S8 Ep198: TONIGHT 12-15
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Ambassador Hussein Haqqani and Bill Roggio discuss global terror outbreaks, including ISIS-linked attacks in Australia and Afghanistan. Haqqani argues the West prematurely declared victory, ignoring radical ideologies. He notes Pakistan's internal power struggles and failure to track jihadists, warning the region remains a launchpad for international terrorism.
- Bill Roggio analyzes the ISIS allegiance of Australian shooters, distinguishing ISIS's immediate caliphate goals from Al-Qaeda's patient state-building. He warns that while Al-Qaeda focuses on consolidating control in places like Somalia (Al-Shabaab), they remain a potent global threat capable of launching external attacks when strategically advantageous.
- John Hardie discusses US pressure on Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk and drop NATO bids for peace. He details Russian advances near Pokrovsk but doubts their ability to capture remaining fortress cities. Hardie notes Ukrainian resistance to territorial concessions despite Russian battlefield initiative and Western diplomatic maneuvering.
- David Daoud reports on Hezbollah's regeneration in Lebanon, aided by Iranian funding and weapons. He criticizes the Lebanese government's inaction and the international community's appeasement strategy. Daoudargues that failing to disarm Hezbollah to avoid civil war only guarantees Lebanon's slow deterioration into a failed state.
- Malcolm Hoenlein condemns the Bondi Beach terror attack as part of a global pattern of Islamist violence fueled by appeasement. He highlights the Australian government's failure to address warning signs, including anti-Semitic marches, and notes Iranian influence, warning that ignoring these threats invites further radicalization and violence.
- Malcolm Hoenlein expresses skepticism about Syria's leader, Al-Sharaa, calling him a "terrorist in a suit" despite Washington's support. He details Israel's concerns over weapons flowing into southern Syria and Hezbollah'srearmament, warning that Iran continues to build missile capabilities and destabilize the region despite economic ruin.
- Cleo Paskal critiques the UK's deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, endangering the strategic US base on Diego Garcia. She warns that China's influence in Mauritius could compromise the base. Paskal argues the deal ignores Chagossian rights and leaves the region vulnerable to Chinese expansionism.
- Akmed Sharawi reports on a "blue-on-green" attack in Syria where an infiltrated security officer killed Americans. He attributes this to the Syrian leadership's reckless integration of jihadist militias into security forces without vetting. Sharawi and Roggio argue this proves terrorists cannot be trusted to police other terrorists.
- Edmund Fitton-Brown warns that the West's premature "retirement" of counterterrorism efforts has allowed threats to incubate in conflict zones like Afghanistan. He argues that ignoring these regions inevitably leads to attacks in the West, as terrorists seek attention by striking "peaceful" environments, necessitating renewed forward engagement.
- Edmund Fitton-Brown argues the Muslim Brotherhood creates an environment for violent extremists like ISIS. He criticizes Western governments, specifically Australia, for appeasing Islamists and recognizing Palestine, which he claims fuels anti-Semitism and radicalization. He warns of "copycat" attacks spreading to the US and Europe due to this permissiveness.
- Alejandro Pena Esclusa and Ernesto Araujo celebrate the Nobel Peace Prize for Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado, viewing it as recognition of peaceful resistance against the Maduro regime. They discuss the regional struggle against a "project of power" linking Marxist socialism, drug trafficking, and authoritarian allies like Russiaand Iran.
- Ernesto Araujo and Alejandro Pena Esclusa analyze Latin America's rightward shift, citing Chile's rejection of a leftist constitution and election disputes in Honduras. They attribute leftist defeats to the failure of socialism and credit the "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine for encouraging democratic changes against regional narco-regimes.
- Professor Jonathan Healey details King Charles I's failed 1642 attempt to impeach and arrest five MPs, a move driven by Queen Henrietta Maria calling him a "poltroon." This "cinematic" blunder, betrayed by Lady Carlisle, unified Parliament against the King, marking a decisive step toward the English Civil War.
- Professor Jonathan Healey explains how the plague and volatile London crowds, including "Roundhead" apprentices, eroded King Charles I's authority in early 1642. The King's failed arrest attempt alienated moderates, shifting support to Parliamentarian John Pym, while the atmosphere of fear and disease accelerated the nation toward inevitable conflict.
- Professor Jonathan Healey describes the collapse of royal authority as King Charles I flees London after facing hostile crowds and biblical threats. While Queen Henrietta Maria seeks foreign aid, Charles establishes a court in York, accepting that armed conflict is necessary to subdue Parliament's radical legislative challenges.
- Professor Jonathan Healey recounts the humiliating refusal of Hull's governor to admit King Charles I, a key moment signaling open warfare. He discusses the irreconcilable ideological split over whether power derives from God or the people, illustrating the tragedy through figures like John Bankes who sought futile compromise.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good evening. It was about four days on Terror Watch and we'll continue. |
| 0:06.0 | Conversations with colleagues Bill Rajo, Hussein Akamad Sharawi. |
| 0:12.0 | Certainly, a conversation with Edmund Fitton Brown. |
| 0:16.0 | Bill Rajio was with me throughout the segments, about terror come back never left it just |
| 0:22.9 | got sent below the fold and then to the inner pages it's back now with the murder |
| 0:28.7 | of two Iowa's National Guardsmen by a shooter in Syria the murder of students at Brown University, |
| 0:38.3 | the perp unconnected to anything that the police |
| 0:41.3 | have been able to come up with, so they still at large. |
| 0:44.3 | We believe it's a he. |
| 0:45.3 | We saw a video of a surveillance camera of a man walking away, |
| 0:50.3 | looking heavy-set and confident, limping a little, |
| 0:53.3 | according to the report. |
| 0:55.0 | And then we have Australia, the massacre of 15. |
| 0:59.0 | Australian citizens celebrating Hanukkah on the beach because it's summertime in the Southern Hemisphere. |
| 1:07.0 | And then two men, related father and son were told, opened fire from a pedestrian bridge. |
| 1:14.6 | No attempt to hide, to get away. |
| 1:17.6 | A one-way mission. |
| 1:20.6 | Claiming laughed towards that they were sworn to ISIS. |
| 1:24.6 | It has almost no meeting. |
| 1:26.6 | Isis is al-Qaeda rationalized. Al-Qaeda is |
| 1:33.5 | operating everywhere. Those training camps in Afghanistan are significant. I talked |
| 1:40.5 | to Bill Rajo about the connection between Somalia and the scandal in Minneapolis |
... |
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