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Glenn Beck

Tensions Mount Over Terror Threats in U.K.; Is al Qaeda Planning U.S. Attack?; Mexican Immigrant Makes Impact on Pop Culture

Aired July 02, 2007 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, new arrests in the U.K. terror attacks. Who are the suspects? And is this just the beginning? I`ll have the latest.

Also, as tensions mount overseas, a growing alarm about the threat of terrorism here on American soil. I`ll have the latest.

And, putting around with Putin. President Bush meets Vladimir Putin for lobster, boating and, oh yes, to chat about that Iran nuclear defiance thing.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a good casual discussion.

BECK: All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Hello, America.

Over the weekend, there were yet more arrests in the U.K. bombing plot. Officials now have seven suspects in custody in what British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is calling the latest in a serious and sustained threat.

Here is the point tonight. Jacqui, you have made probably one of the biggest understatements of the decade. This attempted terrorist attack is just the beginning for Britain and for the entire west. And I fear this is just the opening act. And here`s how I got there.

No one will say for sure yet, but all signs point to this operation being courtesy of al Qaeda and a group linked to al Qaeda. Sources are saying that during the last few weeks the amount of intelligence traffic that the CIA intercepted has been staggering.

One official told ABC News, quote, "This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001."

Remember, these murderous nut jobs don`t make threats; they make promises. We need to start listening to them.

Rudy Giuliani went on record this past weekend to say we have to start taking these terrorists at their word. Isn`t it about time we all woke up and stepped up to the really -- the very real threat that is staring you and me and everybody else who isn`t a Muslim extremist right in the face?

These jihadists even have it out for the Muslims who aren`t Muslim enough.

Denial time is over. Listen to what Britain`s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, had to say about the terror threat facing his home country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It`s not going to go away in the next few weeks or months. We have to fight it in a number of different ways: militarily, by security, by police, by intelligence. And I think it`s important to say that, also, on a day like this, we`ve got to also fight it as a battle of hearts and minds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: You know, can you please snap out of the hearts and minds thing? When a smiling terrorist light himself on fire after jumping out of a car filled with explosives -- that`s what he did in the airport, lit himself on fire, looked at the other people and smiled and set himself ablaze. When that happens, you`ve lost the battle for his heart and mind.

What is it finally going to take for we here in the west to start calling evil by its name? These terrorists are not interested in negotiating over tea and crumpets or talking about diversity and co- existence. These psychos are hell-bent on our extermination through the most vicious violence imaginable. Their tactics are medieval, and their resolve is steadfast.

So tonight, here`s what you need to know. It`s time to start doing things the Chicago way. They say, they send one of ours to the hospital, we send one of theirs to the morgue. We`ve got to stop bringing a knife to a gun fight.

If we don`t use every resource at our disposal and present a united front to wipe al Qaeda and those like them right off the face of the earth, we`re complicit in our own demise.

Play time is over. It`s time to lead an international posse and fight to win. We`ve done it before. Maybe it`s time to roll up our sleeves, pull on our boots and do it again, like our grandparents did.

Steve Emerson is the executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. And Paul Cruickshank is a fellow for the Center on Law and Security.

Paul, let me start with you. They`ve been playing in Great Britain this diversity game for a while. What is it going to take for the government finally to step up and say, "You either need to melt in as a new member of our society or you need to get the hell out"?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, FELLOW, CENTER ON LAW AND SECURITY: Well, there are enormously difficult challenges now in the U.K. There are 2,000 individuals which they`re tracking with known links to al Qaeda that people who have been radicalized within the U.K., but also people clearly, these last days are coming to the U.K., perhaps being parachuted in by al Qaeda.

The challenges are very complex. Gordon Brown, the new prime minister, is calling for a multi-faceted approach. Clearly, the British authorities, and they have a lot of experience, know that you have to crush the cell.

But they also know that the battle for hearts and minds is important. There are two million Muslims in the U.K. that -- they know about what`s going on in their communities is very important to British police, but also the British authorities are trying to keep the number of radicalized young Muslims to a minimum.

BECK: But Steve, let me go you. I mean, I don`t understand how we can possibly make more enemies. Tony Blair, in a -- in a documentary piece tonight on the BBC, said your -- your thought line, I don`t even begin to understand. You are oppressing Muslims, the west isn`t. When is enough enough to where you just say, you know what? You`re wrong, period?

STEVE EMERSON, DIRECTOR, INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM: Well, this whole notion, Glenn, about hearts and minds is so fallacious and erroneous and destructive, because the bottom line is we know public opinion polls show that 51 percent of British Muslims want the Sharia.

So if we`re going to want to win their hearts and minds, what we can do is this. We can impose the Sharia in Britain. We can stop arresting terrorists. We can drop our support for Israel. We could evacuate Iraq and any other Middle Eastern country. And we can stop our separation of church and state.

That`s the way you`ll win hearts and minds. That`s ridiculous. In World War II, we didn`t say we`re going to win hearts and minds of Germans by saying we`re going to assert an appeal to their Nazi-like attitudes.

BECK: So Paul, how do you respond to that? Because I happen to see it the same way. We never said, you know, "Nazis, you can just go ahead and, you know, you can run again. And we don`t want to say that Nazism is a bad thing."

We said, "Enough with the Nazi stuff."

CRUICKSHANK: Well, I think the response is very, very simple. As I said before, you crush the cell, you crush people who are involved in these networks. But also, you know, that 50 percent statistic, I`m not sure if that`s accurate. We can debate that.

But a lot of the Muslim mainstream community in the United Kingdom is dead set against these radicalized young guns. They`re trying to do a lot within the mosques to de-radicalize the youngsters. It`s an enormous problem.

What you have in Britain now is a dislocated generation. The children and grandchildren of immigrants, many of them from Kashmir, who have bought into a radical ideology.

In the 1990s, the Britain government tolerated radical clerics too much. There are now -- these radical clerics are now sort of recruiting a lot of youngsters. And these youngsters, many of them, about 400,000 Pakistanis each year go back to Pakistan. Pakistan is the new base of al Qaeda.

The most worrying thing the British authorities know is the operationalization of these groups. How do you combat that? Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence. And I`m sure Steve Emerson agrees with me on that.

You go after the cells. You go after the people who have already been recruited. You make arrests. You go after them. But clearly you go after them in a sensitive sort of way. Intelligence from the Muslim community, I was saying, is very, very important.

BECK: You know, it strikes me, though, is that what we`re doing is, again, we`re behind our enemies. We are -- what we`re trying to do is break up their cells.

Why aren`t we looking to the mosques? Why aren`t we looking to where these people are being created? Why aren`t we looking as a country, or as the west, into the influence of Saudi Arabia?

I`ve got a guest next hour on CNN at 8 p.m., where we`re going to talk about Saudi Arabia and the money that they are pouring into the United States and to Great Britain.

CRUICKSHANK: You`re absolutely right about the Wahhabist influence.

BECK: Why aren`t we going after them instead?

CRUICKSHANK: There are, you know, Wahhabist mosques in the U.K., you know, that some people are arguing, but that is -- obviously, they`re not jihadist mosques. But they do preach more of perhaps what you might describe as a separatist (ph) ideology.

But actually, it`s not in the mosques in the U.K. where you have the real problem. It`s on the fringes of the mosques. One of the real problems is the people in the mosques, the older sort of part of the generation are not able to reach out to the youngsters.

The youngsters hate the imams now. They organize themselves on the fringes of mosques. That`s part of what they call themselves. They call themselves the British jihadi network now. They meet in their houses. They meet in Internet cafes.

It`s very, very difficult to go after them. British police are monitoring 2,000 people, 300 different groups.

BECK: Steve.

EMERSON: Let me disagree here. Because look, Paul, the reality is that the mainstream Islamic groups in Britain, as they exist in the United States, events a certain attitude which radicalizes all Muslims.

They contend that there`s a war against Islam, period. And the Canadian security services concluded that that is the most radicalizing effect on any young Muslim intended to carry out a terrorist attack.

And this goes on routinely by the Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Council of Britain by Tariq Ramadan, who the Brits invited to serve as part of the commission, even though he says in Arabic something entirely different than English.

And in the United States, as well. You have the same type of perception. Groups are claiming that they`re for peace and dialogue and harmony, and yet what they say behind closed doors to their own people, and I know this, because we infiltrate these groups, they say that there`s a war against Islam.

CRUICKSHANK: You know, I`m a journalist, and I actually go and spend time with Kamal Habali (ph), leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, very well. He says that we have to root out this sickness, and he means terrorists within the British community. So you know, that is a debatable point.

EMERSON: Wait a second, let me -- I have to finish here. Kamal Habali (ph), I was in his presence in 1992 in Oklahoma City when he said we have to kill Jews.

BECK: OK. Steve, Paul, I can`t believe I`m saying, after that sentence, we have to leave it there. But we have to leave it there.

I`ll have much more on this tonight at 8 p.m. on CNN when we kick off our weeklong special, "We the People: Issues that Matter". No matter what side of the aisle you`re on, that is all this week on CNN. Don`t miss it.

Coming up this hour, how long before the kind of terror we`re seeing in Britain hits our shores? One report is suggesting the Department of Homeland Security has a secret memo about a spectacular attack on the U.S. soil this summer. I`ll have the latest.

And since Congress couldn`t get its act together, we still have a bit of immigration issue on our hands. Tonight, an example of immigration done right.

Plus, President Bush is meeting with Russian President Putin. They`re having pancakes. I don`t even know why. Don`t miss tonight`s "Real Story".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush hold their lobster summit in New England. But a small rumored breach of etiquette by Vlad Dubankski (ph) raises some interesting questions: trying to pass a fake $100 bill at a liquor store. Hmm, that`s weird. Might be more than just a coincidence. I`ll have "The Real Story" in just a few minutes.

But first, ABC News is reporting the existence of a secret homeland security report, a warning of a, quote, "spectacular attack by al Qaeda this summer." The official who provided ABC with the information also claims that it`s, quote, "reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001."

Other organizations, including CNN, are skeptical about the information, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that he has no specific evidence about any planned attacks. But don`t get too excited. Here`s Secretary Chertoff in the interview this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Al Qaeda is still very interested in carrying out attacks against the United States and Western Europe. We know that there has been an increase in public statements by al Qaeda leaders recently, which suggests they`re raising some of their profile.

And we know that, traditionally, the attacks that they plan are very significant and intended to cause a huge amount of damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: When I saw this information today, I wanted to get Bernie Kerik on, the chairman of the Kerik group and former New York City police commissioner.

How are you, sir?

BERNIE KERIK, FORMER NYPD COMMISSIONER: Glenn, how are you?

BECK: I know you`ve been spending a lot of time in the Middle East, and I want to get to what was happening in Jordan. But first, let me touch on this. Is this anything new? We`ve heard this in past summers.

KERIK: Glenn, nobody should be surprised. Spectacular, Osama bin Laden has said from 1998 on he wants to have spectacular events committed by al Qaeda against the west. Not only the United States, the U.K. and other areas around the world.

BECK: Right.

KERIK: This is not new stuff.

You know, what is spectacular? Slamming planes into the World Trade Center. You know, blowing up JFK and the pipelines running into JFK.

BECK: Wouldn`t spectacular also be going in like they did with Chechnya and going and taking those kids?

KERIK: I`ve said for the last two years, you know, what if on the morning of September 11, those 19 guys didn`t get on the four planes? What if they split up into four groups, they went into four tourist locations or they went into four schools in this country like they did in Beslan and they massacred 250 kids?

You know, we don`t have the stomach for this. We don`t even have the patience to commit to the war we`re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BECK: What happens -- what happens -- if that had happened here in America -- I was thinking. I was driving in today, and I thought, I think America is going to go one of two ways. They`re either going to go bats crazy on these people, or they`ll just fold.

KERIK: Unfortunately for us, we don`t have the patience to sustain the element of war. We don`t have the mindset.

You know, this isn`t World War II. We can`t see this enemy. It`s not a conventional enemy. They`re like ghosts, and the American people don`t get it. They are at war with us. We`ve got to be at war with them.

And constantly we need reminders. I just hope that the next reminder isn`t a spectacular event, you know. And I don`t anticipate somebody ramming planes into the building.

But based on what`s going on today in the U.K., the attempted bombings, the explosives in the vehicles, if that stuff starts to happen here, and it`s organized on the same day, the same time around this country, you know, we`re going to get a substantial wakeup call.

BECK: You`ve talked to your people in Jordan. What have you heard about -- one of these guys is a Jordanian doctor.

KERIK: Well, he was -- he`s originally of Palestinian descent. He was trained and went to school in Jordan. We went to London to study some courses. He has a wife, a young child.

BECK: Did he have anything going on over in Jordan?

KERIK: In Jordan, right now, as of about an hour ago, they don`t really have anything on him. They have interviewed his family. They`re continuing their investigation, their interrogations there.

The good thing for the U.K. is, if he`s associated or if anything is going to come out of Jordan, the Jordanian intelligence services are very, very effective. So if there`s something in Jordan...

BECK: What exactly does that mean, they`re very, very effective?

KERIK: Well, Glenn, keep in mind, you know, they don`t go by the same rules we do. They don`t have the same rights that we do.

BECK: That`s what I thought.

KERIK: So there`s information for them to glean out of this.

BECK: Yes.

KERIK: They will get the information. And they`re very cooperative with the foreign governments like the U.K. and USA.

BECK: You know, on the radio tomorrow you`re going to be on with me. We`re going to talk about an article about this on Best Life (ph). But in it, it said that you are currently working with the Jordanian government to collaborate on the design of an underground seismic shock-proof oxygen- stowing compound that can withstand a nuclear attack. What the heck do they know that we`re not paying attention to?

KERIK: Well, you know, the king of Jordan and the government of Jordan wants to create a crisis management center by which they can run a crisis, an overall crisis, manmade or otherwise, where the king could manage and run the crisis from one centralized command center. Information coming in from the various ministries and the various agencies in the one centralized command center.

So like you would have the war room in the Pentagon.

BECK: Sure.

KERIK: Or whatever the case may be, that`s what`s being done there. In addition to the overall prison reforms that the king is looking at now.

BECK: Is it crazy that we are on yellow alert, and yet we have open borders? Can you have both?

KERIK: If your borders -- if your border controls were working correctly and effectively and...

BECK: But they`re not.

KERIK: ... the immigration issues were taken care of, you know, this stuff is all up in the air right now. And I think Congress, you know, they`ve got to knock off the political rhetoric and the bickering with the president.

And everybody has got to get on one page and realize what`s happening in the U.K. is going to happen here. It`s not when. It`s not if, it`s when, and it`s coming soon. So they better get it together.

BECK: OK. We`ll talk to you tomorrow on the radio. Thank you very much, sir.

KERIK: Thank you.

BECK: Appreciate it. Bye-bye.

OK. Coming up, he put Johnny Cash in black and Elvis in a rhinestone jumpsuit. This is a Mexican immigrant who single-handedly changed the face of American pop culture. And he came into this country the right way.

Plus, a high-ranking Hezbollah official arrested in Iraq. It is finally proof that Iran is pulling the strings in the region. Isn`t it time we admit that we`re at war? That`s "The Real Story", coming up tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All this week, we`re going to feature stories that put aside any kind of partisan bickering that makes blood shoot out of my eyes and focus on issues that all of us, left and right and independent, can come together on, "We, the People".

I wanted to begin tonight with immigration. Imagine, if you will, for just a second a Mexican immigrant coming to America legally and winding up making a massive impact on our life and culture. Well, it`s already happened.

His name is Manuel Cuevas, and his story starts way down south in the heart of honky-tonk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK (voice-over): Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee. When you hear it, you get the feeling real quick this is a place of inspiration. Not just for musicians, but also for this man, Manuel Cuevas.

It`s here in the heart of honky-tonk that Manuel has set up his legendary shop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For everyone who wants to be in country music whatsoever, he wants to have a Manuel suit.

BECK: And that`s because this guy is a legend. He`s the man who put Johnny Cash in black, Elvis in the rhinestone studded jumpsuit. And believe it or not, designed the Rolling Stones` logo. And even the suits the Beatles wore on the Sergeant Pepper album.

But Manuel`s story goes much deeper than just the clothes. This king of cowboy couture is also a Mexican immigrant who came to the United States in the early `50s.

MANUEL CUEVAS, FASHION DESIGNER: I crossed the border. And the next day I was working for a dollar and hour.

BECK: He wound up in Los Angeles working for a local tailor. He says it wasn`t so easy to adjust to so much change so quickly.

CUEVAS: It was quite a change as far as that was, but I didn`t care. I was here to chase a dream that I had many years back.

BECK: Manuel knew the United States was the best place to realize that dream.

CUEVAS: I am going to do what I was called to, and this is -- I have a love and I have a passion for it.

BECK: Look around his shop. It`s like you`re getting a peek back into time: old-timey well loved machines, irons that can`t be from this century. And everything -- everything -- done by hand.

Manuel says he owes his success to luck and a lot of hard work.

CUEVAS: I think that this is really the land of opportunity.

BECK: And he`s all too aware of the heated debate that`s dividing our nation.

CUEVAS: Illegal is illegal, whatever. Anybody that jumps over my fence is illegal.

BECK: He says part of the problem is that Americans aren`t willing to take low-paying jobs.

CUEVAS: Nobody wants to work for minimum wage. So these people create that need, and then that means the availability of illegals that come from so many countries.

BECK: At 74 years old, Manuel has lived a rich and full life, built a business from the ground up and created some of the biggest icons in American culture.

CUEVAS: Anybody with a dream can turn it into reality (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: That was just a little clip of a much greater story. We`ll have much more of that tonight at 8 p.m. on CNN when we kick off our weeklong special, "We the People". Make sure you tune in.

Up next on tonight`s program, right here, why a small underreported incident in New Hampshire could raise serious concerns about our relationship with Russia. I`ll explain. Nobody else will, but it will be in "The Real Story", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, there is only one thing worse than the president`s approval rating, and that`s the approving rating of Congress. But not to worry: Any news is good news if you just spin it the right way. And I`ll explain in just a bit.

First, welcome to the "Real Story." You might remember that attack on our troops in Iraq last January, where the insurgents posed as American soldiers and infiltrated a government compound that killed five of our troops. At the time, the military officials believed that elements of the Iranian government were involved. Now we finally have evidence of it.

The military announced today that they have been holding a senior Hezbollah operative who has, quote, "been working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds force," end quote. This operative apparently was a liaison between Iran and a group that carried out the January attack, and he helped supply information gathered by the Iranian Quds force to the insurgents.

In addition, this liaison helped organize groups of 20 to 60 Iraqis. He brought them to camps outside Tehran, trained them, and then returned them to Iraq to carry out attacks against us. The military also said today it would be, quote, "hard to imagine that Iran`s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, isn`t fully aware of everything that is going on." But you know what? If you watch this program every night, you`re not surprised by this. We`ve been telling you this for a while.

The "Real Story" is we`ve been saying all along that everything you see going on in Iraq is really about Iran. In fact, before the Iraq war even started, I was telling my radio listeners this isn`t about weapons of mass destruction. This is about changing the face of the Middle East and surrounding Iran with stable allies like Iraq and Afghanistan and popping the head of that snake. Unfortunately, our leaders never owned up to that. They never stood in front of you, the American people, and made the case that, if we don`t stop Iran in Iraq, then we are going to be fighting a war of World War II proportions.

To give you a little historical analogy, this is like George W. Bush has been telling the American people that actually we`re just fighting Italy when he knows all along that it`s really Germany that is pulling the strings. Iran is Germany.

People ask me all the time: What does victory in Iraq really look like? How do we know that we`ve even won? To me it`s pretty simple. We win when the Islamic government of Iran collapses and the Iranian people are finally free to chart their own course.

Peter Brookes is a senior fellow for national security affairs with the Heritage Foundation.

Peter, we talked about this. We knew this months ago. Nobody was talking about it then. Nobody is willing to talk about it now, really. When do we face up to what Iran really is?

PETER BROOKES, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, it`s another damning indictment of Iran. The interesting thing here, Glenn, that I may have missed it when you said it, this person is Hezbollah, which is Lebanese Shia. This is not -- this is another -- this is a friend of Iran that`s working with Iran to train Iraqi militants and operate Iraqi militants, not only in Iraq, but they`re training them alongside the Quds force in Iran, as well. So it`s not just Iran. As we`ve pointed out, it`s also Iran`s friend, Hezbollah, a Shia group in Lebanon that`s helping them.

BECK: OK, Peter, you know and I know that the entire Middle East -- I see it, it`s a house of cards, or it`s dominos. There are -- Egypt is going to fall. Saudi Arabia is going to fall. All of these things are going to come down because Iran has their fingers in the entire pie, do they not?

BROOKES: Absolutely. Iran hopes to expand, create an arc of influence, an Iranian arc of influence from the Persian Gulf to the eastern Mediterranean. The government in Lebanon right now is under siege by Hezbollah and Iranian allies. They`re allied with Syria. And if you look at the map, you think of it in your mind, you`ve got Iran, you`ve got Iraq. If they can get Iraq to fall, you`ve got Afghanistan, you`ve got Syria, you`ve got Lebanon, and all of a sudden you have this crest of influence across the Middle East that belongs to Iran.

BECK: Well, this is what I love, Peter. You know, after this stunning attack, where they came in dressed like us in our own SUV vehicles, you know, shot a bunch of people, steal our soldiers, it`s just stunning. It really is a "Remember the Maine" kind of moment that nobody wants to pay attention to. We made the ayatollah promise that they wouldn`t get involved and he did.

BROOKES: Right. He did make that promise, but that was after these attacks, Glenn. But the point here is, is we`re dealing with -- I mean, this was just January and March.

BECK: I understand that. But, I mean, Peter, this is what we`re dealing with. We`re dealing with evil people who are saying, "We weren`t involved."

BROOKES: I`m not arguing with that. I just want to get the timeline right.

BECK: Right, right. Yes.

BROOKES: The important thing is here, we`re dealing with professionals. Hezbollah is on the same level as the terrorist group, as Al Qaeda, in my mind. These are very serious, very professional. That`s the unfortunate part of it. We`ve got to take these guys down in Iraq.

BECK: All right. Peter, and real quick, would you say that the endgame is for a global caliphate, a global Islamic government?

BROOKES: Well, that`s certainly Al Qaeda`s purpose. Iran at the moment wants to dominate the Middle East. They`re looking at it. They want to destroy the United States and our presence there and then they want to get at Israel.

BECK: Peter, I`ll tell you what, I want to have you back in the next couple of days -- maybe we can do it tomorrow -- I would like to float a theory by you, and that is maybe we should just let them duke it out. Can we talk about that in the coming days?

BROOKES: Absolutely.

BECK: All right.

Coming up next, late last week, five Russian men walked into a New Hampshire liquor store. They put down a couple of bottles of Scotch whisky on the counter and then handed over a crisp $100 bill. Teeny problem with that $100 bill: It was counterfeit, and the men knew it. As soon as the clerk took the little pen and marked it and they realized that the clerk was onto them, they grabbed the $100 bill and ran out of the store.

Now, I tell you this story because of where it happened. It happened in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That just happens to be the town where President Putin landed for his meeting with President Bush three hours -- or three days after this incident occurred. According to police, the Russians who tried to pass the fake money may have been part of Putin`s security detail. Why we don`t know for sure isn`t really clear to me yet.

But ask yourself this: If these were high-level Russian security officials -- we`re talking about their Secret Service level -- many of whom have diplomatic immunity, what are they doing with counterfeit U.S. currency and why are they trying to pass it off? The "Real Story" is that I have a sneaky suspicion -- and this is just suspicion -- that this counterfeiting can be traced all the way up to Putin himself, from arms and oil deals with everyone from Venezuela to Iran, this guy is in bed with evil.

To the fact that anybody who speaks out against him conveniently seems to wind up with a case of death, Putin has proven himself time and time again that he is no friend of you and me. He`s no friend to the United States. In fact, I believe he is a modern version of our old Cold War enemy.

So Putin, somehow or another, could he be behind this counterfeiting? Is it possible? No one knows for sure; I don`t believe anybody is willing to look into it. But I do know this: Putin no longer gets the benefit of the doubt, at least in my book, and he shouldn`t in yours.

Sarah Mendelson is a senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program. I know I`m asking you to speculate on this, but is this the kind of thing that people like Putin engage in?

SARAH MENDELSON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Glenn, I think we have so many facts that we can stick to the facts. The facts are that independent critical television has disappeared from Russia. The fact is that there are hundreds of people who disappeared from southern Russia at the hands of the federal forces, that journalists who investigate these crimes themselves are disappeared. And I think that that is the legacy that is particularly worrisome. And for President Bush today to talk about President Putin as if he is...

BECK: He`s a friend and a buddy and a pal.

MENDELSON: That`s right.

BECK: I don`t even -- Sarah, I honestly don`t even understand our world anymore. I look at this, and here we are with a guy who just last week met with Chavez. He`s meeting with Iran. They`re making all kinds of deals. They`re clearly in some sort of triangle of evil. This is axis power here, and we`re playing "Footsie" with them and having lobster and pancakes. What are we trying to do here?

MENDELSON: Well, let`s not forget also the Kremlin had a P.R. company working for them. And so if I were the P.R. company, I`d say, "Score one for us." That press conference looked like it was exactly what the Kremlin ordered up.

I think each side came to the meeting with very different ideas. President Bush is at an all-time low in terms of his political leverage inside, but also outside the U.S., and he has not been paying a lot of attention to the Russian relationship, and he`s trying to doctor it a bit, maybe even reboot the relationship.

BECK: I don`t even know how or why we would do it. I mean, we`re -- it`s like Saudi Arabia. We`re in bed with bad people.

MENDELSON: Well, we need to have a relationship with Russia. The issue is that there is more to Russia than just the Kremlin, and we can talk about that.

BECK: Yes, I mean, but let`s just touch on this. I`ve only got 30 seconds. You started with the press is disappeared. Is it not true that there are some parts of the press now where America is being billed as the enemy in almost everything down to the weather?

MENDELSON: It`s not just the press. I mean, there are comments coming from the Kremlin, from Putin himself. And I`m telling you, this message is reaching the young public. We just did a survey of young Russians, and they see the United States as enemy number one.

BECK: Sarah, thank you very much. That is the "Real Story" tonight.

Up next, an American soldier who lost both of his legs in Iraq. And he`s taking his life back one step at a time. Wait until you meet this guy and his wonderful wife. I`ll explain in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Last year, I told you about a remarkable couple, Jake and Vanessa Keeslar. Jake lost both of his legs in the Iraq war. It was a year ago last week. He made an incredible sacrifice for us. It has forced him to re-evaluate his life, his marriage, his dreams. We decided to check in on them and get an update on their already amazing story. It is a story of commitment, inspiration and unconditional love.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK (voice-over): For Jake and Vanessa Keeslar, this was a defining moment in their lives.

SGT. 1ST CLASS JAKE KEESLAR, U.S. ARMY: This is feeling really good.

BECK: Last year, we visited Jake and Vanessa here at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Jake was just fitted for his second prosthetic leg and was taking some of his first steps since the explosion.

He had been in Iraq 11 months when his Stryker hit an IED. He survived, but the explosion cost him both his legs. Life is no longer the same for him or for his wife.

J. KEESLAR: I was really upset that I blew it, you know? I mean, that`s what I felt like, I blew it. So it`s all about taking steps, and I`ll get there again.

BECK: One step at a time, Jake is taking back his life and striving for a normalcy most of us take for granted.

VANESSA KEESLAR, WIFE OF INJURED SOLDIER: When he first got hit, my whole world, our whole world kind of narrowed down into this really focused viewpoint. And I couldn`t imagine what a year looked like.

BECK: Well, it`s been a year, and this is what it looks like. Jake is walking, enjoying the park with his wife and his dog and so much more.

J. KEESLAR: I`ve got back into scuba diving. I went skiing up in Aspen. I still need to get on my bike. You know, that`s one of the things I`m looking for. Other than that, you know, I`m pretty much there.

BECK: Jake and Vanessa have a vision, and they`re not letting anything stand in their way.

J. KEESLAR: I have to go in and build me something, I will. Or if I have to take duct tape and tape up my knee or whatever...

V. KEESLAR: Which you`ve done.

J. KEESLAR: You know, you just come up on challenges and obstacles that you choose not to keep you back or slow you down.

BECK: This year of recovery has taught them things about each other and their relationship they never anticipated, some of it wonderful, some of it incredibly hard.

V. KEESLAR: There have been times through this past year where it hasn`t been great at all, but we knew that we wanted it to get back to great, and so we were going to fight for it.

BECK: And they have so much to fight for.

Jake and Vanessa have known each other almost a lifetime. They grew up just a few miles apart in Southern California.

J. KEESLAR: I had a crush on her, and we were -- we had a physical science class together, and I used to always slip her notes.

BECK: But they weren`t high school sweethearts. As a matter of fact, they were far from it.

J. KEESLAR: She was on one end of the spectrum, and I was on the other, so...

V. KEESLAR: I thought he was a dork.

J. KEESLAR: You`re not supposed to say that on the camera.

V. KEESLAR: I did. I`m sorry. I did. I thought he was a dork.

J. KEESLAR: If I had a foot, I`d kick you.

(LAUGHTER)

BECK: It wasn`t until decades later that their friendship blossomed into something more, and Vanessa realized he was the one. They were married four years ago. The vows they made to each other have taken on new and challenging meanings for both of them, in sickness and in health. They aren`t leaving each other`s sides.

V. KEESLAR: People say, oh, God, it`s so great that you stayed with him. What? What do you mean? You know, I didn`t marry his legs. He`s the most decent human being on the planet.

J. KEESLAR: She`s been my driving force. I definitely wouldn`t be where I`m at right now without her.

BECK: Jake is now a decorated war veteran, 16 years of service and a Purple Heart given to him by the president himself.

J. KEESLAR: Even if I knew this was going to be the outcome, I still would defend my country. This is something I chose to do and something I believe in.

BECK: Jake is committed to his country and to his wife. Together, they look forward, optimistic of what the future will bring, and grateful that, no matter what, they still have each other.

V. KEESLAR: For us, for me, I`m fundamentally grateful every single day for what we have, for how lucky we are.

J. KEESLAR: Trust in each other and believe in each other, and you can pretty much go through anything, as long as you`re together, you know, and together means not sitting right next to each other, but in mind, together in your mind. And with that, you can go anywhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: From Washington now, Jake and Vanessa join me. We had you guys up on the set here just last week and we had a chance to talk, and I was going to say to you at first, Vanessa, are you a little intimidated by Jake and his just never giving up, but I have to ask you the same thing, Jake. Which one of you guys is the inspiration? Which one of you is the driving force?

VANESSA KEESLAR, WIFE OF INJURED SOLDIER: He is.

J. KEESLAR: She is.

BECK: So a little of both, when one`s down, the other is up?

J. KEESLAR: Oh, definitely, definitely. We both push each other and, you know, pick each other up.

BECK: How close were you to the edge this year? Have you gotten to a point where you thought, "I don`t know if I can do it"?

J. KEESLAR: No, never. You know, that`s just not an option.

BECK: Vanessa, have you felt that way?

V. KEESLAR: You know, I had that thought five minutes after I got the phone call telling me how bad it was. There was that moment of, "I don`t know that I can do this." And I had a girlfriend with me at the time, and she looked at me and she said, "Yes, you can, because you have to." And I looked at her and I said, "You know, you`re right." And that`s my option. And so there hasn`t been a point other than that brief moment right after I found out. The rest of it has just been pushing through it, and there is no other option for us.

BECK: And, Jake, you were just promoted. You just got a promotion. Congratulations on that.

J. KEESLAR: Yes, I was. Thank you.

BECK: You`re building your own legs to rock climb. What`s left? What is it that you haven`t done that you want to do?

J. KEESLAR: Ride a motorcycle. I`ve got to get back on my motorcycle.

BECK: You`re a Harley guy, are you not?

J. KEESLAR: I am.

BECK: And because of no knees and everything else, you have to have it especially modified or is that...

J. KEESLAR: Yes, I`m trying to figure all that out right now, so either electric shift, and moving around is going to be kind of tough, and coming to a stop sign is going to be tough, but I`ll figure it out.

BECK: I`ve got to tell you, maybe next year we`ll check in with you again. You`re really truly an inspiration, and it`s an honor to know both of you.

J. KEESLAR: Thank you.

V. KEESLAR: Thank you very much.

BECK: We`ll be back in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, Congress has been in power now for six months. And, I mean, Congress, give yourselves a really big hand, because you guys -- you have -- I mean, unlike that awful do-nothing Congress last year, you have really gotten your act together. I mean, in the first 100 hours alone, you did that minimum wage thing, and then you solved immigration, and health care, and that whole thing in Iraq. That`s -- well, wait a minute. Actually, no, you haven`t done any of those.

Well, you know what? Congress`s confidence rating is at an all-time low. There`s an accomplishment, all-time, 14 percent. But, you know, I want you to know that I don`t think Congress would ever let a little something like the opinion of the American people get in the way of doing what they feel is best.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Hello, America. We`re Congress, and we`d just like to thank you for the overwhelming show of support you`ve given us as we do the difficult work of the American people in Washington.

According to a recent poll, 100 percent of 14 percent of Americans have confidence in our ability to put the nation on the right track. That`s about 42 million people, if you project the number to incorporate all children, including infants, or 70 percent of 20 percent of Americans of all age. That kind of support gives us the confidence we need to make decisions that one-quarter of more than half of you support.

For example, our comprehensive immigration plan, which has been enthusiastically received by two-thirds of the square root of 81 percent of Americans. And that wholehearted backing has been reflected in the polls with 98 divided by open parenthesis 113 times 91 closed parenthesis 113 percent of regular people like you. It doesn`t take a mathematician to see that Americans love their Congress, and we`ll continue to serve and protect the land of the free, the home of the brave, and approximately every seventh American citizen, and, of course, 100 percent of illegal immigrants.

So thank you, America. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Oh, I`ll be thinking about them while I watch the fireworks show, really celebrate independence. By the way, if you want to win an iPhone, sign up for my free daily e-mail newsletter. Get all the details at glennbeck.com. We`ll see you at 8:00 on CNN, the mother ship. From New York, good night, America.

END