Sorry I'm late.
I had to stop by the Whites 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 had.
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 been saying, 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, an investigative reporter, war reporter from the Middle East.
And his website is ejmagnier.com, it's N-I-E-R at the end there, ejmagnier.com.
And you can follow him on Twitter as well.
And he writes in multiple languages and has translations, multiple languages of all of his articles there at ejmagnier.com as well.
So send him to your friends around the world.
Welcome back to the show, how you doing Elijah?
Hello Scott, thank you for having me again.
Very happy to have you here, and we got three major stories to cover today in half an hour.
Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
And so I was hoping we could talk about, first of all, Syria.
Can you give us the current status as of the last you heard about the hostilities on the Syrian-Turkish border there in northeast Syria?
Yes, so following the U.S. withdrawal from most of the area in northeast Syria, the Turkey moved in with the jihadist groups to occupy a part of the area where the Americans have gone and took villages where the Kurds were living in.
And what's happening, the Russians are patrolling the area with the Turkey after reaching an agreement with President Erdogan to manage the differences in the area and to keep a status quo.
However, there are some strategic points like Talamir that the Turks and their jihadist allies would like to control.
And because it controlled a part of, it's a strategic hill and a strategic area, and the Syrian army is willing to defend it because it protects the whole area behind it, particularly Manbij and Aleppo.
Therefore, they're fighting to hold the position, and the Russians are trying to implement a ceasefire, and they are patrolling with Turkish officers the area to make sure that the clashes cease.
On the same level, the Americans are also trying to walk in under the excuse of protecting the area.
And in fact, what President Trump wants is to keep some forces, several hundreds.
We heard the defense secretary talking about 900 troops that will remain behind in different areas.
So if he's putting out 1,900 will remain, that's a total of 1,900, and information that we haven't heard before.
Therefore, what he wants to do is just to put his hand on the Syrian oil, even if it is against the law and it has no legal right to do so, and it's equivalent to piracy because the oil belongs to the Syrian, and because Trump is aiming to pay off the expenses of his troop that he's willing to keep in Syria from the Syrian oil.
And about that last point first there on the oil, it seems an impossible task for America to just blatantly violate the law by seizing that oil and then bringing in, as Trump said, maybe we'll bring in Exxon to invest hundreds of millions or even low billions of dollars to build, to invest in oil infrastructure there, to be able to extract all that oil and get it out of there.
And by what highway and then drive it where?
And the whole thing is, it makes sense to me that they want to keep it out of the hands of Damascus, but doesn't make sense to me that even regardless of Trump's daydreams, that his government would actually be able to implement something like that.
What do you think?
Well, what is dangerous is what he said.
He said ISIS used to take it before and I intend to take it now.
So he's comparing basically the U.S. forces to ISIS.
So it's exactly the same blueprint.
That's one point.
The second, to keep it away from the Syrian government, but it belongs to the Syrian government.
It is a Syrian oil.
It has no right to become suddenly a pirate, as General Barry McCaffrey said.
It's a retired commander who fought in Iraq and a general who consider this act of Trump is just unacceptable to bring in Syria U.S. oil companies.
And also there is another fear that ExxonMobil exists in Iraq and that President Assad has friends in Iraq that are allies with Iran as well.
So what basically Trump is doing is jeopardizing the safety of ExxonMobil personnel in Iraq and if he had the intention to offer the Syrian oil to ExxonMobil.
So therefore there is no justification for his act whatsoever.
So for him to even say it is, even though it probably would be impossible for them to try to implement it, just saying it and bringing it up that way causes all these problems in the first place.
But as you said, it's completely illegal.
I mean, since World War II.
It was America that outlawed invading other countries and stealing their resources, essentially back after World War II and the UN Charter and all of that.
And I think that was illegal under Geneva probably before the UN Charter.
I'm not certain on that, but it probably was.
But there's no question that that's absolutely criminal.
I mean, in Iraq, you're right.
Exxon has concessions there, but that's after a full scale regime change and an invitation, quote unquote, from the new officials in Baghdad and in Erbil.
That's different than over the objections of the sovereign governments, of the sovereign government, like the situation in Damascus there.
Yeah, I mean, he lacks congressional authority to stay in Syria.
And he can be accused of criminal liability under the U.S. War Crime Act because what he's doing is he's taking oil that belongs to Syria with no justification.
And also there is another point saying that ISIS used to take it.
We want to protect it from ISIS.
But there is no more ISIS that can control oil field, keep it, and nobody's going to buy the oil.
If ever ISIS takes control of the oil field, so he just needs to pull out and the Syrian army will move in and will take back what belongs to Syria.
It's very simple.
Right.
Well, yeah, and on that point, that's one of the most important points here.
It's pretty obvious in the media here that in all the crocodile tears over the Kurds, which all these media people don't know the first thing about and didn't anticipate at all that the solution would be for the Syrian army to come in there and end the war before more than a thousand people have even been killed.
That kind of thing.
But all that was kind of a bait and switch anyway.
But they couldn't decide if it was a bait and switch because, no, we really have to stay there for ISIS, which, as you said, is a very small militia in eastern Syria now, whatever's left of it, or whether they're really there for Iran.
And essentially then still like we're talking about with the oil, they're still there for Damascus.
They haven't quite given up on the Obama policy.
I guess of not really regime change, but continuing to see both sides hemorrhaged to death and refuse to allow the war to just end.
Yes, that's true.
So ISIS can regroup itself in small groups, not in big groups, and they are capable of mounting spectacular attacks.
But they can't stay in one place.
They can't occupy in one place.
The Air Force, any Air Force, the Syrian, the Russian, the Americans, will come and destroy them.
So it is really making fun of people when saying, I want to prevent from ISIS taking it.
However, Trump said in 2011 something very true that he is implementing in November 2019.
He said, we are not stealing anything.
We are taking, we are reimbursing ourselves at least at the minimum.
So this is the principle that he's acting upon, is reimbursing the U.S. Army from the oil.
Right.
Well, you know what?
You got to hand it to him.
He makes everything very plain.
Forget neo-imperialism.
This is just plain old imperialism.
Everybody got that?
All right.
Let's go sell some weapons to the Saudis now.
And it's all just as above board as could be.
So hey, at least there's that.
At least the liar's honest.
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Yeah, well, something like that.
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Hey, so what about this?
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, when he was killed, he was up in the Idlib province.
Now, does that mean that he was hiding under Abu Muhammad al-Jilani's nose, or does that mean that they're friends again, or what?
Well, it means that, first of all, he moved from the Baghouz area where he was in an area under attack by the Kurds and the Americans, and we have learned, I mean, I've wrote about it, that according to Iraqi intelligence services, that he is still in the city and he's surrounded by all troops.
So we learned also that the Kurds managed to smuggle many of ISIS commanders who paid handsomely to smuggle themselves out of the surrounded city.
And by moving into Idlib, there's nothing new.
The whole world is aware that Idlib is the biggest concentration of al-Qaeda and jihadists.
The same militants that are fighting, that are present in Idlib, are called modern rebels when they are in Idlib.
But when they move to attack the Kurds in northeast Syria, they are called al-Qaeda and jihadists.
Yeah, you noticed that too.
Sorry.
Yes.
So it really depends where they are fighting.
Then the mainstream media call them in different names.
Therefore, his presence in Idlib on the border with Turkey is with the agreement of Haras al-Din, that is al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda is present with the agreement of Abu Muhammad al-Julani in Idlib.
Therefore, it may be not necessary that Julani knew about al-Baghdadi being present there, but I can recall at the beginning in 2014 that Julani didn't fight against ISIS and withdrew from Deir ez-Zor because he is an ISIS commander after all.
He was the one sent by Baghdadi in 2011 to Syria, and he turned against his emir to become himself an emir.
Therefore, knowing that his enemy is there, but his enemy is hopeless and can't harm him, it's a way to reimburse his debt toward his commander.
That is a possibility.
Another possibility to say that maybe he didn't know, but at least al-Qaeda knew because one of the commanders of al-Qaeda is the one who rented the house, and he is the one who looked after the house and received $7,000 out of a receipt that we have seen available online in social media to refurbish the house to accommodate ISIS commanders that are escaping from Baghdadi with the agreement of the Kurds.
Now, Haras al-Din, this group that was keeping him there, that is al-Qaeda?
Is it the same group as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or it's an associated group or just a different name for the same group, or how does that work?
Haras al-Din are al-Qaeda.
What happened is when Abu Muhammad Julani, the leader of the ex-Nusra and now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, he was an ISIS officer, and he came to Syria to take over what is called the revolution.
Then when he found himself growing and leading a large group, he went solo and declared his loyalty to Ayman al-Zawahiri, became al-Qaeda in Syria.
And when he saw that he can't stay in Syria under al-Qaeda and Turkey will not accept him to be holding the name of al-Qaeda because the Americans are ready to defend the jihadists while they are fighting against Assad, therefore he changed the name into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, left al-Qaeda because he said, I don't need to belong to any other group.
But that triggered the migration of many foreigners and Syrians who joined him because he was leading al-Qaeda in Syria to the call and request of the leader of al-Qaeda, central Ayman al-Zawahiri, and they separated themselves from him, and they call themselves Hurras al-Din, the protector of the religion.
And Hurras al-Din are basically al-Qaeda that are directly loyal to Ayman al-Zawahiri, and they are tolerated by Joulani to be present in Idlib.
I see.
So in other words, Joulani sort of distanced himself from al-Qaeda.
He never really denounced al-Zawahiri or renounced him in any way.
But you're saying this other group didn't even pretend to separate from al-Qaeda.
And so that's the difference is between al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda and a third over there.
Well, yes, basically what changes basically is the name.
If we look at the ideology, the ideology of ISIS and al-Qaeda, Hurras al-Din, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, it's exactly the same.
The practice, one doesn't tolerate journalists, other tolerate journalists.
One tolerate this practice, other doesn't.
But at the end of the day, they have exactly the same creed and the same ideology, the same belief, and they are Sunni extremists.
Well, as Dan Cohen was saying on the show yesterday, it's just clearly a PR stone.
It's rebranding like it's a product at a grocery store or something.
The Americans say we need a new name now because it's too obvious that Nusra still means the guys that knock the towers down.
So let's call ourselves something else they can't pronounce and see if maybe that'll obfuscate it a little bit.
Not that they're worried about our politicians, but they're worried about the American people, you know, beginning to figure out who's who and oppose it.
But so I guess when I said, before we move on to Lebanon here real quick, when I said that the casualties there in the clashes at the Turkish border were below a thousand, right, or in the low thousands, is that correct?
The clashes between whom and whom?
Oh, the Turks.
And I mean, there were at least a few hundred people were killed in the clashes between the Turks and the Kurds, right?
Yes, of course.
Yes.
They were fighting on a main city that the Kurds end up taking.
It's Ras Al Ain.
And then do you have a ballpark of how many people were killed overall in that?
I mean, it's not all the way over, I guess, right?
There's still some skirmishes.
I saw where the Turks actually took some, killed some Syrian soldiers and took a few more captive the other day.
Yes, well, that was they the Turks said that was a mistake because they were not supposed to move in in the area.
And at the end of the day, they have released the 18 soldiers, Syrian army soldiers that have captured and delivered them to the Russian.
OK, so in other words, I mean, essentially peace is at hand there on that border region.
And they did cleanse and create that so-called safe zone of what, 30 miles, 35 miles or something on the Syrian side of the border?
Well, that is the Turkish objective.
However, they didn't manage to implement the objective to take 440 kilometers long and 30 kilometers deep because of the agreement with Russia.
And they only took a small area instead of taking between 12,000 to 15,000 square kilometers.
They are content now with 4,000 square kilometers.
OK, and well, that's good for them, too, right?
Because they didn't want to bite off that much more than they could chew.
And so it's yeah.
So it sounds like pretty much the deal's done.
And it's right now it's just a matter of clarifying a couple of things like what?
Well, the objective is to Turkey is saying I want to relocate the part of the 3.6 million refugees, Syrian refugees that I have, and probably 2 million.
And when when the attack on Idlib will happen, if it happen soon, then people who are escaping Idlib, they can come and seek shelter in this area.
And that suits everybody.
In the meantime, there is the dialogue of the reform of the constitution, the Syrian constitution, where there are 150 personality from the opposition and from those who are loyal to the Syrian government discussing what they can change and what they can modify and come up with a constitution that suits everybody.
So the Russian can put pressure on Turkey to pull out completely from Syria once a constitution is agreed by all parties and then put an end to the jihadis and sell them for very cheap.
Yeah.
All right.
Now, I'm sorry, because we only have about nine minutes left here, a little less than that, actually, to talk about Iraq and Lebanon.
But it's sort of the same question, right, where these governments are just so corrupt that they end up stoking a lot of real opposition in these huge protest movements against them.
But then that raises all kinds of questions about what is the CIA and the Mossad and their allies up to in, well, any place that there's a movement like this breaking out.
So first, Lebanon, if you please, sir.
Well, in Lebanon, people spontaneously went to the street because the corruption is such where six or seven families or personalities, political party leaders are ruling the country since 1992.
And they pass it on to their children and their family become rich and they can do everything.
And the problem is not only that, is they divide among themselves all the key position in the country.
They appoint the head of the army, the head of the internal security.
They appoint the judges and they can resuscitate the death and they can order the death of anybody and they can take all the wealth of the country.
So we can see that after all these decades, there is no consistent electricity in Lebanon.
There is no water.
There are no job opportunities.
People pay several bills for electricity, for water.
Bins are all over the places.
The country stinks when you arrive at the airport.
And then the entrance to Beirut is really unbearable.
And then the dollar continue raising and there are no jobs.
People are leaving the country to find a job opportunity somewhere else outside Lebanon.
So for the first time, people went in the street and they didn't care about the confessionalism that exists.
And they said, we want to eat.
We are hungry and we want to change the system.
Unfortunately, it's not going to work because what they need to do basically is just to go for the Article 95 of the Constitution and implement it.
And Article 95 of the Constitution was written in 1943 and amended in 1990.
And it says that the principle on confessional representation in public service, a job in judiciary and the military security institution shall be canceled in accordance with the requirement of national reconciliation.
This is not this is not happening.
It never happened.
Every leader in the country can steal and then hide behind his religion.
And then the head of the religion would move forward if this person is attacked and will scream saying you are attacking the whole religion, you're not attacking the person.
And there is no way out.
This is what's happening.
And now the prime minister resigned.
And I didn't understand why the people came off the street.
I mean, they should not block the main street.
But nothing has happened, really.
The prime minister resigned, but he's still a caretaker now.
The new government will be formed.
We don't know if it's going to be formed.
It's more likely that it's going to take a long time before it is formed.
And then the reform will not happen.
So basically, they've done nothing, but they've spent two weeks in the street losing two hundred and twenty million dollars per day.
And at the end of the day, they came off the street.
And now we are back to square one discussing who's going to form the government and who are going to be the ministers.
Well, I saw on your on your blog there, you're in your article where you talked about, yes, somebody's paying these people and keeping them fed, keeping these people out in the street.
And then you talked about the interest, the obvious interest that the Saudis have and the Israelis have against Hezbollah.
But doesn't America or didn't America back the Hariri government?
That was just because they essentially had to because there was no one else to back.
They have backed the Hariri government at the first beginning.
Nevertheless, they call this government as a Hezbollah government, which is not because in Lebanon is very well known that no party or a religion or a group, however strong it is, can dominate the government.
Well, they've had an alliance with Michael and the Christian groups, right?
Yes, that is correct.
The Shia and the Christian, they have a strong alliance because they faced other groups that are aiming to modify the country into a direction they didn't want.
So therefore, the Americans at the beginning supported Hariri.
But at the end of the day, they they want Hariri to be stronger, firm, eliminate Hezbollah from the government.
An impossible request, because Hezbollah and his allies, they won the majority in the parliament and saying eliminating Hezbollah from the government and the parliament.
It means eliminating the majority of the Lebanese.
Now, that is not possible to fulfill.
Well, we saw back when they tried the Cedar Revolution, which was a color coded revolution style event back in, I'm going to say what, 2006, seven.
And then they had the counter protests that came out in favor of Hezbollah.
And it wasn't just Hezbollah and the Shia, it was there were other factions to protesting on that side and their protests blew the original Cedar protests away.
And so, yeah, I don't know exactly how the demographics break down in terms of proportion, but there's no doubt that there.
Well, there's a reason that those guys were the leaders that the Christian and Hezbollah coalition had the leadership.
So now you're saying in this article, like you're really worried that this could lead to real conflict if the prime minister is resigning, but the protest movement isn't being placated and they want to stay out there and act like it's a general strike and, you know, wreck things.
Do you think this could get out of hand?
Yes, but they stopped now.
They've left the street for the moment.
They can return, but what we have seen, we have seen supporters of the prime minister going in the street to show solidarity with the prime minister.
We saw supporters of the speaker going in the street and beating up some protester because they were insulting their leader.
We saw supporters of the right wing Lebanese forces blocking the main street and preventing anyone from going to work because their leader offered his resignation, moved out of the government and was on his own out.
And then everybody was still in and he was the biggest loser.
So each is each part, each political group has his own people.
And if they all go in the street, they will start fighting and end up creating a real havoc in the street.
And that can lead to confrontation.
Well, I mean, I know it's been a while now, 20 years now, but they had a 15 year civil war that collectively the people of Lebanon remember and would do anything to avoid replicating, right?
I am not sure today because you need a full shipment of weapons to land in Lebanon in the wrong hand and start again.
We saw what happened to Syria.
Well, it sure took a lot of intervention there from foreign powers to make it happen and all that.
I'm sorry.
I want to ask you so badly about Bader and Sauter right now, but I got to go, Elijah.
Maybe we can catch up again next week.
That'd be all right.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you very much, everybody.
That's Elijah Magnier.
It's ejmagnier.com.
Really appreciate it.
All right, 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.
