Rebel News Podcast - Off The Cuff Declassified - John Cardillo - May 7⧸2018

00:00:00.000 Today on Off the Cuff Declassified, former Secretary of State John Kerry, is he engaging

00:00:05.100 in NATO diplomacy or is he just undermining anything Donald Trump tries to do?

00:00:11.420 Former hostage of al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front, Matt Schreier joins me.

00:00:16.400 We're going to discuss the growing instability in the Middle East and the psyche behind it.

00:00:21.860 Also, there were some really big crowds this weekend at a gun show in Broward County, Florida,

00:00:26.500 only about 30 minutes from Parkland.

00:00:28.760 I was at the show.

00:00:30.120 I'll tell you what I saw.

00:00:31.900 And an Israeli private intelligence firm is debunking fake news that aides of Donald Trump

00:00:37.560 hired them to dig up dirt on Obama Associates.

00:00:40.580 Yep.

00:00:41.080 More fake news debunked on its face.

00:00:48.720 The weakest, most failed Secretary of State in history is now engaging in shadow diplomacy.

00:00:56.060 Shadow diplomacy. 0.96

00:00:56.800 John Kerry, Obama's failed Secretary of State, one of the weakest, most inept people to ever

00:01:04.540 hold any office or position in Washington, D.C., is trying to undermine the Trump administration.

00:01:09.840 Remember, this is a guy who fell off a bike and broke his leg.

00:01:13.160 This is a guy who rides around on a little girl's bike.

00:01:15.300 He and Obama both rode around on little girl's bicycles.

00:01:18.020 Maybe that should be the new rule of U.S. foreign policy.

00:01:20.340 If you ride a little girl's bike, you're not allowed to negotiate on our behalf. 1.00

00:01:25.000 John Kerry is out there.

00:01:26.180 This from CNN.

00:01:27.120 The Boston Globe first ran the story.

00:01:29.060 I'm going to read you some excerpts from them, but first from CNN.

00:01:32.280 Former Secretary of State John Kerry has been engaging in shadow diplomacy to try to preserve

00:01:38.100 the Iran nuclear deal, a major diplomatic achievement of his, according to a new report.

00:01:43.500 Over the recent months, Kerry has been holding meetings and speaking with big players in

00:01:48.180 the Iran nuclear agreement who, like Kerry, do not want President Trump to withdraw from

00:01:55.120 the U.S. deal, to withdraw the U.S. from the deal, the Boston Globe reported.

00:01:59.520 Now, this from the Boston Globe.

00:02:02.360 And here's what's one of my favorites.

00:02:04.760 So Kerry has been meeting with, oh, God, a whole host of bad guys, right?

00:02:09.620 Let's look at who he's been meeting with.

00:02:12.240 And let's look.

00:02:12.760 I always tell you on the show, in an investigation, timeline is everything.

00:02:19.820 So let's discuss a nuance of this timeline not being picked up on by most in the media.

00:02:26.360 Kerry sat down at the United Nations with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Iranian Foreign Minister

00:02:31.920 Javad Zarif, to discuss ways of preserving the pact, limiting Iran's nuclear weapons program.

00:02:38.020 It's the second time in two months, very important, second time in two months that the two had

00:02:45.700 met to strategize over salvaging the deal they spent years negotiating during the Obama

00:02:52.180 administration, according to a source briefed on the meetings.

00:02:55.960 Second time in two months.

00:02:58.460 That's a little bit problematic.

00:02:59.980 Why is that problematic?

00:03:01.480 Many of you are going, I know why.

00:03:03.260 And you do know why.

00:03:04.040 Because we only found out, we only found out what Israel had grabbed in that massive 0.91

00:03:08.840 intelligence operation last week.

00:03:11.360 But why was John Kerry frantically meeting with, why was he frantically meeting with the

00:03:17.920 Iranian Foreign Minister over the course of two months?

00:03:21.360 Trump hasn't been that vocal on the Iran deal.

00:03:24.000 He and Macron were sort of middle of the road on it.

00:03:27.080 Well, maybe we'll scrap it.

00:03:28.240 Maybe we'll keep it.

00:03:29.020 Maybe we'll get rid of it totally.

00:03:30.020 Maybe we'll rewrite it.

00:03:31.060 Maybe we'll renegotiate it.

00:03:32.580 They weren't really committed to anything until that Israeli intelligence dropped.

00:03:38.640 Well, that begs, that begs a really, really troubling question, a really important question,

00:03:45.740 really a game-changing question.

00:03:48.000 Did John Kerry know that the Iranians were cheating on the deal?

00:03:51.560 Did John Kerry know the Iranians were enriching nuclear material to weaponize it? 0.99

00:03:57.320 I believe he did.

00:03:58.900 My personal opinion, I don't have any source information to back that up.

00:04:01.940 But I believe John Kerry knew.

00:04:04.960 I believe that John Kerry architected this deal to protect Iran's nuclear weapons program 0.73

00:04:11.780 because we found out in those documents from the Israelis that Iran themselves said they were

00:04:18.480 looking to enrich and manufacture five warheads, each with a 10 kiloton TNT yield.

00:04:27.900 That's about equivalent to four to five times the power of bombs we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

00:04:39.580 Pretty damn powerful.

00:04:41.700 They would essentially eradicate Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Amman, Jordan, and pick another city in the region. 0.56

00:04:50.260 Doha, Qatar, Kuwait City in Kuwait.

00:04:55.760 It's very, very troubling.

00:04:58.540 So is it possible?

00:05:00.200 Now, I'm just throwing out something.

00:05:02.700 I'm just hypothesizing here.

00:05:03.640 I'm just throwing it out.

00:05:04.640 Is it possible that John Kerry and the Iranians cut a deal where Iran said,

00:05:07.700 OK, we'll limit ourselves to five.

00:05:09.500 We won't build any more.

00:05:10.640 We won't put them on ICBMs.

00:05:12.260 We'll keep them on short to medium range missiles that could only hit the region.

00:05:16.380 You give us this deal.

00:05:17.920 You give us no inspection.

00:05:19.940 Is it possible that John Kerry is frantically running around D.C. in the world meeting with

00:05:25.940 the Iranians, meeting with the French, meeting with the German president, meeting with members

00:05:30.320 of the EU? 1.00

00:05:30.920 Is it possible that he's doing that to cover his own ass? 0.99

00:05:34.760 Is it possible he's doing that because he doesn't want it to come to light that he knew 0.99

00:05:39.720 full well that Iran was enriching uranium for its and plutonium for its nuclear weapons

00:05:44.980 program and not for medical or scientific research?

00:05:48.640 Like Netanyahu said, you don't bury centrifuges underground if they're for experimenting with

00:05:55.800 medical isotopes.

00:05:57.660 You just don't do it.

00:06:01.340 What did Kerry know?

00:06:02.380 Why is Kerry so frantic?

00:06:05.380 Previous administrations, especially secretaries of state who are out there making a lot of money

00:06:09.660 on the speaking circuit, Kerry's wife is worth six hundred and some odd million dollars. 0.99

00:06:15.120 He's a very wealthy man.

00:06:16.380 Why is he walking around worried, running around really frantically like a chicken with his head

00:06:21.820 cut off, worried about this deal unless he's going to be personally implicated in something

00:06:28.800 and other members of the Obama administration, maybe Obama himself, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice,

00:06:35.360 Ben Rhodes, all the suspects I talk about.

00:06:37.200 Why are they running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to preserve this deal 0.79

00:06:42.540 unless they're going to be implicated in something disgusting, something filthy, something nefarious 0.83

00:06:49.540 like them knowing Iran was enriching nuclear materials for weaponization but not telling anyone 0.55

00:06:56.520 and the U.S. government was helping them hide it.

00:06:59.160 Even worse, we funded it.

00:07:01.980 We gave them $1.8 million in cash.

00:07:04.280 We had another $150 billion coming.

00:07:07.120 Did the Obama administration cut a deal to fund Iran's nuclear weapons program?

00:07:12.960 Now, I don't know.

00:07:14.220 But as an investigator, that's where it's taking me.

00:07:18.640 That's where what's going on, the evidence, the deal itself, the fact that the whole world

00:07:24.660 knows Iran can't be trusted, the Obama administration's just obstinance on defending Iran as being

00:07:33.540 compliant.

00:07:35.180 Everything about it is leading me.

00:07:37.540 It's pulling me.

00:07:38.060 I feel like a magnet.

00:07:38.960 It's pulling me to investigate John Kerry, what he knew before he sold the world on this deal

00:07:46.820 alongside Barack Obama.

00:07:48.560 Now, collusion, collusion, collusion.

00:07:50.700 We hear about collusion, Russia.

00:07:51.980 Collusion, collusion, collusion.

00:07:53.240 The only collusion we keep getting irrefutable proof of is collusions.

00:08:00.060 It's collusion by Democrats, by members of Team Hillary and Team Obama with bad actors.

00:08:06.560 We have ironclad proof of Hillary, Clinton, colluding with Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson over

00:08:14.440 there, Christopher Steele, who created the dossier, her colluding with people like John

00:08:17.940 Brennan, disgraced, horrible, far left Obama CIA director, James Comby, Andrew McCabe, now

00:08:24.900 both under criminal referral by Congress and or the OIG, who, the Department of Justice,

00:08:30.960 we know Hillary was colluding with Christopher Steele, the foreign spy, who was colluding

00:08:36.180 with Russian actors to create a fake news dossier on Trump.

00:08:40.060 That's collusion.

00:08:41.040 We know Hillary Clinton colluded with her law firm, Perkins Coie, to hide campaign money

00:08:46.360 to pay Fusion GPS through that law firm, probably in violation of many, many campaign finance

00:08:52.420 laws.

00:08:53.040 No prosecution.

00:08:53.800 I mean, the Clintons can do anything. 0.89

00:08:54.980 They could kill people in Times Square on New Year's Eve, and they'd get away with it 0.94

00:08:58.940 at this point. 0.99

00:09:00.180 Disgraceful.

00:09:01.260 Disgraceful.

00:09:02.360 And now we know, we have irrefutable proof that John Kerry, former Secretary of State,

00:09:08.660 Secretary of State, weak, failed, is colluding with Iran.

00:09:13.580 We know it.

00:09:14.900 It's irrefutable proof he's colluding with Iran.

00:09:19.420 It's terrible.

00:09:20.240 Now, the CNN story, the Boston Globe story, I'm sorry, goes on to say, the rare moves by

00:09:25.920 a former Secretary of State highlight the stakes for Kerry personally, as well as for other

00:09:30.660 Obama-era diplomats who are dismayed by what they see as Trump's disruptive approach to

00:09:35.380 diplomacy.

00:09:36.700 Nobody cares what they think.

00:09:38.460 They're no longer in power.

00:09:41.000 They failed.

00:09:42.700 They failed.

00:09:43.420 Well, of course, CNN is doing their bidding.

00:09:45.780 Now, this is from Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution.

00:09:51.320 He says, quote, it is unusual for a former Secretary of State to engage in foreign policy

00:09:55.880 like this as an actual diplomat and quasi-negotiator.

00:10:00.440 Well, it's not unusual, Michael.

00:10:02.180 Well, it's inappropriate, unprecedented, and probably, probably highly illegal.

00:10:09.720 Now, they go on to talk about Ernest Moniz.

00:10:13.920 Part of the equation is if Ernie, former U.S. Energy Secretary, who has hair like he's in

00:10:18.880 some kind of, I don't know, he looks like one of Willy Wonka's employees at the chocolate

00:10:23.140 factory or some kind of Hans Christian Anderson character.

00:10:27.440 I don't really know what his deal is.

00:10:29.360 So, Ernest Moniz, the former Secretary, or John, I mean, John Kerry, made a bold statement. 0.98

00:10:34.300 Trump is crazy, and he might do the opposite just to spite. 0.94

00:10:37.200 Oh, this wasn't from O'Hanlon at Brookings. 1.00

00:10:39.440 Trump is crazy, and he might do the opposite just to spite them. 0.96

00:10:43.060 You're liable to spur this guy in a direction. 0.99

00:10:45.160 You don't want him to go in a direction.

00:10:46.300 You don't want him to go in just to be spiteful, said one source who has worked with Kerry.

00:10:51.100 Give me a break.

00:10:52.540 No, no, nobody's being spiteful.

00:10:54.440 Kerry's policy failed.

00:10:56.480 And like I said, it might be illegal.

00:10:57.800 And the crime would be 18 U.S. Code 953, more commonly known as the Logan Act, private

00:11:04.880 correspondence with foreign governments.

00:11:06.500 Let me read you the Logan Act.

00:11:08.060 Any citizen of the United States, John Kerry, wherever he may be, who, without authority of

00:11:14.460 the United States, John Kerry, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence

00:11:21.060 or intercourse, intercourse and being used in a different context in terms of communication

00:11:26.520 here, with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with the intent to influence

00:11:35.160 the measures of conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof.

00:11:40.860 That's exactly what John Kerry is doing.

00:11:43.940 That's exactly what John Kerry is doing.

00:11:44.500 Letter of the law. 0.99

00:11:45.680 Now, morons say, well, General Flynn did that with Sergey Kislyak, and that's why he was 1.00

00:11:50.400 investigated. 1.00

00:11:51.080 No.

00:11:51.760 General Flynn was the national security advisor elect.

00:11:55.440 He was allowed to have those conversations.

00:11:58.940 He was allowed to have pre-meetings on policy.

00:12:02.160 John Kerry is not.

00:12:06.220 So, with any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof in relation to any

00:12:11.880 disputes or controversies with the United States or to defeat the measures of the United States

00:12:17.740 shall be fined under this title or in prison not more than three years or both.

00:12:23.140 This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself or his agent to

00:12:26.960 any foreign government or agent thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained

00:12:32.860 from such government or any of its agents or subject.

00:12:35.880 Meaning, you can sue a foreign government, so you can meet with a foreign lawyer to sue

00:12:40.180 that government.

00:12:41.360 You can't collude, and you can't engage in foreign policy that undermines the U.S.

00:12:47.000 Now, the Logan Act is thrown around.

00:12:49.880 Oh, you violated the Logan Act, or you violated the Hatch Act, you used your office to campaign.

00:12:53.880 Those terms, those laws are thrown around, they're bantered around, and most people

00:12:56.820 don't understand what they mean.

00:12:58.800 Not in this case.

00:13:00.280 This is exactly what John Kerry is doing.

00:13:04.180 So, let me read it again really quickly.

00:13:06.240 Any citizen of the United States, John Kerry, wherever he may be, whether it's at the United

00:13:09.860 Nations, in New York, or in Europe, without authority of the United States, which John 0.81

00:13:13.900 Kerry does not have, who directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or

00:13:19.220 intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof.

00:13:22.880 John Kerry, by his own admission, met with Kavid Zarath, the Iranian foreign minister,

00:13:27.860 twice.

00:13:29.160 Okay?

00:13:29.580 But right now, he has satisfied every element of the statute with the intent to influence

00:13:34.060 the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof.

00:13:39.860 Meeting with them so that they put pressure on the United States.

00:13:43.240 He's meeting with Iran to influence their conduct towards the United States in relation to any

00:13:50.420 disputes or controversies with the United States, we're in a dispute over the Iran deal, or to

00:13:54.880 defeat the measures of the United States.

00:13:56.820 Trump wants to scrap the deal.

00:13:58.640 John Kerry is working to preserve the deal.

00:14:02.280 They'll be fine under this title or in prison, not more than three years or both.

00:14:06.020 It is a, this is one of the easiest charges.

00:14:11.260 As a guy who was in law enforcement, I'm telling you, this would be one of the easiest charges

00:14:15.840 for federal law enforcement to level with John Kerry's own words, actions, and paper trail.

00:14:22.460 Doesn't even need to be an investigation.

00:14:25.100 He made the case for them.

00:14:27.120 If only we had an attorney general who was willing to act like one.

00:14:30.780 If only Jeff Sessions would charge John Kerry with the Logan Act violation tomorrow.

00:14:36.320 Today.

00:14:37.560 But I fear we don't. 1.00

00:14:39.280 And I fear that morons like John Kerry are going to keep getting away with this. 1.00

00:14:43.140 It's an absolute disgrace. 1.00

00:14:45.080 What he is doing is subverting the United States of America, and he needs to be charged

00:14:49.700 under 18 U.S. Code 953, the Logan Act.

00:14:53.020 John Kerry needs to be criminally charged today.

00:15:08.180 With all the volatility going on in the Middle East, John Kerry out there trying to engage

00:15:12.380 in shadow diplomacy.

00:15:13.380 And now Israel saying they have intelligence that Iran wants to launch missiles into their

00:15:18.180 nation in retaliation for the strikes in Syria.

00:15:21.580 We see many, many experts, but experts in quotes out there on cable news, broadcast news, digital

00:15:28.380 radio, giving us advice.

00:15:30.340 But I wanted to talk to somebody who's been around the bad guys, been around the bad guys

00:15:35.460 in an intimate way that he wished he hadn't.

00:15:37.040 Matthew Schreier, author of The Dawn Prayer, first American to ever escape al-Qaeda custody

00:15:43.020 after seven months.

00:15:44.200 You've seen Matt on the show before when he told us his story.

00:15:46.780 Now I want to bring Matt in as a subject matter expert on the region.

00:15:50.420 He did a lot of work in Syria as a photojournalist prior to being captured.

00:15:54.320 Matt, thanks for being here.

00:15:56.260 Thanks, John.

00:15:57.040 My pleasure.

00:15:57.920 Let's jump right in.

00:15:59.420 The strikes on Syria, positive, negative.

00:16:04.180 Did they help?

00:16:04.960 Did they do damage?

00:16:05.980 Did they make no net difference?

00:16:08.180 What's your opinion of those in regards to, well, let's go back a step.

00:16:12.300 Assad using the gas.

00:16:14.440 A lot of people say they don't believe it was Assad using the gas.

00:16:17.580 What's your take on that?

00:16:18.480 You were there on the ground.

00:16:20.380 I've seen no evidence in this case that it was him.

00:16:22.960 In previous cases, like the last one, which was way out in Idlib province, that was most

00:16:30.060 likely him because you figure why would the jihadi smuggle gas all the way to the east 0.98

00:16:35.380 to do something like that.

00:16:36.540 But in this case, the gas attack came in an area after he already won.

00:16:42.580 In eastern Ghouta, he basically took that area after like five years of it being besieged.

00:16:49.260 So there was really no point, militarily speaking, for him to do a gas attack.

00:16:55.640 I'm not saying it wasn't him.

00:16:57.040 I'm just saying I haven't seen any evidence.

00:16:58.420 You haven't seen any evidence being here.

00:17:00.940 Let's run on the premise that it was him.

00:17:03.700 What would his endgame have been there if he already gained ground?

00:17:06.940 Would it have been to do the bidding of Iran? 0.80

00:17:09.700 Would it have been maybe there was an insurgency rising up there?

00:17:12.420 What would have been—you've been on the ground all over that country.

00:17:14.680 You know Syria better than many intelligence and special operations people I talk to because

00:17:20.700 of the way you were able to navigate without restrictions.

00:17:23.680 What would the endgame for him be were it Assad who launched the gas? 0.81

00:17:28.400 In this one case?

00:17:29.720 In this one case.

00:17:31.200 In this one case.

00:17:31.860 I mean, the only thing that I can think of is just basically thumbing his nose at the

00:17:35.220 international community saying that he's basically going to do what he wants.

00:17:38.660 It's his country.

00:17:39.680 They're his weapons.

00:17:40.540 And if he wants to launch gas, he'll launch gas, even if he doesn't need to.

00:17:45.320 I mean, that's the only logical explanation there is for it.

00:17:48.340 All right.

00:17:48.600 So the strikes.

00:17:50.000 We struck Iranian assets. 0.99

00:17:51.700 We struck some Syrian weapons facilities.

00:17:54.660 Does it make a difference?

00:17:56.040 Does it get Assad to look to the U.S. and think twice about what he's doing?

00:18:01.580 Does he move closer to Iran?

00:18:03.480 Again, you were on the ground there.

00:18:04.900 You dealt with the pre-Syrian army who were fighting his people.

00:18:08.460 You also dealt with Syrian army regulars when you were incarcerated while you were held

00:18:12.280 hostage, really held captive.

00:18:14.180 And you told me on the show last time that they treated you pretty well.

00:18:16.960 They're professional soldiers.

00:18:18.680 What what does this do for Assad with regard to does he say, hey, I've got to cooperate

00:18:24.340 with the rest of the world or I need to get closer with Iran and Russia?

00:18:27.980 I think both.

00:18:29.500 I mean, in one regard, you know, there are multiple factions of that question.

00:18:33.900 But in terms of like, do we do damage?

00:18:36.100 No, I mean, we're always going to give Russia a heads up and Russia is always going to give 0.99

00:18:40.680 them a heads up.

00:18:41.980 So in terms of casualties and whatnot, it's always going to be limited, if not none.

00:18:48.260 And, you know, my friends who live over there, who I was locked up with, you know, they said

00:18:51.220 they were laughing at the strikes.

00:18:52.860 They didn't do anything.

00:18:53.580 They didn't count on anyone.

00:18:55.760 But on the flip side, at least it shows that we have a president who's going to act.

00:19:01.480 He's going to he's going to live up to his word.

00:19:03.360 You know, you look at Barack Obama drawing a red line in disappearing ink and everything

00:19:07.940 that happened after he made that statement, you know, after he said there's a red line

00:19:12.780 if you use chemical weapons and he did nothing, Putin moved in and took over the skies.

00:19:17.420 And now there's no getting rid of him.

00:19:19.540 You had ISIS form the Islamic State, their own country. 0.69

00:19:22.280 So when you don't back up your words with action, there are consequences.

00:19:25.980 So in this case, at least there were consequences, doesn't whether they were serious or not is

00:19:32.980 not the issue.

00:19:33.900 Maybe that was the plan, right?

00:19:35.480 Send a message, say, I'm going to act, but not kill anybody in the process.

00:19:39.840 You know, destroy some material objects.

00:19:42.760 Right.

00:19:43.100 Don't kill anyone and then see if he doesn't get the message.

00:19:46.000 It was it was it was a polite. 0.90

00:19:47.480 It was a really polite way to bomb somebody. 0.78

00:19:49.700 It was a polite, expensive way to bomb that message to give some bodies.

00:19:54.380 But but but at the end of the day, you know, it accomplished the goal.

00:19:58.200 Like he knows that there's there are going to be consequences for his actions.

00:20:01.520 All right.

00:20:01.720 So when you were you were held hostage by Al Qaeda, the Al-Nusra Front.

00:20:05.600 But in many respects, it was unusual captor captive relationship because they would actually

00:20:11.840 share things with you.

00:20:12.940 You got to see literally inside the inner workings of their organization.

00:20:17.660 The other groups in the area at the time that were the predominant insurgent factions were

00:20:22.280 ISIS and the Free Syrian Army.

00:20:24.080 Correct.

00:20:25.380 And Ahad Arsham was it was another major power in the area.

00:20:30.460 OK.

00:20:30.840 What what influence of any that Iran have on them?

00:20:33.760 Was Iran giving them any material support, financial support, military advisory support?

00:20:38.660 Or were they exclusively working with the Assad regime?

00:20:41.520 No, no.

00:20:42.000 They hate they hate Iran.

00:20:44.240 The guys that I was with, you know, Iran is is exclusively with the the regime and Hezbollah, 0.76

00:20:50.900 which are their enemies.

00:20:51.940 So the guys funding, you know, Al Qaeda and ISIS, most likely are, you know, Saudi Arabia,

00:20:57.860 Qatar, you know, the nations that are against the regime.

00:21:01.260 So there's that there's that line.

00:21:03.520 Yeah.

00:21:03.660 So so the speculation that Saudi Arabia has always played both sides of the fence with

00:21:08.100 us.

00:21:08.400 You saw firsthand as being accurate. 0.83

00:21:11.580 Well, I mean, I didn't see it, but I presume in Qatar, I pretty much know because they negotiated

00:21:16.540 the deal for my cellmate.

00:21:18.620 And if you could pick up the phone and call the bad guys and do something like that, obviously,

00:21:23.940 you have a relationship with them.

00:21:26.280 And just to clarify for the audience, your cellmate was in the last name.

00:21:30.840 Theo Curtis.

00:21:31.840 Theo Curtis.

00:21:32.860 He eventually Qatar brokered a deal where he his release was secured with money, right?

00:21:39.400 Yeah.

00:21:39.920 Well, I mean, he's never admitted that they say a humanitarian act, but I know a little

00:21:45.280 better, you know, people, what people at home need to realize is when you keep somebody

00:21:48.860 alive for 22 months, right, you have to feed them, you have to shelter them, you want to

00:21:56.340 get, you want to get a return, you want to get a return on your investment.

00:21:59.320 Yeah.

00:21:59.780 And they're not going to hand him over as a humanitarian act for Barack Obama, who's

00:22:03.620 the one who needed the political victory five days after James Foley died.

00:22:07.320 So that's right.

00:22:08.500 That's right.

00:22:08.920 They cut the deal for for Theo Curtis right after Foley was beheaded.

00:22:13.220 Right.

00:22:14.140 Right.

00:22:14.460 So, I mean, you look at the timing, it was, and then, you know, John Kerry is proclaiming 0.84

00:22:19.120 him a victory for America, even though he knew the guy was basically a traitor.

00:22:24.300 So you're talking about Curtis.

00:22:26.280 Yeah.

00:22:26.760 Yeah.

00:22:27.100 Yeah.

00:22:27.700 And you look at the Obama administration, you know, that's like a common theme where they

00:22:31.380 bring home traitors and portray them as victories.

00:22:33.960 And a lot of this is in your book.

00:22:36.360 Don pray.

00:22:36.820 Right.

00:22:37.060 People need to read the book is outstanding.

00:22:38.420 I'm two thirds of the way through that with my schedule.

00:22:40.700 I read it.

00:22:41.420 I got two thirds through and then my schedule got insane.

00:22:43.800 And I have to find a Saturday to finish it.

00:22:45.900 But it's, it really is a fascinating read because you knock out the first, oh, you can

00:22:49.780 knock out the whole book in a weekend.

00:22:50.840 If you've got the time to do it, you really can.

00:22:52.760 It's a very, very quick read, but a lot of this is detailed in the book.

00:22:56.500 And we're going to be, you and I are going to be doing another segment where we talk about

00:23:00.480 all of the discrepancy that Theo Curtis had given the mainstream media, as opposed to what

00:23:05.740 he's then said while on tour.

00:23:07.640 I'm going to invite Theo on the show to refute or to confirm these things that he said.

00:23:13.100 So it's going to be an interesting segment for the audience coming up.

00:23:15.240 But I want to go back because you brought up John Kerry.

00:23:16.920 It's really important.

00:23:17.560 So now John Kerry is out there engaging in this, what he calls shadow, or other people

00:23:22.980 are calling shadow diplomacy with Iran to try to get Iran to, uh, to preserve this Iran

00:23:29.800 deal, to get Iran to put pressure on the U S give me a little bit about the psyche, the

00:23:34.700 Muslim psyche, the psyche of a state sponsor of terror in many respects, or a state sponsor 1.00

00:23:39.360 of a group like Hezbollah. 0.95

00:23:41.500 They've got to be looking at John Kerry.

00:23:43.540 You and I have had these conversations offline.

00:23:45.240 These people don't respect weakness, right?

00:23:47.840 I mean, they've got to be looking at Kerry as some kind of patsy that they can roll over. 1.00

00:23:52.880 Pretty much, man.

00:23:53.960 I mean, that's, that's the goal of Iran here is, is, is to get as much as they can from 1.00

00:23:58.040 us without giving anything.

00:24:00.980 And, you know, they're never going to keep their word ever.

00:24:05.000 I mean, they, I mean, look, they're the biggest sponsor of terror in the world.

00:24:10.720 Okay.

00:24:11.160 And we're cutting deals, billion dollar deals with these people and they're not showing us

00:24:15.180 anything in return.

00:24:16.540 And, you know, that's the psyche of, you know, any third world country who's, who's

00:24:21.260 trying to be a power.

00:24:22.520 Right.

00:24:23.600 You know what I mean?

00:24:24.420 They're going to, they're always going to try to cut deals, but they're never going to

00:24:26.920 honor them.

00:24:27.440 I mean, you know, you just look, look, look at history.

00:24:30.560 It's, it's, it's written.

00:24:31.900 And let me ask you this though.

00:24:32.940 So, so what was the, explain really quickly for the audience, Matt, what the goals of

00:24:38.180 the four factions, it was the free Syrian army, free Syrian army, ISIS on loose in front

00:24:42.740 of Al Qaeda.

00:24:43.340 And the other group you mentioned was called the.

00:24:46.880 Aharasham.

00:24:47.860 Aharasham.

00:24:48.360 Yeah.

00:24:48.500 Were they all trying to occupy as much of Syria as possible? 0.97

00:24:52.620 Was that the ultimate end game for each one?

00:24:54.940 Well, I mean, at first they were united, then they started splitting up and fighting with

00:25:00.880 each other.

00:25:01.440 But yeah, they all wanted like Al Nasser wants their own emirate.

00:25:04.560 They want to basically turn Idlib province into their own country. 0.57

00:25:10.080 ISIS just wanted to, you know, take as much as possible.

00:25:13.300 You know, we all know what they wanted.

00:25:14.260 But the Kurds, you know, you have them too, they, they, who have risen up since then,

00:25:18.940 they want their own country.

00:25:20.580 You have the Turks who want to get rid of the Kurds and clear the border out. 0.99

00:25:25.680 It's, you know, it's ridiculous.

00:25:28.480 And then you have the government fighting pretty much all of them with Iran and Hezbollah.

00:25:32.880 And there are, and there are all these other factions too.

00:25:35.040 I mean, there's the army of Islam, but I mean, this is where I was in the, in the north,

00:25:38.840 in the north.

00:25:39.760 Those were like the main, main factions at the time.

00:25:42.720 Right.

00:25:42.780 But I mean, yeah, they all want their own country.

00:25:45.940 But we've seen, we, we watch, you know, we, the audience, I'm sure you do as well.

00:25:49.220 We watch cable news, we read stories on the web, we listen to talk radio, and we hear all

00:25:53.840 these experts saying, well, we've got these plans on how to stabilize Syria post this wake

00:26:00.020 up call, bombing run, missile strike.

00:26:02.900 And it involves bringing Turkey into the fold and getting Iran to abandon the Shia Crescent. 0.94

00:26:08.580 And it all, it all sounds very, very good.

00:26:11.940 But you were there, you were listening to these guys talk from the inside, the insurgents.

00:26:16.580 You, you were able to hear what intelligence they were gathering about the Assad regime,

00:26:21.640 because they really didn't think you were a threat, right?

00:26:24.040 They didn't know you were a Jewish guy from Long Island.

00:26:25.760 They thought you were the German Christian American photographer who was being a good

00:26:30.100 hostage and not trying to make too many waves, but for one escape attempt.

00:26:33.420 So it got to a point, you told me, where they started to be relatively free in front of

00:26:37.960 you with the things they said.

00:26:40.520 Are these solutions?

00:26:41.920 Well, go ahead.

00:26:42.280 I'm sorry.

00:26:42.580 No, I mean, you know, they didn't share their plans with me, but they shared their opinions

00:26:47.640 and their thoughts.

00:26:48.760 But, you know, in regards, so what was the exact question?

00:26:52.420 What I was going to say was, so with regards to these theories or these plans, these strategic

00:26:58.680 concepts floated by these experts, what is the likelihood of getting Iran to abandon the

00:27:04.080 Shia Crescent?

00:27:04.580 What is the likelihood of bringing Turkey into the fold to stabilize the region?

00:27:08.480 To me, some of these proposals, they look great on paper, but they seem undoable practically.

00:27:14.960 Well, I mean, getting Iran to do anything is pretty much impossible.

00:27:20.160 You know, they've never listened to anybody.

00:27:22.980 Turkey, they hate the Kurds so much.

00:27:27.300 The only way you're ever really going to get their cooperation is if you side against the

00:27:31.880 Kurds, because that's their enemy. 0.99

00:27:34.480 That's the whole reason why they're there.

00:27:35.940 I mean, they didn't care what was going on in Syria until the Kurds started building up 1.00

00:27:40.020 a presence on their border.

00:27:41.560 And they were like, hey, you know, we're not going to let this happen.

00:27:45.060 And they moved in with the tanks and whatnot.

00:27:46.820 And, you know, when I was in Turkey, you know, I would you would turn on the TV and see Kurds 1.00

00:27:52.420 protesting peacefully and they would just move in with like the riot squash and start tear

00:27:56.980 gassing them.

00:27:57.780 Yeah.

00:27:57.940 Cracking skulls.

00:27:58.760 Right.

00:27:58.980 I mean, yeah.

00:27:59.500 Yeah.

00:28:00.040 Yeah.

00:28:00.280 Literally, literally, literally like these peaceful, peaceful protesters.

00:28:03.520 So they they have been suppressed for a long time, the Kurds.

00:28:07.340 So the Turks do have a lot to worry about in that regard if they set up their own country.

00:28:11.420 So they are never going to settle for anything that, you know, builds up a Turkish. 0.98

00:28:19.880 Legitimizes the Kurds and brings them to the table in a meaningful sense. 0.96

00:28:22.400 It also gives the Kurds some territory.

00:28:25.140 So Turkey would. 0.97

00:28:25.880 Right.

00:28:26.300 Till the end of time.

00:28:27.060 Right.

00:28:27.700 Yeah.

00:28:28.100 They're never, ever going to going to go along with that.

00:28:30.460 So as long as you know, as long as we're packing the Kurds, which creates the problem. 1.00

00:28:36.600 So, you know, that's Turkey being a country.

00:28:38.960 It occurs in Turkey's pissed off at us because we're NATO, they're NATO.

00:28:42.020 We're backing the Kurds and the whole thing's a mess. 1.00

00:28:44.060 Right.

00:28:44.400 So we, so what you're saying is we'd have to completely abandon the Kurds to get Turkey 1.00

00:28:48.480 to the table.

00:28:48.920 But then it's, you know, questionable whether they would come to the table anyway.

00:28:52.180 Now, it's always questionable, but it's not like we haven't abandoned the Kurds 1.00

00:28:56.200 before, you know, but look what we did with in desert store.

00:29:01.240 We encouraged them to rise up.

00:29:03.420 They did Saddam gas, like 5,000 of them. 0.72

00:29:05.560 And we just pretty much didn't do anything, but I'm not saying that's what we should do

00:29:09.380 now, but it's just, yeah, no, the whole country's a mess.

00:29:12.760 And then, you know, you have all these other different factions.

00:29:14.600 You have the government and, you know, people like Hillary Clinton who are like, yeah, we

00:29:18.980 should, you know, we need to get rid of Assad and this and that.

00:29:21.140 And it's just like, look, his military is fiercely loyal to him.

00:29:26.200 Yeah.

00:29:26.860 By the way, you know, you know, tomorrow, if anybody watches this in the mainstream media,

00:29:29.880 tomorrow, the New York Times headline is going to be Shire recommends, Shire recommends abandoning

00:29:33.580 the Kurds.

00:29:34.520 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:35.980 Exactly.

00:29:36.900 Exactly.

00:29:37.360 They'll be, they'll be cherry picking, cherry picking my lines.

00:29:40.960 But, uh, so anyway, so, uh, yeah, no, as far as, you know, when people are like, you

00:29:46.240 got to get rid of the Assad guy, get rid of Assad. 0.65

00:29:49.340 His military is fiercely loyal to him.

00:29:51.660 That's what people leave out of all these conversations.

00:29:53.900 And the only way to get rid of a dictator whose military is fiercely loyal is to go

00:29:58.580 in and remove him.

00:30:00.100 And we already tried that in Iraq and it didn't really work out for us.

00:30:03.660 So in this case, you know, as terrible as he is.

00:30:07.500 Matt, Matt, that's a great point.

00:30:08.580 Let's go.

00:30:08.980 Let's dissect that a little bit.

00:30:10.080 Why is his military fiercely loyal?

00:30:12.380 Is it out of fear?

00:30:13.880 Is he, is he having a hand?

00:30:14.860 No.

00:30:15.240 The centers, or is it out of that?

00:30:16.980 He just maintains stability in the country for them.

00:30:19.600 What, why are they so loyal?

00:30:21.120 You, you sat with these guys, right?

00:30:22.640 These guys, you were in a cell, but you let them know these guys very, very well.

00:30:26.020 How many of them were there in there with you?

00:30:28.000 There were, uh, 18.

00:30:29.860 All right.

00:30:30.140 This is, all right.

00:30:31.000 This is high quality intelligence, 18 soldiers.

00:30:33.680 Why are they so loyal to him?

00:30:35.660 Well, there, there are different reasons.

00:30:37.080 One is that they were all Alawi, which is a Shia sect of, of Islam. 0.94

00:30:41.740 And, you know, the Sunnis hate them. 1.00

00:30:44.400 They hate them. 0.96

00:30:45.200 They're like 10% of the population in Syria.

00:30:47.940 Bashar Assad is in Alawi.

00:30:49.820 So if, so, you know, if they, if they lost their dictator, they'd be facing genocide and

00:30:55.760 basically, you know, you know, deportation and stuff like that.

00:31:00.280 Tribal, tribalism and personal survival in those respects.

00:31:03.220 Partially, but a lot of his military is also Sunni.

00:31:06.820 Like I, they threw a general in with us at one point who was a Sunni and he was fiercely 0.90

00:31:11.540 loyal to him as well.

00:31:12.500 And that, and that is where, what you just said comes into play where it's like stability.

00:31:17.280 Like they know that he brings a certain level of stability to the country without being too

00:31:22.380 extreme.

00:31:24.240 So, I mean, under Assad, before all this happened, you know, women could walk around wearing makeup. 0.76

00:31:29.040 Uh, they sold alcohol, they could smoke cigarettes.

00:31:31.100 You know what I mean?

00:31:31.860 They had, you know, basic freedoms that they know are gone.

00:31:35.180 The second, you know, the FSA or, you know, the extremists take over because let's face

00:31:40.020 it, if the FSA takes over, the extremists are going to bump them out and take over anyway.

00:31:45.420 So they know that it's, it's either Assad or basically Baghdadi.

00:31:50.540 Or they turn into Iraq, right? 0.97

00:31:52.720 And, and Baghdadi takes over somebody like him, right?

00:31:56.100 Somebody like him, Golani, who's the head of, uh, Al-Nosra.

00:32:00.320 So it's, it's either, you know, you're with extremists or you have this guy Assad who, let's 0.98

00:32:06.980 face it, he's not ideal.

00:32:08.260 But as far as we go and Israel goes, the guy knows this place.

00:32:11.800 You know, Israel flies in there every couple of weeks, months, drops a bunch of, drops

00:32:16.940 a bunch of bombs and goes home and he never does anything.

00:32:19.220 No.

00:32:19.460 Yeah.

00:32:19.580 He doesn't want, he doesn't want, he talks stuff, but he doesn't want to dust it up.

00:32:22.680 But Israel, but you know, what's interesting is that, you know, you know, he's a bad guy. 0.67

00:32:26.880 You know, he gases his own people. 0.99

00:32:28.700 You know, he aligns with bad actors.

00:32:30.160 But I've got a friend, a guy who, uh, American guy, but he's Syrian and a very successful

00:32:36.340 family.

00:32:37.060 Both of his parents are doctors, very, very well off.

00:32:39.540 He's an attorney.

00:32:40.180 He was born, he and his sister were born here and his brother, but his parents are from Damascus

00:32:44.480 and his mother was an Olympic swimmer and basketball player, secular Muslim.

00:32:49.680 His dad was a Christian.

00:32:51.440 Not only, you know, when they dated, there was no problem, right?

00:32:54.920 And he, the country had been relatively stable.

00:32:57.380 His relatives only left when ISIS started to grow.

00:33:01.260 They were living in Damascus.

00:33:02.360 They were physicians, they were attorneys, they were CPAs.

00:33:05.060 They were living very, very well.

00:33:07.040 All Christian, the Christian side of his family, protected by Assad. 0.98

00:33:10.480 They had no problems.

00:33:11.780 When ISIS started to proliferate, they then moved to Dubai.

00:33:14.940 They were pretty well off.

00:33:15.940 They had money stashed to other places because the new Syria wasn't the most, I mean, it's 0.99

00:33:19.660 stable in terms of Middle East stability.

00:33:22.220 So they fled to Dubai, but they said, well, they lived in Damascus.

00:33:25.540 They never felt in fear of their lives.

00:33:26.840 They only started to feel fear once ISIS started to gain a foothold in the country.

00:33:31.140 And so it's a conundrum for the U.S. in many respects.

00:33:35.920 Yes.

00:33:36.480 And, but, but I mean, these are facts that a lot of people don't know.

00:33:38.980 Like Christians were protected and they weren't only protected, they were welcomed.

00:33:45.260 Like in the, in the coastal cities, Latakia and Tartus, where most of the guys I was with

00:33:49.840 were from, you know, they celebrate Christmas with their Christian neighbors.

00:33:54.180 Really?

00:33:54.320 The Aloui.

00:33:55.000 Yeah.

00:33:55.320 The Aloui.

00:33:55.800 It's like, uh, like I got a text from my friend Ali who I was locked up with on wishing me

00:34:00.220 a Merry Christmas this year.

00:34:01.360 Was he a soldier?

00:34:03.040 Yeah.

00:34:03.300 He was, he's an Aloui and he's a soldier.

00:34:05.340 He's an Aloui. 0.93

00:34:05.920 And he called, he sent me a text like wishing me a Merry Christmas saying that, yeah, we're

00:34:09.280 celebrating right now.

00:34:10.460 Cause you know, Jesus was one of their prophets.

00:34:13.480 Right.

00:34:14.000 Right.

00:34:14.280 So they, so they, so they're very, very open to that.

00:34:16.640 And, you know, they have, they say, you know, some of us have Christmas trees.

00:34:19.260 We love Christmas over here.

00:34:20.920 So yeah, I mean, they were very open-minded about stuff like that.

00:34:24.540 And, uh, you know, it's a shame that more people don't know about it because, you know,

00:34:28.640 maybe they'd be like, all right, you know what? 0.99

00:34:30.440 You still a bastard, this, this Assad, but you know, what's the alternative? 1.00

00:34:35.540 And that's the question. 1.00

00:34:36.600 That's what's so tough for me.

00:34:37.240 That's the question.

00:34:38.060 Right.

00:34:38.360 About, about Syria.

00:34:39.620 You know, I look, I'm a hardliner in many respects, but I talked to this friend of mine

00:34:42.940 who's a pretty conservative guy, but he, his family lived it firsthand.

00:34:48.320 And, you know, I hate to sound elitist, Matt, but it's, but it's carries weight when you've

00:34:55.780 got a family that's wealthy, that was very prosperous, who left because of ISIS.

00:34:59.940 They didn't leave because of Assad. 0.57

00:35:01.360 And then they had the means to go anywhere they wanted in the world.

00:35:04.180 It does make you think that, Hey, maybe we have to examine.

00:35:09.620 Letting bad actors be bad in their own countries if they can create stability in the world.

00:35:14.560 But my, my problem with Assad where I keep coming back and saying, you know, reason I

00:35:19.320 can't fully get there is his coziness with Russia and Iran.

00:35:22.640 So tell me this, what do you think we could do now, just from what you've heard?

00:35:26.300 I know you're not, you don't ever profess to be a foreign policy expert.

00:35:30.520 What do you think we could do to get him to back away from them and start listening to

00:35:33.900 us a little bit more?

00:35:34.540 I mean, I think the time for that might be, might be passed. 0.98

00:35:40.060 Putin's a little slob like that. 0.59

00:35:41.880 You know, he's, he's been giving them so much support for so many years to get them 0.95

00:35:44.720 to abandon him for us is, is kind of, it's kind of, you know, I don't think it's really

00:35:49.580 possible, but I mean, in terms of, I mean, he just screwed himself with the gas.

00:35:55.420 Right.

00:35:56.340 You know what I mean?

00:35:57.340 Like before he, he dropped the gas, I would have, I would have had a whole bunch of answers

00:36:00.560 for you on this, but once, once you drop gas and, you know, like I said, I haven't seen

00:36:05.360 evidence to this, but you know, I haven't seen evidence that he didn't do it either.

00:36:09.180 And he's done it in the past.

00:36:10.920 So yeah, it points strongly to him.

00:36:13.100 Yeah.

00:36:13.500 It makes it, it makes it really impossible for us to negotiate with him openly under the

00:36:17.720 table is the only way I would say that, that we should do it because, you know, like

00:36:23.560 I said, once you drop gas, you can't really negotiate with somebody in today's day and

00:36:28.040 age.

00:36:28.380 But in terms of that, you know, we can talk to Russia, we can talk to Iran.

00:36:32.300 I mean, we're talking to North Korea for Christ's sake.

00:36:34.840 So, I mean, so, I mean, honestly, and whether we like it or not, Iran is a regional power 0.91

00:36:39.420 over there.

00:36:40.580 They, their intelligence is off the charts and their reach is extremely long.

00:36:46.200 So it, it suits us to maybe have conversations with them and Russia all at the same table to

00:36:52.040 figure out how to rein this in because, you know, the war, if you pay attention, is coming,

00:36:57.220 I'm not going to say coming to an end, but I mean, Assad is definitely wrapping things 0.70

00:37:00.320 up.

00:37:00.740 He's winning.

00:37:01.940 He's winning.

00:37:02.700 He's winning.

00:37:03.440 And he's doing it in a way where like he, you know, every time he takes an area, they

00:37:07.720 are, they put it, everyone surrenders, they put them on buses and they ship them over to

00:37:10.920 the Idlib province.

00:37:11.760 And basically he's corralling all his bad, all the bad guys into one area.

00:37:16.340 And eventually he's going to be in a position where he can just bomb the hell out of it and

00:37:19.500 get rid of all.

00:37:19.980 It's going to gas him again. 0.81

00:37:20.980 I thought he's going to wind up doing it either gas or just, just a straight up bombing

00:37:25.400 campaign.

00:37:26.020 That doesn't end until pretty much they surrender.

00:37:28.900 Yeah.

00:37:29.340 Yeah.

00:37:29.800 Until everybody's dead or surrendering.

00:37:31.540 And you know, that's, that's where we're heading.

00:37:33.880 So he's going to remain in power no matter what.

00:37:36.740 And people need to get used to that.

00:37:38.760 So, uh, you know, it's going to take everybody coming to the table and, you know, like I said,

00:37:44.460 with the Turks and the Kurds, you know, it's game of Thrones over there. 1.00

00:37:49.080 Yeah, Matt, I think this is going to be, uh, going to be something to walk.

00:37:52.640 And I want to bring you back on soon.

00:37:53.960 Let's do it later this week or early next.

00:37:55.800 I really want to talk about the discrepancies and Theo Curtis's claim to the New York Times

00:38:00.800 and was back in 2014.

00:38:02.060 And what he said on the speaking circuit since he reminds me, he reminds me a lot of James

00:38:07.840 Comey, right?

00:38:10.800 And so I want to see if we can get him on.

00:38:13.200 I want to, you want to want to get him on and see if we can't, uh, a figure out the truth.

00:38:17.980 And if the New York Times didn't vet any of this, I would love to be able to call them 0.92

00:38:21.480 out on more fake news.

00:38:22.420 That would be awesome.

00:38:23.100 So let's plan on doing that in the next few days.

00:38:25.460 No problem, man.

00:38:26.620 All right.

00:38:26.980 Thanks, Matt.

00:38:27.480 Always a pleasure.

00:38:32.060 As I mentioned before on the show, my home and the studio here are both about, well,

00:38:45.160 25, 35 minutes from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

00:38:49.220 So that shooting, that massacre really hit home for me.

00:38:52.300 In fact, I know many people from the conservative political movement down here who were personally

00:38:57.400 affected.

00:38:57.920 I know some people whose kids went to the school.

00:39:00.380 A very good friend of mine.

00:39:01.400 I've had him on the show in the past, former Navy SEAL, who's been a national security expert

00:39:07.160 on the show.

00:39:08.020 And he's a personal friend.

00:39:09.040 His son was actually a graduate of the school.

00:39:11.860 He graduated last year.

00:39:12.860 He was sitting in the parking lot.

00:39:14.800 When the shooting took place, his girlfriend, a senior, was inside the school.

00:39:19.140 Luckily, they were okay and they carried out one of the wounded.

00:39:21.760 He ran into the school, as you'd expect the son of a former Navy SEAL to do, and they carried

00:39:26.720 out one of their wounded friends, another student.

00:39:28.620 And so I know many, many people affected by it.

00:39:31.080 So believe me, it wasn't lost on me.

00:39:32.840 But I was still very, very incensed.

00:39:35.680 And the Broward County Commission held hearings to eliminate the Fort Lauderdale gun show held

00:39:41.400 in Fort Lauderdale at the War Memorial Auditorium.

00:39:44.800 And that's literally just a couple of neighborhoods over from where I live.

00:39:49.000 It's maybe two, two and a half miles down the road, if that, from my home, five-minute

00:39:54.460 drive.

00:39:54.900 And it's something I really enjoy doing.

00:39:56.440 So the gun show went down just this past weekend, the last two days.

00:40:00.080 I went on Saturday and I picked up a nifty little new toy, a little AR-15 pistol.

00:40:08.320 But I wanted to go because I wanted to see, A, if there were going to be protesters, B, how

00:40:13.340 big the crowd would be.

00:40:14.460 And C, just wanted to see what new gear was out there.

00:40:17.600 And so I decided to go very early, well, relatively early on Saturday morning.

00:40:21.740 I got over there about 10, 30, 11.

00:40:23.220 I thought the doors opened at 11.

00:40:24.400 They had opened a little earlier.

00:40:26.180 And typically when I go that time in the morning, it's not yet that crowded.

00:40:29.740 It typically gets crowded the show after one o'clock, noon to one.

00:40:35.340 Their concealed weapons class starts about two.

00:40:37.100 And you see people start filtering in lunchtime right after lunch.

00:40:40.120 Not this past Saturday.

00:40:43.000 I got there, like I said, a little before 11 a.m.

00:40:45.320 And the parking lot was packed.

00:40:48.600 I had to park rows, five, six, seven rows back from where I normally do.

00:40:52.680 That show comes into town every few months.

00:40:54.840 It was packed, packed.

00:40:57.100 Inside was packed.

00:40:58.280 You could barely squeeze through the aisles.

00:41:00.080 There were only a few protesters on the sidewalk outside.

00:41:04.700 Somewhat of an increased police presence.

00:41:06.540 And the Florida Sun Sentinel, the paper of record for Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, said they did a story on it.

00:41:14.840 And I think the story with its slant, Parkland slant, was pretty accurate in terms of crowd size.

00:41:20.120 They said gun lovers flocked to Fort Lauderdale's gun show on Saturday, knowing its days may be numbered because the county commission wants to do away with it.

00:41:28.040 But it's ridiculous because you know what I saw in that gun show? 0.89

00:41:33.180 There were white people. 0.99

00:41:35.480 There were black people.

00:41:37.080 There were Hispanic people.

00:41:38.580 There were Asian people.

00:41:40.100 There were Muslims in hijabs.

00:41:43.480 There were people of all religions, all creeds, all races.

00:41:47.900 I saw a gay couple holding hands, looking at handguns. 0.98

00:41:52.040 You know what I didn't see?

00:41:53.780 No one was discriminated against.

00:41:56.060 Nobody was angry.

00:41:57.080 Everybody was polite.

00:41:58.960 Everybody got along.

00:42:00.020 People were chatting.

00:42:01.180 People were buying guns.

00:42:02.340 People were looking at the gear.

00:42:03.520 They were looking at ammo.

00:42:05.100 I saw kids in strollers.

00:42:07.020 I saw two people who were paraplegics in wheelchairs.

00:42:11.160 There were all kinds of people there.

00:42:13.620 I would say a quarter of the crowd, if not a third of the crowd, were women. 1.00

00:42:17.920 And like I said, many families walking around with their kids.

00:42:20.760 You know, young sons and daughters, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, looking at that first .22 rifle.

00:42:25.440 It was an everyday American activity.

00:42:29.800 The show is held, like I said, every other month or so.

00:42:34.780 It's held about seven, eight times a year, the Fort Lauderdale show at the War Memorial.

00:42:38.640 And really, from the studio where I said it's only about two miles down the road, it draws a nice crowd.

00:42:45.380 The police are there, but they don't bother you.

00:42:47.360 They're just chatting outside, kind of hanging around.

00:42:49.620 They're there really more to deal with traffic control and just in case anything happens.

00:42:54.000 But they're incredibly polite.

00:42:56.920 And if you bring a firearm in, you can't bring a loaded gun in.

00:43:00.240 And if you bring in a firearm to have it repaired or looked at or sold or traded, the police inspect it, make sure it's unloaded, and they put a zip tie around the trigger.

00:43:09.840 So this notion that a bunch of, you know, weirdo right-wingers carrying loaded guns around the room with a million other guns, it's simply not true.

00:43:17.740 It's a false narrative.

00:43:18.460 I bought a firearm.

00:43:20.400 Was there some gun show loophole?

00:43:22.360 Was I able to take that gun, you know, look both ways and shove it in a paper bag and leave?

00:43:26.920 No.

00:43:27.880 When I bought that gun, I had to sit down with the dealer.

00:43:30.640 I had to show him my concealed weapons license and my driver's license.

00:43:34.020 The process is now automated.

00:43:36.180 Some of the dealers still make you write out the form.

00:43:38.860 The dealer I purchased from actually had a new software that links right to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

00:43:46.840 So I entered all my information on the form digitally.

00:43:49.660 He submits my information electronically and there's a queue.

00:43:53.600 And in about five minutes, my background check had been run.

00:43:56.600 Everything was done.

00:43:57.220 And a little message came back approved.

00:43:59.100 He got a control number.

00:44:00.220 I was able to buy my gun.

00:44:02.140 But I underwent the background check.

00:44:03.680 I underwent all the paperwork.

00:44:05.180 In fact, my driver's license has my previous address on it.

00:44:09.320 So this dealer was so thorough that he actually had me digitally find a utility bill.

00:44:15.920 And I found a utility bill from my water bill from the city in which I live.

00:44:20.960 And he had me PDF that on my phone and send it to him so he could attach that as a backup.

00:44:26.180 So he could say, okay, well, his driver's license has one address, which is fine.

00:44:29.880 But this guy just wanted to be extra careful.

00:44:31.220 But he's renewing.

00:44:32.280 His license is up for renewal in a couple of months.

00:44:34.760 Here's the current address.

00:44:36.400 All the paperwork matches.

00:44:37.440 And after doing all that, I was able to take my gun home with me.

00:44:41.600 But only because I have a concealed weapons license.

00:44:43.700 Had I not had a concealed weapons license, I would have had to wait five days to go pick

00:44:48.400 my gun up.

00:44:49.400 And so I wouldn't even be able to pick it up until later this week. 0.97

00:44:52.040 So the gun show loophole is a silly, silly thing.

00:44:55.460 That refers to, that doesn't really exist, face-to-face sales that are very, very rare.

00:45:00.320 In fact, many of the gun shows now don't allow you to engage in those kinds of transactions

00:45:06.220 while they're renting the property.

00:45:08.980 They basically say, look, if you want to do that, you have to be off our grounds to do

00:45:12.160 it.

00:45:12.760 We don't want that happening on our grounds.

00:45:14.680 We want everybody to follow dealer rules.

00:45:17.200 And those dealer federal firearms license rules are filling out the paperwork.

00:45:21.180 And I was very encouraged.

00:45:23.380 Now, county commissioners informally agreed in April, about a month ago, April 3rd, from

00:45:30.560 the Sun Sentinel, that gun shows will not continue past November.

00:45:34.860 That's when the gun show promoters, the host's license expires with the city of Fort Lauderdale.

00:45:41.740 And this guy, Dean Trantalis, the new mayor of Fort Lauderdale, I live in Fort Lauderdale,

00:45:46.120 he's wrong.

00:45:46.660 He says, quote, I fully respect the right of people to own guns.

00:45:49.940 I just don't feel we should have a gun show in the middle of Holiday Park, a playground where

00:45:54.000 children play soccer, volleyball, and baseball, end quote.

00:45:56.540 But he's wrong.

00:45:59.060 He's not being honest.

00:46:00.080 The park is a good 200 yards behind where the auditorium is, 100 yards to the fence,

00:46:07.960 200, 300 yards to the fields.

00:46:09.980 So it's not in the middle of the park.

00:46:12.680 It's literally around a major intersection and a good drive or a very long walk behind

00:46:18.300 the auditorium.

00:46:19.320 The parking for the gun show, the ingress and egress, is the other direction from the

00:46:24.700 park.

00:46:25.020 And so his assertion that this gun show is in the middle of a park is simply not true.

00:46:30.680 Just another Democrat who lies.

00:46:33.780 Another Democrat who's lying.

00:46:37.020 Now, families are bringing children to the gun show and the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, my

00:46:42.100 mayor, unfortunately, says, wow, what can I say?

00:46:44.220 I don't know how to respond to that.

00:46:45.900 How about responding by saying it's none of my business what families do with their children

00:46:50.100 because it's their family and their children.

00:46:52.940 Now, while all this is happening, of course, the liberal left will never tell you that

00:46:58.820 gun shows are family activities where nobody goes to buy guns illegally and shoot places

00:47:05.320 up.

00:47:05.940 Hollywood is still lying because the NRA convention went down this week.

00:47:10.600 The NRA convention went down this week in Dallas and actress Alyssa Milano showed up in downtown

00:47:17.840 Dallas to protest to downtown Dallas to protest the NRA.

00:47:21.960 And I remember Will Haraway asked Milano security if he was armed and the man wasn't amused.

00:47:27.480 The man, Milano's armed security guard that I'm going to ask you to leave, he was a big

00:47:33.980 guy and he's this close into this guy, Will Haraway's face, pushing him, armed and pushing

00:47:40.160 him out of a public park.

00:47:42.020 Now, is Alyssa Milano the president? 0.96

00:47:44.260 Why is Alyssa Milano allowed to have people, law-abiding gun owners who are lawfully asking 1.00

00:47:50.000 questions in a park, physically strong-armed out of that park by armed guards?

00:47:55.060 The guard said, I'm going to need you on the sidewalk. 1.00

00:47:58.600 The guy started saying, and the crowd started saying, hypocrite, Alyssa, you're a hypocrite, 1.00

00:48:02.140 you have armed security. 0.99

00:48:04.080 Now, Alyssa Milano and her friends were sitting there denouncing guns, denouncing guns, while

00:48:09.800 Alyssa Milano's security strong-armed people and pushed them out of the park for armed security 1.00

00:48:15.820 detail.

00:48:16.980 If that's at the height of liberal hypocrisy, what in the world is?

00:48:22.480 But that's what liberals are about. 0.60

00:48:24.040 That's what they're about.

00:48:25.400 They want to lie to you.

00:48:26.700 They want you to have rules that they don't impose on themselves.

00:48:30.280 And I can tell you this.

00:48:31.240 I'm going to work very, very hard, very, very hard to preserve the gun show in Fort Lauderdale.

00:48:37.360 I think our county commission is engaging in knee-jerk reactionary policy.

00:48:42.380 The show was packed.

00:48:44.220 Estimates are I drew 5,000 to 7,000 people.

00:48:47.980 I enjoy it.

00:48:49.820 I live here.

00:48:51.140 I pay taxes.

00:48:52.600 I'm a resident.

00:48:53.240 I don't want the far left, the far left to dictate the policy.

00:48:58.740 Hundreds on the far left dictating policy that affects thousands of us.

00:49:03.020 And so we need to fight very hard to preserve American institutions like gun shows around 0.96

00:49:07.040 the country.

00:49:07.480 But I can tell you, I was there firsthand.

00:49:09.440 The crowd was calm, going about their business, all races, all religions, all sexual orientations.

00:49:16.040 A group of Americans who got together for one purpose, to enjoy their Second Amendment, their constitutional rights.

00:49:25.840 More fake news about Team Trump debunked.

00:49:39.840 Now, last week, The Guardian wrote a story revealed Trump team hired spy firm for dirty

00:49:45.800 ops on Iran arms deal.

00:49:47.320 And the story said that AIDS to Donald Trump, the U.S. president hired an Israeli private

00:49:51.940 intelligence agency to orchestrate a dirty ops campaign against key individuals from the

00:49:56.940 Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal.

00:50:00.380 The Observer can reveal.

00:50:02.560 President Trump's camp contacted private investigators to get dirt on Ben Rhodes.

00:50:07.180 And the story went on and on and on.

00:50:11.880 New York Times picked up on it.

00:50:13.320 Washington Post picked up on it.

00:50:15.000 CNN picked up on it.

00:50:16.480 Oh, my God, the Trump campaign is worse than Hillary Clinton, even though it wouldn't have

00:50:20.280 been because he's a sitting president and he can use whatever he wants to dig up dirt

00:50:25.140 on people that are undermining as foreign policy as John Kerry has been.

00:50:28.900 Well, the story said, the story went on to say, and this is where it gets really good, sources

00:50:36.040 said that officials linked to Trump's team contacted investigators days after Trump visited

00:50:41.040 Tel Aviv a year ago.

00:50:42.460 It's going on for a year.

00:50:44.200 His first foreign tour as U.S. president.

00:50:46.620 Trump promised things to Netanyahu.

00:50:48.600 A source with details of the dirty tricks campaign said the idea was that people acting

00:50:52.060 for Trump would discredit those who are pivotal in selling the deal, making it easier to pull

00:50:57.120 out of it.

00:50:57.540 We don't need, we don't need to discredit team Obama.

00:51:01.700 They do it themselves.

00:51:03.460 Investigators were told to contact prominent Iranian Americans as well as pro deal journalists

00:51:07.360 from the New York Times, MSNBC television, the Atlantic's, the Vox website, and Haaretz,

00:51:11.940 the Israeli left-leaning Israeli newspaper, among others, who had frequent contact with Rhodes

00:51:17.040 and Khal in an attempt to establish whether they had violated any protocols by sharing sensitive

00:51:22.500 intelligence.

00:51:23.760 They are believed to have looked at comments made by Rhodes in a 2016 New York Times

00:51:27.320 profile in which he admitted relying on inexperienced reporters to create an echo chamber that

00:51:33.020 helped sway public opinion to secure the deal.

00:51:35.540 Well, it seems like a pretty elaborate black ops, dirty ops operation by Trump team, right?

00:51:40.780 To discredit Ben Rhodes and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry and Barack Obama and Susan Rice

00:51:46.920 and Samantha Power and all the other people around Team Obama who worked on this disastrous Iran deal.

00:51:54.440 Well, the only problem is none of it ever happened.

00:52:00.280 None of it ever happened because Haaretz, one of the newspapers, one of the outlets that

00:52:07.720 was cooperating with Ben Rhodes in selling the Iran deal, had to report, had to walk us back

00:52:16.720 and report, quote, Israeli spy firm Black Cube denies Trump aides hired it to discredit ex-Obama

00:52:25.580 officials.

00:52:26.940 The private intelligence company, however, does not deny or confirm that it was hired

00:52:30.980 by Harvey Weinstein.

00:52:33.280 It goes on to say, Israeli private intelligence company Black Cube strongly denied on Sunday

00:52:38.840 that it was hired by, this is just yesterday, that it was hired by aides to U.S. President

00:52:43.140 Donald Trump to spy on former Obama administration officials.

00:52:47.120 And also Newsmax ran the story and ran with it a little bit in more detail, quote, Black Cube,

00:52:54.340 this is from Black Cube, the intelligence firm, quote, Black Cube has no relation whatsoever

00:52:58.140 to the Trump administration or Trump aides to anyone close to the administration or to

00:53:02.280 the Iran nuclear deal.

00:53:04.200 Anyone who claims otherwise is misleading their readers and viewers.

00:53:09.620 Wow.

00:53:10.660 More fake news revealed.

00:53:12.560 Now, you would have thought that The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, The Washington

00:53:18.000 Post, CNN, Haaretz, and all these other outlets would have contacted Black Cube for this statement

00:53:24.000 before running the initial story, right?

00:53:27.000 But no.

00:53:27.980 No.

00:53:28.960 They were far more interested, far more interested in spreading fake news than they will, fake

00:53:34.380 news that would malign the Donald Trump team, Donald Trump's team, the Donald Trump administration,

00:53:39.100 that would preserve the Iran deal, that would paint John Kerry and Barack Obama in a good

00:53:43.760 light while smearing Trump.

00:53:44.960 They would much rather run that than fact check because walking back a story gets far

00:53:51.060 more press than the original story itself.

00:53:53.680 But those days need to end.

00:53:55.160 And I'm going to expose things like this every single time they happen.

00:54:00.020 And I'm going to stay on them because this wasn't just fake news.

00:54:03.860 This was sloppy, unethical journalism.

00:54:07.340 They lied to you.

00:54:09.600 They lied to you based on anonymous sources to push an agenda when all they had to do

00:54:14.660 was get a statement from the company.

00:54:16.520 They chose not to do that until the company itself, all the reports, got out there and 0.98

00:54:23.500 said, you're all a bunch of liars. 1.00

00:54:25.360 You're filthy liars. 1.00

00:54:26.820 This never happened. 1.00

00:54:28.440 And this is why people despise and disrespect an mainstream news.

00:54:37.340 I love you.

00:54:38.260 I love you.

00:54:38.500 It's not just hostile to me.

00:54:47.600 Not totally.

00:54:48.520 Microsoft Mechanics

00:54:50.360 www.microsoft.com

00:54:53.180 www.microsoft.com

00:54:55.720 www.microsoft.com

00:54:56.100 www.microsoft.com

00:54:56.600 www.microsoft.com

00:54:57.160 www.microsoft.com

00:54:57.220 www.microsoft.com

00:54:57.940 www.microsoft.com

00:54:58.880 www.microsoft.com

00:54:59.600 www Bishop.com

00:54:59.960 www.microsoft.com

00:55:01.800 www.microsoft.com

00:55:02.340 www.microsoft.com

00:55:02.960 www.microsoft.com

00:55:03.560 www.microsoft.com

00:55:03.900 www.microsoft.com

00:55:04.680 www.microsoft.com

00:55:05.220 www.microsoft.com

Rebel News Podcast - May 07, 2018

Off The Cuff Declassified - John Cardillo - May 7⧸2018

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