Bill Roggio
speaker
300 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 8 Aug
Bill Roggio’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
even if he wanted to reengage with Syria and lift sanctions, why he would sit down with a person who's still on the list of specially designated global terrorists. So, you know, I've given up on trying to figure out what the Trump administration's, what their end game is and how they handle negotiations.
But to me, if I was to do this, I think this is something that would have been better handled, at least at the outset to be on behind closed doors. It certainly is a threat. The reality is, look, I've learned this in my travels to the Middle East in the early, I'm sorry, the mid 2000s. You know, while Middle Easterners profess to support the Palestinian people, they don't like them.
The Iraqis didn't like that the Palestinians sided with Saddam Hussein. And while they don't like Israel, they also have a distaste for the Palestinians who they believe to be entitled to suck up a lot of the oxygen in the room, to receive all of the international aid and all of those things. So... A lot of countries, they just don't want that problem.
I mean, where are they going to go to Jordan, where they have their own Palestinian problem? The Jordanian regime is terrified of their Palestinian population. The Egyptians. You know, the only reason they tolerate the Palestinians is as a foil against the Israelis. They're just, you know, I've realized I'm generalizing here, but there just isn't a lot of like for the Palestinians.
And that's why I think ultimately, you know, why would these countries, why would Egypt, why would the Saudis, I heard like Somalia was a landing ground. That's a country with its own problems. They want Palestinian troublemakers when they're dealing with an Al-Qaeda insurgency that controls 40% of the country. Yeah. A lot of this just doesn't make sense.
I think that's exactly what the plan was. It was just sort of to to to kick the hornet's nest. And get discussions going. That's ultimately where I come down with this. I mean, you know, I was addressing it more in the terms like this was serious policy, probably be handled differently, which is what leads me to believe that it wasn't really serious, that it had there was an ulterior motive.
And I do ultimately agree with your assessment of that.
um what do you think is going to be the sort of the end result of what you're seeing in syria i mean let's let's stick there for just the moment yeah syria i have a lot of and this is where i do fundamentally disagree with the trump administration this was a very bad decision uh akhmed al-shara before he became now look he is a wolf in an italian suit with a nice haircut um
This guy is a specially designated global terrorist, at least for the moment. He led Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, probably still does. Even when he disassociated from the group, he praised Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. He essentially received permission to do what he's done. He's really played the game. This is a guy who reported to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State.
Why would you trust him? Look, I view jihadists like I view pedophiles. They don't change. You know, all of a sudden we go, I'm not a pedophile anymore and I'm not a jihadist anymore. These are core beliefs. It's the core. They are. One of the conditions that the Trump administration wanted the Shara and his people to. adhere to was getting rid of the foreign jihadists.
And those numerous groups, I've documented them at the World War Journal. One of these groups is the Turkestan Islamic Party, right? This is a terrorist organization. Its leader sits on al-Qaeda Shura. It commands the Turkestan Islamic Party. He's based His name is Abdul Haq Al-Trikistani. He's based in Afghanistan. He issues orders to the fighters that are in Syria.
He appointed the Syrian leader. And they've been rolled into the military, the new Syrian military under al-Qa'ara. Meanwhile, they participated in the massacre just a couple of months ago in March that targeted the Alawites. I... Why should we trust that? You know, would I trust a pedophile to run a daycare center or an ax murderer to give him the keys to a cutlery shop?
But somehow I'm going to let a jihadist, I'll trust a jihadist to run a country and direct a military. Maybe I'm old school. Maybe I don't understand global politics. I think this was a massive mistake by the Trump administration. But what would you do differently then? How would you deal with Syria?
I would not grant them... Look, the Trump administration is lifting sanctions and people will be like, well, give the Syrian people aid and it'll give them... You keep them away from food insecurity and get them a chance for new life. Well, you still have a jihadist regime that has foreign terrorists within its military that serve at the highest level of its command, including its leader. And...
Every dime that we, you know, aid, like money is fungible. Every dollar that we provide or allow them to have access to is money that they could pay foreign fighters, that they could pay their military. If the world wants to recognize Syria, let the world recognize Syria. Why do we have to fund it? Why do we have to be part of it?
If disengagement from the war on terror, for instance, and even this was another criticism by Trump in his first term, the Doha agreement with the Taliban. If you wanted to disengage from Afghanistan, disengage, but you don't have to cut a deal with the Taliban. And we don't have to recognize Ahmed al-Shara as a world leader. It's just an absolute mistake.
We don't understand the individuals that we're dealing with. I understand this. I don't know what you, what politic, is this real politic? I have no idea, but I do know that I have principles. Part of my principles are not dealing with individuals who are you know, sponsored suicide bombings who were who led al-Qaeda's branch.
I don't know Yeah, you know, but I just wonder why we have to deal with them. You know, does American taxpayer dollars and do we have to let the Europeans, if they want to sponsor a member of Al-Qaeda or if the Russians do, let them deal with it. What are we going to influence? You know, we're back to, we tend to throw money at problems and ignore the nature of our enemies. Those are true.
Our biggest problems in there, why we lost the war on terror. I I'm just of the mind that, you know. Nothing we do. Al-Shara will not accede, just like the Taliban and never acceded to one of our demands. He's not going to accede to any of our demands either. He allows foreign terrorists to remain in Syria.
The easiest thing that he could do, but he can't do it because he relies on them to keep him in power. Why? You know, just two months ago. His people were behind the massacre in Latakia. And he's like, well, we'll hold an investigation. And I mean, is that what it takes to get recognition? Let me put it this another way.
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