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Published January 25, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," September 25, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Ok, hang onto your seats for this one. Here is a simple question -- do you want your tax dollars given to a charity run by, ready for this, the family of Libyan dictator Moammar Qadaffi? No, you don't"
Well, President Obama's administration wants to hand over $400,000 to a Libyan charity run by the Gadhafi family. That idea is not going over big with some members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.
Earlier, Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk went "On the Record"
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Congressman, first, I have to wish you a happy birthday.
REP. MARK KIRK, R - ILL.: Thank you very much.
VAN SUSTEREN: It's a big one.
KIRK: It's 50, that's right.
VAN SUSTEREN: To change the tune a little bit, you wrote to the president two days ago. Why did you write President Obama?
KIRK: We were pretty stunned on the day that Qadaffi appeared before the U.N. and said that JFK was killed by the Israelis and the H1N1 was a corporate plot, we also heard that the State Department wanted to give $200,000 to a foundation to Qadaffi's son and another $200,000 to the foundation for Qadaffi's daughter.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is this a done deal, or is this just something they want to do?
KIRK: Right now, it is proposed, but Congress has blocked it. The State Department is now wavering on this, but it is also part of a larger $2.5 million foreign aid package for Libya, an OPEC national responsible for national security problems across Africa.
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you gotten a response to your letter to the president?
KIRK: No official response yet, but stunning that Said Qadaffi would get $200,000 of taxpayer money -- this is the man who organized the welcome home ceremony for the man that murdered 189 Americans aboard PanAm flight 103.
VAN SUSTEREN: Besides, you letter, have you made a telephone call or talked to anybody? Why are they willing to make this contribution?
KIRK: What they claimed was that the Libyans are better off now.
VAN SUSTEREN: Better off with what?
KIRK: Certainly, the Libyans have stopped an active program to make nuclear weapons, but they are still responsible for chaos across Africa.
And what we saw from the Qadaffi speeches, this is not a stable government with a rational head of state.
VAN SUSTEREN: What are the charities?
KIRK: So this is for the foundation of both Qadaffi son and daughter. So supposedly to do democracy and governance work, but horribly naive, because this is a one-party state with one dictator, Moammar Qadaffi.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who are you getting support from?
KIRK: We are getting support from both sides. It is the Kirk Klein letter, Congressman Klein, Democrat from Florida and I.
VAN SUSTEREN: So it is bipartisan?
KIRK: It is absolutely bipartisan because this is an unaccountable complete waste of taxpayer funding, $2.5 million to the Libyans should not be spent.
VAN SUSTEREN: As much as we were all appalled to see that celebration when the Pan Am bomber arrived back in Libya, it was the Scots, the U.K. who released him. What are we doing to them? These are supposed to be our friends. Libya has done rotten things to us, but are we letting Scotland and the U.K. off the hook, or are we doing anything about that?
KIRK: We have. I think Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a lot to answer for. It is likely he will be defeated in elections next year in the U.K., so we will not have him much longer. But it was a terrible mistake by the U.K. government.
VAN SUSTEREN: Has President Obama done anything affirmative? We are talking about cutting of these two grants charities in Libya, but are we doing anything besides telling the U.K. and Scotland we are not happy with you?
KIRK: I think for most of us we still have great affection for the British people. They are serving with us in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it is likely the Brown government is going to fall soon anyway.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me throw a wild one at you -- Honduras. Have you been following that?
KIRK: I have, and I think the United States has taken the wrong side in that battle. The president tried to take power unto himself. He decisively lost a Supreme Court case. The rule of law prevailed there, and I think the United States should support the Supreme Court and the new government which will take place after elections November 29th.
VAN SUSTEREN: So why is the U.S. supporting Zelaya?
KIRK: I think it is a misguided policy to tend towards the left wingers in America. And I think the most courageous leaders are readers like the president of Colombia Uribe, the president of Mexico, Calderon, and to support the rule of law and Honduras, which is the Supreme Court decision.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you want to weigh in on Iran, or do you want to take a pass on that, the news today?
KIRK: I think what we found was is that the Iranian seven outlined a third time and covering up a secret uranium and Richmond facility outside of Qom.
And the Congress has a decision to make next week. HR.2184, the Iran gasoline sanctions act, has 312 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, 75 senators backing it. Speaker Pelosi should put that bill on the floor next week to send a signal to her friend.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is she going to?
KIRK: I doubt it, but if we do not speak very forcibly and clearly, diplomacy with teeth, then all the Iranians are going to do is run out the clock and present us with a nuclear weapon.
VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you, sir, and happy birthday. What did you get for your birthday?
KIRK: I think I got a new iPod.
(LAUGHTER)
VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you.
KIRK: You bet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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