The final episode!

Trump launched 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat Air Base, but he first warned the Russians who in turn warned the Syrians. So the attack was mostly for show. Putin suggested the attack was an attempt to distract the world from civilian casualties in Iraq. An American-led bombing in Western Mosul on 17 March 2017 killed hundreds of civilians. But the American media obediently got behind Trump and called the bombing “beautiful”.

Good luck to the Syrian people.

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Second last episode!

On 8 October 2015, the U.S. officially announced the end of the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels in an acknowledgment that the program had failed.

The Pentagon admitted that it had trained only four or five fighters inside Syria and that others had surrendered to rival groups and handed over the their weapons when they crossed the border from Turkey.

But other covert and significantly larger CIA programs to arm anti-government fighters in Syria continued.

Trump became President and his attitude towards Bashar changed – at least for a brief period. Especially after the 4 April 2017 gas attack at town of Khan Shaykhun. 72 hours later, Trump launched 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat Air Base, which U.S. intelligence claimed was the source of the attack.

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Third last episode!

In June 2014 Syria had a presidential election. Guess you won?

On August 19 American journalist James Foley, who had been captured in Syria, was beheaded in a video by ISIL member “Jihadi John”. That started a run of ISIL beheadings and threats to America and the UK.

On 30 September 2015, at an official request by the Syrian government, the Russian Aerospace Forces began a sustained campaign of air strikes against both ISIL and the anti-Assad FSA.

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After the Obama administration decided against a full out attack on the Syrian forces, they began to revamp a failed policy. In the end, the Obama administration spent $1 billion, according to the New York Times, on what the CIA called a train-and-equip program, trying to build a rebel army, code-named Timber Sycamore. It was one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the CIA – and it failed dismally and was eventually shut down by Trump in 2017.

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Obama’s “red line” and what happened after the Ghouta attack. On 31 August 2013, the US military was ready to make strikes on Syrian targets. But Obama blinked. Maybe because Donald Trump tweeted that attacking Syria would “look very bad”.

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Syria were one of seven countries that had not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. They were widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent. Fast forward to March 19, 2013: There’s a gas attack in the town of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria.  It resulted in at least 26 fatalities including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, and more than 86 injuries. And then, in the early hours of 21 August 2013, two opposition-controlled areas in the suburbs around Damascus, were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin. The Ghouta Attack. Estimates of the death toll range from at least 281 people to 1,729.

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More clips of Barbara Walters’ 2011 interview with Bashar where he explains why Syria is “the faultline” of the Middle East and how he ended up President. We cover the major events of 2012, including the Benghazi attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya which, according to Seymour Hersh, may have had to do with the existence of a “rat line” funneling weapons from Libya into Syria, operated by the CIA. And we talk about the role of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Obama’s “red line”.

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Late 2011, Bashar al-Assad did a lengthy interview with Barbara Walters, in which he explained his perspective on the violence engulfing his country, how he ended up as President, and his plans for the future. It’s a fascinating and disturbing interview, and we play a few selected clips on this episode. At the time, the death toll was around 4000.

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Here’s my interview with Muhannad Saker, a Syrian from Lattakia, an Alawii, who was in Damascus during the early years of the civil war. I chatted with him a few weeks ago to get an eyewitness account of the events.

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NATO attacks Libya to remove Gaddafi, in part, according to intelligence sent to Hillary Clinton (leaked by Wikileaks) to prevent him from introducing the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold.

Meanwhile in Syria, large crowds of Syrians rallied in Damascus and Aleppo in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

And then ISIS got involved. We talk about the creation of ISIS, and how many of the leaders were kept in America’s torture camps – Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.

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