operational plan to identify russians coming to the main state department building, what offices they visited, and then how long it took for them to go back outside and get into their car. we would follow them to the outside of the building and notify robert s team inside the building of who was coming in and then they would try to follow them inside. when the russians stepped out of the car, we had cameras rolling with high resolution focused strictly on them, looking for anomalies in their clothes, in their hands, in their briefcases, anything at all that might give us an idea of what he or she might have been bringing into the main state department building. we saw one after another sbr officer going in, sometimes several at the same time. one day we saw a russian diplomat entering the building empty-handed, and coming out with a briefcae. we were very concerned at that point.
long it took for them to go back outside and get into their car. we would follow them to the outside of the building, and notify robert s team inside the building who was coming in and they would try to follow them inside. when the russians stepped out of the car, we had cameras rolling with high resolution focused straightly on them looking for anomalies in their clothes, in their hands, in their briefcases, anything at all that might give us an idea of what he or she might have been bringing into the main state department building. we saw one after another officer going in, sometimes several at the same time. one day we saw a russian diplomat entering the building, empty-handed and coming out with a briefcase. we were very concerned at that point. another incident that gave us a lot of concern, our surveillance team spotted a
stars on their shoulders, the hard-rimmed glasses crowd walking just as briskly with their briefcases, ncs in the west wing? if all that rigor and expertise can be cast aside by one guy over the phone that has now done this to a u.s. ally and, as richard engel said tonight the map of the middle east is being redrawn on the fly. that s precisely the question, brian. president trump has had an impulse to do this, to withdraw support for the kurds, but has been stopped in the past because none of his advisers would go along with that plan. he short circuited any process, having been in the white house for years, any decision would be subject to a lot of scrutiny, lot of meetings. you had one phone call from the president of turkey to president trump, same day an announcement is made that we re withdrawing the support from the kurds, that the turks can go forward with their military operation, basically green lighted by the
for president obama. ben, thank you very much for coming on. why do we have those concentric layers of hallways at the pentagon full of people walking briskly with stars on their shoulders? why all the hallways at the state department, the horn-rimmed glasses crowd walking just as briskly with their briefcases? the nsc in the west wing. if all of that rigor and expertise can be cast aside by one guy over the phone that has now done this to a u.s. ally and, as richard engel said tonight, the map of the middle east is being redrawn on the fly? that s precisely the question, brian. i think it s important to note that this is kind of unprecedented in the history of american foreign policy. president trump has had an impulse to do this, to withdraw support for the kurds, but he s been stopped in the past because none of his advisers would go along with that plan. so what he did here is he short circuited any process. having been in the white house for eight years, any decision
intent on attacking the west. with us tonight, to talk about all of it, ben rhodes, former national security adviser to president obama. why do we have those concentric hallways at the pentagon, with people walking briskly with stars on their shoulders, the hard-rimmed glasses crowd walking just as briskly with their briefcases, ncs in the west wing? if all that rigor and expertise can be cast aside by one guy over the phone that has now done this to a u.s. ally and, as richard engel said tonight the map of the middle east is being redrawn on the fly. that s precisely the question, brian. president trump has had an impulse to do this, to withdraw support for the kurds, but has