Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:

We have another Useful Idiots Double Header this week: former CIA officer and whistleblower of the CIA’s torture program John Kiriakou on the Jeffrey Epstein hoopla; and Visiting Assistant Professor at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Marta Havryshko, on why she believes that Ukraine is becoming a dictatorship.

First up is John Kiriakou, the only person to serve jail time for the CIA’s illegal torture program. He didn’t participate in the program, he only committed the crime of telling the public about it.

Now, John is focusing his sleuthing skills on the Jeffrey Epstein case. If anyone’s got the dirt, it’s John Kiriako.

Useful Idiots: You said that you feel material was probably destroyed. Can you elaborate on that?

John Kiriakou: At the CIA, even though there are laws like the Federal Records Act, which specifically says you cannot destroy documents, they destroy documents all the time.

After Congress specifically told the Director of Central Intelligence that he had to preserve the MKUltra documents, he went back to headquarters and they destroyed eighty percent of the tens of thousands of pages of documents that they had. So now we don't really know what is true about MKUltra.

Same thing at the CIA with the torture videos. As soon as word leaked that there were videos of Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being tortured, [CIA Director] Gina Haspel put them in an industrial grinder and destroyed them.

So why would we think that the FBI would be any different, especially when it comes to allegations that some of the most powerful and some of the wealthiest men in the world are implicated in the scandal? I could absolutely see the FBI destroying documents.

Useful Idiots: What is the relationship between Epstein and Israel? And what do we know about who was on the plane, and who engaged in sex crimes?

John Kiriakou: Alexander Auctions of Maryland got the Epstein Black Book. They didn't say who had it, but they put it up for auction. It has everybody in it. Why in the world would that be in private hands? Why is that not in the FBI, being investigated and poured over? Why are the the manifests for the Lolita Express not being poured over? Why are they not questioning every single person who flew to the island?

The real question in my mind is who was Epstein working for? And I've thought about this a lot. I can only conclude that

Is Donald Trump afraid of Zohran Mamdani?

This week we’re chatting with two journalists who have followed Mamdani’s campaigns since 2020: Ted Hamm, whose new book Run Zohran Run! looks inside Zohran Mamdani’s sensational campaign to become New York City’s first Democratic Socialist mayor, and Liza Featherstone, a journalist at Jacobin who focuses on student and labor activism.

We hear their takes on why Trump and the establishment are getting nervous about the rise of Mamdani, and why this could harvest success in November’s election, but also danger and threats from both Democrats and Republicans for the young mayor candidate.

Here is an excerpt of their take. Subscribe to hear Ted and Liza’s full analysis of the NYC mayor race and its national implications:

I'm pretty optimistic that a lot of the attacks on Zoran and the failure of the Democratic leadership to stand up for him and get behind him, even though he is overwhelmingly the Democratic nominee, in many ways actually help him. Just because I think that people are mad.

And the crazy attacks by the Trump administration on Zoran worry me a lot because they could just arrest him and send him to El Salvador.

And so I'm honestly more concerned about that in some ways than the election. Because I think their threats to deport him are so outrageous. The things they say about him are so appallingly racist. This is New York City! I think people are really offended by all of that. But great instincts of a body or a population can exist, they just have to be organized into being.

This great consensus behind Zoran has been organized into being, and I think it's going to be really hard for them to stop it.

Subscribe to hear the full interview where Liza and Ted discuss whether Cuomo even wants to be NYC Mayor, proof of how the NY Post manufactures outrage against Zohran, and if a Mayor Mamdani could have any real success making New York affordable with government-run grocery stores and rent freezes.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté & Katie Halper Demand Meeting with “Fraudfather” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt

Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full interviews here:

The Anti-Defamation League (Apartheid Defense League*)’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt embarked on a frantic smear tour across corporate media this week in a desperate effort to break public support for NYC Mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani. What was allegedly an attempt to sound like a worried protection of Jews instead came off like the threats of a mob boss.

Mamdani “doesn’t get to pick and choose which Jewish people he talks to,” the Fraudfather said. “He needs to come to us.”

To which we at Useful Idiots respond, Jonathan Greenblatt, you don’t get to pick and choose which Jewish people you talk to. We have two right here that disagree with the antisemitic notion that Israel has a biblical right to occupy, murder, and starve Palestinian children.

You need to come to us.

We hereby demand a meeting with ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Come to Useful Idiots.

Share

And speaking of the ridiculous, genocidal claims of Zionists, we watch a British journalist respond to the fact that “the IDF are sniping children in the head. IDF soldiers were ordered to shoot at Gazans who were waiting for food,” with the mindless talking point: “But how can we not support our allies??”

And one more, just for madness sake: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) claims that Iran was “days away” from a nuclear bomb before the US attack. When asked whose assessment this was, he responds: “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

Subscribe to watch full episode, which also has some One Big Beautiful Bill nonsense for good measure. Thanks for supporting independent media, watch the whole Throwdown here: