Ezra Levant critiques April 2018’s North Korea-South Korea summit, where Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in pledged denuclearization amid skepticism over Pyongyang’s past "battered women’s syndrome" tactics. He contrasts Trump’s strategic diplomacy—including military exercises and Twitter bravado—with Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize despite escalating nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea. Levant also highlights Canada’s 6,373 illegal asylum claims by April 2018, straining services with $173M in insufficient funding, while Jewish journalist Matt Schreier reveals Canadian jihadis stole $18K from his accounts during Syria captivity, yet faced no prosecution despite FBI evidence. The episode warns of growing bureaucratic overreach, like the UK’s Alfie Evans case, signaling a broader threat to individual rights and Western governance. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, North Korea's tyrant visits South Korea to talk peace, and the South Koreans credit Donald Trump.
It's April 27th, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
The only thing I have to say to the government for why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Well, here's something that's never been seen before.
Kim Jong-un, the dictator for life of North Korea, son of a dictator, grandson of a dictator, walking into South Korea by foot, meeting the democratically elected president of the South, Moon Jae-in, to talk peace.
They released a joint statement.
A lot of talk about mutual cooperation, economic cooperation, transportation, humanitarian relief, which is all another way of saying South Korea will bail out North Korea and try to alleviate the devastation that the dictatorship has done to its own people.
They talk of reunification, which makes sense historically, ethnically, geographically.
It's a bit like East Germany and West Germany reuniting, except that was done to Germany by the Allies after the Second World War.
They were broken up by other powers.
North Korea and South Korea were divided because the North invaded the South, the Communists invaded.
And so we need to be skeptical because the North is the hostile party.
It's not like East and West Germany.
Because as our regular guests on this subject, Gordon Chang and Claudia Rosette always remind us, North Korea is masterful at playing the West and playing South Korea, playing on our hopes, our hopes for compromise, our hopes for peace.
They practice perpetual brinksmanship.
They take what they can get through reconciliation and negotiation, and then they firm up their new hard line, fire off our missile or two, and make new demands.
It's sort of like battered women's syndrome, as it used to be called, because they know we want the deal so much more than they do.
Now, the joint statement contains this provision.
Let me quote the translation.
South and North Korea confirm the common goal of realizing through complete denuclearization a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
All right, I'll believe it when I see it, but I suppose before you do it, you have to agree to do it.
So, you know, hope for the best.
Who knows?
This so far is unprecedented.
And Donald Trump is unprecedented.
That's why it's happening.
Don't take it from me.
Take it from the foreign minister of South Korea herself.
Clearly, you know, credit goes to President Trump.
He's been determined to come to grips with this from day one.
Of course it was.
Do you think it was Barack Obama or George W. Bush before him or Bill Clinton before him?
It's hard to believe now, given the carnage of the Obama regime.
I mean, wars and coups everywhere.
Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, what happened in Crimea, endless perpetual war.
It's hard to believe that Obama actually received the Nobel Peace Prize.
And he received it immediately after his election, which is funny.
Now, he picked up the award eight months after his inauguration, but the Nobel Committee made their decision literally weeks after he was inaugurated.
Let me read the first line of their award to him.
It's comedy.
This is from the Nobel Prize Committee.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
The committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
They actually said that.
Oh my God.
Except it didn't work, did it?
I mean, none of that happened, did it?
North Korea went wild under Obama.
Iran is still trying its best to get nukes.
So did Syria, actually, until Israeli jets hit their nuke facility.
But that first line, the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Did you know that unlike the scientific Nobel Prizes like for chemistry or economics, which are decided by fellow scientists, experts, did you know the Nobel Peace Prize is chosen by a committee of Norwegian parliamentarians?
It would be like if a group of liberal MPs in Ottawa would decide who's the peace prize winner in the world.
It's 100% political, dressed up as something nonpartisan.
Of course it's partisan.
Of course it's to score points for Norwegian leftists.
So of course Donald Trump will not be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing about more change in North Korea in 15 months as president than the rest of the world did in 15 years, or in the last 60 years actually.
Donald Trump has been thinking about Korea for many years though.
He's been tough but open-minded, ready to fight but hoping to negotiate a deal.
That's sort of what he does.
Here, listen to Trump almost 20 years ago on the subject.
And they are developing nuclear weapons.
And they're not doing it because they're having fun doing it.
They're doing it for a reason.
And wouldn't it be good to sit down and really negotiate something and ideally negotiate?
Now, if that negotiation doesn't work, you better solve the problem now than solve it later, Tim.
And you know it, and every politician knows it, and nobody wants to talk about it.
I say again, it's too soon to tell if this is real.
South Korea wants this so badly.
They're probably the worst negotiators in the world right now.
They're so thirsty for this.
They'd practically do anything for peace, or at least something that looked like peace.
Trump is tougher, though.
We know that.
But all the fancy people said Trump was a fool, especially when he engaged in his Twitter diplomacy over the last few months.
But he was showing Kim Jong-un who the real tough guy was.
Do you remember some of Trump's tweets like this one in particular?
I mean, Kim Jong-un was boasting about having a nuclear button, and Trump boasted right back, saying, my button is much bigger and more powerful, and my button works.
That's what he said.
I mean, is that high school locker talk?
Is that guy talk?
Is that braggadocho?
Sure, of course it is.
But what do you think works with a reclusive tyrant from the Hermit Kingdom, as North Korea is called?
Kim Jong-un is so insecure.
He has spies spying on his spies.
He has literally had his own family members assassinated.
He's so paranoid.
And yes, his missile program sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
He gets by on bravado to his own people and to the world.
Certainly he intimidates South Korea and with good reason, but Donald Trump can out bravado anyone, can't he?
Wasn't it obvious that's what he was doing with that tweet?
I mean, for the fifth time, let me recommend to you the book, The Art of the Deal, where Trump explicitly describes the reasons for his tactic of making outrageous statements, outrageous demands, hyperbole, shock.
Trump writes about that as a negotiating tool.
He knows how he sounds.
He knows what he's doing.
Only the fools on the left in Hollywood and Washington would think that a successful man, a billionaire, a president, who beat the odds time and again, was really just a grade school troll on Twitter as opposed to that being part of a larger strategy.
His strategy just worked.
So far at least.
But Trump has been conducting major military exercises in the region, by the way.
If Trump's tweets didn't work, well, his aircraft carriers would.
You want to talk about negotiating tactics?
Literally this month, Trump deployed thousands of U.S. troops in combination with 300,000 South Korean troops in a training exercise.
That's how you negotiate.
Barack Obama would send Kim Jong-un a stern letter of apology.
That's how he negotiated with them, with Iran, with Vladimir Putin, with anyone.
Let me remind you how Trump was derided just a few months ago.
You don't need to be reminded because it hasn't stopped in any other field.
Just turn on the TV.
Even here in Canada, where the CBC has obviously been instructed to smear Trump daily.
Well, they're not complaining about us here at the Rebel.
Here's some media clips.
Here's Jeff Bezos' Washington Post laughing and laughing at stupid Donald Trump.
President Trump tweeted as if that wasn't hilarious enough.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un just started the nuclear, just stated that the nuclear button is on his desk at all times.
Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his.
And my button works.
Oh my Jesus.
I mean, what the hell is this?
This is the president of the United States tweeting foreign policy, but also filled with what we've now come to know as customary sexual innuendo.
This is no way to run a foreign policy, and this certainly isn't a way to run American foreign policy.
Yeah, they were laughing at him, weren't they?
Here's Newsweek.
Remember Newsweek magazine, something was a thing in the 90s.
Here they are quoting the Russians, saying that Trump's approach to North Korea was foolish.
Newsweek and the mainstream media are in a Russia panic these days, a red scare, claiming that Russia is manipulating Trump as some sort of Manchurian president.
But they'll stop to quote one of Putin's little helpers if it means they can smear Trump.
Yeah, I don't quite get it either.
And neither do Newsweek's readers, most of whom have just quit the magazine.
Here's Vox.
It's the far-left brainy site that always tells you their reporting explains things to you because you're apparently too stupid to understand the facts.
They need to digest the facts for you.
They call it Trump Escalates Tensions with North Korea.
Really?
Here's Time magazine.
Trump is the real threat.
Of course he is, people.
Not just a threat.
He's psychologically inappropriate, as president says the New Yorker.
It's all about ego for him.
Big button, small president.
Of course, they preferred Hillary Clinton.
I mean, her calm, rational approach to military affairs, like in Libya.
We came, we saw, he died.
Did it have anything to do with your visit?
No, I'm sure it did.
Yeah, that cackling.
Who's in control of their emotions?
Clinton or Trump?
Now, of course, the left didn't just criticize Trump.
They wanted to physically censor him.
Here's Ad Week.
Why didn't Twitter block him?
Could you imagine if the left-wingers at Twitter had actually blocked Donald Trump from tweeting to Kim Jong-un?
Can you imagine if those left-wing kooks in San Francisco who run Twitter had somehow managed to derail this historic deal because they didn't like Trump's style?
Hollywood loveies too.
Here's just a few.
I mean, there's a hundred.
I just picked a few.
Alyssa Milano.
I always take my foreign policy advice from Alyssa Milano, don't you?
Or Mia Farrow.
I mean, anyone who marries Woody Allen, I think that disqualifies their judgment, don't you think?
Here's Stephen Colbert.
I used to really love watching late-night TV.
I remember when I was in college, I loved staying up at night to watch late-night TV for the comedy.
I mean, sure, they always tilted liberal, but at least there were still some jokes there, and you couldn't always predict what they were going to do.
Or say now, late-night comedy is really just Obama and Clinton talking points with a laugh track.
Yeah, I'm not convinced that Kim Jong-un is done yet.
His life is deceit and scheming.
But what has happened since Trump has become president is new, and it is hopeful.
Donald Trump will not win the Nobel Prize, even if this deal is real.
They'll give the prize to the two Korean leaders, and that's fine.
Donald Trump is not loved by the media, and he's not loved by that small committee of the Norwegian parliament that chooses the Nobel Peace Prize.
Conservative Politician's Stand00:14:14
But if this deal works, 50 million free South Koreans and 25 million imprisoned North Koreans, those 75 million people will know who broke the 65-year stalemate.
And Donald Trump will know it.
And so will the left, though they will never admit it, even grudgingly.
Stay with us for more.
Hey, welcome back.
Well, I saw this interesting tweet, and I had never seen the facts put this way.
It's from Conservative MP from Saskatchewan, Brad Trost.
It says, there are now more illegal asylum claims made in Canada than legal claims.
6,373 illegal border jumpers this year alone.
And it's only April, three times the amount of illegal crossings in 2017.
The government is projecting up to 400 people a day to illegally cross our border this summer.
And joining us now via Skype is our friend Brad Frost.
Great to see you again.
Thanks for taking the time.
Those are shocking numbers.
But it's shocking to me.
I think it's shocking to normal Canadians, but this is not considered shocking to the media party, to the political media establishment, I don't think.
No, I think after last year, they sort of anticipated this was going to shoot up.
We just had the Liberals say they've got $173 million budgeted so far for this issue this year.
And I kind of suspect that's just the start.
You know how these things go.
Numbers just go up as the spending goes through the year.
You know, you mentioned $160 odd million dollars, but that doesn't sound like it's even close to handling things.
We've seen Quebec say they're at the breaking point.
They're now shipping their illegal border crossers to Ontario.
We see the mayor of Toronto, John Torrey, saying we are bursting at the seams.
We already have quadruple the number of refugees in our homeless shelters as we had just a year or two ago.
So even center, center-left politicians are starting to say it's just too much.
I saw news that a parti Québécois MNA in Quebec is actually talking about a border fence with the United States.
Even people who are on the left are saying it's too much.
What's the spirit in parliament?
Because looking at Justin Trudeau, looking at Ahmed Hassan, they don't seem to be blinking one bit.
Yeah, they still have pretty much a sense of arrogance on this one.
They've been throwing stuff back to the conservatives about you guys took away dental benefits from illegal refugees.
We don't have anything to learn from you guys.
You're all a bunch of heartless, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.
So that's sort of been their attitude at this point, sort of a let-them-eat fake mentality.
We're pushing back.
I mean, as I said, they just said $170 million.
One of our critics pointed out that $86 million has just been spent on overtime to the various enforcement.
That's just the overtime does.
Postal services, by the provinces.
That doesn't count all sorts of education bills.
I mean, essentially what the Americans are doing and what the illegal refugees are doing is they're offloading a problem in the United States and they're onloading the problem into Canada.
And it's going to get worse.
And that's not a good thing for either regular Canadian citizens or for people who have gotten in line the proper way and want to apply to come to Canada in the regular channels.
Yeah.
You know, it's perplexing to me that the government would proceed in this way, the Liberal government.
I mentioned this from time to time.
A poll taken by the Liberal government under Trudeau asked Canadians what they thought about the numbers of immigrants to Canada.
And only 8% thought the number should be increased.
Well, they increased it from 250,000 to 300,000.
And that was before this open border fake migrant problem from the States.
I can't believe that there's any broad-based support in any province, in any demographic, other than, I suppose, some direct immigration industry types.
But even there, you know, I think sober-minded people would say it's broken.
You just can't force in tens of thousands of people like this.
I think that they're in jeopardy of actually burning up whatever remaining goodwill Canadians have towards immigrants.
I think this, what they're doing, being so reckless, will actually cause a backlash.
What do you think?
Well, I think that's absolutely true.
For your viewers who don't know, my wife's an immigrant from Asia.
She's Mongolian.
I've got a bunch of family members who are there.
They're a lot more hardline tough on this than native-born Canadians because their attitude is, I paid my dues, I stood in line, I waited, I jumped through the hoops, I worked hard to get here, and now these people are cutting in front of the line.
So I think one of the things that a lot of viewers who are native-born Canadians should realize, places like Toronto are going to get more upset about this than areas that are so far away they have no real day-to-day connection with this.
I think that's one of the things that people actually have to understand.
Anyone who's gone through the system really resents people cutting to the front.
Yeah.
I think you're right to talk about places like Toronto and Vancouver and to a degree Montreal.
Those are the three cities that absorb the bulk of these migrants.
And they're also the places with the longest hospital wait lists, with the food bank shortages.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
I mean, every single social service is being taxed.
And the thing is, we're not even choosing who gets to jump to the front of the line.
We're not making these choices.
These are people who are self-deporting from the United States because they know they won't meet the legal standards there either because of criminality or they're just fake or whatever.
That's, I think, what's most infuriating.
If this was a deliberate selection of people from around the world, a witting, thoughtful decision, we could argue about it, but at least it would be abiding the rule of law.
I think what's particularly grating here is the anarchy and that really the biggest scammers and the biggest tricksters get to go to the front of the line.
And Trudeau and Hassan, they don't even seem to care.
I think they sort of like it.
I think they're enjoying this madness.
It's in league with his tweet, with Trudeau's tweet last year.
Well, here goes to their political strategy.
And I think this is all about politics for liberals.
They want to make the conservatives look like a bunch of green shade accountants who are just heartless and mean.
And that's what they're going to try to do.
So they're going to try to sack us in and saying we don't care about human beings and play the same old dirty tricks they tried.
I mean, we saw that back in the 2015 election campaign.
I think they're just trying to make the conservatives look like a bunch of meanies.
And that's the political strategy behind this.
I don't think there's any policy thinking about what's best for the country, what's fair, and what's just.
It seems to be all politics all the time.
Yeah.
Well, I think you're right.
I mean, that's, I think, their extremist feminism, gender equality, everything, gender equality, and this new peacekeeping mission to Mali, which is going to be, I hate to say it, a human disaster for our men and women in the armed forces.
I think it's all about being so absurd and provocative that anyone who dares speak out against it is racist, sexist, Islamophobic, whatever.
That said, I mean, I agree with you.
That is their political tactic.
But I don't think that that should be a reason not to push back because, you know, putting aside the spin, I think Canadians are mad about the substance.
And I think Canadians are getting a little sick of being scolded by the liberals and the media as racist, that, misogynist, that, when I don't think we are.
And as you point out, even other new Canadians like your wife and her family, they don't support this at all.
Let me ask you this.
And I know that you were a leadership candidate who did very well in the last Conservative leadership, but you did not win your nomination and you're in litigation with the party.
So I know that you have a certain position about the party.
You're still a conservative MP.
Is the conservative...
And I'm putting those things out there just to disclose to our viewers that you have sort of a special position in the party.
You're a conservative who has been at odds with the party.
And I'm not making a judgment.
I'm just making an observation.
Do you think Andrew Scheer, Michelle Rampel, and the rest of the Conservative Party are fighting this issue vigorously enough?
And I know you're a loyal conservative, but you also have some disagreements.
Why don't you tell me your candid answer?
Candidly, I think the problem for them is there's just so many issues right now to fight the liberals on.
I mean, the pipeline issue is something that is absolutely crucial.
So the problem is we've got so many issues to deal with, we have to pick and choose.
Their latest justice bill is an absolute atrocity.
So to be honest, the liberals are doing so many bad things, it's tough to choose.
So I'm encouraging them to double down and push harder on this one.
I think particularly our Quebec caucus also is too.
So I don't know.
To be honest, I'm a Western Canadian.
The pipeline thing is awfully big in Saskatchewan, not quite as big in Alberta.
So I kind of favor that one.
But I know our Eastern Canadian MPs are saying, hey, this isn't our backyard.
And so today, the last couple of days in Question Period, they've hit it hard.
But I think that's exactly what Colin and Larry it's going to depend on what they hear from the grassroots.
So if you figure this one big issue, but again, the problem is the Liberals are doing so many dumb, stupid things, it's kind of hard to concentrate on just one.
Yeah, it's a target-rich environment.
I'm glad to hear your Quebec colleagues are on this issue because I think Quebec has been the most frustrated by their wear.
First, the Haitians and the Salvadorians, and none of whom are coming from those original countries.
Most of them are just walking up from New York.
You can't be a refugee from New York.
And that's, I think, the frustration is the scam there.
Well, listen, Brad, I really appreciate you coming on the show and speaking so candidly.
And I agree that you are conservative in the bone, and that's how you ran your leadership campaign.
Let me ask you what you think your political future is.
And I didn't mean to speak negatively a moment ago.
I just wanted to disclose to our viewers who might not have been following things in the last year or so with you.
But what do you think the political future holds for yourself?
You're a pretty young guy.
You have a lot of conservative values.
You did very well in the leadership.
What's next?
I'll be back someday.
For people who don't know, I have a two and a half month old, and I have a three-year-old daughter at home.
So you know what?
I need to take a break.
I got some opportunities there.
Look, I lost my nomination literally by an inch, frankly, because half of my supporters didn't show up.
At another couple doesn't show enough, I'd be there.
So, this is all about remember to vote, people, and remember to vote.
And both of the candidates were more from the left side of the Conservative Party, and they ganged up against me.
So, it's one of those things.
So, I'll be back someday.
But when you've got kids as young as mine, maybe it's not a bad thing to sit out for six, eight, whatever years.
Give me one last word about the new premier of Saskatchewan.
We haven't had a chance to have him on the show yet.
He looks like he's following in some of the good examples set by Brad Wall, who was certainly one of my favorite premiers in the last decade.
Tell me a little bit about the Saskatchewan Premier.
Do you know him?
Have you worked with him in politics?
Were you familiar with him from your travels in the province?
I don't know him personally as well as I knew two of the other contenders in there.
I knew two of them, one very well, one a little bit, and the other two.
He's one I'm not too familiar with, but everyone who does know him says he's really a grassroots sort of guy.
He sort of had never thought about running to be premier, and this just sort of happened, and he stepped up to the plate.
So, I think you're good to see a guy who's pretty humble and sort of a meat and potatoes pick to basic issues, but he's going to be unafraid to stand up first province.
That's the reading I get of the guy.
Well, that sounds like a perfect fit for Saskatchewan.
A little bit humble, a little bit grassroots, solid, reliable, neighborly.
That's my favorite Saskatchewan adjective, neighborly.
And I think Brad Wall, it was sort of amazing to see a politician leave at the top of his game in Canada.
Sometimes politicians stick around too long.
So, listen, good luck in Saskatchewan.
Good luck in your own plans.
I hope to talk to you again.
I mean, I know you're not done right now.
You still are serving.
You will.
Yeah, well, thank you.
Could I just say to your viewers, continue to pray for the folks in Humboldt and in Saskatoon?
And I know in parts of Alberta who were impacted by the tragedy, I represented Humboldt for 11 years in the House of Commons, and those people are still going to need prayers going through the next weeks and, frankly, the next years.
So, continue to think of have them in your thoughts.
Thank you very much.
That's a very nice note to end on.
Well, it's great to talk to you, Brad.
And we'll call on you from time to time, I hope, in the months ahead, because there's so much to talk about.
You can be one of our windows into Ottawa, what's going on.
Great to talk to you.
Have a great one.
All right, there you have it.
Brad Trost.
He's the Conservative MP for Saskatoon University, giving us an update on immigration and other matters in the House of Commons.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
Tracking Transactions00:12:06
Well, our next guest had a feature interview with John Cardillo, and it was fascinating.
We sent it around by email, but for those of you who didn't see it, I am delighted to bring back Matt Schreier.
He's many things, including an author of the new book, Dawn Prayer, or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison, which alludes to his more central identity, I suppose.
He was actually captured and held prison by al-Qaeda.
And I think he's the only person, the only Westerner at least, to have been kept prisoner and then escaped.
And he joins us now via Skype, Matt Schreier.
How are you?
What a story.
How long have you been free?
I've been free for coming up on five years in July.
So how long were you in captivity?
I was in captivity for seven months from December 31st, New Year's Eve, 2012, till July 29th, 2013.
In that time, are you aware, were there any efforts to free you, any commando team sent by the U.S. military to try and free you?
Understand that the U.S. takes very seriously the recovery of captured prisoners who are Americans.
Was there an attempt to liberate you?
No, no.
All the evidence in my case proves the exact opposite.
I was labeled an enemy of the state by the FBI.
They thought that I joined Al-Qaeda, and they basically exploited the situation to gather as much intelligence as possible.
Now, let's go back because I've certainly jumped ahead.
How did you come to be in that god-awful place?
And how did you come to be captured?
I was photographing the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo.
I was in the Carmel-Jabel area, which is like the worst area you could possibly be in right before I was captured.
I got the photographs I wanted and decided that it was time to go.
And when I was about 45 minutes from the Turkish border on my way home, that's when the cab driver I was with, along with one other person, set me up and Al-Qaeda grabbed me.
I guess the cab driver would have detected that he had a Westerner in the back, and in that environment, a Westerner equals cash.
Is that why you were kidnapped?
Was it a hostage situation for money?
Was it a PR situation?
I mean, there's many reasons why Al-Qaeda or another terrorist group would take a prisoner.
What was the reason in your case?
Well, I mean, they never made any demand, so I never officially became a hostage.
But my former cellmate was eventually released in a deal negotiated by Qatar.
And we all know that Qatar, they're the ones the U.S. government goes to when they need them to shell out money to get people home.
So my guess is they were definitely planning on asking for money.
What about your family?
Did they know you were going over there in the first place?
Had you gone to war zones before?
Was this the first time you went to a war zone?
This was the second time.
I was in Syria about a month before, feeling things out in southern Turkey on the border and northern Jordan at the Zatari camp.
And that's where I made all the connections that I needed because I'm not going to just wander into a war zone uninvited.
So I made the connections that I needed, and I was invited back, and I accepted.
Now, you say that the United States thought you were a terrorist yourself.
Had you had any interaction with radical Islam, with international groups?
Tell me a bit more about your journalism.
Did you come from a formal media organization?
I mean, were you just a freelancer going out as an amateur or were you associated with any established company?
No, I was a freelancer and I had no previous history of extremism or connection to it whatsoever.
They knew this because they had confiscated my computer and there was nothing on it that would point to me being a terrorist.
I'm a Jewish guy from Long Island.
They basically came to this assumption because my identity was stolen by some Canadian jihadis who they brought in to interrogate me and they took all my personal and financial information and they went on a shopping spree and during this time they paid off my Discover card.
And apparently because my Discover card was paid off, the FBI came to the conclusion it must be me and that I had joined Al-Qaeda and I was the one making these purchases.
It is weird that someone who steals a credit card would pay it off.
That is strange, you must admit.
Yeah, it is strange.
I mean, but I don't think it's a big enough flag to judge somebody guilty until proven innocent.
I mean, it wasn't like it was a huge balance.
It was a couple hundred bucks.
And when you think about it strategically, it's a smart move if you plan on using this discredit information for a cell or people that you have in the States.
So keeping an active line of credit open makes sense from their point of view.
Now, tell me a little bit more about the interrogation that you went under and the information that was taken from you by terrorists.
Give our viewers a bit of that.
January 31st, exactly one month after I was taken, I was brought into a room and sat down with three Canadians and the emir of the Katiba holding me, that's a militia group, and one other guy.
And for the past month, they'd been trying to get my financial information out of me, but their English wasn't strong enough.
So I just kept giving them the runaround.
That's why they brought these guys in.
And they basically put a piece of paper and a pencil in front of me and said, all right, give us your passwords to all your credit cards online, your social security number, passwords to Facebook, YouTube, your website, everything that you can think of.
We want everyone you know, everywhere you've been, everything about yourself, write it down.
And that's what I did.
Yeah, you had been captive for one month.
All these accounts were still active and live.
Was your family looking for you?
Did anyone, were police involved at this point?
Had you been in touch with folks back home who were expecting to hear from you when you were captured on New Year's Eve and you were gone?
Were people back home looking for you, or did they think, oh, Matt's gone away for a long time.
It's not unusual to not hear from him for a month?
My best friend was, at the time, was my point of contact.
I told him if he didn't hear from me for two weeks, something was wrong.
But he always had this mentality where, you know, Matt's good at taking care of himself.
So he just assumed whatever, that I was off working.
And my mother reported me missing coincidentally on January 31st, the very same day that they took all this financial information.
And she reported me missing with the State Department, who claims they never contacted the FBI.
They gave my mother the runaround for like two months, never referred her to law enforcement until the very last minute, but still they didn't tell her which branch of law enforcement to go to.
They just said law enforcement.
So they didn't tell her to go to the FBI.
So the State Department is just as culpable in what the FBI was doing.
And just to break it down for your listeners, they were buying laptops and tablets to terrorists.
And the FBI was monitoring everything.
So that's what they wanted your passwords for.
You gave them that password, and these transactions went through.
Now, how long did that go on for?
How much money did they spend?
You mentioned laptops and passwords and tablets and things like that.
What things did they buy?
Where did they send it to?
And how much do they spend?
And how long did that go on before those credit card companies cut you off?
Months.
It went on for months.
They bought 19 laptops and tablets, I believe, boots.
They practically rebuilt the Mercedes and Cologne, sunglasses, a Kama Sutra guide from iTunes.
Hundreds and hundreds of purchases.
And this went on for, like I said, months.
Over $17,000 was stolen from my personal savings account.
Then they moved on to my business account.
I'm sorry, over $16,000 for my personal savings.
And they moved on to my business account, and they stole over $1,000 from there.
And that's when finally Citibank realized something was wrong because there was an overdraft of $553 in my personal account, and they froze my business account, not the FBI.
And here's the catch.
The very same day that Citibank froze my account, a message was put into, a note was put into the Citibank system from the FBI.
This is on June 6th saying that if anybody calls about this account being frozen, refer them to the lead case agent, and her phone number is in the system.
So obviously, the FBI was monitoring this whole situation because in real time, as soon as Citibank froze my accounts, they called Citibank and told them to put this message into their system.
Got it.
So obviously they were sort of tracking things.
Now, what came about from that?
You mentioned they were Canadians who interrogated you.
These were Canadians who had come from Canada to Syria to join the terrorist war.
Did they identify themselves as Canadian?
How did you know they were Canadian?
I didn't recognize their accents.
They did not identify themselves.
They were wearing masks, all three of them.
My cellmate grew up in Vermont, right on the border.
So he recognized their accents.
And on top of that, after I came home, I started investigating everything that went on and looking at all the receipts.
And I noticed that two tablets were mailed to a guy named Hemrik Feet in Quebec.
And several others were mailed to the border, the Turkish border, on Turkish Syrian border on the Turkish side.
And this guy, Hemrick Feet, that's his real name.
He has since moved back to Canada.
He lives a free man, and he's never even been arrested, from what I've been told, even though that the RCMP kicked in his door, raided his house, and confiscated some of these devices.
Now, I heard about this, and I saw your tweets about it.
And in fact, if I'm not mistaken, you have a photograph of someone who you say you recognized.
Is that correct?
That you saw someone without a mask over there in Syria and you see them now back here in Canada.
Is that right?
No, it's close.
That guy is basically while I was in captivity, they were forwarding emails to a certain email address.
Any emails between myself and editors back home who were my contacts, they were forwarding these emails to somebody, obviously in an attempt to see if they could get ransom for me from these organizations.
Now, I took that email address and I cut and pasted it into the Facebook search engine.
And this guy set up his Facebook account with the exact same email address.
So his profile came up, and that's where I saw his picture.
And then after one of them, a different suspect, took a selfie with your prime minister and then posted it on his Facebook page.
The media got a hold of that.
And I told the RCMP that if they don't give me an update, I'm going to start giving interviews.
So they invited me up to Montreal to avoid me going public and humiliating Trudeau, which really is not hard.
And they did a photo lineup.
And in this photo lineup was the exact same person they were forwarding these emails to, whose profile came up in Facebook.
All right.
I don't want to take up too much time.
I mean, I know you had a good discussion with my colleague John Cardillo.
What now?
Escape and Aggravation00:04:39
I mean, you managed to escape.
Give me one minute on the escape itself, and then I'm just going to ask for an update of how you've been since you've returned these past five years.
How did you finally break away?
I mean, you know, you're a young guy, so you have some wits about you and some physical strength and endurance, I suppose.
But I mean, being a prisoner by al-Qaeda, that sounds like it would be pretty tough just to break free.
Yeah, well, I mean, I was in a basement cell on a base with a wall around it.
So basically, what I did was I don't want to ruin the end of the book.
I figured out how to take apart the wires that were welded onto the window holding us in.
And it was kind of like a puzzle.
So I stared at the wires because I couldn't pull them off.
I couldn't pry them off.
So after I stared at them for a while, I realized, all right, you know, strength isn't going to do this.
So I started thinking of characters in books and movies and how did they get it done.
And I thought of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park and how when they jumped up at the electrified screen, they never hit the same spot twice.
So I started testing every wire.
And by doing that, I figured out that it was held together by tension and I can just really unweave it and take it apart.
And that's how I did it.
So you got out, you got out of the cell, you got out of the prison.
And then where did you go?
Did you walk to Turkey?
How did you get to freedom?
No, Turkey's an hour drive from Aleppo.
You know, that environment, you can't walk it.
So I had to basically weave through the back roads till I was far enough away.
I was walking through Aleppo for like 35, 40 minutes.
It was the most surreal experience.
And then I basically tricked a couple of guys into walking me right up to a Free Syrian Army headquarters.
And they took me in.
And the next day, bought me a brand new jumpsuit, make me look like one of them.
And we piled into the backseat of the Jeep Cherokee, the same kind of car I got kidnapped in, believe it or not.
And they drove me all the way to the border.
And you just went across the border and you phoned home or you flew home or what happened then?
I went across the border and about two hours after I got there.
The Turks took me right in.
They asked a few questions.
They were really, really compassionate and great guys.
And they let me call the embassy and the embassy's like, yes, we've been looking for you.
We're going to send the consulate to pick you up from Adana.
And about two and a half hours later, he arrived and let me call my mother.
So I got on the phone with her.
And then they drove me back to Adana.
And it took about two days to get all the paperwork, temporary passport, stuff like that together.
And after two days, I jumped on a plane to Istanbul, Istanbul to JFK, where my mother and the evil FBI agent who was doing all this stuff to me were waiting for me.
All right, it's been five years.
So what do you do now?
And it sounds like there's not a lot of closure there.
The bad guys who got you have not been arrested in North America that we know of.
And do we know what's happened to your captors back in Syria?
Has that geographic place been reconquered by Syria or others?
What's gone on since you got back?
Well, since I got home, I mean, I got to be honest with you, the FBI and the RCMP and Crown Prosecutor Linda Carey have caused me a lot more aggravation and pain than anything that happened over there.
The FBI has two Canadians they claim in custody for four years who interrogated me, but they won't prosecute them because of all these issues that occurred from the tactics that they used, I believe.
And they won't let the Canadians arrest anybody, even though they have an airtight case.
I mean, all the evidence, they have actually a tape recording of one of them admitting that he did this while talking on the phone with his girlfriend.
They played it for me.
And still, you know, Crown Prosecutor Linda Carey, who is in charge of prosecuting these people, will not move forward with the case.
And then at the same time, I'm reading online that she's trying to prosecute a couple because they had a pressure cooker and a box of nails in their house, and they're Muslims.
So all this causes me a lot of aggravation.
And no, I don't have closure, and I'm not going to give up.
I'm going to keep fighting until these people are held accountable on both sides.
As far as what I'm doing now, I'm writing a second book.
I do a lot of speaking engagements with the military.
That's my real passion in life.
And I have some other projects that are starting to gain speed.
And hopefully I'll be able to talk about them soon and make some announcements.
Tyranny Coming Here?00:02:56
All right.
Well, thanks for taking the time with us today.
Very interesting.
I appreciate that.
And I hope that you do get justice both in North America and back over there.
Thanks for being with us.
The book we're talking about is called The Dawn Prayer, or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison.
We've been talking to Matt Schreier.
Thanks, Matt.
All right.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
Hey, welcome back on my monologue yesterday about the Liberals using the Toronto attack as justification to censor their political opponents online.
Ron writes, you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
That's a mantra of the left.
Oh, you're exactly right.
I mean, the left or just big government in general.
I mean, this income tax is just temporary until we win World War I.
I mean, taxes, regulations, I mean, all the NSA spying, all the loss of privacy since 9-11.
I don't think it's made us much safer.
Maybe it has, but it certainly used an excuse an inch to take a mile.
On my interview with Brandon Morse about baby Alfie, Tammy writes, thank you for interviewing Brandon Morse.
Alfie Evans is being subjected to horrific treatment by the NHS.
This child and his parents are being held hostage.
This is unacceptable and unconscionable.
You know, I don't know what it is.
Maybe it's because I have a little one about that age and Alfie looks so cute.
And I just find it unfathomable.
But that's what tyranny is like.
When tyranny comes to the West, it will not come wearing a military uniform.
It will not come with a foreign leader wearing some Stalin's mustache and a Russian accent.
Tyranny will not come that way.
Tyranny will come through the hospitals, through the schools, through social workers, through, I don't know, some child and family services activist.
That's how tyranny will come.
And it's come to the UK.
There's just no other way about it.
I've told you that before.
Every time I go to the UK, I come back depressed that it is not what I hoped it was, not what I thought it was, not what it once was, even recently.
Susan writes, this is what happens when you let bureaucrats run the health care system.
Watch for it coming here, too.
Oh, you're so right.
You're so right.
I mean, if you control people's health, you can theoretically control their bodies.
I mean, that's the theory and the excuse we hear while we have government-run healthcare.
So we have a public stake in you.
We have the right to tell you what to do or not do because we have socialized medicine.
By definition, it gives the government a stake in your own life, your own body.
Yeah, I don't think we're as far gone as the UK, but I think we're only five years behind them.
That's the show for today.
That's the show for this week until Monday, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters.