Podcast Summary

Podcast: Redacted News
Host: Clayton Morris
Guest: Colonel Roxanne Towner Watkins
Episode: "Netanyahu Dead? Missiles hit Israel as Iran War Goes as Planned by Deep State neocons | Redacted"
Date: March 17, 2026

Overview

This episode explores the deeper, often hidden, drivers behind the ongoing Iran war, posing penetrating questions about the real interests at stake. Host Clayton Morris and guest Colonel Roxanne Towner Watkins delve into the idea of "the strategy of tension" and its implementation by transnational power players, exposing the web of financial, intelligence, and institutional forces fueling perpetual conflict for profit and control. The conversation provides a panoramic view of how war, insurance, covert operations, and agency-driven chaos serve interests far removed from public narratives.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Real Game Behind the Iran War

• Clayton sets the stage (03:10–06:16): The public is fed a narrow story about the Iran conflict, but the true dynamics revolve around financial control, insurance market manipulation, and covert geopolitical engineering.
• Central Question: Who benefits from prolonged instability? Is war just a surface narrative masking deeper financial and criminal interests?

2. The Role of Illicit Financing and Private Interests

• Colonel Watkins (06:47–13:06):
  • A massive, primarily illicit financial system underpins global conflict, thriving on war and instability.
  • Much overlooked by the public: the importance of narco-trafficking, human trafficking, and weapons sales as drivers of shadow funding.
  • The military-industrial-financial complex—exemplified by entities like the Carlyle Group—launders taxpayer money through foreign aid and invests in perpetual war for profit.
  • Quote: "It is an international crime syndicate... if you're ever going to get your hands around the actual syndicate cartel running all of this, you have to cut off the illicit funding." (Colonel Watkins, 12:50)

3. Intelligence Leaks, Sleeper Cells, and Disillusioned US Allies

• On using Kurds against Iran (13:53–15:27):
  • The Kurds have learned not to trust US promises, weary after repeated betrayals.
  • Intelligence leaks and talk of sleeper cells highlight an ongoing strategy of sowing division and tension.
  • Quote: "Their whole goal in life is to have back their country… They would not get involved in this. They are not having any part in it because they have been betrayed so many times by the players in this syndicate." (Colonel Watkins, 14:16)

4. Insurance as a Tool of Geopolitical Power

• Lloyd's of London and Risk Management (15:27–24:37):
  • For the first time, Lloyd's refuses to insure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, breaking precedent.
  • Insurance companies function as global intelligence agencies, inserting agents worldwide and influencing crisis outcomes for both financial and strategic gain.
  • Quote: "I don't view any of these insurance companies as an insurance company. They're spy agencies." (Watkins, 57:17)
  • The UK’s refusal to support the US in the Iran conflict signals a desire to maintain Iran as a locus of managed chaos and profit.

5. The “Strategy of Tension” Explained

• Colonel Watkins’ thesis (24:00–27:11):
  • The real power brokers perpetuate chaos by leveraging false flags, ethnic tensions, and staged protests to justify regime change and further their control.
  • Quote: "It basically boils down to creating chaos so you can implement the control structure." (24:37)

6. Sleeper Cells and Postwar Intelligence Networks (Operation Gladio)

• Historical context (27:11–37:24):
  • The CIA and Western intelligence agencies have long maintained stay-behind networks: trained operatives integrated within target societies, ready for activation to destabilize or control.
  • Refugee flows into the US are sometimes used to insert trained operatives, demonstrating a known, repeated tactic.
  • Quote: "Most people don't even know that these people are trained assassins that were under the command of the CIA. Some of them remain on the payroll of the CIA for Decades." (Colonel Watkins, 27:49)

7. Covert Funding, Black Projects, and Money Laundering

• Control via private equity, banks, and phony nonprofits (41:27–56:43):
  • The CIA often bypasses congressional oversight, using illicit funds from weapons and drug trafficking routed through private equity, dummy corporations, and major philanthropic foundations.
  • Foundations like Rockefeller and Ford have long served as laundering mechanisms in tandem with major law firms and banks.
  • Discussed organizations: Chatham House, CFR, Egmont Group—all playing roles in international laundering and control, often under the mask of respectability.

8. Prospects for Iran: Endgame or Endless War?

• Colonel Watkins (46:27–49:54):
  • She foresees no prolonged US engagement if a sufficiently cooperative Iranian leader emerges—one who will eschew support for proxy militias and integrate Iran into global trade.
  • The longed-for peace is anathema to those who thrive on the strategy of tension; expect pushback from entities like Israel and the UK.
  • Quote: "It could be over tomorrow. We just need a leader." (Watkins, 48:55)

9. Balkanization and Ongoing Destabilization Attempts

• On breaking Iran apart (58:55–61:18):
  • There's a well-established playbook of dividing countries into smaller, more controllable entities—a “Balkanization” justified by manufactured or encouraged internal disputes.
  • Trump’s reported approach is to keep Iran whole, to avoid endless conflict.

10. The Toll on US and Israeli Interests

• Final thoughts (61:18–62:54):
  • Despite media narratives, sustained damage to US and Israeli interests has not fundamentally impaired their operational capacity—yet the chaos serves deeper financial and strategic aims.

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On the underground financial system:
  "There has been, for the last hundred years, this massive, primarily illicit financial system that has existed that no one sees, and it feeds off of the instability that has been created from perpetual wars." (Colonel Watkins, 06:47)

• On the insurance-intelligence nexus:
  "People need to think of not the insurance company, but the insurance company actually functions as a source of intelligence for governments, especially Lloyds of London and the relationship with the Crown and MI6." (Colonel Watkins, 18:00)

• On perpetual chaos as a business strategy:
  "As long as you have Iran there, then Israel is always going to have an enemy that they can create crap crisises in the Middle east and that allows this international syndicate to control the area." (Colonel Watkins, 21:02)

• On the endgame for Iran:
  "It could be over tomorrow. We just need a leader." (Colonel Watkins, 48:55)

Important Timestamps

• 06:47 – The origins and mechanisms of the shadowy financial system fueling war.
• 13:31 – Assange, Snowden, and internal moves to confront the US “deep state.”
• 16:24 – Shipping insurance, Lloyd’s, and the unprecedented move to deny coverage.
• 24:37 – Explanation of the “strategy of tension.”
• 32:55 – Operation Gladio and the legacy of stay-behind armies.
• 41:27 – CIA black projects, funding flows, and circumvention of government oversight.
• 57:17 – Insurance companies as intelligence fronts.

Memorable Moments

• The insurance rabbit hole: Clayton expresses shock at the suggestion that Lloyd’s of London and insurance companies are actually major global intelligence actors and profiteers from conflict (“I’m still just blown away by the insurance thing... Maybe the biggest players in all of this.” 64:29).
• Operation Gladio revelation: Watkins’ account of the little-known, yet world-shaping, “stay-behind” army network built by Nazis, inherited and expanded by NATO and the US for ongoing domestic and foreign subversion.
• Calling out the cycle: The irony that peace, not war, is the greatest threat to entrenched interests—the international syndicate can only survive in a “permanent state of chaos.” (49:12)

Further Resources

• Follow Colonel Watkins:
  • On X (formerly Twitter): @ColonelTowner
  • Rumble Channel: The Colonel’s Corner

Conclusion

This episode peels away the layers of propaganda emanating from mainstream media and official narratives to reveal a machinery of perpetual war designed, above all, for the profit and power of an interconnected global syndicate. Colonel Watkins’s deep historical and operational perspective illuminates how all facets—from insurance to intelligence—are interwoven, making a strong case that true change will only occur by dismantling the systems that thrive on secrecy, division, and chaos. For listeners seeking to understand not just “what’s happening in Iran?” but why it’s happening—this episode is essential.