More on the Pat Roush Controversy

To watch "The Memo" click here.

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight.

Well, the Pat Roush controversy continues, and that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

More than 5,000 e-mails poured into The Factor overnight, and the mail was about equally divided over our report on Mrs. Roush's two daughters, who were kidnapped by their Saudi father and taken to the kingdom in 1986 and haven't been seen in public since.

Well, we felt very, very badly for Mrs. Roush, and I think all Americans do. She gave birth, her children were stolen from her.

We're also angry with the State Department, because they would not help Pat Roush or the girls, who are American citizens.

So we put a massive amount of pressure on the government of Saudi Arabia, and it finally agreed to make the girls, now ages 19 and 24, available. We gave the Saudis two options. The first was that the girls would be privately, with Congressman Dan Burton, in the kingdom, where Mr. Burton was traveling. Mrs. Roush and the congressman were not comfortable with that. Fine, that's their right.

The second option was to bring the girls to a neutral location, since they would not go to the USA, which the Saudis agreed to do. That in itself was huge.

We told the Saudis that we would hire our own interpreter and a producer could ask the women any questions. That was agreed. But the Saudis wanted their American PR woman in attendance. OK with us.

The Saudis also would not travel the women if their mother was involved in any other way.

So our decision was this. Was it worth getting a firsthand look at these women or not? We decided to do it when we learned that the American consul in London would also meet with the women privately.

This is what we learned from our interview. The girls are brainwashed, no doubt about it. After 16 years of Saudi indoctrination, they are no longer able to think for themselves. We know this because we asked them about Usama bin Laden. Now, I expected they'd say, No comment, or they didn't know, blah blah blah. The woman said they liked bin Laden.

That says more about what passes for information in Saudi Arabia than any comment I or anybody else could ever make.

We also know that the women are not willing to say anything that would get them to the United States. Are they scared? Sure, most Saudi women are scared.

Finally, we did what we were supposed to do? We gave the women a chance to speak to the world and to speak privately to the State Department. There is nothing else on this earth The Factor could have done.

Now Mrs. Roush dislikes me and the situation, I don't blame her. To see your own flesh and blood brainwashed is horrifying, but that is the situation.

If I had to do the interview again, I would have been softer with Mrs. Roush, but there is nothing I could have said that would have lessened her emotional reaction.

The truth is often brutal, and this case proves it.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."

The Kentucky Department of Corrections has performed an exorcism on some prisoners -- sort of. No longer will the Satanic services some of the inmates have been attending be allowed. Apparently, some prisoners were requesting Satanic materials, and authorities said enough is enough.

There is no truth to the rumor that the materials were Eminem albums. That would be ridiculous.

— You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com