On WABC Radio, Steven Emerson told host John Castimatidis that Syria's so-called new leader remains a radical Islamist waging jihad against the country's minorities, including violently displacing Kurds and betraying the U.S.-allied SDF that helped contain ISIS. Emerson also detailed Turkey's role in enabling Syria's jihadist regime while training Hamas suicide bombers and backing Iran, and revealed for the first time his role in facilitating IRGC commander defections.

Transcript:

John Catsimatidis:
Sunday morning we have Steve Emerson. He's the founder of the Investigative Project out of Washington, and he has some firsthand information sometimes that other people don't have.

Well, Steve, you want to, on a Sunday morning, you want to give all our listeners an update after President Trump's visit to Davos. Give us the pulse of how everybody feels and what they feel like.

Steve Emerson:
Well, John, it's good to be with you. I hope our listeners have eaten breakfast and digested it because the material I'm about to reveal is not very pleasant.

In the past week, the new Syrian regime, which is dominated by ex and current Jihadists, have assaulted the entire Kurdish community in Syria, displaced the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] — a group that has been our ally for more than a decade in detaining 9,000 ISIS terrorists — booted them out, attacked Christian communities, and now has basically abdicated its responsibility [in detaining ISIS terrorists] because it's now the U.S. has now been forced to detain the 9,000 terrorists and ship them to Iraq.

This is a catastrophe of the worst making because terrorists, hundreds of them have escaped — ISIS terrorists. We know how bad damage they can do by just [a few]; one hundred can do a lot of damage and kill Americans.

This is just one part of the problem that has been developing in the Middle East. And John, Turkey has played a pernicious role in so many areas that the American public is probably not aware of.

John Catsimatidis:
Well, I'm not sure. I have my own problems with Turkey being the head of the highest layperson in the Greek Orthodox Church in North America, and so I have my own problems, but Turkey is a NATO country.

But are they really a NATO country or does the rest of the NATO trust them?

Steve Emerson:
Well, you raise a good question. The reason that they basically play a hostage role over Europe is because they're the ones that threaten to unleash hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe, unless Europe pays them a hostage fee and basically kowtows to their policies.

As far as Turkey being a U.S. ally, if they were a U.S. ally, they wouldn't be purchasing the advanced Russian S-400 missile systems and they wouldn't be allowed to conduct military operations against U.S.-backed partners in Syria and elsewhere.

NATO is weakened by the inclusion of Turkey, but they [Turkey] basically are holding the United States and European hostage and it's a pretty despicable game.

Look, Turkey hosts and literally trains Hamas terrorists. There are training camps in Turkey designed to send — and they have sent — suicide bombers into Israel. One suicide bomber detonated himself a year and a half ago in the middle of Tel Aviv.

Turkey has imprisoned U.S. pastors, including American Pastor Andrew Brunson who had been held for years. He was released only due to pressure by the Trump administration, but Turkey continues to persecute Christians.

Of course, they're deeply involved also with Iran. They purchased a lot of oil illegally from Iran and they've also supplied drones to Iran. So this is not an American ally at all.

John Catsimatidis:
I Understand. Where does Iran stand? I mean, are the American forces still moving into that area?

Steve Emerson:
Yes. One carrier is already in place. Another carrier is on its way. So, I think the United States is going to be in a good position in several days with these two carrier groups to basically carry out any type of mission the president orders if the suppression and persecution of the protesters continue.

I must say we don't really know exactly what's happening in Iran because as you know, the regime has cut off the internet and that means 98% of the people can't respond in posting video as they were doing recently.

But the fact is, we are still getting reports, at least not visually, but by oral reports, by phone about the protests, and it appears that the government is now embarked on a campaign to execute some of those protesters, even though they claim that they were not going to do that.

John Catsimatidis:
So I guess President Trump is keeping his options open right now.

Steve Emerson:
Absolutely. Look, he stated very clearly yesterday in Davos that if they continue to do this or resume the executions, he's going to unleash the power of the U.S. military. And he's a hundred percent right.

Moreover, I think this is the first time, John, since 1979, that we see the regime almost being toppled.

And I — other observers may say that's not possible — but I can tell you personally which is something I have not revealed before — that I was involved several years ago in [facilitating] the defection of several IRGC commanders.

I played that role because I was asked to by the CIA after the [would-be defectors] approached a confidential source of mine in London, and in the end, it turned out that [the defection] opened up a floodgate of other defections from the IRGC, not just to the U.S. but to Europe.

That shows that the IRGC is not as strong — It wasn't distributing the [economic] benefits — and I think we are very in a good position in knowing exactly what their capabilities are and what they aren't.

John Catsimatidis:
Understood. Anything else you want to tell the American people on a Sunday morning?

Steve Emerson:
I don't want to ruin their mornings any more than I have, but I just think that we're on the cusp of a major problem, a military problem in the Middle East because of the new Syrian regime pretending to be moderate.

And yes, they did fight against ISIS in the last month or so, but they are basically a jihadist regime that has embarked on massacres, major massacres, against the Kurdish community, against the Christian community, against the Druze community, and against the Yazidis.

This problem is not going away, and I think we have allowed Turkey to basically empower this new regime to the point where 19,000 civilians have been killed in the last year alone, and this is something the American public needs to know about.

Sorry about the bad news.

John Catsimatidis:
Not a problem. Steve Emerson, we take good, bad, or indifferent, we just want to report what the American people should know.

Steve Emerson, the investigative group. Thank you so much for coming on to Sunday morning and we'll catch up again real soon.

Steve Emerson:
You got it. Thanks, John.