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Glenn Beck

Antiwar Protestors Complain about War Report; Bin Laden Alive and Well; Kirk Douglas Pens Autobiography

Aired September 10, 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 -- General Petraeus reports on the troop surge in Iraq.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: Coalition and Iraqi forces have dealt significant blows to al Qaeda, Iraq.

Beck: While pathetic anti-war groups take aim at the general`s loyalties.

Also, the parents of the missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann go on the defense. Could they actually be responsible for her disappearance and death?

Plus, part one of my weeklong series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day". I`ll tell you exactly how Islamic extremists could be targeting Americas with a massive series of coordinated attacks, and how our children fit into that plan.

And the latest on what the experts are saying about bin Laden`s new video.

All this and more than tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Hello, America. If you are a parent, you know how kids can react when they don`t get their way. Sometimes, they throw a full-fledged temper tantrum.

Based on an ad in "The New York Times", some anti-war groups are acting just like that. They`re no better than petulant kids. So here`s the point tonight. MoveOn.org, shame on you. And here`s how I got there.

General David Petraeus appeared before Congress this afternoon, testified that, while more time is need for the troop surge in Iraq to be completely successful, eight of the last 12 weeks in Iraq have seen a reduction in violence.

While protesters disrupted the hearing as often as they could today, critics couldn`t wait to lash out against the general even before he made his statement. The liberal organization, which is despicable, MoveOn.org, took out a full-page ad in today`s "New York Times", calling General Petraeus "General Betray Us".

What happened to the idea that, while some may not support the war, they do support our troops. How can you really support our troops when you resort to name calling, labeling their leader a liar and a traitor?

As the leader of the multi-national force in Iraq, General Petraeus has an impeccable reputation. Soldiers respect him. President Bush trusts him. High-ranking Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin, Bob Casey, Jack Reid, Senate Armed Service Committee chair Carl Levin, all Democrats, agreed that General Petraeus was on the right track, that progress was being made by soldiers in Iraq.

General Petraeus was approved by the entire Congress without objection. Now, when he delivers the news they don`t want to hear, it`s a different story.

MoveOn.org is setting the general up to take the general down because they don`t like what he has to say.

Gentlemen, and I use that MoveOn.org for you loosely, don`t shoot the messenger. Just because things are bad in Iraq doesn`t mean they`re not getting better. Religious civil war -- I get it -- has been raging in Iraq and throughout the Middle East for thousands of years. Americans and allied troops are trying their best to stabilize the region, and it is working put, but it ain`t going to happen overnight.

MoveOn.org, in their ad, implies that General Petraeus is cooking the books for the White House. And American forces have ethically -- ethnically cleansed Iraqi neighborhoods. At least that`s the way I read it. There`s really only two ways you can read this ad.

One is that Iraqis are engaging in genocide. Well, what does that mean, that the U.S. should do nothing to stop it? Are innocent Iraqis less deserving of American protection than the innocent in Darfur that you`re always screaming about?

The other way to interpret this is that MoveOn.org is saying that American troops are the ones guilty of genocide. Probably, that`s what they mean. I mean, these are the same scum that called Vietnam vets baby killers. It was wrong then, and it`s wrong now.

There`s more proof that you shouldn`t believe everything you read in the rag called "The New York Times".

Tonight, here`s what you need to know about this story. There is nothing more -- more American than political dissent. You disagree with the war, you should stand up. But an ad attacking General Petraeus from MoveOn.org has crossed the line.

When it comes to the real truth about Iraq and the surge, let`s hear it. I want to hear the good and the bad, but from the man who isn`t in a suit but a uniform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRAEUS: Innumerable challenges lie ahead. However, coalition and Iraqi security forces have made progress toward achieving security. As a result, the United States will be in a position to reduce its forces in Iraq in the months ahead.

A rapid withdrawal would result in the further release of the strong centrifical forces in Iraq and produce a number of dangerous results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I would have accepted what he said if it had all bad news. Maybe the other side can do that for a change.

Brigadier General David Grange, retired from U.S. Army. He is a CNN military analyst.

General, I just want to start with you on this. Tell me who General Petraeus is. This is a guy who has untold credibility. Am I wrong, sir?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), U.S. ARMY: No, you`re not. He`s a good man. I know him well.

Does he have ambition? Absolutely. Has he worked in a political arena of the Pentagon and Washington, D.C.? Yes, he has. But he also has plenty of field time, troop time. To be in harm`s way. He would never cook the books.

BECK: Is he a guy, sir who would cook the cooks? He would never do that?

GRANGE: No. No. I can`t imagine that. In fact, I really can`t think of one general officer right now that would do that. One, you would be caught, even if you wanted to. But it`s just not the way you`re trained. You would never do that, and I can`t understand the basis for that kind of comment.

BECK: General, I have to tell you. I am so angry, because before this war started, I said, "You better make up your mind, America. Yes or no. Are you in or are you out?"

We`re not going to create another generation of Vietnam vets. And we`re not going to throw these guys under the bus.

And the thing I hear all the time from people is why don`t we ever hear about the good stories in Iraq? Why don`t we ever hear about all the good things? Why don`t we hear about the pitched battles that are raging - - that we`re winning over there?

And I`ll tell you why: because every time we have something good, there`s going to be somebody in the media or somebody in these liberal organizations that are going to take our soldiers and make them look like baby killers. The reason why there`s not a big scoreboard, us versus them on how many have been killed is because they`ll call them baby killers.

This is crossing the line. Can you, sir, support the troops and say that their leader is a liar who`s cooking the books?

GRANGE: I don`t think so. I believe there`s people that actually want us to lose this engagement, to lose this war. They`ve made up their mind.

And what I don`t understand is that when you have the people that have given their lives, when we`ve paid so much of a monetary wealth to make this thing a success and then try -- I mean, we`re sometimes, we`re our own worst enemy. And I don`t understand that. We need to focus on our adversaries who wish us...

BECK: These people don`t understand this. These people don`t even understand. They don`t even think we have enemies. They think the enemies that we have are only in the White House in Washington.

I`m a guy, General, that believes. For Abu Ghraib, I came out and took a lot of heat from Republicans because I said it is obscene what happened in Abu Ghraib. You want to get information -- then, good. Then you have experienced people, professionals get information from people. But we don`t do this to them. It was obscene what happened in Abu Ghraib.

I will take a stand if our military is wrong on something. But good God in heaven, you just don`t make things up to make our military look untrustworthy.

GRANGE: Well, I agree with that. And having been a Vietnam veteran, two tours over there, I never saw, for instance, I`m sure maybe it happened, but I never saw a hut being burnt to the ground, a child being killed, for two tours. I never saw it.

And that`s the perception that many painted of the Vietnam War, which was not true. And some of the same things going on now.

BECK: General, thank you very much. I appreciate your service, sir. And thank you for talking to us tonight.

Now, let`s talk to a group on the other side knows, all too well what war is like. They are Vets from -- for Freedom, a pro-Iraq mission activist group by about 7,000 vets who have actually been to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their purpose is to tell the story of what they experienced and promote a continued deployment in Iraq until the job is done. What a concept, America.

The executive director is Peter Hegseth. He`s with us now.

Pete, I want to just take this despicable ad and I want to go through it point by point. You can -- you can tell me what`s true and what`s not.

First of all in the ad, it says that every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed. Yet, the general claims there`s a reduction in violence. True or false, sir?

PETE HEGSETH, VETS FOR FREEDOM: General claims there was a reduction of violence? The general proved today there`s a reduction in violence with hard facts on the -- on the Florida house. And he`s done just that. The independent reports they cite all recognize that there has been progress in the security arena.

BECK: Let`s see. The next claim is, according to "The New York Times", the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabs on violence. For examples, deaths by car bombs don`t count. Is that possibly true?

HEGSETH: I went to the MoveOn.org web site to see what they -- how they substantiated that. And their one source on that is an op-ed source by Paul Krugman. So now they`re citing as fact whatever Paul Krugman gets from an anonymous source.

BECK: Would MoveOn.org ever quote me on some -- in an op-ed piece, which this show is? Would you ever quote me as a fact? Unbelievable.

The "Washington Post" reported that assassinations only count if you`re shot in the back of the head and not in the front.

HEGSETH: The reality is, we count all these killings, but it`s a very nuanced environment over there, so we have to categorize them to get a good understanding of what`s going on. Again, the only source on that, anonymous source in "The Washington Post", is what they said.

BECK: According to the Associated Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than any other summer that we`ve been there.

HEGSETH: Glenn, that`s just flat out true. If you look at what General David Petraeus showed us today, deaths are down for this summer from last summer. And their source, again, is an AP source, when you`ve got a guy on the ground sweating it out day by day with the troops, proving through hard work and population security that you can bring down violence.

BECK: We`ll hear about the neighborhoods where violence has been decreased, but we won`t hear those neighborhoods that have been ethnically cleansed. I don`t even know which way to take this. Are they claiming that our troops are ethnically cleansing neighborhoods? Or what exactly are they saying here?

HEGSETH: Well, I sure hope not. I mean, clearly, it`s been Shia militias and Sunni al Qaeda insurgents that have done a great deal of sectarian cleansing, and that`s very unfortunate. But where our troops go, stability follows, and you get that stability, you have an opportunity to bring about the political reconciliation that`s ultimately needed.

BECK: Pete, thank you very much.

HEGSETH: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: Appreciate the clarification.

Coming up, Osama bin Laden, still public enemy No. 1? It seems some very important people this weekend said he`s irrelevant. The White House did. Wrong. Sorry. I`ll explain in a second.

Plus, the start of our weeklong series "Exposed: The Perfect Day". We have to consider that extremists are constantly plotting against us, and their possible soft targets are shocking. Please do not miss this. It comes up at the bottom of the hour.

Just a reminder that tonight`s show is brought to you by the Sleep Number Bed by Select Comfort. Find your sleep number, like I do every night, at a Select Comfort store.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: In just a few minutes, we`re going to kick off our weeklong series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day". It was hell getting this thing on the air, and you`ll understand in a while.

It`s the perfect day for Islamic terrorists. The perfect day is a term to define a series of coordinated attacks resulting in death and destruction here in America and around the world on a massive scale. We`re going to take a closer look at the places where we are most vulnerable to such attacks. And it is not pretty. But it is something I feel you cannot miss. Please stick around.

Now, after much speculation about whether or not he`s even still alive, Osama bin Laden made his existence perfectly clear late last week with his first videotaped message in about three years.

The last time we saw bin Laden in 2004, his age was showing. Beard, shaggy, almost completely gray. In the latest tape, its cut neatly, trimmed. It`s been dyed black. Well, at least we know he`s dyed for his cause, as long as it`s spelled with a "Y".

I believe that some people are too quick to dismiss the seriousness of this new tape. The dying thing has been a joke all weekend. And the president`s own administration is calling the `07 Osama bin Laden impotent.

It`s correct to say that he`s not what he used to be. But to say he`s impotent is just not true. He`s still active.

Yes, bin Laden made no overt threat to the United States in this tape, but how can any sane person think that he and al Qaeda are any less determined to destroy us than they were six years ago?

If nothing else, tomorrow`s anniversary of September 11 should reminds us how Osama`s Islamic extremists will stop at nothing.

Let`s look behind bin Laden`s words. Some experts feel that just even the trimming the beard and the dying of the beard is a sign of preparation for war. For his call for a U.S. conversion to Islam. They say that that`s the final part of the process where these Islamic radicals honor some twisted covenant with Allah before they engage in a holy war.

Make no mistake: Osama bin Laden is alive and well, and so is his determination to kill all of us. The day we relax our guard, even just a little bit, is the opportunity they`re been waiting for. And it will be the beginning of our end.

Steven Emerson is the executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Steve, you`re in Tel Aviv. Is this -- is this even real news over in Tel Aviv, this new bin Laden tape?

STEVE EMERSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM: It got news on Friday. But frankly, they face a lot of bin Ladens on the east, the west, and on their northern borders. So they`re preoccupied with their own survival here.

BECK: I was surprised that the White House came out and said that, well, he`s impotent. And they just kind of blew him off.

And while he`s not the guy who`s leading it, he is the face on the stamp. I mean, he`s an icon. He`s not as strong as he was. But he still wants to kill us, and he still controls power. Does he not?

EMERSON: Well, that`s exactly true. The use of the word "icon" is perfectly accurate here. He`s an icon. He`s an inspirational symbol. He motivates people to carry out terrorism.

And to the extent that we call him impotent, we really do ourselves a disservice, because he has the capability of mobilizing people. That`s his real power. He`s not an operations man. He`s an ideas man. He`s an inspirational person to those Mujahideen or holy warriors willing to carry out suicide bombings or fly planes into our buildings.

BECK: I`ve got to tell you, the politicians on both sides of the aisle just pissed me off this weekend. I heard John Edwards or some clown out there saying, "Well, if I were president, we`d have him by now. And he`s still loose, and we`ve got to get him." And I thought to myself, he`s not the guy. You get him and it doesn`t really matter.

And then the president comes out and says, "Well, he`s really impotent." And I thought, he still plays a role. Both sides are just playing this ridiculous game.

In the tape itself, did you go over it with a fine-tooth comb? Did you -- let`s starts with the call to Islam. Do you think this is one of those twisted final warnings of, "Hey, I told you, and then I had to kill you"?

EMERSON: No, actually, I think he`s been calling for an embrace of Islam, a conversion, almost in virtually every single tape that he`s made since 9/11, even before 9/11.

In 1986, the Ladenese (ph) epistle, in which he -- was his first call for destruction of the west, and of Israel. He said, you have to convert to Islam. So that`s a staple of his -- of his pedigree in terms of calling to people to convert to Islam.

BECK: He seemed very reasoned. I mean, it was almost like he was a statesman. He said what Putin has said, what Ahmadinejad had said, what Chavez has said. He`s talking about Michael Scheuer and books from Chomsky. I mean, he seemed almost like he was running for president.

EMERSON: Well -- well, in fact, it looked like he had been coached by Adam Gadahn, that American P.R. guy that`s converted to Islam and is now doing his P.R. His speech read like a presidential speech.

He actually fancies himself an astute American analyst, thinking that he can actually cause a rebellion in the United States. He`s wrong on all accounts. No one`s going to buy into his -- his propaganda and his delusions.

BECK: In -- on the radio in the next couple of days, we`ll be talking a little bit about some of the things that are going on in the economy right now. We`re in a very precarious six-week to 90-day window here with the economy.

Do you -- do you have any sense on whether or not there is added pressure on them to strike us now? Do you have a sense that anything`s coming quickly?

EMERSON: Look, I think that -- I don`t have a sense that anything is coming quickly. And the fact is that the way we would know would be chatter or some type of movement. And hopefully, the intelligence agencies would have evidence of that. And I`ve asked around, and no one seems to think that there is that going on.

However, there added pressure to resurrect themselves and to show that they`re active and capable of hitting us. That`s the problem right now.

BECK: OK.

EMERSON: And I think we face a much more dangerous period now from al Qaeda than we ever did before.

BECK: Steve. Thank you very much. Stay safe.

Back in a minute with the legendary Kirk Douglas. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Trust me on this one. Almost anybody can write a book. I know. I`ve got one coming out myself.

But when you start reading Kirk Douglas` book, "Let`s Face It", you know there are stories that have to be told. Who else has played cards with frank Sinatra, went to school with Lauren Bacall, and in his spare time received a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Joining me now is Spartacus himself. How are you, Mr. Douglas?

KIRK DOUGLAS, ACTOR: Good. Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: What a pleasure to meet you.

DOUGLAS: Thank you. I know, I listened to you in the green room, and you said there is information that people should know they`re not receiving. But I wanted to say, we must be sure the information is correct.

BECK: Absolutely.

DOUGLAS: You know.

BECK: Absolutely.

DOUGLAS: I think that`s why I was thinking of running for president, because there`s lots of things in my book, "Let`s Face It", that I want to hear the candidates say.

BECK: Like what? Give me one.

DOUGLAS: First, they must be -- promise never to try to send democracy around the world with limited power. Do it by example. And that`s because (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

We have to get rid of the corruption that we have. We have to make our schools much better. You know, Glenn, there are schools in other countries that are much better than the schools in the United States.

BECK: I know. I know. What the thing that you are most proud of?

DOUGLAS: That was when I was doing "Spartacus", and that was during the McCarthy era. The writer of "Spartacus" was in jail for a year. When he came out, like all blacklisted writers, he couldn`t use his name. He couldn`t appear in the studio.

And he would work for me in "Spartacus" as Sam Jackson. And in the middle of that picture, I said, "Lt`s such hypocrisy. I`m going to use his name, use his real name." And on the screen, for the first time, a blacklist writer, Dalton Trumbo, his name was on the screen.

BECK: Good for you.

DOUGLAS: I`m proud of that.

BECK: Good for you.

I can`t believe I have Kirk Douglas on the set and I`ve got 30 seconds. Secret to life?

DOUGLAS: I wish I knew it. You know, I would say, in my book, I have lots of chapters that will tell you what my book is about. And I have a chapter called "Romance Begins at 80".

But I have a chapter, "Don`t be Too Religious". And I think our country is based on God. In God we trust. But there shouldn`t be all the ritual with it. It`s kind of the way you feel it. It`s -- and if you believe in a god, that makes you a better person. And by that, I mean, someone who cares for others as far as (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that`s your religion.

BECK: Sir. You sound like my father. What a pleasure to meet you, sir.

DOUGLAS: Thank you very much.

BECK: Thank you.

Back in a minute.

Really...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: About a few months ago, I started hearing about a terrorist concept called "The Perfect Day." And I`m going to get into exactly what that is here in just a second. But in general, it`s a domino theory. I`ve been talking about it on the radio for over a year, and people have been thinking I`m crazy. The idea is that multiple, seemingly unrelated events may all converge together to pose a threat unlike anything we have ever faced before in this country.

This week, we wanted to focus on one very important aspect of the theory that you`re just not hearing about, although you`re hearing pieces of it, the threat of an attack on our schools. Like almost all of the other really frightening threats that we talk about on this program, our message is one of preparation, not of panic. And it is critical that you understand why we are giving you this information that others either won`t or cannot.

With that being said, I want to introduce you to Brad Thor, who`s new book, "The First Commandment," revolves around the terrorist threat of an attack on our children. Brad is also the former member of the Department of Homeland Security`s Analytic Red Cell program. Also former FBI secret agent Don Clark joins me tonight. He`s the man who led the investigation after the first World Trade Center attack. And Colonel Joe Ruffini, he is a counterterrorism expert and author of "When Terror Comes to Main Street."

Colonel, I want to start with you, because we have to lay out some of the facts here on -- for instance, we found a computer disk and some computer plans of schools here in the United States over in the Middle East. Can you tell me about those, sir?

LT. COL. JOE RUFFINI, COUNTERTERRORISM EXPERT: Yes, we did, Glenn. There have been several instances of computer disks recovered, the ones you`re talking about in Iraq, some Department of Education schools, emergency crisis management plans were found on the disk, school floor plans, school emergency response plans. But the point I`d like to make here is, you know, when we post this stuff on our Web sites, we can`t get surprised when our enemies download it.

BECK: Yes. Now, they`re downloading this, but the FBI warned these schools and said -- there are six schools, six different states. They warned them, but then they came out to the public and said, "There`s nothing really to worry about." But, Brad, you told me earlier today that one of your sources, a guy who`s at a school, the FBI made him sign a...

BRAD THOR, AUTHOR: A nondisclosure agreement and then said, "Now we`re going to tell you the real story." They didn`t want to panic the families, didn`t want to panic the school districts, but they sat this person down and said, "We need to let you know what the real threat is so you can begin preparing."

BECK: OK, now, Colonel, back to you. Another piece of this. Al Qaeda has a training tape out. It`s eight hours long. Only one hour has been seen by law enforcement. I can`t play it on television. You`ve seen all eight hours. Tell me what`s on the tape.

RUFFINI: Well, there was about 64 tapes found in Afghanistan in the caves. And what they did in this particular tape, it was prior to their attack on the Russian middle school in Beslan. And it shows them practicing to take down schools. The tape was made in an abandoned school near Bakoch (ph), right outside of Kabul, that we recovered.

BECK: Is it true that they`re saying the commands to the students in English?

RUFFINI: Yes. Yes. They`re going to speak to the students in their own language. And, you know, you said before, Glenn, this isn`t about paranoia, but it`s about vigilance. You know, we have an enemy that has said they`re justified in killing 4 million Americans, 2 million of those children. We`ve got the siege at Beslan. We have Osama bin Laden, who has promised to bring to our country 100-fold what they did in Beslan, and it still confuses me, what part of we are a nation at war and our kids are threatened don`t we as a nation understand and accept?

BECK: Brad, Osama bin Laden went to a cleric -- I believe it was in Saudi Arabia -- after 9/11, and he specifically asked, how many children in America can I kill, did he not?

THOR: He did. And he got permission to kill up to 2 million. And the reason he went for that permission is he was roundly criticized after 9/11 for not going for through the proper steps. We talked today about his call for Americans to embrace Islam again. That`s part of the way they wage war. They have to have permission to do things, and they have to offer their enemy a way out before they come and hit us with the attack.

BECK: OK. Let me go to Don Clark. Don, before I get into some of the things that have been happening that show that they are testing us right now, the FBI -- we`re in a situation where people are going to say, "What did we know and when did we know it?" But we don`t really know -- we don`t have names. We don`t have dates. We don`t have anything. We have a bunch of pieces that nobody wants to release because they`re afraid that the American people will panic. What is the FBI supposed to do with information where they don`t have anything specific?

DON CLARK, FORMER HEAD OF FBI HOUSTON BUREAU: Well, I think, Glenn, what they have to do is really analyze this information and determine what, in fact, can they put out there that`s actual factual, but yet doesn`t panic the public. And keep in mind, if there`s a possibility that it`s going to endanger some member of the public, whether or not they have something to back that up or not, they`ve gotten that information. They`ve got to get it to someone out there.

BECK: OK, you know what? They have. They have. But then they always -- here`s one alert. This came out, FBI alert came out last March. It said that suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the U.S., but then the FBI spokesman said to the media, "Parents and children have nothing to fear." I mean, we have that going on.

Tell me about the situation that we heard about and then it was dismissed in Florida, where two Muslim men get up onto a bus, take a bus hostage for how long?

CLARK: Well, you know, Glenn, that`s absolutely ridiculous. And when I saw that story, I said, "Wait a second." First of all, these Muslims who are supposed to be students over here, and we know the level of people that come over for students, they`re pretty bright. And to get on a school bus and come up with this type of story is absolutely outlandish for somebody just to brush it off. Those are the things that I would hope that, while they may say something else, that they`re really following through with an investigation of these two people.

THOR: And on that point, Glenn, I have to tell you that I have an inside source who was on that investigation who told me, without a question, that there is a lot of feeling down there in Florida that that was a dry run. They wanted to see -- we`ve talked about Al Qaeda being like a shark, coming in and collecting their intelligence, and then they bump you before they bite you. That`s John Guidic`s (ph) line. He`s going to be with us tomorrow night. But that`s exactly what`s going on. We`re seeing these bus drivers and this, that, the other thing to see, where are we weak, and how can they get us?

RUFFINI: Brad, you`re absolutely right. And with those two bus drivers, a lot of pressure was put on the prosecutor`s office by the community relations, what`s called CAIR, the American-Islamic relations folks down there. The political correctness that we`re forced to put up with in this country is literally going to be the death of us. The major charges against both those two gentlemen that hopped that school bus were dropped by the prosecutor in Florida.

BECK: OK, we`re going to get into other things this week. For instance, I mean, what really made me want to do this story, America, is I heard all of these things. And I told before you, I see stories -- Bush said it last week or I mean last summer. The problem is, people see these stories, and they think they`re all disconnected. They`re not.

And I`ve told you for years, I see things kind of like, what`s his name in "A Beautiful Mind," Russell Crowe, where all of these lines, they`re tied together. And one thing that Brad, you and I, were taking about -- we`ll get into later this week -- and I said, "Why would they do these unspeakable things to our kids?" And we`ll get into Beslan tomorrow and explain what they`re planning on doing. And you said, "They want us to."

THOR: They want to force our hand. They want to create something so horrible that we will lose control in our reaction, we will be lynching Muslim people in the streets and burning mosques. They want to reduce us to animals like them so that they can get the Islamic world behind them and finally get the holy war that they want kicked off and ignited.

BECK: There was story that broke, we were talking a minute ago about the shark bumping into you to see if you`re a threat. Don, you`re in Houston. There were 17 school buses that are missing now in Houston. One theory is -- and this is what everybody is hoping for -- that these are just for, you know, drug smuggling or what. But tell me and give me the update on the school buses in Houston.

CLARK: Well, it`s a big concern, Glenn. And I went to the Houston independent school district and talked to the chief of police there, and he was very happy to tell me, that, look, we really do secure those things. But I have to tell you, Don, those are not our buses. Those buses came from private schools here in the area. And they were taken because they were not secured in proper ways or whatever and they were theft, and we don`t know what`s happening to them.

Having said that, I know that they`re taking it very serious, because I talked to some people at the FBI, and they`re not just letting this move about as if nothing has happened, because they are concerned about what`s going to be the use of these buses? Because they know that there are a number of scenarios that could be used with school buses that even guards would let them pass by and do whatever they want them to do.

BECK: Here`s what I have been amazed it. Brad, you were on with me on the radio show today. And I got more calls today on anonymous tips. Somebody wrote in right after the show, and you took that tip.

THOR: Right. And we heard about the dramatic increase in DHS warnings to school districts, in particular the operations managers, for buses, saying if your buses don`t pass inspection, be on the lookout for Middle Eastern men. There are foreign nationals who are trying to buy up school buses. And then you add that to the thousands of school bus radios that have been stolen in the Pacific Northwest, and you have to start saying, what do all these things have in common?

BECK: And this is not something that is going to happen in one town. It`s not just going to happen in New York City. This is a big, big deal. And we`re going to explain it all this week, Brad, Don, Colonel Ruffini, thank you very much.

And as a personal note, this series has put me in the hardest ethical position I think I`ve been in, in 30 years of broadcasting. In the end, I came down that the information that we have is power. There are things that you need to know that you are not being told. We`re not "The New York Times." We`re trying to save lives, not expose anything that our government doesn`t want exposed.

On tomorrow`s show, we`re going to get a little more specific on what an attack would look like, how it would unfold, by looking at what really happened at the Beslan school massacre in 2004. Trust me on this: You have never heard the real truth.

And, also, since time is tight on television, I asked Don Clark and Colonel Ruffini to each write a special report with some of the information about the perfect day that we didn`t get to cover tonight. These reports are available completely free of charge if you`re a member on our e-mail newsletter subscriber list. It`s absolutely free. You can get in tonight by signing up right now at glennbeck.com. Again, it is completely free.

But if you want tonight`s update, you have to sign up for it right now or tonight at glennbeck.com.

See you again. Thank you, sir. Talk to you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: You had to have watched the MTV awards last night. I just need to say, Britney Spears, woof.

I was going to say, you know, give me more. She`s got more to give, a lot more to give.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BECK: She`s probably thinner than the average American.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: However, when you`re on stage...

BECK: You don`t want it to jiggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... with thousands of lights and cameras on you, she just wasn`t in shape.

BECK: You know what she looked like? You know what she looked like? Me without my shirt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: No, she did.

Let`s change topics here. The undeniably photogenic 4-year-old Madeleine McCann, she was first reported missing -- remember this, the media firestorm, instantaneous international outpouring of support for distraught parents. It was overwhelming. Actually, it`s sickened me.

The sympathy now has all of a sudden turned into suspicion. Portuguese police say McCanns may be responsible for accidentally killing their young daughter and then disposing of her body. Those two don`t really work together in my work. The case was put in the hands of the prosecutor today.

Wendy Murphy, she is the author of "And Justice for Some," is here now. Wendy, when you were on this program, I remember this story first broke, you said, "Something doesn`t sit right with he." I said, "I can`t believe everybody is running to their defense." They left her alone.

(CROSSTALK)

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: ... there was a boogieman everybody was looking, right, this weirdo nearby that everybody seemed suspicious of? Yes, and the reason is very simple. A tad bit of common sense helps, right? Most of the time when a child goes missing or is killed in their own home it`s the parents. So why would you assume it wasn`t the parents just because they`re good-looking people? And believe me, this is something I write in my book, the so-called feel-good prejudice. We look at the beautiful people and think, "They`re not the type who could kill their own child."

BECK: I have to tell you, I read the book, and it jumps out at me because I am a guy who -- I feel bad about the Ramseys. I feel bad for these people. I`ve said this before on the air before. If these people lost their kid and then we go and suspect them, and they didn`t do it, it`s the worst thing.

MURPHY: Yes.

BECK: That`s hell.

MURPHY: It`s tragedy, plus the insult of suspicion.

BECK: But you write in the book stuff I have never, ever heard before on the Ramseys.

MURPHY: Yes, which is why I don`t feel bad for the Ramseys. I`ve covered the case for 10 years. I know why we see the Ramseys as being under the umbrella of suspicion. They deserve it. And I`ve got evidence in here that`s never been publicly revealed before.

BECK: You are going to be -- you`re going to be a book slut! You`re going to say, "Sorry, can`t have it unless you buy the book."

MURPHY: I`ve been called many things.

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Oh, yes, book slut.

MURPHY: Listen, the reason is -- of course, I want to sell books. But I also want the public to know why I suspect the Ramseys. And I`m not just going on TV going, "You know, they`re bad parents."

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Why wasn`t this information outlined in the press? Why do we all of a sudden hear that there`s blood in the back of their car that they rented 26 days after, for the McCann family?

MURPHY: Right.

BECK: After the child disappears, they rent a car, almost a month later, and all of a sudden blood appears?

MURPHY: Blood in the trunk.

BECK: Yes.

MURPHY: My opinion, I haven`t heard even a proposed innocent explanation for how the blood of your missing child landed in the trunk of your rented car. And that`s why people are suspicious. And, by the way, that`s why they became suspects. This is called objective forensic evidence that leads us to consider them as the possible culprits. So I`m really sick of people saying, "Oh, leave the poor parents alone. They`re suffering enough." You know what? Maybe they are suffering, and maybe they`re guilty.

BECK: You have talked about this before, the beautiful people factor, that -- and here they are, two intelligent people, two doctors. We just don`t want to think that two doctors did this. But two doctors left their kids -- best-case scenario -- left their children and went drinking and driving around.

MURPHY: That`s the best-case scenario.

BECK: That`s the best-case scenario.

MURPHY: And they are the gorgeous people. I mean, some of the guys who were watching while the parents were going back and forth to the police station, the guys were doing wolf-whistles at the woman because she`s so cute. And we can`t get our head around the idea that people who look like them could do something hideous to their own super-gorgeous child. It`s very Ramsey-esque. It really is.

BECK: So are you saying that, if you`re good looking and you`re rich, you have a better chance of getting away with something because people just don`t want to think that you did it?

MURPHY: It is so simple. It is really that simple, because we look at them and say, "It makes me so afraid to think that they could do this to their child. And I`m so uncomfortable believing it, I`d rather believe the absurd alternative theory about the Martians flying in to get the child. It feels better to think it was a scary Martian than it was these good- looking people."

BECK: I found out from somebody -- somebody asked me -- they said, "You used to live at 900 South Brookshell (ph) in Cheshire." And I said, "Yes." They said, "You know the killer lived two doors down from you?" Remember that brutal killer? Lived two doors down, while I was living there years ago, and it did. I thought, first of all, the Cheshire thing bothered me, because I used to live there, "That doesn`t happen in that community." And then two doors down from me, they were in the neighborhood.

MURPHY: And when you see the face of the killer in your memory, you think, "That didn`t look scary to me," right? This is what`s so hard for us as human beings, to think that if the Ramseys and the McCanns are the faces of evil people -- and I`m not saying they`re guilty, but if that`s the face -- how are we going to protect ourselves from these scary people? That`s the problem. That`s what makes us latch onto absurd alternative explanations.

BECK: Wendy, even though you had Bill O`Reilly write the forward and didn`t even mention me, I`m just saying...

MURPHY: He wrote a great forward, by the way.

BECK: You`re not writing the forward in my book.

MURPHY: And you`re a good guy for mentioning that.

BECK: The book is "And Justice for Some." Make sure you go and pick up a copy.

Coming up -- well, I think we may have buried the lede today. Britney Spears, a big fat bomb at the VMAs. And I said it. Yes, I said it, a bomb. Back in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, Britney Spears made her big comeback last night. She opened the MTV Video Music Awards in Vegas. I was glued. She didn`t disappoint. Well, OK, maybe she disappointed a few. Critics are saying she looked out of it, had a glazed look about her, which might have been attributable to the fact that she was kind of out of it and had a glazed look about her. But that`s beside the point.

I think she did great, quite frankly, especially for somebody who barely prepared and was still recovering from partying until dawn with Paris and P. Diddy. You know what I`m saying? I`d like to see Tony Bennett try something like that. I for one think it`s about time somebody publicly came to Britney`s defense, and that somebody is me, OK?

First of all, people are saying that Britney picked the wrong outfit. It made her look fat. That`s crazy talk. Look at her. For someone of her height, and she`d have to weigh at least like 250 pounds to be officially considered morbidly obese. At the very most, I`d say she`s just obese, period. Forget about morbidly. No, I mean that, and it`s not her fat that makes her look fat. It`s the outfit.

Anyway, number two, Britney did not -- I repeat, did not -- forget the words to the song. And even if she did, can you blame her? I mean, it`s a new song. There`s lot of new words to remember, and some she might not even know the meaning of, you know what I`m saying? But, look, she doesn`t screw up. Even whether she stops moving her lips, you can still hear her singing. It`s a testament to the pure talent that is Britney Spears. It`s like -- what`s that guy`s name? Willie and Lester, you know what I`m saying?

Three, at no point during the performance did she actually set fire to herself. Other performers, who shall remain nameless -- Michael Jackson -- couldn`t even get through a single song without their hair catching on fire. Now, Britney, she was groped by other dancers, yes, but not a single burn mark on her.

Four, she didn`t die. People say Pavarotti, oh, such a great singer. He couldn`t even make it through last week without dying. As far as I know, Britney has no plans on dying now or any time in the near future. Don`t count on that one.

And one more thing. Britney was in Vegas for the entire weekend and managed to avoid a quickie wedding with any of her high school sweethearts. That takes restraint. You know what? I think Britney`s finally starting to mature. I do. You go, girl. And I mean that. I`m hear for you, babe. Not so much.

Don`t forget, if you want to know what`s on tomorrow`s show or you want more information on our special series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day," please sign up tonight for my free daily e-mail newsletter at glennbeck.com. From New York, good night, America.

END