Judge
Pirro interviews Emerson on hostage taking, Administration rescue efforts
and Al Qaeda-ISIS competition
by Steven Emerson
December 6, 2014
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Judge Jeanine: American hostage Luke Somers, a freelance
photographer ,was killed late Friday during a rescue attempt by US special
forces. Somers was abducted last year and was being held by al Qaeda in
Yemen. The murder raises new questions about how the US military will be
able to respond to a spike in overseas kidnappings by terrorists. With me
now, the founder of the Investigative Project Steve Emerson, and former CIA
covert operation officer Mike Baker. All right, Mike. We've got two rescues
attempts, the American hostage dead. Is there some truth to what the White
House says about our intel not being as good as it should be?
Mike Baker: Well, you know, it's an odd thing to say if they are
in fact pushing and saying it wasn't us. Part of it is they were concerned
that they were getting some flack for not approving the initial
unsuccessful raid quick enough. You could argue that, look, you control
very little in a hostage rescue situation. Intel is never perfect in any of
these things. We tend to be conditioned by feature films and beach books to
think this is just a pretty simple thing, you find your target, go and
rescue them. We have had a very good success rate. But things go wrong and
you can never guarantee success when you're talking about an operation like
this.
Judge Jeanine: Alright Steve, same question. Is it good to say
that we couldn't find the guy twice?
Steve Emerson: Well it's not good to say it, but on the other
hand I will give them credit for actually trying to carry out the
operations, especially for a president that has eschewed extra judicial
operations. I'm glad they're doing it but the reality is, as Mike pointed
out, you're relying on local intelligence initially, and that local
intelligence is going to shift and it's not going to stay stagnant. It's
going to shift and you're not going to be able to rely on it when you're on
the ground immediately. However, the reality is it does put us in a
position where we're seen as a paper tiger now. Number two, they're going
to take precautions now to make it almost impossible now to rescue other
hostages.
Judge Jeanine: That was my point, Steve and Mike. I'm sure you
would agree with me. There's in point in saying we tried but didn't get
them other than to tell the enemy, you know what we're coming after our
guys. But Steve I want toaskyou a question, then Mike I'm gonna go back to
you. The group behind this, Steve, is al Qaeda. We're not talking ISIS now.
We're not talking Syria and Iraq. How were these guys different from ISIS?
Steve Emerson: Well they're not different from ISIS. Actually
they're in competition and what they realized is that ISIS enriched itself
by the tune of tens of millions of dollars by taking hostages and getting
them to be paid by ransom money. This is exactly what was going on with
this set of hostages. They were going to get paid ransom money, had a set
of demands. And al Qaeda realized ISIS was getting a lot of fame and
recruitment. So now they [are] in competition [with ISIS….and its] now it's
open season on Americans around the world. So al Qaeda now is in rivalry
with ISIS in the same type of tactics, and you can be sure that al Qaeda is
going to be killing Americans no matter where they are. Not necessarily
directed by al Qaeda core but by al Qaeda- inspired people like in Abu
Dhabi as we saw just last week, a woman who was killed. And Americans
killed in the Sinai like the Israelis have been killed around the world.
Judge Jeanine: And Mike it seems as Steve is saying that
Americans are going to be more at risk of being taken hostage. What can we
do about this?
Mike Baker: Well, Americans and our allies, Westerners all over.
But we do what we continue to do. It's a little unusual to say, also, that,
you know, well, this unsuccessful raid makes us a paper tiger. It doesn't
make us a paper tiger. It's just the reality of it. Again, every operation,
every hostage rescue attempt presents its own difficulties. And we have the
best trained personnel in the world in trying to conduct these operations.
But I think we've gotten to this place in our lives where the
administration and everyone else wants a zero risk world. But it doesn't
work that way.
Judge Jeanine: I understand, Mike, that you want to take that
side. But I think when you tell the world that we tried and we lost twice,
there's no point in it. (crosstalk). Hillary Clinton thinks we need to
empathize with our enemies. What do you think, Steve? Real fast, we're
coming up against a hard break.
Steve Emerson: I think we should empathize with our friends
first.
Judge Jeanine: Mike?
Mike Baker: It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Judge Jeanine: I couldn't agree more. Steve and Mike, thanks for
being with us.
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