Episode Details

by Robert Riggs

This episode is about the standoff with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and the threat of its drone attack to the global economy.

And I know what some of you may be wondering.

What does Iran have to do with a true crime podcast?

My answer is simple.

For more than forty years, the Iranian regime has been linked to the killing of Americans, sometimes directly, sometimes through proxies, and often with little lasting consequence.

This is not an abstract foreign policy debate for me.

During my thirty years in television news, I saw the human cost of that shadow war up close. 

I covered the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, where 241 American service members were killed in 1983. 

Federal court records have described Hezbollah as the perpetrator and Iran as a source of political, financial, and operational support tied to the attack.

I was an embedded reporter during the invasion of Iraq, where American troops faced roadside bombs and armor-piercing explosives supplied or supported by Iranian networks.

In more than a dozen attacks, Iran has killed Americans without putting Iranian soldiers in the fight. 

It used terror groups, militias, mines, missiles, and now drones. 

When a regime uses proxies to kill Americans and destabilize the world, that is not merely geopolitics. It is state-sponsored crime.

The world is focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow strip of water off Iran’s coast where the global oil supply and American military power now face one of the most dangerous choke points on earth.

To help understand what this conflict means now, I turned to retired Army Colonel John Antal, a 30-year veteran soldier, historian, leadership expert, and best-selling author. 

Antal is here to help us see the battlefield clearly.

Timeline of Iranian or Iranian-backed Attacks on U.S. Military Personnel

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