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Salon, 24 Jan 2017
When President Donald Trump gave a speech before the CIA Memorial Wall in Langley, Virginia, the American intelligence community was not the only group listening. Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks about oil and Iraq reportedly reached Iraqi soldiers and militiamen who are currently fighting ISIS.

“If we kept the oil, you probably wouldn’t have ISIS because that’s where they made their money in the first place,” Trump said in a televised speech at CIA headquarters. “So we should have kept the oil, but, OK, maybe we’ll have another chance.”

These words reportedly shook Iraqis, some of whom spoke with BuzzFeed News about the prospect of another American invasion.

“We kept our ammunition and weapons from the time the Americans left for fighting ISIS,” one 27-year-old security official said. “But once ISIS is gone we will save our weapons for the Americans.”

BuzzFeed’s Borzou Daragahi reported that Trump’s remarks could spoil relations with one of the key players in the war against ISIS.