Gingrich: Time to Lock Down on the Axis of Evil

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," July 9, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: This is a FOX News alert: The North Korean government said today that any international sanctions against them would be viewed as an act of war. Now, this comes as the United Nations considers just that question following North Korea's missile launch test earlier this week.

We are going to watch the situation closely. We will keep you updated throughout the night right here on the FOX News channel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

And joining us on the phone is former speaker of the house, FOX News contributor, Newt Gingrich is with us — Mr. Speaker.

We see these missiles being fired, and we see new missiles being put on the launch pads in North Korea. We have a report that they may have had a trajectory towards Hawaii. What should our response be?

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, we have to recognize that everything we do with North Korea is being monitored by Iran. And everything we do with Iran is being monitored by North Korea. And these two dictatorships both believe that we will back down and that ultimately we will pay them some kind of a bribe.

The North Koreans, in particular, remember in 1994 when they got President Clinton to accept a terrible deal which gave them a lot of money, and which they promptly broke while we kept paying the money.

So, what you're seeing is that the United States says there will be terrible consequences — nothing happens. They fire another series of missiles. The United States says, "We really hate you doing this." Nothing happens...

HANNITY: So now is as good a time as any that if they continue to put these missiles on pads, that it is time for the United States to take the lead and confront them. And if necessary, take these missiles out.

GINGRICH: Right. And I think we should say to the Chinese and the Russians, "Look, we would much prefer that you convince him not to put them on the pads, and you have every opportunity to pressure your ally and to get your ally not to do this. But if he does it, don't come and complain to us, because this is a provocative action. It is a direct threat to the United States."

You know, the president was exactly right in his State of the Union [speech] in 2002 when he said there was an axis of evil. The problem is two of the three axes, Iran and North Korea, still have dictatorships, still are trying to develop weapons of mass destruction, are still a threat to the United States and are still trying to develop missiles that could reach the U.S.

HANNITY: Let me ask two quick last questions here. No. 1, as part of this, we've got to move forward, and arm Japan — both with a missile system of their own and certainly give them strategic defense as the technology is perfected and made available. — And do you have any hope about the United Nations, Russia or China really cooperating in this?

GINGRICH: Look, I think the burden should be on the Chinese and the Russians. They have made quite clear in the last few days that they will do nothing. I think both of them like having North Korea bother us. Both of them see North Korea as a useful asset to get us distracted and weaker. And I think it's time to face the facts.

The U.N. — as long as the Russians and the Chinese are undermining the American position — the U.N. is a useless institution, incapable of playing a role in a major crisis, and we should not attempt to lean on an institution where the Russians and Chinese can block us easily.

HANNITY: All right. Now if we had any doubts about the threats that we're facing today, certainly the news that came out earlier today, FBI agents monitoring chat rooms, smashed this apparent Al Qaeda terror plot to attack New York City's underground transportation system.

So obviously, some of the methods and tactics we've been using are beginning to work. And the fact that we haven't been hit in nearly five years is evidence of that.

GINGRICH: First of all, I'm very surprised that The New York Times wasn't able to break that story before we intercepted it and make sure that they knew what the FBI was doing. So here's a case where we actually managed to maintain our classification, despite the New York Times's continuing efforts to undermine our security.

Second, I don't see how any liberal — and this ought to apply very directly to Senator Lieberman's primary election in a few days. I don't see how any liberal looking at 18 Canadians being picked up for terrorism with more explosive power — twice the explosive power that they had in Oklahoma City, — looking at this plot to attack New York City, looking at the people who were picked up in Miami recently, — I don't see how any liberal can believe that we are not engaged in a serious life and death struggle with terrorists who would destroy our civilization.

And I think — I hope the president will address a joint session of Congress in early September, lay out the challenges we have and ask the Congress to pass much more intense anti-terrorist laws and to draw — and to respond to this recent Supreme Court decision about detaining terrorists by re-establishing the fact that somebody who violates the Geneva Convention, by deliberately attacking civilians, who refuses to fight in an organized, legal way, is in fact not the same as somebody who is a combatant for a lawful country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2006 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2006 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.