Judging Freedom - Kevork Almassian : The Terrors of Syria Today.

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Kevork Almassian : The Terrors of Syria Today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. Our friend Keevork, Almasian, joins us now. Keywork, it's a pleasure. I will remind our listeners, you are a world-renowned journalist and expert on Syria. You are from Syria, but you are not there now because of the state of affairs in the country. bring us up to date on the events in Syria and how this current government came to power upon the fall of President Assad? Actually, this goes back to 2011. Abu Muhammad Jolani, the current self-selected president of Syria was in a CIA-run prison in Iraq alongside Abu Bakil-Baghdadi. They released them in early 2011, and coincidentally, this was the same time. when the regime change war started in Syria as well.

Abu Bakal-Baghdadi, he joined the Al-Qaeda in Iraq, or then later was formed ISIS. And Abu Muhammad Jolani went to Syria and he formed Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Al-Qaeda affiliate in my country. Now, the U.S. designated this organization as a terrorist group, however, they have never targeted his group or Abu Mohammed Jolani himself. He ruled the largest swaths of territories between 2011 to 2024 in different places in the country. And at the end of this regime change operation, which was Operation Timber Sycamore, which our friend also guest on your show, Jeffrey Sachs spoke about it in length and thin thorough.

This was a CIA covert operation in Syria. they funneled around $1 billion per year in arming and training and supporting this multinational tech pharaohs, one of which was the group of Jolani. And so this was the strongest group actually against Assad until 2024, when there was actually original and international deal brokered against the will and the interests of Syria, and they have sidelined or ousted Assad, and Jolani presented himself as the alternative. He selected himself as the president of the country. He abolished the constitution, and he is running the country nowadays. Now, he was considered an asset for the CIA for quite long time. James Jeffrey, the former

U.S. envoy to Syria, he is an asset. The former ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, said that he himself trained Jolani to take him out of the world of terrorism and so that he becomes a politician, How did it come about that the State Department put a $10 million bounty on his head? So he was the founder of the al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria. So the U.S. designated his group as a terrorist organization and also the UN designated him as a terrorist organization. However, as we already know, the U.S. designates different groups as a terrorist organization. Some of them are not terrorists and others are. In this case, they were accurate for designating al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization.

but they played a double game, especially under the Obama administration. So Obama came and said, we are not arming the jihadi groups. We are arming the so-called moderate rebels. But the moderate rebels were nowhere to be found in Syria. So they founded what is called the Free Syrian Army as a facelift, as a mask. So they could say there is something called like a democratic rebels. We are sending these weapons to these democratic rebels. But these rebels didn't exist on the ground. This was the Jolani people fighting. So the administration of Obama funneled these weapons to al-Qaeda, the offshoot in Syria, through this organization called Free Syrian Army, and therefore this organization has become under the leadership of Jolani the strongest

group in the country, which at later stage they managed to oust Assad. And I would argue and say Jolani himself couldn't out Assad. This was an international and regional deal, which included the U.S., the U.K., Turkey, Russia, and also Israel. Now, from the U.S. perspective, Jolani has been a long-time asset for them. He will open up the Syrian markets to U.S. investments. The U.S. will take over the hydrocarbons of Syria in the eastern shore of the Uphrates and also beneath the Mediterranean. And for Israel, this is a very important point, although Israel nowadays claims that they are against Jolani.

they didn't only watch Jolani moving from Aleppo to Damascus to take over the government there. They actually gave his group tangible support because the group of Jolani they occupied the borders between Syria and the Golan Heights. And when the Jolani forces were injured, they used to go to Israeli field hospitals and receive medical treatment, cash and light weapons, and send them back to Syria to fight against the Syrian army. So Israel had an interest in bringing someone like Jolani because under Assad, he was able to keep the country horizontally intact. So Assad could have claimed to represent everyone in the country. This was not a sectarian rule. But Jolani will bring vertical lines in the country.

He will divide the country vertically, which means this goes in line with the strategy of Israel in the region or the Yonon plan, and that is to divide Syria or the country surrounding Israel into many states. And if you want to divide these countries into mini state or balkanize them, you need to push for sub-identities. So when Jolani comes to power and he is a jihadist, he was the leader of Al-Qaeda, basically, the vast majority of the minorities in Syria, and those are indigenous people of the country, the Christians, the Druze, the Al-Awites, the Shia, the Kurds, and all other different ethnicities and sex, they will reject to be ruled by al-Qaeda emir. So everybody starts going into their canton

and basically saying we cannot coexist with such a Tafiri terrorist regime and we want our first federal system or outright separatism from Syria. And that's why Israel wanted for Jolani to come to power and they're trying to balkanize the country now. And the evidence of it is overwhelming in the country. Now the Druze have their own militia, they govern their own affairs with the support of Israel. The Kurds are managing their own affairs with the support of the U.S.

And now the other whites are also calling for the same thing. They want their own autonomous status. What about the Christians? So the Christians, nobody speaks anything about them. Nobody cares about them, unfortunately. A big portion of the Christians have already fled the country between 2011 to 2024. And this has accelerated now after the regime change in the country. There are Christians still in Aleppo and Damascus, but most of the targeting and the harassments happening against Christians are in central Syria, Homs, Hamas and Latakia and Tartos.

Unfortunately, a vast majority of them have already fled the country and they don't have any, let's say, organized political body or military strength to call for anything. Like if you are in a jungle and you don't have any means to protect yourself, you will accept the bitter reality. that is that you have the choice either to live under the mercy of Jolani, and many of them have decided to do that because they want to protect themselves, or you have to carry arms and fight against this type of regime. But you don't have the means, and you don't have the support, and you don't have the weapons to do that. So the Christians chose to stay silent.

What does Netanyahu want? What is he gained by the Balkanization? He would eventually take over each of the Balkanized states as he continues to expand his Israel without borders? So Smotwitch says that Israeli borders start in Jerusalem and ends in Damascus. They talk about it publicly and openly about their intentions to expand inside Sweden. Smotrich, who is, of course, one of the more extreme right-wing members of Netanyahu's coalition, dreams of the Israelis taking over Damascus.

Yes. He said that the borders of Israel starts in Jerusalem and ends in Damascus. In my opinion, the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's first step has already been successful. First, you oust the old regime, which was revolving in the orbit of Iran and supporting Hezbollah and the Palestinian factions. So you already eliminated a security threat. Secondly, Israel occupied the highest hill in the region, is the Mount Hermon, which overlooks not only Syria, but also Lebanon and also Palestine. Militarily speaking, Damascus has already fallen

when Israeli occupation forces arrived to Mount Hermon because now they can fire on Damascus with an American howitzer. It's just 20 kilometers away from the capital of Syria. But Netanyahu wants more leverage and more expansion inside Syrian territories. He wants 60 kilometers deep inside Syria demilitarized zone, wants to claims that it is presenting himself

as the savior and the protector of the minorities and unfortunately the Jolani regime has helped Israel in this case by sending his genocidal army basically against the Syrian minorities

and killed thousands of Druze and those are a small minority in the south of Syria and also the Alawites. So at gun point when somebody comes and says and asks you the question, they ask you the following, and they are overwhelming videos, lots of videos like this.

They ask, are you a Muslim or are you not a Muslim? This is what they ask. And they don't consider this small minorities in Islam as an Orthodox Islam, so they come and kill them. If you answer the wrong answer, then you get killed. So at gunpoint, some people say, we don't mind whoever comes and save us. We just want to preserve ourselves.

This is the unfortunate truth and the trap that they have said for the Syrian people. And under gunpoint, unfortunately, the people will choose survival. So in the south of Syria, in the Sweda government, rate, their leadership have chosen to be aligned now with Israel. And they received also support from Israel. And this is the second step towards the balkanization of Syria. So if Netanyahu has his way, and that means the United States will go along with this, Syria will no longer exist. Syria no longer exists, Judge, because Syria, when it falls in the hands of someone who was the emir of Al-Qaeda and the founder of Al-Qaeda, he already destroyed the soul and the identity of you being a Syrian. Before the regime change, I would have argued and said, I'm Syrian of Armenian ethnicity.

And others were the same. Syrian Shia, Syrian Dru, Syrian-Sy, Syrian-Ali. Nowadays, nobody identifies himself or herself as a Syrian. Everybody went to their cantones and everybody went to their sub-identities. And the people are basically considering themselves as part of a religious or sectarian group, which means the Balkanization has already happened. Because you don't have to divide the country vertically. or geographically, for you to say,

we valkanized Syria. Balkanization is here. If I wake up in the morning and I have suspicions about my neighbor who is from a different religion or sect, then I have balkanized myself and isolated myself from my neighbor. And unfortunately, under an al-Qaeda regime,

most of the people do not want to live under such rule, which is a very radical and brutal rule. Therefore, the people say, I prefer balkanization. I don't want to... Why has the West embraced a monster like Al Jolani? That's a great question.

Actually, Donald Trump sent a letter to a written, handwritten letter yesterday to Jolani, saying, Ahmad, you will be a great leader and the United States will help. I think the main reason was because the former regime rejected normalizing ties with Israel and continued its support for the resistance groups against Israel in the region. and they wanted him to just flip and do U-turn on the foreign policy. And Ahmad al-Shara, Prabhu Mohamed al-Jolani, accepted to normalize ties with Israel. He doesn't have a problem in normalizing ties with Israel. However, Israel is not even satisfied with that.

Israel doesn't even want now to normalize ties with Israel and say, that's enough. Because there is an opportunity in Syria. If you destroy the state and destroy the national army and you create a power vacuum, then you create an opportunity to expand. So the Israelis are playing a double game in Syria. On one hand, they said, if the former regime is gone, then we will normalize ties with Israel. And once the regime is gone,

they destroyed the Syrian army, created a vacuum and paralyzed the Syrian state. Therefore, the current one doesn't have any leverage with Israel. If you're in Israel and you have the Israeli mentality, why would you compromise with Jolani? Jolani doesn't have an army. He has a militia. he's capable of fighting against unarmed civilians,

but he is in no way or shape capable of fighting against Israel. So why would Netanyahu normalize ties with him? Meanwhile, he's able to expand in the country, right? So I think that's why they destroyed Syria, and they created a big market for the investors, and this is a 24 million people country, and all the investors are now rushing into Syria saying we want to invest in the country

in order to build the infrastructure. of speaking about $300 billion worth of investments. Does the Al Jolani government provide the services that governments usually provide, or is it just interested in controlling people and ridding the country of non-Muslims? Just before I jump on this point, Judge, so when the investors come and they want to spend all this money, they need a stable environment. That's why the Americans say that we, We want to give Jolani centralized powers to govern over all Syria.

So we reject federalism, we reject any type of decentralization. We want for Jolani to rule over Syria, to stabilize it so we can invest. But the Israelis do not want that. Israelis want to divide Syria. That's the point. Now, can Jolani provide services? The Syrian infrastructure is being destroyed already. So Jolani, if he wanted to bring any services, he doesn't have the means and the tools

to do that. So what does he do? He brings gas from Azerbaijan. He brings Turkish and Qatari companies to generate electricity, for example. But this electricity is being generated by foreign hands, which means this is more expensive than what the domestic prices are. So Jolani now is able to bring more electricity to the people, but with 800% more bills to the people. So you see where it's going. I see where it's going. Is Jolani still a CIA asset? I believe he was a CIA asset for a long time, and this is my conspiracy theory. I believe that he was recruited in Bucca camp alongside Abu Bakal-Baghdadi. For me, the timeline makes no sense, and it just indicates that when he left the Bucca camp, he ran two weeks later to Syria to form Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria. and when the former head of CIA sits with Jolani and tells him, literally,

Ahmad, your success is our success. What does that even mean? I mean, you don't need to be a philosopher to understand. One of our friends is a former CIA age, and he actually went to prison because he revealed the existence of CIA torture, and he revealed the names of the torture. As you may know, he's a great man, John Kiriakou. Yes.

He recently stated on another program called unfettered speech run by a couple of friends of mine that he believes that Jolani is a CIA. I said, we're going to play a clip of John Kiriakou right now. I'd like your thoughts on this. So this, the new president of Syria, former member of al-Qaeda, one of the co-founders of ISIS. yet that's the guy that we choose to be the leader of Syria. Well, that is odd, isn't it?

A man who is personally a little odd. Yes, a little bit odd. He was just welcomed at the White House. And welcomed at the White House. And you know, I'll tell you another thing. The Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, Barbara Leaf, Barbara and I were junior officers together. And I always thought she was great.

And then I see that she's going to Syria with the special envoy for, for hostage negotiations to meet the new president. And then President Trump, at the same time or within days of their visit, is in Riyadh, and then just unilaterally announces a lifting of sanctions. Syrians were literally dancing in the streets. How did that come to pass?

The only thing I conclude, I can conclude, is that he was probably a CIA asset. Any question in your mind that, well, we know he was a CAA asset, Jolani. Is he still? I believe he's still a CIA asset. However, it's more complicated than that. I believe there are different secret services who approached Jolani and they have agreed on the future of Syria and how Syria would look like, let's say, from five years from now. The most notorious ones are the CIA, the MI6 under the patronage of Jonathan Powell,

who was the former head of Tony Blair's office, and he leads an organization called Intermediate. And this organization Intermediate has a woman working for them called Claire Hajaj. And Claire Hajjaj nowadays reportedly, her whole office is inside the Syrian presidential palace. So she's working with Cholani, guiding him on the steps, to do in politically and in the press and with the journalists. And these people are very influential nowadays in the country, including other personalities who just, they never even visited Syria. They just came now and became advisors for Jolani.

So Syria has gone from a 3,000-year-old independent country to now a vassal state of the United States and of Israel. Yes. And the most, also the mind-boggling thing here is the Jolani is capable of linking these different secret services in the country for the sake of everyone except for the Syrian people. And the evidence for it is that Jolani didn't try to make peace with the Syrian people, but rather he rushed where to the U.S.

He rushed to European countries. He is traveling all around the world because his so-called legitimacy depends on approval of these countries. He doesn't base his legitimacy on the Syrian people, but rather on the approval of these governments, one of which is and this is very important, Judge,

Qatar. For example, Ahmed Zedan, Ahmad Zedan has been classified by the NSA, this was 15 years ago, as an Al-Qaeda operative. He was the favorite journalist of Osama bin Laden, taking photos with him, sitting with him, drinking tea with

Usama bin Laden. Usama bin Laden gives him his tapes so that Al Jazeera broadcasts these tapes on the Qatari channel. Now, Ahmed Zedan is the personal advisor of Abu Mohamed al-Jolani. Wow. So it makes sense. This regime has combined these different secret services in order to keep it intact, but it doesn't allow the people to choose the future of the country. What will Syria look like in five or ten years?

I truly hope that there would be a regime change. I'm not an optimistic, however, about that. It seems there are very strong forces in the U.S. pushing to create a Syria that is a vassal state for the U.S. and its allies in the region. And there are regional powers supporting the U.S. in these efforts. If there is anyone. Usually people who come to power by cutting off other people's heads lose their own. Well, I truly hope so, and if there have any sane people left in the U.S. State Department, in Tulsi Gabbard, if she is listening to this, they have to promote for the alternative, and this guy is going to destroy one of the oldest civilizations in human history. And there are alternatives. There are people who can be pro the United States.

But not an al-Qaeda emir who would murder his own people the way he has done. Over 11,000 people were killed since he got into power. So where are all these claims about democracy, human rights, that they're now speaking about Venezuela. Meanwhile, their ally is murdering the minorities in Syria in broad daylight and they're posting it on social media platforms. Got it. Kivork, it's a fascinating story.

I think it's been a couple of months since you've been on with us. I hope you'll come back more frequently. It's wonderful to listen to you. Thank you very much for your time. With pleasure, Judge. And thank you so much for that. Be safe, my dear friend. We'll see you soon.

Inshallah. And coming up shortly at 3 o'clock today, Phil Giraldi at 3.45, talking about Pete Hagseth, the self-made war criminal, Scott Ritter. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.