Sorry, I'm late.
I had to stop by the Wax Museum again and give the finger to FDR.
We know Al-Qaeda, Zawahiri, is supporting the opposition in Syria.
Are we supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria?
It's a proud day for America.
And by God, we've kicked Vietnam syndrome once and for all.
Thank you very, very much.
I say it, I say it again, you've been hacked.
You've been took.
You've been hoodwinked.
These witnesses are trying to simply deny things that just about everybody else accepts as fact.
He came, he saw, he died.
We ain't killing they army, but we killing them.
We be on CNN like, say our name, bitch, say it, say it three times.
The meeting of the largest armies in the history of the world.
Then there's going to be an invasion.
All right, you guys, introducing Elijah Magnier.
He is an investigative reporter, a war reporter.
He's a reporter reporting on the Middle East wars.
And his website is ejmagnier.com and that's I-E-R at the end, ejmagnier.com.
And he writes in a few different languages here, including English, thank goodness.
The latest is Trump bows to domestic pressure by delaying his withdrawal from Syria.
But a storm is gathering in the Levant.
Welcome back to the show, Elijah.
How are you doing?
Hello, Scott.
Thank you for having me again.
I'm fine, thank you.
Well, I'm very happy to have you on the show here and glad to hear you're doing well.
So in your article, you talk about how the Syrian war, as we've known, it really is over whether Trump pulls the troops out now or four months from now, that pretty much that game is up.
And yet your headline says another storm is brewing.
So I guess, can we, I guess, first of all, let's start with, you know, the pieces on the board in Syria.
Now, it looks like the Kurds are cutting a deal with the Assad government to help keep the Turks out.
Is that correct?
Yes.
I mean, following Trump's decision to pull back the troops, in the first place, he said in 30 days.
And then someone else within the U.S. establishment said in four months.
The Kurds found themselves really caught with an ally that is not reliable and is not going to protect them.
And it's capable to pull out from one day to another without fulfilling the promises to protect the Kurds and to stay in the area.
Even if the U.S. forces are occupying the northeast Syria, the Kurds found themselves pushed toward the only solution they have is to make it to strike a deal with the Syrian government in order to conserve and preserve their units and their homes, their administration, their territory for fear of the Turkish repercussion or attack.
And we all know that Turkey consider the Kurds, particularly the YPG, the SDF, and they are the Syrian version of the PKK, a terrorist organization exactly like the U.S., although the U.S. considered them allies and terrorists at the same time.
But Turkey determined to remove this threat, considered a threat to their national security from the borders.
And now, so what exactly is the truth of that?
I mean, I know that the PKK has carried out terrorist attacks and they've been at war at various times inside Turkey.
But what real threat does Turkey face from the YPG on the Syrian side of the line there?
Well, the YPG, they say it themselves, they are the PKK Syrian version.
There's nothing to hide here.
We're not analyzing.
We're not inventing.
This is what they call themselves.
Oh, sure.
No, I understand that.
But I just mean, is it really true that the Turks necessarily have a problem with them?
I mean, they've been there all along anyway, right?
Well, the PKK calls for an independent Kurdish state.
An independent Kurdish state is rejected by Syria, by Turkey, by Iraq, and by Iran.
The four countries directly concerned because this is where the majority of the Kurds are concentrated.
And the Kurds of Iraq tried in Kurdistan to declare referendum independence.
And they refused to listen to the American advice to wait for another at least 16 months.
This is what Brett McGurk asked Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader in Erbil, to wait and refused.
And this is what spoiled the plan to create a Kurdistan between Syria and Iraq.
And that would have paved the road for the Kurds who are in Turkey to create a kind of uprising.
And there are more than 4 million in the country.
And they can create havoc for the Turkish national security by claiming an independent state that is not desired by Turkey.
Right.
But now, so they realize, right, what they're up against.
And so now they're making a deal where they're really giving up their independent Rojava dream.
And now they're going to welcome the Syrian army back.
And do you think that will succeed in keeping the Turks out then?
Well, the situation is becoming a bit more complex today, particularly following the decision of the Iraqi government.
And I know many people in the right position who told me that the next step is going to be the vote of the parliament to ask the U.S. forces to pull out of Iraq.
And if this happened, and this certainly is going to happen sooner or later, it's not going to be tomorrow, but it's going to be sometime maybe in 2019.
This is going to put the U.S. forces in deep trouble.
And I will explain.
Now, I'm not taking the side of the U.S. establishment, but I'm thinking like if I am part of the U.S. establishment.
The U.S. today doesn't have any interest in pulling out of Syria if the Iraqis want to kick them out of Mesopotamia.
Because then they will have no base, neither in Syria nor in Iraq.
That is against the U.S. interest.
It is against the Israeli interest.
And this is, I see it today a bit more difficult than a week ago, because I don't think Trump will be allowed to just pull out his forces.
I think if the Iraqis, and that is a new element, came when President Trump visited the military base in Ain al-Assad, and he was not received by the prime minister, the speaker, and the president of the country, because he didn't want to land in Baghdad according to the protocol, neither he accepted to land in the Iraqi side of the military base of Ain al-Assad.
Because the Americans in Iraq don't have a base for themselves.
It is divided, half for the Iraqi and half for the American.
So they share the same base.
By landing in the American side, the prime minister and the speaker and the president, they found themselves a host in their own territory in Iraq, and they didn't want to look like fools in going to an American control area to receive the American president who was visiting Iraq.
So all that looked extremely odd, and this sparked a strong reaction from the Iraqis demanding the withdrawal of the American forces.
Now, if the American forces decide to end their occupation of Syria, that will look extremely bad on the Americans, on their interest in the Levant and Mesopotamia, and I doubt today Trump can achieve this objective.
Well, now again, just arguing from their point of view for argument's sake, couldn't they keep a base in Iraqi Kurdistan?
No, they can't, because Iraqi Kurdistan is under the Baghdad government control.
Even if it has a certain autonomy, they can't keep a base if the Iraqi parliament decides that the forces, the U.S. forces should leave the country.
This is what happened in 2011.
Well, as long as Western support for the uprising in Syria has come to a halt, as you report in this article, then not just American, but apparently Gulf support and all that, all that's come to an end.
So there's no reason to think that bin Laden-type forces could seize Western Iraq again now, if that's the excuse for the Americans to stay there.
The Iraqis and their Iranian friends, you know, have plenty of firepower now to keep anything like ISIS from taking over Mosul or Fallujah, right?
I fully agree with you.
ISIS, Al-Qaeda, these are not the problem, and they are not the issue.
They can continue with their insurgency anywhere in the Middle East, in Europe, or anywhere in the world, and they will feel much more comfortable to do it in the Middle East.
This is where they have people who can support them.
Now, that will continue regardless, but they will not reconquer any territory, any city, any village, even if they have free access to some villages at night in a remote, isolated area, soft targets.
That's easy for militants who are determined to spread fear and death in small villages and in isolated security forces.
Patrol or a base or a point of control.
But ISIS and Al-Qaeda are not the problem.
And the proof of that is ISIS is enjoying its place along the east side of the River Euphrates in Syria, and they have been there for the last years, and the Americans are watching what they are doing.
They are allowing them to stay for years, since years, and they keep there, and the SDF is fighting against them in the last few weeks or in the last couple of months, let's say.
But the war against ISIS stopped for over a year.
Therefore, I don't think ISIS is a reason.
I think ISIS was an excuse, and today the Americans are saying clearly we are there to stop the Iranians.
Now, I think this is also not a very solid excuse.
The reason why the U.S. wants to stay in Syria, I think, in my opinion, is if they lose Iraq, they have no other place to stay in the Levant and Mesopotamia but to continue their occupation of northeast Syria.
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And yet, Turkey is their NATO ally going back, you know, since the end of World War II, and we saw right around a year ago, and I think you and I may have talked about this at the time, when Rex Tillerson said, never mind what the president says about fighting ISIS only.
We're there because of Iran and Hezbollah and every other thing in the world.
And that provoked Erdogan into attacking Afrin right there and asking Russian permission to do it too, which Putin gave him.
And so, you know, they were really putting their foot down and saying to their American allies that they will not tolerate America really arming up the SDF in such a way, or the YPG, in such a way that they can really create a state that they can defend there, that they'll crush it first.
And so, and the Americans don't want to, as they look at it, they don't want to lose Turkey to Russia by provoking them too badly, right?
And so, their bluff's already been called, in other words, right?
It's the perfect time to leave.
Well, yes, indeed.
We can see today that Turkey stopped talking about the Khashoggi case because it was promised by the Americans to take over the area of Manbij, Al-Hasakah, the whole area that the U.S. intent or have declared that its intention is to pull out the forces.
But Turkey today is not in a very good position, particularly with the infighting among the militant and the jihadists in Idlib and in the rural area of Aleppo and Hama.
And what Turkey did is Turkey called tens of thousands of forces together around the area of Manbij, preparing to enter the province.
And the Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham, the ex-Nusra that is composed of many jihadists and led by an ex-ISIS officer who became later on al-Qaeda in Syria and later on tried to renegade its belonging to al-Qaeda, but they're still in the same spirit and the same objectives, really, in the Levant.
And this man with his militant, Abu Muhammad al-Junani, today is in control of a very large area in rural Hama and Idlib, blowing up the Astana deal between Turkey, Iran, and Russia, where Turkey was supposed to control all the area that was included in the deal.
And that is along the border with the Syrian army, where the Syrian army is deployed along rural area of Idlib.
Now, by this move from the jihadists of Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham led by Junani, it will force Turkey to interfere and to attack the jihadists there.
Now, Turkey is in trouble because they are caught by moving into Manbij or moving toward Idlib, and they have forces there.
They have to split them and they have to interfere to go and support their forces or their proxies in the area around Idlib.
But it also, Junani is putting pressure on the Syrian government because the Syrian government is gathering forces toward the east of the Euphrates today.
On the other hand, now the Syrian government is forced to gather forces around Idlib because the Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham, the jihadists that are in control of the area of Idlib today and many areas, including where there are Turkish forces, the Syrian government should send forces and is in a way to send forces along these borders for fear of seeing the jihadists bringing into Aleppo and into the line that is under the Syrian forces' control today.
So all that is reshuffling everything and preparing the area for a storm between Turkey, its proxy against the jihadists.
Russia is saying we have enough and we said that we have to eliminate all the jihadists in Idlib and Turkey is not capable of controlling them or ending their existence and their control.
And on the other hand, no one wants to provoke the Americans by showing that Turkey is not moving in the area that they said they will withdraw from and the Americans are doing their best to prevent the Syrian army from moving in and recovering a third of the Syrian territory.
So this is why everything is again on the table to be renegotiated and the area today that is creating the real havoc is Idlib and its surrounding and secondly is what is the intention of the Americans.
Are they going to pull out?
Is Turkey going to pretend that it's moving in and then the Syrian army will be in a race against the Turkish advance?
The Kurds have divided themselves into two forces.
A force that is fighting ISIS and another force that is trying to protect the borders not on Manbij but on Kobani that is Ayn al-Arab and along the borders with al-Hasakah and with Turkey.
So this is the chaos that has been created today in Syria.
All right now, so on the part of that conflict in the east there between what the Americans do and what the Kurds and the Turks and the Syrian government do after that as far as that question goes.
I mean certainly this has been the case in the past but you're saying this continues and this is a real sticking point that in order to keep the Turks out the Syrian Kurds need to make a real deal with the Syrian Arab army, the Assad government to retake that territory and keep the Turks out so the Turks don't have to divide their forces they can focus on their Idlib problems.
But the Americans still even at this point cannot abide the Assad government guaranteeing or securing such a win as they call it.
That's what they all said the critics of Trump did.
Oh the major beneficiaries here are Assad and then of course Iran and Russia on their list and ISIS as though ISIS was on the same side with these guys.
But that seems to be their real problem and you're saying that even on the ground there the government, the military, they don't want to acknowledge that the only solution here or the best solution is to allow the Syrian Arab army, the Assad government to cut this deal with the Kurds and occupy that territory because obviously that would cut them out but Trump says he wants to go anyway and that's the only way to guarantee or maybe not guarantee that's the best chance at avoiding a war between the YPG and the Turks, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
The best way for the Kurds to be protected is for the US troops to pull out from the territory they are occupying in favor of the Syrian army and not in favor of Turkey.
Now all indications lead to the intention of Trump to deliver the area to Turkey and Turkey is hesitant because of the deal they have discussed and agreed in Moscow last week.
It was about, I mean last Saturday, was about not moving in and allowing the Syrian forces to move in only when everybody sees that the US are pulling out because Russia doesn't believe the Americans are going to pull out the troops and the Russians consider that the Israelis are playing a major role here because according to Russian officials I spoke to in Damascus last week the Israelis consider the Obama nuclear deal was so bad to Israel equivalent to Trump's decision to pull out of northeast Syria and this is why they want to fight and they want to do their utmost best to prevent Trump from pulling out the forces regardless Iran and regardless ISIS or Al-Qaeda is only to keep a foothold in the Levant or in Mesopotamia in case the Iraqis ask the Americans to leave and the Israelis have been using the military airport that the Americans have created in Al-Hasakah to attack the Syrian army in different positions throughout, in the last year, in 2018 and they have used the same airport to attack Iraqi forces command and control building on the borders between Syria and Iraq so for them this is vital and this is something that is part of their national security this is why they will resist now I don't know if Trump is going to have the same courage as Obama when Obama signed off the nuclear deal and Trump is going to be able to disregard all the Israeli pressure and the pressure that comes domestically and go ahead with the withdrawal that is not clear but the only solution to go back to your question for the Kurds to be spared and to remain with their homes and their land is to go back to their origin and their origin is to remember they are Syrians and they have a Syrian government to fall back to and that only the Syrian government on the borders with the support of a superpower, i.e.
Russia can protect them and can stop Turkey from invading North Syria and as far as the Iranians go what exactly is the strength of Iranian forces in the country and what do you think about the narrative that they pose some increased threat now to Israel for being right there in Syria well, from the Israeli side the damage has been completed and it's behind us now because Israel, Europe, the United States, the Gulf countries, Turkey they all have contributed for seven years to remove the regime and to create a failed state in Syria and they have failed and by failing that is due to Iran and its allies including Hezbollah and to Russia so inevitably Iran and Russia will enjoy the victory they have worked and they have invested in Syria now Assad is a president of a country and a president who is willing to put his hand back into the hand of Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Turkey and even the United States because it's a country that needs to survive and need to be reconstructed and the president and countries forget about the harm that has been done to destroy the country in order to reconstruct it and you say in your article that he's opening up diplomatic relations again with the Gulf states now that is correct his envoy met with Mohammed bin Salman in 2015 we saw Saudi Arabia stop financing Jaysh al-Islam and allow Ghouta to fall to the Syrian army without interfering today Jaysh al-Islam is paid by Turkey and train organized by Turkey is no longer pro-Saudi we saw the Saudis removing the Prime Minister Adel Jubeir who said Assad should leave by military or political means and in fact Adel Jubeir was removed because it's not possible to send a foreign minister who attacked the country for so many years and regain a diplomatic relationship we saw Saudi Arabia approving with Jordan the reopening of the Nasib crossing between Syria and Jordan that allows all the goods to go to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and all the Gulf countries that has not been done without the approval of Saudi Arabia we saw the Emirates and Sudan best allies of Saudi Arabia fighting along them in Yemen they are today with full representation of their diplomacy in Damascus they reopened their embassy, Bahrain is there Kuwait is going to follow so the Arab League will meet to discuss the return of Syria and I'm sure they will approve it for the next meeting so all that it means Assad is not going to give up on the relationship that the country needs to establish but he will neither give up on Iran and Russia so the presence of the Iranians date back to 1982 when the Iranian revolution took over the control in Iran in 1979 and sent forces to Zabadani in Syria on the Syrian Lebanese borders with the agreement of the president Hafez Assad the father of Bashar today they have contributed effectively to keep the Syrian government in place to prevent the failed state that the world tried to achieve and failed and they will have a role as strategic allies where they will have their gas going to Syria their goods going to Syria they will build a railway going from Iraq to Syria they're building pharmaceutical industry in the country but they're also building precision missiles to make sure that Syria is going to be strong and will not take the initiative to attack Israel but will certainly respond to any Israeli aggression or violation of the Syrian territory yes Iran will have a role because it is part of Assad victory yeah and this is all again blowback from well I guess compare this to what their position was in 2011 inside Syria oh there's a huge difference because in 2011 there was a Syrian army in control of the country today there are many forces beside the Syrian army that are part of the Syrian security but these forces have been trained to be a guerrilla forces they know how to fight like Hezbollah they have learned the Israeli style of fighting they have learned ISIS and Al-Qaeda style of fighting and they have a very high experience in warfare in all kind of warfare and these groups will make sure to protect the country and to prevent any outside aggression and perhaps one day I think in the next 10 years Assad will claim back the Golan Heights and we can see that with the tree that are planting in the area and when they plant trees it means that the beginning of a guerrilla preparation yeah well I don't know the Israelis certainly ought to give it back but I don't know if either side wants another war there but so you don't think then that the once say for example these combined forces are done defeating the Al-Nusra guys basically in the Idlib province that Assad will ask them to go ahead and go home now you think he'll go ahead and enlist their further help so that now he can try to take the Golan Heights back I don't think he's going to try to take the Golan Heights back now I think he has Al-Hasakah province and they resort to take back and he has Idlib to take back including Afrin this is what he is concentrated on at the moment right and the second thing he's concentrated on is to rebuild the country without the US money and certainly without the European government's money not companies because companies are welcome but government money he doesn't want and I don't think Europe is wealthy enough today to spread a bit of money left right and center on the contrary Tom Woods Liberty Classroom learn from the greats click through from the link in the right hand margin at scotthorton.org so I'll get a kickback that's Tom Woods Liberty Classroom libertyclassroom.com all right now can you tell me a little bit more about Al-Mahdi the new prime minister of Iraq I know he's the first one they've been all from the Dawa party this whole time but he's from the Supreme Islamic Council and I don't know what difference that makes maybe none what do you think well Adel Abdel Mahdi is no longer member of the Iraqi Supreme Council because that council no longer exists more or less so yeah after the father died it basically the Al-Hakim Aziz Al-Hakim but his son is still a politician right but they just lost the overall group is that it yeah Adel Abdel Mahdi is a technocrat I see and he's a person that I met in person I was in the same place with him and talked to him in different occasion when he was vice president and he is a man with a lot of wisdom and he's a politician that wants to do something for Iraq and to do something for Iraq it means to reconstruct Iraq and trying to rebuild it but his hands are tight because today he doesn't represent a group a politician group a political group that can help him to govern as he wants there are other groups that are in control particularly the one of Muqtada al-Sadr who is imposing on Adel Abdel Mahdi not to bring his defense and interior minister and every time Adel Abdel Mahdi want to present these two ministers to vote at the parliament Muqtada's deputy leave the room to blow up the voting so it has been done for the last five times now in the last three months he's preventing Adel Abdel Mahdi to choose his own ministers and this is a kind of struggle that Adel is trying to put forward and insist on and stands against Muqtada without challenging him but to have his own team as he wants Adel Abdel Mahdi will not ask the Americans to stay but he is not anti-American he wants Americans to continue training the forces offer intelligence service to the country and to the counter-terrorist units on the other hand in Baghdad there are the Russians and there are the Iranians offering also their intelligence service to Iraq to make sure ISIS is not going to return therefore if the Americans wants to leave there are others who can replace them and Iraq can do very well now without the support of the Americans because they are well equipped I know many people within the Iraqi security forces counter-terrorism and intelligence forces who work 24 hours a day and they are extremely successful in hunting down ISIS and Adel Abdel Mahdi is giving them the full support so I think Adel will succeed in his task as a prime minister if Muqtada Sadr decides not to breathe on his neck all the time and now I just read the other day Elijah that the last Iranian forces from Iraq war 3 have now left and have gone back to Iran is that right?yeah there are no forces no Iranian forces in Iraq and no Hezbollah forces in Iraq they all left because there is no need for them to stay they were asked to come in July 2014 when ISIS occupied Mosul and the Americans refused to help in the first two months Iran and Hezbollah moved in they delivered the training and weapons to Kurdistan and to Baghdad and they stopped ISIS from occupying further territory this is when the Americans moved in so there is no need because the Iraqis have enough men they are extremely experienced today they have the ideology the ideology that was missing to fight ISIS in 2014 they have a completely different training today and another experience they have learned and they paid a heavy price I mean we are talking about between 13 to 15 thousand killed while fighting ISIS that is not a small number in a country like Iraq so I don't think the Iraqis are in need of any men they need expertise they need equipment they need something to support their intelligence and their air forces this is what they need so they don't need men coming from outside the country and I think Syria is the same will be the same after the reconquering of Idlib and Hasakah they will not need the Iranians in the country and Iran doesn't need to stay in Syria and keep the forces that are deployed today and the reason why the Iranian forces with their allies are deployed today in Syria is because the war against the Jihadists is not over there is still Idlib there once Idlib is over then there will be no need for any Hezbollah or Iranian advisor to remain in the country yeah I mean I agree with that too it doesn't seem well the other side of the argument is this narrative that the Iranians are deliberately trying to conquer the Middle East but really in every place where the hawks describe that what they really mean is that America created a situation where Iranian power and influence was increased in Iraq obviously just by knocking off Saddam in Syria their overthrow which was to you know weaken Iran's position there backfired and just strengthened it so same difference there and you can see why they're so frustrated about this and crying about Iranian influence but then I mean just the fact that they're saying hey bye everybody thanks and pulling back to Iran from Iraq right now rather than trying to you know lord it over the Iraqis and push their power and influence they seem to only be offering the help that's asked of them and again as you said to help them from the Islamic State you know monster that America and its Gulf allies had created in Syria there so fair enough and quite contrary to the myth of the Iranian Empire that we have to defend from over there the best way to see the Iranians pulling out is to end the jihadists in Idlib that is the best way and now so but there is still an insurgency in Islamic State whatever you call it based insurgency in Western Iraqi Sunni stand right well the insurgency will always remain I mean we saw with the over a hundred thousand American troop the insurgency never stopped therefore the insurgency is something that is a fact the government needs to live with and intensify its intelligence service to dismantle these insurgency attacks and but we see today there are less and less attacks from I mean a month ago two or three or five the number of insurgency attack is diminishing but it will always remain it's a country where ISIS lived established in state they occupy the third of Iraq that is a bigger than the UK and they have put the weapons and money in different location they have supporters that are still believe in their cause you can't wipe out completely that from one day to another you need to conquer the country and for the Iraqis to understand that this is a lost cause and for that to happen it will take years yeah well and now so I'm sorry for keeping you so long but tell me a little bit more about the standoff in Idlib province because there was this deal between I guess Assad, Erdogan and Putin to draw some lines and a ceasefire and you have you know I don't know is there a dividing line on the ground between so-called moderates and so-called incorrigible ones or and you keep I guess implying that there's still a coming battle because there are some who will not surrender and give up their fight there well today the jihadists saw that the Turkish army and their proxies are gathering forces around Manbij they took the advantage with what they call there were five members of the jihadists killed on a checkpoint by the Nureddin Zinke the pro-Turkish forces in Idlib and they are we saw the Nureddin Zinke responsible for beheading children or youngsters during the war in Syria in various places on the Syrian geography so it's not just a point to say Nureddin Zinke are not moderate at all so we saw Ahrar al-Sham Nureddin Zinke Sukur al-Sham they all involved in an attack against the jihadists who tried and succeeded to reconquer today Darat Azzah they reconquer many areas in the northern rural Hama on the northwest side they have conquered many areas in the western rural Aleppo they have been engaged for the last four days in heavy fighting and they're having the upper hand unless Turkey interfere with their forces with their troops and pull out troops from Manbij to attack Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham and the Astana deal was to create a kind of demarcation line between the Syrian forces the Syrian Arab army and the jihadists and all the pro-Turkish forces based in the rural area of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib and that deal prevented the Americans from bombing the Syrian army because the the analysts and warmongers were saying Idlib has millions of refugees they have two million refugees and they disregarded the presence of Al-Qaeda in the city and Al-Qaeda here we're talking about al-Huras al-Din because they have a new name now so between al-Huras al-Din and between ex-Nusra Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkestani they are from Turkestan and there are many many other nationalities there are Jordanian there are Egyptian there are Tunisian there are Caucasian fighting in Idlib and they all part they call them Muhajireen the foreign fighters so Turkey decided agreed and promised to control this and to eliminate the presence of Jihadis and Turkey was putting pressure on the ex-Nusra to convert and merge with all the other groups but merging that means the end of the foreign fighters and the end of the ex-Al-Qaeda and the new Al-Qaeda and that is not a project that Giuliani wants to be part of what he is doing is he's saying I have control of most of the part of Idlib I am someone you need to take his opinion and I also have a say on any deal you want to make concerning Idlib and that is something that it means he's just giving a gift to Russia to saying come and bomb the hell out of me and the area that I am in control of and Russia is saying to Turkey you are not capable of controlling the area that you promised you were going to control and indeed last week the Jihadis bombed Aleppo and they bombed the area where the war was considered over and where they killed many civilians this is what drove Russia out of control and bombed back the Jihadis who were responsible for the bombing so today with a larger control of a larger area by the Jihadis I am sure Russia is waiting to see if Turkey is capable of reconquering the area under the Jihadis control or it is going to be a job that Russia and the Syrian army will do now what will be interesting is to see if Donald Trump is going to say again no stop otherwise I am going to bomb the Syrian army when I am eating a good chocolate cake or he is going to accept to end Al-Qaeda and all the Jihadis we are talking about Jordanian, Egyptian Tunisian, Turkestani Moroccan from all walks of life who are today in Idlib and are part of Al-Qaeda and another part are Syrian fighters alright well sorry for keeping you so long thanks very much for your time again on the show Elijah great to talk to you my pleasure alright you guys that is Elijah Magnier he is at ejmagnier.com hey guys this is Bird and Carr from the Friends Against Government podcast here and you have probably heard Scott talk about the crowdsourcing effort on Reddit about his upcoming book all you have to do to get in is to donate $5 a month to Scott's Patreon and request to join the private Reddit group in Scott's Reddit group you will find a pin post outlining the details for how you can help find source material for Scott's upcoming book by listening to archived interviews and taking a few notes.
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Alright y'all thanks find me at libertarianinstitute.org at scotthorton.org antiwar.com and reddit.com slash scotthortonshow oh yeah and read my book Fool's Errand, Timed and the War in Afghanistan at foolserrand.us