Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:23:55 PM
"Terror analyst Steve Emerson is joining me now. Steve, I read this report. It is clearly dry runs to see what they can get on planes. There`s, I think, six different examples, but the thing I noticed in the report is they described each person that was carrying these switches, wires, cheese, taking out gels, et cetera, et cetera. They describe them as U.S. people. What? "
GLENN BECK
TSA Warns of Terrorist Dry Runs
Aired July 25, 2007 - 19:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECK: TSA has a new reason for you to be terrified to fly this summer. In an alert issued last week, they warned airport security all across the country to look out for terrorists on dry runs, practicing to carry, quote, "unusual and improvised items" onto airplanes, like wires, switches, pipes, tubes, cell phone components and dense claylike substances, including block cheese.
First time I heard that, I thought, "Oh, great, we`re trying to blow up planes now with Velveeta?"
But on the bright side, when questioned about the likelihood of a cheese bomb, the TSA spokesperson said, "Don`t panic. We look for these kinds of things all of the time."
Bull crap. There`s more to this story.
Terror analyst Steve Emerson is joining me now.
Steve, I read this report. It is clearly dry runs to see what they can get on planes. There`s, I think, six different examples, but the thing I noticed in the report is they described each person that was carrying these switches, wires, cheese, taking out gels, et cetera, et cetera. They describe them as U.S. people. What?
STEVE EMERSON, TERRORISM EXPERT: They could have described them as human beings to go a step further.
BECK: Yes.
EMERSON: Look, they did a good job in terms of detecting them, reporting on them and issuing a warning.
The bad thing is I think there`s a political correctness here. What we need to know is whether these individuals who brought these items on to the plane or tried to bring them on were members or nationalities reflected in terrorist-supporting regimes. We need to know their ethnicity, and that`s a dirty word because that suggests profiling.
BECK: They did say that none of them have been traced back to terrorist organizations; however, they did not describe them at all. They did say one of them was possibly from a foreign country, but there`s a difference -- you know, there`s a difference between Ireland and perhaps Yemen.
Should we know these things?
EMERSON: We absolutely should know these things. And besides, if they`re looking for a prior terrorist connection, they`re not going find one. Muhammad Atta didn`t have a prior terrorist connection. They`re going to find new people that basically are clean. So that type of description doesn`t help us much.
BECK: So -- go ahead. No, go ahead.
EMERSON: I`m just afraid in general, Glenn, that the political correctness in making these reports, in assessing the threats and not -- and not even -- Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, saying we`re not going to use the term Islamic extremism with making entrees to the Muslim Brotherhood. We are defeating ourselves.
BECK: I want to know that in the report that I saw that they said that the reasons for carrying items like ice packs with the gel taken out and replaced with a claylike substance then duct tape with wire and batteries and pipes, they said some of the explanations were suspicious. Leading you to believe that they had a reasonable explanation for that.
Can you think of a single explanation on what would make a device like that reasonable?
EMERSON: No. The only thing you could think of is some kid who`s basically trying to test the system. You know, whose only motive is mischief.
But on the other hand, we don`t know what countries they were from. We don`t know what countries they visited. We don`t know whether, in fact, what their ethnicity is. Those are all things that are absolutely relevant in determining whether, in fact, there`s a pattern here of trying to blow up planes.
BECK: Steve, let me tell you something. You know and I know, if it was a kid, that would have been the story, that he was trying to test the system as a kid.
All Credit to Glenn Beck Show and CNN at CNN Transcripts at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/25/gb.01.html