Judging Freedom - COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: State Dept and Syrian Terrorists.

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: State Dept and Syrian Terrorists.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, December 10th, 2024. Colonel Larry Wilkerson joins us now. Colonel Wilkerson, always a pleasure. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for letting me pick your brain and prevail upon your experience. In your experience, Colonel Wilkerson, have you known of a case like we have seen in Syria, where the United States government has put, the State Department has put a $10 million bounty on the head of someone whose fighters, either directly or indirectly, have been funded and trained by another part of the United States government, the Central Intelligence Agency. Actually, Judge, I have. I was somewhat intimate with the Iran-Contra affair.

And though it featured much less august countries, states, militaries, and functions, it had the same kind of nefarious activities associated with it. So does anybody control the CIA or can they give taxpayer dollars to whomever they want? That's a very good question. I've asked that question before, and I've also asked the question because here's a key point. I know people have been saying this was a result, ultimately, in terms of the United States, of a special finding by President Obama in, I think, 2015. That is hogwash. I mean, Obama thought it was his policy probably, but George Bush, who didn't do findings, he didn't want any archives.

He and Cheney didn't want archives, so they didn't do findings. George Bush turned to George Tenet, director of the CIA at the time, and said, I want Assad gone. And he did that when we failed to move from Saddam Hussein in Baghdad forthwith into Syria and eliminate Assad. So he turned to Tenet and he said, okay, we're going to have to stay in Iraq for a while. We've got an insurgency building, take down Assad. So we've been working on this for 20 years, 20 plus years we've been working on this. And the nefariousness of it is brought to my mind vividly by the fact that at one point,

we had ISIS slash Al-Qaeda slash CIA at one point, and US Marines and soldiers at another point, and they were shooting at one another. And the only way they stopped this blue on blue, as we call it in the military, was one of the CIA guys apparently recognized what was happening and sort of waved a flag. But that's how contorted our operations were. What will happen to Al-Jilani now? Will the American forces capture him and somebody get the $10 million bounty, or will he continue to run this militia as an adjunct of what purports to be the legitimate new government of Syria? Judge, I can't answer that question, but I can tell you that his leadership seems to be rather formidable now, and his ranks seem to be pretty responsive to his leadership. So I'm not sure anybody would want to do that unless they were willing to mount some

sort of mini invasion of Syria. I think we'll sit back. I think we were working on this all along, just as I said, two decades we've been working on it. But we had no idea that it was going to come to fruition as fast as it did. In fact, the deal we made with Turkey, with Israel, and with Britain, Sergey Lavrov was right in Doha when he said, I know who's behind it, Israel, Britain, and the United States. They're behind the actions in Syria. He said that in English. So I don't think we thought it would happen this fast though nor did Erdogan think it would happen this fast now his problem with the Kurds is going to take a lot longer than this but and he he'll

be at it hard and fast but I everyone's caught by surprise I think by the speed with which this took place particularly the fact that he's in Damascus and making proclamations now, which I understand today included that maybe he would have created an Alouette autonomous zone, and since the Russian naval base and air base are going to be in that zone, maybe Russia could hang around. I don't know. It remains to be seen what we do if he takes more actions like that. Should Netanyahu be rejoicing, or does he confront a culture amongst these terrorists who don't even believe in the legitimacy of the state of Israel? That would be the long-term concern, I'm sure, but I'm sure he's rejoicing right now. One, it's taken the focus off Gaza, a focus that was getting so intense that I think he was in real trouble in his own country.

Second, it's taken the focus off Lebanon and also eliminated possibly the support that Hezbollah will have in the future. And so they are committed now to either a last ditch effort to do whatever they can or abandon the battlefield, so to speak. And it's given him the ability to go out into Syria, which he's always wanted to do, ostensibly to establish a buffer zone around where Ben-Gubir and others are going to build settlements in the Golan Heights, and maybe even expand a little bit out of the Golan Heights. So he's got to be ecstatic right now, short term. You talked about long-term plans to destabilize countries around the world. I don't know if you've seen this, and I'm sure you know him. It's a very interesting clip of General Wesley Clark from March of 2023,

talking about a number of years earlier. I'd be interested in your reaction to this, Colonel. Cut number five. He said, I just got this down from upstairs, meeting the Secretary of Defense's 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, well, don't show it to me. If you were Iran, you'd probably believe that you were mostly already at war with the United States anyway, since we've asserted that their government needs regime change. So, and we've asked Congress to appropriate $75 million to do it, and we are supporting terrorist groups, apparently, who are infiltrating and blowing up things inside Iraq, Iran. And if we're not doing it, let's put it this way,

we're probably cognizant of it and encouraging it. So it's not surprising that we're moving to a point of confrontation crisis with Iran. I'm going to guess that none of this surprises you, Colonel. No, when he came to the State Department right after he had been summarily relieved, really, by Bill Clinton at the advice of Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a truly heinous act on both their parts, he gave a talk. He gave a talk to all of us in Loy Henderson Hall, and I spoke with him a bit afterwards. Everything he said there, as far as I know, is right. Why does the United States government take joy in toppling Assad and replacing him with somebody who cuts people's hands and heads off? I don't think that was the formula that we thought would come to fruition. I didn't mean to be so direct. It's typical. It's typical. We start

something and we don't contemplate the outcomes that are possible. And then when the worst one or one of the worst ones occurs, we're caught with our pants down. Why did this happen so quickly? Do you have an answer for that? That's the head scratcher, Colonel. I do, I think, from people in Syria who've been unloading on me of late. And let me say first, they unloaded on me videos of the prisons that just made my heart hurt almost as badly as Gaza and the killing of women and children. Some of these people have been in prison for 15, 16 years. First time they have been in prison for 15, 16 years. First time they'd seen the sunlight in 15, 16 years.

First time they'd had a decent meal in all that time, too. First time they hadn't been raped periodically in all that time, too. So this was really something coming out of these prisons. But what was happening to the Syrian regular forces was, let's say a lieutenant was making $200, $250 a month equivalent, and he could support a family and they had a fairly decent life. In the last few years, that's been about $25 a month. They haven't been making any money. They haven't been getting what they should get as an organized military. They have been treated like dirt, especially those who

weren't Alouette. And they fell apart. It's not unusual for that to happen when for an extended period of time, the military is simply not taken care of. And they were being bombed by U.S. planes and by Israeli planes, in addition to what was coming to them from the terrorists. Why was the U.S. bombing the Syrian military? What conceivable American national security interest was there in that? The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. How is that a matter of American national security? How was Saddam Hussein's overthrow a matter of American national security. How was Saddam Hussein's overthrow a matter of

American national security? It wasn't. And how is it going to be as we overthrow the mullahs, should we do it in Tehran, in America's national security interests? It isn't. Well, there's no rhyme or reason to this other than we want chaos in the region. Judge, we want chaos from Belorussia all the way down to the ports at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, Mandaravassin, Chabar. We want chaos on that entire axis. Do you think that the so-called ceasefire with Hezbollah negotiated by Amos Hochstein was a deception, was a fraud in order to bring about the rapid end of Syria to liberate the IDF from dealing with Hezbollah and allow them to help push Assad out? It was a fraud to the extent that,

as I understand it, Netanyahu was told, you need to do this ceasefire right now because we're going to need you for something else. And he inquired what the something else was, and they told him Syria. And he said, OK, done. Wow. Here's the United Nations Syrian envoy, not very happy with the IDF. No one, absolutely no one saw this coming. I believe even the armed groups that are now in control of Damascus have been surprised

at what has happened. The conflict in the northeast is not over. There has been clashes between the Syrian National Army, the opposition group, and the SDF. We are calling obviously for calm also in this area. And then, a very troubling development. We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. According to the Syrian authorities, apparently there's still a civil service class that is running the rudimentary parts of the government, there have been more

than 100 targets bombed by the IDF in the last 12 hours. And I don't know if you noticed the date on the statement from the gentleman from the UN, but that was earlier today, European time. So Netanyahu just can't stop killing, can he? No. As I understand it, he is bombing everything in Syria that he contemplates or Mossad contemplates could constitute a weapon of whatever nature, a cash, a single weapon, chemical weapons, whatever. My understanding from the United States Army was they destroyed all of the chemical weapons in the Mediterranean Sea. All this business about Assad having chemicals after that action was all false. It was a false flag operation.

But they're bombing everything in Syria that could possibly serve as a weapon for whatever group, Hezbollah in particular, might pick it up. Netanyahu could even bomb the Americans because he knows they won't shoot back. You got a point there. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist it. He's done that before in the Eastern Mediterranean with a ship. We know that. We know that. Here's Secretary Blinken

yesterday that the United States has clear and enduring interests in Syria, and Syria may have weapons of mass destruction. Watch this, cut number 11. The United States has clear and enduring interests in Syria. We have a strong interest in preventing the reemergence of ISIS, given the death and destruction that it's wrought for so long. We have a clear interest in ensuring that whatever weapons of mass destruction or components are left in Syria do not fall into the wrong hands. We have a clear interest in doing what we can to avoid the fragmentation of Syria, mass migrations from Syria, and of course the export of terrorism and extremism.

The region and the world have a responsibility to support the Syrian people as they begin to rebuild their country and chart a new direction. The United States should be committed to supporting them as they do that. I love that about ISIS because ISIS is in charge of Damascus. We have a clear interest in eliminating ISIS. Okay. It's really crazy the comments that he made, the illusion of weapons of mass destruction, the justification of the Israeli destruction of all weapons on the ground. I mean, is the IDF going to be attacking Mr. Al-Jalani's fighters? I don't think so until they get a better picture on where he's going.

But here's what Blinken is trying to do. This is my strong, strong suspicion. He's trying to give credibility to the United States claim and the OPCW's claim until they had some whistleblowers that Assad used chemical weapons previously. He's trying to give credibility to that. And he's going to follow- That has been totally and irreparably debunked by our friend and colleague, Aaron Maté. Yes, absolutely. He's written 12 pieces on it, all of which are thoroughly researched. But go ahead, Colonel.

He was like a bulldog on that. And I believe that he's right. But the United States doesn't want that to be the case. So we might find some precursors or some chemical weapons somewhere in Syria as we comb the country, if there's anything left after Israel's bombing. As happy as Prime Minister Netanyahu was boasting about the departure of President Assad, he couldn't be very happy today where he spent it in a courtroom in the midst of his corruption trial and was forced to answer questions under oath. They obviously don't have a Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in Israel because he was forced to testify against his will. Any handle on where that's going, Colonel? I'm hearing that there are two forces working against him right now that might be existential for him. One is the fact that he clearly is a criminal on a number of counts. And I don't

mean a criminal in killing people in Gaza. He's that too, ICC declared. But he is a criminal on a number of counts. And I don't mean a criminal in killing people in Gaza. He's that too, ICC declared. But he's a criminal in terms of taking bribes on the German submarine deal, in terms of taking bribes, massive bribes, on other arms deals and other business deals. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is they've got a real bull terrier there for their prosecutor and the woman who's, I forget her name now, but she's a blonde. I saw her on TV just yesterday. She's the attorney general. And she's not going to turn him loose. He's tried everything he knows how, nefarious and otherwise, to get rid of her, but he can't seem to get rid of her. Those things together, plus his not doing anything about the hostages, and watch this, Judge.

He's furiously trying to do something about the hostages now. They're working on this 24-7 because they want to get some back and alleviate some of that duress in Israel that's causing this action against him, or they think that's part of the reason. I suspect they're right. So they want to get the hostages that they can back right now and get some kind of euphoria going that Netanyahu can tap and claim good things about. Understood. Colonel, I've been asking this for two days now. Why do you think the Kremlin let Assad fall? I don't think they had much choice. I think they were caught unawares

too. I think to a certain extent, the Russians and the Iranians, I don't know if they're doing it in tandem, but I know they were doing it individually at least, were advising Assad on the state of his armed forces and on the state of the country in general, and telling him that he needed to do certain things in order to improve general, and telling him that he needed to do certain things in order to improve that condition and state. And he did nothing. And so they had to have had, both countries had to have had some inkling that this was going to turn bad. Now, I don't think they, like the rest of us, knew it was going to be so blitzkrieg-like, but they knew something was coming that was not going to be in their interest. President-elect Trump taunted President Putin by saying President

Assad was abandoned by his principal benefactor, and that would be Vladimir Putin. Do you agree? No, and I think President Trump at Notre Dame and afterwards made some really injudicious remarks, unwise remarks. And I think he's going to regret them if Donald Trump ever regrets anything, he says. But he's made some forays into diplomacy as the president-elect, which one, he shouldn't have made at all, and two, are going to limit his options in places where he said during the campaign and promised the American people he was going to take effective action, like closing down the war in Ukraine. Any question in your mind but that the toppling of President Assad was motivated and funded by CIA and MI6. And Israel, yes.

And Mossad, yes. Yes. Although if Mossad funds it, the U.S. is funding it because Israel just passes our money on. Correct. Correct. But no question in your mind about the involvement of these three intelligence services? Zero question. I think Sergei Lavrov in Doha was absolutely spot on right.

When he said? Israel, Britain, the U.S. are behind the actions in Syria, in good, clear English. Got it. Colonel, thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated. I love to be able to pick that fertile brain of yours. I hope we can see each other next week. So do I.

Take care. Thank you. A long day and a full one for you tomorrow. We are very, very close to 500,000 subscriptions. Our goal, of course, is Christmas, which is two weeks from tomorrow. But we're only about 2,000 shy of that right now. Tomorrow, Colonel Douglas McGregor at 11.15 in the morning, Professor John Mearsheimer at 2 in the afternoon, Phil Giraldi at 3 in the afternoon. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.