Hegseth’s performative theater

Y- you know, Katy, I spent the majority of my career in counter-terrorism, um, o- o- operations.

I spent a lot of time with Islamic extremists, uh, uh, and, uh, you know, in debriefings, um, uh, uh, around the world.

This is something that they would exactly want to see happen.

It's gonna make, uh, uh, Hasan a martyr.

Um, if you remember and recall the awful, uh, videos that we saw from ISIS and Al-Qaeda a- a- and others where, uh, they, they would kind of behead, um, uh, prisoners, I mean, th- this is, this is something that they're gonna use for propaganda purposes.

There's nobody in the counter-terrorism world, and again, this is my arena, these are my people, um, who thinks this is a good idea.

Uh, there's no deterrent value as well.

It's not like this is going to convince someone, uh, uh, uh, not to be a, you know, a terrorist.

And so a lot of performative theater by Hegseth.

Um, I think this probably, uh, hopefully it will get walked back, but, um, this is really not a good idea.

When it comes to actual, uh, the effects of this, it could be p- pretty deleterious on the United States.

We don't want to create more terrorists out there.

We don't want to show a martyrdom video to the world.

Uh, you know, so we're all saying here in the counter-terrorism world, "What are we doing?"

Does Secretary Hegseth not know this, not understand this, this counterintelligence?

counterintelligence?Well, he should have advisors who are telling him this.

I mean, there, you know, in a regularly functioning government, the CIA a- and my old, uh, office, the Counterterrorism Mission Center, would I'm sure have advised against this.

You know, the National Security Council Director of Counterterrorism is Sebastian Gorka, um, who is not very well-respected and is, is a bit of a, a, a kind of a right-wing firebrand himself.

So I don't know where he's getting this advice, but it's certainly not coming from the men and women, the professionals in the counterterrorism community.

I don't know anybody who thinks this is a good idea.

All right.

Here's the, uh, public polling support for the live stream of this execution.

Um, 17% strongly approve, 10% somewhat approve.

I'm surprised it's even that big.

Um, strongly disapprove is the, the largest number there.

Y- you know, Katy, I spent the majority of my career in counter-terrorism, um, o- o- operations.

I spent a lot of time with Islamic extremists, uh, uh, and, uh, you know, in debriefings, um, uh, uh, around the world.

This is something that they would exactly want to see happen.

It's gonna make, uh, uh, Hasan a martyr.

Um, if you remember and recall the awful, uh, videos that we saw from ISIS and Al-Qaeda a- a- and others where, uh, they, they would kind of behead, um, uh, prisoners, I mean, th- this is, this is something that they're gonna use for propaganda purposes.

There's nobody in the counter-terrorism world, and again, this is my arena, these are my people, um, who thinks this is a good idea.

Uh, there's no deterrent value as well.

It's not like this is going to convince someone, uh, uh, uh, not to be a, you know, a terrorist.

And so a lot of performative theater by Hegseth.

Um, I think this probably, uh, hopefully it will get walked back, but, um, this is really not a good idea.

When it comes to actual, uh, the effects of this, it could be p- pretty deleterious on the United States.

We don't want to create more terrorists out there.

We don't want to show a martyrdom video to the world.

Uh, you know, so we're all saying here in the counter-terrorism world, "What are we doing?"

Does Secretary Hegseth not know this, not understand this, this counterintelligence?

counterintelligence?Well, he should have advisors who are telling him this.

I mean, there, you know, in a regularly functioning government, the CIA a- and my old, uh, office, the Counterterrorism Mission Center, would I'm sure have advised against this.

You know, the National Security Council Director of Counterterrorism is Sebastian Gorka, um, who is not very well-respected and is, is a bit of a, a, a kind of a right-wing firebrand himself.

So I don't know where he's getting this advice, but it's certainly not coming from the men and women, the professionals in the counterterrorism community.

I don't know anybody who thinks this is a good idea.

All right.

Here's the, uh, public polling support for the live stream of this execution.

Um, 17% strongly approve, 10% somewhat approve.

I'm surprised it's even that big.

Um, strongly disapprove is the, the largest number there.