With a Foreword by Oliver Stone.In December 2024, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad departed for Russia after militia forces took Damascus. An Al-Qaeda affiliated group led by Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani (aka Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa) took power. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman hooted that it was the “biggest…most game-changing event in the Middle East in the last 45 years.” Yet until then, Al-Jolani was wanted for terrorism and had a U.S. State Department $10 million bounty on his head since 2017.The media-established story of popular “rebels” triumphing over “evil” has ...