Return to Transcripts main page

Glenn Beck

Will Hillary Help GOP?; Do Bad Policies Lead to Fires?; Afghanistan Survivor Shares Story Behind Medal of Honor

Aired October 23, 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, wildfires continue to burn California with no end in sight. Is this the wrath of God, or could it be man`s fault?

Plus, I`ll explain how Hillary Clinton can save the Republican Party.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But it is still going to be a stretch.

BECK: Not with your help.

Also, President Bush and the nation honor Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy. I`ll talk to the man who lived to tell the story of a fellow soldier`s ultimate sacrifice for his country.

MARCUS LUTTRELL, U.S. ARMY: We were hurting bad. We were -- we were out of ammo.

BECK: All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America. Some say that global warming is what`s causing the super fires in California, but you know what? It`s time you`re told the truth. And I`m just dumb enough to be that guy. We`ve got that coming up in just a second.

First, I want to start with Hillary Clinton. She`s the runaway leader of the Democratic primary race. She leads Barack Obama by 27 points nationally and John Edwards by 36 points. But here`s "The Point" tonight.

Hillary Clinton is a Republican dream, and here`s how I got there.

The Republican road to the presidency in 2008 is a difficult one, to say the least. They need their "come to Jesus" moment.

Even though the Democratic Congress has a runaway 11 percent approval rating, the media has done this amazing job at assigning all of our problems in the whole world to George W. Bush and never a single Democrat. Honestly.

America on both sides, disenfranchised, and rightfully so. So how do you motivate your base to come out and vote if you`re on the right? Enter Hillary Clinton.

To the Republican base, Hillary -- Hillary is a giant "get out and vote" campaign provided absolutely free by the Democratic Party. Also, I think it`s federal law that every campaign commercial have the world "change" in it. Spoken softly like you really made it -- you know: "Ahh, change."

Well, how do the Republicans grab the mantle of change when they`ve been in office for eight years, and they haven`t really changed anything even since we threw them out?

Enter Hillary Clinton yet again. She represents the same old, same old. The same political battles, the same arguments, the same faces. Now, while all of that is true, here`s what you need to know tonight.

I don`t believe you win elections in America by running against somebody -- somebody or something. I said this before the last election, when everybody was convinced John Kerry was going to win.

All of Hillary`s high negatives help Republicans. But the Republicans still must come up with a compelling reason that their leadership will be good for America, not just how bad Hillary`s will be.

Josh Green is the senior editor at "The Atlantic", where he covers politics. He has more than a passing knowledge of the senator.

In fact, you`re the guy who wrote the article that was taken out of "GQ" magazine, right?

JOSH GREEN, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes. Probably not a big fan.

BECK: OK. So tell me how Hillary Clinton represents change. That`s like Jeb Bush saying, "Well, I`m a different Bush."

GREEN: Well, you know, I think at this point people would even vote for Jeb Bush, you know, to get change.

But all Hillary Clinton needs to do -- I mean, when she`s talking about change, she`s talking about a change from George W. Bush. And, you know, his supporters are down to kind of a hard-core band of, you know, conservative talk show hosts and a few other guys. But for the rest of the country, Hillary Clinton is enough of a change.

BECK: Yes, but, see, I don`t -- I don`t believe -- and this goes against the Republicans. I don`t believe that you can win an election in America by saying "anybody but that person."

That`s why the -- that`s why the Democrats have lost. They`re saying anybody but Bush. The Republicans cannot say "anybody but Clinton" and expect to win. Do you think?

GREEN: No, I think that`s right. But -- but the one caveat I`d make, these are extraordinary times. I mean, our world and our country, most voters think, is in such bad shape. Just saying "I`m not George Bush" might be enough to get Hillary Clinton elected.

Sometimes, if you look at her platform or if you look at her campaign strategy, that`s kind of what it amounts to. So it may test your proposition.

BECK: But flip this the other direction. Flip this the other direction. The Republicans want Hillary Clinton, because they think that she`s going to be able to connect with the base and say, "Oh, my gosh, anybody but Hillary Clinton." I don`t think that`s enough for the -- for the right.

GREEN: Well, no, I think she`s right. I think they`re right that she`ll galvanize the Republican base. The problem is, you know, as Karl Rove can tell you, the Republican base is not enough to win a presidential election on its own. And if all your hopes and dreams, if you`re a Republican candidate, are pinned at vilifying Hillary Clinton, you probably don`t have a very good shot in the next election.

BECK: All right. War game this out for a bit. Romney and Clinton are probably the best political machines. Their rash machinery is unbelievable. The same, kind of, could be said about Howard Dean. Howard Dean fell apart at the end of. Any chance that these -- either two -- either one of these campaigns, especially Clinton, falls apart once you really get close to it?

GREEN: Not a chance. I don`t think either these two -- and I don`t think either Romney or Clinton are anything like Howard Dean. I mean, Dean was all about passion and energy and momentum, and he did what he did almost on a lark. He didn`t expect to get to where he got.

You know, if you read the accounts after his election, he was a little bit afraid that he actually would get elected president. You know, Romney has been a leader his whole life. Now he`s got a plan. He`s got a business-like operation. He matches up beautifully against Hillary Clinton. There is no one in politics more disciplined than Hillary Clinton is.

BECK: Oh...

GREEN: I have first-hand experience.

BECK: I bet you do. I`d love to hear that story sometime.

GREEN: Well, we`ll have drinks after the show.

BECK: All right. Josh, thanks. I`ve got to run. I`ve got to run.

GREEN: All right.

BECK: If you remember the last Clinton administration, do you remember the sketchy ties to China that Johnny Chung, the Charlie Trie -- wasn`t that his name. Al Gore was, you know, getting money out of the pockets of the Buddhists at the temple. How could you forget, of course, the sensitive technology getting into China`s hands?

Well, meet the new Clintons, same as the old Clintons. First, there was Norman Chu, who before going to jail and writing suicide notes and going on crazy trains, he was raising millions of dollars for the Clinton campaign. Eventually, Clinton return 250 of the checks, giving the individuals the opportunity to donate again. "The Wall Street Journal" said out of 250 people, I think the number was ten had done so.

The latest is amazing. "The L.A. Times" has decided to follow up on some of the other donors. They found that most of them weren`t even registered to vote. Why would you donate? A third of them couldn`t even be found.

One donor listed their address, and it was actually a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases, which actually may have been a donor. Another donor`s address was a store that sold knock-off watches. And yet another said she made a donation for somebody else, which I`m pretty sure - - I`m not an attorney but I am a thinker. I think that`s illegal.

If that doesn`t seem shady to you, consider this. Hillary has already raised $380,000 from Chinatown. It took the entire presidential campaign for John Kerry to raise a whopping $24,000 from the same area.

So if Kerry won 48 percent of the total vote against Bush, at this pace I guess Hillary Clinton is going to win 760 percent of the vote. Which with these guys I`m beginning to think might be possible.

"Wall Street Journal`s" John Fund joins me now to straighten up some of the -- some of the mess here on this.

What is the connection to China, John?

JOHN FUND, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I don`t know. It`s -- it`s mysterious. Hillary Clinton is very popular with a lot of immigrant groups. That`s why all of these Chinese waiters and dishwashers, in large part, contribute to this money. They probably couldn`t afford it, but they were told to come to these fundraisers. They were told to contribute, or somebody gave them the money and reimbursed them for that contribution.

But back in 1996, it was really strange. We had 120 people who fled the country or took the Fifth Amendment. We had 24 people that pleaded guilty to campaign violations. A lot of those came out of foreign sources and Chinese sources.

So the Clinton people say, well, this is all racism and racial profiling. I say it`s mysterious, because they can`t seem to clean up their act. They promised that this wouldn`t happen again. The same people running the Clinton fund-raising machine now are running it -- were running it then, and they still have all of these recurring problems.

BECK: You know, John, I expect this kind of stuff from the Clintons. I mean, you know, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 8,000 times and shame on me.

I expect this. But what is shocking to me is that nobody in America seems to care. This isn`t being covered in the media. Nobody is following this. Good God in heaven. We`ve got shady dealings going on with the guy who was president last time, where we had missile technology transferred to an enemy of ours, and now shady dealings again. And nobody is following it. Why?

FUND: I think there are two reasons. One is the average American voter thinks, well, all of this money in politics is tainted. No one is worse than anyone else.

BECK: Not from a foreign enemy.

FUND: Well, that`s the issue. But the Clintons have a very good spin on that. Remember, everything that happened more than five minutes ago is old news. You`ve already heard about that. Therefore, we don`t have to discuss it.

BECK: So where are the media watchdogs? Where are the people who are saying, you know, "It`s not old news"? What did you say?

FUND: Toothless and asleep.

BECK: Perfect. Perfect.

FUND: Well, no, seriously. I think as, we get closer to the elections and the voters start paying attention, I think you`re going to see more scrutiny. I think you`re going to see a lot of Hillary Clinton`s records from the White House being requested.

You know, the Clinton archives in Little Rock are blocking access to a lot of the records from Hillary Clinton`s time. Now, she claims to have all this experience, Glenn, but she doesn`t want to tell us exactly what that experience was without revealing the archives.

BECK: America, please, I`m telling you. Please, God help us. Please break this Bush-Clinton, Bush-Clinton cycle. Please, I can`t take it any more.

FUND: The dual monarchy, I call it.

BECK: It is. Thanks a lot, John.

So now, where am I wrong? Let`s go back to the first idea. I think Americans love big ideas. But the idea of voting against Hillary will not be enough to -- for the GOP to win the `08 election. Agree or disagree? Go to CNN.com/Glenn right now and cast your vote.

Coming up, California in flames. Wildfires have now touched over 1,000 homes. No end in sight. Who`s the blame? TV will tell you it`s global warming. Bull crap. And I`ll have the answer for you in a second.

And Turkey tells U.S. and Iraqi forces buckle down on Kurdish guerillas or else. Part of the perfect storm I`ve been telling you about in tonight`s "Real Story".

Plus, news on the world`s fastest-growing Web site, with help from a little divine intervention. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, programming note. On tomorrow`s program, we`re doing a special hour. I know downstairs, the mother ship is doing "Planet in Peril". We`ve decided to let them worry about the planet. We`ll worry about our liberty. "Liberty in Peril". The rights of the Founding Fathers, established for us. They framed them in the Constitution. They are being eroded by radical fringes and the mainstream politicians.

And I`ll tell you how the scale of democracy is tipping against us. Don`t miss this if you care about any of our rights and the Constitution.

But first, for the second consecutive day, wildfires are sweeping through California, especially beach front cities like Malibu and San Diego. And I want to get one thing straight right from the start. Loss of life, property, tragic. The people who are fighting these fires, heroes.

But I got to tell you, the story just pisses me off. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Wildfire may be a natural disaster, but you`ve got to stop kidding yourself, America and pretending that man isn`t partly to blame for making things worse.

I remember spending my summers at my grandfather`s house at his farm. I can still see him screaming at that old Zenith TV that we had in the living room, yelling about how the mismanagement of our forests is going to get people killed one day.

You ask any farmer, anybody who`s lived closely with the land, and they`ll tell you, you can`t change Mother Nature. We`re the ones screwing things up. Why does this global warming phenomenon only seem to happen in our part of the globe? Why have we -- why have we tried for decades to stop the natural cycle of burn and regrowth? And most importantly, why do we think that we can continue to believe that man knows best, when every bit of evidence tells us it ain`t true?

Mother Nature is tough enough. We don`t need to make matters worse with our bad environmental policies.

Chris Horner is the author of "Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism". And R.J. Smith is an adjunct environmental analyst with the competitive Enterprise Institute.

Let me -- let me start with you, R.J. How much money do you get from big oil?

R.J. SMITH, ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: I don`t think big oil has anything to do with -- with the forest fires.

BECK: OK.

SMITH: And -- and I`m not sure. I mean -- environmentalists get big oil money themselves, too.

BECK: Look, here`s the thing. We`re going to talk about things that are politically incorrect. Nobody else on television is going to say this. And I know all the bloggers are right now going, "Oh, big oil, big oil, big oil. They`re going to deny global warming."

I`m not denying global warming. But, Chris, let me ask you this. I keep hearing that this is global warming that`s doing this. And I keep thinking to myself, how many years have we let the underbrush grow, and nobody will do anything? If the super fires are caused by global warming, wouldn`t these super fires be happening all around the globe? Are they, or are they not?

CHRIS HORNER, AUTHOR, "POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO GLOBAL WARMING": Well, fire happens everywhere. And it is a natural disaster if man`s there. Otherwise it`s a disaster purely for nature, but again, it is natural.

Global warming is not a likely suspect for the following reason. The warming that the alarmists are talking about is one degree Fahrenheit over the past 150 years, most of which occurred before World War II. None of which are occurred in the last decade.

OK. We can reliably take global warming off the suspect list.

Second, it`s not clear that a warmer world would be a drier world. As you know, Glenn, they rely on computer models to scare us. The computer models disagree with each other.

The two that the United States used for an Al Gore-produced report as they left office said the Red River Valley was going to be a flood plain or a desert. So, you know, prepare for it.

BECK: OK. So, R.J., let me -- help me out. Because if I hear the -- if I hear global warming one more time, blood is going to shoot out of my eyes.

SMITH: It has little, if anything, to do with global warming, Glenn. What happens -- I mean, you`re right from what you`ve learned in Washington state.

For almost 100 years, the federal government and the firefighting profession has mismanaged our -- our national forests. They were under the assumption that fire was unnatural, that all fires had to be stopped and put out, and we`ve done that.

And fire is a natural part of forest communities. And originally, pre-settlement days, slow-burning fires would move through the forests, burning along the ground, getting rid of duff and pine needles and dead trees and little seedlings and so on that were coming up.

But then we stopped that. And so for about 100 years, everything has filled up. The forests are just filled with flammable material, with highly-flammable fuels.

BECK: R.J., true or false, that they actually -- the environmentalists, the same ones that going to tell me it`s my fault because I have an SUV, these same damn environmentalists are the ones that have stopped people in California from clearing brush on their own property.

SMITH: Precisely. First, the feds made things bad with 100 years of mismanagement and then, starting around 1975, 1980, into there, the greens made things worse by stopping all management. No management.

And they said fire was natural and it was natural regulation and let it burn, particularly in the national parks. And you saw what happened in Yellowstone, the great experiment. It burned down half the park. That`s their big success story, and they love that. I mean, their chief biologist out there was chanting "Burn, baby, burn," as the fire roared through his study plots.

One of the Audubon Society board members who teaches children for the Audubon Society said the biggest disaster of the Yellowstone fires was that they did not destroy the town of West Yellowstone, which is the entrance to the park, because it was all ticky-tacky and neon cluttered and it should have been reduced to ashes.

That`s the philosophy of the greens.

BECK: OK.

SMITH: They don`t like people, and they don`t like people out in the woods.

BECK: OK. Chris, 65 percent of all land west of Denver owned by the federal government. True or false? And why should that matter?

HORNER: True, and it should matter because we face a situation where the worst landlord in the country has the most land. And I`ve never been to your home, Glenn, but I`m guessing that your men`s room is cleaner than the one that Penn Station. That`s a microcosm of the tragedy of the commons (ph). I`m assuming things here.

BECK: Yes. No, it is.

HORNER: The fact of the matter is that if everybody owned something, nobody has the property interest to take care of it, and that`s what happens here, which is why these fires start on publicly-owned lands. They start elsewhere.

Greece, as you know, had a tragic fire this year. A government almost fell. It was their Hurricane Katrina. It proved not the incompetence that government, but the incompetence of government. But again, in Greece, most of the forest land is owned by the state. That`s where these things traditionally start.

BECK: OK. Thanks, guys.

SMITH: And that`s what`s happened in our forests, you know, in this country.

BECK: I`ve got to run. Thank you very much.

Now, a true American hero has been honored with the Medal of Honor for his giving of his life in combat. Michael Murphy. Fellow Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell fought by his side, and he joins me next.

Also, Alberto Gonzales, what a mess he left behind. Likely replacement? Is he the real deal? Our new AG. Tonight`s "Real Story".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Every man or woman who chooses to wear a uniform of this country is a hero, and I put border guard into that category, as well. It`s important that we remember that.

However, there are some that distinguish themselves above and beyond the call of duty. And President Bush honored one yesterday, a Navy SEAL, Michael Murphy. Gave him the Medal of Honor, presenting it to Murphy`s family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For his courage, we award Lieutenant Michael Murphy the first medal of combat in Afghanistan. And with this medal, we acknowledge a death that will not diminish with time and could never be repaid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Marcus Luttrell is the only remaining member of Murphy`s Navy SEAL team and chronicles their fight against the Taliban in an amazing book, "Lone Survivor". If you have not read it, you have no idea what heroes really look like.

Marcus, a friend of the program.

Welcome back, Marcus. How are you?

LUTTRELL: Good, sir. How are you doing?

BECK: Good. Tell me what it was like yesterday for you and the family. I mean, let`s start here. What was it like yesterday to be sitting with the president and to be -- to see that medal go to your friend, knowing what you know happened in the middle of Afghanistan?

LUTTRELL: That`s a good question. Bittersweet. I actually thought about that a lot. I`m glad that they gave -- the family got the medal and that`s very important to me, honoring him and them standing with the president, receiving the medal.

But the whole time we were in the -- over there getting -- they were receiving the medal, I was thinking about going down out there on the mountain.

BECK: I have to tell you, Marcus, I`ve never had -- I`ve never had a guest like you on radio before. We spent how many days? Three days together. One right after another. I kept asking you to come back the next day and tell more of the story. It`s the most incredible story I`ve ever heard. Please tell me what he did in the last moments of his life.

LUTTRELL: We had been going at it for about 45 minutes, give or take. We were pushed all the way -- about halfway down the mountain. They had come up underneath us, and they had a 360-degree pin on us. So there wasn`t really anywhere we could go.

We lost Danny, I guess, about 15 minutes before that. And Mikey had taken some heavy -- you know, he had taken a couple of shots, and then Matt took some shots. We were flanked down on the left side of the mountain, and we were just running out of ammo. We were talking about it before this happened.

And then we got separated. I looked back up the mountain. Matt and I were down there below him. And he pushed out into the middle. Called the failed frontal. The only places we could actually get some cover on the sides of the mountain, but the only place we could get coverage with the phone was out in the middle. So he pushed out to the middle of the mountain.

BECK: He knew he was going to die, right?

LUTTRELL: Yes, sir. Every time we transitioned from -- to the left and right side, someone would get hit.

BECK: OK.

LUTTRELL: We were running out of cover. Coming down the mountain. So we had to transition. And we were also trying to push the high ground. It just wasn`t working. So he knew what was going on.

BECK: All right. So he made the final phone call. How did he end the phone call? He had been hit. He knew he was dying. And how did he end the phone call calling for help?

LUTTRELL: He hung up the phone. He got back up, hung up the phone. Right before he hung up, he said, "Thank you." I remember. I couldn`t believe it. It was so loud. And he was yelling into the phone, and I heard him say that.

Put it down, grabbed his weapon and then pushed back to the left side right above me behind a -- behind a big boulder and started fighting again.

BECK: Marcus, I have to tell you, America, if you have not read "The Long Survivor", please pick it up. Full of heroes.

Thank you very much, and we`ll talk to you again, Marcus.

Up next, "The Real Story" behind what happens when the border between Iraq and Turkey gets confrontational. Could be the perfect storm. Actually maybe good news. Coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Welcome to "The Real Story." Perfect storm is a theory that I`ve had for some time now. It`s the idea that the possibility of World War III becomes a reality if certain world events begin to take place, and unfortunately I think some of those events are beginning to happen. Like I`ve said before and I`ll say it again, I wish I was wrong about some of this stuff, but "The Real Story" is, I`m not wrong.

Turkey now is amassing a huge number of troops at the northern border of Iraq. And if they head in, it will cost the United States more time, more money, and more American lives, if it spirals out of control. The fate of the Middle East could easily hang in the balance if Iran becomes involved. I warned you about this over a year ago, and it seems like the time is coming our way.

If you`ve missed some of the stories of the good news from the Middle East, you`re not alone. One of the stories you never hear about is how well northern Iraq is really doing. This is known as Kurdistan. The economy is booming. The region is so secure that there are only 60 or 70 U.S. troops stationed there.

But here`s the trouble. There`s an estimated 30 million Kurds in the world, and that makes them the globe`s largest nation without a state. There are some Kurds that want to change that, and they`re lashing out against nations that have large percentage of Kurdish population. Almost half of all Kurds, 12 million to 15 million of them, live in Turkey.

Well, as a result, a Kurdish insurgent group -- I like to call them terrorists -- the PKK has begun slipping across the border to kill Turkish soldiers to make their political point. Kurds must stop these people.

Understandably, the Turks are gearing up to defend themselves, but the U.S. unfortunately has to stop them diplomatically or at least contain the situation. If the Turks invade in force in Iraq, then we`ll have to change our troop deployment and stretch our overtaxed forces even thinner. And you can just bet that Iran is licking their chops at the thought of that.

A leading U.S. major general has said that an invasion by Turkey would conceivably break our ability to hold Iraq together. Iraqi stability is the key to stability of the entire Middle East, so we have to protect it at all costs, don`t you think?

The perfect storm, gang, is real. And we can`t afford the clouds to form over Turkey.

Soner Cagaptay, he is the senior fellow and director for the Washington Institute`s Turkish research program. Soner, first of all, let me just get this right. PKK, terrorist group, right? That`s the Kurdish terrorist group?

SONER CAGAPTAY, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Correct. And that`s how the U.S. sees them, and that`s how the Europeans see them, and that`s how the Turks see them. That`s correct.

BECK: Got it. And this is the war on terror. It`s the war on terror. I don`t care if you`re for us or against us. Turkey has a right to strike back. And if it is contained in this mountainous region and they don`t, you know, really attack, it could be good news. Can you explain that?

CAGAPTAY: If Turkey goes into northern Iraq, it doesn`t necessarily have to spiral out of control and turn into a big regional war. This can be done in a managed, contained style so that Turkey goes into the region and penetrates only into a fringe area of Iraq, because the PKK is based in the extreme fringes of northern Iraq in a mountainous area. And this is a sparsely populated area with no towns. In fact, the PKK kicked out the Kurdish civilians out of this area.

So a Turkish incursion would be against PKK presence, but not against Iraqis. It will be against terrorism and camps that are based across Turkish border from where the PKK is infiltrating into Turkey.

BECK: And I have no problem with that. First of all, are the Kurds in league in some way or another, are the Kurds helping Turkey find these terrorists as much as some people in Baghdad are helping us get Al Qaeda?

CAGAPTAY: Good question. The Iraqi Kurds are America`s allies. So is Turkey. So these two should be working together. That`s not necessarily helping.

In the past, in fact, Turkey and Iraqi Kurds worked closely against the PKK. Turkey carried out regular sweep operations into northern Iraq in the `90s to take out PKK camps. Iraqi Kurds not only helped with fighters, but also provided intelligence, facilitating swift and limited incursions.

That has not been happening since 2002. The Iraqi Kurds seem to have moved away from cooperation with Turkey. Moreover, they are now hosting the PKK in their area, which is dangerous, because that`s actually a terrorist group being hosted by the Iraqi Kurds.

BECK: OK, so this is what I`m concerned about. Syria and Iran, they`re not allies, clearly. You know, I know you didn`t see this on the front page of any paper of the paper, but the violence in Iraq has gone down 70 percent since we had the build-up of troops, 70 percent. So things seem to be stabilizing. Syria and Iran would love to use this as an excuse to be able to go across the border and destabilize the region, right or wrong?

CAGAPTAY: Probably not to go into the region, but to use this as an excuse so that they can move Turkey to their side. Turkey is an American ally.

BECK: Right.

CAGAPTAY: Syria and Iran don`t want America`s success in Iraq, and they don`t want allies helping America, such as Turkey. So what they have done, very smartly, is while people in Iraq, northern Iraq, hosted the PKK, and while Washington did not deal with the PKK in the proper way, in other words, kicking this group out of Iraq, the Iranians have seen an opportunity. They`re saying, if the Americans are not doing it, we`ll do it, so we`re going to win the Turks` hearts.

BECK: Soner, thank you very much.

Now, we all know that the border is in trouble here in America. Half a million illegals stream across our border every single year, and the officers who try to stop them, good men like Ramos Compean and Gilmer Hernandez, don`t get promoted. They go to jail. It`s obvious that some of the federal prosecutors are out of line, need to go.

But the "Real Story" is we need real change above their pay grade. Maybe the real answer to our border problems and a host of others is a new attorney general. Fortunately, we may get just that. Michael Mukasey has overseen two of the biggest terror-related cases in history, experience that we need in our post-9/11 universe. Mukasey is his own man, offering straight answers to honest questions to Congress. Or does he?

Bottom line is some people say he`s the right man for the right job right now. However, our next guest says, "Not so fast." It is easy to hate the game, but I`d like to be optimistic if we get a new chance at a decent player. But Jonathan Turley, who`s a constitutional law scholar and law professor at George Washington University, says he may not be that decent man we`re looking for.

First, let`s start on the good news. This guy was tough on terror. He was a guy who prosecuted the `93 World Trade Center bombings, right?

JONATHAN TURLEY, GWU LAW PROFESSOR: Right. He`s a man of great accomplishment. He`s got wonderful credentials. And his handling of the terrorism case in 1993 goes greatly to his credit. He was given a lot of praise for how he handled that. That was basically 10 cases that came out of that case.

BECK: OK. Jonathan, another -- at least from my standpoint, another good thing, he`s not a Bush buddy, right?

TURLEY: No, he`s also -- that`s right. He is independent. He`s not going to likely just follow George Bush. He`s got a distinguished career. He`s not going to sacrifice that.

BECK: But you say that he`s lied to Congress. How and why do you say that?

TURLEY: Well, I explained this more in "L.A. Times" tomorrow morning in a column, but my problem with Mukasey is his answer on torture. He was asked specifically of his view on torture, and he said the obvious answer, that torture is unconstitutional, it violates international law.

But when he was pressed on waterboarding, he then sort of morphed into Alberto Gonzales. He first started repeating that, you know, we should not torture. But he was asked over and over again, "Is waterboarding torture?" And what he said took our breath away. He said, "I just don`t know much about that technique."

BECK: OK. Well, maybe he doesn`t.

TURLEY: If he doesn`t, then he is most ill-informed nominee for that office in the history of this republic. I mean, waterboarding is one of the primary questions that was facing him in confirmation. It was one of the most primary controversies facing his predecessor. He knew he was going to be asked about it. There have been thousands of articles on it.

It is one of the defining issues of his office. So if he is not familiar with that question, that alone should throw into question whether he deserves this office. But I have to tell you, very few people in this city truly believe that he does not know what waterboarding is.

BECK: Look, Jonathan, I have watched you for years. I think I`ve disagreed with you on points, but I think you`re an honest and decent guy and you care about the Constitution. I am so afraid for our country that we`re losing confidence in our government. We don`t know who`s telling us the truth anymore. Is this the point that you`re making on this guy?

TURLEY: Well, frankly, it is. You know, I opposed Bill Clinton when I supported his impeachment before Congress because he lied under oath. And I thought that a president cannot serve when he lies. I think George Bush admitted to lying about the Rumsfeld replacement before the election. He came out and basically admitted he lied.

We`ve become tolerant of lies. He call them fibs. We call them spinning or, you know, protecting one`s self. We`ve got to go back to calling them what they are. I`m afraid I don`t believe that Judge Mukasey does not know what waterboarding is.

BECK: We will look for your article tomorrow. Jonathan, thanks. That`s "The Real Story" tonight. We`ll be back in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, it was the biggest terror financing trial since September 11th and federal prosecutors were expecting a slam-dunk guilty verdict. Instead, they got a mistrial. That`s the way it ended yesterday in the case that nobody is paying attention to, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case.

After two months of testimony, 19 days of deliberations, the jury reached verdicts for only one of the five defendants, finding the former Holy Land chairman not guilty of 31 of 32 counts and deadlocking on the remaining charge. Feds say Holy Land has been funneling millions of dollars to terrorist organizations in the Middle East. The Holy Land claims they`re nothing more than a charitable organization helping poor refugees. It seems like the jury agreed with them.

So while the defendants and their supporters rallied outside the courthouse crying "Allahu-Akbar," according to the "New York Sun," and glory to God or praise God, according to "New York Times," the former U.S. attorney described the scene as a stunning setback for the government. So now we`re left with more questions than when we started.

Federal prosecutors says they`re going to retry the case, but what new evidence are you going to present? Will the Holy Land leaders continue their alleged support of terror abroad? Did any of their money actually make it here to help fund terror cells here in the United States?

Let`s check in with Brad Thor. He`s worked with the Homeland Security Department and author of the new book, "First Commandment." And Dennis Lormel, he is formerly the director of the FBI`s Investigative Terrorism Financing Unit.

Brad, let me start with you. Why were these guys not convicted?

BRAD THOR, AUTHOR, "THE FIRST COMMANDMENT": Well, Glenn, I`ll tell you. White-collar financial cases like this are extremely hard to put on. You don`t know what`s too much evidence and what`s not enough. But I think the prosecuting -- one of the prosecuting attorneys said it best. When he looked the jury in the eye at the end and made his closing arguments and said, "You asked us for a drink of water, and we turned on the fire hose," too much information for this jury.

BECK: OK. So, Dennis, most people haven`t even been following this case. This is an important case. Don`t turn on the fire hose. Give me just a little drink of water. What is it that I need to know about this case?

DENNIS LORMEL, CORPORATE RISK INTERNATIONAL: Well, clearly, there`s a lot here. And you have to take it back to 2001, when the Office of Foreign Assets Control freezed Holy Land`s assets. That started this whole thing, you know, in terms of the actions against them.

Going to the trial, Thor is right. It`s a matter of how much evidence you want to enter before the jury. And in a case like this, you want to try to simplify it as much as possible. And it`s an incredible challenge for the government to be able to come to the right balance in entering the evidence. What`s too much, and what`s not enough?

BECK: We`ve been watching these guys since 1993. Give me one piece that we should know that should make you say, "OK, wait a minute. We should be watching these guys."

LORMEL: Well, clearly the meeting that they had -- there was a meeting in 1993 in Philadelphia. And the rhetoric and the overhears of what was said certainly set the stage that these people needed to be looked at. And if you look at the totality of this whole situation, the fact that the Holy Land Foundation provided money through charitable entities known as the COT Committees (ph) that ultimately went to the benefit of Hamas, that`s the underlying problem.

BECK: Brad, we couldn`t convict these guys. Some people are saying that it is political correctness. I`m not kidding you. In the "New York Sun," it said, "Allahu-Akbar." And in the "New York Times," it said, "God is great" that they were chanting. I mean, one carries just a different mental image. Is it true that one of the jurors said afterwards, "Well, you had a Jew testifying. What would we expect a Jew to say?" Is that true?

THOR: I don`t know if the term was Jew. What I read was Israeli. There was an Israeli official from Shin Beth, the domestic security service, who came in, testified under oath, an assumed name to protect his identity, but basically said all the money from the Holy Land Foundation charities are going to Hamas-run organizations.

And we talk about bullets versus Band-Aids, in that if you give Hamas $10 bucks for Band-Aids, and you think you`re being a great person, that means it`s $10 they can spend on bullets. And so this juror said, well, you know what? How can you trust the Israelis anyway, because they`re going to condemn any ally of the Palestinians?

BECK: Oh, boy.

THOR: It`s crazy.

BECK: Dennis, consequences of this. I mean, are they going to be able to reconstitute the Holy Land Foundation? What does this delay mean? What are the consequences here?

LORMEL: No. The Holy Land Foundation, basically the OFAC freeze is still in place, so Holy Land is not going to be reconstituted...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: But haven`t they learned -- if, indeed, they were guilty, have they not learned how to game our system?

LORMEL: Oh, they certainly have learned how to get around the system. One of the key areas of vulnerability for terrorist finances is charity. And Hamas more than any other organization is the real master at manipulating charities to their financial advantage.

BECK: Are they going to retry? And do we have a chance of winning the next time?

LORMEL: I hope they retry. The prosecutor said they were going to retry, and I believe that they can put a case together that will sustain a prosecution.

BECK: OK. Brad, Dennis, thank you very much.

Tonight, a "Real America" series returns, brought to you this evening by CSX. I want to show you an incredible story of a racecar team owner who let nothing stand in the way of his dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK (voice-over): For Jay Blake, working on cars came naturally.

JAY BLAKE, RACING CREW CHIEF: My love of cars goes way, way back. I am a typical boy.

BECK: So the idea of growing up to own a professional race car team was, well, a dream come true. Jay is the owner and crew chief of Follow a Dream, one of the top racing teams in the National Hot Rod Association. We caught up with him just minutes before the big race.

BLAKE: We will average speeds at over 250 miles an hour. We will cover the quarter-mile in approximately five seconds.

BECK: It`s the kind of sport that happens so quickly, you can literally blink and miss it. But the irony is Jay will never get to see his car cross the checkered flag, because Jay is blind.

BLAKE: May 22, 1997, 5:30 that afternoon, I had a forklift wheel and tire assembly explode in my face, causing me to lose total sight, total sense of smell and taste. It took surgeons at Mass General Hospital over 10 1/2 hours to rebuild my face.

BECK: He was 31 years old.

BLAKE: I had to learn to live my life with my eyes closed.

BECK: After the accident, he spent six months at the Carroll Center for the Blind. And when he finally returned home, even the simplest things were now a challenge.

BLAKE: Going into the refrigerator and grabbing a gallon of milk. You can`t see the date, you can`t smell it, and you can`t taste it. It`s a good thing I don`t like milk.

BECK: It`s hard to imagine being robbed of your vision, your sense of smell, your taste. It seems almost like an insurmountable obstacle to overcome, but not for Jay. Despite everything he lost, his spirit remained perfectly intact.

BLAKE: I am incredibly fortunate to be alive. And, you know, I am truly following a dream. I dreamed as a child to work on a professional race team.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: If that isn`t the spirit of the real America, I don`t know what is. Jay Blake continues to spread his message of self-determination with his Follow a Dream race team and organization. Tonight`s real America sponsored by CSX. How tomorrow moves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, we all know about YouTube, you know, the Web site where you can watch kids, you know, burping the alphabet and cats playing the piano. I love it. Now there`s a new system out there called GodTube. I`m joined by CEO Chris Wyatt.

Chris...

CHRIS WYATT, FOUNDER AND CEO, GODTUBE.COM: Hi, Glenn. How are you doing?

BECK: Very good. World Wide Web, GodTube, what exactly is GodTube?

WYATT: Well, I`ll tell you, I think "Newsweek" said it best. We`re really the Christian answer to YouTube, and now we`re launching our family- friendly Christian answer to Facebook.

BECK: OK, hang on just a second. But it`s not Christian. I mean, you have everybody on GodTube, right? I mean, you`ve got a -- if I`m not mistaken, and please clear this up, I`ve heard that you have anti-Christian messages, or are they pro-Muslin messages? What`s that? Go ahead.

WYATT: Absolutely not. We are a Christian Web site. You know, we are designed specifically to help the 2.1 billion Christians and, more importantly, those 4 billion seeking faith to experience Christianity in a whole new way.

BECK: OK, so it is -- who is controlling? I mean, who is editing? How do you know what`s being posted on there? And what are the standards for getting it off? And have you ever thought at night, "Boy, I hope God didn`t see that one"?

WYATT: Well, I`ll tell you what, you know, every single minute of every video is watched at GodTube.com. We really don`t edit anything. What we do is we remove the objectionable material, which is adult material that`s uploaded to GodTube.com. And at the same time, what we do is we look at it for theological implications. In other words, does it fit within traditional Christianity?

BECK: So would a Mormon be able to post on GodTube?

WYATT: Well, certainly we`re here for the 4 billion people seeking faith, and certainly all religions are encouraged to come to GodTube.com and learn about Christianity.

BECK: OK. Why are you doing it? This is a for-profit. Are you thinking, "Oh, if I could just get" -- I mean, you have to be 12 to do something on the Internet and then sell it for billions of dollars. Here you are, the fastest growing on the Internet. Is there maybe hopes that cha-ching?

WYATT: Well, I`ll tell you what. Any time you layer religion on with the potential of a lot of money, we didn`t start it out to be a commercial site. Actually, we wanted to start it out as a ministry, but because of the enormous expense, being the largest Christian broadcaster in the world, you know, we certainly had to generate revenue.

BECK: Chris, congratulations. And we`ll check out GodTube.

Now, don`t forget. If you want to know what`s on tomorrow`s show or you`d like a little more in-depth commentary of the news of the day, I`ll have somebody else write something important. And you can check it out at the free e-mail newsletter at glennbeck.com. It comes every day.

From New York, good night, America.

END