On Glenn Beck , Koch echoed McCain claim that Iraq "terrorists will
 
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 18:53:03 -0400


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<p><b>On <em>Glenn Beck</em>, Koch echoed McCain claim that Iraq "terrorists will
follow us out here to the homeland" </b></p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200705170009?src=item200705170009">http://mediamatters.org/items/200705170009</a></p>

<p>On the May 16 broadcast of CNN Headline
News&#39; <i>Glenn Beck,</i> during an
appearance by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, host <a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/glennbeck?src=item200705170009">Glenn Beck</a> cited
Koch&#39;s May 15 <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.nysun.com/article/54564">op-ed</a> in <i>The New
York Sun</i> -- in which he criticized the Democrats&#39; position on
Iraq -- and then said to Koch: "I think
you&#39;re exactly right. What are the Democrats thinking? They are in the
dustbin for all time if we pull out, because so many people will die."
Koch replied that the Democrats "will be blamed when, as [Republican
presidential candidate Sen.] John McCain [R-AZ] quite correctly says, the
terrorists will follow us out here to the homeland. And that, obviously, is far worse than our
fighting the terrorists in their homeland." However, Beck and Koch both ignored the reported assessments of a wide range of U.S.
intelligence officials and military analysts disagreeing with this view.</p>

<p>During the May 15 Republican presidential
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin">debate</a> in South Carolina, in response
to co-moderator Chris Wallace&#39;s first question, "Why should
Americans continue to fight and die while Iraqi politicians continue to do so
little?" McCain said: "If we fail in Iraq,
we will see Iraq
become a center for Al Qaeda, chaos, genocide in the region, and they&#39;ll follow
us home." McCain has made this assertion before, as <i>Media Matters for America</i> has <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704270007?src=item200705170009">noted</a>. </p>

<p>However<i>,</i>
the assertion that terrorists will "follow us home"
following a U.S.
troop withdrawal is widely challenged: </p>











<ul style="margin-top: 0in"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">According
     to an April 6 McClatchy Newspapers <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17038910.htm">article</a>, as <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704270007?src=item200705170009">detailed</a> by <i>Media Matters</i>, "[m]ilitary and
     diplomatic analysts" say that a similar claim President Bush has
     repeatedly made about the Iraq war -- that "this is a war in which,
     if we were to leave before the job is done, the enemy would follow us
     here" -- "exaggerate[s] the threat that the enemy forces in Iraq pose to the U.S. mainland." The
     article also reported: "U.S.
     military, intelligence and diplomatic experts in Bush&#39;s own government say
     the violence in Iraq is
     primarily a struggle for power between Shiite and Sunni Muslim Iraqis
     seeking to dominate their society, not a crusade by radical Sunni
     jihadists bent on carrying the battle to the United States."</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">A
     March 18 <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701373.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701373.html">article</a> reported
     that "U.S.
     intelligence officials and outside experts" have said that Al Qaeda
     in Iraq "poses
     little danger to the security of the U.S. homeland," as <i>Media Matters</i> also <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704040015?src=item200705170009">noted</a>.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black">In
     an April 30 <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9923902">report</a> from
     National Public Radio&#39;s <i>All Things
     Considered</i> exploring Bush&#39;s claim that "[i]f we do not
     defeat the terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they ... will follow us
     to the United States of America," NPR correspondent David Welna
     cited several experts challenging this claim. He reported that retired
     Brig. Gen. John H. Johns considers that warning "propaganda" and
     that, according to Johns, "[i]t&#39;s actually leaving American forces in
     Iraq ... that increases
     the chances of a terrorist attack on the U.S." Welna also reported
     that retired Army Lt. Col. James Carafano, a research fellow at the
     conservative Heritage Foundation, "calls asserting that terrorists
     will follow U.S.
     troops home naive and poor rhetoric." Welna also featured a clip of
     Carafano saying: "There&#39;s no national security analyst that&#39;s really
     credible who thinks that people are going to come from Iraq and attack the United States -- that that&#39;s a
     credible scenario."</li></ul>

<p>From the May 16 broadcast of CNN Headline
News&#39; <i>Glenn Beck</i>:</p><blockquote>

<p>BECK: But hang on just a
second. Mayor, I know you. <b>I&#39;ve read
enough of what you believe. You and I are not that far apart --</b></p>

<p>KOCH:
Sure.</p>

<p>BECK: <b>-- on what&#39;s happening in the Middle
 East. We can&#39;t lose this. We can&#39;t just -- it&#39;ll
be a bloodbath, not only over there but here.</b> </p>

<p>KOCH: <b>Oh, I believe that.</b> I believe -- </p>

<p>BECK:
Is this -- is this a bluff that you&#39;re suggesting?</p>

<p>KOCH:
No, no. What I&#39;m -- no, no. You cannot bluff here. </p>

<p>BECK:
Thank you for that.</p>

<p>KOCH: You must get out
if you say you&#39;re going to get out. But I believe that we are not able to
win by ourselves. Even the English will be leaving after Tony Blair packs it
in, in June.</p>

<p>BECK: <b>Something that you -- something that you said in this
op-ed piece today that I found very interesting, because, as a conservative, I
think you&#39;re exactly right. What are the Democrats thinking? They are in
the dustbin for all time if we pull out, because so many --</b></p>

<p>KOCH: <b>They will be blamed.</b> </p>

<p>BECK: <b>-- people will die.</b> </p>

<p>KOCH: <b>They will be blamed when, as John McCain quite
correctly says, the terrorists will follow us out here to the homeland. And
that, obviously, is far worse than our fighting the terrorists in their
homeland.</b> </p>

<p>And I believe it was
right to go into Iraq,
based on the information then available, and it&#39;s right to stay there
now, if we could do the job. But we can&#39;t do it alone. So, if our allies,
NATO, regional Arab allies, don&#39;t come in, I believe that we have to get
out, but we should give them that ultimatum.</p>

<p>BECK: Have you seen that
there seems to be a possible change in the tide in Europe recently, especially
with France,
but they&#39;re even taking on illegal immigration. There seems to be a
change over in Europe. Do you think it&#39;s
too late for them? </p>

<p>KOCH: Yes, I don&#39;t
believe that the NATO allies will come and help us, because they didn&#39;t
come and help Great Britain
when Great Britain had a
resolution recently before the Security Council asking NATO allies to join in,
demanding that Iran
return the sailors. They refused to sign on. </p>

<p>BECK: Is there -- your
prediction on what happens with Iran.
I mean, they&#39;re getting close to -- I mean, we&#39;re getting close to
crossing the line of the point of no return.</p>

<p>

KOCH: I
believe, as John McCain does, that while war is terrible, it&#39;s even more
terrible to allow Iran
to have the nuclear bomb.</p></blockquote><table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Ed Koch</b></td>
<td valign="top"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>CNN Headline News</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200705170009&http://www.cnn.com/feedback/hdlns/">CNN Headline News</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
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</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Glenn Beck show</b></td>
<td valign="top"></td>
</tr>
</table>



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