and you're very likely to have al qaeda.a small city in pakistan. what if we actually wind up finding sally sherry, will be another small city and pakistan, punjab for afghanistan. this is another thing they've tracked of taliban control in afghanistan are trying to use our data and then we are showing about 11% of afghanistan districts and another 50%. so you have more than half of afghanistan slipping under the control of the taliban and in this is where al qaeda training camp -- that can't in kandahar, that is not the only can't. i've seen reports of aspirating al qaeda camps in other provinces. we didn't even know that camp was in existence until we raided a previous camp several months prior. we are in afghanistan. >> usually find that when you do a raid it leads you to another raid. >> were in afghanistan and we miss al qaeda training camp because of the taliban strength. this is strong if not stronger today than at any point in the history and hearing from officials that they are not connected and that is incorrect. i

let's talk more about al qaeda.2011 with a raid on osama bin laden, the conventional view was the leadership had taken a major hit and his number two was not the same kind of charismatic leader. roley question is, what was he playing, and to what extent is osama bin laden's son being groomed as the next leader of the organization? the one thing i would say about what al qaeda has been able to do and persist is they have an environment not based on anything he is doing. it is based on relationships like tom and bill described with the taliban. 's role now has diminished. he doesn't listen to him. they are trying to groom a new leader. we may have disagreements year. -- here. he continue to recommend to osama bin laden the admission of other groups into al qaeda. continue to recommend high-profile attacks that osama bin laden would shoot down. so, in my opinion he was a good idea for al qaeda. this is a good idea and osama bin laden would say no. it would take 30 days to get to ubl, then ubl 10 days to answer. you're

qaeda leaders in iran, according to the u.n. by the way. but that same report talked about how isis is very much still in the game in iraq and syria. some of these system are as high as 20 to 30,000 fighters. we find this sort of -- i don't want to say funny, none of this is funny -- it's really stupid because here's the point. going back to september 2014 when the bombing campaign began against isis by the obama administration, go back to the cnn reporting and the cia was saying about isis' strength in iraq and syria and it was 20,000 to 30,000 fighters. we have the inspector general report out of d.o.d., u.n. reports this and says they've got 20,000 to 30,000 in iraq and syria. something doesn't add up here. we've been bombing hekts out of the countries for years and we still have the same overall force structure according to these sources. we think that part of the problem is, this goes to our connect the dots point, so much bad analysis and not getting down to the root facts of the situation that these assessments are wrong

a-qaeda is fighting them country today have al-qaeda commanders and leaders everywhere from mali and the sunday countries where the executed, we have a young guy who works for us who all he does is try, it operations that are in west africa. it's done. they are t very loud and proud about the fact they are al-qaeda. they were just designate the other day. all the way through north africa where they hid the assets a little bit. you income yemen, formed by the aid to capture osama bin laden originally and is led to the by al-qaeda veterans trained in afghan camps preview andni was saying they may have as many as 7000 fighters in human after all these years. we don't know how many fighters they happen. syria can even after the leadership kerfuffle we've been tracking the groups and group sessions can who's a nesting loyalty. al-qaeda still has thousands of fighters in syria. we go read the map and you can see al-qaeda is to very much international organization. the way we talk about this is we have to different jihadist revolutions ongoing. one is that she had side that by iran which ha

as it turned out, we were able --quickly dispersed al qaeda disperse al qaeda, scatter them and reduce their capabilities. we were able to quickly mount a major intelligence effort worldwide that has continued since then. that is one of the developments that people are not entirely aware of. the u.s. intelligence effort and the creation of alliances across the planet have made the terrorist operational environment a lot more hostile for them. the kinds of movement of people, movement of money, movement of operatives we saw in the run-up to 9/11, i am not saying it cannot take place today, but it is a lot more difficult for them. cooperationgence has extended beyond our usual like-minded allies and brought in some participants that would perhaps have preferred to stay on the sidelines, but al qaeda tunisia,in indonesia, egypt, saudi arabia convinced a lot of nations that this was not simply a battle between al qaeda and america, that this was a global campaign. host: richard is up first on the phones from missouri. a democrat. caller: good morning. 9/11, i remember it well. real tragedy

host: we still have al qaeda, taliban, now isis. is there a terror organization that most concerns you? guest: we should not become too wrapped around the identities of .he organizations it was al qaeda and then we saw division within the jihadist movement between al qaeda and isis. we continue to see something far more fluent than most people imagine. there are doctrinal differences in al qaeda, differences within isis. there are some within isis in fact that think -- himself is an apostate. movement complicated looking ahead. both possible to envision continuing divisions between al qaeda and isis and yet in some parts of the world, they are cooperating and it is not inconceivable to see some kind of merger, at least at the local level. .he movement will continue host: jeremy is an independent. caller: i would like to put some facts and some sources in the nature of international terrorism which what had to do with what the previous caller identified, that these wars have not been good for the world and that september 11 in terms

approach in fighting al qaeda differs depending on the region or the motive. al qaeda a whole generation of americans grew up with these two words engraved in their minds since preschool years two words that have seen hundreds of thousands of u.s. troops fanned out all over the globe with an uncompromising objective to defeat terror. for the past few years one battleground yemen some four thousand troops in the country even now and that's enough for the u.s. to turn a blind eye to schools hospitals and their homes flattened by saudi bombs the administration's policy is to focus on ending the war and avoiding a regional conflict countering the threat from the islamic state of iraq in syria in yemen and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula but yemen is just the latest in a sequel which started back in two thousand and one in afghanistan where a force of between two and five thousand dollars to fight has ignited the now infamous war on terror on my orders the united states military has begun strikes against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installation

i mean, up until 2013 or so, it was al qaeda. we saw a division within the jihadist movement between al qaeda and isis. we continued to see something that is far more fluid organizationally than most people imagine. their doctrinal differences within isis. in fact, i'll bet daddy himself is an apostate. and so this is a complicated movement. looking ahead, it is possible to envision both continuing divisions between al qaeda and isis and yet in some parts of the world they are cooperating and it's not inconceivable to see some type of merger at least at the local level of these two current wings of the jihadist movement. the movement will continue. the particular organizational form will morph with the circumstances. >> lawrence, kansas is next. jeremy is independent. good morning. >> caller: good morning. for real american patriots out there like to put some facts and services for people interested in the real nature of international terrorism september 11th to which very much had to do with what the previous caller identified t

when peace in syria blew to kingdom come in two thousand and eleven al-qaeda was busy from the get go given the chance to oust the assad government a fact the us validated itself. al qaeda in iraq supported the syrian opposition from the beginning both ideologically and through the media al qaeda in iraq declared its opposition to assad's government because it considered it a sectarian regime targeting sunni's so let me recap al qaeda supported the syrian opposition washington also supported the syrian opposition when it comes to picking the company to entrench yourself with the us made the worst choice imaginable another assumption the new counterterrorism report makes is that syria made its border think grand central station allowing al qaeda to run loose in and out of iraq except damascus wouldn't have much time to facilitate that for the most part it had no access cut off by the opposition from its own border syrian regime border forces retreated from the border and the opposition forces took over the posts and raised their flag it wasn't until june last year when the syrian army

they wanted to have al qaeda type qualifications. meaning you have to be versed in the ideology, you have to have skills and tactics. i would say if there is an al qaeda resurgence and it doesn't matter how big it is, they will be smarter, they will be the ones that have the skills and relationship. one of the biggest problems with isis, there was no consistency across, there was so much competition the iraqis isolated -- insulated big daddy -- baghdad, located doesn't do that. they want someone who is qualified. they have a resurgence yes but i don't put them in the 30,000- 50,000, they are assessing talent. if you look at the osama bin laden exportation, they said go to siri and find out who the talent is they want charismatic leaders the can move people into things. they are better at vetting individuals and isis was. >> quickly, when we talk about al qaeda presence in iraq, if we mean al qaeda core, it does not have a significant presence in iraq. they don't see that as a major threat. but taking into account that al qaeda as an

problem it is an al qaeda safe haven right on the border of turkey the u.n. estimates al qaeda is fortress manned by at least ten thousand offshoot fighters that's at least twice as many as in afghanistan back at the dawn of the war on terror yet washington is not nearly as trigger happy as one would expect while we had three meetings in the security council on syria to stern us warnings came down from most members of the security council telling them that not just chemical weapons would be addressed by the united states and our allies but any. on the civilian people and level was going to be dealt with when russia and the assad regime say they want to counterterrorism they actually mean they want to bomb schools hospitals and homes the obama administration had already loosened rules of engagement in the war against islamic state in syria and iraq to permit more killing of civilians in in the bombing campaign that the u.s. conducted they expended over one hundred thousand bombs and missiles to destroy cities like rocka and mosul president trump has reportedly

the final terrorist stronghold in syria sees the us russia over al qaeda affiliates there on the anniversary of the nine eleven attacks. coexistence with terrorists is impossible those are all branches of al-qaeda which we have been fighting since the terror attacks in two thousand and one all we've seen are the actions of cowards interested in a bloody military conquest. coming up in the program a suicide bombing kills thirty two people at a rally in afghanistan against the local police chief twin blasts in the same province targets school boards during rush hour also ahead. but. there is an international mission to tens of thousands of my going to. i think the citizens of pay my salary in order for me to control my country top level insight into your of smy growing crisis please hardline interior minister talks exclusively to r.t. . around the clock across the world this is r.t. international from the team and myself you know me a welcome to the program. the situation around where the biggest bulk of terrorists are now located in syria has become the focus of the latest meeting of the un s

is a province just the largest al qaeda safe haven since nine. the low end it live now is a huge problem it is an al qaeda safe haven right on the border of turkey a recurring problem for more than half a decade has been that u.s. plans are falling flat in syria and the flaws are already appearing and the expectations of donald trump strategy as well. well the u.s. military claims it knows a better way to fight terror and it led syria and its allies to a political science professor from damascus we spoke to a skeptical about america's course. this is looking for geopolitical targets not for combating terrorism we have heard about the war against terrorism starting from other bit of september and i think after this war of against terrorism that there is it is expanding more and more we could see that this is or failed in this war in afghanistan or in syria or in yemen saw we are in syria we we don't there are the united states we are in our hands going by i think there is and we made progress in that i think this is this point is not satisfied wit

foreign policy has a zig zag when it comes to al qaeda back in the one nine hundred eighty s. they called osama bin ladin a freedom fighter when he was battling against the democratic republic of afghanistan cia gave him guns and us media cheered him on it seems now us foreign policy regarding the al qaeda terrorists has gone full circle. artsy new york. one of the big stories today a suicide bombing this hit to protest in eastern afghanistan has left thirty two dead authorities say dozens more been injured the demonstration that was calling for the resignation of a local police commander at the time. and this account of how sunny's got the story today afternoon exactly just a few minutes after. a suicide bomber actually targeted a group of civilians who gathered in eastern province of afghanistan in one go to protest against a local police commander. in action districts often anger which is supported by both the taliban group and also isis group active in this province. hole is counted as one of the insecure problems of which this group is the average. parentally in this prov

we actually captured or killed some al qaeda on the way to kandahar. there was a village we held for about 10 days, while we were trying to get into kandahar. we had to get past the airport, because it was being held by the bad guys. once we were able to get past, we started going after those targets. those buildings and houses that headquarters said to raid. we were hoping to capture more guys. we figured they were probably gone by now, or we would at least get some intel. we did get some intel. no question, the most important thing we got out of it was basically a casing report and attack plan to attack a u.s. naval ship, the cole vincent in singapore, by an al qaeda affiliated cell in southeast asia. case report, photos, video, diagrams, everything. >> it is a massive nuclear powered aircraft carrier. >> it is a different ship, that's true. >> i'm saying it could have been catastrophic. >> that report got out, immediately of course. it took a few weeks. they basically rounded up everyone in southeast asia. that whole cell was roundabout. i feel like

so apparently al qaeda brought down the twin towers but they're just not evil enough to release some chlorine gas now the u.n. special envoy disagrees and says that the terrorists are very capable of conducting chemical attacks the government on one hand and. which is an organization reached by the council. already having deep would be team to produce weaponized chlorine it quickly stopped being a war about democracy let's put it that way so. there is no distinction and i think the united states news knows this it didn't matter to the united states who won so long as assad some social media to push an anti assad agenda we knew that syrian society was growing increasingly young and digits and that this was going to create disruptions in society that we could harness for all purposes that idea is proven to be so effective it's being used now i have an image offensive on it led by the syrian army i know my name in the poem and there's one from syria and my message delivered into that song today i think athenians oh it was just so nice to see my friends the minute they play seven and the

al qaeda doesn't do that. al qaeda wants somebody who's qualified to do things so if they do have a -- they do have a resurgence, yes, but i don't put them in the 30,000 to 50,000 number that the u.n. came out with. they are assessing talent. this is something that if you look at the osama bin laden exploitation documents, osama bin laden said go to syria and find out who the talent is and bring the talent into the organization. they want leaders, charismatic leaders that can actually move people and do things, and that's who they're looking for. they are better at vetting individuals than isis was. >> okay. >> very quickly. to add that when we talk about al qaeda presence in iraq, if we mean by al qaeda core, which is now ran by zawahari, it does not have a significant presence in iraq. based on my own talks with iraqi officials, they don't see that as a major threat. but let's also take into account that the al qaeda organization has decentralized over the past years, so there are smaller organizations and s

coexistence with terrorists is impossible these are all branches of al-qaeda which we've been fighting since the terrorist acts in two thousand and one and from whom we can expect the worst attacks imaginable let's not waste time with the december mation distractions and outright lie. this is claim that president bashar al assad gave the order to use chlorine the syrian authorities are not going to do that they do not have chemical weapons i ask you again to listen to us it would be an invitation for the western countries to launch an attack on syria which they're threatening if chemical weapons are used of the u.s. position has the u.s. for that has made its position clear that there will be consequences should the chemical attack take place should they even be allegations of a chemical attack as we saw a few months ago with a tomahawk missile strikes against syrian army positions by donald trump this is their position. just so there's no confusion here if the syrian regime uses. weapons we will respond very strongly we have all seen what the syrian regime backed by the russian govern

pakistan had internal violence caused in part by the migration of al qaeda into pakistan. they had the worst domestic terrorism they ever experienced and if a vital interest was preventing the nuclear weapons from getting into the wrong hands you couldn't go in and exacerbate the almost civil war that they were experiencing. nonetheless, we kept confusing by fluffing off the questions. in the summer of 2008 candidate obama fluid on a campaign visit. he meet went to meet the cabinet and they didn't like each other, they rarely cooperated but they got together and said let's agree to emphasize to possible president obama that it's all about pakistan. when they each said something they said you have to focus on this problem because the sanctuary will make the war unwinnable. when the united states didn't do anything about it, worse, when they made it clear that the thought pakistan was more important to the united states in afghanistan they became deeply confused. there is a scene where vice president joe biden goes out earlier to meet with karzai. a lot of administrations co

and russia odds over al qaeda affiliates there on the screen of the nine eleven attacks. coexistence with terrorists is impossible those are all branches of al-qaeda which we have been fighting since the terror attacks in two thousand and one all we've seen are the actions of cowards interested in a bloody military conquest of. a suicide bombing kills thirty two people at a rally in afghanistan against the local police chief while the twin blasts in the same province targets school go as during morning rush hour also in the program. almost a million cattle on separatist phillis streets of barcelona and the latest call for independence from spain the rally marks a national holiday commemorating the end of the spanish civil war in seventeen fourteen. from moscow to the world this is r t international my names you not only good to have your company our top story the situation in syria is. most that which is controlled by terrorists has become the focus of the latest u.n. security council meeting. so this is just one is do it is doable coexistence with terrorists is impossibl

besides hammer province al qaeda affiliates and also active in aid lib right now to where tensions continue to mount another big story potentially happening right now russia's military says terrorists there have started their final preparations for a possible false flag attack they've been warned about in the past few weeks but it seems things could be holding up in that direction artie's don't you hawkins joined me earlier in the studio to discuss the developments today that. you're upset about accusations and counter-accusations the russian modi has been warning about this for quite some time today we've got news coming in from the russian reconsideration center in syria that things are actually on the move according to them camera crews are on site in a deliberate or tower of jews that i was sure good of they're filming this alleged incident of false flag operation according to the russians at least based on intelligence from residents from locals tell itself they say this footage that they're filming will include what the helmets treating alleged victims of a false chemical weapons atta

so apparently al qaeda brought down the twin towers but they're just not evil enough to release some chlorine gas now the u.n. special envoy disagree is and says that the terrorists are very capable of conducting chemical attacks the government on one hand and most of which is an organization because the irish by the figure come still. having deep i believe claim to produce weaponized chlorine it quickly stopped being a war about. democracy let's put it that way so. there is no distinction and i think the united states news knows this it didn't matter to the united states who won so long. last the americans are looking for a way to do well stocked the syrian and russian advance on it and prevent this conflict from being over the syrian government will. will be the responsible for chemical. regardless of who does them this isn't the first time that us foreign policy has a zigzag when it comes to al qaeda back in the one nine hundred eighty s. they called osama bin ladin a freedom fighter when he was battling against the democratic republic of afghanistan cia gave him guns and us media

not exceptional the usa is surely exceptional seventeen years ago after the nine eleven attacks al-qaeda was the enemy it was also the enemy of britain and some might say britain is exceptional in supporting those who have attacked it too they are bound together by the single evil ideology of islamist extremism that preaches hatred so stiffish it promotes sectarianism and yet as the international community including russia and china now work with president assad of syria to destroy al qaeda affiliates that are nice is diane what is treason me been saying up until even she's a taxpayer funding of those said links to al qaeda we need a political transition to a syria without assad but that tourism has long been a party in the wrong side of history for mandela. and then it is on nine eleven tomorrow that salvador allende and all those the disappeared as a result of u.s. and british backed fascist coup will be mourned well one man whose campaign ardently against western interference in foreign powers is a germ of iraq as a former u.s. green party vice presidential candidate and joins me now