Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for The Castle Report
NewsPoliticsNews CommentaryGovernment

The Castle Report

Darrell Castle

Defending Western Civilization

Play
Open in
  • 23 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 11 min
  • English

Episodes 23

NewestOldestLongest
All3Unplayed3In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • April 3 · 9 min

    The Restoration of Liberty

    Darrell Castle turns his attention away from the pressing issue of war and looks at Christians and Christianity as we near the end of Holy Week. Transcription / Notes: THE RESTORATION OF LIBERTY Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 3rd day of April in the year of our Lord 2026. I’m very happy that I have something to talk about besides war today. This is in fact Good Friday and in honor of that date and with Easter Sunday just a couple of days away I turn my attention away from the pressing issue of war and look at Christians and Christianity as we near the end of holy week. First, I want to say a few words about the title of this Castle Report and where that title comes from especially since we are currently in the 250th anniversary year of America. My argument is that the founders rather than trying to build a utopian perfect world were seeking the restoration of liberties they once had. The Declaration, written by Thomas Jefferson but inspired by the thinking and writing of John Locke and by the life and words of Jesus Christ as expressed by Jefferson as nature’s God reflect that desire for the return of liberty. They had witnessed the excesses of the French Revolution and the results of mob rule or what we today might call democracy and they sought to build something based on the rights of the individual rather than the collective and that is what for individuals is called liberty. They sought a way to protect the lives they had built in their world and the lives they fought for from the reach of foreign imperial rule. That is one reason why I cringe when America today goes abroad to impose its will on others especially when there seems to be no provocation. Speaking of foreign imperial rule an incident occurred this past Palm Sunday in the ancient city of Jerusalem in modern day Israel. There is a church located in the Christian quarter of the city known as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That church was built in the 4th century on the site where Jesus’ empty tomb was believed to be located. In other words, it is about 1800 years old and it is one of the holiest sites in all of Christendom. It is simultaneously the seat of the Armenian, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic Patriarchates of Jerusalem. Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, those gentlemen wanted to go inside the church to do a live simulcast to their congregations on that Palm Sunday but they were barred from doing so by the Israeli police. The announcement was made that it was for “security reasons” but no synagogues were closed that day. The church has a long history of remaining open even during two World Wars so the explanation was doubtful. Denial of the Church to the people was so outrageous that even U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee was critical. Huckabee is usually a spokesperson for the Israeli government and so his words stung a little. My understanding is that when Israeli authorities heard his mild rebuke they rescinded the order. I don’t know if that is true or not but in any event the Palm Sunday opportunity to minister to their worldwide congregations was lost. Meanwhile back in America a couple of incidents happened this Holy Week that are worthy of note. A young professional basketball player named Jaden Ivey lost his job because of his refusal to remain silent in the face of what he considered intimidation by his team regarding its affiliation with the LGBTQ community of activists and especially Pride Month celebrated in America in June. Jaden was raised in a basketball family and I guess it is in his DNA because his mother is currently the head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team. He had a stellar college career and was drafted by the Detroit Pistons where he spent several seasons. He also was selected to play on the U.S. national junior team. In February of this year, he was traded to the Bulls where he played in 4 games before suffering a season ending knee injury. He started to speak out against what he considered to be forced imposition of the LGBTQ agenda within the NBA. He said as a committed Christian he considered it “unrighteous.” He said a few other things such as he thought Catholicism to be a false religion. He made all these comments on his private twitter account but if you are an NBA player nothing you say is private so the Bulls quickly released him. To their credit they didn’t try to lie and say it was because of injury, etc. They announced the reason as conduct detrimental to the team which triggers a clause in his contract that permits them not to pay him his contract balance. So, they are, in effect, saying that expressing one’s Christian faith is conduct detrimental to the team. The problem for Jaden is that with a knee injury no one will sign him until they see proof of complete recovery so he should consider filing suit for religious discrimination and recovery of the balance of his contract. My guess is that on the contract at least, they would pay him. So, Christians are not welcome in the NBA or at least no vocal ones. It would be some justice if no Christians bought tickets or watched the team on TV so we will see. People voice their disapproval but nothing will change until we stop buying tickets.The Christian persecution, so evident in the NBA has also infected the NFL. Yes that’s right the mighty NFL bends its knee to the even mightier LGBTQ lobby. It seems that Jaden had some friends in the NFL who knew him and who respected his Christian faith. A player named Treveyon Henderson with the New England Patriots chimed in on his friend’s behalf. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Mathew 5:10.” Well that created quite a stir and in his required news conference New England Coach Mike Vrabel was asked about it. He made a long statement about how much he liked and respected Treveyon and how we want them, meaning players I guess, to be able to express themselves but we want them to be “educated.” My guess is that Treveyon’s education matches up quite well with his coach so I submit that what he really meant was reeducated. Perhaps the NFL is trying to bend to Communist China as the NBA has done. I understand they do some reeducating in North Korea as well. The Germans used to call it “ideological education.” So, Coach Vrabel is in good company when he wants his player to be educated. There seems to be a growing number of players across professional sports who are Christian and more and more are willing to say it publicly, but it is very obvious that their leagues and this modern immoral society would prefer that they remain silent. Well, this is Easter weekend and I’m paraphrasing now but when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the people cheered for him didn’t the Pharisees say rebuke your disciples and then he replied If they remain silent the stones along the rode will praise me. Finally, folks, I bring this Good Friday Castle Report to an end with a statement, just a feeling really and that feeling is that there is something going on in this world now that is different. Not just the open persecution of Christians or the obvious belief that the persecution is OK or even desirable, but the fact that this Mideast war seems different. The major religions of the world are looking at it from different positions and they see it through different books but they are saying this might be what our book has been pointing to. The Restoration of Liberty would help though. At least that’s the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

  • March 27 · 13 min

    The War Has Been Won

    Darrell Castle talks about war and the President's statement that it is basically over and we won. Is that statement true and what are the most recent developments in Iran. Transcription / Notes THE WAR HAS BEEN WON Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about war today and the President’s statement that it is basically over and we won. Is that statement true and what are the most recent developments in Iran. What is war but the most horrific thing in which a country, a people, can engage. It is killing on an industrialized scale and from the carpet-bombing campaigns of WWll to the guided munitions of today it is about killing. It is the young men of a country being ordered by the old men of that country to kill the young men of another country but they kill everybody, men, women, little schoolgirls, everybody. Unless done for purely defensive purposes it is immoral and unconscionable. Was Iran an imminent threat to the U.S. No case for that has been made as far as I know. Joe Kent, Counterterrorism Director said there was no imminent threat and his boss, Tulsi Gabbard, refused to state under oath that she knew of such a threat. Well, last weekend the President said he had quite enough of the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its impact of the world’s economies, it’s rapid increase in the price of fuel and the price of everything here in the U.S., and its downward effect on his poll numbers. He gave the Iranians 48 hours to open the Strait or he would destroy their power system by attacking power plants. Apparently, the new Supreme Leader of Iran was not amused nor was he in a mood to accept the threats. It appears to me that President Trump is desperate to end America’s part of this war with some kind of deal, any kind of deal that would free up the flow of oil. The new leader, Mr. Khamenei, has suffered enough he most likely thought, so why should he voluntarily end the President’s suffering. His father, his mother, his sister, his nephew and his brother-in-law were all killed by the U.S./Israeli military. His father was not only the Supreme Leader of Iran, but he was also the spiritual leader of his faith that being Shia Islam. So, let bygones be bygones the Americans said to him just move on there’s nothing to see here so let’s move on. He was not going to submit meekly to the threats and he said that if the U.S. attacks his energy, he would attack energy infrastructure all around the gulf. Once again the bible speaks to us and says, you reap what you sow. I am not sure right now who is in charge in Iran, of the speaking to diplomats or of the Iranian military because supposed leadership and armed forces leadership are often different. Americans play similar games because Trump is saying the war is over and we won and at the same time diplomats are begging to negotiate while the Israelis are still attacking. That, I suppose, is just psychological gamesmanship. Here’s a quote from Iran’s armed forces spokesman. “We are watching your cowardly officials and commanders, pilots and wicked soldiers. From now on, based on the information we have on you, the promenades, resorts and tourist and entertainment centers in the world will not be safe.” The U.S. warned Americans across the world to exercise increased caution. So, was this a threat to the start of another worldwide terrorism campaign against Americans amusing themselves. Well, perhaps because that’s the sound of it to me. Did he mean only the resorts in the Middle East such as those in Dubai or did he mean worldwide such as those in the U.S. Time will tell I guess but it was an ominous threat. Americans residing in Iraq were warned to leave immediately as well. Then we heard that Mr. Trump had decided to postpone the attacks for five days while negotiations were ongoing. It gets really confusing at this point because we are told that chief negotiator, Steve Wittkoff and Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, were at a point where a partial deal was in place pending further negotiating. The Iranians said that no deal was in place and further they would not speak to Wittkoff and Kushner anymore. If any further talking which had not occurred were to be done only J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio would be acceptable. I understand why they prefer Vance because for one thing he is Vice-President and for another he has been sidelined through all this and my guess is that he was opposed to the attacks in the first place. Trump has made many statements about offered solutions to the Strait including joint U.S. and Iranian control of it but recently he offered a 15-point peace plan to end the war. He once again said he would unleash hell if the plan was not accepted. The plan went something like this; without giving you all 15 points, the Strait would be opened immediately and remain open. Iran would reject nuclear weapons forever and cease enrichment of uranium. Iran would allow international inspections and abide by their decisions. Iran would restrict its missiles to the short-range defense only type and would immediately cease attacks around the region and would cease attacks through its various terrorist proxies. The U.S. would do its part by ceasing its bombing campaign and the U.S. would assist Iran with development of peaceful nuclear energy. Washington says it wants a framework agreement for a ceasefire until details can be negotiated over a period of a month. So, we are given some hope that the bloodshed might end soon, but as usual those hopes were dashed very quickly. Last Wednesday Iran completely rejected the 15-point plan and said it would not negotiate. Instead, it would run the Gulf shipping lanes along with its proxies in the area. Iran offered its own five-point plan in response most of which has zero chance of acceptance. They want the U.S. to fix or pay for the damage it caused in Iran. Iran continues attacks inside Israel and continues to attack Gulf States friendly to the U.S. Reportedly Bibi Netanyahu has urged Trump to not make a deal until all the Mullahs are gone from Iran. I have even seen a report that Mr. Bin Salman down in Saudi Arabia has joined Israel in that urging. Iran’s response is one of anger from their armed forces while diplomats pretend to talk. “Someone like us will not come to terms with someone like you” the IRGC spokesman says. Trump says we are in negotiations right now, but the Iranians, officially anyway, say no we are not so go figure. In the meantime, the U.S. is not acting as if this war is ending soon. The Saudi report also said that U.S. ground troops should be used to remove the Mullahs from power. Notice I said U.S. ground troops not Saudi ground troops. The U.S. has a Marine Expeditionary Unit on its way to the Gulf onboard an LPH. There is normally between 2500 and 5000 Marines in such a unit. This week about 3000 members of the 82nd airborne division have deployed to the Middle East. This historic division which jumped into occupied France prior to the D-Day landings in 1944 contains some of the best troops in the U.S. military. Trump says that he is confidant he is dealing with the right people. I know one thing he usually doesn’t bluff so these Marines and airborne troops are rather ominous to me and it is starting to take on an Armageddon type of vibe. The importance of all this to the world’s economies is enormous. Aside from the bloodshed and destruction the Gulf and its Strait connect the oil rich nations of the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world and about 30% of the world’s oil passes through that Strait every day. For some nations, such as China, the percentage is higher. Many other nations are very concerned about how the closure of the Strait effects their economies. India said it plans to deploy five warships near the Gulf to protect its interests. England, France, and Germany have all sent warships to the region but the British Navy is apparently not what it used to be. I guess it has been allowed to deteriorate because to this point the UK could only muster one out of date destroyer to contribute. In fact, listen to a few words from a recent article in European Business Magazine. “For over 300 years, Lloyd’s of London has underwritten maritime insurance for the tankers and cargo ships that carry the world’s oil, gas, and goods. Its dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint through which approximately 30% of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes represented one of the most quietly powerful financial monopolies in history. Control the insurance, and you control who can sail. Control who can sail, and you control the flow of energy that powers the global economy.” That article is really telling us that the 300-year imperial world order has changed and that created a vacuum and as we know power abhors a vacuum. Into that vacuum stepped the U.S. Navy offering the protection that insurance underwrites. The British Crown’s 300-year-old chokehold on global energy insurance has been severed by the U.S. when the UK got cold feet at the wrong moment. America now controls the physical protection of the most critical oil shipping lanes and the world knows it. The world order has indeed been changed on purpose or by accident it has changed. I wonder if the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is embarrassed by this development. My guess is that he is but he seems to have no idea about what to do. He is in the middle of a terrible scandal involving close associates of the PM and the Epstein files. He has a lot of Muslim voters in his country now so he doesn’t want to be seen as supporting Donald Trump and I suppose that contributed to the embarrassing decline of the British Navy which can’t even protect its own base in Cyprus. In conclusion, world order has changed for certain....

  • March 20 · 12 min

    Goodbye Joe

    Today, Friday, March 20, 2026, Darrell Castle talks about the resignation of Joe Kent as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and especially about the ramifications of the letter he publicly released explaining his resignation. Transcription / Notes: GOODBYE JOE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. I will be talking about the resignation of Joe Kent as Director of The National Counterterrorism Center and especially about the ramifications of the letter he publicly released explaining his resignation. Yes, Joe is gone and I for one will miss him in government because he was not afraid to ask questions and to encourage legitimate investigations into things which didn’t make sense from the official government explanation. First, let’s take a brief look at who he is and how he became Director of Counterterrorism. He was born April 11, 1980, so next month he will be 46 years old. He enlisted in the U.S. Army after 9-11 and made it through Ranger School where he served with the 75th Rangers. He requested special forces where he spent his 20-year army career. He served 11 combat tours in the Middle East wars. In 2018 he left the army and became a paramilitary operative for the CIA. He was married to Shannon and they had two children. She was also a military officer and a navy cryptologist and in 2019 while serving in Syria she was killed by a suicide bomber. If the loss of Shannon was as devastating for him as it would have been for me it’s easy to see why he left military service and tried to enter politics. He ran for the U.S. Congress in 2022 and 2024 winning the Republican primary but losing to the Democrat in his Washington district. He voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004 but then became more of a Libertarian and supporter of Ron Paul. I thought of him in Libertarian and Ron Paul terms while I was dabbling in politics myself. He liked the anti-globalist, antiestablishment message of Donald Trump and after Trump’s election in 2024 He eventually served as chief of staff to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. In July 2025 he was appointed Director of the Counterterrorism Center but from the start he had difficulties. I suppose that being on the inside of government exposes one to things that you either accept as part of the team or you become a pain in the butt to those who do. Joe made statements in favor of harsh views of Iran such as if it were up to me I would just take them out so something changed over the course of that year in his views. Well, Joe concluded that a foreign government was somehow complicit in the death of Charlie Kirk and he encouraged Tulsi, his boss, to look into it. When Kash Patel, the director of the FBI found out that Joe was doing that he took him off the President’s Daily Briefing group and he disappeared for a while. He, like Charlie, lobbied the President to resist the advice to go to war with Iran. Whether Joe was correct with the opinions he expressed in his resignation letter, or not it seems now that going to war with Iran was not a very good idea. Why, because you can bomb them ala Curtis Lemay, back to the stone age and they will just crawl out of the rubble and fire ballistic and drone missiles at the ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Ground invasion of Iran is impossible because of the terrain and size of the place but I just read where a Marine Expeditionary Force has boarded an LPH in Japan on its way to the Persian Gulf. I spent some time on LPH ships a little over 50 years ago so I know what those Marines are probably tasked with. The H stands for helicopters and that means the old days of Marines climbing down rope ladders to the landing craft are over. Everything is done by helicopter insertion and you need air superiority for that. I guess they have that except for the danger of some Iranian waiting in a spider hole with a man portable missile. Reports are that the Strait is about 90% closed to international shipping and it is damaging the world economy severely. The President calls on our former European allies but most decline as does NATO. Why would NATO decline to help keep the Strait open since they need the oil as much as anyone. I have a book in my library entitled Statesmen of the Lost Cause. It’s about the southern politicians of the Civil War of course, but it reminds me of the NATO refusal because those countries view it as a lost cause or a fool’s errand. The Europeans apparently view it as a lost cause but I do not because I know what the U.S. military can do especially when things look bad. The Europeans are certainly qualified to speak on lost causes because their entire bureaucracy known as the EU plus UK is a lost cause. They celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin but third world immigration has destroyed the cohesion of the Irish people. What they are really afraid of and angry about is that Donald Trump refuses to bend his knew to their global government run by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. However folks once again it seems that Ron Paul has been proven to have been correct in his warnings. “This is surely one of the worst military disasters in U.S. history. There are no military options available beyond the unthinkable, the use of nuclear weapons. The only viable option that remains is one that was often urged in the Vietnam War: Just get out. Now! No return to U.S. bases, no security guarantees to Gulf States. End the U.S. empire in the Middle East and elsewhere. If not, it’s only going to get worse.” Well, amen Doctor Paul but now let’s take a look at what Joe said in his letter of resignation. I won’t quote the entire letter but I will just give the paragraphs that have upset so many in the war/uniparty. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to out nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” To counter that statement the administration relies on Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who said his Israel pressure accusation was a false narrative started by Democrats and the liberal media. “As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the U.S. first. “ Yes Karoline we heard that explanation clearly from Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told us that if Israel attacked first Iran would attack U.S. interests and we knew Israel was going to attack. I would call your statement more in the nature of an admission than proof of a lie. From Joe’s letter: “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.” Well, Karoline responded by giving us a long list of threatening things Iran did and said before the attacks started. I say in response that Iran did not have two carrier battle groups deployed against the United States and it did not have strategic bombers such as the stealth bombers and the old but reliable B-52’s. The toothpaste is out of the tube now and things are being said that cannot be unsaid. This statement by a counterterrorism official is an open challenge to U.S. war justification and it has brought down on Joe’s head the kind of attacks one might expect. If you are critical of Israel or of U.S. military efforts on Israel’s behalf that makes you anti-semantic in today’s media world. The last report I saw about Joe was that he is currently being investigated for being a Nazi. Joe Kent is a 20-year military veteran of U.S. special forces and as he puts it a gold star husband. His wife, Shannon, a navy cryptologist was killed in in Syria by a suicide bomber in 2019. Everything he said in his letter seems true to me. I am certainly no insider but it looks obvious in the absence of conflicting evidence that his portrayal of the situation is accurate. Still, it seems irresponsible to write and publicize such a letter. I wonder if he could have gone to his superiors in private instead of this public letter while his country has troops in harm’s way. Oh, but he said he did do that by going to Tulsi and Vice President J.D. Vance both of whom apparently agree with him. Perhaps that is why they seem to have been sidelined while Marco Rubio who is Secretary of State, not National Security Director or Vice President always seems to be out front. He told them he was going to resign but I don’t know if he told them he would make it public. I’m guessing but my guess is that he got nowhere by making his views to those above him in private so he decided to go public. In conclusion: His letter seems very close to giving aid and comfort to the enemy while his country is at war. This is a very difficult decision and one I’m sure he gave a lot of thought. Those of you old enough to remember Vietnam might remember the same controversy with the Pentagon Papers but this letter is far worse because it is an accusation of massive death by mistake and deception. Another phrase I remember from Vietnam is my country right or wrong. Apparently Joe couldn’t take it anymore and had to let us know. Joe’s letter could have devastating effects on the mid terms as well as 2028. Could it be just raw political positioning i.e. those on record as opposing the war win and those who supported it lose. I suppose it’s possible but time will tell. Finally, folks,...

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes