Welcome to the Last American Bag A Bond.
It is Friday, December 13th. On December 1st,
Vanessa Bieli and I had a conversation about
what was going on in Syria.
It's been an ongoing
emotional
roller coaster, if you will. It is a
terrible analogy. We were discussing this before we
started.
And the the
unbelievable reality that we're in around not just
Syria, but
the genocide taking place in Gaza, the genocide
that has evolved into Lebanon and now appears
to be shifting into Syria just as well.
So I wanna start with discussion her and
I had around this on the first and
how much has shifted around this and kinda
follow-up around all the different changes that we
saw, the conversations we had around potential deals.
But I wanted to start with her in
particular around the social media aspect of this.
And, you know, this is something that I'm
really
more in the last so many 6 months
than ever, but have been talking about a
long time, how important it is that we
highlight not just the independent media, mainstream alternative
media, but just misinformation,
people that are out there in deliberately trying
to lead you in very particular partisan
directions to manipulate for much larger agendas. And
to start how this has played out to
begin with and how much this has had
an effect on people's lives on the ground
in Syria, the average people that tend to
take the brunt of all these government agendas.
So I invited Vanessa back on to discuss
this and what we've seen so far and
and what we will see going forward. So,
Vanessa,
thank you for joining me yet again. How
are you? Yeah. I'm okay.
Thanks. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. It's
a diff it's a you know, one of
those kind of it's just one of those
times where and again, I'm just kind of
expressing that we were having a somber conversation
before we got started. That, I mean, I
just I'm personally expressing how frustrating it is
that we can be in this position where
there's so much awareness around this topic, Around
and, again, just Gaza in particular, but now
in even in the same conversation around Syria,
what Hyatt Terrell Shawam is, what the relationship
around the United States and Israel and their
funding of these proxy elements that are now
in charge of Syria, and asking the question
of what will ultimately stop this? You know,
what is the bloodline where people the the
awareness around this suddenly
cascades into actual action? And I think we're
recognizing that that's just not how this really
works.
So let's start with the social media part
of this because I I think you agree
that the the
in for the I mean, I I almost
I I I hesitate using the word misinformation
because I know there's a a war against,
you know, people calling us misinformation, but there
there is false information out there. There's falsehoods.
There's truth. And how much of a an
aspect that plays in not just the propaganda
war, but the real people's lives on the
ground that suffered because of that. So let's
start there and what you saw and and
and how that's still affecting what's going on.
Yeah. I mean, you know, we we talked
about the effect of social media. As you
said, that was early December,
and how social media was affecting,
the
people on the ground of whatever the main
topic is. Right? Whether it's
in China, Russia,
Syria, Gaza,
whatever, or Lebanon.
But I think in Syria, it has played
a particularly,
insidious role because right from the beginning of
the attack on Aleppo City in the north,
social media
was
really
whipping up terror and fear
and the sense of
everything collapsing
almost immediately.
And that demoralization
campaign,
in my opinion, was deliberate from
influencers,
people that have kind of meteorically
risen to fame on social media.
We have to remember that, you know, every,
area where we become successful in other words,
we become successful in disseminating
information,
which is enabling people to understand the intricacy
of the world that they live in and
at least get some
very
As soon as that becomes successful,
then it's infiltrated. And the more successful it
is, the more infiltrated it is.
And for me, it was never clearer than
it has been over the last couple of
weeks in Syria, where social media has literally
been weaponized against the Syrian people in order
to create this
sense of loss, this sense of
fear and apprehension,
anxiety, panic.
It was
remorseless. And I think, you know, even if
people are unwittingly doing this,
okay, let's say there are some people who
are unwittingly getting carried away with the wave
of information that they think is correct or
they think is factual.
And perhaps they even feel,
oh my god. You know, this is happening.
I need to tell everyone because it's so
awful and so on.
But if
we're not checking that information,
then we're responsible
for increasing
the panic and and the terror that the
people in that country that is currently being
targeted. And, of course, we know, you know,
it's going to move on through Iraq and
so on and so forth. So we're going
to be back in the same situation. And
if we don't learn how to manage it
from our own perspective,
then that's not fair on the people that
are facing the next wave of
violence and proxy war and intervention
and and
whatever else they've got up their sleeves to
to prosecute
people that have become for them
irrelevant
and dispensable.
Yeah. I I definitely think that the weaponization
of social media is is a very, very
important conversation to have in all of this.
Now I wanna state, as I'm sure you
would agree, that nobody here is ask is
calling for anyone to be censored. My point
is that everyone out there has a right
to be wrong, to lie. That's that's under
free speech. But what we're talking about is
the is the responsibility of it. Right? The
that you out there sharing something. I mean,
obviously, there are people out there that do
so for the very purpose of lying to
people and that is their right. But most
people are highlighting is will, you know, get
caught up in all of it. And that's
how this works. And and thinking you're doing
the right thing and her the per what
she's pointing out is that it's your your
responsibility to make sure that you're checking it
for yourself and not just playing into the
whole Twitter files
play of it all, where you're just kind
of getting caught up in the momentum of
what they're pointing to and and so on.
And so this brings up a really interesting
point to start with, which is that we've
seen this played for a long time from
both sides of this, where for a while,
you had the state department, the US government
arguing that that was being done over there,
which are we can now clearly see they
were responsible for, but saying, you know, Facebook
was used to create this regime or this,
you know, revolution
in foreign countries. Right? They were really using
that then it got flipped over to where
it became, uh-oh, we have to start censoring
it here because it's being done to you.
Now whether that was actually the case because
and they're the ones that kicked that can
down the road or not, it it's it's
interesting to see how their own actions can
be used against you. And so, you know,
in this context of it all, we can
see that there it's it's happening both ways.
That it is very clearly being used to
manipulate people in Syria. And even argue and
you can touch on this that the honest
people in Syria who then get convinced that
they're fighting for the right thing because of
state department manipulation on these social media platforms,
but at the same time saying through Elon
Musk and everything else that they need to
restrict certain things because you're at risk because
of ISIS. Or as Trump said in 2015,
I think we need to work with Gates
to shut down the Internet because ISIS is
is influencing you. You know? So I just
think that's an interesting overlap to it all,
and I think it's all by design. So
you need your thoughts on that?
Yeah. No. Absolutely. I think it's by design.
And, you know, during,
the pandemic,
we had,
77th
Brigade released to to run and push certain
narratives to induce fear, to induce
anxiety again
about the whole situation, about the vaccine,
about
the virus itself.
You know, this kind
of behavioral
insights, of course, I think Britain's probably got
to be
number 1 in in the engineering
of
mind manipulation.
But, of course, the US has also studied
it for years. You know?
And so I think
the more we the further we go down
the path of wherever we are heading, and
as you said before we came on,
the future isn't looking that bright, to be
honest. You know? The the fall of Syria
is is a major blow
internationally as far as I'm concerned. It's not
only for the resistance access in Palestine, Lebanon,
Iraq, Iran,
Yemen,
and so on. But I think globally,
it it's
because what has it done? It's shown
how powerful the machine is.
Right? How the machine can basically just
consume
whatever stands in its way if it really
wants to.
Right? Right. Because this was so fast. I
mean, I I can't remember. I think we
were talking about the fact that
once the ceasefire came
into
into place between Lebanon and Israel, it was
obvious
that the only reason Netanyahu had accepted the
ceasefire was because yeah. Okay. That's fine. That
bit's done. Now we need to pivot to
Syria.
And
nobody expected
what happened to happen. I think all of
us were bracing for Israeli bombing or, for
some kind of Israeli
escalation
towards Syria.
And it was known for
months in advance that there was going to
be an attack from the northwest, but nobody
expected it to be on this scale.
Right. You know? I think, Kavorka Masian pretty
pretty clearly predicted that, like, a few a
lot of people did. They saw this coming
because it seemed pretty obvious. A lot of
us did, to be fair. I mean, it
it was obvious, to be honest. And
many of us had been talking about,
the precariousness
of of Syria's position for
months, if not years. Because of the,
occupation by hostile states by proxy in the
North, in the Northwest, in the Southeast,
in the Northeast.
You know, at any point, all of these
factions could be triggered. And that's basically what
happened. But I don't think
I'm not quite sure why from some perspectives.
I don't think people realize the extent to
which those
contained
elements had grown in strength and and had
been professionally
trained, had been,
you know, their their weapon capability had been
increased considerably
most recently by Ukraine
and northwest Syria.
And so the scale of the attack was
perhaps
far greater than was expected.
But, I mean, we'll come on to that
because there are other elements also involved, I
think.
Yeah. Most definitely. I wanna touch on the
idea of, you know, the different elements of
why that might have happened so quickly or
why force can pull it back in regard
to the deal and possible conversations there. Before
we get to that though,
you you mentioned a few things I wanna
touch on. 1st, just the global repercussions.
In a general broad sense, can you just
touch on a few examples of like, what
what in your mind are the global repercussions
of this shift in control and power from
Syria to from Assad to whatever is happening
now?
Well, I think, first of all,
one of the main agendas, particularly for Israel,
was to destroy
the central
link in the chain and the resistance chain.
So the major part of the land bridge
coming from Iran through Iraq, it's Syria into
Lebanon and into Palestine,
to also destroy Syrian capability of 1, defending
itself,
and 2, producing
the weapons that were being used by Hezbollah.
So destroy the supply lines,
prevent any resupply to Hezbollah, and destroy the
capability of Syria to manufacture weapons that were
then going to be supplied to the resistance
factions.
And at the same time, of course, what
we've seen
is Israel
destroying
pretty much 80%
of Syria's military capability, whether defensive or offensive,
of Syria's military capability, whether defensive or offensive.
So air defense,
air bases,
naval bases,
oil tankers,
all their
essential
infrastructure to be
a military force to be reckoned with. And
of course, who does that benefit benefits Israel?
And if you look at then
the land grab, so you have Turkey in
the north by its Free Syrian Army Muslim
Brotherhood,
now known as the Syrian National Army,
have taken the northern sectors and are now
battling,
the Kurds for control in the northeast.
HTS,
which is
backed by Israel, the US, the whole kind
of regime change alliance,
have taken
sort of from the north
down
to Damascus. So that whole central area and
have included,
the the areas of Latakia and Tautus on
the coast, which were traditionally,
of course, with the government, but also Alawite
and other minority
sects. And then Israel,
of course, since,
HTS reached Damascus,
have,
invaded
the south of Syria and are now within,
I think it's 20 to 26 kilometers
of the center of Damascus
on the western side.
But they have control over Souda
and Darar and Kuneitra in the south. And
I think
the potential there is to continue that belt
around the southeastern
and northeastern
borders
of Syria, or at least to have them
under surveillance and under control of,
terrorist proxy forces.
Because, of course, ISIS is
has been, for years, incubated at Al Tanf,
the US military base at Rookban, so called
refugee camp to the south of Al Tanf.
And then up controlling,
the main
eastern border, which is the entry for the
land bridge from Iran and Iraq. So in
other words, when we look at what they've
done in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria,
then that will continue, in my opinion, into
Iraq.
And certainly, the the Iraqi resistance factions are
preparing for this. And the Iranian,
adviser, I think, to the IRGC was talking
about
11,000 ISIS already in Iraq preparing to,
begin the attack in Iraq against the resistance
factions
there.
Yeah. We're we're definitely gonna get into
the groups in the background and so on.
And just I'll highlight what, what Patrick Henningsen
was saying, which I'm sure, you know, we're
covering.
This is exactly what is anyone I think
has been paying attention has already seen this
pattern, but simply saying Israel is now actively,
ethnically cleansing parts of Syria, ordering evacuation orders,
settlers will gradually follow, you know, follow in.
Are you seeing a pattern? It's the same
exact thing we're seeing. I mean, how long
until we start, you know, human shields and
tunnels and Hamas or Hezbollah or whatever group,
you know, the narrative to justify all these
actions. It's it's pretty it's pretty unnerving to
see how this is what I was pointing
to earlier for those listening is just that
it's it's clear. It seems like everybody's acknowledging
this. We can we recognize these are lies,
and it just continues to stumble forward at
the expense of human life. So before we
get more into the groups in general, you
mentioned the the the
I have 2 questions I wanna get into
in regard to the imminent collapse point. But
in any resistance in your from what you've
seen, your research,
because the the argument was pretty interesting that
this was and we'll get into this around
the deal point next and and what the
deal might have been, but, you know, very
quickly saw basically no resistance.
And that was pretty broadly reported from all
sides of this conversation that there was essentially
no resistance. Now it clearly benefited them to
make it look like they ran and there's
no resistance. So they're probably sure there were
some in there. But overall, it seems as
if the conversation is that up until today,
Israel's been bombing,
as you highlighted, all of these Syrian installations
and infrastructure
with nobody fighting back. So two questions. Is
that actually what's happening? And and same question
therein. Is there any resistance in that? And
is that not illegal
if there's no resistance?
No. Absolutely. Of course, it's illegal.
I don't think there's anything that that Israel
is doing that isn't illegal,
actually, since its existence.
So, I mean, you know, we shouldn't even
perhaps be
trying to figure out if it is legal
or illegal. They are an illegal
settler state, but at the end of the
day and so, therefore, of course, they're going
to be violating every single international law that
exists. Not that I have any faith in
international law anyway because that's an entire
captured
institutionalized
complex anyway that's corrupt as hell and is
totally compromised and in service to the United
States and and their allies.
Anyway, that was my little rant about that.
I agree.
But,
and I've totally forgotten the question. Oh, it's
okay. Just the first we wanna first one
to get at is in your re research
over the last week or so, have is
there resistance happening? Are there people fighting back?
Or very more importantly, is there a a
real resistance happening? And to just then the
question is, does that then make the bombing
of installations and submit to military locations illegal
if there's nobody fighting back?
No. Of course, there's no one fighting back.
I mean, if you're talking about the situation
now look.
Israel's excuse is is that they're bombing all
of these military bases and development centers and
scientific research centers because heaven forbid, the weapons
fall into the hands of HTS and the
terrorist groups. But hang on a minute.
Isn't Israel already supplying weapons to those terrorist
groups in order to take the territory of
Syria on their behalf? Yes. Yep. Yep. And
and and fighting at the border of the
Golan Heights and continue to support them on
the ground and, you know Exactly. And give
them medical treatment and provide weapons and and
funding and so on and support. Because for
them,
I mean, multiple spokespeople
of the Zionist regime have said on, on
regular occasions that for them, ISIS is better
than Assad. Anyway, anything is better than Assad.
Let's face it from
the point of view of,
the Gulf States and
Israel, Turkey,
and so on, and the US, of course.
So of course, no. There's absolutely no resistance
to this. In fact, Jelani,
I think in one of his very first
interviews, basically said, look, you know, Syria is
not going to engage in any other war.
Today, they've told the Palestinian factions to stand
down.
They're basically not going to provide any more
weapons.
And so
all of this was
sadly for nothing. You know, October 7th,
now Khaled Michelle is back in control. And
of course, we know that Michelle was in
control when Hamas
betrayed Syria
in the early years of the regime change
war until
Nasrallah made some effort to bring them back
into the resistance fold from 2017
onwards. And in 2021,
they came back to Damascus having been expelled
because they were involved in the regime change
operations against Syria.
The leadership that was
pro the resistance axis and pro Syria, like
Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Daif,
have been
assassinated.
Even Ishmael Hanyay,
I would say he was a little marginal,
but he did then come back into the
resistance access after 2017.
So all of them have basically been killed.
There are still a few left that would,
let's say, still have some loyalty to the
resistance access and to Syria.
But Michelle, no.
And so,
you know, unfortunately,
with Syria gone,
I I don't see now
how
Well, hope I didn't lose you. It's early.
I've got a lot to get to.
Shoot. Well, since there's an opening, because so
in case you guys missed the point I
was making a moment ago
Oh, there we go. I got you back.
Frank. I'll just finish what I was saying.
Oh, that's that's an interesting view. I haven't
seen that. So well, anyway, while while she's
regaining her video feed, the the, the point
I was making a second ago was ultimately
the reality that and in case you missed
it, that it is illegal for them to
be bombing these these locations
regardless of the narrative they're laying out. Even
if everything they've said was true, there's nobody
fighting back. So these are these are just
I mean, that is literal terrorism. Right? I
mean, that's what's really important to see, and
they're making excuses for it. And compare that
to anything that they've highlighted about what Russia
is doing in Ukraine. It's it's, quite hip
hop hypocritical.
So go ahead and finish. Pick up on
your point there. You you cut you probably
cut out, maybe the last 15 seconds before
that. Oh, okay. Well, no. I mean, basically,
I you know, I'm just saying that,
from an HTS perspective, they're gonna do nothing
to stop this. Mhmm. In fact, they opened
the door to it, basically. Basically. You know,
they gave the green light because there isn't
gonna be any resistance. And because the Syrian
Arab Army has stood down and surrendered, then
there's no one manning the air defense.
So so, basically, Israel can be using the
heavy duty bunker buster bombs that they couldn't
use
before because they couldn't actually violate Syrian airspace
for for the risk of being shot down.
Now there's no risk.
So, I mean, Israel is basically I think
they've bombed over 500 times now. Yeah. Well,
I mean, no. There there's no there's no
pretext for this. There's no justification
for this. This is just state terrorism.
Which I know which people people know why
Vanessa responded the way she did a moment
ago because it's it's this is for the
person that's just now become aware of this.
It's pretty obvious to see us who'll be
violating the law in a 1,000 different ways,
but it's important to see that, you know,
very clearly there. But I the pointed question
on this, why wouldn't they just take these
things? Like, is it I I I I
think it's probably because they don't have the
resources, I guess, but why wouldn't they why
wouldn't they say, hi, Trill Sean. Go take
control of these things. You know? Is there
more insight to that?
Well, I think there is an element of
truth that they don't want all of this
to fall into the hands of HTS. Not
that they're
trained to use most of this equipment.
Because at the end of the day, it's
a it's a volatile proxy force that they've
used. I mean, this is what they always
do. Right? Whether it's Libya or Afghanistan,
it doesn't matter.
They're volatile.
And ultimately, of course, they're going to be
fighting amongst themselves. But why wouldn't they also
fight against Israel if they finally sort of
realize, well, hang on. Israel is going to
be grabbing more of Syria, and we want
to keep that bit of Syria, etcetera. So,
no, I I get it from from a
realpolitik perspective that Israel,
in that sense, is correct that they don't
want it to fall into Mhmm.
HTS hands or any of the other factions
that are on the ground and might try
and take power in the future and so
on.
Yeah. Sorry. No. No. That's a really important
point really for an, a conversation the other
day. We'd get deeper into that point about
about, you know, just because the proxy force
exists does not mean that they have complete
control over its actions. And I think Saudi
Arabia has even made that point in the
past. M MBS himself, I think, made kind
of alluded to an interview that clearly they're
responsible. They're kinda Wahhabi mindset around a lot
of these terrorist organizations rather than ideology around
it. And that ultimately, they've lost control of
some of these elements. So they are exactly
what they funded them into being and then
they just went their own direction, you know?
And so it's interesting to see how that
works. And I think we've seen this with
a lot, like, even the Kurds with the
US. How one day they're working with them,
the next they could care less what happens.
You know, it's just interesting. So that that's
important to think about right there is that
so that the answer to the question, that
ultimately they just don't know how the future
will go, so it's better for them to
destroy everything. And then ultimately that allows situation
where nobody could fill that role in Syria,
which is another sad reality that Syria is
ultimately gone because of that.
Yeah. And exactly. That's the point is that
they're they're ensuring
that in the future, regardless of who is
in control in Syria,
they don't have access to the weapons and
to the ability to either attack Israel or
to defend itself
against Israel. They've effectively turned it into another
Gaza then, essentially.
Yeah. They've turned it into a playing field
for for the predators that are now gonna
sort of pick the country clean in one
way or another.
You know, you have Turkey in the north.
You have Israel in the south. You have
Israel in the United States up the southeast
and northeastern corridor.
You've got HTS
through the rest of the country, basically.
But at some point, of course, what's going
to happen, as I've said,
you've got a cauldron therefore in the country,
in the center of the country,
which at some point is going to turn
against itself. Because, you know, it's not only
Jelani, it's not only HTS. You've got multiple
other groups and nationalities
also. You've got foreign mercenaries
fighting under the banner of HTS. But at
what point are they going to,
you know, start warring for for control in
certain areas for for
religious fanaticism
because they don't feel that that it's, you
know, Sharia enough for them or whatever.
And and we're already seeing this in the
conversations again on social media where
some of the Chechens or some of the
Uighurs are saying, well, we don't accept this.
You know, this isn't true Sharia. We want
it to be more
strict and so on. And, of course, Jalani
is under instructions to try and be as
moderate as possible.
And people do really need to remember that
this guy is ISIS, Al Qaeda,
and, you know, is is the commander
of some of the most brutal
terrorist forces that operated inside Syria like Jaish
al Islam. And I noticed that Muhammad al
Aluis is in the supposed
new inclusive government that is made up entirely
of,
extremist
Islamist.
So
hardly inclusive.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I gotta just say
I find it actually,
I mean, I guess it fits with the
rest of how absurd things are these days,
but to even use the phrase,
diversity friendly jihadists. I'm just like, how are
we just the Babylon Bee today? Like, it
just I well, you know what an interesting
point by that? On that note actually, and
if you wanna laugh at this with me,
that, you know, it so the term intifada
for example, which just means resistance. You know,
it's like using the word revolution. You can
use that in all sorts of ways. But
obviously, if we can say the American revolution,
it's a positive thing. It's the same difference
in the conversation anywhere else. But the word
jihadist
is a bit different, you know. It's very
specific and yet it's being used by people
in the republican conversation. Like it's somehow now
it just it's weird how one can become
whatever you want it to be when there's
opening. You get the point. It's just it's
just completely hypocritical and blind to the the
reality of it. And now, literally, I I
guess, I wonder whether that's part of this
design. Like, why would they actually use those
terms? It's it is comic it's it's cartoonish.
Well, actually, the whole,
concept of Islamic extremism
was, of course, originated by the Zionist. Right.
Yeah. So all of this terminology
has been
effectively foisted upon us by the Zionist movement,
by the various lobby groups and and
organizations that support the Zionist movement. This whole
concept of,
extremist Islam,
which I also, because I had this conversation
earlier today,
when someone was alluding to the fact that,
well, you know, white Muslims always fight amongst
themselves
and this is a big problem and so
on. And, you know, I said, okay,
we have to look at this in a
different light.
Because
pre
2011, were Muslims fighting themselves
in Syria?
No.
You know, Syria was one of the most
secure and stable countries in the Middle East
at that point.
It it was a fantastic country if you
listen to people that that were there, Syrians
that were living in
ideology. So either Wahhabi's
Saudi Arabia or the Muslim Brotherhood,
supported by Qatar in Turkey.
And those elements are weaponized
to create this sectarian
division and strife and violence in those countries.
And then people have to actually
fight back to be able to survive.
And we're seeing it now because,
you know, when you've got the BBC and
CNN and dear old Clarissa Ward lying through
her teeth again,
and Jeremy Bowen running alongside crowds heading for
an execution as if he's going to a
Christmas party.
You know, it's very difficult to understand
what you're actually normalizing
when you kind of accept this sort of
reporting. You know, suddenly Sdnaya becomes the new
Holocaust.
And this was debunked back in
2013,
2016. Amnesty International
rolled back their report because it was all
AI generated. People have forgotten all this.
It's forgotten. It's just gone.
You know, we already debunked all of these
narratives, but now it's back
as the new Holocaust and everything's forgotten about
St. Simon in Israel, where they're actually
sodomizing
Palestinians,
that are not even charged with anything
or Saudi Arabia or Egypt
or America, CIA black site. You know, all
of that is forgotten. Everything is focused in
on Sadnaya and this
sort
of post apocalypse,
Hitlerization
of Assad. We're back on that again. Right.
And of course Right back on that track
again.
Also ignoring the US associated exact situation in
in in Northeastern Syria. No.
Yeah. Yeah. Northeastern Syria. And this is this
is from a newer report from April 17th
this year. And I'm sure you're familiar. Right?
And it's Mhmm. As you can see right
there in the line, it's with the support
of the US government. Torture, injustice, and death.
You know? And it's and, I mean, as
you highlighted as well in as well as
the Rupan,
Altamp area. You know? And it's just it's
disgusting. And we'll and we'll come back to
that in general. I wanna get into the
actual fake news part of it. I mean,
how many people are in jail in in
Idlib?
Right. Or in in in Israel in general.
You know, like, all these overlap I mean,
as you pointed out, the literal on video
rape in a prison, and, you know, we're
not highlighting that. It's just it it's it's
it will we'll come back to that because
I do wanna ask you more questions about
the prison itself because that's important for people
to hear. If you and just it's the
information around that as you've highlighted is is
been debunked more than once, which is most
of these stories.
But let let's go in next to and
I'll let you actually pick which thing you
think will be better to start with. Do
you wanna focus on the, the information around
hi. It's your al Sham in Idlib and
that focus or the the deal conversation
in do you think it's more important to
break down what these groups are first or
talk about the deal that might have happened
in the in the last so many weeks?
Well, I mean, I think we can very
quickly break down,
who these groups are. I mean, Jalani, as
we talked about, he was incubated
in the CIA black sites in Iraq.
He
was
sent as the emissary of Baghdadi, so ISIS
basically, into Syria. He then formed
Nusratran
Al Qaeda in Syria. He then went on
to form various coalitions of terrorist groups inside
Syria.
And he pretty much had command, not over
all of the groups in Idlib,
but he had command over,
let's say, the most dominant groups.
In Idlib, he provided
surveillance
operations
for the United States so they could pick
off the other groups that
potentially could be a threat
to Jelani's supremacy,
in Idlib.
But under his control or also,
yeah, like thousands of foreign,
extremist factions, like even Kurdish,
Salafists,
Chechens,
Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan,
Uyghurs.
I mean, I I was looking at a
map the other day from 2014
of where
the terrorists were coming from inside Syria, and
it was extraordinary. I mean, they're coming from
everywhere, from Norway, from Finland, from all of
the Balkans,
from Kosovo, from
America, from EU, from Australia. Like literally,
they flooded in from all over the world
and they're still there. So when we talk
about this being Syrian against Syrian, of course
it isn't.
At least 50% of those groups,
are foreign mercenaries. Foreign
ideologically driven, some of them.
But mercenaries and proxies.
Right? So that's what I'm saying. At what
point are they going to retain any kind
of allegiance
to Jelani and to HTS?
Mhmm. Very unlikely. Unless, of course, the money
is good.
Right. Well, it's sort of like the Azov
movement dynamic. I mean, it literally is the
same proxies l I mean, because, I mean,
even I, it's pretty I think it was
Scott Ritter that covered this the most, but
where when Zelensky first took power, he walked
up to them and they basically laughed him
off. Like, you're you're on control. You know?
And that was on video. I remember seeing
the video myself. I played on the show.
And so what's interesting is you got this
proxy element. So in in a way, even
though Jelani clearly has, you know, some level
of influence with his group, your argument is
that ultimately there it's just because of the
chaos they've created, anybody else could ultimately start.
I mean, like, even the Kurds come into
play because I don't think the Kurds seem
to be in line with the vision they
have for what's coming next with what Gulani
or anybody else has. So, eventually, one of
these things are going to come up against
each other. Like we saw in the last
dynamic where you had the state department and
CIA forces fighting each other inside of Syria.
You know?
Well, the Kurds have done what they've done
historically.
You know, they they they don't learn from
history that whenever they're supported,
by
whoever that power is, they're gonna be betrayed.
Right. Of course, that's exactly what's happening right
now because they're being attacked in the northeast,
by the Turkish
SNA forces.
And they're literally begging America to to stop
it and to get Turkey to call off
the the the troops. It's
it's not gonna happen,
you know. And and people were telling them.
I mean, they had the experience in Afrin
when they rejected the Syrian Arab army offers
to come in and help them resist against
the Turkish proxies coming in and occupying Afrin.
And they refused.
Right? And so then what happened? The Turkish
mercenaries came in, and there was a massacre,
and they were fully displaced from Afrin.
Right. I mean
You know, I I I don't know. With
the Kurds, it's very difficult to really have
sympathy because
how they couldn't see what was coming, that
at some point, they would be left to
the wolves because a deal would be done
and as it has been done between
Turkey and
Israel to to conduct this attack in the
first place. Right? Because Turkey at the moment
gets the north and it gets, from Aleppo
across to the northeast.
The Kurds are out of the picture.
Mhmm.
Well, I honestly don't have much,
compact like, I don't see them in the
same categories I would any of the other
groups we're discussing, but you're still a I
think as you're pointing out, acknowledged aware of
being used by these elements. So I I
it's like you said, I don't really have
much compassion for what that, you know, you've
should've learned from these mistakes thus far, I
think. Like, I think they have the design
on, obviously, their Kurdistan area, but as you're
pointing out, that's not the designs anybody's laying
out. But so this this is a good
segue into the the question about whatever went
down in in, in the last you know,
with with the the pot potential of whatever
deal was brewing that I've heard you discussed.
Because, obviously, right there, I would argue that
looks like ultimately
Turkey
getting what it wanted out of this and
the and the courage as usual getting thrown
at the bus by the US government. But
so let's get so was there a deal
that took place with all of this? And
I'd like to start from the point of
where like, when we were talking about this
in the first and a little before where
it was sort of like, you know, the
sleeper cell elements, you know, that ultimately, it
seemed that some kind of an agreement was
made where Assad didn't really resist. We saw
the point where even Sputnik reported that he
had essentially resigned and would call for peaceful
transition. You know? So what really went down
right there? And do you think that somebody
was, you know,
what the the deal was not honored by
one of the parties?
I'm only theorizing.
Mhmm. Right? I I don't have any,
you know, hard evidence.
But just looking at the picture on the
ground, I mean,
I know for a fact that when Aleppo
was when the defense of Aleppo was first
breached, I mean, there was something like 30,000
Syrian Army forces,
defending Aleppo.
And I know that in the east,
the forces that were there
were steadfast. They stayed.
When they decided to stay,
the Russian forces and the commander of the
Russian forces left,
and they went back to Khomeini.
Now at the same time, Russia was still
bombing
the HTS
supply lines. I think we talked about this.
But they left them. They abandoned the Syrian
army that that
didn't
withdraw from the eastern side. And in fact,
that particular brigade then went down to the
south of Aleppo and liberated the people that
had been trapped in the Al Safira area
to the south of Aleppo, which consisted of
military cadets, civilians,
evacuees from Nobile and Zara,
the Shia towns to the northwest of Aleppo.
Then was when
this kind of strange collapse seemed to
start
at this point. Now
in defense of the Syrian Army, because a
lot of people are being very critical, there
are videos circulating
of a Russian Humvee driving past them, like,
swearing at them and calling them cowards and
so on.
But
you know what? Like, the Syrian army has
been fighting for 14 years. They're paid on
average between 30
to $50 a month.
Every terrorist is on around 2,000,
and that's without all of the profiteering and
the taxes that they take from the civilians
and and the general kind of corruption and
theft that goes on,
particularly in Idlib or in any of the
areas that they ever occupied. Right? And Babal
Hawa, which was the main humanitarian
crossing according to the UN,
was a trading post for
for HTS.
So they had money rolling in, thanks to
the
to their backers in the EU and Turkey
and the United States, etcetera.
The Syrian army had been fighting for 14
years. From
2020,
many of them had been
decommissioned and then were brought back in, of
course.
There were a lot of rookie soldiers
in the young conscripts that had been brought
in since 2020 and really had no battle
experience at all. And when you've got that
kind of scenario and you're faced with overwhelming
forces
that have been backed by NATO, weaponized by
NATO, trained by NATO,
have the equipment that has been given to
them by NATO member states either through Ukraine
or through Turkey.
Right? You are facing
overwhelming force. Plus then they had the drone
technology on top of that.
And someone who was actually on the field
in Hama told me that's what's killing us.
Like, they're they're just driving holes through our
lines because we can't
we don't have the defenses to be able
to deal with the number of drones that
that they're throwing at us.
And so then, you know, we know the
story. In Homs, there was a degree of
resistance because Hezbollah
came into Homs because for them, Homs is
important because that's the
main part of their supply lines,
from Syria,
into
Lebanon.
And there were some Iranian forces still on
the ground at that point and Syrian army.
So to say that the whole army collapsed
is is a little bit unfair.
I think there were elements that kept fighting.
There was a lot of confusion. There was
a lot of jamming of signals between the
brigades and their commanders and so on, so
instructions were not getting through.
But ultimately,
for me,
a deal was made long before this happened,
in my opinion.
And I think we talked about the fact
that for me, there was a very strong
possibility that Trump was going to try and
do a deal,
sacrifice
Assad.
Because by sacrificing Assad, he's keeping everyone happy.
Right? When I say everyone, I'm talking about
the the gulf states that have normalized with
Israel, whether officially or not. They have normalized
with Israel.
So when you say when you say sacrificing
Assad, you mean a deal with Russia?
Yeah. Mhmm. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. Because it
it's the only one that makes sense to
me. Mhmm.
Because
Iran, to a degree
you know, I think Iran had genuinely
attempted
to offer support to Assad. I was told
by a number of,
contacts in Iran
that they understood
relatively quickly that there wasn't going to be
a major stand. So for them, that meant
that they will withdraw because for them to
increase their troop presence would would not be
correct. If it and and that's why you
saw them saying, we need a request
from the Syrian government to come in, and
then we'll come in. We're perfectly prepared to
do that. And everyone here was like, okay.
Make the request.
Mhmm. You know?
And I think But it it it didn't
come.
I I I saw reporting around that time
that even right before we talked that Syrian
government had actually asked, in some cases, the
Iranian elements to move back and to and
to leave the area. So, like, so so
right there, do you think that
like you said, so there's a deal that
was before this. So that that makes sense
in so far up to the point where
why wouldn't then Assad have
said something? Why wouldn't there be a different
response? Because it does seem to be as
if there was, like, unison in the original
agreement to, like, not have much of a
response.
But so just kind of connect the dots
for me right there. So does that mean
somebody screwed him over somehow and he didn't
see it? How do you see that connecting?
Well, I I mean, honestly, I do have
to say I'm still working this one out.
Right? I know.
Yes. You're displaying really completely theorizing it. We
don't have we don't have all the facts.
But
that again is my issue with
people who
react
in a way that is in advance of
really knowing exactly what has happened.
There may be actions taken that they can't
explain.
But I you know,
I'll explain what I mean by this. Because
I think today, Reuters put out an article
and basically they were saying, you know, Assad
didn't warn anyone.
Various members of his close government had asked
him for advice and so on, and he
didn't respond. Or if he responded, he told
them every and and it
this doesn't make any sense to me. I
agree. You know, if I look at Assad
and
the the problem is now, of course, if
if you'd say anything in defense of Assad,
we're just back in that area where, yeah,
you're you're just an Assadist, you know, like
this kind of thing.
But I'm looking at this logically.
Like, how many weeks ago was he at
the Arab League summit and shaming the Gulf
states? Because everyone was also saying, yeah, well,
the problem was that he pivoted towards,
the UAE and towards Saudi Arabia.
And he saw the future of Syria with
them, not with Iran and not with the
resistance. That's another,
narrative that's being brought into the kind of
melting pot. But then why did he shame
them at the Arab League summit very recently
Mhmm. About the genocide in Palestine? And he
was the most, you know, forceful speaker there
about what was happening in Palestine and that
there needed to be unity and they needed
to actually do something rather than just keep
talking about it. And this, you know, this
is President Assad. This is how consistent he's
been,
since he since he was president, really. We've
never seen any deviation
from him in his public speaking from, the
causes that he supports, the alliances that he
has, and so on. We've never seen him
deviate from this. And we've never really seen
Syria deviate from its alliance
to Russia
since 1946
and for which it's it's suffered endless CIA
and MI6 campaigns to remove
governments
and and coup d'etat and military interventions
and so on that have been ongoing for
75 years.
Because
their alliance with with Russia was what they
defended for that length of time. Mhmm.
But I think,
this is part of
and and, you know, I kind of I
I do have to say I don't have
any evidence to support this, but I'm just
using
my logic right now. Mhmm.
Why would he act so out of character
having fought for 14 years to defend the
country and to defend,
the people?
Why would he ignore his closest
advisers and his closest government members and leave
them in a situation where they're at risk
fundamentally?
Unless
he is
part of the deal is that he's not
allowed to do that. Now why is he
not allowed to do that? If I put
myself in a kind of Mossad
psychology
area,
that would be the best thing for them
to make him do. Why? Because that
increases the demoralization
by £100,000,000.
Right?
Which then completely ends any potential for counter
resistance or any kind of resistance against what's
happening.
And friends of mine are saying, you know,
the anger against him in the streets right
now is something that they're shocked by it.
But it,
as I said, I'm just thinking out loud.
I'm just theorizing. I'm not saying that this
is definitely what happened, but
it's all too odd for me.
So I'm just trying to kind of think
what might have happened.
Well, taking it on to the point of
time. I, you know, I do think
the one who would make a deal would
be Russia. Why? Because Trump is incoming, and
we talked about this. That when Trump comes
in, everyone thinks they can do a deal.
And Trump has been laboring the fact. That
was his main campaign promise that he would
end the war in Ukraine. So even for
Trump, there is there is a degree of
importance for him to end the war in
Ukraine so that he looks as if he's
maintaining his campaign promises.
So
what if there's a deal made between
Russia and
Trump
that make huge concessions on Ukraine,
but Russia gives them Assad
and gives them Syria?
And, of course, it's not only to the
US, it's to Turkey and Israel also. Right.
Well, so this is where the next and
again, it can't express
clearly all theoretical that the the logic around
it, then why then would Assad
play into that? What does he gain from
that situation? And so, let me if I
will if I could, let me float what
I based on what you laid out for
us last time and your ongoing work and
a lot of others like, is
Mhmm. Isabella Fiorella, Isabella or Fi why am
I blanking on her name all of a
sudden? I always do that. I feel like
I'm mixing it. Isabelle.
I just call her Fiorella all the time,
so forget. But so
the the a a lot of your guys
you're doing great work out there and trying
to be objective and break this down. And
so what I kind of same thing, theoretically
trying to piece this together. What made sense
to me is that, obviously, I and I
agree. What you've laid out over the years
and, of course, it could be some long
con, you know, lie about what he really
is, but he's been consistent about that, you
know, I don't believe he is the way
that they've framed him. I don't believe and,
again, with all the lies of chemical weapons
or the prison that you've proved, why would
they have to make these things up if
he's the monster they make him out to
be? Now I come from very, you know,
pessimist government perspective. I think any of them
could end up being something that's a problem,
but I would agree that I don't think
he is that. So keeping that in mind,
I would argue if his actions are being
taken that would that make him look this
way, it would be for something that would
benefit the people of the country or in
some way be the the greater good of
the situation. And so what makes sense to
me here would be that ultimately, there was
some kind of an a deal that was
made. And as you know, this was going
on before this point where I think they're
reporting that the Biden had government and to
and for those out there, you guys already
know this, I see the government of the
US making these deals whether Trump or Biden.
I think it's the same entity. Mhmm. But,
ultimately, that
that the agreement was made before with in
the interest of having him stop work in
with Lebanon, right, with Hezbollah. And so, ultimately,
the deal could have been for him to
to step back from this, potentially come you
know, relieve himself from power, which is what
Sputnik reported early in this that he resigned,
called for peaceful transition. So I don't know
whether it's relevant or not or or true
or not. But so, ultimately, that he resigned
with the interest of making this an e
like, again, I forgot to add that wherever
that with Ukraine being added to this, the
Russia has been overextended in that regard, I
think, when it comes to what's going on
with Syria to a degree. So maybe they
realized that we can't. We're in a position
where we can't protect what's gonna happen, so
they make a deal to ultimately say, okay.
I'll back away as long as there's a
peaceful transition and Syrians gonna elect their president.
Right? And so I could see, as much
as I don't think the US would ever
respect it, the US government entering a deal
like that. And then Israel
with Turkey
blow inside of Syria and start taking over
all the territory. And then the US is
which, by the way, as you remember, US
has been in that position countless times in
the past, which I would argue they're just
as capable of lying and going in the
same direction. But where they do make a
deal and Israel just goes, we don't care.
We're gonna take what we want, and then
US has to defend that. They've I think
that's happened more than once in the past.
So what do you think the likelihood of
that is? And that ultimately, the US is
now hell bent on trying to make themselves
look like they aren't being played as usual
by Israel and trying to make it seem
like this is what they wanted or defending
the terrorist group that's now in charge.
And that's what and then Assad is left
kind of being screwed.
I think that what do you think of
that? Is it is it logical?
Yeah. Kind of. But I think you also
need to remember,
what they were courting Assad to do until
he canceled the whole thing in 2009, which,
of course, was the Qatari pipeline. Right. And
where did the Qatari pipeline run through? It
ran through Sfrio and,
Turkey. Mhmm. So it makes sense to me
that the US would enable
Turkey to get involved, for example.
And Qatar is the other beneficiary because, ultimately,
that means they go back to the and
and I think today, there were a few
headlines of
Erdogan and and Qatar talking
about
the reemergence of the pipeline project. Surprise. Surprise.
So, you know, so I think for the
US, that that's a major
win for them. Mhmm.
But I think also for,
Israel in particular, you know, of course, it
serves them. Syria will be plunged into chaos
and
never ending. It'll it'll basically become another Libya.
Right. But to a degree, even worse because
not only will you have the warring factions
and and the kind of ethnic cleansing programs
that are ongoing at the moment, people in
Syria are terrified.
And, you know, you've got various factions that
know that they're gonna be a target gathering
at the Syrian border to get out. Many
of them don't have papers. It's horrendous.
Christian
churches have been desecrated
and, you know, and they're desperately trying to
maintain
this veneer of,
respectability.
But of course, like ultimately, what are they?
They're terrorists.
Right. You know, and they aren't going to
just have an epiphany overnight and become
good human beings. And and and that's another
thing. Now they're talking about lifting the bounty
on, Jelani or whatever his name is now,
Ahmed al Shaddah.
And,
and lifting the sanctions
and
preventing
refugees
from the minority sex inside Syria leaving and
and coming to Europe as refugees. I mean,
that for me is just pure criminality because
what they're saying is, no. We'll leave you
there to die. We'll trap you there to
die.
Yeah. To be persecuted. It's horrendous.
You know, when the when the and they're
paying
many of the refugees who came were were
members of the extremist
factions who escaped to Europe. Not all of
them, but many of them.
And they're paying them €1,000
or whatever the currency is to go back
to Syria.
Like, how does this work? You know? That
just means, okay, we'll go back and reinforce
the Islamist extremist factions that are now ruling
Syria to ensure that you're even more powerful
and and the minorities
that are under threat can't come.
Well, an interesting point to make in that
too as well is that this is it's
it's
the conversation usually from a US perspective around,
the border conversation is about the military age
males and what that is. And, you know,
what's interesting is you can find that here's
a good example of who who's actually funding
and arming and and putting this into act,
which be the US and Israel and Turkey,
I would guess as well, in the context
of the actual terrorist entities being within the
refugee element. And, ultimately, then what happens is
the Syrian people who are actually innocent people
in the situation get the brunt of the
problem because it's it's the same cycle everywhere
you look. You know? And in in other
cases, it ends up being well, even like
right now with, like, the border in the
United States or in general, the immigration conversation
is you're it's the average people become the
focal point as the enemy when in reality,
they're the ones being used by this kind
of situation. I thought that was just irrelevant
to point out.
I wanted to ask you about the,
Saad speech because you you you would, put
it out on Twitter in general that if
anybody has information about why that might not
have been put out and you reference a
source inside the Syrian government, they had claimed
that there was a speech that hadn't gone
out. So I wonder your thoughts on that
kind of to put a pin in this
part of the conversation, as you referenced about
Assad and my point about why he wouldn't
have said anything. I think the speech is
a really important part of why, like the
demoralization
to it and, and you know, why they,
people are angry with him now who might've
otherwise support him.
Yeah. And I think, you know, that that's,
as I said, a very typical tactic
of the Zionists and even British intelligence agents
is this kind of mind manipulation
game, you know, that they play.
And and it that's why it just started
to dawn on me. Well, that would make
sense because then that would even alienate.
That that would reduce
any
of his credibility,
basically, even with people that were close to
him, which then would cascade down
into normal society. Right?
Because effectively, that would mean that he's putting
his own people at risk
rather than
I suppose the idea that was being put
forward was that he was going to leave
in order to prevent bloodshed.
Exactly. You're right. There there was originally a
deal that there would be
a transitional government. He would remain for 6
months, and then it would get handed over.
Now,
potentially, of course,
there may have been a scenario where he
there would have been another Gaddafi,
and it could be that whoever
made the deal and was managing it said
to him, no. Like, you've just got to
go because the risk is too high.
And and, you know,
we don't know. I mean, that's the bottom
line. At the moment, we're we're just speculating
with the information that we have.
I can tell you one thing, though. I
was gonna say that the the story they're
putting forward clearly is not the truth. They're
not the answer to this. And I think
that's quite obvious. No. And I think the
speech thing,
because, you know, I was told that by
2 people that I know to be sort
of very trustworthy as regards information.
And it kind of made sense to me
that he would have prepared something
like that. Right. Now in the Reuters article,
one of his, top advisers,
apparently,
if this is to be believed, he called
them to come and help him write the
speech.
But when they got there, he wasn't there.
Right? So that that's one aspect to it.
You know, because that's the thing. There's so
many different narratives going on and floating around
now and people are getting very emotionally invested
in it and getting very angry.
And therefore, it becomes very difficult to sort
of have a,
a reasonable conversation with anyone about what has
actually happened.
But I think with the speech and and
I was contacted by other people who said
they'd seen it on Facebook and that it
was immediately taken down.
So people are kind of like, what is
going on? You know? Did he make a
speech? Did I, For me, again, it's still
very difficult to believe that he didn't. I
agree. He didn't attempt to communicate with people,
that he just disappeared.
And I think at that point,
pressure was put on him to do so
for whatever reasons. I don't know. Maybe to
save his life.
Maybe to,
say, you know,
reduce the risk to his family. It could
be any manner of things like,
you know, because I've been speaking to to
people that even for me disappeared off the
radar, there were there were,
National Defense Forces leaders that just disappeared from
me and have only just reappeared right now.
But I don't know what happened to them
between the time that it was decided they
had to just get out. And most of
them have left with nothing. Like,
literally just the clothes on their back. So
obviously, there was an urgency involved.
Right? Yeah. And And and maybe as part
of that deal, when they realized that that
the risk was too great, everything had to
just end there and then and there. Right.
But, you know, it's
as I said, what I'm just trying to
put stuff to get
It's like we lost you again.
Well, I'll just add one point on it
that I'll hopefully, we get you back here
that I think that's
it it just the only thing that sticks
out to me is something that doesn't line
up with this is that why they wouldn't
be saying something now?
Why wouldn't Putin or Assad or somebody in
there? Or just just those 2 in particular.
Why would they have not, to this point,
have said something about that? You know, what
even, like, the I guess, to answer my
own question is that I think the point
would be, again, completely hypothetical, theorizing
is that there must be some kind of
factor that's holding that back.
Whether it's in their interest for some longer
play or that ultimately it's because there's some
kind of factor that's being used against them.
Somebody that they're holding or I yeah. Who
knows? But that that is the only way
that makes sense to me. I just can't
wrap my mind around why at this point,
oh, looks like we lost her, which comes
back, that they would not have
said something or or made that clear by
now. Because the as for those that are
new to the conversation,
it's been reported by Russian media, Russian sources
as,
per predominantly, I think, Russian sources that he
fled to Moscow and is in Moscow safely
is the is the narrative. But I we
have yet to seen any see any video,
any statements.
I'm that's very strange. So I also could
be possible that he's not alive anymore and
that's that would indicate, I guess, that Russia
would be involved in some way. Again, it's
com all completely up in the air.
But, assuming we don't if we don't get
her back, I'm just gonna go through a
few, we had a few more things we're
gonna get into. I was gonna go a
lot longer than an hour today, but, we
might have just lost her. Remember that she
is actually, I'm not even sure where she
went to. Maybe she doesn't want us to
know where she is now because of for
safety reasons. Remember, she was in Syria and
she got out right right when this was
all getting pretty hairy, and she is obviously
safe now. But so I'll I'll go through
some other points then, and hopefully we get
her back.
What I will do actually since let me
do this real quick.
That works that way anyway. So
what I'll highlight again and see if we
it will all just kind of wrap to
these tabs. If she doesn't come back, we'll
kind of finish up there. That highly recommend
you check out the interview we had on
the first. Oh, there we go. We got
her back now.
Sorry. There you are. So
all all I really had said was that,
what I found interesting,
the one anomaly to what we highlighted there,
again, very clearly expressing this is completely theoretical,
is that why neither Putin nor Assad would've
said anything at this point? Why they wouldn't
have posted anything or shared anything? And all
I simply added to answer my own question,
hypothetically, is that it would make sense to
me that that would indicate that there's some
factor that's stopping that. Whether this is in
their interest to hold it back for some
longer play, which I also
did consider earlier about whether this is, you
know, that there was a strategic defeat for
the interest of the full resistance, which day
by day seems less likely. I'll give you
that. But considering that whether there was something
larger that they thought maybe allowing Israel to
overextend itself, you know. Anyway, the point being
that why why they wouldn't have said anything
now to this point either that it was
in their interest not to or that maybe
there's somebody that's being held or, you know,
there's a factor that they can't for some
reason, you know, coercion or I don't know.
But that's the thing that stands out to
me is it doesn't make sense to me
why they wouldn't have said something at this
point, assuming he's safe in Moscow, which is
also potentially not true as
well. Yeah.
I mean
yeah. I mean, it was interesting in the
Reuters article. They sent they said that they
reached out to President Assad in Moscow. I'm
not quite sure how they managed to do
that. Yeah.
You know, and and the article was written,
I think, by 3 people, which we commented
on earlier was
a little bit excessive. I mean, there wasn't
an awful lot of actual information in there.
But they were pushing this narrative that that
basically he'd betrayed all of his closest people
Right. And and left them
at great risk.
Yeah. I mean,
I guess, really, we just have to watch
the messaging
from Russia,
and Iran
and and potentially from Assad or maybe he
won't.
You know, maybe we're just not gonna see
him again.
I don't know. Yeah. Like, this this is
even here in in Lebanon, you know, there's
there's
conversations going on all over the place about
what actually happened because
there's a lot of confusion. And that's the
thing that that was most noticeable, you know,
when the armed when the terrorist forces were
drawing close to Damascus. Nobody knew what was
going on. Mhmm. I mean, even for myself,
at one point, I was told I should
leave. The next minute, I spoke to someone,
in Damascus, and and they said, no. No.
It's fine. You know, the president is still
here. I'm staying here. I'm not going and
so on. So I was like, oh, alright.
Then someone else told me, well, there's a
ceasefire coming in 8 hours, so we've just
gotta sit tight until
whatever time it was in the morning. So
I was like, you know, because ultimately, I
didn't really
want to leave because I knew it was
gonna be that would be it at that
point. Right.
And then suddenly, it became
those armed
groups all around the house, and Israel started
bunker buster bombing,
all the air defense around it. So I
was like, okay. No. I don't think we're
gonna get back from this, really.
Yeah. You know? And and then the decision
was made try and make it to the
border as fast as possible.
Yeah.
But, you know, that confusion
was incredibly,
damaging
for people
because there there was just a vacuum of
information. Nobody knew what was going on. Everyone
was kind of hearing things here and there
and making their own judgments, and those judgments
were not very reliable.
So Yeah.
Yeah. What whatever happened,
it created a very difficult situation
for the people in particular.
Yeah. I I think that, you know, again,
if there was a deal made, it seems
like that was clearly part of that. You
know, the the the silence, the the confusion,
the lack of information, like, clearly, like and
excuse me. The the who benefits aspect is
always an important question to ask. And I
think that's very clear in this context who
is benefiting from what's ultimately happening. So, again,
theoretical, we can leave it there for now
since it's it's, you know, we'll we'll I'm
sure we'll see as this goes forward.
I I wanted to get into a conversation
about what comes next. And since we were
just touching on this, in case you haven't
seen how obvious this is, right now, the
in in Syria, there are as I'm I
I even literally titled the show this where
was it?
Right here.
Is as Israel further occupies Syria, western backed
ISIS patch wearing terrorists begin executions.
Like, that's how crazy this is. Like, literally
right in front of us as we speak.
And I'll just, you know, just cut to
the chase. You can see it for yourself.
You know, there's you got guys with ISIS
patches
openly executing people in in the middle of
Syria. You can see right there with ice
patch. I mean and by the way, it's
it's very it's all and including that image
itself. That's actually from
I I checked it myself from that's from
all what's going on inside Syria right now.
And so, what's crazy is that not only
do they have openly US Israeli,
Turkey backed extremists who are executing people, the
religious minorities in the streets, you know, ultimately
that this and and well, actually, before we
go past that, it we did talk about
this in, many previous discussions. I was I
just grabbed 1. This is from February 11,
2020. Turkey and US openly protect extremists in
Idlib as lies begin to crumble.
So and we we briefly touched it before,
but just on Idlib itself. You know, for
those that don't know the relevance of that
so Hyatt Sheryl Shams, I understand it, was
basically, you know,
cultivated, if you will, percolate, whatever the right
term would be inside of Idlib. And that
means that, you know, so the US and
Turkey were provably
existing in that in that area. Right? So
break that down for somebody that wouldn't make
sense for. Like, in Brett McGurk's comments and
how that relates to where we are today.
Yeah. Well, as Brett McGurk,
described that, you know, what is that? Idlib
is the,
biggest
Al Qaeda haven since 9/11. And various other
comments were made like Ambassador Jeffreys, who was
the Pompeo point man on Syria under Trump,
also made it clear that, you know, what
did he say? Al Qaeda is our asset
in inside Syria. And then going back to
Jake Sullivan, the email to Hillary Clinton that
Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.
But, yeah, you know, the the the control
there weren't so many there weren't American bases,
but as I said, there were a 150
Turkish bases in the north and northwest of
Syria.
28
American bases in the northeast and kind of
central Syria around Manbij, and then the major
base of Al Tanf on the,
triangle between
Iraq and Jordan.
And we know that weapons were flowing into,
HTS for for years. When did the ceasefire
come into effect? 2020,
which was brokered between Russia and Turkey. And
from then on in,
those forces were being given the training and
the weapons and so on to be able
to to lead the attack that they did.
And really quickly They they were prepared.
At that point in time,
these were being regarded as
terrorists. Right? I mean, like, as you said,
Brett McGurk saying the the largest ice icon
of hot spot. And so at what point
did that shift? Or, I mean, even at
that point, they were still kinda playing it
both ways, right, where they were protecting it,
but it was terrorists. So it's like they've
I explain, how do they ever get away
with this dub this dual game they're playing
even right now where they're sort of supporting
them, but, yes, they're designated terrorists. You know
what I mean? We know they're hip hypocrites,
but for for someone this is new to,
like, how does that line up?
Well, I think, you know, again, it's this
sort of,
double game because the the fact is that
when they were being bust out of the
areas, taken out in the green buses from
the areas that were being liberated by the
Syrian Arab Army and their allies,
They were still being described as rebels at
that point. Right? They only became Al Qaeda
when they landed in Idlib.
Right? And and they weren't it wasn't sort
of a universal
labeling of them as terrorists. No, they maintained
the description of them as rebels
or then it became,
when, when Jelani formed his kind of, what
was it? Salvation government,
national salvation government in in Idlib. And then
suddenly, they became political opposition.
So to to a large degree,
the American establishment
never really altered its view that well, no.
No. You know, they're legitimate moderate rebels
like Timber Sycamore when Obama was funding 500
moderate rebels
inside Syria. And lo and behold, all of
the weapons and equipment was falling into the
hands of ISIS.
Surprise. Surprise.
Not to mention that the moderate rebels themselves
were
terrorist extremists. With ISIS anyway or right from
the very beginning, you know.
And of course, all of these groups were
were incubated anyway.
They were radicalized by the United States in
in the CIA,
black site.
And that's the whole point because the US
is
weaponizing terrorism
since the war on terror. Terrorism globally has
grown exponentially.
So it's clearly not a war on terror.
It's a war of terror
against anyone that stands in the way of
the US allied agenda,
in whichever region that they're focused on. Because,
of course, the same
terrorist factions are reappearing and are being rebranded
in Africa, in Yemen,
in Libya. I mean, they're just being percolated
around the globe wherever,
the US needs them. And when I'm talking
about the US, I'm talking about the entire
kind of alliance
of,
US hegemony.
I remember you and I having a conversation,
one of the many interviews of the past
where we laughed at the changing of the
name, I believe, Tahit Erl Sham. I forget
if it was that one or one of
the ones before it. But laughing about, oh,
just got a name change in the act.
And even and the corporate media just treat
it like something new. You know? It's Yeah.
Very transparent. No. No. I mean, they just
adopt it. And it's also a it's a
kind of way of confusing people. Mhmm. It's
a way of distancing them from the truth
because
most, you know, most people are not gonna
pay attention to the minutiae. They're just gonna
go, oh, well, okay. Now we're talking about
some group called Hyattoria Ostrava. Must be different.
Right?
They're they're they're not necessarily and and when
that name is used time and time again,
and then they start to rebrand, and and
Giovanni does interviews with PBS and CNN.
Then then people kind of and and now
people, I'm sure, are forgetting.
I'm sure they're being destabilized
in their belief. Well, hang on. Weren't these
terrorists? And yet, here they are, you know,
forming governments and and the bounties getting lifted
and the sanctions are getting lifted. Well, well,
I'm wrong, but they must be the good
guys. Maybe they've had a change of mind,
you know? You know, I kinda think Such
manipulation.
It really is. I kinda feel I had
a thought of this the other day that
I get the sense this is gonna go
a different direction where I mean, it is
very obvious and maybe I I question whether
it's just obvious to us and the other
people are blinded by it, but I do
think it's more obvious than usual. And that
ultimately, the game is to roll these people
out, start by going, yeah. These are the
rebels and they've saved Syria. But at the
same time, they're going, but we're bombing ISIS
which, you know, that's even what's going on.
And then eventually, they just kind of merge
together to where they just go, you know,
the the Hayat Trelshom becomes
the villain of Syria as and it it
rehashes the same game and we start all
back over again. You know what I mean?
Where as long as they've got the enemy
they're fighting I mean, historically, the US ally
of today is the villain of tomorrow. That's
it goes as far back as you can
look. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know? So I
but I just mean like in a rapid
scale, is that happening again? You know?
I but I do wonder if that's why
they're so desperate to vilify Assad even in
in the eyes of, you know, his supporters
within,
Syria itself. Mhmm. Because
because I think also, you know, they they
have a purpose for HTS and ISIS and
all the others. They still have Iraq to
go. They have Iran potentially. So they still
need them to a degree.
So I'm not sure we're gonna see that
until we see the end of whatever or
what wherever this project is is headed.
Yeah. Good point.
Well, let let's talk about the the supposed,
you know, transition government and the election discussion
and all of that and get into so
just so it's clear that what we're talking
about is the group we were just highlighting.
These are US
Western backed terrorists.
Not mentioning words exactly what they are. And
so now we're watching these elements just to
talk about democracy
and elections and and, you know, diversity and
and all these it's really it's it's fascinating
if it wasn't terrifying that it's actually happening.
So I wanted your thoughts on this as
we have and first, they talk about elections.
Right? So right out of the gate, where
this is
democracy and freedom. And then right on the
hill of that, they go, wait wait, 18
months
transition period until we so I just think
it's funny to point out that it very
rapidly became give us about a year and
a half to continue the not democracy situation.
But I simply pointed out that ultimately,
you know, if they were to tomorrow decide
let's say they had an election and the
Syrian people assuming that was what happened chose
to pick Assad.
Well, they wouldn't let that happen. So let's
not pretend this is democracy. Right? Like, it's
obvious that that's not the reality. But what
are your thoughts on the point of the
the government, the transition, the potential election? You
know, is there any possibility this could translate
into something Syrians want? You know, what are
your thoughts on it?
No. Like, I well,
I mean, you know, it's kind of crazy.
They've come to power through a coup.
Initially, they were talking about it being a
transitional government for the period of 6 months,
which was when they were talking about,
Assad staying on an advisory role until he
handed over, etcetera, which I think was always
gonna be dreamscape.
You know, that would that was just never
gonna be allowed to happen.
And I've seen sort of messaging that they're
putting out today to 2 different extremes. So
first of all, they're saying, oh, you know,
the poor Syrian people have been suffering without
electricity and without fuel and without food. That
sounds familiar.
Well, yeah, without even mentioning the reasons for
why they're suffering without fuel and food and
electricity and and, you know, oil. The genocide
over here, the exact circumstances in Gaza, you
know, just ridiculous. You know, so it's
and then at the same time, they're putting
out all these various announcement every 5 minutes.
And so now they're talking about they're going
to go after journalists that in their view,
supported the Syrian government crimes.
So suddenly without any kind of,
you know,
judicial process, people are being executed. They're being
hung. They're being hunted down. They're being,
massacred if they're from the wrong minority sex.
They're being persecuted.
And and, you know, journalists now who who
might have been patriotic
during president Assad's
presidency
and who were against
the terrorist forces backed by the west suddenly
become traitors.
I mean, this is a kind of a
terrifying
inversion of reality.
Right. Right? Well, not only inversion of And
nobody nobody is gonna stop it. That's the
problem.
I was gonna say not only in a
version of reality that it's,
I mean, it's it's the obvious point is
that you have this this framing from the
western
media and and partisan element that this is
somehow the Syrian people being saved or to
very at even, like, the very least that
maybe it'll be worse, but this is what
they got the bad guy out of the
way. You know, and it's just right on
the heels of this, its exact opposite. Like,
nothing they're framing is, you know, they're they're
they're hanging people in the streets. Right? They're
killing religious minorities right in the open. And
so it it kills me that they can
even pretend to frame this as something other
than, you know, what we've always been at
the very least, what what they're telling you,
you just got saved from. You know, it
I just I mean, that's the same old
point. I'm just
griping, I guess, at the fact that it's
so frustrating that it continues to happen. Go
ahead. Yeah. And it's fully supported by the
mainstream media, of course. Right. You know? And
and the thing is that,
you know, the extraordinary
thing is that, yes, you've you've now got
the BBC and CNN, and they're bolstering
their their image and and making everything look
normal.
Executions are normal. This is what happens
after,
you know, after after a so called revolution.
You get the executions, you get the guillotine,
you get the gallows, you know. And and
I'm just thinking,
if this were the other way around, if
this were Russia doing this, for example, all
hell would be like this. But there's never
ever going to be any recrimination
for these groups
that are being backed by the West and
are committing crimes and were committing crimes
before. That's it. They're gonna go scot free
until, of course, they become redundant,
to to the US agenda as Right. As
you rightly
mentioned. And then suddenly, they'll become the target.
That's the same point about Hyatt Shalsham. Right?
I mean, you you guys there's a bounty
on their heads. They've committed crimes. You guys
have been telling us that for a decade,
and now they just say different words. And
so what about the crime they commit? Coming
off. You know, now they can lift the
bounty because now they're an official
government.
Right. But to your point though, what about
all the crimes they've committed thus far? They
just vanish because they changed their name? You
know, it's you're you're it's well taken. It's
it's it's ridiculous. And and the journalists point
go ahead. Go ahead. No. No. I was
just going to also say, you know,
how long before the Syrian people are are
kind of saying, even amongst themselves,
oh, god. I wish we had a sad
back. Well Because we hear this every time.
Mubarak, Saddam Hussein,
Gaddafi.
Sadly,
most people regret that it happened and that
they're gone because the chaos and the the
terrorist vacuum that their country has flung into
is far worse than anything that came before.
And are they really gonna fix the electricity?
How? Is the US suddenly gonna give them
all the oil from the northeast?
Yeah. Maybe once it's we're top bombing all
the infrastructure.
Yeah.
I mean, that's that's, you know, the absurd
the point is that they're destroying everything that
would allow life to exist in Syria. So
it's pretty obvious that they have no interest
in keeping it safe for people, you know,
but yeah. Yeah. I I think what it
it continues to show is as everywhere else
they're acting in the world, they're not doing
what they claim they're doing. They're not here
to save people. They're not here to fight
for democracy. They're here at their own interest
at the expense of literally everybody else around
us. And I think that's why we continue
to see these these, you know, stenographers of
the west continue to lie. I mean, let
let let's go ahead and and finish on
this point about the propaganda because it is
absolutely
ridiculous the level of what we're seeing. And
I'm I'm sure you've covered this already. And
I think everyone's already I mean, as far
I mean, even just over the last couple
of days, it seems like this has already
been thoroughly broken down,
completely exposed as utter nonsense in more than
one example. And this is the guy that,
you know, they're literally claiming came stumble
you know, apparently, I mean, I'll just I'll
read exactly what Arnaud wrote. He said the
the this is really, really hard to believe.
The air force intelligence headquarters where this is
taking place has been freed since the 7th
December, so 4 to 5 days ago. So
we're asked to believe that the CNN journalist
visited a secret prison in the there that's
been cleared presumably for up to 5 days
and found someone left behind. And his main
point first is that, you know, I'm pretty
sure they people can't survive for 4 to
5 days without water. And, you know, there
are a thousand of examples that even face
or even, Twitter caught. You know, he seems
to be well fed. He doesn't seem to
be on dirty.
So, you know, for on that one alone
No. But but this one, if this was
the Lebanese, he'd come there for for hospital
treatment.
Oh, well, that There's a walking there saying
that's another one. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And this
this one apparently was supposed to be kind
of similar where they go, you know, that
there's another person that was kept and the
person comes in behind and proves that that's
not the case. Like, it's just it's crazy.
And I think there was another one where
the they had the kid talking.
And he said,
yes. You know, I've been kept in the
prison for 14 years since I was born.
And the guy says to him, so how
old do you know? He says, 10.
Yeah. It's like, what?
I said, it's unbelievable. And and to be
objective, that doesn't have to mean that these
things aren't happening. But it's incredible. And I
think your evidence has clearly shown that they
they're lying about all of this. But that
they my quest my point is always is
if they have to manufacture all of these
lies to sell this narrative,
you should at least ask whether that's not
really the picture, you know. Well, here here's
another one as well. This one was, BBC
put out.
Man found wandering near Damascus after months in
Syrian prison. And Craig Murray came out and
said the evidence that Travis Timmerman was detained
at all seems distinctly dubious At the most
basic level for a white man who has
been locked inside for 7 months, in all
photos, he's entirely the wrong color,
same as most of these people. No prisoner
power, flabbiness, huge amount of of BS coming
out of the media right now. It really
is incredible. And then I'll just point out
as we did a second ago, you know,
that they don't seem to care at all
about the very, very well documented evidence of
what is actually continuing to happen in US
controlled areas in Syria or many other places
in general. So if you've seen oh, I'm
sorry. I'm not I'm not actually showing it.
That was just the one we mentioned earlier
about, Amnesty International.
Uh-uh. Yeah. But any any other examples you've
seen of just, like, egregious misinformation swinging around?
Because it seems to be pretty common right
now.
Well, no. I mean, it's just the fact
that that that they're
absolutely totally on board
with HTS. I mean, they're not even bothering
to try and hide it.
You know? And when they're when they're accusing
us of lack of objectivity
or of bias
And and we see them literally kind of
salivating
over an HTS,
power grab in Syria. It's it's horrendous.
I mean, I actually sent Jeremy Bowen's report,
when he's following the crowds to a potential
execution and he's
relishing it. And I sent it to a
a kind of a very professional journalist friend
of mine, and and they said, this is
this is disgusting.
Yeah. You know, this should be condemned,
even even in court. This is just appalling.
This isn't journalism.
You know, and this is one of the
so called senior journalists at the BBC. Of
course, I query if they're journalists or intelligence
assets, quite frankly, when they, you know, the
the higher level,
journalists within state medias in the West and
so on. I mean, we know that through
CNN, and and I'm sure Clarissa Ward what's
her name? Ardoaa Damon. I'm surprised she's not
there. Although, I think she's kind of
since she sniffed
Yeah. Busy. On the rucksack in in Idlib.
I think her her kind of, you know,
usefulness went down a little bit, but still.
Alan McLeod. I think it was Alan McLeod
from in press news. I believe it was
him, but he I I
I don't wanna miss anyway, I think it
was made press news for sure, but they
put out a great, a report about ID,
Mossad elements be finding themselves in the positions
of influence in corporate media in the west
or specifically the United States. It was definitely
a member press news. Yeah. I think it
was a lot of thought. But Yeah. I
I think the point is that it's very
obvious this happens. Let let's let's two points
that I wanna end with in general. Your
comments on this, there's the idea that the
there are Turkish citizens that turn out to
be working for the IDF, this report from
Al Jazeera, which, by the way, I will
also argue especially with this conversation. Al Jazeera
is not somebody who wish we're taking at
face value, but never we should with any
media for that matter. But the idea of
the overlap of Israel in this conversation when
it comes to Turkey, we mentioned this last
time. Right? The the kind of feigned
resistance back and forth between Turkey and Israel
and now being reported at the very least
that there's IDF members with Turkish nationality that
are acting within Turkey, which adds more to
the possibility of their the the deal point
you mentioned before. I just thought that was
interesting point. Thoughts on that to end as
well as where this may go with Iran.
Because you already have Netanyahu. Like, right now,
as this hasn't even finished already going, Iran,
Iran, Iran. Like, we know that's where this
seems to be going.
Erin pointing out that they're already commenting how
we can now we can bomb Iran better
from this location. So just kinda wrap up
on that.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, we know
that,
Trump's administration
is very anti Iran. We've had Vance right
from the beginning saying, you know, we've gotta
hit Iran harder than before, etcetera, etcetera.
But I think
no. I think, you know, where are we
heading? We're definitely heading towards,
potential
of war with Iran for sure.
And and for sure, Iran is preparing for
that.
You know, as I said, I think next
will be Iraq.
They will try and create,
a corridor through Iraq towards Erbil and towards
the border with Iran to prepare for any
escalation against Iran. And then, of course, if
they can do that, if they're closer to
Iran right now
from a launch pad in Damascus
or or from anywhere in Syria, really, because
pretty much all of Syria
is now
related to Israel
to one degree or another.
Turkey, I guess,
might, at some point, be some kind of
thorn in the side of Israel, but I
don't know. You know? But that's that remains
to be seen. Turkey also, of course, is
eyeing up the pipeline that we talked about.
And,
yeah, I I think we're heading for escalation
in Iraq and then potentially,
Iran.
Now I certainly hope not. The sadly, that
does seem to be
where this is heading. And, you know, and
I worry about
I mean, I think right now what we
can see is that this is carrying out
a long term agenda. Right? And I think
I think the obvious point is that Israel
is or rather the United States or the
west in general seems to be carrying out
Israel's wars. I mean, I think that's that's
not a hyperbolic statement, and I think that's
been going on for quite a long time.
And Iran is clearly the last one on
well, I mean, whether we don't wanna talk
about the the 7 countries 5 years, whether
that's legitimate or part of something else, the
point is that we can see Israel's been
aiming at Iran for a very long time.
And with Trump's incoming administration seeming to pull
back any resistance on that at all, I'm
very worried about where that goes.
But, you know, I I guess what we
have to the the point of what we're
doing this for is I'm of the mind
as we touched on to begin
that there is this
shifting of awareness around a lot of this
stuff. And I think we have long since
passed whatever might need to be passed to
argue the majority is aware of this. Right?
And I think that's kind of clear. So
what we need to do to get that
to mobilize into some kind of action that
that drives action, that stops what's coming, that
causes them to care that we see what
they're doing. You know? And I don't really
know what that looks like. But I think
it's important that we continue to highlight work
like yours and continue to highlight
the the objective nonpartisan
information that that's coming out because I think
it's growing. And, again, as I've said before,
I think this is kind of rapidly being
reduced into a position where that just won't
matter anymore. And I think this is part
of it. I really do. I think this
kind of dovetails with the globalism idea,
the the tech even technocracy. You know, I
see this all interconnected. So on the way
out in general, if you have any, I
mean, hopefully, positive note for us, like, you
you you know, any thoughts that I just
mentioned, you know, just kinda leave us with
something to to, you know, what your thoughts
are and where this goes and anything else?
Yeah. I mean, what I have been saying
is is, you know,
they haven't really changed their MO.
You know, when I was talking about the
cancellation of Christmas for many Christians in Syria,
I was immediately under attack that I was
lying. And it was what was interesting with
a number of people that were coming up
with with headlines from a few years ago
about
how churches in Idlib, for example, were desecrated
and so on, that Christmas was canceled in
Idlib under Jallani. So why would it be?
Right. You know? So it's interesting that I'm
not necessarily needing to defend what I'm saying.
And and, you know, he tried to post
something about
one of the Christian towns that I'm probably
closest to in Syria at Alskel Bia. And
they had just sent me a load of
videos showing the desecration of 1 of the
churches there. So while he was kind of
trying to say, no. No. No. No. Everything's
fine. We've been speaking to the priest and
and, you know, we've agreed they can put
up their, whatever it is, 53 foot Christmas
tree, etcetera,
trying to make themselves look inclusive and and,
you know,
moderate.
And and then I'm getting sent at the
same time video showing, the damage to to
one of the churches in Skalbaia and the
fact that many people from there have actually,
fled. You know, people now at the moment
are trying to
deal with the situation they have. And, of
course, that is being exploited because
when you've got videos like this, are they
content
to be having to take instructions
from terrorist groups that 4 years ago, 5
years ago, were besieging
their town
and and murdering their children with mortars on
a daily basis. No. Of course, they're not.
But they're afraid.
Well, you know, and this is a good
point to make in general that, you know
so here, you're highlighting
something that is historically clear. I mean, Netanyahu
and Israel bomb almost as I mean, every
Christmas as far as I can remember. Syria.
It's a very common thing. But so they
come in and call you a liar for
pointing out that this is happening, and this
is a good point to make. We're here.
Yes. You can show them saying
words. Yes. That sounds good. Yes. We'll do
this. But here is your actual evidence as
a journalist during well, here they are destroying
the church that we're talking about. You know?
And so this this is the a good
kind of ending in in analogy, I guess,
of the reality.
People can say a lot of things. Politicians,
terrorists in Syria, and the people that want
to support, you know, that gain from it
will lie and say whatever they want. The
the the the the the point here is
for you to take the do your due
diligence, show discernment, don't fall into whatever narrative
works for your partisan side, look to people
like Vanessa who are actually doing the work
and showing you not what they're saying they're
gonna do but what they're doing. You know,
I mean, it's amazing that we even have
to make that point. But I think the
Twitter files element of all this today which,
you know, I use that point often, but
it I think people understand what I'm getting
at. You know, that instead of source material,
it became screenshots of source material. You know,
it's just this slow
decline. Yeah. And so, again, I just really
value your work and all this and how
people will continue to go to your website,
which I'll include down below and and all
the work you're doing. You know, it's just
I'm I'm glad for you out there and
people like you, Vanessa. So thank you for
joining me again.
No. Thanks for having me on, Ryan. Always.
And as always
as as always, everybody out there question everything.
Come to your own conclusions.
Stay vigilant.
It starts and it's it's really fascinating to
go back. It starts, in 1996
with Netanyahu
who wrote a book called Fighting, Terrorism.
And the thesis of the book is, quite
straightforward and and
and,
very dangerous.
He says, you know, there are there's Hamas,
there's Hezbollah. They oppose Israel. It's not good
for us to fight them directly.
That that won't work.
What we need to do is topple
the governments
that's that back them. So what we need
is regime change throughout the Middle East. And
he actually gave a long list of 7
countries,
that included,
Syria,
Libya,
Iraq,
Iran,
Somalia,
Sudan, and Lebanon.
And systematically,
the United States has done Netanyahu's bidding for
almost 30 years now going to war
with every one of them except for the
big one,
that Netanyahu
so much longs for, which is the war
directly between the United States and Iran. About
10 days after 9:11, I went through the
Pentagon, and I saw secretary Rumsfeld and
and deputy secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just
to say hello to some of the people
on the joint staff who used used to
work for me, and one of the generals
called me and he said, sir, you gotta
come in you gotta come in and talk
to me a second. I said, well, you're
too busy. He said, no. No. He says,
we've made the decision we're going to war
with Iraq.
This was on or about the 20th September.
So, I said, well, did they find some
information collect connecting Saddam to Al Qaeda? He
said, no. No. He says, there's nothing new
that way. They just made the decision to
go to war with Iraq. He said, I
guess it's like we don't know what to
do about terrorists, but
we've got a good military and we can
take down governments. And, he said, I guess
if the only tool you have is a
hammer, every problem has to look like a
nail.
So I came back to see him a
few weeks later,
and by that time, we were bombing in
Afghanistan. I said, are we still going to
war with Iraq? And he said, oh, it's
worse than that. He said, he reached over
on his desk. He picked up a piece
of paper. He said, I just he said,
I just got this down from upstairs, meaning
the secretary of defense office today, and he
said, this is a memo that describes how
we're gonna take out 7 countries
in 5 years,
starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran.