The Man Who Kidnapped Lindsey Snell Is Now Syria's Top Diplomat in America

This is Mohamed Kanatry, the recently appointed Syrian chargé d'affaires to the United States. It's not quite the same role as ambassador but for all intents and purposes he is serving as the Syrian ambassador to America. And I'm here to play a role as first Syrian resident diplomat at the United States in 2014 I think. I'm here to help build this new historic relationship. I first met Mohamed Kanatry in July of 2016 when I was kidnapped by his group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. But before I get into him, some context. Russia and the Assad regime were bombing the Aleppo countryside relentlessly and I went, as I'd gone many times before, to report on the situation. What I didn't know before I went was that Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate, had taken control of more of the Aleppo countryside than ever before. Even areas technically under the control of the so-called Free Syrian Army were de facto Nusra territories. A very few western journalists still working in this part of Syria were vigilant about Nusra because Nusra had kidnapped many foreigners before. Another stroke of bad luck was that just a few hours after I'd crossed the border from Turkey, where I lived, there was a coup attempt. So Turkey was immediately under martial law and the border was effectively sealed. I was stuck in Syria. I was embedded with the faction of the Free Syrian Army and they assured me that everything was fine. They told me Nusra had no problem with me being in Aleppo. And then I met Mohamed Kanatri, a Nusra member and a university student in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. He too told me that everything was fine and that he'd stay with me so there'd be no problems with Nusra. He escorted me to the places I wanted to film, like military sites, hospitals. And a few days into my trip, I asked if I could interview him. Mohamed agreed to the interview but he wanted to cover his face. But you can tell from the eyes, the voice, and the speech patterns that this is the same person. There are several differences between ISIS and Nusra and that's of course one of them. Today there are several ministers and committees inside Syria working on these ideas. Several. Several. Several. Several. Several. Let's get into the interview. Again, this is Syria's first diplomat to America in more than a decade. Note that I've cut a lot of the stutters and pauses for length and clarity. Nusra is a Muslim group, Muslim people trying to protect people from the Assad regime, from the Shia militias, to establish an Islamic country in Syria, an Islamic state in Syria. What do you mean by an Islamic state? Islamic state is Islamic controlled by Sharia law. Who doesn't do dumb stuff in their 20s? Some people party too much, some people stay in bad relationships, and some people fight to establish an Islamic state. What do you think about the groups that get American support? In 2014, the U.S. began arming rebel factions it deemed moderate. Right after U.S. arms deliveries, Nusra would come in, attack the groups, and steal their weapons and vehicles. Mohammed was saying that the groups that accepted U.S. support were stupid, because eventually the U.S. would control them. What do you think America wants to do in Syria? A common conspiracy theory among opposition factions was that America secretly supported the Assad regime. It was ridiculous. Clearly, America had no problem with this Sunni being Why did you join? In Nusra? To protect my people. But why Nusra? Why not the Free Syrian Army? Because it's an organized group, and because of their goal. Their big goal of establishing an Islamic state is very clear. We want that. That makes them special. Is the suicide bombing what makes Nusra more... Not suicide, please. It's sacrificing. Sacrificing. You can't buy with money, because they are afraid of that, of course. And they're saying that we are terrorists, we are mindless, and something like that. And some human rights organizations say that these car bombs can hurt civilians. Does that ever happen? No, of course not. Let me just interrupt to say that that's patently false. And their suicide bombings, sorry, their sacrifice bombings, killed lots of civilians. A couple days after this interview, armed Nusra militants came to drag me out of the house I was staying in and take me to an isolated place deep in the Aleppo countryside. I saw Mohammed several times in the first days of my captivity. His final words to me were to tell me that the Nusra militants holding me wanted me to move from the sitting room into a jail cell in the basement. My response was not positive. And shortly after, Nusra moved me to a real prison. And then, all these years later, I saw that Qanatry was appointed Syria's diplomat to America. In one of Ahmed Alshara's first interviews after taking control of Syria, he blamed his terrorist past on his youth. So we could do the same thing here. People change, right? But as I've said before, when Jolani announced that Nusra was splitting from Al-Qaeda, I was their foreign captive. They were very explicit about the fact that the split was so that the West would stop targeting them because they were Al-Qaeda. The international response was, very logically, it's the same group, they're still terrorists, we're still going to target them. They are a foreign terrorist organization. You certainly see no indication that would give us reason to change the designation of this group. Again, you judge an organization like this on their goals, their ideology, their objectives. And then there were more rebrands, culminating in image rehabilitation, with the help of Western media and think tanks. Starting in 2023, a British non-government organization, which specializes in conflict resolution, invited me to help them bring this guy out of the terrorist world and into regular politics. And today, journalists who are outspoken against Nusra, its later iterations, and our widespread human rights abuses and extremism, have done a complete 180 and turned into sycophants. And on that note, the Syrian government just announced a new set of laws restricting the media. They're deliberately vague, including provisions against fake news and offensive content, without any details about what would constitute these. This is really concerning. Turkey has similar laws, and they've been used to snuff out press freedom for years. But some good news. The Syrian government's new application for press permission features a category for influencers. So, although critical journalists may be forbidden to enter, you can count on lots and lots of reels from hotels in Raqqa and ice cream shops in Damascus. Anyway, I'll leave you with this.