Those early wake-up calls for NBC foreign correspondent Richard Engel on the other side of the world can lead to refreshing candor.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interviewed Engel from Instanbul, 4:40 a.m. local time, on her show Monday night about the terrorist massacre in Orlando and breaking news of the murder of a French police officer and his wife by another ISIS-inspired jihadist.
With ISIS losing ground in Syria and Iraq, its leaders are urging Islamists to attack Europeans and Americans in their countries rather than joining ISIS fighters on the battlefield in the Middle East, Engel said. Then came an assertion you're unlikely to hear again on MSNBC --
MADDOW: Richard, do you think there's any reason to believe that if those battlefield losses continue, if they to get degraded and be sort of on the run where they are in their home base, where they control territory, will that affect their ability to project force this way, even if not in the short run, in the long run will that eventually hurt them?
ENGEL: In the very long run, yes, but it is possible that ISIS lives on, that it loses its foothold and that it becomes an al Qaeda-like organization in that it is a fugitive organization that lives in the shadows, it doesn't have a home address anymore, and it could live on longer in places like Europe or the United States where the memory of ISIS and the memory of the great caliphate is carried in the minds and the hearts of nostalgic people in communities in France and the United States.
So, already what we're seeing a little bit, and French officials have been warning about this, is people trying to leave the battlefield. They don't want to stay in Raqqa and face the bombings, so they're trying to get out, come back through Turkey, come back anyway they can. The migrant trail is once again moving, not on the scale that it did last year, but still is underway. And that is also a concern that as you smash them in Iraq and Syria, they spread out. Or, they just inspire the ones like this awful shooter in Orlando who was clearly full of hate.
Note the couched language -- "come back through Turkey," "come back anyway they can" -- but no mention of where they are going. More euphemism quickly followed -- there's "concern" that as ISIS is forced out of Iraq and Syria, "they spread out." Translation: ISIS warriors are likely to infiltrate the "migrant trail" that's again on the move and making its way to Europe.
Donald Trump may want to send Engel a thank-you note for providing him with such a useful talking point.
Having said that which must never be reported on MSNBC, Engel abruptly changed the subject and referred to Maddow's earlier citing of news reports that the Orlando gunman had used gay dating apps and visited the Pulse nightclub numerous times before his horrific rampage --
ENGEL: And I think you're absolutely right to focus on these reports about him going to that club. You don't go to a club a dozen times, sit down, dance, and drink your head out to case a joint. There's something much more profound going on there.
MADDOW: Yeah, there's something going on there that is very, at this point, puzzling and is going to end up being an important part of understanding this.
"Drink your head out"...? The sort of thing you hear from someone who just said something else they regretted.
