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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," June 21, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: She said it again.
Does your attorney general think if she utters the word "transparency" over and over and over again that you will buy it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Be as transparent as possible and to provide as much information as possible. Over the course of time, we certainly are open to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, after that editing fiasco of yesterday, you still don't have all the transcripts because the Department of Justice is refusing to release the entire transcript of the Orlando shooter calling 911.
There are at least 20 minutes that the DOJ will not let you see or hear. So what's up with that?
And considering that in yesterday's released transcript, the DOJ swapped out the word Allah and replaced it with God.
Do you even believe that the transcript the DOJ did release is accurate? That is word from word from the audio? Or do you suspect some DOJ funny business?
Well, this is certain. If we had that promised transparency, we could verify the transcripts on our own.
ON THE RECORD investigates tonight starting with Lieutenant Colonel Allen West.
Good evening, sir.
ALLEN WEST, FORMER FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN: Good evening, Greta, how are you?
VAN SUSTEREN: Good.
Is this much ado about nothing, or are you as outraged over this transparency suggestion?
WEST: No, it is something that we should be concerned about because, obviously, we have an administration that wants to manipulate the truth and not allow the American people to understand the nature of the enemy that inspired the Islamic Jihadist attack. The second largest Islamic terrorist attack in United States history.
And why is it that they want to manipulate this language. Why is it that they want to redact this language, and why is it that they feel a need to, you know, change the word Allah to God?
You know, it is unconscionable. It is something that no one should accept. And this is truly a violation of that First Amendment.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, this is what I don't understand is that why they are dodging on this one. You know, like, why don't they just say what it is.
I mean, if he -- if the killer himself says he is inspired by ISIS, Al- Baghdadi who is the leader of ISIS, someone that he swears his allegiance to. Why in the world does the Obama administration seem to sort of dodge and duck that as though they think we are so stupid that we don't know?
WEST: Well, you have an administration that continues to obfuscate. They continue to deny, they even continue to lie about the nature and the existence of this enemy because they want to feed us a narrative as you saw the president that they are having success against ISIS.
Don't believe your lying eyes in what you see and what you know to be happening. Because if all of a sudden they would recognize this enemy, if all of a sudden they would try to understand Islamic fascism and Islamic Jihadism, then they will be called to task, to do something about it.
But, you know, Greta, let's be very honest. Think about all of the Jihadist attacks that have occurred in the Obama administration and we continue to hear their response is that we need to disarm the American people.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, let me tell you what is happening now, Colonel West. I mean, I'm obviously giving him a lot of heat. There's a lot of other people is.
The Obama administration is taking heat virtually from, you know, many for not saying radical Islamic terror. And, today, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest hit back at those critics including me, I guess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The individuals who spend most of their time talking about radical Islamic terrorism are individuals like Republicans in the Senate who voted against legislation that would prevent those individuals from being able to buy a gun. And those are individuals who have not actually put forward their own strategy for keeping the country safe.
Using the term radical Islamic extremism is not a counterterrorism strategy. It is a political talking point, plain and simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Colonel, your thoughts on that?
WEST: Well, first of all, that young man needs to understand something about strategic decision-making, especially strategic military decision- making.
We fought about against Nazism, fascism, Japanese imperialism. We fought against communism.
You know what Josh Earnest is saying is that, basically, he would have term the attack on Pearl Harbor just an attack by airplanes. You have to understand the ideology of your enemy in order to be able to strategically undermine their messaging and undermine that ideology while you understand their goals and objectives.
You know, if Omar Mateen had gone in with a hammer and a club or a sword and a knife, you know, it is not about the tool that they use. It is about the ideology that is inspiring them to conduct the actions that they continue to conduct here on our soil and all across the world.
VAN SUSTEREN: I will tell you another thing that's absurd to me is that if they flub a ministerial task like releasing the transcript which is just simply not that difficult, and at the same time, they brag that they are being transparent, that they redact things out thinking we are that stupid not to know when you redact things out, that you are not being transparent.
And, you know, when they won't give it to us, straight, they sort of expect us to accept that, but more on that, if they can't do that ministerial task of just releasing a transcript, how can you possibly have confidence that they know how to fight terrorism?
WEST: Well, they are not showing that they have the competence to be able to deny this enemy sanctuary, to engage in an information operation to undermine their ideology.
They don't understand how to attack their resourcing and man a material support. Basically, what they believe is that they can come out and do this by rhetoric and do this by briefings, and that is just going to continue to embolden this enemy, not just in their actions here in America, but all across the world.
VAN SUSTEREN: And, of course, you know, I know it's not an easy job to fight terrorism. I'm not trying to pretend that it is. But at least we should be straight with the American people. And if we are going to be transparent, be transparent.
WEST: Yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: But let me thank you, Colonel. And I want to turn now to the viewers.
WEST: My pleasure.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/col-allen-west-we-have-an-administration-that-wants-to-manipulate-the-truth