The Brief | The Man Who Texted Iran: Tucker, the CIA, and a Story That Just Gets Weirder
Also: six heroes deserve to be named, Kharg Island got bombed, Cuba set something on fire, and the new Iranian Supreme Leader may or may not exist.
It’s Monday!
How are we doing? Did we all have a fab weekend, or do we have the Monday drags?
Just in case you missed it. The Sunday Desk is back after my short hiatus due to the DIY takeover of my office. It includes the full details on my office makeover and a fascinating story of rebellion in Key West.
The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.
In today’s Brief:
Tucker Carlson says the CIA read his texts with Iran and is preparing to charge him as a foreign agent — and the full story is considerably weirder than the headline.
Six American airmen were killed when their refueling tanker went down in Iraq, and their families want you to know who they were.
Trump bombed Kharg Island, the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, 2,500 Marines are headed to the region, and Iran’s new Supreme Leader may or may not be breathing.
Cuba set a Communist Party headquarters on fire — and its president quietly admitted he’s been talking to Trump the whole time.
Iranian women soccer players were sent back to Iran under what appear to be coerced circumstances, because apparently the regime’s reach extends all the way to Australia.
The Tucker Carlson Saga: CIA Texts, White House Visits, and the Most Fascinating Question Nobody Can Answer
Let’s start with the story that broke the internet over the weekend.
Tucker Carlson posted a video to X on Saturday night claiming the CIA is preparing a criminal referral to the Department of Justice to charge him as a foreign agent — specifically under the Foreign Agents Registration Act — because he was texting with people in Iran before Operation Epic Fury began.
“The CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me,” Carlson said. “What’s the crime? Talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my texts.”
He denied being an agent of Iran, denied taking any foreign money, and framed the whole thing as politically motivated, tied to his criticism of U.S.-Israel policy. “Countries tend to become more authoritarian in wartime,” he said. Neither the CIA nor the DOJ confirmed or denied his claims.
Here’s where it gets genuinely interesting, and it’s worth noting fascinating but speculative, so treat it accordingly.
Tucker visited the White House three times in the weeks leading up to Operation Epic Fury, the last visit believed to be around February 23, five days before the war began on February 28. He’d been a vocal critic of the Iran war, calling the strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Trump publicly cut him loose on March 5, telling ABC News: “Tucker has lost his way. He’s not MAGA.”
Now here’s the speculation — and to be clear, this is analysis, not established fact: Did Trump know Tucker was communicating with Iran? And did those White House visits serve a purpose beyond a dressing-down? One widely circulated thread floated the idea that Trump, the master of misdirection, may have used Tucker’s Iran contacts as an informal back channel, feeding disinformation to Tehran through an unwitting (or witting?) intermediary.
Is it true? Unknown. But the circumstantial setup is undeniably wild: Tucker meets Trump repeatedly before the war. Tucker is simultaneously texting Iranians. The CIA allegedly has those texts, per Tucker. Trump publicly disowns him weeks later. And now Tucker is telling the world the deep state is coming for him.
However, let’s be honest, Tucker’s track record as a reliable narrator is, charitably, spotty. He claimed Qatar arrested Israeli Mossad agents for planting bombs, but that story vanished. He blamed Chabad for starting the Iran war. And his CIA claim echoes an almost identical story from 2021 about the NSA, which Axios later traced to routine surveillance of Russian officials whose conversations happened to include Carlson. Something similar could have happened here; his texts were swept up because the CIA was monitoring the Iranians on the other end. Marc Caputo of Axios posted an X-thread debunking the speculation, but also, it’s not as if the CIA or even Trump are known for showing their hand.
Is Tucker a pawn? A useful idiot? An accidental back-channel? Or just a guy who loves to provoke and couldn’t resist staying plugged in with Iranian sources?
The story is still unfolding. What we know for certain: the timeline is strange, the texts are real, and “I don’t expect this to go anywhere” is a very specific thing to say when you’re claiming the CIA is building a case against you.
Their Names Deserve to Be Said Aloud
Before anything else, we need to stop.
On March 12, a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during a combat mission in support of Operation Epic Fury. Not from hostile fire — from an incident involving another aircraft, which landed safely. All six crew members were killed.
The Pentagon identified them Saturday:
Maj. John “Alex” Klinner, 33 — left behind three small children, including 7-month-old twins. His wife wrote: “They won’t get to feel the deep love he had for them.”
Capt. Ariana Savino, 31 — MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.
Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34 — survived by her husband, their 3-year-old daughter, and stepson. Her father said: “She passed doing what she loved — fighting for this country.”
Capt. Seth Koval, 38 — 19 years of service, 2,076 total flight hours, 443 of them in combat.
Capt. Curtis Angst, 30 — aerospace engineering degree, loved by his wife Mary and their family who are “still in shock.”
Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28 — volunteered for the flight. Didn’t have to be on it. “Tyler’s smile could light up any room,” his family said.
Their deaths brought the total American service member toll in this conflict to at least 13. They were fueling a war so other aircraft could keep flying. That’s a job that doesn’t get the headlines, until it does. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine ordered flags flown at half-staff.
Kharg Island: Trump Drops the Hammer, the Strait Grinds to a Halt
Trump announced the U.S. had carried out one of the “most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East” on Kharg Island, the tiny Persian Gulf island that handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. He said every military target was “totally obliterated,” but the oil infrastructure was deliberately spared, for now. His warning on Truth Social left nothing to interpretation: “Should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”
The Strait has effectively ground to a halt. Only 77 ships crossed in all of March so far. Oil crossed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022. Gas nationally hit $3.63, and diesel is up to $4.89. The USS Tripoli with approximately 2,500 Marines is en route from Japan. Trump has also assembled a multinational coalition — China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK — to escort tankers through the strait.
And about Iran’s new Supreme Leader: Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t appeared on camera since taking power on March 8. His first formal address was text only. His supporters held a rally in Tehran and pledged allegiance to a cardboard cutout of him. Iran’s foreign minister insists he’s in “excellent health.” Trump told NBC Sunday: “I’m hearing he’s not alive.” Iran denied it. No camera appearance forthcoming, apparently.
Adding another layer to the mystery: Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by the Daily Mail, is reporting — unconfirmed — that Khamenei was secretly flown to Moscow on a Russian military aircraft, where Putin personally arranged emergency surgery on his leg. He's allegedly recovering at one of Putin's presidential palaces. Russia hasn't confirmed or denied it. Iran says it's false. Take it for what it is: unverified regional media gossip that happens to fit perfectly with everything else we're seeing. But if true, it would mean Iran's Supreme Leader is currently a guest of Vladimir Putin while the U.S. bombs his country. Which is a sentence I genuinely did not expect to type this Monday morning.
At least the cardboard version showed up.
Cuba Is on Fire — and Its President Has Been Talking to Trump
Something remarkable happened in Cuba this weekend, and it’s not getting enough attention.
Protesters in the city of Morón stormed the local Communist Party headquarters, throwing rocks, dragging furniture into the street, and setting it ablaze. Video shows the crowd approaching the building with flaming objects, throwing them inside, chanting “Libertad! Libertad!” and then what sounds like a gunshot.
Cuban state media denied that anyone was shot (shocking, I know) and announced five arrests. Researchers called it the most significant unrest in years, the first time protesters have targeted the party itself, not just police stations. The number of protests on the island went from 30 in January to 130 in the first half of March alone. The conditions that created Morón, one expert noted, “are still there and will remain there indefinitely unless something changes drastically.”
The backdrop: Cuba hasn’t received oil in three months due to Trump’s energy blockade. Power is out for hours daily. Food distribution has collapsed. And President Díaz-Canel did something remarkable: he publicly confirmed for the first time that Cuba has been in talks with the Trump administration seeking “a possible solution to the bilateral differences.” He called the fuel situation’s impact “tremendous.”
Trump confirmed the talks and said he’s hopeful about a deal. Breitbart ran with the excellent headline “Havana Lago?” Trump has previously said he has a “tremendous amount of Venezuelan oil” and vowed to “take care of Cuba” after the Iran focus wraps. The question now: do the protesters accelerate the timeline, or make it harder for Díaz-Canel to negotiate without looking like he surrendered to a mob?
Quick Rundown
Iranian women soccer players sent home under duress. Four of the seven players who sought asylum in Australia after refusing to sing the national anthem at the Asian Cup have returned to Iran. Their supporters say family members were detained or prevented from leaving Iran to pressure their return. The three players who came back were photographed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur in full hijabs, the same ones photographed without them during their brief window of freedom in Australia.
The American flag flies again in Caracas. The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela raised Old Glory for the first time in seven years, exactly seven years to the day after it was lowered. Following the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro in January and his extradition to New York to face narco-terrorism charges, diplomatic ties are being formally reestablished
Operation Epic Fury: 15+ days in. U.S. and Israeli forces have now hit more than 15,000 targets inside Iran since the war began. Over 2,000 people killed, most in Iran, plus significant casualties in Lebanon, the Gulf, and among U.S. service members. Trump declined to project an end date, saying Friday: “It’ll be as long as it’s necessary.”
Qatar halted LNG production; Saudi Arabia hit too. Overnight: Iran struck two Qatari gas facilities, halting liquefied natural gas production. Saudi Arabia suspended operations at its largest oil refinery after an Iranian drone sparked a fire. The Strait situation just got more complicated.
Your Turn
Two questions this week:
On Tucker: If the “Trump used Tucker as a disinformation conduit to Iran” theory turns out to be true, is that the most audacious strategic play of Trump’s presidency, or a disturbing example of the White House treating war like a reality show?
On Cuba: Protests are accelerating, talks are happening, and the regime is cracking. If you were advising Trump right now, would you press for full regime change and let the island collapse, or offer a deal that normalizes relations in exchange for reforms? What’s the right call?
Drop your thoughts in the comments.
See you Wednesday.
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