Report. Fair, balanced, and unafraid. Greta goes on the record right now. This is a fox news alert. President obama just saying we dont have a strategy yet. You heard right. The president speaking about isis in syria. The terror group beheading americans and publicly executing thousands in both iraq and syria. The president plan to combat isis, well, he doesnt have one. Karl rove is here to respond to that in a minute. First ed henry live with the very latest. Reporter greta, remarkable because the context is he was speaking specifically about isis in syria, not iraq. Earlier in the News Conference the white house scrambling to point out, yes, in the transcript earlier he said hes got a military strategy in iraq. He was specifically talking about syria and was being pressed about why havent you
gone to congress, why arent you making your case to the American People, why are you not seeking a debate and a vote for authorization of the use of force in syria . So it was in that context we should note. Nonetheless, its still a devastating quote because this is a president who let through some of the things, last thursday his own defense secretary, chuck hagel, said that this threat from isis is worse than al qaeda pre9 11. So if you now the spin is, look, we have a strategy in iraq but not syria. Why dont you have a strategy in syria . Secondly last thursday you will remember general martin dempsey, he said you cant defeat isis unless you go into syria. So he was acknowledging the air strikes in iraq have had some impact, but you still have to go into syria if you will defeat isis. How can the president publicly admit to the American People and the world he does not have a strategy to deal with isis specifically in syria . Military strategy there, when his own defense secretary and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff have said how critical
this is to put a together. Now, look, theres still time, right . But the bottom line is you have officials not just on the republican side but in the president s own cabinet saying this is a grave threat in the region but also potentially to the american homeland. For the president to say candidly at this News Conference not just once but a couple times, i dont have a strategy yet, thats devastating. Ed, thank you. Thank you. You heard it straight from president obama. We dont have a strategy yet. And karl rove joins us. Karl, we dont have a strategy yet. Your thoughts . Well, the president was talking about syria, lets give him the credit that hes due. The question was specifically syria, but thats astonishing because the president had three years ago said assad must go. He was warned about the role that isis was playing inside syria, and he has had all that time to develop a strategy about
what to do about isis in syria and he still doesnt. He also has no real strategy on isis in iraq. Think about this, greta. December 30th of last year was when isil took fallujah. June 10th they took they burst into northern iraq. Two days later theyd taken mosul. By the 29th they were threatening baghdad and declared an islamic caliphate. On the 2nd of august they took the mosul dam. Six days later finally the president acts by having a small number of air strikes made on isil. And the president really has no real strategy even today. He says were going to continue to do as little as possible from the air. We want the Iraqi Government to form. We Want International Partners to come together with us and at some point were going to sit around the camp fire, hold hands, sing kumbaya and figure out what to do about this cancer which i remind you less than eight months ago he was referring to as the jv. Today i was appalled. I was appalled. Apart from the fact that cancer the whole idea i wouldnt use cancer, but the malignancy aspect of it, not exactly the description i would use but here is what i thought was stunning. Chuck todd asked him can you defeat isis without going after them in syria. A question everyone has been asking, and i read through the answer twice. President obama did not give an answer, and thats a very important issue. He needs to answer. Secondly, he says what he is going to do is continue to support a moderate opposition inside of syria. Well, moderate opposition is a bit of a problem since the moderate opposition is the group that got beaten by isil. Theyre not winning this battle, and some of them have even now joined with isil. Its not been an effective strategy to date. Well, it hasnt been an effective strategy because he is not supporting the moderate opposition. He turned down the recommendation of the secretary of state, secretary of defense, and the Intelligence Community three years ago to arm the free
syrian army at a moment when assad was on the ropes and isis was a much smaller, much more much less it was. The president has yesterday to really effectively aid the Free Syrian Army. Look, whatever is he doing in iraq, he wants to talk about how little it is. He spent a lot of time talking about how limited it was. It was based on a completely phony reason, which is transparently phony to the rest of the world. He says we did the steps we are taking are in order to defend american personnel and in order to relieve the humanitarian crisis. Look, if you were worried about the mosul dam 225, 250 miles westnorthwest of baghdad being blown up and baghdad flooding, you would pull the american personnel out of there you would have days to get them out of there. And, the president is not being honest about it. And humanitarian . Look, whats worse . We have a bunch of people stuck on a mountain who have been driven from their homes. A problem that largely ended
up resolving itself. Thats a humanitarian crisis that he is willing to aid. But is he not willing to aid the taking of a second largest city in iraq, mosul. And the decimation of its population, the killing of christians, the oppression and death of religious minorities, and a brutal the installation of a brutal totalitarian islamic regime in mosul. Thats not a humanitarian crisis from his progressive perspective. What do we do with the awkward position we hoped he would get rid of. We hoped assad would leave after gassing his people. There has been that diplomatic dance and he is still there. Assad is fighting isis in syria and we want to fight isis. I mean, its rather awkward. Are we now on the same team as assad . Someone who gases his people . How do we look at this . No. Thats a strawman. Just because isis is hated by assad doesnt mean we shouldnt hate them and shouldnt disseminate them for what they are doing and the threat that they represent to us and our
allies. However. Let me ask you though. To the extent we go after isis and lets say we eliminate isis in syria, does that empower assad . No. It does if thats all you do. It does not if you are simultaneously bulking up the assistance to the the moderate opposition to whats left of the Free Syrian Army. If you are helping them, they can they are in a better position to move in to most of the areas that today isis controls. And they will be be a and they will be welcomed by people who have previously indicated their opposition to assad and are sick of the regime that is now on top of them in the form of the islamic caliphate. So, its a 12 punch. You have got to go after isis, yes. But you also have to aid the Free Syrian Army so the person who does not directly benefit from this is assad. We cannot remain on the sidelines for fear that if we kill an isis terrorist, that we are somehow aiding
assad. We cannot do that because these people represent an existential threat to our interest in the middle east and they are training and arming people who could come here to the United States and commit horrific crimes on a scale that might diminish make 9 11 look like childs play. Karl, always nice to see you. Thank you, sir. You bet, thank you. Well, brace yourself for. This terrorists may be planning to strike right here in the United States. New english language al qaeda magazine is urging attacks on u. S. Targets. Naming specific targets. Las vegas ceesks, times square. Military colleges. The online publication put out by al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula features instructions on making car bombs and implies an attack is coming sunni. Terrorism expert walid fair reiss joins us. Good evening, sir. Good evening. How serious do we take this magazine . I would say very seriously. This is the kind of magazine that is tell us what our intentions are there is a
context to this. Al qaeda is now trying to top what isis is doing on the ground. There is competition to al qaeda and isis. On the ground isis is winning in syria and iraq. But, still al qaeda has cells around the world including an iraqi state this is their flag. Why are they telling us what their targets are . Actually, they are not telling us. They are telling their people try to do that. They know we are going to read it deliberately put english. Chances are more americans are going to know about this than english than if they wrote it in arabic. Remember in 2005 and 2006 al qaeda memos that spoke about attacking bases and attacking many things and still we had fort hood and still we had boston. We can cannot militarize all our streets. They know that what they are trying to do is recruit showing pictures of the past attackers, past jihadists and trying to tell more jihadists we need to get action in the United States. We put up the picture in the put up the video where they put the past jihad i think you can see it too. What is more of the terrifying thing at the end
the last one they have got all the dates when this terrorism happened and people involved but the last one has 20 question mark meaning that its coming. Can you see it right there on the screen the picture. 20 question mark. Basically what they are trying to say that you are on notice we are going to attack you. They are trying to tell theirselves you dont need to go to the middle east to try to work with isis. Work with us. We have a battlefield here. Not just here but also in canada and Great Britain and france and other western countries. What do we make about this competition between isis and al qaeda . Isis having been thrown out of al qaeda for being violent. Which is how do you get thrown out of al qaeda for being violent . What do we make of that battle . Isis has advantage in the jihadist world of controlling land. All these videos. And money. And a lot of money and oil. This is a real caliphate. This is a dream of bin laden and al qaeda actually happened on the ground. So for al qaeda people to top that, they are going to be the one who can strike at the west, bring down the United States, economy, and
other structures. This is what they are trying to do. Why are not going to see a merger of these two terrorist groups . Were going to see instead of a competition who can outdo the other . Thats an excellent question . Actually you are predicting the future. They will try to top. They will try to move forward. Only when they show the jihadist that they can do, then the two councils of advisors will say now we are equal, now we can come together. How is it that they got kicked out isis got kicked out for violence what was it. Actually it was not for violence. Al qaeda same violence they have beheaded, they have attacked against cities, leadership. Zawahiri number two historical leader of al qaeda and al baghdadi and little war lords on the ground who on their own decided we have got to take the action on the ground in syria and iraq without the orders of the supreme leader. Such a power grab essentially . Even jihadist have a power grab among themselves. Actually we have seen this. Times square, the casinos, its unbelievable the list. Im afraid also for
schools and transportation. Everything. Tell you everything. Walid, thank you, nice to see you, sir. Thank you. Horrifying new video shows isis marching hundreds of syrian soldiers to their execution. [foreign language] the video begins by showing the armed terrorists parading their captives through the deserted. Syrian soldiers are wearing only underwear and have their hands behind their heads. The footage fades to black before showing a pile of bodies lying face down in the sand. And iraqi accused of adultery stoned to death. Execution broadcast on big screens in the center of mosul. Next guest says life in iraq in largest city getting more frightening by the minute. Nice to see you, matt, tell me what is going on for the poor people who are in mosul with isis there . Well, in mosul, which is the first city that was
taken over by the isis group back in june, and, remember, they came screaming down the tying rest river right tigris people. A lot of the people welcomed the isis group because they felt like they were relief from the Iraqi Military who had been subject gating sunnies in that area. Life has become more difficult especially economically for people in mosul. Horribly graphic stories about public executions is that going on in these cities where they want people to see these . Yes. This is going on in mosul. This is going on in rocca, nobody major city in syria that the isis group has had for several months, almost a year one of the things that this group that isis has to watch out for if they want to maintain their dominion over such huge tracks of land. We are talking about areas the size of jordan and other states in this region they have to watch for the fact that they are alienating a lot of the people who they are trying to recruit by
imposing this very draconian form of sharia law. Back earlier this year in aleppo some of the residents rose up and pushed isis out of that city. So, there is a real risk for isis that they could be ousted and thats what the Obama Administration when they go about the business of trying to decide how they are going to deal with isis, they need to keep in mind that this group is actually doing a lot of the work for them by alienating people in these cities. How big is mosul and i guess i should say how big was it a year ago . How big is it about now and are the people of mosul fleeing even though they may have welcomed the insurgents at first . Are they now fleeing . There was a lot of fleeing that happened originally. Remember, mosul is the second largest city in iraq. Its about 1. 7 Million People. So its a huge center of commerce. There is a the lot of industry. There is a lot of Oil Extraction going none that area. Its a big, its a bustling metropolis. At the same time, right when isis took over in june, a lot of ethnic minorities left a lot of Shiite Muslims left. One of the largest christian
communities in the middle east Asyrian Christians and some other christians and other groups also fled the city to neighboring kurdistan so that 1. 7 Million People has dropped in size by a couple hundred thousand people. Also influx of others from the villages. Its a changing city. But really when we are talking about the problems that these people are facing yes, there is a lot of graphic punishment, there is a lot of public beatings and people being arrested and all this sort of thing. But the real problem for people in mow is as you will is economic. They are having a lack of medicine, food shortages, they are not able to bring electricity, water is about to run out for this city. So, problems are very bad for the people of mosul and they are really about to get quite a lot worse. Why are they having these economic problems how has if effected commerce for those at arent part of this civil war or whatever you want to call it . Why are they getting why
are they having such troubles . Iraq is one of the largest food importers in the world. This is a country where 9 5 of the economy, 9 5 of the inputs come all from oil. So this country doesnt really produce much in terms of food. In terms of other goods that might be consumed by ordinary people. Its really just oil. So mosul like a lot of other cities they rely on imports. There arent a lot of people who are interested in doing business with people like isis. So, and its very difficult to do that because to import goods into a place like mosul requires a lot of cooperation with a group that a lot of neighbors in the region consider to be very unsavory to put it mildly. Chuck hagel recently saying that isis is tremendously well funded beyond anything we have seen. So where does isis get all its money . Joining Us Columbia University professor. Good evening, sir. Thanks for having me. Where does isis get all
its money and is there a way to quantify it. Difficult to quantify exact figure. All the numbers we see are soft. It gets money from a variety of sources, extortion and protection reacts, smuggling, control of natural resources, ransom, stolen goods, its very much like the mafia in terms of dvd income. Is dferred income. You talk about how diverse it is. Going back to u. S. Presence in iraq and fighting in iraq we made strong efforts to cut off the funding and even then the results were mixed. What i have heard about isis having taken over so many oil fields is that one of the problems that we have is that it will sell its oil at anywhere from 25 to 50 a barrel when the market, if we had to sell it on the market would be be over 100 so that Everyone Wants to join in on the black market and try to buy this cheap oil even if you buy it at 60 a barrel you can sell it at 80 and still make money. Thats exactly right. They are willing to sell it at knockdown price because,
of course, they didnt pay the infrastructure colmes to set up the oil field in a sense except for paying salaries and upkeep its all profit to them. Keeping the money, i assume that theyre not putting it through the banking system, this is a cash economy . Its a cash economy or they will use things like the parallel Islamic Banking system they dont typically put it directly into banks. Explain that thats handtomanned money, pass money around. Exactly on trusted couriers, basically. Meaning that i would give you, you know, 50,000 and you run it to turkey and then you would hand it to somebody else, to hand it to somebody else, to hand it to somebody else . Exactly or i would call my brother or cousin in turkey and tell him to give the money directly to somebody. Is this the Richest Terrorist Group