Page 135 - Caliphate News Today

Organization. abu bakr al-baghdadi did something totally different. he had a terrorist organization that had tens of thousands, millions of people who were part of it. and he established a state. he established an open safe haven here in the middle east that he called his empire, he called it the caliphate. then his empire, hez caliphate was destroyed over the last five years there has been a concerted war. >> it was launched under president obama. >> it was finished under president trump to des...

Baghdadi, when he saw years later the chaos that was engulfing the arab world, when regimes were collapsing in the arab spring, when syria fell, was breaking into civil war during -- during the 2012-2013 period, he decided, instead of just carrying out gruesome terrorist attacks, taking hostages, beheading them on video, that he was going to be even more ambitious and he captured territory. he created what has been called -- what he called the caliphate. it was the most powerful terrorist organi...

Isis fighters. we made it clear we need to keep those folks under lock and key, so i think its -- and were continuing to do that. look, were looking for isis wherever it might reemerge. this was a huge win for the president. the president came into office. he was given a plate of foreign policy challenges that were probably more difficult for any president coming into office than any president since truman who took office in the second world war, and he has -- with respect to isis, he defeated...

Caliphate. but, in terms of the diaspora of isis if you will. theyre in nigeria, theyre in pakistan and everywhere they can recruit. so it is not like the right thing to be telling the american people that we no longer have any fear from isis. i do fear al-qaeda more than isis. >> look at whats happening in lebanon right now? hezbollah becoming a significant part of that government. now you have the leader of hezbollah out in the streets telling people to calm down. you have riots and protests i...

Question of, okay, we have successfully gotten rid of the caliphate. whats going to happen to what we know on the map now is syria? >> well, syria is being kind of divided up between spheres of influence, by turkey, by russia, iran will be involved as well. and of course, theres another battle raging in the south between hezbollah aligned forces and israel. so the future of syria is very much in doubt. i think we were holding together the balance of power with our force presence there. we were a...

Unsurprising. that transit rutta cross the turkish border into the idlib province is a route that islamic extremists have been using for years now. a well-known smuggling route. >> richard, what do you believe is the state of isis right now if baghdadi is, in fact, dead? >> well, this is very -- its a blow to the group, but the group was so much in flux. and actually toward the end, right in the end, baghdadi had lost some of his, some of his shine. he had lost some of his popularity because eve...

Status that he had once had when he was declaring his own caliphate. when he stood in -- and he did this physically when he stood in mosul and declared himself to be the leader of all muslims. that was his peak. he was -- he was in charge of an organization that was spreading and that was attracting recruits from around the world. and now, again, he apparently was targeted and killed. he was a fugitive on the run, trying to rebuild. he was at an extremely low point compared to where he had been....

What does the death of al-baghdadi represent for the future of isis? >> well, the death of al-baghdadi represents several things. the first thing it represents really is an operational victory. it puts points on the board for the good guys in this case. and i think what that tells us is that, you know, their so-called caliphate, its been shrinking and its been under tremendous pressure really for the next five years. but now that the leadership is beginning to shatter, you know, there was some f...

Local villagers to stay back, to stay away as this operation was taking place. >> okay. >> reporter: now, who is abu bakr al baghdadi. >> yes. >> reporter: and how big of a deal is this? its a very big deal. he was the leader of isis, the leader of the caliphate and this is not just a symbolic moment. he was the worlds most wanted terrorist right now who had been on the run for the last -- well, he has been on the run for a long time but he has been on the run since he lost his state since march...

Yet at the same time, this success? >> reporter: so, i mean, the baghdadi, if in fact this is beau bakr al baghdadi who was killed in this raid, its significant for isis, because hes a figurehead, right? theres not an immediate obvious successor at this point. there will be some time of turmoil. in an organization thats candidly in some turmoil. much of them have gone underground in this region. theyre not organized into a caliphate. theyre not holding land in a way they once were. there will be...