Iran Has Lots Of Secrets. Its War Plans Ain’t Among Them (S01E132)

Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Paris

Iran has been warning for months that it plans to escalate its war against the US unless the Americans take steps that include unfreezing its assets and acknowledging its authority over the Strait of Hormuz..

It has not only signaled such escalation. It has begun to implement its plans, activating or coordinating with proxy forces to spread the conflict from the Persian Gulf to the Levant, to Iraq, and to the Red Sea.

It recently listed all the sites it would strike if the US were to launch an attack on Iranian civilian infrastructure.

In the latest episode of badlands, I talk apart a recent Wall Street Journal article on Iran’s not-so-secret war plans. The report contained some nuggets of decent reporting, but was dishonestly framed as a revelatory scoop. It also depicted Iranians as devious warmongers and Americans as naive simpletons merely hoping to wind down the conflict.

Also in this episode, I speak about the latest security developments in the Gulf in an interview with India’s NewX World.

Finally, the episode includes a rerun of my interview with Ali Ahmadi, a former advisor to the Iranian mission to the United Nations, in which he discusses Iran’s military capacity—a topic that seems especially relevant at this juncture in the conflict.