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six weeks ago. and mentioning saddam one final point, it appears saddam's nephew has been killed. almost certainly, jose fighting for isis just like saddam's former number two, one of the famous u.s. deck of cards who was also an isis commander and also killed. those former sunni leaders now with isis still trying to topple a shi'a-dominated government. jose? >> bill neely in london thank you very much for that update. developing terror news out of italy, police there have arrested a 22-year-old man from morocco linking him to that deadly attack in a tunisian museum in march. he was arrested at his mother's house near milan. police suspect he was involved in the shooting rampage of the museum that left nearly two dozen people dead. he's being held at a prison in milan. after the break, we'll zoom through some of today's other top stories, including an update on what may have started the
fighting isis in iraq. what we're seeing right now with just these target opportunity air strikes and training the iraqi arm and assisting with some of their military plannings for their operations they have no leadership on the ground so they are giving them these sort of crash course in learning to fight a war, but then when the iraqi soldiers have to go out into these cities and fight back against this very brutal organization isis, they don't have the leadership on the ground to fight back against them. >> here's the question amber, what has happened because for, you know more than ten years the united states has been in the position of supporting aiding training arming the iraqi armed forces amber, and any time it seems in the past couple of years when they are confronted by some opposition, they run and run and run. >> well in the point that you just made in the past almost decade they have had u.s.
difference between a connection being very weak and a connection that doesn't exist. >> well that's absolutely correct, and as more information comes out, like morrell's now speaking about it it seems to be that there was almost no connection at all. but i think that was, you know again, pretty well known that the basis for going into iraq to fight al qaeda made no sense at the time. >> and amber, let's talk about the issue that david just brought up about ramadi city where more than 200 americans died. it's now in isis hands. how important is it to get that back? >> well the fall of ramadi is a huge significant gain for isis. it's 70 miles west of baghdad, it's a supply route into syria and on into jordan and that's going to be really tough in the way that strategy if you want to call it in which we are
when you didn't. they are using your credibility to make the case for war dishonestly, as you just admitted. >> look, i'm just telling you -- >> you admitted it. they gave a false presentation of what you said to them. >> on some aspects. >> that's a big deal! >> chris, i'm telling you what was said. >> do you agree it's a big deal they claimed they had a weapon when you knew they didn't. >> well now more than a decade after the u.s. launched the war in iraq it has transformed into a fight with isis but just as frustrating and complex as it was ten years ago and just this morning u.s. officials tell nbc news the fall of ramadi was a breakdown of military support and discipline from iraqi forces due to baghdad's total neglect of the sunni capital and military forces. joining me now, state department official who worked as the rule of law coordinator in iraq also amber smith, a veteran of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, also a senior military adviser
are also correspondences between bin laden and other jihadi groups out there. some of this stuff, obviously, it's supportive and dated, it goes all the way back to 2003 2004, 2005 2006 but it should be noted there are a number of documents in there that are, again, not terribly complimentary to bin laden. there's a letter from the reform and jihad front in iraq and this is not exactly a secret but nonetheless, the letter they sent to bin laden directly told bin laden that zarkawi in iraq the islamic state ruined everything for the jihad and iraq and they were ruining bin laden's name and besmerching his reputation and he wasn't doing anything about it and they were upset about it. it's to be said not all documents are complimentary to al qaeda in fact in some ways they raise points about al qaeda we had hints of but it's certainly interesting to see now more fully flushed out. >> anything you've seen so far that really jumped out at you?
>> nbc affiliate ksby thank you for being with me. developing now in texas and oklahoma the severe weather damage is being assessed right now in the resort town of mineral wells, where a tornado caused widespread damage on tuesday night. it was one of more than two dozen tornados to hit the region in the past 12 hours. flash flood warnings in effect for parts of southern oklahoma which is dealing with historic rainfall. lots of developing stories unfolding this hour, starting with a live look inside the justice department. loretta lynch announcing resolutions have been reached with banks involved in years of manipulation in the currency market. we're monitoring this for you. also fleet week is kicking off right now with a parade of ships in new york harbor. three navy ships, four patrol boats, and two coast guard cutters are arriving for sea services lasting through memorial day. we'll have more on this. first, new developments in the fight against isis and the war of words that erupted last night on "hardball" about how we
for concerned veterans of america. what do you make of what morrell had to say, does it change the way americans should look at what happened in 2003? >> well it's interesting. i think we pretty much knew that already, that the connection was very weak between al qaeda and saddam hussein's government, and, of course we now have isis in iraq that's basically al qaeda 2.0, so some of the things that happened in iraq during the bush administration provided the ground for isis to be successful in iraq. the fall of ramadi is very much of concern. it shows in a very dramatic fashion the weaknesses in our effort to confront isis in iraq. we have an iraqi army that is not strong at all, we have a government in baghdad that is promised to reach out to the sunni communities but has displayed very little reach into sunni areas like ramadi. for instance, many reports suggest -- >> if i could, there is a
record of some involvement in crime. on the other hand the club itself usually takes precautions to distance itself as an organization from crime, so the way i would put it is you have a group of people who many of whom have a proclivity in that collection, a strong proclivity in some cases, but at the same time you have a club or organization that takes the line that we just heard. >> so what is there -- what do they do what's their reason to enter these clubs, what do they hope to gain from being in these clubs? >> camaraderie, excitement and networking. these clubs, there's a lot of adrenaline. they are very often in a -- they are pretty much always in a constant war state. they have enemies all over the world, and they watch them
blaming the prime minister hyder al -- haider al-abadi. it's for him a slightly more vicious echo of what's happening in washington with critics rounding on president obama's strategy. >> bill, meanwhile, ramadi are they just writing it off now? is there any plan to -- in place to take that back? >> well as you saw from that video, it is clear that there probably will be some attempt to retake ramadi. it's not clear when but those militiamen are messing. 3,000 of them it's being reported, along with tanks and artillery. and the iraqi government is relying on those shi'a militias to be the shock troops of any assault. if it happens, they would try to punch holes in isis positions in ramadi. that would open the way for elite iraqi army units, perhaps with u.s. air support. that's certainly how saddam's home city of tikrit was retaken
appears to show shiite militias heeding the government's call to join efforts to take it back. iraqi forces are also aassemble aassembling in has been nia, a military base near fallujah. isis fighters fighters launched new attacks on has been nia overnight. h ashsbbaniyah. bill, what do we know about what isis is trying to do here? >> good morning, jose essentially they're trying to drive home their advantage in anbar province where they have the iraqi army on the run. now a good time to make more gains. remember isis took the city of fallujah a year ago, nearby ramadi this past weekend and as you say they're now trying to link them up. it's not far, it's a 45-minute drive. overnight, iraqi forces say they fought off an attack by isis. there is the huge military base