{"id":139341,"date":"2024-12-19T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/19\/can-the-constitution-curb-trumps-frightening-payback-plans\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T20:12:12","slug":"can-the-constitution-curb-trumps-frightening-payback-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/19\/can-the-constitution-curb-trumps-frightening-payback-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Constitution Curb Trump\u2019s \u201cFrightening\u201d Payback Plans?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Unfortunately, Ali Soufan<\/strong> was right. One year ago, shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the start of Israel\u2019s military response, Soufan told<\/a> me that the events had \u201cushered in a new era of chaos to the region.\u201d The fallout has seen the displacement of millions of Gazans, the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, and the overthrow of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet for all the death and destruction, much is still unsettled\u2014and the imminent return of Donald Trump<\/strong> to the White House adds another wildcard. Soufan has worked in the region for decades. As an FBI agent, he came closer than anyone else to heading off the 9\/11 attacks. Now, Soufan leads his own security consulting agency, where he facilitates delicate hostage negotiations abroad.<\/p>\n

In between flights to the Middle East, Soufan spoke with Vanity Fair<\/em> about everything from the nature of Syria\u2019s victorious rebel group (\u201cThey continue to be a terrorist organization until they prove otherwise\u201d), to how much power Marco Rubio<\/strong> may possess as Trump\u2019s secretary of state (\u201cI believe everything is going to be run directly by the White House\u201d), to the broader conflicts escalating all throughout the Middle East. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things happening now,\u201d Soufan says, in a major understatement. \u201cThe situation in the region is really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanity Fair:<\/em> No one could have predicted exactly how things would unfold during the past year. But you\u2019re an expert in the region. Have any of the ramifications surprised even you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ali Soufan:<\/em> We always knew that something big was going to happen in Syria after October 7 and after the weakening of Iran\u2019s key proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Turkey has moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by Tehran and to expand its influence. But I don\u2019t think even the Turks believed that the Assad regime would collapse this fast.<\/p>\n

The Israeli hostages remain an enormous issue. On Monday president-elect Donald Trump threatened Hamas, saying \u201call hell will break out\u201d if the hostages are not released by January 20. Is that helpful, or is he posturing in case they are released sooner, so Trump can claim credit for scaring them into a deal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that it\u2019s only talk, and I think it\u2019s coming from the fact that the situation might be solved before he takes office. The head of the CIA went to Qatar [on Wednesday]. What Trump says does not impact much what is going on in the negotiations. If you\u2019re Hamas, what else can happen? The situation in Gaza is a total mess. They\u2019re already living in the deepest level of hell. I have a positive feeling about the outcome of the negotiations this time.<\/p>\n

Yet even if that part of the troubles is resolved, Trump will be dealing with a deeply volatile region. You have worked in counterterrorism for a long time. Where are the greatest risks from the new instability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Turkey will do some kind of military operation against the Kurds [in northern Syria], because they consider the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are led by the Kurds, to be a terrorist organization on the Turkish border. If Turkey\u2019s operation is successful, what\u2019s going to happen to the hundreds of ISIS fighters that are in Kurdish custody? It could be similar to what happened in Iraq, when ISIS declared an Islamic state. The situation would be very dangerous not only for Syria, but also for Turkey and the international community, including the United States.<\/p>\n

Trump consistently talks like an isolationist, about taking care of America and leaving other countries alone to sort themselves out.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, Ali Soufan was right. One year ago, shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the start of Israel\u2019s military response, Soufan told me that the events had \u201cushered in a new era of chaos to the region.\u201d The fallout has seen the displacement of millions of Gazans, the killing of Hamas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,57,4385,5228,8280,4588],"class_list":{"0":"post-139341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-fbi","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-middle-east","12":"tag-revenge","13":"tag-syria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}