we never found any indication that zarqawi was in baghdad working for saddam or linked up with saddam. >> narrator: the vice-president and his chief of staff, scooter libby, pushed back. >> it was pretty intense. we were lined up on one side of the table, vice-president cheney and scooter libby were on the other side. and they walked in with a lot of questions and being very skeptical as to the intelligence that we had been gathering up to that point. >> narrator: cheney seemed to want zarqawi to be the link between saddam hussein and osama bin laden. >> the vice-president's frustrated. his questions are all about zarqawi, his connection to saddam, and whether or not they had discussed 9/11, and if saddam had participated. >> narrator: bakos says the vice-president didn't like the answer. >> we tried to explain over and over again that it would be impossible for him logically to be working with saddam. >> there was no connection between al-qaeda and saddam hussein and iraq that we could find. zarqawi's the kind of guy saddam would kill without a moment's thought. >> and the response t

blige. >> trevor: turns out saddam hussein was a big fan of mary j.ng last year when mary j. blige was singing to her? that would have been saddam's dream. ♪ it ain't no secret ♪ it ain't no secret ( laughter ) snits not uncommon for dictators and strong men to be fans of pop divas. all performed at parties for dictators. muammar gaddafi was a fan of mariah carey. ♪ and you will always be my baby ♪ ♪ 'do-da and vladimir putin listens to -- ♪ dust it off and try it again > ( laughter ) enough about the old school dictators. let's talk about future hall of famers. last reek week was probably one of the worst weeks of donald trump's presidency which is something we say every week now. trump's presidency is basically like global warming, every week is the worst and republicans are trying to hard to deny it. we know former f.b.i. director james comey testified in the senate that trump pressured him into dropping the flynn thing. the other side came out the very next day. >> i doesn't say that. >> so he lied about that. >> well, i didn't say that. i mean, i

to miley both served as security officials under saddam hussein after the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three they both joined the sunni insurgency part of which later transformed into islamic state let's to discuss this with military analyst. thanks for joining us to use the good to have you with us what do you think the prospect of saddam hussein's former operatives leading also. i mean from a very tactical perspective it could make sense as you said earlier a new introduction when the army of saddam was disbanded a lot of the baath is for disgruntled to join the sunni insurgency it is use forces and also against iranian backed militias a lot of them are not ideological supporters of vices or radical islam but they're feeling aggrieved that they're out of the iraqi government u.s. was very heavy handed again to sunni tribes so they could make sense somebody could fill the void after both daddy but a lot of the scene near tactical fighters have always been. and members of saddam's former republican guard looking back at two thousand and three an

how accidents cow fix it calyx it means that you actually want to have state of california leave saddam working with our par more interested in a solution that partitions the state in a way that gives everybody proper representation you know how horny is a big state x. forty million people in the state of california there are six to seven million children who sit under one department of education now that is a lot of kids to sit under one department and and the folks that are more who would like to see a state where people are having better representation from their elected officials or their kids have an education system that is working better because it's smaller so it isn't talent it is cow for example women a long way to go if the rules in california are such that we actually have until i believe january february to submit the signatures by should we move or i'm absolutely confident that we would get this thing about but there are still some questions about whether or not we're going to do it when we're going to do it but it is it is an interesting idea that's being floated by some

international what do you think of the prospect of saddam hussein's former operatives leading leisel. well i believe the this could be a probability especially that isis was in first infiltrate the actually by ford motor company saying regime elements especially after the fall of the regime because the. some bumpus and relied heavily. on consent related heavily on the tribes of western iraq and on the sudanese of. western iraq so after the fall of the regime there was that reshuffling all of the political structure in. iraq as to integrate mainly the shia on the kurds into the state. institutions and the americans dismantled the army. and in this month and all other institutions. that were dominated by the ba'ath regime this. coupled with the breaking up the spread it all of these people especially after they were captured and put in prisons and the humiliation they were subjected to like in the case of abuja for example in two thousand and three made them ripe for being invested in especially by saudi arabia and by radical groups coming from saudi arabia so that's why they got tried

both of them and here is saddam after he is captured by the special operators and he's hurt initiallyt the decapitation strike is going to put a lid that it will fall apart now that saddam is gone but unfortunately there are others who are ready and willing to take up the charge then we find ourselves in a prolonged insurgency campaign and around the time we have general stanley coming in as a commander in tact for 714 is the task force he sets up in a rack and at the time it was not particularly active and there was not elite forces should be doing the daily operations and they should the. saddam has shown us not that i can work and he looks for a way to ramp up their operations and does so very effectively. you can see from here that there was only ten operations. month when he comes in 2004 and it goes up to 302,006. this is made possible by advantage in communications technology, also by the fact that the iraqis are using cell phones and computers without a lot of thought to the fact that they're getting intercepted. quite impressive and a lot of people think at the scale we can i

socom special operations are called in to do man hunting and specifically to find saddam and his sons. they do eventually tracked down both of them. here is saddam after he is captured by special operators and are told initially that the decapitation strike is going to put a lid on the insurgency that has fallen apart now that saddam is gone but fortunately there are others who are ready and willing to take up the charges. we then find ourselves in a prolonged insurgency campaign and around this time we have general stanley mcchrystal coming in as the jsoc commander. pass 4714 is the task force he sets up in iraq and at the time he was not particularly active. there were still a lot of people that thought elite forces should not be in daily operations. they should be focusing on the big target to mcchrystal decides we can do that and saddam has shown that's not going to work so he looks for ways to ramp up their operations and does so very effectively. there were only 10 operations when he comes in 2004. think you was up to 300 and 2006. this is made possible by advances in communicat

dictates is from saddam hussein to the gulf but. no i don't blame consumers of course we don't want to send our money to ruthless autocrats and violent civil warriors and oil producing states the problem is deep the problem is an old archaic law left over from the days of the atlantic slave trade that forces us to send our money essentially to whoever can control by force in foreign countries this old law in every country says that for the oil of other countries might makes right so for example years ago when gadhafi took over libya in a coup british law said it was legal to buy libya's oil from get off the and then years later when rebels took over some of those same wells british law every country's laws that it was legal to buy libya's oil from the rebels that's the law that puts us into business essential with whoever has the most guns overseas we are an educator why is it you think every time british servicemen and women or indeed all nature's others whether women i mean us to fight for against terrorism which is usually the re

what is really done a decade saddam/1991,21 -- saddam hussein may have well had nuclear weapons, in which case the crisis would have proceeded differently and not to the advantage of the united states. now, this -- the israeli role in bolstering american interest has been largely unappreciated. the reason is, it is by its nature, invisible. israel has contributed to the turns. deterrence is not palpable. there was an important exception to this pattern in 1970. in the fall of that year, syria moved on the kingdom of jordan. an american ally in the region. theollusion, if i may use term, with the united states, and really at americans request, israel mobilized militarily, and was prepared to intervene to block syrian troops. that was important. to fend off the syrians. so in that case, the israeli role and the larger american strategy, the role of israeli military supremacy was clear clear but in general, it has not been visible. offer an analogy, i do consider myself an expert in sports. israel has acted in the middle east like a player in basketball who is an expert at blocking shots. th

a baby and a many both served a security officials under saddam hussein and following the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three they both joined the sunni insurgency part of which later transformed into a islamic state military analyst kemal thinks a disaster could be avoided if the u.s. led coalition didn't destroy iraq institutions when they're on the of saddam was disbanded a lot of the baath is for described so to join the sunni insurgency has used force . and also against iranian backed militias a lot of them are not ideological supporters of isis some radical islam but the feeling aggrieved by the iraqi government saying that the u.s. was very heavy handed again to sin they are trying certainly united states and united kingdom ignored all the advice given to them about dismantling the iraqi state specially the iraqi military and security forces because one thing getting rid of saddam but destroyed iraq a state system that. led to this disaster. there has been another protest in central london members of the english defense league took to the streets to vent

led coalition didn't destroy iraq institutions there on the of saddam was disbanded a lot of the baath is for disgruntled to join the sunni insurgency his use. forces and also against iranian backed militias a lot of them are no idea supporters of isis some radical islam but this feeling aggrieved that the iraqi government saying that the us is very heavy handed again to sin they are trying certainly united states and united kingdom ignored all the advice given to them about dismantling the iraqi state specially the iraqi military and security forces because one thing getting rid of saddam but destroyed you are the state system that. led to this disaster. in other news the south there has been an awful protest in central london members of the english defense league took to the streets to vent their anger to speak of islamic terror attacks but they were met by anti fascist groups who organized a counter-rally chanting slogans saying refugees a welcome in the country there was a large police presence but as all teasing or smith reports that only seem to add to the tension. another day an

here is saddam hussein sending all the smoke signals that he has weapons of mass destruction becausehe wantss to keep iran at bay. we think everything is about us and we never acknowledge maybe some of it is about the regional politics. when we give weapons or sell weapons to saudi arabia, there will be for every action a reaction. there will be significantly more pressure on iran to come forward and have more weapons. what does it do to our ally, israel? there have been reports that israel believes every time we give a dollar to saudi arabia they need to respond with a dollar and a half. a quote from one of their government ministers saying he worries about their qualitative edge. i have a quote from a colleague of mine, friend of mine who is a rabbi and friend of the constitution. .. the president's intentions, we must proceed with great caution due to the challenges and the history of the region. at this time i don't see the benefits of the arms deal for the united states or israel. this is coming from someone who believes with every fiber of his being that israel should be defend

by the end i add algy widely both served as security officers under saddam hussein and following the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three they both joined the sun the insurgency part of which later transformed into islamic state. well let's discuss this issue further with nicholas davis got on our hands the american invasion and destruction of iraq thank you very much indeed for joining us this evening well the speculation over isolator abu bakar al baghdadi is replacement as we just heard if his death from a russian as strike is confirmed was related contenders off or operatives of saddam hussein i mean what do you think about that. while i think in the big picture it's not really going to make much difference who replaces baghdadi . essentially where we're going to still be dealing with. what with an endless proliferation of these jihadi groups. you know whatever form it takes it's assuming that. the us led. forces are able to recapture mosul and graca albeit at the expense of tens of thousands of civilian casualties. i as we've seen. the people that the us is fighti

in addition to that excuse me if i if you would allow me to continue this saudi regime supported saddam hussein after the revolution which invaded iran i think your your guest should look at history and then i think if we had a discussion that would go better we would move forward more easily because the facts are there for everyone to see we had eight years of war with saddam hussein he initiated the war the saudi regime provided him with up to two hundred billion dollars to help them obtain chemical weapons from western governments and that's a stated fact so in with regards to pilgrimage of course the saudis have a history of killing iranians just a year two years ago the saudis killed six hundred iranian pilgrims and never even expressed remorse or regret but most importantly.

both to security officials under saddam hussein after the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three they both joined the sunni insurgency part of which later transferred into islamic state but mr thinks the disaster could be avoided if the u.s. that coalition didn't destroy iraqi institutions when they're on the of saddam was disbanded a lot of the baath is for disgruntled to join the sunni insurgency has used forces and also against iranian backed militias a lot of the no ideological supporters advice is radical islam. but this feeling green the iraqi government saying that the u.s. was very heavy handed if you had to say they are trying certainly united states and united kingdom need all the advice given to them about dismantling the iraqi state specially being walking on a train security forces because one thing getting us down destroyed you want to stay a system that had led to this disaster. seeing as another day of protests members of the english defense league took to the streets to find out of spite of islamist terror attacks. g

in addition to that excuse me if i if you would allow me to continue this saudi regime supported saddam hussein after the revolution which invaded iran i think. your guest should look at history and then i think if we have a discussion that would go better we would move forward more easily because the facts are there for everyone to see we had eight years of war with saddam hussein he initiated the war the saudi regime provided him with up to two hundred billion dollars to help them obtain chemical weapons from western governments and that's a stated fact so in with regards to pilgrimage of course the saudis have a history of killing iranians just a year or two years ago the saudis killed six hundred iranian pilgrims and never even expressed remorse or regret but most importantly is the saudi regime being inherently weak is completely reliant on the united states and this without this so really the biggest blame goes to the united states what happened in libya couldn't have happened without the the united states what happened in syria the extremism that the saudis said that is in the ot

they tried to sell to iraq under saddam hussein except saddam hussein wanted to pay on credit. he didn't want to pay on cash. it's a whole list, right. and so they have sold every system they've ever developed. in a containment scenario i would be very worried about horizontal proliferation. the last thing on going after nukes in a -- i hate to throw data at you, but we did a study where we actually surveyed experts, u.s. experts about this, and asked them what was the number one issue in a unification scenario in terms of the cross between priority and how much we knew, right. so the big blind spots are where you have high priority and we have no knowledge. those are the big blind spots. what we actually found surveying american experts was the number one issue was actually not wmd. the number one issue was domestic stabilization in north korea. not because we don't care about the nuclear issue but i think relative to domestic stabilization we feel like we know more about the wmd situation than we know about domestic stabilization in the north. it was an interesting finding ba

august 2, 1990, saddam hussein invaded kuwait. this is a remarkable historical coincidence, that saddam hussein chose to go into kuwait on the same day the united states -- given that it's such a powerful coincidence, given the fact that gps is arguably -- the thing spaceade the war -- command and the ground antrollers did improvise considerable amount during the war. they altered some of the satellites orbit to give later time, greater availability in the satellite so the ground forces could use gps almost 24 , -- during the war on number of the satellites experienced problems. solar panels broke, mechanical arms the normally operate mechanically judge broke. these guys were in the control room in newly adjusting these things around the clock during the war, turning things off, the satellite women to the arts shadow. came, the u.s. had only two gps guided munitions. both of them or modified versions of existing web. the one on the left here was a new era christmas. it took the nuclear bomb off, cut -- but a conventional bomb on.

execution of saddam hussein and the the station -- disdain he shows for executions.order runnings orde through him. the other major character is a woman from theouth. she is also a person of indeterminate origin as far as india is concerned. now a kashmiri fighting with the national border. it is not conceptual. what happens is india as a society of such minute divisions , such institutionalized caste is a where mesh that oppresses people and holds them down in a grid. somehowf these stories are about people who just don't fit into that grid and who eventually create a little community and a kind of solidarity emerges, which is a solidarity of the heart. it is not memoranda i or academic discourse, but a solidarity that is human which is based on unorthodox kinds of love, not even sexual love or anything, just based on humanness. amigo you say the characters are kind of -- who don't fit into the grid, the places, the principal places where the novel delhi, andold kashmir. so is the focus -- did you focus on these places also because they stand somehow outside the gri

is he killing people like saddam did?s. >> we have never thought of ourselves as a country where they get to be whatever they want, as a ruling family kind of place, but now that is what we are. >> hannity: of course, she has also pushed some pretty bizarre theories about some members of the trump administration, you don't like people like vice president pence, listen to this totally false accusation. nbc. watch. >> when the vice president-elect first ran for congress, he ran on a platform that the government should take back all the money that they were using to combat hiv and aids and spend spend the money on curing people from being. mike pence ran for congress saying let's not try to cure aids. >> hannity: joining me now, the governor of the great state of arkansas, mike huckabee. welcome back. i didn't even touch on in this case because that could be a whole show, all of the russia- russia-trump collusion theories that were debunked. and i honestly don't know what to think, if this is cnn, nbc news, what do you make

of misinformation about a rack -- - about iraqi weapons of mass to russian, arguing that removing saddam by forereign powers would spawn hun suffering, basically warning of everything that would happen. as a result he attracted a lot of attention from the u.s. government. blue,e, 35t of the federal agents showed up at his home, armed, w while his two teenage chilildren were there, showing a search warrant for his home, spending the next nine hours in his house removing everything they could find. passports, documents, photos, marriage license, heirlooms, huge documents. beenich they have never returned to them.. only three yrsrs later did hee learn the charge the government was able to indict him for. it was basically a single count of technically violating the law that's s part of the e sanctionn the regime that aren't any american from sending money back to a rack -- sending money back to iraq. the u.s. government acknowledged that every penny that he sent was intended only for purely humanitarian assistance for these 14 families. intended forit those purposes, even the government a ac

military, you are familiar etc., whichqi war, led to the toppling of saddam hussein.any would say this laid the foundation for what has happened, the islamic state group and all of the fighting necessary to get the situation and control. can you talk about the mistakes that were made? >> yes. one of the biggest problems in afghanistan and iraq is the lack of continuity. even though the u.s. has been there for a long time doesn't mean we have been doing it right from the beginning. >> what mistakes were made? >> we take a horse, a proxy to partner with and it alienated sunnis, kurds, and christians. sunnisn we empowered the to rise up against al qaeda only to have that same shia government that we empowered dismantle that effort and put them in prison. now we are working with the iranian proxies on the ground. the only time we got iraq right was 2007 and 2008. and thatt, we left, led to the security void that led to isis. even know we have been there for 10 to 13 years, if you'd change strategy every year, you'll never get anywhere. >> to talk about the situation now,

you see, iran's ambitions had always been kept in check by s saddam hussein's iraq, which had foughtar against it. with saddam gone, iran's influence began to spread in the region, especially within the shiites of iraq where it is now the most important external influence on the baghdad government. if the trump administration wants stability in the middle east, it should help to broker a new balance of power. this cannot happen purely on saudi terms. iran is a major player with real influence and its role will have to be recognized. the longer washington waits to do this, the longer the instability will grow. donald trump recently learned that health care is complicated. well, welcome to the middle east. for more, go to cnn.com/fareed, and read my "washington post" column. next on "gps," as america withdraws from its role as global leader, somebody needs to step in. can that be canada? foreign minister chrystia freeland gives a striking speech this week. she joins me to explain what she sees as canada's new global role. think again. this is the new new york. we are building new airpo

before the us senate against the war in iraq or in two thousand and three i did say that if you remove saddam hussein you get and the key civil war and not democracy i was. not only ali by the way but the second should be friends mr gates was a ganster of the attack on the daffy in libya believing the americans actually listened to the talents and the talents said that if you remove gadhafi you don't get democracy you get our hundred tribes fighting each other for ever and that's what we have in libya so in other words where we have discovered between moscow and washington we have learned something in the muslim world you either have the faith to ship or anarchy therefore i don't think there is any interest in the movie any more dictators the problem is syria is that makes it hard hard to be critical you told me back in two thousand and eleven that real politics is in the pacific and not in the middle east and it's now twenty seventeen and it's been six years since the war in syria broke out question u.s. led coalition of more than a dozen countries are fighting isis there to still stick to t

weapons inspector in iraq who turned up no evidence of saddam having any wmd.the cia's report came back without enough evidence to smear hans blix, paul wolfowitz reportedly went through the roof in response, hit the ceiling. when the c.i.a. itself sent an envoy to check out if iraq was pursuing nuclear materials in africa, the envoy found that saddam was not doing that. the bush administration nevertheless said he was doing that. the brush administration said they fed the conservative media, damaging material about that envoy who the cia had sent to africa, including the fact that his wife was a covert operative for the cia. they named her. they outed her. in the ensuing investigation into that, patrick fitzgerald got appointed as a special prosecutor to look into the outing of that c.i.a. agent. the bush folks and the allies in the conservative media went after him, too. bill crystal went on fox news and said this patrick fitzgerald, he's just a partisan. he's just out to politically wound the bush administration. you know, in this current administration, we'

the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the saddam regime as sad knows the probable cause and sequences of a chemical attack it's the only thing really right now that could ruin him by giving his enemies the opportunity of the pretext to attack him why would he do it because he's evil the murderous syrian dictator bashar assad has been a brutal dictator bashar al assad's a murderous regime in syria assad is the worst kind of brutal war criminal a classic super villain boof stupid and evil the yawned any logic the kind of villain batman would go after and america is batman. if mr assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons he and his military will pay a heavy price britain is already on board if asked how does something really dumb for new reason again the u.k. will join the us in punishing him we think it's absolutely right if we can to prevent the use of chemical weapons and we will fully support any u.s. action if you've been following events in syria recently you knew they aren't kidding the united states has a

contradictions carry out of washington the president saying something the state department saying saddam is gone you can stand in the gallery or production one of the contradictions and that is really mystifying to me as a political commentator so i don't know it just seems to me that the trump administration is there to grab as much money from these the officer as he could go to could be could do but the reality is there was a good deed to manage their work that this being the largest country or the state of this country in the middle east it's is not it will do really good it's the functions of its own allies the sudanese the what is their thirty's that you we so i believe that. washington has a lot to go. over homework in order to put its house understand there's an order that well as you alluded to there really is it says money talks i mean trump as we know has prided himself on being a businessman i mean do you think that this particular stance these two presidents when it came to the huge u.s. cut off fighter jets deal it was a case of money talks. it took stood out to me because o

the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the saddam regime the united states is in syria to eliminate the slum extent of iraq and syria if however mr assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons he and his military will pay a heavy price our middle east correspondent paula slower gauges the international reaction to those claims. the kremlin has responded saying that it is familiar with the statement but it is not aware of its basis a criminal spokesperson said that they categorically disagree with the wording and now the attack stressing that damascus cannot be held liable for the last attack because despite all of russia's demands an unbiased international investigation has still not been carried out moscow also says that it considers any threats to the legitimate leadership of syria unacceptable. we consider such threats to the legitimate government of the syrian arab republic on acceptable but at the same time it's important to point out that we consider unacceptable the use of chemical weapons the potential dan

in the united states in one thousand nine hundred one i remember these calls every day keel that saddam you know so the sport issue of demonizing you know personalizing your enemy it's it's politics as i've said on this program before the regime change paradigm that the west and its allies around the world. i want to talk about oliver stone i don't know if you've seen any of the interviews it's really quite fascinating but what's more fascinating for me is the reception of. stone's work in western media it's really shocking it shows i have to admit that the the the the western propaganda effort against russia has been largely successful. you know the most interesting part about it is a lot of interviews with oliver stone when he was promoting the showtime piece and just about everyone that was interviewing him began the interview with one sentence i have been seeing all the stephen all to go but to go here very nice to put it of . him it's a very very friendly approach so all right away you have these these these people that are interviewing oliver stone saying i haven't seen it i don't