joining us is former naval intelligence officer who is msnbc terrorist analyst. malcolm, the important thing to understand here is that not only is there a debate about whether the u.s. and the west and other countries should attack syria and a consequence using chemical attacks but there s a whole conspiracy theory of people growing that says we don t know there were chemical attacks. we don t know if there were chemical attacks that it was done by the assad regime and a lot of people are comparing this to the decision to go into iraq because of chemical weapons that were proved to not be the case back then. how do you make sense of this? what you are hearing when people say we don t know about this. you are looking at the spear tip of a massive russian propaganda campaign that s been playing out for year.
then failed to adequately respond. there you see top u.s. policymakers didn t appreciate the dangers, then scrambled to draw up options to fight back. the story says, in the end big plans died of internal disagreement, a fear of making matters worse, or misguided belief in the resilience of american society and its democratic institutions. the post says the obama administration shelved various countermeasures including cyberattacks creating its own army of internet trolls, and even launching a global propaganda network to compete with russia s state-funded tv network. but president obama and top aides feared that they would be escalating the conflict if they did any of that. and simply didn t believe sh russia s meddling would impact the selection. a former terrorist analyst with the fbi, cia, and national security council, great to see
the nbc terrorist analyst who has consulted for the fbi and others. he is the co-founder of the cyber intelligence firm flash point. thank you for coming in yet again as the subject turns to your bailey wick. i know you re not a political analyst but i have to ask you about timing. this is a president who has said, how much do we love wikileaks? this comes out about modes of surveillance. at a time when the president has made a so far evidence-free charge about mes o surveillance. anything strike you as odd? i don t see how this could be in his interests. president trump is no longer the opposition. he is the representative of this government. and these tools, these agencies, these intelligence agencies, they are there to serve him and to provide him with data. it amazes me, i find it hard to fathom how this could be in his interests. this is against everybody s interests.
we re learning that two operatives still at large are the ones who gave the orders for the massacre. and that they were in contact with terrorists before, during and after the attacks took place. this news comes a year to the day since the charlie hebdo attack that really ushered in just a horrible year in french history. here to bring us the details is cnn terrorist analyst and editor in chief of the cte sentinel, paul cruickshank. paul, always good to be with you. we ve been here for too much of this together. this has been an ongoing investigation. is this a new idea, not one person, but two. and active investigation from abroad. tell us about it. this is a very significant development. two operatives, seemingly members of the conspiracy, still at large who were giving orders to the paris attackers from brussels, before, during and after the attack. these individuals were identified on december 4 by
we have news in the terror investigation here in france. intelligence officials announcing that the fugitive paris suspect may have escaped to syria. this as we re learning new details about another wave of mass murder that the alleged planner of the attacks here in paris may have been plotting, again, to strike in and around this metropolis. joining us now is cnn terrorist analyst, mr. paul cruickshank and cnn counterterrorism analyst and former cia counterterrorism official mr. phil mudd. mr. cruickshank, i start with you. please excuse the sirens hear. just part of daily life in paris. what does it mean that there is somewhat of a disconnect between the french theory that this eighth attacker may have made it to syria and the belgian intelligence officials who say