Media miss boat on NYPD surveillance story

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Media miss boat on NYPD surveillance story

When you pit students vs. cops, media always side with students

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," February 20, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So, some dude just tried to bomb the U.S. capitol. His name is Amine El Khalifi. So, obviously, he is Amish. Upset over the seizure of unpasteurized milk.

Once again, Janet Napolitano is correct. It's those darn religious whities -- righties -- righties and whities. Good.

(LAUGHTER)

It was actually a Moroccan illegal working with Al Qaeda. But who isn't these days?

While this is going on, however, the media are focusing on the New York Police Department for monitoring Muslim student Web sites. So, how is that a bigger story? Well, when you pitch students against cops, the media will always side with the students because they both share the clumsy rhetoric and goofy eye wear like mine.

But the cops are right. They eye the groups because they attract young Muslim men, a key terror demographic.

But maybe we should have the cops also track Girl Scouts, too, just to be fair. So, really, how is monitoring students Web sites wrong? I do it all the time. It's how I find help around my compound. And besides, you think cops want to spend time monitoring students as they blog?

Too bad terror groups couldn't recruit from lap dancers. Then surveillance might be fun.

At least one kid got it. His name is Ali Ahmed and he's quoted in the Wall Street Journal where he says he gets the policeman's concern. He wrote or said, "I can't blame them for doing their job. There's a lot of Muslims doing some bad things and it gives a bad name to all of us. So, they have to take their due diligence."

That's a kid I want to party with.

Bob?

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: Well, first of all, has anybody noticed how quiet is it on a holiday around New York? It's like no muggers, there's nobody around --

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Because everybody is being monitored. And they were so scared by the story, they went into hiding.

BECKEL: Let's take a look at what the facts are here.

GUTFELD: Do you think this is a violation of civil liberty?

BECKEL: Of course, it is a violation because they want to be on the boundaries of New York City. They go to places like Rutgers, Yale, Syracuse. They're not just monitoring blog sites here. They're monitoring something called the Muslim Student Association.

And here is the excuse. This is what the police spokesman said. Well, the reason, there's 12 of them that belong to the group arrested or convicted of terrorism. Not one of them in New York City.

My question is, why are New York City's cops wandering out of their territory looking at different places? They have no right to do that. There might be, I don't know. But I tell you one thing, it stinks.

GUTFELD: Well, I'll tell you? I don't care if it stinks, it helps thwart -- a word I have a hard time saying -- 13 plots on New York City since 9/11. If that is --

BECKEL: What did?

GUTFELD: The infiltrations. If they weren't thwarted, we would haven't the conversation.

BECKEL: Thwarted out of Yale and Syracuse?

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: That's the problem.

PERINO: Sure.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Bob, we just had someone try to do it in D.C., the guy thought he was negotiating with Al Qaeda, he was negotiating with the FBI.

That's fantastic. You have want to make sure that --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: -- he came on a student visa since 1999.

BECKEL: The police department in Washington doing that?

GUILFOYLE: Why do we have to apologize --

PERINO: I think NYPD does it best.

GUILFOYLE: This is crazy. I feel like other activists groups are trying to get -- Commissioner Kelly has done a great job, OK? And New York police led the way in terms of this war against terror -- trying to get him out of a job putting this controversy right at his front door. They don't like it.

But the fact of the matter is we have been able to thwart attacks. And you know what he need? We need one attack to go through for people then. Unfortunately, right, that's the theory, to go through so we can show they can do it.

BECKEL: Can you explain to me why one police force goes to jurisdiction of another hundreds of miles away and investigating students without that jurisdiction knowing it?

GUILFOYLE: Investigatory leads.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Probable cause.

GUILFOYLE: I learned that from Dana Perino.

BECKEL: (INAUDIBLE) trips.

BOLLING: Can I point something out? The Zazi brothers were planning to blow up the New York City subway system and they were being watched. Thank God they were being watched. They were exposed; they weren't able to pull it off.

BECKEL: In the city of New York.

BOLLING: They found them in Denver, Colorado, Bob.

BECKEL: They were coming. They were targeting New York City.

BOLLING: Yes.

BECKEL: Well, then that's a legitimate issue.

PERINO: That's why all of these intel agencies and police department, one of the problems beforehand is that they were not allowed to talk to one another. You weren't allowed to share intelligence with the police people.

The NYPD and intel services here in New York, they work amazingly well together because some of the plots originate here or they're being planned be here because this is a huge population --

GUILFOYLE: They have tentacles.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: Kelly got top secret note -- he got top secret note. He gets a little briefing on them, Muslim Students Association, because this guy went white water rafting.

PERINO: That is not why.

GUTFELD: They would say they are going to play paint ball. What are you doing when you're playing paint ball?

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: You're not even in their state. You're in their state. Not yours.

GUILFOYLE: Are they supposed to apologize doing their job and for keeping us safe?

BECKEL: They're no doing their job.

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: I'm over this. I'm over this. Go to a different jurisdiction --

BECKEL: You know, Kim, you don't care if a cop goes to --

(CROSSTALK)

UILFOYLE: I want you to follow the lead, follow the evidence and work together, interdepartmental, to make sure that we're coordinating so something doesn't slip through the cracks and then we're all very sorry.

BOLLING: Are you OK with intel, like the CIA doing what they do?

BECKEL: Perfectly all right with that, Eric.

BOLLING: If you're all right with that, how can you say --

BECKEL: Eric, what I'm not OK for the New York City police undercover agents to go to Yale university and not tell the New Haven Police Department they're there, number one. And two, to monitor a student group that is proved to have done zero --

BOLLING: Hey, Pakistan, we're about to take down bin Laden.

PERINO: The 9/11 bombers, 19 of those 9/11 bombers were students.

One of the huge problems is because we are welcoming, they have come on student visas, they overstay the visas and they stay longer. That's what happened with the guy on Friday. But we still don't have enough information about in Washington, D.C. So, you have to --

BECKEL: And the FBI caught him and it had nothing to do with the New York City Police Department. That is my problem.

GUILFOYLE: The easiest way to get in, everybody knows it, student visa. Hello?

GUTFELD: What? We're off the point. We're off the point.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I don't think this is different than the police infiltrating the mob. I don't get why this is different.

GUILFOYLE: Nobody cares about the Italians.

GUTFELD: I know, Bob, (INAUDIBLE) the cops. This is the worst job in the world to hang out with students while they are blogging. I mean, that's got to be terrible.

All right.

GUILFOYLE: You can hang out at Starbucks. They have rice crispy there.

GUTFELD: That's true.

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