Original subtitles

On 2011, I was sitting with my friends.

Suddenly, a guy came.

He was wearing a big coat, and it was huge.

I will never forget the fear in his eyes,

and he started to yell "Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!"

And he exploded.

And he killed 12 that day, seven of them my friends.

He was 17. His father and brother was killed by the American troops.

And he was seeking revenge.

BARACK OBAMA: For nearly nine years, our nation has been at war in Iraq.

The troops are now preparing to make their final march

across the border and out of the country.

Iraq's future will be in the hands of its own people.

Our war there will be over.

At the end of 2011,

all the coalition forces finally left Iraq.

It just touches my heart to see our troops coming home.

HORN HONKING

God bless us!

The huge surge of thousands of extra American troops had helped

defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq and end the civil war.

Now, the country was being run by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

DISTANT GUNFIRE

When the Americans say that, "We did something good in Iraq,"

I want them to look into my eyes and tell me this.

They didn't bring freedom. They brought chaos.

Allahu akbar!

My friend! How are you?

How's your day? Not too bad, can't complain, yeah.

Another day in paradise.

LAUGHING: Yeah!

Waleed is one of over 2 million people forced to leave Iraq

since war began in 2003.

He came to Canada when he was 21 years old after receiving

death threats for working with foreign journalists.

They do say, and it's true, "Home is where your heart is."

And my heart is in Baghdad and forever will be.

Plus, it's fucking cold here!

HE LAUGHS

I arrived to Canada.

I met this beautiful, loving fricking woman.

I married.

Got educated here.

I studied film and media.

My name is Waleed Moudhafar.

Sorry.

I was really an intense individual at that time. Go.

My name is Waleed Moudhafar.

I left my country eight years ago.

And now, I want to return.

I couldn't return home until 2012,

cos that's when I finally got my permanent residency.

I spoke to my wife and I was like, "I can't take it any more.

"I got to go home."

And I knew that my brothers were waiting for me.

LAUGHTER

HORN HONKS, MUSIC BLARES

I don't even know what I'm going to do when I see my mother.

SHE ULULATES

IN OWN LANGUAGE:

I mean, not to see your mum for nine years...

It was an insanely happy moment.

MUSIC PLAYS

And it just hit me.

I left my brothers, they were kids.

The youngest was nine years old.

I put him to bed.

And I was thinking, like, it's almost like I was in a dream and

I just woke up and you're expecting that not two minutes have gone by.

I wanted to do a high school friend reunion.

Some of them, you know, started coming up with excuses

and excuses, and there was this friend of mine called Hakem.

He finally will was like "No, no.

"If you want to hang out, just come here. We'll hang out, you and I."

And I was like, "But why? Our friends?"

And he was, like, "Because you fucking invited al-Samiri."

"Yeah!"

And I was like, "Do you not remember?"

We freaking snuck out of school together.

It was, like, we did all of these... Of course I invited him!

And the guy was like, "Oh, you're one of those.

"He is Sunni."

And I was like, "Hold on.

"Do you mean to tell me that you don't speak to him

"because he's Sunni?"

And he was like, "Yeah."

And he was like, "And let me tell you something, Waleed.

"The Iraqi you left is no more.

"This is the new Iraq."

SHOUTING IN ARABIC ON LOUD-HAILER

In the two years since American troops withdrew,

sectarian tensions that had driven the civil war resurfaced.

All over Iraq, Sunni Muslims were protesting

against the Shia-led government.

Allahu akbar!

THEY SING

Sunni anger was being fuelled

by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Maliki is a Shi'ite sectarian to the end, to his core.

He couldn't look at a Sunni Iraqi without seeing a terrorist,

and he treated them like that.

And on top of that, he just turns out to be just spectacularly

breathtakingly corrupt.

And the Americans, in their blindness,

kept him in power forever and ever,

and they could've gotten rid of him, they could've pushed him out.

Dexter Filkins had been reporting on Iraq for over a decade.

Maliki was really aggressively alienating

the Sunni population in Iraq.

Mass arrests, no trials, thousands of men held,

families don't know where they are.

They're basically just thrown in a dungeon somewhere,

and that was happening just on a huge scale - everywhere.

Treating them in a way that was kind of guaranteed to stir

a kind of resentment and ultimately violence.

You could feel it, you could feel the anger.

I have to leave again.

And I know something bad is going to happen.

And I was sobbing like a kid.

SHE SOBS

Cos I didn't know whether I'll see them again or not.

And saying goodbye to my brothers, like, I...

THEY CRY

Shit could hit the fan at any second.

ANY second in Iraq.

Yeah.

Something was a-brewing.

And that thing...

..fucked us for good now.

SIRENS BLARING

HORNS HONKING

MAN SPEAKING ON LOUD-HAILER

CROWD CHEERS

We drove through the city.

The Army that used to insult the people on a daily basis

in the checkpoints have disappeared.

They collapsed.

We thought the security forces would come back, fight back,

the terrorists would leave.

But then when I saw the weapons, the new cars,

they were almost all in one uniform.

I became totally sure that Isis is here to stay.

RAPID GUNFIRE

Can you just explain why people are cheering?

They weren't welcoming Isis.

But after years of oppression from corrupted troops

and governments,

people felt free for the first time.

In their life.

This is what Isis was selling to people.

That Maliki and his government is gone.

Soon after the so-called Islamic State took Mosul,

Omar lost his job as a professor of history at the university.

When Isis came to Mosul, part of the change

they wanted to do in the city is to change the education.

And simply they summarised all of this by saying that,

"Any education system that is not serving the word of Allah

"and preparing a fighter is unaccepted education.

"We need good Muslim fighters."

So, they forced all the teachers to rewrite the schoolbooks.

What we used to see as the police now is the Islamic police.

What used to be Iraqi flag now is the black flag of Isis.

From day one, you would see in the street

what they call the media outlet.

Putting on the TV, on the monitor, Isis videos.

Showing their propaganda.

Each mosque had one media point,

very big screens like those used in public squares to watch football.

VIDEO PLAYING

MUSIC PLAYS

I saw, myself, children between 12 to 15 years old

joining Isis just after watching a video.

Beyond this checkpoint and the first Isis checkpoint on the eastern

edge of Mosul, there's perhaps 1,000 yards of no man's land.

This was as close as we dare go.

We could just make out the jihadist's black-and-white flag.

I went to the Kurdish part of Iraq right after Isis had rolled in.

And I looked into the Caliphate.

And, black flag, checkpoints.

I remember just thinking, like, "There it is." You know? Like,

for years, Al-Qaeda was this, like, shadow army.

They blow up a mosque, they blow up a market, and then they disappear.

And, like, these guys, like, they took the territory.

And it was like... It was the Islamic State, and you could see it,

and there it was - right in front of me, a big black flag.

Crazy.

How did you feel looking into the Caliphate?

HE CHUCKLES

HE EXHALES FORCEFULLY

Man...

Man, I don't know how I felt then.

I... Look, I was...

At that point, looking into the Caliphate, I was...

You know, once again, the Americans had, like, thrown it away. You know?

They'd thrown it away. I mean, I was there in 2003

when they took down Saddam - they threw it away, you know?

I was there in 2008 after the surge,

and the violence had gone to nothing.

It was done. Al-Qaeda was finished.

And what happens?

The Americans leave, and so Omar al-Baghdadi,

he's the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq,

he dispatches like half a dozen guys to Syria.

Like, go to Syria and form essentially what becomes Isis.

And that takes basically two years.

And it's an army that invades Iraq.

It's the same guys. It's the same guys, they just changed T-shirts.

Al-Qaeda to Isis.

You could trace that thing all the way back to 2003.

All the people who were in it, all the mistakes that the Americans

had made, and it all had manifested itself into this.

HORNS HONKING

GUNFIRE

Two days after the attack on Mosul, Isis forces pushed south to Tikrit.

Birthplace of Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Camp Speicher had been built by the Americans during the war.

It was now being used by the Iraqi Army to train new recruits.

Ali Hussein Kadhim lives 250km south of Tikrit

in a region that is almost entirely Shia.

He started his army training just 12 days before Isis attacked.

MAN SINGING

When news reached the base that Isis had invaded Tikrit,

most of the officers fled,

leaving thousands of untrained cadets

to fend for themselves.

MEN YELL IN DISTANCE

THEY YELL BACK

Many of the Isis commanders were once part of Saddam's regime.

When they rounded up the young cadets,

they sent the Sunnis home and only took the Shia to repent.

OVERLAPPING SPEECH

NO AUDIO

GUNSHOTS

HE SIGHS SHAKENLY

HE SIGHS

IMITATES SNORING

Over 1,500 cadets were slaughtered by Isis.

Hussein Kadhim was the only known survivor.

But some of the young recruits had evaded capture

and were now desperately trying to escape.

DISTANT SHOUTS

Three days before the massacre, Um Qusay's eldest son and husband

had gone to Mosul.

They were murdered at an Isis checkpoint.

Though Um Qusay and the people of Al Alam were mostly Sunnis,

they risked certain death by hiding nearly 900 Shia cadets.

SHE PRAYS

APPLAUSE

This award is reserved for those women around the world

who have shown incredible courage.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

MAN YELLING ON TV

I was back in Canada.

My brother called me and he was like, "Daesh just took over Tikrit."

And then the Speicher thing happened.

It was a matter of time until Daesh come to Baghdad, and we're Shia.

Cos my dad is Shia, so we're known as a Shia,

and my dad was in the army.

So, first mark.

Like, they will be the first to go.

And I was like, "OK, how much money do you have?"

And he was like, "I don't have any." And I was like, "All right.

"OK, give me one day, and I'll come back to you."

So, I scrounged up as much money as I can put together, send it over and

I was like, "You buy tickets right now and you go to Turkey right now."

So, I moved the whole family to Turkey within a matter of a week.

And I remember talking to my wife and telling her, I was like...

"It just never stops.

"It never stops. Nobody wants us to stay alive."

Like, Daesh made us look at Al-Qaeda time and they were like,

"They're just a bunch of jokers, these guys!"

And they were in comparison.

We heard of Speicher.

As Isis distributed directly videos,

so we were aware of what was happening.

They were talking like that it is a great victory

for the Islamic State.

GUNSHOT ON TV

GUNSHOTS

But I still remember seeing those people in the truck

while begging Isis.

And this guy who was killing them using the pistol

and throwing them into the river.

W-W-Who would be able to do this?

Who CAN do this?

One of my students became a member of Isis.

I mean, what are you doing?

I wanted to talk to him

as if I'm still his teacher.

But then I realised, like, "No. Be careful."

Because the way he spoke to me was...

He was really one of them.

Completely a different person.

Er...

Yeah.

Once you are part of Isis,

you are a monster.

Can you start by telling - did you know you were joining Isis?

MUSIC PLAYS

CHANTING

All right, so what happens at the training camp?

By the end of 2014,

Isis controlled many of the major cities north of Baghdad.

In the so-called Islamic State, they began the systematic destruction of

all cultural and religious artefacts that challenge their beliefs.

And a new constitution demanded that everybody live according

to ancient laws from the time of Muhammad.

The largest city under Isis control was Mosul.

Isis controlled all the media in Mosul.

And for people like Tahany, the only way to find out what was really

going on was to read a secret blogger called Mosul Eye.

There were rumours in town.

Some people were saying Mosul Eye is a Jewish Iraqi who love his city.

Some others saying that this is a professional psychological

operation from CIA.

Isis feared what Mosul Eye was doing.

Telling them, "You're not alone in town.

"Someone is watching you.

"Isis is not controlling everything in our life."

Someone said...

.."I wish I know who was Mosul Eye, because I would behead him myself."

From the very beginning, I felt the responsibility and the importance

of exposing what's happening...

..putting everything online.

This led to the creation of Mosul Eye.

INTERVIEWER: That was you? Yeah.

At least I was doing

something against them...

..that Isis, with all its weapons, couldn't manipulate.

The truth.

CHANTING

The normal day under Isis rule was hand cutting...

..stoning women in the street...

..and execution.

This was a normal day under Isis.

And if this didn't happen, we would say, like,

"Wow, there's something wrong!

"Why there is no execution?"

INTERVIEWER: Did you watch that?

Yes.

They were beheaded.

HE SIGHS

For over a year,

Mosul Eye published the names of all the people executed by Isis.

But it was getting harder to keep his identity secret.

The house next door...

..where I live was...

..an Isis senior leader.

The house behind us was also an Isis leader.

The fear that my family would be punished...

..as a result of what I was doing was getting higher.

The moment I decided to leave Mosul was

the most difficult moment in my life.

BARACK OBAMA: Any time we take military action,

there are risks involved.

This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady,

relentless effort to take out Isil, wherever they exist,

using our airpower.

Though targeted air strikes were already being used against Isis,

American bombing intensified at the end of 2016,

as Kurdish and Iraqi troops pushed the so-called Islamic State

back into Mosul.

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

You know, to his credit, I think Obama was concerned about

civilian casualties and, like, making more enemies.

CHEERING

When Trump came in, it was like...

.."We're not going to sit around here

"and worry about civilian casualties."

Like, "We're going after those guys. We're going to kill those guys.

"Gloves are off, man. Go after them."

We are putting America first.

At the same time, we're here...

..to help others.

May God bless you,

may God protect you,

and may God always keep you safe.

EXPLOSION

SHOUTING

ECHOING SCREAMS, GUNFIRE

HE SIGHS

CHILD CRIES

SHOUTING, GUNFIRE

SHOUTING, GUNFIRE

SHOUTING

After nine months of intense fighting,

Mosul was liberated from Isis control.

I'm still 33, and I have lived all of this.

How many things happened?

Americans, Al-Qaeda,

Zarqawi, the civil war,

the killing of Sunnis, the killing of Shia,

the executions, the beheadings.

It's a miracle I'm still able to talk, isn't it?

It's very dangerous to forget...

..because memory all is what's left for us.

I remember the...

..the people in my neighbourhood...

..and that we were able to play in the street...

..with no fear.

Yeah, this is...

HE SIGHS

This is what I remember when I was a child in Mosul.

Mosul is known of its minaret...

..which we call "our old lady"...

..because it's watching us and protecting us.

You would find very old and ancient houses.

You would see a mosque close to a church and then a shrine.

It's the place where you belong

and the place where you identify yourself with.

And when the sun shine...

..you could feel that the sun is shining just because Mosul is there.

Unfortunately, everything I have described has been destroyed.

My city is gone.

TONY BLAIR: Removing Saddam will be a blessing to the Iraqi people.

President Bush and I have committed ourselves

to peace in the Middle East.

We shall help Iraq move towards democracy.

We will strive to see it done.

GEORGE W BUSH: The goals of our coalition are clear and limited.

Coalition forces will help maintain law and order,

so that Iraqis can live in security.

And I assure every citizen of Iraq...

..your nation will soon be free.

INTERVIEWER: So I'm going to ask you... Where do we end?

Oh, man! Like, where do we END end?

Where does it end? Where does this story end?

I don't know. I mean, I think...

No time in the foreseeable future.

It's like there is no solution. It's the Middle East.

There's no solution.

But it will engage us forever.

Will it engage you forever?

No.

I spent a lot of time there. I was... I'm very lucky to be alive.

Very lucky. A lot of people I know are not.

Enough. Enough for me.

INTERVIEWER: Are you all right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

It's all good.

It's all good.

No, it's not, man. Life is...

It's unfair.

But it's OK. You know, I'm not unique when it comes to that.

And the world goes round and round, man.

The world goes round and round.

HE SIGHS

NEWS ARCHIVE: Iraq has been gripped by an unprecedented wave

of protests in recent weeks...

The unrest began over corruption and economic hardship...

A former ambassador tells us pulling out might revitalise Isis.

They're still on the scene,

and they will take advantage of any opening they can find...

This was the moment that the US assassinated Qasem Soleimani...

3,000 US troops are heading to the region.

The threat still looms of a new conflict across the Middle East.