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CUBA + IRAN + RUSSIA=Potential Drone Warfare Just 90 Miles From Florida · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Because Bess wants to put the tooth fairy on city payroll.
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  Speaker 2: Earlier this week, you were talking about comprehensive health care
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  Speaker 3: get from medical You're listening to the forty seven Morning
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  Speaker 3: Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 4: Good Tuesday Morning nights to have you with us on
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  Speaker 4: the forty seven Morning Update. You may have thought the
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  Speaker 4: Cold War was over when it deals with Cuba, but
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  Speaker 4: when it comes to Western Hemisphere.
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  Speaker 1: We may be all wrong.
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  Speaker 4: In fact, there's now major concerns in Cuba of a
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  Speaker 4: massive buildup of drones from Iran and even Russia.
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  Speaker 1: So what could they do with these drones and.
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  Speaker 4: Could they be used to attack the United States of America.
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  Speaker 4: That's Patriotmobile dot com slash Ben forty seven or nine
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  Speaker 4: seven to two Patriot and switch today. It's the forty
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  Speaker 4: seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 1: Story number one.
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  Speaker 4: I want to start out by talking about what is
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  Speaker 4: happening in Cuba. We know that the CIA director John
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  Speaker 4: Radcliffe went down to Cuba and met with top leaders,
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  Speaker 4: including some of those connected directly with a Castro family leadership.
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  Speaker 4: And for decades Americans have also been told that the
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  Speaker 4: Cold War is over, that the threats sitting just ninety
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  Speaker 4: miles off the coast of Florida were relics of another error,
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  Speaker 4: not now right, that was back in the day. Well,
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  Speaker 4: there's growing real concern now inside the intelligence and military
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  Speaker 4: circles that Cuba is once again becoming a staging ground
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  Speaker 4: for America's adversaries. And this time the concern is not
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  Speaker 4: Soviet nuclear missiles. It's drones, a lot of them, Iranian
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  Speaker 4: drones and Russian drones, and the possibility that hostile regimes
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  Speaker 4: are quietly building a launch platform with striking distance of
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  Speaker 4: the United States of America. Ninety miles for a drone
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  Speaker 4: is nothing, and let's be clear, they can also fly
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  Speaker 4: very low. You could describe it as under the radar. Now,
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  Speaker 4: there's no clear public evidence that Cuba has launched any
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  Speaker 4: attacks on the United States of America or that an
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  Speaker 4: imminent strike is about to happen or even underway. But
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  Speaker 4: what is raising alarm bells is the increasing military cooperation
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  Speaker 4: that we have seen between Cuba, Iran, and Russia and
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  Speaker 4: even China. Now you think about the three countries that
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  Speaker 4: hate the United States the most, Iran chance death to America, Russia,
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  Speaker 4: we know hates America, and China, yes, they hate America.
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  Speaker 4: All of these nations openly talk about their hostility to
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  Speaker 4: American power and American influence. And if you think the
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  Speaker 4: sounds far fetch, remember history. Back in nineteen sixty two,
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  Speaker 4: you basically have the same type of leadership in Cuba,
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  Speaker 4: and the Cuban Missile crisis brought America literally to the
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  Speaker 4: brink of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the
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  Speaker 4: United States of America because Soviet weapons were placed on
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  Speaker 4: that island. Today, the weapons are much smaller, they're a
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  Speaker 4: lot cheaper, and they're harder to detect, and they're even
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  Speaker 4: easier to get into a country. Modern drones have changed
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  Speaker 4: warfare entirely. We've witnessed this on the battlefield in the
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  Speaker 4: Middle East and especially between Ukraine and the Russia war.
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  Speaker 4: Iran has become one of the world's leading exporters of
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  Speaker 4: expensive but deadly drone technology. The Iranian drones, for example,
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  Speaker 4: have been used extensively by the Russians in Ukraine.
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  Speaker 1: That's how good they are.
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  Speaker 4: And these drones are relatively cheap to produce, they're difficult
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  Speaker 4: to intercept in large swarms, and they're capable of carrying
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  Speaker 4: large explosives over long distances. Russia has used them to
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  Speaker 4: terrorize civilian infrastructure, to attack power grids and overwhelm the
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  Speaker 4: air defenses in Ukraine. Now imagine that type of technology
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  Speaker 4: position in Cuba. Imagine dozens or hundreds and hundreds of
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  Speaker 4: drones stored in wear houses, hidden and shipping containers, or
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  Speaker 4: assembled in covert facilities just miles from the United States
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  Speaker 4: of America's homeland. Suddenly, this changes everything from a military standpoint. Now,
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  Speaker 4: experts warn that drones don't need massive runways or obvious
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  Speaker 4: missile silos. They can be launched from trucks, they can
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  Speaker 4: be launched from fields, they can be launched from cargo
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  Speaker 4: ships or improvised sites that you never detected beforehand. And
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  Speaker 4: a coordinated swarm attack targets ports. It can target military bases,
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  Speaker 4: It can target our fuel depots, our airports, or even
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  Speaker 4: civilian infrastructure that could create chaos for Americans. It could
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  Speaker 4: also attack our power grid. And that's exactly why intelligence
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  Speaker 4: officials in the US are increasingly focused on this type
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  Speaker 4: of warfare. America's enemies know they cannot defeat the US
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  Speaker 4: military head to head, so instead, what they've all decide
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  Speaker 4: to do is look for ways to exploit our vulnerabilities,
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  Speaker 4: create fear, disrupt our economy, and undermine public confidence. And
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  Speaker 4: drones fit that strategy perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 4: Over the past several years, Cuba has dramatically deepened its
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  Speaker 4: ties not only with Russia. There's also another very interesting
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  Speaker 4: data point. Over the last several years, Cuba has dramatically
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  Speaker 4: deepened their ties with Moscow and Tehran. Russian naval vessels
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  Speaker 4: have visited Cuba ports multiple times. Cuban officials have met
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  Speaker 4: openly with Iranian leadership. Economic agreements have been agreed to
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  Speaker 4: and signed. They've even signed intelligence cooperation, and they've signed
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  Speaker 4: military coordination that have all expanded as these countries aligned
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  Speaker 4: themselves against the United States of America. Now i RAN, meanwhile,
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  Speaker 4: has aggressively expanded its influenced throughout Latin America. US officials
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  Speaker 4: have re repeatedly and openly worn that Iranian networks have
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  Speaker 4: been operating in Venezuela, They're operating in Nicaragua and other
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  Speaker 4: parts of the region. Hes BLA linked operatives have re
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  Speaker 4: portly used parts of Latin America for fundraising as well
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  Speaker 4: as logistics and illicit finance operations for decades. Add drone
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  Speaker 4: technology into this equation and suddenly the Western hemisphere starts
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  Speaker 4: looking a lot more dangerous. And that brings us to
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  Speaker 4: Donald Trump's whole promise to make sure that the Western
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  Speaker 4: Hemisphere is safe. And there's another layer, by the way
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  Speaker 4: of this story that you need to understand as well.
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  Speaker 1: That's the border crisis.
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  Speaker 4: For years, critics have warned that an unsecured southern border
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  Speaker 4: creates vulnerabilities far beyond illegal immigration. If hostile foreign actors
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  Speaker 4: wanted to move equipment, operatives, electronics or drone components into
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  Speaker 4: the United States of America and overwhelmed borders system. Provided
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  Speaker 4: that opportunity, you now combine those concerns of millions of
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  Speaker 4: people who we don't know who they are, that are
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  Speaker 4: in this country right now with averasaro regimes operating close
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  Speaker 4: to US mainland. Who could even stage an attack that
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  Speaker 4: is coordinated from people within the United States of America.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine what that could look like.
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  Speaker 4: Military analysts have increasingly warned about what's known as gray
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  Speaker 4: zone warfare. That's actions deliberately designed to stay below the
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  Speaker 4: threshold of open war while still damaging an enemy. Cyber attacks,
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  Speaker 4: infrastructure sabotage, drone incursions, GPS interference, disinformation campaigns, as well
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  Speaker 4: as economic disruption all on the table. In fact, many
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  Speaker 4: of them have been used on the United States of
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  Speaker 4: America by China and Russia. Now this is what has
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  Speaker 4: been described to me as the battlefield of the future,
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  Speaker 4: and America's enemies are watching this carefully. Russia has already
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  Speaker 4: demonstrated how effective drone warfare can be in Ukraine. They've
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  Speaker 4: actually really learned a lot and mastered the art. Iran
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  Speaker 4: has shown how proxy groups armed with drones can threaten
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  Speaker 4: US troops and allies across the Middle East. China is
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  Speaker 4: also rapidly expanding its own drone and AI warfare capabilities.
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  Speaker 4: The terrifying reality is that a drone doesn't need to
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  Speaker 4: carry a massive explosive payload to cause major disruption. A
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  Speaker 4: strike on an electrical substation, fuel pipeline, shipping port, or
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  Speaker 4: crowded transportation hub could create panic as well as economic shockwaves,
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  Speaker 4: which is exactly what Cuba, Russia, and China and Iran
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  Speaker 4: would love to happen. So think about what happens when
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  Speaker 4: small drones disrupt airports in Europe. Several years ago, all
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  Speaker 4: the fights were grounded, the security systems were overwhelmed. Now
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  Speaker 4: you do that type of coordinated at using military grade systems,
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  Speaker 4: and it's on a whole other level.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 4: This is why national security experts are now increasingly calling
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  Speaker 4: for stronger homeland defend systems, specifically focused on drone threats.
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  Speaker 4: It's something the present has also agreed we need. Many
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  Speaker 4: American military bases are still vulnerable to low flying drones.
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  Speaker 4: Ports and civilian infrastructure often lack sophisticated counter drone systems,
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  Speaker 4: and local law enforcement agencies are largely unprepared for mass
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  Speaker 4: drone instances as well. Now, the Pentagon has spent billions
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  Speaker 4: preparing for traditional warfare, but the next threat may not
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  Speaker 4: come from bombers or missiles, but from swarms of inexpensive
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  Speaker 4: unmanned aircraft launch very close to home. And Cuba's geographic
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  Speaker 4: position matters enormously. From Havana to Key West, it's roughly
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  Speaker 4: ninety miles. That's it, a relatively short flight from drone systems. Again,
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  Speaker 4: this is all about looking at what could happen before
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  Speaker 4: it happens, because history teaches us something important. Major threats
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  Speaker 4: are often ignored until it's too late. Before nine to
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  Speaker 4: eleven warnings existed before Pearl Harbor. There were warning signs
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  Speaker 4: as well. Before the Cuban missile crisis exploded into public view,
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  Speaker 4: Soviet activity was already well underway, and in the modern
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  Speaker 4: air the speed of warfare house accelerated dramatically. A drome
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  Speaker 4: swarm launch from close proximity could give decision makers only
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  Speaker 4: minutes to react, and that is why the American public
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  Speaker 4: should be aware of this. We shouldn't panic, but we
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  Speaker 4: should absolutely pay attention to the growing military cooperation between Cuba,
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  Speaker 4: Iran in Russia, and the present clearly as demanding stronger
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  Speaker 4: border security, serious homeland security, defense investments, and aggressive intelligence monitoring. Now,
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  Speaker 4: the real question is, if there is a large stockpile
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  Speaker 4: of drones in Cuba, is it America's job to make
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  Speaker 4: sure that we make those inoperable. I wouldn't be surprised
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  Speaker 4: if that's on the table right now, and it's something
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  Speaker 4: we should all be taking a look at and make
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  Speaker 4: sure we understand. This is clearly an important moment that
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  Speaker 4: should be on everyone's radar screen.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 3: and we will see you back here tomorrow