America First Counterterrorism Update On Syria Lebanon And Iran - with Rudy Atallah

The headlines make global conflict feel random, but the patterns are there if you know where to look. We sit down with Rudy Atallah for a fast, detailed national security update that connects the dots across Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and the Russia Ukraine war, all through a biblical, historical, and constitutional lens and with an America first focus on what keeps our country safe.

We start with Syria and the move to remove it from the state sponsor of terrorism list, including what that decision could mean for banks, investors, and regional legitimacy. Then we dig into the harder question: what do you do when the person holding power has an extremist past, complicated alliances, and pressure from nearby players like Turkey? We talk about leverage, risk, and how quickly “opportunity” can become a security problem when bad actors embed themselves in government and military ranks.

From there, we shift to Lebanon, Israel, and Hezbollah. We walk through the history that shaped today’s crisis, why Hezbollah’s disarmament demand has turned into a deadlock, and how Iran’s influence ties the entire standoff together. We also unpack Iran’s economic pressure campaign, why Karg Island in the Strait of Hormuz matters so much to Iran’s oil revenue and terrorist proxy funding, and what internal instability could mean over time.

We close with the Russia Ukraine war, the rise of drone warfare, and why these battlefield lessons increasingly affect US domestic security. Subscribe, share this with a friend who follows world events, and leave a review with the biggest question you want us to tackle next.

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Today, we're taking on the topic of terrorism around the world and what we can do to be America first. Not America only, but America first, Rudy Atallah will be joining us, Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. Guys, always good to get Rudy on. I bet he's got a lot to say today.  

David Barton [00:00:27] Yeah, Rudy's always got a lot to say. He is one of the most knowledgeable guys in the world, especially from the American side and what's going on. He has all the top secret clearances. He just recently left the White House, had been working with counter-terrorism stuff there and the National Security Council, but all of his clearances are still there and he is so well trained and been doing that for so many years that he speaks very candidly about what he can and it's always just compelling new information for us. He will never get into stuff he can't talk about. So we never worry about that. We can ask him any question and he's gonna answer or not answer based on what the clearances allow. But it's always intriguing information where we'll get maybe a little head nod of something going on in Africa or something going in the Middle East or we hear something going with Iran. And he will have so many details that go beyond that. It's just always fascinating to hear the rest of this. So I'm really looking to catch up with him. See what's what he thinks and what he's thinking about going on across the world right now. What has his attention?

Rick Green [00:01:28] Alright, well Rudy Atallah with us when we come back from the break. Stay with us folks, you're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:02:39] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show! Thanks for staying with us. Always good to have Rudy Atallah with us! Rudy, great to have you back, man! Appreciate the time today! 

Rudy Atallah [00:02:45] Thank you so much for having me back. This is great. 

Rick Green [00:02:48] Well, so much has happened since the last time we had John, which was not that long ago, but it's that's the world we're in right now, man, just constant changes. And we were talking the other day on the show about the whole Syria thing and just some of these seismic shifts around the world. And of course, as always, when we get on that topic, it's like, okay, I wonder where Rudy is, we got to get him on. So anyway, appreciate it, bro. Well, what, let me just toss it to you first. I mean, what do you think the most important thing to update our listeners on right now? 

Rudy Atallah [00:03:13] Oh gosh, I, I can, I could spend hours going down the list. I mean, obviously Iran is up there, Lebanon, Syria. I know you guys were interested, to talk briefly about the, Syria coming off the state sponsor of terrorism list. 

Rick Green [00:03:30] Yeah. Let's go there first. 

Rudy Atallah [00:03:32] Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. So basically, on that, there's a 45-day congressional notification window, which we're in right now. So, they won't come off the list until the end of probably August. And once they do that basically opens up the floodgates of banks and investors to come into Syria and see what's available. I mean, we, Syria has been basically closed door now for over 17 years. And there's opportunity, but again, we got to keep in mind that the leader of Syria is a former terrorist, a reform terrorist, so he's still a former al-Qaeda guy. It'll be very 

Rick Green [00:04:19] Would you dive into that a little bit because we talked about this and we were trying to figure out, you know, and how do you know? Right. But if, you, you apparently, he was kind of in a, it's either Al Qaeda or ISIS situation, do you think he is a reformed terrorist? I mean, is he literally, I don't know if I could say a good guy, but is he a manageable guy that we can actually do business with? Cause that's what it means, right, when we take them off the terrorists, now we're going to do business with them? 

Rudy Atallah [00:04:42] Yeah, exactly. Well, we brought him to the, we brought him to the White House and he definitely had a good time with President Trump. 

Rick Green [00:04:49] No kidding!

Rudy Atallah [00:04:50] Yeah, he was, I mean, President Trump was joking around with the guy, called him a tough guy. But you know, this guy was a product of a lot of Turkish intelligence. And so, the Turks want to keep him in place. They use them as a vehicle essentially to get control of Syria. They want to try to make Syria predominantly Sunni controlled and try to blockade any Shia or Iranian influence inside Syria. For Turkey, that makes a lot of sense and it just falls in line with Erdogan's long-term objective on its Islamization of the rest of the world. Now is this guy, you know, reformed really, or not? Only time will tell, in so far, he's been towing the line. You know, he's doing everything that we've asked him to do, which, which is good. He's, he is full pod here and there a couple of times, but within the ranks, he has brought a lot of bad actors, which he's got to, he has got to deal with within his government and his military. 

Rick Green [00:06:07] Yeah. Yeah, man. What a challenge. Oh, okay. So, so if if he and I interrupted you, you were you're going through a list of things there. But I just curious about the guy himself. So go ahead. 

Rudy Atallah [00:06:15] Yeah. Yeah. And so now we've got Lebanon. The President of Lebanon was with President Trump. I talked to him briefly before he went in with President trump and afterwards. And, you know, the Lebanese president is Christian and he was a member of the Lebanese armed forces. I met with him last year in the presidential palace in Lebanon. The big-ticket item here is Israel inside southern Lebanon. Has been maintaining its forces as a buffer. So now they've created three pilot zones where Israel would slowly withdraw out of these zones and then give the control to the Lebanese armed forces. Now, the agreement is supposed to be where Hezbollah, a terrorist group, needs to disarm before Israel leaves. And Hezbollah says, we will not disarm unless Israel leaves. So it's kind of a chicken and egg. They're kind of going back and forth on who's going to, you know, who's going to go first and, um, Israel does not want to pull out until they know that there's, there's the Hezbollah has been disarmed, so they're not attacked in Northern Israel. 

Rick Green [00:07:30] Sure. Yeah.

Rudy Atallah [00:07:30] And so, so, the president of Lebanon is, uh you know. He came in with an ask and President Trump was very gracious and basically said; We understand that Lebanon has some amazing people and it does, it's like Israel, a lot of highly educated people. But Hezbollah is part of the problem and that problem ties back to Iran. So he, President Trump promised $3 billion to train and work with Central Command to train the Lebanese armed forces to essentially go in and systematically uproot and dislodge Hezbollah, which is going to be very interesting because that can cause some major internal rumblings inside Lebanon, so we'll see how that plays out. 

Rick Green [00:08:14] So interesting and give us, Rudy, just a quick history on Lebanon. I mean, this was, this was a predominantly Christian nation at one point. Right. And then, you know, obviously went very Muslim and then, you know we had the, all the, all the stuff that happened in the last 40 years with America. But remind us of some of that story. 

Rudy Atallah [00:08:34] So out of all the Middle Eastern countries, the largest number of Christians are in Lebanon per capita. Basically, in 1943, when Lebanon became independent, it had approximately 69 to 70 of the population was Christian. In fact, those Christians played an instrumental role in smuggling persecuted Jews by the Nazis through Lebanon into Palestine at the time. So they played a role in moving Jews and smuggling them through to protect them because they believe that they're kin. And that's some of my ancestors actually. But what happened now over the years is Iran, after the Iranian revolution in the late 70s saw Lebanon as a potential, as a potential way. To get access to the Mediterranean Sea, but also to a place itself where it can, it can go against Israel. And so, and so it took advantage of the Lebanese civil war that started in 1975. And by 1982, they established, Iran established Hezbollah, party of God. And  immediately after Hizballah's inception they attacked the American embassy in 1983 and then did the Marine Corps barracks bombing that same year, October of '83. I was there during that time where over 240 American soldiers were killed. So Hezbollah has been a terrorist group for a very long time and President Trump stop playing around so he's going to go after those guys as well. 

Rick Green [00:10:13] Wow, wow, okay. Okay, man so what's there and it's so good to learn those things because because sometimes you know, obviously what we just tend to think of what's happened in the last five years and then and label a lot of these countries with just that I mean even Iran just thinking about the Persian history there. And so, what would be....In fact, let's go to Iran. What do you what is your read right now on the situation with Iran? 

Rudy Atallah [00:10:38] Yeah, so two seconds before I was going to say today in Lebanon, I forgot to say that there's 30 to 35% Christians left. So just, just to kind of put that out there. 

Rick Green [00:10:49] Okay, so there's still a huge population there. Interesting. 

Rudy Atallah [00:10:52] There's still a good, decent population, but it's cut in half since 1943. On Iran, look, the Iran has, is trying to, they're playing the game where they are trying to see if they can pressure us enough and drag their feet all the way through the midterms, hoping that the left will gain control of the House and Senate. And that would take a lot of pressure off of them and they would feel like they, they can get back in control. Kharg Island, which is an island in the Strait of Hormuz, is essentially the cash cow, the crown jewel for them. It produces, and through Kharg Island, you have 93% of Iran's oil revenues output coming through there. And the IRGC, the Iranian Republican Guard, wants to maintain control of it because without that cash cow, that golden goose, they literally are not able to pay their war machine. Which is all their proxies like the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, you know, and keep themselves very relevant in the region. So what they think is if they continue to put economic pressure by attacking all the Gulf states and our presence in all these Gulf states, that the world will turn around and say, okay, enough United States, we need you to stop. And pull back. But Trump has doubled down and said absolutely not and has threatened to take Kharg Island. If he does, essentially it will be checkmate for the IRGC and they will lose all their money and not be able to essentially fund their war machine. So internally in Iran, they're very divided, but the IRJC still controls the bulk of what's going on. All these missiles, all these attacks that are happening. Right now, so because they're trying to attack us, you know, the United States and our allies on the economic front, we are doing the same thing to them. We're taking out railroads, bridges, all the key basically segues that come into Iran to keep them relevant. They can't resupply their supplies for missiles, you know, anything that keeps the population going. So we're slowly, we're not slowly but we're increasing the pressure now to economically strangle them back and we're going to win this fight we can we can outlast them far more they they can out last us. But they still haven't figured that out yet so this is where we're at 

Rick Green [00:13:33] Yeah, back up to Kharg Island again. What is that? What are the downsides? Like, why haven't we just gone ahead and done that? 

Rudy Atallah [00:13:39] Well, the threat and just controlling, basically blockading anything coming in and out of Kharg Island is already sending a message to them. So you know, we don't, Kharg Island, China gets a lot of its oil from Kharg island. Other countries also rely on oil coming out of Iran from Kharg Island, but primarily China. And so, you know, we also have to play that diplomatic dance between us and China as well. So we haven't gone into Kharg Island yet, but we're very close and President Trump can pull that trigger any day. And once we do, I mean, you have 30,000 workers on Kharg island. You still have to manage that as well, so, so it would require a little bit of a lift on our part. Doesn't mean we can't do it because the Marines are very good at it. But I mean, obviously we'd be putting people in harm's way as well. So that's why the President's been waiting a little bit longer. 

Rick Green [00:14:36] Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a huge, huge step up, but it just seems like it is the linchpin. And I guess, you know, from a diplomatic perspective, it, it could be, just too big of a, of a slap in China's face, I guess. And, but it seems like they would want to, want to stop dealing with crazy people too. You know? I mean don't, aren't all the people that benefit from that, wouldn't they rather deal with a rational player. Or, or do they like the instability because it makes them more powerful? 

Rudy Atallah [00:15:07] No, it's not that it's because they were getting basically crude oil at a major discount. 

Rick Green [00:15:13] So, okay, if it goes to an actual market situation, that's going to increase their economic burden. 

Rudy Atallah [00:15:20] Yeah, they were getting it at 20% discount. So, you know, you add 20% on billions of dollars. It starts to add up. 

Rick Green [00:15:27] Yeah, yeah, it does. No doubt, no doubt. 

Rudy Atallah [00:15:29] So anyway, there's the economic piece and then there's a strategic piece. I mean, the Department of War is doing an exceptional job right now hitting targets. But at the same time, this is happening. We're doing layers of attacks. So, the way we do is we, we fire missiles, we take out their radars, anything that they can see any time. Then you have F-16s and F-15s that follow through with another strike package. So, any time they turn on their radar to look for missiles. That are coming from our side. Our F-16s pick up on them and they strike them. So, we're doing all this, but at the same time this is happening, there also is a growing problem internally to Iran. Well, several growing problems. They have an economic, they're in an economic free fall, number one. And number two, they also have Iranian Kurds that have been fighting with the IRGC. Since February until now they've had over 850 different scrimmages between the Kurds and the IRGC. And just recently the Kurds have killed two IRGC members. And so it's been a tit for tat, but they're, they're starting to increase that seeing that the, the, you know, Iran, the regime has been at its weakest in over 47 years, or they're trying to take advantage of that as well.

Rick Green [00:16:50] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, obviously impossible to predict, but you know, the big underlying question that we've had from the beginning is, is it actually possible to remove the Islamic regime completely and get back to a constitutional monarch of some kind in Iran? I mean that's so many factors there. But is that even in the realm of possibility in your mind? 

Rudy Atallah [00:17:13] I think it is. It's just, it's going to take time. The problem is like 85% of the population hates the regime, but they won't speak up, but you need to arm them. You need to give them somebody that with strong leadership. Israel's been working on it for a while, but I think we're seeing that, you know, if we can really collapse the big monsters within the regime and you know the 85% population may be able to rise up at some point and really push back. I think that's a possibility over time. I think the regime right now, the trajectory it's on, it's literally choking itself because of the economic pressure they're trying to put on us. We're putting it back on them and we're doing it in such a strategic way that sooner or later they're basically going to be done. There's nothing going to happen. Nothing will be left for them to stand. 

Rick Green [00:18:06] Man that's the big one that's a big one! Well, a couple minutes left, any other air hotspot we need to inform people about today? I know you got a million, but if you had to pick one what would be another one? 

Rudy Atallah [00:18:16] Yeah, I think, I mean, segueing a little bit away from the Middle East, there's a lot happening right now between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine has been on this tear of hitting all the strategic spots inside Russia where they're sending these long-range drones and they're striking all the oil production facilities, you know, inside Russia. And so... So, the Russians are basically, you know, taking a real beating right now by the Ukrainians, but what's really interesting is this Russia, this Russia Ukraine thing is also playing out in parts of Africa. Currently it's playing out and West Africa and Mali where Mali has been controlled by a lot of Islamists and on one side of the equation, you have the Ukrainians on the other side of that equation, you have the Russians. And so, I think we're going to start seeing a little bit more of that play across different parts of Africa, not only in Europe, and that's going to be an interesting thing to watch and see how Ukrainians target those resources where the Russians are getting the critical minerals and the gold and the stuff like that to keep the war machine going. 

Rick Green [00:19:34] Interesting, very, very interesting. And I, and I'm guessing, I mean, last question I've got is this drone warfare that's that that's happening over there. You know, that, that in many ways has helped us almost see and prepare for this next level of warfare. You know, the, is that, am I anywhere close on that? Like I've, I've wondered if what's happening there, in the long run, can help our military prepare? I mean so much of our technologies being used and tested and whatnot, I'm assuming, almost by proxy, we're getting a chance to see that next level. 

Rudy Atallah [00:20:11] Yeah. I think the best, you know, the, the Ukrainians have really surpassed everybody in drone technology because of the war they've been in, but we, we have a very good exchange with them. And what's really helped us out is it's helped us in here in the United States. I mean, with the World Cup, I think, the FBI since the World Cups started until the, the final match has thwarted hundreds and hundreds of drones that wanted to go over stadiums to film the matches and stuff like that. So we're employing a lot of the technology from the battlefield already on the domestic front. We're not 100% there yet, but the threat can happen here. And so we're employing it here and then also we're learning from different parts of the world. But Ukraine-Russia war has taught us quite a bit. 

Rick Green [00:21:03] Yeah, very, very interesting. Rudy, always a pleasure, man. Thank you for your time today. Thanks for the update. 

Rudy Atallah [00:21:08] Any time, any time. 

Rick Green [00:21:10] Stay with us, folks! We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:22:20] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Rudy always for, for joining us and man, we could go for hours with him guys, so much to catch up on. But that was a really good kind of around the world update and covered so many of the, of the different trouble spots. 

David Barton [00:22:33] Well, even with Russia, I had not thought about Russia and Ukraine having an impact in Africa and how much both of those countries get resources from Africa and how it's affecting what's going on their end that's effect…. I just never even crossed my mind that something in the Eastern European, the quasi-Middle East side would have that impact in African, you know, Iran, okay. But there were still so many things there I had heard about Iran even though we're in the middle of that war. And Syria, you know, it was interesting to hear about Syria because I've heard and been told that the Syrian president there had been a former terrorist but that was kind of a necessity. He had to be with one terror group or the other to defend himself against whoever was coming. And it seems like the guy in Syria has been really pretty reasonable and is working well with Christians and Jews and others that are in that area and not taking them down. So it's just, it's interesting to see that maybe there's some stability in places we didn't think about, and maybe there is less stability in place as we thought there was more stability. But I don't know, that was really a interesting 'round the world kind of trip to so many nations. 

Tim Barton [00:23:46] Now, Rick, I know we didn't have time to get into it with Rudy, but I was curious, and this might be something I text him; I hear it a little bit, be like, hey bro, what are your thoughts on this? You know, when he talked about Iran and how crippled they were, and the fact that, what, 85% or something of their people do not support the regime, but I saw an article, I think the end of last week, that was talking about how China has been supporting Iran, and Iran got away from using GPS and is using now China's kind of global system, and because of it, they've been more effective in targeting some of the American bases and installations and facilities or kind of whatever's going on. And, Dad, you kind of alluded earlier that he has a lot of classified information that he can't always share. And so, he might not have been able to tell us what he did know about it. But I do think it's interesting hearing that so many of the Iranian people are not supportive of what they are doing and guys on a broader picture reminds me a little bit of what we've kind of seen and heard people talk about is that the majority of Muslims actually are not always radical but when you look at how large the Muslim population is. If even only 10% of the Muslims are radical, that's hundreds of millions of radical Muslims and it made me think also of Iran that even though the majority of the Iranian people are not radical and actually even to clarify, if you go back to Iran before the 1970s, they weren't even really Muslim. It's been the takeover in Iran just like we have seen in Europe and are really trying to fight some in America. It's extremists inside of Islam that have brought so much violence and destruction and death to a lot of nations in the world. But seeing 85% of the people in Iran not supporting the regime is also encouraging thinking, man, maybe, maybe if they can rise up, they can help put a stop to some of this nonsense that's going on, hopefully in this conflict and bring peace and stability, which of course also benefits us as a nation. 

David Barton [00:25:53] You know, it's interesting how often the 15% runs the 85% and Iran's a great example. I had not realized it was 85%, but that 15% have all the missiles, have all of the blood, the letting devices, you know, all the things that would kill those who oppose them. And maybe we can destabilize Iran enough that in taking them out, that 85% will rise up. But man, again, Iran is backing virtually every militant group in the world right now, they and China. And if you can take either one of those out, you're gonna have a much more peaceful world. 

Rick Green [00:26:29] Yeah, huge change for the entire world. It would have a massive impact. Man, I just, everybody out there, pray for President Trump wise decisions right now. Pray for President Trump to have wise decisions. Thanks so much for listening today, folks. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.