Americans for Intelligence Reform

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

Retired CIA Chief of Station, Brad Johnson on the killing of Baghdadi

https://youtu.be/6_88pZD7_BM

 

 

 

 
Brad Johnson it is October 27th 2019 and
00:03
we heard the news this morning last
00:06
night that the new Osama bin Laden
00:09
al-baghdadi is dead again and I know
00:14
that these JD’s they have this there
00:16
it’s whack-a-mole with these guys you
00:18
think you got them and they pop out
00:20
another hole it seems to be a strategy
00:23
of Islamic state entities al Qaeda
00:26
whatever front name that that is
00:30
manifest destiny Islam wants to use what
00:33
is to constantly report their leaders as
00:36
dead and then have them resurrected when
00:39
it’s convenient but this time it looks a
00:41
little better why don’t you tell us what
00:42
you’re thinking what the analysis is on
00:44
this what difference does it make I
00:45
guess is the big question well I guess
00:48
let’s get to that last first of all yes
00:51
they do as a normal practice kind of
00:54
staged their own deaths or reported or
00:56
exaggerated or so on and and you have to
00:58
look at it it’s a basic security
00:59
strategy you know if if they think if we
01:02
the United States for the Allies the
01:04
West think that al-baghdadi is dead we
01:07
stopped looking for him so they’ll
01:08
they’ll play those things up and and
01:10
this last time I believe it was in 2010
01:13
he was reported to be dead and in a
01:16
bombing or a drone attack and ended up
01:19
escaping and apparently for the most
01:21
part unharmed but went quiet for a
01:23
couple years and I wasn’t seeing
01:25
publicly for a long time and that’s
01:27
basic security strategy so these guys do
01:29
use that they do understand security
01:30
they do have access to good training and
01:33
those sorts of things so they they
01:34
understand these concepts well now of
01:37
course he still has to run an
01:38
organization so eventually I think and
01:40
it was in 2014 he came out public again
01:43
and was doing recordings so on it could
01:45
have been because he was wounded that he
01:47
was quiet it could have been for
01:48
basically security it was quiet maybe
01:50
both but this time it’s much different
01:53
this time they they they saw him we knew
01:56
where he was and the Kurds of come out
01:58
and said that this was done in
02:00
conjunction as an intelligence program
02:02
so I mean we all know what that means
02:04
what they did is this was a CIA program
02:06
which kudos for intelligence the
02:08
president just within the last hour came
02:11
out and did a press conference and paid
02:13
a lot of compliment
02:13
to the CIA for what they’ve done so the
02:16
Kurds have said it was intelligence in
02:18
the president said it was the CIA
02:19
involved so we can go ahead and operate
02:21
on that which you know that’s not a
02:24
surprise if I may say but now that
02:26
others have mentioned it publicly we
02:28
can’t – so CIA run operation to gather
02:30
the intelligence done jointly with their
02:32
overseas partners in this case the Kurds
02:34
so this is one of the times where these
02:37
things work well and is one of the main
02:39
elements of what the CIA is supposed to
02:41
do so well I’m not a necessarily huge
02:44
fan of the current director of the CIA
02:46
gene Aspel credit where credit’s due
02:48
they’ve done a good job on this they’ve
02:50
done exactly what they were supposed to
02:51
do they ran into ground put it together
02:54
and then we’re able to report it back
02:55
over real time and just to summarize
02:58
last night around five o’clock they went
03:00
live with the operation that’s according
03:02
to the president’s press conference so
03:04
he was on active communications with the
03:07
military in this particular attack it’s
03:09
the again the president reported this
03:11
was Delta ants and Army Rangers which
03:15
not a particular surprise out of that
03:18
because if everyone recalls the sama bin
03:21
Laden attack was or you know where they
03:23
took him out was a seal operation so the
03:26
military leadership they love to be the
03:30
ones to go do this because it brings
03:31
them accolades and credits so they fight
03:33
over the opportunity to have these be in
03:36
charge or to be able to run these
03:38
attacks so they had according to the
03:40
press reporting 50 to 70 people out
03:42
there and eight attack helicopters and
03:44
came in quietly approached the building
03:46
where al Baghdadi was hiding with some
03:50
people breached the wall blue charged
03:54
through the wall entered immediately and
03:56
took over the place al there were 11
03:59
children they don’t know whose children
04:00
they were that they were taking escorted
04:03
out not killed or harmed and there were
04:05
three people killed al Baghdadi was the
04:07
last one in the building two others
04:09
surrendered they have been captured or
04:11
being brought in for interrogation well
04:14
that ought to be quite interesting they
04:16
will almost certainly have a great deal
04:17
of information so that should be a great
04:20
payoff right there again this is an area
04:22
where the CIA excels and does well so I
04:24
think we should see some good
04:27
dividends paid by capturing those two
04:30
al-baghdadi fled down into a tunnel that
04:33
was a dead-end tunnel got followed right
04:35
down in there they were right on his
04:36
heels but he had an explosive vest on
04:38
and ended up detonating killing his two
04:42
wives with him that also had explosive
04:44
vests on so they did not detonate so
04:47
then they a lot of the delay that took
04:49
place although within about 15 minutes
04:51
according to the president again of the
04:54
explosion of where al-baghdadi killed
04:55
himself they were able to get the head
04:58
and hands and blood samples of course
05:01
because not much left of the torso and
05:04
using DNA and fingerprints almost
05:06
certainly didn’t mention it but that
05:07
would have been done the hands normal
05:08
stories and the head almost always
05:11
survived at the blast of that sort so
05:13
they would have been able to check all
05:14
of those had confirmation very quickly
05:16
and knew that it was indeed him the
05:19
reporting is that al-baghdadi was crying
05:22
and whimpering and very afraid and you
05:23
know died a coward was what to quote the
05:25
president which I have no doubt and by
05:27
the way just as a side comment these
05:30
guys that do this sort of stuff that are
05:31
out playing the tough guy slitting
05:33
throats and doing all these things have
05:34
captured prisoners their innocence they
05:38
tend to be bullies bullies are almost
05:40
always actually cowards
05:41
so it’s no surprise to me there are a
05:43
lot of guys back in the old days that
05:45
were the just tough hard as nails
05:47
killers for mafia and for the narco
05:52
traffickers know some those guys as they
05:54
would get captured and so on I mean
05:56
they’d cry like babies so it’s something
05:57
it’s not reported by anybody very often
06:00
but those guys that do those sorts of
06:02
activities are almost always cowards so
06:05
it’s no surprise to me whatsoever it
06:07
fits the profile of what we’d expect out
06:09
of that sort of behavior of these guys
06:11
that liked to slit the throats of tied
06:13
up people that they personally are
06:15
cowards
06:16
so I believe that just absolutely to be
06:18
true so he was killed now what does all
06:22
of this mean your your last your
06:23
question there that you ended up with is
06:25
how important is this in the scheme of
06:27
things it’s important but kind of on a
06:31
symbolic level now you you’re taking out
06:34
a piece of the command structure but the
06:37
way this works now leadership
06:39
a footprint and everybody recognizes
06:42
that that’s that’s the the risk that
06:44
these guys are faced with in leadership
06:46
and they they essentially have to try
06:49
and withdraw more and more and more and
06:50
more in order to stay alive because it’s
06:54
just one of those things that
06:55
communications and transportation and
06:57
all of these things your security around
06:59
you all of those things are this
07:02
footprint that’s easily recognizable and
07:04
you have a lot of ways to look for that
07:06
by Stander’s see at convoy three cars go
07:08
drive drive by heavily armed and all of
07:10
that for transportation and the
07:12
different places that you can stay you
07:13
have to have good security around it so
07:15
not just everybody’s walking in seeing
07:17
who’s there so just by its nature has
07:19
that footprint even if you use couriers
07:22
that still couriers come and go they get
07:24
recognized that movement is seen so it’s
07:27
it’s a very high-risk career move to go
07:30
into leadership of these terrorist
07:32
groups once you’re being tracked and the
07:33
resources that we have through allies
07:35
and and technical means and humans means
07:38
all of those things really become a
07:40
deadly combination so these guys almost
07:42
always end up dead once they get to that
07:44
point it’s just a question of time until
07:46
you catch them moving doing what
07:48
leadership must do that’s what got
07:50
al-baghdadi that’s how he’s done now
07:52
they’ve reported it’s human I’ve no
07:54
doubt whatsoever somebody on the ground
07:55
saw all this movement recognized that
07:57
leadership footprint reported it back
07:59
they confirmed that it was the fit the
08:01
profile of how al-baghdadi does his
08:04
stuff because they all have their style
08:06
they’re not changing everything all the
08:07
time even though they move randomly they
08:10
still move with a certain level of
08:12
security and and all of those things
08:14
that get recognized so figured it out
08:17
ID’d him as being in the place and in
08:19
the military this was probably a fairly
08:21
short timeframe of from beginning to
08:25
finish as the president said he went on
08:27
the horn last night around 5:00 p.m. our
08:29
Eastern Standard Time and it took place
08:32
middle of the night for us here in the
08:33
United States which was daytime there
08:35
and so that was that was how he was
08:40
captured now if you look back I mean
08:42
that’s all the way back to Pablo Escobar
08:44
oh that’s how he got nailed picking up
08:46
phone and communications and was moving
08:49
all the time had a lot of supporters of
08:51
the local pop pop
08:52
halation where he was hiding in medellin
08:55
and really the only guy that’s ever done
08:57
this very successfully was one of the
08:59
war criminals out of the former war and
09:03
yugoslavia lotta edge who was a lawyer
09:07
and poet and these sorts of things and
09:09
and he was able to just get completely
09:11
out of it grow a big beard change his
09:13
appearance and have nothing whatsoever
09:15
to do with anybody and he was the most
09:18
successful person that was able to hide
09:19
out for 14 years before he was finally
09:21
captured and taken to the court in the
09:22
hague all of the rest of these guys are
09:24
slowly getting tracked down and and
09:26
taken out killed mostly most of these
09:29
guys have nobody’s interested in taking
09:31
prisoner with the tube but that they did
09:33
capture like I said they’ll get almost
09:35
all if not more taking out of those guys
09:38
than they would out of having captured
09:40
al-baghdadi and then once you have all
09:42
Baghdadi you’ve got a real problem what
09:44
are you gonna do with him I mean with
09:45
all the murders and everything’s he’s
09:46
done basically you have to you know find
09:49
him guilty of all of that and execute
09:51
him and that nobody likes the optics of
09:53
all of that so they I I mean I don’t
09:56
know this so perhaps I’m speaking out of
09:58
term but almost certainly there would
09:59
have been a kill order going into this
10:01
not a capture order going into it
10:03
although happy to take the other guys
10:05
that were associated with him so that
10:06
was the team that was there two fighters
10:08
they came out hands up or captured the
10:10
children they were taken out and then
10:12
al-baghdadi blew himself up with the
10:14
with the two wives down in the
10:16
whimpering down in the cave so that
10:20
long-term impact of that is minimal
10:22
because already he had a number two that
10:25
that is they’re ready to take over so
10:28
I’m sure that that person has already
10:30
begun the process of taking over the
10:33
day-to-day running it’s a question of
10:35
then where you can have impact with
10:38
these is if it gets through our heart
10:40
starts to get harder to fill those
10:43
leadership positions where people start
10:45
looking at it going now this isn’t gonna
10:47
work I’m gonna get killed right away and
10:48
to no end yeah okay I become a martyr
10:50
but you know we’re not going to get
10:52
anything done anyway so I’m not sure
10:54
it’s the right move
10:55
now that’s not where we’re at right now
10:57
there has been leadership killed one way
11:00
or another along the lines some of them
11:02
may resurface because they weren’t
11:04
confirmed
11:05
they may have gone into hiding or
11:07
getting out if that’s the case all of
11:09
those things are to the good because
11:11
then just disappearing into the woodwork
11:13
and getting out of the business if you
11:14
will great we’ll catch those guys
11:16
probably eventually anyway maybe if they
11:17
show their hand in any way but those
11:20
those people then that start to hesitate
11:22
to go into those leadership positions
11:23
and they want to kind of stay in the
11:25
lower down ranks that’s where you really
11:28
start to show the victory because then
11:29
they begin to disintegrate and splinter
11:31
and join with other groups or do
11:32
whatever they’re gonna do or just go
11:34
home you do see some of that so we’re
11:36
not there the guy who was number two is
11:40
now stepping into the number one slot
11:41
that’s going to continue business as
11:43
usual wherever they’re at whatever
11:45
they’re doing their plans for operations
11:47
overseas murders and terrorist attacks
11:49
those will continue essentially unabated
11:52
but once we nailed that guy the the next
11:55
line after that is not so clearly
11:58
defined in Isis so once he’s taken out
12:00
then I think what we really start to see
12:03
the impact of having taken Baghdadi out
12:05
and they’ve lost all their territory but
12:07
they haven’t lost their organization so
12:09
now what we’re kind of doing by taking
12:11
out leadership is starting to attack
12:13
command structure and leadership and and
12:16
I think we will see the impact and
12:18
another person or two taken out and
12:20
we’ll see how they’re able to handle
12:23
that sort of stress on the organization
12:25
prediction would be basically that it
12:27
begins to splinter and it will no longer
12:30
be as cohesive and you’ll see pieces off
12:33
around the edge kind of go off and
12:35
either get out or go off to some other
12:36
group it’s hard for those guys that have
12:38
been involved in terrorism to do
12:40
something else I mean they and that’s
12:42
that’s what they are as killers than at
12:45
that point so yeah it’s pretty much a
12:47
commitment once yes you start Ganic
12:49
terrorism yeah it’s pretty much a
12:51
commitment I hate to ask this but I have
12:55
to ask this I is there some way to make
12:58
sure that the team that conducted this
13:00
excellent and successful mission do not
13:03
all get together and take the same
13:05
helicopter in Afghanistan
13:08
yeah now there at once this is all done
13:10
they’ll going with their own ways their
13:12
their assignment and that the Delta guys
13:15
and the and the Ranger guys which by the
13:17
way I’ve worked with a lot of those guys
13:18
in the past mainly intelligence tends to
13:21
work with the Special Forces units more
13:24
than regular troops although both take
13:26
place so a lot of my background is
13:28
working with those guys those are good
13:30
guys but the way it’s gonna work for
13:31
them is they’re gonna come come back
13:33
from this assignment and they’ll be
13:35
there and and start splintering off to
13:37
go to all sorts of other assignments
13:39
some of them might retire because this
13:41
is kind of a high point for them so it’s
13:43
it’s a it’s a good time depending on
13:45
where they are in their career to move
13:47
on to say some other other project
13:49
because they would have some notoriety
13:50
and could get a good on word job and so
13:54
yeah that’s that’s typically what’ll
13:55
happen yeah they’re not going to stay
13:57
together as a unit for any length of
13:59
time they’ll very quickly move on and I
14:01
mean that’s the nature of the beast –
14:02
it’s not like they’re being targeted to
14:05
have that done it’s just going to be the
14:07
natural process so and and lastly you
14:12
know it’s difficult I don’t understand
14:15
that in terms of the way Islam is
14:17
structured that there has to it’s
14:19
essentially I mean I think the Mafia
14:21
actually copied their hierarchical
14:23
structure very directly from exactly how
14:27
Islam is laid out that that when you’re
14:29
conducting a raid or an operation which
14:31
where you take slaves and booty that you
14:33
have to kick up 10% to the captain who
14:36
kicks up to the insulin and it works
14:38
that way with this limb and so there has
14:40
to be a caliphate so that the Caliph the
14:43
leader ends up he’s that he is a de
14:46
facto the the permission needed the sort
14:50
of legal he’s the legal permission if
14:53
you want he’s the legitimization is a
14:55
word for these kinds of what would
14:58
essentially are crimes and but but
15:00
become political right so so what I’m
15:05
wondering is how much of an impact will
15:08
this have on what’s the Islamic state is
15:10
just essentially a Muslim Brotherhood
15:12
entity just like al-qaeda and you know
15:14
50 other groups we could we could name
15:16
it’s sort of irrelevant in a way but the
15:18
question is why
15:20
why would not someone just step up and
15:23
take I mean there must be a lot of
15:24
Muslims who think who whose ambition
15:26
would be yeah I want to be the new
15:29
caliph because yes a lot it offers a lot
15:32
it’s got benefits i short of being
15:34
killed in a few years which is gonna
15:36
happen
15:37
yeah it does and you touched on some
15:41
interesting questions there I mean
15:43
basically terrorism is based within the
15:46
Arabic culture of the home if you will
15:48
if you will right now of Islam and
15:51
they’re a very there it’s a tribal
15:53
culture it’s just that’s the basis of
15:55
what they come from and so naturally you
15:58
see a strong man a tendency for a strong
16:00
man leadership it’s also reflected in
16:02
Islam as you say so it’s reinforced
16:05
their self reinforcing back and forth so
16:07
they are very much oriented to want and
16:10
operate better with a very vertical
16:11
system with a leadership and chain of
16:13
command going down and and that’s just
16:15
how the whole thing is set up that of
16:17
course just gets them killed so they’re
16:19
pushing back trying to do more of a
16:20
horizontal thing but it doesn’t lend
16:22
itself to it so it’s always going to be
16:24
one of the problems now I there are
16:26
people that are always going to step up
16:28
and it’s certainly something we’ve seen
16:30
in narco trafficking for example I mean
16:32
you make big money in that but it’s a
16:34
dangerous business to be in they kill
16:36
each other and the authorities will
16:37
track them down and kill them on
16:39
occasion as well so it’s it’s one of
16:41
those things but we’ve never seen no
16:43
matter how much leadership we take out
16:45
that that disappears completely so don’t
16:48
mean to imply that with what I’ve said
16:50
it’s just not gonna go away you know
16:52
like disappear but what you have seen is
16:55
the organization’s become much more
16:57
horizontal and that means it’s
17:00
splintered so therefore less effective
17:02
so I mean that is that in under under
17:05
the circumstances what we can hope for
17:06
is success is something along those
17:08
lines is that Isis ISIL – whatever you
17:12
want to call it they they will have
17:14
their leadership get taken out
17:16
repeatedly and so it’s it’s much harder
17:19
and more difficult and fewer people that
17:21
can command the whole structure will be
17:23
able to rise to the top to do so
17:25
so you’ll have that that breakdown then
17:28
of the different groups that will
17:29
splinter off and each have their own
17:31
individual leaders
17:32
once you get down into that say third
17:34
layer they’re not just naturally all
17:37
going to respect the other guy and just
17:39
and and just automatically accept him as
17:42
leader so you see that competition start
17:44
to take place between them for
17:47
leadership and therefore you have their
17:49
own groups follow their own little
17:50
leaders and that splintering effect
17:52
which of course lowers their efficiency
17:54
and capability and their worldwide
17:56
capability and how much money that
17:59
they’ll have as a whole all of those
18:01
things start to get impacted negatively
18:02
so it’s a it’s a that is a measure of a
18:07
type of win for us is to diminish their
18:09
capability and of course that’s what we
18:10
want I mean you can’t it’s it’s not like
18:14
an army where you just take out all
18:16
their capability to to conduct war you
18:19
can just kill them all if it’s in an
18:20
army and kill and destroy every piece of
18:22
equipment they have and then okay it’s
18:24
over they’ll quit long before that but
18:26
with this because as they splinter out
18:28
and they’re just their little groups
18:29
it’s it’s harder to back a lesson
18:31
they’re less long yeah yeah probably
18:33
less likely that tons of recruits will
18:35
join because there isn’t one central
18:37
organization that looks like it has a
18:38
high probability of success oh
18:40
absolutely and within that culture
18:43
that’s a key element of it and everyone
18:45
should remember that they I mean they
18:46
truce I mean volunteers will flock to a
18:50
successful group volunteers will not
18:52
flock to an unsuccessful group where
18:54
everyone gets killed that nature the
18:56
Beast I mean why why would you go join
18:58
that group so yeah I mean it’s
19:00
encouraged that’s helpful
19:01
I would encourage getting along okay
19:12
you

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