Transcript: Lt. Col. Tony Aguilar’s Interview on The Tucker Carlson Show

And once he got out he went into some entrepreneurship with a post recovery alcohol hangover drink. I don’t know what it was called, but it kind of gave me pause to think that where’s the expertise, where’s the experience?

TUCKER CARLSON: Maybe he’s just a guy energy drink company.

TONY AGUILAR: Energy drink slash. It was advertised as the ultimate hangover beverage for the soft operator that has a few many drinks the night before can get ready for the mission the next day. That was kind of his claim to fame.

Even in his biography on the website for this company, he calls himself self titled. I’m not calling him this, this is not me saying it. He calls himself a derelict. So it just kind of gave me pause that this is, and I thought okay, maybe he’s just the owner. You know, sometimes the owners don’t necessarily contribute to the mission. But it did give me pause to think, how did all of this come together? How did all this come together so quickly in the hiring?

And yeah, so they called me and the question that I’ve had many a time that I often ask myself is why did you do it then?

The Decision to Join

TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah, that was my next question.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah, why. And I remember I sat when they called me, I said my answer is not yes. My answer is not no. I’d like to discuss it with my wife and just consider the timing and let me get back with you.

When I talked to my wife, I told her, I said hey, going into this full eyes wide open, this is going to be rough. It’s probably going to be dangerous because the amount of just what I see is like the lack of experience in planning to this magnitude. This is a seriously complex and seriously complicated mission that requires people that have deep experience in this. This is, again, as I’ve said, this is not a weekend job. This is not a “let’s just go try this out.” This requires depth of expertise which was not present.

I talked to my wife about it. My wife said, “Well, you know, you do have done a lot of that, so you can contribute, you can help, you can be of value.”

What I really believed in was that if the United States was going to go into Gaza proclaiming that our method is going to replace the U.N., we’re going to do this now. That I wanted to be a part of what I thought at the time was truly an American ideal, an idea of American exceptionalism, that America will go into the breach, into danger and will help.

That’s what I really felt like. I really felt like that America was putting a good foot forward in this to say, “Hey, we respect our ally, we don’t want to necessarily get involved or criticize the prosecution of the war, but we also realize and recognize a real need to end the starvation.” So I really felt that being a part of it was something that was in line with American values. I really wanted to be a part of it.

Addressing Claims of Being Fired

TUCKER CARLSON: So Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, I’m going to go through some of the claims they’re making that you were fired. Were you fired?

TONY AGUILAR: I was not fired. Not only was I not fired and I’ve brought some points to discuss to kind of lay out the pathway to my eventual termination in terms of me, they call contract termination that I terminated my contract in writing.

So in terms of contract termination, yes, my contract was terminated. I terminated it in writing. So essentially, yes, you could say that I quit in protest, much like those before me. Much like Jake Wood, former director of Gaza Humanitarian Validation, who stepped down in protest. The second in charge of the entire contract for UG Solutions, who on the 27th of May, with a very scathing email to the leadership, to the CEO, stepped down in protest. One of the operations directors in the higher level company of Safe Reach Solutions stepped down in protest.

I was not the first and I was not the last. When I did, I quit in a way to where I wanted to stay involved in the mission. So I had coordinated to work with Safe Reach Solutions again, the prime contract, to specifically be working on the humanitarian assistance team because that would put me in a position to where I could then influence how operations on the sites ran.

I would as the humanitarian assistance team person that had leadership to take charge and to plan accordingly. I could be in charge of how rules of engagement, standard operating procedures, distribution process, organization and planning. And I felt that it was better for me to stay and be involved than to walk away and just leave no one at the wheel.

So I did terminate my contract in writing on 13 June and provided it to the leadership in writing.

Setting the Record Straight

TUCKER CARLSON: And so just to be absolutely clear, you were not fired.

TONY AGUILAR: I was not fired.

TUCKER CARLSON: And you I suppose have the email resigning.

TONY AGUILAR: Not only do I have the email, I have the email chain, I have the actual letter itself that I wrote to them and you can read it yourself but this was provided in writing. And what I would continue to ask of UG Solutions and Gaza Humanitarian foundation with Johnnie Moore who, if he wants to say that I am a liar, I think that…

TUCKER CARLSON: He has said that you’re a liar.

Defending His Service Record

TONY AGUILAR: He has said that I’m a liar. And that’s unfortunate because he doesn’t know me. I have opinions about him, but I don’t know him either. But to say that I’m a liar. I served our country for 25 years in uniform, and what I would say is that America made me.

Graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. I served in the army for 25 years. Answered the call not just once, twice, three, four times, but 12 to fight in battle for the ideals of this nation. So for him to call me a liar, I think that all veterans and all Americans should take pause and think about who’s calling me a liar. Someone that has spent his entire life self serving with PR firms and selling Bibles and whatever else it is he does on the side. You know, who is Johnnie Moore?

TUCKER CARLSON: Do you know? Have you met him?

TONY AGUILAR: I have not met him. I didn’t shake his hand and talk to him. I saw him when he came to visit very, very briefly. So what I would call a photo op.

TUCKER CARLSON: So he does not work in Gaza?

TONY AGUILAR: Oh, absolutely not. He’s only, I mean, I think he’s only. So what’s interesting is that this entire time that this operation’s been going on now for, you know, operating since the 26th of May till now, so breaking 70 days, he’s only been there one time for a photo op. I find it appalling.

TUCKER CARLSON: He doesn’t work out of Gaza.

TONY AGUILAR: Absolutely not.

TUCKER CARLSON: He’s, I should say. We’ve put in three interview requests for Johnnie Moore.

TONY AGUILAR: He’s not even in Israel.

TUCKER CARLSON: Oh. So how is he running the Gaza.

TONY AGUILAR: Humanitarian foundation from his flat in Virginia, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know where he lives, but I know that he is not in Israel. He is not in Gaza. He doesn’t have an act. So it’s what it feels like to me is that the Gaza Humanitarian foundation is a side project, resume item for Mr. Johnnie Moore. It’s not something that he’s dedicated to and it’s not something that he has the expertise and the acumen to understand how to run.

Questioning Moore’s Qualifications

TUCKER CARLSON: Does he have any background in distributing humanitarian relief that you know of?

TONY AGUILAR: No. And what’s important to understand is that going with a missionary organization to somewhere and distributing some meals or providing, you know, religious support, that isn’t humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian assistance is an operation. It’s a very million people from starving.

TUCKER CARLSON: To death is different from, it’s not.

TONY AGUILAR: Just food, it’s water, medical, veterinarian services to make sure that we’re not, we don’t have a rabid animal population. It’s so many things that the experts within the United Nations that are educated, that spend their lives to become experts in, are very, very, very good at doing so. To think that we can just take that on and do it is, it’s a very arrogant way of looking at this problem.

TUCKER CARLSON: So Johnnie Moore has no background in this. He’s not there. I just saw him interviewed on Fox News and he suggested you and everyone else who’s criticized the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation are pro Hamas. Are you pro Hamas?

TONY AGUILAR: I am not pro Hamas.

TUCKER CARLSON: That’s a pretty heavy charge. I mean, Hamas is a designated terror organization.

TONY AGUILAR: Yes. I mean, that is a heavy charge to lay on somebody from such a, from an individual that carries such little weight. Yeah.

TUCKER CARLSON: So, okay, doesn’t sound like the Christian response to criticism to me, but what do I know?

TONY AGUILAR: Well, I would say on his appearance on Fox, you know, in just the short time I’ve been doing this with no PR firm and no polished background, I was a soldier. And after a soldier, I worked a blue collar job. And I call myself a husband and a father. I don’t call myself by any other name. And since this story has broke, from Hollywood to Bollywood, polar bears to penguins, people want this story because it’s the truth, not because of me. Because the world wants to hear the truth for once.

Responding to Organized Attacks

TUCKER CARLSON: It’s interesting though. I mean, the forces against you organized immediately and I mean they had a press conference attacking you.

TONY AGUILAR: They did.

TUCKER CARLSON: During that press conference which I watched, they didn’t respond to a single, not one of the allegations you made about their conduct in Gaza. Not one. Instead, it was a litany of attacks on you. So I just want to continue to go through some of them.

TONY AGUILAR: Absolutely.

TUCKER CARLSON: To get your response. So the most damaging in, from my perspective by far was the fact. And they showed the signal messages that you had written complimentary texts to the management of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation at the time. You now say you were dissatisfied with their conduct. Did you write those texts? And if so, why?

TONY AGUILAR: So those text messages that they had captured out of Signal Snapchats were something called impact statements. Those from me. Those weren’t to the leadership of GHF, nor were they to the leadership of Safe Reach Solutions. Those were specifically to the Americans on contract under UG Solutions. Specifically that is who I worked for and who I worked for.

Only the Chief Operations officer of UG Solutions who was forward at the time directed me in writing. I mean directed me in writing to daily create these impact statements to include a photo and something positive. At that point, the contractors were really run down. We were running 24 to 48 hours. There was very little organization and it was keen that everyone was becoming quickly unmotivated. So I was asked.

So I did send out a picture once from one of the days we were there. That was a nice photo of a boy who is happy. And I think it’s as a leader, which I am. Though I was not in a direct leader position there in the beginning, I was promoted to one. But leaders don’t gripe down. Leaders gripe up. As a leader, did I make my issues and my complaints and my dissatisfaction absolutely known to the leadership directly, in writing and in verbal? Absolutely.

But the contractors that are there, that are doing everything they can to the best of their ability with a complete lack of information. And I will also say that the Gaza Humanitarian foundation has set them up for failure with no legal protection. So my position in that was that I want to contribute to the mission and the men and my gripes and my issues are with the leadership. Okay, I was directed to do that.

TUCKER CARLSON: You’re saying that the text that they waved around at the press conference and the. Johnnie Moore.

TONY AGUILAR: Those are signal chats.

TUCKER CARLSON: Signal chat, yes, sir. Those were messages of encouragement to your men, not to the leadership of either organization.

TONY AGUILAR: I did not have any authorization or, nor did I have the capacity to send anything up and out. I had no contact information other than our signal chat groups for UG Solutions. I had no communication with anyone above that. There’s my communiques went to the men. Now they did go up to GHF from the COO of UG Solutions. He would send them up, but.

TUCKER CARLSON: Right.

TONY AGUILAR: They did not come from me.

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, so you were not. So your position is you were not complimenting the conduct of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. You were saying to the guys providing security for this benighted operation that, you know, they’re doing their best. Keep going, guys.

TONY AGUILAR: And for the most part, the 277 up to 314 men on contract. And I say men because they all are men. There were no females on the contract, no women on the contract. But so I use that term specifically. But the men on the contract majority are veterans, combat veterans, and they felt that they were doing the right thing.

The lack of leadership and guidance is what has led to where we are now. In fact, not just a lack of guidance, but the guidance of “do what the IDF do.” So not the lack of guidance, but the giving of just completely unethical and immoral guidance. That’s not how the United States. We don’t follow other people’s lead. We set the standard.

Proving His Field Presence

TUCKER CARLSON: So that raises the question that I’m going to ask you in just a moment, which is like, who’s working for whom here and where’s the money come from? But first let me get to one last criticism of you, which was that you weren’t even in the field very often. That’s what they’re claiming.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah. And you know, that’s both disappointing and surprising because every photo that they put in that PowerPoint to show different things are pictures that I took on location. I was on a distribution site in Gaza every day, 24th of May, mid SDS1. And I brought these for. You can see you can. So you can look at them there.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yep.

TONY AGUILAR: Every single day is a photo of me or a photo taken by me that the Gaza Humanitarian foundation then used in their public releases.

TUCKER CARLSON: You took all these pictures?

TONY AGUILAR: All of the photos that the Gaza Humanitarian foundation released publicly until 13 June were taken by me.

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay. Well, I guess that pretty much proves your point, doesn’t it?

The Domino’s Pizza Story

TONY AGUILAR: I was not only there, I was there when others were not. Case in point, we had, and you may found this story amusing, we had 30 Palestinian volunteers, local workers. So Palestinians that worked with us on the sites. In a lot of the photos, they’re the ones that you see with the blue vests. And they were there to work with us, to help with communication, to help, you know, they’re from the local population to help with the crowd as much as they could.

And they were brought onto the location, but GHF and SRS hadn’t budgeted the money to feed them. So for a foundation that’s supposed to be feeding people, thus far they’ve proven that they can’t even feed their own employees. So myself and one of the humanitarian team workers who works for SRS, there was nothing else we could do because it was Shabbat and everything was closed in Israel. The only thing open was Domino’s Pizza. So we ordered 32 Domino’s pizzas.

TUCKER CARLSON: From where? There’s a Domino’s in Gaza?

TONY AGUILAR: In Israel. Oh, in the Israeli side. And we went to go pick them up. And then with an armored vehicle, with armored personnel, myself and two others armed, we delivered Domino’s Pizza to security distribution site 1 so that the local Gazan workers or the local Palestinian workers could eat that night. Because GHF and SRS had no plan in place to feed our local Palestinian workforce, we delivered them pizza. I would also like to add that we did it in less than 30 minutes.

TUCKER CARLSON: I hope they tipped you so. It sounds so. I think you’ve, to my satisfaction, you’ve batted down the three main claims they made against you. But those are not the only claims. I don’t know if Gaza Humanitarian foundation or Johnnie Moore is saying this directly, but your family’s been attacked.

TONY AGUILAR: Yes.

TUCKER CARLSON: Extensively.

TONY AGUILAR: Yes.

TUCKER CARLSON: Since you told your story, where’s that coming from and what’s your reaction to it?

TONY AGUILAR: I think that there’s a lot of, so a lot of attacks and, or hate against my service record that.

TUCKER CARLSON: Were you honorably discharged?

Military Service and Credentials

TONY AGUILAR: Not only was I honorably discharged, I was honorably discharged under what’s called a 100% combat related special compensation, which is rare. So in the military, when you retire, there’s the VA process, separate process. Everybody can apply to that through the military, through DOD, there’s the combat related special compensation process to where if what you’ve endured is directly as a result of combat, you can have a further special compensation.

Not only am I a 100% totally and permanently disabled US Army veteran, honorably discharged with honors, the Army has also credentialed me with 100% combat related special compensation, meaning that my injuries and wounds afford me to where none of my income is taxed because of the sacrifice I made for this country.

TUCKER CARLSON: And you were commended and awarded a medal for bravery, at least one. So what’s the criticism exactly of your service record?

Responding to Online Attacks

TONY AGUILAR: So individuals who think that they know me, who don’t. Again, all of these people that have attacked my family and I, we find it amusing because they all do it from behind a keyboard, from behind some Twitter handle. No one’s come on the record. Here I am on the record. My name, my reputation, my life. You can find me on the Internet. I’m here. But people that choose to attack me do it behind a pseudonym or behind their keyboard.

If America thinks that anybody should trust that, I don’t think most Americans do. And the attacks I’ve had is that, “Oh well, of course he’s never seen anything that brutal before because while he was SF, he never saw combat. He didn’t command a Special Forces company.”

And what I would like to say to people out there that think otherwise: not only did I command a Special Forces company in 3rd Special Forces Group, 1st Battalion, I was also the battalion’s executive officer and deployed that entire battalion to combat. I was then offered a second command to command the United States Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School.

So not only did I command a Special Forces Operational Combat Unit, I also commanded the United States Army’s SERE School at Fort Bragg. So for anybody that wants to say that, “Well, he commanded here and didn’t command that,” you can FOIA my DD214 and you can read it.

TUCKER CARLSON: I don’t. I’m a little confused though. What exactly did you do wrong? And they attacked your marriage. They attacked your wife.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah.

TUCKER CARLSON: Your service record. There’s no evidence that any of it’s true. I’ve looked into all of it. They’re lies. At least that’s my conclusion. But what exactly is your crime? What did you do wrong?

The Value of Military Command

TONY AGUILAR: In the United States Army to make it to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, people talk about colonel, general officer. Those are all nominative. Those are like icing on the cake. The golden pen, the golden watch, if you will, is O5 Lieutenant Colonel Command Select Battalion command. And I commanded a battalion, an operational battalion that deployed.

For people to say that, “Oh well, he commanded this battalion instead of that battalion” from coming from people that have never commanded. These individuals that bash me online never held a command in their entire lives.

TUCKER CARLSON: But why are they bashing you in the first place? I don’t understand. So here’s the story you just told. You get out. Long lifetime, 25 years, distinguished career, highest level. And then you work at Lowe’s home and garden center and run a Cub Scout troop. And then you decide you’re going to go over and try and pass out food to starving people. And then you decide what they’re doing is immoral and you say so.

I mean, those all seem like the right thing to do. I don’t really know. Where’s your crime exactly? You criticize the behavior of a company that’s serving a foreign government and that makes you a criminal. Or like, why are you being attacked? I don’t really get it.

The Truth Will Come Out

TONY AGUILAR: I think that the criticism of something that is very lucrative when it comes to money. So I would contend, although I have no proof because I have no way of knowing this. I don’t even know. I haven’t even seen the posts myself. And to be quite honest, they’re clowns that my family members have looked at them and they’re all under. I think one guy calls himself “Green Beret Nap Time.” I’m really going to lose sleep over what that guy thinks of me.

So part of it is ignorance. People who haven’t been there think they know because of what they heard from their buddies who also haven’t been there. To the men that are there, mark my words, because I have lived it. When they come home and the adrenaline wears off and the $1,380 a day stops and life goes back to normal and you have to look at your children and you have to look at your wife and you have to look at yourself in the mirror, it’s going to come to you.

And when that day comes, you’re going to want to tell the truth. I’ve seen it. I was on site with these men where they see things and they’re like, “What are we doing? That’s not right. That shouldn’t be.” And it’s easy to ignore it when you’re in Gaza where seemingly people don’t care. Where you can report 30 deaths outside of a distribution site and have Johnnie Moore say it didn’t happen and get away with it. It’s criminal.

Johnny Moore’s Deflection Tactics

TUCKER CARLSON: Johnnie Moore said it didn’t happen.

TONY AGUILAR: Johnnie Moore seemed to deflect every instance of. And again, what I find interesting is that the people that are coming out and speaking to the atrocities aren’t Hamas. Doctors, surgeons, Americans.

TUCKER CARLSON: Johnnie Moore says they’re pro-Hamas.

TONY AGUILAR: Oh yeah. Anybody that has anything critical to say of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation automatically becomes labeled by Mr. Johnnie Moore as Hamas. And that is dangerous. This is not the 1950s. I’m a patriotic American.

TUCKER CARLSON: Well, didn’t you spend like decades fighting radical Islam with a rifle?

TONY AGUILAR: Spent decades fighting radical Islam from grassroots to long entrenched radical Islam in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Southeast Asia. Even new radical Islam in the Middle East is a different flavor than the old entrenched grassroots radical Islam in Southeast Asia. And I have been a part of both.

TUCKER CARLSON: So how does it feel to be written off as a Hamas supporter?

TONY AGUILAR: Me?

TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah.

TONY AGUILAR: If it came from anybody that I held to be credible, maybe I would care. But I mean, who is Johnnie Moore? I think yesterday when he was on Fox, it made my heart warm that you could hear outside of the Fox studio the protesting. In fact the host said, “We have some people outside exercising their constitutional rights.” And yes, continue the protest, go to his house and protest because he is lying to the American people. And it’s really sad.

So if Mr. Johnnie Moore wants to call me Hamas or call me a name or say that I don’t know what I’m doing or say that I’m a liar, it matters not to me because the American people know better. Show us your books, Johnnie. Show us where the money comes from.

The Money Trail Mystery

TUCKER CARLSON: So what do you know? I know you made it clear that you didn’t work for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but you worked providing security for them through a couple of different layers. But where does their money come from?

TONY AGUILAR: I don’t know. And what’s appalling to me is that that exact same question you asked, sir, is the same question that every member of Congress that I spoke to over the last two weeks has asked me.

TUCKER CARLSON: I mean, you’ve made the point and you did the math on it, that they are not feeding the population of Gaza despite what they say, and they can’t because they don’t have enough distribution centers. They’ve got three working distribution centers in a country of over 2 million people. So that just doesn’t make any sense. But they are bringing in truckloads of food. Who’s paying for that? I mean, there’s money here, right?

TONY AGUILAR: There’s money, there’s a lot of it.

TUCKER CARLSON: And there’s no indication of where it’s coming from at all.

TONY AGUILAR: No indication. The only indication anyone has to include, again, not just lonely old me, but Congress. Our United States Congress has no idea where the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s money comes from other than the $30 million that came through the State Department last month.

TUCKER CARLSON: Who do they work for? Do we know?

TONY AGUILAR: Don’t know.

The IDF Connection

TUCKER CARLSON: So, I mean, Gaza is controlled by the Israeli military. In fact, the Prime Minister of Israel just announced 20 minutes ago that the Israeli military is now going to occupy all of Gaza. So they must work for the IDF. I mean, I can’t. Do you think that they do?

TONY AGUILAR: From, in terms of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at that level, that high level, I can’t say. I would think that there’s probably a higher entity. Now Safe Reach Solutions, which is the actual contract mechanism, like the actual execution of the contract does answer to. And the client is the IDF. And that was told directly to me, looking at me in my face by the officer.

TUCKER CARLSON: They’re the contractor that provides security or…

TONY AGUILAR: Everything else as well, for SRS. Yeah. So SRS, one of the subcontractors is UG Solutions for security. One of the subcontractors is another company called Arkel out of Louisiana. It’s very hard to find anything about them. They provide the trucking and the driving. And then there’s another company called LMCC underneath SRS, that’s an Israeli company that provides the construction materials for the sites.

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, so Safe Reach Solutions is the contractor that handles, like, all the details for passing out aid from building the facilities to providing men with guns to protect them.

TONY AGUILAR: SRS is what most people would think GHF would be doing, right?

TUCKER CARLSON: Exactly.

TONY AGUILAR: Yes.

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, so. And they work for the IDF?

TONY AGUILAR: Yes, sir.

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, so this is an IDF operation.

Military Operations and Population Control

TONY AGUILAR: I mean, the way I would describe it is that the United States is providing a humanitarian assistance mechanism that is not providing food nor water nor assistance. That what I would call is an appendage of the Israeli Defense Force.

So if you consider the combat operations that have been going on in southern Gaza, in any combat operation, you have an offensive force and you have a sustainment force. You have a shaping force. If the active combat activated combat reserve units in the south are the combat component, conducting offensive operations, SRS, thereby Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, I would call shaping operation number one: displace the population, move the population. Allow for phase two, the ending of Operation Gideon’s Chariots that just ended last night. That started when we got there, like the day after we got into country.

TUCKER CARLSON: What was the purpose of that operation?

TONY AGUILAR: To clear the entire central portion of the enclave of Gaza. Yes, from what’s called the Morag Corridor, which runs east to west, just north of the sites through Rafah, Mawasi, Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, up to the Netzarim Corridor.

So that was the objective of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which as of last night came to an end. Highly criticized because they didn’t accomplish that task entirely. But now they’re shifting into the next phase, which from a military perspective, if you are trying to absolutely destroy a nation, that’s exactly what you would do. You conduct wide area security, you conduct offensive operations, you establish control, and then you occupy. And that’s what they’re doing.

The Reality of Combat Operations in Gaza

TUCKER CARLSON: What’s happening in Gaza is often described as a war. And you said you heard and saw small arms fire, mortars, artillery barrages, but they were all coming from the IDF. Did you see counter fire? Were they fighting against an armed enemy? Was it actually a war? Did you ever see any Palestinians committing acts of violence when you were there?

TONY AGUILAR: In all the days that I was there. And again, GHF, whose lawyers and their press personnel have gone there for some photo shoots. I’ve been to every site. I’ve seen the IDF around every location. I’ve seen the IDF operational graphics and array of their battle forces, seen it with my own eyes. I have never in the entire time that I was there at every site seen an armed Palestinian.

TUCKER CARLSON: Not one.

TONY AGUILAR: Not one.

TUCKER CARLSON: So the artillery, the mortars, the small arms, I mean, these were. They were not defending themselves?

TONY AGUILAR: No, sir. The IDF. You again, I’d like to clarify in terms of the position that the IDF is in, the Israeli Defense Forces, the position that they’ve been put in in the south is untenable, operationally unsound. And they shouldn’t be to have active. And I put that on GHF because when the IDF said, “Here are these sites,” we put them in operational combat zones.

That’s why Jake Wood stepped down. Jake Wood, on the 26th of May, day one. Cut the ribbon, Yellow Shuffle or Golden Shovel? Here we go. Supposed to give us a big pep talk. He stepped down.

TUCKER CARLSON: And who is he exactly?

TONY AGUILAR: Jake Wood was the previous Johnnie Moore, if you will. He was the guy in charge of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that as soon as this thing kicked off, we’re going live. He stepped down. And then members.

TUCKER CARLSON: Have you ever explained why he stepped down?

TONY AGUILAR: I have not. I’ve never met the man. I don’t know much about him other than when we were about to kick the whole thing off. There was going to be this, you know, kind of this pep talk, you know, great. You know, go forth and do great things. And then it was, “Hey, pep talks canceled because he stepped down.” It was kind of. It left kind of us, kind of a lot of us just thinking, what is this?

Contractor Reactions to Violence

TUCKER CARLSON: So this all starts. You were there from the very beginning. There are almost 300, a little over 300 American contractors providing security. When you start to see the Israeli military shooting unarmed people, including children, does anyone talk about this at night like, “I can’t believe what we’re watching?”

TONY AGUILAR: Yes. And in fact, in some of the videos that have been taken that I’ve taken, I think it’s another interesting story to go down the. You know how the videos got released? Because UG Solutions released them themselves, which was ironic.

But in one of those videos, I’m walking and one of the other contractors with me says, “It shouldn’t be this way. It didn’t have to be this way. We didn’t need to do this.” And what he’s talking about is the fact that the Palestinian crowd was calm and controlled and they were leading. We held off.

When you’re trying to push thousands of people through a very small exit, it doesn’t happen quickly. So as they’re leaving, UG Solutions personnel following the lead of the. That’s what the IDF do. Spraying with pepper spray, stun grenades, warning shots. This contractor, he’s walking next to me and he says, clearly it’s in the conversation of the video. “Shouldn’t be this way. We shouldn’t be doing this. It didn’t have to be this way.”

And I said, and I say to him in the, be like, “Hey, you know,” because he was, he was one of the leaders of the mobile team. He wasn’t in charge on site, so he was just a, he, he didn’t have the authority. But I was like, “Hey, you did it.” He did a very good job of maintaining his composure. And I said, “Hey, you did a good job. This isn’t on you. You know, we did, you did what you could,” but people recognize it and people are coming forward.

There are a number of, at least close to a dozen now of other contractors that have either come out off the record and some that will soon that are multiple coming on the record. So the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, they can bash me, bury me, make fun of me all day. One, it doesn’t bother me. Got no I’ve got skin in this game. But what they think bothers me not others are coming behind me.

Is GHF going to call everybody a liar? Are they going to call everybody a disgruntled employee? Was I disgruntled?

TUCKER CARLSON: Everybody a Hamas supporter?

TONY AGUILAR: Everybody’s a Hamas supporter. All of these American veterans that raised their right hand to serve our country in uniform for decades when Johnnie Moore didn’t serve his country a day, he’s going to call us all Hamas. He’s going to, he’s going to call us all liars. We’re all disgruntled employees.

So put that on me. Put it all on me. I support Hamas. Say it. I, I, I’m a horrible employee. I, I didn’t perform. Say, say your worst. Because those that are coming behind me, you going to say that about them too? You can’t. And the truth is coming.

Assessment of IDF Forces

TUCKER CARLSON: What did you think of the IDF? Did you deal with them when you were there?

TONY AGUILAR: I did. The Israeli Defense Forces in the. That were specifically activated to conduct operations in the south in Gaza were reserves.

TUCKER CARLSON: Right.

TONY AGUILAR: Reserves called forth rapidly. So there wasn’t a lot of training. Almost none. I think they probably got even less training than the UG Solutions guys did before they went in. And that’s pretty abhorrent. Not disciplined, not professional soldiers. It’s not. It’s not what they do. Not impressed with their, with their proficiency and performance.

Because granted, as a reserve force that’s called up and immediately put into combat, when the United States calls up reserve forces, we put them through an extensive preparation, for sure, absolutely. They’re, you know, because it’s not their profession. These soldiers didn’t get that. And they were thrown into the fire, thrown into the fire by the Israeli government into a precarious, untenable situation that, that no army should have to deal with. You should not put food distribution sites in an active combat area.

TUCKER CARLSON: What did I mean? Were there officers aware of the fact that they were shooting kids?

TONY AGUILAR: I believe that they were. They were all aware. And I. And I think that on the. At the lower level, and it’s starting to. It’s starting to come out now. There are. There have. Every day there are more and more IDF soldiers that are returning home.

Again, as I said, when these contractors come home and the adrenaline’s gone and you’re not living and you’re not in the situation anymore, and you have to look yourself in the mirror and those things come back to you. That we shouldn’t have done, that we shouldn’t have allowed that. Same thing that’s happening with these IDF soldiers. They’re reservists. They’re in there for 90 days. They come home almost like clockwork.

As they come out of that, as they come out of the field and they decompress, they have to look at themselves in the mirror. When you’re in there and you’re in war and the fog and friction of war. Alter your compass. Alter your. Your azimuth, you will. Your moral compass. And when you step back into society where there’s expectations of civilization and that moral compass straightens up again, there’s a lot to answer for. It’s happening. A lot of the IDF that are there that are serving are coming out and saying, like, “Yes, we were ordered to shoot the children. We were ordered to shoot.”

TUCKER CARLSON: By their officers.

TONY AGUILAR: By their officers, by their units.

The July 16th Incident at Distribution Site Three

TUCKER CARLSON: You mentioned a few. A food distribution site where there were 30 dead bodies.

TONY AGUILAR: That was, it was 20. Yes, that was secure distribution site number three, on the 16th of July.

TUCKER CARLSON: How do you kill 20 people? Was there like a revolt of the people? Do they go after the IDF or how does that happen?

TONY AGUILAR: So it’s a lot of people. I was not physically there. However, what. What GHF put out in their press release was that it was a stampede. It wasn’t away from the site, it wasn’t near the site. It was on the site. It was smack dab in the middle of the distribution site where. Where starving human beings are collecting food. It was a stampede. That stampede killed 20 people. Now they say that one was stabbed. I’ve never seen any documentation of that, but 20 were killed.

TUCKER CARLSON: So if you fire live ammo, was there live ammo being fired?

TONY AGUILAR: Absolutely. As quote, unquote. Again, the. Even the. The lawyer for UG Solutions who spoke against me said that “Aguilar is a liar. Though our forces may shoot warning shots at their feet and over their heads, we don’t shoot at them.”

Well, thank you, Mr. Contract Attorney, for admitting to a war crime on the record. Because shooting at an unarmed population, targeting. Shooting at them, shooting in their direction intentionally to control them is specifically prohibited in the protocols of the Geneva Convention. So thank you, Mr. Attorney, for putting that on the record.

TUCKER CARLSON: When people get shot to death or trampled at a distribution site, what happens to the bodies? Does Gaza Humanitarian Foundation bury the bodies?

TONY AGUILAR: Oh, no, no. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Safe Reach Solutions. UG Solutions. We don’t have anything to do with it. The IDF will come in, collect up the bodies and.

TUCKER CARLSON: Or.

TONY AGUILAR: Or the IDF will allow the International Red Cross Red Crescent to come in and take the bodies, in this case from site number three to the Al Nasser Hospital.

And what I find interesting, in that very instance, that same day, July 16, 20 people killed on Site 3. GHF even put it in a release, sadly, to report that 20 Palestinians or 20 civilians were killed on site. Hamas did it. Hamas started the stampede. But then when the hospitals. When the surgeons in Nasser Hospital said, “We received 30 dead bodies from. Or excuse me, 20. 20 dead bodies from this site,” IDF and GHF said they’re lying.

You just, you just said that 20 people were killed on your site. Now the doctors are coming forward and saying, “Yes, we did receive 20 trampled dead bodies.” Now you’re saying they didn’t.

TUCKER CARLSON: How did Hamas kill. Trample the people to death?

TONY AGUILAR: The claim is that on site number three, that day Hamas incited a stampede.

TUCKER CARLSON: How?

TONY AGUILAR: That is absolutely ludicrous. Site number three, on 28 May, site number three had a very similar situation. Site number three is each site’s kind of got its own flavor, if you will. Each site’s kind of like its own, its own arena. Site number three, because it’s right in the middle of between site number two and an IDF base, it’s very canalized.

When the foot traffic from the Morag corridor comes south into the site, it’s very congested, it’s very tight and the exit is very tight and the exit is also very constrained with debris, just mounds of rubble. So when the people are leaving, there’s really nowhere for them to go except continuing to be pushed through this small exit. It is the perfect setting for a stampede of human beings. It’s, it’s, it’s. If it was created for that. On the, on, on 28 May site bottleneck. It is a bottleneck surrounded by razor wire and surrounded by fighting positions where.

TUCKER CARLSON: IDF have machine guns and they’re firing live rounds.

TONY AGUILAR: Firing live rounds. When you hear UG Solutions or anyone talk about a quote unquote “warning shot,” there’s no such thing as a warning shot.

The Myth of Warning Shots

TUCKER CARLSON: I’ve never heard of that before. What does that mean?

TONY AGUILAR: The United States military doesn’t use it because firing a bullet is firing a bullet. Escalation of force would be for an example if I was in Baghdad as a combatant, an actual under Title 10 authority under the United States Constitution, fighting as a, as a belligerent in war. I can’t just walk up to somebody and be like, “Oh, that looks like Al Qaeda. I’m going to shoot them.”

There’s to be a threat and the process of that threat where unless you are engaged in active combat, you feel a threat. It’s typically you, you have signage like “Hey, don’t go past this point.” Right. Then you shout show and then you shoot. And when you shoot, you shoot to kill. You’re not shooting a warning shot. Warning shot is such a misnomer. It’s not a thing.

TUCKER CARLSON: Bullets are these 5.56 rounds.

TONY AGUILAR: They are not only 5.56 rounds, they are 5.56m 855 Green Tip Steel core armor piercing rounds.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yep. So what’s the lethal distance of around like that fired flat? Like how far does it travel?

Weapon Range and Civilian Safety Concerns

TONY AGUILAR: Well, considering if I was on an M4 range, I’m shooting at, for a qualification, I’m shooting out to 300 meters at the furthest pop-up target. Maximum effective range with that M4 is out to 500, but out to 800 to a thousand in terms of where the bullet travels with its velocity.

TUCKER CARLSON: That’s what I’m saying.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah. Very far.

TUCKER CARLSON: So if you’re firing thousands of rounds, even if you’re firing over people’s heads, where do those bullets go?

TONY AGUILAR: Where are those bullets going? When UG Solutions says we fire towards the sea, the sea’s a big place. And the sea crashes into a beach. And what’s along that beach on the coastal road in Gaza? Hundreds of thousands of civilians.

So when UG Solutions says that our men fire into the air or towards the beach, well, thank you again, Mr. Attorney, for just verifying to the world that you are shooting bullets into a crowd of unarmed civilians. Because what lines the entire coast from north to south of the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza? Thousands of human beings.

Unprecedented Military Conduct

TUCKER CARLSON: Have you ever seen anything like that anywhere else? You had 12 deployments.

TONY AGUILAR: I have never experienced, witnessed, been a part of anything that was that uncontrolled, undisciplined, barbaric, immature, and what I would call just reckless endangerment. We are not dealing with belligerent combatants. UGS contractors in Gaza are not belligerent combatants – they’re on a tourist visa. Tourists. And you carried a firearm, fully automatic firearm.

TUCKER CARLSON: Where’d you get the gun?

TONY AGUILAR: UG Solutions provided them to us from an Israeli company called IWI. It’s an Israeli company that makes this weapon. All of our weapons, our shotguns, our pistols, our machine guns, our fully automatic rifles, all came from IWI.

TUCKER CARLSON: So you land on a tourist visa and they hand you an automatic rifle.

Lack of Proper Training and Qualification

TONY AGUILAR: And we didn’t qualify on it either. We did not qualify on our weapon system, which was a requirement in the contract. Which is why I brought this up as a point, because zeroing your weapon – you calibrate the weapon to you. Qualifying is a whole other stage. Once you zero the weapon and it’s calibrated to you, you demonstrate your proficiency. Can I use this? Even the most elite of military forces zero and qualify on any weapon.

TUCKER CARLSON: That they use immediately.

TONY AGUILAR: Immediately. It’s the first thing you do. In fact, the contract itself states that we must demonstrate proficiency and qualify on our weapon before we can go into Gaza. No one, not one person, qualified on their weapon system.

TUCKER CARLSON: They handed you a rifle and…

TONY AGUILAR: Handed us rifles, pistols and machine guns, of which we didn’t qualify on any of them.

TUCKER CARLSON: Had you operated those specific weapons before?

TONY AGUILAR: No. I mean, very few people. Maybe there are a couple guys that are enthusiasts that have rifles that may have an IWI rifle. I’d never heard of it. I don’t own one, but no.

TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, these are actually manufactured by IWI.

TONY AGUILAR: Manufactured, not just given to us by IWI. These are IWI rifles made in Israel.

TUCKER CARLSON: You never operated that kind of rifle before?

TONY AGUILAR: I would say the majority, very probably very few if any of the contractors had ever operated that weapon. I had never even seen one. I wasn’t even aware they gave it to me. And when they first handed it to me and I looked at it and the options were safe, single, fully automatic, I was like, “Whoa, this is serious.” Not even the United States Army infantry gives weapons that are fully automatic for humanitarian assistance.

Inappropriate Ammunition for Civilian Areas

TUCKER CARLSON: Loaded. They give you ammunition as well.

TONY AGUILAR: 210 rounds of M855 Green Tip steel core armor penetrating ammunition.

TUCKER CARLSON: Why green tip ammo?

TONY AGUILAR: I really don’t… Well, again, the Israelis gave us that.

TUCKER CARLSON: But is there a reason?

TONY AGUILAR: You wouldn’t give someone that type of ammunition in a very closed condensed space like that unless you either had no regard for human life, civilian human life, or you were intentionally trying to kill civilians at distance.

When we were given that ammunition, I thought it was absurd. I was like, “I thought we were going into Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and we had a weapon only to defend ourselves against an imminent threat of death.” Meaning I don’t pull that trigger. Not a warning shot, not a celebratory shot. I do not pull that trigger unless I am directly threatened with the imminent threat of death.

So why are you giving me steel core armor penetrating ammunition that can shoot through sand berms like a hot knife through butter? What are we doing? Well, that’s what the IDF gave us. That’s what we’re going to use. I’m like, “Yeah, but aren’t we paying for it? It’s part of the contract, right? We’re paying for it. Can’t we dictate what we buy?” Well, this is all they have. And I’m like, “That’s not true. That’s entirely not true.”

The Water Crisis

TUCKER CARLSON: So you passed out food. Your job was to provide security at sites where they were passing out food. But you have said that they didn’t pass out water because it was too expensive. How does that work exactly? Is there a lot of water in Gaza? And the food you’re passing out requires water to cook it, right? It was like dried beans and corn and stuff.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah, it’s kind of like your kid turns 16 and they walk outside and you got the big bow on the Pontiac and it’s like, “Happy birthday.” And you give them the keys and it’s got no gas in it. Real jerk move, right?

So to give people food that requires water to cook it, and then give them no water, and in order to get to the food, they have to walk 8 kilometers and then walk 8 kilometers back to their house to cook it, and you give them no water. It’s so inhumane and evil that it can only be deliberate.

TUCKER CARLSON: Is there a lot of water in Gaza?

TONY AGUILAR: There’s none. I mean, other than cisterns from rainwater, remnants of old wells that may be still operating at a very low level. But in terms of municipal type water, fresh water, tap water? Absolutely not.

TUCKER CARLSON: So how do… I mean, is anyone else bringing water into Gaza?

TONY AGUILAR: No.

TUCKER CARLSON: No water?

TONY AGUILAR: No. That’s why if you saw on the news today, just today, and this is not just in Western media, this is in Israeli news. N12, Channel 13. I watch all the Israeli news, breaking news on my phone. I’m just into it now. And the now realized danger is that they’re critically low in running out of water, which should not surprise anybody. How would they be getting it? The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation isn’t providing any.

Raising Concerns About Water

TUCKER CARLSON: Did you bring this up?

TONY AGUILAR: We brought this up on the very first day. And not just myself, other contractors, other people that have a conscience that were like, “Okay, I see this child or this woman breaking into a box of food, and it’s all dried goods. No prepared goods. All dried goods that require water to make, that require effort to make. There’s no water.”

And we asked that and we were told, “Well, the IDF said no to water.” Well, who’s in charge here? I mean, I thought we were doing the humanitarian aid. “Well, we are, but we’re not going to push back on it because water would be three times more expensive per truckload than we can bring in, equal to that of three trucks of food. And more food is better than limiting that per water.”

And I’m like, “I think someone that was actually educated in humanitarian assistance and providing humanitarian aid and someone that was a nutritionist that was well versed in feeding people would probably disagree with that.” I would disagree with that. Water. In the United States Army, if you’re in the field and conducting combat operations, I mean, not having water is a sin. You don’t go without water.

So us providing no water for food that has to be cooked with water is almost like a slap in the face. It’s dehumanizing.

Johnny Moore’s Response

TUCKER CARLSON: Has Johnnie Moore addressed this?

TONY AGUILAR: No, because Johnnie Moore won’t answer any questions. And to be fair, I don’t think he doesn’t answer it because he’s a bad guy. I think he doesn’t answer it because he doesn’t know. He knows nothing.

TUCKER CARLSON: I think it’s a very charitable view. When I heard him suggest that anyone who criticizes him and his, quote, “life saving work” is working for Hamas, that’s where I began to wonder if he was really a good guy. Because good people don’t immediately deflect in that way and accuse their critics of working for a terror group. There are legitimate questions. You don’t have to be a Hamas sympathizer to ask.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah, I think that’s very inflammatory and bombastic to think that anyone that would speak out against seeing travesty and dehumanization is automatically labeled as Hamas because you don’t agree with his perception.

TUCKER CARLSON: Especially if he’s an American Army colonel from San Antonio who spent 25 years fighting radical Islam. I think it’s a little more…

TONY AGUILAR: His wife served in the military.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah.

TONY AGUILAR: Whose parents served in the military.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah, that’s… So I don’t think he gets the presumption of good guyness after he says something like that. That’d be my position on that.

TONY AGUILAR: I try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

TUCKER CARLSON: No, I think… And bless you for it. You’re a better man.

TONY AGUILAR: Never met him.

IDF Control Over Operations

TUCKER CARLSON: So you brought this up. They said it’s too expensive.

TONY AGUILAR: Too expensive.

TUCKER CARLSON: And the IDF doesn’t want the Gazans to have water, so no water for them.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah, when there wasn’t a cooperative discourse with the IDF in terms of how many trucks, how much food, which sites, which times it was directed, and there was no conversation. It was, “You will deliver to this site during these times, these many trucks. You’ll distribute this much at this time, and that is it.”

TUCKER CARLSON: So the IDF was totally in charge.

TONY AGUILAR: Operationally, the IDF gets to dictate when we go in because they control access into Gaza. So when all of our trucks get loaded, we can’t go into Gaza proper from Kerem Shalom until the IDF says it’s okay. Sometimes they don’t let us in.

Assessment of the IDF

TUCKER CARLSON: You worked with the IDF on and off over your career?

TONY AGUILAR: I have in various…

TUCKER CARLSON: What did you think of the IDF when you were in the Army?

TONY AGUILAR: Overall, holistically not impressed. Now, there are some units within the IDF, within the Israeli Defense Force and with the Israeli Ministry of Defense that are good.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.

TONY AGUILAR: Professional, good, best of the best, famous. Writ large, not impressed.

TUCKER CARLSON: Interesting.

TONY AGUILAR: And not because necessarily that they’re bad soldiers, but it’s leadership, poor training, poor equipment. This idea that… And part of it is that when you think about the Israeli Defense Force, they’re not… The Israeli military structure doesn’t call themselves an army or a navy or an air force. They’re Israeli Defense Force. They defend Israel.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.

TONY AGUILAR: They’re not expeditionary. They’re not like the United States Army that has to train to fight wars overseas. They defend within and for the most part, they’re fighting an enemy now at this point that are women and children and old men. It’s not hard to defeat and annihilate an enemy when your enemy, the majority of them are under the age of 15.

TUCKER CARLSON: It’s easy to shoot kids.

The Psychological Toll of Combat Operations

TONY AGUILAR: It’s almost – you have to have a sense of cognitive dissonance to do it. You almost have to separate yourself from the situation, which is why I’ve said many of these contractors, if they have a conscience, which I think many of them do, because they’ve served in the military and they know what right and wrong looks like, and in the IDF, that when that separation of that cognitive dissonance between your morals and what you’re doing comes back to you as a human, it hits hard.

And in the coming days and weeks, as this operation, as Operation Gideon’s Chariots has ended and the Israeli army has to refit into this restructuring for occupation, which is a whole new ball game. Occupational Army, U.S. army, World War II, U.S. army post invasion of Iraq. That’s when things get really nasty. That’s when things get really gray. We think that things are complicated and complex now. Wait until you put an occupation army under the streets of Gaza City.

TUCKER CARLSON: You don’t mind fleshing out the difference between what’s going on now in a formal occupation.

The Shift from Combat to Occupation

TONY AGUILAR: So right now, in the South – consider if you’re a combat force, infantry, armor, tanks, artillery, you’re maneuvering, you’re maneuvering against an enemy or not in this case, I didn’t see many enemy out there. I didn’t see any enemy out there.

When you’re an army of occupation, you then become static, you become routine, you become identifiable. That’s when counterinsurgency often resonates the most. Right now, if I were Hamas, while the active war is going on the offensive, I’m laying low, I’m hiding, I’m going to come out and get killed. When the occupation begins, that’s when the insurgency presents itself in armed violence.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah, that’s when you have permanent bases.

TONY AGUILAR: It’s going to get blown up, violent, and it’s going to get deadly and more deadly. And if the United States doesn’t set a firm tone of what’s acceptable and what’s not, no longer can we have this IDF do what you will and we’ll just kind of, we’ll play back up. No, we cannot.

The President of the United States needs to set clear, firm expectations and boundaries with our ally. Because this occupation, two things will happen. One, it’s going to become extremely violent, grotesquely violent. Merkava tanks being blown up on the Salah Ad Din road going into Gaza. The Israelis won’t like it. But then also when forces begin to go into Gaza City and people, other people start to see the amount of starvation and destitute and destruction, it’s going to bring the world to its knees. And it’s not going to be a year from now, it’s not going to be months from now, days from now.

TUCKER CARLSON: When the rest of the world sees what Gaza looks like. Is that what you’re saying?

International Witnesses to the Devastation

TONY AGUILAR: Yes. Because if you consider so the Spaniards, the Jordanians and the French have each gone in and dropped airdrop. Airdrop is ineffective because each aircraft you see flying over, pushing out bundles, that’s only the equivalent of half of one truck. It’s not much at all. Half of one truck only feeds a couple hundred people one meal. Not to consider what hits the ground and explodes. Most of it doesn’t make it to the ground safely.

So those airdrops were for show for the first time in a long time. Others, besides the Israeli Defense Force, Air Force, have seen what Gaza looks like from above. And the Israeli government specifically said no media in the aircraft. But some of the crew on those aircraft, the Spaniards, the French, the Jordanians saw that and went back to their governments and were like, “This is beyond words.” And I can attest to that.

TUCKER CARLSON: Just from the air, it was obvious to them the devastation.

The Smell of Death

TONY AGUILAR: So when they’re conducting equipment drops, in this case food, pallet drops, it’s at a lower altitude. It’s not like from ten thousand feet. No, it’s from a lower altitude, which you get a pretty good view of the ground from above. And the scale of devastation in Gaza – I’m not talking about someone that saw this from the outside or someone that saw pictures or someone that looked at a picture and assessed it. I was there, touched it, felt it, smelled it.

TUCKER CARLSON: And what’s it smell like?

TONY AGUILAR: So very – you know, for those that have experienced it, the smell of death, human death has a very unforgettable smell.

TUCKER CARLSON: You mean like rotting bodies?

TONY AGUILAR: Rotting bodies, starvation. The body just breaking down. And when that’s en masse, it’s overwhelming. I smelled the same smell once in Baghdad during the 2006 timeframe, during the height of the sectarian violence, when Sunni and Shia were just slaughtering each other.

And one of our jobs that we had to do during that time was on our patrols. We would take a truck and a trailer and we would load bodies. Many veterans have done this. This is recorded history. We would load with the Iraqi army. We’d go through neighborhoods and load bodies because they had just been slaughtered, families slaughtered. That smell – in terms of picking up the bodies. Yeah, while in Baghdad in the height of sectarian violence during my very first deploy as a platoon leader, and many a veteran can attest to this, because we had to do it.

We would have to move through on our combat patrols. We would have to take army trucks and trailers with Iraqi army personnel to load up bodies because there were so many. That smell is something you never forget in Gaza. Standing on the berm of site number four, looking north to Gaza City. So if you’re standing on site number four and you’re looking south, you see Berish, and you see everything to the south, towards the Egyptian border. If you’re standing on the northern berm, you’re looking at Gaza City.

The apocalypse, it’s the only thing I can describe it as. In the evening, when that coastal wind comes over the Mediterranean and sweeps through and that hits you in the face, it smells like death. And to that scale, mark my words, someone that’s seen it, someone that’s lived it, someone that’s touched it, someone that’s felt it. When the world gets a look at what’s in Gaza City and Jabalia and Southern Erez on the Gaza side of the border, the world will not tolerate it.

So what I would say to every American leader, politics aside, put the politics aside. We need to be on the right side of history because our allies are close. Some of our – we say that Israel is one of our closest allies. Some of our closest allies, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, are all standing and we’re not. That says something.

Congressional Outreach

TUCKER CARLSON: Have you brought this to the attention of American lawmakers?

TONY AGUILAR: I have, and some of them have taken action. Congressman Castro, I had a very good conversation with his staff and him. Senator Warnock, Senator Tillis, Senator Van Hollen.

TUCKER CARLSON: What did Tillis say?

TONY AGUILAR: Well, Senator Tillis, you know, as a Republican, his concern is because we have a large constituency of North Carolina, North Carolinians, veterans.

TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, yeah.

TONY AGUILAR: Who are in Gaza, armed, on a tourist visa, lied to with no protections. That’s his constituency. I’m one of his people. So, yeah, people need to take notice. This is not a political party line. This is humanity.

TUCKER CARLSON: So when you go into Tillis’s office, who’s a very strong pro Israel guy, big neocon, and you tell him this story, how does he treat you?

TONY AGUILAR: So we talked to his staff at his invite, his professional staff that gave notes to him. But every meeting I had with Congress, whether they were Republican or Democrat, when I sat down and I told them the truth of it, we have Americans, U.S. citizens, veterans that we put into Gaza armed to stave off a hungry, starving population with no rules of engagement on a tourist visa. One of the staffers even spit out his coffee when I said it.

The Tourist Visa Problem

TUCKER CARLSON: Explain the significance of being an armed combatant from a foreign country on a tourist visa. Why is that bad?

TONY AGUILAR: Well, anytime – imagine if you will, if someone came from France to the United States to visit, just to see New York City, check out the sights, and they wanted to be here for a few days, so they would enter, you know, blue passport, bloop, you go through clear, get your little ticket, you’re on a tourist visa. Imagine coming from France to go check out the Big Apple and you’re walking around with a fully automatic machine gun, a pistol, a shotgun, and armor piercing rounds. That would be absurd.

TUCKER CARLSON: So in other words, I mean, you have no protection at all.

TONY AGUILAR: You have no legal protection. Not only do you not have any legal protection under the Israeli government, we’re there under the good graces of just hoping that at some point some Israeli official doesn’t see what we’re doing and saying like that’s criminal. Right now everybody’s just like, “Just do it.” Because nobody sees it. But man, are we – I would call it, you know, like back in the day, we’re riding dirty. We don’t have any legal protection.

TUCKER CARLSON: No rules of engagement.

Absence of Rules of Engagement

TONY AGUILAR: So I feel it would have been incumbent upon Safe Reach solutions as the – to issue a rules of engagement, but they did not. So a rules of engagement is something – and even the most elite units in the United States military get briefed on and rehearse a rules of engagement. That’s what makes –

TUCKER CARLSON: What can you do, under what circumstances and what can’t you do?

TONY AGUILAR: That’s right. Especially when it comes to pulling a trigger to shoot a bullet to kill a human when all of those humans are unarmed civilians. That’s something that throughout the history of the world that we – from the battle of Jericho, I’ve been there. Wasn’t in the battle of Jericho, but I went to Jericho on my way out of Israel. From Jericho to what we’re seeing now, the world has always had the notion of protecting and safeguarding the vulnerable unarmed population. It’s what the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law is based on. We’ve always done that. Why is it different now?

TUCKER CARLSON: The Book of Esther where sure they’re genocided, but whatever.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah.

Contractor Reactions

TUCKER CARLSON: Again, did the Americans you were with – I don’t know if there’s beer for sale in Gaza, but whatever you do at night after a long day of watching civilians get shot at distribution centers, did anyone say, “Man, this is kind of nuts”?

TONY AGUILAR: So the contractors that I mostly spent my time with because remember I was the – as soon as we got into country, I was promoted to be the Joint Tactical Operations Center Team Leader. So I had a small team who predominantly worked out of the Joint Tactical Operations Center. I had additional duties laid upon me by the leadership of UG Solutions in terms of taking pictures and being this pseudo PR person because they had no one to do PR, this pseudo operations person.

TUCKER CARLSON: So that’s why you took all the pictures.

TONY AGUILAR: So taking all the pictures I was told to do in writing. I didn’t take that because it was a hobby. I had no intention of taking pictures. Prior to getting there in my phone – I mean I still had a flip phone before I went because I wanted to get a new one so I could watch movies on the plane. In getting there, the only pictures I had on my phone were a few from some family stuff and not a phone picture taker.

TUCKER CARLSON: So all the pictures you showed me, the ones right here with the dates on them and it’s basically took pictures every single day you were there. It looks like they’re all timestamped. You were asked to take these by your employer.

UG Solutions Email Documentation

TONY AGUILAR: Told. Told. Not asked. Told. There’s a… You know this email here from… And I think it’s funny when they say about my performance here is that, you know…

So this is an email. I have this email here from Mr. John Corrigan, who is the Chief Operations Officer of UG Solutions. Pretty important job, boss-ish. And this is back to the headquarters in North Carolina. To me, just a lonely old contractor. I’m not going to say the guy’s name that he sends it to.

“Please add Tony, who cc’d to our headquarters distribution list. He produces the daily impact report that I’ve directed him to do and he does all ground planning for movement for our team. Critical player to the operation” that was on June 2nd. Someone that’s not a good performer. Someone that was fired on June 12, the day before.

UG Solutions apparently said that they fired me, which they did not. “Tony, you have done a great job in taking photos and videos which have been in a tremendous asset to UG Solutions. Apologies if this has caused any consternation for you. We know that you are fully aligned with UG policies and are a member of the team.” This is on the 12th of June. Fired me? No.

TUCKER CARLSON: You resigned. What? The next day.

TONY AGUILAR: I already had my resignation typed up that day. What is important about this day on the 12th of June, which I think is… It would be funny if it wasn’t so upsetting, is that…

TUCKER CARLSON: All of the…

Photo and Video Documentation Process

TONY AGUILAR: Pictures that I took every day, go out into the field, take pictures, document. Let’s tell the truth. Well, the truth that I grew up with is the truth of the truth. You don’t get to… You don’t get to cherry pick the truth.

So every picture, every video, everything I took, from the good to the bad to the indifferent. When I came back, I uploaded into the… They established a Google share drive for me specifically. Every day that was one of my tasks. Come back from a site, sit down at the computer, upload the photos and videos and then wipe them from my phone. They didn’t want me to have them.

TUCKER CARLSON: Why didn’t they want you to have them?

TONY AGUILAR: They didn’t want anybody. So in the contract, they specifically state that any photos, written experience, pictures or video are the sole proprietary property of UG Solutions. How you own an idea or a thought, I don’t know, but sure. So I’d upload them and then wipe them. Upload them and then wipe them. So I didn’t have them.

On 11 June, the Jerusalem Post, which I think is funny because they were also one of the ones that ran the “Tony’s a Liar,” which was… It’s just absurd to think about it because they… That actual news outlet took one of my photos and used it on the front page of their magazine. It’s on there. It’s a picture of a boy holding a box of aid.

And in fact, John Acre, who was on the press release that GHF did today, asked me if he could use that photo as part of his personal collection because he thought it was so compelling and impactful to tell the story of what was going on in Gaza. He called me on the phone. I don’t even know who he was. And I said, yes, you can use it for your personal collection.

The Photo Leak Investigation

So all of my pictures went into this shared drive. That picture made it to the Jerusalem Post. I got blamed. “Oh, you sent your picture out to the media.” I was like, I didn’t send a picture out to the media. I don’t even have them.

So I emailed the chief operations officer, like, “Hey, John, can you clarify this? Because kind of getting some heat.” And he does, and he clarifies, hey… That he says, you know, it wasn’t… It wasn’t you that did. Was, you know, we… I’ll read it.

So I’m not a good employee. “Gentlemen,” and this is to all the leadership of UG Solutions. “Tony, you’ve done a great job of taking photos and videos which have been an asset. We know you’ve kept those internal and point to point with me and me only. The issue we had is that one of our Israeli political folks at the highest level, who we believe had compartmentalized access to certain materials that we owned that we agreed to share. Turns out he accessed the photos and now he has them all.

“Well, we have told him to explicitly not share these. He has shared these with the media and we have no control over the photos. We have since shut down access to only UG personnel. Apologies if this caused any consternation. We know you’re fully aligned to policy. Bottom line. We attempted to fulfill a request from our Israeli partners and they took advantage of us upon… And took advantage of us upon themselves without coordination to their government and higher headquarters. And now all of the media, meaning pictures and photos, are out.”

Funny is that days later, when I got back to the United States, I got all of my videos and pictures back that I took from an Israeli citizen. Like, these people are clowns.

Legal Implications and Future Plans

TUCKER CARLSON: So they’ve made a bunch of specific allegations against you at a press conference and media appearances. It sounds like you can refute all or most of them with documentation. All of them. Are you going to sue them for slander? Because it sounds like slander.

TONY AGUILAR: Suing is so laborious. You know, I just, I really want all of this. I want the story to get out and I want our government to take action so I can enjoy the pre fall fishing. I’d like to get back to work at Lowe’s.

TUCKER CARLSON: You’re going back to Lowe’s Home and Garden?

TONY AGUILAR: Oh, yeah. I, I, like I said it was, it’s therapeutic to not have to worry about so many issues and just help people, you know?

TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.

The Termination Letter Challenge

TONY AGUILAR: So. But again, you know, to all these letters, you know, UG Solutions and GHF may say, “Well, we still fired him.” Two things I’d like to ask GHF. I would like the termination letter. I would like their firing letter. I want it. I want to frame it. I want to put it in my office as a… As the worst employee of the month of the worst employer that I’ve ever worked for. Give it to me. Give me my termination letter.

If you fired me, you notice when they put up this slew of documents that they never provided a termination letter. Give it to me. Show us. I’d like to have it, actually.

But this letter I think is really just tops the Sunday with a nice cherry. This is from UG Solutions Corporate. From the COO back in… So they had a CEO stateside and they had a COO Ford, kind of like a home and away team. I read this on Breaking Points, but I think it’s appropriate for this.

“Dear Tony, as your engagement with UG Solutions concludes, we extend our gratitude for your contributions to our mission in Israel and Gaza. We appreciate your flexibility and adaptability throughout the deployment and your willingness to support the mission in a variety of ways. While your current assignment ends, please let us know if you are interested in future opportunities to work with UG Solutions.”

This is on the 24th of June. I left the next day does that sound like… No, it’s not signed by the COO.

The Real Reason for the Smear Campaign

So what this whole smear campaign sounds like to me is I’m the only person in their entire construct of a company that one has the depth of knowledge that I have of what actually happened and what’s going on. But two can corroborate as an eyewitness, as a human being, as a carbon based life form, having been on the ground in Gaza, to corroborate all of the video, the video of the guy shooting and then saying, “Yeehaw. Hell yeah. You think you got one” that was in that drive that got released to the Israeli government? It’s out there. There’s no denying it.

TUCKER CARLSON: I watched.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah.

The Case of Amir

TUCKER CARLSON: So what happened to the boy? Amir.

TONY AGUILAR: Yes, Amir. Interesting.

TUCKER CARLSON: Who was apparently murdered. And then your former employers trotted out a picture claiming he was still alive, but it was… It was a different person.

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah.

TUCKER CARLSON: Do we know anything about what happened to his body? Whether his family knows where?

TONY AGUILAR: Yeah. So you know Johnnie Moore, who claims to be this evangelical, last time I checked, you know, we should know every hair on one’s head, God does. In their smear package of information, they said “Mr. Aguilar claims that this young boy was killed on the site. Well, here’s a picture of him killing two days later.”

The picture that they used of Amir two days later… And also the pictures of Amir are pictures that I took. They used photos that I took to discredit photos that I took. You can’t even wrap your head around it.

So the picture here that they said is a mirror is on the 1st of June at site number four, timestamped in my phone. Because I have the original site number four and site number two are 26km away through a combat zone that no civilian can traverse between the two. So how did Amir get from Site 2 on 28 May to Site 4 on 1 June? Well, he didn’t. One, because he’s dead. Two, because it would have been impossible unless somewhere in Gaza, they now have the ability to, you know, Star Trek. Being people to another location would have been impossible.

Finding Amir’s Family

TUCKER CARLSON: Do we know anything about his family or how that was?

TONY AGUILAR: So they questioned it. Right. So an NGO reached out to me after the story broke, and they said, “Do you… Do you happen to know what site and what day?” Well, I do know exactly what site, exactly what day, I even know exactly what time. And I provided that information to them.

They immediately energized their NGO network within Gaza to begin looking. Backtracking Nasser Hospital. Backtracking asking, taking the picture around, kind of like old on the milk carton days.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.

TONY AGUILAR: And they found his mother, his stepmother. His mother and father had both been killed. His father was killed in an Israeli airstrike. His mother had been killed. His stepmother has been looking for him since the 28th of May. And that photo that I took of him is the last she’d seen him alive. She now has this photo.

I’ve seen her. I… Actually, yesterday I had the… I had the real special opportunity. I got to talk to her on the phone with a translator. She and I zoomed together, and she asked me, “What did he say? What do you look like? How was he?” And I just told her. I was like, “He’s a beautiful boy. Happy, real strong spirit.” And she’s like, “Do you… Do you think I’ll ever find him?”

And this isn’t just me saying this, and it’s non verifiable. I talked to her on a interview with an activist group where there were hundreds watching. So everybody can verify this. How hard it is to tell a mother that her son is dead.

TUCKER CARLSON: He was killed in May, and yesterday was August, and she hasn’t seen him, nothing.

TONY AGUILAR: She’s been looking for him. Now, Johnnie Moore would say that’s Hamas propaganda. So Tony Aguilar, who has no contacts, really, anywhere, who’s back in the United States, managed to orchestrate this… This Hamas Kabuki theater facade simply to discredit the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. How arrogant must you be?

This is a Christian. This is a Christian evangelist. This boy was killed. And instead of accepting what we can do to change it, I have a great recommendation. Let’s not put humanitarian aid, food distribution sites in the middle of combat zones. That would be a great start to not killing innocent people.

To include, I thought, you know, and again, confirmation. She even said Amir. She’s like, “I’ve been looking for Amir” and make this up. I touched this boy. I looked him in the eyes, and what I thought he was maybe 6 or 7. He was 10. That’s how emaciated he is.

Recommendations for US Government Action

TUCKER CARLSON: Don’t put food distribution centers in the middle of combat zones. So my last question is, what other steps should the US Government take to make this better? And to avoid what you have said a number of times is going to be a international cataclysm when the world sees what’s going on in Gaza that the US is supporting and paying for. What should the US government do now.

TONY AGUILAR: Today, Mr. John Acri, who I think is the second in command of GHF, second in charge whatever… Whatever his title is. He was introduced by Mr. Chapin Fay, who’s their spokesperson, who, by the way, also has no experience in humanitarian assistance or the military. So for Mr. Chapin Faye to say that… I don’t know what I’m talking about in terms of lines of sight or fields of fire. Give me a break.

TUCKER CARLSON: What is… Who… He’s the spokesman.

TONY AGUILAR: Chapin Fay is the paid spokesman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a spokesman they had to hire and pay once my story broke.

TUCKER CARLSON: So where’s he from? Do you know?

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Limitations

TONY AGUILAR: No idea. I mean, his entire life and background has just been PR. It’s insulting. But Mr. John Acri has said we would like to propose a plan for the UN and for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to work together. No, no. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation does not have the capacity. It does not have the logistics. It does not have the experience. It does not have the personnel to do half, part, or any part of the humanitarian assistance operation.

What the United States should do is stop with this rhetoric that the United Nations is giving away all of its food to Hamas that has been disproven. Disproven. Re-engage the United Nations. Take all that money that we’re giving to line the pockets of profiteers who spend most of it on PR firms and spokespersons and lawyers, apparently, and allow the United Nations to use it to not only expand their operations, but this would be a really good idea.

Instead of the IDF sitting and just videotaping and watching UN trucks getting ransacked, perhaps provide some security for them. So I think it’s ironic when Johnnie Moore celebrates that “not one of our trucks has been attacked.” Well, you have them driving on a road that’s in an area where there are no Palestinians that live within tens of miles, armed to the teeth by IDF and armed Americans. Of course they’re not getting ransacked.

It’s almost like you’re in the stands of the football field and you’re saying, “well, I didn’t get tackled today.” You’re not even on the field. So how about we provide some security assistance to the United Nations, to assist them in delivery, to empower the United Nations that has doctors and nurses and humanitarian assistance and nutritionists and people that feed people and people that know what they’re doing and people that know how many calories come in a meal and how many people, how many calories someone needs that can provide water that’d be a great start.

Empowering the United Nations

TONY AGUILAR: Water. The United Nations mechanism should be put back in full force today. The United States should stop. Do not spend another dime on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation because it is not achieving any modicum of a goal of feeding anyone. It is not. It’s proven that it’s a failure. Why it’s a failure, we can dissect that in the annals of history. I’ve got some ideas, but it’s failed.

TUCKER CARLSON: Have you had any contact with anyone from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the last couple weeks?

TONY AGUILAR: I have never had any contact from anyone within the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at all, period. Ever. So the fact that they can so bodaciously say that I’m a liar and they’ve never even spoke to me, it’s pretty bold. I don’t know. Other than Mr. Johnnie Moore and Mr. Chapman Faye, the spokesman, I have no idea what human beings are in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

TUCKER CARLSON: Much less who pays the bills.

TONY AGUILAR: Much less who pays the bills, who’s making what. Love to see that.

TUCKER CARLSON: Well, I think you’ve done a lot so far, Colonel. Thank you very much. Thank you for spending all this time.

TONY AGUILAR: It’s been really happy that I can come up here and be in the studio. It’s a great experience and thank you.

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