The O'Reilly Factor
A daily summary of segments aired on The O'Reilly Factor. A preview of the evening's rundown is posted before the show airs each weeknight.
Thursday, August 4, 2005
The Factor Rundown
Talking Points Memo & Top Story
Factor Follow Up Segment
Impact Segment
Personal Story Segment
Great Debate Segment
Back of Book Segment
Factor Mail
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The ACLU & the war on terror
Guest: Civil rights attorney Andrew Erba

"The New York chapter of the ACLU is suing the police for searching bags in the subway system. We knew this would happen because the ACLU has opposed nearly every anti-terror measure authorities have come up with since 9/11. The ACLU opposes allowing the feds to have floating wiretaps that would monitor cell phone conversations of suspected terrorists. It opposes American civilians assisting the border patrol. It opposes the profiling of suspected terrorists. It opposes military tribunals to try captured terrorists. It opposes coerced interrogations of captured terrorists. It has demanded that more pictures of Americans abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib be released knowing that will help Al Qaeda recruitment. If the ACLU wants money it should contact the Al Qaeda fundraisers. No organization in America enables terrorism as much as the ACLU. The only thing we can do is hold people who raise and give money to the ACLU accountable. There are many issues I struggle with, trying to decide what is right and what is wrong so I can present a cogent analysis to you. But the ACLU's opposition to all anti-terror measures is not one of those issues. This is a dangerous organization. The evidence of that is overwhelming."

Fox News Video: FoxNews.com

The Factor argued that the ACLU put the country at risk by making it more difficult to fight terrorism. "It makes it a thousand times harder to fight the war on terror--to get information, to stop people from coming into this country. It makes it almost impossible, tying up authorities in court, for the authorities to be proactive in protecting us." Philadelphia civil rights attorney Andrew Erba maintained that law enforcement had all the tools it needed to fight terror. "On the books now throughout this country, the federal law enforcement agencies have many abilities to obtain wiretaps, to tap emails, to do all types of surveillance activities to protect the population, and they do that on a daily basis. If the question is what should be done, the answer is to implement those law enforcement practices, which are legal and constitutional, to ferret out crime." The Factor countered that the ACLU impeded the fight against terror unnecessarily. "9/11 happened because our intelligence agencies were caught asleep. And you're going to tell me that you, counselor, oppose a floating wire tap, something they use against narcotics dealers but they can't use against suspected terrorists? You're going to oppose that, and tell me that shouldn't be a tool to fight terrorism? That's just insane."

Holloway investigation troubles?
Guest: Investigator T.J. Ward

The Holloway family hired private investigator T.J. Ward to help in the search for Natalee, but rumors have been circulating that he was in trouble with the Aruban authorities. The Factor inferred that officials in Aruba did not want him there. "They don't like you down there because, number one, you're been critical of their investigative capacities, and number two, you may find something and embarrass them." Ward reaffirmed that he was there for only one reason. "We all have to be on the same page, and to know we're here for only one thing, we're trying to find Natalee Holloway."

Sting operation under attack
Guest: Jeanine Ferris Pirro, District Attorney, Westchester County, New York

In Kansas City, MO, 42-year-old attorney Jan Helder was convicted by a federal jury of using the Internet to try to entice a child after he attempted to meet an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl. Minutes after the verdict came in, the judge threw it out and acquitted Helder, saying that because no child was actually involved, the case was bogus. If the judge's opinion is upheld, say goodbye to undercover sting operations. Westchester, New York DA Jeanine Pirro blasted the decision. "This statute has been ruled upon by the 5th, 9th, and 11th Circuits in this country, so his decision is the first of its kind. This is the essence of our ability to go after Internet predators, and that is to use undercover officers to act as children in order that we can be a barrier to those predators who are trying to have sex with our children." The Factor added that the practice served other purposes. "And also to frighten them from not doing it. It's an inhibitor if they think that the undercover might be on the other end. It's a deterrent. Any way you can make it harder for these animals, saves kids."

Bear attacks on the rise
Guests: Linda Smith, Bear Education Resource Group & Patrick Finan, bear attack victim

Bear attacks are increasing throughout the USA and even places like New Jersey are having problems. So far this year there have been almost 700 bear incidents in Jersey and about 20 maulings in North America every year. Bear attack survivor Patrick Finan described his experience of being attacked. "At about 7 in the morning a bear bit down through the tent onto my head, and that's what wound up waking me up. I didn't really know what hit me at first. I sat up, a bunch of blood was coming out and I looked at the bear and tried to avoid eye contact and he ended up walking away. He then walked over and started pawing, clawing my buddy. He actually ended up lacerating his scalp as well."

Ann Coulter speaks out
Guest: Author Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter took impassioned exception with the idea that things are going badly in Iraq. "I think I was amazingly prescient a year ago when I said things were going well. Since then, we've had a free election in Iraq in which women voted, Shiite and Sunni. They're working on a Constitution. In the last six months we've killed or captured about 50,000 insurgents. I've been hearing that things are going worse since at least over a year ago. If things are going worse, why isn't the elite Republican Guard massing outside Manhattan?" The Factor argued that addressing the violence in Iraq was far more important. "All the political stuff you cited is correct but it doesn't mean anything if this country is not going to be able to get the insurgency under control, and I don't believe we have enough troops on the ground to do that." Coulter became heated over the assertion that we were losing the war. "I don't really understand the point of carping about every casualty, every bombing, every death. War is hell. Even the successful wars, nobody would say after D-Day, 'Well, that went well.' When Americans are dying you're never going to say, 'Oh, that's a great thing.' But to say we're losing the war is preposterous."

Latest in the Natalee Holloway case
Guest: Jossy Mansur, journalist

Jossy Mansur, managing editor of the Diario newspaper, discussed the account of one of the new witnesses. "His story is that on the morning that Natalee disappeared, between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning he left his home because it was warm, he had to drive by the pond they were draining recently, and he met the grey car, the Kalpoe brothers' car, parked in the middle of the road. He had to pass it very close by and he had a good look inside and he saw Joran behind the wheel and the Kalpoe brothers. All three of them tried to hide their faces from them. This is what he saw."

Viewers sound off
Factor Words of the Day
The mail was mixed on the Factor take on the Iraq situation:

L. E. Baker, Fort Worth, TX: "O'Reilly, this country is fortunate that you were not a journalist during World War II when we were losing hundreds of men a day. You would have given up."

Beki Moody, Fresno, CA: "Mr. O'Reilly, thank you for the candid analysis of the present situation in Iraq. You've shown you're an independent and authentic thinker."

Cris Outlaw, Fort Lauderdale, FL: "Could not believe your attack on Bush's Iraq policy. Will you be going to work for Soros soon?"

Rhonda Widener, Fairbanks, AK: "My husband is leaving for Iraq in two weeks. Americans deserve to know the truth. Thank you for the no-spin analysis."

Matthew Bready, Davidson, NC: "I was taken aback by the Iraq segment. It's not that I'm averse to bad news, but you offered no suggestions on what steps to take to improve the situation, Bill."

Book Mentions
Check out the books mentioned during this show.
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter
by Ann Coulter

Read more...