Alastair Crooke: What REALLY happened in the June U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran

21 January 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGhOrdMz90

20 January 2026

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Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. I’m your host Danny Haiphong. As you

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can see, I am joined by Alistair Crooke, former UK diplomat and geopolitical

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analyst and commentator. Uh Alistister, really good to see you. Thanks for joining.

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Thank you very much. Pleasure to be with you again. Yes, pleasure to be with you. Everybody

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hit the like button as you come on. That helps boost the show as we get started here. So, Alistar, I wanted to first ask

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you about all of the chaos that has surrounded the Trump administration’s

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uh to the brink of war uh strike uh uh plan on Iran that went arry. And I want

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to begin I want to show there is a story in Israeli media that I thought was

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really interesting on wet. I talked about why Israel opposed the strike on Iran. uh because this is what uh uh top

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military uh personnel were saying in Israel that they were ready to take a

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hit of 700 plus missiles from Iran as long as the attack worked. So as long as

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the attack completed regime change in Iran, they were ready for the missiles.

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But then there were stories before this that were saying that actually Israel and Netanyahu were saying they weren’t

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ready because the air defense systems were pummeled in the last attack and the

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12-day war that Israel started along with the United States and they wanted

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to hold off so they could get ready for this. So I’m curious, Alistister, what is the real story here? Is it that I I

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feel like there’s a lot of different takes on this, but I feel like there’s a lot of downplaying Iran’s capabilities

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and there have been many sources out of Israel, sources out of the Gulf and in

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the region that have said, “Oh, no, actually Iran’s missile retaliation is a big reason why we need to hold off until

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this can be successful.” Uh, what is your assessment? What have you found?

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Um my assessment is that rather different from the one that some of your

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commentators suggested. I I know they not your commentators but wet commentators. Um no because I followed

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this um really very closely. Um the first attack um on the 12th Friday the

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13th rather of um uh June. uh that attack had a surprise element into it.

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Um and that surprise element did succeed in putting uh Iran off balance

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initially. Uh what it was, it followed the precedent of what you’d seen um in

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Russia with the attack on the um strategic bomber fleet. Um these in

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Iran’s case, these were cells that had been infiltrated by Mossad um onto the

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ground in Iran ahead of the 13th of um June. And they were equipped.

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These people were equipped with attack drones and also um they had um strike

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anti-tank missiles. And the aim of them, their aim was to destroy the early

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warning radar, the groundbased early warning radar o of Iran from close up,

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not from a distance, but from close up from these cells, covert cells infiltrated with these munitions to

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attack them. And that did throw um the air defense system off balance because

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they didn’t know where the attack was coming from. um it wasn’t showing up on their uh early early warning radar and

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so they were not too sure where this attack was coming from. Um as soon as

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they understood what was happening, um they went out and they cleared these

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cells and they did an immediate remedy which was to cut off the internet

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because what was happening were these cells were getting their data from what

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the Americans call uh their global battlescape which are the satellites

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tracking data and movements and triangulation. um above way above our heads. And the

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data from that was being fed in via America to the to these operatives on the ground to to knock out the um early

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warning uh ear eyes and ears of of Iran. And so for a few hours that had the

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effect and during that time they went into a protective radar mode so as um

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not to expose not knowing what was happening exactly not to expose their

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mobile radar systems which they put in the tunnels for protection. Anyway, that

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gave Israel just enough opportunity to launch from standoff positions uh

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outside of Iranian airspace in Iraq and in Aabai Jan. Um cruise missile strikes.

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Um and these um were aimed to decapitate the military, to decapitate the

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political leadership and separately to assassinate um many of the scientists involved with

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the nuclear program. Uh and to a certain extent that succeeded in the sense that

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the military um leadership were collecting together. They had been told

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there was a deception practiced by Trump uh at the time where he said, “Oh yes,

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we’re going to have negotiations the following Monday. Monday is the negotiations. Um Witkoff and I think

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Kushner will be there in Oman.” And so negotiations are proceeding and um then

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on the Friday before um they this attack took took took place. Um and it’s very

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clear what its intent was. Um the intent was to collapse the system, to collapse

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the state. Um it was not just um an attack. It was the assessment the

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assessment that they passed to to Trump was, you know, this is just Iran is just

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a house of cards. one little p and the whole thing will collapse and we will

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have you know a change of the state and they thought that in that one day it

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would bring down the confusion disorientation the lack of commanders because they’d

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been killed in the first strike would take it didn’t happen actually Iran

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bounced back quickly replaced those commanders and we went into the 12-day uh war after about four days of which um

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it was Israel asked um Trump to agree a truce because they were sustaining

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really uh unprecedented damage on their targets. The Israelis have been very um

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silent about exactly what was hit, but we know that they hit um military

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targets. They didn’t attack civilian areas. They struck at military targets. Then move on to this last episode. Part

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two of the process was quite different. The emode wasn’t like I said little

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small cells. The mode was infiltrating um a militia really particularly Kurdish

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coming across Kerman Sha province which is majority Kurdish um into into Iran.

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the MEK were involved who’d been trained in Albania by the Americans, others

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involved, the Beluch, but not to such an extent as far as I could see. And their

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aim was uh to provoke mob violence by

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using extreme violence. And they had the modus operandi was they pick on some

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they’d pick on some unsuspecting bypasser and start attacking him

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violently with knives and with sticks. Meanwhile, women the women would gather

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around um bring people in and start shouting kill him, kill him, burn him.

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And then there would be a sniper on the roof who would fire at the police. And

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contrary to what you um see in the movies for if you’ve ever been under

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fire, uh you know that you can’t tell where a shot is coming from. I mean it

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it’s not like that. By the time by the time you hear the bang, the shot has

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already either hit you or passed you. So you don’t know. Um so they started

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firing at what they thought were the um you know activists and then the whole

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thing became you know this whole thing took far. Um the these writers were

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paying people they were paying youth um five $5 ago to go and um attack someone

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anyone in the street. They were paying older men the same amount to go and

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light dust bins and set them on fire. Anything create the sense that the whole

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system is on fire and is fragmenting and disintegrating.

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And um in this case um what changed it all was Iran surprise. This really

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brought the whole thing to an end. First of all they cut off international telephones. They cut off the internet

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and then they cut off Star Stallink. And of course this was a huge surprise to

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the um if you like the organizers, the the controllers trying to control these

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people, telling them where to go, what to do next, how to act because they lost

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lost touch with base wherever it was in Europe or or or further a field. Um, and

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you know the it derink has always been the sort of prime tool in the regime

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change toolbox of America because it was believed it was unjammable that it

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couldn’t be cut. Well, it was cut and that collapsed the whole process

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effectively. The three things internet cut, telephones cut and stalink cut. And

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what is more, they were able to identify where the where the um Starlink uh

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satellites were and then to to arrest people and so it collapsed. But the main

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point, just let me say the main thing which touches on your first question

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about it was even the Israelis did see and

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understand, you know, this um it was intended and sold to Trump on the basis

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of, you know, the whole um edifice of the state would fragment and

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disintegrate and become confused. accused and chaotic and then a strike uh

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by America, a quick strike, air strike would just topple the whole thing over.

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Um but actually even the Israelis say and saw, you know,

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the it didn’t fragment. There was no fragmentation. Where were the def uh uh

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where where did we see defectors from the establishment? Where did we see defectors from the political leadership

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in the Duma? Where did we see defectors from the IRGC? Where did we see

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defectors from the Bazich? We didn’t. They were all the structure was intact.

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And so, you know, just simply a military attack, a bombing attack if you like by

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America, by Trump. What would they bomb then? An MKIRGC building, a few, you

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know, an empty parliament building or something like this. Um, you know, the

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what would that do? It wouldn’t bring the state down. So I think ultimately

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when you said you know that um you saw that it was um Netanyahu

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who um gave a warning I I think that’s true and that was why there was a a

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warning because Trump had said from the beginning and started telling his people

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he talks to on the telephone you know a time you know I’ve told my team I want a

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guarantee you know I want it he was still very much taken with Maduro, you

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know, in, boom, out. I want it quick. I want it, you know, and I want it to play

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well. It’s got to play well. It’s got to play very, very, very well. Um, indeed,

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in in the public. And so, you know, getting drawn into attacking

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uh and and not succeeding bringing down um if you like the structure of the

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state, just bombing civilians and bombing buildings. I I think he he

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probably and and Netanyahu thought, you know, actually this isn’t going to um

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this this isn’t going to have a good look for Trump. He wants a good look.

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primaries are coming up very shortly. He’s anxious about those primaries. He

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said, you know, if I lose a house, I’m finished. I’m finished.

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So, I mean, you know, he wants and it’s almost up to the anniversary of his

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inauguration. And, you know, he wants a good look headline, you know, give me a outstanding event, you know, a headline

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grabber and everyone is going to say, “That’s great. That’s going to play so well. And you know and then Iran just

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seemed much more complicated and people were saying you know to him I think Witkoff probably and maybe others said

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you know don’t do it don’t do it perhaps you know best best leave it.

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Yeah there’s a lot of confusion actually about uh who in on the US side was

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pulling back uh Donald Trump. At first we heard it was JD Vance and then we heard JD Vance was completely [supportive]

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.