Americans for Intelligence Reform

Brad Johnson, President, and retired CIA Senior Officer and Chief of Staff. Insight into current events from an intelligence angle.

Brad Johnson and Barry Webb on Libya and Turkey.

https://youtu.be/NZEBirc_8To

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grad Johnson for Americans for

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intelligence firm here today with Barry

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Webb senior fellow at American

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intelligence reform author and NSA

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Arabist Barry there’s been a lot going

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on in Libya and it looks like the two

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opposing forces the the general Haftarah

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that’s kind of the you know on the

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outside if you will is is making great

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strides so how does it look what’s the

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latest reporting and developments in

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that area and Libya Libya and Tripoli

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okay first of all the heft our forces

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which are have been besieging Tripoli

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since last April and a few other cities

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that the opposition holds has

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consolidated their hold over the city of

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Sirte now certo was an old Isis

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stronghold so to have that cleaned out

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is a victory for anybody whose

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counterterrorism efforts next on their

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agenda a little bit further up the

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coastal but for the West is a city

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called Macerata and Turkey has been

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using the port at mass rata and their

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main conduit for shipping weapons and

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jihadi fighters from Syria and other

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countries into Libya to aid the Tripoli

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forces so that’s going to be the next

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target for the so-called Libyan National

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Army which is led by a channel half tire

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of course the ultimate prize will be

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Libya itself

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i’ma choosing me out tripoli itself you

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know while all of this was going on

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heard again has made a couple of trips

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one he first of all he dropped into

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Tunis last week unannounced I think we

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reported on that before and the to me

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we’re not terribly amused and then just

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a couple of it was yesterday and the day

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before heard against puppet Fayez Sarraj

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who heads the government in Tripoli the

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Muslim brother Brotherhood government

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Tripoli paid a visit to Algeria along

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with herb against foreign minister

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so they both dropped in on on Syria

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again to try to get support for the

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Turkish

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and the Turkish effort in Tripoli and it

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says it turns out Oregon was rebuffed by

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both Tunisia and Algeria so let me ask a

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question on that line just kind of in

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general what’s the tone of the reporting

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you see on it the reason I ask of course

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is now we’re going back over a hundred

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years but the Ottoman Empire which

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controlled all of Arabia all the Arabic

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speaking countries during that period

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you know there were pretty pretty tough

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masters and and you know pretty firmly

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had that Bootheel of Turkish control

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over all of the era blank speaking

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people now what is that what’s the sort

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of modern that there must be some level

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of resentment boiling with this and and

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clearly they have a feel for the fact

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that that Aragon is looking to

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re-establish an ottoman empire now that

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must be a scary piece of news from their

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perspective is that bubbling along or is

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that am i off base on that no your exec

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you’re exactly right there Oregon has

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made no secret of the belief that that

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he’s been selected by a law to you know

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lead the Muslim world in this final war

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against the West and he’s going to be

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doing this as the Calif and as the head

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of a you want to call it Neo Ottoman you

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know Empire a resurrection of the old

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Ottoman Empire with himself as a caliph

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of course yes and he’s been spreading

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that propaganda all over the Middle East

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and he has backed it up with elaborate

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soap operas which he has produced using

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Arabic speaking actors and funneled into

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these countries and these soap operas to

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become very very popular a lot of

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children a lot of people are naming

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their kids after names of characters

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that are in these soap operas which

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glorify the great Ottoman Empire when

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tennis heyday so are began and I said

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probably thinks that he is already late

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you know planted the seeds laid the

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groundwork and that everybody in the in

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the Muslim world

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is going to just accept him yes the yes

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the KSA kailath you know medically and

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of course the Muslim Brotherhood well

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because they believe the same thing they

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want the same same you know same call

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and they’re willing to to align

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themselves with Erdogan in order to

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achieve this so that’s his mindset when

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he goes into these countries but the

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majority of the people in these Arab

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countries particularly in Egypt you know

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they’re very resistant to that they

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remember the heavy boot you know as you

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mentioned and there’s a lot of sarcasm

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in the Arab media about Aragon and his

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grandiose grandiose idea so so as he

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moves as he goes you know paced business

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to Tunisia and on Syria

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he was overestimating how much ground

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work

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I guess he’s done or how successful it

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had been and under estimating the degree

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of contempt of sarcasm towards his idea

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of the resurrected Ottoman Empire and so

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he got rebuffed in two days later he

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runs crying to Vladimir Putin and they

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just signed an agreement got calling for

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a ceasefire in Libya so that’s kind of

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goes only early on it’s kind of a

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face-saving I guess move in that

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direction one thing about what unless

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you have another question I got one more

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thing to say about the Libya situation

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but go ahead you got the question here I

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was going to say is that now there’s

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they’re making fun of him they’ve

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rebuffed him but how serious of a divide

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is that is our other Turkish people are

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they hated or greatly disliked or just

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looked at with mistrust or how deep is

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that divide that you see I mean just in

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their reporting how are they treating

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air to gonn are they treating him as a

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you know upstart smart-mouth guy or are

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they treating him as actually dangerous

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individual they have to be careful of or

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do they treat him with hatred what is

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the feel from what you see in the

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reporting okay general like you mention

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your sarcasm but in Asia you seem

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or actual contempt and fear in fact it’s

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the fear of Turkey that has brought them

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into a virtual alliance with Israel well

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same cause politics makes for strange

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bedfellows yes yes they’re on the same

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in fact there’s a reaction even larger

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lengths includes Greece Cyprus Israel

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and Egypt have kind of formed a in an

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alliance if you will and their fear of

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Turkey is the common denominator there

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so I think it’s a lot stronger in Turkey

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because I mean in Egypt scuse me because

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Egypt has a ancient history as a

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nation-state yes and this is really the

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only one in the Middle East that has

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that long tradition as a nation-state

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and so of all of the Arabic countries

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and regions

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I think they resented the Turkish boots

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more than any of the others except

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Saudis also have a deep red sand

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historic of ruts to there but have you

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seen any of the opposite are there any

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Arab countries there that are kind of

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friendly to the whole concept I mean we

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see groups like the Muslim Brotherhood

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but that’s a an organization that shares

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goals and therefore I have partnered to

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further their common goals versus a

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country whose culture allows itself to

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be kind of look at this as an attractive

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option out into the future is there any

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of that opposite camp where where an

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ottoman empire resurgence would be sort

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of an attractive possibility absolutely

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clutter which is one of the perhaps the

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main financier in the Muslim Brotherhood

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and they host the the primary ideologue

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the Muslim Brotherhood today I just said

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äòi I’ve seen a flurry of editorials you

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don’t want to call Matt Sh whatever

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which appear to be planted by the Turks

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themselves but written in perfect Arabic

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again glorifying the Ottoman Empire and

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heaping criticism upon those who are

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criticizing Aragon and his current moves

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in the Middle East all right we’ve had

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one final thought let’s finish up with

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that on Libya

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yes it was just missing yesterday or

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that or the night before anyway a report

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is coming out of Tunisia that the new

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Tunisian authorities have seized a large

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shipment of Turkish arms that were being

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smuggled across the board from Libya

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into Tunisia and this is on al arabiya

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TV which is Saudi on TV the Tunisian

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official that they interviewed said that

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of course this has been going on for

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quite some time and it’s not only around

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in Tunisia they’re using they’re also

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doing the same thing

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smuggling Turkish arms into Algeria

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across the Libyan border with Algeria

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and these are going not only to the

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radical units within Tunisia and Algeria

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but they’re being distributed all

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throughout Africa and pretty you know

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we’ve reported previously that the Turks

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were aiding Boko Haram so this kind of

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adds confirmation to that and you know

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as we know we have Pro Isis and pro al

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Qaeda groups franchise is what you want

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to call them operating in northern

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Nigeria but Burkina Faso Mali Niger and

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all across northern Africa and the Turks

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are the ones that are behind this our

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NATO ally that’s interesting in Boko

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Haram is particularly known for being

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brutal and a lot of their their

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terrorist type activities so alright

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very well thank you so much follow us at

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Intel reformed org and on YouTube at

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Brad Johnson thank you so much again

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[Music]

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you

 

 
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