios: We've got to say this is the line. Life is sacred. Director of Governmental affairs for the American Family Association. Step up, Speak up. Say something, do something.
Speaker E: The special report that we planned to bring you tonight was about domestic politics, the battle among the Democrats. But we think the cris in Iran is more urgent right now than the campaign here at home. Some 60Americans, including our fellow citizen, whom you just saw bound and blindfolded, are now beginning their sixth day of captivity inside the US Embassy in Tehran. It's Friday morning there now, but throughout this night in Washington, officials will continue their search for some way to negotiate the hostages freedom. That search was not successful today. In this broadcast we'll have reports on the diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem and on other aspects of the crisis as well.
One American television correspondent has been there since the beginning of the embassy seizure
But we begin now with an on the scene account by the one American television correspondent who has been there since the beginning the seizure of the embassy last Sunday and who with his crew has provided us with outstanding coverage all this week. Here is Bob Dyke in Tehran. This picture tells it all. This flag was apparently taken from someone's office inside the United States Embassy. It was bur Tuesday evening outside the embassy's gates. To the Iranian demonstrators who set fire to it, this was a symbol of victory. Two days earlier, several hundred young people, mainly students at Tehran University, had taken over the embassy. We are not occupiers, they said. We have thrown out the occupiers. But instead of chasing all the Americans out of the compound, the Iranians imprisoned them in a building somewhere on these grounds. They have been hostages ever since. This morning, for the first time since the hostages were put under lockdown, one of the captives, blindfolded, was brought out into the open. Here's Harry Rosen, the embassy's press attach? He was turned to face reporters and cameramen and several hundred Iranian demonstrators outside the embassy's gates. Yankee, go home. They cried. But they made no attempt to harm him.
Sandy Rios: Okay, that was a blast from the past. That was ABC News. The anchor was Frank Reynolds. I remember Frank Reynolds. I loved. Actually, that was when we had for the most part, real news. But that was 1979. The Iranians captured, several Americans and they ended up holding, I think 50 of them hostage for 444 days. It was a nightmare. And that, honestly, that is the first. That's the marker for me of America's interaction with Iran. that's the limit of my knowledge. But I thought it would be interesting to just go back and see many people think that this. They've said that to us many, many times, that the war in Iran is all about Israel, that Bibi Netanyahu talked the President into this. And I'd like to illustrate today, if I could, how far back the conflict goes. And let me also add, this is 2026, and today the Iranians said they're going to assassinate Barron Trump. They know everything about where he is. And, they say they're going to kill him. And this is 2026. This was 1979. So the hostility has not ceased. So where did it come from, and when did it begin?
Mike Waller is the author of 20 books about subversion
I've asked Mike Waller to join us. Mike is a senior analyst for strategy at the center for Security Policy and the president of Georgetown Research, which is a political risk and private intelligence company. Mike, used to work for the CIA in Central America. He did a lot of groundbreaking scholarship after the Soviet empire's breakup, and he taught history and methods at America's premier intelligence schools. His stuff has been published, published all over the place. NewSong York Post, Washington Times and other places. And plus, he's the author of. I can't believe how many books you've written, Mike. I didn't even realize it, but the most recent was Big Intel. How the CIA and FBI Went From Cold War Heroes to Deep State villains. And then another one caught my eye. The Secret Empire. The KGB in Russia Today. Fighting the war of ideas. Like a real war. It goes on and on. You got how many books about, Mike? About 20. Have you written about 20?
Mike Waller: About 10.
Sandy Rios: Okay, 10. I've got two. Maybe both sheets have the same thing. That's a lot of books.
Mike Waller: Yeah, yeah. Some I edited with other people, but, yeah, roughly 10. And there's another one in the works.
Sandy Rios: What's that going to be?
Mike Waller: It's going to be about subversion.
Sandy Rios: Oh, All right. Okay. Can you get it out before November?
Mike Waller: Yeah, no, it's going to take about a year to do. But it's about the history of subversion and how it works, because most of us know what it is, but we really, really don't know how it. How it affects us all.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, I, You know, I wrestle with subversion every time I'm preparing a show. I can't believe how many things are still censored. You know, you could find, like, somebody will come up and they're. Maybe it was one of the Political campaigns. And you're looking for information on the. The conservative. And there's like a couple of little things, and they make sure there are negative pieces in those couple of things. And then for the opposition, like the radical, it's all, roses. I mean, it's amazing. It's really hard to find good information. And I think that's part of the subversion that's happening right now.
Meg: Mike, your earliest recollection of Iran was 1979 hostage crisis
But Mike, just a personal question. I don't think we're that far in age. I don't know. I'm not going to confess mine online. And you don't have to. I mean on the air, you don't have to tell me yours. But were you watching in 1979? Were you involved in any way in what you ended up doing at that point in your life?
Mike Waller: I was in high school during the hostage crisis and a freshman in college when the hostages were released. Okay, I remember that Frank Reynolds broadcast very clearly.
Sandy Rios: Isn't that something?
Mike Waller: I dorm at George Washington University. We had about half the floor was Iranian students who had been there on scholarships from the Shah. And they were just terrified. And they didn't want to talk to any Americans because they thought we were all out to get them.
Sandy Rios: Oh boy. Oh, is it something I like, Something that, that will really imprint. And that's what makes, Because you went on to work with the CIA and intelligence and warfare and all of that, it's. I'm, really looking forward to getting your perspective on this. you know, I. My, again, my earliest recollection of knowing anything about Iran with the United States was 1979. But, can you go back in time and kind of give us a little Iran? Iran is one of the oldest, civilizations on earth. So you can't go back all the way, but give us an idea of, Just go back. I heard you give a briefing last week, and I think you started in 1883. So that's a good starting place if that's where you want to start. But, just tell us about our relationship with Iran.
Mike Waller: Oh, wow, that's a long way back. The Persian empire is a great empire that goes back as far as recorded human history. In this case, most of us have heard the story of the, of the 300 Spartans who fought in the great Greek battle. Well, that was. They were fighting against the king of Persia who had invaded to the Mediterranean. So this was part of classical history. And Iran is very, very, still, very immersed in this wonderful pre Islamic history that they have. So in fact you even see the younger Iranians adopting, pre Islamic names.
Sandy Rios: But. But Meg M. They wouldn't be Islam. I mean, that wouldn't be as Islamic back. Oh, would it be back when they were fighting the Greeks?
Mike Waller: Oh, no, this is pre Islamic. Yeah.
Sandy Rios: Right, right. Okay.
Mike Waller: Fantastic history. Yeah. And so. So you have a wholesale, you know, rebellion against fundamentalist, Islam. Now, but when we first developed relations with Iran, the United States did. It was before the Civil War. It was in the 1850s. And the. It was. It was Persia then. And what the Persians allowed was American Christian missionaries to go into Persia to preach. And that's why we established diplomatic relations with them.
Sandy Rios: Wow. Now, Mike, they are. Their basic religion, as I understand it, is Zoroastrianism, or Zoroastrianism. I guess that's what you'd call it, right? Zoroastria.
Mike Waller: Right. That's the historic Zoroastrianism. That's their historic religion.
Sandy Rios: Okay, but is that what they were practicing when the mollus took over?
Mike Waller: No, it was. It was. Had been taken over by Islam many centuries earlier.
Sandy Rios: Okay, okay, so.
Mike: Iran became important to us after World War II
All right, so I'm interrupting you. So back to 1850, we made a treaty. Ah. With them. And they brought, American, missionaries, Christian. You know, that's kind of reminds me, you know, in the Bible, of course, we know about the Iranian empire because King Cyrus, you know, really saved the Jews, provided a way for them to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple. So he was Iranian. That was the great empire. Okay, I'm going to stop interrupting you.
Mike Waller: Yeah. And Cyprus is one of the most popular Iranian names among Iranian young people today. So there's a big, there's a big, you know, thirst for this pre Islam culture, of Iran. So anyway, we had minimal relations with Persia back then because we didn't have a lot of commerce with them. So we had educators, missionaries, a little bit of trade. Persian rugs. That's where we brought them in from, from Turkey and Persia. But it wasn't until after World War II or during World War II when Iran became important to us. And it was ruled then by the Shah Reza Pahlavi, Young Shah, and it was neutral in World War II. But before our involvement, the British, which had. Who had had a strong presence there, established an even stronger presence and with the Soviets, went in and basically took control Iran to establish a corridor for Lend Lease to go in to help the Soviets on the eastern front against the Nazis.
Sandy Rios: Okay, so. So the Soviets then, did they get a foothold then? In Iran. Is that what you're kind of hinting at?
Mike Waller: Right. They wanted to conquer the whole thing. And that's why when you had, at the end of World War II, you had the, the Tehran conference, you know, just before the Yalta conference, the Soviets felt comfortable enough to have a conference with Soviet leadership and the Americans and the British in Iran because they thought they were going to keep control of it.
Sandy Rios: Interesting. Okay, so did the Soviets have a, military presence or did they have any. What effect did they have on the culture there?
Mike Waller: Not much on the culture there. they had a military presence during World War II. They had a subversive presence before, right after the Bolshevik revolution when they tried to have, ah, Bolshevik type revolutions in certain regions of Iran. But those failed and they were put down. And so there was always this tension where the Soviets wanted Iran because see Iran joins by land a southern part of the old Soviet empire.
Sandy Rios: Right.
Mike Waller: And it's the land route to the Indian Ocean which the Soviets needed because they didn't have much by way of warm water ports. So Iran back then for Stalin, as today, with people like Alexander Dugan, is a very important part of then establishing and now re. Establishing a Soviet empire with warm water ports.
Sandy Rios: You know, Mike, I wonder if this, I know you're going to talk about this, but it does make me wonder if the anti American sentiment might have kind, of birthed itself during that time with Russia being part. Of course we weren't at the Russians. What year is this? Is this before the 1917? World War II? Of course not. So they, they. But they wouldn't be so openly anti American then, right as they became.
Mike Waller: No, they weren't. They weren't. No, they weren't anti American at all. In fact, the, they, they adopted American customs, American fashions, American. They were very modernizing country, after World War II. And the Shah was, was overseeing that modernization and very tolerant, very, you know, it would have become a pretty advanced society had it not for the Islam been for the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
There was a hidden Soviet hand in this Iranian Revolution of 1979, Mike says
Sandy Rios: So back to that. All right, let's talk about that because I want to read you something. When I was looking, you know, AI is helping me. It was helping me even if I didn't want it to. so, it said that the captives, the 52American diplomats and citizens, were held. And the reason, the cause for the protest was that they wanted, they wanted the return of the exile Shah. The protesters demanded the return of the exile Shah who was in the US for cancer treatment. Is that how the, the uprising started in Iran in 1979?
Mike Waller: That was the excuse. This was a revolution led by Islamic fundamentalists, jihadists with Ayatollah Khomeini as their leader, who was in exile in France, and by the communists, which was the Tudeh Party of Iran, which was a Soviet loyal Communist party of Iran. So there was a hidden Soviet hand in this Iranian Revolution of 1979. So the Communists and the Islamic fundamentalists had their own red green axis, like we're seeing in America today. so anyway, it's nothing new. So they got together to, first overthrow the Shah. And then when we allowed them, President Carter allowed them the Shah to come to the United States for medical treatment. He was dying. that was used as a pretext to take over our embassy and to remove, all American influence from the country.
Sandy Rios: You know, I know this is an aside, but do I recall correctly that Jimmy Carter. They did, they stood down like the guards that guard the enemy kind of the enemy. The embassy stood down and they got. They didn't have any protection and they just came in.
Mike Waller: Yeah, I don't know the details of that, but if you consider our embassies in most places have a token guard force, ah, they've got marines who guard the embassy. but it's not enough to push back a full blown insurgency or a mass riot or mass protest. So in the interest of minimizing bloodshed and when you're facing certain defeats, you have to surrender an embassy like that.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, all right, so we know that the rescue went badly and ah, that's when our mutual friend, Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, actually was part of the rescue team. and it was such a tragic thing. They had problems with the helicopter, it fell on the other plane and it was just a complete and utter disaster. And, we have to say that, Jimmy Carter was a weak president and there weren't proper preparations made and so they held the hostages 444 days. Do you remember? Can you explain, Mike, to people? Because we do have. How many people really remember this, like you and I, especially people looking at the election and Iran right now. what happened in those ensuing days, what did that do to America, from your perspective?
Mike Waller: Well, the hostage crisis itself, exposed the fact that the United States had such weak leadership that a bunch of rioters could take over sovereign American territory, because any embassy is the sovereign territory of that country and there'd be no price to pay for it. And if the United States, which had just a few years earlier, retreated with its tail between its legs from Vietnam. And it looked like the US Was a declining power and the Soviets and radical Islam were the rising powers. So it looked like America's days were done.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, sounds familiar, doesn't it? But, yeah, it's true. And then, when Reagan came in, I think, was it while right after he took his oath, or while he took his oath of office on the inaugural, the inauguration day, the Iranians let the hostages go, which was a real, embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a great, great gift, to Ronald Reagan. But I,
Mike Waller: Don't you think, remember Carter, holed up in the White House. He basically hidden under the guise of keeping on top of the hostage crisis. Well, that means that you had a, group of so called students, radicals, right. From a Muslim fundamentalist movement and a communist movement, were able to keep the President of the United States holed up in the White House for the better part of 444 days. It's just amazing humiliation on the whole country by doing that.
Sandy Rios: Absolutely. It was humiliating. I think that's. We lived that. You and I lived that. Our older. Those of us that are not young, we lived that. They. They humiliated us, and that wasn't the end of it.
Iran's official slogan for referring to the United States was the Great Satan
Mike, tell us what else Iran did, like the marine bombing and all of that.
Mike Waller: Well, again, it wasn't simply students taking over our embassy. The Ayatollah Khomeini, who was the supreme leader of Iran. That means supreme leader in every sense of the word. He was the supreme leader. Nothing happened without his assent. So he endorsed the takeover of the embassy, which means you had a government endorsed takeover of our embassy, which is really a declaration of war. Yeah. And we did nothing.
Sandy Rios: Was the Shah, I mean, the, the Ayatollah, he wasn't really the official leader of Iran yet. Really, though, because the Shah was getting cancer treatment and there was a destabilization of the country. So is that. Was this when the. With the Ayatollah just kind of grabbed power?
Mike Waller: Yeah, he took power. So the Shah had been deposed, and. And so he. He, So the. The Ayatollah, came in as the supreme Leader. They had some sort of a transitional thing. The one good thing the Ayatollah did in all of his years was he killed all the communists. All the communists who had joined his red green axis. He had him wiped out.
Sandy Rios: Wow. Well, that is, I guess, a good thing in a bad way. Right? Yeah. So, then Iran went on to, as I understand it, they were responsible for Bombing a marine barracks, and it killed 241 service members. So there's a whole string of this stuff. I don't know if they were involved in any of those airline hijackings. I really don't know, Mike. But, we went through several years of humiliation by, you know, these little countries in the Middle east because they were so violent and full of venom. And I could ask you too, could you explain to people why they hate America so much?
Mike Waller: The Iranian government's official slogan for referring to the United States was the Great Satan. The Great Satan, meaning we were the number one mortal enemy, the Islamic Republic. And you don't cut deals with Satan. You don't negotiate with Satan. This is a fight to the death. And if you die in the course of that fight against Satan, then you're bound for eternal glory under their doctrine. And they. And. And that means that there would be. And this is what the United States really failed to understand. When you have leaders who think, well, maybe we can negotiate with these guys. No, no, you don't negotiate with someone who believes that, honestly, supernaturally, that you are Satan. There's no room for it. This is where our intelligence services failed and our political and diplomatic leadership failed, was to think that we could deal with Iran that way. So when they view us as the great Satan, well, that means we're their number one enemy. So about Israel, is it if we are the great Satan, Israel, little Satan in their nomenclature.
Sandy Rios: Yeah. And at one time, Iran had a very good relationship with Israel. I remember. so. But, anyway, they're a little Satan. And I think. I think you would agree that even by the. Using the term Satan, that this is all about, this is all about their view of the world in terms of the. Their religious position. they had. They worship Allah and we worship. You know, the Jews and the Christians have a different kind of God, and we worship only one God, and we have a different, We're their arch enemy. We are their arch enemy. And they feel Sharia, I guess, teaches them that they. It says to destroy the infidel, but that includes everybody else, right, Mike? Why would they. Why wouldn't they think that the whole world was the great Satan beside other thing other than their country?
Mike Waller: Well, they were satanic in other ways or just not. Not, you know, not. Not Islam in other ways, but they were. They were not satanic. The only countries that had the. The designation of being Satan was the United States as the great Satan, and Israel is the little Satan. Other forces they might view as satanic, but the ones they were out to get were us. Now the, So when you. When you think of the conflict today and people say, well, it's all just about Israel, if we just stop being so close to Israel, it would all go away. That's a complete misunderstanding of the entire doctrine of the Islamic revolution. It's a total misunderstanding. It is. This is a fight to the death. It always has been a fight to the death. And the Islamic Republic has proven it will take whatever firepower we can inflict on them. And they will not quit, because in their own mind, if they quit, they're doomed. They would rather die in martyrdom than then live in submission to the great Satan.
Sandy Rios: You know what? Also, don't you think, Mike, that kind of, would disprove their theology, that they would dominate the world and the fourth Imam and would come back and take over if they get defeated, Defeated by the Great Satan, that just really messes up their whole. Their whole belief system. It's interesting, isn't it?
Mike Waller: So, yeah, it does. So it's an apocalyptic, cultish type of Islamic where they want this confrontation, they want this final outcome, ideally, even in their lifetime. Then if they die in the process, then all the greater glory to them.
The Iranians are Shia. The rest of the Muslim world are Sunni
Sandy Rios: let me ask, you a separate question. You and I both know, but I'm going to tell my audience, if they don't know, there are two different kinds of Islam. The Iranians are Shia. I don't think any other country is Shia. is it? I mean, that's the base of Shia, Islam. And then Sunni is also core.
Mike Waller: That's like 60% of Iraq is also Shia. you get Shiite, communities elsewhere, but Iran is the heart of it.
Sandy Rios: Okay. And the rest of the Muslim world, besides what Mike's just mentioned, are Sunni. And they basically believe the same thing. But they. There are differences. Like we think of the differences in our Christian denominations. but they do, basically have the same theology, as it were, about the fourth Imam and the. The end of the world and all of that. The apocalyptic coming. Is there any. Do you know? I mean, I'm asking you things you might not know. I mean, this is pretty much down in the weeds, but they share that same vision of the end of the world and conquering the world. Right?
Mike Waller: It really depends. I'm not a. You know, I'm not up on Islamic theology and the whole differences you've got, you get. You have many differences in the interpretations of it and then us on the analytical side of the house are going to look at the same information and come to different conclusions even among ourselves. But what makes the Iranian, regime ideology distinct from the others is that it is a revolutionary ideology, like a Bolshevik type ideology, fanatical revolutionary ideology, and a supernatural ideology. Whereas opposed to the communists being atheists, they were just fighting for, you know, for the, for the, earthly reasons, whereas the Shiites are fighting for supernatural reasons.
Sandy Rios: Is also another distinction between the Shia Iranians and the Sunni. The rest of the, Muslim world that, like, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the main presence that we see here in this country, they kind of work by stealth, civilization, jihad, into, you know, infiltrating, running for office, taking over in a sneaky slow way. The Iranians, are you, are you saying that they're more warlike, more overt, in their, in their opposition to, to us? They just are all out war. They don't try to sneak like the m. The Sunni do, that seems to me. But what do you think about that?
Mike Waller: Well, you know, it's a good point. There's a sneakiness in a different kind of way. So whereas, whereas you have the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrate society and they mask their intentions to outsiders and they set up front organizations and they set up front companies that then own the mosques and front charities, never acknowledging to the public that they're part of a subversive movement to colonize us, to set up literally communities that are colonies that will never assimilate but that will infiltrate our society to subvert us from within. That's the Muslim Brotherhood side. The Iranian government works differently. They will send agents in the way the Russians would or the way the Chinese would, to subvert us as spies and agents of influence, not seeking to build a Shiite community here, but to subvert us and destroy us from within.
Sandy Rios: Okay, interesting. Well, okay, couple of other things. do you believe it's true that Iran was behind 9 11.
Mike Waller: They facilitated eight of the 10 hijackers, meaning they knew what these terrorists were up to. They knew they were Al Qaeda, but they allowed them, the terrorists, to go into Iran, not get their passports stamped, which is key, so that they, the terrorists could then go into Afghanistan, work with Osama bin Laden and his people, and then come back out and get back to Iran to get to Turkey or other points in the west and not, have their tracks traced through their passport stamps. The Iranian regime also allowed Al Qaeda terrorists and their families to stay in Iran as means of shelter and then also provided financial and logistical support for Al Qaeda overall. So we do know that they were doing this before 9 11. We do know that they facilitated the transit of the actual 911 hijackers and they increased their support for al Qaeda after 9 11.
Sandy Rios: Interesting.
If Iran was involved in 9 11, that means we have to do something
So that leads me to the next thing. So if they're involved in 9 11, I just think we need to let soak that. Let that soak in. I mean, that was a direct attack on our country. And they're never mentioned. Mike, why are they never mentioned when people tell the story or news reporters report the story? I mean, way back they. I don't recall them ever being mentioned as being part of 9 11.
Mike Waller: Right. It came out first during the 911 Commission investigation, but part of it, you have a, standard operating procedure, our intelligence people who will collect and analyze this evidence to not say anything, which is understandable in some ways because they do have to protect legitimate sources and methods or else they're going to lose those sources and methods and no one will help us. Again, that part's understandable. But then there's also this sort of cultishness in the intelligence community where they think their information is sacred to them and they're not going to share it with anybody because nobody else should know. And the third reason is if it's known that Iran was involved in helping the hijackers, that m means we would have to do something about it.
Sandy Rios: Exactly. Kind of like the same thing about China. Like we've been. Not a lot has been reported on how. Well, not enough until recently, until President Trump really came on the scene. Have people talked badly about China and how they are trying to take us over? In everything you can imagine, they play that down. They don't want to talk about it for the very same reason we have to do something about it.
Mike Waller: Right, Right, exactly. And then how do you want to be as a president or as an advisor to a president put in a position of having something so sensational that really Iran helped 911 take place? It wouldn't have happened without Iranian government involvement. They weren't part of the planning of it, they weren't part of the operational part of it, but they were just as much a facilitator of it as anybody else. So if they were behind it, like a lot of this, there were Saudi figures behind it. Remember how the Bush administration wanted to keep that a secret because we had, we had other priorities, or I'm, saying the administration had other priorities with Saudi Arabia. So that's literally letting these foreign jihadists get away with murder because we didn't want to do anything about it.
Sandy Rios: yes. All right, so we've got the 1979 capture of the hostages. We have, killing Marines. And then we have 9, 11. And then when the war, in Iraq and other places in Afghanistan broke out, there were these explosive devices that maimed and killed so many of our men. And, Mike, how is that we know those came from Iran. How do we know that?
Mike Waller: Well, we know because These were, IEDs, right? Improvised explosive devices. And then there were specially formed penetrators, meaning, the explosive charges in those IEDs, which were designed to. Specifically to attack weak spots in our particular military vehicles. We know this came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the irgc. We know it for a fact from the terrorists who we captured. From the other intelligence we collected, there was never any doubt. So even today, the Pentagon's official, estimate is that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard literally provided the training, logistics and explosives that killed. That were used to kill 603American service personnel, wound thousands more. And then so many of our coalition partners, as well as here, we had Iran surrounded on its west side by our forces in Iraq and on its east side by our forces in Afghanistan and on the south side by our Navy. And we never did a thing to make Iran not just pay for it. We never did a thing to make Iran stop doing it.
Sandy Rios: That's just strange. That's just weird. And that was the Bush administration, of course. Well, they did. I mean, between Saudi and that, I guess it was the oil. I don't know if we were getting oil from Iran then, but we were from the Saudis. But, And so, you know, I just want to make a point here, Mike, because when we see the Wounded warriors commercials and we see all those guys who, you know, have their faces blown off or they can't. They've lost a leg, they lost two legs. They've lost all their limbs. And, you know, you see that those are, for the most part, IEDs, aren't they? Aren't they?
Mike Waller: Yes, for the most part, yeah.
Sandy Rios: So there's thousands. Thousands of people. So that's. So that's okay. I just want to make this point, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me. This is the damage that this country, Iran, has done to us. But just because you haven't heard about it or no one made a big deal about it, they didn't have the courage. It really wasn't until Donald Trump, than anybody had the courage to take them on and to take China on, too, which is what he's doing in a different way. But, so, all right, so this all happened.
After 9, 11, the Iranian regime started its nuclear weapons program
And then that brings us to today, Mike and I. There's so much to say about, I think unless I'm leaving something out about our past with him, can I leave some other occasion or event out?
Mike Waller: Well, there were lots of them. In fact, there's. There's so many, you can't, you know, it's hard to even count them. They were behind the Iranian regime was behind the murders of hundreds and hundreds of Americans from at least 1983 up to the present day. And for all those decades, the US did nothing militarily to make them stop. Meanwhile, after 9, 11, the Iranian regime started its nuclear weapons program. Now, it had a civilian nuclear program under the Shah that began, and that was for the one civilian nuclear power plant that it has. And it's a legitimate power plant. But of course, these power plants also produce waste, and many of these plants produce plutonium as part of the waste, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. And so Iran had a colossal, as we all know, nuclear weapons program and then a missile program to fire those weapons at targets. Which is why Europe started a missile defense system to protect itself against what the Europeans and NATO said were Iranian nuclear missiles. So this has been going on for decades. Nothing was ever done really to stop it except negotiations. Right. You're going to negotiate in good faith with the Great Satan. No. And freeing up cash that Iran would have gotten from certain revenues had it not had a US embargo on it. And Obama was sending pallet loads of hundred dollar bills worth billions and billions of dollars by cargo freight to Iran in a bid to buy them off.
Sandy Rios: Oh, he was trying to.
Mike Waller: Nuclear weapons agreements.
Sandy Rios: That's funny because I thought, I thought he was trying to, help them. So you said he was helping them. But, but his, his motive was to.
Mike Waller: Well, you know, you know, you caught me there. Yeah, yeah. The process was to buy them off, but yeah, he was trying to help them too. He certainly didn't want to harm the Ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guard.
Sandy Rios: No, we have only to look to Egypt and how he, supported the Muslim Brotherhood and that, you know, the Arab Spring, so called, you know, we knew what side he was on. So,
Mike Waller: Oh, you know, and that was clear. It was so clear, Sandy, because at that very time there was also a student revolution going on in Iran, a massive revolution going on around the whole country at the very same time as the Muslim Brotherhood color revolutions in Egypt and other North African countries. But the Obama administration and the whole aid and, you know, Victoria Nuland and the others didn't lift a finger to help the Iranians to oust the ayatollahs. They were only helping the Muslim Brotherhood oust our allies.
Sandy Rios: You know, I had forgotten all about that. I remember just being so angry about that. It's amazing how much stuff you forget. A whole lot more than you remember. But, I mean, that happened, and we watched the poor people trying to, you know, break free of the oppression that they're under in Iran. And he wouldn't. And I think they thought because they were calling this the Arab Spring, that, you know, that Barack Obama was their friend, and he wasn't their friend. He was the friend of the irgc.
Mike Waller: So, afraid or maybe friendly. Who knows, really? Right. I mean, if you were a. If you were afraid, that's one thing. But you're the United States. There's a lot that you can do if you're a friend, that's a little different. And it's amazing to see that how many of our enemies benefited concretely from Obama's policies and how many of our friends were harmed?
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, that, needs to be a book or a movie. Hey, maybe that's the next book after the next one. Mike, you should write the truth about the Islamic part of him. It, was so obvious. You know. Remember, his first great speech after he was elected was to the Muslim world. It was to the Muslim world. That was his first speech after being elected. So, But back to Iran signal, isn't it? Yes, I believe so. Not so. You know, he knew he could get away with stuff because people just would not believe. I was from Chicago. I was working on the Allen Keys campaign, Mike, and, we had so much background information on Obama, and I. I would tell people on the air. I tell people everywhere. I went to Israel. I tried to tell. I didn't go there for that purpose, but I was there, and I was trying to tell people because they were in love with him. You remember that? Early on, I said, no, you don't. You don't know who you're dealing with. And of course. And they really did realize it was a nightmare. So,
Is the Iranian war causing that? I know you're not an economist
Well, so now I want to know what your thoughts are right now. Of course, the polls are looking bad. Let's have to get to the political. Because I read everywhere. It's like a mantra you talk about, like an infiltration of. I don't know if you didn't call it propaganda, you had a different name for it. But people are just talking about how horrible the economy is and, and how, you know, the country's just falling apart. It's terrible. Now, let me say before I even ask you this question, I live in a very, very nice place in Florida, but surrounding us are such poor people and neighborhoods. we go to a restaurant somewhere maybe a little bit different town, and the waitresses are. You know, one couple of weeks ago, one was just limping, limping, could hardly walk. She's trying to carry all those plates. And I talk to her and she has no insurance and she has a bad hip. So I know the problems are real, Mike. I know people are really suffering, but we have to have a real view of this. Is the Iranian war causing that? I know you're not an economist, but is it calling all this, ah, causing all this, economic misery?
Mike Waller: It's one of the causes of it. I mean, part of it is the reckless government spending that's doing it. But if you have, oil markets where Iran is such a major oil producer and so much of our other energy comes from the, the Gulf, and Iran is controlling that narrow strait where so much of the energy comes from, that's going to disrupt markets, which means prices are going to go up because the supply is not. It's either limited or it's, it's, uncertain. That hurts all of us. Yes. So where I live now, and I'm, I'm working with a lot of construction guys and local guys and. But they're paying, five and a half bucks a gallon for diesel fuel and they've got a, you know, an F350 and this is how they make their living. Well, it's not a cheap thing to maintain a diesel truck or a dump truck or, you know, or a backhoe or whatever else they need. And with, with, with the fuel prices and with the insurance costs and other liability, just that alone, it's making it impossible for them to, to make a living. And you think, well, gee, this guy's got, you know, a million dollars worth of equipment. He must be doing well, no, none of it's all mortgage payments on it. And so they're hand to mouth. And so like, everybody's hurting and these guys are, you know, their second Amendment guys. They voted for Trump six times if you count the primaries. And they're done. They say, I'd rather take my chances on somebody else than live through this.
If we didn't go after Iran's nuclear program, there would have been nuclear war
Sandy Rios: Okay, so you and I have to address that, at least for a moment. Mike, I've kept you a long time here but, okay, I have a lot of opinions, as you well know, but, really. So did you think it was unnecessary for us to attack Iran?
Mike Waller: I think it was overdue. Because if we didn't. If we didn't go after Iran's nuclear program, there would have been nuclear war. Yeah.
Sandy Rios: I mean, so the threat. See, they're even claiming now that I've heard people say this, you probably have to online, you see this stuff. we don't really know if they had ready for a nuclear weapon. We don't really know that. How do we know? How do you know? and so if you have a doubt about that, Mike, then this economic pain seems senseless. But if you believe it, then you. You must. You have to really think through. You're talking about the future of your children or your country being bombed into oblivion or your children being killed, all of you being killed. That's the reality. And so, it's a Sophie's Choice.
Mike Waller: Well, you know what? It's much easier than Sophie's Choice, really, because they've had 47 years of constant warfare against us, killing us for 47 years. Most Americans don't even remember what it was like before the Iranian revolution. We didn't have all this terrorism directed at us all the time. We didn't have this terrorist culture where everything is security or so called security and losing our freedoms and so forth. The Iranian regime is responsible for a lot of that. For our, for the terrible m. Casualties we took in Iraq and Afghanistan. M. Mostly Iraq because of the Iranian regime. And for the huge amounts of money we have spent defending shipping of other countries, defending other countries own territory, mostly at our own costs to keep world prices stable and to keep the economy stable for us here at home. It's been a colossal investment that we've had to pay for through taxes and deficit spending that's being passed on to other generations along with a regime that views us as Satan and that its holy duty is to destroy Satan. And that would be with the nuclear weapons that Allah has allowed them to build.
Sandy Rios: And they're not going to hesitate.
Mike Waller: That we're not going to get out of that one.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, no. Well. And they're not like Russia. Sorry, they're not like Russia. Russia has more. Okay, this is my analysis, my simple analysis. Russia, in spite of its communism, has a more Christian, humane view of the world. And they're not eager. they were not eager to have a nuclear holocaust either. But Iran's not like that. They're eager.
Mike Waller: Absolutely. And you even See, with Putin, bad, terrible a guy as he is, you don't hear the people screaming loudest about Putin ever once complaining about his nuclear weapons that he continues to build that are aimed at us.
Mike Waller: That's because Putin is using it as, as a deterrent. We understand that the Iranian regime is going to be using it to fulfill its apocalyptic vision. So people who, people who, after all this time, who don't want to believe it and who, who want to basically let the Iranian regime continue, it's not even worth having a discussion with them because it would be, it would fall on their shoulders in the future to wage some kind of a nuclear conflict or to be on the, on the receiving end of a nuclear attack because we don't have the missile defense necessary for this. then, you know, all those people who delayed us from confronting this Iranian nuclear problem all this time are responsible for what Trump has had to do today. Had it happened before, had we stopped it before, we wouldn't be worrying about it today. The problem I have with the president's policy is he's listening too much to the people who say, oh, back off, don't be so tough on Iran. So he will make a decisive move, as he did in June of last year, on elements of Iran's nuclear program, and then back off and then talk to them as if he could cut a deal. Right, and then not cut a deal, and then strike their leadership, knock them out. Yeah, well, fine. Finish the job and just be done with it. What, what is happening is a different kind of forever war that has just tired out our country and demoralized our country by fighting and fighting with no victory, when victory is always in our hand. So let's just fight it, get it over with, and win it.
Sandy Rios: Are, you. But are you, Mike, are you suggesting that sending in troops would be okay with you?
Mike Waller: We might need to send troops to secure, say, oil, terminal or to take out nuclear material or something, but we don't need to send invasion troops and have another war like Iraq or Afghanistan. Don't need to. What we should be doing is arming the Iranian people, letting them fight for their country. There's no shortage of them who'd be willing to. And in fact, many have been for decades. We just haven't been supporting them. Some are Islamists or communists. We shouldn't be supporting them. But there are others who are not. And for all these years, we could have been training these folks and arming them, and successive presidents have chosen not to do that, including this administration, which I just don't understand, let these people fight for their own country, and we can just help them do it.
Sandy Rios: Well, that sounds like a good idea if it'd be possible at this point. So many of them have been killed. I'm sure there's tons of fear. Like, what did they kill? 35, 40,000 of them, just a few months ago. It's horrible. Yeah, well, Mike.
Mike Perry: War is always messy. I'm sure you know that
Okay, so last thing, you're talking to your guy who's doing construction. He's paying $5 an hour for hour and $5 a gallon for diesel. what do you say to him about the war and about President Trump? Can you defend. How would you defend it?
Mike Waller: I'd say we have to get it over with. I can't defend it to them right now because it's not defensible. This has been going on for 14 or 15 months. It could have been over in one month, but the president chose not to do that. Why on earth would you destroy a weapons system of a country when the weapons are never the problem? It's like people with guns here. We just take away the guns, we won't have a problem. No, it's the types of people who have the guns. The people are the problem. And it's the same thing with nuclear weapons. If you remove, the entire regime elements and allow the Iranian people to do the work, to finish them off, then, fine, then the threat is gone. But the threat's still there. Not so much on the nuclear side now anymore, but in terms of disrupting markets, in terms of subversion. Now they've got. They've been trying to assassinate our president. Now they've got assassination plots out to murder his own family members, including his son. And somehow we're thinking, oh, gee, if maybe we're nicer to them, this wouldn't be happening.
Sandy Rios: Well, I think, you know, that's a very smart move on their part, Mike, because people would think without maybe saying it. Yeah, but that's just Trump. They're just after Trump, so if we didn't have Trump in there, they wouldn't be doing this. Yeah. So I don't know. I just, It's a mess, but I.
Mike Waller: A lot of the Trump haters are making that excuse, but a lot of Trump allies are also making that excuse, and that's what's really troubling.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, we're at a crisis. But I do think. I do want to communicate to my listeners that this. If even it's been handled, if it hasn't been handled quite properly. War is always messy. I'm sure you know that. You've been in the thick of it, Mike, but, we have to fight. We have to stop them. We have to stop them. They can't have a nuclear weapon. President Trump is right about that. If we have any criticism, I agree with Mike. It's, oh, well, let's get her done. Let's get her done and stop messing around. So, Mike, this has been such, so helpful. I really do appreciate, appreciate you just talking and helping us to understand this. I hope, and I hope this is, beneficial to my listeners. I think it will be. So thank you.
Mike Waller: Great being with you. Thanks a lot.
Sandy Rios: Okay, thank you. Well, thank you, Mike, and we'll talk soon.
Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood among top leading causes of death in America
All right. This is Sandy rios on Sandy Rios 24. 7.
Mike Waller: This is Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Sandy Rios: Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood were among the top leading causes of death in America, revealing the terrifying truth of the left's anti life agenda. According to Planned Parenthood's 2020, 22, 23 annual report, abortions performed by the organization accounted for the top four leading causes of, death. Think about that. Paid for by our tax dollars. And honestly, this freight train is going down the track so fast and so powerfully. It's really hard. It's going to be hard for us to stop this. And I think one of the best ways I've said before, I'll say again, is preborn. PreBorn, who is not part of the government, not part of the public debate or campaigns, but an organization that's simply providing ultrasounds for moms who are pregnant and doubting whether they should carry the baby to allow them to see their baby through ultrasound. It's an amazing process and it actually works. when the moms see their babies, I think it, ah, doubles the chance that they will not take the life of their baby. You know, you can't beat those odds. If you'd like to help, $28 pays for one ultrasound, just one. And you can send however much you can afford. Go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy.
Mike Waller: The Sandy Rios 24. 7 podcast are available at afr.net back to Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Scott Bessant: Good afternoon.
The United States is launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections
Today, at President Trump's direction, the United States treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast, an, unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers in the Second World War. D Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its Positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Around the globe. Our administration objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone. Iran's fanatics devote themselves to death, to America, and seek nuclear weapons to do just that. They have murdered and maimed more of our citizens and service members than any other terrorist regime Earth. And they have been at war against America, their neighbors in the Gulf, and much of the world for 47 years. President Trump has taken action that his predecessors have long deferred. And under his leadership, America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it. Our great armed forces have laid the groundwork for achieving the President's objective of preventing Iran from ever obtaining nuclear weapons. They have shown America's resolve to finally end this threat. And the strength of America's economy under President Trump allows us to wage this sustained financial operation alongside the might of our military.
Sandy Rios: Okay. Scott Bessent, our Treasury Secretary, who's become. Who knew he would be so fabulous, really. So, President Trump. Mike and I were just talking about the fact that we are not happy that the, altercation, whatever you want to call it, the war has stopped and started. Stopped and started. And I'm not happy about that either. But this is the thing that President Trump understands that I would never have understood. And that is how you deal with someone in a different way. And that is taking Iran down economically. Now, it's hard to do because they live in caves, and, you know, they can live with a lot less than you and I. so it takes a lot to punish them economically. The people are being punished who live in the cities, but, the irgc, they're just. They don't. They don't have the same luxuries. They never have had them. So they can. They can suffer a lot. But remember, perhaps you do or don't remember that Reagan's way of taking down the Soviet Union was to outspend them on military, especially Star wars defense. That was what Reagan began. And President Trump has picked that up also under different names. Space Force. So, Russia was trying to keep up with us in order to, you know, match us in space, and they couldn't, and they bankrupted themselves. And that's really what happened. That's. That was the fall of the Soviet Union. So this is another strategy here. and I just, got a notice this morning. Trump is saying that, they. They have de. Mined. We've completely demined the Strait of Hormuz. And so, I guess their space force is the one seeing that from space. And they're watching and they found all the, all the mines in the Strait of Hormuz. So, I think we are making some good progress here. And I just. I'm trying to think how to. How to make this as clear as I can. This was a very bold thing that President Trump did, and really at great risk to himself in terms of politically and also physically. He knows. He knows what this is like. He's almost lost his life a couple times already, or almost been attacked. One actually m hit. and yet he choose. Chooses to do this bold thing because he wants to make America safe. He means that, and he knows that we cannot coexist. Iran will not let us be. You know, I always say to you when we talk about, the left, whether it's homosexuality, lgbtq, whatever, that's just one example. They. I used to say, they won't leave you alone. You can't just be quiet. it will. You will be forced to bow the knee. And Iran is the same way in a much worse way. this is an ideology. It's a religion for them to kill us. They're doing something righteous. They are not going to stop. And so you have to consider, I do remember only through my parents, but not myself. I wasn't a World War II baby. I wasn't born then. but the Americans had to make lots of sacrifices, terrible sacrifices. Sugar and milk and, just not being able to get clothing. And they did that for, like, four years. And they did it out of love for their country because they knew that, that was their way of supporting the war effort. So I know we're not in the same place. We don't have that much unity now, but it is the same principle. So I just, I'm not discarding whatever suffering you're doing economically. It just breaks my heart, especially the people that I see around here who don't have medical care. And of course, that's from Barack, ah, Obama. That's a whole other issue. But it's, wrapped up in a tale of woes that gets linked in with the Iran war. And President Trump doesn't belong there, but it does get there. And so if you can just hold on. If you can just hold on. There's no one that knows how to bring back this economy back better than our president, and no one that wants to do it better than our president. So I just say be patient. And, he doesn't want this war to last forever.
I don't believe he's lying when he says he doesn't want it
I don't. I don't believe he's lying when he says that he doesn't want it. He's trying to bring it to an end in a way that cripples them forever and that they. At least for our lifetimes and they cannot have, not attack us, kill your children, kill you. You know, just nuke our cities, our towns. that's what he's trying to prevent. And it's. It's coming at a great cost to him, too, so.
Pre board is our sponsor, and if you would like to support them
All right, we said enough today. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you've learned. I want to remind you that pre board is our sponsor, and if you would like to support them, it's 28amonth for one ultrasound. Just go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy well, thank you for listening to today's edition of Sandy Rios 24 7.
Mike Waller: It.
Iranian state TV has reportedly aired a $10 million bounty targeting Barron Trump. Sandy Rios and national security expert Mike Waller discuss the threat, what it reveals about the Iranian regime, and the long and difficult history between Iran and the United States.
From the 1979 hostage crisis to today’s tensions, they look at how the relationship reached this point and what Iran’s actions could mean for America moving forward.
(00:00) Iranian state TV claims a $10 million bounty has been placed on Barron
(02:04) Preborn Network provides free ultrasounds to pregnant women who are unsure
(03:58) Sandy Rios: This is going to be a thorough discussion of Iran
(04:40) Fox News contributor Sandy Rios says crisis in Iran more urgent than domestic politics
(06:06) One American television correspondent has been there since the beginning of the embassy seizure
(08:37) Mike Waller is the author of 20 books about subversion
(10:39) Meg: Mike, your earliest recollection of Iran was 1979 hostage crisis
(13:48) Mike: Iran became important to us after World War II
(17:35) There was a hidden Soviet hand in this Iranian Revolution of 1979, Mike says
(22:22) Iran's official slogan for referring to the United States was the Great Satan
(27:50) The Iranians are Shia. The rest of the Muslim world are Sunni
(32:29) If Iran was involved in 9 11, that means we have to do something
(37:42) After 9, 11, the Iranian regime started its nuclear weapons program
(42:33) Is the Iranian war causing that? I know you're not an economist
(45:20) If we didn't go after Iran's nuclear program, there would have been nuclear war
(51:17) Mike Perry: War is always messy. I'm sure you know that
(53:46) Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood among top leading causes of death in America
(55:43) The United States is launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections
(01:01:34) I don't believe he's lying when he says he doesn't want it
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