Going Underground Hosted by Afshin Rattansi

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center. He discusses the anger of the Gulf States against the US and Israel for starting the war on Iran and Iran’s strikes against Gulf civilian and energy facilities, what President Trump meant by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘fighting with us’, the Gulf’s positi...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Brandon Weichert, Senior National Security Editor at 19FortyFive and Author of ‘The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy’. What has been Iran’s strategy of escalation against the US and Israel as it faces continued aerial bombardment? What are the risks of the war on Iran escalating to a nuclear third world war with Israel’s nukes? What does Joe...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Habib Al Mulla, Founder of Habib Al Mulla and Partners, and one of the UAE’s most respected legal authorities. He discusses NATO-aligned media’s coverage of Dubai as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues and the motives behind the narratives. He examines the state of international law as the US and Israel attack Iran, while Iran continues attacks on...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to the Former Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), William Fallon. In a heated interview, Afshin Rattansi challenges him on the justifications for the US-Israel War on Iran, the Minab Girls School strike which killed 175+, the parallels between this war of aggression and the 2003 Iraq War, the regional destabilisation unleashed on the Gulf State...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Abdulaziz Alghashian, Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. Can the Gulf States trust the US after it, along with Israel, unleashed destructive regional destabilisation with the war on Iran? Is the US using Gulf States’ bases as Iran claims? How big a threat is the Greater Israel plan to the Gulf States? Can the Gulf State...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Mohammed Baharoon, Director General of the Dubai Public Policy Research Center. What is the situation on the ground in Dubai as Iranian missiles and drones continue to target UAE? What is the state of the GCC’s alliance with the US after it plunged the region into its most destabilising war yet? Why has BRICS disappointingly not stepped up to media...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Captain James Fanell, the Former Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. Why did Donald Trump start this unpopular war against Iran? Did Israel drag the US into the war? Is America heading for victory or disaster? Why are the US and Israel targeting schools and hospitals in Iran? All this and more on this...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Rt. Hon. Norman Baker, former U.K. Home Office Minister for Crime Prevention and Privy Councillor to King Charles III. How has the Epstein Files scandal’s revelations about Peter Mandelson shaken the political establishment’s power in Britain? How morally bankrupt is Sir Keir Starmer and the political establishment? What was the Royal Family’s role...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Uri Bar-Joseph, Prof. Emeritus of International Relations at the University of Haifa. Can Israel survive an all-out Iranian retaliation as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu prepare a second US-Israeli war on Iran? What are Trump’s and Netanyahu’s real motivations behind a war on Iran? Will Hezbollah join the war? How much damage could Israel suff...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Cuba's Ambassador to the United Nations Ernesto Soberon Guzman, amid Donald Trump's unprecedented campaign to strangle the Cuban Revolution by intensifying the blockade. Can Cuba survive the maximum pressure? What now for Cuba with Venezuela now under US control? What measures is Cuba taking against the US cutting off fuel imports to the country? I...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute. He discusses Europe’s self-entrapment over assisting Ukraine as the proxy war against Russia continues, European leaders deliberately lying to their people that Russia will imminently attack Europe and whether their populations believe them, Britain’s unexpected appearanc...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to CIA Veteran Prof. Melvin Goodman. In an at times heated interview, Afshin Rattansi and Prof. Goodman cover the looming US war on Iran and why the focus will be Iranian ballistic missiles, Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Ukraine proxy war and one of the causes being NATO expansion to Russia’s borders, the beginning of a new Russia-China-US nu...

n this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Alan Eyre, Former Senior Advisor for Iran at the US State Department and the First Persian-Language Spokesperson at the US State Department. He discusses the Trump Administration’s strategic ambiguity and inconsistency towards Iran regarding the nuclear program, missiles and regime change, whether China and Russia will come to Iran’s rescue for econ...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Victoria Panova, Head of Russia’s BRICS Expert Council who participated at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, UAE. She discusses the shadow of a US war on Iran hanging over the region, the status of Saudi Arabia’s invitation to join BRICS and Javier Milei’s rejection of BRICS membership for Argentina, the launch of the BRICS New Development...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Former Israeli Intelligence Officer Ari Ben-Menashe about the Epstein Files. He discusses his belief that Israel is holding sensitive information which they would release if they felt Donald Trump was threatening Israel, Jeffrey Epstein’s history of working as a Mossad agent to attain compromising blackmail on Western politicians, his allegations t...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s Minister of Business, Mineral Resources & Energy. She discusses the US’ betrayal of Greenland following Donald Trump’s plans to annex Greenland, her policies on banning uranium mining and natural resource extraction, Greenland’s membership of NATO and the accusation that it makes Greenland a target for Russia and...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to CMSGT. Dennis Fritz, Former Advisor to the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard Myers. He discusses the Trump Administration’s crackdown against anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota and how it’s a training ground for repression against the American population, Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and what the motivations are behind his threats,...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. Tuomas Malinen, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Helsinki and CEO of GnS Economics. He discusses why it is likely President Donald Trump will fail to broker peace in the Ukraine proxy war thanks to the neoconservatives in his administration, the neocon faction’s priority shifting to stopping an alliance between China, Rus...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Renowned Writer, Filmmaker and Activist Tariq Ali. He discusses the mainstream media’s obsession with the World Economic Forum in Davos and why we may be closer to the end of the organisation than we imagine, Donald Trump’s regime change kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro to start 2026, his thoughts on the new Acting President Delcy...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago for our final episode of the year and season. He discusses Donald Trump’s foreign policy failures of 2025, the 12-day Israeli war on Iran, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and how his former defence lawyer Alan Dershowitz attacked him for exposing the Israel lobby, the threat the Israel lobby poses to...

News Politics On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Philip Pilkington, Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and Author of ‘The Collapse of Global Liberalism’. He discusses how the Ukraine proxy war has completely upended the Western economic and geostrategic calculus, the failure of the West’s logic in military procurement as proven in Ukraine and...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. Richard Spence, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Idaho. He discusses what is and what defines a society and the importance they have on elite decision making, the origins of the infamous Bohemian Grove and the influence it has had over Western politics, the Bilderberg Group and the who’s who of important members and the vett...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Max Blumenthal, Editor in Chief of The Grayzone. He discusses the Trump Administrations’ fabrications of left-wing terror plots to justify further repression, the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia and how Israel is exploiting it for furthering its aims of cracking down on anti-Zionist activism and pursuing a second war on Iran, how Israel’s campaig...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou. He discusses why the CIA is involved in drug trafficking and the purposes it serves, how the CIA works with Hollywood and the media to ensure the CIA is portrayed in a positive light, the mass control of the media by just 5 corporations and its effects on the American people, why there is no Gaza Peace Deal or even...

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Carlos Ron, Former Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister for North America. He discusses the mood in Venezuela as the threat of regime change attack from the US looms over the country, the new type of warfare being used against Venezuela by Washington, the lies being told by the Trump Administration and the media about Nicolas Maduro being the head of...