U.K. Attempted Car Bombers; British Prime Minister disallowing Words
BECK: Welcome back to WE THE PEOPLE. I'm Glenn Beck from HEADLINE NEWS in for Paula Zahn, who's taking a few days off. Tonight, here's what we know. We know two suspects in that botched car bombing in Great Britain had considered coming to the United States. It has been almost a week now since a Jeep full of explosives slammed into that Glasgow airport entrance. That happened a day after two car bombs were found in London before they could explode. The British quickly rounded up all eight suspects, all of them healthcare workers. One of the eight is a doctor from Jordan, Mohammed Asha. Tonight the FBI says he and another suspect, they haven't named yet, contacted a clearing house for foreign doctors here in the U.S. They wanted information about coming to work here. If you're like me, you're asking yourself, why is there a clearing house for foreign doctors who want to work in the U.S.? Turns out we desperately need them. We have more now from Jill Dougherty.</s>JILL DAUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to the FBI, two suspects in the British car bombings looked into the possibility of working as doctors in the United States. Contacting the Philadelphia based Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Apparently, however, they did not take the test for med school graduates and never came to the U.S. Muslim physicians in the United States, meanwhile, are condemning the U.K. attacks.</s>DR ASMA MOBIN-UDDIN, CONCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS: I actually was shocked to hear about the plot. I was angry. I was -- I really felt a sick feeling inside that physicians, people from my own profession, could be guilty -- suspected of being guilty of such heinous acts. I really couldn't believe it.</s>DAUGHERTY: The number of foreign-born doctors in the U.S. is growing because the country needs them. (on camera): The United States has a shortage of medical personnel. And about a quarter offual physicians working in the United States are international medical graduates, according to the American Medical Association. (voice-over): In order to work in the U.S., foreign medical professionals must have an H-1B Visa which is meant for highly skilled professionals. The Department of Homeland Security says doctors get the same kind of screening that a computer specialist or lawyer would, including fingerprinting and a face-to-face interview at the U.S. embassy in their home country. Their names are run through what's called the Interagency Border Inspection System, cross checking a number of law enforcement and security databases. If they get a visa, they're checked by Customs and Border Protection and fingerprinted again as they enter the U.S. Homeland Security says it is not planning any changes to H-1B Visa regulations at this time. Dr. Khalique Zahir of the Islamic Medical Association of North America agrees the checks are thorough.</s>DR KHALIQUE ZAHIR, ISLAMIC MED ASSN OF N AMERICA: It's difficult already for foreign doctors to emigrate here and get the training that they need. It's significantly harder since 9/11. Other than the backgrounds that they do, I don't know what more needs to be done.</s>DAUGHERTY: Dr. Zahir says the U.K. attack should not reflect on Muslim physicians in the U.S. Terrorism is contrary to Islam, he says, and contrary to Islamic medical ethics. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.</s>BECK: Joining me now is Steve Emerson, investigative director of the investigative project on terrorism, the author of "Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S." Steve, you've been on top of this way before 9/11 and so many people are surprised at this doctor ring. But you say that this is what happens. They come in groups, is that right?</s>STEVE EMERSON, AUTHOR: They come in clusters and they sort of move in clusters. It's not your typical recruitment of a domino chain reaction, but, rather, they move as part of a team. And that's what is believed to have happened here.</s>BECK: You know, Steve, I can't help -- and steer me in the right course here. I can't help but think this is kind of, in a way, teaching us a lesson about the border and illegal immigrants in a way. We've got to bring the people in, know who they are, need their skills. But then melt them into our society. It's not what Great Britain is doing. They don't melt in over in Great Britain and so they are disenfranchised.</s>EMERSON: Yeah. But the problem here is that unlike -- let's just say this. Melting in is dependent upon the willingness of the person to melt in. If they are tuned out to becoming a member of that society and if their allegiance is to the larger Muslim umo (ph) or community and start hating their society, there's nothing you can do, whether it's Britain or the U.S. to make them loyal.</s>BECK: How close to you think we are to seeing this happen in the United States?</s>EMERSON: I think we're much closer now than we've ever been since 9/11 because I think since 9/11 we've seen the FBI be very successful in stopping attacks like Ft. Dix and the JFK plot. But we see the frequency of those plots occur much more greater than ever before.</s>BECK: Condoleezza rice said a few months back about birth pangs in the Middle East. I think that's exactly what we're going through. Gordon Brown said over in Great Britain, he said they no longer want the government to use the words Muslim and terrorists in the same sentence, Jihad, Islamic or fundamentalists. What exactly do we call these people?</s>EMERSON: Oh, we just call them bad people. I mean, that's like saying in World War II we wouldn't call them Nazis, we'd just call them bad people. That's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. It's like waving a white flag and saying we surrender. If we can't identify and name the enemy as who they are, then we can basically surrender the fight because we've lost. It's impossible to delegitimize the enemy if you can't identify them.</s>BECK: Steve, you've been working on a breaking story and we'll talk to you on HEADLINE NEWS next week. Thank you very much for joining us, tonight.</s>EMERSON: You're welcome.</s>BECK: First let me go to Zuhdi Jasser. Zuhdi is a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and the chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Zuhdi, let me ask you the same question that I just asked Steve. And that is Gordon Brown says no use of Muslim and terrorists, jihad, Islamic or fundamentalist in any statement coming out of his new government. What would you call them, you're a Muslim? What would you call these guys?</s>DR ZHUDI JASSER, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY: They are, you know, it's between them and god what they call themselves and they call themselves Muslim. And the only way we're going to get traction in the anti-Islamism movement to fight this global movement for a caliphate or whatever they're seeking against secular democracies is call them Muslim and give us room to have the debate in the Muslim community. If we don't call them Muslins, we might as well, as Steve said, give up and not debate them and continue to live in platitudes.</s>BECK: For anybody who doesn't know what a caliphate is, that is a global Islamic state and it is a spooky -- I mean, it's everybody is wearing a burqa. Let me ask you this. I asked you to look in an ad that was in the paper, "Muslims United." This is over in Great Britain, in the name of god most beneficent, "Muslims United." "The Muslim communities across Britain in condemning the attempted bombings in London and Glasgow." This seems like a pretty good ad coming in from the Muslim community saying, look, it's not us. What did you think?</s>JASSER: Well, I want to believe their heart's in the right place. And you know, we've seen so many of these. We saw them from CARE and others in America, that nod (ph) in our name, petitions. But, OK they condemn the means, what about the ends? This is not an action we're fighting, we're fighting individuals. When they start putting ads saying Muslims against al Qaeda, Muslims against Islamism, Muslims against the califate and the transnational movement, then I'll start to believe them. Right now they're condemning the means and you know, that gives them a...</s>BECK: So, how do you know, Zuhdi -- as a -- I mean, I don't hate Muslims by any stretch of the imagination and I know it's maybe 10 percent of the Islamic world, but that's an army of 100 million that are -- that want this califate. How do people know the difference? When you see these organizations and they stand up and say, we're the good guys, how do you know?</s>JASSER: Just like how we knew who was on our side in the Cold War and World War I and World War II, we knew whether they stood for America's ideology or Western secular free universal religious freedom ideology or not. and that's what we need to do here. There's an organization call Hizbit Harer (ph) that they recruited some of these doctors from. And all we need to do is ask these Muslim organizations that have filled out this ad, what do you think about this califate, what do you any about Hizbit Harer (ph)? Are you with them or against them? Because if they are with them, they are certainly are going to be supporting the end of the terrorist. Even the organization condemned the means which is the terrorist actions in London and Glasgow, but what are they doing about the ideology? If they're not going to use the same passage in their ad to say we are anti-jihad, anti-al Qaeda, just may as well not say anything.</s>BECK: Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim voice that America needs to hear more often. Thank you very much.</s>JASSER: Then you Glenn.</s>BECK: Coming up, every broadcaster's dream, the true captive audience. A look inside the only prison in the U.S. with its own radio station. And you have to see this to believe it. After all of the endless hype about the iPhone, why would anyone destroy it with a hammer?