Death find the end of a chapter. But no mistake, something does still continue. We dont know what it is but we know that isis was fractured as an ideology and franchise and unlikely that one mans death will end from a stretch from philippines through russia and to the streets of european capitals but an interesting set of questions that the commanderinchief will end up answering about how this raid came about. It was literally miles away from the southern turkish border, an area where many did not imagine abu bakr albaghdadi, the leader of isis, would look for shelter. This is where al qaeda have the biggest strong hold, a place where western intelligence chiefs are concerned about the next wave of jihad but who led them to that particular location. We understand from u. S. Officials turkey was told this operation was happening perhaps already underway and the question being what piece of
information brought them to that spot. The syrian kurds who have been the u. S. Main ally on the ground losing over 10,000 Sons And Daughters but abandoned in the past weeks by the shift in trump policy over syria. Their chief has said this is a result of intelligence gleamed over a fivemonth period that led to this operation. Well wait and see if donald trump confirmed the roll of the syrian kurds theyve abandoned in the last month or so when he gives details during the particular announcement but it is a startling policy with his military here dealing with the withdraw rapidly under appalling circumstances from major parts of syria. So a smaller area now. But while dealing with that extraordinary series of tactical redeployments inside of syria and iraq, they pulled off the most extraordinary feat in terms of hunting down the worlds most wanted man, an extraordinary moment and one in which President Trump will con front
th that the intelligence has led him to this, the goal of his first term. Nake patton walsh in iraq. Jeremy diamond is live at the white house where the president is expected to speak any moment. The president has been criticized over his syria withdraw order and pentagon officials are underlining this particular mission could not have happened without u. S. Troops in syria. What do you expect to hear from President Trump . Reporter well, jake, youre right, after weeks of criticism in syria, this is a moment for the president to mark a significant Foreign Policy victory and try to define this as a legacydefining moment. Weve seen him tout the socalled caliphate in iraq and syria and this is an opportunity for the president to tout the effective decapitation of the isis organization with the death that were learning of abu bakr albaghdadi. The president keyed this up last night by tweeting that something very big had just happened. And of course it is something
big. Because bagdadi was the leader of this organization who inspired the attacks that killed 14 people in san bernardino, california, 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub in orlando, florida. But the question is this does not mark the death of that ideology and doesnt mark the death of the thousands of isis fighters who still remain, some of them underground in in syria and we expect him to continue to face questions about the future of that fight against isis, particularly amid this withdraw of u. S. Troops from syria. Jake. Jeremy diamond at the white house. As we await President Trump any moment now and well bring that to you live and im joined by three experts and former director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper and former congressman mike rogers and former Homeland Security security adviser to president
obama lisa monaco. Thanks one and all. General clapper, obviously this is a big moment for u. S. Forces for the president and the u. S. And anyone who hates terrorism. What questions are you hoping President Trump will answer in his statement this morning . Well im very interested for me the contribution of the Intelligence Community that led to this. It looks like this is kind of a reminiscent of the Textbook Relationship between intelligence and Special Operations that took down Osama Bin Laden. And it is very reminiscent of that. And it is quite significant. A huge symbolic meeting for taking out bagdadi, who has been a target for some time. I think what is going to be interesting is to the extent to which this negatively effects isis or does it galvanize isis, the remnants of isis, which
still survives as a ideology and has franchises in other places besides syria. And lisa, well find out more about the president s role in authorizing this. But take us inside of the room. What is it like for a president when he is presented with options we think of abu bagdadi is in this place and here are some of the military options. That is a tough for any president. And president s get paid to make the tough calls and the risky calls. But at bottom, this day is about the professionalism and the dedication of the men and women of the u. S. National Security Community so inside of the Situation Room and i along with jim clapper has been in that room many hours dealing with very dangerous operations like this one most assuredly was. And what youre looking for is to present the president with as much information as possible and what are the options or the potential risks and putting that
all on the table. What are the potential risks to our forces in the region . To our embassies in the region for potential retaliation and the fbi and department of Homeland Security doing here at home to mitigate any potential retaliatory acts by followers, those who are inspired by isis. Remember, of course, isis gains its notoriety for becoming an army that took territory the size of Great Britain at one point and for planning and motivating attacks in europe and other places. But most importantly i think by having an ideology and spawning a social movement and inspiring those to be radicalized on social media and that is what weve seen here at home on some of the attacks that our colleague from cnn just mentioned. So we want to be thinking very carefully about what are the risks and the plans in place to mitigate those and present the president with the information. Also about the risk to our very
brave men and women who were undertaking this operation. And chairman rogers, let me ask you, abu im going to mess up his name. Bagdadi. He was not just the leader of isis, he founded isis. He did. So his death is a very significant one i would think. But does it end the isis ideology . Oh, it wont end the ideology for sure and there are other Branch Offices that they established in africa and other places that are gaining steam. What we found even after the Osama Bin Laden raid and what weve learned in the last 18 years in fighting terrorism, is tempo is important. You cant take out the leader and then decide youre going to pack up and come home. That wouldnt work. That will work against you. So the next few months are equally important. And that was significant. It was important. The symbolism is huge and he was a real ontheground Battlefield Leader and provided inspiration
to his followers. So that part of removing that is going to have a big impact on them but the next couple of months is also critically important. Can we maintain tempo . Can you go after other leadership of isis and start to push them to a place where they cannot plan, operate, train, finance events, not only just in syria but in their Satellite Offices as well. Very interesting point. And so with the death of abu bakr albaghdadi, general, are you concerned this will would galvanize isis. Do you think it is important as chairman rogers just suggested to keep up the tempo and for u. S. Forces to stay in the region to make sure this doesnt become a main call for these terrorists . Absolutely. I think chairman rodgers is exactly right. Isis is more than just bagdadi, as importanty as important as he was. 14,000 to 18,000 fighters yet remaining and the franchise are
branches in other places. Notably afghanistan where of course we still have forces. Isis did participate losing leadership. So they decentralized and groomed people to assume the role. Now i dont know that they have anybody would have the symbolic importance of bagdadi. But i dont think we can say at this point that we can stop worrying about isis. And everybody here obviously is unanimous in saying that is important. But i just dont want to take away from the moment. This is an importnt moment for the u. S. For u. S. Special operators who Risk Everything to bring more safety and security to the United States. The leader of the Kurdish Military with which the United States aligned, the sdf, just said the operation began about five months ago. What does that mean to you, lisa . Does that mean gathering intelligence, maybe even putting a spy into the isis region or
into the isis circle where this operation and raid went down . It could mean a host of things and it underscores the importance of that partnership. The Kurdish Military and thefiers that were the pointing end of the spear for our fight against isis. Weve been with them now for a number of years and that means fighting, supporting their fight on the ground, developing intelligence, feeding that back to the u. S. Intelligence community to develop operations like this one. So it could mean a whole host of things. But it does underscore the importance of that partnership and just how vital it has been to be with them and to work by, with and through that very brave fighting force. And we find out more about this and especially in terms of the difference between Signals Intelligence which is surveillance which we heard a lot about during the bin laden
raid and Human Intelligence and spies and informants and they are both very important especially going into an area of syria where isis is not known to have a presence. Completely. And this is an area that we dont normally operate so the intelligence had to be obtained at least on the ground through partners and folks that we work with on the ground. What was important about this Osama Bin Laden raid, yes, it was Signal Intelligence but the Analytical Corp of the Intelligence Community were able to piece together small bits of information of how couriers got in and out of the Osama Bin Laden compound which led to the discovery of that compound. So it wasnt just Signals Intelligence, it was critically important, it wasnt just Human Intelligence, they had bits and pieces of sighting or identifying, it was identifying the courier route to put small pieces together. I bet when they do the forensics
of this particular raid, youll find the same similarities, people focused on the target in the neighborhood who understand the players in the neighborhood. Meaning our presence on the ground in syria as small as it was was probably critically important to putting the intelligence package together. There is an old saying in intelligence, it is access, access, access. You need to be as close to the problem as you can if your going to get information that would lead to a raid like this. Well find out how much congress was notified about this ahead of time, if at all. I believe it is customary to alert the Heads Of Congress and the heads of the house and Senate Intelligence committee. Is that what happened during bin laden raid . So my experience with very sensitive operations like this one is one of the things that youll be talking about in the Situation Room after the Intelligence Community briefs this operation and you consider all of the other risks the question will turn to how and when do we notify the key
members of congress that could involve the leadership, the leadership of both the house and the senate, the Gang Of Eight, as it were, which of course chairman rodgers was a member of, so the leadership of the house and Senate Intelligence committees and my experience is that is done after the operation has concluded to a point where our folks are out of harms way. And that is because of the fear that there will be a leak. Exactly. And that was the case in the ubl raid, an attempt to cloister the information and ensure that our people were safe that conducted the raid before word gets out because that is news like that is hard to contain. Is that something that the gang Gang Of Eight and for those watching it is the leader of the house and senate, both democrats and republicans and the leaders
and top Minority Party of the house and Senate Intelligence committees, eight individuals. You were a member of the Gang Of Eight when you were chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Finding out after the fact or finding out once before the facing does, but before you could have a say in it or anything, is that something that congress understands . This cases have very, very different. I have a great relationship with the Central Intelligence agency and the director and other players in the Intelligence Business so my democratic counterpart and i were brought on in january once we were sworn in as leadership and followed the package as it developed including the notification that was going to happen before it happened. But that is very rare and ill tell you why that is rare is for the environment that you see today. If i would were sitting in that chair, i would equally be very cautious about sharing any of that preevent. And at that time the committee was focused on intelligence work and making the community, given
the resources to be successful, all of those things. So in that case it was very, very different. Matter of fact it was called before the raid happened, it was call when it got called off the first time and then called again. So but that is a developed relationship and any oversight operation. You have to work to have that kind of a relationship with the Intelligence Community. Right. And i certainly wouldnt i cannot even possibly imagine having any of those briefings today. And importantly in the case of House Intelligence Committee under the chairmanship of mike rodgers and the Ranking Member operated on a bipartisan basis which made them in the eyes of Intelligence Committee i could say more credible. The way the Senate Intelligence committee is right now. Well much like the senate appears to be now. Operating on a bipartisan basis and that is hugely important for the development of and sustainment of trust. A committee source, a source
on the House Intelligence Committee tells us that chairman schiff has not yet been briefed even now even as we expect President Trump any minute to come out and talk about this. That seems surprising . Not to me. And ill tell you why. The dysfunction. You cant have that much dysfunction in that committee. It is now leading an Impeachment Inquiry which to me is not the business of an Intelligence Committee. There are very important work and oversight that needs to happen. And in the Osama Bin Laden raid, and if they reached out, if it went wrong there was a significant price to pay. This was in another country and had to cross the border into that country, getting by early was smart and important and they did that. And in this particular case it doesnt have that same magnitude of crossing a border, we already had troops in this particular region but there is there are
implications in this. We had russian units near hezbollah and operating near that particular area. It is a kind of a stew of terrorism up in that area and folks who arent necessarily cooperative to the United States. So this is was not without high risk. And our operators and intelligence officials get high marks for that. But to try to walk down in this political environment and Sharp Elbowed Environment where i have a piece of information that helps me and hurts you and they might use it to that end, i think it is exactly why he doesnt know to this day. I would just say it is in stark contrast to my experience. So after very sensitive operations, Hostage Rescue Operations or attempted, et cetera, i would be on the phone when i was the president obamas counterterrorism adviser i would be on the phone