Podcast
Drop Site News
Hosted by Drop Site News · EN
Independent reporting on war and politics in the U.S. and across the world, delivered by Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and the Drop Site team.
www.dropsitenews.com
www.dropsitenews.com
50episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Iran, Lebanon, and the Destruction of Civilian Life
Apr 700:59:00Summary readyAs heavy U.S.-Israeli airstrikes pounded targets across Iran on Tuesday, President Donald Trump reiterated his extreme threats against all Iranians in a post on social media, writing: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Trump had previously given a deadline of Tuesday 8 p.m. ET to “Open the F****n’ Strait, you crazy b******s” otherwise the U.S. would heavily target civilian infrastructure in Iran.Iran’s revolutionary guard warned on Tuesday that it would “deprive the U.S and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if Trump carried out his threat. “We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the IRGC said.Last-ditch diplomatic efforts are under way to avert a further escalation of the war. The Iranian government has repeatedly and consistently laid out its own demands for an agreement setting out a permanent end to the war—trading concessions on its nuclear program for sanctions relief and recognition of its ability to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz. Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Murtaza Hussain discuss the latest with Sina Azodi, Assistant Professor of Middle East Politics at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.And as the Israeli invasion and bombardment of Lebanon continues, Beirut-based Drop Site contributor Lylla Younes discusses Israel’s ongoing scorched earth campaign, its deliberate targeting of journalists and emergency workers, and its use of tactics to foment sectarianism in Lebanon. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
Iran War Enters New Phase
Mar 2401:48:02Summary readyAs the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran stretches into its fourth week, Tehran is denying claims by President Donald Trump that the U.S. and Iran are in the midst of negotiations to end the war, saying that no direct talks are occurring. Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and Murtaza Hussain discuss the latest.Grim and Hussain are also joined by journalist Alexis Daloumis on the ground in Sulaymaniyah, in northeastern Iraq’s Kurdistan region near the Iranian border. Daloumis is the director of the documentary “Belkî Sibê,” that follows leftist Western fighters—of which he was one—who fought alongside the Kurdish-led, American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in their battle against ISIS. Analyst Trita Parsi, the executive Vice President of Quincy Institute, also joins to discuss the latest geopolitical developments around the war on Iran.Grim also discusses his recent trip to Cuba which is suffering from severe power shortages as a result of the Trump administration’s oil blockade which is affecting everything from hospitals to water systems.And Sharif Abdel Kouddous speaks about Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat on the one-year anniversary of his assassination by the Israeli military. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
The Iran War Rages On: Israeli Assassination Strikes, Steve Witkoff's Texts, and the Mounting Storm in the Strait of Hormuz
Mar 1701:35:31Summary readyOn Tuesday, Israel announced that it assassinated Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani and the head of Irani’s internal security force and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling on Iranians to begin preparing to overthrow the government in Tehran. President Donald Trump and his senior aides claim that Iran’s ballistic missile and drone capacity has largely been decimated and that Iran is begging to negotiate an end to the war. Yet Iran continues to dominate access to the Strait of Hormuz and to launch strikes against both Israel and U.S. military outposts and bases across the Persian Gulf—and Iranian leaders say they will determine when the war ends.On Drop Site’s weekly livestream, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim discuss the latest developments on the 18th day of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, including yesterday’s reporting on how special envoy Steve Witkoff has been texting Iranian officials asking to resume talks, messages Iranian officials told Scahill they have ignored. The White House responded angrily to Scahill’s report, calling Drop Site “abhorrent,” and denouncing the publication as engaging in “America Last behavior.”Scahill then speaks to Dr. Foad Izadi of the University of Tehran about Larijani’s reported assassination, Iran’s current position in the war and the prospects for civil unrest or armed battles inside Iran.Finally, Grim speaks to Emran Feroz, a journalist and contributor to Drop Site, about the growing conflict on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and last night’s raid on a hospital in Kabul that killed 400 people and wounded about 250 others. Residents in the area told Drop Site News contributor Feroz that the hospital itself was struck during the attack. Pakistan has not immediately commented on the allegation.Follow Drop Site on X for breaking news updates.Read and subscribe at dropsitenews.com. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
EXCLUSIVE: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Rejects Trump’s “Big Lie” About Why He Went to War
Mar 400:28:08Summary readyIn an exclusive interview with Drop Site News, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Esmail Baghaei rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that he launched the war because Iran was “going to attack first,” calling it a “big lie.”“There was no intention on the part of Iran to attack the United States,” he said. “They claim that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States,” Baghaei added. “Did we come to the Gulf of Mexico to target Los Angeles and other U.S. cities? Or did they come 6,500 miles away to Iranian shores?”On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. decided to preemptively attack Iran because the White House knew Israel was going to begin bombing Iran and that Iran would strike back. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”On Tuesday, Trump sought to recast the U.S. rationale and said that he believed Iran was going to launch an attack first. “They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first—I felt strongly about that,” Trump said, charging that the Iranians “were getting ready to attack Israel. They were gonna attack others.”Rubio subsequently tried to walk his initial remarks back, saying that the media had mischaracterized his comments and—regardless of whether Israel was going to strike—Trump had already made a decision to attack Iran’s ballistic missile capability and go to war. “We are not going to put American troops in harm’s way,” Rubio said. “If you tell the president of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president’s going to go first. That’s what he did.”Baghaei called all of these claims by U.S. officials, “Lies after lies.”“I think the American people deserve to know, to understand what their government is doing,” Baghaie, who is also the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said. “How their government is abusing their money, their tax money, their image in the Middle East, in the Islamic world, just in furtherance of the whims of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is by the way, wanted by the ICC [International Criminal Court], who is a genocidal killer in Palestine.”Baghaei denied claims by some U.S. officials, including Trump, that Iran had asked to resume talks with the U.S. “They are killing our citizens. Municipalities, schools, hospitals, medical centers, sports clubs—everywhere is being bombarded and targeted by missiles by [the] Israeli and American war machine. Do you think any Iranian with common sense would be really in a position to reach out to the United States under these circumstances?” Baghaei asked. “We were negotiating with the United States,” he said, pointing out that another round of talks was scheduled for Monday, March 2. “Just two days before that, the United States and Israel attacked Iran,” he added. “We were betrayed. Diplomacy was betrayed.”Follow Drop Site on X for breaking news updates.Read and subscribe at dropsitenews.com. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
U.S.-Israeli Bombing and Assassination Campaign Intensifies in Iran as Israel Threatens Wider War Against Hezbollah
Mar 300:55:27Summary readyJeremy Scahill, Murtaza Hussain, and Sharif Abdel Kouddous discuss the latest developments in the U.S.-Israel war on Iran with Karim Makdisi, an associate professor at the American University of Beirut and a co-host, with his brothers, of the Makdisi Street podcast. With Hezbollah entering the war and Israel slowly moving troops into Lebanon, they discuss the spreading conflict in the context of Israel’s broader agenda in the region. "If you go back to the question of resistance, if you go to the question of Hezbollah, I think their calculation now is to say, look, if Iran falls, we're doomed, Hezbollah's doomed, Lebanon is doomed. So this is a situation where we need to enter in whatever capacity possible and support this particular attack or do whatever they can do in order to support this larger regional war, because otherwise the Israelis with the Americas are going to just pick off each of these entities one at a time in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, et cetera. ... This is for them an existential situation, as it is in Iran."Attempting to weaken or overthrow Iran, they note, is a means to support Israel’s campaign of annihilation in Palestine and beyond.Stay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.comWATCH our weekly live show, streaming every TUESDAY morning, on Substack, YouTube, and FacebookLISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way.To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting:DONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.Follow us on X for breaking news:Drop Site News: / dropsitenews Ryan Grim: / ryangrim Jeremy Scahill: / jeremyscahill Instagram: / dropsitenews Facebook: / dropsitenews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dropsitenews...WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6V... Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
U.S. and Israel Attack Iran as Trump Announces Regime Change War
Feb 2801:29:31Summary readyThe U.S. and Israel continue to attack Iran in a massive bombing campaign that President Donald Trump characterized as the start of a regime change war. Tehran has launched an unprecedented series of retaliatory attacks at U.S. military bases and other targets across the region and has hit Israel with a series of intense missile strikes. There are widespread reports that the US-led attacks have killed senior Iranian leadership. In this special Drop Site News broadcast, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim speak with Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American analyst and author who served as an advisor to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, and Ali Abunimah, one of the founders of Electronic Intifada, who is in Amman, Jordan.Read all of Drop Site’s coverage of Iran here. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
State of the Union: War with Iran Edges Closer
Feb 2401:10:20Summary readyAhead of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, there is a flurry of activity taking place inside the White House and Pentagon as Trump continues to deliberate whether he will authorize military strikes on Iran. A new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran are scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.Iranian officials tell Drop Site they are showing an “almost unbelievable level of flexibility” in talks with the U.S. to avert war, saying Tehran has “decided to exercise maximum flexibility on the nuclear issue, but only on the strict condition that it would genuinely prevent the outbreak of war.”Officials said Iran is directly addressing U.S. concerns on the nuclear issue with concrete proposals, and asserting a willingness to expand talks to other issues once a deal to avert imminent conflict has been concluded. Although talks are scheduled for Thursday, the prospects for a deal that would halt the U.S. drive to war remain fragile.Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain join Ryan Grim to discuss the latest.In the second half of the broadcast, Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous discusses a new joint investigation by the independent research groups Earshot and Forensic Architecture on the Israeli military’s massacre of 15 Palestinian aid workers in southern Gaza on March 23, 2025. The report, based on eyewitness testimony and audio and visual analysis, found that Israeli soldiers fired nearly a thousand bullets at the aid workers—with at least eight shots fired at point blank range in execution-style killings.Read all of Drop Site’s coverage of Iran here.Read about the 2025 massacre of Palestinian aid workers here. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
Iran in the Crosshairs: Former Senior U.S. Iran Negotiator Robert Malley on Trump’s Threats to Bomb
Feb 1900:44:21Summary readyWith a U.S. military build-up unprecedented since the 2003 Iraq invasion underway in the Middle East, Iran may soon find itself in the cross-hairs of a massive military onslaught.President Donald Trump has publicly said that diplomatic channels with Iran remain open and Iranian diplomats say they are in the process of drafting a document responding to U.S. demands recently presented in the indirect talks in Geneva, Switzerland. But several former senior U.S. officials have told Drop Site that the size and scope of the military deployment indicate a high likelihood of a U.S. attack. One former senior intelligence official who informally advises the Trump administration put the chances of a strike at 80-90 percent.Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to former senior U.S. Middle East diplomat Robert Malley, a lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Malley has served under three U.S. presidents and has extensive experience negotiating with Iranian officials. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and author, with Hussein Agha, of “Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine.” Scahill and Malley also discuss the first meeting of the so-called Board of Peace and the ongoing Israeli war against Gaza.Read Drop Site’s coverage of the U.S. buildup here.Subscribe to Drop Site: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
Banning Dissent and Criminalizing Palestine Activism
Feb 1701:37:10Summary readyOn Friday, the High Court in the United Kingdom ruled on Friday that the government’s ban on the pro-Palestine direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was unlawful. The ruling marked a major legal victory for the group, which was founded in 2020 and campaigns against companies complicit in “the occupation, apartheid and genocide of Palestine,” with a focus on Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. Huda Ammori, the 31-year old British-Palestinian co-founder of Palestine Action, spoke to Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous about the movement’s strategy, rooted in direct action to physically disrupt and dismantle the war machine that facilitates the genocide and occupation in Palestine. “As a Palestinian, the best moment of my life was being on top of an Israeli weapons factory with a sledgehammer being able to destroy that site. And knowing, that just that by being there and causing damage, they would have to shut down. Not just while I was there, but for weeks after.”Also on the livestream, Ryan Grim spoke with Carrie Prejean Boller on her ouster from Trump’s religious liberty commission. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
Leaked Document Outlines Trump’s Plan to Rule Gaza
Jan 2701:12:36Summary readyThe so-called Board of Peace that President Donald Trump officially launched in Davos, Switzerland last week is developing sweeping plans for a U.S.-backed administration to rule Gaza. Leaked documents exclusively reported on by Jonathan Whittall show the Board’s bureaucratic plans for total control of Gaza—without Palestinian participation or input.Whittall, who was a senior UN official in Palestine before being expelled by Israel last year, joins Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous to discuss the reality on the ground in Gaza, Trump’s installation of himself as the indefinite chair of the Board of Peace, and what Israel is doing to make its presence in Gaza permanent.Jonathan Whittall is a political analyst with two decades of experience in humanitarian work with Médecins Sans Frontières and the UN. He is now executive director of KEYS Initiative.Pieces discussed:https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/leaked-board-of-peace-resolution-gaza-trump-ushttps://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-yellow-line-earth-berms-blocks-physical-barrier-israel-palestinianshttps://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cmcc-leaked-documents-gaza-residential-zone-surveillance-checkpoints-rafah Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary