Some very disturbing and dangerous news has been discovered. The Talking Points memo this evening is about the changing picture of terror.
Both President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld say captured intelligence indicates that bin Laden's terrorists were planning a nuclear attack on America. The plan was to crash airliners into nuclear power plants. If you believe the intelligence — and there's no reason not to, even though the Bush administration does want more money for defense — this escalates the terrorist situation into another realm.
Beginning the day after 9/11, Talking Points has been saying that America must use all its power to annihilate terrorists. That has been our stance from the beginning. And some, like Phil Donahue, have disagreed.
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PHIL DONAHUE, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: We should present ourselves and our particulars to the Security Council of the United Nations, put out an arrest warrant for these people, and have the entire world community help us find them.
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All right.
But now it turns out that Mr. Bush was right in mounting a devastating air war against the Taliban and quickly crushing that outlaw government. The problem is that the USA has not followed up its initial victory with a ruthless suppression of terrorists on the ground.
Mullah Omar's still not captured. That's an embarrassment. The bin Laden situation is more complicated, but we should know where he is. The controversy over the al Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo is a joke. We should be squeezing these guys hard, getting all the information we can. Their rights be damned. These are people who would have launched a nuclear holocaust if they could have.
The world needs to wake up. We're are talking about fanatics who will kill everyone and everything they can. There are no rules when facing this kind of threat. Talking Points sincerely hopes everybody understands that.
Bin Laden's terrorists are capable of destroying the world. If they had the weapons, they'd do it. We're not talking about a dangerous nation here, we're talking about psychopathic killers being protected by immoral nations.
It really is impossible to overstate the danger the bin Laden fanatics pose to this world. Nothing means anything to them, including their own lives. America needs to stop measuring this war against terror and start methodically hunting down the killers using whatever methods we have to use.
We are living in perhaps the most dangerous time the world has ever seen, and we need to acknowledge that.
And that's the memo.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Time now for the Most Ridiculous Item of the Day.
Last night, we reported the state of New Jersey had issued public school guidelines that allowed teachers to drop some names like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin from their history courses. Insane, right?
Well today, the Jersey education commission announced it would revise that ruling, which is a good thing because it was so ridiculous. And I hope The Factor helped.
— 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
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