Pepe Escobar: Exclusive- How Trump Tried to Bribe the Head of the IRGC
by Pepe Escobar(opens in new tab) [8-21-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). Mafia, piracy, bribing, extortion: talk about a flexible Empire at work Empire of Chaos, Lies, Plunder, Piracy. And bribes. Mike Pompeo, former aspiring Tony Soprano, admitted: “We lie, we cheat, we steal.” And we bribe. A Transition Protocol source, as we revealed live(opens in…
Larry Johnson: The Cushion Ran Out – Bessent’s Oil “Mystery” Isn’t One
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-21-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). Scott Bessent says he doesn’t understand why oil is going up. On Thursday, hours after announcing that Washington would keep its naval blockade and hit Iran with the toughest sanctions in history, the Treasury Secretary watched crude climb and told CNBC, “I’m…
Iran’s Weapons Production Doubled in Past Year Despite US, Israeli Strikes
by Sputnik(opens in new tab) [8-22-2026]. Iran’s weapons and defense equipment production has doubled over the past year, a senior defense official announced, even as the country’s military industry came under repeated US and Israeli strikes during the conflict. Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Defense, made the announcement in a televised…
Iran’s intelligence apparatus: sword and shield of the Revolution
by Geopolitics Prime(opens in new tab) [8-20-2026]. (For 47 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, The West, primarily the US & Israel, have tried to destroy Iran & subject it to Western rule. Iran has sufferred immensely, yet it is now much stronger and was even able to defeat the Feb 28 invasion of the…
Pepe Escobar, Zulfiqar Ali: TRUMP’S “MAXIMUM PRESSURE” ON IRAN JUST GOT REJECTED; 440kg Missing; Trump Lost His Only Window
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-21-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). 440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium are unaccounted for – and according to sources inside the Pakistani command, the only remaining channel with visibility into where it went runs through the mediator Donald Trump has just discarded. Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali report…
Vijay Prashad, Zulfiqar Ali: Pakistan’s 6 Corridors Are Keeping Iran Alive; Why Won’t America Sanction Pakistan?
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-21-2026]. Trump’s people tried to buy an Iranian general – and were refused. In this episode, Vijay Prashad joins Zulfiqar Ali to explain why the United States cannot win, cannot exit, and cannot even discipline Pakistan, the one country keeping Iran’s economy alive. Pakistan has opened at least five…
Larry Johnson: Bessent Doesn’t Understand that He Can’t Weaponize the Dollar with Iran and Bank On It with China
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-21-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had a schizophrenic Thursday. Asked on CNBC why oil had jumped on the administration’s latest Iran threats, he professed bewilderment: “I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this.” In separate remarks the same day he went…
Pravin Sawhney, Zulfiqar Ali: EXCLUSIVE- Trump Asked His TOP General “Can I Use NUKES on Iran?”; Trump Tried to BRIBE Iran.
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-20-2026]. Trump’s secret attempt to bribe Iran’s top IRGC general has failed – and General Vahidi reported the offer straight to Supreme Leader Khamenei within hours. In this episode, host Zulfiqar Ali reveals how the Trump administration revived a Venezuela-style playbook, using a dormant Kurdish back-channel through Erbil after…
Larry Johnson – The Confession in the Escalation: If Iran Is Beaten and Hormuz Is Ours, Why the “Unprecedented” Sanctions?
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-20-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). In my previous piece – The Walls Have Doors Now (opens in new tab)– I argued that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s promised “measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country” would push against an open frontier:…
Pepe Escobar: Why Trump’s blockade cannot turn Iran into an island
by Pepe Escobar(opens in new tab) [8-19-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). The U.S. may blockade Iran on the seas. But it cannot blockade Iran’s geography. Iran so far has been running the clock. Now, Iran is speeding up the management of the clock. Even strategic patience has its limits. Tehran kept a nutcracker on…
Larry Johnson, Pepe Escobar, Zulfiqar Ali:Trump Tried to Buy Iran’s Revolutionary Guard; IRAN REJECTS TRUMP’S BILLIONS IN BRIBES
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-19-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab), Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). Trump’s White House tried to buy off Iran’s Revolutionary Guard with a multi-billion-dollar offer modeled on the Venezuela playbook – and got refused twice, first by IRGC commander Vahidi, who called it treason, and then by Pakistan’s…
Fyodor Lukyanov, Glenn Diesen: Russia’s Strategy as the World Order Collapses
by Glenn Diesen(opens in new tab)(opens in new tab) [8-15-2026]. Fyodor Lukyanov argues that the Ukraine conflict is now further from a political settlement than it was a year ago. The expectation that a major diplomatic initiative could quickly end the war proved unrealistic. Conflicts of this scale, in his view, tend to require prolonged…