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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