
Now that Syria’s longtime president Bashar al-Assad has fled the country, the leader of one of the rebel groups that helped drive Assad from power has filled the vacuum, becoming the nation’s new de facto president. His name is Muhammad...
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Jimmy Dore
Come see us doing live shows. We'll be in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Baltimore, Atlantic City. Co host, New York, Providence, Rhode Island. Go to Jimmy Dore.com for a link for tickets and only Jimmy Door.com. hey, this is Jimmy. Who's this?
Joe Biden
Hi there, Jimmy. This person, Joe Biden. Are you ready to get mad?
Jimmy Dore
Yes.
Joe Biden
You ready to go hot and bothered during your little comedy sketch sketches?
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, I guess.
Joe Biden
Jimmy, this lame duck situation is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. It's fantastic.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah.
Joe Biden
Nothing I do matters. Every day is a wonderful gift, full of sunshine, fresh air and orange juice and fluffy butter smothered flapjacks.
Jimmy Dore
I beg your pardon?
Joe Biden
You don't have to beg, Jimmy. I'll just give you one.
Jimmy Dore
Ah, right.
Joe Biden
Haven't you heard? It's pardoning time. Yep, Daddy's giving out some pardons. Step on up, give me your plate and I'll serve you up a big old Texas sized serving of pardon.
Jimmy Dore
Oh, brother.
Joe Biden
Why? What'd your brother do? Doesn't matter. Consider him pardoned, all right?
Jimmy Dore
I got a lot of brothers.
Joe Biden
Well, I have a lot of pardons. Man, I just love these pardons.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah.
Joe Biden
You know, it's so crazy. You spend an entire administration confined by checks and balances, by deals with Congress, with compromises you have to make and promises you're forced to break. But right there at the end, you get a magic wand that can do anything you want. Go nuts. Go do insanely illegal shit promises you're forced to break.
Jimmy Dore
You mean like your promise that you wouldn't pardon your son Hunter? That kind of promise?
Joe Biden
Come on, man. Did you really believe that?
Jimmy Dore
I didn't.
Joe Biden
No one believed that promise. That was a crazy ass, insane, fake ass promise if there ever was one. Of course I was gonna pardon my own son. Get your head out of your ass.
Jimmy Dore
I know.
Joe Biden
What about you, Jimmy?
Jimmy Dore
What about me?
Joe Biden
Do you need a pardon? I'll pardon you too. What have you done, buster? Kill a hooker? Throw a toddler off a balcony? You're in the clear now.
Jimmy Dore
I haven't done any of those things. No. But thank you.
Joe Biden
Well, shoot yourself. But believe me, I'm only getting started with Hunter.
Jimmy Dore
Oh, I believe you.
Joe Biden
Pardoning my own flesh and blood for wrongdoing extending back to 2014 was the best fuck you to America I could think of.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, I know.
Joe Biden
And boy, do I want to extend a middle finger to everybody these days. Catching me aside as a candidate and then reelecting Donald Trump. I just want to burn this fucking place to the ground. Clearly I'm just sad O.J. simpson's dead. Why, that'd be the old. That'd be the ultimate fuck you pardon America's villain.
Jimmy Dore
Uh huh.
Joe Biden
Epstein would have been good too, but. Oh well. There's always Giselle Maxwell, though. Thinking about rubbing her clean.
Jimmy Dore
Not sure if that's a good idea.
Joe Biden
That guy who shot and killed the healthcare CEO in Manhattan. Once they find him, I'm going to pardon his ass for sure.
Jimmy Dore
Now. Now we're talking.
Joe Biden
Exactly. Find random people to pardon who are very divisive. And some people will be thrilled and some will be enraged. Yeah, I pardon enough of these fuckers, the country will tear itself apart because of my pardons.
Jimmy Dore
Well, why would you do that?
Joe Biden
Part of our scorched earth policy. Yeah, basically ruin everything before Trump gets in office so he has to deal with it and everything will look like his fault. That's why we upped the war in Ukraine. And with my pardons, I can leave him a divided and fragile home front. Just fucked all around my house.
Jimmy Dore
Statesman like Joe, actually it is.
Joe Biden
You wise ass. With one stroke or a pen, I kept my boy out of the pokey and undermined the public's trust in the government on the eve of my successor's inauguration. Two birds, one stone. That statement like a shit asshole.
Jimmy Dore
Well, I'm glad to see that you're done pretending that you're above these sort of indignities or respect the rule of law in any way whatsoever.
Joe Biden
Oh yeah, we are done with that shit. Doner than done. I just wish I was the Prime Minister of the UK so I could pardon Gary Glitter.
Jimmy Dore
Yeah, or.
Joe Biden
Or how about this? Get a hitman to take out Mike Johnson, Speaker House, and then pardon the hitman. I didn't even think about that. I have a few weeks left to actually make crimes happen and then pardon them. Man, this is a game changer.
Jimmy Dore
Well, okay, I gotta leave your six fantasy, sir.
Joe Biden
Oh, okay. Sounds good, man. Yeah, I'm gonna pick up some real sick shit. Hey, maybe they don't even have to be real. I could pardon Lex Luthor or someone like that. The possibilities are endless. All right, I have to go. Hey, Jimmy. Do some crimes. Do some crimes so I pardon them. You too, Steph.
Jimmy Dore
Happy holidays. I did, I did. I was a middleman for a kilo of coke deal back in college.
Joe Biden
Hey, you know what? All is forgiven, my friend.
Jimmy Dore
Okay? I appreciate that. All right, pal. Thank you. Happy dementia.
Richard Medhurst
Establishment media sucks. We can't afford while he's fomenting this watch and see. As is Jack.
Jimmy Dore
Let me just show you this. So you wanted, you wanted to. So after, after the, after he said he admitted they're doing all this to destabilize the Middle East. They wanted to stabilize it. Well, they've done it. And now who's going to be in charge of Syria? Well, right now who's in charge is this guy? This. They have attendances from the United States State Department. They have a $10 million reward for this terrorist, Muhammad Al Jawal Jalani. We just put this guy in charge of Syria. We just put this guy in charge of Syria. And how did I know that this guy was going to be in charge of Syria? Because they did this just a week ago. How Syria's diversity friendly jihadists plan on building the state. So now they're, they're woke washing the jihadists who have been torturing people in Syria. Who's, they're the people throwing gay people off a building, that kind of thing. That's who these are. And now they're woke washing them. Alan McLeod. I can't believe this is real. This is real. This is real. Any anything, do you want to tell me anything about this guy, Richard?
Richard Medhurst
Yeah, I just find this absolutely incredible that the Telegraph published a headline like that and an article like that because I was arrested under the Terrorism act because of my reporting on Palestine. But you're not going to see the police arrest any of the journalists at the Telegraph and I'm not saying they should, but I'm just trying to point out the hypocrisy. You're not going to see counterterrorist police arresting them on a plane at heathrow for glorifying HTs, which is a prescribed organization. It's on the list of banned groups just as it is in the US but the Terrorism act, they're trying to amend it now to actually remove Jolani and hts, which is Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda in Syria rebranded under the name of Al Nusra Front and then on Nusra Front became Hayat Ahrida Sham, which is hts. It's still Al Qaeda. And that tweet you were showing on the screen, if you look at the ones just above it, which are posted by the so called US Embassy in Syria, which was just online actually they even say that no matter what name they use, it's still Al Qaeda in Syria. Okay, so that's an official U.S. position. And they are Al Qaeda. These are head chopping terrorists. I mean Jelani himself, he worked with Ayman Al Zawahiri, who was Bin Laden's mentor and his right hand man in Al Qaeda. As a matter of fact, Zawahiri blew up the Egyptian embassy next to my school. My classroom just blew up in Islamabad when I was in the British school. So we're talking about, you know, this guy studying, being mentored under one of the founding members of Al Qaeda and being in both Al Qaeda and isis. Right, Both of those organizations. There's even a photograph of Jolani with Al Baghdadi and there's an ISIS flag on the wall. So he's a terrorist of a terrorist who has used actual violence to murder people across Syria. And this bodes very badly for, for Syria because Syria has a diverse social fabric. You've got over a dozen religious and ethnic groups. It's always been a secular country. 10% of the population are Christian. You've got Druze, Alawites, Shias, Sunni, Armenians, Palestinians, Bedouins, Kurds, you name it. And it's a patchwork. You can't have someone like Jawlani taking over the country because it's only going to lead to bloodshed. And it's not hypothetical. This guy has actually murdered people and shed blood in the name of sectarianism. So we don't have to hypothesize this is his past, this is who he is. And they try to whitewash his personality on CNN with this interview. And they did the same thing on CBS Frontline three years ago, by the way, in a documentary. They put him in a suit all of a sudden and tried to whitewash him and make him look like he's some kind of civilized statement, but he's a terrorist. And he tried to say on CNN that he was young back then. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not an excuse for beheading people and ripping Syria and Iraq apart. And I don't need to remind you, after the US invaded Iraq, most of the Christian population disappeared. I don't know what the exact number is. I think it's about 80% of the Christian population disappeared. Some of them were killed, the rest fled. Just absolute chaos. And then it spilled over into Syria. So, you know, this guy is absolutely a terrorist. And we have to point out the fact that he's backed who is backing him also because Netanyahu went and did a victory lap on the Golan Heights. Right now Israel is invading about 400 square kilometers of Syria and he is doing nothing. So all these opposition rebels, these so called rebels who claim to be acting in the benefit of Syria, they're just letting Israel destroy Syria's Air Force. The Air Force is gone. All the planes have been destroyed. The Navy is being bombed right now. All of the ships are being destroyed. The weapons caches, the missile silos, the military research laboratories. Syria has no defense. So, you know, Gioulani and his ilk were so ready to chop people's heads off and carry out heinous acts of violence. But as soon as Israel is invading more Syrian territory and destroying the country's military infrastructure, they have nothing to say and nothing to do. And they don't fire a single bullet. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.
Jimmy Dore
It's amazing. They say ISIS and Al Qaeda are enemies of Israel, yet they never attack them. It's exactly what you're talking about. It's almost like Israel invented isis. It's almost like that. It's almost like the United States invented Al Qaeda. It's almost like that. In fact, Hillary Clinton said we did. So here is. This is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner. So he's going to be asked about this, about, hey, the guy that is in charge of Syria now has a $10 million reward out from the United States State Department. This is. This tweet comes from the US embassy. That's from May 15, 2017. Aaron Mate says, what do you think they're going to take this? When do you think this tweet's going to get deleted? I wonder if it's still up. So this is the guy. This is the guy that got rid of Assad. You don't. You don't have to like Assad to not want him to be overthrown. That's not saying he didn't. He didn't rule with an iron fist. That doesn't matter. Just like it didn't matter what Saddam did or Gaddafi did. What matters is when we go in and do this, it makes everything worse. And we're not doing this because we care about these people. If we cared about these people, we would stop the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. So obviously we don't care about Pete. This is never this idea that we're doing. We don't care about the Ukrainian people, just like we didn't care about the Iraqi people, just like we didn't care about the Libyan people, just like we didn't care about that. We don't care about anybody. This is all the war machine. And this is about, as I showed you in the previous video I showed you, they've had this plan to destabilize Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon. This has been Their plan. They drew. They. They cooked this plan up in the early 90s, and then they used 9, 11 to implement it. It's just taken a little longer than they thought. That. That tweet is still up. So that tweet is. This tweet is still up.
Richard Medhurst
Jimmy, sorry to interrupt. I just want to say one thing we shouldn't forget. There's a lot of gas involved in the Mediterranean. Like Syria and Gaza have a ton of gas. And, you know, Russia and Iran are sanctioned, so Europe need a supplier. And then they signed a deal with Israel. Israel is trying to get that gas.
Jimmy Dore
So, yeah, so there's a. They found all these gas reserves underneath Gaza and offshore of the west bank. And some people say like a half a trillion dollars worth. And so Israel wanted to become an exporter of energy again. It's always about oil, gas. It's always about natural resources. Lindsey Graham just said there's $11 trillion in rare earth minerals in Ukraine, so we better get it or else China and Russia will. So this guy is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner. He's asked about this. Hey, isn't this guy a terrorist? And doesn't the United States State department have a $10 million reward? Watch what he says.
Mike Turner
Showed the picture of Abu Mohammed al Jelani. He is the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham. People call it hts. You're going to hear a lot about that in the coming days and weeks. The rebel group that appears to be taking control, but they are working also with the Prime Minister. The United States government has a $10 million bounty on the head of Jelani. Do you think the United States still should keep that? Should Americans be concerned that this will mean something in terms of impact for terror threats? United States.
Unnamed Speaker
Well, this is a terrorist organization and group. This is not going to be just a passing of power and authority. It could be. We'll have to obviously watch that. You know, one of the things that we do see here, though, is this is a diplomatic failure with respect to the United States and Turkey. You know, the US has troops in Syria. This is on the border of Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally. The United States is working with the Kurds. This really could have been an opportunity for the United States to work to try to resolve the issue between the Kurds, Turkey and.
Jimmy Dore
No, what you'll notice is he's not answering the question. What you notice is he's just clearing his throat the whole time, basically. And so here's that map you're talking about. So there's Turkey. There's Iraq. We overthrew Iraq now. We overthrew Syria. Over here is Afghanistan. Over there is Libya. So we're doing all the dirty work for Israel. A. And, but that's not just Israel. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey. Our interests converge. And if you say that, people say, oh, we got to throw over sad because he's a dictator, then why are we not overthrowing Saudi Arabia? They're brutal dictators, so it's not, it's never about that. But if you go on Facebook today, every, every one of my idiot comedian friends will be repeating the State Department line on Syria today. So, so there. So he didn't, he didn't answer that question. He didn't answer the question. What do you think they are going to do about this, Richard? What do you think they're going to do about this problem of having a legit terrorist who's got a $10 million bounty on his head running Syria? How do they, so is this how they're just going to try and sell it like this? They're going to try and make him out to be like, no, no, he's actually a nice guy now?
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah, yeah, they've been, they've been doing that for three years now. I think the first one where they interviewed him was, like I said, cbs, cbs, Frontline about three years ago, so that they put him in a suit for that one. You know, now he's got Zelensky's wardrobe.
Richard Medhurst
And even the New York Times are.
Unnamed Speaker
Saying that he's, he's got like a Zelensky chance now to become a statesman. I mean, it's, it's really incredible how they're trying to sell him and whitewash his reputation like this. This guy is not, we're not saying that he has, like a similar ideology to Al Qaeda. He was running al Qaeda in Syria and he was in isis. He was Baghdad, his deputy. So we're talking about senior leadership of Al Qaeda and ISIS both if, you know, one wasn't bad enough. And like I said, he's incompatible with Syrian society. I mean, unfortunately, I think people drank so much of the Kool Aid, like we were saying, there was such a propaganda operation. So much money was poured into this, both in English and Arabic media to get people on board with this regime change operation and sell it like it's some homegrown Arab Spring grassroots thing that, you know, they're even some people, they become so, you know, deranged, I suppose, or distance from reality that they think they can tolerate this person that he's some kind of viable alternative to, you know, to Bashar Al Assad. I mean, it's ridiculous. Notice also how he hasn't said a word about Israel. You know, he, he himself and the other commanders in this rebel movement, they're saying that they want to have Israel come and plant a rose in the Syrian garden or some nonsense using all kind of like rosy language and saying they want Syria, Israel to come and invest in Syria. They're just openly inviting normalization. So apparently you can be the worst, most barbaric terrorists and as long as you don't pose any kind of Zionism, they will love you and try and rebrand you in the media.
Richard Medhurst
So they are going to go on.
Unnamed Speaker
With this charm offensive. Yeah, and you know, I can't, I can't take anyone seriously who thinks that Syria is better off now than it was in 2011 or Iraq is better off than it was under Saddam or Libya under Gaddafi. I mean, again, like you were saying, no one is denying they ruled with an iron fist. Obviously they did. But you can't remove someone who's, who's bringing stability and security and then give them Al Qaeda. I mean, what is this madness? You know, Libya hasn't recovered, Iraq hasn't recovered and Syria is, is, I mean, you know, the best we can hope for is that it doesn't fall apart now. But I, I don't think there's any promise to be held. You've got 37 factions now that, that came in with this, this, you know, Turkish backed offensive in the last days. 37. So they'll probably be fighting each other soon and then fighting the Kurds. And it's, it's going to be a disaster, you know, but, but they, they're going to continue with this charm offensive. I have no doubt. And I don't understand people who can't see reality, can't see reason. You know, Palestinian case, Syrian case, they're one in the same. Their fates are intertwined. So the day that Syria fell, Palestine fell.
Jimmy Dore
Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to Jimmy dorcomdy.com clicking on join premium. It's the most affordable premium program in the business and it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member and if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. This is a ex Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. Her name is Dana Stroller. And here she is. She's going to tell you that the United States actually owns part of Syria. What? Listen to this. Watch this.
Dana Stroller
States still had compelling forms of leverage on the table to shape an outcome that was more conducive and protective of U.S. interests. And we identify.
Jimmy Dore
She says the United States has leverage. You know what our leverage is? That we're illegally occupying their country.
Richard Medhurst
Yep.
Jimmy Dore
That's what she calls leverage. They talk about it like it's a real estate deal in Manhattan. This. Here she goes. Watch this fight for.
Dana Stroller
So the first one was the one third of Syrian territory that was owned via the US Military that was owned.
Jimmy Dore
So this is our leverage, the three leverage points. The first one is a third of Syria that is owned by the US Military. We didn't buy it. We didn't purchase it in a land deal. We illegally invaded their country illegally against international law and are currently occupying it. You know that thing that everybody screams about what Putin did in Ukraine now he illegally invaded. We did the same thing to Syria, which is right next door to Ukraine. And she says we own it. Do you hear the language these people use? That's. That's called imperialism. That's called hegemony. That's called chauvinism. Western chauvinism. It's every unbelievable thing they just say. It just rolls right off her tongue. We own a third of it here. Let's listen to it again. Here we go.
Dana Stroller
It States still had compelling forms of leverage on the table, compelling outcome that was more conducive and protective of U.S. interests. And we identified. So the first one was the one third of Syrian territory that was owned via the US Military with its local partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces. Now, this was a light footprint on the US Military.
Jimmy Dore
You see how these people talk?
Richard Medhurst
Mafia.
Jimmy Dore
It's. That is exactly how the Mafia talks. The United States is a mafia state. That's exactly how the mafia talks. We. We own it. Hey, look. Hey, what's. What's. What's all our oil doing underneath your land, huh? It's a pity if something would happen. You got a nice country you got there. Be pity if something happened to it, huh? Guess what? We own it now, Nana. We own it. And here's my offer. Nothing sounds just like the. The Godfather, because that's what it is. We're not there enforcing any rules Based order. We're not there providing democracy, we're not there defending people from a dictator. We're the mafia coming in and stealing shit. Let's listen to a little more.
Dana Stroller
About a thousand troops over the course of the serious study groups report. And then the tens of thousands of forces, both Kurdish and Arab, under the Syrian Democratic Forces. And that one third of Syria is the resource rich. It's the economic powerhouse of Syria. So where the hydrocarbons are, which.
Jimmy Dore
Oh, and so the part of Syria that the US military owns turns out to be the economic powerhouse. That's where all the hydrocarbons, she calls them, that means oil and gas, that's where it is. And then that's also where they make all their food. That's the rich farmland, the wheat. That's the part we took over. Richard, go ahead, say what you'd like.
Richard Medhurst
Yeah, I mean, it's just shocking, you know, and to that point about them being a mafia, I always call NATO a protection racket. Right. It's exactly like the mafia. Like, you know, be ashamed if someone did something to your country. Right. So you better sign up to our program and pay us to protect you from us, you know, but. And we shouldn't forget Turkey's a NATO country, right? So when we say NATO backed revolution, you've got two NATO armies in Syria right now, US and Turkey, in addition to Israel and that region she's talking about. And when I mentioned earlier, the one third of Syria, it's everything that's to the north and to the east of the Euphrates river, right? Remember, this is the Fertile Crescent, this is the cradle of civilization. This is where farming was invented. So that's how fertile we're talking, that's how important. And Syria was a net exporter of wheat. So Syria had a surplus of wheat before the war. Bread was extraordinarily cheap. People ate well. So I'm not going to say the country was perfect, but it was getting better and better. The infrastructure was being modernized the whole time. New pavements being whole, pavements being redone, roads being built, tunnels being, you know, highway tunnels being dug, Internet getting faster. No more electricity cuts. I saw that with my own eyes, right? Every single year was getting better and better. And then 2011 just set the country back like, you know, decades. Now you get a few hours of electricity in Damascus, so. And you got sanctions. I mean, they destroyed the country. And all this area they're occupying Hasaker, these are the governance in that one third of Syria has got all the oil there. And they put US military bases on the oil fields, right? To really make you understand who owns it, they put US bases with US flags and they do patrols and just steal the oil and then they ship it into Iraq so they can more securely evacuate the oil from their American bases in Iraq. And if you look at the companies that were extracting that oil, also based in Delaware, owned by a bunch of neocons. And just Syria, if you look at the top 10 exporters of oil in the world, Syria is not on that list. It's not like Iraq or Iran, it doesn't have that much oil. But what it represents to the Syrian economy is one quarter. So oil revenue is one quarter of the government's revenue. That's how big and how important it was. And Syria as a socialist country, you got free education, you got free health care, all of that is subsidized by the government. So by stealing the oil and stealing the crops, you're directly depriving Syria of that revenue and the Syrian people of their human rights and their standard of living. So Syria also was growing lentils, cotton, you name it. So a lot of it was very self sufficient in a lot of ways. And you can see what Gaddafi did with his country, how stable it was. He made it the most successful country in, in Africa, the richest. And again, you can't deny that there was improvement in the country. You can't deny it. And these people want to deny it so they can justify putting nut jobs and head choppers from Al Qaeda in power. Well, I'm sorry, but you could, you know, you can't do me. I was there, I saw it. And the country was getting better. And now they talk about it like it's a piece of real estate. It's disgusting, honestly.
Jimmy Dore
And just to remind people before we wrecked Libya that Gaddafi had same thing everybody had. Everybody had education, everybody had healthcare, everybody had housing, they had a good economy. In fact, he even turned the desert into farmland with a waterway system that was considered the eighth wonder of the world. Gaddafi did that. And then what did we do? We bombed it with depleted uranium bombs. And so we wrecked it just like we wrecked Syria, just like we wrecked Iraq, just like we, we're going to try to wreck Iran. So this is your country, this is. But. And nobody did you. Do you remember voting for us to occupy, go to war with Syria because we didn't do. They're doing all this under the what's called the AUMF, which is the. After 9 11, the Congress passed an authorization for the use of Military force. And that was so the president could go fight, find the people who did 9 11, no matter where they were in the world. So they could be, they could be anywhere. They could be in Afghanistan, they could be in Iraq, they could be in Libya, they could be in Syria, they could be in Somalia, they could be in the Sudan. Wherever they are, the United States is bombing under the AUMF as if we're fighting the people who did 9 11. Syria had nothing to do with 9 11. But they're using that same authorization to occupy, invade, illegally occupy and wreck a country. Same thing we did doing that everywhere. That's what they're using. And so that's how. So Congress never has to vote to go to war. A president never has to declare a war. We could just have endless wars. And this is what Trump, when he ran in 2016 was to stop this stuff. Trump ran to stop this stuff. He said, we need to get out of the Middle east and let people take care of their own countries. And that's why this war machine did Russiagate on Donald Trump because he ran as an anti interventionist. He exposed them their game. And for all of Donald Trump's flaws, which he has many, that's why they hated him. If you listen to cnn, they'll tell you they hate Donald Trump because he's a big liar. What they hated was when Donald Trump told the truth. They didn't hate when he lied. If you think the establishment hates a politician because he's in Washington D.C. lying, I've got a vaccine I'd like to sell you. The reason why they hated Donald Trump is because he would accidentally, every once in a while, tell you the truth about their game. And the President of the United States, Donald Trump looked into a camera when he was president and said, we're leaving some troops in Syria for the oil. We're there for the oil. And you're not supposed to say that. And that's why they had to get rid of him. Also because the whole world saw the President of the United States look into a camera and give the game away of the United States foreign policy for the last 60 years, which is to invade smaller, weaker countries and steal their natural resources. So that's the game. And that's the game she just revealed we're occupying the economic engine of Syria. That's where they make all the food and that's where all that oil and gas is. And we own it. We own it. She just says it's. And there's nobody ever pushed back at her. No one's going to say what when did you buy it? Why do you get to own it? Is that. Is there a UN resolution saying you own it? No, quite the opposite. That's an illegal invasion. It's a legal occupation. And now there's no government there anymore. Let me just show you this. So now get this. This is the new headline, Richard. I don't know if it says US after the United States got in bed with ISIS and Al Qaeda legit to overthrow the person running Syria is now the head of Al Qaeda. US Pounds ISIS camp in Syria after Assad flees.
Richard Medhurst
There should.
Jimmy Dore
This is not. I don't believe this either. It says there should be no doubt we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute. A top general said, well, let me just, let me just read you a few paragraphs from this story from political which as we know is a mouthpiece of the establishment and the war machine. The US carried out a major round of airstrikes on Islamic State targets on Sunday and warned the terror group against trying to regain strength in the country after rebels took over the government. The operation including dozens of airstrikes on over 75 targets involving ISIS operatives in camps using B52, F15 and A10 close air support attack aircraft to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria. Who said that's a statement from U.S. central Command. There should be no doubt we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation. Who said that? General Eric Kurula. All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way. On Saturday, President elect Trump who twice sought to end the US Troop presence in Syria, the Pentagon lied to him when he tried to pull troops out of Syria. They lied to him and said they did. When they didn't, he called the country a mess and said the United States should not get involved in the conflict. Another reason why the war machine hates him. In remarks on Sunday afternoon, President Biden said the troops will be protected. We will help ensure stability in east. The irony of that is the United States, Turkey and Israel and Saudi just made sure there was no stability. They're the ones creating instability everywhere they go against any threats. Our mission against ISIS will be maintained, including security of detention facilities where ISIS fighters are being held as prisoners. The US forces are in the north and east of the country, hundreds of miles from the recent fighting that saw the Turkish backed htt. That's the they're considered a terrorist organization. Race through the countryside, chasing Assad's troops out of the major city of Aleppo and taking Damascus on Saturday. The United States labels the group as a terrorist organization. So what do you, what do you make of that? This, this story from Politico that the United States is now somehow at war with the terrorists that just helped overthrow Assad's government? What do you make of that, Richard?
Richard Medhurst
Yeah, I think it's a ridiculous joke. And you know, if you're, you're committed to fighting terrorists, well, why didn't you do anything against Al Qaeda then, right? You know, why are you just cherry picking, going after isis? ISIS are not the ones with a large ground presence right now. It's Al Qaeda and you just let them march to Damascus. You didn't do a thing. So I find that very shady. What they're really doing, what they're really doing is they're basically helping Israel because they coordinated their strikes, they did them at the same time, and they've gone and bombed all of the military infrastructure in Syria. So these are things that again, if you, if you drink the Kool Aid and you really believe like Syria is some free blooming democracy now. Well, yeah, it still needs an army, right? It still needs its military infrastructure to defend itself. Well, sorry, that's gone now because Israel and America destroyed it and made sure it's destroyed. There's no air force left. There's no fleet of MiGs. It's gone. You know, the ships, the Navy, gone, everything. They have destroyed it. That is what they've been blowing up. And as a matter of fact, Al Qaeda and ISIS benefited from having the United States and Israel act as their air force. You can go and look on Google during the last years and find tons of stories of the United States bombing the people fighting isis. They would go and bomb dozens of Syrian troops, or I think once they even killed hundreds in one go in one fell swoop. And they would go and attack the Bedouin tribes or other groups that were fighting against Al Qaeda and ISIS and make no effort to even hide it. And sometimes half the time they wouldn't even apologize. So they weren't even trying to hide it. And of course Israel would show up anytime they were suffering some kind of defeat on strategic or tactical defeat, Israel would magically show up. And that's why they nicknamed Al Qaeda's air force, because that's effectively what it acted as. So I don't buy this whatsoever. ISIS have been hanging around Palmyra in the desert for the Last couple of years after they shriveled and they were crushed and they were constantly attacking Syrian army positions and the Americans wouldn't do a thing. So once again, ask yourself why. Why isis? America and Israel have no problem with each other. It's, I mean it's plain and clear for anyone to see. And if we talk about Trump, by the way, you remember he killed Soleimani. Exactly. So I was going to get to the AUMF because you mentioned the amf, which is, which makes it's very ironic because that comes from the 73 War Powers Resolution. And the whole point of it was to stop US Presidents from doing what Nixon did and going into bombing Cambodia and Laos behind Congress back. And it's turned into the very opposite of that because it says you're supposed to notify Congress within 48 hours. You're supposed to ask them for an extension for that military action if it's needed. And you can only use it in self defense. But they've been using that 2001 Aum to bomb. All these countries have nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda hates Saddam Hussein, they hate Bashar Al Assad because they couldn't flourish, they couldn't establish any kind of base of operations in Syria or Iraq or Libya for that matter. You know, those leaders, Gaddafi, Assad, Saddam, they had no tolerance for this kind of extremism. None. So one of the last places on earth that you would find Al Qaeda is Syria or Iraq or Libya. And you know, of course people don't know that because the media constantly lie to them and just fill their brains with garbage. So when it comes to Soleimani, Trump used AUMF of 2002, which was for the invasion of Iraq, and he also used Article 51 of the UN Charter to claim self defense. I mean, you can't buy this. And the thing is that no one in Congress did anything. It's one thing for the President to commit acts of war because that could have easily sparked a war with Iran, but it's another for the Congress to just go along with it. Congress is supposed to hold them to account. They're supposed to be checks and balances. There are no checks and balances when the whole Congress is filled with war criminals, when they're bought and paid for. So they just let him get away with that. And of course Pompeo was there with Trump doing this together and they kind of went for this. They're the ones who put the troops to where the oil is, as you pointed out, and made sure that they stayed there. And there was a maneuver Trump did where he pulled back a little bit in Syria, but he just allowed Turkey to take those positions. So it was still a NATO presence. They just swapped which NATO units were holding it, you know, and that was bad for the, for the Kurds. The United States stabbed them in the back, but then they work with them to steal the oil. You know, they're just using them.
Jimmy Dore
We have special guest with us. Richard Medhurst is a British journalist born in Damascus, Syria. He's based at the United nations and covers international relations, U.S. politics and the Middle East. He's also a contributor to Press tv, Black Agenda Report and other international news outlets. Welcome to the show. Richard Meadows. Hello, Richard.
Richard Medhurst
Hi, Jimmy. Good to have you on.
Jimmy Dore
So I'm having you on because the bad news is Syrians are celebrating in the street after Assad government falls. So that's what, that's the headline. Of course that's going to be the headline. And the sub headline is. But worries remain as Abu Mohammed al Jelani, leader of what was once an al Qaeda offshoot. The guy has a $10 million bounty on his head right now from the US government because he's that big of a, that's the guy who they just installed as leader of Syria, just so you know. And I just want to show you what this is all about for real. So they've been wanting to overthrow Syria for a couple of decades, if not more. This has been, this has been thought up in the early 90s, actually. In fact, here's what General Wesley Clark found out. And after 1991. Here we go. Watch this. This was a talk he gave in 2007. Listen to this.
Wesley Clark
He said, but one thing we did learn, he said, we learned that we can use our military in the region, in the Middle east, and the Soviets won't stop us. He said, and we've got about five or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet client regimes, Syria, Iran, Iraq, before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us. And it was like, you know, I'm coming out of the Mojave desert, I've been training troops. I haven't been thinking geostrategy for some time. And suddenly a guy just sort of shoves this nugget at you. Well, you remember it. It was a pretty stunning thing. You mean the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments. It's not to sort of deter conflict. We're going to invade countries. And, you know, my mind was spinning and I put that aside. It was Like a nugget that you hold onto. This country was taken over by a group of people with a policy coup. Wolfowitz and Cheney and Rumsfeld and you could name a half dozen other collaborators from the Project for a New American Century. They wanted us to destabilize the Middle east, turn it upside down, make it under our control. It went back to those comments in 1991. Now, did anybody ever tell you that? Was there a national dialogue on this? Did senators and congressmen stand up and denounce this plan? Was there a full fledged American debate on it? Absolutely not. And there still isn't. And that's why we're failing in Iraq, because Iran and Syria know about the plan. All you have to do is read.
Jimmy Dore
So that's been a plan for a long time. That's been the plan for the United States and Israel to destabilize the Middle east, all the people that Israel sees as its enemy. So we. First we did Iraq, then we did Libya with Afghanistan. Now we're doing Syria. The only one left now is Iran. And I'll prove it to you. Here's another one. Let me show you. Same guy. And he's going to make an even more stark point.
Wesley Clark
I knew why. Because I'd been through the pentagon right after 9 11. About 10 days after 9 11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me. And one of the generals called me and he said, sir, you gotta come in. You gotta come in and talk to me a second. I said, well, you're too busy. He said, no, no. He says, we've made the decision. We're going to war with Iraq. This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, we're going to war with Iraq? Why? He said, I don't know. He said, I guess they don't know what else to do. So I said, well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to Al Qaeda? He said, no, no. He says, there's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq. He said, I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments. And he said, I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail. So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, are we still going to war with Iraq? And he said, oh, it's worse than that. He said, he reached over on his desk, he picked up a piece of paper, and he said, I just. He said, I just got this down from upstairs, meaning the Secretary of Defense office today. And he said, this is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran. I said, is it classified? He said, yes, sir. I said. I said, well, don't show it to me. And I saw.
Jimmy Dore
And so there you have it. So the people who engineered 911 used 911 to destabilize the entire Middle east, to occupy Afghanistan for 20 years, to overthrow the most successful country in all of Africa, which was Libya, then Iraq, now Syria, and they're headed for Iran. And how. How are we doing it? Well, sometimes we use our military directly, but sometimes we get in bed with legit terrorists, people like Al Qaeda, isis, which a lot of people say was invented by the United States and Israel. Hillary Clinton said we invented Al Qaeda. And so just to prove that to you, here's. Here's Joe Biden committing a gaffe. He had to apologize for this. And what is a gaffe in Washington? When you accidentally tell the truth? And here it is.
Unnamed Speaker
What my constant cry was, that our biggest problem is our allies. Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends, and I have a great relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with. The Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni, Shia war. What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being. Who were being supplied world Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. Now you think I'm exaggerating. Take a look. Where did all of this go? So now what's happening all of a sudden? Everybody's awakened because this outfit called isil, which was Al Qaeda in Iraq, which, when they were essentially thrown out of Iraq, found open space and territory in Western, excuse me, in eastern Syria, work with Al Nusra, who we declared a terrorist group early on, and we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them.
Jimmy Dore
So the only lie he's telling there is that he's blaming it all on our allies and Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. It was the United States also funded to at least a couple billion dollars the dirty war in Syria. And the CIA was funding. The Pentagon was funding different terrorist groups. So much so that even in the New York Times it said that the Pentagon backed terrorists, were often fighting the CIA backed terrorists inside Syria. That's how crazy it is. And of course, the White Helmets is also another terrorist organization fronting as a human rights organization. So let me bring in Richard Medhurst and do the people in Europe know about this? Certainly people in Iraq and Syria know about this. But tell me, who else knows about this besides the people watching the show right now?
Richard Medhurst
Nowhere near enough, Jimmy. I mean, most people are still completely ignorant about what happened in Syria. They still think that it was some kind of grassroots revolution that just sprung up. And they use all this State Department lingo about the Butcher and the murderous regime. It's funny because they never talk about Joe Biden or Keir Starmer in the same way, even though you can pick any British or American leader. And they certainly have a higher body count. But it's unbelievable how people just can't see what's going on, given the fact that when you have to spend a billion dollars to overthrow someone, which is Operation Timber Sycamore, the CIA operation, you can't call that a revolution. Again, that's taxpayer money. And people still don't know about it. And you look at the British side because you mentioned the White helmets, that's an MI6 operation. And they were running all these intelligence cutouts like ARK and Incostrat and hundreds of different groups that they had launched as Mi6 fronts, posing as humanitarian organizations or news groups or whatever it was, but basically to bombard public opinion with propaganda. And they did this both in Arabic and of course in English. So. So even inside of Syria, you've still got a lot of Syrians that don't know they've been duped. And, you know, while they're out celebrating, Israel is taking even more land. I'm sure we'll get into that in a second because it's its own, you know, that that invasion now is its own beast. But not enough people know about it. They just don't know enough. And, you know, this, this, this is all about. People need to understand it's an extension of what's happening in Gaza. That's what's going on. They've been wanting to get rid of Bashar Al Assad for a long, long time now because he refused to normalize ties with Israel. He refused to abandon the Palestinian cause. He refused to allow a gas pipeline that would go from Qatar all the way to Turkey. And, you know, Erdogan has his own interests. He wants to fight the Kurds because he, you know, in Turkey, they think the Kurdish Workers Party is a terrorist organization. And so they label it Syrian counterpart, the ypg, a terrorist organization. So what Erdogan is doing now by sending El Jolani, this terrorist, and HTS is trying to surround the Kurds, who are, by the way, stealing oil with the United States. They're occupying one third of Syria now, the United States, and he's trying to surround them. And, you know, Biden here, he's again, telling the truth, but also lying in a sense, because although they both want to get rid of Assad, they have different interests with the Kurds, the Americans and Turkey. And it's funny because they're both NATO countries, right? So in any case, you know, Turkey's trying to do that, Israel is trying to take more land, and the United States is trying to cripple the new Silk Road. I think people need to remember where Syria is located. Geographically. This is a crossroads between Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia. It is the cradle of civilization. The old ancient Silk Road used to pass through Syria, and the new one was slated to as well. Syria signed a strategic partnership with China. They were signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative, and it was to be the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. So all of this trade that was going to go by land would end up in Tatus and Latakia on the coast. And then, you know, it would. It would have a maritime route that way. And now that that's shut down and, you know, the Americans are already occupying, as I said, one third of Syria. And they've got an air base in Al Tanf, which is down below. So they're trying to cut off Iraq from Syria. And Syria is the key to everything. You look at the map, it connects Iran and Iraq to Palestine, to Lebanon and Palestine. So there's so many people with interests here. And, you know, in the end, the result is not a grassroots revolution. It's something that's a Trojan horse, and it's made to look like a grassroots revolution, but it's about making sure that Israel's interests are taken care of, America's interests are taken care of, and Turkey's interests. That's what's going on. And not enough people know.
Jimmy Dore
And people I've reported this as, and it must have been at least 2017 when they were that Qatar wanted to send a pipeline through Syria to Turkey now and Syria wouldn't agree to that. So that's their interest in funding all the terrorists to overthrow Assad. And Assad wouldn't go along with that. And I'm going to guess the reason he wouldn't go along with that is because he's more aligned with Russia and Russia wants that be an energy supplier and didn't want that competition. And so this is all, again, this is all about money, this is all about natural resources. And then this is all about Israel expansion also. And so people don't know. They're never going to show those clips I just showed you people are. They're never going to show you this clip on the news. They're never going to show you this clip on the news. And they're never going to show you this clip on the news. They'll never show you any of these clips on the news. And what they'll do is they'll say, oh, you're an Assadist, you're an Assad apologist. The same thing they would say about Saddam Hussein when you said, hey, I don't think we should do this. So has he revealed they had this plan before 911 to do this. So they just used 911 as the reason to go into Iraq. Why are we going to Iraq? Because they've had it planned for over a decade. It's called the Project for a New American Century. And that's what this was all about. And they wanted to stabilize. So was Iraq better off or worse off since we overthrew Saddam? Worse off. Is Libya better off or worse off than we overthrew Gaddafi? Worse off. Is Afghanistan better or worse off because of our 20 year occupation? Worse off. Is Syria going to be better off or worse off because we did a 10 year dirty war to overthrow Assad? Worse off. That doesn't mean I like Saddam Hussein. That doesn't mean I like the Taliban. That doesn't mean I like Assad. We're talking about stability and what is better for the region. Well, apparently a bunch of interests converge. Turkey's Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States converge to destabilize Syria and destabilize Iraq, Libya. And so that's what's going on right now. And you're not. No one is going to tell you that. And I wouldn't be surprised if this video gets demonetized. But no one is going to tell you that in the news. No, the New York Times isn't going to tell you that the Washington Post, the msnbc, cnn, Fox, they're not going to tell you that. They're not going to show you these videos. They're not going to show you the current president of the United States telling people that our allies in the Middle east have been funding legit terrorist organizations on the United States terror list. Our sworn enemies, the people who we say did 9, 11, they're funding them to go do this. We've been funding them too, by the way, to go do this. And so again, once again, the United States are the world's terrorists. It's not actually al Qaeda. It's not actually ISIS or ISIL or Al Nusra. There are tools. There are the tools of American hegemony and empire and imperialism. That's what this is. And it's not hard to get this story right because I can get it right. So when you turn on Rachel Maddow tonight or Sean Hannity or Anderson Cooper, they're going to be lying to you. Because if I know the truth, you know they know the truth. And if you read the New York Times or the Jeff Bezos Washington Post, they will also be lying to you or they will bury the Truth on page 67 and you have to turn it sideways, hold it up to the light to see the truth. Hey, become a premium member. Go to jimmy door comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business.
Richard Medhurst
Freak out.
Jimmy Dore
Don't freak out. Don't freak out. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McRae. He can be found at mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Did not. Freak out. I'm not getting. Do not. Do not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.
Unnamed Speaker
I'm not.
Jimmy Dore
I'm not. Freak out. Do not freak out. Freak out. Freak out.
Host: Jimmy Dore
Guest: Richard Medhurst, British Journalist
Release Date: December 11, 2024
Description: Jimmy Dore brings his characteristic blend of passion and incisive commentary to dissect the intricate web of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly focusing on Syria's current turmoil and the alleged rise of Al-Qaeda-affiliated leadership under U.S. influence.
The episode begins with a satirical sketch featuring an impersonated Joe Biden, engaging in a mock conversation with Jimmy Dore. This segment serves as a critical and humorous critique of Biden's foreign policy strategies, particularly his approach to presidential pardons and alleged corruption.
This fictional exchange underscores Dore's skepticism about political integrity and the use of presidential powers for personal or political gain.
Jimmy Dore introduces Richard Medhurst, a British journalist specializing in international relations and Middle Eastern affairs. The primary focus is on recent developments in Syria, emphasizing the unsettling news of Al-Qaeda-affiliated Muhammad Al Jawal Jalani allegedly assuming control.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dore sets the stage for a deep dive into the complexities of Syria's political landscape and the alleged manipulation by Western powers.
Richard Medhurst elaborates on the intricate and often covert role the U.S. has played in Syria's destabilization, tracing back to strategies formulated in the early 1990s. The conversation unravels the interconnectedness of various geopolitical maneuvers aimed at controlling resources and influencing regional politics.
Historical Context:
Economic Interests:
Media Manipulation:
Notable Quotes:
Medhurst emphasizes the cyclical nature of U.S. interventions and the strategic placement of friendly yet extremist groups to maintain control over the region's resources and political dynamics.
The discussion shifts to contemporary events, including U.S. airstrikes in Syria and the political statements from U.S. officials regarding the ongoing conflict.
Current Conflict Dynamics:
Strategic Alliances and Betrayals:
Notable Quotes:
Medhurst asserts that current conflicts are extensions of long-standing U.S. strategies to dominate the Middle East, intertwining economic ambitions with political maneuvers.
As the episode nears its end, Jimmy Dore underscores the need for public awareness and critical examination of U.S. foreign policies. He encourages listeners to question mainstream narratives and seek alternative perspectives to understand the true motives behind international interventions.
Final Insights:
Promotional Segments:
Notable Quotes:
The episode closes with a strong call for listeners to become informed and proactive in challenging established foreign policy narratives, reinforcing the show's commitment to progressive and alternative viewpoints.
U.S. Foreign Policy as a Catalyst for Instability: The podcast posits that the U.S. has systematically destabilized Middle Eastern nations to control resources and exert geopolitical influence.
Rise of Extremist Groups through Intervention: Medhurst argues that U.S. interventions have inadvertently empowered extremist organizations like Al-Qaeda by creating power vacuums and manipulating regional dynamics.
Media Complicity in Shaping Narratives: Both hosts criticize mainstream media for perpetuating biased narratives that obscure the true motives and consequences of U.S. foreign policies.
Economic Motives Behind Political Actions: The strategic control over Syria's oil and gas resources is highlighted as a primary driver of U.S. interventionist policies in the region.
Call for Public Awareness and Critical Thinking: The episode serves as a plea for listeners to question official narratives and seek out alternative sources of information to grasp the complexities of global politics.
In this episode of The Jimmy Dore Show, Jimmy Dore and guest Richard Medhurst present a compelling critique of U.S. foreign interventions in Syria, alleging that these actions have paved the way for extremist groups to gain power and that economic interests, particularly in oil and gas, are at the forefront of these policies. The conversation challenges listeners to reconsider mainstream media narratives and encourages a deeper investigation into the geopolitical strategies that shape global conflicts.