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David Rutherford Show: Live From Ukraine - American Intel Officer Reveals The Ground Truth
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- [00:00]
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- [03:08]
David Rutherford
In the midst of the historic peace process taking place over in Europe, the United States and Ukraine, we're bringing you someone who's live in theater to give you the ground truth today on the David Rutherford Show. All right, everybody. I know that if you're like me, you've absolutely been enthralled with all the news that's coming out of the European Union, coming out of the Trump administration, coming out of Ukraine. In this quest that Trump has been making since day one. The lead up he said, I'm going to get in week one. I'm going to bring peace to the region and to this epic war, this epic battle of attrition that we've been watching play out where these poor young men are being thrown into the meat grinder day in and day out. Well, I had this incredible opportunity. I was contacted online by a gentleman who goes by Aladdin on X, Mr. Stephen Al Abadi. And he reached out and was like, hey, Rut, man, I would love to come on, let's do this. And I want to give you some ground truth. So coming to you live right now where he just had a drone strike hit about a quarter mile away from a cafe in Ukraine at 9:00 o', clock, 9:30 at night. Stephen, man, thank you so much for taking time out of your insane schedule, getting the ground truth to share what you've learned with our friends.
- [04:46]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah, thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. I've been watching you for quite a while right now. And initially I actually discovered you on Shawn Ryan show. It's wild story. You have an incredible life, very genuine guy. And I thought you were like, very genuine. So I decided to follow you on X and see what you're all about. So I've been showing, like watching your shows periodically on YouTube. Yeah, let's get into it. How do you want to get this going? Free flow. Ask whatever you want. Yeah, yeah.
- [05:15]
David Rutherford
No, I think the biggest thing for me is just to just to give people a little bit of your background and then why you felt compelled to fly over and start reporting. And probably one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Like, how does the how do those, how does your life and that come together?
- [05:37]
Stephen Al Abadi
So I'm going to make it very quick because we have a time restraint here because the curfew and whatnot. So we got about like an hour and a half and whatnot.
- [05:45]
David Rutherford
Hey, ladies and gentlemen, he says whatnot. Could be actual drone hitting where he's, he's, he's broadcasting from right now. So, man, I just, I just. Yeah, brother, go for it.
- [05:54]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. So. Born raised in Baghdad. I started as a linguist back in 2003 and ended up working with the Green Beret guys. They brought me to the United States under the SIV program. So I've been a US citizen for quite a while. So I went back as a contractor. Then I became a government employee. So I was a GS13 intelligence officer with the Army CI Command. Terminated two weeks before the election. Politics had a lot to do with it and it's crazy story. Maybe we can do another show talking.
- [06:28]
David Rutherford
Yeah, let's do that. When you're not. When you got a little bit more a non invasive area and we can just sit, sit back and tell your amazing story.
- [06:37]
Stephen Al Abadi
So, yeah, so, yeah, deployed multiple times, Iraq, Afghanistan and all that crazy stuff. I was actually involved in the Ukraine situation. I was senior Pollard in Germany for SAG U, the Security Assistant Group. Ukraine. It's a NATO mission led by us. And I went to Germany in good faith. They found out I was a Republican, they did some shenanigans, they curtailed my tdy, sent me back home. That had a lot to do with my termination from the government. Yeah, that was 2023, 2024. And after I got terminated, I couldn't get a job. So. And like not even a contract job. And obviously when the Trump administration came in, they did the whole hiring freeze even for contracts and all that stuff.
- [07:34]
David Rutherford
And.
- [07:37]
Stephen Al Abadi
I couldn't get a job. My security clearance went to loj. Status, loss of jurisdiction and I was just sitting in limbo and with the whole DOGE stuff start popping up in early this year and I was like, hey, you know what? Let me use some of the skills the government taught me again, some of the contract fraud and NGOs in inside of the United States. So I broke some stories, some funding data. Republican picked it up and a few other people picked it up. So my account grew and I was like, okay, let me be a journalist and just uncover fraud and just pull up USA funding from USA.gov, uSASpending.gov and the FPDS database. And that's basically what I did then Eventually I just couldn't land an actual job, stable job, and I was like, okay, screw this. I initially wanted to come to Ukraine on the ground a while back to report on what happened and I just pulled the plug. And actually I had almost zero money in my pocket. I did crowdsource funding on GoFundMe, so I got a few thousand bucks, got a ticket and I came here. So the GoFundMe is still live. It's pinned on my X profile if anybody want to chip in to keep this going. Because I'm trying to stay here for extended period of time to actually get the entire truth and the actual sentiment of the Ukrainian people on the ground. Not necessarily just targeting one story or another. I'm trying to go different regions, different cities, capturing as much information as possible from non biased perspective. So yeah, initially I came to Kyiv and Kyiv was wild. Kiev basically is getting attacked almost daily. And I captured like literally you'll see the air defense. The other day I put out a video and we got attacked in Kyiv and I was able to capture the air defense, anti aircraft and drone. It was going off and you can see the bullets. It was like. It was going. Yeah, yeah, it was going, yeah, wow. Yeah, yep.
- [10:01]
David Rutherford
And now tell me, I mean, obviously, you know, exposing government corruption is in my opinion probably the greatest story that, that exists out right there. The magnitude of, of, of what we're looking at. And I don't know if you just saw, but they finally, they canceled Doge. That came out yesterday. They actually shut DOGE down with eight more months left on the initiative. Yeah, well, I mean, you knew it was gonna happen. You knew something was gonna go wrong. And I think that's what, you know, those types of things are what really make people question what actually the truth is going on. And so the fact that you one have the courage and then the willpower to wanna go to. I think when you look at all the different places that the American population is and in terms of corruption, in terms of the future of peace. Right. You know, we put him in office because we didn't want any new wars and he said he was going to stop. Ukraine is the center of that whole thing. When you talk about that fair, you know, that unbiased reporting, is it hard going over with that mind knowing just the intense struggle that the Ukrainian people live with every day? And also I'm sure because of your time in Iraq and Afghanistan, you also understand the negative influence of Russia and what they do through proxies in these foreign areas and lands. I Mean, your country certainly has taken heavies from pretty much all sides, but the fact that you're now an American citizen, it's like, all right, I want to continue to see and root this out for my own validation, if you will. Was it nerve wracking or did you just know I have to go do this?
- [12:01]
Stephen Al Abadi
I had a deep feelings about it, to be honest with you. I wanted to do it from the bottom of my heart because I know a lot about Ukraine and from personal reasons. My ex girlfriend was Ukrainian, came into United states back in 2014 actually, so I knew a lot about the culture. The culture is extremely conservative. Those people are very conservative, family oriented. But coming on the ground, it's a whole different perspective. You see, especially like these people, they have like in extreme grit and willpower, very proud people. They do know they have a lot of corruption with the like the old school oligarch mentality from the Soviet Union and whatnot. And they're combating it. Like the actual Ukrainian people on the ground fighting tooth and nail combating the corruption here in Ukraine. It may not get reported on the news, but yeah, people here, they're fed up with the corruption and they're fighting it within and they're putting a lot of pressure on the government to do something about it. So that's good to see and it's kind of refreshing because the Ukrainian people are tired from all of that crap as well. And they just want to see, they, they want to live in peace and they want to see their country prosper. They're extremely generous people. Very nice. The culture is very conservative. I've attended three consecutively, three Sunday church services here and they're absolutely church God loving people. And, and you see it as well. And on daily life you may see a lot of videos out there, nightclubs and whatnot. Yeah, they do exist, I'm not gonna lie. But you've seen it overseas in Iraq and other areas where people are so tired of conflict, it becomes normal. So they get desanitized from the everyday horror. So they just go about their life and try to have a good time without worrying. It was like, am I gonna die this second or not? So it became a normal thing. Like literally the drone I told you just hit about 30 minutes ago, about 45 minutes ago right now I heard it and I was like looking around, trying to see if anybody freaking out and it was like, it became normal. Wow. Yeah, that's sad. Yeah, that's, that's how, how it became here. They got used to it because it's daily, every day, multiple times. And I guess from talking to people, it was like they were like, we can submit and live in fear or we can just live our lives and if we die, we die. This is it. It's, it's, that's basically our time have, has come. And I was like, you know what, I respect that because I've seen it overseas in conflict zone.
- [15:31]
David Rutherford
Oh my God, you lived it. You lived it. I mean, you lived in the most intense in the last 25 years and in the heart of Iraq. I mean, that, it's just, that's, that' that's the thing my buddies always talked about is, you know, you get so caught up in wage and war that sometimes you negate to look around you and look at the impact of the people who are just civilians just trying to feed their family and wake up every day and go to work and, you know, provide some kind of stability in a perpetually unstable environment. For sure.
- [16:07]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah, absolutely.
- [16:08]
David Rutherford
Let me just, let's, let's start at one thing. So one of the things that, you know, I think I always get sucked into when I, when I try and do a deep dive on Ukraine is, is that there is a considerable portion of the Ukrainian population that do have close ties to Russia. Now is, are the people that you're engaging with are, do they feel like, you know, the, the people who are, you know, over in the regions that are, are being disputed, the regions that, that Russia has conquered, con, I guess conquered or that are fighting for right now. Is there an idea that those people, they, they actually want to be a part of Russia or they're being held against their will under this tyrant? Right? Because I mean, there's a long, long history of, of Russia. Ukrainian engage. Remember Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin? He starts in the 1500s and it's like, all right, obviously there is a deep, deep connection between Russian people and Ukrainian people. I mean, Hal Zelinsky, you know, used to speak Russian regularly. What are local people you're talking, do they feel as if those people who are on the eastern shore, eastern edge of Russia, that they're delusional, they're being held against their will? Or what's their explanation of why those people have the views they do?
- [17:41]
Stephen Al Abadi
So there's a mixed view from my understanding so far on the ground. And the closer to the eastern front you get to the more Russian ties you have because a lot of those people, retired USSR military and so forth, some of them, they were still on a Russia retirement paycheck. As well. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, like, from the old Soviet Union military. So, yeah, there's obviously intertwined, deep connection. But at the same time, those people, they settled. A lot of them, they settled with the Ukrainian identity. So.
- [18:24]
David Rutherford
Okay.
- [18:24]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah, yeah. There is a. A lot of people, from my understanding, are held against their will. Some are happy to be part of Russia. So there's a mix. And being on the ground, the western portion of Ukraine, they do not speak Russian, they speak Ukrainian. And the middle of Ukraine, they speak mix between Ukrainian and Russian. And the eastern portion of Ukraine, they speak Russia and some Ukrainian. But throughout the years from 2004, they did referendum and they start teaching kids the Ukrainian in school to establish their actual Ukrainian identity. But the older generation, like the Gen X and even some of the millennial, and. And what is it? The older folks here, the boomers. Yeah, yeah, the boomers, they all speak Russian, especially on the east rhin, Middle Eastern, Middle Ukraine Eastern. And the younger you get, the more Ukrainian identity you see. And they're very proud of it. And even the boomers, they're very proud to be Ukrainians. It's just their entire life, they spoke Russians. Like, I'm in Odessa right now. I'm in Odessa right now. A lot of them, they still speak Russian. And some, like, talking to people, I was like, I say, like, vitayo diaku, whatever. Like, basically, how you doing? And obviously, those are Ukrainian words, not Russian wars. It was like, oh, yeah, you know Ukrainian. And I was like, yeah, so don't speak Russian, whatever. And. But they still speak Russian here, even when they communicate with each other. But they're trying to change that, right? Yeah. In Kiev, they take it as an insult, like, if you say Russian words, because they're really pushing the Ukrainian identity. But here's like, a little bit more relaxed. And a lot of the people that moved to Odessa, they came from Dnipro and the actual eastern region, they kind of resettled into the middle south of Ukraine. So there's a lot of mix in that. And Odessa, I guess previously they all almost spoke Russians. So. Yeah, so you still have that. But the younger generation, like, if I talk to younger folks here, like a hookah bar, whatever, restaurants or whatnot, cafes, they refuse to speak Russian. They just communicate either in. In English because they want to prove their English, which is kind of refreshing to see. Yeah.
- [21:21]
David Rutherford
And.
- [21:22]
Stephen Al Abadi
And speak Ukrainian. So I think in a generation or whatnot, everybody in this region, they will be speaking Ukrainian after the. The boomers and whatever dies off and.
- [21:35]
David Rutherford
Got it.
- [21:36]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. They go yeah.
- [21:38]
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- [24:39]
David Rutherford
All right, next question. Obviously, we are. We're inundated with the stories of people getting sucked off the streets. I have not seen throwing in. Yeah, I know you haven't. What my question is, do you notice not absent but a less than thriving young male population present? I mean, is it like you walk into these cities that you're visiting or towns and you notice there's not very many young men around? Is that a viable thing or is that completely inflated? That is not true.
- [25:20]
Stephen Al Abadi
No, it's a bunch of bullshit. Young kids all over the place. Yeah, there is a actually, matter of fact, the Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution a couple months ago. A few months ago, they allowed young people anywhere from basically being a teenager until the age of 22 to leave the country. They have an option. There was about a hundred thousand they left already, and. But the majority, they stayed because they love their country and they want to stay here. And I'm talking to people, it was like, have you thought about leaving? And they're like, yeah, but we've been hearing from our friends, like, get. They go to Western countries, United States, Europe and whatnot. And they're telling us, like, life is extremely hard and not getting that much support, especially in the United States. And so we don't want to go through that struggle and start from scratch. So we are content being here. Plus, we love our country and we want to stay and fight. And so that's good to see. And I've actually met a lot of people. They had a chance to actually leave Ukraine. They left and they came back. It was like, hey, we don't want to live in the West. Does not align. Align with our values. And they talked a lot. I spoke to a lot of people and they talked a lot about the woke culture in the West. And the LGBTQ is like. Was like, no, that's not. Yeah, we're not about that stuff. So they packed their stuff, came back to Ukraine and restarted their life again. And. And I was like, oh, wow, okay. And that's fascinating. Yeah, I talked to a number of people. They lived in Germany, Netherland, England, United States, you name it. And they came back because they did not want to deal with the woke culture in the west.
- [27:23]
David Rutherford
That makes sense. All right, all right. So have you talked to anybody that's been in the fight so far? Guys, any veterans, any injured people? What have they shared with you and what's their interpretation of the whole thing?
- [27:40]
Stephen Al Abadi
It's pretty brutal. I spoke to people on a train. A lot of them don't speak English, so I had to use like a deep L translation app because I see people, like, with the military uniforms, I asked them, it's like, hey, are you military? And be like, yes. And I've seen people miss a lims. You see that everywhere. And yeah, the number is staggering. And it's very sad. Anywhere you go, you'll see people like that. And I had a chance to speak to multiple people, multiple soldiers from anywhere enlisted to military officers. Usually the officers, A lot of them speak English. Okay, English. They're enlisted. Obviously they don't because they come from a lower class. And. And it's pretty brutal. Apparently the front line is 10 times worse than what's projected, but they're holding their own. Yeah. And they are deeply, deeply grateful for the American people and the American government help. And they openly admit it was like, if it wasn't for America, we would have lost our country. But we are doing the fight and wow. Yeah, I was happy to hear that. At least they appreciate and acknowledge the help that we have given them.
- [29:10]
David Rutherford
And.
- [29:12]
Stephen Al Abadi
They used our weapons to fend off and basically hold Russia into base. Almost like a stall trench line right now. Yeah. There may be skirmishes here and there. Like Russia may be taking small territory, few kilometers here. They lose it back couple. Couple weeks later. And so it's back and forth, but it's like, it's basically a very steady line at this point. And I don't want to give the actual Russian rotation plan. Sorry, the Ukrainian rotation plan. Because I got into a deep discussion with a connection I have is a high level colonel in the Ukrainian military. So we got into a pretty detailed conversation on how they're doing their rotations at the front line, whatnot. I don't want to talk about it online, to be honest.
- [30:08]
David Rutherford
Yeah, absolutely. I would never want you to compromise their tactical realities there on the ground. All right, so the other question is now is. Is really, I think that's on everybody's mind is what is the Ukrainian? Or one of the questions, what do the Ukrainian people want? I mean, obviously they want to win the war, but I would imagine now, this many years in and the support that Russia has built up from you know, their support from China, their support from Iran, North Korea, sending troops, you know, like they have a nice little coalition going that you know, is, is doing well. I, you know, and it doesn't seem like all the sanctions have crippled their economy too badly. They're still selling plenty of oil around the world. What do the Ukrainian people believe they need in order to kind of begin to turn the tides in their favor?
- [31:13]
Stephen Al Abadi
They want proper weapons. I can tell you one thing. During the Biden admin when I was a poll ad for the SAG U operation, actually the Biden administration did not give proper support to Ukraine as much as money that we sent our weapons and whatnot. Everything we sent them, it was like old broken. But we sent Bradley's. That does not work. Like literally.
- [31:42]
David Rutherford
Oh, wow.
- [31:43]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah, like literally. It went to Jonieska, Poland, J Town and that's basically the main hub of supplies where they loaded up on the train. They send it to Ukraine. We send the Ukrainian military from like literally tanks, Bradleys and, and bunch of equipments and even howitzers, like 155s, 120. That doesn't work. Yeah, like literally broken. So they had to take multiple different Bradleys and this is like a repeated thing. They had to take multiple different Bradleys, like change the turrets on this one because the turret on this one works or the electronic on this one works, but doesn't work on this one. And the gearbox from this one works and this one doesn't. So it's like doing a bunch of swaps. Like out of like maybe five Bradleys they may get like two or three working. And same thing with the Abram tanks and the Abram tanks that we send them. A lot of them the targeting system doesn't work or like broken and whatnot, that they had to figure out how to fix the targeting system on the Abram tanks and whatnot. So they had to do a lot of legwork to get these equipments to work. But the Biden admin, actually, as much as they claim they supported all what we sent them, like a broken equipment and they still managed to get them to work or at least revive a lot of them or some of them and get it to the battlefield and use them properly. If we had given them a proper weapons that actually works and proper targeting packages with the intel, I think they would have pushed Russia back all the way to the. They probably would have taken their land back. Wow.
- [33:50]
David Rutherford
Yeah, that's heavy.
- [33:52]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. And I still believe if, if we send them the proper equipment and manage it Properly, like have people actually on the ground count it, make sure it's actually going to the military units that's supposed to be going to. And I believe they can take their land back and push Russia all the way back to Russia.
- [34:16]
David Rutherford
Oh, wow.
- [34:17]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah.
- [34:17]
David Rutherford
And what kind of force do you think they need to have to be able to do that? Are we talking about 300,000 troops in this fight or is it just. Just the web? Because you're going to need, you're going to need mass numbers because that's what Russia has right now. They have what seems to be just an endless supply of young men that they can send out into that meat grinder. And there's it like, it seems like I've heard as much as 5 to 1 is. Is what the. Yeah, like what, what it is.
- [34:46]
Stephen Al Abadi
Like last week I'm on a bunch of oent sale like from y different groups here on the ground. Russia lost 20 plus thousand people. Wow. And just five days.
- [35:03]
David Rutherford
Wow.
- [35:04]
Stephen Al Abadi
Like literally I was loading up on the train from KE to Odessa two nights ago and I get the notification. It was like during this few battles going on at the front, Russia lost 20 plus thousand people and the Ukrainian lost about 3,4000. So yeah, yeah, there's still heavy casualties, but yeah, it's, yeah, it's about 5 to 1 ish ratio. But Russia has obviously a country of 150 million people plus. You get it. You got North Korea jumped in. Actually, I did see North Korean IDs and uniforms. Oh, wow. Yeah. Because I went to the World War II Museum and they had dedicated.
- [35:58]
David Rutherford
A.
- [35:58]
Stephen Al Abadi
Few sections, one to the US Volunteers and they're all prior rangers, Green Berets. Skills died over there. Actually. I cried because I saw my country, my countrymen. Wow. Yeah. And it took actually getting emotional about it right now.
- [36:25]
David Rutherford
Yeah, man.
- [36:29]
Stephen Al Abadi
I don't care about the politics of it. Those are US Citizens that are our brothers and sisters. Yeah. Died for what they believe. It's right. And. Yep. And.
- [36:44]
David Rutherford
Well, it's funny, man. Those are the moments where there's nobility in death, you know, even in the face of, you know, war. And the older I get, the more I, the more it, it, it, I. I'm. I'm repulsed at how whimsical those in power wage war to the detriment of. Of us who seem to have to be the ones who engage in it. But there is some nobility in volunteering for what you believe is an existential threat. Right. And we've seen that throughout human history and those battles and those people who stand their ground against Goliath. Right. Those are, there's a nobility in that. And I, and I like, do you, do you feel that in the people around you that this is a noble endeavor and then, and then have you run into people that are like, no, this is the dumbest thing ever in the world. We shouldn't be doing this.
- [37:43]
Stephen Al Abadi
And not, not even one person. Wow. Yeah, not even one person. I've, I've talked to men, women, young people, old, young, different ages. They are not giving up. They, every person I spoke to, they were like, they're indiscriminately targeting civilians, kids, apartment complexes. And it's like if Russia thinks they're going to break our spirit, matter of fact they made it even stronger just because they're, they're daily and indiscriminately attacking kids. Playgrounds, schools, apartment complexes. And like a few days ago there's town called Tornopol. It's actually on the Polish border. There's a drone hit and killed last time I checked, I haven't checked the updated story, but it was 32 people, six kids died.
- [38:56]
David Rutherford
Wow.
- [38:56]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. Beautiful and beautiful kids. And one a mom with her two childs. It just like they just disintegrated. And, and it's, and this is happening daily in Chernihiv, it's another town east of northeast of Kyiv. They're being getting hit the past three days hard and a bunch of people died already. I haven't checked. I'm probably gonna go there next after Odessa because the past few days they got attacked massively. So hopefully I can get over there and, and get some video from videos of the civilian buildings who got hit and whatnot. But these people, like the spirit they have is unbelievable. Unbelievable. It, it's, it reminds me by the spirit of the American people after the 911 attack.
- [39:56]
David Rutherford
Okay.
- [39:57]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. How we Americans got unified against terrorism. And that's where they at. It's, that was their moment. That's their 911 moment basically. And right, yeah. So that's the basically same thing happened back in 2001 to Americans. Everybody unified against terrorism. And that's where the Ukrainians are right now. And that's the best way I can describe it.
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Stephen Al Abadi
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Stephen Al Abadi
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- [43:26]
David Rutherford
That's fantastic to hear because you know, you, you, you get fed so many stories, recent stories about there's an inside schism in you in Zelensky's senior leadership. There's people vying to try and figure out how to get him out of control or get him out of power. Are you hearing anything like that from higher ranking sources or government personnel that you're talking to? Is there a divide at the highest level in and around Zelensky right now?
- [43:58]
Stephen Al Abadi
There are some going on, on at the parliament level. But I can tell you what. A little nugget people doesn't know. The military has a lot of influence on what's happening in politics. So if the military actually wants Zelensky out, they will get him out. And if they want to him, if they want to keep him in, they will keep him in. And the from my understanding is the military leadership has significant amount of influence on what's going to happen politically in the country.
- [44:40]
David Rutherford
Okay.
- [44:41]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah.
- [44:41]
David Rutherford
So that, that's, I mean that's usually the way it works in these kind of environments. You know, once the military kind of establishes itself in these, these regional wars, they have a tendency, I mean we saw it in Egypt after the Arab Spring, right. We've seen it in a bunch of other countries where when the country becomes destabilized, usually it's that those internal militaristic. The military comes up and gains power and contains that. All right, let's back it out a little bit for a little bit. Just a few more questions for you. Obviously the peace process is going on another peace process, this one we get to some resolution here soon. But what, what I, I saw just a site released what they said from the telegram released what they said was the European Union response. Their, their, their what they want to see in the peace process and in there. I mean it's pretty, pretty, pretty. I mean it's like Ukraine membership in NATO based on an alliance, a consensus within the alliance that supports them. Territorial negotiations start from the current line in the control and then Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially through a Russian sovereign assets. And then you know, I, I heard a woman at representative at the UN basically said we're not negotiating any of the territory that we've lost to Russia. That's not even on a play. We're not gonna stop until that's back. What we actually need is just money so we can fight more efficiently. That is the weapons systems. And then Zelenskyy himself said, it's against the law for me to give up that land. I would be going against my oath as president. So it seems. And then you look at the Trump administration now Rubio's just banging his fist saying, no, things are progressing nicely. And then Trump, you know, over the last week or so, you know, one day he's all in for supporting Ukraine. The next minute he's like, you know what? They can have at it. He and NATO and European Union, they can go do what they want. I'm out. And so that's gotta be incredibly frustrating, I would imagine, for the Ukrainian people who kind of feel like all these external parties are the ones kind of calling the shots. What do Ukrainians feel the negotiations should be focused on and who do they feel should be involved?
- [47:32]
Stephen Al Abadi
They definitely want to be involved directly in the negotiations because they want to play a key role into what's going to happen in their own country. And I understand that, because if I were them, I don't want to be. Be negotiated on my behalf by somebody else. But at the same time, obviously, they are in the situation they are right now. So that's why you got all these external forces. But at the same time, these people are extremely proud, and dignity matters to them. And if any peace deal happens or some sort of a settlement to this war happens, they don't want to feel undignified. They want to maintain their dignity. And I respect that, and I understand that. And so that's what the sentiment are. And in the street, everybody you talk to in the street, it'd be like, I don't want to be disrespected, and I don't want to lose my dignity. Plus, how do you want us just to give our land? That's our land. It was like. It was just like no one on the street, like, regular people on the street. I talked to every single one of them. They don't want to give their land to Russia. They want their land back. So I don't know how you settle that, to be honest. You.
- [49:07]
Commercial Announcer
With.
- [49:07]
Stephen Al Abadi
With you, I have no idea.
- [49:10]
David Rutherford
Wow. Yeah. I think that's got to be the most challenging thing there is. I mean, obviously, you know, Russia now, in its own wisdom, and if you listen into, you know what, Pepper, Peppa or whatever, the president and then the Secretary of State guy, you know, they're all like, listen, this. This wouldn't have happened if we didn't feel like you were encroaching. So they want this protective section that, you know, it gives them a buffer from Launching attacks into them and all this, you. And to. To concede land that you've already gained, man, there's not a lot of examples in history where, where that took place for sure. And it's, you know, that's, I think the crux of this whole thing is, is is that land that's been captured? All right, last question for you as what are you, what are you going to do as you continue to travel around the country? Is there a particular thing you're going to focus on trying to learn about the people and about the environment that's taken place? And can you describe what you're hoping to accomplish in the next however many weeks you're going to be there?
- [50:27]
Stephen Al Abadi
My plan originally to stay six months and I've been here for 20 days, so I have a long way to go.
- [50:35]
David Rutherford
And.
- [50:39]
Stephen Al Abadi
I'm trying to hit every city I can to show the actual damages specifically on civilian infrastructure, not critical infrastructure like apartment complexes, schools, playgrounds and stuff like that. I just wanted to understand what the Ukrainians suffering every day on the ground by indiscriminate attacks. Because when I came here I found out you cannot record and take pictures of military and security service infrastructure if it got hit or anything like that, that they don't want those footage out and because they don't want to show Russia, I guess, how much damage happened. Yeah.
- [51:34]
David Rutherford
Your BDA, right?
- [51:35]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. Your BDAs. Yeah. And so militarily. Yeah, I understand that. And so I shifted focus on, I was like, okay, let me talk to the civilians and if I can make it to the front line, that'll be cool. So I'm trying to raise additional funds to get my actual journalistic credentials paid and approved so I can submit it to the military and security service so I can get embedded with a military unit to go to the front line to show people what the trenches looks like. And I'll get to that point when I get to it. And in the meantime, I'm hitting different towns to show the daily drone attacks. And if they hit civilian buildings, I try to show people. To me it's like a terroristic tactics what Russia is doing. It's like if you're discriminately or deliberately hidden civilians, you're trying to scare people into submission and they're not. And yeah, if they lose, it's sad. They do a funeral, everybody come together and whatnot and they go about their day next day just like. And same thing reminded me about Iraq, Afghanistan. They lose people funeral, you know, three days in Islam, whatever. And after that, that they go about their business and move on. And so same thing happening here and, and unbreakable spirit. And today I was at the Black Sea and I went over there to actually record a video because what the Russians, they were doing, they were using sea mines and unchained. So whatever the wave takes them and hoping they get to the shorelines and hit people who are swimming at the beaches and whatnot. And a bunch of people died. And the last incident happened, it was a year ago where the last two women died from these sea mine basically getting sent to the shorelines. Two women died. The last two women died. It was about a year ago until the Ukrainian Navy started hitting the fleet in Sevastopol and the Russian had to actually move their entire fleet from Sevastopol into Korch, so basically on the other side of Crimea. And so that's the tactics that Russians are using to just indiscriminately killing civilians. And you're hearing the stories from these people. It's heartbreaking, honestly. And it never gets easy. It doesn't matter how many deployments you do, doesn't matter how many people you killed or how many deaths you've seen it always the same thing. It breaks your heart and matter of fact, the older you get, it kind of like the, at worse it becomes and you get more emotional about it.
- [54:59]
David Rutherford
Yes.
- [54:59]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah.
- [55:00]
David Rutherford
And.
- [55:02]
Stephen Al Abadi
So yeah, that's what I'm doing right now and hopefully I just want to get the truth out. I'm not spinning anything, I don't have any agenda. I just want to tell people stories here and move on My next one actually, I'm trying to go to Gaza and trying to, my mission is trying to expose the Hamas and how evil those people are are. Because when I, when I was growing, growing up in Iraq, we used to call those guys like parasites. Yeah.
- [55:34]
David Rutherford
So yeah, I, I, I, I think you're the, the way you describe it is with age you're, you know, you become a little bit more empathetic even though you're more hardened by what you've seen in war. Right. Because what I, I look at is I just see, what I see is a, a veteran who's lost their limbs who lives with that. I, I see a mother who.
- [55:58]
Stephen Al Abadi
A.
- [55:58]
David Rutherford
New wife who's got two little children and then their son's gone and who live under the perpetual threat of whatever side they're coming from. And man, it's just, I think those are the biggest news stories. I think those are the stories that really mean the most to Tell the story of those affected by war at the highest level. So, Stephen, I just commend you on what you're doing. I really appreciate you coming on here and spending time with me. I'm really looking forward to a follow up in a month or two if you want to come back on. I'd love to have you if you find something new. And then when you get back to the States, I'll have you on and we can tell your whole story. I think that would be absolutely phenomenal to hear. So I just want to wish you all the blessings in the world. Good luck, stay safe, and why don't you tell everybody where they can find you and follow you and pitch in to help with your work?
- [56:57]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah, absolutely. It's Aladdin. It's a L L I D d I n 1983 on hex.com and same thing. And on. I just started a YouTube channel, so I'm slowly uploading videos from talking to people or doing. Basically walking around here and stuff like that on YouTube. And also my GoFundMe is pinned on my ex.
- [57:29]
David Rutherford
And.
- [57:31]
Stephen Al Abadi
So you can go over there and chip in if you can. And also I promised you to break a story on your show.
- [57:38]
David Rutherford
You did, you did. I. I was. That's up to you. I mean, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna spoil your own journalistic. If you want to break it on your own channel, I'm good with that. I. I just, I'm happy to have you share whatever you want to share. Yeah, I'll.
- [57:51]
Stephen Al Abadi
I'll upload it or maybe I had it scheduled, but I don't know if it went out on X, but. Or not. But actually walking around in Odessa and I noticed an Islamic center and I saw a building, it looks like a mosque. And sure enough, I went to the front of the building and it says Islamic center of Arabic Culture. And I started sniffing around. I knocked on the door, nobody answered. I guess no one in there. So I started sniffing around with the locals and whatnot. And come to find out, Muslim Brotherhood affiliated through Turkish businessmen and shipping businesses. So there's a lot of Turkish influence here and they do shipping business. So. So they're very embedded with the Muslim Brotherhood, so they got a foothold here. So.
- [58:46]
David Rutherford
And, and is that. What do you think that's for? To potentially establish a relationship with the Russians for inside attacks, for terrorist attacks or probably. Or to move in weapons or drones or.
- [59:03]
Stephen Al Abadi
I'm. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of that going on. Espionage?
- [59:09]
David Rutherford
Yep.
- [59:09]
Stephen Al Abadi
Spying Stuff like that. Also expansion of Islam. Yeah, yeah. And we're seeing it for sure. Yeah, we're seeing it. They're expanding heavily in the west, but it seems.
- [59:22]
David Rutherford
Oh, God, yeah, yeah. Trump's getting ready to declare the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist or international terrorist organization, which is staggering that they haven't been considering about them since the 70s. Right. With the Blind Shake and Zar Howie in the jails in Egypt and then in Israel. I mean, the Blind Shake and the Twin Towers. I mean, it's just remarkable that they've been able to kind of weave in between those designations for as long as they have.
- [59:55]
Stephen Al Abadi
So, yeah, I'm surprised. But, like, even if you designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, we got like gazillion militia groups in Iraq right now. And of the. The populist movement, like when the ISIS almost took over Iraq and so they established the populist movement front, it was like a lot of those guys. Heavily Shiite, obviously. Muslim Shiite, so they're not Sunnis, but they're deeply embedded with Iran, and they're also deeply embedded with Hezbollah as well. And by default, they will operate with Sunnis to basically, an enemy of my enemy is my friend, basically. Yeah. So what are we going to do about that? And there's so much to talk about from terrorists aspect of, especially in that region, their expansion and their influence, especially also on the drug business. A lot of people have no idea Muslim Shiite from Lebanon and that particular region has a lot of foothold and operation in South America. And actually they started back during the Black September operation movement organization back in the 60s and 70s. So it goes all the way back then. We can talk about that next episode.
- [61:31]
David Rutherford
Yeah, I would love to dig into that with you because I think that's really fascinating. What people don't understand is they hear these comments about Hezbollah or Hamas or ISIS or Al Qaeda or ttp, whatever it is, and they think strictly it's regional. They don't understand the nature of international intelligence, espionage, movement of activities, movement of finance, building new cells, recruiting all the time. It's just. And I think that's really what one of the next great, I think, clashes in the human condition is going to be is having whatever the next iteration of those conflicts, whether it's Muslims versus Christians, Christians versus Muslims versus Jews. You know, it's like, it's just the perpetuation of. Of the same old story, and it's just evolving now to where the techniques and the tactics and the capabilities are so much more severe and threat, life threatening. Yeah, it's very sophisticated now. So we'll do that next time. So, Stephen, again, man, thank you so much. God bless you. Be safe. And I'm looking forward to hearing your next story.
- [62:47]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. Thank you, brother. Thank you so much. And it's been an honor, by the way, the first big podcast I think I've been on, maybe. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Very humbled and I really appreciate it, David, and I look forward to it.
- [63:02]
David Rutherford
I saw you pop up, man, and I love what you were writing, what you're doing. I know you're sincere and, and you have huge, huge courage right now. And for me, like, and, and the fact that you're focused on the people, like, for me, that's what hits me the heaviest, because the people who suffer from these wars, whatever side you're on, man, though, that's the story. That's the amazing story. So I just commend you. God bless you, Stephen. Yeah, Take care, buddy.
- [63:30]
Stephen Al Abadi
Yeah. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Yeah. Till next time.
- [63:34]
David Rutherford
Till next time.
- [63:45]
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- [65:18]
Stephen Al Abadi
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Stephen Al Abadi
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Stephen Al Abadi
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What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it?
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Stephen Al Abadi
Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same. Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartradio app.
- [66:35]
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