20/06/2014 Newsnight

who have signed up for Jihad, ISIS recruits via video and calls on

western Muslims to fight and die. This is a message to the brothers

who stay behind. You need to ask yourselves what sprints you from

coming to the land of Israel, and joining the ranks of the mujahideen.

The father of one young man that appears says he doesn't recognise

his son. I don't think it is him talking somebody else is teaching

him to talk like this. The attitude is 100% different. Also tonight: I

have suspended your claim because there is a change in your income,

hand on heart, don't worry about it. Benefit reform has been labelled a

fiasco. Has the attack on dependency culture blown up in the Government's

face. And dishing the dirt on the man who ruled rub bah which what

seemed to be exemplary zeal. The Government was grieving on drug

trafficking deals, that is when he stopped being my idol. Give up the

fat job and the big car all you brothers in the west, the cure for

depression is Jihad. The message of the ISIS video chilling, it could

have provided the inspiration for the movie Four Lion, young men from

Britain and the United States the movie Four Lion, young men from

elsewhere sitting on the ground with weapons trying to recruit westerners

to the brutal tort group destroying Iraq.

to the brutal tort group destroying to remove the video from

to the brutal tort group destroying which has yet to be verified. Let's

take a look. You who believe, answer the all of Allah and his messenger

when he calls you to what gives you life. It says what gives you life is

Jihad. That was a taste of that video. Richard Watson is here, what

do we know of the men involved? It is a group of six men in the video.

One Australian, who we appear to, who appears to be dead now, because

it his Shadrdra on the video. Crucially there are three British

men on the video speaking with clear British accents. One has that been

named as Nassa Matana, he's a 20-year-old medical student, no

question that he's from a relatively privileged background or at least he

had opportunities. It is true to say in the late 1990s and early 20000s

many who embraced Jihad could have been said to have had disadvantaged

lives, not this young man it seems. His father spoke tonight, we will

hear a club. He has gone without telling me he is going, disappeared.

When I saw it on the television I was thinking what is he doing there?

Disbelief on the part of the father there. Do we know how many young men

have gone? Well that has been changing over the last 12 months.

When I first started investigating this a year ago the figure was in

the low hundreds. Recently it went up to 400, now security sources are

saying that it is more than 400, perhaps. Getting towards the 500

figure, although I understand it is still lower than 500. But it is

important to say though that half of those people, minus the people who

have been killed in Syria, have come back to the UK. So we could be

talking about 200 people who have been in Syria and now back in the

UK. Is this an important part of what ISIS are doing, does this

factor into the prosession they are making? Obviously ISIS has had a

huge propaganda coup in recent days in Iraq. Expanding into Iraq. There

is some question though whether they are redeploying from Syria. Security

forces are telling us there is no evidence so far they are redeploying

from Syria to Iraq. It must be remembered that ISIS was active in

Iraq for quite a few months. So there is no evidence at the moment

they are moving from Syria to Iraq. But of course that is the

aspiration, the clue is in the title "Islamic state of Iraq and AlSham"

clearly that is the aspiration. As we have seen the wars are being

fought virally as much as on the ground. In ten days of sectarian

violence in Iraq, one image has provided users of Facebook with a

more positive outlook. It is a Sunni mum and Shia dad and a young girl

shoaleding up the card saying "I am sushi", the image is neat but the

background is chaos. Is Iraq on an irreversible journey towards

separation or can it be pulled back from the brink. My guest joins me

now. It is a very positive image when you see the family united, but

the bitter truth is this sectarianism is creating bloodshed?

This image is so important and resonated with so many people. It

shows there is another side of Iraq. I think people forget that even

until now there are lots of families that actually consist of

intermarriages, and this has been going on for decades. You know going

back my grandmother was Sunni, my grandfather was Shia, and in the

past it was very common actually for urban, middle-class bagdaddies or

other urban Iraqis to be in mixed marriages. When my father grew up in

Iraq he didn't even know whether his neighbours or brands from Sunni or

Shia. This has changed, what we are often forgetting in the west is

there is still a sense of Iraqi-ness and Iraqi national identity. This

picture, I'm not sure it is even an Iraqi family. When I saw it I

thought it might not be an Iraqi family. But it doesn't marks it is

the idea that counts. It is very interesting, you keep returning to

this phrase "the idea that counts", but is there still an Iraqi-ness,

what happens at the moment when you see the division that is happening

now? I personally think and lots of my Iraqi friends and people who I'm

in contact with in Iraq, family and colleagues, still believe in an

Iraqi-ness, but they are very worried, of course that ISIS is

going to contribute to an even greater fragmentation. Not evenies

circumstance we can't just put -- not even ISIS, we can't just put it

on there, but the Government. I'm worried if there is western

intervention, in the form of US military intervention, that will

increase sectarianism in Iraq. When you look at something like the video

that Richard was just talking about there, and you see this appeal, to

young men here and in other parts of the world what do you think? I mean

I find it very scary. In some Oasisies is the continuation of

Al-Qaeda, that was never just an organisation it was an idea. This is

the next stage. In many ways this extremism was very much increased

due to Afghanistan and Iraq. I think it would be a very big mistake for

western military intervention, I think that would make it worse, but

at the same time I think we should also not turn a blind eye to what is

happening at home. What is happening in terms of Muslim communities, why

is it that there is this big gap between older generations and

younger generations of men. What should the west's response be to

something like the video. The Home Office is trying to shut it down now

or talk to internet providers to shut it down, what do you think? It

is always a question do you shut something down. I think it is I

personally say shut it down, but don't just shut it down, have a

debate and discussion. Also on the level of short of local communities

try to engage. Why is it that so many young British men who grew up

here feel alienated. One of whom a medical student from a fairly

privileged family? Yeah, I think there are problems that link to

wider British society policies, but also are within Muslim communities,

I think, we need to look at what is happening within the mosques and in

terms of generations, who are the community leaders, often older men

who don't represent younger men and women, that is also a big problem.

They have been in power less than a month before Iain Duncan Smith

declared welfare dependency absurd and vowed to cut those parked on

benefits. Thus welfare reform became one of the big set pieces of

coalition Government intended not only to change culture but to cut

back a multi-headed hydra of public spending. How is that going four

years on. Today the Public Accounts Committee said the Personal

Independence Payment a fiasco and universal payment fraught. The

self-imposed welfare cap may have to be broken by the Government. Some

call it spectacular ambition, matched only by spectacular

incompetence. Is that fair? I have suspended your claim as there is a

change in your income... Beyond the sensational documentaries and

tabloid headlines, what is really going on with our welfare system.

This Government has made welfare reform a key priority. We had a

welfare system that did not reward people who chose to work, people

knew they were better off unemployed and that is tragedy, it didn't give

poorer people a chance to get on in life and get out of poverty. We had

a system of helping people back to work that wasn't effective,

programmes all over the place, lack of innovation and creativity. People

need the skills and training too, that is the second reason, and

thirdly we weren't ambitious enough for welfare claimants. Not since the

Beveridge report has the Government attempted such sweeping reforms. The

report aimed to eliminate the five so called giants, squalor,

ignorance, want, idleness and disease. This Government have added

a sixth giant, cost. In real terms the working age Welfare Bill rose

from 2010-2012 as economic growth was weak and inflation high. It has

fallen since and it is projected to be broadly flat over the coming

years. Welfare reform is about more than just saving money. One major

aim of the Government is to increase work incentives and get more people

into employment. I have been in and out of prison basically for the last

ten years. I came from a broken home, mum died when I was very

young, got into the gang life, didn't think there was any turning

around, turning it around and on my last sentence I grew up a bit, got

introduced to the work programme. That has changed my life. I know it

sounds a cliche but it has. I'm working every day in a job I really

enjoy doing. Sol believe the Government has taken on too much.

The Government is trying to reform disability benefits, introduce the

new Universal Credit and reform the system of support for the long-term

unemployed. All at the same time. Doing one of them would have been

ambitious, doing all three at once is frankly biting off more than they

could chew and the result has been quite significant failures. What

Beveridge called idleness we would see as unemployment and economic

inactivity. Long-term unemployment trebled between 2005-2013 but has

since started to come down. However it is still well above prerecession

levels. The picture for economic inactivity, that is those not in

work but not actively looking for it either is very different. It has

fallen by almost 400,000 in the last two years. Whether you are looking

at the impact on the labour market or how much is being saved, it is

difficult to separate out the effects of the Government's reforms

from what was happening in the wider economy. Structural changes in the

labour market take time to have an impact, you can't judge the success

in real time. Four years might seem like a political eternity, but

economically it is still too early to tell. For some people affected by

the changes, it isn't too early to judge success. I have got a degree,

I'm a qualified teacher, therefore if I'm having difficulty how is

everybody else coping with this. I got so stressed that I can't

honestly say it caused me to go into a mental hospital, but the stress

that it was causing me about getting the forms done and right certainly

was a contributory factor so that when something else happened I was

not in the right frame of mind and ended up with three weeks in a

mental hospital after attempting to commit suicide. Whoever wins the

next election, it is likely we will see further reform. Privately I

think there is a lot of cross-party support for welfare reform, even

Labour MPs privately will tell you they understand why it is happening.

The debate has been one in principle and now it is on the operational

rollout and implementation. Of course things have been slightly

slow at times and frustration with certain programmes. Welfare reform

has been one of the most controversial issues to face this

parliament. Tight public finances means it will continue into the

next. A stronger economy should help keep the lid on welfare costs. But

any attempt to cut rather than just contain the bill will put even more

pressure on to the system. The political argument around welfare

has produced more heat than light. Behind the headlines, the rhetoric

and the statistics are thousands of human stories.

My guest sits on David Cameron's policy board in Downing Street, and

we have the author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class.

What is there to disagree with the reforms, tackling dependency and the

bill behind T On their own terms they failed. On the principle of it?

On the principle they are not dealing with the root causes of

social security spending going up. Let's separate what social security

is, the bulk of it goes on elderly people, people who have paid in all

their lives. Still too many of them hide choosing between heating their

homes. This is a key point, this Government often talk about welfare

spending spiralling out of control. Most of that is going on elderly

people. In terms of the key drivers of social security spending going

up, it is to do with low wages because you are talking about

Beveridge's original idea of the welfare state, it is subsidising low

wages in the economy, over one million workers have been driven

into poverty wages since this Government came into power. Now that

actually puts pressure on all of us, what that does is drive up the costs

of in-work benefits. Let me read you, from the IDS speech of 2010, he

said 1. 4 million people have been out of work on those benefits for

nine out of the last ten years, working age poverty has flat lined,

income inequality is the highest since records began. Are those

problems that need tackling by looking at welfare dependency? When

we talk about welfare dependency, what is missing is the lack of

secure jobs, I will tell you why. Nearly half of people who claim

jobseeker's allowance did so less than six months after. That is a

cycle of benefit and unemployment. That is why we need an industrial

strategy, like in Germany, creating secure jobs, particularly in

renewable energy, we need a housing programme to build housing, creating

jobs, and other policies like a national insulation scheme which

would create jobs, we don't have that. You have heard the criticism,

are you happy with the speed of success? I think it is right to make

sure the implementation is done carefully. You look at for example

the Universal Credit, we're rolling it out, we are going to by the end

of 2014 have it in 90 job centres, that is one in eight around the

country. Owen conflates pensions, I actually think we did the right

thing under the last Labour Government they went up by a

derisory 75p, we have said 2. 5% or inflation. I think that's a really

good thing to do. We are having a flat rate pension higher than the

basic. Let's go back to the point about the roll out of the reforms.

It is right to be careful, it is right to roll them out step by step

on Universal Credit, do the same with the personal independence plan.

The Economist reckons at the current speed that Universal Credit will

take 600 years to reach the 5. 23 million people it is meant to serve,

is that being careful or a major, major problem? I don't think that is

what it will take. We are saying throughout 2014 it will reach 90 job

centres, by 2017 it will be fully rolled out. It is right to be

careful. So not the 600 years that is this estimate? I haven't seen

that piece of work so I can't comment. All I would say is the

important thing is not just to legislate these things. Labour tried

to reform disability living allowance, DLA, they said they would

do it and they shied away from it. Can I just say on its own terms all

of these are an abysmal fail arcs Employment Support Allowance,

reassessment, not only has had striped thousands of people from the

support that they need. Not only do 40% of people striped of their

benefits if they go on to appeal have them reinstated, it will cost

more money. Those costs are going up. Failure. The second point. The

second point? The reforms are working. Disability living allowance

to the personal independence payment, today attacked as a fiasco,

what you have had in that instance is terminally ill people not

getting, having to wait for weeks until they get their support. You

can return to that? That is scaremongering, terminally ill

people we are now making the process, and have already made the

process much more efficient and faster, the NAO say the reforms are

working so rereach our target. What about the man on the film who said

he was mentally ill because of the reforms? Those changes we have made

for terminally ill people the process is much more efficient. It

hasn't. It is three-times above the target. Ten days was our target, we

are very close to hitting our target on that. I would not accept that

sort of scaremongering. Let's talk about the facts. These are the

facts. Not all the Public Accounts Committee. They are not the facts.

They are. Deal with the Public Affairs Committee which say the

incompetence and a fiasco. I will deal with that, they were looking at

statistics that were out of date, the current numbers, the statistics

coming through is that we are meeting our targets. So you would

agree it was a fiasco and incompetent, but I think it isn't

more? They were dealing with statistics out of date. What would

you say about Labour's plans, we have heard this big announcement

from Ed Miliband over the last couple of days, and they are pretty

much signed up to the same thing as the Conservatives? They are not,

because they voted against every reform we have introduced. What they

have done, OK this is a real problem, since I finished my

A-levels which may surprise you was 11 years ago,-out unemployment has

doubled. That wasn't because people lacked training or have become lazy

and feckless, it is because of lack of secure jobs in the economy. The

problem with what Labour are suggesting is because it is a

gimmick, training without secure jobs at the end. We already have a

situation where a third of graduates are doing non-graduate work. That

speaks of however educated people are the jobs aren't there. You are

saying they couldn't possibly be succeeding in this term any way? Of

course not. They are playing the Tory game in the sense of fuelling

stigmaisation, and actualing the sense that people are unemployed

because they are feckless. We're talking about solutions, that is to

rebuild the secure jobs in the economy. Even if you look away from

the dependency culture, the Welfare Bill hasn't come down, even on

purely economic terms it hasn't worked? As you saw in your charts

the Welfare Bill is about ?94 billion. This isn't about money it

is about getting people out of the trap of poverty. Let me tell you

Owen, before you throw outrage. I have been on benefits I have been on

housing benefit. So have I. My mother had to pawn her wedding ring

to put food on the table. I will take no lectures on that. People

trapped on welfare that is the real crime that is what Iain Duncan

Smith. Having a living wage, build housing. Thank you for coming. Fidel

Castro, revolutionary, communist, the former leader's image is that of

exemplary and frugal leader. His body says it is a sham. In his

explosive book he contends that the vast majority of Cubans were unaware

that he enjoyed a lifestyle beyond the dreams of many Cubans and beyond

the sacrifices he demanded of them. He lived like a king with a yacht

and Caribbean island getaway. We caught up

and Caribbean island getaway. We Paris. For decades he travelled the

world and met its leaders, Fidel Castro was a major target. In danger

from the CIA's dirty tricks department, and from all the Cuban

exiles who wanted him dead. And for 17 years this man protected Fidel.

He was intensely loyal and a total believer in Castro and Castroism.

Then, 20 years ago his brother defected to the US. For the Cuban

authorities that made him a serious risk. He lost his job and in 1994

was thrown in jail. But eventually escaped and made his way to Florida.

Tell me what it was like being with Fidel Castro. What kind of person is

he. What did you feel like when you were with him? TRANSLATION: I would

say Fidel had a double life, that is a side I saw of him. Fidel Castro

had a public image of a modest and simple unassuming person, and even

he affable, but in his private life Fidel was something quite different.

His private life was always kept as a state secret in Cuba. So he has

gone from being a worshipper of Castro, willing to lay down his life

for him, to hating him and thinking he's a phoney. Hence his book The

Secret Life of Fidel Castro. In his he aduces him of being a

multi-millionaire, owning 20 houses, a getaway island and various yachts.

These are all accusations Castro has faced before and he and his

officials strongly deny every one of them. He maintains as leader he

lived on his official salary, $36 US dollars a month. TRANSLATION: What

we have tried to do in the book is to prove and demonstrate to the

public that Fidel is a man with possessions like that of no other

Cuban today. Cubans can't even dream of that. No other person in Cuba has

a private Marina with four yachts, two fishing vessels and more than

100 men to look after that exclusive Marina for Fidel Castro's personal

use. Sanchez was still Fidel's bodyguard when I went to Cuba for

Newsnight back in February 1993. You can see him in the crowd behind the

great man, just before I call out my question. Castro, whose formal

speeches used to last seven hours took over 20 minutes to answer me.

From the crowd of journalists I asked him about the complaints of so

many Cubans about the conditions of their lives here? We weren't the

usual type of politician who is try to fool the people he said, we tell

the truth, we explain the great difficulties... The most serious

allegations Sanchez makes is that Castro gave protection to a known

drug smuggler. Although he doesn't suggest that Castro benefitted from

this financially. TRANSLATION: In 1989 I overheard a conversation

between Fidel Castro and the then Interior Minister through some

headphones connected to the microphones in Fidel's office. The

minister was briefing Fidel on drug trafficking deals. That was the

moment when Fidel stopped being my idol. To me he was the greatest

thing, he was the man for whom I was ready to die, I was willing to die

if Fidel was attacked. But from that moment I decided to find a way out

because I could not come to terms with the fact that I was protecting

a man who had publicly denied any involvement in drug trafficking.

That shocked me. He had this strange group of people that he liked, aside

from eastern European dictators and others, he also used to invite

Barbara Walters, the American television personality to his secret

island, didn't he? TRANSLATION: One of the fundamental features of

Fidel's personally that I witnessed was his great ability to manipulate.

He not only manipulated me, a member of his personal guard, but he also

manipulated Presidents and personalities from writers to

economists and that's one of his characteristics. Together with that

there is another feature, which is his very opportunistic, he knows how

to find the exact moment to achieve what he wants when he wants it. Will

communism in Cuba survive Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, or when they go

will it go also? TRANSLATION: Well I think the real problems in Cuba will

start when Fidel dies. Most of the difficulties will appear then. Raul

lacks Fidel's qualities. Fidel is an intelligent person, charismatic,

some people consider themselves to be Fidelisttas and he has the

support and loyalty of the people. Raul, on the other hand, is not half

as intelligent as Fidel, he doesn't have his charisma and of course he

doesn't have as many people in Cuba who would follow him when that time

comes. But not even Sanchez suggests that Castro throws Berlusconi-like

bunga-bunga parties, and he's certainly not another Colonel

Gadaffi with depraved appetites and grotesques ways of life. Instead he

emerges from the book as a long serving boss of a family firm,

inclined to treat the business as his own property. Yet even this will

be shocking to Cubans, who, for more than 50 years have tended to see him

as one of themselves, a genuine revolutionary with simple tastes.

This is basically Juan Sanchez's revenge, once he would have gladly

taken a bullet for Fidel, now he just wants to destroy him. The Cuban

Foreign Ministry have not yet replied to our request for a

response to that interview. That's nearly all for this week, early this

evening Italy weren't nearly as good as England made them look. We will

leave but the brilliance of John Motson and his latest historical gem

about the tournament. Have a great weekend. It was the World Cup

contest where global politics rather than football tactics dominated the

pre-match discussions. Iran against the USA in 8, very much depending on

your perspective, the terror state versus the great Satan. The

President of the United States Soccer Federation called the game

the mother of all matches and the build up to the most political

charged match in history was dominated by diplomatic and security

concerns. On the pitch, however, civility and sportsmanship broke

out. So much so that a year later a friendly was arranged, where

diplomacy failed, football was making a start. On that day in June

1998, soccer-mad 11-year-old Stephen Beeitashour was one of many

watching, he went on to play in America's league and selected for

the USA national squad. But Stephen's loyalties were divided

between the country where he was born and grown up and that of his

parents, Iran. And so Beeitashour, on the verge of a breakthrough from

the USA national squad to the first 11 had a choice to make. And just as

in that famous gain of 1998 Iran won the game. With Beeitashour making

his international debut in October of last year. Now he's at the World

Cup and a repeat of the fixture and the chance for the boy from San Jose

to face off against the USA can come in the quarter finals at the

earliest, further than Iran has ever got before. And that really would be

the mother of all matches all over again.