by Transition Protocol [8-7-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio).

BREAKING — Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a NATO-style mutual defence pact in Mecca, and Iran’s terms for the Strait of Hormuz have not moved an inch. Larry Johnson says the American war machine has already stepped back: CENTCOM’s intelligence crisis cell has been deactivated, and the missiles needed to restart the fight cannot be rebuilt in under four years.

In today’s programme, former CIA and State Department counterterrorism official Larry Johnson tells Dr. Zulfiqar Ali that the Crisis Action Team at CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa — the round-the-clock cell that runs active military operations — has been stood down. He explains why the United States has not retaliated for repeated attacks on shipping, despite the President’s pledge to strike Iranian infrastructure for every vessel hit; why 78% of advanced US munitions depend on five rare-earth minerals China is not exporting; and why he believes today’s Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement is a message to Israel rather than to Tehran.

Dr. Ali sets out a different assessment. His sources expect an announcement early next week that hostilities are ending, beginning with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the US naval blockade, followed by talks in Geneva with Vice President JD Vance and Pakistan providing security. He also reports that Iranian Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf is expected in Islamabad around 14 August. Larry Johnson disagrees — he argues Washington does not yet accept that it is cornered, and is still working to break the settlement. That disagreement is the substance of the programme.

Analysis by Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and former Deputy Director of the US State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism. Hosted by Dr. Zulfiqar Ali. Transition Protocol brings deeply sourced geopolitical reporting without varnish and without corporate media influence.

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CENTCOM Just Went Quiet

The 24/7 war-planning cell that runs every US strike on Iran has reportedly gone dark — and by the time this becomes public knowledge, the deal it's clearing the way for may already be signed.

For a month, Trump vowed that every Iranian strike on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz would be met with American retaliation — a bridge destroyed, a refinery hit, physical damage inside Iran. Over the last five days, Iran fired on five ships. The United States responded to none of them. Now comes the detail that explains why: CENTCOM’s Crisis Action Team — the round-the-clock emergency operations cell that runs every active US military campaign — has reportedly been deactivated. That’s not a policy statement. That’s the actual machinery of war being switched off, and it tells you more about what’s coming than anything from the White House press room.

INSIDE THE PAID BRIEFING (What You’ll Unlock Below):

• Why US missile production is reportedly 4-5 years away from replenishing what’s already been used — and the specific rare-earth mineral chokehold behind it
• Iran’s exact six-point application process for any ship wanting to transit Hormuz, and what happens to vessels that skip it
• The specific date this briefing expects a deal announcement — and the Geneva meeting reportedly being arranged behind it
• The $500 million cash transfer to Baghdad that arrived within 24 hours of a sanctions move Iran says it never asked for
• Why this analysis believes the new Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact may actually be aimed at Israel, not Iran
• The specific warning Iran reportedly gave Gulf Arab states about what happens to their countries if the US strikes again

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